212 ON THE DANGER OF SMALL TRANSGRESSIONS.

luges the land, and you will find it to proceed from a small contemptible brook. Examine the conflagration that has laid a city in ashes, and you will find it to arise from a single spark.

SERMON XIII.

ON DELIVERANCE FROM REMORSE.

HEBREWS xii. 24.

The blood of sprinkling, which speaketh better things than that of Abel.

REASON and philosophy have applied their powers to external objects with wonderful success. They have traced the order of nature, and explained the elements of things. By observation and experience, they have ascertained the laws of the universe; they have counted the number of the stars; and, following the footsteps of the Almighty, have discovered some of the great lines of that original plan according to which he created the world. But when they approach the region of

spirit and intelligence, they stop short in their discoveries. The mind eludes its own search. The Author of our nature has checked our career in such studies, to teach us that action and moral improvement, not speculation and inquiry, are the ends of our being. Accordingly, the moral part of our frame is the easiest understood, Having been placed here by Providence, for great and noble purposes, virtue is the law of our nature. This being the great rule in the moral world, God has enforced it in various ways. He hath endowed us with a sense or faculty which, viewing actions in themselves, without regard to their consequences, approves or disapproves them. He hath endowed us with another sense, which passes sentence upon actions according to their consequences in society. He hath given us a third, which, removing human actions from life, and the world altogether, carries them to a higher tribunal, The first, which is the moral sense, belongs to us as individuals; is instinctive in all its operations; approves of virtue as being moral beauty; and disapproves of vice as being moral deformity. The second, which is the sense of utility, belongs to us as members of society, is directed in its operations by reason, and passes sentence upon actions ac

according as they are favourable or pernicious to the public good. The third, which is conscience, belongs to us as subjects of the Divine government, is directed in its operations by the word of God, and considers human actions as connected with a future state of rewards and punishments. It is this which properly belongs to religion. Upon this faculty of conscience, the happiness or misery of mankind in a great measure depends. A good conscience is a continual feast, and proves a spring of joy amidst the greatest distresses. A conscience troubled with remorse, or haunted with fear, is the greatest of all human evils. Accordingly, the Christian religion, which adapts itself to every state of our nature, and carries consolation to the mind in every distress, has presented to the weary and heavy laden sinner," the blood of sprinkling, which "speaketh better things than the blood of "Abel." The meaning of which expression is this: As the blood of Abel, crying to Heaven for vengeance, filled the mind of Cain with horror, and as every sin is attended with remorse; so the blood of Jesus is of power to deliver the mind from this remorse, and restore peace of conscience to the true penitent.

In further treating upon this subject, I shall

describe to you the nature of that remorse which is the companion of a guilty mind; and next, the deliverance which the Gospel gives us from it, by means of " the blood of sprinkling." In the first place, then, let us consider the nature of that remorse which is the companion of a guilty mind.

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Almighty God having created man after his own image, intended him for moral excellence and perfection. Hence all his passions were originally set on the side of virtue, and all his faculties tended to heaven. Conscience is still the least corrupted of all the powers of the soul. It keeps a faithful register of our deeds, and passes impartial sentence upon them. It is appointed the judge of human life; is invested with authority and dominion over the whole man, and is armed with stings to punish the guilty. These are the sanctions and enforcements of that eternal law to which we are subjected. For even in our present fallen state, we are so framed by the Author of our nature, that moral evil can no more be committed than natural evil can be suffered, without anguish and disquiet. As pain fol lows the infliction of a wound, as certainly doth remorse attend the commission of sin,