LECT. V. times may rise to phrenzy, and, arming the hand with the weapons of self-destruction, may plunge the perpetrator into the woes of eternity, to escape the agonies of time.

The whole of the customary phraseology on the subject of conscience, both in the writings of philosophers and in every-day life, is framed upon the assumption, wittingly or unwittingly, that, whatever else it may be considered as including, it involves, as its first elementary operation, the application of the judgment to the moral character of our own actions. And on this ground, we revert to our former position, that, in determining the principles of moral rectitude, we cannot place any assured confidence in a judgment that is liable to all the biassing and perverting influences of depraved affections, and that has, in so many instances, some of them, in their nature and results, of very serious magnitude, given evidence of the power of these influences over its decisions. The Apostle speaks of conscience as "bearing witness :" but it is a witness-bearer of unsteady principle,-exposed, in many ways, to the influence of bribery and corruption, ever ready to give a false verdict, to flatter men in the indulgence of their worldly and vicious inclinations, and even to give a perverse and mischievous direction to principles. that in themselves are good. There is, for example, a " zeal for God," that is "not according to knowledge." Saul of Tarsus was

conscientious in persecuting and wasting the LECT. V. church of Christ. "I verily thought with myself," says he," that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth :"-and his case was but one out of many exemplifications of the fulfilment of the Saviour's premonition to his apostles," They shall put you out of the synagogues; yea, the time cometh, when whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service." What was there, in all this, but a perverted judgment? And wherein, then, lay the guilt? It lay in the moral causes from which this perversion arose, and by which it was maintained. In Saul, it was the product of all that, in human nature universally, stands opposed to the grace and the purity of the gospel, along with the special pride of Jewish learning and pharisaical self-sufficiency; and afterwards, when his mind was enlightened and his heart was humbled by the gospel, instead of vindicating and palliating his former conduct by pleading its conscientiousness, there is nothing that stirs in him such indignant self-loathing as the remembrance of the spirit by which he had been animated, when he "breathed out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord;" and the very zeal which had then inflamed him, conscientious as it was, he regarded as having constituted him the "chief of sinners." *-When we say that the shame and the pain which he experienced arose

*Notes and Illustrations. Note K.

LECT. V. from an enlightened and awakened conscience; what more do we mean, than that they arose from his having seen his conduct in a new light, and from a consequently altered judgment respecting its real principles and merits?

Conscience having thus partaken in the general depravity of human nature, we are not entitled to expect uniformity of operation in that which is necessarily affected by a variety so endless of modifying circumstances.-For infallible principles we must look to some other quarter.* What that quarter is, it has been the object of the preceding part of this Lecture to ascertain. If this has been satisfactorily done, how thankful have we not reason to be to that holy and just and good Being, who, in the midst of all our anxious uncertainties, has favoured us with the sure intimations of his will; and, in the midst of all our corruption, and guilt, and fear, has sent us the "glad tidings" of a Saviour; providing for us, through his mediation, a salvation as perfectly adapted to all the exigencies of our condition, as it is in accordance with the dictates and the claims of every attribute of his own all-perfect character!

*Notes and Illustrations. Note L.

LECTURE VI.

ON THE ORIGINAL PRINCIPLES OF MORAL OBLIGATION.

1 PETER I. 16.

"Be ye holy, for I am holy."

former state

I LAID before you, in last Lecture, all that I LECT. VI. deem it necessary to say with regard to the Summary of RULE OF LAW of duty, the immediate ground of ments. moral obligation to man, and in its essential principles, I doubt not, however modified by peculiarities of condition, to the whole intelligent universe, the universe of accountable agents, subjects of God's moral administration. I have shown, that if God sustains the character of a moral Governor, and man is a subject of his dominion, it follows unavoidably, that the law of the subject's duty can be nothing else than the supreme will;—that the knowledge of this will was originally possessed by intuitive discernment, and, being" written on the heart," found a disposition there perfectly consentaneous to every iota of its holy requirements;-that through the defection of man from his uprightness of heart, the knowledge of God himself, and consequently

LECT. VI. the knowledge of his will, has been fearfully

Temper of mind in

which the re

maining and higher

branch of the

subject should be

impaired, and, although still discovering itself in the dictates of his conscience, yet has necessarily been bereft of its certainty and its consistency as a standard of moral rectitude;-and that this knowledge, lost by the sinful aversion of the human heart to retain it, has, through the unmerited favour of God, been restored in divine revelation.

We shall now endeavour to ascend a step higher. But, while we make the attempt, we would bear in our remembrance the sacredness

and the loftiness of our theme, and the difficulprosecuted. ties which must ever be involved in all such

investigations as are ultimately connected with the infinite nature and the boundless administration of Deity. We cannot enter into the mind of the Eternal. We cannot read it in its own light. That is his own prerogative. "What man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God." What we know of him is all derived and mediate, and can extend no further than, in his sovereign pleasure, he may think fit, in whatever way, to reveal himself. It becomes us, therefore, to beware, that we do not, with unhallowed and presumptuous hand, tear asunder the vail that conceals the "Holy Place of the Most High,"--the mysterious inner sanctuary, where are the dread symbols of his presence, and