natural conscience, is a true reporter of his judgment; and as surely as God's Holy Spirit has entered into you, to regenerate you, and make you a member of Christ, so surely is the same voice breathed from that Holy Spirit, to keep you from vexing him, and forcing him to forsake you.

And be not afraid, thus to call in God's Holy Spirit (I do not say in words, but in the secret thoughts of your heart) on every occasion; slight though it seem to you, it is not slight, if it prove the beginning of a sin. Since he vouchsafes to be present with you in all things, in what seems little, as well as in what all men would call startling and awakening occasions, do you have so much reverence, as to try to remember him in all things. Be, what many will call, particular and scrupulous. Encourage all thoughts of caution and holy fear, though even to yourself they may seem, at first sight, to come unseasonably, and to be more than is required. For aught you know, they may be the whisperings of God's most Holy Spirit, coming just when you need them. Your peace, if not your salvation, may depend on your listening to them. You may find hereafter, that, in receiving them, you have been entertaining angels unawares; and not only angels, but the Son of God himself. For such godly motions are his tokens; and if we love him so well, as to attend to them, and keep his words, he hath said, "My Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our abode with him."

SERMON LXVIII.

USE TO BE MADE OF MISGIVINGS OF CONSCIENCE.

1 ST. JOHN iii. 20.

"If our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things."

GOD is present in the heart of man-the Holy Spirit more especially in the heart of Christian, regenerate man; and therefore self-examination is not simply a useful exercise, but a mysterious rehearsing in secret of the awful judgment, which all will know of at the last day. Think of this, you that are inclined to quiet yourselves under the reproaches of your own conscience, with the thought that if you could know all, you would find many others as bad, perhaps among those whom the world least suspects: think of it, you who would fain persuade yourselves that all conscience is but a dream, because you see no two men's consciences exactly alike: think of it, again, you who are inclined to dismiss such thoughts for the present quite out of your minds, in the expectation, that if needed (as something whispers you they are greatly needed), they will come again at a more convenient season.

Recollect, one and all, that Holy Scripture plainly teaches, that God is in these thoughts, which you are tempted to deal so rudely with; and depend upon it, that as no word is void which goeth forth out of his mouth, so never does he breathe a thought in any heart in vain. If we will not let it take root, and bear such fruits of holiness as he delights in, yet it will not perish for ever; it will rise up against us in judgment one day, as things, which seemed quite forgotten and gone by, sometimes come thronging into the mind; warnings

neglected will return, but very likely too late to do good, and certainly not with so entire a blessing as if they had been attended to at once.

But what if any person say in his heart, "Thank God, mine is not such a case as that: I do vex myself when I have sinned: it is true, I break such and such a good rule continually, but I never do it without my conscience tormenting me afterward?" This, I take it, is no uncommon case: we are too apt to do wrong, or leave undone what we know to be right, and feel a sort of disgust at ourselves afterward for a while, and yet the next time the temptation comes, behave no better than before: and one reason of our so going on is, because we are aware, even while we sin, that we are, and shall be, as we have been, displeased with ourselves for our sin: and "surely," says our deceitful heart, “it is better to sin and reproach one's self, than to sin and be self-satisfied." And thus it too often happens, that the only fruit of the silent misgivings, which God's Holy Spirit puts into our hearts, is our fretting for the time, and making ourselves sullen to others, and afterward going on only the more stubbornly in our misbehavior.

Something like this, if I mistake not, is shown to us by Holy Scripture in the case of Saul. Evidently his revenge against David was all the while, at least for a long time, accompanied with many misgivings. He vexed himself and others, he made himself miserable; but his spite and malice continued just the same.

Let us bethink ourselves of this danger; for indeed it is a sad reality, and nearer some of us than we think. It is such a very uncommon thing, for people to be cross and unkind to whoever comes in their way, because their own consciences reprove them, and makes them uncomfortable ?

I wish we could recollect, when so tempted, from whom the thoughts come which make us uneasy in our sins. Had Saul realized to himself the presence of the all-seeing God in his heart; had he said to himself, when David's truth and loyalty made him feel ashamed of his malicious purposes, "This cometh of the Lord

of Hosts; he is close to me, I will humble my heart before him" surely we would have found grace and strength to resist the evil spirit: surely he would not have come to so bad an end.

Let us beware how we tread in the steps of King Saul: let us well understand that our occasional fits of remorse, if we do not improve them into true repentance and amendment, are an invitation to the evil spirit to come in and make us sullen, moody, despairing. He knows, better than we do, that the first beginnings of remorse are from the Holy One; that if we do not obey them, we grieve that blessed Spirit, and drive him, more or less, away from us: and he, the watchful power of mischief, depend on it, is near and prompt enough, to creep in and take that room in our hearts, which we will not allow the Divine Instructer and Peace-maker.

Or you may consider the thing in this way. Look at the case of a froward child, knowing that it is in the wrong, and therefore altogether vexed and sullen, but not yet so subdued, as quietly to own the fault, and turn over a new leaf for the time to come. Who does not know that such a child is in the worst possible way, until that evil disposition is subdued? Then only apply the same rule, when you are examining yourself. Do not begin to flatter and soothe yourself, in the hope that your sins are not so bad as some others, because you are really annoyed and vexed with yourself for them. Such annoyance, if it do not lead you to forsake them, makes your case rather worse, being, as it is, one more warning unimproved.

I will not now go on to a different case. I will suppose a person, not so much flattering himself, by a silent comparison between his own self-reproach, and the reckless daring sin of some others, as giving way to a sort of despondency, because he has often tried to repent at least he thinks he tried-and failed. I will imagine it the hundredth, nay the thousandth time, that such and such a wicked enjoyment is before you, and you are on the point of giving way to it. Your conscience smites you and says, "hold back:" and the evil

one puts it in your heart to say, "I have tried so often before, and could not refrain, or if I refrained for a time, I fell afterward into the snare: and why should I think it will be any better with me now? It is no use-I will just give myself up."

One longs, if it might be so, to find one's way to the heart and conscience of a person thus tempted, and say to him, Are you in earnest desponding? or is not your despondency just a word, by which you are permitting your enemy to impose upon you? You cannot surely despond, for you know whom you have to deal with. The habit of sin is mighty, it is true: the tendrils of it, as of some creeping poisonous shrub, have wound themselves not only round but into your heart, so that it seems as if it were a part of our being; but remember, on the other side, the hand which is laid upon it is also an Almighty one. "God is greater than your heart,” and can overcome it, if you cry to him continually, and strive as in his sight, in spite of all coldness and irksomeness. "God is greater than your heart, and knoweth all things; knoweth better than yourself, not only the depth of the present mischief, but also what seeds of good are still within you, which his grace, would you surrender yourself to it, would surely find out and cherish, as the rain from heaven finds out the living portions of the root of some plant, which seemed quite dead with the frost, and causes it again to bring forth and bud.

Do not despond, however often you have fallen; set your face like a flint to abstain from the evil, to resist the bad habit, this one time at least. You will feel perhaps cold and cheerless when you have done so: never mind; take it as part of your punishment; do not set your heart on experiencing, here, that joy in God, which is the portion of the pure in heart, you who have so sadly swerved from that high calling. Think it a great thing to be addressed, as you now are by your conscience, or rather by God's Spirit, moving inwardly in your conscience, much in the same way which he tried in the case of a decaying church of old: "Be watchful, and