Asp. The passion of fear is sufficiently active, but deplorably misapplied. We fear the reproach of men; but are we alarmed at the view of that everlasting shame which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall pour upon the ungodly? We shudder at the drawn dagger, and stand appalled at the headlong precipice; but how often have we defied the sword of Almighty ven geance, and sported upon the brink of irretrievable per. dition! Sin is the most pernicious of all evils. Sin violates the divine command, and provokes the divine Majesty : sin offers despite to the blessed Spirit, and tramples upon the blood of Jesus: for sin, the transgressor is ba nished from the blissful presence of God, and doomed to dwell with inextinguishable burnings. Do we dread this grand destroyer of our happiness; dread it more than any calamities, more than all plagues? Take one of those fine may-dukes, which glow with so beautiful a scarlet on yonder espalier, offer it to the blackbird that serenades us from the neighbouring elm, the creature, though fond of the dainty, will fly from your hand as hastily as from a levelled fowling-piece; he suspects a design upon his liberty, and therefore will endure any extremity, will even starve to death, rather than taste the most tempting delicacy in such hazardous circumstances. Are we equally fearful of an infinitely greater danger? Do we fly with equal solicitude from the delusive but destructive wiles of sin? Alas! do not we too often swallow the bait, even when we plainly discover the fatal hook? Do we not snatch the forbidden fruit, though conscience remonstrates, though God prohibits, though death eternal threatens ? Ther. Conscience, then, according to your own account, has escaped the general shipwreck. Conscience is God's vicegerent in the soul, and executes her office faithfully. Even the Gentiles shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another.'t The instigating admonition, transmitted to Brentius by an anonymous letter, when the Papists had formed a plot against his life, should be the rule of our conduct on such an occasion: Fuge! Fuge! citò-citiùs-citissime.' + Rom. if. 15. Methinks I would not translate the word Asp. If there be any remains of the divine image, perhaps they are to be found in the conscience; but even this is not exempt from the common ruin. Consider its light: it is like a dim taper feebly glimmering, and serving only to make the darkness visible; or if it discovers any thing, it is an obscure something, we know not what; which, instead of informing, tantalizes us; and instead of guiding,bewilders us: as false and delusory lights on the shore put a cheat upon the mariner, and lead him on to ruin. Consider its operations: it is either dumb or dead, or both: dumb, or else how veheLently would it upbraid us for our shocking ingratitude to the supreme omnipotent Benefactor? How loudly would it inveigh against our stupid neglect of spiritual interest and eternal ages? Dead, otherwise how keenly would it smart when gashed with wounds-numerous, as our repeated violations of the divine law-deep, as the horrid aggravations of our various iniquities. Ther. Do you call this an answer to my objection, Aspasio? If it be an answer, it resembles, in point of satisfactory evidence, the light which you ascribe unto the conscience.. Asp. The Gentiles, you allege, shew the work, but not the love of the law, written on their hearts. Some leading notices of right and wrong they have: some speculative, strictures of good and evil; but without a real abhorrence of the one, or a cordial delight in the other. Which, far from ennobling their nature, far from vindicating their practice, argues the exceeding depravity of the former, and renders the latter absolutely without excuse. No; you say, conscience excuses the heathens. Rather, their conscience bears witness to the equity of μeτažu, the meanwhile, but alternately or interchangeably accusing or excusing, sometimes one, sometimes the other, in conformity to the different circumstances of their temper and beha viour, This seems to have been the case with the bulk of the heathen world. Conscience arraigned and found them guilty. This put them upon practising their abominable, sometimes their inhuman idolatries; nay, this induced them to give the most scandalous and impious misrepresentations of the Deity. That they might sheath the sting of conscience, and find some salvo for their own iniquities, they made even the objects of their worship the patrons and the precedents of their favourite vices. the law, while their thoughts make some weak apology* for the tenor of their conduct. This is far from acquitting, far from justifying them. Besides, these weak attempts to excuse are always founded on ignorance. Did they know themselves, their duty, or their God, conscience would, without the least hesitation, bring in her verdict, guilty.-The apostle assures us, that, till faith, which is a divine principle, takes place in our breasts, both the mind and conscience are defiled.+ Here, and elsewhere, very plainly intimating, that the conscience is evil, and ever will be evil, till it is sprinkled with the blood of Christ. It accuses some, I acknowledge; and it ought to ac cuse, yea, to condemn all. But even here it evidences itself to be corrupt. For, its accusations are sometimes erroneous, and no better than false witness; sometimes partial, and suborned by appetite; and very, very often ineffectual. Nay, when they do take effect, they produce no fruit that is truly good. They work not a genuine humiliation, or an unfeigned repentance; but either a slavish dread of God, as a severe judge; or hatred of him, as an inexorable enemy. Ther. Hatred of God-Astonishing impiety! Is it possible for the human heart to admit such enormous, almost incredible wickedness? Asp. You may well be astonished, Theron; and God * The word is απολογουμένων, not επιμαρτυρούντων, not δικαιωσάντων. Heb. x. 22. + Tit. i. 15. Erroneous-What else was that grand article in the accusations of conscience, mentioned, with such particular distinction, by Virgil; -Phlegyasque miserrimus omnes Admonet, et magnâ testatur Voce per Umbras, For men to despise such dunghill, worse than dunghill deities, had been their virtue if done, and was their duty to do. What else was that voice of conscience, mentioned by our Lord, John xvi. 2. or that confessed by the Apostle, Acts xxvi. 9. Partial-Otherwise, how could the most celebrated among the ancient heroes, applaud and practise, that execrable unnatural crime, self-murder? How could their first-rate historians extol and almost consecrate, that diabolical principle of action, pride! And how could their ablest teachers of morality, not only tolerate, but establish the error, by neglecting to find so much as a name for that amiable virtue, humility! may justly demand; What iniquity have my people found in me, that they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity ? I created you out of nothing, and endowed you with an immortal soul. As a father I have provided for you; as a nurse I have cherished you. I have consigned over to your possession the earth and the fulness thereof. All my creatures do you service, and even my angels minister unto your good.Do you desire greater demonstrations of my love? I have given what is dearer to me than all angels, than all worlds. I have given my Son from my bosom, to die in your stead. Would you have farther evidences of my tender, my distinguished regard? Behold! I touch the mountains, and they smoke: I look upon the earth, and it trembles: I cast even the princes of heaven, when they break my law, into chains of darkness. But to you, O men, I condescend to act as a supplicant. Though highly injured, and horribly affronted, I beseech you, again and again I beseech you, to be reccnciled. To hatet such a God, is indeed the most detestable impiety. Yet man, foolish man, practises this impiety, whenever, for the sake of a vile lust, an ignoble pleasure, or an unruly passion, he transgresses the command of his Creator. Shall I exemplify the doctrine, in another of the affections? Ther. In truth, Aspasio, I begin to be sick of the subject. If human nature is so ulcerated, the less you touch it the better.-However, let us not quite omit the irascible appetite. if Asp. Of this we have already taken a side view; you choose to see it in fuller proportion, make your observation on Fervidus.-Fervidus comes home in a rage; his cheeks are pale, and his lips quiver with excess of passion. Though he can hardly speak, he vows revenge, and utters imprecations.-What is the Jer. ii. 5. + Hatred of God is so shocking an expression, that one would almost wish never to hear or read it. But it occurs in one unerring book; is too often exemplified in common life; and is engraven by corrupt nature on every human heart. See Rom. i. 30. Exod. xx. 5. John xv. 25. Rom. viii. 7. cause of all this wondrous ferment? A neighbour, it seems, has dropt some reflecting hint, or a servant has blundered in some trifling message. Such usage, Fervidus says, is intolerable; and such negligence unpardonable. This same Fervidus has offered numberless affronts to his Maker; he has most scandalously neglected the will of his Almighty Lord; yet feels no indignation against himself. He is all fury when his own credit is touched; but when the interest of Christ is wounded, he can sit unconcerned, or pass it off with a laugh. Anger, I acknowledge, is sometimes becoming and useful. But is this its right temperature? this its proper application? Ther. This is the practice only of some few turbulent spirits. To saddle their qualities upon every person, is a procedure just as equitable, as the madman's calculation was reasonable; who took an account of every ship which entered the harbour, and set it down for his own. Asp. The latter part of my charge, I fear, is applicable to more than a few. However, let us consider the most calm and sedate minds. How are they affected under injuries? Do they never aggravate failings into crimes? Do they find it easy to abstain from every emotion of ill-will? Easy to love their enemies, and do good to those who hate them? These godlike tempers, if our nature was not degenerated, would be the spontaneous produce of the soul. But now, alas! they are not raised without much difficulty; seldom come to any considerable degree of eminence; never arrive at a state of true perfection. An undoubted proof, that they are exotics, not natives of the soil. Now we are speaking of plants, cast your eye upon the kitchen-garden. Many of those herbs will perfume the hard hand which crushes them; and embalm the rude foot which tramples on them. Such was the benign conduct of our Lord; he always overcame evil with good. When his disciples disregarded him in his bitter agony, he made the kindest excuse for their un grateful stupidity. When his enemies, with unparal leled barbarity, spilt his very blood, he pleaded their Thrasylus, an Athenian. + Matt. xxvi. 41. |