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"with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, "and thy neighbour as thyself." And here it may naturally be enquired, how is the conscience to be thus maintained void of offence, by what means are we thus to approve ourselves the true children and servants of God, "without rebuke, "blameless and harmless in the midst of a crook"ed and perverse nation, and shine as lights in "the world"-by our own natural powers? by our own conduct and strength? by our own wisdom and righteousness? by no means. The apostle to the Hebrews fully and satisfactorily answers this important enquiry-" The blood of Christ, who

through the eternal Spirit offered himself with"out spot unto God, alone can purge our con"sciences from dead works to serve the living "God."-This and this alone can make us alive unto holiness, and entitle us in the end to eternal life.

I had likewise entered upon the second general head; namely, to illustrate the happiness of having a good conscience, and the misery of a contrary state. In order to do which, we proposed to consider the state of the righteous and the wicked; of the person possessed of a good conscience, and a person haunted with a guilty conscience, under the following views; first, When

both are placed in circumstances of worldly happiness and prosperity; this has been already considered, and I now proceed to the second, namely, When they are placed in circumstances of trouble and distress; and thirdly, When they are placed in the view, in the near prospect of death, judgment, and eternity.

Secondly then, we shall regard them as both placed in circumstances of trouble and distress. Perfect happiness is wholly inconsistent with the notion of a state of probation such as ours is in this life, it being the express will and appointment of our heavenly Father that" through ma"nifold tribulations we should enter into the

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kingdom of God." Accordingly we see that the just are afflicted with troubles, many and various; for God bestows good and evil, happiness and misery in this world, not as rewards and punishments, but as proofs and trials. Hence we sometimes see vice triumphant and flourishing, piety depressed and persecuted; which made the psalmist give way to a fretful and envious spirit when he saw the prosperity of the wicked :

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They are not troubled" says he, "like other

men, neither are they plagued like other men." But at present we are to suppose both to be placed in the same distressful situation; and what

does the prospect present?-the one with patience and resignation, with magnanimity and fortitude, submitting to the will of God, receiving the dispensation as from the hand of a merciful creator, of a wise and affectionate father, who loves him, studies his good in every thing, and knows what is fit for him, better than he possibly can do himself, and accordingly the language of his heart is, "Father, if it be thy will, let this cup ઃઃ pass from me; nevertheless, not my will, but "thine be done." Such a person can say, upon the best ground, "the Lord is on my side, I will "not fear."

But how widely different is the situation of the wicked man, of the man who is loaded with a guilty conscience-if he looks up, behold the dread tribunal of an offended God, who is ready to take vengeance upon him, ready to pronounce the irreversible sentence of condemnation-if he casts his eyes downward, what do they meet but the place of torment, the just reward of his sins, opening its mouth to swallow him up?—if he look around for relief from creature comforts, even that resource too has failed. Trouble surrounds him on every hand, his hopes are blasted, his wishes disappointed, his enjoyments taken away -he is deprived of every support, miserable com

forters are all his past joys, they have left a mortal sting behind-and all within is storm and tempest, with this horrid aggravation, that his present misery is but the beginning of sorrow, that he stands exposed to "the sting of the "worm that dieth not, and to the fire which is "not quenched." I now proceed to consider the still greater difference of situation between the righteous and the wicked arising from a calm and quiet conscience in the former, and a troubled and guilty one in the other, when both are placed in the near prospect of death, and of a future and eternal state.

"Let me die the death of the righteous, and "let my latter end be like his," was the prayer of a very wicked man; and what stronger argument can be adduced for living a religious life, than the mixed apprehension and desire contained in such an exclamation? Though the wicked of the world may, in the abundance of health and affluence, and in their pride of heart, hold in derision the people of God, as a set of weak, poor spirited, despicable creatures, as the off-scourings of mankind-yet when matters come to the test of a death bed, when this world is withdrawing with its delusive enjoyments, and an eternal world disclosing all its awful solemnities then find, if

you can, the haughty despiser of God and religion? then find the scornful railer and scoffer at things sacred, then find the cruel mocker and persecutor of the righteous man:-no! the search will be vain: the language of Balaam will then be the language of the most obdurate sinner; and "O that I had lived the life of the

righteous," will, when it is too late, be the fervent prayer of the guilty, perishing soul. Let us now contemplate the blessed state of the dying christian. He looks back upon his past life with joy and satisfaction; he with pleasure beholds a principle of love to his God and Saviour, to have been the prime mover and director of all his actions—and that the glory of God was the chief end at which he aimed, and to which all his other views and ends were entirely subservient. He looks back with gratitude and delight to that happy period, when God of his infinite mercy "called him from darkness into his marvel"lous light;" when unmerited, unsolicited love, laid hold upon him, while he was yet "in the gall "of bitterness, and the bond of iniquity," and rescued him from the jaws of destruction, which “ laid "his help upon one mighty to save, and deliver"ed from going down to the pit." And how inexpressibly sweet, and comfortable, and refreshing does he find such meditations! He looks back

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