pheme it : they can go on for years and years, and yet never imagine that they have once offended God. Behold the sensual, who revel in all manner of uncleanness : they " wipe their mouth, like the adulteress, and say, I have done no wicked- nessk." Behold the worldly, who have no cares whatever beyond the things of time and sense : their idolatrous love to the creature raises no doubts or fears in their minds : yea, rather, they bless themselves as wise, prudent, diligent, and think that they have done all that is required of them. Behold the self-righteous, who, from an overweening conceit of their own goodness, will not submit to the righteousness of God : they can make light of all the invitations of the Gospel, and pour contempt upon its gracious overtures, and yet never once suspect themselves to be enemies of Christ. Behold the pro- fessors of religion who " confess Christ with their lips but in their works deny him :" they will spend a whole life in such self-deceit, and never entertain a doubt but that he will ac- knowledge them as his in the day of judgment. And whence is this ? Is it not that conscience is asleep ? If it performed in any measure its office, could it be thus ? Yet thus it is sometimes even with those who are well instructed in religion. The sins of David are well known : yet even he, who at one time was smitten with grief and shame at having cut off the skirt of a man who sought his life, now kills the very man who was daily hazarding his life for him, and feels no remorse : yea, after having seduced the wife of his friend, and then murdered him, he continues at least nine months as obdurate as the most profligate of the human race : to such a degree was his " con- science seared as with a hot iron1,'' and to such a degree may our " hearts also be hardened through the deceitfulness of sinm."]
But the text leads us to contemplate more par- ticularly, III. Its power when awake —
God has various ways of awakening a drowsy conscience. Sometimes he does it through some afflictive dispensation, as in the case before us : sometimes through the conversation of a friend": sometimes by the public ministry of the word0: some- times by an occurrence arising out of men's wicked- ness1", or in some way connected with itq. But by whatever means it is called into activity, it will make us hear when it speaks to us.
k Prov. xxx. 20. ' 1 Tim. iv. 2. ™ Heb. hi. 13.
n 2 Sam. xii. 7. ° Acts xxiv. 25. p 2 Sam. xxiv. 10.
«i Dan. v. 5, 6. Matt. xiv. 1, 2.