Acts xxiv. 16. Herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men.
THE Gospel of Christ has in all ages been stigma- tized as having an unfriendly aspect on morality ; and its professors have been accused as maintaining this position, " that we may continue in sin that grace may abound." But, however the disgraceful conduct of hypocrites may have appeared to countenance such a charge, it is certain that every true Christian is a living witness for God, and a public monument of the sanctifying influence of the Gospel. St. Paul was not inferior in holiness to any human being, our blessed Lord alone excepted; yet was he inveighed against as a man that was not fit to live upon the earth. In the passage before us we have an account of the accusations brought against him by a certain orator, named Tertullus. He was represented as " a pestilent fellow, a mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout the world, a ringleader of the sect
of the Nazarenes, and, to complete the whole, an im- pious profaner of the temple \" In other words, he was accused of sedition, heresy, and profaneness. In answer to these allegations he shews that, as to sedi- tion, the reason of his coming to Jerusalem was to bring alms to his nation, and to present his offerings to God ; and that his demeanour there had been peaceable and quiet, for they had not found him in the temple disputing with any man, nor raising up the people either in the synagogue, or in the city. As to the charge of heresy, he acknowledges, that after the way that they called heresy, he did worship the God of his fathers, believing those very Scrip- tures, and hoping for the accomplishment of that very resurrection, which his accusers themselves pro- fessed to believe and hope for. And lastly, as to the profaneness and impiety with which they charged him, he declares that his principles led him to a far different conduct : that that faith and hope, which he professed, stimulated him to the most scrupulous performance of every duty both to God and man : " herein," says he, (or it might be translated, on this recount, that is, on account of this faith and hope,) " I exercise myself to have always a conscience void of offence toward God and toward men." We propose to shew,
I. What is the attainment which every true Christian
labours for.
II. The vast importance of it to every child of man. I. What is the attainment, &c. —
Without entering into any metaphysical inquiries concerning the nature of conscience, we may observe that its office is to testify to every man the quality of his past actions, and to regulate his conduct agreeably to some standard of right and wrong. It does not so properly judge respecting the truth or falsehood of any position : (that is rather the office of the under- standing) it regards rather actions than sentiments ; and the good or evil that is in them, rather than any
a ver. 5, 6.