1 John iii. '20, 21. Jf our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toivard God.
IN the description given us of the day of judgment, we are informed that the Judge will be seated on his throne ; that certain books will be opened ; and that sentence will be passed on every one according to what was recorded in thema. Such a tribunal there is, already erected in the bosoms of men. Conscience is seated there as supreme judge : it keeps an account of every day's transactions : it summons men to its bar : it exhibits the record before their eyes ; and, in perfect correspondence with their actions, it passes on them its authoritative sentence. Thus it antici- pates the future judgment, and forces men to read in its decisions their final doom. To this effect the Apostle speaks in the passage before us ; in elucidat- ing which, we shall shew,
I. How far the testimonies of our conscience may be depended on —
The testimonies of conscience are not always
just—
[With many there is a sleepy conscience, which suffers men to go on in their own ways without shame, and without
a Rev. xx. 12.
2450.] A GOOD AND EVIL CONSCIEN< i . 455
remorse. So inactive and so callous is this faculty within them, that it is justly represented as " seared with a hot iron1'." Indeed, if it were not thus with them, how could they go on so cheerfully as they do, in an open course of sin, or in a wilful neglect of God ?
With many also there is a partial conscience. They discern what is wrong in others, but not in themselves : or they notice some evils, but not others. Herod would not violate his oath ; but he would murder a prophet0. And the Pharisees would not put into the treasury the money that was the price of blood; but they would persist in persecuting the innocent Jesus even unto death d. And such a conscience have many amongst ourselves : it would be clamorous if they were to commit some flagrant enormity ; while it bears no testimony at all against secret lusts, or against any evils which are sanctioned by an ungodly world.
With some also there is an erroneous conscience. St. Paul " thought he ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesuse," and would have stood condemned in his own mind, if he had not laboured to the uttermost to extirpate the Christian name. And our Lord has told us that many would " think they did God service by killing" his faithful followers f. Doubt- less there are many who, both in civil and religious actions, are instigated by (what we may call) a good principle, while yet a clearer view of their duty would represent those actions in a very different light.
There is also with many a scrupulous conscience. They both do and forbear many things from a sense of duty, when the things themselves are altogether indifferent in the sight of God. Thus it was with those who were afraid to eat meats that had been offered to idols, or who observed the times and seasons that had been prescribed in the Mosaic lawg. Super- stition indeed is less common in this age : yet wherever the mind is tinctured with it, there will arise many occasions of condemnation or acquittal in a man's own mind, when the sentence passed is altogether founded in an ignorance of Christian liberty, or Christian duty.
Hence it is evident that conscience may condemn when it ought to acquit, and acquit when it ought to condemn.]
Its sentence, however, is always just, when it accords with the Holy Scriptures —
[The Scriptures are an infallible standard, to which every thing may be referred, and by which its quality may be deter- mined. In order therefore to ascertain whether the testimonies