of passion;—it is entrapped and fettered and debased in the region of selfishness, of selfindulgence, self-will, and self-conceit;—it is doomed to drudgery in the service of a worldly mind, with all the evils of an inordinate love of wealth, of honour, or of power;

or it is defiled by the pollutions of fleshly lusts, lost in the pursuit of pleasure more or less refined, and fearfully exposed to those manifold horrors to which coarse sensuality has been known to conduct its victims even on this side of the grave. Such are the bondage and corruption which await the sinful will that disobeys the voice of conscience, and departs from a lawful and loving conformity to the will of God.-And the evil stops not here; but by degrees it thoroughly pervades the faculties of that complex and wonderful organisation of which it has taken hold. The depraved Will impairs the Intellect (42). It withholds attention where attention is due, and at other times fixes it with undue or exclusive intensity;-it interferes with the powers of observation, and obscures the perception of truth;—sometimes it gives an undue prominence or activity to one faculty and sometimes to another;-and not unfrequently it hinders or forbids the needful operations of the mind to such an

extent as to incapacitate it from comprehending the light by this unlawful influence of its own sinful love of darkness. Such is the overpowering and devastating action of the perverse will, that has escaped from the restraints of conscience, which was ordained to regulate its otherwise destructive force; like the rush of water bursting in a torrent over the homes of a busy population, and sweeping to destruction that very apparatus of elaborate machinery which it was designed to set in regular motion by the ministry of an equable and constant stream.-Amidst all the confusion and dimness of the mental vision produced by the influence of a depraved will, there is a cloud of thick darkness especially drawn over the knowledge of the Most High:-and, not only may this darkness arise, as it were indirectly, from false reasonings and vain speculations concerning the nature and attributes of God, but, more directly still, it may be induced by the corruption of the Conscience (43). Alas, it is possible, too possible, that a corrupt will, and a perverted or beclouded intellect, may carry disorder and pollution into even that spiritual faculty which at first testifies against transgression and pleads for God within the soul. When its functions as the regulating

principle of man's moral being have ceased to tell upon the mind and heart, then the disorders of the soul begin to act destructively upon itself. It learns to cry Peace, where there is no peace. It is constrained to falsify its reports to God, or to make no reports at all:-its commands are silenced; or, what is worse, it may be so infatuated or so bribed, as to grant license and permission, and even to give commands, at variance with its own proper dictates in conformity with the law of God. Conscience itself becomes, in this way, a delusion and a mockery; it ministers to the worship of an idol enshrined in the darkness of a corrupt and sinful soul. And eventually, so far may spiritual ruin proceed, even in this present state of being, that the very sense of responsibility in the sight of heaven may be destroyed, and man may say within his heart, There is no God. Alas, this sinful delusion may continue, until it shall be dispelled in those regions of eternal woe, where devils believe and tremble!

For this tremendous evil-this source of unutterable misery-where shall we find a remedy? Who shall say, Peace, be still, to the troubled and accusing Conscience? How shall the wandering Will be brought back,— the rebel be subdued, and its energies once

more enlisted in the service of its lawful sovereign? Who shall pour fresh light into the dark chambers of the soul, and there reduce confusion into order, and for unhappiness give peace and joy? Burdened and sinworn humanity may ask these questions, but all its wisdom and philosophy must fail to return an answer (44). Then let us be devoutly thankful that "the things which are impossible with men are possible with God":" let us meekly and gladly receive the assurance conveyed to us by the word of inspiration-an assurance which it will be my welcome duty to consider in the next Lecture as fully as I can-that "being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ"."

LECTURE II.

RENEWAL OF THE SOUL BY FAITH IN THE REDEEMER.

HOSEA xiii. 9.

O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself, but in me is thine help.

To the question, Where shall we find a

remedy for the evils of the Fall? nature returns no answer. True indeed it is that God has never left himself without witness in the world; true also that the world has never been utterly unable to receive that witness (45); and that, accordingly, in one very important sense, natural religion lies at the foundation of revealed. But what is this natural religion, and what its value and its power? It lies, as we have said, at the foundation of revealed religion; but it is by no means the root from which it springs. Man's natural idea of the Deity is, to say the least, imperfect and obscure (46); it is not what it would have been if reflected, in its integrity and its beauty, from a pure and