him to rise into consideration by crooked policy and intrigues, let him impress his mind with all the considerations that will shew him the emptiness and vanity of worldly honours. If a loose and careless life has brought him into habits of dissipation, and led which he owed to his Maker, let him return to the regular worship of God; and nourish an awful fear and reverence of that Almighty Being,on whom his all depends in time and eternity. not be always in a man's power to make exact restitution of every unlawful gain he has acquired? but to make reparation to the utmost of his power, for every wrong he has done to others, is the duty of every one who lays any claim to principle or honesty. If this be entirely neglect-him to neglect those religious duties ed, it is the mark of a conscience that is become dead to all sense of right and wrong. In vain we pretend to clear our conscience, by affecting to compensate for fraud or cruelty, either by acts of strict religious homage towards God, or by some partial virtues and shows of generosity towards men. With respect to men, we ought to learn that we must begin with being just, before we can attempt to be generous. With respect to God, we know that he delights in mercy more than sacrifice; and rejects with contempt the hypocritical worshipper. I will come near to you in judgment, saith the Lord; and I will be a swift witness against those that oppress the hireling, the widow, and the fatherless; and that turn aside the stranger from his right.-The Lord will plead their cause, and spoil the soul of those that spoiled them. (Mal. iii. 5.) After making reparation for the wrongs he has committed, the next study of every one who is exercising himself to have the conscience void of offence, should be to guard against those particular snares, which have formerly led him into evil.—If, for instance, covetousness has on many occasions tempted him to defraud or oppress, that he might increase his worldly store, it ought to be his first care to correct in future this inordinate passion for wealth, by bringing down in his estimation the acquisitions of fortune to their proper value; so that he may remain satisfied with a moderate share of the world's goods, and become sensible of what small importance great riches are to real happiness. If ambition has impelled In this manner it must be his care to begin, by eradicating those corruptions, which, on different occasions, have tempted him to violate conscience. This study to reform all known errors in former life, will be one of the most satisfying marks of a sincere design to preserve in future a conscience void of offence. For if any of the old vitiated parts of the disposition be allowed to remain in their former state, in vain will any man apply himself to a thorough reformation of character. The favourite ruling passion, if it be suffered to keep its ascendant, will not fail to drag the life after it. In the last place, in order to carry on this discipline which I have been recommending for obtaining a good conscience, it will be highly necessary, that we frequently examine ourselves, and bring our conduct under review. No day ought to pass over our head, without some exercise of this kind. Every evening, before we go to rest, we should subject to scrutiny the transactions in which we have been engaged. "What have I done this day, by which I may either have justly offended any man, or have shewn neglect of God? What duty have I transgressed? Wherein have I omitted to act the part which my Maker, or my fellow-creatures, had a title to expect from me ?"-Be assured, my friends, that only by thus preserving conscience in the frequent exercise of its natural jurisdiction, you can support its rights. If you do not lead it in this manner often to assume its due station, its authority will gradually decline. There will be no accuracy in your moral conduct. Corruptions will grow upon you unawares. You will forget that you are creatures accountable for your actions, to a higher tribunal than that of the world. -It is a careless train of living, that is the general ruin of mankind. It is not so much from having adopted evil principles that men become wicked, as from having adopted no principles at all. They follow their inclinations, without examining whether there be any principles which they ought to form for regulating their conduct. The chief corrective of this mischief is that which has been suggested; by bringing conscience into a frequent exercise of its power, and thereby awakening its authority over our life. -Bitterly it may at times reprove us for our sins and follies. Sharply it may sting. But those reproofs and those stings are salutary in their effect; and tend to prevent us from proceeding headlong in a downward course. If ever conscience become altogether dead and still, the symptom is ominous of our having contracted from hardened vice that mortal lethargy, from which we are only to be awakened at the day of judg-for that day will be the evil thereof, First, the conscience void of offence tends to procure freedom from the terrors of another world. Many, I know, in the gaiety of their hearts, pretend to make light of terrors of this kind; yet nothing is more certain, than that they are capable of assailing and dismaying the stoutest heart. Conscience is too great a power in the nature of man to be altogether subdued. It may for a time be repressed and kept dormant. But conjectures there are in human life which awaken it; and when once awakened, it flashes on the sinner's mind with all the horrors of an invisible Ruler and a future judgment. It has been so ordered by Providence, that it is always in the evil day, at the season when men stand most in need of consolation and support, that conscience exerts its vengeance on the guilty. I might mention what is suffered in the lonely hours of solitude and silence, when the sinner's mind is humbled and depressed by some recent disgrace, or some disappointment in his criminal pursuits. But let me only lead your thoughts to what must await us all, when we shall have arrived at the decline of life; when we feel the hand of death upon us, and cannot any more flatter ourselves that it will long delay giving the fatal stroke. Sufficient, and more than sufficient, ment. II. Having thus suggested some of the particulars which appear most essential in exercising or forming ourselves to attain to a conscience void of offence towards God and men, I come next to recommend this discipline by shewing the happy effects it will produce. These happy effects are manifold: to avoid prolixity, I shall comprise them under two general heads. Such a clear conscience sets us free from the terrors of another world; it exempts us from a multitude of disquietudes in this. even supposing that nothing within shall alarm us with dark forebodings of what is to follow. But if, at the time when we are oppressed with sickness or pain upon our bed, distressed perhaps with the situation of our family and worldly affairs, and just about to take the last farewell of our friends and of all we have ever loved on earth; if, in the midst of this scene of distress, we shall be also tormented with the thought of what is to become of us in that next world which is just opening to our view; if we depart from life, conscious that we deserve punishment for the manner in which we have lived; and dreading that the hour of our being to receive that punishment is at hand; such a state of complicated misery who can endure? The spirit thus wounded and bleeding, when it is going forth from the body, who can bear? I by no means say, that, he, who during his life has taken the greatest care to preserve his conscience void of offence, can upon that plea rest with confidence; or upon this ground alone leave this life without uneasiness or fear. No man's conscience was ever entirely clear from all reproach. We daily offend; and the best have much reason to implore mercy and forgiveness from their judge. The whole strain of the gospel tends to humble and depress those who vainly trust to their own imperfect righteousness. It teaches us that the ultimate ground on which we are to rest for acceptance with God, is the righteousness and merit of our great Redeemer.-But this I say and testify to you, that the most satisfactory evidence you can possess, of having an interest in the Redeemer's merits, and being finally accepted through him, must arise from the testimony of a conscience, which you have studied to keep void of offence towards God and towards man. This will be the best proof of your belonging to the number of the sons of God. It will be the witness of the Divine Spirit within you: the day-star arising in your hearts, and preparing the approach of a more perfect day. Without the study of attaining a good conscience, be assured that all other grounds of hope will prove fallacious: not the most fervent zeal, nor the highest pretences to intercourse with God, will be of any avail. They will have no more stability than the house built on the sand, which, in the day of trial, falls to the ground. He only whose conscience bears witness to his faithfulness, his integrity, and sincerity, in discharging all the duties of life, can with a steady mind, and a firm but humble trust in his Saviour, look forward to all that awaits him in a future unknown world. In the next place, while the conscience void of offence thus delivers us, in a great degree, from the terrors of a future life, it keeps us free, at the same time, from innumerable disquietudes in this life. All the offences for which conscience condemns us, become, in one way or other, sources of vexation. Never did any man long forsake the straight and upright path, without having cause to repent of it. Whether it be pleasure, or interest, or ambition, that leads him astray, he is always made to pay dear for any supposed advantage he gains. Warily and cautiously he may at first set out, and lay many restraints on himself against proceeding too far. But having once forsaken conscience as his guide, his passions and inclinations soon take the lead of his conduct, and push him forward rashly. One bad step betrays him into another; till, in the end, he is overtaken, if not by poverty and disease, at least by dishonour and shame, by the loss of friends, and the forfeiture of general esteem. He who walketh uprightly, has been always found to walk surely: while, in the dark and crooked paths of fraud, dishonesty, or ignoble pleasure, a thousand forms of trouble and disaster arise to meet us. In the mean time, to a bad man, conscience will be always an uneasy companion. In the midst of his amusements, it will frequently break in upon him with reproach. At night, when he would go to rest, holding up to him the deeds of the former day, putting him in mind of what he has lost and what he has incurred, it will make him often ashamed, often afraid.Cowardice and baseness of mind are never-failing concomitants of a guilty conscience. He who is haunted by it, dares never stand forth to the world, and appear in his own character. He is reduced to be constantly studying concealment and living in disguise. He must put on the smiling and open look, when dark designs are brooding in his mind. Conscious of his own bad purposes, he looks with distrust on all who are around him, and shrinks from the scrutiny of every piercing eye. He sees, or fancies that he sees, suspicion in many a countenance; and reads upbraidings in looks where no upbraiding was meant. Often he is in great fear, where no fear is. Very different from this, is the state of the man whose conscience is void of offence. He is manly and intrepid in every situation. He has never seduced the innocent by guilty arts. He has deluded no one with false promises. He has ensnared no man to trust him by a deceitful account of his affairs; nor taken any advantages of the distresses of others to enrich himself. Without uneasiness, he can look every man boldly in the face; and say, with the good prophet Samuel, Behold, here I am; witness against me. Whose ox have I taken? or, whose ass have I taken? or, whom have I defrauded? Whom have I oppressed? Of whose hand have I received any bribe? Declare, and I will restore it to you.(1 Sam. xii. 3.) He who can thus take God and the world to witness for his integrity, may despise popular accusation or reproach. Those censures and rumours which are constantly disquieting the man of guilty conscience, pass by him unheeded. His witness is in heaven; and his record is on high. Innocence and uprightness form a tenfold shield, against which the darts of the world are aimed in vain. Of neither God as his judge, nor of men as his companions, is such a man afraid. With no unquiet nor terrifying slumbers will his couch be haunted. I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep; for the Lord maketh me dwell in safety. Let those considerations which have been now briefly suggested, contribute to render the character in the text, of a conscience void of offence towards God and man, amiable and estimable in our eyes.. If in its fullest extent we cannot attain to it, let us at least endeavour to approach to it, and herein with the great apostle exercise ourselves. We may rest assured, that the more we partake of this character, the happier and more honourable shall our life be on earth, and the nearer shall it bring us to Heaven. Conscious of our innumerable frailties, let it be our daily prayer to God, that by his powerful Spirit he would rectify what is corrupted in our nature; would guard us by his grace against the temptations that surround us; keep us from the path of the destroyer, and lead us in his way everlasting. SERMON LXXXV. ON THE ASCENSION OF CHRIST. [Preached in the Evening after the Celebration of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper.] And he led them out as far as to Bethany; and he lifted up his hands and blessed them. And it came to pass while he blessed them, he was parted from them and carried up into Heaven.Luke xxiv. 50, 51. THE sacred Scriptures not only set before us a complete rule of life, but give weight and authority to the precepts they deliver, by the information they communicate of certain great and important facts, in which all the human race have a deep concern. Of those facts, one of the most illustrious is the ascension of our Saviour to Heaven, after having completed the work of our redemption. This is a subject on which it is at all times pleasing to a Christian to meditate; but especially after the celebration of that solemn ordinance in which we were this day engaged. We there renewed the memorial of our Saviour suffering and dying in the cause of mankind. Let us now take part in his succeeding triumphs. Let us with pleasure behold him rising from the grave, as the conqueror of death and hell, and ascending into heaven, there to reign in glory, and to act as the protector and guardian of his people, to the end of time. It will be proper to begin with taking a particular view of all the circumstances that attended this memorable event in the history of our Saviour's life; as they are related in the text, compared with the accounts of other evangelists. The The circumstances will all be found to be both beautiful and sublime in themselves, and instructive to us. We are informed, (Acts i. 3.) that it was not until forty days after his resurrection from the grave, that this event took place. During this space he had shewn himself alive after his passion, by many infallible proofs, being often seen by his disciples and conversing with them of things pertaining to the kingdom of God. All being now concluded which he had to do on earth; the guilt of mankind having been expiated by his death, and his apostles fully instructed in the part they were henceforth to act, and the character they were to assume; one day, we are told, he led them out of the city as far as to Bethany.-With the utmost propriety was this place selected for the scene of his ascension. Near Bethany was the mount of Olives, to which our Lord was wont so often to retire for the exercise of private devotion; and there also was the garden of Gethsemane, where his sufferings. commenced with that agony in which his soul was exceeding sorrowful even unto death. At the spot where his generous sufferings on our account began, there also was his glory to commence; and those fields which so long had been his favourite retreat, and so often had been consecrated by him to meditation and prayer, were now to be dignified with his last and parting steps towards heaven; a sort of symbol of devotion and virtuous sufferings being steps that prepare for ascent to heaven.-There, we are told, He lifted up his hands and blessed his |