---

I. THERE IS IN EVERYONE A NATURAL CONSCIENCE, WHICH ACQUITS OR CONDEMNS HIM ACCORDING TO THE TENOR OF HIS LIFE AND ACTIONS. The very heathens were sensible of this. Juvenal says of a guilty conscience: How, like so many furies, it haunts and torments the wicked man, and proves the executioner of vengeance on him in the horrors of his own breast. And agreeable to this is that observation of St. Paul (Romans 2:14). If it be objected that we see many wicked men go on without check in their sins, and, at the same time, none more gay or more happy, to this it may be answered, in the first place, that we cannot always form a judgment of the inward peace of men's minds by outward appearances; and that, for aught we know, the man who appears so outwardly happy may yet be far from being at peace within. Or, supposing a wicked man be really free from upbraidings of his conscience, yet it is not difficult to assign reasons which may help us to account for it. As,

1. It is possible that men may be able so to palliate or excuse their errors to themselves. Or,

2. It is possible that men may pursue a wicked course so long, and with so much obstinacy, as, in a great measure, to wear out the impression made upon them by their conscience, and to stifle its reflections. Yet some severe affliction or calamity, the approach of sickness or of death, is generally known to awaken in the minds of men those terrors of conscience which before seemed quite suppressed.If it be still objected that there have been some, after all, who, after a dissolute course of life, have died without appearing to have felt any great uneasiness of conscience, I answer, supposing there may have been some few examples of this kind, yet they are so very rare that we may justly look upon them as a sort of monsters in the moral world.

1. From hence we cannot but perceive and admire the goodness of God, who, to restrain men from the ways of sin, has endued them with a natural principle of conscience — such as generally applauds them when they do their duty, and condemns them whensoever they transgress it.

2. From hence may be drawn a good argument in proof of a future judgment.

3. Hence we plainly see the folly of endeavouring to shake off the painful reflections of a bad conscience by a free indulgence to pleasure, by drink or company.

4. From what has been said we cannot but be sensible of the exceeding comfort and advantage of a good conscience.

II. IF, UPON A REVIEW OF OUR PAST LIVES, OUR OWN CONSCIENCE CONDEMN US, WE HAVE REASON TO THINK THAT GOD, WHO KNOWS A GREAT DEAL MORE OF US THAN WE DO OF OURSELVES, WILL LIKEWISE ASSUREDLY CONDEMN US.

1. The self-condemnation here meant is not that of the true penitent, who, though he has abandoned every sinful course, yet cannot but reflect upon his former sins with horror, and justly condemns himself for them; but that which arises from the conscience of a wicked life still followed.

2. It may not be amiss to consider the case of another sort of persons, who, though not conscious to themselves of having lived in any unrepented sin, are yet apt to entertain very perplexing doubts of their spiritual state. This is the case of some good Christians, who, through the weakness of their understandings, or the timorousness of their natures, are often subject to melancholy fears. But such as these would do well to consider that these groundless fears are not so properly the judgment of their conscience as the effect of a disordered and a weak imagination.

3. There is yet another sort of persons whose case it may be well to consider, — viz., that of those who lead such mixed, uncertain lives, that it is a matter of some difficulty to themselves, as well as others, to determine whether they are in a state of grace and salvation or not. These are such as sin and repent, and sin again, and this in a perpetual round, so that it is hard to say whether sin or religion be the most prevailing principle in them. Now such as these can have no just ground to hope well of their condition till they have brought themselves to a more steady course of life.

III. IF, UPON A SERIOUS AND IMPARTIAL EXAMINATION OF OUR LIVES, OUR OWN CONSCIENCES ACQUIT US, THEN MAY WE HOPE THAT GOD WILL LIKEWISE GRACIOUSLY ACQUIT US, AND THAT WE ARE ENTITLED TO HIS FAVOUR AND FORGIVENESS.

(C. Peters. M. A.)

---

---

KJV: And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him.

WEB: And by this we know that we are of the truth, and persuade our hearts before him,