which the "worker of iniquity" may choose to be alone, both for design and action. His mind deeply works, and ponders, and devises, in a retired apartment, or on a lonely heath, or in a dark wood. And then he proceeds to the action,-unconfiding, unaided, unaccompanied,-in deep silence, only one tread of feet,-only one shadow cast. This requires great hardihood of spirit in a wicked man; at least, in some kinds of crime. And indeed, wickedness, risen to a certain height, may have a kind of courage by its own inspiration, and peculiar to itself-a kind of demoniac energy-a stern desperation. There might even be a kind of pride in being thus alone, a contempt of needing assistance or encouragement! But-alone-does he think he is? Is there no intimation then of another there? Should not the silence of other voices aid him to hear One, that One to which the dead would listen if it called them? Should not the breeze convey, as it were, solemn whispers ? Can he even look on the walls, and not see something like what Belshazzar saw-see it with his mind's eye? Even his breathing-the beating of his heart -the action of his mind, might not these suggest the presence of a Being from whom no darkness could hide ? Should not the thought strike him, “How brutish I were to apprehend nothing here but what I see ?" The thing is, not what he sees, but what sees him. "I have withdrawn from men, but is there no ONE to watch me come hither, and silently remain observing me? I meet the glance or glare of no visible eyes, but-! Those feeble spirits clothed in flesh are not here; but THAT Spirit! dare I even question whether he be here, lest he should give some terrible proof of it? The society is indeed reduced to Two, but who are those two? For one of them, all created intelligences had, to me, better be substituted."

Night may be named as another mode of "darkness" in which the "workers of iniquity seek to hide themselves."

Night is the "accepted time" to sinners, and the part of time in which, probably, the greater portion of wickedness (of the deeper kind) is perpetrated. While we are contemplating night, how much more dark the shade seems to become; how much like the "shadow of death" by the moral blackness of sin thrown into it! But let sinners reflect ;till God made the sun could he see nothing? Was it for his own use that he lighted that great lamp? At its rising again in the morning, can he but conjecture what may have been done since it set? Will the record be in each second page, blank, or unlettered shade? Or does he give up the night, exempt from his law? The great majority of the multitude around are asleep, but when is his time to "slumber or sleep?" When the day dawns, shall sinners say, "Now God is awaking?" And will the works of

"iniquity" done in the night, pass away as a part of the vanishing shades? "Nothing of all this absurdity!" the "workers of iniquity" will answer with scorn. "Idle fancies for the very children of pagans or savages." What, then, you will take for your sins, for your

is it come to this, that

"So thwarted nature's kind design

By daring man, he makes her sacred awe
(That guard from ill) his shelter, his temptation
To more than common guilt, and quite inverts
Celestial art's intent. The trembling stars
See crimes gigantic, stalking thro' the gloom
With front erect, that hide their head by day,
And making night still darker by their deeds.

Preposterous madmen, void of fear or shame,

Lay their crimes bare to these chaste eyes of heaven;

Yet shrink and shudder at a mortal's sight.

Were moon and stars for villains only made?
To guide yet screen them, with tenebrious light?
No; they were made to fashion the sublime
Of human hearts, and wiser make the wise."

YOUNG, Night IX.

crimes, the very season which seems to belong peculiarly to Him, in which He alone can see? As if into the very recess of a temple to insult the Divinity!

:

you would

go

If we change the view to a moral or spiritual sense, we may give the denomination of "darkness" to a delusive state of notions respecting religion. Men may change the light of religion into darkness, and shroud themselves in it. Not expressly rejecting what God has revealed, sinners may nevertheless flatter themselves, in a thoughtless way, that the Divine Holiness, the Divine Law, the threatened retribution, cannot be such absolute things as often represented: that to God such offences as theirs can be no such mighty matter: that his goodness may easily be very tolerant, and excuse: that his justice will punish but lightly that his power and wisdom will easily set all the mischief right again. Thus turning the divine truth into a lie, it is made a delusion, a darkness. Or, they may reject Revelation, and then question whether there will be any judgment or not. Or, become Atheists, and so leave no God to judge and avenge; this is most truly the "shadow of death." In such "darkness" of their own creating, they may seek to "hide themselves; "—from their own depravity exhale a cloud to obscure the sun. But neither will this avail them. They ought to be alarmed to reflect whence it is that they have raised this protective shade, which is to defend sin from fear. This very thing might warn them that it is the very light of truth that they are endeavouring to shroud themselves from. It is by that unchangeable light that the Sovereign Judge is beholding them; and their wilful temporary delusion, when it passes away, will have but been the cause that that light will glare more intensely upon them; and by it, when it comes on them, they will see the true quality of that departing shade. A peculiar severity of regret will attend the breaking up of that

darkness which is sought in the wilful misapprehension of truth.

Finally, in the grave, in the state of the dead, in the other world, there will be no hiding-place of darkness. A most effectual concealment from men,-men whose inspection alone they were solicitous to elude while on this ground of watchful inspection-the place of human inspection and judgment. And now they are gone off from it, into the wide universe. And whither ? But what signifies it whither? It will not indeed be left to their choice whither; but if it were, and they might see, or fly to the remotest orb, there would be no resource! No corner of the universe has a veil from its Creator. There is no recess into which

a spirit can slide. The same all-seeing power and all-mighty justice are everywhere. Even if they "make their bed in hell," he is there! And if they look forward through time, there is in prospect the great day of manifestation, of which the transcendent light will be such as to annihilate the darkness of all past time. It will be not only as the light of seven days," but as the light of thousands of years all at once. •

66

But, in conclusion, why will the creatures of God seek or wish to hide themselves from Him-from Him, the Supreme Good, the source of life and eternal joy! who beams upon them in beneficence and compassion, in invitations and promises; who has given his Revelation to show the way to him; who has sent his incarnate Son to reconcile them, to atone for them, to redeem them, to display the glories of heaven to them, as what himself has to give: unless they will prefer the spirit and the works of "darkness," and the doom of seeking, at last in vain, for a darkness to hide them from the divine justice.

May the divine mercy grant that this doom may not be

ours.

October 20th, 1822.

LECTURE XVII.

THE USES AND PERVERSIONS OF CONSCIENCE.

ROMANS ii. 14, 15.

"The gentiles... having not the law are a law unto themselves which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another."

"HAVING not the law," that is, without a positive law revealed from God: yet there is "a law written in their hearts." The apostle therefore asserts, that man is, essentially, by his very nature, a moral being; naturally has some sense of right and wrong; which moral sense operates to two effects: opinions, judgments which men form of one another; and judgments, under the name of "conscience," which they are compelled to form of themselves.

This natural sense of difference between good and evil is made an inseparable companion and supplement to the endowment of reason. If there had not been this principle in the very constitution of man, it is not conceivable how any positive dictates from the Creator and Governor could have sufficed to impart it; that is, in the form of conscience. This natural principle has certain perceptions and powers antecedently to the revealed will of God. But, the dictates of that Supreme Authority having been given, this conscience ought to be indefinitely stronger, truer, and more decisive.

A most important principle in our nature, is this con