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out possibility of mistake; thus, at the moment he is warned and the moment passed, his act recorded, so that he cannot deny, and then ultimately before the bar of God, he is convicted; "his spirit bearing witness with the Spirit," as to evil done in a full sight of his responsibility. And thus the Omniscience of the Holy Spirit, the forethought which He who is one with the Father has of the Future Judgment, the authority with which He enforces his injunctions, and the absolute certainty with which He can warn of the future; all these attributes of the Holy Ghost, as the great agent of prophecy, both to the Church universal as also to the individual; explain the influences of the Conscience, and show the reason of its prophetic power.

Thus do the whole of the Facts of Conscience manifest to us the agency of a Personal being who has the knowledge of God, an infinite knowledge that concerns the future as well as the past, an Authoritative Power, to which, without reason assigned, the man must bow, a Recording Power, which has reference to eternity solely, and a future judgment, and a Prophetic power, that connects time with eternity, this life with a future existence, and the actions herein done, with the high throne of God.

We have said that Revelation alone affords a solution for the facts of nature. And we say, in conclusion, that he that shall look at the facts of the natural Conscience in all its influences upon man, he shall see that no other solution completely and entirely accounts for the facts of Conscienee, except this fact of Faith, the doctrine of the being and influences of the Holy Spirit.

And this leads us onward to another question, which is most important in all matters of Conscience. "Is not our Conscience then, the Spirit of God?"

How important this is, may be seen by supposing it to be answered in the affirmative; for if it be, then the sole judge is Conscience; then a man has in himself the only rule; then he is the judge of all things; then he needs no learning, no knowledge, no education; but only to go according to his Conscience, and he shall go right, infallibly right. Nay, more than this, he shall need no Bible, no Church, no Religion; for if his Conscience be God, then being Omniscient, it must overrule all external things; and all he has to do is, go by that rule; and, with regard to his fellows, he has only to require that they all should submit to him without questioning. These are conclusions which naturally should

follow from the notion that "Conscience is the Holy Spirit," and which are its legitimate results. And he that shall look to men, shall find that a great many hold these conclusions. A great many consider Conscience as infallible, and make it the sole and ultimate test, who have never thought of the premises upon which the conclusion depends.

Now this leads us onward unto one of the most important principles of Ethics; we will say a fundamental one. That is, the distinction between Conscience, the natural faculty in us, and the voice of the Holy Ghost without us; Conscience, the eye existing in our nature and being, whereby we see the light, and that Light which we see; Conscience, the ear wherewith we listen to the voice from heaven, and the Voice from Heaven, the voice of the Holy Spirit that is audible to us through that part of our nature.

We say, then, that so far as Conscience is considered under the one aspect of a natural faculty, so far it is liable to the same infirmities as the other natural faculties. For the light may be as the sun, and yet the eye which is blind by nature, or blinded by accident, never see it. The voice may be that of many waters, and yet the deaf ear not hear it. So it is with regard to the Conscience, the faculty in us and in our nature, wherewith we listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit, is a different thing altogether from the Spirit Himself. And yet in the consideration of Conscience, both the Natural Faculty and the Divine Energy to which it answers, are to be considered.

Now, he that shall look at this last principle carefully and considerately, in the full light of his own experience, will see many conclusions to follow of the most important and the most interesting kind.

In the first place, the eye and power of sight in man proves to him the existence of things visible, at the same time that it is the means of bringing him to the knowledge of them. And no argument will disprove their existence, simply because he has a natural faculty whose business it is to show and manifest them. So of a Future Eternity, no argument whatsoever can disprove the existence, no absence from sense or sight annul it, because of it the Conscience is our sense, and because, corresponding to the Conscience, there is a power that manifests the Future Eternity to us as far as concerns the actual duties of the present life. This is an inference of great practical importance, binding and connect

ing, as we have said, finite acts with infinite consequences, Time with Eternity, the limited being of man with the Infinite God, and that through the Eternal Spirit.

But the most important conclusion that follows from it is this: "So far as the dictates of our Conscience are the dictates of the Holy Spirit of God, so far Conscience is infallible." This is the rule of the governing power, Conscience, which follows from its own nature as twofold, a natural ear or a natural eye, with a heavenly voice or a heavenly light; and this combined with the other laws of it as a governing power,* shall give us completely and entirely, as a result of Ethical Science, the doctrines and rules of Conscience as applied unto life. This shall be the subject of the next chapter.

CHAPTER II.

The value of Conscience. Our position in consequence of it.-An examination of it in action, as, 1st, Withholding; 2d, Recording; 3d, Prophesying. -The emotions that are sanctions to it, 1st, Moral Restlessness; 2d, Shame ; 3d, Fear. The mark upon the Nature, 1st, the Stain; 2d, the Guilt.-Conscience is not properly a "judge," nor the pain from it properly "punishment."

FROM our examination of the nature of Conscience in the previous chapter, it is manifest what an exceedingly precious endowment this is to man. A secret adviser, so secret that although inaudible to all others, it shall yet speak to the man himself, clearly, distinctly, perpetually, upon all emergencies wherein it is necessary, and upon all occasions.† One too whose advice is not to be measured by the man's own degree of knowledge or his station, but that gives to the ignorant, the poor and the weak the proper and suitable guidance for the circumstances in which they are. And that with such an accurately proportionate action, that it has, with no small degree of plausibility, been maintained that

* See the three laws of the "Governing Powers"-Book I. Chap. 3.

Of course here is to be male the exception-except he have neglected it, and therefore it have become "dull" or "insensible," or "seared, or "dead.” For this part of the subject, see an ensuing chapter of this book.

Jonscience always a step, and only a step in advance of us, and this has been by some made one of the laws of the Conscience.

However, be this as it may, it is such an adviser that to the ignorant it says, "Ignorant as you may be of worldly knowledge, you are still a moral being, and can live as such; follow me, and you shall be so, and shall do so—for the position to which I call you is but a step from your present one-within your reach, and to be attained by you, by my help.”*

To the poor the adviser is present, too, with a riches that surpasses all earthly wealth-the announcement from the Eternal Throne, by the Eternal Spirit, through its natural adit to the soul, of its infinite value as a Spiritual Existence.

To the ignorant it tells of this sure knowledge that ever rises to the level of our necessities. To the self-distrusting of Omnipotence it speaks All-holiness and All-justice, ready to support him that will go after its guidance. It tells them that no obstacle shall permanently remain in the way, that all passes shall be opened, all barriers burst that oppose his upward progress, who follows this guide.

Such are the advantages to us of this gift and faculty, looking at the matter generally as we have looked upon it, in the twofold

* The Christian will see in these words, combined with the account given of Conscience in the preceding chapter, the solution of a great question. "By my help"-that is, "Not of you, but of me; not of your nature alone and unaided, but of it as aided by me, the personal and omnipotent being who speak, through the Conscience, to all men-the Holy Spirit."

Hence is all moral strength and ability of God, coming first unto us from him, and not arising in our nature from nature itself.

Moral strength given, to the unregenerate first, wholly undeserved, nay, often against their own will, in order to habituate them to the thought of good, to teach them by making them to act upon that power for which they have no merit, to lead on in the way of life by support and secret upholding powers: This probationary moral power in the unregenerate is a help given even to the evil, according to the will of the Holy Ghost, the Infinite Teacher, for his own wise purposes. The solution, therefore, of the question, "Does the natural man do good"? is this-all the good that even the natural man does, he does of God's Grace, given him according to the will of the Spirit, and Grace comes first.

The regenerate man is in a different position, having from the Word the strength and power of a son, but still not of himself, but of his new birth, and his new privileges, and new position. But of this last, which is also very interesting, more at another time.

point of view of the light outside us, which we see, and the eye in us, by which we see that light, and also not as yet considering the deficiencies or weaknesses of Conscience the faculty, or the rules for its guidance, matters which we shall in a future part of this work consider.

Having thus seen the advantages to us of Conscience as a gift and faculty, it remains now to examine the position in which we are placed by it-the responsibility that is upon us by that gift.

Now, when we look at the action of Conscience, we see that there are several characters that belong to it, as considered in its relation to our nature, and these we here enumerate by way of summary.

1st, It is commanding.

2nd, That commanding is negative, or prohibitory.

3d, It is ever present with us.

4th, It pronounces upon all our acts.

5th, It witnesses of all.

6th, We naturally apply personality to it.

7th, Making the distinction we have made, as to its twofold nature, Conscience, the faculty in us, we may consider as weak, as liable to errors and mistakes, but Conscience, that which is perceived through the faculty, we consider to be incapable of error or of mistake, in one word, to be infallible.

And, 8th, As the crown of all that we attribute to the Conscience, we may say that it is authoritative-it has authority. We consider that it is entitled to rule, and that we are privileged and bound to obey. As the Father, within certain limits, is by his very position as Father entitled to command his children; as the Magistrate, within the restrictions established by law, can command; as the Master orders and guides his servants, such is the privilege of the Conscience over the man. It has authority; its dictates are binding upon us.

We shall carry out this subject of the authority of Conscience at another point of this treatise; for the present we would apply it in elucidating the position of the individual man. Observing, then, the rule, that if we would understand fully the Moral Powers, we should consider them rather dynamically as powers in action, than statically as powers at rest, we shall see, as regards the man, plainly what the nature of Conscience is, by considering it in action. All actions, then, having in them a moral quality, and

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