was as honeft a foul, added Trim, (pulling out his handkerchief) as ever blood warmed. -The tears trickled down Trim's cheeks fafter than he could well wipe them away.-A dead filence in the room enfued for fome minutes.-Certain proof of pity! Come, Trim, quoth my father, after he faw the poor fellow's grief had got a little vent,-read on, and put this melancholy story out of thy head -I grieve that I interrupted thee: but prithee begin the Sermon again;-for if the first sentence in it is matter of abuse, as thou fayeft, I have a great defire to know what kind of provocation the Apoftle has given. Corporal Trim wiped his face, and returned his handkerchief into his pocket, and, making a bow as he did it, he began again.] THE 66 66 ABUSES OF CONSCIENCE; A SERMON. HEBREWS XIII. 18. -For we TRUST we have a good Confcience. -TRUST! truft we have a good Conscience! Surely, if there is any thing in this life which a "man may depend upon, and to the knowledge of "which he is capable of arriving upon the most in"difputable D 2 "difputable evidence, it must be this very thing,"whether he has a good confcience or no." [I am positive I am right, quoth Dr. Slop.] "If a man thinks at all, he cannot well be a ftran" ger to the true state of this account ;- -he muft "be privy to his own thoughts and defires-he "must remember his paft purfuits, and know cer"tainly the true springs and motives, which in ge"neral have governed the actions of his life." [L defy him, without an affiftant, quoth Dr. Slap.] "In other matters we may be deceived by false appearances; and, as the wife man complains, hardly do we guess aright at the things that are upon "the earth, and with labour do we find the things that are " before us. But here the mind has all the evidence "and facts within herfelf;-is confcious of the web "fhe has wove ;-knows its texture and fineness, "and the exact fhare which every paffion has had "in working upon the feveral defigns which virtue " or vice has planned before her." ['The language is good, and I declare Trim reads very well, quoth my father.] "Now,-as confcience is nothing else but the knowledge which the mind has within herself of "this; and the judgment, either of approbation or "cenfure, which it unavoidably makes upon the "fucceffive actions of our lives; 'tis plain, you will fay, "from the very terms of the propofition,-whenever "this inward teftimony goes against a man, and he ftands felf-accufed, that he muft neceffarily be a "guilty guilty man.-And, on the contrary, when the report is favourable on his fide, and his heart condemns "him not; that it is not a matter of trust, as the "Apoftle intimates, but a matter of certainty and fact, "that the confcience is good, and that the man must "be good alfo." [Then the Apoftle is altogether in the wrong, I fuppofe, quoth Dr. Slop, and the Proteftant divine is in the right. Sir, have patience, replied my father; for I think it will presently appear that Saint Paul and the Proteftant divine are both of an opinion. As nearly fo, quoth Dr. Slop, as eaft is to weft;-but this, continued he, lifting both hands, comes from the liberty of the prefs. It is no more, at the worst, replied my uncle Toby, than the liberty of the pulpit, for it does not appear that the fermon is printed, or ever likely to be. Go on, Trim, quoth my father.] "At first fight this may feem to be a true ftate of "the cafe ; and I make no doubt but the knowledge "of right and wrong is fo truly impreffed upon the · “‹ mind of man,—that did no such thing ever happen, "as that the confcience of a man, by long habits of "fin, might (as the fcripture affures it may) infenfibly "become hard ;-and like fome tender parts of his "body, by much ftrefs and continual hard usage, "lose, by degrees, that nice fenfe and perception "with which God and nature endowed it :-Did "this never happen-or was it certain that felf"love could never hang the least bias upon the judg "ment; or that the little interefts below could "rife up and perplex the faculties of our upper re "gions, and encompass them about with clouds and "thick darkness:-could no fuch thing as favour "and affection enter this facred COURT:- -did Wit "difdain to take a bribe in it:-or was afhamed to "fhow its face as an advocate for an unwarrantable enjoyment: or, laftly, were we affured that INftood always unconcerned whilft the "caufe was hearing, and that paffion never got "into the judgment feat, and pronounced sentence 46 "TEREST in the ftead of reafon, which is always fuppofed "to prefide and determine upon the cafe-was "this truly fo, as the objection must suppose ;❝doubt then the religious and moral state of a man "would be exactly what he himself esteemed it : -no and the guilt or innocence of every man's life "could be known, in general, by no better measure, "than the degrees of his own approbation and " cenfure. I own, in one cafe, whenever a man's confcience "does accufe him (as it feldom errs on that fide) that "he is guilty; and unless in melancholy and hypo"chondriac cafes, we may fafely pronounce upon "it, that there is always fufficient grounds for the "accufation. "But the converfe of the propofition will not hold "true;—namely, that whenever there is guilt, the "confcience muft accufe: and if it does not, that a "man is therefore innocent.-This is not fact-So "that "that the common confolation which fome good error from a falfe application; the principle "upon which it goes fo often perverted; the "whole force of it loft, and fometimes fo vilely "caft away, that it is painful to produce the com"mon examples from human life, which confirm "the account. "A man shall be vicious and utterly debauched "in his principles -exceptionable in his conduct "to the world; fhall live fhameless, in the open "commiffion of a fin, which no reafon or pretence "can juftify,a fin by which, contrary to all the workings of humanity, he fhall ruin for ever the "deluded partner of his guilt;-rob her of her "best dowry; and not only cover her own head "with dishonour, but involve a whole virtuous family in fhame and forrow for her fake. Surely, you will think confcience muft lead fuch a man a "troublesome life; he can have no reft night or day from its reproaches. દ 66 "Alas! CONSCIENCE had fomething else to do « all this time, than break in upon him; as Elijah |