up the apostle, is certainly going to abuse him ;— if this treatment of him has not done it already. But from whence, replied my father, have you concluded fo foon, Doctor Slop, that the writer is of our church?-for aught I can fee yet, he may be of any church. Because, answered Doctor Slop, if he was of ours,-he durft no more take fuch a licence, than a bear by his beard:-If, in our communion, Sir, a man was to infult an apoftle.-a faint, or even the paring of a faint's nail, he would have his eyes fcratched out.What, by the faint? quoth my uncle Toby. No, replied Doctor Slop, he would have an old houfe over his head. Pray, is the inquifition an ancient building, anfwered my uncle Toby, or is it a modern one? I know nothing of architecture, replied Doctor Slop.-An' please your honour, quoth Trim, the inquifition is the vilest-Prithee spare thy defcription, Trim, I hate the very name of it, faid my father. No matter for that, answered Doctor Slop, it has its uses; for though I'm no great advocate for it, yet, in fuch a cafe as this, he would foon be taught better manners; and I' can tell him, if he went on at that rate, would be flung into the inquifition for his pains. God help him then, quoth my uncle Toby. Amen, added Trim; for Heaven above knows, I have a brother who has been fourteen years a cappoor tive in it. I never heard one word of it before,. faid my uncle Toby,haftily:-How came he there, Trim?

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Trim?-O, Sir! the ftory will make your heart bleed, as it has made mine a thousand times;

the fhort of the story is this :-That my brother Tom went over a fervant to Lisbon, and married a Jew's widow, who kept a small shop, and fold fausages, which fomehow or other, was the cause of his being taken in the middle of the night out of his bed, where he was lying with his wife and two small children, and carried directly to the Inquifition, where, God help him, conti nued Trim, fetching a figh from the bottom of his heart, the poor honeft lad lies confined at this hour; he 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 ftory out of thy head :-I grieve that I interrupted thee; put prithee begin the Sermon again; for if the first fentence in it is matter of abuse, as thou fayeft, I have a great defire to know what kind of provocation the apostle 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.]

TH

THE

ABUSES OF CONSCIENCE;

A SERMON.

HEBREWS XIII. 18.

-For we TRUST we have a good Confcience.

TRUST! truft we have a good con"feience! 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 indifputable evidence,it must be this very thing,-whether he has a good "confcience or no."

[I am pofitive I am right, quoth Dr. Slop.]

"If a man thinks at all, he cannot well be a "ftranger to the true state of this account ;-he "must be privy to his own thoughts and defires ; ❝he must remember his past purfuits, and. "know certainly the true fprings and motives, "which, in general, have governed the actions "of his life."

[I defy him, without an affiftant, quoth Dr. Slop.]

"In other matters we may be deceived by "false appearances;; and, as the wife man com"plain, hardly do we guefs 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 herself;❝is confcious of the web fhe has wove ;"knows its texture and fineness, and the exact "share which every passion 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 elfe but the "knowledge which the mind has within herself ❝ of this; and the judgment, either of approba ❝tion 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 testimony

goes against a man, and he ftands felf-accu❝fed, that he must neceffarily be a 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 truft, as "the apostle intimates, but a matter of certainty " and fact, that the confcience is good, and that "the man must be good also."

[Them

[Then the apostle is altogether in the wrong, I fuppofe, quoth Dr. Slop, and the Protestant 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 state "of the cafe, and I make no doubt but the know"ledge of right and wrong is fo truly impreffed "upon the mind of man, that did no fuch 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 preception with which God "and nature endowed it :Did this never hap66 pen; or was it certain that felf-love could ❝ never hang the least bias upon the judgment; "or that the little interefts below could rife "up and perplex the faculties of our upper regi

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ons,