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under the accumulated torments of an awakened conscience, he should pay the penalty of his depravity by a sudden and painful death.

In these most striking events, as well as in the ease of Herod, you find that the self-accuser, whom God in his mercy has planted within us, cannot always be eluded by elaborate artifice, nor always overcome by stubborn insensibility.

To conclude-looking beyond human praise and human blame, and contemplating, but without wavering and without dismay, a judgment to come, conscience directs us to weigh our thoughts, words, and deeds, in the balance of the sanctuary. Hence the upright man walketh securely in the road which reason and religion point out to him, and bending his knees before the throne of the Almighty, with firm reliance he implores protection from "the arrow that flieth by night, and the pestilence that walketh at noon-day." But such is by no means the lot of the wicked man. He dare not expect aid and sympathy from the righteous; and if, among the unrighteous, some venal or hardy apologists start up, their sentence of acquittal will not be ratified by his own heart. On one side, he is annoyed by what Isaiah emphatically calls, "the fear of thorns and briars ;" and, on the other, he is beset by snares, laid perhaps privily for the innocent, but fraught with perdition to himself. Neither behind him nor before him is there any place of refuge, so long as within him lie the seeds of dissatisfaction with himself for his own past conduct, and disquietude for his future doom. Behind him

is justice, and though (according to the beautiful mythology of the ancients) she be clad in woollen sandals,* and move with soft and uneven step, yet she watchfully, she closely, she incessantly chases the offender, whether from boldness he stalks in the open high-way, or from confusion he strays into untrodden bye-paths, or lurks from terror in dark and winding labyrinths. But, if he turns his eyes from the noiseless but dreaded and loathed pursuer, before him suddenly stands the accusing angel, grasping in one hand a scroll with his high commission to punish, and armed in the other with a flaming sword. Flight is impossible, and resistance would be vain.

A Grecian sage, whom an oracle pronounced the wisest of men, was accustomed to tell his followers, that whensoever any inclination to do amiss was arising in his mind, a kind attendant genius softly whispered to him, "abstain." The same guardian is granted to you and to me, and with circumstances more advantageous; the monitor within us not only throws a curb upon us when we are wrong, but aids

* Ex adagio feruntur.

Dii laneos habere pedes.

Vide PLUTARCH, de sera Dei vindicta. Lento gradu ad vindictam sui divina procedit ira: tarditatem vero supplicii gravitate compenset.-Valer. Maxim, lib. i. cap. i. Sera tamen tacitis pœna venit pedibus.

TIBULL. lib. 1. Eleg. 9, v. 4.

Εἴπερ γὰρ τε καὶ αὐτίκα Ὀλύμπιος οὐκ ἐτέλεσσεν,
Ek Te Nai ole renet. -Iliad, iv. 160.

Ut sit magna, tamen certè lenta ira Deorum est.

JUVENAL, Sat. 13. v. 100.

us with powerful incentives to right. The genius of Socrates brought him under the influence of those motives which are supplied by our natural love of virtue, and the dread of self-condemnation. But, the conscience of a Christian is to be regulated by the momentous concerns of futurity.

Conscience of guilt is prophecy of pain

And bosom-council advice to decline the blow.

Whatsoever then may be the difference between ourselves and our fellow-creatures, in rank, or wealth, or talents, good and evil are placed before us all. But happy is he, whom a warning or an applauding conscience has conducted to a wise and a virtuous choice. Such a man would not be terrified, though John should rise from the dead, and bent will be his thoughts on the prospect of meeting that Redeemer, who, triumphing over the grave, hath prepared for his faithful followers a glorious immortality in Heaven.

SERMON XVIII.

MATTHEW xiv. 12.

At that time Herod the Tetrurch heard of the fame of Jesus, and said unto his servants, "This is John the Baptist: he is risen from the dead; and therefore mighty works do shew forth themselves in him."

In a former discourse I explained to you the etymological import of the English word conscience. I set before you the terms which are employed to designate the faculty in some other languages; I made some general remarks upon the power of the principle, which the Deity has implanted within us for the regulation of our moral conduct. I examined, and I hope refuted, some ingenious but dangerous paradoxes upon the subject of remorse; I explained the feeling, and vindicated the term, in opposition to some ingenious but dangerous paradoxes, which sprang out of the celebrated controversy upon Necessity and Liberty, as they are respectively predicated of moral agents. I endeavoured to illustrate those remarks either by direct quotations, or by recorded instances from writers, profane or sacred; and I announced to you my intention to take an early opportunity of throwing

additional light upon the subject, by a series of observations upon the circumstances, which peculiarly marked the case of Herod, as contained in the chapter whence the text is taken. I therefore shall proceed to execute the purpose just now mentioned to you.

As several transactions of several persons named Herod are related in the New Testament; and as the differences between them may not be generally known, I shall lay before you the history of that Herod who is mentioned in the text.

He was one of the sons of Herod the Great. His name was Herod Antipas. His eldest brother, Antipater, had been engaged in a conspiracy against his father, had been discovered and disappointed; and afterwards, upon an attempt to murder him, and for himself to be made king, he was seized by the guards, and ultimately slain. Herod the Great survived this nefarious attempt five days, in the course of which he disinherited his eldest son Antipater before he had been put to death, and divided his dominions thus. He gave the kingdom to Archelaus. He gave Gaulonitis, Trachonitis, and Batanæa to Philip, the nephew of Archelaus, and a grandson of Herod the Great; he he gave the provinces of Galilee and Peræa to Herod Antipas. There had been another Philip, father of the Philip just now mentioned, and a son of Herod the Great, This Philip had married Mariamne, a daughter of the Jewish high priest, and as she was concerned in the conspiracy of Antipater, his father disinherited Philip the elder. This elder Philip then

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