man in reference to this part of Nature, we find that our idea is that he should have the Conscience perfect as a guide, and that he should perfectly obey it, and therefore that in all his actions he should possess a perfect sense of moral approbation, and a perfect consciousness of right. In other words, to such a person moral restlessness and dissatisfaction would be altogether strange and utterly unknown. Moral calmness and peace would of itself be the natural state and condition of his mental atmosphere. Again. Shame-the sense of stain and pollution—this would not exist at all in man unfallen, for the simple reason that evil would not have been done, and that the purity of the nature would not have been polluted in or by any action. Thus Shame is the feeling of an actual Stain upon our moral nature. The emotion that attends our knowledge that we are defiled by sin, never could have existed in the man unfallen, in whom the Conscience was unviolated, but in us arises from its violation. it With regard to the Moral Restlessness and Shame, that they could not exist in an unfallen nature may be easily granted. With regard to the Fear, I know that objections may be taken; may be said that Fear is a natural faculty or passion, having reference not to Conscience, but to Pain. Upon this, I say that if my reader will only examine, he will find that caution against pain, or apprehension of it, is not fear; that the only real and true fear, properly so called, is that which, with violation of Conscience in Time connects consequences in Eternity—that is Moral Fear. The truth of this view of the nature and origin of these three emotions, Moral Restlessness, Shame and Fear, may be seen in the manifest difference between the unfallen man and the fallen nature of the same person. There is no mark of any of them in Adam unfallen; but he is represented as calmly dwelling in innocence and peace, feeling no sense of Shame, no emotion of Fear, but as a limited being, perfect in his nature, communing with the Unlimited Perfection of the Almighty, and at once upon the turning point of the Fall all these emotions then make their appearAdam and his wife hide themselves from the presence of the Lord among the trees of the garden; and in reply to the questioning of the Lord he said, "I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself." Restlessness, and Shame, and Fear, at once become constituent ance. JorM elements of that nature, which before in perfect calmness and tranquil self-assurance, had walked face to face, unreproached, with the God of perfect purity and almighty power. This fact that these emotions did not exist in the man unfallen, but that at once they manifest themselves upon the instance of the Fall, this confirms the account I have given of them, as emotions depending upon the Conscience. And when we come to examine, in reference to this point, the life and acts of our Lord, we find an utter absence of these emotions,—that Moral restlessness, which is an especial quality of our Human Nature unregenerated by God's Holy Spirit,—in fact, of all men that are not "born anew of water and the Spirit," and "renewed day by day in the spirit of their minds,"-of that restlessness we cannot discover a trace in Christ our blessed Lord. There is no sign of it at any period of his life in Him. His self-consciousness is calm and quiet, and assured. No evidence is there in Him of "moral progress;"* of "newness of ground," or "advance of position," or "expansion of views;" but the same undisturbed moral position, he keeps, adequate completely and entirely to the position, and abiding in it patiently. And then, with regard to what we call Shame, an emotion that we may plainly say there is none of the Human race but Christ that has not felt; as for this, in all Christ's relations, as a man born of a woman, there is not the smallest evidence that He even felt it in any degree. Moral Fear also, he seems not to have felt, while of mental as well as bodily suffering and pain, he seems to have had the apprehension. But upon this point, I shall not dwell too closely, seeing that it would be to attempt to enter into the gates of a mystery which angels cannot comprehend, the mystery of the Atone * These are part of the ordinary talk of so-called reformers. I need not say how they jar upon my mind, whose doctrine is that expounded in this book, “duty to God and man, acted upon from childhood to old age.” The sole "moral progress," I believe, is Duty better done; the sole “ expansion of views," is the consequent clearer view of God and Heaven. No "advance of position," save in this, no newness of ground," do I consider possible. morally; no ground in fact can support us save that old ground of “Nature explained and guided by Grace." If I have erred in bringing these cantphrases of a wretched and self-deluding, yet earnest philosophy, in proximity to the name of our Lord, I hope I may be pardoned by my readers, for this ment of our Most Blessed Lord, both God and man; because while I can see that he endured Physical and Mental agony; while I can argue that this was Infinite, still from the fact of its Infinity I cannot comprehend but must only believe and adore. And, moreover, I know that the Church has, in a measure, determined that over and above the agony visible to man, of which man can judge, the infinity of bodily and mental agony, borne by Christ the man, because at one and the same time, he was God; besides this, the Church has determined in her liturgical prayer, used in the Greek Church, "By all thy sufferings known and unknown, have mercy upon us," that over and above the mental and physical agony, there was another infinity of Spiritual Pain borne by him, to the bare knowledge of which, in our present state, we cannot reach. Into the holy gloom, and the divine mysteriousness of Christ's sufferings, we shall not then attempt to penetrate; for, in view of that infinite suffering which he bore for us, it is manifest* that he "feared," nay (Hebrews 5 and 7,) "That he was heard in that he feared." Upon this point, therefore, since it is beyond our apprehension, we shall not press, nor shall we suffer it to be pressed against us, but will leave it with two remarks: First, that His suffering he bore not for himself, but for others, and it was infinite; and secondly, that of either selfish or Moral Fear, we see no speck in his whole life. These two remarks will, I hope, go then rather to confirm than to weaken the view advanced. I might also refer to those before Christ, who came nearest to the moral teaching of the Gospel, to show that these emotions, have, by them, ever been connected with the Conscience. In fact, the wisest of their poets and of their philosophers, unhesitatingly declare it. I might also refer to the experience of all men in these latter days, to declare that calmness of mind and tranquillity can only come from a Conscience determinately and consistently obeyed; that from such a Conscience only, can come the mind that will abide through life unashamed, and fearless, and that will, if Duty requires it, stand up in its behalf unterrified. This, each man, whose rule is to obey his Conscience always, can say, is the invariable result of that obedience, freedom from Restlessness,—that is, Peace of Mind; freedom from Shame, that is, Self-approval; and freedom from Fear, that is, Moral Courage. But the Scriptures fully assert the same, "Brethren, if our Conscience (Heart in the original,) condemn us not, then have we confidence towards God."* "The wicked are like the troubled sea, casting out mire and dirt continually."+ Again, "He that believeth in him, shall not be ashamed." "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casteth out fear; for fear hath torment."§ "He that feareth, is not made perfect in love." The way in which we connect these texts with our subject is, that the Conscience in its action upon the life of man, can only reach perfection under Christ; and that in these, and innumerable other passages that can be quoted, the sum and completion of Christianity in its effects, is in an Holy Peace; first, which is the very opposite of Moral Restlessness,-2ndly, in deliverance from sin and its "Shame," and 3dly, in the freedom from "Fear," which doctrine, it is manifest, fully confirms our statement as to the nature of these emotions, and their relation to the Conscience. Having shown, therefore, the nature of the emotions that are the sanctions of the Conscience, we shall now proceed to examine its action. The individual man in his course of life, we will say, intends to do some act; in the moment of intention, before he has acted, he receives the feeling of an internal check, a moral negative to action, which is suddenly interposed as an obstacle between the intention and the action, under the conditions I have before noted, and which I will not here again repeat. To overcome that obstacle, he must use an effort, and that a conscious voluntary effort; so that he knows, that of his own will, freely and knowingly, he breaks across that obstacle or impediment. Now if the Conscience be in its due state, and perfect, invariably its negative shall be only upon the evil,-that which it forbids shall be evil. The man, therefore, in breaking through its obstacle, shall have willingly and consciously done evil,-done it freely and knowingly, and therefore have been guilty. But to resume, when he has done the action against which the * 1 John, iii. 21. Maou Rom. ix. 33. Withholding Conscience protested, freely and knowingly and by an effort overcoming the barrier placed in his way, then at once it is chronicled by the Recording Conscience, and evermore it is liable to be brought up to him, and presented to his view as connected with a stain; a feeling that to his moral nature, being of itself good, this evil action, done freely and knowingly, is that which to pure white a blotch of filth is, a Stain. And this, therefore, is one effect of evil done-the Stain upon the nature producing the Shame. The Stain is the effect on the nature; the Shame is the mental emotion corresponding to that effect. The Recording Conscience has the power, as we know, of bringing up that act with its Stain again and again to the individual man; but under what conditions this takes place, it is in vain for us to guess; and, so far are we from being able to decide upon the laws by which it happens, that when we attempt to classify them we are perfectly unable to reach any decision. In some men sickness or danger shall always bring them up; in others, peculiar circumstances of life; in others, mere trifles at long intervals; and in others, the recalling of these things shall be almost hourly: so that, perhaps, looking at the circumstances that concern the bringing up of past misdeeds by the Recording Conscience, the best thing to do, instead of trying to form laws of their re-presentation to the mind, is to say, that they take place according to the purpose and will of the Omnipotent and Omnipresent Spirit, whose organ the Conscience is. So far with regard to the action of the Recording Conscience. We come now to the last action of the faculty, that of the Prophetic Conscience; and with regard to this, we have already said that Conscience, "by its very nature, attaches consequences in Eternity to actions done in Time." This, in action, is that part of the offices of the Conscience we call the "Prophetic Conscience;" and he that shall look at the two-fold nature of the Conscience, the first part as a faculty of man limited in power and in action to Time and Space, and yet immortal; and the second, the action upon that faculty of the Spirit of God, infinite in power and knowledge, he that shall consider that in this faculty there is thus a concurrence of the Infinite with the Finite, and of the Spirit of God with the spirit of man, shall be at no loss to see how it is that naturally the idea of infinite consequences is connected with acts done in Time and Space. UorM |