if not in nature at least in degree. Perversion is "the act of turning from truth or propriety; a diverting from the true intent or object; change to something worse. We speak of the perversion of laws, when they are misinterpreted or misapplied; a perversion of reason, when it is misemployed; a perversion of scripture, when it is wilfully misinterpreted or misappled."* In like manner we speak of conscience as perverted when, through the impositions practised upon it, and the false training given to it, it falls into positive mistakes, and pronounces a false judgment. It is not difficult to see how such a perversion is effected. Objects are invested with some imaginary interest or excellency, and the pursuit of them is justified upon this ground. The wrong is thus made to appear right; and a conscience, so perverted leads us to struggle for the attainment of what, perversion apart, we should certainly condemn. John Forster says, "It were probably absurd to expect that any mind should itself be able to detect its own obliquities, after having been so long beguiled, like the mariners in a story which I have read, who followed the direction of their compass, infallibly right, as they could have no doubt, till they arrived at an enemy's port, where they were seized and made slaves. It happened that the wicked captain, in order to betray the ship, had concealed a large loadstone at a little distance on one side of the needle." No one will question the accuracy of this illustration. Honour, pleasure, and profit, as well as the depraved imagination, passions, and will, have acted upon the conscience like the concealed loadstone upon the needle, and thus thousands have drifted along, never suspecting that their conscience was so influenced as to lead in a wrong direction and to so fearful a destiny.

This is the worst state in which the conscience is ever found. In other conditions it sinks into a state of comparative inactivity; but a perverted conscience is active and energetic, and hurries its victim onward in a wrong direction. Man is never so ferocious, cruel, and relentless, as when acting under this influence; he undertakes either to defend or advance what he deems the right; he is then prepared to take part in scenes of violence, and no excesses of cruelty are too great for him to perpetrate. Sectarianism, in the name of religion, has instigated, under the influence of a perverted conscience, some of the bitterest persecutions that have disgraced the history of nations. The Saviour foresaw, and intimated to his disciples, that this should happen: "They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you

"The Imperial Dictionary" in loco.

will

† On a man writing memoirs of himself. See "Methods of Divine Governments," by J. McCosh, LL.D. Page 385.

This is what Paul describes as a

think that he doeth God service." "zeal for God," that is "not according to knowledge." Of this blind zeal he declares that he had been the victim: "I verily thought with myself, that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth."‡ "Ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews' religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it."§ All that is requisite to the right understanding of these passages is, that we regard the parties referred to as acting under the influence of a perverted moral faculty. If the question arise, which has often been started by the captious and sceptical, respecting the precise grounds of Saul's guilt, and others who have acted in like manner, in seeking for an answer,-the moral axiom, "that sincerity can never make a wrong action right," must not be overlooked, and the conclusion will be, that despite evident sincerity there is palpable guilt. Dr. Wardlaw says, "In Saul it was the product of all that in human nature universally stands opposed to the grace and the purity of the gospel, combined with the special pride of Jewish learning and Pharisaical self-sufficiency." Here then is man, with his own hand concealing the loadstone that is to affect the polarity of the needle-the fidelity of his own conscience. Hence, after his regeneration, Paul never referred to his former state but with feelings of deepest regret, and never once mentioned his sincerity and conscientiousness in extenuation of his guilt. He declares himself to have been "a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious," though he did it "ignorantly in unbelief." The inquisition in Spain, the tragedy of St. Bartholomew's, and all the religious persecutions of every age, are the fearful products of a perverted moral faculty.

(3rd.) The state into which conscience is brought by being imposed upon and perverted. That state is described in a book containing a philosophy unmarred by human imperfections. In the word of God we read, First. Of a weak conscience. "Howbeit there is not in every man that knowledge, for some, with conscience of the idol unto this hour, eat it as a thing offered unto an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled." Here reference is made to the conscience of one who had given up heathenism, but whose moral faculty had been so weakened while under its influence, that the man was unable, even with the aid of revelation, to resist the temptation to believe that these idols were in some sense real divinities. We must not suppose that men of this class believed heathen deities to be in any sense supreme, but merely subordinate divinities, who were employed by Jehovah in

* John xvi 2. † Romans x. 1. "Christian Ethics," page 143.

Acts xxvi. 9. 1 Timothy i. 13.

§ Galatians i. 13. * 1 Corinthians viii. 7.

the government of this world, whom it was necessary to conciliate and whose favour they wished to secure. If this be the case with one who has been converted from heathenism to Christianity, what becomes of the lofty views of those who believe the moral faculty to be a sufficient guide to the poor Gentiles. Secondly. Of a defiled conscience. "Unto the pure all things are pure; but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure, but even their mind and conscience is defiled."* Here we are introduced to one who professes the religion of Christ, but who represents moral purity as consisting, to a great extent, in distinctions of meats and drinks and the observance of days and seasons. This position the apostle denies, and affirms the contrary,-"To the pure all things are pure." Had moral purity or defilement been entirely outwards, then the case would have been very different; but the depraved mind, acting from depraved motives, turns everything to bad account. Everything that such a one does tends to corrupt him more and more, until the whole inner man, designated the "mind and conscience, is defiled." Thirdly. Of an evil conscience. "Let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water." Here we have the conscience of a convinced sinner. "An evil conscience is a consciousness of evil, or a conscience oppressed with sin, that is, a conscience that accuses of guilt." Hence we frequently speak, and hear others speak, of a troubled conscience. The man that does wrong often labours hard to conceal its sinfulness from his conscience, and may at times succeed so far as to lay down his head and sleep, and dream that all is well; but some event transpires, or some unforeseen circumstance arises, and light breaks in upon the conscience, which then becomes the more loud in its upbraidings on account of having been imposed upon and deceived. The teaching of the apostle is that although by the blood of sacrificed animals and the water of purification this trouble arising from a sense of guilt and condemnation cannot be removed, yet by the blood of Jesus it can. The atonement was not designed to diminish the magnitude of our sins, but to take them away. A "heart sprinkled from an evil conscience," therefore, is a heart enjoying a sweet and hallowed sense of pardon. Fourthly. Of a seared conscience. "Speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron." Here we have the conscience of the heresiarch, or at least a teacher of heresy. This passage and the context is generally applied to the Romish apostasy; and that it will bear such an application is readily admitted; but we prefer extending its application to all

* Titus i. 15,

Hebrews x. 22. Rev. A. Barnes' Notes on Hebrews. § 1 Timothy iv. 2,

instances of apostasy, an extension which we think is required by the scope of the apostle's reasoning. That which Paul here affirms is, that these teachers taught what they knew to be false, until their falsehood reacted upon themselves, and they became the dupes of their own hypocrisy," Their conscience was seared with a hot iron." Their hypocrisy acted upon the moral faculty as a hot iron acts upon the skin: "The cauterized part becomes rigid and hard, and dead to sensibility. So with the conscience of those referred to. It has the same relation to a conscience that is sensitive and quick in its decisions that the cauterized part of the body has to a thin, delicate, sensitive skin.*

Such is the condition of the moral faculty in many men, arising out of their fallen state, their unfavourable circumstances, but most of all out of their own treatment of it. And as this is not our description alone, but that given in the word of God, we rest upon its truthfulness with a confidence that we cannot place in the clearest efforts of our own reason.

(3rd.) The difficulties that perplex the moral faculty in the exercise of its proper functions. These difficulties were detected by Dr. Brown, who, overlooking their real origin, applied, for the purpose of explanation, his three limitations of the universality and uniformity of the decisions of conscience, and the unfitness of the same action, when contemplated under different circumstances, to raise in the mind the same emotion. We conceive, however, that the primary source of all these difficulties is the fallen condition of man. Had man never fallen there would have been no difficulty experienced in the exercise of the moral faculty. The moral law was written so legibly on his heart that the clear eye of conscience would have been able to read it every moment, and the other faculties would have harmoniously obeyed. But since the fall there are difficulties in the way of its proper exercise, which are to be sought for,

First. In man himself. Dr. Brown refers to the passions, when in a state of agitation, as preventing the proper emotion from arising in the mind, by which the difference of moral action is determined. In this Dr. Brown is right, if emotion really constitutes that moral difference. But is this the true idea? We think not. Right and wrong are not determined by emotion. In the case referred to it is the perceptive power of the moral faculty that is interfered with by the storm of passion; and this position is required to harmonize what Dr. Brown says respecting passion interfering for the moment with our ability " to tell the square of four or the cube of two." For this illustration to harmonize with the teaching that emotion constitutes the difference of moral actions it should be put not "to tell," but "to feel the square of

Rev. A. Barnes' Notes.

*

four or the cube of two." He gives a quotation from an unknown author, which is in closer harmony with our views of the nature and operations of the moral faculty than his own,-"The heart of man may be considered, allegorically, as an island almost level with the water that bathes it. On the pure white marble of the island are engraved the holy pre epts of the law of nature. Near these oracles is one who bends his eyes respectfully on the inscription, and reads it aloud. He is the lover of Virtue, the genius of the island. The water around is in continual agitation; the slightest zephyr raises it into billows; it then covers the inscription. We no longer see its characters; we no longer hear the genius read. But the calm soon rises from the bosom of the storm. The island re-appears, white as before, and the genius resumes his employment."† This is a beautiful picture; but is it imaginary or real? We shall see. The island is the heart of man; the inscriptions on its marble surface are the precepts of moral law written on the heart; the genius who reads is conscience; the waters that surround the island are the passions; and the zephyrs that move the surface of the waters and occasion the storm that covers the inscriptions are the events and circumstances that arouse and agitate the passions. Conscience is here allowed its proper place and attitude in relation to the inscription. It is not merely an emotional faculty, but perceptive and intelligent. While, however, we admire the ingenuity displayed in this picture, and think that its author entertains correct views of the nature of the moral faculty, we seriously doubt the correctness of his views of the condition of human nature and of the authority of conscience. The white marble island, with its legible inscriptions and genius reading aloud, would have been a correct picture of the nature of the first human pair before the fall; but since the fall human nature is no longer like the white marble island with its legible inscriptions. It is sullied and polluted by sin, and the inscriptions are obscured, though not entirely erased. Nor do we think that the storms referred to subside and leave the island and the inscriptions as beautiful as before. We doubt whether there would have been any storms of passion, dethroning reason and silencing conscience, had man not fallen. The very constitution of human nature and the experience of the whole race requires the belief that every storm of passion that agitates the soul weakens its moral capabilities, and leaves it with less power and inclination to resist the next. From what has been advanced it will be evident that there is considerable difficulty experienced in reaching correct conclusions on moral subjects.

"Lectures on Ethics," page 25. + Ibid, page 26.