finding fault, and the devil is sure to accuse us right or wrong; and declare we have no part in David, nor no inheritance in the Son of Jesse. Till these accusers are borne down by better witnesses, and where the one fails the other is sure to prove victorious. The first witness is our spirit, an enlightened conscience—and the second is the holy condescending spirit of truth, the infallible witness.—Good men have called this twofold witness, the common and the uncommon, or the ordinary and extraordinary witness. The former is at all times in the believer’s heart, and by a ray of divine light, it is given him to discover it. Conscience can bear witness of the work of God upon the soul, and draw its inference upon a review of the Lord’s dealings with it, as Manoah’s wife did. If the Lord had been pleased to have destroyed us, he would not have done this, nor would he have told us such things as he has. Conscience bears its testimony to the work of God on the soul _within_, by comparing it with the word of God _without_, and this is done by proving that our minds have been opened to receive God’s testimony of Christ; what he is, and what he has done; and this not in a bare rational way, however clear, but that we have so received him, as to believe in him, desire him, call upon him, prize him, trust him, hold communion with him, and most earnestly desire to live to his glory; and as we have received him, so to walk in him, be conformed to his image, and spend a blest eternity with him, to love all that he loves, and to hate all that he hates. Conscience bears witness of our sincerity in these things. This is the witness of conscience, and it is a mercy to hear it speak amidst the host of witnesses against us. Satan’s accusation, as in the case of Job before God, accusing him of hypocrisy, although God had declared he was the most sincere character in the world—and in the business of Joshua, the high priest, satan stood at his right hand to resist him, as it had long before been predicted of Judas. “Set thou a wicked man over him, and let satan stand at his right hand.” The world is also waiting to accuse, longing for every opportunity to ridicule the religion of the Son of God. Mere professors are all upon the watch, and even preachers, who are inimical to truth. “My mother’s children were angry with me—_not_ my father’s, but my mother’s, children—all my familiars watched for my halting, they said peradventure he will be enticed, and we shall prevail against him. The watchmen found me, they smote me, they wounded me, they took away my veil from me.” Natural conscience legally biassed, and external appearances in the dispensations of Providence leads us on till we exclaim in the passionate language of Jacob, “All these things are against me.” Falling amongst thieves, we are stripped and wounded, and left half dead; or to keep up the metaphor, these witnesses would swear us out of our eternal life. But blessed be