Ductor dubitantium, or, The rule of conscience in all her generall measures serving as a great instrument for the determination of cases of conscience : in four books / by Jeremy Taylor ...

RULE 1. Conscience is the minde of a Man governed by a Rule, and measured by the proportions of good and evil, in order to practice; viz. to conduct all our relations, and all our entercourse between God, our Neighbours, and our Selves: that is, in all moral actions.

GOD governs the world by several attributes and ema∣nations from himself.* 1.1 The nature of things is supported by his power, the events of things are ordered by his providence, and the actions of reasonable creatures are governed by Laws, and these Laws are put into a mans soul or minde as into a Treasury or Repository: some in his very nature, some by after actions, by education and positive sanction,* 1.2 by learning and custome: so that it was well said of S. Bernard, Conscientia candor est lucis aeternae, & speculum sine macula Dei Majestatis, & imago bonitatis illius. Conscience is the bright∣ness and splendor of the eternal light, a spotless mirror of the Divine Maje∣sty, and the image of the goodness of God. It is higher which Tatianus said of Conscience, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, Conscience is God unto us; which saying he had from Menander,

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and it had in it this truth, That God who is every where in several manners, hath the appellative of his own attributes and effects in the several manners of his presence.

Jupiter est quodcunque vides, quocunque moveris.

That providence which governs all the world is nothing else but God pre∣sent by his providence:* 1.3 and God is in our hearts by his Laws: he rules in us by his Substitu••e our conscience. God sits there and gives us laws; and as God said to Moses,* 1.4 I have made thee a God to Pharaoh, that is, to give him Laws, and to minister in the exec••tion of those Laws, and to inflict angry sentences upon him; so hath God done to us. He hath given us Conscience to be in Gods stead to us, to give us Laws, and to exact obedience to those Laws, to punish them that prevaricate, and to reward the obedient. And therefore Consci∣ence is called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, The Houshold Guardian, The Domestick God, The Spirit or Angel of the place: and when we call god to witness, we onely mean, that our conscience is right, and that God and Gods Vicar,* 1.5 our conscience knows it. So Lactantius: Meminerit Deum se habere testem, id est, ut ego arbitror, mentem suam, quâ nihil homini dedit Deus ipse divinius. Let him remember that he hath God for his witness, that is, as I suppose, his mind; then which God hath given to man nothing that is more divine. In summe, It is the image of God; and as in the mysterious Tri∣nity, we adore the will, memory and understanding, and Theology contemplates three persons in the analogies, proportions and correspondencies of them: so in this also we see plainly that Conscience is that likeness of God in which he was pleased to make man. For although conscience be primarly founded in the understanding, as it is the Lawgiver, and Dictator; and the rule and domini∣on of conscience fundatur in intellectu, is established in the understanding part; yet it is also Memory, when it accuses or excuses, when it makes joyful and sorrowful; and there is in it some mixture of will, as I shall discourse in the sequel; so that conscience is a result of all, of Understanding, Will, and Memory.

But these high and great expressions are better in the Spirit then in the let∣ter;* 1.6 they have in them some••hing of institution, and some••hing of design, they tell us that Conscience is a guard and a guide, a rule and a law set over us by God, and they are spoken to m••ke us afraid to sin against our conscience, because by so doing we sin against God; he having put a double bridle upon us, society and solitude, that is, company, and our selves, or rather, God and Man; it being now impossible for us to sin in any circumstances, but we shall have a reprover: 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, as Hierocles said well; that neith••r company may g••ve countena••ce or excuse to sin, or solitariness may give confidence or war∣ranty; for ••s we are ashamed to sin in company, so we ought to fear our con∣science, which is Gods Watchman and Intelligencer.

To which purpose it was soberly spoken of Tertullian,* 1.7 Conscientia optima testis Divinitatis;* 1.8 our conscience is the best argument in the world to prove there is a God: For conscience is Gods deputy; and the inferiour must sup∣pose a superiour; and God and our conscience are like relative terms, it not being imaginable why some persons in some cases should be am••z'd and troubled in their minds for their having done a secret turp••tude, o•• cruelty; but that conscience is present with a message from God, and the men feel in∣ward causes of fear, when they are secure from without; that is, they are forc'd to fear God, when they are safe from men. And it is impossible that any man should be an Atheist, if he have any conscience: and for this reason it is, there have been so few Atheists in the world, because it is so hard for men to lose their conscience wholly.

Quest.

SOme dispute whether it be possible or no for any man to be totally with∣out conscience.* 1.9 Tertullians sentence in this article is this, Potest obumbrari quia non est Deus: extingui non potest quia à Deo est. It is not God, and there∣fore may be clouded: but it is from God, and therefore cannot be destroyed. But I know a man may wholly lose the use of his reason; some men are mad, and some are natural fools, and some are sots, and stupid; such men as these lose their conscience, as they lose their reason: and as some mad men may have a fancy that there is no Sun; so some fools may say there is no God; and as they can believe that, so they can lose their conscience, and be∣lieve this. But as he that hath reason or his eyes cannot deny but there is such a thing as the Sun, so neither can he that hath conscience deny there is a God. For as the Sun is present by his light which we see daily, so is God by our conscience which we feel continually: we feel one as certainly as the other.

But it is to be observed,* 1.10 that conscience is sometimes taken for the pra∣ctical intellective faculty; so we say the law of nature, and the fear of God is written in the conscience of every man.

2. Sometimes it is taken for the habitual perswasion and belief of the principles written there; so we say, He is a good man, and makes conscience of his ways. And thus we also say, and it is true, that a wicked person is of a profligate and lost conscience. He hath no conscience in him. That is, he hath lost the habit, or that usual perswasion and recourse to conscience by which good men govern their actions.

3. Or the word conscience is used effectively, for any single operation and action of conscience: so we speak of particulars, I make a conscience of taking up arms in this cause. Of the first and last acceptation of the word Consci∣ence, there is no doubt; for the last may, and the first can never be lost: But for the second, it may be lost more or less, as any other habit can; though this with more difficulty then any thing else, because it is founded so immediately in nature, and is so exercised in all the actions and entercourses of our life, and is so assisted by the grace of God, that it is next to impossible to lose the habit intirely; and that faculty that shall to eternal ages doe the offices which are the last, and such as suppose some preceding actions, I mean to tor∣ment and afflict them for not having obeyed the former acts of dictate and command, cannot be supposed to die in the principle, when it shall be eternal in the emanation; for the worm shall never die.

For,* 1.11 that men doe things against their conscience, is no otherwise then as they doe things against their reason; but a man may as well cease to be a man, as to be wholly without conscience. For the drunkard will be sober, and his conscience will be awake next morning: This is a perpetual pulse, and though it may be interrupted, yet if the man be alive, it will beat before he dies; and so long as we beleeve a God, so long our conscience will at least teach us, if it does not also smite us: But as God sometimes lets a man go on in sin and does not punish him, so does conscience; but in this case, unless the man be smitten and awakened before he dies, both God & the conscience reserve their wrath to be inflicted in hell. It is one and the same thing; Gods wrath, and an evil guilty conscience: For by the same hand by which God gives his law, by the same he punishes them that transgress the law. God gave the old law by the ministery of Angels,* 1.12 and when the people broke it, he sent evil angels among

them; now God gives us a law in our consciences, and there he hath establi∣shed the penalty; This is the worm that never dies; let it be trod upon never so much here, it will turn again. It cannot die here, and it shall be alive for ever.

But by explicating the parts of the Rule, we shall the best understand the Nature, Use, and Offices of Conscience.

Conscience is the minde of a Man—

When God sent the B. Jesus into the world to perfect all righteousness,* 1.13 and to teach the world all his Fathers will,* 1.14 it was said, and done, I will give my laws in your hearts,* 1.15 and in your mindes will I write them; that is, you shall be governed by the law of natural and essential equity and reason, by that law which is put into every mans nature: and besides this, whatsoever else shall be superinduc'd shall be written in your minds by the Spirit, who shall write all the laws of Christianity in the Tables of your consciences. He shall make you to understand them, to perceive their relish, to remember them because you love them, and because you need them, and cannot be happy without them: he shall call them to your minde, and inspire new arguments and in∣ducements to their observation, and make it all as naturall to us, as what we were born with.

Our minde being thus furnished with a holy Rule,* 1.16 and conducted by a divine Guide, is called Conscience; and is the same thing which in Scripture is sometimes called, The heart* 1.17; there being in the Hebrew tongue, no proper word for Conscience, but in stead of it they use the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 the heart; Often∣tentimes also thine own heart knoweth,* 1.18 that is, thy conscience knoweth, that thou they self hast cursed others: so in the New Testament, Beloved, if our hearts condemne us not, then have we peace towards God; viz. If in our own consciences we are not condem∣ned. Sometimes it is called Spirit* 1.19, the third ingredient of the constitution of a Christian; the Spirit, distinct from Soul and Body. For as our Body shall be spiritual in the resurrection, therefore because all its offices shall intirely minister to the spirit, and converse with spirits, so may that part of the soul which is wholly furnished, taught and conducted by the spirit of grace, and whose work it is wholly to serve the spirit, by a just proportion of reason be called the Spirit.* 1.20 This is that which is affirmed by S. Paul, The word of God sharper then a two edged sword, dividing the soul and the spirit; that is, the soul is the spirit separated by the word of God, instructed by it, and by relation to it, is called, the spirit.* 1.21 And this is the sense of Origen,

Testimonio sanè conscientiae uti Apostolus dicit eos qui descriptam continent in cordibus le∣gem, &c. The Apostle says, that they use the testimony of conscience, who have the law written in their hearts. Hence it is necessary to enquire what that is which the Apostle cals conscience, whether it be any other substance then the heart or soul? For of this it is otherwhere said, that it reprehends, but is not reprehended, and that it judges a man, but it self is judged of no man: as John saith, If our con∣science condemne us not, then have we confidence towards God. And again, Paul himself saith in another place, Our glorying is this, even the testimony of our con∣science; because therefore I see so great a liberty of it, that in good things it is always glad and rejoyces, but in evil things it is not reproved, but reproves and corrects the soul it self to which it does adhere: I doe suppose that this is the very spirit which by the Apostle is said to be with the soul, as a paedagogue and

social Governour, that it may admonish the soul of better things, and chastise her for her faults and reprove her: Because no man knows the things of a man but the spirit of a man which is in him; and that is the spirit of our conscience, con∣cerning which, he saith, That spirit gives testimony to our spirit.

So far Origen.

Thus,* 1.22 Conscience is the Minde, and God writing his laws in our mindes is, informing our conscience, and furnishing it with laws and rules, and mea∣sures, and it is called by S. Paul,* 1.23 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, the law of the minde; and though it is once made a distinct thing from the minde (as in those words,* 1.24 Their mindes and consciences are defiled) yet it happens in this word as in divers others, that it is sometimes taken largely, sometimes specifically and more de∣terminately: The minde is all the whole understanding part, it is the memory; so Peter called to minde the word that Jesus spake,* 1.25 that is, he remembred it. It is, the signification or meaning, the purpose or resolution. No man knoweth the minde of the spirit,* 1.26 but the spirit.* 1.27 It is the discursive or reasoning part;* 1.28 Mary cast in her minde what manner of salutation this should be. It is the assenting and determi∣ning part;* 1.29 let every man be fully perswaded in his own minde: and it is also taken for Conscience, or that Treasure of rules which are in order to practice. And therefore when S. Paul intended to express the anger of God punish∣ing evil men with evil consciences and false perswasions in order to cri∣minal actions and evil worshippings, he said, God gave them over 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, to a reprobate minde,* 1.30 that is, to a conscience evil perswaded, furnished with false practical principles; but the return to holiness, and the improve∣ment of a holy conscience is called,* 1.31 a being renewed in the spirit of our minde,* 1.32 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, the renovation of the minde.

Now there are two ways by which God reigns in the minde of a man,* 1.33 1. Faith, and 2. Conscience. Faith contains all the treasures of Divine know∣ledge and speculation. Conscience is the treasury of divine Commandements and rules in practical things. Faith tells us why; Conscience tells us what we are to doe. Faith is the measure of our perswasions; Conscience is the measure of our actions. And as Faith is a gift of God, so is Conscience; that is, as the understanding of a man is taught by the Spirit of God in Scripture, what to beleeve, how to distinguish truth from errors; so is the Conscience in∣structed to distinguish good and evil, how to please God, how to doe justice and charity to our neighbour, and how to treat our selves; so that when the revelations of Christ and the Commandements of God are fully recorded in our mindes, then we are perfectly instructed to every good work.

Governed by a Rule—

S. Bernard comparing the Conscience to a house,* 1.34 says it stands upon se∣ven pillars.* 1.35 1. Good will. 2. Memory of Gods benefits. 3. A clean heart. 4. A free spirit. 5. A right soul. 6. A devout minde. 7. An enlightned rea∣son. These indeed are some of them the fruits and effects, some of them are the annexes and appendages of a good conscience, but not the foundations or pillars upon which Conscience is built. For as for the first

Good will.

Conscience relies not at all upon the will directly.* 1.36 For though a Conscience is good, or bad, pure or impure; and so the Doctors of Mystick Theology divide and handle it, yet a conscience is not made so by the will, formally, but by

the understanding. For that is a good conscience, which is rightly taught in the word of life; that is impure and defiled, which hath entertained evil and un∣godly principles; such is theirs, who follow false lights, evil teachers, men of corrupt minds. For the conscience is a Judge and a Guide, a Monitor and a Wit∣ness, which are offices of the knowing, not of the choosing faculty. Spiritum cor∣rectorem, & paedagogum animae, so Origena 1.37 calls it. The instructor of the soul, the spirit,* 1.38 the corrector. Naturale judicatorium, or naturalis vis judicandi, so S. Basil. The natural power of judging, or natures judgement seat. Lucem intellectus no∣stri, so Damascen cals it, The light of our understanding. The conscience does accuse or excuse a man before God, which the will cannot. If it could, we should all stand upright at doomesday, or at least those would be acquitted, who fain would doe well, but miss, who do the things they love not, and love those they doe not; that is, they who strive to enter in, but shall not be able. But to accuse or excuse is the office of a faculty which can neither will nor choose, that is, of the conscience; which is properly a record, a book, and a judge∣ment seat.

But I said,* 1.39 Conscience relies not upon the will [directly] yet it cannot be denied, but the will hath force upon the conscience collaterally and indirectly. For the evil will perverts the understanding, and makes it beleeve false prin∣ciples; deceiving and being deceived is the lot of false Prophets; and they that are given over to beleeve a lie, will live in a lie, and doe actions relative to that false doctrine which evil manners first perswaded and introduc'd. For although it cannot be that Hereticks should sin in the article against the actual light of their consciences, because he that wittingly and willingly sins against a known truth is not properly a Heretick but a Blasphemer, and sins against the Holy Ghost; and he that sees a Heretick run to the stake or to the gallows, or the Donatist kill himself, or the Circumcellian break his own neck with as much confidence to bear witness to his heresie, as any of the blessed Martyrs to give testimony to Christianity it self, cannot but think he heartily beleeves, what so willingly he dies for; yet either hereticks do sin voluntarily, and so•• distinguish from simple errors, or else they are the same thing, and either every simple error is damnable, or no heresie. It must therefore be ob∣served, that

The will of man is cause of its actions either mediately or immediately.* 1.40 Some are the next products of our will; such are Pride, Ambition, Prejudice, and these blinde the understanding, and make an evil and a corrupted consci∣ence, making it an incompetent judge of truth and error, good and evil. So that the corruption of conscience in a heretick is voluntary in the principle, but miserable and involuntary in the product; it may proceed from the will efficiently, but it is formally a depravation of the understanding.

And therefore our wils also must be humble and apt,* 1.41 and desirous to learn, and willing to obey. Obedite & intelligetis, by humility and obedience we shall be best instructed. Not that by this means the conscience shall receive direct aids, but because by this means it will be left in its own aptnesses and dispo∣sitions, and when it is not hindred, the word of God will enter and dwel upon the conscience. And in this sense it is that some say that [Conscience is the inclination and propension of the will corresponding to practical knowledge] Will and Conscience are like the cognati sensus, the Touch and the Tast; or the Teeth and the Eares, affected and assisted by some common objects, whose effect is

united in matter and some reall events, and distinguished by their formalities, or metaphysical beings.

2. Memory of Gods benefits,

Is indeed a good ingagement to make us dutiful,* 1.42 and so may incline the will; but it hath no other force upon the conscience but that it re-minds us of a special obligation to thankfulness, which is a new and proper tie of duty; but it works onely by a principle that is already in the conscience, viz. that we are specially oblig'd to our gracious lords; and the obedience that is due to God as our lord doubles upon us by love and zeal when we remember him to be our bountiful Patron, and our gracious Father.

3. A clean heart,

May be an effect and emanation from a holy Conscience;* 1.43 but conscience in it self may be either good or bad, or it may be good when the heart is not clean, as it is in all the worst men who actually sin against conscience, doing that which conscience forbids them. In these men the principles are holy, the instruction perfect, the law remaining, the perswasions uncancell'd; but against all this torrent, there is a whirlwinde of passions and filthy resolutions, and wilfulness, which corrupt the heart, while as yet the head is uncorrupted in the direct rules of conscience. But yet sometimes a clean conscience and a clean heart are the same; and a good conscience is taken for holiness, so S. Paul uses the word,* 1.44 holding faith and a good conscience, which some having put away have made shipwrack, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, so Clemens Alexandrinus explicates the place; they have by infidelity polluted their divine and holy conscience: but S. Paul seems to argue otherwise, and that they laying aside a good conscience fell into infidelity; their hearts and conscience were first corrupted, and then they turn'd hereticks. But this sense of a good conscience is that which in Mystick Divinity is more properly hand∣led, in which sense also it is sometimes used in the law. Idem est conscientia quod vir bonus intrinsecè, said Ungarellusa 1.45 out of Baldusb 1.46; and from thence Aretinec 1.47 gathered this conclusion, that if any thing be committed to the conscience of any one, they must stand to his determination & ab eâ appellari non potest; there lies no appeal, quia vir bonus pro quo sumitur conscientia non potest mentiri & falsum di∣cere vel judicare. A good man, for whom the word conscience is used, cannot lie, or give a false judgement or testimony: of this sort of conscience it is said by Ben Sirach,* 1.48 Bonam substantiam habet cui non est peccatum in conscientiâ. It is a mans wealth to have no sin in our conscience. But in our present and future discourses, the word conscience is understood in the Philosophical sense, not in the Mystical, that is, not for the conscience as it is invested with the acci∣dents of good or bad, but as it abstracts from both, but is capable of either.

4. A free spirit,

Is the blessing and effect of an obedient will to a well instructed conscience,* 1.49 and more properly and peculiarly to the grace of chastity, to honesty and sim∣plicity; a slavish, t••morous, a childish and a trifling spirit being the punishment inflicted upon David before he repented of his fact with Bathsheba. But there is also a freedom which is properly the privilege, or the affection of conscience, and is of great usefulness to all its nobler operations; and that is, a being clear from prejudice and prepossession, a pursuing of truths with holy purpo∣ses, an inquiring after them with a single eye, not infected with any sickness or unreasonableness. This is the same thing with that which he distinctly

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cals [A right soul] To this is appendant also, that the conscience cannot be constrained, it is of it self a free spirit, and is subject to no commands, but those of reason and religion. God onely is the Lord of our conscience, and the conscience is not to subject it self any more to the Empire of sin, to the law of Moses, to a servile spirit, but to the laws of God alone, and the obedience of Jesus, willingly, chearfully, and in all instances, whether the Commandement be conveyed by the holy Jesus, or by his Vicegerents. But of this I shall af∣terwards give particular accounts.

5. A devout minde,

May procure more light to the conscience,* 1.50 and assistances from the spirit of wisdome in cases of difficulty, and is a good remedy against a doubting and a scrupulous conscience; but this is but indirect, and by the intermission of other more immediate and proper entercourses.

6.* 1.51 But the last is perfectly the foundation of conscience.

An enlightned Reason.

To which if we adde what S. Bernard before cals a right soul, that is, an honest heart, full of simplicity and hearty attention, and ready assent, we have all that by which the conscience is informed and reformed, instructed and pre∣served in its just measures, strengths, and relations. For the Rule of Conscience is all that notice of things and rules by which God would have good and evil to be measured, that is, the will of God communicated to us by any means, by reason, and by enlightning, that is, natural and instructed. So that conscience is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, it is principled by creation, and it is instructed or illuminated in the regeneration. For God being the fountain of all good, and good being nothing but a conformity to him, or to his will, what measures he makes, are to limit us. No man can make measures of good and evil, any more then he can make the good it self. Men sometimes give the instance in which the good is measured; but the measure it self is the will of God. For therefore it is good to obey humane laws, because it is Gods will we should; and although the man makes the law to which we are to give obedience, yet that is not the rule. The rule is the Commandement of God, for by it obedi∣ence is made a duty.

Measured by the proportions of good and evil—

That is,* 1.52 of that which God hath declared to be good or evil respectively, the conscience is to be informed. God hath taken care that his laws shall be published to all his subjects, he hath written them where they must needs read them, not in tables of stone or phylacteries on the forehead, but in a se∣cret Table: The conscience or minde of a man is the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, the pre∣server of the Court Rols of heaven. But I added this clause, to the former of [a Rule] because the express line of Gods rule is not the adequate measure of conscience: but there are analogies and proportions, and commensurations of things with things, which make the measure full and equal. For he does not always keep a good conscienee who keeps onely the words of a Divine law, but the proportions also and the reasons of it, the similitudes and correspon∣dencies in like instances, are the measures of conscience.

The whole measure and rule of conscience,* 1.53 The law of God, or Gods will, signified to us by nature, or revelation, and by the several manners and

times and parts of its communication it hath obtained several names. The law of Nature. *The consent of Nations. *Right Reason. *The Deca∣logue. *The Sermon of Christ. *The Canons of the Apostles. *The laws Ecclesiastical and Civil of Princes and Governours. *Fame, or the publick reputation of things, expressed by Proverbs and other instances and measures of publick honesty. This is

〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉,

so Euripides cals it, all the rule that teaches us good or evil. These being the full measures of right and wrong, of lawful and unlawful, will be the Rule of Conscience, and the subject of the present Books.

In order to practice—

In this,* 1.54 conscience differs from knowledge, which is in order to speculation, and ineffective notices. And it differs from faith, because although faith is also in order to practice, yet not directly and immediately: it is a collection of propositions, the belief of which makes it necessary to live well, and rea∣sonable and chosen. But before the propositions of faith pass into action, they must be transmitted through another principle, and that is conscience. That Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and our Lord, and our Master, is a proposi∣tion of faith, and from thence if we pass on to practice, we first take in ano∣ther proposition; If he be our lord, where is his fear? and this is a sentence, or virtual proposition of conscience. And from hence we may understand the full meaning of the word [Conscience.] 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, and Conscientia, and so our English word Conscience have in them Science or Knowledge: the seat of it is the Understanding, the act of it is Knowing, but there must be a know∣ing of more together.

Hugo de S. Victore says, that Conscientia est cordis scientia, Conscience is the knowledge of the heart. It is so, but certainly this was not the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and origi∣nal of the word. But there is truth in the following period. Cor noscit se & alia. Quando autem se noscit appellatur conscientia, quando praeter se, alia noscit, appel∣latur scientia. Knowledge hath for its object any thing without; but when the heart knows it self, then it is conscience. So it is used in Authors sacred and prophane. Nihil mihi conscius sum, saith S. Paul; I know nothing by my self; ut alios lateas, tute tibi conscius eris: and

—hic murus aheneus esto, Nil conscire sibi—

so Cicero to Marcus Rutilius uses it; Cùm & mihi conscius essem quanti te facerem; When I my self was conscious to my self how much I did value thee. But this acception of the word conscience is true, but not full and adequate; for it onely signifies conscience as it is a Witness, not as a Guide. Therefore it is more reasonable which Aquinas and the Schoolmen generally use: that con∣science is a conjunction of the universal practical law with the particular mo∣ral action: and so it is scientia cum rebus facti, and then it takes in that which is called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, or the general repository of moral principles or measures of good, and the particular cases as reduced to practice. Such as was the case of S. Peter when he denied his Lord: He knew that he ought not to have done it, and his conscience being sufficiently taught his duty to his Lord, he also knew that he had done it, and then there followed a remorse, a biting, or gnawing of his spirit, grief, and shame, and a consequent weeping: when

all these acts meet together, it is the full process of conscience.

1. The 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 or the first act of conscience, S. Hierome cals Scintillam conscientiae, the spark or fire put into the heart of man.

2. The 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, which is specifically called conscience of the deed done, is the bringing fuel to this fire.

3. And when they are thus laid together, they will either shine or burn, acquit or condemne. But this complication of acts is conscience. The first is Science, practical science; but annex the second: or it and the third, and then it is conscience. When Davids heart smote him, that is, upon his adultery and murder, his conscience thus discours'd. Adultery and Murder are high vio∣lations of the Divine Law, they provoke God to anger, without whom I can∣not live, whose anger is worse then death. This is practical knowledge, or the principles of conscience; but the following acts made it up into consci∣ence. For he remembred that he had betrayed Uriah and humbled Bathsheba, and then he begs of God for pardon; standing condemn'd in his own breast, he hopes to be forgiven by Gods sentence. But the whole process of consci∣ence is in two practical Syllogisms, in which the method is ever this. The 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 or Repository of practical principles begins, and where that leaves, the conscience or the witness and Judge of moral actions begins, like Jacob laying hold upon his elder brothers heel. The first is this:

Whatsoever is injurious ought not to be done, But to commit adultery is injurious, Therefore it ought not to be done:

This is the Rule of conscience, or the first act of conscience as it is a Rule and a Guide, and is taken for the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, or practical repository. But when an action is done or about to be done, conscience takes the conclusion of the for∣mer Syllogism, and applies it to her particular case.

Adultery ought not to be done, This action I go about, or which I have done, is adultery, Therefore it ought not to be done, or to have been done.

This is the full proceeding of this Court; after which many consequent so∣lemnities and actions do pass, of sentence, and preparatory torments and ex∣ecution.

But this I am to admonish,* 1.55 that although this which I have thus defin'd, is the proper and full sence of the word Conscience according to art and proper acceptation,* 1.56 yet in Scripture it is used indifferently for an act of conscience,* 1.57 or any of its parts,* 1.58 and does not always signify in its latitude and integrity,* 1.59 but yet it all tends to the same signification;* 1.60 and though the name be given to the faculty,* 1.61 to the habit,* 1.62 to the act,* 1.63 to the object, to the effect, to every ema∣nation from the minde in things practical, yet still it supposes the same thing: viz. that conscience is the guide of all our moral actions; and by giving the name to so many acts and parts and effluxes from it, it warrants the defini∣tion of it when it is united in its own proper and integral constitution.

To conduct all our relations and entercourses between God, our Neighbours and our Selves; that is, in all moral actions.

This is the final cause of conscience:* 1.64 and by this it is distinguished from prudence, which is also a practical knowledge and reduc'd to particular and cir∣cumstantiate actions. But 1. Prudence consists in the things of the world, or relative to the world; Conscience in the things of God, or relating to him.

2. Prudence is about affairs as they are of advantage or disadvantage: conscience is imployed about them as they are honest or dishonest. 3. Prudence regards the circumstances of actions whether moral or civil: conscience only regards moral actions in their substance or essential proprieties. 4. Prudence intends to doe actions dexterously and prosperously: conscience is to conduct them justly and according to the Commandement. 5. There are many actions in which prudence is all at all concerned as being wholly indifferent to this or that for matter of advantage; but there is no action but must pass under the file and censure of Conscience; for if we can suppose any action in all its circumstan∣ces to be wholly indifferent to good or bad; yet none is so to lawful or unlaw∣ful, the very indifferent, being therefore lawful because it is indifferent, and therefore to be considered by conscience, either actually or habitually: For in this sense even our natural actions in their time and place, are also moral, and where they are not primarily moral, yet they come under conscience, as being permitted, and innocent; but where ever they are relative to another person, they put on some more degrees of morality, and are of proper cogni∣sance in this Court.

Qui didicit patriae quid debeat, & quid amicis: Quo sit amore parens,* 1.65 quo Frater amandus, & Hospes: Quid sit Conscripti, quid Judicis officium: quae Partes in bellum missi Ducis: ille profectò Reddere personae scit convenientiae cuique.

That is the full effect of conscience, to conduct all our relations, all our mo∣ral actions.

Notes

• * 1.1

  §. 1.
• * 1.2

  Lib. de interi∣ori domo.
• * 1.3

  2.
• * 1.4

  Exod. 7. 1.
• * 1.5

  Lib. 6. de vero cultu. cap. 24.
• * 1.6

  3.
• * 1.7

  4.
• * 1.8

  Lib. de testi∣mon. animae.
• * 1.9

  5.
• * 1.10

  6.
• * 1.11

  7.
• * 1.12

  Psal. 78. 49.
• * 1.13

  7.
• * 1.14

  Heb. 10. 16.
• * 1.15

  Jer. 31. 33.
• * 1.16

  8.
• * 1.17

  Eccles. 7. 22. 1 John 3. 21.
• * 1.18

  Apud Syros conscientia dicitur 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 à radice 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 for∣mavit, depinxit, descripsit; quia scil. conscientia notat & pingit actiones nostras in tabula cor∣dis.
• * 1.19

  Prov. 18. 14.
• * 1.20

  Heb. 4. 12.
• * 1.21

  In epist. ad Rom. cap. 2. lib. 2.
• * 1.22

  9.
• * 1.23

  Rom. 7. 23.
• * 1.24

  Titus 3. 1••.
• * 1.25

  Marc. 14. 72.
• * 1.26

  Philip. 2. 5.
• * 1.27

  1 Co••. 2. 16.
• * 1.28

  Luc. 1. 29.
• * 1.29

  Rom. 14. 5.
• * 1.30

  Rom. 1. 28.
• * 1.31

  Ephes 4. 23.
• * 1.32

  Rom. 12. 2.
• * 1.33

  10.
• * 1.34

  11.
• * 1.35

  De interiori domo cap. ••.
• * 1.36

  12.
• a 1.37

  Ubi supsa.
• * 1.38

  In Psal. 48.
• * 1.39

  13.
• * 1.40

  14.
• * 1.41

  15.
• * 1.42

  16.
• * 1.43

  17.
• * 1.44

  1 Tim. 1. v. 1••.
• a 1.45

  Verb. Con∣s••ientia.
• b 1.46

  In c••cum cau sa de Testi.
• c 1.47

  In §. s••d iste. Instu. de Act. Gl. in c. Sta∣tut. §. assess. de∣tent.
• * 1.48

  Ecclus. 13. 30, alia•• 24.
• * 1.49

  18.
• * 1.50

  19.
• * 1.51

  20.
• * 1.52

  21.
• * 1.53

  22.
• * 1.54

  23.
• * 1.55

  25.
• * 1.56

  Acts 23. 1. & 24. 16.
• * 1.57

  Rom. 13. 5.
• * 1.58

  1 Cor. 8. 10. & 19. 12.
• * 1.59

  1 Tim. 1. 5. 19. & 3. 9.
• * 1.60

  2 Tim. 1. 3.
• * 1.61

  Titus 1. 15.
• * 1.62

  1 Pet. 2. 19. 3. 16.
• * 1.63

  Heb. 13. 18.
• * 1.64

  26.
• * 1.65

  Horat. de art•• Poet.