by divines, moralists, poets, orators, civilians, historians, philosophers, and men of business. So much notice has before been taken of the general tone and character of the ancient moralists, that I may pass them by with a few citations. Plutarch says, "The light of truth is a law, not written in tables or books, but dwelling in the mind, always a living rule, which never permits the soul to be destitute of an interior guide." Hiero says, that the universal light, shining in the conscience, is "a domestic God, a God within the hearts and souls of men." Epictetus says, "God has assigned to each man a director, his own good genius; a guardian whose vigilance no whom no false reasonings can deceive. shut your door, say not that you are within. What need have you of outward light to discover what is done, or to light to good actions, who have God, or that genius or divine principle, for your light?" slumbers interrupt, and So that, when you have So that, when alone, for your God is My quotations from modern writers will be much more numerous. Dr. Hutcheson says, "The Author of nature has much better furnished us for a virtuous conduct than our moralists seem to imagine, by almost as quick and powerful instructions as we have for the preservation of our bodies." Dr. Blair says, "Conscience is felt to act as the delegate of an invisible ruler. Conscience is the guide, or the enlightening or directing principle of our conduct." Again he says, "God has invested conscience with authority to promulgate his laws." Dr. Rush says, "It would seem as if the Supreme Being had preserved the moral faculty in man from the ruins of his fall, on purpose to guide him back again to Paradise; and, at the same time, had constituted the conscience, both in man and fallen spirits, a kind of royalty in his moral empire, on purpose to show his property in all intelligent creatures, and their original resemblance to himself." Again he says, "Happily for the human race, the intimations of Deity and the road to happiness are not left to the slow operations or doubtful inductions of reason. It is worthy of notice, that, while second thoughts are best in matters of judgment, first thoughts are always to be preferred in matters that relate to morality." Lord Bacon says, "The light of nature not only shines upon the human mind through the medium of a rational faculty, but by an internal instinct according to the law of conscience, which is a sparkle of the purity of man's first estate." Lord Shaftesbury says, "The sense of right and wrong being as natural to us as natural affection itself, and being a first principle in our constitution and make, there is no speculation, opinion, persuasion, or belief, which is capable immediately or directly to exclude or destroy it." Dr. Reid says, "The first principles of morals are the immediate dictates of the moral faculty. By the moral faculty or conscience solely, we have the original conception of right and wrong. It is evident, that this principle has, from its nature, authority to direct and determine with regard to our conduct; to judge, to acquit or condemn, and even to punish; an authority which belongs to no other principle of the human mind. The Supreme Being has given us this light within to direct our moral conduct. It is the candle of the Lord set up within us, to guide our steps." Dr. Price says, "Whatever our consciences dictate to us, that He (the Deity) commands more evidently and undeniably, than if by a voice from Heaven we had been called upon to do it." Dr. Watts says, the mind "contains in it the plain and general principles of morality, not explicitly as propositions, but only as native principles, by which it judges, and cannot but judge, virtue to be fit and vice unfit." Dr. Cudworth says, "The anticipations of morality do not spring merely from notional ideas, or from certain rules or propositions, arbitrarily printed upon the soul as upon a book, but from some other more inward and vital principle in intellectual beings as such, whereby they have a natural determination in them to do some things and to avoid others." Dr. Shepherd says, "This law is that innate sense of right and wrong, of virtue and vice, which every man carries in his own bosom. These impressions, operating on the mind of man, bespeak a law written on his heart. This secret sense of right and wrong, for wise purposes so deeply implanted by our Creator in the human mind, has the nature, force, and effect of a law." Dr. Southey speaks of "actions being tried by the eternal standard of right and wrong, on which the unsophisticated heart unerringly pronounces." Dr. Adam Smith says, "It is altogether absurd and unintelligible, to suppose that the first per ceptions of right and wrong can be derived from reason. These first perceptions cannot be the object of reason, but of immedi ate sense and feeling. Though man has been rendered the immediate judge of mankind, an appeal lies from his sentence to a much higher tribunal, to the tribunal of their own consciences, to that of the man within the breast, the great judge and arbiter of their conduct." "Conscience, conscience," exclaims Rousseau, "divine instinct, immortal and heavenly voice, sure guide of a being ignorant and limited, but intelligent and free, infallible judge of good and evil, by which man is made like unto God." Again he says, "Our own conscience is the most enlightened philosopher. There is no need to be acquainted with Tully's Offices to make a man of probity; and perhaps the most virtuous woman in the world is the least acquainted with the definition of virtue." Milton says, in regard to our first parents, "And I will place within them, as a guide, My umpire Conscience; whom if they will hear, Sir Matthew Hale says, " Any man that sincerely and truly fears Almighty God, and calls and relies on him for his direction, has it as really as a son has the counsel and direction of his father; and, though the voice be not audible or discernible by sense, yet it is equally as real as if a man heard a voice saying, This is the way, walk ye in it." "There is a principle of reflection in men," says Bishop Butler, "by which they distinguish between, approve and disapprove, their own actions. We are plainly constituted such sort of creatures as to reflect upon our own nature. The mind can take a view of what passes within itself, its propensions, aversions, passions, affections, as respecting such objects and in such degrees; and of the several actions consequent thereupon. In this survey, it approves of one and disapproves of another, and towards a third is affected in neither of these ways, but is quite indifferent. This principle in man, by which he approves or disapproves his heart, temper, and actions, is conscience; for this is the strict sense of the word, though sometimes it is used so as to take in more. And that this faculty * Paradise Lost, III. 194. tends to restrain men from doing mischief to each other, and leads them to do good, is too manifest to need being insisted upon.” * Finally, Dr. Paley, where not pledged to a particular system, writes thus; "Conscience, our own conscience, is to be our guide in all things. It is through the whisperings of conscience, that the Spirit speaks. If men are wilfully deaf to their consciences, they cannot hear the Spirit. If hearing, if being compelled to hear, the remonstrances of conscience, they nevertheless decide, and resolve, and determine to go against them, then they grieve, then they defy, then they do despite to the Spirit of God. Is this superstition? Is it not, on the contrary, a just and reasonable piety, to implore of God the guidance of his Holy Spirit when we have any thing of great importance to decide upon or undertake. It being confessed that we cannot ordinarily distinguish, at the time, the suggestions of the Spirit from the operations of our minds, it may be asked, How are we to listen to them? The answer is, by attending universally to the admonitions within us." The number of testimonies which I have introduced is considerable, because, being in a great measure a case of personal experience, it is well to subjoin authority to argument. The testimonies are of the most respectable kind, and their number might have been easily enlarged. They are derived from many ages and from several countries. There is considerable variety of phraseology among the authors quoted, as might be expected, but they all concur in recognising a moral faculty in the mind, in affirming that this faculty possesses wisdom to direct us aright, that its directions are given instantaneously as the individual needs them, and that it is invested with unquestionable authority to command. ‡ 6. The existence and office of conscience seems manifestly to be recognised by Scripture. "When the Gentiles," says Quoted by Upham, Mental Philosophy, p. 525. + Quoted by Dymond, Essays, p. 65. See Paley's third Sermon on the "Influence of the Holy Spirit." There are various other passages in his Sermons, in which he refers to conscience as the umpire in morals. In his Moral Philosophy, in which he has discarded a moral sense or conscience, he was led astray by the theory to which he had pledged himself. In making the above collection of authorities, the author has, to a considerable extent, availed himself of the labors of Dymond. Essays, pp. 60-66. St. Paul," which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves; which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience (ovvridnois) also bearing witness, and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another." * The latter part of this passage is translated by Dr. Macknight thus; "Their conscience bearing witness thereto, as also their debates with one another; in which they either accuse one another of evil actions, or else defend each other when so accused." And he comments on the passage thus; "The reality of a natural revelation" (by which he means the testimony of conscience) "made to the heathen, the Apostle has proved by three arguments. 1. By the pious and virtuous actions which many of the heathens performed. 2. By the natural operation of their conscience. 3. By their reasonings with one another, in which they either accused or excused one another. For, in their accusations and defences, they must have appealed to some law or rule. Thus, in the compass of two verses, the Apostle has explained what the light of nature is, and demonstrated that there is such a light existing. It is a revelation from God, written on the heart or mind of man; consequently is a revelation. common to all nations."+ Again, St. Paul was accustomed "to live in all good conscience before God"; he "exercised himself to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward man." He speaks of his conscience bearing him witness in the Holy Ghost," that is, under the guidance of the Holy Ghost; his rejoicing consisted in the testimony of his conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, he had had his conversation in the world. By manifestation of the truth, he commended himself to every man's conscience in the sight of God; he makes the end of the commandment to consist in charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned; he exhorted his Roman converts to be subject to civil government, not only for wrath, but also for conscience' sake; he enjoins upon ministers of the gospel, to hold the mystery of the faith * Romans, ii. 14, 15. Note on Romans, ii. 15. |