A metaphysical inquiry into the nature of con- science would be to little profit. Its office is to testily the quality of our actions, and to regulate our con- duct agreeably to some standard of right and wrong6. The rule whereby it should judge, is, the word of God, and it is considered as good or evil, according to the verdict it gives.
Not that it is void of offence merely because it does not accuse —
[There are many so immersed in cares or pleasures that they never reflect on the state of their souls f; and, if at any time their conscience be alarmed, they instantly endeavour to check its clamours, and restore its tranquillity. Others per- suade themselves that they have no cause for fear, and that they shall have peace notwithstanding all their sinsg: others have, by resisting, quenched the light within them, and thus have reduced themselves to a state of awful obduracy11. Such persons have no other than " an evil conscience."]
Nor is a conscience necessarily void of offence, even though it should approve —
[Many propose to themselves a false standard of right and wrong. By conforming to their own principles they may gain the approbation of their own minds : but it does not therefore follow that they are innocent. Their mistakes cannot change the quality of their actions : error may extenuate, but cannot remove their guilt'.]
To be truly void of offence, conscience must have a clear discovery of the rule of duty —
[The rule of duty is concise and plaink; this however, though allowed in theory, is practically denied. Men persuade themselves that the love of the world will consist with their
e It regards actions rather than sentiments, and the good or evil that is in them rather than any prudential considerations respecting them.
f Hos. vii. 2. e Jer. viii. 11. Deut. xxix. 19.
h 1 Tim. iv. 2.
1 Would those who think it meritorious to extirpate heretics, or those, of whom our Lord speaks, John xvi. 2. be justified in follow- ing the dictates of their deluded consciences ? St. Paul determines this in his own case, compare Acts xxvi. 9— 11. with 1 Cor. xv. 9. and 1 Tim. i. 13, 15.
k Matt. xxii. 37—40.