tune of the banditti, or of an outlaw, rather than by the rule of subjects suffer the penalty of the law, and the severity of the judge. But conscience hath no hand in this, and whatsoever of this nature happens, it is in despite of conscience; and if it proceeds upon that method, it goes on to obstinacy, hardness of heart, a resolution never to repent, a hatred of God, and reprobation. For if conscience be permitted to do its work, this confusion when it comes to be stated, and that the man hath time to consider it, passes on to fear; and that is properly the next effect. 14. (4.) An evil or a guilty conscience is disposed for fear; shame and fear cannot be far asunder: Ενθα δέος, ἐνταῦθα κ' αἰδώς ", Sin makes us ashamed before men, and afraid of God: an evil conscience makes man a coward, timorous as a child in a church-porch at midnight; it makes the strongest men to tremble like the keepers of the house of an old man's tabernacle. Ὁ συνιστορῶν αὑτῷ τι, κἂν ᾖ θρασύτατος, said Menander. No strength of body, no confidence of spirit, is a defensative against an evil conscience, which will intimidate the courage of the most perfect warrior. Qui terret, plus iste timet: sors ista tyrannis Ancipites habeant artes, trepidique minentur. So Claudian describes the state of tyrants and injurious persons; they do evil and fear worse, they oppress brave men, and are afraid of mean fellows; they are encompassed with swords, and dwell amongst poisons, they have towers with back-doors and many outlets; and they threaten much, but themselves are most afraid.' We read of Belshazzar, his knees beat against each other upon the arrest made on him by the hand on the wall, which wrote the sentence of God in a strange character, because he would not read the writing in his conscience. This fear is very great and very lasting, " Epicharm. x Clerici, p. 216. y De 4. Honor. Consol. 290. Gesner, vol. 1. p. 106. even in this world: and is rarely well described by Lucre tius 2: 6 Cerberus et Furiæ neque sunt usquam, nec possunt esse, profecto : Sed metus in vita pœnarum pro male facteis Quæ tamen et si absunt, at mens sibi conscia facteis, 6 Which description of the evil and intolerable pains and fears of conscience is exceeded by the author of the Wisdom of Solomon, "Indisciplinatæ animæ erraverunt." That is the ground of their misery; "The souls were refractory to discipline, and have erred. They oppress the holy nation."The effect was, "they became prisoners of darkness, and fettered with the bands of a long night; fugitivi perpetuæ providentiæ jacuerunt,' they became outlaws from the divine providence.' And while they supposed to lie hid in their secret sins, they were scattered under a dark veil of forgetfulness; 'paventes horrende, et cum admiratione nimia perturbati,' they did fear horribly, and disturbed with a wonderful amazement.' For neither might the corner that held them, keep them from fear, but a sound descending did trouble them; et personæ tristes apparentes pavorem illis præstabant,' sad apparitions did affright them: a fire appeared to them very formidable; ' et timore percussi ejus quæ non videbatur faciei;' they were affrighted with the apprehensions of what they saw not:"" and all the way in that excellent description, there is nothing but fear and affrightment, horrid amazement and confusion; pleni timore,' and 'tremebundi peribant,' full of fear, and they perished trembling;' and then follows the philosophy and rational account of all this. "Frequenter enim præoccupant pessima, redarguente conscientia." "When their conscience reproves them, they are possessed with fearful expectations." For wickedness condemned by her own witness is very timorous: "Cum enim sit timida nequitia, dat testimonium condemnata:" "Conscience gives witness and gives sentence: and when wickedness is condemned, it is full of affrightment." For fear is præsumptionis adjutorium,' the allay of confidence and presumption, and the 2 Lucretius, 3. 1024. Eichstadt, p. 137. 6 a Wisd. xvii. promoter of its own apprehensions, and betrays the succours that reason yields. For indeed in this case, no reason can dispute a man out of his misery, for there is nothing left to comfort the conscience, so long as it is divested of its innocence. The prophet Jeremy instances this in the case of Pashur, who oppressed the prophets of the Lord, putting them in prison, and forbidding them to preach in the name of the Lord: 66 Thy name shall be no more called Pashur' but Magor Missabib,' that is, fear round about; for I will make thee a terror unto thyself." 15. This fear of its own nature is apt to increase: for indeed it may be infinite. Nec videt interea, qui terminus esse malorum Possit, qui ve siet pœnarum denique finis: Atque eadem metuit magis, hæc ne in morte gravescant : Heinc Acherusia fit stultorum denique vitac. He that fears in this case, knows not the greatness and measure of the evil which he fears; it may arrive to infinite, and it may be any thing, and it may be every thing :-and therefore there is, 16. (5.) An appendant perpetuity and restlessness; a man of an evil conscience is never at quiet. "Impietas enim malum infinitum est, quod nunquam extingui potest," said Philo he is put to so many shifts to excuse his crime before men, and cannot excuse it to God or to himself, and then he is forced to use arts of forgetfulness, that he may not remember his sorrow; he runs to weakness for excuse, and to sin for a comfort, and to the methods and paths of hell for sanctuary, and rolls himself in his uneasy chains of fire, and changes from side to side upon his gridiron, till the flesh drop from the bones on every side. This is the poet's vulture, Immortale jecur tundens, fœcundaque pœnis Viscera, rimaturque epulis, habitatque sub alto It gnaws perpetually, and consumes not, being like the fire of hell, it does never devour, but torments for ever. 17. (6.) This fear and torment, which are inflicted by conscience, do not only increase at our death, but after death b Jer. xx. 3, 4. c Lucret. 3. 1033. Eichstadt, p. 138. is the beginning of hell. For these are the fire of hell; ὀδυνῶμαι ἐν τῇ φλογὶ ταύτῃ, “ I am tormented in this flame ;” so said Dives, when he was in torments; that is, he had the torments of an evil conscience, for hell itself is not to be opened till the day of judgment; but the sharpest pain is usually expressed by fire, and particularly the troubles of mind are so signified. "Urit animum meum;" "This burns," that is, this exceedingly troubles, "my mind ;" and "Uro hominem" in the comedy, I vex him sufficiently, "I burn him;"—" Loris non ureris," "Thou art not tormented with courgings." Pœna autem vehemens, ac multo sævior illis, This is a part of hell-fire, the smoke of it ascends night and day; and it is a preparatory to the horrible sentence of doomsday, as the being tormented in prison is, to the day of condemnation and execution. The conscience in the state of separation does accuse perpetually, and with an insupportable amazement fears the revelation of the day of the Lord. Et cum fateri furia jusserit verum, Prodente clamet conscientiâ, scripsit. • The fury within will compel him to confess,' and then he is prepared for the horrible sentence; as they who upon the rack accuse themselves, and then they are carried to execution. Menippus, in Lucian", says that the souls of them that are dead, are accused by the shadows of their bodies. Aura τοίνυν, ἐπειδὰν ἀποθάνωμεν, κατηγοροῦσι τε καὶ καταμαρτυροῦσι, καὶ διελέγχουσι τὰ πεπραγμένα ἡμῖν παρὰ τὸν βιον. and these he says are domiσToi,' worthy of belief,' because they are always present, and never parted from their bodies; meaning, that a man's conscience, which is inseparable as a shadow, is a strong accuser and a perfect witness: and this will never leave them till it carries them to hell; and then the fear is changed into despair, and indignation, and hatred of God, and eternal blasphemy. This is the full progress of an evil conscience, in its acts of binding. 18. Quest. But if it be inquired by what instrument conscience does thus torment a man, and take vengeance of him g Martial, 10. 5. 18. Mattaire, p. 191. h Nexvopartsía. 2. Bipont. vol, 3. p. 15. f Juvenal, 13. 196. for his sins, whether it hath a proper efficiency in itself, and that it gives torment, as it understands, by an exercise of some natural power; or whether it be by an act of God inflicting it, or by opinion and fancy, by being persuaded of some future events which shall be certainly consequent to the sin, or by religion and belief, or lastly by deception and mere illusion, and upon being affrighted with bugbears :-I answer, 19. That it does or may afflict a man by all these. For its nature is to be inquisitive and busy, querulous and complaining; and to do so is as natural to it, as for a man to be grieved when any thing troubles him. But because men have a thousand little arts to stifle the voice of conscience, or at least that themselves may not hear it; God oftentimes awakens a man by a sudden dash of thunder and lightning, and makes the conscience sick, and troublesome; just as upon other accidents a man is made sad, or hardened, or inpudent, or foolish, or restless: and sometimes every dream, or sad story that the man hath heard, the flying of birds, and the hissing of serpents, or the fall of waters, or the beating of a watch, or the noise of a cricket, or a superstitious tale, is suffered to do the man a mischief and to increase his fear. Ergo exercentur pœnis, veterumque malorum This the poets and priests expressed by their Adrastea, things were real, neque sunt usquam, neque possunt esse, profecto, said one of them; but yet to their pains and fears they gave names, and they put on persons; and a fantastic cause may have a real event, and therefore must come from some further principle: and if an evil man be affrighted with a meteor or a bird, by the chattering of swallows (like the young Greek in Plutarch), or by his own shadow (as Orestes was), it is no sign that the fear is vain, but that God is the author of conscience, and will, beyond the powers of nature and the arts of concealment, set up a tribunal, and a gibbet, and a rack, in the court of conscience. And therefore we find this 1 Virg. Æn. 6. 739. |