Part 2

(_a_) Conscience, when certain as to the moral right of a course of action, utters its peremptory command that it shall be done. We often are satisfied with a negative obedience, and consider ourselves discharged from all obligation to render positive obedience. For the commandments are negative. "Thou shalt not" do this or that. So, if we abstain from murder, theft, adultery, &c., we are satisfied that we are fulfilling the law. But in the Gospel the negative law, or law of prohibition, is not only greatly expanded, but it is turned into a positive law. "Thou shalt love God with all thy heart," &c., and "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." It is a bit of self-delusion for anyone to suppose that he is fulfilling the law of his being if he merely abstains from those things prohibited. We have positive obligations laid on us, and these positive obligations the enlightened and healthy Conscience points out to us. Not only must we abstain from anger, but we must cultivate love. Not only must we avoid revenge, but we must do good to them that despitefully use us and persecute us. Not only must we avoid gluttony and drunkenness, but we must cultivate self-denial.

(_b_) Conscience forbids the commission of those things which are condemned by God's law. As already said, God's law has been expanded since the first imposition of it. "Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; but I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery, but I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.... Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths; but I say unto you, Swear not at all.... Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth, but I say unto you, That ye resist not evil.... Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy; but I say unto you, Love your enemies.... Be ye perfect even as your Father, which is in Heaven, is perfect."

(_c_) Conscience advises when there is a choice between two ways, each good, but one more good than the other. In that case it points to the higher and nobler course of action, that which, perhaps, costs more to us, is more arduous, and most painful. It does not require us, under pain of condemnation, to take the higher course, it merely recommends it as the superior, and shows that there is no sin incurred by choosing that which is inferior. Thus our Lord gave certain counsels of Perfection, but every man was to do as he thought best, in following them or not. So also S. Paul concerning marriage, he says that the condition is holy and unblameable, nevertheless he would advise to remain even as himself.

(_d_) Conscience permits the choice of an inferior course when it has advised a higher, when it has weighed all the circumstances; when it judges that the will is not strong enough to carry out the performance of the higher course, or that the taking of the higher course would subject man to temptations, or involve him in difficulties beyond his capacity of resistance or escape.

First Tuesday in Lent.

_ON THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF CONSCIENCE._

I.--THE DIRECT CONSCIENCE.

1. The various causes enumerated have been the occasion of Consciences becoming very various in quality. Of these varieties there are the following:

(_a_) The Direct, or Sound Conscience. (_b_) The False Conscience. (_c_) The Scrupulous Conscience. (_d_) The Relaxed Conscience. (_e_) The Doubtful Conscience.

2. In the first place let us consider that vigorous and healthy Conscience which we call a Direct Conscience.

Now God intended all Consciences to be direct, and the object of all moral instruction is to bring crooked Consciences right, and to bring ignorant Consciences to a knowledge of what is right.

The direct, sound Conscience is that which we should aim all our lives to obtain. And as it is the interior manifestation of the Will of God, and an obligation is laid on us to obey it, we must observe what it commands, abstain from what it forbids, and respect what it counsels.

We must (_a_) use our utmost endeavour to learn our duties aright, both towards God, our neighbours, and ourselves. We owe to God the obligations of love, reverence, worship, and obedience. Our duties to our neighbours are tolerably plain--the State enforces most of them. We must respect the persons, the property, and the good name of our neighbours. Our duties to ourselves are to educate and develop all those faculties, physical, mental, and spiritual, God has put in us, to keep our bodies in temperance, soberness, and chastity; to cultivate our reason and our intelligence--the reason so as to be able to form just judgments, and the intelligence so as to be able and eager to acquire knowledge; to nourish and discipline our souls so that our spiritual faculties may be alive to divine things, able to pray, to meditate on God, and be conscious of His Everpresence.

(_b_) We must endeavour to bring under our self-love, which is disposed to confuse and lead astray the Conscience by advising such things as are convenient and flattering to self, and making them appear right, or, at all events, admissible.

(_c_) We must seek to be serious in determining our conduct, to avoid all waywardness and caprice, remembering that for whatever we do we shall have to give account.

3. We must now consider what are the _means_ whereby we may obtain a Direct or sound Conscience. These are many, but a few of those that are principal and fundamental must suffice.

(_a_) _The study of God's Word_, especially of the words of our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of His Apostles. Nothing is more calculated to give a healthy and straightforward Conscience than this.

(_b_) _Experience._ We must bring our intelligence to bear on our acts; Conscience was never meant to be blind instinct, but a bright, fresh, enlightened faculty, assisted at every step by the intelligence, and the intelligence will work on the facts of experience, and shew us where we have been doing what is right, and where we have been going wrong.

(_c_) _Hold to first principles._ Self-love is very much disposed to lead us into a maze of lines of conduct, and to encourage us to adopt that most easy, most flattering, most profitable to take. It brings up side duties, and exaggerates them to obscure broad principles. As a man when travelling, on coming to cross lanes, ascends a height to get a clear idea as to the main line, the direction in which he is going, so must we ever go up to the broad first principles to obtain a general survey, and follow the direction thus indicated.

Second Wednesday in Lent.

_THE FALSE CONSCIENCE._

1. That Conscience may be perverted so that it allows those things that are wrong, and forbids those things that are right, is, alas, very true. S. Paul speaks of this. "Unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and Conscience is defiled. They profess that they know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate." (Titus i. 15, 16.) And again, he speaks of those whose Consciences are seared with a hot iron (1 Tim. iv. 2); and again, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, he speaks of evil Consciences. Now an evil Conscience can only be such an one as--originally good and sound--has been turned about so as to be bad and diseased, allowing such things as it should condemn, and condemning such things as it should allow.

2. Now a False Conscience may be either _invincibly_ wrong, or _vincibly_ wrong, that is to say, incurably bad, or curable.

It does not by any means follow that he who follows his Conscience, invincibly false, commits sin. Not only does he not commit sin, but he is probably doing what is the best for his spiritual condition under the circumstances.

For instance, take a man who has been born and brought up in Dissent, into whose mind has been inground the maxim that he must fight against the Church. So long as he does resist the Church by fair means he is not sinning, the Devil cannot count on him as fighting in his army against the Kingdom of God, as an enrolled soldier of evil. That he is not. He is doing right, according to his lights. _But_, supposing he has recourse to illegitimate means of defaming and undermining the Church, such as spreading scandalous stories against its members or ministers, _knowing them to be false_, then his resistance to Christ's kingdom becomes sinful. Prejudice, the result of a false education, has become so enrooted that his error is invincible, except by some supernatural illumination. It was so with Saul. He fought against the Church, but he did it from a right motive. As soon as God miraculously converted him to a knowledge of the truth, then he became an Apostle under that Gospel which he had formerly resisted.

3. Now let us consider the case of a Conscience in a condition of _vincible_ error. As a vincible condition of error is one from which nearly any man may free himself if he takes the pains, he sins if he follows a false Conscience, without making any effort to set it right. The error being voluntary does not excuse the act. Through indolence, or indifference, or prejudice, he does not attempt to give himself a direct and sound Conscience, and he sins in following his Conscience when he commits something wrong, or omits something right, _not_ because he is following his Conscience, but because he has made no endeavour to educate his Conscience to discriminate rightly.

As this is the case, we see how important it is for us to avoid _narrowness_, and to cultivate broad and liberal views. Narrowness is ignorance, and it petrifies the Conscience into a perverted direction. Everyone is morally bound to endeavour to the utmost of his power and opportunities to lay aside error, and to rectify his Conscience. This he can do by examining every question presented to him in all its aspects, for till he has so done, he cannot be sure that his view is the right one.

Again, he must pray for guidance. The Holy Spirit is given to the Church to guide all the members of Christ into truth. Lastly, he must submit his opinion to that of the holy, undivided Church, which is the pillar and ground of the truth.

4. It sometimes happens that in spite of efforts made to attain to a right Conscience, it remains in the same distorted and false condition as before. Either the mental faculties are insufficient to rectify it, the judgment is cramped, and habit or prejudice has obtained too strong a hold to be overcome. In such a case the Conscience is invincibly wrong, but nevertheless, its promptings must be obeyed. God, Who sees all things, and is full of mercy, will make allowances, only _not_ for disobeying the mandate of Conscience.

Second Thursday in Lent.

_THE SCRUPULOUS CONSCIENCE._

1. The Scrupulous Conscience is a niggling Conscience that vexes itself about inconsiderable matters, and magnifies trifles into things of importance.

The Scrupulous Conscience is that which has no sense of proportion. In a large number of cases it is vastly particular over matters of indifference, and supremely indifferent about matters of importance. It is a Conscience that never goes back to first principles.

This was the sort of Conscience possessed by the Scribes and Pharisees, who tithed mint, and anise, and cummin, and passed over the weightier matters of the law. (Matt. xxiii. 23.) By Scrupulous Conscience is not meant a tender Conscience, but an itchy one. It is one that is ever suffering from vain apprehension, and regards things harmless and licit as though they were forbidden.

A sound and direct Conscience is necessarily a tender one. It sees what is right and what is wrong, all in due proportion; and shrinks from what is evil as from a serpent, and also is never at rest if it does not fulfil those obligations which it sees are enjoined. A Scrupulous Conscience is one that sees everything topsy-turvy, it magnifies trifles, and passes by without seeing them the more plain and obvious duties. It is influenced, not by its _knowledge_, but by its _fears_, and this allows it to strain at gnats and swallow camels.

The Scrupulous Conscience often causes quite as much scandal as the erroneous Conscience, for people see it making much of small matters, and are led to despise or disregard Conscience as an unreliable guide.

2. That a Scrupulous Conscience may be brought to a right perception of the relative proportions of duties, it must, or at all events, it is most advisable that it should be put under directions by a wise Confessor, who will labour to give it robustness, will strive to drag it out of its confusion, and set it well aloft, where it may be able to survey the whole map of the county of duty, and orientate itself accordingly.

A right Conscience is also a tender one, but the converse is by no means true, that a tender Conscience is always a right one.

3. A Scrupulous Conscience is often a companion to extraordinary self-conceit. To bring it into healthy condition, and remove its distortion of view, humility must be very resolutely practised. Even where there is not self-conceit, there is generally self-centredness, the mind is for ever turned in on self, and occupies itself with probing all its tender places, and fretting it into sores. The best, if not the only remedy for this is the forcible disengagement of the mind from the consideration of self, and rough, resolute, and protracted labour for others.

Consciences are sometimes scrupulous about the misdeeds, real or imaginary, of others, and inert in judging of their own condition. Cruel acts of injustice are done under the plea of obedience to Conscience--this is due to the undue scrupulosity of the Conscience which considers _only itself_; on the other hand, great lack of charity, courtesy, and consideration for the feelings of others is shewn by a Scrupulous Conscience, which concerning itself with _others only_, disregards the broad principles of right action as relates to itself.

4. In directing a Scrupulous Conscience aright, care must be taken, not only to give that Conscience a clear and healthy view of the comparative proportions of duties, and the comparative sinfulness of things forbidden, and to bid it distinguish between those things that are duties, and those which are optional; those things that are sins, and those which are harmless; but also, it must be bidden to take into consideration its responsibilities to other persons as well as to itself, so that under the plea of following Conscience some gross piece of injustice or rudeness may not be committed.

Second Friday in Lent.

_THE RELAXED CONSCIENCE._

1. The Relaxed Conscience is that sluggish and careless Conscience which allows itself to be ruled or influenced in its determinations by the voice of public opinion, or by the supposed interests of the person present or future.

In the matter of religion idolatry is mortally sinful, for it is the making by man of a religion for himself instead of accepting one from God. A man is as truly an idolater when he fashions for himself a sect, as when he makes a graven image. No man has any right to invent doctrines, and establish a ministry of himself. Such religion is _from below_, whereas the divine religion is a revelation _from above_.

Precisely so is it with regard to morality. No man must seek for the moral sanction in the voice of public opinion, or in anything _below_. He must seek it _above_, in the revealed Will of God.

Thus a Relaxed Conscience, that is governed by the public voice, by the press, by private personal interest, dethrones God from His place as Lawgiver, and sets up public opinion or personal interest in His room. It does not seek its sanction in Heaven, but on earth.

As men make to themselves gods to worship, and sects and doctrines, so do men make to themselves laws of ethics. He who worships and believes in such gods and such doctrines as suit him is an idolater, or a heretic, and he who obeys only such moral laws as suit him is every whit as much in sin.

2. Now very few persons making any profession of religion deliberately relax their Consciences, and submit them to the earth-born law of right and wrong. They far more commonly allow it unconsciously to modify their views of right and wrong to suit their own convenience. They take God's Commandments, and pare and shape till they have fitted them to their low ideas, and accommodated them to their practice.

This is not done all at once, and openly, but is a gradual process which, unless guarded against, will deaden the Conscience till its voice is no longer heard proclaiming any other law than the commonplace maxims of mundane morality. This relaxed Conscience, being in error, more or less voluntarily permitted, can no longer serve as a guide to conduct. On the slightest motives it is ready to permit what is not really allowed by God's law, and to regard mortal sins as venial offences.

3. The Scrupulous Conscience exaggerated trifles; made mountains out of molehills. The Relaxed Conscience minimises great things, and reduces mountains to molehills.

4. There is but a sole _remedy_ for a Relaxed Conscience, and that is to replace God on His throne as Supreme Lawgiver, and to bow down to and worship Him alone. Instead of our taking His law, and trimming it to fit public opinion and self-interest, we must make His Will paramount, and test everything by that. Every act must be brought to, and tried by the measure of the Sanctuary, and what falls short must be rejected. In such a matter there can be no compromise between God and mammon; God must reign, not supreme only, but _alone_, as the Lawgiver, to Whom Conscience looks up, and Conscience must answer His voice, and not the voice of the world, and turn to that for direction. No man can serve two masters; either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Observe this injunction of Christ. He speaks of _masters_ giving orders to their servants, and of obedience to command in the servants. The Conscience is servant; it _must_ obey God or the world; it cannot serve both. In the effort to serve both it becomes relaxed and useless.

Second Saturday in Lent.

_THE DOUBTFUL CONSCIENCE._

1. The Doubtful or perplexed Conscience is that Conscience which cannot form a resolve. It suspends judgment on the right or wrong of an action, either because it thinks that as much is to be said on one side as on the other, or else it suspends judgment through lack of illumination, it does not see what it ought to do. Or again, it suspends judgment because it is not sure of the existence, or the obligation of a law commanding or forbidding some action.

This is the condition spoken of by S. James. "He that wavereth is like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed. Let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways."

The right Conscience is certain. It sees clearly and judges decidedly. So does the false Conscience see and judge, though falsely. But this Conscience is paralyzed in judgment, it sees so many reasons on one side and so many on the other, that it falls into despair, and does nothing because of timorousness, lest it should judge awrong.

2. The Conscience can hardly be doubtful about the main laws of God. It is in their application to man's action that uncertainty lies. And it is inevitable that some uncertainty should exist, for man is put in several relations, and has duties in each that sometimes conflict. He is a member of the State, the Church, the family, and the social body to which he belongs. He has duties to those above him and to those below him, and it cannot be that these duties should always lie in parallel lines. He must sometimes exercise his judgment, and decide which among several duties he will observe and which pretermit.

3. Conscience should never be suffered to remain in suspense, and in suspense be left unacted upon, for Conscience is given us to spur us to action, not to excuse us from acting, and so sanction inertness. Unless Conscience be acted upon, it becomes debilitated.

We must act. We will now see how in doubtful cases one ought to act.

4. An opinion presents itself before our minds to be adjudged on. The intelligence, in face of two contradictory courses of conduct, has to determine which is right and is to be followed, and which is wrong and has to be avoided.

(_a_) An opinion may be _slightly probable_, when it is founded on motives that are insufficient to determine the assent of a prudent man.

(_b_) An opinion may be _probable_, when the motives impelling towards it are strong, but there is a slight probability in favour of the contrary opinion.

(_c_) An opinion may be _certain_, when all reasonable doubt is excluded, through the contrary opinion being altogether improbable.

When the opinion is certain, then it must be accepted and followed. When, however, it is only probable, or slightly probable, then the judgment must be called in to pronounce on the _probable consequences_. Hitherto we have considered the eye as turned to God as the sole author of law; but in such cases as there is no certainty, only probability, the Conscience is assisted by _prudence_, which is the action of the reason judging of the probable consequences of an act.

When the moral sanction is certain, prudence is not called in to alter the conduct essentially, only that it may order it so as to be carried out advisably; but when an opinion is probable, and not certain, then the eye of the reason may be, and ought to be, directed to the future consequences, and the judgment formed, not only on the antecedent probabilities, but also on the probable consequences, good or evil. As prudence can only judge future probabilities, it may not countermand what has certain sanction. Very often the consideration of probable consequences assist us in determining the right or wrong of an act, which antecedently is not certain.

Second Sunday in Lent.

_ON PRUDENCE._

1. God wills not only that we should consider His law as the rule of our conduct, but also that we should exercise Prudence in the obedience we render to His law.

Prudence is a faculty given to man by God, a scintillation of His foreknowledge whereby man is able, in a measure, to look into the future, and it is a useful handmaid to judgment.

Prudence is called in (_a_) for the determining of a line of conduct, and (_b_) for determining the manner in which a determined line of conduct shall be carried out. When our Lord exhorts, "Be ye wise as serpents, and harmless as doves," He exhorts to Prudence. "Whatsoever thou takest in hand, remember the end." (Eccles. vii. 36.)

In the first place, Prudence is called in for determining a line of conduct. When the moral sanction is indubitable then it can alter nothing; all it can do is to advise and direct as to the carrying out of what is determined on so as not to jar against the rights of others.

But when there is only probability on our side, then Prudence is invoked to say what the consequences that will result from such an action are likely to be, good or bad; and so may exercise a very valuable function in advising or dissuading.