xvii. 11, we read, 'For wickedness, condemned by a witness within, is a

coward thing, and being pressed hard by conscience, always forecasteth the worst lot.' In St. John viii. 9, according to one reading, the Jews are 'convicted by their own conscience.' So St. Paul, in the passage discussed above (ii. 15), seems to distinguish the subsequent reflective 'conscience' from the previous informing reason, 'the effect (equivalent) of the law written in their hearts.' And in most of the passages of the New Testament, this meaning of conscience--the faculty by which we sit in judgement on what we have already done--is sufficient. But sometimes, as also among the Stoics[3], the word passes into meaning the positive directing faculty, as when (1 Cor.