[December 19th, 1852.]
I. What is conscience?
There are certain phenomena of our moral nature of which all men are conscious. 1. The perception of moral distinctions. 2. A sense of moral obligation. 3. A feeling of approbation and disapprobation (entirely distinct from admiration and contempt) of the acts of others, or of self-approval and self-condemnation. Whether and how far these exercises belong to the cognitive faculties, and how far to the susceptibilities (reason and feeling), is hard and perhaps useless to determine. They are rational in so far as they suppose a rational nature and involve the exercise of reason. But every cognition when its object, moral or æsthetic, is not an act of the pure reason, but of a rational soul, involving feeling as well as knowledge. It is here, as in the perception of beauty, and even in our sensations, which are different in us from what they are in a brute. It is hard to distinguish these elements in our perceptions, affections and moral judgments.
II. The attributes of this moral sense or conscience. 1. It is universal. 2. It is innate. 3. It is representative. 4. It is independent. 5. It is authoritative. 6. It is indestructible.
III. Conditions of a healthy conscience.
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Knowledge, which is light. Conscience needs this just as reason needs knowledge, or as taste needs correct principles. Some knowledge is original and intuitive, other is acquired.
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Due susceptibility. Men differ much as to this point. It may be excessive or deficient, but for a healthful conscience is necessarily due susceptibility. So that moral distinctions do not concern light matters, or trifles give as much concern as serious matters. a. Before acting. b. In applying the rule to doubtful cases. c. In the subsequent state.
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Strength to constrain obedience. Sickly sentimentality is very different from a sound healthful conscience.
III. Diseases of conscience.
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Perversion. This is due either to wrong principles, or to prejudices and passion. The cure is to be found in knowledge, objective and subjective.
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Obduracy. Cause, ignorance and crime; cure, a. Knowledge again. b. Regeneration and sanctification.
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Scrupulosity, cause, either weakness of conviction or undue sensibility, not really moral, but a sensitiveness analogous to false shame, bashfulness, etc. Cure, growth in strength. “Be strong in faith.”
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Wounded conscience. The only cure is, a. The blood of Christ. b. Confession. c. Restitution. d. Reformation.
The immense importance of this subject. On it depend, 1. Our excellence. 2. Our happiness. 3. Our usefulness.
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