A Good Conscience the Strongest Hold, Treatise · Chapter 9
CHAP. IX. Of the wel-ſighted Conſcience.
THe quick ſighted Conſcience is ever a Of the wel-ſighted conſciencegood Conſcience, and one neceſſary qualification which good conſcience cannot want. Conſcience's whole work is circumſpection, and therefore muſt have eyes in every place running to and fro.Mat. 6. 23. Mens lumine Spiritus Sancti gubernata facit omnes actiones noſtras lucidas & Deo placentes. Mens coeca nec illuſtrat… lumine verbi; nec gubernata Spiritu Dei hominem ducit in avios errores, ſcelera, omneſ que actiones ejus deturpat. Parae. in Mat. 6. 22.
Hence ſome have ſaid, Conſcientia totus oculus, Conſcience is all eye. If this eye be ſingle the whole man is full of light; if this eye be darkneſs, all is darkneſs.
A good conſcience muſt be like Ezekiels wheels, Ezek. 1. 18. Or like the creatures before the throne, Rev. 4. 6. 8. that were full of eyes round about, full of eyes before, and full of eyes behinde, and eſpecially full of eyes within: Thus muſt good conſcience be qualified, it muſt be full of eyes before, behinde, and within. Before to view and overſee actions to be done: behinde to review, and overlook actions already done; eſpecially it muſt be full of eyes within, to make a privy ſearch in the inwards of the belly, as Solomons expreſsion is. Conſcience is to take account of the inward motives from which actions are undertaken, of the inward intentions and affections with which they are undertaken, and of the inward ayms and true ends for which they are undertaken. Ʋt nemo in ſeſe tentat deſcendere, nemo!
And further very obſervable it is, that Perſius Sat. 4.thoſe wheels ſpoken of Ezek. 1. 19, 20. were as admirable for their motion, as for their eyes; they moved after a divine mover; as the ſpirit moved they moved; whether the ſpirit went they went; when the ſpirit roſe up, they aroſe; when the ſpirit ſtood they ſtood, but they never returned or went backward. Conſcience muſt not be all ſight, no motion; or all for ſpeculation, nothing for action. Again thoſe creatures before the Throne, are not more to be admired for their abilities, then imitated in their practiſe, and imployment; they had many eyes, and they had many wings, Rev. 4. 8. Each had ſix wings; they were full of eyes, and full of praiſes, not only much in contemplation, but as much in adoration: They reſt not day, nor night, ſaying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come. What was it but a monſtrous image, that in Nebuchadnezzars viſion, Dan. 2. 32, 33. Whoſe head was fine gold, his legs iron, and his feet baſe Iron and clay? They are monſtrous Chriſtians who have ſuch heads of gold for Science, but feet of clay for practiſe: all knowledge, no action, all contemplation, no converſation.
The Phariſees were full of eyes without, Sed praecedenti ſpectatur manticae tergo. Perſ.had none within, full of eyes before, had none behinde, Non viderunt id manticae quod in tergo …rat. They could cenſure other actions, not ſee their own; they had heads of gold, feet of clay; could ſpeak excellently, and do as badly. They ſay and do not, Mat. 23. 3. What they teach, that do ye; what they practiſe, that ſhun. Theſe doth our Saviour after all their knowledge, and learning, and talk and tongue, call fools, and blinde fools again and again. All this knowledge is but as a candle Mat. 23. 17 19. 24.in their hand to light them to Hell, that they may not go thither in the dark. Theſe go to Hell, as Bernard ſaith, with a great deal of Sinite ſapientes hu…us ſaeculi alta ſapientes, & terram lingentes ſapienter deſcendere in infernum. Ber. de vit. Sol.diſcretion, and go a wiſe and learned way thither. Theſe keep the key of Knowledge, but mean not to go into the Kingdom of Heaven themſelves; but the key of Conſcience the poor, and ſimple and unlearned ones in the world get, and preſſe after the Kingdom of God, and enter in. Surgunt indocti, et rapiunt Regnum Coelorum, & nos cum doctrinis nostris ſine corde, ecce ubi volutamur in carne & ſanguine. Aug. Conf. l. 8. c. 8. The Publicane and Harlot, conſcienciouſly humbled, enter into the Kingdom of Heaven before the Phariſee elated with his greater knowledge. And the illiterate Chriſtian is able to read his name in the book of Life, and his Duty in the Book of Conſcience, when the moſt literate Scribe, and Learned Scholler can do neither.