science, one may incur everlasting woes ; because there are consci-
ences of a certain sort, which, seeing the manner in which they aro
formed, lead inevitably to perdition, and are the never-failing
sources of damnation.
Now, I hold that it is easy to form this kind of conscience ; I
hold that the higher your rank is, the more easily your conscience
falls under this category. I hold that consciences of this nature
are formed with less difficulty in certain stations that compose and
distinguish the great scenes of life in which you are taken up. Can
a Christian be persuaded of these great truths, and not collect his
wandering thoughts, and acknowledge before God the part he hath
taken in this irregularity ?
1st. I have said it was easy to form a wrong conscience. The
reason is, that nothing is more easy, nothing more natural, than
to make conscience tally with our interest or desires ; in both of
which cases, it is irregular and erroneous. And, first, it is irre-
gular for this single reason, because it is formed according to our
desires. The proof is unanswerable, and borrowed from St. Au-
gustin. It is this ; that our desires, in the general dispensation of
things, which is the dispensation of God, should be adapted to
conscience, and not conscience to desires. Nevertheless, my bre-
thren, (says this holy doctor,) this is the delusion, this the iniquity,
if we be not on our guard, into which we are perpetually in danger
of falling. Instead of regulating our desires by our consciences,
we regulate our consciences by our desires. And as our consci-
ences are founded in our desires, what is the consequence ? That
the object to which we are impelled by inclination, hath, propor-
tionably to the impulse, the appearance of good. At first, it seems
agreeable, or useful, or convenient ; next, it is allowable, innocent,
and becoming ; and by a certain kind of progress, peculiar to error,
of which we have many and glaring instances, at last we believe it
arises from virtue. This is the consequence of that ascendant
which the heart insensibly gains over the understanding, compel-
ling us to frame our. judgment of things, not as they really are in
themselves, but as we would really have them to be ; and if Ave
could make them either good or bad, according to our disposition,
and our will had the power of giving them what form soever it
pleased. Of those who now hear me, let each impartially search
294 ON ^N ERRONEOUS CONSCIENCE.
his heart, and perhaps but few will be able to affirm, that this
reproach doth not nearly concern them.
And for this reason, when the psalmist speaks of the pernicious
errors and detestable maxims which influence mankind, and actu-
ate gradually the sinner's conscience, he never fails to add, that
he, the sinner, conceives them in his heart, that he fixes them in
his heart, that his heart is the source from which they flow, and
that he says in his heart whatever is capable to confirm him in
wickedness.
Had he hearkened to his reason, his reason would have told him
the direct contrary. Had he consulted his faith, his faith in this,
in concert with reason, would have answered, " thou art wrong;
there is a law which forbids thee, under pain of death, the deed
thou dost meditate without remorse. There is a supreme tribunal,
at which thou shalt be judged, and sentence will be passed on thee
as that law directs. There is an all-powerful God, of whose attri-
butes, the most inseparable from his essence is his Providence ;
and part of that Providence is, the rigorous justice with which he
will eternally punish thy crime." This, the sinner, notwith-
standing his impiety, learns from religion by the light even of rea-
son. But as he would follow the dictates of his heart, his heart,
intent on seduction, spoke another language. It said, that his rea-
son, in such and such cases, did not lay him under, with that strict-
ness, so great an obligation. It said that his religion made not
reprobation, that worst of evils, the irreparable consequence of so
slight a transgression. It said that his faith would be greatly
overstrained, should he imagine God's vengeance in such a degree.
And in this manner he sets his conscience at ease.
Now is anything more easy, than thus to model it to his own
liking ? Show me the man who is not strongly inclined to sup-
pose, to decide, to conclude, to do all things according to the
passion that rides him. How great is his propensity to think that
which favours it, just and reasonable, and to reject as improper
what would help to restrain it ! Of all the passions, let us single
out that which is best known, and which is the most common.
You have a criminal connexion, and you would reconcile it with
conscience. To what shifts are you driven to gain your end ! If
your business be to regulate certain intimacies, to retrench certain
liberties, to avoid certain occasions, which nourish and foment this
abominable passion : from the first moment that the heart is
ON AN ERRONEOUS CONSCIENCE. 295
enthralled, with how many false, but specious reasons, doth it
furnish the head, to extend, in that, the bounds of conscience !
To shake off the yoke of the precept by mitigating its rigour and
austerity ! To call in question what is evidently just ! And to
controvert undeniable and visible facts ! For instance : to disown
the scandal, though evident and public; to maintain that the
occasion is neither immediate nor voluntary, though both the one
and the other ; to allege pretexts for persisting in, and seeming
impossibilities of desisting from, your evil communications ; to
justify and varnish your wilful delays. If we attentively consider
the nature of man, when passion and duty are inwardly at variance,
or, rather, when the heart hath taken its resolution, what a mira-
cle would it be, should he keep his conscience, in that situation,
from running into error !
But if a wrong conscience be easily formed by adapting it to
our desires, it is still more so by adapting it to our interest. And
here I must beseech you to renew your attention. For (as St.
Chrysostom rightly observes) it is interest in particular that
excites desires, and gives them that quickness so apt to darken the
understandings of men in the way of salvation. Why so many
erroneous consciences in the world, but because on no considera-
tion can people be induced to forego their interest ? Why do they
stifle, on a thousand occasions, the most lively remorses in what
evidently clashes with the law of God, but because there are none,
which the thirst of lucre, still more lively, and self-interest, still
more prevalent and forcible than conscience, are not capable of
stifling ? Where these are not concerned, we easily preserve a
right conscience, and are severely regular in matters concerning
moral obligations. There is nothing in them burdensome which
we do not approve of, and even relish. We judge of them ration-
ally, we speak of them feelingly, we abhor whatever is not con-
formable to the purity of our intentions. But is our interest in
question? Doth an occasion offer, in which, unluckily, our
interest and this purity of principle jar ? You know, Christians,
how ingenious we are at finding our expedients to run into error.
Our understanding is weakened, our severity slackens, our sight is
dimmed by the corruptions of the world, we no longer behold
things in the true light. What we once thought too favourable to
corrupt nature, upon close examination is found to be rational.
What gave us offence, and we looked upon as scandalous, is not
296 ON AN ERRONEOUS CONSCIENCE.
80 invidious. What we reckoned indefensible, wears another
aspect, and seems just and warrantable : what we blamed in others,
begins to be lawful and excusable for ourselves ; we reason, per-
haps, a little with ourselves ; but we yield at last ; and that private
interest, which we cannot lose hold of, by an inherent quality,
surprisingly efficacious, gives what bias turn it pleases to our
consciences.
In what are our consciences mostly exact ? And in what do
we display a nicety of maxims ? Let us own it sincerely : in that
which hath no connexion with our interest ; in that which concerns
only the business of others ; in that which hath no relation to our-
selves. That is, we are conscious for our neighbour to a degree
of severity, because we have no interest in being remiss for another,
and because, by that means, more credit and respect accrue to
ourselves at another's cost. But, at the same time, by a gross
blindness, which few faithful souls can guard against thoroughly,
each one is conscientious in his own regard, as the necessity of his
affairs, the advancement of his fortune, the success of his under-
takings — in a word, as the occasion requires, and his interest
admits.
And hence it is, that error and iniquity have made such pro-
gress in the minds of men. Hear a layman discourse on matters
of conscience regarding ecclesiastics, it is an oracle that speaks,
whose insight is unparalleled ; but hear him argue for himself, or
rather judge, by his conduct, and you will find that he hath scarce
any conscience at all, and this supposed oracle shall move your
compassion.
Shall I make you sensible, beloved hearers, of this great truth ?
It is so important, it should be placed in the clearest point of view.
Mind my supposition. Should I collect together, in this discourse,
whatever hath been taught, upon this subject, by divines the most
moderate, and the farthest from carrying their opinions to an
excess of indiscreet severity ; nay, by divines the most indulgent,
divines suspected, whether with or without reason, of inclining to
relax in doctrines of morality : should I collect together, I say,
all that they have taught, and all that they maintain to be of strict
obligation, the consciences of those who are the most earnest and
bitter in their invectives against them and their doctrines, would
not, oftentimes, be disposed to submit to them. How indulgent
soever they are supposed to be, should I here relate, without
ON AN ERRONEOUS CONSCIENCE. 297
addition or diminution, their opinions and decisions, in so many
words upon certain heads, respecting the interests of mankind,
and should I apply them to some who pretend to an uncommon
delicacy af conscience, few there would be, of all those who hear
me, whom I should not thereby put out of countenance ; and,
perhaps, if their minds were rightly known, I should offend and
disgust them. Should I remonstrate, for instance, to a beneficed
clergyman, how far these theologists carry their severity, on five
or six articles, of which I shall supersede the disagreeable recital,
were he sincere and honest, in any degree, he would humble him-
self, and own, in the presence of God, that as yet he was far from
that scrupulous exactness, and nice punctuality, with which he
flattered himself he Avas possessed ; but if truth can hurt him ever
so little, he will take offence at this. Were I to address myself
to him only, all others who hear me, having no concern in it,
would applaud my zeal, and unanimously agree that I was quite
in the right. But were I to enlarge on so copious a subject, and
expatiate freely on their personal faults, and particular stations ;
were I to proceed from the churchman to the statesman, from the
statesman to the magistrate, from the magistrate to the merchant,
from the merchant to the tradesman ; were 1, exerting the sacred
liberty peculiar to the pulpit, to point out to each of them wherein
consisted, if he meant to adopt them in good earnest, the rigour
and strictness of Christian morals ; were I to convince him, as I
easily might, that it is in this particular he takes great latitudes,
which he neither perceives or thinks of; were I to make him sen-
sible of those latitudes, and, without regard or deference to his
person, to set them before his eyes : yes, I say it again, my whole
audience would well nigh rise up in opposition to my sentiments.
And why ? Ah ! Christians, here is the inconsistency. We are
for strict morals in theory, but not in practice ; strict morals that
would oblige us to nothing, that would give us no trouble, that
would lay us under no restraint ; strict morals according to our
taste, our notions, our humour, our interest ; strict morals for
others, but not for ourselves ; strict morals that Avould leave us the
liberty to judge, to speak, to rally, to censure ; in a word, Ave are
for strict morals that have no existence. And hence it is, that,
notwithstanding this supposed zeal for strict morals in the Christian
religion, people every day form erroneous consciences.
2ndly. But I said, and I repeat it, that the great are particu-
u
298 OX .VN ERRONEOUS CONSCIENCE.
larly exposed to the misfortune of a wrong conscience. The duty
inseparably annexed to my ministry, and the zeal for your salva-
tion with which God inspires me, will not suffer me to pass over
in silence so essential a truth. They are more exposed than others,
for a thousand evident and convincing reasons, which cannot be
too frequently the object of contemplation. Their affairs are too
complicated to be reconcileable, at all times, and in all places, with
the law of God, and must be apt, of course, to be the matter and
groundwork of a wrong conscience. Is it not from interested and
selfish views, that in then prospects and undertakings the will of
heaven is seldom attended to ? The spring of conscience is often
relaxed by that of politics ? That politics are the rule in impor-
tant concerns, while conscience is listened to, and decides in
matters only of little moment ? That what is called their interest
is scarce ever weighed in the scale of that judgment, in which they
themselves will one day be weighed ? As if immunities and pri-
vileges had been granted to their interest, which was denied to
themselves ; as if human policy had the power of prescribing
against the rights of God ; as if conscience were a bond of the
vulgar only. They are more exposed than others, because nothing
(says St. Bernard) conduces more easily to seduction of conscience,
than applause, than commendation, than perpetual complaisance,
than to be never contradicted, than to be always in no doubt of
meeting with approbation. Now this is the deplorable situation
of those, whom God, in his wisdom, hath appointed to figure in
the great scenes of life. They are more exposed than others by
the fatality of their state ; because attendance is too often paid
them by men whose views are entirely founded in the blindness
and ignorance of their masters' consciences ; men, who would be
mortified, were their masters to be guided by an exact conscience ;
men, therefore, who make it their duty to draw a veil before the eyes
of their masters, whose confidence they have gained, and whom
they keep in delusion, what by the counsel they presume to give
them, and what by the sentiments they inspire them with.
3rdly. I said more particularly that at court, your abode, a
vitiated conscience was still more general, and not to be avoided
but with still greater difficulty. And certain I am, that in this
yourselves will join issue with me. There the passions feed the
strongest impulse ; there inclination is the most vehement ; there
interest hath the greatest prospect : and, there the most enligh-
ON AN ERRONEOUS CONSCIENCE. 299
toned and upright consciences arc soonest blinded, and most
easily perverted. There the goddess of the world, fortune, exer-
cises over the minds of mankind, and forthwith over their con-
sciences, an absolute dominion. There the hopes of maintaining
a place, the impatience to rise higher, the infatuation of growing
rich, the fear of displeasing, the desire of being agreeable, form
such consciences, as in all other places would pass for monstrous ;
but being there authorised by long custom, seem to have acquired
a right of prescription. People, by having lived at court, and for no
other reason but merely by having lived there, are filled with these
errors. Whatever uprightness of conscience they may have
brought there, by breathing its air, and by hearing its language,
they are habituated to iniquity, and their wonted horror of vice is
dispelled ; vice, which they long blamed, and a thousand times
condemned, but which at last beholding with a favourable eye,
they permit and excuse : that is, without observing it, they new-
mould their consciences, and, by an imperceptible process, from
Christians that they were, by little and little become downright
worldlings, and not fir from heathens.
It would seem as if at court, and in the rest of the world, reli-
gious principles were not the same, and that courtiers were entitled
to adopt consciences specifically different from those of other men.
This is conformable to the general notion ; a notion confirmed, or
rather justified, by woful experience. It is said every day, when
mention is made of a courtier's conscience, that it may as reason-
ably be difficled in, as his contempt of preferment, and disinterested
views. Nevertheless, my brethren, St. Paul assures us, that there
is but one God and one faith ; and wo be to the man who shall
make this one God less an enemy at court to depravity of manners,
than in all the world besides ; or shall suppose this one faith more
indulgent to certain conditions than others. Accursed be he
(says the same great apostle) who shall preach a different gospel
from that which I have preached ! Though an angel from heaven
should announce a gospel disagreeing with mine, let the angel be
accounted a seducer and impostor. Therefore, dear Christians,
accursed is the man, who shall at any time tell you, that you may
lawfully act by any other laws of conscience, than those by which
God will judge the rest of mankind ; and accursed is the man who
shall not tell you plainly, that those general laws are the more
terrible for you, because your desire of being emancipated from
v2
300 ON AN ERRONEOUS CONSCIENCE.
them is more ardent, and the danger of violating them at court
more evident.
You see that the interests and desires of men are the accursed
origins from whence arise all the wrong consciences that over-
spread the world. This made holy David draw that terrible con-
sequence, a consequence from which none of Adam's offspring
will ever be excepted : " They have all gone aside." Ps. lv. All
have o'one astray ; and all have Avalked in the way of delusion and
falsehood; all have had corrupt, nay, abominable consciences:
" They are corrupted and become abominable in iniquities." Ps.lv.
The reason is, that they were all swayed by passion and interest.
O ! my God, make us thoroughly sensible of this great truth,
and may it be engraven for ever in our minds ! As we are blinded
by our desires, deliver us not up to the desires of our heart. As
we are perverted by interest, permit not that interest to have an
ascendant over us. Give us, O Lord, give us upright hearts,
which, ruled by reason, shall keep the passions in subjection. Give
us generous souls, souls superior to all worldly advantages. Thus
our consciences, which are the way that must lead us to a happy
end, shall be rectified ; and thus shall be accomplished the word of
the forerunner of Christ our Saviour, "Make straight the way of
the Lord." But as it is easy in this world to adopt, so it is
dangerous to be guided by an erroneous conscience, my second
position.
Part II. All error is dangerous, particularly in matters regard-
ing ethics ; but there is none so prejudicial, or so pernicious in its
consequences, as that of conscience, the only rule and principle to
direct us in the right discharge of moral duties. Your eye (says
our Saviour in the gospel) is the light of your body ; if your eye
be clear, your body will be enlightened ; but if not, your whole
body will be involved in darkness : " Take heed, therefore," adds
the Saviour of the world, "that the light which is in thee be not
darkness." Luke xi. Now the eye of which Christ speaks in this
passage, is nothing but conscience, by which we are enlightened,
and directed to act. If we be guided by a conscience unmixed
with error, it is a light that spreads itself through all our actions,
or, in other words, all our actions are actions of light ; and, to speak
in the language of the great apostle, " They are the fruit of light."
Ephes. v. Whatever we do is holy, commendable, and pleasing
to God. On the other hand, if our conscience, which is the light
ON AN ERRONEOUS CONSCIENCE. 301
of our "soul, should, by the gross errors with which we are
possessed, be changed into darkness, all our actions become works
of darkness, and the reproach of our Saviour may well be applied
tous: " If the light which is in thee be darkness, the darkness
itself how great shall it be ?" Matt. vi. That is, if that which
you call your conscience, and which you really believe to be free
from error, is made up of deceit, irregularity, and iniquity, what
shall I say of that which your conscience condemns and disallows
of, and yourself acknowledge to be irregularity and iniquity.
This, beloved hearers, is the rock we must avoid ; for thence
proceeds evils the more afflicting and astonishing, as by long cus-
tom they neither afflict nor astonish us. Hence it proceeds, that
an erroneous conscience induceth us to commit evils of every kind ;
that it induceth us to commit them boldly and calmly ; that it
induceth us to commit them without resource, or hope of amend-
ment : a misfortune against which we must carefully guard, unless
we choose to expose our souls to an irreparable loss, and everlast-
ing damnation.
No, Christian, there is no kind of evil, of which man is not
capable with an erroneous conscience. Tell me the evil it hath
not made him commit, and you will comprehend the more easily
the truth of my position. To bring it home to your minds : I ask,
what lengths will not a presumptuous conscience go ? The moment
it becomes a conscience, tell me the crimes it doth not excuse ?
When ambition, for instance, to obtain its ends, found its maxims
in conscience, tell me the duties it doth not violate, the sentiments
of humanity it doth not stifle, the laws of probity, equity, and fide-
lity it doth not overturn ? Conscience as much as you please,
corrupted by ambition, tell me the jealousies it doth not inspire,
the detestable intrigues it doth not carry on, the deceits and trea-
cheries, if requisite for its purpose, it doth not put in practice ?
When conscience acts in concert with the lust of gain, tell me the
injustice it doth not allow of, the extortion and usury it doth not
connive at, the fraud and simony it doth not palliate, the vex-
ations and chicaneries it doth not justify ? When conscience is
ruled by animosity and hatred, tell me the resentment and bitter-
ness of heart it doth not authorise, the vindictive contrivances it
doth not support, the discord and enmity it doth not foment, the
arrogance and obduracy it doth not approve of? No, it is an
impetuous torrent which nothing'can resist. It covers a multitude
302 ON AN ERRONEOUS CONSCIENCE.
of enormous sins ; not, like charity, by effacing, but by tolerating,
supporting, and defending them.
The Jews, misled by an erroneous conscience, nailed the Holy
of Holies, Jesus Christ our Lord, to an opprobrious cross. Thus
men are misguided by false suggestions, and thus were misguided
a people who gloried in their having religion. The most horrible
and shocking of all crimes, Deicide, they thought a religious duty
and a matter of conscience ; and upon the same principles are daily
committed, without bloodshed, the most cruel homicides. That
is, actuated by wrong principles, men cut their neighbour's throat,
stab him in the dark, deprive him of his reputation, more dear to
him than life, destroy his good name, ruin by ill offices his fortune
and credit. Take not offence at the comparison with the Jews ;
it is but too well founded. They made no difficulty to imbrue their
hands in the blood of the Just One, which they eagerly demanded,
though scrupulous and superstitious ; at the same time, they would
not set foot in the house of Pilate, being a Gentile, lest they should
suffer contamination, and be made thereby unworthy to participate
of the Paschal Lamb. By a similar absurdity, at this day but too
common in the world, people swallow a camel, and digest him too,
while, ridiculously nice, they strain at a gnat. That is, they give
themselves up to the most violent passions, demand satisfaction,
take unjust revenge, seize other's property, retain it unlawfully,