7° eix t rerarre excufe. This is thegrounde ofall , and this Icake to be con fcience . Ifit be obieót}ed that confcience cannot be anatural( power,becaufe it may be loft: I anfwer ifconfcience be IofI,ir is onely in refpeCt ofthe ufe therof,asreafon is loll in thedrunkenman andnot otherwife. I adde,that the proper fitbicasofconfcience are reafonabiecreatures;that is, men andAngels. Hereby confcience is excluded , fiat ofall frombruite bear}s;for though they have life &tenfe,and inmany things fame Ihadows ofreafon,yet becaufe they want true reafon,theywant confcienceallo. Se= condly from Clod thecreator,wito beeing righteoufnes it felfe, needeth not confcience to order and gouernehis actions. And whereas Peter faith, Y. Pet. /. t9. that men mull induregriefewrongfullyforcanjcrer ::ccof(7od, his meaning is not to fhewe that God hath conlcience,butthat men are to fuf- fer many wrongs becaufe theirconfcience doe binde them, in fodoing too. beyGodswili,which consciencedirealy refpeìeth. And I fay that confcience is in 411 reafonable creatures , that none might imagine that Comemen by nature haue confcience in them, fome none at all. For as many men as th ereare,fo many confciences there be:andeuery particular man hash his owne particular confcience. The porper ende ofconfcience is, to determine ofthirgs done . And by thisconfcience is dìflinguifhedfrball othergifts of the mind, as intelligence, apiuron,fc:ence, farth ,prudence. Intelligence limply conceives a thing to be or not tobe:opinion judged/ a thing tobeprobable or contingent:fcaence iudg eth it to becerten and fine ;fa:thisaperlx-afion, whereby we beleue things that are not: prudence diferneth what is meet to be done, whattobe left un- done; but cantfence goes further yet then all thefe:for it determines or glues fencence ofthingsdonesby layinguntovs,this was done,thiswasnot done: this may be done, this may not be done: thiswas well done, this was ill done. The things that confcience determines of, are a mans own aetions: his owne a&ions , I fay, Tobe certen what an other man hash laid or done, is commonly called knowledge: but for a man to becertenwhat hehinifelf bath done or faid,that is confcience . Againe confciencemeddles not with generals, onely it dealcs in particularaCtíons:and that,not in Come few,but ire all. The mannerofconfciencesdetermination, is to let downehis iudgemes either withthe creatureor again({ it : I adde this claufe, becaufe confcience is ofadiuinenature,and is a thingplaced by God in the middefl betweene him andman,as an arbitratour to giue fentence &tòpronounce either with man or againflman vnto God.Forotherwhiles,it contents and (peaks with God againfi the man inwhome it is placed : otherwhiles againe it contents with him and fpeakes for him before theLord. And hence comesone reafon ofthe nameo`confcience. Scire,to know, is ofoneman alone by h mfelfe: and confeire is,when twoat the lea{?knom' fome one ferret thing; either of them knowing it togitherwith theother, Therefore the namecvteI net r, or ÇQnfCia
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=