CHAPTER XVI.

Of the Fifth Privilege of Virtue, namely, the Comfort of a Good Conscience, which the Righteous enjoy; and of the Inward Torments and Remorse of the Wicked.

"O the joy of the Comfort of the HOLY GHOST is added another joy that the righteous have in the testimony of a good conscience. To understand the nature and dignity of this privilege thou must know that GOD's providence, which provides all creatures with all that is necessary for their preservation and perfection, desires the perfection of His rational creatures, and has provided them sufficiently with all that is requisite. And because the perfection of these creatures consists in the perfection of their understanding and of their will, which are the two chief powers of the soul, and which are perfected respectively by knowledge and by virtue, He has created in the understanding the universal principles of all sciences, from which their conclusions proceed; and in the will He has created the seed of all virtues, giving it a natural inclination to all good and an abhorrence of all evil. Thus it naturally rejoices in the one and is sad and discontented with the other. And this inclination is so natural and so powerful, that although a long habit of sin may weaken and enfeeble it, it can never be entirely extinguished and destroyed, in this resembling our freewill, which may grow weak and feeble, but is never altogether dead. In figure of this we read that in all the losses and calamities of holy Job, there always remained one servant, who escaped from the destruction, and came to tell him. (Job i. 15-19.) In like manner, to one who sins there ever remains

this servant, called by the learned the synderesis of conscience, escaped when all besides are lost, and alive when they are dead; and this continually represents to the wicked man the good that he lost when he sinned, and the wretched state into which he has fallen.

And herein the care of GOD's providence and His love for virtue shine forth marvellously; for He has provided us with a continual alarum that never wearies, a perpetual preacher who is never silent, a tutor and preceptor who always points the way towards goodness. Epictetus, the Stoic philosopher, understood this wonderfully well; he says, that as parents entrust their children while they are little to a tutor who is carefully to keep them from vice and lead them to virtue, so GOD our FATHER has given us this natural virtue which we call conscience as a tutor, that it might continually teach and guide us into all good, and accuse and reproach us when we do evil.

Now, as conscience is the tutor and preceptor of the good, so is it the torment and scourge of the wicked, inwardly accusing and lashing them for the evils that they do, and mixing bitterness with all their pleasures, so that they can scarce taste the onions of Egypt before the tears start into their eyes. And this is one of the punishments with which GOD threatens the wicked by Isaiah, saying, that He will make Babylon a possession for the hedgehog. (Isa. xiv. 23,"bittern," E. V.) For by the just judgment of GOD the heart of the wicked, which is here signified by Babylon, is made a possession to hedgehogs, which signify devils, and signify also the pricking stings and remorse of conscience which sins bring with them, and which torment and pierce the heart like very sharp pricks. If thou wouldst know what these pricks are, I say that one is the very loathsomeness and hideousness of sin, which is of itself so abominable that a philosopher has said, that if he knew that the gods would forgive it, and that men would never suspect it, he would not dare commit a sin because of its loathsomeness. Another prick is when it injures some one, for then it is like the shedding of Abel's blood, which cried to GOD for vengeance. (Gen. iv. 10.) And thus it is written in the First Book of Maccabees, that the grievous wrongs and injuries which Antiochus the king had done at

Jerusalem presented themselves to his mind, and so troubled and grieved him that he was sick unto death. And before he died he said, "I remember the evils that I did at Jerusalem, and that I took all the vessels of gold and silver that were therein, and sent to destroy the inhabitants of Judea without a cause. I perceive therefore that for this cause these troubles are come upon me, and behold, I perish through great grief in a strange land." (1 Mac. vi. 12, 13.) Another prick is the infamy that follows from the sin itself, of which the wicked man cannot be unconscious, and which cannot be a matter of indifference to him; for men naturally desire to be liked, and dislike being ill thought of, since, as a wise man has said, "There is no greater torment in the world than to be generally hated."

Another prick is the fear of death, and uncertainty of life; the dread of judgment and the horror of everlasting punishment; for each of these is a prick that sharply wounds and pierces the heart of the wicked, so that, as often as the remembrance of death, so certain on the one hand, so uncertain on the other, presents itself to him, it is "bitter," as the son of Sirach says, (Ecclus. xli. 1), because he sees that on that day his crimes will be recompensed, and his vices and pleasures ended; and this remembrance no man can put away from him, for there is nothing more natural to mortals than to die. And therefore, whenever any indisposition attacks him, he is full of fears and alarms, questioning if he shall die or live, for the vehemence of self-love and the passion of fear make him afraid of shadows, and fill him with causeless terrors. If pestilence and mortality are in the world, if there are earthquakes, or thunder and lightning, he is troubled and distressed with the terrors of his evil conscience, imagining that they may be all on his account.

Now, all these pricks at once torment and pierce the heart of the wicked, as is described at great length by one of the friends of holy Job, whose words I will quote here to make this doctrine more evident: "The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days, and the number of his years is hidden to the oppressor. A dreadful sound is in his ears;" that is, the voice of his evil conscience, which is always biting and accusing him. "In prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him;" for, however

peaceful and prosperous his life may be, the troubled conscience will be full of fears and terrors. "He believeth not that he shall return out of darkness;" that is, he does not think it possible to escape from the darkness of the wretched state in which he is living, and to attain to the calmness and tranquillity of a good conscience, which is a lovely light that gladdens and illumines all the inmost parts of the soul. And he is waited for of the sword. He wandereth abroad for bread, saying, Where is it?" Whereas men ordinarily rejoice at their meal-times, he is even then filled with fear, distrust, and terror. "He knoweth that

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the day of darkness is ready at his hand;" that is, the day of death, of judgment, and of everlasting doom. "Trouble and anguish shall make him afraid; they shall prevail against him, as a king ready to battle." (Job xv. 20-24.) Thus the friends of Job describe the cruel tortures that are in the hearts of these men; for, as a philosopher has truly said, "By an eternal law of GOD fear always pursues the wicked." And to this agree the words of Solomon, who says, "The wicked flee when no man pursueth; but the righteous are bold as a lion!" (Prov. xxviii. 1.)

S. Augustine comprehends all this in few words, saying, "LORD, Thou hast commanded, and truly it is so, that the disordered soul is a torment to itself." And this is the case with all things. For what is there in the world that is not restless and discontented as soon as it is out of order? When a bone is out of its joint and its natural place, what pain does it cause! When an element is out of its centre, what violence does it suffer! When the humours of the human body are out of the natural proportion and correspondence that they ought to have, what sicknesses do they occasion! Then, if it is so fit and due a thing for the rational creature to live an orderly and reasonable life, when the life is disorderly and unreasonable must not the nature of that creature suffer and complain? Holy Job said very well, "Who hath hardened himself against Him, and hath prospered?" (Job ix. 4.) On which words S. Gregory says, that as GOD created things wondrously, so He disposed them in a very orderly manner, that they might be preserved and continue in existence. From whence it follows that those who resist the ordinance appointed by the Creator destroy the

peace and harmony that were its result, because nothing that departs from GOD's ordinance can rest in quietness. Therefore those who lived in peace and order whilst they obeyed GOD, when they ceased to obey lost not only order but peace. This is seen plainly in the first man, and in the angel that fell, who lost peace and happiness by doing their own will, disobeying GOD's orders, and disregarding His appointment, (Gen. iii. 6; Isa. xiv. 13, 14); whilst man, who was master of himself as long as he obeyed, found war and rebellion within himself on his disobedience. (Rom. vii. 23.)

This then is the torment in which the wicked live by the just judgment of GOD, and this is one of the greatest miseries that they suffer in this life. All the saints declare it. S. Ambrose says in his Book of Offices, "What pain can be greater than the inward pain of a hurt conscience? Is it not an evil more to be dreaded than loss of property, exile, sickness, or suffering?" S. Isidore says, "A man can flee from everything except himself; for wherever he goes the torment of a bad conscience accompanies him." In another place he says, "There is no pain greater than that of a bad conscience; therefore, if thou wouldst avoid unhappiness, live a good life." And so true is this, that it is acknowledged even by the heathen philosophers, who knew nothing of the punishments which our faith assures us are destined for the wicked. Thus Seneca says, "What does it profit to hide from the sight and hearing of men? A good conscience calls on the whole world to behold; but a bad conscience is anxious and troubled even in solitude. If what thou doest is good, let it be known to all; if it is evil, what avails it that others are ignorant of it, if thou knowest it thyself? O wretched man that thou art, if thou despisest this witness, thy own conscience is equal to a thousand witnesses." He says in another place that the greatest possible punishment for a crime is to have committed it. And this he repeats elsewhere, saying, "Thou shouldst fear for no witness of thy sins more than thyself; for thyself is the only one from whom thou canst not flee; and most surely wickedness is its own punishment." Tully says in one of his orations, “The power of conscience is great both ways; therefore those are fearless who have done nothing