A09400:267
A discourse of conscience wherein is set down the nature, properties, and differences thereofA discourse of conscience wherein is set downe the nature, properties, and differences thereof
A discourse of conscience wherein is set down the nature, properties, and differences thereof: as also the way to get and keep good conscience.A discourse of conscience wherein is set downe the nature, properties, and differences thereof: as also the way to get and keepe good conscience.
Cambridge: printed by John Legate, 1596Cambridge: printed by Iohn Legate, 1596
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
The first which accuseth a man for doing evil. This must needs be an evil conscience. Because to accuse is not a property that belongs to it by creation, but a defect that followeth after the fall. And if the conscience which truly accuseth a man for his sins, were a good conscience, then the worst man that is, might have a good conscience, which cannot be.
The first which accuseth a man for doing euill. This must needes be an euill conscience. Because to accuse is not a property that belongs to it by creation, but a defect that followeth after the fall. And if the conscience which truely accuseth a man for his sinnes, were a good conscience, then the worst man that is, might haue a good conscience, which cannot be.
When the accusation of the conscience is more forcible and violent, it is called a wounded or troubled conscience: which though of it self it be not good nor any grace of God; yet by the goodness of God it serveth often to be an occasion or preparation to grace; as a needle, that draws the thread into the cloth, is some ⟨p. 155⟩