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CAUSES OF DIFFERENT KINDS OF CONSCIENCE.

1. Conscience as given by God to man is sound, vigorous, and direct. It sees clearly what the truth is, and distinguishes at once good from evil.

Whatever God gives is good, and God gives this faculty of distinguishing between good and evil to man for a purpose, essential to man, that he may follow his course, and attain to that end for which God made him. Therefore, God certainly gave to man, originally, a sound, sturdy, and clear-seeing Conscience, to be the pilot of his vessel, the driver of his chariot, the legislator of his state. That we may—indeed, that we must acknowledge. God Himself set man in the world to accomplish a certain work, and He furnished him adequately for the fulfilment of the task allotted to him.

2. But, man’s Conscience is not what it was when God first made man; it has been debilitated, it has been vitiated by original sin. The first sin of Adam, and the sin that has issued from that original fault, has formed a habit of sin in the human race, that infects, weakens, in some cases paralyzes, the Conscience. So that it no longer sees as clearly what is right and what is wrong, as at first; it has no longer the same unhesitating voice; nor has it the same power of influencing the will as at first, for the will itself has become distorted. The unsettlement of Conscience has allowed the will to become impatient of restraint, and to incline to follow other impulses than that of the moral faculty. The will is also inclined to evil through the poison of sin which has passed into the nature of all men since the fall, and though, by Baptism, the antecedent guilt of original sin is put away, yet its deteriorating effects are not all removed. God receives us by Baptism into a state of grace, in which state that which has been marred by the fall can be restored; but the fact of Baptism does not at once restore, it only sets us in a condition in which restoration is possible.

3. There are several causes operating on our Conscience which tend to vitiate it:—

(a) Ignorance of the Divine Will, and of the law of God for us. Adam had a fully-enlightened Conscience, he knew uninstructed what was God’s purpose and what was God’s Will, but it is not so with us, or is so only in a very rudimentary and inadequate manner. We have to be taught the Will of God, and to learn His Commandments.

Consequently, it is incumbent on us to strive in every way to remove this ignorance, by reading Scripture, by receiving instruction, and by seeking after light by prayer.

(b) Prejudice, the result of ignorance and pride, or simply of ignorance and a warped judgment, owing to false instruction. There can be little chance through ignorance of going wrong in the main, broad principles of duty to our neighbours, but imperfect teaching or erroneous teaching relative to our duties to God, may well be the cause of our failing to perform, or performing inadequately, or performing wrongly our duties due to Him. Hence we require a sure moral guide to expound to us the law of God, and this God has given us in His Church.

(c) Passion, or concupiscence, which induces the Conscience to permit whatever flatters or gratifies the body or the mind. S. Paul says that in his natural state, “That which I do I allow not; for what I would that do I not; but what I hate, that do I … to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not, but the evil that I would not, that I do.” He is here picturing himself in his old, carnal, unregenerate state, but under grace, it is other, there Divine help is given to enable the will to submit to the law of God and cast out the domination of the carnal appetites.

(d) Lax public opinion, which sets up a low moral standard, and brings Consciences to sleep, so long as they conform to public opinion, and make that the rule instead of the law of God. This is a great means of blunting and deadening Conscience, for it sets up man as a supreme authority in morals in the place of God, it makes the judgments of the world override the revealed Will of God.