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Conscience Considered Chiefly in Reference to Moral and Religious Obligation
Conscience Considered Chiefly in Reference to Moral and Religious Obligation Author:John King General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1838 Original Publisher: R.B. Seely and W. Burnside Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com wh... more »ere you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: CHAPTER IV. THE OFFICE OF CONSCIENCE AS AN INSTRUCTOR CONTINUED. It instructs us in our duty to ourselves and others, not fully, yet clearly. Formation of habits -- subjugation of passions. The drunkard. First whisperings of conscience to be regarded. It does not forbid us to seek our own happiness -- directs us to distinguish between momentary gratification and real enjoyment -- teaches that morality is necessary, but not sufficient for happiness -- raises the thoughts to God -- enforces the duties we owe to others -- regulates our social and other affections -- enjoins us to seek the present, but much more the eternal welfare of mankind. From the duties we owe to God, the transition is natural to those we owe to man, first to ourselves, then to others. And we shall perceive that the voice within speaks clearly and strongly on both these classes of moral obligations. Human life is filled with a succession of thoughts and actions, respecting which it is hardly correct to say, even of the smallest and most insignificant of them, that they have no moral property. Good or evil is stamped upon every thought we indulge, and upon every voluntary act we do. It requireshowever, a purer and stronger light than that of conscience, to explain to us the boundless field of moral duty which such a view of our condition suggests to our contemplation. That minute regulation of all the springs, of thought and will, of desire and appetite, of emotion and sentiment, which the Scriptures demand, though not adverse to the instructions of conscience, is yet above them; and ...« less