XI.

THE COURAGE OF A GOOD CONSCIENCE,

AND THE COWARDICE OF A BAD ONE.

The wicked flee when no man pursueth ;but the righteous are bold as a lion.—Prov. xxviii. 1.

The Lord is my light and my salvation; who shall I fear ? the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid ?2-Ps. xxvii, 1.

When they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled ; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.3--Acts iv. 13.

And if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments, so that ye will not do all my commandments, but that ye break my covenant: I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you a terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart ; and ye shall flee when none pursueth you.

LEV. xxvi. 15-17.

a

The sound of a shaken leaf shall chase them; and they shall flee, as fleeing from a sword ; and they shall fall when none pursueth.—Lev. xxvi. 36.

There were they in great fear, where no fear was.

Ps. liii. 5.

For wickedness, condemned by her own witness, is very timorous, and being pressed with conscience, always forecasteth grievous things.—WISDOM xvü. 11.

a

What stronger breastplate than a heart untainted ?
Thrice is he armed that hath his quarrel just;
And he but naked, though locked up in steel,
Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted.

KING HENRY VI. (2d part). Act III. Scene 2.

Conscience, it makes a man a coward.

KING RICHARD III. Act I. Scene 4.

Virtue is bold, and goodness never fearful.

MEASURE FOR MEASURE. Act III. Scene 1.

A heart unspotted is not easily daunted.

KING HENRY VI. (2d part). Act 111. Scene 1.

How is 't with me when every noise appals me?

MACBETH. Act II, Scene 2.

Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind :
The thief doth fear each bush an officer.

KING HENRY VI. (3d part). Act v. Scene 6.

A wicked conscience
Mouldeth goblins swift as frenzy thoughts.*

TROILUS AND CRESSIDA. Act v. Scene 11.

*

XII.

THE WRETCHEDNESS OF A BAD

CONSCIENCE.

There is no peace, saith the Lord, unto the wicked.

Is. xlviii. 22.

The wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt.

Is. lvii. 20.

2

a

Among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest : but the Lord shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind: And thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt have none assurance of thy life.

The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days. A dreadful sound is in his ears: in prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him. He believeth not that he shall return out of darkness, and he is waited for of the sword. Trouble and anguish shall make him afraid; and they shall prevail against him as a king ready to battle.-JOB xv. 20, 21, 22, 24.

Conscience is a thousand swords.

KING RICHARD III. Act v. Scene 2.

Better be with the dead,
Than on the torture of the mind to lie
In restless ecstacy.

MACBETH. Act III. Scene 2.

The clogging burden of a guilty soul.

KING RICHARD II. Act 1. Scene 3.

Great guilt,
Like poison given to work a great time after,
Now 'gins to bite the spirits.

THE TEMPEST. Act 111. Scene 3.

To

my sick soul, as sin's true nature is,
Each toy seems prologue to some great amiss;
So full of artless jealousy is guilt,
It spills itself in fearing to be spilt.

HAMLET. Act IV. Scene 5.

I'll haunt thee like a guilty conscience still.

TROILUS AND CRESSIDA. Act v. Scene 11.

a

Between the acting of a dreadful thing
And the first motion, all the interim is
Like a phantasma, or a hideous dream:
The genius, and the mortal instruments,
Are then in council ; and the state of man,
Like to a little kingdom, suffers then
The nature of an insurrection.

JULIUS CÆSAR. Act 11. Scene 1.

Conscience, conscience, O, 't is a tender place.

KING HENRY VIII. Act. II. Scene 2.

Leave her to heaven,
And to those thorns that in her bosom lodge
To prick and sting her.

HAMLET. Act 1. Scene 5.

The worm of conscience.

KING RICHARD III. Act I. Scene 3.

0, it is monstrous ! monstrous !
Methought the billows spoke and told me of it:
The winds did sing it to me: and the thunder,
That deep and dreadful organ pipe, pronounced
The name of Prosper: it did bass my trespass.

THE TEMPEST. Act III. Scene 3.