Excerpt from A Treatise on Comforting Afflicted Consciences If the theory stated in the definition be admitted, our views of the moral nature of man will be greatly elevated. We must thenceforward regard him as showing from his construction, that he was intended by his Creator for the highest species of moral agency; that he was designed to act not merely ao cording to the supposed effect of his conduct upon so ciety, but agreeably to the intrinsic and immutable nature of truth. His responsibility would at the same time seem to be greatly enhanced by the possession of a susceptibility, which enables him to discern whether an action be right or wrong with as much precision as the palate of his mouth enables him to distinguish sweetness from bitterness. It would also follow, that moral instruction should be greatly conducted with a view to it; and that instead of the modern mode of estimating the qualities of an action by forming an estimate of its expediency, we should with ancient moralists make our appeal to the preference or dislike of our inward emotions. They who adopt the Opinion that conscience is an acquired capability, must admit the conclusion, that the moral part of our constitution is comparatively destitute of guidance. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Conscience in Early Modern English Literature describes how poetry, theology, and politics intersect in the early modern conscience. In the wake of the Reformation, theologians attempt to understand how the faculty works, poets attempt to capture the experience of being in its grip, and revolutionaries attempt to assert its authority for political action. The result, Abraham Stoll argues, is a dynamic scene of conscience in England, thick with the energies of salvation and subjectivity, and influential in the public sphere of Civil War politics. Stoll explores how Shakespeare, Spenser, Herbert, and Milton stage the inward experience of conscience. He links these poetic scenes to Luther, Calvin, and English Reformation theology. He also demonstrates how they shape the public discourses of conscience in such places as the toleration debates, among Levellers, and in the prose of Hobbes and Milton. In the literature of the early modern conscience, Protestant subjectivity evolves toward the political subject of modern liberalism.