Romans 2:15 Which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness… We all know that the word comes from con and scio, but what does that con intend? Conscience is not merely what I know, but what I know with some other; for the prefix cannot be esteemed superfluous, or taken to imply merely that which I know with or to myself. That other knower whom the word implies is God. His law making itself known and felt in the heart; and the work of conscience is the bringing of the evil of our acts and thoughts as a lesser, to be tried and measured by this as a greater — the word growing out of and declaring that awful duplicity of our moral being which arises from the presence of God in the soul — our thoughts, by the standard which that presence implies, and as a result of a comparison with it, "accusing or excusing one another." (Abp. Trench.) Parallel Verses KJV: Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;) |
    |