I shall be much obliged if any of your readers can explain the following
coincidence between Sanderson and Jeremy Taylor. Taylor, in the
beginning of the _Ductor Dubitantium_, says:
"It was well said of St. Bernard, 'Conscientia candor est lucis
aeternae, et speculum sine macula Dei majestatis, et imago bonitatis
illius;' 'Conscience is the brightness and splendour of the
eternal light, a spotless mirror of the Divine Majesty, and the
image of the goodness of God.' It is higher which Tatianus said of
conscience, [Greek: Monon einai syneidesin Theon], 'Conscience is
God unto us,' which saying he had from Menander,
[Greek: Brotois hapasin he syneidesis Theos].
"God is in our hearts by his laws; he rules in us by his
substitute, our conscience; God sits there and gives us laws; and
as God said unto Moses, 'I have made thee a God to Pharaoh,' that
is, to give him laws, and to minister in the execution of those
laws, and to inflict angry sentences upon him, so hath God done to
us."
In the beginning of Sanderson's second lecture, _De Obligatione
Conscientiae_, he says:
"Hine illud ejusdem Menandri. [Greek: Brotois hapasin he
syneidesis Theos]; _Mortalibus sum cuique Conscientia Deus est_,
Quo nimirum sensu dixit Dominus se _constituisse Mosen Deum
Pharaoni_; quod seis Pharaoni voluntatem Dei subinde _inculcaret_,
ad cum faciendam Pharaonem _instigaret_, non obsequentem
contentibus plagis insectaretur; eodem fere sensu dici potest,
eundem quoque _constituisse in Deum unicuique hominum_ singularium
propriam _Conscientiam_."
Sanderson's _Lectures_ were delivered at Oxford in 1647, but not
published till 1660. The Dedication to Robert Boyle is dated November,
1659. The _Ductor Dubitantium_ is dedicated to Charles II. after the
Restoration, but has a preface dated October, 1659. It is not likely,
therefore, that, Taylor borrowed from the printed work of Sanderson.
Perhaps the quotations and illustrations which they have in common were
borrowed from some older common source, where they occur _associated_ as
they do in these two writers. I should be glad to have any such source
pointed out.