on the merit or demerit of our own actions, feelings, or affections,
with reference to the rule of God’s law. It has been called the _moral
sense_ by Lord Shaftesbury and Dr. Hutcheson. This appellation has been
objected to by some, but has been adopted and defended by Dr. Reid, who
says, “The testimony of our moral faculty, like that of the external
senses, is the testimony of nature, and we have the same reason to rely
upon it.” He therefore considers conscience as an original faculty of
our nature, which decides clearly, authoritatively, and instantaneously,
on every object that falls within its province. “As we rely,” says he,
“upon the clear and distinct testimony of our eyes, concerning the
colours and figures of the bodies about us, we have the same reason to
rely, with security, upon the clear and unbiassed testimony of our
conscience, with regard to what we ought and ought not to do.” But Dr.
Reid is surely unfortunate in illustrating the power of conscience by
the analogy of the external senses. With regard to the intimations
received through the organs of sense, there can be no difference of
opinion, and there can be no room for argument. They give us at once
correct information, which reasoning can neither invalidate nor confirm.
But it is surely impossible to say as much for the power of conscience,
which sometimes gives the most opposite intimations with regard to the
simplest moral facts, and which requires to be corrected by an accurate
attention to the established order of nature, or to the known will of
God, before we can rely with confidence on its decisions. It does not
appear, that conscience can with propriety be considered as a principle
distinct from that which enables us to pronounce on the general merit or
demerit of moral actions. This principle, or faculty, is attended with
peculiar feelings, when we ourselves are the agents; we are then too
deeply interested to view the matter as a mere subject of reasoning; and
pleasure or pain are excited, with a degree of intensity proportioned to
the importance which we always assign to our own interests and feelings.
In the case of others, our approbation or disapprobation is generally
qualified, sometimes suspended, by our ignorance of the motives by which
they have been influenced; but, in our own case, the motives and the
actions are both before us, and when they do not correspond, we feel the
same disgust with ourselves that we should feel toward another, whose
motives we knew to be vicious, while his actions are specious and
plausible. But in our own case, the uneasy feeling is heightened in a
tenfold degree, because self-contempt and disgust are brought into
competition with the warmest self-love, and the strongest desire of
self-approbation. We have then something of the feelings of a parent,
who knows the worthlessness of the child he loves, and contemplates with
horror the shame and infamy which might arise from exposure to the
world.
2. Conscience, then, cannot be considered as any thing else than the
general principle of moral approbation or disapprobation applied to our
own feelings or conduct, acting with increased energy from the knowledge
which we have of our motives and actions, and from the deep interest
which we take in whatever concerns ourselves; nor can we think that they
have deserved well of morals or philosophy, who have attempted to deduce
our notions of right and wrong from any one principle. Various powers
both of the understanding and of the will are concerned in every moral
conclusion; and conscience derives its chief and most salutary influence
from the consideration of our being continually in the presence of God,
and accountable to him for all our thoughts, words, and actions. A
conscience well informed, and possessed of sensibility, is the best
security for virtue, and the most awful avenger of wicked deeds; an
ill-informed conscience is the most powerful instrument of mischief; a
squeamish and ticklish conscience generally renders those who are under
its influence ridiculous.
_Hic murus aheneus esto,
Nil conscire sibi, nulla pallescere culpa._
[Let a consciousness of innocence, and a fearlessness of any accusation,
be thy brazen bulwark.]
3. The rule of conscience is the will of God, so far as it is made known
to us, either by the light of nature, or by that of revelation. With
respect to the knowledge of this rule, conscience is said to be rightly
informed, or mistaken; firm, or wavering, or scrupulous, &c. With
respect to the conformity of our actions to this rule when known,
conscience is said to be good or evil. In a moral view, it is of the
greatest importance that the understanding be well informed, in order to
render the judgment or verdict of conscience a safe directory of
conduct, and a proper source of satisfaction. Otherwise, the judgment of
conscience may be pleaded, and it has actually been pleaded, as an
apology for very unwarrantable conduct. Many atrocious acts of
persecution have been perpetrated, and afterward justified, under the
sanction of an erroneous conscience. It is also of no small importance,
that the sensibility of conscience be duly maintained and cherished; for
want of which men have often been betrayed into criminal conduct without
self-reproach, and have deluded themselves with false notions of their
character and state. See MORAL OBLIGATION.
CONSECRATION, a devoting or setting apart any thing to the worship or
service of God. The Mosaical law ordained that all the first-born, both
of man and beast, should be sanctified or consecrated to God. The whole
race of Abraham was in a peculiar manner consecrated to his worship; and
the tribe of Levi and family of Aaron were more immediately consecrated
to the service of God, Exod. xiii, 2, 12, 15; Num. iii, 12; 1 Peter ii,
9. Beside the consecrations ordained by the sovereign authority of God,
there were others which depended on the will of men, and were either to
continue for ever or for a time only. David and Solomon devoted the
Nethinims to the service of the temple for ever, Ezra viii, 20; ii, 58.
Hannah, the mother of Samuel, offered her son to the Lord, to serve all
his life-time in the tabernacle, 1 Sam. i, 11; Luke i, 15. The Hebrews
sometimes devoted their fields and cattle to the Lord, and the spoils
taken in war, Leviticus xxvii, 28, 29; 1 Chron. xviii, 11. The New
Testament furnishes us with instances of consecration. Christians in
general are consecrated to the Lord, and are a holy race, a chosen
people, 1 Peter ii, 9. Ministers of the Gospel are in a peculiar manner
set apart for his service; and so are places of worship; the forms of
dedication varying according to the views of different bodies of
Christians; and by some a series of ceremonies has been introduced,
savouring of superstition, or at best of Judaism.
CONSUBSTANTIALISTS. This term was applied to the orthodox, or
Athanasians, who believed the Son to be of the same substance with the
Father; whereas the Arians would only admit the Son to be of like
substance with the Father.
CONSUBSTANTIATION, a tenet of the Lutheran church respecting the
presence of Christ in the Lord’s Supper. Luther denied that the elements
were changed after consecration, and therefore taught that the bread and
wine indeed remain; but that together with them, there is present the
substance of the body of Christ, which is literally received by
communicants. As in red-hot iron it may be said two distinct substances,
iron and fire, are united, so is the body of Christ joined with the
bread. Some of his followers, who acknowledged that similes prove
nothing, contented themselves with saying that the body and blood of
Christ are really present in the sacrament in an inexplicable manner.
See LORD’S SUPPER.
CONVERSATIONS. These were held by the orientals in the gate of the city.
Accordingly, there was an open space near the gate, which was fitted up
with seats for the accommodation of the people, Gen. xix, 1; Psalm lxix,
12. Those who were at leisure occupied a position on these seats, and
either amused themselves with witnessing those who came in and went out,
and with any trifling occurrences that might offer themselves to their
notice, or attended to the judicial trials, which were commonly
investigated at public places of this kind, namely, the gate of the
city, Gen. xix, 1; xxxiv, 20; Psalm xxvi, 4, 5; lxix, 12; cxxvii, 5;
Ruth iv, 11; Isaiah xiv, 31; or held intercourse by conversation.
Promenading, so fashionable and so agreeable in colder latitudes, was
wearisome and unpleasant in the warm climates of the east, and this is
probably one reason why the inhabitants of those climates preferred
holding intercourse with one another, while sitting near the gate of the
city, or beneath the shade of the fig tree and the vine, 1 Samuel xxii,
6; Micah iv, 4. The formula of assent in conversation was Σὺ εἶπας,
דברתכן, _Thou hast said_, or _Thou hast rightly said_. We are informed
by the traveller Aryda, that this is the prevailing mode of a person’s
expressing his assent or affirmation to this day, in the vicinity of
Mount Lebanon, especially where he does not wish to assert any thing in
express terms. This explains the answer of the Saviour to the high
priest Caiaphas in Matt. xxvi, 64, when he was asked whether he was the
Christ, the Son of God, and replied, Σὺ εἶπας, _Thou hast said_.
The English word conversation has now a more restricted sense than
formerly; and it is to be noted that in several passages of our
translation of the Bible it is used to comprehend our whole conduct.
CONVERSION, a change from one state or character to another. Conversion,
considered theologically, consists in a renovation of the heart and
life, or a being turned from sin and the power of Satan unto God, Acts
xxvi, 18; and is produced by the influence of divine grace upon the
soul. This is conversion considered as a state of mind; and is opposed
both to a careless and unawakened state, and to that state of conscious
guilt and slavish dread, accompanied with struggles after a moral
deliverance not yet attained, which precedes our justification and
regeneration; both of which are usually understood to be comprised in
conversion. But this is not the only Scriptural import of the term; for
the first _turning_ of the whole heart to God in penitence and prayer is
generally termed conversion. In its stricter sense, as given above, it
is, however, now generally used by divines.
CONVICTION, in general, is the assurance of the truth of any
proposition. In a religious sense, it is the first degree of repentance,
and implies an affecting sense of our guilt before God; and that we
deserve and are exposed to his wrath.
COPPER. נחשת. Anciently, copper was employed for all the purposes for
which we now use iron. Arms, and tools for husbandry and the mechanic
arts, were all of this metal for many ages. Job speaks of bows of
copper, Job xx, 24; and when the Philistines had Samson in their power,
they bound him with fetters of copper. Our translators indeed say
“brass;” but under that article their mistake is pointed out. In Ezra
viii, 27, are mentioned “two vessels of copper, precious as gold.” The
Septuagint renders it σκεύη χαλκοῦ ϛίλϐοντος; the Vulgate and Castellio,
following the Arabic, “_vasa æris fulgentis_;” and the Syriac, “vases of
Corinthian brass.” It is more probable, however, that this brass was not
from Corinth, but a metal from Persia or India, which Aristotle
describes in these terms: “It is said that there is in India a brass so
shining, so pure, so free from tarnish, that its colour differs nothing
from that of gold. It is even said that among the vessels of Darius
there were some respecting which the sense of smelling might determine
whether they were gold or brass.” Bochart is of opinion that this is the
_chasmal_ of Ezekiel i, 27, the χαλκολίϐανον of Rev. i, 15, and the
_electrum_ of the ancients.
Mr. Harmer quotes from the manuscript notes of Sir John Chardin a
reference to a mixed metal in the east, and highly esteemed there; and
suggests that this composition might have been as old as the time of
Ezra, and be brought from those more remote countries into Persia, where
these two basins were given to be conveyed to Jerusalem. Ezekiel, xxvii,
13, speaks of the merchants of Javan, Jubal, and Meshech, as bringing
vessels of _nehesh_ (copper) to the markets of Tyre. According to
Bochart and Michaëlis, these were people situated toward Mount Caucasus,
where copper mines are worked at this day. See BRASS.
COPTS, a name given to the Christians of Egypt who do not belong to the
Greek church, but are Monophysites, and in most respects Jacobites.
Scaliger and Father Simon derive the name from Coptos, once a celebrated
town of Egypt, and the metropolis of the Thebaid; but Volney and others
are of opinion, that the name _Copts_ is only an abbreviation of the
Greek word _Aigouptios_, “an Egyptian.” The Copts have a patriarch,
whose jurisdiction extends over both Egypts, Nubia, and Abyssinia; who
resides at Cairo, but who takes his title from Alexandria. He has under
him eleven or twelve bishops, beside the abuna, or bishop of the
Abyssinians, whom he appoints and consecrates. The rest of the clergy,
whether secular or regular, are composed of the orders of St. Anthony,
St. Paul, and St. Macarius, who have each their monasteries. Their
arch-priests, who are next in degree to bishops, and their deacons, are
said to be numerous; and they often confer the order of deacon even on
children. Next to the patriarch is the bishop, or titular patriarch, of
Jerusalem, who also resides at Cairo, because there are only few Copts
at Jerusalem. He is, in reality, little more than bishop of Cairo;
except that he goes to Jerusalem every Easter, and visits some other
places in Palestine, which own his jurisdiction. To him belongs the
government of the Coptic church, during the vacancy of the patriarchal
see. The ecclesiastics are said to be, in general, of the lowest ranks
of the people; and hence that great degree of ignorance which prevails
among them. They have seven sacraments; baptism, the eucharist,
confirmation, ordination, faith, fasting, and prayer. They admit only
three œcumenical councils; those of Nice, Constantinople, and
Ephesus. There are three Coptic liturgies; one attributed to St. Basil,
another to St. Gregory, and the third to St. Cyril. At present, however,
little more than the mere shadow of Christianity can be seen in Egypt;
and, in point of numbers, not more than fifty thousand Christians in all
can be found in this country. There are not more than three Christian
churches at Cairo.
CORAL, ראמות, Job xxviii, 18; Ezek. xxvii, 16; a hard, cretaceous,
marine production, resembling in figure the stem of a plant, divided
into branches. It is of different colours,--black, white, and red. The
latter is the sort emphatically called coral, as being the most
valuable, and usually made into ornaments. This, though no gem, is
ranked by the author of the book of Job, xxviii, 18, with the onyx and
sapphire. Dr. Good observes, “It is by no means certain what the words
here rendered ‘corals and pearls,’ and those immediately afterward
rendered ‘rubies and topaz,’ really signified. Reiske has given up the
inquiry as either hopeless or useless; and Schultens has generally
introduced the Hebrew words themselves, and left the reader of the
translation to determine as he may. Our common version is, in the main,
concurrent with most of the oriental renderings: and I see no reason to
deviate from it.”
CORBAN, קרבן, Mark vii, 11; from the Hebrew קרב, _to offer_, _to
present_. It denotes a gift, a present made to God, or to his temple.
The Jews sometimes swore by corban, or by gifts offered to God, Matt.
xxiii, 18. Theophrastus says that the Tyrians forbad the use of such
oaths as were peculiar to foreigners, and particularly of corban, which,
Josephus informs us, was used only by the Jews. Jesus Christ reproaches
the Jews with cruelty toward their parents, in making a corban of what
should have been appropriated to their use. For when a child was asked
to relieve the wants of his father or mother, he would often say, “It is
a gift,” corban, “by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me;” that
is, I have devoted that to God which you ask of me; and it is no longer
mine to give, Mark vii, 11. Thus they violated a precept of the moral
law, through a superstitious devotion to Pharisaic observances, and the
wretched casuistry by which they were made binding upon the conscience.
CORIANDER, גד, Exod. xvi, 31; Num. xi, 7; a strongly aromatic plant. It
bears a small round seed, of a very agreeable smell and taste. The manna
might be compared to the coriander seed in respect to its form or shape,
as it was to bdellium in its colour. See MANNA.
CORINTH, a celebrated city, the capital of Achaia, situated on the
isthmus which separates the Peloponnesus from Attica. This city was one
of the best peopled and most wealthy of Greece. Its situation between
two seas drew thither the trade of both the east and west. Its riches
produced pride, ostentation, effeminacy, and all vices, the consequences
of abundance. For its insolence to the Roman legates, it was destroyed
by L. Mummius. In the burning of it, so many statues of different metals
were melted together, that they produced the famous Corinthian brass. It
was afterward restored to its former splendour by Julius Cæsar.
Christianity was first planted at Corinth by St. Paul, who resided here
eighteen months, between the years 51 and 53; during which time he
enjoyed the friendship of Aquila and his wife Priscilla, two Jewish
Christians, who had been expelled from Italy, with other Jews, by an
edict of Claudius. The church consisted both of Jews and of Gentiles;
but St. Paul began, as usual, by preaching in the synagogue, until the
Jews violently opposed him, and blasphemed the name of Christ; when the
Apostle, shaking his garment, and declaring their blood to be upon their
own heads, left them, and made use afterward of a house adjoining the
synagogue, belonging to a man named Justus. The rage of the Jews,
however, did not stop here; but, raising a tumult, they arrested Paul,
and hurrying him before the tribunal of the pro-consul Gallio, the
brother of the famous Seneca, accused him of persuading men to worship
God contrary to the law. But Gallio, who was equally indifferent both to
Judaism and Christianity, and finding that Paul had committed no breach
of morality, or of the public peace, refused to hear their complaint,
and drove them all from the judgment seat. The Jews being thus
disappointed in their malicious designs, St. Paul was at liberty to
remain some time longer at Corinth; and after his departure, Apollos, a
zealous and eloquent Jewish convert of Alexandria, was made a powerful
instrument in confirming the church, and in silencing the opposition of
the Jews, Acts xviii. How much it stood in need of such support, is
evident from the Epistles of St. Paul; who cautions the Corinthians
against divisions and party spirit; fornication, incest, partaking of
meats offered to idols, thereby giving an occasion of scandal, and
encouragement to idolatry; abusing the gifts of the Spirit,
litigiousness, &c. The Corinthians, indeed, were in great danger: they
lived at ease, free from every kind of persecution, and were exposed to
much temptation. The manners of the citizens were particularly corrupt:
they were, indeed, infamous to a proverb. In the centre of the city was
a celebrated temple of Venus, a part of whose worship consisted in
prostitution; for there a thousand priestesses of the goddess ministered
to dissoluteness under the patronage of religion: an example which gave
the Corinthians very lax ideas on the illicit intercourse of the sexes.
Corinth also possessed numerous schools of philosophy and rhetoric; in
which, as at Alexandria, the purity of the faith by an easy and natural
process, became early corrupted.
There occurs a chronological difficulty in the visits of St. Paul to
Corinth. In 2 Cor. xii, 14, and xiii, 1, 2, the Apostle expresses his
design of visiting that city a third time; whereas only one visit before
the date of the Second Epistle is noticed in the Acts, xviii, 1, about
A. D. 51; and the next time that he visited Greece, Acts xx, 2, about A.
D. 57, no mention is made of his going to Corinth. Mr. Horne observes on
this subject, “It has been conjectured by Grotius, and Drs. Hammond and
Paley, that his First Epistle virtually supplied the place of his
presence; and that it is so represented by the Apostle in a
corresponding passage, 1 Cor. v, 3. Admitting this solution to be
probable, it is, however, far-fetched, and is not satisfactory as a
matter of fact. Michaëlis has produced another, more simple and natural;
namely, that Paul, on his return from Crete, visited Corinth a second
time before he went to winter at Nicopolis. This second visit is
unnoticed in the Acts, because the voyage itself is unnoticed. The third
visit, promised in 2 Cor. xii, 14, and xiii, 1, 2, was actually paid on
the Apostle’s second return to Rome, when he took Corinth in his way, 2
Tim. iv, 20. ‘Thus critically,’ says Dr. Hales, ‘does the book of the
Acts harmonize, even in its omissions, with the epistles; and these with
each other, in the minute incidental circumstances of the third visit.’”
About A. D. 268, the Heruli burned Corinth to ashes. In 525, it was
again almost ruined by an earthquake. About 1180, Roger, king of Sicily,
took and plundered it. Since 1458, it was till lately under the power of
the Turks; and is so decayed, that its inhabitants amount to no more
than about fifteen hundred, or two thousand; half Mohammedans, and half
Christians. A late French writer, who visited this country, observes,
“When the Cæsars rebuilt the walls of Corinth, and the temples of the
gods rose from their ruins more magnificent than ever, an obscure
architect was rearing in silence an edifice which still remains standing
amidst the ruins of Greece. This man, unknown to the great, despised by
the multitude, rejected as the offscouring of the world, at first
associated himself with only two companions, Crispus and Gaius, and with
the family of Stephanas. These were the humble architects of an
indestructible temple, and the first believers at Corinth. The traveller
surveys the site of this celebrated city; he discovers not a vestige of
the altars of Paganism, but perceives some Christian chapels rising from
among the cottages of the Greeks. The Apostle might still, from his
celestial abode, give the salutation of peace to his children, and
address them in the words, ‘Paul to the church of God, which is at
Corinth.’”
CORINTHIANS, _Epistles to_. St. Paul left Corinth A. D. 53 or 54, and
went to Jerusalem. From Ephesus he wrote his First Epistle to the
Corinthians, in the beginning of A. D. 56. In this epistle he reproves
some who disturbed the peace of the church, complains of some disorders
in their assemblies, of law suits among them, and of a Christian who had
committed incest with his mother-in-law, the wife of his father, and had
not been separated from the church. This letter produced in the
Corinthians great grief, vigilance against the vices reproved, and a
very beneficial dread of God’s anger. They repaired the scandal, and
expressed abundant zeal against the crime committed, 2 Cor. vii, 9–11.