They had that which examined them as to what they had done: Their conscience also bearing witness. They had that within them which approved and commended what was well done and which reproached them for what was done amiss. Conscience is a witness, and first or last will bear witness, though for a time it may be bribed or brow-beaten. It is instead of a thousand witnesses, testifying of that which is most secret; and their thoughts accusing or excusing, passing a judgment upon the testimony of conscience by applying the law to the fact. Conscience is that candle of the Lord which was not quite put out, no, not in the Gentile world.
The heathen have witnessed to the comfort of a good conscience.
Hic murus ahoncus esto,
Nil conscire sibi
Be this thy brazen bulwark of defence,
Still to preserve thy conscious innocence.
Horace.
and to the terror of a bad one:
Quos diri consein facti
Mens habet attonitos, et surdo verbere cædit
No lash is heard, and yet the guilty heart
Is tortur'd with a self-inflicted smart.
Juvenal Satires 13
Juvenal Satires 13
Their thoughts the meanwhile, metaxy allelon - among themselves, or one with another. The same light and law of nature that witnesses against sin in them, and witnessed against it in others, accused or excused one another. Vicissim, so some read it, by turns; according as they observed or broke these natural laws and dictates, their consciences did either acquit or condemn them. All this did evince that they had that which was to them instead of a law, which they might have been governed by, and which will condemn them, because they were not so guided and governed by it. So that the guilty Gentiles are left without excuse. God is justified in condemning them. They cannot plead ignorance, and therefore are likely to perish if they have not something else to plead.
Commentary on Romans 2