The Self-avenger

I came across these words while reading John Owen on ‘The Glory of Christ’. They occur in a chapter in which he is contrasting seeing the glory of Christ by faith in this world and seeing it by sight in that to come. Here he is speaking about the heavenly vision: ‘The mouth of iniquity shall be stopped for ever, and the voice of the self-avenger shall be heard no more. Wherefore, the vision which we shall have in heaven of the glory of Christ is serene, - always the same, always new and indeficient, wherein nothing can disturb the mind in the most perfect operations of a blessed life.’ Although I have quoted these two sentences, to add the positive to the negative, what struck me forcibly were the words ‘the self-avenger’. Who or what is this? It can hardly be the devil, though he may involved somewhere in encouraging what the self-avenger says. It cannot surely be conscience pure and simple. Conscience, however, can be over-scrupulous; it can condemn where no condemnation is required, it can trouble where it ought to be satisfied. Conscience is affected by sin, just as every other faculty is; it is never perfect in its judgements, and while it can be too lenient and too easily quietened in some, it can also be over-zealous and trouble a believer unnecessarily. What a blessing it will be to find the self-avenger silenced for ever.