Sir,
I Have too much Passion for your Person, to have any Complaisance for your Faults; and still have lov’d you at so high a rate, that I had rather hazard the Loss of your Affection, than decline any Proofs of the Reality of mine. ‘Tis not that I am not as unwilling to employ Censure, as I am confident you will be troubled to have necessitated it from me; but (all consider’d) I have too much Friendship, to have Courtship enough to let slip so fair an opportunity as your forc’d Conversation with Cleander, to shew you in him the Deformity of a Vice, from which I wish you were as free as from all other Crimes.
Certainly, if Curses were as much the Badges of a Gentleman as he thinks them, men would not guess him to be of a lower Order than that of Emperors: And if the Devil were to fetch all those he bids him Take, his Water-Dog would not have half so busy an Employment; Hell would have cause to praise his Liberality; and were not Satan still the Father of Lies, he could not but acknowledge, That none of the Seven Deadly Sins, (nor perhaps all together) sent thither half so many. If I thought Cleander would take it for a Dissuasion, that I proved Cursing to be a Sin, I could be as ready to bring Prohibitions of it out of Scripture, as he is to transgress them. The Prophet David (imitated by the Apostle Paul) makes it the Character of the wicked, That his mouth1 is full of cursing. And in another place, That they curse inwardly. And suitably to his own Doctrine, when Shimei (equalling2 his Curses to the Number of his steps) rail’d at him with as many Imprecations as he deserved Blessings, he did not (to speak St. Peter’s Language) render (1 Pet. 3. 9) evil for evil, or railing for railing; but only answers, Let him curse, it may be the Lord will (2 Sam. 16. 11, 12) look upon mine affliction, and that the Lord will requite me good for his cursing this day. Our Saviour commands us to bless even those (Mat. 5. 44) that curse us; nay, bless them that persecute you. Bless (says St. Paul) (Rom. 12. 14) and curse not. And to shew you that it was not only his Precept but his Practice, being reviled (says he) we bless; being persecuted (1 Cor. 4. 12, 13) we suffer it; being defam’d we intreat. Imagine then you hear the Apostle saying, as in one place he does, Be ye followers3 of me, as I also am of Christ; who (says another Apostle) when (1 Pet. 2. 23) he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatned not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously. And in effect, when upon the Samaritan Clowns refusal to receive Christ, the two Fiery-spirited Disciples desired (Luke 9. 54, 55) leave to call down Fire from Heaven (to consume those by the Fury of that active Element, who refus’d Entertainment to him that created it) our Saviour answers, but with a Rebuke, and telling them, That they knew not what manner of spirit they were of.
If then, in spite of Provocations we are enjoin’d to return Prayers for Maledictions, sure we that are forbidden to retribute Curses, are much more prohibited to lavish them. And if we will take the pains to shrive, and to look back into their Pedigree, we may discern in them a Hereditary Guiltiness, and shall find them sinful (if I may so speak) by Traduction, they being but the Emanations and Sallies of a Temper extremely unconsonant to Christianity; of which our Saviour makes Love (John 13. 35) the distinguishing Signature: And St. Paul tells us, That the end of (1 Tim. 1. 5) the commandment is charity. Of which in another place he gives this Character, That Charity suffereth4 long, and is kind; doth not behave it self unseemly, beareth all things, is not easily provok’d; with many other properties of the same nature. Insomuch, that St. John scruples not to affirm, that if a man say, I love God, and (1 John 4. 20) hateth his brother, he is a lyar; (as concorporating things inconsistent, and uniting things distanter than the two Poles of Heaven): And therefore when St. James, speaking of the Tongue with a certain kind of wonder, in these terms, Therewith bless we (James 3. 9, 10) God, even the father; and therewith curse we men that are made after the similitude of God: Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing; he adds, My brethren these things ought not so to be. And surely too, the Gospel teaches us, that these Assassinates and Murders of the Heart, for being Bloodless are not therefore Guiltless.