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.
But granting the sin to be as venial as indeed ‘tis heinous; (and that by using Curses men did not merit them) yet certainly the Multitude of Cleander’s Faults would give them that Danger that is pretended to be wanting to their Nature; and he that considers that those little drops of Rain, which single seem but so many Liquid Atoms, do often (united by their Confluence) swell into Torrents, nay, (sometimes) into Deluges, will easily believe that Curses cannot but be extremely criminal in that Cleander, that curses as if (Deut. 11. 29) he were an Inhabitant of Mount Ebal; and who is so resolved not to keep the Devil’s Counsel by concealing any impious suggestions, that were but his Prayers as frequent as his Curses, he would seem to obey literally (1 Thes. 5. 17) that qualified Injunction of the Apostle, of praying without ceasing.
I might add, that in most of these Imprecations, God’s Sacred Name being clearly taken in vain, renders these Ebalites guilty of the breach as well of the Second Commandment of the First, as of the great Commandment of the Second Table; unless they will justify themselves from that Crime, by the owning of a worse; I mean, demonstrate, That they did not employ God’s Name to no purpose, by confessing they employ’d it to a bad one.
And now this last Consideration leads me to that of the Unreasonableness of Cursing; For it is not a fit thing, that upon every little Accident that Cleander’s vex’d at, the Creatures of God must instantly change Masters, and devolve to the Devil. Were it not very just, that God should be the Executioner of all the rash Decrees his pettish Passion makes; and his Creator’s Power should have no other Employment, but to run on Errands (at the Moody Gentleman’s beck) often repugnant to his Justice, and ever to his Mercy?
Nay, how often has Cleander in his Passion wish’d things, whose Accomplishment himself confesses would have made him miserable? And is it then either the part of a Good Man to make Wishes that are unlawful, or for a Wise Man to frame Desires of which he need repent the Grant? One Imprecation amongst the rest Cleander’s very ready in, which (with as little Caution as he commonly observes) I would not have pronounc’d for as many Kingdoms as he has us’d it times, and that’s, The Devil take me. For should God (as we are sure he may, and know not but that he will) give the Devil leave to take him at his word, in what a case were he? And what Curb shall we henceforward think strong enough to bridle his Corruption, when what to the wickedest is the greatest Terror, he makes his wish?
There was some years since in Geneva, an Italian, (both by Extraction and Humour) who riding a handsome Mare in a solitary Angle, was by the Devil seduc’d to stallion her himself. The Fact once done, the Horror of a Crime that made him more a Beast than that on which he acted it, transported him so far, as to make him give himself to the Devil, if ever after he relaps’d: But some while after, forgetting both his Conscience, and the condition of his Vow, he was fatally tempted to repeat his former Beastliness in the self-same place; which he had scarce compleated, before the Devil appearing to him visibly, remembers him of his forgotten Promise, and claims the Forfeiture: The trembling Wretch, to avoid the being hurried away instantly from the Hell he felt, to that he fear’d, compounds with the Devil to resign him his Soul at the expiration of a limited Reprieve: But before that time came to be effluxt, it pleased God to visit both himself and the place of his Residence with the Plague; which rowzing his sear’d and lethargick Conscience, forc’d him to expressions of his Anguish unusual enough to make his Companions inquisitive into the Cause; which having fully and circumstantially confest, he was after his Recovery, upon that Evidence, accus’d of having carnally abus’d a Beast, and having made a Compact with the Devil; which latter, though upon a Repentance suitable to his Sin, God’s Mercy did disannul, yet the Justice of the Magistrate did for the former Crime condemn him to a Death he richly had deserved, and penitently endured. This Story I thought not impertinent to instance in, to teach us how dangerous and unsafe it is to present that to the Devil, for which Christ shed his Blood; and (with more wariness than Cleander can pretend to) to offer that to one that is greedy to snatch (and therefore surely willing to accept) that which the whole business of Religion is to defend and rescue from his Attempts. The Story it self may teach us, that though we are never to despair of God’s Mercy, we are as seldom to provoke his Justice. I have given it you in the very Words of our Friend Mr. Boyle, who had it upon the place from an excellent Divine of that Republick; to whom the Delinquent himself confest it, as to him that was assign’d to comfort and assist him at his Death. And the Instances are not unfrequent in the most credited Authors, of those whose Imprecations God has punish’d by granting them.
But I had almost forgot to mention one opportunity to which the Devil is indebted for a vast number of Cleander’s Curses, and that’s his Gaming; for the least Frown of Chance upon him then, gives Fire to whole Volleys of Curses against Fortune; if at least they deserve not a more heinous Title than barely that of Curses, who in severer mens Opinions are guilty of an (at least) Implicite Blaspheming; since Solomon (Prov. 16. 33) does discreetly affirm, That all these cross and happy Lucks at Play are not rashly or designlesly shuffled by a blind Hazard, but are dispensed by an All-ruling Providence.
I determine not here, Whether these Words of the Wise Man (according to the receiv’d Opinion of Divines) may be extended to an absolute Sentence of Condemnation against all Games of Hazard; but this I know, that (not to insist on that Injunction of God to the Jews, Be circumspect, and make no mention of the names of (Exod. 23: 13) other gods, neither let it be heard out of thy mouth;) it is very unfit that under the Sunshine of Christianity, we should build or repair the ruin’d Altars of depos’d Chance, and acknowledge a blind Deity; that under the abused name of Fortune, Fools anciently were pleas’d to create a Goddess, and sinners now dissemble to mistake for some such thing, that they may unreproved controul and censure those Heavenly Dispensations their proud and peevish natures are displeased with. I know that many unforeseen Accidents, which the Ignorant Vulgar do impute to Fortune, are by God in the Scriptures ascribed to Providence: And therefore you must give me leave, both to take notice of, and disapprove that ungrateful expression of our Language, wherein (to justify our Unthankfulness for the Benefits we have received) we use to call God’s Blessing to a man in his outward Possessions, his Fortune; as if our Estates were Gifts blindly cast on us by the rash Profuseness of that fond Deity, and not the Emanations of God’s Bounty, and Presents of his Providence.5 Old Jacob’s Gratitude speaketh another strain, and will not mention his Wealth (though never so justly the Wages of his prosper’d Industry) without acknowledging it for the Gift of God.
But since this much-abused Name of Fortune has presented it self in my way, I dare not take leave of it, till I have express’d a desire that men would be more wary how they defame her, lest through the sides of Fortune they affront Providence. If Fortune under the common Notion, had fee’d me to be her Advocate, I should alledge, That Gamesters of all others, have the least Justice to complain of her Disfavours, since the Success of the one absolutely depending upon the Losses of the other, they themselves reduce Fortune to a Necessity of disobliging some of them, by rendring it impossible for her to content them all. And I would add, That what we fondly call her Inconstancy, when she sometimes forsakes those she once smil’d on, is much more properly to be ascribed to the Justice of her Goodness, and the Extensiveness of her Affection to men; since seeing she is not able to make them all compleatly happy at once, at least she endeavours to make them fortunate by turns, and for some Intervals of time.
Nor is it her Fickleness, that in pursuance of this impartial Love she seems to desert her former Favourites, when she confers her Favours on new Persons, since she bereaves not the first possessors of them with intention, but only by consequent; as being not able to lend her benefits to new Necessities, without redemanding them of her former Debtors; whom, otherwise, she has as little design to offend by this transplacing of her bounties, as the Sun has to benight the Antipodes, when to bring Light into our Hemisphere he is necessitated to leave them in darkness.
‘Tis not the malice or instability of Fortune, but our mistakes of the nature of her Presents, that occasion our Complaints; for we mistaking those Benefits for absolutely given to us, which are indeed but deposited in our hands, repine and murmur at their restitution, instead of being thankful for their Loan, and having had their use. And surely they that pretend to be so perfect in her inconstancy, must be guilty of more madness in trusting her, than she can be of treachery in deceiving them.
But were I to frame an Apology to vindicate Fortune under the notion of Providence, I might represent, that what we attribute of her envious partiality, when she does shower most Favours on those that least deserve them, is but the effect of God’s immenser Bounty, that gives even them a larger portion of Pleasures in this life, to whom he reserves none at all in the next; and withal casts a disesteem upon these glittering Goods, Fools over-value, by heaping them upon his very Enemies.
I might farther alledge, That what our discontents, call Fortune’s Spitefulness, and her Injustice, when she seems to persecute those most, that are most Virtuous, is in effect but God’s Care of his Children, which by these Afflictions both Exercises and improves their Piety, secures them from the Allurements of Prosperity, endears his Assistances and his Recompences by these difficulties; which both add Lustre to their Victories, and make their Vertues more Exemplary and more Meritorious.
And (Lastly) I might say, That what we miscall Inconstancy in Fortune, when her Changes invalidate the title of Prescription to her Favours, and make their residence (when possess’d) as incertain as their wish’d stay is welcome; is indeed but a merciful stratagem of Providence, to wean us from a dangerous fondness of these transitory Goods; lest if the continuance of their fruition were as certain as the contentments of it are great, we should by neglecting forfeit all nobler joys, and lose far greater Pleasures reserved for us in Heaven.
But we have too long wandered from our Theme; let us return to Cleander and his Cursing; which over and above those other good qualities we have already observ’d in it, has that of being a Sin as useless as it is Unchristian. All other Vices have something to extenuate their Guilt; all other Sinners serve Satan for his Pay; but the Curser, (as the Swearer) is the Devil’s Volunteer, valuing his Soul so cheaply, that some suspect, that the reason of its stay in the Body, is, that the Devil scarce thinks it worth the fetching: And certainly, Esau’s (Gen. 25. 33) Bargain, who sold his Birth-right for a Mess of Pottage, becomes no more absurd when parallell’d to this; which makes those it Damns as much admir’d for their folly, as tormented for their sins, and so casts upon them the imputation of Madness, that it deprives them of the privilege of Mad-men; for whereas Frantick Persons (who innocently act all Crimes) may Kill men without Murther, the Curser (on the other side) does Murther without Killing.
Cleander may indeed give himself to the Devil by his Curses, but never his Enemy; for if Solomon’s Authority be credited in this point, we shall believe that, as (Prov. 26. 2) the bird by wandering, as the swallow by flying, so the curse causless shall not come. But the best on’t is, that these Intentional Sins, for being ineffectual against others, divest not the being criminal in themselves: For the Curser is as uncharitable to himself as to his Enemies; he commits Murders without acting them; and contracts the Guilt of his Neighbours Blood, without shedding it; and incurs the Penalty, without once tasting the Sweetness of Revenge. For ‘tis not only in Good that God accepts the Will for the Deed; he makes the same reception to our Endeavours and Designs of Ill. And justly may God punish the Ill by us intended, tho by him prevented, since that disappointment in which we think to find our justification, is not the effect of our want of Malice, but our want of Power, and so does not excuse our Ill, but magnifies God’s Goodness. Let us therefore cease to wonder, that whilst we curse one another, our Maker curses us; and that the Plague is so raging in our Houses, so long as it is so rife in our Mouths: But rather let us tremble at that dismal Fate, that David praying against his Enemies, Prophecies against God’s. As he loved Cursing (says he) so (Psal. 109. 17, 18) let it come unto him: as he delighted not in Blessing, so let it be far from him: As he Cloathed himself with Cursing, like as with his Garment, So let it come into his Bowels like Water, and like Oil into his Bones.
I might yet further alledge, That Curses are of so culpable a Nature, that their very Apology concludes them Guilty, by Pleading them to be Idle Words: And I might add to all the past (Matt. 12. 36) Dissuasives, The Ill Repute that Curses gain a man, amongst the most Scrupulous and Preciser sort of People, who judging of the greatness of the Vice, by the smallness of the Advantage that is derivable from it, will hardly believe him to be the owner of much Piety, that will Slight it upon so little a Temptation. And those of our Divines that hold Curses to be the Dialect of the Reprobates in Hell, will think it but an ominous Piece of Providence in Cleander to imitate Travellers, who use to accustom themselves before-hand to the Language of those Climes they design to Visit. But the last Consideration that I shall employ to persuade you to divest, with the Practice of using Curses, the means of Provoking them, and the Fears of suffering them; is that of the scandal this vicious Custom gives to weaker Christians. And as the former Considerations relate properly to Cleander, so this I must more peculiarly address to You, whose Vertues have acquir’d you so high a Reverence, that they have put it in your Power, not only to excuse, but almost to Canonize the worst Actions by your Example; and therefore ought to make you so much the more Wary and Strict in your Behaviour: Since men believing it impossible to fail in imitating you, your Exemplary Faults will contract a deeper Guilt by being Presidents, than by being Sins.
But, Sir, lest I should give you too Just an occasion to encrease the number of your Curses, by bestowing some fresh ones upon my tediousness, I will now put a Period to your trouble, by saying to you as once our Saviour did to the young man in the Gospel, (that so resembled you in the Possession of so many Vertues) One thing thon lackest (yet); and that one thing in (Mat. 10. 21) you is but, by Sacrificing your Habitude of Cursing, to make your self capable of as transcendent Blessings as constantly are implor’d for you, by
SIR, Your most Affectionate, most Faithful, and most Humble Servant, W. D.