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"the providence of God, who is able to preferve you, "and will (without any interpofition of yours) "fufficiently avenge you. Nay, let the injury be "what it will, be it ever fo great and unfupport

able, never apply your felves to magistrates and "laws, to gratify a revengeful humour; never pro"fecute merely for the fake of punishing; but either "for the publick good (feparate from all ends of "private paffion) or to obtain a necessary repara❝tion for the damages ye have really received. Nor "is this all, that ye abftain from returning evil "for evil; ye muft even relieve the neceffities of "fuch an injurious perfon. If by his circumftan❝ces he be brought to beg of you, give him free❝ly and cheerfully; if he defire to borrow, refufe "not to lend him; laying afide all grudges at the "evil he has done you: for my religion obliges c you to be charitable both to friends and ene

❝mies.

I fuppofe in explaining of this paragraph farther there will be no need to prove here the lawfulness of wars, wherein the publick honour and intereft is concerned: Nor that the prohibition does not extend to magiftrates punishing ill men according to the laws of their country: for they are deputed by the authority of God, to whom vengeance belongs,* to execute wrath upon him that does evil, and they are not to bear the fword in vain. But that which feems in general to be the view of this whole paragraph, is to reftrain all perfonal refentments and revenges, and to inculcate that we should not do an hard, a mischievous, or a vexatious thing to any one, because he hath done the like to us, where many times our own good is not fo much confidered as the others hurt; for the word avlsn-' vai fignifies rather to oppose evil to evil, than to

Rom. xiii. 4.

ward.

ward off an injury. But there being four diftinct precepts or directions included here, we will confider them feverally.

I. THE firft is, what a Chriftian must do who is injured in his perfon, by blows, or words of contempt, expreffed by ftriking on the one cheek. Now the laws of every country taking cognizance of all injuries betwixt man and man, that carry a real damage along with them, and having provided fuch a fatisfaction proportionable, as fhalf reftrain the offender's infolence, vindicate the perfon wrong'd, and make up the damage he has fuffered; we are first to confider whether the grievance we have to complain of, be fuch as the cool and unprejudiced juftice of those laws have thought great enough to deserve a legal remedy. If it be fuch, our Saviour does not here forbid us to apply to the magiftrate in defence and maintenance of our right; for he himself, when he was injurioufly ftricken by the high priest's fervant, * protefted in open court a-gainst fuch ufage. But if it be fo fmall an injury, that the laws have taken no notice of it, our holy Mafter requires that we should rather put it up, than offer to revenge it. And though the words are not to be taken in so strict and literal a fenfe, as if we were bound industriously to give an infolent offender opportunities for a fecond injury, and to folicit new abuses from him: yet thus far we must extend the precept, that no real or pretended fear or probability of his taking advantage, from our patience under one abufe, to add another, fhould in any wife prompt us to revenge and retaliation. We muft refer our felves to God, and bear with every thing that happens, rather than break through fo plain, direct, and pofitive a command as we have:

* John xviii. 22, 23.

here,

here, not to return evil for evil. This will doubtlefs be thought an hard faying, by those who thro' a long indulged and humoured tenderness for themfelves, have wrought the conftitution of their minds to fuch a temper they can bear nothing. But who can help it? Religion, as it proceeds from God, must be an authoritative rule: our paffions therefore are entirely to be govern'd by it, and not that rule bent to a compliance with our paffions. "Tis impoffible to avoid reflecting here upon that moft unchriftian, barbarous, and fenfelefs practice of duelling, whereby two lives, or more, are staked by way of fatisfaction for affronts; which not only a difciple of Chrift is bound to forgive, but even a prudent heathen would think it below him to regard. The great pretence is honour, but the notion of honour wretchedly mistaken and abused. True honour has by all wife men been thought to confift in fuch a greatness of mind, as carries a man above the refentment of contempts and injuries. And certainly it requires a greater thare of courage to pas by an affront, than to revenge it, because the difficulty is greater. Now the proper object of courage is difficulty, as the proper fpring and principle it iffues from is honour: and therefore the conqueft of a man's paffion being harder, beyond comparison, than the indulgence of them, courage is most fhewn in fuch a conqueft, and that must be the trueft honour, that infpires with fuch a courage; nor can any thing be more oppofite to both, than is that peevish weakness, that is ruffled and difcompofed at every affront, and enflaves men continually to their own pride and other mens ill-nature. But befide this grand mistake of the duellift, in his notion of honour and courage, the practice of fuch men is as defective in common juftice and equity: for what proportion is there betwixt the trifling injury that provokes them (too infignificant, it feems, for

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human laws to take the cognizance of) and the life of a man, in the deftruction, or at leaft in the hazard of which they place their fatisfaction. Laftly, they confider not to how little purpose this wild fcheme of fatisfaction really ferves. Their end must be either revenge, reparation of the damage received, or defence of their reputation. If the firft, 'tis the revenge of a mad-man, that will fire his enemy's house the very next to him, which in all probability will communicate the flames to his own, and burn that too, or at leaft apparently endanger it. If reparation of the damage be aim'd at, or defence of reputation; fuppofe he kill his enemy, what does he get by it? or how does that retrieve his credit? Will that wash off the afperfion, take off the blow, or prove the lie to have been falfly given? Not at all. His fuffering by the affront or injury, is ftill juft as great as the offender's infolence left it. What I have hitherto faid, are arguments from reafon only, againft fuch a practice: And I might add, it were enough to reftrain a good and wife man from it, that thereby he acts contrary to the laws of the land, in defiance of the government under which he lives, and is protected from whatever can reasonably be look'd upon as an injury that deferves to have any notice taken of it. But were this not fo, and that no arguments could be drawn from reafon or human laws againft duelling; if it was really difhonourable not to fight; if declining it would, as is fometimes objected, expofe a man to farther abuses; if duels were not fought upon the account of fuch trifling injuries, as generally they are; if engaging in them would repair a lofs, or wipe off a difgrace, or be indeed a fuitable revenge to a revengeful temper; yet furely there is fomething that with a Chriftian fhould outbalance all, that duelling is directly contrary to his holy profeffion, which requires patience under difgrace

and

and reproaches. And no perfon deferves the character of a difciple of the fuffering and forgiving Jefus, who acts contrary to the whole tenor of his religion, and facrilegiously ufurps the right of God, who has referved the power of vengeance to himfelf, having faid, Vengeance is mine, I will repay.

II. THE fecond precept, or direction, concerning our behaviour under wrongs, is when we are injured in our properties, when our goods or eftates are taken from us either privately, or under colour of law, expreffed here by the taking away of the coat. In this cafe there is a greater liberty of infifting upon redrefs and reparation, than in the former: the courts of juftice are open, and the authority of the laws may be appeal'd to, and the injurious be forc'd to reftitution. The precept here is not against all going to law: for courts to determine right of property and poffeffion, as they are neceffary, confidering the violence and rapacious temper of fome men, and contribute very much to the good order of the world, are doubtlefs agreeable in the nature, defign, and ufe of them, to the God of order and justice. And being fo, perhaps it may be thought there is no great danger in exceeding in the ufe we make of them; for fince we owe a juftice to our felves and our families, as well as to others; and fince going to law is a lawful method of doing our felves right, how (may fome fay) can any man be to blame in taking all advantages the law will give him? But permit me the liberty of anfwering in the words of an Apostle, equally true of this as of what himself applies it to, * The law is good, if a man ufe it lawfully. Christianity has directed certain bounds and rules of moderation, which ought to be carefully obferved in this

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