to the country; and they that know you, will be as glad when the world is rid of you, as when an adder or a toad is killed. But if your end be only to right yourselves, and to reclaim your enemy, or reform your brother, fury and re venge is not the way. God hath appointed governors to do justice in commonwealths and families, and to those you may repair, and not take upon you to revenge yourselves. And God himself is the most righteous governor of all the world, and to him you may confidently refer the case, when magistrates and rulers fail you; and his judgment will be soon enough and severe enough. And if you would rather have your neighbour reclaimed than destroyed, it is love and gentleness that is the way, with peaceable convictions, and such reasonings as shew that you desire his good. Overcome him with kindness, if you would melt him into repentance, and heap coals of fire on his head. If thy enemy. hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: this is overcoming evil with good, (and not by beastly fury to overcome him); but when you are drawn to sinful passion and revenge, you are overcome of evil". If you would do good, it must be by good, and not by evil.

Consid. XVIII. Remember also how little you are concerned in the words or actions of other men towards you, in comparison of your carriage to yourselves and them.' You have greater matters to mind, than your little sufferings by them; even the preserving of your innocency and your peace with God. It is your own actions, and not theirs that you must answer for. You shall not be condemned for suffering wrong, but for doing wrong you may. All their injuries against you, make you not the less esteemed of God, and therefore diminish not your felicity: it is themselves that they mortally wound, even to damnation, if they impenitently oppress another; keep yourselves and you keep your salvation, whatever others do against you.

Consid. xIx. Remember that injuries are your trials and temptations;' God trieth you by them, and satan tempteth you by them. God trieth your love, and patience, and obedience; that you may be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect, and may be indeed his children, while you "love your enemies, and bless them that curse you, and do

h Rom. xii. 19-21.

you

good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you;" and being tried may receive the crown of life. And satan on the other side is at work, to try whether he can draw you by injuries to impatiency, and to hatred, malice, revenge or cruelty, and so damn your souls by the hurting of your bodies. And when you foreknow his design, will you let him overcome? Hear every provoking word that is given you, and every injury that is done unto you, as if a messenger from satan were sent to buffet you, or to speak that provoking language in his name; and as if he said to you, 'I come from the devil to call thee all that is naught and to abuse thee, and to try whether I can thus provoke thee to passion, malice, railing or revenge, to sin against God and damn thy soul.' If you knew one came to you from the devil on this errand, tell me how you would entertain him. And do you not know that this is indeed the case? "Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer; behold the devil shall cast some of you into prison that ye may be tried, and ye shall have tribulation ten days; be thou faithful to the death and I will give thee a crown of life." As trying imprisonments, so all other trying injuries are from the devil by God's permission, whoever be his instruments; and will you be overcome by him when you foreknow the end of his attempts?

Consid. xx. Lastly, set before you the example of our Lord Jesus Christ:' see whether he was addicted to wrath and malice, hurtfulness or revenge. If you will not imitate him, you are none of his disciples; nor will he be your Saviour. A serious view of the holy pattern of love, and meekness, and patience, and forgiveness, which is set before us in the life of Christ, is a most powerful remedy against malice and revenge; and will cure it, if any thing will cure it. "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God,——yet made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant." "Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind"." "For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God, endure grief, suffering wrongfully; for what glory is it if when ye

i Matt. v. 44, 45

in Phil. ii. 5-7.

k James i. 3, 4. 12.

n 1 Pet. iv. 1.

1 Rev. ii. 10,

be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently: but if when ye do well and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. For even hereunto ye were called; because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an ensample that ye should follow in his steps; who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth; who when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not, but committed it to him that judgeth righteously." Think not to live and reign with Christ, if you will not follow him, and suffer with him. It is impudent presumption and not faith, to look to be like the saints in glory, while you are like the devil in malice and cruelty.

CHAPTER X.

Cases resolved about forgiving Injuries and Debts, and about Self-defence, and seeking Right by Law or otherwise.

THE Cases about forgiving, and revenging, are many, and some of them difficult: I shall resolve those of ordinary use in our practice, and pass by the rest.

Quest. I. ، Is a man bound to forgive all injuries and damages that are done him? If not, What injuries be they which every man is bound to forgive?'

Answ. To both these questions I briefly answer, 1. We must distinguish between a crime or sin against God, and the common good; and an injury or damage to ourselves. 2. And between public justice and private revenge. 3. And between those damages which fall upon myself only, and those that by me redound to others, (as wife or children, &c.) 4. And between the remitting of a punishment, and the remitting of reparations of my loss. 5. And between the various punishments to be remitted. He that will confound any of these shall sooner deceive himself and others, than resolve the doubts.

Prop. 1. It frequently falleth out, that it is not in our power to remit the penalty of a crime; no, not the temporal penalty. For this is a wrong to God the universal Gover

• 1 Pet. ii. 19-25.

nór, and God only can forgive it, and man no farther than God hath commissioned him. Murder, whoredom, drunkenness, swearing, &c., as they are sins against God, the magistrate is bound to punish, and private men to endeavour it by the magistrate. And if it may be said, that the sovereign ruler of a nation hath power to forgive such crimes, the meaning is no more than this; 1. That as to the species of these sins, if he do forgive the temporal punishment which in his office he should have inflicted, yet no human power can question him for it, because he hath none on earth above him; but yet God will question him, and shew him that he had no power to dispense with his laws, nor disoblige himself from his duty. 2. And that in some cases an individual crime may be forgiven by the magistrate as to the temporal punishment, even where the ends of the law and government require it; but this must not be ordinary.

Prop. 11. It is not always in the power of the magistrate to remit the temporal punishment of heinous crimes, against the common good. Because it is ordinarily necessary to the common good that they be punished; and his power is for the common good, and not against it. The enemies of the public peace must by punishment be restrained.

Prop. 111. Much less is it in the power of a private man, to remit a penalty to be inflicted by a magistrate. And what I say of magistrates, holdeth of parents, and other governors, 'cæteris paribus,' according to the proportion of their authority.

Prop. iv. I may by just means exact satisfaction for damages to myself, in my reputation or estate, when the ends of Christianity, even the honour of God, and the public good, and the benefit of men's souls require it; that is, when I only vindicate these by lawful means, as they are the talents which God hath committed to me for his service, and for which he will call me to account. It may fall out that the vindicating of a minister's or other Christian's name from a slander, may become very needful for the interest and honour of religion, and for the good of many souls. And if I have an estate which I resolve to use for God, and a thief or a deceiver take it from me, who will do no good with it but hurt, I may be bound to vindicate it; that I may be enabled to do good, and may give God a comfortable

account of my stewardship; besides the suppressing of thievery and deceit, as they are against the common good.

Prop. v. When my estate is not entirely my own, but wife or child or any other is a sharer in it, it is not wholly in my power to remit any debt or damage out of it, but I must have the consent of them that are joint-owners; unless I be entrusted for them.

Prop. vi. If I be primarily obliged to maintain wife and children, or any others with my estate, I am bound on their behalf to use all just means to vindicate it from any that shall injuriously invade it: otherwise I am guilty of their sufferings whom I should maintain; I may no more suffer a thief than a dog to go away with my children's meat.

Prop. VII. And as I must vindicate my estate for others to whom I am entrusted to administer it by God, so must I for myself also, so far as God would have me use it myself. For he that hath charged me to provide for my family, requireth also that I famish not myself; and he hath required me to love my neighbour but as myself; and therefore as I am bound to vindicate and help my neighbour if a thief or oppressor would rob him, (according to my place and power,) so must I do also for myself. In all these seven cases I am not obliged to forgive.

But on the other side, in all these cases following, I am bound to forgive and let go my right.

Prop. 1. As the church may declare to penitent sinners, the remission of the eternal punishment, so may it remit the temporal punishment of excommunication, to the penitent: yea, this they are obliged by Christ to do, ministerially, as under him.

Prop. II. When the repentance and satisfaction of the sinner is like to conduce more to the public good, and the honour of God, and other ends of government, than his punishment would do, a private man may not be obliged to prosecute him before the magistrate, and the magistrate hath power to forgive him as to the penalty which it belongeth to him to inflict. (Though this may not extend to the remitting of crimes ordinarily and frequently, nor to the remitting of some sort of heinous crimes at all; because this cannot attain the ends of government as aforesaid.)

Prop. 111. All personal wrongs, so far as they are merely