acknowledge it but dare to condemne it as tyrannical and Antichristian It remains therefore to inquire briefly whether this flexible and soft Indifference be approvable by either Party Now how sharply soever they contend in other points they both accord in this That it is in no wise lawful for Christians either to partake in the Idolatries of the Pagans which their Religion condemns as abominable or to desert the Christian Religion and embrace the Law of Mahomet which they account a damnable impiety with which no communion ought to be had even so much as in appearance or to joyn themselves to the Jews though anciently the people of God or partake in any manner whatever in their worship for that it would be an abjuration of the name of Christ the sole Saviour Redeemer of our Souls And this their judgement is grounded on texts of their Gospel so frequently occurring almost in each page that 't is scarce needful to alledge any example Certainly those words of St. Paul writing to the Corinth are singularly emphatical I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to Devils and not to God I would not that ye should have fellowship with Devils And they are so much the more to be consider'd in that he speaks not to those which were of Pagan belief for he would not have termed such Brethren nor to those which had a desire to revolt from the Gospel of Christ to Paganisme for otherwise those words You cannot drink the Cup of the Lord and the Cup of Devils and you cannot partake of the Table of the Lord and of the Table of Devils had been wholly beside the purpose and impertinent and if he had had to do with such people he would have written in another style But he speaks to such as either through fear of persecution or complacency were willing to hold in with both sides and to retain the Gospel of Christ in secret but otherwise to conform as to outward profession only to the ceremonies of Idolaters And the same Apostle was so jealous of the purity of the doctrine which he held forth and esteem'd it so necessary to salvation for the form of it to be retain'd sincere and complete without any mixture of strange doctrines that when certain Teachers went about not openly to withdraw his disciples of Christ but onely to introduce the doctrine of the Old Law in the matter of justification into the Covenant of Grace because these are things absolutely incompatible he says Although we or an Angel from Heaven preach any other Gospel unto you then that which we have preached unto you let him be accursed As we said before so say I now again If any man preach any other Gospel unto you then that ye have received let him be accursed And can it now be conceived he had any favour for this Indifference On the contrary the Cross was ever the cognisance of him and others like him and in general of all true Christians in all Ages Not onely to denote that they believe in him who was crucifi'd for them by the Jews and the Romans but that they are resolv'd if need requires to undergo the like or more grievous punishment for the confession of his Name as not being worthy to have part in his glory unless they generously incurre all sorts of dangers and sufferings for his sake Thus likewise he said Whosoever will be his Disciple must take up his Cross and follow him And the Martyrs of the Primitive Church who in the infancy of Christianity seal'd his truth with so much blood as they couragiously lost so many horrible torments which they underwent so many shameful and exquisite deaths which they endur'd have more then authentically confirm'd this belief which was so universal and immutable in them That he who confesses not the Name of Christ in the very face of danger who abstains for love of him from all religious ceremonies different from his own who do's not condemne th m publikely and even in the presence of Flames and Axes is faln from the hope of their chief Good and for his unworthiness adjudged to eternal punishment and ignominy according to that saying of their Master Whosoever shall deny me before men I will deny him before my Father which is in Heaven Then for communicating in the Religion of one another both Parties alike condemne it and look upon this Indifference as a Profane and irreligious humor For they which hold Religion to be constituted aswel by Tradition as by Scripture and that the Church of Rome alone is intrusted with the custody of it and the Pope the supreme mannager and dispenser of it thunder out Anathema's against those which are not of their opinion have persecuted them with flames and torments and at this day in Italy and Spain exercise a cruel Inquisition against them of different judgments though they declare not the same and moreover when occasion is offer'd they make bloody wars upon those whom they account hereticks And they believe themselves bound hereunto by zeal to the Christian Religion and the salvation of the souls of men which when they cannot be reduc'd by reason ought to be reclaim'd from error by the terror of persecutions and arms And as they hold this for a necessary course towards those who are turn'd aside from the faith so they wonderfully extoll the courage not onely of the ancient Martyrs but also of those who resolutely undergo any thing for defense of the Roman Religion And if there be any Country in Europe wherein the contrary Party prevails they enjoyn their adherents to submit rather to all sorts of evil usages then to comply with anheretical profession proclaiming openly that there is no salvation out of the communion of their own Church the head and mother of all others by communication participation and dependence on which alone all other Christian Assemblies have right to the titles of Christian and Catholick so that whoso is not gather'd unto it is out of the way and lost On the contrary should the other Party who restrain all Divine wisdom revealed for the instruction and bringing of men to salvation within the bounds of the Holy Scripture approve this pretended lawful Indifference they would be the most stupid and inconsiderate branglers in the World For they alledge this cause of their separation from the Romane Church for that they could not with safe conscience partake in its ceremonies which ha's occasion'd many great wars which within this last hundred years have fill'd all Europe with deplorable slaughters and calamities Themselves also undergo all sorts of inconveniences and mischiefs for their professions sake rather then condescend in this point to the command of Kings and the bent of whole Nations they extol the patience of their Martyrs for with this title they honor the memory of such as have been put to death for defence of the Religion they profess they exhort one another to the like
magnanimity and denounce eternal perdition in â—ase they be deficient of courage herein I will not at present determine on which side the right is May the Father of Mercy please to reconcile their minds and close up this great wound of his Church But in the mean time it is beyond all doubt that according to their contrary doctrines they ought to condemn one the other and hold that whoso embraces the faith of the One cannot secure his salvation in the external profession of the Other For example for I wil will not engage far in this matter The Reformed charge the Roman Church with three accusations Of heresie in its doctrine in many particulars of Idolatry in its religious service and of Tyranny in relation to government in sundry instances So as to call the head of it Anti-Christ and apply to him as the person intended by Prophecies whatsoever is found concerning Anti-christ in the Epistles of Saint Paul and the Revelation If these accusations be grounded on truth how can they comply with that Church unless they will violate this Commandment A man that is an heretick after the first and second admonition reject Knowing that he that is such is subverted and sinneth being condemned of himself c. And how can they but hold the teachers of it for accursed according to this other commandment Little Children Keepe your selves from Idolatry And I cannot imagine that Saint Paul would permit external communion in the same Religion which those whom in regard of their Religion he excludes from hope of the Kingdom of Heaven Be not deceived saith he Idolaters shall not inherit the Kingdome of God And if he forbids to eat with them that is to converse familiarly with them in the way of civil and ordinary life much more would he prohibit to entertain society with them in the same Religion But those words are most highly remarkable If any man worship the beast and his image and receive his mark in his forehead or in his hand The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy Angels and in the presence of the Lambe For if the Beast mention'd there be Anti-Christ as 't is manifest and the Bishop of Rome be this Anti-christ as the Reformed pretend and that to receive the mark of the Beast in ones forehead or hand be as is evident to adhere to it in external profession what does he but pronounce sentence of condemnation against himself who believes the Pope to be Anti-christ and nevertheless esteems the outward profession of adhering to him indifferent For 't is all one as if he should affirm it lawful for a good and loyal Subject to follow the standard of the enemy of his King some unjust and violent usurper of his Kingdom And indeed it cannot be thought but that the Pope himself and his Cardinals if they believed themselves such as the adversary party publishes them would condemn themselves and all those which follow them On the other side the Catholicks accuse their Adversaries of a temerarious separation from the true Church and of having added Heresie to Schism amassing their Religion up of all those heresies which have been condemned by the ancient Councils and moreover of having to heresie added Rebellion against the Pastors whose vocation is onely true and legitimate Also of having abolisht the most sacred Mysteries which our Saviour instituted subverted all order of Discipline from top to bottom in a word of having revolted from the faith and obedience of the Supreme Monarch of the Church the Vicarius of our Lord Jesus the sole and infallible dispenser of his mysteries Now if this accusation contain as much truth as upon seeing it explicated and maintain'd in the writings of those great and even incomparable personages which have undertaken the quarrel in favour of the Roman Church in our times it seems to have verisimilitude what man so perswaded can with a good conscience associate himself to people culpable of so many heinous crimes as of Schisme heresie rebellion temerity and sacriledge against God impudence towards men and above all of disobedience to him that represents Jesus Christ and God his Father upon earth Surely he that should in the least connive at or bear with the reproaches cast upon him might be thought even capable of attempting on the person of the Redeemer of the World From all this it is easily colligible That this opinion of Indifference of all Religions in outward profession is false and pernicious renders all the exhortations of God himself in his Gospel to suffer for the truth insignificant disparages the sober judgement of the Apostles who were the first that propos'd themselves examples of inflexible resolution and consequently leads to the contempt of God and of all Religion in the World For like as one that should profess it indifferent to him what man he ownes for his Father or what Prince's badge he wears instead of his King 's would tacitely intimate himself to be of some spurious or degenerate off-spring and that he ha's a venal and unnatural soul So he that cares not of what God he bears the cognisance here below declares sufficiently that he acknowledges none for his own part and that his following of any Religion is onely out of interest and complacency and those Pretexts we mentioned in the beginning how specious soever are onely a coverture to this profane humor Truth say they is hard to be disentangled from the confusion of the many Religions which have the vogue in the world And God is of his own Nature so merciful that he is not strictly inquisitive concerning it but is better pleas'd with the love of peace and society then with the adherence to certain particular opinions which occasions such disturbances and miseries Strange people who complain of the difficulty of a thing they never enquir'd after who limit the prerogatives of God and his affections without understanding them and who under colour of tenderness for peace with men make no conscience to wage war against God who for the preservation of Civil Society which onely regulates and contains the duties of men among themselves subvert and confound the Laws of Religion in which are contained our duties towards him who created the World and Men. Certainly had these Opinionists imploy'd in the search of God's truth half the time they bestow on unprofitable occupations of this life they would not judge Religion a thing full of spinous questions and irresolvable difficulties The sole reading of the Old and New Testaments which would not take up so much of their time as a quarter of Amadis or the Romance of Astrea would clear up all those perplexities and cause them to pronounce resolutely provided they come to it with attentive minds and free from evil prejudices for the preeminence of the
the Nations for thy inheritance and the uttermost parts of the Earth for thy possession 9. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron thou shall dash them in pieces like a potters vessel c. And Isaiah 7.14 Behold A virgin shall conceive and bear a Son and shall call his name Immanuel Also chap. 11.1 And there shall come forth a rod out of the stemne of Iesse and a Branch shall grow out of his Roots 2. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him c. Also chap. 32.1 Behold a King shall reign in righteousness c. And likewise in that celebrated 53. chapter And Malachi having ended the second chapter with a complaint of the murmurings of the Jews against the Providence of God and likewise of their blasphemies he continues his discourse thus chap. 3.1 Behold I will send my messenger and he shall prepare the way before me and the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his Temple c. As if he would either break the heart of those Rebels by this admirable effect of an incredible goodness or warrant his Providence from blame by the execution of his immutable decrees But above all things the Prophecy of Daniel above alledged is remarkable For after having so clearly set down the time of the birth of Christ he adds vers 26. And after score and two weeks shall Messias be cut off but not for himself and the people of the â—rince that shall come shall destroy the City and the Sanctuary and the end thereof shall be with a stood and unto the end of the waâ— desolations are determin'd Now I beseech you had not this its event in Titus and the Romanes who utterly destroyed the City of Ierusalem and burnt the Temple to ashes How then could the prediction of the Desolation have been accomplish't which was not to happen till after the accomplishment of the Promise if the Promise were not executed before seeing they are both contained in the same Prophecy It remains therefore that since as it is not allowed for men to exempt themselves from subjectino to Divine Institutions so long as they are in force so neither is it lawful to extend them longer then the term appointed to them by God himself admits the Law of Moses having pass'd its time either there is now no longer any form of Religion of divine institution in the World or that some other hath been establish'd by God in its place For as to what they alledge that in several places of their Books it is said that their Law ought to endure to perpetuity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it hath been answered a thousand times that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 taken simply do's not necessarily signifie the perpetuity of a thing or eternity of time but oftentimes a long duration onely which began or is terminated at some certain and remarkable period as of the Deluge of the descent into Egypt of a Jubilee and the like Examples of which are very ordinary Now it would be a thing too unsutable to that great goodness which God hath always testified to men and to that special care he hath had to bring them to the knowledge of himself and by that to salvation to have abolish'd and suppress'd the true Religion without substituting another in its stead He hath always shewn that he loves the Political or Civil Societies of men which onely have relation to the conservation of their rights and civil comportments among themselves how much dearer then is the maintaining of a Religious Society to him in which the importance is concerning the preservation of his rights over us actions of piety and virtue and the eternal salvation of our souls Certainly it would be a too strange inequality in the proceedings of a Nature so wise and uniform as the Divine to have employ'd so great exact diligence in prescribing and delineating the Religion of the Jews and in all the order of it and afterwards to destroy the same totally without raising another upon its ruines And it would be too great a lightness in so constant a nature to have promised his Church in so many places of the Old Testament to cause her to subsist eternally and what is the Church but a Society regulated according to the Laws of the true Religion and yet to subvert it utterly beyond all apparent possibility of restoration Wherefore there ha's succeeded some other Religion in place of the Jewish But it can be neither the Pagan nor the Mahometane and therefore it must necessarily be the Christian And this is the business to be deduc'd more at large in the following Chapter CHAP. VI. That the Christian Religion being more excellent hath succeeded the Jewish SO numerous is the store of things that offer themselves for the proof of what the title of this Chapter promiseth that I beseech the Readers indulgence if I omit some Should I do otherwise it would be impossible to proportion this piece to the rest of the work I shall not alledge that the author of the Christian Religion and his principal Ministers were Jews and so interessed and engaged according to the natural instinct of all Nations to the maintenance of their own Religion if it ought to have been perpetually durable Nor that it was first of all to their own Nation that they adressed to perswade the same to them and did not turn to the Gentiles but onely after they had been rejected and persecuted by the Jews Nor that the Pagans converted by their preaching profess'd to be only gathered to the Jewish Nation and inserted like a wild grasse into a natural stock I shall onely compare the two Religions together so to manifest the excellence of the Christian above the Jewish and that not onely in things wherein they differ but also in such as they agree together in for ours will be found to have in either respect inestimable advantages above it And this will be sufficient for the proof of my proposition For since the Jewish was of divine institution if the Christian be more excellent it must have been drawn from the same treasures of his celestial Wisdome who enlargeth and augmenteth his favours as he pleaseth First as for the things they agree in seeing the Christian Religion acknowledges that the Books of the Jews are not onely true but divine and consequently accords with them as to all the ancient histories recorded therein of the Creation of the World the formation of man the propagation of mankind the destruction of the same by the Flood the restoring of it by the family of Noah the conflagration of Sodom the selection of Abraham the calling of Moses the miracles in Egypt and the Wilderness the deliverances by the Judges the establishment of Kings the Captivity of Babylon and the like And that the Christian Religion ha's retained the doctrines revealed therein as inviolable being of eternal and immutable truth As that there is but one God infinite
face of the World then if they all kept the same equal and uniform tract So without doubt there appears a greater Providence in the conduct of so many Nations so diversified by various sorts of Laws and Governments Monarchical Aristocratical Democratical and mixt each according to its peculiar genius all which nevertheless conspire to the glory of one and the same God and aspire to the atchievment of one and the same hope then if they were all modell'd and policyed according to the same constitutions Besides that God being willing that Christians should be people of free courage and erected to that honest liberty which is worthy of generous and noble souls it ha's pleased him that men should exercise the actions of Justice and virtue no otherwise then by following the suggestions of a nature almost restored by so excellent a Religion to its primitive integrity so that every one should be a Law unto himself It is true that a good part of the Nations which in these dayes make profession of the Christian Name do not shew that a doctrine so heavenly ha's been efficacious to cleanse the vitiosity of nature and repress the disorder of their passions so that there may seem need of more Laws to prevent frauds and injuries But this is the corruption of these dregs of Ages And he that would know what Christian charity and the uprightness of those that have embrac'd this Law is must not consider it such as it is at the present time but in the first Ages of the Church As for the Ceremonial Law 't is the Christian Religion alone that teaches us to understand the use of it by manifesting the enâ— to which it aimed For by that we are instructed that the whole structure of the Tabernacle and all the Oeconomy of the service which was performed therein by external and sensible things did refer to spiritual verities and virtues So that as much as the knowledge of divine mysteries and admirable doctrines transcends things obvious to sense by so much is the Christian Doctrine and the fruits produced by it more excellent then the Mosaical Worship It would be too long to allegorise all that pertains to it the matter will be evident by two or three examples There were two eminent Sacraments Circumcision and the Paschal Lambe To take them according to the construction of the Jews what other signification had they but onely to separate the people of the Jews and to discriminate them from other Nations and be a commemoration of their deliverance out of Egypt and the death of the First-born The one was a token imprinted in the flesh of a Covenant that seem'd to regard onely the body and the other a memorial of a deliverance meerly temporal Now we have learnt from the Christian Religion that the First was instituted to represent the need we stood in that this corrupt nature of ours which we derive from our fathers by ordinary generation should be retrenched if we would have part in the spiritual Covenant with God and the Second to be a type of him of whom it was said He was lead like a Lamb to the slaughter and whose blood and death secured our souls from the dreadful and universal destruction to which otherwise they were obnoxious And in this we do no more but follow the traces which themselves have hereof in the Prophets but could not discern To this purpose is their speaking of and exhorting to the circumcision of the heart as in contempt of that which was made in the flesh and also that of Moses's diligent injunction to sprinkle the blood of the Paschal Lambe upon the posts and tressell of the house and that it should be a perpetual institution in their generations For what virtue had the blood of a Lamb to divert the sword of an Angel and to warrant the houses of the Israelites from the calamity of others There was moreover prescrib'd by it several washings and purifications for the vessels and utensils of the Tabernacle houses and garments infected with any pollution for men and women seised on by some natural infirmity things which were accounted unclean if all these mysteries were not solicitously observed The Gospel hath taught us that all this represents true sanctification which cleanses the corrupt appetites of man and purifies his conscience And truly otherwise to what end or benefit served all these washings if they did not design something else Or why should corporeal and naturally inevitable infirmities such as the Lunar flux of women debarre them from communion with God and his Tabernacle but onely as figuring those voluntary ones of the conscience In this also we have the authority of their Prophets It is said in Ezekiel chap. 36.25 I will sprinkle clean water upon you and ye shall be clean from all your filthiness and from all your Idols will I cleanse you But how A new heart will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you an heart of flesh And I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes c. Now by how much piety and the internal virtue of the soul is better then the cleanness of the body so much is the recommendation and doctrine of the one more excellent then the observation of the other But this appears remarkably in the principal part of the Ceremonial Law namely in the Sacrifices For the death of beasts being as we intimated formerly incapable to make propitiation for sins and yet it being a thousand times expressed in the Law that those victimes were appointed for propitiation what remains but that they were destinated as types for the representation of a Sacrifice which in truth made real and sufficient propitiation for offenses And indeed what else could the Prophet Isaiah have referr'd to when he said chap. 53.6 All we like sheep have gone astray we have turned every one to his own way and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all He was brought as a Lambe to the slaughter and as a sheep before the Shearers is dumbe so he opened not his mouth Especially since the blood of Bulls and Goats had no virtue for the purification of souls and yet the High Priest entred every year into the Holy of Holies with blood in the presence of the Arke of the Lord as if he had gone to offer satisfaction for the sins committed by the People what had this been but a vain and empty ceremony in case it did not typifie One who in the quality of great and Soverain Priest entred into the presence of God in the Heavens with real satisfaction for the sins of men Truly the resemblance is admirable Onely once a year a period of time in which the world seems to exist a new grow up wax old and terminate its duration by the revolution and succession of the four seasons
the High Priest slew in the Tabernacle but in a place separated with a veil from the Ark a sacrifice for the offenses of the whole people and once in the whole duration of the World a Man devoted thereunto offers himself in sacrifice and suffers death upon the Earth a place remote from the presence of God and sever'd from his especial mansion by the extent of the Heavens as with a veil to the end to oâ—tain remission to all them that seek it This being done the High Priest took the blood of the Victime and presum'd to enter into the Most-holy place within the veil and to appear before the Mercy-Seat And the same Man Holy and without spot after having suffer'd in the World taking confidence from his sufferings as having satisfy'd the justice of God dares attempt to ascend into the Heavens and pass beyond the veil to present himself before the Lord in the habitation of his glory For he no longer dreaded his presence having undergone all his wrath Lastly the High Priest dipping his finger in the blood sprinkled it seven times before the Mercy-seat Now the Septenary is a number of perfection as the Jews themselves acknowledge And the same Man who suffer'd death for the remission of sins being entred into the Holy of Holies in the Heavens abides there untill the consummation of Ages to represent his sacrifice continually before God and by this his intercession to render him eternally propitious unto us Let them therefore consider a little without passion or prejudice the correspondence and resemblance distinctly For whereas in all that external service God had regard to something to come what better interpretation can be made of this mystery then that the sacrifice of a beast prefigures that of a man the expiation of a corporeal defilement a spiritual purification the place where the victime was slain the World the veil the Heavens the Most holy place where the Ark was the habitation of Gods's glorious residence and the sprinkling made by the High Priest the perpetual intercession of him that offered up himself by the Eternal Spirit Wherefore let them either admit this explication thereof made by the Christian Religion or study to give more congruous and sutable Which I assure my self their attempts to effect will be so vain and all their inventions so extravagant that in respect of ours they will be but as darkness in comparison of light But that all these typical representations have been really acted and accomplish'd shall by the help of God appear hereafter with abundant evidence Now if our Christian Religion be thus excellent above that of the Jews in the understanding and application of their own Ceremonies it is also far superior to it in those which Christianity it self practises of which indeed it ought not to be destitute And first it is highly advantageous to us that they are few in number and consequently less painful and laborious Next that they are less carnal and material as not being appendances of a Religion which seem'd to consist wholly in out-side in the mean while till the spiritual things which it promised were really exhibited And lastly that they are eucharistical and commemorative of that truely propitiatory sacrifice which ha's been already offered and by consequence more proper to beget piety in our mindes because they represent and apply things past to us of which we have a perfect and cleare knowledge whereas the Jewish figur'd the same as future obscure and in a riddle Moreover he that shall duly consider the external face of the true Church its exercises of devotion its pompous simplicity and modest magnificence singing publick and solemn prayers due celebration of its mysteries without Idolatry or Superstition and on the other side without contempt of a Being so worthy of profound admiration and reverence and that excellent custom of instructing the people by Preaching and dispensing the Christian Doctrine to edification and comfort by exhortations and convenient reprehensions will find that there is a more pleasing and comely spectacle in the order of its divine ministry then in that butchery of sacrifices which was made in the Tabernacle where it was necessary to be always imployed in washing and cleansing away the blood and scouring all the utensiles of the service from the soile and fat of sacrifices And it may be also observed that whereas the Jewish Religion arrested the mind to sensible things affording them but very little taste of spiritual and intellectual as 't is the custome to retain children and instruct them in gross and sensual things for that their reason is yet but weak and they live principally according to the guidance of their senses On the contrary in the Christian Religion men are reclaimed from sense to understanding so that what is sensible in it is not capable to arrest our minds on it although it be profitable to lead us to the use of spiritual things where with our souls are abundantly fed and satisfied and this because that the Church under this Religion is come to perfect Age being indued with far greater strength of reason and understanding to comprehend them This the Prophets first taught us who have spoken so disdainfully of all those external ceremonies of the Mosaical Law as we have seen above in comparison of the internal virtues of the Soul And indeed nature it self would teach us the same though they had been wholly silent of it For since man being compos'd of body and soul is principally man by the faculties of reason and understanding the Religion which consists rather in corporeal exercises then in the instruction and perfectionating of the mind must be judged infinitely inferior to that which is concerned principally and almost solely about the Soul As for the Decalogue it ha's not been less illustrated by the preaching of the Gospel then the other Not that there ha's been any thing relating to piety and good manners taught by the Gospel which was not compris'd in the Moral Law Since this Rule of Justice and Perfection ha's been alwayes like to it self in all Ages But the understanding of it having been corrupted partly by the hypocrisie and partly by the profaneness of men the Christian Religion ha's reduc'd it to its primitive purity and restor'd it to the highest pitch of its natural perfection The Jewish Doctors upon this Commandment Thou shalt not kill thought that it was enough to abstain from the effusion of blood and otherwise either justified or excused wrath desires of revenge and words of spight and scorn The Christian Excellency teaches us that 't is not the external act of murder only that is forbidden but even the least motions of the mind that carry to revenge the most loose thoughts of mischief and the slightest words uttered in offense to our neighbor either by derision or outrage Then which what is more agreeable both to the nature of God who is so good and who is not the judge onely of