The Christian Life Part 3 Volume 4, Part 1 · Chapter 9
CHAP. IX. Of the Sinfulness, and Unreasonableness of Injustice.
AFTER the explication of the immutable Reasons, and Grounds of Iustice, it may be proper to add some Motives, and Considerations against Injustice.
And First, CONSIDER the great Repugnancy of Injustice to the Terms, and Conditions of the Christian Religion. I know there are some People that look upon Honesty and Iustice as one of the beggerly Elements of Religion, a sort of Heathen Vertue belonging to carnal and mere moral Men, that are utterly unacquainted with the Spirit and Power of Godliness: and accordingly in the room of this, and such like Moral Vertues, they have foisted in a sort of spiritual Religion as they call it; which consisteth in a certain Model of Conversion and Regeneration, that is made up of nothing but a mere fanciful train of Dejections and Triumphs, that are most commonly either the effects of a distempered Blood, or the unaccountable freaks of an overheated Fancy: and if they find they have been Converted secundùm artem, i. e. that they have undergone those frightful, sorrowful, or joyous Passions, which this stated Method of Regeneration includeth, all their After-Religion is nothing else but a leaning and rolling on Jesus Christ. And whilst they should be governing their Wills, their Tongues, and their Actions by the eternal Rules of Iustice and Goodness, they are employed, as they think, in a higher Dispensation; in forming odd Schemes of spiritual Experiences, and attending to the inward Whispers and Incomes, and With-drawings of the Spirit of God; all which are commonly nothing but only the effects of a melancholy Fancy tinctur'd with Religious Fears, and flushed with a natural Enthusiasm. But whatever it be, it is doubtless a dangerous Mistake for Men to take up with any Religion, which doth not principally insist upon the eternal Laws of Morality: and though Iustice or Honesty in our dealings with Men will never singly recommend us to God, unless it be conjoyned with Mercy, Sobriety and Godliness; yea though all these together will never recommend us to God, unless their Imperfections be purged and expiated by the all-sufficient Merit of our blessed Saviour; yet without Iustice, and Honesty, all our Religion is a damnable Cheat; and all the Merit of our Saviour will be as insignificant to us, as it is to the Devils, or damned Ghosts. For his Merit is no Refuge for Religious Knaves, his Wounds no Sanctuary for Spiritual Cheats, or Lyars, or Oppressors: and for such persons as these, to shelter themselves in our Saviour's Propitiation, is to prophane and desecrate it; and thereby to cause those vocal Wounds to accuse them which were made to plead for them; and to provoke that eloquent Blood to cry aloud for vengance against them, which in its native Language speaketh far better things the blood of Abel. Heb. xii. 24. For Iustice is a Duty of that indispensable necessity, that God will not, yea, to speak with Reverence, cannot dispense with it: and so far was our Saviour from ever designing to obtain a Dispensation from it, that the great end of his dying to obtain our Pardon for our past unrighteousness, was to encourage and oblige us to live more justly and righteously for the future. For so the Apostle telleth us, Tit. ii. 14. That he gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purifie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works: and notwithstanding all that he hath done for us, he hath plainly assured us by his Apostles, that no unrighteous person shall inherit the Kingdom of God. 1 Cor. vi. 9. and that the unjust shall be reserved unto the day of Iudgment to be punished: 2 Pet. ii. 9. that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness of men, Rom. i. 18▪ and that they all shall be damned that take pleasure in unrighteousness, 2 Thess. ii. 12. And if these things be so, then as ever you hope to enter into the Kingdom of God, to escape his unquenchable Wrath, to hold up your Heads at his Tribunal, and not to be condemned to everlasting Horror and Confusion; be persuaded to fly from all Unrighteousness, and use all honest Care to deal justly and righteously with all Men.
II. CONSIDER the great Vanity, or Desperateness of Injustice: for if the Wrong and Injustice you do to another Man be such as is repairable, you must resolve to repair it, or to perish for ever. For he who doth not repair an Injury when he is able, doth every moment continue and repeat it; and though the first injurious Act were transient, and did expire and die in the Commission, yet because it leaveth a permanent Evil behind it upon the good Name, or Estate of my Neighbour, I am as much obliged, if I am able, to remove the Evil from him, as I was at first not to bring it upon him; and all the while I neglect to remove it, I wilfully continue the evil upon him, and in so doing continue wilfully injurious to him. As for instance, when I wilfully asperse another Man's Reputation, my Sin dies not with my slanderous Breath, but survives in the evil effects of it; and till I have endeavoured to purge his stained Reputation, and to restore him his good Name again by a fair and ingenuous Vindication, I am a Slanderer still, and accountable for all those hard thoughts, and injurious words which I have occasioned others to think or speak against him. Again, when I rob, or defraud another Man of his Estate, or any part of it, the Sin doth not cease with the transient Act of Stealth, or Couzenage, or Violence, which endeth and expireth in the Commission; but continues so long as the Damage and evil Effect of it remains: Whilst therefore he suffereth in his Estate by my injurious Act, and 'tis in my power to repair it, I continue injuring him; and till I have made him all the Restitution I am able, I am a Cheat, or a Thief, or a Robber. Since therefore Injustice is a damnable Sin, as I shewed you before, it necessarily followeth that whenever a Man deals unjustly by another, he must at the same time either resolve to undo his own Act, or to run the hazard of being undone for ever; the former of which is a ridiculous Vanity, and the latter a desperate Madness. For what a Vanity is it, for a Man to do what he resolveth to undoe, to slander with a purpose to vindicate, and cheat with a resolution to refund, that is, to do an evil thing with a purpose to be never the better for it? If you resolve to restore what you wrongfully take from another, why do you take it? Is it so cheap a matter to be wicked, that you should covet to be wicked for nothing? That you should contract a Guilt which will bind you over to eternal Punishment, with an intention to part with all that temporary Gain which tempted and invited you to it? What is this but to weave a Penelope's Web, to do and undo, and build Castles of Cards, to blow them down again? and which is more vain and Nonsensical, to swallow deadly Poison for our Health and Ease, which we know will rack and convulse us, with a purpose to vomit it up again without gaining either Health, or Ease by it? For he who wrongs another with a purpose to make him Restitution, doth an evil Action with an intent to get nothing but Guilt by it. You say, you intend to restore to him what you wrong him of, and if so, for what end do you wrong him? Unless it be to render your self more Criminal and Guilty: For when you have restored to him what you have wrongfully deprived him of, what can remain to you but only the Guilt of a wrongful and injurious Action? So that for Men to deal unjustly by others with an Intent to make them Restitution, is the greatest Vanity and Nonsense in the World; but then to do it without such an Intent, is the most desperate Madness. For since every wilful Act of Injustice binds Men over to Eternal Punishment, and since nothing but Restitution, so far as they are able, can release and absolve them from that dire Obligation; it necessarily follows, that he who deals unjustly by others without any Intent of making them Restitution, doth by his own Act wilfully oblige himself to endure an Eternal Punishment. For he knows that what he gaineth unjustly from another must be restored, or his Soul must be lost; and therefore if he resolve upon that Gain without any Intent to restore it, he doth in effect stake his Soul to it, and freely oblige himself to endure Hell-fire for ever, in consideration of the present Gain he acquires by his unjust dealing. For he who knows that such a Potion, however sweetened and made palatable, is compounded with the Juice of Deadly Nightshade, and yet wilfully swallows it without any intent to disgorge it again, doth thereby voluntarily murder and destroy himself: and so He who knows that such an unjust Gain, how tempting so ever it may look for the present, hath an everlasting Horror and Anguish intermingled with it, and yet wilfully seises it without any intent to refund it; doth freely consent to undergo the Evil to enjoy the Good of it, and shake hands upon this desperate Bargain, that upon condition he may reap such an unlawful Profit, he will freely surrender up his immortal Soul to the Pangs and Agonies of Eternal Death. For in every Temptation to deal unjustly the Devil cheapens our immortal Soul, and the unlawful Gain with which he tempts us is the Price he bids for it: and though sometimes he bids exceeding low, yet if we take his Price, though it be but a Penny, we thereby strike the fatal Bargain, and by our own Act and Deed consign and deliver our Souls to him to be his Slaves here, and his Martyrs hereafter. And what greater madness can a Man be guilty of, than to sell his Soul and all his Hopes of Happiness for ever, for the trifling and momentary Gains of an unjust Action?
III. CONSIDER the manifest Inexcusableness of Injustice in it self: For, as I have shewed you at large, all Justice between Man and Man is reducible to that general Rule Do as you would be done by; i. e. Do all that good to others, which you could reasonably expect they should do to you, if you were in their Circumstances, and they in yours: and this is so plain a Rule, that no Man can plead Ignorance of it, who doth not wilfully shut his own Eyes. 'Tis true, whilst Laws, though never so plain and useful in themselves, are yet obscure and perplex'd in their Promulgation, or over-numerous, they may prove a Snare, rather than a Guide, and make more Controversies than they can decide, and lose much of their force by being spun out into nice and subtile Disputes: they may fall short of their aim, by not being able to reach the greater part of those Persons whom they designed to direct; who either have not Leisure sufficient to attend to, or Capacities to understand them, or Sagacity to apply them in all opportunities of Action. But as for this General Rule of Justice, it is always at hand, and we carry it about us in our own Breasts: for this is the peculiar advantage of this Rule, that by it we may very easily discern all the Specialities of our Duty, without looking abroad, or having recourse to external Instructions. So that by it we may be perfect Lawgivers, skilful Judges, and faithful Casuists to our own Souls: For it is Legible to those that have no Letters, and lieth open and obvious to the most Rude and Ignorant. We need not search ancient Records, or dark Repositories, revolve and ruminate upon old Sentences, or new Glosses, or rove about the World to examine the various Customs and Constitutions of Countries: we need not soar to Heaven, or dive to Hell in quest of our Duty; for if we will but return into our Selves, and look into our own Hearts, there we may find it copied and ingraven in legible Characters. For when any Opportunity of dealing justly by another presents it self to us, it is but asking our selves how we would be dealt by in the same Circumstances; and our Answer to that is our Duty to those we deal with: I know very well how I should expect to be used if my Neighbour and I had changed Persons and Circumstances: my own Heart tells me, that I should think it reasonable to expect such measures from him, and that therefore he hath just Reason to expect the same from me. So that in most cases of Justice between Man and Man, every Man, if he pleases, may be his own Casuist: for it is but exchanging Persons, and Circumstances with his Neighbour, which is quickly done, and then applying this General Rule to his particular Dealings with him; and his own Heart will soon tell him what he is to do, and very rarely but never grosly misinform him. For by thus changing the Scales, and making another Man's case my own, I take the fairest and readiest way to understand what is right and due to him: for now to be sure my Passion, and Self-interest will not incline me one way more than another; and even that Selfishness, which inclines me to wrong another Man for my own Advantage, will likewise render me unwilling, when the Scales are changed, that another Man should wrong me; and that Self-conceit, which makes me apt to scorn and despise another, will make me unwilling to be scorned and despised my self; and so when I consult my self how I would be dealt by, those very Passions which incline me to wrong others will instruct me to right them. So that there is no Rule in the World can be press'd with fewer Incumbrances, or darkened with less Intricacy; none that can lye open to larger Use, or be readier to present Application, or more obvious to all sizes of Apprehension than This, which is the Measure and Standard of our Dealings and Intercourses with one another. So that there is no pleading Ignorance to excuse, or palliate any great Violations of the Laws of Righteousness; since in all matters of moment every Man may easily understand how he ought to deal by every Man, if he would but take care to consult the Oracle in his own Breast, and ask himself how he would expect to be dealt by, were he placed in the Circumstances of those he deals with. And when Men wo'nt understand their Duty, when it lies so plainly before them; or wo'nt do their Duty, when they do understand it; what Colour of Excuse can be made for them? Were the Rule of our Duty so obscure as that we could not easily apprehend it, the Weakness of our Understanding might partly excuse the Error of our Wills, and render it pitiable and pardonable, though not altogether innocent; but when it lies so full in our View as that we cannot but discern it, if we will but open our Eyes, and fairly consult our own Minds and Thoughts, our Understanding is acquitted, and our Will only is chargeable with our Folly, and Wickedness: so that now we sin at our own Peril, and leap headlong into mischief with our Eyes open. But as for Injustice, the Guilt of it is so open and visible, that however our other Sins may be excused by our Ignorance, and mitigated or connived at upon the score of the natural Defects of our Understanding, this can admit of no Cloak, or Extenuation; because whenever a Man dealeth unjustly by another, his Conscience will be sure to tell him (if he puts the question to it) that he would not be so dealt with, were the Case and Circumstances his own. So that when we come to give up our Accounts at the Tribunal of God, and to answer for our unrighteous dealings with one another, they will so stare us in the Face that we shall be able to make no Excuse or Apology for them; but our own Consciences will be forced to cry Guilty, Guilty, to anticipate our doom, and when it is past, to approve and second it with a Iust and righteous art thou, O Lord, in all thy ways. For when the Rule of Justice lies so very plain, and open to our very Faculties, what can be said if we do unjustly, but that we are obstinate and wilful and incorrigible Robbers, that can claim no Indulgence, deserve no Pity, and pretend to no mitigation of our Stripes, since we knew our Master's Will and did it not?
IV. CONSIDER the Fruitlesness and Mischievousness of unjust Dealing to our selves. For the usual bait of Injustice is Gain and Profit, we deplume our Neighbour's Wings with an intent to Feather our own Nests, and invade other Mens Properties to enrich our selves with their Spoils: This is the common Game that Fraud and Oppression pursues and flies at, though usually they fly short or beyond it, and instead of enriching Men do finally damage and impoverish them. For how successful soever unjust Dealing may sometimes prove to the raising a Man's Fortune and Estate, 'tis in its natural Tendency an effectual way to impair and ruin it; because by dealing unjustly he makes it every Man's Interest to forsake and abandon him, and in effect sets a Cross upon his own Door to warn all Customers from entring. For who would willingly have to do with a Knave, that always lies upon the Catch, waiting Opportunities to Rook and Cozen him; with whom he can neither speak, nor act securely, but must be forced to stand upon his own guard with him, and treat him with the same Circumspection and Cautiousness as Conjurers do their Devils, for fear of being snapt and torn in pieces by him? And how is it possible for a Man to thrive, when no body cares to deal with him; when his House is haunted, and his Frauds and Cozenages appear like Specters at his Door, to frighten all Men from his Shop and Conversation? And accordingly you see that Justice and Honesty in Dealing is so absolutely necessary to Mens thriving in the World, that even they who are not honest are fain to seem so: but for a Man to seem to be Honest there is no way so certain and secure, as to be really so; for if he be not, it is a thousand to one but the events of things will one time or other unmask and discover him. No Man can be secure of Privacy in an unjust Action, but let him carry it never so secretly and demurely, one Accident or other will draw the Curtain, and bring to light the Fraud and Villany behind it: and when it doth, what will Men say? He has cheated me once, and that was his fault, but if he cheat me again it will be mine as well as his; and I shall richly deserve the second wrong, if I will take no warning by the first. So that how much soever a Man may gain by a present Cheat, he is sure, if he be discover'd, to lose his Correspondent, by whom in a few years he might have honestly gotten ten times more: besides that, either his Resentment of the Injury he hath received, or else his Charity to others will oblige him to divulge the knavery, and to warn others by it not to have any thing to do with the detected Knave that wrong'd and abus'd him. And when once a Man's Credit is blasted by the report of a foul and dishonest Action, it is a thousand to one but he will lose back in his Trade all that he gain'd by his Cheat, and twenty times more; and then if once he begin to sink, there is no recovering of him; for Estate and Credit are the two Wings that bear Men up in the World, and therefore if when he hath clipt the Wings of his Credit, his Estate should fail him too, he must decline and sink without Remedy. For Credit is like a Looking-glass, which when only sullied by an unwholsome breath may be wiped clean again; but if once it is crack'd, it is never to be repaired. So that considering all, Fraud and Injustice is as great an Error in Politicks, as in Morals, and doth bespeak a Man to have as little Wit, as Honesty; and in plain English, to be as much a Fool, as a Knave. But suppose the best, and that which sometimes happens, that a Man should thrive by his Fraud and Injustice, and grow great and prosperous in the World; alas! what Comfort can he take in his ill-gotten Wealth; when every part of it throws Guilt in his Face, and awakens some dire Reflection in his Conscience? For, as I shewed you before, of all Sins that of Injustice admits the least Excuse and Mitigation; the sense of it clings so close to a Man's Conscience, that he can never pluck it off without pulling away his Conscience with it, and rooting out of his mind all the sense of Religion, and of Good and Evil. So that unless the Man turn an assured Atheist or a stupid Sot, it will be impossible for him to enjoy his unjust Possessions, without great Recoilings and Convulsions of Conscience; because his unjust Possessions will, like the Adulterer's Bastard, be a standing Reproach to him, and a perpetual Remembrancer of his Guilt and Shame. And when that which a Man enjoys and lives upon, when the Meat which he gluts, and the Drink which he guzles, the Cloaths which he rustles and flaunts in, shall thus reproach and upbraid him; O wretched Man! We are the Price of thy Innocence, thy Soul, and thy Eternal Happiness; for us thou hast damn'd thy self, and freely consign'd thy immortal Spirit to everlasting Horror and Confusion; When his Bags and Coffers cry Guilty, Guilty, and he seeth a Mene Tekel on the Walls of every Room in his House, and every thing he enjoys whispers some Accusation against him; what Comfort can he take in the purchase of his Frauds and Oppressions? Were it not a thousand times better for him to have lived contentedly on a brown Morsel, than thus to fare deliciously every day with a vex'd and a tormented Mind? And yet this is commonly the Fate of unjust Possessors, who under the disguise of a chearful Countenance too commonly wear woful Hearts, and like Tragedies bound in guilded Covers, are only gay and splendid without, but full of Stabs and Wounds within. But suppose that in a continued Tumult of Excesses and Riots, they should make a shift, whilst they live, to drown the Cries of their guilty Consciences; yet in all probability whenever Death threatens, or approaches them in a Disease, and sets them within ken of Eternity, their Conscience in despight of them will rouze and awake and raise a hideous outcry against them: for now their Last Will and Testament will set before them a woful Catalogue of uncancelled Guilts, and every ill-gotten Penny they have there bequeathed will put them in mind of their approaching Damnation; and dictate Dread, and Horror to their Consciences, which in a desperate rage will fly in their Faces and tell them to their Teeth that they are Cheats and Knaves and Reprobates; that their Legacies are the Fruits of their Sins, the purchase of their Frauds and Oppressions; and that for that which they are now bequeathing to other's, they have long ago bequeathed their Soul to the Devil, who now stands ready to seize on it and carry it, away to those dark Prisons of Horror where he keeps his miserable Slaves under a dreadful expectation of their Eternal Iudgment. So that should any Man chance to thrive, and grow rich by Injustice, yet 'tis a thousand to one but either living or dying, or both, his Riches will prove a far worse Plague to him than Poverty it self; and if so, who but a mad Man would ever abandon himself to a Folly so fruitless and mischievous?
Fifthly and Lastly, CONSIDER the high Provocation that Injustice gives to God. For God, as I have shewed you before, is the Author of all those Rights which Men are invested with, whether they be natural, or acquir'd: and being the Author of them, he is more especially obliged to assert and vindicate them, to maintain his own Bequests and Donations, and not suffer those to go unpunish'd, who presume to purloin or alienate them from their rightful Owners. For he who wrongfully deprives a Man of any Right; deprives him of what God hath given him, snatches God's Goods out of those hands in which he hath trusted and deposited them; and in so doing robs God himself, and seises his Goods without his leave. So that every unjust Invasion of another's Rights is an Injury to God, who is the supreme Proprietor, from whom all Right and Property descendeth. For since every Man's Right is derived from, and founded on the Right of God, whosoever trespasses on the one, must necessarily invade the other: all that is ours we hold by Tenant-Right from the great Landlord of the World, whose supreme and independent Propriety is the Ground, and Foundation on which all our just Claims and Properties depend. He therefore who by Fraud or Violence dispossesses any Tenant of God, or seises any part of the Property which he hath farmed out to him; doth in so doing eject the Landlord, as well as the Tenant, and so far as in him lies turn God out of his own World, and usurp his eternal Right and Dominion. And so long as he holds what God hath set to another, he holds not as a Tenant of God, but as a Robber and an Invader of him: when he seiz'd his unjust Possession, he snatch'd God's Goods out of his hands; and while he detains them, he doth in effect declare that he will keep God's Goods in despight of him; that as he hath already thrust him out of this part of his Creation, so he is resolved to keep him out as long as he is able, and never to permit him to re-enter upon it, so long as he can maintain and defend it against him. Since therefore we claim by God's own Tenure, and all our Rights do finally issue and resolve into his; he is peculiarly concerned to assert, and vindicate them, because they are all his own. Hence is that passage quoted by St. Paul from God's own mouth, Vengance is mine and I will repay it, Rom. xii. 19. for what is Vengeance, but only a Retribution of Punishments for Wrongs, and Injuries received? And therefore since all Rights are God's, and consequently all Wrongs do redound upon him, Vengeance, or Retribution of Wrongs must necessarily be his Right and Prerogative; and it being his, he will be sure to repay it one time or other: and though he may defer it a while out of wise and gracious Ends, yet in the long run it will appear that his Forbearance is no Payment and the longer he is repaying the Principal, the greater sum the Interest of his Vengeance will at last amount to. For what higher Outrage can you do to God who is an Immortal Being, infinitely removed from all Passion and Suffering, than to break in upon him as you do by every act of Injustice, and despoil him of his Goods, and rifle his House before his Face; to turn him out of Doors as it were, and shut up his own Creation against him; and in effect to tell him, that from henceforth you are resolved to be your own God, to live at his Allowance no longer, but to carve and divide for your selves; and that so far as you are concerned, he shall have no more to do in his own World, but that you will supply his place in his Family, and order his affairs, and dispose of his Goods, as you think convenient. Which is such an intolerable Indignity, as cannot but kindle a Resentment in the most indulgent Nature, and arm even an infinite Patience with Thunderbolts: and accordingly if you consult either Sacred, or Prophane History, you will find that there is no one Sin which God hath so remarkably punished in this World, as this of Injustice between Man and Man. For this he hath been observed, to plague not only the unjust Persons themselves with such Judgments, as have ecchoed and resounded their Crimes, but hath many times entailed a Curse upon their Posterity; which like a flying Scourge hath pursued them Generation after Generation, and marked their Descendants with dire Events, like a Coat of Arms charged with Crosses and Croslets: For this he hath pursued whole Nations to utter Ruin, and Desolation; and 'twas for this that he cut off his own People the Iews, and converted his beloved Sharon into an eternal Desart. And if his Vengeance thus smoke against Injustice in this Life, which is the School of Discipline; how will it burn against it in the other, which is the Stage of Execution! If the Posterity of the Unjust be thus rack'd for it upon Earth, how will the Unjust themselves roar for it in Hell! In a word, if these temporary Flashes and Eruptions of God's Vengeance against Unrighteousness be so dreadful, how terribly must it flame against it within the bottomless Vulcano's of everlasting Burnings! Wherefore as you would not provoke an infinite Vengeance which you can neither withstand, nor endure; it concerns you diligently to avoid all Unrighteousness in your Dealings, and Intercourse with Men; which if you take care to do, and to add to your Iustice Mercy, to your Mercy Sobriety, and to your Sobriety walking humbly with God, you shall be sure not only to escape his Vengeance both here and hereafter, but also from these Seeds of Holiness to reap Everlasting Life.