Equivocation

“ Possibly we once prided ourselves on our honesty, and felt happy in our upright character, plain-dealing, and direct speech; but to our dismay we have been betrayed into double-dealing, equivocation, evasive or even fraudulent conduct. ”

“ PREVARICATION, a divergence from the truth, equivocation, quibbling, a want of plain-dealing or straightforwardness, especially a deliberate misrepresentation by evasive answers, often used as a less offensive synonym for a lie. ”

“ Now, in this situation, who has told you, that, in the judgment which you form on the nature of your infidelities and your daily departure from virtue, you do not deceive yourselves? Who has told you, that the errors which you think so slight are in reality so; and that the distant boundaries which you prescribe to guilt, and within which every thing to you appears venial, are really the limits of the law? Alas! the most enlightened guides know not how to distinguish clearly in a cold and unbelieving conscience. ”

“ That we shall suffer only for the wickedness we do, not for that which is done to us. That is no sin which has not more or less of the will in it. (2.) That we must presume the best concerning all persons, unless the contrary do appear; not only charity, but equity teaches us to do so. ”

“ If to act upon our conceptions of right, and to acquit ourselves of all prejudice and selfishness in the formation of our principles, entitle us to the testimony of a good conscience, I might justly claim it. ”

“ Tell, O ‘Alí, the loved ones of God that equity is the most fundamental among human virtues. The evaluation of all things must needs depend upon it. Ponder a while on the woes and afflictions which this Prisoner hath sustained. I have, all the days of My life, been at the mercy of Mine enemies, and have suffered each day, in the path of the love of God, a fresh tribulation. ”

“ But is it not possible that some of the most common, and if I dared I should say the most narrow, the most self-evident of these prejudices may sway and terrify you from the plain path of equity? Dare you look the world's unjust contumelies stedfastly in the face? Dare you answer for yourself that you will not shudder at the performance of what you cannot but acknowledge, nay have acknowledged to be an act of duty? ”

“ There is only one circumstance which may appear grievous, that I shall now take notice of, and that is correction.
Now, when correction is given you, you either deserve it, or you do not deserve it. But, whether you really deserve it or not, it is your duty, and Almighty God requires, that you bear it patiently You may perhaps think that this is hard doctrine; but if you consider it right, you must needs think otherwise of it. Suppose, then, that you deserve correction; you cannot but say that it is just and right you should meet with it. ”

“ I pretend not, my lords, to be always in the right, I claim no other merit than that of meaning well; and when I am convinced, after proper examination, that I am engaged on the side of truth, I will trample on that insolence that shall command me to suppress my sentiments. ”

“ In truth We tested thee and found that thou wert not of them that are endowed with understanding, wherefore We passed upon thee the sentence of negation, as a token of justice from Our presence; and verily We are equitable.
However, shouldst thou return unto Us, We would convert thy negation into affirmation. Verily We are the One Who is of immense bounteousness. But should the Primal Point cease to be with you, then the judgement given in the Words of God shall be final and unalterable and every one will assuredly uphold it. ”

“ Ah! why then should you complain of a weakness which you have brought upon yourself? Why should you count, that what must irritate the Lord against you shall serve to appease him? What doth he see, when he sees the weakness of your inclinations? He sees the fruit of your crimes, the consequences of a licentious and sensual life. Is it here that you dare to appeal to justice itself, to that justice before which the righteous themselves entreat not to be judged? My God! upon what shall the sinner not flatter himself, since, in the most terrible of thy perfections, he finds reasons of confidence? ”

“ I ask justice and fairness from your Highness concerning that which hath befallen this poor Victim.’ Well is it for that soul whom the doubts of the perverse withhold not from the display of justice, and deprive not of the lights of the luminary of equity. O saints of God! at the end of Our discourse We enjoin on you once again chastity, faithfulness, godliness, sincerity, and purity. Lay aside the evil and adopt the good. ”

“ In the latter meeting I was concerned to show the dangerous and hurtful tendency of our submitting to be led and governed [Pg 157] by the customs and manners of others, without a strict and careful examination thereof; and bringing them to the test of the light in our own conscience. For although the frequency of a thing, and an habitual conformity to that which is not right, often blunts the edge of conviction, and reconciles us to that which is contrary to truth, and derogatory to our true interest; yet the custom of sinning will not lessen its guilt. ”

“ Deut. 1:17. “Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment: thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honor [pg 682] the person of the mighty: but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbor.” Lev. 19:15. “Blessed is that man that ... respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.” Ps. 40:4.
6. Of what are those guilty who respect persons?
“If ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors.” James 2:9. “He that despiseth his neighbor sinneth.” ”

“ Without having shared their guilt, share with noble resignation their punishments, and yield thyself freely to the yoke which they both illy could do without and illy bear. By the steadfast courage with which thou refusest their pleasure, thou shalt prove to them that it is not cowardice which causes thy submission. ”

“ Exercise, then, with all impartiality, within thyself, the several functions of culprit, accuser, and judge; and when thou hast found thyself guilty, do not spare, but reprove thyself very severely, and grieve from the bottom of thy heart, that thou hast offended and despised me thy God, thy Creator, and thy Saviour, who should have been the supreme object of thy love, because I am supremely good. ”

“ We see how good and evil mingle in the best of men and in the best of causes; we learn to see with patience the men whom we like best often in the wrong, and the repulsive men often in the right; we learn to bear with patience the knowledge that the cause which we love best has suffered, from the awkwardness of its defenders, so great disparagement, as in strict equity to justify the men who were assaulting it.—Stubbs, Seventeen Lectures, 97. ”

“ Be my law, my conscience—I have been steeped so long in evil, I have lost all fitness to judge honour or dishonour aríght. To tell you all, to lay my Ufe before you as it should be laid, I must break my oath, I must belie my word, I must be false to the chief thing that has ever redeemed my past. ”

“ The equity of his ways: Are not my ways equal? No doubt they are. He never lays upon man more than is right. In the present punishments of sinners and the afflictions of his own people, yea, and in the eternal damnation of the impenitent, the ways of the Lord are equal. (2.) The iniquity of their ways: " Are not your ways unequal? It is plain that they are, and the troubles you are in you have brought upon your own heads. God does you no wrong, but you have wronged yourselves." ”

“ If any doubt remains upon your royal mind of your equity in this business: should it haply seem possible to you that passion or prejudice, in yourself or another, may have warped so strong an understanding—do but supplicate the Almighty to strengthen and enlighten it, and He will hear you. ”

“ But those who honestly acknowledge their faults, and conceal nothing out of shame or fear of the punishment of the order, and are right sorry for their transgressions, have a large share in the forgiveness of our chapter, and in the good works which take place in our order. ”

“ We may bid them consider, if judgment begins with the immaculate Mediator, where shall the irreclaimable sinner appear? How will he escape the stroke, how bear the weight, of God's everlasting vengeance!—Would we comfort the distressed? We may point them to an atonement, whose merits are infinite, and able to save to the very uttermost, Heb. vii. 25. We may lead them to a righteousness, whose efficacy is unbounded, and sufficient to justify the ungodly. And what balm can be so sovereign, for a wounded conscience?———Are we to support the weak, and animate the doubting? ”

“ II. It now remains that I say one word on the INJUSTICE, and want of equity, which appears in this practice. For oftentimes also 417 thine own heart knoweth, that thou thyself, likewise, hast cursed others.
And as in the former case the preacher drew his remonstrance from his knowledge of the world; so in this, he reasons from his intimate knowledge of the human heart.
Let the friendliest, the best man living, explore his own conscience, and then let him tell us, or rather let him tell himself, if he can, that he has never offended in the instance here given. ”

“ I speak not of the prejudices which you perpetuate in the world against virtue; of those lamentable discourses against the godly, which your authority confirms; which pass from you to the people, and keep up, in all stations, those ancient prepossessions against piety, and those continual derisions of the righteous, which deprive virtue of all its dignity, and harden sinners in vice. ”

“ To show the incontestable equity of all his judicial proceedings. Men are apt to suggest that his way is not equal; but let them know that his judgments are the result of an eternal counsel, and are never rash or sudden resolves. ”

“ That court of conscience which moderates the rigour of the law, we call a court of equity. Those who are found faulty were perhaps overtaken in the fault, and are therefore to be restored with the spirit of meekness. ”

“ They whose hearts God shall not please to cleanse, shall suffer shame in this world, and a grievous punishment in the next: who hearken to a lie, and eat that which is forbidden. But if they come unto thee for judgment, either judge between them, or leave them; and if thou leave them, they shall not hurt thee at all. But if thou undertake to judge, judge between them with equity; for God loveth those who observe justice. ”

“ The only question, therefore, for our consideration must be, whether there exists any such large and unquestionable preponderance either of the better sort or of the worse, as shall give us a right to pronounce a judgment on the whole in their favour or against them, to affirm of them that their preponderating influence and weight is thrown into the balance of the good or of the evil. ”

“ You are caught in the charge you yourself bring forward. For you have been speaking now against yourself, and have not perceived that, in trying to cast reproaches in my teeth, you lay yourself under the greater fault. ”

“ Depart from the unjust, and evils shall depart from thee.
7:3. My son, sow not evils in the furrows of injustice, and thou shalt not reap them sevenfold.
7:4. Seek not of the Lord a preeminence, nor of the king the seat of honour.
7:5. Justify not thyself before God, for he knoweth the heart: and desire not to appear wise before the king.
7:6. Seek not to be made a judge, unless thou have strength enough to extirpate iniquities: lest thou fear the person of the powerful, and lay a stumblingblock for thy integrity. ”

“ The first small vestige of a feeling of obligation in a superior to acknowledge any right in inferiors, began when he had been induced, for convenience, to make some promise to them. Though these promises, even when sanctioned by the most solemn oaths, were for many ages revoked or violated on the most trifling provocation or temptation, it is probable that this, except by persons of still worse than the average morality, was seldom done without some twinges of conscience. ”

“ Usually what we call our convictions are propositions which we have not thoroughly examined in quietude, but notions which have just come into our heads and are irreversible to us solely because we are committed to them. Much may be urged against the Ethic and on behalf of hatred, contempt, and sorrow. ”

“ Comforting thy foe by conciliation, by gift of wealth, and smooth behaviour, thou must smite him when he walketh not aright. Thou shouldst equally smile the heinous offender who liveth by the practice of virtue, for the garb of virtue simply covereth his offences like black clouds covering the mountains. Thou shouldst burn the house of that person whom thou punishest with death. ”

“ And if, on the other hand, there is in me the disposition of obedience, how are you so greatly alarmed lest I should gainsay you? For you maintain that evil remains evil always, and that good remains good always, in utter ignorance of the force of your words. ”

“ But if we must judge, let us judge like God! We read of Him—that he 'lays righteousness to the line and judgment to the plummet.' Let us do the same. That a great wrong hath been done is evident to every mind. It is not meet that such wrongs should go unpunished! ”

“ They agree as to the underlying principle of action. Each feels bound by the same ethical law of "fidelity to the truth," but the persecutor is in grievous error in understanding that this fidelity binds him to coerce the mind of his dissenting brother. ”