Mr. Williams says (p. 8b, c), "'Tis a received rule among mankind […] in all public judgments […] to interpret words in the most extensive and favorable sense, that the nature of the words or expressions will bear."
I know not what he means: but if he means (as he must, if he means anything to the purpose) that 'tis a received rule amongst mankind, to trust, or accept, or at all regard any professions or declarations that men make, with professed design, in words of double and indiscriminate meaning, without any marks of difference by which their meaning can be known, for that very end that they may be used with a safe conscience, though they have no dictates of their own consciences, that they have that which others are to believe they have; I say, if this be a received rule among mankind, 'tis a rule that mankind has lately received from Mr. Williams.
Heretofore mankind, societies or particular persons, would have been counted very foolish for regarding such professions. Is this the way in earthly kingdoms, in professions of allegiance to temporal princes, in order to their admission to the privileges of good subjects?
Do they choose equivocal terms to put into their oaths of allegiance, to that end that men may use 'em and speak true, though they are secret enemies?
There are two competitors for the kingdom of this world, Christ and Satan; the design of a public profession of religion is, to declare on which side men are.
And is it agreeable to the custom of mankind in such cases, to make laws that no other than ambiguous words shall be used, or to accept of such in declarations of this kind?
There are two competitors for the kingdom of Great Britain, King George, and the Pretender: is it the constitution of King George and the British Parliament, that men should take oaths of allegiance, contrived in words of indeterminate signification, to the end that men who are in their hearts enemies to King George, and friends to the Pretender, may use them and speak true? And certainly mankind, those of 'em that have common sense, never in any affairs of life look on such professions worth a rush.
Would Mr. Williams himself, if tried, in any affair wherein his temporal interest is concerned, trust such professions as these? If any man that he has dealings with, should profess to him that he had pawned for him, in a certain place, an hundred pounds, evidently, yea professedly using the expression as an ambiguous one, so that there is no understanding by it, what is pawned there, whether an hundred pound in money, or an hundred weight of stones: if he should inquire of the man what he meant, and he should reply, you have no business to search my heart, or to go to turn my heart inside out; you are obliged in charity to understand my words in the most favorable sense; would Mr. Williams in this case stick to his own received rule?
Would he regard such a profession, or run the venture of one sixpence upon it?
Would he not rather look on such a man as affronting him, and treating him as though he would make a fool of him?
And would not he know, that everybody else would think him a fool, if he should suffer himself to be gulled by such professions, in things which concern his own private interest?
And yet it seems, this is the way in which he thinks he ought to conduct himself as a minister of Christ, and one intrusted by him in affairs wherein his honor and the interests of his kingdom are concerned.
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