CURSES. God from the beginning denounced his Curse against the Serpent, which seduced Eve, and against the Gen. iii. 14, 17. Gen. iv. 11. Gen. xii. 3.Earth, which thenceforth was to produce only Briars and Thorns: He cursed Cain also, who had imbrued his hands in his Brother Abel’s Blood. The Lord promised to bless those who should bless Abraham, and to curse those who should curse him. The Divine Maledictions are not merely Imprecations, impotent and fruitless desires, they carry their effects with them, and are attended with all the Miseries denounced by God. Balaam being invited to curse Israel, answered, Numb. xxiii. 8.How shall I curse whom the Lord hath not cursed? Neither my Curses nor my Blessings will avail any thing, unless God inspires me with both the one and the other, unless he is the first Author of them.
Jude v. 9.The Apostle S. Jude relating Michael the Archangel’s conflict with the Devil about the Body of Moses, remarks Gen ix. 25. Gen. xix. 7.that the Archangel did not venture to curse him, nor use any imprecations against him, but was content with saying to him, The Lord rebuke thee. From whence he concluded, that it is not allowable for the Faithful to utter Blasphemies, Imprecations or Curses against any one. Nevertheless we find, that the Saints sometimes did Curse particular persons: For example, Noah cursed his Grandson Canaan, and Jacob the Fury of his two Sons Levi and Simeon, who massacred the Sichemites, and plundered their City. Moses enjoins the People of Israel to denounce Curses against the violators Deut. xxxiii. Josh. vi. 26.of the Law; Joshua cursed him who should undertake to rebuild Jericho; and History informs us, that these Imprecations were not without effect, no more than those which our Saviour pronounced against the barren Fig-tree, Mark. xi. 21.which withered that very day, or those written against the Woman, who lay under the suspicion of Adultery, supposing her to be guilty, for the marks of them were soon visible in the Evils which overwhelmed her.
But these Curses are either ordain’d by God himself, or pronounced by Men abounding with his Spirit, or are mere Predictions of what should happen, uttered in the terms of Imprecations. They are not the effects of Passion, Impatience or Revenge. They are not therefore such as God condemns in his Law, and in his Scriptures: For example, he ordains that no one shall presume to curse his Father or his Mother upon pain of death; that no one should curse the Prince of his People, Exod. xxi. 17. Lev. xix. 14. Exod. xxii. 28. Lev. xxiv. 10, 11. Mat. v. 11. Rom. xii. 14. Luke vi. 28. 1 Cor. iv. 12. 1 Tim. iv. 10.or one that is deaf; whether a Man really deaf is meant here, or one that is absent, and cannot hear what is said against him; Blasphemy, or cursing of God is punished with death. In the Gospel, Jesus Christ pronounces those of his Disciples to be blessed, who are loaded with Curses, and requires them to bless those who curse them, to render Blessing for Cursing, which in reality is what S. Paul in his Sermons requires to be exercised towards his Enemies, as he himself tells us.
The Hebrews inform us, that Barak cursed and excommunicated one Meroz, who dwelt near the Brook Kison, but came not to the assistance of the Israelites in the Battle which they fought with Jabin. Wherefore Barak excommunicated him by the sound of four hundred Trumpets, according to the expression in Judg. v. 23.the Book of Judges, Curse ye Meroz, saith the Angel of the Lord, curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof, because they came not to the help of the Lord. Barak himself, they say, was this Angel of the Lord; others believe it was the Archangel Michael, General of the Lord’s Army, who cursed Meroz the Angel of the Land of the Canaanites. See Devoting, Excommunication, Anathema.