Thirdly,that they that exhort and dehort,where they are required to give counsel,are corrupt counsellors and,as it were,bribed by their own interest.For though the counsel they give be never so good,yet he that gives it is no more a good counsellor than he that giveth a just sentence for a reward is a just judge.But where a man may lawfully command,as a father in his family,or a leader in an army,his exhortations and dehortations are not only lawful,but also necessary and laudable:but when they are no more counsels,but commands;which when they are for execution of sour labour,sometimes necessity,and always humanity,requireth to be sweetened in the delivery by encouragement,and in the tune and phrase of counsel rather than in harsher language of command.
Examples of the difference between command and counsel we may take from the forms of speech that express them in Holy Scripture."Have no other Gods but me";"Make to thyself no graven image";"Take not God's name in vain";"Sanctify the Sabbath";"Honour thy parents";"Kill not";"Steal not,"etc.are commands,because the reason for which we are to obey them is drawn from the will of God our King,whom we are obliged to obey.But these words,"Sell all thou hast;give it to the poor;and follow me,"are counsel,because the reason for which we are to do so is drawn from our own benefit,which is this;that we shall have "treasure in Heaven."These words,"Go into the village over against you,and you shall find an ass tied,and her colt;loose her,and bring her to me,"are a command;for the reason of their fact is drawn from the will of their master:but these words,"Repent,and be baptized in the name of Jesus,"are counsel;because the reason why we should so do tendeth not to any benefit of God Almighty,who shall still be King in what manner soever we rebel,but of ourselves,who have no other means of avoiding the punishment hanging over us for our sins.
As the difference of counsel from command hath been now deduced from the nature of counsel,consisting in a deducing of the benefit or hurt that may arise to him that is to be to be counselled,by the necessary or probable consequences of the action he propoundeth;so may also the differences between apt and inept counsellors be derived from the same.For experience,being but memory of the consequences of like actions formerly observed,and counsel but the speech whereby that experience is made known to another,the virtues and defects of counsel are the same with the virtues and defects intellectual:and to the person of a Commonwealth,his counsellors serve him in the place of memory and mental discourse.But with this resemblance of the Commonwealth to a natural man,there is one dissimilitude joined,of great importance;which is that a natural man receiveth his experience from the natural objects of sense,which work upon him without passion or interest of their own;whereas they that give counsel to the representative person of a Commonwealth may have,and have often,their particular ends and passions that render their counsels always suspected,and many times unfaithful.And therefore we may set down for the first condition of a good counsellor:that his ends and interest be not inconsistent with the ends and interest of him he counselleth.
Secondly,because the office of a counsellor,when an action comes into deliberation,is to make manifest the consequences of it in such manner as he that is counselled may be truly and evidently informed,he ought to propound his advice in such form of speech as may make the truth most evidently appear;that is to say,with as firm ratiocination,as significant and proper language,and as briefly,as the evidence will permit.And therefore rash and unevident inferences,such as are fetched only from examples,or authority of books,and are not arguments of what is good or evil,but witnesses of fact or of opinion;obscure,confused,and ambiguous expressions;also all metaphorical speeches tending to the stirring up of passion (because such reasoning and such expressions are useful only to deceive or to lead him we counsel towards other ends than his own),are repugnant to the office of a counsellor.
