are said to have dyed in Faith being perswaded of the Promises and having embraced them many Ages before the time was come for the accomplishment of them Then for the Power and Efficacy of this Grace the Apostle tells us what Transcendent things it has done in Ancient times and that by vertue of it the Elders obtained a good Report ver 2. by which he means That the Great and Famous Actions Recorded of the Patriarchs and other Worthies in the Old Testament were all owing to their Faith by Faith they pleased God bore up against the Malice of the World subdued Kingdoms and wrought Righteousness in despight of the greatest Difficulties and the highest Discouragements Many Instances he gives us of these Noble Flights of Faith amongst which there is none in all respects more remarkable than the Example in the Text By Faith Abraham when he was tryed Offered up Isaac and he that Received the Promises offered up his only begotten Son Of whom it was said that in Isaac shall thy Seed be called Two things are observable in these Words 1. The Hardness of the Tryal which God made of Abraham when he commanded him to offer up Isaac to Him 2. The Issue of this Tryal or the Victory of Abraham's Faith over all the Hardships and Discouragements which he met with in it Both these were extraordinary and being written for our Instruction will surely afford us very useful Reflections in reference to our Faith and Practice I begin with the First viz. 1. The Hardness of the Tryal which God put Abraham upon for the Discovery of his Faith and affiance in him The Text calls it a Tryal which implies that God commanded Abraham to offer up his Son for had it been a Free-will Offering without any Order or Direction from God such as the Heathen Oblations were when they Sacrificed their Children to their Idols it had been a plain and horrid Act of Murther Nor was it necessary as some have Fancied to clear the Righteousness of God and Abraham in this matter that God should dispence with the Sixth Commandment when he obliged the Patriarch to kill his Son because it had been Murther to kill him without his Command For that Commandment as is plain by the case before us Forbids only to Kill without Gods Authority which Abraham never went about to do and therefore needed no Dispensation for it He had an Express Commission from God who is absolute Lord of Life and Death and never barrs his Prerogative by his Laws and may therefore use his Power as he pleases and take away the Life of the most Innocent Person as well by the Hand of a Father and the Fire upon the Altar as by an Infection in the Air by Lightning or Tempest or any other Messenger of Death And thus Moses tells us that God Tempted Abraham and bid him go and offer his Son upon a certain Mountain in Moriah for a Burnt Offering Gen. 22.1 2. And herein lay the sharpness of Abrahams Tryal that either he must contend with God and Dispute his Authority or do the strangest thing that ever was done in the World to please him That we may the better understand the Case let us consider what it was that God demanded of Abraham as a Test of his sincerity towards Him and what plausible Arguments a Person in his Circumstances might be supposed to frame against it 1. First then God commands him to Sacrifice his Son than which nothing could be more surprizing or unwelcome to him Who ever heard of such an Act of Piety before of so hard a Precept or so Unlikely a way of pleasing God as this What would an ordinary Faith have done how would natural Reason have Pleaded in this case Might not Abraham himself be supposed to reason thus Must I then lay aside all Humanity and imbrue my Hands in the Blood of my Own Son Must I forget that I am a Father and Destroy the Life which I gave Does not Nature teach us to be Kind and Dutiful towards the Off-spring of our own Bowels And are not the Laws of Nature Engraven upon our Minds by the Finger of God himself Has not the Reason which God has given me hither to condemned the Action which he now Commands And tho' I know he is always Just and Good and would do always that which I know would Please him yet how can I hope to Please him by Destroying his Image in my own Child What will the World say of me who profess to Worship God in the purest manner should I Pollute his Altars with my Sons Blood and do that strange and unaccountable thing which must needs be a Scandal to his Holy Religion So harsh a command as this was enough to put not Nature only but Faith it self upon the stretch and being perfectly New and Arbitrary to fright Men from the Worship of God which this Holy Man had been the Best Example and the greatest Promoter of 2. But then God did not only command Abraham to Sacrifice his Son but his Beloved and Only Son Isaac i. e. his only Son by Sarah the Free-Woman and true Mother of the Family which was to convey an Universal Blessing to Mankind Take now thy Son saith God thine only Son Isaac Gen. 22.2 whom thou lovest and get thee into the Land of Moriah and offer him there for a Burnt Offering And this greatly increases the difficulty of Abrahams Obedience that it should please God to demand not one out of many but his Only Son his Isaac whom he intirely loved the only Joy of his Mother and the only hope of the Family which was to make the best figure of any other in the World And now might not Abraham have said Lord must I bereave my self of the Child which nothing but a Miracle of thine could raise out of my Aged Loins Must I take away a Life for which I would gladly Exchange my own Will not all my Flocks and Herds afford an Acceptable Sacrifice to thee All these I would freely offer instead of that Innocent Lamb in which all my Earthly Treasure and Comfort lies Let not the Lord be angry and I will speak this once Is not the Life of Sarah bound up in the Life of the Child How shall I answer the Death of Isaac to her Or must I be the Instrument of two such Deaths at once and when I have slain the Son carry the Killing Tidings to the Unhappy Mother Oh how great a streight was this Good Man driven into when he must either have forfeited the Favour of God or bereaved himself of all that was Dear to him in this World by the strangest act of Obedience that was ever heard of in it 3. Another grand Discouragement to Abrahams Obedience was that his Beloved Isaac was a Son of very great and glorious Promises which his untimely Death must without a Miracle frustrate the completion of For God had promised to make him the Father
upon his Son and Talkt with him upon the Way to Moriah Nature should make a stand and his Heart should fail him to think what a sad Uncomfortable Errand he was going upon But we meet with nothing of all this in Abrahams deportment during the whole process of his Tryal He did not make a false step in three Days Journey to Moriah He was so far from staggering at the strangeness of things that he went on without delay and as far as appears by the History of this great Action proceeded by even and constant steps through all the Stages of his Tedious Duty Gen. 22.9 Even when he came to the Mountain which God told him of had built an Altar and laid the Wood in order upon it he did not so much as allow himself to say must I now Burn the staff of my Old-Age and the dearest Pledge of Gods Favour to me and all Ages of the World So that we see he perfectly overcame the Difficulties and surmounted the Discouragements which his way was obstructed with 2. The Power or Principle by which this Transcendent Act of Righteousness was wrought i. e. by which Abraham Prevailed with himself and over all Discouragements to offer up Isaac The Apostle ascribes it to his Faith Now Faith we know is sometimes taken for an habitual Belief or Perswasion of the Perfections Truths and Promises of God and sometimes for a single Act of this eminent Grace and there are places of which the Text is one in which it is apparently Used in both senses 1. First then the honour of this Noble Action was owing to a constant and habitual Perswasion of Divine Truths and Promises which Abraham had attained unto He had been long accustomed to believe God upon his Word and to rely upon his Truth and Faithfulness And being fully perswaded of the Reality and concernment of all that he Revealed to him it was easie for him to conclude and settle upon this great Principle of Religion that God in all things was to be Obeyed And this Perswasion was the Root of all his Piety and Submission to the Will of God Upon this he left his own Country for a strange Land and followed the Clue of God's Providence whithersoever it led him it directed his steps when he knew not whither he went and put him into a posture of Undertaking the Hardest Tryals and giving any proof of his Sincerity that God should demand of him And accordingly when God demanded his Son the Dearest thing he had in the World tho' it was against the Law of Nature in any Case but his to slay an Innocent Youth Tho it was in common esteem a Contradiction to all the Kindness and Tenderness which a Fathers Name carries in it and no less contrary to the Endearments of the Conjugal Relation Nay though it had all the Visible Marks of Unnatural Rage and Inhumanity upon it and was like to prove an Indelible Blemish to Religion tho' these considerations were no less Obvious than Weighty yet was Abraham through the Constancy of his Faith and Obedience so Naturaliz'd to the Service of God that nothing could divert him from it But I confess this does not fully clear the main Difficulty implyed in the Text Viz. That Abraham should offer up his Son by Faith while he Believed the Promises concerning his Seed it being against common Sense or Reason That if Isaac dyed without Issue His Seed should be Blessed after him So that Abraham might be a strong Believer and do great things by his Faith yet still it does not appear but that he must needs stagger while he shook the very Ground and Foundation which his Faith and Hope had rested upon as he did when he went about to destroy the promised Line and so Cut off all the Blessings that depended upon it Let us therefore have recourse to the second Notion of Faith and Consider it as it signifies 2. Some special and Eminent Act of this Grace And such we find in the present casu namely a strong Persuasion of Abraham of the Power of God to raise up Isaac from the dead And to this the context expresly ascribes his success By faith Abraham when he was tried offered up Isaac v. 19.1 c. Accounting saith the Apostle that God was able to raise him up even from the dead i. e. that he had Power to fulfill his Promise by bringing Isaac to Life again and that he would certainly do it rather than suffer the least tittle of his promise to Dye with him And now his Way tho' hard was clear and open and there was nothing to Interrupt his Obedience but what his Almighty Faith could deal withal He had doubtless considered that God had a better Interest in his Son and all his other Possessions than any he could lay claim unto And the great Reverence he had for his Wisdom and Soveraignty Hush't his Natural Affections and whereas God's Command seem'd to Oppose his promises he overcame the Difficulty too Believing that God was able to Reconcile them and bring back Isaac from the Dead by the same Power that gave him his First Being when he sprang from One as is observed in this Chapter that was as Good as Dead that is Himself that had Out-lived the Natural Power of giving Life to others We see then the Eminency of Abrahams Faith v. 12. and the support it gave him all along in his Tryal By the Direction of it he kept his Eye all the while upon God's Command and-Wink't at all the seeming contradictions that Oppos'd his Obedience to it He doubted not but that God had Power to Kill and to make alive To Command what he pleased and Reward those that Diligently Seek and Obey him In short amidst all the hard things that bore upon Abrahams Faith there was nothing appeared so Incredible to him as that God should lye or so unreasonable as to suspend his Obedience while he was Persuaded of God's Faithfulness to him And accordingly he immediately followed him in the Light and strength of his Faith without any Faultering or Regret through all the Dark Scenes of that Cloudy Providence which led him to the Sacrifice of his Only Son And that after a most Express and Emphatical Promise that in Isaac his Seed should be called And now 't is time for us to Consider how far we are concerned in this Discourse both in reference to our Faith and Practice First then 1. Hence we Learn the true Nature of Justifying Faith there being nothing plainer in Scripture than that Abrahams Faith was Imputed to him for Righteousness which certainly it had never been if he had not Obeyed the Command which was the Tryal of his Faith If Abraham then was Justifyed by the Faith which offered up his Son 't is clear that he was justifyed by a lively and working Faith And that no other Faith than this can Justify is evident if we consider that Abrahams Faith is more than
Dictates as essentiael to Christianity which the Scripturs and the next Ancient and venerable Writings do assure us are not There are those that call us Hereticks and have often proved us so as clearly as Fire and Faggot can do it because we are so strait-laced as to Believe but just so many Truths and Articles of Faith as were at first delivered to the Saints And are so Nice and Humorous as not to Believe the flattest contradictions to them There is a Church that for several Ages and in several Councils hath Decreed the Extirpation of Hereticks i.e. the most Orthodox Christians by Fire and Sword and fairly Recommended it as an Eminent Test of Catholick Zeal Others at least there have been who with mighty Confidence pretended to secret motions and Immediate Warrants from Heaven to Worry and Destroy all that should withstand them and their Doctrin I might tire you with instances of both kinds and make it appear that the Zeal of Christians against One another hath in point of Fierceness and Cruelty far exceeded the Pattern in the Text. For the Proof of this I might but desire you to take a short Review of the Ruines which Romish Zeal hath made in Protestant Countries from our own to the very borders of the Ottoman Empire To keep nearest home I might appeal to the Holy League of France for the Utter Extirpation of the Reform'd Religion And to the Barbarous Usage of more than many Thousand Christians in the United Provinces Grot. Annal lib. 1. I mean before the Quarrel began with the Civil Government I might refer you to Inquisitions Invasions and Massacres to the Burning Zeal of the Marian days and the Powder Conspiracy here in England that Master-piece of Inhumanity design'd no doubt to make amends for the long Peace and Tranquility we enjoyed under the Pious and gentle Reign of our Immortal Virgin Queen After these it were cold and endless to mention all the Impious and Unnatural Artifices of the Agents of Rome against the Lives of our Princes the felicity of our Government Foulis Hist of Romish Treasons and Vsurp and the Vitals of our Religion One thing in the general you may observe that when ever the Church of Rome hath lost any thing by dint of Argument she hath presently betaken her self to sharper and deadlier Weapons for the Recovery of it And methinks it is the least of Wonders that a ChurchPamper'd with Power and Wealth and Honours that thinks her self fit to give Law to the whole Christian World and that it is her Unquestionable Right and Duty by all possible means to do it should not wave her Principles and content her self to admonish and Weep over Obstinate Hereticks as our Blessed Lord did over Jerusalem when her designs call for Blood and Cruelty and 't is apparent that Men will not be made Obedient without them On the other hand there has been another sort of men that under pretence of Refining the Reformation have shamefully violated the Pure and Undefiled Religion that came from Heaven And for this I might refer you to the Wicked Outrages of the Anabaptists at Munster and the Terrible Battles which have been fought for little Phansies and affected singularities in Religion I might call to your Remembrance the many Insurrections and what I even Tremble to speak of the horrid Murther of the late Arch-Bishop in Scotland I might desire you to reflect upon the fierce and bloody Attempts which in our Memory and Nation have been managed upon the fifth Monarchy Principles In a word I might carry you to the Tombs of Kings Nobles and Prelates of worthy Patriots and Ministers of Justice of Preachers and Ambassadors of Peace who by hands lifted up to Heaven have been offered to use the Apostles Phrase upon the Sacrifice and Service of your Faith which some call Heresie and according to which we now Worship the God of our Fathers Now to apply these Allusions to the purpose of the Text I shall only observe to you that the chief Actors and Parties in them have at one time or other confest that they verily thought they were engaged in a good Cause many Apologies have been made and many volumes have been written for them Yea many have sealed it with their Blood and pronounc't it with their last breath that the things they did and Dyed for as ill as they look'd towards the World were done out of Zeal to God and Religion that is they thonght they ought to have done them as contrary and Dishonourable as they really were to the Name of Jesus I come now in the second place 2. To shew whece it is that Men are liable to be thus Misguided by Erroneous Principles and Transported with this Extravagant and destructive Zeal I confess 't is very natural to men to be warm and zealous for their own Doctrines and Sentimests ill so much that they that have the Truth on their side have not always the Charity and Good-Nature that should attend it But that this Inclination should so mightily raise the Spleen and fire the Spirits of Men That it should grow so violent Quarrelsome and Impetuous as to scorn the Restraint of Laws both Divine and Humane and break down all the Fonces of Government to set up the Kingdom fo Christ which is not of this World That the Disciples of so meek a Master as our Saviour was and the Professors of so Charitable and obliging so Holy and Healing an Institution as Christianity is should think themselves bound to promote every Crude Opinion with the Sword Nay that inspired and as they call themselves Infallible Men should be so much out of the way so exceedingly fierce and angry with all that are not of their Minds as to devote them to Present and Eternal Ruine These things are so extreamly full of Scandal and Contradiction that without a Demonstration of the Truth it were scarce Charity to believe the possibility of them But let us do that Right to Christianity and our selves as to see where the fault lyes and what it is that under the pretence of Conscience has wrought so much Misery and Coufusion in the Christian World To assign all the causes of these Evils would require more Time and Patience than the present occasion will allow I shall therefore confine my self to such as I think have the greatest Interest in them and are best able to answer for them 1. The first is Bad Education which has a strange Influence upon the Spirits and Persuasions of Men and is able to change the sweetest natural Dispositions into the Bitterest and fiercest Tempers The great Spring and Mover of Humane Actions in the Judgment of the Mind and therefore the first Information of the Judgment which is the Business of Education must have a mighty stroke in the Conduct of the Life of Man and the rather because the Impressions we receive of things while our Minds are free from all suspition and Prejudice are
can be returned to those that should Object against the Author of it that either our Sactification was not the thing he really design'd or if it was that he has taken effectual care considering our natural averseness to it and the fierce and rampant inclinations to Vice of those that stand in greatest need of it to disappoint himself of his end that he has left us all the gains and delights of Sin and himself the honour only of Pardoning our ungodly and malitious Lives that we may dabble and bemire our selves in all the Pollutions of the Flesh and of the World and wash off all with a few Penitential Tears when we die that we may be extreamly wicked with good management to the last and tho we never glorified God in our Lives be sure to receive a Crown of Glory from him at our Death 2. That the Gospel gives no such encouragement is certain because it expresly requires Holiness and Obedience to the Precepts of it as a necessary condition of future Happiness As it designs the Professors of it should be excellent men holy in all manner of Conversation so it excludes them out of Heaven who frustrate its design by wicked and unworthy Practices and expose its Blessed Author to Open Shame Meb 12.14 Without Holiness saith the Apostle i. e. purity of Heart and Life no man shall see the Lord. Mat. 19.17 If thou wilt enter into Life saith our Saviour keep the Commandments Mat. 7.21 Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven But he that doth the Will of my Father which is in Heaven Rom. 8.13 For if ye live after the Flesh ye shall die But if ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the Body ye shall live Rom. 2.7 8 9. To them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for Glory and Honour and Immortality God will render Eternal Life But to them that are contentious and obey not the Truth but obey Vnrighteusness Indignation and Wrath Tribulation and Anguish upon every Soul of man that doth evil These and many other Texts which we must own have nothing of the shade or dimness of a Parable in them do undeniably prove the indispensable necessity of a Holy Life to fit and qualifie us for Eternal Bliss and Happiness And then to apply the Promises of Heaven to men that have lived a wicked and are past living a godly Life is plainly to expound the Gospel into a direct contradiction to it self For can a man that is dying be said to have lived holily only because he is sadly troubled for a very sinful Life Or hath he kept the Commandments that has lived in a constant violation of them and of his own Covenant to keep them and only promises over again to keep them when it is too late Can we can him a Mortifiect Man that after he has gorg'd himself with the pleasures of Sin and sinned away the power of Lust resolves yet to be very chaste and temperate upon his Death-bed Or can we say that he seeks for Glory and Immortality by his Patience and Constancy in Well-doing who at the end of his Natural is to begin the whole Christian Life and has always been a perfect Stranger to the Conversation of Heaven 'T is true those that have made it their business to please God have lived soberly and kept a Good Conscience towards Men need not doubt the pardon of their Offences upon their Repentance for them because their Repentance is ever accompanied with actual Holiness and where Holiness is the Fruit of Repentance the End will be Everlasting Life But the case is vastly different in those that have left themselves no time to reform their lives and are forc'd to spend that little they have left in fruitless Vows and Wishes Because these men have neglected the main condition of the Covenant the great End of the Gospel and of their Lives I mean the Glorification of God by the Purity and Holiness of them A thing in its own nature necessary to their Happiness without which no man can see the Lord. But perhaps you will say tho those pangs of Sorrow and Devotion which men that have lived wretched and profligate Lives discover on their Death-beds cannot be called a Holy Life yet they are good signs of Repentance and Faith in Christ and are they not sufficient to intitle them to Pardon and Eternal Life To this I Answer 8. 'T is certain that no true Penitent and Believer in Christ shall finally perish But then the Question is whether the Gospel will allow that to be true saving Faith or Repentance which is destitute of the Fruits of Rigteousness after a fair season and opportunity for them And here it is but fair the Gospel should speak for it self Bring forth Fruits meet for Repentance Mat. 3.7 8. and think not to say within your selves we have Abraham to our Father Luk. 3.9 Every Tree which bringeth not forth Good Fruit is hewn down and cast into the Fire Mat. 16.2 For the Son of Man shall come in the Glory of his Father and then he shall reward every Man according to his Works What doth it profit Jam. 2.14 my Brethren tho a man say he hath Faith and hath not Works If a fruitless Faith and Repentance cannot profit I am sure they cannot save us Vers 17. If Faith without Works as St. James tells us is dead how sad is the condemnation of a dying Sinner whose Faith is dead before him and whose time of working is over tho' he seek it with Tears If sorrow for Sin may be without amendment of Life and then will not pass for true Repentance it can be no certain sign of it And if Christ will render to every man according to his works how sorrowful is the case of that man who has worn out his whole Life in Sin and hardly left himself the least remnant of time to amend it 2. No man can plead any Title to the Mercy or Favour of God but by virtue of his Covenant with him in Baptism 'T is by Baptism that we are made Parties in the Covenant which includes all the Promises God hath made to us in his Son and therefore ought to be the Standard of our expectations from him And whereas there are Conditions on our part and we vow Obedience to Christi's Commands as well as Faith and Repentance from Dead Works if we fail in any of these Conditions we bar our Title to the Promises which depend upon them We cut our selves off by our own Act and Deed from the Hopes of Pardon and Eternal Life For where a Promise is made upon more Conditions than one the keeping of all but one will not inable us to claim the Promise And why should we think that God will abate us the Righteousness of Faith as the Apostle styles Obedience to the Gospel or that he will
but to treat of that which all the World are agreed is the meaning of it And the rather because the World has had time and it seems has been no ill husband of it to wear off some of the very deepest Impressions of this Ancient Commandment The Scribes and Pharisees had indeed run the people into many gross mistakes and concealed the best part of their Duty from them by their false and frigid Interpretations of the great Commandments of God But to do them right they were much better expounders of this Law than many of our Modern Christians who with Pens of Steel and in Letters of Bloud are ready to justify that Killing for Honour is no Murther And that it is rather an Act of Mercy and Prudence than of Cruelty and Disobedience when we are opprest with the Miseries of this Life to find the shortest Way we can into the next and to put an end to our Own Lives when they are less desirable than Death it self These are the Sentiments of Men of very different Complexion The former are generally Men of Flame and Spirit of a hot sanguine Temper which is seldom reckon'd the best Freind to a solid Judgment The latter for the most part are of a Melancholy Constitution and while their Understandings are clouded with that dark Humour must needs stand but in an Ill light to discern the Truth But what ever their Judgments are in other matters they seem to have clean forgot the Primary and most obvious meaning of what was said of Old time Thou shalt not Kill Which Precept being exprest in very few Words will require the larger Explication and the rather because it is undoubtedly lawful insome cases to Kill and these must be known before we can certainly Determine wherein thenature of the hainous Sin of Murther consists which all men agree to be forbidden in this Law For these Reasons in speaking to these Words I shall shew 1. In what cases it may be justly supposed that Killing is not forbidden is this law 2. What the Sin of Murther or the Killing here forbidden is 3. Wherein the Hainousness of this Sin consists And then I shall consider 4. Whether it be lawful or not to Kill a Rival in a Quarrel of Honour or to Kill our selves when we are grown weary of our lives 1. In what cases it may be justly supposed that Killing is not forbidden in this Law Life is the gift of God which he bestows upon us as a thing sacred to be preserved for his Use and not dispos'd of without his leave and pleasure Gen. 2.7 It is he that Breatheth into Man the breath of Life and being absolute Lord of it there is no Question but he may resume it when and by what Instruments he pleases And that there are Crimes worthy of Death both the Scriptures and Natural Reasons do assure us Yea such Crimes their are as were they not sometimes punisht with Death would suddenly dash all human Society in pieces and bring the World into such confusion that there would be no living amongst men And therefore it may be reasoanbly presumed that Killing is not prohibited in all cases For instance When a Magistrate puts an Offendor to Death that is worthy of it in a regular courses of Justice he is not to be charged with the Breach of this Law He has his Authority from God the Spreme Judge and Sovereign Lord of Life and Death He Acts as his Minister by express Commission from him and therefore is Innocent of all the Bloud that is shed by the Sword of Justice and hence St. Paul calls the Magistrate a Terrour to Evil Workers Rom. 13.3 4. because he beareth not the Sword in vain being the Minister of God a Revenger to execute Wrath upon him that doth Evil. Nor hath God only given a General Commission to Seize the forfeited Lives of great and haynous Offenders but in some cases as in that of the Murtherer himself He particularly Commands the Use of this severity as a standing Rule of of Equity and Justice Gen. 9.6 For who so shedeth mans Bloud by man shall his Bloud be shed And for the same reason Killing in the Wars when the cause is Just and the War necessary for the Preservation of the Publick is no part of the meaning of this Law For it is not to be supposed that God who sets up Kings and Governments for the Defence of the common Safety should restrain them from Drawing the Sword of War when there is no other means to preserve it The Swords of Princes are the greatest Instruments of Providence in the World and the best and Noblest Use of them is the Protection of their Subjects from Oppression and Violence in the Enjoyment of all the Blessings of this and the Advantages for a better Life which the Bounty of Heaven hath inricht them with And therefore our Saviour never went about to tye the hands of Sovereign Princes or States from the use of this sharp and last Remedy in a Just and Necessary Cause nor was the Gospel ever accused for being an Enemy to the Throne upon this account There being no Tribunal upon Earth high enough to decide the Quarrels between Independent Governments and Nations it is a natural and strong Presumption when all amicable ways of Peace and Reconciliation fail that God approves of the injured Party's Appealing to him in the Field of War as the supreme Judge and Guardian of Right and Innocence And by consequence a Souldier that serves in a lawful War is not forbid to Kill the Enemy of his Princes and Country he is in this Cases a Minister of Divine Justice being invested with Authority from him to whom vengeance belongeth These are Publick cases in which the Authority of God over the Life of Man is manifestly derived immediately to the Sovereign and by him to inferior Magistrates and dispensers of Justice Besides which It may be reasonably presumed that when a private Person is desperately Assaulted and in the necessary Defence of his own Life takes away the Invaders he hath done nothing against the Intent of this Law Every man hath a natural Right to defend the Life which God hath given him against him that shall attempt by unjust or Illegal Violence to wrest it from him This also as well as Life it self is the gift of God It is a Debt we owe to the Lord and giver of Life to keep it for his service till he is pleased to call for it which he never do's by the hand of a Murtherer And therefore when we are reduced to that Extremity that we can neither Fly to the Protection Protection of the Magistrate nor escape with our Lives with out taking away the Life of him that Assails us if he Perish in his wicked Enterprise his Bloud will not be Required at our hands 't is better for the Publick to lose a Bad than a Good and useful Member and when the case is such
Malice assisted with Rage and Violence can do him Life besides the the natural Sweetness of it is the Foundation of all other Blessings which we do or can enjoy in this World It also gives us a blessed opportunity and the only one we can have of laying a good Foundation for Eternal Life And therefore it must be an inconceivable Damage to be wrongfully deprived of so vast a Benefit and hurried out of so dear an Enjoyment to be stript Naked to our very Being and Essence and turn'd out perhaps in a Moment into a miserable Eternity This loss can never be repaired or so much as computed unless we could count the years of Eternity or had certain knowledge of the future Estates of men and were sure that Heaven stood always open as a Sanctuary to those whom some men in their Rage and Madness judge unworthy to live upon the Earth 4. It is an injury of vast extent in reference to the publick It is the grief of all men that have any Bowels or tenderness of Nature in them and a signal Prejudice to those that are in Authority the Magistrate is robb'd of a Subject by it his right of Judging and doing Justice between men is violently assaulted and ravished from him His Laws the great Security of mens Lives and Properties are broken and contemned the Publick Peace his peculiar Charge and Province is interrupted and violated evil Men so long as the Murtherer lyes conceal'd or in case he escapes the Law are encouraged by his example to the like cruel and distructive Practices This creates a diffidence in Men makes them shy and distrustful of one anothers Society Besides all this Murther many times proves the Ruine of a worthy and useful Family by taking off the Head or lopping some or other of the more Hopeful and Flourishing Branches All which Injuries do apparently tend to the dissolution of the Publick Peace and Security 5. If we look to the Rice and Causes of this Sin they are some of the greatest Vices which reproach and vilify Humane Nature The most common and visible Causes of it are Covetousness which is the root of all evil and the Counter-part of Idolatry Lust the Mother of Shame excessive Pride and Envy which resteth not Pro. 4 16. unless it causes some to fall a Cruel Desperate Malicious and Revengeful Temper fermented with hellish Rage and Fury Such are the Vices which prompt and irritate men to this Savage and unnatural Wickedness than which nothing is more contrary to the Spirit of the Gospel which is all Kindness Meekness and Charity nothing more unlike the Temper of our Blessed Saviour his gracious Design in coming into the World his pacifick Doctrine and Example to it and his most charitable and obliging manner of leaving it This is a true Indictment of the Sin of Murther which shews it to be a Monstrous and most Hainous Crime an Action entirely and extremely evil with out the least shadow of a good Circumstance in it For a Christian therefore a Disciple of the Cross to be guity of it is under his own hand the Fatal Instrument of this Horrid Fact to Renounce all Right and Title to the Merits of him who for our sakes suffered upon it And now because the great enemy and deceiver of Mankind who was himself a Murtherer from the beginning Joh. 8 44. has found out wayes to palliate the hainousness of this scarlet Crime and betray Men into a presumption of the Lawfulness of it in some Cases 4. I shall in the last place more largely consider these two viz. the Killing of another in a Quarrel of Honour and putting an end to our own Lives when we are grown weary of them 1. Killing another upon a Challenge or Point of Honour to satiate our Revenge or to punish the Affronts and Injuries which he offers to us I cannot seriously think that any man while he is himself I mean while he is under the Government of Reason and hearkens to the cool Dictates of it do's really approve of this as a lawful and worthy Action But it is far more incredible that a Profest Christian that is competently instructed in the Doctrine of Christ and Believes what he professes should venture his Life and Salvation upon the credit of this Doctrine That it is lawful to Kill the man that Affronts him For unless we could hope to change the Natures of things as easily as we do the Names of them a voluntary taking away the Life of Man by a private hand without Authority from God or his Ministers of Justice is and will be the Sin of Murther to the Worlds End And then it will be so when we have drest it up with all the modish Names and flourish as we can put upon it And the Killing an Adversary in a Duel for a scurvy Word or a rude Action will be one of the deepest Stains of Honour and an Act of the highest Injustice to our Neighbour if the breach of the sixth Commandment be so When all is said that can be in favour of it it is still a private Revenge upon the Life of Man which God has impaled and reserved to his own Use and Disposal forbiding all Persons but those that Rule in his stead or may justly presume upon his or their Commission in any Case to touch or Invade it And therefore to do it in Revenge of Honour is a manifest violation of this Law since neither God nor the Magistrate that bears his Authority have made either of the contending Parties the dispensers of their Justice but reserved the matter to their own Tribunals So that here the Question is not who gave the Affront of what Nature it was or who sent the Challenge But the proper Questions are who gave thee Power over thy Brother's Life Who prescribed his Heart-bloud as the only salve for thine Honour And who is the lawful Judge and Revenger of the wrong thou sustainest by him And if the matter be put upon this Issue I may almost leave it to every mans Conscience to determine what the Verdict will be For a private Man to Revenge himself in any kind is Vti Jure alieno to usurp another mans Right which is always unjust and then for one in his station to invade the most sacred Prerogative of his Prince to the destruction of his Subjects must have all the degrees of Injury and Injustice in it that can be easily imagined Besides To come to the Plea of Honour the Life of Man is infinitely too precious a thing to make Satisfaction for the little Affronts and very little God knows they are many times for which men challenge one another to Fight and Dye It vastly exceeds all the Evil which any man suffers by another in his good name And surely it is not like a Man of Honour or indeed of common Justice and Equity to insist upon a Satisfaction as every one that engageth in a Duel do's so