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witnesses or executioners may concur in such capital punishments; we may doubtless take away another's life in defence of our own; perhaps in some cases in defence of our property. Some wars are necessary, and the blood shed in them is not imputed as murder to those that shed it; yet the guilt of it must rest somewhere: and few wars are so entered upon and conducted, as to leave any of the contending parties free from blood-guiltiness. A man may by misfortune kill another: yet God condemns as wilful murder many of those incidents which are called by our law man-slaughter. Furious passion, excited by sudden provocation, or drunkenness, is nowhere in Scripture excepted from the general rule, "He who sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed." The duellist is a revengeful murderer of the most atrocious kind: all fighting for wagers or renown violate this command, and the blood thus shed is murder. Whatever, by force or stratagem, deprives another of his life is prohibited: all the slaughter committed by oppressions, persecutions, attempts to reduce to, or confine in, slavery, our unoffending fellow-creatures, on any pretence whatsoever, is wilful, cruel murder. What then shall we think of the accursed slave trade, which will surely bring vengeance on this land if much longer tolerated! Even laws, needlessly sanguinary, (as I fear many are in this land,) involve the persons concerned in this enormous guilt: and they who should punish the murderer, and yet suffer him to escape, will be numbered among the abettors of his crime at God's tribunal. It moreover prohibits us to assault, maim, or wound others, or to assist those that do; to tempt men to crimes that destroy their constitutions, or to endanger their lives, either from the sword of justice, or the resentment of the injured party: nay, to entice men, by the prospect of a large reward, to such enterprises and labours as are known generally to shorten life. Many parents and wives are murdered by the gross misconduct of their children or husbands; numbers will be found guilty of this crime by covetously or maliciously wishing the death of others. The spiritual import of the commandment prohibits all envy, revenge, hatred, or causeless anger; all that insulting language which provokes to wrath and murder; and all, the pride, ambition, or covetousness, which prompt to it. Nay, he will be condemned as the hater and murderer of his brother, who, seeing his life endangered by the want of food, raiment, medicine, &c., and having ability to relieve him, selfishly neglects to do it, (1 John iii. 15—17). But the murder of the soul is still more heinous. This is committed by seducing men to sin; by a bad example; disseminating poisonous principles: terrifying others from religion by persecution, or reviling or ridiculing such as attend to it; by withholding due instructions, warnings, and counsels, especially such as parents owe to their children, or ministers to their people: and it is tremendous to think what numbers will be thus condemned as the murderers of the souls of men. Nor is suicide to be overlooked, even in this compendium. We were not the authors, and are not the lords, of our own lives: nor may we leave our assigned post, or rush without a summons into the presence of our Judge, any more than we may execute vengeance on our neighbour, or send him to God's tribunal. Selfmurder is a complication of ingratitude, contempt of the Lord's gift of life, defiance, impatience, pride, and rebellion: it is the most malignant of all murders, and can scarce ever be repented of; nor is it generally the effect of insanity, (as verdicts, in which perjury is committed from false tenderness, would lead us to suppose), except as all are insane, who are hurried on by fierce passions and Satan's temptations. That original murderer knows this present life to be the only season in which salvation can be obtained: and therefore he tempts men to such excesses as destroy the constitution, or as render life miserable; and he urges them on to suicide, that he may destroy body and soul at once, by their hands, not being permitted to do it

by his own power. Extravagance, discontent, and despondency should

therefore be avoided; and gratitude, patience, and hope cultivated, that he may be disappointed. In a word, this command requires enlarged beneva,

lence, kindness, long-suffering, and forgiveness; and a disposition to seek the welfare in all respects of every human being.

VII. This commandment regulates our love to our neighbours, in respect of their purity and domestic comfort; and requires the proper government of those inclinations which God hath implanted, in order to the increase of the human species. The marriage of one man with one woman was God's original institution (and so it is not merely a civil contract, as some pretend); these "became one flesh," inseparably united for helps meet to each other, to promote and share one another's satisfactions, and with united attention to educate their common offspring. The entrance of sin and death made way for the dissolution of this union: a variety of evils began to embitter the relation, and abuses were soon introduced: but though some things were formerly connived at, which accorded not with the original institution; yet Christ refers his disciples to that, as the standard of honourable marriage, as far as the change of circumstances can admit of it. The force acquired by men's passions, in consequence of sin, renders the "prevention of fornications" one express end of marriage: mutual forbearance and reciprocal compliances are now needful and incumbent; the sorrows of the female sex, as well as the afflictions of life, require peculiar sympathy to alleviate the anguish of the suffering party; whilst the separating stroke of death leaves the survivor free to take another companion. We must not then define adultery, as here prohibited, according to the judicial law of Moses, but by the decisions of Christ; with which polygamy and divorces (except for unfaithfulness) are utterly incompatible. It is evident, that marriage (being recognized in some appointed way, to distinguish it from illicit connections) gives each party such a property in the other's person and affections, that every violation of conjugal fidelity, on either side, is adultery, according to the New Testament; and far more deserves death (if we estimate crimes by the mischief they do) than many that are so punished. All other commerce between the sexes is prohibited by the spirit of this law; from the temporary connections, that are formed and dissolved at pleasure, to the lowest scenes of prostitution. The difference between the tempters and the tempted, and other circumstances, vary the degree of guilt contracted; the seducer's character is diabolical: but fornication is in almost every black catalogue in the Scripture; and, however men may be deceived by vain words, its dire effects on the human species prove the goodness as well as justice of God in this arrangement. Under the word lasciviousness various transgressions are denoted, which cannot be mentioned without offence; nay, every thing which does not comport with the design of marriage, though sanctioned by that name, violates the spiritual meaning of the prohibition. All polluted discourse, imaginations, or desires, are condemned by it; "he that looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart." Writing, publishing, vending, circulating, reading, obscene books; exposing to view indecent pictures or statues; or whatever may excite men's passions, must partake of the same guilt: whilst wit, elegance, and ingenuity only increase the mischief, wherever the specious poison is administered: and all the arts of dress, motion, or demeanour, which tend to tempt heedless youth; with all those blandishments, insinuations, amorous looks, &c., which subserve seduction, fall under the same censure. In short, the commandment requires the utmost purity, both of the body and soul, in secret as well as before men; with an holy indifference to animal indulgences, and strict government of all the appetites, senses, and passions: and it enjoins the desire and endeavour of preserving the same disposition and behaviour in all others also, as far as we have it in our power.

VIII. This commandment is the law of love in respect of property. The productions of the earth are obtained, and prepared for use, by labour; this gives property, and that justly descends to the owner's posterity or heirs. From this and similar causes, combining their effects for ages, the difference in men's circumstances originates. That portion which we can honestly

obtain, is "the bread which God, hath given us," with which we should be satisfied. But men's passions crave more, and sloth refuses to labour: hence force and fraud are employed to get possession of the property of others, without their free consent. We need not enumerate those violations of which human laws take congnizance: but men may in various ways break the Divine law, and yet escape present punishment. Fraudulent bargains, which impose on the ignorant, credulous, or necessitous; abuse of confidence, extortion, exorbitant gain, deceitful combinations to enhance the price of goods, or lower the wages of the poor, will be condemned at God's tribunal, as violations of it. The overgrown ravager of nations and provinces, will be condemned as a principal thief and robber, without other distinction. Plundering the public, whether by oppressive rulers, and exorbitant exactions; or by smuggling, evading taxes, &c.; contracting debts to support vanity and luxury, in pursuit of some scheme of aggrandizement, or for any thing not absolutely necessary, without a fair prospect of paying them; taking advantage of humane laws, to evade payment, when the insolvent are again able to do it; all extravagance, beyond the sober allowance of man's income; and slothfulness, or unnecessary subsistence upon charity, are violations of this law, in different ways. Indeed it cannot consist with it to withhold from real objects of compassion proper relief; or to squeeze the poor so low in their wages, that they can scarce subsist, that men may live in affluence, and enrich their families. In short, it excludes covetousness, luxury, and the pride of life; and it requires industry, frugality, sobriety, submission to God's providence, and a disposition “"to do to all others," in respect of worldly property, as we would they should do unto us."

IX. This commandment is the law of love, as it respects our neighbour's reputation: though, in the connection of human affairs, the violation of it may affect his property and life; and bearing false witness, in a court of justice among us, may be perjury, robbery, and murder, as well as calumny. In such important concerns, we should testify nothing, of which we have not the fullest assurance; and every human passion should be watched over, that our evidence may not be warped by them. We should be exact to a word in reporting what we know, and in speaking the truth, and no more than the truth, and equal caution is required in juries, and in the judge who decides the cause. The malicious invention and circulation of slanderous reports, to the injury of a man's character, has a large proportion of the same atrocious guilt; to do this in sport is an imitation of the madman, who throws about arrows, firebrands, and death, for his diversion; to spread such as others have framed, when we suspect them to be false or aggravated; or even if we suppose or know them to be true, when there is no real occasion for it (such as the detection of a mischievous hypocrite or designing villain) is prohibited by this law: for the practice of retailing injurious reports results from pride, self-preference, malevolence, or conceited affectation of wit and humour. All severe censures, bitter sarcasms, ridicule, harsh judgements, ascribing good actions to bad motives, inuendos, misrepresentation, collecting and vending family anecdotes, &c., consist not with it Much transgression of it is found in religious controversy (as well as in other books, as a lie or slander is far worse when printed than when only spoken); for bigots of all parties agree in mis-stating the actions, misquoting the books, and misreporting the words of their opponents. All lies class under the violation of this law; which are always an abuse of speech, and of our neighbour's confidence, and a derogation from the value of truth; and almost always injurious to mankind. Envy of others' praise runs counter to the spirit of the law; which requires sincerity, truth, fidelity, candour, and caution; with a disposition to honour what is honourable in all men, and to be as tender of their reputation as we could reasonably expect them to be of our's, and our feelings will instruct us how far this rule would carry us.

X. Lastly, we are commanded, not to covet any thing that is our neighbour's. This restriction is placed as the fence of all the rest; and the

apostle's reference to it, (Rom. vii. 7, 8) shows, that it comprises the utmost spirituality of the law; and it is a perpetual confutation of all those systems by which the outward gross crime is considered as the only violation of the command. We must not so much as desire any thing whatsoever which God forbids, or which his providence withholds: and so far from leveling property, or seizing violently on our neighbour's possessions, we must not so much as hanker after them. The most secret wish for another man's wife violates this precept: but to desire an union with an unmarried woman only becomes sinful when it is excessive, and when the will of God is not submitted to, if he render it impracticable. We may desire that part of a man's property which he is inclined to dispose of, if we only think of equitable terms: but what he chooses to keep we may not covet. The poor man may desire moderate relief from the rich: but he must not hanker after his affluence, or repine, even if he do not relieve him. Men exposed to equal hazards, may agree to a proportionable contribution to him that suffers loss; for it accords with the law of love to help the distressed; and this exculpates insurance when fairly conducted; but all gaming, public or private*, is coveting our neighbour's good to increase our wealth by his loss, and is therefore a direct violation of the command. In fine, discontent, distrust, love of wealth, pleasure, and grandeur, desire of change, the habit of wishing, and every inordinate affection, are the evils here prohibited; and we know them to be the sources of all other crimes, and of man's misery; and the command requires moderation in respect of all worldly things, submission to God, acquiescence in his will, love to his commands, and a reliance on him for the daily supply of all our wants, as he sees good. We cannot close this explication of the law, (in which we find nothing redundant, defective, or injurious, but all things holy, just, and good) more properly, than by the words of our church service," Lord have mercy upon us," (forgiving all our past transgressions), "and write all these thy laws in our hearts, we beseech thee."

ESSAY V.

On Man's Situation as a Sinner in this present world.

THE apostle defines "sin to be the transgression of the law," (1 John iii. 4); and whatever in any respect or degree deviates from this perfect rule is sin, and exposes a man to condemnation. "By the law," therefore," is the knowledge of sin," (Rom. iii. 20): the better we understand the holy, just, and good commandments of God, the more enlarged will be our acquaintance with the vast variety of sins that are continually committed, as well as with the evil and desert of every transgression; and a comprehensive knowledge of our whole duty is essential to a just estimate of our own character, or our situation in respect to the eternal world.

But we should not only attend to the requirements and prohibitions of the divine law; its sanctions also demand our most serious consideration. Indeed, the law, strictly speaking (as distinguished from the gospel), is merely a rule and a sanction: a rule formed by infinite wisdom, holiness, and goodness, and enforced by supreme authority; a sanction to be awarded by immutable justice and almighty power, according to the declarations of eter

* Not excepting lotteries, or even tontines, these latter constitute a kind of complicated wager about longevity, to be decided by Providence in favour of the survivors; and must, therefore, be equally culpable with other games of chance. Coveting other men's property, contrary to the law of love, and en. riching the survivors, commonly at the expense of the relatives of the deceased, are intimately connected with them; whilst they lead men into strong temptations secretly to wish for the death of others, for the sake of advantages, which they inordinately desire, and irregularly pursue.

nal truth. Repentance and amendment are right, and accord to the spirit of the commandment; but they make no compensation for transgression, and are not noticed by the law: and the mercy exercised by the lawgiver has reference to the provisions of another covenant. Perfect obedience is the uniform demand of the precept; condemnation inevitably follows transgression. "Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all," (James ii. 8-11); even as a man is condemned for violating one of the many statutes of the realm, in a single instance, though no other offence be charged upon him. The apostle, therefore, declares, that "as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written cursed is every one that continueth not," (during his whole life)" in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them," (Deut. xxvi. 15-16; Gal. iii. 10): and the moral law must be included at least in this general language. They alone who have at all times perfectly kept the whole law, are entitled to the reward according to it; for "the man that doeth them shall live in them, but the soul that sinneth shall die ;" and "as all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God," (of rendering to him the glory which is due to his name); so in this respect" there is no difference," but " every mouth shall be stopped, and all the world shall become guilty before God,” (Rom. iii. 9—23); though an immense difference subsists between some men and others, in respect of the nature, number, and aggravations of their offences. All attempts, therefore, in a sinner to justify himself, must result from ignorance of God and his law, and of himself; or from a disposition to impeach the strictness of the law, and the justice of the lawgiver. Our Lord explains the import of the curse of the law (from which he redeemed his people, by becoming a curse for them), when he forewarns us, that he will say to the wicked at the day of judgment, “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels; and these shall go away into everlasting punishment." (Matt. xxv. 41-46). We are constituted of body and soul; the soul purposes the act of disobedience, and the body executes its purpose: so that it is reasonable to suppose, that the soul will at least share the punishment which the law denounces against the offender. When, therefore, the apostle reminded his brethren of their obligations to the Lord Jesus, he says," who delivered us from the wrath to come," (1 Thess. i. 10): whence it is evident, that he considered himself, and all the Christians in the world, to have been previously exposed, not only to present effects of the Divine displeasure (from which Jesus does not deliver his people), but also to future condemnation. The original transgression (through which by "one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin") was indeed a violation of a positive injunction; but love to God, himself and his posterity, absolutely required Adam to obey it, and therefore by disobedience, he fell under the curse of the law: and the event sufficiently proves, that all his posterity were interested in that transaction, and fell with him; for it is an undeniable fact, that men are universally prone to break the law of God, and universally liable to pain, suffering, and death. All that believe the Bible will rest satisfied with the Scripture account of this mysterious subject: others will never be able to account for the state of the world on any principles that are more rational: and the proper answer to those who object to an evident fact, as inconsistent with divine justice, wisdom, and goodness, has been already given by the apostle," Nay, but O man, who art thou that repliest against God?"

But our situation as sinners in this present world, will not here be considered so much the effect of Adam's sin, as of our personal transgressions; for whatever we might argue concerning those "who have not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression," by willingly and knowingly preferring their own inclinations to God's express commandment, such as are capable of reading this Essay, will hardly pretend that they never once sinned in this manner. It is evident, that it is appointed to all men once to die;" the sentence "dust ye are, and to dust ye shall return," overtakes

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