Sermon

Quest. Which is the Sixth Commandment? Resp. Exodus 20:13. You shall not kill.

In this Commandment, (1.) is a sin forbidden, namely, murder. You shall not kill. (2.) A duty implied, to preserve our own life, and the life of others.

1. The sin forbidden, murder. You shall not kill. Where two things are to be understood. (1.) The not injuring another. (2.) Ourselves.

1. In this, You shall not kill, is meant the not injuring another. 1. We must not injure him in his name. 2. In his body. 3. In his soul.

(1.) We must not injure another in his name. A good name is a precious balm; it is a great cruelty to murder a man in his name. We injure others in their name when we calumniate and slander them. It was David's complaint (Psalm 35:11), They laid to my charge things which I knew not. The Primitive Christians were traduced for incest and killing their children, as Tertullian writes: Dicimur infanticidii, incestus rei. This is to behead others in their good name; this is an irreparable injury: no physician can heal the wounds of the tongue.

(2.) We must not injure another in his body. The life is the most precious thing, and God has set this commandment as a fence about it to preserve it: You shall not kill. God made a statute which was never to this day repealed (Genesis 9:6): Whoever sheds man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed. In the Old Law, had a man killed another unawares, he might take sanctuary; but if he had killed him willingly, though he did fly to the sanctuary, the holiness of the place was not to defend him. (Exodus 21:14) If a man come presumptuously upon his neighbor to slay him with guile, you shall take him from my altar that he may die. Now in this commandment, You shall do no murder, all those sins are forbidden which lead to it, and are the occasions of it.

1. Unadvised anger. Anger boils up the blood in the veins, and often produces murder. (Genesis 49:6) In their anger they slew a man.

2. Envy. Satan envied our first parents the robe of innocence, and the glory of paradise, and therefore never left till he had procured their death. Joseph's brothers envied him, because his father loved him, and gave him a coat of diverse colors, and therefore took counsel to slay him (Genesis 37:20). Envy and murder are near akin, and therefore the Apostle puts them together (Galatians 5:21): Envyings, murders. Envy is a sin that breaks both the tables at once. It begins in discontent against God, and ends in injury against man, as we see in Cain (Genesis 4:6, 8). Envious Cain, first discontented with God, there he broke the first table; and then he fell out with his brother and slew him, there he broke the second table. Anger is sometimes soon over, like fire kindled in straw, which is quickly out; but envy is a deep-rooted thing, and will not quench its thirst without blood. (Proverbs 27:4) Who is able to stand before envy?

3. Hatred. The Pharisees hated Christ because he excelled them in gifts, and had more honor among the people than they, and therefore never left till they had nailed him to the cross, and taken away his life. Hatred is a vermin that lives upon blood. (Ezekiel 35:5) Because you have had a perpetual hatred, and have shed the blood of the children of Israel. Haman hated Mordecai because he did not bow to him, and he presently sought revenge. He got a bloody warrant sealed for the destruction of the whole race and seed of the Jews (Esther 3:9). Hatred is ever cruel. All these sins are forbidden in this commandment which lead the van, and are often the occasions of this sin of murder.

Quest. How many ways is murder committed?

Resp. We may be said to murder another twelve ways.

(1.) With the hand. As Joab killed Abner and Amasa (2 Samuel 20:10): He smote him in the fifth rib, and shed out his bowels.

(2.) Murder is committed with the mind. Malice is mental murder (1 John 3:15): Whoever hates his brother is a murderer. To malign another, and wish evil against him in the heart, is a murdering him.

(3.) Murder is committed with the tongue. By speaking to the prejudice of another, and causing him to be put to death. Thus the Jews killed the Lord of Life, when they inveighed against him, and accused him falsely to Pilate (John 18:30).

(4.) Murder is committed with the pen. So David killed Uriah, in writing to Joab to set Uriah in the fore-front of the battle (2 Samuel 11:15). Though the Ammonites' sword cut off Uriah, yet David's pen was the cause of his death. Therefore the Lord tells David by the prophet Nathan (2 Samuel 12:9): You have killed Uriah.

(5.) Murder is committed by plotting another's death. Thus Jezebel, though she did not lay hands herself upon Naboth, yet because she contrived his death, and caused two false witnesses to swear against him, and bring him within the compass of treason, she was a murderer (1 Kings 21:10).

(6.) Murder is committed by instilling poison into potions. Thus the wife of Commodus the Emperor killed her husband, by poisoning the wine which he drank. So many kill the children they go with, by taking such medicines or strong purges as prove the death of the child.

(7.) By witchcraft and sorcery, a thing forbidden under the Law (Deuteronomy 18:10): There shall not be found among you an enchanter or a witch, or a consulter with familiar spirits.

(8.) By having an intention to kill another; as Herod would, under a pretense of worshipping Christ, have killed him (Matthew 2:8, 13). So Saul, when he made David go as captain against the Philistines, designing thereby that the Philistines should have killed him (1 Samuel 18:17): Saul said, Let not my hand be upon him, but let the hand of the Philistines be upon him. Here was intentional murder, and it was in God's account as bad as actual.

(9.) By consenting to another's death. So Saul consented to the death of Stephen (Acts 22:20): I also was standing by and consenting to his death. He that gives consent is accessory to the murder.

(10.) By not hindering the death of another when in our power. Pilate knew Christ was innocent, saying, I find no fault in him; but he did not hinder his death; therefore he was guilty. It was not washing his hands in water that could wash away the guilt of Christ's blood.

(11.) By unmercifulness. 1. By taking away that which is necessary for the sustentation of life: As, to take away those tools or utensils whereby a man gets his living. (Deuteronomy 24:6) No man shall take away the nether or the upper millstone to pledge, for he takes a man's life. 2. By not helping him when he is ready to perish. You may be the death of another as well by not relieving him, as by offering him violence. Si non paveris, occidisti. Ambrose. If you do not feed him that is starving, you kill him. And then how many are guilty of the breach of this commandment?

(12.) By not executing the law upon capital offenders. A felon having committed six murders, the judge may be said to be guilty of five of them, because he did not execute the felon for his first offence. The next thing I shall speak to, is to show the aggravations of this sin of murder. As,

1. To shed the blood of another without cause; as to kill another in a humor or frolic. A bee will not sting unless provoked. But many when they are not provoked will take away the life of another. This makes the sin of blood more bloody. The less provocation to a sin, the greater the sin.

2. To shed the blood of another contrary to promise. Thus after the princes of Israel had sworn to the Gibeonites that they should live (Joshua 9:15), Saul slew them (2 Samuel 21:1). Here were two sins twisted together, breach of oath and murder.

3. To take away the life of any public person enhances the murder, and makes it greater. As 1. To kill a judge upon the bench, because he represents the king's person. 2. To murder a person whose office is sacred, and comes on the King of Heaven's mission: the murdering of him may be the murdering of many. Herod added this sin above all, that he shut up John the Baptist in prison (Luke 3:20). Then much more to behead John in prison. 3. To stain one's hands with royal blood. David's heart smote him, because he did but cut off the lap of King Saul's garment (1 Samuel 24:5). How would David's heart have smote him, if he had cut off Saul's head?

4. To shed the blood of a near relation aggravates the murder, and dyes it of a deeper crimson. For a son to kill his father is horrid. Parricides are monsters in nature. Qui occidit patrem plurima committit peccata in uno. Cicero. He who takes away his father's life commits many sins in one. He is not only guilty of murder, but of disobedience, ingratitude, ostracism, and diabolical cruelty. (Exodus 21:15) He who strikes his father or mother, shall be surely put to death. Then how many deaths is he worthy of, that destroys his father or mother. Such a monster was Nero, who caused his mother Agrippina to be slain.

5. To shed the blood of any righteous person aggravates the sin. First, hereby justice is perverted. Such a person being innocent, is unworthy of death. Secondly, a saint being [in non-Latin alphabet], a public blessing, lies in the breach to turn away wrath: so that to destroy him, is to go to pull down the pillars of a nation. Thirdly, he is precious to God (Isaiah 15:43, 44). He is a member of Christ's body; therefore what injury is offered to him, is done to God himself (Acts 9:4).

Caution 1. Though this commandment forbids private persons — 'You shall not kill' — to shed the blood of another (unless in their own defence,) yet such as are in office must punish public offenders; indeed, with death, else they sin. To kill an offender is not murder but justice. A private person sins if he draws the sword; a public person sins if he puts up the sword. A magistrate ought not to let the sword of justice rust in the scabbard. As the magistrate should not let the sword be too sharp by severity, so neither should the edge of it be blunted by too much lenity.

Caution 2. Neither does this commandment, 'You shall not kill,' prohibit a just war. When men's sins grow ripe, and long plenty has bred surfeit, then God says, 'Sword, go through the land' (Ezekiel 14:17). God did abet the war between the tribes of Israel and Benjamin. When the iniquity of the Amorites was full, then God sent Israel to commence a war against them (Judges 11:21).

Use 1. Lamentation, that this land is so defiled with blood (Numbers 35:33). How common is this sin in this hectoring age! England's sins are written in letters of blood. Some make no more of killing men than sheep. (Jeremiah 2:34) In your skirts is found the blood of the poor innocents. Junius reads it in Alis; and so in Hebrew, 'In your wings is found the blood of innocents.' It alludes to the birds of prey, which stain their wings with the blood of other birds. May not the Lord justly take up a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because blood touches blood (Hosea 4:2)? There is a concatenation, a plurality of murders. And that which may increase our lamentation is, that not only man's blood is shed among us, but Christ's blood. Such as are profane flagitious sinners are said to crucify the Son of God afresh (Hebrews 6:6). (1.) They swear by his blood, and so do as it were make his wounds bleed afresh. (2.) They crucify Christ in his members. 'Why do you persecute me?' The foot being trodden on, the head cried out. (3.) If it lay in their power, were Christ alive on earth, they would nail him again to the cross. Thus men crucify Christ afresh. And if man's blood does so cry, how loud will Christ's blood cry against sinners?

Use 2. Beware of having your hands stained with the blood of others.

Obj. But such a one has wronged me by defamation, or other ways; and if I spill his blood, I do but revenge my own quarrel.

Resp. If he has done you wrong, the law is open; but take heed of shedding blood. What, because he has wronged you, will you therefore wrong God? Is it not a wrong to God, to take his work out of his hand? He has said, 'Vengeance is mine, and I will repay' (Romans 12:19). But you will take upon you to revenge yourself: you will be both plaintiff, and judge, and executioner yourself. This is a high wrong done to God, and he will not hold you guiltless. Now to deter all from having their hands defiled with blood, consider what a sin murder is.

1. A God-affronting sin. It is a breach of commandment, trampling upon God's royal edict: it is a wrong offered to God's image (Genesis 9:6). In the image of God made he man. It is a tearing of God's picture, and breaking in pieces the King of Heaven's broad-seal. Man is the temple of God (1 Corinthians 6:19). Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost? So that the man-slayer destroys God's temple: and will God endure to be thus confronted by proud dust?

2. It is a crying sin. Clamitat in Coelum vox Sanguinis — there are three sins in Scripture said to cry. (1.) Oppression (Psalm 12:5). (2.) Sodomy (Genesis 18:21). (3.) Blood-shed. This comes so loud, that it drowns all the other cries. Genesis 4:10: The voice of your brother's blood cries to me from the ground. Abel's blood had as many tongues as drops to cry aloud for vengeance. This sin of blood lay heavy on David's conscience. Though he had sinned by adultery, yet that he cried out of most was this crimson sin of blood (Psalm 51:14). Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God. Though the Lord visits for every sin, yet he will in a special manner make inquisition for blood (Psalm 9:12). If a beast did kill a man, the beast was to be stoned, and his flesh must not be eaten (Exodus 21:8). If God would have a beast stoned that killed a man, who had not the use of reason to restrain him, then much more will he be incensed against those, who go both against reason and conscience in spoiling the life of a man.

3. Murder is a diabolical sin: it makes a man Primogenitum Diaboli, the Devil's First-born: he was a murderer from the beginning (John 8:44). By saying to our first parents, 'You shall not die,' he brought in death to the world.

4. It is a cursed sin. If there be a curse for him that smites his neighbor secretly (Deuteronomy 27:4), then he is double cursed that kills him. The first man that was born was a murderer. Genesis 4:11: And now are you cursed from the earth. He was an excommunicate person, banished from the place of God's public worship. God set a mark upon bloody Cain (Genesis 4:15). Some think it was horror of mind, which (above all sins) does accompany the sin of blood. Others think this mark was a continual shaking and trembling in his flesh, which was a mark of infamy God set upon him. He carried a curse along with him.

5. It is a wrath-procuring sin (2 Kings 24:4).

(1.) It procures temporal judgments. Phocas, to get the empire, put to death all the sons of Mauritius the Emperor, and then slew him. But this Phocas was pursued by his son-in-law Priscus, who cut off his ears and feet, and then killed him. Charles the 9th, who caused the massacre of so many Christians at Paris, blood issued out at several parts of his body, of which he died. Albonia killed a man, and then made a cup of his skull to drink in: afterwards his own wife caused him to be murdered in his bed. Vengeance as a blood-hound pursues the murderer. Bloody men shall not live out half their days (Psalm 55:23).

(2.) It brings eternal judgments. It binds men over to hell. The Papists make nothing of massacres; theirs is a bloody religion: they dispense with men for murder, so it be to propagate the Catholic cause. If a Cardinal put his red hat upon the head of a murderer going to execution, he is saved from death. But let all impenitent murderers read their doom (Revelation 21:8). Murderers shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone: this is the second death. We read of fire mingled with blood (Revelation 8:7). Such as have their hands full of blood, must undergo the wrath of God. Here is fire mingled with blood, and this fire is inextinguishable (Mark 9:44). Time will not finish it, tears will not quench it.