"geance," are in some cases commanded to put men to death; and in others it may be allowable, because conducive to the public good. Witnesses or executioners may concur in such capital punishments. We may doubtless take away another's life in defence of our own; and 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 alas! 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 manslaughter. Furious passion, excited by sudden provocation or drunkenness, is no where 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 violates this command, and the blood thus shed is murder. What then shall we think of the accursed slave trade, which will surely bring vengeance on this nation, 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. The commandment likewise prohibits us to assault, maim, or wound others, or to assist those that do; to tempt men to crimes that destroy their constitutions, or 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; and numbers will be found guilty of transgressing it, 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, that man will be condemned as the hater and murderer of his brother, who seeing his life endangered by the want of food, raiment, or medicine, and having ability to relieve him, selfishly neglects to do it, (1 John iii. 15—17.)-But the murderer of the soul is still more heinous. This is committed by seducing men to sin; by a bad example; by disseminating poisonous principles; by terrifying others from religion by persecution, or reviling or ridiculing such as attend to it; and 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.-The heinousness of suicide likewise should be especially marked-It is in reality the most malignant of all murders; and as scarcely ever repented of, it combines the guilt of murdering both soul and body at once. 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. Self-murder may be easily shown to be a complication of ingratitude, contempt of the Lord's gift of life, defiance, impatience, pride, rebellion, and infidelity; 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 in some sense 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 by their hands, not being permitted to do it by his own power. Extravagance, discontent, and despondency, should therefore be most carefully shunned; and

gratitude, patience, and hope most diligently cultivated, that he may be disappointed. In a word, this command requires enlarged benevolence, 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 originally the institution of the Creator, and 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 prohibited in this commandment, 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 connexions,) gives each party such a property in the other's person and affections, that every violation of conjugal fidelity, on either side, is adultery, accord

ing to the New Testament; and far more deserves death, (if we estimate crimes by the mischief they do,) than many offences which are capitally punished. All other commerce between the sexes is prohibited by the spirit of this law; from the temporary connexions, 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 al"ready in his heart." Writing, publishing, vending, circulating, or reading obscene books; exposing to view indecent pictures or statues, or whatever else 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. All the arts of dress, motion, or demeanor, which form tempta tions to heedless youth; with all those blandishments, insinuations, amorous looks and words, which subserve seduction, fall under the same censure. In short the com

both of the body

mandment requires the utmost purity, 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, in 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 cognizance: 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 adjudged a principal thief and robber, without any other distinction. Plundering the public, whether by oppressive rulers and exorbitant exactions, or by smuggling and evading taxes; contracting debts to support vanity and luxury, or 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 insolvents are again able to do it; all extravagance, beyond the sober allowance of a 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 scarcely subsist, that men may live in affluence and enrich their families. In short the spirit of it prohibits covetousness, luxury, and the pride of life; and it requires industry, frugality, sobriety, submission to God's providence,