First, That children give due respect and obedience to their parents; and all that are subject to the authority of others, though they have not suitable deserving, give it to their station, in obedience to God who commands; for though they, personally considered, do not, yet certainly God deserves our obedience; and it is so much the purer to him, when other incitements failing, yet we observe that which fails not at all. All obedience to men is limited thus, that it be in the Lord, and with regard to his supremacy; and therefore no authority can oblige to the obedience of any command that crosses his. Authority is primitively and originally in God, and he gives not his glory to another; he gives not away any of his peculiar authority to man, but substitutes him; and our first tie is to God, as his creatures, and this is universal; the greatest kings are his vassals, and owe him homage, and no authority derived from him can free us from that which we owe to himself. There is a straight line of subordination, and if superiors leave this, we are to adhere to it, looking directly to God, keeping our station. Some of the schoolmen think that the inferior angels therefore fell with the chief in the apostacy, because they looked so much upon him, that they considered him not in subordination to God, and so left their station, as the apostle speaks.

Secondly, The duty of all superiors is, 1, To consider that their higher station is not for themselves, and for their own advantage, but for those that are in subjection to them; as the stars are set in the highest place, but are for the benefit of the inferior world, by their light, and heat, and influence. Let them be for lights in the firmament of heaven, to give light upon the earth, Gen. i. 15. 2. Let them always remember to command in God, and for him; to prefer his honour to their own, seeing he gives command concerning theirs, that they make it serviceable for the advancing of his; for to this purpose hath he given them authority, and given command that they be ho

noured; and his promise is to honour those that honour him, but they that despise him shall be despised. This many superiors have felt because they would not believe it, and take notice of it.

Would parents teach their children to know God, and honour and obey him, this were the surest and most effectual way to make them obedient children to them if they teach them to obey God, you see he commands them to obey their parents; and therefore in obedience to him they will do so.

PRECEPT VI.

Thou shalt not kill: or, Thou shalt do no murder.

The world was at first perfect harmony, but sin made the breach at which discord entered; enmity betwixt God and man, and enmity betwixt man and man. As the sin that hath poisoned man's nature makes him a rebel to God, so it makes them tigers and wolves one to another: and that same serpent that at first envenomed our nature, doth still hiss on wretched men, both to disobedience against God, and enmity and cruelty against one another. We see how soon this evil followed upon the former; the first parents disobeyed God, and the first children, the one killed the other. In opposition to this evil, God hath given this to be one of his ten precepts, Thou shalt not kill.

Having given a rule touching the particular relations of men, the following commandments of the second table concern the general duties of all men one to another; and this sixth regardeth his being or life.

Not kill. This ties not up the sword of justice, which is in the magistrate's hand, from punishing offenders, even with death those that deserve it; but rather calls for the use of it, not being to be carried in vain, as the apostle says; not a gilt sword only for show, but to be drawn and wielded for the execution

of justice; both that, in the just punishment of sin, (xonaris,) the sinner may eat of the fruit of his own ways, and so God, the supreme judge and fountain of justice, may be honoured, (Tapia,) and that, by that, example, (apadeyua,) others may be terrified from the like offences. And thus, just killing by the sword of the magistrate, is a main means of the observing this commandment amongst men, Thou shalt not kill.

By the like reason is just war likewise freed from the breach of this commandment.

But,

The scope of the precept being the preservation and safety of the life of man, and guarding it from violence, it is evident that all injury to our neighbour's life, our own not excluded, is forbidden. And not only the heinous fault of murder, which human laws do punish, but all the seeds and beginnings of this sin in the heart, to which principally, as the fountain of our actions, the spiritual law of God is given, as the authentic interpretation of our Saviour teacheth, Matt. v., and particularly touching this commandment, ver. 21, &c.

1. All fixed hatred of our brethren is forbidden, as the highest degree of heart-murder. Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart, Lev. xix. 17. And

1 John iii. 15: Whosoever hateth his brother, is a murderer; and he adds, that ye know that no murderer hath life eternal abiding in him. So, then, he is in a woeful, deadly condition in whose heart this hatred

dwells.

This is an infernal kind of fire, like your fires under ground, that cannot be quenched; so far is it from the temper of any spiritual and heavenly mind to be subject to it. There is not any thing more contrary to the Spirit of God, and the work of his grace, than the spirit of malice, although it never break forth to revenge; yet if the heart rejoice when evil befals those it dislikes, although it come from another hand, yet God accounts it, as if he, that is glad at it, had inflicted it, and been the worker of it. Therefore Job protests thus: "That he rejoiced not at the destruc

tion of him that hated him, nor lifted up his soul when evil found him," Job xxxi. 29.

2. Rash anger, either that which is altogether without just cause, or upon some just cause arises to an undue measure. And is not this the ordinary disease of the greatest part, and habitual bitterness of spirit, that is put out of its seat and troubled with every trifling cause, peevishly stirred up with the shadow and imagination of a wrong, where none is done?

3. The vent of these passions of envy and hatred, or sudden, rash anger, by railings and strife, and bitter speaking, by scoffs and taunts, by whisperings and detraction, which are the common exercise of base and unworthy spirits.

This commandment requires, that, to the avoiding and forbearance of all injury to the life of our neighbour, we add a charitable disposition and desire of preserving it, and do accordingly act that charity to our utmost power to the good and comfort of his life; using towards him meekness and patience, clemency and beneficence, doing him good, supplying his wants as we are able; for it is cruelty to the life of our poor brethren to be straight-handed towards them in the day of their necessity and our abundance, at least, of our comparatively better estate. 1 John iii. 17.

But we think we do much this way, when upon right trial we should find ourselves exceedingly detective; we look upon our few and petty acts of charity with a multiplying glass, and see one as it were ten. Who almost are there, that will draw somewhat from their excesses, to turn into this channel; that will abate a lace from their garment, or a dish from their table, to bestow upon the necessities of the poor? In a word, we ought not only to be free from hurting, but be a tree of life to our neighbour.

Let us then be convinced of our guiltiness in breach of this precept. Men think it much if they can forgive, upon acknowledgment and submission of those that have injured them; but they aspire not to this,

cordially to forgive those that still continue to wrong and provoke them, to compassionate them, and pray for them, and repay all their evil with meekness and good-will.

We consider not how sublime the rule of Christianity is, and how low our spirits are, and how far off from it. Be not overcome of evil, (says the apostle,) but overcome evil with good, Rom. xii. 21. It is easy to overcome a man that resists not, but yields; to pardon injury when it ceaseth, and entreats pardon : but when it holds out, and is so stout as still to fight against that goodness and meekness that it meets withal, yet the Christian ought to persist in these, and overcome it with good. And see our Saviour's rule to them that will be his disciples, Matt. v. 44, against hatred and wrath. Labour for humble spirits. Pride is the spring of malice, and desire of revenge, and of rash anger and contention. This makes men easily swell against any thing that crosses them, because they have laid down this with themselves, that they deserve to be observed and respected, and not crossed at all; and when they find it otherwise, it kindles them to anger and it is not the degree of provocation, but the different temper of men's spirits makes them more or less subject to anger. It matters not how great the fire be, but where it falls.

Consider, first, that these turbulent passions carry their punishment along with them; they rankle and fester the soul, and fill it full of pain and disturbance; whereas the spirit of meekness makes the soul of a Christian like the highest region of the air, constantly, calm and serene: the apostle, speaking of this commandment of love, says, That the commandments of God are not grievous. Certainly there is such a true pleasure in meekness, forgiving of injuries, and loving our very enemies, that did men know it, they would choose it for the very delight and sweetness of it, though there were no command to enforce it.

2. Consider, particularly against rash anger, how