understands them not; he is far from innocent. And there are several professions and employments, in which these truths ought to be considered with a peculiar degree of seriousness. Further yet: If it be criminal to contribute in any manner towards taking away a person's life immediately, it must be criminal also to contribute any thing towards shortening it, which is taking it away after a time: whether by bringing any bodily disease upon him, or causing him any grief or anxiety of mind, or by, what indeed will produce both, distressing him in his circumstances: concerning which the son of Sirach saith: "He "that taketh away his neighbour's living, slayeth "him; and he that defraudeth the labourer of his "hire, is a blood-shedder."7 Indeed, if we cause or procure any sort of hurt to another, though it hath no tendency to deprive him of life, yet if it makes any part of his life, more or less, uneasy or uncomfortable, we deprive him so far of what makes it valuable to him: which is equivalent to taking so much of it away from him, or possibly worse. Nay, if we do a person no harm; yet if we wish him harm, St. John hath determined the case; "Whosoever hateth his brother, is a murderer."8 For indeed, hatred not only leads to murder; and too often, when indulged, produces it unexpectedly; but it is always, though perhaps for the most part in a lower degree, the very spirit of murder in the heart; and it is by our hearts that God will judge us. Nay, should our dislike of another not rise to fixed hatred and malice; yet if it rise to unjust anger, we know our Saviour's declaration. It was said by them of old time, "Thou shalt not kill: and whosoever shall kill, "shall be in danger of the judgment. But I say "It (7) Ecclus. xxxiv. 22. (8) 1 John iii. 15. "unto you, whosoever is angry with his brother, "without a cause, shall be in danger of the judg "ment."9 That is, whosoever is angry, either with persons that he ought not, or on occasions that he ought not, or more vehemently, or sooner, or longer than he ought, is guilty, in some measure, of that uncharitableness, of which murder is the highest act; and liable to the punishment of it in the same proportion. Nor even yet have I carried the explanation of this Commandment to the extent of our duty. Whoever doth not, as far as can be reasonably expected from him, endeavour to guard his neighbour from harm, to make peace, or relieve distress and want, fails of what love to human kind certainly requires. Now, "Love is the fulfilling of "the law:" and "he that loveth not his brother, "abideth in death."2 We are also carefully to observe, that however heinous it is to sin against the temporal life of any one, injuring him in respect of his eternal interests is yet unspeakably worse. If it be unlawful to kill or hurt the body, or overlook men's worldly necessities, much more is it to "destroy "(the soul of) our brother, for whom Christ "died;"3 or any way endanger it; or even suffer it to continue in danger, if we have in our power the proper and likely means of delivering it. And on the other hand, all that mercy and humanity, which, in the civil concerns of our neighbours, is so excellent a duty, must proportionably be still more excellent in their religious ones, and of higher value in the sight of God. Hitherto I have considered the prohibition, "Thou shalt do no murder," as respecting others; but it forbids also self-murder. As we are not to (9) Matt. v. 21, 22. (1) Rom. xiii. 10. (2) 1 John iii. 14. 66 commit violence against the image of God in the person of any of our brethren; so neither in our own. As we are not to rob the society to which we belong, or any part of it, of the service which any other of its members might do it; we are not to rob it either of what we might do. As we are not to send any one else out of the world prematurely, we are not to send ourselves: but "wait (with patience) all the days of our appointed "time, till our change come."4 If the sins which persons have committed, prompt them to despair, they, of all others, instead of rushing into the presence of God, by adding this dreadful one to them, should earnestly desire" space to repent ;"5 which, by his grace, the worst of sinners may do, and be forgiven. If their misfortunes, or sufferings, make them weary of life; he hath sent them these with design, that they should not by unlawful means evade them, but go through them well; whether they be inflicted for the punishment of their faults, or the trial of their virtues. In either case, we are to submit quietly to the discipline of our heavenly Father; which he will not suffer to be heavier than we can bear, whatever we may imagine, but will support us under it, improve us by it, and, in due time, release us from it. But, in any case, for persons to make away with themselves, is to arraign the constitution of things which he hath appointed; and to refuse living where he hath put them to live, a very provoking instance of undutifulness, and made peculiarly fatal by this circumstance, that leaving usually no room for repentance, it leaves none for pardon; always excepting where it proceeds from a mind so disordered by a bodily disease, as to be incapable of judging or acting reasonably. For God knows, with certainty, when (4) Job xiv. 14. (5) Rev. ii. 21. this is the cause, and when not; and will, accordingly, either make due allowances, or make none. And if destroying ourselves be a sin, doing any thing wilfully or heedlessly, that tends to our destruction, must in proportion be a sin. Where, indeed, necessity requires great hazards to be run by some persons, for the good of others—as in war in extinguishing dangerous fires, in several cases which might be named; or where employments and professions, which somebody or other must undertake or such diligence in any employment as men are, by accidents, really called to use, impair health, and shorten life; there, far from being thrown away, it is laudably spent in the service of God and man. But for any person to bring on himself an untimely end, by adventurous rashness-by ungoverned passion-by immoderate anxiety, or by an obstinate or careless neglect of his own preservation, is unquestionably sinful. And above all, doing it by debauchery, or immoral excess, is a most effectual way of ruining soul and body at once. Let us, therefore, be conscientiously watchful against every thing which may provoke, or entice us to be injurious, either to others or ourselves. And God grant that we may so regard the lives of our fellow-creatures, and so employ our own, that we may ever please the Giver and Lord of life; and, having faithfully lived to him here, may eternally live with him hereafter; through Jesus Christ our only Saviour. Amen. LECTURE XXV. Seventh Commandment. IN speaking of this Commandment, it is proper to begin with observing, that, as in the Sixth, where murder is forbidden, every thing which tends to it, or proceeds from the same bad principle with it, is forbidden too; so here, in the Seventh, where adultery is prohibited, the prohibition must be extended to whatever else is criminal in the same kind. And, therefore, in explaining it, I shall treat, first, of the fidelity which it requires from married persons, and then of the chastity and modesty which it requires from all persons. First; of the fidelity owing to each other from married persons. Not only the Scripture account of the creation of mankind, is a proof to as many as believe in Scripture, that the union of one man with one woman, was the original design and will of heaven; but the remarkable equality of males and females born into the world is an evidence of it to all men. Yet, notwithstanding, it must be owned, the cohabitation of one man with several wives at the same time was practised very anciently in the darker ages, even by some of the Patriarchs, who were otherwise good persons; but, having no explicit revealed rule concerning this matter, failed of dis cerning the above-mentioned purpose of God. And both this error, and that of divorce on slight occasions, were tolerated by the law of Moses. But that was only as the laws of other countries often connive at what the law-giver is far from approving. Accordingly God expressed, particularly |