XXXV. Exodus XXI. 14.-But if a man come presumptuously upon his 'eighbour, to slay him with guile, thou shalt take him from my altar, that he may die. As the end and happy result of society was our mutual protection from the depredations which malice and avarice lay us open to, so have the laws of God laid proportionable restraints against such violations as would defeat us of such a security. Of all other attacks which can be made against us, that of a man's life, which is his all, being the greatest, the offence, in God's dispensation to the Jews, was denounced as the most heinous, and represented as most unpardonable. At the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man. Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed. Ye shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer; he shall surely be put to death. So ye shall not pollute the land wherein ye are, for blood defileth the land; and the land cannot bo cleansed of blood that is shed therein but by the blood of him that shed it. For this reason, by the laws of all civilized nations, in all parts of the globe, it has been punished with death. Some civilized and wise communities have so far incorporated these severe dispensations into their municipal laws as to allow of no distinction betwixt murder and homicide, at least in the penalty: leaving the intentions of the several parties concerned in it to that Being who knows the heart, and will adjust the differences of the case hereafter. This falls, no doubt, heavy upon particulars-but it is urged for the benefit of the whole. It is not the business of a preacher to enter into an examination of the grounds and reasons for a seeming a severity. Where most severe-they have proceeded,. no doubt, from an excess of abhorrence of a crime-which is of all others, most terrible and shocking in its own nature, and the most direct attack and stroke at society-as the security of a man's life was the first protection of society, the ground-work of all the other blessings to be desired from such a compact. Thefts, oppressions, exactions, and violences of that kind, cut off the branches; this smote the root: all perished with it-the injury irreparable. No after-act could make amends for it. What recompense can he give to a man in exchange for his life? What satisfaction to the widow, the fatherless, to the family, the friends, the relations, cut off from his protection, and rendered perhaps destitute, perhaps miserable for ever! No wonder that, by the law of nature, this crime was always pursued with the most extreme vengeance; which made the barbarians to judge, when they saw St. Paul upon the point of dying a sudden and terrifying death, No doubt this man is a murderer; who, though he has escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffereth not to live. The censure there was rash and uncharitable; but the honest detestation of the crime was uppermost. They saw a dreadful punishment, they thought: and, in seeing the one, they suspected the other. And the vengeance which had overtaken the holy man was meant by them the vengeance and punishment of the Almighty Being, whose providence and honor were concerned in pursuing him, from the place he had fled from, to that island. The honor and authority of God is most evidently struck at, most certainly, in every such crime, and therefore he will pursue it; it being the reason, in the ninth of Genesis, upon which the prohibition of murder is grounded; for in the image of God created he man: as if to attempt the life of a man had something in it peculiarly daring and audacious; not only shocking as to its consequence above all other crimes, but of personal violence, and indignity against God, the author of our life and death. That it is the highest act of injustice to man, and which will admit of no compensation, I have said. But depriving a man of life does not comprehend the whole of his suffering; he may be cut off in an unprovided or disordered condition, with regard to the great account betwixt himself and his Maker. He may be under the power of irregular passions and desires. The best of men are not always upon their guard. And I am sure we have all reason to join in that affecting part of our Litany, that amongst other evils, God would deliver us from sudden death; that we may have some foresight of that period to compose our spirits, prepare our accounts, and put ourselves in the best posture we can to meet it; for, after we are most prepared, it is a terror to human nature. The people of some nations are said to have a peculiar art in poisoning b slow and gradual advances. In this case, however horrid, it savors of mercy with regard to our spiritual state; for the sensible decays of nature which a sufferer must feel within hi a from the secret workings of the horrid drug, give warning, and show that mercy which the bloody hand that comes upon his neighbor suddenly, and slays him with guile, has denied him. It may serve to admonish him of the duty of repentance, and to make his peace with God, whilst he has time and opportunity. The speedy execution of justice, which, as our laws now stand, and which were intended for that end, must strike the greater terror upon that account. Short as the interval between sentence and death is, it is long, compared to the case of the murdered. Thou allowedst the man no time, said the judge to a late criminal, in a most affecting manner; thou allowedst him not a moment to prepare for eternity; and to one who thinks at all, it is, of all reflections and self-accusation, the most insurmountable, that by the hand of violence, a man in a perfect state of health, whilst he walks out in perfect security, as he thinks, with his friends; perhaps whilst he is sleeping soundly, to be hurried out of the world by an assassin, by a sudden stroke, to find himself at the bar of God's justice, without notice and preparation for his trial-'tis most horrible! Though he be really a good man (and it is to be hoped God makes merciful allowances in such cases), yet it is a terrifying consideration, at the best; and, as the injury is greater, there are also very aggravating circumstances relating to the person who commits this act. As when it is the effect, not of a rash and sudden passion, which sometimes disorders and confounds reason for a moment, but of a deliberate and prepense design or malice. When the sun not only goes down, but rises upon his wrath; when he sleeps not, till he has struck the stroke: when, after he has had time and leisure to recollect himself, and consider what he is going to do; when, after all the checks of conscience, the struggles of humanity, the recoilings of his own blood, at the thoughts of shedding another man's, he shall pergist still, and resolve to do it. Merciful God! protect us from doing or suffering such evils. Blessed be thy name and providence, which seldom or never suffers it to escape with impunity. In vain does the guilty flatter himself with hopes of secrecy or impunity; the eye of God is always upon him. Whither can he fly from his presence? By the immensity of his nature he is present in all places: by the infinity of it, to all times; by his omniscience, to all thoughts, words, and actions of men. By an emphatical phrase in Scripture, the blood of the innocent is said to cry to heaven from the ground for vengeance; and it was for this reason, that he might be brought to justice, that he was debarred the benefit of any asylum and the cities of refuge. For the elders of his city shall send and fetch him thence, and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood, and their eye should not pity him. The The text says, Thou shalt take him from my altar that he may die. It had been a very ancient imagination that, for men guilty of this and other horrid crimes, a place held sacred, as dedicated to God, was a refuge and protection to them from the hands of justice. law of God cuts the transgressor off from all delusive hopes of this kind; and I think the Romish church has very little to boast of in the sanctuaries which she leaves open for this and other crimes and irregularities, sanctuaries which are often the first temptations to wickedness, and therefore bring the greater scandal and dishonor to her that authorizes their pretensions. Every obstruction of the course of justice—is a door opened to betray society, and bereave us of those blessings which it has in view. To stand up for the privileges of such places is to invite men to sin with a bribe of impunity. It is a strange way of doing honor to God to screen actions which are a disgrace to humanity. What Scripture and all civilized nations teach, concerning the crime of taking away another man's life, is applicable to the wickedness of a man's attempting to bereave himself of his own. He has no more right over it-than over that of others: and whatever false glosses have been put upon it by men of bad heads or bad hearts, it is at the bottom a complication of cowardice, and wickedness, and weakness; is one of the fatalest mistakes desperation can hurry a man into; inconsistent with all the reasoning and religion of the world, and irreconcilable with that patience under afflictions-that resignation and submission to the will of God in all straits, which is required of us. But if our calamities are brought upon ourselves by a man's own wickedness, still he has less to urge, least reason has he to renounce the protection of God-when he most stands in need of it, and of his mercy. But as I intend the subject of self-murder for my discourse next Sunday, I shall not anticipate what I have to say, b..t proceed to consider some other cases, in which the law relating to the life of our neighbor is transgressed in different degrees. All which are generally spoken of under the subject of murder, and considered by the best casuists as a species of the same, and, in justice to the subject, cannot be passed here. St. John says, Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer; it is the first step to this sin; and our Saviour, in his sermon upon the mount, has explained in how many slighter and unsuspected ways and degrees, the command in the law-Thou shalt do no murder, may be opposed, if not broken. All real mischiefs and injuries maliciously brought upon a man, to the sorrow and disturbance of his mind, eating out the comfort of his life, and shortening his days, are this sin in disguise; and the ground of the Scripture expressing it with such severity is that the beginning of wrath and malice, in event, often extends to such great and unforeseen effects as, were we foretold them, we should give so little credit to as to say: Is thy servant a dog, that he should do this thing? And though these beginnings do not necessarily produce the worst (God forbid they should!) yet they cannot be committed without these evil seeds are first sown: As Cain's causeless anger (as Dr. Clarke observes) against his brother, to which the Apostle alludes, ended in taking away his life; and the best instructors teach us that, to avoid a sin, we must avoid the steps and temptations which lead to it. This should warn us to free our minds from all tincture of avarice, and desire after what is another man's. It operates the same way, and has terminated too oft in the same crime. And it is the great excellency of the Christian religion, that it has an eye to this in the stress laid upon the first springs of evil in the heart; rendering us accountable not only for our words, but the thoughts themselves, if not checked in time, but suffered to proceed further than the first motions of concupiscence. Ye have heard, therefore, says our Saviour, that it was said by them of old time: Thou shalt not kill; but I say unto you, whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment; and whosoever shall say to his brother, Racashall be in danger of the council; but whosoever shall say "thou fool," shall be in danger of hell-fire. The interpretation of which |