DIRECTIONS AGAINST MURDER.
_Tit. 1. Advice against Murder._
Though murder be a sin which human nature and interest do so
powerfully rise up against, that one would think besides the laws of
nature, and the fear of temporal punishment, there should need no
other argument against it; and though it be a sin which is not
frequently committed, except by soldiers; yet because man's corrupted
heart is liable to it, and because one sin of such a heinous nature
may be more mischievous than many small infirmities, I shall not
wholly pass by this sin, which falls in order here before me. I shall
give men no other advice against it, than only to open to them, 1. The
causes; 2. The greatness; and 3. The consequents of the sin.
I. The causes of murder, are either the nearest, or the more radical
and remote. The opening of the nearest sort of causes, will be but to
tell you, how many ways of murdering the world is used to! And when
you know the cause the contrary to it is the prevention. Avoid these
causes, and you avoid the sin.
1. The greatest cause of the cruellest murders is unlawful wars. All
that a man killeth in an unlawful war, he murdereth; and all that the
army killeth, he that setteth them at work by command or counsel, is
guilty of himself. And therefore, how dreadful a thing is an
unrighteous war! And how much have men need to look about them, and
try every other lawful way, and suffer long, before they venture upon
war! It is the skill and glory of a soldier, when he can kill more
than other men. He studieth it; he maketh it the matter of his
greatest care, and valour, and endeavour; he goeth through very great
difficulties to accomplish it; this is not like a sudden or
involuntary act. Thieves and robbers kill single persons; but soldiers
murder thousands at a time: and because there is none at present to
judge them for it, they wash their hands as if they were innocent, and
sleep as quietly as if the avenger of blood would never come. Oh what
devils are those counsellors and incendiaries to princes and states,
who stir them up to unlawful wars!
2. Another cause and way of murder, is by the pride and tyranny of men
in power; when they do it easily, because they can do it; when their
will and interest is their rule, and their passion seemeth a
sufficient warrant for their injustice. It is not only Neros,
Tiberiuses, Domitians, &c. that are guilty of this crying crime; but
oh! what man that careth for his soul, had not rather be tormented a
thousand years, than have the blood-guiltiness of a famous, applauded
Alexander, or Cæsar, or Tamerlane, to answer for! So dangerous a thing
is it to have power to do mischief, that Uriah may fall by a David's
guilt, and Crispus may be killed by his father Constantine. Oh what
abundance of horrid murders do the histories of almost all empires and
kingdoms of the world afford us! The maps of the affairs of Greeks and
Romans, of Tartarians, Turks, Russians, Germans, of heathens and
infidels, of papists and too many protestants, are drawn out with too
many purple lines, and their histories written in letters of blood.
What write the christians of the infidels, the orthodox of the Arians,
(Romans, or Goths, or Vandals,) or the most impartial historians of
the mock-catholics of Rome, but "blood, blood, blood." How proudly and
loftily doth a tyrant look, when he telleth the oppressed innocent
that displeaseth him, "Sirrah, I will make you know my power! Take
him, imprison him, rack him, hang him!" Or as Pilate to Christ, John
xix. 10, "Knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have
power to release thee?" "I will make you know that your life is in my
hand: heat the furnace seven times hotter," Dan. iii. Alas, poor worm!
hast thou power to kill? So hath a toad, or adder, or mad dog, or
pestilence, when God permitteth it. Hast thou power to kill? But hast
thou power also to keep thyself alive? and to keep thy corpse from
rottenness and dust? and to keep thy soul from paying for it in hell?
or to keep thy conscience from worrying thee for it to all eternity?
With how trembling a heart and ghastly look wilt thou at last hear of
this, which now thou gloriest in! The bones and dust of the oppressed
innocents, will be as great and honourable as thine; and their souls
perhaps in rest and joy, when thine is tormented by infernal furies.
When thou art in Nebuchadnezzar's glory, what a mercy were it to thee,
if thou mightest be turned out among the beasts, to prevent thy being
turned out among the devils! If killing and destroying be the glory of
thy greatness, the devils are more honourable than thou; and as thou
agreest with them in thy work and glory, so shalt thou in the reward.
3. Another most heinous cause of murder is, a malignant enmity against
the godly, and a persecuting, destructive zeal. What a multitude of
innocents hath this consumed! And what innumerable companies of holy
souls are still crying for vengeance on these persecutors! The enmity
began immediately upon the fall, between the woman's and the serpent's
seed. It showed itself presently in the two first men that were born
into the world. A malignant envy against the accepted sacrifice of
Abel, was able to make his brother to be his murderer. And it is usual
with the devil, to cast some bone of carnal interest also between
them, to heighten the malignant enmity. Wicked men are all covetous,
voluptuous, and proud; and the doctrine and practice of the godly,
doth contradict them and condemn them: and they usually espouse some
wicked interest, or engage themselves in some service of the devil,
which the servants of Christ are bound in their several places and
callings to resist. And then not only this resistance, though it be
but by the humblest words or actions, yea, the very conceit that they
are not for their interest and way, doth instigate the befooled world
to persecution. And thus an Ishmael and an Isaac, an Esau and a Jacob,
a Saul and a David, cannot live together in peace; Gal. iv. 29, "But
as then he that was born after the flesh, persecuted him that was born
after the Spirit, even so it is now." Saul's interest maketh him think
it just to persecute David; and religiously he blesseth those that
furthered him; 1 Sam. xxiii. 21, "Blessed be ye of the Lord, for ye
have compassion on me." He justifieth himself in murdering the
priests, because he thought that they helped David against him; and
Doeg seemeth but a dutiful subject, in executing his bloody command,
1 Sam. xxii. And Shimei thought he might boldly curse him, 2 Sam. xvi.
7, 8. And he could scarce have charged him with more odious sin, than
to be "A bloody man, and a man of Belial." If the prophet speak against
Jeroboam's political religion, he will say, "Lay hold on him," 1 Kings
xiii. 4. Even Asa will be raging wrathful, and imprison the prophet
that reprehendeth his sin, 2 Chron. xvi. 10. Ahab will feed Micaiah in
a prison with the bread and water of affliction, if he contradict him,
1 Kings xxii. 27. And even Jerusalem killed the prophets, and stoned
them which were sent to gather them under the gracious wing of Christ,
Matt. xxiii. 37. "Which of the prophets did they not persecute?" Acts
vii. 52. And if you consider but what streams of blood since the death
of Christ and his apostles, have been shed for the sake of Christ and
righteousness, it will make you wonder, that so much cruelty can
consist with humanity, and men and devils should be so like. The same
man, as Paul, as soon as he ceaseth to shed the blood of others, must
look in the same way to lose his own. How many thousands were murdered
by heathen Rome in the ten persecutions! and how many by the Arian
emperors and kings! and how many by more orthodox princes in their
particular distastes! And yet how far hath the pretended vicar of
Christ outdone them all! How many hundred thousands of the Albigenses,
Waldenses, and Bohemians, hath the papal rage consumed! Two hundred
thousand the Irish murdered in a little space, to outgo the thirty or
forty thousand which the French massacre made an end of! The
sacrifices offered by their fury in the flames, in the Marian
persecution here in England, were nothing to what one day hath done in
other parts. What volumes can contain the particular histories of
them? What a shambles was their inquisition in the Low Countries! And
what is the employment of it still? So that a doubting man would be
inclined to think, that papal Rome is the murderous Babylon, that doth
but consider, "How drunken she is with the blood of the saints, and
the martyrs of Jesus; and that the blood of saints will be found in
her, in her day of trial," Rev. xvii. 6; xviii. 24. If we should look
over all the rest of the world, and reckon up the torments and murders
of the innocent, (in Japan, and most parts of the world, wherever
Christianity came,) it may increase your wonder, that devils and men
are still so like. Yea, though there be as loud a testimony in human
nature against this bloodiness, as almost any sin whatsoever; and
though the names of persecutors always stink to following generations,
how proudly soever they carried it for a time; and though one would
think a persecutor should need no cure but his own pride, that his
name may not be left as Pilate's in the creed, to be odious in the
mouths of the ages that come after him; yet for all this, so deep is
the enmity, so potent is the devil, so blinding a thing is sin, and
interest, and passion, that still one generation of persecutors doth
succeed the others; and they kill the present saints, while they
honour the dead ones, and build them monuments, and say, "If we had
lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers
with them in the prophets' blood." Read well Matt. xxiii. 29, to the
end. What a sea of righteous blood hath malignity and persecuting zeal
drawn out!
4. Another cause of murder is, rash and unrighteous judgment; when
judges are ignorant, or partial, or perverted by passion, or
prejudice, or respect of persons: but though many an innocent hath
suffered this way, I hope among christians, this is one of the rarest
causes.
5. Another way of murder is by oppression and uncharitableness; when
the poor are kept destitute of necessaries to preserve their lives:
though few of them die directly of famine, yet thousands of them die
of those sicknesses which they contract by unwholesome food. And all
those are guilty of their death, either that cause it by oppression,
or that relieve them not when they are able and obliged to it, James
v. 1-5.
6. Another way and cause of murder is, by thieves and robbers, that do
it to possess themselves of that which is another man's: when
riotousness or idleness hath consumed what they had themselves, and
sloth and pride will not suffer them to labour, nor sensuality suffer
them to endure want, then they will have it by right or wrong,
whatever it cost them. God's laws or man's, the gallows or hell, shall
not deter them; but have it they will, though they rob and murder, and
are hanged and damned for it. Alas! how dear a purchase do they make!
How much easier are their greatest wants, than the wrath of God, and
the pains of hell!
7. Another cause of murder is, guilt and shame. When wicked people
have done some great disgraceful sin, which will utterly shame them or
undo them if it be known, they are tempted to murder them that know
it, to conceal the crime and save themselves. Thus many a whoremonger
hath murdered her that he hath committed fornication with; and many a
whore hath murdered her child (before the birth or after) to prevent
the shame. But how madly do they forget the day, when both the one and
the other will be brought to light! And the righteous Judge will make
them know, that all their wicked shifts will be their confusion,
because there is no hiding them from him.
8. Another cause is, furious anger, which mastereth reason, and for
the present makes them mad; and drunkenness, which doth the same. Many
a one hath killed another in his fury or his drink; so dangerous is it
to suffer reason to lose its power, and to use ourselves to a Bedlam
course! And so necessary is it, to get a sober, meek, and quiet
spirit, and mortify and master these turbulent and beastly vices.
9. Another cause of murder is, malice and revenge. When men's own
wrongs or sufferings are so great a matter to them, and they have so
little learned to bear them, that they hate that man that is the cause
of them, and boil with a revengeful desire of his ruin. And this sin
hath in it so much of the devil, that those that are once addicted to
it, are almost wholly at his command. He maketh witches of some, and
murderers of others, and wretches of all! who set themselves in the
place of God, and will do justice as they call it for themselves, as
if God were not just enough to do it. And so sweet is revenge to their
furious nature, (as the damning of men is to the devil,) that revenged
they will be, though they lose their souls by it; and the impotency
and baseness of their spirits is such, that they say, Flesh and blood
is unable to bear it.
10. Another cause of murder is, a wicked impatience with near
relations, and a hatred of those that should be most dearly loved.
Thus many men and women have murdered their wives and husbands, when
either adulterous lust hath given up their hearts to another, or a
cross, impatient, discontented mind, hath made them seem intolerable
burdens to each other; and then the devil that destroyed their love
and brought them thus far, will be their teacher in the rest, and show
them how to ease themselves, till he hath led them to the gallows, and
to hell. How necessary is it to keep in the way of duty, and abhor and
suppress the beginnings of sin!
11. And sometimes covetousness hath caused murder, when one man
desireth another man's estate. Thus Ahab came by Naboth's vineyards to
his cost. And many a one desireth the death of another, whose estate
must fall to him at the other's death. Thus many a child in heart is
guilty of the murder of his parents, though he actually commit it not;
yea, a secret gladness when they are dead, doth show the guilt of some
such desires while they were living; and the very abatement of such
moderate mourning, as natural affection should procure, (because the
estate is thereby come to them as the heirs,) doth show that such are
far from innocent. Many a Judas for covetousness hath betrayed
another; many a false witness for covetousness hath sold another's
life; many a thief for covetousness hath taken away another's life, to
get his money; and many a covetous landlord hath longed for his
tenant's death, and been glad to hear of it; and many a covetous
soldier hath made a trade of killing men for money. So true is it,
"That the love of money is the root of all evil;" and therefore is one
cause of this.
12. And ambition is too common a cause of murder, among the great ones
of the world. How many have despatched others out of the world,
because they stood in the way of their advancement! For a long time
together it was the ordinary way of rising, and dying, to the Roman
and Greek emperors; for one to procure the murder of the emperor, that
he might usurp his seat, and then to be so murdered by another
himself; and every soldier that looked for preferment by the change,
was ready to be an instrument in the fact. And thus hath even the
Roman seat of his mock-holiness, for a long time and oft received its
successors, by the poison or other murdering of the possessors of the
desired place. And alas, how many thousands hath that see devoured to
defend its universal empire, under the name of the spiritual headship
of the church! How many unlawful wars have they raised or cherished,
even against christian emperors and kings! How many thousands have
been massacred! how many assassinated, as Henry the Third, and Henry
the Fourth, of France! besides those that fires and inquisitions have
consumed: and all these have been the flames of pride. Yea, when their
fellow-sectaries in Munster, and in England, (the anabaptists and
seekers,) have catched some of their proud disease, it hath worked in
the same way of blood and cruelty.
But besides these twelve great sins, which are the nearest cause of
murder, there are many more which are yet greater, and deeper in
nature, which are the roots of all; especially these:
1. The first cause is, the want of true belief of the word of God, and
the judgment and punishment to come, and the want of the knowledge of
God himself: atheism and infidelity.
2. Hence cometh the want of the true fear of God, and subjection to
his holy laws.
3. The predominance of selfishness in all the unsanctified, is the
radical inclination to murder, and all the injustice that is
committed.
4. And the want of charity, or loving our neighbour as ourselves, doth
bring men near to the execution, and leaveth little inward restraint.
By all this you may see how this sin must be prevented. (And let not
any man think it a needless work. Thousands have been guilty of murder
that once thought themselves as far from it as you.) 1. The soul must
be possessed with the knowledge of God, and the true belief of his
word and judgment. 2. Hereby it must be possessed of the fear of God,
and subjection to him. 3. And the love of God must mortify the power
of selfishness. 4. And also must possess us with a true love to our
neighbours, yea, and enemies for his sake. 5. And the twelve
forementioned causes of murder will be thus destroyed at the root.
II. And some further help it will be to understand the greatness of
this sin. Consider therefore, 1. It is an unlawful destroying, not
only a creature of God, but one of his noblest creatures upon earth!
even one that beareth (at least, the natural) image of God. Gen.
ix. 5, 6, "And surely, your blood of your lives will I require; at the
hand of every beast will I require it; and at the hand of man; 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; for in the
image of God made he man." Yea, God will not only have the beast slain
that killeth a man, but also forbiddeth there the eating of blood,
verse 4, that man might not be accustomed to cruelty.
2. It is the opening a door to confusion, and all calamity in the
world; for if one man may kill another without the sentence of the
magistrate, another may kill him; and the world will be like mastiffs
or mad dogs, turned all loose on one another, kill that kill can.
3. If it be a wicked man that is killed, it is the sending of a soul
to hell, and cutting off his time of repentance, and his hopes. If it
be a godly man, it is a depriving of the world of the blessing of a
profitable member, and all that are about him of the benefits of his
goodness, and God of the service, which he was here to have performed.
These are enough to infer the dreadful consequents to the murderer,
which are such as these.
III. 1. It is a sin which bringeth so great a guilt, that if it be
repented of, and pardoned, yet conscience very hardly doth ever attain
to peace and quietness in this world; and if it be unpardoned, it is
enough to make a man his own executioner and tormentor.
2. It is a sin that seldom escapeth vengeance in this life: if the law
of the land take not away their lives, as God appointeth, Gen. ix. 6,
God useth to follow them with his extraordinary plagues, and causeth
their sin to find them out; so that the bloodthirsty man doth seldom
live out half his days. The treatises purposely written on this
subject, and the experience of all ages, do give us very wonderful
narratives of God's judgments, in the detecting of murderers and
bringing them to punishment. They go about awhile like Cain, with a
terrified conscience, afraid of every one they see, till seasonable
vengeance give them their reward, or rather send them to the place
where they must receive it.
3. For it is eternal torment, under the wrath of God, which is the
final punishment which they must expect (if very great repentance, and
the blood of Christ, do not prevent it). There are few I think that by
shame and terror of conscience, are not brought to such a repentance
for it, as Cain and Judas had, or as a man that hath brought calamity
on himself; and therefore wish they had never done it, because of
their own unhappiness thereby (except those persecutors or murderers
that are hardened by error, pride, or power); but this will not
prevent the vengeance of God in their damnation: it must be a deep
repentance proceeding from the love of God and man, and the hatred of
sin, and sense of God's displeasure for it, which is only found in
sanctified souls! And alas, how few murderers ever have the grace to
manifest any such renovation and repentance!
_Tit. 2. Advice against Self-murder._
Though self-murder be a sin which nature hath as strongly inclined man
against, as any sin in the world that I remember, and therefore I
shall say but little of it; yet experience telleth us, that it is a
sin that some persons are in danger of, and therefore I shall not pass
it by.
The prevention of it lieth in the avoiding of these following causes
of it.
_Direct._ I. The commonest cause is prevailing melancholy, which
is near to madness; therefore to prevent this sad disease, or to cure
it if contracted, and to watch them in the mean time, is the chief
prevention of this sin. Though there be much more hope of the
salvation of such, as want the use of their understandings, because so
far it may be called involuntary, yet it is a very dreadful case,
especially so far as reason remaineth in any power. But it is not more
natural for a man in a fever to thirst and rave, than for melancholy,
at the height, to incline men to make away themselves. For the disease
will let them feel nothing but misery and despair, and say nothing,
but, I am forsaken, miserable, and undone! And not only maketh them
weary of their lives, (even while they are afraid to die,) but the
devil hath some great advantage by it, to urge them to do it; so that
if they pass over a bridge, he urgeth them to leap into the water; if
they see a knife, they are presently urged to kill themselves with it;
and feel, as if it were, something within them importunately provoking
them, and saying, Do it, do it now; and giving them no rest. Insomuch,
that many of them contrive it, and cast about secretly how they may
accomplish it.
Though the cure of these poor people belong as much to others' care as
to their own, yet so far as they yet can use their reason, they must
be warned, 1. To abhor all these suggestions, and give them not room a
moment in their minds.
And, 2. To avoid all occasions of the sin, and not to be near a knife,
a river, or any instrument which the devil would have them use in the
execution.
And, 3. To open their case to others, and tell them all, that they may
help to their preservation.
4. And especially to be willing to use the means, both physic, and
satisfying counsel, which tend to cure their disease. And if there be
any rooted cause in the mind that was antecedent to the melancholy, it
must be carefully looked to in the cure.
_Direct._ II. Take heed of worldly trouble and discontent; for
this also is a common cause. Either it suddenly casteth men into
melancholy, or without it of itself overturneth their reason, so far
as to make them violently despatch themselves; especially, if it fall
out in a mind where there is a mixture of these two causes: 1.
Unmortified love to any creature. 2. And an impotent and passionate
mind; their discontent doth cause such unquietness, that they will
furiously go to hell for ease. Mortify therefore first your worldly
lusts, and set not too much by any earthly thing: if you did not
foolishly overvalue yourselves, or your credit, or your wealth or
friends, there would be nothing to feed your discontent: make no
greater a matter of the world than it deserveth, and you will make no
such great matter of your sufferings.
And, 2. Mortify your turbulent passions, and give not way to Bedlam
fury to overcome your reason. Go to Christ, to beg and learn to be
meek and lowly in spirit, and then your troubled minds will have rest,
Matt. xi. 28, 29. Passionate women, and such other feeble-spirited
persons, that are easily troubled and hardly quieted and pleased, have
great cause to bend their greatest endeavours to the curing of this
impotent temper of mind, and procuring from God such strengthening
grace, as may restore their reason to its power.
_Direct._ III. And sometimes sudden passion itself, without any
longer discontent, hath caused men to make away themselves. Mortify
therefore and watch over such distracting passions.
_Direct._ IV. Take heed of running into the guilt of any heinous
sin. For though you may feel no hurt from it at the present, when
conscience is awakened, it is so disquieting a thing, that it maketh
many a one hang himself. Some grievous sins are so tormenting to the
conscience, that they give many no rest, till they have brought them
to Judas's or Ahithophel's end. Especially take heed of sinning
against conscience, and of yielding to that for fear of men, which God
and conscience charge you to forbear. For the case of many a hundred
as well as Spira, may tell you into what calamity this may cast you.
If man be the master of your religion, you have no religion; for what
is religion, but the subjection of the soul to God, especially in the
matters of his worship; and if God be subjected to man, he is taken
for no-god. When you worship a god that is inferior to a man, then you
must subject your religion to the will of that man. Keep God and
conscience at peace with you, if you love yourselves, though thereby
you lose your peace with the world.
_Direct._ V. Keep up a believing foresight of the state which
death will send you to. And then if you have the use of reason, hell
at least will hold your hands, and make you afraid of venturing upon
death. What repentance are you like to have, when you die in the very
act of sin? and when an unmortified lust or love of the world, doth
hurry you to the halter by sinful discontent? and what hope of pardon
without repentance? How exceeding likely therefore is it, that
whenever you put yourselves out of your present pain and trouble you
send your souls to endless torments! And will it ease you to pass from
poverty or crosses into hell? Or will you damn your souls, because
another wrongeth you? Oh the madness of a sinner! Who will you think
hath wronged you most, when you feel hell-fire? Are you weary of your
lives, and will you go to hell for ease? Alas, how quickly would you
be glad to be here again, in a painfuller condition than that which
you were so weary of! yea, and to endure it a thousand years! Suppose
you saw hell before your eyes, would you leap into it? Is not time of
repentance a mercy to be valued? Yea, a little reprieve from endless
misery is better than nothing. What need you make haste to come to
hell? Will it not be soon enough, if you stay thence as long as you
can? And why will you throw away your hopes, and put yourselves past
all possibility of recovery, before God put you so himself?
_Direct._ VI. Understand the wonders of mercy revealed, and
bestowed on mankind in Jesus Christ; and understand the tenor of the
covenant of grace. The ignorance of this is it that keepeth a bitter
taste upon your spirits; and maketh you cry out, Forsaken and undone;
when such miracles of mercy are wrought for your salvation. And the
ignorance of this is it that maketh you foolishly cry out, There is no
hope; the day of grace is past; it is too late; God will never show me
mercy! When his word assureth all that will believe it, that "whoever
confesseth and forsaketh his sins, shall have mercy," Prov. xxviii. 13.
"And if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive,"
1 John i. 9. "And that whoever will, may freely drink of the waters of
life," Rev. xxii. 17. "And that whoever believeth in him, shall not
perish, but have everlasting life," John iii. 16. I have no other hope
of my salvation, but that gospel which promiseth pardon and salvation
unto all, that at any time repent and turn to God by faith in Christ:
and I dare lay my salvation on the truth of this, that Christ never
rejected any sinner, how great soever, that at any time in this life
was truly willing to come to him, and to God by him. "He that cometh
unto me I will in no wise cast out," John vi. 37. But the malicious
devil would fain make God seem odious to the soul, and representeth
love itself as our enemy, that we might not love him! Despair is such
a part of hell, that if he could bring us to it, he would think he had
us half in hell already: and then he would urge us to despatch
ourselves, that we might be there indeed, and our despair might be
uncurable. How blind is he that seeth not the devil in all this!