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A65571
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Eight sermons preached on several occasions by Nathanael Whaley ...; Sermons. Selections
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Whaley, Nathanael, 1637?-1709.
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1675
(1675)
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Wing W1532; ESTC R8028
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120,489
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326
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but to treat of that which all the World are agreed is the meaning of it And the rather because the World has had time and it seems has been no ill husband of it to wear off some of the very deepest Impressions of this Ancient Commandment The Scribes and Pharisees had indeed run the people into many gross mistakes and concealed the best part of their Duty from them by their false and frigid Interpretations of the great Commandments of God But to do them right they were much better expounders of this Law than many of our Modern Christians who with Pens of Steel and in Letters of Bloud are ready to justify that Killing for Honour is no Murther And that it is rather an Act of Mercy and Prudence than of Cruelty and Disobedience when we are opprest with the Miseries of this Life to find the shortest Way we can into the next and to put an end to our Own Lives when they are less desirable than Death it self These are the Sentiments of Men of very different Complexion The former are generally Men of Flame and Spirit of a hot sanguine Temper which is seldom reckon'd the best Freind to a solid Judgment The latter for the most part are of a Melancholy Constitution and while their Understandings are clouded with that dark Humour must needs stand but in an Ill light to discern the Truth But what ever their Judgments are in other matters they seem to have clean forgot the Primary and most obvious meaning of what was said of Old time Thou shalt not Kill Which Precept being exprest in very few Words will require the larger Explication and the rather because it is undoubtedly lawful insome cases to Kill and these must be known before we can certainly Determine wherein thenature of the hainous Sin of Murther consists which all men agree to be forbidden in this Law For these Reasons in speaking to these Words I shall shew 1. In what cases it may be justly supposed that Killing is not forbidden is this law 2. What the Sin of Murther or the Killing here forbidden is 3. Wherein the Hainousness of this Sin consists And then I shall consider 4. Whether it be lawful or not to Kill a Rival in a Quarrel of Honour or to Kill our selves when we are grown weary of our lives 1. In what cases it may be justly supposed that Killing is not forbidden in this Law Life is the gift of God which he bestows upon us as a thing sacred to be preserved for his Use and not dispos'd of without his leave and pleasure Gen. 2.7 It is he that Breatheth into Man the breath of Life and being absolute Lord of it there is no Question but he may resume it when and by what Instruments he pleases And that there are Crimes worthy of Death both the Scriptures and Natural Reasons do assure us Yea such Crimes their are as were they not sometimes punisht with Death would suddenly dash all human Society in pieces and bring the World into such confusion that there would be no living amongst men And therefore it may be reasoanbly presumed that Killing is not prohibited in all cases For instance When a Magistrate puts an Offendor to Death that is worthy of it in a regular courses of Justice he is not to be charged with the Breach of this Law He has his Authority from God the Spreme Judge and Sovereign Lord of Life and Death He Acts as his Minister by express Commission from him and therefore is Innocent of all the Bloud that is shed by the Sword of Justice and hence St. Paul calls the Magistrate a Terrour to Evil Workers Rom. 13.3 4. because he beareth not the Sword in vain being the Minister of God a Revenger to execute Wrath upon him that doth Evil. Nor hath God only given a General Commission to Seize the forfeited Lives of great and haynous Offenders but in some cases as in that of the Murtherer himself He particularly Commands the Use of this severity as a standing Rule of of Equity and Justice Gen. 9.6 For who so shedeth mans Bloud by man shall his Bloud be shed And for the same reason Killing in the Wars when the cause is Just and the War necessary for the Preservation of the Publick is no part of the meaning of this Law For it is not to be supposed that God who sets up Kings and Governments for the Defence of the common Safety should restrain them from Drawing the Sword of War when there is no other means to preserve it The Swords of Princes are the greatest Instruments of Providence in the World and the best and Noblest Use of them is the Protection of their Subjects from Oppression and Violence in the Enjoyment of all the Blessings of this and the Advantages for a better Life which the Bounty of Heaven hath inricht them with And therefore our Saviour never went about to tye the hands of Sovereign Princes or States from the use of this sharp and last Remedy in a Just and Necessary Cause nor was the Gospel ever accused for being an Enemy to the Throne upon this account There being no Tribunal upon Earth high enough to decide the Quarrels between Independent Governments and Nations it is a natural and strong Presumption when all amicable ways of Peace and Reconciliation fail that God approves of the injured Party's Appealing to him in the Field of War as the supreme Judge and Guardian of Right and Innocence And by consequence a Souldier that serves in a lawful War is not forbid to Kill the Enemy of his Princes and Country he is in this Cases a Minister of Divine Justice being invested with Authority from him to whom vengeance belongeth These are Publick cases in which the Authority of God over the Life of Man is manifestly derived immediately to the Sovereign and by him to inferior Magistrates and dispensers of Justice Besides which It may be reasonably presumed that when a private Person is desperately Assaulted and in the necessary Defence of his own Life takes away the Invaders he hath done nothing against the Intent of this Law Every man hath a natural Right to defend the Life which God hath given him against him that shall attempt by unjust or Illegal Violence to wrest it from him This also as well as Life it self is the gift of God It is a Debt we owe to the Lord and giver of Life to keep it for his service till he is pleased to call for it which he never do's by the hand of a Murtherer And therefore when we are reduced to that Extremity that we can neither Fly to the Protection Protection of the Magistrate nor escape with our Lives with out taking away the Life of him that Assails us if he Perish in his wicked Enterprise his Bloud will not be Required at our hands 't is better for the Publick to lose a Bad than a Good and useful Member and when the case is such
but a solid and expereienc'd Truth And how should this animate our Endeavours and enliven us in our spiritual course that the better speed we make the less weary we shall be with our Journey And that having past the first stages of it if we do not loiter by the way we shall gather strength all along as we go and be less tired than we should have been by sitting still the while Every step will yield us a New Refreshment as it brings us nearer the glorious End of our Hope and shortens the Distance betwixt us and Heaven 7. Lastly Let us consider that the better we grow the fitter we shall be to die and the riper for Eternity Every degree of Grace will help to support and comfort us in our Last Agonies when of all the hours we have to live we would chuse to have our minds easie and chearful to be well assured of our Future state and to have nothing upon our spirits that may occasion any bitter Reflections upon the Lives we have led or any misgiving Thoughts of our approaching Eternity When our Last and Determining Hour comes we shall need all the succours which a strong Faith a vigorous Hope and a perefect Patience a good Conscience and a Holy Life can afford us to vanquish the Fears and support us under the Pangs and Strugglings of Death to make our Passage easie and our Dissolution desirable We are generally apt when we perceive our selves upon the Brink of Immortality to stand shivering at the amazing Prospect of the boundless Ocean before us being Naturally very loth to put off from this Beloved World and commonly very fearful of our landing upon the next And there is nothing that can perfectly cure us of this Fear but the lively Hopes of a better Life after this through the Mercy of God and the Merits of Jesus Christ upon the Terms of the Gospel-Covenant i. e. our Improvement of the Grace of God and the Talents he hath intrusted us with Such a Hope as this will charm our Natural Fears Disarm Death of its Terrors and make us even glad to die and desirous to see that happy World we have so long entertained our selves with the expectation of We shall not be afraid to give up our Accounts if we have been Good Stewards of the manifold Grace of God but rejoice that our Audit is at hand being conscious to our selves that we have been doing the pleasure of our Lord and that in simplicity and godly sincerity we have had our Conversation in the world When we are going to God it will be an unexpressible comfort to us to be able to say that vve have vvalkt before him in truth and with a perfect heart and done that which is right in his sight Isa 38.3 And vvhat greater happiness can vve imagine or chuse for our selves than to sail vvith a due preparation of Mind and a full Tide of Joy into a blessed Eternity If there are different degrees of happiness in Heaven as I think the Scripture plainly intimates to us the best men in this World vvill certainly be the happiest in the next And since there is glory enough there to crovvn all our Endeavours and Improvements vvhy should vve not aim at as great a share of it and to rise as high in the grace and Favour of God as we can possibly attain unto 'T is certain we cannot bestow our time better than in laying up all the Treasure that we can in Heaven where we are sure it will be safe and will be always in a thriving and growing state and where we shall find it after a few days improv'd into an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away Let us therefore having these mighty reasons to quicken our spiritual growth aspire every day to exceed our selves and to mend our progress in Religion They that are but in an Infant-state of Grace have many stages and degrees to pass through before they can arrive at any great perfection and so have reason to be pressing on lest Time and Death should be too hasty for them and not allow them space to finish their Course with Joy And for those that are grown up to greater strength and maturity as better Fruit will be expected from them than others so it would be a real shame and prejudice to them to come behind themsleves and that their last Works should be worse than their first When all is said to satisfie men concerning the goodness of their spiritual state assuredly the most comfortable and infallible Evidence of the Truth of Grace is the growth and flourishing of it I shall conclude all with the Words of the Apostle Wherefore beloved seeing ye know these things before beware lest ye fall from your own stedfastness but grow in grace and in the knowledg of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ To him be Glory both now and for ever Amen SERMON VII OF Murther particularly Duelling and Self-Murther Matth. 5.21 Ye have heard that it was said by them of Old time Thou shalt not Kill THe Precept in the Text was no Modern saying no positive command of Christ but one of the Ancient and standing Rules of Natural Religion It was at first engraven in the deepest Characters upon the Heart of Man by the hand of his Creator the written Law being only a Transcript or Copy of that Original But even this as it was no less Authentick was very Ancient too Ye have heard saith our Saviour to the Jews 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it was said to the Ancients or to them of Old time for so the words are most naturally rendred thou shalt not Kill That is this Precept was delivered to their Fathers at Mount Sinai under the hand-writing of God himself and was often repeated in after Ages by his Priests and Prophets But it seems it was not throughly Understood in our Saviours time the Jews apprehending themselves clear of this Commandment if they did not Kill and Murther one another To rectify this great mistake our Saviour being about to give them a larger and more perfect exposition of the Law than the Scribes and Pharisees the famous Expositors of the Age generally did expresly tells them that causeless and reproachful Anger is forbidden under the greatest Penalties of this Commandment v. 22. But I say unto you that whoseover is Angry with his Brother without a cause shall be in danger of the Judgment and whosoever shall say to his Brother Racha shall be in danger of the Counsel but whosoever shall say Thou Fool shall be in danger of Hell Fire viz. Because this quarrelsome and provoking Passion of Anger is as Aristotle observes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the ordinary Principle and Cause of Murthers and therefore very Sinful in it self 'T is not my design at this time to insist upon our Saviour's Improvement of the sence of this Law otherwise than the stating of particular cases may lead me to it