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foul has respect to walk within the hedge of God's precepts. Drunkenness and gluttony devours more than the fword doth. Covetous care and anxiety waftes the body. Inordinate affections are the confuming of the conftitution. Holiness, that repreffes these things, muft then be as health to the flesh, Prov. iv. 22.

2. As for dutifulness to our relatives: Confider,

(1.) It hath God's promise for it in the text, which hath been made out to many in their fweet experience, as in the cafe of Ruth, and that of the Rechabites, Jer. xxxv. 19. And fo the contrary is threatened, Prov. xxx. 17. “The eye that mocketh at his father, and defpifeth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley fhall pick it out, and the young eagles fhall eat it ;" and has been fulfilled in many to the full extent.

(2.) Dutifulness of that fort procures the bleffing of rela tives; it natively draws out their hearts in thankfulness to God for them, and in prayers to God for them, which under God is a mean to bring down a bleffing upon them. The bleffing of them that were ready to perish was not in vain to Job; it fprung up in a liberal increase.

(3.) Such perfons are of a meek difpofition, and fuch have a peculiar promise to inherit the earth, Matth. v. 6. It is the want of the fpirit of meeknefs, and pride and selfishnefs in the room of it, that mars relative dutifulness.

4. Lastly, The nature of the thing leads to it; for that is the ready way to make relations comfortable; and the comfort that people find in their relatives does good like a medicine, while the contrary is as rottennefs in the bones.

There are two objections that lie against this doctrine. Object. 1. Have not wicked men, that caft off all perfonal and relative holinefs, oft-times a long and profperous life?

Anf. It is fo indeed. Job obferved it long ago, ch. xxi. 7. "Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power?" But there is one thing that makes the difference wide enough; i. e. they have it not by promise. What of that? will ye fay. There is very much in it. (1.) He cannot have the comfort of it as a godly man can have, no more than he can have the comfort of a well-furnished house, that knows not but every day he may be turned out of it, while he knows no where else to go to, in comparison of one that has a tack of it, and is to move to a better when

the tack expires. (2.) There is a fecret curfe in it that destroys and ruins him; fo that the morfel may be fair, but there is a bone in it that will ftick in his throat, Prov. i. 32, 33. (3.) Laftly, The last dish spoils the feast. No man can be faid to live a long and happy life, that dies a miferable unhappy death, as all wicked men do. Can that life be profperous and happy that has fuch a black hinder end? Does not death foon catch that man, that catches him ere his falvation be fecured.

Object. 2. Are there not many godly people whofe life in the world is neither long nor profperous, and have neither much health, wealth, nor long life? The answer to this brings us,

Fourthly, To fhew how this promife is to be understood. It is to be understood, as all other temporal promises are, not abfolutely, as if in no cafe it could be otherwife; but with these two limitations: (1.) As far as it fhall ferve for God's glory; and God may be more glorified in their early death than their long life. The honour of God is the immoveable rule by which these things must be all measured. (2.) As far as it shall serve for their good; and fo it may be a greater mercy to them to be hid in the grave, than to be left on earth; and furely it is no breach of promise to give one what is better than what was promifed. And these two are not to be feparated, but joined together; for whatever is most for God's honour, is most for the godly man's good. Now, upon this we may lay down thefe conclufions.

1. Upon this promife the godly, walking in the way of perfonal and relative holinefs, may confidently expect from God as much long life and prosperity in the world as shall be for the honour of God, and their good to enjoy. And to have any more would be no favour.

2. A fhort and afflicted life may be more for their good than a long and profperous one, Pfal. cxix. 71. If. lvii. 1. And why fhould men quarrel with their bleflings, or caft at their mercies? Good Jofiah was foon taken away, because the Lord would not have him to fee the evil that was com ing on.

3. Many of the children of God may be guilty of fuch breaches of this command in the mifmanagement of their relative duties, that they may, by their own fault, fall fhort of the mercy promised here in the latter, Pfal. xcix. 8. and

fo need not wonder if they reap that correction which themfelves have fowed. And though others, that have managed worse than they, may escape, no wonder either; for God will let that pafs in another, because of an after-reckoning, when he will correct his own children for less, because that is to put an end to the quarrel.

4. Lastly, Whatever they want of this, it fhall be made up by what is better. The afflictions of the body shall be health to their fouls; their croffes fhall not be curfes, but bleffings; and if they be deprived of the refidue of their years here, they shall get them made up in heaven.

SECONDLY, The place where that bleffing is to be enjoyed; in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee; that is, the land of Canaan. So it refpects the Jews. But as it respects Christians, it refers to any place of God's earth; and fo the apostle turns it, Eph. vi. 3. "That thou mayst. live long on the earth.”

LASTLY, That regard which the Lord allows his people to have to that bleffing, to further them in obedience: Honour thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. Though the chief motive to duty should be the honour and command of God, yet God allows us to eye the promised reward, even in temporal things, as a fecondary motive and encouragement to duty.

USE. Let this recommend to us the living in dutifulness to our relatives. This is phyfic of God's appointment for the fick; it is the way to wealth of God's appointment for them that have little; it is the prolonger of life appointed by the Lord of life to thofe that would fee many days, and thefe good. And there is no fure way to these where the appointment of God lies crofs. Religion is the way to make the world happy. God has linked our duty and our interest together, so as there is no feparating of them. Relations are the joints of fociety; fin has disjointed the world, and fo no wonder it be miserable; a relative holiness would set the disjointed world right again.

OF THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT.

EXOD. XX. 13.-Thou shalt not kill.

THE scope of this command is the prefervation of that life which God hath given unto man, which is man's greatest concern. No man is lord of his own or his neighbour's life; it belongs to him alone who gave it, to take it away. It is obfervable, that this and the three following commands are proposed in a word, not because they are of fmall moment, but because there is more light of nature for them than those propofed at greater length.

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This command refpects both our own life and the life of our neighbour. That it refpects our neighbour, there can be no doubt; and as little needs there to be of its respecting our own. The words are general, agreeing to both; and so the sense of them is, Thou shalt not kill thyself, nor any other. He that faid to the jailor, "Do thyfelf no harm,' taught no other thing than what Mofes and the prophets did fay. Man is no more lord of his own life than his neighbour's; and he is in hazard of incroaching upon it, as well as that of another; and it is no where guarded, if not here. Nay, the fum of the fecond table being, "Thou fhalt love thy neighbour as thyfelf," whereby love to our neighbour is made the measure of love to ourselves, it is evident that it respects our own life in the first place.

As every pofitive command implies a negative, fo every negative implies a pofitive. Therefore, in fo far as God fays, Thou shalt not kill, viz. thyfelf or others, he thereby obliges men to preserve their own life and that of others. And seeing all the commands agree together, there can be no keeping of one by breaking of another; therefore the pofitive part of this command is neceffary to be determined to lawful endeavours. Hence the answer to that,

Quest. "What is required in the fixth commandment?" is plain, viz. "The fixth commandment requireth all lawful endeavours to preferve our own life, and the life of others." The duties of this command may be reduced to

two heads. 1. The preferving of our own life. 2. The preferving the life of others. But both these are to be qualified, fo as it be by lawful means and endeavours. For God has given us no fuch law, as for the keeping of one command we may or muft break another. Only there is a great difference betwixt pofitive and negative precepts; the practice of pofitive duties may be in fome cafes intermitted without fin, as a man attacked in time of prayer, or on the Sabbath-day, may lawfully leave the prayer, and external worfhip of the day, to defend his life, Luke xiv. 5. But never may a man do an ill thing, be it great or little, though it were even to preferve his own life or that of others, Rom. iii. 8. Is it a thing of which God has faid, Thou shalt not do fo and fo? it must never be done, though a thousand lives depended upon it.

Hence it is evident, that a perfon may not tell a lie, nor do any finful thing whatever, far lefs blafpheme, deny Christ or any of his truths, commit adultery, or fteal, tho' his own life, or the life of others, may be lying upon it. For where the choice is, Suffer or fin, God requires and calls us in that cafe to fuffer. And therefore the example of fuch things in the faints, as in Ifaac, Rahab, &c. are no more propounded for our imitation, than David's murder, &c. Peter's denial of Chrift, &c. And tho' we read not of reproofs given in fome fuch cafes, that will no more infer God's approbation of them than that of Lot's inceft, for which we read of no reproof given him. The general law against such things does fufficiently condemn them, in whomfoever they are found.

Object. This a hard faying. A man may be in the power of fome ruffian, that will require on pain of death fome sinful thing; and must one fell his life at fuch a cheap rate, as to refufe to deny his religion, drink drunk with him, lie, or do any fuch thing for the time?

Anf. It is no more hard than that, Luke xiv. 26. "If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and fifters, yea, and his own life alfo, he cannot be my difciple." We must love God more than our own or others life, and so must not redeem it by offending God. Sin ruins the foul; therefore fays our Lord, Matth. x. 28. "Fear not them which kill

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