The Catechizing of Families, Chapter 39
CHAP. XXXIX. Of the Sixth Commandement.
Qu. 1. WHat are the Words of the sixth Commandement?
A. Thou shalt do no Murder.
Q. 2. What is Murder?
A. Killing unjustly a reasonable Creature: And that culpably tends to it, bringeth an answera…e degree of guilt.
Q. 3. Why is this command the first that forbiddeth …ivate wrongs?
A. Because a mans Life is more precious than the …cidents of his Life; Death depriveth him of all … time of Repentance and earthly Mercies; and …priveth all others of the benefit which they might …ceive by him. They rob God and the King of Subject: Therefore God who is the giver of Life, a dreadful avenger of the sin of Murder; Cain …as cast out with terrour for this sin: for it was the …evils first Service, who was a Murderer from the …ginning: Therefore God made of old the Law …gainst eating Blood, lest men should be hardened … cruelty, and to teach them his hatred of blood…iltiness. aDeu. 19. 10, 13. 1 King. 2. 31. 2 King. …1. 16. & 22. 4. Prov. 6. 17. Gen. 4. 10, 11. … 9. 4, 5, 6. & 37. 26. & 42. 22. Prov. 28. …7. Hos. 4. 2.And it was the Murder of the Pro…ets and of Christ himself and his Apostles, that …ought that dreadful destruction on the Iews, when …rath came upon them to the uttermost.bMat. 23. 31. & 27. 25. 4. …k. 11. 50. Rev. 16. 6. Act. 22. 20.
Q. 4. If God hate murder, why did he Command … Israelites to kill all the Canaanites, Men, Women …d Children?
A. Justice done by God or his Authority on Ca…tal Malefactors, is not murder. You may as well … why God will damn so many in Hell, which worse than Death. The Curse was fallen on Chams …osterity: They were Nations of Idolaters, and Murderers of their own Children, offering them to Ido… and so drown'd in all wickedness, that God justly ma… the Israelites his Executioners to take away th… forfeited Lands and Lives.cDeu. 27. 15. & 18. 9. & 29. 17. 2 Ki… ▪ 16. 3. Lev. 18. 26, 27. Deu. 18, 12.
Q. 5. When is killing Murder, or unlawful?
A. When it is done without Authority from Go… who is the Lord of Life.
Q. 6. To whom doth God give such authority to … men?
A. To the Supream Rulers of Common-wealt… and their Magistrates to whom they communic… it.dG… ▪ 26. 11. Exo. 19. 12. & 21. 12, 15, 16, 17. D… ▪ 17. 6, 7. & 21. 22. & 24. 16. Ios. 1. 18.
Q. 7. May they kill whom they will?
A. No: None but those whose crimes are so g… as to deserve death by the Law of God in Nat… and the just Laws of the Land: even such wh… crimes make their death the due interest of the … publick, and needful to its good and safety.
Q. 8. What if a Prince think that the death … an Innocent man is accidentally necessary to the s…ty of himself or the Common-wealth, through other … fault: may he not kill him?eI… ▪ 18. 14.
A. No: he is a Murderer if he kill the Innoce… or any whose fault deserveth not death; should … permit killing on such pretences, no mens lives wo… be safe. In Factions there be other wayes of …medy: and such wicked means do but hasten … increase the evil which men would so prevent.f1 Sam. 14. 43, 44, 45.
Q. 9. May not Parents have power to kill bad …ldren?
A. No: I have given you the reason under the … Commandement.
Q. 10. May not a man kill another in the neces…y defence of his own Life?
A. In some cases he may, and in some not: He …y in case it be his equal or inferiour as to pub… usefulness, and he have no other means being …ulted by him to save his Life from him. But … may not, 1. If by flight or other just means he … save his own Life: 2. Nor if it be his King, … Father; or any publick Person, whose death …uld be a greater loss to the Common-wealth than … own.gSo David to Saul.
Q. 11. How prove you that?
A. Because the Light of Nature tells us, that see… Good and Evil are the objects of our Willing … Nilling, therefore the Greatest Good should still … preferred, and the greatest evil be most avoid…: and that the Good or Hurt of the Common…alth is far greater than of a single private per….
Q. 12. But doth not Nature teach every Creature preserve its life, and rather than die to kill ano…?
A. The Nature of man is to be Rational, and …ve bruitish Nature, and to choose by Reason …gh against sensitive inclination. h1 Chr. 11. 19. 1 Ioh. …6. Rev. 12. 11.Why else …t Martyrs choose to dye rather than to sin? and …ldiers choose their own death before their Captains or their Kings; in which God and reason ju… fie them.
Q. 13. But by this Rule an Army should kill th… General, rather than to be killed or betrayed to de… by him: because all their lives are better than one man.
A. If they be but some part of an Army, a… the Generals life be more useful to the rest, and … their King and Countrey and the publick good, th… all theirs, they should rather dye, as the Theb… Legion did: But if the General be a Traytor to … King and Countrey, and would destroy all or p… of the Army to the publick loss and danger, i… no Murder if they kill him when they have no o… way to save their Lives.
Q. 14. How many sorts of Murder are there, … which are the worst?
A. I. One of the worst is Persecution: Kill… men because they are good, or because they … not break Gods Lawes. And lower degrees of P…secution, by Banishment, Imprisonment, Mul… participate of guilt against this Command.iProv. 29. 10. Rev. 6. 10, 12. & 18. & 19. 2. Mat. 23. 35.
II. A second sort of hainous Murder is by … sacres, and unlawful Wars. In which multitudes … murdered, and that studiously and with greatest … dustry, and Countreys ruined and undone. The m… titude of hainous Crimes that are contained in … unlawful Warre, are hardly known but by sad … perience.
III. Another sort of hainous Murder is, when … rents kill their own Children, or Children their … rents.
IV. Another is when Princes destroy their own Subjects whom by Office they are bound to protect, or Subjects their Princes, whom they are bound to obey, and defend, and honour.
V. Another sort of hainous Murder, is when it is committed on pretence of Justice, by Perjured Witnesses, false Accusers, or false Iudges or Magistrates: k1 King. 25. 19.As Naboth was murdered by Iezebel and Ahab, and Christ by the Iews upon false accusations of Blasphemy and Treason. For in this case the Murder is fathered on God and on Iustice which most abhorre it, and the best things which should preserve the peace of the Innocent, are used to the worst ends, even to destroy them: And a man hath no defence for himself, as he may have against Murtherers or open Enemies; and he is destroyed by those that are bound to defend him: And the most devilish wicked Perjured men are made the Masters of mens Lives, and may conquer Subjects by perverting Law.
VI. One of the most hainous crimes is soul-murder: which is done by all that draw or drive men into sin, or from their duty to God and the care of their Salvation: either by seducing false Opinions, opposing necessary Truth and Duty, or by scorns, or threats. But none here sin so grievously as wicked Rulers, and wicked Teachers and Pastors of the Churches: Others kill Souls by one and one, but these by hundreds and thousands: And therefore it is the Devils main endeavour through the World, to get Rulers and Teachers on his side, and turn the Word and Sword against him that did ordain them. All the Idolatrous World that know not Christ, are kept under the Power of the Devil, principally by wicked Rulers and Teachers: And so is the Infidel and Mahometan World. When the Turks had once conquered the Eastern Empire, how quickly did those famous Churches and large Nations forsake Christ, and turn to the grossest of Deceivers! O how many millions of Souls have been since hereby destroyed! And what wicked deceitful, and contentious Teachers have done to the murdering of Souls, alas! the whole Christian World is witness. Some by Heresie, and some by Proud Tyranny, and some by malignant opposition to the serious practice of that holy Law of God which they preach; and some by Ignorance, and some by slothful treacherous negligence, and some by Church-divisions, by their Snares, or contentiousness. Such as Paul speaks of, Phil. 1. 15, 16. & 2. 3. And some in envy malign and hinder the preaching of the Gospel, by such as they distast, 1 Thes. 2. 16.
VII. But of all Soul Murder, it is one of the greatest which is done by wicked Parents on their own Children, who breed them up in Ignorance, Wickedness, and profane neglect, if not hatred and scorn of serious Holiness. lDeu. 12. 31. Psal. 106. 37, 38.And teach them malignant principles, or hinder them from the necessary means of their Salvation: That by Example teach them to Swear and lie, and be drunken or profane: For Parents to be the cruel damners of their own Children, and this when in false hypocrisie they Vowed them in baptism to God, and promised their godly education, is odious cruelty and perfidiousness.
VIII. And it is yet a more hainous Sin to be a Murderer of ones own Soul; as every ungodly and impenitent sinner is: For Nature teacheth all men to Love themselves, and to be unwilling of their own destruction. And no wonder that such are unmerciful to the Souls of Wives, Children and Servants, who will damn themselves; and that for nothing; and that, after all the importunities of God and man to hinder them.mProv. 13. 13. & 29. 1. & 6. 32. & 21. 15.
Q. 15. When may a man be accounted a Soul-selfmurderer? seeing every man hath some sin?
A. Every sin, (as every sickness to the body) is an enemy to life, though it destroy it not: And as wounding a man (yea or injurious hurting him or desiring his hurt,) is some breach of this Command, as Christ tells us Math. 5. so every sin is as hurtful to the Soul: But those are the mortal murdering sins, which are inconsistent with the Predominant habitual Love of God and Holiness; and are not only from the Imperfection of this Divine Nature and Image, but from the absence of it: such as are the sins of the unbelievers and impenitent.
Q. 16. But he shall not be hang'd for killing another that doth it against his Will: And no man is willing to damn himself?
A. But a man will himself be a dead man if he kill himself unwillingly: And all wicked men do willingly murder their own Souls: They be not willing to burn in Hell: but they are willingly ungodly, Worldly, Sensual; And unholiness is the death or misery of the Soul; and the departing of the Heart or Love from God, and choosing the world and fleshly pleasure before his Grace and Glory, is the true Soul-murdering: nRom. 2. 5, 6, 8. 1 Cor. 6. 9, 10. Eph. 5. …, 6, 7.When God maketh Poyson destructive to mans Nature, and forbids us taking it, and tells a man that it will kill him, if this man will yet take the Poyson because it is sweet, or will not believe that it is deadly, it is not his being unwilling to die that will save him. When God hath told men, that unholiness and a fleshly Mind is death, he destroyeth his Soul that yet will choose it.oHeb. 12. 16. Mar. 8 36. Heb. 12. 14.
And it is a hainous aggravation that Poor sinners have so little for the Salvation which they sell. The Devil can give them nothing that is to be put into the ballance against the least hope or possibility of the Life to come: And for a man to sell his own Soul, and all his hopes of Heaven for a base lust, or a transitory shadow, as profane Esau sold his birthright for a Morsel, is Self-murder of a most odious kind.
Q. 17. But you make also our Friends that Love us to be murderers of us, if they draw us to sin, or neglect their duty?
A. As the Love of his own flesh doth not hinder but further the Drunkards, Fornicators and idle persons murder of his own Soul; so your Friends carnal love to you, may be so far from hindering that it may further your destruction. They that draw each other to Fornication, to Gaming, to timewasting Playes, to Gluttony and Drunkenness, may do it in Love. If they give you poyson in Love, it will kill you.pGal. 4. 17, 18.
And if Parents that are bound to feed their Children, do famisn them, do you think they do not murder them by omission? So may they, and so may Ministers murder the Souls that they are by Nature or Office entrusted to instruct and diligently govern.
Q. 18. Are there any other wayes of Murther?
A. So many that it is hard to number them. As by rash Anger, Hatred, Malice, by Drunkenness disposing to it: By Magistrates not punishing murderers; By not defending the Lives of others when we ought: and abundance more which you may read in Bishop Downames Tables on the Commandements.
Q. 19. Must I defend my Parents or Children against the Magistrate or any one that would kill them by his Commission.?
A. Not against Justice no doubt, what you must do against Subjects who pretend an illegal Commission to rob or kill your self, Parents or Children, or destroy Cities, and Countreys, is partly toucht on under the fifth Commandement, and partly matter unmeet for a Catechisme, or private unlearned mens unnecessary discourse.
Q. 20. Are there more waies of self murder?
A. Among others excess of Meat and Idleness destroy mens health and murder millions.