Use \st. Lamentation, That this land is so defiled with blood, Numb. xxxv. 33. How common is this sin in this Hectoring age ! England's sins are written in letters of blood. Some make no more of killing men than sheep, Jer. ii. 34., " In thy skirts is found the blood of the souls of the poor innocents," Junius reads it, in alis; and so in Hebrew, ' in thy wings' is found the blood of innocents. It alludes to the birds of prey, which stain their wings with the blood of other birds. May not the Lord justly take up a controversy with the inha- bitants of the land, because " blood touch- etli blood ?" Hos. iv. 2. There is a conca- tenation,— a plurality of murders. And that which may increase our lamentation is, that not only man's blood is shed among us, but Christ's blood. Such as are ])rofane flagitious sinners are said to " crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh," Heb. vi. 6. (1.) They swear by his blood, and so do, as it were, make his wounds bleed a- fresh. (2.) Crucify Christ in his members. Acts ix. 4., " Why persecutest thou me ?'* The foot being trodden on, the head crieth out. (3.) If it lay in their power, were Christ alive on earth they would nail hira again to the cross ; thus men crucify Christ afresh ; and, if man's blood doth so cry, how loud will Christ's blood cry against sinners ?
Use 2d. Beware of having your hands imbrued in the blood of others.
OiJj. But such on one hath wronged me by defamation, or otherwise; and if I spill his Uood, I do hut revenge my own quarrel.
Ans. If he hath done you wrong, the law is open ; but take heed of shedding blood. Wliat ! because he hath wronged you, will you therefore wrong God ? Is it not a wrong to (iod, t() take his work out of his hand? He hath said " Vengeance is mine, and I will repay," Rcun. xii. 19. But you will tjike u|)(»n you to revenge yourself; you will he botii plaintiff, and judge, and execution- er, yourself. This is an high wrong done
310
OF THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT.
to God, and he will not hold him guiltless. Now, to deter all from having their hands defiled with blood, consider what a sin mur- der is.
1. A God-afFronting sin : it is a breach of his commandment, trampling upon God's royal edict. It is a wrong offered to God's image, Gen. ix. 6., " In the image of God made he man." It is tearing God's picture, and breaking in pieces tlie king of heaven's broad seal. Man is the temple of God, 1 Cor. vi. 19., " Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost?" So that the man-slayer destroys God's tem- ple; and wi.l God endure to be thus con- fronted by proud dust?
2. It is a crvinjr sin. Clamitat in ccelum vox sanguinis. There are three sins in scrip- ture said to cry. (1.) Oppression, Ps. xii. 5. (2.) Sodomy, Gen. xviii. 24. (3.) Blood-shed. This cries so loud, that it drowns all the other cries, Gen. iv. 10., " The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground." Abel's blood had as many tongues as drops, to cry aloud for vengeance. This sin of blood lay heavy on David's conscience ; though he had sin- ned bv adultery, yet what he cried out of most, was, this crimson sin of blood, Ps. li. 14., " Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God !" Though the Lord visits for every sin, yet he will in a special manner make " inquisition for blood," Ps. ix. 12. If a beast did kill a man, the beast was to be stoned, " and his flesh shall not be eaten," Exod. xxi. 28. If God would have a beast stoned that killed a man, who had n»)t the use of reason to restrain him, then much more will Ik; be incensed against those who go both against reason and conscience in spoiling the life of a man.
3. Murder is a diabolical sin. It makes a man the devil's first born ; he was a mur- derer from the beginning, John viii. 44. By saying to our first parents, " Ye shall not die," he brought in death to the world.
4. It is a cursed sin. If there be a curse for him that smites his neighbour secretly, Deut. xxvii. 24., then he is doubly cursed
that kills him. The first man that was born was a murderer, Gen. iv. 11., " And now art thou cursed from the earth." He was an excommunicated person, — banished from the place of God's public worship. God set a mark upon bloody Cain, Gen. iv. 15. Some think it was horror of mind, which (above all sins) doth accompany the sin of blood. Others think this mark was a continual shaking and trembling in his flesh, which was a mark of infamy God set upon him. He carried a curse along with him.