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The SIXTH Commandment

"You shall not kill." Exodus 20:13

In this commandment is a sin forbidden, which is murder, "You shall not kill," and a duty implied, which is, to preserve our own life, and the life of others.

The sin forbidden, is murder. "You shall not kill." Here two things are to be understood, the not injuring another, nor ourselves.

I. The not injuring another.

[1] We must not injure another in his NAME. "A good name is a precious balsam." It is a great cruelty to murder a man in his name. We injure others in their name, when we calumniate and slander them. David complains, "They laid to my charge things that I knew not." Psalm 35:11. The primitive Christians were traduced for incest, and killing their children, as Tertullian says, "They charge us with infanticide and label us incestuous." This is to behead others in their good name; it is an irreparable injury. No physician can heal the wounds of the tongue!

[2] We must not injure another in his BODY. Life is the most precious thing; and God has set this commandment as a fence about it, to preserve it. He made a statute which has never to this day been repealed. "Whose sheds man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed." Gen 9:6. In the old law, if a man killed another unwillingly, he might take sanctuary; but if he killed him willingly, though he fled to the sanctuary, the holiness of the place would not defend him. "If someone deliberately attacks and kills another person, then the slayer must be dragged even from my altar and put to death." Exodus 21:14. In the commandment, "You shall do no murder," all sins are forbidden which lead to it, and are the occasions of it. As,

(1) Anger. Anger boils in the veins, and often produces murder. "In their anger they slew a man." Gen 49:6.

(2) Envy. Satan envied our first parents the robe of innocence, and the glory of paradise, and could not rest until he had procured their death. Joseph's brethren, because his father loved him, and gave him a "coat of many colours," envied him, and took counsel to slay him. Gen 37:20. Envy and murder are near akin, therefore the apostle puts them together. "Envying, murders." Gal 5:21. Envy is a sin which breaks both tables at once; it begins in discontent against God, and ends in injury against man, as we see in Cain. Gen 4:6, 8. Envious Cain was first discontented with God, by which he broke the first table; and then fell out with his brother and slew him, and thus broke the second table. Anger is sometimes "soon over," like fire kindled in straw, which is quickly out; but envy is deep rooted, and will not quench its thirst without blood. "Who is able to stand before envy?" Prov 27:4.

(3) Hatred. The Pharisees hated Christ because he excelled them in gifts, and had more honour among the people than they. They never left him until they had nailed him to the cross, and taken away his life. Hatred is a vermin which lives upon blood. "Because you have had a perpetual hatred, and have shed the blood of the children of Israel." Ezek 35:5. Haman hated Mordecai because he would not bow to him, and presently sought revenge, by getting a bloody warrant sealed for the destruction of the whole race and seed of the Jews. Esth 3:9. Hatred is ever cruel. All these sins are forbidden in this commandment.

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