The text fays,-Thou fhalt take him from my altar that he may die.-It had been a very ancient imagination, that for men guilty of this and other horrid crimes,—a place held facred, as dedicated to God, was a refuge and protection to them from the hands of justice.The law of God cuts the tranfgreffor off from all delufive hopes of this kind;-and I think the Romish church has very little to boast of in the fanctuaries which she leaves open, for this and other crimes and irregularities.- Sanctuaries which are often the first temptations to wickednefs, and therefore bring the greater fcandal and dishonour to her that authorizes their pretenfions.—

Every obftruction of the courfe of justice,is a door opened to betray fociety, and bereave us of those bleffings which it has in view.-To ftand up for the privileges of fuch places, is to invite men to fin with a bribe of impunity.— It is a strange way of doing honour to God, to fcreen actions, which are a disgrace to humanity.

What Scripture and all civilized nations teach concerning the crime of taking away another man's life,—is applicable to the wicked

nefs of a man's attempting to bereave himself of his own -He has no more right over it,— than over that of others :—and whatever false gloffes have been put upon it by men of bad heads or bad hearts,-it is at the bottom a complication of cowardice, and wickedness, and weaknefs;-is one of the fatalest mistakes, desperation can hurry a man into ;-inconfiftent with all the reasoning and religion of the world, and irreconcileable with that patience under afflictions,-that refignation and fubmiffion to the will of God in all ftraits, which is required of us.-But if our calamities are brought upon ourselves by a man's own wickedness, still has he lefs to urge,-least reafon has he to renounce the protection of God— when he ftands moft in need of it, and of his mercy.

But as I intend the subject of self-murder for my discourse next Sunday,-I shall not anticipate what I have to say,—but proceed to confider fome other cafes, in which the law relating to the life of our neighbour is tranfgreffed in different degrees.-All which are generally spoken of under the subject of mur

S

der, and confidered by the best casuists as a fpecies of the fame,-and in juftice to the fubject cannot be paffed here.

St. John fays, Whofoever hateth his brother is a murderer;-it is the first step to this fin; and our Saviour, in his fermon upon the mount, has explained in how many flighter and unfufpected ways and degrees,--the command in the law,-Thou fhalt do no murder, may be oppofed, if not broken.-All real mifchiefs and injuries maliciously brought upon a man, to the forrow and disturbance of his mind,-eating out the comfort of his life, and fhortening his days,—are this fin in disguise; --and the grounds of the Scripture expreffing it with fuch severity, is,-that the beginnings of wrath and malice,-in event, often extend to fuch great and unforeseen effects, as, werę we foretold them,-we should give fo little credit to, as to fay,-Is thy fervant a dog, that he should do this thing?—And tho' these beginnings do not neceffarily produce the worft. (God forbid they fhould,) yet they cannot be committed without thefe evil feeds are first fown: As Cain's causeless anger (as Dr, Clark obferves) against his brother,—to which

the apostle alludes-ended in taking away his life;—and the best inftructors teach us, that to avoid a fin,—we must avoid the steps and temptations which lead to it.

This fhould warn us to free our minds from all tincture of avarice, and defire after what is another man's.—It operates the fame way, -and has terminated too oft in the fame crime. -And it is the great excellency of the christian religion,—that it has an eye to this, in the stress laid upon the first springs of evils in the heart;-rendering us accountable not only for our words, but the thoughts themselves,if not checked in time, but fuffered to proceed further than the first motions of concupifcence.

Ye have heard, therefore, fays our Saviour, that it was faid by them of old time,-Thou shalt not kill ;—but Į fay unto you,—whofoever is angry with his brother without a cause, fhall be in danger of the judgment;—and whofoever fhall fay to his brother, Raca,-shall be in danger of the council;-but whofoever fhall fay, "thou fool,”—shall be in danger of hellfire. The interpretation of which I fhall give you in the words of a great fcripturist, Dr. Clark,-and is as follows:-That the three

gradations of crimes are an allufion to the three different degrees of punishment, in the three courts of judicature amongst the Jews.—And our Saviour's meaning was,-That every degree of fin, from its first conception to its outrage, every degree of malice and hatred, fhall receive from God a punishment proportionable to the offence.-Whereas the old law, according to the Jewish interpretation, extended not to these things at all,-forbade only murder and outward injuries.- Whofoever fhall fay, "thou fool," fhall be in danger of hell-fire. The fenfe of which is not that, in the ftrict and literal acceptation, every rafh and paffionate expreffion fhall be punished with eternal damnation ;-(for who then would be faved?)-but that at the exact account in the judgment of the great day, every fecret thought and intent of the heart shall have its just estimation and weight in the degrees of punishment, which fhall be affigned to every one in his final ftate.

There is another fpecies of this crime which is feldom taken notice of in difcourfes upon the fubject, and yet can be reduced to no other clafs :--And that is, where the life of our neighbour is fhortened,—and often taken a