Q. Is it not a great dishonour done to parents for children to difpofe of themselves in marriage without their confent?

A. Yes, Exod. xxii. 17. Numb. xxx. 5. Deut. vii. 3. Jer. xxix. 6. 1 Cor. vii. 38. Col. iii. 20.

Q. What if children fet light by their parents, or expofe their weaknesses?

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A. They draw down the curfe of God upon themselves, Deut. xxvii. 16. Curfed be he that fetteth light by his fa⚫ther or his mother: and all the people shall say, Amen.

Q. Do you read of any upon whom this curfe came for fo doing? A. Yes, of Ham the fon of Noah, Gen. ix. 22, 25, 26. Q. What shall become of thefe who curfe their parents? A. Whofo curfeth his father or his mother, his lamp fhall put out in obscure darkness, Prov. xx. 20. Nay, death is threatned to them, Exod. xxi. 17.

be

Q. What is threatned against thefe who not only difobey, but mock their parents?

A. 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, Prov. xxx, 17.

Q. What is due to these children who beat their parents? A. He that fmiteth his father or his mother, fhall be furely put to death, Exod. xxi. 15.

Q. What if the magiftrate neglect to punifh fuch disobedient children? A. God will take the punishing of fuch into his own hand.

Q. Do you read of any inftances of his fo doing?

A. Yes, I read of Eli's fons, 1 Sam. ii. 25. They hearkened not to the voice of their father, because the Lord would flay them. And of David's rebellious fon Abfalom, that was ta ken up by an oak between the heaven and the earth, to hang as a monument of God's justice for breaking the fifth command; 2 Sam. xviii. 9.

Q. What became of the little children of Bethel who mocked Elifba as he paffed by, faying, Go up, thou bald head, &c. A. God fent forth two the-bears out of the wood, that tare forty and two children of them, 2 Kings ii. 24.

Q. Are not thefe children guilty of dishonouring their parents, who defpife them when they are poor or old, or fuffer them A. Yes.

to be in want?

Q. Is it not monftruous ingratitude in children to requite their parents fo badly for their love and tenderness towards them? A. Yes.

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Q. What may fuch expect for it?

A. To meet with the fame ufage from their own children in this world, and with dreadful punishment in the other, if they repent not.

QUESTION LXVI.

Q. What is the Reafon annexed to the Fifth Commandment?

A. The Reafon annexed to the Fifth Commandment is a Promise of long Life and Prosperity (as far as it fhall ferve for God's Glory and their own Good) to all fuch as keep this Commandment.

Q. Since the light of nature doth fo clearly teach us to bonour our parents, why is there fuch a promife annexed to it? A. To fhew how greatly concerned God is to fupport the authority of parents.

Q. How is the fifth command called the first with promise, Eph. vi. 2. feeing the second hath a promise in it of God's fhewing mercy to thousands?

A. The promife in the fecond doth likewife extend to the keeping of all the other commands, but the promife in the fifth is made to the keeping of it only.

Q. What doth God here promife to thefe who keep the fifth A. Long life.

command?

Q. What is included in the promife of long life here?

A. It includes a promife of profperity, with the bleffings and comforts of life: for, without this, long life would not be a reward; death being more eligible than long life in mifery, Eph. vi. 3. Rev. ix. 6.

Q. What courfe then should children take to live long and happy lives?

A. They fhould honour and obey their parents.

Q. Is this promife of long life and profperity to obedient children, to be underflood abfolutely, or with limitation?

A. It is to be underflood, as other temporal promifes, with this limitation, fo far as the bestowing of it fhall ferve for God's glory and their own good.

Q. What if God fometimes take away obedient children in their youth?

A. We are then to think that God did not fee long living here to be for their good, but thought fit in place of it to give them a long life in heaven, which is far better, Phil. i. 23. Q. May not then disobedient children look for short and miferable lives here? A. Yes.

QUESTION LXVII.

Q. Which is the Sixth Commandment? A. The Sixth Commandment is, Thou shalt not Kill.

QUESTION LXVIII.

Q. What is required in the Sixth Commandment? A. The Sixth Commandment requireth all lawful Endeavours to preserve our own Life, and the Life of others.

Q. Is there not a comely order among the commands of the fecond table?

A. Yes: for the fifth command, or first of the fecond table, prescribes in general, what refpect men fhould fhew to one another in their feveral stations and relations. In the next place, we have particular directions with refpect to these things which are most valuable to men; the firft is with refpect to our lives, in the fixth command; The next relates to our chastity, in the feventh command; The third is concerning our eftates, in the eighth command; The fourth is with refpect to our good name, in the ninth command; The laft is concerning the inward frame of our hearts in reference to our own eftate and the estate of others, in the tenth com-mand.

Q. Whofe life is it that we are bound to preferve by the fixth commandment?

A. Both our own life, and the life of others; and this is to be understood, not only of the life of the body, but also of the foul.

Q. Doth this command require us to fludy and endeavour by any means whatfoever to preferve our own life and other men's? A. No; we are only to use all lawful means and endea-vours for that end;

Q. May we use no unlawful endeavour, nor venture upon

any fin, to preserve our own life, or the life others?

A. No.

Q. Did not Ifaac tell a lie, in calling his wife his fifter, to fave his life, Gen. xxvi. 7. And did not Peter deny Chrift, to preferve his life?

A. Ifaac's lie and Peter's denial were fins against God,. and are recorded, not for imitation, but for caution; for we must not do evil that good may come, Rom. iii. 8. Nay, to go about to fave our lives by fuch finful means, is the way to lofe our lives and our fouls for ever, Matth. xvi. 25, 26. and x. 33.

Q. What are the lawful endeavours which we should use to preferve the life of our bodies?

A. Juft felf-defence against violence; the temperate use of meat, drink, clothes; bodily exercife, and phyfic when needful. Likewife we should study a cheerful, peaceable and contented temper of mind, without harbouring anger, envy, grief, or fuch paffions as prejudge the health, Luke xxii. 36. Eph. v. 29. Prov. xxv. 16, 27. 1 Tim. v. 23. Ifa. xxxviii. 21. Prov. xvii. 22. Col. iii. 12, 13.

Q. What are the endeavours we should use for preferving the bodily life of others?

A. A pleading for, and labouring to rescue, the innocent in danger of death; hiding the perfecuted, or warning them of danger; relieving thofe that are in wants; bearing injuries without revenging them, and the like, Prov. xxxi. 8, 9. 1 Sam. xiv. 45. and xix. 4, 5. 1 Kings xviii. 4. Acts xxiii. 16. Rom. xii. 17. 20. Job xxxi. 19 Matth. xxv. 35.

Q. What endeavours fhould we ufe for preferving the life of sur fouls?

A. Attending upon the outward means of falvation, believing, repenting, mortifying fin, and studying holiness, Prov... viii. 34, 35, 36. Mark xvi. 16. Ezek. xviii. 31, 32. Rom. viii. 13. Heb. xii. 14.

Q. What endeavours must we use for preserving the fouls of others?

A. We must ufe all the means which God hath appointed for reclaiming men from evil, and promoting their conversion; fuch as warning, reproof, inftruction, prayer, holy exampl and recommending Chrift to them, James v. 20. 1 Cor. vii. 16. 1 Pet. iii. 1. I Theff. v. 14, Lev. xix. 17. Aas xx. 26, 27. and xvi. 31.

QUESTION LXIX.

Q. What is forbidden in the Sixth Commandment? A. The Sixth Commandment forbiddeth the taking away of our own Life, or the Life of our Neighbour unjustly, and whatsoever tendeth thereunto.

Q. Whofe life is it that this command forbids to take away? A. Our own life, or the life of our neighbour.

Q. Doth it forbid the taking away of our neighbour's life in any cafe?

A. No, but the taking it away unjustly.

Q. When is it that our neighbour's life may be justly taken away?

A. 1. In cafe of public juftice by a magistrate. 2. In cafe of a lawful war. 3. In cafe of neceffary felf-defence.

Q. Is killing in any other cafe to be look'd upon as murder? A. Yes, except when it is done by pure accident without knowledge or design of harm, in which cafe there were of old cities of refuge for the flayer to flee to, Deut. xix. 5, 6.

Q. How doth it appear that the magiftrate hath power to take away men's lives, notwithstanding of the fixth command? A. Becaufe God hath appointed feveral crimes, particularly murder, to be punished with death, Gen. ix. 6. Who"fo fheddeth man's blood, by man fhall his blood be shed.' Exod. xxi. 12. He that fmiteth a man fo that he die, shall be furely put to death.' And this is confirmed in the New Teftament, Matth. xxvi. 52. Rev. xiii 10.

Q. May the magiftrate fpare or pardon a murderer?

A. No; for God hath forbidden it, Numb. xxxv. 31, 33. Ye fhall take no fatisfaction for the life of a murderer, which is guilty of death; but he shall be furely put to death. For blood it defileth the land, and the land cannot be cleanfed • of the blood that is fhed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it.'

Q. How doth it appear to be lawful to kill in a juft war?

A. Because it is done by the authority of the fupreme magiftrate, who even under the New Teftament is warranted to bear the fword against evil-doers, Rom. xiii. 4. And we are frequently affured, that true piety is very well confistent with the office of a foldier, Luke iii. 14. Matth. viii. 9, 10. A&ts