1. It is certain, though the command be indefinitely expressed, it doth not prohibit all killing, but only that which is condemned in other explicatory commands. Our Lord Jesus, repeating this command, explains it by expressing it thus, Matth. xix. 18.—"Thou shalt not murder." And if any be lawful, it is granted by all, that is, which is unavoidable by the invincible necessity of providence, when a man following his duty doth that which beside and contrary his intention, and without any previous neglect or oversight in him, proveth the hurt and death of another, in which case he was allowed to flee to the city of refuge by the law of God. Whence if that physical necessity did justify that kind of killing, shall not a moral necessity every way inivincibly unavoidable (except we suffer ourselves and our brethren to be destroyed by beasts of prey) vindicate this kind, in an extraordinary extremity, when the murderers are protected under the sconce of pretended authority? In which case the law of God would allow deliberate murderers should be pursued by the avenger of blood, and not to have liberty to flee to these subterfuges and pretexts of authority, (mere tyranny,) but to be taken from the horns of such altars, and be put to death, as Mr. Mitchel says in vindicating his own action, in a letter dated Feb. 1674.
2. It is lawful to take the life of known and convicted murderers by public justice; yea, it is indispensibly necessary by the law of God, and no mercy nor pardon of the magistrate may interpose to spare them; for, 'Whoso killeth any person, the murderer shall be put to death by the mouth of witnesses. '—Ye shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer:—but he shall surely be put to death,' he was not to be admitted to the benefit of any refuge: and the reason is, 'Blood defiles the land, and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it,' Numb. xxxv. 30, 31, 32, 33. Hence, if it be so necessary to cleanse the land, then when the magistrate is not only negligent in his duty, but turns a patron and protector of such murderers, and employs them as his emissaries to murder and destroy, it cannot be expected he should cleanse the land, for then he should free it of the burden of himself, and begin with himself: therefore then, there must be more incumbent upon private persons, touched with the zeal of God, than at another time. And as Mr. Knox, in his conference with queen Mary, says, 'They that in the fear of God execute judgment, where God hath commanded, offend not God, though kings do it not;' and adduces the examples of Samuel killing Agag, Elias killing the prophets of Baal, and of Phineas killing Zimri and Cozbi.
3. It is lawful for private persons to kill their unjust assaulters, in defending themselves against their violence, and that both in the immediate defence of our life against an immediate assault, in the instant of the assault, and also in a remote defence of ourselves, when that is as necessary as the first; and there is no other way of escaping the destruction intended by murderers, either by flight or resistance; then it is lawful to preserve ourselves by taking advantages to cut them off.
4. It is lawful in a just war to kill the enemy; yea in the defensive war of private subjects, or a part of the commonwealth, against their oppressing tyrants, as is proven, head 5. Where several of the arguments used to evince that truth will confirm this; as namely, those arguments taken from the people's power in reformation, and those taken from the hazard of partaking of others sin and judgment: for, if all the magistrates, supreme and subordinate, turn principal patrons and patterns of all abominations, and persecutors and destroyers of the people for not complying with them, then the people are not only under an obligation to resist them; but seeing otherwise they would be liable to their sin, in suffering them thus to trample on religion, and the interests of God as well as their own, in order to turn away the wrath of God, it is incumbent upon them to vindicate religion, and reform the land from these corruptions, in an endeavour to bring those malignant enemies of God, and destroyers of the people, to condign punishment, "that the heads of the people be hanged up before the Lord against the sun, the fierce anger of the Lord may be turned away from the land," Numb. xxv. 4. In this case, as Buchanan says of a tyrant, De jure regni, 'A lawful war being once undertaken with such an enemy as a tyrant is, every one out of the whole multitude of mankind may assault, with all the calamities of war, a tyrant, who is a public enemy, with whom all good men have a perpetual warfare.' And though the war be not always actually prosecute in a hostile manner, yet, as long as peace is not concluded and the war ceased, they that have the just side of the quarrel may take advantages, in removing and taking off, (not every single soldier of the contrary side, for that would contribute nothing to their prevailing in the end) but the principal instruments and promoters of the war, by whose fall the offending side would suffer great loss, and the defending would be great gainers. So Jael killing Sisera, Jabin's captain-general, is greatly commended. Now this was the case of the sufferers upon this head, as Mr. Mitchel, one of them represents it in his forecited letter, 'I being (says he) a soldier, not having laid down my arms, but still upon my own defence, having no other end or quarrel at any man—besides the prosecution of the ends of the covenant, particularly the overthrow of prelates and prelacy; and I being a declared enemy to him (that is Sharp) on that account, and he to me in like manner, I never found myself obliged—to set a centinel at his door for his safety; but as he was always to take his advantage, as it appeareth, so I of him to take any opportunity offered: moreover, we being in no terms of capitulation, but on the contrary, I, by his instigation, being excluded from all grace and favour, thought it my duty to pursue him at all occasions.'
5. It is lawful to kill enemies in the rescue of our brethren, when they are keeping them in bondage, and reserving them for a sacrifice to the fury of tyrants, or leading them forth to the slaughter, or in the time of acting their murdering violence upon them: then, to break prisons, beat up garrisons, surprise the murderers, and kill them in the rescue of our innocent brethren, is very lawful, according to that command, Prov. xxiv. 11, 12. and the practice of Moses, who seeing one of his brethren suffering wrong, he defended him, and avenged him that was oppressed, and slew the Egyptian, Acts vii. 24. For that is a certain truth, which Grotius faith in locum, 'the law of nature gives a right to an innocent, and to the defender of an innocent person, against the guilty offender.' Hence, It cannot but be lawful also, in a case of necessity, when both ourselves and our brethren are pursued incessantly by destroying murderers, to avenge ourselves on them, and slay them, when there is no other way to be rid of their violence.
6. It is lawful to prevent the murder of ourselves or our brethren, when no other way is left, by killing the murderers before they accomplish their wicked design, if they be habitually prosecuting it, and have many times accomplished it before. This followeth upon the other; and upon this account it had been duty for Gedaliah to have suffered Johanan to slay Ishmael, and so prevent the governor's murder, if it had been certainly known that Ishmael was sent by the king of Ammon to assassinate him, Jer. xl. 14, 15. for nothing is there objected against the lawfulness of the thing, but only it was alledged that he spoke falsely. Alftedius asserts this, Caf. de homicid. reg. 6. p. 331. It is lawful to prevent him that would assault us, and by preventing to kill him before his invasion, if it be so necessary, to prevent him, that our life cannot be otherwise defended but by preventing. And hence he justifies that saying, 'It is lawful to kill him that lieth in wait to murder,' ibid. This is all the length that the reproached sufferers, whom I am vindicating, go, in asserting this principle, as may be seen in their Informatory Vindication, Head 3. pag. 544. where they say, 'We maintain it as both righteous and rational, in defence of our lives, liberties, and religion, after an orderly and Christian manner, to endeavour, by all means lawful and possible, to defend ourselves, rescue our brethren, and prevent their murder, in a martial opposition against wicked persecutors, who are seeking to destroy them and us, and imbrue their hands in our blood, according to the true import of the Apologetical Declaration.' Which is very rational; especially considering.
7. These murderers, who are thus to be prevented, are such whom the law of God commands to be put to death, and no where allows to be spared, being public enemies to God and good men, open blasphemers, avowed idolaters, affronted adulterers, notorious murderers, habitual tyrants, suppressing religion, oppressing the innocent, and professing a trade of destroying the Lord's people. Surely, if God hath expressly in his laws provided, that blasphemers, idolaters, murderers, &c. should not be suffered to live, he never intended men daily guilty, yea, making profession of these crimes, should be allowed impunity, either by virtue of their office, or because there is none in office to execute judgment upon them; but in a case of extreme necessity, these laws will not only allow, but oblige people, daily murdered by them, for their own preservation, for vindication of religion, for purging the land of such wickedness, for turning away the wrath of God, to prevent their prosecuting their murdering designs any further, and put a stop to their persecution, by putting an end to their wicked lives: seeing, as Buchanan says, De Jure Regni, it is expresly commanded, 'to cut off wickedness and wicked men, without any exception of rank or degree; and yet in no place of sacred scripture are tyrants more spared than private persons.' Much less their bloody emissaries.
Now, seeing all these cases of killing I have collected, are justifiable in scripture, and none of the sufferers upon this head, whom I am vindicating, have exceeded in principle or practice the amount of these assertions, what is said already may have some weight to demur a censorious condemnation of them. But as the true nonconformist well observes, in answer to Dial. 7. p. 391. Seeing the consideration resulting from the concurrence of all circumstances, whereupon the right dignoscing of such deeds, when actually existent, doth mostly depend, doth more contribute to the clearing and passing a judgment on a case of this nature, when the whole contexture is exposed to certain examination, than to set down general rules directive of such practices (which yet will all justify this in question) therefore to clear the case further, all may be resolved into this state of the question.
'Whether or not private persons, incessantly pursued unto death, and threatened with ineluctable destruction by tyrants and their emissaries, may, to save themselves from their violence, in case of extreme necessity, put forth their hand to execute judgment upon the chief and principal ringleaders, instruments and promoters of all these destructive mischiefs and miseries, who are open and avowed enemies to God, apostates, blasphemers, idolaters, tyrants, traitors, notorious incendiaries, atrocious murderers, and known and convict to be public enemies, prosecuting their murdering designs notourly and habitually, and therefore guilty of death by all laws of God and man; and in such an extraordinary case, put them to death, who have by law forfeited their lives to justice, when there is no access to public justice, no prospect of obtaining it in an orderly way, nor any probability of escaping their intended destruction, either by flight or resistance, if they be past longer unpunished; and so deliver themselves from their murdering tyranny, while they are under no acknowledged subjection to them, nor at peace with them, but maintaining a defensive resistance against them; and in this extraordinary execution of justice, being not chargeable with ignorance of matters of fact so manifest, nor mistakes of circumstances so palpable, nor with malice, rage or revenge against their persons for private and particular injuries, nor with enthusiastic impulses pretended as their rule, nor with deceit or treachery in the manner, nor with any breach of relation or obligation, nor usurpation upon or prejudice to any lawful right whatsoever in the matter, nor with any selfish or sinistrous ends in the design; but forced to perform this work of judgment, when there is none other to do it, out of zeal for the glory of God, care of the country's good, love to their brethren, sense of their own danger, and respect to justice; to the end, that by the removal of these wicked destroyers, their war against the prevailing faction of their malignant enemies may be more successfully maintained, their religion, lives, laws, and liberties more securely defended, their brethren rescued, their murder prevented, impiety suppressed, the land cleansed from blood, and the wrath of God averted.' That this is the true state of the question, the preceeding assertions, all comprehended here, do make it evident. To which I answer in the affirmative, and shall come to give my reasons.
Secondly, Then I shall offer some reasons for this, first for some grounds and hypotheses of reason: then more expresly from scripture-proofs.