And to this we may add, that magistrates do not behave to their subjects, as they ought, and therefore commit sin, when they inflict punishment beyond what the law directs, or the crime deserves. Thus small offences are not to be punished with death, as capital crimes are, since the punishment must be greater or less, in proportion to the crime. Thus God enjoined a certain number of stripes for some crimes committed, which they were not to exceed; whereby their brother would seem vile unto them, Deut. xxv. 2, 3. that is, they would treat him with a greater severity than the nature of the crime demanded.
4. Superiors sin, when they take advantage on the necessities of the poor; in buying or selling, which is called, a grinding the faces of the poor, Isa. iii. 14, 15.
5. Masters, or parents sin, in giving undue correction to their servants or children, for small faults as when they neglect to perform some punctilio’s, of respect, which are due to them, with greater severity than they do, open sins against God, or when they are transported with unreasonable passion for trifles; whereby they render themselves hated by them, and provoke them to wrath, rather than answer the end of chastisement, which is the glory of God and their good. This the apostle forbids parents to do, Eph. vi. 4. And elsewhere, he speaks of the fathers of our flesh chastizing us after their own pleasure, Heb. xii. 10. as being disagreeable to the divine dispensations, and consequently not to be justified in them that practise it.
6. Superiors sin, when they command those things, of their inferiors, which are in themselves sinful, which they cannot, in their consciences, comply with. And to this we may add, their demanding those things which are impossible, and being enraged against them for not doing them.
7. Superiors sin, when they surmise their inferiors have committed a fault, which they resent, and punish, without suffering them to vindicate themselves, though they request this favour in the most submissive way. This is to extend their authority beyond the bounds of reason. We shall now consider,
III. The duty of equals. And,
1. They ought to encourage and strengthen the hands of one another in the ways of God, which is the great end and design of Christian societies.
2. They ought to sympathize with one another in their weakness, warning and helping each other, when exposed to temptations, or overcome by them.
3. They ought to defend one another when reproached by the enemies of God and religion.
4. To love one another, and rejoice in each others welfare And,