_Quest._ VII. May I kill or wound another in the defence or vindication of my honour, or good name? _Answ._ No: not by private assault or violence; but if the crime be so great, that the law of the land doth punish it with death, if that law be just, you may in some cases seek to bring the offender to public justice; but that is rare, and otherwise you may not do it. For, 1. It belongeth only to the magistrate, and not to you, to be the avenger. 2. And killing a man can be no meet defence against calumny or slander; for if you will kill a man for prevention, you kill the innocent; if you kill him afterwards, it is no defence, but an unprofitable revenge, which vindicateth not your honour, but dishonoureth you more. Your patience is your honour, and your bloody revenge doth show you to be so like the devil, the destroyer, that it is your greatest shame. 3. It is odious pride which maketh men overvalue their reputation among men, and think that a man's life is a just compensation to them for their dishonour! Such bloody sacrifices are fit to appease only the bloodthirsty spirit! But what is it that pride will not do and justify? CHAPTER XI. SPECIAL DIRECTIONS TO ESCAPE THE GUILT OF PERSECUTING. DETERMINING ALSO THE CASE ABOUT LIBERTY IN MATTERS OF RELIGION. Though this be a subject which the guilty cannot endure to hear of, yet the misery of persecutors, the blood, and groans, and ruins of the church, and the lamentable divisions of professed christians, do all command me not to pass it by in silence; but to tell them the truth, "whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear;" though they were such as Ezek. iii. 7-9, 11. _Direct._ I. If you would escape this dreadful guilt, understand well what persecution is. Else you may either run into it ignorantly, or oppose a duty as if it were persecution. The verb _persequor_ is often taken in a good sense, for no more than _continuato motu vel ad extremum sequor_; and sometimes for the blameless prosecution of a delinquent; but we take it here as the English word persecute is most commonly taken, for _inimico affectu insequor_, a malicious or injurious hurting or persecuting another, and that for the sake of religion or righteousness. For it is not common injuries which we here intend to speak of. Three things then go to make up persecution. 1. That it be the hurting of another, in his body, liberty, relations, estate, or reputation. 2. That it be done injuriously, to one who deserveth it not, in the particular which is the cause. 3. That it be for the cause of religion or of righteousness, that is, for the truth of God which we hold or utter; or for the worship of God which we perform; or for obedience to the will of God revealed in his laws. This is the cause on the sufferer's part, whatever is intended by the persecutor.