[Sidenote: Also of the fourth law, of rendering ourselves useful.] 7. To the fourth law of accommodating ourselves, these precepts are conformable: Exod. xxiii. 4, 5: _If thou meet thine enemy’s ox, or his ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him again. If thou see the ass of him that hateth thee, lying under his burden, and wouldst forbear to help him, thou shalt surely help with him._ Also (verse 9): _Thou shalt not oppress a stranger._ Prov. iii. 30: _Strive not with a man without a cause, if he have done thee no harm._ Prov. xv. 18: _A wrathful man stirreth up strife; but he that is slow to anger, appeaseth strife._ Prov. xviii. 24: _There is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother._ The same is confirmed, Luke x, by the parable of the Samaritan, who had compassion on the Jew that was wounded by thieves; and by Christ’s precept (Matth. v. 39): _But I say unto you that ye resist not evil; but whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also._ [Sidenote: Also of the fifth law, concerning mercy.] 8. Among infinite other places which prove the fifth law, these are some: Matth. vi. 14, 15: _If you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: but if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses._ Matth. xviii. 21, 22: _Lord how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Till seven times? Jesus saith unto him; I say not till seven times, but till seventy times seven times_; that is, _toties quoties_. [Sidenote: Also of the sixth law, that punishment only looks at the future.] 9. For the confirmation of the sixth law, all those places are pertinent which command us to shew mercy, such as Matth. v. 7: _Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy._ Levit. xix. 18: _Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people._ But there are, who not only think this law is not proved by Scripture, but plainly disproved from hence; that there is an eternal punishment reserved for the wicked after death, where there is no place either for amendment or example. Some resolve this objection by answering, that God, whom no law restrains, refers all to his glory, but that man must not do so; as if God sought his glory, that is to say, pleased himself in the death of a sinner. It is more rightly answered, that the institution of eternal punishment was before sin, and had regard to this only, that men might dread to commit sin for the time to come. [Sidenote: Also of the seventh law, concerning slander.]