rantly and at unawares; left the avenger of blood should purfue and flay him, before his innocence should be sufficiently cleared up. These are the cafes wherein the lives of men may be taken away without fin. And for the fake of distinguishing these cases it is, that the words of the commandment are thus rendered, Thou fhalt do no murder.' Murder therefore is the killing of a man, not by misfortune, but with defign; not for our own defence and preservation in neceffity, but out of malice and hatred towards our neighbour; not as destroying a publick enemy, but one with whom we ought to have lived under the natural ties of friendship and humanity, or at least of mutual forgiveness; not as bringing a malefactor to execution for the prefervation of the commonwealth, but as cutting of an innocent member to the hurt and lofs of the publick.

SUNDAY X. PART II.

Of felf

V. What has hitherto been faid concerning the killing of another, must in proportion be understood likewise concerning felf-murder. For no man has a right murder. to anticipate the call of God, or to bereave the publick of a member, by destroying himself. Every person who knowingly and wilfully deftroys his own life, is guilty of murder; for God only, who gave us our life, has a right to take it away; and by confequence every man, who offers violence to his own life, does manifeftly invade the prerogative and ufurp the right and authority of God. It is true, there are many examples among the heathens, who fell by their own hands, upon fome preffing extremities; yet their rules, laws, and reafonings, forbid fuch practices. Examples against rules are of no authority. Men of loofe principles have always had falfe notions of liberty, honour, and courage. And though we live in an age, when every extravagant and wicked thing is juftified by fome wretch or other yet we should be loth to have pofterity believe that this was the general fenfe and judgment of our age.

;

Let us then confult the wife; the laws, the rules and reafonings of the grave and governing part; and from To be abthem we shall learn, that felf-murder was an borred.

abhorred

abhorred practice; that whatever pretence is made to honour and courage, it was but cowardice, fear, and a mark of poor fpirit, that funk under the common calamities of nature: A practice to be abhorred and condemned with all our zeal, to be guarded against with all our care, reafon and religion walking in the ways of God, and pouring out our prayers for his preventing and affifting grace, that his fear may ever be before us, and the temptations to fuch impiety may never overcome us. And confidering the love of ourfelves, the inhumanity of the crime, and the dangers run by those who are guilty of felf-murder, it is furprifing how any perfon can refolve upon fuch a defperate felf-condemning action; efpecially as they who murder themselves know and confefs they are tied by the fixth commandment not to com→ mit murder; the letter and fenfe of the command will reach not only his neighbour, but himself alfo. Tho' a man were weary of life, and fought for death; as people in pain, for eafe; and wearied with labour, for reft; yet would it be unlawful to give him the fatisfaction he defired, by killing him, because it would be murdering that fingle man; and because of the mischiefs which fuch a death brings upon his family. Whence we ought to remark, that murder does not barely confift in the violence that is offered to one against his will; but in taking away a life, which he has no right to take away, by laws human or divine: and as a man has no right himself, therefore he can convey no right to another, to take his own life. But away obfervation proves, yet that when men engage in wicked practices, and find they are brought to fhame or danger, their minds are not equal to their burthen; fo that they can bear the guilt, though not the shame: this confounds and oppreffes. But

Thofe, who have not the fear of God, nor their own falvation before their eyes, fhould confider what forIts infamy. row and confufion are unavoidably occafioned to the nearest friends thay have in the world, by parting from them in fuch a manner. Neither poverty, nor bodily afflictions are fo hard to bear, as the fhame, reproach, or infamy, or even the apprehenfions of fuch a woeful death. And will you intail on your kindred and family the reproaches and

ill-ufage of an infulting and uncharitable world, with perplexing doubts and fears concerning your condition in the other life? What ingratitude is this to do mifchief and difhonour to those you love? These confiderations have hitherto had their weight with heathens; and fhall chriftians break through all confiderations of their own honour, intereft, and duty, and not be content to live, at leaft, till they can die without doing wrong or mischief to their friends? A chriftian that believes, that the wrath of God is revealed against all unrighteousnefs; that, without repentance, fins cannot be forgiven; that after death there is no repentance: that such a man as this, profeffing the faith of Chrift crucified, and covenanting with God in baptifm to take up the cross, and bear it, if need be, to death, fhould, in the impatience of his foul, preffed by fome calamity, deliberately chufe to throw his burthen off, by committing a fin of which he knows he never can repent, and venture the dreadful confequence to everlasting ages, is what nobody could ever reason themselves into the belief of, if the frequent practice of unhappy people did not convince us it may be perpetrated. Therefore, it may be an ufeful caution to have our minds prepared, and affections fubdued; that we may not be deftitute of fuccour from reafon, or give ourfelves up to the guidance of prefent paffion,

This is the lot of those who fall into the desperate resolutions we are treating of; their paffions are high- ause ly indulged and yielded to; fo that, when grievous thereof. accidents befal them, they know not where they are, nor whither to turn; they can bear no lofs, nor fall from the condition in which they were, but abandon themselves to defpair of God's help and mercy. They place their whole happinefs in poffeffing of riches, enjoying honours, and in the praise of men; and when riches take to themselves wings, and fly away, when they fall from their honours and dignities, they know not how to breathe in any other air, nor to want the courtships and refpects that were wont to be paid, not to their perfons, but to their power and intereft. So when they fink in their reputation, they are dejected to the lowest

ebb;

ebb; are afraid that every eye views them with contempt, and that every tongue is reproaching them. But

Can this be a fufficient plea for felf-murder? No; the mi

feries men endure will end in death at laft, which

Its danger. may come quickly; and the fins that brought them to that mifery will be forgiven upon repentance, be they never fo great and many: but the course they pitch upon to relieve themselves is a fin that admits of no repentance, and configns them to eternal pains and forrows, the punishment of murder in general; for they expose themselves in a particular manner to the greater condemnation, by fome particular fentiments and difpofitions, which are commonly the root and foundation of this unnatural fin. And it is the fame thing whether we confume ourselves by a flow lingering poifon, or difpatch ourselves by an immediate death: we are equally guilty of felf-murder, whether we knowingly wear away the fprings of life gradually, which is the cafe, when we abandon ourselves to wafting grief; or we cut at once the thread of it violently afunder. Do not those men, who destroy themselves to avoid prefent fufferings, refolve that God fhall not dispose of them as he pleaseth; but that they will wreft their lives out of his hands, and not fuffer him to prolong or continue them beyond the limits of their own will? If this be their language, as by their actions it must be, what can be expected, but that God fhould execute the fierceft of his vengeance upon their disobedience? If pride, and envy, and ambition, have fo much power over their minds, that they will violently remove themselves out of the world, because they are not advanced to a more advantageous fituation in it; what can they reasonably expect or imagine, but that they should feel Solomon's obfervation, in the most extenfive fense of it, that pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall? and what foundation can there be of hope, that God will forgive a flagrant fin without the finner's repentance for the fame? Or is it to be conceived, that a man fhould repent of a fin in the commiffion of which he ends his life? Thefe are fome of the many reafons against felf-murder. Yet,

When

When men come into these perilous hours, they are generally deaf to all reason, and liften only to the fug- Means to geftions of their paffions; and if they be not pre- prevent it. pared beforehand to withstand such affaults, they feldom do it when the danger approaches. Wherefore, it is more in men's power to be innocent, and out of difficulties and ftraits, than, being involved, to deliver themfelves from the distracted counfels and suggestions of their despairing minds; although they be fuch as all men would have ftartled at and abhorred, when free of fuch diftractions; and I must add, a man overwhelmed with mifery is not inclined to ask, nor capable of taking counfel when offered. Therefore, how much fafer is it to fecure men from fuch principles as occafion these perplexing thoughts, than retrieve them from the power and influence of them? Let them confider, that God is the best of beings; and that a being abfolutely and neceffarily good can never intend any thing unmerciful or cruel; for it is obfervable, that few attempts of this kind are made, till religion is mastered, and its impreffions effaced; or men are fo misguided as to think these mischiefs may be done, and religion be fafe. But

Thofe unhappy people, who lying under the dreadful apprehenfion of God's anger, accounting themselves Of melanveffels of wrath, and fitted for deftruction, and choly pernot being able to live under the torment of that fons.

thought, put an end to their miserable lives, are most to be pitied whilft alive, and spared when dead, fince nothing can look fo like distraction, as that diftemperature of brain which makes them act fo ftrangely; with whom I would thus expoftulate: If they are veffels of wrath, is this the way to eafe them? If they believe themselves configned to mifery in the other world, what do they get by throwing themfelves into a place of torment before the time appointed? This is to die for fear of death; and indeed a great deal more difafterous.

And fo, let me conclude with a word of advice to condemned criminals, who fometimes attempt to pre- of convent their legal punishment by dispatching them- demned prifelves. Do they think that they fave themselves Joners.

the