A DEFENCE

AGAINST THE

TEMPTATION TO SELF-MURDER.

SECTION I-The Unlawfulness of it displayed.

WHEN an atheist is tempted to destroy himself, he has no

concern whether it be lawful or no, for he knows of no law nor power that can reach to punish him. Such a wretch doth not believe there is any other world to receive him when he dies out of this, nor any God there to call him to account. He supposes his soul vanishes into air, and his dust is safe from vengeance. These are the sentiments of atheism; and vile and irrational as they are, yet they are the only principles that can give any tolerable colour or pretence for self-murder.

But if a man believes there is a God that made him, if he believes his soul is immortal, and that his Creator has ordained it to dwell in a human body for a season, and to pass a state of probation there in order to eternal reward or punishment, surely this man must confess himself accountable to God hereafter for all his conduct here: And one would think such a person should never doubt, whether the destruction of his body by his own hands, and the wilful dismission of his soul, were a crime or no. Especially if he profess to believe his bible, one would wonder he could ever imagine it an innocent thing for him to do violence ta himself, and to shed his own blood. But the follies of mankind are amazing, and the strange turns of thought under the deceitful impressions of the tempter are unaccountable. Poor deluded creatures are first tempted to hope, that they shall put an end to their present sorrows by a wilful death, then they wink their eyes against the glaring guilt of it, and try to persuade themselves that it is no sin.

Some persons have been so hardy as to reason upon this point, and to argue that self-murder has nothing criminal in it. Strange, that hell and destruction should have advocates among the sons of men! that death should have such accomplices in the land of the living! But since it has been so, let us plead against them in the name of the living God; let us try whether we cannot by the force of reasoning drawn from the word of God, as well as from the light of nature, make it appear with bright evidence, that suicide or self-destruction is prohibited by the divine

law, both natural and revealed; that it includes aggravated guilt in the nature of it; and consequently that the person who dares commit this crime, stands exposed to severe and terrible punishments in the invisible world.

I. Consider that the great God, the Maker of all things, has assumed to himself the power and lordship of life and death; "I kill and make alive;" Deut. xxxii. 39. It is he sends us into this world, and he expects that we should wait his will to send us out of it. Has not our Creator formed us with infinite wisdom, and placed us by providence to act our parts, maintain our posts, and fulfil some service for him in this part of his dominions? Has he not a right to determine the time of our continuance here, and the moment of our removal? Is it not an invasion of that divine right and prerogative, if we will appoint the time for ourselves without his order and contrary to the rules he has given us for our government? Where is his licence for any man to dismiss himself? A spirit, who is ordained to dwell in flesh, what warrant has be to destroy that flesh at his own pleasure, to quit his appointed station in this visible world, and to force his way into God's invisible dominions, before he obtain the leave of his Maker? Or dares he do this at a venture, according to his own capricious humour without a warrant from on high?

Can a soldier who is fixed in his post, though it rain and blow at midnight, forsake his guard before his General permit? Can such a faithless centinel expect any thing but frowns and death from the General? Is it excuse enough to say, "I broke the orders of my superior because it rained?" What a piece of shameful cowardice is this? And dares a soul that is placed by its Creator to act in a human body, dismiss itself, and fly from its appointed station, as far as the distance of two worlds, and yet hope for approbation? Dares such a soul run from its post, into the immediate presence of its sovereign Lord, in the world of spirits, and say, "I have fled from my post because I found it troublesome, I have done it indeed without leave, and yet I expect a reward?" May not such a wretch rather justly expect to be banished for ever from the presence of his Maker, and be doomed to suffer eternal penalties without mercy and without hope?

Perhaps you will tell me, "There is no want of courage discovered in self-murder: And that it was not accounted cowardice, but a noble instance of fortitude in many of the heathen heroes, who put an end to their lives with their own hands, on various occasions."

Answer. Concerning the heathens who destroyed themselves, I shall speak in another place. It is enough at present to say this, that whatsoever degrees of courage a mistaken fancy may ascribe to those ancients, I must confess I am of a very different

opinion concerning the suicides in our day: The attribution of any honour to a self-murderer has but little reason or justice in it at any time, when it is thoroughly examined: And perhaps such a bare supposition may administer too much fuel to so dreadful a temptation, rather than quench the sparks of it.

It is evident to me that the uneasy and impatient man has not courage enough to bear the arrows of adverse providence; he has not firmness of mind sufficient to stand the shock of sickness or pain; or perhaps his heart has not resolution enough to endure the thoughts of poverty or contempt; he is frighted at the sounds of reproach and infamy; he turns his back and flies from the scene of battle, when poverty or shame stare him in the face: Or perhaps the mere imaginary terrors which himself has raised, put him to flight; and because he cannot get far enough from them in this world, he throws himself headlong from the stage of life, and leaps into the world of spirits.

Now, if there be any point of courage in this practice, it is an impious and diabolical one: It is a rushing into the presence of an almighty and dreadful God, to tell him face to face, that you have quitted the station he hath appointed you, that you have broken his commission, you have disobeyed his orders, and you expect his sentence for eternity. This is tremendous courage indeed; and an outrageous fit of impious rashness. All the rest is mere weakness of mind; it is egregious cowardice mingled with extreme folly.

II. Consider the express prohibitions of murder in the word of God, and the frequent occasional and severe denunciations of God's wrath against murderers in various parts of scripture.

The sixth command offers itself with bright evidence to his service; Exodus xx. 13. "Thou shalt not kill, or thou shalt do no murder," that is, thou shalt not take away the life of man.

You will say, "I may have power and right to take away my own life, though I must not take away my neighbour's." I

answer,

First, The command is expressed in general terms, which include both ourselves and our neighbours: Now there is no subsequent limitation of it only to our neighbour either in the word of God, or in the reason of things; and who has given you authority to limit it?

The rest of the commands of the second table which are capable of being referred to ourselves, do as much exclude the saine practices against ourselves, as against our neighbours. I must not commit adultery with another person, nor must I defile myself with adultery. I must not bear false witness against my neighbour, nor must I speak a false thing about or against my

self. I must honour my own parents, and by the same reason, if I am a parent, I must not do any thing to dishonour my own person or parental character in the sight of children. Now since ourselves, as well as our neighbours are taken into consideration in all these commands, wheresoever it is possible in the nature of the thing, I think the destruction of ourselves as well as of our neighbours is equally forbidden by the sixth command.

Thus this law secures the life of every man, woman and child in the world, who have not forfeited their lives to the public justice by some capital crime: And even then it is only the public officer, or the person authorized by the law of the land, who has right to take away the life of the criminal.

Secondly, I answer, The injury forbidden in the sixth command does not only reach to the person who is slain, but to his friends, his relations, his country, and the community to which he belongs. It is upon this account chiefly that human penalties are annexed to murder by men, because the community is hereby deprived of a member, or the prince of a subject, and the various parts of that community are deprived of a helper. It is also upon this account of the injury done to our fellowcreatures, that God has appointed blood to be repaid with blood, as he is the sovereign guardian of human society.

Now I would ask, Whether the same injury is not done to our friends, our kindred and our country, if we murder ourselves, as if another hand murdered us? Yes surely, and in some respects a greater injury too, especially to our friends, as shall appear hereafter.

But besides all this, the injury reaches to God our Creator; it is he has appointed to each person his station in this world for some special service to himself as well as to our fellow-creatures. And as another man must not injure and affront our Creator by removing us from this station, so neither must we do it ourselves.

It is not for any man to say, "I can be of no service to God or man in this world; I am rather a burthen to the earth, a piece of useless lumber; therefore I throw myself out of the way." But can you tell for what services God has reserved you? Are you one of his council? Do you know what future events may arise, wherein you may be made use of, if not in an active manner, yet at least in a passive way, to carry on some part of the divine scheme of providence?. Now for this reason no sort of murder is permitted, that so no man may be cut off from all future and possible capacities of service to God or his fellowcreatures. God has not made any man a judge in his own case, to determine for himself concerning his own life and usefulness in opposition to the general sense both of nature and scripture, and the constant judgment of divine as well as human laws.

Since therefore all the injuries that I have mentioned against God and man are committed by the murder of one's self as well as one's neighbour, it has pleased God severely to prohibit all murder, and he has fixed the sixth commandment in the table of his moral law, where it stands like a cannon planted with open mouth against the man that dares such a public and spreading injury to God and man. It is a piece of divine artillery charged with eternal death. John iii. 15. "No murderer hath eternal life abiding in him," that is, has no right to eternal life, for he has not the principles or seeds of it in his heart; and then surely eternal death belongs to him, and must be his portion.

Another prohibition of murder is found. among the first laws that God gave to the new race of men after the flood; Gen. ix. 6. "Whosoever sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God made he man." I confess there is some difficulty in determining precisely in what sense we must take the image of God in this place: For the moral image of God which consisted in righteousness and holiness was lost by the fall, whereas that part of the divine image which stands here as an argument against the destruction of man is supposed to continue in his fallen estate.

Shall we then suppose it has a reference to the erect posture of his body, or the shape and figure of mankind, in which God might appear to our first parents? Then murder is forbid upon this account because it destroys the honourable figure and character of human nature, whereby it is superior to all brutal animals, and whereby it was dignified either by the appearance of God the Father, or rather his son Jesus Christ in it: Now this reason stands firm against the destruction of ourselves as well as of others.

Or does it mean the dominion of man over brute creatures, wherein he bears some image or resemblance of God's dominion over this lower world? But that reaches not beyond this life, and therefore there is an end put to this dominion, to this part of the divine image, by all murder, whether of others or of ourselves.

Or shall we say, that the immortality of the soul of man is that image of God which is here designed? Now though the soul cannot be slain, yet by murder, an immortal creature is sent into a certain and determined state of happiness or misery, for a long eternity, and the great God will not suffer any man to take upon him to send an immortal soul into so awful an estate on a sudden, and by the mere caprices of his own will: And therefore he hath required blood for blood: and since he hath appointed that man should execute that sentence on the murderer of another man in this world, we have abundant reason to believe