no man should doe that whereby hee doth himselfe the greatest harme for all things naturally move for and towards their owne perfection and where hurt cannot be avoided we are ever to choose the least of two evills of punishment But to kill our selves doth us the greatest harme both naturally and morally because it makes us guilty of most hainous sin and subjects us to most fearefull judgements for the same and thereby a man destroyes his owne person that is better than all the accidents about the same when the subject and adjuncts are contra-distinguished Aristotle sayes that death is the last of terrible things and the greatest evill of the body a Vltimum terribilium corporis maximum malum and therefore is most to be abhorred specially from a mans owne hands 7. Death is not subjects to mans free-will Seventhly man may not determine and order things as he list which are not left and subjected to his freewill but dying or departing out of this life is not left or subjected to the freewill and lawfull power of man himself to die when and as he list no more than it is subjected to his freewill to make himselfe alive againe when hee is dead For for to kill and make alive belongs to Gods royall prerogative b Transitus de hac vita ad aliam non subjacet libero hominis arbitrio Thom. Aqumas 1 Sam. 2 6. but as man is onely passive in the latter for his animation so should he be in the former that he may not wrong his preservation 8. Avoide self-murder as contrary to nature Eighthly no man may doe that which is most contrary to pure nature Naturaliter quaelibet res seipsam amat conservat for as Aquinas saith Every thing naturally loves and preserves it selfe But to kill ones selfe is most contrary to pure nature for as Aristotle lib. 2. de anima sayes generation is a work most agreeable to nature and therefore death is most contrary to nature which it doth destroy and to inflict it upon a mans selfe by his owne hand is monstrous cruelty Augustine bids us to consider how great a good thing life is for saith he it is better to be and to be miserable than not to be at all therefore both those that are happy and those that we miserable doe desire to be c Consdera quantum bonum est vita non mesius est esse miserum esse quam non esse propterea beati miseri appetunt esse August l. de lib. arb 9. It is condemned by men and their laws Ninthly no man is to doe that which all wise and good men and humane and ecclesiasticall lawes doe condemne but all these doe condemne self-murder and self-murderers The Athenians would not suffer a self-murderer to be buried in their territories Plato in Phoedone sayes that when our soules are given us to keepe we must not thrust them out of doores It is an ill recompense when a man hath abused his soule all his life time to sin at last by a self-murdering hand forcibly to expell it as incestuous Amon served his sister Tamar in most ignominious manner a 2 Sam. 13.17 Philolaus the Pythagorean speaking against self murder was wont to say as he is cited by Plato and Tullie in his Tusculan questions and others Divide not the tree or ship in the way or while it is in the voyage Ne dividas in via lignum for so it must of necessity perish that is that we should not part soule and body before their due time and happy arrivall at their last port appointed of God Ierome upon Ionas sayes that it is not our duty to snatch death to our selves but patiently to beare it b Non est nosâ—ii morte arripere sed oblata patienter ferre Decret 2. pars causa 23. c. 11. when it comes Which sentence is so memorable that it is inserted into the Canon Law The Canons that beare the name of the Apostles doe call those that geld themselves homicides self murderers are worse and therefore homicides in the highest degree The first Councell of Bracara in Spaine about the time of the Pope Honorius the first did decree that for those that doe kill themselves either by weapon or by poyson or by casting themselves from high places or by hanging or by any other manner of violence there should be no commemoration made of them in the oblation .i. of prayer or sacrament neither should their bodies be conveyed to buriall with psalmes and solemnity c Placurt qui sibi ipsis aut perferâ—â—â— aut per venenit aut per praecipitiuÌ„ aut suspendium aut quoliâ—et medo violentiae inferunt morteÌ„ nulla pro illis in oblatione comemoratio fictineque cum psalmis ad sepulturam cadevera enum deducantur but they are excluded from Christian buriall which also is assumed and established in the Canon law d Decret secunda part causa 23. c. 12. seeing self-murderers doe wilfully deprive the living of their company it is just that the living should deprive them of all honour of solemnity and place of buriall holding them in detestation so as not to have communion with them after death in any thing that were not willing to continue their communion with the living in this world and so by that act they die cut off from the Church as excommunicate ipso facto never to be absolved Reasons of the confiscation of the goods of self-murderers The Civill and Common Law confiscates the estates of self-murderers specially for three reasons 1. For terror First for terror to the living that they may not attempt the like 2. For punishineÌ„t Secondly for punishment of them in their posterity who are deprived of their estates and so the sinnes of the Parents are visited upon their children without injustice because the children are both of their parents naturall substance and also part of their civill that so affection to their posterity may restraine them from killing themselves 3. For recoÌ„pence to the State Thirdly the worldly estate of self-murderers is to be seased upon by the State of the Kingdome for recompence to the Common-wealth for depriving the same of a member and is a deodand to God being as Iericho was an execrated thing because it belonged to such a person and therefore accursed and not to be enjoyed from him but from God the true originall owner thereof to whom by that vile fact they are forfaite 10. Self-murder excludes man from amendment Tenthly what a man hath not power to make or to amend after it is once ill done and shall be found to be evill and inconvenient that he ought not to do because by doing thereof he excludes himselfe from all possibility and meanes of recovering his losse as from the privation to the habit naturally there is no returne a A privatione ad habitum non
after that wofull experience had given too great evidence of mens impudency in committing this inhumane and unnaturall sinne most severe lawes were made against the same In like case hath more woefull experience given more abundant evidence of the more then most in humane and unnaturall sinne of Self murder And I suppose that scarce an age since the beginning of the world hath afforded more examples of this desperate inhumanity than this our present age and that in all sorts of people Clergie Laity Learned unlearned Noble meane Rich poore Free bond Male Female young and old It is therefore high time that the danger of this desperate devilish and damnable practice be plainly and fully set out which to my best remembrance hath not before this beene performed by a full and just Treatise Chrysost Hom. 84. in Ioh. 19. Augustin epist 61. alisque in locis Hier. comment in Ion. cap. 1. Cic. de Fin. bon mal l. 5. Somn. Scipion. Proxima deinde tenent moesti loca qui sibi lethum Insontes peperere manu c. Virg. Aen. 6. It hath in sundry Sermons preached and published and in other printed Treatises beene spoken against and the hainousnesse and danger thereof somewhat to the quick yea and life too beene declared and that both by the Ancient Fathers and also by late Divines Yea Heathen men by the light of nature have damned it to the pit of bell where they have placed Self murderers making them againe and againe to wish themselves alive on earth though there poverty griefe shame and all other evills should befall them Surely most seasonably is this Treatise here published by an Author well fitted and enabled thereto For he is an expert Casuist by learning and experience so fully accomplished as he hath for many yeares beene accounted an Oracle where be lives and by all sorts resort is made to him to be resolved in intricate doubts In handling this Treatise like a skilfull Artist and wise builder Luke 6.48 be hath digged deep to lay his foundation sure he hath begun with life and artificially distinguished the severall sorts thereof and shewed the excellency of every sort that the hainousnesse of taking away so precious a thing might thereby be the more aggravated Many pertinent cases are here and there yea every where in this Treatise judiciously discussed and resolved So good is the wine here to be had Vino vendibili non opus est hederâ as there needs no bush to draw thee to it Let mee but perswade thee to taste it I shall need to set no greater commendation upon it I make no question but that wheresoever it findeth entertainment it will prove a most soveraigne preservative against this horrible temptation to Self-murder The Lord give such a blessing to it as it may be a meanes of keeping men from laying violent hands upon any especially upon themselves and of directing and inciting them so to preserve their temporall and spirituall life as they may bee reserved unto eternall life 18. Apr. 1637. VVILLIAM GOUGE IN DOCTISSIMVM ET ELABORATVM HVNC TRACTATVM Technas Diaboli homines ad horrendum scelus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 provocantis mirâ arte pietate denudantem MOrtalibus vitae semèl scintillulam Natura cunctis indidit Tuendam ab omnibus virili prosua ad Imaginem quae condita est DEI cruore et sacro CHRISTI parta huic Larvatus invidet Serpens Hanc suffocare cordis pendulus cujus Curae anxiae cor vellicant Contendit alter nescius probi qui se Nequitiâ totum faedat Illam aestimat parvi scelestâ dexterâ Extinguit illam tertius Sic à DEO creata vitae scintilla et CHRISTI redempta sanguine Quae charior lapillis est purior Morte interit repentinâ Quis non beatum praedicabit Symeum CHRISTI facit solertem quem Gregis tuendi cura quipandit viam Quâ possit haec scintillula Vitae foveri pendulum cordis cui Iter dolores obstruunt Vocis per anfractus doloris dirigit Ad sempiterna gaudia Acumine insigni qui pandit subdolas Technas diaboli quibus Vitae struit dolum qui cunctos instruit Vitam caducam degere Vt illius peracto cursugaudijs Vitae fruantur aeternae Gregem ô beatum qui Tuo doctissimo Labore ductus abstrusa Coelstium scitorum ediscit dogmata CHRISTUS diu Tesospitet Gregem ut Tibi commissum possis quod facis Fovere scriptis vitâ T.Y. Haec amoris ergò apposuit qui gravissimum hujus Tractatus Authorem verè suscipit sincerè colit A deare Friend to the Author FRom Albion whence now we all be one with healthfull salves thou doest assay to cure Self-murders griefe that many long agone doth kill and fill dark Hell with soules impure Which sage Hippocrates and Galen sure could not prevent nor heale with all their skill But thou by thy receipts that will indure most skilfully canst soundly cure this ill Goe to therefore deare Sym God give successe Like to thy skill thy will this to redresse S.H. A TABLE OF THE Chapters and severall Sections with their Contents CHAPTER 1. The generall description of Self-murder § 1. Concerning life and death that they are things of greatest importance Page 1. § 2. Self-murder described what it is and of the three parts of the description Page 2 § 3. How self-murder is knowne by life which it destroyes why evill ever cleaves to good and that all worldly things are subject to contrary passions Page 2 3. Chap. 2. Of the kindes of the life of man naturall and spirituall and what the care of men should be of both Page 4 Chap. 3. Of naturall life in generall § 1. Of diverse sorts of life of vegetation sense and reason Page 4 5 § 2. That man onely is subject to self-murder and of the greatnesse of that sin Page 6 § 3. How naturall life is knowne in and by the man in whom it is both by sense and understanding Page 6 § 4. Of the soules double act in man for his person and his workes Page 7 Chap. 4. Of mans naturall life more specially § 1. Wherein the naturall life of man consists which is fraile Page 8 § 2. Of the sweetnesse of naturall life Page 9 § 3. How the losse of naturall life is horrible and painfull and why Page 9 § 4. How life is deare and precious with three reasons thereof Page 10 § 5. Of naturall lifes preservation the meanes thereof and of cheerefulnesse Page 12 § 6. How to use Physick with foure cautions about the same Page 14 § 7. Of three deadly things to be resisted Page 16 § 8. How to spend our lives well with three motives so to do and how men mispend their lives foure wayes Page 18 Chap. 5. Of mans spirituall life § 1. What spirituall life is Page 21 § 2. Of the acts of spirituall life which are two Page 21 § 3. Of the
points 1. Vncertaine death for certaine good The second Case wherein we may wittingly and willingly without danger of self-murder adventure the losse of our lives is a present urgent and unavoidable necessity for a certaine greater more eligible good which falls out in three points First not only when with an uncertaine danger of our owne lives wee seeke to redeeme the certaine destruction of our neighbours as to cast our selves into the water being skilfull to swimme to save him from assured drowning who hath no other meanes of safety or to cast our selves into desperate dangers for rescue of our wives children or friends from out of the fire or out of the hands of our enemies as did Abraham for Lot a Gen. 14.14 and David for his wives b 1 Sam. 30. or to minister to the necessities of our sick houshold that they perish not in neglect wee ought to venture our lives with them in their infectious diseases But further also to save another from certainly perishing sometimes men may object themselves to certaine death Certaine death for Superiours as if the person be a publicke Magistrate or Prince or evidently of more use and worth in Church or Common-wealth than our selves we may exchange our selves to passe for him as the Scripture intimates with commendation that peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die Rom. 6.7 and the peoples esteeme of David was that he was worth ten thousand of them and therefore would not let him adventure himselfe where if halfe of them should die the enemies would not care for them 2 Sam. 18.3 this respect and preferment of eminency and vertue is not only from love of themselves but also from love of that publike body to which those persons by their lives may be beneficiall For a friend Also a man may for preservation of his deare friend put himselfe upon assured death as our Saviour implies by way of commending the same when he sayes Greater love hath no man than this Ambros lib. 3. officiarum c. 12. de duobus Pythagoraeis Virgil. me me adsum qui seei in me converene serrwn that a man lay downe his life for his friends Therefore this degree of love hee may have and was practised by divers as betweene Nisus and Euryalus Damon and Pythias Pylades and Orestes Object The thing that may seeme to withstand the lawfulnesse of this practice is that generall rule of loving our neighbours as our selves and not otherwise Answ But this is easily answered first by the right understanding of the rule as our selves which notes not the degree or measure of our love 1. It is required that our love be sincere for then must we love all men alike if the rule of the measure be one for quae conveniunt in uno tertio conveniunt inter se they that agree in any one third thing doe agree within themselves but that we are to love all men alike is absurd and against the practice of our Saviour Christ who loved Iohn above the rest of the Apostles then as our selves notes the sincerity of our love for as the Apostle tells us No man ever yet hated his owne flesh Ephes 5.29 So then here is commanded first that we should love our neighbours secondly that for the quality of this love it should be in truth and as we would that others should love us which doth not exclude such a superlative degree of love as may expresse it selfe by a mans dying for his friend as if it were an unlawfull excesse 2. To dye for a friend may bee self-love and lawfull Secondly this doubt may be resolved by the true interpretation of such a mans act because in that degree of love so expressed for his friend he loves himselfe both by the consummation and earthly perfection of the vertue of friendship in him which in some sort beatifies the subject wherein it is and also thereby he gaines to himselfe the honour to be counted more worthy of a friend than a friend was of him Amicus est after ego lovers are said to live rather in those that they doe love than in themselves so that without such friends their lives would be but a languishing dying With mee in this point accords Cardinall Folet upon a Idem ibid. Iohn 15.13 and David à Mauden in his tenth discourse upon the sixt Commandement is peremptory and sayes that * Id non facit ex amore vitae alterius sed ex amore virtutis amicitiae ad ahorum exemplum quod dum sacit se plus quaÌ„ amicum diligit Certum est licitum esse vitam suam certo periculo exponere pro servanda amicivita temporali ex motivo honestatis amicitiae quandoquidem honestas virtutis majus bonum sit quà m vita propria corporalis It is certaine that it is lawfull for a man to expose his life to certaine danger for to preserve the temporall life of his friend upon the motive of honesty and friendship seeing the honesty of vertue is a greater good than his owne corporall life From hence he sayes Licitum esse aiunt Doctores amico peste laboranti inservire cum aequi certo per culo mertis in communi naufragio takulam soâ—io cedere unde si duo amici simul naufragium secissent usque residua eset tal ula cu jus subsidio alteruter ex illis tantum po Yet salvari posset quidem alter eâ non uti ut sibi cam amicus assumeret cujus saluti consultum crpit in kee tamen eventu cavendum est ne quis per positivam aliquam actionem directè neci suae ecoperetur hoc enimilliciâ—â—n est Disetus 10. in praecept 6. numer 3.5 Ema Sa in vocabulo vita that the Doctors affirme that it is lawfull to doe service to a friend that is sick of the pestilence with equally certaine danger of death and in a common shipwrack to yeeld a board to a fellow companion as if two friends have suffered shipwrack together and that there were a board remaining to them by the help whereof only one of them could be saved the one of them may forbeare to make use of the same that his friend whose safety he desires may take it to himselfe Notwithstanding in this case heed must be taken that no man doe directly by any positive action cooperate to his owne death for that is unlawfull Emanuel Sa in his Aphorismes affirmes as much §. 18. Of the second point which is concerning certaine death for certaine more publike good The second point The second point concerning present urgent necessity wherein a man may adventure the losse of his life for a greater good without any danger of self-murder is when by the losse of one or of a few lives many more are preserved Certaine death for greater pub like good for bonum commune est praeferendum proprio
the truth and Church is bound to doe the duties of his calling notwithstanding any such former restraint or danger of disobedience to it because the power of the Church is but ministeriall under and according to God rather declarative than Soveraigne therefore what she doth tyes not men here on earth to obey it to the destruction but to the edification of the Church or at least to prevent a greater mischiefe And also because the true Church may doe no such acts of deprivation or suspension whereby to intend or effect the destruction of the Church and therefore in that case transgressing of such restraints is no disobedience to the Church but rather an obeying the intent of the same as in times of persecution we have plentifull examples specially of the Church of the Iewes against the Christians A Caveat Yet herein is to be observed that such performance of duties in that case after restraint bee done in mecke patient manner without tumults or forcible opposition of authority submitting with passive obedience where they cannot lawfully performe active This extends not to warrant any schisme or heresie that esteem themselves only to be the true Church as did the Donatists and others to oppose out of feare of their owne ruine the proceedings and restraints of the more Orthodoxe and generall body of a sound Church whose authority doth preponderate and oversway her apostating members so long as by the doctrine publikely taught in her men may be saved and built up §. 30. Against commission of evill upon any humane command or threats Fourth member about commission of evill upon humane command The fourth member of the case wherein a man ought to expose his life to death in causes concerning religion is when a man is desired commanded or threatned to doe any sinne forbidden by Gods word that then hee doe it not although he therefore doe die as Iosephs practise manifests in resisting his whorish mistris a Gen. 39.12 and the three children that would not upon the Kings command worship the golden Image to save their lives Daniel 3.18 Because it is better for us to die than deliberately and wilfully to sinne against God as the woman with her seaven sonnes did choose 2 Mach. 7. according to S. Augustines judgement who sayes that if it be propounded to a man Vt aut mali aliquid faciat aut mali aliquid patiatur eligat non facere mala quam non pati mala b Epist 204. that either he should doe some evill or suffer some calamity then let him choose rather not to doe evill than not to suffer evill Observe How we are to abhorre sin For we are ever to doe that which may most neerely unite us to God our chiefe good and to shunne what may divide us from him which nothing can doe but our sinnes specially those that consist in the transgression of the negative Commandements and are most opposite to God and incompatible with him and therefore those lawes doe binde ad semper to the alwayes observing of them and cannot be dispensed withall seeing God is unchangeable The evill of sinne should be more terrible to us than death it selfe not onely for that it is the cause of death and imbitters it but also because it deprives us of a greater good of our spirituall life that farre exceeds the naturall The beatificall object that sinne deprives us of is the infinite blessed God from whom to be separated is worse than death it self and in that respect rather than we should sinne we should choose to suffer death which is a glorious kinde of Martyrdome and a meanes of advancement to happinesse for the power and practise of the truth laying downe our lives which is a more undoubted signe of grace and salvation than is the suffering of many for holding the truth in opinion and profession Wee should choose rather not to bee than not to bee happy for the originall and end of our being is better than our being it selfe in regard that our happinesse is not of and in our selves but in and from another who is both our beginning and end §. 31. Of the kindes of sinnes of commission to be avoyded Evils of sin to be avoided These sinfull evills that wee ought thus carefully to avoid and forbeare to death are of two sorts 1. Against the law of nature First those that be directly and absolutely forbidden by the Law of nature as fundamentally unlawfull at all times and in all cases for the contrariety that they have against the nature of God and against the inbred principles of reason and conscience of which no question can be made but that wee are alwaies utterly to shun them notwithstanding any humane command or inforcement that may be to the contrary because no human power can dissolve the obligation of those ingrafted Commandements of God and nature Innata Lex Rom. 2.15 that we may be discharged in conscience from keeping of them which would overthrow both divinity and humanity neither can any free us from the punishment of the transgression of them both because equity and Law requires that the soule that sins shall die and also for that there is no power matchable with Gods and natures to protect or free us by force from their vengeance 2. Against the positive Law of God Secondly the sins that wee are to shun and not wittingly and willingly to do upon any threats or worldly danger or for any profit are those that are forbidden by the positive Law and revealed will of God the violating whereof doth wrong the soveraignty and honor of God who is the absolute and onely independant King of all the world and his will the supreame unerring rule of our obedience throughout our lives our transgression whereof is a breach of that loyalty and due subjection which wee owe to that our highest Lord. To whese positive Law conformity is more properly obedience to God than conformity to the Law of nature is by it selfe considered Because the ground of our conformity to the Law of nature is naturall inclination and Reason equally binding Heathens aswell as Christians But the ground of our conformity to the positive Law of God is principally the soveraigne Authority and Will of God himselfe which kinde of obedience is that which is properly of the Church and her members to God and proceeds from faith love feare c. Evangelicall or Thelogicall graces From which obedience to God no wight can absolve or excuse us that we may lawfully and safely subject our selves to feare to please or to obey any other in opposition or contraty to him and his will Reasons 1. Because there is none above God whose will may be preferred or equalled to his to whom all is subordinate in nature state and imployment 2. Neither is any man Lord over the Conscience either to bind or discharge it contrary to the Law or will of God that we
man than death A blessing may become a judgment Thus the greatest earthly blessing may become in mans sense and opinion a grievous judgement For God can make a man a terror to himself and to all his friends so that in that respect he may brooke the name of Magor Missabib as did Pashur Ier. 20.3 4. when a man leaves God or is left of him who is the blessed object and fountaine of all true contentment and solid comfort Observe The misery of the damned in hell Whereby wee may see in part the miserable state of the damned in hell whose living there is a second death farre exceeding the first in misery there is a death of dissolution and a death of torment the former brings the subject to an end the latter brings the subject of it to all miseries they that are in this latter shall wish for the former and shall not finde it whereby we may in some sort see two things 1. For measure First the measure of hells misery upon a man in it being even as if a man in his perfect strength and senses were struggling and in the very pinch and agonie of the last and fiercest act of death labouring under the unspeakeable horror and unsupportable and untolerable paine of it and in kinde and degree much more as a man in that death of hell shall bee made more capable and spiritually sensible of misery than he is here and whereas here a man can die but by one mortall paine there shall the damned be under all paines and mortall miseries in their extremities to the utmost measure and degree that those damned wretches are capable of with exact spirituall sense and feeling of the same besides their woe for want of that infinite happinesse in heaven whereof they are deprived 2. The durance of v. Secondly wee may see here the everlastingnesse and endlesse continuance of that death in hell which shall be as long as the damned shall have being which shall be ever that they may be capable of suffering to the utmost of their capacity so that their being gives neither ease nor comfort but they shall ever be in the same extremity of death for evermore without any relaxation or abatement which fills them with utter desperation and unexpressible woe Note For they have all that can make any creature miserable viz. in hell they have both life and death by their living there they are capable of and doe suffer the punishment of sensible misery and by that death they have punishment of damage in deprivation of all comfortable good and so whatsoever wee can be in the absence of good and in presence of evill they have the same §. 3. Concerning the wills object and faultinesse Object of the will is good That we may surther understand how a man can will his owne death wee are to observe that the will never chooses to doe a thing sub ratione mali as it is evill but wills a thing that is either in itselfe good or apparently such in our apprehension or else it chooses a thing that in itselfe is evill but is comparatively good in respect of another evill which in our judgement or sense is greater or worser and so no man chooses death for it selfe but in respect of some conceited good imagined to be had by it and not otherwise or to have a lesser evill for a greater by that exchange as Saul who that hee might escape the mocking of the heathen killed himself a 1 Sam. 31.4 so that no man is absolutely willing in the act of self-murder but conditionally because he uses it not for itself but as a meanes for a further end and good The kinds of good Will hath ever good for the object of it but of this good there is a double triplicity First bonum animi corporis fortune Good of the minde of the body and of wealth and preferment Secondly there is Bonum utile jucundum honestum Good profitable pleasant and honest Of these goods the will doth not ever respect bonum honestum or morale vertuous or morall good but often makes choise of profit or pleasure as the greater good before the other and still bonum or good is the object of the will Note From hence it is evident that the error of the will is not all nor ever from the mis-information of the judgement but that the will is in it selfe very fanlty in three respects Wils faultines 1. It obeyes not the sound understanding First in that it doth not ever listen unto nor obey the true and good directions of the understanding but rejects them or inclines against them according to that old saying Video meliora proboque Deteriora sequor I see and approve better things but follow the worser the bounds of the understanding and will are not of equall extent 2. It submns to the affections Secondly the fault of the will is that it submits it selfe to receive information and direction from the affections passions and senses following the same without reasons precedent triall and approbation whereby it inverts the course of nature rebells against its Soveraigne and subjects its selfe to her servants and labours so to enthrall the understanding to the same 3. Corrupted by innated pravity Thridly will is corrupted by innated pravity whereby it is more inclinable to erroneous directions than to true readier to move to vice than to vertue and by meanes of that pravity either inbred in it selfe or acquired by impressions from inferiour faculties and senses it labours to deceive and corrupt the minde and understanding that the same may determine and give direction according to wills owne disposition whereby it comes to passe that the will ever followes the last determination of the practicall understanding and yet is not therefore blamelesse For sinne is vitium suppositi the vice of the person and therefore is in all the parts and faculties of the same especially in the will which is the primus motor the first mover in all practicall actions which are sinfull but as they are voluntary The motions of mans will are very diverse and often contrary Will variable For although will in man is answerable to instinct in irrationall creatures and to naturall inclinations in insensibles yet it moves much more variously both as man is compounded of many more various things whereof every one conferres to his motion naturall and morall according to its nature and also as man and his will is passively affected and wrought upon by motives within and without and as his reason directs and perswades variously according to occasions whereupon it followes Note that man is the most uncertaine and unstable creature in the world most restlesse and tossed as the Sea with tempests and stormes in his will distracting him in his resolutions and performances una eurusque notusque ruunt creberque procellis Affricus as the East the
It destroyes our persons Thirdly self-murder is much against our selves both by the destruction of our persons in this world and by running of our selves into everlasting damnation in the world to come by such a damnable and wicked practise whereby we are sinners against our owne soules §. 6. How self-murder is most harmefull Self-murder is most harmfull Now it followes to bee shewed how self-murder is most harmefull and damageable which may bee seene in foure particulars 1. To Gods glory First it is hurtfull to the glory and honour of God who is thereby dishonoured not only by the transgression of his Law but also by the wrong that thereby is done to the Soveraigne authority and to the image of God 2. To the Church and common-wealth Secondly it is hurtfull to the Church and Common-wealth by bereaving the same unjustly of their members and by drawing downe Gods judgements upon them for such damnable facts committed within the same 3. To friends and posterity Thirdly it is harmefull to a mans friends and posterity both in overshadowing their credit and honour by the darke and disgracefull cloud of such a fact and over-lading them with troubles griefe and shame for the same And also by depriving them of that earthly estate and meanes whereby otherwise they might have been helpfull to them for their livelihood or advancement 4. To a mans selfe Fourthly self-murder is harmefull to a mans selfe both by depriving him of life and also by subjecting him to misery with losse of happinesse and good name Ierome sayes in the name of God I receive not such soules as have come out of their bodies against my will a Non recipio tales animas quae me nolente exierunt è corpore Hierom. ad Marcellam de obitu Blesellae and the Philosophers that did kill themselves he calls them Martyrs of foolish philosophy b Martyres stultae philosophiae Virgil places self-murderers in the third circle or region of hell qui sibi lethum Insontes peperêre manu Self-murderers are fooles and mad men For a man wittingly and willingly to doe that which of it selfe is wholly morally evill and whereof nothing but evill and mischiefe redounds to others and to the doers thereof especially is extreame folly and madnesse And therefore self murder being a thing of that kinde those that kill themselves doe thereby proclaime themselves to be damnable fooles or mad men or worse and so in regard of the damage thereof self-murder is to be abhorred of all §. 7. How reason condemnes self-murder Self-murder is against reason It remaines that it be demonstrated by reason that self-murder is wicked and unlawfull and that no man may kill himselfe upon any pretence whereof the reasons are many some whereof I will here subjoyne 1. It is evill First that which is every way evil is not to be done but to kill ones selfe is every way evill 1 Cor. 15.26 peccantly and penally naturally and morally The Apostle calls death an enemy it is threatned by God as a punishment for sin it is privative of life and therefore opposite to God who is life and a pure act of eternall living Life is promised as a blessing and in that respect to be desired and imbraced It makes us by our vitall being conformable to the first being and capable of happinesse The degrees of the creatures being And the higher that any thing is raised upon the foundation of being the liker it is to God as vegetables doe more resemble God than inanimates that have but simple being and sensitives more than vegetables and rationall creatures as men approach neerer to God than sensitives and intellectuall creatures or spirituall intelligences as Angels are neerer to God than rationall creatures on earth and those that are of the longest lives resemble the ancient of dayes most So that to live long in an estate of neerest proximity to God every man should affect whereunto self-murder is contrary 2. Self-murder is against faith Secondly whatsoever wee doe morally considered should be an act of faith and obedience but self-murder cannot be an act of faith and obedience both because Gods word is against it and also for that it proceeds from desperation and mans domineering self will which is contrary to faith and holy obedience 3. It is not to bee desired to be done by others nor to others Thirdly what a man may neither naturally nor morally desire nor endeavour that another should doe to him nor he to another that may not he doe to himselfe because wee ought to doe as wee would be done to which is the summe of the Law and the Prophets a Mat. 7.12 our judgement and practise should agree But no man rightly disposed in his wits may nor can advisedly desire or endeavour that another should kill him or that he should kill another undeservedly and upon private motion the latter is literally forbidden by the sixth Commandement and against the former nature and religion bids and armes a man to defend himselfe for preservation of his life Nature rightly disposed erres not in and about its proper object seeing it is a proper judge of things properly belonging to it and is from God and not contrary to his Word And therefore a man may not kill himselfe contrary to the dictate of nature 4. It makes him unlike to God How self-murder makes a man unlike to God Fourthly no man may do that which makes him most unlike to God for the Creator and creature must hold proportion together and our happinesse stands in our likenesse to him and communion with him 1 Iohn 3.2 But for a man to kill himselfe makes him most unlike to God both by his sinne and also by the effect of his fact For for a man by his own hands to make himselfe not to be is contrary to him who hath his being and living of himselfe and doth everlastingly live he being naturally the fountaine of life and his living and essence are reciprocall or convertible and is absolutely immortall and so the more that any preserves their lives and the longer they live the liker they are to God and the more that they are impotently passive and the sooner they cease to bee the unliker they are to God The being and living of creatures is the ground of all other blessings wherewith they are or can be indowed therefore no man should kill himselfe when death deprives him of so much good 5. Life is a blessing Fifthly wee should most carefully keepe the greatest naturall blessing that God bestowes upon us which is our life and be thankfull to God for it because it is the first blessing and the ground of all the rest that God bestowes upon us and therefore we ought most to abhorre self-murder because it is most contrary to life 6. Self murder most harmfull to a mans selfe should cause us to avoide it Sixthly
datur regressus but when a man hath killed himselfe he cannot make himselfe alive againe that hee may amend the errors of his course and therefore expedient it is for him to keepe his life as long as hee can when hee hath it 11. It crosses a mans last arme Eleventhly no man is to doe that which may crosse his last aeyme and end which is his salvation but for a man to kill himselfe crosses him in this end and deprives him of attaining the same because thereby he termines and finishes his life with and in an act of most damnable sin and also deprives himselfe of all meanes of reformation and salvation in time to come 12. Self-murder is condemned by similies Twelfthly self murder is condemned by Macrobius and Picolomineus under similies as a servant may not kill himselfe because he is not sui juris his owne 1. So we being Gods servants not only as they say by creation and subordination in place and duty but also by covenant and redemption we may not kill our selves 2. No man may dispose as hee list of other mens goods although he bee usis fructuarius of them for a time having the propertie of them for his profitable use with reservation and preservation of the substance of them we are such and therefore have not such soveraigne and absolute right and authority over our selves that we may kill our selves seeing we are bound as Gods tenants to the upholding and reparations of our selves as much as we can 3. A man committed to prison by lawfull and just authority although unjustly may not make an escape by breaking of ward to prevent punishment because thereby he condemnes and makes himselfe a transgressor and worthy of punishment neither are we to rid our selves out of this life of troubles into which God hath put us untill he shall againe himselfe call us out and free us as Paul and Silas would not come out of prison untill the Magistrates brought them out that had put them in a Act. 16.37 39 4. Plato sayes that as wee may not kill another mans servant in regard that thereby we wrong his Master and as Souldiers may not forsake their stations and places without order from their Commander b Injussa imperatoris deserere stationem so may no man kill himselfe seeing thereby he wrongs God that is his Master and forsakes the place and condition that God his Commander hath set him in there to serve him as a Souldier in this world during his good pleasure a 1 Tim. 1.18 August de C.D. lib. 1. c. 20. Augustine sayes that as he is a false witnesse as well and rather more that wittingly deposes salsely against himselfe so he that kills himselfe is a murderer as much and more then if he killed another man 5. Parricide as to kill Wife Husband or children is odious but self-murder is worse because it is neerest a mans selfe and most against the rule 13. It is the grossest murder Thirteenthly wee are specially bound to shun the most grossa and worst facts and sinnes for that if we do them wee are most inexcusable and culpable and justly damned beeause they are most against conscience they being most within the light of mans understanding whereby the conscience being convinced it inexcusably condemnes the doers of them which also are most within the power of man to resist and against which he hath most helps and therefore the doing of them imports more wilfulnesse than frailty or want of power in those that do the same But self-murder is a sinne of this kind because it is the grossast and most odious sort of murder that can be and therefore most to be shunned 14. It makes a bad exchange Fourteenthly we are advisedly to make no exchange that may be for the worse but a man by killing himselfe makes an exchange for the worse because hee gives his life in exchange for death or at the best for freedome from worldly troubles discontentment which is a price farre above the worth of the purchase and God never allowed of this kinde of truckage nor appointed self-murder to be the means of any good but thereby men cast themselves into greater misery and destruction than otherwise they should ever have beene subject to 15. It puts man into a bad estate to die in Fifteenthly every man should strive to be in such an estate of favour with God and to bee found of him so doing when he dies as may be allowable before God and most comfortable to a mans selfe Blessed is that servant whom his Lord when hee commeth shall finde so doing a Math. 24.46 But a self-murderer in his act of killing of himself can neither have any comfort that hee is in the estate of Gods favour nor that his act is allowable before him whose law thereby hee transgresses with a high hand concluding his last gaspe with an act of horrible sinne having his soule in the passing thereof out of his body filled with disordered passions and perturbations of discontent griefe hatred feare diverted upon unlawfull objects and acts and filled with horror and environed with devils and so by self-murder the soule is most diverted from God and infected when the same should be most neerely converted to God and bee best fitted and perfited for him at death that by the hands of the blessed Angels it may be caryed into heaven and eternall happinesse 16. Man hath not authority to kil himselfe Sixteenthly a man is to do no more than hee hath lawfull right and power to do lest he make himselfe a transgressor but mans power over himselfe is not supreame but as a usu-fructuarie he hath dominium utile profitable dominion of himselfe being bound by God his highest Lord not to commit waste upon himselfe Comparison As mans dominion over the earth is not supreame for the Lord is King the earth may be glad of it but onely to take the profit of it and not to destroy it the creatures he may kill for to enjoy a better use of them But the best use that a man can have of himselfe is by his life and not by his death and therefore he is to avoid self-murder because it deprives a man of that use of himselfe for which God hath given a man to himselfe Comparison As the wife hath not power of her owne body to dispose thereof as she list in regard of that interest and proprietie that her husband hath over her so cannot man do with himselfe what he pleases in regard that we are the members of Christ his body and spouse a Ephes 5.23 24 and therefore are subject to him The object of mans will Man is Lord of his naturall and morall actions because they are the subjects of his will and therefore he is culpable and punishable if they be not well ordered and so to the doing only of that
company Page 102 119 Sixe cases of desperate hazard Page 112 Three exempt cases Page 125. 127. 143. Two cases Page 141 Foure cases of adventuring life for Religion and salvation Page 143 144 145 146. 149 Of five exempt cases Page 172 Caveat A caveat against vaine praise of self-murderers Page 194 Cause there is no true cause of sinfull evill Page 191 The true causes of self-murder upon the occasion of afflictions Page 225 Censuring of censuring beware Page 231 Certainty Of the certainty that many men murder themselves Page 176 Cheerefulnesse a preservative of naturall life Page 13 Christians murdering themselves are most blameable Page 179 Self-murdering Christians are indeed worse than Heathens Page 180 Church In the Church self-murder fals out Page 177 To the Church self-murder is hurtfull Page 273 The Churches judgement of self-murderers Page 297 Commission of evill how to be avoided Page 149 Of Common-place Preaching Page 196 Common-wealth The Common-wealth is wronged by self-murder Page 271 Condemned persons may not kill themselves Page 265 How a condemned person is to submit to take his inflicted death Page 266 Concealement Of concealement of troubles beware Page 231 Conference Christian conference and company how usefull Page 29 Confession Of confession to prevent self-murder with the Caveats benefits and hinderances of it Page 316 unto page 323 Of confession of truth with danger of life for the same Page 145 Confiscation Of confiscation of the goods of self-murderers Page 278 Conscience A troubled conscience an occasion of self-killing Page 217 For case of conscience troubled about crimes what is to be done Page 137 Ease of conscience is not from our selves Page 219 About ease of conscience by ill meanes Page 235 For peace of conscience what is to be done Page 236 Distressed conscience cause of spirituall phrensie Page 251 Consider What men should consider Page 289 Consideration of our courses Page 157 Contemners of the meanes of life Page 61 Contentment good against self-murder Page 312 Conversion Of mans conversion Page 30 Covenant Of covenant with persons destinate to destruction Page 119 Course Our morall course in this life fore-shewes our future estate Page 79 Ill courses are harmfull Page 158 Covetousness cause of self-murder Page 215 Councill of Bracara against self-murder Page 277 Creatures The most noble creatures faile most Page 189 The degrees of the creatures being Page 274 The creatures by nature condemne self-murder Page 283 Custome Some customes cause of error in judgement Page 192 Custome in India and Lemnos Page 193 Of custome contrary to reason and Religion Page 194 Customes ought to bee examined whether they be wicked ibid. D Damneds misery in hell Page 166 Danger Prevention of dangers neglected cause of self-murder Page 92 Danger of self-murder how not knowne Page 188 Dangers upon delivery from temptations of self-murder Page 325 Dangerous undertakings how to be shunned Page 17 Dangerous persons and places are occasions of indirect self-murder Page 93 It is dangerous to give way to Satan Page 188 Darings Deadly attempts upon darings self-murderous Page 116 Deadly things to be resisted Page 16 Death is a thing of great importance Page 1 Of death in murder Page 48 Benefit of death encourages Page 126 Vncertaine death for certaine publick good Page 128 Certaine death for Superiours and friends Page 129 Certaine death for certaine and greater publick good Page 131 Death is not the ultimate end of self-murder Page 163 Touching our deaths we are onely to be passive Page 206 Death worse than affliction Page 229 Death is not subjected by God to mans free will Page 276 Deceived Many men are deceived in their estates Page 155 Men are more deceived in the meanes than in the end Page 143 Discerne How to discerne things that differ Page 172 Destinie How conceit of destiny perverts judgement Page 201 Decrees Mans ignorance of Gods decree Page 204 No man is saved for fulfilling the will of Gods decree Page 205 The will of Gods decree none can overthrow ibid. Defence In defence of Religion what is to be done Page 144 Deficiency of man in Adam and in himselfe to be saved Page 59. unto 66. Degrees Of the degrees of sin Page 89 Denomination is given from habit and practise Page 175 Deodands How self-murderers goods be deodands Page 278. 299 Desire of death lawfull and unlawfull Page 257 Desperation cause of wicked revenge of sin upon ones selfe Page 235 Desperation a degree of entrance into self-murder Page 256 Destroy To destroy is the effect and end of self-murder Page 160 Destruction For destruction way is made by ignorance Page 210 Die To die in what estate is bad Page 281 Difference of sins Page 76 Difference betweene direct and indirect self-murder Page 85 Direct bodily self-murder defined Page 84 How direct bodily self-murder is greater than indirect Page 88 Direct bodily self-murder what it is in the nature of it Page 159 Of direct self-murderers Page 175 Direct self-murder is a morall and mortall act Page 159 Disappointment of mens passions and affections Page 219 Discontentment cause of self-murder ibid. Disease Of the same disease all are sick Page 180 Inbred diseases occasioning self-murder Page 212 Disposition Mans disposition is cause of easinesse to do evill Page 184 Distrust Wee ought to distrust our selves Page 57 Divell The divels malice against the truth and Church by self-murder Page 177 The divell hinders good and furthers evill Page 184 Who bee forward to obey the divell Page 206 Of the divels motions cause of self-murder Page 246 Whence the divell hath his power ibid What persons the divell haunts most and how he tempts Page 247 Duels The unlawfulnesse of duels Page 114 Dutie of divine commands is not to be omitted Page 146 Of the kinds of duties Page 147 Of neglect of duties Page 260 Mans dutie marred by self-murder Page 272 E Election Of election of meanes to self-murder Page 185 End The same end severall wayes attained Page 89 Our last end crossed by self-murder Page 279 Error in judgement Page 192 Error of understanding the Scripture how to be prevented Page 199 Mens errour about decree and destiny Page 204 Men are strong to beleeve errours Page 206 Estate Of calamities upon mens estates Page 214 The present estate of the godly is then best for them Page 245 Evill How and why evill cleaves to good Page 3 How by doing evill men mis-spend their lives Page 19 Evill of commission how to be avoided Page 150 Evils of sin determinate by lawes of God and nature Page 151 Evill cannot be an end Page 163 From evils to be freed Heathens murdered themselves Page 179 It is easie to doe evill Page 184. 186 Of evill of sinne there is no proper cause Page 191 Evill of sin brings shame Page 223 Future evill is but contingent Page 240 Evill not to bee done to accomplish good Page 241 Examples By examples self-murderers not deterred Page 282 Vse of examples not to be rules ibid. Examples
be used by the tempted privatly and publickly with others against the temptations to self-murder with the grounds of hope of comfortable successe to prevaile against them Page 322 § 4. Of the course that others without or against the wil of the tempted are to use to save him against the temptations and danger of self-murder Page 324 And lastly the conclusion shewing the great benefit of recovery from the temptations and danger of self-murder by the use of the former course Page 326 LIFES PRESERVATIVE AGAINST SELF-KILLING CHAP. 1. The generall description of Self-murder §. 1. Concerning life and death Life and death things of great importance and much to be regarded are not rightly cared for LIfe and Death are two things of the greatest importance in this world both in respect of what they are and whereto they tend that is their Essence and the great consequences that depend upon them and yet there is nothing wherof many men are more regardlesse than of their lives how wretchedly they spend and end them and of their Deaths how desperately they incurre and contract them casting themselves into the danger of it by the hands of others or of themselves although the sinnes in which they die can never afterwards be recovered or eternall destruction be avoided And therefore considering the dangerous and damnable practise of divers persons desperately destroying their owne lives and murdering themselves with so great prejudice to the Honour of God and his truth imbraced amongst us and with so much hurt to themselves and others I have adventured to treat more largely of the point of self-murder than yet I have seene the same done by others Touching which I will first describe in generall what it is §. 2. Self-murder described What it is Self-murder is the voluntary destroying of a mans owne life by himselfe or his owne meanes and procurement 1. In which description we are for the better understanding of it to consider First the object of self-murder and that is the life of man 2. Secondly the act it selfe which is the voluntary taking away of life or unjustly destroying of it which makes it to be murder 3. Thirdly the efficient cause or meanes of the destruction of mans life and that in this case is a mans owne selfe by his owne procurement which specifies the act and makes it to be properly self-murder §. 3. Self-murder is knowne by life Life In explicating these in order I will begin at life as first in nature and more auspicable which is the object of self-murder For self-murder being death and death being onely a privation it cannot be knowne what it is but by the knowledge of life which is its contrarie for no privation can be defined in regard of its want of entitie in it selfe but by its opposite habit as no man that knows not in some measure what light is can know what darknesse is Evill cleaves to good And self-murder being in it selfe evill it cannot be but in and about that thing which of it selfe is good 1. For evill cleaves and adheres to good for two reasons first that it may subsist which extra subjectum bonum without the subject of good cannot be for evill is like to the disease called the woolfe which maintains it self by eating feeding upon the body wherein it is For as non datur summum malum nec datur merum malum per se existens There is nothing absolutely evill neither is there a meere evill subsisting by it selfe but in that which is good 2. Secondly evill adheres to that which is good that it may convert and turne the good subject wherein it is into the quality of it selfe so making it nought and destroying it as loaven that sowreth the whole lump wherein it is the nature of all evill is ever active and destructive of that good that entertaines it or that it is exercised about it being as the worm that destroyes the tree wherein it breeds and harbours Observe All things are subject in this world to contraric passions From whence we may observe that as all created substances are mutable so are they capable of and subject unto contrary passions and qualities in this world and by how much the more excellent any good thing in this world is so much the worse is the contrary evill that attends upon and corrupts it and therefore the better that any created thing is on earth the more danger it is in and needs the greater care and indeavour to be had about it to preserve it against its opposite evill so life being of the nature and number of the best things it is in danger of the worst evils and therefore is with the greater care and circumspection to be watched over for its preservation CHAP. 2. Of the kindes of the life of man THat we may know what life is because there be divers kinds of it which it is that in self murder is destroyed by death we are to consider there are two kinds of the life of man Kinds of life naturall and spirituall the first is naturall the second is spirituall according as he consists of two natures and is an inhabitant of two worlds being made of heaven and earth to inhabit both there is no creature in the world that consists of such various different composition as man nor is indowed with such multiplicity of vitall operations or such variety of properties and qualities fitted for diversity of actions of so many kindes and thereupon is subject to so many and opposite motions and temptations Observ Mans care must be of two lives From the divers kindes of mans life we may observe that mans care must not bee as the brute beasts to live according to the instinct of nature but that he may live by a supernaturall principle and divine direction a spirituall life even here in this naturall life as he expects to arrive and attaine to a more excellent and heavenly end of advancement than other earthly creatures do or shall and there is a taske of more and greater porformances required to be done by him than from any other creature on earth CHAP. 3. Of naturall life in generall §. 1. of divers sorts of life Kindes of naturall life FOr our better understanding of naturall life wee are generally to consider that according to the distinction of earthly living creatures there be three kindes of naturall lives 1. Of vegetation First that which is called the life of vegetation which is the life of trees plants corne and the like whereby they grow and encrease both in their severall kindes and in their individuals 2. Life of sense Secondly the life of sense whereby irrationall and sensitive creatures do besides their life of vegetation common with plants live inlived with sense and motion Now these two kindes of lives considered specifically in the aforesaid severall kindes of creatures fall not under the
fulfill the lusts thereof nor yet is it to live according to the flesh directing our waies by our owne carnall wisdome and will but thereby is intimated living in a fraile and sinfull body subject to manifold troubles and infirmities in which regard it is a fading and temporary life as Saint Iames tels us Iam. 4.14 comparing it to a vapour that vanisheth away With the which life all men that come into this world are indowed as Saint Iohn affirmes Ioh. 1.9 and this naturall life is onely for this sublunary world and not for the world to come for our lives do differ according to our estates and places wherein we are to live §. 2. The sweetnesse of naturall life In what respect naturall life is sweet Even this naturall life is sweet in regard of the union of the soule and body together and in respect of the preservation of our persons by it and for the workes that we may doe in it for Gods glory and our owne salvation 1. So that the lesse certainty that a man hath of a better life the more deare this should be unto him that therein he may enjoy the present and may provide for a better 2. and also the more zeale and desire that a man hath to doe good in glorifying of God and in benefiting of others and the more care he hath of advancement of his owne eternall happinesse the more is hee to respect his life wherein the same is to be done §. 3. The losse of naturall life is horrible and painefull How death is naturally horrible God hath so ordained that the departure of the soule from the body should ordinarily be horrible to mans apprehension and with paine and griese not onely in respect of parting two such sweet Companions which separated are imperfect the one without the other but also in respect of the utter destruction of their common naturall personall life and the cutting off of all these comfortable actions and affections that depend upon and do tend to the perfection of the same Which is to the end that man may naturally endeavour the preservation of his life against all dangers and may abhorre self-murder that deprives him of so much good §. 4. How life is deare and precious Life deare There is nothing in the world more deare to a man than his life in which regard it was that Satan said to the Lord touching Iob all that a man hath will he give for his life Iob. 2.4 and for the excellency and use of it Salomon calls it the precious life Prov. 6.26 and therefore he should not part from it or cast it away for a trifle or in a humour specially seeing he can never redeeme or recover it againe from death a Psal 49.7 Reasons 1 It preserves the person in being For three reasons especially is the life of man precious First because by it the person of man is preserved in its esse or being by personall union of soule and body which otherwise would be dissolved and undone Now betweene being and not being there is so vast a distance and opposition that a creature doth naturally desire rather to live miseraebly than not to live as is apparent by that naturall instinct whereby the creature to save its life or vitall parts objects and offers its lesse principall members to undergoe the danger choosing rather to live mutilate and wretched than for prevention thereof to die For the losse of life is not onely irrevocable and unmatchable in worth compared with that worldly thing for which it is exchanged but also it includes all other worldly losses in it and therefore it is farre the greatest losse that man can suffer 2 It makes capable of comfort Secondly it is by life that the creature is capable of any comfort or of the use and benefit of the blessings of good things that God gives us to rejoyce in in this world for to a dead man all this world and pleasure of it is gone and to him that wants sense the use and delight of all sensible things is lost in which respect Solomon saith to him that is joyned to all the living there is hope for a living Dog is better than a dead Lyon Eccles 9.4 so it is under God by the blessing of life that other good things are blessings to us and that the miseries and calamities that betide us here are lesse evills than death for that partiall and initiall evills are ever lesse than those that are compleate and full those that afflict than those that extinguish 3. For the use of it Thirdly life is precious for the use and improvement of it 1 To Gods glory First to Gods glory in spending of it in manner according to his holy word with respect to God for the end that we aime at in which regard godly Hezekiah said that not the dead but the living praise God a Esay 38.18 19. 2 To others Secondly the preciousnesse of mans life is seene in the use of it for the good that thereby is done to others both in civill and divine good offices in Church and Common-wealth as the Apostle Paul confesseth of himselfe that he did live for the spirituall benefit of the Philippians Phil. 1.24 25. As for the dead they are unprofitable to the living as appeares by Esay 63.16 saying that Abraham is ignorant of us and the Psalmist tels us that we should not put our trust in Princes nor in the sonne of man in whom there is no help and then gives the reason of it His breath goeth forth he returneth to his earth in that very day his thoughts perish b Psal 46.304 3 To a mans selfe Thirdly the excellencie and necessity of life is seene in the use and benefit of it to a mans selfe in fitting him for heaven by working up of his salvation here in this life and in advancing himselfe in glory both by adorning his person with divine and saving graces of Gods spirit and also by holy actuall obedience and dutifull performances to God in tract of living For if a man doe not at all live this naturall life he cannot be capable of eternall life and although he do live this naturall life yet if he do not endeavour to extend and employ it to the attainment of salvation but that it be cut off before salvation be wrought he cannot but of necessity perish for ever For as the tree falls so it shall lye there is no amendment of our estate and errors after death as appeares by the parable of the rich man Luke 16.25 26. if God doe give a man life and time he puts a price into his hand and gives him a great blessing for his advancement to a better life And therefore in all the aforesaid respects it is apparent that life is the most precious thing that God bestowes upon man whereby all other blessings to us are expressed as appeares by Abrahams
subjected to manifold sufferings here in this life and is hindered from that ease and advancement that freed out of the body it might have Answer to 1. But touching the first it should make us the more tender over it chary to use it and to consider that by self-murderously destroying our bodies wee do contaminate and defile our soules whereby wee make them far more vile than any carion can be seeing sinne is the onely excrement and morall defilement for which God detests and abhorres men as loathsome Ansvver to 2. For answer to the second it is to be observed that by self-murder of the body a man is so farre from bettering of himselfe that thereby he deprives himselfe of happinesse and subjects himselfe to that wofull misety which otherwise living he might escape and therefore our bodies and naturall lives are to be respected and cherished not onely for their worth but also for their use for which God hath given them to us So that we are not to force a divorce of those things that God hath coupled so neere together nor to thrust away or reject that which God requires us not then and that way to lay downe CHAP. 10. Of the kindes of bodily self-murder §. 1. Direct and indirect self-murder defined 1. Direct self-murder THe kindes of bodily self-murder are two Direct and Indirect Self-murder is not such a generall as in the Schooles is called Genus univocum so predicated of them both as equally communicating it self to both those species or specialls under it but is genus analogum ab uno or commune genus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for that the same doth properly and primarily belong to direct self-murder Direct bodily self-murder is the killing of a mans bodie or naturall life by himself or his owne meanes advisedly wittingly and willingly intending and effecting his owne death 2. Indirect self-murder Indirect self-murder of the body is when a man advisedly wittingly and willingly intends and doth that which he knowes may be of it self the meanes of the destruction of his naturall life Although he doth not purposely intend to kill himself thereby Or it is the killing of a mans owne body by unlawfull either morall or naturall meanes of his owne using without intending of his death thereby §. 2. Of the differences between direct and indirect self-murder 1. They differ in their ends The proper differences between direct and indirect self-murderers consists specially in three things First in the ends directly and immediately intended by the self-murderers of both kindes in their severall acts the end that is immediately intended in direct self-murder is death it self of their bodies that kill themselves although not for it self but in respect of some benefit conceited to be had thereby which is their ultimate end whereunto death is in the murderers intention subordinate as for a man to kill himself that he may be out of trouble The end that in indirect self-murder is immediately aimed at is the attainment of some good really or apparent in or by the meanes that an indirect self-murderer doth use without any respect or expectation of death thereupon ensuing as in surfeiting by drunkennesse or gluttony 2. In their meanes Secondly they differ in the meanes that are used by them for accomplishing those ends in direct self-murder the meanes abused to that effect and end are not proper of themselves nor by Gods appointment but are perverted by him that kills himself thereby as knives or the like for God never appointed meanes for any man lawfully to use for effecting that which he would never have men to doe a direct self-murderer uses not the meanes for any pleasure he hath in them but for the consequent effects that he intends by them In indirect self-murder the meanes and course used are such as doe properly kill in the end if that they bee persisted in as drunkennesse and the like although they have in them a shew of present good which gives the users of them a kinde of delight and contentment in them whereof they shall be disappointed when in the end they shall in stead thereof finde death which they least expected and most abhorred and would resist the same if it were inferred or offered to them by others 3. In the good aimed at Thirdly direct and indirect self-murder doe differ in the good that is aimed at by them and in the time wherein they looke to enjoy it A direct self-murderer doth fancy his good intended by him in his act of self-murder not to be in the meanes that he uses to kill himself but in or by death in his freedome from evill or enjoying of good the time of his reaping of which benefit he conceives to be after that he is dead and gone An indirect self-murderer conceits the good that hee aymes at by his course to bee and rest in the very meanes themselves that he uses therein expecting the present enjoyment thereof before and not after his death the cogitations and inflicting whereof hee abhorres although he doe prosecute with eager delight the courses that doe hasten and bring his death §. 3. How indirect self-murder is greater in some respects than direct Which of them is the greater sinne It is demanded whether direct or indirect self-murder be the greater sinne Answer In some respects Indirect self-murder I answer if we consider the freenesse of the will with lesse inforcement and with more delight prosecuting those deadly courses of indirect self-murder there can be in that respect lesse said to excuse it than for direct self-murder 1. For freenesse of willing An indirect self-murderer is at last in respect of the mortall meanes he uses and persists in untill the effect be accomplished as sure of death which he abhorres as a direct self-murderer is of the same that he desires and indeavours for and longs after 2. Obstinatenesse Againe an indirect self-murderer is more hardly diverted from his unlawfull dangerous course than at first a direct self-murderer Because this man may be sooner convinced of the vilenesse of his purposed fact in excuse whereof he hath so little to say and also the danger of it is more apparent and ghastfull to the mind that advisedly in cold blood considers of it The other is taken up with looking upon the present contentment in the meanes that he uses not considering death and danger thereupon attending and insuing but self-deceives himselfe with excuses and colourable pretenses and so doth wink as it were that he may not see the blow of death that he is giving himselfe with his owne hands Of direct self murder the cause or occasion is ordinarily from discontentment and sorrow but of Indirect self murder the cause commonly is pleasure and delight Delores serre sacilius est quam â—â—voluptatibus absunere Arist 3 Eth. c. 12. of these two motives pleasure is the strongest and their motion
most violent and indivertible that are led by it because it moves with nature and not against it and hath will in men more propense that way which by griefe is rather forced than seconded §. 4. How absolutly direct self-murder is the greatest Direct self-murder is the greater sinne and why Notwithstanding Direct self-murder is the farre more grievous sin in three respects 1. End intended First in respect of the direct intention of the will and of its immediate object of murder of a mans selfe whereby it partakes more properly and fully of the nature of self-murder than indirect self-murder doth For what is under a common Genus or generall directly partakes more of the nature of that Genus than that which is under it but by reduction or indirectly So then although direct and indirect self-murder be both self-murder Etiamsiaequè non tamen aequaliter yet they are not equall self-murder but the former is the greater 2. The consequences of their acts Secondly for the consequences of the acts of them both direct self-murder brings more certaine and sudden inevitable destruction than indirect which in this latter may better be prevented by having time of repentance than it can be in the former and death in this is an accidentall effect besides the intention of the agent and nature of the meanes which in the former is perse and of the nature of the action so purposely ordered to that end 3. Company of other sinnes Thirdly direct self-murder hath more and greater sinnes complicated in it than indirect hath both by extension in kindes and number against God others and our selves and also for intension in degrees by reason of circumstances of the party doing the same against the light and reluctancie of nature with direct intention to kill himselfe §. 5. Of the degrees of sinne and how to escape the greatest and its end Vses The uses of this doctrine of the distinction of self-murder into direct and indirect and of the differences betweene them are specially two 1. Degrees of sin First to teach us that there are differences and degrees in the same kindes of sinnes some being more grievous than other some So that although we be not guilty of sinne in the same degree yet we may be in the same kinde as appeares by the Iewes convicted in their consciences of uncleannesse although they were not taken in the act as the Woman was Iohn 8.9 How to escape great sins And therefore to escape falling into the highest degrees of sinne wee should be carefull to avoide and to be free of the same generall kindes of sinne both as they are unformed and confused in originall corruption as in their seminall Chaos and also as they are formed in their distinct habits so improperly called because after the manner of habits they either are in the place of true habits or unite themselves in and with them that they may both brooke one common name and so we should labour to be cleare of sinne both habitually and actually Observe Wee should not bee conceited and blesse our selves so much because we are not fallen into the fowlest degrees of sinne as we should be humble and penitently confesse our guiltinesse in the kindes thereof the difference herein being betweene us and others but in magis and minus in greater and lesser where the least degree makes way and disposes us for the greatest and makes us liable to the same kinde of punishment although not to the same measure of it The same end severall vvaies attained The second use serves to instruct us that men doe come to the same dismall ends as Saul and others did by severall courses being guilty of their owne deaths in diverse manners as men may come into the same prison at and by severall doores Comparison For although a man can draw a right or straight line betwixt the same points but one way yet he may draw crooked lines many waies and they all be terminated in the same points Therefore as a man would beware of any evill end so should he shunne all the courses that may lead or bring him to it For it is no benefit to a man in misery to consider how and by what sinfull course hee came thither so long as he is in that woefull state Wee see many men come and end their daies together upon the same Gallowes but by severall courses and differing crimes some for pettie treason some for wilfull murder some for burglary some for pettie larceny and yet to him that is hanged for the lesser offence it is small ease and comfort because he suffers not for a greater so long as it is for any that he dies CHAP. II. Of Indirect self-murder of the body §. 1. Why Indirect self-murder is first treated of Indirect self-murder is handled first ALthough that by logicall method I should treat first of Direct self-murder because that which is directly under a Genus or generall head should bee handled before that which is but indirectly under it for the neerenesse thereof unto the same and for the light that it may afford for the better understanding of the other yet for all that I will heere begin with indirect self-murder for three causes Reasons 1. Imitation of nature First because I will herein imitate nature which proceeds frō things lesse perfect tothings more perfect because perfectiō is her ultimate end Indirect self-murder is lesse perfect self-murder than direct self-murder because the Genus of self-murder agrees more properly and primarily to direct self-murder than to indirect 2. Precedency in execution Secondly indirect self-murder is ordinarily both the way and the cause of direct self-murder and therefore may be fitly treated of first the rather because direct self-murder never goeth before indirect but this goeth often before and without that 3. End intended Thirdly because my intention is to insist specially upon direct self-murder and by meanes of it onely doe I speake of indirect self-murder therefore I purpose first to dispatch it as an accessary to the other which I principally intend as my last end in this treatise therewithall to conclude the same §. 2. Of Indirect self-murder by omission How indirect self-murder is performed Having shewed what indirect self-murder is and how it is differenced from direct self-murder I will now declare how men doe fall into the same which is done two waies First by omission Secondly by commission 1. By omission By omission a man may indirectly murder himselfe being the deficient cause of the preservation of his life two waies either in a physicall naturall manner or in a morall meritorious course §. 3. Of indirect self-murder by omission physically wrought Wayes how 1. Physically diverse waies First physically and after a naturall manner a man may indirectly murder himselfe divers waies as 1. Neglect of food First a man may indirectly murder himselfe by
marvell that one man endeavours the ruine and destruction of another when we see how desperately and eagerly they doe the same against themselves For who can expect better respect and usage from any man than he gives to himselfe or is in him to performe Some difference there is in the affection and intention of betternesse to himselfe but his reall performances are to himselfe worst Thus having declared what indirect self-murder is and how it is diversly procured and committed now I will shew certaine exempt cases which although in the materiality of the facts they differ not from indirect self-murder yet in the formality of their acting are much discrepant §. 15. Of certaine exempt Cases Exempt cases Three cases there are wherein men are warrantably to expose their bodies to the apparent danger of death without perill of self-murder or just blame of guiltinesse of their owne deaths 1. By calling First when a man hath a lawfull calling generall or particular which without danger of losse of his life in discharging thereof he cannot execute then is he to adventure his life that he may doe his duty which otherwise cannot be performed committing himselfe to Gods protection and disposall As Peter did in comming downe out of the Ship to walke upon the Sea when Christ commanded him a Mat. 14.29 and as Sampson in execution of his office of Iudge against his enemies pulled downe the house whereby hee with them did perish b Judges 16. Pacchtarius ad Januarium In fine obitus sui sub Martyrii passione David a Mauden in praeceptum 6. discurs decim and is commended among the faithfull Heb. 11.32 whom Bacchiarius an ancient Author calls a Martyr of which David a Mauden gives the reason quia illae quae ad Martyrium requiruntur conditiones in ipso reperiuntur the things requisite for Martyrdome were found in him being a person reconciled to God and dying for Gods glory and in defence of the truth and by a warrantable calling of divine instinct and supernaturall ability And we see that when God did call Moses to come up into the mount there to die he obeyed and went willingly and wittingly unto his owne death Deut. 34. By this rule souldiers and servants taking wages or otherwise bound to fight for their lives or at the command of their superiours are bound as Mauden sayes ex justitia by the law of justice to expose their lives to death in discharge of their duty to obey and protect their superiours Reasons of incouragement The reasons of incouragement to undertake such mortall adventures are specially two First our knowledge and assurance that God whom herein wee are to respect and obey originally or secondarily commanding us will either protect us in our wayes and undertakings or will so dispose of us as shall be best for us with comfort and honour in and after our death Knowledge in which respect both Plato pro Socrate and also Aristotle affirme that honest a mors turpi vitae est praeferenda An honourable death is to be preferred before a shamefull life 2. Benefit of death Secondly the feare of the losse of our lives should bee no remora or hinderance to our dutifull performances because our deaths in this manner may be the medium or meanes to the end that is better than our lives Wee see that if a thing destinated to a certaine end doe at any time crosse or hinder the attaining of that end in that respect it is to be deemed evill and to be rejected as our Saviour commands that if our eye cause us to offend then pull it out and in like case to cut off our hand or foote Mat. 5.30 which is done by mortification and grace making them as uselesse to any scandalous courses as if they were cut off in semblable manner as men throw away their armour to save their lives by slight in a hot pursuit of their enemies and as men at Sea throw their goods into the water to save themselves §. 16. A particular question about souldiers flying resolved Abâ—ut souldiers a case of conscience Question A question may be here moved whether it be in conscience lawfull for any souldier out of feare of death upon his owne apprehensions to flee and runne away to save his life before a signall command or example bee given him by his Commander so to doe Answer Souldiers are to stand I answer for the fact it is true nothing is more frequently done in warre than so to runne away in disorderly manner because feare bereaves men of their use and command of reason and also self-love makes every man more carefull of his owne particular than of the publike things that are neerest doe most affect extremities of dangers convert all a mans thoughts to thinke how then to preserve himselfe But for the morall lawfulnesse of that course it appeares not to me yea rather I conceive that although present death stood ready before them to swallow them up they are not to turne their backs to leave their stations and runne away without due crder signall or example of their Commanders Because such desertion of their Commanders and fellowes in distresse is a betraying of them into their enemies hands Againe the greatest destruction and ruine of an Army comes by disorderly flight wherein every man is objected to the enemies execution Whereas by resolution and couragious resisting to death many victories are gotten with the preservation of the body of an Army Finally if the publike doe miscary our particular cannot bee safe but those that escape may in regard of their after-miseries wish that they had fallen in the army by the sword of their enemies We are bound to attribute so much to the wisdome and valour of our Commanders that they will not cast away the lives of their men but upon apparent possibilities of victory or preservation by opposition although we see it not Helps so to do 1. Faith The helps to enable us to this high courage of performing of duty are two First Faith both for the goodnesse of our estate in Christ to Godward wherby we may be assured of everlasting life and glory when we die and also for the lawfulnesse of our calling and imployment in that service wherein death attaches us that we may as comfortably there end our dayes as if we dyed upon our beds being perswaded of our future happy condition and that our death in that manner is more usefull to men and more acceptable to God than our lives 2. Resolution Secondly undaunted resolution to be obedient in doing our duties considering that obedience is better than sacrifice although in doing thereof wee doe perish For for to enjoy vertue and union with God which confists in obedience to Gods will is better than life without them §. 17. The second exempt case about venturing of life which is upon urgent necessity The second Case Necessity in three
the publike good is to be preferred before our owne private which argueth the greater charity for extension of it abroad and as we are not made every one for himselfe onely but for the good one of another So should wee endeavour the same by life and death as the Apostle commands that we should not looke every man on his owne things but every man also on the things of others Phil. 2.4 In the publike good the good of every particular is comprehended and therefore the members severally considered are to expose themselves to suffer for the good and preservation of the Whole Thomas of Aquine sayes well that Charitas communia propriis anteponit a Tho 2.2 quaest 26. arlic 4. ad 3. Charity preferres the publike before the private In this also David a Mauden is cleare when he sayes in his aforenamed discourse Laudabiliter facit qui pro bono publico se periculo exponit Sicut enim in naturalibus pars una corporis rectè periculo exponitur pro servando toto corpore ita in politicis particulare Reipub. membrum pro servanda tota Republica That man doth commendably that exposes himselfe to danger for the publike good as even in naturall things one part of the body is rightly exposed to save the whole body so also in things politique a particular member of the common wealth is to be exposed for to save the whole And therefore the Prophet David upon this ground accompanied with a speciall instinct and motion of the Spirit for the generall good of his nation undertooke with the perill of his life a dangerous combate against the Gyant Goliah b 1 Sam. 17. Caiaphas did tell a truth when he said that it was better that one man should die for the people than that the whole Nation should perish c John 11.50 Eleazar is commended Qui se in mortem dedit ut populum suum liberaret Who gave himselfe that he might deliver his people sayes Mauden Examples of this practice are frequent among the Heathen and by them celebrated with greate praise As Codrus the Athenian King if I be not mistaken who thrust himselfe into death among his enemies that hee might procure victory to his people according to the Oracle Also of Curtius the Romane it is said that Se pro Republica praecipitavit in hiatum terrae for preservation of the common-wealth hee did throw himselfe into a gulfe of the earth But of this kinde many might be alleadged Vpon this ground it is that the keeping of a Passe the defending of a Town or Fort or the making of a Stand to check the pursuing enemy may be committed to a few against an unresistable multitude of enemies which charge and service those few are not to decline nor disert and quitt although they doe foresee that in that service they must all die upon the place when it is apparent that by the losse of the lives of those few after that brave manner the lives of many others are preserved with a more generall publike good of that body and State whereof they are members So Sampson-like doing more good by their thus dying than they ever did or could by otherwise living §. 19. Of certaine questions resolved Questions 1. About a man-flayer for whose sake his friends are pursued to death To this point belongs the decision of divers questions As first if a man have killed another and escaped for revenge whereof the kindred and friends of the slaine in their pursuit of the manslayer for justice doe fall upon his kindred and friends that favour or entertaine him whereby may follow the effusion of much innocent blood where there is not sufficient power and authority to order and protect men against such outrages then is such a manslayer bound in conscience to put himselfe betweene his friends and such harme and to offer himselfe a sacrifice to appease wrath and to prevent a more generall bloodshed mortality and deadly feud Whereby for his sake many of his dearest friends might perish It is better that one should die for preserving of many than that many should die for preserving one of no more worth and use than any one of the other which is apparent by Ioabs demand in his pursuit of Sheba at Abel of Bethmaachah requiring him to bee delivered up to him upon promise that he would depart from the City which was done accordingly a 2 Sam. 20.21 §. 20. About a man under deadly displeasure of Superiours Question 2. Secondly if a man be fallen so farre under the displeasure of his Prince or State although unjustly and undeservedly that they pursue him with that eagernesse to death that for his sake and life a storme of destruction is like to light upon and consume his dearest and nearest friends then ought he for their safety to put himselfe into the hands of implacable authority to bee thereby heaved as Ionas a Jonah 2.15 into the high grown sea of Superiours displeasure that the same may cease from the raging thereof Which practise and care seemes to have beene used by our Saviour Christ when he said if you seeke me let these go their way b Iohn 18.8 to make a party if hee were able to resist were to make an innocent man guilty of rebellion and the meanes of more generall ruine An objection If it be replied that self-love is against this course and that the preservation of justice is to be preferred above many mens lives and that such yeelding doth condemne the sufferer as guilty and encourages the persecutors in their injustice Answer 1. About love I answer that the love of the whole or more generall body or principaller parts thereof is to be preferred before the love of any particular or inferiour member of the body as is cleared by what is spoken already 2. About Justice To the second I reply that of justice in generall it is true that it is to be preferred before the bodies and lives of many men 1. In generall because neither trade humane society nor the world can consist without it and therefore it is that for maintenance therof Kingdome is justly armed against Kingdome to reduce and keepe those to justice that otherwise transgressing the same would confound all in tyrannie or anarchy 2. In particular But the case is not so in particular execution of justice about every individuall person when by seeking or preserving of Iustice in particulars wee open a way for greater injustice using a medicine worse than the disease But our Saviour Christ fully cleares this point in the fift of Mathew when he saies Yee have heard that it hath beene said an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth but I say unto you that yee resist not evill but whosoever shall smite thee on the right Cheeke turne to him the other also And if any man sue thee at the Law and take away thy
effect the killing of a mans selfe by his owne hands or meanes whereby it is perfected and consummated with self-perdition in a wicked conspiracy of self-destruction by soul and body against themselves Observe Abuse of power and of obedience Wherein is to be observed and condemned both the wretched abuse of the authority and power of mans understanding and will directing and commanding the inferiour faculties and body to doe that which tends directly to destruction both of their parts and-whole and also we may see herein a patterne of unwarrantable obedience in the bodies yeelding to doe that which is unlawfull and ruinates it selfe the superiority of the understanding derstanding and will frees not the body from blame for then why should it suffer with the soule for that act But the sin is the greater by how much the further it extends to involve partizans or accessaries and makes many guilty of the same crime who are to be condemned not only for the fact done by them but also for violating the rights and duties of their places in unlawfully commanding and obeying in that which is evill contrary to an higher rule §. 2. Of the imaginary good conceited to bee in self-murder Object Excl cannot be an end It may be objected that for a man advisedly wittingly and willingly to propound to himselfe and to ayme at that for his end that is his destruction is against nature because the end is or ought ever to be the perfection of the thing that desires it and endeavours to have it and good only is desirable and to be sought after which may content us in the enjoying thereof and therefore the conclusion may seeme to be good that no man can advisedly wittingly and willingly purpose and endeavour to kill himselfe Answ Death is not the ultimate cad Whereunto may be answered although death bee the immediate end intended and sought in direct self-murder yet it is not the ultimate or last end neither is it sought for at any time for it selfe but accidentally and for another thing which is good for obtaining whereof a self-murderer would use that as a meanes Comparison As Physick is immediately desired and taken not for it selfe but for health thereby which is the patients ultimate end in taking of medicines therefore one sayes Mors ut malum non estoptabilis nec optatur per se sed gratiâ alteriê° Death as it is an evill thing is not desirable neither is it of it selfe desired but in respect of some other thing and so is desired per consequutionem non per se by consequution and not of it selfe for death is never desired by a naturall appetite as opposite to that appetite or desire that followes reason either right or depraved because nature is materiatum quid some materiated thing belonging to the person in respect both of matter and forme soule and body so long as they are united and therefore ever desired the good and preservation of the person in that union The imaginary good of self-murder The good ultimately intended and conceited to bee obtained by self-murder is twofold 1. Freedome from evill First freedome from greater evill felt or feared reall or but imaginary which in a self-murderers opinion is no other way avoidable and they despaire to be able to beare it measuring themselves by themselves so as if they cannot shake off the yoke then will they violently dissolve themselves Causes 1. Conceited badnesse of estate The true causes hereof are first the self-murderers conceit that his present or feared condition is worse than any other that can betide him or that he can shift into by death 2. Want of meanes Secondly his want of having or foreseeing meanes of prevention or deliverance from the evils that he despaires to be able to beare causes him to fall upon this wicked damnable course of ridding himselfe from them 3. Impatience Thirdly disobedient impatiency that will not let a man in all things submit to bee ordered by God and an evill heart of unbeliefe that hinders him from trusting and depending upon God for supportation and deliverance Note 1. By meanes of his reason man suffers Man by meanes of his understanding and reason is subject to many more miseries and troubles than any bruite beasts because he fancies many imaginary calamities to himselfe from possibilities in reason that doe as much sometimes affect and trouble the minde as if they were reall although they never be insticted And present troubles men doe aggravate in their esteeme and opinion for measure and extent beyond that which they are in truth and sense so making them needlesly the more importable 2. By meanes of memory And troubles future and past man by his imagination makes present by helpe of his memory and feare overcharging himself with the burden of more than ever God did lay upon him at once Spirituall afflictions And finally in his minde he is capable by meanes of reason of manifold spirituall afflictions farre exceeding those that are upon the body and where of no irrationall creature is capable Imagination And yet of all these troubles the greatest part is imaginary of mans owne needlesse and voluntary contracting by meanes of his abused reason and doe worke most reall and desperate effects even to self murder Although that self-murder be no fit or appropriated meanes to preserve or deliver a man from misery or troubles yet a self-murderer doth use it deeming according to the Philosophers that a lesser evill compared with a worse obtaines the place of good and is to be desired for good a Arist ad Nicom lib. 5. c. 6. Picol grad pol. Minus malum comparatu cum detertore obtinet lotie boni pro bono optabile est which is onely to be understood of the evill of punishment and not of the evill of sin for for to avoid all punishment we are to doe no sin which to doe were a greater punishment and would draw punishment more abundantly upon the doers of the same in evils of sinne there is no choise or lawfull election where all is forbidden 2. Advancement to good The second imaginary good conceited to be had by self-murder is the advancement of a mans selfe thereby to more good or to a better estate than he hath at present either to an estate really better as to absolute good in heavenly happinesse or to fancied or comparative good in comparison of greater evill in the self-murderers apprehension that he may be in an estate lesse miserable as he thinks than that is which he feeles or feares which in that respect he esteemes to be better than the present In these regards self-murderers are willing to exchange their lives by death but of evill properly there comes no good For men gather not grapes of thornes neither will any expect it that is not spiritually mad Oh miserable state of life that is more tedious to a
that are godly and wise both about what they are to do and also upon what grounds and reasons that they may not be deceived Note But this is remarkable that ever the worse the thing is that is to be done and the weaker the reasons of doing of the same are the lother the doers thereof are to reveale the same lest they should bee crossed of their purpose or shamed for their weaknesse and enterprise so disclosed §. 7. Concerning afflictions upon the body occasioning self-murder Second generall motive of self-murder Calamities The second generall motive occasioning self-murder is immoderate affectation of freedome from evill of punishment that sinfull man is liable unto for bearing of which he hath neither comfort nor strength as he apprehends The sorts of them These evills are either reall and true or but fancied and conceited and are either present or feared and are such as a self-murderer despaires either to be able of himselfe to beare or that God will uphold him in them or will deliver him from them and therefore hee resolves not to endure them but out of obstinacy of minde and will purposes to remove himselfe by self-murder from that which hee cannot remove from himselfe As wee see in part by the pettish humour of Ionah Ion. 4.8 Three sorts of them These evills whereby men take occasion to kill themselves are of three sorts 1. Vpon the body First they are those that are upon their bodies which doe also much affect their soules because of their neere union together whereby they doe make one person and doe so sympathise together that what is proper to the one nature in matter of action or passion is deemed to bee common to the other in regard of the unity of the person consisting of them both Whereupon it is that the sufferings of the body doe drive the soule into strange passions and undertakings on the bodies behalfe Evills upon the body are threefold These evills upon the body occasioning self-murder are of three kindes 1. Inbred diseases First they are inbred diseases and torments of continuall grievous painfulnesse being in the judgement of sense importable both for intensive greatnesse and also for extensive multitude Non est vivere sed valere vita or unintermitted continuance as may be the gout stone strangury racking aches furious fevers incurable gangreenes and the like desperately raging or noysome diseases Better eye out than alwayes aking from which to be rid as from an irksome long and painfull death many doe make choise to kill themselves dispatching that by a voluntary short death which they see will otherwise cost them a tedious and long death As did Pomponius Atticus Tullius Marcellinus and other like starve themselves to death thereby to cure such desperate griefes 2. Inflicted torments Secondly the evills upon the body that often occasion self-murder are either sense of inflicted torments or of ignominy by man greater and more shamefull than they can or will endure Or else they are such as they horribly feare shall be inflicted upon them if they doe live and are strongly perswaded that they shall not be able to endure the fame but that they shall if they live disgrace both themselves and their cause by their sinking under the burden or by their unseemly manner of behaviour in their troubles and therefore divers to prevent the latter and to be delivered out of the former have murderously killed themselves As Iosephus reports of Eleazar and his companions Joseph de bello Judaico lib. 7. cap. 28. who killed themselves that they might not bee punished by the Romanes but might escape from their tyranny that their wives might die undefiled and their children not taste of servile captivity Alleadging but unjustly that it was misery to live and not to die because death freeth our soules from prison unto their most pure and proper place where never after they shall be touched with calamities Vpon which motive it was that the Stoick Seneca said that for our readie dispatch every veine of our body is a way to liberty a Quarr cunque venam nostri corporis esse viam ad libertatem meaning by bleeding to death and upon this reason it was that Saul killed himselfe b 1 Sam. 31.4 and whereupon also the Iaylor would have done the like c Acts 16 27. so farre doth the forerunners and feare of death prevaile with some that the same makes them to cast themselves headlong into that which they would most shun Note 3. Want of necessaries for the body Thirdly the evils on the body whereupon some people doe precipitate themselves into the jawes of self-murder are want of necessaries of livelyhood being without meanes or hope of supply thereof whereby they and theirs depending upon them are pinched with famishing hunger starved with piercing cold vexed with intolerable oppression and neglect that makes a wise man mad Eccles 7.7 Which fills them with painfull smart for their owne particular oppresses them with sorrow and griefe to behold the miseries and to heare the ruefull complaints and lamentations of those they dearely love as of their Wives Children and neerest friends walking as living and forlorne ghosts upon the earth which possesses them with comfortlesse and hopelesse desperation especially when they consider what plenty they have had and what others their inferiours still have whose bowells of compassion they finde shut up against them and theirs An image of which estate we may see in the Lamentations of Ieremie d Iam. 2 11 14. Mine eyes do faile with teares my bowels are troubled my liver is powred upon the earth for the destruction of the daughter of my people because the children and the sucklings swouned in the streets of the City they say to their Mothers where is corne and wine When they swouned as the wounded in the streets of the City when their soule was powred out in their mothers bosome the tongue of the sucking child cleaving to the roofe of his mouth for thirst the young children aske bread and no man breaketh it unto them b Chap. 2.20 By which necessity it came to passe that women did eate their fruit and children of a span long the hands of the pitifull women have sodden their owne children they were their meate in the destruction of the daughter of my people c Cap. 4.10 according both to the threatnings of the breach of the Law d Deut. 28.53 and also to practise in besieged townes e 2 King 6.29 In which regard it is said that they that be slaine with the sword are better than they that be slaine with hunger f Lam. 4.9 Therefore diverse persons that they may prevent what they or theirs may uncomfortably doe or suffer in such felt or feared distresse doe with their owne hands kill their Wives or Children and then themselves that they may not feele or behold a greater
only good meanes that we may looke for a blessing from God upon them Actions are not good onely from intention Againe we must not measure and judge an action to be good only by the good end and intention of the doers thereof in their act of doing the same for Saul offered sacrifice a 1 Sam. 13.12 and Paul persecuted the Church b Acts 22.4 both of them with a good intention and yet for all that their actions were evill Because to make an action good there are many other things necessary than the good intention of the doers of it it is sufficient to make an action morally evill if it be defective in any thing requisite for to make it good but to be good it must be every way perfect §. 20. Concerning ambition The fifth generall motive Ambition The fifth generall motive of self-murderers to kill themselves is Ambition either to keep or get a greater good by killing themselves than they can have or enjoy by living any longer as they thinke which profitable exchange makes them thinke it both lawfull and expedient to kill themselves This good is of two kindes whereof man is ambitious to death and for which some kill themselves Kinds of good aimed at by ambition 1. Glory and praise First it is worldly glory and praise which they think to purchase to themselves Ethnicitanquam insignem fortitudinē celebrârūt by the very acting and doing of self-murder touching which the heathen hath commended such for their fortitude specially when they did it to preserve their personall liberties from falling under subjection to their enemies as did Cato to whom I may apply that of Brutus that it was the love of his countrey and excessive ambition of praise that made him to kill himselfe Amor patriae laudumque immensa cupido And when they did the same lest they should either suffer or doe any thing as they thought more disgracefull Vaine-glory and popular praise is so powerfull a motive that for the same it is said that Empedocles killed himselfe 2. A better life after death The second good for ambition whereof some kill themselves that they may hasten to attaine the same Ad assequendam gloriam aeternam is another and better life after death as did Cleombrotus who upon reading in Plato of another more happy life after this which cannot bee attained but by death did precipitate himselfe into the mouth of death and so killed himselfe as Cicero in the first booke of his Tusculan questions makes report In such esteeme was that life even with naturall men that they did willingly run into death that they might enjoy that whereof they had but a small glimpse and little assurance Which may condemne many Christians who have greater knowledge and better evidences for the same and doe so lightly regard it that for it they will not forsake their pleasures and lusts nor will doe duties of easier performance according to Gods appointment to have it Men would willingly be saved and go to heaven but by their owne wayes and courses and not by Gods although their owne bee more tedious and chargeable than his so farre is man wedded to his self-will and so ready to doe what himselfe devises Note Men are more deceived in the meanes than in the ends Men are not so much deceived in the ends that they project to themselves which commonly are good but especially the last as they are self-beguiled in the meanes and wayes that they use of their self-devising and pleasing to attaine their ends whereupon it comes to passe that so many are frustrated of their desires and expectatation For good ends which be morally and beatifically such are never got but by good meanes of Gods owne appointment whereabouts man is to deny his own will and only to follow Gods who never disappoints us thereby of good successe according to our hearts desire in the attainement of our last end Insufficiency of the former motive touching the first branch The insufficiency of the former motive of praise and fortitude justly to cause a man to kill himselfe is apparent by that which Augustine sayes of Cato that it was not fortitude but a softnesse that made him kill himselfe because he was not able to beare adversity a Non fortitudo sed mollities non potuit serre res adversas and did it out of impatiency at Caesars empire but being impatiently self-willed would not submit to Gods providence he sayes his fact was great but not good b Magnum potius sactum quam bene Fortiterille facit qui miser esse potest Sene. Epist 59. Imbecillis est ignavus qui propter dolorem moritur Arist 3. Nicomach cap. 7. Molles sunt qui amoris gratia vel paupertatis sibi mortem consciseunt non posse pati non est vera fortitudo sed magis quaedam mollities animi non valentis mala poenalia sustinere Tho. 2.2 q. 64. art 5. and further affirmes that it is pufillanimity not to be able to suffer which is a thing whereunto the weakest as women are most apt both for want of strength to endure to suffer and also for want of wisdome to make choise of that which indeed is best for them for as the Philosopher saith no man kills himselfe nisi depravata ratione c Arist Eth. lib. 3. cap. 8. but by depravation of his reason and so is as it were a mad man that is worse than a beast Praise is got by well-doing The true way and meanes for a man to gaine true honour and praise is well-doing according to the will and commandements of God as the Apostle sayes Glory honour and peace to every man that worketh good a Rom. 2.10 which extends it selfe to all eternity in the presence and with the commendation of God his holy angels and of all Gods people whereas of evill doing there comes nothing but shame and confusion eternall for even to bee commended by vaine and wicked persons for doing good casts some suspition or aspersion upon the commended much more is it disgracefull to be praised by such for evill doing which is the matter of mans shame and therefore upon that motive not to be done About the second branch the insufficiency of the motive from a better life kill ones selfe For the second branch of the aforesaid motive viz. about a better life the insufficiency thereof to make a man undertake to kill himselfe thereby the sooner to come to eternity is evident by foure particulars 1. Self-murder is not the way to heaven First self-murder being a most grievous sin it cannot be the way to heaven and life but to hell and death The Saints of God that did most long for this eternall life of happinesse and to whom their naturall lives were not deare for them to spend them to attaine it did not therfore kill themselves to have it which
nature of self-murder Objections There remaines now certaine objections to be answered which may be made in favour of proper self-murderers for their salvation which are especially three The first of them may be pretended to be taken from the nature of self-murder alledging that the same is not so hainous a sinne but that the doers thereof may bee saved 1. From the nature of self-murder First because if we consider sinnes as they are committed against the Gospell onely the sinne against the holy Ghost is called a sinne unto death a 1 Joh. 5.16 which never shall be pardoned b Mat. 12.31 Self-murder is not that sinne and therefore may seeme to bee pardonable and the doers thereof saved 2. Againe if wee do consider the sinnes committed directly agaist the Law there is none of them desperately unpardonable because they all and every of them may upon repentance be cured by the Gospell which is of equall extent to the Law to be able to repleave and save all that the Law condemnes And of the sinnes committed against the Law some as spitefull blasphemy against the Majesty of God and the like may in the true nature of them seeme to be more hainous than self-murder both in regard of their more direct and malignant opposition against God and also for their greater distance in nature from pardon Answ 1. The sin against the holy Ghost To this objection that caries with it a countenance of probability I answer first touching the argument taken from the sin against the holy Ghost it is to be considered that that sin is unpardonable and they damned that do it onely in respect of that desperate opposition whereby the committers of it do spitefully oppose and reject Christ and his Gospell the very only meanes whereby they can be saved so that there remaines no further or other way or help for salvation and also because that sinne is ever infallibly accompanied with finall impenitency which alwaies makes a man uncapable of grace and salvation which none can have but true penitents How self-murder is equivalēt to the sinne against the holy Ghost Self-murder hath that in it which is in the sin against the holy Ghost in respect whereof it damnes and is unpardonable which is both finall impenitency in regard that a self-murderer by that sinne in the perfection of the anomie of it doth so indispose himselfe and shuts up and ends his life by and in such a horrible transgression that hee cannot possibly repent nor consequently bee saved And also equivalent and answerable to that spitefull rejection of Christ his grace and Gospell in the sin against the holy Ghost by the living there is in self-murder the cutting off of one selfe by his owne hands in this death from grace and salvation to be gotten only in and by life So that in these respects self-murder is as certainly damnable and the doers thereof reprobated as is the sin against the holy Ghost and the committers thereof For although of the sin against the holy Ghost it be precisely said that it shall never be forgiven and that the committers thereof are certainely damned yet it is neither said nor is true that none but sinners against the holy Ghost have their sinnes not forgiven to them and are damned seeing the contrary is abundantly certaine and the wicked quality and impenitent disposition of some persons so depraved and vitiated by their sins makes the same to be in them unpardonable which brings them to the same finall state with sinners against the holy Ghost it matters little for a mans comfort that is to be put to death whether he be hanged for felonie or for burglarie seeing for either of them his death is the same 2. Self-murder a transcendent great sin Secondly I answer touching the comparison made betweene self-murder and other sinnes committed against the Law that self-murder is a greater sin than any that can be directly and properly committed against and within any precept of the Law for which the committers of the same may have grounded hope of forgivenesse because self-murder is a transcendent sinne as hath beene shewed in the third reason transcedents are ever larger and greater than subordinates and it is a sinne condemnable by more and stronger reasons and arguments than any other sinne committed against and within the compasse of the Law as the same is more grievously injurious to more objects and transgresses more Lawes naturall divine and humane and therefore it must needs be the greater sinne Also the estimate of the greatnesse and unpardonablenesse of sinnes as they are in offenders is not wholly to be made by consideration of their abstract nature but specially the same is to bee made by the quality and disposition of the committers of them whose personall and actionall circumstances in doing of thē much aggravats or extenuats the same For pardon or not pardon of sins depends more upon the penitencie or impenitency of the offenders than upon the nature of their sins absolutly and abstractly considered the fact of self murder is such a sinne as no man penitently disposed can commit and it cuts him that doth it off finally from all repentance and consequently from salvation Self-murder most dangerous for a mans soule Of all sinnes against the Law self-murder is most dangerous and pernicious for a mans soule to bring it to damnation both because it excludes all care and meanes of a mans salvation which if a self-murderer did regard he would not venture in the last period of his life upon a course so contrary to it and also it puts the self-murderer into such an estate and disposition of sinfulnesse and aversenesse from God and his will in pursuing of his owne wicked lust that he is not nor can be capable of grace nor is in the way of salvation whereunto self-murder is most contrary by his last act of horrible sin in the closure of his life And therefore it is apparent that for any thing in this objection alledged there is nothing from the nature of the sin of self-murder properly so called that can give any comfort of salvation to self-murderers or can warrant us to hold probably and in the judgement of charity that they are not all generally considered utterly damned §. 10. Touching Examples of self-killers 2. Object Is from examples The second objection that may be made in favour of the salvation of self-murderers is taken from examples of Sampson Pelagia and many others that in the Primitive Church killed themselves and are acknowledged to be saved Therefore it may seeme probable that some self-murderers may be saved Answers 1. That Sampson is no self-murderer To this objection I answer first touching Sampson that he was no self-murderer directly nor in that point of so dying indirectly the reasons whereof are evident Reasons 1. First because his intention will and endeavours were not directly or primarily but only
how Page 262 The Law of nature is to be observed Page 269 Lawes of men condemne self-murder Page 277 Lawes given to men are bounded Page 294 Lawfull self-killing Page 54 Vpon lawfull calling how to adventure life Page 125 Leagues Of Leagues Page 119 Letter The Letter of the Scripture is not to be followed contrary to the true meaning Page 199 Lets of endeavour after spirituall life Page 66 Life is a thing of great importance Page 1 Of the kinds of the life of man Page 4 How mans life may be lost 43. and how taken away Page 45 Life unsure 82. It is the object of self-murder Page 159 Life eternall is here begun Page 245 Life temporary is a blessing Page 275 Light of the Spirit twofold Page 200 Live Mans care to live well Page 206 To live by faith Page 313 Love Of love and to love our neighbours as our selves expounded Page 129 Love is destroyed by self-murder Page 272 Lusts Curbing of our lusts is a good revenge upon our selves for our sins Page 234 M Mad men killing themselves Page 250 Madnesse of self-murderers Page 186 Magistrate A Soveraigne Magistrate for no crime may slay himselfe nor be slaine by his subjects Page 264 Man only is subject to self-murder Page 6 Man how subject to death Page 45 Man in greatest danger Page 56 Mans care to live well Page 206 Man onely is capable of shame Page 222 Mans-self wronged by self-murder Page 271. 273 Mankinde To mankinde self-murder injurious Page 270 Manner The manner of executing self-murder Page 187 Man-slayer What a man-slayer is to do to save his friends pursued to death for his fact Page 133 Mariners Concerning mariners Page 113 Meanes to be used for spirituall life Page 28 Of meanes of conversion why appointed of God Page 31 Meanes of preservation of spirituall life Page 39 Meanes weakening and quickning zeale Page 41 Meanes of losse of life Page 44 The meanes of the destruction of spirituall life Page 45 The meanes of self-murder Page 183. 185 Meanes for knowledge of the Scripture Page 199 Meanes of sin cut off Page 234 Meanes to prevent self-murder Page 311 Meanes against Satans motions to self-murder Page 250 Melancholick persons killing themselves Page 250 Melancholick people in danger of self-murder and why Page 254 Memory How by meanes of his memory man suffers Page 165 Men self-blinded Page 209 Merchant Of merchant men Page 139 Minde how the mindes distemperarature procures indirect self-murder Page 110 The minds calamities Page 217 Ministery of the word and its use Page 29 Mischance Of killing ones selfe by mischance Page 173 Mis-spend How men mis-spend their lives Page 19 Moderation of war for Religion Page 144 Mortifying humiliation a good revenge upon ones selfe Page 234 Motions of self-murder to be abhorred 18. They are most hardly shaken off Page 182 Motions of the devill causing self-murder 246. How knowne to bee from him Page 248 Of motions of self-murder entertained 257. Horrible motions to be withstood Page 314 Motives to self-murder c. 15. throughout Page 191 Murder In murder things observable 48. murders vilenesse 49. what it destroyes ibid. Whence murder comes 51. What kind of act it is how man is restrained from it 52. How murder is not to be desired to be done upon us Page 274 Murderers of others murder themselves by the same act Page 53 Mutes Of standers mute at Triall refusing to answer legally Page 96 Mutilation of body procuring self-murder Page 110 N Natures opposition to true obedience Page 63 Nature is against self-murder Page 269 283 Naturall How naturall life is known 6. wherein mans naturall life consists 8. The sweetnesse of it the losse of it painfull and horrible 9 How it is deare and pretious the degrees of it 10. How it is well spent and ill spent 19. How it is taken away Page 44 Necessity Vrgent necessity may make men adventurous of their lives Page 128 Necessaries The want of necessaries for the body Page 213 Neglect of outward meanes of life Page 60 Neglect of the power of the meanes of spirituall life Page 60. Neglect of meanes is tempting of God Page 95 Of neglect of duties Page 260 Negative righteousnesse Page 65 Nocent or criminall persons how and when to discover themselves Page 137 O Obedience Of actuall obedience the grounds 36. the kinds Evangelicall and Legall Page 61 Want of obedience and reasons of it Page 62 How the obedience of the Gospell differs from the obedience of the Law Page 71 Of obedience and disobedience to unjust suspension and deprivation Page 148 Of unlawfull obedience Page 162 Obey Disobedients to God forward to obey the devill Page 206 Our care to obey the truth Page 210 Observe What self-murderers observe Page 187 Observant To bee observant of occurrences Page 181 Observations from indirect self-murder Page 155 Obstinate Self-murderers are obstinate Page 187 Old-man Our old-man of sin we should kill and how done Page 54 Omission A fourefold omission of dutie 60. Of sins of omission Page 62 Omission deprives man of life eternall Page 64 By omission how indirect self-murder is committed Page 91 Of the not omission of necessary duties upon perill of life Page 146 Opportunity self-murderers observe Page 187 Oracles occasioning self-murder Page 202 Over-charging ones selfe in doing good Page 21 Outward blessings are a ground of cheerefulnesse Page 14 P Parricide and whence it proceeds Page 256 Passions To contrary passions all earthly things are subject Page 3. Immoderate passions kill Page 123 Of passions disappointed Page 219 Patient suffering for Gods truth Page 38 Pelagia That Pelagia and such others that killed themselves were not self-murderers Page 205 Perishing That all perishing soules are self-murdered Page 57 Perseverance upholds spiritual life Page 41 Person Where the person of a man is after his death Page 50 Our persons destroyed by self-murder Page 272 Perversenesse of man Page 170 Perverted judgement hinders spirituall life 66. and occasions self-murder Page 192 Philolaus his opinion against self-murder Page 277 Phrensie the cause sometime of self-killing Page 250 Spirituall phrensie whence it arises Page 251 Phrenticks in their fits killing themselves Page 174 Physick and how it is to be used Page 14 92. 111 Platoes opinion against self-murder Page 279 Pleasure and profit hinder obedience Page 63 Practise Of unwarrantable practise of Physick and Chirurgery Page 111 Practise gives denomination Page 175 Praise Of vaine praise of self-murderers 194. and of praise more largely Page 242 Prayer a preservative of life 12. the neglect of it how hurtfull Page 94 Prayer is a help to know the Scripture 200. Of a self-murderers antecedent prayer before the fact Page 206 Of prayer to prevent self murder Page 315. 323 324 Preaching Of Common-place and metamorphozed preaching Page 196 Predestination blameless of mans destruction Page 156 Preferment How preferment hinders spirituall life Page 66 Premeditation of self-murder Page 185 Presumption Of presumption Page 67. 310 Prevent To prevent self-murder