state life is put into us but in this latter state wee shall be put into life filled with it within us and fully compassed about with it without us as vessels cast into the sea are filled with water within and without so being comprehended by it as well as it is comprehended by us according to our modell and capacity This life is one Although these degrees of spirituall life bee severall yet the life it selfe is but one whereupon these subsist This life is begunne here in the state of grace by faith in Christ and is consummate and fully accomplished by vision or sensible fruition in the state of glory in heaven according to our hope Gods promises to us although at death faith doth cease yet the spirituall life thereby wrought in us is not extinguished for or by the introduction of the life of glory but the manner onely is altered and degree of spirituall living intended to perfection The degrees subordinate A mans severall and graduall kinds of lives do stand in subordination one to another thus to the life of glory in heaven with the Lord none can attaine but those that first live by faith in Christ in the state of grace in manner conformable to Gods word and will neither can any attaine to the life of grace but those that first live the naturall life which is the materiall or passive foundation of the other twaine for this naturall life gives beeing to a man the other two doe adde perfection and happinesse to him so that if the first be a blessing much more are the other lives blessings and highly to be esteemed These three degrees or kinds of life are like to the three roomes of the Temple where all entrance into the most Holy place was made by the Holy place and into this by the outward Court so none could come into the third but by the second and none could come into the second but by the first whereby it appeares that naturall life brings man under a possibility and capacitie of the life of grace and glory and the life of grace brings us that certainely have it into faire assurance of attaining the life of glory for that they are specifically the same but gradually different as the twilight and perfect light at noone §. 4. Who may have spirituall life and by whose fault doe any misse of it Denyed to none Although all men that doe live the naturall life attaine not to the spirituall yet spirituall life is denyed expresly to no man if they will carefully use the meanes and truly indeavour to have it for whosoever miscarries and misseth of this spiritual life he himselfe is guilty and cause thereof Lost by our owne fault for God hath given sufficient meanes of salvation and made a generall offer thereof to all men as Ioshua did call Heaven and earth to record that day that he had set before the people life and death and so did put them to their choise Ioshua 24.14 if with Mary wee choose the better part wee are happy it were better for us that wee had never lived at all than that wee should not live this spirituall life without which we are dead while we live a 1 Tim. 5.6 None can be excused by pretense of want of particular insinuation of the Gospell that is the power of God to salvation to every individuall man or because it is not naturally ingrafted in every mans heart as is the morall Law in the generall principles and matter unformed thereof though not as it is perfectly formed in every particular precept For the Gospell is not contrary to the Law but the Law both morall and ceremoniall is our Schoolemaster to drive and direct us to Christ for salvation b Gal. 3.21.24 and that for the same we should neither rest upon our selves nor upon the Law The Gospell to al published 1. To Adam Againe when God himselfe at the beginning first after the fall preached and delivered the gospell to Adam and Eve c Gen. 3.15 he did publish and give the same to every particular man and woman then in them that ever should be borne into the world to whom their parents were bound successively to preach and deliver the Gospell by a continued tradition Note If any of their children should have died before they were capable of salvation by that mean then as it is most probable they were to be saved as dying infants of beleeving parents now are 2. To his posterity Furthermore ever since the first promulgation of the gospell to Adam it hath pleased God to repeat and more and more fully to explicate the same by his servants with invitation of all men to entertaine the same from age to age in such places and companies where all men might take notice thereof if they were not wanting to themselves in adjoyning themselves to and keeping union with the Church where they might be within the hearing of the Gospell which is sufficient to leave men inexcusable in their ignorance of it Although God by his providence and prerogative Royall directs dispenses and applyes the Gospell in the ministrie of it to some people and not to others according to the good pleasure of his will after the first promulgation as wee see how the publication of Lawes and proclamations of Princes which are as little written in their subjects hearts as the gospell is in mankind Comparison being published in manner and in places as Princes please whereby and whence their subjects are to take notice of them ignorance of the same excuses not but that the disobedient and transgressors of them may justly be punished notwithstanding that they never knew them seeing every man is at his owne perill to looke after and take notice of those Lawes or ordinances whereby he is to live whether they proceed from inbred naturall notions or outwardly from the will of his Superiours §. 5. Of the excellency of spirituall life Spirituall lifes excellencie Mans spirituall life far excells his naturall life in three respects especially 1. For nature First in regard of the things where in it consists the naturall life consists but in the union of soule and body which are but naturall things and holds by a tie of naturall spirits in the blood upheld by earthly naturall meanes such as man is made and compounded of Spirituall life which is now supernaturall consists in a spirituall union with God by his eternall Sonne and Spirit and is upheld by supernaturall meanes and divine influence whereby we live the life of God and also by God and to God a Rom. 14.8 and so as the life of naturall or reasosonable men 2 Cor. 5.15.1 Pet. 4.2 farre excells the lives of brutes so doth this spirituall life of Gods regenerated people farre surpasse the lives of meere naturall and unregenerated men and therefore it is that men are farre more beholding to the
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
speech to the Lord saying Oh that Ishmael might live before thee a Gen. 17.18 Vse To preserve life The chiefe use of the former doctrine is to provoke and move us to use all lawfull meanes to preserve and prolong our lives for hee that wills the end should also will the meanes whereby he may attaine to that end §. 5. Of the meanes of lifes preservation The meanes 1. Prayer Those meanes are first prayer to God for to sustaine and preserve our lives especially in apparent dangers as David did Psal 102.24 saying Oh my God take me not away in the midst of my dayes For as our lives depend upon him that is the fountaine of life b Ioh. 1.4 so our eyes must be to him for a continuall influxe of continuing the same in regard of outward dangers and inward mortality dayly putting our lives in jeopardy which of our selves we are not able to resist 2. Foode cheerefulnesse c. The second meanes of the preservation of mans life is the moderate and cheerefull use of necessary foode and raiment with other convenient comforts and delights needfull to cherish and preserve our lives according to Solomons direction that there is nothing better for a man than that he should eate and drinke and that he should make his soule enjoy good in his labour Eccles 2.24 according to Iacobs desire Gen. 28.20 intreating God that he might have bread to eate and cloathes to put on not to hoard and lay up but for his use For a man to have plenty and yet to be in want is a miserable condition for so he defrauds and wrongs himselfe he is injurious to the creatures in not imploying them to the use for which God made and gave them and is ingratefull to God in not rightly using his blessings so as he may thereby doe God the greatest honor and service Of cheerefulnesse Cheerefulnesse is an excellent meanes of life for as Solomon saies by sorrow of heart the spirit is broken and all the dayes of the afflicted are evill but a merry heart maketh a cheerefull countenance and he that is of a merry heart hath a continuall feast a Prov. 15.13 15. and therefore Eccles 8.15 he commendeth mirth because a man hath no better thing under the sun than to eate and to drinke and to be merry for that shall abide with him of his labour the daies of his life which God giveth him under the sunne and for this purpose God gives us some things that are onely for delight and of other things he often bestowes such plenty upon us as shewes it to be his pleasure that we should use them not onely for necessity but also for cheering of us that we may both taste thereby how good he is to us and also that we may the more joyfully serve him with gladnesse of heart in health and in plenty of all things Grounds of cheerefulnesse 1 A good conscience grace and hope The grounds of this Cheerefulnesse are two First inward peace of conscience in the apprehension of Gods favour and love to us in Christ Iesus in the comfortable evidence of the pardon of our sins in the undeceivable enjoying of the saving graces of Gods spirit in the truth of our conformity and obedience to God and in assured hope of everlasting life and happinesse all which will make us to rejoyce yea even in tribulation Rom. 5.3 with joy unspeakeable and glorious 2. Outward blessings The second ground of our cheerefulnesse is the outward favours and benefits that God in mercy bestowes upon us whereof wee are to take the present use and sweetnesse not depriving our selves thereof nor deading our spirits with feares of uncertaine or remote future evils according to the direction of our Saviour Mat. 6.34 Take no thought for the morrow forbidding anxious tormenting care for feare of ensuing crosses and according to the practise of Hezekiah to whom the Lord had denounced fearefull judgements upon his posterity who said Good is the word of the Lord for there shall be peace and truth in my dayes Isai 39.8 3. Physick Thirdly to preserve our lives it is requisite that we use the seasonable fit and moderate help of Physick to prevent or remove diseases which are not onely the enemies of life but are also an inchoate or begun death as Hezekiah did take a lump of figgs and laid it on his boile for his recovery 2 King 20.7 according to Gods direction by Esay the Prophet in this respect did Saint Paul direct Timothie to drinke no longer water but to use a little wine for his stomacks sake and his often infirmities 1 Tim. 5.23 that so a man may not be a deficient cause of the preservation of his owne life when God gives meanes to save or prolong it §. 6. How to use Physick Cautions about Physick 1. That wee trust not to it In taking of Physick wee are alwaies to observe these subsequent cautions First that wee dote not upon nor trust or ascribe too much to physicall meanes but that we carefully looke and pray to God for a blessing by the warrantable use of them For it is God that both directs the Physitians judgement and conscionable practise about a patient and also puts vertue into and gives healthfull operation to the medicines 2. Use it moderately Secondly that we use Physick moderately not out of wantonnesse but for necessity nor as our daily diet bringing our selves under a necessity of ever using it and so by repairing of the house of our body wee may waste and overthrow it neither are we then to use Physick when there is no needfull cause nor yet in such desperate cases where there is no hope of life but apparent signes of approching death lest under an intent of prolonging life wee doe shorten it or of curing wee doe kill where there is not strength of nature to help physick to work its due effect 3. Use it not rashly Thirdly our care about Physick must be that wee doe not unadvisedly and rashly use it either by practising upon our selves or others beyond our skill or calling or else by taking Physick from others that be either presumptuous-ignorant Empericks or prophane and desperate dispensers and undertakers neither conscionable in their owne lives nor tender of the lives of others but are more desirous of their patients monies than of their healths and therefore our endeavour should be to take physick both seasonably for time and also by the counsell and direction of such as be both skilfull persons in that facultie and also conscionable for religion and piety that God may blesse their labours the better who will be tender and carefull of mens lives working by safe courses and in manner fit for their patients good and herein what ever the effect be men may have comfort when they shall have insisted in a warrantable way 4. Not to be perplexed about the event
meanes and instruments of their spirituall life than to the meanes of their naturall for naturall life without spirituall makes a man but subject to misery whereas the spirituall life upon the naturall makes a man everlastingly happy which should quicken in us a desire and endeavour to be borne againe according to our Saviours speech Ioh. 3.3 2 For continuance Secondly the spirituall life farre transcends the naturall in respect of its continuance the naturall life depending upon mutable and mortall ties and bonds and subject to many externall harmfull accidents is fraile and at last is swallowed up of mortality it being appointed for all men once to die Heb. 9.27 and few and evill are our dayes in this world wherein wee have no abiding city the spirituall life is eternall without subjection to death because it is in it selfe supernaturall and advanced above the reach and power of all things that can destroy life and is preserved and upheld by such a fountaine of indeficient and omnipotent life and undecaying lively vigour and meanes of divine living that never suffers the man that hath and keeps communion with the same to be subject to death but makes him passe from death to life Iohn 5.24 the faith whereof doth free a man from the feare of losing that happy estate while he continues to love it whereas others in a loseable and mutable estate of life are by feare of being deprived thereof and being without hope of a better hindered in injoying the full comfort of the present good that here is afforded 3. For effects Thirdly spirituall life surpasses the naturall in its effects the naturall life enables a man to the doing onely of naturall actions specially concerning mans naturall good agreeable unto and flowing from naturall principles in man being in the meane time dead to any divine or supernaturall good neither actively doing that of goodnesse which is truely morall or divine nor passively receiving and enjoying that thereof which is beatificall or which makes man blessed and so he may for all that life the powers and actions thereof be miserable and perish for flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdome of God 1 Cor. 15.50 The spirituall life by so neere conjunction of a man with the fountaine of life Essentiall the well-spring of infinite goodnesse not onely by that touch and union doth it make him so live but also it causeth him to be most happy both by making him able Actively to live the life of God a Gal. 2.19 and to live to the will of God 1 Pet. 4.2 and also by endowing him with passive capacity and with reall possession of all such beatificall perfections as are necessary for his advancement to and in a glorious estate farre above all other earthly creatures in this world and in the world to come whereby he becomes so happy that nothing can make him miserable but even in tribulation he hath cause of rejoycing Rom. 5.3 and when he dyes yet still he lives in more excellent manner as Paul said touching his afflictions as dying and behold we live 2 Cor. 6.9 In regard of the aforesaid excellency of this spirituall life above the naturall it was that our Saviour did command his Disciples not to feare them that kill the body but are not able to kill the soule but rather to feare him which is able to destroy both soule and body in hell Mat. 10.28 §. 6. How to obtaine spirituall life Vse 1. To get spirituall life From the former doctrine touching the excellency of this spirituall life of man diverse very necessary uses are observable First it may provoke and stirre us up to get this life above all things in this world whereof we are borne destitute yea dead in sin to which life by our manifold actuall transgressions wee doe indispose and unfit our selves but yet the Lord of his mercy hath appointed us a way whereby we may get this spirituall life so that by our conscionable use of the meanes appointed by God By meanes wee may attaine thereunto in regard of his promise and faithfulnesse that those that seeke shall finde Amos 5.6 And why to be used These meanes are wee to use in regard both of Gods commandement who thereby tries our obedience and faith and also in respect of the dispensation of God who gives his graces onely by and in his owne way which otherwise cannot be had Also the worth and necessity of this spirituall life is such as deserves our best endeavours to get it our esteeme whereof is seene by our labours for it in Gods appointed way without which God will not give it because hee will have us active about our owne salvation that the same may cost us the price of our labours to come by it that thereby we may the more comfortably know that we have it when we know how we came by it that wee may be the more carefull to keepe what wee have so laboriously purchased and may assuredly looke for the reward of our labours which God that cannot lie hath promised to those that seeke life by his appointed meanes To use no meanes to get this spirituall life is to contemne both it and God and to indeavour to get it by using other meanes than God hath appointed for that end is to tempt God or to prescribe him his waies of dispensing his grace and to preferre our owne wits and wills above Gods whereby such men lose both their labour and expectation Which they be 1. The word of God The meanes in particular to get this spirituall life are First the word of God specially the Gospell which is as the materiall and seminall cause of it 1 Pet. 1.23 2. Application Secondly the meanes vegetating and applying the Gospell to quicken us which is fourefold 1. By the ministry First the ministrie of the word by reading and preaching of it to the enlightning of the understanding and to the moving of the affections and hearts of the hearers to embrace it for Faith comes by hearing Rom 10.17 2. Christian conference Secondly the Company and conferences of those Christians that in this kind of life are by their motion and example lively and vigorous able by their warmth and livelinesse to heat and quicken those whom they touch as Elisha by his application of himselfe to the dead child made it warme and alive 2 King 4.34 and as leaven leavens the lump and every thing affects to procreate its like 3. Prayer The third meanes of the Gospells application to quicken us is servent and effectuall prayer to God from whom is all the vertue and efficacy of it that he would make it effectuall to us for although Paul do plant and Apollo water it is God that gives the increase 1 Cor. 3.6 4. Sacraments the spirits operation in them Fourthly the Sacraments and in them the powerfull operation of the spirit of Christ is that which quickens us when
shall have performed some desperate hazardous enterprise agreed upon for him in that consideration onely to undertake and attempt the same with the danger of the losse of his life as to walke under the water to crosse the Ocean in a Wherry in a few dayes to goe backward or blindfold a long journey in a dangerous way or some such unreasonable needlesse dangerous mad and idle vaine-glorious prancks with adventure and losse of life whereby such are indirectly self-murderers and those that lay such wagers with them are accessary to their death thereby hireing and provoking them to a mortall course of self-destruction For such a course is no warrantable way and calling of Gods appointment thereby to adventure or get goods and therefore no blessing can be therein nor thereby expected it is a needlesse tempting of God to commit themselves to such a mortall course which they may well avoyd and can looke for no protection in it nor comfort of the action wherein they perish being guilty of their owne death therein Such desperate enterprises upon wagering whereby a man may lose his life proceede either from covetousnesse to be rich or from necessity to live but by unlawfull meanes never destinated of God to that end neither of them can comfortably be expected nor endeavoured it seemes that such men either value their lives to be little worth or apprehend their present condition to be most miserable that they preferre the uncertaine attaining of a little lucre and worldly goods before them and had rather die than live as they are and therefore goe to seeke up death where they can find him to make an end of their dayes by this desperate and last shift that they doe use when otherwise they cannot live That man is neere driven that cannot subsist but by courses of selfe-ruine and he is very destitute of good parts and of vertuous actions that despaires of better fame and repute in the world than he can procure by such needlesse vaine undertakings and accomplishments which are but the pastime of fooles and the ludibrie and scorne of the wise and uncomfortable vanity and sinne of the performers §. 11. Of indirect self-murder committed by covenant and society with persons destinate to destruction 6 Branch of indirect self-murder by commission The sixt branch of indirect self-murder by commission is by wilfull contracting and keeping society with those that are under a curse and apparent danger of destruction whereby all such are most probably like to share with them that have neere communion with them which falls out specially in three cases Case 1. Of leagues First when a man unwarrantably enters a league or bond of neere amity and society with persons Princes or States worthy of and as it were marked out to destruction as Iehoram did contract and keepe with Ahaziah a 2 King 9.27 whereby hee involved and inwrapped himselfe into the same ruine with him Which barres not conclusions for commerce of trade and also for intercourse of correspondency with them at such a distance and degree whereby hurt from them may be avoyded and use made of them for warrantable advantage as the Scripture requires that wee should have peace with all men if it be possible b Heb. 12.14 Case 2. Concerning warre The second case of indirect self-murdring society is when a man takes up armes or puts himselfe into military service or joynes with others in warre offensive or defensive either to hinder or oppresse equity and truth or in opposition of Gods Church to prejudice or oppresse the Gospell and true religion by this latter fighting against and provoking God and by the former irritating mankind justly to destroy such as goe about to overthrow Gods Kingdome and humane justice on earth without which the world cannot subsist in which course of Combination or society whosoever perishes is guilty of indirect self-murder by death of his owne unwarrantable procurement Although warre bee lawfull yet it is a violent course of justice the decision whereof is hereby cast upon the omnipotent Lord God for him to determine the same as he pleases by victory or vanquishment And therefore none should dare voluntarily to engage himselfe in that course upon his life where hee knowes that just and powerfull Iudge to bee party for the truth against him lest he perish by this indirect self-murder whereas to bee safe therefrom wee should ever bee party on Gods side Crosse event of warre That the event falls out contrary so that the Abetters in a good cause do often fall and the propugners of an evill do prosper it comes to passe by Gods speciall wise providence for three causes Reasons 1. First to chastise some sinnes or to exercise some vertues in the vanquished 2. Secondly to make men more loath to fall to warre and blood-shed upon presumption of their strength and cause but rather with some losse to make peaceable composition 3. Thirdly that God may shew and exercise his absolute soveraignty over the world disposing humane things as he pleases in the demolishing and translating of Empyres and dominion by the ruines of one making way for the building of another that it may be apparent that by him Kings Raigne and that as many Principalities and Empires are raised and stand upon the foundation of invasion latrocinies rapines and blood so shall they answer for the same and bee shaken to peeces by a divine hand of Iustice as wee may see expressed by the dashing of the Image to peeces by that small stone out of the divine hand of God Daniel 2.33 Case 3. Presuming into infectious places and company The third case of indirect self-murdering society is when men do wilfully presume without necessity or warrantable calling into deadly infectious places and companies wherein or by which meanes if they miscarry or perish they are guilty of their owne death in a higher degree of indirect self-murder as also are those that doe without a warrantable calling put themselves into such places or imployments as doe procure or hasten their deaths §. 12. Of indirect self-murder by doing that which naturally procures that which kills the doer 7. Branch Seventhly if a man doe willingly and wittingly any such unlawfull act as proves the cause or occasion of that which by Gods providence in just judgement kills him or takes away his life he indirectly murders himselfe as a drunken man that falls into a ditch or a pit and is drowned breakes his neck off his horse dies by surfeits or the like he is in this degree guilty of his owne death for the cause of the cause is the cause of the effect Causa causae est causa causati such a mans precedent unlawfull course or disposition is so farre from excusing the consequent effect that in a sort it doubles his sin a man that kills another when he is drunk is not excused but hanged when he is sober §. 13.
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
furniture and power of hell and what their owne wit can invent or abuse for that end Observ It is hard to do good easie to doe evill From hence wee may observe First that whereas when wee are to do good wee are hardly drawne to it and do excuse our backwardnesse by pretence of disability and want of meanes and by alledging of impediments and letts as Moses did a Exod. 4.10 13. the sluggard pretends that a Lion is in the way b Prov. 26.13 But when wee are about to do evill we make no such objections but finde abundance of helps with opportunities and great frowardnesse and readinesse to doe the same Causes 1. Mans disposition The causes hereof are specially two First internall in mans owne will and disposition far more prone to evill than to good where will and inclination are to a thing they will find meanes Causes 2. The devill and evils easinesse Secondly there is an externall cause hereof to witt the devill who doth powerfully instigate and help to do mischiefe according to mens tempers and the outward occasion and the work of doing evill is farre more easie than of doing good because of the entitie that is in goodnesse and the non entity that is in evill goodnesse is an effect of power and evill is more properly an effect of impotency to pull downe is more easie than to build up to erre than to go aright Observe 2. Self-murderers are guilty of abuse of Gods Creatures Secondly we may here observe that he that is a self-murderer is guilty not onely of the vile act of self-murder but also of the abuse of Gods good creatures and of his owne abilities in perverting the same to that unnaturall end contrary to Gods ordination whereby they are in this respect subject to vanity c Rom. 8.20 so that a self-murderer erects a counterwork of creation and use of things against God while he gives being to self-murder against both nature and religion so setting up his owne works of evill against Gods that are good and disposing of Gods good works to his owne vile ends contrary to Gods will and ordination Note whereby it is apparent that such wicked persons are factiously-rebellious against God and disturbers of the peace and tranquillity of all the frame of nature and grace contrary to the Lawes and ordinances of God Sinne is in the world as pestilentiall humors in the body which disorder and indanger all where they are §. 2. Of the application of the meanes of self-killing 2. Application For application of the aforesaid meanes to the wicked act of self-murder there are three things considerable In it 3. things considerable 1. Predestination and determination of the end First the self-murderers premeditation and determination of the end which is his owne death to be effected by himselfe so setting limits to his owne daies as if he were his owne absolute Master and that he were so unhappy that his life were worse than death which death all other creatures do abhorre and that he were so desperate and forlorne for want of present mercy or future hope and that he were so forsaken of all that he can finde none to rid him out of his life and misery but that he must kill himselfe so hastening himselfe by a most wofull exchange into a farre greater misery by so doing than ever it was possible for him to suffer in this world by living although that therein he should live for ever under the most exquisite torments that here he can be capable of 2. Election of meanes The second thing considerable in the application of the meanes to the acting of self-murder is the election and choise of the particular meanes to effect the same all self-murderers do not choose to die by the same meanes For then the way of so dying would be unvariably one and the same in them all Wherein a self-murderer observes three things In election of meanes to kill himselfe a self-murderer observes specially three things 1. Such as best agree with his temper First he is carefull to make choise of such meanes as do best fit and agree with his naturall temper and sexe and are least formidable and terrible to his fancie or sense in the execution such as are familiar to him by daily use or such as in his judgement or sense are least horrible or painfull as Cleopatra that chose to kill her selfe by Aspes making her die sleeping 2. Such as be readiest Secondly a self-murderer makes choise of such meanes to kill himselfe that are readiest at hand and easiest for him to have according to his sexe calling occasions or imployment 3. Most certaine to effect death Thirdly he chooses to use those meanes which in his opinion are most certaine to effect that end most easily speedily and unperceivedly from the knowledge of others that he may not be crost of his designe and aime nor be long in paine Observe 1. It is easie to do evill Here we may observe that there is variety and choise of meanes to doe any one evill or sinne which shewes with what facility and ease we may sinne and perish and with what difficulty and hardnesse wee may doe good and bee saved which cannot bee done by such multiplicity of meanes and waies a right line can bee drawne but one way and the truth is simple and not manifold 2. The folly and madnesse of self-murderers Secondly here appeares the folly and madnesse of those that are so circumspect and carefull about choise of the meanes whereby they would die and are so regardlesse of the morall maner how they die and of their consequent condition that will follow upon such a death Observe every grosse and notorious sin is ever committed with a spice of madnesse accompanying the same because it is done against the dictat of sound reason and of true religion and therefore such men are so frequently in the Proverbs called fooles in respect not onely of the thing they doe but also in regard both of the reasons of their proceedings and also of the fruit and end of their courses touching whom it may be said that they have sowne the wind and they shall reap the whirle winde as sayes the Prophet a Hosea 8.7 §. 3. Of the method of self-murderers The method and maner of execution of self-murder The method and manner that a self-murderer observes in execution of self-murder consists in three branches 1. He observes opportunities First he watches and hunts after all opportunities and affects retired solitarinesse that he may without hinderance kill himselfe 2. Secrecy Secondly hee affects secrecie and expedition to accomplish that vile act upon performing whereof all his indeavours and power being bent and being deserted and left of God and his good Angels and the devill instigating and helping him and all meanes fitly concurring for that execution the
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
bringing himselfe to destruction Page 111 § 10. How indirect self-murder of commission is wrought by desperate hazard in six cases Page 112 The first case is concerning Braves and desperate undertakers Page 112 The second case is concerning purchase and reskue Page 112 The third case is concerning some souldiers Page 113 The fourth case is concerning Mariners Page 113 The fifth case is concerning Duells Page 114 The sixth case is concerning desperate attempts upon daring and wagering Page 116 § 11. Of indirect self-murder committed by covenant and society with persons destinate to destruction in three cases Page 118 1. Of Leagues Page 119 2. Of Warre ibid. 3. Of presuming into infectious places or company Page 120 § 12. Of indirect self-murder of commission by doing that which naturally procures that which kills the doer of it Page 121 § 13. Of indirect self-murder of commission by wilfully doing capitall crimes against humane Lawes and Authority Page 120 § 14. Of indirect self-murder of commission by wilfull transgression of Gods Laws after two severall waies Page 120 § 15. Of three exempt cases wherein men may expose their lives to death without danger of indirect self-murder Page 125 The first case is concerning venturing life upon lawfull calling ibid. § 16. A question or case of conscience resolved about Souldiers in danger of their lives fleeing without order Page 127 § 17. Of the second exempt case about adventuring of life without danger of indirect self-murder which is in urgent unavoidable necessity in three points Page 128 The first whereof is about both uncertaine death for certaine and necessary good ibid. And also certaine death for Superiours and for some friends Page 129 § 18. Of the second point which is concerning certaine death for certaine more publick good Page 131 § 19. Of six questions resolved that belong to this second point Page 133 The first where of is about a man-slayer what he is to do for whose sake his friends are pursued to death ibid. § 20. Of the second question which is about a man under deadly displeasure of Superiours what he is to do for to pacifie their mortall wrath reflecting for his sake upon his friends Page 133 § 21. The third question which is touching the voluntary appearing of Fellons or the like at liberty upon baile to submit to Iustice for freeing of their bailes with danger of their owne lives Page 135 § 22. The fourth question which is about what an unquestioned or unsuspected guilty party is to do for saving of a guiltlesse person that is brought to the doome and danger of death upon triall by error or misprision for the capitall fact of the former Page 136 § 23. The fifth question which is about a mans voluntary revealing to the Magistrate his owne secret capitall crimes touching his life in case of importable distresse of conscience for the same crimes by him done Page 137 § 24. The sixth question or case which is about burning or sinking a ship in a sea-sight and how farre such a fight is to be mainteyned against the Enemies without danger of self-murder Page 138 § 25. Of the third point of the second exempt case which is about venturing of life without danger of indirect self-murder for saving of soules Page 141 In two cases 1. About infectious persons ibid. 2. About publishing of the Gospell upon danger of death to the doer Page 142 § 26. Of the third generall exempt case wherein men may expose their lives to death without danger of indirect self-murder which is about religion and our owne salvation in foure points or cases Page 143 § 27. Of the first point or case which is about defence of Religion in peace and warre Page 144 § 28. Of the second point of the third case about adventuring and laying down our lives for religion without danger of self-murder which is about the publick confession or profession of the truth with danger of life Page 145 § 29. Of the third point belonging to the third exempt case which is about not-omitting doing necessary duties commanded by God in perill of life upon humane command or threats to the contrary and of the severall sorts of those duties and how farre they bind us And of the obedience and disobedience of Ministers to suspension deprivation and the like censures Page 146 § 30. Of the fourth point of the third exempt case which is about not-commission of any evill of sinne upon any command or inforcement of man threatning death to the disobedient Page 149 § 31. Of the kinds of sins of commission to be avoided to death in things determinatly evill of themselves both by the law of nature and also by the positive Law of God Page 150 § 32. Of indifferent things and how the use of them may be sinfull and in that respect then to be forborne Page 152 § 33. Of the diverse properties of an indirect self-murderer Page 154 § 34. Observations from indirect self-murder in three uses Page 155 Chap. 12. Of direct bodily self-murder § 1. What direct self-murder is both in the generall nature of it in foure things and also in the specificall nature of it remote and neere Page 159 § 2. Of the imaginary good conceited to be in self-murder Page 163 § 3. Concerning the wills object and its faultinesse Page 167 § 4. Of diverse observations from direct self-murder Page 169 § 5. Of certaine exempt cases of some that kill themselves and are not direct self-murderers Page 172 Chap. 13. Of direct self-murderers § 1. That practise and habit gives denomination and why Page 175 § 2. How it is apparent by Scripture that many men have murdered themselves with diverse observations from the same about self-murder and horrible crimes falling out in the Church Page 176 § 3. How self-murderers are apparent by Histories both prophane and Ecclesiasticall amongst heathens and Christians and the reasons of the same Page 178 § 4. That self-murderers are knowne by continued experience and of two uses of the same and how the motions of self-murder cleave to men and prevaile over them Page 181 Chap. 14. Of the meanes and method of self-murderers murdering themselves directly § 1. Of the meanes of self-murder how none is lawfull of two uses shewing how hard it is to do good and easie to do evill Page 183 § 2. The self-murderers application of the meanes of self-killing in premeditation and determination of the end and choise of the meanes to effect it with observation of three things therein and of two observations for instruction and use Page 185 § 3. Of the self-murderers method in executing murder upon themselves with observation of three things therein upon two reasons and how hardly resolved self-murder is withstood Page 187 Chap. 15. The self-murderers motives whereupon they directly kill themselves § 1. That men by abused reason do sin worst and that there is no true reason why any should kill themselves Page 189 § 2. Of motives to
self-murder there can bee none warrantably sufficient and how arguments are deemed weak or strong Page 191 § 3. Concerning the motive to self-murder from perverted Iudgement by humane lawes and customes how both prevaile against nature How the judgement of the learned and wise hath the force of Law How lawes and customes against Scripture and reason are erroneous and not to be obeyed A caveat against vaine praise of self-murderers Page 192 § 4. Of the motive to self-murder from perverted judgment by mis-understood Scripture the three causes thereof and of foure meanes or rules of right understanding the Scriptures Page 195 § 5. Of the motive to self-murder from perverted judgment by mis-construed decree and destiny and the grounds of the same the errer of grounding ill practises upon that foundation with diverse observations about that course Page 202 § 6. Of the motive to self-murder from perverted judgment by the conceited good of self-murder and how apparent good beguiles the understanding And now the will workes upon the understanding to deceive it and how self-murder blinds the mind Page 207 § 7. Of the motive to self-murder from afflictions their severall sorts whereof three are upon the body Page 211 § 8. Of the motive to self-murder from afflictions upon a mans outward estate Page 214 § 9. Of the motive to self-murder from crosses in points of honour Page 215 § 10. Of the motive to self-murder from disasters upon friends in two eases Page 216 § 11. Of the motive to self-murder from trouble of conscience the kinds and manner of the same Page 217 § 12. Of the motive to self murder from disconcentment of mind and passion of love the kinds and causes of discontentment Page 219 § 13. Of the motive to self-murder from disgrace and shame 221. the causes effects and kinds thereof Page 222 § 14. Of the motive to self-murder from feare the causes and effects of it Page 224 § 15. Of the true causes of self-murder in afflictions which are three Page 225 § 16. That Affliction is no warrantable motive for any to kill themselves shewed by foure reasons Page 228 § 17. Of certaine uses about afflicted persons Page 230 § 18. Of the motive to self-murder from anger and revenge the kindes thereof against ones selfe and others good and bad their causes and powerfull effects Page 232 § 19. Of the motive to self-murder from care of prevention of sin to come in our selves or others and how unwarrantable it is for any to kill themselves for that end Page 237 § 20. Of the motive to self-murder from ambition and excessive desire after glory praise or a better life to come after death and how unwarrantable it is for any therefore to kill themselves Page 241 § 21. Of the motive to self-murder from the motions and temptations of the devill how he suggests the same and to whom specially how knowne to be from Satan and upon what reasons to be rejected Page 246 § 22. Of the motive to self-killing from phrensie the kinds the subjects and grounds of it Page 250 § 23. Of the motive to self-murder from the examples of such as have murdered or killed themselves and of the insufficiency of that motive for any to do the like upon such presidents Page 252 Chap. 16. Of Self-murderers introduction and entrance into the practise of self-murder § 1. Of the persons most subject to self-murder who are of foure sorts Page 254 § 2. Of the entrance into self-murder by foure particular degrees where are handled two questions 1. concerning desire of death 2. about the goodnesse of being against them that wish that they had never beene borne or never had being Page 256 § 3. Of foure signes of ensuing self-murder neere approching Page 259 Chap. 17. Arguments against self-murder proving the same to be utterly unlawfull and damnable § 1. That self-murder is contrary to Religion and how where two questions are resolved 1. Whether the Supreame Magistrate may for any capitall crime done by him either kill himselfe or be put to death pon his owne command or otherwise by his people 2. How farre a man condemned to die may be active about taking away his owne life Page 262 § 2. How self-murder is against God himselfe in foure respects Page 267 § 3. How self-murder is against nature Page 269 § 4. How self-murder is injurious to mankinde Page 270 § 5. How self-murder wrongs mans selfe in doing it Page 271 § 6. How self-murder is a sinne most harmfull and to whom Page 272 § 7. How right reason condemnes self-murder by nineteene severall arguments Page 273 Wherein also is shewed the reasons why the goods of self-murderers become confiscate and Deodands Page 278 § 8. Of certaine uses about the grievousnesse of self-murder and how men should beware of it Page 286 Chap. 18. Of the finall estate of direct selfmurderers whether they be all everlastingly damned with the devils in hell or not § 1. Of the extent of self-murder to the soules hurt and how regardlesse self-murderers be of their soules Page 288 § 2. That all that kill themselves are not properly direct self-murderers nor are in their state of damnation and who be exempted and upon what grounds Page 290 § 3. That all proper and direct self-murderers are reprobates without the state of grace and are in the state of eternall damnation and the reasons thereof Page 291 § 4. That by the Testimony of the Scriptures both in doctrine and also in all examples of self-murderers recorded therein all proper and direct self-murderers are everlastingly damned Page 293 § 5. That self-murder is a transcendent sin beyond both law and mercy and subjects the doers of it to damnation ibid. § 6. That self-murderers want all true saving repentance and likewise salvation Page 296 § 7. How the Church testifies by her judgement and usage of direct self-murderers that they are all damned in hell Page 297 § 8. Of certaine uses Page 299 § 9. Of certaine objections made in favour of the salvation of self-murderers answered and first touching that which is taken from the nature of self-murder compared with other the most damnable sins committed against the Law and Gospell Page 300 § 10. The second objection answered which is made from the example of self-killers such as Sampson Pelagia and others who are saved Page 303 § 11. The third objection answered which is taken from the antecedent prayer and repentance of self-murderers for the intended fact of self-murder to come that for the same the doer of it may not be damned Page 306 Chap. 19. Antidotes for prevention of self-murder § 1. What a man is to do of and by himself to prevent self-murder in eight severall particulars Page 311 § 2. How to others wee should make confession of our temptations motives and progresse to self-murder that we may prevent the same and of the manisold caveats and observations about confession Page 317 § 3. Of the meanes to
consideration of nor are subject to self-murder because the law against murder is not given to them who are not properly capable of the same by meanes of their want of reason neither are they subject to this fact and sin of self-murder which by instinct of nature they abhorre and doe alwaies naturally indeavour their owne preservation 3. Rationall life The third kinde of naturall life is that which is called rationall or of reasonable creatures which is proper to men whereby they live besides the life of vegetation and sense common with other earthly living creatures according to reason or in a rationall manner both for the essentiall forme of their natures whereby they are called rationall creatures and also for their thoughts and actions which for their originall principle whence they flow and for the rule whereby they are ordered are reasonable morall and more divine in all their motions than are other earthly creatures if the same be not perverted by some other exorbitant principles or accidents In and under this rationall life of man both the other lives are comprehended as things inferior and subordinate are contained in their superiour and summary head Note Mans perfection The perfections of all other earthly creatures are in man together with or comprehended in that which is proper to himselfe whereby he transcends them all §. 2. Man only is subject to self-murder Notwithstanding that man indowed with understanding hath the greatest helps against self-murder and hath the greatest reason of all worldly creatures to preserve his life it being so excellent above theirs yet he onely of them all is subject to this fault and mischiefe of self-murder The greatnesse of the sin of self-murder And as all the aforesaid three kinds of lives are comprehended for faculty and vertue in mans reasonable life flowing from his reasonable soule as we see in the ceasing of them all in man at once upon the departure of his soule from the body Note so the killing destroying of mans life is absolutely farre greater than the destroying of the lives of all other earthly creatures because both the lives of them all for kinds and also mans own proper life that farre excells them all in the destruction of mans life are destroyed and also all other creatures were made for man for the comfort of whose life all their lives do serve §. 3. How naturall life is knowne by man in whom it is Touching the knowledge of the naturall life of man a reasonable living creature apprehends the same both by sense and understanding This life is knowne 1. by sense by sense a reasonable creature not onely descernes that it lives but also feeles this life by the effects of it to be a quickning power of inlivening the body inwardly and disposing and inabling it to action outwardly 2. By understanding By understanding a man knowes that this life is an act of the spirit or soule in the body of man or a quickning vertue of it in a continued fluxe by the personall union of the soule and body together §. 4. The soules double act of life in man The soules act of life in man This act of the soule in its union with the body is twofold 1. Making the subiect to live First that which respects the bodie it self or rather mans person in that worke or lively energie which we may in some respect call opus ad intra or a reflexe worke of man upon himselfe upon the personall union of the soule and bodie whereby he becomes a living soule Gen. 2.7 for extension in all his parts and for intensiox in fulnesse of lively power for his subsisting and growth to his appointed period and for use of all his organs and faculties for their proper function being thereby also able to discerne take notice and judge of himselfe his state and actions For not the soule only nor the body onely is to be properly said to live after their union together but the person consisting both of soule and body doth live this life which is not the life of either of the natures or parts of man by themselves considered Man lives or dies personally considered but the life of the person of man consisting of both natures personally united And therefore when one kills a man we say not properly that he hath onely killed an earthly body but we say properly that he hath killed such a person as consists of a soule and a body and therefore it is said in Scripture that there were so many soules slaine a Joshua 10.28 not that the immortall spirit is in it selfe subject to such a death or can be slaine but in regard of its Acting and working in its personall union with the bodie whereby both of them live personally together that life which is the life of the person which is destroyed and ceases upon death which is further apparent by this Reason because the murder of a man is so hainous a crime in regard of the destruction of the Image of God in man which is not onely in the body or onely in the soule but is in the whole person of man so long as the same lives 2 Making the subject to worke The second lively act of the soule in this union with the body personally considered is that whereby it makes the body organically fitly disposed and active to those duties which we call opera ad extra works about objects not it selfe which works are the common outward workes of the person consisting of those two natures and not of either of them apart Observe Upon life depends the subsisting and working of the person Whereupon wee may observe that upon this life depends both the subsisting of the person of man in its being and also all its actions naturall civill and morall so that he that kills a man destroyes his person and abolishes all his personall actions and activity whereby he might be serviceable and usefull to God to himselfe to the Church or Commonwealth And yet we see no thing more passionately and rashly enterprised than killing of men than the which nothing should be more deliberately and upon weightier causes done it being no lesser matter than to dissolve heaven and earth by destruction of a person consisting of an heavenly spirit and of an earthly body to destroy the noblest naturall life and to deprive God and the world of the most glorious and profitable workes Such a thing is this naturall life of man generally considered CHAP. 4. Of mans naturall life more specially §. 1. Wherein the naturall life of man consists Mans naturall life is fraile Phil. 1.22 expounded MAns naturall life consists as in part wee have heard in the Act of the soule united personally with the body by meanes of the animall naturall and vitall spirits which the Apostle calls living in the flesh Philip. 1.22 which is to live neither to the flesh to
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
Fourthly wee are to take heed that we be not anxiously perplexed and troubled when upon the using or forbearing of Physick upon warrantable grounds the effect answers not our desire or expectation But suppose the patient dies or labours under any griefe unrecovered without hope of cure it is folly to vexe our selves because we have not used this body or that body this medicine or that medicine thinking or saying if we had done this or that our selves or some other patient belonging to us had beene recovered just as Mary said to Christ Lord if thou hadst beene here my Brother had not died a Ioh. 11.32 When a thing contrarie to our desire is done wherein we are not faultie when wee worke according to our present knowledge and meanes we should rest content with the will of God how adverse or crosse soever it seemes to us considering that as God appoints the end and thing that doe come to passe so doth he likewise direct and order the meanes to accomplish the same For God oftentimes over-rules our purpose mens skill and the nature and effects of Physick to the bringing to passe of his owne purposes contrary to our expectation which must bee attributed to God the soveraigne Lord and is not to bee imputed to unblameable men and meanes that are but the instruments under God and subject to his controle and disposition and therefore touching the events thereupon following wee must bee content to be crossed of our wils sometime that God at all times may have his §. 7. Of deadly things to be resisted 4. Opposition of deadly things Fourthly and lastly to preserve his life every man is bound to decline and oppose all things that tend to the unlawfull taking of it away for that which other creatures do by Antipathie and instinct of nature for shunning that which is contrary or pernicious to them man is by the meanes of his reason and will to do the like for his preservation who by his intellectuall parts can better foresee and discerne what is hurtfull and dangerous to him or his life 1 Invasion The things that especially he is to decline and beware of are First Forcible invasion whereby his life is assaulted or indangered and his death attempted by others For besides the perill that a mans life is in by that inbred poyson of diseases and mortality in himselfe it is lyable to death by meanes from without himselfe whereof a man is to be carefull both to foresee the same and to prevent it or to extricate and free himselfe out of it as we see how Paul understanding of a conspiracy of above 40. men lying in waite to take away his life used his best indeavours to decline and prevent the same by discovery thereof to the chiefe Captaine Act. 23.17 and so our Saviour himselfe gave commandement to his Disciples that when their enemies did persecute them in one citie they should flee to another Mat 10.23 according to his own practise who to avoid and escape the bloody hands of Herod was carried into Egypt 1 Mat. 2. which course is abundantly warranted by manifold arguments and examples in Scripture and upon just reason is so good that necessity of saving a mans life against unjust and violent invasion warrants him both in the Courts of Heaven and Earth in his owne lawfull defence to kill rather than to suffer himselfe to be unjustly killed because that love which is the fulfilling of the Law b Rom. 13.10 begins at a mans selfe it being the rule that we should love our neighbours as our selves How can it bee expected that he will preserve other mens lives that is carelesse of his owne Qui sibi nequam cui bonus 2. Dangerous undertakings Secondly for preservation of mans life he must not onely not submit himselfe passively to private deadly cruelties of others but also he must not actively expose himselfe to hazard the losse of his life upon self-will'd dangerous undertakings without a lawfull calling and sufficiency of strength to undertake or go safely through the enterprise as our Saviour intimates Luk. 14.31 in the parable of the King going to warre that would not undertake above his power 3. Motions of self-murder Thirdly the thing that a man is to decline for preservation of his life is that he do abhorre and reject all unnaturall motions or resolutions of self-murder That the heart of man may neither be suffered to breed nor to entertaine the thoughts of his owne destruction like a viper conceiving and somenting such an issue as in the birth thereof destroyes the parent that gave it being The thoughts of evill that a man doth at first but dally withall and fearelesly beholds in his mind presuming of his power over them at length possesse him and master him and therefore above all things wee are to keep our heart for out of it proceeds all evill Prov. 4.23 Mat. 15.19 if the seed and spawne of sin in the motions of it in the heart be extinguished and destroyed then there is no feare of the breaking of it out in act for as Saint Iames saith Lust first conceives before it brings forth sin a Jam. 1.15 §. 8. Of spending our lives well To spend our lives well Another generall use of the former doctrine of the pretiousnesse of mans life is that wee be the more carefull to husband and spend it well to the glory of God our owne good and comfort and for the good of others among whom we live considering that our life is too good to be spent away in idlenesse to bee wasted prodigally or to bee mis-imployed in the service of sinne and Sathan and is irrevocable when it is past that it cannot be had backe againe that it might be better spent and former errors be undone and therefore we doe ever need with the Psalmist to intreat that God would so teach us to number our dayes that wee may apply our hearts unto wisdome b Psal 90.12 being ever mindfull of the Apostles admonition redeeme the time because the dayes are evill Eph. 5.16 Motives The motives that may move us to spend our time and life well are specially these three following First 1. Badnesse of the times the wickednesse of the world which should make us more watchfull to catch at all opportunities to do good that our life that will waste away with the rust of doing nothing may bee comfortably spent in well doing Happy shall that servant be whom his Lord when he comes shall find doing so Mat. 24.46 2. Shortnesse of our lives Secondly the shortnesse and uncertainty of our lives which passes as a shadow or a vapour that appeares no more puts us in mind not to deferre but while it is called to day requires us with sobriety and watchfulnesse to be couragious and incessant in well doing Post est occasio calva the morrow is not ours and if we be cut off
before it comes our worke being undone how then will it grieve us that we were so slothfull 3. The benefit of well-spending them Thirdly the weightinesse of that which depends upon well-spending of our lives here as the comfort of our soules and everlasting salvation hereafter calls upon us to consider that no estate or stock need be so frugally spent as the short life and few dayes of man than which nothing is more wastefully worthlesly vainely nor worse mis-spent specially three wayes to which we may adde a fourth How men mis-pend their lives 1. By doing evill First in doing of naughtinesse and evill which wee ought not to doe it being forbidden by God whereby many men take great paines in vile courses of prophanenesse filthinesse drunkennesse fighting against the truth and the like mis-spending their meanes and lives to oppose God and to get and goe to hell by rightly imploying whereof they might with farre lesse trouble and adoe happily do much good and attaine to heaven and everlasting glory 2. By doing things impertinent Secondly by doing that which is little or nothing to the purpose for a mans true happinesse and comfort as impertinent studies pursuite of curiosity and vanity hunting immoderately and prosecuting eagerly after the profits and pleasures of this world that before God will availe a man nothing for his salvation and eternall or spirituall comfort when the things whereupon the same depends have beene neglected for as the Apostle sayes bodily exercise profiteth little but godlinesse is profitable to all things a 1 Tim. 4.8 3. By idlenesse Thirdly men do often mis-spend their lives by wasting it in sluggish idlenesse when they minde and indeavour nothing so much as how they may sleepe at ease or passe away their time in sloath or sottishnesse so driving their dayes and lives to an end in doing nothing although none have more to do than they while others complaine of want of time in their imployments about their commendable affaires these object that they have more time than they know what to doe with Such are iners inutile pondus an unprofitable burthen and the excrements of the Church and Commonwealth dead while they live and as hoggs more profitable by their deaths than by their lives like ciphers they keepe a place but are of no value or worth they go out of the world before they regard why they came into the world when they are present they are unprofitable and when they are gone they are not missed for any good they ever did Causes of idlenesse The causes of which idle course of life are affectation of their owne bodily and worldly ease contenting the flesh with doing of nothing and care onely to avoid trouble which attends upon active and industrious godly imployment but wee finde the sentence of condemnation passed no lesse against those that omitted to doe their duties b Mat. 25.43 than against them who committed that evill which was forbidden Wilfull defects and omissions of doing good bring damnation He that wanted his wedding garment was thrust out of doores and cast into utter darkenesse Mat. 22.13 Why was Meroz cursed because they came not out to the helpe of the Lord against the mighty Iudg. 5.23 An idle and slothfull spending of a manlife is every where in Scripture condemned and by nature the Bees expell the Droanes 4. By over-charging ones selfe in doing good There is another way of mis-spending a mans life proceeding from good affection in a pious manner by his over-tasking or overcharging himselfe in religious performances or good duties above his strength as in fasting and prayer in studies and labours in the Word Neque immoderata imperamus jejunia Hieron ad Demetriadem and the like whereby a mans life is soone spent like a sudden blaze consumed in a present flame which by more frugall ordering of it according to his ability might last much longer to the greater benefit both of Church and Commonwealth and thus I have done with the discourse of mans naturall life CHAP. 5. Of mans spirituall life §. 1. What spirituall life is Spirituall life what WEe are now to consider of mans spirituall life which is not properly the life of his spirit whereby the spirits of all men doe live but it is the life of a man whereby he personally considered lives a spirituall and supernaturall life Which consists in the gratious union of man with God in Christ who is our life a Ioh 14.6 whom God sent into the world that we might live through him 1 Ioh. 4.9 by whom we are delivered from death by his spirit because of the spiritualnesse of this our life it is said to be hid with God in Christ Col. 3.3 §. 2. The acts of spirituall life Acts of it 1. Of this spirituall life there are two acts First that whereby we that were dead in trespasses and sinnes are quickned Ephes 2.1 being translated into a state of spirituall and eternall life and indowed with a new lively principle of grace inabling us to spirituall motion 2. The second act of this life is that whereby we walke and worke according to the direction of Gods word and the good motions of the good spirit so being made conformable to God and walking with God as new creatures in the estate of regeneration §. 3. The degrees of spirituall life Degrees of it Of this life there are two degrees 1. First that which is by faith in the state of grace in this world as our Saviour tells us that hee that beleeveth on him hath eternall life Ioh. 6.47 by this life we are to live according to God in the spirit 1 Pet. 4.6 and also if wee live in the spirit wee are also to walke in the spirit a Gal 5.25 Faith and good workes as the cause and effects are alwaies together Iam. 2.20 The second degree of our spirituall life is that which is by vision or sight in glorie whereof Saint Iohn tells us that we shall be like to Christ for we shall see him as he is 1 Ioh. 3.2 and touching those things wherein it consists Saint Paul saies that eye hath not seene nor eare heard neither have entred into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him b 1 Cor. 2.9 And he himselfe having beene rapt up into the third heaven confesseth that there he heard unspeakable words c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which was not lawfull for him to utter d 2 Cor. 12.4 in regard of impossibility there being want of words to expresse such supernaturall matter and his conceiving being lesse than could comprehend what was represented to him This spirituall life in the estate of grace in this world is apprehended first in the understanding Heb. 11.1 but in the state of glory in heaven it is visibly injoyed by way of a spirituall sensiblenesse Note In the former
wee are cast into the frame and mould of the Gospell untill Christ be formed in us a Gal. 4.19 so that in this worke the spirit is the principall efficient cause as our Saviour tells us Iohn 6.63 it is the spirit that quickneth §. 7. How the Gospell workes life 1. Hovv the Gospell workes not So then the Gospell works not this life in us in a Physicall or naturall manner as having vertue naturally inherent in the words to produce such an effect in those that heare it 1. Not physically For then men should be converted and regenerated in a naturall and not in a divine manner and also then the Gospell would worke alike upon all men that heare it that were alike disposed and did not ponere obicem or lay a barre of their owne to hinder it except God should restraine the naturall power of it in working but so the conversion of man must be within the power of his owne act and God could not be justified in his withholding grace The word is a supernturall instrument of salvation But the conversion of a sinner is wrought by a greater vertue than can naturally and subjectively be in the words and sentences of the Gospell for the word of God is not instrumentum physicum a naturall instrument but a morall or rather metaphysicall instrument of effecting such a supernaturall worke according to the will of the first agent 2. Not Ethically Neither in an Ethicall manner doth the Gospell worke this spirituall life in us onely by morall perswasion as morall Philosophers and Rhetoricians doe affect and draw their hearers by reasons and exhortations stirring up a latent power inherent in us and inclining our wills by rationall motives and objects to be made alive then must it depend upon us that wee are saved and be from a power of our owne exuscitated by the word 2. How God works by the Gospell according to his own will But God works by his word as a more puissant and independent agent that inintends and remits his power in working according to his owne will by the meanes and uses meanes not as necessary for him but that he can doe as much without them in regard that the effect is his owne and man the passive subject of it Mans will is the subject of conversion It is the will of a naturall man that is most dead to God-ward and most averse from him and therefore it is the will that is chiefly to be wrought upon and made alive in conversion whereupon all depends but wee know that nothing can make it selfe alive when it is dead but he that is the fountaine of life the Son of God Rom 1.4 Note Of the heart The illumination of the understanding which is common to the wicked and the godly is presupposed as requisite to fit a man for conversion and therefore in the worke of regeneration the scripture takes notice specially of the heart insomuch that the old Testament uses no other word to expresse the understanding because in Divinity no knowledge without intertainement in the heart and without conformity of the will and practise to the truth is saving action being the end of Theological knowledge in this life words of knowledge in Scripture commonly comprehend affections in them §. 8. Why God uses meanes Although that God could if he pleased convey grace into a sinfull man by immediate influxe or inspiration from which wee cannot utterly exclude all seeing the worke of grace depends absolutely neither upon the nature of the meanes nor upon the abilities and will of the converted and elected whereof many are not by that method of meanes capable but upon God who workes according to the good pleasure of his will yet he uses meanes not to help himselfe as if otherwise he could not doe the worke but in respect of us that are naturall men indowed with senses as well as reason hee appoints meanes Reasons of using of means 1. that by our using thereof we may be active about the worke of our owne salvation and may attaine the same by a way and course within the compasse of our owne power and indeavours as the reward and blessing of God upon our labours to our commendation before God and men 2. Againe meanes are appointed by God for our obtaining of salvation that by using of them our saith in Gods promises and power may be tried in expecting thereby so glorious effects farre above their nature and also our obedience may be proved by doing what God commands us to doe within the reach of our power to get life albeit it doe transcend reason how by this way it can be had as appeares by Naaman the Syrian 2 King 5.13 14. 3. And finally God appoints the use of meanes for our comfort that by our constant conscionable using of the same we may be assured of grace and life as certainly as we are of the use of the meanes appointed to get and by which God hath promised to give it by the working of his holy Spirit §. 9. How the Spirits power is manifested and seene Vse To finde the Spirits power by the meanes in us Now further from the consideration of the excellency of this spirituall life to be wrought in us by meanes our use should be to end eavour to find and feele both the Spirits quickning vertue of regeneration by the meanes powerfully working upon and in us and also to discerne this spirituall life to be in our selves seeing our comfort lyes herein and that the one can never bee without the other Manifest in 4. degrees of operation The vertue of the Spirit in us by the meanes manifests it selfe in foure degrees of operation not to speake of illumination First both in making us see and feele with griefe of heart our owne wretchednesse and sinfull deadnesse 1. Against sinne and also by turning us from our sins and ungodly courses with detestation of them and with resolution and constant indeavours against them it being the worke of the spirit to lust against the slesh because they are contrary the one to the other a Gal 5.17 c. both in nature and effects In which respect the Prophet Hosea tells us that if we will live we must turne Hosea 6.1 for our sinfull courses are the waies of death therefore we should labour to be and find our selves mortified to sinne with some kinde not onely of voluntary indisposition but also of strong antipathie and detestation of committing the same as formerly wee were prone and affected with delight to doe and that at the presence of sinne in its habit or act we may with indignation be displeased and sad having no joy nor contentment in that condition For the motions of sin entertained do worke in our members to bring forth fruit unto death b Rom. 7.5 Which by a contrary life of grace are mortified and subdued but I confesse that
life from the fountaine of life whereby we live as men say actu primo so by the imployment and exercise of this life in obedience to God we live actu secundo preserving and nourishing this life For we see that by rest and idlenesse things are not onely often frustrate of the end of their being but doe also languish and die which by action according to their naturall faculties and proper use are preserved For all things that are in the way to their end as spirituall life is here are maintained and perfected by their motion to that end where at last they are to rest there not being an ultra or more-over for them to aspire after 3. Zeale Thirdly this spirituall life is somented and cherished by stirring up and blowing the coale of godly zeale for goodnesse and against evill whereby a man may quicken the things that are ready to die this zeale is as the lively spirits that quicken this life to make it active whereby it growes and is vigorous The vveakenes of zeale The things that weaken this zeale are three First wearisomenesse and satiety contracted by the length of time in assiduity about good things and divine exercises 2. Secondly by diseouragements from all examples and from opposition of goodnesse 3. Thirdly for the prevailing of vice in our selves or generally in others caried with a high hand and from the languishing of grace in our selves and from the generall discountenancing of it by others Meanes to quicken zeale 1. The meanes to quicken this zeale are First the serious consideration both of the excellency and also of the usefulnesse of goodnesse whereby wee may bee inslamed with the love and desire of it 2. Secondly the odiousnesse and dangerousnesse of iniquity and sinfull prevailing courses in others may by antipathie and antiparistasis kindle our zeale the more against it as David confesses of himselfe that rivers of waters did runne downe his eyes because men kept not Gods Law Psal 119.136 4. Gods promises Fourthly this spirituall life is maintained by observing and collecting the promises of the word of God and marking how God fulfills the same to his people and so by meditating and relying upon them wee shall find incouragement and a lively influence come from the same to uphold this spirituall life in us in all estates when all other things do faile As the Prophet saith unlesse thy Law had beene my delight I should then have perished in mine affliction a Psal 119.42 5. Preseverance Fiftly spirituall life is upheld in us by having our eyes fixt upon God in constant perseverance in all well doing as did Iehosaphat b 2 Chro 20.12 from whom there proceeds to us a gracious influence of divine life as light from the sunne to the moone when she is within the aspect of it 6. Hope of happincsse The sixt meanes of preservation of this spirituall life is hope set upon our future happinesse as did our Saviour Christ who for the hope that was set before him indured the crosse Heb. 12.2 by this anchor of hope a man rides safe in all stormes as held up by the chinne that hee can never bee drowned when this anchor is cast upward within the vaile whither Christ our forerunner is gone c Heb 6.19 drawing us after him §. 13. Of mans care of spirituall life Vse 2. Mans great charge The second use of the excellency of mans spirituall life is to instructus that man hath the greatest adventure and charge to save or lose of any creature in the world for as he hath both a soule and a body so hath he both a naturall and a spirituall life to save or lose and upon the miscarying of the spirituall depends the misery of the naturall Therefore it is that man is subject to most dangers of all earthly creatures and needs to be most vigilant and carefull of himselfe for by how much the more excellent he may be if he be saved so much the more miserable shall he be if he perish And therefore as of a ship lade with rich goods more care is to be had than of a ship lade with coales or chalke Comparison so more care is to be had of a man than of any other worldly creature in regard of the greatnesse of the aforesaid adventurer which may be fitly represented by the answer of a certaine Philosopher to a wretched fellow when they were both at sea in danger to be drowned together whereof the Philosopher was much more fearefull than the other who upbraided him for the same and demanded the reason thereof to whom the Philosopher replyed that the losse was farre the greater for him to miscarry than for many such fellowes as the other was who were nought worth Vse 3. The third use observable from hence is that if it come into competition whether wee should yeeld to lose our naturall life or our spirituall when both cannot be enjoyed to ether then wee are to preferre the preservation of our spirituall life before our naturall and for saving of this to do nothing to hurt or prejudice that remembring that our Saviour saith be that loveth his life shall lose it Terent S. naturall before naturall life and he that hateth his life in this world shall keepe it unto life eternall Iohn 12.25 for obtaining whereof many of Gods people little respected their naturall life as they who Heb. 11.35 did not accept deliverance from death that they might obtaine a better resurrection Paul said that his life was not deare to him but that he was ready to die for the name of Iesus Christ Act. 21.13 which was the ease of all the Martyrs such was their esteeme of and affection to spirituall life We that live saith Paul are delivered to death for Iesus sake that his life may bee manifest in us Which coademnes those that Esau-like set light by this spirituall life preterring the world their lusts their pleasures or naturall life before it because they neither know the worth nor comfort of it nor have part or hope of it which whosoever hath will choose rather a thousand times to die this temporall death than to lose his spirituall life CHAP. 6. Of lifes destruction and of murder in generall §. 1. How mans life may be lost HAving spoken of mans life which is the object of Self murder now it followes in the next place that we consider the act it selfe of taking away this life specially in unjust manner Life may be lost Of both the aforesaid kinds of life naturall and spirituall a man may bee deprived and that after two severall wayes 1. Passively First passively as he therein is immediately but a sufferer although mediatly or by originall merit he may be said to be efficient in procurement of his owne destruction but as he is meerely passive he cannot be deemed to be guilty thereof 2. Actively
Secondly actively as he is an agent in and about his owne death working to effect the same either meritoriously or efficiently and so he is a self-murderer and guilty of his owne death §. 2. Of the meanes of losing life naturall Meanes of losse of life are 1. Internall Mans life is loseable by two sorts of meanes First internall arising from and within a mans selfe that kills him as the worme that breeds of and in the tree and destroyes it so in mans bodie doe distempers and diseases breed of and from it selfe whereby hee is in deaths hands and by degrees dies daily also in the soule of man sinne doth breed that kills his spirituall life and so he hath in himselfe the principles and meanes of the destruction both of his soule and body of his life both naturall and spirituall 2. Externall The second meanes is externall inflicted from without a man tending to that taking away of his life and the same is either casuall or voluntary 1. Casuall Casuall or accidentall is when besides the intension of the agent and proper nature and end of the action it falls out and comes to passe that thereby the life of man is hurt or taken away as when in felling of wood the axe flees off the helve and unawares to him that uses it kills a man a Deut. 19.5 herein the life of man is taken away not without concurrence of the providence of God who is pleased by suffering such an accident to lay a crosse upon the agent to whom it is a kinde of calamity or punishment to be a meanes against his will of the death of any man Also to this casuall destruction of mans life belongs the perishing of the soules of those that unjustly take offence at other mens estates and lives b 1 Cor. 1.23 for that which they lawfully and necessarily doe or suffer in their callings and Christian condition whereby such persons flee off from the truth and fall into or persist in evill and damnable course to their eternall perdition without any fault of theirs by whose occasion they of their own wretchednesse stumble and miscarry and so goe guilty of their owne spirituall death by abusing of that which is good to their hurt and damnation so falling and ruinating themselves by other mens rising and standing 2. Voluntary Or else the externall meanes of taking away a mans life doe of themselves in their proper nature and direct use and in the intension of the agent tend to the effecting thereof which about our life that is naturall is done either justly upon lawfull causes in just manner Justly by those those that are sufficiently authorized to doe the same or else it is done unjustly when the same is without just cause Unjustly not by the hands of persons lawfully authorized to doe it or is not performed in a just and warrantable manner §. 3. Of the meanes of the destruction of spirituall life 2. Of the soule Also touching our spirituall life the same is externally or by meanes without a mans selfe destroyed eyther by the justice of God 1. By God when he most righteously in his act of vindicative and distributive justice punishes man with eternall destruction for his sinnes Mat. 10.28 in which case man in respect of his owne merits and deservings is guilty of his owne perishing and not God 2. By men two waies Or else our spirituall life may miscarry by meanes of men 1. who First by their corrupt doctrine and evill examples doe draw others with them to perdition as did the Scribes and Pharisees that did compasse sea and land to make one Proselyte whom when they had wonne they made him twosold more the child of hell than themselves Mat. 23.15 or by depriving them of the meanes of their salvation they are subjected to destruction 2. Secondly when men by compulsory meanes of unjust lawes and severe threatnings and punishments are driven and forced from the waies of righteousnesse into sinnefull courses as by Ieroboam Manasses c. soules are destroied with a twofold guilt both of them that force others and also of them that yeeld themselves to evill upon such constraint Life is taken avvay 1 By others 2. By a mans selfe Againe the externall meanes of depriving a man of his life is inflicted either by others sometime lawfully sometimes unlawfull or else by a mans owne hands and procurement which is ever in all cases unlawfull for him to doe mediately or immediately directly or indirectly But it is to be noted that no man loseth his spirituall life but by his owne meanes and merits procuring the same for the spirituall life of man is subject to no mans power who can kill onely the body and doe no more Mat. 10.28 And God that is esseatially and absolutely just subjects not man to suffer that which actively he hath not first some way procured by his owne doings and deservings Observ How subject man is to death From hence it is observable that the lives of no creatures are longer and with more adoe hatchedup and maintained than the lives of men and yet the lives of no creatures are subject to so many dangers inward and outward of destruction and sooner overthrowne than mans we being like brittle glasses that containe precious balsame and as choise flowers hardly cherished up and soone blasted which shewes both our weakenesse and want of self-sufficiency to uphold our selves and also how we are possessed and compassed about with things adverse and dangerous to our lives both of soule and body of all creatures man onely being a stranger and pilgrim on earth hath therefore the least kinde entertainment in this world and the most uncertaine possession of it and is alwaies neerest to be thrust out of it walking here but as a shadow Vse 1 Therefore wee should be more carefull to cleave the more closely to our God who is the preserver of men that by him we may be upheld and protected against all dangers 2. And againe we should be the more watchfull against carnall security that wee doe not presume upon our uncertaine lives nor suffer our selves to be intangled with this world and the things of it but that we be ever heavenly minded and ready for our departure hence labouring to get and keepe that spirituall and eternall life §. 4. Of murder in self-killing Killing of a mans selfe is murder 1. In a mans taking away of his owne life two things are to be considered First that it is murder in regard of the nature of the act of it 2. Secondly that it is murder of ones selfe in respect of the object thereof and so self-murder is a compounded sinne of more degrees than one and that in such a kind as is the most hainous and most to be abhorred in humane society in regard that this destroyes the substantiall being of that which ought to bee of
all worldly things most deare to us whereas other sinnes spoile the wel-being of our selves or others which so long as life lasteth is recoverable Self-murder is horrible And therefore whatsoever is to be thought of the vile quality and of the damnable deserts of murder in generall is to be conceived to be due and much worse to self-murder in speciall For murder is but the genericall or generall matter and not the speciall and formall nature of Self-murder and therefore if it be horrible to murder another man it is much more odious to kill ones selfe For by naturall reason the more that any Genus or generall matter is restrained and actuated by its superadded formes and specificall differences the more it is intended active and powerfull according to the motion of nature ab imperfectioribus ad perfectiora proceeding toward that perfection wherein it intends to termine and end Now the perfection of a vice if I may so speake consists in the highest exorbitancie of it beyond which none can passe and in murder it is certaine that none can goe beyond self-murder as afterward will fully appeare 4. Things are observable in murder In taking away specially a mans naturall life unjustly and murderously foure things are to be considered 1. That death is undeserved First that the effect done or death of a man in depriving him of his life is without due desert on his part at their hands that put him to death 2. Done without lavvfull authority Secondly that the act it selfe whereby that effect is accomplished is unlawfull on his part that doth it in regard of his want of authority and just calling to do that act and if the sufferer have deserved death and the executioner have a lawfull calling to kill him yet if his manner of doing of it bee contrary to the prescript and rules of his calling and to the minde and disposition requisite for such an agent in that act then the same is murder 3. Done wittingly Thirdly it is considerable in murder that the agent therein both knowes not onely that the nature of his action that he doth tendeth to death but also that morally it is an unlawfull act or thing to be done and also doth voluntarily and wittingly intend the doing of that action without regard of the effect or insuing of death thereupon 4. Death intended Fourthly touching murder it is remarkeable that the agent doe not onely voluntarily and wittingly a lethiferous or mortall act but that he doe also intend and desire to effect the death of a man thereby whom justly he cannot kill otherwise if a man should ignorantly or unwillingly in doing of his lawfull calling be a meanes accidentally to take away the life of a man he is not therefore guilty of murder For for such God provided Cities of refuge for their preservation against the avenger of blood Deut. 19.3 4 5. Iosbua 20.3 by the first of these wee see that an innocent suffers death by the second wee see that the Agent or executioner is such an one as ought not to kill him although he were nocent by the third and fourth it appeare that the act is formaliter murderous in regard of the knowledge and intention of the doer thereof Self-murder is most vile murder in transcendent manner So in Self-murder as it is murder an Innocent never deserving of himselfe that himselfe should kill himselfe is slaine the Actor whereof hath no authority nor calling over himselfe so to doe seeing no man can be both superiour and also inferiour to himselfe and for a man to doe an act upon himselfe which he knowes to be both mortall and unlawfull and yet will doe it with purpose and intent to bereave himselfe of his own life it cannot be denyed to be murder in the highest degree and he a murderer that doth it §. 5. How murder is vile The vilenesse of murder in its effects The vilenesse of murder is not onely seene by its contrariety to Gods Law and the heavie censures and punishments thereof and its incompatibility with humane society but also by the effects thereof upon the sufferer 1. It destroves naturall life For first the act of murder utterly so destroyes the naturall life of man upon the departure of his soule from the body that the same is never againe recovered For naturall life depends not onely upon the presence of the soule informing the body but even upon our state of being in this world insomuch that after the resurrection although soule and body shall be againe united yet as then our bodies shall be spirituall bodies a 1 Cor. 15 44. so shall our lives be So then a murderer takes that life away which he can never give nor restore and destroyes that which he can never build up 2. It destroyes mans persen Secondly the act of murder destroyes the person of man which depends upon mans life For neither is the soule alone nor the body alone the person of man but the whole man consisting of soule and body with their properties hypostatically united So that when the soule is in heaven he cannot say but Synechdochically that the person is in heaven Nor when the body is in the grave can we properly say that the person is in the grave For then either a man must be two persons one in heaven and another in the grave which is absurd or else one created person should be in diverse places at once which is impossible Observe vvhere the person is after death If you say where then is the person after death I answer it is not in actuall being but potentiall in its constitutive principles of soule and body that are to be joyned together at the day of judgment And therefore it is that the soules separate from the bodies thinke not nor worke in that manner as they did organically in the body whereupon the Psalmist saies of Princes that when they die their thoughts perish b Psal 146.4 and therefore neither remember they in that estate things past nor are capable of present under those species and notions as they did here in the body So then he that murders a man destroies a person although his distinct natures doe remaine Thirdly a murderer is injurious to God not onely in breaking his Law but also in destroying his Image which is not properly in the body or in the soule apart but in the whole person of man consisting of both soule and body with their properties personally united man was created in Gods Image now the soule alone or body alone is not the man but both united as is said so it is apparent that wrong is done to heaven and earth by a murderer §. 6. Of the originall of murder Murder whenee 1. From our selves We are to consider whence it comes that man doth monstrously First fall upon his owne kinde to destroy it and then upon himselfe Of murder in
old man There is a lawfull and commanded killing of our selves For understanding whereof it is to be observed that every one of us hath in him a self-old-man of sinfulnesse lively and powerfull in manifold lusts and wicked actions of which the Apostle tells us Rom. 7.5 That when we were in the flesh the motions of sinnes which were by the Law did worke in our members to bring forth fruit unto death when the Commandement came sinne revived the living whereof doth kill us In this case even for our owne preservation it is necessary and lawfull for us to kill our self-old-man with the lusts thereof as the Apostle commands us to mortifie our memhers that the body of sinne might be destroyed we should put off the old man Ephes 4.22 Col. 3.9 so that we should become dead to trespasses and sinnes wherein formerly we were dead The kinds of it This killing of our selves is metaphoricall and morall by which death we are made alive For if we doe not thus die wee cannot live as the sowne corne must first die before it can live and grow Comparison Hovv done 1. In Christ This our self-old-man is slaine by three severall acts or blowes First the same after a sort was crucified in Christ Rom. 6.6 That the body of sinne might be destroyed although not the individuall persons but the common nature of mankind aslumed by Christ did suffer death in him 2. By change of our estate in Justification Secondly our self-old-man is killed by change of our state upon our grafting into Christ by faith so that we are in that respect said to be dead to the Law by the body of Christ Rom. 7.4.6 and that we are dead to the Law that we might live unto God Gal. 2.19 this is done at one entire act or blow in the act of our justification so by this death freeing us from him that hath the power of death even the devill 3. By the Spirit Thirdly our self-old-man and the lusts thereof are killed as touching the dominion and corruption of them by the Spirit of God in the act of sanctification touching which the Apostle tells us Rom. 8.13 That if we through the Spirit doe mortifie the deeds of the body which is the worke of our whole life we shall live How we are actors in it This killing of our self-old-man should be done by our selves being the executioners of it by assistance of divine power from God in three severall acts 1. First by our act of savingly beleeving in Christ whereby our state is changed from death to life 2. Secondly by our constant indeavours to be conformed to Gods Image and will by daily renovation 3. Thirdly by our continuall warfare against our corruptions and temptations touching which the Apostle saies that the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh Gal. 5.17 they are so contrary the one to the other that there is no living for either of them but by the death of its opposite neither is there any peace untill one of them be dead Observe The use of our Christian armour Wee should therefore ever use our Christian armour and imploy our utmost indeavours to destroy our self-old-man against which if we doe turne the edge of our spirituall sword to slaughter it with the lusts thereof we shall be diverted not onely from unjustly killing of others but much more from killing our selves in any other respect but when we as Saul doe spare the life of this Agag or self-old-man it causes us by a just hand of God to fall upon our selves to take away that life of our owne which we should both spare and cherish §. 4. Diverse observations from the generall consideration of self-murder Observ 1. Man is in greatest danger From the consideration of self-murder we may observe First that man stands in more danger of destruction than any other creature for no creature is subject to attempts against the life of it by it selfe but onely man who is invironed also with mortall dangers from without but specially of his owne procurement by opening the way for others to invade and hurt him by breaches and armes of his owne making 2. God vvants not executioners of his justice Secondly wee here see that God wants not meanes of execution of his judgements upon man seeing he can leave a man to fall upon himselfe and be his owne executioner Vse Feare God The use hereof is to make us afraid to offend God or to provoke him to be our enemie or to live unreconciled with him destitute of the assurance of his peace and favour Distrust our selves Neither are we over-confidently to trust our selves with our selves of whom wee have so little assurance for security and safety from self-mischiefe and therefore we are carefully to cleave to God for preservation praying him not to give us up to our selves who are mercilesly cruell to our selves when wee fall into our owne hands for the neerer that any are linked and knit together in condition or affection the more desperately opposite they are when they fall into division because of the want of a fit medium or mediatour of reconciliation betweene a mans selfe and himselfe what meane is there either to keepe himselfe from himselfe or to reconcile himselfe to himselfe when himselfe is fallen out into murdercus resolutions against himselfe CHAP. 8. Of spirituall self-murder in speciall §. 1. All perishing soules are self-murdered Soule-murder OF self-murder thus generally defined there are two kinds or specialls to wit spirituall and bodily Although some may be said to be murderers of other mens soules by their scandalous practises or by their corrupt doctrine or by depriving them of the meanes of their salvation and the like yet no soule can perish without the intervening and concurring of the assistance and meanes of him that owes that soule whereby it comes to paffe that all soules that miscarry are in some sort Is also self-murder self-murdered For although it is against nature to desire to bee absolutely miserable and that he should in his last existing in his last principles bee undone or wretched albeit he may affect the dissolution of his personall subsisting upon intention and hope by his change to bee bettered in his future estate subsisting in his remaining principles yet he may wittingly and willingly doe that which may be the destruction of his soule although he doth not intend that effect and so commit not direct but indirect self-soule-murder §. 2. Spirituall self-murder defined What spirituall self-murder is Now that wee may know what it is Spirituall self-murder is the killing of a mans soule or spirituall life by himselfe or his owne meanes That which distinguishes this from bodily self-murder is the subject killed which is the soule or spiritual life not that the soule essextially considered or its naturall life of being and
acting in it selfe can bee destroyed by man whereby it ever lives to be capable of eternall misery or glory For such a death it cannot die without being reduced into nothing and quite extinguished in regard of the spirituall simplicity thereof void of composition and the nature of it is an act but this death is onely of that superadded supernaturall beatificall life of grace and glory whereof a man may misse and come short and be guilty of the losse thereof although he were never personally possessed of it as those that are said 1 Tim. 1.19 to have put away faith and a good conscience §. 3. Of soul-murder by deprivation of life Tvvo degrees of it 1. Of soul-murder there are two degrees the first is deprivation of spirituall life which is poena damni or punishment of losse 2. the second is subjection to misery in positive manner which is called the second death and is poena sensus or punishment of sensible feeling because man was indowed at first as it were habitually with a spirituall life in gracious indowments and communion with God and now by mans owne fault that habit of spirituall life being destroyed it may be truly said that hee himselfe hath killed it in regard that he was radically and implicitely in Adam when he first destroyed and lost the same §. 4. Of mans deficiency to be saved Meanes of mans deprivation of 〈…〉 all life his deficiency The principall meanes of mans deprivation of this spirituall life is his neglect of meanes when himselfe is the immediate cause and procurer thereof by his owne deficiency and that two waies 1. In Adaw First as he is originally confidered in Adam who was the roote of mankind and whose first sinne and effects thereof are equally reckoned to bee all mens in common who then were in him and so thus radically in Adam all men have deprived themselves of spirituall life by their owne act of neglect of eating of the tree of life and of others permitted for their use and by their eating of the forbidden tree of knowledge of good and evill 2. By himselfe personally considered Secondly as he is personally considered by himselfe a man may deprive himselfe of spirituall life and so in that respect be a self-murderer of his soule which is done by his voluntary omission of duties upon which life is promised every man is dead in trespasses and sins a Ephes 2. and thereby subject to death but the Lord hath abundantly provided us of meanes to advance us to life which if we do wilfully neglect or contemne to use there being no other safety of necessiry wee must perish and bee guilty of our owne destruction as were the Iewes by rejecting of the Gospell Act. 28.25 Foure-fold omission Of this degree of self-soule-murder or deprivdtion of life a man may bee guilty by a foure-fold omission of things that ought to be done by him for his salvation 1. Neglect of the outward meanes First when a man willfully neglects the conscionable and diligent use of the outward ordinances of Gods word worship and Sacraments the blessed meanes of life appointed by God without which no man of discretion in the visible Church can be saved the Apostle Rom. 10.13 limits salvation to calling upon the name of the Lord which cannot be without hearing of the word of God This neglect of spirituall meanes is either by not going where they may be had and sincerely used or if hee may have them his neglect may be in not frequenting and carefully using them in conscionable manner nor submitting himselfe to bee wrought upon that he may be moulded in the forme and frame of the word a Rom. 6.17 But doth come to the meanes either with a prejudicate opinion against the truth or with a resolution to continue still in his unregenerated estate and in his sinfull courses as those that with their mouth shewed much love but their hearts went after their covetousnesse Ezek. 33.31 and as those that Ieremie speakes of Ier. 18.12 who said Wee will walke after our owne devices and wee will every one doe the imagination of his evill heart such persons are as guilty of their owne damnation as a man is of self-murder of his body that out of stubbornnesse or sullennesse will not eate but in the midst of plenty starve himselfe to death §. 5. Of mans neglect of the power of the meanes 2. The contempt of the power of the meanes The second omission procuting deprivation of spirituall life and so consequently effecting self-soule-murder in that degree is a mans contempt and regardlesnesse of the spirituall efficacy and power of the meanes for inward change of his spirituall and morall state and condition and for power of enabling him to all holy practise of life and conversation whereby he may be borne againe and be made a new creature a Iob. 3.3 which is a thing most necessary and availeable for salvation Gal. 6.15 Such men are either utterly carelesse and regardlesse of grace and spirituall life from their undervaluing of the worth of it or from their esteeming of the same to be needlesse Or else they harden their hearts as did Pharaoh and set themselves against the power of the Word that it may neither enter into their hearts nor make any divine change in their states or lives as if they had made a league with hell and death What be those Contemners Such are ever learning but never attaine to saving knowledge they are ever sowing but never reape they are ever in the hand of the workeman but are never framed anew they are fairely featured by some outward profession but are without life and sound grace the reason hereof is because such an one rests upon and pleases himselfe in his owne sufficiency using the meanes without consideration of the end why God gave the meanes and why we are couse them and without looking and seeking to God for a blessing upon the meanes that they may be effectuall to his salvation §. 6. Of mans defect in obedience 3. Want of obediencs The third omission whereby a man excludes himselfe from this spiritnall life and so consequently subjects himselfe to spirituall death is wilfull want of obedience to Gods word and that in a double respect 1 Evangelicall First in regard of the Gospell when he doth not savingly beleeve in Christ as the Gospell requires but remaines in privative unbeliefe whereby a man is destitute or deprived of Christ our life and Saviour For we are frequently said to live by faith b Habak 2.4 Heb. 10.38 Rom. 1.17 and therefore without it we are dead and so such as do not savingly beleeve and repent which are the acts of Evangelicall obedience doe deprive themselves of salvation through their owne default which is evident because they are willingly impenitent unbeleevers resisting the motions of the word and Spirit not sorrowing for nor striving against
damned in hell can be for that sensible misery that they shall suffer both in respect of the differing degrees and also of the natures of the things but punishment of damage and privation of life and happinesse proceeds from want and omission of good whereof wee are to beware §. 10. Of indeavour after spirituall life and of the lets thereof 2. The second use is to stirre us up to indeavour after life spirituall both to get and keepe it by the conscionable use of the meanes thereof For as God gives not this life without our using of appointed meanes so these meanes are within the reach of our power and none do perish but such as are wanting to themselves therein For no man perishes or is saved by an absolute decree of God without respect to his owne courses in the accomplishment thereof as Act. 13.48 it is said that as many as were ordained to life beleeved By a mans constant carefulnesse in the use of the meanes and walking in the waies of salvation it is apparent that he is appointed to life as the Apostle tells us 1 Thes 1.4 Knowing your election for our Gospell came unto you in power c. this life is worth the labouring for if we doe our parts for a thing of that price we may have assurance and comfort of it against the servile feare of the contrary death Letts The lets and hinderances of this endeavour and the causes of this omission whereby men deprive themselves of this spirituall life are specially three 1. Perverted judgment First a perverted judgement and stupid understanding undervaluing the worth of that life as not so excellent and necessary as it is it being not subject to our present naturall senses nor regarded by the world 2. Mis-placed affections Secondly the preferment of the world in the profits and pleasures thereof before it in place or degree after which ungodly men doe more eagerly hunt and therein have more content because they have the same in present possession and it agrees best with their estate and disposition insomuch that it may be said of such men that it is better to be their bodies than their soules as the Emperour said of Herod Macrobius that it was better being his hog than his Son because he killed his Son but spared and fatted his hogs 3. Presumption Thirdly groundlesse presumption that either he hath that life already or that he hath time enough to get it long afterwards or that it may be easily had without meanes or at least without so much adoe makes a man to omit endeavouring after it in due time in use of the meanes and so he misses that life §. 11. Of spirituall self-murder by subjection to death through commission of evill The second degree of self-soul-murder The second degree of self-soul-murder is subjection to spirituall destruction in damnation and everlasting misery whereof man himselfe is the efficient meritorious cause by his owne activity in committing and wilfully doing those sinnes for which death and destruction is threatned a Ezek. 18.4 and is assuredly inflicted upon the impenitent perseverers therein For as by a mans omission of his duty he deprives himselfe of life so by his commission of sinnes hee subjects himselfe to the contrary death the former being as terminus à quo the terme from which men move the latter as terminus ad quem the terme to which they move both which are inseparably united in the same person in whom thereby this spirituall self-murder is consummate to the highest perfection or degree of it whereby it properly may be called self-soule-murder §. 12. Of the meanes of destruction by breaking the Law By sins of commission The deadly meanes whereby men kill their owne soules and subject the same to eternall positive destruction are the sins that they wilfully commit and continue in in such kinds and degrees and manner as cannot consist in them with grace and salvation and are of two sorts 1. Against the Law of negative commands First such as be against the prime law of Nature by transgressing the negative Commandements of God whereby the transgressours doe subject themselves to that punishment which is called poena sensus or punishment of smart or damnation in hell For by sinne entred death Rom 5.12 Rev. 21.8 Prov. 19 16. The properties of soul-murdring sinnes The properties of the course and sinnes of Commission whereby a man becomes guilty of self-murder of his soule are foure 1. They are grosse Although the nature of all sinnes be mortall deserves death and disposes a man for it yet those that be of the grossest kinds and in the highest degrees of exorbitancy such as Hosea speakes of cap. 4.2 are specially said to be mortall for their extreame contrariety that they have to God and his justice their inconsistency with grace and for their apting and disposing of those to destruction that live in them so that by committing such sinnes men doe cast their owne soules into the gulfe of perdition 2. Wilfull Secondly when they that commit those sinnes or any of them doe willingly doe the same and live in them against the light and checks of their owne consciences as our Saviour charges the Pharisees Iohn 9.41 then are they self-condemned and do wittingly destroy their owne soules without excuse of ignorance or of want of power to have avoyded the same seeing as there is in some naturall notions of the Law in the minde such as the Gentiles have Rom. 2.14 So likewise all men have some remainder of power to forbeare sinnes in their grossest kinds and degrees if they were not wanting to themselves and therefore as all men specially the wicked within the Church shall be judged by the Law so they shall have nothing to plead to excuse why they should not be damned for their grosse transgressing of it 3. Obstinate Thirdly when men commit those sinnes with eagernesse and delight from and upon advised judgment and wilfull resolution with contentment in the acting of them and defending or excusing them when they are done as did Saul 1 Sam. 13.12 and do fall to opposing censuring and condemning the contrary course of vertue and godlinesse in the persons that doe practise the same whom therefore they hate and persecute a 1 Thes 2.15 such persons are in a course of destroying their owne soules by setting themselves with a high hand against God provoking him to his face to fall upon them for revenge 4. Presevered in Fourthly by this course of sinning a man murders his own soule when he goeth on and incorrigibly perseveres therein passing from evill to worse hardning his owne heart against all reproofes and amendment storming against and abusing all the meanes of his recovery to his deeper plunging in wickednesse and destruction for although hee would willingly misse hell and bee rid of the guilt of his sinne that troubles his conscience
comfort that upon our perseverance we shall have happinesse and life eternall So that we need not pleade uncertainty and ignorance of whether we are going to heaven or hell or whether in the state or course we live in we shall be saved or damned seeing that the Scripture makes it manifest what shall be the reward and event of every man according to the state and course he lives and dyes in that we need neither put off the knowledge nor the blame or cause of whether we shall be saved or damned upon our praedestination when wee doe determine the same in the accomplishment thereof by our owne courses CHAP. 9. Of bodily self-murder in speciall §. 1. How bodily self-murder is defined and differenced NOw we are to prosecute the second branch of self-murder which is called bodily self-murder and is thus defined Bodily self-murder is the killing of a mans owne body in destroying of his naturall life by himself his owne voluntary meanes or procurement This kind of self-murder is differenced from spirituall self-murder by two things First by the object that is killed in this the soule and spirituall life is destroyed in that the body or mans naturall life is undone Secondly they differ in the meanes and manner of killing of them the soule or spirituall life is slaine by spirituall and morall meanes the body by naturall or bodily self-willed waies §. 2. Of Mans body and its works Touching the body of man in this case we are to consider three things 1. Considerations First that it is an essentiall part and not onely an integrall part constituting the person of man without which he cannot be a man personally considered and therefore by killing of his body he destroyes his person that it ceases from being or subsisting in this world 2. Secondly the body of man is the organ or instrument whereby the soule works organically and therefore hee that kills his owne body destroyes all those works that the soule was to worke in it and which it cannot doe without it The soules morall workes in the body 1. The morall organicall works of mans soule in the body are of three sorts First such as immediatly intend and concerne the advancement of the glory of God in this life where the living and not the dead do praise him 2. Secondly such works as are serviceable for the morall and spirituall good of the person himselfe which is to bee attained and procured by life before we can come to enjoy it by death 3. Thirdly such works as promore the good of the Church and Common-wealth of both which every Christian is a member and can onely by his life and not after death benefit the same so that by killing himselfe a man wrongs God himselfe the Church and Common-wealth in bereaving them of that service and good which they all might have by his life 3. Consideration The third thing here considerable in mans body is that it with the soule makes the person and so in that respect is the subject or seate of Gods Image and therefore a man in killing of his owne body not only dishonours but also in a sort doth what in him lieth to kill God himselfe as he is similitudinarily in him and incurres the horrible crime of Laesae majestatis divinae or treason against the sacred Majesty of God Observ The body suffers by and for the soule So then the body which is the soules instrument or servant and is no way culpable or nocent but by partnership with and inserviceablenesse to the soule is ill rewarded and indignely suffers by its owne master abusing it to sinne and subjecting it to misery and punishment who is not content to weare it out but after his owne lust breakes and spoyles it whereof hee cannot turne one haire to be white or black hee spares his soule in its sinnes which he should mortifie and in a sinfull course kills his body which he should spare Naturall life is both a blessing of it selfe and also is a meanes of blessing God and others in this world and whereby wee may attaine to everlasting blessednesse hereafter Life is unsure of all which a man deprives himselfe by thus killing of himselfe which cannot be done but against the light and reluctancie of nature in all men whereby the actors declare themselves to bee unnaturall and barbarou monsters Naturall life that is a tenant at will in man is most uncertaine and soone thrust out at doores when it is not secure from him that owes it Man is unworthy of this life that is no more thankfull for it neither more values it nor makes better use of it but after his wastefull expence of it in sinfull courses desperately destroyes it God in his Word never appointed nor commended any meanes for a man to kill himselfe by because where God appoints not the end he appoints not the meanes to attaine it yet man wants not meanes to doe it by perverting his power and skill to that end and abusing other things contrary to the use for which God made them when he purposes to doe such an act so abusing both himselfe and all other things to his owne ruine The body is passive The body is but a passive subject in respect of the soule to whose power and will it is obnoxious and therefore it is the more subject to suffer and it is the more inexcusable sinne to misuse it seeing it neither deserves to be ill intreated at his hand that owes it nor yet hath it power to resist or defend it selfe against the invasions of him to whom it is committed to preserve it In this bodily self-murder not onely doth the soule turne enemy to the body but it moreover makes an unnaturall mutinie against and amongst the members raising by faction a partie for it selfe so causing the hand to stab the body and the parts to be instruments to undoe the whole and thus by intestine opposition a man subverts and pulls downe upon his owne head the tabernacle of his owne body as Samson did the house wherein he was whereby he crushes and undoeth himselfe ordinarily in body and soule §. 3. Of the degrees of self-murder and pronenesse of men to it The degrees of self-murder This self-murder of the body is either inchoate and begun only in purposes and courses tending to the effecting thereof in time if it be not seasonably prevented or else it is consummate in the full accomplishment thereof No man falls into the highest extremities of evill but by degrees the least whereof makes way for and drawes on the greatest Causes of pronenesse to self bodily murder The causes why men often are prone to the self-murdering of their bodies are two 1. First the meannesse of it in comparison of the soule for nature and durance it being but earthly and fraile whereby it must naturally die 2. Secondly in regard that by it the soule is
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
way of omission if out of sullennesse griefe or nigardize or by undiscreet punishment of his body he shall stubbornly and foolishly refuse to eate or drinke in that measure or kinde that is requisite for his preservation by abstinency and sparing either starving himselfe to death or breeding in himselfe and contracting that which kills him somewhat like hereunto was the practise of Ahab 1 King 21.4 who because Naboth would not let him have his vineyard heavie and displeased layd him downe upon his bed and turned away his face and would eat no bread 1 Tim. 5.23 the contrary whereof Paul commanded Timothy A Caveat Yet to avoid this danger men may not Gormandize or excessively pamper themselves indulgendo Genio but may and ought at set times to fast both for civill and divine ends with respect to the good both of soule and body 2. Contempt of Physick Secondly in this kinde of omission a man may indirectly murder himselfe by wilfull contempt of the lawfull use of Physick or Chirurgery either to cure or prevent apparent mortall diseases or griefes or when he will not be ordered by the wholesome direction of the skilfull in their calling or doth not depend upon God for a blessing upon the meanes who by his over-ruling providence directs the course and blesses the meanes A Caveat Yet men must herein be carefull that they slavishly enthrall not themselves to the meanes nor anxiously perplexe themselves if they cannot have them or that the successe answers not their expectation because the Lord disposes things so as he also may effect his worke and will often by crossing ours Neglect of prevention of dangers Thirdly a man may incurre indirect self-murder by regardlesnesse of preserving himself against mortall dangers from without himself as in not seeking to God for reconciliation by humiliation and repentance in some imminent judgements that threaten from God our destruction that we may bee preserved either from them or in them Or as when wee are in danger of invasion by enemies for a man then regardlesly to shut his eyes from foreseeing the same that it may suddenly surprise him or that he should not prepare himself and do his utmost endeavours in his owne defence to save his life if by resisting it may be done or otherwise to provide for himselfe by flight or other prudent diversion or preventing of the evill that he may not carelesly suffer his life to be lost So then the cowardise of men in extremities by Sea or land that will not doe their utmost endeavours for their owne preservation as likewise the griplenesse of those that to spare their goods indanger the losse of their lives for want of military furniture and meanes to make opposition are much to be blamed for this course of indirect self-murder A caveat But yet touching this point men should be wary that they neither be so carefull to preserve their lives that they should spare to venture them where they ought and may comfortably spend and lay them downe nor yet have their eyes and confidence so upon earthly meanes of humane strength and provision that they should forget or neglect to seeke to God and to depend upon him for safety and victorious successe 4. Not avoiding dangerous persons places Fourthly of indirect self-murder a man may be guilty by not avoiding and fleeing from persons and places destinated to destruction which are under a curse or in a course of mortall judgements when we are not necessarily tyed by duty or calling to commerce and bee with them as is apparent by Lots forsaking of Sodome and by the command of Moses to the Israelites Gen. 19. Numb 17.26 to depart from the tents of Corah Dathan and Abiram and by that divine commandement charging all the godly to come out of Babylon that they might not be partakers of her sins and that they might not receive of her plagues Rev. 18.4 And therefore such as out of unwarrantable presumption or carnall security avoid not persons and places infected with the pestilence or subjected to perdition when their presence is unnecessary not to be justified and pernicious to themselves they must be cast upon the inditement of indirect self-murder if by the aforesaid meanes they doe miscary §. 4. Of indirect self-murder by omission morally wrought 2. Morally By way of deficiency or omission of indirect self-murder a man may be guilty by a morall meritorious default two wayes 1. By neglect of good life First by his wilfull neglect or contempt to live and walke in the wayes of godlinesse and obedience to gods affirmative commandements whereunto the promises of life and protection are annexed a Gal. 3.12 and which we may certainly expect so long as we keepe our selves within compasse of morall obedience to the Law and Gospell and within the limits and precincts of our speciall callings so that if therein or therefore we should lose our lives we shall be free of the imputation of self-murder any way in that respect 2. Neglect of prayer c. Secondly in meritorious morall manner a man may miscary and be indirectly guilty of his own death by wilfull omission and neglect of commending himselfe in constant and ordinary prayer to God for divine preservation and safety of his life against all evills and dangers which may hurt him and over which and over him God hath a soveraigne power and command Unbeliefe And also by his unbeliefe and not trusting in God in all estates for preservation under whose wings he may securely rest a man may be justly deserted and given over to perish and sinke as Peter when he doubted was in danger of drowning b Mat. 14.30 31 Whence it proceeds This neglect of thus depending upon God ariseth either from self-confidence in mans owne power and meanes whereupon he rests as secure or else from Atheisticall conceits of the providence of God as if he were regardlesse of humane affaires and that all things did fall out by chance and fortune because they doe see all things in this world fall out alike to all men which being more exactly considered manifests rather the free and soveraigne powerfull providence of God over-ruling all things A caveat Yet this divine preservation by faith and prayer to God excludes not but includes the conscionable use of lawfull meanes and walking in appointed courses without which we can expect safety no more than Paul and his company could if they did let the mariners forsake the Ship a Acts 27.31 if a man by the aforesaid neglect of prayer and dependance upon God doe not perish it is Gods speciall worke reserving him either for repentance and amendment of his life or for some worse end and heavier judgement Observe Neglect of meanes is tempting of God From this degree of indirect self-murder by omission of meanes wee may observe that when God gives meanes of life if
we use them not to that end we tempt God to follow our owne wills while we will not follow his and if we use the meanes with trusting in them then we make gods of the meanes and therefore in that respect it is just with God to disappoint us of our expectation and to condemne us of indirect self-murder upon our miscarying in not using the meanes For all meanes as they are meanes have relation to the end why and whereunto they are appointed and so in their use to that end consists their perfection without which they were uselesse and needlesse and therefore by the omission of the use of the meanes of life which men would enjoy they either tempt God to doe things otherwise than he hath ordained or else they doe shew themselves regardlesse of God preferring their owne wills above his expecting to have their owne purposes without him whereby many men deceive themselves §. 5. A question resolved about standers mute at tryall About mutes refusing to undergoe the ordinary legall triall for their lives To this branch of indirect self-murder by omission belongs the case about mutes who are persons standing legally indited and arraigned for some capitall crimes that doe wilfully and obstinately decline and refuse either to confesse themselves guilty of the same or to submit themselves to be tryed by God and the Country notwithstanding that they certainly know that for their stubborne mutenesse they shall in fearefull manner bee pressed to death in which respect they are indirect self-murderers although that they are thereunto moved especially by foure seeming reasons Their reasons 1. First because that by that way they would save their estates if they have any from being confiscate to the King that their heires may enjoy the same 2. Secondly that so they may escape the death that is most ignominious in their eyes and infamous in the world to their memories friends and posterities whereunto they foresee they should be subject if so be they should undergoe an ordinary tryall 3. Thirdly that it may not be said that they suffered and dyed for so odious and shamefull crimes and facts as they are accused of and indited for 4. Fourthly that they may not be cast condemned or suffer by the meanes wills and hands of such prosecutors witnesses Iury or Indges as they take to be their capitall enemies they choose to die by that course of their owne election wherein their adversaries can least as they thinke have their will of them They should die and why But whatever be their reasons of standing mute in that case it is most just that therefore they should bee put to death in most terrible and ignominious manner for two reasons 1. First because of the intollerable wrong that thereby they doe to authority and justice tending to the overthrow of the same by refusing to subject their lives to the triall and judgement thereof and by their deaths as it may be truly interpreted depriving their highest Soveraignes on earth both of the commendation of Iust and also of opportunity of shewing mercy and giving pardon to delinquents and so not submitting to the judicature they actually declare themselves to be rebellious outlawes for which they are justly to die 2. Secondly be cause such persons by declining so just a way of trial by God and their Peeres doe in iust construction declare themselves to bee guilty of the facts and crimes whereof they are indited and for which they ought to die but seeke to crosse the law in the proper kindes of punishment due for the same And that they are guilty of their owne deaths by a grosse course of indirect self-murder is evident by foure reasons Mutes are self-murderers Reasons 1. First because such an one wilfully and obstinately reiects that lawfull and ordinary course of triall whereby it is possible that he might escape with his life either by not being found guilty or else by replevin or pardon from the execution and chooses that illegall course of standing mute whereby and for which hee certainly knowes he shall die and as certaine it is that so dying he is an indirect self-murderer in regard that he casts away his life wilfully by that course which was in his owne power most lawfully to have avoyded 2. Secondly by choise of that course of standing mute when he is called to a lawfull tryall he dies not only for that contumacy against authority and law but also thereby he unnaturally witnesses and gives verdict against himselfe to be guilty of the originall fact or crime for which he is indited and ought to die if it can bee proved and found against him which thing hee by his mutenesse doing in that respect hee justly perishes by his owne meanes and is indirectly a self murderer for no innocent would decline so just and lawfull a tryall by God and his Peeres when he knowes that by so refusing hee shall surely die 3. Thirdly it is apparent that such a body is indirectly a self-murderer because of the morall nature of their course of standing mute which is most wicked and unlawfull both by Gods law and mans For by the law of God and nature every man is bound to plead and doe the best he can by all lawfull meanes to prolong or preserve his life but standers mute in case of triall upon their lives doe not so but utterly neglect the use of lawfull meanes to prolong or save their lives and therefore are of this kinde of self-murderers By mans law for a person arraigned to stand mute is most unlawfull because it crosses the execution of Justice and is justly punished by a most terrible kinde of death by pressing Man hath not an allowed choise given him by law either to submit to triall or to be mute as he shall please for if the choise were lawfull why then should hee bee punished for doing that which hee may lawfully choose which could not be done by the magistrate without great injustice 4. Fourthly that such mutes are indirect self-murderers is evident by the voluntary disposition of their wills in the free choise of that mortall course and by the proper nature of their death and by the meritorious cause and reason of it all proceeding from themselves in active manner Whereas touching their deaths and course of inflicting thereof they should passively and obediently submit to God and lawfull authority to live or die as they please where no lawfull choise is given in mortall courses there no man can choose that which is unlawfull without being an indirect self-murderer as it is in this case Answer to their motives The motives whereupon any persons doe stand mute refusing to be tryed in an ordinary lawfull manner are altogether insufficient to justifie their practise For answer to the first it is certaine that we should do nothing that is unlawfull to save our worldly estates for our heires but this course is
measure and manner falling into extreames either of defect or of excesse or of unseasonablenesse which is done two wayes 1. As meate drinke c. First in things both respecting the body and in the acts about them as in eating to gluttony and drinking to drunkennesse using labour and recreations to surfeiting and also in things respecting the minde as in the overstraining and surcharging of the thoughts fancy and understanding 2. Distemperature of the minde in the immoderate distemperature of the affections and passions of the minde suffocating or wasting the spirits by excesse of choller griefe fretfulnesse and the like which being let loose and extended beyond the bankes of their due moderation doe often prove mortall and meanes of indirect self-murder when they are willingly and indulgently entertained and given way to It is a hard thing for a man to use meanes and not to abuse them which causes many a mans table to become a snare to him and a trap a Psal 69.22 and shortens his time upon earth 2. Self-mutilation Secondly indirectly a man may be guilty of self-murder by needlesse mutilating of himselfe and cutting off any of his members as Origen did to the hurt and danger of his life which by the preservation of such a member might have beene in more safety for lifes perfection is in the perfection of the whole body Notwithstanding for the safety of the whole a man may lawfully and necessarily cut off a member which cannot be preserved without manifest danger of thereby losing his life but neither to punish a sin past nor to prevent a sin to come may a man destroy or cut off any of his members whereby he may be lesse able to doe the offices and duties for which God hath given him the same seeing that both for chastisement and prevention of sin God hath appointed other morall meanes which wee are to use and therein to depend upon God for the successe for not in mans forced disability to act sin but in the renovation of the heart consists true sanctification Note that of pulling out the right eye and of cutting off the right hand Mat. 5.29 30. is meant of morall mortification whereby those members are made uselesse and as if they were not to any unlawfull use §. 8. Of Indirect self-murder of commission by unwarrantable practise of Physick c. 3. Unwarrantable practise of Physick Thirdly a man may be guilty of indirect self-murder by practising of Physick or Chirurgery unskilfully immoderately or dangerously upon himselfe either above his strength or knowledge killing himselfe by his unwarrantable endeavours to cure himselfe or else by leaving those that they know to be skilfull carefull and have lawfull calling to practise to put themselves into their hands whom they neither know to have skill nor calling to undertake such cures or are such as be desperate attempters with small regard of mens lives in their practise if a man know the same and doth wilfully choose and commit himselfe specially in difficult cases into the hands of such he can look for no good successe and must be self-guilty of the mortall effects thereupon following but of this see more in the abuses of taking of Physick Chap. 4. § 6. §. 9. Of indirect self-murder by unthriftinesse c. 4. Vnthriftinesse Fourthly this indirect self-murder is committed by wilfull unthriftinesse and prodigality whereby a man provides not but mispends the meanes of his livelihood and so subjects himselfe and his to the perill of famine Deut. 2.19 Prov. 27.27 contrary to the light of nature and Scripture A Caveat Yet we are herein to be wary that for prevention of want of livelihood we fall not into covetousnesse and carking cares or that we follow the world with neglect of better things or that we should spare more than is fitting and shut up the bowells of compassion with the overthrow of liberality and workes of charity and piety §. 10. Of indirect self-murder of commission wrought by desperate hazard in 6. Cases 5. Desperate hazzard Fifthly indirect self-murder is committed by those that cast themselves into desperate hazard of losse of their lives by undiscreetly and rashly venturing into deadly dangers without lawfull calling and above their strength to escape where there is no necessity for greater good of others or gods glory requiring the same which falls out specially in sixe cases The first Case of Braves and Gallants Case 1. Concerning Braves First when any doe out of a bravery and gallantry of spirit goe needlesly with a charge of money or of mens persons or errands either in the night through a place haunted and beset with murderous robbers or at any time through knowne ambushments and strong troupes of enemies above the passengers strength to resist or escape whereby if they fall they are guilty of this indirect self-murder Concerning purchase and rescue Case 2. Secondly when any doe out of over-great affection to worldly goods make desperate attempts with the apparent perill of their lives either to get goods either by violent taking them from others as theeves and spoilers doe or by labour in their callings abovē that which with their health they are able to endure or else by their desperate adventuring to save or recover their goods out of fire or water or from and out of the hands of their enemies with the casting away of their owne lives above all meanes and strength that in this case they have to save them in such undertakings beyond all warrantable calling Exception within neither of these two cases are we to restraine or bound the divine-heroicke enterprises of such as by supernaturall instinct or power doe undertake transcendent enterprises above the allowance of ordinary rules as David to kil Goliah a 1 Sam. 17.32 and Ionathan and his Armour-bearer to invade a whole Garrison of the Philistims b 1 Sam. 14.6 Such men must have both a calling by divine inward instinct motion and qualification and also a strong well grounded faith in assurance of Gods assistance as the Scripture tells us how such through faith subdued Kingdomes escaped the edge of the sword out of weakenesse were made strong waxed valiant in fight turned to flight the armies of the Aliens Heb 11.33 34. Concerning some souldiers Case 3. Thirdly when self-conceited wilfull foole-hardy men will fight against their enemies upon desperate disadvantages and imminent perill of death when they are neither forced to it by unavoidable necessity nor are warranted by command of such superiours as either have absolute power over them of life and death or can assure them or give them the victory c Numb 14.40 Vsque ad finem as God often did to the Israelites fighting by his command or approbation upon strange disadvantages yea when they cannot probably come off with the safety of their lives then that is a course of indirect self-murder Concerning Mariners
Of indirect self-murder by doing of capitall crimes against humane Lawes and authority 8. Branch Capital crimes Eightly men doe commit indirect self-murder by their breaking out into capitall courses and crimes in transgressing and violating capitall good humane Lawes the penalty whereof is death whereby they bring themselves under the sword of Iustice thereby to lose their lives as do Traitors and rebellious persons against the King State or Kingdome spoylers of other mens lives or goods as murderers Pirates Robbers and the like which is a thing both just and expedient in reason that for preserving upholding of the whole body publick or the more noble parts thereof inferiour and rotten members should suffer amputation who by their owne vile practises have subjected themselves to the penall censure of death by their misdeserving courses being indirectly self-murderers their blood being upon themselves and not upon the Magistrate by whose hands they justly fall as is apparent Levit. 20.9 where the blood of him that was put to death for cursing his Father is said to be upon himselfe and 2 Sam. 1.16 touching him that David killed for saying that hee had slaine Saul he said that his blood was upon his head as also 1 King 2.32 37. touching Ioab for his murder and Sbimei for his railing it is said that their blood was upon their owne heads for that they were the wilfull meritorious cause although not the immediate instruments of their owne deaths And so thus all men that die by the merits of their owne actions morally or civilly considered are murderers of their owne naturall lives and bodies as man may truly be said to be the overthrower of the salvation of his owne soule by the merits of his owne sins §. 14. Of indirect self-murder by wilfull transgression of Gods Lawes 9. Branch Transgression against Gods Law Ninthly men indirectly murder their owne bodies by wilfully and impenitently walking in a course of transgression of Gods Law in such kinds and degrees as are accompanied with fearefull threatnings of death and destruction to bee inflicted not onely upon the soules but also upon the bodies of such transgressours by fearefull judgments even in this life as we see it was done to Pharaoh which is performed two waies 1. Kills after a naturall manner First in a physicall or naturall manner by the very nature and act of some sinnes themselves immediatly wasting filling the body with diseases and at last killing it as by drunkennesse and gluttony distempring and surfeiting the body according as Solomon saies that to those that tarrie long at the Wine and that do goe to seeke mixt Wine is woe sorrow contentious babling wounds without cause and rednesse of the eyes Prov. 23.29.30 Also by whoredome and bodily uncleannesse the strength is wasted as the Apostle shewes how such doe sin against their owne bodies 1 Cor. 6.18 and Solomon tells us that the house of a strange woman inclines to death Prov. 2.18 and by her a mans flesh and body is consumed Prov. 5.11 and the adultresse hunteth after the pretious life Of Passions And also by the immoderatenesse of the passions of the minde in giving way and liberty to them to break out and have dominion over us wherby the vitall spirits are suffocated or wasted as by excesse of choler fretfulnes or griefe or the like extinguishing the life of man as a fire is put out by oppressing it with water or by wastefully burning up suddenly the fewell of the maintenance of it therefore it is needfull that we suffer no commotion to be raised in our passions and affections but upon just cause and ground and that then therein we do keepe due moderation by the command of reason Note and by the possessing and taking of them up with divine and heavenly objects and imployment about things concerning a better life it is a very dangerous and costly contentment that a man hath by giving immoderate scope to his unruly affections and passions with the consumption of his owne life thereby in this course of indirect self-murder 2. A morall meritorious manner of self-killing Secondly men by their self-willed sinfull courses are indirect self-murderers of their bodies efficiently in a moral manner and by way of merit according to the justice of God threatning and punishing disobedient prophanenesse and wickednesse from heaven not onely inwrapping transgressors into publick generall judgements with others but also by inflicting particular personall destruction upon them as God did upon Corah Dathan and Abiram a Numb 16.38 and upon some for their unworthy and prophane receiving of the Sacrament of the Lords Supper did die b 1 Cor. 11.30 by their owne meritorious procurement and wee are taught in the Proverbs c Prov. 1.8 31 32. that sinners do lay waite for their owne blood and eate the fruit of their owne way and that the turning away of the simple shall slay him In the Prophet Ezekiel Robbers adulterers and usurers d Ezek. 18.13 are threatned with death and there it is said that their blood shall be upon their owne heads which intimates that they are guilty of their own deaths And againe secure persons not repenting after admonition are threatned with death and that their blood shall be upon their owne heads e Ezek. 33.4 5. Yea all the damned in hell whose bodies with their soules shall be subject to the second death by meanes of their owne sins are and shall be guilty of their own deaths both of soule and body and so are self-murderers also of their bodies at least indirectly In Adam and by his first sin all men naturally are self-murderers Moreover Adam and all mankinde in him lapsed are indirectly self-murderers by merit of that first transgression for and through which death entred into the world according to the testimony of the Apostle who saith that by one man sin entred into the world and death by sin so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned Rom. 5.12 So that no man can blame any for his death in regard of originall merit and desert but himselfe Now that this death of our selves may not be imputed to our selves that we should stand guilty before God of this indirect self-murder we must labour to get our pardon from God in Christ for the comfort of our consciences and for our security from the avenger of blood upon our reconciliation with our God and bee carefull that we live not wilfully and impenitently in any knowne sinne without which care all stand guilty before God of this sinne of self-murder and shall suffer for it Observe The world is full of self-murderers From hence we may observe that there are many more self-murderers than the world takes notice of or that do thinke themselves to be such yea the world is full of them whose sinnes are more haynous than they conceive and specially against themselves most pernicious and therefore it is no
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 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
Coate let him have thy Cloake also and whosoever shall compell thee to goe a mile goe with him twaine a Mat. 5.38 39 40.41 For no man is so farre bound to contend for justice in his owne particular but that he may upon good reasons forbeare or dispense with his owne right whereby he incurres onely an evill of damage and not of sin 3. Of yeelding to suffer Thirdly this yeelding is not a making of the innocent sufferer to be guilty nor of the nocent wrong doer to be just or more obstinately to persist in his unjust courses no more than the not applying of medicines to the disease called No li me tangere doth foment it when the medling with it would inrage it and make it worse This course of yeelding to suffer wrongs makes way and place for passive obedience and for God the great and righteous Iudge of the world to do justice even upon the highest and to worke his owne glorious works with redresse of all such evills as neither by right nor might can bee by man reformed in which course of suffering wrong wee have the Martyrs for examples to follow §. 21. Touching the voluntary appearance of Felons at liberty upon baile to free their baile Third question Touching the voluntary appearing of Fellons to receive justice A third question reducible to this point is whether a man that for some capitall crime is under bond of his owne promise or upon some penall summe of money or upon bond of a friend for him of body for body for his personall appearing at the Assizes ought thereupon to appeare when he certainely foresees that there he shall be cast and die as put the case it be for battery or wounding of a man mortally who dies thereupon after such bond given Answer When they ought I answer if the bond for his appearance bee his owne promise hee ought in conscience to appeare because Gods Word and Law bindes us to keepe our promises if the same be not to doe sin although the same may bee damageable to us a Psal 15. but if so bee that his bond for appearance be a penall summe of money onely by sureties then all that a man hath he will give for his life so that in this case I see not that he is bound in conscience to appeare where he foresees his owne death when the Magistrate hath accepted a penall summe for fiduciary caution in stead of his personall imprisonment or other assurance for his appearance and so may shift himselfe for his safety to some place as a City of refuge to keep himselfe from the hands of the avenger of blood When againe they ought But if hee bee at liberty upon his friends bond of body for body for appearance then ought hee in conscience to appeare although hee certainely foresee that there hee shall die that he may free his friend by his meanès and for his sake so ingaged both in respect of the Law of friendship and in regard of the cause that is not his friends but his owne that by his meanes and for him an innocent man do not perish which were his grievous sinne §. 22. What a guilty person ought to do to free the innocent Fourth question Concerning an innocent mans suffering by misprision or error in stead of the nocent and what the guilty ought in that case to doe A fourth question that belongeth to this point may be this if a burglary or a murder be committed and an innocent man be attached arraigned found guilty and upon presumptions be condemned for it to die the true fellon not being knowne as it fell out where a certaine young man a Suiter to a Maid was taken cast and condemned to death and suffered for the murder and death of that maide with whom he was late in company after the rest of the family were in bed and she the next morning found murdered which fact was done by a Villaine that was hid about the house and not by the young man-suiter as the Fellon afterward confessed Whether is not the true actor of such a fact bound in conscience to discover himselfe and confesse that hee may save the life of an innocent that for his sinne he may not die Answer The nocent ought to discover himselfe I answer that hee is bound in conscience so to doe for otherwise he is guilty both by his fact and silence of the death of such an innocent man so suffering whom he might and ought to rescue now it is certaine that no man is to doe or omit that which by the doing or omission thereof either multiplies or aggravates his sin to his owne worse and eternall condemnation And how againe he is bound not to suffer other men to sinne either by rashnesse or malice in the witnesses or jurie when it is in his power to prevent it by true information as in this case he may yet I thinke he is to do it with as great circumspection for safety of his owne life as he can being sure that he leave not the truth undiscovered nor suffer the innocent to perish through his feare or neglect §. 23. About a mans voluntary revealing to the Magistrate his own secret capitall crimes Fift question A fift question hitherto belonging to bee resolved is if a man have committed a capitall crime as murder Polygamy or the like which was done so long agoe or so farre off or so secretly that none knowes or will accuse him thereof About secret capitall crimes and is so troubled in conscience about it that upon his private confession to Divines thereof and their counsell and consolations ministred to him he hath no rest nor comfort but in revenge upon himselfe is strongly tempted to destroy himselfe by his owne hands and cannot prevaile against his resolutions of doing it whether then is he to accuse himselfe of the crime and to put himselfe into the hands of Iustice to suffer for it Answer When and how the delinquent is to reveale his crimes that are capitall In this case I think such an one ought so to do both for the easing of his conscience that no otherwise can have rest that thereupon others may be affraid to venture upon sinne with presumption of secrecy when they shall see the force of conscience compelling men to blaze their owne crimes and shame And also for preventing of self-murder by submission to the sword of Iustice and to the mercy of the Magistrate who perhaps will hardly in such a case condemne a man upon his owne inditement and witnesse where there is no other that doth the same and when the act seemes to be unreasonable that any man should seeke his death where none accuseth and if he were in this case condemned it is most like that the supreme Magistrate would save such a one by pardon or replevin for the usefulnesse of his life in time to come for the sword
their due bounds thrusting themselves into such dangers but that they doe use as great caution and as good preservatives as they can with carnest prayer to God to give him successe and safety that if they doe die by meanes of such dangerous enterprises their conscience may not justly accuse them that they were wilfully negligent of their own lives and so thereby accessary to their owne deaths Case 2. Of adventuring among heathens to preach the Gospell Secondly in such times and places where the publike preaching of the truth necessary to salvation is wholly wanting or powerfully suppressed and grosse ignorance or damnable error and heresies prevailes as among the heathens and grosse Idolaters then and there is any Christian man that hath a warrantable calling and opportunity to teach others the truth and to warne them of errors although they cannot doe the same without danger of persecution and death this course we finde warranted not onely by the practise of the Apostles who ceased not to preach Christ both publikely and from house to house although they were otherwise charged and therefore threatned and persecuted to death a Acts 20.20 But even others more private Christians did so as Aquila and Priscilla and those that were scattered from Ierusalem b Acts 5.28 29. Acts 18.16 Acts 8.4 whose labours God greatly blessed to the advancement of the Church Of such examples Ecclesiasticall histories are full in times of the primitive persecutions as Theodoret reports hist lib. 1. cap. 23. of two yong men called Aedesius and Frumentius who while they were lay men did teach among the Indians a Quoniam in vero Dei cultu educatierant mercatores qui eò commeabant cohortati sunt ut in unum congregati divina ministeria obirent And of Christian Merchants Socrates affirmes that they did instruct some of the Indians in the principles of religion b Christiani illi quosdam ex Indis fidei principiis instituentes also Theodoret makes mention hist l. 1. c. 24. of a certaine captive Christian woman who did convert the nation of the Iberians to the Faith c Mulier quaedam capta in bello Iberes ad veritatem traduxit with whose report consents Sozomen lib. 2. cap. 6. speaking of the conversion of the Iberians he sayes that the fame was that that Nation did leave their ancient religion upon the perswasion of a captive woman d Fama est hanc Iberiam suasu mulicris Christianae captivae patriam avitam religionem deseruise And Socrates speaking of the King and Queene of Iberia converted by the woman hee sayes that both the King and Queene did preach Christ He to the men and Shee to the women c Vtrique Christū praedicant Rex viris Regina mulieribus Deut. 6.7 Colos 3.16 Extraordinary things and accidents are not bounded and regulated by ordinary rules and so much doth God himselfe require us to doe in many places that the soules of our brethren may not perish for lack of his saving truth which all are bound to maintaine §. 26. Of adventuring for salvation and religion The third generall case About religion The third generall case wherein men may expose their lives to death without any danger of indirect self-murder is in the cause of religion for maintenance of the truth for advancing of Gods glory and for the conversion and confirmation of others both in profession and practise although the same should cost us our lives as we see was done by Daniel and his three companions a Daniel 6.10 and 3.17 Whereunto wee are bound by that love that we owe both to God and our Neighbour According to which David à Mauden sayes well David à Maupraecept 6. discurs 10. that Ex charitate tenetur quis fidem profiteri cum periculo vitae quando honor Dei id exigit aut externa confessio necessaria est ad aliquorum conversionem ad fidem vel in eadem vacillantium confirmationem seu quando credit minus firmos in fide eam facilè vel bonorum temporalium amore vel vitae conservandae causae negaturos that is A man is bound by charity to professe his faith with danger of his life when the glory of God requires the same or when our outward confession is necessary for the conversion of some to the faith or to confirme those that waver in it or when a man beleeves that the weake in faith will easily out of love of temporall goods or to preserve their lives deny the faith This adventuring of our lives for religion consists of foure points or members §. 27. Of the first case or point which is about defence of religion Members of it 1. First in the defence of the truth and religion both by speaking and writing for it when the same is reproached impugned Defence of the truth and slandered with endeavouring to overthrow it although that such a course of patrociny were capitall to the undertakers for which we have a luculent warrant and example in the practise of Hester in the like case b Hest 4.14 16. and in the practise of Iustin Martyr against the Heathen upon no lesse danger yet herein it were to be wished that men would rather content themselves to prove and commend what they hold to bee the truth and fit for godly edifying than for to multiply unprofitable controversies and to alienate affections by bitter disgracefull imputations and railing confutations of the errors of others And also we are to defend the truth and religion by objecting our selves with perill of our lives to resist by force armes the unjust invasion of hostility endeavouring to roote out the professors of the same only for the truths sake when the enemies doe endeavour quite to extirpate the truth of God Note Although that force and armes in hostile invasion is not to bee used to propagate and spread the truth and to reforme errours and abuses in religion which is to be done by teaching and perswasions to draw and not to force the conscience about divine things Moderation of warre for religion Yet in just defence a man may oppose himselfe with force and armes against forraigne or usurping unjust invaders that violently would thrust him out of his possession of the truth because the course taken against him is most tyrannically unjust in usurping to domineere over mens consciences which are subject onely to God and if for spreading of religion and rooting out of errors it were lawfull to make hostile invasion then might the whole world be in a flaming fire of warre every nation and people one against another according as they differ in opinions and customes about religion seeing that every one thinkes his owne religion best and condemnes and dislikes all others And againe of all the goods a man hath true religion is the chiefe and doth most neerely concerne him to keepe it above his life and it is the choisest
and most necessary thing that he can provide preserve and commend to his posterity So that if there be any thing of worth in this world for which he ought to contend to death a Jud. 3. it must be the true religion that through his neglect or fearefulnesse he suffer it not violently by force of forraigne armes to be opprest and himselfe and his to be tyrannically thrust out of his just possession of it without which to be were better not to bee when therefore he shall bee forcibly inthralled and subjected to that which he is perswaded is erroneous and hereticall and the bane of his soule §. 28. About the publike confession or profession of the truth The second member about confession of the truth 1. The second member of the case wherein a man ought to expose his life to death in cause of religion is in point of confession of the Gospell and true religion with danger of our lives for the same which is to bee done both when wee are called to declare our faith and opinion about the truth so that then we are neither to dissemble nor deny it but are commanded to make profession of it 1 Pet. 3.15 as was practised by Iohn the Baptist Iohn 1.20 and so by all the blessed Martyrs 2. And also when we doe see that our concealement of our profession may prejudice the truth dishonour God strengthen and confirme the adversaries or may discourage and offend the weake Christians whereby they may droope or fall then no feare of death should cause a man to forbeare to declare himselfe in point of religion lest that of our Saviour Christ be verified upon him He that loveth his life sholl lose it a John 12.25 Whereas contrariwise He that hateth his life in this world or as it is in Matthew Ioseth it for Christs sake b Mat. 10.39 shall keep it unto life eternall By failing in this point many a man standers himselfe causing the people of God to thinke worse of him than he is indeed and deprives himselfe of much honour and comfort that he might have by exposing himselfe to all hazzards for Gods cause to whom that in the fifth of the Iudges concerning Ruben may be applyed that for the divisions of Reuben there were great thoughts of heart why abodest thou among the sheepfolds to heare the bleatings of the flocks c Judges 5.15 16.23.18 And againe that concerning Meroz Curse ye Meroz saith the Angel of the Lord curse yee bitterly the inhabitants thereof because they came not to the help of the Lord against the mighty Whereas contrariwise in the same cause it is said with commendation Zebulon and Napthalie were a people that jeoparded their lives unto death §. 29. Touching not omission of necessary duties commanded of God in any perill of life for the same The third member is about omission of duty The third member of the ease wherein a man ought to expose his life to death in cause of religion is when he is charged and bidden by any humane command or authority upon threatning paine of death to forbeare doing of that which God commands him to doe whether the same be personall duties of generall obedience to Gods lawes that are proper to all men or officiall respecting some conditions of men in their speciall places and relations as officers and the like if they have the same in charge immediately from God without dispensation 1. Personall then a man is not upon any humane prohibition to omit doing of such duties which he is bound by immediate authority from God to performe a Dan. 6.10 as honouring of our parents and all the other affirmatives of Gods morall Commandements which no man can release or dispense withall to discharge a man before God for his omission of them 2. Officiall Also for officiall duties which are so proper to mens particular places and relations wherein they are that without performance of those duties these relations and places would be marred a man is not to omit them upon any threatning and danger so long as he stands in such relation or place 1. Of divine institution because both the places and duties belonging to them are of divine and not humane ordination and dependance as the places and duties of parents children husbands wives masters servants magistrates subjects c. who are not upon any humane command or danger to omit their duties to those to whom they owe them upon divine bond which is so plaine that it is professed of the Pope that he cannot nor will not absolve subjects from their allegiance and obedience due to their Princes b Bellar. in dialogismo adversus Borclaium c. 31. but only from obedience to such as by heresie contumacy or the like are fallen from their places of Kingly authority which they had being unworthy of it and of the duties and respects due to the same 2. Of humane institution But it is to be observed that for those places and their duties which are wholly of humane ordination as offices of State or Common-wealth they are to bee executed or suspended by the superiour authority although our endeavours are not to concurre in it mainly and clearely to crosse the morall rules of equity and religion Also for callings that are fundamentally of divine ordination the manner of execution whereof depends upon the rules of Gods direction in his Word as is the Ministry of the Gospell so long as the persons that exercise that function have their calling thereunto by men who are the Church of God by the same power they may be discharged and put out of place or while they are in it be suspended from liberty of exercising their publike office and ministry for the same power that makes may unmake and the affirmative Commandements of God doe not binde ad semper to the doing of them alwayes Of obedience to suspension and deprivation specially when the intermission only or restraint of exercise of those duties is intended by the deprivers or suspenders so long as there is sufficient provision by others to perform the same without so great dānge to the Church as might arise to the same by the Ministers doing of the duties of his calling contrary to the said authority then such a deprivation or suspension Exception against suspension and deprivation of ministers by the Church of Rome although it were unjust is to be obeyed and for a man in that case to suffer for his disobedience to the same he can have no comfort nor just incouragement except such restraint were so generall that there were not men enough in places to discharge the duties of that function without which a true Church cannot subsist so as therein and by the doctrine thereof men may be saved then in that case of extreame necessity such a deprived or suspended Minister by the rule of charity which warrants lay-men to help to uphold
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
should dare upon any motive of humane will profit or penalty wilfully to transgresse the same 3. God is our ultimate or last end that we are to aime at that we may both enjoy and please him in whom consists our happinesse 4. All promises of blessings are made to the doers of Gods will and all threatnings of judgements to the transgressors of the same a Rom. 2. v. 6 7 8 9 10. which reward no humane power can hinder or frustate And therefore wee cannot dispense with our selves upon any humane pretence or motive to do any thing contrary to Gods word and positive Law although for not transgressing the same we should incurre death §. 32. Of indifferent things how they become sinfull Indifferents accidentally evill But in subject ò indifferente in things that are of themselves but indifferent whose use is neither directly nor absolutely commanded nor forbidden by Gods word as are kinds of meate drinke apparrell and the like and for which we ought not to command to death the using or not using of them becomes sinfull onely accidentally either by reason of externall circumstances about the action or omission of them or of some erroneous qualities in the agents or omitters and not from the intrinsecall nature of the things or morall disposition of the action or omission absolutely considered without respect of circumstances and Law The individual acts of things indifferent are not indifferent when they are done For touching the use of indifferent things onely mans individuall voluntary actions about them specially proceeding from deliberate judgment are morally either good or evill well done or ill done because they are accompanied and indowed with such actionall circumstances as do so affect and qualifie them that they are no more indifferent Not Physically either Physically to be done or not done for Vnumquodque dum est necessario est Every thing when it is it is necessarily and then cannot be otherwise than it is Nor morally or morally because if the same were otherwise than it is it must necessarily be either better or worse than it is For no action can stand equally morally affected with differing circumstances and at the same time to be done Tho. prima secundae quaest 18. artic 9. Cum enim rationis sit ordinare actus a ratione deliberativa procedens si non sit ad debitū finē ordinatus ex hoc ipso repugnat rationi et habet rationem mali si vero ordinetur ad debitū finē convenit ad eum ordine rationis unde habet rationem beni Ex Filliucio To. 2. p. 3. Patet actiones humanas quatenus à ratiene volūtate diriguntur dici morales hoc est dignas laude velvituperatione ex Arist Ethic. c. 13. actio homini propria est voluntaria libera adeodigna laude aut vituperatione Tho. 1.2 q. 1. art 1. Azor. l. 1. c. 1. or not to bee done cannot be equally morally indifferent For Thomas Aquinas saies That it falls out that an action may be indifferent secundum speciem in the generall kind of it qui tamen est bonus vel malus in individuo consideratus which notwithstanding is either good or evill considered in its individuall subject and act Whereof hee gives the reason quia actus moralis non solum habet bonitatem ex objecto à quo habet speciem sed etiam ex circumstantijs because a morall action hath its goodnesse not onely from its object by which it is specified for kinde but also from circumstances of which every individuall act of necessity hath some whereby it is drawne to be good or bad Ad minus ex parte intentionis finis at least in respect of the end intended And therefore he concludes properly necesse est omnem actum hominis à deliberativa ratione procedentem in individuo consideratum bonum esse vel malum it is of necessity that every act of man proceeding from deliberate reason and considered in its individuall performance and subject is good or evill For seeing the will of man rightly ordered is subject to right reason and divine Law then all actions proceeding from it as it is so guided in all performances are morally good or bad and as all things are destinated to an ultimate end of Gods glory and to other particular subordinate ends of effecting any good so is their use subject to proportionable rules and Lawes for ordering the same thereby that they may attaine their end intended and in that respect when they are done they are morally either well or ill done according to that proportion or disproportion that their use then hath to their due ends and rules and to be a fit and effectuall meanes of accomplishing the same or contrariewise Conclusion So now wee have seene how that for to prevent suffering and death we are not wittingly and willingly to doe evill of sin in any case specially or any thing directly against Gods Law And therefore doe conclude with David à Mauden touching the aforesaid three generall cases wherein a man suffering to death is exempted from indirect self-murder pro bono publico fide religione Catholica alijsque de causis bonis honestis vitam propriam periculo expouere non solum laudabile sed etiam interdum necessarium est For a man to expose his owne life to danger for the publike good for his faith for the true religion and for other good and honest causes it is not onely commendable but also sometimes necessary §. 33. Of the properties of an indirect selfe-murderer An indirect self-murderer hath two bad properties The first property Folly First hee is foolish in advisedly and wilfully using mortall meanes and fatall to himselfe and yet thinks not thereby to die but to live more happily as Eve in eating of the forbidden fruit that was the meanes of death did conceit to attaine thereby to a more excellent life as if a man should looke to gather grapes of thornes and good comfort of deadly courses Frō unbeleefe Which proceeds from the stupid unbeleefe of man who would rather make God a lyer than he will be diverted from his desperate courses or will beleeve more than hee comprehends or conceives by his senses being as the horse or mule which have no understanding whose mouth must be kept in with bit and bridle as the Prophet tells us Psal 32.9 The second property Wicked Secondly an indirect self-murderer is wicked for knowing both his course and the event thereof to bee evill opposite both to the will of God and to his owne future good he doth wilfully continue in and prosecute it still which is damnable impiety The ground of it self-content Which flowes from the self-contentment that men take in their owne sinfull waies and from their misconstruction and abuse of the long patience of God not executing his threatned judgements speedily upon such as themselves are
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
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
whereof he knowes not or when a man doth kill himselfe out of a rash precipitancy and sudden unpremeditate pang and fit of forcible passion or temptation tempestuously raised by others making violent impressions upon him suppressing reason and captivating the will to doe that which otherwise hee abhorres and for which in the Court of heaven he is not properly a direct self-murderer because such a fact before God is but a kinde of chance-medly when it proceeds not out of advised judgement and will but that the doer thereof is therein quoad principium motus for the originall of his motion in that act more passive than active Comparison as a Ship that may be overset in a storme and as persons possessed by uncleane spirits that by their meanes did cast themselves into the fire and water a Marke 9.22 wherein if they had perished they had not beene self-murderers when they were not in their owne power nor was it an act of their owne free judgement and will Case 3. Killing by mischance The third case is when a man kills himselfe by mischance or misadventure in his doing of an act of lawfull imployment without any intent to take away his owne life As a man in his attempt to save another out of the fire or water is by his act drowned or burnt to death himselfe or if a man be killed by the breaking of a peece of his owne shooting off at another marke or the like This is an act of God in his speciall providence taking away the life of a man Exod. 21.13 and is not an act of self-murder because the actors end and intention is not to kill himselfe but to doe a lawfull duty neither doth that act of his in regard of that mortall effect of it proceed from his judgement and will but to him is meerely casuall and contrary to his expectation and desire and so in that respect he is meerely passive and so formaliter and in truth not a self-murderer Case 4. Self-killing in discharge of ones calling The fourth exempt case is when a man in discharge of his calling doth wittingly and willingly such an act whereby hee knowes hee must die as did Samson of whom Augustine sayes that Spiritus latenter hoc jusserat the spirit did secretly command it in this case such an one is not a direct self-murderer because hee intends not primarily his owne death but the discharge of his necessary duty otherwise not feasable And this death is not from an act of his owne meere judgement and will but from Gods in obedience whereunto he layes downe his life Case 5. About phrenticks The fift exempt case is of phrentick persons of whom when it shall happen any to kill himselfe in his fit of phrensie he cannot justly be said to be a direct self-murderer nor yet an indirect self-murderer where his phrensie is not contracted by his own fault because of his defect of the use of his understanding in his act of self-killing whereof then he knowes not the morall nature neither properly can he be said to be a voluntary agent therein because then he hath not a will determined by any act of the practicall understanding but doth it only by a bruit passion or unreasonable internall impulsion equivalent to inforcement from negation or their faultlesse defect of power of sufficient opposition which is evident by that which they are habitually to the contrary manifested when they have any Lucide intervalls or when they were or are in their sound mindes alwayes abhorring such a fact Of this see more Cap. 15. § 22. and Cap. 18. § 2. CHAP. 13. Of direct self-murderers §. 1. Practise and habit gives denomination One act of self-murder gives denomination to those that do it and why A Self-murderer hath denomination from his fact of self-murder whereby it staines him with an ill and odious name although a man properly is not to be named from one single act but from an habituall disposition and continued practise yet here one act gives the name because it proceeds from that which is in a man by way of habit and is an act that in regard of the extinguishment of its subject can be done but once by one body but if they should live againe in the same state yet upon the same motives and disposition would againe and againe doe the same as we see by the practise of those that after restraint or disappointment of effecting their purpose therein doe not cease still to attempt the same untill it be done and therefore such a fact is equivalent to a constant practise if any body be impatient and ashamed of the imputation of the name of any notorious vice then should he be most carefull to avoide the thing in respect whereof the same is due unto him Observe He that hath the principall must have the appurtenances the name of any crime must goe with the thing to which it belongs the odious repute of the name shewes the vilenesse of the vice which is farre more to be abhorred than the nickname of or from it Comparison But men are commonly like witlesse children more affraid of shadowes than substance as children are gastered with mentioning of Goblins and bugheares so many men are startled with the disgracefull names of vice imputed unto them who are not at all affraid of the vices which they entertaine and for which the names of the same are due to them who doe deserve to brooke the name of the master whom they serve and of the trade which they practise Why should any man serve such a master or exercise such a trade whereof he is ashamed and would not brooke their names That some men doe murder themselves is apparent §. 2. How it is by Scripture apparent that many men doe murder themselves That many do murder and destroy themselves by their acting of that horrible unnaturall fact and sin upon their owne bodies is apparent three wayes 1. By the Scriptures First by the Scriptures of the old and new Testament in the old Testament we reade of Saul and of his armour-bearer that they killed themselves 1 Sam. 31. Of Abimelech that did the same by his owne command Iudges 9.54 Also of Ahitophel that he hanged himselfe 2 Sam. 17.23 Of Zimri that hee burnt himselfe to death 1 King 16.18 In the new Testament we reade of Iudas that though he were one of Christs disciples hanged himselfe Mat. 27.5 Which intimates That the Scripture witnesseth so much it intimates to us three things 1. The certainty of such facts First it evidences to us the certainty of such facts because the Scripture is infallibly true aswell in matter of history as of doctrine It records them not for imitation but for condemnation which is plaine if wee consider how ungratious the persons were that did it the manner of the Scriptures propounding and relating of the same with dislike of it and
Note The higher that this ground of error of judgement is the more obstinate are the resolutions that are built upon the same Because such conclusions are to the deceived matters of conscience founded as they think upon divine authority farre above the countermand of any humane reason or argument and testimony of truth diffenting from their tenets and opinions Observe Abused Scripture harmefull From hence we may observe that although God hath graciously given us his holy Scriptures to be the powerfull meanes of life a Rom. 1.16 yet many men do abuse and make the same the meanes of their owne destruction as Peter speakes of the unlearned and unstable who did wrest the Episties of Paul as they did also the other Scriptures unto their owne destruction b 2 Pet. 3.16 and so the Commandement that was ordained to life is found to bee unto death to them Rom. 7.10 as the Gospell that is the savour of life to life to those that are saved is the savour of death to death to those that perish c 2 Cor. 2.16 Nothing doth so much hurt when it is abused as that which may do most good when it is rightly used There is no heresie or practise or opinion so vile in the Christian world that pretends not and abuses not Scripture or something in it or from it in defence or excuse of the same and upon that ground chiefly prevailes upon mens consciences and holds them captivated in their errors and ill courses and so men do turne the sweetest Manna into the bitterest gall of Aspes to their owne perdition Compatison As a man by managing a sword by its handle may defend himselfe thereby so by taking and using it by the point or edges mischiefes himselfe by the same Therefore wee need take heed how wee use the sword of the Word Prevention of this error by not following the letter against the true meaning of the Scripture For prevention of error of judgement from this ground of abused Scripture wee are to be carefull that we be not moved with the letter of the Scripture without its proper sense agreeable to the truth contrary to which the abused letter of the Scripture is no warrant for us to beleeve or do any thing as wee see by our Saviour Christs replie to Satan who a Mat 4.6 in tempting of him alledged Scriptures after his manner to perswade him to doe evill Observe Our faith and practise should be founded upon sound knowledge otherwise all our building will fall that is reared up upon a rotten foundation and wee shall commit two faults at once one in error of our judgment another in our unwarrantable practise according to the same Rules or meanes of knowledge of the Scripture Therefore that we may not wrest the Scripture from its true sense to our meaning that wee shall please to give it or that wee should take it in a carnall or grosse sense contrary to its owne interpretation we are to observe foure rules or helps that wee may rightly understand the Scripture 1. Humility First it is needfull that we be indowed with humility of spirit that denying our owne selves and carnall reason wee may submit to take such sence and meaning of the Scripture as it of it selfe affords with the assistance of the helps of the Church and not to impose upon it any sense of our owne making or to wrythe or wrest it to favour our conceits or purposes but that laying aside all ambition of over-ruling the Scripture to force it to patronize and countenance any new fangled humorous opinions or old errors of ours for our vaine ostentation or sinfull profit we are humbly to conforme all our opinions and courses to the Scriptures and not to bring the Scriptures into subjection to our opinions and practise God will guide the meeke in judgement and the meeke will he teach his wayes saies David Psal 25.9 2. Holinesse The second meanes whereby we may be able rightly to understand the Scriptures is holinesse of heart and conversation as our Saviour tells us that if any man will do his will he shall know of his doctrine whether it be of God Iohn 7.17 For as the Philosopher saies Every evill body is an ignorant Omnis malus est ignorans Arist Ethic. l. 3. and persons prepossessed with error and vice labour to interpret all Scripture in favour of the same Whereas godly people indowed with a new divine nature as Peter tels us a 2 Pet. 1.4 are thereby inclined so to expound the Scripture as best agrees with the truth and grace of God in them who are divinely illightned whereby they are able to try things that differ b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. 1.10 When others are blinde and cannot see a farre off 2 Pet. 1.9 3. Prayer The third meanes to help us rightly to understand the Scriptures is Prayer to God that he would both reveale and manifest to us his truth and also would give us grace rightly to conceive it in our minds and hearts as the Prophet David praies Teach me good judgment and knowledge Psal 119.66 that so we may be taught of God c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Thes 4.9 For the matter of the Scripture is in many points so supernaturall and high and wee so dull and grosse in conceiving such truths that as flesh and blood cannot reveale them to us neither can the naturall man receive the things of the Spirit of God d 1 Cor. 2 14. without divine help procured by prayer 4. The Spirit of God The fourth meanes of rightly understanding the Scripture is the Spirit of God in and by our use of hearing and reading and conferring illightning our mindes and perswading our consciences of the truth according to the promise of our Saviour touching the holy Spirit whom he said he would send and that when this Spirit of truth is come he would guide us into all truth which he manifests to us by a twofold light Twofold light of the Spirit 1. In the Word First that which accompanies the Word and truth it selfe whereby it makes it selfe conspicuous to all that have eyes to see it Comparison even as the Sun manifests it selfe by its owne light and splendour to the world 2. In our mindes The second kind of light whereby the Spirit manifests the truth of the Scripture to us is that light that hee endowes our minds withall whereby we are enabled and made capable to see and apprehend the former light of truth in the Word Compatison as a blind man that can see nothing before that he hath both an inward faculty of sight restored to him and also an externall light to make the object visible So then none can truly nor fully understand the truth of the Scriptures but by the same Spirit that gave them For as the Apostle saith The things of God knoweth no
and the people of Israel were gathered together for to doe whatsoever thy hand and thy Counsell determined before to be done a Acts 4.27 28. Will any man therefore say that neither Iudas nor any of those were blameable for betraying and putting our blessed Saviour so cruelly and spitefully to death If Gods decrees were sufficient to warrant men to doe evill then either there could bee no sinne in the world whatsoever men doe or else God must be the author of sinne and the onely sinner which is a thing most blasphemous to thinke 2. Ignorance The second reason that manifests the error of those who thinke themselves warranted to doe whatsoever God hath decreed is both their ignorance of what God hath decreed which for the most part he keepes so seeret that it is not certainly known but by the event and effect what it is and in this case the Scripture sayes that the secret things belong unto the Lord our God Deut. 29.29 but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever that we may do all the words of this Law Gods secret will is the rule of his owne actions And also it is their ignorance of the use of Gods decree which is properly his owne will whereby and according to which he in wise and in soveraigne manner orders all things according to his owne good pleasure But it is not that which he would have alwayes to bee our will and according to which we should order our wills and practise for which he hath given us his revealed word and law which is to be in all practicall things the measure of our wills and wayes Gods revealed will is the rule of our actions And therefore so long as Gods word forbids self-murder we are not to dare upon pretence of destiny or Gods decree to entertaine thoughts to attempt it Gods secret decrees containe no formall commandements to us what we should doe nor put any reall influxe to incline us to sin nor subject us to compulsory necessity of sinning contrary to our owne wills or to the meanes and Commandements that we have against the same Observe So then it is certaine that our fulfilling of the secret will and decree of God by our wretched courses and the accidentall good that may come to others thereby cannot excuse us from damnation for running a course contrary to the revealed wil of Gods Commandements and to the meanes whereby we are to order our practise in obedience to God No man is saved for fulfilling the will of Gods decree which no man can overthrow It is not in the power of the most wretched and malicious men in the world to crosse but must fulfill the secret decree of God neither is any man commended or saved for fulfilling that decree which no man can disappoint But all men are commended or condemned for those courses and meanes which they use according as the same is commanded or forbidden in the Word whereby the severall decrees of God for mans salvation or destruction are voluntarily accomplished by men themselves Note Mans care should be to live well Mans only care in all estates should be to live well in conformity to Gods revealed will and word not being solicitous so much for our deaths which after a good life can never be ill We serve not such a master as will not be carefull of our good in which regard worthy is that speech of dying S. Ambrose recorded by Paulinus in his life Non ita inter vos vixi ut pudcat me vivere nec timco mori quoniam Dominum benum habenus I have not so lived in the world that I am ashamed to live neither am I affraid to die because wee have a good Lord. Where wee have no commandement we should be passive about our deaths Although that God is active and workes in all things about us and that we are to cooperate with him in all things where hee gives us a commandement to worke yet in those workes of God where wee have no commandement of his to worke with him as in and about our deaths there we are only to be passive Observe Three things we are to observe from this point of deceit of the judgement 1. Men are strong to beleeve errors First we may here see that people that are weakest in faith and most diffident to beleeve Gods word and saving truth upon the credit and authority of God himselfe are often strongest and most consident in beliefe of errors upon any seeming ground as Solomon saith The simple beleeveth every word a Prov. 14.15 The reason hereof is plaine because such persons are overswayed by prejudices and strength of passion so farre that they rather suspect and reject Gods sacred and infallible truth than their owne fancies and Satans suggestions Note When men leave the truth they become both superstitious and vainely credulous They therefore that beleeve God and in God are freed from many errours and much needlesse feare 2. Disobedients to God are forward to obey the devill Secondly we may from hence observe that many persons that are most disobedient to Gods lawes by keeping whereof they might live are most forward to obey Satan and their owne lusts to their owne destruction For a man cannot serve both these contrary masters at once b Mat. 6.24 Such people like well to have God to be their friend but they care not for having him to be their master but would live as they list but when they forsake him they are unhappy in their choise when they can serve none other but to their owne ruine 3. Men to excuse themselves blame God Thirdly from hence we may see that many men are willing to doe evill but are loth to beare the burden of the blame thereof and therefore they turne it upon God and would make him a party with them against himself in breaking of his owne lawes Men that would not have their courses framed by the right rule of Gods truth labour to frame all reason and divinity by their owne crooked fancies and courses whereby they doe as farre as they can deturb and cast downe God from his throne and advance themselves unto the same by their perverting the order established by him and by making themselves gods to live by their owne wills as the supreme rule of all their actions Which shewes to us how needfull it is for us to labour for self-deniall and that wee may resignē our selves wholly to God to bee ordered and disposed wholly by him in all things as he pleases which is the onely meanes of our preservation from sin and damnation §. 6. Of conceited good by self-murder perverting the judgement The fourth ground of error in judgement is conceit of benefit The fourth and last ground of a mistaken understanding which causes or occasions self-murder is both the conceit of good that
comes by that fact and also ignorance of the illnesse of that action Apprehension of the presence of God and of absence of evill perswades the minde of the lawfulnesse of the thing and makes the conscience bold to undertake the performance of it Good conceived Cap. 12 §. 2. Of the goodnesse that a self-murderer conceives to be in killing of himselfe I have spoken already in the explication of the definition of self-murder How apparent good affects the understanding Touching which I will onely now observe how bonum or good that properly is the object of the will or of the soule in its elections and actions can affect the understanding when it is but apparent good and contrary to truth 1. By the wills working upon it from the senses To cleare this it is to be marked first that the will receiving impressions from the senses doth often by ascending worke upon the understanding and drawes it as formerly we have heard 2. Goodnesse and truth are equally the object of the understanding Secondly whereas bonum and verum good and truth in a metaphy sicall notion are the same and convertible confineable to no one Category as neither are any of the properties or attributes of the Godbead they are likewise equally the object of the understanding as of the will which in the soule doe not differ essentially but are only the divers powers offices and workes of the same soule about its-severall objects which doe give the occasion of the distinction of those things which in themselves are one and so where ever bonum good is presented to the minde there also it offers it selfe to the same as verum true Whereby the understanding is deceived when the object thereof is not that which it is supposed by it to be which makes a man no lesse bold to doe it than if it were indeed true Of self-murder the illnesse unknowne incourages a man to commit it The ignorance of the illnesse of this sinne of self-murder incourages men to commit it when they doe not judge of it by the morall rules whereby it is forbidden and censured The thing that hides the vilenesse of sin from sinners is even the sin it selfe As the Apostle Peter speakes of such That they are blinde and cannot see afarre off a 2 Pet. 1.9 What blindes men 1. Sinne. Men are first blinded that they may the more boldly sin as Samson was that he might be led about to grinde 2. Consequent of sinne There is a subsequent blindnesse that followes upon sinning whereby the oftner that sin is committed the lesse evill it seemes to be to the doers thereof in respect both of the sinfulnesse and punishment thereof in which regard the Prophet sayes that Ephraim was like a silly dove Hosea 7.11 And Augustine affirmes that darknesse followes those that transgresse the Law a Obumbratio sequitar cos qui legem transgrediuntur The former ignorance proceeds from love and affection to sinne the latter from the habit and custome of sinning The ignorance of the illnesse of the sinne of self-murder proceeds from it selfe which in the motions and resolutions of it blindes the understanding two wayes Self-murder blindes the minde 1. Privatively First privatively by drawing away of the minde from advised and serious consideration of the truth about that sin whereby the vilenesse of it might be seene and by declining the thoughts from all arguments reasons and censures whereby a man may be kept from doing of it So that when he comes to the act he sees nothing or but little to hinder him from doing of it 2. Positively Secondly this sinne blindes the understanding positively both by setting the minde aworke as it presents it selfe to it to wrest the Scripture and to finde out reasons that may make the fact eligible as Eve did about eating of the forbidden fruit Gen. 3.6 And also it makes the will by the command that it hath got over it to labour upon the understanding to coyne arguments to justifie the evill fact of self murder against future reproach and punishment which vile and odious crime it is now in consultation to doe Thus doth it labour upon the understanding as Balak did upon Balaam that by change of his stations he might finde a place to curse Gods people b Numb 23. Observ It is the property of the greatest and most wilfull sinners to labour to seeme to be least guilty and pretend the most excuses to justifie themselves as did Saul c 1 Sam 15.20 21. Simeon and Levi d Gen 34 31. and the harlot in the Proverbs e Prov. 30 20. If hypocrite-like they cannot hide their sinnes then they labour to defend them making if it were possible vice to be vertue and vertue to be vice Note Men self blinded Thus doe men blinde themselves by wilfulnesse in ill courses and also God in just judgement doth the same by giving those over that will not entertaine the truth with the love of it to be deluded with error and folly and to beleeve it as the Apostle shewes 2 Thess 2.11 and as God commanded the Prophet to preach to the people that they should heare but not understand a Esay 6.9 Whereupon such men are wise in their owne eyes and doe thinke their owne wayes best If the judgement be subdued to the sinne then men doe runne unresistably to the fact But all such reasons are nothing but error that are used to prove an error which at last upon these delusions the minde conceits to bee a truth Note the truth is in some sort hidden to those that perish Observe Wee are here to observe two things for our instruction in this point 1. Ignorance makes way for destruction First that ignorance and error opens the way to destruction when men are loth to know the true nature of their sinnes the judgements due to them and to take notice of the meanes whereby they both may be prevented 2. Our care to obey the truth Secondly our care should be to know and obey the truth by the help of the Word and directions of approved teachers that we may not be self-deceived through the neglect of meanes of knowledge which makes our sins the greater Not to be self-conceited And therefore we are to observe that we be not self-conceited of our owne wit and opinions that we should trust to the same specially in our passions And wee are also to be carefull that we affect not odde straines nor adventure to do great things upon new and weakly grounded opinions which is as if a man at Sea upon life and death should dare to ride out a storme by a weak halsser or small roape the which if it breake will lay him dead on shore Comparison Therefore in matters of such importance upon life and death men should open themselves to and advise with those
troubles of mind 1. Trouble of conscience for sinne First extreame griefe of minde and trouble of conscience in respect of sin which by the guiltinesse thereof and by the terror of the expected punishment thereof distresses and overcharges the wounded conscience when withall a man apprehends himselfe to bee wholly destitute of true grace and deserted and forsaken of God given over to a reprobate sense whereby he cannot rest but is comfortlesse and at last is swallowed up of utter desperation living as if he were continually in hell sensibly seeling as he thinks the flames and tortures of the damned in his conscience For ease out of which estate men many times kill themselves hoping to mend themselves by change although it bee but as skipping out of the frying-pan into the fire Grounds of this trouble of mind The grounds of which perplexities of the mind about sinne are three 1. Greatnesse of sin and its punishment First a mans thorow apprehension of the greatnesse and deformity of his sinne and of the fearefull judgements due to him for the same which affrights the conscience and drives it to runne into any course to hide it selfe from the same 2. Emptinesse of grace c. Secondly the soules emptinesse of repentance and grace and the possession and dominion that noysome lusts disorderly affections and fearefull temptations have of the same whereby it seemes to be a cage of uncleane spirits from which when a man can no other wayes be rid then resolves hee to kill himselfe to free himselfe from that horror of minde that he is not able to indure 3. Conceit of time of grace to be past Thirdly when the soule conceives that its time of grace is past and that it is too late to repent and get grace against which when men find themselves hardned and shut up then falling under desperation they resolve to destroy their owne lives that seeing they have no hope that they shall be better by living they may not thereby make their estates worse by what they may indure both in this life and in the life to come Observ 1. Men deceived by sinne We may here observe how men are deceived by sinne which promiseth at first all contentment and happinesse to the clients and entertainers thereof but in conclusion paies them with destruction and shuts up their dayes and life with a tragicall conclusion Note None are more faithfull drudges to any Master than sinners are to sin and none are so ill rewarded by their Masters for their service as they 2. No case of conscience frō our selves Againe from hence it is remarkable that so long as men in distresse of conscience for their sinne looke not out off or beyond themselves for ease and comfort they cannot but sinke under their owne burden For our blessed Saviour directs us to a better course in this case when he sayes Come unto me all yee that labour and are heavie laden and I will give you rest a Mat. 11.28 §. 12. Of discontentment of minde Ths second sort of trouble of minde is discontentmēt The second sort of the troubles of mind which occasions self-murder is mens excessive discontentment for being crossed or disappointed of their desires or wills in which respect it was that Ieremy did wish his own death b Ier. 10.17 at least was weary of his life 1. Grounds of it This discontentment of minde arises from two causes First from want of that good true or seeming which we desire or expect 2. Kinds of discontentment Secondly from suffering of that evill which we would not This discontentment of minde is twofold 1. From disappointment of mens passiōs and affections First that which ariseth from the crossing or disappointment of the will of mens affections and lusts as those that immoderately affect and love to have and enjoy others of the other sexe and are deeply overset in carnall or conjugall love which is an unruly passion and being disappointed occasions people therefore to kill themselves a wife kills her selfe because her husband crosses her will that either he will not doe as she would have him or that he will not let her have her will to goe and doe as she list or is displeased with her match which proceeds from hatred to her husband whom she envies the enjoying of her and so I might instance in many like particulars but it is most unreasonable that because a body cannot have their love or will that therefore such an one sould revenge the same upon himselfe by an act of the greatest hatred and hostility in the world and that one should rather choose to kill himselfe than to live after a repulse in suite of love or to see another brooke what they impotently affected to enjoy The second kinde of discōtentment crossing the will of reason in three particulars Secondly discontentment of minde is that which proceeds from the crossing or frustrating of the will of sound and naturall reason in three particulars 1. Concerning a mans selfe Iustice First in things concerning a mans self as if he cannot have equity and justice done him hee in discontentment therefore kills himselfe or as a childe because his parents will not give him fit maintenance as they are able nor dispose of him or her as they might and ought murders himselfe 2. Concerning a mans family Secondly in things concerning a mans family or friends as Rebeccah was weary of her life because of her daughters in law a Gen 27.46 and as if parents should for their being crossed of their wills in and about their children kill themselves 3. Concerning Church or Common-wealth Qui non poterat serre dominatum Caesaris Filli. Thirdly in things concerning the generall body of Church or Common-wealth whereof a man is a member as if for the ill government or miscariage of either or of both of them he should kill himselfe as did Cato Viicen sis But all this may bee uneffectuall to move a man or woman to kill themselves if they would deny their owne wills and submit themselves wholy to Gods who suffers and orders all these evills and brings good out of them And if they would consider that not by dying but by living things are reformed and by self-murder disorders are increased and judgements provoked and deserved and not prevented nor amended §. 13. Of shame and confusion Third kinde of troubles of minde Shame The third kinde of troubles of minde that sometimes occasions self-murder is shame and confusion either for what a man hath ignominiously done or suffered or is certainly like to do or suffer whereby he falls under contempt scorne and importable disgrace with those whose respect he overvalues and so apprehending himselfe to bee dejected and used more indignly and unworthily than he thinkes he hath deserved or can indure he resolves to kill himselfe to free him from the same or
our consciences in well-doing and be our selves taken up about heavenly things and holy imployments then is it not in the hand of any creature to make us miserable or weary of our lives the comfort whereof depends not upon any earthly wight our repudiating desertion and wrong by those here on earth that should least faile us should make us cleave the more close to God and to live here as possessing none of these things 1 Cor. 7.29 30 31. that for our want of them or suffering by them we may care the lesse considering what little assurance we have of them at any time which at all times are accompanied with dislikes §. 16. Of afflictions unwarrantablenesse to kill ones selfe Insufficiency of this motive of crosses for a man to kill himselfe 1. Afflictions are not simply evill The insufficiency of this ground of affliction to warrant any man to murder himselfe is apparent by foure things First by the consideration of the nature of the things that men by self-murder would rid themselves from which are afflictions and therefore in that respect not properly evill much lesse so bad as self-murder which is the course men take to free themselves from the former It is certainely madnesse for any body wittingly and willingly to cast themselves into a greater evill that they may free themselves from a lesser For a man to get out of trouble by making a stollen escape Non enim poena vitatur furtiva discessiene sed crescit he encreases his deserved punishment wee must not breake prison but wait Gods leisure 2. Death is worse than afflictioÌ„s Secondly if a man consider what hee parts from namely his life to bee freed from troubles he may see the folly of such a course of self-murder upon this motive For the goods of nature and of the world Donum vilae majus est ijs ommbus Filli. are farre inferiour to a mans selfe and to the worth of his life because in them consists not a mans chiefe happinesse and therefore for the same should not a man kill himself The Philosopher sayes that Poverty is not horrible or to bee feared neither death neither any thing at all besides sinne a Arist asserit nec paupertatem esse horribilem aut pertinvescendam nec mortem nec omn no quicquam praeter culpam Therefore why should a man kill himselfe for that whereof he should not be afraid and why should hee make so bad an exchange in giving away his life for ease from that which cannot by its presence make miserable and for to precipitate himselfe into endlesse misery 3. A self-murderer is deceived Thirdly if a self-murderer did consider how he is deceived in his expectation of being eased or delivered from troubles by killing himselfe VltimuÌ„ malorum hujus vitae maxime terriâ—ile est mors et iccireo inferre sibi morteÌ„ ad alias hujus vitae misertas evadendas est majus malum assumere ad minoris mass vitaâ—ienem Tho. 2.2 q. 64. Art 5. when thereby he casts himselfe into infinite greater miseries hee might see what little force this motive hath in it to worke and justifie this effect Seeing life is more proper and effectuall than such a death to procure happinesse Although that self-murder be a quick way of dispatch and of putting out all feeling of bodily paine it is not therefore better when the exchange is for the worse ease and expedition in doing self-murder is no argument of commendation seeing evill of sin is most easily performed as the Apostle shewes Rom. 7.21 Heb. 12.1 Because it is not an act of power but of impotency Peter Martyr wonders at the Stoicks that place happy life in vertue and doe hold that adversity is not evill that they should to free themselves from troubles kill themselves and sayes What kind of happinesse is that which death doth perfit if life be happie then should wee labour to abide therein what happinesse is that which may be overcome by those things that are not evill a Quaenam est foelicitas quae morte est perficienda Si vita est beata in ea est manendum quae est faelicitas quaevinci potest ab ijs quae non sunt mala For persecution our Saviour bids us flee from it or patiently to endure it and no where allowes that we should kill ourselves to prevent or escape it our blessed Saviour although he were to lay downe his life yet would not kill himselfe for accomplishment of that worke that necessarily was to be done Ludovicus Vives cites out of Plutarch and he out of Menander That it is not the part of a good and valiant man to say I will not suffer this but to say I will not doe this b Non est boni et fortis viri dicere hee non patiar sed hoc nonfaciaÌ„ 4. He resists Gods will Fourthly he that kills himselfe for to free himselfe thereby out of troubles and afflictions resists the will of God by shaking off that burden which God hath laid upon him to beare during his good pleasure to which all are subject And thereunto the Son of God submitted himselfe when he said to Peter The cup that my Father hath given me shall I not drinke it c Iohn 18.11 And therefore we are bound in this case to fulfill the will of God by passive obedience when we cannot doe the contrary without offending God neither did the Saints of God use self-murder to free themselves out of troubles whereof we have neither precept nor commendable example §. 17. Of certaine uses about afflicted persons Observe The uses or observations observable from this motive generally considered are two Afflicted persons are doubly burdened First we are here to observe that persons in trouble and adversity are under a double burden both of their afflictions which they suffer and also of strong temptations wherby thereupon Satan assaults them both which the persons in distresse doe commonly aggravate so making their estates more tedious and unsupportable than otherwise they would be Note in which condition men should beware of hard uncharitable conclusions against themselves Beware of censuring either in censuring themselves to be reprobates forsaken of God or the like or in determining rashly of or against themselves what they will doe with themselves or to themselves in that case otherwise than they have warrant from God Beware of concealement Againe in that estate they should take heed of over-close concealement of their troubles from those that may advise and help them to beare their burdens concealed griefe is most dangerous to sink a man but vent gives ease and procures help Finally of persons in adversity others are to be observant how they doe and to be helpfull to them by their countenance counsell and aide of assistance from themselves and by their intercession from others that so that may be easily borne that
which is bad and it is either a wilfull debiliating of ones selfe to good or killing of ones selfe for his sin by excessve griefe against which wee have already spoken in some sort or else this revenge is in laying violent hands upon ones selfe purposely to mutilate or kill himselfe out of indignation for his sinne Causes The causes hereof are specially two 1. Desperation First desperation in regard of the horriblenesse and grievousnesse of the sinnes whereof a man is guilty and by which hee is confounded in his conscience and for that withall hee conceives and perswades himselfe that God will never be mercifull to him to pardon him 2. Ease of conscience Secondly affectation indeavour to ease ones troubled and restlesse conscience for some unnaturall cruelties and crying crimes by satisfaction of Iustice according to his demerits makes himself to destroy himself but of this case we have spoken before The saul inesse of this revenge This revenge upon ones selfe in this manner upon this cause is many wayes faulty 1. First because of the opinion of expiation of sinne thereby which nothing can doe away or can quiet the conscience but onely the blood of our blessed Saviour Christ 2. Secondly because sinne cannot be done away by sin and such as is worse than the former no more than fire can be quenched by addition of more fire to it the punishment of sinne belongs to God and his Vicegerents whose lawes are violated 3. Thirdly no man is a competent judge over himselfe in this case either to cleare or to condemne himselfe Non est quis idâ—neus judex inse in propria causa Nemo halet in se authoritate est non sit seipso superior Filli. Because it is impossible that he should bee both Superiour and inferiour to himselfe or that he should not be partially inclined in his affection to himself either in love or hatred 4. Fourthly not by killing our selves which deprives us of the necessary time of repentance but by repentance and faith in Christ our past sinnes are to be done away how grievous soever they be Sibi adimit necessariuÌ„ poenisteÌ„tiae sepus Tho. 2.2 q. 64. Art 5. by living according to the will of God and not by dying by our owne hands our sinnes are reformed and God glorified God sayes that he wills not the death of a sinner Ezek. 18. why then should we will it 5. For peace of con cience what is to be done in this case Fiftly for peace of conscience in that case God hath appointed other meanes as 1. First humiliation and repentance before God 2. Secondly confession to godly Ministers for advice and comfort 3. Thirdly if the former will not do then are we to put our selves to open shame for private faults by publick penance in the Church or to put our selves into the hands of the Magistrates to suffer for our crimes by the civill sword Second kind of revenge Against others The second kinde of revenge is intended against others by ones killing of himselfe when he is implacably offended by others from whom he can neither have satisfaction nor reformation of his grievances and when his death by his owne hands may redound to the hurt or disgrace as he thinks of those that have wronged him Who in this respect are most subject to self-murder Which practise of self-murder upon this motive is most incident to persons of the weakest sexe and worst disposition and condition such as be women and servants and men sympathizing with them in qualities as a Wife that because shee cannot have her will of or with her Husband kils her selfe to the intent to disgrace him with the reproach of being the occasion of that fact to grieve and vexe him and to deprive him of all benefit and comfort that he might have by her life and to hurt him by all the evill that can betide him by her death The unreasonablenesse of the practise Which is a mad course for one to pull out both their owne eyes to the end that another may lose one of his Such persons doe die in implacable malice and are certainely damned by their owne act and manner of concluding their life A good revenge There is a good and lawfull revenge to bee exercised upon those that wroug us which is in killing that evill in them whereby they offend God and us by instructing and reforming them by holy admonitions and example and also in killing their enmity with preservation of their persons by our love and good dealing towards them making them our friends both in affection and behaviour whereby our enemies are destroyed and our selves benefited Touching killing a mans selfe in revenge for his sins S. Augustine sayes that We affirme that no man ought for his sinnes past to kill himselfe Hoc asserimus neminem propter sua peccata praeterita propter que magis â—ac vita opus est ut possit poeniteudo sanari cum fructuosam agere possumus poeniteâ—â—â—â— apud Deum Jude sacium meritò detestamur cum se liqueo suspendit seeleratae illiâ—s traditionis auxisse potiùs quam expiâsse commissùm quoniam Dei miscricerdiam desperando exiâ—â—abiliter penitus nullum sibi salubris poenitentiae locum reliquit suae mertis reus sinivil â—ane vitam quia licet propter suum scelus alio seclere suo eccisus est for which hee hath rather need of his life that by repentance they may be healed And condemnes the same when we may by living performe profitable repentance before God And further sayes that we doe justly abhorre the fact of Iudas seeing when hee hanged himselfe he did rather increase than expiate the fact of his flagitious treason because damnably despairing of the mercy of God he left no place of saving repentance to himselfe he ended this life being guilty of his own death for although he was flaine for his owne vile fact yet it was by another vile fact of his owne And so it is apparent that for sinne past or for revenge no man can murder himselfe warrantably §. 19. Concerning prevention of sin to come The fourth generall motive to self-murder Prevention of sinne The fourth generall motive of men to self-murder is prevention of sin to come which a man conceives will inevitably be effected to Gods dishonour and his owne disgrace if he doe still live and may by his death be prevented and therefore doth he hasten and inflict the same with his owne hands Those sins for which hee would kill himselfe to prevent them are of two sorts 1. The sins of others First they are the sinnes of others for which a man would kill himselfe either that he may not see them to his griefe or that he may not be the object or subject of other mens committing of them As those women that to avoide ravishment and of being deflowred
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
discerne and feele the wofulnesse of their estates being under the desperate sense and importable horrour of their sinnes and judgements due for the same then are they in danger to conclude their wretched dayes by self-murder Observ To know our tempers and watch our selves Therefore people should well consider their owne tempers and states with the severall dangers that attend upon the same and are to be wise to fortifie themselves where they are weakest and so wisely to demeane and behave themselves that they neither entertaine nor give way to any thing in themselves that may bring them to destruction but by faith and good workes to walke with God whereby they may be sure to live for ever §. 2. Of the entrance into self-murder 2. Entrances into self-murder The second thing considerable in the acting of self-murder is the first entrances degrees or approaches into it which are specially foure 1. Crying capitall crimes Parricide proceeds First grievous capitall crying sinnes of blood as murder knowne or secret parricide which is killing of parents children wives or husbands 1. From love of them that are killed which flowes either from exuberancy of carnall affection to them whom they kill whereby they take occasion to kill them by prevention to free them from miseries or to have them with them out of this world being by their owne hands about to rid themselves out of this life 2. From hatred of them Or else it proceeds from unnaturall or monstrous hatred to them for wrong sustained by them for keeping some good from them 3. From love of some other things or for the supposed evill they may bring upon them as whores that kill their infants to avoide shame and punishment children that kill their aged parents to come to their estates mothers in law that kill their children in law to derive estates to their owne widdowes that kill their children to ease themselves of charge and to preferre themselves by mariage These persons as they kill their owne soules by such vile sins so are they justly given over of God in recompense of their owne wayes to destroy their own bodies by their owne self-murdering hands 2. Desperation The second degree of entrance or approach into self-murder is desperation of pardon of sins or of freedome from calamities which rather than some will endure they will kill themselves seeing no other way of easing themselves and their minds whereof some resemblance may bee seene in Iobs Wifes counsell to her Husband Job 2.9 expounded advising him in his extremitie to curse God and die that is that he would take a course to be rid out of his miseries either by blasphemy provoking God to kill him or by dispatching himselfe with his owne hands after that he had blessed God in making peace with him for the safety of his soule 3 Entertainment of self-murderous motions Thirdly a further degree of entrance into self-murder is the advised entertainment of temptations and motions for a man to kill himselfe voluntarily suffering the same to seise upon him with some liking thereof searching and pleading reasons and examples to beguile himselfe whereby he may thinke it lawfull or lesse-evill in that case to kill himselfe and begins to plot the manner how he may best accomplish it with a fluttering wavering resolution to doe it 4. Impatient desire of death The fourth degree of entrance into self-murder is the impatient wishing and desiring of death and a lothing and wearisomnesse of life which so farre prevailes upon some that their whole study and endeavours are how to get out of their lives and to dispatch themselves by their owne hands rather than to live here A question concerning desire of death It is here a pertinent question whether it be at all lawfull to desire that we were dead Answer For resolution whereof it is to bee considered that there are two sorts of desires of death the one is holy the other is sinfull 1 A holy desire of death How it is holy A holy desire of death is that which desires not to be unclothed but to be clothed upon 2 Cor. 5.2 4. the things that make this desire to be holy are two 1 By subordination to Gods will First when it is conditionall and moderate with respect and subordination to the good will of God being content to live if God will have it so and while wee are in this life such holy desires of our dissolution from hence doe not hinder but further all such performances as tend to the glorifying of God and to the edification of our selves and others 2 In the motives thereof Secondly the holinesse of the desire of death consists in the motives thereof the which are two 1 The first is to bee with Christ that we may enjoy God in him to our full happinesse Philip. 1.23 The second is that we may be wholly freed from sinning against God and may be beatifically perfit in having the fulnesse of that whereof we now have the first fruits as the Apostle professes touching himselfe that he did forget those things that are behinde and did reach forth to those that are before and did presse toward the marke for the price of the high calling of God in Christ Iesus a Phil. 3.13 14. yet for to be translated no man is purposely to doe any thing to hasten his death nor to omit any thing due for preservation of his life or to bee more negligent in doing the things which are pertinent for him to doe in this life Vnlawfull desires of death A sinfull desire of death consists in three things First in absolutely desiring it according to our owne wills how and when to die with using meanes as wee list to effect it neglecting the preservation of life and well imployment of the same in doing all those duties for which God doth give it to us 2 Secondly when our desire of dying is from lothing of life and envying the benefit of it to ones selfe for Gods glory and the good of others which wee postpone and subject to our owne self-wills 3. Thirdly when our eager desire of the same is more for freedome from some temporary evills b 1 Kings 19.4 Job 3.3 Jer. 20.14 Rev 6.16 than for to enjoy spirituall and eternall good which ought not to be because God is as much if not more glorified and our selves and others truly benefited by our passive obedience as by our active Note for by the former God hath his will more than by the latter Our chiefe care should be for the happy estate of our soules and of both soule and body for evermore Non pro vitandis naturae vel fortunae malis sed pro vitando malo animi ossequendo potiore bono And therefore as one saith Wee may not desire death to shunne and escape the evills of nature or fortune but to avoide the
under their generall Againe Gen. 9.5 God saies That at the hand of man he will require mans blood even at a mans owne hand that is a mans owne blood at his owne hand if he kill himselfe as Peter Martyr interprets it And if by the Word of God it had beene lawfull for a man to kill himselfe then would not the Apostle Paul have cryed out to the Iaylor that was about to kill himselfe That he should doe himselfe no harme a Act. 16.28 for why should he have letted him from doing a lawfull thing or have called it a doing of himselfe harme in any morall consideration Self-murder is against love the summe of the Law Furthermore self-murder is an odious fact contrary to the generall summe of the Law which is love and justice it is against that love that we owe to God in respect whereof wee are to keep his Law and to affect to enjoy him and it is against that love wherewith wee ought to love our selves and whereby we should endeavour our owne wel-fare and happinesse and according to which we should love our neighbours Who can expect better measure at a mans hand than he performes to himselfe if the rule be not straight all that is measured by it must be crooked the Apostle delivers it as an axiome no man yet ever hated his owne flesh Ephes 5.29 and againe he condemnes those that under pretence of wil-worship did not spare their owne bodies b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Col. 2.23 Self-murder is also contrary to the love that we owe to our neighbours by depriving them thereby both of our selves and of all the good and comfort that they might have by our lives Self-murder is against the generall justice of the Law It is likewise against the generall justice of the Law which requires that wee should give to every man his due For self-murder deprives God our neighbours and our selves of their rights God of obedience and glory c Rom. 13.7 by our lives and our neighbours and our selves of that benefit that both should have by our living Question About Superiours Here a question may be moved whether a Magistrate that hath no superiour over him on earth and is guilty of a capitall crime or crimes may justly in punishment of himselfe therefore put himselfe to death or cause others to do it and whether a capitall malefactor whose hainous offence falls not under mans cognizance or being knowne is neglected to be punished as privy murder or blasphemy in the highest degree against God may not in this case or where he is a subject to none other man kill himselfe or cause another to do it in execution of justice Answer I answer to the first branch of the question with Thomas Aquinas negatively because he cannot be his owne capitall Iudge in his owne cause a Sccūdasccuda q. 64. Art 5. Nullus est Judex sui ipsius and so Magistrates that have no earthly superiour over them are lyable to be punished onely by God either immediatly as was Herod b Act. 12.23 or mediatly by extraordinary meanes of Gods raysing up as was Belthazzar by Darius c Dan. 5.30 31. A Magistrate may not kill himselfe nor may be slaine by his people 2 Sam. 11. 12. Magistrates are under the same morall Lawes in equall strictnesse and extent as any other men for before God there is no respect of persons and therefore a Magistrate can no more lawfully kill himselfe than a private man can kill himselfe as wee see in King David who neither did put himselfe nor was put to death by others for his adultery and murder Reasons 1. Finally for no crime can a Magistrate in any case kill himselfe because he is not his owne but the Common-wealths and therefore cannot dispose of himselfe in that respect as he list 2. neither hath the body punitive power of jurisdiction over its head 3. neither is hee to bee valued and esteemed simply as an individuall man who as David was may be worth thousands and therefore for crimes punishable in their particular subjects by death is not to be put to death by his people nor yet to kill himselfe whose losse that way may bring farre more damage than such an execution of Iustice upon him can do good in such a tomerarious manner Magistrates neglect and secret capitall crimes belong not to any to redresse by death upon themselves For answer to the second branch I referre the reader to that which is said before touching insufficiency of the third generall motive to self-murder And further adde that things secret belong to God and the Magistrates omissions and aberrations belong to God and not to private men from private motion in authoritative manner to amend Such a man if to punish himselfe he kill himselfe cannot do it but either as a Magistrate or as a private man then in neither respects can he do it as we have heard and therefore he cannot lawfully do it at all A Case About persons condemned to death what they may do to prevent or hasten it I would here further determine a case which is this Suppose a man be condemned ignominiously to die may he poyson or famish or bleed himselfe to death may hee stab himselfe hang himselfe cut his owne throat break his neck or cast himselfe off the ladder leap into the water or fire either to hasten his death that he is adjudged to or to prevent it specially when it is undeserved Answer They may not kill themselves although commanded to do it although the Iudge should command him to do the same hee ought not to doe it I answer that much lesse may he doe it of his owne accord Reasons 1. because it is against the Law of God and of nature for one to kill himselfe 2. and is an act of self-condemnation as if in his owne opinion he were neither worthy nor fit to live nor yet to die in a warrantable manner by the hand of justice 3. the lengthning of life is a blessing to be imbraced for the good that thereby we may do or get 4. to prevent justice in the execution thereof doth wrong it by invading and usurping the right thereof with injury to the Common-wealth by a self-willed cutting off the members therof in such a disorderly course as opens a way to overthrow the same death is an act of suffering and not of agency of him that is to die 5. self-murder is a more shamefull and uncomfortable death than any other that a man can suffer 6. and it is not the death inflicted by others but the cause thereof in our selves that makes it honourable or disgracefull according to the deserts of our lives If a man be undeservedly condemned to die it is the more honourable and comfortable for him to suffer a 1 Pet. 3.14 17. c. 4. v. 15 16.
unlawfull by the rules of religion is because it is against nature it selfe and against that naturall affection and propensnesse whereby it endeavours to preserve and cherish it selfe and to withstand and repell all that is destructive of it and inimicall to it Religion requites the observation of the law of nature that religion requires the observation of the law of nature is manifest because religion and natures law are not repugnant but differ in extent and degrees of perfection the law of nature being more universall and lesse divinely perfit The Scripture it selfe commends the keeping and condemnes the transgressing of the law of nature In which respect the Apostle blames the Gentiles that knowing God by nature they did not glorifie him as God a Rom. 1.21 And againe he commends them for doing by nature the things contained in the Law b Rom. 2.14 15. and which naturally was written in their hearts Hee blames the Incestuous Corinthian for doing a sin so hainous as is not so much as named amongst the Gentiles c 1 Cor. 5.1 And further he condemnes mens wearing of long haire contrary to the law of nature when he sayes Doth not even nature it selfe teach you that if a man have long haire it is a shame unto him d 1 Cor. 11.14 Thomas Aquinas sayes e Quod aliquis scipsum occidat est contra inelinationem naturalem contra charitatem that for any man to kill himselfe is against naturall inclination and charity The devill knew that man naturally will give all he hath for his life Iob 2.4 the soule and body of a man doe naturally affect to be united together because of the unity of the person that consists of them both personally joyned together by whose dissolution it is destroyed The soule and body are neither of them perfit without the other and therefore affect to be united together And the soule and body are so made one for another that they are not nor can be perfit the one without the other neither with naturall nor beatificall perfection for beside a partiall perfection there is that full perfection that is of the whole and in the whole The soule doth not willingly leave the body but with respect of advancement of the person whereof it is the soule by entring upon possession of that partiall perfection whereof it is capable and the whole for measure and degree is due to the person constituted of soule and body and for which union and adeption of perfit glory of the person there shall be a resurrection of the body at the last day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and therefore is the body in the meane time called Nephesh a Psal 16.10 by the Hebrewes And God is said by our Saviour himselfe speaking of the dead to be the God of the living b Mat. 22.32 whose bodies although they were dead yet themselves are said to be alive in regard of their living soules who cannot be personally considered but in their union together that by death cannot be dissolved in Gods consideration of us and in respect of the naturall inclination of each mans proper soule and body the one to the other for their full perfection and in regard of the resurrection when they shall be united everlastingly to live together betweene which time and the day of our death there is no sensible distance of time to us nor length of time with God §. 4. How self-murder is injurious to mankinde 4. Self-murder wrongs mankinde The fourth particular that makes it evident that self-murder is condemned by religion is because it is injurious to mankinde and to the common-wealth whereof the self-murderer is a member who by that fact of killing himselfe hurts humane society by such hainous disorders and pernicious examples for others to follow to their destruction and by the unrecoverable damage and losse of its members and of the good that the same might have by their lives For as Thomas sayes Every man is a part of a Commonalty and he that kills himselfe doth an injury to that Commonalty a Quilibet homo est pars comunitaetis qui scipsum intersicit injuriam sacit Communitati Examples The commendable examples and practise of the godly hath ever beene opposite to self-murder as well as their opinion and have had a care to preserve their lives not only for their own good but also for the good of others who had an interest in them as is manifest by the Apostle Paul Phil. 1.24 25. and 2.17 Who seeing his life to be needfull for the Philippians was willing to abide and continue with them For the furtherance and joy of their faith and did joy and rejoyce to be offered upon the sacrifice and service of the same It is hurtfull to the common-wealth If self-murder were not unlawfull even in respect of the wrong thereby done to the common-wealth why should David have commanded to take away the life of the yong man the Amalekite that did help Saul to kill himselfe whom David asked How he was not affraid to stretch forth his hand to destroy the Lords annointed and so caused to put him to death not simply for unjustly killing an innocent man but specially in consideration of killing of the King the head of the land which by his death was wronged and was a dangerous president to passe unpunished § 5. How self-murder wrongs mans selfe doing it 5. It wrongs a mans selfe and how The fifth particular demonstrating how unlawfull self-murder is by religion is the sin and wrong which the self-murderer doth thereby to himselfe in three speciall respects 1. It overthrowes faith and love in a man First in regard of the principall saving graces of God in man which are faith and love self-murder is against faith and trust in God and overthrowes the same by desperation that neither in adversity can a person that is resolved to kill himselfe have any true comfort nor any hope of life eternall by a course that he knowes is the way to damnation Touching love we have heard before how it cannot consist with self-murder they being contrary For as one sayes Quisque debet plus amare seipsum quam proximum Filliue Every one ought to love himselfe more than his neighbour For the neerenesse of our selves to our selves and for the perfection that should be in the rule or measure whereby we are to love others 2 It marres our duty Secondly in regard of our duty which is not to dispose of or doe that which is not in our power nor within our authority such as to kill ones selfe is For when a man kills himselfe he either kills an innocent and so in that respect grievously sinnes or else hee kills a malefactor and then he sinnes that doth it without lawfull authority to warrant his action which no man hath to kill himselfe but expresse command to the contrary 3.
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
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
their eternall future happinesse in the world to come to abandon all thoughts of self-murder that consideration of present things may not wholy possesse and take them up from minding and intending the spirituall good of their soules and the future felicity of a better life but that they may order all their wayes and actions so as the same may not prejudice but advantage the good of their soules and advance them to and in the estate of glory Self-murderers regard not their souks But it seemes by the practice of self-murder that self-murderers either thinke that they have no soules but are as irrationall brutes of whom death ends all or else that they undervalue their soules as things nought worth and are regardlesse of their future estate in the world to come as if neither of them were worth their care and respect that for the same they should frame their course and order their practice and otherwise than they list themselves and in that respect are wilfull mad Atheists What they should consider If self-murderers doe conceive that they have soules that are superstites remaining after their death and beleeve that there is a life of happinesse or misery to come after this then should they be mindfull of the same and consider what shall become of their poore soules and what their state shall be if they doe kill and rid themselves out of this life and world and whether salvation or damnation is the portion of self-murderers §. 2. That all that kill themselves are not properly Self-murderers nor in their estate of damnation All self-killers are not properly self-murderers About determining this great question concerning the sinall estate of self-murderers whether they bee all damned in hell or any of them saved in heaven we are first to consider that all that fall by their owne hands or meanes are not self-murderers as hath beene formerly shewed in divers exempt cases in the chapter of direct bodely self-murder Chap. 12. §. 5. to which I referre the reader For although all self-murderers are self-killers yet all self-killers are not self-murderers they are not termes convertible or reciprocall because although they may agree and be the same in themateriall part or substance of the action They differ formally yet they doe differ in their forme and nature of Anomy or sinfulnesse which doeth varie and alter the kinde that it is not the same properly with the other and so it is not simply subject to the same effects and Consequences thereof Whereupon not only by the verdict of divine reason but even also by the Courts of humane Iudicature about feloes de so such are acquitted as are expressed Chap. 12. § 5. In the exempt cases As if a Child kill it selfe that hath not attained to age of discretion or to use of reason or if a man or woman kill himselfe that is an Ideote or naturall foole or is mad constantly or in a fit of Lunacie or of a Fever or Calenture or in a fit of Phrensie how ever involuntarily contracted or by mischance no Court of equity or Iustice in advised well informed proceeding will condemne such an one for a self murderer and accordingly so dispose of his body and goods as of self-murderers For for them to exempt such from the number and censures of self-murderers their reason is good because it is most inbumane and unreasonable so ignominiously to condemne and censure persons for self-murderers whose case deserves pitty and commiseration for their lamentable suffering both in their death and also in that evill of calamity which is the cause of it against or at least without the free consent of their wills and therefore to punish a fact neither of their proper effecting nor advised approving by addition of more misery were most unjust Hereupon it necessarily followes that the persons justly acquitted and exempted from the number and censure of self-murderers by the verdict and Judgement of men as such to whom usually the Church grants communion of Christian buriall with other priviledges of holy Church after their death cannot in charity be denyed by it the happinesse of salvation §. 3. That proper and direct self-murderers are all reprobates and without the state of grace All self-murderers are damned The proper subject of this question about salvation are not the persons aforesaid salling by their owne hands in the foresaid cases who are not properly self-murderers But those only that out of deliberate Iudgement doe advisedly wittingly and willingly kill themselves contrary to the meanes and power that they have to the contrary if they list to use the same as they might of these I say and doe peremptorily conclude that they all and every of them that so murder themselves are certainly and infallibly damned soule and body for evermore without redemption which I will pregnantly prove by five strong and undenyable arguments and reasons Reasons 1. None in the state of salvation can be properly a self-murderer First because none doe nor can so murder themselves but unregenerated and reprobate persons who dying in that estate cannot possibly be saved For both the transcendent greatnesse of that sinne of self murder in it selfe and perfect forme considered and in all the circumstances thereof for manner of doing of it And also the full measure of the wills exorbitancy in a plenary consent and the indivertible indeavours of the minde and all the powers and faculties of these self murderers presumptuously to doe this vile execrable act against all resistance and helps to the contrarie is such as cannot be incident to any godly body that shall be saved Of the regenerated preserved Because in those that are truly adopted of God both the power of sinne formally considered in that degree of Anomie and excesse of enormity is by saving grace and the Spirits working in them broken and bridled that they cannot breake out into the same so extremely as others doe And also their wills are brought under such conformity to the rule and command of God and of his spirit and all their powers faculties and dispositions are in some measure so-inclined to goodnesse and divine obedience that they can never transgresse into any odious grosse sin without far more reluctancy opposition and hinderance in themselves against it from light of Iudgement divine restraint and from antipathy of renewed inclination than can be in any that is wicked or unconverted who running in an unregenerate estate with such a full Careere sometimes upon the rock of self-murder doe therein outstrip others so farre that they overshoote themselves beyond all bounds of salvation and are all certainly damned even in the judgement of men here on earth who have no better esteeme of them but as of damned Reprobates who by their owne meanes and procurement perish for ever not onely by and for the odious act of murdering themselves but together with that for their former wicked impenitent life and are not saved
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
accidentally to kill himselfe but in all the aforesaid respects he was wholly bent to destroy his enemies the Philistims which he could not doe but with and by the death of himselfe which is apparent by the story Iudg. 16.28 2. Secondly he was a Iudge of the people of Israel to free and avenge them of their enemies the Philistims and therefore by vertue of his office was warranted to destroy them as he should be able in which execution although he perished through his owne voluntary act according to his owne certaine foreknowledge he could not be a self-murderer from which sinne his office and calling of God to that work freed him 3. Thirdly for that act and last worke of Sampson whereby himselfe died God called him to it that then and there he might so do it both by his providence giving him such an opportunitie against his enemies so assembled as he could never have the like againe and also by the extraordinary supernaturall assistance of the Spirit of God that came upon him Spiritus latenter hoc jusserat Decreti secunda pars causa 23. c. 9. si non licet and strengthned him to do the deed which it never doth for any wicked act which is rather the work of the devill Whereby it is manifest that Sampsons act was not self-murder 4. That Sampsons act was warrantable and no fact of self-murder is evident by his intending and going about it in subordination to God and his will manifested by his Spirits assistance and obtained by lawfull and pious prayer which no self-murderer doth who preferre their owne wills above Gods in satisfying whereof they cannot comfortably pray for Gods assistance to doe the deed which in their owne consciences they know is unlawfull and wicked and therefore were horrible to entreat him to be an actor of the same with them 5. Fiftly this last act of Sampson is spoken of in the history of it Iudg. 16.30 with commendation when it is said that the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life and Heb. 11.32 himselfe is honoured among the faithfull as being one of them whereas the facts of self-murder and the persons of self-murderers are never spoken of but with aspersion of blame and disgrace and therefore Sampson is no self-murderer 6. Sixtly things may be done lawfully in a type of figure upon divine instinct or ordination which otherwise were unlawfull to be done as a Certaine man of the sonnes of the Prophets said unto his neighbour in the word of the Lord smite me I pray thee and the man refused to smite him then said he unto him because thou hast not obeyed the voice of the Lord behold assoone as thou art departed from me a Lyon shall slay thee and assoone as he was departed from him a Lyon found him and slew him Then he found another man and said smite me I pray thee and the man smote him so that in smiting he wounded him 1 King 20.35 36 37. Which act otherwise had beene unlawfull that here done upon divine command and for a type or figure was good Sampsons manner of so dying was a type or figure of Christ who by his death slew more than in his life and therefore in this respect it was lawfull and he no self-murderer 2. About Pelagia and others not self-murderers Secondly I answer touching Pelagia and others in the Primitive Church who killed themselves to avoid either doing of sin themselves or suffering sin to be done upon them that they were charitably thought of and favourably censured because of their precedent pious godly life and of their good intention although the act were wicked and are excused 1. By allegation of their ignorance of the morall nature and of the danger of the fact to their soules 2. And by the suddaine invasion and surprisall of them by violence of their unadvised passions which can be no president for ordinary practise either to warrant the fact to be lawfull or to comfort the persons doing it with expectation of the like event and safety But of this see more cap. 12 § 5. and cap. 15. § 23. and cap. 17. § 7. argument 17. supra § 4. Whereby it appeares evidently that those and such persons were not proper self-murderers and so not of that number and ranck of self-killers that are certainely and finally excluded from salvation And so this objection is of no force against the former conclusion of the damnation of all proper and transcendent self-murderers because the instances given are insufficient and impertinent to make proofe or to give any comfort and hope of salvation to any proper self-murderer in regard that the same are of another kinde for although by falling by their owne hands or meanes they were self-killers yet they were not proper and direct self-murderers seeing these two are not alwaies convertible and of equall extent as hath beene shewed §. 11. About antecedent Prayer and repentance for pardon of sinnes to come 3. Object From mens preparation to God-ward before they murder themselves The third objection that may be alledged in favour of the salvation of self-murderers is that a self-murderer purposing and resolved to murder himselfe may before the fact make his peace with God by humiliation and repentance for all his sinnes past and in particular for his hainous sin of self murder to come praying instantly to God to forgive him both the guiltinesse and punishment of that vile fact that he is bent suddainely to do and beseeching him through Christ and his merits to receive him into mercy and to save his soule for the same casting himselfe upon and beleeving in Christ And so thereupon dispatches and murders himselfe by his owne meanes or hands hoping and expecting to be saved whereby and in which case such an one seemes to die in a good minde in peace with God and in charity with all the world and in an estare sure enough of heaven for his soule and of perfection of salvation for both at the resurrection and great day of Judgement Answer A self-murderer cannot make peace with God To this objection I answer that no man can make or be at peace with God when and so long as he wilfully intends and persists in such a sinfull course or practise as offends enrages and makes God his implacable enemie in that case such is the state of an indivertibly-resolved self-murderer and therefore it is impossible that so long as he is in that minde to murder himselfe he can make or be at peace with God whom by his vile sin he inrages against him so that he cannot die that way but in vengeance from God both thereby punishing his former sinnes and also thus dispatching him away to hell Antecedent prayer and repentance for self-murder is uneffectuall Neither can any man truly repent before hand for that grosse sinne which he is purposed and fully
over-ruling providence hindering the execution and turning his will 2. Be observant of the tempted Secondly men should bee observant of such persons 1. To spie out the causes both to fish and spie out the outmost hidden lurking undiscovered causes thereof that the same may be removed that hinders the cure 2. To watch him that he do it not and also to watch him against all oppertunities and meanes whereby hee may accomplish his act of self-murder 3. Humane forcible restraint Thirdly they are to use outward forcible restraint to such an one as to a mad man shutting him up and keeping meanes of self-destruction from him as much as may be The putting by of the violent attempts and passions of self-murder which comes by fits ague-like not only restraines the act for the time beeing but may also counter-check and abate the rage of it that by degrees it may be prevailed against and asswaged Comparison as agues many times are cured accidentally by very impertinent modicines putting by the fits Observe None are self-murdered but by their owne fault From that which hath beene said touching the Antidotes for self-murder we may observe that it is a mans owne fault if he perish by self-murder in neglect of using the meanes against it Comparison For as there are medicines for all diseases so are there meanes of preservation against all sinnes too how great soever they be to prevent them and these meanes are within the reach of a mans power to use Note The benefits of recovery frō the temptatiōs of self-murder If a man once deeply plunged into these temptations of self-murder do christianly overcome the same and be soundly recovered he hath thereby a good pledge never to be so tried againe and hath a pawne and evidence of victory against other sinnes if he doe his best against them Vse of it And also for this deliverance such a one is bound to be ever exceeding thankefull to God Vpon the cure dangers Upon preservation and freedome out of these temptations of self-murder a man is to take heed of two great dangers 1. Security c. First security self-confidence and presumption whereby those corruptions and sinnes may closely grow upon him that may bring him into as dangerous a condition for his salvation as we see how Hezechia after his recovery out of his mortall sicknesse fell into other sins as he manifested by his oftentation to the messengers of Babylon in boastingly-shewing them his treasure and strength all which cost him deare a 2 King 20.13 2. Vnprofitable life to goodnesse The second danger to be avoided after such a recovery is unprofitable living when such a man spends not the life that God hath given him in speciall manner to Gods glory to the good of others and to his owne salvation which is the maine end why God gives us our lives and for the attainement thereof if we spend them not it were better for us not to live Observe The various states and great dangers that God carieth man through are very remarkable and Gods worke therein is gracious and wonderfull for which we should ever praise his glorious and blessed name with constant dependance upon and dutifull obsequiousnesse to him in all our life and wayes which God grant we may do Amen FINIS AN ALPHABETICALL Table of the materiall Contents of this Treatise directing to the Page where the same is contained or begun A ABsurdity Page 204 Abuse of power Page 162 Abuse of lawfull things procures indirect self-murder Page 109 Abused Scripture most harmefull Page 198 Act How one act of self-murder gives denomination to the doers Page 175 Actions are good not onely from intention Page 241 Adam In Adam all are self-murderers Page 124 Advancement Hope of advancement abused to evill Page 245 Adventuring Of mans adventuring upon sinfull courses the causes Page 69 Of adventuring for saving of soules and for Religion Page 141. 143. Adversity Persons in adversity how to be observed and helped Page 231 Advise To advise the tempted Page 323 Advisedly a self-murderer kils himselfe Page 160 Afflictions spirituall Page 164 Afflictions not simply evill Page 228 Of afflictions occasioning self-murder Page 211. c. In afflictions how men should order themselves Page 231 Afflicted persons doubly burdened ibid. Affections Head-strong affections and ambition are causes of mis-understanding the Scripture Page 197 Ambition cause of self-murder Page 216 241 Amorous discourses how hurtfull Page 195 Anger the cause of self-murder Page 232 Anger against a mans selfe for his sins Page 234 Antidotes for self-murder Page 311 Antiquity of self-murder Page 177 Apostacy Of finall apostacy Page 75 Apparent How it is apparent that men murder themselves Page 176. 178. 181 Apparent good affects the understanding Page 208 Appearing of fellons voluntarily at Assizes Page 135 Application of the meanes of self-killing Page 185 Application of the Word against temptations Page 315 Arguments against self-murder Page 262 274 How arguments are deemed weak or strong Page 191 Ashamed to do good Page 222 Authority man hath not to kill himselfe Page 281 B Badnesse Conceited badnesse of estate cause of self-murder Page 164 Baile for Fellons how by them to be freed Page 135 Being Goodnesse of being Page 259 Behaviour Godly behaviour signe of spirituall life Page 39 Gastly behaviour a signe of subsequent self-murder Page 260 Beleeve To beleeve errors men are strong Page 206 Benefit the benefit of well spending our lives Page 19 Benefit of death encourages against dangers Page 126 The benefits of recovery from temptations of self-murder Page 325 Beware of self murder Page 182 Blame Men blame God to excuse themselves Page 207 Blessing A blessing may become a judgement Page 166 Blindes What blindes men Page 209 Body of mans body and its works 81 with its threefold consideration ib. How the body suffers by and for the soule Page 82 The bodies imployment in murdring it self Page 162 Braves Of Braves Page 112 Publishing Of publishing the Gospell amongst Heathens Page 142 Burning Of burning of a Ship in fight by her own Master or company Page 138 C Calamities The diverse sorts of calamities Page 211 Calling Killing ones self in discharge of calling is not self-murder Page 174 Capacity Shallow capacity is cause of mis-understanding the Scripture Page 197 Capitall-crimes against human laws procuring death Page 121 Capitall-crimes how a man is to reveale against himselfe Page 137 How capitall-crimes make way for self-murder Page 256 Care Mans care of his naturall and spirituall life Page 4 Mans care ought to be most for his spirituall life Page 42 Our care to be preserved from soule-destruction Page 79 Mans care to live well Page 206 Our care to know and obey the truth Page 210 Carefull of what men should be most carefull Page 289 Carnall reason dislikes of strict obedience Page 62 Cases of leagnes and society of warre of infectious places or
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
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