man but the Spirit of God a 1 Cor. 2.11.15 and therefore it is said that the spirituall man discerneth all things by this Spirit a mans judgement is conformable to the truth contained in the Scriptures and sound doctrine of the Church Touching the mistake and abuse of Scripture for the vile fact of self-murder Augustine gives this admonition Take heed to thy selfe that it may not slily creep upon thee to have a mind to kill thy selfe by so understanding these words of Scripture That thou oughtest to hate thy life in this world For from thence some malignant and perverse men and most cruell and wretched murderers against themselves do throw themselves into the fire do choake themselves in the waters and by headlong downfalls do crush themselves and perish b Videne tibi subrepat ut teipsum velis interimere sic intelligendo quod debes odisse in hoc mundo animam tuam hine enim quidam maligni perversi homines in seipsos crudeliores c. August Tract in Ioan. 51. Our Saviour Christ told Peter that others should gird and carry him whither he would not c John 21.18 whereby hee intimates that Peter should not will to gird and destroy himselfe Also the same Augustine calls such self-murderers the devils martyrs when he answers to Petilian the Donatist Confessores illi vestri quando seipsos praecipitaÌ„t cui dicant Martyrium uto um Chrisio qui talia suggerentem diabolum repulit an potius ipsi diabolo qui talia Christo suggessit Non veneramur nomine Martyrum eos qui sibi collum ligaverunt August contra lit Peâ—il l. 2. c. 49. saying These your confessors when they throw themselves headlong from steepe places to whom doe they conserate martyrdome whether do they it to Christ who rejected the devill when hee suggested the doing of such things or do they it not rather to the devill himselfe who did suggest to Christ such things for him to do Wee doe not honor those by the name of Martyrs who have hanged themselves The Scripture rightly understood is the best promptuary and antidote against self murder both by meanes of the light of it shewing us the unlawfulnesse and vilenesse of that fact and also by the power thereof or of the Spirit therein disswading and vehemently withdrawing of us there-from to whose advice and motions so long as we obediently listen we are safe from self-murder §. 5. Of misconstrued decree and destiny to the perverting of judgement The third ground of a deceived judgement Conceit of decree and destiny The third ground of a deceived judgement which occasions self-murder is the self murderers strong apprehension that it is the unalterable deeree of God and his owne unevitable fortune for him so to die by his owne hands as Tertullian speakes of some which conceit arises from two originals Dinumerant in semetipsos mentis malae impetus vel fato vel astris imputant Tertul. Apolog. c. 1. Originall of it 1. Impostures First from the oracles or impostures of Magitians and fortune tellers that declare to those who unwarrantably seeke to them for knowledge and resolution of future contingent things specially touching their death that so they shall die and perish Which is the just reward of such unlawfull curiosity that so they may thereby be punished either by doing of the deed or by continuall torment of feare that they shall doe it Note God never conceales any thing from us but that whereof the ignorance is better for us than the knowledge It was curiosity after this kind of knowledge that made Eve willing to learne of the devill being her schoolemaster a Gen. 3.5 6. that whereby she was a meanes to undoe her selfe and all mankinde We see by the practise of Saul in killing himselfe how dangerous a thing it is to advise with witches b 1 Sam. 28.7 soothsayers magitians Astrologers or any of that black rabble upon affectation of curious and secret knowledge from those persons a man shall but play the Gnat about the candle delighting in the light thereof untill it be at last burnt up with the heat thereof Observ as many a man may grieve that he hath so little knowledge of profitable things so many may grieve that they have so much unprofitable and needlesse knowledge People are ignorant of necessary things Necessaria nâ—scimus quia non necesseria discimus because they bend their minds so much to know unnecessary things but was it ever knowne that the devill did give advice that was good both for matter and end 2. Conceit that it is Gods decree The second originall of the strong conceit of self-murder in the minde is deep impressions in the thoughts of man that it is the unalterable and unresistable decree of God that he must kill himselfe which proceeds from satans cunning suggestions slily darting in and fomenting the same perswasion and withall where the self-murderers thoughts and mind are ever taken up with and running upon the same and are under such continuall powerfull temptations to kill himselfe that hee thinks he cannot resist then falls he to resolve and to endeavour to do it as being perswaded that it is his fatall destiny so to die And therefore what such think must be done at last they deeme it best to doe it as soone as they can both that they may be out of the torment of the thoughts of it and also may finish out of the way what is Gods will that they must doe as Iudas did who went quickly to betray his Master c Ioh. 13.27.30 They thinke that they sinne not Men of this perswasion and practise do thinke that if they do that onely which is agreeable to Gods decree and secret wil they are blamelesse but they are in a greater errour Their error Reasons 1. Absurdity of it For first by that argument no man in the world should be culpable of any sin for any thing that hee doth how flagitious soever it were and so both God and man should be blameable for unjust dealing in punishing any man for any thing that he doth be it murder treason theft or any like thing and in vaine were all lawes divine and humane requiring the doing of that good or forbidding that evill if justly a man may not be rewarded for the former nor condemned for the latter Observe For there is nothing that possibly can fall out or come to passe contrary to Gods eternall decree in regard both of Gods prescience fore-knowledge of all things and also in respect of his power and wise providence from and by which is the whole motion of all creatures and their abilitie in all manner of actions Which is further apparent by the testimony of the Apostles in their confession to God saying Of a truth against thy holy childe Iesus whom thou hast annointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles
opinions and practises of men are to be examined by reason and Gods word Try all things follow that which is good 1 Thess 5.21 because whatsoever is humane may be as it is humane erroneous proceeding from men subject to be deceived and erre Caveat against vaine praise To conclude this point I would intreate all men specially Scholars and men of sublimated brave spirits to beware of the encomiasticall discourses of heathen authors either encouraging to self-murder or commending self-murderers that neither the poyson of that opinion nor the example of that vile practise in eminent and famous persons may insensibly corrupt and seduce us to dare to enterprise the like upon our selves Observe for by the praise of self-murderers and by amorous discourses the heathen writers have done much hurt in the Christian Church besides the example and dregges of their Idolatry from which the Christian world is not yet well purged but among us where there is no law nor approved custome doctrine nor practise of self-murdering we are not in like danger as heathens to erre in our judgements upon this ground seeing wee have sufficient meanes of knowledge and restraint to the contrary §. 4. Of misunderstood Scripture perverting the Iudgement and the remedy thereof The second ground of errors in judgements is misunderstood Scripture The second ground of a deceived judgement in this point is misunderstanding of the Scriptures As our Saviour told the Sadduces That they did erre not knowing the Scriptures a Mat. 22.29 Whereof wee have Origen for an example who gelt himselfe upon his misconceiving the speech of our Saviour saying There be Eunuches which have made themselves Eunuchs for the kingdom of heavēs sake Mat. 19.12 Martinius b Christiana pietas lib. 2 de remicidio Professor at Breme in Germany tells of those that he cals Patriciani who held that the substance of mans flesh was made not by God but by the devill that they held it lawful to kil thēselves to be rid of their bodies from which they supposed that all sin did come Baldwin c Cas lib. 3. c. 4. Cas 13. circa melanchelicos the Casuist speakes of a certaine Hermit that threw himselfe into a well to drowne himselfe out of the abundance of his devotion that he had to mortifie himselfe upon the mistake of the meaning of Col. 3.5 in like manner did Baals priests in the heat of their devotion cut themselves 1 Kings 18. Gloriae sibi putibant si seipsos ex petris praecipitarent in ignem conjicerent vel alia ratione nee◠traderent The Circumcellions among the Donatistss did count it an honour to them if they did throw down themselves off rocks cast themselves into the fire or by any other meanes kill themselves Augustine speaking of them in his booke of heresies written to Quo-vult-Deus sayes that in a mad cruelty they did not spare themselves for they used to kill themselves by divers kindes of deathes chiefly by water fire and throwing themselves downe headlong from high places a Non sibi insana feritate parcēdo nam per mortes varias maximè praecipitiorum aquarum ignium seipsos necare consueverūt their grounds of so doing were abused Scripture Such as that the flesh is to be mortified and he that hates his life shall finde it Augustine sayes that there were specially two vile and usuall deaths of them who doe kill themselves the halter and steep headlong places Self-murder both Iudas and the Donatists have learned from the same master Indas to doe it by the halter the Donatists by steep headlong places b Duae sunt maximè viles atque usitatae mortes eorum qui seipsos interimunt laqueus praecipitium spontaneas mortes ab uno magistro utrique didicerunt Judas laqueum Donatistae praeipitium Causes of misunderstanding Scripture The causes or meanes of mis-understanding the Scripture are specially three 1. Fals teachers and undiscreete First false teachers who under pretence of their learning and authority seduce and beguile the simple by specious pretexts obtruding error for truth or intermingling falsehood with verity or obscuring or corrupting the truth from the simplicity thereof And also undiscreet teachers are a meanes to men of mis-understanding the Scriptures by their neglect or transgressing the true genuine scope and meaning of their texts in their preaching diffused into the latitude of common places multiplyed according to the number of the words Metamorphosed preaching And likewise those teachers that expresse the truth in termes and phrases proper to heretickes or schismaticks teaching things wherein we differ from them in sense and meaning doe not only make themselves to be suspected of error but also they open a way for entertainment of errors from others And also they that do disguise the ancient truth into new fangled habit of method and expressions whereby it may seeme to be some other more transcendent thing than it is and do with curiosity dangerously mince and marre the truth contrary to that which is warrantably revealed whereby the way to peace is rather lost than found they unsetle men from their former faith about the truth and incline them to embrace erroneous innovations about opinions whereby their judgments are mis-informed or made doubtfull what to hold or stick to being shaken by this course which is sutable to the practise of some ore-curious Schoolmen who did degenerate from the plaine simplicity of the Fathers The Schoolmen in handling and publishing of the truth which those Sophisters corrupted and perverted by such foraine Philosophicall termes and perplexed distinctions and method as both obscured and did weare out of use and respect the plaine ancient truth and also laid grounds and gave occasions for and raised manifold errors which filled the Church with contention schismes and heresies which overthrew peace sincerity and the power of godlinesse 2. Shallow capacities Secondly wee are often deceived by the weakenesse of our owne intellectuals and shallow capacities as were the Capernaits about eating of Christs body a Iohn 6.52 when we limit and interpret the Scriptures according to our reason and sense and not by themselves as wee ought with the helpe of the meanes in the Church that God hath given us 3. Headstrong affections Thirdly our misunderstanding of the Scripture proceeds from the strength of our headstrong affections self-willed resolutions and from our ambition after vaine glory whereby wee wring and wrest the sense and meaning of the Scriptures to make them favour and speake what we fancie and hold So not taking the sense contained in the Scripture but imposing our sense upon the Scripture as best pleases us to maintaine our owne opinions or to purchase the vaine glory of extraordinary learning among shallow braind or prejudicate persons whom nothing pleases but that which is strange or new or suits and agrees with their humours and ends
their unbeliefe and hard impenitency of heart but are secure and doe please themselves therein 2. Legall Secondly want of obedience to Gods word that deprives us of life is in respect of the law in omitting of performing and doing the affirmative Commandements thereof upon observation whereof all the promises of life eternall are intayled so that without the same wee cannot be saved and therefore we should keep the Commandements as our life the want of obedience to the affirmative Commandements excludes from life as the breaking of the negative Commandements subjects the transgressors to destruction §. 7. Of the reasons of defect of obedience Causes of vvant of obedience There are foure speciall causes of mens neglect of the affirmative Commandements both of the Law and Gospell 1. Omissions First because the sinnes of that kind are but omissions which are not so contrary to God nor doe so much trouble the conscience as siunes of commission neither do the affirmative Commandements binde ad semper to the ever doing of them all at all times and therefore intermission being next to omission men doe easily fall from the former into the latter 2. Carnal reason Secondly because carnall men would subject Gods Lawes and ordinances to their owne naturall reason which neither allowes nor likes the spiritualnesse nor strictnesse of Gods Commandements such men doe give dispensations to themselves for carnall moderation or omission of duties as Naaman the Syrian did 2 King 5.18 pleasing themselves therein so long as their owne wit can coyne them excuses evasions and pretenses that they may preferre their owne will and waies before Gods wisdome and Lawes 3. Contrariety of nature Thirdly because mens owne naturall dispositions and course of life are contrary to the vertues commanded therefore in favour of their old man of sinne that raignes in them they forbeare to do what may crosse or hurt the same Compatison as the naturall mother that would not have her owne child divided 1 King 3.26 the law of sinne within them prevailing against the Law of God and his Spirit neglect of duties and vertues ever attends upon their opposite contrary master-raigning sins 4. Prosit and pleasure Fourthly because that the observation of the affirmative Commandements doth more crosse a mans profit and pleasure and brings him under more opposition and hatred of the world than the keeping of the negative Commandements doth he therefore is the more apt and inclined to omit the duties of the affirmative as more troublesome to observe because they doe include the observation of the negative and are more subject to the censure of men being more sensibly discernable than the negative and doth make a greater distance and difference from the world than bare omission of evill because doing of morall good puts a man into a remoter extreame from worldlings and unconverted persons than only not doing evill §. 8. Of grace dying by mans neglect 4. Neglect of cherishing grace The fourth omission whereby a man deprives himselfe of eternall life is neglect to cherish and foment the graces of Gods Spirit begun to bee wrought in him by the meanes but le ts them die before Christ bee fully formed in him The reason because he doth not constantly and conscionably use the meanes to perfect them both in their nature and degrees neither doth improve and exercise the talent and gifts that hee hath but suffers them to perish in languishing idlenesse nor doth he indeavour to approve himselfe to God in all sincerity and holinesse according to the utmost of his power nor yet encourages himselfe to aspire after perfection by the consideration and hope of everlasting glory we should be carefull and industrious that we lose not the things that wee have wrought 2 Ioh. 8. For those onely that hold out unto the end shall bee saved a Mat. 24.13 by neglect and sloth that life of grace languishes and dies which wee might seeme to have and might be in some degrees and motions of the Spirit begun Vses The uses of this point of doctrine touching this degree of self-soule-murder by omission of the meanes of life are diverse §. 9. The harme of omission of duty 1. Omission deprives men of life First to informe our judgement wee may see that by this neglect and omission a man may cut off himselfe from spirituall life and be in this degree a self-murderer of his owne soule Want of grace deprives a man of happinesse as the Virgins want of oyle b Mat. 22.12 and the mans want of his wedding garment excluded them from the presence of the Bridegroome c and 25.12 It is not enough that a man be not an ill man by sins of commission against the negative Commandements of God except he be also a good man by his conformity to GODS affirmative Commands For it is requisite that as a man would not onely not be damned in hell but would also bee glorified in heaven that hee bee not onely carefull to avoid the sins that may subject him to the former but also that he doe embrace the vertues and doe the duties whereby hee may be fitted for and advanced to the latter and as a man is made capable of vertue and glory so should hee not onely labour to be cleare of vice but also to be indowed with vertue and holinesse Negative righteousnesse Negative righteousnesse in abstinence from sinne whereof bruits and inanimates are free is an improper and lame righteousnesse which is next to a non ens so long as it is not accompanied with vertue Omission of good duties is a more generall meanes of destruction in exclusion from life eternall than commission of evill for many doe die before they are able to doe actually any evill and many others have beene civill harmelesse men as the Philosophers and yet perished For except our righteousnesse doe exceede the righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharisees wee shall in no case enter into the Kingdome of Heaven a Mat. 5.20 And againe commission of evill is ever accompanied with omission of the contrary good but omission of good is not alwaies so accompanied with commission of evill as we see in Infants the greatest losse and mischiefe that can betide us in our deprivation of life and happinesse which consists in the fruition of God that is infinitely good and is lost by want and omission of good for without holinesse none shall see God Punishment of damage greater than of feeling The losse of eternall life is poena damni the punishment of damage which is farre greater than the punishment of feeling and smart although it bee not so to mans seeming therefore Cain complained that he was cast out from Gods presence b Gen. 4.4 because the objects doe so farre differ as finite and infinite and the glorified in Heaven shall be more affected with that happinesse that they shall possesse than the
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
raging passions furious preposterous zeale and by the foggie mists of misprisions and horrors overspreading mans understanding and conscience whereby a man becomes spiritually phrentick which is a kind of learning that makes mad a Act. 26.24 All wilfull sin is a spice of spirituall or morall madnesse Note in which respect David confessed of himselfe that he was as a beast before God b Psal 73.22 2. Distresse of conscience The second cause of spirituall phrensie that occasions self-murder is inextricable perplexity of distresse of conscience proceeding from want of all sensible feeling of grace of the favour of God of comfort or hope and from apprehension of Gods heavie displeasure and of fearefull subjection to eternall damnation and misery in which estate a man hath not the use of those parts of understanding and grace which he hath in him but is like a ship in a storme driven without command of sailes or rudder to destruction Some kind of phrensie excuses not and some doth excuse a self-killer from the imputation of self-murder This motive although it be powerfull sometimes to the effecting of self-killing warrants not an act done both against reason and religion where the foresaid phrensie is by default contracted or in the time of the lucide intervals thereof if a man do kill himselfe he is directly and formally a self-murderer Observe Phrensie is calamitous and to be prayed against We are to observe from hence how dangerous and calamitous a thing it is to be subject to such phrentick distempers and therefore wee are to labour and pray for a sound minde and that we may be able wisely to use those parts of understanding and religion that wee have for our owne good and the good of others that having our right wits and senses we may not doe those prankes or so live as may prove that we are fitter for Bedlam or to be begged for fooles than to be reputed reasonable or wise men §. 23. Of examples of self-murder The last generall motive to self-murder Examples The eighth and last generall motive whereupon self-murderers doe kill themselves is frequent examples both of heathens and Christians who have done the same and are celebrated and famous in histories of whom we neither see nor heare of further evill befallen them It is certaine that examples of commendable persons and such as we love is a strong motive to draw men to the like practise Note But it is to be observed that they are neither the best men nor the wisest that are led by examples as by their supreme rule without respect of more warrantable direction and reason but of this see more afterward Cap. 17. § 7. arg 17. and cap. 18. § 4. Iosephus reports how Eleazar by this motive encouraged himselfe and others to kill themselves De bello Judaico lib. 7. cap. 28. in these words Let us see the example of the wiser sort as hee calls them of the Indians who he said being just men did tolerate this life as a necessary office of nature for a certaine time though against their wills yet did they hasten to unloose the soule bound in this mortall body though not urged thereunto by any calamity or necessity but only for desire of immortality But this motive from examples of self-murder is unsufficient to warrant the same because they are contrary to sound reason and religion against which no example is to be followed and such examples are the practise not of the best but of the worst disposed of men who are not to be imitated specially in that which is evill and none are warrantably commended in histories nor famous in the Church because and in respect that they killed themselves but for some precedent vertues and pious disposition in their lives For all men who are guided in their judgement by sound reason and divine truth doe thereby verily thinke and beleeve that the damnable act of self-murder doth bring the committers thereof into the wofull and fearefull estate of eternall perdition in the world to come Thus farre I have laboured to discover the motives abused to self-murder and have shewed the insufficiency of them Observe Where we may observe how men encourage themselves and pretend reason for all their wicked and unreasonable courses and how weake and unwarrantable their grounds and excuses are for the same which like smoke or a shadow vanishes in the tryall of impartiall truth and so leaves the sinner stript naked from his shifts and subjected to just judgement of condemnation at the last CHAP. 16. The introducement and entrance into self-murderer §. 1. Of the persons subject to self-murder WEE are now to proceed to the introduction and beginning of self-murder in the act thereof about which we are to consider two things 1. Persons subject to self-murder First the persons that are most subject upon the former grounds to temptations and acts of self-murder are specially of foure sorts 1. Melancholicke people First melancholie people because they are most cogitabundi tristes given to musing and sadnesse on whom Satan workes most and they are most subject to discontentment and apt thereupon to entertaine impressions and resolutions of self-murder So that naturall temper makes much for the passive capacity of some vertues and vices more than others 2. People under spirituall temptations Secondly the persons most subject to these fits of self-murder are Christians under great spirituall temptations upon their want of apprehension of the presence of grace and favour of God and upon the sense of the horrour of their owne raging corruptions and lusts in the seeming prevailing thereof against their opposition without hope of ability to subdue them or to have them pardoned And upon conceiving that their crosses when the same are great are in wrath from God without any hope of forgivenesse or freedome which swallowes them up in despaire temptations incline men contrary to their own tempers 3. Proud ambitious persons Thirdly the parties most subject to self-murder are high-minded and ambitious persons impatient of disgrace and crosses as was Ahitophel and all such as place their chiefe happinesse in earthly things whereof when they are disappointed they grow into that degree of discontentment that they will not out-live their expectation of earthly things but will rather kill themselves than endure such a crosse and disappointment in that which they most highly value 4. Wicked persons Fourthly those that are most subject to fall into this self-murder are people that are most obnoxious to a wicked and flagitious course of life imbraced and impenitently lived in contrary both to the meanes they have and also to the light and reluctancy of their owne consciences with such affection of love to and zeale for evill and hatred and opposition of goodnesse and all good people that they overpitch themselves so farre beyond recovery that when they are throughly awaked and doe seriously consider