Cotn.6 OfSe1f_murther. Clip 2 2. Every man that liveth in a Societyor Common-wealth is a part thereof, and fo notfti ja*, at his own difpofe,butfocietatis vel reipublice, of the Society or Com- mon-wealth where he lives, and therefore cannot injure orkill himfclf without de- triment to the whole. And therefore it was, that the Heathen Law-givers confifca= ted their goods to their Exchequer, as it is withChrilIians, becaufe the Stare being injured by them in the lofs ofa Subjeét will be in forne part revenged, by depriving themof powerto difpofeoftheir Eftate. 3. Or life is the gift of God ( asHrnnab bath it in her long) it is he eat kill?, I Sam, z. 4. and he tbstgives life , and we ought not to dilpofe of any gift of God without the mind, orcontrary to the will of the Danour. And the rather becaufe we are bought r Cor. 7. 23. with a price, ( as the Apollle tells us,) which implies a Service from us to him that boughtus : we are his fervants. And then, as the Apoflle faith kris to quiludic* Rom. 14.4. fervum alienu,n ?Who art thou that judgeft another mans fervant ? fo may we.'fay, Qistuqui inter[-Lis fervunalienum ? Who art thou thatkillefi another mans fet- vant ? It is warfe than bruitilh to kill, dro.vn,or bringupon our (elves an untimely death. The very Swine would not have run into the fea,but that they were violent- Matth. 8. 32. lycarried by the Devil. And therefore Saint Augu'fine reproves the aft of Kazis, that laid violent hands upon himfclf rather than he would fall into the hands of Manors Souldiers; it is a great errour for any min to hold, that a man may kill himfclf, either :r: urfit' 2Macc. 1ç. gist temporales mrlefriae, that he may avoid temporal troubles, as Kazis did, where- 37, &c. by he doth incidere i z, perpetie te, fall into thofe that are eternal : or. 2. ut evitet pee. catwn alienum, to hinder another mans lin, when he (Ball thereby incidere in graviff ftmam propriu,n, fall into a grievous fin of his own :' or 3. pro perezco fro; for his own fin, defperately, as 7ud.se did, there being a way towipe all out by repen- tance : upon which a& ofhis Leo faith thus ; Sceleratior omnibus, O Tads dr isfeli dorextiti(ii, quern nonpznitentia drtxit ad Dominant, feddeleratio iraxit ad laquetern. In Sera-.. 0 judo, thou wort more wicked and unhappy than all men,` that would(' pot be led by repentance to God, bat-drawn by defpe ration to hang thy Pelf. Or 1oiily,.,ne, geceet; that they may not fin like Luereria, that (tab'd her felf, and the women. in the Primitive times that drowned themfelves, leali they (hould be defloured . for by this means inciderunt in peccatum rectum , ut evitarent'incertum. Thdy, fell into certain fin, to avoid an uncertain. So much for fui, the killingof a mans felE Concerning killing ofanother. 2. Now for alteriur, thekillingof another,' the reafons again(' it aredivers:. The- . two fir(t are general, and were-applied in the cafe ofSui. r. Diliges proximal liicut teipfum ; Thou (halt love thy, Neighbour as thy felt: and the Rule is, Qiod tibi fled non vis, alteri ne feceris ; do as thouwouldeft be done unto. 2. Thy Neighbour is Gods Image, and thou mutt not'deface it; irritacdreatorem cum ¿lIeue deles imsginem. The particular reafons are, r. TYe are all one fhth, as the Prophet fpeaks: And the fame Prophet denouncethEfar 58. 7. it as a fearful judgment upan Ifrael, that it (hould come to pats, that a man "(hould 9. 2°- eat the fle(h of hisown arm. And this is done, if we bite anddevour one another, as the ApoRle (peaks. No manyet ever hated his ownf rflo , faith the fame Apoftle : , 'We Éphef 5529 mull not hate ourBrother, muchlefs kill him. 2. This fin will make a man become primogenitusdiaboli, the Devils firft-born; for he was (as our Saviour told the Jews that fought to kill him ) a murtherer John 8.44. from the beginning,and by his nequaquammoriemini,ye (hall not die at all,he brbaght Gen. 3.4. in a certain morieinini t for by one mon, fin entred into the world, and death byfin, as the Apo(tle fpeaks t and fo by this means, as much as in him lay he murthered all the race of mankind. 3. Murther is peccatum clamans; one of the crying fins, and will not ceafe, tiff God take revenge for it; as in Abels cafe the cry ofblond comes up to Heaven 4. 15. and Gods ears are always open to this fin though to others he may leem not tohear. q.. Ie is a fin that God will have diligently fearched after , as we may fee in the cafe ofan uncertain Murther ; when God appointed, that the Judges and Elders of the 405
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