A DEFENCE AGAINST THE 'TEMPTATION TO SELF-MURDER. SECTION I. The Unlawfulness of it displayed. WHEN an atheist is tempted to destroy himself, he has no concern whether it be lawful or no, for he knows of no law nor power that can reach to punish him. Such a wretch doth not be- lieve there is any other world to receive him when he dies out of this, nor any God there to call him to account. He supposes his soul vanishes into air, and his dust is safe from vengeance. These are the sentiments of atheism ; and vile and irrational as they are, yet they are the only principles that can give any toler- able colour or pretence for self-murder. But if a man believes there is a God that made him, if he believes his soul is immortal, and that his Creator has ordained it to dwell in a human body for a season, and to pass a state of probation there in order to eternal reward or punishment, surely this man must confess himself accountable toGod hereafter for all his conduct here : And one would think such a person should never doubt, whether the destruction of his body by his own hands, and the wilful dismission of his soul, were a crime or no. Especially if he profess to believe his bible, one would wonder he could ever imagine it an innocent thing for him to do violence to himself, and to shed his own blood. But the follies of mankind areamazing, and the strange turns of thought under the deceit- ful impressions of the tempter are unaccountable. Poor deluded creatures are first tempted to hope, that they shall put an And to their present sorrows by a wilful death, then they wink their eyes against the glaring guilt of it, and try to persuade themselves that it is no sin. Some persons have been so hardy as to reason upon this point, and to argue that self-murder has nothing criminal in it. Strange, that hell and destruction should have advocates among the sons of men ! that death should have such accomplices in the land of the living ! But since it has been so, let us plead against them in the name of the living God ; let us try whether we can- not by the force of reasoning drawn from the word of God, as well as from the light of nature, make it appear with bright evi- dence, that suicide or self-destruction is prohibited by the divine hl 1!I
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