SECTION .If, 549 themselves ; now 'is this . the present frame and temper of your soul such as is fit to appear in beforethegreat tribunal ofheaven ? You well know that " as the tree falls, so it must lie, to the north or to the south." Eccles. xi. 3. 46 After death judgment ho- mediately succeeds ;" lieb. ix. 27. " There is no faith and re- pentance in the grave, nor pardoning grace to be implored when the state of trial is/past;" Eccles. ix 10. " They that go down to the pit cannot hope for thytruth. " Isa. xxxviii. 18. Are you now so sure of your Creator's love, and of your perfect confor- mity to his laws of judgment? Are you so holy, so innocent, so righteous in yourself, or so certain of your interest in the merits of a Mediator, that you dare rush this moment before the bar of a great and terrible God, and tell him that you are come to have your state determined for all everlasting? If not, be wise and bethink yourself a little ; use and improve the delay and opportunity which his grave and providence offers you in this life, for a more effectual securing a better life hereafter. But if we go a little farther and suppose the action in itself to be criminal, then remember that you send yourself out of this world with the guilt of a wilful criminal action on your con- science; -you preclude your own repentance of this sin in this world, and the other world knows no repentance that is available Í16I to any good purpose. You shoot yourself headlong into an . eternal state ; and are you sure that you shall never repent of it in the long future ages of your existence ? But, alas ! all that repentancecomes too late to relieve you from the dismal effects of yourrashness. All the repentance of that invisible world, is but the sting of conscience, which, will add exquisite pain to your appointed punishment. Surely you should have the most evident and undeniable proofs of the goodness of that action which can never be reversed, andwhich puts you for ever beyond all possibility of useful repentance. Give me leave to add in this place, what is the constant doc- trine of the bible and the sense of christians, viz. that a wilful sinner dying impenitent cannot be saved. Now if there be no space given for serious reflection and penitence in the case of a self-murderer, what room is there for hope hereafter ? except only where the persons are really distracted, and the great God our judge knows how to distinguish exactly how far every action is influenced by bodily distempers. This is theonly hope of sur- viving friends. III. Think yet again, what an odium, what scandal and everlasting shame you bring upon your name and character by such a fact. It is a reproach that spreads wide among the kindred of the self-murderer ; it descends to his posterity and follows him through many generations. It may be observed also that in the rubric of the church of zKm3
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