554 THE UNLAWFULNESS OF SELF- MURDER. hearts and healed them. Is your wound incurable ? )ïs there no bairn on earth, and no physician in heaven ? Suppose there is ahuge vacancy made in yotir soul by some great and surprising loss, turn your thoughts to that great and almighty God, in whose hands are all the springs of life, and all the blessings of time and eternity : He can fill up that huge va coney with better blessings and with his own presence. This shall make your loss' grow lighter, and 'set your soul at ease. He can wean your heart from every creature by uniting it more near- ly to himself. And since you have acted foolishly in setting up a creature in the room of God, he can set up himself as chief i n your heart in the room of that idol creature : And you shall be able to say, " God is my all, what have I to do any more with idols ?" By the wondrous methods of his wisdomand provi- dence, he can make your losses turn to your advantage; and instead of hopes or enjoyments that have forsaken and disappoint- ed you, he can give you an interest in his promises, his holy cove- nant, in the riches of his grace, and the inheritance of his glory. These are hopes which will never fail ; these are enjoyments which will never vanishor leave you empty and disappointed. And besides all this, he has 'all the stores of nature in his hand, and all the comforts of life : He can furnish you with blessings in this world, that may in some measure answer the losses which you mourn, or turn the stream of your thoughts into such a peaceful channel as shall make you forget your sorrows. Thus much to relieve and support the mourner. But give the leave to reason with you in a more awful manner against the temptation whichat present you seem to indulge. What if you have lost every thing that is desirable on earth, and that without hope of reparation, will you resolve therefore to lose heaven too ? 'Is this world become painful to you, and can you find at present no comforts to be enjoyed in it, and will you therefore throw yourself headlong into a world of eternal pain, where comfort cannever come, nor any shadowofpleasure, where there is no rest, no peace, no hope; through all the ages of immor- tality ? Are you disappointed in your dreams of happiness in a creature, and will you therefore abandon your hope in God ? Will you profanely say, " lie shall not be my happiness ?" Will the everlasting wrath of God, the anguish of conscience, and the rage of ;devils in another world, heal that heart which wasbroken in this ? What monstrous folly and 'absurdity appears in such pretences ! A strange way of relieving ourselves under the loss ofa temporal blessing,toplunge into the ocean of eternal misery, and fly into that world which is under the unchangeable curse of God? IV. " But my temptation is yet greater still," says another personwho is contriving todestroyhimself; "my circumstances are such that I shall only prolong a life of misery, and pass through
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