If the suicide had a family, he has robbed them of all that advice, consolation, sympathy, and those kind offices universally, which he owed to them in a peculiar manner. All these he has vowed to his wife. God has made it his duty to render them to his children. To both also he is bound by the same obligations to furnish support. This, perhaps, he may have provided. If he has, he has still robbed his children of that parental instruction, government, habituation, and example, which together constitute in most cases far the most arduous, the most important, and the most useful labour of man, and the chief duty which, ordinarily, he has it in his power ever to perform.

Society at large he robs of one of its members, and of all the duties which that member owed to society.

At the same time he has presented to all these an example, which, if followed by them, would destroy at once the family, the community, and the world. Yet, if he has acted right, it would be equally right for them to follow him. No rule can be formed concerning this subject, but an universal one. Mr. Hume has made it such. If his rule be right, then, by merely adhering to rectitude, the present inhabitants of the world may exterminate the race of man in a moment. But,

7. Mr. Hume, supposing that men would not make use of this right, unless in circumstances of distress, considers this, at least, as a justifying cause for suicide.

"Most people," he says, "who lie under any temptation to abandon existence, are in some such situation; that is, inage, or under infirmities; incapable of promoting the interest of Society, a burden to it, or afflicted in some manner or other."

On this subject I observe,

(1) That this situation, whatever it may be, is one in which God by his providence has placed the man. It is therefore a situation of which we cannot reasonably or lawfully complain, unless we can lawfully and reasonably complain of the dispensations of God.

(2.) It is a situation in which, if we perform our duty, we may glorify our Maker, by voluntarily fulfilling such designs as infinite wisdom and goodness has thought proper to accomplish by our instrumentality, and has put it into our power to accomplish. It may be said, that, should we

put an end to our lives, God will still be glorified. I grant it. But we shall not be voluntary instruments of his glory. This is our duty, and our only duty. If this then be not done, our whole duty is left undone. If we refuse to do this duty, we refuse to obey the will of our Maker, rebel against his government, and voluntarily oppose his designs. This is sin, and the only sin. What the duties are, to which we are called in cases of affliction, common sense, even without the aid of Revelation, might, one would think, determine with no great difficulty. They are obviously the duties of submission, dependence, patience, and fortitude; prayer for our support and deliverance; and such efforts for this end as are consistent with the spirit here specified. By this character God is as really and certainly glorified, as by any other which man can exhibit. It scarcely needs the aid of Revelation to discern, that submission to God must be an acceptable offering to him. But, if we put an end to our lives because we are afflicted, we declare, in the decisive language of action, that we will not, or cannot, bear what God has been pleased to lay upon us. In the former case, we declare that we will not submit to his dispensations; in the latter, we moreover declare, that the burdens which he lays upon us are such as we cannot, and therefore such as we ought not, to endure of course, that they are oppressive, and unjust.

(3.) The case is falsely stated by Mr. Hume.

There is no situation which is intolerable, except those by which life is brought to an end without our intervention; and these are incapable of being referred to the case in hand. In every other case, we can sustain our afflictions, if we please. That it is our duty to sustain them, and to sustain them willingly, cannot be denied, unless by him who also denies, that it is our duty to obey God in any case.

(4.) The position of Mr. Hume, that we are useless to society, in any situation in which we can become guilty of suicide, is also false.

It will be remembered, that I all along except cases of melancholy and delirium. It is however true, that even in these cases no man can know that he will not, at some future time, be useful to his fellow-men. In every other case, a man, possessed of the power of contriving and executing his own destruction, may be, and can know that he may be, use

ful to the world. I can think of no case more favourable to the position of Mr. Hume, than that of a person confined for a long period to his bed; or, as it is commonly termed, bedrid. A man, even in this situation, may, if he pleases, be extensively useful. The patience, fortitude, and piety with which he may sustain this trying affliction, may be among the most edifying and persuasive proofs of the reality, power, and excellence of the religion which he professes, and the efficacious means of conversion and salvation to multitudes. Mr. Hume himself says, that "the damnation of one man is an infinitely greater evil, than the subversion of a thousand millions of kingdoms." This evil the man who is bed-rid may prevent with regard to himself, and with regard to others; and may also be the means of accomplishing the contrary inestimable good. It cannot be said, that such a man is useless. At the same time, it is a false supposition, that a man can be useless who acts as he ought; or, in other words, does his duty in any situation in which God is pleased to place him. God does nothing in vain. Still less can it be supposed that he places an intelligent being in any situation in which his obedience to the Divine will must be useless.

(5.) Neither is it true, that any man is necessarily a burden to society.

A vicious man is, I acknowledge, often such a burden. But he is not necessarily vicious. His sloth, prodigality, insinserity, profaneness, falsehood, fraud, cruelty, or whatever vice he may be guilty of, is wholly the result of his own choice. The moment he renounces these evils he will become, not a burden, but a blessing.

A virtuous man may become unable to support himself, may be incurably sick, or hopelessly bereft of his most useful faculties, and in either of these situations may be esteemed a burden to society by the lazy, the covetous, and the unfeeling. But he will be esteemed such by no virtuous man. He who remembers, that ministrations of kindness to the least of Christ's brethren' will be accepted as offerings to himself, will never, unless in some unhappy moment of sloth, or worldliness, think the performance of it burdensome. Christ has informed his disciples, that the poor they will always have with them.' On his part the legacy was not unkind; to us it is obviously a blessing. Nothing more enlarges the heart, refines the affec

tions, or improves the character, than kindness freely rendered to the afflicted. Nothing more excites a spirit of dependence on God, or awakens gratitude for his blessings to us, or expands the feelings of benevolent sympathy, or endears to us our fellow-men, particularly our fellow Christians, or assimilates our disposition to that of the Redeemer. He to whom, without any fault of his own, mankind are indebted for these benefits, cannot be a burden to society.

I have now reviewed every argument of Mr. Hume which; in my opinion, merits an answer; and his arguments, so far as I know, are all of any importance which have been hitherto alleged in favour of suicide. I shall only add one observation to those which I have already made under this head. It is this: All the distresses almost which give birth to this wanton destruction of human life, are the mere effects of predominant wickedness in the mind of the suicide. Losses at the gaming table, disappointments of ambition, mortified avarice, wounded pride, and frustrated hopes of sensuality, are usually the immediate sources of this crime. Instead of killing himself for such reasons as these, the true interest of the unhappy man demands of him, with infinite force, that he should live, repent, and reform.

II. I shall now allege several proofs of the criminality of suicide, in addition to those which have been unavoidably specified in answering the arguments of Mr. Hume..

Of these, the first which I shall mention is the text.

In the first Discourse from this passage it was observed, that the command which it contains is expressed in the most absolute manner, 'Thou shalt not kill;' that to kill is the thing forbidden, and by the words is forbidden in all cases whatever; that the words were chosen by God himself, and bind us therefore with infinite authority; and that man cannot lawfully originate an exception, nor in any other manner limit their import. These observations, it is presumed, cannot be denied to be true. But if they are true, the text forbids suicide in the most absolute manner.

Mr. Hume indeed observes, that the law of Moses is abolished, except so far as it is established by the law of nature. A Christian will probably be satisfied of the authority of the

decalogue, without this condition, when he finds it expressly established by Christ.

2. In addition to this decisive proof, a proof so decisive, as to need no addition, I observe, that the suicide hurries himself to the judgment in the commission of a gross crime, of which he cannot repent. If we should even allow, that the criminality of this act was not capable of being proved, so far as the act itself only is concerned, it cannot be denied, that he who commits it is in some degree, at least, uncertain whether it be lawful, or not. To abstain from it, he at the same time knows to be lawful. In this case, to commit suicide is a gross sin; because the perpetrator refuses to do that which he knows to be right, and does that, of whose rectitude he has no

assurance.

Further: No person who thus puts an end to his life is assured that his salvation, independently of this act, is secured. Of course, even on the most favourable supposition, he puts his eternity at hazard, and ventures, in an inexcusable and dreadful manner, upon perdition.

Finally There are, to say the least, strong, and hitherto unanswered, reasons to prove suicide a crime; and that of enormous magnitude.

These reasons will never be answered. It will always be true, that there are important ends to be accomplished by every man during the whole period through which his life would extend, did he not lay violent hands on himself. These ends are constituted, and set before him by God himself. In refusing to accomplish them, the suicide violates the highest obligations under which he is or can be placed. He is, according to the supposition, in affliction. This affliction both reason and Revelation declare to be sent by his Creator. It is sent for the very purpose of amending his character, awakening in him patience and submission, faith and fortitude, enabling him to feel his dependence, softening his heart with tenderness towards his fellow-creatures, exciting in him a spirit of universal obedience, and thus preparing him for endless life. I need not say, that these designs, on the part of God, are preeminently benevolent; nor that in refusing to accomplish them, nor that in sinning against God', in this manner, he supremely wrongs his own soul.'