son, that our love to ourselves is the measure of charity to our neighbours; and if we must not kill our neighbour because we must love him as ourself; therefore neither must we kill ourselves; for then we might also kill our neighbour, the reason and the measure, the standard and the proportion, being taken away. с 10. (4.) To put ourselves to death without the command of God or his lieutenant, is impiety and rebellion against God; it is a desertion of our military station, and a violation of the proprieties and peculiar rights of God, who only hath power over our lives, and gives it to whom he pleases: and to this purpose Cicero commends that saying of Pythagoras; "Nequis injussu imperatoris, id est, Dei, de præsidio et statione vitæ decedat ;" God is our general, and he hath commanded to us our abode and station, which, till he call us off, must not be deserted: and the same doctrine he recites out of Plato : "Piis omnibus retinendum esse animum in custodia corporis; nec injussu ejus, à quo ille est vobis. datus, ex hominum vita migrandum esse, ne munus humanum assignatum à Deo defugisse videamur." The reason is very good: "God gave us our soul and fixed it in the prison. of the body, tying it there to a certain portion of work, and. therefore we must not without his leave go forth, lest we run from our work that God hath commanded us." Josephus says, it is like a servant running away from his master's service: "Et servos quidem fugientes ulcisci justum creditur, quamvis nequam dominos fugerint; ipsi vero fugientes Deum et optimum Deum, impie facere non videbimur?" "If servants fly from their cruel masters, they are justly punished; shall it not, be accounted impiety to fly from our good God, our most gracious Master?"-And therefore Brutus condemned the fact of Cato, his father-in-law: 'Qs oux öolov ovd ἀνδρὸς ἔργον ὑποχωρεῖν τῷ δαίμονι, καὶ μὴ δέχεσθαι τὸ σύμπιπτον ἀδεῶς, ἀλλ ̓ ὑπεκδιδράσκειν. "It was neither manly nor pious to sink under his fortune, and to fly away from those evils, which he ought to have borne nobly."-And therefore the Hebrews called dying aroλúεσa, a dismission: "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace," said old Simeon; "Nunc dimittis."-When God gives us our pass, then De Senect. cap. 20. §. 5. Welzel, pag. 109. Somn. Scip. c. 3, Tooly, page 318.-See Fischer's Phædon, c. 5. and 7, we must go, but we must not offer it an hour before: he that does otherwise is, 1. ungrateful to God, by destroying the noblest of his works below; 2. impious, by running from his service; and, 3. distrustful of his providence. “Nisi Deus is, cujus hoc templum est omne quod conspicis, istis te corporis custodiis liberaverit, huc tibi aditus patere non potest," said Cicero, "Unless God open the gate for you, you can never pass from the prison of the body, and enter into heaven." And the same is affirmed by Hierocles', which I tell for the strangeness of it; for he was a Stoic, yet, against the opinion of his sect, he spake on the behalf of reason and religion and this is the Christian sense, Δεῖ γὰρ δεδέσθαι μέχρις ἐκλύσῃ Θεός" said St. Gregory Nyssen; "We must stand bound, till God untie us.' 11. (5.) For a man to kill himself is against the law, and the voice and the very prime inclination of nature. Every thing will preserve itself: "No man hateth his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it," saith the Apostle; and therefore generally all nations, as taught by the voice of nature, by the very first accents which she utters to all men, did abhor the laying violent hands upon themselves. When some of the old Romans hanged themselves to avoid the slavery that Tarquinius Superbus imposed upon them of making public draught-houses, he commanded the dead bodies to be crucified, said Servius". So did Ptolemy to the body of Cleomenes, who had killed himself; and Aristotle says it was every where received, that the dead bodies of self-murderers should be disgraced some way or other; araφίᾳ ὑβρίζειν τὸν νεκρὸν, ‘by denying them burial: that was the usual way. So did the Milesians to their maidens who hanged themselves, they exposed their bodies to a public spectacle and Strabo tells that the Indian priests and wise men blamed the fact of Calanus, and that they hated those hasty deaths of impatient or proud persons. "Alieno scelere quam meo mori malo," said King Darius; " I had rather die by the wickedness of another, than by my own." 12. (6.) Aristotle says, that they who kill themselves, hastening their own death before God or the public commands them, are injurious to the commonwealth; from whose service and profit they subtract themselves, if they be innocent, and if they be criminal, they withdraw themselves from her justice: Αδικεῖ ἄρα· ἀλλὰ τίνα; τὴν πόλιν· καί τις ἀτιμία πρόσεστι τῷ ἑαυτὸν διαφθείραντι, ὡς τὴν πόλιν ἀδικοῦντι "He that kills himself, does wrong to the city; and is, after death, disgraced as an unjust person to the publici." k 13. Now then to the examples and great precedents above mentioned I shall give this answer. (1.) That Sampson is by all means to be excused, because St. Paul accounts him in the catalogue of saints who died in faith; and therefore St. Austin says he did it by a peculiar instinct and inspiration of the Spirit of God.' But no man can tell, whether he did or no and therefore I like that better, which Peter Martyr says in this inquiry; he did primarily and directly intend only to kill the enemies of God, which was properly his work, to which he was in his whole calling designed by the Spirit of God; but that he died himself in the ruin, was his suffering, but not his design; but like a soldier fighting against his enemies, at the command of his general undertakes the service, though he knows he shall die for it.' Thus do the mariners blow up themselves in a sea-fight, when they can no otherwise destroy the enemy; they do it as ministers of justice, and by command; else they are not to be excused: and he that gives it, must take care it be just and reasonable. Thus did the brave Eleazar Savaran the brother of Judas Maccabæus he, supposing their grand enemy Antiochus to be upon a towered elephant, goes under the beast and kills him, who with his fall crushed the brave prince to death; he intended to kill not himself,-but, to kill Antiochus, he would venture himself or suffer death. : 14. (2.) The fact of Saul is no just precedent; it looks like despair but the Hebrews say, that it is not lawful for any man to die by his own hands, unless the prolongation of his life be a dishonour to God, and to a cause of religion; and upon this account they excuse both Saul and Sampson, for they knew that if they should fall or abide respectively Lib. 5. cap. 11. Eth. Wilkinson, pag. 224. ! 1 Macc. vi. 43. * Lib. 1. de Civit. Dei, cap. 16. et 21. in the hands of scorners, the dishonour of their persons would disparage the religion, and reach to God. So they. But this is not right: for we only are to take care of the laws of God, and of his glory in the ways of his own appointment; for extraordinaries and rare contingencies, let him alone; he will secure his own glory. 15. (3.) For Razias, Lipsius says it is a question whether it was well or ill done; and who please to see it disputed, may read Lucas Brugensis on one side, and Nicolaus de Lyra upon the other. For my own part I, at no hand, believe it fit to be imitated; but concerning what brave and glorious persons do, and by what spirit they acted, I am not willing to give hasty sentence: for there are many secrets which we know not; but we are to follow our rule, and not to trust any spirit, of which we are not sure it is from God. 16. (4.) But of that which is most difficult, I have already spoken something; but shall add more for it is a pitiable case that virtuous women, highly sensible of their honour, zealous for chastity, despisers of life, should not as well receive the reward of their suffering to preserve the interest of chastity, as of any other grace; especially since they choose death rather than shame, and would not willingly choose either, but being forced, run to death for sanctuary. It is true, it is much to be pitied; but that is all: "Ac per hoc et quæ se occiderunt, ne quicquam hujusmodi paterentur, quis humanus affectus eis nollet ignosci ?" Every man (says St. Austin) will pity, and be ready to excuse, or to wish pardon to such women, who killed themselves to preserve their honour. Cicero m tells of certain noble virgins, that threw themselves into pits to avoid the shame of their enemies' lust: and St. Jerome" tells of seven Milesian virgins, who, to prevent the rudeness of the Gauls that destroyed all Asia, laid violent hands upon themselves. The Greek epigram⚫ mentions them with honour, but tells but of three: Παρθενικαὶ τρισσαὶ πολιήτιδες, ἃς ὁ βίαιος Κελτῶν εἰς ταύτην μοῖραν ἔτρεψεν ἄρης. Οὐ γὰρ ἐμείναμεν αἷμα τὸ δυσσεβές, οὐδ ̓ ὑμεναίου Νυμφίον, ἀλλ ̓ ἀΐδην κηδεμόν ̓ εὑρόμεθα. They chose a sad death before a mixture with the lustful Orat. de Provinciis Consularibus, n. 6. Priestley's Cicero, vol. 3. pag. 1160. 'Anyt. Brunck, Anthol. i. p. 200. blood of the Galatians. And the Jews tell of a captive woman of their nation, who, being in a ship and designed to ravishment, asked her husband, if the bodies of them that were drowned in the sea, should arise again: and when he had said they should, she leaped into the sea. And among the Christians that did so, there were many examples. Divers women of Antioch under Diocletian; more under Cosroes the Persian; Sophronia, under Maxentius; St. Pelagia before mentioned; and divers others,--these persons had great advocates; but I suppose it was upon the stock of pity and compassion, that 30 much bravery should be thrown away upon a mistake: and therefore I find that St. Chrysostom, who commended this manner of death upon the account of chastity, yet is not constant to it, but blames it in his commentaries upon the Galatians P: and the third council of Orleans commanded that the obligations of them, that died by the hands of justice should be received; " si tamen non ipsi sibi mortem probentur propriis manibus intulisse," always provided that they did not prevent the hand of justice, that they did not lay violent hands upon themselves. I end this with the saying of Procopius, which is a just determination of the case in itself. Βίαιος καταστροφὴ ἄχρηστος καὶ ἄνοια προπετής· τὸ δὲ εἰς θάνατον θράσος ανόητον τοῦ δραστ τηρίου πρόσχημα οὐκ εὐπρεπὲς τοῖς γε σώφροσιν εἶναι δοκεῖ, “ Α violent death, or a death hastened by our own hands, is a thing unprofitable, and full of foolish violence; and since it wants prudent counsel, it is by wise men judged to be but the image and hypocrisy of valour and magnanimity.”—To which he adds, Καί τοι καὶ τοῦτο ἐκλογίζεσθαι χρὴ, μή τι δόξητε εἰς τὸ θεῖον ἀγνωμονεῖν, “ This also ought to be considered, that no man ought to be impious or ungrateful towards God."-This is the definition of the case. But then as to the persons of them that did so, I have nothing to say but this, that they ought not to be drawn into example: but for the whole, it was modest and charitable which was decreed by the French capitulars: "Concerning him who hath killed himself, it is considered, that if any one out of pity or compassion will give alms for their souls (so was the custom of those times), let him give, and say prayers and psalms, but not celebrate the solemn sacrifice for them;" "quia in P Gal. i. 4. q Gothicor. 4. r Lib. 6. c. 70. |