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 the gate open 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 μέχεις ἐκλύσῃ Θεός· said St. Gregory Nyssen"; "We must stand bound, till God untie us.' 22 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; áraφία 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." e Somn. Scip. c. 3. Tooly, pag. 317. 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." 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 Eleazar1 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. 11 Macc. vi. 43. k 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 pitia ble 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. Cicerom 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 δυσσεβὲς, οὐδ ̓ ὑμεναίου They chose a sad death before a mixture with the lustful n Orat. de Provinciis Consularibus, n. 6. Priestley's Cicero, vol. 3. pag. 1160. n Adv. Jovinian, pag. 186. See Jacob. Anthol. vol. 6. p. 433. 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 so 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 εὐπρεπές 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. comprehensibilia sunt judicia Dei, et profunditatem consilii ejus nemo potest investigare," "because the judgments of God are incomprehensible, and the depth of his counsels no man can fathom. This was more gentle than that of Virgil. Proxima deinde tenent mosti loca, qui sibi letum Insontes peperere manu, lucemque perosi Projecere animas; quam vellent æthere in alto, Nunc et pauperiem et duros perferre labores : "He appointed a sad place in hell for them, that so cheaply, out of impatience, or to avoid a great trouble, threw away their souls. Fain would they now return to light, and joyfully would change their present state with all the labours and shames, which they, with hasty death, so earnestly declined." But he knew nothing of it, neither do I; only that it is not lawful. But how they shall fare in the other world, who, upon such great accounts, are tempted, is one of God's secrets, which the great day will manifest. If any man will be pleased to see more against it, he may find it in St. Austin', Hegesippus ", Nicephorus Blennidas*, Heliodorus, and divers others, well collected by Fabrot in his fifth exercitation. RULE IV. He that hath suffered the Punishment, is not discharged in Conscience, unless he also repent of the Disobedience. 1. THIS rule is in effect the same with the first rule of the first chapter of this book: but because it is usally discoursed for also under the head of penal laws, and there are many persons who, when they have broken the law, and have suffered punishment, think themselves discharged; and because it ministers some particularities of its own,-I have therefore chosen distinctly to consider it. 2. In this inquiry, penal laws usually are distinguished into laws purely penal, and mixed. 1. Laws purely penal are such which neither directly command, nor forbid, but impose s Æneid. vi. 434. Heyne. t Lib. 1. de Civit. Dei, cap. 20, 21. 26. ep. 61. ad Dulcit. et lib. 11. contra 2. u Excid. Hieros. 3. cap. 17. ep. Gaudent. cap. 23. Epitom, log. cap. 4. y Ethiop. 2. |