Defensive Armor Against Four of Satans Most Fiery Darts, Chapter 2
CHAP. II.
The former Diſcourſe applied by way of Praemonition to all, not raſhly to judge perſons that kill themſelves, as to their Spiritual or their Eternal State. Why perſons ſhould not ſo raſhly judge. What is very ſad and uncomfortable in the Caſe of ſuch as kill themſelves. What may be hoped as to them. The Judgment of them beſt made from the General courſe of their former Life.
1. Con. FRom hence in the firſt place will eaſily be concluded our Duty, not to be too haſty in judging the Spiritual or Eternal State of any, or at leaſt of many, who have killed themſelves. It is indeed a moſt ſad and miſerable Spectacle, or hearing; and which may occaſion in us trouble, fear, and trembling: but yet Secret Things belong unto God, Revealed Things to us and to our Children. It is a Sad Reflexion, that we have no Inſtances in Scripture of any good Men, whom God ſuffered thus to fall. I count that Inſtance of Samſon none: He was but in his Calling, he was eminently called of God to adventure his Life for the Iſraelites, in being revenged on the Philiſtines. It was the whole Buſineſs of his Life, who will call a Soldier a Self-murtherer, who in defence of his Countrey expoſeth himſelf (not indeed to a certainty of Death, but) to an eminent probability: Nor was there an abſolute certainty of Samſons Death, the Providence of God might have ordered Timbers ſo, that he might have ſurvived (as we know hath been in Blowing up of Houſes) but Samſon plainly ſhewed by his words ſpake immediately before, that his end was not the delivery of himſelf out of Miſery, but being avenged on the Philiſtines; which was the buſineſs of his Life, to which he was called of God. Beſides that, had he not had an extraordinary Aſſiſtance of Divine Power, his hands had never pulled down the Houſe; which teſtified Gods Approbation of the Fact. But for any other, we have not ſo much as an appearance of any good Men that were the Authors of their own Deſtruction voluntarily; but on the other ſide, it being certain, or at leaſt very probable, that no good man, mentis compos, in the free exerciſe of his Reaſon, can do it, it is unreaſonable for us to think that in that Age of the World, there were none who through ſome Diſeaſes, Feavors, or Melancholy, were Diſtracted, and loſt the uſe and exerciſe of their Reaſon; nor is it reaſonable to think that the way and manner of the deaths of perſons not dying in the uſe of their Reaſon, ſhould be Recorded in Holy Writ. It is indeed a ſad and uncomfortable Death, both to thoſe that are Near Relations, and to thoſe that are Neighbours and Spectators afar off; but in regard that it is poſſible the Act was an irrational Act, done by one, who when he or ſhe did it, were not in the poſſeſſion of their Reaſon, ſo as to exerciſe and uſe it. I would have no judgment paſſed upon the Eternal State of ſuch perſon Souls; and indeed the beſt judgment that can be paſt by any in the Caſe, muſt be from our Reflections upon the former courſe of their Lives. If Men or Women have formerly ſo led their Lives, as we could not but judg that they lived in the Fear of God, hating all Sin, walking with God cloſely in the Performance of Duty; it will be hard for us to judge that God ſhould leave them ſo far in their laſt hour, that they ſhould commit a Sin in which they ſhould die, without any place for, or poſſibility of Repentance. The truth is no ſuch fact can be done, but either by a profane perſon, or by one who hath been an Hypocrite; who, though he hath mocked God, and deceived Men by a Profeſſion, yet the root of the matter hath not been in him. When therefore we ſee any, who to all appearance hath lived in the Fear and Dread of God, come to ſuch a ſad end, it is moſt charitable to judge that he or ſhe was not themſelves when they did it.
2. Br. But (which indeed is the main thing I intended, and to which my Diſcourſe hitherto on this Argument hath been but prefatory.) The terror of that Text, No Murtherer hath Eternal Life, ought to lay a Law upon every one of us to uſe all imaginable means both to prevent and to reſiſt ſo great a Temptation. Now in the handling of this Temptation or Motion to ſo great an Evil, we will conſider it,
1. In the Efficient Cauſes. Where we will conſider what may be done to find out the Principal Efficient Cauſe in this Temptation.
2. In the ſeeming or appearing good, which is uſually by the Tempter made as a Bait to draw a Soul into this deadly Snare.
3. We will conſider, What is the moſt probable Means to be uſed either for the preventing Temptations of this Nature, or for the repelling of them, if the Soul be already under the forcible Impreſſions of them.