A commentary or, exposition upon the divine second epistle general, writtenA commentary or, exposition vpon the diuine second epistle generall, written

He doth lay it down being called for, not cast it away without bidding: that were not to lay it down, but to run away from it. God says, Thou shalt not kill: si non alium, multo minus teipsum: if thou mayest not kill another than much less thy selfe. Sapiens non fugere debet è vita, sed exire, Sen. The wise man doth not run out of his life, but maturely go out. This life is a warfare, where God hath placed some in the foreward, some in the Rear, some in the wings, others in the main battle: every man hath his station, and must not depart from it without his Nunc dimittis, without his Passport. Neither light of nature, nor light of grace, directs a man to put out the light of his own life.

He doth lay it downe being called for, not cast it away without bidding: that were not to lay it downe, but to runne away from it. God saies, Thou shalt not kill: si non alium, multo minus teipsum: if thou maiest not kill another than much lesse thy selfe. Sapiens non fugere debet è vita, sed exire, Sen. The wise man doth not runne out of his life, but maturely goe out. This life is a warfare, where God hath placed some in the foreward, some in the Rere, some in the wings, others in the maine battell: every man hath his station, and must not depart from it without his Nunc dimittis, without his Pasport. Neither light of nature, nor light of grace, directs a man to put out the light of his owne life.

Not nature: Paul calls death an Enemy: Now, no man loves an enemy properly, and for his own sake, quatenus inimicus, so far as he is an enemy. Homicida in se, insepultus abijciatur, saith Seneca. It is pity any hands should bury him, whom his own hands have slain. We may say of a self-murderer, as it was said of Cato; Occidit see, ne dicat, Caesar me servavit: he slew himself, rather than he would say, Cesar hath saved me: so that man kills himself, lest CHRIST should save him. Cleombrotus read Plato's Phaedo unadvisedly; otherwise he would not have destroyed a mortal body to make way for an immortal soul. Scripta Platonis non ita erant animo percipienda tuo. ¹The poet by that natural light condemned such attempts, Qui sibi lethum, Insontes peperere manu, &c. Quam vellent aethere in alto, Nunc & pauperiem & duros perferre Labores! Those that have extricated themselves from misery on earth, by an unnatural violence upon themselves; if they might be restored to life again, they would endure ten thousand times more with patience. God hath tied the soul and body together with such a passionate love, that they cannot part without grief. Man is borne with little insensible pain, but dies with extreme