An exposition with practical observations continued upon the eleventh, twelfth, & thirteenth chapters of…

And besides, God will revenge this upon men: for no man hath the power over himself; thou destroyest one ¹of Gods creatures in being a self-murderer, thou shalt be punished for destroying thy self. Because they have not the dispose of themselves, they are Gods Creatures; And here it is a greater sin for a man to murder, Himself, than his Father or Mother. It was a Speech of Austin that way, ²It's a greater sin than parricide, to be a self-murderer, and the reason he gives is this, For saith he, the nearer any one is to one, the greater is the sin of murdering that one; As ³it's a greater sin for me to murder a kinsman than a stranger, It's a greater sin to murder a brother than a kinsman more remote, than yet higher, a greater sin for me to murder a father then a brother, but then it's a greater sin for me to murder my self than my father, ⟨p. 515⟩Why? For I am nearer my self than my father: and so the […]is greater for any one to lay violent hands upon ones self, than upon another: You think it a horrid thing if the Devil should come with a temptation, Go and take a halter and hang up your mother that bore you, or take a knife and cut your fathers throat; but when you are tempted to murder your selves it is a greater sin. Self-murder it is a great evil, and yet all people in the world that perish are self murderers, when we do but hear of a man that hangs or drowns himself, we think it's a very sad thing; now when you look upon wicked men going on in the ways of sin and destruction, look upon them as so many men running to drown themselves, and plunge themselves into the bottomless gulf, and as so many men cutting their own throats, and hanging themselves, for certainly so they do.

And besides, God will revenge this upon men: for no man hath the power over himself; thou destroyest one ¹of Gods creatures in being a self-murderer, thou shalt be punished for destroying thy self. Because they have not the dispose of themselves, they are Gods Creatures; And here it is a greater sin for a man to murder, Himself, than his Father or Mother. It was a Speech of Austin that way,