(4.) Such as destroy others, by getting them into bad compaTiy, and so making them j)roselytes to the devil. J'itid in prox- inium quemque trajisiliinif, Sen. A man cannot live in the Ethiopian climate but he will be discoloured with the sun ; nor he cannot be in bad company but he will par- take of their evil. One drunkard makes another ; as the prophet speaks in another sense, Jer. xxxv. 5., " I set before the sons of the house of the Rachabites pots full of
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Avine and cups, and said inito tliom, drink ve wine ;" so the wicked ^ct pots of wine before others, and make them drink till rea- son be stupified, and lust inflamed. These are "-uiltv of the breach of this command- ment, they arc murderers of souls. How sad will it be with these, who have not on- ly their own sins, but the blood of others, to answer for? So much for the first thing forbidden in the commandment, the injur- ing of others.
2d. The second thing forbidden in it is, the injuring one's self. " Thou shalt not kill :" thou slialt do no hurt to thyself.
1. Thou shalt not hurt thy own body. One may be guilty of self-murder, either, \sf, indirectly and occasionally; or, 2d, di- rectly and absolutely.
(1.) Indirectly and occasionally ; as,
First, When a man thrusts himself into danger which he might prevent; as if a company of archers were shooting, and one should go and stand in the place where the arrows tly, if the arrow did kill him, he is accessary to his own death. In the law, God would have the leper shut up, to keep otliers from being infected. Lev. xiii. 4. Now, if any would be so presumptuous as to go in to the leper, and get the plague of leprosy, he might thank himself, he occa- sioned his own death.
Secondly, A person may be in some sense guilty of his own death, by neglecting the use of means. If sick, and use no physic, — if he hath received a wound and will not apply balsam, — he hastens his own death. God aj)pointed Ilezekiah to lay a " lump of figs upon the boil," Isa. xxxviii. 21. If he had not used the lump of figs, he had been the cause of his own death.
Thirdly, By immoderate grief, 2 Cor. vii. 10., ' the sorrow of the world worketh death ;' when CJod takes away a dear rela- tion, and one is swallowed up with sorrow. How many weep themselves into their graves ! Queen Mary grieved so exces- sively for the loss of Calais, that it broke her heart.
Fourthly, By intemperance, excess in diet. Surfeiting shortens life ; pli/res pericre
non. Excessive drinking causeth untimely death.
(2.) One may be guilty of self-murder, directly and absolutely.
First, By envy. Envy is trlst'itia de bo- nis (dienis, — a secret repining at the welfare of another. Invidus allerius rebus macrescit ophnis. An envious man is more sorry at another's prosperity, than at his own ad- versity ; he never laughs, but when another weeps. Envy is a self-murder, a fretting canker. Cyprian calls it vulnns utcidlum, — ' a secret wound ;' it hurts a man's self most. Envy corrodes the heart, dries up the blood, rots the bones, Prov. xiv. 30., " Envy is the rottenness of the bones." It is to the body, as the moth to the cloth, it eats it, and makes its beauty consume ; en- vy drinks its own venom. The viper- which leaped on Paul's hand, thought to have hurt Paul, but fell herself into the fire. Acts xxviii. 3. So, while the envious man thinks to hurt another, he destroys himself.
Second, By laying violent hands on him- self, and thus he is fclo de se ; as Saul fell upon his own sword and killed himself. And because I see so many in the bills of mortality, who make away tliemselves, let me a little expatiate. It is the most unna- tural and barbarous kind of murder for a man to butcher himself and imbrue his hands in his own blood. A man's self is most near to him, therefore this sin of self- murder breaks both the law of God, and the bonds of nature. The Lord hath plac- ed the soul in the body, as in a prison ; now it is a great sin to break prison, till God by death open the door. Self-murder- ers are worse than the brute-creatiu'es : they will tear and gore one another, but no beast will go to destroy itself. Self-murder is occasioned usually from discontent; dis- content is joined with a sullen melancholy. The bird that beats herself in the cage, and is ready to kill herself, is the true emblem of a discontented spirit. And this discon- tent ariseth, 1. From pride. A man that is swelled with an high opinion of himself, thinks he deserves better than others; and
crn/in/d, (/nam <i/adit> ; many dig their grave if any cross befal him, lie is discontented, with their teeth ; t<»<) much oil cliokes the and now in a sudden passii)n will m:ike a- liiinp : the cup kills more than the can- way himself. Aliitiu>phel had high th(night3
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