VI.

elfe to depend upon. Accordingly, we have had inftances, where, for want of the religious principle, "health,

power, and authority," have proved infufficient to keep their poffeffors "in "humour;" and through the prevalence of pride, avarice, intemperance, caprice, and fpleen, men have difpatched themselves, fome, becaufe they had taken a wrong ftep, and were blamed for it; fome, because they had eaten too much, and therefore life was infupportable; fome, to defraud their creditors; fome, because they were tired of buckling and unbuckling their fhoes; and fome, to fave charges. Poor unhappy man! How art thou toft upon the ocean of life, when once driven from the helm, which should direct thy courfe through time to eternity!

P. 20.

P. 20. "Mr. H. ftates the follow- LET. ing cafe

"A man is engaged in a confpiracy "for the public intereft; is feized "upon fufpicion; is threatened with "the rack; and knows from his own "weakness that the fecret will be ex"torted from him: could fuch an one "confult the public intereft better "than by putting a quick period to "a miferable life?"

1. To avoid fo untoward a fitua

tion, before a man “ '' engages in a "confpiracy," let him be very well affured that it is indeed " for the pub"lic intereft;" that he is in the way of his duty; and that the law of his God will bear him out in the undertaking.

2. This point being fecured, and the action of fuicide fuppofed to be

(as

VI.

VI.

LET. (as we apprehend) malum in fe, then the refolution of the queftion is clear; we are not to "do evil that good may "come;" it were better the confpiracy fhould be discovered than that the man fhould commit a fin, for the reason affigned elsewhere by Mr. H. himself, that " the damnation of one "man is an infinitely greater evil "than the fubverfion of a thousand "millions of kingdoms." Let the man therefore continue in his integrity, and truft God for the event.

3. He who is invited to take a part in a dangerous and defperate enterprize, fhould confider confequences poffible and probable, and weigh well his own strength, beforehand; and if he fufpects himself likely to fail in the day of trial, let him by no means engage.

*Effay on the immortality of the foul, P. 33.

A

A cafe of this kind may doubtlefs be imagined, which will feem extremely hard; and mankind will be difpofed not only to excufe, but even to honour him who thus falls by his own hand, to fave his companions, and his country. The behaviour of fome Christian virgins in the early ages, who chose rather to inflict death upon themselves, than fuffer the violation of their purity by their ruffian perfecutors, has obtained in it's favour the fuffrage of the Fathers, as a case excepted from the general rule ; and we cannot readily blame those, who to preserve their honour, defpifed their life. They committed one fin, to escape another which they deemed greater; (though, as their will would not have been concerned, they were perhaps mistaken ;) and deftroyed

LET.

VI.

LET. ftroyed the temple, to avoid it's pro-, VI. phanation. But these extraordinary inftances, whatever may be thought of them, cannot prove that to be lawful, which is in itself unlawful.*

As to the other cafe ftated by Mr. H. in the fame P. 20. that of "a "malefactor juftly condemned to a "shameful death," there can be no difficulty. It is the duty of him who has tranfgreffed the laws of his country to make the fatisfaction they require. The virtues, called forth upon the fad occafion, of repentance, and faith in the divine mercy, confequent thereupon, are of the highest benefit to himself in his most important concerns; while his example at his death undoes, as far as in him lies, the evil perpetrated in his life, and by warn

*See Bp. Taylor, ubi fupra.

ing