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Human life is plainly intended by the Creator to be a mere course of duty and obedience. This is the direct appointment of the Creator. To wish to frustrate or reverse this appointment, much more to attempt the frustration or reversion of it by overt acts, is sinful of course. How sinful then must be this violent attempt to oppose the divine will!

But the suicide cuts himself off from every opportunity, from the very possibility, of repenting of these multiplied crimes. Hurried into eternity by his own hand, he appears before the bar of God, with all his guilt upon his head. Should it be said, that he may secure himself an opportunity of repentance by a gradual death; I answer, that neither the temper of mind with which he destroys his life, nor the views which God cannot but entertain of this violent act of rebellion, furnish him with any hope that he will become peni

tent.

3. The Scriptures expressly forbid us voluntarily to sink under any affliction.

• My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, neither faint when thou art rebuked of him.' - Christ has said to all his disciples, 'In the world ye shall have tribulation:' but he has most benevolently subjoined, in me ye shall have peace:' that is, peace, awakened in the midst of your afflictions, or flowing from them, as a regular consequence of your submission and sanctification. Accordingly, St. Paul declares, that, Although no affliction is for the present joyous, but all are grievous; yet nevertheless they afterwards yield the peaceable fruits of righteousness.'

In these passages we are required, unconditionally, to sustain our afflictions with submission, patience, and fortitude. This command we cannot disobey, even in thought, without sin; much less in so violent an act of opposition. Suicide is the result, not only of a total want of submission, but of direct and violent hostility against the will of God. It is a declaration, that we will not 'endure the chastening of God;' and that the afflictions with which he is pleased to visit us are intolerable; and that they are therefore unreasonable and unrighteous specimens of oppression in his administrations. No charge can be more obviously blasphemous than this; more unsuited to the character of the Creator, or more unbecoming the mouth of a creature.

4. The suicide is always bound to prolong his life, by personal duties, which are indispensable.

He is bound to secure his own salvation. He is bound to provide for his family. If he performs not these so long as they need them, and so long as it is in his power, 'he denies the faith, and is worse than an infidel.' He is bound to train up his children ' in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.' He is bound to promote the happiness and salvation of those around him; and, generally, of his fellow-men. Universally, whatever is his situation, he may, if he lives, do good to himself, and to mankind; and this good he is bound to do, so long as God is pleased to spare his life. When he destroys himself, he is guilty of gross rebellion against God in refusing to perform these duties.

5. The Scriptures never exhibit suicide as the conduct of any but very wicked men.

Job, David, Elijah, Jeremiah, Daniel and his three companions, Christ and the apostles, underwent afflictions incomparably more severe than those for which the suicide destroys his life. Yet neither of these thought it proper voluntarily to terminate his own life. Daniel and his companions, Christand his apostles, were in most instances, however, destined to a violent and scandalous death; one of the very cases which Mr. Hume has selected to show the lawfulness of suicide.. This they perfectly well knew; but not one of them appears. to have thought of preventing the pain and disgrace by laying violent hands on himself. This case is plainly an extreme one. None can be more so. Yet the perfect piety of Christ,; and the exemplary piety of these virtuous men, instead of dictating this desperate course of conduct to them, taught them, severally, to wait with humble resignation for the will of God, and patiently to receive their destiny from his hand.. The example of these persons will be followed by every virtuous man.

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Saul, an open rebel against his Maker, and the intentional murderer of David and Jonathan; Ahithophel, a traitor to his lawful sovereign; and Judas, a traitor to his Redeemerwere suicides. This conduct in them was the result of their dispositions, the product of such principles as controlled these abandoned men. It is therefore rationally argued, that suicide, in the view of the Divine mind, is the moral conse-> quence of the worst principles only. On the contrary, it is equally clear, that virtue in the evangelical sense is totally incompatible with the perpetration of this act, and absolutely forbids the voluntary destruction of our own lives. He who meditates the voluntary termination of his own life, ought solemnly to remember, that he is indulging a spirit which is directly opposed to that of Christ, and strongly assimilated to that of Saul, Ahithophel, and Judas.

SERMON CXVIII.

THE LAW OF GOD.

THE DECALOGUE.

THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT.

DRUNKENNESS.

AND BE NOT DRUNK WITH WINE, WHEREIN IS EXCESS.

EPHESIANS V. 18.

In the preceding Discourses I have considered several methods in which life is destroyed, in opposition to the sixth command of the Decalogue. In this Discourse I shall make some observations concerning another of these methods; viz. Drunkenness.

Drunkenness is nearly allied to suicide. It is an equally certain means of shortening life. The principal difference, so far as the termination of life is concerned, lies in the mode. What is appropriately called suicide, is a sudden or immediate termination of life. Drunkenness brings it gradually to an end. The destruction in both cases is equally certain, and not materially different in the degree of turpitude. In many instances indeed this catastrophe is brought to pass at least as suddenly by drunkenness as by suicide. There is also another difference between these crimes. The suicide intends directly to destroy his life, and makes this his prime purpose; the drunkard thinks of nothing less: the prime object in his view is the gratification of his relish for strong drink, united with that bewildered elevation of spirits, which he feels in the hour of intoxication,

In the text we are expressly and universally forbidden to commit this sin. The penalty incurred by the commission is as expressly declared in 1 Cor. vi. 10; where it is said, that • Drunkards shall not inherit the kingdom of God.' This threatening we are not indeed to consider as absolute, any more than others expressed in a similar manner. Undoubtedly, no person who enters eternity in the character of a drunkard will ' inherit the kingdom of God.' But I know of no reason to conclude, that he who, though once a drunkard, has become a penitent, will not be accepted.

This interesting subject I design to consider at large under the following heads :

I. The nature,

II. The causes,

III. The evils of drunkenness, and,

IV. The means of avoiding it.

I. I shall make a few observations concerning the nature of this sin.

Drunkenness is that singular state of man in which he loses, either partially or wholly, the use of his bodily and mental powers, under the operation of spirituous drink, opium, or other means of intoxication.

Drunkenness is either occasional or habitual.

Occasional drunkenness exists only in irregular, separate, solitary, or even single instances; and is produced sometimes by design, and sometimes by accident.

Habitual drunkenness is a frequent, and usually a regular intoxication; occasioned by that increased and peculiar love of strong drink, which is generated by occasional drunk

enness.

Habitual drunkenness will be the principal subject of this Discourse. It will only be necessary to remark concerning occasional drunkenness, that all the observations almost concerning habitual drunkenness will be applicable to it, although in an inferior degree; and that, wherever the subject shall appear to demand any serious discrimination, I shall endeavour to make them in the progress of the discussion.

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