V. Grievous and Pulling Hurries to _Self-Murder_ are none of the

smallest outrages, which the Devil in his _Temptations_ commits upon us. Why, did the Devil say to our Lord, _Cast thy self down_, but in hopes that our Lord would have broke his Bones, in the fall? The Devil is an _Old Murtherer;_ and he loves to _Murder_ men; but no _Murder_ gives him so much satisfaction, as that which at his instigation, men perpetrate upon themselves. We [93] see that such as are _Bewitched_ and _Possessed_ by the Devil, do quickly lay violent hands upon themselves, if they be not watched continually, and we see that when persons have begun that _Unnatural_ business of _killing themselves_, there is a _Preternatural_ Stupendious Prodigious Assistance, by the Devil given thereunto. When people are going to Harm themselves, we call upon them, like those to the Jailor, in _Acts_ 16. 28. _Do thy self no harm!_ And we have this Argument for it, _It is the Devil that is dragging of you to this mischief; but will you believe, will you obey such an one as the Devil is?_ What was it that made Judas to strangle himself? We read it was when the _Devil was in him_. I suppose there are few _self-murderers_, but what are first very strangely fallen into the Devils hands; and possibly, 'tis by some Extraordinary _Discontent_, against God, or _back-sliding_ from him, that the Devil first entred into those disturbed Souls. Indeed, some very great Saints of God, have sometimes had hideous Royls raised by the Devil in their minds; untill they have e'en cry'd out with _Job, I choose strangling rather than life;_ and sometimes the ill Humours or Vapours in the Bodies of such Good Men, do so harbour the Devil that they have this woful motion every day thence made unto them; _You must kill your self! you must! you must!_ But it is rarely any other than a _Saul_, an _Abimelek_, an _Achitophel_, or a _Judas;_ rarely any other, than a very Reprobate, whom the Devil can drive, while the man is _Compos Mentis_, to Consummate such a Villany. Yea, no Child of God, in his Right Senses can go so far in this impiety, as to be left without all Time and Room for true _Repentance_ of the Crime; 'tis _thus_ done, by none but those that go to the Devil. A _self-murder_, acted by one that is upon other accounts a Reasonable man, is but such an attempt of Revenge upon the God that made him, as none but one full of the Devil can be guilty of. If any of you are Dragoon'd by the Devil, unto the murdering of your selves, my Advice to you is, _Disclose it, Reveal it, make it known immediately_. One that Cut his own Throat among us, Expired crying out, _O that I had told! O that I had told_. You may spoil the Devil, if you'l _Tell_ what he is a doing of.