and as a Sheep before her Sheers is dumb, so he openeth not his Mouth. He is despised and rejected of Men, a Man of Sorrow, and acquainted with Grief; and we hid as it were our Faces from him, he was despised and we esteemed him not. Isa. 53.

SECONDLY, We consider'd the particular Murder of Kindred and Relations. And that the Sin of Parricide might be illustrated by the Crime of Incest. If Incest is so great and heinous a Sin, Parricide must be greater; One may be supposed to be with the Party's Consent, the other is by Violence; One defiles and pollutes, the other destroys the Body, One is giving a bestial Delight to a Relation, the other a painful Death. As the Scripture aith, That Man and Wife are no more twain but one Flesh; and that nothing but God should seperate them; and that a Man should love his Wife as himself, for who ever yet hated his own Flesh; 'Tis wonderful that if any Person his, without Provocation, with cou deliberate Thought, hurried so near a Relative unprepared into the other World, without allowing her that Space for Repentance which the Law allows the greatest Malefactor, he should not be always overwhelm'd with Tears; And still more wonderful, that he should sometimes laugh, and peremptorily affirm, That he has done no ll; Wonderful, that the Sight of that Body, which he once lov'd, cover'd in a Moment with Blood, should not at that Instant strike him with Confusion and Amazement, and afterwards leave an Impression of Horror upon all his Words and Actions.

THIRDLY, We took Notice of the Crime of Suicide; which is contrary to the Law of Nature; tho' Epictetus, Zeno, Cato, and even Sene, nay, almost all the Stoicks, held it lawful for a Wise-man to destroy himself; The Epicureans and Platonists held the same Opinion: But Pythagoras was an Enemy to such a Doctrine; and Aristotle says, To Die, to shun Grief, is not the Part of a Brave, but a Cowardly Man. We advised the Prisoner, as he had threatened to lay violent Hands on Himself, to Repent of that Rashness. Impatience, and want of Submission to God and Justice; to Repent, of having accused God of Cruelty in laying upon him more than was fit for Man to bear; and of intending to usurp upon the Right of God, who, as he alone can give, can only take away Life For who, to avoid Temporal would run upon Eternal Misery? &c.

LASTLY, We advised him no longer obstinately to deny his Guilt; since a free Confession before all Men, would be so far from loading him with more Shame and Disgrace, that, by shewing him Candid and Ingenuous, and sorry for his Crime, it would be the Way to make all Men think of him with some Pity and Concern. Wherefore we are commanded by St. James to confess our Sins one to another. We advised him to reflect on what had been offer'd to prove a Resurrection, and no longer to maintain his absurd Opinion of a perishable Soul. That by this means he might be an Object qualified to receive the Holy Sacrament, and a Candidate for the Manns prepared by Christ for Believers. &c.