Richard Greenham (1535-1594): “The devil suggests that death is better than life; and that to rid oneself of life, is to be rid of woe. Whereas he who kills himself, does cast both body and soul into everlasting destruction.”
William Perkins (1558-1602): “To kill a man is murder; to kill oneself is murder against oneself, which is no less a sin before God.”
Richard Sibbes (1577-1635): “The least drop of true grace, is stronger than all the powers of Hell—and is enough to keep the soul from self-destruction.”
Richard Baxter (1615-1691): “Self-murder is but the devil’s work; a flying from God to Satan, from Him who is the giver of life, to him who was a murderer from the beginning. To kill oneself is to shut the door of mercy upon oneself forever.”
Thomas Watson (1620-1686)
[1] “Satan tempts to self-murder, persuading the soul that thereby it shall be freed from misery. But it is but to leap out of the frying pan into the fire; from temporal torment, into eternal torment.”
[2] “Hope is the helmet that keeps the Christian’s head from the bullet of despair and self-murder.”
John Owen (1616-1683): “Despair drives the sinner to destroy himself, thinking thereby to be rid of misery—when indeed he does but cast himself into eternal misery.”
John Flavel (1627-1691): “There is more mercy in Christ, than sin in us. This keeps the tempted soul from laying violent hands upon itself, for why should I hasten into Hell, when I may flee to Christ?”
Samuel Miller (1769-1850)
[1] “To destroy our own lives is A SIN AGAINST GOD.”
[2] “’No murderer hath eternal life abiding in him’ (I John 3:15). How small, then, is the proportion of self-murderers for whom we can cherish the least hope beyond the grave! When men leave the world in an act of daring and deliberate rebellion against God, distrusting his providence, agitated by the worst of passions, and trampling upon all the obligations which bind them to their Creator and their fellow men, how can Charity herself avoid considering them as ‘strangers from the covenants of promise’ (Eph. 2:12), and weeping over them as ‘children of perdition!’ (cf. John 17:12). This conclusion will be confirmed, if we look into the sacred history, and examine the characters of Saul, Ahithophel, and Judas, the only instances of suicide which the pen of inspiration has recorded. Do we discover in the last moments of these wretched self-destroyers anything to warrant a hope concerning their state after death? Alas! no. We find them throughout manifesting that spirit of pride and enmity to God, and that hateful compound of malice and despair, which characterize the fiend, and which torture the bosoms of the accursed in their dark abodes.”
Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892)
[1] “Self-murder is a dreadful crime. He who ends his life with his own dagger, does but leap from the fire into the flame.”
[2] “Suicide does not end suffering, but begins it. It is not the end of trouble, but the door into ten thousand times more sorrow.”
[3] “The result of self-murder is to seal the soul’s doom. To die impenitent is fearful, but to die by one’s own hands is to enter eternity with crimsoned hands and despairing heart.”
[4] “The poor suicide dreams of finding rest, but awakes in everlasting unrest. He sought the grave, but found Hell.”
[5] “To attempt to escape affliction by suicide, is to take up the far heavier affliction of eternal anguish.”
[6] “Self-murder is that crime of all crimes, the most sure of damnation, if a man commits it willfully and in his sound mind!”
Arthur Pink (1886-1952)
[1] “Self-destruction is self-damnation. The suicide rushes unbidden and crimson-handed into the presence of his Judge.”
[2] “To die in rebellion against God by one’s own hand, is to plunge both body and soul into Hell.”
