yet I shall shew the reasonableness of it And to that purpose shall commend to your serious consideration the following particulars First Let us consider whose Law this is and we shall find that the Author of the Law does greatly recommend it to us How hard soever it may otherwise seem yet that it is the command of our Lord Jesus Christ that consideration is of great moment to reconcile us to it We ought not to think any thing unreasonable or hard which our Blessed Lord and dear Redeemer lays upon us For we are well assured of his great love and affection towards us He hath given us great proof that he loved us when he was content for our sakes not only to become a man but to die a shameful and painful death to bring us unto God Let us stay a while upon this consideration and meditate upon the unheard-of love of our Lord Jesus and we shall soon see great cause to think him a good Master even then when he does oblige us to die for his sake If our hearts be cold and chill if we find them dampt and sinking let us then meditate of our Lords love and that will be of great use to inflame them and give them spirit Does Jesus say that we must not fear them that kill the body that we must hate our own lives if we will be his Disciples Good is that word of our Dearest Lord will the pious Soul say Death shall be welcome when ever it comes and it will be not only our duty to die when our Lord would have us but our honour and great Priviledge to be thought worthy to die for him who was contented to die for us Alas this is but very little to what our Lord and Master hath done for us He was from everlasting the eternal Son of the Father He was happy and glorious and yet for our sakes he was content to stoop from Heaven to Earth from the happiness and glories above to the pain and contempt of this lower world He that was the brightness of his Fathers glory was willing to be eclipsed and obscured with our flesh and with our infirmities He that upheld all things by the word of his power was yet contented to be inclosed in the Womb of a Virgin to be wrapt up in swadling cloaths to lie in a Stable to be subject to his Creatures to be tempted by the Devil to be hungred and thirsty to be buffeted and hanged on a Tree that he might save lost Mankind He was at these pains for the helpless and for sinners for Caitiffs and Rebels for them who had dishonoured his Father and ruined themselves Here is a love without a Parallel a love that passeth knowledge a love that is stronger than death and that surpasseth the love of women Here are all the dimensions of love here is height and depth a length and breadth Jesus did that for his Enemies which rarely hath been done for the greatest Friends and Benefactors Greater love than this hath no man that he should lay down his life for his Friend This is the highest flight of friendship and we have but few examples of it Our Lords kindness rose higher by far He died for the ungodly for the weak and them that were without all hope Who can seriously think of this and not find himself constrained by the ove of Jesus to be willing to die for him It is an easie task that lies upon us to love him that hath first loved us and to die for him that died for us This is very reasonable and a most gentle command to lay down our life for him who first laid down his for us We see some Servants will hazard their lives for the sake of their Masters Loyal Subjects will not stick to shed their bloud in defence of their King and Country There are those would dare to die for a good man or for a faithful friend My Lord must needs be dearer to me than any of my Relatives or my fellow Creatures I must be very ungrateful if I forget his love But that which still does farther recommend this Law to us is this That our Saviour commands no more than what he himself did He would we should die in bearing witness to the truth It is fit we should do it and he led us the way He hath recommended this Precept to us not only by his Doctrine but by his Example also Indeed our Lord was silent when he was reproached and inconsistently accused but he was not so when he was adjured by the High Priest to tell him whether he were the Christ Mat. 26.63 64. the Son of God or not He witnessed a good Confession before Pontius Pilate and tells him To this end was I born Joh. 18.17 and for this cause came I into the world that I should bear witness unto the truth Our Lord sealed the truth with his own bloud and does not put his Followers upon that which he declined himself This Example of our Lord does give great force to his Law And it is very reasonable we should do what the great Captain of our Salvation hath done Every where we judge this very reasonable The Souldier thinks himself obliged to shew courage when he sees his General expose himself to the thickest of the danger And the Servant thinks himself well dealt with when his Master commands no more of him than what he is willing to do himself The Disciple is not above his Master nor the Servant above his Lord. That is not thought an hard Law which the Law-giver suffers himself to be concluded by 2. Let us consider the command it self and that is that we should rather part with this life than to deny our Lord and forfeit our hopes of a better life This may at first sight seem a very hard saying but when we draw near and consider it well we shall find it a very reasonable Law and that it is no objection against what our Lord hath said when he tells us that his yoke is easie and his burden light The truth is we disquiet our selves in vain and as our happiness is but phantastick and imaginary so is a great part of our misery also We make a false judgment of things and set a very unequal rate and price upon them And this we commonly do in the account we make of life and death For as we esteem of this life at a greater rate than we ought so we judge death to be a greater evil than indeed it is I desire that you would under this general head consider well the following particulars And 1. That barely to live is not in it self a thing of any vast moment It is no high Prerogative and unvaluable peculiar For the smallest Mite or Ante the vilest Worm or Serpent live as well as we When Marcellinus was sick all that were about him flattered him and said that which they thought would please him most Every man
as far as he is able And whatever his sin hath been he ought to confess it and to shame himself for it and to give all the possible proofs of a through and hearty and particular repentance as far as his time and ability will reach and he must to this purpose call in Gods help and implore his grace and mercy in Christ Jesus And then if afterward he give his body to be burnt as a farther token of his Contrition he will not lose his reward There is a fond opinion among the Jewish Writers that the death of a Criminal expiates for his Crimes But yet one of their wises Writers tells us Maimon H. Teshub c. 1. that neither the Sacrifice which the sinner brought nor the death which was inflicted on him did make expiation for him unless he did repent 5. They that now make this Objection ought to make the right Use of it That is they ought forthwith to set upon an holy life upon crucifying their lusts and killing their sins that so they may not be afraid of death in what form soever it shall present it self They ought to provide for sufferings and especially for death before it makes its approach unto them CHAP. X. I Shall now proceed to shew what preparations we ought to make against Sufferings and how we are to demean our selves under them We ought to consider before-hand that we may meet with great trials and exercises in our way to to heaven And it very well becomes us to provide against the worst of things And this is very reasonable because if we should not be called out to suffer for our Religion yet we shall be sure to die and it is our duty as well as our interest to provide for death And therefore what I have to offer cannot be unseasonable because it will serve to prepare us for our other sufferings and for the stroke of death though we should not be persecuted for righteousness sake And it is a foolish thing not to prepare for death in the time of our prosperity and our health I shall therefore recommend to you some particulars which will be of great Use to us to prepare us for our bearing all sort of afflictions and particularly tend to deliver us from the fear of violence and death it self And to that purpose 1. Make it your care to bear witness to the Truth by your lives and this will be a great preparation against all evils and even against death it self In this sense we may all be Martyrs though we do not shed our bloud For we may bear witness to the Truth by our life as well as by our death And the doing it by a good life is the best preparative to the other Martyrdom of bloud 1 Pet. 2.15 We may by well-doing as well as by suffering well put to silence the ignorance of foolish men If there be no Tyrant Cyprian de dupliei Martyria says one of the Ancients no Tormentor no Plunderer yet there will be Concupiscence giving us daily matter of Martyrdom Besides the evils of this mortal life that are common to the good and bad will afford us the Crown of Martyrdom if we bear them with alacrity and thanksgiving Who dares deny says he Abraham and Isaac and Job to be Martyrs What Racks did ever torment the body more than natural affection tortured the mind of that Patriarch when he in compliance with Gods Command was ready to offer up his Son his only and beloved Son in whom was the hope of Posterity What was wanting to the making Isaac a Martyr who without murmuring suffered himself to be bound and laid upon the wood Whose Martyrdom may we compare with the things which Job suffered The same Author does well observe that in that Catalogue of Saints and holy men Heb. 11. though there were but few of them died a violent death yet to let us see that we might be Martyrs by an exemplary life it is said of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that by faith they obtained a good report To which I add Heb. 11.2 that they are all called Martyrs or Witnesses afterward Ch. 12.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We shall have fair occasion to shew our Courage our Patience our Resignation and our Faith though we do not suffer upon a Wheel or at a Stake And he that bears all his other troubles well is in a great preparation to suffer death also Whereas those men that are impatient and peevish under every little sorrow and cross have much to do before they will be fit to endure the severest torments If then we would be able to endure a violent death for the sake of our Saviour let us set upon the practice of the hardest of his Precepts Let us cut off our right hands and pluck out our right Eyes part with our most beloved lusts and crucifie the desires of the flesh Let us mortifie our inordinate Anger destroy all wrath and bitterness all our covetous desires and sensualities Here is a great and difficult task before us if we do this death will not much astonish us We shall not be greatly afraid of death when we see our sins and lusts dead before us Those lusts which made death a formidable evil to us No man is so fearless of death as that man that is crucified to the world and hath mortified his inordinate desire of worldly things If in the whole course of our life we give up our selves to the Laws of Christ if we exercise our selves to patience and self-denial to meekness and long-suffering to Temperance and Chastity to contempt of the world and an heavenly mind we shall find it a very easie task when we shall be required to resign up our mortal life for the sake of our Lord Jesus He that obeys Christ in all his holy and strictest Precepts will be in great readiness and preparation of mind to lay down his life for him He that dares kill his Lusts and crucifie the old man will not think much to resign this mortal life that he may be cloathed with Immortality When one bid Socrates prepare for his trial He asked him whether he thought he had not done that all his life-time But then again he asked Socrates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arrian Epict. l. 2. c. 2. what preparation he had made He told him that he had done what was in his power to do He asked him How Socrates told him he had never done an unjust action publickly or privately If we would prepare for sufferings and for death let us do it by a good life 1 Pet. 4.19 and commit the keeping of our souls to God in well-doing 2. Entertain your selves with the thoughts of troubles and the frequent thoughts of death before they come nigh you It is of great moment that we be not suprized by the evils which we meet withal It is a great astonishment to us to meet with evils which
we thought not of before He is a very miserable man indeed who promised himself pleasure and meets with sorrow and so is he that meets with some misery that he never expected It is a great piece of wisdom to suppose the worst which may happen Death does greatly astonish the man that thought of living long and pleasantly of going to such a City and buying and selling and getting gain 1 Pet. 4.12 The Apostle would not have them to whom he writes look upon the fiery trial as some strange thing If we would bear our troubles let us expect them that when they come we may not be surprized When we have often thought of them before we shall in great measure despise them whereas if we be surprized we shall be astonished with a small evil Much of our misery arises from our inconsideration Men that go to Sea ought not to promise themselves a Calm and a good wind They ought to suppose they may meet with Tempests and contrary Winds Why should we suppose our selves exempt from the common condition of mankind We are born to troubles and must certainly die and may die a violent death This we ought to think of frequently If we bury our friend We knew he was mortal before and we never expected immortality from a mortal Creature You lose your goods perhaps But you should have considered that those external things were subject to this loss That they were things which Moth might corrupt or Thieves might steal It will not become a wise man in these cases to say that he did not think that such things could have hapned to him For whatever hath hapned to another may also happen to me And I may as well admire that what is brittle should break or what is combustible should burn as that what is mortal should die or what is without me should be taken from me We should prevent much of our trouble if we would but expect it before hand and look for it And to think very often and seriously of death would deliver us in great measure from the fears and terrours of it Familiarity even in this sense breeds contempt The Fox in the Fable was greatly afraid when he first saw a Lion but less afraid the second time and after that was so far from fear that he came near him and conversed with him The frequent thoughts of death will rid us of much of our fears of it And it must needs be so because they tend very much to prepare and dispose us for it For these thoughts are apt to awaken in us a care to live well and that is a mean to deliver us from our slavish fears It was wisely said by the Son of Syrach Ecclus. 7.36 Whatsoever thou takest in hand remember the end and thou shalt never do amiss The due consideration of our death is one of those things which an Ancient Jew tells us will keep men from transgression Pirke Avoth c. 3. m. 1. To think of death is a great instrument of Vertue and true Wisdom It will help to slake our lusts bridle our desires of wealth and honour and stop our course of sinning It will serve to quicken our devotions to wean us from this life and to excite us to well-doing It is of great moment towards our resisting temptations which now gain upon us and the putting us upon the careful spending the several portions of our time Epictet Enchir. c. 28. Let death be always before thine eyes says the Heathen and thou wilt not mind any low or mean thing nor greatly desire any thing III. Use your selves to labour to a severe course of life Do not indulge your appetite and your sloth but give up your selves to great diligence and industry He that would endure the greatest pain and torment must harden and prepare himself by degrees and inure himself to bear the Yoak betimes A soft and sensual life will render us very unfit for a fiery trial And he that knows not how to deny his licentious appetite what it at any time craves will be very unfit to be a Martyr It will well become us to keep under our bodies and to withdraw from them some of those Supplies which it craves that we may be the better prepared to endure greater hardships Let us learn to contemn sensual pleasures and to deprive our selves of some of our liberties that we may the more patiently bear the being totally deprived Let us strip our selves of some of our conveniencies of life and we shall the more patiently bear the being stripped of all the rest Miles supervacuo labore lassatur ut sufficere necessario possit Sen. Ep. 18. They that run in Races were wont to exercise before And the Souldier is trained and used to labour and weariness before he comes to the battel They did this that they might be able to overcome when they were put to the trial They that indulge themselves in a delicate and soft life will be very unfit for great severities Woe be to them that are at ease in Zion We shall be afraid of dying if we give up our selves to a sensual life Sensual pleasures do much indispose us for the business of this as well as for the bliss of a future life Luke 21.34 Take heed to your selves lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness and cares of this life and so that day come upon you unawares Death and sufferings will be a great surprize and terrour to all them that have lived at ease Oh death Ecclus. 41.1 how bitter is the remembrance of thee to a man that liveth at rest in his possessions IV. Make it now your constant care to resign up your Will to the Will of God Let this be your daily exercise as it is your Prayer By this means you will be wonted to that Lesson which makes way for a patient suffering even death it self whenever it shall please God to call us to it You will be very unfit to resign your selves up to death it self if you have not formerly made it your great care to bring your own Wills to a compliance with the Will of God We are never safe till it is thus with us and when ever we are arrived to this we are secure and sufficiently prepared for all events of things Nothing now will be able to make us miserable because nothing can possibly befall us against our wills For as nothing can make us happy but God so nothing can make us miserable but our own Will and that does never hurt us but when it runs Counter to the Will of God This is the way to peace and rest to part with our own Will and to suffer it to be guided and governed by the Divine If it be thus with us we shall be quiet and still under every Calamity safe under every stroke and fitted for what ever may happen to us Thus it was with our
the fire that never goes out What proportion is there between Time and Eternity Between a sorrow that lasteth for a moment and that sorrow which excludes all hope of an end But then if we think of the Joys of Heaven that are the portion of the Pious and persevering Christian we shall find that all the sorrows of this life bear no proportion to them The Apostle tells us that they are not to be compared I reckon says he that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us Rom. 8.18 If then we turn our Eyes from Time upon Eternity from the sufferings we feel to the glory which we wait for we shall not easily sink under our burden nor any longer impeach the Divine Care and Providence 2 Cor. 4.16 For which cause we faint not says the Apostle For our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory while we look not at the things which are seen Let us now consider 3. The ends and usefulness of these Evils which happen to good men in this life For though we call these sufferings evils yet are they occasions of very much good And 1. They are for the general good of the world and the advancement of Religion amongst men Hereby men have taken occasion to enquire into the Principles of them that suffer and to acquaint themselves with that Religion which they overlooked before Hence they have been convinced of the truth of Religion and that it is a reality and will bear men up under all the evils of this world The patient sufferings of Holy men have greatly adorned and spread the Religion for which they suffered Hence many new Converts have been brought into the Faith and hereby men have been confirmed in the truth The undanted sufferings of good men for Religion have spread it more than learned Books and subtle Arguments could do Every man is not able to judge of the strength of an Argument nor to detect the Sophistry of cunning men He that is constant to the death does more by his patient sufferings than he could have done by his Wit and Learning We gain a great credit to our Religion when it supports us under our Evils which we suffer They that see this are convinced greatly in their Consciences They now believe Religion not only true but a Principle of power and great efficacy and that the pious man serves God for greater respects than any worldly thing It was a great Calumny against Job that he served God for his worldly ends only Job 1.11 But put forth thine hand now and touch all that he hath and he will curse thee to thy face Thus doth Satan accuse Job unto God How false this Accusation was appeared from what followed By his patient enduring he shewed that he was a perfect and upright man that feared God and eschewed evil It is a cheap thing to profess Religion when there is no danger in it This does not recommend it unto others Men will suspect that this profession either serves a worldly interest or was owing to our education or some chance But he that dares to die for his Religion does greatly commend it to the Consciences of men By this means the world was vanquished and Christian Religion planted among men This course was of great power towards the confounding of Infidels and the gaining new Believers It served to strengthen the weak and confirm the strong The bloud of Martyrs was the Seed of the Church and he that died for his Religion spread it This was of greater moment than learned Arguments or carnal weapons Our Religion was founded upon sufferings and built upon a Crucified Saviour 2. As the sufferings of good men are for the good of the world so they are for the good of those men who suffer They are gainers by their sufferings and this Consideration doth serve to clear the care and Providence of God It may seem strange that the severe afflictions that befall us should be for our advantage That I should bury my only Child and my dearest Friend lose my Estate and be cast in a righteous cause that I should meet with contempt and scorn and great disappointments are indeed great trials but such as may conduce if I be not wanting greatly to my advantage It is true that the sorrowful sufferer does not see how this can be But yet afterwards he sees it clearly and lives to bless God for those very evils under which he sometimes groaned We know that Fire and the Lance rough and harsh medicines and methods cure some men that were in danger of perishing Joseph's imprisonment was no likely way to his advancement but yet God made it the occasion of his rise We do not presently understand these things but what Jesus said to Peter we find often verified in the case before us Joh. 13.7 What I do says he thou knowest not now but thou shalt know hereafter One would think Clay and Spittle might put out the eyes of him that sees and yet we know our Lord by this means cured the blind I shall lay before you some of the advantages which a good man receives from the sufferings which befall him in this life First These evils conduce much to the destroying of the remainders of sin in a good man Our evil habits are not rooted out all at once There is some folly bound up in the hearts of good men which this rod of correction serves to beat out Prosperity generally hides our wickedness from us Afflictions are faithful friends they tell us our fault plainly they awaken us and conduce much towards our amendment And that they may gain their end it is frequently so contrived by the wise Providence of God that we may read our sin in our very suffering As our affliction is the unhappy off-spring of our fault so it hath upon it some features and signatures that speak it like its Parent We may very often read in our suffering what was our sin It were very easie to give you many instances to this purpose were it not too much out of the way of the present discourse It is very certain that our afflictions are instructive and very faithful Monitors to us Psal 119.67 71. Before I was afflicted I went astray says the Psalmist but now have I kept thy word Again It is good for me that I have been afflicted that I might learn thy Statutes There is nothing so formidable as a constant and uninterrupted prosperity We are generally the worse for being prosperous And it is too often so that our Vices and our Prosperity grow up together It is rarely seen but even good men are somewhat the worse on this score It was a saying of one of the Ancients That he thought none could be more unhappy than that man who never met with any adversity
gave him that Counsel that they thought would be to him the most grateful But there came to him an honest Stoick that dealt sincerely with him He told him that he need not much afflict himself as if some great matter were before him Non est res magna vivere omnes servi tui vivunt omnia animalia c. Sen. Ep. 77. It is says he no great thing to live All thy Servants live and every Animal does it It is a great thing to die well wisely and undauntedly Life considered abstractly is of no great price and there are many Creatures that have it which we do not greatly value upon that score And when our Lord requires us to give up our life he does not command any great thing of us in doing that Life it self is at best but a manner or circumstance of being and there are those Creatures which have it whose condition is yet very mean and low Life alone does not import any happiness at all Instead of that it often serves to make them who have it sensible of their misery 2. That supposing life more valuable than it is yet it is but a very little of it we lose when we part with it by the hands of violence It is indeed of very great moment how we live of very little how long He that takes our life away does rob us of very little And when God calls for it we have no cause to murmur and complain We generally take false measures here and there is nothing in which we more frequently miscount than we do in this matter And hence it is that we judge so much amiss of our Saviours Laws For what is this life that we put so great a price upon What it is at the most I reckon that what we have spent of it is not at all and what is to come is not yet That which is past is gone irrecoverably and that which is to come is not yet at all so that all we have and all that we can be said to lose is the present moment In all things else we cannot properly be said to be deprived of what we had lost before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mar. Ant. l. 3. c. 8. or to lose what we never had No man can be deprived of more than what he hath in actual possession We live the present moment only For all the rest we either have lived it or it is uncertain whether we shall or not This is all then that we lose and indeed all that we can enjoy at once the present moment So that one of the Ancients said very truly That he that died very old and he that died very young losâ— but one and the same thing Id. l. 2. c. 12. For said he the present time is that only which any man can be deprived of Agreeably hereunto the Apostle speaks when he calls the sufferingâ— of this life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 8.18 the sufferings of this present time It is but a moment that we suffer for it is but a moment that we live at once It is true indeed we flatter our selves with a long time that we have to live but we cannot promise our selves that which is to come and we cannot with any propriety of Speech be said to lose that which we never had 3. That supposing we might have lived longer had we not been cut off by the hands of violence yet is this a very inconsiderable â—oss Our Saviour is no hard Master if he call us hence in our youth and full strength and suffer us to fall under the hands of violence What does all this amount to We do but die a little sooner and after another way And sure we have little love for our Lord and our Religion if we think much to do this For suppose we might have lived longer yet that is not much which we lose Perhaps a few years or months and what does it signifie What proportion does this hold to Eternity Or of what moment is it if you consider the boundless love of God and our blessed Saviour A long life is no infallible token of Gods favour under the Gospel This was indeed a blessing under the Law of Moses But we are now received into a better Covenant We know it was otherwise before the Law of Moses was given Enoch that walked with God and that pleased him lived the shortest life of any of the Patriarchs from Adam to Noaâ— And many times so it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he diâ— in his youth whom God loves I hath been esteemed a favour to bâ— removed hence betimes We muâ—â— die and if we are sure of that iâ— is of small moment when we diâ— And therefore when we die foâ— our Religion we do not lose muâ—â— for the sake of it For we must all die We are but deprived of thaâ— which we knew before would eâ—â— long be taken from us If our house had not been pulled or fired down yet in a little while it would have fallen of it self He that kills me does not by doing so make me mortal Si mortem possemus evadere meritò mori timeremus Cypr. l. 4. Ep. 6. he found me so We have no cause to fear death when we know we cannot escape it When we are killed it is life not immortality which we are deprived of Let us not phansie that our Lord requires any great matter of us when he commands us to lay down our life for his sake We must have died if he had never made this Law and it is a small matter which he requires of us when he would have us die for him Dlogen Laertius Socrat. When one told Socrates that the Athenians had decreed his death He told him that Nature had decreed theirs also His death was hastened by them it was determined by a superiour Power We have no cause to complain but great cause to bless God that since we must die he is pleased to call upon us to do it in a righteous cause We are very foolish and fond if we now murmur and complain I know very well that we are affrighted with the pain of a violent and unnatural death And perhaps the shame and reproach of it is also irksom to us For its reproach and shame it is the most trifling pretence imaginanable And I can hardly think that a wise man upon second thoughts can be moved with so vain a consideration as this The truth of it is there is not any shadow in this pretence For to die for our Religion whatever our death be is not more our duty than it is our priviledge and our honour The first Christians judged thus They rejoyced in this that they were esteemed worthy to suffer for the name of Christ It is no reproach to suffer any death in a good cause He that dies for his Country is not by any wise man reproached because he was found dead in
vindicate his Religion from those aspersions that are cast upon it No man does more effectually refute the slanders against Religion than he that dies for it chearfully as for example This course confirms the truth of Religion There are those who would insinuate that Religion is a State-Engine contrived for worldly ends and for the better government of men That Heaven and Hell are no realities but contrived for the interest of humane Societies He that is willing to part with his life in defence of his Religion does destroy this insinuation and makes it evident that his Religion does not serve a worldly interest and that Heaven and Hell are great realities There are others that insinuate that Religion is an ineffectual Principle And if you were to judge of Religion by the Lives as well as Doctrines of some men you would be apt to think it a very dull and ineffectual Principle that were destitute of all power to enable men to do what it does command But then the man that forsakes this world that despises all its glories and continues undaunted under all its threats and frowns He that dares to be good whatever he suffer on that behalf such a man as this makes it appear that his Religion is a very powerful Principle and that it is accompanied with a Divine Assistance Again They that suffer for Religion do recommend the excellency and inward glories of Religion They discover the beauties of it And that they do when they give so great a proof of what it commends to us viz. A fervent love of God a contempt of the World a profound Meekness Patience and Charity Justice and Truth These are those things which shine in these examples and do speak aloud the perfections of that Religion which does produce them CHAP. VII I Come now to lay before you some other helps and assistances that the afflicted and persecuted Christian is provided with And in the next place I desire you to consider The Intercession of the Son of God And this is an unspeakable comfort and support where it is duly considered And that so it is we may learn from what we read of St. Stephen You know very well that he was accused and though he made his defence yet he was so far from appeasing his Enemies thereby that they were more enraged We read that they were cut to the heart Acts 7.54 55 56. and they gnashed on him with their teeth But though his Enemies were enraged and disturbed yet this holy man continues calm and quiet And what was it that kept him so We read what it was in these words But he being full of the Holy Ghost looked up stedfastly into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing on the right hand of God Here was that which kept him undisturbed when his Enemies were transported with fury Hence he had his strength and his undauntedness He says himself Behold I see the Heavens opened and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God And now though his Enemies gnash on him with their teeth though they cry out with a loud voice though they stop their ears and run upon him with one accord and cast him out of the City and stone him Yet the holy man is not for all this discomposed nor so far disturbed but that he was able to continue to call upon God and his blessed Saviour and to pray for his Enemies that put him to death And after this it is not said that he was killed or stoned that he was murdered or the like but that he fell asleep Ver. 60. After this gentle manner is this Saints death expressed But that which made his death so easie to him was that as he was full of the Holy Ghost so he saw Jesus at the right hand of God And we shall find that this sight of Jesus at Gods right hand will be of great moment towards our support under the greatest and sharpest miseries of this life Rom. 8.33 34. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect says St. Paul It is God that Justifieth Who is he that condemneth It is Christ that died But we have greater comfort than this and therefore he goes on Yea rather that is risen again nor does the Apostle stay here neither who is even at the right hand of God he goes farther still who also maketh intercession for us This is a great height indeed we are now very secure from danger since Jesus did not only die for our sins and rise again for our Justification but after this went into Heaven and is there concerned on our behalf Well might the Apostle now Triumphingly go on and he does so when he says Ver. 35 36 37 38 39. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or Sword as it is written for thy sake we are killed all the day long we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter nay in all these things we are more than Conquerours through him that loved us For I am perswaded that neither death nor life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other Creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. But for the better proceeding in this comfortable Argument of Christs interceding for us in Heaven I shall First Shew where Christ now is viz. in Heaven at Gods right hand Secondly I shall shew you how far he is there concerned on our behalf Thirdly I shall shew you how this tends towards our support and comfort under the troubles of this life 1. I shall shew where Christ is viz. in Heaven He was contented for our sakes to be born of a Woman to lie in a Manager to be tempted in a Wilderness to die upon a Cross and to be buried in a Sepulchre But thanks be to God he that was born ever lives and he that died and was buried was raised from the dead and ascended into heaven Heb. 1.3 and is sate down on the right hand of the Majesty on high Chap. 2.9 crowned with glory and honour Chap. 7.26 Eph. 5.10 Chap. 1.20 21. Made higher than the Heavens He is ascended up far above all Heavens Far above all Principality and Power and Might and Dominion and every name that is named not only in this world but that which is to come Phil. 2.9 God hath highly exalted and given him a Name which is above every name 1 Pet. 3.22 He is gone into Heaven and is at the right hand of God Angels and Authorities and Powers being made subject unto him It cannot be denied but the Air and the Clouds are called by the name of heaven and consequently when Christ was in them he might be said to have been in Heaven But certain it is that the expressions
is easie and a burden that is light We are called upon to accept our own happiness Courted to embrace all that bliss which we in vain look for from the World and from our Sins Our Lord and our interest bid us come Our Lord who laid down his life for us and who hath highly deserved of us he invites us and assures us of rest and peace and that his yoak is easie and his burden light And as the Scriptures do invite and encourage Sinners to enter themselves under our Lord Jesus and to become his sincere Followers and Disciples as they do invite us to the profession and practice of the Laws of God so they do greatly encourage us by the excellent promises which they contain to continue in that profession The comforts of Religion are unspeakably great and no man is provided for as the Religious is under all events of things Do we suffer for the sake of the Truth For our comfort it is written Mat. 5 1â— Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake For theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven Are we reproached and reviled nick-named and flouted at For our comfort it is written 1 Pet. 4.14 If ye be reproached for the name of Christ happy are ye for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you Again Mat. 5.11 12. Blessed are you when men shall revile you c. Rejoyce and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven Are we rifled and spoiled of our Goods For our comfort it is written Mar. 9.29 30. There is no man that hath left House or Brethren or Sisters or Father or Mother or Wife or Children or Lands for my sake and the Gospels but he shall receive an hundred-fold in this time and in the world to come life everlasting Are we threatned with death To our unspeakable comfort it is written Mat. 10.39 He that loseth his life for my sake shall find it Jam. 1.12 Again Blessed is the man that endureth temptation for when he is tried he shall receive the Crown of life which the Lord hath promised to them that love him Rev. 14.13 Again And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me Write blessed are the dead which die in the Lord and surely they that die for him cannot then be excluded from this blessing from henceforth Yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours Psal 116.15 and their works do follow them And Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of the Saints And if the Scripture afford us so great comfort under persecutions and against the fear of death it does not fail to do it under our other troubles and lighter afflictions We need not fear the want of what is needful when we have that Promise Heb. 13.5 I will never leave thee nor forsake thee We shall not need distract our selves about what we shall eat and drink and wherewith we shall be cloathed when it is said by truth it self Mat. 6.33 that all these things shall be added unto us We have no cause to disquiet our selves with the thoughts of what we shall do when we come to a great trial and appear before our potent Enemies Our Lord hath said Take no thought how or what ye shall speak Mat. 10.19 for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak And we are elsewhere assured of grace to help in the time of need Heb. 4.16 The Holy Scriptures afford comfort under every affliction The Widows and the Fatherless are assured that a Father of the Fatherless Psal 68.5 and a Judge of the Widows is God in his holy habitation They that are oppressed here find comfort Psal 9.9 The Lord also will be a refuge for the oppressed a refuge in times of trouble Here the poor are refreshed There is no want to them that fear him Psal 34.9 10. The young Lions do lack and suffer hunger But they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing The sick receive their comforts also from the holy Scriptures Psal 41.3 hence they are furnished with suitable Meditations with pious Ejaculations and Prayers We are farther assured that all things work together for good to them that love God Rom. 8.28 And how comfortable a consideration is this to those that meet with such variety of things as do entertain us in this present world For now we have but one Care about us and that is to see that we do indeed above all things love God If we do this we may discharge our other Cares and for ever send away our fears and jealousies There will be nothing can do us any hurt nay more than that nothing can possibly befal us but it will do us good and advance us fairly towards our great End and Happiness If our hearts be inflamed with the love of God this world will make but vain attempts upon us Whatever storm or shock may happen to us they will be but like those Winds that leave the Trees which they shake the more firmly settled and rooted If it be thus with us we are safe and shall not need to fear the greatest evils that can befal us in this present life Poverty and Sickness Pain and Oppression and the other miseries of life will leave us better than they found us They will serve to rid us of our remaining folly and wantonness To call us off from the Creature to the Creator They will but take from us our dross and filth and render us more prepared and fitted for our Masters use Nay Death it self which we commonly think the greatest evil will do us a friendly office when it shall take us from this Valley of tears and shadow of death and translate us to those joys and pleasures that are at Gods right hand for evermore For death it self is a great blessing to a good man And if it be at any time otherwise it is our sin that hath rendred death a formidable evil Death is indeed a great Tyrant but it is so to them only that are unfit and unwilling to die who are therefore haled to it against their wills But then for those that are fit and willing to die death is a faithful Servant that does but carry them whither they greatly desire to go CHAP. IX IT remains now that we consider what hath been said before and make use of the helps which God hath been pleased to provide us and that we rather choose to suffer than to sin It is no great matter what we lose if we do not wrong our Consciences and displease our God Take courage then and dare to be good whatever it cost thee and thou wilt soon find that greater is he that is with thee than he that is against thee Suppose thou suffer death it self and that a violent and a shameful one yet wilt thou not want a present assistance
and a sufficient support even in that case Our Religion were a very mean Institution if it would not bear a man up against the fears of death I shall to what hath been said above add some things to your farther consideration to encourage you to give up your life rather than to deny your Religion and wrong your Consciences And I. That it cannot be supposed that death can hurt a man If death have any evil belonging to it it is owing to our own folly It is our sin only that gives it a sting It is impossible it should hurt him that is sincerely good Socrates told the Athenians that they would rather hurt themselves than him by taking away his life and that for his Accusers he did not believe they could do him hurt he not thinking it reasonable to believe it in the power of evil men to hurt the good It is indeed in their power to kill it is not in their power to hurt them that are good That death can do us no hurt that hath had a good life gone before it The worst of men desire to die the death of the righteous Of all men those that are good have least cause to fear dying For they have placed their happiness beyond this world And death is to them unwelcom that live at ease here II. That it is very certain that many men have overcome the fear of death from a mean and low Principle compared with that of the Christian who suffers for righteousness sake Death I grant strikes a dread upon Mankind It is that which we commonly startle at It comes to take us apieces to remove us from our Friends and Familiars that for some time we have conversed with And hence it is that men generally fear death and decline it what they can But yet we know that many have overcom this fear of death some of them from a mean and others from an evil Principle Death is formidable and a good man is not quite rid of all the fear of death yet there are many considerations that make death seem desirable Revenge triumphs over it Love makes light of it Honour is ambitious of it fear of disgrace chooses it Sorrow runs after it it Fear prevents it A weak and foolish Passion a trifling and a faulty Principle reconciles men to death Some have thrown away their lives others have given them up many have parted with them upon trifling accounts and sometimes upon evil ones They have been contented to part with their lives from an evil Principle or from a trifling one How many have proved Martyrs to their Lusts How many to gratifie their Lust and their Revenge have brought upon themselves a lingring or a sudden death How many have fallen Sacrifices to their Luxury and Intemperance their Pride and Lust Pudeat semper tantum in vobis posse turpes causas nil posse pulcherrimas Petrarch And is it not a great shame that we should stick to do that from a good Principle which others do from a faulty one Is it not a shame that the Lusts of men should prevail more than the Laws of Christ And that men should make themselves miserable at that expence which they refuse to be at in order to their happiness There have been those who have died for a silly Woman for a point of Honour for their Fame and for their Country These things have prevailed with them to endure torments and devote themselves to destruction So much have these things prevailed with them Tanti vitream Quanti veram Margaritam Tertul. ad Martyr that their lives were not precious in their own eyes It is a great reproach to us if we refuse to suffer that for the sake of Christ and his Gospel which others have suffered for the sake of this World The Heathen could not but take notice of this speaking of death Senec. Ep. 4. Seest thou not says he upon what frivolous accounts it is contemned One hangs himself at the door of his Mistris Another throws himself headlong from the house top to avoid a churlish and unquiet Master Another stabs himself that he may prevent his return home Dost thou not think that vertue might have done that which an excess of fear hath done Shall a foolish Lust and an impotent Passion have more force than the sense of our duly and the well grounded hopes of eternal happiness We read in our Books of some that have sacrificed their lives to their Fame or thrown them away in compliance with the foolish customs of their Country or from a Principle of Superstition M. Anton. l. 5. se 14. It is a very astonishing thing says one of the Heathens that Ignorance and Ostentation should be more powerful than Wisdom We have a story in the Acts of our Church of a man in Queen Maries days who when he was put in mind to suffer for that truth which he had for some time professed replied that he could not burn Nor did he burn for his Religion But in the days of Queen Elizabeth this man's house was on fire and then to save his Goods he adventures into his house and he and his Goods were burnt in the same flames He that would not burn to save his Soul ventures into the fire to preserve his Goods And then he lost his Goods and his Life and it is to be feared his Soul also III. The good man does not want very considerations to perswade him to quit this present life for the sake of a better He is well assured that by thus losing his life he shall save it That he shall be assisted in his conflict and rewarded when he hath finished his course He is not left without a Comforter and he is assured of a plentiful Reward He knows in whom he hath believed and can commit the keeping of his Soul unto God as unto a faithful Creator 1 Pet. 4.19 He does but put off his flesh and knows that he shall be cloathed with life and immortality He does but part with an earthly Tabernacle for a building not made with hands And by his constant sufferings he glorifies God spreads his truth confirms his Servants and makes way for a greater glory to himself Do not then fear to follow your Lord and all those blessed Souls that have led the way When your Lord commands make no demur but follow him chearfully though it be to the place of skulls It is not worth your while to preserve your life with the loss of your innocence Gods favour is more than life and that will stand us in stead when this life shall be no more It is a madness to forfeit our eternal hopes that we may live here a little longer especially when our life will be but a plague and burden to us when we have purchased it with the loss of our innocence We shall find the horrours of a guilty mind more painful than the flames and much more lasting
a ditch It is the Crime not the kind of death that makes death dishonourable He falls well whatever hand pull him down that falls in a good cause Our Lord died upon a Cross His was a painful and the most shameful death It was the punishment of Slaves and the most infamous Criminals Now it is said of our Lord Heb. 12.2 that he endured the Cross despising the shame The pain was very afflictive to his flesh but yet such was his love that he endured that But then his death was as shameful as his Enemies could have devised but the shame our Lord despised 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 M. Antonin l. 7. 2.23 And sure if our Lord did this for us well may we do it for him Well may we glory in that Cross which our Lord hath born But then for the pain of a violent death we shall not need much to disquiet our selves we affright our selves without cause and we do disquiet our selves in vain We think of Racks and Wheels of fire and faggot when we think of our Enemies from whom we expect no mercy But it is certain that we often torment our selves with evils that shall never overtake us But yet we will suppose that we meet with great pain What then This pain will be tolerable or not If it be tolerable we may endure it if not we shall not be long troubled with it That will end or we shall We cannot last long under extreme pain Besides it is not unlikely but a disease may put us to sharper and longer pains than a Tyrant will ever do A Calenture may be more troublesom to us than fire and faggot and the flames of a Fever may scorch us more severely than other flames And they that have felt the extremity of the Gout and Stone will easily grant that it is a favour to die by the Sword of a Tyrant Quid refert in Equuleum an in lectulum torquendus ascenderis Petrarch Arrian Epictet l. 2. c. 6. We do not know but we may be tortured on our Beds and what great matter is it whether we be exercised upon a Bed or upon a Wheel It is very likely that a Tyrant will sooner release us than a disease What needest thou care says the heathen Philosopher what way thou goest into another World They are alike But yet if thou art willing to know the truth that is the shortest which a Tyrant sends Never was any Tyrant six months in killing any man A Fever hath often detained men a whole year What is it then that we fear Is it the Sword of an Enemy But are we sure we shall die an easier death Perhaps this Sword may may rescue us from greater pains and miseries Arrian l. 4. c. 7. When once I had learnt says the same Philosopher that he that is born must also die I am indifferent whether I die by a Fever or the fall of a Tile or I be killed by a Souldier But if I must compare I know that a Souldier will destroy me with the least pain It is very inconsiderable since we must die after what manner we do it And if there be any difference perhaps this way of dying by a Tyrant may be the gentler 4. That the life which we part with when we die for our Reliligion is not worth the keeping upon those terms upon which alone we have the liberty to preserve it Life I grant is a very valuable thing Especially the life of a man But let us consider a while what that is that makes it so It is not because it gives us the opportunity of eating and drinking and sporting our selves in the World This is the life of a Brute and not the life of a man much less of a worshipper of God But our life is desirable as it relates to a better life and it serves the purposes of Eternity They are the causes or ends of life which make it desirable So long as they continue life is not only a blessing but a most unspeakable one The great ends of life are the service of God and doing good to one another in order to a future glory and immortality It is here we lay a foundation for a future bliss and happiness This life is the Stage on which we act our parts well This is the state of trial and this life is very valuable considered with its reference and subordination to that glory which we expect hereafter We know there is a reward for the righteous and out of respect to that it is that we strive to abound in all the fruits of righteousness and perfect holiness in the fear of God Whiles our life serves so great an end it is worth the preserving but without this it is nothing worth For barely to live is not the happiness and perfection of a man If then it come to this that we must lose our life or prostitute our Consciences and deny the faith our life is not worth the keeping upon these hard terms For when the end of life is gone what is life it self but a burden and reproach to him that hath it In other things we judge thus We value things by their end and usefulness And when they are rendred unfit for their end we value them not any longer Who regards any thing any farther than as it answers its end Who regards an unfruitful and dry Vine or Fig-tree Who values adulterate Coin or useless Beasts It is the end and usefulness of things that sets a rate and price upon them We reject those things that are useless as we do Salt that hath lost its savour But nothing is more vile and contemptible than our life when it is deprived of its end A man that hath Shipwracked his Faith and prostituted his Conscience to save his goods and his life is of all Creatures in this lower world the most deplorably miserable He lives indeed but he is an uneasie burden to himself and a cumber to the Earth He lives but his life is nothing worth when he is bereft of his integrity and hath forfeited his future hopes Life is not worth any mans keeping upon such terms as these are Plat. Ap. Socr. Socrates told the Athenians that if they would offer him his life upon condition that he should no longer Philosophize he would thank them indeed but not accept of life upon those terms And adds that he would rather obey God than them Hence it was that the first Christians would rather die than do that which was evil And some of the honester Heathens did thus also Arrian Epictet l. 1. c. 8. Priscus Helvidius was a Senator of Rome and considered the duty of his place The Emperour sent to him and forbid him to come into the Senate Priscus told him It was in his power to remove him from being a Senator till that was done he would go into the Senate Then the Emperour commanded him if went into the Senate to
hold his peace But Priscus told him that he would speak what he thought was just and right But Priscus added If you say you will kill me when did I affirm that I was immortal Do you your part I will do mine It is your part to kill It is mine to die undauntedly It is your part to banish it is mine to go away without grief Our life is worth preserving but not with the loss of our integrity It is its end and its relation to a future state that gives it value 3. Let us consider the ground or reason of this command of our Lord. The truth is our Lords will in this case ought to be ground enough to us It should be enough that our Lord hath said it it will not become us to dispute our Saviours Law But yet our Saviour deals with us with great condescension he does not govern us after an arbitrary manner His Laws are founded upon Justice and do carry with them a great conviction that they are just and reasonable And as it is thus every where else so it is in the matter that lies before us Our Lord requires us to part with our lives but it is upon a good account that he requires it And we cannot but judge this very reasonable when it is considered that when our Lord requires this he does it only then when by our obedience we are assured to avoid a greater evil than what we suffer and to attain a greater good than we forego By our obedience to this Law we are sure to avoid a greater evil than that is which we suffer And this will be evident if we will but take the pains to consider what it is we suffer and what evils we avoid by it For our suffering it can amount to no more than the loss of this present life This is the utmost that we can suffer No force or malice can reach any farther than this comes to Let us make the most of it it will not be much we lose And whatever evil the loss of this life is yet it holds no proportion at all to the evils which by this means we avoid And they are these two 1. We avoid the horrors and clamours of an accusing Conscience Say that we decline our suffering and deny our Religion that to avoid death we wrong our Conscience Do not think your trouble is now at an end when you have taken this course and that you shall live pleasant days for the future This is but as if a man did flee from a Lion Amos 5.19 and a Bear met him Or went into the house and leaned his hand on the Wall and a Serpent bit him Alas poor man thou dost but run from one evil into another and which is the saddest from the least into the greatest From bodily pain into the horrors of a guilty mind And sure I am there is no compare between the one and the other There is no sorrow like that of a wounded Spirit Others may be avoided or they may be cured they may be diverted and they have been born But a wounded spirit who can bear This is an evil from within a perpetual disquiet at home The other evils are but foreign and from without There is no plague like that of the heart All other strokes they do but batter the out-works this throws down the main Fort. Greater madness cannot be than to wrong our Consciences that we may save our lives To wound our Souls that we may keep our Skin intire This is to regard the Garment more than we do what it covers What is it that bewitches us Can we meet with any evil in this world to be compared with the guilt and horrors of our own minds Will any thing comfort us when our own minds upbraid us Will any thing be able to hold us up when our hearts sink within us Surely all other sorrows are very trifling things to this one sorrow of a guilty and unawakened mind For we find that it is this that makes our other sorrows sharp and poinant it is this that gives them a keen edge and makes them pierce deep Guilt renders even our outward Crosses and sorrows double It is this that presses and weighs us down under our other burdens We run into a greater evil than we run from when to escape a suffering we commit a sin We do but divert the blow from our body and receive the deadly stroke upon our souls For sure I am that Fire and Faggot Wheels and Gibbets all the Instruments of cruelty and death are very gentle Evils to the horrors and lashes of a guilty and accusing Conscience But then 2. We avoid by this means an eternal and unspeakable misery The flames of Hell I mean which opens its mouth to receive those profane sinners that choose that everlasting burning before the sufferings of this present life What proportion is there now between a Temporal and an Eternal death Between the sorrows of this present time and those everlasting sorrows Is there any burning to be compared to that fire which never goes out Any Dungeon or Prison fit to be compared with those chains of darkness Does not that worm that never dies speak infinite more terror than any Crâ—â—â—â— or Gibbet any pain or torment here below Can we conceive what it is to die eternally Is there any evil like unto this Is any sentence so formidable as that of Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels Mat. 25.41 Certainly the parting of the soul from the body is but a small thing to the parting of the soul from God the fountain of its being and happiness We look upon death as formidable which strips us of our worldly properties divides us from this body and from this world but what is it then to be eternally separated from our God To depart from God to depart with a Curse to depart into everlasting fire to depart into the portion of Devils and apostate Fiends is more than can be expressed in time My God my God why dost thou part from me Was such a grief as cannot be The Son of God cried out when he was for a while deprived of a sense of Gods favour when he was in that agony which he underwent upon our score But who can tell nay who can think how sad this will be when God will be merciful to a man no more When we die for our Religion it is that we may not die eternally When we lose our life here it is that we may not die the second death Having premised these things I shall now proceed to lay before you the helps and assistances that our Religion does afford us against the severest trials that we shall meet with in our Christian Course and Warfare CHAP. III. FIrst Our Religion lays before us the hope of eternal life for our support under the sufferings and calamities of this short life Rejoyce says
and indifferent the loose and the profane Let us then be exhorted to ask and seek and knock Let us now fervently implore this Holy Comforter this Spirit of truth and power I need not tell you what great need we have of power from above We are weak Creatures full of our fears exposed to many evils and sufferings and need an help from above to confirm and strengthen us We know not how soon we may be called forth to suffer the extremest evils or may be stript and deprived of all our worldly Goods and Possessions We cannot tell how soon we may lie upon our dying beds when our Soul shall sit ready to take its flight from our trembling lips when our Flesh shall fail us and we shall be abandoned by our earthly comforts and supports Whither shall we go for comfort then What will support us under these trials but the sense of Gods love and the Joy of the Holy Ghost This Comfort will reconcile us to Prisons and to Poverty and to Death it self We shall then have hope even in Death it self Rom. 5.5 And such an hope as maketh not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us CHAP. VI. I Shall in the next place consider the Example of Christ and of holy men who have suffered the greatest evils which this world could inflict upon them And for the better speaking to this I shall First Take notice that the Holy Scripture calls upon us to reflect upon these Examples under our afflictions Secondly I shall give you a very short account of their sufferings Thirdly I shall shew you the great usefulness of these great examples unto us 1. I shall take notice that the holy Scripture calls upon us to reflect upon these examples under our afflictions The Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews gives us a large account of the sufferings of holy men And then subjoyns Chap. 11. Heb. 12.1 2. Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of Witnesses let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us and let us run with patience the Race that is set before us looking unto Jesus the Author and finisher of our faith Who for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross despising the shame c. He animates them by these great examples which they were therefore obliged to keep in their eye And they are at once put in mind to reflect upon the exemplary sufferings of holy men and of our blessed Saviour To the same purpose St. James exhorts those to whom he writes Jam. 5.10 11. Take my Brethren the Prophets who have spoken in the name of the Lord for an example of suffering affliction and of patience Ye have heard of the Patience of Job and have seen the end of the Lord. i. e. as ye have read or heard of the Patience of Job who lived many Ages before and probably suffered before the Law of Moses was given so ye have many of you seen how patiently our Lord Jesus suffered It was one end of our Lords sufferings that we might learn patience from his example 1 Pet. 2.21 For even hereunto were ye called because Christ also suffered for us leaving us an example that ye should follow his steps And indeed the holy Scripture is very large and very particular in giving us an account of the sufferings and of the patience of Christ and of holy men that we might learn to write after so fair a Copy and imitate them in patience and resignation to the Will of God which in them was so exemplary For whatsoever things were written afore time Rom. 15.4 were written for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope 2. I shall give you a very short account of their sufferings And First Of the sufferings of Jesus the Author and the finisher of our faith His whole life was little else than a continual suffering And he was a most unparallel'd example of Innocence and of suffering and not only of sufferings but of the greatest meekness and exemplary patience under them He was born in a Stable and died upon a Cross Born among Beasts and died among Malefactors He was persecuted as soon as he was born and when he was capable of doing no evil he was hunted after as a Malefactor His Persecution began from Herod an Idumaean it was carried on by the Jews his Countrymen and compleated by Pilate the Roman And though he hurt no man yet he was pursued by all His great Poverty did not protect him from Envy His profound Meekness did not preserve him from the Contradictions of Sinners And his known Innocence did not save him from the Sentence of Death His body was like one of ours He was as sensible of pain as we are And certain it is that his Enemies loaded it greatly What part of him was exempt His Head was Crowned with Thorns his Hands and Feet were pierced with Nailes his Side was goared with a Spear his Shoulders loaded with a Cross He was spit upon buffeted and scourged And at last hanged on a Tree without regard and pity His Soul was afflicted greatly Mat. 26.37 38. Mar. 14.33 He was sorrowful and heavy and that even to death He was sore amazed Luk. 22.44 and very heavy He was in an Agony and sweat as it were drops of bloud Psal 22.14 His heart was like Wax melted in the midst of of his Bowels At length he is forced to bear his Cross on that he is hanged there he bleeds and there he cries out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me But as he endured the Cross so he despised the shame For his death was ignominious as well as painful He died among Criminals and the death of the worst and vilest of men Thus did our Saviour suffer Thus entred he into his glory And all this he bore with invincible patience He did not want power to rescue himself and to punish his Enemies nor did he want the greatest provocation He was innocent and had lived an useful life But for all this he is not provoked against his Enemies nor does he complain against God For as he prays for his enemies so he resigns himself unto God Secondly For the sufferings of Holy men both before and since our Saviours death I must not undertake to give you an account It would fill some Volumes to be particular in this Argument We read of those before our Saviours sufferings of whom this world was not worthy that had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings Heb. 11.36 of bonds and imprisonments That were stoned and sawn asunder tempted and slain with the Sword that wandred about in Sheep-skins and Goat-skins being destitute afflictted tormented They wandred in Deserts and Mountains and were in Dens and Caves of the Earth And for the
times afterwards we have very large accounts of the sufferings of the Apostles and Primitive Christians for a long time and a very particular account of the exemplary patience and meekness courage and undauntedness of them that suffered These are things very well known to them that have read the holy Scriptures and the ancient Writers of the Christian Church Besides the many examples we have upon record of those who have with great patience suffered for the truth in the later Ages of Christianity We have many examples of those who have chearfully gone into Goales and given their bodies to be burnt for the sake of the truth Thirdly I shall shew you the great usefulness of these great examples to us For when we are directed to reflect upon them it is supposed that it is for our advantage that we should do so For it cannot be denied but that the Church hath gained much by the exemplary sufferings of holy men The bloud of Martys hath been a fruitful Seed And the Church did then grow when it was persecuted Phil. 1.12 14. I would ye should understand Brethren that the things which hapned unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the Gospel And many of the Brethren in the Lord waxing confident by my bonds are much more bold to speak the Word without fear Holy men have done great service to the Church by a resolute dying for the Truth Their death hath been like that of Samson's who destroyed more Philistins then than he had at any time before The Heathen could say of good men That if in their life they were profitable v. Arrian Epictet l. 4. c. 1. they were much more so in their death For by this means the Truth hath got ground and the Religion hath been spread in the world Men are very prone to favour the persecuted and afflicted side and where they see the afflicted support undauntedly they are very much inclined to judge favourably of their Cause Hence in the Primitive times men came into the Church when they saw the Christians suffer the greatest torments with the most invincible patience They began to enquire what this Religion was which did thus support its Followers And hence they were induced to the Profession of that Religion which did so powerfully support its Followers Plures efficimur quoties metimur à vobis Tert. Apol. c. 45 And thus when some were cut off others came in from the Heathen world But I shall particularly consider the usefulness of these examples to us I shall shew you what benefit we may receive from the patient sufferings of Martyrs and other holy men 1. We are by this means assured that the greatest torments may be endured and supported under We do very often fear that we should never be able to bear the scorching flames that we can never endure the torments of a Rack extremity of cold and hunger and other pains For we have been tenderly brought up and have been uneasie under small pains And have not known what hunger and thirst cold and nakedness mean Hence we conclude that we should never be able to endure great severities The truth is It were much to be feared that we should rather renounce our Religion than hold out under the sharpest perseution did we only look into our selves But when we consider the power of God and look upon the examples of holy Martyrs we have great cause to hope that we shall be able to submit to torments and to death for the sake of our Religion For if we are weak if we have been brought up tenderly if we are of a timerous nature c. so were many of those Martyrs who yet rejoyced afterwards in Prisons welcomed the Fire and Faggot and rejoyced that they were thought worthy to die for the name of Jesus And those have done this who did suspect themselves and were suspected by others also We are hereby encouraged to hope well when we see that men that were subject to the like passions with us have continued stedfast to the last 2. We are further hereby assured that God will not fail to give assistance in the time of need Which is a truth the belief whereof does much tend to quiet and comfort us amidst our many fears and distractions Hence we are encouraged to hope that God will stand by us and help us when our burden is heavy upon us and we can now come boldly unto the throne of grace Heb. 4.16 that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in the time of need This is the use that we are called upon to make of the sufferings of our Lord Cha. 12.3 Consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds Indeed God hath been pleased to assure us Heb. 13.5 that He will never leave us nor forsake us And the Apostle says 1 Cor. 10.13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man But God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able But will with the temptation also make a way to escape that ye may be able to bear it In which words we are assured that God will give us a good event if we call in and depend upon his help and assistance 2 Thes 3.3 The Lord is faithful who shall establish you and keep you from all evil And the same Apostle elsewhere speaks to the same purpose 1 Thes 5.22 23 24. saying Abstain from all appearance of evil And the very God of peace sanctifie you wholly And I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ Faithful is he that calleth you who also will do it These are great promises and assurances which God hath been pleased to give us and we ought upon all occasions to consider them But so it is we are of little faith and very prone to fear But then seeing we are incompassed with so thick a cloud of Witnesses to whom these promises have been made good we are farther confirmed that he who hath done it will still perform the word which he hath spoken For these examples before our eyes have a great force towards the ridding us of those fears which are apt to solicite us For from them we learn what weak Creatures can do when they are assisted by a power from above 3. We are by this means farther confirmed in our Religion and consequently thereupon the more firmly obliged to continue stedfast in the Profession of it He that dies for his Religion and does it undauntedly does more than he that defends it by learned Discourses It is not every man can discern the force of Arguments He that lives well and that dies with courage for his Religion 't is he that defends his Faith and commends it to the Consciences of men This man does most effectually