THough Christian Re­ligion will not al­low any of its fol­lowers to do any in­jury, nor yet to re­turn, or revenge any; yet it directs and it enables them to bear them. It does not keep off the affliction, but yet it gives them strength to bear it. The sincere Christian is liable to perse­cution and violence, as well as any other man, but then his Religion affords him supports beyond any Philosophy or Institution whatso­ever. His Religion does not pro­tect him from reproach, and from pain, from rude usage, and a vio­lent death; But then it secures him from sinking under his burden, [Page 2]and from receiving any hurt from it.

If is my intention, in the fol­lowing discourse, to represent the aids and supports that our Religi­on does afford to them that are afflicted and persecuted for righte­ousness sake: And this I shall do for the sake of those who are prone to be amazed and astonished at those evils which they suppose they may be exercised withal. Amongst which, because a violent death is one of the most astonishing, I shall therefore have a particular respect unto that; and it will be very well worth our while to ap­ply our selves to the serious consi­deration of those things which will be of use to us against so great an evil.

But before I come particularly to consider the aids which our Re­ligion affords against the greatest evils of this world, I shall premise some things for the better making way to my following discourse. And since it is here supposed that [Page 3]good men are exposed to severe afflictions and violent death as well as other men, I shall before I go any farther,

First, consider how the sufferings of Holy and good men in this world are reconcileable to the care and good Providence of God. For some men may hence be tempted to think that there is either no God at all, or that he does not concern himself in the government of the world, when the most God-like and best of men are observed to meet with the worst of things.

We are obliged by our Religion to believe the particular care and Providence of God: He that de­nies this hath advanced far towards Atheism, than which there cannot be a more foolish, or uncomforta­ble belief; we shall soon question the being when once we do deny the Providence of God. Mihi enim qui nihil agit esse omnino non videtur. Cicero de Natur. de­orum. l. 2. The very heathen could say that, To him He that doth nothing seemed not to be at all, The denial of Gods care and [Page 4]Providence subverts all Piety and true Religion. This puts a bar to all vertue and real Godliness. He that comes to God must believe not only that he is, but that he is a re­warder of them that diligently seek him: Were it not for this belief I do not see how there could be any such thing as a pious man, For he that doth deny Gods care and go­vernment destroys all the motives to and foundations of true Piety, Were it not for this belief men would want a ground for their de­votion, and their patient suffering of persecutions for righteousness sake. We should have small en­couragement to pray to Him that does not hear and regard us; we shall return him cold thanks for the mercies we enjoy when we do not believe they came from him; And shall be tempted quickly to forget him whom we do not think con­cerned in any of our affairs. It is not likely we should support with courage under our evils when once [Page 5]we judge that God concerns not himself in what passeth here be­low. This opinion will soon Cramp us, it will enfeeble and dispirit us, and we shall not abound in the work of the Lord, unless we first be­believe that our labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. This world is now an uncomfortable place, but then it would scarce be tolerable. It is a sense that God governs that makes it any thing easie. We were in an ill plight did things come to pass by Fate or Chance. [...]. Mar. Ant. l. 2. Sect. 8. How could I live in the world (says the Heathen Emperour) that is empty of God, and void of a Providence?

Our Religion gives us great as­surance of Gods particular care and providence; I do not design at present to enter upon that argu­ment: I shall shew that the mise­ries that befal good men in this life are not inconsistent with this Pro­vidence of God. And to that pur­pose I shall desire that the follow­ing particulars may be considered.

First, the persons upon whom these evils fall.

Secondly, the evils themselves.

Thirdly, the ends and usefulness of these things.

Lastly, the sudports of good men under these evils.

I. The Persons upon whom these evils fall, and they are supposed to be righteous and good men: Now here it is to be considered,

1. That this is sometimes suppo­sed when it is not really so. They are not all righteous and holy men that are reputed so. God knows who are his, we know it not. We ought in charity to judge all men good of whom we know no evil. But we do not then always judge of the thing as it is. We are often mistaken: A man may de­ceive himself, and very easily im­pose upon us. Hypocrisie does lurk very frequently under the dis­guise of Piety. And there are some faults and irregularities that have the appearances of vertue. We see [Page 7]but the surface of mens conversa­tion, we are not acquainted with their principle, and their aim. Be­sides men appear at their best in company; They are dressed up when they go abroad: God alone sees the heart, and searches the reins: He alone knows the in­ward thought and purpose of a man.

It is much more easie to discern a man to be wicked, than to be sin­cerely pious, and truly good. The works of the flesh are manifest, Gal. 5.19, 22. says the Apostle, but he does not say so of the fruits of the Spirit also. Bonum ex integris, malum ex quolibet defectu. Besides that many things must con­spire to make him righteous and good, whereas one vice is enough to render him evil. Goodness and true Piety are very comprehensive things. [...] Righteousness implies all vertues in conjunction; He that is righteous must be godly, just, and temperate: Every man that makes a great profession is not universally and strictly righteous. The Apostle [Page 8]tells us, that the grace of God teacheth us that we should live so­berly, Tit. 2.12. righteously, and godly in this present world. These are but few words, but they are very compre­hensive.

Godliness or Piety contains much, that is, our whole duty to­ward God. It is not enough that we believe aright, that we be Or­thodox in our Faith, and that we be of the most Reformed Church and Communion; that we be kind to the Ministers of Religion, and contend for the Faith that was once delivered to the Saints; That we read the Scriptures, that we hear them Preached, and frequent­ly receive the Holy Sacrament. All these things do not speak us godly and pious men. Before we can be that, we must arise higher; we must love God with all our heart, fear him above all, pray to him fervent­ly, and give him hearty thanks for his mercies: We must chearfully submit to his Will, and not murmur [Page 9]against his Providence; we must honour his Name, and his Word, and all his Divine Institutions. We must breath after Him, delight in Him, and refer all to Him. Our Religion must be no Mechanical, Theatrical, or affected thing: It must be in us a principle of life and of power; He that is truly Reli­gious hath a faith in God under all events of things, and will choose to suffer rather than offend Him. In a word, he commits all his con­cerns to God, and it is his meat and drink to do his Will: He does not only do Him outward Homage, but he inwardly loves and fears Him, and desires to be like Him.

Righteousness and Justice also is very large and comprehensive, and contains many duties under it. It is not enough that we do no wrong, we must revenge none that is done to us. We must not only not oppress, but we must also not covet. It is not enough that we do no hurt, we must also do good [Page 10]to our Brother, that is, to every man as we have opportunity. We must do as we would be done by; And we are obliged severally as we stand related to each other. The righteous man hurts no man in body, goods, or same; he is mer­ciful to the poor, and strictly just to all men. He is faithful to his Prince, dutiful to his Parents, true to his Friends, grateful to his Be­nefactors, and gentle to his Inferi­ours; affable, and of easie access, void of malice and guile in all his words and actions. So far is he from attempting to kill that he does not hate his Brother; and so far from unchaste embraces that he does not indulge himself in an undecent word, or an impure thought; so far from speaking evil that he thinks it not. His love is without dissimulation or design, his Compassions are great, and his Alms hold proportion to his abili­ty, and his brothers needs. He is tender of his brothers goods and [Page 11]reputation, and rejoyces in his prosperity as sincerely as in his own, and is so far from obstructing it that he does not envy it. He is the most diligent Governour, the most Loyal Subject, the most du­tiful Child, and kind Parent, and true Friend; He is true to all his trusts, and righteous in all his rela­tions, and in all his dealings is all of a piece.

Sobriety also contains much in it, And he that is sober is far from pride and vanity; He does not in­dulge his lust and sensual appetite, and his ambition and vain-glory, but governs himself by Religion, and by Reason: He allows himself as to his meats and drink, his garb and his refreshments, what his na­ture and his circumstances, not what his lust demands.

Thus I have given you a short Character of the pious and good man: It is to be feared the number of them is small among those that profess the Religion of Christ [Page 12]Jesus. We do commonly under all our forms of Godliness deny the power of it: And when we shew great zeal for some things of Re­ligion we are far from pure Religi­on and undefiled. We judge of our selves by false measures, and therefore think our selves to be something when we are nothing. We judge our selves good because our Principles or our Party is so, or because we are better than some others are. We judge well of our selves because we comply with the Letter of the Law, and live so well that the world cannot reprove us. It is to be feared that the number of those that are strictly and universal­ly good is but small, and that among the crowd of Professors there are many Hypocrites and Unbelievers.

2. Supposing these sufferers sincerely and universally good, yet they are but imperfectly so. There is some folly bound up in the heart of the wisest and best of men; There is some defect in the most perfect [Page 13]Saint. All menneed some grains of allowance: Nullum magnum ingenium sine venia placuit. Sen. And as there is some flaw in the greatest wit, so there is some defect even in them who have made the greatest proficiency in goodness. And whatinjustice is there in chastising the follies of good men; especially when this cha­stisement is for their Emendation? It is folly and fondness to suffer an otherwise towardly Child to go on in an evil and unbecoming course. It is greater kindness to correct than to indulge him. There is no man so good but doth sometimes go astray. It is no impeachment of the Divine Providence to correct the faults of the best of men: This is just and very consistent with the Divine care and providence: It rather confirmes it, and strengthens our belief of it. Psa. 89.20, 22, 27, 28, 29. I have found Da­vid my Servant, with my holy Oyl I have anointed him. The enemy shall not exact upon him, nor the Son of wickedness afflict him. Also I will make him my first-born, higher than [Page 12] [...] [Page 13] [...] [Page 14]the Kings of the earth: My mercy will I keep for him for evermore, and my Covenant shall stand fast with him, his Seed also will I make to endure for ever, and his Throne as the Laws of heaven. These are great Promises, and such as give assurance of a ve­ry particular Care and Providence: But all these great things do not imply that Davids Children shall not be chastised: They may be corrected for their sin without the least diminution to the Promise, or impeachment of Gods care and Providence. Ver. 30, 32, 33, 34. It follows, If his Children forsake my Law, and walk not in my Judgments — then will I visit their transgression with a rod, and their iniquity with stripes. Ne­vertheless my loving kindness I will not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. My Covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. It is an act of mercy and kindness in God to correct his Children; Heb. 12.6. Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth. If [Page 15]God did it not, Intelligi­mus esse nos Deo curae, qui­bus quoni­am pecca­mus [...]ra­scitur. La­ctant. Inst. l. 5. c. 23. we might have greater cause to impeach his care, and doubt of his Providence. We commend the care of that Master of a Family who does correct the disorders of his own house: Good men are Gods peculiar, His Church is His Family. Amos 3.2. You only have I known of all the Families of the earth, therefore will I punish you for all your iniquities; not to do thus would be cruelty and disregard. And it is the greatest Plague to meet with none at all. It is said of the worst of men, Psa. 73.5. They are not in trouble as other men, neither are they plagued like other men. And it is a severe threat, no merciful promise which we read, Hos. 4.14. I will not punish your Daughters when they commit Whore­dom, nor your Spouses when they com­mit Adultery. As the faults of good men make it just that they should be corrected, so their relation to God makes it necessary. God may justly do it because they deserve it, and He does it because they are [Page 16]His. There is in it Justice, and Kind­ness at once.

Be it then, that the good man suffer, yet hath he deserved it from God; Be it, that he is sincerely good, yet he is imperfectly so; He fails in many things: He is too cold in his Prayers, or too weak in his Faith; too contracted in his Charity, or too propense to the world. Be it, that he be Gold, there may be some dross that may be ta­ken away by the Discipline of Heaven. Let us consider in the next place,

II. The evils themselves which are in this world the lot and por­tion of good men. They meet with Evils, but what Evils are they? How great, and how durable, or what proportion do they bear to their demerits or their mercies? They meet with Evils indeed, but not with the worst of things. And this will appear, if we consider,

1. That the evils which good men meet with are not strictly evils. [Page 17]They are in some sense Evils, but not of the greater size and cha­racter. That is indeed a great Evil which makes us evil, and is not con­sistent with real goodness. As that is truly good which makes us good, so that is only an evil in the truest sense which makes us so. Pover­ty, restraint, reproach, sickness, death are in some sense evils: But they are not such evils as Pride, Wantonness, Prophaness, Inju­stice, a guilty mind and unquiet Conscience. They are evils, but they are tolerable ones. The Spirit of a man may bear his infirmity, but a wounded Spirit who can bear? The good man meets with evils then, but not with the worst of things, for such things will imply him not to be good. A good man may be killed, but he cannot be hurt: Men may kill his body, they can­not deprave his soul: He may be banished from his Country, not from his God: Men may make him poor, they cannot make him co­vetous [Page 18]and proud, earthly and sensual; They may load him with Calumnies, but not with Guilt: He hath goods of which he cannot be rifled and stripped. He may fall under the anger and power of a Tyrant, or popular Tumult, but is not by that force robbed of his in­tegrity. The good man is well dealt with, he hath good things which no malice or force can take away. [...]; Arrian. Epictet. l. 3. c. 17. Why do we blame Provi­dence which allots the best of things to the best of men? Is it not better to be modest than to be rich? Is it not better to be good than to be great? Is not integrity of mind better than health of body? If it be, then the good man does not meet with the very worst of things, and though he may be afflicted with sundry evils which other men avoid, yet he hath many very good things belonging to him which other men want.

2. The evils which good men meet with are but Temporal evils at [Page 19]most. Sharp they may be, and pain­ful to the flesh, but they are but short. The best man may meet with a fiery trial, he will not fall into everlasting burnings. His sufferings bear no proportion to a future mi­sery or glory.

If we think of eternal sorrows, we cannot think our short ones worthy to be compared with them; The good man meets with all his pain here, there is none remains for him in reversion. Alas! what compare is there between a fire and fagot, and eternal fire? Between a Gibbet and a Rack, and the Worm that never dies, and 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 [Page 20]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 [Page 21]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 [Page 22]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 [Page 23]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 [Page 24]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, [Page 25]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 [Page 26]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 [Page 27]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. It is very rarely that we make any great attainments unless we meet with Crosses.

Secondly, They are very useful to the weaning of good men from this world and all worldly things. They teach them to make a right judgment and estimate of things; And this is a fruit of great wisdom, and a step to the greatest perfecti­on. He that prospers knows but one part of the world, he looks upon it on one side, and does not know it throughly. We do not know it perfectly till we come to suffer; Till then we see the fair and glozing and false side of the world. He that sees no more than this runs a great hazard. The Shep­herd in the Fable, was tempted out of the hopes of gain to turn a Mer­chant; He did so, and lost his ad­venture upon a rough and tem­pestuous [Page 28]Sea: But then he gained this wisdom by his loss, not to trust to the Sea when it was calm. The world does us the greatest mischief when it smiles, and never does us a greater hurt than when it speaks us fair. It is a great proficiency to be able to contemn the smiles and Courtship of the world.

Thirdly, They are of great use to make us more earnest contenders for heaven. They bring the good man nearer to God, and to his hap­piness. By these sufferings the good man is prepared for the enjoyment of God. The contempt he meets with here makes him aspire after a future glory: His poverty and pain, and confinement put him upon breathing after the plenty, and the joys and enlargement of a future state, what he loses here he gains above. And we are very happy when we do, whatever the occa­sion be, endeavour earnestly after an incorruptible Crown.

Fourthly, They give us an expe­riment [Page 29]of our selves; We know not what we are till we are tried, It is easie to be valiant when we are in no danger: Our courage is then proved when we are surrounded with danger; It is the Storm that shews the skill and courage of the Sea-man. We are reproached; we shall now know whether or no we can pray and forgive them that speak evil of us without a cause. We are injured; now we shall know whether or not we can for­give an enemy. We lose our goods; we shall now see whether our faith and patience be genuine or not. We are affronted; this is the time to take a proof of our meekness. If these things had not hapned the graces of good men had not been known to others, nor to themselves. But by this means good men have the comfort of this experience and others an advan­tage also. It is much better to bear our evils well than to meet with none at all. Jam. 1.2, 3. Count it all joy when ye [Page 30]fall into divers temptations, knowing that the trying of your faith worketh patience. Rom. 4.3, 4. We glory in tribulation also (says St. Paul) knowing that tribu­lation worketh patience; wherein ye greatly rejoyce (says St. 1 Pet. 1.6. Peter) though now for a season (if need be) ye are in heaviness through manifold tem­ptations: That the trial of your faith being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried in fire, might be found unto praise, and honour, and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. Though we had these graces before, we might yet have been without the comfort, and our Brother without the advan­tage, and God without the glory had we not been tried.

Fifthly, Good men that have suffered much, and in a good cause, and with an undanted courage, shall have a greater reward in an other life. There are degrees of glory in the other state, and these holy men shall be placed in the higher Stations of glory. Rom. 8.17. If we [Page 31]suffer with him, we shall be glori­fied together. If we bear an heavy Cross, we shall receive a glorious Crown. I consider,

IV. That good men are suppor­ted under their sorrows and trou­bles here. And if God enable them to endure, well may he lay upon them what he pleaseth. For the good man is well dealt with when he is enabled here, and hath a sure Reward hereafter. I do intend to discourse of the supports which the pious man will meet with in another place.

HAving cleared the good Pro­vidence of God, and shewed that the sufferings of good men are very consistent with his particular care and government, I shall

Secondly, Shew you the great reasonableness of the Laws of [Page 32]Christ, by which we are oblige to suffer for righteousness sake, no only reproach, and the loss of o [...] worldly goods, but even life it self▪ Our Saviours Precept is plain [...] this matter. Luk. 14.26. with Mat. 10.37. If any man come to m [...] (says Christ) and hate not his Fa­ther and Mother, and Wife and Chil­dren, and Brethren and Sisters, ye [...] and his own life also, he cannot be [...] Disciple. The meaning of the [...] words is plainly this, that we ca [...] not be the true Disciples of Chri [...] if we do not prefer his command before Father and Mother, & [...] and our very life it self. To hat [...] these things is to love them less tha [...] we do our Saviour, as appear [...] from a parallel place. Luk. 9.23. It is but f [...] we should choose to dye rath [...] than deny our Saviour, and re­nounce our Religion. And we a [...] frequently commanded by ou [...] Lord to deny our selves, Mar. 8.34. to take up his Cross, to follow him: And we are assured that he that loseth his life for his sake shall find it. O [...] [Page 33]the other hand we are excluded from the hopes of mercy in ano­ther life if we do now deny our Saviour before men. If we suffer, Mat. 10.39. Ver. 33. 2 Tim. 2.12. we shall also reign with him. If we deny him, he will also deny us. It is our interest as much as it is our du­ty to part with life it self in the confession of the truth. Mat. 10.28. Fear not them (says our Saviour) which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; But rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in Hell. And in another place he tells us; Joh. 12.25. He that loveth his life shall lose it: And he that hateth his life in this world, shall keep it unto life eter­nal.

Now certain it is that our Lord is no hard Master, and that all his Laws are very righteous and good: Our Blessed Saviour promiseth us rest if we will become his fol­lowers, and assures us, Mat. 11.29, 30. that his yoke is easie, and his burden light. He that undertakes the Laws of Christ, and sincerely sets himself [Page 34]to obey them, will never have any cause to complain of his Master, or his Work. They that find fault with the Laws of Christ are those that do not understand them aright, or never did seriously apply them­selves to the practice of them. That we should choose to die ra­ther than break his Laws, and re­nounce his Religion, is indeed one of the hardest Laws of Christ: But 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 [Page 35]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 [Page 36]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 [Page 37]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 [Page 38]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 [Page 39]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 [Page 40]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 [Page 41]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 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 [Page 42]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 [Page 43] 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 [Page 44]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 los [...] 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 suffering [...] 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, [Page 45]yet is this a very inconsiderable [...]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 [Page 46]with God, and that pleased him lived the shortest life of any of the Patriarchs from Adam to Noa [...] And many times so it is, [...]. that he di [...] in his youth whom God loves. I hath been esteemed a favour to b [...] removed hence betimes. We mu [...] die, and if we are sure of that, i [...] is of small moment when we di [...] And therefore when we die fo [...] our Religion, we do not lose mu [...] for the sake of it; For we must all die: We are but deprived of tha [...] which we knew before would e [...] 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 [Page 47]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 [Page 48]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 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, [Page 49]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? [Page 51]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 [Page 52]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 [Page 53]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 [Page 54]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 [Page 55]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.

[Page 56] 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. [Page 58]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 [Page 59] 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 [Page 60]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 Cr [...] or Gib­bet, any pain or torment here be­low? Can we conceive what it is [Page 61]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.

The Son of God cried out when he was for a while deprived of a [Page 62]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.

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 the Apostle) in as much as ye are partakers of Christs sufferings, 1 Pet. 4.13. that when his glory shall be revealed ye may be glad also with ex­ceeding joy. I shall take the liberty to enlarge somewhat upon this Theme, and consider: 1. The great­ness of the reward; 2. The clear­ness of its revelation; 3. And the fitness of it to work upon us.

1. The greatness of the reward. Here is enough to make us happy amidst all the evils of this world. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake, Mat. 5.10, 11. for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, and perse­cute you, and shall say all manner of [Page 64]evil against you falsely for my sake. Here is that which will enable us not to endure only with patience, but to rejoice also, if it be duly considered.

But it is certain that Eternal life is a vast and wide Ocean, a bound­less Theme that it will not be easie to speak of as we should, who know but in part, and see through a glass darkly. Howbeit I shall say something, and leave very much more to be understood.

It is called in the Scriptures a Rest, Heb. 4.9. or Sabbatism, and that expres­sion does both tell us what Heaven, and what this life is. That this life is, a life of toil and labour, the burden, and back part of the Week; Just as of old the first days of the week were, days of labour and work. The other life is the everlasting Sabbath which does relieve and deliver us from our toil, and refresh us after our pain and toil. We are here sollicited by our fears, bowed down with [Page 65]sorrow, worn with labour, pained with sickness, affrighted with evil tidings, and with the apprehensi­ons of death. We are much affli­cted with the malice and power of evil men, and not suffered to be at rest. There the wicked cease from troubling, there the weary be at rest. There the Prisoners rest toge­ther, they hear not the voice of the Op­pressor.

This is a state of Change and great Vicissitude, and when things go well with us, we are not secure, they will continue in that posture. The Clouds of a sudden gather together after the clearest Shine. And the most setled course of things in this world, is yet full of change and variety. When things are as we would have them, they do not long continue so; some­thing or other arises that disturbs the order of things, or at least ruffles the calme of our minds. The dark night sends away the brightness of the day, and casts a black Mantle [Page 66]over the gaiety that entertained us. The delights of the Spring are re­moved by the heat of Summer; and a keen and sharp Winter robs us again of the pleasure of a more open season. Thus it is here be­low: We are entertained with va­rious things; and we are soon stripped of that pleasure which we embraced with the greatest wel­com. In the first days of the Week (in the Book of Genesis) It is constantly said, for six days to­gether, that the Evening and the Morning was such and such a day. But when we come to the seventh day we read no such thing: It is said, Gen. 2.3. that God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it. This gives us a fair representation of this, and the other life. This life is the bur­den of the Week, it hath its Even­ing as well as its Morning: The life to come is all alike. There is no Evening there that shall remove the light from the place where God dwels. Rev. 22.5. There shall be no night [Page 67]there, and they need no Candle, nei­ther light of the Sun: For the Lord giveth them light.

This one consideration does greatly recommend to us the hap­piness of a future state, viz. that it is a state of rest. To think that we shall be out of the reach of power and malice, that all our la­bour, our toil, and care is at an end. That we shall no more be harrassed and disturbed by the evils of life.

But this is not all that recom­mends to us a future state. It is re­presented to us in the Holy Scri­ptures as a state of great joy and pleasure: And it is consequently ex­pressed by such terms as do import no less, and such as do imply more than can be expressed or under­stood. Thus it is sometimes ex­pressed by a Kingdom, or a Crown, by a Feast, and by Pleasures, but then we are assured that it amounts to more than all these things speak, and that it is beyond what eye hath [Page 68]seen, or ear heard, or what hath entered into the heart of man to conceive. It is indeed a Crown, a Kingdom, a Feast, and it is much more than all this: It is the best of all this, and more than this. It is a Kingdom without Cares, a Crown without a Cross, a Feast without Satiety. It is called by these little names because these are the grea­test things which this lower world hath. These words among us sound high, they speak power and ho­nour, plenty and pleasure, and what the world calls good, and therefore Heaven is represented by such things which we under­stand and regard. But then these are but low and short representa­tions of the things themselves. Such Images of heaven as the Taber­nacle and Temple among the Jews were of this and the other World, or of Earth and Heaven. They were Images in little, but came greatly short of what they represented. For as Hell is [Page 69]represented in the Scripture-style by Fire, and by Darkness, and by the Valley of Hinnom, which were things in themselves very sad, and things that were easily understood, but yet far short of what they represent: So is Heaven represented to us by the best things below, but these things come infinitely short of that which they repre­sent.

At other times we find our fu­ture happiness otherwise expressed, by being with the Lord, by seeing of God, by knowing as we are known, and being like our Lord. These are expressions that are very big indeed, but still they import more than we are able in this state fully to comprehend: They im­ply the greatest perfection that our natures are capable of, and that our imperfections shall be quite ta­ken away. We are mightily struck and affected with seeing what we had but heard of, we are strangely [Page 70]pleased with apprehending a thing clearly which we knew not, or knew but imperfectly before. We are greatly taken with the com­pany of our dearest friends, and by our approving our selves to the vertuous and the good: And there­fore Heaven is represented to us in terms that speak the greatest and most rational satisfaction. But then still we live in houses of clay, we are dull of conceiving, and clogg'd with our flesh. And these things are spiritually discerned, and to apprehend them to good purpose we bust be greatly abstracted from the body, subdued to the world, and weaned from our sensualities. And when we are so in great mea­sure, we shall be mightily affected with these things.

Especially, when we remember that in that estate we shall be per­fect men: That our weakness and our folly shall be taken away, and all that which hinders and indis­poses us in this lower World shall [Page 71]be taken out of the way. Our Un­derstandings shall then be clear, and we shall no more be troubled with the fumes and mists that now are before our eyes. We shall judge no longer by false Rules and Mea­sures; we shall not be blinded by prejudice and prepossession, by passion, and by secular respects: We that now know as Children do, shall then know clearly, and as we are known. And then our Wills, that are now crooked, and per­verse, and in great measure unre­signed, (which is the source of our trouble in this life) shall be recti­fied, and swallowed up into the Divine Will. Our Passions shall no longer disturb and blind us, but we shall be perfected and comple­ted, throughly refined, and puri­fied, and perfectly relish the Joys of a future state, which as much surpass all the good things of this World as the Heavens surpass this lump of Earth we tread on.

After all this it must be remem­bred that that state shall abide for Ever. We shall there for Ever be with the Lord. Our Kingdom shall have no end, nor shall our Crown fade away. We shall not know what the infirmities of Age, and what the fears of Death mean. There will be an eternal Day without a succeeding Night; a Shine without fear of Clouds or Tempest; a perpetual Triumph without mixture and Allay. This gives an unspeakable weight to that Crown of glory, and it will not now sit uneasily upon our heads, we not being burdened with the anxious thoughts of death and a future reckoning.

2. I consider the clearness of the Revelation of this Eternal life. For this is a Consideration of great mo­ment in the case that lies before us. For had not the revelation been clear, the thing it self could not have wrought very powerfully up­on us.

The heathen world wanted this discovery to animate them to wor­thy actions. And for the Jews, we read nothing in the five Books of Moses, of Eternal life. I do not deny but that devout and holy men a­mongst them, had about them an ex­pectation of a future Bliss: Nay more, I make no doubt they had also among them some shadows, and ob­secure Images of this Blessed State. But then as this was not on Gods part any express Promise, so it is certain that they had but very ob­scure notices of this happiness. But thanks be to God the case is better with us: Our Lord hath abolished death, 2 Tim. 1.10. and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel. We have it now clearly and openly revealed, and have by the Religion of Jesus Christ re­ceived the utmost assurance of it. It is not now obscured under Types and Veils, under the wealth and plenty of a Land that flowed with Milk and Honey, but it is now [Page 74]revealed clearly, and our Lord hath given us the utmost assu­rance that we could desire in the case.

He hath not only taught us this Doctrine, but confirmed it to us by many Miracles, and particularly by his own Resurrection from the dead; and after that he himself ascended into Heaven, in the sight of his Disciples. What shall we say now? Can we forbear to use the Apostles words? 1 Pet. 1.3, 4. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mer­cy hath begotten us again unto a live­ly hope (or to the hope of life, as one Greek Copy hath it) by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead; to an Inheritance incorrupti­ble and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you. We are now begotten to the hope of life and immortality. The Blessed Tidings thereof was brought us from heaven by the Son of God, and he confirmed [Page 75]what he said by Miracles that were unquestionable; and to give us the greatest assurance, he did him­self rise out of the Grave, and ascended thither visibly. What is there wanting now to confirm our faith, if we do but credit the very History of the Gospel? That tells us the many wonders that Christ did, even besides what are writ­ten, and that these are written that we might believe that Jesus is the Christ, and that believing, Joh. 20.31. we might have life (or, as one Greek Copy hath it, eternal life) through his name.

3. I consider how fit this hope of Eternal life is to work upon us, and to render us patient and con­stant under the sufferings which meet us in our way to Heaven. Surely, the Apostle judged so when he said, Rejoyce, 1 Pet. 4.13. inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christs sufferings, that when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. It will have a mighty force [Page 76]upon us, if we be not much want­ing. 2 Cor. 4.16. For which cause we faint not— while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

There is enough in the thing it self to support us: And if it do it not, it is because we do not believe it, or do not keep our eye fixt up­on it. For we find that the hope of other things incomparably less, hath a mighty force and influence upon us. Out of the faint hope of Riches we endure labours and Watchings; we patiently dig into the bowels of the earth, and ad­venture our lives upon the uncer­tain Seas; we deny sleep to our eyes, and slumber to our eye-lids. We are content to endure repulses, and disappointments, that we may get preferment, and enjoy our pleasure afterward. We keep some­thing in our eye that supports us under our pain and labour of life. [Page 77]And in yet these things we have not that assurance of success; nor yet, if we had, can we have any cer­tainty that we shall long enjoy what we so vehemently pusue. Besides, all the mean while we do but grasp at a shadow, and court a trifle.

Let us then be perswaded to keep our eyes fixt upon our Re­ward, and we shall find our selves much at ease under the labours and sufferings of this life. Let us raise up our wearied hearts and eyes to that state of Rest and Bliss into which our Lord is entred, to pre­pare a place for us. If we think of the good Land we are going to possess, we shall support our selves under the labours of a barren Wilderness. And if our hearts be but through­ly set on Heaven, we shall not greatly complain of the roughness of the way to it. The hopes of a Child to be born into the world reconciles the, otherwise fearful, Mother to the pains of her Travail. [Page 78]What will not then the hope of Eternal glory be able to do? We are here but forming a new for a more blessed state of things: We hope to be brought forth ere long into a state of liberty and joy. Let us think of this, In alium sumimur partum. Sen. Ep. 102. and we shall not be cast down at our painin our passage thither. Let us under our Throws and pain look up to that immortality for the sake of which we suffer. Think of Eternity; He that apprehends that, will not be dismayed at force, nor terrified with the instruments of Cruelty. Let it never be said, the hope of Riches and Honour here, hath more force than the hopes of Heaven; That other men shall do and suffer more for earthly, than we do for heavenly things: That Temporal hopes can effect that which the hope of Eternals cannot do.

SEcondly, Our Religion gives us the utmost assurance of Gods gracious and particular care and Providence; and being assured of this, we are provided with ano­ther great support under all the Evils of this present life.

These two things have a mighty force to quiet us when they are duly considered. The hope of Heaven hereafter, and the assu­rance of Gods care and special Pro­vidence here. If our hope lies be­yond this World, and we be in the mean time assured that God rules among men, there is nothing that can afflict us greatly.

If we have no greater design about us, than that we may be happy with God in a future life; we shall not be much cast down at the troubles of this present state. [Page 80]For these troubles will be so far from hindring our attainment of that great end, that they rather ad­vance us and set us forward. Death it self, which is the extremest Evil, does but put us into the possession of our eternal rest. And whatever Storm or Tempest befalls us, we ought to welcom it when it drives us nearer to our desired Haven.

But let us in the next place con­sider the support which we have from that assurance which our Re­ligion gives us of Gods special care and Providence. If we live un­der a lively sense of this truth, we shall be in great measure rid of our anxious cares and troubles. For now though we should be tossed upon a Tempestuous Sea, and the Keel wherein we are should be in in danger from the proud and swel­ling Waves, yet we may rest se­curely when we remember who sits at Stern: And here,

First, I shall lay before you the assurance our Religion gives us of Gods care and special Provi­dence.

Secondly, I shall shew you how potent an argument this is toward our support.

Thirdly, I shall make some ap­plication of it.

1. I shall lay before you the as­surance our Religion gives us of Gods care and special Provi­dence. By his special care and Providence I mean his care of Men, and especially of his Church.

I might here put you in mind of what God did of old for his Church and People before the coming of the Messiah. The Holy Scriptures of the Old Testament will afford you many instances of Gods special care of the Jewish people, whom he had chosen out of all the Nations of the World. He ruled among them, and though he appointed Governours over them, yet was he [Page 82]their great Lord and King. And indeed their form of Government was a peculiar one. For it is, not without cause, by one of the An­cients called a Theocrasie: God was their King, from him they had their Laws, their Defence, and Prote­ction. And God gave that Peo­ple very many, and very great De­monstrations of his special care of them. He dwelt among them, they were under his Wings. And were of all people in the world the most happy while they continued obedient unto God. I should be endless if I should go about to reckon up what proofs God gave of his great care of that Church, and of his especial Providence over it. He shewed it by Miracles of Mercy, by Wonders of Love, by most singular and remarkable deliverances which he wrought for them.

In due time God sent his Son in­to the World, and after that, as he inlarged his Church and People, [Page 83]so he continued his care of them too. And by his Son he hath gi­ven us farther assurance of his very particular care and Providence. And the Son of God did in his Ser­mons and Discourses assure his fol­lowers of this truth; And by that means did prepare them for suf­fering, and dispose them to pati­ence and contentedness, and to an unshaken and steady faith in God, under all events of things. By this course our Lord would deliver us from those cares and anxieties, from those fears and distractions that render this life the greatest burden to us. And because we are apt to be mightily concerned for the ne­cessaries of this life, and very apt to be afraid of Death, espe­cially of a violent and unnatural one, therefore we find our Lord fortifying us against these evils, and that he does by giving us a full assurance of the special care and good Providence of God. For this (as I shall shew afterward) is [Page 84]a most powerful consideration to render us quiet and contented, and to rid us of our distracting cares, and those fears that make this life a burden to us: And to this purpose our Saviour discourses most divinely in his Sermon on the Mount; a considerable part of which incomparable Sermon was spent in this Argument: And it tends directly to free us of that anxiety and care which is the great burden of our lives. But I had rather you should hear the words themselves which our blessed Lord spake. And these they are: Mat. 6.25. to Ver. 33. Therefore, I say unto you, take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink: Nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on: Is not the life more than Meat, and the body than Raiment? Ver. 26. Behold the Fowls of the air, for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them: Are ye not much better than they? Ver. 27. Which of you by taking thought can add one [Page 85]Cubit unto his Stature? Ver. 28. And why take ye thought for raiment: Consider the Lillies of the field how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin. And yet I say unto you, Ver. 29. that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Ver. 30. Wherefore if God so cloath the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the Oven, shall he not much more cloath you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, Ver. 31. What shall we eat? Or what shall we drink? Or wherewithal shall we be cloathed? Ver. 32. (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek) for your hea­venly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.

Can any thing be more effectual to rid us of our anxious and un­easie thoughts, than these Argu­ments which our Lord has laid be­fore us? Shew me any Philoso­pher that ever discoursed at this powerful rate. These words are very divine, and mightily fitted to gain their end. They are words [Page 86]that couch under them very great Arguments to move us by. If God have given us life (which no­thing but his kindness could move him to do) we need not doubt of meat to preserve that life. He that hath given us a body that needs cloathing, will surely give us something to cloath it withal. The Fowls are fed, that can neither sow nor reap, nor do they gather into Barns; and shall we distrust? Our anxiety is burdensom indeed, but it does not advance us: It nei­ther feeds nor cloaths us. God cloaths the flowers and Lillies of the field (which are not capable of care and anxiety) and that af­ter a more gay manner than what any Monarch, even Solomon him­self, was clothed. And if the grass of the field, which was not de­signed for any long continuance, be thus beautified by God, shall we fear nakedness? These cares may better become the Heathens (who had but a slender belief of [Page 87]God's special Providence) they become us not, who do profess a belief that God knows what our needs are. These are the power­ful Arguments that our Lord lays before us. And can there be any thing more convincing than what our Saviour hath said? Can any thing be more effectual to rid us of our troublesom cares for ever? Can any thing be added to this Dis­course? If there may, it is that surely which our Lord himself has added in the next words: Mat. 6.33, 34. But seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Take there­fore no thought for the morrow: For the morrow shall take thought for the things of it self: Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. If we will be careful, let us take care to do the Will of God: Let us do our part, and God will take care of us. We shall have enough to do with our present work, let us leave futurities to him [Page 88]that is only wise and good.

But perhaps it is the least of our care what we shall eat and drink, and wherewith we shall be cloa­thed: We are careful about grea­ter matters than these are: And that is the smallest of our care what provision we shall make for our bodies: We are full of thoughts how we shall be able to suffer persecution, and continue constant to the death: We may be brought before the great men of the World, and how shall we do then for Wisdom and Cou­rage? We may be delivered up into the hands of powerful men; What shall we then do? Our Lord does not leave us in that case. When they deliver you up (says he) 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. It will be enough that we have help when we need it: We ought to consider that we shall not be forgotten by God: That nothing [Page 89]shall happen to us without his knowledge and permission. Ver. 29, 30, 31. Are not two Sparrows sold for a farthing? And one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father: But the very hairs of your head are all numbred. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many Spar­rows. These words give us assu­rance of the very particular care and Providence of God, and there­in the greatest support under all our afflictions that is imaginable. The World was greatly in the dark in the question of Gods Providence, and there were great and foul er­rors crept into the World concern­ing it. Thus Epicurus is said to have denied the Providence of God altogether; Aristotle, to have con­fined it to the Heavens; Some of the Arabians to have restrained it to Universals only; and some of the Jews to have limited it to Man­kind, and not extended it unto Beasts. Nay, some of the Jews were narrower still, and would [Page 90]needs confine the Providence of God to the Jewish Land or Nation only, Vid. Jac­chiad in Dan. 7.3. Cum Annot. L. Emper. v. Abraven. on Exod. 23.20. who were Gods Portion and Lot. But our blessed Saviour does, in the words above-named, assure us that Gods care is not to be bounded and restrained. And thus though he be not equally concer­ned for all his Creatures, yet they are all a part of his care: And he hath not only a general care of Mankind, but a care of the Indi­viduals also, and a very special and particular care of his Worshippers and Followers. Nay, the very Beasts themselves are part of his care; and not only Oxen, Beasts of great labour and usefulness, but the smallest fowls of the air, even the Sparrows, those cheap and in­considerable ones. Nor is God on­ly concerned for the life of a man: Our Saviour descends lower, when he says, The very hairs of your head are all numbred.

We are further assured by the Apostle that God careth for us, [Page 91]and that therefore we ought to cast all our Care) or burden, 1 Pet. 5.7. as it is in the Psalmist, Psal. 55.23. to which these words seem to refer) upon him. But then he would have us cast all our care upon him. Not only our care for meat and drink, &c. Our care for our selves, but our care for our Friends and our Relatives; Our care for future Events and Contingencies. Phil. 4.6. Be careful for no­thing, says another Apostle; 1 Cor. 7.3 [...].35. And elsewhere he tells them to whom he writes, that he would have them be without carefulness, and that they might attend upon the Lord without distraction. That is, we must from the consideration of Gods special Providence discharge our selves of all our tormenting and disquieting cares, giving up our selves intirely to the will of that God who rules and governs this lower World.

2. I shall now shew how po­werful an argument this is towards our support. And that is,

First, As by it we are discharged of our anxiety and disquiet of mind, which, for want of this con­sideration, afflicts and burdens us. If God govern the World, we may be quiet and still: We have nothing to do but obey his Will, and to submit chearfully to his disposal of things. We are not fit for the government, and well it is for us that we are not concerned. We want Wisdom and Power, and are too shallow and too weak for so great a weight. We have nothing to do now but Adore the Divine Wisdom and Goodness, and to follow God. It is well for us that we are discharged from a burden which neither we nor our Fathers were ever able to bear. Psal. 97.1. The Lord reigneth, let the Earth rejoyce, let the multitude of Isles be glad there­of.

Secondly, As by this Doctrine we receive assurance that all things will be well administred, and tend to a good account at last. We shall [Page 93]not now need to fear: We need not disquiet our selves with the things that happen, as if they came to pass by chance, or an inevitable fate. God governs the World: And it is well for us that so it is. We are safer much in his hands than in our own, and dearer we are to him than to our selves: We re­joyce under the Government of a wise and good King. We have greater cause to rejoyce in this, that God reigns. And that if we con­sider his infinite Wisdom, his Good­ness and Almighty Power.

His Wisdom assures that he will do what is best. And we are not fit Judges of that: We are not able to see into the secrets of Go­vernment: It is enough to us that God is infinitely wise, and so not only knows what is best, but what is best for us, and what is the fit­test time of helping us.

But then his Goodness, and Holiness give us a full assurance that he will not let them that are [Page 94]truly good, and suffer upon that account, lose their reward; That he will not govern Arbitrarily, but will do good to them that are good.

And since his Power is infinite also, we are secure that he will not be defeated in bringing his own Counsels to pass. And there­fore the holy and pious soul give [...] it self up intirely unto Gods dispo­sal; being well assured of Gods good will to him, and knowing well that his infinite Wisdom can­not be deceived, nor his Almighty Power defeated.

3. I shall make some Applicati­on of this: And that I shall do in the following Particulars.

First, This may serve to reprove our murmuring and impatience under the evils which we meet with here below. We complain bitterly under our several troubles and afflictions, not considering the hand that lays them on us. We do not, as we ought, when we are [Page 95]distressed, look up with great re­verence to our Creator; but we curse our Stars, or we are angry with our Brother, who is the im­mediate Instrument of our trou­ble; or we impute our misery to our inadvertence, and do disquiet our selves in vain. If our Child or Friend die, we accuse the Physici­an, or our selves: If we suffer in our Goods, we quarrel with our Servants, or are angry at the Times. In a word, we are uneasie and rest­less, not considering that God go­verns the World, and that the ve­ry hairs of our head are numbred. Our Friend did not die without Gods knowledge; Our Goods were not lost without his regard; And who are we that we should murmur and complain, and say un­to God, What dost thou? If God govern the World, we may well be shamed to repine and murmur. If he disposeth things below, we shall be very blameable if we mur­mur at our own Lot and Portion.

Secondly, Hence we may be seasonably exhorted to acknow­ledge this great truth by a suitable life and conversation. It is a great influence which this belief ought to have upon us; It ought to ren­der us contented with our Lot and Portion of things; To endue us with courage to encounter diffi­culties; It ought to quicken us in our devotions; Let us not faint under the sorrows that overtake us. If God govern the World, we ought quietly to commit our cause to him, and not go about to wrest the Government out of his hand. It becomes greatly to trust in him at all times, and not to let go our Faith and our Hope what­ever troubles befall us in this mor­tal life. 1 Pet. 5.10, 11. The God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you: To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

OUr Religion does assure us of the power and presence of the holy Spirit of God under our sufferings for righteousness sake, and this is another great support which the sincere disciples of Christ are furnished with. 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 — It is worth our observing by the way, that this Spirit is in this place represented to us under the Character of the Spi­rit of glory, and that very fitly also when the Apostle assures those men of this divine assistance who are reproached for the name of Christ. The Spirit of glory will sufficiently support good men under the re­proach and scorn they meet withal. [...]. vid. N. T. Edit. Cur­cellaei. There is a certain Greek Copy that hath it, the Spirit of glory and of [Page 98]power; I shall not need to contend for that reading, being well assu­red, that he who receives the Di­vine Spirit, receives the Spirit of power also, as I shall have occasion to shew you afterwards; It is to be observed, that the Apostle as­sures them to whom he writes, that this Holy Spirit, whom he calls the Spirit of glory and of God, shall rest upon them. He shall not on­ly give them a visit in their sor­rows, and so leave them, but he shall stay and abide with them. And this agrees with what our blessed Saviour promised. Joh. 14.16, 17. I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever. Even the Spirit of truth, &c.

But for my more orderly speak­ing to this matter, I shall

First, Shew you the sufficiency of this divine assistance.

Secondly, I shall lay before you the great assurance which we have, that we shall receive this heavenly aid.

Thirdly, The condition on our part required for the obtaining this assistance.

Fourthly, The Application of it.

1. I shall shew you the sufficiency of this Divine assistance which God hath made us the Promise of: We shall have great cause to believe that our help will bear proportion to our work, and that whatever is laid upon us does not exceed the proportion of the strength which we receive to bear it. And then we shall have no cause to find fault of our Master, or of our work when our help bears proportion to our work and duty. Now we need more than an ordinary help in these two Cases.

First, To enable us against per­secutions for the sake of our Re­ligion.

Secondly, To support and com­fort us under our losses and other afflictions which we shall meet with in this present life. I shall [Page 100]therefore shew you that the Spirit of God will afford sufficient help in both these cases.

1. We need more than ordinary assistance to enable us against per­secutions for the sake of our Reli­gion. The Christian hath as quick a sense of pain as other men, his Religion does not destroy his flesh and bloud, and change it into Brass: Heb. 12.11. He is as apprehensive and as sensible of the evils of life as any other man is: And besides that, he is is by his Profession ex­posed to all the miseries of hu­mane life; To cold, and naked­ness; To hunger and thirst; To scorn and reproach; To stripes and to buffetings; To Wheels and Racks; to restraint, and to death death it self. It were not an easie thing to recount the very many mi­series with which holy men have been persecuted: Apostles and Prophets, wise and holy men, men of whom this World was not wor­thy; have been sawn asunder, [Page 101]stretched upon the Rack, tormen­ted on the Wheel, exposed upon Gibbets, torn apieces by violence, rosted upon the fire, and taken off by death that hath been not only violent, but merciless. Now these trials require a mighty aid, and no less than an heavenly and a divine assistance. It is an easie thing for us to despise the danger that is at a distance; To speak big words when we know the Enemy is afar off; To profess that we will rather die for Jesus than we will deny him. Our Lord hath many such forward Disciples as these, who give him their word that they will not forsake him, and yet for all their good words they deny him in a time of danger. And indeed so it is, that we shall then need a great assistance: Nor can we tell how soon we may be put to the trial. It is, much for our Interest to dis­cern whence our strength is to be expected.

The Holy Spirit is able to strengthen us to undergo undanted­ly all these evils. And no aid less than that of the Holy Spirit would be sufficient. It must be a power from above, an help from God that can enable us to stand up against all the Wit and Malice, the Craft and the Cruelty of men and Devils. Indeed we are very apt to despond, and our hearts fail within us: We fear we shall never hold out under great pains and torments, and we do much disquiet our selves about it. But here is an help at hand, and we shall find, that he that is in us is greater than he that is in the world. And this will appear if we consider the follow­ing particulars:

1. That this Spirit is a Spirit of power, and that power is Divine also. The Holy Scriptures give us a large and very particular account of this matter; and therein we have a full assurance, that by the help of this heavenly aid we may be able [Page 103]to do more than we can think. He that hath this Spirit of God is en­dued with a mighty power from above, a power that is sufficient against all the powers of darkness. When the Virgin asked the Angel (who had told her she should con­ceive and bring forth a Son) How this be, seeing I know not a man? Luk. 1.35. We find what answer he made, viz. The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee — and then it follows: Ver. 37. For with God nothing shall be unpossible. The Holy Spirit is cal­led the finger of God: Luk. 11.20. And the great and mighty works which Je­sus and his followers did, were wrought by this Holy Spirit of God; And these works are an irrefragable proof of the mighty power of the Spirit of God. To this purpose we read of the de­monstration of the Spirit, 1 Cor. 2.4. and of power. And where in one place St. Act. 6.5, 8. Stephen is said to be full of the Holy Ghost, in the other place he [Page 104]is said to be full of Power. He that receives the Spirit receives Power: 2 Tim. 1.7. God hath not given us the Spirit of fear, but of Power. St. Pe­ter says, 1 Pet. 3.18. That Christ was put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit. St. Paul expresseth the same truth in other words, and that Variety confirms the truth of what I am now asserting; St. Paul says, That he was crucified through weak­ness, 2 Cor. 13.4. yet he liveth by the power of God.

Here can be no defect of Power then, where the Holy Spirit is. The mighty works wrought by this di­vine Spirit sufficiently declare, that no Power is wanting where he does assist. And therefore why should we distrust and despond when we have the promise of this Power from on high? We shall not need to fear even death it self if we be possessed of this heaven­ly help: Rom. 8.11. If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from [Page 105]the dead, shall also quicken your mor­tal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.

We have just cause to distrust our selves indeed, and we may well suppose that we cannot be able to stand upright; but what shall be too hard for us when we have received that Spirit that raised Je­sus from the dead? Well may God lay on us what he thinks fit, when he thus assisteth us with his Divine Spirit.

2. This Holy Spirit is promised to this end, to help us in these straits and necessities: Luk. 12.11, 12. And when they bring you into the Synagogues, and unto Magistrates, and Powers, take ye no thought how, or what thing ye shall answer, or what ye shall say. For the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say. It is enough, and we ought to think it so, that we have this assi­stance when we need it, and are to use it: And the Apostle tells us, that we are happy, even then when [Page 106]we are judged most miserable by the World, 1 Pet. 4.14. when we are re­proached for Christs sake, be­cause the Spirit of God and of glory resteth on us: God hath provided well for us under the Gospel, which is the ministration of the Spirit, that he has promi­sed a more than ordinary assi­stance in cases that are extraor­dinary.

3. Besides, we have sufficient proof that this heavenly assistance hath not been wanting to others in these difficulties. We have to this purpose very great examples of those that were assisted by this holy Spirit in all their sufferings and persecutions. They were by the Holy Ghost enabled under all that pain and suffering which they endured, to glorifie God in the day of Visitation. And whereas be­fore they were weak and feeble as other men, had the same fears and despondencies which other men are importuned with, yet when they [Page 107]were assisted by this good Spirit of God, they were full of Courage, and undaunted amidst the severest trials which they underwent, We know that St. Peter, before the de­scent of the Holy Ghost, was so fearful, that he denied his Master when he was questioned by a silly maid: But after the Holy Ghost descended, he was bold as a Lion, and durst confess him before all the House of Israel. Acts 2.36. Now those men that were ready to forsake their Lord before, they do not only own him publickly, but they de­parted from the presence of the Coun­cil, Act. 5.41. rejoycing that they were counted worth [...] to suffer shame for his name.

Nor was this Divine and super­natural assistance a Peculiar belong­ing to the Apostles and first Prea­chers of Christianity, nor was it limited to those early days of Chri­stianity; It was continued in the Church of Christ, and does still continue according to the Promise of our Lord and Saviour, Joh. 14.16. And [Page 108]hence it came to pass that holy Martyrs, and those that have been persecuted for righteousness sake, have been able to persevere in bearing witness to the truth, not­withstanding all the torments which they did endure from their enemies hands. They that were tortured endured with singular patience their Tormentors Cruelties, and wearied out those men who were their Executioners. Nor were they only the Ministers of Religi­on (who might be supposed to be endued with a greater measure of the Spirit) that endured with un­daunted resolution, but the Lay­people also, even Women were able to endure the greatest severi­ties: I should be endless if I should go about to tell what great ex­amples we have in former and later Ages upon record to this purpose.

2. We need a more than ordina­ry assistance to support and com­fort us under the losses and other [Page 109]afflictions which we meet with in this present life.

The Comforts of this life (what price soever we may set upon them) are at best very uncertain to us; And we very often out-live those blessings which rendered this pre­sent life comfortable to us. We are deprived of the delight of our eyes, and the labour of our hands, and of that which was the joy of our hearts. Our dearest Friends are snatcht away from our Embraces; our Children and our Relatives are taken from us by a sudden and an unlooked-for death, and we are bereft of the plenty and the store which once we did enjoy, and are left solitary, and there is none to comfort us.

In this case the devout and pious Christian is of all men in the world the best provided for. He hath peace and comfort which the world knows nothing of. And that he hath from the Holy Spirit of God, which he is endued with. [Page 110]In this dry and barren Wilderness he hath his fresh Springs; And af­ter all his losses and his toyl, he ha [...] a Comforter that visits him, and abides with him for ever. Thus the Promise runs which ou [...] Lord made a little before he les [...] the World. Joh. 14.16. And a most gracious Promise this to us who live in these houses of clay, and that are fa [...] removed from our Country and our Fathers house. We shall be sure to meet with tribulations here, to hear store of evil tidings, and very sad stories of the miseries that be­fall others, and that threaten us. Thanks be to God for the comforts of the Holy Ghost: It is to be hoped that we shall thereby be so [...] far refreshed and relieved, as to support us under all our other sor­rows in our way to Heaven. This Holy Spirit is like the Rock that followed the men of Israel in the Desert, and furnished them with water in a dry and thirsty Land: This is that Oyl of gladness that [Page 111]makes us rejoyce in the midst of the sorrows of this mortal life. The Seal of God, that tells us to whom we do belong, and the Ear­nest of our future inheritance, which does ascertain us of a great reward in Reversion. And by this means we are upheld by this hea­venly Comforter, under sickness and poverty, pain and reproach, confinement, and the fears of death, till we are set at liberty, and placed among the Spirits of just men made perfect.

2. I shall lay before you the great assurance, that we shall re­ceive this heavenly aid. For we cannot but be throughly convinced that this Promise of the Holy Spi­rit is an exceeding great and preci­ous one. We are next to consider what great ground we have to ex­pect that this heavenly gift shall be bestowed upon us.

So it is, that if we look down into our own breasts, we shall find our selves in so ill a case, that we [Page 112]cannot think them fit Temples for so pure and holy a Being as the Spirit of God. Our Souls are like the Earth when it was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the Deep. We may soon discover the need we have of this Divine assistance to digest and put in order, to cherish and enlighten this dark and confu­sed Chaos. But all this while we have no assurance that we shall be thus favoured.

But, blessed be the name of God, we have great assurance that he will send his Holy Spirit into our hearts, and not forsake us: And what that assurance is, you may take in the following particulars:

1. We have the Promise of God, and that to us ought to be enough. God had of old foretold, Isa. 44.3. Joel 1.18. Act. 2.17. that in the times of the Messias he would pour his holy Spirit plentifully, even upon all flesh. A Promise that was in great measure fulfilled at the day of Pentecost, next after the [Page 113]Ascension of the Son of God: He did before that command his Apo­stles, Acts 1.4, 5. that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the Promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. Our Lord had given them before this a great assu­rance, that this Comforter should come and abide with them for ever. And we need not doubt, but that he that promised would make good his word to us.

2. Especially if it be considered how necessary this Holy Spirit is for the compleating and finishing the work of mans Redemption. It It is true, we were redeemed by the bloud of Christ, but then we are renewed by the Holy Spirit, and by him enabled to give obedi­ence to his Laws, Heb. 5.9 [...]. who is the Au­thor of Eternal Salvation, but it is to them that do obey him. Since God hath given us his Son we need [Page 114]no longer doubt but that he will with him give us all things; espe­cially all things needful for life and godliness. We need not doubt of receiving the supports of the Holy Spirit to enable us to profess that truth constantly which the same Spirit dictated to holy men, Heb. 2.4. and which was confirmed by Signs and Wonders, and divers Miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost. There is no room left for doubting, but that we shall receive this Holy Spi­rit if we constantly and fervently implore him.

3. Again, our Saviour hath gi­ven us the utmost assurance in those words where he says, Luk. 11.13. If ye then being evil know how to give good gifts unto your Children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him. Parents do not use to deny their Children what is needful for them: Nor do they need a posi­tive Law to oblige them to it. There is a Law in their nature [Page 115]does direct and determine them in this case: And those Parents that are otherwise evil men, are yet very prone to bestow good things on their Children. Now then who can doubt of Gods readiness to be­stow his Holy Spirit upon them that ask him? Earthly Parents are evil, they are so by nature, and more so by custom and a course of sinning: But our heavenly Father is con­stantly and immutably good, and will not deceive, or deny those that ask him. That love and kindness, and all the degrees of goodness in any Earthly Parents was derived from God, who is infinitely and un­alterably good, and will not fail to fulfil the word which he hath spo­ken, nor can he be deceived or de­feated: He hath said it that can­not lie nor repent; He hath pro­mised who is able to do it; And we may as justly disbelieve his Be­ing as distrust his veracity, and doubt of his Propensity and his power. I proceed to

[Page 116] 3. The condition required on our part for the obtaining this assi­stance. And that is a very gentle and easie one. Luk. 11.9, 10. God will give his Holy Spirit to them that ask him. Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh, receiveth; and he that seeketh, findeth, and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened.

I do readily grant that we are not heard in all the Petitions which we put up to God: And it is very well for us that so it is. For we should soon destroy our selves if we should obtain that which we sometimes pray for. But then this is to be understood with reference to the things of this life, where the well instructed and modest man is to refer himself to God, who knows what is best for him: [...]. M. Antonin. l. 10. In this case the good man prayes that God would give him, and remove from him what he thinks fit. And the ve­ry Heathen could teach men this Lesson.

But then for the case before us, God hath declared his Will, and put us upon Praying, and that fervently also, for the Holy Spirit: And we have great need of his heavenly aid and assistance; and now we can have no doubt but that we shall be heard, because we are sure that we pray according to the Will of God. 1 Joh. 5.14, 15. And this is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us. And if we know that he heareth us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him. And especi­ally may we be assured of success when we are provided of so effe­ctual an Intercessour as the Son of God; He hath said, Joh. 14.13 Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. And we are certain more­over, that when we pray for the Holy Spirit in the name of Christ, we pray for that divine assistance which our Lord went into heaven [Page 118]to send among us. This he told us, saying, Joh. 16.7. I tell you the truth, it is ex­pedient for you that I go away: For if I go not away the Conforter will not come unto you, but if I depart I will send him unto you. Nay, our Lord assures us, that he will hear our Prayers, that he will intercede in this very case; so that we have here abundant security that we shall receive an answer to our Pe­tition. Joh. 14.14, 16. If ye shall ask any thing in my name I will do it — And pre­sently he adds, And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Comforter that he may abide with you for ever. For our other requests which we put up for health, or riches, and the good things of this life, our Lord has given us no parti­cular promise of his effectual Inter­cession, but he hath done it in this matter, and hath thereby re­moved our fears and doubts of be­ing heard.

And sure if God many times prevent our very Petitions, and [Page 119]give us some measure of the Holy Spirit, even before we ask him, we shall then have no cause to fear but he will give greater measures of this Holy Spirit to them that do ask him.

All our care must be that we ask as we should: That we pray for this heavenly assistance with great fervor and constancy; that we cry mightily unto God; and that we greatly humble our soules be­fore him: That we address to him with hunger and thirst and restless importunity; that we seek as for Silver, and search as for fine Gold: That we vehemently desire what we pray for, and thirst as the parched earth does for showers from heaven: That we strive mightily in our Prayers to God, and send up many strong cries: That we pierce the Heavens with our cries, and that we put forth all our strength: That we employ all the powers that we have received, and summon up all that is [Page 120]within us to call down this heaven­ly aid: That we cherish and im­prove the measures of the Spirit which we have received, and be greatly cautious that we do not by a careless and a trifling, a profane and worldly temper grieve this Holy Spirit, and send away this divine and heavenly Comforter. That we do not seek our comfort elsewhere, and oppose the divine assistance by our self-will and our inordinate affections.

4. I proceed now to make some Application of what hath been said. And

1. This speaks very much to the comfort of the weak and the fear­ful, at least to all among them that are sincerely good, and do desire greatly to become better. Here is an help at hand that is sufficient, and we need not now be cast down. I shall speak to such in the words of the Prophet, Isa 44.2, 3, 4. Fear not O Jacob my servant, and thou Jesurun whom I have chosen. For I will [Page 121]pour water upon him that is thirsty, and flouds upon the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon thy Seed, and my blessing upon thine Off-spring: And they shall spring up as among the grass, as Willows by the water-courses. This blessed time is now come, and it is well for us that so it is. We are not now unprovided of an heaven­ly aid; God is ready to pour out upon us his Holy Spirit: Our Lord came, Isa. 61.2, 3. To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord — To comfort all that mourn: To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oyl of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified. Let us not now fear nor be dismayed under all our afflictions and persecutions: Greater is he that is in us, than he that is in the world. This heavenly Comforter will abide when earthly comforts leave us. And may we but receive the [Page 122]Joy of the Holy Ghost, we shall not need be over-whelmed with our earthly sorrows.

2. This speaks our duty as well as our Privilege; And we may learn what we are to do, as well as what God hath done for us. The Holy Spirit is promised by God, but must be implored by us. God will give him, but not to the care­less and cold, the formal 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 [Page 123]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.

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 [Page 126]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.

[Page 127] 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 [Page 128]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, [Page 129]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 [Page 130]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 [Page 131]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 [Page 132]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 [Page 133]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.

[Page 135] 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 [Page 136]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 [Page 137]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, 'tis he that defends his Faith, and commends it to the Consciences of men. This man does most effectually vindi­cate his Religion from those asper­sions that are cast upon it. No [Page 138]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 [Page 139]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.

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 [Page 141]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 [Page 142]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, [Page 143]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 [Page 145]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 mentioned before rise higher, and imply, that Christ is ascended into the higher Heavens, even into that place where God does more parti­cularly presentiate himself. Our Lord passed through those lower heavens as we read, Heb. 4.14. [...]. We have a great High Priest that is passed through the heavens, (as those words may be rendred, which we render, pas­sed into the Heavens) Jesus the Son Son of God.

For that Jesus entred into the higher Heavens is evident, not on­ly from what hath been observed [Page 146]before, but from what the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews tells us farther: Heb. 9.24. For Christ is not entred into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true, but into Heaven it self. The Ho­ly of Holies in the Tabernacle was the Type of the highest Heavens, whither Jesus is now gone once for all, as the High Priest alone was wont to go into the most holy place once a year.

But as our Lord is thus exalted, so we are also farther assured of his Dominion and Power: He having a Name given him above every name, Phil. 2.10, 11. That at the name of Jesus eve­ry knee should bow, of things in Hea­ven, and things in Earth, and things under the Earth. And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. He is not a Titular King, that is without Authority and Power; that cannot help his Servants, or punish his Enemies; The Father hath given him authority to execute Joh. 5.27. [Page 147]judgment, because he is the Son of man. Mat. 16.27. And the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his Angels, and then he shall re­ward every man according to his works.

It appears then from what hath been said, that Christ is in Hea­ven, yea, in the Highest Heavens; and not only so, but he is also Lord over all, the great King and Governour of his Church, able to reward and to punish, to help and succour those that belong to him. And this is a fair step to that which follows, and that is,

2. To shew you how far Christ is there concerned on our behalf. For, since he wants not Authority and Power; if he be also con­cerned for us, that is, if he bear us good will, and in his Exaltation concerns himself for his Disciples and his Followers, it must needs be a very comfortable Doctrine to all those Disciples of his that are in want and trouble here below. [Page 148]But especially it must be very much to the comfort of all those pious souls that suffer persecution in this world for his sake.

1. In general, that Christ is con­cerned for us, now he is in heaven, is plain from the words of the Au­thor of the Epistle to the Hebrews, where he tells that Christ entred into heaven it self, Heb. 9.24. Ver. 7. now to appear in the presence of God for us. For as the High Priest, when on the day of Expiation he went into the Ho­ly of Holies, was concerned for the whole Congregation, as well as for himself; so Christ when he entred into Heaven, went thither concerned for us. It is to be con­sidered, that our blessed Lord had taken upon him our flesh, and our infirmities, and was made like un­to one of us: He carried with him this nature into Heaven, and there­withal a sense of our wants, and of our infirmities. Heb. 2.15, 16, 17. For verily he took not on him the nature of Angels but he took on him the Seed of Abra­ham. [Page 149]Wherefore in all things it be­hoved him to be made like unto his Brethren: That he might be a merci­ful and faithful High Priest, in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the peo­ple. For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted. It is not to be imagined, that Christ, who took our nature upon him, and consequently understood the infirmities and frailties of our mor­tal state, should forget us here be­low, now he himself is exalted in the Heavens. For as nothing but his mercy and pity towards us could at first invite him down among us, so it is not to be believed, that after so much love and condescen­sion, so long a trial of the infirmi­ties of our condition, he should be now unconcerned for us that are below. The same divine Author assures us otherwise; Seeing then, Heb. 4.14, 15, 16. says he, that we have a great High Priest that is passed into the heavens, [Page 150]Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our Profession: For we have not an High Priest, which cannot be touched with the feeling of our in­firmities: But was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

2. More particularly, still Christ offers up our Prayers unto God, and we are now assured that God hears us upon his account who laid down his life a Sacrifice for us. It is to be remembred, that the High Priest on the day of Expiation, Lev. 16.12, 13. when he entred into the Holy of Holies, was obliged not only to sprinkle the bloud of the Sacrifice there, but also to offer up Incense too. Agreeably hereunto, our blessed Saviour, who is entred into the holy place made without hands, offers up our Prayers to God; And we have good assurance of our acceptance when we consider the [Page 151]merit of his death, and the satis­faction which he had made with his bloud.

That the Incense which the High Priest offered up was a Sym­bol of the Prayers of the Saints cannot be denied by him that con­siders what the holy Scripture teaches us elsewhere. For we find that Prayers are likened to, and called Incense, it being a thing ve­ry usual in the holy Scriptures to call the thing signified by the name of the sign which represents it. Let my prayer, saith the Psalmist, Psal. 141.2. be set forth before thee as Incense, and the lifting up of my hands as the Evening Sacrifice. Elsewhere, In­cense is called the Prayers of the Saints: Hence it was, Rev. 5.8. that when the Priest went into the Temple to offer Incense, Chap. 8.3. Luk. 1.10. the whole multitude of the People were praying without at the time of Incense. To this purpose we are told, that it was the custom when the Priest entred into the holy place to offer Incense, to give [Page 152]notice of the precise time of his going in by the ringing of a Bell, v. D. Light­foots Hor. Hebr. On Luk. 1.10. that so the People might thereup­on silently betake themselves to their Prayers. And it is thought that the words ( Rev. 8.1, 3.) have a particular respect to that matter.

3. Consequently, upon what hath been last said, we do receive from Christs Intercession grace to help in time of need; Heb. 4.16. And as our sorrows and our needs are very va­rious, as well as very great, which send us to the Throne of Grace, so it is very evident (from what hath been said) that our supports and our supplies are derived to us from the Intercession of the Son of God. Acts 5.31. Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance unto Israel, and forgiveness of sins.

But that there may be no manner of doubt remaining of the truth of what hath been said before, I shall from the Scriptures shew you [Page 153]the assurances which they give us of this truth, from whence it will evidently appear, that Christ, now he is in Heaven, is our Patron and our Advocate there.

I shall begin with those words of St. John, My little Children, 1 Joh. 2.1, 2. these things write I unto you that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an Ad­vocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And he is the Propitia­tion for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

Can any thing be more plain, or more comfortable than these words are? Nothing so much dejects the good man as his sins and his infir­mities: These things indeed sink him low, and fill him with great fears. And certain it is, that no man can say he hath no sin, Chap. 1.8, 9. but he that deceives himself. But is the good man left without a remedy? No certainly. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all [Page 154]unrighteousness. It is true indeed, we ought not to sin out of the hopes of pardon; and if we do so, our condition is very sad in­deed: But so it is, that the best man may be surprized and overtaken; and if he be, here is comfort for him in these words. Behold here an Advocate with the Father; and we shall not want an Accuser when we have done amiss, for be­sides the Devil (who is the Accu­ser of the Brethren) our great Enemy, Rev. 12.10. our own Conscience will quickly do that. We shall need an Advocate to plead our Cause with God, and to undertake for us. And blessed be God we are provided for: We have an Advo­cate with the Father; We do not want an Intercessor with God. But we might fear still if our Advo­cate were himself guilty; we could have little comfort from his Intercession for us who is himself obnoxious. But it follows, Jesus Christ the righteous: A most power­ful [Page 155]and innocent person under­takes for us. But yet for all this, guilt makes men fearful and suspi­cious, and they fear they shall not obtain pardon, though their Advo­cate be innocent and powerful, un­less he have something more to plead in the behalf of them that are ac­cused. And therefore it follows, He is the propitiation for our sins. Our Advocate cannot only plead his own Innocence, as he is Jesus Christ the righteous, but he can plead his Merit too, he having by his death made expiation for our sins; Rom. 5.25. Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his bloud. Our Advocate hath paid a price for our ransom, and this price was accepted of God; and the bloud that Jesus shed does now plead for us. If after all this the dejected sinner fear that the bloud which Christ shed was not shed for him, this needless fear is re­moved by the words which fol­low: And not for ours only, but [Page 156]also for the sins of the whole world.

Let us next consider the words of the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, where he tells us, that Christ entred into Heaven it self to appear in the presence of God for us. Heb. 9.24. Just as the High Priest en­tred with the bloud of the Sacri­fice into the Holy of Holies, which he offered up there for himself, Ver. 7. and for the errors of the People. There it was that the High Priest made Attonement for all the Congregation of Israel. Lev. 16.17. Our blessed Lord hath shed his bloud, and now appears before God for us. Neither by the bloud of Goats and Calves, but by his own bloud he entred in once into the holy place, Heb. 9.12. having obtained eter­nal redemption for us. Heb. 10.12. Again, This man after he had offered one Sacrifice for sin, for ever sate down at the right hand of God. It is observed (by a very learned man) that these two expressions, viz. To appear in the presence of God for us: And [Page 157] To offer himself up to God, (both which are said of Christ, Heb. 9.) do signifie one and the same thing diversely considered. The latter expression implies, the beginning; the former, the continuation of one and the same thing. Our Saviour commends us to God, and this is meant, when it is said, that he ap­pears in the presence of God for us; but he began to do this when, after he had shed his bloud, he offered himself to God in heaven; Heb. 9.25. As the High Priest, after the Sacri­fice was slain, carried the bloud in­to the Holy of Holies, and there ap­peared with it before God. So that this appearing of Christ for us, and his offering himself to God imports his Intercession for us, and does im­ply the merits of his bloud, and the Atonement which our Lord hath made for us. And this speaks great comfort to us. Heb. 9.13, 14. For if the bloud of Bulls and of Goats, and the ashes of an Heifer sprinkling the unclean, sancti­fieth to the purifying of the flesh: [Page 158]How much more shall the bloud of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself, without spot to God purge your Conscience from dead work [...] to serve the living God?

The Author of this Epistle tell us, Heb. 7.24, 25. that Christ hath an unchangeable Priesthood: He is not like one o [...] the Priests of Aaron, who died and left one of his Brethren to succeed him: Our Lord lives for ever. Wherefore he is able also to sa [...] them to the uttermost, that come unt [...] God by him, seeing he ever liveth t [...] make Intercession for them. Which words assure us at once of Christ power to save us, and of his incli­nation and readiness to do it. For as he is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him; so he is also prone to do it, and con­cerns himself about it; he ever liveth to make intercession for them. To make intercession is to plead in the behalf of another, that he may be relieved, or released. It is opposed to accusing or condemn­ing: [Page 159] Who is he that condemneth? Rom. 8.34. It is Christ that died, yea, rather that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.

To what hath been said let me add the words of our Saviour: Whatsoever you shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. Joh. 16.23 Here is great encouragement to us to pray to God: We may now ap­proach unto God with very great assurance of success, having such a Mediator and Intercessor. But our Saviour goes on; Ver. 24. Hitherto ye have asked nothing in my name, i. e. ye have not as yet made a trial how powerful a name mine is: But for for the future he directs and encou­rages them. Ask, and ye shall re­ceive, that your joy may be full. And presently afterwards he gives them great assurance that their Prayers shall now be heard upon his ac­count. Joh. 16.26, 27. At that day ye shall ask in my name, and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you. For [Page 160]the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God.

III. I proceed now to shew you, how what hath been said tends to­wards our support and comfort under the troubles of this life. And that it does several ways.

1. The exaltation of Christ to the right hand of God is much for our comfort, as it gives us great hope that we shall also be received into heaven. Our nature is ad­vanced, and this gives us hope that we shall also in due time be received into the same happy place. For as Christs Resurrection is made an Argument which infers ours, so our Lords being exalted into hea­ven speaks the great hopes that we have of coming thither. And this Consideration does mightily tend to comfort us under the sorrows of this life. Joh. 14.4. Let not your heart be trou­bled, says our Lord. But then what follows tends greatly to support them: I go to prepare a place for [Page 161]you: And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and re­ceive you unto my self; that where I am, there ye may be also. Thanks be to God, a door of hope is now opened by the Exaltation of our Saviour, Heb. 6.19, 20. Which hope we have as an anchor of the Soul both sure and sted­fast, and which entreth into that within the Vail. Whither the fore­runner is for us entred, even Jesus made an High Priest for ever after the order of Melchizedec. None, under the Law of Moses, Heb. 9.7, 8. might enter into the Holy of Holies, but the High Priest only, and that but once a year, and not without bloud; The Holy Ghost this signi­fying, that the way into the Holiest of all was not yet made manifest while as the first Tabernacle was yet stand­ing. There was a vail or partiti­on between the Holy of Holies and the other part of the Temple: And when our Saviour suffered death, this Vail of the Temple was rent in twain after a most miracu­lous [Page 162]manner: For though indeed there be mention made of an Earth­quake at the same time, yet that the Vail was not rent by the Earth­quake appears from hence, that the Text says, it was rent from the top to the bottom, Mat. 27.51. not from the bot­tom to the top, as it would have been if it been the effect of an Earthquake. Now it is no hard matter to explain the meaning of this: The Holy of Holies, was a Type of Heaven. The rest of the Temple and Tabernacle, of the rest of the world. There was a Vail that shut up the way to Heaven, but when our Lord suffered, he opened the way that was shut up before; and a while after he went himself within the Vail, and took our nature with him; and by doing so, and sending us the Holy Spirit, thence he hath given us assurance, that where he is we shall likewise be. He hath taken a pledge, I mean our flesh, which he hath car­ried into heaven as a Pledge that [Page 163]we shall enter thither; Pignus to­tius Sum­mae. Tert. de res. Carn. 2 Thes. 4.17, 18. and given us the earnest of his Holy Spirit in to­ken that we belong to him, and that we shall ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

2. What hath been said tends to our comfort, as it gives us assu­rance of a Divine Assistance at hand for our succour and support, and for the enabling us to do, as well as suffer, the whole will of God. We have not the least cause to doubt either of the Power, or readiness and Proneness of our Lord to help us, and support us under all our conflicts, and especially then when we are persecuted for righteousnes sake. Our Saviour is not a mere Spectator, he does not only see us fight, but he helps us to overcome. Whatever it is that troubles us, we are not left with­out a Prince and a Saviour, and one that is able to save to the ut­termost. And this must needs tend very greatly to the quieting [Page 164]of our minds under all the trou­bles and sorrows that we meet withal.

3. This tends very much to our support and comfort as it encou­rages our Prayers, and assures us that we shall succeed when we make our addresses to God, and implore his Divine aid and assi­stance. We have a merciful High Priest, that was made like unto us, and hath about him a sense of our infirmities: Heb. 4.16. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. Heb. 10.19, 20, 21, 22. Having therefore, Brethren, boldness to enter into the Holiest by the bloud of Jesus, by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the Vail, that is to say, his Flesh, and having an High Priest over the House of God: Let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil Conscience, and our bo­dies washed with pure water.

ANother great comfort and sup­port which the Christian is provided with under the sorrows of this life, is that of the Holy Scripture.

The Psalmist expresses the great comfort he received from the Law of God in his affliction; Psal. 119.92. Ʋnless thy Law had been my delights, I should then have perished in my affli­ction. He doth elsewhere express his great esteem for, and the great delight he had in the Law of God; The Law of thy mouth is better unto me, Ver. 72. than thousands of Gold and Sil­ver. He elsewhere tells us, that the Statutes of the Lord are right, Psal. 19.8. rejoy­cing the heart; the Commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. and speaking presently afterwards of the Judgments of the Lord, he says of them; Ver. 10. More to be desired [Page 166]are they than Gold, yea, than much fine Gold; sweeter also than honey and the honey Comb. And now it is no wonder that we find him pro­fessing in these words; Psal. 119.127, 128. I love thy Commandments above Gold, yea, above fine Gold: I esteem all thy Precepts, concerning all things, to be right. After this he adds, Ri­vers of waters run down mine eyes, Ver. 136. because they keep not thy Law. Thus was the devout Psalmist affected towards the Law of God. This was his comfort, and his joy, his riches, and his greatest treasure; Here was his heart fixed, and this was his great delight.

And yet in the Psalmists time there was but little of the holy Scripture committed to writing in proportion to what we enjoy. The Canon of the Old Testament was far from being finished, much less was there any thing extant of the New. We have the advantage by much, who have not only all the parts of the Old Testament, but [Page 167]also an account of our Saviours Doctrine, and the Writings of the holy Apostles. Now the words of the Psalmist will well become eve­ry one of us; Psal. 119.103. How sweet are thy words unto my taste? Yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth. If a part of it were so sweet, what is the whole? And if the Law which came by Moses were so great a treasure, and a comfort to the afflicted, what are then the words of grace and truth, which we have by Jesus Christ?

The Book of Psalms hath al­ways been allowed to be a divine Composure of very sovereign use to the afflicted, and the sorrowful pious and dejected men have been unspeakably comforted from thence. As when the evil Spirit was upon Saul, 1 Sam. 16.23. when David took his Harp and played, that evil Spirit departed from him: So hath it often been, that when men have been dejected and bowed down by an evil Spirit likewise, yet they [Page 168]have often been refreshed by this divine and sweet Singer of Israel. The Book of Psalms is stored with sovereign Cordials for the dejected and drooping spirit of the pious man. But I had rather you should hear one of the Ancients speak of the great usefulness of this Book of Psalms. Basil in Psal. 1. If (says he) a man be greatly transported with fury, by the melody of a Psalm he is rendred tame. A Psalm (says he) is the calm of Souls, the Arbiter of peace, who lays the tumultuous and swelling thoughts. It softens the fierce, and curbs the lascivious. It conciliates friend­ship, unites those that were in diffe­rence, and reconciles those that were at enmity, — A Psalm puts the De­vils to flight, and brings to us the assistance of Angels. It is a Weapon against our fears of the night, and a rest from the labours of the day. To Children it is a safeguard, to the Adult an ornament, and a comfort to old men. The most agreeable Orna­ment of Women. It renders the Wil­derness [Page 169]inhabited, and the Concourse of people sober. It is an institution to those who begin, an encrease of the Proficients, and the stay of them that are perfect, and the voice of the Church. This gives a gaiety to Fe­stivals, and produces a godly sorrow. A Psalm brings a tear from an heart of stone; it is the work of Angels, the Conversation of heaven, the spi­ritual Incense. He goes on, and tells us, what an excellent Store­house this Book of Psalms is, from whence we may learn the Majesty of fortitude, the exactness of righte­ousness, the venerableness of Tempe­rance, the perfection of Prudence, the manner of Repentance, the mea­sures of Patience. Thus does he speak of the Book of Psalms. And if one Book be thus useful, what are all of them? And if this Book be so much to our Comfort, how many and great then are the Com­forts of the Scripture?

I shall now shew you how the holy Scriptures make for our com­fort [Page 170]and support under the afflicti­ons and sorrows of this present life. And this they do,

1. As they lay before us the se­veral supports which have been named before, namely, the Pro­mise of eternal life, the Doctrine of Gods particular care and Pro­vidence, the assurance of the aid of the Holy Spirit, the examples of the sufferings of Christ and holy men, and the Intercession of the Son of God. These things the holy Scriptures plainly teach, and by doing so they tend very much to our comfort in the midst of all our tribulations. And as these Doctrines are not to be found among the Writings of any of the Heathen Philosophers, so it is certain, they do contain the greatest ground of comfort under our worldly losses and sorrows: And therefore the holy Scripture tends more to our comfort than any Writing or Institution whatso­ever. It cannot be denied, but [Page 171]that many of the Heathens have written excellent things, and par­ticularly have employed their pains in writing consolatory discourses for the sake of the afflicted. But there are none of them that do suggest those powerful Arguments which the Gospel does contain. Here are comforts to be found which they knew nothing of, and such comforts also as are very effe­ctual for the gaining the end for which they are brought. We are (blessed be God) better provided for, under all the evils which hap­pen to us, than the Heathens were. And though we be liable to the same evils which they were ob­noxious unto, yet in this our con­dition is much better than theirs that we can bear them better than they could. We shall in vain search into the Writings of Plato, or Epictetus, or any other of the Writings of the Heathen for sup­ports under our sorrows; The holy Scripture is the Divine Store­house [Page 172]where they are to be found.

2. The holy Scriptures make for our support under our sorrows as they do direct us to apply to our selves the helps and assistances which I have named before. They do not only contain great helps, but they teach us how to use them, and use very powerful Arguments with us to this purpose. They do not only prescribe the most power­ful Cordials, but they direct us also in the use of them; and not only so, but they do also by very moving Arguments awaken our care and our diligence. And in­deed, without this application all the helps and assistances avail us no more than the richest Cordials do the sick man which he keeps locked up in his Closet, but does not taste.

The hope of Eternal life is very powerful to enable us to endure with patience the evils of this short life: This is the great com­fort [Page 173]under our present sorrows, that the blessed time is drawing on up­on us when all tears shall for ever be wiped from our eyes. But then it is to be considered, that the holy Scripture does not barely lay before us the promise of eter­nal life: It is not a bare Map of of that blessed Country which we expect hereafter; it is a great deal more than that. For besides that the holy Scripture describes that blessed Land, it also shews us the way which leads to it, calls upon us to set our hearts upon it, and very powerfully calls off our affe­ctions and desires from the things of this lower world, which would entangle us, and keep us from minding the things which are above. And to that purpose we are warned that the love of this world is inconsistent with the love of God, and our pursuit of hea­venly things. And therefore we are vehemently exhorted to cleanse and purifie our hearts, to follow [Page 174]after holiness, that we may see God, and be fit for that blessed immortality which is brought to light through the Gospel.

The particular care and Provi­dence of God is another very powerful Argument to quiet and ease our minds under all events o [...] things. This Doctrine the holy Scripture does not only teach, bu [...] directs us to the right use and ap­plication of it to our selves, and very frequently calls upon us to make the right use of it. Henc [...] it is that we are so frequently ex­horted to be careful for nothing, t [...] trust in God; to cast our care, and our burden upon him; To acknow­ledge him in all our ways. And w [...] are also frequently called off from all self-confidence, or trust in any Creature whatsoever. We are war­ned not to trust to our own Wisdom [...] our Riches, our Allies, and World­ly assistances. And the holy Scri­pture does upon all occasions ex­pose the Vanity of those men wh [...] [Page 175]trust in any thing but God, and it represents upon all occasions how inconsiderable the best of the Crea­tures are.

Again, The Promise of the Ho­ly Spirit is another great support to us, and a strong consolation un­der the sorrows and difficulties of this mortal life. Now the holy Scripture does not only contain such a Promise, but also puts us upon that course in which we shall not fail to receive the comforts and assistances of this divine Spirit. We are assured that God will give his holy Spirit to them that ask him, and the holy Scripture, which gives us this assurance, does also with great vehemency put us upon beg­ging of God this heavenly assi­stance. It puts us upon asking, upon seeking and knocking, upon all Prayer, and Supplication: It al­so puts us upon purity of heart, that we may be disposed to receive this Holy Spirit, and warns us that we do not by our lusts and foolish [Page 176]practices grieve, or quench this holy Spirit of God. And now if we be perswaded to follow this ad­vice we shall not fail of help and of comfort, and of peace and joy that passeth understanding: We shall be able to bear up under the greatest sorrows and pressures of this lower world. Psal. 23.4. Yea, though we walk through the valley of the sha­dow of death we shall fear no evil. But then it becomes us at all times to implore this Spirit of God, and to pray with the Psalmist. Psal. 50.10, 11, 12. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right Spirit within me: Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thy holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, and up­hold me with thy free Spirit.

The example of Christ and holy men who have suffered for the truth are not barely laid before us in the Scripture, but we are also directed in our afflictions to keep our eye upon these great examples; and if we do that, we shall be [Page 177]greatly encouraged to persevere in our Christian course, and tread in the steps of those glorious exam­ples. The Disciple is not above his Master, and we shall find it no hard thing to suffer, if we consider whose Servants we are. If they did such things to the green tree, why should we think much that men should do so also to the dry? Hence it is that the Holy Scripture puts us upon looking unto Jesus the Au­thor and Finisher of the Faith which we profess, and upon consi­dering the Examples of the Pro­phets who have spoken in the name of the Lord, and have been very exemplary for suffering, and affli­ction, and for patience.

Again, The intercession of the Son of God is a most comfortable Doctrine of the Scripture: But it does not only teach us this, but directs us also to the use of it. For the holy Scripture does now send us to God by Jesus Christ, and puts us upon going to the throne [Page 178]of grace with a becoming bold­ness, and assurance that we shall now be accepted through him who died for us, and ever lives to make Intercession for those who come unto God by him.

III. The holy Scriptures tend very much to our comfort under all our sorrows, as they are the in­strument of conveyance of the greatest blessings to us. They are Gods act and deed, and on Gods part a great assurance to us of those blessings which are only able to make us happy, and are able to make us so in spight of all the mise­ries that can befall us in this pre­sent life. The Scriptures are not only to be considered as a Map and draught of our Inheritance which we hope for, but as a Testament and declared Will, which give us a right and title to, and consequent­ly a full assurance that we shall in­deed enjoy those things which we find presented to us there. They do not only lay them before us, [Page 179]but they are by these divine Wri­tings made over to us. We are by our blessed Saviour no more Servants, but Sons; Gal. 4.7. and if we be Sons, we are also Heirs of God through Christ. But then the holy Scriptures are the Deeds and Con­veyances of this Estate. And as they are so, they tend greatly to our comfort and support under the afflictions of this life, and in the Midst of them we may now justly esteem our selves happy, as having so full an assurance of a future in­heritance. Our Deeds and Wri­tings for our worldly Estate we value greatly, because they shew our Title and our Right, and therefore we preserve them with great care, and please our selves that they are good, and well at­tested.

It is no little blessing, and ought to be no small comfort to us that we have the holy Scriptures, which are a declaration of Gods favour and good will towards us. It was [Page 180]the great Priviledge of the Jews that God had given them his Law. He shewed his word unto Jacob, Psal. 147.19, 20. his Statutes and his Judgments unto Is­rael. He had not dealt so with any Nation, and for his Judgments they have not known them. The Apostle reckons it a Priviledge which the Jew enjoyed above the rest of the world, that they had Gods Law among them. Rom. 3.1, 2. What ad­vantage then hath the Jew? Or what profit is there of Circumcision? Much every way; chiefly because that unto them were committed the Oracles of God. This one thing did very much exalt the Jewish People above their Neighbours: And their Law gave them their Title to their Country, and was the Instru­ment of Conveyance of their Inhe­ritance to them. And hence we find their Law is sometime called their Inheritance; Dent. 33.4. Moses commanded us a Law, even the Inheritance of the Congregation of Jacob. Indeed, their Law was their Charter, and Instru­ment [Page 181]that contained their Title which they had to their Possessi­ons: And the Land which they pos­sessed was a Type of Heaven, Heb. 10.1. and their Law and their Service was a shadow of good things to come.

But thanks be to God the case is well mended with us now. We have the substance clearly revealed, of which they had the shadow and the Type. Our blessed Saviour hath brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel; And the New Testament makes over to us our right and title to that blessed inheritance which our Lord hath purchased for us.

We had forfeited Gods favour, and needed an Atonement: The Law of Moses prescribed certain Sacrifices indeed for expiation, and the procurement of the favour of God; but it is very certain that those Sacrifices could not make the commers thereunto perfect. Heb. 10.1. But then it pleased God to send his only Son to die for our sins, and now he hath [Page 182]reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ; 2 Cor. 5.18, 19, 21. and hath given to us the mi­nistry of reconciliation: To wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them. — For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

The Kingdom of Heaven is now opened to all Believers, and none are now excluded from the hopes of that blessed state who do not shut themselves out by their un­belief, and impenitence, and con­tempt of the Laws of Christ. For God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son, Joh. 3.16, 17. that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to con­demn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. This is the comfortable Doctrine of the holy Scripture, and hence it is that we have now great consolation. [Page 183]For there can be nothing so much for our comfort as the assurance which we have of Gods favour, which is better for us than life it self.

But then to put us out of all doubt for ever, this truth is con­firmed to us, as well as taught by the holy Scriptures. For our bles­sed Saviour wrought many Mira­cles to confirm to us the Doctrine which he taught, and by that means hath given us the utmost assurance that this comfortable Doctrine is a divine truth. To this purpose he cured the sick, dispossessed the daemoniacks, raised the dead, restored the blind, com­manded the Sea and the Wind, and rose from the dead the third day. Many, and various, and superna­tural are the works he did, and which are written in the Gospels: And many more he did which are not written. Joh. 20.31. But these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God, and that [Page 184]believing ye might have life through his name. God hath set his Seal to the divine truths which the Gospel does contain; And hath effectually taken from us all cause of doubt and suspicion.

IV. The holy Scriptures tend very much to our comfort under our troubles, as they do contain many precious Promises which tend this way; God hath been pleased in these Writings to make many promises for the comfort of the afflicted and oppressed, of them that fear him, and trust in him, and suffer for his names sake. And nothing of what God hath said shall fall to the ground: If we continue to trust in God, and to do good, we shall find great com­fort from the holy Scriptures in our greatest sorrows. Psal. 31.19. O how great is thy goodness which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee: Which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the Sons of men! Happy is that man that puts himself under [Page 185]the Divine Protection. Psal. 32.10. Many sorrows shall be to the wicked: But he that trusteth in the Lord, mercy shall compass him about. No man does so much consult his own safe­ty as He does that does intirely trust in God, and commit himself and his affairs unto him. Psal. 125.1. They that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abideth for ever.

I deny not but such a man may fall into straits and difficulties, but then he is not forsaken, but can have a recourse to him that is at hand, and able to save him. Psal. 14.2, 3, 4, 5. When my Spirit was overwhelmed within me, then thou knewest my path: — I looked on my right hand, and beheld, but there was no man that would know me; refuge failed me, no man cared for my Soul. I cried unto thee, O Lord, I said, Thou art my refuge, and my portion in the Land of the Living. The good man may be bereft of his worldly comforts and supports, but then when he is [Page 186]most of all so, God is present with him. Nay, we are then more pe­culiarly the care of God, when we are abandoned by the Creature. The afflicted man is particularly the charge of Heaven, and does immediately belong to the divine care and Providence. The devout Psalmist makes his affliction his argument to move God to have regard to him. Psa. 142.6. Attend unto my cry, for I am brought very low. Again, Psal. 70.5. But I am poor and needy; and then he goes on, Make hast unto me, O God. The Prayers of the afflicted righteous find a ready way to God; they pierce the Heavens, and are sure to obtain a blessing. The righteous cry, Psal. 37.18, 18. and the Lord heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles. The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart, and saveth such as be of a con­trite Spirit.

There is great comfort in the holy Scripture for every man that is sincerely good, and does desire [Page 187]to be better. And whatever his sorrow and affliction be, he is not left comfortless. If he be bur­dened with his sins, harassed out by the cares and toiles of a vexa­tious world, and very uneasie un­der the load which lies upon him, yet is not this distressed and mise­rable Sinner left without hope and comfort: Our Lord speaks to such as these are, saying, Mat. 11.28. Come un­to me all ye that labour, and are hea­vy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoak upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your Souls. For my yoak is easie, and my burden is light. How comfortable a Scri­pture is this to the dejected Sin­ner? That hath in vain sought his happiness from the things of this life; that hath toiled a great while to no purpose, and is now under fears of Gods wrath breaking in upon him as a just punshment of a trifling and a vicious life? These are most powerful words, and if [Page 188]men would consider them duly, would appear to have a mighty force upon the minds of men. Can any thing be more welcom than rest to them that labour and are heavy laden? Is any rest to be compared to the rest which is given to our Souls? can any thing be more de­sirable for them that have served cruel Lords, than that they should now submit to one that is meek and lowly in heart? Can any thing be more inviting, after a great bon­dage and slavery, than a yoak that 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. 5.1 [...]. 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 [Page 190]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 [Page 191]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 [Page 193]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 [Page 194]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.

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 [Page 196]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 [Page 197]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, [Page 198]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 [Page 199]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 [Page 200]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 [Page 201]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 [Page 202]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 [Page 203]more lasting also. Alas! we do but run our selves into eternal hor­rors to avoid a short affliction: There is a Worm that dies not, and a Fire that goes not our.

If we suffer for righteousness sake happy are we: We shall not want the supports of the Spirit, the Ministry of Angels, the power­lul Intercession of the Son of God, the peace and quiet of our own minds, and shall in a little time be received into unspeakable Joy. In the mean time it is but little we lose, a short life, a strait and un­certain one. That which was al­ways burdensom, full of care, and uneasie through hope and fear of what was to come. We lose our life indeed: But alas! What is that? It is but a vapour, and a dream: That which we could not long have kept. A disease, a Tile from an house, a fall from a Horse, a thrust of an Enemy, the smallest matter might have taken it away the next moment. We lose our [Page 204]life: But we lose it honourably, and so we cannot properly be said to lose it. We die for Christ, that died for us; For the sake of him who thought nothing too much for us: For the best person that ever appeared in humane nature, and one that hath deserved the best of us. We die: But it is for our greatest Friend, for our Lord and King: For him that is at Gods right hand, and gone thither to prepare a place for us. We die: But it is that we may live for ever, and we do but exchange our mortal life for glory and immor­tality.

On the other hand, suppose we should draw back, and, to save our lives, wrong our Consciences; What shall we gain by this? We shall lives a while longer, enjoy our Preferments and our outward Comforts: But alas! Whither shall we cause our shame to go? When we have out-lived our Innocence, pro­stituted our Conscience, and made [Page 205]ship wrack of our Faith, what good will our life do us? It only keeps our bodies from putrefaction, and respits a little our eternal misery; our joy and our strength is gone, when we have denied the Faith; and now we are justly detested by God and good men, and are but a burden and terror to our selves. And as we are uneasie to our selves now, so when death approaches us (for we shall not long stave it off) then our unspeakable misery begins. Then death will be more terrible to us than ever it was be­fore, and yet we must submit our necks whether we are willing or not.

Object. But some will object perhaps that they have lived at a trifling rate, and they do therefore much doubt of their future state. And though they be assured of the goodness of their cause, and are not much afraid of death, yet they fear something beyond death, be­cause they have not lived so exactly [Page 206]as they ought. Such men as these are in a strait, like that of the Israelites, who were placed be­tween the persecuting Egyptians and the Red Sea, and will be tempted rather to return into Egypt than adventure themselves upon the violent floud of waters. Now in answer to this Objection, I shall desire them that make it to consider the following particu­lars:

I. That by declining to suffer in this case they do but render their Salvation the more hazardous and doubtful, so far are they from se­curing themselves and their main concern. For they run into a known sin, and consequently ha­zard their Salvation, for which they pretend at the same time to be sol­licitous. There is no doubt but such a man may flee from the Per­secution if he can, but it can never be safe for him to renounce his Re­ligion, and deny his Saviour be­fore men. We allow sick people, [Page 207]when their case is doubtful, some things which we do not advise them to, but no man in his wits will let them drink Poyson, or take in any thing that commonly destroys the life of a man. Our Religion does not allow us to do evil that good may come. And a certain sin cannot tend to the secu­ring, but does always and directly tend to the destruction of our Souls. It is certain, what ever pretence we make, we have no re­gard as we ought to have for our Souls, when we willingly commit a sin against God; For by commit­ting a known sin, we do but run into that evil which we pretend we fear and would decline.

2. And therefore I add, that we ought to suffer, and commit our selves unto God, notwithstanding the doubt and fear we are under. For this is certainly our duty, and no matter of question, and there­fore we ought not to demur. Our duty is plain, and our doubt arises [Page 208]not from what we are to do, but from the effects of what we have done. We cannot give a better testimony of our sincere repen­tance for what hath been done amiss than by giving our selves up to the will of God. Whereas by declining to suffer, and choosing to sin we withdraw our selves from Gods protection, and pro­claim our selves not only sinners, but Impenitents also. And it is a sign that we are not much concern­ed for our former sins when we dare add to their number so great and hainous an one. Whereas on the other hand, when we give up our lives to God, notwithstanding our fears and doubts of our future state, we give the greatest demon­stration of our sincere repentance for our sins past, and take a direct course to obtain our pardon and remission. In this case to give up our lives is the greatest expression of a sincere repentance, and of a stedfast faith in God. It is a great [Page 209]wisdom in us in this case to choose to fall into the hands of that God whose mercies are above all his works. And we can never consult better for ourselves, than by doing our duty, whatever pain or loss it do expose us to.

3. That among the Ancient Writers of the Church we have a very favourable opinion relating to this matter: And it was this, Aug. de Civitat. Dei l. 13. c. 7. that Martyrdom was a kind of Baptism, by which remission of sins was obtained, and which did supersede the indispensable necessi­ty of that Sacrament, serving in the room and stead of it. This St. Id. de Eccles. Au­stin reckons among the opinions of the Church. I shall not examine the grounds and foundations of this opinion; but this I shall say, that as it was a general opinion among the Ancients (who not­withstanding maintained the ne­cessity of an holy life) so it does, as it is laid down by the Father above-named, deserve at least a [Page 210]favourable regard; especially since he grounds it upon that promise of our Saviour, Mat. 10.32. Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven.

4. It is very advisable, that he that hath done amiss should by all the ways possible testifie the since­rity of his Repentance. If his sins have been against his Neigh­bour, he ought to be reconciled, and to make restitution 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 [Page 211]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.

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 before­hand, 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 [Page 213]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 well­doing, 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 [Page 214]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, [Page 215]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 [Page 216]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 [Page 217]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 [Page 218]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 [Page 219]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 [Page 220]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 [Page 221]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 [Page 222]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 [Page 223]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 [Page 224]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 [Page 225]Calamity, safe under every stroke, and fitted for what ever may hap­pen to us. Thus it was with our Saviour; He prayed, that if it were possible the Cup might pass, but then he adds, Not my will, but thy will be done. There is great dan­ger in neglecting our duty in this matter, and he will be very ready to deny his Lord, who hath not throughly learned this Lesson. Whatever happens to us, now let us resign our selves to Gods Will. Is my dearest Friend, or Child dead! Is our health impaired! Is our Estate wasted! Let us say al­ways, Let the will of the Lord be done. By these steps we shall per­fectly learn this Lesson, and pra­ctise it then when God shall send for us by death into another World.

V. Do all the good which you can. This tends to the making our death more easie unto us: For our account is lessened hereby, and consequently death it self is the less [Page 226]to be feared. Besides that, acts of mercy have a promise of mercy belonging to them. They that shew mercy shall receive it. It is enough that they are sure of their reward.; This takes away much of the terrour of death it self. And the merciful man is well dealt with if he be supported un­der the Agonies of death. This is better for him than to be delivered from it. Psal. 41.3. And we know there is a particular promise of support to the merciful man, even then when he is threatned with death. On the other hand, he that shews no mercy must not expect to find it. He that hides his Talent in a Nap­kin is unprepared to meet his Lord: He will have a very sad account, not only that squanders away, but he that hides his Lords Money.

VI. Frequently and diligently examine your selves. Call your selves to a strict and severe account often. This will be a great pre­paration for any evils which may [Page 227]happen to us, and against death it self. We shall never be safe if we do not take this course. For this examination is in order to the knowing our state to God-ward, and to our repentance, and conse­quently our pardon. We must confess our sins, and in order to that we must know them: For our Confession, the more general it is, the more dangerous; the more par­ticular, the more safe. For though we hope for pardon upon a gene­ral repentance where we cannot find out all our secret sins, yet this does not give us hope of pardon upon a general repentance, where upon search we may be more par­ticular. From whence it may easi­ly appear how much a strict and diligent examination of our selves tends to our comfort and our peace, and how much it does dispose and prepare us for suffe­rings, and for death it self. We are at ease and at liberty when our ac­counts are cleared and setled; [Page 228]Whereas it is a burden to every honest mind to think that his affairs are entangled and perplex­ed, and that he is not able to ad­just his accounts. Let any man but seriously consider how much he offends every day, either in do­ing what he should not, or not doing what he should; In omitting his duty, or in doing it slightly, and he will soon find he hath work to do at the close of every day before he betake himself to rest. And then sure he will be very unfit for death, if he have the follies and errors of a whole life, or a great part of it, to unravel, and to ac­count for. Such a man must needs be full of fears and jealousies that all is not right, who hath not been very careful to try whether it be so or not. It were well that this self-examination were the work of eve­ry day. For as we might find enough to employ our selves in, without troubling our selves with the faults of our Neighbours, so I [Page 229]am sure, we could not take a better course to secure our own souls. And it was required that a man should examine himself before he received the Communion, 1 Cor. 11.28. at that time when Christians communica­ted very frequently, if not every day. And though we excuse our selves too easily from frequent communicating, yet they that do that cannot deny, but that it is their duty to be prepared for it, and consequently, to examine them­selves also.

VII. Set your house in order. My meaning is, that we would do that duty which we owe to one another, in order to our more com­fortable passage hence: And there are many things that fall under this head which every wise and good man would do before he goes hence. Such are, the making our Wills, and setling our worldly Estate; making restitution, where we have done wrong; being re­conciled where there hath been a [Page 230]grudge or difference; disbur­dening our Consciences where they are oppressed; seeking satisfaction where we are in doubt, and clea­ring our accounts with others where they are entangled. These things, and such like, have a tendency toward the comfort and ease of our minds; and when they are done, we are left at greater li­berty and freedom chearfully to bear whatever evil God thinks fit to exercise us with.

VIII. Be very much in Religious Exercises, and in the Service of God: Such as reading and hea­ring, meditating of heavenly things, and receiving the Sacrament, and frequent Abstractions from the hur­ries and the amusements of this lower world.

But especially, let us give our selves much to Prayer; Let us with all humility and fervour, with all attention and watchfulness, with prostrate souls and broken hearts implore the aid and assistance of [Page 231]God and of his Holy Spirit, that we may continue faithful unto death that we may receive the Crown of righteousness. Prayer is very sea­sonable at such a time as this, Jam. 5.13. and it is recommended to us from the Example as well as from the Pre­cept of our blessed Saviour; Luk. 21.36 22.44. of whom it is said, that being in an Agony he prayed more ear­nestly.

I shall now shew you how we are to demean and behave our selves under our sufferings. And before I do that I shall premise the following particulars:

First, That we ought not to run after sufferings, and to bring them upon our selves. We are not ob­liged to throw away our lives, but to stay till God calls for them at our hand. Our Religion allows us the wisdom of Serpents, though it strictly require the innocence of Doves. It is lawful in some cases to flee and decline our sufferings, and in many Cases it is fit and [Page 232]expedient that we should do so. Mat. 10.23. By this means we may reserve our selves for farther service, and avoid the temptation. But if our flight betray our Religion, and endan­ger our Brethren that are under our charge, we ought to stand to it, and rather part with our lives. Our lives are then to be given up, when we gain a greater end; but they are so long to be preserved, as we may keep them without prejudice to our Consci­ence, and the Salvation of our Brother.

Secondly, That we are to take great heed that we do not suffer as evil doers. 1 Pet 4.15. Let none of you suf­fer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evil doer, or as a busie-body in other mens matters. It is the cause, not the suffering which makes the Mar­tyr. We are happy if we suffer for righteousness sake. Rebellion and Treason against our Prince cannot make men Saints and Martyrs. These men are evil doers what­ever [Page 233]ever tokens of fortitude they seem to shew.

I now proceed to shew how we ought to demean our selves under our sufferings: And that you may take in the following particulars, which concern us as we stand re­lated to God, to our Neighbour, and to our selves. And,

I. As to God, whose hand we must look at, we must suffer without murmuring and repining: We must entirely resign up our selves unto God; and imitate our blessed Savi­our, when he said, Not my will, but thy will be done. Our Lord went like a Sheep to the slaughter, he opened not his mouth. It becomes us to refer all to Gods wisdom and disposal, not to choose the kind and form of our sufferings, but to leave all that to him, and depend intirely upon him. It is the Lord, (we ought to say) let him do what is good in his own eyes.

II. As to our Neighbour, and especially those who are the instru­ments [Page 234]of our sufferings, we are to shew the greatest meekness and charity. In this our Saviour was a great pattern; 1 Pet. 2.22, 23. Who did no sin, nei­ther was guile found in his mouth: Who when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatned not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously. It becomes us to imitate this glorious example; us it becomes who are vile sinners, and have deserved our sufferings from Gods hand, though we suffer in a righteous Cause. Father for­give them (says our dying Lord) for they know not what they do. Our Lord did not threaten his enemies: No, he pitied them, and he prayed for them. And so must we do also if we would suffer as Christians. We must forgive our Enemies, pity them as we do people that are blind, or delirant: Their folly, and their rage and madness call for our com­passions, and our hearty Prayers for their precious and immortal souls. De dupl. Martyr. Thus St. Cyprian describes [Page 235]the manner of Christians suffe­rings: We see not (says he) that placid, and meek, and sublime tem­per of mind, joyned with humility, unless it be in the Martyrs of Christ. They do not look upon the Executi­oner with fierce eyes, they do not threa­ten the Tyrant: They are more grie­ved for their blindness, than for their own afflictions; Even Christ cries in them, Father forgive them, &c. They look at nothing but heaven, where their hope is laid up, &c.

III. As to our selves that we un­dergo our sufferings undauntedly, and with constancy, that we do not any thing unbecoming our Christian Profession; It is not to be imagined but that the Christian hath as quick a sense of pain as any other man; he is not stupid, and unconcerned; all that is re­quired is this, that he hold out with courage and Christian Forti­tude, and be not betrayed by his fear. It is not necessary that he should be rid of all fear: It is [Page 236]enough that it do not prevail upon him so far as to cause him to di­strust God, or deny the Truth. It is not every one that can triumph in Flames, and shew tokens of joy upon Racks and Wheels: It is not every Martyr that can express great exultation of mind. 2 Cor. 7.5. Some fear is very consistent with the greatest Sanctity: He is not to be deprived of the glory of Martyrdom, that continues constant under his suffe­rings, though he went to them with fear and suspicion of him­self.