here is an exhortation and in the name of God a charge upon every soul that does expect to have the portion of it in these great things that they would walk worthy of God who hath called them unto his kingdom and glory it is a great charge to walk worthy of God but to walk worthy of God who hath called us to his kingdom and glory this is great but the life of a Christian must be thus Now consider what life have I Is my life such as may be said to be worthy of God and that God that hath called me unto his kingdom and glory Surely great things must be in the lives of Gods people people talk much of strictness and preciseness that they may be too precise what do you think must this life be that must be worthy of God who hath called us to his kingdom and glory It must not be a dead-hearted life go on with a holy and heavenly chearfulness and courage in Gods ways It becomes the children of the Bride-chamber to be joyful see that in any case you rejoyce before the Lord comfort your selves and one another by these sayings We belye the truth of God if we do not walk joyfully Rejoyce in this that your names are written in the Book of life says Christ they rejoyced that the Devils fell down before them If there were any thing in the world to be rejoyced in one would think they might rejoyce in that but Christ would not have them rejoyce in that in comparison of this Caesar when he was sad he said to himself Think thou art Caesar that that might take away his sadness and so say I to a Christian Think of your Crown and glory let your lives be such as may make it appear you have your portion in these things I may say to some as Jonadab said to Amnon Why art thou lean from day to day being the Kings Son So may I say to every childe of God Why is thy heart so troubled and Why walkest thou so dumpishly in the ways of God being the King of Heavens Son Possibilities of heaven is enough to take away the sting of afflictions but having comfortable hope of these things this should take away even the sense of them at least so far as that they be no way disturbing to us Seneca says That vertue does not consider what it suffers but whither it tends It beseems them well enough but not you it beseems Swine to follow the trough but not the heirs of a Kingdom Plutarch tells of Themistocles that he accounted it not to stand with his state to stoop down to take up the spoyls the enemy had scattered in flight but says to one of his followers You may for you are not Themistocles Thus may it be said to worldly spirits You may be greedy of these things for here is your portion your names are written in the earth you are not the heirs of the kingdom Secondly walk above the world above all things that are here below take heed of ensnarling your hearts of too much mixing your selves with them There is a generation whose names are written in the earth Ier. 17. 13. and it beseems them to look after the things of the earth because their portion is there it is their All but Gods people have their names written in heaven and therefore they should not regard the things below as they do Whosoever was free of the city of Rome might not accept of any other freedom in any other city they counted it a dishonor to the freedom of Rome to take freedom any where else So those that are free of the kingdom of Heaven should not seek to be free here but they should be satisfied with a mean condition here and take heed they do not entangle themselves too much in the things below Besides those that have hopes of Heaven they should labor to have their lives like to Heaven It is that we pray for that the will of God may be done in earth as it is done in heaven How is it done in heaven The Saints and Angels there do it fervently universally readily constantly and therefore the Angels are called by the name of Seraphims it notes burning because they burn with zeal for God labor to conform your life to the life of Heaven Again labor to be much trading for heaven in this world let there be much intercourse between you and Heaven let your conversation be in heaven Phil. 3. 20. If a man intend to live in another Countrey he will have much traffique in that Countrey before he goes and if we believe we shall come to Heaven let there be much trading that way Our conversations should be so in Heaven as all the mercies we enjoy here should raise our hearts to heaven We read Exod. 25. that upon the Table of Shew-bread there was set a crown of gold In those provisions that we have here for souls and bodies our hearts must be raised to that Crown of glory reserved for us for the Shew-bread set before the Lord was to signifie Gods provision for us and the dedication of our bread of all our provision to God Again let us labor to encrease heaven in our hearts and to bring as much of heaven into them as possibly we can And keep your selves in a continual readiness whensoever God shall call you to such a glorious recompence of reward as this is It is said of Daniel though he was in Babylon he opened his windows towards Jerusalem he kept his heart in a readiness to go So you should do keep your hearts in a heavenly frame ready for heaven waiting upon the Bridegroom with your lamps burning that when he comes you may open immediately to him There is a difference between a wife that hath been faithful to her husband and waits for his coming home and another that hath been unfaithful to her husband and hath other lovers in the house when her husband knocks if her husband knocks she doth not go immediately but there is shuffling up and down and she delays the time till she have got the other out of the house but a faithful wife she immediately opens it is true though the wife be not unfaithful yet if the house be not handsom and things be not prepared she is loth to open So Christians they have been dallying with their lusts and their hearts are out of frame and they are loth to open to Christ but we should keep our hearts in such a readiness as immediately to open to Christ and to be willing to dye And when we dye to dye as heirs of such things not to respect things below house or lands or any thing here We read of Pope Adrian when he was to dye he laments his condition because he was to leave all his delights and pompous vanities and cryes out O my soul whither goest thou thou shalt never be merry more he was
it will not bear us out before the Lord In times of storm all should come in and help The two Tribes and the half on the other side Iordan must not think to abide peaceably in their possessions while their brethren were warring for theirs but they must joyn with them in their battels until they were in their possessions likewise It is a sore and great evil not to joyn with Gods servants in their troubles but how great an evil then is it to adde affliction to their affliction to joyn with their enemies against them especially when they are weak in their suffering condition Gods wrath against Amalek was because he came out against Israel in the wilderness and not onely so but smote the hindmost of them even all that were feeble behinde them when they were faint and weary Deut. 25. 18. Now you shall finde that the wrath of God was never so dreadful against any as against the Amalekites for First observe what expressions of indignation the Lord hath against them First This wickedness of Amalek and his destruction must be wrote for a memorial in a book and rehearsed in the ears of Ioshua Secondly God will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under Heaven Thirdly The Lord swears that he will have war with Amalek from generation to generation all these Exod. 17. 14 16. Fourthly Gods anger for many years after continued against Amalek Numb 24. 20. His latter end shall be that he perish for ever and Deut. 25. 19. Moses gives a charge that after Israel was possessed of his inheritance that he must blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under Heaven Thou shalt not forget it And further although at the first when Amalek came against Israel there was a great slaughter of them yet more then four hundred years after 1 Sam. 15. 2. God says He remembred what Amalek did to Israel and gave a charge to Saul to go and smite them and utterly to destroy all they had not to spare but to slay Man and Woman Infant Suckling Ox Sheep Camel and Ass and it is observable whereas in all other places that were not of Canaan though they did smite the male yet they were to spare the women the little ones and the cattel and all that was in the City as Deut. 20. 14. but not so in Amalek yet Amalek was not of Canaan God had a more special quarrel against Amalek then against any of the other Countries Yea whereas in Canaan although men and women were destroyed as in Ai Iosh 8. Yet the cattel and the spoyl of the City they took to themselves ver 27. but they might not do so in Amalek the destroying the Cattel and all there was in it was for the greater horror to shew what an abominable and an accursed thing Amalek was Yet further although in Jericho they destroyed men women and cattel and so it was more accursed then Ai for there the cattel were saved yet in Jericho the gold silver brass iron were consecrated unto God Iosh 7. 19. but so it must not be in Amalek for that must be more accursed then Iericho And God was so strongly set upon revenge of this people that because Saul spared Agag and the fat of the cattel though in pity though under pretence of Sacrifice the Lord therefore rejected him and accounted his sin as rebellion and witchcraft so as he would not have Samuel so much as mourn for him 1 Sam. 16. 1. And when Agag was brought before Samuel because he was the King of the Amalekites Samuel though he were a loving sweet natured man yet he took a sword and himself hewed him in pieces before the Lord being filled with Gods indignation against Amalek 1 Sam. 15. 33. And Psalm 83. 7. Ammon and Amalek is joyned together God pronounces of the Ammonite that to the tenth generation none of them should enter into the Congregation of the Lord for ever Why Because they met not Gods people in the way with bread and water when they came up out of Egypt Deut. 23. 4. but hired Balaam to curse them God expects that his people in their afflicted estate should be relieved and not cursed the curse of the Lord will pursue those who deny help to them in this condition especially such as seek to adde to their affliction What was the reason that Shimei must not go to his grave in peace It was because of his rayling against David when he was in his affliction The Jews gave Christ gall and vinegar when he was upon the Cross this was a great aggravation of their sin take heed that you give not the servants of God gall and vinegar when they are upon or under the cross God expects you should bring oyl to their wounds not pour brine in many think they may safely trample upon such as are down when the hedge is broken when a gap begins to be made every one treads it down lower and lower but know when the day of the recompences of Sion shall come all the wrong done to Gods Servants who were not able to resist the malice of men shall be recompenced to the full especially such wrong as was done them in their affliction God takes it ill that any should once look upon his people in the day of their affliction except it be to pity them and to relieve them I am very sore displeased with the Heathen says the Lord Zach. 1. 15. Wherefore They helped forward the affliction and mark it it was that affliction that was upon Gods people out of Gods displeasure for their sin and does God take that so ill that that affliction should be helped forward how ill then will he take it how sorely will he be displeased when the affliction that his people suffer for his name is helped forward Let us take heed of any hand in such an evil as this but let us know that it is our honor and will be great advantage to us to appear for to be helpful and comfortable unto the Servants of God in their sufferings to be Obadiahs Ebedmelechs to the Prophets of the Lord. Obadiah pleads this with the Prophet 1 Kings 18. 13. Was it not told my Lord what I did when he was afraid of danger that thereby he might be delivered And God bade Jeremiah chap. 39. 16 17. Go to Ebedmelech and tell him Behold I will bring evil upon this City but I will deliver thee in that day thou shalt not be given into the hand of the men of whom thou art afraid We read likewise 1 Sam. 15. 6. of a merciful work of Gods providence towards the posterity of such who had been kinde to his servants in the times of their trouble namely the Kenites when Amalek was to be destroyed Saul sent to the Kenites to depart from among the Amalekites lest they be destroyed with them Why For ye shewed kindeness to all the children of Israel when they came up out of Egypt Who
for righteousness sake I would this foolish world would all rise up against me to reproach me Secondly Gods people have been greedy of them Origen was so earnest to suffer with his father when he was a youth of sixteen years of age that if his mother had not kept his clothes from him he would have run to the place where his father suffered to profess himself a Christian and to have suffered with him And so the story of the poor Woman in the book of Martyrs that made haste to the place where many Christians were to be burned and meeting with the Persecutor says he What need you make such haste to that place there are many to be burned Ah says she that I know and I am afraid all will be done before I come I and my childe would fain suffer with them And many blessed the day of their suffering Alice Drivers expression was That never neckerchief became her so well as that chain did and are you so shy of them what difference is between you and their spirits Again what unthankfulness and dishonor is this to Christ that hath suffered so much for you Christ hath gloried in the sufferings he suffered for you and why should you be afraid of sufferings for him it was a notable speech of an Ancient Acceptable is the reproach of the Cross to him that is not unthankful to him that was crucified upon the Cross And what confusion will it be upon you another day when you shall see those that suffered are so glorified that their sufferings are crowns of such immortal glory O consider what you do deprive not your selves of such glorious riches Fifthly let us labor to get this Christian magnanimity of spirit namely for to glory in all that we suffer for Christ Heathens can be patient in sufferings but Christians must go beyond them and glory in their sufferings You have been bold in suffering for sin if you might have your minde and will now if you may have your minde and will for Gods glory in suffering in a good way why should you not suffer Mark the expressions that we have of Job Did I fear a great multitude or did the contempt of families terrifie me that I kept silence and went not out of the door O that one would hear me behold my desire is that the Almighty would answer me and that mine adversary had written a book let them say what they can against me write a book against me Surely I would take it upon my shoulder and binde it as a crown to me Thus it should be with the people of God they should take their reproaches as an ensign of honor This indeed is truly in a spiritual sense to tread upon the Asp and the Adder that when the Asp and Adder and the old Serpent does spit out her venomous poyson a gracious heart should tread upon them There are three things that will put a spirit of suffering and so a holy magnanimity into us All the arguments in the world will not do it unless we have a suffering spirit and these three things will put a suffering spirit in us First if you had a full satisfaction of your own spirits in the cause of God you maintain and the ways of God you walk from your own experience you have in them if you take upon you the profession of Religion by the reports of others and be carried by the example of others that will not do it but if in your own experiences you finde that sweet and onely satisfying content in the truths and ways of God this will do it It was a notable resolution of Luther My purpose is not says he to maintain my life or name in respect what men say or can say of me for my maners but my purpose is to maintain the cause of God let whosoever will tear my life and name in this regard Propositum est mihi neque vitam neque mores tueri sed solam causam lacerent mores meos quicunque velint Luth. ad Nicolaū Hansman Secondly if you get your hearts inflamed with love to Christ Love delights in opportunities of expressing it self and it hath never such a full opportunity of expressing the strength and heat of it as in suffering much for the Beloved Thirdly if you have an eye of faith and can behold God the Father and Christ and the blessed Angels looking upon you when you are in your sufferings By the eye of faith look up to heaven and see God looking upon you and saying Here is a servant of mine is called to suffer for me now you shall see his behavior and Christ and the Angels looking upon you to see your behavior and this will do it not onely make you patient but glory in them Sixthly if there be so much glory and such riches in suffering Hence we have an Use of abundance of comfort and encouragement to them that are willing to endure reproaches for Christ There are five or six branches of consolation to Gods people in this Use First are you willing to suffer reproaches and to glory in them I remember a notable speech of Gulielmus Parisiensis O happy pallat that can taste such delicates O it is a blessed thing that God hath given you such a taste Again know if you glory in your sufferings for God God will glory in doing for you None shall glory in suffering for him but he will count it his glory to be doing for them Thirdly if you glory in your sufferings for Christ God will count it his glory to uphold you in his sufferings Fourthly do you glory in the low condition you are put into for Christ certainly God will own your souls and glory in you when you are in the lowest condition when your souls shall be in adversity God will know you then Fifthly can you glory in a suffering Christ when Christ comes in glory he will own you when he shall be glorified his glory shall be yours Those that are ashamed of me I will be ashamed of them says Christ before my Father and the Angels But those that glory in Christ Christ shall be their glory Lastly now you glory in Christs sufferings you shall glory in his praises Seventhly if so be that Gods people account themselves so enriched by sufferings and reproaches let us take heed we do not despise any that do suffer for Christ that we have not low esteem of them because of their sufferings God hath high esteem of them when they suffer and they themselves see cause to glory in their condition and are you that are standers by ashamed of them and do you disesteem of them for their sufferings while the Saints of God flourish in the world they are esteemed of by many carnal hearts but let them suffer any thing and be disgraced and they withdraw themselves from them they are despised as