in the world God comforted Rachel concerning her children that Herod murdered in the stead and upon the account of Christ. He bids her refrain her self from tears by this promise that her children should come again from the land of the enemy from death And again saith he Thy children shall come again to their own border which I think if it be meant in a Gospel sence must be to the heavenly inheritance compare Jer. 31.15 with Matt. 2.18 And methinks this should be mentioned not only for her and their sakes but to comfort all those that either have had or yet may have their children thus suffer for righteousness None of these things as shall be further shewed anon happen without the determinate counsel of God He has ordered the sufferings of little children as well as that of persons more in years And 't is easie to think that God can as well foresee which of his elect shall suffer by violent hands in their Infancy as which of them shall then die a natural death He has Saints small in age as well as in esteem or otherwise and sometimes the least member of the body suffereth violence as well as the head or other chief parts And although I desire not to see these days again yet me thinks it will please me to see those little ones that thus have already suffered for Jesus to stand in their white Robes with the elders of the people before the throne to sing unto the Lamb. But to pass this and to come to that which is more directly intended to be spoken to namely to shew you who doth actively suffer for righteousness And 1. 'T is he that chuseth by his own will and consent to suffer for it All suffering that can be called active suffering must be by the consent of the will and that is done when a man shall have sin and suffering set before him and shall chuse suffering rather than sin He chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season and again They did not accept of deliverance that is of base and unworthy terms that they might obtain a better resurrection Heb. 11.25 ver 35. Indeed no man can force a Christian to suffer as a Christian without his own consent All Christians are sufferers of will and consent Hence 't is said they must take up their cross by which taking up an act of their will is intended So again take my yoke upon you which also intends an act of the will Mat. 10.38 Chap. 16.24 Chap. 11.29 This therefore is the first thing that I would present you with Not that an act of the will is enough to declare a man a sufferer for righteousness it standing alone for a man thorough the strength of delusion and the power of an erroneous conscience may be willing to suffer for the grossest opinions in the world But I bring it to shew that actual suffering for righteousness must also be by the consent of the will the mind of the man must be in it Secondly He that suffereth for righteousness thus must also have a good cause A good cause is that which is essential to suffering for righteousness A good cause what is that Why verily It is the truth of God either in the whole of it as contained in the Scriptures of truth or in the parts of it as set before me to believe or do by any part of that holy word This may be called the matter for which one suffereth or as it is called in another place the word of righteousness Heb. 5.13 It may also be called the form of sound Doctrine or the like Because without this word the Matter and nature of Gods truths cannot be known Pilate's question what is truth will still abide a question to those that have not or regard not the word the rule of righteousness John 18.38 See then that thy cause be good thou that wouldest know what it is to suffer for righteousness Step not an hairs breadth without the bounds of the word of truth also take heed of misunderstanding or of wringing out of its Place any thing that is there Let the words of the upright stand upright warp them not to the end they may comply in shew with any crooked notion And to prevent this take these three words as a guide in this matter to thee They shew men their sins and how to close with a Saviour they enjoyn men to be holy and humble they command men to submit themselves to authority And what ever is cross to these comes from ignorance of or from a wresting the rule of righteousness out of its place But more particularly the word of righteousness thy cause within the bounds of which thou must keep if thou wilt suffer for righteousness is to be divided into two parts 1. It containeth a revelation of moral righteousness 2. It containeth a revelation of evangelical righteousness As for moral righteousness men seldom suffer only for that Because that is the righteousness of the World and that simply as such that sets it self up in every mans conscience and has a testimony for it self even in the light of nature Besides there is nothing that maketh head against that but that which every man is ashamed by words to plead for and that is immorality And this is that which Peter intends when he saith And if ye be followers of that which is good who will harm you 1 Pet. 3.13 If ye be followers of moral goodness But if it should so happen for the case is rare that any man should make you sufferers because you love God and do good to your neighbour happy are ye Though I do not think that the Apostles conclusion terminates there But more of these things anon For let a man be a good neighbour in morals let him feed the hungry cloath the naked give freely out of his purse to the poor and do that which he would another should do to him and stop there and not meddle with the name of Christ and he shall have but few enemies in the World For 't is not the Law but Christ that is the stumbling block and the rock of offence to men Isaiah 8.14 15. Rom. 9.31 32 33. Wherefore there is in Gods word a revelation of another righteousness a righteousness which is not so visible to yea and that suteth not so with the reason of man as that moral righteousness doth Wherefore this righteousness makes men righteous in principle and practise so as is foreign to natural men Hence 't is said to be foolishness to them And again Its praise is not of men Rom. 2.29 1 Cor. 2.14 This righteousness is also revealed in the Scriptures but the blind cannot see it It is the work of the holy Ghost in the heart and is therefore called the fruits of the spirit and the grace which in the head and fulness of it is only to be found in
Look to your selves therefore who ever you are that talk of leaving your Souls with God but do live loose idle profane and wicked lives God will not take care of such mens Souls they commit them not unto him as they should They do but flatter him with their lips and lie unto him with their tongue and think to deceive the Lord. But to no purpose He that sows to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption 'T is he that sows to the Spirit that shall reap life everlasting Galat. 6.7 8. I shall come now to the second thing contained in the Text namely To give you a more distinct description of the men that are thus bid to commit the keeping of their souls to God And they are thus described They that suffer according to the will of God Let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their Souls to him in well-doing as unto a faithful Creator Two things are here to be inquired into 1. What the Apostle here means by the will of God 2. What suffering according to the will of God is First For the will of God it is divers ways taken in the Scriptures as sometimes forelecting justifying sanctifying acts of God Sometimes for Faith good Life and sometimes for suffering for his name Rom. 9. Ephes. 1.11 Rom. 4.6 7 8. John 7.17 1 John 3.23 1 Thes. 4.3 Mat. 7.21 But by will of God here we must 1. Understand his Law and Testament 2. His order and designment First By his will I understand his Law and Testament This is called the revealed will of God Or that by which he has made himself and how he will be worshipped known unto the children of men Now I understanding these words thus must before I go further make this distinction to wit That there is a difference to be put betwixt them that suffer for the breach and those that suffer for keeping of this Law and Testament For tho' both of them may suffer by the will of God yet they are not both concerned in this Text. A malefactor that suffereth for his evil deeds the due punishment thereof suffereth as other Texts declare according to the will of God But I say this Text doth not concern it self with them For both this Text and this Epistle is writ for the counsel and comfort of those that suffer for keeping the Law and Testament of God that suffer for well-doing 1 Pet. 3.13 14 17. Chap. 4.13 14. The man then that is concerned in this advice is he that suffereth from the hands of men for keeping of the word of God And this is he that has licence leave yea a command to commit the keeping of his Soul to God in well-doing as unto a faithful Creator We will a little enlarge upon this He that keepeth the word of God is such an one that has regard to both the matter and manner thereof The matter is the Truth the Doctrine contained therein the manner is that comely godly humble faithful way of doing it which becomes a man that has to do with the Law and Testament of God And both these are contained in the Text. For first here is the will of God to be done and then secondly to be done according to his will Let them that suffer according to his will Which words I say take in both matter and manner of doing So then the man that here we have to do with and to discourse of is a man that in the sence now given suffereth That which makes a Martyr is suffering for the word of God after a right manner And that is when he suffereth not only for righteousness but for righteousness sake not only for truth but of love to truth not only for Gods word but according to it to wit in that holy humble meek manner as the word of God requireth A man may give his body to be burned for Gods truth and yet be none of God's martyrs 1 Cor. 13.1 2 3. Yea a man may suffer with a great deal of patience and yet be none of Gods Martyrs 1 Pet. 2.20 The one because he wanteth that grace that should poise his heart and make him right in the manner of doing the other because he wanteth that word of the Holy One that alone can make his cause good as to matter 'T is therefore matter and manner that makes the Martyr and 't is this man that is intended in the Text which is aforesaid described So then they that suffer for the Law and Testament of God in that holy and humble manner that the word requires they are they that by this word of God are commanded to commit the keeping of their Souls to God From this consideration two things present themselves to our sight First That a man may be a Christian and suffer and yet not suffer in the sense last given according to the will of God Secondly There have been and may yet be a people in the world that have and may suffer in the sence of the Apostle here according to the will of God A few words to the first of these namely that a man may be a Christian and suffer and yet not suffer in the sence of the Apostle in the Text according to the will of God He may be a Christian and yet not suffer as a Christian. He may want the matter or he may want the manner of suffering as a Christian. This is evident from what this Apostle suggests in several places of this Epistle For 1. Saith he If ye be buffeted for your faults chap. 2.20 This supposeth that a Christian may so be for he speaketh here to the same people unto whom he speaketh in the Text though he putteth them not under the same circumstance as suffering for well-doing If ye be buffeted for your faults for what Gods word calls faults What thank have you from God or good men tho' you take it patiently So again For it is better if the will of God be so that ye suffer for well-doing than for evil-doing Chap 3.17 Here 't is plainly supposed that a Christian man may suffer for evil-doing yea that the will of God may be that he should suffer for evil-doing For God if Christians do not well will vindicate himself by punishing of them for their doing ill Yea and will not count them worthy tho' they be his own to be put among the number of those that suffer for doing well Again But let none of you suffer as a murderer or as a thief or as an evil doer or as a busy-body in other mens matters Chap. 4.15 These are cautions to Christians to perswade them to take heed to themselves their tongues and their actions that all be kept within the bounds of the word For it would be a foolish thing to say That these are cautions to perswade to take heed of that into which it is not possible one should fall 'T is possible for Christians to suffer
there appears to be no more with the man but only the notion of things For though the notion of things are those that of God are made the means of conveying of grace into the heart yet grace is not always with the notion of things the word oft-times standeth in mans understanding alone and remaineth there as not being accompanied with such grace as can make it the power of God to salvation Now when it is thus with the Soul the danger is as great as ever because there is a presumption now begotten in the heart that the man is in a saved condition A presumption I say instead of faith which puffeth up instead of enabling the Soul after a godly manner to depend upon God for mercy through Christ. This is called the word of them that are puffed up the word only because not accompanied with saving grace 1 Cor. 4.19 Chap. 8.1 1 Thessal 1.5 This the Christian also sees and says it is too weak to conduct the Soul to Glory And this indeed he says because he would not that his neighbour should come short home But neither can this be born but here again the natural man with his notion of things is offended and takes pett against his Friend because he tells him the truth and would that he so should digest the truth that it may prove unto him eternal life Wherefore he now begins to fall out again for as yet the enmity is not removed He therefore counts him an unmercifull man one that condemneth all to Hell but himself and as to his singularity in things those he counteth for dreams for Enthusiasms for Allegorical whimsies vain Revelations and the effects of an erroneous Judgment For the Lord has put such darkness betwixt Egypt and Israel as will not suffer them to come together But this is not all For 't is possible for these carnal men to be so much delighted in the notion of things as to addict themselves to some kind of worship of Christ whose notions of truth have by them been received And because their love is yet but carnal and because the flesh is swelling and is pleased with pomp and sumptuousness therefore to shew how great an esteem such have for Christ whom they are now about to worship They will first count his Testament though good a thing defective and not of fulness sufficient to give in all particular things direction how they should to their own content perform their glorious Doctrine For here and there and in another place cry they there is something wanting Here say they is nothing said of those places vestures gestures shews and outward greatness that we think seemly to be found in and with those that worship Jesus Here wants sumptuous ceremonies glorious ornaments new fashion'd carriages all which are necessary to adorn worship withall But now here again the truly godly as he comes to see the evil of things maketh his objections and findeth fault and counts them unprofitable and vain Isa. 29. Mat. 15. Mark 7. But they again seeing the things they have made are the very excellencies of humane invention and things added as a supplement to make up what and wherein as they think the man that was faithful over his own house as a Son was defective are resolved to stand upon their points and not to budge an inch from the things that are so laudable so necessary so convenient and so comely the things that have been judged good by so many wise learned pious holy reverend and good men Nay if this were all the godly would make a good shift But their zeal is so great for what they have invented and their spirits so hot to make others couch and bend thereto that none must be suffered to their power to live and breath that refuseth to conform thereto This has been proved too true both in France Spain Germany Italy and other places and upon this account it is that persecution has been kept alive so many hundred years in some places against the Church of God From what has been said as to these things this I collect as the summ First That man by nature is in a state of wrath and condemnation Ephes. 2.1 2 3 4. John 3.18 Secondly that the natural man by all his natural abilities is not able to recover himself from this his condemned condition John 6.44 Ephes. 1.19 20. Thirdly that a man may have right notions of Gospel things that hath no grace in his heart 1 Cor. 13.2 3. Fourthly That to add human inventions to Christs institutions and to make them of the same force and necessity of the same authority and efficacy is nought and not to be subjected to Isa. 29.13 Mat. 15.8 9. Mark 7.6 7. So then he that saith these things saith true for the Scriptures say the same This then is a good cause to suffer for if men will that I shall suffer for saying so because it is that which is founded upon the word of God and the word is the ground and foundation of all true Doctrine Let him then that believeth what is here discoursed and that liveth soberly and peaceably in this belief among his neighbours stand by what he hath received and rejoyce that he hath found the truth And if any shall afflict or trouble him for holding of these things they afflict or trouble him for holding to good things and he suffereth at their hands because his cause is good And such an one may with boldness as to this make his appeal to the Bible which is the foundation of his principles and to God the author of that foundation if what he holds is not good He may say Lord I have said that man by nature is in a state of condemnation and they make me suffer for that Lord I have asserted that man by all his natural abilities is not able to recover himself from this his condemned state and they make me suffer for that Lord I have said that a natural man may have right notions of the Gospel and yet be without the saving grace thereof and they make me suffer for that Lord I cannot consent that human inventions and Doctrines of men should be joyned with thy institutions as matters of worship and imposed upon my conscience as such and they make me suffer for that Lord I own the Government pray for my Superiors live quietly among my Neighbours give to all their dues feed the hungry cloath the naked relieve the afflicted and shew my self by my faith and life to be a true Christian man and yet my neighbours will not let me alone True I cannot comply withal that some men would have me comply with no more did Daniel no more did Paul and yet Daniel said that he had to the King done no hurt and Paul said neither against the Law of the Jews neither against the Temple nor yet against Caesar have I offendeed any thing at all Dan. 6.22 Acts 25.8 For he that keeps within the
hearts and shews it self in their lives a thing which the Devil and the World can by no means abide He that is born after the flesh persecuteth him that is born after the spirit Gal. 4. For they cannot agree in Religion the godly are so devout and the other are so profane that they cannot do Not but that Gods People as they are commanded are willing to let them alone but the other they cannot bear that they should serve God as they have said Mat. 15.14 And hence ariseth persecution The World also would have the Religion of the godly to be counted false a thing that the others can by no means endure but will stand by and maintain yet in all peaceable manner their own ways before them whatever it costs The Christian and the carnal professor are like those two Harlots that you read of in the Book of Kings who strove for the living child whose it should be whose contest could not be decided until it came to the sword of the King 1 Kings 3. O but when the sword was drawn under a shew as if the living Child must now be cut in two then the true mother was known from the false For her bowels yearned upon her Son ver 26.27 The World what shew soever they have for Religion and however they urge it that the truth is with them have no yearning of bowels for it Let it be neither mine nor thine said she but divide it but the woman whose the living child was had not an heart to say so Religion may lie and die in a ditch for all those that are given to their sins nor doth their zeal appear except when they are griping of the godly for his faith towards God Bowels yearning of Bowels over Gods condemned Religion is only found in the Souls of those who own God has made it Secondly Is it so are Gods people a suffering people Then this should inform them that will be Religious to prepare themselves for what is like to attend them for their Religion To prepare I say not with carnal weapons but with the graces of the spirit of God that will help them with meekness and patience to endure Sit down then I say and count up the cost before for Religion thou engagest too far lest thou take upon thee to meddle with that which thou wilt not know what to do with in the end Prov. 25.8 Luke 14.25 26 27 28 29 30. Many there be that are faulty here they have taken upon them to profess not considering what what they have taken in hand may cost them Wherefore when troubles come indeed then they start and cry This they like not because they looked not for it and if this be the way to heaven let who will go on in it for them Thus they take offence and leave Christs cause and people to shift for themselves in the World Mat. 13.20 21. Thirdly But let Gods people think never the worse of Religion because of the course entertainment it meeteth with in the World 'T is better to chuse God and affliction than the World and sin and carnal peace 'T is necessary that we should suffer because that we have sinned And if God will have us suffer a little white here for his word instead of suffering for our sins in Hell let 's be content and count it a mercy with thankfulness The wicked are reserved to the day of destruction they shall be brought forth to the day of wrath Job 21.30 How kindly therefore doth God deal with us when he chuses to afflict us but for a little that with everlasting kindness he may have mercy upon us Isa. 54.7 8. And 't is better if the will of God be so that we suffer for well-doing than for evil-doing 1 Pet. 3. â—7 Fourthly Look not therefore upon the sufferings of Gods people for their Religion to be tokens of Gods great anger 'T is to be sure as our heavenly Father orders it rather a token of his love for suffering for the Gospel and for the sincere profession of it is indeed a dignity put upon us a dignity that all men are not counted worthy of Count it therefore a favour that God has bestowed upon thee his truth and graces to enable thee to profess it though thou be made to suffer for it Acts 5.41 Thou mightest have been a sufferer for thy sins in Hell but thou art not but contrariwise art perhaps suffering for conscience to God this is a dignity for that thou dost thus by vertue of an heavenly gift on the behalf of Christ for the Gospel sake and according to the will of God This is a dignity that a persecutor shall not be counted worthy of until he first convert to Christ Philip. 1.29 Fifthly take thy affliction with meekness and patience though thou endurest grief wrongfully For this is thank worthy if a man for conscience towards God endure grief suffering wrongfully 1 Pet. 2. Lay thy hand then upon thy mouth and speak not a word of ill against him that doth thee wrong leave thy cause and thy enemy to God yea rather pray that his sin may not be laid to his charge wherefore as I said before now shew thy self a good man by loving pitying praying for and by doing good as thou art commanded to them that dispitefully use thee Mat. 5.44 I know thy flesh will be apt to huff and to be angry and to wish would thou mightest revenge thy self But this is base carnal sensual devilish cast therefore such thoughts from thee as thoughts that are not fit for a Christians breast and betake thee to those weapons that are not carnal For the Artillery of a Christian is the word faith and prayer and in our patience we must possess our Souls 2 Cor. 10.5 Luke 21.16 17 18 19. Sixthly Be much in the consideration of the All-sufficience of thy Father whose cause thou hast espoused whose word thou hast chosen for thy heritage and whose paths thou delightest to walk in I say be much in considering how all the World is sustained by him and that all life and breath is in his hand to continue or diminish as he pleases Think with thy self also how able he is to rescue thee from all affliction or to uphold thee in it with a quiet mind Go to him continually as to a fountain of life that is open for the supply of the needy Remember also if he comes not at thy call and comforteth thee not so soon as thou desirest it is not of want of love or compassion to thy Soul but to try thy graces and to shew to the fallen Angels that thou wilt serve God for nought rather than give out Also if it seemeth to thee as if God took no care of thee to help thee but that he hath rather turned thee over to the ungodly count this also as a sign that he delights to see thee hold fast his name though thou art laid under the greatest of