for by reformation of our hearts and lives Luke 3. 5. Let every valley be silled and every mountain be brought low and the crooked be made straight the rough ways be made smooth let the low groveling worldling and filthy sensual fill up the Valley setting his affections on things above and every Proud and Ambitious person bring his thoughts low minding Gods glory not his own and every crooked cunning deceiver get a strait Spirit in simplicity and godly sincerity and every angry and revengful person make the rough ways smooth by endeavoring to obtain a Spirit of meeltness and kindness and then both feet are shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace and God will both receive and assist such in the conflict for his truth and glory And as Rom. 12. 1. They can confidently present their bodles a living holy Sacrifice acceptable to God which is their reasonable rational service whereas an unmortified person in whom brutish lusts do yet raign if he dyed in a good cause yet offered up a brutish unreasonable Sacrifice no way acceptable unto God Thirdly The Christian must take the sheild of Faith that is confidence in Gods promises of assistance and supports in the day of his Tryal Ephes 6. 16. He must be assured that Gods goodness and faithfulness will never suffer him to fail who flyes for refuge to his grace and mercy Thus saith David By this I know that thou favorest my righteous cause seeing mine enemy doth not Triumph over me and as for me thou preservest me in mine integrity Thus saith St. Paul 1 Cor. 1 8 9. Christ will confirm you unto the end and keep you blameless to the day of our Lord Jesus Christ or in the day of Christ that is emphatically the day of suffering for Christ and will confirm you unto the end The Christian Matron falling in Travel of Child-birth in the Prison cryed out in her strong pains and was thus assaulted by the Jaylor If saith he you cannot bear those pains without such outcrys how will you be able to bear the torments provided for you She answered These pains I suffer as the burden lay'd upon our Sex for the sin of our first Mother but in that conflict I shall have the assistance of his grace which is able to preserve me through faith against every evil work and his grace shall be sufficient for me Thus the Victory by which we overcome the world is our faith Fourthly Who ever will be a couragious Martyr must have full assurance of the goodness of his Cause that it is the truth and way of God and Christ for which he suffers and worthy of all his suffering for it This is that girdle of Truth Ephes 6. 14. As a girdle or belt not only strengthens the loins but by compacting and compressing the Muscles of the back gives an advantage and tightness to the cords or sinews of even the hands and feet also so the assurance that it is the cause of God for which we stand will make us confident that we shall not be confounded whereas but to doubt of our cause looseneth all our powers of spirit and courage Thus the Apostle prays for his Colossians Col. 2. 2 3 4. That their hearts might be comforted being knit together in love and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge The great cause maintained by the Apostolical Christians against the Jews was the Mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ that is that the infinite goodness and wisdom of God of old had carried on the Salvation of the Ancient Fathers of the world in the same way of Repentance and Faith in his mercy through the mediation of the promised Seed that ours is now carried on since Christs coming in the Flesh Now had any doubted whether this way of Salvation Preached by the Apostles and received by the Churches was the truth of God or questioned whether it was all of a piece with the old method of bringing Sinners to glory how could they have suffered confidently in the cause For staggering betwixt two opinions whether the Mosaical Law or Repentance towards God and Faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ was the way to justification they would have been unstable in all their ways But being assured that there was but one name and way of life Jesus Christ the same to day yesterday and for ever they had a full assurance of understanding which is the Girdle of Truth necessary to gird up the loins of the Martyrs mind I do not say a Christian must be able to answer all the subtle Fallacies and Sophisms of the Adversaries of the Truth but he must be assured that notwithstanding all their Cavils it is the truth of God for which he appears And that he is assured of because he finds it works effectually in him believing it purifying his heart by the faith of it incouraging his hope and increasing his love to God and Christ and all good Men yea to all Men for Christs sake and what works so cannot he is assured be other than the Truth of God A mean-bred man who should hear a Sceptick dispute whether the snow was white arguing that the water from whence it comes is black and therefore the effect must be as is the cause yet would not however be brought to disbelieve his eyes but would continue confident the snow was white as his sight represented it for he found the effect of that whiteness in dispersing his visual Rayes and Spirits Such an assurance must every suffering Christian have of the Truth for which he suffers and that it is the true grace of God wherein he stands and for which he stands and therefore an ignorant unstudied Christian can hardly make a Martyr Fifthly Whoever will be a Martyr must have his heart ingaged in a sincere design to promote Gods glory both by doing and suffering This is that Breast-plate of Righteousness and Sincerity Ephes 6. 14. which gives courage to a suffering Saint For if there be any Hypocritical design of seeking Reputation to our selves or bringing credit to an espoused Faction or Party it flats our courage but the single eye makes the body full of light and heat also On this account it was that the Primitive Christians in times of Persecution received the Eucharist so frequently in St. Cyprians time in the Decian Perfecution they took it daily thereby renewing their Baptismal vow to live and die to Gods glory if called to it As when some great Battel was expected the Roman Generals used to renew the Sacramentum Militare the Souldiers Oath That they would not disobey nor forsake their General their Imperator So that who ever hath not frequently and seriously Consecrated himself to God to live and die to him will hardly make a Martyr that being an
to his Glorious Majesty you suffer for Righteousness sake and the Commands of God with the examples of the Saints in all Ages will justifie you herein Nay further if you suffer for exercising the true Worship of God either singly as Daniel or socially with other Devout Persons fearing God as the Primitive Christians did daily and weekly not forsaking the assembling themselves together Heb. 10. 25. You suffer for Righteousness sake For God is God and is to be worshiped whether man will allow it or no. I speak not this as if I thought it unlawful for the Civil Governor when any of his Subjects shall Assemble in a considerable Number to require security of them that they will not under pretence of Divine Worship like the Galileans whose blood Pilate mingled with their Sacrifice complot the Disturbance of the Publick Peace Next if you suffer for holding fast and contending for the Faith and Truth once and at once delivered to the Saints you suffer for Righteousness sake And this hath been and will be the most general cause of Suffering to the Saints of God For they are Children of the Light and of the Truth and by Publishing and Professing of the Truth they not only turn others from darkness to light but also from the power of Satan unto God which makes him and his Instruments rage against it First therefore He suffers for Righteousness who suffers from Athiests for owning the belief of a God that is for professing to believe That there is a Glorious and Incomprehensible Being eternally existing unmade and distinct from all things that are made unmeasurable in his Infinite Presence Infinitely Powerful Wise Good and All-knowing who made preserves and Governs all things and is to be Feared Loved Trusted in and to be Submited to Obeyed and Worshiped by all Men and Angels and to be desired and chosen by them as their Portion and Happiness Next He Suffers on the same good account who Suffers from Heathen and Polytheists for professing to believe there is One onely God and thus some amongst the Jews yea and amongst the Heathen as Socrates and thousands of the Primitive Christians Suffered and are Martyres of God yet they were by the Polytheists reputed Atheists because they denied their false Gods Next He Suffers for Righteousness Sake who Suffers from Materialists or Hobbists for professing that God is a Glorious Spritual Being free and unconstrained by any natural or fatal necessity who is every where intire and not divided into parts Working all Things according to his own Will And indeed Hobbism or Hylexism is but a blanched and disguised Atheism and is the Pander to all sensual Lusts and the Canker of Loyalty and incourager of Rebellion Next He is God's and Christ's Martyr who Suffers for the Arrian or Socinian for professing to believe according to the Revelation of God concerning himself that the glorious Godhead through its Infinite Perfection subsists in Three Father Son and Holy-Ghost owning that Unity and undividing Communion of Essence do each of them imply Perfection and are a way of Subsistence proper to the Godhead and as incommunicable and unparallel'd in the Creatures as his Eternity of duration or the immensity of his spiritual Presence are And Thousands of Christians thus Suffered of Old under the Arrians Next He is a Martyr of Jesus who Suffers from Jew Mahometan Heathen or any other Insidel for professing to believe That Jesus conceived by the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary at Bethlehem in the time of Augustus Caesar the Roman Emperor brought up at Nazareth and Crucifi'd under Pontius Pilate the Roman Governor in Judea at Jerusalem was the Promised Seed of the Woman the Man from the Lord the same that should comfort Mankind against the Curse the Seed of Abraham the Shiloh of Juduh the Rod and Branch of the Root of Jesse the Son of David and he of whom the Tradition was to the Fathers of Old that he should Break the Serpents Head and overthrow the design of Satan for man's destruction and of whom the Prophets prophecied That in him all Nations should be Blessed and he should be a Covenant to all People and bear our Sins and have the Chastisements of our Peace laid on him that is that he should as a Mediator betwixt God and Man Seal a new Covenant for us in his Blood wherein God promiseth pardon to the Penitent Believer and grace to the humble Suppliant and peace to the Contrito and glory to the persevering in Faith and Holiness and that his Death is the onely Propitiation for our Sins and that he accordingly dyed for our Sins and confirmed thereby the Covenant and rose again the third day and ascended into Heaven and sitteth on the right hand of God being exalted even in his Humane Nature above the highest Angels and that he is God the Word and Wisdom of the Father Incarnate and is appointed to be the Judge of the quick and the Dead and that there neither is nor was nor shall be any other Name under Heaven by which Sinners may be saved but the Name of Jesus Christ A Christian may meet with Sufferings also from other Sects but the main Sect and Heresie against which I perceive you desire to be fortified is that of the Papists from whom ten thousand times ten thousand of the Saints of God have suffered for owning the Faith once delivered to the Saints and that Whore sitting on the Scarlet Beast hath made her self drunk with the Blood of the Martyrs of Jesus though as I said before I belive many of our English Papists to be of a more debonaire temper at present Par. It is indeed my chief desire to be fortified in suffering in opposition to Popish Errors though your accounts about other Sects redound also to my Advantage Min. You suffer therefore as a Martyr of Jesus if you suffer because you own that God since the writing of the Scriptures hath appointed them to those who have them as an intire rule of Faith in all things which God hath by Revelation made known concerning the way in which he will carry on Sinner to Salvation and that it is the Code or Body of all the Laws and Institutions of Christ to his Church But if you please I will speak of this a little more largely Parish Yea Sir I desire you would because I find that it is pleaded that once the Faith of the Patriarchs and so also of the first Christians was built upon Oral Tradision and Catechetical Institution Min. You say right the Patriarchs Doctrine of Faith about the Creation of the World about the Fall of Man about the promised Seed and about Sacrifices Tythes the Patriarchal Sabbath and Marriage was at first delivered by Oral Tradition and derived by Catechising from Father to Son But after that the Nations had corrupted the true Doctrine and Adulterated the Tradition it pleased God to inspire Moses to
or Superiour commands without disputing as to obey God and Christ in what he commands This therefore is another piece of their Idolatry setting up their Church or Superiours in the place of God Parish Sir I shall not call you to more instances being assured that in every suffering of the Martyrs of Jesus under the Whore of Babylon one of these or all these are the Ingredients in their Accusation that they deny the Churches Traditions and Infallibility and Authority and the Popes Supremacy and Transubstantiation which they call the real presence ignorantly and slanderously imputing to us that we deny the real presence of the Body and Blood of Christ because we deny their sensless fiction of Transubstantiation But I long to hear you discourse of those other two excellent Heads Namely of the qualifications of a Martyr and of the supports and rewards he may expect Minist Indeed Sir I longed to come to them my self as knowing they are speculation yeilding ten times more sweetness than the controversal part of the discourse because we could not treat on that without reflexion on others wickedness or errour which is no pleasing prospect to humble and charitable Persons But the rest of our way will be all beset with the fragrant Graces of Gods Spirit and the Fruit-bearing Trees of his rich and precious promises I shall proceed therefore 1. He is very ignorant of the nature of God who thinks God stands in need of a vile and profligate wretch living yet in the practise of known sins to assert the cause of his holy truth for his praise is in the Congregation of his holy ones and dear in his sight is the death only of his Saints But he putteth away the wicked of the Earth like dross First Therefore none are fitted to be Martyrs but sincere Mourners for their former sins When thunders and Storms are without and swelling Winds are in the Bowels of the Earth there must needs be a terrible Earth-quake So he that is called to suffer for the truth and hath the Enemies of truth raging and menacing without him and conscience accusing him within that he is not only an high transgressor but a careless neglecter of seeking his peace with God can never confidently dye in the best Cause When the Philistines were coming upon Saul 1 Sam. 13. the careless man then is awakened by his own terrours and cries out verse 12. the Philistines will now come down upon me to Gilgal and I have not made Supplication to the Lord so will Conscience say to the impenitently careless how darest thou venture thy Life in the cause of that truth thou hast neglected to obey never seriously searching thy heart and ways never sincerely mourning for thy sins never applying thy self by earnest prayer to the mercy of God in Christ I do not deny that a man who is under great fears and doubts having for some considerable time been earnestly seeking Gods favour in Christ prizing his loving kindness more than life may make a couragious Martyr for such an ones thoughts will work at this rate Lord thou knowest how I have longed for thy Salvation though therefore I yet walk in darkness and see no light only a little dawning of hope appears I will not set my Comforts at a greater distance from me by a cowardly betraying of thy Cause whether therefore thou please to lift up the light of thy countenance upon me or no yet will I trust in thee and live and dye to thy to thy Glory knowing that duty is my work and must be my care and comfort is thy free gift and it coming at any time or in any degree is both more and sooner than I deserve as said the three Children Dan. 3. 17. we know our God can deliver us but if he will not be it known unto thee we will not serve thy Gods nor worship the Golden Image which thou hast set up so saith the humble penitent God can make the bones which he hath broken to rejoyce but however I will not depart from him nor betray that truth he calls me to own This is one of the Greaves or Bootes mentioned Ephes 6. 15. For amongst other parts of the Spiritual Armour the Apostle exhorts to have their feet shod with the prepraration of the Gospel of peace the preparation of it according to the Doctrine of Saint John Baptist Christs forerunner is Repentance Matth. 3. 2. Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand But he that is yet a careless impenitent hath no Boots or Greaves on but his naked Feet are subject to be wounded with the Gall-traps of his Enemies when Conscience tells him that according to the Tenor of the Gospel he is in no capacity for peace or for pardon and his Enemies without suppose Heathen tell him he shall perish here and hereafter as an Enemy to the gods or Popish persecutors curse him solemnly with Bell Book and Candle to the Fire of Hell as well as to the Flames here and forbid the people to pray for them as they did in Queen Marys days prohibit all to assist the Martyrs so much as by a prayer for them how can such a one dye couragiously But still I must take heed of discouraging any sincere though late penitent for I do not question but as our Saviour received the penitent Thief upon the Cross so some have entred profane wretches into Prison who yet have had such conviction of the preciousness of the truth they were urged to renounce that they durst not deny it and have come out to Execution sincere penitents nay it may be rejoycing through hope and have died happily yea comfortably in the Lord But serious repentance and sorrow founded in serious search of our ways and heart sooner or later is a necessary qualification for a Martyr of Jesus Secondly So also is mortification necessary that is that the Martyr hath endeavoured faithfully to subdue every lust in himself and to cleanse himself from all defilements of Flesh and Spirit perfecting holiness in the fear and love of God for God will not receive a polluted Sacrifice though offered with the Fire of his own Altar nor can such expect the assistances of Gods Spirit who have grieved that good Spirit by wilful allowance of themselves in known sins not denying their lusts One living lust is like a potent opposite party in a Garrison that will weaken the hands of the Defenders the Conscience of being under the power of one ruling Sin will cut the Sinews of our courage and God will say to such as Psal 50. Why takest thou my Law into thy Mouth seeing thou hatest to be reformed Why offerest thou to fight my battels against the adversaries of my truth seeing thou fightest against my fear obeying the adversaries of my honour thy lusts This is the other Boot or Greave of the preparation of the Gospel of Peace which according to St. John Bapists Doctrine is prepared