Babylon Min. I shall readily as far as I am able comply to your Pious desire not because my fears keep equal pace with yours for to me still there is hope in Israel as to this thing but because the considerations which such a Subject will lead us to will be a great advantage to us Living and Dying The Method I will observe in my Discourse shall be this I. I will endeavour to shew you what sort of Cause it is that will make a Martyr namely To suffer for Christs Name and for Righteousness sake II. I will shew how a Martyr must be qualified as to his Temper and Practice III. What promises God hath made both of Consolations and Supports here and of rewards hereafter to his Suffering Saints Parish Sir I am glad we are come to this sweet Theme and shall attend diligently praying to God to guide your Tongue for my Direction and Consolation in the ways of the Gospel Min. Amen He therefore suffers for Christs Name and for Righteousnes sake I. Who suffers for refusing to strengthen the hands of Wicked Men in their Wickedness by his Consent or Example II. Who suffers for Promoting the Churches Peace III. Who suffers for the Exercise of warranted Religious Worship or refusal of Communion in Idolatrous and Sinful Worship IV. Who suffers for contending for the Faith and Truth once delivered to the Saints First He Suffers as a Martyr who Suffers because he will have no Fellowship in the unfruitful Works of Darkness nor run to the same excess of Riot with others who Suffers because he is ready when Sinners intice him to answer with David Depart from me ye Evil doers for I will keep the Commandements of my God is Gods Martyr For certainly if we Suffer on this account because we will by our professed obedience to God's Law give testimony to his Sovereignty and to the Equity and Excellency of that Rule he hath appointed to his Rational Creatures we may justly be stiled God's Martyrs And in particular if we Suffer for Fearing God and the King and not medling with those who are given to change but that in Conscience towards God we retain our Loyalty to our Sovereign it is a Suffering for Righteousness sake Parish But will the Suffering in the Cause of strict Moralities in title Christians to Martyrdom Min. Yes For Morality or Conformity to the Moral Law in our Duty to God and Men for God's sake is so great a part of the obedience of Faith given to the Rule or the New Creature that he who Suffers rather than he will offend against the Moral Law In Conscience that God who made him and Christ who Redeem'd him requires that he should live by that Rule in order to God's Glory his own and others good is God's and Christ's Martyr And be assured of it Good Men shall not want occasion of Suffering on that account especially in such days and places wherein almost every thing is countenanced but Piety and Virtue Next If you Suffer for promoting the Peace of the Church and opposing Schisms and Divisions amongst Brethren you Suffer for the Name of Christ and you cannot want occasion of Suffering if than be your design so long as the Zeal for or against our English Littleismes flames out at the top of every Chimney Parish Indeed it is easily observable that those good and moderate Men who have endeavoured to remove the Fewel of our present Contentions are as violently assaulted by the fierce Men the Bigotts on both sides as if they were the declared Enemies of both the Contending Parties however I resolve through the Grace of God to follow your Example and Doctrine herein both to pray and strive for the Peace of Jerusalem by all lawful means For I believe if I should dye at the Stake for the Profession of the most precious Truths of the Gospel and yet be a divider of Christ's Church I should be condemned to be a Firebrand in Hell by the Prince of Peace Min. But when I press you to contend for the Peace of the Church I mean not only the Peace of the particular Society of Christians amongst whom your Residence and Cohabitation calls you to communicate in Publick Worship But also to promote the Catholick Unity of the Catholick Church by vertue of which it is That every Baptized Christian Professing Repentance towards God and Faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ and bringing sufficient Evidence or Credentials of his Christianity may as a Member of that one Body under Christ the Head Challenge the Priviledge of Communion in all the Ordinances of Christ with any Society of Christianst or partionlar Church where ever he happens to live or occasionally to come For if any Society of Christians shall impale themselves by mutual Compacts or by setting up other new and unnecessary Terms of Communion with them so as to exclude from their Communion other Christians cohabiting with them or coming to them they are therein Schismatical especially if those Terms be such as the Neighbor or Stranger-Christian cannot comply to without wrong to his own Conscience I do indeed judge that if the Terms of Communion required though new and narrower then Christ hath required to make us Members of his Catholick Church be such as I can comply to wihout Sin I ought not to disturb the Peace of the particular Church where I am by a stiff opposing of them especially if I have sufficiently protested my Right and Priviledge as a Member of the Catholick Church to have Communion allowed me without such Imposals For my Christian Liberty gives me a Latitude to become all things not sinful to all men And though a particular Church may be Schismatical in imposing such new and narrow Terms of Communion with her as Christ never imposed to make us Members of his Catholick Church yet if I separate causlesly that is where I can Communicate without Sin I am Schismatical also so that at the same time a Church may be Schismatical in imposing unecessary Terms of Communion and a particular Christian may be Schismatical in refusing Compliance to those Terms if he can comply to them without Sin Parish Sir I thank you for by this Information you have contributed not only to make easie to me my Compliance to just Ecclesiastical Laws which I did something scruple on conceit that my yielding betray'd my Christian Liberty but also to enlarge my special Brotherly Love to all Christians as Members of the same Body with me under Christ our Head and you have given my Conscience a latitude and my Heart a readiness to join in worship with any Christian where ever I come and may be admitted and to receive readily as much as in me lies any Christian to Communion with me and with that Society of Christians amongst whom I Cohabit and Communicate Min. Next if you suffer for not complying to sinful Worship such as is forbidden by God as unworthy to be offered up
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
loathsome Dungeons they may be sawn asunder torn Limb from Limb Roasted on Gridirons Tympanized forced to take in stinking water till their Belly and Skin is ready to burst and what other ways of Torment the Devil and his wicked Instruments can invent and nothing but Heaven can surmount such Sufferings and Death painful Death by them But Faith which is the substance and subsistance of things hoped for the Evidence of things not seen giving as full and firm assurance to the Soul of those Rich and Pretious Promises as Light doth to the Eye of the Colour or Figure of the things it seeth can overcome all the Terrors and Torments levelled against it for what would not a Christian suffer that hoped after a few hours of suffering to come to the vision and enjoyment of the Glorious God and our Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ and to the Communion of the Church of the first born of God the Spirits of just men made perfect and to an innumerable Company of Angels and thereby to be above all sin and misery and fear of losing or loathing what they enjoy Indeed the sufferings of this life are not worthy to be compared with the Glory that shall he revealed 12. Lastly The Martyr must be abundant in Prayer he must have the Spirit of Prayer and Supplication poured out upon him Praying always with all Prayer and Supplication in the Spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all Saints Ephes 6. 18. For Prayer is the Christiane Artillery-Yard wherein he exerciseth his Arms and puts all his Graces of godly sorrow resolutions for holiness devotedness to Gods Glory love to God and love to Men in practise till he is active and nimble in the use of them Parish Oh dear Sir My Ear hath been so chained to your Tongue that it tyed up my Mouth I could not interrupt you in the current of your Discourse about the qualifications of the Martyr For you have first presented your Martyr as a Man of Courage going forth in his great strength whose every Vein and Sinew and Artery is filled with the love of God and of his Church Yea of his very Enemies Next you have Armed him Cap-a-pe First with the Greaves and Boots of sorrow for Sin past and mortification of reigning Lusts which is the preparation of the Gospel of Peace in his own Soul and with his Loins Girt with the Girdle of Truth and full assurance that his Cause is the Cause of God and that Truth is great and will prevail by the Power of God giving it Victory over the Gates of Hell And then with the Brest-plate of Righteousness and Sincerity and Love aiming at the Glory of God his Saviour and preferring that before all concernments for his dearest Relations and singly designing to promote Gods Service in the confirmation of his Brethren and the conversion of his Enemies and holding before him the Sheild of Faith and full assurance that God will preserve him to his Heavenly Kingdom against all the Powers of Darkness by the sufficiency of his Grace and having on the Helmet of the Hope of everlasting Salvation and expert in the use of all his Arms by the Exercise of all his Graces in Prayer and Supplication And sure such such a Champion is a Spectacle worthy the sight of Men and Angels in his conflict I pray you therefore proceed to the performance of the third Part of your promise in informing me what assistances and comforts in my sufferings and what rewards after them I may warrantably expect Minist I shall do it to the best of my Ability and in this Method First I shall shew what assistances a Christian may expect to enable him to give a reason of the Faith and Hope that is in him Secondly I shall shew what sweet Comforts the very Graces that a Christian doth then Exercise will bring into his Soul Thirdly I shall shew what warrant a Christian hath to expect more immediate Illapses and Communications of the comforts of Gods Spirit and of joy in the Holy-Ghost in his sufferings then ever before Fourthly I shall shew what rewards a suffering Saint may expect hereafter The first expectation namely of Assistances to give a reason of his Faith and Hope I think is sufficiently warranted from Matt. 10. 19. When they deliver you up take no thought how or what you shall speak for it shall be given you in that same hour what you shall speak for it is not you that speak but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you First It is plain this promise hath no relation at all to the publick administrations in Worship to warrant inconsiderate effusions of words then where Men have not got an Oratorical habit of expressing themselves aptly so as to stir up and lead the affections of those to whom they Administer in Holy Worship which habit is got by studying and reading the Scriptures and frequent exercise of our gifts in Holy Worship in private or in fellowship with others all which endeavours God usually blesseth to those that are sincere for his Glory and the Service of his Church so that according to the foundation of natural parts on which they build they may attain a competent gift who will set themselves about it as every publick Minister of the Church certainly ought to do But though as to this gift for administration of publick Worship we warrantably expect the blessing of God upon our Meditation reading and stirring up the natural Abilities and Gifts that are in us so that we may attain to this habit of Sacred Oratory yet it is observable that there are differences of this habit in several pious Persons according to the difference of their natural quickness of Fancy and Invention and volubility of tongue and complexional heat and fervor wherein there may be at some times something like an Enthusiastical Energy but yet under the manage and conduct of Christian Prudence and withal he that most reads the Scriptures and meditates of them and exerciseth himself in Religious Worship Praying to God for his Blessing upon himself such a one shall grow more ready as to the languaging of what he is to speak before the people than another who wants the advantage of those natural endowments before mentioned or doth not use the means of reading meditation and exercise with humble dependance on God for his Blessing on them and hence it comes to pass that the greatest Schollars are not always the best Preachers nor the readiest in Prayer because their natural partslye not so right for this sacred Oratory but many times a natural coldness and bashfulness and hesitancy of tongue and ungratefulness of voice and accent and slowness of fancy hinders them And besides too many great Schollars neglect the stirring up of their gifts by exercise and so their Delphian Sword rusts in the Scabbard But I only speak this by the by to shew you that the promise to the Martyr
for supply of abilities to justisie his Faith and Hope doth not extend to warrant sudden extempore venturing on expressions in holy Worship where men have not got an habit of expressing themselves decently and affectively Paris However I thank you Sir For you have herein prevented a mistake I was apt to have fallen into Minis The promise therefore of Is shall be given you in that hour relates to the Saints assistances in a time of being questioned about their Faith and Hope by their Persecutors and a Christian may then warrantably expect that he shall be enabled to set forth the reasonableness of his Belief the preciousness of his Faith the excellency of his Hope and the purity of the commands his Religion obligeth him to observe so that his adversaries shall not be able to resist the wisdom by which he speaketh Of the promise thus made good we have Scripture examples in Saint Peter and Saint John Acts 4. 43. So that the Jewish Rulers marvelled at the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the freedom of speech which God had given to those unlearned Persons Saint Stephen is another example Acts 6. 10. whose adversaries were not able to resist the wisdom and spirit by which he spake And a further evidence of his enlargements in this gift we have in his discourse before the Rulers Acts 7. And the Church-Martyrology gives abundance of instances of this not only in the learned Philosophical persons of the first ages the Persecutions under Rome-Heathen such as Justin Martyr c. but even in the common Christians and so afterwards under Rome-Papal not only Cranmer Ridley Philpot but common persons yea women as Mrs. Jane Askew c. have been enabled to give such clear accounts of the truth of the Doctrine for which they suffered as hath put their learned Adversaries to silence and driven them to use rage and threatnings where they wanted Arguments But observe first I will not hence warrant any unlearned Person to expect Ability to answer all the Sophisms and Fallacious ways of Arguing which their adversaries may by the advantage of Art cast before them though they shall be secured not to be shaken by such windy Doctrine Nay further In points disputable amongst good men who have nothing of the Seed of the Serpent of the persecuting humour in them and which may be held either way without danger of Damnation if the Disputants do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 speak what they think to be the truth in love such Assistances to judge and discourse is not promised because the fixing the assent either way is without danger to the Soul Secondly I will not from hence warrant unlearned weak-parted Persons suffering for the truth to speak so cleerly so convindingly as the learned Christians because though both speak by the same Spirit the Spirit of God useth to modifie his own gifts according to the natural or acquired Abilities of the Subject he imploys as we see in the different stiles of the different Pelimen of Holy Scriptures which though all were dictated by the energy of the same Spirit yet did they receive a Tincture from the Channel of the Prophets natural Parts or acquired through which they passed But this in the name of Christ I dare promise that a suffering Saint disposed as I have before described shall without previous meditation and study be assisted by Gods Spirit with an ability to justifie the Truth and Excellency of the necessary and fundamental Doctrines of Christianity for which he suffers and so put to silence foolish and ungodly though learned men Parish That is enough thanks be to God for his glorifying himself in his Saints who out of the mouths of Babes and Sucklings hath ordained strength and perfected praise because of his Enemies that he might still the Enemy and the Avenger I pray you proceed Minist I shall endeavour to shew you next what sweet comforts the Graces which a suffering Christian exerciseth in his sufferings doth then assord him Every Grace carries a pleasure and comfort in the exercise of it but some more than others and some of them at some time more than at other times Now as it is in sweet Herbs and Trees the very Leaves and Roots of them have a refreshing smell but the Flowers and Fruits when they are in their ripeness and perfection have a far greater fragrancy so the time of suffering for Christ is the time of the Harvest and full ripeness of the Christians Graces and like the Sheep in the Canticles coming up from the washing every one of them bear twins of comfort and consolations The Graces I shall instance in are 1. Simplicity or plainness of Spirit 2. Love to God 3. Love to his Church 4. Compassion to Enemies 5. Faith in Gods promises 6. Heavenly mindedness The first is simplicity and plainness of Spirit this is so clean and savory a Grace that it always yeilds comfort to the Christian in the exercise of it as Saint Paul witnesseth Our rejoycing is this the testimony of our conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity we have had our conversation in the world when therefore a Christian suffers in plainness and fredom without double dealing and dissimulation aiming at Gods Glory and not gratifying a vain glorious humour in himself or designing to credit a party faction how well pleased is he that God gives him without fear or a worldly mind to approve himself to God and to be made manifest even to the consciences of both Friends and Enemies This was the frame our Lord and Saviour suffered in there was no guile found in his mouth thus a Christian as Job 2. 1 5. Holdeth fast his Integrity and will not let it go till he dye this is that Grace that gives Serenity and Clearness even to the Christians countenance as it is said of Saint Stephen that theybeheld his Face as it had been the Face of an Angel Acts 6. 15. This wisdom from above that is without Hypocrisie maketh his Face to shine and the boldness of his Face shall be changed And if there be such a lustre in the Circumference what exceeding comfort and glory must there be in the Centre of his sincere and upright heart out of which that vertue goeth that adorneth his countenance Thus holy and plain Mr. Latimer who before was seemingly of a despicable presence when he was stript for burning in Q. M. days appeared one of the comliest Persons of his age that the company had beheld The second Grace then exercised is love to God this at all times carries comfort in it but especially in a day of suffering for God and Jesus Christ for then it goeth forth like the Sun in its strength so that we may suppose the three Children Dan. 3. as they had the Furnace heated seven times hotter than it used to be to terrify them so had they then their love heated seven times more than at other times to strenthen them