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 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 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 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 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 Crâ—â—â—â— or Gibbet any pain or torment here below Can we conceive what it is 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 My God my God why dost thou part from me Was such a grief as cannot be The Son of God cried out when he was for a while deprived of a 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 CHAP. III. 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 Christian Sufferer supported OR A DISCOURSE Concerning the Grounds OF Christian Fortitude SHEWING At once that the Sufferings of good men are not inconsistent with Gods special Providence as also the several supports which our Religion affords them under their Sufferings and particularly against the fear of a Violent Death By Richard Kidder Rector of St. Martin Outwich London LONDON Printed for W. Kettilby at the Bishops Head in St. Pauls Church-Yard 1680. THE PREFACE THough many of the evils of this life which we daily complain of are Phantastick and imaginary as our happiness in this world generally is And many others under which we are uneasie are intirely owing to our own folly and the just fruit of our wicked lives Yet certain it is that we are born to trouble as the Sparks flye upwards and we are beset with very many and very severe evils And we can hardly turn any way but we may meet with one or other ready to entertain us with the sad story of what they feel or what they justly fear And those very persons who seem most prosperous to the stander by have those troubles mingled with their prosperity which render it not at all desirable Consolat ad Polyb Look upon all Mortals says Seneca and you will every where find a large and constant occasion for weeping One man's pinching Poverty calls him out to his daily Labour Another man is soliciteed by his restless ambition Another man fears those riches which he had desired before and is afflicted with what he himself prayed for One man is rack'd by care another by labour a third is disquieted with a multitude and crowd of Clients or Visitants This man is sorrowful because he hath Children another because he hath lost his Many are the evils to which we are incident and which we may therefore justly expect Such are Reproach and Poverty Sickness and Pain Oppression and Violence Sorrow for the death of our Friends and the dread and fear of our own There are many in the world whose misery is great upon them and who are perpetually bowed down with some or more of these evils It is great wisdom therefore to provide against these evils and to contrive how to turn them the right way And since it is so that we shall meet with these troubles it is the highest wisdom to arm our selves that they may neither surprize nor hurt us But that we may be able to continue in great patience and well doing and at last receive an unspeakable reward It is a very sad consideration to think how commonly men fear the evils which threaten them and how rarely they prepare for them They use their endeavours to keep off the stroke when they take no care to bear it and to make it a blessing They live in perpetual anxiety and disquiet and at last go in sorrow to their graves whiles they have been negligent of making the right use of their fears and other afflictions It is a certain truth that God does not take any delight in afflicting the Chlidren of men He does it for our profit and advantage And considering the lapsed and corrupt condition of mankind these evils are necessary for us They are not only justly inflicted but they are medicinal also A constant prosperity is a very formidable condition Magna ira est quando peccantibus non irascitur Deus Hier. Epist ad Castrutium and God is then angry with us when he does not chastise our follies It is our duty to look up to him that strikes us and to see that we improve our evils to the best advantage as well as to bear them with courage It is a poor and mean thing barely to design to save our selves from the blow or only to project that it may do us no harm Plutarch de Capiend ex host utilitate We ought to consider how we may turn these things to our profit Men at first were only careful that wild Beasts did them no hurt this was all their design when they fought them But men in after-times learnt the way to make these Beasts useful to them They did then eat of their flesh cloath themselves with their hair arm themselves with their skins and make use of some parts of them for Medicines in their distempers We ought to learn this Art and to use our evils as instruments of great good The loss of our Goods the death of our Friends the pain of our Bodies and our fears of Death may be so ordered as to make for the advancement of Piety in us and the securing our precious and immortal souls And then in the mean time it stands us in hand to bear up under our troubles and to possess our souls in patience and not to suffer our selves out of the fear of a temporal evil to part with an eternal good and plunge our Souls in everlasting horror and misery But then if we would do all this we must have recourse to those helps and powerful motives which Christian Religion does afford us The Doctrine of Jesus Christ will give us the best directions and furnish us with the most effectual assistances They are mean and low arguments which are to be found in the Philosophy of the Heathens in comparison with those which our Religion lays before us And what those helps and assistances are you will find in the following Discourse and I make no doubt but we shall also find them effectual to gain their end if we apply our selves with great care and diligence calling in with all fervency the divine grace to our assistance to the use of them They disparage their Religion that think it a mean and ineffectual Principle And they reproach it greatly who affirm that it renders men sneaking and cowardly For as the Author of it shewed the greatest fortitude and courage when he contemned the world and witnessed a good Confession before Pontius Pilate so do the Principles of this holy Religion mightily fortifie and encourage all the Followers of Jesus to follow the glorious example of their Lord and Master It is an argument of great fortitude to contemn the World not to be drawn aside by its blandishments nor dismaid with its threats He shews a generous and great mind that in cold blond chooses to die rather than deny the truth and that can forgive an enemy that thirsts after his bloud This our Saviour did and both by his Example and his Precepts commends this lesson to us On the other hand to be transported to revenge upon every little trespass is a certain argument of a weak and feeble mind And to that purpose it is well observed that generally those who are of the weaker frame that are most contemptible and of the shortest wit are ever most inclined to revenge And those of the truest valour and best judgment are the farthest from it The truth of it is these men have the same and no better pretence to Fortitude that
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 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 CHAP. X. 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 before-hand 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 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 well-doing 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 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 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 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 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 meet with evils which
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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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
are very divine and mightily fitted to gain their end They are words 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 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 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 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 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 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 3â—.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 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