we must be content to yield him obedience and to live as becomes his servants or he will not save us And therefore only the godly that serve him in their life can with comfort commend their souls unto him at the time of their death and say as Steven did Lord Jesus receive my spirit He prayes not for his body but for his soule Though it were his body which was here in danger while the Jews were stoning him yet it is not his body but it is his soule that he prayes for as being more sensible of his future estate then of his present condition and not so much regarding this present life as the life to come Many in their life and at the time of their death are carefull for their bodies thinking of the great pain which their bodies are to suffer when death siezes upon them and taking care how they shall be able to overcome the same This care troubles many that are good Christians who are the more afraid of death for the pain thereof and imagine the pain to be greater then it is That death is painfull there is not any question Si nulla esset mortis amaritudo non magna esset martyrum fortitudo saith Augustine If there were no sharpnesse and pain in death it were no great fortitude in the Martyrs to suffer it But though death be painfull yet we must remember this for our comfort that it will be no more painfull to us then it hath been to the godly in all ages and therefore why should we be afraid to undergo that which all the godly have undergone before us Will not any man be content to be put to that whereunto the King puts his chiefe Favourites for he will think with himselfe if I be put to no more then the Kings Favourites are I shall fare well enough The godly ye know are Gods chiefe Favourites God loves and favours them above all others if therefore they have suffered the paine of death and have not been exempted by God from it we may well be the lesse carefull to undergo it and may assure our selves that though the paine were never so great yet Christ who hath redeemed both our soules and bodies will inable us to bear it and as Cyprian saith Qui semel pro nobis mortem vicit semper vincet in nobis He that once overcame death for us will alwayes overcome it in us And therefore whether we die for the Lord or in the Lord we may well lay the care of our bodies aside and may chearfully commend our soules unto Christ as Steven here did Lord Jesus receive my spirit Doct. I might hence observe the immortality of the soule That though the body do die yet the soule is immortall This is signified by those words of Solomon Eccles 12.7 That the body shall returne to the earth from Whence it was taken and the spirit shall returne unto God who gave it Mat. 10.28 and by that saying of our Saviour Fear not those that can kill the body but are not able to kill the soule But I will passe this over and come briefly to the prayer which he makes for his persecutours He kneeled down and cryed with a loud voice Lord lay not this sinne to their charge Where first observe the gesture he used he kneeled down when he prayed The Jews did commonly stand when they prayed Therefore Christ alluding to this their custome Mark 11. When ye stand saith he and pray if ye have ought against any man forgive him And the Jewes have a saying Sine stationibus non consisteret mundus that the world could not consist without standing that is without praying because they were wont to pray standing 1 Kings 19.4 1 Chro. 17.16 The Prophet Eliah when he fled from Iezabel he prayed sitting And we read the like of David that he sat and prayed Other kinde of gestures we use in our prayers which may be reduced unto these two heads such as we use in regard of our Hope or in regard of our Humiliation and Reverence In regard of our hope we lift up our eyes and we stretch forth our hands as expecting and requiring Gods help and assistance So David in the 121. Psalm I will lift up mine eyes to the hills from whence cometh my help And Moses praying for the Isracletes Exod. 17. That they might prevale against Amaleck he stretched forth his hands For as Saint Austin saith Oculus erectus expectat manus extensa postulat The eyes being lift up expect help and the hands being stretcht forth do seeme to reuqire it In regard of our humiliation and reverence we uncover our heads we bow down our bodies and we kneele on our knees we uncover our heads which is Magnificentia depositio a laying aside of our greatnesse And thus Kings and Princes when they pray unto God do uncover their heads laying aside their state and acknowledging thereby that they are Gods Servants So we prostrate our selves and fall down on our knees as Steven here did in token of the reverence we owe unto God in offering our prayers And this gesture of kneeling we finde to have been often used by the faithfull and as the Magdeburgenses who wrote the Centuries affirme hath been the most ancient gesture in prayer and the most used by the Church in all ages Peter as we see in the 9. of the Asts and Paul in the 20. did pray kneeling so did the Prophet Daniel in his sixt Chapter Saint James the first Bishop of Jerusalem was so frequent in praying on his knees that he made his knees as hard as the hoofe of a Camel with continuall kneeling And the like did Asella as we read in St. Jerome It is true indeed that it is the heart and affection of him that prays and not the gesture of the body which God respects but withall this is true that he that makes no conscience of praying reverently doth never pray heartily and he that will not bend the knee unto God much lesse out of doubt will he bend the heart O come let us Worship and fall down saith the Psalmest and kneele before the Lord our maker Psal 95.6 Micah 6.6 Where withall shall I come saith the Prophet Micah in his sixt chapter before the Lord and bow my self before the high God To shew that he might not come into his presence but with great reverence And therefore this serves to reprove those that shew no signes of reverence unto God 2 Chr. 6.13 Luke 22 4â— when they come before him to offer up their prayers We see that Solomon when he consecrated the Temple 2 Chron. 6. he kneeled down and prayed and a greater then Solomon our blessed Saviour Luke 22. kneeled down when he prayed be for his passion If he therefore used such reverence in prayer should not we much more For shall mercy bend her knee and shall not misery Shall the Physician and shall not the Patient Shall
for his enemy this is that love of God which passeth all understanding and can never be sufficiently exprest either by men or Angels And yet that we may in some measure conceive a little better of this infinite Love of God suppose with thy self that thou being a poor and a silly creature shouldst live under the Dominion of some mighty Emperour who had made this Law That whosoever should be found guilty of high Treason should be put to the most exquisite torments that could be imagined and that thou afterwards having received many favours from him shouldst give eare notwithstanding to some of his Nobility and willingly joyne with them in Treason against him And being both convicted of the same he should execute the utmost of his fury upon his Nobility but cast with himself how he might save thee And finding no other meanes for thy deliverance he should give his onely beloved son the sole Heir of his Kingdom to suffer the must shamefull and accursed death of all other for thy ransome who willingly taking the same upon him should never speak so much as one word in the behalf of his Nobility but onely plead and sue for thee that thou by his death mightst not onely be forgiven but likewise mightest be made Heir of his Fathers Kingdom What now wouldst thou think of his love unto thee How wouldst thou wonder at it How would thy soule be ravisht when thou thoughtest upon it Beloved such and farr greater is the love of God unto thee if thou canst apply it The Angels that were farre more glorious creatures made to attend upon God and to be in his presence yet God spared not them when they had but once and that onely in thought rebelled against him but as for thee though thou hadst often rebelled against him yet God hath given his onely begotten Sonne to dye in thy roome that thou mightest inherit the Kingdom of Heaven And this was that reall sacrifice which was here prefigured by Abrahams offâ—ing his onely Sonne And therefore when Abraham was come to the place appointed and had already stretcht forth his hand to have sacrificed his sonne God presently forbad him because onely the death of our blessed Saviour and not Isaacs death was a price sufficient for our redemption But â—et we are to remember that Abraham knew not but that his Sonne should die and therefore no doubt all the while that he was travelling to the Mountaine he was distracted between faith and affection between his love unto God and his love to his Sonne the one still pulling him backward and telling him what an unnaturall act he went about the other putting him forward because it was God that had commanded him to do it Doct. 4 Now whereas God here commands Abraham to go and sacrifice his Sonne in the land of Moriah which was as I told you distant from him three dayes journey We may learne from hence That while we are to performe any service to God no journey ought to seem tedious unto us For he that coÌ„mands Abraham to go so farre to sacrifice his Son he requires of us that we refuse no labour while we are about to perform that which God commands us But I will likewise passe this over and proceed to the last difficulty dif ∣ ficulty fifth The last difficulty in this commandement is in regard of the time when he must sacrifice his Sonne Take now thine onely Son namely now when he was old and his wife past Bearing and therefore hopelesse of having any other children now he must sacrifice his onely Sonne We read in Herodotus Herod Thalia that when Intaphernes one of the privy Councell of King Darius had offended the King the King commanded that both he and his whole family should be put to death but being moved with the complaints of his wife he both spared her and withall gave her the choice which of them all she would choose to deliver She having a while deliberated upon it resolved in the end to make choise for her brother and the King demanding why she sued not rather for her husband or children she made this answer that though her husband or children should dye yet she being young might marry again and so might have more but if her brother were put to death now that her parents were dead she was sure she should never have any other brother If God had given Abraham a child while himself and Sarah his wife had been young had then commanded him to have put him to death yet his losse had been the lesse in that he might have hoped to have had more children but they both being old when he was to sacrifice Isaac they could not hope for any other after him Fathers saith Philo when they come to be old of all their children they make most of their youngest Philo lib. de Abraham and he giveth this reason because being old they expect no more now nature being spent and decayed in them But Abraham as I told you before Joseph lib. 1. Antigen was a hundred yeare old and Sarah was ninety before Isaac was borne Isaac was now as JOSEPHUS writes five and twenty yeare old when he was to be offered and therefore they being struck so far in years might well imagine that as Isaac was their first so he was like to be their last that they should have between them So that Abrahams grief must needs be the greater in regard of the time when he was commanded to sacrifice his Sonne But to come more directly to the time it is said in the former verse that after these things God did prove Abraham and said unto him Take now thine onely Sonne namely after that God as we see in the former chapter had had notable experience of Abrahams obedience by calling out Jshmael his first begotten now he layes a new task upon him far more grievous then the former was Now saith he Take thine onely Son as though he should have said I have made heretofore some tryall of thine obedience in smaller matters I commanded thee to leave thy native Country and thou hast left it I bad thee to cast Jshmael out of dores with his mother and thou hast done it deest adbuc vnum yet there is one thing wanting now that thou hast done all this now thou must sacrifice thine onely Sonne We see then how many tryalls God layeth upon Abraham and how many difficulties are couched together in this one tryall to be deprived of his onely Sonne whom he so dearly loved himself to become his Sons executioner to put him to so violent and horrible a death to undertake so long a journey to perform the same and then to do it when himself wâ—â— so old and his wife past bearing The least of these tryalls was very hard to be overcome yet Abraham like a Gyant that rejoyceth to run his course rose up early in the morning went about it and having a
both to taxe those Ministers who in their preaching do affect obscurity and likewise the people who mislike their Ministers if they preach plainly Whereas indeed every Minister ought to preach as plainly as he can and to do his best indeavour to speak so perspicuously that the simplest in his auditorie may understand him God promiseth this as a blessing to his Church Jer. 3.15 that he will give them pastors according to his own heart which shal feede them with knowledge and understanding and therefore they are to speak to the capacity of their auditorie that they may the more readily conceive their Doctrine Ministers in the Scripture are called Interpreters Now it is the part of an Interpreter Job 33.23 to open and explain the sence and meaning to speak to the understanding of those that hear him that he may be understood whom he doth interpret And thus the Minister that is Gods interpreter is to reveale and explain his Wil to make known with St Paul the Mystery of the Gospel and with John the Baptist Ephes 6.19 Luke 1.77 Mat. 5.14 to give knowledge of Salvation unto his People Ministers are called The Light of the World now it is the property of light wheresoever it comes to expell darkness and to make things apparent and manifest to the light And thus the Minister that is the light of the People is to remove ignorance out of the mindes of his Auditors and so to explain Gods Word unto them that they may be filled as the Apostle speakes with the knowledge of his will Ephes 1.19 inall wisdom and spirituall understanding Vse 3 Lastly Seeing the Word must be understood this therefore shewes the great folly of many who regard not to have any knowledg in the Word You shall have some that have more knowledg and understanding in any thing then in matters of Religion Talk with them about any worldly Affaires you shall find them very cunning their tongue is like the penne of any ready Writer and they will discourse thereof at large if occasion be offered them but talk with them again about any point in the Scripture you shall have them as speechless as the guest in the Gospel Mat. 22. â— 1 Cor. 14.20 1 Pet. 3.15 you shall find them to be Children in understanding and not able to give a reason of the hope that is in them And what is the reason because they take no delight in the Word they regard not to have any knowledge in it But were they as carefull for the good of their soules as for their worldly affaires they would be more skilfull in the Word of God and not perish as they do for want of knowledge I have longed saith David for thy Salvation O Lord Psal 109.174 and thy Law is my delight He that doth long to be saved like David he will use the meanes to attain unto it he will take delight in the word of God he will meditate in it and rather then he will want it with the Merchant in the Gospel he will sell all that he hath for the purchase of it Mat. 13.46 For this is that one thing that is necessary as Christ told Martha and therefore it is compared to those things which are the most necessary of all other Luke 10.42 Thus it is somtime compared unto food what can there be named so necessary as food and what so intolerable as the want of it for a man wil suffer any thing rather then famine Ye know when there was a famine among the Egyptans how they parted with all that they had for food First with their money then with their attell in the end they sold their Lands and their bodies for bread Yet food is no more necessary for the preservation of the Body then the word of God for the preservation of the soule for as the body cannot live without the natural food no more can the soule without the spiritual food which is the word of God and therefore we ought to hunger and thirst after it and to desire it as earnestly as one that is hungry desires food â— Pet. 2.2 As new borne Babes saith the Apostle desire the sincere milk of the Word that ye may grow thereby Young Children of all other are the most impatient of hunger they must presently have the dugge or they will cry for it they cannot abide to be long without it but ever and anon they must be fed again And thus saith the Apostle should we be desirous of the milk of the Word like new borne Babes we should long after it and not indure to be long without it And therefore such are in a miserable case who by rejecting this spiritual food do starve and famish their own soules Physitians say that when a mans appetite refuseth meat and cannot away with it it is a signe of death and a manifest token that he cannot live long Psal 107.18 And therefore the Prophet David saith to this purpose Their soule abhorreth all manner of meat and they draw near unto the Gates of death And surely when a man is once come to this passe that he will not suffer wholsome Doctrine but that the word of God which is the food of the soule begins to be irksome and unsavory unto him then questionlesse his soule is in a desperate case it is even pining away as it were in a Consumption Sometime again the word is called the Sword of the spirit Ephes 6.17 Now what is more necessary for a Souldier in the field then the use of a Sword Our life is a Warfare upon the Earth as Job saith and we are all Souldiers having given up our names at the time of our Baptisme to Christ Jesus our Captain to fight the Lords Battells the enemy with whom we are to encounter is the Prince of darkness with all his forces and Gods word is the weapon which we are to use against them How then shall our hands be able to warre and our fingers to fight if we have no knowledge in the word of God and have no skill how to handle the sword of the spirit And thus to omit many other particulars the word as ye see here is resembled to seed what is so necessary to make the Earth fructifie as the receiving of seed The best soile that is though it be never so fertill in its own nature yet if it receive not the seed into it it must needes be unfruitfull And thus the best man that is though he be never so furnisht with all naturall parts yet till the seed of Gods word have been sowen in his heart he can never be fruitfull in the works of righteousness And therefore if we be Gods Husbandry as St. Paul calls us 1 Cor. 5.9 Colos 3.16 Let us receive this seed into the furrowes of our hearts and suffer Gods word to dwell plenteously in us And thus much for the meanes of a good ground the
not subtil and crafty vvithall the danger vvere the lesse because there vvere some hope that vve might over-reach him by some meanes or other but being both subtil malicious and powerfull it behoves us to be more careful to make resistance And so from the person whom we must resist I come to the manner how we must resist him The word which is here translated to resist doth signifie to confront and to stand against as it were face to face to note unto us that we are not to yield and to turn our backs 1 Sam. 17.48.49 but to stand manfully against him when he doth assault us That as David when he was to fight with Goliah he went against him and struck him in the forehead So we vvhensoever we are assaulted by the Devill are to stand against him face to face and not to turn our backs like the Children of Ephraim in the day of battle Psalm 78.9 Therefore we are still commanded in the Scripture to fight to vvrestle to quit our selves like men to withstand and to resist but never to flie and to turn our backs Ephes 6. And therefore St. Paul vvhere he particularly sets down the vvhole Armour of a Christian vvhich vve are to use against our spiritual enemy yet he mentions not any part for the back there is an Helmet for the head a Courselet for the breast a Sword for the hand Sandals for the feet and a Shield to gard all the foreparts but for the back and the hinder parts there is no Armour at all to note unto us that we are manfully to stand against him and not to turn our backs vvhen he doth assault us Now further for the manner how vve are to resist him we must deal vvith this Enemy as men do in Warre vvhen a City is besiedged First They shut up the Gates and make all fast to keep the Enemy from making entrance And thus must vve do vve must shut up as it vvere the Gates of our senses vve must turn away our eyes from beholding vanity vve must stop our eares from hearing vanity and vve must strengthen every part and look that all be fast otherwise if he find any part to be vveaker then other he vvill break in upon us We read Judges 18. that the Tribe of Dan. having no Inheritance nor possession of their own among the Children of Israel they vvent up and down like spies to survey the Country and finding the City Laish to be vveakly guarded the Inhabitants thereof being careless and secure and otherwise busied they made towards it they besieged it and having conquered all the Inhabitants thereof they took possession of it And thus the Devill having lost the right of his own Inheritance and having no possession of his own among the Children of God he vvanders up and down like a spie and finding the soul of man to be meanly fortified the Inhabitants thereof the vvit memory vvill understanding being unprovided he sets upon it and finding little or no resistance he easily takes it and therefore it behoves us to keep vvatch continually and to look carefully to our selves that we give him no entrance Secondly We must not only be carefull to keep him out vvhen he doth besiege us but vvithall vve must be carefull and do our best endeavour to raise his siedge vve must do the best vve can to beat him from the assault and to put him to flight And this is done by the vvord of God vvhich is called by the Apostle the Svvord of the Spirit Eph. 6.17 Therefore vvhen our Saviour vvas tempted by the Devill Matth. 4. the only Weapon vvhereby he repelled him vvas the Scripture to teach us that hovvsoever he doth assault us vve must betake our selves to the Word of God to resist his temptations If he tempt us to covetousness and the love of the World vve may say it is vvritten Mat. 16.26 what shall it profit a man to gain the whole World and to lose his own soule If he tempt us to pride and vain glory we must say it is written God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble If he tempt us to malice we must say it is written He that hates his Brother is a murderer James 4.6 1 John 3.15 If he tempt us to uncleanness we must say it is written Marriage is honourable among all men and the bed undefiled but Whoremasters and Adulterers God will judge In a word Heb. 13.4 what sin soever he tempts us unto we may find in the Scripture wherewithall we are to withstand his Assaults For the Scripture is like the Tower of David Cantic 4.4 that was built for an Armory a Thousand Bucklers saith Salomon do hang thereon and all the shields of mighty men and from thence we may fetch what Weapons soever we are to use against our spirituall enemies and without which we can never repell their temptations And therefore this shewes their extreame folly that regard not to have any knowledge in the Scriptures For how shall their hands be able to warre and their fingers to fight that are not acquainted with the word of God and know not how to handle the sword of the Spirit Such must needs be in a fearfull case because they do voluntarily disarme themselves and cast away their Weapons and so betray their souls into the hands of the Devill while they have not where withall to resist his temptations If a man had an enemy that had vowed his death how carefull would he be to provide himself Weapons and to get some cunning how to use the same for the safeguard and preservation of his naturall life How carefull then should every one be for his soules safety to put on the whole armour of God and to learne to use aright this sword of the Spirit that when Sathan his mortall enemy assaults him he may be the better provided to withstand him It is said of Hanniball a Carthaginean Captaine that as long as Scipio his enemy was in the field and ready continually to bid him battle he was alwayes afraid lest he he should be suddenly surprized and therefore never slept but with his armour on and with a guard of Souldiers to keep watch about him And we read of Saul 1 Sam. 26. That while he slept in the field he had his speare in a readiness stuck up at his Boulster And so should we while we are in this World which is as it were the field of temptation wherein vve are so often assaulted by Sathan we should alwayes have the Word of God in a readines that whensoever he assailes us vve may be able to vvithstand him But hovv farre are the most especially they that are in their youthful dayes from doing thus Tell them of resisting the Devills temptations forsaking their pleasures and betaking themselves unto Gods service they vvill be ready to say Why art thou come to torment us before the time Alios mores hee atas
the King of Navarre died both for the suddennesse and violence of it who feeling great anguish in all his nerves was by the advice of his Physicians to be close wrapped in linnen cloth which had been well steeped in Aquavitae and the cloth to be sowed strait all about his body one having sowed it not having a knife ready to cut the thread took the candle to burn the thread in sunder and the thread flaming to the cloth took sudden hold of the same and the Aquavitae that the King in this flame was burnt to death before he could be helped by any And many come to such fearfull ends and yet we cannot judge of them by the kind of their death because even the godly whose death is precious in the eyes of the Lord howsoever they die do sometimes die a violent death and that suddenly So did old Eli that was a good man vvho hearing that the Arke of God was taken 2 Sam. 4.18 fell backward from his scate his neck brake and he dyed So Job's Children no doubt were holy persons having had godly education and their Fathers prayers laid up in Heaven for them yet While they were feasting together in their elder brothers house Job 1.19 the house on the sudden fell down and killed every one of them If therefore we judge of men by the kinde of their deaths we shall condemn the generation of the righteous and may bring on ourselves the like censure from others For we do not know by what kinde of death we shall glorifie God whether we shall die an easie or a painfull death whether a naturall or a violent death whether a lingring or a sudden death The times have been God grant the like times may never come again when there have been so great persecutions in the Church that the faithfull have been put to all manner of deaths whether God hath reserved us to the like times or no we do not know we know we have no promise to the contrary and therefore ought to prepare our selves for the like times that if they come we may constantly maintain the profession of Christ though it cost us our lives as here it did Steven And thus much likewise for the second point the kinde of his martyrdom And so I come to the third by whom he was thus martyred namely by the Iewes They stoned Steven Ye all know that the Iewes were the people whom God had chosen to himself above all other Nations Behold saith Moses Heaven and the Heaven of Heavens is the Lords Déut. 10.14 and the Earth and all that is therein notwithstanding he hath set his affection on thy Fathers to love them and hath also chosen their seed after them Even you saith he hath he chosen above all people For as for all other Nations God counted them strangers and left them to themselves and did not vouchsafe them his Statutes and Ordinances but suffered them to walk in their own wayes But as for the Iewes he first taught them himself and delivered them his Law from his own mouth and because they desired to be instructed rather by men like themselves and therefore spake to Moses Loquere tu nobiscum et audiemus c. Speak thon say they with us and we will hear Exe. 20.19 but let not God speak with us lest we dye God yielded to their request and first taught them by Moses afterwards by the Prophets Luke 19.26 of whom Abraham said to the rich-man They have Moses and the Prophets let them hear them But the Iewes were so far from hearing these that Steven could here upbraid them Which of the Prophets have not your Fathers persecuted And Christ complaine of them O Jerusalem Jerusalem thou that killest the Prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee as here they did Steven Their sinne then is aggravated in regard of the persons by whom it was committed They were not the Gentiles or any Heathenish people that knew not God for then their sin had been the less but they were the Jewes Gods chosen people who commonly if they were offended with any upon every occasion were ready to stone them If they be offended with Moses Exod. 17.4 because they were thirsty and had no water to drink they are presently ready to stone him for it If they be offended with Caleb and Joshua Numb 14.10 for contradicting the spies that were sent into Candan and for giving a good report of the Land they are likewise ready to stone them for it And how often in the Gospel did they take up stones to have stoned our Saviour And here they stone Steven for bearing witnesse unto him And this vvas a greater sin in them being the people of God then if they had been heathen The heathen shall rise up in judgement against them for they reverenced their Priests though they were Idolaters The Marriners that were so tender-hearted to Jonas shall rise up against them for they hazarded their lives to save the Prophet though it were for his sinnes that they vvere in danger to perish but these mercilesse Iewes did stone him to death who sought to bring them to eternall life And therefore as the voice of Abels bloud did cry aloud in the eares of the Lord against Cain that shed it and was vox sanguinum a voice of blouds as the Scripture calls it as being not onely the voice of his bloud but of all the bloud that might have come of that bloud if it had not been shed So here the bloud of Steven did cry aloud against the Iewes that shed the same and the bloud of all those that might have come from him nay upon them was laid all the righteous blood that was shed before him Mat. 23.34 for so our Saviour told them Behold I send unto you Prophets and wise-men and Scribes and some of them you shall kill and Crucifie c. that upon you saith he may come all the righteous bloud shed upon the earth from the bloud of righteous Abel to the bloud of Zacharias Sonne of Barachias whom ye slew betweene the Temple and the Altar We read of Tomyris the Queen of the Scythians that because Cyrus the King of Persia had slain her son she gathered an Army and made War upon him and having vanquisht the Persians she took Cyrus and cutting off his head she cast it into a barrell that was filled with bloud thus insulting over it Thou that wast so thirsty and insatiable of bloud that thou slewest my son shalt now have thy fill till thou be glutted vvith it And thus the Jews vvho vvere so insatiable of the bloud of the Prophets had in the end their fill of bloud vvhen the bloud of all the righteous vvho had been slain from Abel to Zacharie vvas laid upon them And that may fitly be applied unto them vvhich the Angell saith Revel 16. Thou art righteous O Lord because thou hast judged thus
Rev. 16.5.6 for they have shed the bloud of Saints and Prophets and thou hast given them bloud to drink for they are worthy And thus much for the persons by vvhom Steven vvas here martyred namely the Jews I come novv from their impiety in martyring Steven to Stevens great piety in his martyrdome vvhich he shevvs as I said in a double prayer vvhich he makes the one for himselfe the other for his persecutors Doct. And from hence we may observe before I come to his prayers in particular in that he called upon God while the Jews were stoning him The happy condition of a godly man that he is able to pray and call upon God in the greatest extremity that can befall him The wicked may rage and persecute the godly they may cast them in prison and lay bolts upon them they may bring them to the stake and burn or stone them but they cannot hinder them from praying unto God this comfort they can never take from them Paul and Silas may be scourged and imprisoned and put in the stocks Elias may be persecuted by Ahab and Iezabell till he be ready to famish Iob may have his body afflicted by the devill with sores and ulcers Sampson may have his eyes put out by the Philistins and Steven may here be stoned by the Iews yet God leaves them not destitute of this comfort that they are able to pray and call upon God in their greatest dangers Nay the greater extremity and danger they are in God inables them to pray with the more fervency unto him Hezekiah did never pray more fervently then when the sentence of death was pronounced against him and he lay a dying I beseech thee saith he O Lord remember now how I have walked before thee As if he had said now O Lord when I am ready to die and no other can succour me 2 King 20.3 now when Physick and art do faile me now when my strength is diminished and nature decayed now when thou hast pronounced the sentence of death against me now O Lord now now remember me But it is not so with the ungodly they call not upon God they are least able of all to pray in their greatest necessity Psal 14.4 1 Sam. 25.37 If they be in danger or hear any ill tidings their hearts like Nabals begin to die within them and become as stones For this is the priviledge of none but the godly and an infallible argument of Gods mercy towards them in that he inables them when they are in any perill to pray unto him Therefore David Psal 66. the last verse Blessed be God saith he that hath not turned away my prayer nor his mercy from me Upon which words Saint Augustine Quamdin Deus non tollit a te oration em tuam non amovebit a te misericordiam suam As long as God doth not take thy praying from thee he will not remove his mercy from thee because it is his mercy that inables thee to pray If therefore when thou art in any great danger thou canst call upon God for his help and assistance and canst say with the Disciples Mat. 8.25 Psal 6.2 Lord save us we perish if when thou liest sick and keepest thy bed thou canst pray with David Lord be mercifull unto me for I am weak Lord heale me for my bones are vexed If when thou art drawing toward thy end and art to leave the World thou canst willingly resigne thy soule unto God and pray as Steven did Lord Iesus receive my spirit Thou mayest well conceive great comfort therein because only the godly are inabled in their greatest extremity to call upon God as Steven here did But let us come to his prayer Lord Jesus receive my spirit He called upon God saying Lord Jesus which invicibly proves that Christ is God This the Arrians and some other Hereticks have blasphemously denied and this the Jews to this day will not be brought to acknowledge But the Scripture is not more plain in any thing then it is in this For besides that the Scripture gives him the Title and Name of God that he is Deus in carne manifestatus i Tim. 3.16 Rom. 9.5 John 14.1 John 14.14 Mat. 28.19 John 5.23 Luke 8.28.31 Mat. 8.26 Mat. 4.23 Mat. 10.1 God manifested in the flesh and Deus in saecula benedictus God blessed for ever And besides that we are taught in the Scripture to ascribe unto him divine honour that we must believe in him that we must pray unto him that we must be baptized in his Name and that we must honour him as we honour the Father The very works and miracles which he did do testifie of him and prove him to be God For if he were not God how did the devills stand in aw of him how did the windes and the seas obey him how did he cure all manner of diseases and inable his Disciples to do the like in his Name Did ever any man by his own power raise himself being dead Did ever any man since the beginning of the World as the blind man saith John 2.19 John 9.32 John 9. open the eyes of any that was born blind but these things we know were done by Christ and do prove him to be God If he were not God how did he pardon and forgive sins Mat. 9.2 Mat. 9.4 Colos 1.16 which is proper to God how did he know the thoughts of mens hearts which is proper to God and how is he said to have created the World which is the peculiar work of God And therefore Steven praying to the Lord Iesus is said here to call upon God He called upon God saying Lord Iesus receive my spirit The Papists do commonly at their death commend their souls to the Virgine Mary So did Father Garnet so did Thomas Becket Archbishop of Canterbury two that are reputed for speciall Martyrs in the Church of Rome though they suffered for treason they commended their soules at the time of their death to the blessed Virgine And it is a common prayer among them Maria mater gratiae tu nos ab hoste protege hora mortis suscipe Mary the Mother of grace do thou defend us from the enemy and receive us at the hour of death But Steven here the first Martyr commended not his soule to the Virgine Mary when he died but to Christ that redeemed it Lord Iesus saith he receive my spirit And he joyns these two Lord Jesus together acknowledging Christ to be both both his Lord and his Saviour Some disjoyne these they will acknowledge Christ to be their Jesus they vvill say they look to be saved by him but they do not acknowledge him for their Lord they will not serve him Such are they who go on in their sins and follow the lusts of their own hearts and yet do look to be saved by grace But such do greatly deceive themselves For either Christ will be our Lord or he will be our Jesus