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
the Lord Deut. 32. kill and make alive I wound I heal Therefore he wils us to call upon him in the time of trouble and he will deliver us Deut. 32.32 For howsoever by our sins we provoke him to afflict us yet if we call upon him for mercy and grace he hath an ear to hear us an eye to behold us a heart to pity us and an hand to help us And thus much concerning the first point the Agēt or party afflicting That it is God that chastens I come now to the second namely The Patient or party afflicted the beloved of God he chastens whom he loves Doct. God though he love whatsoever he hath made yet among all his creatures he loves man best and among men especially those who are of the houshold of faith which is his Church These he loves with an everlasting love he hath given his only Son for their redemption and hath adopted them in Christ Jesus to be his children And yet howsoever he loves them so dearly yet many times he doth afflict and chasten them for so we see here whom he loves he chastens The Doctrine that we may gather from hence is this That they who are in the love and favour of God are neverthelesse afflicted In the 11th of Saint John Behold Lord John 11.3 he whom thou lovest is sick Christ loved Lazarus and yet did not free and exempt him from sicknesse Dan. 9.23 Daniel was greatly beloved of God as the Angell Gabriel told him yet Daniel was cast into the Lions den The Virgine Mary was freely beloved of God as the same Gabriel told her Luke 1. yet a sword was to pierce through her heart Luke 1.28 Luke 2.35 1 Sam. 13.14 Job 1.1 as old Simeon prophesied David was a man according to Gods own heart yet David was often and many wayes afflicted Job was a just and an upright man yet Job was extraordinarily afflicted Saint Paul was a chosen vessel of God yet after he was converted his whole life was nothing but a continued affliction In a word Acts 9.15 all the Patriarchs Prophets and Apostles and all the beloved children of God even from the beginning of the world to this present time have suffered affliction Therefore Christ saith Revel 3. As many as I love Revel 3.19 I rebuke and chasten Read over the Scriptures and ye see examples hereof almost in every leafe Gen. 39.20 In one place ye shall see Joseph cast into the dungeon Dan. 3.20 in another the three children into a fiery furnace 1 King 22.27 here ye shall see Michea fed with the bread of affliction there David washing his couch with tears in one place ye shall see Steven stoned to death Psal 6.6 in another ye shall finde John the Baptist beheaded Acts 7.59 To be short as it was said of Rome heretofore Mark 6.27 that a man could not step into any part thereof but he should tread upon a Martyre so a man can hardly read any part of the Scripture but he shall light upon the affliction of the children of God either one or other affliction being common to every one of them and more common then any thing The floud that overspred the whole face of the earth in the days of Noah was common generall yet eight persons ye know were freed frō the flood Gen. 6.18 preserved in the Ark Death is more cómon general then the flood Gen. 5.24 seizing upon the whole of-spring of Adam and yet two persons Enoch and Elias have been freed from death a King 2.,11 and were taken up into heaven while they were living upon the earth Sin is more common and generall then death and yet one person even Christ and he alone was free from sin but affliction is more generall then any of them all which hath lighted upon all men without any exception for even Christ himself though he were free from sin Esay 53.3 yet he was vir dolorum as the Prophet Esay calls him a man of sorrows as being subject through the whole course of his life to much sorrow affliction For this is the condition of all Gods children that first they must wear a crown of thorns before they receive a crown of glory first they must suffer with Christ in this life before they reign with him in the life to come Therefore Christ wills us if we will be his disciples to take up his crosse every day Acts 14. and follow him And the Apostle tels us That through many afflictions we must enter into the Kingdom of heaven Vse 1 The use to be made hereof is two-fold First Seeing Goddeth visit his own children with the rod of affliction then much lesse shall the wicked escape Gods judgements if God chasten the godly whom he loves and is loved of them much lesse will he spare his enemies those that hate him Prov. 11.31 Therefore Solomon Proverbs 1◠Behold the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth much more the wicked and the sinner And therefore Peter 1 Epist 4. Chapter If judgement saith he 1 Peter 4.17.18 first begin at us what shall the end of them be that obey not the Gospel and if the righteous scarcely be saved where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear For if God chasten the one much lesse out of doubt will he spare the other You will say but it is ordinarily seen in the World that the wicked are not subject to the like afflictions that the godly are Their houses as Job in his 21. Chapt. Job 21.9 saith of the wicked are peaceable without fear and the rod of God is not upon them and as the Prophet David saith of the ungodly they prosper in all their wayes and flourish like a green bay-tree It is true indeed and cannot be denied that the godly many times do suffer in this World more crosses and afflictions then the wicked but therefore we must remember that the punishment of the wicked is kept and reserved till the World to come Lazarus was farre more afflicted in this life that lay full of sores at the rich mans gates and would have been glad of a morsell of bread then the rich man was that fared so sumptuously and lived in pleasure but therefore what saith Abraham to the rich man Sonne saith he Luke 15.25 remember that then in thy life-time receivedst thy good things and Lazarus evill but now is he comforted and thou art tormented Whensoever therefore we see the godly to live in affliction and misery and the wicked in prosperity and hearts-ease yet it need not trouble us because there will come a time when the wicked shall be punisht and the godly comforted When the godly shall have all their teares wiped from their eyes Revel 7.17 and the wicked shall suffer Gods wrath and vengeance for if God afflict and chasten such as he loves much lesse
his mother Hagar But this howsoever it was a grief to Abraham yet it inflamed his affection the more towards Isaac For as when Eliah was taken away his spirit was doubled upon Elisha 2 Kings 2.9 10. so Jshmael being gone now Isaac is his Fathers only darling and now Abrahams affection is doubled upon him But when God sees this his deep-setled love he strikes him as it were with a thunder bolt from Heaven and commands him to kill this his onely Son A Commandement more cruell then the Lawes of Draco which were written in blood wherein every word stabs Abraham to the heart Take saith he thy Son thine onely Son even Isaac thine onely beloved Son Was it not enough O Lord saith Origen that thou dost command him to kill his Sonne but thou must adde for this further vexation his onely Sonne or was not this enough but thou must put him in mind how dearly he loves him and was not this yet enough but the more to kindle and inflame â—is affection thou must likewise name him The parting with a Sonne will move a Father very much His Sonne so great is a Fathers affection unto his Sonne when Jacob heard that his Sonne Joseph was dead he mourn'd and Iamented Gen. 37.34.35 he put on Sackcloth and would not be comforted yet Jacob ye know had many more Sonnes In Rama saith the Prophet there was a voice heard weeping mourning and great lamentation Jerem. 31.15 Rachell weeping for her Children and would not be comforted because they were not Yet Rachell was young and might have more Children 2 Sam. 18.33 when David heard that his Sonne Absolon was slain he wept and lamented very bitterly for him nay he wished that himself had died in his roome O Absolon Absolon my Sonne my Sonne I would to God saith he that I had died for thee my Sonne Absolon Yet Absolon was a graceless and rebellious Sonne one that rose up in Armes against his own Father and sought to deprive him both of life and Kingdom and yet because he was his Sonne David could not but love him so great is a Fathers affection unto his Sonne which no man indeed can sufficiently conceive but he that is a Father and hath a Sonne We read in the Ecclesiasticall Histories Sozomen lib. 7. cap. 24. That a certain Merchant in Theodosious time hearing that two of his Sonnes were taken prisoners at the day appointed that they should be executed he came in all haste to Thessalonica where his Sonnes were hearing the matter why his Sonnes were to suffer he first offered a great summe of money for his Sonnes Ransome and when that would not be taken he offered his own life and made sute that he himself might die in their roome They who had the charge of the Prisoners committed unto them made him this answer that his death could not possibly excuse them both because a set number were appointed to suffer but offered withall that if he would die for any one of them his death should be taken The Father presently accepted their offer and mourning and lamenting over both his Sonnes he would willingly have died for either of them but he knew not whether so great was this Fathers affection unto his Sonnes that though it were equally divided between them both yet he was willing to have saved either of their lives even with the losse of his own His onely Sonne But now if a Father have but one Sonne then all his care all his love all his affection is wholly set upon him and then it is the greatest grief in the world to lose him And therefore the Prophet Jeremy in the sixt of his Prophesie speaking of the great mourning which the Jewes should make when their most cruel enemies the Chaldeans and Assyrians should come to destroy them Jerem. 6.26 he knew not how to express the greatness of their sorrow but by the sorrow of a Father who having but one Sonne is to part with him make saith he lamentation and bitter mourning as for thine onely Son shewing thereby that there is no sorrow like the sorrow of a Father who having but one Son is to be deprived of him And therefore our Saviour John 3. to set forth Gods infinite love towards us John 3.16 he saith That God so loved the world that he gave his onely begotten Son If a Father have many Sonnes Plutaâ—ch de multitud Amicorum his affection is divided among them all and therefore the lesse towards any one like a River which being cut into many Channels his current ye know must needes be the weaker If a Father have many Sons the losse of one cannot be so grievous unto him because he finds comfort in those which are left him but having but one if he loose him especially when he is old as Abraham was this must needes be an extraordiraly grief unto him And yet Abrahams case is far more grievous His beloved Sonne Many a Father though he have but one Son yet his grief is the lesse when he is taken away because while he lived he was a grief unto him But Abraham must loose not his Son onely and his onely Son but Isaac his onely joy and comfort Isaac his onely beloved Son And indeed there was never any Father that had the like cause to love his Sonne Parents do commonly love their Children either because they are their own flesh and blood or because they continue their name after them for so long as their Children and Posterity continue they seeme in a manner to live in them But besides these Abraham had many other causes and far more forcible to love his Sonne Abraham as we heard before out of the 15 of Gen. even longed as it were to have a Sonne after that God had promised him a Sonne many a year past before he had him In the mean time God to make him as it were amends for his long expectation had given him many comfortable promises concerning this Sonne as that his seed should be called in Isaac Gen. 17.19 that he would multiply his seed like the starres of Heaven that he would establish his Covenant with Isaac for an everlasting Covenant and with his seed after him And hath not Abraham then an extraordinary cause to love his Sonne But besides this Abraham was fully a hundred years old before he had him Sarah had been barren for a long time and if she had not been so yet by reason of her age she was past bearing so that God had wrought a double miracle in giving him a Sonne all which did more inflame his affection towards him and yet now all upon the suddain as if God had repented him of his former kindness he commands him to sacrifice this his onely Sonne what now might Abraham think with himself he might now suppose that God had but deluded him in all his promises and that God had given him many
faire words concerning his Sonne Job 10.1.2 but all to no purpose And surely had it not bin Abraham he would have offered like Job in the bitterness of his soule to have pleaded with God he would have stood up in the behalf of his Sonne and replyed again And is this that Isaac that should be my comfort is this he whom thou hast so often promised and whom I have so long expected as a pledge of thy love and favour towards me and must I now kill him Quid meus hic Isaac in te committere c. Alas what hath Isaac committed against thee how hath he offended thee who will ever believe that thou wouldest have spared Sodom had there been ten that were good in it if thou now takest delight in the blood of the innocent doest thou thus reward thy Children and Servants and is this the fruit of their love and obedience O let it not be known in Gath nor published in Ascalon lest the uncircumcised Philistins insult over thy people say among themselves such honour may have all his Saints But Abraham never opened his mouth for his Sonne but grace having got the upper hand of nature and faith of affection he was glad when God had given him a Sonne but more glad that he had a Sonne to give unto God for so saith Chrysostom Latus erat Abraham cum silium acciperet laetior cum sibi imolandum dominus postularet Abraham rejoyced when he received his Sonne but he rejoyced more when God commanded him to offer him unto him Doct. 1 The Doctrine that may be gathered from hence is this That God makes tryall of our love and obedience in those things which of all other are dearest unto us For so we see he deales here with Abraham when he sees how dearly he loves his Sonne for the better tryall of his love and obedience he commands him to offer him for a burnt-offring Thus dealt our Saviour with the Ruler in the Gospell Luke 18.22 for knowing that he was rich and withall that his heart was set upon his treasure he willed him to sell all that ever he had and to give it to the poor and so tryed him in that which was dearest unto him He Math. 10.37 saith our Saviour that loveth Father Mother Sonne or Daughter more then me he is not worthy of me It is no ordinary love which God requires of us but such a love as is able to subdue all naturall affection So that if our Children were dearer unto us then our own soules yet the love of God is to be preferred before them And this was prefigured by those milch kine 1 Sam. 6. which being to carry the Arke of the Lord it is said that their Calves were taken from them and yet they went on and onely sometimes did low after their Calves but never turned back to look after them To note unto us that Religion must alwayes oversway affection and though we do naturally love our Children yet if they be any hinderance unto us in Gods service we are not to regard them It is the commendation of Levi Deut. 33. that he said to his Father and Mother he had not seen them and that he knew not his Brethren nor his own Children For when the Levites were commanded Exod. 32. to consecrate their hands unto the Lord every man upon his own Sonne and his own Daughter they were so zealous in Gods Cause that they fought against nature and had no more compassion on their Parents or Children then if they had been meer changers whom they had never seene Hieron lib. 2. Epist Select It is an excellent saying of St. Jerom Licet pervulus ex collo pendeat nepos c. Though thy little Nephew should hang about thy neck though thy Mother should intreat thee by those her own duggs that gave thee suck though thy Father should lie upon the Threshold and cling about thy feete as thou art going out to stay thee from spending thy life in Gods service per calcatum perge patrem c. Tread thy Father under thy feete and trample upon him Solum in hac re crudelem esse pietatis est genus Onely in this case it is a kind of piety to use cruelty This howsoever it may seeme a very harsh Doctrine unto flesh and blood yet if our hearts were once throughly inflamed with the love of God if we were wholly devoted unto Gods service and if we did even hunger and thirst after righteousness then whatsoever it were that God required at our hands we would be ready with Abraham to perform obedience Mat. 4.21.22 And as the Disciples when our Saviour called them they left both their goods and their Parents to follow him So whatsoever it were that God required of us though it were to the losse of all that ever we have yet we would be willing to resigne it when God commands us And thus much concerning the first difficulty in this Commandement in regard of the sacrifice which is to be offered Abrahams onely beloved sonne Isaac I come now to the second diffi ∣ culty Second The second difficulty is in regard of the Person that must offer this sacrifice that is Abraham Abraham a Father must sacrifice his Son he must do it himself and no other for him Take thine onely beloved Sonne Isaac and do thou offer him If a Father having but one onely Son should but hear that he were causeless to be put to death this ye know would be a great grief unto him but if he were commanded to be present himself and to be an eye-witnesse and spectator of his death this must needes be a further vexation O but being come thither if he himself were inforced to be his Sonnes executioner and with his own hands to kill his Sonne this were a torment beyond all comparison But this is Abrahams case here If God had commanded him to deliver his Son to some of his Servants and that they should kill him yet Abraham might have conceived some comfort for it may be his Servants would have had compassion on him as it hath often been seene or if they had not but had put him to death yet Abraham should not have been a spectator thereof but that Abraham may be sure of the death of his Son God will have him not onely an eye-witness thereof but to be the actor himself he will have him with his own hands to kill him Valer. Max. lib. 5. tit 7. When Caesar commanded Cesetus a Roman to subscribe but his hand to the bannishment of his Son he made him this answer Celerius tu mihi Caesar omnes meos liberos eripies quam ex his ego unum mea notá pellam Thou shalt sooner saith he berave me of all my Children then I will ever set my hand to bnnish any one of them What would he have answered if he had been commanded with his own hands to have
killed him for so must Abraham It is noted by Suetonius that among other arguments of Caligula his great cruelty Sueton. Calig 27 Sect. this was one That Parents were often compelled by him to be present themselves at the execution of their children And when a father would have excused his absence from his sons execution in regard of his sicknesse we read there that Caligula sent him his horse-litter to bring him thither but we never read among all his cruelties that he forced any father to be his sons executioner There have been some saith Philo who for the safety and good of their Countrey Philo lib. de Abra. have suffered their children to be sacrificed to their gods but they in the mean time have either staied at home and would not be present when their children were sacrificed or if they were present they have turned away their eyes and covered their faces as unable to behold so sad a spectacle Thus when Iphigenia was to be sacrificed to Diana Agamemnon standing aloofe off when he saw his daughter to be brought to the Altar he could no longer endure it but as Euripides writes Euripid. in Iphig he turned away his head he drowned his eyes in tears he covered his face and all that he might not see his daughter sacrificed How then would he have endured if he himselfe should have done it for so must Abraham if God had put it to Abrahams choise whether he would have offered himselfe or his son no doubt he would have thought that God had dealt very graciously with him and that God had set Isaac but at too low a rate seeing he might purchase his life with the losse of his own for Abraham was old and therefore would willingly have yielded his life unto God which he must of necessity have yielded unto nature not long after But God will not be content with Abrahams death but with the death of his son for he knew it would be worse then death unto Abraham to live without Isaac but a thousand times more grievous when he himselfe should kill him For what might Abraham think with himselfe Cain was the first parricide that ever was and Abraham must be the second When Cain had murdred his brother Abel he thought he had committed such an abominable act that every one that saw him would be ready to kill him whosoever findes me saith Cain will slay me And Abraham might well imagine that this would make him odious among his neighbours and that every one would count him as an enemy to nature and as one that were not worthy to live among them If but any bruit beast saith Plutarch do kill their young we stand amazed at it we count it prodigious and that is portends some strange event we offer sacrifice to appease the Gods that they may defend us from it For we know saith he that nature hath taught them to love their young and not to destroy them And would not every man then exclaime against Abraham Is not this that Hebrew that murdred his son is not this he who as short a time as he hath so journed in our Land hath made the whole Countrey to ring of his cruelty are these his good works Lord how precise he seem'd amongst us how ready to reprove us of impiety and prophanesse and shall we harbour among us such a monster in nature as seems to make a scruple of the least sins and makes no conscience of murder Thus every one would be ready to crie out against Abraham and yet such was his obedience that he had rather become odious amongst his neighbours and shew himselfe cruell in killing his son then irreligious in disobeying God Scelus enim est saith Saint Augustine filium occidere sed Deum scelestius non audire It is a sin for a father to kill his son but a greater sin if he kill not his son when God commands him Doct. 2 The Doctrine which may be gathered from hence is this That God makes triall of our obedience according to the measure of his gifts and graces which he hath bestowed upon us For so we see he deals here with Abraham A light temptation had not been fit for so great a Patriarch and therefore as God had extraordinarily enricht him with the graces of his Spirit so he makes an extraordinary triall of his faith and obedience For God deals with us as a School-master is wont to deale with his schollars who examines not every one alike but according as they proceed and profit in learning so he still puts them to further exercises If God should lay any grievous triall upon those that are weak and not strengthened in faith it were enough to discourage them if light and easie upon those that were strong it were not enough to make manifest their virtues which lye hidden in them And therefore he proportions his trials of our faith to that measure of grace which he hath vouchsafed us When then we see what God here requires of Abraham we may admire Gods goodnesse and mercy towards us who spares our infirmity and makes not the like triall of our obedience For if God should lay the least of those trials upon us which he laid upon Abraham how unable were we to undergo the same And this we may see if we examine our selves as touching our obedience in smaller matters If God do but visite us with any tedious and long sicknesse or if he lay upon us any crosse or affliction by taking our goods or our children from us presently we fall into great impatience and we think that God deals very hardly with us How then would we bear it if he should make the like triall of us which he makes here of Abraham and if he should command us for the proofe of our obedience to kill our children with our own hands and to offer them unto him yet Abraham went willingly about the same If the loss of our goods will so overcome our patience as many times it doth what then would we say if God should lay upon us that which he laid upon Job when he took both his goods his children from him and when of all that ever he had he left him nothing yet Job blest God when he had taken away all The Lord saith he hath given Job 1.21 and the Lord hath taken blessed be the name of the Lord. In a word if a little pain in the time of our sicknesse will so bereave us of patience what then would we do if God should lay upon us that which he hath laid upon thousands of our betters I mean those Martyres in the time of persecution whereof some have had their flesh torne by piece-meale from their bodies with hot pincers some have had their bodies cut asunder with sawes and others have endured whatsoever the wit of man or the malice of Satan could invent against them and yet they have triumphed in the midst of their torments
So that this may teach us to extoll and magnifie Gods goodnesse towards us who layeth not so much upon us as he laid upon them but proportions his trials to our infirmity and weaknesse And thus much likewise for the second difficulty in this Commandement in regard of the party that must offer this sacrifice Abraham Isaac a father his sonne difficulty third The third difficulty is in regard of the manner how he must sacrifice his son he must offer him to God in holocanstum for a burnt-offring The manner how they were to offer their burnt-offrings in the old Law is prescribed by God unto Moses in the first of Leviticus where we finde that the burnt-offring that was to be offered was to be killed to be cut in pieces or quartered and every part to be laid upon the fire till it were wholly consumed Whether Abraham when he had killed his son was likewise to quarter him and to hew him in pieces I will not determine but yet it is probable For howsoever the manner of offering these offrings was specified long after this Commandement was given yet Abel and others had offered burnt offrings long before which no doubt they had done as God himselfe had taught them But this is certain that when Abraham had killed his son with his own hands he was likewise to lay him upon the fire till he were wholly consumed and burnt to ashes for so much the word holocaustum signifies And therefore Musculus saith upon this place Non simpliciter immolare filium jubetur Abraham sed offerre in holocaustum hoc est c. Abraham is not commanded simply to sacrifice his son but to offer him for a burnt-offring that is saith Musculus after that he hath imbrued his sword in his sons bloud with his own hands to lay his body in the fire and when one side is burnt to turn the other and so to let it burn till it be consumed to ashes which is all one as if his body were to be consumed to nothing So that this is more horrible then all the rest For how is it possible for a father to endure when he hath bathed his sword in his sons bloud to take him up in his armes and to lay him upon the Altar to see his bowels fry and crackle in the fire and to turn him upside down till every part be consumed and burnt to nothing What death can be imagined so horrible as this If God had commanded Abraham either to have strangled or smoothered his son yet his body ye know would have remained whole he might have entombed him if God had commanded him to cast him down headlong from the top of the mountain so that every member had been dashed asunder yet some part of his body would have been remaining Nay if God had commanded him to take his son and cast him to the wilde beasts that they might devoure him yet at least-wise ye know his bones would have been left and so Abraham might have had some relique of his son but this is such a death as doth utterly consume every part of the body and brings all to nothing But besides this Abraham knew very well that God could not away with humane sacrifices and therefore that Abel Noah and the rest had never offered the like in any of their offrings It is true indeed that many years after the Children of Israel had learn'd of the Gentiles as we see Psalm 106 to sacrifice their sons and their daughters to divels Psal 106.37 but therefore saith David The wrath of the Lord was kindled against them so that he abhorred even his own inheritance Psal 106.40 Nay this is so monstrous and abominable an act that many of the heathen did utterly condemne it We read of the Carthagincans that they were wont to sacrifice their children to Saturne Plutarch in Reg. Apophth as thinking that this would be acceptable to their God because they had heard the fable that Saturne was wont to devoure his children But therefore when Gelo the King of Sicilia had subdued Carthage he forbad this custome as thinking it monstrous that the gods should be worshipt with such cruell sacrifices And therefore when Agesilaus Plutarch in vita Agesilai as Plutarch records was admonished in a dream to sacrifice his daughter to Diana as Agamemnon had done he made this answer that he would not imitate Agamemnons folly but he would offer such a sacrifice as was fit for a goddesse How then could Abraham think that God would be pleased with such a sacrifice and that he who is the father of mercies and would not so much as the death of a sinner should delight in cruelty and in the slaughter of innocents so that when God commands Abraham to sacrifice his son here is a further temptation then all the former which seems not so much to impugne his affection as to confound his faith in that God here seems contrary unto himselfe And indeed beloved the conflict which Abraham sustained in his affection was nothing to that which his faith sustained For how should he believe the promises of God concerning his son being now commanded by God to kill him God had promised Abraham as we heard before that him seed should be called in Isaac that he would multiply his seed like the starres of Heaven Gen. 26.4 and that he would establish his Covenant with Isaac for an everlasting Covenant and with his feed after him Abraham believed according to Gods promise that the Saviour of the World should spring from his Sonne and that so all the Nations of the Earth should be blessed in him and yet now he commands him to sacrifice his Son and so to burn as it were the bond of his own salvation For if Isaac must die how can Abraham look for the Messias from him and if no Messias what remaines but Gods wrath and vengeance to be powred upon all men so that this Commandement seemes quite to overthrow Gods former promise and yet such was Abrahams faith and obedience that he both performed that which God had commanded and withall believed that which God had promised For howsoever it might seeme as impossible to flesh and blood that seed should be raised from Isaac being dead as that a Tree should budde forth when the root is withered yet he knew there was nothing impossible with God and therefore though Isaac were wholly consumed and burnt to nothing yet that God was able even out of his ashes to raise up seed unto him Doct. 3 Now whereas God commands Abraham here to offer his Sonne in holocaustum for a burnt-Offring so that no part of his body may be kept but that it must wholly be consumed and burnt to nothing The Doctrin that might be gathered from hence is this That as God makes tryall of our Obedience in that which of all other is deerest unto us so he requires that we keep nothing thereof unto our selves but
that we dedicate it wholly to Gods service But I will passe this over and come to the fourth difficultie difficulty fourth The fourth difficultie in this Commandement is in regard of the place where he must sacrifice his Sonne namely in the land of Moriah upon one of the mountaines which God would shew him Morti destinatum citò occidere misericordia genus est It is a kinde of mercie if a man be condemned to die to dispatch him quickly and the reason is because the punishment is much augmented through the expectation of it the expectation of any evil being as ill or worse then the evil it selfe But God here the more as it may seeme to torment Abraham Commands him not onely to Sacrifice his Son but injoynes him a long and tedious journey before he must do it God might have appointed him First to go with his Son into the Land of Moriah and being come thither then he might have told him the cause of his coming But first he commands him to sacrifice his Son and then sends him to the place where he must perform the same and what is the Reason but onely this as Origen saith ut dum ambulat dum iter agit per totam viam cogitationibus discerpatur that all the while he is travelling with his Son he might ruminate upon that which he went about and be confounded in a manner with the remembrance of it Now concerning this place where Abraham was appointed to sacrifice his Sonne some of the Jewes report that Cain and Abel had offered their offrings upon the same Mountain St. Jerome writes that he had heard it for certain of some ancient Jewes that Isaac was offered in the very same place where afterwards our Saviour Christ was crucified St. Augustine addes that he had heard it reported that Christ was crucified in the very same place where Adam had been buried and therefore that it was called Calvaria locus the place of a dead mans skull quia caput humani generis ibi dicitur esse sepultum because the head of mankind lieth there buried The Saracens who will needes borrow their name from Sarah though they came of Hagar to make it more profitable that they sprang from Isaac they faine that the land of Moriah is a part of their Country and therefore when any stranger comes to their City of Mecha to see Mahomets Sepulcher hard by the City they do shew him the Mountain where on Abraham as they say did sacrifice his Sonne But the truth is that the Land of Moriah where Isaac was to be offered was the same which was afterward called Jerusalem as we may plainly gather out of the second of the Chronicles 2 Chron. 3. the third Chapter for there it is said in the first verse that Salomon built the Temple of the Lord in Jerusalem in Mount Moriah So that the place where Isaac was to be offered was either the same or very near to the place where our Saviour was afterwards to be crucified And indeed it was not unfit that Isaac should be offred where our Saviour was to suffer because Isaac was a type and figure of our Saviour So saith St. Augustine Abraham quando filium suum obtulit typum habuit Dei Patris Isaac typum gessit Domini Salvatoris Abraham when he offered his Sonne represented God the Father Isaac when he was offered represented our Saviour the Son of God For many things which wore shadowed forth in Isaac were afterwards verefied in our Saviour Christ As the promises of God unto Abraham concerning his Son were often renewed and his birth foretold so were the promises and the birth of the Messias As Isaacs was named before he was borne so was also Christ As Isaacs Birth was strange and miraculous in regard that he was borne of Sarah that was barren so was also Christs being borne of a virgin As Isaac was Abrahams onely Son whom he so dearly loved so Christ was the onely begotten Son of God in whom alone he was wel pleased As Isaac was causeless to be put to death so was Christ being innocent As Isaac bore the wood wherewith he was to be sacrificed so Christ bore the Tree whereon he was to be crucified In a word as Isaac by yielding himself to be offred did testifie his obedience unto his Fathe and his Father his wonderful love unto God so Christ by submitting himself to the death declared his wonderfull obedience unto God and God his unspeakable love towards us And indeed beloved this is the most excellent use that can possibly be made of this whole History when we hear how Abraham did offer his Son we stand amazed at it we wonder how it was possible for a Father to do it And may we not much more admire the infinite love of God unto us in giving his onely begotten Son to be crucified for us When we hear how Isaac yielded himself to be bound and offered we cannot but wonder at his strange obedience and may we not much more wonder at the infinite obedience of our blessed Saviour who being equall with God yet humbled himself and became obedient â—ven to the death of the Crosse Abraham when he offered his Sonne unto God he did but restore unto God that which God had given him he might wel the rather be moved thereunto because God had been alwaies so gracious to him But when God gave his Son to be offered for us we were so far from having deserved any thing at his hands that we were his open and profest enemies Isaac when he yielded himself to be offered yet he yielded himself into his Fathers hands who was to present him for a sweet savour unto the Lord and so to put him to a kind of death which of all other might seene the most glorious But Christ when he yielded himself to be offered he yielded himself into the hands of his persecutors who he knew would not onely put him to the most ignominious death but for his further vexation even deride him in his torments When Abraham was to sacrifice his onely Sonne God was so moved with compassion and pitty that instead of his Sonne he provided a Ramme Indeed it was fitter that a Ram should dye if the death of a Ramme might ransome a Sonne But when Christ was to be offered the case was altered the Ramme was spared and the Sonne was sacrificed Nay the Sonne was therefore sacrificed that the Ram might be spared Read over all the Histories of Heathen Authours examine their writings search out all their antiquities and see if there were ever the like example of love For a man to die for his friend it is no small matter and but few have done it but if one should offer to dye for a stranger we would wonder at it O but for a man to dye for his enemy nay the Sonne of God to come down from Heaven even from his Fathers bosome to dye a most accursed death
like a sweet perfume is pleasing to every man Lucri bonus est odor exâ—re qualibet and though many are much affected with pleasure and delight yet the hâ—ost are most affected with gaine and profit What makes the Husbandman to toile all his life-time but hope of gaine What makes the Merchant to venture his life and his whole Estate but hope of gainâ— This is that which the most so affect that they can never find any arietie in it but the more they have the more they desire and the greater the gaine the more it affects them But here you see is the gaining of the whole World a whole world of gaine that if a man will part with his soul for any thing he can hardly part with it upon a better bargaine If it were but for the gaining of one Kingdom in the world what would a man hazard and venture for it Judges 9.5 Rather then Abimilech will not raign over Israel he will put seventy of his Brethren to death together Rather then Herod will stand in fear of losing his Kingdom Mat. 2.16 Macrob. Satur lib. 2. cap. 4.2 Sam. 15.10 thousands of innocents shall lose their lives though his own son be one of them Rather then Absalon will not raigne he will rise up in Armes against his own Father and seek to deprive him of life and Kingdom And rather then Nero shall not raigne his own Mother will be content to be murdered by him Ocâ—idat modò imperet Let him kill me saith his Mother so he may get the Empire A Kingdom can hardly be valued at too high a rate For if we consider the state of a King there is scarce any thing that may seem to make a man happy that can be wanting unto him His word for the most part is a sufficient warrant for the effecting of his pleasure and his intreatie a most forcible kind of command for the obtaining of his desire so that if he would have any thing he may have what he likes and no man deny him if he would do any thing he may do what he please and no man oppose him If therefore a King be so mighty how mighty should the Monarch of the World be If he hath such command that hath but a Kingdom What command should he have that should have the whole World under his Dominion If King Assnerus his Dominions were so large that he raigned over an hundred and seven Provinces Hester 1.1 if his magnificence and bounty were such that he made a feast royall for all his Princes and Servants which continued for an hundred and fourescore daies If King Salomons yearely revenues were so great that he had six hundred threescore and six talents of Gold Ester 1.4 1 Kings 10.14 and Silver as plentifull as stones in the street If King Xerxes his power was so unresistable that Rivers and Mountaines could not stand before him 2 Chro. 1.15 but he was able to turn and overturne them at his pleasure then what might not he do that were Monarch of the World and had all Kingdoms and Nations to do him service A King howsoever his power be great yet he hath his equals in other Countries and though his command reach very far yet it reacheth no farther then his own Dominions But he that were Monarch of the whole World command where he would and he should be obeyed for all the Princes of the earth should be his Subjects A King though he may have whatsoever his Kingdom affords yet every Kingdom affords not every thing and those things do commonly most affect us which other Countries do yield and are not to-be had in our own But he that were Monarch of the whole World whatsoever any Kingdom in the World could afford he should be sure to have it and happy were he that should first present it A King though he may greatly advance his favorites yet he hath but one Kingdom for himself and them and if with Herod he should promise unto one the half of his Kingdom Mark 6.23 and after promise as much to another were he taken at his word he might leave himself nothing But he that were Monarch of the whole World he should have severall Kingdoms for his severall favorites ' and yet leave himself more when he had inriched them all then ever Alexander had after all his conquests It is said of Cyrus that to perswade the Lacedemonians to follow him in the warres he made them this promise They saith Cyrus Plutarch in Reg. Apophtheg that will be my followers if they be Footmen I will give them Horses if they be Horse men I wil give them Chariots if they have houses and tennements of their own I will give them Villages and if they have Villages I will make them Lords of Townes and Cities This was a great advancement of his followers But he that were Monarch of the whole World where King Cyrus left there might he begin They who were his favourites and Lords of Towns he might make them Princes and give them Kingdoms if they were Kings he might make them Emperours and if this were not enough he might double their Dominions For a Kingdom in comparison of the whole World is no more then a town in comparison of a Kingdom then what would not a man do for so great a gaine And therefore the Devill when he tempted our Saviour in the fourth of Matthew knowing that there is not any more forcible argument to perswade a man to any thing then the gaining of the World like a cunning Orator he reserved this temptation for the last of all and when he had shewed him all the Kingdoms of the World and the glory of them and had given him his promise Mat. 4.9 That he would give him all if he would fall down and worship him and saw that all this would not prevaile with him it was high time for him to be gon he thought it to no purpose to tempt him any longer and so presently left him For he that will not stoop to so faire a lure he that will not be moved with so great a gain he will be moved with nothing But now howsoever this gain be great yet withall it hath divers inconveniences which do lessen and diminish the value of it And therefore as he that would purchase a house he will not only know what commodities it hath but he will likewise be informed of the inconveniences of it So having heard of the profits and pleasures and preferments of the world we are further to enquire of the discommodities of it And they especially are these three First That whatsoever the world can afford us yet it is but short and of small continuance For were a man Monarch of the whole World and had he all that his heart could desire yet when he dieth he must leave all that he hath and all that he hath can neither deferre the comming of death nor
that is into heaven keep the Commandements And heaven is called Psal 25. the land of the living I should saith David have utterly fainted but that I believe verily to see the goodnesse of the Lord in the land of the living that is in heaven for there they live eternally and never die In hell there is a quite contrary law that they die eternally Therefore it is said of the wicked Psal 49. They lie in hell like sheep and death gnawes upon them because there they suffer the second death which is everlasting And here upon earth there is a third law between them both Heb. 9.27 That every one living shall once suffer death Therefore saith the Apostle Heb. 9. It is appointed unto all men that they shall once dye not live here for ever as they do in heaven nor die for ever as they do in hell but once they must die and this is a law which all that live on the face of the earth are subject unto God hath given great priviledges to many of his servants and hath miraculously preserved them from many dangers Exed 34.28 1 King 19.8 Dan. 3.25 Mat. 14.29 Josh 10.12.13 some he hath preserved without any nourishment for many weeks together as Moses and Elius some he hath preserved in the midst of fire as the three children in the furnace some he hath inabled to walk upon the waters as Peter did some he hath inabled to stay the course of the Sun as Joshuah did but to stay and hinder the course of death and to free men from the same this is a priviledge which God never gave to any of his servants Therefore even they that lived before the deluge though some of them lived seven hundred years some eight hundred some nine hundred years and upwards yet they died in the end nature delaying more and more in them till it were quite spent as a candle being lighted wastes by little and little till it quite goes out Seeing then it is certain that we shall die this may therefore teach us to fit and prepare our selves against the coming of death by frequent meditation and remembrance thereof The oftner a man bethinks him of death the better he will be prepared for it as a man that foresees and expects a storm he will provide himself the better against it come And herein the Heathen themselves may be patterns unto us who though they knew not God nor the punishment of sin in the world to come yet knowing they should die they used many strange and memorable devises to put them in mind of their mortality Ortelius writes of a Countrey in the World where the people do use the bones of dead men in stead of their coin which being continually before their eyes they cannot but continually remember their ends Plutarch writes of Ptolomie the King of Egypt That alwayes when he made any sumptuous feast among the rest of his dishes the skull and bones of a dead man were brought in a platter and set before him and one was appointed to say thus unto him Plutarch in Conviv Sept. Sapientum Behold O King and consider with thy selfe this president of death that he whose skull and bones thou now seest was once like thy selfe and the time will come when thou shalt be like unto him and thy skull and bones shall be brought hereafter to the Kings table as now his are to thint Isodore writes That it was a custome in Constantinople that alwayes at the time of the Emperours Coronation among other Solemnities this was one A free Mason presented the Emperour with divers sorts of marble and asked him of which of them he should make his Tomb that so he might remember even then when he was in the height of his glory that he was but mortall Dion writes of Severus a Roman Emperour That while he lived he caused his Hearse to be made and was often wont to go in into it adding these words Thou O Herse as small as thou art must contain him whom now the whole world is searce able to contain If these who were Heathen were so mindfull of their ends what should we that are Christians We know that God hath made the end of our life the manner of our death and the place thereof to be unknown and uncertain that we might alwayes have it in expectation So saith Saint Augustine Latet ultimus dies ut observentur omnes dies Augustine Hom. 13. The last day of our lives is hidden from us that that day might be expected all the dayes of our lives And indeed the reason why we are not prepared for the comming of death is because we seldom or never think of dying for who of us almost have any thought thereof till either sicknesse or age the two Serjeants of death do come to arrest us or if at any other time we bethink us thereof it is only then when we hear the Bell to ring out for any or when we see some of our neighbours to lie upon their death-bed and past recovery Then it may be we think of our ends and that it is high time for us to prepare our selves for death that we may be in a readinesse against God shall call us But these meditations are but for a fit and they presently vanish I have seen somtimes when a Fowler coming to a Tree where there were store of birds and hath killed any one of them all the rest have immediately flown away but presently after forgetting the danger wherein they were before they have all of them returned to the same Tree And do not we resemble these silly birds when death comes to our houses and takes away any one of us we are all amazed and we presently think that the next course may be ours and therefore that it behooves us to reform our lives but presently after when the remembrance of death is out of our minds we return again to our former courses But he that will be provided against the coming of death must alwayes have death in his remembrance Tota vita sapientis debet esse meditatio mortis The whole life saith Gregory of a wise man ought to be a meditation of death That as the birth of sin was the death of man so the meditation of death may be the death of sin And as David here by comparing us to grasse and the flowers of the field implyeth thereby the certainty of our death that we shall as certainly die as we are sure that these shall fade and wither So he implyeth hereby the shortnesse of our life that we shall not live long but shall die soon as the grasse and flowers do fade and decay in a short time Theodorus Gaza tels us of a father that had twelve sons and each of those brethren had thirty children yet every one of them expired soon The father expired within the compasse of a year never a one of his sons but expired in a moneth and
And therefore to conclude with the words of the Apostle Behold now is the accepted time now is the day of Salvation And therefore if thou wilt come unto him in the time accepted deferre not the time but come unto him while salvation is offered The time that is past is altogether irrevocable the time that is to come is altogether uncertaine onely the time present is the time accepted and therefore come now while he may be found FINIS The Fourteenth SERMON ACTS 7.59.60 And they stoned Steven calling upon God and saying Lord Jesus receive my spirit And he kneeled down and cryed with a loud voice Lord lay not this sinne to their charge Division TO passe over the Coherence of these words with the former we may observe in them these two things The great impiety of the Jewes in martyring Steven and Stevens great piety in his martyrdom Their impiety is set down briefly in the first words wherein is mentioned both the person that was martyr'd and that was Steven the kind of his martyrdom and that was stoning and by whom he was thus martyr'd namely by the Jewes They stoned Steven Stevens great piety in his martyrdom is set down more largely in the words following and herein is declared both his faith towards God and his charity towards men both which he shews by a double prayer which he makes first for himself He called upon God saying Lord Jesus receive my spirit then for his persecutors he kneeled down and cryed with a loud voice Lord lay not this sinne to their charge First then concerning the impiety of the Jewes the person that was martyred here was Steven who according to his name which in the Greek doth signifie a Crown was the first who after the Ascention of Christ 3. Sorts of Martyrs was crowned with martyrdom Now there are Martyrs of three sorts First Such as are Martyrs voluntate sed non opere in will and desire but not in act So Eusebius vvrites of Origen that while he vvas young he had such a desire to be a Martyr that his Mother was faine to hide all his apparel that she might keep him at home because otherwise he vvould have gone to his Father who vvas then in prison to have suffered martyrdom vvith him And so he was a Martyr in vvill and affection And it is very memorable vvhich Sotrates Theodoret and likevvise Sozomen in their Ecclesiastical Histories do report of a woman vvho so affected martyrdom that vvhen she understood that Valens the Emperour had sent Modestus the Governour of Edessa with a band of souldiers to kill all the Christians that were assembled there at St. Thomas Church she ran thither in all hast with a child of hers Modestus observing how fast she ran caused her to be called and asked her whether she was running She answered to the Church vvhere the Christians were assembled Why do you not know saith Modestus that the Emperour hath sent me thither to put them all to death I know it well saith the woman and therefore I make the more hast thither that I may dye with them But why saith he do you carry your child with you That he saith she may likewise be crowned vvith Martyrdom This answer of hers so moved Modestus that he returned back and diswaded the Emperour from the execution of it And these vvere Martyrs in vvill and affection but not in act Secondly There are others that are Martyres opere sed non voluntate Martyrs in act but not in vvill and affection Such were those innocent babes of Bethlehem that Herod slew vvhom St Augustine calls Primitias Martyrum the first fruits of Martyrs for these dyed for Christ that vvas to dye for them and vvere Witnesses unto him speaking vvith their bloud as Chrysostom saith that could not speak vvith their tongue and confessing and shewing forth his praise not in speaking but in dying And such a Martyr vvas that babe vvhereof we read in the book of Martyrs vvhich sprang out of his Mothers Wombe while she was burning at the stake and vvas by the Papists cast againe into the fire as thy brood of Heriticks A more horrible and impious act in them then it had been being committed by any other in regard of their doctrine because they hold it as an Article of their Faith that all Children are damned that dye without Baptisme and yet they vvilfully burned this innocent before he vvas Baptized and so as they thought did not onely cast his Body into the fire but his Soule into Hell though indeede this blessed Babe did not want Baptisme but vvas Baptized vvith the Holy Ghost and vvith fire and vvas no sooner borne but died a Martyr Martyr opere non voluntate a Martyr in act though not in vvill and desire Thirdly There are others that are Martyres voluntate et opere Martyrs both in Will and Act and such a Martyr vvas Steven vvho both in Will and Act did suffer Martyrdom Now because as St. Austin saith out of Cyprian Non paena sed causa facit Martyrem it is not the punishment vvhich a man doth suffer but the cause for vvhich he suffers that makes him a Martyr Let us see for what it vvas that Steven vvas here Martyred And this vvas as vve see verse 52. for the Testimony of Christ Which of the Prophets saith he have not your Fathers persecuted And they have slaine them which shewed before of the coming of the just One of whom you have been now the betrayers and murtherers He knevv that they hated Christ to the death and had therefore Crucified him He knevv that they had imprisoned his Disciples and strictly charged them to Preach no more in his Name He knevv that for Preaching in his Name he himself vvas here brought before the Councell and had false Witnesses suborned against him and so could not but knovv that his bearing vvitnesse to Christ must needs endanger him and yet vvith great boldnesse he bear vvitnesse to Christ and for this it vvas that he suffered Martyrdom Here then in Steven we may observe a difference betvven true and false Martyrs True Martyrs suffer in a good cause for the testimony of Christ and the defence of the truth but false Martyrs suffer in a bad cause for the defence of their errors Epipha contra Har. lib. 3. to 2. Har. 80. So Epiphanius writes of a sect called Martyriani vvho count themselves Martyrs though they suffred indeed for their vvorshiping of Idols So many have been registred for Martyrs and canonized for Saints in the Church of Rome that have suffered as Traitors and died for Treason But true Martyrs do suffer in a just cause and such onely can have comfort in their sufferings Mat. 10.39 He saith our Saviour that loseth his life for my sake shall finde it it is not enough to lose it unlesse it be lost for Christs sake otherwise there is no promise made of finding it Mat. 5.10 Blessed are
they that suffer persecution for righteousnesse sake it is not their suffering but their suffering for righteousnesse that makes them blessed Therefore the Apostles did not simply rejoyce in their sufferings Acts 5.41 but that they were counted worthy to suffer for Christs sake This was that which made Saint Paul so willing to suffer that being fore-told by Agabus Acts 21. That at Jerusalem he should be in bonds and be delivered into the hands of the Gentiles and being therefore intreated by the brethren that Acts 21.13 he would not go to Jerusalem What mean ye saith he to weep and to break my heart for I am ready not onely to be bound but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus And this was that which here imboldened Steven because it was for the Testimony of Christ that he suffered Martyrdome And so leaving the first point the person that was martyr'd I come to the second the kind of his Martyrdome and that was stoning They stoned Steven Our Saviour ye know fore-told his Disciples of the great persecution which they were to suffer Luke 9.23 Mat. 10.22 Mat. 10.16 Mat. 10.17 Mat. 23.34 That if any man would be his Disciple he must take up his Crosse every day and follow him that they should be hated of all men for his names sake that he sent them as sheep among wolves that they would be brought before the Councels and be scourged in their Synagogues that some of them should be slaine some stoned and some crucified All which not long after began to be accomplished To begin with the Apostles whom Christ vouchsafes the name of his friends John 15.15 John 15.7 Revel 1.9 John 21.17 Saint John the Disciple that Christ loved was condemned to banishment by the Emperor Domitian was banished into the Isle of Pathmos where he wrote the Book of the Revelation Saint Peter the Disciple that loved Christ was condemned by Nero to be crucified and was hanged on the Crosse as Saint Jerome writes with his head down-wards affirming himselfe unworthy to be crucified in the same manner that his Lord was Saint Andrew Peters brother was likewise crucified imbracing the Crosse saith Bernard and saying Per te me recipiat qui per te me redemit Let him receive me by thee who by thee redeemed me and hanging on the Crosse three dayes before he died converted many in the mean time to Christ Saint James the elder the Son of Zebedec and Saint Johns brother was killed with the sword and the person as Clemens Alexandrinus writes that had accused him when he saw him condemned was so moved therewith that he profest himself to be a Christian and having asked forgivenesse of Saint James was beheaded with him Saint James the younger the son of Alpheus and Bishop of Jerusalem because he would not deny Christ to be the Son of God was thrown down headlong from the battlements of the Temple and being still alive though both his thighes were broke his braines were dashed out as Egesippus writes with a Fullers club Saint Thomas who would not believe that Christ was risen from the dead except he might put his hand into the wound which the launce had made was afterwards in India as some Authours report thrust through with a launce because he would not worship the image of the Sun which was worshipt by them Saint Paul was beheaded in Rome by Nero on the same day as some do write that Peter was crucified and so that may not unfitly be applied to them which David said of Saul and Ionathan They were lovely in their lives and in their deaths they were not devided 2 Sam. 1.23 I might further instance in the rest of the Apostles and in the bloudy persecutions which afterwards followed wherein there was made such havock of the Church that if Ievemie or David had lived in those dayes there had been matter for the one to have made new Lamentations and for the other to sit weeping by the walls of Babylon when he remembred Sion Thus in these was verefied what our Saviour fore-told concerning the persecution which they were to suffer and the first of them all which brake as it were the ice and led the way to the rest was Steven here who was stoned to death A kind of death which was appointed by God for idolaters blasphemers and malefactors that others seeing what punishment they suffered might be kept from committing the like sins for fear of undergoing the like punishment So we see Deut. 13. That the idolater that inticed the people to serve other gods Deut. 13.10.11 was by Gods commandement to be stoned to deat that all Israel might hear and fear and the like might not be done any more in Israel So he that blasphemed the Name of the Lord Levit. 24.23 Levit. 24. was stoned to death by the whole Congregation as God commanded I might instance in others So that stoning was a punishment appointed by God for wicked persons yet Steven that was a holy man was here stoned Here then we may observe from the kind of his Martyrdome which was stoning That we are not to judge of a man by the kind of his death because sometimes the godly die the same kind of death that the wicked do 1. King 16. Ahab ye know was a most wicked King that served Baul and polluted the worships and service of God so that it is said of him that he did more to provoke the Lord to anger then all the Kings of Israel that were before him Josiah on the contrary was a most religious King that brought Iudah and Ierusalem from their idolatry and restored Gods service so that it is said of him That like unto him there was no King before him 2. King 23. that turned to the Lord with all his heart neither after him arose there any like him Yet these two brethren that were so unlike in their lives were alike in their deaths both were slain in the warres by the hands of their enemies The like may be said of Ionathan and Saul a good Son of a bad Father yet both of them slain in the field together So seditious Sheba that conspired against David died the same kind of death that Iohn the Baptist did for they were both beheaded and Steven here dyed the same kind of death that Achan did for they were both stoned Doct. In a vvord There is hardly any death that can be names but some of the godly have been put thereunto as well as the wicked And therefore vve are not to judge of any by the kind of his death that he died vvell or ill because that kind of death vvhich befalls one may befall an other We commonly judge the vvorse of a man if his death be sudden and count sudden death a fearfull thing as indeed it is especially if it be a violent death vvithall It vvas a fearfull kind a death which Charles