to an old Age and go down to their Graves in an external peace having no bands in their death Their sins shall follow after them after their lives to judgment for Jude assureth us that the Lord will come with ten thousands of his Saints to execute Judgment upon all and to convince all that are ungoldly aâ—ongst them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him But if mens rage break out openly God ordinarily is more quick with them There are some of those blood-thirsty and deceitful men which he hath said shall not live out half their days It is seldom that God le ts pass acts of eminent injustice and cruelty But that he in this life meeteth with the actors of it and with the same measure which they mete unto others it is meted to them again But now persecution is the highest species of injustice for in it there is not only a wrong done to another that which is not due is given to him but God is immediately concerned in the case the wrong is done to him for Gods sake he is abused imprisoned his estate is taken from him he is imprisoned tormented put to death for Gods sake because he will own his truths walk in his ways do what he commandeth him It is the sin that fills up the measure of iniquity to and in a Soul Matth. 23.32 Fill ye up then the measure of your Fathers Nay more then this see v. 35. there That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the Earth from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zecharias the Son of Barachias It draweth upon men the sins of the same kind committed by their forefathers and not reckoned for it sheweth that if they had lived in the days of their forefathers they would have done what they did they inherit their Spirit Hence you shall observe that although in ecclesiastical story we read of persecutions that lasted a long time yet we read of very few particular persons that were eminent persecutors that lasted long When this Cancer hath broke out they seldom live long Gods patience often extends to Drunkards and Whoremongers and Swearers and Cursers and they often die in the times of other men and after the manner of other men they do injury to few but themselves they shew indeed a contempt of God and a disobedience to God but they do not shew a rage and malice against God their sins do not tend to blot out the remembrance of Christ and to root out the name of God from the Earth But he is not so patient with this blackest sort of sinners they do harm to others yea to those of whom God hath said He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of mine Eye They are for rooting out the name and mention of God from the Earth God will not bear with these there shall be something remarkable in their death either they shall dye in their youth whiles yet their bones are full of marrow or they shall not dye the ordinary deaths of men They shall not come into the grave as a shock of corn in its season but be weeded out and cut up before the harvest If I durst wish evil to to him that hated me I would curse him in the name of the Lord I would say let him be a persecutor of others for Christs name sake Make but your own observation if you have known or do or shall know any such So that this sin where-ever the guilt of it doth stick is an evident token not only of eternal perdition to the adversaries of Christ and his Gospel but an ordinary token of a destruction in this life Thus I have shewed how the sufferings of Gods people turn unto them for a Testimony on Gods part let me shew you in the next place how they turn unto them for a Testimony on their part towards God I will open that in five particulars 1. They are a Testimony of their Discipleship This is a part of the sense that Stella giveth of it Eveniet vobis in signum attestationem quod vere discipuli mei fidelissimi estis All those that follow a teacher under a shew or pretence of learning from him are in common phrase and way of speaking called his disciples so it was with Christ while he was on Earth he had some that followed him for the lâ—â—ves some that believed on him but he committed not himself unto them because he knew all men Joh. 2.24 These were disciples 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in an outward appearance they looked like disciples but indeed were not He hath others who are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his disciples indeed None is a Disciple indeed to another who doth not really and actually learn of him either from his words or from his example in his life and conversation What saith our Saviour Matth. 16.24 If any man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his Cross and follow me Observe it Take up his Cross It is a great Testimony that a man is Christs Disciple not in name and outward profession only but in reality when he can take up his Cross It is reported of Ignatius that after all his sufferings he said Now begin I to be a Disciple 2. It will be a Testimony of their Membership with Christ and conformity to him The Apostle tells us Rom. 8.29 That we are predestinated that we might be conformed to the Image of his Son There is the Image of a living Christ and the Image of a dying Christ The Image of a living Christ is in Holiness and Righteousness Ephes 4.23 Col. 3.10 Thus the holy man is conformed to the Image of Christ but then there is the Image of a dying Christ We are conformed to that Image of Christ only by suffering The Apostle prayeth Phil. 3.10 That he might know the fellowship of Christs sufferings and be made conformable unto his death It is true we are made conformable to the death of Christ in a measure when we die unto sin as he died for sin so we die to sin this is an inward spiritual conformity which we come to by mortification but there is also a more external obvious conformity to the death of Christ and that is as he suffered striving against sin and bearing a witness to the Truth so we also suffer bearing a Testimony to Truth and striving against sin this we never arrive at till we come to be sufferers and our suffering upon these single accounts turn to us for a Testimony of such our conformity to Christ Yea it is a Testimony of our Membership in and with Christ Christ is the Head of the Church which is the Body and we are said to be Members of Christ and Members also one of another You have a notable expression Col. 1.24 Who now rejoyce in my sufferings for you and fill up
THIRTEEN SERMONS UPON Several Useful Subjects Two of them Being Funeral Discourses occasioned by the Death of the Reverend Mr. Nathanael Mitchel Minister of the Gospel I. The Crown of Righteousness and for whom prepared Vpon 1 Tim. 4.7.1 2 Serm. II. The Influence of God upon getting wealth Vpon Deut. 8.18 1 Serm. III. The small influence that abundance hath upon mans life Vpon Luke 12.15 1 Serm. IV. The nature of that Testimony which Christians are bound to give to the Lord Jesus Christ Vpon 2 Tim. 1.8 4 Serm. V. The nature of Persecution for Righteousness sake and the blessedness of those so persecuted Vpon Matth. 5.10 3 Serm. VI. The Riddle of a persecuted Believers life Vpon 2 Cor. 4.9 1 Serm. VII How Persecution turneth to Believers for a Testimony From Luke 21.13 1 Serm. By John Collinges D. D. LONDON Printed by T. S. for Edward Giles Bookseller in Norwich near the Market place And sold at the Phoenix in St. Pauls Church-yard 1684. To my Dear Sister Mrs. Mary Mitchel Dearest Sister WHen I composed the following Discourses it was in the same streights of time which usually are allowed for Meditations of that nature nor did I ever think of a further Publication then to those that heard me nor do I see any thing in them worthy of a more publick remark unless the great President of Divine Grace which it pleased God to shew you in the Man of your Bosom by the Power of which Grace he was saved in a Battle wherein few escape I know not what particular fancy it is that some Persons have to Sermons made upon Funeral Occasions that hath obtained of me the Copy of these Notes I hope it is their desires of many remembrances of their latter end which we have all sufficient need of Our Prophets are gone Our Fathers where are they When once I had agreed the Publication of them I needed no deliberation to whom I should inscribe them You Dear Sister had the greatest share in him to whose memory they were designed you had the nearest view of his Conversation for more then twenty years you were the greatest sharer in his long trial of affliction These things considered with my Relation to you made me quickly determine that thing I shall think my labour not lost in transcribing these Papers if any thing in them as well as the Example of your late dear Husband may incourage you or be any ways helpful to you in fighting the good fight and finishing your course The decays we find in our selves the deaths of our Friends the dayly Bells we hear telling us that such or such Persons our Neighbours are removed to their long homes mind us of our mortality Our Bones are not of Brass nor our Sinews of Iron which yet if they were both the one and the other we see are daily diminishing by the influence of the ill air in which we breath Our very breath is no such inheritance as doth not corrupt and fade away Our dearest Friends that are dissolved have only got the start of us we are in the same race and must stop at the same post Death is the End of all It is more then forty years that he who was the common Father both to you and me left this world Some of whose last words to me were Dear Child Learn to die Fear God and keep his Commandments so shalt thou learn to die We have been since that more then forty years at School in the world to learn amongst others this one great thing to Die We have had many Friends many dear Relations since that time who have by their dying Examples been speaking over the same thing to us Learn to die This discourse is of that tendency to learn us this great Lesson That the Lord would bless it to my self to you to all that shall read it is the Prayer of Your most Affectionate Brother John Collinges TO THE Christian Reader Reader THou hast here put together Thirteen Sermons of very heterogeneous Subjects I desire thou shouldst understand that the Composition pleased the Bookseller not the Author who upon that account hath nothing to say to thee but that he hopes there is none of these discourses but may be useful to any Persons He that is Rich had need know and remember That it is the Lord that giveth to man a power to get wealth He that is Poor had need not only to know that but that a mans life lyeth not in the abundance of what any one possesseth Both Rich and Poor had need understand how to finish their course fight the good fight and keep the faith When men complain of Persecution they had need understand what it is when they speak of giving Testimony to Christ and his Gospel they had need know what kind of Testimony that should be that they may not suffer in vain Thou art Reader to expect nothing in these discourses but what was proper to discourse to a plain Country Auditory which came to hear out of love to Gods Word and the truths in it revealed at least I hope so not to hear a lovely Song of one that hath a pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument If any thing in these discourses may do thee good I shall rejoice and be exceeding glad and that all in them may shall be the hearty prayer of one that wisheth well to every Soul and is Thy Friend J. C. An Account of the Crown of Righteousness SERMON I II. 2 Timothy 4.7 8. I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the Righteous Judge shall give unto me in that day and not unto me only but to all those also who love his appearance HE who speaketh these words is the great Apostle of the Gentiles one who had been in deaths often who had been for Christ's sake killed all the day long as he speaks Rom. 8.36 who died daily as he elsewhere tells us yet was not wearied out of his life and was willing to be dying still so that Christ might be magnified in his body by life or death Phil. 1.20 And though he desired to be dissolved yet it was upon better motives than the taedium or burden of his dying life that he might be with Christ which was best of all v. 23. Not that he might be unclothed but clothed upon that mortality might be swallowed up of life as he speaks 2 Cor. 5.4 nor was he so fond of glory but he preferreth his service to Christ before a present entrance into it and was willing to wait God's time I am saith he in a strait betwixt two having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you And having this confidence I know I shall abide and continue with you all But a time must come
Righteousness 1. He must manage his good fight against the World the men of it and the things of it Paul had fought this good fight 1 Cor. 15.32 he fought with Beasts at Ephesus after the manner of men and he telleth us 1 Cor. 11.24 he had had stripes above measure he had been in Prisons frequent in deaths often five times he had of the Jews received forty stripes save one thrice he was beaten with Rods once he was stoned all this in maintenance and defence of the Gospel Thus must every Christian duly of God called to it do in defence of the holy Truths and Waies of the Lord Jesus Christ The World the Men of the World were alwaies peevish to God's holy ones Our Saviour giveth us the reason Joh. 15.19 because they are not of the world but God hath chosen them out of the world Wisdom was never justified in the world of any more than her Children Now those who ever hope to come in the Kingdom of Heaven must look to manage this part of the good fight not fearing those who can kill the body and when they have done that can do no more but fearing him alone who can cast body and soul into Hell fire taking up their Cross and following of Christ bearing up against all the opposition the world can give or make against them walking according to the holy Commandment 2. But this good fight is not onely to be managed against the men of the world setting themselves in opposition to the Truths and Waies of God but also against the things of the world the deceitfulness of pleasures riches honours whatsoever may be to us a bait alluring us to sin against God Moses by Faith did fight the World in this manner refusing the pleasures of Pharaoh's Court and chusing rather to suffer with the People of God Heb. 11.25 26. than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season and esteeming the Reproach of Christ greater Riches than the Treasures in Egypt But indeed this rather belongs to the second piece of the good fight which is to be managed 2. Against our own Lusts By lusts we understand those motions and inclinations to sin which are from our fleshly part for Lusts are nothing but unlawful desires in our Souls Paul fought this part of the good fight he tells us Rom. 7.23 That he saw a law in his members warring against the law of his mind and bringing him into captivity to thâ— law of sin which is in his members Gal. 5.17 And again That the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh for those two are contrary Paul fought this part of the good fight 1 Cor. 9.27 I keep under my body and bring it unto Subjection This is that Mortifying of our members mentioned Ccl. 3.5 Mortifying the deeds of the body through the Spirit mentioned Rom. 8.13 The Apostle Peter tells us that Fleshly lusts war against the Soul 1 Pet. 2.11 and James tells us that Lust war in our members James 4.1 Paul fought this part of the good fight and overcame I thank God saith he through Jesus Christ our Lord. Indeed this is the hardest battel that a Christian hath to fight the Enemy is within those of his own house and all the advantage which either the World or the Devil hath against us is from that party of lusts which are in our own hearts Though the Prince of the World came against Christ yet finding nothing of this nature in our blessed Lord he could do nothing against him 3. Our third great adversary is the Devil For we faith the Apostle Eph. 6.12 Do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against Principalities and powers and the Rulers of the darkness of this World The Devil is called the adversary and the Apostle telleth us that he goeth about like a roaring Lyon seeking whom he may devour and calleth upon us to Resist him He fighteth us sometimes by his commanders and under-officers those are the sinful men of the World sometimes he fights us in person by his more immediate impressions and Suggestions 2 Cor. 12.7 Paul had a messenger of Satan sent to buffet him for which thing he prayed thrice v. 8. 4. A Christian hath yet a fourth Enemy That is Death I should not have called Death an Enemy but that I find the Apostle so calling it 1 Cor. 15.26 The last Enemy that is to be destroyed is Death And indeed our flesh saith both concerning death and Trials of afflictions leading to it All these things are against us There is a victorious Song which every good Christian must learn to sing O Death where is thy sting O hell where is thy Victory Thus now I have shewed you the Enemies to be fought in this good fight The word translated fight is a very Emphatical word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is the same word which is used Luk. 13.24 strive to enter in at the straâ—t gate and Col. 4.12 Where we translate it Labouring fervently we translate it striving in Col. 1.29 fighting John 18.36 and 1 Tim. 6.12 The word seemeth to signify four things 1. A labouring against opposition A man cannot fight unless he hath an Enemy to fight against What these Enemies are I have shewed you 2. A strong vehement earnest labour where all the strength and power of a man is put out as is usual in all combates and fightings 3. An inward labour from this word comes our English word Agony which we use to signify the conflict of the mind and signifieth more then the Scuffling of the hands and more exterior members Thus it signifieth Col. 4.12 Labouring fervently for you in Prayer 4. It signifieth a strife for mastery such as were the strifes in the Roman games where the strife was who should overcome and have the Victory It is observed by Aquinas that the fight is called a good fight because it is for good things and in a good manner and because it is difficult and the Apostle telleth us that he who striveth is not crowned except he strive lawfully Thus I have opened the first thing requisite for him who would have the Crown of Righteousness he must fight the good fight 2. The Second condition required of those who expect this Crown of Righteousness to be given them is their finishing their course I have saith the Apostle finished my course or my race There is nothing more ordinary in Scripture then for a series or course of actions to be called a way Thus we read of the way of God the way of the wicked and the way of the righteous Holiness is called a way the way of God's Commandments and the exercises of Holiness are a Christian 's walking or running in this way in the language of holy Writ John fulfilled his course Acts. 13.25 Neither saith our Apostle do I count my life dear to me so that I may finish my course with joy It is the same with that
and preferment as some men are that they will go over hedge and ditch go through thick and thin for it had but faith as a grain of mustard seed to believe this notion of Heaven the Kingdom of Heaven would again suffer violence 1 Joh. 2.27 and the violent would storm it The head of the meanest Saint in the day of Judgment will be a Crowned Head They have an anointing now they will be crowned then when they dye they shall enter into rest but in the Resurrection they shall be crowned O the Love of God to the Sons Daughters of men There is love in the providing a reward so high so great so full a reward and there is love in the proposing of this reward under this notion as a bait to allure us who are tickled with honour and prone to seek great things for our selves to invite us first to seek the Kingdom of God and the Righteousness thereof Who would labour for dust and pebles when he may labour for pearls and those of great price Who would sweat for a peny when he may for a little sweating have a crown How should this notion of our future blessed state send us all home this day with David to sit down in our houses before the Lord and say 2 Sam. 7.18 Who are we O Lord God that thou hast brought us hitherto And this was yet a small thing 1 John 2.2 Beloved saith the Apostle now we are the Sons of God but it doth not yet appear what we shall be In this day the Saints are called with an holy calling they are justified adopted in that day they shall be crowned that the Lord should not only speak of a reward for us but of a Crown such so great so noble a reward nor is it an earthly Crown which is clogged with care incumbred with thorns but a Crown of life a Crown of glory Surely a less thing then a Crown might have been enough for the worms of the earth for all the homage they do or can pay all the duty they do or can do for all they can suffer for Christ This God must give as a King the reward is too great for us to conceive too great for us to receive only it is not too great for God to give which of us can think any more of merit when he heareth the reward of Heaven called a Crown The notion of a Crown sets it above the Proportion of merit 2. That the Lord should not only provide a Crown for us but also make it a Crown of Righteousness thereby giving us the greatest security imaginable for our receiving of it Had it been only a Crown of grace and favour we might have doubted concerning it whether it should have been ours or no. But it being a Crown of Righteousness we cannot doubt our one day wearing of it without calling the truth and Righteousness of God in question 3. It is a Crown laid up prepared for us saith our Saviour Math. 25. Laid up for us saith our Apostle a Crown not in our own keeping laid up in the inalterable Counsels of God laid up in the promises of the Gospel laid up in the hands of Christ Gods People are kept by faith through the power of God for this Crown and the Crown is in safe keeping for them John 10.27 28. My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me And I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand God hath blessed them and they shall be blessed 4. And lastly to put us out of all doubt by reason of the disproportion of our works when we have done our most to this reward it is said The righteous judge shall give it After all our fighting the good fight running the race keeping the faith there is yet a room for a gift in the disposal of this Crown to the Saints where there is no purchase nor any natural claim what can give us a title to Heaven save only gift and Righteousness If it be righteous for God to give it because Christ hath purchased and God hath promised yet God was free as to the promise and free in giving to us the purchase of another It is a Crown of gift free gift though at the same time also it is but a Crown of Righteousness upon other considerations Use 2 Secondly this discourse will inform us How vain the expectations of this Crown of Righteousness a great many nourish nothing more discovereth a mans weakness then vain and ungrounded hopes and expectations building castles in the air as we say yet admitting the truth of the latter Proposition that the Crown of Righteousness shall be given to none but such as fight the good fight such as finish their course as keep the faith as love the appearance of Christ How vain must the hopes of the greatest number of expectants of this nature be Would the generality of men and women in our Parishes admit us to come so near them as to ask them sufficiently possessed of this that they must dye what they think will become of their Souls at death And of their bodies souls in the resurrection from the dead Their reasonable nature will not suffer them to think of an annihilation in death they cannot think that their souls melt into air abhor the thoughts of an eternal misery so as certainly their answer would be We hope to be saved we hope for a Crown of glory of life and immortality which God will give us but can a rush grow up without mire Or a flag without water saith Job He is a righteous judge that giveth out this Crown and the Crown it self must be a Crown of Righteousness as well as a Crown of life glory and immortality It is given out as a Crown of Christs Righteousness to those who are clothed with it what is this to Souls out of Christ To Souls that have not believed that so his Righteousness might be imputed to them for Righteousness to those who are not by faith united to Christ Admit it to be the Crown that is the free reward of mans Righteousness his holy and pure and sincere though not perfect conversation what claim can they lay to it that live impure unholy filthy and unrighteous conversations How shall the Crown which is the Crown of Righteousness be given to him that is unrighteous Admit it to be the Crown of Gods Righteousness that is his faithfulness to his word and promise how shall it be given to those to whom God hath in his whole book not made so much as one promise of any such thing nay against whom he hath denounced many threatnings as to the contrary as to the fulfilling of which his truth is as much concerned as it is as to his promises He hath promised it and his word is a sure word he cannot as to it lie he cannot repent but
fight and indeed in this piece of it was more a Conquerour then I ever knew any who was so long ingaged in it and at last died the ordinary death of men quietly in his Bed surrendring his Soul into the hands of him that gave it 2 For the finishing of his course how he walked in and out before you I need not tell you you knew the man and observed his conversation For the duties of his Relation as a Minister while he had a publick liberty he was no indiligent Preacher when he was restrained as to that you were also some witnesses of his readiness to that work For his Domestick Relations let his Widow rise up and call him blessed let his Daughter praise him He spent no small proportion of time in opening Scripture and praying with his Family and other exercises of Religion proper to a Family He rather erred by excess then by a defect in those exercises 3. As to his keeping the faith As he was known to all that conversed with him to be sound in the Doctrine of faith So two things spake the exercise of the habit of that Grace in him 1. He was much in prayer It was almost his whole work for some years before he died he did little else but read and pray When he could no longer Pray himself he would continually be solliciting others to the performance of it and when he hardly regarded either Wife or Child coming to him yet he was so regardful of this that he missed Prayer if at any time any of us had come to him and gone away having not prayed with him 2. Much holiness speaketh faith His scrupulosity in his actions lest he should by any of them sin against God was such as indeed was a great part of his Affliction Indeed the latter part of his life being very Melancholick and that disposing him to too many fears and God having for some weeks before he died allowed him but a very incertain use of his reason and much deprived him also of a liberty of speech we had not that lightsome evidence of his desire to be dissolved which we might have expected from such a conversation But his quiet bearing Gods severe hand upon him his free submission to his will without any murmuring or repining added to the former spending of his life in a constant preparation for death may satisfy us that he was one who loved the appearance of our Lord Jesus Now I say if we have a sufficient evidence to hope that he was indeed one who fought the good fight who had finished his course who kept the faith and who loved the appearance of our Lord Jesus what reason have we to mourn Nay if we consider what a man of griefs and sorrows he was in his latter time what an ill habit of body he had contracted what a variety of diseases he was incumbred with and how improbable it was that by the use of any art his body should be recovered to a state of comfort to himself or usefulness to others We have great cause to rejoice in hope That he is crowned with that Crown of Righteousness which the Righteous God hath prepared laid up and will give out to those who love his appearance In ordinary cases where there is no cause of sorrow from a reflection upon the eternal state of the deceased yet there may be some cause of sorrow upon the account of the Churches loss and never was there a greater cause of mourning for Godly Ministers then at this day We have cause upon all such losses to cry out as Psal 12.1 Help Lord for the Godly man ceaseth and the faithful fail from the children of men But in the present case we have not that cause God by his Providence had made him dead to us before he died and except in a miraculous way we could not reasonably have expected a Resurrection a recovery I mean to any degree of usefulness So then if there remaineth no cause of mourning either from the consideration of our friends eternal state or our own loss What remains but that we should lay our hands upon our mouths or if we will open them bless God who hath granted us to see him after so long a scuffle with the great Enemy of Mankind depart in peace that he might see the Lords Salvation and be ever with the Lord as the Apostle expresseth the state of those that sleep in Jesus in another life I shall conclude as the Apostle doth that Chapter wherefore comfort yourselves with these words SERMON III. Deuteronomy 8.18 For it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth THis fifth Book of Moses is called Deuteronomy qu. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a second law because it for the most part containeth a repetition of the law of God formerly given unto this people by Moses Moses having in the former Chapter given them an account of some precepts that God formerly delivered to them he here presseth them to obedience and to make reflections upon what God had done for them he declareth a great tenderness for this people who had been brought up by him and lived upon his hand and an exceeding jealousy lest when they came into the land of Canaan they should forget the great God who had done so much for them and lest they should say in their hearts my power and the might of my hand hath gotten me this wealth but saith he in the words I have read unto you Thou shalt remember the Lord thy God for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth The Doctrines of the Text are two Doct. 1. That it is the Lord who giveth unto people a power to get wealth Doct. 2. That the consideration of this should oblige men when they have gotten estates not to forget but to remember the Lord their God Prop. That it is the Lord who giveth unto a people a power to get wealth There is nothing in the Doctrine that needeth any explication we all know what is meant by wealth my whole business will lie upon the demonstration of this truth that it is the Lord that giveth men power to get wealth and to shew what influence God hath upon men as to their gaining of outward estates 1 Sam. 2.7 The Lord maketh poor and maketh rich Eccl. 6.2 A man to whom God hath given riches wealth and honour chap. 9.11 the race is not to the swift nor the battel to the strong 2. By way of Application to shew what influence this meditation should have upon us I shall spend all my time in answering these two Questions Qu. 1. What influence hath God upon men as to their gaining or keeping their outward estate All wealth and outward estate cometh to a man by inheritance or marriage or by gift or by labour let me shew you a little the influence God hath upon all these I will joyn the two first together 1. It is the Lord that maketh Heirs and
law of Charity to give a testimony to the truth for his Neighbour when his estate or his life is concerned or any thing of his interest and every Subject taketh himself more highly concerned to give his testimony to the truth on the behalf of his Prince or on the behalf of his Master because there is a relation betwixt the Prince and the Subject and betwixt the Master and the Servant certainly there must needs lie an obligation upon every Christian who owneth Christ as his Soveraign Lord and Master to give a testimony unto Christ it is a testimony for the Soveraign Lord of Heaven and Earth for him whom we call our Father whom we own as our Master every Testimony to the Gospel and the truth of the Gospel is a testimony to Christ every testimony for Christ is a testimony for him who is our Lord and whom we own and avow to be our Lord. 3. This obligation ariseth from that gratitude which we all owe to the Lord Jesus Christ every one looketh upon himself indebted unto him who hath done him good and there is nothing more usual in that case then to promise a requital and to express a trouble that we know not how to make him or her amends and to express our willingness to it the testimony of our Lord is the testimony of him who left his Fathers Throne and came down upon the Earth and clothed himself with our nature and died in our stead that we might not perish for ever ever he ascending up into Heaven hath left us in charge with his truth Philip. 1.27 striving together for the faith of the Gospel Jude v. 3. that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the Saints Now which of you if you had but an ordinary friend like your selves who had done you some great and eminent kindness and left you in charge but to give a testimony unto him and for him should not think your selves under an obligation to it Oh! how great is the obligation which lieth upon every Christian that liveth in the world to bear his testimony for Christ if he doth but consider what Jesus Christ hath done for him shall Christ come and die for us love not his life unto death and shall we be ashamed to give a testimony unto him or to be partakers of the afflictions of the Gospel of our dearest Lord this ought not to be if the kindness of a man layeth an obligation upon us to do what in us lieth to serve him surely the kindness of the Lord our Saviour layeth a much higher obligation upon us 4. Another thing from whence this obligation doth arise is from the duty incumbent upon us to be conformable unto the Lord Jesus Christ we ought to study a conformity to him in his life and in his death in his life he commandeth us to be holy as he is holy in his death thus the Apostle prayeth for a fellowship of his sufferings For this cause was I born and for this cause did I come into the world that I might bear witness unto the truth and it is particularly said of him that before Pontius Pilate he witnessed a good confession 1 Tim. 6.13 He endured affliction in the first publication of the Gospel what was the testimony Christ gave but this that there were a people in the world who were very dear to him chosen unto eternal life for him though he was the eternal Son of God thought fit to cloath himself with flesh and to die upon the Cross that he might redeem this people unto himself now it is our duty to be conformable to Christ conformable to this testimony not being ashamed of this testimonony conformable also in not being ashamed of Affliction this yet is advantaged by another consideration that we are to fill up the Afflictions of Christ Col. 1.24 Who now rejoyce in my sufferings for you and fill up that which is behind of the Afflictions of Christ The sufferings of Christ are either those things which he suffered in his own person Now concerning them he said all is finished the Papists vainly dream of the filling up of those sufferings or else those sufferings which every good Christian shall suffer in his Mystical Body to the end of the World and there is much behind of the sufferings of Christ which we are to fill up and filling them up we act both in a conformity unto Christ who is our Head and also unto the multitude of the Churches that have gone before us who have tasted of this Cup and drank a little of it but there is much more of these that is yet to be filled up 5. The Obligation ariseth upon Christians from the nature of the Gospel and the truths of it to which we give our Testimony I have told you before in this Discourse that every Man and Woman is a Debtor to truth no Man ought to decline a Testimony unto truth but now by how much any truths are of greater moment of greater weight and importance by so much we are the greater Debtors to them you have the substance of the Gospel in that one Text 1 Tim. 1.15 This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Jesus Christ came into the World to save Sinners He said true who said that Christians could better want the Sun in the Firmament than that one piece of the Gospel the truths of the Gospel are of that high importance that the comfort and peace of all the Souls of the People of God in this Life and the eternal Salvation of the Souls of all People in the Life to come doth depend upon the stability of them if the truths of the Gospel did not stand firm and fixed the Souls of Christians are undone to all eternity there is no foundation of peace for them in this Life there is no hope of an eternal Salvation for them in that Life which is to come We stand therefore highly concerned to give a Testimony to these truths and to be partakers of afflictions in giving a Testimony to those truths and to that Gospel upon which so much of our eternal interest and concern doth lye there is no truth but we owe a Testimony to it but there are some Propositions of Truth that are not of that moment that we should endure affliction for the justification of them but the truths of the Gospel are of that nature that no Testimony we can give to them can be too high no affliction we can suffer for them can be too great 6. A Sixth Obligation that lyeth upon Christians is from the station they take up in the World I shall here inlarge upon Three things 1. They are God's Witnesses 2. They are God's Soldiers 3. They are God's Children and Servants and Christ's Members 1. Every Christian is the Child of God the Servant of God the Member of Christ now should a Child be ashamed to attest the truth for
Matth. 25.31 32 33 34. Our Saviour telleth us Math. 7.22 23. Many will say to me in that day Lord Lord have we not prophesied in thy Name And in thy Name have cast out Devils And then will I profess unto them I never knew you Depart from me you workers of Iniquity And in that Text Luke 13. v. 15.27 Ye begin to stand without and to knock at the Door saying Lord Lord open unto us and he shall answer and say unto you I know you not whence you are v. 27. Depart from me all ye workers of Iniquity then shall be weeping and wailing and gnashing of Teeth Consider this we all must once dye and after Death come to Judgment if Men have here disowned Christ and his Gospel and shall then cry Lord Lord open to us open the Kingdom of Heaven do not cast us out of thy sight for ever Christ will then say to that Man who hath been ashamed of his Testimony No Thou wert ashamed to own me and my despised Persecuted Truths and Servants now I will not own thee Christ will say to him depart from me I know you not but what is it for Christ to own a Man You may learn that from that Text Matth. 25.34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand come you Blessed of my Father Inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from before the foundation of the World Now consider with your selves doth not there lye upon a Man an Obligation to save his own Soul and to keep himself out of everlasting burning the same Obligation lyeth upon all Men not to be ashamed of the Testimony of our Lord but to be partakers of the afflictions of the Gospel the same Obligation that the Law of nature layeth upon every Man to look to his highest concern the saving his Soul the keeping himself in favour with God I shall add but one thing more 10. The last thing from whence this Obligation doth arise is from the oneness of the Body of Christ This should engage us to suffer evil together with the faithful Ministers and the faithful Professors of the Gospel that we may shew our selves to be true Members of Christs mystical Body We see in a natural Body it is impossible that one Member should suffer and not another the rest will feel it though they may not feel that particular pain which it may be doth fix only in this or that Member yet there is affliction in the whole Body the whole Body is disquieted and troubled though only the Head aketh or the Tooth or the like so will it be in the mystical Body of Christ though it may be there are but some particular Members of the Body that do suffer yet there will be never a Member of that Body but will suffer a Sympathy every Christian will not be slain will not be imprisoned or plundered but if any of them be so evil intreated all the rest that are true Members of this Body will feel something of the suffering of those Members that do suffer saith the Apostle is any Man afflicted and I burn not St. Paul commendeth the Philippians Philip 4.14 15. Notwithstanding you have well done that you did communicate with my affliction v. 15. No Church communicated with me as concerning giving and receiving but you only The Apostle speaketh thereas you may judge by the 15th Verse of a Communicating by giving and receiving but this was the fruit of the other the Philippians Sympathized with St. Paul in his afflictions and felt his misery and this made them to communicate with him in that state by relieving of him and indeed those Professors that do not so communicate with the afflicted Children of God give a very ill proof that they are the true Members of the mystical Body of Christ I have opened the Doctrine to you Let us now consider what improvement may be made of it Use 1. What you have heard reflecteth sadly upon them who refuse to give a Testimony of their Lord Or 2. Are ashamed of those who do give this Testimony You have heard how many Obligations there are upon us to it but how few are there who are sensible of these Obligations 1. How many are ashamed of the Testimony of our Lord ashamed to own those truths which their Lord owned those truths for the Testimony of which their Lord died St. Paul glorieth of himself that he was not ashamed of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ for saith he It is the power of God to Salvation Heb. 11.16 God is not ashamed to be called their God Heb. 2.11 Christ is not ashamed to call them Brethren Shall a poor Worm be ashamed to be called the Child of God or the Servant of God to be called a Godly Man or Woman how many Professors had we some years since that are turned back and gone a little tribulation and persecution is arisen because of the truths of Christ and they are offended We may say of our times as the Apostle said to the Hebrews None hath yet resisted unto Blood and yet how few have we that do resist striving against Sin I tremble to think of that Text Whosoever is ashamed of me before Men of him shall the Son of Man be ashamed We have too many that think it enough to pray to hear to read but forget this piece of their duty to bear a Testimony to our Lord nay how many are there who are ashamed of those who do give their Testimony ashamed of the Chains and Bonds and Imprisonments and reproaches of the Ministers and People of God they are not only ashamed to own the Testimony of the Gospel themselves and to come in as Witnesses for Christ but they are ashamed of them who do but I hope I speak to none here who are of that Complexion Use 2. It may be some will say how shall I know if I walk up to my duty in this particular if I be not ashamed of the Testimony of my Lord and be a partaker of the afflictions of the Gospel I shall give you two or three notes which are sufficient for this discovery 1. When the discredit of the Gospel maketh us neither to think it beneath us to own the truth of the Gospel nor those who own and profess it There is a time when the Gospel hath a credit in the World the Prophet Zechariah Prophesied of a time Zech. 8.23 When ten men shall take hold out of all Languages of the Nations even shall take hold of the Skirt of him that is a Jew saying we will go with you â—or we have heard that God is with you That Prophesie is fulfilled under the Gospel God sometimes giveth the Gospel such a credit in the World that every one thinketh it an honour to him to be accounted a Christian this is a time when it is hard to discern whether a Man will be ashamed of the Gospel but there is another time when the Gospel hath
much greater must it be to do evil to one because he doth good God hath taken a particular charge of innocent persons Exod. 23.7 The innocent and righteous person stay thou not saith God Deut. 27.25 Cursed be he that taketh reward to slay an innocent person Job 22.30 He shall deliver the Island of the innocent Now I say if that stealing from a man that hath done me no harm or the taking away his goods by violence or oppressing him be such a guilt in the sight of God judge how great the sin must be to slay a righteous person to undo or do injury to a person meerly because he doth that which is good and dare not sin against the Lord his God 2. I would have you consider how much the Lord interesteth himself in the quarrels of his people and in their injuries He that toucheth you saith God toucheth the Apple of my Eye The Lord counteth his people as the Apple of his Eye as his Jewels Now for you to plunder the Lord's Iewels for you to venture to touch the Apple of God's Eye judge what the issue shall be When Saul was breathing out threatning and bringing persecution upon the Church of God the Lord called unto him out of Heaven saying Saul Saul why persecutest thou me And when he said Who art thou Lord the Answer was I am Jesus whom thou persecutest And if the Lord doth so severely take notice of the omissions of doing good to his people Mat. 25.41 Pronouncing the Sentence Depart ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels Verse 42. For I was an hungred and ye gave me no meat I was thirsty and ye gave me no drink Verse 43. I was a stranger and ye took me not in naked and ye clothed me not sick and in prison and ye visited me not What do you think the Lord will do to them that take their bread from them and their garments from them and are Instruments to throw them into prison 3. I would have you consider what a dreadful vengeance hath followed them who have been Instruments in persecution in all times You know how the Lord punished Cain so as he cryed out My punishment is greater than I am able to bear You know how the Lord punished Ishmael Pharaoh and Jezebel and the Jewish Nation In short this work of persecution hath been the ruine of all those that have ever medled with it Christ that stone which the builders refused hath faln upon them and ground them to powder Luke 20.18 Precious in the sight of God is the blood of his Saints he will requite it If the blood of a Man slain doth so defile a Land Numb 35.33 that the Land shall not be purged but by the blood of him that shed it what do you think will the precious blood of the Saints do What therefore Pilate's Wife said unto him in her message Have thou nothing to do with that righteous person So I say have nothing to do with men that only strive against sin and put themselves upon suffering in this extremity rather than they will sin against God let others meddle at their perils but have you nothing to do with them Take heed of all persecution and that you may know what you are to avoid let me desire you to compare this Text with Luke 6.22 Blessed are you when men hate you and when they shall separate you from their company and shall reproach you and cast out your name as evil 1. The root of persecution is hatred and he that hateth a man because he doth not sin persecuteth 2. The Eldest Daughter of hatred is separating from them from their company let those that have to do with persecution consider this 3. The third thing is casting out their name reproaching reviling speaking evil of them 4. Another thing in that which is set out under the notion of persecution reacheth to the spoiling them of their goods of their liberty and of their lives Take heed of it if God maketh it their lot yet be you not the Instruments in setting out their lot to them Executioners of Justice are necessary in a State yet the Imployment we see is what none is ambitious of Offences must come There must be some to persecute but woe be to those by whom they come Persecutors are but the Executioners of Divine Decrees and Justice but they mean not so God will reckon with them not for executing his will but for executing their own lusts of malice and rage Not many of them die the deaths of other men SERM. 12. 2 Cor. 4.8 9. We are troubled on every side yet not distressed we are perplexed but not in despair Persecuted but not forsaken cast down but not destroyed MY Text is made up of Riddles seeming but no real contradictions where several things seem first to be said then denied concerning the Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Primitive Christians whose lives as the lives of many good Christians are still made up of things hardly intelligible to carnal men who know of no distresses but what are from without no despair but that whose object is some muddy earthly good no forsaking but that of Providence no destroying but that of the flesh but yet intelligible enough to those who have tasted how good the Lord is and who have senses exercised to discern betwixt good and evil What is said here hath been true and is at this day true of many thousands besides those of whom the Text primarily speaks for that speaketh only of the Apostles and Primitive Christians but it concerns us upon whom the fagg-end of the World is come and who live in the latter part of the last days For whatsoever things were written before were written for our Learning that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope Rom. 15.4 The things that have been are and shall be and there is nothing new under the Sun There is no temptation hath befallen you saith the Apostle but what is common to men The second Epistle of St. Paul to the Church at Corinth is thought to have been written soon after his first Epistle to them from Philippi one of the first Cities upon the Coast of Macedonia Acts 16.12 Thither Paul went Acts 20.1 2. when he departed from Ephesus after the uproar made at Ephesus ch 19. by Demetrius for fear that by the Gospel coming amongst them he should lose his Trade of making Silver-shrines for Diana The occasion of the writing of it to those that read it will appear to be to vindicate himself from the calumnies and aspersions which false Teachers had cast upon him who charged him with levity pride ostentation rendred his person contemptible c. as also to acknowledge to them their forwardness in contribution to the Saints their kind reception of Titus and the good effect his former Epistle had In this and the foregoing chapter he magnifieth his Office in
Philistines saith he make war against me and God is departed from me He was persecuted followed close by the Army of the Philistines but he was forsaken God saith he is departed from me Now let us look upon David in the 30th chapter of that Book he was not in Saul's circumstances Saul was the Actual King though was David the Anointed King to succeed him he fled to Achish but was turned off from him by the importunity of his Princes chap. 29. he had but one poor City to hide his head in and to make his retreat to that was Ziklag Whiles David was at Gath the Amalekites had come invaded the South and Ziklag and had smitten Ziklag and burnt it with fire and had taken his Wives and the Wives of his companions the Women captives and carried all away David comes ch 30. 3. and finds the City burnt the Wives Sons and Daughters that belonged to him and to his company all taken captives v. 6. He was greatly distressed for to all this was added another great evil his people spake of stoning him What doth David v. 6. He incouraged himself in the Lord his God Here was now one answering to St. Paul in the New Testament troubled on every side but not distressed perplexed but not in despair persecuted but not forsaken cast down but not destroyed He incouraged himself in his God is not overmuch cast down but is comforted takes courage and recovereth all again The Reason lieth in two things 1. A wicked man hath no interest in God He can in an hour of trouble cry out O God but he cannot cry out My God Nature teacheth men in hours of distress that Affliction springs not out of the Earth nor trouble out of the Dunghil but there is a Supreme Being who being offended plagueth the children of men Hence naturally the afflicted person calls upon God after one fashion or another The Mariners who were carrying Jonah to Tarshish in the Storm called each of them upon his God Jonah 1. but the wicked man cannot say My God he cannot claim a Covenant interest in and relation unto God so as he must be in distress in despair forsaken destroyed at all such times when the help of man is vain he cannot but think that in an hour of distress God is saying to him Now I am come to reckon with thee for all thy oaths and curses and blasphemies by which thou hast blasphemed me for all thy drunkenness and other debaucheries now go to thy Lusts which thou hast served in despight of my Commandments to the World and to thy worldly Friends and see if they be able to deliver thee out of my hands 2. He hath no true habits of Hope or Faith There is indeed a God in the World a God that is able to succour people in all distresses to relieve them in all troubles but he hath neither any habit of true Hope or Faith by which he should commit himself to this God nor any object prepared for his Soul to cast anchor upon not a Promise in the whole Book of God that he can hope should be made Yea and Amen to his Soul for that he is without Christ in whom all the Promises are Yea and Amen But now the godly man is not so he is upon this account every way as happy as the other is miserable he is not more exempted from trouble than another man yea he is more exposed to trouble the World which loveth its own hateth him because he is not of the World but God hath chosen him out of the World imprinted his Image upon him markt him for his own To look to be freed from trouble is a mighty vain expectation Man is born to it Christians indeed are more especially as Sheep designed for the slaughter A man cannot reasonably wish desire or hope for a perfect immunity from distresses and troubles because it is not possible so as the Child of God's happiness lieth not there that the fire shall not come nigh him but here is his happiness that the fire shall not hurt shall not consume him If he be thrown into the fire God will be with him in the fire if into the water God will be with him in the water the floods shall not drown him When the Lord our God the holy One of Israel is our Saviour Isa 43.1 2. we shall not be in distress nor in despair nor forsaken nor destroyed Two things will advantage this Meditation 1. That we are not afflicted from outward contingencies but from some inward defects Let a mans burden be never so heavy if he hath but strength enough to bear it and to go away chearfully with it it is no affliction to him let a mans affliction be never so sharp and smarting if he hath but a consolation that ballanceth it it takes out the fire of it and chaseth away the grief and sorrow of it distressedness of spirit under a calamity despair and casting away of hope dejection and demission of Spirits straitnings in our bowels the being at a loss in our own thoughts what to do which way to turn us how to get out of our Net these are the things that afflict us Man is afflicted from the tumultuousness and unquietness of his own thoughts let those be at rest and the affliction of all troubles is evaporated What signified a prison to Algerius who could subscribe a Letter From the delectable Orchard of the Leonine prison or a Martyrs fire to James Bainham who burning in the fire could cry out O ye Papists you look for Miracles now see one I feel no more pain than if I were upon a Bed of Roses Or Death to Ann Askew who being about to die could subscribe her Letter written by Ann Askew who neither wisheth Death nor feareth it and is as merry as one that is bound for Heaven What signified the threat of starving to Elizabeth Young who had her Answer ready If you take away my meat God will take away my stomach I give you but these few of many Instances to prove that we are not afflicted from outward contingencies so much as from some inward defects had we but like good men learned to be satisfied from our selves to be content that God should chuse our Lot for us had we but learned in all estates to be content and in all things to rejoyce no outward contingency could afflict us so that if God hath cast his Salt into the bitter waters which bubble up from our own spirits as from a corrupt fountain there would be nothing unclean nothing bitter nothing afflictive to us Now if this be the state of a Child of God that when he is troubled on every side he is not distressed in himself when he is perplexed he is not in despair when he is persecuted he is not forsaken our irregular passions are then corrected the sting of our deaths is taken out our deaths are ours the Mercury is corrected and prepared