on all things he sets his hand unto So must thou pray for others with the same fervency which thou usest in praying for thy self pray for that which will do them most good that they may every way be the better for thee that thou maist find by experience as Laban did That the Lord hath blest them for thy sake 4. Who doth not endeavour his own good with all his might The like care must thou have of thy Neighbours good especially of the Saints Love is a diligent Affection and the Fountain of Diligence Diligentia may well be derived à diligendo Diligence from Dilection or Loving the things as one saith are conjugate no less than the names Thy Love must be a labouring Love a Love that is full of mercy and good fruits The Apostle ascribeth Work and Labour unto Love because Love refuseth no pains it will spend and be spent even there where is least Love returned for most expended 5. Who doth not rejoyce in his own good Thou dost never envy thy self thine own Happiness So must thou rejoyce in the Gifts Parts Graces and Prosperity of others To envy at one anothers good is some of the Poyson of the old Serpent which he spitteth It is the principal quality of Devils to envy the Saints Happiness 6. Who is there that is weary in doing good to himself When doth a man cease to do good to himself So must thou do to others Thou must never be weary in well-doing to them A Friend a true Christian Friend loveth at all times Prov. 17.17 Let thy Love to thy Brother be without envy in Prosperity and without weariness in Adversity When the feigned Lover is to his Friend as the Cuckoo that affords you his company till you be weary of him in Summer but before Winter cometh takes his leave Be thou to thy Brother as the Black-bird that keeps constantly with us and is of use if need be to feed us in Winter Every man knoweth what is good for himself thence doth a good man conclude if Justice Mercy Knowledg Grace Credit be good for me then are they good for my Brother also and he will labour to procure them that he may serve his Brother through love Gal. 5.13 intending his good more than his own in loving of him True it is a man in loving another may have some respect to himself if he be Wise Judicious Learned to learn of him If Humble Loving Holy to imitate him If any way beneficial to be a Gainer by him in a way of God not of Lust or of the World But this is not the first and principal thing for which the Christian loveth another but as the result not as the moving Cause but as the Reward of Love as Man and Wife by shewing more Love to each other for Love's sake do reap more Love from each other SECT II. II. WE must love one another as Christ loved us Christ loved us when we were enemies to him Herein is the Love of God commended to us that when we were enemies Christ died for us Rom. 5.8 Yea when we were enemies to Christ and he might have wrought our destruction yet then he sought to us for our Love entreating us to be reconciled unto him he came to seek the lost Sheep of the house of Israel What surpassing Love is this That the great God should come and seek to his own Creatures for their Love that the Cedar should make suit to the Thistle What had Christ lost by it if every Son of Adam had been turned into Hell Could he not have made another World of Men to have glorified him and to reign with him in Glory yet that he should seek to us to be reconciled to him here is surpassing Love So must we love one another Are we injurious to one another and at variance one with another then let us seek to one another for reconciliation Christ so loved us that he was willing to lay down his Life for us Hereby perceive we the love of God because he laid down his Life for us 1 Joh. 3.16 Christs could not shew greater Love to us than in dying for us Christs Love to us is the ultimum resolubile the last thing into which all his actions in the work of our Redemption is resolved Do ye ask Why God was incarnate why he suffered death why he endured such contradiction of Sinners such Mockings such a bloody Agony in the Garden this answereth all Because he loved us I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself to death for me Gal. 2.20 The Apostle speaks here in the Person of all Beleevers These following Reasons may demonstrate to us that Christs Love was the Cause that made him to lay down his Life for us R. 1. Because there was no desert in us It is not our Love to him first that made him to love us no we love him because he loved us first Our Love to him is the effect and consequent of his Love to us not the cause of his Love What is there in any man considered as fallen from God that can deserve such incomprehensible Love as that God should dye for us Can Sin deserve the Love of Christ What is a natural Man but a very Body of Sin We do not nor can we Love God because we are enmity to him Amor descendit non ascendit There is more Love in a Father to a Child than in a Child to a Father His Love did first descend to us before our Love could ascend to him The Prophet Ezekiel sets forth the odious and most undeserving condition of Man under a Parable of a polluted Infant when we were most forlorn polluted and most helpless then was the time of Love Ezek. 16. When thou wast wallowing in thine own filthiness then was the time of Love 2. Because Christ reaps no good by us What if Adam and all his Posterity had been damned he had lost no whit of his Blessedness he was infinitely happy from everlasting and so is to everlasting and would be had not a man been partaker of his Glory therefore it must needs be his meer Love to us and such a Love as doth earnestly desire and tender our everlasting good and Salvation It was for our Reconciliation and Justification that he endured Wrath he died for our Redemptoin he shed his Blood for us miserable Creatures to make us eternally happy Sons of God and Heirs of Salvation What Motive or Ground had Christ to dye and suffer if it were not his meer Love to us so that we may well cry out with St. Augustine O Lord thou hast loved me more than thy self because thou wouldst dye for me and not for thy self 3. Because Christ laid down his Life being never desired of us therefore meer Love to us did encline him to dye for us Had Men taken Counsel together to devise a means to pacifie Gods Wrath had men been let
à majori from the greater to the less If Christ did lay down his Life for us then ought we much more to lay down our lives for the Brethren 1. Christ was infinitely above us in Glory and Majesty yet laid he down his Life for us much more ought we to lay down our Lives for the Brethren who are of the same Mould with our selves by nature and also partakers of the same pretious Faith by Grace 2. Christ being greatly offended by our sins laid down his Life for us being his enemies much more ought we to lay down our Lives for those who are not enemies but Brethren and that by the best bond viz. the bond of Regeneration 3. Christs Death for us was a matter of Humiliation and abasement to him who was the Prince of Life and Lord of Glory But our death for our Brethren is an advancement unto us Some office and employment which would be an abasement and dishonour to a Prince may be a great Honour and Preferment to a mean Subject So in this case Christ though he were the Lord of Glory the Prince of Life yet was content to dye for us though his Death were a great abasement to him in regard of his infinite excellency and divine Majesty But for us who are sinful and so mortal and must return to dust it is an advancement and improvement of our death when we are called to give our Lives for the Brethren SECT IV. I Come now to the Condition supposed that is If we be called unto it For this we must know that many things are absolutely commanded and all Christians are to perform them in general without exception such as the duties of Beleeving and Repenting and of bringing forth fruits meet for repentance which all Christians ought to perform by vertue of their general Calling Some other are enjoyned too as well as the former but not without a more special Calling The duty of relieving the wants of others is one of those duties that is very much pressed in the Scripture scarce any more yet this is to be understood of those that have a special calling to it namely those whom God hath enabled with outward means for this purpose more or less So the duty of preaching the Gospel is straitly enjoyned but not to be exercised without a lawful Calling to the work of the Ministry Of this latter sort is the duty of laying down our Lives for the Brethren which is not to be exercised without a special calling As for the madness of some fond Sectaries whereof we read in the ancient Stories of the Church who would force men to kill them that they might become Martyrs it could not but proceed from the suggestion of that wicked Spirit who is a Murtherer from the beginning Therefore this work of laying down our Lives for the Brethren is not imposed upon us by vertue of our general calling but must be done upon supposal of a special Call Yet thus much we know that there is a difference and distinction to be made between the will and the deed in such cases The will must be present with us by vertue of our general calling as we are Christians the deed and performance it self must not be undertaken without special calling that is As we are Christians and have given up our names to Christ we must have our hearts so possessed with the Spirit of Brotherly and Christian Love in conformity to Christ and his Love as that we must have a ready and willing mind to undergo it if the Lord shall call us to it So the poorest Christian that is so far from being able to give to another that he needeth to receiv◠himself yet must be so possessed with Christian Love and Compassion that he would give if he had ability He must have a pitiful heart such an heart as would open his hand if he had what to give So in this case a Christian must labour to bring his heart to be willing in Love to dye for his Brethren But for the actual performance of this work in laying down our lives for the Brethren it requireth a more special call As the Apostle saith to the Philippians Vnto you it is given in the behalf of Christ not only to beleeve but to suffer for his Name Phil. 1.29 Where he sheweth that suffering is a thing given a priviledg bestowed upon some Beleevers whereunto all Beleevers are not called that is not in an eminent manner Scarce any Beleever can live any long time in the world after his effectual calling and conversion but that he shall suffer for the name of Christ in some kind or other but to suffer in a more special and eminent degree is given but to some who are in a special manner called unto it SECT V. THat we must have a special Call before we lay down our Lives will thus appear 1. We have a general◠Command to preserve Life We must labour to preserve the Life of an Oxe or an Asse when it is in danger much more of a man and if the Life of others then our own also inasmuch as the Love we owe to our selves is the rule of our love towards others Therefore so far is it from being a duty imposed upon us to thrust our selves rashly and of our own heads into the mouth of death without a Calling that we are bound not to desire it lest we be found guilty of our own Blood 2. To lay down our Life for the Brethren without a special Call and Warrant may be a wrong to the Brethren rather than a benefit because thereby we bereave our selves of doing them any further good in that way of Christian Love wherein we are to walk towards them here in the world by suffering death without a warrant Yet when we have a Call we must not give back under pretence that we desire to to do them good by our Lives but rather believe that the wisdom of God who calleth us to suffer seeth that thus dying for them we shall more benefit them and glorifie God than we could by escaping death and continuing in the world among them 3. We cannot suffer death by the hands of Persecutors for the Brethren without the Sin of others viz. of those that shed our Blood Now a Christian without a Call from God hath no warrant to give occasion to others wilfully to commit such a bloody Sin but when we are called to it we must take heed we do not sin our selves in giving back under an hypocritical pretence of being loth to give others an occasion of offending 4. Our blessed Savviour himself although he came into the world purposely to lay down his Life for the Brethren yet did not willingly run upon his death but did divers times shun the rage of his enemies and even in his Infancy fled from Herods cruelty And when his hour was come though he shewed himself many ways to be willing to lay down his Life yet
God may be likely to endanger our Lives we must not shrink back to save our Lives SECT VIII THe Reasons hereof are these R. 1. Because the Salvation of the Brethren must bâ— preferred above all our outward things whatsoever their Souls must be preferred above our own Bodies therefore if our suffering loss of Liberty and Life be any way advantagious for their Salvation we are to endure the worst in this Life that they might gain Life eternal Our Saviour laid down his Life for their Salvation we must do so also St. Paul gladly endured any thing for the Elects sake he could wish himself to be an Anathema a Curse for the Jews his Brethren and Moses would be blotted out of the Book of Life that the Israelites might live in the presence of God A miserable wretch St. Paul was for Christs sake and for the Salvatioh of the Corinthians 1 Cor. 4.10 We are fools weak despised naked hungry buffeted persecuted made the off-scouring of the world God makes the like Covenant with us as Moses did with the two Tribes and half which dwelt on the other side Jordan that they should go in before their Brethren and fight for them to expell the Canaanites and when they had placed their Brethren in Canaan then they were to return and enjoy their Inheritances Thus must we hazard our Lives to bring others to Heaven if called unto it and neglect our own Lives that others might enjoy the heavenly Canaan together with us 2. Because this will wonderfully confirm the Brethren in the truth delivered to them and protessed by them otherwise our Cowardice and Apostacy may cause them to waver and draw them off from the ways of Gâ—d and be a means to destroy them for whom Christ died It is an old and a true saying Sanguis Martyrum semen Ecclâ—siae That the Blood of the Martyrs is the Seed of the Church the Martyrs Blood made the Church fruitful the Christians did wax more bold through Paul's Bonds Curtius feared not to die for Rome Mencotheus for Thebes And shall not we suffer that for Christ his Saints which Pagans suffered for their Countrey Christ was the more boldly professed by the new Converts by how much St. Paul was more constant and cheerful in his sufferings for Christ and his Gospel St. Basil tells us how forty Martyrs did encourage one another to dye for Christ and his Gospel We see how prodigal Soldiers are of their Lives to shew their fidelity to their King and Countrey and shall not Christians much more be prodigal of theirs for God and his Church Let all then that would be acknowledged for Gods Children labour for so much power of Christian Love as may dispose their hearts to be content to resign up their Lives for the Glory of God and the good of others It is the want of Faith and Love that makes this seem hard and grievous to us for if these Graces were in us and did abound they would swâ—eten the bitterness of death it self and of the most grievous sufferings and enable us to overcome death and the world and to break all those cords and tyes which fasten us to this present world and the things of this life and make us so unwilling to lay down our Lives for Christ and his Church If the arms of the inner man were strengthened in the power of these two Graces all those Cords which I spake of would break asunder like those that Sampson was bound with when the Philistines came upon him Are we not Members of the same Body with the people of God and doth not one Member adventure it self to save another so should it be among the Members of the mystical Body of Christ CHAP. XVI Sect. I. THere is one great Office of Love which we must perform one to another even those that are not called to lay down their Lives for the Brethren must do this that is to bear one anothers Burdens Bear ye one anothers burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ Gal. 6.2 This duty is mutually to be performed to one another Thou must bear thy Brothers Burdens and he must bear thine He that expects others should ease and help him let him be willing to ease others Christians in their journey to Heaven must do like loving Travellers who have a Burthen to carry sometimes one carrieth it sometimes the other in so doing both will go on with the greater cheerfulness and with ease perform their journey To this course of Travellers as Estius conceiveth the Apostle alludeth Estius in Galat. 6.2 when he saith Bear ye one anothers burdens Calvin saith That Christians must shew their Humanity one to another which teacheth men to afford mutual help in their necessities by bearing one anothers burdens This duty concerneth every Christian it is not only the duty of strong Christians to bear the burdens of the weak but also the weak may and must bear the Burdens of the stronger Both have their Burdens the strong hath his the weak hath his both need help and ease both are subject to faint under their Burdens therefore we must bear one anothers burdens even that which lieth heavy and presseth down our Souls and Bodies There are outward Burdens and inward Burdens As to outward Burdens those that have ability must be merciful to their Brethren who are in want St. Paul biddeth Timothy to charge them that are rich in this world that they be not high-minded c. that they do good that they be rich in good works ready to distribute willing to communicate 1 Tim. 6.17.18 Do then the rich bear the Burdens of the poor when they are rich and plentiful in giving to those that are in need To do good and to communicate forget not for with such sacrifices God is well-pleased Heb. 13.16 It is given in charge as a thing especially to be remembred and by no means to be forgotten And St. John sheweth that those who are able and relieve not their poor Brethren are void of the Love of God 1 Joh. 4.20.21 If a man say I love God and hateth his brother he is a lyar for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen And this Commandment have we from him that he who loveth God love his brother also Where ye see that the profession of Love to God without Love and Compassion towards others cannot stand with truth And the same Law of Love that commandeth us to love requireth us to love our Brethren and Neighbours also But with what kind of Love that the Apostle sheweth in 1 Joh. 3.18 not a Love made up of words or rooted in the tongue but a Love that is Love indeed and Love in truth a Love seated in the heart and bringing sorth the fruits of Love Quest But here it may be demanded if the want of a compassionate heart and hand towards the needy in those that are
he did not thrust himself into the hands of his enemies but left them to contrive his death among themselves and so to take the guilt of his blood upon them He could have saved the Priests that cost they bestowed upon Judas to hire him to commit that most horrible treason He could have prevented Judas that he should not have taken that booty which cost him so dear but he let them take their course and exercise their malice He suffered Judas to make his bargain the High-Priests servants to apprehend him and carry him to their Master he would not of himself come among them till they fetched and carried him in the nature of a Prisoner SECT VI. Quest NOw then the question is What that Call is which is supposed as a condition in this case without which a Christian is not bound to lay down his Life for the Brethren Resp I answer A Christian may be called to this in such Cases as do more immediately concern God and in such as do more immediately concern the Brethren As for those cases as do more immediately concern God in which we may be called to die for our Brethren they may be divers as 1. When we are persecuted for the Name and Gospel of Christ and are called to confess the truth with apparent danger of death in such a case we are to lay down our lives for Christ and in such a case in an inferiour respect we are also to lay down our lives for the Brethren inasmuch as we should rather chuse to die than to give any just occasion of offence or stumbling unto them by denying the truth And on the other side we should be content to dye for their encouragement in the profession of the truth Now though this be a case that doth more directly and immediately concern God than our Brethren yet it doth concern our Brethren also in an inferiour respect So in this regard I think there were few of those many thousand martyrs which have suffered for Christ but also they have suffered for their Brethren and in such sufferings they are to have regard to their Brethren though principally to the Lord. Now we are called thus to suffer when we are brought before those in authority and put to it either to deny the truth or to suffer death 2. When the Preachers of the Gospel cannot without danger of death declare the whole counsel of God in things needful to Salvation they must be content to hazard their lives rather than not to be faithful in that commission which the Lord hath put them in This doth immediately concern the Glory of God and the discharge of their Consciences toward him But it doth also concern the Glory of God in an inferiour degree and they must refuse both to deliver any unsound Doctrine to them to the endangering of their Souls and abhor to keep back any necessary truth from them although their own lives should be in apparent danger by that means SECT VII ON the other side there are cases that do more immediately concern the Brethren wherein we may be called to lay down our lives for them yet in these our principal aim must be at the Glory of God As for Example 1. If we be put to it to confess some things by others of the Godly which may bring them into danger through the malice of wicked men In this case we should rather dye than hurt them by such confessions lest we be accessory to the mischief which by that means the Adversaries are like to bring upon them I have read of one Firmus an holy Bishop of Tagesta St. Augustine's Countrey in Africk who when the Emperor not then a Christian required delivery or at least the discovery of a Christian which he had with great care hidden from the Tyrant resolutely answered Nee prodam nee mentiar I will neither lye nor betray my Brother from which resolution no torments then inflicted which were many and sharp could draw or enforce him Mr. Fox in his acts and monuments tells us of Cuthbert Simpson who being Deacon of the Protestant Congregation in London in Queen Maries days was apprehended and charged to discover the names of those that were Members of the Congregation which he utterly refused to do and would not yeeld to do it by any torture but constantly suffered death and cruel wrackings also before his death insomuch that bloody Bonner did openly in the hearing of divers persons extoll him for his wonderful patience So if Christians living under Popish Persecutors should be driven to meet together in Ships or Woods or other private places to perform the Worship of God together if any Christian should be privy thereunto although himself might escape untoucht in Body Goods Liberty upon condition only that he would detect and discover them he ought rather to endure the spoiling of all his Goods or the loss of Liberty or of Life rather than serve the malice of the Adversaries in laying open the Brethren unto the cruelty of malicious Enemies 2. When any necessary duty is required at our hands for the good of the Brethren and of the people of God which we are bound to perform although with hazard of our lives we must be content to put our lives in our hands and not withdraw our hand from helping them in such a case So those that are in any Countrey called to the wars in defence of the Church against the Pope and his adherents or against the Turk against Gog and Magog and to stand up in defence of the Gospel In like manner those that are called by any special relation to others or any special office to supply others in time of the Pestilence or other infectious diseases ought in Love to hazard their Lives for their good and not be wanting to them unless in some Cases when by helping some they are like to hinder many more Therefore it is generally held That the Ministers of the Gospel are not tyed to visit those that are sick of contagious diseases because it would make their people to shun thâ—m in the publick Congregation and so be an occasion of depriving the people of the Ordinances of God although themselves should escape the infection But yet where there are divers Ministers in the same place I should conceive it fitting that one or more according to the number of the infected should be employed in this work and that the publick service of the Congregation should be discharged by others As when the Plague was at Geneva in Calvin's time there being divers Ministers in in the City three of them whereof Calvin was one offered themselves to this service and so it was to be decided by Lot which of the three should be the man Such cases likewise may happen concerning the necessary relief of the Godly who are imprisoned or banished by Popish Persecutors as many were in Queen Maries days In a word When any necessary duty which we owe to the people of
blood So now the greatest Potentate and the poorest beggar the most civil and the most savage Nations are of one blood originally the English and the Muscovitae the Laplanders Tartarians yea the Beasilians and Canibals are of one blood originally God could have made a man and woman for every province and part of the world and so have given a several Original to every Nation but he in his wisdom did rather please to make one man out of whose loyns one woman out of whose womb all the Nations of the earth should issue that so all Nations might be made of one blood and all might be of kin and that so there might be a natural bond of union brotherhood and love between them So then a child of God is a brother to a natural person for thâ—y that are the children of God are the children of men too and of the same blood with others therefore when natural persons do not love the children of God it is a sign they do abide in death When the graces of the godly and the fruits of grace in their conversation and practice are so distastful unto men that for this they cast off love and affection towards them though they be their brethren by nature and of the same blood with them originally whereas this should encrease their love towards them this sheweth that such do abide in death 2. He that liveth in the Church of God and accounteth himself a child of God if he be a child of God indeed all the children of God are his brethren and sisters both by Nature and Grace If God be his father the children of God are his brethren and sisters but if he doth not love them as brethren it sheweth that he abideth in death and deceiveth himself he is not born of God nor passed from death to life SECT III. III. HAters of others especially of the godly they are murderers 1 Job 3 15. He that hateth his brother is a murderer Every act of hatred is a mortal wound given to a godly man Some think St. John speaketh by way of allusion to Cain who was an actual murderer of holy Abel and that God accounteth all haters of godly men as hainous sinners as damned Cain is and their hatred as abominable a sin as his actual murder Dost thou see a man hating scoffing opposing persecuting godliness for godliness sake Thou maist point at him and say yonder goeth a Cain a murderer of a righteous man 1. Malice and hatred is murder affectu desiderio in affection and desire it makes a man to desire wish and rejoyce in the death or destruction of those whom he hateth This the Heathens saw by the light of Nature therefore one of them said Quem oderunt periisse expetunt whom men do hate his death they do desire Now what is this but murder It is true that in respect of the person hated the hurt done to him by hating him is much less than when he is actually murdered and his blood spilt It is true also that the actual commission of murder in outward act doth add much to the guilt of his conscience that hateth his brother because there is both the inward hatred or murder of the heart and the outward cruel act of murder added to it there is the beginning and the consummation the accomplishing and finishing of this bloody sin But yet the inward malice and hatred of the heart which maketh those that harbour malice in their hearts to wish the death and destruction of those they hate or to rejoyce in it is murder in the sight of God Men that have malice festering in their hearts against others causing a desire of their destruction may hold their hands from shedding of blood for want of opportunity for fear of the Law for fear of infamy among men yea out of a slavish fear left their own conscience as a revenger of blood should pursue them with restless horror and terror and never let them enjoy merry hour in this life besides the dismal effects of it in the life to come And on the other side they are not restrained from murther by Love in any degree That appeareth by this that though themselves are loth to shed blood yet they that are malicious generally could be content that those whom they hate should perish by the hands of others they have a secret dâ—sire of this and are well enough pleased with it in the retired thoughts of their hearts if such a thing happen by the hands of others 2. Mâ—lice is the root of Murther and therefore it is murther virtualiter et eminenter Murther is conceived in the womb of Malice Malice is the Seed of which this foul and bloody Monster of Murther and Bloodshed is hatched As the Child is in the Fathers Loyus ere it be born or conceived so murther is in the Bowels of Malice before it is brought sorth As poyson is in the young Brood of the Viper before it is able to put forth the sting so murther lyeth a breeding in the womb of Malice and Hatred before it break forth into Blood Malice maketh a bloody Heart and Murther maketh bloody hands Murther is oftentimes the effect of Hatied and Malice first Cain did hate Abel he was wroth with him then he killed him Absalom's Hatred made him to kill his Brother Amnon Thus Persecutors hating the Professors of Truth took away their Lives from them They set their Wits on work to invent Torments for the painful death of Gods Saints Hatred of godliness did kindle the fire of Martyrdom 3. The Scripture calleth it Murther to shew how great a Sin hatred of Godliness is Aquinas disputing what was the greatest sin as a man man could commit against his Neighbour his resolution was that Odium proximi est gravissimum peccatorum it was Hatred of our Neighbour Much more grievous it is when a man shall hate any one because he followeth the thing that good is and hateth a man because he laboureth to be like unto God To shed mans Blood who was made after the Image of God and to do that murther that ever was committed with the least degree of malice that any was is a most fearful and damnable sin but I conceive that there may be a greater sin committed in harbouring abundance of malice and bitterness in the heart though without Bloodshed than in some Cases when Blood is unlawfully spilt In the malice of our powder-Traytors this is apparent which though by the Providence of God it was restrained from shedding of Blood was far more grievous than many an act of murther which hath been committed But besides this when men do neither actually shed Blood nor purpose and plot bloodshed I conceive their malice may be more sinful than some acts of Murther I doubt not but that many a man sinneth far more in malice against his Neighbour than David in killing Vriah though it was a grievous sin for what is sin but the