beaten tortured burned torn killed and yet they were multiplied Julian the Apostate learned this from persecution under Diocletian and upon that account he abstained for a time from exercising Torments and bloody Cruelties upon Christians Magd. cent 4. cap. 3. because he saw that the Christians by patient Suffering were multiplied and became more glorious in the eyes of the People Antichrist hath shed a great deal of pretious blood and the witnesses of the pure Religion have been slain under him yet hath the Evangelical Truth remained and the Witnessess which were Slain have from time to time revived and stood up in illustrious Successors who have held forth the same Truth and spoke in the same Spirit and Power as those before them had done When after the Parisian Massacre there happened to be a great serenity in Heaven Thuan Lib. 52. and a Barbery-tree blossoming in a time unusal some Papists said That the thing was grateful to God as if Heaven and Earth had rejoiced at it But the Protestants took it as a sign that the Church should revive and flourish again like the bush that burned and was not consumed The true Church which is founded in Christs blood is not propagated or multiplied by Martial Arms but by patient Sufferings This is the true way to do good to the Church and to continue the Gospel among us if we are indeed in a posture for suffering and ready to Seal up the Truth with our Blood we may comfortly hope that whatever Sufferings come the Gospel and gratious Presence of God shall not finally depart from our Nation 3. Pious Sufferers do give an evident token to the Persecutor that the wrath of God will come upon him When the Emperor Commodus was worshipping Jupiter Vincentius Eusebius Peregrinus Magd. hist cent 2. cap. 12. and Potentianus went about and exhorted the People to depart from the Worship of Devils and honour the One only true God lest they perished with Commodus and soon after they suffered Martyrdome for the same thing Though all the Martyrs did not in words warn the Persecutors that the Wrath of God would come upon them yet they all by their patient Suffering gave them an evident token of it St. Paul exhorts the Philippians to patient suffering upon this account Stand fast saith he in one Spirit with one mind striving together for the Faith of the Gospel and in nothing terrified by your adversaries which is to them an evident token of Perdition but to you of Salvation and that of God Phil. 1.27 28. The Persecutor comes with his Torments and Engines of Cruelty to terrify the Martyr but the Martyr by his Christian Patience and Courage gives the Persecutor and evident token that the wrath of God will come down upon him at last If bloody Persecutors who look upon the suffering Martyrs had but their Eyes open they would see cause enough to reflect upon themselves and say Surely these men have a patience more than humane and therefore they suffer for God and if so we in persecuting them fight against him may expect that his wrath should come down upon us as it hath upon former Persecutors Herod Agrippa was eaten up of Worms Nero with a trembling hand cut his own throat Trajan was thought to have poisoned himself upon the Persecution in the time of Antoninus Verus there followed Wars Earthquakes Inundations Pestilences as so many Tokens of Divine Vengeance Decius was slain together with his Children Dioclesian died of fearful and miserable Diseases Julian in the Persian war was mortally wounded by an Arrow from Heaven and threw up his blood thither with that horrible Blasphemy Vicisti Galilaee Valens in his war against the Gothes was wounded and flying into a Cottage was burnt with it by the Enemy The temporal Judgments that have befallen former Persecutors tell the after-ones what they may look for here in this World or if they might escape here eternal Vengeance will surely meet them hereafter Our Saviour Christ will at the great day bid those that did not feed cloth and Visit him in his Members depart into ever lasting fire Matth. 25.41 much more will he say so to those that Imprison torment and kill him in his Members When Henry the second of France in his running a Tilt received a fatal wound in his Eye he looked to the Prison Thuan. L. 22. where the poor Protestants were shut up as Captives for their Religion and often uttered these words That he was afraid that he had done the poor innocent men wrong Conscience then told him what it was to persecute Oh! That such things as these might stop Persecutors in their bloody ways as the Thunderbolt falling neer the Emperor Anrelianus did him in his intended Persecution of the Christians The patience of those that suffer under their cruel hands tell them that the wrath of God will fall upon them at Last I conclude with that of St. Cyprian Ad Demetrianum Quanto major persecutio tanto gravior pro persecutione vindicta The greater the Persecution is the heavier will be the Vengeance for it 4. Pious Sufferers are happy here and hereafter They are happy here upon a double account 1. They give the highest proof of their Sincerity that can be given Abraham gave a great proof of his Sincerity in leaving his Countrey and a greater in offering up his only Son Isaac at Gods command but I take it the Martyr gives a higher proof of it than is done in either of those it being more to part with all the World than to part with our Countrey and to offer up our selves to God than to offer up a Son The highest proof of Grace is in Suffering That Faith muh be right that endures the fiery Furnace that Love must be pure that practically lifts up God above all other things that Hope must be lively that lets go a present World for a future one that Obedience must be glorious that continues unto the death The Martyr hath a fair prospect with a comfortable sight of his own uprightness Conscience gives an Euge to his Graces and Sufferings nay the holy Spirit is as a seal and earnest of his Heavenly Inheritance It bears witness with his Spirit that he is a Son and Heir of God 2. As they give the highest proof of their Sincerity so they have the gracious Presence of God in the most eminent way with them All his glorious Attributes do as it were pitch their Tents round about them and put forth their Virtues in a gracious manner for their good His Power rests upon them to bear them up how weak soever in the fiery Trial his Wisdom directs them how to carry the selves under the Cross his Mercy melts over them while they are under mans Cruelty his Love is shed abroad in their heart while they bear the World hatred The Presence of God will be to them in stead of nay infinitely more than all other Comforts They may say If God be for us who can be against us Rom. 8.31 Why Devils can wicked men can but Aquinas expounds the words Quis contra nos laesive prevalenter Who can be against us to hurt us and prevail over us That which is of God cannot be overthrown they may break out with St. Paul in that gallant triumph 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am perswaded that neither death nor life nor Angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor hight nor depth nor any other Creature shall be able to separare us from the Love of God in Christ Rom. 8.38 39. What St. Bernard saith of the Church is true of them a noble part of it In Cant. ser 79. Nec Verbositate Philosophorum nec Cavillationibus Haereticorum nec Gladiis Persecutorum potuit illa Separari à Charitate Dei quae est in Christo They cannot be separated from the Love of God in Christ neither by the words of Philosophers nor by the Cavils of Hereticks nor yet by the Swords of Persecutors God is in the midst of them and they shall not be moved Again They are happy hereafter this stands in two things 1. They are freed from all evils In Heaven they shall have no Corruption within nor Oppression without no Noise of Passion in the heart nor rout of turbulent Persecutors to disquiet them the will of the Flesh shall have a total Circumcision the infirmities of the Body shall have a perfect cure the Serpent cannot hiss in Paradise no temptations or miseries can fasten on a Saint in Glory There is Day without Night Love without Fear Joy without sorrow Life without Death all Happiness without the least mixture of Evil There the blessed Martyrs shall be freed from all their troubles and miseries 2. They are endowed with all good and happiness The promises made to the Overcomer in the Revelation of St. John shall be made good to them they shall eat of the Tree of Life in a blessed immortality they shall have the white stone in a perfect absolution they shall be clothed in Robes of Glory they shall be Pillars in the heavenly Temple standing there as ornaments in an immoveable Felicity they shall sit down with Christ in his throne and judge their Enemies that condemned them they shall inherit all things they that lost all for God shall enherit all in him who is goodness itself and the fountain of it They shall see him who is the original and Christal ocean of all truth they shall enjoy him who is the supream good and sabbath of souls they shall be swallowed up in the joy of infinite truth and goodness and their happiness shall not be for a time but run parallel with eternity itself they shall be for ever in the Lord in the blessed Region De Civit. Dei Lib. 22. cap. 30. There as St. Austin hath it God who is all in all Sine fine Videbitur since fastidio amabitur sine fatigatione laudabitur shall be seen without end loved without disdain and praised without weariness In the next World there will be a vast difference between Persecutors and Sufferers The Pride and Cruelty of the one will be paid for in Torments and endless Misery in the Prison of Hell and the Patience and Suffering of the other will be returned in Joys and eternal Felicity in the blessed Heaven FINIS
as suffering for God is He that hath sin reigning in his Heart will comply with it reigning in the World he that carrieth an Idol within will fall down to an outward one Such an one will do any thing rather than suffer The power of sin must be broken that a man may be ready to take up the Cross Further the Heart that it may be good must not only be purged from sin but furnished with Principles of Grace The old Heart will not Hear or Pray or give Almes or do any thing for God in a right manner much less will it suffer for him A man must have gracious Principles such as holy Knowledg Faith Fear Love Zeal Hope Humility Obedience and Patience are that he may be ready for suffering There is a double preparation for it Habitual and Actual Habitual stands in the having those principles and actual in the using of them He that hath them hath a Divine temper disposing him for every piece of the Divine Will he is in the frame of his Heart above Creatures and hath no Center but in his Creator he is higher than Time and this lower World and lies upon the Borders of Heaven and Eternity His great Concerns are not in the Smiles and Frowns of men but in the Will and Favour of God His fear is of greater evil than the World can inflict and his expectation is of greater good than the World can bestow His Principles make him habitually ready for Suffering and when occasion comes the use of them will make him actually so Such an one may say at the fiery Trial as the famous Jerom of Prage did when the Wood was laid to him Salve festa dies Welcome thou joyful day of suffering for Christ This is the second thing we must secure good Hearts 3. We must secure a good God to be with us in our Sufferings A good Cause will not bear us up without a good Heart nor will a good Heart stand without a good God to support it The prayer of David is very remarkable Let Integrity and Vprightness preserve me for I wait on thee Psal 25.21 Integrity is a Preservative but we must wait on God to have our very Integrity preserved and pray as the holy Psalmist doth in the precedent Verse O keep my soul the most upright soul needs it Graces keep the Heart but those very Graces must be kept by the Keeper of Israel The God of Grace is as necessary to the New-creature as the God of Nature is to the Old If he withdraw Faith will fail Love will cool Hope will wither Zeal will be extinct and all Graces will Vanish as the Beams do upon the absence of the Sun The gracious presence of God is necessary to us at all times especially in times of Suffering Joseph's Prison would have been very dismal if God had not been there When all men forsook Paul he had been very forlorn if God had forsook him too How hard is it to be in wants if the All-sufficient one be gone How intolerable are Distresses if the God of all Comfort be absent How shall we bear the Cruelties of men if the Father of Mercies do not assist us Or how shall we stand under own Creature-weakness if the never fainting Creator do not strengthen us What shall we do in doubts if the only Wise one do not guide us Or what shall we do in the Vally of the Shadow of death if the living God be not with us The Presence of God saith a worthy Divine will turn a Prison into a Pallace a Fiery Furnace into a Gallery of Pleasure and the Stocks into a Musick-School Acts 16.25 I may add it is in stead of all things to us With it no Suffering can be too heavy without it none can be tolerable Let us therefore labour to secure this Presence with us and for that end let us secure our being in Christ and our walking in him First let us secure our being in Christ God manifest in the Flesh is the foundation of God sin habiting in the Spirits of men If Christ had not come and mediated for us God would never have come to dwell and to walk in us If we are in Christ God who is personally present with his Humane Nature will be graciously present with us as Members of of him We shall be preserved in Christ as pieces of him by that special Presence which accompanies those that are in him Our blessed Saviour prays that those that were given him might be kept through the Fathers Name Joh. 17.11 that is through that Divine Power Wisdom Mercy and Grace which is with them Again let us secure our walking in Christ Let us walk after his Command and Pattern that is in Meekness of Wisdom in Zeal for Gods Glory in readiness of Obedience in sweetness of Charity in an universal Compliance witht the Divine Will Let there be somewhat of Christ in every step this is the way to have the Divine Presence with us Thus our Saviour left us If any man Love me he will keep my words and my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our aboad with him Joh. 14.23 Such as keep his words shall have the Shechinah the Divine Presence in a peculiar manner with them This will be to them Joy in Sorrow Security in Fears Strength in Weakness Life in Death and All things in the want of All. CHAP. IV. Preparation for Suffering the first direction is Try thy Heart see the Deceit of it what Reliques of Sin are there how it steals out of Duties how false it is in Promises how it extenuates Sin Search see what uprightness is there Doth thy Heart set God before thee doth it respect all Commands doth it eye Gods Glory and did it make a right contract with Christ HAving spoke somewhat in general touching Preparation for Suffering I now come to speak of it more particularly And here I shall lay down several Directions and shew how a Christian may be in a fit posture for suffering 1. If we would be in a fit posture for Suffering let us diligently try our own Hearts Suffering is a searching thing it tries a man as fire doth Metals sifts and winnowes him as Corn is shaken in a Sieve and discovers his thoughts and the bottom of his Heart Many a man seems to be fully for God yet when the Test comes proves to be for the World Therefore it is very proper for us to search our selves before hand to try our Hearts inwardly before the outward trial come to sift and winnow our selves before Providence do it to discover our Hearts to our selves before God discover them to others This is Gods own direction to his People Gather your selves together yea gather together O Nation not desired or as the words in the original may be rendred search lift your selves yea search lift your selves O nation not desired before the Decree bring forth before the day pass
truly walks with God in other things will through grace walk with him in Sufferings too He that hath an holy respect to Gods Presence and Eye at other times will have so in a time of Trial also The Constancy of God's People set forth in Psalm 44. is very observable they were given as Sheep for meat sold for nought made a reproach and a scorne a by-word and a shaking of the head among the people yet their heart was not turned back neither did their steps decline from Gods ways Verse 18. They were broken in the place of Dragons covered in the shadow of Death Yet they did not forget the name of their God nor stretch out their hands to a strang God Verse 20. And whence was this close adherence unto God The Reason is rendred in the 21th Verse if they should forsake God he would search them out for he knoweth the secrets of the heart We see how they were affected with the Presence and All-seing Eye of God and how doth it affect us If it make us depart from other sins it will much more make us depart from so great a sin as Apostacy is Again art thou true in thy active obedience to God Hast thou an universal respect to all the Commands even to those that call for right Hands and right Eyes This is very well he that is true in active obedience will be so in passive he that is for all the Commands of God will be for the Command of taking up the Cross and Suffering for Christ The Commands are copulative one of them is linked to another the stamp of Divine Authority is upon all the Glory of God is concerned in all they are all united in the root of Charity Those Principles of Grace which prompt to the obedience of one will prompt to the obedience of all He that is sincere in doing will be sincere in suffering Further hast thou a single Eye a pure intention at the great end is it thy real aim that God in all things may be glorified This is a good Sign he that hath a single Eye in one thing will have it in another he that glorifies God in other things will glorify him in sufferings too A man is as his end is what the forme is in Naturals that the end is in Morals He that hath God for his Center and ultimate end will embrace all the Mediums that tend thither and Suffering as the highest Medium of all therein is the highest Love demonstrated and God is practically lifted up above all his glory is upon the Throne and Estates Relations Lives all Earthly Concerns are at the Foot-stool Let us set our hearts upon the great end that whether we be doing Gods Commanding Will or suffering under his Disposing one the great design of God's glory may be still carried on by us Moreover ask thy self what was thy original contract with Jesus Christ How and upon what terms didst thou espouse him Didst thou take him entirely as he is offered in the Gospel Dist thou take him Cross and all Dist thou sit down and count what Christianity might cost thee It may be thou mayst be called to part with all to hate Father Mother Wife Children Life it self for Christ Dist thou deliberately consider these things and yet piously resolve that thou wouldst have Christ whatever he cost thee this is very excellent thou art now a Martyr in purpose Veniant crux ignis ossium confractiones modo Christum habeam Said Ignatius and Virtually hast swallowed down all the Persecutions that go along with the Gospel When the Cross comes thou wilt take it up upon thy back The flesh possibly may murmure but thou wilt say this was my original contract with Christ these were the terms of my Espousals I accept the Cross and will follow my suffering Saviour he is worthy for whom I suffer and the sufferings are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come Let us therefore be sure that we have made a right contract with Christ and accepted him Cross and all that when Sufferings come we may not fall off from him CHAP. V. The second direction for Suffering Mortification of sin an unmortified man is not in a capacity to suffer We must mortify all sin particularly the unbelief of the Heart the Love of the World in the three great Lusts of it the Hypocrisy in the Heart and the vain Superstition that is there Having dispatched the first Direction I come to a second If we would be in a posture for suffering let us seriously set our selves to mortify sin There is in Christians a double conformity to Christs Death the one stands in the mortification of Sin our old man is crucified with him Rom. 6.6 dying away by a secret virtue from his Cross The other stands in bearing the Cross thereby we fill up the afflictions of Christ Col. 1.24 The Sufferings of Christ in his Natural Body were full but the Sufferings of Christ in his Mystical Body at daily to be filled up The first conformity makes way for the second The mortifying of inward Lusts is an excellent preparative to the enduring of outward Sufferings An unmortified man that is under the power of his Lusts is in no fit capacity to suffer for Christ He is a part of that World that lieth in wickedness the World will love him as a part of it self and he will comply with the World as a part doth with the whole a little particle of Water will if it be possible fall into a round drop that it may answer to the figure of the great Ocean whereof it is a part and an unmortified man will be All-amode and of the same figure be it Pagan or Popish Idolatry with the corrupt World whereof he is a part his compliance will be such that he will have no occasion for sufferings neither is imaginable for what he will suffer from the World Will he suffer as good men do to avoid that greatest of evils Sin That is it which he allows and indulges in himself that is the darling of his Soul the joy of his way the current of his life the only element in which he converses and may he suffer to avoid such a thing as that is Or will he suffer to avoid the greatest of punishments Hell and Death No surely in willing his Lusts he virtually wils Hell and the torments of it in acting his sin his feet go down to death and all the wrath that is to come Or will he suffer for God out of Love to him and respect to his glory It is not imaginable that he should suffer for God whom he Serves not or Love him with the Idol in his heart or respect his glory against whom he is in arms and wose Laws and honour he treads down under his feet Or will he suffer or Christ his Saviour who died to wash away his Sins in his own blood It is not credible that he should
what that Fear is which prepares us for Suffering and then how it prepares us thereunto 1. I shall consider what that Fear is which prepares us for Suffering and this I shall dispatch in three things It is not the Fear of man but of God that doth it It is not the fear of man that can do it God gives us a charge against this Who art thou that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall dye Esay 51.12 There is no cause to fear a weak piece of Clay a very Breath a fading Leaf he must dye and there is an end of him and all his thoughts perish with him The wise man tels us That the fear of man bringeth a Snare Prov. 29.25 It made Abraham dissemble as if he had no wife David change his behaviour as if he had no reason Peter curse and swear as if he knew not his Master This Fear disposes to apostacy and must be cured by that Fear of God which disposes to suffering When we are ready to drown in worldly sorrow it is of singular use to spring another a godly sorrow in our hearts and when the Fear of man puts us into trembling fits it is an excellent remedy to raise up the Fear of God in our Souls above the other Thus God directs his People not to fear the confederate Enemies but to sanctify the Lord of Hosts himself and to let him be their fear and their dread Esa 8.12 13. He is Lord of Hosts God over all and the fear of him should be above all other fears this is the way to have him to be a Sanctuary to us as it follows If we Fear him he will be an inviolable place of retreat where we may repose our selves in a day of Trouble 2. It is not a diffidential Fear but a fiducial one that doth it A diffidential Fear makes the mind as Meteors in the Air to hang in suspense and in case Affliction come to fail under the burden St. Peter walked upon the water to go to jesus but when he saw the wind boistrous he was afraid and began to sink Math. 14.29 30. By Faith he walked and by diffidence he began to sink Non ambularet nisi crederet nec mergeretur nisi dubitaret Aust de Verbis Rom. Serm. 14. Our condition is the very same in the waves of a troublesome World we stand by Faith but fall by diffidence That Fear which prepares us for suffering must be a fiducial one Ye that fear the Lord trust in the Lord he is their help and their shield Psal 115.11 Holy fear is and must be in Conjunction with faith Fear flies from the evils of Sin and Hell Faith closes in with the Promises of Grace and Glory both concurr to make a man fit for suffering and such a sufferer shall have God for his help and shield 3. It is not a servile Fear but a filial one that doth it He that hath a meer servile fear of the wrath to come may forbear an act of sin but he hath the Love of it in his heart adbuc vivit in eo peccandi voluntas the Love of sin lives in him still as an Ancient hath it Such an one is not in a fit case to suffer for the Truth he hath not a Love to God to move him to it nor a capacity to have Heaven after it and how can he suffer It is very hard for a man to suffer for a God that he Loves not Or part with the good things of This World when he hath no hope of those in a better That Fear which prepares for Suffering is not servile but filial it stands not in conjunction with the love of Sin but with the Love of God the nature of it is such that he that hath it will displease man rather then offend God part with a World rather then let go the Truth and pure Worship nay and lay down his Life rather then forfeit the Divine Presence and Favour which are better then Life Thus much touching the nature of that Fear which prepares us for suffering 2. I come to consider how holy Fear doth prepare us for sufferings and this I shall open in three things 1. Holy fear looks upon sin as an evil much greater then any suffering suffering is opposite to the Creature but sin is opposite to the infinite God it is a Rebellion to his Soveraignty a contradiction to his Holiness a provocation to his Justice an abuse to his Grace a stain cast as much as in us lies upon his Glory nay as the Schools speak it is a kind of Deicidium it strikes in a sort at the very life and being of God it wishes that there were none at all and if it could effect it there should be none Suffering doth not make a man worse then he was before but sin doth it Those Saints that were destitute afflicted tormented wandring in Deserts and Mountains and Dens and Caves of the Earth were yet such excellent ones that the World was not worthy of them Hebr. 11.37 38. On the other hand Antiochus Ephiphanes who was as his name imports illustrious and glorious in the World was yet but a vile person and was made such by his wickedness Suffering strikes at the estate or body of man but sin strikes at his Soul a thing more pretious then a World nay and at the Divine Image there which is more worth then the Soul it self It doth where it can prevail turn men into Beasts in its sensual lusts or into Devils in its spiritual Wickednesses Suffering may have good nay great good in it but sin is evil only evil t is called by St. James 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the superfluity or excrement of all evil Jam. 1.21 It contains all evils in it and if all evils saith a worthy Divine were to have a scum or excrement crement sin is it as being the abstracted quintessence of all evil and having nothing at all of good in it Sin saith Bradwardine is a thing not to be done pro quantiscunque bonis lucrandis aut pro quantiscunque malis praecavendis for the gaining never so great a good or for the avoiding never so great an evil He that hath this holy Fear in his heart will chuse suffering as the lesser evil rather then sin which is much the greater When Antitiochus Epiphanes brought forth Wheels Rodds Hooks Rakes Racks Caudrons Joseph Ant. Cages Gridirons Gantlets Awles Bellows Brasen Pots and Frying-pans before Salamona here seven sons to terrify them they could not be induced by all his tormenting Engines to trespass so far as to eat of a little sacrificed Swines-flesh to save themselves from a cruel death It was the saying of Anselm That if Sin were set before him on one hand and Hell on the other he would rather chuse Hell then sin Scult Decad An. Dom. 1528 Henry Flander being a Prisoner for the Protestant Religion would not say that his Wife was his