Selected quad for the lemma: glory_n
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A61828
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A sermon preached before the University of Oxford on St. Andrews-day by Tho. Stripling.
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Stripling, Thomas, 1652?-1679.
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1681
(1681)
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Wing S5978A; ESTC R23726
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14,699
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38
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Faction or the Favour of great Men not by the cunning Sophistry of Philosophers or the perswasive Rhetorick of Orators only by a naked proposal of plain evident Truth with a firm resolution of suffering and dying for it by which it hath subdued all kind of Persecution and surmounted whatever discouragement or resistance could be layd in its way Sanguis enim Martyrum erat semen Ecclesiae which suddenly grew up and spread its branches through every City of the World and Province For their greatest Enemies when they beheld such an undaunted courage in asserting such constancy in professing that Religion which would infallibly work their destruction were inclined to believe the hand of God to have upheld and strengthned them and that it could proceed from no other but him they presently commenced Christians and believed that to suffer for Christ was their greatest Interest and to dye for him their greatest Gain Which brings me to the next particular in order to be spoken to That to suffer for Christ is our greatest Interest It has always been found a very hard matter to perswade the Sensual man to believe that Sufferings can either procure his Pleasure or his Profit for looking no farther than his sensual Pleasure and his present Enjoyment he lays out his whole care in the Preservation of himself in the Satisfaction of his desires in defending his body from harm and securing himself from any thing that may annoy or hurt him This Principle is pressed so home unto him by the Dictates of his Nature that he takes it for granted he is to deny all commands neglect all injunctions to the contrary for he is sure if he fails in this all his pleasures suddenly vanish and his greatest enjoyments come to an end and poor man he miserably perishes and for want of due care of himself procures his own destruction But alas if he would but consider and search into himself it would presently appear unto him that by how much the more Pleasure and Satisfaction a man takes from the delight of his Mind than he does from that of his Body by so much he is the happier as to his present estate for besides the excercising of his Vertues Humility Patience and Charity which otherwise would lye hid he enjoys the security of his Mind a quiet and peaceable Conscience void of offence that fears no evil because it has done none And that there is such a real Joy concealed under apparent Miseries is evident from the Sufferer himself that holy Pride he discovers in all his actions those pleasing looks that continually possess his Countenance are certain evidence of the tranquility of his Mind Tempests do not disturb his repose and he never seems more unshaken than when he is tossed about he is so stable and permanent in all his disasters that if the world should fall in pieces he would not be concerned Then let the Worldling lay aside his Honours and his Riches his Pride and Luxury which are so far from procuring real Pleasure that there is nothing arises from them but trouble and dissatisfaction The Greatest the Ambitious man aims at is no longer pleasent unto him than when he is in the persuit for when he possesses it he is pushed on by the inquietude of his desires and thursts after fresh honours Riches never satisfie for when they are locked up in the Chest the desire is still after more Pride and Luxury have so little content in them that one is a Disease of the Mind the other breeds diseases to afflict the Body nothing can be said to be permanent or to have contentment in it but the joy of a wise man who rests secure when the greatest violence is exercised on his person whose Mind stands firm as a Rock when his body is shaken asunder and the afflicting body does not so much lose his courage as it strengthens and confirms it he resembles those Stars that are clearest in the most Tempestuous Weather and have the greatest lustre when they shine through Mists and Foggy Exhalations This being premised I shall proceed to make it appear to be his greatest interest to suffer for Christ even the loss of his Life because it procures his eternal happiness in the world to come But here we have him objecting that God-Almighty cannot love the man who he makes the object of his wrath or consign him to happiness whom he so miserably Punishes and Afflicts that he can never be fit company for Saints and Angels in Heaven who was contemned and hated afflicted and tormented even unto Death here on earth But the Example of our Saviour is a sufficient answer to this who was a man of sorrows rejected and despised Wounded for our Transgressions bruised for our iniquities We are assured that God is Holy Wise and Good and that he can do nothing misbecoming or unworthy of those Attributes and therefore we ought to rest satisfied that it is his Will that we shall be thus qualified for Heaven that he brings us unto him by the very same means and method he did his Beloved Son for he chastises every one whom he receiveth that these light afflictions may work for him a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory 2 Cor. 4.17 But Christ he reply's died for us to preserve our lives and he will not have us to dye or destroy us after he has given us our lives but he dyed not to preserve our temporal lives but to procure for us eternal life in Heaven to obtain which we must suffer even the loss of present life for him for he that endeavours to save his life shall lose it and he that loses it for Christs sake shall save it Mark 8.35 Life must be despised here on earth if we will enjoy an honourable place in Heaven so that Martyrdom is an ingenious Tyrant that kills us to save us and an innocent crime that overwhelms with confusion to Crown us with Glory If we believe Tertullian it is an obliging Cruelty that tears away our lives to give them us again that despises us to make us rich and making us to be imitators of the Son of God assures us to have part in his felicity This made St. Paul to rejoyce that he was thought worthy to suffer for Christ Jesus and this made the Primitive Christians prefer Disgrace to Honour Poverty to Riches Torments to Pleasures and Death it self to Life their minds were so inchanted with the hopes of Futurity that it charmed their Grief confirmed their Constancy and rendred them victorious in the midst of all their Afflictions For with what Patience and Constancy did they suffer in the times of Persecution when they were hurried from one place to another not suffered to confer with freedom or breath with safety when they were driven into Prisons and and loaded with Chains being destitute afflicted tormented and then brought out to their Execution upon the Rack Wheel or Gridiron they were so far from