frequently to the test and to the tormentors They loved not their lives to the death their liberties to bands and suffered joyfully the spoyling of their goods Rev. 12.11 Act. 20.23,24 Hebr. 10.34 What mean these subterfuges and shifting fetches that shyness and straitning fear which so hold or oppress you Come shew your selves men if not Saints Yea be followers of them who through faith and patience do inherit the promises Hebr. 6.12 III. Look you to what is past of your own selves Remember that time when you were without Christ Oh! How long How long did ye outstand his calls oppose his commands cause and concerns in the world oppress your own Spirits and offend his holy Spirit Brethren should not the time past suffice you should you not study to repair his honor and right holiness as much as in you lieth 1 Pet 4.1 Rom. 6 19. If you are indeed in Christ let your strict confessions now make some amends for your loose conversations then Though you cannot intrinsecally repair his honor you may and should extrinsecally Paul was not so eminent a persecutor but he willingly becomes as eminent a professor when the power of transforming grace hath once past upon him He had lived more adversly to Christ then all before his conversion and labors more abundantly for Christ then they all after his conversion 1 Cor. 1.5 9,10 4. § Fourthly look you forward Oh! how will the confession of Christ be reciprocated and rewarded How will the contrary thereunto be reciprocated and revenged I. First How will your confession of Christ be reciprocated and rewarded confesse him and he will confesse you confesse him on earth and he will confesse you in heaven confesse him before men in your day end he will confesse you before men before Angels and before his father in his day Mat. 10.32 Rev. 3.5 Luke 12.8 Plead his cause and he will plead yours vindicate His Name and he will vindicate Yours contend for him and he will contend for you and contend against them that contend against you Psal 35.51 Lam. 3.58 Isa 49.25 51.22 Sirs how would you that Christ should carry it towards you when he cometh in his glory Would you be cleared and confessed by him then would you that he acquit acknowledg and approve you then As ever you would be found on his side then with the glorified comprehensors in patriâ fall in with his side now amongst the gracious Confessors in viâ II. Secondly how will the contrary be reciprocated and revenged Deny him and he will deny you deny him before men on earth and he will deny you before the Angels of God and before his Father in heaven 2 Tim. 2.12 Mat. 10.33 Luke 12.9 Are you ashamed of him he also will be ashamed of you If you are ashamed of him and his words in this adulterous and sinful generation he also will be ashamed of you when he cometh in his own glory and in his Fathers and in the holy Angels Mark 8.38 Luke 9.26 He will admit no claim of theirs to him then who will not assert his claime to them now but will abandon them for ever with an I never knew you Mat. 7.22,23 Luke 13.27 5. § Fifthly look you inward I. First for this are all those holy principles from God imparted to you and his holy and pure Law imprinted within you Psalm 40.8,9,10 There is not one talent but is to trade with Holy faith hope love c. are all for exercise and imployment and so for evidence to the praise and honour of the giver though not for popular ostentation by the user All the fruits of righteousness are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God Phil. 1.11 True grace is compared to light to fire c. which are not only communicative of their vertues but carry a self-evidence Love and faith are not without their evident works and labour and become effectual by the acknowledging every good thing Rom. 13.12 Psal 39.3 1 Thes 1.3 Philem. 5.6 Can you then believe in Christ with your hearts and not confesse Christ with your mouths These two are connexed Rom. 10.9,10 Can there be hope in you and you abide wholly carelesse to render a reason of it when thereunto required and the object of your hope will be thereby also honoured 1 Pet. 3.15 II. Secondly upon this the holy presence and inhabitation of God is insured to you Whosoever shall believe and confesse that Jesus is the Son of God God dwelleth in him and he in God 1 John 4.15 O sweet promise O the signal priviledge of sincere professors God and the godly confessour have a mutual cohabitation with one another a mutual inhabitation in one another Every new act of your holy confession will be a new advance in this happy communion Now ordinarily is the most soul enriching intercourse with God and the most soul-ravishing illapses from God even to joy unspeakable and full of glory 1 Pet. 1.6,7,8 Now it was that Stephen saw the glory of God and Jesus standing on the right hand of God And that he said to others Behold I see the heavens opened c. Now when the showers of stones like a storm of haile fell upon this holy Confessour who was yet full of the holy Ghost and of power Act. 7.55,56 III. Thirdly to this all those holy relations whereinto you are called ingage you You are his subjects his servants nay his friends his brethren his bride Who should witnesse to and for him if you do not You are my witnesses saith the Lord Is 43.10 Sirs you are neerest related to him of all the world May I not say to you in the words of Pilate Behold your King Treason of the deepest dye to say with those wicked Jews Away with him away with him and crucifie him rather then adventure to confesse him Iohn 19.14,15 Behold your master your friend that calls you not henceforth servants i. e. comparatively not so much servants as friends for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doth But saith he I have called you friends John 15.15 What! and yet loath to confesse him Where is the loyalty of a servant Where is the love and ingenuity of a friend Behold your elder brother one that is not ashamed to call you brethren though lifted up to the throne far above all principality and power Heb. 2.11,12 And are you ashamed to call him brother that yet lie upon the dung-hill In short Behold your beloved husband you are members of his body of his flesh and of his bones This is a great mystery How should your thoughts be taken up in expatiating touching his honour and your happinesse How should your tongues be tuned to the imblazoning of his excellencies How should you tell every one that asketh you in the language of the spouse Cant. 5.9 ad finem He is the chiefest among ten thousand he is altogether lovely This is my beloved and this is my friend O ye daughters of
salvation is not onely intimated Isa 45.22,23 but insisted on Rom. 10.8.9,10 If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus thou shalt be saved for with the mouth confession is made to salvation 'T is in vain to plead for salvation upon believing with the mind if there be not confession also with the mouth in a capable subject An habitual disposition to confess all the known truths of Christ is still found in all such as are saved 1 Jo. 5.10.14 Job 34.22 And though there may be found in such an actual declining of that confession they may be called to make at some times and under strong tentations which we read to have been in Jeremy and Moses as well as in Jonah yet an allowed and habitual declining of and with-drawing from the confession of Jesus in any his known truths and ways is not consistent with a state of salvation For God doth not will not save them that go on in any allowed iniquity Ps 68.21 125.5 3 Is not God celebrated or glorified by it Yea if you confess that Jesus Christ is Lord it is to the glory of the Father Phil. 2.11 And will you not glorifie the Father who is so willing to glorifie you and hath created and kept you for his glory Ps 4.3 Is 43 7.21 Sirs you break all the bonds wherein you stand indebted to him as Creatures as Men as Christians if you do not glorifie him And you cannot glorifie himself but in and through his Son Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 4.11 Col. 3.17 4 Hath not God himself confessed Christ in a sense witnessed and attested to his excellencies Yea by an immediate voice from heaven once and again Math. 3.17 17 5. And our Savior instanceth and improveth this testimony Jo. 5.32 8.18 O you that call God Father why are you so flat so fearful should you not be followers of him as dear children according to your several capacities and callings He received from God the Father honor and glory when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased Eph 5. â— 2 Pet 1.17 and shall he receive no honor from you whom he hath so richly honored 5 'T is a glory that God put 's upon you when he calleth you forth to confess his Son Jesus Christ The godly have acknowledged it to be such Jo 21.24 Act. 26.16 and God accounts it to be such Joh. 1.7 Act. 9.15 None of the Angels were ever called to confess Christ in a passive way as you are who are called to suffer for him Nor any other of the creatures can confess him in an active way as you may who are called to speak of and for him and to perform reasonable service to him Consider this and can you be henceforth averse to what so much concerns both your eternal glory in the highest heavens and your eminent glory here upon earth likewise II. Look you to our glorified Savior Brethren 1 How is he dignified He hath a name above every name he is the brightness of his Fathers glory the express image of his person far exalted above all principalities and powers c Is he not worthy of your witnessing to Is there any cause of shame as to him Or covert for silence as to you Where can you match me with such matter of confession and for celebration Lo the thousands of thousands and ten thousand times ten thousand that are saying with loud acclamations Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing c. Rev 5 11,12,13 4,11 2 How he is described The witness the faithful witness the faithful and true witness Rev. 1.5 3.14 He faithfully declared the whole will of his Father that was requisite for us either to know or do in order to our happiness Jo. 15.15 Heb. 3.2 And can we preachers or people unfaithfully detain what is due from us to acknowledge to his honor especially when our own happiness is bound up therewith also His followers are described by their faithfulness and by having his Fathers name written not in their backs or in their breasts or in their hands more occultly but in their foreheads more observedly and openly and they follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth Rev. 17.14 14.1,4 3 What is he doing Now that he is entred to the holiest of all and hath enough to take up his heart to all eternity Yet is he bearing our names upon his heart as the high priest did the names of the tribes upon his breast-plate for a memorial before the Lord continually Exod. 28.29,30 He is now appearing and advocating for us to his Father and against our accusers Hebr. 6.20 9.24 1 Jo. 2.1 with Rev. 12.10 Where is our loyalty and thankfulness where is our love and tenderness while so many assume the liberty of appearing against him of accusing and condemning him in his holy word ways and worship that yet there are so few found to appear for him and plead his cause against the wicked and to advocate his concernments before the world was it so in the primitive times even in the most terrible of persecutions You know it was not where then is your faith love sense zeal or gratitude 4 What a disquisition doth he make True it is that as to his bodily presence he is now in heaven But his eyes behold his eye-lids try the children of men And if you shall deny his name decliâ—e his truths and interest or defile his worship and institutions shall he not search it out Yea he seeth it and will requite it with his hand his eyes are as a flame of fire he seeth by his own light as fiery eyes are said to do needeth not any forreign light or medium to see or judge by He searcheth the inmost recesses of the heart and actions he will easily pierce and break thorough all those subtil coverts and secret vails of self-ease sensual indulgencies self-interest c. which men weave unto themselves and he will burn them up He knoweth his confessors in the Asian Churches by name and signally commends them he knoweth the careless temporizers and Laodicean neuters and severally chides and threatens them Rev ch 2 and 3. III. Look you to the glorified Spirits Angels and souls made perfect Lo there the Thrones and Crowns of and for the true confessors None that did ever here seal a good confession but are there set down with Christ in his kingdom Rev. 3.21 Mat. 19.28 Yea behold not onely the glorified condition of every true confessor but how they have and do give testimony to our Lord in glory Rev. 19.6,7 10.6.9.11 Behold the Angels those glorious Spirits 1 How gratefully they are imployed herein as their highest work and business These Golden Cherubims are still with greatest admiration looking on and with greatest affection looking into the ark of God the things of Christ which are now reported