loathsome Dungeons they may be sawn asunder torn Limb from Limb Roasted on Gridirons Tympanized forced to take in stinking water till their Belly and Skin is ready to burst and what other ways of Torment the Devil and his wicked Instruments can invent and nothing but Heaven can surmount such Sufferings and Death painful Death by them But Faith which is the substance and subsistance of things hoped for the Evidence of things not seen giving as full and firm assurance to the Soul of those Rich and Pretious Promises as Light doth to the Eye of the Colour or Figure of the things it seeth can overcome all the Terrors and Torments levelled against it for what would not a Christian suffer that hoped after a few hours of suffering to come to the vision and enjoyment of the Glorious God and our Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ and to the Communion of the Church of the first born of God the Spirits of just men made perfect and to an innumerable Company of Angels and thereby to be above all sin and misery and fear of losing or loathing what they enjoy Indeed the sufferings of this life are not worthy to be compared with the Glory that shall he revealed 12. Lastly The Martyr must be abundant in Prayer he must have the Spirit of Prayer and Supplication poured out upon him Praying always with all Prayer and Supplication in the Spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all Saints Ephes 6. 18. For Prayer is the Christiane Artillery-Yard wherein he exerciseth his Arms and puts all his Graces of godly sorrow resolutions for holiness devotedness to Gods Glory love to God and love to Men in practise till he is active and nimble in the use of them Parish Oh dear Sir My Ear hath been so chained to your Tongue that it tyed up my Mouth I could not interrupt you in the current of your Discourse about the qualifications of the Martyr For you have first presented your Martyr as a Man of Courage going forth in his great strength whose every Vein and Sinew and Artery is filled with the love of God and of his Church Yea of his very Enemies Next you have Armed him Cap-a-pe First with the Greaves and Boots of sorrow for Sin past and mortification of reigning Lusts which is the preparation of the Gospel of Peace in his own Soul and with his Loins Girt with the Girdle of Truth and full assurance that his Cause is the Cause of God and that Truth is great and will prevail by the Power of God giving it Victory over the Gates of Hell And then with the Brest-plate of Righteousness and Sincerity and Love aiming at the Glory of God his Saviour and preferring that before all concernments for his dearest Relations and singly designing to promote Gods Service in the confirmation of his Brethren and the conversion of his Enemies and holding before him the Sheild of Faith and full assurance that God will preserve him to his Heavenly Kingdom against all the Powers of Darkness by the sufficiency of his Grace and having on the Helmet of the Hope of everlasting Salvation and expert in the use of all his Arms by the Exercise of all his Graces in Prayer and Supplication And sure such such a Champion is a Spectacle worthy the sight of Men and Angels in his conflict I pray you therefore proceed to the performance of the third Part of your promise in informing me what assistances and comforts in my sufferings and what rewards after them I may warrantably expect Minist I shall do it to the best of my Ability and in this Method First I shall shew what assistances a Christian may expect to enable him to give a reason of the Faith and Hope that is in him Secondly I shall shew what sweet Comforts the very Graces that a Christian doth then Exercise will bring into his Soul Thirdly I shall shew what warrant a Christian hath to expect more immediate Illapses and Communications of the comforts of Gods Spirit and of joy in the Holy-Ghost in his sufferings then ever before Fourthly I shall shew what rewards a suffering Saint may expect hereafter The first expectation namely of Assistances to give a reason of his Faith and Hope I think is sufficiently warranted from Matt. 10. 19. When they deliver you up take no thought how or what you shall speak for it shall be given you in that same hour what you shall speak for it is not you that speak but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you First It is plain this promise hath no relation at all to the publick administrations in Worship to warrant inconsiderate effusions of words then where Men have not got an Oratorical habit of expressing themselves aptly so as to stir up and lead the affections of those to whom they Administer in Holy Worship which habit is got by studying and reading the Scriptures and frequent exercise of our gifts in Holy Worship in private or in fellowship with others all which endeavours God usually blesseth to those that are sincere for his Glory and the Service of his Church so that according to the foundation of natural parts on which they build they may attain a competent gift who will set themselves about it as every publick Minister of the Church certainly ought to do But though as to this gift for administration of publick Worship we warrantably expect the blessing of God upon our Meditation reading and stirring up the natural Abilities and Gifts that are in us so that we may attain to this habit of Sacred Oratory yet it is observable that there are differences of this habit in several pious Persons according to the difference of their natural quickness of Fancy and Invention and volubility of tongue and complexional heat and fervor wherein there may be at some times something like an Enthusiastical Energy but yet under the manage and conduct of Christian Prudence and withal he that most reads the Scriptures and meditates of them and exerciseth himself in Religious Worship Praying to God for his Blessing upon himself such a one shall grow more ready as to the languaging of what he is to speak before the people than another who wants the advantage of those natural endowments before mentioned or doth not use the means of reading meditation and exercise with humble dependance on God for his Blessing on them and hence it comes to pass that the greatest Schollars are not always the best Preachers nor the readiest in Prayer because their natural partslye not so right for this sacred Oratory but many times a natural coldness and bashfulness and hesitancy of tongue and ungratefulness of voice and accent and slowness of fancy hinders them And besides too many great Schollars neglect the stirring up of their gifts by exercise and so their Delphian Sword rusts in the Scabbard But I only speak this by the by to shew you that the promise to the Martyr
or Superiour commands without disputing as to obey God and Christ in what he commands This therefore is another piece of their Idolatry setting up their Church or Superiours in the place of God Parish Sir I shall not call you to more instances being assured that in every suffering of the Martyrs of Jesus under the Whore of Babylon one of these or all these are the Ingredients in their Accusation that they deny the Churches Traditions and Infallibility and Authority and the Popes Supremacy and Transubstantiation which they call the real presence ignorantly and slanderously imputing to us that we deny the real presence of the Body and Blood of Christ because we deny their sensless fiction of Transubstantiation But I long to hear you discourse of those other two excellent Heads Namely of the qualifications of a Martyr and of the supports and rewards he may expect Minist Indeed Sir I longed to come to them my self as knowing they are speculation yeilding ten times more sweetness than the controversal part of the discourse because we could not treat on that without reflexion on others wickedness or errour which is no pleasing prospect to humble and charitable Persons But the rest of our way will be all beset with the fragrant Graces of Gods Spirit and the Fruit-bearing Trees of his rich and precious promises I shall proceed therefore 1. He is very ignorant of the nature of God who thinks God stands in need of a vile and profligate wretch living yet in the practise of known sins to assert the cause of his holy truth for his praise is in the Congregation of his holy ones and dear in his sight is the death only of his Saints But he putteth away the wicked of the Earth like dross First Therefore none are fitted to be Martyrs but sincere Mourners for their former sins When thunders and Storms are without and swelling Winds are in the Bowels of the Earth there must needs be a terrible Earth-quake So he that is called to suffer for the truth and hath the Enemies of truth raging and menacing without him and conscience accusing him within that he is not only an high transgressor but a careless neglecter of seeking his peace with God can never confidently dye in the best Cause When the Philistines were coming upon Saul 1 Sam. 13. the careless man then is awakened by his own terrours and cries out verse 12. the Philistines will now come down upon me to Gilgal and I have not made Supplication to the Lord so will Conscience say to the impenitently careless how darest thou venture thy Life in the cause of that truth thou hast neglected to obey never seriously searching thy heart and ways never sincerely mourning for thy sins never applying thy self by earnest prayer to the mercy of God in Christ I do not deny that a man who is under great fears and doubts having for some considerable time been earnestly seeking Gods favour in Christ prizing his loving kindness more than life may make a couragious Martyr for such an ones thoughts will work at this rate Lord thou knowest how I have longed for thy Salvation though therefore I yet walk in darkness and see no light only a little dawning of hope appears I will not set my Comforts at a greater distance from me by a cowardly betraying of thy Cause whether therefore thou please to lift up the light of thy countenance upon me or no yet will I trust in thee and live and dye to thy to thy Glory knowing that duty is my work and must be my care and comfort is thy free gift and it coming at any time or in any degree is both more and sooner than I deserve as said the three Children Dan. 3. 17. we know our God can deliver us but if he will not be it known unto thee we will not serve thy Gods nor worship the Golden Image which thou hast set up so saith the humble penitent God can make the bones which he hath broken to rejoyce but however I will not depart from him nor betray that truth he calls me to own This is one of the Greaves or Bootes mentioned Ephes 6. 15. For amongst other parts of the Spiritual Armour the Apostle exhorts to have their feet shod with the prepraration of the Gospel of peace the preparation of it according to the Doctrine of Saint John Baptist Christs forerunner is Repentance Matth. 3. 2. Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand But he that is yet a careless impenitent hath no Boots or Greaves on but his naked Feet are subject to be wounded with the Gall-traps of his Enemies when Conscience tells him that according to the Tenor of the Gospel he is in no capacity for peace or for pardon and his Enemies without suppose Heathen tell him he shall perish here and hereafter as an Enemy to the gods or Popish persecutors curse him solemnly with Bell Book and Candle to the Fire of Hell as well as to the Flames here and forbid the people to pray for them as they did in Queen Marys days prohibit all to assist the Martyrs so much as by a prayer for them how can such a one dye couragiously But still I must take heed of discouraging any sincere though late penitent for I do not question but as our Saviour received the penitent Thief upon the Cross so some have entred profane wretches into Prison who yet have had such conviction of the preciousness of the truth they were urged to renounce that they durst not deny it and have come out to Execution sincere penitents nay it may be rejoycing through hope and have died happily yea comfortably in the Lord But serious repentance and sorrow founded in serious search of our ways and heart sooner or later is a necessary qualification for a Martyr of Jesus Secondly So also is mortification necessary that is that the Martyr hath endeavoured faithfully to subdue every lust in himself and to cleanse himself from all defilements of Flesh and Spirit perfecting holiness in the fear and love of God for God will not receive a polluted Sacrifice though offered with the Fire of his own Altar nor can such expect the assistances of Gods Spirit who have grieved that good Spirit by wilful allowance of themselves in known sins not denying their lusts One living lust is like a potent opposite party in a Garrison that will weaken the hands of the Defenders the Conscience of being under the power of one ruling Sin will cut the Sinews of our courage and God will say to such as Psal 50. Why takest thou my Law into thy Mouth seeing thou hatest to be reformed Why offerest thou to fight my battels against the adversaries of my truth seeing thou fightest against my fear obeying the adversaries of my honour thy lusts This is the other Boot or Greave of the preparation of the Gospel of Peace which according to St. John Bapists Doctrine is prepared
Babylon Min. I shall readily as far as I am able comply to your Pious desire not because my fears keep equal pace with yours for to me still there is hope in Israel as to this thing but because the considerations which such a Subject will lead us to will be a great advantage to us Living and Dying The Method I will observe in my Discourse shall be this I. I will endeavour to shew you what sort of Cause it is that will make a Martyr namely To suffer for Christs Name and for Righteousness sake II. I will shew how a Martyr must be qualified as to his Temper and Practice III. What promises God hath made both of Consolations and Supports here and of rewards hereafter to his Suffering Saints Parish Sir I am glad we are come to this sweet Theme and shall attend diligently praying to God to guide your Tongue for my Direction and Consolation in the ways of the Gospel Min. Amen He therefore suffers for Christs Name and for Righteousnes sake I. Who suffers for refusing to strengthen the hands of Wicked Men in their Wickedness by his Consent or Example II. Who suffers for Promoting the Churches Peace III. Who suffers for the Exercise of warranted Religious Worship or refusal of Communion in Idolatrous and Sinful Worship IV. Who suffers for contending for the Faith and Truth once delivered to the Saints First He Suffers as a Martyr who Suffers because he will have no Fellowship in the unfruitful Works of Darkness nor run to the same excess of Riot with others who Suffers because he is ready when Sinners intice him to answer with David Depart from me ye Evil doers for I will keep the Commandements of my God is Gods Martyr For certainly if we Suffer on this account because we will by our professed obedience to God's Law give testimony to his Sovereignty and to the Equity and Excellency of that Rule he hath appointed to his Rational Creatures we may justly be stiled God's Martyrs And in particular if we Suffer for Fearing God and the King and not medling with those who are given to change but that in Conscience towards God we retain our Loyalty to our Sovereign it is a Suffering for Righteousness sake Parish But will the Suffering in the Cause of strict Moralities in title Christians to Martyrdom Min. Yes For Morality or Conformity to the Moral Law in our Duty to God and Men for God's sake is so great a part of the obedience of Faith given to the Rule or the New Creature that he who Suffers rather than he will offend against the Moral Law In Conscience that God who made him and Christ who Redeem'd him requires that he should live by that Rule in order to God's Glory his own and others good is God's and Christ's Martyr And be assured of it Good Men shall not want occasion of Suffering on that account especially in such days and places wherein almost every thing is countenanced but Piety and Virtue Next If you Suffer for promoting the Peace of the Church and opposing Schisms and Divisions amongst Brethren you Suffer for the Name of Christ and you cannot want occasion of Suffering if than be your design so long as the Zeal for or against our English Littleismes flames out at the top of every Chimney Parish Indeed it is easily observable that those good and moderate Men who have endeavoured to remove the Fewel of our present Contentions are as violently assaulted by the fierce Men the Bigotts on both sides as if they were the declared Enemies of both the Contending Parties however I resolve through the Grace of God to follow your Example and Doctrine herein both to pray and strive for the Peace of Jerusalem by all lawful means For I believe if I should dye at the Stake for the Profession of the most precious Truths of the Gospel and yet be a divider of Christ's Church I should be condemned to be a Firebrand in Hell by the Prince of Peace Min. But when I press you to contend for the Peace of the Church I mean not only the Peace of the particular Society of Christians amongst whom your Residence and Cohabitation calls you to communicate in Publick Worship But also to promote the Catholick Unity of the Catholick Church by vertue of which it is That every Baptized Christian Professing Repentance towards God and Faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ and bringing sufficient Evidence or Credentials of his Christianity may as a Member of that one Body under Christ the Head Challenge the Priviledge of Communion in all the Ordinances of Christ with any Society of Christianst or partionlar Church where ever he happens to live or occasionally to come For if any Society of Christians shall impale themselves by mutual Compacts or by setting up other new and unnecessary Terms of Communion with them so as to exclude from their Communion other Christians cohabiting with them or coming to them they are therein Schismatical especially if those Terms be such as the Neighbor or Stranger-Christian cannot comply to without wrong to his own Conscience I do indeed judge that if the Terms of Communion required though new and narrower then Christ hath required to make us Members of his Catholick Church be such as I can comply to wihout Sin I ought not to disturb the Peace of the particular Church where I am by a stiff opposing of them especially if I have sufficiently protested my Right and Priviledge as a Member of the Catholick Church to have Communion allowed me without such Imposals For my Christian Liberty gives me a Latitude to become all things not sinful to all men And though a particular Church may be Schismatical in imposing such new and narrow Terms of Communion with her as Christ never imposed to make us Members of his Catholick Church yet if I separate causlesly that is where I can Communicate without Sin I am Schismatical also so that at the same time a Church may be Schismatical in imposing unecessary Terms of Communion and a particular Christian may be Schismatical in refusing Compliance to those Terms if he can comply to them without Sin Parish Sir I thank you for by this Information you have contributed not only to make easie to me my Compliance to just Ecclesiastical Laws which I did something scruple on conceit that my yielding betray'd my Christian Liberty but also to enlarge my special Brotherly Love to all Christians as Members of the same Body with me under Christ our Head and you have given my Conscience a latitude and my Heart a readiness to join in worship with any Christian where ever I come and may be admitted and to receive readily as much as in me lies any Christian to Communion with me and with that Society of Christians amongst whom I Cohabit and Communicate Min. Next if you suffer for not complying to sinful Worship such as is forbidden by God as unworthy to be offered up
ingagement he never devoted himself unto Sixthly A Martyr must have right apprehensions of the Wisdom Goodness Justice and mercy of God in suffering the rod of the wicked to light upon the Lot of the Righteous there being some Chaff to be winnowed away some miscarriages even amongst the Professors of the Truth that stand in need of reforming And therefore judgment begins at the House of God 1 Pet. 4. 17. He that would be a couragious sufferer must be throughly perswaded that God doth all things wisely and graciously that therefore there is some scandalous sin or some divisions which is to be pruged out Thus when the Sheep are apt to run into low and miry places or to straggle at a distance from one another or to push and smite one another the Shepherd sends in the Dog and rectifies all presently So when Christians stray into ways of sensuality or causelesly separate from one another or persecute and vex one another for little differences it is both Justice and Mercy in God to let in a common Enemy upon them to teach them to live better and love one another and when this purifying is accomplished by Gods refining fire the Martyr is confident that God will give their cause the Righteous cause of Truth to have dominion in the morning He therefore who questions either the wisdom or Justice or goodness of God in permitting persecution or that can think that God remits of his care of the Church so as to let the gates of Hell prevail against it will not be a couragious Martyr Thus the excellent Bishop Jewel said in Queen Mary's days It is but a storm it may wet our Coats through but it will wash them also and will soon be over King Edward the sixth's Reformation of the Doctrine and Worship of the Church of England is just matter of praise and Thanks giving to God even to this day But still the Primitive Church Discipline under the management of the Diocesan Bishops with their Assistant Colledges of Presbyters in the presence of the Christian People the Brethren to remove scandals out of the Church was not restored as our Church complains in the preface to the Commination So that God did not mistake the state of his Church in sending Queen Mary's persecutions to refine the Spirit of the English Protestants And that the same may stand yet in need of further winnowing by Gods fan will hardly be denied by any pious and considerate Person though still I hope God will not let us fall into the hands of the Men of his indignation but stir up the Spirit of our Governours to take effectual course for the Reformation of our Lives and Manners Seventhly A Martyr must be one enabled to prefer the glory of God and the cause of his Truth before all Concernment for Friends and Relations Many a Man can more easily die to himself than to his dear Wife and Children and Friends Our Saviour therefore protests Matth. 10. 37. He that loveth Father and Mother more then me is not worthy of me Nay he asserts Luke 14. 26. that if he do not hate Father and Mother c. he cannot be his Disciple Not that Religion makes us unnatural but as the Sun puts out the shining of the Stars by its overpowering light so the fervent love of God in 〈◊〉 Christian prevails so intirely over natural affections that the same seem in comparison to be quite extinguished Thus that resolute Christian of old expressed himself If my Father said he who begot me and my Mother who bare me lay prosrate on the threshold of the Prison to beseeeh me to deny Christ rather than leave them in their old Age to an unkind and churlish World I would tread on the Loins that begot 〈◊〉 and the Womb that bare me and go out unto Christ bearing his reproach Heb. 13. 13. The Devil and wicked Men know that natural affection is a tender part and they will pinch us there and if our hearts be not fortified with the Breast-plate of Faith and Love they will prevail against us But when we can trust God with our Friends and love God above them then we are fitted to be Christs Souldiers An Heroick example of this we have in the Mother and seven Brothers suffering under Antiochus 2 Mac 7. 29. What a couragious expression is that of the Mother to her youngest Son Fear not the Tormentors but being worthy of thy Brethren take thy death that I may receive thee again in mercy with thy Brethren Eighthly A Martyr must be one who hath not himself been a Persecutor of any of the servants of God or if he have so been he must be a serious Penitent and profess his Repentance for it before the Church and the World Now a Mâ—â—â— may be a Persecutor of the Saints out of ignorance and mistaken zeal thinking therein to do God good service reckoning the Religion of the Persecuted to be Heresy and thus did St. Paul and this I Charitably believe do some ignorant and zealous Papists But then observe such Persecutor are very regular in other regards and can profess as St. Paul did Acts 23. 1. I have lived in all good Conscience before God until this day And such Persecutors have found mercy and been converted and owned their Repentance for that furioâ— zeal so contrary to the Spirit of Christ who came to save not to destroy Mens lives yea some of them have been honoured by God to be called to suffer for the Truth which once they persecuted But all Persecutors are not acted by that principle some directly out of a spirit of prophaness have persecuted gooâ— Men And such Persecutors are all Vitious Dehauched Drunken Dammee's who seldom pretend to any thing of zeâ—â— for God for he is not in all their thoughts nor in the mouths further than their Oaths and Curses come to but zeal for the Law of the Land or the Constitutions of the Church forsooth when really they regard no Law of thâ— Land or Constitution of the Church but only pretend thâ— same in order to the Vailing the bitterness and Malignity 〈◊〉 their spirits against all serious Piety Others there are who persecute goodmen out of a worldly and covetous humour that they may gain by Informations Plunder c. Now I dare not limit the Essicacy of the grace of God but I have not to my rememberance either heard or read of any such Persecutors of a prophane or Worldly Temper who have been converted and honoured with the Crown of Martyrdome But as I said before if ever you have persecuted good Men though out of a mistaken zeal for God be sure you repent and own your Repentance or expect not an assistance in your own day of Tryal The story is remarkable about the Controversy in King Edward the sixths days about Bishops and Priests garments Holy Bishop Hooper and Holy Mr. Rogers scrupled conformity therein the secret Popish Bishops inflame the Contest