this thing declaring to him that he was commanded so to do by the Bishop To whom the Minister replies come and I will shew thee how I live Look into this Pot and see a piece of good Beef boyling go and tell the Bishop I live by eating such good Beef Whether the Non-Conformists have more or less blessed be the Self-sufficient and All-sufficient Jehovah that they stand not to the mercies of their Enemies for their present sustenance and comforts Let his Name be magnified and celebrated for ever Let Heaven and Earth be filled with his Praises Let sacrifices of thanksgiving be continually offer'd up and songs of the highest gratitude and thankfulness continually poured forth unto him that they are not necessitated to beg their bread from door to door and especially at the doors of their Enemies some whereof have heretofore begg'd their bread at theirs and are not complaining and crying out for want of bread and no friends to supply them with it I do not doubt but the same Principle of Religion which at first when they could have no rational prospect of a livelihood and subsistance in the world obliged them unto and engag'd them in the way of Non-Conformity doth still as another soul act the Generality of them unto perpetual and constantly progressive Motions a steady and resolute perseverance therein and produce an invincible and inflexible non-compliance with till they see better grounds and clearer reason for the contrary than yet they have done an apprehended error and evil All the Non-conforming Party are not men of sneaking and sordid Spirits some are as highly and truly generous and noble as those that do most debase and vilifie them and it 's very irksome and ingrateful unto such to live after an Eleemosynary manner dependently upon others which too frequently prostitutes and exposeth them to a contemptuous and slighting carriage of some even among their own Party very unbecoming and unsuitable to the notions of their Function which God never appointed to be either constituted or supported by riches or to be built upon some lofty though quickly deprest and level'd Mountain and Pyramid of worldly dignities and Grandeurs or the highest coacervation of any earthly fading Glories I know the Consideration of this hath been more a temptation to some of them to conform than all their other sufferings or any avaritious greedy desire to accumulate and heap up these lower perishing Treasures but the consideration of their auty to God the fear of displeasing and dishonoring him the resignation of their Wills not onely to his preceptive but providential Will to be disposed of by him and provided for in such a way as he in his infinite and unerring Wisdom thinks best and fittest for them hath efficaciously attemper'd and fram'd their spirits hereto and wrought a complacential acquicscence in the same whereby they still conquer the Temptation But to close up this Discourse which I suppose is not pleasing to the Palate nor grateful to the Gusto of every one would we be satisfied with some rational account how these Non-conformists came with so much Promptitude and Readiness with so much Alacrity and Cheerfulness to forsake their Benefices and present Livelyhoods when Sense and carnal Reason could make no discovery of and way wherein they should be provided for I shall only briefly offer this that as they were men that had Preacht up frequently and zealously prest and urg'd others to live by Faith a life so vilysied and contemn'd by and unknown as to its excellency and usefulness unto many yea the far greatest part of the World so that they would hereby give a clear demonstration that they could live upon their own Doctrine that they were no strangers to this most sweet and sure and noble conquering life That they have their own souls principled with that faith which is The Substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen That they can fixedly depend upon and confidently trust the infinitely who knows how the Almighty and All-sufficient who can and is able the most merciful and faithful God who will certainly take care of and provide for them By this Faith can they suck in the exuberant sweetness of his most precious promises And would you farther know how they came to find so many bountiful Friends and Benefactors I may tell you one reason is Gods blessing his Word and Doctrine which they Preach making it take place in the hearts of so many which begets a fervent and pure love towards them and likewise His Truth which obligeth him so eminently to fulfil that Promise which is worth more than all the Crowns and Kingdoms in the world Mat. 19.29 with many others that are their choisest and chiefest Cordials as Psal 3 â—â— 19 34. Psal 33.18 19. Job 5.22 At destruction and famine shalt thou laugh Heb. 13.5 for he said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee Now I hope that you to whom I Dedicate this Discourse many of you being a poor and an afflicted people as the Prophet speaketh Zeph. 3.12 as you will rejoyce in the spoiling of your Goods from the consideration of this excellent Heavenly Substance so you will live above and not be discouraged with the opprobries and obloquies the insolencies and insultations of all your Enemies That whatever be their most conâ—itiating language dirty detractations dishonorable reflexions scornful disdainful conculcations of your Good Name you will not value them How little should Rhetorical Railery the Extracts and Quintescence of Billinsgate trash and trumpery the froth and foam of the black-soul-mouth'd Female Scolds there suckt in and spew'd up again with all the envenom'd Darts of Apostatical Malice the best Ornaments of many Books the Authors whereof are the Degenerate Off springs of pious Parents signifie to those who have the lively hope of this Substance in the possession whereof they shall be Crowned with immortal Honour Possibly after your present sufferings you may have a Calm a lucid Interval some Sun shine some intermission of your pains and grievances But though this should be so yet look and prepare for Storms and Tempests black and dismaying clouds and darkness a return with double rage and fury of your Torments You have not yet resisted unto bloud for Truth God grant both you and I by this Better and Enduring Substance may be so fortifyed and encouraged to be faithful to the Death that according to Gods Promise Rev. 2.10 we may by him have given to us the ever-flowrishing and flourishing Crown of Life for which I bow my knees unto the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Farewel ERRATA PAge 2. line 15. read Emolument p. 3. l. 22. r. So in p. 4. l. 14. dele be p. 7. l. 15. r. as to p. 14. l. 4. r. Intellects p. 15. l. 10. r. fabricated l. 14. r. done it p. 16. l. 20. r. make them p. 22. l. 17. r. and pass p. 24. l. 30. 40. p. 25.
after by various Narcotick and stupefactive potions or by some strong enchantments and charms which are composed of a few fine-spun and Cobweb distinctions making them for a few daies insensible and laying them asleep rather than you will hazard or suffer the loss of the same for the very Religion that you profess and are denominated Christians from or for that Religion in its most pure and undefiled constitutions Consider I pray betimes how inauspicious and unhappy that tenure is like to prove to your immortal souls how certainly and infallibly it doth augurate and portend your loss of God and Heaven for ever and that the Assurance and hope that now you think you have will prove a heart-breaking cheat and be one high aggravation of your misery to eternity For if you had such an Assurance you would take joyfully with the Hebrews the spoiling of your goods for the same pure Worship of Jesus Christ You may as rationally suppose that the Sun should harden and soften the same Clay and the Fire the same Wax or any natural cause in an ordinary way of operation produce the most contrary effects in the same specifick matter as that the Assurance of a future eternal happiness and immortal glory should make some so weaned from this world and mortified to it and in so great a measure draw off their hearts and affections from it that with much facility joy they can leave and forsake it when called thereunto and yet in others it should suffer their souls to be so fast glued unto the world to adhere and stick so close to the same to be so deeply sunk into the earth and their riches and treasures to have that prevailing interest in them as if they were incorporated that though they have the same call and have the same Cause to suffer for as the propugnation and defence of Gospel-truth they will no more leave it and suffer a separation and divorce from it than they will suffer their skin to be torn from their flesh or their flesh and sinews from their bones when they can prevent it 6. Infer Sixthly That it 's not enough to take the spoiling of our goods for Christ unless it be done with joy Some mens darling lust is more pride than covetousness and therefore to keep their credit and reputation among the Professors of Religion they may run an equal hazard of their estates with others in serving and worshiping God and sometimes may actually lose as much as others yet it 's with much more inward disquietness and discomposure of mind the reminiscence of and reflection upon their losses especially if considerable is with much sadness and sorrow Their present parting with their goods puts them to much pain though they will conceal it that their honour may not be clouded But this is not acceptable to God nor approved of by him because it springs not from any prevailing love to him and his Gospel or from a predominant interest that they have in their affections The conflict is not between grace and corruption or between it and temptation but between two different lusts and the one must yield to the other which never demonstrates heart-uprightness and sincerity 7. Infer Seventhly That both the taking joyfully the spoiling of our goods or suffering for our Religion here depends upon the knowledge and hope of a reward hereafter and the possession of that reward hereafter depends when called to it upon taking joyfully the spoiling of our goods or suffering for Religion here This is likewise implyed in the Proposition The Hebrews doing the one upon the knowledge of the other supposeth a necessary connexion between them and that they were convinced effectually of this truth For who would cast away that which constitutes his happiness in this world were it not to gain a greater in another or who would make himself miserable here were it not to avoid eternal misery hereafter and had not God by an irrepealable Law and wise Sanction made the one the condition of the other If it were granted that man as he is Gods creature and hath his being from him which his subject state and and Gods absolute soveraignty and dominion over him are a resultancy from stands obliged and ought contentedly to act in pure obedience to him though he should not hereafter enjoy any unchangeable state of blessedness as a consequent reward but after he had done and suffered all that 's required by his Makers command he should perish for ever or be annihilated and reduced to nothing I say if this were granted how soon what-ever some men may talk would Religion languish and expire in the world what an allay and abatement would it be to the vigour and fervour of divine affections in the best how would it damp and stifle all readiness unto and cheerfulness in the loyal service of God and suffering for him So that if God should signifie his will that we should lose our goods and suffer imprisonment to maintain his interest and advance his glory in the world without the promise of any future happiness and so to leave us without any hope of compensation by it We should soon see a prevailing averseness and unwillingness in all to it And we should never have read that the Hebrews and such a cloud of witnesses in former Ages had done it For we find that notwithstanding both the clear revelations and sure promises of such a blessed immortality and permanent Substance in Heaven with what a paucity and inconsiderable number of men it hath any efficacy and power to command and govern their lives and be prevalently influential upon them to do but this one thing for the honour of their Creatour and Redeemer It 's true all our doing and suffering cannot merit such a compensating faelicity but yet God dealing with us as we are men and have a principle of self-preservation in us promiseth this for our great encouragnment hereunto And indeed it seems very inconsistent both with the wisdom and goodness of that Eternal Being that 's the Supreme Rector and Governour of the world and a very unlikely and inefficacious way to maintain the just honour and reputation of his Government over rational creatures to command the one without the promise of the other And yet it would be as incompitable with and disagreeing from these and other glorious Attributes of God to confer upon us and crown us with the latter without our doing of the former And to assert the contrary is a prodigious solaecism and absurdity both in divinity and right reason for it were unwarrantably to maim the Notion of God to conceive and bear in our minds an Idea of him altogether incongruous to his very Justice and Holiness Seeing in complyance herewith he must own them as Heirs of the incorruptible Inheritance in Heaven who have disowned and denyed him upon earth and have preferrd a finite before his infinite goodness and glory But let the Word of God speak fully
in the defence of this truth Matth. 19. v. 29. And every one that hath forsaken houses or brethren or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for my Names sake shall receive an hundred-fold and inherit everlasting life Now though this be a positive assertion yet it includes a negative as in Scripture it 's frequent none but such shall inherit this everlasting life and this will appear to be the proper genuine sense of it if we compare it with Luke 14.33 So likewise whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath he cannot be my Disciple And if no Disciple of Christ then no Heir of the future glory All this shews us how many now of the Visible Church of Christ shall be excluded the Kingdom of Heaven and meet with that most dreadful repute and eternal separation from God Depart from me ye workers of iniquity I know not whence ye are Luke 13.27 But I having intermixt this Discourse with other foregoing particulars I shall not expiate and enlarge it further though it cannot be too industriously and frequently inculcated upon us who are so backward firmly to believe and to be brought under the powerful and effectual conviction of such a truth 8. Infer Eightly How vast a disproportion there is between the Saints present losses and their future gain This is that which makes them so joyfully suffer the loss of all things The ineffable and unutterable inequality between them is the sourse and spring of their joy They have a substance for a shadow a substance that 's permanent and perpetual for that which is withering and fading Who will not rejoyce to part with a penny for a pound with one pound for an hundred with a hundred for a thousand with a thousand for a million c. but yet what 's the disproportion between the least of these and the greatest summe to that which is between an earthly and an heavenly Substance But my purpose is not to dilate and amplifie this great truth having already in part glost and paraphras'd upon it I say but in parts for who can speak to that fully which is so infinitely above and beyond the grasp and reach of his Reason the comprehension of his capacity and the compass of his understanding But it is to raise the Souls of Saints to a more sublime and frequent admiration of the unsearchable Riches of God's free Grace and exurbetant Mercies and to fill them with more ravishing contemplations thereof which this disproportion doth so much illustrate and celebrate varnish and beautify with a matchless Glory That there should be an infinite and eternal reward for a finite and temporary Act and that which we are under an indispensable Obligation to do and when we have done it to be still unprofitable Servants That an Act should be thus rewarded by God that he stands in no need of that he hath no dependance upon as Augmentative of and and additional to his blessedness for the uttermost contributions of men and Angels with all other Creatures can add nothing to him And that an Act shall be so superabundanly recompenced which is but the employing for Gods glory and the returning to him what is his own and what we first received from him what he hath but lent us or we are still but Tenants at Will his property never being alienated That we should have as the Apostle saith in 2 Cor. 4.17 Glory for afflictions a weight of glory for light afflictions an exceeding Eternal glory for momentary afflictions O! astonishing Antithesis In what extatical and transporting admirations hereof should the Souls of Saints be in and certainly more frequently than they are they would be so were they but more with the Apostle in Reckoning that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the Glory that shall be revealed in him Rom. 8.18 And would we but fixedly and steddily meditate hereon our Souls would not be so effaete and barren of praises to God as they are But we should be ever blessing and adoring him for that superfluous and reabundant compensation of the very little that we can do or suffer for him And seeing time is too little for this work we should more ardently long to Triumph in his Praises to Eternity The consideration of this vast disproportion between our losses and our gain our sufferings and our reward should wonderfully animate and encourage us to suffer the loss of all things it should â—l and strengthen our hearts and fortifie our Spirits to endure the utmost extremity of misery and to be insuperable and unconquerable in a patient toleration of all Tribulations for the sake of Christ to promote and advance his interest in the World And certainly were there but an immoration and dwelling of our most serious thoughts hereon we should never dread such sufferings which are ever worse in fearing then in feeling them as we do not be so averse to undergo them as we are 9. Infer Ninthly That one and the same Heavenly substance belongs to all Saints and all Sufferers for their Lord and Master Jesus Christ There is but one Kingdom Matt. 25.34 one Inheritance 1 Pet. 1.4 One Crown Rev. 1.10 one Throne Rev. 3.21 that belongs to them all It 's in the Text one substance that all the Hebrews knew they had If an Earthly Father have many Children usually the first-born Son or the eldest living inherits his Estate if a King have many Sons the eldest usually is Heir to the Crown When Jehoshaphat died the Text tells us 2 Chron. 21.3 He gave great Gifts of Silver and of Gold and pretious things with fenced Cities in Judah But the Kingdom gave he to Jehoram because he was the first-born This right of Primogeniture unto Earthly Inheritances hath some Foundation in the Law of Nature But in Heaven there is no difference nor distinction made among all the Children of God one inheritance he hath provided for them all and every individual shall have the whole as all the Inhabitants upon Earth equally enjoy the light of the Sun when it shines unto them provided their visive faculty be alike so shall all the Inhabitants in Heaven equally enjoy a Kingdom Indeed God puts a difference and makes distinctions between his Children in this World some are rich though but a very few some are poor some noble though not many and some ignoble and he will have the order of Superiority and Inferiority maintained among them and to break it is a sin Servants though Godly must keep in their proper Station and know their distance from their Godly Masters and Mistresses and greatly fear and reverence them and the base for their Piety must not think themselves equal with the honourable nor behave themselves the more immodestly and disrespectively towards them for such a procacious carriage and malepart deportment is a violiation of the Law of God Nature But in Heaven all these distinctions