constancy and perseverance very much upon our forecasting the worst that may fall out, Luke xiv. 28. "^Put on the whole armour of God, " that ye may be able to stand," Eph. vi. He that hath first severed Christ in his thoughts from all worldly advantages, and puts the case thus to his own soul, O my soul, canst thou embrace or love a naked Christ ? Canst thou be content to be impoverished, imprisoned, and suffer the loss of all for him ? He is most hkely to cleave faithfully to him, when the case is really presented to him indeed. And can it seem a light thing in your eyes, to be enabled to stand in such an evil day ? If you fall away from Christ, then all you have wrought is lost, Ezek. xxxiii. 13. Gideon's onebastard destroyed all his seventy sons. This act renders all former actions and professions vain. If you fall, you shall thereby be brought into a more perfect bondage to the devil than ever. Mat. xii. 23. Yea, ordinarily, apostates are ju- diciallv given up to be persecutors, Hos. v. 12. 1 Tim. i. 20. and are seldom or never recovered again by grace, Heb. vi. 4, 6. They that lick up their vomit, seldom cast it up any more. It is a fall withiit a little as low as the unpardonable sin, whence never any rise again. In some cases the judge will not allow the offender his book. And is it not then a choice and desirable mercy to escape and prevent such a fall as this ? O good souls, ply your preparation- work close then ; prepare, or you perish.
3. Motive. This will best answer the grace of God, in affording you such choice helps and advantages as you have enjoyed. How long have you enjoyed the free liberty of the gospel, shining in its lustre among you ? This sun, which to some other nations hath not risen, and to divers on whom it hath shined, yet it is but as a winter's sun, remote, and its beams but feeble ; but you have lived, as it were, un- der the li77e, it hath been over your heads, and shed its richest in- fluences upon you. Yea, God's ministers, who are not only appointed to be zvatchmen, Ezek. iii. 16. but trumpeters to discover danger. Num. X. 8. These have faithfully warned you of a day of trouble, and given you their best assistance to make you ready for it. And is not their joy, yea, life, bound up in your stability in such a day of trial? Doth not every one call upon vou in the words of the apostle, Phil, iv. 1. " Therefore, my brethren, dearly beloved, and longed for, my " joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved." Will it not cut them to the very heart, if after all their spending la- bours among you, they still leave you unready 'f enemies still to the cross of Christ, impossible to be reconciled and persuaded to suffering- work for Christ.
I rem.ember I have read of the Athenian Codrus, who being in- formed by the oracle^ that the people whose king should be slain in battle should be conquerors : he thereupon disrobed himself, and in a disguise went into the enemies quarters, that he might steal a death to make his people victorious.
Oh ! how glad would your ministers be, if you might conquer and
78 r-REPARATIONS FOR SUFFERINGS ; OK,
overcome in the day of temptation, whatever become of their live* and liberties ! Yea, mid iftliey he offered up upon the sacrifice and service qfyourfaitli^ they can rejoice, and joy with you all. Such is their zeal and longing after your security and welfare. But if stili you remain an unready people, and do become a prey to temptation. Oh how inexcusable will you be !
4. Motive. Remember how ready the Lord Jesus was to suiFer the hardest and vilest things for you. He had a bitter cup put into his hands to drink for you, into which the wrath both of God and man was squeezed out. Never had man such sufferings to undergo as Christ, * whether you consider, (1.) The dignity of his person, who was in the form of God, and might have stood upon \{\s peei'age and and equality with him ; he is Xh^ sparkling diamond of heaven, Acts vii. BQ. the dajiing of the Father s soul, Isa. xlii. 1. glorious as the only begotten of the Father, John i. 14. yea, glory itself. Jam. ii. 1. yea, the very brightness of glory ^ Heb. i. 3. He is the delicice Christiani orbis,Jairer than the sons of men ; And for him to be so debased, be- low so many thousands of his own creatures, become a xoorm, and no man ; this was a wonderful humihation. It was Jeremiah's lamenta- tion, that such as were brought up in scarlet, embraced dunghills; that princes were hanged up by the hands, and the faces of elders M'ere not reverenced: But what was that to the humiliation of the Lord of glory ? Or, (2.) That he suffered in the prime and flower of his years; when full of life and sense, and more capable of exquisite sense of pain than others : for he was optime comple.vioncUus^j' of a singular con- stitution ; and all the while he hanged on the tree, his sense of pain not at all blunted or decayed, Mark xv. 37, 39. Or, (3.) The man- ner of his death. It was the death of the cross, which was a 7'ack to Christ : for in reference to the distention of his members upon the cross is that spoken, Ps. xxii. 17. "I may tell all my bones." Or, (4.) That all this while God hid his face from him. When Stephen suffered, he saw the heavens opened. The maityrs were many of them ravished and transported with extasies of joy in their sufferings; but Christ in the dark. He suffered in his soul as well as in his body ; and the sufferings of his soul were the very soul of his sufferings. It was the Father's wrath that lay so heavy on him, as to put him into such an agony, that an instance was never given of the like nature : for he sweat ^go/xSo/, great drops, or dodders of blood, which fell from his body to the ground, Luke xxii. 44. " It amazed him, and *' made him very heavy ;" see Mark xiv. 33. yea, sorrowful even to « death," Mat. xxvi. 38.
And yet, as bitter as the cup was, he freely and willingly drank it up, John xviii. 11. prepared himself to be offered up a sacrifice, Psak xl. 6, 7. " gave his back to the smiters," Isa. 1. 6. yea, longed ex- ceedingly for the time till it came, Luke xii. 50.
* Dotor Christ ijkit major omnibus doioribus, Aqui». | Aquinas.
THE BEST V/ORK IN THE WORST TIMES. 79
Now, if Christ so cheerfully prepared and addressed himself to such sufferings as these for you, should you not prepare yourselves to en- counter any difficulty or hardships for him ? O my brethren, doth not this seem a just and fair inference to you, from the suiferings of Christ for you ? 1 Pet. iv. 1. " Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered " for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind.*^
Oh, trifle no longer, feed not yourselves with fancies and ground- less presumptions of immunity and peace, but foresee difficulties, and iit yourselves to bear them.