4. Fourthly and lastly, Who but a bad man woidd adventure the loss of the king's favour to gain the favour of his page ? Who but a stark Bedlam would run the hazard of losing the judge's favour upon the bench, to purchase the good will of the prisoner at the bar?
Socrates preferred the king's countenance before his coin ; and so must you prefer the favour of God, the countenance of Christ, Ps. iv. 6, 7, and the things of eternity, above all the favour and friendship of all the men in the world. When your nearest friends and dearest relations stands in competition with Christ, or the things above, you must shake them off, you must turn your backs upon them, and welcome Christ and the things of your peace. He that forsakes all relations for Christ, shall certainly find all relations in Christ ;2 he will be father, friend, husband, child ; he will be everything to thee, who takest him for thy great all.
Object. 3. Aye, but I shall meet with many reproaches from one and other, if I should labour to be good betimes, if I should seek and
1 Valerian, Valens, Belisaxius, Bajazot, Pythias, Dionysius, Pompey, William the Conqueror, and many others, have found it so. Glaucus, who changed his armour of fold with Diomedes, for his armour of brass, stands upon record for a fool. s Ps. xlv. 10 ; Mat. x. 37 ; Luko xiv. 26, 27.
1 Kings XIV. 13.] apples of gold. 265
serve the Lord in the spring and morning of my youth. Now, to this I answer,
1. First, What are reproaches to the great things that others have suffered for Christ his gospel, and the maintaining of a good con- science ? What is a prick of a pin to a stab at the heart ? what is a chiding to a hanging, a whipping to a burning ? No more are all the reproaches thou canst meet with, to the great things that others have suffered for Christ's sake.1
Ah, young men ! you should be like the Scythian that went naked in the snow, and when Alexander wondered how he could endure it, answered, I am not ashamed, for I am all forehead.
So should you in the cause and way of Christ ; you should not be ashamed, you should be all forehead, you should be stout and bold.
Colon us, the Dutch martyr, under all his reproaches, called to the judge that had sentenced him to death, and desired him to lay his hand upon his heart, and then asked him, Whose heart did most beat, his or the judge's? All the reproaches in the world should not so much as make a Christian's heart beat ; they should not in the least trouble him nor disturb him. But,
2. Secondly, I answer, That all the reproaches thou meetest with in the way of Christ, and for the sake of Christ, they do but add pearls to thy crown ; they are all additions to thy happiness and blessedness. If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye ; for the Spirit of glory, and of God, resteth upon you ; on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified, 1 Peter iv. 14. The more you are reproached for Christ's sake on earth, the greater shall be your reward in heaven ; they that are most loaded with reproaches here, shall be most laden with glory hereafter, Mat. v. 11, 12. Christ hath written their names in golden letters in his book of life, that are written in black letters of reproach for his sake on earth. It was a good saying of one [Chrysostom] : A reproacher, saith he, is beneath a man, but the reproached that bear it well, are equal to angels ; of all crowns, the reproached man's crown will weigh heaviest in heaven.2 But,
3. Thirdly, I answer, the best men have been mostly reproached. David was, Ps. lxix. 7, lxxxix. 50, cxix. 22, xxxi. 11, cix. 25 ; and Job was, Job xix. 31, xx. 3,3 xvi, 10 ; and Jeremiah was, Jer. xx. 7, 10. Yea, this hath been the common portion of the people of God in all ages of the world, In Nehemiah's time it was so: Neh. i. 3, ' And they said unto me, The remnant that are left of the captivity, are in great afflic- tion and reproach/ In David's time it was so, Ps. lxxix. 4, and Ps. xliv. 13, 14; and in Jeremiah's time it was so: Lam. v. 1, 'Remember, O Lord, what is come upon us : consider, and behold our reproach.' And in Daniel's time it was so: Dan. ix. 16, ' Thy people are become a re- proach to all that are about us ;' and it was so in the apostle's time : Rom. iii. 8, ' And not rather, (as we be slanderously reported, as some affirm that we say,) Let us do evil, that good may come ; whose damna-
1 Hebrews xi. 33. Eead of the ten persecutions. [See Sibbes's Works, vol.i. p. 384. — G.]
2 So was Joseph, Mephibosheth, Naboth, and in latter times Luther, whom they said died despairing, when he was alive to confute it ; and that Beza run away with another man's wife ; and that Calvin was branded on the shoulder for a rogue : but there would be no end to this stuff, should I say all that might be said.
3 The speaker here is Zophar, not Job. — G.
2°G APPLES OF GOLD. [1 KlNGS XIV. 13.
tion is just ;' 2 Cor. vi. 8, ' By honour and dishonour, by evil report and good report : as deceivers and yet true ;' so in that^l Tim. iv. 10, ' For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God,' &c. And it was so in the primitive times, for when the Christians met together before sun[rise] to pray, the heathens reported of them that they worshipped the sun, and aspired after monarchy, and committed adulteries and unnatural uncleannesses.1 Now, who is troubled, who complains of that which is a common lot, as cold, winter, sickness, death ? &c. No more should any complain of reproaches, it being the common lot of the people of God in all ages ; yea, Christ himself was sadly reproached, falsely accused, and strangely traduced, disgraced, and scandalized. He was called a glutton, a drunkard, a friend of publicans and sinners, and judged to use the black art, casting out devils by Beelzebub the prince of devils, Mat. ix. 34, xii. 24. Christ hath suffered the greatest and the worst reproaches ; why then should you be afraid to wear that crown of thorns that Christ hath worn before you ? There is a great truth in what he said, Non potent qui pati timet, ejus esse qui passus est,2 he that is afraid to suffer cannot be his disciple, who suffered so much. If the master hath been marked with a black coal, let not the servant think to go free. I am heartily angry, saith Luther, with those that speak of my sufferings, which, if compared with that which Christ suffered for me, are not once to be mentioned in the same day. But,
4. Fourthly, I answer, That all reproachers shall at last be arraigned at the highest bar of justice, for all the reproaches that they have cast upon the people of Ood.
They think it strange, for they think it a new world, that you ' run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you, who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead,' 1 Pet. iv. 4.3