1 Mat. xiii. ; 2 Tim. i. 15, 16; 1 Tim. i. 19, 20 ; 2 Tim. iv. 10, 14-16.
TO ALL SUFFERING SAINTS. 447
and Abed-nego, would rather bum than bow, they would rather suffer than sin, which was an evident proof of their sincerity and ingenuity ; they would be Nonconformists, though court, city, and couatry cried up conformity, which was a sm'e argument of their integrity. Hypo- crites have heart enough for themselves, but none for God. If they see their names, estates, or carnal interest any way touched, they are all on fire, and ready to be burnt up with the flames of their own zeal ; but they can see the name, truth, and interest of God, assaulted and torn in pieces, and never stir. In their own concerns, they are as if they were all heart ; but in the cause of God, they are as if, with Ephraim, they had no heart at all, Hosea vii. 11. Oh, it is sad that men should have a heart for themselves, and none for God ; that they should have courage in their own cause, and none in his. As the soul is the glory of the body, so integrity is the glory of the soul. A sin- cere Cliristian, with Job, will rather let all go than let his integrity go, Job xxvii. 5 ; he will sooner let the blood be pressed out of his veins, and his soul out of his body, than his integrity out of his soul. Oh, how bravely did the primitive Christians carry themselves as to this matter. Pliny, writing to Trajan,^ declares to him that such was their zeal and courage in the behalf of their God, that nothing could stir them from it ; neither the imperious checks of the potent emperors, nor the soft language of the eloquent orators, could draw them from the faith ; but they steadfastly owned it, and constantly persevered in the de- fence of it. But now base unsound hearts will exceedingly shuffle and shift to shake off persecution. Witness those false teachers. Gal. vi. 12, * As many as desire to make a fair show,' or, as the Greek has it, to set a good face on it, in the flesh, they constrain you to be circum- cised, only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ.' Mark, at this time the Jews, out of zeal to their law, did sorely per- secute those that did either preach or practise anything contrary to their law. Now these false teachers set a good face on it, and make a fair show, as if they were all for carnal rites and ceremonies ; and they pressed circumcision upon the Galatians, but not out of any true affection or zeal that they did bear to the law, but only to procure favour on the one hand, and to avoid and escape the malice and per- secution of the Jews on the other hand. They that were no Jews, to avoid persecution, would comply with them that were ; they would seem to be very earnest for Judaism, but not for Christianism, that so they miglit escape the fury of the Jews. Unsound hearts will say anything,|and do anything, and be anything, to avoid persecution, and to ingratiate themselves with persecutors. The Samaritans, so long as the Jewish religion flourished, and was in honour, caused a temple to be built on Mount Gerizim, that therein they might not be inferior to the Jews ; and they boasted themselves to be of the progeny of Joseph, and worshippers of God with them. But when they perceived that the Jews were cruelly afflicted and persecuted by Antiochus Epi- phanes for worshipping of the true God, and fearing lest they should be handled in the like manner, they changed both their coat and their note, affirming that they were not Israelites, but Sidonians, and that they had built their temple, not unto God, but unto Jupiter,^ Thus 1 Epist. xcvii. p. 316. ' Joseph. Hist., lib. xiii. [As before.— G.]
448 A GENERAL EPISTLE TO ALL SUFFERING SAINTS.
you see that times of affliction and persecution will distinguish the precious from the vile, Jer. xv. 19. It will difference the counterfeit professor 'from the true. Persecution is a Christian's touchstone; it is a Lapis Lydius that will try what metal men are made of, whether they be silver or tin, gold or dross, wheat or chaff, shadow or substance, carnal or spiritual, sincere or hypocritical. Nothing speaks out more soundness and uprightness than keeping close to Christ, his worship, truth, and ways, in a day of warm persecution. To stand close and fast to 'God and his interest in fiery trials, argues much integrity within.
These thirteen particulars are so great truths, written with the beams of the sun, that no man or devil can deny, and therefore I shall make no apology to the persecutors of the day to excuse my writing of this general epistle ; but shall beg hard of God t^hat it may be so owned and crowned and blessed from on high, that it may really and fully answer to all those holy and gracious aims and ends that the author had in his eye and upon his heart when he writ it. And thus much for this general epistle.
SOME WORDS OF COUNSEL TO A DEAR FRIEND.
Dear Lady and Sister in the Lord,i — I shall now address my- self to you in a few lines, and so conclude. I know you have for many years been the Lord's prisoner. Great have been your trials, and many have been your trials, and long have been your trials ; but to all these I have spoken at large in my treatise called ' The Mute Christian under the Smarting Rod,' which you have in your hand, which you have read, and which God has greatly blessed to the sup- port, comfort, quiet, and refreshment of your soul under all your trials ; and therefore I shall say no more as to those particulars. But knowing that the many weaknesses that hang upon you, and the decays of nature that daily do attend you, seem to point out an ap- proaching dissolution, I shall at this time give you this one word of counsel, viz., that every day you would look upon death in a scripture glass, in a scripture dress, or under a scripture notion ; that is,
^ 1. First, Look upon death as that which is best for a believer: Phil. i. 23, ' For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to de- part, and to be with Christ, which is far better.' The Greek is very significant, ' far, far the better,' or far much better, or much more better. It is a most transcendent expression. 2 Eccles. vii. 1, 'Better is the day of death than the day of one's birth.' A saint's dying day is the daybreak of eternal righteousness. In respect of pleasure, peace, safety, company, glory, a believer's dying day is his best day. I have read of one Trophonius, that when he had built and dedicated that stately temple at Delphos, he asked of Apollo, for his recompense, that thing which was best for man. The oracle wished him to go home, and within three days he should have it ; and within that time he died. It was an excellent saying of one of the ancients, ' That is not a death, but life, wliich joins the dying man to Christ ; and that is not a life, but death, which separates a living man from Christ/ But,