Use 3. If this should now befall you, as it hath befallen God's choicest servants, and very likely so to do for those reasons I gave, then shrink not, but resolve to endure any extremity rather than take any sinful course for your ease ; nay, l3e not dejected if it should happen : Acts xxi. 13, ' I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die for the name of the Lord Jesus.' There was one that had his life in his hand indeed, that had the courage to lay it down. To quicken you hereto, let me give a few considerations : —
1. God hath given you greater things than possibly you can lose for his sake ; though we should lose life and all, yet he hath given us his Christ. Saith Ambrose, We are indebted for a person of the Godhead ; and shall we stick at our personal interests and concernments ? Shall we not die for his honour who died for our salvation ? die temporally for him who maketli us to live eternally ? and give that body as a sacrifice to the honour of Christ, which otherwise by the law of nature will become meat for the worms ? therefore every Christian should carry his life in his hand, Phil. i. 20, either by martyrdom or minis- terial labours.
2. No evil is like to that evil which will befall us in forsaking God : Mat. X. 28, ' Fear not them which can but kill the body,' &c. Shall we, rather than run hazards with the sheep of Christ, be contented to howl with wolves in everlasting darkness, when we for a little tem- poral danger refuse to run hazard with Christ's sheep, shall be cast into hell-fire for evermore ? If we are so tender of suffering, what will it be to suffer hell-fire ?
3. All that we can lose is abundantly made up in the other world. Heb. xi. 35, it is said, they ' would not accept deliverance, having obtained a better resurrection.' There is a resurrection from death to life, when we come out upon ill terms, by accepting the enemy's deliverance. Ay ! but there is a better resurrection when we come out upon God's terms, a resurrection to life and glory hereafter. Violence doth but open the prison door, and let out the soul that long hath desired to be with Christ ; and therefore we should endure, as expect- ing this better resurrection.
4. Consider upon what slight terms men will put their lives in their hands for other things, and shall, we not run hazards for Christ? Many venture their lives for a humour, a little vainglory, to show a
124 SERMONS uroN rsALM ex IX. [Ser. CXIX.
i^reatneps of spirit ; or they venture their lives upon revenges, upon a punctilio of honour. Some will venture their lives in the wars for one shilling a day, and shall avc not carry our lives in our hands for Christ ? Scij)io boasted of his soldiers, that they loved him so as to venture their lives for him, to leap into the sea, and cast themselves down a steep rock : There are none of these but if I spake the word, shall go upon a tower, and throw himself down into the sea if I bid him. So Fulgentius story of those that would obey their chief, Avhom they called Vehis, the old man of the mountain, if he bid them fall down a steep rock, to show their obedience ; and shall not we venture our lives for Christ ?
Doct. 2. Tliat when our souls are continually in our hands, no kind of danger should make ns warp and turn aside from the direction of God's word. Why ?
1. A Christian should be above all temporal accidents ; above carnal grief, carnal joy, worldly hope, worldly fear; he should be dead to tbe world, or else he is not thoroughly acquainted with the virtue of Christ's cross, Gal. vi. 14.
2. God can so restrain the malice of wicked men, that though we carry our lives in our hands, we shall be safe enough for all that : Prov. xvi. 7, ' When a man's ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.' Mark, the Lord can secure you against men, when a man pleaseth the Lord ; but when a man pleaseth men, they cannot secure you against the Lord, they cannot save you harmless from the wrath of God, or answer for you to the Almighty, nor give you safety from the terrors of conscience. But on the other side, many a man by pleasing God finds more safety and comfort in opposing the lusts and the humours of men than in com- plying with lliem. God's ^n-ovidence is wonderfully at work for his children when they are reduced to these extremities ; cither he can allay their fury, turn in convictions upon their consciences of tlie righteousness of those whom they molest and trouble, as when Saul hunted for David, 1 Sam. xxiv. 17, ' Thou art more righteous than 1/ God puts conviction upon him. Nay, sometimes such a fear and rever- ence that they dare not : Mark vi. 20, ' Herod feared John because lie was a strict man.' Or some check or bridle, some contrary interest that God can set up, that their hands are withered when they are stretched out against them, as was Jeroboam's hand ; and there- fore a Christian, though his life be in his hand, he should not warp. Why ? For God can mightily provide for him as to his temporal safety: 1 Peter iii. 13, ' Who is he that will harm you, if ye be fol- lowers of that which is good ?' It is an indefinite proposition, some- times it will be true. Let a man follow that which is good, who dares harm him ? There is an awe, and he is kept safe, though not always.