2. To remove such objections as may hinder your courage and constancy.
[1.] It is a sore temptation to keep our service, but we must stand to God's providence, to honour him by service or suffering, as he shall think good. We are to honour God in his own way, we are not to stretch conscience in the least degree to continue it. God hath no need of thy sin ; when God hath a mind to lay you aside, submit.
[2.] The smallness of the difference is another- objection. If it were to turn Turk, or heathen, or papist, men will say, they would not do so and so. God standeth upon every j)eek of his word, every dust of truth is precious.
[3] Another objection is this, we shall be interpreted to hinder the public peace.
I answer — ' If it be possible, as much as lietli in you, live peaceably with all men/ Kom. xii. 18. But be sure not to betray the cause of God, nor lose the interest of Christ ; that is not possible which is not lawful in a moral sense.
[4.] Another objection is, that we shall be accounted peevish, rash, stubborn.
I answer — We must be led to credit. There is a difference between men stubborn and obstinate and zealous. Many may sacrifice a stout body to a stubborn mind, but be courageous and constant in the service of God.
3. What is necessary to this well-tempered courage, that M^e may suffer not out of humour, but out of conscience towards God? Not because formerly engaged by profession, or out of a desire of a name and esteem among religious persons, but out of obedience to God, who commandeth us to choose afflictions, rather than sin. To this resolu- tion there is necessary —
[1.] A heart weaned from the world, Mat. vi. 24, otherwise a man will act very uncertainly, and his zeal for God be very uneven.
VeR. 110.] SERMONS UPON PSxVLM CXIX. 127
[2.] A heart entirely devoted to God. Every one that cometh to Christ must be thus resolved, Luke xiv. 26.
[3.] A heart purged from sin, or else our zeal is not uniform, besides that our lusts will weaken our courage. A carnal person, suffering in a good cause, is of no account with God. The priests were to search the burnt-offering if sound, or had any defect or blemish upon them. He that keepeth the commandments is best able to suffer for them : Mat. V, 10, ' Blessed are they that suffer for righteousness' sake.' A martyr must have all the precedent graces.
[4.] A heart that lietli under a deep sense of eternity, and things to come : 1 John v. 4, ' This is the victory we have over the world, even our faith.' Not any looking backward, but forward.
SEEMON CXX.i
The wicked have laid a snare for me ; yet I erred not from thy precepts. — Ver. 110.
Here is the second assault made upon David's integrity, the secret snares laid for him. The enemies of God's people do not always go to work in the way of open persecution, and directly for righteousness' sake ; but then they lay snares ; what they cannot do by open force, they seek to do by fraud. Many that have stood out with courage against the shock ,of violence, have been taken in a snare ; as the prophet that resisted the king was enticed by the blandishments of the old prophet, 1 Kings xiii. Persecution is a more gross way, and liable to exception, and therefore they must go secretly to work. Sometimes this life is a continued temptation, and a Christian that walketh in the world walketh in the midst of snares set for him, by his enemies bodily and spiritual. The devil is the great snare-layer, and wicked men learn it of him : 'The wicked have laid a snare for me,' &c. In the words observe —
1. David's temptation, a snare laid for him.
2. The persons who managed the temptation, the iciclied.
3. The success and issue, yet I erred not from thy precepts.
Doct. The godly have often snares laid for them, not only by Satan, but by wicked men.
Now snares are to entice, or endanger, or of a mixed nature.
1. Snares to entice them from their duty. Thus the blandishments of the whorish woman are called a snare : Prov. vii. 23, ' As the bird hasteth unto the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life.' Of this nature are crafty insinuations, baits of preferment, profit, pleasure, or any carnal advantage, to pervert our judgments, and draw us off from our duty.
2. Snares to endanger their safety, clogged with some spiteful condition to entrap others, or when there is a plot laid to endanger others, as Jeremiah complaineth, Jer. xviii. 22, ' They have digged a pit to take me, they have hid snares for my feet ;' secretly conspired
^ Ou the Fifth of November.
128 SERMONS UPON TSALM CXIX. [SeR. CXX.
and practised Ins destruction. And David, Ps. cxl. 5, ' The proud have hid a snare for nie, and cords ; they have spread a net by the wayside, and set gins for my feet. Selah/ Hunters and fowlers did never go more cunningly to work to catch the i)rey, than those proud ]ncn had laid their design to bring his life under their power. And in Ps. XXXV. 7, ' For without cause they have hid for me their net in a pit, which Avithout cause they have digged for my soul ;' and Ps. Ivii. 6, ' They have prepared a net for my steps ; my soul is bowed down: they have digged a pit for me, into the midst whereof they arc fallen themselves. Selah.' Now of this sort are St ]xu-tholomew's matins, and the plot and contrivance to out the Protestants in Prance, when they were invited to a wedding, that they might destroy them ; and of this nature was the Gunpowder Treason ; there was a snare laid. When Orestes had plotted Clytemnestra's death, Euripides expresseth it, /caAws" up apKvv e? fieariv 'rropeuerai — she fitly cometli into the snare.