6. When you are willing to undergo any trouble, and count it an honour to suffer for Christ's sake. To die for Christ, saith Ignatius, is greater than to be monarch of all the world : Acts v. 41, 'And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his sake,' ore KaT^LOiOvcrav arifxa- adrjvat; that they were so far dignified as to be disgraced for Christ. Cur non me quoque torque donas ? — Why don't you honour me with a chain also ? said one. Suffering is a privilege : ' To you it is given to suffer for Christ,' Phil. i. 29.
Motives.
1. Consider you are not your own, but under another lord. All disorder cometh from looking upon ourselves as our own men : Jer. ii. 31, ' We are lords, and will not come at thee ; ' Ps. xii. 4, ' Our tongues are our own ; who is lord over us ? ' Prodigals will say, I spend nothing but my own. The covetous will say, ' Shall I take my bread and my wine,' &c.
2. We have owned Christ's right in baptism. There the hands of consecration passed upon us : 1 Peter iii. 21, ' Baptism doth also now save us ; not the putting away the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.' You that have professed the christian religion, you rescind your baptismal vow by a loose life. Your parents consecrated you to Christ, and you will not stand to it.
3. There will a day of accounts come, when the great God of recom- penses will reckon with you : Jer. Ii. 6, ' For this is the time of the Lord's vengeance ; he will render unto thee a recompense ; ' Luke xix. 23, ' At my coming I will require mine own with usury.' If there were no day of account, we are so much obliged ; but there is a day
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of inquiry what portion you had ; thus much time, thus much estate. What a poor account will most be able to make !
4. The utility and profit of it as to present comfort and final reward.
[1.] For the present an interest in Christ's intercession : John xvii. 9, 10, ' I pray for them ; I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me ; for they are thine : and all mine are thine, and thine are mine, and I am glorified in them.' Those who glorify Christ on earth, he is pleading their cause in heaven. You are his factors, lie is your advocate. It is a sweet thing to have our Kedeemer speak well of us behind our back ; when we are praying, to have him pleading, Father, this is one that glorified me. He makes a good report of you in heaven.
[2.] Hereafter it will turn to a good account, whatever it cost you for the present. David's companions in the wilderness had hard ser- vice in the wilderness, and little wages; but when David was crowned in Hebron, they were all advanced to offices and places of power and trust. We may meet with many a frown, and hard entertainment in the world, but we shall not repent it in the day of Christ's royalty. There is a notable passage, Mat. xix. 27, 28, ' Then answered Peter, and said unto him, Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed thee ; what shall we have therefore ? And Jesus said unto them, Verily, I say unto you, That ye who have followed me in the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit on the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones.' What had Peter to forsake ? A net, a cottage, a fisher-boat ; a great all.! But we are apt to think much of what we part with for Christ's SiCke; a little scorn, a disgraceful word, some paring of our maintenance ; presently we say, What shall we have therefore ? We need not seek another paymaster ; Christ will not be behindhand with us iv iraXtyyeveaia, 'in the regeneration.' Surely we do not think often enough of the general renovation of all things ; if we did, we would glorify God more. If you live to Christ, you shall live with Christ, enjoy his company in heaven.
SERMON II. To die is gain. — Phil. i. 21.
I come to the benefit of death, ' To die is gain.' Some refer it to martyrdom, as if the gain would be to Christ. In his life he would glorify him by preaching, in his death by martyrdom. It is true, in this sense, ' to die is gain,' no loss to the church, but an advantage, and making for her increase. Sanguis martyrum est semen ecclesiai — The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. And God's honour is thereby promoted : John xxi. 19, ' Signifying by what death he should glorify God.' It is so said concerning Peter's martyrdom. It is for the glory of the truth, when they are ready to seal it with their blood, and to stand to the defence even to the death. It is an evidence of the