And then he will not have them die till they have done their work. He taketh special notice of them all their life. And when they have done what they came for, as Christ saith of himself, ' I have done the work thou gavest me to do,' John xvii. 4, then he sendeth for them home. They die not at adventure, but under the care of one that knoweth them well both in life and death.
And therefore it is that God so revenged the persecutors of his church, for the blood of his saints, from the blood of Abel unto this day.
And as the ' death of his saints are precious,' so are all things that the saints have. Their credit is precious, their goods are precious. God taketh notice of everything they part with for his sake. As he and all his is ours — himself, his happiness, his Spirit, his privileges — so when we are his, all ours are his. He taketh care of our lives, of our deaths, of our credits, of our riches, of our estates. We part with nothing for him but he considers it, and will reward it abundantly.
* He that dieth in the Lord is a blessed man ;' so saith the Spirit, Rev. xiv. 13. The flesh wall not say so, but rather will infer who would be so religious, for such venture their lives, and are counted as the ofltscouring of the world. The devil will teach this lesson, and the world. As they have lived in the flesh, and will sell all to be somebody in the world, though they go to hell when they have done. But, saith the Spirit, blessed are they who not only die for the Lord as martyrs, but that die in the Lord ; whether to seal the truth of God with their blood, or otherwise, they die happily ; and so this is a ground of special comfort.
And as it is a ground of special comfort, so it is a ground of direction. ' Whether we live or die, we are the Lord's.' Therefore it may be a foun- dation of living to the Lord. If we be the Lord's, surely we ought to live to him. If we be his, all our endeavours, whatsoever is ours, are his. Fructiis &ndfimdi(s, go together, the fruit and the soil ; and therefore if we be the Lord's in life and death, we must not live to ourselves as our own, but give ourselves to him, and not to anj'thing else ; we are not our own, nor man's, but the Lord's. And therefore we ought not to yield up ourselves to our Belf-wills, self-wit, self-love, to be at our own disposing, and to live as we list. We are redeemed from ourselves, yea, from all our vain conver- sations.
Some think Christ died, and therefore they may be vain, especially at the solemn time of Christ's nativity. The devil hath so prevailed with the world, and will till there be a new face of the church ; they never honour the devil more than when they seem to honour Christ. For, say they, Christ came to set us at liberty. Did he so ? But it was to deliver us from wickedness ; yea, from vain conversations, and not to purchase us
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liberty to live as wo list.* ' Our tongues are our own,' say they in the psalms, Ps. xii. 4. Ay, but Christ saith, they are not your own, they arc his. And if they bo not Christ's, they are the devil's. Our thoughts are not our own, but all should be dedicated to Christ. Therefore we should bo content that Christ should set up a regiment f in our souls, that he may rule our thoughts, desires, our language, and members, that they may be all 'weapons of righteousness,' Horn. vi. 13.
Wo have nothing our own, much less sin, from which wo arc redeemed. And not only from gross sins, but from such conversations as are vain in themselves, and will be vain to thee.
And when we are redeemed from sin, and from vain conversations, wo are redeemed from ourselves, from the world, from tlie devil ; whom now hath a man to serve ? None but this Lord. We have renounced all other in baptism, and we are revolters and rebels, and renounce our covenant in baptism, if we renounce not the world and the lusts of it in our lives.
Ourselves we must not serve. For we are redeemed from ourselves, and not only from our carnal selves, but natural selves. Christ is Lord of our natures. And a Christian ought to say, Lord, of thee I had this body ; of thee I had this life of mine, these goods of mine, this credit of mine, this reputation and place in the world. As I had all from thee, so I return all to thee again.
And as we are not our own, we must not be other men's. * We are not servants of men, ''as the apostle saith, Rom. viii. 12, seq.l We must not take upon trust the opinions that others would put upon us, or what wc list our- selves in religion. We must not have men's persons in admiration, for advantage. We must not idolise any creature, for as we are not our own, so we are not any other's, but we are the Lord's.