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[SERM. Refolution to bear it, that having it in Expectation and View, they might not be furprized, but duly prepared and fortified for it. Beloved, fays St. Peter, think it not strange concerning the fiery Trial, which is to try you, as though fome strange Thing happen'd unto you, I Pet. iv. 12. It was this general Expectation of Sufferings which fo fortified St. Paul, that he was always ready to encounter them. Behold, fays he, I go bound in the Spirit unto Jerufalem, not knowing the Things which fhall befal me there: Save that the Holy Ghost witneffeth in every City, faying, that Bonds and AffliEtions abide me. But none of thefe Things move me, neither count I my Life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my Courfe with Joy, and the Miniftry which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the Gospel of the Grace of God, Acts xx. 22.

5. The foretelling the Crofs was agreeable to that Sincerity fo much recommended by our Saviour's Doctrine and Example; it was to deal fairly and candidly with his Disciples, and to tell them truly what they were to expect: Whereas to have concealed it from them would have been to have deceived them, as Kidnappers do by those they inveigle and trepan away into ftrange Countries, telling them abundance of plaufible fine Stories, magnifying all the good Things, and concealing or extenuating all the Hardships they are to meet with. Our Lord ufes a quite contrary Method to this, telling from the Beginning the worst Men are to expect in his Service; and then comforting them under it with his heavenly Promifes and Example.

6. Laftly, The foretelling the Sufferings of our Saviour and his Apoftles, ferves to demonftrate to

the

the World, that thofe Sufferings are voluntary, and of their own Choice, which is a very confiderable Ingredient in them: Had our Saviour's Sufferings been involuntary, this would have made them to be no Act of his, and confequently would have destroy'd all the Virtue and Merit of them; and if his Difciples Sufferings had been involuntary, they might eafily have declined them, by abandoning that Profeffion which occafioned them; but then all the Virtue of them had been gone, and the Sufferers had not been entitled to the glorious Promifes annexed to them in my Text, and in many other Paffages of the New Teftament. But now, that they knew the worst that attended the Chriftian Profeffion, and yet would chufe it, this fhews a prevalent Love to the Truth, and a Preference of what they hop'd from Chrift in another Life, to all that they could lofe in this.

Thus now we have confider'd both the Reafonableness of this Difpenfation of the Crofs, and why it was neceffary that it should be fo early foretold to our Saviour's Difciples; and if this would scare away any of them from his Service, it was much better that they should never engage with him, than, after they had been his Difciples, to difhonour him, and his Religion, by their Cowardice and Apoftacy in the Day of Trial.

SERMON

SERMON XVIII.

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MAT. V. II.

Blessed are ye when Men fhall revile you, and per fecute you, and fhall fay all manner of Evil against you falfly for my fake.

The Fourth Sermon on this Text.

T

HE Third Thing I propofed to confider in this Prediction of Sufferings to our Saviour's Disciples, was, how it was fulfilled in the primitive Times of Chriftianity; for this is one good Way to find out the Meaning of Prophecies or Predictions, even to compare them with the Events: And tho' the Truths our Saviour here foretold have relation to true Chriftians in all Times, who are generally very ill used by the World; no doubt they had a more particular Regard to the Apostles and those first Chriftians to whom they were spoken: Blef fed are ye when Men fhall revile you, and perfecute. you. Now that this Matter of Fact was literally fo, is plain, from all that remains to us of Church Hiftory: The first Attempt to deftroy the Church was by Perfecution, but, God be praised, this Way was fo far from prevailing, that the Church was never more glorious in all manner of Chriftian Graces and Virtues, than she was in those

Days,

Days, like Gold well purified in the Fire from all its Drofs and Alloy. And as the Sufferings of the Apostles and firft Chriftians were thus notorious, it was as notorious that thofe their Sufferings were purely on account of their Religion; they were not fo much as accufed then of Sedition, Treason, or Rebellion, with relation to the State; or of Theft, Robbery, Murder, or any other capital Crime, with relation to private Men: All the Crime laid to their Charge, was an obftinate Refoluteness to own their Religion, and to adhere to it. Some of their Enemies imputed this their Boldness to Melancholy, as if they had been weary of their Lives; others to Vanity, as if they had been proud of the Honour of Martyrdom: But there was no Reafon for either of thefe Imputations; for, as to Melancholy, they fhew'd in all other Refpects fuch an even Temper of Mind, and went to Death with fo much Chearfulness and Joy, as is directed here in the Words immediately following my Text, that of all Things it was the most unlike to that difmal Paffion. And as to Vanity, the known Humility and Modesty of the other Parts of their Lives did clearly evince the Falfhood of that Afperfion: Befides, what great Honour could they expect from these their Martyrdoms, when many common Perfons, of no Name, or Note, went boldly and patiently to Death for their Religion, who could not fo much as hope that their Names would be preserved, but that, in fo great Crowds of Sufferers, they must be buried in Oblivion? It was a true Character the Apostle St. Paul gave of those Times, and of the Christian Sufferers in thofe Days, that If in this Life only they had had VOL. I.

Y

Hope

Hope in Chrift, of all Men they should have been the most miferable, 1 Cor. xv. 19. So plain it was, both that they were expos'd to great Sufferings, and that thofe Sufferings were on account of their better Hopes in a future State. But then

It is a real Question, Whether this Prediction of our Saviour's is to be extended farther than to those early Times, when the fecular Powers were Enemies to Chriftianity; and whether, and how far we are concerned in this Doctrine, who live in the more peaceable Times of the Church, when she has the Happiness of a legal Establishment, and Kings are become her nurfing Fathers, and Queens her nurfing Mothers: Which is the fourth Thing I propos'd to confider from this Prediction. And for Refolution of it, I fhall enquire into thefe three Things, upon which the Refolution of this Queftion will depend. 1. What Light the holy Scriptures offer in this Matter. 2. How far it is true that the publick Enmity againft Chriftians is ceafed, from the Empire's turning Chriftian. 3. How far the fecular Spirit in the Church is apt to expose it still to Perfecution. From the Confideration of all which, it will, I doubt, appear, that good Chriftians are not yet exempted from being concerned in this Prediction, that they fhould be reviled, calumniated, and perfecuted for Chrift's fake.

1. To begin with the holy Scriptures. There are a great many Things in them relating to this Matter, which feem to have a general Afpect upon all Times, and not to be reftrained only to the Times of publick Perfecution. I fhall inftance in fome of the chief of them. St. Paul and St. Barnabas deliver it as a general true Doctrine,

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