APPLICATION: True Christians Few, Shown From The Gospel Holy Readiness To Suffer 2/2

2. Sort. Carnal gospellers, who keep possession of their lusts while they make profession of Christ.  A generation these are that have nothing to prove them­selves Christians by, but their baptism, and a Christian name which they have obtained thereby; such as, were they to live among Turks and heathens, their language and conversations—did they but conceal whence they came—would never bewray them to be Christians.  Can it now be rationally thought then that these are the men and women who stand ready to suffer for Christ and his gospel?  No sure; they who will not wear Christ’s yoke will much less bear his burden.  If the yoke of command that binds them to duty be thought grievous, they will much more think the burden of the cross insupportable.  He that will not do [work] for Christ, will not die for Christ.  That servant is very unlike to fight to blood in his master’s quarrel, that will  not work for him so as to sweat in his service.
3. Sort. The politic professor—a fundamental article in whose creed is, to save himself, not from sin, but from danger.  And therefore he studies the times more than the Scriptures; and is often looking what corner the wind lies in, that accordingly he may shape his course, and order his profession, which, like the hedgehog’s house, ever opens toward the warm side!
4. Sort. The covetous professor, whose heart and head are so full of worldly projects, that suffering for Christ must needs be very unwelcome to him, and find him far enough from such a disposition.  You know what the Egyptians said of the Israelites, ‘They are entangled in the land, the wilderness hath shut them in,’ Ex. 14:3.  More true is it of this sort of pro­fessors.  They are entangled in the world, this wilderness hath shut them in.  A man whose foot in a snare is as fit to walk and run as they to follow Christ, when to do it may prejudice their worldly interest.  Our Saviour, speaking of the miseries that were to come on Jerusalem, saith, ‘Woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days,’ Matt. 24:19—because it would be more difficult for them to escape the danger by flight.  But many more woes to them, who in days of trial and persecution for the gospel, shall be found big with the world, or that give suck to any covetous inordinate affection to the crea­ture.  Such will find it hard to escape the temptation that these will beset them with.  It is impossible in such a time to keep estate and Christ together; and as impossible for a heart that is set upon the world, to be willing to leave it for Christ’s company.
5. Sort. The conceited professor, who hath a high opinion of himself, and is so far from a humble holy jealously and fear of himself, that he is self-confident.  Here is a man shod and prepared he thinks, but not with the right gospel shoe.  ‘By strength shall no man prevail,’ I Sam. 2:9.  He that, in Queen Mary’s days, was so free of his flesh for Christ [that], as he said, he would see his fat—of which he had a good store—melt in the fire rather than fall back to Popery, lived, poor man, to see this his reso­lution melt, and himself cowardly part with his faith to save his fat.  Those that glory of their valour, when they put on the harness, ever put it off with shame. ‘The heart’ of man ‘is deceitful above all things,’—a very Jacob, that will supplant its own self.  He that cannot take the length of his own foot, how can he of himself fit a shoe to it?

APPLICATION: True Christians Few, Shown From The Gospel Holy Readiness To Suffer 1/2

           Use First. Must the Christian stand thus shod in readiness to march at the call of God in any way or weather?  This will exceedingly thin and lessen the number of true Christians, to what they appear to be at the first view, by the estimate of an easy cheap profession.  He that should come into our assemblies, and see them thracked and wedged in so close with multitudes flocking after the word, might wonder at first to hear the ministers sink the number of Chris­tians so low, and speak of them as so little a company.  Surely their eyes fail them, that they cannot see wood for trees, Christians for multitudes of Chris­tians that stand before them.  This very thing made one of the disciples ask Christ with no little stranging [wondering] at it, ‘Lord, are there few that be saved?’ Luke 13:23.  Observe the occasion of this question. Christ, ‘went through the cities and villages, teaching, and journeying toward Jerusalem,’ ver. 22.  He saw Christ so free of his pains to preach at every town he came to, and people throng after him, with great ex­pressions of joy that fell from many, ver. 17.  Then said he, ‘Lord, are there few that be save d?’  As if he had said, This seems very strange and almost incredible.  To see the way to heaven strewed so thick with peo­ple, and the means of salvation in such request, and yet be few saved at last! how can this be?  Now mark our Saviour's unriddling this mystery.  ‘And he said unto them (it seems the man spoke more than his own scruple), Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able,’ ver. 24.  As if Christ had said, You judge by a wrong rule.  If profession would serve the turn, and flocking after sermons, with some seeming joy at the word, were enough to save, heaven would soon be full.  But, as you love your souls, do not boult or try yourselves by this coarse sieve; but ‘strive to enter,’ •(T<Æ.,F2,—fight and wrestle, venture life and limb, rather than fall short of heaven.  ‘For many shall seek,...but shall not be able;’ that is, seek by an easy profession, and cheap religion, such as is hearing the word, performance of duties, and the like.  Of this kind there are many that will come and walk about heaven-door—willing enough to enter, if they may do it without ruffling their pride in a crowd, or hazarding their present carnal interest by any contest and scuf­fle; ‘but they shall not be able!’ that is, they ‘shall not be able to enter’—because their carnal cowardly hearts shall not be able to strive.  So that take Christians under the notion of ‘seekers,’ and by Christ’s own words they are ‘many.’  But consider them under the notion of ‘strivers,’ such as stand ready shod with a holy resolution to strive even to blood—if such trials meet them in the way to heaven—rather than not enter, and then the number of Christian soldiers will shrink, like Gideon's goodly host, to a ‘little troop.’  O how easy were it to instance in several sorts of Christians—so called in a large sense—that have not this gospel shoe to their foot, and therefore are sure to founder and falter when once brought to go upon sharp stones!

1. Sort. The ignorant Christian—what work is he like to make of suffering for Christ and his gospel? and such are not the least number in many congregations.  Now, they who have not so much light of knowledge in their understanding, as to know who Christ is and what he hath done for them, will they have so much heat of love as to march cheerfully after him, when every step they take must fetch blood from them?  Nabal thought he gave a rational answer to David’s servants, that asked some relief of him in their present strait, when he said, ‘Shall I then take my bread, and my water, and my flesh that I have killed for my shearers, and give it unto men, whom I know not whence they be?’ I Sam. 25:11.  He thought it too much to part with upon so little acquaintance. And will the ignorant person, think you, be ready to part, not only with his bread and flesh out of the pot —a little of his estate I mean—but the flesh of his own body, if called to suffer, and all this at the com­mand of Christ, who is one he knows not whence he is?  Paul gives this as the reason why he suffered and was not ashamed, ‘for (saith he) I know whom I have believed,’ II Tim. 1:12.  Story tells us of the Samaritans —a mongrel kind of people both in their descent and religion—that, when it went well with the people of God, the Israelites, then they would claim kindred with them, and be Jews, but, when the church of God was under any outward affliction, then they would disclaim it again.  And we may the less wonder at this base cowardly spirit in them, if we read the character Christ gives of them, to be a people that ‘worship they know not what,’ John 4:22.  Religion hath but loose hold of them, that have no better hold of it than a blind man’s hand.

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  Fourth. This readiness of spirit to suffer, gives the Christian the true enjoyment of his life.  A man never comes to enjoy himself truly, in any comfort of his life, till prepared to deny himself readily in it.  It is a riddle; but two considerations will unfold it.

1. Consideration. When we are prepared to deny ourselves in any comfort we may enjoy, then, and not till then, is that which hinders the enjoyment of our lives taken away; and that is fear.  Where there is, ‘there is torment.’  The outsetting deer is observed to be lean—though where good food is—because always in fear.  And so must they needs be, in the midst of all their enjoyments, on whose heart this virtue is continually feeding.  There needs nothing else to bring a man’s joy into a consumption, than an  inor­dinate  fear of losing what he hath at present.  Let but this get hold of a man’s spirit, and [he] once become hectical, and the comfort of his life is gone past re­covery.  How many, by this, are more cruel to themselves, than it is possible their worst enemies in the world could be to them?  They alas, when they have done their utmost, can kill them but once.  But, by antedating their own miseries, they kill themselves a thousand times over, even as oft as the fear of dying comes over their miserable hearts.

           When once, however, the Christian hath got this piece of armour on—‘the gospel of peace’—his soul is prepared for death and danger.  He sits at the feast which God in his present providence allows him, and fears no messenger with ill news to knock at his door. Yea, he can talk of his dying hour, and not spoil the mirth of his present condition, as carnal men think it does.  To them a discourse of dying in the midst of their junkets, is like the coming in of the officer to attack a company of thieves that are making merry to­gether with their stolen goods about them; or, like the wet cloth that Hazael clapped on the king his master’s face, it makes all the joy, which flushed out be­fore, squat in on a sudden, [so] that the poor creatures sit dispirited and all a mort, as we say, till they get out of this affrighting subject by some divertise­ment or other.  [And even when they do so, the effect is] only to relieve them for the present.  It puts them out of that particular fit which this brought upon them; but leaves them deeper in slavery to such amazement of heart, whenever the same ghost shall appear for the future.  Whereas, the Christian, that hath this preparation of heart, never tastes more sweetness in the enjoyments of this life, than when he dips these morsels in the meditation of death and eternity.  It is no more grief to his heart to think of the remove of these—which makes way for those far sweeter enjoyments—than it would be to one at a feast, to have the first course taken off, when he hath fed well on it, that the second course of all rare sweetmeats and banqueting stuff may come on, which it cannot till the other be gone. Holy David, Ps. 23:4, 5, brings in (as it were), a death’s head with his feast. In the same breath almost he speaks of his dying, ver. 4, and of the rich feast he at present sat at, through the bounty of God, ver. 5.  To that however he was not so tied by the teeth, but if God, that gave him this cheer, should call him from it to look death in the face, he could do so and ‘fear no evil, when in the valley of the shadow thereof,’ Ps. 23:4.

           And what think you of the blessed apostle Peter? Had not he, think you, the true enjoyment of his life? when he could sleep so sweetly in a prison—no desirable place—fast bound ‘between two soldiers’ —no comfortable posture—and this the very ‘night’ before Herod ‘would have brought him forth’ in all probability to his execution!  This was no likely time (one would think) to get any rest; yet we find him even there, thus, and then, so sound asleep, that the angel who was sent to give him his goal delivery smote him on the side to awake him, Acts 12:6, 7.  I question whether Herod himself slept so well that night as this his prisoner did.  And what was the potion that brought this holy man so quietly to rest?  No doubt ‘this preparation of the gospel of peace.’  He was ready to die, and that made him able to sleep.  Why should that break his rest in this world, which, if it had been effected, would have brought him to his eternal rest in the other?

2. Consideration. The more ready and prepared the Christian is to suffer from God, or for God, the more God is engaged to take care for him, and of him.  A good general is most tender of that soldier’s life who is least tender of it himself.  The less the Christian values himself and his interests for God’s sake, the more careful God is of him, either to keep him from suffering, or in it.  Both of these blessings are meant, ‘Whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it,’ Matt. 16:25.  Abraham was ready to offer up his son, and then God would not suffer him to do it.  But if the Lord at any time takes the Christian’s offer, and lets the blow be given, though to the severing of soul and body, he yet shows his tender care of him, by the high esteem  he sets upon their blood, which is not more prodigally spilt by man’s cruelty, than carefully gathered up by God.  ‘Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.’

           Thus we see, that by resigning ourselves up readily to the disposure of God, we engage God to take care of us whatever befalls us.  And that man or woman, sure, if any other in the world, must needs live comfortably, that hath the care of himself wholly taken off his own shoulders, and rolled upon God, at whose finding he now lives.  The poor widow was nev­er better off than when the prophet kept house for her.  She freely parted with her little meal for the prophet’s use, and, [as] a reward of her faith—in crediting the message he brought from the Lord, so far as to give the bread out of her own mouth, and child’s, to the prophet—she is provided for by a miracle, I Kings 17:12, 13.  O when a soul is once thus brought to the foot of God, that it can sincerely say, ‘Lord, here I am; willing to deliver up all I have, and am, to be at thy dispose; my will shall be done, when thou hast thy will of me;’ God accounts himself deeply obliged to look after that soul!

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  A third sort are as much in bondage to their pleasures.  They are said to ‘live in pleasure on the earth,’ James 5:5.  Their life is bound up in their pleas­ures.  As the rush grows in the mud, and the fish lives in the water, they cannot live without their pleasures. Take them from their feasts and sports, and their hearts, with Nabal’s, die like a stone in their bosoms. Now this frame of spirit we are speaking of breaks all these chains, and brings the Christian out of every house of bondage.  It learns him to like what fare God sends.  If prosperity comes, he ‘knows how to abound,’ so, that if he be, by a turn of providence, thrown out of the saddle of his present enjoyments, his foot shall not hang in the stirrup, nor his enslaved soul drag him after it with whining desires.  No, through grace he is a free man, and can spare the company of any creature, so long as he may but have Christ’s with him.  Blessed Paul stands upon his liberty.  ‘All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any,’ I Cor. 6:12.  I know the place is meant of those indifferent things, concerning which there was a present dispute.  There is but another sense, in which all things here below were indifferent things to that holy man; honour or dishonour, abundance or want, life or death.  These were indifferent to Paul, he would not come under the power of any one of them all.  It did not become a servant of Christ, he thought, to be so tender of his reputation as to write himself undone when he had not this or that—not to be so in love with abundance as not to be ready to welcome want—not to be en­deared so to life as to run from the thoughts of death —nor to be so weary of a suffering life as to hasten death to come for his ease.  That mind is to be called superior which chooses rather to meet and show the experiences of life, than to escape them.

           Third. This readiness to suffer, as it ennobles with freedom, so it enables the Christian for service. It is a sure truth [that] so far and no more is the Christian fit to live serviceably, than he is prepared to suffer readily.  Because there is no duty but hath the cross attending on it; and he that is offended at the cross, will not be long pleased with the service that brings it.  Prayer is the daily exercise of a saint.  This he cannot do as he should, except he can heartily say, ‘Thy will be done.’  And who can do that in truth, unless ready to suffer?  Praising God is a standing duty; yea, ‘in everything we must give thanks,’ I Thes. 5:18.  But, what if affliction befalls us?  How shall we tune our hearts to that note, if not ready to suffer? Can we bless God, and murmur?—praise God, and repine?  The minister’s work is to preach, ‘Woe to him if he do not;’ and if he do preach, he is sure to suffer.  Paul had his orders for the one, and his mittimus for the other, together.  He was sent at the same time to preach the grace of God to the world and to endure the wrath of the world for God.  So God told Ananias, ‘that he should bear his name before the Gentiles,’ and ‘suffer great things for his name’s sake,’ Acts 9:15, 16.  And if the gospel did not please the ungrateful world out of Paul’s mouth, who had such a rare art of sweetening it, it were strange that any who fall so far short of his gifts to move in the pulpit, and of his grace to win upon the hearts of men when out, should, if they mean to be faithful, think to go without the wages which the world paid him for his pains—reproach and contempt, if not downright blows of bloody persecution, as he met with.  And is not this shoe needful for the preacher’s foot, that is to walk among so many hissing serpents? Who but a Paul, that had got over the fond love of life, and fear of a bloody death, would have been so willing to go into the very lion's den, and preach the gospel there, where in a manner, he invited death to come unto him?—I mean at Rome itself, the seat of cruel Nero.  ‘So much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also; for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ,’ Rom. 1:15, 16.

           In a word, it is the duty of every Christian to make a free profession of Christ.  Now this cannot be done without hazard many times.  And if the heart be not resolved in this point—what to do; the first storm that riseth will make the poor man put in to any creek or hole, rather than venture abroad in foul weather. ‘Among the chief rulers also many believed on him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue,’ John 12:42.  Poor souls, they could have been content if the coast had been clear to have put forth, but had not courage enough to bear a little scorn that threatened them.  O what folly is it to engage for God, except we be willing to lay all at stake for him!  It is not worth the while to set out in Christ’s company by profession, except we mean to go through with him, and not leave him unkindly when we are half way, because of a slough or two.

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Second. There are reasons why Christians should always be prepared for trials, taken from the excellency of the frame of spirit which such a holy readiness would import.

           First. This readiness of heart to stoop to the cross evidenceth a gracious heart.  And a gracious spirit, I am sure, is an excellent spirit.  Flesh and blood never made any willing to suffer either for God or from God.  He that can do this, hath that ‘other spirit’ with Caleb, which proves him of a higher des­cent than this world, Num. 14:24. A carnal heart can neither act nor suffer freely; voluntas libera, in quan­tum liberata—the will is no more free than it is made free by grace (Luther).  So much flesh as is left in a saint, so much awkness and unwillingness to come to God's foot; and therefore where there is nothing but flesh, there can be nothing but unwillingness.  He that can find his heart following God in his command or providence cheerfully, may know who hath been there (as one said of the famous Grecian limner). This is a line that none but God could draw on thy soul.  The midwives said of the Israelitish women, they were not like the Egyptian in bringing forth their children, for they are lively, and are delivered ere the midwives could come in unto them, Ex. 1:19.  Truly thus lively and ready is the gracious heart in anything it is called to do or suffer.  It is not delivered with so much difficulty of a duty as a carnal heart, which must have the help and midwifery of some carnal arguments, or else it sticks in the birth.  But the gra­cious heart has done before these come to lend their helping hand.  Pure love to God, obedience to the call of his command, and faith on the security of his promise, facilitate the work, so that, be it never so burdensome to the flesh, yet it is not grievous to their spirit.  It is ever ready to say, ‘Thy will be done, and not mine.’  The apostle makes this free submission to the disclosure to the disposure of God’s afflicting hand to evidence a son's spirit, ‘If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons,’ Heb. 12:7. Ob­serve, he doth not say, ‘If you be chastened,’ but, ‘If ye endure chastening.’  Naked suffering doth not prove sonship, but ÛB@µ,<,4< B"4*,\"< doth—to endure it so as not to sink in our courage, or shrink from under the burden God lays on, but readily to offer our shoulder to it, and patiently carry it, looking with a cheerful eye at the reward when we come—not to throw it off, but to have it taken off by that hand which laid it on, all which the word imports.  This shows a childlike spirit.  And the evidence thereof must needs be a comfortable companion to the soul, especially at such a time, when that sophister of hell useth the afflictions which lie upon it as an argument to disprove its child's relation to God.  Now—to have this answer to stop the liar's mouth at hand—Satan, if I be not a child, how could I so readily submit to the Lord's family discipline?  This is no small mercy.

           Second. This frame of spirit makes him a free man that hath it.  Now no mean price useth to be set upon the head of liberty.  The very birds had rather be abroad in the woods with liberty—though lean with cold and care —to pick up here and there a little livelihood, than in a golden cage with all their attendance.  Now truly there is a bondage which few are sensible of, and that is a bondage to the creature —when a man is so enslaved to his enjoyments and low contentments here on earth, that they give law to him that should give law to them, and measure out his joy to him (what he shall have), little or much, as he abounds with or is cut short of them.  Thus, some are slaves to their estates; it is said, ‘Their heart goes after their covetousness’—that is, as the servant after the master, who dares not be from his back.  Their money is the master, and hath the best keeping. Their heart waits on it, shall I say as a servant after his master? yea, as a dog at his master’s foot.  Others are as great slaves to their honours, so poor-spirited that they cannot enjoy themselves if they have not the cap and knee of all they meet.  Such a slave was Haman, the great favourite of his prince.  Who but he at court?  At the expense of a few words he could get the king’s ring to seal a bloody decree for the massacring of so many thousands of innocent persons, against all sense and reason of state, merely to fulfill his lust. Had not this man honour enough put upon him to content his ambitious spirit?  No, there is a poor Jew at the king’s gate will not make a leg to him as he goes by, and so roils his proud stomach, that he has no joy of all his other greatness, ‘Yet all this availeth me nothing,’ saith the poor-spirited wretch, ‘so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king’s gate,’ Est. 5:13.

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           (2.) In the consolations he gives them then (in exceedings) above other of their brethren, that are not called out to such hard service.  That part of an army which is upon action in the field is sure to have their pay—if their masters have any money in their purse or care of them—yea, sometimes, when their fellows left in their quarters are made to stay.  I am sure, there is more gold and silver—spiritual joy I mean, and comfort—to be found in Christ’s camp, among his suffering ones, than their brethren at home, in peace and prosperity, ordinarily can show.  What are the promises, but vessels of cordial wine, tunned on purpose against a groaning hour, when God usually broacheth them?  ‘Call upon me (saith God) in the day of trouble,’ Ps. 50:15.  And may we not do so in the day of peace? yes, but he would have us most bold with him in a ‘day of trouble.’  None find such quick despatch at the throne of grace as suffering saints.  ‘In the day when I cried (saith David), thou answeredst me, and gavest me strength in my soul,’ Ps. 138:3.  He was now at a strait, and God comes in haste to him. Though we may make a well friend stay, that sends for us, yet we will give a sick friend leave to call us up at midnight.  In such extremities we usually go with the messenger that comes for us, and so doth God with the prayer.  Peter knocks at their gate, who were assembled to seek God for him, almost as soon as their prayer knocked at heaven-gate in his behalf. And truly it is no more than needs, if we consider the temptations of an afflicted condition.  We are prone then to be suspicious our best friends forget us, and to think every stay a delay and neglect of us.  Therefore God chooseth to show himself most kind at such a time: ‘As the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ,’ II Cor. 1:5. As man laid on trouble, so Christ laid on consolation. Both tides rose and fell together.  When it was spring-tide with him in affliction, it was so with him in his joy.  We relieve the poor as their charge increaseth; so Christ comforts his people as their troubles multiply. And now, Christian, tell me, doth not thy dear Lord deserve a ready spirit in thee to meet any suffering with, for, or from him, who gives his sweetest comforts when his people use to expect their saddest sor­rows?  Well may the servant do his work cheerfully, when his master is so careful of him as with his own hands to bring him his breakfast into the fields.  The Christian stays not till he come to heaven for all his comfort.  There indeed shall be the full supper; but there is a breakfast, Christian, of previous joys, more or less, which Christ brings to thee in the field, and shall be eaten on the place where thou endurest thy hardship.

           (3.) In seasonable succours which Christ sends to bring them off safe.  He doth not only comfort them in, but helps them out of, all their troubles. There is ever a door more than the Christian sees in his prison, by which Christ can, with a turn of his hand, open a way for his saint's escape.  And what can we desire more?  All is well that ends well.  And what better security can we desire for this than the promise of the great God, with whom to lie is impossible? And I hope the credit which God hath in his people’s hearts is not so low, but a bill under his hand will be accepted at first sight by them in exchange of what is dearest to them—life itself not excepted.  Look to thyself when thou hast to do with others.  None so firm, but may crack under thee, if thou layest too much weight on them.  One would have thought so worthy a captain as Uriah was, might have trusted his general, yea his prince, and he so holy a man as David was.  But he was unworthily betrayed by them both into the hands of death.  Man may, the devil, to be sure, will, leave all in the lurch that do his work.  But if God sets thee on, he will bring thee off; never fear a ‘look thou to that’ from his lips, when thy faithfulness to him hath brought thee into the briers.  He that would work a wonder, rather than let a runaway prophet perish in his sinful voyage—because a good man in the main—will heap miracle upon miracle rather than thou shalt miscarry and sink in thy duty. Only, be not troubled, if thou beest cast overboard, like Jonah, before thou seest the provision which God makes for thy safety.  It is ever at hand, but sometimes lies close, and out of the creature’s sight, like Jonah’s whale—sent of God to ferry him to shore —underwater, and the prophet in its belly, before he knew where he was.  That, which thou thinkest comes to devour thee, may be the messenger that God sends to bring thee safe to land.  Is not thy shoe, Christian, yet on?  Art thou not yet ready to march?  Canst [thou] fear any stone can now hurt thy foot through so thick a sole?

WHY We Are to Be Always Ready For Trial —REASONS IN REGARD OF CHRIST 2/3

4. When the cross is on—what then? then the Christian must ‘follow Christ.’He is not [to] stand still and fret, but ‘follow;’ not be drawn and hauled after Christ, but [to] follow, as a soldier his captain, voluntarily.  Christ doth not, as some generals, drive the country before him, and make his servants fight whether they will or no; but he invites them in, ‘I will allure her...into the wilderness,’ Hosea 2:14.  Indeed a gracious heart follows Christ into the wilderness of af­fliction as willing as a lover his beloved into some sol­itary private arbour or bower, there to sit and enjoy his presence.  Christ useth arguments in his word, and by his Spirit, so satisfactory to the Christian, that he is very willing to follow him; as the patient, who at first, may be, shrinks and draws back, when the physi­cian talks of cutting or bleeding, but, when he hath heard the reasons given by him why that course must be taken, and is convinced it is the best way for his health, then he very freely puts forth his arm to the knife, and thanks the physician for his pains.

           Reason Second.  Christ deserves this frame of spirit at our hands.  Of many, take but two particulars, wherein this will appear.  1. If we consider his readiness to endure trouble and sorrow for us.  2. [If we consider] his tender care over us, when he calls us into a suffering condition.

1. Christ deserves this readiness to meet any suf­fering he lays out in his providence for us, if we con­sider his readiness to endure sorrow and trouble for us.When God called him to the work of mediator­ship, he found the way laid with sharper stones, I hope, than we do in the road that is appointed us to walk in.  He was to tread upon swords and spikes, all manner of sorrows—and those edged with the wrath of God; this was the sharpest stone of all, which he hath taken out of our way, and yet how light did he go upon the ground!  O had not his feet been well shod with love to our souls, he would soon have turned back, and said the way was unpassable; but he goes on and blinks not; never did we sin more willingly, than he went to suffer for our sin.  ‘Lo, I come,’ saith he to his Father, ‘I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart,’ Ps. 40:7, 8.  O what a full consent did the heart of Christ rebound to his Father’s call, like some echo that answers what is spo­ken twice or thrice over!  Thus, when his Father speaks to him to undertake the work of saving poor lost man, he doth not give a bare assent to the call, but trebles it; ‘I come...I delight to do thy will, O my God; yea, thy law is within my heart.’  He was so ready, that before his enemies laid hands on him, in the instituting of the Lord’s supper, and there did sacramentally rend the flesh of his own body, and broach his own heart to fill that cup with his precious blood, which with his own hand he gave them, that they might not look upon his death now at hand as a mere butchery from the hand of man’s violence, but rather as a sacrifice, wherein he did freely offer up himself to God for them and all believers.  And when the time was come that the sad tragedy should be acted, he, knowing the very place whither the traitor with his black guard would come, goes out, and mar­cheth into the very mouth of them.  O what a shame were it, that we should be unwilling to go a mile or two of rugged way to bear so sweet a Saviour company in his sufferings!  ‘Could ye not watch with me one hour?’ said Christ to Peter, Matt. 26:40—not with me, who am now going to meet with death itself, and ready to bid the bitterest pangs of it welcome for your sakes? not with me?
2. Christ deserves this readiness to meet any suf­fering he lays out in his providence for us, if we con­sider his tender care over his saints, when he calls them into a suffering condition.Kind masters may well expect cheerful servants.  The more tender the captain is over his soldiers, the more prodigal they are of their own lives at his command.  And it were strange, if Christ’s care, which deserves more, should meet with less ingenuity in a saint.  Now Christ’s care appears,

           (1.) In proportioning the burden to the back he lays it on.  That which overloads one ship, and would hazard to sink her, is but just ballast for another of a greater burden.  Those sufferings which one Christian cannot bear, another sails trim and even under.  The weaker shoulder is sure to have the lighter carriage.  As Paul burdened some churches, which he knew more able, to spare others; so Christ, to ease the weaker Christian, lays more weight on the stronger. ‘Paul laboured more abundantly than them all,’ he tells us, I Cor. 15:10.  But why did Christ so unequally divide the work?  Observe the place, and shall find that it was but necessary to employ that abundant grace he had given him.  ‘His grace,’ saith he, ‘which was bestowed on me, was not in vain; but I laboured more,’ &c.  There was so much grace poured into him, that some of it would have been in vain, if God had not found him more to do and suffer than the rest.  Christ hath a perfect rate by him of every saint’s spiritual estate, and according to this all are assessed, and so none are oppressed.  The rich in grace can as easily pay his pound, as the poor his penny.  Paul laid down his head on the block for the cause of Christ as freely as some—and those true, but weak Christians —would have done a few pounds out of their purse. He endured death with less trouble than some could have done reproach for Christ.  All have not a martyr’s faith, nor all the martyr’s fire.  This forlorn con­sists of a few files picked out of the whole army of the saints.

WHY We Are to Be Always Ready For Trial —REASONS IN REGARD OF CHRIST 1/3

  First. There are reasons taken from Christ, for or from whom we suffer, why we are to be always pre­pared for trials.

           Reason First.  Christ commands this frame of spirit.  Indeed, this frame of spirit is implied in every duty as the modus agendi—that qualification which, like the stamp on coin, makes it current in God’s account.  ‘Put them in mind,’ saith the apostle, ‘to be ready to every good work,’ Titus 3:1; be it active or pas­sive, they must be ready for it, or else all they do is to no purpose.  The word there is the same with this in the text, and is taken from a vessel that is fashioned and fitted for the use the master puts it to.  We do not like, when we are to use, or to mend and scour, a vessel, cup, or pot, to have them out of the way at the time we call for them; but to find them at hand, on the shelf, clean and fit for present use, or our servants shall hear of it.  Thus God expects we should keep our hearts clean from the defilements of sin, and our affections whole and entire for himself—that they be not lent out to the creature, nor broken and battered by any inordinacy of delight in them, lest we should be to seek when he calls us to do or suffer, or be found very unprepared, without much ado to set us to right, and make us willing for the work, as the same apostle, ‘If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the Master’s use, and prepared unto every good work,’ II Tim. 2:21.  Now, as God commands this readi­ness in all, so especially in suffering-work: ‘If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me,’ Luke 9:23. These words may be called the Christian's indenture. Every one that will be Christ’s servant must seal to this before he hath leave from Christ to call him Mas­ter; wherein you see the chief provision Christ makes is about suffering-work, as that which will most try the man.  If the servant can but fadge with that, no fear but he will like the other part of his work well enough.  Now, I pray observe how careful Christ is to engage the heart in this work; he will have his serv­ants not only endure the hardship of his service, but show their readiness in it also.  Four remarkable pas­sages are put in for this purpose.

1. The Christian ‘must deny himself’—that is, deliver up his own will out of his own hands; and, from that day that he enters into Christ’s service, ac­knowledge himself not to be sui juris—at his own dis­posal.  Whatever Christ bears, he cannot{,} to hear his servants, when sent by him on any business, say, ‘I will not.’
2. Christ tells his people the worst at first, and chooseth to speak of the cross they must bear, rather than[of] the crown they shall at last wear; and withal, that he expects they should not only ‘bear’ it—this the wicked do full sore against their wills—but also ‘take it up.’  Indeed he doth not bid them make the cross, run themselves into trouble of their own head, but he will have them take that up which he makes for them—that is, not step out of the way by any sinful shift to escape any trouble, but to accept of the burden God lays for them, and go cheerfully under it, yea thankfully, as if God did us a favour to employ us in any suffering for him.  We do not take so much pains as to stoop to take up that which is not worth something.  Christ will have his people take up the cross as one does to take up a pearl that lies on the ground before him.
3. This they must do every day—‘take up his cross daily.’When there is none on his back, he must carry one in his heart, that is, continually be preparing himself to stand ready for the first call, as porters stand at the merchants’ doors in London, waiting for when their masters have any burden for them to carry.  Thus Paul professeth he ‘died daily.’  How, but by a readiness of mind to die?  He set himself in a posture to bid God’s messenger welcome, whenever it came.  This indeed is to ‘take up the cross daily,’ when our present enjoyments do not make us strange to, or fall out with, the thoughts of future trials.  The Jews were to eat the passover with their loins girded, their shoes on their feet, and their staff in their hand, and in all haste, Ex. 12:11.  When God is feasting the Christian with present comforts, he must have this gospel shoe on, he must not set to it as if he were feasting at home, but as at a running meal on his way in an inn, willing to be gone as soon as he is refreshed a little for his journey.

The Saints' Duty to Be ALWAYS PREPARED FOR TRIALS

  It is our duty, as Christians, to be always prepared and ready to meet with any trial, and endure any hardship, which God may lay out for us in our Christian warfare.  Saints are sure to want no trials and sufferings.  ‘These,’ as Christ saith of the poor, ‘we shall have always with us.’  The bloody sweat which Christ felt signified, saith Augustine, the suffer­ings which in his whole mystical body he should en­dure.  Christ’s whole body was lift upon the cross, and no member must now look to escape the cross.  And, when the cross comes, how must we behave ourselves towards it?  It will not speak us Christians, that we are merely passive, and make no notorious resistance against the will of God; but we must be active in our patience, if I may so speak, by showing a holy readiness and alacrity of spirit to be at God's ordering, though it were to be led down into the very chambers of death itself.  That epitaph would not become a Christian's gravestone, which I have heard was engraved upon one’s tomb, and might too truly on most that die: ‘Here lies one against his will.’  Holy Paul was of a better mind, ‘I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus,’ Acts 21:13.  But, may be, this was but a flourish of his colours, when he knew the enemy to be far enough off; he may yet live to change his thoughts, when he comes to look death in the face.  No, what he hath said he stands to: ‘I am now ready to be offer­ed, and the time of my departure is at hand,’ FBX<­*@µ"4, II Tim. 4:6.  

He speaks of it as if it were already done.  Indeed he had already laid his head on the block, and was dead before the stroke was given, not with fear (as some have been), but with a free resignation of himself to it; and, if a malefactor be civiliter mortuus—dead in a law sense, as soon as the sentence is out of the judge’s mouth, though he lives some weeks after, then I am sure in a gospel sense we may say those are dead already that are ready to die, that have freely put themselves under the sentence of it in their own willingness.  And this alacrity and ser­enity that was on Paul’s spirit was the more remarkable if we consider how close he stood to his end.  In­deed, some from the word FBX<*@µ"4—which prop­erly signifieth a libation or drink offering—conceive that Paul knew the very kind of death which he should suffer, namely, beheading; and that he alludes to the pouring out of the blood or wine, used in sacri­fice, as that kind of sacrifice which did best illustrate the nature of his death, viz. the pouring out of his blood, which he did as willingly offer up in the service of Christ and his church as they did pour out their wine in a drink-offering to the Lord.  We shall now give some rational account of the point why we are to be ready and prompt at suffering-work.  The reasons of the point shall fall under two heads.  First. [Those] taken from Christ, for or from whom we suf­fer.  Second. Those taken from the excellency of such a temper as this readiness to endure any hardship imports.

What is meant by the Preparation of the Gospel of Peace 2/2

Question Second.—But why is it called ‘the preparation of the gospel of peace?’

Because the gospel of peace is the great instrument by which God works the will and heart of man into this readiness and preparation to do or suffer what he calls to.  It is the business we are set about, when preaching the gospel, to make ‘a willing people,’ Ps. 110—‘to make ready a people prepared for the Lord,’ Luke 1:17.  As a captain is sent to beat up his drum in a city, to call in a company that will voluntarily list themselves to follow the prince’s wars, and be in a readiness to take the field and march at an hour’s warning,—thus the gospel comes to call over the hearts of men to the foot of God, to stand ready for his service, whatever it costs them.  Now this it doth, as it is a ‘gospel of peace.’  It brings the joyful tidings of peace concluded betwixt God and man by the blood of Jesus.  And this is so welcome to the trembling conscience of poor sinners, who before melted away their sorrowful days in ‘a fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation from the Lord to devour them as his adversaries; that no sooner [is] the report of a peace concluded betwixt God and them, sounded in their ears by the preaching of the gospel, and certainly confirmed to be true in their own consciences by the Spirit—who is sent from heaven to seal it to them, and give them some sweet gust [taste] of it, by shedding abroad the sense of it in their souls—but instantly there appears a new life in them; to the effect that they, who before were so fearful and shy of every petty trouble as to start and boggle at the thought of it—knowing it could bring no good news to them—are now, ‘shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace,’ able to go out smilingly to meet the greatest sufferings that are, or can be, on the way towards them, and say undauntedly to them, as once Christ did to those that came with swords and staves to attack him, ‘Whom seek ye?’  ‘Being justified by faith, we have peace with God,’ saith the apostle, Rom. 5:1.  And this, how mightily doth it work! even to make them 'glory in tribulations.’  The words opened afford these two points or doctrines.  first. It is our duty to be always prepared and ready to meet with any trial, and endure any hardship, which God may lay out for us in our Christian warfare.  second. The peace which the gospel brings and speaks to the heart, will make the creature ready to wade through any trial or trouble that meets him in his Christian course.