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.