Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

religion, deny and blaspheme Christ, or forfeit their lives to the fire or the sword, is but inverting Job's wife's advice, "Curse God, and live."

III. We proceed now to the third thing, which is to show, how far a man may consult his safety in time of persecution without denying Christ.

This he may do two ways.

1. By withdrawing his person. Martyrdom is an heroic act of faith an achievement beyond an ordinary pitch of it; "to you," says the Spirit, "it is given to suffer," Phil. i. 29. It is a peculiar additional gift: it is a distinguishing excellency of degree, not an essential consequent of its nature. "Be ye harmless as doves," says Christ; and it is as natural to them to take flight upon danger, as to be innocent: let every man thoroughly consult the temper of his faith, and weigh his courage with his fears, his weakness, and his resolutions together, and take the measure of both, and see which preponderates; and if his spirit faints, if his heart misgives and melts at the very thoughts of the fire, let him fly, and secure his own soul, and Christ's honour. Non negat Christum fugiendo, qui ideò fugit ne neget: he does. not deny Christ by flying, who therefore flies that he may not deny him. Nay, he does not so much decline, as rather change his martyrdom: he flies from the flame, but repairs to a desert: to poverty and hunger in a wilderness. Whereas, if he would dispense with his conscience, and deny his Lord, or swallow down two or three contradictory oaths, he should neither fear the one, nor be forced to the other.

2. By concealing his judgment. A man sometimes is no more bound to speak, than to destroy himself; and as nature abhors this, so religion does not command that. In the times of the primitive church, when the Christians dwelt amongst heathens, it is reported of a certain maid, how she came from her father's house to one of the tribunals of the Gentiles, and declared herself a Christian, spit in the judge's face, and so provoked him to cause her to be executed. But will any say, that this was to confess Christ, or die a martyr? He that, uncalled for, uncompelled, comes and proclaims a personal truth, for which he is surely to die, only dies a confessor to his own folly, and a sacrifice to his own rashness. Martyrdom is stamped such only by God's command; and he that ventures upon it without a call, must endure it without a reward: Christ will say, "Who required this at your hands?" His gospel does not dictate imprudence: no evangelical precept justles out that of a lawful self-preservation. He, therefore, that thus throws himself upon the sword, runs to heaven before he is sent for; where though perhaps Christ may in mercy receive the man, yet he will be sure to disown the martyr.

And thus much concerning those lawful ways of securing ourselves in time of persecution: not as if these were always lawful: for sometimes a man is bound to confess Christ openly, though he dies for it; and to conceal a truth is to deny it. But now, to show when it is our duty, and when unlawful to take these courses, by some general rule of a perpetual, never-failing truth, none ever would yet presume: for, as Aristotle says, "We are not to expect demonstration in ethics, or politics, nor to build certain rules upon the contingency of human actions;" so, inasmuch as our flying from persecution, our confessing or concealing persecuted truths, vary and change their very nature, according to different circumstances of time, place, and persons, we cannot limit their directions within any one universal precept. You will say then, How shall we know when to confess, when to conceal a truth? when to wait for, when to decline persecution! Indeed, the only way that I think can be prescribed in this case, is, to be earnest and importunate with God in prayer for special direction; and it is not to be imagined that he who is both faithful and merciful, will leave a sincere soul in the dark upon such an occasion. But this I shall add, that the ministers of God are not to evade, or take refuge in any of these two forementioned ways. They are public persons; and good shepherds must then chiefly stand close to the flock, when the wolf comes. For them to be silent in the cause of Christ, is to renounce it; and to fly, is to desert it. As for that place urged in favour of the contrary, in ver. 23, "When they persecute you in this city, flee into another," it proves nothing; for the precept was particular, and concerned only the apostles; and that, but for that time in which they were then sent to the Jews, at which time Christ kept them as a reserve for the future: for when after his death they were indifferently sent both to Jews and Gentiles, we find not this clause in their commission, but they were to sign the truths they preached with their blood; as we know they actually did. And moreover, when Christ bids them, being "persecuted in one city, fly into another," it was not, as Grotius acutely observes, "that they might lie hid, or be secure in that city, but that there they might preach the gospel:" so that their flight here was not to secure their persons, but to continue their business. I conclude, therefore, that faithful ministers are to stand and endure the brunt. A common soldier may fly when it is the duty of him that holds the standard to die upon the place. And we have abundant encouragement so to do: Christ has seconded and sweetened his command with his promise: yea, the thing itself is not only our duty, but our glory. And he who has done this work, has in the very work partly received his wages. And, were it put to my choice, I think I should choose rather, with spitting and scorn, to be tumbled into the dust in blood, bearing witness to any known truth of our dear Lord,

now opposed by the enthusiasts of the present age, than by a denial of those truths through blood and perjury wade to a sceptre, and lord it in a throne. And we need not doubt, but truth, however oppressed, will have some followers, and at length prevail. A Christ, though crucified, will arise: and as it is in the Rev. xi. 3, "The witnesses will prophesy, though it be in sackcloth."

IV. Having thus despatched the third thing, I proceed to the fourth, which is to show, what it is for Christ to deny us before his Father in heaven. Hitherto we have treated of men's carriage to Christ in this world; now we will describe his carriage to them in the other. These words clearly relate to the last judgment; and they are a summary description of his proceeding with men at that day.

And here we will consider, 1. The action itself, "He will deny them." 2. The circumstance of the action, "He will deny them before his Father and the holy angels."

1. Concerning the first: Christ's denying us is otherwise expressed in Luke xiii. 27, "I know you not." To know, in scripture language, is to approve; and so, not to know, is to reject and condemn. Now, who knows how many woes are crowded into this one sentence, "I will deny him?" It is, to say no more, a compendious expression of hell, an eternity of torments comprised in a word: it is condemnation itself, and, what is most of all, it is condemnation from the mouth of a Saviour. Oh, the inexpressible horror that will seize upon a poor sinner, when he stands arraigned at the bar of divine justice! When he shall look about and see his accuser, his Judge, the witnesses, all of them his remorseless adversaries; the law impleading, mercy and the gospel upbraiding him, the devil, his grand accuser, drawing his indictment; numbering his sins with the greatest exactness, and aggravating them with the cruelest bitterness; and conscience, like a thousand witnesses, attesting every article, flying in his face, and rending his very heart: and then after all, Christ, from whom only mercy could be expected, owning the accusation. It will be hell enough to hear the sentence; the very promulgation of the punishment will be part of the punishment, and anticipate the execution. If Peter was so abashed when Christ gave him a look after his denial; if there was so much dread in his looks when he stood as prisoner, how much greater will it be when he sits as a judge! If it was so fearful when he looked his denier into repentance, what will it be when he shall look him into destruction? Believe it, when we shall hear an accusation from an advocate, our eternal doom from our intercessor, it will convince us that a denial of Christ is something more than a few transitory words: what trembling, what outcries, what astonishment will there be upon the pronouncing this sentence!

[ocr errors]

Every word will come upon the sinner like an arrow striking through his reins; like thunder, that is heard, and consumes at the same instant. Yea, it will be a denial with scorn, with taunting exprobations; and to be miserable without commiseration is the height of misery. He that falls below pity, can fall no lower. Could I give you a lively representation of guilt and horror on this hand, and paint out eternal wrath and decipher eternal vengeance on the other, then might I show you the condition of a sinner hearing himself denied by Christ and for those whom Christ has denied, it will be in vain to appeal to the Father, unless we can imagine that those whom mercy has condemned, justice will absolve.

2. For the circumstance: "He will deny us before his Father and the holy angels." As much as God is more glorious than man, so much is it more glorious to be confessed before him, than before men; and so much glory as there is in being confessed, so much dishonour there is in being denied. If there could be any room for comfort after the sentence of damnation, it would be this, to be executed in secret, to perish unobserved as it is some allay to the infamy of him who died ignominiously to be buried privately. But when a man's folly must be spread open before the angels, and all his baseness ripped up before those pure spirits, this will be a double hell: to be thrust into utter darkness, only to be punished by it without the benefit of being concealed. When Christ shall compare himself, who was denied, and the thing for which he was denied, together, and parallel his merits with a lust, and lay eternity in the balance with a trifle, then the folly of the sinner's choice shall be the greatest sting of his destruction. For a man shall not have the advantage of his former ignorances and error to approve his sin. Things that appeared amiable by the light of this world, will appear of a different odious hue in the clear discoveries of the next: as that which appears to be of this colour by a dim candle, will be found to be of another, looked upon in the day. So when Christ shall have cleared up men's apprehensions about the value of things; he will propose that worthy prize for which he was denied he will hold it up to open view, and call upon men and angels: Behold, look, here is the thing, here is that piece of dirt, that windy applause, that poor, transitory pleasure, that contemptible danger, for which I was dishonoured, my truth disowned, and for which life, eternity, and God himself was scorned and trampled upon by this sinner: judge all the world, whether what he so despised in the other life, he deserves to enjoy in this? How will the condemned sinner then crawl forth, and appear in his filth and shame, before that undefiled tribunal, like a toad or a snake in a king's presence chamber? Nothing so irksome, as to have one's folly displayed before the prudent: one's impurity before the pure. And all this, before that company surrounding VOL. I.-7

E

him from which he is neither able to look off, nor yet to look upon. A disgrace put upon a man in company is unsupportable; it is heightened according to the greatness, and multiplied according to the number of the persons that hear it. And now, as this circumstance, "before his Father," fully speaks the shame, so likewise it speaks the danger of Christ's then denying us. For when the accusation is heard, and the person stands convicted, God is immediately lifting up his hand to inflict the eternal blow; and when Christ denies to exhibit a ransom, to step between the stroke then coming and the sinner, it must inevitably fall upon him, and sink his guilty soul into that deep and bottomless gulf of endless perdition. This therefore is the sum of Christ's denying us before his Father, viz. unsupportable shame, unavoidable destruction.

V. I proceed now to the uses which may be drawn from the truths delivered. And,

1. Right honourable, not only the present occasion, but even the words themselves seem eminently to address an exhortation to your honours. As for others not to deny Christ, is openly to profess him; so for you who are invested with authority, not to deny him, is to defend him. Know therefore that Christ does not only desire, but demand your defence, and that in a double respect.

(1.) In respect of his truth. (2.) Of his members.

(1.) He requires that you should defend and confess him in his truth. Heresy is a tare sometimes not to be pulled up but by the civil magistrate. The words liberty of conscience are much abused for the defence of it, because not well understood. Every man may have liberty of conscience to think and judge as he pleases, but not to vent what he pleases. The reason is, because conscience, bounding itself within the thoughts, is of private concernment, and the cognisance of these belong only to God: but when an opinion is published, it concerns all that hear it, and the public being endamaged by it, it becomes punishable by the magistrate to whom the care of the public is entrusted. But there is one truth that concerns both ministry and magistracy, and all; which is opposed by those who affirm, that "none ought to govern upon the earth, but Christ in person." Absurdly! as if the powers that are, destroyed his; as if a deputy were not consistent with a king; as if there were any opposition in subordination. They affirm, also, that the wicked have no right to their estates; but only the "faithful," that is, themselves, ought to "possess the earth." And it is not to be questioned, but when they come to explain this principle, by putting it into execution, there will be but few that have estates at present, but will be either found or made wicked. I shall not be so urgent, to press you to confess Christ, by asserting and owning the truth, contrary to this, since

« AnteriorContinuar »