all with the Bereans to the touchstoneof the word. John Huffe was convertedby reading the Scripture, then there was no hen vision. But the wordpreached is like the breast milke most nourishing, To reading adde meditation, meditate of the worth of this Pearle. What you read or heare labour to digest by meditation, and to meditation adde conference, Mal..3.16. so those old Difciples spake often one to another &c. 3ly. Seek the face of God by prayer. They that feek have a promife of finding. To aske for Chrift, and his grace is a Petition futeable to the will of God. And as king according to God's will wee have a promise of being heard. Let us cry after Christ, as hid treasures; Lord give me this pearle or elfe I am undone. Lets refolve with Bernard. Nunquam Job.5.14. difcedam à te, Domine fine te. Lets herein be importunate beggars, take no nay, no repulfe, refolving never to be driven away from our Fathers doore. 4ly. Buy the truth, Prov: 23. 23. Bee at any cost, paines, or charges for the Purchase of truth, and whats the truth, a x, Joh. 14:6. I am the way, the truth, and the life. Give all dili-t gence to know the truths recorded in the word of God. Bee unwilling to part with the smallest truth. Take such a delight, and love to the truth, as thou wilt leave no meanes unattempted for the purchase of it. Every truth is gold, and the least shaving of gold is pretious. One truth is more worth than a world. Not an of truth shall fall to the ground. Therefore thou must study the truth, read, pray, meditate, conferre, and hear to attain unto the knowledge of the truth. sly. Lastly, buy this pearle of price, in the season and opportunity, when it's tendred. Take the benefit of the present time, To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven, Ecclef. 3. 1. Let that excellent counsell make deep impreffion upon your spirits, If.55.6. Seeke ye the Lord while he may be found, c. And let Jerusalems mifery be our warning peece, Luk. 19. 42. If thou hadst known, even thou at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace, but now they are bid from thy eyes. : Now is the market, it yet lafts (blessed be God) other the op portunity. Neglect not these golden seasons now tendr'd to you. It's now day, fall a working, whilst its day, the night cometh, when no : man man can work, Joh. 9.4. You have here a tender of the pearle of price this day; you know n'twhether you shall live to have a second tender. The Lord of heaven set home this word upon your confciences, and perfwade you speedily, readily, and cheerfully to fell all you have to purchase this Pearle of price, the Lord Jesus, who is of superlative value, rare worth then millions of worlds. ! th Elizbotch Whitmore Juniod diod may they about ton O Clock in the forendon A My daftor door, that was so faire That god Fid, from us take my wife and I, ard like to dis with groff and pain, oue hoach do ach Ode boloves tondor Child.. (96) SERM. 5. At St Maries Oxon. Decemb.24. 1648. Thetext divi ded. A Suffering Faith Discovered from Philip. 1.29. For unto you it is given in the behalfe of Christ, not onely T 14 He Apostle having encouraged the Philippians to contend for the faith συναθλέντες ἐν τῇ σίσει verf. 27. prepares them for encounters with adversaries vers.28. And in nothing serrified by your adversaries, which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that of God:he tells them plainly what they must meet withall in the reason of the Text. The words containe three generalls. A Duty, An Object, An Ability to performe the same. 1. For the duty, and that is double, to believe, and to suffer, or it's but one, even a suffering faith; 2. For the Object, its twice repeated, but one and the fame, on Christ, and for Chrift: Christ is the object of faith, and for his fake we must be willing to fuffer. 3. Here's the abilitie to performe both duties of believing, and fuffering: To you it is given: None can believe in Chrift, nor fuffer for Chrift, except it be given from above: Before I draw forth the Doctrine, I will insist a while in the explanation of the words: It's faidὑμῖν ἐχαρίθη, its gratia gratis data, & gratia gratum faciens. Faith is no hearb, that groweth in our gardens: but its a plant of our heavenly Father's plantation; Its an habit infus'd by the spirit, the fupernaturall worke of God: No morali perswasion, no principle of nature, no volumes of glimmering Philofophers can make discovery of this pearle; Nature is as dimme-fighted, as a mole, in divine myfteries: Its beyond the kenne of a naturall man to difcerne spirituall things, 1 Cor. 2.14. But the naturall man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishnesse unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. As fohn gave Testimonie of of Chrift, John 3.27. That a man can receive nothing, except it be givin bim from above, so it may be faid of Faith, except it be given thee from above, thou canst not receive it. It followes μόνον τὸ τις δύειν ἀλλα κι τὸ πάχει, hence its evident that every faith is not a suffering faith: when the fonne of man comes shall be find faith on the earth? A temporary, verball, dogmaticall, or historicall faith are every where to be found like the Sycamores in the valleyes for abundance: But a true, saving, justifying faith that will follow the Lamb where ever he goeth, be it to mount Calvary, as well as to mount Tabor, this is rare to be found. Here then is Shibboleth and Sibb leth, a note of distinction between a common and a speciall faith, the faith of the world, and the faith of the faints to be found in the text, not only to believe but to suffer. Then heres the object specified υπέρ χρισε, εις αυτὸν : Its a true observation; but not more common then true: Non pœna (ed canla facit Martyrem, there are sufferings for our faults mentioned, 1 Pet. 2.20.. For what glory is it, if when ye be buffetted for your faules, ye shall take it patiently? but if when ye doe well, and suffer for it and take it pariently, this is acceptable with God: If fo we may thank our selves. But to die in Christ, and for Christ makes the fuffering glorious. Now how we may know, whether we fuffer for Chrift, you shall heare anon in the particular Application. From the words thus divided and expounded, I shall collect this entire point of Doctrine, which I lay for the ground worke of my enfuing meditation. That its the duty of true believers, not onely to believe on Chrift, but Doctrine. perfpicuity of speech. I shall onely propound three Heads of d.f- 1. First for Illustration, time would faile me to inlarge my felfe 1 For Illustra- 0 : heritance, obeyed, and he went out, not knowing whither he went: by Faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling intabernacles with Ifaac and Jacob, the heires with him of the same promise. For he looked for a City which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God: Moses did not onely believe but suffer, Heb. 11. 24, 25. By faith Mofes, when he was come to yeares, refused to be called the Sonne of Fharaohs daughter, chusing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, then to enjoy the pleasures of finne for a season, vers. 37. They were Stoned, they were fawn asunder, were tempted, were flain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins, and goat skins, being deftitute, afflicted, tormented: Paul makes a catalogue of his fufferings, 2 Cor.1.23, 24. Are they the Ministers of Jesus Chrift? I speake as a foole, I am in labours more abundant: in stripes above measure: in prisons more frequent: in deaths oft: Of the Fewes five times received I fourty stripes fave one. Paul's sufferings were abounding sufferings, 2 Cor. 1. 5. for as the sufferings of Chrift aboundin us, so our consolation alfo aboundeth by Christ, Review his protestations, Acts 21. 13. Then Paul answered, what meane je to weepe, and to break mine heart, for I am ready, not to be bound only, but also to die at Ferusalem for the name of the Lord Jefus:and fee what Doctrine he teacheth, Aits 14. 22. Confirming the foules of the Disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the Kingdome of God and see the confirmation of his doctrine, Acts 20.22,23. And now behold I goe bound in the spirit to Ferusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there: Jave that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every City, Saying, that bonds and afflictions abide me. Through all Centuries we read of the sufferings of the Saints, Abel was the Protomartyr in the old Testament. Stephen in the new: Noahs arke toff'd up and down upon the surface of the waters was a Type of the militant Church; David was hunted as a Partridge in the wilderneffe; fee Aicleth Shahar the infeription of Pfal. 22. The passage of the Ifraelites through the hind of the red sea to Canaan was a type of the afflicted condition of the the morning. Church of God; Elias was perfecuted by Jezabel. The Prophet Efaiah was fawn asunder: Jeremy was put into a dungeon, and afterwards ston'd to death in Egipt: Ezekiel was slaine in Babylon: Micah thrown down a steep place, and his neck broke. All the Aposttes (as Ecclesiasticall writers mention) were put to death, excepting John, that was banished into the Isle of Patmos. Peter, Andrew, and Philip were Crucified: James was slaine by the sword of Herod. Bartholomew |