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to confider it more at Leifure than could be expected now in the End of a Sermon. I recommend what has been faid to your ferious Meditations, and your Meditations to God's Bleffing. To bim be all Praife, &c,

SERMON

SERMON XIX.

MAT. V. 12.

Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: For great is your Reward in Heaven: For Jo perfecuted they the Prophets, which were before you.

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The Fifth Sermon on this Text.

UR bleffed Saviour having infifted more largely on this laft, than on any of the other Beatitudes, it will not be thought ftrange, I hope, that we dwell longer upon it, it being my Defign chiefly to open up and recommend his Notions and Sentiments, and to apply them to our own Use and Practice, as we fee he recommended them to the Practice of his Disciples.

In treating of this Beatitude of Patience under Sufferings, there were three Branches, I obferved, of our Saviour's Difcourfe.

I. That he pronounces a Bleffing in general to all that are perfecuted for Righteousness fake, with a particular Encouragement, that theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Bleffed are they which are perfecuted for Righteousness fake: For theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.

2. That he applies this general Doctrine to his Difciples, acquainting them, that this bleffed State

State of fuffering Perfecution for his fake and the Gofpel's, fhould be their Lot and Portion. Blef Jed are ye when Men fhall revile you, and perfecute you, and fhall fay all manner of Evil against you falfly for my fake.

3. That he gives his Directions to his Difciples, as to their patient and chearful Deportment under their perfecuted Circumftances, and comforts them with the Promise of a great Reward in Heaven, and with the Encouragement that in fuch Circumstances they are in the right Way thither, it being the fame Way which the Prophets had gone before them. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: For great is your Reward in Heaven: For fo perfecuted they the Prophets which were before you.

Now having in fome former Difcourfes confidered the first and fecond of thefe, namely, the Bleffing pronounced in general to them who fhould be perfecuted for Righteousness fake, with our Saviour's Prediction, that this fhould be the Lot of his Difciples; I come now to the third and laft, namely, the Directions and Comforts he fuggefts in fuch a Cafe, which are contained in this 12th Verse: Rejoice, and be exceeding glad : For great is your Reward in Heaven: For fo perfecuted they the Prophets, which were before you.

In the Words we may observe these two Things:

1. A comfortable Direction, when we fuffer for Chrift or our Duty: Rejoice, and be exceeding glad.

2. The Reasons of that Direction, which are two; one taken from the great Reward prepared for fuch Sufferers in Heaven, for great is your Reward

[SERM, Reward in Heaven; the other from the most honourable Company of the Prophets it places them in, at the fame Time feparating them from that worst of Company, and worst of Chara&ters, the Perfecutors; For fo perfecuted they the Prophets which were before you.

I begin with the comfortable Direction, how we are to behave ourselves, when we are put to fuffer unjustly for Chrift or our Duty. Rejoice, fays our Saviour, and be exceeding glad. If we confider the Spirit of the World, there is nothing to which it has a greater Averfion than to this bearing of the Crofs; and whenever the Neceffity of their hard Fate is fuch, that they cannot avoid it, they are fo far from undergoing it chearfully, that they refift and oppose it with all the Fury and Violence they can, to that Degree, that they value not what Disorders and Confufions they bring into the World by their Oppofition and Refiftance: But we have not fo learned Chrift. Whofoever they are that thus flee to the Arms of Refiftance to oppofe the Cross, must take Care that they go upon a good Foot, as to their temporal Rights and Privileges; I mean not only that they have a good Caufe, but likewise that the Laws allow them to defend it in fuch a Manner, otherwise they have no Encouragement from Christ's Doctrine or Example to any Thing else in fuch a Cafe, befides a chearful paffive Obedience. Some others there are, who, tho' they will not flee to the Arms of Refiftance, when called to fuffer, do yet discharge that Duty in fuch a repining, discontented Manner, that it favours more of a Spirit of Pride, Anger, and Resentment, than of the meek and humble Spirit of the Gof

pel,

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337 pel, which, as appears from my Text, is to take Sufferings not only patiently, but joyfully. Ye took joyfully the Spoiling of your Goods, fays the Apoftle to the Hebrews, Heb. x. 34. And the Apostles came away from the Council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to fuffer Shame for the Name of Chrift, Acts v. 41. This Precept in my Text ftands in direct Oppofition to that melancholy, dumpish, dejected Spirit, which is fo far from being chearful under Troubles, that it is fcarce ever fatisfied with any Circumstances of Life at all, tho' ever fo eafy and comfortable. There is no fort of People contribute more to bring up a bad Report on Religion, and the true Fear of God, than these uneafy, melancholy, difcontented Perfons, who are always fretting and repining at every Thing, and behave themselves

as if they thought it inconfiftent with a Spirit of Religion, ever to be gay or merry, or to look chearful and well pleafed. Thefe Perfons are like the evil Spies whom Joshua fent to view the Land of Canaan, who being fearful and cowardly themselves, and their Fears, as is ufual, magnifying all Dangers, made it their Business to spread their Fears through the whole Camp of Ifrael, and to difcourage the Hearts, and weaken the Hands of the People, by telling them, that it was a Land which ate up its Inhabitants, and that the People they faw in it were of great Stature, and that there were Giants there, in Comparifon of whom they themselves feemed to be but fo many Grafhoppers, Numb. xiii. 32. Thus thefe fad melancholy People, with their difcontented Thoughts, and rueful Faces, bring up an evil Report on the Chriftian Religion, as if it were a ReVOL. I.

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