A29699:99
Paradise opened, or, The secrets, mysteries, and rarities of divine love, of infinite wisdom,…Paradice opened, or, The secreets, mysteries, and rarities of divine love, of infinite wisdom,…
Paradise opened, or, The secrets, mysteries, and rarities of divine love, of infinite wisdom, and of wonderful counsel laid open to public view also, the covenant of grace, and the high and glorious transactions of the Father and the Son in the covenant of redemption opened and improved at large, with the resolution of divers important questions and cases concerning both covenants ... : being the second and last part of The golden key / by Thomas Brooks ...Paradice opened, or, The secreets, mysteries, and rarities of divine love, of infinite wisdom, and of wonderful counsel laid open to publick view also, the covenant of grace, and the high and glorious transactions of the Father and the Son in the covenant of redemption opened and improved at large, with the resolution of divers important questions and cases concerning both covenants ... : being the second and last part of The golden key / by Thomas Brooks ...
London: printed for Dorman Newman, 1675
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Sixthly, consider that there is a great truth in that old Maxim, Non poena, sed causa facit Martyrem:▪ 'Tis not the punishment, ⟨image 24⟩but the cause, that makes a Martyr. Let every man look that his cause be good, its not the blood, but the cause, that makes a Martyr. It's no ways meet that I should engage to suffer in every cause; every cause will no more bear a man out in suffering, than every shoulder will bear every burden, or than every little River will bear every Ship that is of the greatest burden; one man suffers as a Murderer, another suffers as a Thief, another suffers as an Evil-doer, and another suffers as a busy body in other men's matters; but all such Sufferers are rather Malefactors▪ than Christ's Martyrs: Let none of you suffer 1as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evil doer, or as a busy body in other men's matters: It is but one word in the original, [Greek or Hebrew], as Bishops in another's Diocese, as priers into other men's matters, as pragmatical persons that meddle with other men's concernments, without cause or call. It is not suffering for evil doing, but suffering2 for well doing that carries the Crown: It is not just, but unjust suffering that hath the recompense of reward annexed to it: It is not3 sufferers for the evil of sin, nor sufferers of the evil of sin; but sufferers of the evil of punishment, for the avoiding of the evil of sin, whose4 cause is good. When I consider the cause of my condemnation (said Mr. Bradford) I cannot but lament, that I do no more rejoice than I do; for it is for God's verity and truth. So that the Condemnation is not a Condemnation of Bradford simply, but rather a condemnation of Christ, & of his Truth: Bradford is nothing but an instrument, in which Christ and his Doctrine is condemned Christ & the Thieves were in the same Condemnation: Sampson and the Philistines in the same destruction, by the downfall of the house: Similis p•na, dissimilis causa, saith Augustine Martyrdom is a Crown, as old Age, if it be found in a way of righteousness: Though life be a poor little thing to lay down for that Christ that has done such great things for us, and