The blessedness of the righteous discoursed from Psal. 17, 15 /The blessednesse of the righteous discoursed from Psal. 17, 15 /

Yea, and the very fear of troubles that are but impendent, and threatening, make some wish the Grave a Sanctuary, and render the Clods of the Valley sweet unto their thoughts. They lay possibly so humoursome and fanciful stress, upon the mere circumstances of dying, that they are earnest to dye out of hand, ¹to avoid dying so, and so; as the Poet would fain persuade himself it was not Death he feared, but Shipwreck. It would not trouble them to dye, but ⟨p. 395⟩to dye by a violent hand, or to be made a public spectacle; they cannot endure the thoughts of dying so. Here is nothing commendable or worthy of a Christian in all this. It were a piece of Christian bravery to dare to live in such a case, even when there is a visible likelihood, of dying, a sacrifice in the midst of flames. How much this glory was affected in the earlier days of Christianity is sufficiently known. Though, I confess, there were excesses in that kind altogether unimitable. But if God call a man forth to be his Champion, and witness, to lay down a life, in it self little desirable, in a truly, worthy cause; The call of his Providence, should be as the sound of the Trumpet, to a truly Martial Spirit; it should fill his soul with a joyful courage, and sense of honour; and be complied with cheerfully, with that apprehension, and resentment, a stout Soldier would have of his Generals putting him upon some very hazardous piece of service, viz. ²he would say, My General hath not (as the Moralist expresses his sense for him) deserved ill of me, but it appears he judged well. It should be counted all joy to [fall into] such trials; that is, when they become our lot by a providential disposition;³ not by a rash precipitation of our selves. And as it is a wickedness inconsistent with Christianity, to be of that habitual temper, to choose to desert such a cause for the saving of life; so it is a weakness very reproachful to it; to lay down ones life in such a case, with regret as unwilling in this kind, to glorify him who laid down his for us. ⟨p. 396⟩we are no more to dye to our selves; then to live to our selves Our Lord Jesus hath purchased to himself a Dominion over both states of the living and dead,