The Nonsuch Professor in His Meridian Splendor; Or, the Singular Actions of Sanctified Christians Laid Open in Seven Sermons at All-Hallow's Church, London-Wall (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: rished in its own ashes. While magistrates defend the truth with their sword, martyrs defend it with their blood. The loss of their heads hastens the reception of their crowns. "We should never land in triumph at the haven of rest, if we were not tossed upon the sea of trouble. If Joseph had not been Egypt's prisoner, he had never been Egypt's governor. The iron chains about his feet ushered in the golden chains about his neck. Temporal losses are only gentle breezes; but eternal losses are insupportable storms. Reader, tell me, is not Christ, with his cross, for a few years, better than Dives, with his dainties, for a few days ? What comparison is there between the short-lived happiness of the wicked, attended with everlasting misery, and the short-lived misery of the righteous, attended with everlasting happiness ? 4. Another singular action of a sanctified Christian, is, To seek the public good of others above the private good of himself. The sentiment of Plato, a heathen, is worthy to be adopted by every Christian: "I was not born for myself alone; for my country claims a part, my relations claim a part, and my friends claim a part in me." As we are not born by ourselves, so we are not born for ourselves. Baruch, the man of God, was forbid to make self the centre of his wishes: Seekest thou great things forthyself? seek them not. For saints to set their hearts upon that whereon beasts set their feet, is as if a king should abdicate his throne, to follow the plough; or as if a man should desert a golden mine, to dig in a pit of gravel. When we search ourselves, it denotes that we are virtuous; but when we seek ourselves, it denotes that we are covetous. I am unwilling to draw a defective feature in any man's picture; yet how many are there who have occupied pu...