that blessing, when in fact we have not. The more divine and perfect "is the peace of God which passeth all understanding," the more the pity and the loss, should it turn out at last, that any one of us has inistaken a false peace for the most heavenly gift. And certainly there. must be no small danger of it; else the prophet would not so earnestly have warned God's people, of some who speak peace when there is no peace: neither would our Lord so emphatically have warned us, of many who shall draw near to him, crying out Lord, Lord, and fancying they have the peace of God, when yet they are such as he never knew, and he will bid them depart from him.

But there is no time now to speak in particular of any of these false kinds of peace. Only one general rule God has given, which will suffice for all who have in their minds anything like a true fear of him. "There is no peace, saith my God, unto the wicked." He that is wilfully breaking any of God's holy commandments, may seem to be quiet both within and without, may have no vexing thoughts, may live and die undisturbed, may even feel sure of salvation: but he has not the peace of God. Christ will not when he shows himself to them, address them with that gracious salutation, which sealed his pardon to his true disciples, when they first saw him after he was risen. "They were terrified and affrighted," but he the great high priest, presently assured them of his perfect absolution; saying unto them, once and again, "Peace be unto you."

And however he may, for our manifold sins, leave us here in doubt and anguish, yet let us so truly repent, that it may please him in like manner to speak peace to us, when we too shall behold him in his glory. And let not that peace on earth, which was solemny proclaimed to all at this blessed time, be forfeited by any one here, continuing in his sin after so many warnings.

SERMON LXX.

PRIVILEGES OF MARTYRDOM.

PREACHED ON ST. STEPHEN'S DAY.

PSALM CXVI. 15.

"Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints."

LIFE is naturally the dearest thing we have; as the evil spirit one day said of holy Job," Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath, will he give for his life." Therefore, even by the judgment of nature, they who part willingly with their lives, in a good and holy cause, are thought very much of: their death is precious in men's sight. They seem to have done the very most they could do; and there is a disposition in all men to honor and reward them accordingly; if, indeed, anything that our fellow-creatures can do for us after our death can be called a reward.

Hence the honors paid, in all ages and nations, to the memories and families of those, who have died fighting for their king and country. To all other merits they add this, that they show themselves brave, and above minding bodily pain and danger; which is a kind of excellency that all persons, even the worst, can hardly choose but admire.

And thus it has come to pass that persons, of very bad and unchristian minds in other respects, have yet been unable to refrain from admiring the martyrs of Christ; those citizens of the holy city, and subjects of the heavenly kingdom, who have at various times, laid down their lives for the honor of their eternal king, Christ Jesus, and the enlargement of their better country, the church.

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Now as all those feelings of ours, which are truly natural, have commonly some foundation of truth and right in them, so it is certain that this particular feeling, admiration for those who lay down their lives for Christ's sake, is greatly encouraged and sanctioned from above. The church of Christ, from the beginning, not without the secret teaching of Christ's spirit, ever paid especial honor to the martyrs of Christ. They accounted martyrdom to be that baptism, of which our Lord and Savior spoke, when he said, he had still" a baptism to be baptized with," besides that which he had long ago received from St. John; and that he was greatly straitened," pressed in spirit, until that other baptism was accomplished. They thought he was speaking of his own death; one may say, his own martyrdom, for he died as a witness to the truth: they thought he was speaking of it as a baptism, not in water, but in blood; and as such a baptism they ever esteemed the violent deaths of the holy martyrs and men of God, who, from time to time, laid down their lives, in those days of persecution, for the testimony of God and of Jesus Christ.

Concerning such the sentence of the church was, that, if they died without having yet received the outward and visible sign of baptism, water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; yet they were undoubtedly partakers of the spiritual grace: their so laying down their lives for Christ would be to them a death unto sin, and a new birth unto righteousness. In a word, the common sentence of the church concerning them was such as the following, which I take from one of the greatest and most renowned fathers: "Whosoever, not having received the laver of regeneration, dies for confessing Jesus Christ, it availeth them as much for the remission of sins, as if they were washed in the sacred fountain of baptism." And our Lord himself countenances this opinion, when he says, "He that confesseth me before men, him will I also confess before my Father which is in heaven.'

Again, the church was used, from very early times, to

pay especial honor to the memories of the martyrs, by visiting their tombs, and there building chapels, where they celebrated the holy feast of our Savior's body and blood. Also they noted down, and diligently remembered, the days on which their lives were taken from them, as we should the day on which any dear friends died. Only the church called such days by the name of birth-days, reckoning martyrdom not a death, but a better birth, to a brighter and purer life: like baptism, as I just now said. For instance, they would call this day, St. Stephen's birth-day; for was it not indeed birth to him, they thought, to be moved out of the darkness and helplessness of this present evil world into the light and joy of paradise? And, in farther token of honor, and of blissful communion, they used to recite the names of the martyrs in the service of the sacrament of the Lord's supper, when they came to that part, where Almighty God is thanked "for those who have departed this life in his faith and fear.”

Such was the honor in which the church always held the noble army of martyrs. And for doing so, there is much encouragement in Holy Scripture. St. Paul speaks of such death as a sacrifice; and declares the joy with which he looked forward to partaking of it, as though it were an offering which would surely be wellpleasing to God. "Though I be offered," says he, "though I be poured out as a drinking-offering, on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all. For I know that this shall turn to my sal vation." He speaks as if, in some mysterious way, the blood of the martyrs was mingled with that of our Lord, the only true atoning sacrifice, so as that they should have an especial interest in him.

And perhaps our blessed Savior himself may seem to countenance this notion, when he says that all the righteous blood slain from the beginning of the world, from Abel to Zacharias, from the first page of the Old Testament to the last, should be required of that generation which crucified him. Why so, except that the blood of

the martyrs was in a certain sense his blood, so that by murdering him they became guilty of it?

But of all the books of the New Testament, that which speaks most fully and expressly in praise of martyrdom is the last, the Book of Revelation; which may be considered as the words of our glorified Lord, approving or condemning things, as they now go on in his church. In those visions, over and over again, we find our Lord and his angels giving all encouragement to those especially, who should in any age of the church lay down their lives for his sake. "Be thou faithful," he says, "unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life."

He unseals the book of his providence, and shows his servant under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held. He gives us a glimpse of those happy spirits, at rest and in safe keeping, with the hope of coming to perfection after no long time. "White robes were

given unto every one of them, and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow-servants also, and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled." Does it not sound, almost, as if the Almighty bore yet with the wicked world for the martyrs' sake, as if it were one great object of his government over us here to fulfil their number?

Again, in a certain vision of St John's, an angel takes delight in pointing out to him, among the blessed saints in heaven, those especially, who had come out of the great tribulation, and had washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Farther on, the whole choir of angels sing joyfully together in heaven the praises of the martyrs, calling them their brethren, as having overcome the evil one by the blood of the Lamb, and the word of their testimony, in that they loved not their lives unto the death." Once more: in the vision of Christ's reign of a thousand years, St. John saw "the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus and for the Word of God," living and reign