Page:Great duty of confessing Christ before men, stated and recommended.pdf/19

19 Them that honour him, he will honour. Honour and praise bestowed by real judges of excellence, are worth having. The honour which is to all the saints, is awarded by God, the judge of all, and must be great beyond thought or expression! Men are commonly fond of applause before a multitude, as in the Olympic games, when the prizes were distributed before assembled Greece, and loud shouts accompanied the distribution. Here is honour conferred in the presence of a world! How many eyes shall see, and ears hear, the plaudit of Christ to all his saints! Christ will not then be ashamed of any of his people in that day, but will acknowledge them as belonging to him, how despicable soever, and poor and afflicted, and unknown they were in the world. Then they that be wise, shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars, for ever and ever, Dan. xii. 3. Christ will then stamp their characters for eternity, as his real friends, who followed him on earth thro’ good and bad report, who bore his cross, and endured hardness, as his good soldiers, who walked by faith, and preferred Jerusalem to their chief joy; who grieved when he was dishonoured, and rejoiced when his kingdom came, and his will was done on earth. He will then vindicate their characters from the foul aspersions cast upon them by their enemies, as troublers of Israel, turners of the world upside down, pestilent fellows, movers of sedition, enemies to Caesar, formers of a party, ambitious demagogues, separatists, factious persons, &c. All these calumnies will be wiped away in the presence of those who invented and propagated them in the world: and surely this will fill the calumniators with unutterable confusion? Jesus will confer on his confessors a gracious reward, a crown of glory, righteousness and life, that fadeth not away; he will give them the morning star, they shall put on their robes of victory,