The Fight of Faith, Title page – To the reader
THE Fight of Faith CROWNED: OR, A SERMON PREACHED At the FUNERAL of that Eminently Holy Man Mr. HENRY STUBS.
By THO. WATSON Minister of the Gospel.
LONDON, Printed and are to be sold by Joseph Collier at the Bi… on London-Bridg, under the Gate, 1678.
THE EPISTLE.
Christian Reader,
IT was not my intendment to have appeared thus publickly, but being requested by the near Relations of this worthy Minister deceased to print my Sermon, (which by their appointment was preached) I knew not well how to withstand their importunity. Indeed I was the more willing to let these lines be published, that I might raise a Pillar of Remembrance to the precious name of Mr. Stubs. The Subject-matter treated on is the Christian Combat and Crown. O blessed Crown which cannot be fully pencilled out in its orient colours, though an arch-angel should take the pencill. The Roman Emperours had three several Crowns set upon their head; the first was of Iron, the second of Silver, the third of Gold. God sets three Crowns upon the Elect, Grace, Joy, Glory. What should we thirst after but this incomprehensible bliss! Did our thoughts dwell above, we should live sweeter lives. The higher the Lark flys, the sweeter it sings. Cyprus was anciently called Macaria, the blessed Island; but it is more true of Heaven, it is the blessed Island. 'Tis a place where sorrow cannot live, and joy cannot die. It may be compared to the fields of Sicily, where there is continual Spring, and flowers all the year long. Could our Meditations mount up to the Empyraean delights, how would the World disappear and shrink into nothing! foreign Chryfost.foreign.—To those who stand upon the top of the Alps, the great Cities of Campania seem as little Villages. After St. Paul was wrapt up into third Heaven, the world was crucified to him, Gal. 6. 14. Worldly things when they are in their highest meridian of glory hasten to a Sun-setting, foreign. let us live more in the altitudes, and take a prospect of the eternal recompences; what can be more delicious or sacred than to have Christ in our heart, and the Crown in our eye.
I have inserted something more into this Sermon, than straits of time would permit in the delivery. If it may inkindle holy ardours in the breasts of any, and quicken their pace in the way to Heaven, I have my option. That this may be effected is the prayer of him who is
Thy Friend and Servant in the Gospel, THO. WATSON.