The Gospel’s Blessing of Peace PREPARES THE SAINT FOR TRIALS 2/2

           The Israelites when ready to take their march out of Egypt into a desolate wilderness, where they should be put to many plunges, and their faith tried to purpose; to prepare them the more for these, he entertains them at a gospel supper before they go forth—I mean the passover, which pointed to Christ. And no doubt the sweetness of this feast made some gracious souls among them, that tasted Christ in it, endure the hardship and hunger of the wilderness the more cheerfully.  And the same care and love did our Lord Jesus observe in the institution of his supper, choosing that for the time of erecting this sweet or­dinance when his disciples’ feet stood at the brink of a sea of sorrows and troubles, which his death and the consequences of it would inevitably bring upon them. Now the pardon of their sins, sealed to their souls in the ordinance must needs be welcome, and enable them to wade through their sufferings the more comfortably.  Indeed, the great care which Christ took for his disciples, when he left the world, was not to leave them a quiet world to live in, but to arm them against a troublesome world.  And to do this, he labours to satisfy their poor hearts with his love to them, and his father’s love to them for his sake; he bequeaths unto them his peace, and empties it in the sweet consolations of it into their bosoms; for which end he tells them, as soon as he got to heaven, he would pray his Father to send the Comforter to them with all speed, and sends them to Jerusalem, there to stay privately, and not go into the field, or openly contest with the angry world, till they received the strength and succour which the Spirit in his comforts should bring with him.  By all which it doth abundantly appear how powerful this gospel peace is to en­able the soul for suffering.

           Now I proceed to show how this peace doth prepare the heart for all sufferings.  And that it doth these two ways.  First. As it brings along with it, and possesseth the soul where it comes, with such glorious privileges as lift it above all danger and damage from any sufferings whatever from God, man, or devils.  Second. As it is influential unto the saint’s graces and affections, exciting them, and making them act to such a height, as lifts the Christian above the fear of trouble and suffering

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The peace which the gospel brings and speaks to the heart, will make the creature ready to wade through any trial or trouble that meets him in his Christian course.  He who enjoys in his bosom the peace of the gospel, is the person and the only person, that stands shod for all ways, prepared for all troubles and trials.  None can make a shoe to the creature’s foot, so as he shall go easy on a hard way, but Christ.  He can do it to the creature’s full content.  And how doth he {do} it?  Truly by no other way that by underlaying it, or, if you will, lining it, with the peace of the gospel.  What though the way be set with sharp stones? if this shoe go between the Christian’s foot and them, they cannot much be felt.  Solomon tells us that ways of wisdom,—that is, Christ—‘are ways of pleasantness.’  But how so, when some of them are ways of suffering?  The next words resolve it; ‘and all her paths are peace,’ Prov. 3:17.  Where there is peace—such peace as peace with God and conscience—there can want no pleasure.  David goes merry to bed when he hath nothing to supper but the gladness that God by this puts into his heart, and promiseth himself a better night’s rest than any of them all that are feasted with the world's cheer; ‘Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased.  I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep,’ Ps. 4:7, 8.  This same peace with God enjoyed in the conscience, redounds to the comfort of the body.  Now David can sleep sweetly when he lies on a hard bed.  What here he saith he would do, he saith he had done: ‘I laid me down and slept; I awaked; for the Lord sustained me,’ Ps. 3:5.  The title of the psalm tells us when David had this sweet night’s rest, not when he lay on his bed of downs in his stately palace at Jerusalem, but when he fled for his life from his unnatural son Absalom, and possibly was forced to lie in the open field under the canopy of heaven.  Truly it must be a soft pillow indeed that could make him forget his danger, who then had such a disloyal army at his back hunting of him.  Yea, so transcendent is the sweet in­fluence of this peace, that it can make the creature lie down as cheerfully to sleep in the grave as on the softest bed.  You shall say that child is willing that calls to be put to bed.  Some of the saints have de­sired God to lay them at rest in their beds of dust; and that not in a pet and discontent with their present trouble, as Job did, but from a sweet sense of this peace in their bosoms.  ‘Now let thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation,’ was the swan-like song of old Simeon.  He speaks like a mer­chant that had got all his goods on shipboard, and now desires the master of the ship to hoist sail and be gone homewards.  Indeed what should a Christian, that is but a foreigner here, desire to stay any longer for in the world, but to get this full lading in for heaven?  And when hath he that, if not when he is assured of his peace with God?  This peace of the gos­pel, and sense of the love of God in the soul, doth so admirably conduce to the enabling of a person in all difficulties, and temptations, and troubles, that ordin­arily before he calls his saints to any hard service or hot work, he gives them a draught of this cordial wine next their hearts, to cheer them up, and embolden them in the conflict.  God calls Abram out of his native country, Gen 12:1, and what so fit as a promise of Christ to bring his heart to God’s foot? ver. 2, 3.  A sad errand it was that sent Jacob to Padan-aram.  He fled from an angry wrathful brother, that had murdered him already in his thoughts, to an unkind, de­ceitful, uncle, under whom he should endure much hardship.  Now God comes in a sweet gospel vision to comfort this poor pilgrim; for by that ‘ladder, whose foot stood on earth, and top reached heaven,’ Christ was signified to his faith, in whom heaven and earth meet, God and man are reconciled; and, by the ‘moving up and down of the angels on the ladder,’ the ministry of the angels, which Christ by his death and intercession procures for his saints, that they shall tend on them, as servants on their master’s children. So that the sum of all is as much as God had said, ‘Jacob, thy brother Esau hates thee, but in Christ I am reconciled to thee, thy uncle Laban, he will wrong thee, and deal hardly by thee, but fear him not.  As I am in Christ at peace with thee so through him thou shalt have my especial care over thee, and the guardianship of the holy angels about thee, to defend thee wherever thou goest.’

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2. Consider that he doth not, indeed cannot, bid thee deny so much for him as he hath done for thee.Is reproach for Christ so intolerable, that thy proud spirit cannot brook it?  Why, who art thou? what great house comest thou from?  See One that had more honour to lay at stake than I hope thou darest pretend to—Jesus Christ—who ‘thought it not rob­bery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation,’ Php. 2:6, 7.  Is it pain and torment thou art afraid of?  O look up to the cross where the Lord of life hung for thy sins! and thou wilt take up thy own cross more willingly, and thank God too, that he hath made thine so light and easy, when he provided one so heavy and tormenting for his beloved Son.
3. Consider, whatever God calls thee to deny for his truth, it is not more than he can recompense.Moses saw this, and that made him leap out of his honours and riches into the reproach of Christ, ‘for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward,’ Heb. 11:26.  It is much that a man will deny himself in for something his heart strongly desires in this life.  If a man be greedy of gain, he will deny himself half of a night’s sleep to plot in his bed, or rise early from it to be at his work; he will eat homely fare, go in vile raiment, dwell in a smoky hole, as we see in London, for the conveniency of a shop.  How men of quality will crowd themselves up into a little corner, though to the prejudice of their healths, and hazard sometimes of their lives! yet, hope of gain recompenseth all.  And now, put their gains into the scale with thine Christian, that are sure to come in by denying thyself for Christ, which theirs are not, and ask thy soul whether it blush not to see them so freely deny themselves of the comfort of their lives for an imaginary, uncertain, at best a short advantage, while thou hucklest so with Christ for a few outward enjoyments, which shall be paid thee over a hundred-fold here, and beyond what thou canst now conceive when thou comest to heaven's glory!

           Sixth Direction. Labour to carry on the work of mortification every day to further degrees than other. It is the sap in the wood that makes it hard to burn, and corruption unmortified that makes the Christian loath to suffer.  Dried wood will not kindle sooner, than a heart dried and mortified to the lusts of the world will endure anything for Christ.  The apostle speaks of some that were ‘tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrec­tion,’ Heb. 11:35.  They did not like the world so well, as being so far on their journey to heaven—though in hard way —to be willing to come back to live in it any longer.  Take heed, Christian, of leaving any worldly lust unmortified in thy soul.  This will never consent thou shouldest endure much for Christ.  Few ships sink at sea; they are the rocks and shelves that split them.  Couldst thou get off the rocks of pride and unbelief, and escape knocking on the sands of fear of man, love of the world, thou wouldst do well enough in the greatest storm that can overtake thee in the sea of this world.  ‘If a man purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for his Master's use, and prepared unto every good work,’ II Tim. 2:21.  O that we knew the heaven that is in a mortified soul! one that is crucified to the world and lusts of it.  He hath the advantage of any other in doing or suffering for Christ, and enjoying Christ in both.  A mortified soul lives out of all noise and disturbance from those carnal passions, which put all out of quiet where they come.  When the mortified soul goes to duty there are not those rude and unmannerly intrusions of impertinent, carnal, yea sinful thoughts, between him and his God.  Is he to go to prison?  Here is not such weeping and taking on; no lust to hang about his legs, and break his heart with its insinuations; no self-love to entreat him that he would pity himself.  His heart is free, got out of the acquaintance of these troublers of his peace; and a prison to him, if he may go upon so honourable an errand as testifying to the truth, O how welcome to him!  Whereas a unmortified heart is wedged in with so great acquaintance and kindred, as I may so say, which his heart hath in the world, that it is impossible to get out of their embraces into any willingness to suffer.  A man that comes into an inn in a strange place, he may rise at what time he pleaseth, and be gone as early as he pleaseth in the morning.  There are none {to} entreat him to stay.  But it is hard to get out of a friend's house; these, like the Levite’s father‑in‑law, will be desiring him to stay one day, and then one more, and another after that.  The mortified soul is the stranger.  He meets with no dis­turbance—I mean comparatively—in his journey to heaven; while the unmortified one is linked in fast enough for getting on his journey in haste, especially so long as the flesh hath so fair an excuse as the foul­ness of the way or weather, any hardship likely to be endured for his profession.  I have read of one of the Catos, that, in his old age, he withdrew himself from Rome to his country-house, that he might spend his elder years free from care and trouble.  And all the Romans, as they ride by his house, used to say, iste solus scit vivere—this man alone knows how to live.  I know not what art Cato had to dis­burden himself, by his retiring, of the world’s cares.  I am sure, a man may go into the country and yet not leave the city be­hind him.  His mind may be in a crowd while his body is in the solitude of a wilderness.  Alas! poor man, he was a stranger to the gospel.  Had he been but acquainted with this, it could have shown him a way out of the world’s crowd in the midst of Rome itself, and that is, by mortifying his heart to the world, both in the pleasures and troubles of it; and then that high commendation might have been given him with­out any hyperbole.  For, to speak truth, he only knows aright how to live in the world that hath learned to die to the world.  And so much for the first point; which, we may remind you, was, that the Chris­tian is to stand ready for all trials and troubles that may befall him.  The second follows.

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 Third Direction. Be much in the meditation of a suffering state.  He will say his lesson best, when his master calls him forth, that is oftenest conning it over beforehand to himself.  Do by the troubles thou mayest meet with, as porters used to do with their burdens—they will lift them again and again, before they take them on their back.  Thus do thou.  Be often lifting up in thy meditations those evils that may befall thee for Christ and his truth; and try how thou couldst fadge [agree] with them, if called to en­dure them.  Set poverty, prison, banishment, fire, and fagot, before thee, on the one hand; and the precious truths of Christ on the other, with the sweet promises made to those that shall hold fast the word of patience held forth in such an hour of temptation. Suppose it were now thy very case, and thou wert put to thy choice which hand thou wouldst take, study the question seriously, till thou determinest it clearly in thy conscience.  And do this often, so that the arguments which flesh and blood will then be sure to use for thy pitying thyself, may not be new and unanswered, nor the encouragements and strong consolations which the word affords be strange and under any suspicion in thy thoughts, when thou art to ven­ture thy life upon their credit and truth.  That of Augustine we shall find most true, non facile inven­iuntur præsidia in adversitate, quæ non fuerint in pace quæsita—the garrisons are not easily found in adversity which were not sought for and known dur­ing peace.  The promises are our garrison and fastness at such a time; and we shall not find it easy to run to them in a strait, except we were acquainted with them in a time of peace.  A stranger that flies to a house for refuge in the dark night, he fumbles about the door, and knows not how to find the latch—his enemy, if nigh, may kill him before he can open the door.  But one that lives in the house, or is well ac­quainted with it, is not long a getting in.  ‘Come, my people,’ saith God, ‘enter thou into thy chambers,’ Isa. 26:20.  He is showing them their lodgings in his at­tributes and promises, before it is night and their suf­ferings be come, that they may readily find the way to them in the dark.

           Fourth Direction. Make a daily resignation of thyself up to the will of God.  Indeed this should be, as it were, the lock of the night and the key of the morning.  We should open and shut our eyes with this recommending of ourselves into the hands of God.  This, if daily performed—not for­mally, as all duties frequently repeated, without the more care, are like to be; but solemnly—would sweetly dispose the soul for a welcoming of any trial that can befall him. The awkness of our hearts to suffer comes much from distrust.  An unbelieving soul treads upon the promise as a man upon ice—at the first going upon it, it is full of fears and tumultuous thoughts lest it should crack.  Now this daily resignation of thy heart, as it will give thee an occasion of conversing more with the thoughts of God's power, faithfulness, and other of his attributes—for want of familiarity with which, jealousies arise in our hearts when put to any great plunge—so also it will furnish thee with many experi­ences of the reality both of his attributes and promises; which, though they need not any testimony from sense to gain them any credit with us, yet, so much are we made of sense, so childish and weak is our faith, that we find our hearts much helped by those experiences we have had, to rely on him for the fu­ture.  Look therefore carefully to this; every morning leave thyself and ways in God’s hand, as the phrase is, Ps 10:14.  And at night, look again, how well God hath looked to his trust, and sleep not till thou hast affected thy heart with his faithfulness, and laid a stronger charge on thy heart to trust itself again in God’s keeping in the night.  And when any breach is made, and seeming loss befall thee in any enjoyment, which thou hast by faith insured of thy God, observe how God fills up that breach, and makes up that loss to thee; and rest not till thou hast fully vindicated the good name of God to thy own heart.  Be sure thou lettest no discontent or dissatisfaction lie upon thy spirit at God's dealings; but chide thy heart for it, as David did his, Ps. 42.  And thus doing, with God’s blessing, thou shalt keep thy faith in breath for a longer race, when called to run it.

           Fifth Direction. Make self-denial appear as ra­tional and reasonable as thou canst to thy soul.  The stronger the understanding is able to reason for the equity and rationality of any work or duty, the more readily and cheerfully it is done, if the heart is honest and sincere.  Suppose, Chris­tian, thy God should call for thy estate, liberty, yea, life and all; can it seem un­reasonable to thee? especially,

1. If thou considerest that he bids thee deliver his own, not thy own.He lent thee these, but he nev­er gave away the propriety of them from himself. Dost thou wrong thy neighbour to call for that money thou lentest him a year or two past?  No sure, thou think­est he hath reason to thank thee for lending it to him, but none to complain for calling it from him.

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The great question I expect now to fall from thy mouth, Christian, is not how mayest thou escape these troubles and trials which, as the evil genius of the gospel, do always attend it? but rather, how thou mayest get this shoe on, thy heart ready for a march to go and meet them when they come, and cheerfully wade through them, whatever they be, or how long so­ever they stay with thee?  This is a question well be­coming a Christian soldier, to ask for armour wherewith he may fight; whereas the coward throws away his armour, and asks whether he may flee.  I shall therefore give the best counsel I can, in these few particulars.

           First Direction.  Look carefully to the ground of thy active obedience, that it be sound and sincere. The same right principles whereby the sincere soul acts for Christ, will carry him to suffer for Christ, when a call from God comes with such an errand, ‘The children of Ephraim, being armed, and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle,’ Ps. 78:9.  Why? what is the matter? so well armed, and yet so cowardly?  This seems strange.  Read the precedent verse, and you will cease wondering.  They are called there ‘a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not stedfast with God.’  Let the ar­mour be what it will, yea, if soldiers were in a castle whose foundation were a rock, and its walls brass, yet, if their hearts be not right to their prince an easy storm will drive them from the walls, and a little scare open their gate, which hath not this bolt of sincerity on it to hold it fast.  In our late wars we have seen that honest hearts within thin and weak works have held the town, when no walls would defend treachery from betraying trust.  O labour for sincerity in the engaging at first for God and his gospel!  Be oft asking thy own soul for whom thou prayest, hearest, reform­est this practice and that.  If thou canst get a satisfactory answer from thy soul here, thou mayest hope well.  If faith’s working hand be sincere, then its fighting hand will be valiant.  That place is observable, Heb. 11:33 ‘Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire,’ and with other great things, that faith enabled them to endure, as you may read in vv. 34-36.  There note, I pray, how the power of faith enabling the Christian to ‘work righteousness’—that is, live holily and righteously—is reckoned among the wonders of sufferings which it strengthened them to endure.  In­deed had it not done this, it would never have endured these.

           Second Direction. Pray for a suffering spirit.  This is not a common gift, which every carnal gospel­ler and slighty professor hath.  No; it is a peculiar gift, and bestowed on a few sincere souls.  ‘Unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake,’ Php. 1:29.  All the parts and common gifts that a man hath will never enable him to drink deep of this cup for Christ.  Such is the pride of man's heart.  He had rather suffer any way than this; rather from himself, and for himself, than from Christ or for Christ.  You would wonder to see sometimes, how much a child will endure at his play, and never cry for it—this fall, and that knock, and no great matter is made of it, because got in a way that is pleasing to him.  But, let his father whip him, though it puts him not to half the smart, yet he roars and takes on, that there is no quieting of him. Thus, men can bring trouble on themselves, and bite in their complaints.  They can, one play away his es­tate at cards and dice, and another whore away his health, or cut off many years from his life by beastly drunkenness; and all is endured patiently.  Yea, if they had their money and strength again, they should go the same way.  They do not repent of what their lusts have cost them, but mourn they have no more to bestow upon them.  Their lusts shall have all they have, to a morsel of bread in their cupboard and drop of blood in their veins; yea, they are not afraid of burning in hell, as their sins' martyrs.  But come, and ask these that are so free of their purse, flesh, soul, and all, in lust's service, to lay their estate or life for a few moments at stake in Christ's cause and his truth’s, and you shall see that God is not so much beholden them.  And therefore pray and pray again for a suffering spirit in Christ's cause.  Yea, saints themselves need earnestly to plead with God for this. Alas! they do not find suffering work follow their hand so easily.  The flesh loves to be cockered, not crucified.  Many a groan it costs the Christian before he can learn to love this work.  Now prayer, if any means, will be helpful to thee in this particular.  He that can wrestle with God, need not fear the face of death and danger.  Prayer engageth God’s strength and wisdom for our help.  And what is there too hard for the creature, that hath God at his back for his help, to do or suffer?  We are bid to ‘count it all joy, when we fall into divers temptations,’ James 1:2—not temptations to sin, but for righteousness.  He means troubles for Christ and his gospel.  Ah! but might the poor Christian say, it were cause of more joy to be able to stand under these temptations, than to fall into them.  Little joy would it be to have the tempta­tion, and not the grace to endure temptation.  True indeed; but, for thy comfort, Christian, he that leads thee into this temptation stands ready to help thee through it.  Therefore, ver. 5, there is a gracious si quis —if any one—set up; ‘If any of you’—i.e. you suffers chiefly—‘lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.’  This, methinks, should not much strain our faith to believe.  There are not many mas­ters so disingenuous to be found, that would twit and upbraid their servant for asking humbly their counsel in a work of peril and difficulty, which they cheerfully undertake out of love to their persons and obedience to their command.  How much less then needest thou fear such dealing from thy God?  If thou hast so much faith and love as to venture at his command upon the sea of suffering, he will, without doubt, find so much mercy as to keep thee from drowning, if, feeling thyself begin to sink, thou criest earnestly as Peter did to him, ‘Lord, save me.’  Wert thou even under water, prayer would buoy thee up again.  The proverb indeed is, ‘He that would learn to pray, let him go to sea.’  But I think it were better thus, ‘He that would go to sea—this I mean of suffering—let him learn to pray before he comes there.’  But, if thou beest not a man of prayer before suffering work come, thou wilt be able to do little at that weapon then.

Exhortation To Get On This Shoe Of Preparation

         

    Use Second. Be exhorted all you that take the name of Christ upon you, to get this shoe of preparation on, and keep it on, that you may be ready at all times to follow the call of God's providence, though it should lead you into a suffering condition.  Take but two motives.

1. Motive.  Consider, Christian, suffering work may overtake thee suddenly, before thou art aware of it; therefore be ready shod.  Sometimes orders come to soldiers for a sudden march; they have not so much as an hour’s warning, but must be gone as soon as the drum beats.  And so mayest thou be called out, Christian, before thou art aware, into the field, either to suffer for God or from God.  Abraham had little time given him to deal with his heart, and persuade it into a compliance with God, for offering his son Isaac.  A great trial, and short warning, ‘Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac,’ Gen. 22:2, not a year, a month, a week hence, but now.  This was in the night, and Abraham is gone ‘early in the morning,’ ver. 3. How would he have entertained this strange news, if he had been then to gain the consent of his heart? But that was not now to do.  God had Abraham’s heart already, and therefore he doth not now dispute his order, but obeys.  God can make a sudden alteration in thy private affairs, Christian; how couldst thou in thy perfect strength and health, endure to hear the message of death?  If God should, before any lingering sickness hath brought thee into some ac­quaintance with death, say no more, but ‘Up and die,’ as once to Moses, art thou shod for such a journey?  Couldst thou say, ‘Good is the word of the Lord?’ What if one day thou wert to step out of honour into disgrace, to be stripped of thy silks and velvets, and, in vile raiment, called to act a beggar’s part?  Couldst thou rejoice that thou art made low, and find thy heart ready to bless the Most High?  This would speak thee a soul evangelically shod indeed.

           Again, God can as soon change the scene, in the public affairs of the times thou livest in, as to the gos­pel and profession of it.  May be, now, authority smiles on the church of God; but, within a while it may frown, and the storm of persecution arise.  ‘Then had the churches rest throughout all Judea,’ Acts 9:31. This was a blessed time.  But how long did it last? Alas! not long, see Acts 12.  There is sad news of a bloody persecution in the first verse of it.  ‘Now about that time Herod the king stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church.’  In this persecution James the brother of John lost his life by his cruel sword; and Peter we find in prison, like to go to the same shambles.  The entire church, indeed, is driven into a corner to pray in the night together, ver. 12.  O what a sad change is here!  Now in blood, who even now had ‘rest’ on every side.  It is observed that in islands the weather is far more variable and uncertain than in the continent.  Here you may know, ordinarily, what weather will be for a long time together; but in islands, in the morning we know not what weather will be before night.  We have ofttimes summer and win­ter in the same day.  And all this is imputed to the near neighbourhood of the sea that surrounds them. The saints in heaven, they live, as I may so say, on the continent.  A blessed constancy of peace and rest is there enjoyed.  They may know by what peace and bliss they have at present, what they shall have to eternity.  But here below, the church of Christ is as a floating island, compassed with the world —I mean men of the world—as with a sea; and these [i.e. men of the world] sometimes blow hot, and sometimes cold; sometimes they are still and peaceable, and sometimes enraged and cruel, even as God binds up or lets loose their wrath.  Now, Christian, doth it not behove thee to be always in a readiness, when thou knowest not but in the next moment the wind may turn into the cold corner, and the times which now favour the gospel, so as to fill the sails of thy profession with all encouragement, on a sudden blow full on thy face, and oppose it as much as it did before countenance it?

2. Motive. Consider, if thy feet be not shod with a preparation to suffer for Christ here on earth, thy head cannot be crowned in heaven.  ‘If children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ,’ Rom. 8:17.  Now mark the following words, ‘If so be that we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified togeth­er.’  It is true, all the saints do not die martyrs at a stake; but every saint must have a spirit of martyrdom, as I may so call it—a heart prepared for suffering.  God never intended Isaac should be sacri­ficed, yet he will have Abraham lay the knife to his throat. Thus God will have us lay our neck on the block, and be, as Paul said of himself, ‘bound in the spirit,’ under a sincere purpose of heart to give up ourselves to his will and pleasure, which is called ‘a presenting our bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God,’ Rom. 12:1.  The end in view is, that as the Jew brought the beast alive, and presented it freely before him, to be done withal as God had commanded, so we are to present our bodies before God, to be disposed of as he commands, both in active and passive obedience.  He that refuseth to suffer for Christ, refuseth also to reign with Christ.  The putting off of the shoe among the Jews was a sign of a man’s putting off the right of an inheritance, Deut. 25:9, 10.  Thus did Elimelech’s kinsman, when he renounced and disclaimed any right that he might have in his estate—he drew off his shoe, Ruth 4:7, 8.  O Christian, Talk heed of putting off thy gospel shoe!  By this thou dost dis­claim thy right in heaven’s inheritance.  No portion is there laid up for any that will not suffer for Christ. The persecutions which the saints endure for the gos­pel, are made by Paul an evident token to them of salvation, and that of God, Php. 1:28.  Surely then the denying Christ, to escape suffering, is a sad token of perdition.  O sirs, is not heaven’s inheritance worth enduring a little trouble for it?  Naboth’s vineyard was no great matter, yet rather than he would—not lose it, but—sell it to its worth, or change it for a bet­ter in another place, chose to lay his life at stake by provoking a mighty king.  Thou canst, Christian, ven­ture no more for thy heavenly inheritance, than he paid for refusing his petty patrimony of an acre or two of land—thy temporal life I mean.  And besides the odds between his vineyard on earth and thy paradise in heaven —which is infinite, and suffers no proportion, thou hast this advantage also of him in thy suf­ferings for Christ.  When Naboth lost his life, he lost his inheritance also that he so strove to keep; but thy persecuting enemies shall do thee this friendly office against their wills, that when they dispossess thee of thy life, they shall help thee into possession of thy inheritance.

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2. Sort. Carnal gospellers, who keep possession of their lusts while they make profession of Christ.  A generation these are that have nothing to prove them­selves Christians by, but their baptism, and a Christian name which they have obtained thereby; such as, were they to live among Turks and heathens, their language and conversations—did they but conceal whence they came—would never bewray them to be Christians.  Can it now be rationally thought then that these are the men and women who stand ready to suffer for Christ and his gospel?  No sure; they who will not wear Christ’s yoke will much less bear his burden.  If the yoke of command that binds them to duty be thought grievous, they will much more think the burden of the cross insupportable.  He that will not do [work] for Christ, will not die for Christ.  That servant is very unlike to fight to blood in his master’s quarrel, that will  not work for him so as to sweat in his service.
3. Sort. The politic professor—a fundamental article in whose creed is, to save himself, not from sin, but from danger.  And therefore he studies the times more than the Scriptures; and is often looking what corner the wind lies in, that accordingly he may shape his course, and order his profession, which, like the hedgehog’s house, ever opens toward the warm side!
4. Sort. The covetous professor, whose heart and head are so full of worldly projects, that suffering for Christ must needs be very unwelcome to him, and find him far enough from such a disposition.  You know what the Egyptians said of the Israelites, ‘They are entangled in the land, the wilderness hath shut them in,’ Ex. 14:3.  More true is it of this sort of pro­fessors.  They are entangled in the world, this wilderness hath shut them in.  A man whose foot in a snare is as fit to walk and run as they to follow Christ, when to do it may prejudice their worldly interest.  Our Saviour, speaking of the miseries that were to come on Jerusalem, saith, ‘Woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days,’ Matt. 24:19—because it would be more difficult for them to escape the danger by flight.  But many more woes to them, who in days of trial and persecution for the gospel, shall be found big with the world, or that give suck to any covetous inordinate affection to the crea­ture.  Such will find it hard to escape the temptation that these will beset them with.  It is impossible in such a time to keep estate and Christ together; and as impossible for a heart that is set upon the world, to be willing to leave it for Christ’s company.
5. Sort. The conceited professor, who hath a high opinion of himself, and is so far from a humble holy jealously and fear of himself, that he is self-confident.  Here is a man shod and prepared he thinks, but not with the right gospel shoe.  ‘By strength shall no man prevail,’ I Sam. 2:9.  He that, in Queen Mary’s days, was so free of his flesh for Christ [that], as he said, he would see his fat—of which he had a good store—melt in the fire rather than fall back to Popery, lived, poor man, to see this his reso­lution melt, and himself cowardly part with his faith to save his fat.  Those that glory of their valour, when they put on the harness, ever put it off with shame. ‘The heart’ of man ‘is deceitful above all things,’—a very Jacob, that will supplant its own self.  He that cannot take the length of his own foot, how can he of himself fit a shoe to it?

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           Use First. Must the Christian stand thus shod in readiness to march at the call of God in any way or weather?  This will exceedingly thin and lessen the number of true Christians, to what they appear to be at the first view, by the estimate of an easy cheap profession.  He that should come into our assemblies, and see them thracked and wedged in so close with multitudes flocking after the word, might wonder at first to hear the ministers sink the number of Chris­tians so low, and speak of them as so little a company.  Surely their eyes fail them, that they cannot see wood for trees, Christians for multitudes of Chris­tians that stand before them.  This very thing made one of the disciples ask Christ with no little stranging [wondering] at it, ‘Lord, are there few that be saved?’ Luke 13:23.  Observe the occasion of this question. Christ, ‘went through the cities and villages, teaching, and journeying toward Jerusalem,’ ver. 22.  He saw Christ so free of his pains to preach at every town he came to, and people throng after him, with great ex­pressions of joy that fell from many, ver. 17.  Then said he, ‘Lord, are there few that be save d?’  As if he had said, This seems very strange and almost incredible.  To see the way to heaven strewed so thick with peo­ple, and the means of salvation in such request, and yet be few saved at last! how can this be?  Now mark our Saviour's unriddling this mystery.  ‘And he said unto them (it seems the man spoke more than his own scruple), Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able,’ ver. 24.  As if Christ had said, You judge by a wrong rule.  If profession would serve the turn, and flocking after sermons, with some seeming joy at the word, were enough to save, heaven would soon be full.  But, as you love your souls, do not boult or try yourselves by this coarse sieve; but ‘strive to enter,’ •(T<Æ.,F2,—fight and wrestle, venture life and limb, rather than fall short of heaven.  ‘For many shall seek,...but shall not be able;’ that is, seek by an easy profession, and cheap religion, such as is hearing the word, performance of duties, and the like.  Of this kind there are many that will come and walk about heaven-door—willing enough to enter, if they may do it without ruffling their pride in a crowd, or hazarding their present carnal interest by any contest and scuf­fle; ‘but they shall not be able!’ that is, they ‘shall not be able to enter’—because their carnal cowardly hearts shall not be able to strive.  So that take Christians under the notion of ‘seekers,’ and by Christ’s own words they are ‘many.’  But consider them under the notion of ‘strivers,’ such as stand ready shod with a holy resolution to strive even to blood—if such trials meet them in the way to heaven—rather than not enter, and then the number of Christian soldiers will shrink, like Gideon's goodly host, to a ‘little troop.’  O how easy were it to instance in several sorts of Christians—so called in a large sense—that have not this gospel shoe to their foot, and therefore are sure to founder and falter when once brought to go upon sharp stones!

1. Sort. The ignorant Christian—what work is he like to make of suffering for Christ and his gospel? and such are not the least number in many congregations.  Now, they who have not so much light of knowledge in their understanding, as to know who Christ is and what he hath done for them, will they have so much heat of love as to march cheerfully after him, when every step they take must fetch blood from them?  Nabal thought he gave a rational answer to David’s servants, that asked some relief of him in their present strait, when he said, ‘Shall I then take my bread, and my water, and my flesh that I have killed for my shearers, and give it unto men, whom I know not whence they be?’ I Sam. 25:11.  He thought it too much to part with upon so little acquaintance. And will the ignorant person, think you, be ready to part, not only with his bread and flesh out of the pot —a little of his estate I mean—but the flesh of his own body, if called to suffer, and all this at the com­mand of Christ, who is one he knows not whence he is?  Paul gives this as the reason why he suffered and was not ashamed, ‘for (saith he) I know whom I have believed,’ II Tim. 1:12.  Story tells us of the Samaritans —a mongrel kind of people both in their descent and religion—that, when it went well with the people of God, the Israelites, then they would claim kindred with them, and be Jews, but, when the church of God was under any outward affliction, then they would disclaim it again.  And we may the less wonder at this base cowardly spirit in them, if we read the character Christ gives of them, to be a people that ‘worship they know not what,’ John 4:22.  Religion hath but loose hold of them, that have no better hold of it than a blind man’s hand.

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  Fourth. This readiness of spirit to suffer, gives the Christian the true enjoyment of his life.  A man never comes to enjoy himself truly, in any comfort of his life, till prepared to deny himself readily in it.  It is a riddle; but two considerations will unfold it.

1. Consideration. When we are prepared to deny ourselves in any comfort we may enjoy, then, and not till then, is that which hinders the enjoyment of our lives taken away; and that is fear.  Where there is, ‘there is torment.’  The outsetting deer is observed to be lean—though where good food is—because always in fear.  And so must they needs be, in the midst of all their enjoyments, on whose heart this virtue is continually feeding.  There needs nothing else to bring a man’s joy into a consumption, than an  inor­dinate  fear of losing what he hath at present.  Let but this get hold of a man’s spirit, and [he] once become hectical, and the comfort of his life is gone past re­covery.  How many, by this, are more cruel to themselves, than it is possible their worst enemies in the world could be to them?  They alas, when they have done their utmost, can kill them but once.  But, by antedating their own miseries, they kill themselves a thousand times over, even as oft as the fear of dying comes over their miserable hearts.

           When once, however, the Christian hath got this piece of armour on—‘the gospel of peace’—his soul is prepared for death and danger.  He sits at the feast which God in his present providence allows him, and fears no messenger with ill news to knock at his door. Yea, he can talk of his dying hour, and not spoil the mirth of his present condition, as carnal men think it does.  To them a discourse of dying in the midst of their junkets, is like the coming in of the officer to attack a company of thieves that are making merry to­gether with their stolen goods about them; or, like the wet cloth that Hazael clapped on the king his master’s face, it makes all the joy, which flushed out be­fore, squat in on a sudden, [so] that the poor creatures sit dispirited and all a mort, as we say, till they get out of this affrighting subject by some divertise­ment or other.  [And even when they do so, the effect is] only to relieve them for the present.  It puts them out of that particular fit which this brought upon them; but leaves them deeper in slavery to such amazement of heart, whenever the same ghost shall appear for the future.  Whereas, the Christian, that hath this preparation of heart, never tastes more sweetness in the enjoyments of this life, than when he dips these morsels in the meditation of death and eternity.  It is no more grief to his heart to think of the remove of these—which makes way for those far sweeter enjoyments—than it would be to one at a feast, to have the first course taken off, when he hath fed well on it, that the second course of all rare sweetmeats and banqueting stuff may come on, which it cannot till the other be gone. Holy David, Ps. 23:4, 5, brings in (as it were), a death’s head with his feast. In the same breath almost he speaks of his dying, ver. 4, and of the rich feast he at present sat at, through the bounty of God, ver. 5.  To that however he was not so tied by the teeth, but if God, that gave him this cheer, should call him from it to look death in the face, he could do so and ‘fear no evil, when in the valley of the shadow thereof,’ Ps. 23:4.

           And what think you of the blessed apostle Peter? Had not he, think you, the true enjoyment of his life? when he could sleep so sweetly in a prison—no desirable place—fast bound ‘between two soldiers’ —no comfortable posture—and this the very ‘night’ before Herod ‘would have brought him forth’ in all probability to his execution!  This was no likely time (one would think) to get any rest; yet we find him even there, thus, and then, so sound asleep, that the angel who was sent to give him his goal delivery smote him on the side to awake him, Acts 12:6, 7.  I question whether Herod himself slept so well that night as this his prisoner did.  And what was the potion that brought this holy man so quietly to rest?  No doubt ‘this preparation of the gospel of peace.’  He was ready to die, and that made him able to sleep.  Why should that break his rest in this world, which, if it had been effected, would have brought him to his eternal rest in the other?

2. Consideration. The more ready and prepared the Christian is to suffer from God, or for God, the more God is engaged to take care for him, and of him.  A good general is most tender of that soldier’s life who is least tender of it himself.  The less the Christian values himself and his interests for God’s sake, the more careful God is of him, either to keep him from suffering, or in it.  Both of these blessings are meant, ‘Whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it,’ Matt. 16:25.  Abraham was ready to offer up his son, and then God would not suffer him to do it.  But if the Lord at any time takes the Christian’s offer, and lets the blow be given, though to the severing of soul and body, he yet shows his tender care of him, by the high esteem  he sets upon their blood, which is not more prodigally spilt by man’s cruelty, than carefully gathered up by God.  ‘Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.’

           Thus we see, that by resigning ourselves up readily to the disposure of God, we engage God to take care of us whatever befalls us.  And that man or woman, sure, if any other in the world, must needs live comfortably, that hath the care of himself wholly taken off his own shoulders, and rolled upon God, at whose finding he now lives.  The poor widow was nev­er better off than when the prophet kept house for her.  She freely parted with her little meal for the prophet’s use, and, [as] a reward of her faith—in crediting the message he brought from the Lord, so far as to give the bread out of her own mouth, and child’s, to the prophet—she is provided for by a miracle, I Kings 17:12, 13.  O when a soul is once thus brought to the foot of God, that it can sincerely say, ‘Lord, here I am; willing to deliver up all I have, and am, to be at thy dispose; my will shall be done, when thou hast thy will of me;’ God accounts himself deeply obliged to look after that soul!

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  A third sort are as much in bondage to their pleasures.  They are said to ‘live in pleasure on the earth,’ James 5:5.  Their life is bound up in their pleas­ures.  As the rush grows in the mud, and the fish lives in the water, they cannot live without their pleasures. Take them from their feasts and sports, and their hearts, with Nabal’s, die like a stone in their bosoms. Now this frame of spirit we are speaking of breaks all these chains, and brings the Christian out of every house of bondage.  It learns him to like what fare God sends.  If prosperity comes, he ‘knows how to abound,’ so, that if he be, by a turn of providence, thrown out of the saddle of his present enjoyments, his foot shall not hang in the stirrup, nor his enslaved soul drag him after it with whining desires.  No, through grace he is a free man, and can spare the company of any creature, so long as he may but have Christ’s with him.  Blessed Paul stands upon his liberty.  ‘All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any,’ I Cor. 6:12.  I know the place is meant of those indifferent things, concerning which there was a present dispute.  There is but another sense, in which all things here below were indifferent things to that holy man; honour or dishonour, abundance or want, life or death.  These were indifferent to Paul, he would not come under the power of any one of them all.  It did not become a servant of Christ, he thought, to be so tender of his reputation as to write himself undone when he had not this or that—not to be so in love with abundance as not to be ready to welcome want—not to be en­deared so to life as to run from the thoughts of death —nor to be so weary of a suffering life as to hasten death to come for his ease.  That mind is to be called superior which chooses rather to meet and show the experiences of life, than to escape them.

           Third. This readiness to suffer, as it ennobles with freedom, so it enables the Christian for service. It is a sure truth [that] so far and no more is the Christian fit to live serviceably, than he is prepared to suffer readily.  Because there is no duty but hath the cross attending on it; and he that is offended at the cross, will not be long pleased with the service that brings it.  Prayer is the daily exercise of a saint.  This he cannot do as he should, except he can heartily say, ‘Thy will be done.’  And who can do that in truth, unless ready to suffer?  Praising God is a standing duty; yea, ‘in everything we must give thanks,’ I Thes. 5:18.  But, what if affliction befalls us?  How shall we tune our hearts to that note, if not ready to suffer? Can we bless God, and murmur?—praise God, and repine?  The minister’s work is to preach, ‘Woe to him if he do not;’ and if he do preach, he is sure to suffer.  Paul had his orders for the one, and his mittimus for the other, together.  He was sent at the same time to preach the grace of God to the world and to endure the wrath of the world for God.  So God told Ananias, ‘that he should bear his name before the Gentiles,’ and ‘suffer great things for his name’s sake,’ Acts 9:15, 16.  And if the gospel did not please the ungrateful world out of Paul’s mouth, who had such a rare art of sweetening it, it were strange that any who fall so far short of his gifts to move in the pulpit, and of his grace to win upon the hearts of men when out, should, if they mean to be faithful, think to go without the wages which the world paid him for his pains—reproach and contempt, if not downright blows of bloody persecution, as he met with.  And is not this shoe needful for the preacher’s foot, that is to walk among so many hissing serpents? Who but a Paul, that had got over the fond love of life, and fear of a bloody death, would have been so willing to go into the very lion's den, and preach the gospel there, where in a manner, he invited death to come unto him?—I mean at Rome itself, the seat of cruel Nero.  ‘So much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also; for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ,’ Rom. 1:15, 16.

           In a word, it is the duty of every Christian to make a free profession of Christ.  Now this cannot be done without hazard many times.  And if the heart be not resolved in this point—what to do; the first storm that riseth will make the poor man put in to any creek or hole, rather than venture abroad in foul weather. ‘Among the chief rulers also many believed on him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue,’ John 12:42.  Poor souls, they could have been content if the coast had been clear to have put forth, but had not courage enough to bear a little scorn that threatened them.  O what folly is it to engage for God, except we be willing to lay all at stake for him!  It is not worth the while to set out in Christ’s company by profession, except we mean to go through with him, and not leave him unkindly when we are half way, because of a slough or two.