Cent. 2. with all his cordials. Stephen was never so full of it as when he was stoned. Hist. Mag. The martyr Felicitas professed to her persecutor, that she had the Holy Spirit in her the prepared Christian hath a spirit of power in infirmities, a spirit of glory in reproaches, a spirit of comfort in distresses. There are no such rich anointings, as those that wait upon the cross of Christ: at other times a Christian hath some measures of the Spirit; but then he hath such large effusions of it, that no sufferings can make him miserable: the clouds without cannot break the serenity in his conscience; the noise of a troublesome world cannot interrupt that divine peace which keeps his heart; no malice of man can hinder the sheddings of God's love into him; no wants or exigencies can deprive him of the hidden manna promised to the overcomer; he is happy even in a vale of tears: and what will he be in heaven? There his reward will be great, nay, greater than that of others. On the other hand; he that is not prepared for sufferings, is a miserable man: he hath a name of religion and that is all; a notion of the Gospel, but without a root; he hath a false Christ, that is a Christ without a cross, but the right Christ he knows not; a pretence to heaven he hath, but he is not in a posture for it, neither will he go thither in an hard way: if sufferings come, he is snared, as fishes in an evil net; the surprise will rob him of that which he seems to have; he will not have so much as the name or notion of religion left: Christ will be an offence, or stumbling-block to him; heaven itself will not be worth suffer ing for. Thus those of the stony ground received the word with joy, but because their hearts were not Cent. 2. cap. 3. ready for it, as soon as persecution Magd.Hist. arose, they were offended. Thus it was observed among the primitive Christians, that the unready and unprepared did faint and fall in time of persecution. The cup of sufferings is bitter, nature starts at it: the unprepared Christian, rather than drink it, will in all likelihood turn apostate in the day of trial; prosperous error will be embraced by him before persecuted truth; idolatry with the world will go down better than the pure worship without it; Christ coming in poverty and tribulation will be forsaken; Antichrist appearing in the pomp and out. ward greatness of the world, will be followed: mere vanity will outweigh all the great offers of the Gospel; a soul and a God will be laid at stake for a little outward prosperity: and what a forlorn condition is this? And without repentance, how dismal must the end be? The good God, whom he hath forsaken, will depart from him; Jesus Christ the Saviour will cast him out; a curse and a blast will be upon his prosperity; a sting and a wound in conscience will make him weary of himself; in a word, he will become loathsome to God, men, and himself. It is storied, that in the third century Cypr. de the tokens of God's wrath came in an Lapsis. extraordinary way upon those Christians that fell off in time of persecution; some of them were struck dumb, some vexed with devils, some tormented in their bowels unto death; and, though not in these ways, yet in other will his wrath come down upon all apostates; if they are not dumb before men, they will be speechless before God; if devils vex not their bodies, they will yet possess their souls; if there be no torments in their bowels, yet there are in their consciences: the miseries, which apo |