CHAP. III.

Preparations for sufferings considered more generally. A Christian that will be prepared for sufferings must secure to himself three things; that is, a good cause, a good heart, and a good God.

HAVING Seen the necessity of persecution, and the necessity of preparation, I come now to the main thing intended; to consider how a Christian may be prepared for sufferings: and here I shall first speak in general, and then more particularly. In general, a Christian, that would be prepared for sufferings, must secure to himself three things; a good cause, a good heart, and a good God; the first will make suffering honourable; the second will make us meet for it; the third will give assistance and comfort in it.

I. The Christian must secure to him

self a good cause; he must take care not to suffer as an evil doer; this is not grateful to God, nor honourable among men; in it Christ is not imitated, but Christianity is shamed: such sufferers are the devils martyrs; it cannot be reasonably expected that they should have the gracious presence of God, or any comfort in conscience; their own hearts cry out, guilty, and plainly tell them, that their suffering is but the just wages of their iniquity. A Christian must be sure, that there be no guilt in that which he suffers for. Holy Daniel saith, that "innocency was found in him;" Dan. vi. 22. He speaks not of the innocency of his person, as if he were without sin; but of the innocency of his cause, for which he suffered: his praying against a law did not merit a den of lions; he broke the human command, only to keep the divine. It highly concerns the Christian to have an innocent cause; it is

the cause, not the mere suffering, that makes the martyr. Again, the Christian must take care, that he suffer not as a busybody in other men's matter; he must not leave his own station, nor forfeit God's protection; he must abide with God in his calling, and do his own business. God took care of the bird sitting over her young in her nest, Deut. xxii. 6. but not of the wandering one. The learned Johannes Funcius, a minister of the Gospel in his prince's court, turned minister of state to his prince, and was at last for some evil counsel, condemned to die; and before he suffered, he much lamented the leaving of his calling, and left this distich:

Disce meo exemplo mandato munere fungi, Et fuge ceu pestem την πολυπραγμοσύνην. Learn this of me, thine own office to bear, In others meddle not, the plague is there.

It is very uncomfortable to a Christian, when he runs into sufferings by

Theod.

Hist. Lib. 4. cap. 39.

going out of his own sphere. Moreover, the Christian must take care, that he suffer not for his own rashness. He that defaced the Emperor's edict against Christians, and suffered for it, was not accounted a martyr. Bishop Audas demolished the Persian temple, dedicated to the fire, as their Numen, and suffered for it; but it was reckoned as a piece of rash and unreasonable zeal : we must not cast ourselves into dangers; God will keep us in our ways, not in our precipices. We must take up the cross that God makes for us, but not make one of ourselves by our own rashness: if we must suffer, let it be for that good conscience which is a continual feast; for that righteousness which is in conjunction with peace and joy in the Holy Ghost: let it be for that Jesus who suffered for us; for that God who crowns momentary sufferings with eternal glory. This was the case of the primitive Christians; they suffered,

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but it was in a good cause. Justin Martyr and Athenagoras, in their apologies for them, show, that there was nothing amiss found in them; atheism, no Thyestean suppers, no unclean copulations, no unjust actions; the only crime was Christianity. And afterwards Tertullian shows, that the name in Christians was condemned, but no crime was found in them towards God or man. This is the first thing we are to do, we must secure a good cause.

II. We must secure good hearts. It is said of the children of Ephraim, that "being armed, and carrying bows, they turned back in the day of battle," Psal. lxxviii. 9; and the reason of this we have in the precedent verse, "they set not their hearts aright." Unless the heart be good, as well as the cause, men will turn back from God, and the pure religion: corrupt hearts will fall in with the world, and ever be on the

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