to devour them as his adversaries, tliat no sooner the report of a peace con- chided betwixt God and them sounds in their ears by tlie preaching of the gospel, and is certainly confirmed to be true in their own consciences by the Spirit, who is sent from heaven to seal it to them, and give them some sweet gust of it, by shedding abroad the sense of it in their souls; but instantly there appears a new life in them, that they who before were so fearful and shy of every petty trouble, as to start at the thought of it, (knowing it could bring no good news to them,) are now, shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, able to go out smilingly to meet the greatest sufferings that are, or can be on the way towards them, and say luidauntedly to them, as once Christ did to those that came with swords and staves to attack him, ' Whom seek ye ?' ' Being justified by faith we have peace with God,' saith the apostle, Rom. v. 1. And this, how mightily doth it work ? even ' to make them glory in tribulations.' The words opened afford these two points.
Doct. 1. It is our duty to be always prepared, and ready to meet with any trial and endure any hardship which God may lay out for us in our Christian warfare. Doct. 2. 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.
Sectiont II. — Doct. 1. We ought to maintain a holy readiness of spirit to endure any hardship which God may lay out for us in our Christian covirse. Saints are sure to want no trials and sufterings : these, as Christ saith of the poor, ' we shall have always with us.' The bloody sweat which Christ felt, signified, saith Augustine, the sufferings which in his whole mystical body he should endure. Christ's whole body was lifted upon the cross, and no member must now look to escape the cross; and when the cross comes, how must we behave ourselves towards it ? It will not speak us Christians, that we are merely passive, and make no notorious resistance against the will of God; but we nnist be active in our patience, if I may so speak, by shewing a holy readi- ness and alacrity of spirit to be at God's ordering, though it were to be led down into the very chambers of death itself. That epitaph would not become a Christian's gravestone, which I have heard was engraved upon one's tomb, and might too tndy on most that die, ' Here lies one against his will.' Holy, Paul was of a better mind. Acts xxi. 115: 'I am ready not only to be bound, but als oto die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.' But may be this was but a flourish of his colours, when he knew the enemy to be far enough off; he may yet live to change his thoughts, when he comes to look death in the face. No, what he hath said he stands to, 2Tim. iv. : ' I am now i-eady to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand :' he speaks of it as if it were already done ; indeed he had already laid his head on the block, and was dead before the stroke was given; not with fear, as some have been, but with a free resignation of himself to it ; and if a malefactor be civiiiter mor/uus, dead in a law-sense, as soon as the sentence is out of the judge's mouth, though he lives some weeks after, then I am sure in a gospel-sense we may say, those are dead already, that are ready to die, that have freely put themselves under the sentence of it in their own willingness. And this alacrity and serenity that was on Paul's spirit was the more renuirkable, if we consider how close he stood to his end. Indeed some, from the Greek word, which properly signifies a libation or drink-offering, conceive that Paul knew the very kind of death which he should suffer, namely, beheading ; and that he alludes to the pouring out of blood or wine, used in sacrifice, as that kind of sacrifice which did best illustrate the nature of his death, viz., the pouring out his blood ; which he did as willingly offer up in the service of Christ and his church, as they did pour out their wine in a drink-offering to the Lord. We shall now give some rational account of the point, why we are to be ready and prompt at suffering-work. The reasons of the point shall fall under two heads. First, taken from Christ, for or from whom we suffer. The second, from the excellency of such a tem- per, as this readiness to endure any hardship imports.
First, In regard of Christ. 1. He commands it. 2. He deserves it. Section III. — First, He conunands it. Indeed this frame of spirit is im- plied in every duty, as the modus afjeiu/i, that qualification which (like the stamp on coin) makes it current in God's account. Tit. iii, 1 : ' Put them in
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