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 sometimes blow hot, and sometimes cold; some- times 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 the next moment the wind may turn into the cold corner ; and the times which now favoin- the gos- pel, so as to fill the sails of thy profession with all encouragement, may on a sudden blow full on thy face, and oppose it as much as it did before counte- nance it .'
Secondly, Consider, if thy feet be not shod with a preparation to suffer for Christ here on earth, thy head cannot be crowned in heaven, Rom. viii. 17: ' If children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ.' Now mark the following words : ' If so be we suffer with him, that we may be also 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 shoidd 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 pleasm-e ; which is called, a 'presenting our bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God,' Rom. xii. 1. 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 the shoe among the Jews was a sign of a man's putting off the right of an iniieritance. Dent. xxv. 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 iv. 7, 8. O Christian, take 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, Phil. i. 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 vine- yard 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, he 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 to alienate 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 ofHce against their wills, that when they dispossess thee of thy life, they shall help thee into possession of thy inheritance.
CHAPTER XVII.
SIX DIRECTIONS FOR THE HELPING ON OF THIS SPIRITUAL SHOE.
Quest. The great question I now expect to fall from thy mouth, Christian, is, not how thou mayest 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?
Aitsw. 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 whither he may fly. I shall therefore give the best counsel I can in these few particulars.
414 AND YOUR FEET SHOD WITH