man his discretion with what instrument to thresh his corn, as it is harder or softer, will not let the persecutor's wheel come upon thee who art not able to bear it. God gives us this very account why he led his people the farther way about, at their coming out of Egypt, rather than by the land of the Philistines, (the far shorter cut,) Exod. xiii. 17, ' For God said, Lestperadventure the peo- ple repent when they see war-, and return to Egvpt.' See here, God considers their weakness : they cannot yet bear war, and therefore they shall not be tried with it till more hardened for it. But if thou be called into the field, to en- counter with these fiery trials, the promise takes the whole care and charge of the war off thy hands : ' When they deliver you up, take no thought' (that is, disquieting, distrustful,) ' how or what ye shall speak, for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak,' Matt. x. 17; and ver. 20 : ' It is the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you.' There is no mouth that God can- not make eloquent ; no back so weak, which he cannot make strong. And he hath promised to be with thee wherever thy enemies carry thee : fire and water shall not part thee from his sweet company. These promises make so soft a pillow for the saints' heads, that they have professed never to have lain at more ease than when most cruelly handled by their merciless enemies. One dates his letter 'from the delectajjle orchard, his prison ;' another subscribes herself, ' Your loving friend, as merry as one bound for heaven.' They have been so far from pitying themselves in their sufferings, that their chief sorrow hath been that they could be no more thankful for them. And whence had they their strength and joy ? Had they not both from the Spirit, applying the promises to them ? Secondly, As for the trouble thou puttest thyself to, concerning the cause and church of Christ, which thou mayest see at any time distressed by the enem}', though God takes thy good-will to them (from which thy fears arise) very kindly, yet there is no need of tormenting thyself with that which is sure never to come to pass. The ark may shake, but it cannot fall ; the ship of the church may be tossed, but it cannot sink, for Christ is in it, and will awake time enough to prevent its wreck. There is therefore no cause for us, when the storm beateth hardest upon it, to disturb him, as once the disciples did, with the shrieks and outcries of our unbelief, as if all were lost. Our faith is more in danger of sinking at such a time, than the cause and church of Christ. They are both by the promise set out of the reach of men and devils : the gospel is an ' everlasting gospel,' Rev. xiv. 6 : ' Heaven and earth shall pass away, but not one jot of this shall perish,' Matt. v. 18 : ' The word of the Lord endureth for ever,' 1 Pet. i. 23 ; and shall be alive to walk over all its enemies' graves, yea, to see the funeral of the whole world, when, at the great day of the Lord, it must be everlastingly buried in its own ruins. And for the church, that is built upon a rock impregnable, ' the gates of hell shall not prevail against it,' Matt. xvi. 18. It hath been often in the sea, but never drowned; seldom out of the fire, but never consumed : sometimes swallowed up by treason, but, like Jonah in the whale's belly, cast up again, as too heavy a charge for the strongest stomach that ever a persecutor had to digest. The faith of this hath carried the blessed martyrs to the gi-ave, when they swam to it in their own blood with joy, because they knew the church should have the day at last, and that they left others behind in pursuit of the victory on earth, while themselves were taken out of the field, to triumph in heaven ; yea some, by prophetic spirit, have foretold the very time when the persecuted truths, that were then buried with so much ignominy and scorn, should have a happy resurrection and victory over their proud enemies. Thus John Huss cited his enemies to answer him a hundred years after, comforting himself, that though they then burnt ' the goose,' (alluding to his own name,) ' a swan' would come in his stead, that should fill the air with his sweet singing, which was fulfilled in Luther, whose doctrine went far and near, and charmed the hearts of multitudes. And Hiltenius alleviated the miseries he endured in his stinking prison (where he died for rubbing the monks' sores too hard) with this, that another, naming the very time, 1516, should rise after him that would i-uin the monks' kingdom, whose abuses he had but gently reproved, and that they should not be able to resist his power, nor so much as fasten a chain upon him ; which came to pass in Luther ; for to a miracle he was kept out of the hands of his enemies, though never man's blood was more thirsted for.
AND THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT. 599
CHAPTER XXIV.
DIRECTFONS TO THE CHRISTIAN, HOW TO MAKE USE OF THE SWORD OF THE WORD FOR HIS DEFENCE AGAINST ERRORS AND SEDUCERS.