* befal me, being prepared for either event ; either to ruin you, ' to the great benefit of my country, or myself to fall witli a good
< conscience ; therefore that you may see with what confidence I
* contemn your threats, I do profess myself to be your irreconcil- ' able enemy, whilst ye persecute Luther and such as he is. No ' power of yours, no injury of fortune shall alter this mind in me ;
f Socrates, hist. 1. 4. c. 2C. J Theod. lib. 4. cap. 19.
800 A PRACTICAL TREATISE OF FEAR.
* thou£^h you take away my life, yet this well-deserving of mine to*
* wards my country's liberty, shall not die. I know that my endea-
* vour to remove such as you are, and to place worthy ministers in
* your room, is acceptable to God ; and in the last judgment, I ' trust it will be safer for me to have offended you, than to have ' had your favour.'
It was also a brave heroic spirit by which John duke of Saxony was acted to defend the reformation, who despising all the favours and offers of the court, and of Rome, and the terrors of death itself ; appeared, as my author speaks, in its behalf against all the devils, and the pope *, in three public imperial assemblies, saying openly to their faces, I must serve God, or the world ; and w^hich of these two do ye think is the better ? And as soon as Luther's sermons were forbidden, he hasted away, saying, I will not stay there, where I cannot have my liberty to serve God.
And now reader, thou hast a little taste of the courage and zeal of those worthies who are gone before thee in defence of that cause for which thou fearest to suffer. Most men, saith Chrysostom, that read or hear such examples, are like the spectators of the Roman gladiators, who stood by and praised their courage, but durst not enter the lists to do what they did. If ever thou wilt get like courage for Christ, thus improve such famous examples.
1. Make use of them to obviate the prejudice of shigularity ; you see you have store of good company, the same things you are like to suffer for Christ, have been accomplished in the rest of your brethren in the world, 1 Pet. v. 9.
2. Improve them against the prejudice of all that shame that at- tends sufferings, here you may see the most excellent persons in the world reckoning it their glory to suffer the \ilest things for Jesus Christ, Acts v. 31. Heb. xi. 26.
3. Improve them against the conceit of the insupportableness of sufferings. Lo here, poor weak creatures which have been carried honourably and comfortably through the crudest and difficultest sufferings for Christ. Our women and children, not to speak of men, (saith Tertullian) overcome their tormentors, and the fire cannot fetch so much as a sigh from them.
4. Improve them against thine own unbelief and staggerings at the faithfulness of God in that promise, Isa. xhii. 2. " When thou " passest through the fire, I will be with thee," Sec. Lo here you have the recorded and faithful testimonies of such as have tried it, "with one voice witnessing for God, Th?/ zaord is truth, thy word is truth.
5. Improve them against the sensible weakness of your own
* Spangenberg, ad an. 1531.
A PRACTICAL TREATISK OF FEAR. 301
graces ; are you afraid your faith, love, and patience are too weak to carry you through great trials? Why doubtless so were many of them too, they were men of like fears, troubled with a bad heart and a busy devil as well as you, they also had their clouds and damps as you have ; yet the almighty power of God supported them ; and out of weakness they were made strong : despond not therefore, but get a judgment satisfied, Psal. xliv. 22. a conscience sprinkled, 2 Tim. i. 7. and a call cleared, Dan. vi. 10. Exercise faith also with respect to Divine assistances and everlasting rewards as they did : and doubt not but the same God that enabled them to finish their course with joy, will be as good to you as he was to them. Consider, Christ hath done as much for you as he did for any of them, and deserves as much from you as from any of them ; and hath prepared the same gldlry for you that he prepared for them : O that such considerations might provoke you to shew as much courage and love to Christ as any of them ever did.
Rule 7. If' ever you will get above the power of your own fears in a suffering day make haste to clear your interest in Chi^ist^ and your pardon in his blood before that evil day come.
The clearer this is, the bolder you will be ; an assured Christian was never known to be a coward in sufferings ; it is impossible to be clear of fears till you are cleared of the doubts about interest in, and pardon by Christ. Nothing is found more strengthening to our fears than that which clouds our evidences ; and nothing more to quiet and cure our fears than that which clears our evidences. The shedding abroad of God's love in our hearts will quickly fill them with a spirit of glorying in tribulations, Rom. v. 5. When the believing Hebrews once came to know in themselves that they had an enduring substance in heaven, they quickly found in themselves an unconcerned heart for the loss of their comforts on earth, Heb. X. 34. and so' should we too. For,
1. Assurance satisfies a man that his treasure and true happiness is secured to him, and laid out of the reach of all his enemies ; and so long as that is safe he hath all the reason in the world to be quiet and cheerful, " I know (saith Paul) whom I have believed, *' and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have " committed to him against that day,'' 2 Tim. i. 12. And he gives this as his reason why he was not ashamed of Christ's sufferings.
2. The assured Christian knows that if death itself come, (which is the worst men can inflict) he shall be no loser by the exchange ; nay he shall make the best bargain that ever he made since he first parted with all his afflictions, to follow Christ. There are two rich bargains a Christian makes ; one is, when he exchanges the
302 A PRACTICAL TJIEATISE OF FEAR.
vorld for Christ in his first choice at his conversion, in point of love and estimation : the other is, when he actually parts with the world for Christ at his dissolution : both these are rich bargains, and upon this ground it was the apostle said, " To me to live is " Clmst, and to die is gain," Phil. i. 21. The death of a believer in Christ, is gain unspeakable, but if a man would make the utmost gain by dying, he shall find it in dying for Christ, as well as in Christ : and to shew you wherein the gain of such a death lies, let a few particulars be weighed, wherein the gain will be cast up in both ; he that is assured he dies in Christ, knows,