' Judas and Spira will rather sin than suffer ; but who ever suffered more on this side hell than they suffered ? ' De Civit., lib. vi. c. 10.
420 A GENERAL EPISTLE
vi. 24 ; whereby many young persons might think that Eleazar, being fourscore and ten years old, were now gone to a strange religion. Thus also one of the seven brethren, in the name of the rest, ' We are ready to die, rather than transgress the laws of our fathers,' chap. vii. 2 ; meaning such laws as Grod of old had given to their fathers, to be observed by them, and by their posterity age after age. Polycarpus,! when the governor promised to let him go free if he would deny Christ, answered, I have served him fourscore and six years, and he never hurt me in anything ; how shall I curse him who hath saved me ? And the governor adding one while promises, another while threatenings, Polycarpus thus cuts off all, Why dost thou make delays ? inflict what thou lists.^ So Galeacius, [Carraciolus,] a gentleman of great estate, who suffered martyrdom at St Angelo in Italy, being much pressed by his friends to recant, and save his life, he replied, that death was much more sweet to him with the testimony of verity, than life with the least denial of truth. Hooper desired rather to be dis- charged of his bishopric, than yield to certain ceremonies. A man were better displease all his friends, all his relations, yea, all the world, than to displease his God, and displease his own conscience. So Cyprian, — Augustine relates the story, — when the emperor, as he was going to execution, told him that he would give him space to consider whether he were not better cast in a grain into the fire,3 than be so miserably slain ; to which he replied, In re tam sancta deliheratio non Jmbet locum, There needs no deliberation in this case. The like we read in the history of France, in the year 1572, presently after that tragical and perfidious slaughter and massacre of so many thousands of protestants by treacherous bloody papists, Charles the Ninth, king of France, called the Prince of Conde, and proposed to him this choice, either to go to mass, or to die presently, or to suffer perpetual im- prisonment ; to which he returned this noble answer, That by God's help he would never choose the first; and for either of the two latter, he left it to the king's pleasure, and God's providence. Thus you see that the people of God have, when put to it, chose rather to suffer than to sin. But,
4. Fourthly, That they shall he sure to suffer with a witness, that refuse to suffer, or are afraid to suffer, when Christ calls them to a suffering state. No men can suffer so much for Christ, as they shall be sure to suffer from Christ, if through weakness or wickedness they either disdain or refuse to suffer for Christ : Mark viii. 35, ' For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it.' There is no loss, but gain, in losing for Christ. It is a very dangerous thing for men to prefer the safety of their natural lives before the glory of Christ, the cause of Christ, the gospel of Christ, and the profes- sion of his name. It is certain that the glory of Christ ought to be more dear and precious to us than our very lives. Christ, for our redemption and salvation, freely and readily lays down his life, ' I lay down my life for my sheep,' John x. 15 ; and shall we stand with him for ours, when our call is clear, to lay them down for his sake and
\ Eccles. Hist., lib. iv. 15. [As before.— G.] ^ * Choosest.'— G.
^ A 'grain' of incense into the heathen altar-fire, a frequent demand and test. — G.
TO ALL SUFFERING SAINTS.