Preface To Second Part.

In times of persecution, words and colloquies consisted in edifying instructions, and awakenings to godliness, magnifying of the name of God, mutual consolations in suffering, exhortations and incitations to constancy, and recommendations of eternal salvation. Examine once, whether at this time you have not lent your tongue to please frivolous, worldly men with vain and useless talk; whether thereby you did not only not promote godliness, but were also a hindrance and injury to it; whether you did not defame your neighbor’s good name and reputation; and whether your tongue has not by lying and deceit ministered to avarice. In times of the cross, the time was spent in godly exercises, in consoling and edifying one another, in visiting those in prison, and in preparing for suffering by devout meditations. Consider once, on what you have bestowed the precious time; how much of it has been squandered in voluptuousness and vanity; how much has been wasted in disputes and quarrels; how much has been lost by needless anxiety and labor; and how little has remained for devotion. No doubt, you will find, that the absence of the chastening rod has rendered men impious and without reverence, and that “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” have usurped the place of piety and humility. But the most dangerous of all is, that but few examine themselves; but few sigh over themselves. Without knowing it, many are poor, naked and blind, who with those of Laodicea think that they are rich and have everything in abundance, Rev. 3:17; but it is a wealth with which God is not pleased, and by which the spiritual riches, which consist in faith and love, in a living hope and a good conscience, are diminished. See in the writings of the martyrs, how their life was, how their suffering, how their constancy. It was the will of God, that the children of Israel should remember the ways of their fathers, and the instruction of wisdom concealed therein; for they are all, ancestry and posterity, taken as one body. Deut. 8:2. Frequently it is said through the prophets: I have brought thee out of the land of Egypt; though this had been done to their forefathers. Micah 6:4; Ps. 81:10; Hos. 11:1. Examine your ways, and compare them with theirs, and see whether the love of the world has not blinded your eyes, and led them away from God. Many, when they could not use the world, turned of necessity to God, as their nearest refuge; but as soon as a little breathing time set in, they again began to lean towards the world; the parents became rich, the children luxurious and wanton; the world caressed them, and in course of time they became respected and lifted up; the reproach of the cross was relinquished, and the honor of this world stepped into its place. And this, in the first church was the reason why God permitted a most awful persecution to come in the time of Emperor Diocletian, that his children might be chastised thereby, who already began to join in with the common world. _Eus., lib. 8, cap. 1_. Hence, we must see well to it, that we do not incur like guilt, lest there come upon us what came upon them; for no one fares worse in such times, than he who has not made good use of his time; such an one will then be visited with woe, distress and misery; but to them that love God, all things work together for good; they are purified and tried by the refining fire; hence it is necessary that God at times purge his threshing-floor with his fan, that the tares may not get the upperhand, to its own destruction. But we only have to ask his divine goodness, to chastise us as a father, and draw us by his love, moving our hearts and minds to himward, in order that we may lead a godly and holy life, in all love, peaceableness, kindness, and long-suffering; not easily complaining of or grudging against one another, but bearing in patience one another’s infirmities, and bettering each other by good instructions; fleeing and avoiding all offenses, contention and dissension, separations and schisms, which cause insufferable and damnable discord; striving for peace; and seeking to heal, and restore to unity, quiet and peace, that which is broken and ruined, rent and torn asunder by the subtlety of the devil, and blind ignorance, and scattered into various factions, to the great offense and stumbling-block of many. If we do this, we shall cause the blessing and presence of God to be with us. Col. 3:12; 1 Pet. 4:8; James 5:9.