Still, we would hereby compare the life of the world and the prison life; the spirit gains more in prison than the body loses. Nay, the body loses not the necessaries of life, in consequence of the providence of the church and love of the brethren. But the spirit, moreover, makes such acquisitions as are every way advantageous to faith; for there (in prison) you see no strange gods; there you are not offended with their images; there you are not molested by the great throng of men, which takes place at the festivals of the heathen; you are not enveloped with foul stench; you are not terrified with the shrieks of the horrid exhibitions, and with the fury and insolence of tumult, when the heathen tragedians make such vain representations. You are not disgusted with the sight of public brothels; you are free from offense, from temptation, from evil thoughts, nay, from persecution. The prison affords to Christians all the advantages derived by the prophets from their solitary wilds. The Lord was wont to withdraw from the people, that he might enjoy the more freedom in prayer, and in retirement from the world. Nay, in the wilderness, he manifested his glory to his disciples. We will, therefore, discard the name _prison_, and substitute that of _separation_, for, though the body is therein secluded and confined, yet all things are open to the spirit. Let the spirit then issue forth and wander abroad, not in shady orchards or spacious pleasure houses, but let it travel in the way that leads to God. Phil. 3:20; Col. 3:2; Heb. 13:14. So often as you expatiate in the spirit, so often will you be beyond the confines of the prison. The feet are free from the shackles, when the hands are uplifted to heaven; the mind carries the whole man with it, taking him wherever it goes: hence, our hearts should be wherever we should have our treasures. Matt. 6:21.
But be it so, ye blessed, that the prison is irksome to the Christians: yet we must remember, that we are called to the warfare of the living God. Eph. 6; and the more especially as we have taken the sacramental (baptismal) vow. Nay, no soldier marches to war with joy and delight. He marches forth to the battle, not from his bed, but from his tent, equipped and girded about, when the whole work is a series of trouble, sorrow and turmoil; nay, in peace they are free from labor. They teach with trouble to endure the fatigues of war; they march under arms, they exercise in the field, sink ditches and saw wood for the various kinds of armaments and fortifications. All is one continued labor and toil, lest the body or the mind should be influenced by fear; from the evening twilight till the dawn of day, from the heat of summer to the cold of winter, from the taking off of the coat till the putting on of the armor, from silence till clamor, from tranquillity till alarm.
Therefore, ye blessed, inure yourselves to all the hardships of the soldier, for the exercise and strengthening of the mind and body. You are now marching in a good contest, in which the living God is the dispenser of the prizes, and the Holy Ghost the keeper; the coronation is an everlasting jewel, the citizenship angelic existence in heaven, a glory that shall endure forever: therefore, it is Jesus Christ who dispenses the prizes to you, who has given you the unction of the Holy Spirit, and advanced you to this grade of honor; may he withdraw you from lighter work before the day of battle, that you may be assailed with greater violence, and your strength be confirmed; for the combatants have to undergo severe discipline and exercise, in order that, by exertion, their physical powers may be improved. For, for this end they are kept from venery, rich victuals, and strong drink; they are subjected to constraint, tortured and exercised; and the greater preparatory exercise they take, the greater is their hopes of victory. Now they do it, says the apostle (1 Cor. 9:25), to obtain a corruptible crown; but we shall obtain an eternal one. We should, therefore, make the prison a place of trial and exercise, that we may be inured to every misfortune and inconvenience, and so appear with the greater confidence, before the judgment-seat of Christ.