right gospel-shoe. By "strength shall no man prevail." 1 Sam. ii. 9. He that in Queen Mary's days was so free of his flesh for Christ, as he said he would see his fat, of which he had good store, melt in the fire, rather than fall back to popery, lived, poor man, to see this his resolution melt, and himself cowardly part with his faith, to save his fat. Those that glory of their valour when they put on the harness, ever put it off with shame. The heart of man is deceitful above all things, a very Jacob that will supplant its own self. He that cannot take the length of his own foot, how can he of himself fit a shoe to it?

SECT. II.

Use 2. Be exhorted, all you that take the name of Christ upon you, to get this shoe of preparation on, and keep it on, that you may be ready at all times to follow the call of God's providence, though it should lead you into a suffering condition. Take but two motives :

First, Consider, Christian, suffering-work may overtake thee suddenly, before thou art aware of it; therefore be ready shod. Sometimes orders come to soldiers for a sudden march; they have not so much as an hour's warning, but must be gone as soon as the drum beats. And so mayest thou be called out, Christian, before thou art aware, into the field, either to suffer for God or from God. Abraham had little time given him to deal with his heart and persuade it into a compliance with God, for offering his son Isaac. A great trial and short warning: Gen. xxii. 2. "Take now thy son, thy only son Isaac;" not a year, a month, a week hence, but "now." This was in the night, and Abraham is gone early in the morning, verse 3. How would he have entertained this > strange news, if he had been to gain the consent of his heart? but that was not now to do; God had Abraham's heart already, and therefore he doth not now dispute his order, but obeys. God can make a sudden alteration in thy private affairs, Christian: how couldest thou in thy perfect strength and health, endure to hear the message of death? If God should, before any lingering sickness hath brought thee into some acquaintance with death, say no more, but up and die, as once to Moses, art thou

shod for such a journey? couldest thou say, "Good is the word of the Lord?" What if in one day thou wert to step out of honour into disgrace, to be stripped of thy silks and velvets, and in vile raiment called to act a beggar's part? couldest thou rejoice that thou art made low, and find thy heart ready to bless the Most High? This would speak thee a soul evangelically shod indeed.

Again, God can as soon change the scene in the public affairs of the times thou livest in as to the Gospel and profession of it. May be now authority smiles on the church of God; but within a while it may frown, and the storm of persecution arise. "Then had the churches rest throughout all Judea;" Acts ix. 31. this was a blessed time; but how long did it last? alas! not long, chap. xii. There is sad news of a bloody persecution, verse 1. "About this time Herod the king stretched forth his hand to vex certain of the church;" in which persecution, James the brother of John lost his life by his cruel sword; and Peter in prison, like to go to the same shambles; and the church driven into a corner to pray in the night together, verse 12. O what a sad change is here! now in blood, who even now had rest on every side. It is observed that in islands the weather is far more variable and uncertain, than on the continent; here you may know ordinarily what weather will be for a long time together, but in islands in the morning we know not what weather will be before night; we have oft-times summer and winter in the same day, and all this is imputed to the near neighbourhood of the sea that surrounds them. The saints in Heaven live, as I may so say, on the continent; a blessed constancy of peace and rest there enjoyed. They may know by what peace and bliss they have at present, what they shall have to eternity; but here below, the church of Christ is as a floating island, compassed with the world, I mean men of the world, as with a sea; and these sometimes blow hot, and sometimes cold; sometimes they are still and peaceable, and sometimes enraged and cruel; even as God binds up or lets loose their wrath. Now, Christian, doth it not behove thee to be always in readiness, when thou knowest not but the next moment the wind may turn into the cold cor

ner, and the times, which now favour the Gospel, so as to fill the sails of thy profession with all encouragement, may on a sudden blow full in thy face, and oppose it as much as it did before countenance it?

Secondly, Consider if thy feet be not shod with a preparation to suffer for Christ here on earth, thy head cannot be crowned in Heaven: "if children then heirs, heirs of God, joint-heirs with Christ." Rom. viii. 17. Now mark the following words, "if so be we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together." It is true all the saints do not die martyrs at a stake, but every saint must have a spirit of martyrdom, as I may so call it, a heart prepared for suffering. God never intended Isaac should be sacrificed, yet he will have Abraham lay the knife to his throat. Thus God will have us lay our neck on the block, and be, as Paul said of himself, "bound in the spirit," under a sincere purpose of heart to give up ourselves to his will and pleasure, which is called "a presenting our bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God.” Rom. xii. 1. That as the Jew brought the beast alive, and presented it freely before him, to be done with as God had commanded, so we are to present our bodies before God, to be disposed of as he commands, both in active and passive obedience. He that refuseth to suffer for Christ, refuseth also to reign with Christ. The putting off the shoe among the Jews was a sign of a man's putting off the right of an inheritance, Deut. xxv. 9, 10. Thus did Elimelech's kinsman, when he renounced and disclaimed any right that he might have in his estate, he "drew off his shoe." Ruth. iv. 7, 8. O Christian, take heed of putting off thy Gospel-shoe; by this thou dost disclaim thy right in Heaven's inheritance; no portion is there laid up for any that will not suffer for Christ. The persecutions which the saints endure for the Gospel are made by Paul an evident token to them of salvation, and that of God. Phil. i. 28. Surely then the denying Christ to escape suffering is a sad token of perdition. O sirs, is not Heaven's inheritance worth enduring a little trouble for it? Naboth's vineyard was no great matter; yet rather than he would sell it for its worth or change it for a better in another place, he chose to lay

his life at stake, by provoking a mighty king. Thou canst, Christian, venture no more for thy heavenly inheritance than he paid for refusing to alienate his petty patrimony in an acre or two of land (thy temporal life I meau). And besides, the odds between his vineyard on earth, and thy paradise in heaven (which is infinite and suffers no proportion), thou hast this advantage also of him in thy sufferings for Christ: when Naboth lost his life, he lost his inheritance also, that he so strove to keep; but thy persecuting enemies shall do this friendly office against their wills, that when they dispossess thee of thy life, they shall help thee into possession of thy inheritance.

CHAP. XVII.

SIX DIRECTIONS FOR THE HELPING ON OF THIS SPIRITUAL SHOE.

Quest. The great question I expect now to fall from thy mouth, Christian, is, not how thou mayest escape these troubles and trials, which, as the evil genius of the Gospel, do always attend it; but rather how thou mayest get this shoe on, thy heart ready for a march, to go and meet them when they come, and cheerfully wade through them, whatever they be, or how long soever they stay with thee?

Answ. This is a question well becoming a Christian soldier, to ask for armour wherewith he may fight; whereas the coward throws away his armour, and asks whither he may fly. I shall therefore give the best counsel I can, in these few particulars.

SECT. I.

First, Look carefully to the ground of thy active obedience, that it be sound and sincere. The same right principles whereby the sincere soul acts for Christ, will carry him to suffer for Christ, when a call from God

comes with such an errand. "The children of Ephraim being armed, and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle." Psal. lxxviii. 9. Why? what is the matter? so well armed, and yet so cowardly! this seems strange. Read the preceding verse, and you will cease wondering; they are called there "a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not steadfast with God." Let the armour be what it will, yea, if soldiers were in a castle whose foundation were a rock, and walls brass, yet if their hearts be not right to their prince, an easy storm will drive them from the walls, and a little scare open their gate, which hath not this bolt of sincerity on it to hold it fast. In our late wars we have seen that honest hearts within thin and weak works have held the town, when no walls could defend treachery from betraying trust. O labour for sincerity in the engaging at first for God and his Gospel. Be oft asking thy own soul for whom thou prayest, hearest, reformest this practice and that. If thou canst get a satisfactory answer from thy soul here, thou mayest hope well; if faith's working hand be sincere, then its fighting hand will be valiant. That place is observable, Heb. xi. 33. "Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire;" and with other great things that faith enabled them to endure, as you may read in the 34th, 35th, and 36th verses. Where, I pray. note, how the power of faith enabling the Christian" to work righteousness," (that is, live holily and righteously) is reckoned among the wouders of sufferings which, it strengthened them to endure. Indeed had it not done this, it would never have endured these.

SECT. II.

Secondly, Pray for a suffering spirit. This is not a common gift which every carnal Gospeller and slight professor hath. No: it is a peculiar gift, and bestowed but on a few sincere souls: "Unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake." Phillip. i. 20. All the parts and common gifts that a man hath will never enable him to