or Superiour commands without disputing as to obey God and Christ in what he commands This therefore is another piece of their Idolatry setting up their Church or Superiours in the place of God Parish Sir I shall not call you to more instances being assured that in every suffering of the Martyrs of Jesus under the Whore of Babylon one of these or all these are the Ingredients in their Accusation that they deny the Churches Traditions and Infallibility and Authority and the Popes Supremacy and Transubstantiation which they call the real presence ignorantly and slanderously imputing to us that we deny the real presence of the Body and Blood of Christ because we deny their sensless fiction of Transubstantiation But I long to hear you discourse of those other two excellent Heads Namely of the qualifications of a Martyr and of the supports and rewards he may expect Minist Indeed Sir I longed to come to them my self as knowing they are speculation yeilding ten times more sweetness than the controversal part of the discourse because we could not treat on that without reflexion on others wickedness or errour which is no pleasing prospect to humble and charitable Persons But the rest of our way will be all beset with the fragrant Graces of Gods Spirit and the Fruit-bearing Trees of his rich and precious promises I shall proceed therefore 1. He is very ignorant of the nature of God who thinks God stands in need of a vile and profligate wretch living yet in the practise of known sins to assert the cause of his holy truth for his praise is in the Congregation of his holy ones and dear in his sight is the death only of his Saints But he putteth away the wicked of the Earth like dross First Therefore none are fitted to be Martyrs but sincere Mourners for their former sins When thunders and Storms are without and swelling Winds are in the Bowels of the Earth there must needs be a terrible Earth-quake So he that is called to suffer for the truth and hath the Enemies of truth raging and menacing without him and conscience accusing him within that he is not only an high transgressor but a careless neglecter of seeking his peace with God can never confidently dye in the best Cause When the Philistines were coming upon Saul 1 Sam. 13. the careless man then is awakened by his own terrours and cries out verse 12. the Philistines will now come down upon me to Gilgal and I have not made Supplication to the Lord so will Conscience say to the impenitently careless how darest thou venture thy Life in the cause of that truth thou hast neglected to obey never seriously searching thy heart and ways never sincerely mourning for thy sins never applying thy self by earnest prayer to the mercy of God in Christ I do not deny that a man who is under great fears and doubts having for some considerable time been earnestly seeking Gods favour in Christ prizing his loving kindness more than life may make a couragious Martyr for such an ones thoughts will work at this rate Lord thou knowest how I have longed for thy Salvation though therefore I yet walk in darkness and see no light only a little dawning of hope appears I will not set my Comforts at a greater distance from me by a cowardly betraying of thy Cause whether therefore thou please to lift up the light of thy countenance upon me or no yet will I trust in thee and live and dye to thy to thy Glory knowing that duty is my work and must be my care and comfort is thy free gift and it coming at any time or in any degree is both more and sooner than I deserve as said the three Children Dan. 3. 17. we know our God can deliver us but if he will not be it known unto thee we will not serve thy Gods nor worship the Golden Image which thou hast set up so saith the humble penitent God can make the bones which he hath broken to rejoyce but however I will not depart from him nor betray that truth he calls me to own This is one of the Greaves or Bootes mentioned Ephes 6. 15. For amongst other parts of the Spiritual Armour the Apostle exhorts to have their feet shod with the prepraration of the Gospel of peace the preparation of it according to the Doctrine of Saint John Baptist Christs forerunner is Repentance Matth. 3. 2. Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand But he that is yet a careless impenitent hath no Boots or Greaves on but his naked Feet are subject to be wounded with the Gall-traps of his Enemies when Conscience tells him that according to the Tenor of the Gospel he is in no capacity for peace or for pardon and his Enemies without suppose Heathen tell him he shall perish here and hereafter as an Enemy to the gods or Popish persecutors curse him solemnly with Bell Book and Candle to the Fire of Hell as well as to the Flames here and forbid the people to pray for them as they did in Queen Marys days prohibit all to assist the Martyrs so much as by a prayer for them how can such a one dye couragiously But still I must take heed of discouraging any sincere though late penitent for I do not question but as our Saviour received the penitent Thief upon the Cross so some have entred profane wretches into Prison who yet have had such conviction of the preciousness of the truth they were urged to renounce that they durst not deny it and have come out to Execution sincere penitents nay it may be rejoycing through hope and have died happily yea comfortably in the Lord But serious repentance and sorrow founded in serious search of our ways and heart sooner or later is a necessary qualification for a Martyr of Jesus Secondly So also is mortification necessary that is that the Martyr hath endeavoured faithfully to subdue every lust in himself and to cleanse himself from all defilements of Flesh and Spirit perfecting holiness in the fear and love of God for God will not receive a polluted Sacrifice though offered with the Fire of his own Altar nor can such expect the assistances of Gods Spirit who have grieved that good Spirit by wilful allowance of themselves in known sins not denying their lusts One living lust is like a potent opposite party in a Garrison that will weaken the hands of the Defenders the Conscience of being under the power of one ruling Sin will cut the Sinews of our courage and God will say to such as Psal 50. Why takest thou my Law into thy Mouth seeing thou hatest to be reformed Why offerest thou to fight my battels against the adversaries of my truth seeing thou fightest against my fear obeying the adversaries of my honour thy lusts This is the other Boot or Greave of the preparation of the Gospel of Peace which according to St. John Bapists Doctrine is prepared
A PREPARATION For Martyrdom A DISCOURSE about the Cause the Temper the Assistances and Rewards OF A MARTYR of JESUS CHRIST IN A DIALOGUE Betwixt a Minister and a Gentleman his Parishioner Matt. 5. 11 Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven 1 Pet. 4. 14. If ye be reproached for the Name of Christ happy are ye for the Spirit of God and of Glory resteth upon you LONDON Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside near Mercers-Chapel 1681 A Preparation FOR Martyrdom IN A DIALOGUE Betwixt a Minister and a Gentleman his Parishioner Parish SIR though I justly esteem my self who am so great a sinner unworthy of the honour to suffer for the Name of Christ yet I know it is my Duty to be prepared in Spirit for it if God vouchsafe to call me to it I request therefore your Pastoral assistance herein that whether I live I may live unto the Lord or whether I die I may die unto the Lord. Min. I bless God Dear Sir who inclines your heart to seek after such holy dispositions as are required in those whom Christ will honour in calling them to suffer for his Name But I pray tell me Why you are at this time so sollicitous to gather up your Spirit into that frame Parish There need no account be given of that betwixt you and I who have been fellow-sufferers in the late times for adhering to the cause of our Soveraign and of the Protestant Church of England and whose Persons and Fortunes do yet wear the Scars of their Loyalty and we are not secure that we may not be called to suffer on the same account again And though neither of us have at any time blessed be God made any unkind returns to those who then Persecuted us nor have since gained any thing by our Loyalty but our losses yet if the like times should return again we are like to be in the first rank of Sufferers But I confess that though the Cause we then undertook and suffered for was as just a Cause as any could fall out in a Christian Nation yet I then both acted and suffered in another manner of Spirit than I now see reason to desire to be acted by I did indeed think then and do so still that I was bound in conscience to do my utmost to secure the Person and Honour of my Soveraign and to maintain the Laws both Civil and Ecclesiastical then in being till they should be orderly changed by the Consent and Authority of my Soveraign in Parliament yet I did as I fear too many of our side did espouse an humour of Prophaneness in opposition to that Profession of Godliness which I ununcharitably thought that all on the other side did make only to drive on Rebellious Designs which probably the great Artificers of our troubles did do And certainly we Royalists by the overspreading of prophaneness amongst us ruined the best Cause that ever Loyal Subjects undertook to bear up upon the points of their Swords But it is another manner of Spirit I desire now to be baptised into namely that whereinto our suffering Lord and Saviour and his Holy Apostles and Martyrs were baptised And to deal plainly I do not think the next Tempest that will Assault us will come from that Quarter My chief fears therefore are from the success of Popish Arms abroad especially under the Conduct of that Great Monarch who seems to have sworn the utter extirpation of the Protestant Name and the prevailing of Popish Arts at home to the breaking of us with Division upon Division These I say with the loud crying sins done and countenanced amongst us makes me expect a Storm and I desire to be prepared for it Min. I hope God will bless the unwearied endeavours of our Gracious Soveraign and his most Honourable Privy Council at present and of the English Parliament when one shall by his Sacred Majesty be called to frustrate the Attempts of the Popish Adversaries both at home and abroad Parish I thankfully acknowledg that by the blessing of God on the Prudent Conduct of publick Affairs by his Sacred Majesty we yet enjoy Peace when many of the neighbouring Nations round about us feel the sad miseries of War so that if our sins stood neuter and did not strike in with our Enemies I would not fear either their Forces or Consults but alas there can be no Fencing or Walling betwixt us and Heaven to which our sins cry aloud for vengeance Min. It is very true we are great sinners but not greater than other Nations whom God is pleased yet to respit what sins therefore of this Nation seem to you so ripe for vengeance Parish Truly there are many of them and some of them seem especially to call for Popery as the only scammony strong enough to purge them out Such are the frequent and avowed Sinonaical Contracts betwixt some Patrons and their unworthy Clerks Such also are the most unchristian practices of many of our Planters abroad not only in the inhumane cruelties they exercise upon the poor Negroes and other Heathen their Slaves but especially in their discouraging and opposing all endeavours for the Conversion of those poor Infidels to Christianity For have not the Mahumetan Priests travelled to the vast Plain of Tartary and Mountains of Africa to propagate their Superstition Yea have not the Jesuits and other Romish Missionaries gone to the furthest Indies to spread that sort of Christianity which they profess and probably they taught for the substance of it the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ though they built Hay Straw and Stubble on that Foundation And their Converts in Japan and other where suffering for the owning one God and one Mediator 'twixt God and Man Christ Jesus are justly numbred in the Catalogue of Christian Martyrs Shall not these Romanists therefore rise up in Judgment against us and other Protestants who oppose the Conversion of our own Slaves Nay may not God justly say to them concerning us as he did once to Nebuchadnezzar Ezek. 29. 20. That he gave him the Land of Aegypt as his hire for his labour wherewith he served against Tyre So may God say He will give unto the Popish Emissaries those Protestant Churches who are negligent in propagating the Faith as their hire for that service they have served against Heathenisme in the new found world And did not those excellent Persons who preached before the Lords and Commons on the Fast-day Dec. 22. 1681. proclaime it in the Name of the Lord That the vine bringing forth sowre grapes would cause God to pluck up the hedge and fence and let in both the Wild-Beasts and the Wild-Boars into his Vineyard This the Learned and pious Dr. Burnett with much integrity and freedom told the Honorable House of Commons as of other sins of the Nation so of the Drunkenness and Debauchery Which saith he hath not only
corrupted our common conversation but vitiated the very vitals of our Government by the Ascendent it hath on so â—special a Part of our security as are the Elections of this so great and honourable Assembly of Knights and Burgesses in Parliament I remember to this day the sharp and just reprehension which the present most Pious learned and right Reverend Father in God Dr John Pierson Lord Bishop of Chester gave to us debauched Cavaliers in his Sermon to General Gorings Army in the West If said he one Achan was enough to trouble a whole Army of Israelites what trouble will an Army of Achans create to themselves and those imbacked with them If therefore there should by the miscariages of some inferior Corporations whose meaner Burghers are ready to sell their Consciences their Religion and their Souls for drink and whose Richer Burghers are as ready to do the same for the custom of a great House but two or three Achans debauched Atheistical Hobbists be shuffled with our House of Commons though consisting mostly of faithful wise and Religious Patriots is it not enough to cause God to blast the Sessions wherein such are mingled Nor can any good be expected from such though as is pretended their Estates cheifly consisting of Abby Lands Impropriations c. they are high Zealots against Popery for such will compound underhand to save their own stakes But besides as God declares he hath no fellowship with Mammon nor Christ wâ—th Eâ—lial so neither will he vouchsafe to use the help of either in the cause of his truth and Church Hath not also the most Pious Learned and Reverend Prelate the best of Collegiate Governours Dr. Fell Lord Bishop of Oxford in his Sermon then before the Lords set it out with the Zeal of a Prophet how Lust and Uncleanness are Rampant amongst us For indeed Adultery hath not only taken the place but Usurps also the Title of Marriage And Whoredom claims to be Honourable amongst all Men. So that he is esteemed mean both in Purse and Spirit who keeps not his Brace of Misses and hath also the repeated Marks of the Stews upon his Body Add to these the loud crying Sin of Murder Unrevenged Murder committed in Duels and Drunken Assassinating of Peaceable Men without a Quarrel Add the general prevailing of a Spirit of Prophaness amongst us just as it did before the late Wars For I remember how then every man who was serious and orderly in his Conversation and every Minister who was Diligent and Laborious in his Ministry though they conformed as high as any and many of them were afterwards as early and deep Sufferers for the King as any of the Royal Party yet were called Puritans and used as such not only by us the Prophane Rabble but even by some great Church-men and others and is it not so in a great measure at this day The Conforming Ministers who are most Holy in their Lives and Diligent in their Labours and their most orderly Parishioners are Reproached as Phanaticks for that very Reason because they are not Prophane Yea though those Ministers are as Regular Conformists as any and have Writ and Disputed for the Diocesan Episcopacy and Conformity to the Legal Ecclesiastical Settlement than any of their Neighbours So that if we estimate the Present Quarrel by the Practice of many both of the loosest Layety and Clergy who yet confidently call themselves Sons of the Church it is not Conformity and Episcopacy but Profaness which seems to be the great Paliadium those Men strive to secure and shall not God again Visit for these things Add to these the Common and Unrelented Perjuries of most Officers as Constables Church-Wardens c. Besides the Horrid Blasphemies of the Wretched Dammees With many other Sins So that I fear the removing of our Candlestick from before the Lord and Redeemer of the Church who purchased it and every part of it to be Holy unto himself Minist I pray you Sir let us not make such Desperate Conclusions against our selves We have Blessed be God more than Fifty Righteous in every City both Conformists and Nonconformists who cry Night and Day for the Averting of Gods Wrath the Reforming our Manners the Healing our Divisions and the Continuance of the Publick Profession of his truth amongst us And I hope he will in Mercy hear them Parish Amen! The Lord Merciful and Gracious hear them and us But I fear our Sins are more Vocal than our Prayers Minst Besides I have not such dreadful Apprehensions of the Cruelty of the English Papists as you seem to have For both you and I know some of that Profession who are as kind and obliging Neighbours as most about us Parish I do readily grant it but then they are those who have not known the depths of Satan as they speak Rev. 2. 24. They acting therefore according to the Benevolent Principles of our Common Christianity and the sweet Candor of their own Natural Temper are very lovely and I use to bless God when I observe any Papist to be such an Heteroclyt and to differ from the generally prevailing Frame of Fierceness that most of them their Regulars at least do evidence And oh What a Triumphant Day will it be both in Heaven and Earth when all such Holy Meek and Humble Papists shall flee out of Babylon But alas these very Persons themselves know not what they shall be when Power is in their hand at least when the Priest and Confessor shall get astride their Consciences and spur them on both sides with the sharp Rowels of these Popish Maxims No Faith to be kept with Hereticks And He that Conceals an Heretick is liable to the Inquisition as an Heretick Queen Mary her self is reported to have been a Princess of an excellent Temper had not Gardener Bonner c. pressed her to those Cruelties exercised under her as the only Evidence she could give her Holy Father the Pope and her Holy Mother the Romish Church That she was a Defender of the Catholick Roman Faith And so in Ireland the poor Protestants found that their Popish Neighbours formerly obliged and obliging by receiving and giving all Reciprocal Kindnesses were either forced by their Priests or willing to be bitterly cruel to their Protestant Friends and so I believe the poor French Protestants find it at this day But if any good natured Papist either in Piedmont Ireland France or otherwhere have ever shewed any tenderness towards suffering Protestants in a day of Persecution I pray the God of all Mercies and Consolation to return that Mercy seven-fold into the Bosom of them and theirs in the time of their need But still I fear Be pleased therefore to lend me your direction and assistance how I may bear up against the Storm if it come The Prophet Isaiah bids us hearken and hear for the time to come And Jeremiah taught the Jews whilst they were in Judea what they should do and say when they came into
Babylon Min. I shall readily as far as I am able comply to your Pious desire not because my fears keep equal pace with yours for to me still there is hope in Israel as to this thing but because the considerations which such a Subject will lead us to will be a great advantage to us Living and Dying The Method I will observe in my Discourse shall be this I. I will endeavour to shew you what sort of Cause it is that will make a Martyr namely To suffer for Christs Name and for Righteousness sake II. I will shew how a Martyr must be qualified as to his Temper and Practice III. What promises God hath made both of Consolations and Supports here and of rewards hereafter to his Suffering Saints Parish Sir I am glad we are come to this sweet Theme and shall attend diligently praying to God to guide your Tongue for my Direction and Consolation in the ways of the Gospel Min. Amen He therefore suffers for Christs Name and for Righteousnes sake I. Who suffers for refusing to strengthen the hands of Wicked Men in their Wickedness by his Consent or Example II. Who suffers for Promoting the Churches Peace III. Who suffers for the Exercise of warranted Religious Worship or refusal of Communion in Idolatrous and Sinful Worship IV. Who suffers for contending for the Faith and Truth once delivered to the Saints First He Suffers as a Martyr who Suffers because he will have no Fellowship in the unfruitful Works of Darkness nor run to the same excess of Riot with others who Suffers because he is ready when Sinners intice him to answer with David Depart from me ye Evil doers for I will keep the Commandements of my God is Gods Martyr For certainly if we Suffer on this account because we will by our professed obedience to God's Law give testimony to his Sovereignty and to the Equity and Excellency of that Rule he hath appointed to his Rational Creatures we may justly be stiled God's Martyrs And in particular if we Suffer for Fearing God and the King and not medling with those who are given to change but that in Conscience towards God we retain our Loyalty to our Sovereign it is a Suffering for Righteousness sake Parish But will the Suffering in the Cause of strict Moralities in title Christians to Martyrdom Min. Yes For Morality or Conformity to the Moral Law in our Duty to God and Men for God's sake is so great a part of the obedience of Faith given to the Rule or the New Creature that he who Suffers rather than he will offend against the Moral Law In Conscience that God who made him and Christ who Redeem'd him requires that he should live by that Rule in order to God's Glory his own and others good is God's and Christ's Martyr And be assured of it Good Men shall not want occasion of Suffering on that account especially in such days and places wherein almost every thing is countenanced but Piety and Virtue Next If you Suffer for promoting the Peace of the Church and opposing Schisms and Divisions amongst Brethren you Suffer for the Name of Christ and you cannot want occasion of Suffering if than be your design so long as the Zeal for or against our English Littleismes flames out at the top of every Chimney Parish Indeed it is easily observable that those good and moderate Men who have endeavoured to remove the Fewel of our present Contentions are as violently assaulted by the fierce Men the Bigotts on both sides as if they were the declared Enemies of both the Contending Parties however I resolve through the Grace of God to follow your Example and Doctrine herein both to pray and strive for the Peace of Jerusalem by all lawful means For I believe if I should dye at the Stake for the Profession of the most precious Truths of the Gospel and yet be a divider of Christ's Church I should be condemned to be a Firebrand in Hell by the Prince of Peace Min. But when I press you to contend for the Peace of the Church I mean not only the Peace of the particular Society of Christians amongst whom your Residence and Cohabitation calls you to communicate in Publick Worship But also to promote the Catholick Unity of the Catholick Church by vertue of which it is That every Baptized Christian Professing Repentance towards God and Faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ and bringing sufficient Evidence or Credentials of his Christianity may as a Member of that one Body under Christ the Head Challenge the Priviledge of Communion in all the Ordinances of Christ with any Society of Christianst or partionlar Church where ever he happens to live or occasionally to come For if any Society of Christians shall impale themselves by mutual Compacts or by setting up other new and unnecessary Terms of Communion with them so as to exclude from their Communion other Christians cohabiting with them or coming to them they are therein Schismatical especially if those Terms be such as the Neighbor or Stranger-Christian cannot comply to without wrong to his own Conscience I do indeed judge that if the Terms of Communion required though new and narrower then Christ hath required to make us Members of his Catholick Church be such as I can comply to wihout Sin I ought not to disturb the Peace of the particular Church where I am by a stiff opposing of them especially if I have sufficiently protested my Right and Priviledge as a Member of the Catholick Church to have Communion allowed me without such Imposals For my Christian Liberty gives me a Latitude to become all things not sinful to all men And though a particular Church may be Schismatical in imposing such new and narrow Terms of Communion with her as Christ never imposed to make us Members of his Catholick Church yet if I separate causlesly that is where I can Communicate without Sin I am Schismatical also so that at the same time a Church may be Schismatical in imposing unecessary Terms of Communion and a particular Christian may be Schismatical in refusing Compliance to those Terms if he can comply to them without Sin Parish Sir I thank you for by this Information you have contributed not only to make easie to me my Compliance to just Ecclesiastical Laws which I did something scruple on conceit that my yielding betray'd my Christian Liberty but also to enlarge my special Brotherly Love to all Christians as Members of the same Body with me under Christ our Head and you have given my Conscience a latitude and my Heart a readiness to join in worship with any Christian where ever I come and may be admitted and to receive readily as much as in me lies any Christian to Communion with me and with that Society of Christians amongst whom I Cohabit and Communicate Min. Next if you suffer for not complying to sinful Worship such as is forbidden by God as unworthy to be offered up
for by reformation of our hearts and lives Luke 3. 5. Let every valley be silled and every mountain be brought low and the crooked be made straight the rough ways be made smooth let the low groveling worldling and filthy sensual fill up the Valley setting his affections on things above and every Proud and Ambitious person bring his thoughts low minding Gods glory not his own and every crooked cunning deceiver get a strait Spirit in simplicity and godly sincerity and every angry and revengful person make the rough ways smooth by endeavoring to obtain a Spirit of meeltness and kindness and then both feet are shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace and God will both receive and assist such in the conflict for his truth and glory And as Rom. 12. 1. They can confidently present their bodles a living holy Sacrifice acceptable to God which is their reasonable rational service whereas an unmortified person in whom brutish lusts do yet raign if he dyed in a good cause yet offered up a brutish unreasonable Sacrifice no way acceptable unto God Thirdly The Christian must take the sheild of Faith that is confidence in Gods promises of assistance and supports in the day of his Tryal Ephes 6. 16. He must be assured that Gods goodness and faithfulness will never suffer him to fail who flyes for refuge to his grace and mercy Thus saith David By this I know that thou favorest my righteous cause seeing mine enemy doth not Triumph over me and as for me thou preservest me in mine integrity Thus saith St. Paul 1 Cor. 1 8 9. Christ will confirm you unto the end and keep you blameless to the day of our Lord Jesus Christ or in the day of Christ that is emphatically the day of suffering for Christ and will confirm you unto the end The Christian Matron falling in Travel of Child-birth in the Prison cryed out in her strong pains and was thus assaulted by the Jaylor If saith he you cannot bear those pains without such outcrys how will you be able to bear the torments provided for you She answered These pains I suffer as the burden lay'd upon our Sex for the sin of our first Mother but in that conflict I shall have the assistance of his grace which is able to preserve me through faith against every evil work and his grace shall be sufficient for me Thus the Victory by which we overcome the world is our faith Fourthly Who ever will be a couragious Martyr must have full assurance of the goodness of his Cause that it is the truth and way of God and Christ for which he suffers and worthy of all his suffering for it This is that girdle of Truth Ephes 6. 14. As a girdle or belt not only strengthens the loins but by compacting and compressing the Muscles of the back gives an advantage and tightness to the cords or sinews of even the hands and feet also so the assurance that it is the cause of God for which we stand will make us confident that we shall not be confounded whereas but to doubt of our cause looseneth all our powers of spirit and courage Thus the Apostle prays for his Colossians Col. 2. 2 3 4. That their hearts might be comforted being knit together in love and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge The great cause maintained by the Apostolical Christians against the Jews was the Mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ that is that the infinite goodness and wisdom of God of old had carried on the Salvation of the Ancient Fathers of the world in the same way of Repentance and Faith in his mercy through the mediation of the promised Seed that ours is now carried on since Christs coming in the Flesh Now had any doubted whether this way of Salvation Preached by the Apostles and received by the Churches was the truth of God or questioned whether it was all of a piece with the old method of bringing Sinners to glory how could they have suffered confidently in the cause For staggering betwixt two opinions whether the Mosaical Law or Repentance towards God and Faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ was the way to justification they would have been unstable in all their ways But being assured that there was but one name and way of life Jesus Christ the same to day yesterday and for ever they had a full assurance of understanding which is the Girdle of Truth necessary to gird up the loins of the Martyrs mind I do not say a Christian must be able to answer all the subtle Fallacies and Sophisms of the Adversaries of the Truth but he must be assured that notwithstanding all their Cavils it is the truth of God for which he appears And that he is assured of because he finds it works effectually in him believing it purifying his heart by the faith of it incouraging his hope and increasing his love to God and Christ and all good Men yea to all Men for Christs sake and what works so cannot he is assured be other than the Truth of God A mean-bred man who should hear a Sceptick dispute whether the snow was white arguing that the water from whence it comes is black and therefore the effect must be as is the cause yet would not however be brought to disbelieve his eyes but would continue confident the snow was white as his sight represented it for he found the effect of that whiteness in dispersing his visual Rayes and Spirits Such an assurance must every suffering Christian have of the Truth for which he suffers and that it is the true grace of God wherein he stands and for which he stands and therefore an ignorant unstudied Christian can hardly make a Martyr Fifthly Whoever will be a Martyr must have his heart ingaged in a sincere design to promote Gods glory both by doing and suffering This is that Breast-plate of Righteousness and Sincerity Ephes 6. 14. which gives courage to a suffering Saint For if there be any Hypocritical design of seeking Reputation to our selves or bringing credit to an espoused Faction or Party it flats our courage but the single eye makes the body full of light and heat also On this account it was that the Primitive Christians in times of Persecution received the Eucharist so frequently in St. Cyprians time in the Decian Perfecution they took it daily thereby renewing their Baptismal vow to live and die to Gods glory if called to it As when some great Battel was expected the Roman Generals used to renew the Sacramentum Militare the Souldiers Oath That they would not disobey nor forsake their General their Imperator So that who ever hath not frequently and seriously Consecrated himself to God to live and die to him will hardly make a Martyr that being an