The dead saint speaking to saints and sinners living in several treatisesThe dead saint speaking to saints and sinners living in severall treatises

It hath been the ordinary choice that the Saints have been put to, Either forsake thy God, or forsake thy Goods: Either leave Christ, or leave thy Comforts: Either renounce Christ, or lose thy Friends, thy Father, thy Mother; nay, thy liberty, thy life. To these exigencies and straits Gods people have been driven. And had they not had Faith, they had surely been mis-led: but having Faith, it guided them to suffer loss of friends, loss of goods, loss of liberty, loss of life it self for Christ: as you see up and down, in Abraham, in Moses, in Jeremiah, in Paul, and the rest of the Apostles; who accounted not their lives dear to them, for Christ.

It hath been the ordinary choice that the Saints have been put to, Either forsake thy God, or forsake thy Goods: Either leave Christ, or leave thy Comforts: Either renounce Christ, or lose thy Friends, thy Father, thy Mother; nay, thy liberty, thy life. To these exigencies and straits Gods people have been driven. And had they not had Faith, they had surely been mis-led: but having Faith, it guided them to suffer losse of friends, loss of goods, loss of liberty, loss of life it self for Christ: as you see up and down, in Abraham, in Moses, in Jeremy, in Paul, and the rest of the Apostles; who accounted not their lives dear to them, for Christ.

And it was the usual speech of the Primitive Martyrs, when they were persuaded to leave Christ, rather than to suffer.¹ — Spare good Emperor; thou canst but cast into prison: God into Hell.

And it was the usual speech of the Primitive Martyrs, when they were perswaded to leave Christ, rather than to suffer.¹ — Spare good Emperour; thou canst but cast into prison: God into Hell.

1. 1Parce precot Imperator, tu Carcerem; ille Gehennam.