Preparation for sufferings. Or The best work in the worst times Wherein the necessity,…

Now there is a two-fold Preparation or readiness for Suffering; the one is habitual, the other actual: That habitual readiness is nothing else but the inclination of a Soul to suffer any thing for Christ; which inclination ariseth from the Principles of Grace infused into the Soul: But then as fire, though it have a natural inclination to ascend, yet may be violently depressed and hindered, that it cannot ascend actually, so may it be in this case; and therefore, before a man can be fitted for Sufferings, as Paul was, there must to this habitual be superadded an actual readiness, which is nothing else but the rousing of Grace out of the sleepy and dull habits, and awakening it to its work in a time of need: as the Lyon is said to lash himself with his Tail, to rouse up his Courage before he fight. The former is a remote power; the latter a proxim and immediate power. I must handle the former in this Chapter, and you are to know, that it consisteth in a sound and real work of Grace, or Conversion wrought upon the Soul; without which I shall make it evidently appear to you, that no man can be fit or ready to suffer as a Christian.

Now there is a two-fold Preparation or readiness for Suffering; the one is habitual, the other actual: That habitual readiness is nothing else but the inclination of a Soul to suffer any thing for Christ; which inclination ariseth from the Principles of Grace infused into the Soul: But then as fire, though it have a natural inclination to ascend, yet may be violently deprest and hindered, that it cannot ascend actually, so may it be in this case; and therefore, before a man can be fitted for Sufferings, as Paul was, there must to this habitual be superadded an actual readiness, which is nothing else but the rouzing of Grace out of the sleepy and dull habits, and awakening it to its work in a time of need: as the Lyon is said to lash himself with his Tail, to rouze up his Courage before he fight. The former is a remote power; the latter a proxim and immediate power. I must handle the former in this Chapter, and you are to know, that it consisteth in a sound and real work of Grace, or Conversion wrought upon the Soul; without which I shall make it evidently appear to you, that no man can be fit or ready to suffer as a Christian.