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

4. A man can never suffer as a Christian, until his heart be composed, fixed, and determined to follow the Lord through all hazards and difficulties. As long as a man is hesitating and unresolved what to do, whether to go forward, or turn back again to the prosperous World, when a man is at such a pause, and stand in his way, he is very unfit for sufferings. All such Divisions do both weaken the Soul, and strengthen the Temptation: The Devils work is more than half done to his hands in such a Soul; and he is now as unfit to endure hardship for Christ, as a Ship is to ride out a Storm, that hath neither Cable, Anchor, nor Ballast to hold and settle it, but lies at the mercy of every Wave, James 1.8. The double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. But it's Grace, and nothing besides it, that brings the heart to a fixed resolution and settlement to follow the Lord. 'Tis Grace that establishes the heart, Heb. 13.9. and unites it to fear the Name of God, Psal. 86.11. This gathers all the Streams into one Channel, and then it runs with much strength, and sweeps away all obstacles before it. So that look as it is with a wicked man that hath sold himself to do wickedly, if he be set upon any one design of sin, he pours out his whole heart and strength in the prosecution of that Design; which is the ground of that saying, Liberet me Deus ab homine unius tantum ⟨p. 46⟩negotii, Let God deliver me from a man of one only Design. He will do it to purpose: So is it also in Grace; if the heart be composed, fixed, and fully resolved for God, nothing shall then stand before him. And herein lies much of a Christians habitual fitness and ability to suffer.

5. The necessity of Saving-grace in all Sufferers for Christ will farther appear from this consideration, that he who will run all hazards for Christ, had need of a continual supply of strength and refreshment from time to time. He must not depend on any thing that is failable: For what shall he do then, when that Stock is spent, and he hath no Provision left to live upon? Now all natural qualifications, yea all the common gifts of the Spirit are failable and short-lived things; they are like a sweet Flower in the Bosom, that is an Ornament for a little while, but withers presently: Or like a Pond or Brook occasioned by a great fall of Rain, which quickly sinks and dries up, because it is not fed by Springs in the bottom, as other Fountain-waters are: And hence it is they cannot continue and hold out when Sufferings come,