Chapter 5

CHAP. V.

Evincing the necessity of a sound and real work of Grace upon the heart, to fit a man for the Sufferings of Christ.

Having showed you that God doth sometimes put his dearest people upon very ⟨p. 39⟩hard services for him, and what an excellent thing it is to prepare our selves to obey the Call of God to them: In the next place I come to show you, wherein this Preparation or readiness for Sufferings consists, and how many things concur and contribute their assistance to this Work.

HAving shewed you that God doth sometimes put his dearest people upon very ⟨p. 39⟩hard services for him, and what an excellent thing it is to prepare our selves to obey the Call of God to them: In the next place I come to shew you, wherein this Preparation or readiness for Sufferings consists, and how many things concur and contribute their assistance to this Work.

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.