VOLUME 11
and perils by water and by land, his famine, hunger, nakedness, and cold, with many more, and
the daily care of all the congregations of Christ, among whom every man's pain did pierce his
heart, and every man's grief was grievous unto him! O Lord, is this Paul's primacy, whereof he
thought so much good that he did excel others? Is not this Paul's saying unto Timothy his own
scholar? and doth it not pertain to whosoever will be Christ's true soldiers? Bear thou, saith he,
affliction like a good soldier of Jesus Christ. This is true: If we die with him, [he meaneth
Christ,] we shall live with him; if we suffer with him, we shall reign with him; if we deny him,
he shall deny us; if we be faithless, he remaineth faithful, he cannot deny himself. This, Paul
would have known to every body; for there is none other way to heaven but Christ and his way:
and all that will live godly in Christ, shall, saith St. Paul, suffer persecution. By this way went to
heaven the patriarchs, the prophets, Christ our Master, his apostles, his martyrs, and all the godly
since the beginning. And as it hath been of old, that he which was born after the flesh, persecuted
him which was born after the Spirit (for so it was in Isaac's time); so, said St. Paul, it was in his
time also. And whether it be so or no now, let the spiritual man, (the self-same man, I mean, that
is indued with the Spirit of Almighty God,) let him be judge. Of the cross of the patriarchs, as ye
may read in their stories; if ye read the book of Genesis, ye shall perceive. Of others, St. Paul in
few words comprehendeth much matter, speaking in a generality of the wonderful afflictions,
death, and torments, which the men of God, in God's cause, and for the truth's sake, willingly and
gladly did suffer. After much particular rehearsal of many, lie saith, Others were racked and
despised, and would not be delivered, that they might obtain a better resurrection. Others, again,
were tried with mockings and scourgings, and moreover with bonds and imprisonment: they
were stoned, hewn asunder, tempted, fell, and were slain upon the edge of the sword, some
wandered to and fro in sheep's pilches, in goats' pilches, forsaken, oppressed, afflicted; such
godly men as the world was unworthy of, wandering in wildernesses, in mountains, in caves, and
in dens; and all these were commended for their faith. And yet they abide for us the servants of
God, and for those their brethren which are to be slain, as they were, for the word of God's sake,
that none be shut out, but that we may all go together to meet our Master, Christ, in the air at his
coming, and so to be in bliss with him in body and soul for evermore.
"Therefore, seeing we have so much occasion to suffer and to take afflictions for Christ's
name's sake patiently, so many commodities thereby, so weighty causes, so many good
examples, so great necessity, so pure promises of eternal life and heavenly joys of him that
cannot lie: Let us throw away whatsoever might let us—all burden of sin, and all kind of
carnality—and patiently and constantly let us run for the best game in this race that is set before
us, ever having our eyes upon Jesus Christ, the ringleader, captain, and perfecter of our faith,
who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, not passing upon the ignominy and
shame thereof, and is set now at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider this, that he
suffered such strife of sinners against himself, that ye should not give over, nor faint in your
minds. As yet, brethren, we have not withstood unto death, fighting against sin. Let us never
forget, dear brethren, for Christ's sake, that fatherly exhortation of the wise man that speaketh
unto us, as unto his children, the godly wisdom of God, saying thus: My son, despise not the
correction of the Lord, nor fall from him when thou art rebuked of him; for whom the Lord
loveth, him doth he correct, and scourgeth every child whom he receiveth. What child is he
whom the father doth not chasten? If ye be free from chastisement, whereof all are partakers,
then are ye bastards and no children. Seeing then, when as we have had carnal parents which
chastened us, we reverenced them, shall not we much more be subject unto our spiritual Father,
-268-