but to be a Servant to Self, and a true Sufferer for Christ, are incompatible. It is confest that Self may not only consist with, but be a Motive to some kind of Suffer∣ings: Ambition and Applause may carry a man far this way Pride is a Salamander that it seems can live in the flames of Martyrdom, 1 Cor. The Yoke and Dominion of Self must cast off, or else Christs Yoke and Burden cannot be taken on. Beloved, in a Suffering hour the Inte∣rests of Christ and Self meet like two men up∣on a narrow Bridge, one must of necessity go back, or the other cannot pass on: If you can∣not now deny Self, you must deny Christ. Self-denial goes in order of Nature before Suf∣ferings.
For first, No man can suffer for Christ, un∣til he be able to deny himself. he had quickly fainted under his Sufferings and so will every Soul sooner or later do, that suffers not upon the same Principles he did.ġ. And had not this Work been really and soundly wrought upon the heart of this blessed Man, as indeed it was, Acts 9.3, 4, 5. What ever stock of Natural Courage, Moral Principles, or common gifts of the Spirit be lodged in any mans Breast, yet all this (with∣out special grace) can never fit him to sufferįor Christ. 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. The former is a remote power the latter a proxim and immediate power. Now there is a two-fold Preparation or readi∣ness for Suffering the one is habitual, the o∣ther 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 incli∣nation 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 a∣ctual readiness, which is nothing else but the rouzing of Grace out of the sleepy and dull ha∣bits, 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. 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. HAving shewed you that God doth some∣times put his dearest people upon very Evincing the necessity of a sound and real work of Grace upon the heart, to fit a man for the Suf∣ferings of Christ.
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