to suffer patiently for the
name of Jesus Christ, and in defense of the gospel, will have no effect
if we do not feel assured of the cause for which we fight. For when we
are called to part with life, it is absolutely necessary to know on what
grounds. The firmness necessary we can not possess, unless it be founded
on certainty of faith.

It is true that persons may be found who will foolishly expose
themselves to death in maintaining some absurd opinions and dreams
conceived by their own brain, but such impetuosity is more to be
regarded as frenzy than as Christian zeal; and, in fact, there is
neither firmness nor sound sense in those who thus, at a kind of
haphazard, cast themselves away. But, however this may be, it is in a
good cause only that God can acknowledge us as His martyrs. Death is
common to all, and the children of God are condemned to ignominy and
tortures as criminals are; but God makes the distinction between them,
inasmuch as He can not deny His truth. On our part, then, it is
requisite that we have sure and infallible evidence of the doctrine
which we maintain; and hence, as I have said, we can not be rationally
imprest by any exhortations which we receive to suffer persecution for
the gospel, if no true certainty of faith has been imprinted in our
hearts. For to hazard our life upon a peradventure is not natural, and
tho we were to do it, it would only be rashness, not Christian courage.
In a word, nothing that we do will be approved of God if we are not
thoroughly persuaded that it is for Him and His cause we suffer
persecution, and the world is our enemy.

Now, when I speak of such persuasion, I mean not merely that we must
know how to distinguish between true religion and the abuses or follies
of men, but also that we must be thoroughly persuaded of the heavenly
life, and the crown which is promised us above, after we shall have
fought here below. Let us understand, then, that both of these
requisites are necessary, and can not be separated from each other. The
points, accordingly, with which we must commence are these: We must know
well what our Christianity is, what the faith which we have to hold and
follow, what the rule which God has given us; and we must be so well
furnished with such instructions as to be able boldly to condemn all the
falsehoods, errors, and superstitions which Satan has introduced to
corrupt the pure simplicity of the doctrine of God. Hence, we ought not
to be surprized