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[ 906] Resolution in the cause of God, very requisite.
IOhn Duke of Saxony,* 1.1 who might have had the World at will, if he would not have been a Christian, resolved rather to pass by much difficulty, nay rather death it selfe, then ••o desert the cause of God, which afterward he did heroically maintain against all opposition in three Imperiall Assemblies; And when it was told him that he should lose the favour of the Pope, and the Emperour, and all the world besides, if he stuck so fast to the Lutheran cause; Here are two wayes, said he, I must serve God or the World, and which of these do you think is the better? And so put them off with this pleasant indignation: Neither would he be ashamed to be seen which way he chose to go; for when at the publique Assembly of the States of the Empire, it was forbidden to have any Lutheran Sermons, he presently prepa∣red to be gone, and profest boldly, He would not stay there, where he might not have liberty to serve God:* 1.2 Thus must every good Christian be throughly resolved for God, and for the truth which he takes up to profess, Resolution must chain him as it did Ulisses to the Mast of the Ship, must tye him to God that he leap no•• over-board, and make shipwrack of a good Conscience, as too too many have done; It is Reso∣lu••ion that keeps Ruth with her Mother, it makes a Man a rocky promontory, that wa∣shes not away, though the Surges beat upon him continually; Resolution in the waies of God is the best aggio••ta of a Christian, and a resolved Christian is the best Christian.