Vasanos alåethinåe, the true touchstone which shews both grace and nature, or, A discourse concerning self examination, by which both saints and sinners may come to know themselves whereunto are added sundry meditations relating to the Lords Supper / by Nathanael Vincent ...

MEDITATION. LIV.

My Lord did not stick at suffering and why should I? Why should the Cross daunt me? If I will be indeed Godly, Persecution is to be expected. The old Serpent is full of hatred, and so are his seed, and their ha∣tred is implacable. But when I consider my Lords love, and power, and presence. Hells Malice and the Worlds Rage become contemptible; times of suffering are times of the sweetest solace. Those are not un∣reasonable injunctions, Count it all joy when ye fall into divers Temptations, and Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsly for my sake, rejoyce and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in Heaven. The Spirit of glory and of God does rest upon his suffering Saints, so that they glory in tribulation, they

rejoyce in it as a dignity when they suffer shame for the name of Jesus, they are gain∣ers by their losses, they gain an hundred fold in this World, besides the Kingdom in the other World.