sus
(John xxi., 18) that he should be led in his old age where he would not,
asked, What was to become of his companion John? There is not one among
us who would not readily have put the same question; for the thought
which instantly rises in our mind is, Why do I suffer rather than
others? On the contrary, Jesus Christ exhorts all of us in common, and
each of us in particular, to hold ourselves "ready," in order that
according as He shall call this one or that one, we may march forth in
our turn.

I explained above how little prepared we shall be to suffer martyrdom,
if we be not armed with the divine promises. It now remains to show
somewhat more fully what the purport and aim of these promises are--not
to specify them all in detail, but to show the principal things which
God wishes us to hope from Him, to console us in our afflictions. Now
these things, taken summarily, are three. The first is, that inasmuch as
our life and death are in His hand, He will preserve us by His might
that not a hair will be plucked out of our heads without His leave.
Believers, therefore, ought to feel assured into whatever hands they may
fall, that God is not divested of the guardianship which He exercises
over their persons. Were such a persuasion well imprinted on our hearts,
we should be delivered from the greater part of the doubts and
perplexities which torment us and obstruct us in our duty.

We see tyrants let loose: thereupon it seems to us that God no longer
possesses any means of saving us, and we are tempted to provide for our
own affairs as if nothing more were to be expected from Him. On the
contrary, His providence, as He unfolds it, ought to be regarded by us
as an impregnable fortress. Let us labor, then, to learn the full import
of the expression, that our bodies are in the hands of Him who created
them. For this reason He has sometimes delivered His people in a
miraculous manner, and beyond all human expectation, as Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego, from the fiery furnace, Daniel from the den of
lions; Peter from Herod's prison, where he was locked, chained, and
guarded so closely. By these examples He meant to testify that He holds
our enemies in check, altho it may not seem so, and has power to
withdraw us from the midst of death when He pleases. Not that He always
does it; but in reserving authority to Himself to dispose of us for life
and for death, He would have us to feel fully assured that He has us
under His ch