Above all, when we look to the martyrs of past times, well may we detest our own cowardice!  The greater part of those were not persons much versed in Holy Scripture, so as to be able to dispute on all subjects.  They knew that there was one God, whom they behooved to worship and serve—­that they had been redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ, in order that they might place their confidence of salvation in Him and in His grace—­and that, all the inventions of men being mere dross and rubbish, they ought to condemn all idolatries and superstitions.  In one word, their theology was in substance this—­There is one God who created all the world, and declared His will to us by Moses and the prophets, and finally by Jesus Christ and His apostles; and we have one sole Redeemer, who purchased us by His blood, and by whose grace we hope to be saved:  All the idols of the world are curst, and deserve execration.

With a system embracing no other points than these, they went boldly to the flames, or to any other kind of death.  They did not go in twos or threes, but in such bands that the number of those who fell by the hands of tyrants is almost infinite!  We, on our part, are such learned clerks that none can be more so (so at least we think), and, in fact, so far as regards the knowledge of Scripture, God has so spread it out before us that no former age was ever so highly favored.  Still, after all, there is scarcely a particle of zeal.  When men manifest such indifference, it looks as if they were bent on provoking the vengeance of God.

What then should be done in order to inspire our breasts with true courage?  We have, in the first place, to consider how precious the confession of our faith is in the sight of God.  We little know how much God prizes it, if our life, which is nothing, is valued by us more highly.  When it is so, we manifest a marvelous degree of stupidity.  We can not save our life at the expense of our confession with out acknowledging that we hold it in higher estimation than the honor of God and the salvation of our souls.

A heathen could say that “It was a miserable thing to save life by giving up the only things which made life desirable!” And yet he and others like him never knew for what end men are placed in the world, and why they live in it.  It is true they knew enough to say that men ought to follow virtue, to conduct themselves honestly and without reproach; but all their virtues were mere paint and smoke.  We know far better what the chief aim of life should be, namely, to glorify God, in order that He may be our glory.  When this is not done, wo to us!  And we can not continue to live for a single moment upon the earth without heaping additional curses on our heads.  Still we are not ashamed to purchase some few days to languish here below, renouncing eternal kingdom by separating ourselves from Him by whose energy we are sustained in life.