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 charge; so that whatever tyrants attempt, and with whatever fury they may rush against us, it belongs to Him alone to order our life.

If He permits tyrants to slay us, it is not because our life is not dear to Him, and held in a hundred times greater honor than it deserves.  Such being the case, having declared by the mouth of David (Psalm cxvi., 13), that the death of the saints is precious in His sight, He says also by the mouth of Isaiah (xxvi., 21), that the earth will discover the blood which seems to be concealed.  Let the enemies of the gospel, then, be as prodigal as they will of the blood of martyrs, they shall have to render a fearful account of it even to its last drop.  In the present day, they indulge in proud derision while consigning believers to the flames; and after having bathed in their blood, they are intoxicated by it to such a degree as to count all the murders which they commit mere festive sport.  But if we have patience to wait, God will show in the end that it is not in vain He has taxed our life at so high a value.  Meanwhile, let it not offend us that it seems to confirm the gospel, which in worth surpasses heaven and earth.