But if seasonable counsel will not go down, if hardness of heart and blindness of mind and so perishing from the way shall overtake you, it is but what you of old have been cautioned of:  “Be wise now, therefore, O ye kings; be instructed, ye judges of the earth.  Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling.  Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way when his wrath is kindled but a little.  Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.”

The very name of Jesus is the very tower of the Christian church, and that by which she frights the world, not designedly, but through their misunderstanding; for neither she nor her Jesus is for doing them any hurt.  However, this is that which renders her yet, in their eye, terrible as an army with banners.

Always when antichrist made his inroads upon the church in the wilderness, to slay, to cut off, and to kill, yet some of the pillars stood; they were not all burnt in the fire, nor cut down.  They said indeed, “Come, let us cut them off from being a nation, that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.”  But what then?  There is a difference betwixt saying and doing; the bush was not therefore consumed because it was set on fire; the church shall not be consumed, although she be afflicted.

And the reason is, because God has his reserve:  therefore if Abel falls by the hand of Cain, Seth is put in his place; if Moses is taken away, Joshua shall succeed him; and if the devil break the neck of Judas, Matthias is at hand to take his office.  God has a succession of pillars in his house; he has to himself a reserve.

They therefore brought out Faithful, to do with him according to their law; and first they scourged him, then they buffeted him, then they lanced his flesh with knives; after they had stoned him with stones, they pricked him with their swords; and last of all, they burned him to ashes at the stake.  Thus came Faithful to his end.  Now I saw in my dream that Christian went not forth alone, for there was one whose name was Hopeful—­being so made by the beholding of Christian and Faithful in their words and behavior in their sufferings at the fair—­who joined himself unto him; and entering into a brotherly covenant, told him that he would be his companion.

Thus one died to bear testimony to the truth, and another rises out of his ashes, to be a companion with Christian in his pilgrimage.

“And she bare a son, and called his name Seth; for God, saith she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.”  Gen. 4.  When Seth comes, then the ground is made good again; then a living saint is found to stand, and maintain that truth which but now his brother bled for.

The future glory of the church.