Since it appears as though God would use your blood to sign his truth, there is nothing better than for you to prepare yourself to that end, beseeching him so to subdue you to his good pleasure, that nothing may hinder you from following whithersoever he shall call.

Quotes from Tracts and Letters of John Calvin to suffering believers:

To Monsieur de Falais: Exhortations to glorify God amid poverty and persecution

For you are no novice in the fight, seeing that for a long time past this good Lord has begun to prepare you for it; and nothing has happened to you which you had not looked for beforehand. But is time to show in reality that when you have set yourself frankly to follow Jesus Christ, you have not done so without being resolved to hold fellowship with him at the cross, since he has done us that honor to be crucified in us, to glorify us with himself.

To the Protector Somerset

If the majority of the world oppose the Gospel and even strive with rage and violence to hinder its progress, we ought not to think it strange. It proceeds from the ingratitude of men, which has always shown itself, and ever will, in drawing back when God comes near, and even in kicking against him when he would put his yoke upon them. More than that, because by nature they are wholly given to hypocrisy, they cannot bear to be brought to the clear light of the Word of God, which lays bare their baseness and shame, nor to be drawn forth out of their superstitions, which serve them as a hiding-hole and shady covert.

To the five prisoners of Lyons

Since it appears as though God would use your blood to sign his truth, there is nothing better than for you to prepare yourself to that end, beseeching him so to subdue you to his good pleasure, that nothing may hinder you from following whithersoever he shall call. For my part, I have no doubt if it pleases this kind Father to take you unto himself, that he has preserved you hitherto, in order that your long-continued imprisonment might serve as a preparation for the better awakening of those whom he has determined to deify by your end. For let enemies do their utmost, they never shall be able to bury out of sight that light which God has made to shine in you, in order to be contemplated from afar. However, be the Son of God glorified by our shame, and let us be content with this sure testimony, that though we are persecuted and blamed we trust in the living God.

To the brethren of France

We are bound to live and die for him who died for us, for our faith is not styled a victory over the world merely to make us triumph in the shade and without a struggle: but much rather that we should be armed by it to overcome Satan with all that he can devise against us; and the doctrine of the gospel is not for us to speculate about at our ease, but to demonstrate, by its effects, that the world should be held cheap by us in comparison of the heavenly kingdom. The thing most calculated to terrify us is the enormous cruelty practiced against our poor brethren. In fact it is a frightful spectacle, and one which might well make the inconsistent shudder. But we ought on the other hand to contemplate the invincible courage with which God has endowed them.

So then Satan, on the one hand, is contriving everything to trouble the poor brethren to make them swerve from the truth and turn aside from the path of salvation. With unbridled rage he vents against them all his spite. While on the other, God meanwhile assists them, and though they suffer extreme anguish to the weakness of the flesh, yet still do they persevere in the confession of his name. In that you see they are victorious. You see the faith which triumphs in the martyrs, who endure death, and shall it be the cause of annihilating yours?

Wherefore, my brethren, when the tyrants exhaust all their fury, learn to turn your eyes to contemplate the succour which God affords his followers; and seeing that they are not forsaken by him, take new comfort and cease not to war against the temptations of your flesh, till you have attained the full conviction that we are happy in belonging to Christ whether it be to die or to live.

Since it is our duty to suffer, we ought humbly to submit; as it is the will of God that his church be subjected to such conditions that even as the plough passes over the field, so should the ungodly have leave to pass their sword over us all from the least to the greatest. If that condition is hard and painful, let us be satisfied that our Heavenly Father, in exposing us to death, turns it our eternal welfare. And indeed it is better for us to suffer for his name, without flinching, than to possess his word without being visited by affliction. For in prosperity we do not experience the worth of his assistance and the power of his Spirit, as when we are oppressed by men. That seems strange to us; but he who sees more clearly than we, knows far better what is advantageous to us.