liavpoeen trod under foot as dung on the earth. 1 Cor. iv. 11, 12f, jr. "Unto this present hour we both hunger and thirst, and are •' naked, and buffetted, and have no certain dwelling-place, and la- " hour working with our hands ; being reviled we bless, being per- '• secuted we suffer it, being defamed we intreat ; we are made as " the filth of the world, and the off-scouring of all things unto this " day.'' The eleventh chapter to the Hebrews is a compendium of the various and grievous sufferings of the primitive saints : " They " were tortured, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain '' with the sword, they wandered about in sheep-skins and goat-skins, *' being afflicted, destitute, tormented, of whom the world was not " worthy, they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, in dens, and " in caves of the earth." And since the earth hath dried up those rivers of precious blood, whereof the sacred records make mention, what seas of Christians blood have since those days been shed by bloody persecutors ? Histories inform us that in the ten primitive per- secutions, so many of the saints and martyrs of Jesus Christ have been slain, as that you may allow five thousand a day to every day in the whole year. Those bloody emperors sported themselves with the death of God's dearest saints ; many precious Christians were burnt by night at Rome, to serve as torches to light their enemies in the passage through the streets ; eight hundred thousand martyrs are mentioned within the space of thirty years, since the Jesuits arose out of the bottomless pit.
To what grievous sufferings did the Lord give up those precious servants of Christ, the Waldenses and Albigenses, who received the light of reformation about the year 1260, when the fogs of Anti- christian darkness overspread the earth ! a people sound in judgment, as appears by their letters, catechisms, and confessions, which are ex- tant ; a people of a simple, plain, and inoffensive behaviour : Yet, with what fury and rage did that impious pope Pius persecute them to destruction ! driving them into the woods and mountains, except the aged, and children that could not flee, who were murdered in the way : Some famished in the caves and clefts of the rocks ; others endured the rack for eight hours together ; some beaten with iron rods, others thrown from the tops of high towers, and dashed to pieces.
^Vhat bloody shambles and slaughter-houses have France, Ireland, and England, been made by popish cruelty ! More might be related out of each story than a tender hearted reader is able to bear the re- hearsal of. But what God hath done, he may do again : We are not better than our fathers, dismal clouds of indignation are gather- ing over our heads, charged with double destruction ; should the Lord please to make them break upon us; we cannot imagine the rage of Satan to be abated, now that his kingdom hastens to its period, Ilev. xii. 12. nor are his instruments grown less cruel and skil- ful to destroy. The land, indeed, hath enjoyed a long rest, and thi&
THE BEST WORK IN THE WORST TIMES. " 0
generation is acquainted with little more of martyrdom, than wribi^tlye histories of former times inform us of: But yet let no man bef6c,l himself with a groundless expectation of continuing tranquilHtyis Augustin thinks that the bloody sweat which over-ran the body of Christ in thegarden, signified the sharp and grievous suftcrings which in his mystical body he should afterwards endure ; and indeed it is a "*truth, that these are also called the remains of Christ's sufferings, Col. i. 24. His personal siffferings were indeed completed at his re- surrection, that cup was full to the brim, to which no drop of suffer- ings can be added ; but his sufferings in his mystical body are not yet full ; by his personal sufferings he fully satisfied the wrath of God, but the sufferings of his people have not yet satisfied the wrath of men : Though millions of precious saints have shed their blood for Christ, whose souls are now crying under the altar, How long. Lord! how long ! yet there arc many more coming on behind in the same path of persecution, and much Christian blood must yet be shed, be- fore the mystery of God be finished ; and notwithstanding this lucid interval, the clouds seem to be returning again after the rain. Thus you see to what grievous sufferings the merciful God hath sometimes called his dearest people.
Now God may be said to call forth his people to suffer, when he so hedgeth them in by providence, that there is no way to escape suffering, but by sinning ; whatsoever providence labours with such a dilemma as this, is a plain signification of God's will to us in that case. We may not now expect extraordinary calls to suffering work, as some of the saints had of old. Gen. xxii. 2. Acts ix. 16. but when our way is so shut up by providence, that we cannot avoid suffering, but by stepping over the hedge of the command, God will have us look upon that exigence as his call to suffer : And if the reasons be demanded, why the Lord, who is inclined to mercy, doth often hedge in his own people, by his providence, in a suffering path ; let us know, that in so doing, he doth both,
1. Illustrate his own glory. And,
2. Promote his people's happiness.
First, Hereby the most wise God doth illustrate the glory of his own name, clearing up the righteousness of his ways by the sufferings of his own people : By this the word shall see, that how well soever he loves them, he will not indulge or patronize their sins; if they will be so disengenuous to abuse his favours, he will be so just to make them suffer for their sins, and by those very sufferings will provide for his own glory, which was by them clouded in the eyes of the world. He hates not sin a jot the less, because it is found in his own people, Amos iii. 2. And though, for the magnifying of his mercy, he will pardon their sins, yet for the clearing of his righteousness, he will take vengeance upon their inventions, Psal. xcix. 8.
Moreover, by exposing his people to such grievous sufferings, he gives a fit opportunity to manifest the glory of his power in their sup-
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