Rom. VIII. 32-34.] heaven on earth. 355
When John was banished into the isle of Patraos, ' for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus,' Rev. i. 9, 10, then he is filled with the Spirit, and hath the choicest manifestations, and the most glorious reve- lations that ever he had all his days.' Now God makes him one of his court and counsel, and tells him what glorious and mighty things shall be in the latter days. Now he is in a spiritual rapture and ecstasy, and carried above himself, and above all outward things, to attend those glorious visions that God would make known to him.
It was God's lifting up the light of his countenance that made the martyrs to sing in the fire, to clap their hands in the flames, and to tread upon hot burning coals as upon beds of roses. This made one say, when he felt the flame come to his beard, ' What a small pain is this, to be compared to the glory to come ? What is a drop of vinegar put into an ocean of wine ? What is it for one to have a rainy day, that is going to take possession of a kingdom ?* The smiles of God made another to sing under dreadful sufferings, Ghristianus sum, I am a Christian ;^ and this made the Christians to sing, in Tertullian's time, Grudelitas vestra gloria nostra, your cruelty is our glory.*
This made a French martyr to say, when the rope was about his fel- low's neck, ' Give me that golden chain, and dub me a knight of that noble order.' This made another to desire, when he was to die, the favour of having his chains buried with him, as the ensigns of his honour.*
This made Basil say, * Fire, sword, prison, famine, are all a pleasure, a delight unto me.' This made Paul to rattle his iron chains, and to glory in it, more than worldly men glory in all their outward glory.
This made Theodoret to complain, that his persecutors did him wrong, when they took him off the rack, and ceased tormenting of him ; for, said he, ' All the while I was on the rack, I found methought there was a young man in white, an angel stood by me, which wiped off the sweat ; and I found a great deal of sweetness in it, which now I have lost.«
To conclude, the smiles of God upon the prisonei-sof hope,is that which makes them more cheerful and delightful in their sufferings than Jesus Christ was in his.
When Faninus, an Italian martyr, was asked by one, why he was so merry at his death, sith Christ himself was so sorrowful : ' Christ,' said he, ' sustained in his soul all the sorrows and conflicts with hell and death, due to us, by whose sufferings we are delivered from sorrow, and fear of them all ; and therefore we have cause of rejoicing in the greatest sufferings.^
Now there are these special reasons to be given, why the Lord is pleased in suffering times to visit his people with his loving-kindness, and to lift up the light of his countenance upon them.
* He was banished thither by Domitian, the tyrant. Vide Euseb. lib. ill. cap. xviii. ; vick Pliny, lib. iv. cap. xii. [Rather cap. xxiii., The Sporades — G.]
• Vincentius. [Clarke's ' Martyrologie,' as be/ore, pp. 34, 36.— G.]
» Sanctus. [Ibid. p. 31.— G.] * Apology.— G.
' Nihil senlil crvx in tiervo, quando animus est in calo. [The reference is to Fournier of Chalons. Clarke, a$ before, pp. 233, 234.— G.]
® Sufferings are the ensigns of heavenly nobility. No wonder then that the saints are 6o joyful under them. [Clarke, as before. — G.] ^ Ibid. — G.
356 HEAVEN ON EARTH. [ROM. VIII. 32-34).
(1.) The first reason. That their patience and constancy under tlie cross may be invincible} God knows right well, that if his left hand in suffering times be not under his people, and his right hand over them, if he does not give them some sips of sweetness, some relishes of good- ness, tliey would quickly grow impatient and inconstant. Oh, but now the smiles of God, the gracious discoveries of God, makes their patience and constancy invincible, as it did Vincentius, who by his patience and constancy madded his tormentors ; wherefore they stripped him stark naked, whipped his body all over to a gore blood, sprmkled salt and vinegar over all his wounds, set his feet on burning coals, then cast him naked into a loathsome dungeon, the pavement whereof was sharp shells, and his bed to lie on a bundle of thorns. All which this blessed martyr received, without so much as a groan, breathing out his spirit in these words, * Vincentius is my name, and by the grace of God I will be still Vincentius, in spite of all your torments.' Persecution brings death in one hand and life in the other ; for while it kills the body it crowns the soul.*
The most cruel martyrdom is but a crafty trick to escape death, to pass from life to life, from the prison to paradise, from the cross to the crown.
Justin Martyr says, that when the Romans did immortalise their em- perors, as they called it, they brought one to swear that he see [saw?] him go to heaven out of the fire. But we may see, by an eye of faith, the blessed souls of suffering saints fly to heaven, like Elias in his fiery chariot, like the angel that appeared to Manoah in the flames. Judges xiii. 20.=*
John Huss, martyr, had such choice discoveries of God, and such sweet incomes of the Spirit, as made his patience and constancy in- vincible. When he was brought forth to be burned, they put on his head a triple crown of paper, painted over with ugly devils ; but when he saw it, he said, ' My Lord Jesus Christ, for my sake, did wear a crown of thorns ; why should not I then for his sake wear this light crown, be it never so ignominious? Truly I will do it, and that willingly.' And as they tied his neck with a chain to the stake, smiling, he said, ' That he would willingly receive the same chain for Jesus Christ's sake, who he knew was bound with a far worse chain for his sake.'* Well ! remember this, their names that by a patient suffering are written in red letters of blood in the church's calendar, are written in golden letters in Christ's. register, in the book of life.
(2.) The second reason. A second reason why the Lord lifts up the light of his countenance upon his people in suffering times, and that is, for the confirmation of some, for the conversion of others, and for the greater conviction and confusion of their adversaries, who wonder, and are like men amazed, when they see the comfort and ike courage
' Christian fortitude is inferendo, non inferiendo, not in smiting, but suffering.
* Wil. Flower, ApoUonius, Basil, Fulgentius, Giles of Brussels, Alexander, Hales, Polycarpus, Calvin, Luther, Brentius, BuUinger, these and many more have been eminent in patience under sore trials. [See Clarke, as before, sub nominibus. — G.]
3 A patient man under reproaches, is like a man with a sword in one hand, and a salve in the other ; he could wound, but he will heal. The motto of patient souls is, J'tura pro Ckristo toleranda, we must suffer more than so for Christ.
* Clarke, as before. — G.
Rom. VIII. 32-34.] heaven on earth. 357