pestilent fellows, and movers of sedition, and some they imprisoned and scourged, and others they put to death, as Stephen and James, &c. ; and oh, what spitefulness and ingratitude was this, to return evil for good, to requite them with reproaches, prisons, scourges, and death, for their endeavouring to save their souls, and to make them happy for ever ! i But will this great King put up these injuries, indignities, and abuses that are done to his servants ? No, he will not: for as soon as he heard of it, he was wroth, and sent forth his armies to be revenged on them. The murderers in the text were the Jews, and the armies were the Romans. Now they are called ' God's armies,' Dan. ix. 26, because God employed them as the executioners of his wrath upon Jerusalem. Now these Roman armies did burn up their city, which was once the paradise of the world, and brought to ruin and destruction eleven millions of men, women, and children, besides mul- titudes that were sold for slaves, and others that were scattered among all nations ; and thus God took vengeance on these persecutors, and turned their temple and city into ashes.^ Plutarch, writing of the quality of tigers, saith, that if drums or tabors sound about them, they will grow mad, and rend and tear their own flesh in pieces."* Oh, there is a day a-coming when the last trumpet shall sound, and then all the persecutors of the saints will grow mad ! oh, then they will fret and fume, and tear and torment themselves, and wish for the mountains and rocks to fall upon them, and to hide them from the wrath of the Lamb, who in that day wiU with a witness avenge all his aflSicted and persecuted ones ! Rev. vi. 15-17. Alas, all the sorrows, troubles, afiiictions, vexations, torments, and punishments that befall the persecutors of the saints in this life, they are but qvMsi tales, as it were such, they are but the beginnings of sorrows, they are but types and figures of those easeless, endless, and remediless torments and pimishments that will at last inevitably fall upon all the persecutors of the saints. But,
[5.] Fifthly and lastly. Persecutors at present are under an evident token of perdition and destruction; they have the marks and signs of divine displeasure upon them: Phil. i. 28, ' And in nothing terrified by your adversaries, which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that of God.'^ Persecuted Christians ought not to be disheartened or discouraged, but rather to take heart and courage, by all the persecutions that are raised against them, because they are most certain witnesses and evidences from God him- self, both of their own salvation, and of their persecutors' perdition and destruction. A state of unbelief, hardness of heart, blindness of mind, searedness of conscience, perverseness of spirit, slighting and despising of that which is good, hating of the light,^ and a mans being given up to the ways and lusts of his own heart, are dreadful tokens of per- dition, and fearful witnesses and evidences of destruction : and these tokens and evidences all persecutors are under, though it may be they
' Rev. i. 5 ; compare these Bcripturea, Acta v. 40, vii. 58, xii. 2, and xxi. 32 ; 2 Cor. xi. 24; Heb. xi. 37, 38. » Josephus, Antiq., lib. xx. c. 8.
*. Plutarch, lib. de superditione.
* Mr Bradford looked upon his sufferings as an evidence to him that he was in his right way.
" John iii. 18-36 ; lea. vi. 9, 10 ; 1 Tim. iv. 2 ; John iii. 19, 20 ; Ps. Ixxxi. 12.
276 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, KARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.
want eyes to see them, and hearts to be affected with them. Plain and evident tokens of wrath and ruin are stamped in Roman characters upon all persecutors, and did they but see those tokens, they would be as so many handwritings upon the wall against them. And thus you see by these five things, that there is no condition under heaven that is so sad and deplorable a condition, as the condition of persecutors is. But,
5. Fifthly, I answer, Thxit God loill hear his people company in all their afflictions and persecutions. If the bush, the church, be all on a-light fire, the angel of the covenant will be in the midst of it : Isa. xliii. 2, ' When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee ; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burnt ; neither shall the flames kindle upon thee.'^ Both in the waters of affliction, and in the fire of persecution, God Avill bear his people company. So in that Dan. iii. 24, 25, ' Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonied, and rose up in haste, and spake, and said unto his counsellors. Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered and said unto the king, True, 0 king. He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt ; and the form of the fourth is like unto the Son of God.' Christ is never so near to his people as when they are in their fiery trials ; and the hotter the furnace is, the more eminently present will Christ be with his people. Saints never enjoy so much of the supporting, emboldening, comforting, and encouraging presence of the Lord, as they do when the sun of persecution shines hottest upon them. Though Mr Glover wanted the presence of God for a time, yet when he came near to the stake where he was burnt, he clapped his hands for joy, and cried out, ' He is come, he is come.' 2 Cor. iv. 8, 9, ' We are troubled on every side, yet not destroyed ; we are perplexed, but not in despair ; persecuted, but not forsaken ; cast down, but not destroyed.' Divine help is nearest when a saint's danger is greatest. It is the deriding question which persecutors put to the saints in the time of their trials and troubles, Uhi Deus f Where is now your God ? Ps. xlii. 10 ; but they may return a bold and confident answer. Hie Deus: ' Our God is here,' our God is nigh unto us, our God is round about us, our God is in the midst of us, our God has given us his promise ' that he will never, never leave us, nor forsake us,' Heb. xiii. 5 ; in every trouble, in every danger, in every death, the Lord will be sure to keep us company. God will bear his children company, not only whilst they are in a delightful paradise, but also when they are in a howling wilderness, Hosea ii. 14, When a company of poor Chris- tians were going into banishment, one standing by to see them pass along, said that it was a very sad condition that those poor people were in, to be thus hurried from the society of men, and to be made companions with the beasts of the field. True, said another,^ it were a sad condition indeed, if they were carried to a place where they should not find their God; but let them be of good cheer, for God goes along with them, and will exhibit the comforts of his presence whitherso-
1 Exod. iii. 2, 6; Mat. x. 17-20; Acts vt. 9, 10; Kom. viii. 33-35. ^ Augustine de Civit. Dei., lib. ii. cap. 39.