No heart but a sound heart will hold out bravely when hardships attends holiness on both hands ; no heart but a holy heart will bear the brunt of persecution for holiness' sake. The three children, Shadrach, Meshech, and Abed-nego, would rather burn than bow, they would rather suffer than sin, Dan. iii. 17, 18, which was an evident proof of their sincerity and ingenuity. They would be nonconformists, though court, city, and country cried up conformity, which was a sure argument of their integrity ; but now unsound hearts will exceedingly shuffle and shift to shift off persecution. Witness those false teachers in Gal. vi. 12, 'As many as desire to make a fair show,' or as the Greek has it, evTrpoacoTrf/aac, ' to set a good face on it,' ' in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised ; only lest they should suffer per- secution for the cross of Christ.' At this time the Jews, out of zeal to their law, did sorely persecute those that did either preach or prac- tise anything contrary to their law. Now these false teachers set a good face on it, and made a fair show, as if they were all for carnal rites and ceremonies, and they urged circumcision upon the Galatians, but not out of any affection or zeal that they did bear to the law, but only to procure favour on the one hand, and to avoid and escape the malice and persecution of the Jews on the other hand. They that were no Jews, to avoid persecution, would comply with them that were ; they would seem to be very earnest for Judaism, but not for Christianism, that so they might escape the fury of the Jews. Unsound hearts will say anything, and do anything, and be anything, to avoid persecution, and to ingratiate themselves with persecutors. The Samaritans, as long as the Jewish religion flourished and was in honour, caused a temple to be built on Mount Gerizim, that therein they might not be inferior to the Jews ; and they boasted themselves to be of the progeny of Joseph, and worshippers of God with them ; but when they perceived that the Jews were cruelly afflicted and per- secuted by Antiochus Epiphanes for worshipping of the true God, and fearing lest they should be handled in the like manner, they changed both their coat and their note, affirming that they were not Israelites, but Sidonians, and that they had built their temple not unto God, but to Jupiter. 1 Thus times of affliction and persecution will distinguish the precious from the vile, it will difference the counterfeit professor from the true. Persecution is a Christian s touchstone, it is a Lapis Lydius that will try what metal men are made of, whether they be silver or tin, gold or dross, wheat or chaff, shadow or substance, carnal or spiritual, sincere or hypocritical. Nothing speaks out more soundness and uprightness than a pursuing after holiness, even then when holiness is most afflicted, pursued, and persecuted in the world : to stand fast in fiery trials argues much integrity within. But,
[2.] Secondly, All the troubles and persecutions which Satan or his instruments raise against the saints of the Most High shall not diminish their number, hut rather increase them. The more the Israelites in Egypt were oppressed, afflicted, and persecuted, the more they increased and multiplied, Exod. i. 10-13. Come, say they, let us deal wisely with them, lest they multiply; let us increase their task,
^ Joseph. Hist., lib. xiii. [See Sibbes, iii. 475, where will be found more exact refer- ences.— Q.] .
HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 283
let US lay lieavy burdens upon them, &c. ; and accordingly they did, thinking by this means to cow out tlieir spirits, and to have brought them low, and to have lessened their number ; but did this stratagem prevail ? Oh no, as you may see in ver. 12 ; but the more they afflicted them, the more they multipHed and grew.i There were but seventy souls that went down to Egypt, but they multiplied to six hundred thousand, besides children, as is evident by comparing Exod. i. 5, 7 with xii. 37, 38. So the Jews that were carried captive to Babylon were but twelve thousand six hundred, but they returned forty-two thousand three hundred and threescore, besides their servants and their maids, of whom there were seven thousand three hundred and thirty-seven, Neh. vii. G6, 67, &c. ; Ezra ii. 64, 65. The kingdom of Christ is set forth by a little stone cut out of a mountain without hands, Dan. ii. 34, 35 ; and though in all ages there has been many hammers at work to break this little stone in pieces, yet they have not been able to do it, but this little stone has proved a growing stone, and, in spite of the devil and a persecuting world, will grow more and more, till it comes to be a great mountain, and filleth the whole earth. In the 8th chapter of the Acts you read of a great persecution, and the storm beat so hard upon the churches, that it dispersed and scattered them up and down ; and this was so far from lessening of the number of believers, that it did mightily increase their number ; witness vers. 4-6, 8, ' Tlierefore they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word. Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them. And the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. And there was great joy in that city.' Samaria was a very wicked, corrupt place, and bewitched by the sorceries of Simon Magus, yet God had his people there, and by the ministry of Philip — not Philip the apostle, but Philip the deacon — who was a persecuted brother, he called them home to be partakers of his Spirit and grace, vers. 14-17. And thus the scattering of the church was the great advantage and increase of the church. The persecution of one church may be the gathering, edifying, multiplying, and erecting of many churches. 2 Such ministers who have been by persecution driven from their own churches have been eminently instrumental in the planting of many other churches. Though the gospel, and the faithful preachers and professors of it, was by the Scribes, Pharisees, high priests, elders, and great Council exploded, blasphemed, and persecuted at Jerusalem, which was once the holy city, yet it was with joy received in the polluted, bewitched, scorned, and despised city of Samaria. Oh, the freeness, oh, the riches of grace ! Persecution is the multiplication of the people of God ; in all ages the more the saints have been afflicted, oppressed, and persecuted, the more they have increased. The removing of the seven churches in Asia brought the gospel to Europe and Africa. During the ten cruel persecutions of the heathen emperors, the Christian faith was spread
1 Cyprian, speaking of the Christians and martyrs in his time, saith, Occidi poterant, sed vinci non poterant — They may kill them, but they cannot overcome them.