^ In the primitive times, when some good people came to comfort some of the martyrg that were in prison, and ready to suffer, they called them blessed martyrs ; Oh no, said they, we are not worthy of the name of martyrs. These boly, humble hearts thought martyrdom too high an honour for them.
HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 293
weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.' Thus you see that this blessed apostle looks upon his sufferings as his greatest glory. To suffer for Christ is the greatest honour and promotion that God gives in this world, said old Father Latimer. John Noyes took up a faggot at the fire and kissed it, saying, ' Blessed be the time that ever I was born to come to this preferment.' When they had fastened Alice Driver with a chain to the stake to be burned, ' Never,' said she, ' did neckerchief become me so weU as this chain.' Balilus i the martyr, when he was to die, requested this favour of his persecutors — viz., that he might have his chains buried with him, as the ensigns of his honour. When Ignatius was to suffer, ' It is better for me,' saith he, 'to be a martyr, than to be a monarch.' What are we poor worms, full of vanities and lies, that we should be called to be maintainers of the truth ? for sufferings for Christ are the ensigns of heavenly nobility, said Calvin. It was a notable saying of a French martyr, when the rope was about his fellow, ' Give me,' said he, ' that golden chain, and dub me knight of that noble order.' ' I am the unmeetest man for this high office of suffering for Christ that ever was appointed to it,' said blessed Sanders. I shall conclude this head with that excellent say- ing of Prudentius ; ' Their names,' saith he, ' that are written in red letters of blood in the church's calendar, are written in golden letters in Christ's register, the book of life.' And thus you see on all hands that suffering for Christ is the highest honour that you are capable of in this world : and, therefore, there is little reason why a Christian should shrink or shrug at sufferings. But,
9. Ninthly, I answer, That the affiicticms, persecutions, and suffer- ings that attend Christians in these days, are nothing to the fiery trials that the saints and martyrs of old have met with: for sevenfold harder measure has been measured forth to them than is this day measured forth to us. Our sufferings are hardly to be named in the day wherein those sore and heavy things are mentioned, that those precious and famous worthies of old have suffered. I may say to most Christians, as the apostle did to the Hebrews, Heb. xii. 4, ' Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.' Many have, but you have not ; you have only met with hard words, when others have met with blows and wounds ; you have been only a-contending with men, when others have been a-contending with beasts ; you have been only whipped with rosemary branches, when others have been whipped with scor- pions ; you have been only bound with silken bands, when others have been bound with iron chains. Will you be so favourable to yourselves as to compare your sufferings with the sufferings of former saints; and that you may, let me give you a little breviate of their sufferings ' of whom the world was not worthy.' History tells us, that in the ten primitive persecutions, they exercised all manner of cruelty and torments that could be devised against the Christians: — 1. In the reign of Hadrian the emperor, there were ten thousand Christians crucified in the Mount Ararat, crowned with crowns of thorns, and thrust into the sides with sharp darts. 2. Others were so whipped, that their very inward arteries and veins appeared, and their entrails
294 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.
and bowels were seen, and afterwards they were set upon sharp shells, taken out of the sea edged and sharp, and certain nails and thorns were sharpened and pointed, called Ohelisci} for them to go upon, and after all this cruelty they were thrown to wild beasts to be devoured. 3. Multitudes were banished. 4. Others were drawn asunder with wild horses. 5. Some were racked with bars of iron. 6. Others were cast into loathsome dungeons. 7. Some were burnt in the fire. 8. Others were knocked down and had their brains beat out with staves and clubs. 9. Some were pricked in their faces and eyes with sharp reeds. 10. Others were stoned to death with stones, as Stephen was. 11. Some were dashed in pieces against millstones. 12. Others had their teeth dashed out of their jaws, and their joints broken. 13. Some were cast down from very high places. 14. Others were beheaded. 15. Some were tormented with razors. 16. Others were slain with the sword. 17. Some were run through with pikes. 18. Others were driven into the wilderness, where they wandered up and down, suffer- ing hunger and cold, and where they were exposed to the fury both of wild beasts, and also to the rage of the barbarous Arabians. ] 9. Some fled into caves, which by their persecutors were rammed up with stones, and there they died. 20. Others were trodden to death by the people 21. Some were hanged on gibbets, with fire under their sides. 22. Others were cast into the sea and drowned. 23. Some were slain in metal mines. 24. Others were hanged by the feet, and choked with the smoke of a small fire, their legs being first broken. 25. Some were powdered with salt and vinegar, and then roasted with a soft fire.
26. Others were hung by one hand, that they might feel the weight of their whole bodies, scorching and broiling over burning coals.
27. Some were shot through with arrows, and afterwards thrown into stinking Jakes. 28. Others were stripped stark naked as ever they were born, and turned out of doors in cold, frosty nights, and burnt the next day. 29. In Syria, a company of Christian virgins were stripped stark naked to be scorned by the multitude, then shaved, then covered with swill and draff, and then torn in pieces and devoured by swine. 30. Lastly, many women had one joint of their bodies pulled from another, and their flesh and sides scratched with talons of wild beasts to the bones, and their breasts seared with torches till they died. And thus you have an account of thirty several ways by which the precious sons and daughters of Zion have formerly been afflicted, tormented, and destroyed ; and what heart of stone can read over this bill of particulars with dry eyes? 2 And now tell me, sirs, whether your sufferings are worth a naming in that day, wherein the sufferings of the precious servants of God in the primitive times are spoken of ? Oh, no 1 Well then, take heed of making molehills mountains, and of crying out. Is there any sorrow to our sorrow, or any sufferings to our sufferings ?^ But,
10. Tenthly, I answer. That unholy persons have suffered as great and grievous things for the satisfying of their lusts and humours, and