^ From the Greek d^eXlcrKos, = a small spit. — G.
' In making up his roll, Brooks seems to have had his eye on the quaint engrayings of his favourite folio, Clarke, as before. — G.
^ And another cruelty that they practised in the primitive times was this, they would make fathers to kindle Ihe faggots to burn their own children, &c.
HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 295
for the compassing of some loorldly good, as you have suffered, or are like to sujfer,for your pursuing after holiness^ Oh the hazards, the dangers, the deaths that many have run through to gratify their lusts ! Petrus ]31esensis has long since observed, that the courtiers of his time suffered as many vexations, with weariness and painfulness, with hunger and thirst, and with all the catalogue of Paul's afflictions that is reckoned up in that 2 Cor. xi., as good Christians did for the truth. I have read of a Roman servant, who knowing his master was sought for by officers to be put to death, he, to save his master's life, put him- self into his master's clothes that he might be taken for him, and accordingly he was taken and put to death for him, and all this out of a humour of vainglory. The Romans' desire of the praises of men, saith Augustine, made them bountiful of their purses, and prodigal of their lives. Servetus, at Geneva, gave all his goods to the poor, and his body to be burnt, and all for a name, for a little glory among men, saith Calvin. 2 Ah what cutting, what lancing, what bleeding, what vomiting, and what searching will many men endure upon the advice of their physicians, and all for a little health, a little strength, or to preserve a wretched life for a few days, yea, for a few hours sometimes 1 Oh the tortures and torments that many Romans and others have undergone, sometimes out of love to their country, and sometimes to maintain their credit and reputation among men, and sometimes out of an affectation of future fame and renown, and to eternalize their names ! and why then should Christians think so much of suffering afflictions and persecutions for holiness' sake, the least drachm of which being more worth than a thousand thousand of those ihings, for which they have suffered such exquisite pains and torments ? Ah ! what great things, what hard things do many men daily suffer to gratify their own lusts, and to satisfy the lusts of others ! Ah ! how frequently do many venture their lives, their estates, their names, their consciences, yea, their very souls, to court a Delilah ! Oh the hell of horrors and terrors, which are worse than a thousand deaths, that many a sinner daily wades through to enjoy his sin ! and why then shouldst thou be startled in thy pursuit after holiness, because of afflictions and perse- cutions that may attend thee ? when they are nothing to what many suffer from within and without, to enjoy that which will undo them to all eternity, &c. But,
11, Eleventhly, I answer. Though persecutions may attend the pur- suit of holiness, yet God has a thousand thousand ways to preserve his people from being ruined and destroyed by persecuting hands. Several afflictions and persecutions befell Paul at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra, ' but out of them all the Lord delivered him.'^ As a righteous cause led him into sufferings, so a righteous Grod led him out of sufferings. Both Jews and Gentiles, barbarians and Grecians, princes and people, were as madly set upon persecuting of him, as he was once madly set upon persecuting of the saints, but God delivered him from every hand of violence. Divine power and wisdom wrought gloriously for him ; both in six troubles and in seven it brought him clearly off, and bravely
^ Witness Jehu, Ahab, Jezebel, Balaam, Judas, &c.
' This was in anno 1555, &c.
' 2 Tim. ill. 11, compared with that liii. and xiv. of the Acts.
296 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.
out, not of some, but out of all his dangers and distresses, afflictions and persecutions, &c. Now,
[1.] First, God sometimes preserves his people from being ruined and destroyed, by laying a law of restraint upon the spirits of their persecutors, as he did upon Laban's and Esau's, that they could not hurt him ; yea, instead of kicking and killing, behold kissing and embracing. 1 God tied up those cursed dogs, and laid such a restraint upon their wrath, rage, and malice, that they could not so much as touch a hair of Jacob's head. God stopped their mouths and bound their hands, that they were not able to act anything to the prejudice of Jacob. That God that laid a restraint upon the fierce wild creatures in Noah's ark, that they might not prey upon the tamer, and that chained up the lions from preying upon Daniel, that God chained up these two lions, that they could not make a prey of innocent Jacob. But,
[2.] Secondly, God does this sometimes by setting persecutors one against another. When the Moabites were confederated with the Ammonites and those of mount Seir against Judah, God made them turn their swords into one another's bowels, and so they mutually be- came their own executioners, and by this means poor Judah escaped. 2 God sometimes saves his lambs by setting the wolf and the dog to- gether by the ears. When that wolf Saul was even ready to devour David the lamb, God lets loose those dogs the Philistines upon Saul, and so by this means David was preserved and secured, 1 Sam. xxiii. 27. And so Paul, by setting the persecuting Pharisees against the persecuting scribes, he escaped persecution. Acts xxiii. 6-8. And so the Lord, by stirring up the Persians against the Babylonians, he brought about the deliverance of the Jews out of their captivity ; and afterwards by stirring up the Grecians against the Persians, and the Komans against the Grecians, and the Goths and Vandals and other barbarous nations against the Romans, he brought about the deliver- ance of his people. In all ages God, by engaging one furious lion against another, has preserved his sheep in quiet. When the emperor of Germany threatened utter ruin to all the Protestants within his empire, God let loose the Turk to fall with great fury upon his empire, and by that means diverted the emperor's rage, and preserved his poor people, which were as sheep appointed to the slaughter. Ah England, England ! if God had not set thine enemies together by the ears, year after year, how had they combined and conspired together to have swallowed thee up long before this day ! But,