fculltn ^hTP"'' ^''"'" *" °ft«°^' ^-^y ^^^"^ ^"'^ed down^saith lertuUian the more they grew. • I am in prison tiU I am in prison" smd one of the martyrs. ■ I am the mimeetest man Z thfs S office of suffering for Christ that ever was appointed t^it ' lid ble Id ChrSnsnuttod:»rh'7''' "^f *«»?.•; '"L we,, miny thouini fewer fo bdnt Itf V'''" •P"''''*'^^"?? C">rist, yet they were never the thL time 3 Z;y .^yP"^°./P<^kn?g of the Christians and martyrs t"em Cth^l^f-^^'""'' f'^''™'''«°»y<''«'-«»<. They may kill
by Se swo&T°' °T'""^t ^^'"°' ' "^^^ """^ «"= ^r-' out down By the sword of persecution, the more we increase,' saith Terhillian.
no^^JT: Con;.\V. K i '■ '" "■''" '"'"'■ '• ' ■■ f'"- I. » ^ 2 Cor. ,,, 23;
OF THE GREAT SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. 213
Eusebius tells us of one that writ to his friend from a stinking dun- geon, and dates his letter from ' My delicate orchard/ ' Burn my foot if you will/ said that noble martyr in Basil, * that it may dance everlastingly with the blessed angels in heaven/ The young child in Josephus, who, when his flesh was pulled in pieces with pincers, by the command of Antiochus, said with a smiling countenance, ' Tyrant, thou losest time ; where are those smarting pains with which thou threatenest me ? Make me to shrink and cry out if thou canst : ' and Bainam, an English martyr, when the fire was flaming about him, said. You Papists talk of miracles, behold here a miracle, I feel no more pain than if I were in a bed of down ; it is as sweet to me as a bed of roses. Lawrence, when his body was roasted upon a burning gridiron, cried out, ' This side is roasted enough, turn the other side.' Marcus of Arethusa, when his body was cut and mangled, and anointed with honey, and hung up aloft in a basket, to be stung to death by wasps and bees, looked down, saying, ' I am advanced, despising you that are below.' Henry Voes kissed the stake. Hawks clapped his hands in the flames when they were half consumed, John Noys blessed God that ever he was born to see that day ; and Bishop Ridley called his execution day his wedding day. Thus you see a ' cloud of witnesses' to raise and inflame your hearts into a free, ready, willing, cheerful, and resolute sufi'ering for that Jesus who has suffered so much for you. 0 sirs, when we see all sorts and sexes of Christians, divinely to defy and scorn their torments and tormentors, when we see them conquering in the midst of hideous sufferings, when we hear them expressing their greatest joy in the midst of their greatest sufferings, we cannot but conclude that there was something more than ordinary that did thus raise, cheer, and encourage their spirits in their suffer- ings ; and doubtless this was it, ' the recompense of reward ' on the one hand, and the matchless sufferings of Jesus Christ for them on the other hand, Heb. xi. 24-26, and xii, 2. The cordial wherewith Peter is said, by Clemens, to comfort his wife when he saw her led to martyr- dom, was this, * Remember the Lord, whose disciples if we be, we must not think to speed better than our master.'
It is said of Antiochus that, being to flght with Judas, captain of the host of the Jews, he showed unto his elephants the blood of the grapes and mulberries, to provoke them the better to fight, 1 Mac. vi. 3, 4 : so the Holy Ghost hath set before us the wounds, the blood, the sufferings, the dying of our dear Lord Jesus, to encour- age us to suffer, with all readiness and resoluteness, whatsoever cala- mities or miseries may attend us for Christ's sake, or the gospel's sake. Ah, what a shame would it be if we should not be always ready to suffer anything for his sake, who hath suffered so much for our sins as is beyond all conception, all expression ! Never was Jacob more gracious and acceptable to his father Isaac, than when he stood before him clothed in the garments of his rough brother Esau. Then the father, smelling the savour of the elder brother's garments, said, ' Behold, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed,' Gen. xxvii. 27. And never are we more gracious and acceptable to our heavenly Father, than when we stand before him
214 SEVEN INFERENCES FROM THE CONSIDERATION
clothed in the rough garments of Christ's afflictions and sufferings. O Christians, all your sufferings for Christ, they are hut inlets to your glorious reigning with Christ. Justin Martyr saith that when the Komans did immortalise their emperors, as they called it, they brought one to swear that he saw him go to heaven out of the fire ; but we may see, by an eye of faith, the blessed souls of martyrs fly to heaven, like Elias in his fiery chariot, or like the angel that appeared to Ma- noah, in the flames. By the consent of the schoolmen, all martyrs shall appear in the church triumphant, bearing the signs of their Christian wounds about them, as so many speaking testimonies of their holy courage, that what here they endured in the behalf of their Saviour may be there an addition to their glory. But,