3 ^iXeti/ is here used of excessive and preposterous love. He that so loveth his life, that, out of a desire to save it, he denieth me and my gospel : so this Greek word is used, Mat. X. 37.
TO ALL SUFFERING SAINTS. 423
who, by sinful attempts to save his life, shall lose a better life than ever he can save. But,
5. Fifthly, Consider, That of old there had been, a very great will- ingness, readiness, forwardness, and resoluteness in the people of God, cheerfully to suffer for Christ, his truth, his gospel, his worship, his loays, his ordinances, his interest, his honour. Consult the scriptures in the margin, and many others of the like import, which all know- ing Christians can turn to at pleasure.^ To these I shall add a few examples amongst a multitude of those blessed souls, who willingly, readily, cheerfully, resolutely hazarded all for Christ while they were on earth, and are now a-receiving their reward with him in heaven. Oh, how my heart leapeth for joy, said Mr Philpot, the martyr, that I am so near the apprehension of eternal life ! I with my fellows were carried to the coal-house, where we do rouse together in the straw as cheerfully, we thank God, as others do in their beds of down.2 Mr Glover, the martyr, wept for joy of his imprisonment : and Mr Brad- ford put off his cap and thanked the Lord when his keeper s wife brought him word that he was to be burnt the next day: and Mr Taylor fetched a pleasant delightful frisk when he was come near to the place where he was to suffer. Mr Kogers, the first that was burnt in Queen Mary's days, did sing in the flames: Vincentius, laugh- ing at his torments, said that death and tortures were to Christians jocularia et ludicra, matters of sport and pastime ; and he joyed and gloried when he went upon hot burning coals, as if he had trod upon roses. Fire, sword, death, prison, famine, are all pleasures, they are all delightful to me, saith Basil ; and in his oration for Barlaam that famous martyr, saith that he delighted in the close prison as in a pleasant green meadow ; and he took pleasure in the several inven- tions of tortures, as in several sweet flowers. William Tims, martyr, in a letter to a friend of his a little before his death, writeth thus, ' Now I take my leave of you till we meet in heaven, and hie you after. I have tarried a great while for you ; and seeing you are so long in making ready, I will tarry no longer for you ! you shall find me merrily singing. Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Sabbath, at my journey's end,' &c. And when they kindled the fire at the feet of James Bainham, Methinks, said he, you strew roses before me,^ When the prefect urged Basil to comply with the emperor, and threatened him with death if he denied, he gave him this resolute^ and stout answer, ' Thou threatenest me with death,' saith he, ' and I would that it would fall out so well on my side, that I might lay down this carcase of mine in the quarrel of Christ, and in defence of the truth, who is my head and captain :' and when the prefect pressed him to remember himself, and obey the emperor ; he, rejecting all, told him, What I am to-day the same thou shalt find me to-morrow.^
^ Dan. iii. 16, 17; Kom. viii. 36; Ps. xliv. ; Phil. ii. 17; Acts xx. 22-44, and xxi. 13, &c. ; Dan. vi. ; 1 Pet. iv. 16; Acts v. 41, and vii. 55, 56; 2 Cor. i. 3-5.
- Acts and Mon., fol. 867. Modestus, lieutenant to Julian the emperor, told him that when the Christians suffered they did but deride them ; and the torments, said he, with which Christians are tormented are more terrible to the tormentors than they are to the tormented.
* Foxe and Clarke, as before, under the preceding names. — G.
< Socrat. Eccl. Hist., lib. iv. c. 26, Gr.
424 A GENERAL EPISTLE
When Clirysostom was greatly threatened by the cruel empress and others, he made this answer, ' If they keep me poor, I know Christ had not a house to put his head in : if they silence me, and put me out of the synagogue ; so was that poor man that confessed Christ, and the apostles enjoined not to speak in the name of Jesus : if they cast me into prison, so was Jeremiah, St Peter, and St Paul, and many more : if I am forced to flee my country, I have that beloved John, and that Atlas-like Athanasius, for precedents of the like nature : or whatsoever else should be done unto me, I have the holy martyrs for my fellow-sufferers ; and I will never count my life dear unto me, so I may finish my course with joy ; but I will, by God's help be every ready, with all my heart, to suffer anything for the name of Jesus Christ, and for the least jot of his truth/ John ix. 22, 24 ; Acts V. 40, &c., and xii. ; Eph. vi. 20 ; Kev. i.,
Neither were they only a few choice persons who willingly, readily, cheerfully, and resolutely endured martyrdom in Christ's cause ; but such multitudes, year after year, month after month, week after week, and day after day, as that one of the ancients testifi.eth that there was never a day in the year, except the first of January, whereunto the number of five hundred martyrs at least might not be ascribed, i So many, one after another, in one day suffered, as the executioner blunted his sword, and, with the pains he took, fainted. 2 That which many of them endured, though to flesh and blood it seemed intoler- able, yet with much patience, excellent cheerfulness, and divine courage, they endured it. They were not like bears hauled to the stake ; but while persecutors were sitting on their judgment-seats, and condemning some Christians, others leaped in and professed themselves Christians, and suffered the uttermost that could be inflicted, with joyfulness and a kind of pleasantness, singing psalms as long as their breath lasted.^
Bucer, in an epistle to Calvin, tells him that there were some that would willingly redeem to the commonwealth the ancient liberty of worshipping Christ with their very lives. True grace makes a Chris- tian of a very heroic nature. Holy zeal will make a Christian very ready to endure anything, or to suffer anything for Christ, his worship, his ways, his truth.
It is a high vanity for any man to think of getting to heaven with- out suffering. In all the ages of the world the saints have found the way to happiness paved with troubles, and we must not think of finding it strewed with rosebuds.
When Paul and Silas were in prison, their hearts were so full of joy that they could not hold ; but at midnight, when others were sleeping, they must fall a-singing out the praises of the Most High, Acts xvi. 25. They found more pleasure than pain, more joy than sorrow, more comfort than torment in their bonds. 4 The consolations of the Spirit rose so high in their souls that their prison was turned into a palace, yea, into a paradise. Paul was a man that took a great
^ Jerome, ad Heliod. * Euseb. Eccl. Hist., lib. viii. c. 9.