[4.] It is to comfort and encourage the people of God to patience and constancy in all their sufferings for Christ, seeing that it is the devil that is their grand enemy, and that makes, in his instruments, the highest opposition against them. A gracious man in the midst of all oppositions, as Chrysostom said of Peter, is as a man made all of fire walking in stubble, he overcomes and consumes all oppositions ; all difiiculties are but whet-stones to his fortitude. When Christians meet with great opposers and great oppositions, they should say as that noble soldier, Pt\3darelus, in Erasmus, did to him that told him of a numerous and mighty army which was coming against him, Tanio plus glorice rcfercmus quoniam eo plurcs superahimus : The number of opposers makes the Christian's conquest the more illustrious. It is very observable, that in Dioclesian's time, under whom was the last and worst of the ten persecutions, when Christian religion was more desperately opposed than ever, yet then it prospered and prevailed more than ever [Ruffinus.] So that Dioclesian liimself observing that the more he sought to blot out the name of Christ, the more legible it became, and the more he laboured to block up the way of Christ, the more passable it became. ^ And whatever of Christ he thought to root out, it rooted the deeper and rose the higher : thereupon he re-
' Query, ' proscribings ' ? — Ed.
' As tliey said once of the Grecians in the epigram, whom they thought invulnerable, We shoot at them, but they fail not clown, we wound them, but do not kill them. [As before. —G.J Sec Exod. i. 10-13, and Acts viii. and xiv.
ISA. XLII. 24, 25.] THE LATE FIERY DISPENSATION. 229
solved to engage no further, but retired to a private life. All the oppositions that the devil and his instruments hath raised against the saints in all the ages of the world, hath not diminished, but increased their number. For the first three hundred years after Christ there was a most terrible persecution. Historians tell us that by seven and twenty several sorts of deaths they tormented the poor people of God. In these hot times of persecution many millions of Christians were destroyed. And yet this^was so far from diminishing of their num- ber, that it increased their number ; for the more they were oppressed and persecuted, the more they were increased. And therefore some have well observed, that though Julian used all means imaginable to suppress them, yet he could never do it. He shut up all their schools, that they might not have learning, and yet never did learning more flourish than then. He devised all manner of cruel torments to terrify the Christians, and to draw them from their holy faith ; and yet he saw that they increased and multiplied so fast, that he thought it his best course at last to give over his persecuting of the saints, not out of love, but out of envy, because that through his persecution they increased. This was represented unto Daniel in a vision, Dan. ii. 34, 35. The kingdom of Christ is set forth there by a little stone cut out of the mountain without hands, without art or industry, with- out engines and human helps. The stone was a growing stone, and although in all the ages of the world there have been many hammers at work to break this stone in pieces, yet they have not nor shall not prevail ; but the little stone shall grow more and more, till it becomes a great mountain, and fills the whole earth.
And let this suffice for answer to the first objection.
Ohj. 2. I would justify the Lord, I would say he is righteous, though my house be burnt up : but I have lost my goods, I have lost my estate, yea, I have lost my all as to this world ; and how then can I say the Lord is righteous ? how can I justify that God which has even stripped me as naked as the day wherein I was born ? &c.
[1.] First, Didst thou gain thy estate hy just or imjust luays and means ? If by unjust ways and means, then be silent before the Lord. If by just ways and means, then know that the Loi'd will lay in that of himself, and of his Son, and of his Spirit, and of his grace, and of heaven's glory, that shall make up all thy losses to thee. But,
[2.] Secondly, Did you improve your estates for the glory of God, and the good of others, or did you not ? If not, why do you com- plain ? If you did, the reward that shall attend you at the long run, may very well bear up your spirits under all your losses. Consult these scriptures : 1 Cor, i, 15 ; 2 Cor. ix, 6 ; Eccles. xi. 1 ; Gal. vi. 7, 8; Isa, xxxii. 20, and Iv, 10; Prov, xi. 18; Rev. xxii, 12. But,
[3.] Thirdly, What trade did you drive Christ-ivards, and heaven- wards, and holiness-wards f^ If you did drive either no trade heaven- wards, or but a slender or inconstant trade heaven-wards, and holiness- wards, never wonder that God by a fiery dispensation has spoiled your
^ The stars which have least circuit are nearest the pole, and men that are least per- plexed with business are commonly nearest to God.
230 London's lamentations on [Isa. XLII. 24, 25,