1. For consulting against them to their ruin. We have instances of a council gathered against Christ : John xi. 47, ' Then gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees a council, and said, What do we ? for this man doth many miracles.' They meet together, and plot the ruin of Christ and his kingdom ; and they were those that were of chief authority in the place. Another instance : Acts iv. 27, 28, ' For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together, for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.' There is their agreement to put Christ to death. In the Old Testament, Pharaoh and his nobles : Exod. i. 10, ' Come on, Kctraa-ocjii^co/jLeda, let us deal wisely with them, lest they multiply, and it come to pass, that when there falleth out any war, they join also unto our enemies, and fight against us, and so get them up out of the land.' And against Daniel the princes of the Persian empire consult how to entrap him in the matter of his God, Dan. vi. 4-6, &c.
2. For abusing the throne of judgment and civil courts of judi- cature, to the molestation of the saints. I shall cite but two places : Ps. xciv. 20, ' Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee, which f ramcth mischief by a law ? ' It is no strange, but yet no small temptation, that the oppression of God's people is marked with a pre- tence and colour of law and public authority, and the mischief should proceed from thence where it should be remedied, namely, from the seat of justice. So, Mat. x. 17, 18, Christ foretelleth they shall have enemies armed with power and public authority : ' Beware of men, for they will deliver you to the councils, and they shall scourge you in their synagogues, and ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake.' Not only subordinate, but supreme governors may be drawn to condemn and oppress the godly. In so plain a case more instances need not.
Reasons of it, on God's part, and on the part of the persecutors.
21 G SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SePv. XXIV,
First, On God's part, he permittetli it —
1. To show that he can carry on his work though authority be against him, and that his people do not subsist by outward force, but the goodness of his providence, and so hath the sole glory of their pre- servation. When the Christian religion came first abroad in the world, 'not many noble nor many mighty were called;' the powers of the world were against it, and yet it held up the head, and was dispersed far and near. Falsehoods need some outward interest to back them, and the supports of a secular arm ; but God's interest doth many times stand alone, though God doth now and then make 'kings nursing- fathers, and queens nursing-mothers,' according to his promise, Isa. xlix. 23. Oftentimes the church is destitute of all worldly props : Micah V. 7, ' And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people as a dew from the Lord, as the showers upon the grass, that tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for the sons of men.' Yea, the power of the world is against it, and yet it subsists. Thus it was in the primitive times ; there were only a handful of contemptible people that professed the gospel ; yet it got ground daily, not by force of arms or the power of the long sword, but by God's secret blessing. Ambrose giveth the reason why God suffered it to be so, Ne videretur audori- tate traxisse aliqicos, et veritatis ratio non ponipce gratia prcevaleret — lest this new religion should seem to be planted with power rather than by its own evidence, and the authority of men should sway more with the world than the truth of God. There is a wonderful increase with- out any human concurrence, as the Lord saith, ' The remnant of his people shall be as a dew from the Lord, that tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for the sons of men,' without man's consent or concurrence. So that God alone hath the glory of their preservation.
2. That the patience of his people may be put to the utmost pro- bation. When they are exercised with all kinds of trials, not only the hatred of the vulgar, but the opposition of the magistrate, carried on under a form of legal procedure. In the primitive times, sometimes the Christians were exposed to the hatred and fury of the people, lapidihus nos invadit inimicum vulgus ; at other times exposed to the injuries of laws, and persecutions carried on by authority against them. There was an uproar at Ephesus against the Christians, Acts xix., and there seemed to be a formal process at Jerusalem, Acts iv. This latter temptation seemeth to be the more sore and grievous, because God's ordinance, which is magistracy, is wrested to give countenance to malicious designs, and because it cuts off all means of human help, and so ' patience hath ep'yov reXeiov, its perfect work,' James i. 4. There is some glory in suffering the rage and evil word of the vulgar, for they are supposed not to make the wisest choice ; but when men of wisdom and power, and such as are clothed with the majesty of God's ordinance, are set against us, then is patience put to the utmost proof, and whether we regard God or man most, and who is the object of our fear, those that have power of life and death temporal, or him that hath power of life and death eternal.