2. Another was to put none to death for religion, but to oppress them with all manner of vexations and discouragements. To put them to death he apprehended to be glorious ; but sometimes banished them towns. As Athanasius i deprived them of all offices civil and military, wasted them with burdensome levies and exactions : Let us make them poor, saith he scoffingly, for it is a hard matter for the rich to enter into the kingdom of heaven.
The devil doth his work more cleverly and handsomely when Chris- tians are not called out to the fire and gibbet, but are wasted by linger- ing inconveniences and loss of privileges.
^ Qu. ' Antoninus ' ? — Ed.
Vkr. 85.] SERMOKS uroN rsALM cxix. 385
Thirdly, Plots to introduce persecution.
1. Defamation. Infamy is the forerunner of more trouble, and the f^^ lowers of slander are but presages of grievous storms of persecution. The devil is first a liar and then a murderer, John viii. 44. When the children of God are represented as criminal, they are more easily destroyed. It was a fashion in the primitive persecutions to invest Cliristians with a bear's skin, and then to bait them as bears. And it is a usual practice of Satan and his instruments to blast the repute of religious persons, to clothe them with the livery of reproach, and then prosecute them as offenders : Ps. v. 9, ' Their throat is an open sepul- chre.' The slanders of the wicked are preparatives to death, as the sepulchre when opened is prepared to receive the dead carcase. Men first slander and then molest. The devil is afraid to meddle with unstained innocency. A good report is a great security against open violence.
2. To destroy the church, under the pretence of the church ; as the beast in the Pievelations pushed with the horns of the lamb, Eev. xiii. 11. It was a proverb, AH evil began in the name of the Lord — In nomine Domini incipit omne malum. And it hath been a false pre- tended zeal for the church that hath of later years raised and fomented all or most of the persecutions of Christians.
3. To destroy Christians upon the pretence of civil quarrels and laws, and to disguise hatred against religion under a pretence of jxiblic j)eace ; kill you, as well as cast you out of the synagogue. Dan. vi. 4, the Persian noblemen ' sought to find occasion against Daniel because of the kingdom, though they found none.'
4. To make way for errors and falsehoods ; so many pits do the wicked dig to beguile unwary and unstable souls, sometimes by more than ordinary pretences of love, meekness, and sweetness. * They come to you in sheep's clothing,' saith our Lord, ' but inwardly are ravening wolves,' Mat. vii. 15. Sheep's clothing, that is, all for love and kind- ness, and so steal away the hearts of the people, as Absalom by his sub- mission and servile flattery. And then by debasing, opposing, and cry- ing down a faithful ministry. Demosthenes' fable of the wolves agree- ing with the sheep in lusu l would send away their dogs. Now thus they do by questioning their calling, as the false teachers did Paul's ; and we have been so long unministering one another, that all ministry is hated in the hearts of many an anti-ministerial spirit. Sometimes by decrying maintenance. The lamp is starved when not supplied with oil. Some, to gain credit and entrance, and to disgrace Paul and the true evangelic ministers, whose poverty needed a supply, will take no main- tenance ; therefore Paul saith, 2 Cor. xi, 12, ' That wherein they glory we might be as they ;' but there is no end of raking in this puddle.
Secondly, Private persons. Cain against Abel, drew him into the field, disputed with him about God and providence and the world to come, Gen. iv. The princes of Darius against Daniel, Dan. vi. The kingdom was but newly subdued by the Medes : this would try the aftection of his subjects ; no request to be made to God or man for thirty days. The Medes and Persians were wont to ascribe divine honours to their kings, as Brissonius proveth. The report of this reverence would
^ Qu. 'in case they ' ? — Ed. VOL. YII. 2 B
386 SERMONS UPON PSALM cxix. [SSer. XCII.
be glorious. Religion was at stake ; tlierefore Daniel would venture the lions' den. Judas's treason against Christ : Luke xxii, 3, ' The devil entered into Judas/ The Jews' laying in wait for Paul : Acts xxiii, 12-14, ' Certain Jews banded together, and bound them- selves under a curse, or oath of execration, that they would not eat or drink till they had killed Paul : and they were more than forty that had made this conspiracy.' And this they would do with the consent of the chief priests, as he was coming to the Sanhedrim. A parallel in the fifth of November. So Jezebel's plot against Naboth for his vine- yard ; makes use of God's name and worship to bring it about, 1 Kings xxi. 8-10. But I must stop^ being carried beyond my first inten- tion : plotted mischiefs are an ancient practice.
. Use of all. How much are we obliged to God's providence, who doth not only defend us against open violence, but secret machinations ! It is the Lord taketli the wise in their own craftiness, and disappointeth the counsels of wicked men against his people, Job v. 12. INIany things are contrived against us in the dark that we know not and see not, but the eye of the Lord watcheth for us : Isa. viii. 10, ' Take counsel to- gether, and it shall come to nought : speak the word, and it shall not stand, for God is with us.'