_First_, This appears from the whole tenor of our LORD’s doctrine. We will begin with his divine sermon on the mount. “Blessed are they who are persecuted for righteousness sake; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” So that, if our LORD spoke truth, we are not so blessed as to have an interest in the kingdom of heaven, unless we are or have been persecuted for righteousness sake. Nay, our LORD (it is remarkable) employs three verses in this beatitude, and only one in each of the others; not only to shew that it was a thing which men (as men) are unwilling to believe, but also the necessary consequence of it upon our being christians. This is likewise evident from all those passages, wherein our LORD informs us, that he came upon the earth, “not to send peace, but a sword;” and that the father-in-law should be against the mother-in-law, and a man’s foes should be those of his own houshold. Passages, which though confined by false prophets to the first, I am persuaded will be verified by the experience of all true christians in this, and every age of the church. It would be endless to recount all the places, wherein our LORD forewarns his disciples, that they should be called before rulers, and thrust out of synagogues, nay, that the time would come, wherein men should think they did GOD service to kill them. For this reason he so frequently declared, that “unless a man forsake all that he had, and even hated life itself, he could not be his disciple.” And therefore it is worthy our observation, that in the remarkable passage, wherein our LORD makes such an extensive promise to those who left all for him, he cautiously inserts persecution. “And JESUS answered and said, Verily I say unto you, there is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake and the gospel’s, but he shall receive an hundred-fold now in this time; houses and brethren, and sisters and mothers, and children and lands, with persecutions; (the word is in the plural number, including all kinds of persecution) and in the world to come eternal life.” He that hath ears to hear, let him hear what CHRIST says in all these passages, and then confess, that all who will live godly in CHRIST JESUS shall suffer persecution.
As this is proved from our LORD’s doctrine, so it is no less evident from his life. Follow him from the manger to the cross, and see whether any persecution was like that which the Son of GOD, the LORD of glory, underwent whilst here on earth. How was he hated by wicked men? How often would that hatred have excited them to lay hold of him, had it not been for fear of the people? How was he reviled, counted and called a Blasphemer, a Wine-bibber, a Samaritan, nay, a Devil, and, in one word, had all manner of evil spoken against him falsely? What contradiction of sinners did he endure against himself? How did men separate from his company, and were ashamed to walk with him openly? insomuch that he once said to his own disciples, “Will you also go away?” Again, How was he stoned, thrust out of the synagogues, arraigned as a deceiver of the people, a seditious and pestilent fellow, an enemy to _Cæsar_, and as such scourged, blind-folded, spit upon, and at length condemned, and nailed to an accursed tree? Thus was the Master persecuted, thus did the LORD suffer; and the servant is not above his Master, nor the disciple above his Lord: “If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you,” says the blessed JESUS. And again, “Every man that is perfect (a true christian) must be as his Master,” or suffer as he did. For in all these things our LORD has set us an example, that we should follow his steps: and therefore, far be it that any, who live godly in CHRIST JESUS, should henceforward expect to escape suffering persecution.
But farther: not only our LORD’s example, but the example of all the saints that ever lived, evidently demonstrates the truth of the apostle’s assertion in the text. How soon was _Abel_ made a martyr for his religion? How was _Isaac_ mocked by the son of the bond-woman? And what a large catalogue of suffering Old Testament saints, have we recorded in the xith chapter of the _Hebrews_! Read the _Acts_ of the Apostles, and see how the first christians were threatened, stoned, imprisoned, scourged, and persecuted even unto death. Examine Church History in after-ages, and you will find the murder of the innocents by _Herod_, was but an earnest of the innocent blood which should be shed for the sake of JESUS. Examine the experience of saints now living on earth; and, if it were possible to consult the spirits of just men made perfect, I am persuaded each would concur with the apostle in asserting, that “all who will live godly in CHRIST JESUS, shall suffer persecution.”