They were endowed with such strength that even cruel and inhuman torture could not extort from them the names of their fellow brethren, so that, filled with divine and brotherly love, they sacrificed their bodies for their fellow believers. The brotherhood in general was thereby so enkindled with zeal and love, that each, despising the earthly and regarding the heavenly, prepared his heart for the sufferings to which his brethren were subjected, and by which he himself was daily threatened. They shunned no danger, in the way of sheltering their fellow believers, visiting them in prison, calling boldly to them in the place of execution, and comforting and strengthening them with words of Scripture. The tyrants found themselves deceived in their design; they thought they could cause these Christians to apostatize; they put them into assurance of their salvation; they supposed they could destroy and extirpate those who opposed them, but, on the contrary, they raised up more opponents; for many of the spectators, at the said spectacle of killing people, who were harmless and of good name and report, yea, who would rather die than do ought by which they supposed to offend God, were thereby brought to reflection, and thus to investigation, and ultimately to conversion.
Besides these noble examples of love, patience and constancy, we find in their writings many devout lessons, edifying teachings and comforting admonitions, written in dark prisons, hurried and negligently indeed, and on account of inconvenience and with poor materials, but sealed with the most glorious mark, their own blood. Then the words have power and weight, when their truth is confirmed and attested by the deed. Seneca, in his epistles, censures philosophising with words, and not with life, as something shameful. Here you find words which devotion has penned, which the pressure of suffering has extorted from the inmost of the heart; words which have not been warped or bent by worldly considerations or carnal passions; but which were sincerely and unfeignedly spoken to their friends, at the end of life, as a last will, and confirmed with death. Husbands in tribulation consoled their wives, admonished them to godliness, and incited them to steadfastness. Parents gave useful instructions to their children, presented to them the changeableness, vanity and perishableness of visible things; they taught, counseled and commanded them to forsake the world and the lusts thereof, and to cleave to and alone serve God, the supreme and only good. You perceive here how they were sometimes assaulted with many temptations and enticements, not only of wicked men, but of the devil; how the enemy of souls, bringing them upon the pinnacle of the temple, as it were, showed them the splendor and glory of this world, in order to entice them to worship this; Matt. 4:5,8. How he sometimes, with the terror of impending suffering, assailed the soul with fearfulness, and how, by false imaginations, he endeavored to bring the minds to apostasy, despondency and despair; which these pious heroes, arming themselves with watching and constant prayer to God, valiantly overcame, fighting manfully through all temptations, promises and threats, even unto death, and gaining the victory.
Now, even as the reading of, and meditating upon, the pious fathers, is very profitable in every case, so these persons stand as instructive and consoling examples, for all who are visited with crosses and temptations. Here manifest themselves shining beacons of living faith, of sure hope, and ardent love. Here is seen the positiveness of God’s promises, in fearless and joyful hearts, in the midst of suffering. Matt. 10:19. Here is the steadfastness of the saints, whom Christ crowns with salvation. Matt. 24:13. It is true, by the worldly-minded they are accounted as filth and offscouring (1 Cor. 4:13), and their actions stigmatized as sheer folly and madness; but they comfort themselves in God, and rely on his promises. They have learned that the cross must thus be taken up, if one would be worthy of Christ. Matt. 10:38. They know that they are strangers and pilgrims in this world, 1 Pet. 2:11, and remember the words of their Master, who says: “If ye were of the world, the world would love his own; but because ye are not of the world, therefore the world hateth you.” John 15:19. They are confident that if they lose their life here, they shall find it again hereafter. Matt. 10:39. They believe that we must confess the name of Christ, if we would have him confess us before his heavenly Father. Matt. 10:32. They know that their Lord and Master suffered himself, leaving us an example that we should follow his steps; who was thus minded, that when he was reviled, he reviled not again, and when he suffered, threatened not, but prayed for his enemies. 1 Peter 2:21,23. They hold that if they would reign with Christ, they must here suffer with him. 2 Tim. 2:12. They are mindful of the words of Christ, that the servant is not greater than his master, Matt. 10:24, and that therefore, as Christ suffered, they must arm themselves with the same mind. 1 Peter 4:1. They know themselves to be defenseless sheep, a prey to the devouring wolves. But they do not fear them, who can kill only the body, but him who holds body and soul in his hand. Matt. 10:28. They learned long ago that all that will live godly shall suffer persecution. 2 Tim. 3:12. Christ foretold them that they should be hated of all men for his name’s sake, yea, should be delivered into tribulation, and be killed; and what is still more, that those killing them should think that they do God service. Hence, they think it not strange when they are tried by suffering; but rejoice that they are partakers of the sufferings of Christ, knowing that, when his glory shall be revealed, they shall also rejoice with him. 1 Peter 4:12,13. They glory in tribulation (Rom. 5:3), believing that thereby their faith is tried and refined. 1 Pet. 1:7. They experience that patient suffering begets a glad and constant hope, and that the cross, which to those who perish, is foolishness, is to them the power of God unto salvation (1 Cor. 1:18), and esteem it as the grace of God, when for conscience they suffer wrongfully. 1 Pet. 2:19. And though they be troubled, persecuted and cast down here, yet they are not in despair, forsaken, or destroyed; but with holy Paul, they always bear about in their bodies, the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of the Lord Jesus might be made manifest in their bodies. 2 Cor. 4:8–11. They feel in the abounding of the sufferings of Christ, an abounding consolation through Christ. 2 Cor. 1:5. They believe that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the future glory. Rom. 8:18. Hence they arm themselves for tribulation and suffering, as true heroes of their captain, Jesus Christ. They have before them a great brotherhood, who finished their course in this way. Cain could not bear his brother’s piety and favor with God, and slew him. Gen. 4:8. Violence and oppression ruled the first world. Gen. 6:13. Pious Lot had to be the sport and lust of the Sodomites. Gen. 19. David had to flee before Saul. The prophet Isaiah lamented already in his time that he who departed from evil had to be everyone’s prey and derision. Many holy prophets and men of God had to endure persecution and martyrdom from the wicked, as holy Zacharias, Amos, Micah, Jeremiah, Daniel, and the three young men, Eleazar, the mother with her seven sons, and others, who need not be mentioned, since the time and age of the New Testament, furnish abundant material in this respect. John, the forerunner of Jesus, had to offer his neck to the sword, in prison. Matt. 14:10. Our captain of the faith, Jesus Christ, had to enter into his glory through much derision, ignominy and suffering, and ultimately through the most shameful death of the cross. His apostles and disciples, as the chronicles state, followed their Master. Peter and Paul were put to death by Emperor Nero. James, the brother of John, was killed with the sword by Herod. Acts 12:2. Matthew was nailed to the earth, in India. Bartholomew was flayed. Andrew was crucified. Thomas was thrust through with darts. Philip was nailed to a cross, and then stoned to death. Simon Zelotes was scourged and crucified. James, the son of Alpheus, was cast down from the temple, at Jerusalem, and then beaten to death with sticks. Judas Thaddeus was killed, in Persia, by wicked heathen priests. Matthias also obtained the martyr’s crown. Mark, the evangelist, was dragged about by a cord around his neck, at Alexandria, till he died. John, the apostle, banished in the island of Patmos, adorned the Gospel with suffering [as is circumstantially recorded in the first book, first century, in the account of the martyrs]. This was the way of the holy prophets. This is the path which our Savior and his messengers, and afterwards many disciples, trod. Polycarp, the disciple of John, was burnt alive at Smyrna. Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, was torn by wild beasts [as is stated in the second century]. Even the Roman bishops, in the first three hundred years, were mostly all martyred, and subjected, with the common Christians, to persecution by the heathen Emperors [these, however, we commit to God]. Under the Emperor Diocletian, there was such an awful persecution that it seemed as though the Christian name would be utterly extirpated; so that the first churches at the time of Emperor Constantine were so accustomed to persecution, that they deliberately prepared themselves for suffering.