1. Persecution is a fighting against God: so it is called Acts v. 39. And to fight against God, is odious malignity, and desperate folly. 1. It is venomous malignity, for a creature to fight against his Creator, and a sinner against his Redeemer who would save him; and for so blind a worm to rise up against the wisdom of the all-knowing God! and for so vile a sinner to oppose the Fountain of love and goodness! 2. And what folly can be greater, than for a mole to reproach the sun for darkness? or a lump of earth to take up arms against the Almighty, terrible God? Art thou able to make good thy cause against him? or to stand before him when he is offended, and chargeth thee with sin? Hear a Pharisee; "And now I say unto you, refrain from these men, and let them alone; for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought: but if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to fight against God," Acts v. 38, 39. Or hear Christ himself; "I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest; it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks," Acts ix. 4, 5; with bare feet or hands to beat the thorns! How unmeet a match is man for God! He needeth not so much as a word to take away thy soul, and crush thee to the lowest hell. His will alone can lay thee under thy deserved pains. Canst thou conquer the Almighty God? Wilt thou assault the power which was never overcome, or storm Jehovah's throne or kingdom? First try to take down the sun, and moon, and stars from the firmament, and to stop the course of the rivers, or of the sea; and to rebuke the winds, and turn night into day, and winter into summer, and decrepid age into vigorous youth. Attempt not greater matters till thou hast performed these; it is a greater matter than any of these, to conquer God, whose cause thou fightest against. Hear him again; Isa. xlv. 9, "Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou? or thy work, He hath no hands?" And Isaiah xlv. 2. "Who would set the briers and thorns against me in battle? I would go through them, I would burn them together," Isa. xxvii. 4. Woe to the man that is not content to go to fight with men, but chooseth the most dreadful God to be his enemy! It had been better for thee, that all the world had been against thee.
2. Persecution opposeth the gracious design of our Redeemer, and hindereth his gospel, and work of mercy to the world, and endeavoureth the ruin of his kingdom upon earth. Christ came to save men, and persecutors raise up their power against him, as if they envied salvation to the world. And if God have made the work of man's redemption the most wonderful of all his works which ever he revealed to the sons of men, you may easily conceive what thanks he will give them that resist him in so high and glorious a design. If you could pull the stars out of the firmament, or hinder the motions of the heavens, or deny the rain to the thirsty earth, you might look for as good a reward for this, as for opposing the merciful Redeemer of the world, in the blessed work of man's salvation.
3. Persecution is a resisting or fighting against the Holy Ghost. Saith Stephen to the Jews, "Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears; ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye," Acts vii. 51. If you silence the ministers who are the means by which the Spirit worketh, in the illuminating and sanctifying of souls, Acts xxvi. 17, 18; or if you afflict men for those holy duties, which the Spirit of God hath taught them to perform, or would force men from that which the Spirit of Christ is sent to draw them to; this is to raise war against that Spirit, into whose name you were yourselves baptized.