A Christian Directory, Part 4: Christian Politics

2. Persecution is either done in ignorance or knowledge. The commonest persecution is that which is done in ignorance and error; when men think a good cause to be bad, or a bad cause to be good, and so persecute truth while they take it to be falsehood, or good while they take it to be evil, or obtrude by violence their errors for truths, and their evils as good and necessary things. Thus Peter testifieth of the Jews, who killed the Prince of life; Acts iii. 13, 14, 17, "I know that through ignorance you did it, as did also your rulers." And Paul; 1 Cor. ii. 8, "Which none of the princes of this world knew; for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory." And Christ himself saith, John xvi. 3, "These things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me." And Paul saith of himself, Acts xxvi. 9, "I thought verily with myself, that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth, which thing I also did," &c. And, 1 Tim. i. 13, "that it was ignorantly in unbelief, that he was a blasphemer, a persecutor, and injurious." And on the other side, some persecute truth and goodness while they know it to be so. Not because it is truth or goodness, but because it is against their carnal, worldly interest and inclination. As the conscience of a worldling, a drunkard, a whoremonger, beareth witness against his sin while he goeth on in it; so ofttimes doth the conscience of the persecutor; and he hath secret convictions, that those whom he persecuteth are better and happier than himself.

3. As to the cause, sometimes persecution is for Christianity and godliness in the gross, or for some great essential point; and sometimes it is only for some particular truth or duty, and that perhaps of a lower nature, so small or so dark, that it is become a great controversy, whether it be truth or error, duty or sin. In some respects it is more comfortable to the persecuted, and more heinous in the persecutor, that the suffering be for the greatest things. For this leaveth no doubt in the mind, whether our cause be good or not; and this showeth that the persecutor's mind is most alien from God and truth; but in some other respect, it is an aggravation of the sin of the persecutor, and of the comfort of the persecuted, when it is for smaller truths and duties. For it is a sign of great uncharitableness and cruelty, when men can find in their hearts to persecute others for little things; and it is a sign of a heart that is true to God, and very sincere, when we will rather suffer any thing from man, than renounce the smallest truth of God, or commit the smallest sin against him, or omit the smallest duty, when it is a duty.

4. Sometimes persecution is directly for religion; that is, for matters of professed faith or worship: and sometimes it is for a civil or a common cause; yet still it is for our obedience to God, (or else it is not the persecution which we speak of,) though the matter of it be some common or civil thing: as if I were persecuted merely for giving to the poor, or helping the sick, or for being loyal to my prince, and to the laws, or for doing my duty to my parents, or because I will not bear false witness, or tell a lie, or subscribe a falsehood, or any such like; this is truly persecution, whatever the matter of it be, as long as it is truly for obeying God that we undergo the suffering.

I omit many other less considerable distributions: and also those afflictions which are but improperly called persecutions (as when a man is punished for a fault in a greater measure than it deserveth. This is injustice but not persecution, unless it be his religion and obedience to God, which is the secret cause of it).

Direct. II. Understand well the greatness of the sin of persecution, that you may be kept in a due fear of being tempted to it. Here therefore I shall show you how great a sin it is.

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.

4. Persecution endeavoureth the damnation of men's souls, either by depriving them of the preaching of the gospel which should save them, or by forcing them upon that sin for which God will condemn them. Yea, the banishing or silencing of one faithful preacher, may conduce to the damnation of many hundreds! If it be said, that others who are set up in their stead may save men's souls as well as they, I answer, 1. God seldom, if ever, did qualify supernumeraries for the work of the ministry! Many a nation hath had too few, but I never read of any nation that had too many, who were well qualified for that great and difficult work, no, not from the days of Christ till now! So that if they are all fit men, there are none of them to be spared; but all are too few, if they conjoin their greatest skill and diligence. Christ biddeth us pray the Lord of the harvest, to send forth more labourers into his harvest; but never biddeth us pray to send out fewer, or to call any in that were but tolerably fitted for the work. 2. Many persecutors banish all preachers of the gospel, and set up no other to do the service which they were called to. And it is rarely seen, that any who can find in their hearts to cast out any faithful ministers of Christ, have hearts to set up better, or any that are competent, in their stead; but it is ordinarily seen, that when the judgment is so far depraved, as to approve of the casting out of worthy men; it is also so far depraved as to think an ignorant, unskilful, heartless, or scandalous sort of ministers, to be as fit to save men's souls as they. And how many poor congregations in the eastern and western churches (nay, how many thousands) have ignorant, ungodly, sensual pastors, who are such unsavoury salt, as to be unfit for the land, or for the dunghill! whilst men are extinguishing the clearest lights, or thrusting them into obscurity, Matt. v. 13-15; Luke xiv. 35. 3. And there may be something of suitableness between a pastor and the flock, which may give him advantage to be more profitable to their souls, than another man of equal parts. 4. And, though God can work by the weakest means, yet ordinarily we see that his work upon men's souls is so far moral, as that he usually prospereth men according to the fitness of their labours to the work! And some men have far more success than others. He that should expel a dozen or twenty of the ablest physicians out of London, and say, There are enough left in their steads, who may save men's lives as well as they, might, notwithstanding that assertion, be found guilty of the blood of no small numbers. And as men have sometimes an aversion to one sort of food, (as good as any to another man,) and as this distemper is not laudable; and yet he that would force them to eat nothing else but that which they so abhor, were liker to kill them than to cure them; so is it with the souls of many. And there are few who have any spiritual discerning and relish, but have some special sense of what is helpful or hurtful to their souls, in sermons, books, and conference, which a stander-by is not so fit to judge of as themselves. So that it is clear, that persecution driveth men towards their damnation! And, oh how sad a case it is, to have the damnation of one soul to answer for! (Which is worse than the murdering of many bodies.) Much more to be guilty of the perdition of a multitude!

5. Persecution is injustice, and oppression of the innocent! And what a multitude of terrible threatenings against this sin, are found throughout the holy Scriptures! Doth a man deserve to be cruelly used, for being faithful to his God, and for preferring him before man? and for being afraid to sin against him? or for doing that which God commandeth him, and that upon pain of greater sufferings than man can inflict upon him? Is it not his Saviour that hath said, "Fear not them that can kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do; but fear him who after he hath killed, hath power to cast into hell: yea, I say unto you, fear him." Though christianity was once called, "A sect which every where was spoken against," Acts xxviii. 22; and Paul was accused as a pestilent fellow, and a mover of sedition among the people, Acts xxiv. 5; and Christ was crucified as a usurper of the crown; yet innocency shall be innocency still, in spite of malice and lying accusations; because God will be the final Judge, and will bring all secret things to light, and will justify those whom injustice hath condemned, and will not call them as slandering tongues have called them. Yea, the consciences of the persecutors are often forced to say, as they did of Daniel, Dan. vi. 5, "We shall not find any occasion against this Daniel, except we find it against him concerning the law of his God." And therefore the net which they were fain to lay for him, was a law against his religion, or prayers to God; for a law against treason, sedition, swearing, drunkenness, fornication, &c. would have done them no service! And yet they would fain have aspersed him there, ver. 4. Jer. xxii. 13, "Woe to him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness!" &c. Isa. xxxiii. 1, "Woe to thee that spoilest, and thou wast not spoiled!" Isa. v. 20, "Woe to them that call evil good, and good evil!" Jer. ii. 34, "In thy skirts is found the blood of the souls of the poor innocents." Prov. vi. 16, 17, "Hands that shed innocent blood, the Lord doth hate," &c.

6. Persecution maketh men likest unto devils, and maketh them his most notable servants in the world.125 Many wicked men may neglect that duty which they are convinced they should do. But to hate it, and malice men that do it, and seek their ruin; this, if any thing, is work more beseeming a devil than a man. These are the commanders in the armies of the devil, against the cause and kingdom of the Lord! John viii. 42, 44. And accordingly shall they speed.

7. Persecution is an inhuman, disingenuous sin, and showeth an extinction of the light of nature. A good-natured man, if he had no grace at all, would abhor to be cruel, and to oppress his brethren; and that merely because they are true to their consciences, and obey their God, while they do no hurt to any others. If they had deserved execution, an ingenuous nature would not be forward to be their executioner; much more when they deserve encouragement and imitation: it is no honour to be numbered with bloodthirsty men.

8. It is a sin that hath so little of commodity, honour, or pleasure to invite men to it, that maketh it utterly without excuse, and showeth, that the serpentine nature is the cause, Gen. iii. 15. What get men by shedding the blood of innocents, or silencing the faithful preachers of the gospel? What sweetness could they find in cruelty, if a malicious nature made it not sweet?

9. It is a sin which men have as terrible warnings against from God, as any sin in the world, that I can remember. 1. In God's threatenings. 2. In sad examples, and judgments in this life, even on posterity. 3. And in the infamy that followeth the names of persecutors, when they are dead.

1. How terrible are those words of Christ, Matt. xviii. 6, "But whoso shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea." How terrible is that character which Paul giveth of the Jews; 1 Thess. ii. 15, 16, "Who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us: and they please not God, and are contrary to all men; forbidding us to speak to the gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their sins alway; for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost." Such terrors against persecutors are so common through the Scriptures, that it would be tedious to recite them.

2. And for examples, the captivity first, and afterwards the casting off of the Jews, may serve instead of many. 2 Chron. xxxvi. 16, "But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, till there was no remedy." And of the casting off, see Matt. xxiii. 37, 38, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how oft would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate-." And ver. 34-36, "Behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes; and some of them ye shall kill and crucify, and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come on this generation." To give you the particular examples of God's judgments against persecutors, and their posterity after them, would be a voluminous work; you may find them in the holy Scriptures, and the church's Martyrologies.

3. And by a marvellous providence, God doth so overrule the tongue of fame, and the pens of historians, and the thoughts of men, that commonly the names of persecutors stink when they are dead; yea, though they were never so much honoured and flattered while they were alive! What odious names are the names of Pharaoh, Ahab, Pilate, Herod, Nero, Domitian, Dioclesian, &c.! What a name hath the French massacre left on Charles the Ninth! and the English persecution on Queen Mary! And so of others throughout the world. Yea, what a blot leaveth it on Asa, Amaziah, or any that do but hurt a prophet of the Lord! The eleventh chapter of the Hebrews, and all the Martyrologies that are written to preserve the name of the witnesses of Christ, are all the records of the impiety and the perpetual shame of those by whom they suffered. Even learning, and wisdom, and common virtue, have got that estimation in the nature of man, that he that persecuteth but a Seneca, a Cicero, a Demosthenes, or a Socrates, hath irrecoverably wounded his reputation to posterity, and left his name to the hatred of all succeeding ages. Prov. x. 7, "The memory of the just is blessed, but the name of the wicked shall rot."

4. The persecution of godliness as such in ministers or private christians, is one of the most visible undoubted marks of one that is yet unsanctified, and in a state of sin and condemnation; for it showeth most clearly the predominancy of the serpentine nature in the persecutor. Though Asa in a peevish fit may imprison the prophet, and those christians that are engaged in a sect or party, may in a sinful zeal be injurious to those of the contrary party; and yet there may remain some roots of uprightness within; yet he that shall set himself to hinder the gospel, and the serious practice of godliness in the world, and to that end hinder or persecute the preachers, and professors, and practisers of it, hath the plainest mark of a child of the devil, and the most visible brand of the wrath of God upon his soul, of any sort of men on earth. If there might be any hope of grace in him, that at present doth but neglect or disobey the gospel, and doth not himself live a godly life, (as indeed there is not,) yet there can be no possibility that he should have grace at that present, who hateth and opposeth it; and that he should be justified by the gospel who persecuteth it; and that he should be a godly man, who setteth himself against the godly, and seeketh to destroy them.

10. And it is a far more heinous sin in a professed christian, than in an infidel or heathen. For these do according to the darkness of their education, and the interest of their party, and the principles of their own profession. But for a professed christian to persecute christianity, and one that professeth to believe the gospel, to persecute the preachers and serious practisers of the doctrine of the gospel; this is so near that sin which is commonly said to be the unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost, that it is not easy to perceive a difference; and if I did consent to that description of the unpardonable sin, I should have little hope of the conversion of any one of these. But, however, they make up such a mixture of hypocrisy, and impiety, and cruelty, as showeth them to exceed all ordinary sinners, in malignity and misery. They are a self-condemned sort of men; out of their own mouths will God condemn them. They profess themselves to believe in God, and yet they persecute those that serve him: they dare not speak against the preaching and practising of the doctrine of godliness, directly, and in plain expressions; and yet they persecute them, and cannot endure them! They fight against the interest and law of God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, when they have in baptism vowed themselves unto his service. Of all men on earth, these men will have least to say for their sin, or against their condemnation.

11. Lastly, Remember that Christ taketh all that is done by persecutors against his servants for his cause, to be done as to himself, and will accordingly in judgment charge it on them. So speaketh he to Saul, Acts ix. 5, 6, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? – I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest." And Matt. xxv. 41-46, even to them that did not feed, and clothe, and visit, and relieve them, he saith, "Verily, I say unto you, inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me." What then will he say to them that impoverished and imprisoned them? Remember, that it is Christ reputatively, whom thou dost hate, deride, and persecute.

Direct. III. If you would escape the guilt of persecution, the cause and interest of Christ in the world must be truly understood. He that knoweth not that holiness is Christ's end, and Scripture is his word and law, and that the preachers of the gospel are his messengers, and that preaching is his appointed means, and that sanctified believers are his members, and the whole number of them are his mystical body; and all that profess to be such, are his visible body, or kingdom in the world; and that sin is the thing which he came to destroy, and the devil, the world, and the flesh, are the enemies which he causeth us to conquer; I say, he that knoweth not this, doth not know what christianity or godliness is, and therefore may easily persecute it in his ignorance. If you know not, or believe not, that serious godliness in heart and life, and serious preaching and discipline to promote it, are Christ's great cause and interest in the world, you may fight against him in the dark, whilst ignorantly you call yourselves his followers. If the devil can but make you think that ignorance is as good as knowledge, and pharisaical formality, and hypocritical shows, are as good as spiritual worship, and rational service of God; and that seeming and lip-service is as good as seriousness in religion; and that the strict and serious obeying of God, and living as we profess, according to the principles of our religion, is but hypocrisy, pride, or faction (that is, that all are hypocrites who will not be hypocrites, but seriously religious): I say, if Satan can bring you once to such erroneous, malignant thoughts as these, no wonder if he make you persecutors. O value the great blessing of a sound understanding! for if error blind you, (either impious error, or factious error,) there is no wickedness so great, but you may promote it, and nothing so good and holy, but you may persecute it, and think all the while that you are doing well. John xvi. 2, "They shall put you out of the synagogues; yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you, will think that he doth God service." What prophet so great, or saint so holy, that did not suffer by such hands? Yea, Christ himself was persecuted as a sinner, that never sinned.

Direct. IV. And (if you would escape the guilt of persecution) the cause and interest of Christ must be highest in your esteem, and preferred before all worldly, carnal interests of our own. Otherwise the devil will be still persuading you, that your own interest requireth you to suppress the interest of Christ; for the truth is, the gospel of Christ is quite against the interest of carnality and concupiscence; it doth condemn ambition, covetousness, and lust; it forbiddeth those sins on pain of damnation, which the proud, and covetous, and sensual love, and will not part with; and therefore it is no more wonder to have a proud man, or a covetous man, or a lustful, voluptuous man to be a persecutor, than for a dog to fly in his face who takes his bone from him. If you love your pride, and lust, and pleasures, better than the gospel, and a holy life, no marvel if you be persecutors; for these will not well agree together: and though sometimes the providence of God may so contrive things, that an ambitious hypocrite may think that his worldly interest requireth him to seem religious, and promote the preaching and practice of godliness; this is but seldom, and usually not long. For he cannot choose but quickly find that Christ is no patron of his sin, and that holiness is contrary to his worldly lusts. Therefore if you cannot value the cause of godliness above your lusts and carnal interests, I cannot tell you how to avoid the guilt of persecution, nor the wrath and vengeance of Almighty God.