Part 56 HOLINESS, the Only Way to Happiness
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Part 57 HOLINESS, the Only Way to Happiness
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9. That the afflictions, persecutions, and sufferings which attend Christians in these days, are nothing compared to the fiery trials which the saints and martyrs of old have met with. For sevenfold harder measure has been measured forth to them, than is this day measured forth to us. Our sufferings are hardly to be named in comparison to those sore and heavy things are mentioned, which those precious and famous worthies of old have suffered. I may say to most Christians, as the apostle did to the Hebrews, "You have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin" (Heb 12:4). Many have—but you have not; you have only met with hard words, when others have met with blows and wounds; you have been only a-contending with men, when others have been a-contending with beasts; you have been only whipped with rosemary branches, when others have been whipped with scorpions; you have been only bound with silken bands, when others have been bound with iron chains. Will you be so favorable to yourselves as to compare your sufferings with the sufferings of former saints; and that you may, let me give you a little abridgment of their sufferings "of whom the world was not worthy."
History tells us, that in the ten primitive persecutions, they exercised all manner of cruelty and torments that could be devised against the Christians:
1. In the reign of Hadrian the emperor, there were ten thousand Christians crowned with a crowns of thorns, thrust into the sides with sharp lances, and then crucified.
2. Others were so whipped, that their entrails were seen, and afterwards they were thrown upon sharp shells, and then upon sharp nails and thorns. And after all this cruelty, they were thrown to wild beasts to be devoured.
3. Multitudes were banished.
4. Others were pulled apart with wild horses.
5. Some were beaten and racked with bars of iron.
6. Others were cast into loathsome dungeons.
7. Some were burnt in the fire.
8. Others were knocked down and had their brains beaten out with staves and clubs.
9. Some were pricked in their faces and eyes with sharp reeds.
10. Others were stoned to death with stones, as Stephen was.
11. Some were dashed in pieces against millstones.
12. Others had their teeth dashed out of their jaws, and their joints broken.
13. Some were cast down from very high places.
14. Others were beheaded.
15. Some were tormented with razors.
16. Others were slain with the sword.
17. Some were run through with pikes.
18. Others were driven into the wilderness, where they wandered up and down, suffering hunger and cold, and where they were exposed to the fury both of wild beasts, and also to the rage of the barbarous Arabians.
19. Some fled into caves, which their persecutors crammed up with stones, and there they died.
20. Others were trodden to death by the people.
21. Some were hanged on gibbets with a slow fire under them.
22. Others were cast into the sea and drowned.
23. Some were slain by being thrown in mines.
24. Others were hanged by the feet, and choked with the smoke of a small fire, their legs being first broken.
25. Some were covered with oil, and then roasted with a soft fire.
26. Others were hung by one hand, that they might feel the weight of their whole bodies scorching and broiling over burning coals.
27. Some were shot through with arrows, and afterwards thrown into stinking prisons.
28. Others were stripped stark naked, and thrown out in cold, frosty nights; and burnt the next day.
29. In Syria, a company of Christian virgins were stripped stark naked to be scorned by the multitude, then shaved, and then torn in pieces and devoured by beasts.
30. Lastly, many women had the joints of their bodies pulled from another, and their flesh and sides clawed with talons of wild beasts to the bones, and their breasts seared with torches until they died.
And thus you have an account of thirty different ways by which the precious sons and daughters of Zion have formerly been afflicted, tormented, and destroyed! What heart of stone can read over this list with dry eyes? And now tell me, sirs, whether your sufferings are worth a naming in that day, wherein the sufferings of the precious servants of God in the primitive times are spoken of? Oh, no! Well then, take heed of making molehills mountains, and of crying out, "Is there any sorrow to our sorrow, or any sufferings to our sufferings?"
10. I answer, That unholy people have suffered as great and grievous things for the satisfying of their lusts and pleasures, and for the compassing of some worldly good—as you have suffered, or are likely to suffer for your pursuing after holiness. Oh the hazards, the dangers, the deaths that many have run through to gratify their lusts! Petrus Blesensis has long since observed, that the courtiers of his time suffered as many vexations, with weariness and painfulness, with hunger and thirst, and with all the catalogue of Paul's afflictions that is reckoned up in that 2 Corinthians 11, as good Christians did for the truth. I have read of a Roman servant, who knowing his master was sought for by officers to be put to death, he, to save his master's life, put himself into his master's clothes that he might be taken for him, and accordingly he was taken and put to death for him, and all this out of vainglory. Ah what cutting, what lancing, what bleeding, and what searching will many men endure upon the advice of their physicians, and all for a little health, a little strength, or to preserve a wretched life for a few days, yes, for a few hours sometimes. And why then should Christians think so much of suffering afflictions and persecutions for holiness' sake, the least grain of which being more worth than a thousand thousand of those things, for which they have suffered such exquisite pains and torments?
Ah! what great things, what hard things do many men daily suffer to gratify their own lusts, and to satisfy the lusts of others! Oh the hell of horrors and terrors, which are worse than a thousand deaths, that many a sinner daily wades through to enjoy his sin! And why then should you be startled in your pursuit after holiness, because of afflictions and persecutions that may attend you? When they are nothing compared to what many suffer from within and without, to enjoy that which will undo them to all eternity, &c. But,
11. I answer, Though persecutions may attend the pursuit of holiness—yet God has a thousand thousand ways to preserve his people, from being ruined and destroyed by persecuting hands. Several afflictions and persecutions befell Paul at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra, "but out of them all the Lord delivered him." As a righteous cause led him into sufferings, so a righteous God led him out of sufferings. Both Jews and Gentiles, barbarians and Grecians, princes and people, were as madly set upon persecuting of him, as he was once madly set upon persecuting of the saints—but God delivered him from every hand of violence. Divine power and wisdom wrought gloriously for him; both in six troubles and in seven it brought him clearly off, and bravely out, not of some—but out of all his dangers and distresses, afflictions and persecutions, etc. Now,
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