The harmony of the divine attributes in the contrivance and accomplishment of man's redemption…

so in the converted, all the blessed fruits of the Spirit, Love, Joy, Peace, Long-suffering, Gentleness, Goodness, Faith, Meekness, Temperance abounded. This testimony even a Pagan Persecutor gives the common sort of Christians,¹ that they assembled to sing Hymns to Christ, that they obliged themselves solemnly to injure no Person, to deceive none, to preserve faithfully what was committed to them, to be always true. And as in obedience to the Gospel, they gave a divorce to all the sinful delights of sense; so, which was incomparably more difficult, they embraced those things which Nature doth most abhor: no Religion in the World ever exposed its followers to such Sufferings, nor inspired them with such resolution to sustain them. ⟨p. 451⟩All other Religions were productions of the flesh, and being allied together, if any time jealousy caused a discord between them, yet an open Persecution was unusual. But when Christianity first appeared, they all turned their Hatred and Violence against it, as a foreigner of a different extraction. How many living Martyrs were Exiles for the Faith, and deprived of all humane consolation? yet they esteemed themselves more blessed in their Miseries than others in their Pleasures. How many thousands were put to Death for the honour of our Redeemer? yet the least thing is the number, in comparison of the manner of their Sufferings. If they had suffered a mild Martyrdom, an easy & sudden Death, wherein the Combat and Victory had been finished at a Blow, their Love and courage had not been so admirable:² but they endured torments so various and terrible, that had they not been practised upon them by their enemies, it were incredible that ever Malice should be so ingenious to invent, or cruelty so hardened to inflict them. If all the Fury of Hell had come forth to suggest new Tortures, they could not have devised worse. Neither was their mere suffering such Torments so astonishing, as their readiness to encounter them, and their behaviour under them. They maintained their Faith in the presence of the most formidable Princes.³ Some who might by favour, were afraid to escape the common Persecution, esteeming ⟨p. 452⟩