N00255:38
A sermon wherein is showed that the church of God is sometimes a subject…A sermon wherein is shewed that the church of God is sometimes a subject…
A sermon wherein is showed that the church of God is sometimes a subject of great persecution; preached on a public fast at Boston in New-England: occasioned by the tidings of a great persecution raised against the Protestants in France. / By Increase Mather, teacher to a church of Christ. ; [Eight lines of quotations]A sermon wherein is shewed that the church of God is sometimes a subject of great persecution; preached on a publick fast at Boston in New-England: occasioned by the tidings of a great persecution raised against the Protestants in France. / By Increase Mather, teacher to a church of Christ. ; [Eight lines of quotations]
printed for Samuel Sewall, 1682
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
2. They must suffer in a good Cause. A man may suffer, & yet, 1not be persecuted; if the Cause that he suffers for, be not a Good, but an Evil Cause. Several persons may be exposed to the same sufferings, at the same time; and yet the one be persecuted, and the other not so; according to the Cause which they suffer in, or for. We know that in Smithfield, six persons were put to death on the same day: 2three of them being Protestant Martyrs, and the other three, miserable Papists. 3When our blessed Lord Jesus Christ was crucified, others were at the same time crucified also: They received but the due Reward of their Deeds, so did the penitent Thief ⟨p. 4⟩acknowledge, Luc. 23. 41. We suffer justly, for we receive the due Reward of our Deeds: when Jesus Christ (as tis added) had done nothing amiss: but was exposed to His sufferings for the sake of the Truth: because He did bear witness to the most glorious Truth that can be mentioned: because He said, He was the Son of God, & the King of Israel.
2. They must suffer in a good Cause. A man may suffer, & yet, 1not be pèrsecuted; if the Cause that he suffers for, be not a Good, but an Evil Cause. Several persons may be exposed to the same sufferings, at the same time; and yet the one be persecuted, and the other not so; according to the Cause which they suffer in, or for. We know that in Smithfield, six persons were put to death on the same day: 2three of them being Protestant Martyrs, and the other three, miserable Papists. 3When our blessed Lord Jesus Christ was crucified, others were at the same time crucified also: They received but the due Reward of their Deeds, so did the penitent Theef