DISCIPLES OF CHRIST
MUST EXPECT PERSECUTION
Jeremiah Burroughs (1599-1646)
"Blessed are
they which are persecuted for righteousness sake: for theirs is the
kingdom of
heaven " - Matthew 5:10
[In the Sermon
on the Mount] Christ begins
with the poor and ends with the
persecuted, when he would shew who are the most blessed men in the
world. My
brethren, see whether the wisdom of Christ be like the wisdom of the
world, yea
or no. When you would describe a blessed man, would you begin with the poor and end with
the persecuted? Oh the wisdom of Christ! It is not according to the wisdom of the world.
The
thoughts of Christ concerning blessedness are not according to the
thoughts of
the world.
And then, secondly, this is to be wondered at, that
Christ should have need to speak of the blessedness of those that are
persecuted, after he had mentioned the blessedness of the former. What!
Blessed
are the peacemakers, and blessed are the persecuted? What
agreement is there between these two or what connection can there
be? For if a
man be of a peaceable disposition, who will harm him? Why, surely they
will
escape persecution of all men! It may be there are some, though godly,
yet are
of a turbulent disposition and are furious and hot. They perhaps
may be
persecuted, but will the peacemakers be persecuted? Will those
that in
the places where they live are no occasion of evil to any that they
live among, but labor
to do all the good that possibly they can, and yet shall these be
persecuted?
Yes, truly. Even these if they be godly, these if they be
righteous, these must
not think to escape. None that are truly godly and righteous,
though they be
of the most quiet and peaceable dispositions in the world, they must
not think
to escape; and therefore these two are joined together.
Yea, this blessedness that follows upon persecution
is added to all the
former, to note that a man
may be all the former and yet a persecuted man. As thus: a man
may be of
a very poor and humble spirit and yet persecuted. A man may be of a
mournful
spirit, mourn for his own sins and for the sins of others and yet
persecuted. A
man may be of a meek spirit and yet persecuted. A man may be hungering
and
thirsting after righteousness. A man may be a merciful man and yet
persecuted.
A man pure in heart, not having any base ends of his own, and yet
persecuted.
Yea, a man may be a peacemaker and yet persecuted. Such is
the wickedness of the world, the vileness of the nature of man, that
there is
nothing in the world can keep him from persecuting of the
saints,
though they be of never such poor and mourning and meek and
pure and merciful and peaceable hearts. This for the connection:
Blessed are they that are persecuted. The word
translated persecuted signifies the following of a thing
hard, i.e., a
hard following of a thing. It is taken sometimes of a good sense. The
same word
that is here and in divers other Scriptures taken in an ill sense is
often
taken in a good. 1 Thessalonians 5:15, "Follow that that is good,"
saith the text there, persecute that which is good.
And in Hebrews 12:14, "Follow peace," there
is the same word. 1 Corinthians 14:1, "Follow after charity," there
is the same word there too. It signifies, therefore, so to follow a
thing as
not to leave it till we have gotten what we would have. So the apostle
uses it
in Philippians 3:14, "I press
towards the mark," I persecute the
mark as it were. That is, look with what eagerness 1 did ever follow
the saints
in the persecution of them; I do now with the same eagerness press
towards the
mark. A man that hath an eager spirit doth press towards a thing. Now,
as it is
applied in an ill sense, taking the meaning of it, to follow
the thing
thoroughly. Now if you would know what persecution is, it is nothing
but this:
a pertinacious following of one to do him hurt, tending to his
destruction.
When men do follow eagerly a business that is evil and
follow a man or woman in a thing to do hurt to them and follow them
eagerly and
resolve never to leave till they have got their wills of them, they may
be said
to persecute these men. For persecution is not merely to
do a man hurt.
There is a difference between wronging a man and persecuting
a
man. They may do them wrong in some one act; they may do them wrong
accidentally. But now persecution is when, intending to follow a man or
woman
in a constant way, and resolve never to leave them until they have had their
wills of them. Oh,
blessed are they that are persecuted, that are followed by the world - those that the persecutors of the world are set
upon and are eager to do hurt
unto. This is for righteousness. It is not the punishment, but
the cause
that makes the martyr. Those are not blessed that are followed hard
for
their sin, for their
wickedness - that suffer for wickedness, that suffer for evil doers,
for God would not have them
suffer so. No. That is a part of the curse of God
upon them that as they do evil, so they should suffer evil.
Now
the saints that are blessed, they labor to be so far from suffering for
evil-doing that they would rather suffer all the evil in the world than
do the
least. There is a great deal of tliffcrence between these two.
Jeremiah Burroughs (1599-1647) one of the most
popular preachers in
London during his time there. One of the Independent members of the
Westminster Assembly of Divines and a Congregationalist. Burroughs was
so
highly regarded by his peers that they published 13 volumes of his
sermons
after his death.