intimidate them? what honours did they ac-CHAP. quire by their fufferings for their mafter? III. with what warmth did they defire to partici-" pate his fufferings in order to fhare his glory? and how invincible they thought themselves by relying on his love and protection? What then shall we fay to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? "Who fhall separate us from the love of Chrift? Shall tribulation, or diftrefs, or perfecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or fword? As it is written, For thy fake we are killed all the day long, we are <counted as sheep for the flaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors, through him that loved us. For I am perfuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things prefent, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other crea"ture, fhall be able to feparate us from the love of God, which is in Chrift Jefus our "Lord."

'Tis impoffible to explain in a more fublime manner, what was comprised in the majestic ftile of those words pronounced by Chrift: In the world ye fhall have tribu66 lation;

*And they departed from the prefence of the council, re"joicing that they were counted worthy to fuffer shame for his name." Acts. v. 41.

+ Rom. viii. 31, and

35, &c.

It is evident from the whole difcourfe of Saint Paul, and chiefly verse 37, and 38, that it is God's love towards his elect which must be here understood.

v.

PART "lation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." And take notice, that St. Paul's defiance to all things that come not from God, to furmount even by the greatest torments the love which Chrift bore him, is not a fimple fally of the mind, or a tranfient motion of the heart of a perfon as yet untried, or who had not been expofed to great temptations. Saint Paul, who wrote thus to the Corinthians, mentions what he fuffered for the gofpel, not to gain the applause of men, but to confound the vanity of fome falfe apostles, who were very unlike the true ones. * "In "deaths oft, (fays he) of the Jews five times "received I forty ftripes fave one: thrice was "I beaten with rods; once was I ftoned; "thrice I fuffered fhipwreck; a night and a

day I have been in the deep; in weariness "and painfulness; in watchings, in hunger "and thirst, in faftings often, in cold and "nakednefs." This great apostle lived ten years after, and he could not include in this recital neither what he suffered at Jerufalem, when he was confined there, nor what he endured in the prifons of Cæfarea and Rome, nor all the perfecutions before his martyrdom.

He cannot justly be denied the glory of having laboured and undergone more than the other apostles. Yet we ought to judge of their toils and fufferings almoft by his, and of their courage by that which he discovered: for all

2 Cor. xi. 23, 25, 27.

+ He wrote the fecond epiftle to the Corinthians in he died ten years after, in 66 or 67.

the apoftles are included in the defcription he CHAP. gives of the faithful ministers of Chrift in the III. fame epistle. "Giving no offence in any

thing, that the miniftry be not blamed: "but in all things approving ourselves as the "minifters of God, in much patience, in af*flictions, in neceffities, in diftreffes, in ftripes, << in imprisonments, in tumults, in labours, in

watchings, in faftings." I omit the reft to avoid prolixity, but I recommend the reading of it *; and I am perfuaded, that the reader will admire how much the courage and zeal, which Chrift promifed, and actually communicated to his difciples, was above all human fortitude, and at the fame time fuperior to all worldly impediments.

ARTICLE V.

Important reflections on the courage and zeal of the apostles, which ought not to be confounded with the courage and patience of other martyrs.

T

HIS will appear ftill clearer to thofe

who will please to join with me in the following reflections. In the first place, the apostles were not as other martyrs, expofed only to one trial, but paffed thro' a fucceffion of dangers, and from one fuffering to another, After having been imprisoned and whipped in one city, they immediately went to preach in another,

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* From verfe 6, to 10.

PARTanother, where they must expect the fame V. treatment. They were neither permitted to be filent, nor to fit quiet till they were fought after to give an account of their faith: they were commanded to tear up and to plant, to destroy and to build, to pursue the ufurper without intermiffion, and to oblige the whole world to return to the obedience of their lawful king, whom they had forgot. To fucceed in this great affair, their labours must be daily renewed as well as the dangers, and they must die a thousand times thro' apprehenfion, and by a preparation of the heart, before they were effectually bereft of their lives. If the apostles had not been fupported by a divine power, what patience and courage would have been able to defend them in this difficult miniftry? what zeal, what ardor, would not have been fubdued by cruelties fo often repeated, if the fource of their zeal had been only natural? We know what men are; they are foon tired of fufferings, when they have it in their own power to end them. Courage has its feason, and fo has the love of ease and repofe. The paffions are fucceffive; and when a man is actuated by them, he becomes pacific after having been fond of war, especially when he has been often wounded, or made prifoner.

Secondly, The apoftles did not preach in obfcure places, diftant from the magistrates and governors, contenting themselves with proceeding quietly and patiently to avoid danger. On the contrary, they proclaimed Chrift in

the

the greatest cities, where the governors and CHAP. chief magiftrates refided, and where all public III. authority was against them. Thus they ex-' pofed themselves to the greatest torments, the inftant they spoke; and even exposed themfelves, after having many times experienced, that the danger was as great as they forefaw. Thus the Roman empire was filled with the evangelical doctrine in a few years. Rome, Antioch, Alexandria, Ephesus, Athens, Theffalonica, Corinth, and the metropolis of each province, were immediately inftructed by the apoftles. And, before their death, all places of any note heard of Jefus Chrift. But from what wonderful courage muft fuch a series of fuccefs proceed? and how greatly must they defpife death and its punishments, thus openly to attack the reigning idolatry, furrounded by every thing that could make it appear formidable.

Thirdly, It was not then, as in our time, when feveral princes divide among themselves thofe provinces, which conftituted the Roman empire. One mafter governed the universe, and his commands were ftrictly executed from the fartheft parts of Spain and Africa, even to the frontiers of Perfia. Thus the Chriftian religion, which Nero feverely perfecuted, had no afylum in any province of the Roman empire. And the apoftles, charged with the univerfal publication, marched always into an enemy's country; and befides the particular oppofition which they met with in every place, they were certain of a general and public one from

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