524 d-foi it comes to paifè that the Sa j4'er per/cc attion. his Difciples and :Apoftles' that .were neereft to .hisn, aid by this armed_ them for perfecution which every one of,them af- terwards futfered, even unto death, fave only one. Now if you iliould ask me firft, How it comes to paffe that they fuWer perfecution. Firft, From the Devil : Secondly ,. From the nature of wicked men ----- Thirdly, From the holy ends that God bath in the fufferings of his people. Fir(t, From the Devil, he is the old Serpent, the Scorpion, the old Dragon Satan,that fignifies an adverfary, a roaring Lyon, that leeks whom he may devour : The De.vifl loth, infi- nitely hate God, and hating God he miff needs hare all that belosegs to him, or any thing fo far as it hath any. thing of'iod in it : The Devils fin it is a fin ofmallice, and therefore of the f ame nature with the fin againft the Holy Gholt : Now this is the nature of the fin againff the Holy Ghoft, that it makes any one that bath committed it to hate God, and to hate any thing of God that they fee any where, and therefore to wish all hurt unto others ; As I remember I have heard a dory of a man that was thought to fin againft the-Holy Ghoft, and they asks him, though he had no thoughts to be laved himfelf, yet whe- ther he would not have his wife and children to be faved,this was the anfwer he gave ; There war a time indeed that I watald have been glad to have had my wife and children faced,. but now I tai fh that both they and all the world were damned, and meetly from hence, upon his hatred to God, it was not fo much in ha- tred to his wife and children, or to the world, but becaufe he hated God, and would have all to be enemies to God as him- felf was, this is the nature of the fin againft the Holy Ghofi, though I do not think but it maybe committed, where this is not expreffed, but there is this kind of mallice: Now the De- vili having committed the filTof the fame nature, becaufe of their hatred to God, they hate the Image of God, and hate all things that have any tendency unto God, 4rfd therefore if pof- fibly they can, they would have none to be fav'd, but if they cannot hinder but that force (hall befav d, they refolve that they fhall be faired withsas much difficulty as; they can;helpe, ^nd
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