Verse 10. Blessed are they that are persecuted.]
To be perse∣cuted (as simply considered) is no blessed thing; for then it were to be desired and praid for. But let a man love a quiet life, and la∣bout* 1.1 to see good daies, said those two great champions, David and* 1.2 Peter, who themselves had indured a world of persecution, and paid for their learning. The like counsell gives St Paul, and the Au∣thour* 1.3 to the Hebrews: For they felt by experience, how unable* 1.4 * 1.5 they were to bear crosses when they fall upon them. It was this Peter that denied his master, upon the sight of a silly wench that questioned him: And this David, that changed his behaviour be∣fore Abimelech, and thereupon gave this advice to all that should come after him.
This is it that makes the Martyr, a good cause and a good conscience. Martyrem facit causa, non sup∣plicium, saith one Father; Not the suffering, but the cause makes a* 1.6 Martyr. And, Multum interest, & qualia quis, & qualis quis{que}* 1.7 patiatur, saith another: It greatly skilleth, both what it is a man suffereth, and what a one he is that suffereth. If he suffer as an evil∣doer, he hath his mends in his own hands: but if for righteousnesse* 1.8 sake, as here, and if men say and do all manner of evil against you (falsly and lyingly) for my sake, as in the next verse, and for the* 1.9 Gospels sake, as Marke hath it, this is no bar to blessednesse. Nay, it is an high preferment on earth, Phil. 1. 29. and hath a crown