Blessed are they that are persecuted.

[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 ends¹ 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 I 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 pertinacious2 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 difference between these two.

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