hidden therein. and God by his word discovers everything, he probes the secret
CHAPTER 5: Persecution Reproach and the Worlds Praise
hidden therein. and God by his word discovers everything, he probes the secret thoughts, and the most hidden affections. This is why the truth of God will not be received by men, and they will reject it and resist it as much as possible.
In short, we are admonished to often remember what is here remonstrated by our Lord Jesus Christ: namely, that when we are unjustly afflicted, provided that our consciences answer us before God that it is not our fault, we must not therefore lose courage, as if our condition were worse than that of the unbelievers. And why? Especially since we have to look for our happiness up there. Here let us prepare to fight, and when we are told of our rest, of our victory, and of our glory which will be achieved, let us raise our eyes and our senses above the world. Moreover, we are not only admonished to suffer patiently the harm and molestation that will be done to us, but also the reproaches, defamation, and false accusations. Now this is still the hardest, because a person of courageous spirit would more easily bear wounds, and even death, than to be in reproach and ignominy. Let us look at the heathen philosophers who have had some appearance of virtue, it is certain that whoever has been magnanimous has not had death in such horror, as shame and infamy before men. So, we must be armed with more than human constancy, to patiently endure every insult and reproaches, and the slanders that will be falsely imposed on us by the wicked. Now if we have to come to this, as Paul remonstrates, because we hope in the living God (he says) we must be tormented, even suffer shamefully, be pointed at with scorn, and spit in our faces. Since God wants us to experience this far, we need to prepare ourselves for it, and to shield ourselves from this doctrine which is put forward to us here by our Lord Jesus Christ. And moreover, he warns us that these slanders will not only come from those who openly deny the Gospel, and who declare that they want nothing to do with true and pure religion: but that those who claim to belong to the church, and who have great reputation, the very ones (I say) will be the first to degrade us, and bring all infamy before men.
And this is why in particular he says that his disciples will be rejected, that they will be driven out, and that their name will be as if cursed. According also that our Lord Jesus Christ speaks of it in John, that those who will do great pleasure and sacrifice to God, will torment the faithful and Ministers of the Gospel: and this itself was anciently under the Law, as it is said in Isaiah in the eighth chapter that the disciples of God not only were annoying to the world, and to those who made a great profession of being defenders of the Catholic faith, as we speak: but that they were as hideous, and as monsters. For Isaiah uses