Persecuted.

444. Have faithful prophets, ministers, and others, been opposed and persecuted for righteousness' sake?

Ps. 14. 4. Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat bread?

Ps. 22. 6. I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people. All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him.

Ps. 31. 11. I was a reproach among all mine enemies, but especially among my neighbors. 13. For I have heard the slander of many: fear was on every side: while they took counsel together against me, they devised to take away my life.

Ps. 42. 10. As with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me; while they say daily unto me, Where is thy God?

Ps. 44. 22. For thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.

Ps. 64. 2. Hide me from the secret counsel of the wicked; from the insurrection of the workers of iniquity: Who whet their tongue like a sword, and bend their bows to shoot their arrows, even bitter words: That they may shoot in secret at the perfect: suddenly do they shoot at him, and fear not.

Ps. 69. 4. They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head: they that would destroy me, being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty. 7. For thy sake I have borne reproach: shame hath covered my face. I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother's children. For the zeal of thy house hath eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen

upon me.

Ps. 89. 50. Remember, Lord, the reproach of thy servants; how I do bear in my bosom the reproach of all the mighty people; Wherewith thine enemies have

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reproached, O Lord; wherewith they have reproached the footsteps of thine anointed.

Jer. 2. 30. Your own sword hath devoured your prophets like a destroying lion.

Jer. 15. 10. Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast borne me a man of strife, and a man of contention to the whole earth.

Ezk. 33. 30. Son of man, the children of thy people still are talking against thee by the walls in the doors of the houses, and speak one to another, every one to his brother, saying, Come, I pray you, and hear what is the word that cometh forth from the Lord.

Dan. 7. 25. And he [the fourth beast] shall speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints.

Mat. 10. 16. Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. But beware of men: for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will Scourge you in their synagogues. And ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles. 22. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake—But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another: -The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord- -If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household?

Mat. 23. 34. Behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes; and some of them ye shall kill and crucify, and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city.

Jn. 15. 19. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.

Jn. 16. 33. In the world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer: I have overcome the world.

Persecuted.

Jn. 17. 14. I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

Ac. 4. 18. And they called them, and commanded them not to speak at all, nor teach, in the name of Jesus.

Ac. 5. 40. And when they had called the apostles, and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.

Ac. 7. 52. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which showed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers.

Ac. 9. 15. But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel. For I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake.

Ac. 14. 22. We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.

Ac. 20. 23. The Hely Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying, that bonds and afflictions abide me. But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.

Rom. 8. 17. Heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. 36. As it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.

1 Cor. 4. 9. God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed unto death. 11. Even to this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwellingplace; And labor, working with our own hands. Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it: being defamed, we entreat: we are made as the filth

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of the world, and are the offscouring of all things unto

this day.

2 Cor. 1. 5. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.

2 Cor. 4. 8. We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake.

2 Cor. 6. 4. In all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses. In stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in watchings, in fastings: 8. By honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report; as deceivers, and yet true; As unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed; As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing all things.

2 Cor. 11. 23. In labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep: In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren. In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. 32. In Damascus the governor under Aretas the king kept the city of the Damascenes with a garrison, desirous to apprehend me: And through a window in a basket was I let down by the wall, and escaped his hands.

Gal. 1. 10. If I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.

The persecuted rewarded, and their persecutors punished.

Gal. 5. 11. And I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? then is the of fence of the cross ceased.

1 Th. 3. 3. That no man should be moved by these afflictions: for yourselves know that we are appointed thereunto. For verily, when we were with you, we told you before that we should suffer tribulation; even as it came to pass, and ye know.

2 Tim. 2. 3. Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. 9. I [Paul] suffer trouble, as an evil-doer, even unto bonds.

2 Tim. 3. 12. All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.

Heb. 11. 36. Others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheep-skins, and goat-skins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.

Rev. 7. 14. These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

445. Will God reward the persecuted, and humble their persecutors before him and them?

Ps. 37. 12. The wicked plotteth against the just, and gnasheth upon him with his teeth. The Lord shall laugh at him: for he seeth that his day is coming. The wicked have drawn out the sword, and have bent their bow, to cast down the poor and needy, and to slay such as be of upright conversation. Their sword shall enter into their own heart, and their bows shall be broken. Is. 41. 11. Behold, all they that were incensed against thee shall be ashamed and confounded: they shall be as nothing; and they that strive with thee shall perish. 12.