Seeing it is a righteous thing with God
That which is righteous in itself, is righteous in the sight of
God, but it is not always so with men; men may think it a
righteous thing that they should be rewarded for persecuting the
followers of Christ, supposing they hereby do God good service;
but on the contrary, with God, and in his sight and account, it
is a righteous thing, or a point of justice,
to recompence tribulation to them that trouble
you:
persecution is an affliction, or a trouble to the saints;
persecutors trouble them in their minds and bodies, in their
persons and property; they trouble their minds by casting
reflections and reproaches upon them, by severe revilings, and
cruel mockings, which all are not alike able to bear; and they
trouble and afflict their bodies by imprisonment and bonds, by
scourging and beating, and various cruel and torturing deaths;
and they disturb them in the possession of their estates, by
spoiling their goods, and confiscating them to their own use; and
it is but according to "lex talionis", the law of retaliation, to
render tribulation to such troublers of God's Israel; and to them
it is recompensed, either in this world, or in the world to come:
sometimes in this world persecutors are manifest instances of
God's judgments and wrath upon them, as Herod, who stretched out
his hands to vex certain of the church, killed James the brother
of John, and imprisoned Peter, and was smitten by the angel of
the Lord, and was eaten of worms; and the Jews, who were now the
only and the implacable persecutors of the saints, in a short
time had the wrath of God come upon them to the uttermost, even
upon their nation, city, and temple, upon their persons and
property. And if not in this life, it is a certain thing that
hereafter such shall have indignation and wrath, tribulation and
anguish; they shall be cast into outward darkness, into the lake
of fire; and the hottest place in hell will be their portion,
even devouring flames, and everlasting burnings; and are what is
designed by tribulations here.