(31) Look upon Saint Peter, on the Day of Pentecost, who converted three Thousand Souls at one Sermon, he spoke not from the Appointment of the Pharisees, but out of the Spirit of Moses and the Prophets, out of the Temple of the Holy Ghost, that pierced through and enlightened the poor Sinners. But thou teachest Persecution only, consider thereby whence thou didst grow, viz. out of that first Stock, where they fell from the Temple of Christ to human Conceits and Inventions; where they sent forth Teachers according to Man's itching Ears, for a fair Show, that thereby thou mightest grow great in thy Pride; and because thou hast sought nothing else, therefore God has suffered thee to fall into a perverse Sense, so that out of thee there come those that blaspheme the true Doctrine of Christ.

(7) ¶But take heed to yourselves: for before all these, they shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you; delivering you up to councils, and into prisons, to be afflicted: and in the synagogues ye shall be beaten: and ye shall be brought before rulers and kings for my name's sake. And it shall turn to you for a testimony against them. Then shall they kill you, and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake.

(99) Therefore they shall be wanting in doctrine and wisdom, And they shall perish thereby together with their possessions; And with all their glory and their splendour, And in shame and in slaughter and in great destitution, Their spirits shall be cast into the furnace of fire.

(13) ¶Wherefore, 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: that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.

(96) Woe to you, sinners, for ye persecute the righteous; For ye shall be delivered up and persecuted because of injustice, And heavy shall its yoke be upon you.

(36) For thus the righteous of the olden time, who lived according to the law, "were not from a storied oak, or from a rock;" because they wish to philosophize truly, took and devoted themselves entirely to God, and were classified under faith. Zeno said well of the Indians, that he would rather have seen one Indian roasted, than have learned the whole of the arguments about bearing pain. But we have exhibited before our eyes every day abundant sources of martyrs that are burnt, impaled, beheaded. All these the fear inspired by the law, - leading as a paedagogue to Christ, trained so as to manifest their piety by their blood.

(3) To whom we say, that among you who are Jews, and among the most famous of the philosophers among the Greeks, very many sects have sprung up. And yet you do not say that one ought to hesitate to philosophize or Judaize, because of the want of agreement of the sects among you between themselves. And then, that heresies should be sown among the truth, as "tares among the wheat," was foretold by the Lord; and what was predicted to take place could not but happen.

(61) This is their Course one among another, one reproaches and condemns this, the other that, and it is a continual Howling of Devils; all Manner of Love, Charity, and Union, is extinct; the Mouth speaks one Thing, and the Heart thinks another; they all cry out one among another, and none knows where the Woe lies. And Christ must thus take all this upon him. Many ignorantly cried (by the Instigation of the High-Priests) Crucify him, Crucify him, he has made Uproars and Disturbances among the People, and yet knew not any Cause why they said so. And so it is at this Day, if Antichrist entraps any in his Fierceness, he cries out upon him for a Sectary, a Schismatic, a Disturber of the Peace, and Maker of Uproars; and then all cry, A Heretic! A Heretic! and yet their Hearts can say no Evil of him.

(16) But when any fall to Firing, killing with the Sword, to undo People, ruin Towns and Countries, there is no Christ, but the Anger of the Father, and it is the Devil that blows the Fire. For the Kingdom of Christ is not found in such a Way, but in Power; as the Examples of the Apostles of Christ declare, who taught no Revenge, but they suffered Persecution, and prayed to God, who gave them Signs and great Wonders, so that People flocked to them; and so the Church of Christ grew mightily, so that it overshadowed the Earth. Now who is the Destroyer of this Church? Open thy Eyes wide and behold; it is Day-light, and it must come to the Light, for God would have it so, for the Sake of the Lily. It is the Pride of the Learned.

(4) After we left from our home and came down to this world and came into being in the world in bodies, we were hated and persecuted, not only by those who are ignorant but also by those who think that they are advancing the name of Christ, since they were unknowingly empty, not knowing who they are, like dumb animals. They persecuted those who have been liberated by me, since they hate them—those who, should they shut their mouth, would weep with a profitless groaning because they did not fully know me. Instead, they served two masters, even a multitude. But you will become victorious in everything, in war and battles, jealous division and wrath. In the uprightness of our love we are innocent, pure, and good, since we have the mind of the father in an ineffable mystery.

(9) Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

(1) SOME there be, that although they be not deceived with this error as it is set here, yet for pride and curiosity of natural wit and letterly cunning leave the common doctrine and the counsel of Holy Church. And these with all their favourers lean over much to their own knowing: and for they were never grounded in meek blind feeling and virtuous living, therefore they merit to have a false feeling, feigned and wrought by the ghostly enemy. Insomuch, that at the last they burst up and blaspheme all the saints, sacraments, statutes, and ordinances of Holy Church. Fleshly living men of the world, the which think the statutes of Holy Church over hard to be amended by, they lean to these heretics full soon and full lightly, and stalwartly maintain them, and all because them think that they lead them a softer way than is ordained of Holy Church.

(13) When we consider with ourselves the many Sects and Controversies in Religion, and from whence they come and take their Original, it is clear as the Sun, and it manifests itself indeed, and in Truth; for there are great Wars and Insurrections stirred up for the Cause of [Religion or] Faith; and there arise great Hatred and Envy about it, and they persecute one another for Opinions Sake; because another is not of his Opinion, he sticks not to say, he is of the Devil; and this is yet the greatest Misery of all, that this is done by the Learned in the high Schools [or Universities] of this World.

(11) If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me.

(19) And when they saw that great Respect and Honour was given to the Teachers, they fell to Ambition, Pride, and Greediness of Money; for the simple People brought them Presents or Gifts, and they thought that the Holy Ghost dwelt in the Teachers, whereas the Devil of Pride lodged in them; and it came to that pass, that every one called himself after his Master's Name, [whose Doctrine he prized most;] one would be of Paul; another of Apollos; another of Peter; and so on. And because the Saints used not the same Kind of Words and Expressions in their Teaching and Writings, though they spoke from one and the same Spirit, therefore the natural Man (which being without the Spirit of God knows nothing of God) begun all Manner of Strife and Disputations, and to make Sects and Schisms; and they set themselves up for Teachers among all Sorts of People, not for God's Sake, but for temporal Honour, Riches, and Pleasure's Sake, that they might live i brave Lives. For it was no very hard Labour and Work to hang to the bare Letter; and such Strife and Contention rose amongst them, that they became the most bitter Enemies and Haters one of another. And none of them were born of God, but their Parents held them close to the Scripture, that they might come to be Teachers, that so they might be honoured in and for their Children, and that their Children might live bravely.

(28) But if one is curable, able to bear (like fire or steel) the outspokenness of the truth, which cuts away and burns their false opinions. let him lend the ears of the soul. And this will be the case, unless, through the propensity to sloth, they push truth away, or through the desire of fame, endeavour to invent novelties. For those are slothful who, having it in their power to provide themselves with proper proofs for the divine Scriptures from the Scriptures themselves, select only what contributes to their own pleasures. And those have a craving for glory who voluntarily evade, by arguments of a diverse sort, the things delivered by the blessed apostles and teachers, which are wedded to inspired words; opposing the divine tradition by human teach ings, in order to establish the heresy. For, in truth, what remained to be said - in ecclesiastical knowledge I mean - by such men, Marcion, for example, or Prodicus, and such like, who did not walk in the right way? For they could not have surpassed their predecessors in wisdom, so as to discover anything in addition to what had been uttered by them; for they would have been satisfied had they been able to learn the things laid down before.

(11) Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

(68) Jesus said, "Blessed are you when you are hated and persecuted. Wherever you have been persecuted they will find no Place."

(1) Yea, I will speak forth; hear ye; now listen, ye who from near, and ye who from afar have come seeking (the knowledge). Now ponder ye clearly all (that concerns) him . Not for a second time shall the false teacher slay our life (of the mind, or the body). The wicked is hemmed in with his faith and his tongue!

(51) It is clearly shown to us, why the Man Christ must thus suffer himself to be mocked, despised, scourged, crowned [with Thorns,] and crucified; also why he must endure to be cried out upon for one that had a Devil; and why he must be so spoken against by the Wise and Prudent; also why the simple People only hung to him, and but some few of the Honourable and Rich of this World. Though indeed we shall not please every one, yet we speak not our own Words, but we speak (in our Knowledge and Driving in the Spirit) that which is shown us of God: Therefore understand [and consider] it right.