John 15:19

If ye were of the world, &c.— "If your dispositions and actions were like those of the bulk of mankind; if you flattered men in their vices, and framed your doctrines into a consistency with their passions and interests, no doubt you would meet with general approbation, and be much caressed: but because your dispositions and actions are very different from those of the world, and because I have separated you from secular affairs, and commissioned you to oppose all false religions, to reprove men's vices, and to press the necessity of a general reformation and renovation of heart, therefore the bulk of mankind every where will hate and persecute you." This verse seems a strong intimation that, even in nations which profess Christianity, if true religion fall, as it possibly may, to a very low ebb, they who exert themselves remarkably for the revival of it, must, on the very principle here laid down, expect hatred and opposition; and that the passages in scripture relating to persecution are not so peculiar to the first ages, and to Christians living in idolatrous countries, as some have supposed. It would be happy if the narrow-minded malignity to be found in some professing Christians against their brethren, did not too plainly illustrate this remark. Men will probably experience the truth of it, in proportion to the degeneracy of those around them, and to the vigour and resolution with which they bear their testimony against prevailing errors and vices.