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Orthodox Doctrine (Summary of Christian Divinity)
Metropolitan Platon of Moscow, tr. Pinkerton, 1814
5. Part 2, Section 5: Of the Persecution of the Church
The church of Jesus Christ has always been persecuted, and shall be persecuted until the end of time, though there is no possibility of her ever being overcome.
1. As the church, which contains the true faith in herself, began at the foundation of the world, so she at the same time began to be persecuted; because between truth and superstition, piety and impiety, virtue and vice, there exists an eternal and irreconcileable war. The first Cain slew his innocent brother Abel, and all persecutors “have gone in the way of Cain;” Jude 9. From Cain there sprung up a wicked race, and from Seth a righteous race, who, in holy writ, are denominated sons of God; Gen. vi. 2. The former were always inveterate enemies to the latter; but they were destroyed by the deluge, and the church was preserved in the ark from the overwhelming waters of the deep.
After the flood, as mankind began to multiply upon the earth, the number of the wicked increased, and appear to have been headed by the wicked posterity of Ham; Gen. ix. 25. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, passed through the fire of temptations and difficulties, and were thereby purified. Lot also suffered among the Sodomites, Joseph from his brethren, the Israelites from the Egyptians, Moses from the Israelites, and David from Saul. All the prophets bore opposition and reproach; yet they were all virtuous and holy men of Israel, though they fed on the bread of sorrow, and drank the cup of bitterness. In a word, the blood of the righteous began to flow at Abel, and ended at John the Baptist, the harbinger of gospel blessings; Matt. xxiii. 35, and xiv. 10.
All these were in Old Testament times. And under the new dispensation, the Saviour himself has marked out this most holy course, and, through his own divine nature, has rendered sacred to all ages the saving bearing of the cross. He began his life in persecution, continued it amid the greatest poverty, defamation, and revilings, and ended it upon the cross. The disciples followed their Master, and were sent by him into the world as lambs amongst wolves. They say of themselves, that they were accounted as the off-scouring of all things, and were “a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men;” 1 Cor. iv. 9, 13. But the blood of the apostles was a prolific seed, which unexpectedly produced a rich harvest of Christians, though they themselves were all slain like sheep, and were gathered like wheat.
The Roman emperors, and all the rulers of the world, opposed them with their whole might. In the history of the church, we find ten such persecutions. 1st, In the time of Nero; 2d, Of Domitian; 3d, Of Trajan; 4th, Of Adrian; 5th, Of Antoninus; 6th, Of Severus; 7th, Of Maximinus; 8th, Of Decius; 9th, Of Valerian; and 10th, In the time of Dioclesian. The heart trembles, when one reflects on those awful tortures which the Christians suffered during the time of the above mentioned persecutions. They accounted it a light matter to be deprived of their honours and estates. They were condemned in exile to work in the mines, beaten with rods, their teeth and eyes were pulled out, their tongues cut out, and they had their hands and feet cut off: moreover, they were sewed up in the skins of animals, and thrown to wild beasts to be devoured; after having every joint dislocated in the rack, they were hung upon crosses; sewed up in sacks, they were thrown into the water; they were burnt by fire, buried alive, stoned to death, shut up in red hot bulls of brass, tortured to the bones and to the vitals: boiling pitch or lead were poured down their throats, they were thrown over precipices, and cut in pieces. How dreadful such sufferings! Every kind of torture which the cruelty of man could invent was inflicted upon them.
Here, as we proceed, it is necessary to remark, the unconquerable constancy of the martyrs in midst of torments; because they suffered all these things with the greatest magnanimity, and were not in the least confounded in presence of their tormentors; which strongly proves the great superiority of the truths of Christianity. This open persecution continued till the days of Constantine the Great. The edicts which commanded the persecution of the Christians, were abolished in the time of this pious Emperor; but secret persecutions did not cease, such as the godly have at all times to endure from the wicked. Farther, what had the Christians not to suffer every where, from the frequent irruptions of the unbelieving nations, by whom they were harassed and murdered? Exclusive of these, the church of Christ, in the course of a few ages, again beheld the flames of persecution kindled against her, when, at the internal division of the eastern and western churches, the East was conquered by Mohammed, the oppressor of Christianity, and the West fell under the yoke of the most superstitious Pope.
Of internal Persecution.
Together with the above mentioned persecutors, who properly may be styled external, there were also internal persecutors, of whom St John writes, “They went out from us, but they were not of us;” 1 John ii. 19. Such persecutors are heretics; that is, such as, under the pretext of supporting the truth, destroy it by their singular and ruinous opinions. These monsters have been the dishonour of all ages, and by them the bowels of the church of Christ have been grievously torn. Since the time of our Saviour, the following have been the most eminent heretics: the Simonians, Valentinians, Montanians, Manichæans, Arians, Pelagians, Nestorians, Eutychians, &c. But what necessity is there to mention them all? Persecution, internal as well as external, will continue till the end of time; that is, till that moment when “the Son of Man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire;” Matt. xiii. 41.
Persecutors of the church, are styled in the Holy Scriptures Antichrists, that is, opposers of Christ, 1 John ii. 18, who increase the more in number and in fury the nearer the judgment day approaches; 2 Col. ii. 7. The kind providence of God permits these persecutions to take place, for the manifestation of his chosen; because the fierceness of torments reveals constancy in the faith, and thus others are brought to embrace it, and in heaven the reward of the sufferers is thereby enhanced: and those who remain constant in the truth, more clearly expose pernicious opinions, as St Paul writes, “For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you;” 1 Cor. xi. 19. But, woe unto him by whom offences come!
We ought to pray to our heavenly Father, that he may not lead us into temptation, that he may destroy offences and heresies, that we may be preserved from being infected by such deadly plagues, and particularly so in these most sorrowful times, in which we behold even Christianity itself torn into different sects.
2. The only aim of all these persecutors has ever been the destruction of truth itself; but this is one of those things which are utterly impossible. For the church of Christ is founded on himself, as upon the most immoveable rock, against which the gates of hell shall never prevail, Matth. xvi. 18.