4. The persecution of godliness as such in ministers or private christians, is one of the most visible undoubted marks of one that is yet unsanctified, and in a state of sin and condemnation; for it showeth most clearly the predominancy of the serpentine nature in the persecutor. Though Asa in a peevish fit may imprison the prophet, and those christians that are engaged in a sect or party, may in a sinful zeal be injurious to those of the contrary party; and yet there may remain some roots of uprightness within; yet he that shall set himself to hinder the gospel, and the serious practice of godliness in the world, and to that end hinder or persecute the preachers, and professors, and practisers of it, hath the plainest mark of a child of the devil, and the most visible brand of the wrath of God upon his soul, of any sort of men on earth. If there might be any hope of grace in him, that at present doth but neglect or disobey the gospel, and doth not himself live a godly life, (as indeed there is not,) yet there can be no possibility that he should have grace at that present, who hateth and opposeth it; and that he should be justified by the gospel who persecuteth it; and that he should be a godly man, who setteth himself against the godly, and seeketh to destroy them. 10. And it is a far more heinous sin in a professed christian, than in an infidel or heathen. For these do according to the darkness of their education, and the interest of their party, and the principles of their own profession. But for a professed christian to persecute christianity, and one that professeth to believe the gospel, to persecute the preachers and serious practisers of the doctrine of the gospel; this is so near that sin which is commonly said to be the unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost, that it is not easy to perceive a difference; and if I did consent to that description of the unpardonable sin, I should have little hope of the conversion of any one of these. But, however, they make up such a mixture of hypocrisy, and impiety, and cruelty, as showeth them to exceed all ordinary sinners, in malignity and misery. They are a self-condemned sort of men; out of their own mouths will God condemn them. They profess themselves to believe in God, and yet they persecute those that serve him: they dare not speak against the preaching and practising of the doctrine of godliness, directly, and in plain expressions; and yet they persecute them, and cannot endure them! They fight against the interest and law of God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, when they have in baptism vowed themselves unto his service. Of all men on earth, these men will have least to say for their sin, or against their condemnation.