nding that they were
ready to show their resentment against him in particular, which they had
long concealed, he at first, pursuant to the gospel precept, betook
himself to flight to escape their fury. But understanding that they had
apprehended some of his flock instead of him, he returned and delivered
himself up to the persecutors, to animate others in the same cause by
his example and instructions. They seized him soon after his return,
dragged him through the streets by the hair, or any part they could lay
hold of, without the least compassion for his age, or regard for his
virtue and learning. Having stripped him, and scourged him all over his
body, joining ignominy and insults with cruelty, they threw him into the
stinking public jakes. Having taken him from thence, they left him to
the children, ordering them to prick and pierce him, without mercy, with
their writing-styles, or steel pencils. They bound his legs with cords
so tight as to cut and bruise his flesh to the very bone; they wrung off
his ears with small strong threads; and in this maimed, bloody
condition, they pushed him from one to another. After this they rubbed
him over with honey and fat broth; and shutting him up in a kind of
cage, hung him up in the air where the sun was most scorching, at
noonday, in the midst of summer, in order to draw the wasps and gnats
upon him, whose stings are exceeding sharp and piercing in those hot
countries. He was so calm in the midst of his sufferings, that, though
so sorely wounded and covered with flies and wasps, he bantered them as
he hung in the air; telling them, that while they were grovelling on the
earth, he was raised by them towards heaven. They frequently solicited
him to rebuild their temple, but though they reduced their demands by
degrees to a trifling sum, he constantly answered, that it would be an
impiety to give them one farthing towards such a work. This indeed would
be to concur to idolatrous worship; but his demolishing the temple would
have been against the order of law and justice, had he done it without
public authority. At length the fury of the people was turned into
admiration of his patience, and they set him at liberty; and several of
them afterwards begged of him to instruct them in the principles of a
religion which was capable of inspiring such a resolution. Having spent
the remainder of his life in the faithful discharge of the duties of his
station, he died in peace under Jovian or