The apostle Peter was not alone in his denying of Christ, and afterwards bitterly and sincerely repenting of his great wickedness, and going on to suffer all sorts of persecution, almost, for the sake of Christ.
In the records of the martyrs similar instances frequently occur. There is the case of Thomas Bilney, for example – “Little Bilney,” As Hugh Latimer affectionately calls him. He suffered in the days of Bloody Mary with many others of Christ's faithful witnesses who were then thinned out. He was an ardent spirit, with a heart overflowing with love to Christ, and was, through the help of God to win many immortal souls to the Saviour. It was a dangerous work to preach the gospel in those days of Rome's triumph; and still more dangerous at Cambridge University, one of the strongholds of Rome's camp, where almost all were sworn soldiers of the spirit of Antichrist, with their eyes and ears eagerly set against the truth, from whatsoever quarter it might come.
Bilney was a Cambridge student, and his zeal found out many ways to publish the gospel amongst his fellow-collegians, the sick, and those in the prisons of that town. It was through his instrumentality that Latimer – the stoutest papist among them all – was brought to the knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus. “Here I have chosen,” says Latimer in his first sermon on the Lord's Prayer, “to tell you a story that happened at Cambridge. Master Bilney, or rather Saint Bilney, who suffered death for God's Word's sake, the same Bilney was the instrument whereby God called me to knowledge; for I may thank him, next to God, for that knowledge that I have in the Word of God. For I was as obstinate a papist as any was in England; insomuch, that when I should be made Bachelor of Divinity, my whole oration was against Philip Melanchthon (reformer), and against his opinions. Bilney heard me at that time, and perceived I was zealous without knowledge; and he came to afterwards in my study, and desired me for God's sake to hear his confession. I did so; and to say the truth, by his confession I learned more than ever I had done in many years. So from that time forward I began to smell the Word of God, and forsook the school doctors and such fooleries.”
Needless to say, the heads of the college houses, and other rulers of the University, could not remain long blind to what was passing so near to them. Bilney's “heretical and destructive doctrines,” as they called them, were soon picked out and the alarm raised. “We are here to guard the purity of the faith,” they announced, “and such weeds must be rooted out.” They accordingly complained to Cardinal Wolsey, who was not slow in appointing a tribunal for the trial of the man who disturbed the peace. “This,” says one of the biographers of Latimer, “was in 1527, and Tunstall, Bishop of London, a man of mild character, laboured so effectually with Bilney, as to prevail upon him to make a public abjuration of his views.”
Bilney, like Peter, had denied his Lord. Through the fear of martyrdom, through the persuasions of Tunstall, and whatsoever else, he had made public recantation and was sent down again to his college at Cambridge to live quietly and enjoy whatever peace he could.
We must follow him there, and watch him, and see if he had peace. He was thoroughly persuaded of two things – of justification by faith alone, and of the antichristianism of the doctrines of Rome. Not only was he persuaded intellectually, but he was a true and sincere believer in Christ. What torments had he prepared for himself! Worse than the gibbet, the prison, or the stake. He had denied his Lord – sold Him – put Him to an open shame. He cannot rest. It is as if he had the worm of hell in his bosom. Day or night no rest for him. Hugh Latimer again takes up his case in a sermon before King Edward 6th on the evils of turning from God: – “I knew a man myself,” he says, “Bilney, little Bilney, that blessed martyr of God, when he had borne his faggot*, and was come again to Cambridge, had such conflicts within himself, beholding this image of death, that his friends were afraid to let him be alone. They were fain to be with him night and day, and comforted him as they could; but no comforts would serve. As for the comfortable places of Scripture, to bring these unto him, was as though a man would run him through the heart with a sword.”
Out of this fearful state Bilney was at length delivered. He was again restored to peace and comfort. The countenance of his dear Redeemer shone in upon his soul and filled it with abundant joy. He immediately took his resolution. He found that it would not do for him to remain silent – he must be up and about his Master's work. In the hall of Trinity College, he one evening took his farewell of his friends, never again to return to their society, (although, in the dealings of providence Latimer and him were to renew their fellowship behind prison bars). From Cambridge, he hastened into Norfolk, his native county, and preached the gospel, first in private houses, and then, openly in the fields. He was not long engaged in this work until he was apprehended, and put on trial. During his imprisonment he corresponded with Latimer; the letters that passed between them on this occasion show something of the resolute spirit that now upheld the early reformers. On one occasion Bilney wrote to Latimer, consulting him as to the defence that he should make before his accusers. “Better a few things well pondered,” replied Latimer, “than to trouble the memory with too much … I intend not to contend much with them in words, after a reasonable account of my faith given; for it shall be but in vain. They will say as their fathers did, when they have not more to say, ‘We have a law, and by our law he ought to die.’”
So it proved to be; Bilney was condemned. But during the time that lay between his condemnation to the stake and his actual execution many of the Lord's saints resorted to him. These were times of mutual blessing, both for him and for those who visited him in the prison. He never ceased to comfort, exhort, and encourage the remaining believers as he opened up the Word of God in their hearing. He was to be burnt in “The Lollards' Pit” – a saucer-like valley surrounded by sloping hills. The choice of this place was so that many could watch his death and be deterred from the heresy that he was sentenced for. But, the opposite proved to be the case, for in his dying hour, little Thomas Bilney continued to exert a testimony to the glory of the gospel of free redeeming grace to sinners. As he was chained to the stake, his friend, Dr. Warner, came to bid him farewell with tears in his eyes. Bilney smiled gently, and said, “Feed your flock, keep your flock, that when the Lord cometh, He may find you so doing; and farewell, good master doctor, and pray for me.” Just prior to this, he had expressed his state of heart and mind that was to remain with him until the flames enveloped him and raised him to his everlasting rest with his Saviour: “When the mariner is tossed upon the troubled sea,” he had said, “he beareth his trials better, in hope that he shall yet reach his harbour.” The little martyr had, indeed, been blown from his course for a little time, but the irresistible pull of the compass of a Saviour's love could only ultimately point to his being faithful even unto death, and now he bore the fires for the sake of a good conscience. So ended the earthly life of “Bilney – Little Bilney, that blessed martyr of God …” (Adapted)
*“Bearing the faggot” involved carrying the wood of the martyr fire in public to show that the “heretic” had recanted to escape death.
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