[1] Philip Henry says, "God's people may be an outcast
people--cast out from men's love, their synagogue, their
country; but God will own His people when men cast them
out. They are outcasts, but they are His; and somehow or
other He will provide a dwelling for them." He adds, that
though many of the rejected ministers were brought very
low, had many children, were greatly harassed by
persecutors, and their friends were unable to support them,
yet in all his acquaintance he never knew, nor had heard
of, any Nonconformist minister being in prison for debt.
[2] "I have long looked for you," said a persecuting magistrate
to a poor woman, "and now I commit you to prison; and then
what will you do?" "If it please my Heavenly Father," she
replied, "I shall be fed at your table;" and so she was,
for his own wife, who sat by, sent her daily food (Ps.
lxxxiv. 11, 12).