The Victory of Patience, Chapter 29
CHAP. 29. Because they have respect unto Gods Commandement.
2 BEcause they have respect unto Gods Commandement, who saith, By your patience possesse your soules, Luke 21.19. Be patient towards all men, 1 Thess. 5.14. And Let your patient minde bee knowne unto all men, Phil. 4.5.
See, saith Paul, that none recompence evill for evill unto any man, 1 Thes. 5.15. And againe, Be not overcome with evill, but overcome evill with goodnesse, Rom. 12.21. Yea, saith our Saviour, Love your enemies, do well to them that hate you, blesse them that curse you, and pray for them which hurt you, Luke 6, 27, 28. And in case thine enemy hunger, instead of adding to his affliction give him bread to eat; if the thirst, give him water to drinke, or else thou breakest Gods commandement touching patience, Pro. 25.21. Rom. 12.20. and consequently art in the sight of God a transgressor of the whole Law; and standest guilty of the breach of every Commandement Iames 2.10, 11. We know the frantick man, though he be sober eleaven moneths of the yeare, yet if he rage one, he cannot avoide the imputation of madnesse: If so, let our revenge be like that of Elisha's to the Amorites, instead of smiting them, set bread and water before them. Or like that of Pericles, who as Plutarch reports, when one had spent the day in railing upon him at his owne dore, lest he should go home in the dark, caused his man to light him with a Torch. And to do otherwise is Ammonite-like, to intreat those Embassadours ill, which are sent in kindnesse and love: for these afflictions are Gods Embassadours, and to handle them ruffely, yea, to repine or grudge against them, is to intreat them evill. And certainly, as David tooke it not well when the Ammonites ill intreated his Embassadours; so God will not take the like well from thee, 1 Chron. 19. But secondly, as the Law of God binds us to this, so doth the Law of Nature: Whatsoever you would that men should doe unto you, even so doe you unto them, Mat. 7.12. Our Saviour doth not say, doe unto others, as others do unto you; but as you would have others doe unto you. Now if we have wronged any man, we desire that hee should forgive us, and therefore we must forgive him, Lex Tu…nois was never a good Christian Law. If I forgive not, I shall not bee forgiven, Marke, 11.26. So to say of our Enemies, as Sampson once of the Philistines ▪ Even as they did unto mee, so have I done unto them, is but an ill plea. For the Law of God, and the Law of Nature forbids it; and doth not the Law of Nations also? Yes, throughout the whole world, either they have no Law, or else a Law to prohibit men from revenging themselves.
Oppression or injury may not be righted by violence, but by Law: the redresse of evill by a person unwarranted, is evill.
Ob. But thou wilt say, the Law doth not provide a just remedy in all cases of injury, especially in case of reproach and slander, which is now the Christians chiefe suffering; or if in part it doth, yet he that is just cannot be quit in one Terme or two. Nay, if he have right in a yeare, it is counted quick dispatch; …nd he is glad that he met with such a speedy Lawyer.
Answ. If thou knowest the remedy to be worse than the disease, I hope thou wilt leave it, and commit thy cause to God, who, (if thou wilt give him the like time) will cleare thy innocency, and cost th…e nothing.
When wee have suffered some evill, the flesh, our owne wisdome, like the King of Israel, 2 Kings 6.21. will bid us returne evill to the doer; but the Spirit or wisdome of God, like Elisha, opposeth, and bids us returne him good, notwithstanding him evill: But the flesh will reply; he is not worthy to be forgiven; I but saith the Spirit, Christ is worthy to be obeyed, who hath commanded thee to forgive him. Now whethers counsell wilt thou follow? It is not alwayes good to take our own counsell; our owne wit often hunts us into the snares, that above all we would sh…n. We oft use meanes of preservation, and they prove destroying ones. Againe, we take courses to ruine us, and they prove meanes of safety. How many flying from danger have met with death? And on the otherside, found protection even in the very jawes of mischiefe, that God alone may have the glory. It fell out to bee part of Mithridates misery, that he had made himselfe unpoysonable. All humane wisdome is defective; nor doth the Fooles Bolt ever misse: whatsoever man thinketh to doe, in contrariety is by God turned to bee an helpe of hastning the end hee hath appointed him. We are governed by a power that we cannot but obey, our mindes are wrought against our mindes to alter us. In briefe; man is oft his owne Traitor, and maddeth to undoe himselfe. Wherefore… take the Spirits and the words direction, Render good for evill, and not like for like, though it be with an unwilling willingnesse: as the Merchant casteth his goods over-board; and the Patient suffers his arme or leg to be cut off; and say with thy Saviour, Neverthelesse, not my will, but thy will be done.
But yet more to induce thee hereunto, consider in the last place, That to avenge thy selfe is both to lose Gods protection, and to incur his condemnation. We may be said to be out of his protection, when we are out of our way which he hath set us; he hath promised to give his Angels charge over us, to keepe us in all our wayes, Psal. 91.11. that is, in the wayes of obedience, or the wayes of his Commandements. But this is one of the devils wayes, a way of sin and disobedience, and therefore hath no promise or assurance of protection: yea, if we want his word, in vaine we looke for his aide; weftes and strayes, we know, are properly due to the Lord of the Soyle. And then if in case there shall happen any thing amis…e, through thy taking revenge, what mayest thou not expect to suffer, and in thy suffering what comfort canst thou have? Whereas if God bring us into crosses, he will be with us in those crosses, & at length bring us out of them more refined. You may observe, there is no such Coward, none so valiant as the beleever: without Gods warrant he dares do nothing; with it, any thing. Why, first a calling is a good warrant, and it cannot want danger to goe unsent: sinne is the sting of all troubles; pull out the sting, and deride the malice of the Serpent. Yea, let death happen, it shall not happen amisse; for the assurance of Gods call and protection, when a mans actions are warranted by the Word, will even take away the very feare of death: for death (as a Father well notes) hath nothing terrible, but what our life hath made so. He that hath lived well, is seldome unwilling to dye, life or death is alike welcome unto him; for he knowes, whiles he is here, God will protect him; and when he goes hence, God will receive him. Whereas he that hath lived wickedly, had rather lose any thing, even his soule, than his life: whereby he tels us, though his tongue expresse it not, that he expects a worse estate hereafter. How oft doth guiltinesse make one avoide, what another would wish in this case? Yea, death was much facilitated by the vertues of a well-led life, even in the Heathen. Aristippus, as I take it, (though I may be mistaken) told the Sailers (that wondred why he was not, as well as they, afraid in a storme) that the ods was much; for they feared the torments due to a wicked life, and he expected the reward of a good one. Its a sollid and sweet reason, being rightly applyed. Vice drawes death with a horrid looke, with a whip, and flames, and terrors, but so doth not vertue. And thus much to prove that the godly indure reproaches and persecutions patiently, because God hath commanded them so to doe.