The Victory of Patience, Chapter 38
CHAP. 38. That Christ and all the Saints are our Partners, and partakers with us in the Crosse; yea our suff…rings are nothing in comparison of theirs.
4. WEE shall beare the crosse with more patience and comfort, if we consider that Christ and all the Saints are our partners and partakers therein; yea, thy sufferings are nothing in comparison of what others have suffered before thee▪ Looke upon Abel, thou shalt see his elder brother Cain had dominion and rule over him by Gods appointment, Gen. 4.7. Yea, in the next Verse thou shalt see him slaine by his brother. Looke upon Iob, thou shalt see that miseries do not stay for a mannerly succession to each other, but in a rude importunity throng in at once, to take away his children, substance, friends, credite▪ health, peace of conscience, &c. leaving him nothing but his Wife, whom the Devill spared on purpose to vex him, as the Fathers thinke: so that in his owne apprehension God was his mortall enemy, as heare how in the bitternesse of his soule he complaines of his Maker, saying, He teareth me in his wrath, hee hateth mee, and gnasheth upon me with his teeth, he hath broken me a sunder, taken me by the necke, and shaken …e to peeces, and set me up for his marke: his Archers compasse me round about, he cleaveth my raines a sunder, and doth not spare to powre out my gall upon the ground, hee breaketh mee with breach upon breach, and runneth upon me like a Gyant, Iob 16. Now, when so much was uttered, even by a none-such for his patience, what may we thinke he did feele and indure? Looke upon Abraham, thou shal… see him forced to forsake his Countrey & Fathers House, to goe to a place hee knew not, to men that knew not him; and after his many removes, h… meets with a famine, and so is forced into Aegypt, which indeed gave reliefe to him, when Canaa… could not; shewing that in outward things, Gods enemies may fare better than his friends: yet he goes not without great feare of his life, which made it but a deare purchase; then he is forced to part from his brother Lot, by reason of strife & debate among their Heard…men; after that Lot is taken prisoner, and he is constrained to …age warre with foure Kings at once, to rescue his Brother; then Sarah his wife is barren, and he must go childlesse, untill (in reason) he is past hope; when he hath a son, it must not only dye, but himselfe must slay him: look upon Iacob, you shall see Esau strive with him in the wombe, that no time might be lost; after that you shall see him flye for his life, from a cruell Brother to a cruell Vncle; with a staffe goes he over Iordan, alone, doubtfull, and comfortlesse, not like the son of Isaac. In the way he hath no bed, but the cold earth; no pillow, but the hard stones; no sheet, but the moist aire; no Canopie, but th… wide Heaven▪ at last he is come far to finde out an hard friend, and of a Nephe… becomes a servant; after the service of an hard Apprentiship hath earned her whom he loved; his wife is changed, and he is not only disappointed of his hopes, but forced to marry another against his will: and now he must begin another Apprentiship, and a new hope, where he made account of fruition: all which fourteene yeeres he was consumed with heat in the day, with frost in the night; when he hath her whom he loves, she in barren: at last being growne rich, chiefly in wi…es and children, accounting his charge his wealth, he returnes to his fathers house, but with what comfort? Behold Laban followes him with one troope, Esau meets him with another, both with hostile intentions; not long after, Rachel, the comfort of his life dyeth; his children, the staffe of his age, wound his soule to death; Reuben proves incestuous, Iudah adulterous, Dina is ravished, Simeon and Levi are murtherous, Er and Onan are stricken dead, Ioseph is lost, Simeon imprisoned, Beniamin (his right-hand) endangered, himselfe driven by famine in his old age to dye among the Aegyptians, a people that held it abomination to eat with him. Now, what sonne of Israel can hope for any good dayes, when hee heares his fathers were so evill? It is enough for us, if when we are dead we can rest with him in the Land of promise. It were easie to shew the like of Ioseph, Ieremie, David, Daniel, Iohn Baptist, Peter, Paul ▪ and all the generation of Gods children and servants: For as the Apostle giveth a generall testimony of all the Saints in the old Testament, saying, That some endured the violence of the fire, some were rackt, others were tried by mockings and scourgings, bonds and imprisonments, some stoned, some h…ne in sunder, some slaine with the sword, some wandred up and downe in Sheeps skins, and Goats skins, being destitute, afflicted, and tormented, some forced to wander in wildernesses and mountaines, and hide themselves in dens and caves of the earth, being such as the world was not worthy of, Heb. 11. So Ecclesiasticall History gives the like generall testimony of all the Saints in the New Testament and succeeding ages; and it is well knowne, that our Saviour Christs whole life, even from his cradle to his grave, was nothing else but a continued act of suffering; he that had all, possessed nothing, except the punishment due to our sins, which lay so heavie upon him for satisfaction, that it pressed his soule as it were to the nethermost hell, and made him cry out in the anguish of his spirit, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? So that to be free from crosses and afflictions, is the priviledge onelyonly of the Church triumphant.
Now the way not to repine at those above us, is to looke at those below us; we seldome or never see any man served with simple favours. It is a great word that Zozomen speaks of Apollonius, That he never asked any thing of God in all his life, that he obtained not. Yea we thinke he speeds well, that lives, as it were, under a perpetuall Equinoctiall, having night and day equall; good and ill fortune in the same measure: for these compositions make both our crosses tolerable, and our blessings wholesome. We that know not the afflictions of others, call our owne the heaviest; every small current is a torrent; every Brooke a River; every River a Sea: we make our selves more miserable than we need, than we should, by looking upon our miseries in a multiplying glasse; we measure the length of time, by the sharpnesse of our afflictions, and so make minutes seeme howers, and dayes moneths. If wee be sicke, and the Physitian promises to visit us to morrow with his best reliefe, with what a tedious longing doe we expect his presence? Our imagination makes every day of our sorrow appeare like Iosuahs day, when the Sun stood still in Gibeon. The summer of our delights is too short: but the winter of our affliction goes slowly of; we are so sensible of a present distresse, and so ingratefull for favours past, that wee remember not many yeares health so much, as one daies sicknesse, 'tis true, former meales doe not relieve our present hunger, but this cottage of ours ruines straight, if it be not new daubed every day, new repaired. What then? shall to dayes Ague, make us forget yesterdayes health, and all Gods former favours? if he doe not answer us in every thing, sha'l wee take pleasure in nothing? Shall we slight all his blessings, because in one thing he crosseth us, whereas his least mercy is beyond our best merit? but if we thinke of our deliverance from the fire of hell, this is cause enough to make us both patient and thankefull; though the trifles wee delight in bee taken from us. Lord take away what thou pleasest for thy glory, and my good, so long as thou savest me from the fire of hel, and thy everlasting wrath. Neither is there a better remedy for impatience, then to cast up our receipts, and to compare them with our deservings. If thou look upon thy sufferings, thou shalt find them farre easier than thy sinnes have deserved; nothing to what thy fellow Saints, and Christ thy elder brother hath suffered before thee: at a Lions den, or a firy furnace not to turne taile, were a commendations worthy a Crowne, doe but compare thy owne estate with theirs, and thou shall finde cause to be thankefull that thou art above any, rather than of envy or malice, that any is above thee, to domineere and insult over thee; yea, compare thine owne estate with thine enemies, thou shalt see yet greater cause to be thankfull; for if these temporary dolors which God afflicts his people with, are so grievous to thee, how shall thine and Gods enemies endure that devouring fire, that everlasting burning? Isaiah 33. ver. 14.