The Victory of Patience, Chapter 40
CHAP. 40. Application of the former Grounds.
ANd so you have the res…ue of the grounds of comfort; it remaines that I should apply them: For this Doctrine, though it be better understood than practised, as Cassandra was better knowne than trusted; yet being both knowne, applyed, and duly trusted to, will, (like the Sunne) not only delight our understandings with its contemplation, but also warme and quicken our affections. Wherefore is there any weake Christian so white livered with Nicodemus, that the reproaches and persecutions which attend his profession, make him ashamed of Christ, or cause him to thinke that it is in vaine to serve the Lord, whereby, he is frighted out of the narrow way that leadeth to life? Let him draw neere, for I chiefly direct my speech unto him: are afflictions and persecutions so necessary and profitable, as hath beene shewed? doth not God only gaine glory by our sufferings, but doe they also bring u… to repentance and amendment of life, … up to prayer, we…e … from the love of the world, keepe u… alwayes prepared for our enemies assaults, discover wh…ther we are sincere or no, make us humble, improve all Christian graces in us? Is God more specially present with us in afflictions▪ cannot our enemies diminish one haire of … head… without Gods speciall leave and appointment? Hath hee promised that we shall not bee tempted above our strength? Are these stripes the chiefest …okens and pledges of Gods love and adoption? Were none of his children ever exempted from the like? And lastly, shall ou… moment…ny sufferings be rewarded with everlasting glory? Yea, shall our glory be inc…eased … our sufferings have beene more? Then … them serve as so many restoratives to thy fainting spirit; yea, lift up thy hands which hang downe, and strengthen thy weake knees, Heb. 12.12. For I suppose ignorance of these things to be the cause of thy drooping; and that thou hast never beene conversant in the booke of God▪ or if thou hast▪ that thou didst never seriously ponder these Scriptures which have formerly beene rehearsed; for hadst thou seriously considered them, thou wouldst not have dared to make that an occasion of griefe and prejudice, which the Spirit of God maketh the greatest cause of joy, and confirmation that can be. For what can be spoken more expresse, direct, and significant? What demonstrations can be given more sollid? What Fortifications or Bulwarkes so strong and safe against the affronts of Satan, & the World? Thou sayest thou art persecuted for welldoing, and therefore thinkest it a strange thing. God saith it is, and ever hath beene common to all his children, not Christ himselfe excepted: Thou thinkest thy selfe miserable, God saith thou art blessed: Thou sayest thou art hated of the world, God saith, thou art beloved of Christ, who hath chosen thee out of the world: Thou thinkest it a shame to be reproached, God saith, it is thy glory: Thou grievest at it, God saith, thou hast great cause to rejoyce, for it sheweth thee to be borne of God, thine enemies to be the seed of the Serpent: Thou sayest tha… al things go crosse wth thee, God saith, that all things shall wo… together for the best; it may be the increase of thy …emporall happinesse; how ever that it shall be for the improvement of thy graces here, for the advancement of thy glory hereafter. Thou thinkest it a signe of displeasure, God saith, it is to thy Enemies a token of perdition▪ but to thee of salvation: Thou thinkest thy selfe neere forsaken, God saith, The spirit of glory and of God resteth upon thee: Thou sayest, thou shalt one day perish, God saith, that neither things present, nor things to come shall ever be able to separate thee from the love of God, which is in Christ Iesus our Lord: Thou thinkest the Lord doth not heare thee, because he doth not presently answer thee in the things that thou requirest; I tell thee, it were ill for the best of us, if wee were permitted to bee our owne choosers: Let Peter have his desire, and his Master shall not dye, so Peter himselfe and the whole world had beene lost; in unfit supplications we are most heard, when we are repelled: our God oftentimes doth answer our prayers with mercifull denials, and most blesseth us in crossing our desires. We may ask either bad things to a good purpose, or good things to a bad purpose, or good things to a good purpose, but in an ill season. Now if we aske what is either unfit to receive, or unlawfull to beg, it is a great favour of our God to be denied: granting is not alwayes the effect of love; if so, then had Paul beene lesse loved than Satan: Satan begd but once, and had his prayer granted concerning Iob: S. Paul begd thrice that hee might not bee buffetted, yet was denied. Satan begd his shame, who envied his successe? S. Paul that freedome from temptation, which would have beene worse had then wanted: yea, if granting were alwaies an effect of love, then was our blessed Saviour lesse loved than Satan; for the Lord would not let the Cup of his passion passe from him upon his earnest prayer, which he made as he …as Man. But you must know that denyals in some cases, are better than grants; the Lord will not take away the body of sin from us upon our earnest prayers, yet hee granteth us that which is equivalent, viz. Grace, to subdue our corruptions, and withall takes away the occasion of pride, which is better; for certainly he is more supported of God, that hath grace given him to conquer a … as had the Martyrs, in being … those tortures, than another who is excused to fight. Againe, we must not measure Gods hearing of our suit by his present answer, or his present answer by our owne sense; touching the first, Zachary a long …me …alled of a son for all his prayer but when he had even forgot that prayer, he had a Son; the Angell brings him good newes, Luke 1.13. Thy prayer is heard: When did he make this prayer? Not lately, for then he was growne old, & had given over all hope of a child so that this request was past over many yeares, and no answer given.
2. To prove that wee are not to judge of GODS answering our prayers by our owne sense, I need … to instance the Woman of Canaan (is what can speed well, if the praier of faith from the knees of humility succeed not) and yet behold, the further she goes, the worse she fares; her discouragement is doubled with her suite: It is not good (saith our Saviour,) to take the Childrens bread, and cast it to dogge… ; here was told comfort, yet stay but a while, he cleares up his browes and speakes to her so comfortably, that 'twere able to secure any heart, to dispell any feares. O Saviour, how different are thy wayes from ours, when even thy severity argues favour! The tryall had not beene so sharpe, if thou hadst not found the faith so strong, if thou hadst not ment the issue so happy: it is no unusuall thing for kindnesse to looke sternly for the time, that it may indeare it selfe more, when it lists to be discovered.
It was cold comfort that the Criple heard from Peter and Iohn, when he begg'd of them an almes, Silver and Gold have I none: but the next clawes, rise up and walke, made amends for all. O God, wee may not alwayes measure thy meaning by thy semblance; sometimes what thou most intendest, thou shewest least: in our afflictions thou turn'st thy backe upon us, and hidest thy face from us, when thou most mindest our distresses. So Ionathan shot the arrowes beyond David, when he ment them to him; So Ioseph calls for Benjamin into hands, when his heart was bound to him in the strongest affection; so the tender mother makes as if she would give away her crying Child, whom shee hugges so much closer in her bosome. If thou passe by us whiles we are struggling with the tempest, wee know it is not for want of mercy, thou canst not neglect us: Oh let not us distrust thee if thou comest, it is to relieve us, if thou stayest, it is to try us: howsoever, thy purpose is to save us. Surely God will work alone, and man must not be of his councell. Wherefore many times he deales with wicked men, as Eutrapilus sometime… did with his subjects; who, when he was minded to doe a poore man a mischiefe, would give him aboundance of wealth, whereas contrarily his Children find themselves croft with a blessing. As when Isabel Queene of England was to repasse from Z…l…d into her owne kingdome▪ wit… …n Army, in favour of her sonne against her husb…nd, had utterly beene cast away, had she come unto the Port intended, being there expected by her enemies: but providence, against her will, brought her to another place▪ where she safely landed. And indeed how infinitely should we int…ngle our selves, if we could sit downe and obtaine our wishes; doe we not often wish that, which we after, see would be our confusion; because we ignorantly follow the flesh and blinded appetite, which lookes on nothing but the shell and outside; whereas God respecteth the soule, and distributeth his favour for the good of that and his glory. It is an argument of love in the father, when he takes away the childes knife, and gives him a booke. We cry for riches, or liberty, or peace, they are knives to cut our fingers; wherfore God gives us his word, the riches of Verity, not of Vanity; Hee gives us that glorious liberty to bee the Sonnes of God, hee gives us that peace which the world cannot give, nor take away: wherfore let the Christian understand God his Physitian, tribulation his Physicke; being afflicted under the Medicine, thou cryest; the Physitian heares thee not according to thy will, but thy weale; thou canst not endure thy malady, and wilt thou not be patient of the remedy. No man would bee more miserable, than he that should cull out his owne wayes: What a specious shew carryed Midas his wish with it▪ and how did it pay him with ruine at last? Surely, I have seene matters fall out so unexp…edly, that they have tutored me in all … neither to desp…ire nor presume; not to despaire, for God can helpe me; not to presume, for God can crosse me: One day made Marius Emperor, the next saw him rule▪ and the third he was staine of hi… Souldiers. Well then, if with Paul, thou hast besought the Lord often, that thy present affliction might depart from thee, and canst not be heard in the thing which thou desirest, know that thou art heard in that which is more conducible to thy profit, and consequently rejoyce more in that thy petition is denyed, th…n if it had been granted. This was the use which Saint Paul made of Gods denyall, and he knew what he did; though he had asmuch to boast and rejoyce of, as any one living, yet, saith he, Of my selfe I will not rejoyce, except it be of min… infirmities; That is, afflictions, reproaches persecutions, inward temptations, feares, distrusts, &c. But in these I will very gladly rejoyce; Why? That the power of Christ may dwell in … ▪ Note his reason, he had heard God say, that his power was made Perfect through weaknesse, 2 Cor. 12.8, 9. Neither had he only cause to rejoyce in his infirmities, but all Gods people have the same cause to rejoyce; for what the spirit of comfort speaks in this, and in all the former places recited, doe equally belong to thee for thy consolation, with all the regenerate; for whatsoever was written aforetime, was written for thy learning and mine, that we through patience, and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope, Rom. 15.4. beleevest thou the former Scriptures spoken by CHRIST, and his Apostles? I know that thou beleevest with some mixture of unbeliefe, and art almost perswaded, not only to doe, but to suffer chearefully for well doing. But why dost thou not altogether believe, that it is a blessed and happy thing thus to suffer, Matth. 5.10, 11, 12. That thou hast great cause to rejoyce and be glad, that thou art counted worthy to suffer rebuke for Christs Name, Acts 5.41. Thou seest it is not for nothing that Christ saith, Blessed and happy are yee when men revile you and persecute you; That Saint Iames saith, Count it exceeding joy, when yee fall into diverse temptations, Iames 1.2. It is not for nothing that Saint Paul saith, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, i… persecutions, in anguish, for Christs sake, &c. 2 Cor. 12.10. That Peter and Iohn, when they were beaten and imprisoned, departed from the councell, rejoycing that they were counted worthy to suffer rebuke for Christs Name, Acts 5.41. For even bearing the Crosse with Christ, is as great a preferment in the Court of heaven, as it is in an earthly Court for the Prince to take off his owne Roabe, and put it on the backe of one of his servants.
Indeed it is hard for Iob, when the c…rr…rs of God fight against him, and the Arrowes of the Almighty sticks so fast in him, that the venome thereof hath drunke up his spirit, Iob 6.2, 3, 4. to thinke it a speciall favour and dignity; but so it was, being rightly considered. It was hard for Iosephs brethren to heare him speake roughly unto them, take them for spies, and commit them to prison, Gen. 42.30. and thinke it is all out of love; much more hard for Simeon to be culd out from the rest, and committed toward, while his brethren are set at liberty, verse 24. and yet it was so; yea hee loved him best, whom he se…med to favour least: yet such is the infirmity of our nature, that as wealte eyes are dazled with that light which should comfort them, so there is nothing more common with Gods Children, then to be afflicted with the causes of their joy, and astonied with that which is intended for their confirmation. Even Man…a conceaves death in that vision of God, wherein alone his life and happinesse did consist, Iudges 13.22. But what hath beene the answer of God alwaies to his Children in such their extasies, but this? Feare not Gideon, Iud. 6.23. F…are not Ioseph, Mat. 1.10. Feare not Zachary, Luk. 1.12, 13. Feare not Paul, for I am with thee, and no man shall lay hands on thee, to doe thee h…rt, &c. Acts 18.9, 10. The words are often repeated (as Pharaohs dreames was doubled) for the surenesse. Yea to the end that we should be fearelesse in all our sufferings, so long as we suffer not as evill doers, 1 Peter 4.15. Feare not, As one well notes, is the first, word in th'Annuntiation of Christs conception, and the first word in the first Annuntiation of his birth, and the first word in the first Annuntiation of his Resurrection, and almost the last words in his last exhortation a little before his death, are, Let not your hearts be troubled, and be of good comfort; strengthning his followers, and sweetning his crosse by diverse forcible reasons, Luke 21. Marke 13. And the words of dying men have ever beene most emphaticall, most effectuall: nay more than all this, if yet thou wilt not be comforted, looke but Iohn 16.20. and thou shalt have thy Saviour assure thee by a double bond, his Word I say. his Oath Verily, verily, I say unto you, that though for the present you doe feare, and sorrow, and weepe, yet all shall be turned into joy, and that joy shall no man be able to take from you, Verse 22.
FINIS.
Imprimatur.
Thomas Weekes, Cap. Domest. Lond. Episc.
Errata.
PAg. 17. lin. 12. full careere, reade, our full car…ere. p 21. l. 24. burne our bloud, r. burne up our bloud. p. 37. l 15. Luke 22.31. r. Luke 22.3, 4. p. 77. l. 7. Gen. 49. r. Gen. 4.9. p. 94. l. 17. Theodorus, r. Theodorus. p. 115. l. 7. Luke 23, 24. r. Luke 23.34. p. 117. l. 2. for if the whole world, r. so if the whole world. p. 143. l. 6. Ammorites, r. Aramites. p. 147. l. 10. sin is the sting; r. 2. Sin is the sting. p. 154. l. 12. Hotspur, r. Swash-buckler. p. 160. l. 29. againe, r. worth. p. 165. l. 1. repayred, r. repayed. p. 165. l. 11. at the reproach, r. of the reproach. p. 168. l. 17. Ephes. 4.21. r. Ephes. 4.26. p. 170. l. 6. maker, r. make.