Exposition Upon 1 Peter, Biblical exegesis · Chapter 4 · Verse 12
Verse 12. Beloved, think it not strange, concerning the fiery tryal, which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you. Verse 13. But rejoyce, in as much as ye are partakers of Christs sufferings, that when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.
HAving exhorted us to be good Christians, he now arms us to the Cross, the inseparable companion of true godliness (for all that will live godly in Christ Jesus, shall suffer persecution) and that both patiently and chearfully, which accordingly he backeth by many forcible Reasons.
Each of these Verses contains an Exhortation, with a Reason to enforce the same.
In the former Exhortation, consider both the maner how its propounded, and the matter therein contained.
Beloved,] Here's the maner; He writes lovingly to them, and that doubtless from an entire affection and love which he bare them. Here note two things:
1. What entire love should be between Ministers and people,There must be entire love between Ministers and people. they should love one another as fathers and children, mothers and children, Nurses, and such as have suckt their breasts, Brethren, &c. See 1 Cor. 4. 15. Gal. 4. 19. 1 Thess. 2. 7. 2 Thess. 2. 13.
Reasons hereof may be these, 1. God hath committed them each to other,1 Thess. 2. 19, 20. and so they be nearly knit. 2. Such as be won by the Ministery, are they that must comfort their Ministers here, and be their Crown hereafter (the more they be, the greater is their Crown) whom therefore their Ministers are to love, them also are their people to love no less dearly, as on whom they should depend for all comfort, and the means of their Salvation, whose lips must preserve knowledge, who are also to pray for them, and teach them. 3. Ministers by loving their people, shall be provoked to live with them, to take all courses to do them good publikely and privately, as also to bear with the dulness of some, the unkindeness and weakness of others: Hereupon their people will reverence them, regard their Teaching, and chearfully allow them maintenance; which did they not truly love their persons, they would not.
1. This teacheth both Ministers and People to be most tenderly careful to preserve mutual love,Use 1. and avoid all occasions of unkindeness or dislike, removing them speedily when at any time they do arise (for oftentimes of a small spark neglected, ariseth a great flame) of all unkindenesses and contentions, those between Ministers and People be most unprofitable and hurtful; whoso hath a hand herein, and goeth about to alienate the mindes of each from the other, that the one cares not for the other, work journey work to the Devil in a high degree.
2. This condemneth that common and most woful abuse in this Land,Use 2. even the miserable want of love on both parts; not a few Ministers care not how seldom they come among their people, and when they do, how little pains they take, how often do they sue them for meer trifles? on the other part, what light and base esteem have people of their Ministers? How unkindely do they use them? How pole they them of their maintenance? Where its thus, God is not, for God is love,John 4. 16. and there's no good done to be sure. Here the Devil may sleep till he snort, he shall not be hindred; but where Ministers and people live in godly love, there let him look to himself.
2. That we should love men never the worse for their troubles,Christians are not to be the less, but more loved for their troubles. but rather the more, as who are worthy to be honored for their Faith, Patience, Constancy, and being paterns and means to confirm us in our sufferings for Christ: The Apostle Paul used this as an argument to move Philemon to grant his request, for that he was aged, and a prisoner for Christ. Hereof this our Apostle informs them, even that notwithstanding all their troubles (whereof haply some might have conceived him careless) they were dear unto him.
This rebuketh those that make account of men,Use. while they be in prosperity, and the world smiles on them; but when the times frown, and they be discountenanced, and in disgrace and trouble, then cast them off, or shrink from them, shewing them no countenance nor kindeness; a sign either of mung…els, or at last of dastardly Christians.
Think it not strange concerning the fiery tryal,] Here's the matter exhorted to: By fiery tryal is meant, All kinde of persecution, in what degree soever, compared to the fire; for that as the fire tryes the gold, so persecution tryes men. Think it not strange, wonder not at it, as at some strange think come out of a far Countrey, whereof the like was never either seen or heard of; it behoved you to have prepared for it before, and now make a reckoning of it, that so you flinch not from it when it comes. Here note, that
The want of fore-thinking of trouble,The want of preparation for troubles before they come, make them harder to be born when they are come. makes it the harder to be born, and the stranger when it comes: When a man hath time to put on his armor, or draw his Sword ere the Thief come, he is more safe, then if a Thief should rush upon him on the sudden.
As those which are not used to sickness, bear it worst; so, such are most cast down in the time of trouble, which in the time of prosperity do not so much as think thereof.
1. This teacheth us,Use 1. even in the time of prosperity, to think of troubles; in the midst of health we must think of sickness, and how we shall bear it, and accordingly provide for it; so in the time of wealth, of poverty; so having Children, if God should take them from us; of our Friends, if they should hate us, how would we behave our selves? How could we do as such and such a Christian, &c? So in life, we must think of death; and when any one dyes, think that we may be the next, and thereupon finde out how we are prepared for it: These thoughts are profitable, they will make us use our prosperity the more soberly and thankfully while we have it, and walk more humbly, and be better prepared for troubles, if God shall lay them upon us: Neither will they come the sooner for thinking of them; howsoever, we shall be the better enabled to bear them, when ever they come: What's written of the Basilisk, that if it see us before we see it, we dye for it, but if we see it first, we live, is true of troubles: If we see them ere they come, we be much better, but if they come on us unlooked for, they prove the more dangerous. Now every man sits under his own vine, and under his own figtree; Now we go to the house of God in peace; Now we profess Religion with good liking: But what if the case alter ere I dye? shouldst thou say; What if I be haled to prison, lose my goods, be convented, condemned, tortured, banished, &c. what shall I then do?
2. This rebuketh most,Use 2. that seldom or never have any such thoughts; May not we have changes? why do we not then think of them?
Oh such sad thoughts do not well,Obj. lets be merry while we may, sadness will come time enough.
Thou wrongest thy self,Sol. thy case will be the worse, thy condition the more fearful, if either sickness, poverty, pain, or any other calamity should take thee unprovided: For persecution, who is there that now thinketh of any such matter? most think that they shall never be moved,Psal. 30. 6. and that they shall dye in their nest, whereas, alas, it may fall out far otherwise:Iob 29. 18. Have we not many enemies? and what doth not our sins deserve? God hath indeed wrought for us many deliverances, as from the Spanish Invasion, and Gunpowder Treason, &c. but are we sure he will do so still? Hath not our grievous unthankfulness deserved the contrary? Do we think that our enemies do not now plot mischief against us? No doubt they make use of peace, to prepare for war, and they will plot now towards their latter end, to uphold their tottering Babel; Simile.and do as fishes, feeling the water almost gone from them, flush and make a stir; and when death draws near men, they have strong pains: So what now at the last the Lord may suffer them to do against us, we know not. Its the more likely there wil be some judgement, because all men cry Peace and Safety, and are so sensless; if there should be any such, alas, how unprovided are we? nay, what were all our provision, strength, multitude of men, &c. if God should set himself against us?See Ier. 37. 10. On the contrary, if we have God on our side, as he was with Gideon and his three hundred, with Jonathan and his Armor bearer, we need not fear them, though never so many so strong. Now if any such judgement should come on the Land (which the Lord turn away for his mercies sake) wherein multitudes should be slain with the Sword, others made Slaves, and carried away, our Wives and Daughters abused before our faces, our houses and chests rifled, the godly imprisoned, and brought forth to torment, except they would forsake their Religion: O Lord! how far are we unfit for any such matter; and the rather, for that we never think of it? Never would any Land think trouble and misery more strange, then we which have been used so delicately. O then let us think and provide for this before, that if it should come, it may not be strange unto us. If we look to our selves, have not we cause enough to be humbled, and purged from our dross: and for the world, shall we wonder if they hate and persecute us? Haply we think because we be honorable persons, the Sons of God, they should not so deal with us: Its true, but alas, they know not our Father, much less know they us his Children:1 Iohn 3. 2. Haply we think because we be now godly, and make conscience of all our ways, and love God, and live with our brethren Christianly, and desire nothing so much as to please God, that therefore all should make much of us. True, God, Angels, and good Men, will do so, and that must content us; but the world is the world, and will hate us the more for our goodness, which hath been thus ever since Cain hated Abel; we need not think it strange, for may not the Lord justly after long schooling us, now call us out to try what we have profited. Again, hereby he would have the wickedness of the wicked break out, that he might get glory in confounding them: Also he will hereby confirm the hearts of the weak to believe the truth,See Phil. 1. 12, 13, 14. and be bolder to defend it. Again, if we look to the state of the Church, and faithful Servants of God in former ages, we need not think it strange, for its the way that they have all gone, Abel, Isaac, Jacob, See Heb. 11.the Prophets, Christ, his Apostles, the Primitive Church, thousands under the Roman Emperors, not a few even in this our Land in the Reign of Queen Mary, &c. Indeed the Devil is ready to make us believe that our case is worse then any bodies, and that there were never any as we, which is, that he may make us murmure, and drive us to desparation or to flinch, whereas its a very lye, for we are in no such case, but the Saints of God have been in as bad, in the same, in worse; This duly considered, will be a means that afflictions shall be better born.
Which is to try you,] Afflictions are tryals.Here's the Reason of the Exhortation; The end of persecution is not to destroy the good, but to make them better, as the gold is tryed by the fire, afflictions (persecution chiefly) are sent to try what we be, and in what state; not but that God knows it already, but he would have us also and others to know to our comfort or humbling. They are of great use, As
1. To try whether we have any truth of grace in us,Above the truth of grace in us. whether we be any thing or nothing, sound or hollow, true friends, or hypocrites, such as are built on the rock,Read the story of Pendleton and Saunders in the Book of the Martyrs. or sand: Many that now think well of themselves, will never be able to stand, and many mean in their own and others eyes, would hold out: A man is never tryed till adversity comes, as a Soldier is in the Battel, a Marriner in a Storm, a Friend in time of need; Who would have thought the seed in the stony ground would have flincht? few so good as they in most Parishes: If these would not abide, what shall we think of most amongst us? persecution, as the fan, of one heap makes two, and as the fire, separateth the gold from the dross.
Labor then for a true faith of the right stamp, who knows but that God will send a tryal, let's labor to be so provided, as we may be good wheat, to abide by it, and not chaff, that will flie away; that we may be gold fit to be Vessels for the Lords use, not dross to be burnt up with unquenchable fire: OnelyOnly true believers will hold out, all others will flinch; lets now look to our selves, lest we making a fair house, not onelyonly in the sand, it fall, and our fall be great, and we having begun a piece of work, leave it in the mid way, to our perpetual shame: But they that are proved to be sound, and to have true Faith, its a great Comfort and Crown to them. Who would not have his Sword or Gun tryed ere he went to the field? A little tryed Faith is better then much tryed Gold, then much Faith in mens tongues and conceits.
2. To try what measure of grace we have,About the measure of our grace. whether as much or more, or less then we thought; for some over-prize themselves, and some do on the contrary. Who would have thought Peter had been so weak, after such bold protestation? Who would have thought Abrahams Faith so great as it was, or Jobs both Faith and Patience? Though the Lord would kill him, yet would he wait on him: What do thine afflictions bewray?Use. If more grace then thou thoughtst, be thankful; if less, be humbled, and apply thy self to the means more carefully.
3. To purge,They serve to refine that measure we have. purifie, and refine that measure of true grace thats in us: In the days of Peace and Prosperity, the best men are subject to gather soil, as standing waters putrifie, bodies without exercise prove full of gross humors: In prosperity we gather pride, security, teachiness, self-love, too much love of the world; these God purgeth away, that our Faith and Grace may shew themselves in their bright colours; as the Vine, having the superfluous branches cut off, proves the more fruitful: Never do Christians shine so bright, as in affliction, or presently after it.
But rejoyce,] We must rejoyce in afflictions.Here's the second Exhortation: We must be so far from thinking it strange when we are persecuted, as that we are then to rejoyce.See Iam. 1. 12.
But how can this be?Q. will some say: To rejoyce in mockings, imprisonments,Heb. 12. 11. cold irons, tortures, &c. seems impossible, and the rather, for that no affliction for the present is joyous, but tedious.
To the flesh these things be tedious,A. yet there is cause to make us rejoyce in them: Though a natural man cannot do this, as being impossible to flesh and blood, yet grace, and a good measure of faith, and an heart mortified to the world, and taken up with the desire of a better life, will do the same. A man may both grieve, and yet rejoyce in the same thing, in diverse respects; as them that saw the Temple re-edified,Ezra 3. 12. some wept, namely, the ancient men, some again rejoyced, namely, the yong men; the one, because it was no better, the other, because it was as it was, both which might have been in either of them: As a man may be glad that he hath a childe departed in a godly maner, and yet grieve at the loss of his childe; so if at the fall of a Scaffold, where many lost their lives, we have had a childe that broke his Arm, we are sorry at that, but glad that he scaped with his life: Thus the Apostles rejoyced,Acts 5. 41. and 16. 25. thus Paul and Silas, thus the Thessalonians, thus the Christian Hebrews, thus the Martyrs throughout all ages: Such a thing is Faith;1 Thess. 1. 6. its not a Conceit,Heb. 10. 34. but that that makes things absent, so present, as that we can be content to endure present pain for joy to come, and to lose things present, for happiness hereafter: Thus have many of Gods Servants done, so that God requires nothing of us, but that he hath enabled many to do, yea ordinary Christians like our selves, nay, not a few even of the weaker Sex.
1. This rebuketh the woful unbelief and hypocrisie of most of the world,Use 1. which though they profess the Word in prosperity, yet in adversity they shift for themselvs, make friendship with the world, and will suffer nothing for Christs sake or his Religion; they are ashamed of Christ here, of them will he be ashamed hereafter; now saving their lives with an ill Conscience, they shall lose life eternal.
2. It rebuketh even the Servants of God,Use 2. who are so loath to suffer or abide any hardness: We can hardly abide a frown of our Superior, or an hard word, or a railing speech, but we are cast down, and disquieted about it; yea, many pull in their heads, and step back, and think its not good to be forward, and so come to Jesus by night: How will we suffer imprisonment, and loss of all we have? how endure the fire, and especially with joy? This is too much tenderness, its through too much earthly-mindedness.
3. Lets labor for such grace,Use 3. as whereby if God call us forth to suffer, we may not onelyonly not flee back, but endure any thing, and that with joy. To this end, we must 1. Endeavor for a sound Faith and assurance of Gods love to us in Christ, that so we may so love him again, as we may suffer for his Name, and being assured of our deliverance from everlasting pain, and that he hath freed us from shameful sufferings, which for our sins he might have brought us to, may endure these glorious sufferings for his Name joyfully. Being thus assured of his love, and thereupon of eternal happiness in heaven, we will be content to suffer any thing to obtain it. 2. Withdraw our mindes from earthly things, and set them on heaven and heavenly things, as our onelyonly treasure. 3. Mortifie and subdue our lusts and affections, bringing our hearts in subjection to God in all things, and bearing our present afflictions quietly and comfortably. This joyfulness in sufferings doth well become Christians, daunts their adversaries, and puts a difference between them and all others, whether hypocrites, civil persons, or Time-servers, who will never thus do: Christians must be like Davids Worthies, even excel others, do more then ordinary men. If we do onelyonly love our friends, what singular thing do,Mat. 5. 46. do not even Publicans the same? If we profess Religion in prosperity, what great matter do we, do not even Hypocrites the same? We must learn to take out higher lessons, and be perfect, as our Father which is in heaven is perfect. Its an easie thing to rejoyce in prosperity, but so to do in adversity is a good hard lesson, and so the more worthy a Christians labor.
Inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christs sufferings, Why the sufferings of Christians are called Christs sufferings.] The first Reason of the Exhortation, We are partners with Christ, therefore we may think our selves advanced, and so rejoyce. The sufferings of Christians are called Christs sufferings, 1. Because they are suffered for his sake;2 Cor. 1. 5. which may be no small comfort to them that suffer for Religion,Gal. 6. 17. for its for Christs sake, and so he counts it: therefore he will put our tears in his bottle,Col. 1. 24. take our part, defend, and reward us; as David took care of Abiathar, 1 Sam. 22. 12.having lost his Father for his sake. 2. Because he bears a part of them with his Saints; there's so near a conjunction between him the Head, and the Saints his Members, as whats done to the one, whether good or ill, is counted as done to the other; as the godly hearing Christ railed on, are so grieved, that they had rather themselves had been so used: much more doth Christ Jesus account their troubles his,Acts 9. 4. which as it may terrifie their adversaries, so it may much comfort them. But here they be called Christs sufferings in another sense, namely, as his own sufferings, which he bare in his own person, whereof we partake, when we also suffer the like things; we are set up to be like our Master Christ Jesus,Christians suffer with Christ. and is it not cause of rejoycing, that he vouchsafeth to make us like himself, to bring us into his order, to pledge him of the same Cup he began to us?
He suffered, his whole life was nothing else: They misconstrued his words, and mistook his deeds, and said, He cast out Devils through Beelzebub the Prince of the Devils: How often was he railed on? how hardly used, especially towards his latter end?
If we be so dealt with at any time,Use. we need not think hardly, but rejoyce, not think hardly: He was the glorious Son of God, we poor mortal Creatures, dust and ashes; He most holy and righteous, and perfectly pure, we miserable sinners, which though not at mens hands which wrong us, yet at Gods have deserved all evil, both here and in Hell. If God turn our opprobrious sufferings here, and perpetual torments of Hell, into a sew short and glorious sufferings, we have no cause to think hardly; yea, he having suffered all for us, we may well suffer for him, we can never lose hereby, nor can ever suffer so much for him, as he hath done for us; nay, not onelyonly we must not think hardly at our sufferings, but we have cause to rejoyce, that we are advanced to be like our Master, made conformable to our head Christ Jesus: He is a bold Servant, that is not content to fare as his Master fares; Those Worthies that have gone before us, have accounted it their honor, and a special favor that they have drunk of this Cup.
When therefore we do at any time suffer for Religions sake, let's thus encourage our selves, I am herein made like all the Prophets, Apostles,Ioh. 15. 18, 19. and chief of Gods Friends and Saints, yea, as his onelyonly Son, and thus our Savior comforted his Disciples.
That when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.] The second Reason, our sorrow shall be turn'd into joy, as in part when we dye, namely, in our souls; so perfectly when he shall be made glorious in all his Saints, whilest he was here in the world, he was put to an ignominious death, but he rose again from the dead, and ascended into Heaven, and shall come one day to judge every man according to his deeds, even to bring into happiness all those for whom he dyed, and to confound all his Enemies; He came the first time in meekness, because he came to suffer, but the second time he shall come with glory and magnificence,2 Thess. 1. 9. even with thousands of his Angels in flaming fire;Iude 14. &c. which, as it may comfort all those that have believed in him,Rev. 1. 7. and stoopt to his yoke; so it may terrifie all those that have not believed or repented, through obeying the Gospel.
The end (I say) of the afflictions of Gods Servants will be joy,The godlies afflictictions end in joy. for Christ will receive them all into eternal glory; They that suffer with him, shall reign with him, and their joy shall none take from them: See John 16. 33. Rom. 8. 18. 2 Cor. 4. 17. 2 Tim. 2. 12. Jam. 1. 12.
O how should this not make us patient onelyonly,Use. but joyful in persecution:Psal. 126: 5. If we sow in tears, we shall reap in joy: If we suffer for Christ, we may rejoyce and be glad, Matth. 5. 9.for great is our reward in Heaven: If we forsake father, or mother, or house, or land, &c. for Christs sake, we shall have life everlasting: See Heb. 10. 34. & 11. 35.Is not this an happy change? This made the holy Servants of God set light by all they had, not that they were fools, and knew not what they did, or were senceless; no, the assurance of an eternal joy and inheritance in Heaven, swallowed up all, and so should it be with us.