Twenty Sermons, Sermon 16
AD AULAM. Sermon XVI
Newport, in the Isle of Wight. Decemb.
Heb. 12.3.
—Consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself: that ye be not wearied and faint in your mindes.
1. THere is scarce any other provocation to the performance of any duty so prevalent with men, as are a—aculeos subdunt exempla nobilia. Senec. de tranquil. cap. 1the examples of such as have performed the same before them with glory and success. Because, besides that the same stirreth up in them an emulation of their glory, and cheereth them on with hopes of like success: it also clean taketh off that, which is the common excuse of sloth and neglect of duty, the pretension of Impossibility. The Apostle therefore, being to confirm the mindes of these Hebrews with constancy and patience in their Christian course, against all discouragements whatsoever; setteth before them (in the whole former Chapter) a multitude of examples of the famous worthies of former times: who by the strength of their faith had both done and suffered great things with admirable patience and constancy, to their immortal honour upon earth, and eternal happiness in heaven. To the end, that compassed with such a cloud of witnesses, they might think it a shame for them to hang back, and not to dare (especially having withal so rich a crown, laid ready at the goal for them, to invite them thereunto,) to run with all possible cheerfulness that race, which they had seen so many so happily to have run before them, vers. 1. of this Chapter.
2. Yet this great cloud of examples they were but to look through (as the Medium) at another and higher example; that of the bright Sun of righteousness himself, Iesus Christ: whom they are to look upon, as the proper object, to terminate their thoughts; and whereon finally to fix their meditations. Looking unto Iesus, &c. vers. 2. Which example, recommended to them first from the compleatness of the person, (who is at both ends of the race, the Alpha and the Omega; the foreign, and the foreign too; he that giveth the law at the start, and he that giveth the prize at the goal; the author and the finisher of our faith,) is there also further amplified. First, from the things he suffered. Such, as then which none more grievous to flesh and blood; Torture, and Ignominy: the Crosse, and the Shame. Secondly, from the manner of his suffering. Not patiently only, enduring; but stoutly too, Despising them: He endured the crosse and despised the shame. Thirdly, from the issue and consequents of his sufferings, which were in lieu of the pain, Ioy; Of the shame, Glory. To intimate to these Hebrews, that as it behoved Christ, Luke 24.26. 2 Tim. 2.13.first to suffer, and then after to enter into his glory: So, if they desire to come to the same end he did, and to reign with him; they must resolve to take the same way he did, and to suffer with him.
3. Having used so strong a motive, and pressed it so high; you would think the Apostle needed not (as to this particular,) to say any more. But for all this he cannot yet manum de tabulâ: he insisteth still, and in this verse urgeth the due and frequent consideration of it, as a matter not only of great benefit, but of some kinde of necessity also. Considering the strong oppositions and contradictions, that a Christian man after he hath entred the lists is like to meet withal before he come to the goal; all which he must encounter with and overcome, or else he loseth his labour and the prize: it is but needful he should muster up all his strength, summon and recollect all the arguments he can think of, that may put courage into him, and a resolution to go on undauntedly not-with-and not to faint. Against which fainting under the crosse, there being no other cordial of so powerful and present operation, towards the relieving of the drooping spirits of a weak Christian; as is the meditation of Christ and his sufferings: foreign, Therefore consider him, saith the Apostle, that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, that ye be not wearied and faint in your mindes.
4. In which words, the Apostle, out of his great care of their souls health, dealeth with these Hebrews, as a faithful and skilful Physitian should do. He sheweth them the danger they are in, and the means how to prevent it. The danger, a spiritual foreign, fainting and weariness of soul under the crosse. The means of prevention, frequent and effectual meditation of the crosse of Christ. The parts then of the Text are two: (answerable to those two main parts, whereunto the whole method of Physick are after a sort reducible;) foreign, and foreign, the one whereof treateth of the disease, the other of the remedy. We begin with the former, the disease: the former I mean, in the nature of the things, (though not so in the placing of the words;) and so first to be handled, in these words foreign, &c. That ye be not wearied and faint in your mindes. The full importance whereof we shall the better understand, by the explication of these four things. 1. The Malady; 2. The inward Cause thereof; 3. The Part affected; and 4. The Subject, Person, or Patient.
5. For the Malady, foreign: that's Weariness, as we translate it. There is no burden, but a man would be willing to be eased of it, if he might: and all afflictions are burdens. But such a degree of Weariness, as implyeth no more then the bare desire of rest and ease, falleth short of the notion of the word foreign. It importeth such an extream lassitude, as bereaveth a man of all his strength, putteth him beyond his patience, and taketh him quite off his work. When he is so overcome with the pressure of the burden that lieth sad upon him, that he doth succumbere oneri, is not able to bear it any longer, but would be rid of it, if he could, at any rate: that's foreign. Or when he is so enfeebled by sickness, that he cannot in any wise brook to do the offices of his vocation as formerly he hath done, nor is able to stir out of his bed at all, nor well able to stir himself in it: that is foreign too. The word is by S. Iames applyed to the state of a sick person, brought very low,James 5.15. and in some extremity of sickness, under small hope of recovery. The prayer of Faith, when other remedies fail, foreign, shall save the sick, saith he there.
6. So that the danger here feared by the Apostle was, lest these Hebrews meeting with such terrible difficulties, as Lions in the way, (not such Lions, as Solomons sluggard only fancieth to himself without cause,Prov. 26.13. or perhaps but pretendeth to excuse his sloth thereby; Bug-bears indeed rather then Lions; but very Lions indeed, strong temptations, and lasting afflictions and persecutions:) lest I say meeting with such affronts and encounters in their Christian race, they should be quite beaten out of the field, ere they came to the end of their course. Lest being terrified by their adversaries, they should not be able to hold out in their holy profession to the end; nor to maintain faith and a good conscience with that courage, constancy, and perseverance they ought: but lose the goal and the crown, for want of finishing the course, they had so happily begun.
7. But then Secondly it may be demanded; Of this malady what might be the true Cause? (The inward Cause I mean: for what is the outward Cause, is apparent enough; to wit, the Cross.) or whence should this foreign, this spiritual weariness proceed? That is answered in the Text too, in the word foreign. (The translations express it most what by faintness of minde:) The same word being again used a little after at ver. 5. and there also translated after the same manner; foreign, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord: neither faint, when thou art corrected of him. The word properly importeth the loosening, slackening, or dissolving of something that before was well knit together, fast and strong. The strength and firmness of a body, whether natural or artificial, consisteth much in the union of the parts, well aforeign. Eph. 4.16.compacted and knit together, and all the joynts strung fast one to another. By the slackning, loosening, or disjoynting whereof, the body on the other side, commeth to be as much weakned. A house, ship, wagon, plough, or other artificial body, be the materials never so strong: yet if it be loose in the joynts, when it is put to any stress (as we call it) to any use where the strength of it is like to be tried, it will not endure it, but be ready to fall one piece from another.
8. Much of a mans strength, whereby he is enabled to travel and to work, lieth in his loynes and knees, and in his armes and hands. Whence it is that by an usual trope in most languages, and so in the Scriptures too, those parts are very often used (Genua, and Lacerti &c.) to signifie strength: and weakness on the contrary usually described by the luxation of those parts. The phrase is very frequent in Homer; when one of the Grecian or Trojan Chieftains had given his adversary some deadly or desperate wound, that he was not able to stand but fell on the ground; to express it thus, —foreign, as much as to say,So Ezek. 7.17. Nahum. 2.10. He loosened his knees. Even as it it said of Belshazzar Dan. 5. when he was sore affrighted with the hand-writing upon the wall; that the joynts (bindings or ligatures) of his loines were loosed, and his knees smote one against another. So for the hands and arms; we meet in the Scriptures often with such like phrases as these: that by such or such means (as the occasion required,) such or such mens hands were either strengthened, or weakned. So it is said of Isbosheth 2 Sam. 4. when he heard of the death of Abner, general of his army, his hands were weakned. See Ezek. 21.7.The like we finde in many other places, as namely in Ier. 38.4. where, in the Greek translation, the word foreign the same with this in the Text, is used. Not to seek farr, a little after in this very chapter, we have both the metaphors together in one verse [Wherefore lift up the hands that hang down, and strengthen the feeble knees,] foreign, vers. 12. which is another compound word from the same Theme. As if he should say, Support the hands that hang loose, and have not strength enough to lift up themselves: and binde up the palsy knees, that are not well knit up in the joynts, and so are unable to bear up the body.
9. There is another Metaphor likewise, often used by David, and sometimes elsewhere: which, as it very well fitteth with the word foreign, so it serveth very well to express that feebleness or faintness of spirit, (arising from fear and consternation of minde, when great troubles come upon us,) whereof we now speak: namely, the melting of the heart, or soule.
10. In Psal. 107. They that go down to the sea in ships, when the stormy wind ariseth and lifteth up the waves,Psal. 107.26. so as the vessel is tossed up and down, and the men reel to and fro, and stagger like drunkards, and are at their wits end: he saith of them, that their very soul melteth away because of the trouble. Psal. 119.28.My soul melteth away for very heaviness: in another Psalm, speaking of himself, and his own troubles. In the 22. Psalm, he joyneth this and the other Metaphor both together; I am powred out like water, Psal. 22.14.and all my bones are out of joynt: my heart also in the midst of my body is even like melting wax. And so doth the Prophet Esay also: describing the great miseries and terrours that should be at the destruction of Babylon by the Medes and Persians, he saith,Esay 13.6. So also Nahum 2.10. that by reason thereof all hands shall be weakned, (foreign again in the Greek,) and all hearts shall melt.
11. For even as wax, which while it is hard will abide hard pressing, and not yield or take impression,) when it is chafed or melted hath no strength at all to make resistance: And as the Ice, when the waters are congealed in a hard frost, is of that firmness, that it will bear a loaden cart uncrakt; but as soon as a warme thaw hath fretted and loosened it, dissolveth into water, and becometh one of the weakest things in the world, (it is a common proverbe among us, As weak as water:) so is the spirit of a man. So long as it standeth firmly knit to God by a stedfast faith, (as David saith, O knit my heart unto thee, that I may fear thy name!Psal. 86.11.) and true to it self,Horat. 2. Sat. 7. (in seipso totus teres atque rotundus,) by adhering to honest, vertuous, and religious principles: it is of impregnable strength against all outward attempts whatsoever.Horat. 3. Car. 3. Si fractus illabatur orbis: if the weight of all the calamities in the world should come rushing upon him at once, it would be able to bear up under them all, and stand unruined amidst all those ruines. Prov. 18.14.The spirit of a man is of strength enough to sustain all his infirmities.
12. But if the strength that is in us be weakness; oh how great is that weakness? If our spirits within us, which should be as our life-guard to secure us against all attempts from without, be shattered and dis-joynted, through distrust in God; or by entertaining fears and irresolutions so enfeebled, that it is not able to stand out when it is fiercely assaulted, but yieldeth the fort to Satan and his temptations: that is to say in plain terms, if when any persecution or tribulation ariseth, we be scandalized and fall away either from our Christian faith or duty, forsake our standing, and shrink from the rules of true Religion or a good conscience: this is the foreign and the foreign, the weariness and faintness of minde spoken of in the Text.
13. We now see the Malady, both in the Nature, and in the Cause: both what it is, and whence it groweth. We are in the next place to consider the Part affected. That the word foreign discovereth: the Minde, or the Soul; (That ye be not wearied and faint in your mindes; or souls.) And this occasioneth another doubt: how it should be possible that worldly tribulations, which cannot reach beyond the outer-man, (in his possessions, in his liberty, in his good name, in his bodily health or life,) should have such an operation upon his nobler part the soul, as to cause a faintness there. Our Apostle speaketh of resisting unto blood in the next verse, as the highest suffering that can befal a man in this world. And our Saviour telleth his friends Luke 12. that when their enemies have killed their bodies, Luke 12.4.(and from suffering so much his very best friends, it seemeth, are not exempted;) they have then done their worst: they can proceed no farther; they have no power at all over their souls.
14. It is most true: they have not. And happy it is for us, and one singular comfort to us, that they have not. Yet our own reason, and every dayes experience can teach us, that outward bodily afflictions, and tribulations, do (by consequent, and by way of sympathy and consent, and by reason of union; though not immediately and directly,) work even upon the soul also. As we see the fancy quick and roaving, when the blood is enflamed with choler; the memory and apprehension dull in a Lethargy: and other notable changes and effects in the faculties of the soul very easily discernable, upon any sudden change or distemper in the body. David often confesseth, that the troubles he met withal, went sometimes to the very heart and soul of him. [The sorrows of my heart are enlarged.Psal. 25. —94. —55. —42. In the multitude of the troubles (or sorrows) that I have in my heart. My heart is disquieted within me. Why art thou so vexed O my soul, and why art thou so disquieted within me? &c.] Take but that one, in Psal. 143. The enemy hath persecuted my soul—&c. Therefore is my spirit vexed within me, 143.2, 3.and my heart within me is desolate.
15. For the Soul then (or Minde) to be affected with such things as happen to the body, is natural: and such affections, (if not vitiated with excess, or other inordinacy) blameless and without sin. But experience sheweth us farther (too often, God knoweth,) that persecutions, afflictions, and such other sad casualties as befall the body, (nay, the very shadows thereof, the bare fears of such things and apprehensions of their approach, yea even many times when it is causeless,) may produce worse effects in the soul; and be the causes of such vitious weariness and faintness of minde, as the Apostle here forewarneth the Hebrews to beware of. Not to speak of the Lapsi, & Traditores, & others that we read of in former times; and of whom there is such frequent mention in the ancient Councels, and in the writings of the Fathers of the first ages, and the Histories of the Church: How many have we seen even in our times; who having seemed to stand fast in the profession of Truth, and in the performance of the offices of Vertue, and duties of Piety, Allegiance, and Iustice before tryal; have yet when they have been hard put to it, (ey, and sometimes not very hard neither,) falling away, starting aside like a broken bow: and by flinching at the last,Psal. 78.57. discovered themselves to have been but very weak Christians at the best, if not rather very deep hypocrites.
16. It will sufficiently answer the doubt, to tell you, That persecutions and all occurrences from without, are not the chief causes, (nor indeed in true propriety of speech, any causes at all,) but the occasions onelyonly, of the souls fainting under them. Temptations they are I grant; yet are they but temptations: and it is not the temptation, but the consenting to the temptation, that induceth guilt. If at any time any temptation, either on the one hand, or the other, prevail against us: S. Iames teacheth us where to lay the fault. Not upon God by any means: for God tempteth no man. James 1.13, 14.No nor upon the Devil neither, (let me adde that too; it were a sin to bely the Devil in this) for though he be a tempter, and that a busie one, foreign the Tempter, yet that is the worst he can do; he can but tempt us, he cannot compel us.Mat. 4.3. When he hath plyed us with all his utmost strength, and tried us with all the engines and artifices he can devise: the will hath its natural liberty still, and it is at our choise whether we will yield or no. But every man when he is tempted, saith he, (tempted cum effectu, that is his meaning; so tempted as to be overcome by the temptation,) is tempted of his own lust, foreign, drawen away and entised. Drawen away by injuries and affrightments from doing good: or entised by delights and allurements to do evil. It is with temptations on the left hand, (for such are those of which we now speak) even as it is with those on the right: yeeld not, and good enough. My son, saith Solomen, if sinners entise thee, consent not, Prov. 1. It may be said also proportionably,Prov. 1.10. and by the same reason; My son, if sinners affright thee, comply not. The common saying, if in any other, holdeth most true in the case of Temptations: No man taketh harme but from himself.
17. And verily in the particular we are now upon, of fainting under the cross: it is nothing but our own fears, and the falseness of a mis-giving heart, that betraieth us to the Tempter, and undoeth us. aEpictet. enchir. cap. 5.foreign— &c. as he said. It is not any reality in the things themselves so much that troubleth the minde, as our bOpinio est, quae nos Cruciet. Senec. ad Marciam. cap. 19. Prov. 21.25. Joh 14.27.over-deep apprehensions of them. All passions of the minde, if immoderate, are perturbations, and may bring a snare: but none more or sooner then fear. The fear of man bringeth a snare, saith Solomon. And our Saviour, Let not your hearts be troubled, neither fear: as if fear were the greatest troubler of the heart. And truly so it is: No passion, (not Love, no nor yet Anger it self, though great obstructers of Reason both,) being so irrational, as Fear is. It maketh us many times do things quite otherwise then our own reason telleth us we should do. It is an excellent description, that a wise man hath given of it Wisdom 17. Fear, Wisd. 17.11.saith he, is nothing else, but the betraying of the succours which reason offereth. He that letteth go his courage, forfeiteth his reason withall: and what good can you reasonably expect from an unreasonable man?
18. Seest thou then a man faint-hearted? Suspect him, (I had almost said, Conclude him,) false-hearted too. It is certainly a very hard thing, if at all possible, for a Coward to be an honest man: or a true friend either to God or man. He is at the best but foreign,Jam. 1.8. a double-minded man: but God requireth simplicity and singleness of heart. He hath a good minde perhaps to be honest, and to serve God and the king, and to love his neighbour and his friend: and if he would hold him there, and be of that minde alwayes, all would be well. But his double-minde will not suffer him so to do. He hath a minde withall to sleep in a whole skin, and to save his estate, if he can, howsoever. And so he becometh foreign, fickle and unstable in his wayes; turneth as the tide turneth: there is no relying upon him; no trusting of him.Exod. 18.21. Iethro well considered this, when he advised Moses to make choise of such for Magistrates, as he knew to be men of courage; they that were otherwise, he knew could not discharge their duty as they ought, nor continue upright. And when our Saviour said to his Disciples Luke 12. I say unto you my friends, Luke 12.4.Fear not them which kill the body: he doth more then intimate that such base worldly fear cannot well consist with the Lawes of true friendship.
19. I insist somewhat the more upon this point, because men are generally so apt to pretend, to their own failings in this kind, the outward force offered by others: supposing they have said enough, to excuse what they have done; when they have said, they did it by compulsion. As if any man could be master of anothers will, or enforce a consent from him without his consent: which carrieth before it a manifest contradiction. Indeed if we suffer what we should not, without any our provocation; that is not our fault, because it is not foreign, it is aMalum quod fit in nos, sive de nobis, non est imputandum nobis: caeterùm quod fit & à nobis, jam non sine culpâ est voluntatis. Bern. de grat. & lib. arb.not in our power to help it. But if we do what we should not, upon what inducement so ever we do it, we must bear the greatest part of the blame our selves: because it is our doing still.
20. For a man then, when he hath been frighted out of his conscience and his duty, and done amiss, to say, I was compelled to do it against my minde, I could neither will nor chuse, and the like: are, as the most common, so the most vain and frivolous excuses in the world. Not only false, but ridiculously false, and such as carry their confutation along with them: fig-leaves so thin, that any body may see through them. For tell me, thou that sayest thou wast compelled to do it bVel…e planè convincimur, quod non fieret si nollemus. Bern. Ibid.against thy minde: if thou hadst been minded to have withstood the pretended compulsion, and hadst continued in that minde; whether such compulsion could have taken effect or no? Thou that sayest, thou couldest neither will nor chuse: was it not left to the choise of thine own will, whether thou wouldest do that which was required, or suffer that which was threatned? and didst not thou then, when thou mightest have chosen, if thou wouldest, to suffer the one; rather chuse to do the other? Qui mavult, vult. Sure it is the will evermore, that determineth the choise in every deliberation. It is manifestly absurd therefore, for any man to pretend that thing to have been done by him against his will; which (how hard soever the choise was,) he yet chose to doe.
21. If these allegations would serve the turn, or that we had any good warrant to decline suffering evil by doing evil: those glorious Martyrs and Confessours, so much renowned through the Christian world for their patience and constancy in suffering persecution, and laying down their lives for the testimony of saith and a good conscience; were a generation of very silly men. Who never had the wit to save their lives, when they might have done it with some little compliances with the times; and if their consciences had smitten them for so doing, licked themselves whole again by pleading Compulsion.
22. Unless then we will condemn those blessed souls, whose memories we have hitherto honoured, not onelyonly of extream folly; but of foul self-murder too, in being prodigal of their lives to no purpose, and casting away themselves wilfully when they needed not: we must needs acknowledge, That there lyeth a necessity upon us,Matth. 16.24. if we will be Christs disciples and friends, to deny our selves, our lusts, our interests, our fortunes, our liberties, our lives, or if there be any thing else that can be dearer to us: rather then for fear of any thing that can befal in any of these, consent to the least wilful violation of our bounden duty either to God or our Neighbour; That no force or violence from without, no straits we can be driven into by any conjuncture of whatsoever circumstances, can make it either necessary for us to sin, or excusable in us to have sinned; That we are bound by vertue of Christs both example and command, to take up any cross that it is his good pleasure to lay before us, and to bear it as long as he pleaseth, with patience, cheerfulness, & courage; That if we grow weary of it, and faint in our mindes, so as to cast about how we may work our selves from under it by such means, as we have no clear warrant from him for: we must answer wholly for it our selves, and cannot justly charge it upon any other person or thing, then upon our own selves, and our own base cowardise. That for us.
23. To return now to these Hebrews: the Persons in the Text; and the last of the four particulars proposed from that part of the Text. It may be demanded, with what reason the Apostle could entertain the least suspition of such mens shrinking and fainting under the Cross: who had already given such good proof of their constancy and courage, in some former, and those no small conflicts neither? Nay, of whose Christian patience and magnanimity himself had given a very ample testimony a little before in this very Epistle:Heb. 10.32. —4. how they had endured a great fight of afflictions, and had been made a gazing-stock both by reproaches and afflictions, suffered the spoiling of their goods; and not onelyonly suffered it, (patience perforce,) but suffered it joyfully. Yet you see for all this, how urgent he is upon them still, in the remainder of that tenth Chapter, in the whole next, and in a great part of this, both before, in, and after the Text; by admonitions, exhortations, examples, and other topiques, artifices, and insinuations of great variety: not to cast away their confidence; to hold fast their profession without wavering; to run with patience the race that was set before them; to take heed they be not wearied, and faint in their mindes.
24. Not to say positively, that he had of late observed some thing in some of them, that might perhaps give him some particular cause of suspicion more then ordinary: although there be some passages in his discourse (especially at the fifth verse) that seem to carry a sound, as if something were not right with them. If we do but look upon some general considerations only: we shall see reasons enough, why the Apostle (notwithstanding his approving of their former carriage,) might yet be jealous over them with a godly jealousie in this matter.
25. First, he knew not (persecutions ever attending the Church as her lot) but they might; and (Christ having foretold great tribulations shortly to come upon that nation) it was very like they should meet with more and stronger trials, then they had ever yet done. It was indeed, and by the Apostles confession, a great trial of afflictions they had undergone already; and they had received the charge bravely, and were come off with honour and victory: so that that brunt was happily over. But who could tell, what trials were yet behinde? These might be, for ought they knew, (or he either,) but the beginnings of greater evils to ensue. You have not resisted unto blood, saith he, in the very next words after the Text: as if he had said, You have fought one good fight already, and quit your selves like men: I commend you for it, and I bless God for it. Yet be not high-minded, but fear: you have not yet done all your work; your warfare is not yet at an end. What if God should call you to suffer the shedding of your blood for Christ, as Christ shed his blood for you? you have not been put to that yet: but you know not what you may be. If you be not in some measure prepared even for that also, and resolved (by Gods assistance) to strive against sin, and to withstand all sinful temptations, even to the shedding of the last drop of blood in your bodies, if God call you to it: you have done nothing. He that hateth not his life, as well as his house and lands, for Christ and his kingdom,Luke 14.26. is not worthy of either. Sharp or long assaults may tire out him, that hath endured shorter and easier. But he that setteth forth for the goal, if he will obtain, must resolve to devour all difficulties, and to run it out: and not to faint or slug, till he have finished his course to the end; though he should meet with never so many Lions in the way.
26. Secondly, so great is the natural frailty of man, so utterly averse from conforming it self entirely to the good will and pleasure of Almighty God, either in doing or suffering: that, if he be not the better principled within, (strengthened with grace in the inner man,) he will not be able to hold out in either; but every sorry temptation from without will foil him, and beat him off. Be not weary of well-doing, Gal 6.9.saith the Apostle Gal. 6. for in due time we shall reap if we faint not, foreign, (the same word again▪) Weariness and faintness of minde we are subject to (you see) in the point of well doing: But how much more then, in the point of suffering; which is of the two much the sorer trial?
27. Marvel not, if ordinary Christians, such as these Hebrews were, might be in danger of fainting under the Cross: when the most holy and eminent of Gods servants, whose faith and patience and piety are recorded in the Scriptures as exemplary to all posterity, have by their failings in this kinde bewrayed themselves to be but men, foreign, subject to passions of fear and distrust, even as others. Abraham the father of the faithful, of so strong faith and obedience, that he neither staggered at the promise of having a son (though it were a very unlikely one, at that age) through unbelief; nor stumbled at the command of sacrificing that son, (though it were a very hard one, having no more,) through disobedience: yet coming among strangers, upon some apprehensions that his life might be endangered if he should own Sarah to be his wife: his heart so far mis-gave him through humane frailty, that he shewed some distrustfulness of God, by his doubting and dissimulation with Pharaoh first, and after with Abimelech. Gen. 13. and 20.
28. And David also, so full of courage sometimes, that he would not fear, though ten thousands of people, whole armies of men, should rise up against him and encompass him round about;psal. 3.6. —27.3. though the opposers were so strong and numerous, that the earth should be moved and the mountains shake at the noise thereof:—46.2, 3. yet at some other times, when he saw no end of his troubles, but that he was hunted like a partridge upon the mountains day after day,1 Sam. 26.20. and chased from place to place perpetually that he could rest no where; his heart began to melt and to faint within him. And although he had a promise from God of succeeding in the kingdom, and an anointing also (as an earnest) to confirm the promise: yet it ran strongly in his thoughts nevertheless, that he should perish one day by the hands of Saul. Insomuch that in a kinde of distrust of Gods truth and protection,1 Sam. 27.1. he ventured so far upon his own head, (never so much as asking counsel at the mouth of God,) as to expose himself to great inconveniences, hazards, and temptations, in the midst of an hostile and idolatrous people.Psal. 77.6. —12. The good man was sensible of the imperfection, acknowledgeth it an infirmity and striveth against it Psal. 77.
29. But of all the rest, S. Peter (foreign, as Chrysostome often stileth him) a man of great boldness and fervency of spirit, betrayed the greatest weakness. Who, after so fair warning so lately given him, and his own so confident profession of laying down his life in his masters quarrel: yet within not many hours after, when he began to be questioned about his Master, and saw (by the malicious and partial proceedings against the Master) how it was like to goe with him, if he were known to have such a near dependance upon him; became so faint-hearted, that (contrary to his former resolutions and engagement) he not only dis-owned him, but with oaths and imprecations forswore him.Mark. 14.71. Such weakness is there in the flesh, where there is yet left some willingness in the spirit: that without a continual supply of grace, and actual influence of strength from above, there is no absolute stedfastness to be found in the best of the sons of men.
30. Yet is not our natural inability to resist temptations (though very great,) the cause of our actual faintings so much, (because of the ready assistance of Gods grace to relieve us, if we would but be as ready to make use of it:) as a third thing is. To wit our supine negligence, that we do not stand upon our guard as it concerneth us to do, nor provide for the encounter in time: but have our a—In pace, ut sapiens, parâret idonea bello. Hor. 2. saty. 2.armes to seek, when the enemy is upon us. As Ioseph in the years of plenty laid in provision against the years of dearth: so should we, whilest it is calm, provide for a storm; and whilest we are at ease, against the evil day. It is such an ordinary point of wisdom in the common affairs of life, for men to be provided of all necessaries befitting their several occasions, before the time they should use them: that he is rather derided then pittied, that having time and means for it, neglecteth so to do. The grashopper in the fable had the merrier summer: but the pismire fared better in winter. If in our prosperity we grow secure, flattering our selves in our own thoughts,Psal. 30.6. &c. as if our hill were so strong that we should never be removed: if then God do but turn his face from us, yea, but a little, and send any little change upon us; we shall be so much the more troubled at the affliction when it cometh, by how much the lesse we expected it before. Our unpreparednesse maketh a very little affliction sometimes fall very heavy upon us; and then it foyleth us miserably, and soon tireth us out: and so we suffer by our own negligence.
31. To which adde in the fourth place, that which many times followeth upon such our neglect; Gods deserting of us; and withdrawing the ordinary support of his grace from us. And then as the Philistines over-mastered Sampson, when his strength was departed from him: so will temptations us, when we are left to wrestle with them by our own strength alone, without the special grace of God to assist. It is by Faith that we stand, if we do stand; (This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our Faith: 2 Cor. 1.24. 1 Joh. 5.4.) But it is by the grace and power of God, that our Faith it self standeth. Take that grace away, and our Faith faileth▪ and then our hearts fail: and then there is neither courage, nor patience, nor obedience, nor any thing else that good is, in us. At least, not in that measure, as to render our wayes (during that estate,) either acceptable to God, or comfortable to our selves: untill it shall please him to renew us unto repentance,Psal. 51.10. —12. to give us the comfort of his helpe again; and to stablish us afresh with his free spirit and grace.
32. Of whose most holy and wise dispensations, although we be neither able nor worthy to apprehend any other reason, then his own will, nor to comprehend that:Joh. 3.8. (for his spirit breatheth where and when it listeth, and we know not (antecedently) either why, Psal. 145.17.or how: yet are we well assured in the general, that the Lord is righteous in all his wayes, and holy in all his works. Yea, and we finde by the blessed consequents many times, that the very withdrawing of his grace is it self a special act of his grace. 1. As, when he hath thereby humbled us to a better sight and sence of our own frailty:2 Chro. 32.31 so was Hezekiah left to himself in the matter of the Embassadours that came from the King of Babel. 2. Or checkt us for our overmuch self-confidence: as Peters denial was a real rebuke for his over-bold protestation. 3. Or brought us to acknowledge with thankfulness and humility, by whose aforeign. Homer. II. foreign. Psal. 59.9. Gal. 6.1.strength it is that we have hitherto stood. (My strength will I ascribe unto thee, Psalm 59.) 4. Or taught us to bear more compassion towards our brethren and their infirmities, if they hap to be overtaken with a fault, and to restore them with the spirit of meekness: considering, that even we our selves are not such, as cannot be tempted. Or wrought some other good effect upon us some other way.
33. Sith then great and lasting afflictions are strong trials of mens patience and courage; and their inability to bear them, great through the frailty of nature is yet by their own personal default and supine negligence much greater; and without the support of Gods grace, (which as he is no wayes bound to give them, so he may, and doth when it pleaseth him, take from them,) their spirits are not able to bear up under the least temptation: you will grant the Apostle had great reason to fear, lest these Hebrews notwithstanding the good proof they had given of their Christian constancy in some former trials, should yet be weary and faint in their minds under greater sufferings. And consequently how it concerneth every one of us, whatsoever comforts we may have of our former sufferings and patience (whereof, unless God have the whole glory, our comfort sure will be the lesse;) yet to be very jealous of our own treacherous hearts, and to keep a constant watch over them that they deceive us not: not to be too high-minded or jolly for any thing that is past; nor too unmerciful censurers of our weaker brethren for their faintings and failings; nor too confident of our own future standing.
34. It ought to be our care rather at all times, especially in such times as threaten persecution to all those, that will not recede from such principles of Religion, Iustice, and Loialty, as they have hitherto held themselves obliged to walk by: to live in a continual expectancy of greater trials and temptations daily to assault us, then we have yet wrestled withal. And to give all diligence, by our faithful prayers and utmost endeavours, to arm and prepare our selves for the better bearing them, with such calm patience and moderation on the one side, and yet with such undaunted courage and resolution on the other side; as may evidence at once our humble submission to whatsoever it shall please God to lay upon us, and our high contempt of the utmost despite the world can do us.
35. For since every affliction (Ianus-like) hath two faces, and looketh two wayes; we should do well to make our use of both. It looketh backward, as it cometh from God: who layeth it upon us, as a correction for some past sin. And it looketh forward as it cometh from Satan and the World: who lay it before us, as a temptation to some new sin. Accordingly are we to entertain it. As it is Gods correction; by no means to despise it, (My son despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, the next verse but one:) but to take it up with joy, and to bear it with patience, and to profit by it to repentance. But as it is Satans temptation; by all means to resist it, with courage, ey and with disdain too. Resist it I say; but in that sence wherein such resistance is to be understood in the very next verse after the Text. That is to say, so to resist the temptation, by striving against that sin what ever it be, which the Tempter seeketh to drive us into by the affliction; that we should fight it out in blood: resolving rather to lose it all, were it to the last drop, then consent to the committing of that. Thus to lose our blood, is to win the day: And the failing so to do, is that weariness and faintness of minde and soul: of which our Apostle here speaketh, and upon which we have hitherto thus long insisted.
36. Yet dare I not for all that leave it thus, without adding a necessary caution: lest what hath been said be mis-understood, as if, when we are bidden not to faint under the Cross, we were forbidden to use any means or endeavours to remove it. No such matter. True it is, where no more is left to our choice, but one of the two, either Sin or Suffer; a right Christian should not (for shame) so much as take it into deliberation. Never demur upon it; it is a plain case: we must suffer. But where is a Medium, or third thing (as an out-let, or aforeign. Pythag. aur. carm.expedient) between both, as many times there is: nothing hindreth but we may, and reason would we should, make choise of that; and so neither sin, nor suffer. Lay that first as a sure ground, We must avoid sin, though we suffer for it: But that once layed, if we can then avoid suffering too, without sinning; why may we not, nay, why ought we not, to avoid both?
37. No man doubteth, but we may pray to be delivered from troubles; David doth it a hundred times: and if we do it not daily too, even as often as as we beg our daily bread, (our Saviour having contrived both petitions into the same prayer, we are too blame. And if we may pray for it; then no doubt, but we may endeavour it also. Though they look something alike in some other respects; yet in this one (at least) Wishes and Prayers are much unlike. Many things we may lawfully wish for, which we may not endeavour after! but sure, whatsoever we may lawfully pray for, we not only lawfully may; but are in conscience bound to use our best endeavours towards the effecting thereof. We do indeed but mock God, and prevaricate in our Prayers; if we be not in some measure careful to second them with our Endeavours.
38. Christ biddeth us deny our selves, and take up the Cross. True: deny our selves rather then deny him; and take up the Cross, when he laieth it before us so,—foreign. Nazianz orat. 20. as we cannot step beside it without sin. But he doth not bid us undoe our selves, when his service requireth it not; nor make our selves Crosses, when we need not.
39. Afflictions are usefull things, and many wayes beneficiall to Gods children. True: blessed be God, but no thanks to them, that they are so. That much good sometimes cometh from them, it is but meerly by accident, as to them: the true cause of those blessed effects is that over-ruling power, wisdom, and goodness of God; whereby he is able to bring light out of darkness, and can turn any evil, (even sin it self) to the good of his Children. But take afflictions precisely as they are in themselves, and in their pure naturals as we say; and there is no such loveliness in them, that any man should court them: Nor are they productive of any the least good, by any proper inherent vertue of their own. Nor are therefore such desirable things, as that any man can reasonably promise to himself any good effect from them, or any sound comfort under them, that shall wilfully draw them upon himself, when he might without sin avoid them.
40. We must not count life, liberty, or livelihood dear to us: but despise them all, yet even hate them, for Christs sake and the Gospels. True: where any of those stand in opposition against, or but in competition with Christ, or his Gospel, or any duty therein contained. In case of competition, despise them: in case of opposition hate them. Doe so, and spare not. But otherwise, and out of those Cases, these are the good blessings of God, wherewith he hath entrusted us, and for the expence whereof we are to be responsible: and ought not therefore to be so vile in our eyes, as that we should think we may trifle them away as we list, no necessity so requiring.
41. It is the most proper act of Fortitude to endure hardship. True: To endure it; but not to provoke it. We shall be like to finde in the world hardship enough, whereon to exercise our manhood; without seeking. It is a fool-hardy madness, (better beseeming such a Knight Errant as is described in the Romances, then a true Souldier of Christ, such as the Gospel setteth forth,) to roame abroad to seek adventures. Afflictions are Temptations, as was said: and it is a presumption both rash and absurd, having prayed to God not to lead us into temptations, to goe and cast our selves into them, when we have done. Fortitude is an excellent vertue doubtless: but so is Prudence too, as well as it; and Iustice, no less then either. And therefore the offices of different Vertues are so to be exercised, as not to hinder or destroy one another (for between aOmnibus inter se virtutibus am…citia. Senec. Epist. 110. —virtutum est inhonesta contentio. Bern. in Aununc. ser. 1. 2 Tim. 3.2.vertuous acts there must be, there can be, no clashing:) a man may without disparagement to his Fortitude, decline dangers, according to the dictates of Prudence: provided withall, that nothing be done, but what is according to the Rules of Iustice.
42. St Paul saith of some that he had to deal with, that they were unreasonable men. Possibly it may be our case, to have to doe with such men: Reason will not satisfie them; and it is not lawful for us to doe, or to consent to the doing of, any thing, but what is agreeable to reason. True: but this very thing is agreeable to reason, that to live at quiet among unreasonable men, we should sometimes yield to their unreasonable demands. But usque ad aras still: that must evermore be understood. In the pursuance of peace with our neighbours, where it is not to be had upon better terms, we may and ought by all seasonable compliances and condescensions to become omnia omnibus, all things to all men: even as Christ to make peace for us, condescended to be made like unto us in all things. And as his condescension for us had yet one, and but one exception (made like unto us in all things, yet without sin:) so should our condescension to them be likewise,Heb. 4.15. sin (and sin only) excepted, though upon conditions otherwaies hard and unequall enough.
43. The sum is. For the obtaining of peace, the preventing of mischiefs, the ridding of our selves and others from troubles; we may with a good conscience and without sin yield to the doing of any thing, that may stand with a good Conscience, and be done without sin. Nor it is to be interpreted, either as an effect of faint-heartedness, or as a defect of Christian patience and courage, so to doe: but is rather to be esteemed an act of Christian Wisdom and duty. But so to faint under the Cross, as to deny the Faith, to forsake our Religion, to violate the dictates of natural Conscience, to do any thing contrary to any of the rules of Iustice or Charity; or which we either know or suspect to be a sin; though it be for the shunning of any danger, or under the pretension of any necessity whatsoever: cannot consist with that nobleness of spirit and magnanimity, which becometh a worthy disciple of Christ.
44. I should have proceeded, according to my first intendment when I pitched upon this Scripture, (had there been room for it,) to have discoursed somewhat also, from the other part of the Text, concerning that which is therein prescribed as an especial Remedy of, or rather Preservative against, this faint-heartedness we have been all this while in hand with; to wit the Meditation of Christ and his sufferings. But all I shall have time now to do will be to give you the heads of those most useful and observable points, which I conceive to arise without much enforcement from the words.
45. First the Act in the verb here used, discovereth an excellent piece of Art, a rare secret in this mystery, a short and compendious, but withal a very effectual way, how to lighten such afflictions as lye sad upon us, to our apprehensions, thereby to make them the more portable: for afflictions are lighter or heavier according to our apprehensions of them. Ovid.Leve fit, quod benè fertur, onus. The original word is of more pregnant signification to this purpose, then translatours can render it: foreign. It importeth, not the bare consideration of a thing by it self alone; but the considering of it by weighing and comparing it with some other things of like kinde or nature, and observing the analogies and proportions between it and them. Certainly it would be of marvellous use to us, for the rectifying our judgements concerning those pressures which at any time are upon us, to render them less ponderous in our estimation of them: if we would duly compare them, either first with the intolerable weight of our sins, whereby we have deserved them; or secondly with the weight of those everlasting grievous pains in Hell, which by the sharpness of our short sufferings here, (if we make the right use of them, to be thereby humbled unto repentance) by the mercy of God we shall escape; or thirdly with that so exceeding and eternal weight of glory and joy in the kingdom of heaven, which by the free goodness of our God we expect in compensation of our light and momentany afflictions here; or fourthly, with the weight of those far greater and heavier tryals, which other our brethren and fellow-servants, either of our own or former times have undergone before us, and gone through them all with admirable patience and courage.
46. foreign. None of all these singly, but are of singular vertue towards the desired effect: but all of them together, if artly applyed, can hardly fail the cure. Especially if you adde thereunto that one ingredient more, which is alone here expressed, (indeed the most soveraign of all the rest) as the object of this analogie or consideration in the Text: to wit, the incomparable bitter sufferings of our ever blessed Lord and Master IESVS CHRIST.
47. Then farther, in this Object, as it is amplified in this short Text only, there are sundry particulars considerable. As namely, First, Who it was that suffered. Consider him: his Greatness, his Innocency, his Goodness. Secondly, how he suffered. foreign, he endured it also; not suffered it only. Consider him that endured such contradiction: endured it so willingly, so patiently, so cheerfully. Thirdly, from whom he suffered it. foreign, From sinners. Sinners, in their nature; sinful men: Sinners, in the Jews esteem; Heathen men: Sinners, in the inward constitution of their own hearts; Hypocrites and Malignants: Sinners, in their outward carriage toward him, and their undue and illegal proceedings against him; no just cause, no just proofs, but clamours and outcries, rayling, and spitting, and buffeting, and insulting, and all manner of contumelious and despiteful usage. Fourthly, what he suffered. foreign, such opposition and contradiction of sinners against himself. Contradictions manifold: of all sorts, and in all respects. To his person: denied to be the Son of God. To his Office: not received as the promised Messias. To his Doctrine: given out as a deceiver. To his Miracles: disgraced, as he had been a Conjurer, and dealt with the Devil. To his Conversation: defamed as a glutton and a wine-bibber, a prophane fellow and a sabbath-breaker, a companion of Publicans and Sinners. To his very life and beeing: Not him, but Barabbas; Away with him, Crucifie him, Crucifie him.
48. These are the heads. Many they are, you see; and of worthier consideration, then to be crowded into the later end of a sermon. Therefore I must of necessity forbear the enlargment of them at this present: leaving that for every man to do in his private meditations. For a conclusion then, let us all (I beseech you) first consider (actually and throughly consider,) him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself: and having so done, applyingly consider, whether it can be reasonable, or almost possible, for any of us to faint under our petty sufferings. What are we; the best of us, the greatest of us, to him? Or what our sufferings; the worst of them, the greatest of them to his? I have done.