A Christian Library, Chapter 15
CHAP. 15. How it increaseth their spiritual Wisdom.
12 OUr sufferings make us teachable, and increase in us spiritual Wisdom. He delivereth the poor in his affliction, and openeth their ear in trouble, Job 36.15. And again, He openeth the ears of men, even by their corrections, Job 33.16. We are best instructed, when we are most afflicted. Pauls blindness took away his blindness, & made him see more into the way of life, then could all his learning at the feet of Gamaliel. And what saith Naaman upon the cleansing of his Leprosie? Now I know there is no God in all the Earth, but in Israel. O happy Syrian that was at once cured of his Leprosie, and his misprision of God. The prodigal son regarded not his Fathers admonition, so long as he enjoyed prosperity: when we smart not; we believe not: & God is not feared; till felt: but that which makes the body smart, makes the soul wise. It is good for me (saith David) that I have been afflicted: that I may learn thy Statutes. We grow wise by evils, whereas prosperity besots us. Even to lose is some ways profitable; it makes a man wary. Yea, St. Basil calls want & penury, the inventor of all Arts: And St. Augustine, the Mistress of all Philosophy. The best wisdom is dearest bought: Algerius the Martyr could say out of experience, he found more light in the dungeon, then without in all the World.
The Scottish King, prisoner in Mortimers hole, learnt more of Christ, then in his Palace he could all his life. Gaspar Olevianus a Germane Divine sayes, I never learned how great God was, nor what the evil of sin was, to purpose; till this sickness taught me. There is a great deal of difference, saith Luther, between a Divine in outward pomp; and a Divine under the cross: neither could he understand some Psalmes, till he was in affliction: the Christs-cross is no letter, yet it taught him more learning then all the letters in the rowe. The cross opens mens eyes; as the tasting of honey did Ionathans. Yea, what will not affliction teach us when even the savagest Beasts are made quiet and docible with abating their food, and rest, or by adding of stripes?
That Beef-brain'd Fellow in Scaliger, had his eare bored with thunder: when nothing else would do it. Yea (saith Molineus) Bonifacius his silly reasons for the Popes Supremacy, did well enough, being propounded with a sword in the hand. Even as the Clay with Water, and the Iron with fire, are made pliable and apt to receive impression from the workman; even so when we are soaked in the floods of sorrow, and softened in the fire of affliction, we are aptest to receive the impression of Gods Law into our hearts, when he speaks unto us by his Ministers. If the Lord breaks us in pieces with the Plough of his Iustice, then let the Seedsmen (his Ministers) sow the seed of his Word; we shall receive it through the surrows of our eares, into the ground of our hearts, and grow up in wisdome, and saving knowledge. Or when the hard heart is grown'd to powder between the upper and the nether Milstone of the two Tables; it will see, and imbrace that counsel, which before it slighted. We heare, and read much, of the corruption of our natures, odiousness of our sins, necessity of a Saviour, sweetness of Gods love in Christ, &c. but we never fully apprehend these things, or taste how good the Lord is, till some sharp affliction comes. A man knows not where his house is ill covered t…ll Winter: Crosses are like pinching Frosts, that will search us: we learn to know our selves by that w… suffer.
Yea, Affliction so brings down our stomachs, that we can see even matter of thankfulness, where our former pride sound matter of complaining. And that which formerly had no more taste then the white of an Egg (viz. the glad tidings of the Gospel) is now such a spectacle of unspeakable mercy, as ravisheth our souls with admiration.
Many a good word is even spilt upon us, till God sets it on with his Rod: Naomi will not look home-ward, nor we Heaven-ward, till the Almighty have dealt very bitterly with us. Zippora falls presently to circumcizing her son, when she sees her husbands life lies upon it.
Were it not for temptations, we should be concealed from our selves: like the inchanted Ass in Lucian, which returned to his proper shape again when he saw himself in a Looking-glass. So long as we prosper, like those wives in Ieremy, Chap. 44.17, 18. We judge of things by their events, and raise our confidence according to the success we have: and so bless our selves, without being blest of God; like the Thief that applauded himself for merciful, because he had never kill'd any; and yet rather then lose a Ring, he would cut off the Travellers finger; but strong affections will give credit to weak reasons. O how blinde and partial are we, before affliction hath humbled us! even so stupid, that Narcissus-like, we are enamoured of our our own shadows: bragging, we discharge a good conscience, when indeed we discharge it quite away: and this righteousness in opinion, is almost the only cause of all unrighteousness.
Before want came, poverty was more contemptible then dishonesty: but now, it is disgraceful to none except Fools and Knaves. Then we could censure things indifferent, and pass by hainous crimes: now we are able to distinguish them, and so, judge righteous judgement. Before trouble came, we were either ungrounded in the principles of Religion, or unconscionable in the practice and by vertue of our mother-wit, could post and pass sin from our selves, unto some other; as Adam laid the fault upon Eve his wife, she upon the Serpent, and the Serpent upon God, Or excuse, or extenuate it: which (saith Fabius) is to double it.
As for original corruption, that never troubled us, which now we bewail as the Mother, and Nurse of all the rest: thinking it worthy our sighes, yea, of our tears, and not without need: it being the great wheel in the Clock, that sets all the wheels a moving: while it seems to move slowest. Though not one of a hundred taketh it sufficiently to heart: as not seeing the evil of it. But never did any truly and orderly repent, that began not here: esteeming it the most foul, and hateful of all, as David, Psal. 51.5. and Paul crying out of it, as the most secret, deceitful, powerful evil, Rom. 7.23, 24. And indeed, if we clearly saw the foulness, and deceitfulness of it, we would not suffer our eyes to sleep, nor our eye-lids to slumber, until a happy change had wrought these hearts of ours, (which by nature are no better then so many Sties of unclean Devils) to be habitations for the God of Iacob.
Apt we were to measure our own good by anothers want of it, and to sco…f at others infirmities: but now; other mens sins shall rather be the subjects of our grief, then of our discourse. Before fear of the law; shame of men, and such like base ends bare the greatest sway with us: yea, to please men, we could be like certain Pictures, that represent to divers beholders, at divers stations, divers forms: but now it is enough to regulate our thoughts, words and actions, that God seeth: and indeed where are brains; there needs no more. We read that Paphnutius converted Thais, and Ephron another famous Strumpet from uncleanness, only with this argument; That God seeth all things in the dark, when the doors are fast, the windows shut, the curtains drawn.
Before, too much devotion was made an argument of too little discretion: and mischief called vertue; when it was happy in the success: as with the Papists, the ostentation of the prosperity of their estate, is the best demonstration of the sincerity of their Religion: yea, and think also they have clipt the wings of prosperity (as the Athenians did the wings of Victory) that she cannot flie away. Before; we thought drinking and jovial company, the best receit to drive away sadness: but now, nothing like living well, as an Heathen hath confest. Once we thought Earth Heaven; but now we apprehend the World, and glory thereof to be (like a beautiful Harlot) a Paradise to the eye, a Purgatory to the soul.
Yea, he that before was indifferent in nothing but conscience, and no cause so bad, but he would undertake it for gain, or glory; & think it well done: As Satan prevails chiefly by deception of our reason, whereby we mistake vertue for vice, and vice for vertue: wherein he imitates Hannibal, who having overcome the Romans, put on their Armour, and so his Souldiers being taken for Romans, won a City by that policy: and to this purpose, what stone so rough, but he can smooth it? What Stuff so pitiful; but he can set a gloss upon it? Like a Bear, he can lick into fashion, the most mishapen and deformed lump: or like a Dog, heal any wound he can reach with his tongue: yea, what golden Eloquence will he whisper in our ear? What brazen impudence? What subtil shifts? What quaint qnircks? What cunning conveyances? What jugling, shuffling, and packing will he use, to make any sin feazable? (like the Hare, which if she dare not trust to her speed, she will try the turn;) and so on the contrary to discourage us in good; shewing each thing as it were in triangular Glasses among the Opticks, which will represent a way so foul, so deep, that 'tis impassable; as if it were all covered with Tapistry. But as he pleads now with Eloquence, so when he sees his time, he will speak with Thunder. Even such a man I say now, hath his eyes opened to discern good and evil, when God speaks, and when Satan; for Gods chastisements are pills made on purpose, to clear the sight: and vertue if it be clearly seen, moves great love and affection as Plato speaks. Yea, when to our cost, we can (Adam-like) see good from evill clearly; the subtile Serpent can deceive no longer: whereas before, we were easily deceived, and led away with the multitude, into innumerable errors. Yea, if the fish did know of the hook, or the bird did but see the net, though they have but the understanding of fishes, and birds; yet they would let the bait alone, fly over the net, and let the Fowler whistle to himselfe.
Thus Gods corrections, are our instructions: his lashes, our lessons: his scourges, our schoolmasters: his chastisements, our advertisements. And commonly the soul waxeth, as the body wayneth, & is wisest to prescribe, when the bones and sinews are weakest to execute: neither do we hereby become wise for our own souls good only, but affliction makes us wise and able to do others good also that are in any the like affliction. Blessed be God (saith Saint Paul) which comforteth us in all our afflictions, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any affliction, by the comfort wherewith we our selves are comforted of God, 2 Cor. 1.4. Yea, the whole Church, and every particular member thereof have their wisdom and knowledge improved, even by their greatest enemies. If Arrius and Sabellius had not vexed the Church; the deep mysteries of the Trinity had not bin so accurately cleared by the Catholike Doctors. Subtil Arguments well answered, breed a clear conclusion: Heresie makes men sharpen their wits the better to confute it; as Wormwood though it be bitter to the taste, yet it is good to clear the Eyes: yea, further, the very storms of persecution make us look to our Tackling; Patience: and to our Anchor; Hope: and to our Helm; Faith: and to our Card; the Word of God: and to our Captain; Christ: whereas security, like a calm, makes us forget both our danger and deliverer. Experience is the best Informer, which makes Martin Luther say, When all is done: tribulation is the plainest and most sincere Divinity. And another, most emphatically (shewing that knowledge is in many respects cumulative, aswel as original; like water, that besides his own spring-head, is fed with other springs and streams) That, Prayer, Reading, Meditation, and Temptations; make a Divine. So that to be altogether exempt from misery, is a most miserable thing.