A Christian Library, Chapter 38
CHAP. 38. That Christ and all the Saints are our Partners, and partakers with us in the Cross; yea, our sufferings are nothing in comparison of theirs.
4 WEe shall bear the Cross with more patience and comfort, if wee consider that Christ and all the Saints are our partners, and partakers therein; yea, thy sufferings are nothing in comparison of what others have suffered before thee. Look upon righteous Abel, thou shalt see his elder brother Cain had dominion and rule over him by Gods appointment, Gen. 4.7. Yea, in the next ver. thou shalt see him slain by his brother: After him look upon Noah, a most calamitous person as ever lived, as the Chronologer computes him: as for Lot, hee had his righteous soul vexed from day to day. Look upon Iob. thou shalt see that miseries do not stay for a mannerly succession to each other, but in a rude importunity throng in at once, to take away his children; substance, friends, credi…, health, peace of conscience, &c. leaving him nothing but his wife, whom the Devill spared on purpose to vex him, as the Fathers think: so that in his own apprehension, God was his mortall enemy; as hear how in the bitterness of his soul hee complains of his Maker, saying, Hee teareth mee in his wrath, hee hateth mee, and gnasheth upon mee with his teeth, he hath broken mee asunder, taken mee by the neck, and shaken mee to pieces, and set mee up for his mark: his Archers compass mee round about, he cleaveth my reins asunder, and doth not spare to pour out my gall upon the ground, he breaketh me with breach upon breach, and runneth upon me like a Giant, Iob 16. Now when so much was uttered, even by a none-such for his patience; what may we think he did feel, and indure? Look upon Abraham, thou shalt see him forced to forsake his Countrey, and Fathers house, to go to a place he knew not, to men that knew not him; and after his many removes, he meets with a famine, and so is forced into Aegypt, which indeed gave relief to him, when Canaan could not; shewing, that in outward things, Gods enemies may fare better than his friends: yet he goes not without great fear of his life, which made it but a dear purchase; then he is forced to part from his brother Lot, by reason of strife and debate among their Heardsmen ▪ after that; Lot is taken prisoner, and he is constrained to wage Warre with four Kings at once, to rescue his Brother; then Sarah his wife is barren, and he must go childlesse, untill (in reason) he is …ast hope: when he hath a Son, it must not onelyonly die▪ … himself must slay him. Now if that bosom wherein we all look to rest, was assaulted with so many sore trials, and so diverse difficulties, is it likely we should escape? Look upon Iacob, you shall see Esau strive with him in the wombe, that no time might be lost; after that you shall see him …lie for his life from a cruel Brother, to a cruel Uncle; with a … goes hee over Iordan, alone, doubtful, and comfortlesse; not like the son of Isaac. In the way he hath no bed, but the cold earth; no pillow, but the hard stones; no sheet, but the moist ai… ; no Canopy, but the wide Heaven: at last he is come far to finde out an hard friend, and of a Nephew becomes a servant; after the service of an hard Apprenticeship, hath earned her whom he loved; his wife is changed, and he is not onelyonly disappointed of his hopes; but forced to marry another against his will, and now he must begin another Apprenticeship, and a new hope, where he made account of …ruition: all which fourteen years he was consumed with heat in the day, with frost in the night: when he hath her whom he loves, she is barren: at last, being grown rich, chiefly in wives and children, accounting his charge, his wealth, he returns to his Fathers house, but with what comfort? Behold, Laban follows him with one troop, Esau meets him with another… both, with hostile intentions: not long after, Rachel, the comfort of his life, dieth; his children, the staffe of his age, wound his soul to death … proves incestuous, Iudah adulterous, Dina is ravished, Simeon and … are murtherous, Er and Onan are stricken dead, Ioseph is lost, Simeon imprisoned, Benjamin (his right hand) endangered, Himself driven by famine in his old age, to die among the Aegyptians; a people that held it abomination to eat with him: And yet before he was born, it was, Iacob have I loved, and before any of this befell him, God said unto him▪ Bee not afraid, I am with thee, and will do thee good, Gen. 28.15. And did so, even by these crosses, for that's my good (saith the Proverb) that doth me good. Now what Son of Israel can hope for any good daies, when he hears his Fathers were so evill? It is enough for us, if when we are dead, we can rest with him in the Land of Promise. Again, hear what David saith of himself▪ Thy arrows s…ck fast in me, and thy hand presseth me sore, Psal. 38.2. And see what cause he had so to say; what were these Arrows? To let passe those many that Saul shot at him, which were sharp and keen enough: and those other of Doeg, when he slew fourscore and five of the Priests, and the whole City of Nob, both man and woman, child and suckling, for shewing him kindness: Likewise Shim…i … carriage towards him; also his distresse at Ziglag, and those seventy thousand which perished by the Pestilence, upon his numbering the people, and the like. First, Nathan tells him from the Lord, that the sword should never depart from his house … and that he would raise up evill against him out of his own l…ins: here were as many Arrows as words. Again, the child which he had by Bathsheba was no sooner born, but it died, there was another Arrow: Tama… his daughter being marriageable, was deslowred by his own Son Amnon: there was two mo…e: Amnon himself, being in drink, was kill'd by Absalom at a Feast; there was another: This Absalom proves rebellious, and riseth in A…ms against his own Father, & makes him fly beyond Iordan, there was one more: He lieth with his Fathers Concubines in the sight of all Israel, there was another: And how much do you think, did these Arrows wound the Kings heart, and …ierce his very soul? Lastly, lock upon Lazarus, though Christs bosome f…iend? Ion. 11. thou shalt see him labour under a mortal disease, &c. though many soul… were gained to the Gospel, and cured by his being sick: Si amatur (saith Saint A…in) quomod… infirmatur.
Thus it were easie to shew the like of Ioseph, Ieremy, Daniel, Iohn Baptist, Peter, Paul, and all the generation of Gods Children, and servants ▪ For as the Apostle giveth a generall testimony of all the Saints in the Old Testament; saying, That some endured the violence of fire, some were …, others were tried by mockings and scourgings, bonds and imprsonments; some stoned, some hewen in sunder, some slain with the sword, some wandred up and down in Sheep-skins, and Goat-skins, being destitute, afflicted, and tormented; some forced to wander in Wildernesses, and Mountains, and hide themselvs in Dens, and Caves of the earth, being such as the world was …ot worthy of, Heb. 11. So Ecclesiasticall History gives the like generall testimony of all the Saints in the New Testament, and succeeding ages; fo… we read that of all the Apostles, none dyed a naturall death save onelyonly Saint Iohn, and hee also was banished by Domitian to Pathmos: and at another time, thrust into a Tun of seething Oil at Rome; … Tertullian, and Saint Ierome do report. As for other beleevers, there was such a multitude of them suffered Martyrdom for professing the Gospel; whereof some were stoned ▪ som crucified, som beheaded, some thrust through with spears, some burnt with fire, and the like; (for wee read of twenty nine severall deaths they were put unto) that Ecclesiasticall History makes mention of, two thousand which suffered the same day with Nicanor. And after that, in the time of the Ten persecutions, were such an innumerable company of innocent Christians put to death, and tormented; that Saint Ierome, in his Epistle to Chromatius and Heliodorus, saith, There was not one day in the whole year, unto which the number of five thousand M…rtyrs might not bee asc…ibed▪ except onelyonly the first day of Ianuary, who were put to the most exquisite deaths and torments, that ever the wit or malice, of Men or Devills c…uld invent to inflict upon them. Since which time, the Turke and the Pope have acted their parts in shedding the blood of the Saints, as well as the Iews and Roman Empeours, as appears in the Book of Acts and Monuments, and Rev. 17. where the holy Ghost hath foretold, that the Whore of Babylon should fight with the Lambe, and they that are on his side, called, and chosen, and saithfull, untill shee were even drunk with the blood of the Saints, and with the blood of the Martyrs of Iesus; which in part was fulfilled in England, under the Raign of Queen Mary: when in one year a Hundred seventy six persons of quality were burnt for Religion, with many of the common sort, and in France, where before these late bloody Massacr…, there were two Hundred Thousand which suffered Martyrdom, about Transubstantiation. And it is well known, that our Saviour Christs whole life, even from his Crad… to his Grave, was nothing else but a continued act of suffering; yea, hee was the person, upon whom, as upon one Center, all our sorrows met: Hee that had all, possessed nothing, except the punishment due to our sins, which lay so heavy upon him for satisfaction; th… it pressed his soul as it were to the nethermost …ll, and made him cry … in the anguish of his spirit, My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken mee? So that there is nothing befalls …s, b… hath befaine our betters before us: and to bee free from crosses and affl…tion…, is the priviledge onelyonly of the Church triumphant. For, qui non est Crucianus, non est Christianus, saith Luther: there is not a Christian, that carries not his Cross. It is onelyonly Heaven, that is above all windes, storms and tempests: Nor hath God (saith Bernard) cast man out of Paradice; for him to think to find out another Paradice in this world.
Now the way not to repine at those above us, is to look at those below us; we seldom or never see any man served with simple favours. It is not for every one to have his soul suck'd out of his mouth with a kiss, as the Iews tell of Moses.
It is a great word that Zazomen speak of Apollonius, that hee never asked any thing of God in all his life, that hee obtained not. This is not our Paradi…e, but our Purgatory; not a place of pleasure but a Pilgrimage; not a Triumph, but a Warfare: Wee cannot say of this world as Tully reports of Sir acuse in Sicily, and others of Rhodes, that not one day passeth in which the Sunshines not cl…a…ly on them. Yea, wee shink hee speeds well, that lives as it were, under a perpetuall Equinoctiall, having night and day equall, good and ill success in the same measure: for these compositions make both our crosses tolerable, and our blessings wholesom Wee that know not the afflictions of others, call our own the heaviest; every small current is a torrent, every brook, a River; every River a Sea: wee make our selves more miserable than wee need, than wee should, by looking upon our miseries in a multiplying glass; wee measure the length of time, by the sharpness of our afflictions, and so make minutes seem hours, and days months. If wee bee sick, and the Physician promises to visit us tomorrow with his best relief; with what a tedious longing do wee expect his presence? Our imagination makes every day of our sorrows appear like Ioshua's day, when the Sun stood still in Gibeon. The Summer of our delights is too short: but the Winter of our affliction goes slowly off. Wee are so sensible of a present distress, and so ingratefull for savours past, that wee remember not many years health so much, as one days sickness: it is true, former meals do not relieve our present hunger, but his cottage of ours ruins straight, if it be not new daubed every day, new repaired. What then? shall to-days Ague, make us forget yesterdays health? and all Gods former favours? if hee do not answer us in every thing; shall wee take pleasure in nothing? Shall wee slight all his blessings, because in one thing hee c…osseth us, whereas his least mercy is beyond our best merit? But if wee think of our deliverance from the fire of Hell; …his is cause enough to make us both p…tient and thankfull; though the trifles we… delight in bee taken from us. Lord take away what thou pleasest for thy glory and my good, so long as thou savest mee from the fire of Hell, and thy everlasting wrath. Neither is there a better remedy for impatience, than to cast up our receipts, and to compare them with ou… deserving… if thou lookest upon thy suffering…, thou shalt find them far easier than thy sins have deserved; nothing to what thy fellow Saints, and Christ, thy elder brother hath suffered before thee: at a Lyons den, or a fiery furnace, not to turn t…ile, were a commendation worthy a Crown: do but compare thy own estate with theirs, and thou shalt find cause to bee thankfull that thou art above any, rather than of envy or malice, that any is above thee, to domineer and insult over thee. Yea, compare thine own estate with thine enemies, thou shalt see yet greater cause to bee thankfull; for if these temporary dolors which God afflicts his people with, are so grievous to thee; how shall thine and Gods enemies (though they suggest to themselvs that God is all mercy, as if hee wanted the other hand of his justice) endure that devouring fire, that everlasting burning? Isa. 33.14. Psal. 68.21. Doth he make bloody wayls on the backs of his Children? and shall bastards escape? doth hee deal thus with his Sons; what will hee do with his Slaves? cannot all the obedience of his beloved ones bear out one sin against God, as wee see in Moses, David, Zachary, &c. Where will they appear that do evill, onelyonly evill, and that continually? The meditation whereof may bee of some use to thee: Thales beeing asked how adversity might best bee born? answered, By seeing our Enemies in worse estate than our selves.