Obj.We fear them only as God's instruments.Answered.
I know you will say that it is only as God's instruments that you fear them, and that if you were certain of his favour, and were not first afraid of his wrath, you should not fear the wrath of men.Answ.By this you may see then what it is to be disobedient, and to cherish your fears of God's displeasure, and to hinder your own assurance of his love, when this must be the cause of, or the pretence for, so many other sins. But if really you fear them but as the instruments of God's displeasure; 1. Why then did you no more fear his displeasure before, when the danger from men did not appear? you know God never wanteth instruments to execute his wrath or will. 2. And why fear you not the sin which doth displease him more than the instruments, when they could do you no hurt were it not for sin?3. And why do you not more fear them as tempters than as afflicters? and consequently why fear you not their flatteries, and enticements, and preferments, and your prosperity, more than adversity, when prosperity more draweth you away to sin? 4. And why fear you not hell more than any thing that man can do against you, when God threateneth hell more than human penalties? 5. And why do you not apply yourselves to God chiefly for deliverance, but study how to pacify man? why do you with more fear, and care, and diligence, and compliance, apply yourselves to those that you are afraid of, if you fear God more than them? Repent and make your peace with God through Christ, and then be quiet, if it be God that you are afraid of: your business then is not first with the creature, but with God. 6. And if you fear them only as God's instruments, why doth not your fear make you the more cautiously to fly from further guilt, but rather make you to think of stretching your consciences as far as ever you dare, and venturing as far as you dare upon God's displeasure, to escape man's? Are these signs that you fear them only as the instruments of God's displeasure? or do you see how deceitful a thing your heart is? Indeed man is to be feared in a full subordination to God, 1. As his officers, commanding us to obey him; 2. As his executioners, punishing us for disobeying him; 3. But not as Satan's instruments, (by God's permission,) afflicting us for obeying him, or without desert. Rom. xiii. 3, 4, "For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same; for he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doth evil." Would you have the fuller exposition of this? It is in 1 Pet. iii. 10-15, "For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile; let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace and ensue it. For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayers; but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil. And who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good? But and if ye suffer for righteousness' sake, happy are ye; and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled; but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts; and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. Having a good conscience, that whereas they speak evil of you, as of evil-doers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ. For it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well-doing than for evil-doing." See also 1 Peter iv. 13-15.[347]
Direct.V. Either you fear suffering from men as guilty or as innocent; for evil-doing, or for well-doing, or for nothing. If as guilty and for evil-doing, turn your fears the right way, and fear God, and his wrath for sin, and his threatenings of more than men can inflict; and acknowledge the goodness of justice both from God and man: but if it be as innocent or for well-doing, remember that Christ commandeth you exceedingly to rejoice; and remember that martyrs have the most glorious crown: and will you be excessively afraid of your highest honour, and gain, and joy? Believe well what Christ hath said, and you cannot be much afraid of suffering for him. Matt. v. 10-12, "Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you."[348]And will you fear the way of blessedness and exceeding joy? Matt. x. 17-19, "Beware of men, for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues, and ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them—But take no thought," &c. You are allowed to beware of them, but not to be over-fearful or thoughtful of the matter. Ver. 22, 23, "And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake; but he that endureth to the end shall be saved. But when they persecute you in this city, fly to another."—Fly, but fear them not, with any immoderate fear: ver. 39, "He that findeth his life shall lose it, and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it." Luke xviii. 29, 30, "Verily I say unto you, there is no man hath left house, or parents, or brethren, or wife, or children, for the kingdom of God's sake, who shall not receive manifold more in this present time, and in the world to come, life everlasting." Can you believe all this, and yet be so afraid of your own felicity? Oh what a deal of secret unbelief is detected by our immoderate fears! 1 Pet. iv. 12-16, 19, "Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial, which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you: but rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified. But let none of you suffer as an evil-doer—Yet if any man suffer as a christian, let him glorify God on that behalf—Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God, commit the keeping of their souls to him in well-doing, as unto a faithful Creator." There is scarce any point that God hath been pleased to be more full in, in the holy Scriptures, than the encouraging of his suffering servants against the fears of men; acquainting them that their sufferings are the matter of their profit and exceeding joy; and therefore not of too great fear.
Direct.VI. Experience telleth us that men have never so much joy on earth as in suffering for the cause of Christ; nor so much honour as by being dishonoured by men for him. How joyfully did the ancient christians go to martyrdom! many of them lamented that they could not attain it: and what comfort have Christ's confessors found, above what they could ever attain before![349]and how honourable now are the names and memorials of those martyrs,who died then under the slanders, scorn, and cruelty of men! Even the papists that bloodily make more, do yet honour the names of the ancient martyrs with keeping holidays for them, and magnifying their shrines and relics; for God will have it so, for the honour of his holy sufferers, that even that same generation that persecute the living saints, shall honour the dead, and they that murder those they find alive, shall honour those whom their forefathers murdered: Matt. xxiii. 29-31, "Woe unto you, scribes and pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous: and say, if we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them of the blood of the prophets." Comfort and honour attend the pain and shame of the cross. Acts v. 41, "They departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name." Acts xvi. 25, "Paul and Silas sang praises to God at midnight in the prison and stocks," when their backs were sore with stripes. It is written of some of the christians that were imprisoned by Julian, that they would not forbear in the emperor's hearing as he passed by, to sing, "Let God arise, and his enemies shall be scattered."
Direct.VII. Love better the holy image of God upon your souls, and then you will be glad of the great helps to holiness which sufferings do afford. Who findeth not that adversity is more safe and profitable to the soul than prosperity? especially that adversity which Christ is engaged to bless to his servants, as being undergone for him? Rom. x. 3-5, "We glory in tribulation also; knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope, and hope maketh not ashamed." God "chasteneth us for our profit that we may be partakers of his holiness: now no chastisement for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous; nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them that are exercised thereby," Heb. xii. 10, 11. Moses "esteemed the very reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt: and therefore rather chose to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season," Heb. xi. 25, 26. It is but "now for a season, and if need be, that we are in heaviness through manifold temptations, that the trial of our faith being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, might be found unto praise, and honour, and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ," 1 Pet. i. 6, 7. Who is it that knoweth himself, that feeleth not a need of some afflictions? to awake us from our drowsiness, and quicken us from our dullness, and refine us from our dross, and wean us from the world, and help us to mortify the flesh, and save us from the deceits of sin?
Direct.VIII. Remember that sufferings are the ordinary way to heaven. Love heaven better, and your sufferings will seem lighter, and your fear of them will be less.[350]Christ hath resolved on it, that "if any one come to him, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be his disciple: and whoever doth not bear his cross and follow him, cannot be his disciple: and whoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be his disciple," Luke xiv. 26, 27, 33. "In the world we shall have tribulation, but peace in him," John xvi. 33. "Through much tribulation we must enter into the kingdom of God," Acts xiv. 22. "If so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified with him. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory that shall be revealed in us," Rom. viii. 17, 18. "Therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God," 1 Tim. iv. 10. In preaching the gospel, Paul saith, he "suffered as an evil-doer even unto bonds, but the word of God is not bound," 2 Tim. ii. 9. "I suffer these things," saith he, "nevertheless I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him against that day," 2 Tim. i. 12. "Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution," 2 Tim. iii. 12. Our patience in sufferings is the joy of our friends, and therefore they are not too much to be feared. 2 Thess. i. 4, 5, "So that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God, for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure: a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer."[351]Therefore take the conclusion of all from God, Rev. ii. 10, "Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried: and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life." Phil. i. 28-30, "And in nothing terrified by your adversaries, which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that of God: for to you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake." And shall we fear so great a gift?
Direct.IX. Remember how small and short the suffering will be, and how great and long the glorious reward. It is but a little while, and the pain and shame will all be past; but the glory will be never past: what the worse now is Stephen for his stones, or John Baptist for being beheaded, or Paul for his bonds and afflictions, which did every where abide him, or any holy martyr for the torment and death which they underwent? Oh how the case is altered with them, now God hath wiped away all tears from their eyes! Are we so tender that we cannot endure the grief that is but for a night, when we know that joy will come in the morning? Psal. xxx. 5. "For this cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.[352]For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal," 2 Cor. iv. 16-18. "Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith; but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him," Heb. x. 35-38.
Direct.X. When you are delivered from the power of the devil himself, what cause have you tofear his instruments? Can they do more than he? If Goliath the champion and the general be overcome, the common soldiers are not like to overcome us.
Direct.XI. Are you better than your Lord? look to him, and be confirmed. "The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord. It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household," Matt. x. 24. "Let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God; for consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied, and faint in your minds," Heb. xii. 1-3.
Direct.XII. Be of good cheer: our Lord hath overcome the world, John xvi. 33. And shall we fear inordinately a conquered world? Yea, he overcame it by suffering, to show us that by suffering we shall overcome it. He triumphed over principalities and powers (greater than mortals) "on the cross," Col. ii. 15. And therefore "all power in heaven and earth is given to him," Matt. xxviii. 19, and he is "Lord both of the dead and living," Rom. xiv. 9, and "is made Head over all things to the church," Eph. i. 21, 22. And so, though "for his sake we be killed all the day long, and counted as sheep to the slaughter, yet in all these things we are more than conquerors, through him that loved us;" that is, we have a nobler victory than if we conquered them by the sword.
Direct.XIII. Think how little your suffering is in comparison of what your sin deserved, and your Lord hath freely saved you from. Should a man grudge at the opening of a vein for his health, who deserved to have lost his life? Can you remember hell which was your due, and yet make a great matter of any thing that man can do against you?
Direct.XIV. Remember that to sin through fear of suffering, is to leap into hell to escape a little pain on earth. Are you afraid of man? Be more afraid of God. Is not God more terrible? "It is a fearful thing to fall into his hands: for he is a consuming fire."[353]O hear your Lord. "And I say to you, my friends, be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do: but I will forewarn you whom you shall fear: fear him which after he hath killed, hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, fear him," Luke xiii. 4, 5. If their fire be hot, remember that hell is hotter: and that God is the best friend, and the dreadfullest enemy.
Direct.XV. Remember that you shall suffer (and it is like as much) even here from God, if you escape by sin your suffering from men. If you sin to escape death, you shall die when you have done; and oh! how quickly! And how much more joyful it is to die in Christ, than a little after unwillingly to part with that life, which you denied to part with for your Lord! and what galls will you feel in your guilty conscience both in life and at your death! So that even in this life, your fear would drive you into greater misery.
Direct.XVI. Think of the dangerous effects of your immoderate fear. It is the way with Peter to deny your Lord: yea, the way to apostasy, or any wickedness which men shall drive you to by terrors. If you were where the Turk is now tyrannizing among christians, if you overcome not your fear, he might overcome your fidelity,[354]and make you turn from Jesus Christ: and that is the sin which the apostle so dreadfully describeth, Heb. x. 26, 27, 29, "If we sin wilfully, (that is, wilfully renounce our Lord,) after the acknowledgment of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin, but a fearful looking for of judgment, and fire which shall devour the adversary." Oh how many have been drawn by the fear of men, to wound their consciences, neglect their duties, comply with sin, forsake the truth, dishonour God, and undo their souls. And often in this life they do as poor Spira did, who, by sinning through the fear of man, did cast himself into melancholy and self-murdering despair. Your fear is a more dangerous enemy to you than those that you fear are. "The fear of man bringeth a snare: but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe. Many seek the ruler's favour, but every man's judgment cometh of the Lord," Prov. xxix. 25, 26. Fear is given to preserve you: use it not to destroy you.
Direct.XVII. Believe and remember God's special providence, extending to every hair of your head, and also the guard of angels which he hath set over you. "Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father: but the very hairs of your head are numbered: fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows," Matt. x. 29, 30. Oh that this were well believed and considered! Psal. xxxiv. 7, "The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them."
Direct.XVIII. Think what a vile dishonour it is to God to have his creature, even breathing dirt, to be feared more than him! As if he were less powerful to do good or hurt to you than man, and were not able or willing to secure you, so far as to see that no man shall ever be a loser by him, or any thing which he suffereth for his cause![355]Isa. lvii. 11, "And of whom hast thou been afraid or feared, that thou hast lied, and hast not remembered me, nor laid it to thy heart. Have I not held my peace even of old, and thou fearest me not?" How did Daniel and the three confessors honour God, but by fearing him more than the king and the flaming furnace: saying, "We are not careful to answer thee in this matter: if it be so, the God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace; and he will deliver us out of thy hand, O king: but if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods," &c. Dan. iii. 16-18. Daniel would not cease praying thrice a day openly in his house, for fear of the king, or of the lions. "Moses forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured as seeing him that is invisible," Heb. xi. 27. "So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me," Heb. xiii. 6.[356]
Direct.XIX. Remember the dangers which you have been saved from already; especially from sin and hell. And is an uncircumcised Philistine more invincible than the lion and the bear?
Direct.XX. Remember the great approaching day of judgment, where great and small will be equal before God; and where God will right all that were wronged by men, and be the full and final avenger of his children! He hath promised, though "he bear long, to avenge them speedily," Luke xviii.7, 8. Can you believe that day, and yet not think that it is soon enough to justify you fully and finally, and to make you reparations of all your wrongs? Cannot you stay till Christ come to judge the quick and the dead? You will then be loth to be found with those that, as Saul, made haste to sacrifice, because he could not stay till Samuel came; whose souls "drew back, because they could not live by faith." Matt. x. 26, "Fear them not therefore; for there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, and hid that shall not be known." 2 Thess. ii. 6-10, "Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; and to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance, &c. When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and admired in all them that believe."
Direct.XXI. Remember that the fearful and unbelieving shall be shut out of heaven, Rev. xxi. 8; that is, those that fear men more than God, and cannot trust him with their lives and all, but will rather venture upon his wrath by sin, than on the wrath of man.
Direct.XXII. Turn your fear of the instruments of the devil into pity and compassion to men in such lamentable misery; and pray for them as Christ and Stephen did: foresee now the misery that is near them. When you begin to be afraid of them, suppose that just now were the day of judgment, and you saw how they will then tremble at the bar of God (as conscience sometimes makes some of them do, at the hearing or remembering of it; as Felix before Paul): see them as ready to be sentenced to the fire prepared for the devil and his angels, as Matt. xxv. Can you fear him that is near such endless misery, whom you should condole and pity (as the ancient martyrs used to do)? 1 Pet. iv. 17, "What shall the end" of the persecutors "be, and where shall the ungodly sinners appear, if judgment begin at the house of God, and the righteous be saved with so much ado?"
About the fear of death, I have written largely already in my "Treatise of Self-denial," and in the "Saints' Rest," and in "The Last Enemy Death," &c. and in "The Believer's Last Work." Therefore, I shall here pass it by.[357]
Sorrow is planted in nature to make man a subject capable of government, by making him capable of punishment, that he might be kept from sin by the fear or sense of that which nature hath made its punishment: and that the beginnings of pain might help to prevent the sin that would bring more; and might drive the wounded soul to its remedy; or by sympathy might condole the misery of others.
Sorrow or grief, in itself considered, is neither morally good nor evil; but it is a natural passion; and evil, that is, hurtful, to him that hath it; but good, that is, an apt, conducible means to the universal or higher ends of government to which the Creator and Universal King hath planted it in man: the same may be said of all capacity of pain and natural misery.
Mere sorrow, in itself considered, is a thing that God commandeth not, nor taketh pleasure in. Sorrow for our natural or penal hurt, is in itself no duty, but a necessary thing. God doth not command it, but threatens it; therefore there is no moral good in it. God will not command or entreat men to feel when they are hurt, or mourn under their torment; but will make them do it whether they will or no: therefore humble souls must take heed of thinking they merit or please God merely by sorrowing for their sufferings. But yet sorrow for misery may accidentally become a duty and a moral good. 1.Ratione principii, by respect to the principle it proceedeth from. As when it is, (1.) The belief of God's threatenings which causeth the sorrow. (2.) When it cometh from a love to God. 2.Ratione materiæ, for the matter's sake, when it is the absence of God, and his favour, and his Spirit, and image, which is the misery that we lament (which therefore savoureth of some love to God); and not mere fleshly, sensitive suffering. 3.Ratione finis, in respect of the end; when we sorrow with intent to drive our hearts to Christ our Saviour, and to value mercy and grace, and to recover us to God. 4.Ratione effecti, in respect of the effect, when these forementioned ends become the fruits of it.[358]
Sorrow for sin is a duty and moral good. 1. Formally in itself considered: for to be sorrowful for offending God, and violating his law, essentially containeth a will to please God and obey his law. 2. It must be also made good, by a good principle; that is, by faith and love. 3. By a right end; that it be to carry us from the sin to God. 4. And by a right guide and matter; that it be sin indeed, and not a mistaken, seeming sin, that is it we sorrow for. But sorrow for sin (materially) may be made sinful, 1. By an ill end and formal reason; when we mourn not for sin as sin, but as one sin hindereth another, or as it marred some ill design. 2. And by the effect; when it doth but sink men in despair, or torment them, and not at all separate them from the sin. 3. When it cometh not at all from any love to God, or care to please him, but only an unwillingness to be damned, and so it is lamented only as a means of damnation; which, though it be a sorrow, positively neither good nor evil, yet it is evil privatively.
But it is the passion of grief as in its excess that I am now to speak against. And it is in excess, 1. When we grieve for that which we ought not at all to grieve for; that is, either for some good, or for a thing indifferent that is neither good nor bad; both which come from the error of the mind. 2. When we grieve too much for that which we may grieve for lawfully in some measure; that is, for our own afflictions or penal suffering. 3. When we grieve too much for that which we are bound to grieve for in some measure: as (1.) For our sin. (2.) For our loss of the favour of God, or of his grace and Spirit. (3.) For other men's sin and suffering. (4.) For the sufferings of the church, and calamities of the world. (5.) For God's dishonour.[359]
Though it is not easy to have too much sorrow for sin, considering it estimatively; that is, we can hardly take sin for a worse evil than it is, and accordingly grieve for it; yet it is oft too easy to have too much sorrow for sin, or any other evil intensively as to the greatness of the passion. And thus sorrow for sin is too great, 1. When it distracteth the mind, and overturneth reason, and it is made unfit for the ends of sorrow. 2. When it so cloudeth and clotheth the soul in grief, that it maketh us unfit to see and consider of the promise, to relish mercy, or believeit; to acknowledge benefits, or own grace received, or be thankful for it; to feel the love of God, or love him for it, to praise him, or to mind him, or to call upon him; when it driveth the soul from God, and weakeneth it to duty, and teacheth it to deny mercy, and sinketh it towards despair; all this is too much and sinful sorrow: and so is all that doth the soul more hurt than good; for sorrow is not good of itself, but as it doth good, or showeth good.
Direct.I. Keep your hearts as true and close to God as possible, and make sure of his love, that you may know you have not an unregenerate, miserable soul to mourn for, and then all other grief is the more curable and more tolerable. Be once able to say that God is on your side, that Christ, and the Spirit, and heaven are yours, and then you have the greatest cordial against excessive grief that this world affords. If you say, How should this be done? I answer, that it is opened in its proper place. No marvel if sorrow overwhelm that soul, that is in the chains of sin, under the curse of God, as soon as awakened conscience comes to feel it. And it is most miserable when it hath the smallest sorrow; there being some hope that sorrow may drive it home to Christ. Therefore if thou have been a secure, unhumbled, carnal wretch, and God be now beginning to humble thee, by showing thee thy sin and misery, take heed, as thou lovest thy soul, that thou drive not away necessary, healing sorrow and repentance, under pretence of driving away melancholy or over-much sorrow; thy smart tendeth to thy hopes of cure.
Direct.II. Renew not the wounds of conscience by renewed, wilful, gross sin. For sin will bring sorrow, especially if thou have any life of grace to feel it: even as falls, and breaking the bones, bring pain. Obey carefully if thou wouldst have peace.
Direct.III. Be well acquainted with the general grounds of hope in the mercy of God, the office and death of Christ, and the free, universal offer of pardon, grace, and life in the new covenant. Abundance of grief doth dwell in many humbled souls, through the ignorance of these general grounds of comfort; which would vanish away if these were known.
Direct.IV. Know well the true nature and use of godly sorrow; how it is but a means to higher grace, and a thing which may exceed, and not a thing that we should stop in, or think we can never have too much of it. Desire it but in its place, and to its proper ends.
Direct.V. Know well the nature and excellency of those higher graces which sorrow tendeth to; even love, and thankfulness, and delight in God, and fruitful obedience. And then you will be carried after these, and will learn to hate the sorrow that hindereth them, and to cherish that sorrow which leadeth you up to them, and to value it but as a means to them.
Direct.VI. Manage all your affairs, especially those of your souls, with prudent foresight; and look not only on things as they appear at hand.[360]Judge not by sense, but by reason; for sense cannot foresee, but pleaseth itself at present with that which must be bitterness in the end. Thus, carnal delight is the common way to overwhelming sorrow. He that would not have the pain and sickness of a surfeit to-morrow, must not please his appetite against reason to-day. Poison will gripe and kill never the less for tasting sweet. You must foreknow how that which you take will work, and what will be the effects of it, and not only how it tasteth, if you would escape the pain. The drunkard thinketh not of his vomiting, and poverty, or shame, or sickness, and therefore causeth them. There is no sorrow so intolerable as that of a guilty soul, that is passing in terror to the bar of God, and thence to everlasting pain. Foresee this sorrow in your most pleasant sin; and remember that when you are tempted to sin, you are tempted to sorrow; and then you may prevent it. And in all your particular actions use a foreseeing judgment, and ask what is like to be the end, before you enter on the beginning. Most of our sorrows come for want of this, and express themselves by, Had I known, or had I thought of this, I had prevented it. Do nothing which you may foresee must be repented of; for repentance is sorrowful; and the weightier the case the deeper the sorrow. How easy and comfortable a life and death might men attain, if they would not buy a little forbidden, poisonous pleasure, with the price of future pain and sorrows! And if they did not foolishly and over-tenderly refuse those holy, necessary, medicinal sorrows, by which their greater, overwhelming, and undoing sorrows should have been prevented!
Direct.VII. Look always on your remedy when you look on your misery; and when you find any dangerous sin or sign in you, presently consider what is your duty in order to your recovery and escape. It is an ordinary thing with peevish, distempered natures, when they are reproved for any sin, to resist the reproof by excuses as long as they can; and when they can resist no longer, then they fall into despairing lamentations, if they are so bad, what then shall they do! and in the mean time never set themselves against the sin, and cast it off and return to their obedience, that their comforts may return: they will do any thing rather than amend. The reason why God convinceth them of sin is that they may forsake it, and they are sooner brought to any thing than to this: convince them of their pride, or malice, or worldliness, or disobedience, or slothfulness, or passion, and they will sooner sink in sorrow and despair than they will set upon a resolved reformation. This is it indeed which the devil desireth; he can allow you grief and desperation, but not to amend. But is this best for you? Or is it pleasing to God? Deny not your sin, but see withal that there is enough in Christ for your pardon and deliverance. He hath appointed you means for your present recovery, and he is ready to help you. Ask what is your duty for your cure, and set upon it without delay.
Direct.VIII. Remember your causes of joy as well as your cause of sorrow, that each may have their due, and your joy and sorrow may both be suited to their causes: to which end you must labour for the exactest acquaintance with your own condition, that possibly you can attain to.[361]If you are yet ungodly, your sorrow must be greater than your joy, or else it will be irrational joy, and pernicious to your souls, and increase your after-sorrow. And you must not overlook so much cause of comfort as is afforded you in God's patience, and the offers of a Saviour, and of pardon, and grace, and life in him. If you are truly godly, you must so mourn for sin, and weakness, and wants, and crosses, and afflictions of yourselves and others, as never to forget the invaluable mercies which you have already received, your part in Christ and life eternal, your beginnings of grace, and your reconciliationwith God, which allow and command you greatly to rejoice: and remember that no humiliations will excuse you from the observation and acknowledgment of all these mercies.
Direct.IX. Read over all the commands of Scripture that make it your duty to rejoice in the Lord, and exceedingly to rejoice; and make as much conscience of them as of other commands of God. The same God commandeth you to rejoice, who commandeth you to hear, and pray, and repent. See Psal. xxxiii. 1; Phil. iii. 1; iv. 4; Rom. v. 2; Phil. iii. 3; 1 Thess. v. 16; 1 Pet. i. 6-8; iv. 13; Heb. iii. 6; 2 Cor. vi. 10; Rom. xii. 12; Psal. xxxii. 11; cxxxii. 9, 16; Rom. xiv. 17; Psal. v. 11.
Direct.X. Befriend not your own excessive sorrows, by thinking them to be your duty, nor suspect lawful mirth and joy as if it were a sin, or a thing unbecoming you. For if you take your sin for your duty, and plead for it, and your duty for your sin, and plead against it, you are far from the way of amendment and recovery. And yet it is common with an afflicted, weak, impatient soul, to fall into liking (though not in love) with their inordinate sorrows, and to justify them, and think that it is their duty still to mourn. If these sorrows were of God, we should be more backward to them: and if our comfort were not more pleasing to God, our natures would not be so backward to them as they are.
Direct.XI. Love no creature too much, and let it not grow too sweet and pleasant to you: else you are preparing for sorrow from the creature. Love it less, and you shall sorrow less. All your grief for crosses and losses, in goods, estate, in children and friends, in reputation, liberty, health, and life, doth come from your over-loving them. Value them but as they deserve, and you may easily bear the loss of them. He that maketh them his idol or felicity, will grieve for the want of them, or the loss of them, as a man undone that cannot live without them. But he that hath placed his happiness and hopes in God, and valueth the world no further than it tendeth to his ultimate end, will no further grieve for the want of it, than as he misseth it to that end. 1 Tim. vi. 10, "The love of money and coveting after it, doth pierce men through with many sorrows." Mark what you find your heart too much set upon and pleased in, or hoping after, and take it off quickly if you love your peace.
Direct.XII. Learn to be pleased and satisfied in the will of God. Trust your heavenly Father who knoweth what you need. It is some rebellion or crossness of our wills to the will of God, which causeth our inordinate griefs and trouble. Because we cannot bring our wills to his will, nor make our reason stoop unto his wisdom, nor think well of his providence, unless he will suit it to our conceits, and interests, and lusts, therefore so far as we are carnal we are ordinarily displeased and grieved at his ways. If we might have had our own wills about our estates, or names, or children, or friends, or health, or life, we should not have been troubled (at the present). But because it is not our way, but God's way, that is taken, nor our will, but God's will, that is done, therefore we are grieved and discontent, as if his way and will were worse than ours, and God had wanted his foolish children to be his counsellors, or they could have chosen better for themselves!
Direct.XIII. Afflict yourselves no further than God or man afflict you; but remember, if you think that you have too much already against your wills, how foolish and self-contradicting it is to lay a great deal more wilfully upon yourselves.[362]Is it slanders or reproach that men afflict you with? Let it be so; that toucheth not the heart. Is it poverty, crosses, or losses, that God afflicteth you with? Let it be so; that toucheth not the heart neither. Is it loss of children and friends; or is it pain and sickness? I confess these are sore; but yet they do not touch the heart. If they come thither it is your doing; and (though thither they should come moderately) if they are immoderate, it is your own sinful doing. It is you that grieve, and make the heart ache; God and man did but make the flesh ache. If others hurt your bodies, will you therefore vex your minds? Will you pierce through your hearts, because they touch your name or goods? If so, remember which part of your sorrow is of their making, and which is of your own: and can you for shame go beg of God or man to ease the grief which you yourselves are causing, and wilfully continue it while you pray against it? And why lament you that which you cause and choose? It is a shame to be wilfully your own tormentors.
Direct.XIV. Abhor all that tendeth to take down the power and government of reason (that is, all feebleness and cowardice of mind, and a melancholy, a peevish, passionate disposition): and labour to keep up the authority of reason, and to keep all your passions subject to your wills; which must be done by christian faith and fortitude. If you come once to that childish or distracted pass, as to grieve and say, I cannot help it; I know it is sinful and immoderate, but I cannot choose; if you say true, you are out of the reach of counsel, advice, or comfort. You are not to be preached to, nor talked to, nor to be written for: we do not write directions to teach men how to touch the stars, or explain the asperities or inequalities of the moon, or the opacous parts of Saturn, or to govern the orbs, or rule the chariot of the sun. If it be become a natural impossibility to you, doctrine can give you no remedy; but if the impossibility be but moral, in the weakness of reason, and want of consideration, it may by doctrine, consideration, and resolution be overcome. You can do more if you will than you think you can.[363]How came you to lose the command of your passions? Did not God make you a rational creature, that hath an understanding and will to rule all passions? How come you to have lost the ruling power of reason and will? You would take it for a disparagement to be told that you have lost the use of your reason; and is it not a principal use of it to rule the passions, and all other inferior, subject powers? You say you cannot choose but grieve! But if one could give you that creature which you want or desire, then you could choose: you could rejoice, if one could restore you that child, that friend, that estate which you have lost. But God, and Christ, and heaven, it seems, are not enough to cure you: if you must have but them you cannot choose but grieve! And what hearts have you then that are thus affected? Should not those hearts be rather grieved for? God will sometime make you see, that you had more power than you used.
Direct.XV. Observe the mischiefs of excessive sorrow, that you may feel what reason you have to avoid it. While you know not what hurt is in it, you will be the more remiss in your resisting it: I shall briefly name you some of its unhappy fruits.
The ill effects of sinful grief.
1. It is a continual pain and sickness of the mind. (This you know by feeling.) 2. It is a destroyer ofbodily health and life. For "worldly sorrow worketh death," 2 Cor. vii. 10. Prov. xvii. 22, "A merry heart doth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones." 3. It putteth the soul out of relish with its mercies, and so causeth us to undervalue them, and consequently to be unthankful for them, and not to improve them. 4. It destroyeth the sense of the love of God, and lamentably undisposeth the soul to love him: and therefore should be abhorred by us were it but for that one effect. 5. It destroyeth the joy in the Holy Ghost, and unfitteth us to obey that command of God, Rejoice continually. 6. It contradicteth a heavenly mind and conversation, and hindereth us from all foretastes of the everlasting joys.[364]7. It undisposeth us to the excellent work of praise: who can ascend in the praises of God, while grief doth oppress and captivate the soul? 8. It destroyeth the sweetness of all God's ordinances, hearing, reading, prayer, sacraments; we may force ourselves to use them, but shall have no delight in them. 9. It hindereth the exercise of faith, and raiseth distrust, and sinful doubts and fears, within us. 10. It causeth sinful discontents and murmurings at God and man. 11. It maketh us impatient, peevish, froward, angry, and hard to be pleased. 12. It weakeneth the soul to all that is good, and destroyeth its fortitude and strength: for it is the "joy of the Lord that is our strength," Neh. viii. 10, 13. It hindereth us in the duties of our callings: who can do them as they should be done, under the clog of a disquiet mind? 14. It maketh us a grief and burden to our friends, and robs them of the comfort which they should have in and by us. 15. It maketh us unprofitable to others, and hindereth us from doing the good we might; when we should be instructing, exhorting, and praying for poor sinners, or minding the church of God, we are all taken up at home, about our own afflictions. 16. It maketh us a stumblingblock and scandal to the ungodly, and hindereth their conversion, while the devil setteth us before the church doors, to keep away the ungodly from a holy life, as men set scarecrows in their fields and gardens, to frighten away the birds. 17. It dishonoureth religion, by making men believe that it is a melancholy, vexatious, self-tormenting life. 18. It obscureth the glory of the gospel, and crosseth the work of Christ, his Spirit, and ministers, who all come upon a message of great joy to all nations; and proclaim glad tidings to the worst of sinners; much more to the sons of God, and heirs of life. 19. It misrepresenteth God himself, as if we would persuade men, that he is a hard and cruel master, that none can please, though they do all through a Mediator upon a covenant of grace; and that it is worse with us since we served him than before; and that he delighteth in our grief and misery, and is against our peace and joy; and as if there were no joy nor pleasure in his service. Such hideous doctrine do our lives preach of God, when those that profess to fear and seek him, do live in such immoderate grief and trouble. 20. And it too much pleaseth the devil, who is glad to torment us here, if he may not do it in hell; and especially do make ourselves the executioners upon ourselves, when he is restrained; when he can boast and say, Though I may not vex thee, I will persuade thee to vex thyself. These are the fruits of sinful sorrows.
Direct.XVI. Govern your thoughts, and suffer them not to muse and feed on those objects which cause your grief. No wonder if your sore be always smarting, when you are always rubbing on it in your thoughts. Of this I spake more fully even now.
Despair is the contrary to hope.[365]There is a despair that is a duty, and a despair that is a sin, and a despair that is indifferent, as being but of natural and not of moral kind. Despair is a duty, when it is contrary to the sinful hope before described; that is, 1. When we despair of any thing which God hath told us shall never come to pass: for we are bound to believe his word: as that all the world should be saved or converted, or that our bodies should not die and perish, and many such like. 2. It is a duty to despair of ever attaining a good end by means, or upon terms, which God hath told us it shall never be attained by: and so it is a great duty for an unregenerate person to despair of ever being saved without regeneration, conversion, and holiness; and to despair of ever being pardoned or saved, if he live after the flesh and have not the Spirit of Christ, and repent not unfeignedly of his sin, and be not a new creature, and crucify not the flesh with its affections and lusts.[366]Such a despair is one of the first things necessary to the conversion of a sinner, because the false hopes of being pardoned and saved without regeneration, is the present hinderance to be removed.
Despair is a sin, when it is contrary to any hope which God commandeth us (so it be not only a negative despair, or bare not hoping, which in sleep and other times may be innocent, but a positive despair, which concludeth against hope). As, 1. Particular despair of the benefit of some particular promise; as if Israel had despaired of deliverance from Egypt, or Abraham of a son. 2. General despair of the fulfilling of some general promise; as if we despaired of the resurrection, or the kingdom of Christ in glory. 3. When by misapplication we despair of that pardon and salvation to ourselves, which yet we believe shall be to others.
Yea, despair is sinful sometimes when it is not contrary to any promise or commanded hope: for if God have not revealed his will one way or other, it is no duty to expect the thing, and yet it is a sin to conclude positively that it will not be: for then we shall say more than we know, or than God hath revealed. If hope be taken for the comfort that ariseth in us from the apprehension of a mere possibility, then indeed it is a duty to hope for that good which is possible only; but if hope be taken for a confident expectation, then both such hope, and also the contrary despair, would be a sin. We may (so)non-sperarebut notdesperare. Possibles must be taken but for possibles, yet still for such.
He that despaireth but of some common mercy which he should not despair of,ratione materiæcommitteth a sin of the smaller sort: he that despaireth of a great mercy to others, (though not promised,) committeth a greater sinratione materiæ; as if you despair of the conversion of a bad child, or of the continuance of the gospel to the kingdom, &c. But he that despaireth of his own pardon and salvation, sinneth more perilouslyratione materiæ.
The despairing of pardon and salvation upon a despair of the truth of the gospel, or sufficiency of Christ, is damnable, and a certain mark of a wretched infidel, if it be predominant.[367]But to believe all thegospel to be true, and desire Christ and life as best, and yet to despair upon too bad thoughts of one's self, or through some other mistake, this is a sin of infirmity, consistent with grace (unless the despair be so total and prevalent, as to make the sinner settledly cast off a godly life, and give up himself to a life of wickedness). The Scripture speaketh little of this humble sort of despair, and no where threateneth it as it doth infidelity.
The commonest despair (like Spira's) which cometh immediately from invincible predominant melancholy (though occasioned first by sin) is no otherwise sinful or dangerous, than the despair or raving of a mad-man, or one in a doting fever, is. It is the too humble despair, through personal misapplication, and particular mistakes, that I shall speak of in this place.
Direct.I. Take heed of being ignorant of, or misunderstanding, the three great general grounds of faith and hope; that is, 1. The infinite goodness of God, and his unmeasurable love and mercy. 2. The relation of Christ's office to all, and the sufficiency of his ransom and sacrifice for all. 3. The universality of the promise, or the act of oblivion, or deed of gift of free pardon and salvation to all on condition of penitent belief and acceptance, which is procured and given by Christ, and contained in the gospel. If you mistake so about any one of these as not to believe or understand them, or if you do not well consider and improve them, no wonder if you be left under continual doubtings and liable to despair.
Direct.II. Understand well the true nature of the condition of this universal promise; how much it consisteth in the will or acceptance of Christ and life as offered by the gospel; or in our hearty consent to the baptismal covenant, that God be our God and Father, our Saviour and Sanctifier: and that in God's account the will is the man, and he is a true believer, and hath part in Christ, that is truly willing of him to the ends of his office: and that he hath right to all the benefits of the covenant of grace, who doth heartily consent to it.[368]This is true faith; this is the condition of pardon; and on these terms Christ and life are given. This is the infallible evidence of a state of grace. If you know not this, but look after something else as necessary which is separable from this, no wonder you are perplexed, and inclined to despair.
Direct.III. Understand the extent of this pardoning covenant as to the sins which it pardoneth: that it containeth the forgiveness of all sin without exception, to them that perform the condition of it (that is, to consenters). So that directly no sin is excepted but the non-performance of the condition; but consequently, all sin is excepted and none at all forgiven by it, to them that do not perform the condition. Every conditional grant doth expressly except the non-performance of the condition by the making of it to be the condition. He that saith, All sin is forgiven to them that believe and repent, and no other, doth plainly import, that not believing and not repenting are not forgiven, while they continue; nor any other sin to such. But to penitent believers or consenters, all sin is pardoned. Which made the ancients say, that all sin is washed away in baptism, supposing the person baptized to be a meet subject, and to have the condition of the covenant which is by baptism sealed and delivered to him.
Direct.IV. Misunderstand not the excepted sin against the Holy Ghost; which is no other, than an aggravated non-performance and refusal of the condition of the covenant; viz. when infidels are so obstinate in their infidelity, that they will rather impute the miracles of the Holy Ghost to the devil, than they will be convinced by them that Christ is the true Messias or Saviour.[369]This is the true nature of the sin against the Holy Ghost, of which I have written the third part of my "Treatise of Infidelity." So that no one hath the sin against the Holy Ghost that confesseth that Jesus is the Christ and Saviour; or that confesseth that the miracles done by Christ, and his apostles, were done by the Holy Ghost; or that confesseth the gospel is true; or that doth not justify his sin and infidelity. He must be a professed infidel against confessed miracles that commits this sin. And yet many despair because they fear they have committed this sin, that never understood what it is, nor have any reason but bare fear, and some blasphemous temptations which they abhor, to make them imagine that this sin is theirs. But the truth is, in their fearing condition, if any other sin had been as terribly spoken of, they would have thought it was theirs.
Direct.V. Understand the time to which the condition of the gospel doth extend, namely, to the end of our life on earth: the day of his grace hath no shorter end. For the gospel saith not, He that believeth this year or the next shall be saved; but absolutely, without limitation to any time short of death, He that believeth shall be saved. So that to doubt whether true repentance and faith will be accepted at any time before death, is but to be ignorant of the gospel, or to doubt whether it be true. And therefore for a despairing soul to say, If I did repent, it is too late, because the day of grace is past, is but to contradict the gospel covenant itself, or to say he knows not what. God never refused a soul that truly repented and believed before death.
Object.I. But (they will say) do not some divines say that some men's day of grace is sooner past, and God hath forsaken them, and it is too late, because they came not in time.