CHAPTER XXXVI – 19. Bodily health and ease from pain
land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles—for he looked for a city which had foundations, whose builder and maker is God;" Heb. 11:8, 9:19. "They confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth; for they that say such things, declare plainly that they seek a country: and truly if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned: but now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their
God; for he hath prepared for them a city;" ver. 13–16. It was the sorest kind of banishment that the saints endured, that is mentioned,
"they wandered about in sheep-skins and goat-skins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented; of whom the world was not worthy: they wandered in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth;" Heb. 11:37, 38. We judge ourselves unworthy of Christ and the new Jerusalem, and our heavenly country, if we cannot deny an earthly, sinful country for them.
CHAPTER XXXVI
Bodily Health and Ease from Torments 19. BUT a far greater interest of self to be denied, doth consist in our bodily health and ease, and from those pains and torments which persecutors use to inflict upon the godly. An averseness to suffering is natural to man, and in itself no sin; but an excessive averseness doth signify too much tenderness of the flesh, and too little power of reason, which should quiet the mind when it cannot abate the pain of the body, and must use to submit to a lesser evil to avoid a greater; or to obtain a greater good than it depriveth us of: Paul and Silas could sing with their bodies sore and their feet in the stocks. To be joyful in
tribulation should be no strange matter to a saint, much more with a patient submission to undergo it. We may not thrust ourselves into the fire, nor choose suffering without a call; but we must suffer rather than sin, and choose the wounds and hurts of the body before the wounds and losses of the soul. But because flesh and blood will draw back, and make too great a matter of sufferings, I shall briefly give you ten considerations, that may persuade you herein to deny yourselves; and in two cases I desire you to make use of them. First, in case you have no way to escape suffering but by sinning, then deny yourselves and choose to suffer. Secondly, in case of God's afflictions, which unavoidably lie upon you, then deny yourselves by a quiet and patient submission; and for both consider,—
1. That is the best condition for us in which we may be most serviceable to God. And if we suffer for righteousness, we may serve
God as well in such suffering as in a prosperous state; or if God himself afflict us, we may serve him in our affliction: our patience then is the service that we are called to. The sufferings of the saints have done very much to the promoting of the Gospel and building of the church: men will see that there is somewhat worth the suffering for in the Christian religion, and see that heaven is taken by believers for a certain thing, when they can let go earth for it: they will be moved to inquire, what it is that moves you to such constancy and patience; and why should we not be willing of that condition in which we do our master the best service, whatever the doing of it shall cost us? The commodity of our end is the chiefest commodity.
2. That is the best condition for us in which we may have most of God. But certainly we may have as much, and usually more, of God in suffering, especially for his cause, than we can have in prosperity:
especially when we sin to escape these sufferings. Is it bodily ease, or God, that you set most by? It will be seen by your choice. If you prefer your ease before him, you must expect to have no better than you choose: if you prefer him before your ease and prosperity, you must be gladder of God with adversity and pain, than of prosperity and ease without him. A beast hath health and ease as well as you, and yet you will not think him as happy. If you are tormented, or lose your health for Christ, you lose nothing but what a Turk or infidel hath; yea, but what a beast hath as well as you! But you may have that of God, by the advantage of your suffering, that none but saints have; and God's presence can make a suffering state as sweet as a prosperous. And he hath given you ground in his promises to expect it, "When thou passeth through the fire, I will be with thee;" Isa.
43:1–3. "There hath no temptation taken you, but what is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able: but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that you may be able to bear it;" 1 Cor. 10:13. "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;" 1 Pet. 4:14. "If any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God on this behalf;" ver. 16. What is the Scripture fuller of than comforting promises to the sufferers for Christ? To fly from such sufferings then, is but to fly from the presence of God and our own consolations.
3. At least these sufferings further our sanctification, and make us better. And is not that our best condition that makes us best?
Common experience, as well as Scripture, may satisfy us that a suffering state doth very much further humiliation and mortification, and bring men to a deeper sense of sin, and help all the truths of God
to work, and make them more sensible and serious than in prosperity. Then we do not only hear, but feel that sin is evil, and that the world is vain, and that the threatenings of God are true.
Why, Christian, if thou didst but know that thou shouldst have more of the Spirit and its graces, and less of sin, in a suffering estate than in ease and plenty, wouldst thou not even choose it and be glad of it?
Is not sin worse than suffering to thee, and holiness better than ease and peace? Alas, what senseless, careless persons should we be, if it were not for the help of suffering! Grace useth to work by means, and this is the common means.
4. Consider, that pain and suffering we shall have, whether for Christ or not. The worst men undergo almost as much by ordinary sicknesses, and losses, and crosses, as the martyrs do that suffer for Christ: sin will bring suffering, and it is better have that which is sanctified by the interest of Christ, than that which is not.
5. And a Christian that hath so much ado to curb and rule the flesh in prosperity, methinks should the more patiently bear adversity, because God sets in by it, and helps him to subdue the flesh, and tame the body, and bring it in subjection. And as it is but this burdensome flesh that suffereth, which hath been the cause of so much suffering to our minds, so our warfare against this flesh, which we manage through the course of our lives, goes on more prosperously in the time of its sufferings than in prosperity. A weakened enemy is more easily conquered. Do not therefore too much take part with the suffering flesh, but self denyingly justify the proceedings of the Lord.
6. And consider that the pains and suffering will be but short. It is but a little while, and you shall feel no more than if you had felt nothing; and that which shortly will not be, is next to that which is not. As it makes all the pleasures and glory of the world to be a dream, and next to nothing, because it is but a while, and they are gone, and never return again: so it makes our sufferings next to nothing, that they are passing away, and almost over. And then all tears will be wiped from your eyes; and pain will be forgotten, or remembered only to increase your joy. When you are past the brunt, and safe with Christ, you will never repent of your sufferings on earth, nor will it trouble you then to think of the shame or sickness, or pain or torment, that here you were put to undergo. Yet a little while and all will be over.
7. In the meantime, consider also that they are all deserved sufferings: you deserve them from God, though not from man; nay, they are a thousandfold less than your deservings. If free grace have pardoned you the main, and rescued you from the torments of hell, methinks the remembrance of this wonderful mercy should make you patiently bear the fatherly chastisements that tend to the perfecting your deliverance.
8. And so much the rather, because they are sufferings more gainful to you than the greatest prosperity is to the world. When you have suffered for Christ as much as your natures are able to bear, you need not fear being losers by him: as he is engaged by promise to make you amends, and to give you the reward of inheritance of glory, so he is easily able to accomplish it. All the saints of God are in the way to glory, but his suffering saints are in the nearest way. All his servants are unspeakably gainers by him, but his sufferers are in the most
thriving way; they shall have an eminency of reward, or a reward above the common reward. "These are they that come out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb; therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple, and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them;" Rev. 7:14. The churches therefore glory in their martyrs, and for the patience and faith of Christians in all the persecutions and tribulations which they endure, "a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that they may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which they suffer; seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble them; and to them that are troubled, rest with the saints;" 2
Thess. 1:4–6. "Peter said, behold we have forsaken all and followed thee; what shall we have therefore? And Jesus said unto them, verily
I say unto you, that ye which have followed me in the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye shall also sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel: and every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or wife, or children, or lands, for my names sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life;" Matt. 19:27–29. And is it not better suffer under these terms of inconceivable advantage, than to suffer in a natural way for nothing?
9. And consider, that if suffering seem so great a matter to you, that you are resolved, though by the way of sin, to avoid it, you will escape it at so dear a rate, that you will wish a thousand times you had endured it. There is no escaping of Christian suffering when you are called to it, but by running into eternal suffering. There is no escaping the prison, and torment, and fire of martyrdom, when you are called to it, but by running into the fire of hell. God can deliver
you indeed on easier terms, by forbearing to call you to it, or rescuing by his power; but you cannot rescue yourselves by refusing to suffer and yielding to sin, without paying dearer for your freedom than it is worth. And therefore deny yourselves, and bear what God shall call you to, lest Christ deny you, and make you suffer a thousandfold more to all eternity.
10. Lastly, consider also, that this part of self-denial is it that Christ hath fully and purposely taught us by his own example. Are you better than the Lord of life? And did they not use him worse than you are used? Do they slander you? And did they not so by him, calling him a gluttonous person and a wine-bibber, and a friend of publicans and sinners, a sabbath-breaker, an enemy to Cæsar, a deceiver; yea, one that had a devil, and cast out devils by Beelzebub? Do they put a fool's coat on you, and a reed in your hand, and make a laughingstock of you? Remember what they did by Christ. They mixed scorn and cruelty together when they crowned him with a crown of thorns, and struck him when they had covered his eyes, and bid him read who smote him. And do they worse than this by you?
They spit in his face, and saved a murderer, that he might be sure to die. And do they worse than this by you? "Run therefore with patience the race that is set before you, 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 mind;" Heb. 12:1–3. "If, when ye do well and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God, for even hereunto were ye called; because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that ye should follow his steps, who did no sin, neither was guile