For whom I have suffered the loss of all things, Part 2
For whom I have suffered the loss of all things, Part 2
For whom I have suffered the loss of all things. -PHILIPPIANS, 3:8
THE last Lord's day, I told you several things, with the loss of which the saints might lay their accounts for Christ. There is one thing, which, from experience, we are taught they may lay their account to lose, namely, the countenance and protection of the civil magistrate in their duty. This is in itself a great loss. And seeing God has promised to a church, when he is well pleased with her, "that kings shall be her nursing fathers, and their queens her nursing mothers;" the withdrawing of it must be a sign of the Lord's displeasure. Yea, and if we trace the sins of rulers that bear hard on the people to their first spring, we will find that it is some quarrel that God hath with the people, 2 Sam. 24:1. This should humble us, and stir us up to pray for them, and be dutiful to them, to whom the Lord has said, "ye are gods," in every thing that is not inconsistent with your duty to God himself. But this is a trial to us, whether we will regard God or man most; and the saints will ever prefer the countenance of the Lord, to the countenance of the highest powers on earth; and depend upon his protection alone, when they are deprived of all other.
I told you, likewise, what it is to suffer the loss of any thing for Christ. I said, 1. It is to suffer for Christ's sake. 2. For the truths, the ways, and the cause of Christ. I will now add,
3. It is to suffer upon Christ's call to suffering. We are not to cast ourselves into suffering, even for a good cause, at random. We are not lords of ourselves, and therefore must not throw away our peace, goods, liberty, or life, but when God calls for them, and when that is the case, then all should be at his service. Now God calls us to it, when it is brought to that, to suffer or sin. "We must choose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin, which are but for a season." If people cannot get over the waters of suffering but in the devil's boat, which is always a sieve to sink a good conscience, though it may save men's persons and goods, they must even be content to swim. If the cross lie just in the way of duty, and there be no way of getting by it, but by going out of the way, we must even take it up and be going.
4. To suffer for the love of Christ. "Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it." This is more than merely to suffer for his sake. Many a man, in time of the church's trouble, gets a blow for Christ's sake, that deserves it not at the enemy's hand; for, at the bottom, they are even men of their own party, the seed of the serpent, though found among Christ's doves; mere hypocrites, they sutfer not for Christ, seeing it is not for love to him, of which they are void. A Roman spirit may outbrave death itself; a rugged, opposing spirit may put men to suffer the hardest things, rather than yield. Yea, self is such a salamander as can live in fire, for a good cause. Though we give our bodies to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth us nothing. But the hearts of honest sufferers are hardened against opposition of men, by soft love to the Lord himself; to his work, cause, and truths, for his own sake. "Thou, Lord, hast given a banner to them that fear thee, that it may be displayed because of the truth."
Lastly, It is to suffer as a member of the body of Christ. "If any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf." There was a measure of sufferings laid out for Christ personal, and he alone did bear them: "He endured the cross." But there is a measure of sufferings for Christ mystical, which is divided amongst the members of Christ, as their head sees meet, and every one must take their share; and thus "fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in their flesh; for his body's sake, which is the church." Some must give in of their goods, some their liberty, some their blood, to fill up this measure. And thus they suffer, that suffer for Christ. I come now to the
III. Thing, Why the Lord trysts his people with suffering the loss of all things for him.
1. Because there are no things which they can long guide well, and he will not permit them to destroy themselves with them. The father gives his child a knife in the sheath, to divert himself with it; but within a little, the child draws out the knife, and plays with it. "Go," says the father, "take it from him, for he will hurt himself with it." So God gives his people ease, peace, and wealth; and so long as these are swallowed up with them in the love of God, they can do them no harm; but alas! they often childishly throw aside the love of the Lord, and solace themselves with the bare worldly enjoyments, and love to these things gets uppermost in their hearts; then comes the word from the Lord, Take them from them. Such a man has made a pillow of security of such a thing, he is sleeping upon it, and minds not his work: go, draw the pillow from under his head, that he sleep not to death upon it. It is no wonder to see wasters want. We have bad long peace in the enjoyment of ordinances. God removes that peace, that he may make us thankful of the crumbs which sometimes fall from our tables. Then the word of the Lord becomes precious, when there is no open vision.
2. To exercise and quicken their graces, to make them thrive the better inwardly. "By this, therefore, shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged; and this is all the fruit, to take away their sin." The Christian, like the palm-tree, or camomile bed, the more he is afflicted, the more he grows. The fire burns hottest in a cold frost, and the wind of persecution makes grace to flame, and blows away the ashes. The waters of affliction cast on the faces of fainting Christians has often made them recover. And sure this generation needs such an awakening. Sufferings tend to the conviction of men, Jer. 2:23, 35. Solomon tells us, "that oppression maketh a wise man mad;" and a greater than he lets us see it will make a mad man wise, as in the case of the prodigal, Luke 15:17. No doubt, sufferings will make all of us see faults in our way, which we had no will to acknowledge in our prosperity. Sufferings also make sin bitter. "Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee; know therefore, and see, that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God." Sin is like Ezekiel's roll, sweet in the mouth, but bitter in the belly. When the Lord writes the sin in the punishment, the smart of the wound will make sin bitter. It will then be as gall and wormwood on the breasts, to wean the child. They are also a hedge in the sinner's way, Hosea 2:6. Many are riding post away from the Lord, till the cross meet them, as the angel did Balaam, and makes them stand. And truly, if the Lord did not so with us, where would we be in a little time. It is God's goodness to the Church of Scotland, that he doth not allow her to have a long time in sinning, but takes her quickly, when she is going away from him. Afflictions also stir up the saints to take hold of a departing God, Hos. 2:7. Sufferings are the devil's wedges, driven to separate the saints from Christ. But God makes them cords to draw them to him, and make them cleave to him with purpose of heart, as the child cleaves to the nurse the more that one offers to pluck it from her.
3. To learn them to live by faith. "I will also leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in the name of the Lord." There is never so much glory given to God in believing, as in a suffering time; the promises of the covenant never smell so sweet as then. Nay, there are many promises in the Bible, of which the saints never taste the sweetness till then. While their worldly enjoyments stand entire about them, they live much by sense. While they live at ease in their own houses, the shelter that is in that promise, "Lord, thou hast been our dwelling-place in all ages," is not so sweet as when they have nothing else to depend upon. The daily bread in the promise is not so sweet when we have plenty, as when we are in needy circumstances.
4. To be a real testimony before the world of the superlative excellency of Christ, and the reality of religion. While the world sees men whom they cannot deny to be otherwise wise and sober, and having a due concern about their worldly enjoyments, yet suffer the loss of all, rather than part with Christ and his way, it must needs leave a conviction on their consciences of these things. While they see this, it is a testimony before them to this, that Christ's favour, and way, are better than all the world; preferable to relations, goods, yea, and life itself. For his favour with them weighs down the world's frowns; and the testimony of their conscience, that bird within their breast, makes the sweetest of all melody. This conduct of the saints under sufferings is also a testimony to the life to come against an atheistical generation. What do they fear, that they choose suffering rather than sinning; not the wrath of him "that can only kill the body," for sinning were the way to preserve it; but the wrath of him "that can destroy both soul and body in hell." What do they hope for, great things in the world? No, they lose what they have, they therefore look for a reward and recompense in another world. It is also a testimony to the power which there is in religion, to wean the heart from the world. "Job is but a dissembler," says the devil, "but put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face." But Job makes the devil a liar. There is a power in religion, which makes them suffer the loss of all. It in like manner establishes this grand truth, that there is a power in religion to make men live without these things, which the carnal world cannot want; that there is a communication betwixt God and the soul, that can supply the want of all things. God will let his people see he can make them live very well without these things, and he will let the world see it too, John 14:19.
5. It is to make them long for heaven, and so to prepare them for a place among them that stand at his right hand. If they were not so harshly entertained in the world, they would not so much long to be home. But the rugged way which they find in the wilderness makes them long to see the land of Canaan. While the sea of this world is calm to the people of God, they are in hazard of saying, "It is good for us to be here." Therefore the Lord raiseth a storm, the ship is tossed to and fro, then they long to be on shore in Immanuel's land.
6. That what they get, they may the better see from what a blessed hand it comes. God loves to have his people know that they are in his common for what they have in a world. When men have all at hand, they do not so well understand their holding; therefore he calls in his own benefits sometimes, to keep them from hand to mouth; and make them many errands to the throne of grace, that what they had before in a more ordinary way, may come to them as an answer of prayer.
USE 1. Of information. It lets us see,
1. That no man is a saint indeed, but he to whom Christ is dearer than what is dearest to him in the world, Luke 14:26. Every child of God is a martyr either in action or affection. Grace, when it comes into the heart, so looseth all worldly things at the root, that if ever it come to that, that the man must either lose Christ, or lose all, he will suffer rather the loss of all things.
2. That Christ hath not his due esteem in the heart, where the man can by no means suffer the loss of all for him. The shifting of the cross, by sinning against the Lord, however it may prevail sometimes on the saints, if it be a man's habitual practice, will prove him to be none of his, for it says that the love of the world is predominant in such a person.
USE 2. Of exhortation. Let me exhort you then to be ready to evidence your esteem of Christ, by suffering the loss of all things for him, when he calls you to it. Be not offended at the cross of Christ, but embrace it. And be not choosens of the cross. Some will be willing to part with such a thing for Christ, but there is another they cannot part with. But you must make no reserve. Alas! that this exhortation is so very seasonable. The half hour's silence in the heaven of this Church seems to be at an end. The plough that made such deep furrows on the back of this Church formerly, stands now yoked again; the cords of it, which the Lord cut, are knit again, and how soon the word may be given to drive on, we know not. But if it were once set agoing, it is very like it may make deeper furrows on the back of the Church of Scotland than ever it yet made since her youth, though we hope it shall be loosed sooner. Idolatrous papists and superstitions bigots make furious drivers. "Let us contend for the faith once delivered unto the saints," and cleave to that purity of doctrine, worship, discipline, and government, to which this Church hath by the mercy of God attained; to which she stands engaged by the covenants; and which has been handed down to us, sealed with the blood of many martyrs. "Let us stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free." Let our esteem of Christ, his truths, ways and work, be displayed in our suffering the loss of all things, rather than give up with them.
MOTIVE 1. We will betray Christ's cause, if we shift his cross. And woe be to that man who doth this. It is impossible in the way of God's dispensation laid down in the Scripture, that the church should continue in the world without sufferings. "For we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God. Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus, shall suffer persecution." Do we think that ever the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent will be at peace? that ever the ship of the church will get to the haven, without the devil's raising a storm to sink her? Where had Christianity been this day, if the primitive Christians had complied with their pagan persecutors, and refused to suffer? Where had the Protestant religion been, if bloody crnelties could have frightened our ancestors into popery? And where had our Church been this day, if the fining, imprisoning, banishing, executing of the opposers of abjured prelacy, had frightened all into a tame compliance with the course of defection then carried on. So that whosoever shall choose to sin rather than suffer, will for his part give Christ and his work freedom to depart out of our coasts.
2. Consider the danger of apostacy from the good ways of the Lord, because of the cross. "If any man draw back," saith God, "my soul shall have no pleasure in him." This makes men unsavoury salt, withered branches, and ordinarily ends in the candle of their life going out with a stink: either going off in fearful stupidity, or horror. "Hold fast, then, the form of sound words as ye have been taught" for many years, and however you may be afterwards trysted, let it appear that you have not heard nor professed in vain. And though grievous wolves enter among you, let it be seen that you are Christ's sheep that discern his voice, and that will not refuse even his fire mark, rather than to be marked for another.
3. Consider that whatever Christ shall mark out for his, among the things you have, whenever he has said, give up with it for me, it will not be worth the keeping longer. For what? It will be like the manna, which the people kept until the morning, against the express command of God, which stank and bred worms. The plague of God will be in it, and it will never after do you good. "It is a snare to the man who devoureth that which is holy, and after vows to make inquiry." If Christ shall say, Man, give up with your ease, goods, liberty, life, for me; thou hadst better be harrassed, tossed and stripped of thy substance, than be at ease in thy own house, amidst all thy enjoyments. Nothing in the world can be more to us than what God makes it be. We can get no good of what we have, but what goodness God puts in it. But in this the substance is out of it. An evil conscience will put a sting in it, and either silently or violently suck the sap out of it.
4. What is lost for Christ will be the surest and best laid out thing in your possession. It is good lending to the Lord. You will have his bond for it. "And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive an hundred-fold, and shall inherit eternal life." See here the interest secured, and that is a very extraordinary interest, an hundred for one. That is peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Ghost, sweet contentment, with any thing that is left, and a blessing in it. A little for present support, served up in the dish of a promise and a particular providence, which you will see as if you saw the face of God; which is an hundred-fold better than any thing lost for him. See also the principal secured, but exchanged into eternal life, in heaven.
November 9, 1712.