Chapter. VIII: Discovering the Necessity of an Improved Faith for the Right Management of Sufferings
every sin, as he doth; but hath still some Agag, Rimmon, or Delilah. (3.) That the hypocrite never acted in duty from the bent and inclination of a new nature, taking delight in heavenly employment, but is moved rather as a clock by the weight and poises of some external motives and advantages.
5. Conclude not you have no grace, because you grow not so sensibly as some other Christians do. You may be divers ways mistaken about this. (1.) You may measure your growth by your desires, and then it appears nothing; for the Christian aims high, and grasps at all. (2.) Or by comparing yourselves with such as have larger capacities, time, and advantages than you. (3.) Or by comparing your graces with other men's gifts, which you mistake for their graces. (4.) Or by thinking that all growth is upward in joy, peace, and comfort; whereas you may grow in mortification and humility, which is as true a growth as the former. Oh! take heed of these mistakes; they have been very prejudicial to the peace of many Christians.
5. Rule. Lastly, Decline not sufferings when God gives you a fair call to them. Oh! the Christian's suffering time is commonly his clearest and most comfortable time. "Then the Spirit of God and glory resteth on them," 1 Pet. 4:14. That which hath been in suspense for some years, is decided and cleared in a suffering hour. And thus I have shewed you how to attain this necessary qualification also.
Chapter. VIII: Discovering the Necessity of an Improved Faith for the
Right Management of Sufferings Discovering the necessity of an improved faith for the right management of sufferings, and directing to some special means for the improvement thereof.
THE next thing conducing to our actual readiness for sufferings, is the improvement of faith to some considerable degree of strength. This is the grace that must do the main service in such an hour, and hath the principal hand in supporting the Christian under every burden. This is the grace that crowns our heads with victory in the day of batttle, Eph. 6:16. "Above all taking the shield of faith." It is true every grace is of use, and contributes assistance: Suffering saints have been beholding to them all. But of this we may say, as Solomon of the virtuous woman; "Though many graces have done excellently, yet this excels them all." In this grace Paul was very eminent; it was the life he daily lived,
Gal. 2:20. Oh! it is a precious grace, 2 Pet. 1:1. So precious, that Christ, who seldom admired any thing, yet wondered at this,
Matth. 8:10. A victorious grace it is that overcomes all difficulties, Mark 9:23. By this sword it was that ail those famous heroes Heb. 11 atchieved all those glorious conquests; and in every distress it may say to the soul, as Christ to the disciples, John 15:5. "Without me ye can do nothing." This is that sword that hath obtained so many victories over the world,
1 John 5:4. And that trusty shield that hath quenched so many deadly darts of temptation, which have been levelled at the very heart of a Christian in the day of battle. By it a Christian lives, when all outward, sensible comforts die, Hab. 2:4. It is the
ground upon which the Christian fixes his foot, and never fails under him, 2 Cor. 1:24. The necessity of it will more clearly appear, by considering how many ways it relieves the soul in trouble, and disburdens the heart of all its sinking loads and pressures: There are two things that sink a man's spirit when under sufferings: viz. The greatness of the troubles, and the weakness of the soul to bear them; against both which faith relieves the soul, viz. by making a weak soul strong, and heavy troubles light.
First, It makes a weak soul strong and able to bear; and this it doth divers ways.
By purging out of the soul those enfeebling and weakening distempers: not only guilt in general, which is to the soul as a wound upon the bearing shoulder, Rom. 5:1. The removal whereof enables the soul to bear any other burden, Isa. 33:24.
But it also removes fear, that tyrant passion, that cuts the nerves of the soul. For as faith comes in, so fear goes out: Look in what degree the fear of God is ascendent in the soul, proportionably the sinful fear of the creature declines and vanisheth, Isa. 8:12,
13. This fear extinguishes that, as the sun-shine puts out fire, "The righteous is bold as a lion," Prov. 28:1. The word בבף'ר signifies a young lion in his hot blood, that knows no such thing as fear! And look, how much of the soul is empty of faith, so much it is filled with fear: "Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith?" Matth. 8:26. Certainly, it is a rare advantage, to be freed from the common distraction, in times of common destruction; and this advantage the soul hath by faith.
2. It strengthens the soul to bear afflictions and hardships; not only by purging out its weakning distempers, but by turning itself to Christ, in whom all its strength lies; and that suitably to the several exigencies of the soul in all its distresses. Doth darkness, like the shadow of death overspread the earth, and all the lights of earthly comforts disappear? then faith supports the heart by looking to the Lord, Micah 7:7. And this look of faith exceedingly revives the heart, Psal. 34:5 and enlightens the soul.
Doth God pluck away all earthly props from under your feet, and leave you nothing visible to rest upon? in that exigence faith puts forth a suitable act, viz. Resting or staying upon God, Isa.
26:3 and by this the soul comes to be quieted and established, Psal. 125:1. Do temptations strive to put off the soul from Christ, and discourage it from leaning upon the promise? Then it puts forth an act of resolution, Job 13:15. And so breaks its way through that discouragement; or hath the soul been long seeking
God for deliverance out of trouble, and still there is silence in heaven, no answer comes; but instead of an answer comes a temptation, to throw up the duty, and seek to deliver itself?
Then faith puts forth another act upon Christ, suitable to this distress, viz. An act of waiting, Isa. 49:23 which waiting is opposed to that sinful haste which the soul is tempted to, Isa.
28:16. Or doth God at any time call the soul forth to some difficult service, against which the flesh and carnal reason dispute and plead? Now faith helps the soul, by putting forth an act of obedience; and that whilst carnal reason stands by dissatisfied, Gal. 1:16. And hence it is, that obedience carries the name of faith upon it to shew its descent, Rom. 16:26. Faith encourages the soul to obey, not only by urging God's command,
but by giving it God's warrant for its indemnity, Heb. 11:24, 25, 26. Or doth a poor believer find himself overmatched by troubles and temptations, and his own inherent strength begin to fail under the burden? Then faith leads him to an omnipotent
God, and so secures him from fainting under his trouble, Psal.
61:2. In the Lord is everlasting strength. El Shaddai is a name of an encouragement to a feeble soul, Isa. 40:29, 30, 31. And thus you see the first particular made good, viz. What a strengthening influence it hath upon a weak soul.
Secondly, In the next place let us see how it lightens the Christian's burdens, as well as strengthens his back to bear.
And certainly, this grace of faith doth strangely alter the very nature of sufferings, taking away both the heaviness and horror of them; and this it doth divers ways:
1. By committing the business to Christ, and leaving the matter with him; and so quitting the soul of all these anxieties and perturbations, which are the very burden and weight of affliction, Psal. 37:5. For certainly that which sinks us in days of trouble, is rather from within, from our unruly, seditious, and clamorous thoughts, than from the troubles themselves with which we conflict: But by committing the matter to God, the soul is quickly brought to rest.
2. By discovering much present good in our troubles; the more good faith discovers in a trouble, the more supportable and easy it makes it to the soul. Now faith brings in a comfortable report, that they are not only evils, as the troubles of the wicked are,
Ezek. 7:5 but have an allay and mixture of much good, Heb.
12:10. Isa. 27:9.
3. By foreseeing the end and final removal of them, and that near at hand, 2 Cor. 4:17. That which daunts and amazes men in times of trouble is, that they can see no end of them. Hence the heart faints, and hands hang down through discouragement: But now faith brings the joyful tidings of the end of troubles; and saith to the soul, "Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why so disquieted and discouraged within me? as if thy sufferings were like the sufferings of the damned, endless and everlasting, whereas they are but for a moment; yet a little while, a very little while, and he that shall come, will come, and will not tarry,"
Heb. 10:37. Yet a little while, and then the days of thy mourning shall be over.
4. By comparing our sufferings with the sufferings of others, which exceedingly diminisheth and shrinks them up; sometimes the believer compares his sufferings with Christ's, and then he is ashamed that ever he should complain and droop under them.
Oh! saith he, what is that to that which the Lord Jesus suffered for me? He suffered in all his members, head, hands, side, feet, from all hands, friends and enemies, in all his offices; yea, in his soul, as well as in his body: And indeed the sufferings of his soul were the very soul of his sufferings: Sometimes he compares them with the sufferings of others of the saints in former ages:
When he reads in faith the history of their persecutions, he is shamed out of his complaints, and saith, 'Am I better than my fathers?' Sometimes he compares them with the sufferings of the damned: 'O what is this to everlasting burnings! What is a
prison to hell? How light and easy is it to suffer for Christ, in comparison of those sufferings which are from Christ?' And thus the soul is quieted, and the terror of sufferings abated.
5. Faith entitles Christ to the believer's sufferings, and puts them upon his score; and so it exceedingly transforms and alters them: Ah! it is no small relief when a man can hold up the Bible, as that martyr did at the stake, and say, 'This is that which hath brought me hither:' Or as the Psalmist; "For thy sake we are killed all the day long;" Or as the apostle, Col. 1:24. "I fill up that which is behind of the sufferings of Christ in my flesh."
6. Lastly, Faith engages the presence of God, to be and abide with the soul in all its solitudes and sufferings: It lays hold upon the promises made to that purpose, Psal. 23:2. Isa. 43:2. Heb.
13:5. John 14:18. And whilst a poor soul enjoys this the very sense of troubles is swallowed up.
And thus I have given some brief hints how faith relieves and strengthens the soul in a suffering hour: The next thing is to direct you how to improve this excellent grace, that it may do you such service as this in a time of need: And, in order thereunto, I shall give you these seven directions.
1. Attend diligently upon the ministration of the gospel, which is not only the procreant, but also the conserving cause of faith, 1
Pet. 2:2, The doctrine of faith is the food and nutriment of the grace of faith: There are its rules, its encouragements, its cordials: Thence faith takes and treasures up its michtams, to which it hath recourse in times of need: Every attribute, command, or promise that shines forth there, is a dish for faith
to feed on; but all together are a royal feast, Psal. 63:5. Some say the land of Judea, is called the land of the living, in Psal. 27:13 in respect of the ordinances of God which that people enjoyed.
Certain it is, they are the great instruments of quickening souls at first, and preserving that life it so begat in them: But then be sure they have Christ's stamp upon them, and that they be ministered by his own officers, and in his own way: And so you may reasonably expect more fruits and influences from them than from all private gifts and helps in the world: "For the Lord loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob,"
Psal. 87:2. And all private helps may say, in comparison of Christ's public ordinances, as Gideon said to the men of Ephraim, Judges 8:2. "What have we done in comparison of you?"
2. Improve well your sacrament seasons, those harvest days of faith: This ordinance hath a direct and peculiar tendency to the improvement and strengthening of faith. It is a pledge superadded to the promise for faith's sake: Heavenly and sublime mysteries do therein stoop down to your senses, that you may have the clearer apprehensions of them; and the clearer the apprehensions are, the stronger the assent of faith must needs be: By this seal also the promise comes to be more ratified to us; and the firmer the promise appears to the soul, the more bold and adventurous faith is in casting itself upon it; Oh! how many poor, doubting, trembling souls have, in such a season, gathered the full ripe fruits of assurance from the top-boughs of that ordinance!
3. Frequent actings of faith are rare and special means of improving it: To him that hath, i.e. that improves and uses what he hath, shall be given, Mat. 25:29. This was the way by which Paul thrived in faith and every other grace so exceedingly, that he outgrew them that were in Christ before him, 1 Cor. 15:10. It is true, its beginning in the soul is not after the manner of other habits, either moral or natural: This is not of natural acquisition, but by divine infusion: But yet its improvement is in the same manner. Oh then! if ever you would have a flourishing faith, rouse it up out of the dull habit, and live in the daily exercise of it.
4. Go to Jesus Christ, who is the Author and finisher of faith, and cry to him, as Mark 9:24. Lord, increase my faith: Yea, beg the assistance of others prayers in this behalf, as the apostle did,
1 Thes. 3:10. 2 Thes. 1:11 faith animates prayer, and prayer increaseth faith.
5. Improve times of affliction for the increase of faith: For certainly, sanctified afflictions do notably exercise and increase this grace, 1 Pet. 1:7. In times of prosperity we know not what stock of faith we have: We live so much upon things seen, that we cannot many times tell whether we have faith or no: But when difficult days come, then we must get out our whole subsistence and livelihood by faith, Hab. 2:4. Yea, then we have many proofs and experiments of God's fidelity in the promises, which is a choice help to faith, 2 Cor. 1:10.
6. Keep catalogues of all your remarkable experiences; treasure them up as food to your faith in time to come: Oh! it is a singular
encouragement and heartening to faith, when it can turn over the records of God's dealing with you in years past, and say as Joshua, Not one thing hath failed, Joshua 23:14. When it can say so of promises that have already had their accomplishments, then they will be apt to say concerning those yet to be accomplished, as Elizabeth said to Mary, Luke 1:45. "Blessed is the soul that believeth, for there shall be a performance of those things which are told it by the Lord."
These experiments are the food of faith, Psal. 74:14. "Thou breakest the heads of Leviathan in pieces, and gavest him to be meat to thy people inhabiting the wilderness," i.e. That famous experience of the power and love of God in their Red-sea deliverance, where he destroyed that sea-monster Pharaoh, and his host, was meat to the faith of God's Israel in the wilderness afterwards. We often find Christ charging the people's unbelief on a bad memory, Mat. 16:8, 9. And hence it was that the Lord commanded the Israelites to keep journals of every day's occurrences, Num. 13:1, 2. It is a thousand pities such choice helps should be lost. Oh! if you could but remember, how the Lord hath appeared for you in former exigencies, and how often he hath shamed you for your unbelief, it would exceedingly animate your faith, both in present and future distreses, Micah
6:5.
7. Lastly, Beware of sense, which is the supplanter of faith. O if you live upon things earthly, you put your faith out of its office:
Things earthly have an enmity to faith. "This is the victory by which we overcome the world, even our faith," 1 John 5:4.
Overcoming denotes a conflict, and conflicts infer oppositions.