11. Spiritual Lethargy
11
Spiritual Lethargy1
I have put off my coat; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them?
—Song of Solomon 5:3
There is a dispute here with chiding. “Is not this,” would she say, “an unreasonable suit of my well beloved to bid me soil my feet, lose my sweet pleasures, go naked in the winter night? Is He not a cumbersome Christ? Are not His commandments untimeous;2 might He not have knocked before the sun went down, before I went to bed? It is strange this Christ of mine must have service betwixt midnight and cockcrow, when all other folks are at rest.”
But here is a question that is worthy of solving: What makes this so hard to us, to go but the breadth of the house barefooted to let Christ in? Certainly the reasons are these.
Our light is corrupt and looks awry and with a squinted eye upon Christ, and it looks with many eyes to the world. Hence, when Christ knocks, it says, first, “He cannot come here.” Second: “I doubt if it is Christ that knocks, because I wish it were not He.” Third: “I must live.” Fourth: “I cannot suffer.” Fifth: “This and this will befall me if I do it.” Sixth: “If I would let Him in, then my lusts would get no quarters with Him. My will, my affections, and He would never give one jot. They would fly upon each other.” No, men’s lusts are up where eyes should be, and their eyes down at their feet.
Our heart and our affections hold us still in our warm bedsheets, so that we cannot rise to let Christ in. Yea, hardness of heart, the worst believer, and the toughest disputer in the world carves3 all, and when we come to choose what to do, then we ask counsel: “Again, what do you say, lust? What is your will and vote? Honor, ease, etc.? Tell me. Shall I let Him in?” And then we do not hear the other side till amen. O, but beloved, there is a thing they call “Try all things,”4 and look again and fear always, so needful here that they would pull the covering off all things and let you see all things—whose skin is black, and whose is white.
“How can I? How can I, Spouse?” you ask. “How can I arise? How can I put on my coat?” I will tell you how you can. Stir your legs and arms, and raise your frozen fingers. It is strange to ask how a whole, strong man who is not bound can rise out of his bed! Stir yourself, and cast the covering and bedclothes off and come to the floor. If men would suffer5 their light6 to play fair play7 and think judiciously and spiritually on the world and the delights of it, which is their soft bed, they might open to Christ. Men are but sleeping on a bed of ice. It will melt with the heat of God’s anger, and they and their night sheets and the bed will swim. No, men have reason to tire of this bed, both short and narrow. “Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee” (Luke 12:20). “The fashion of this world passeth away” (1 Cor. 7:31). Is not this a short bed? Fools cannot get their feet down.
1. Quaint Sermons, 87–91.
2. untimeous: at the wrong time or inconveniently late
3. carves: cuts or shapes
4. “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good” (1 Thess. 5:21).
5. suffer: allow
6. light: spiritual understanding
7. play fair play: deal honestly