CHAPTER XXIV.—Of outward troubles disquieting the spirit, and comforts in them
passion and imperfection, yet God could discern something of his own in it, and pity and pardon the rest.
CHAPTER XXIV.—Of outward troubles disquieting the spirit, and comforts in them As for the outward evils that we meet withal in this life, they are either such, 1, As deprive us of the comforts our nature is supported withal; or else, 2, They bring such misery upon our nature or condition that hinders our well-being in this world.
1. For the first, trust in God, and take out of his all-sufficiency whatsoever we want. Sure we are by his promise that we shall want nothing that is good. What he takes away one way, he can give another; what he takes away in one hand, he can give another; what he withholds one way, he can supply in a better.* Whatsoever comfort we have in goods, friends, health, or any other blessings, it is all conveyed by him, who still remains, though these be taken from us. And we have him bound in many promises for all that is needful for us. We may sue him upon his own bond. Can we think that he who will give us a kingdom, will fail us in necessary provision to bring us thither, who himself is our portion?
2. As for those miseries which our weak nature is subject to, they are all under Christ. They come and go at his command; they are his messengers, sent for our good, and called back again when they have done what they came for. Therefore, look not so much upon them as to Him for strength and comfort in them, mitigation of them, and grace to profit by them.
To strengthen our faith the more in God, he calleth himself a buckler for defence from ill, and an 'exceeding great reward,' Gen. 15:1, for a supply of all good; a sun for the one, and a shield for the other. Trust him, then, with health, wealth, good name, all that thou hast. It is not
in man to take away that from us which God will give us and keep for us. It is not in man's power to make others conceive what they please of us.
Among crosses this is that which disquieteth not the mind least, to be deceived in matter of trust, whenas if we had not trusted we had not been deceived. The very fear of being disappointed made David in his haste think 'all men were liars,' Ps. 116:11. But as it is a sharp cross, so nothing will drive us nearer unto God, who never faileth his.
Friends often prove as the 'reed of Egypt, as a broken staff,' Ezek.
29:6, 'and as a deceitful brook,' Job 6:15, that fails the weary passenger in summer time, when there is most need of refreshing; and it is the unhappiness of men, otherwise happy in the world, that during their prosperous condition, they know not who be their friends; for when their condition declines, it plainly appears, that many were friends of their estates, and not of their persons. But when men will know us least, God will know us most. He knows our souls in adversity, and knows them so as to support and comfort them, and that from the spring-head of comfort, whereby the sweetest comforts are fetched. What God conveyed before by friends, that he doth now instil immediately from himself. The immediate comforts are the strongest comforts. Our Saviour Christ told his disciples, that they would 'leave him alone; yet, saith he, I am not alone, but the Father is with me,' John 16:32. At St Paul's first appealing 'all forsook him, but the Lord stood by him,' 2 Tim. 4:16.
He wants no company that hath Christ for his companion, Solus non est cui Christus comes est.—Cypr[ian.] 'I looked for some to take pity,' saith David, 'but there was none, Ps. 69:20. This unfaithfulness of man is a foil to set out God's truth, who is never nearer than when trouble is nearest. There is not so much as a shadow of change in him or his love.
It is just with God when we lay too much weight of confidence upon any creature, to let us have the greater fall. Man may fail us and yet be a good man, but God cannot fail us and be God, because he is
truth itself. Shall God be so true to us, and shall not we be true to him and his truth?
The like may be said in the departure of our friends. Our life is oft too much in the life of others, which God takes unkindly. How many friends have we in him alone! who rather than we shall want friends, can make our enemies our friends. A true believer is to Christ as his mother, brother, and sister, because he carries that affection to them, as if they were mother, brother, and sister, to him indeed, Mat.
12:50. As Christ makes us all to him, so should we make him all in all to ourselves. If all comforts in the world were dead, we have them still in the living Lord.
Sicknesses are harbingers of death, and in the apprehension of many they be the greatest troubles, and tame great spirits, that nothing else could tame. Herein we are more to deal with God than with men, which is one comfort sickness yieldeth above other troubles. It is better to be troubled with the distempers of our own bodies, than with the distempers of other men's souls; in which we have not only to deal with men, but with the devil himself, that ruleth in the humours of men.
The example of Asa, 2 Chron. 16:12, teaches us in this case not to lay too much trust upon the physician, but with Hezekiah first look up to God, and then use the means, 2 Kings 19:14, 15. If God will give us a quietus est, and take us off from business by sickness, then we have a time of serving God by patient subjection to his will. If he means to use our service any further, he will restore our health and strength to do that work he sets us about. Health is at his command, and sickness stays at his rebuke. In the mean, the time of sickness is a time of purging from that defilement we gathered in our health, till we come purer out; which should move us the rather willingly to abide God's time. Blessed is that sickness that proves the health of the soul. We are best, for the most part, when we are weakest, Optimi sumus dum infirmi sumus. Then it appears what good proficients we have been in time of health.
Carnal men are oft led along by false hopes suggested by others, and cherished by themselves, that they shall live still and do well till death comes and cuts off their vain confidence and their life both at once, before ever they are acquainted what it is to trust in God aright, in the use of means. We should labour to learn of St Paul in desperate cases, to receive the sentence of death, and not to trust in ourselves, but in God 'that raiseth the dead,' 2 Cor. 1:9. He that raiseth our dead bodies out of the grave, can raise our diseased bodies out of the bed of sickness, if he hath a pleasure to serve himself by us.
In all kind of troubles, it is not the ingredients that God puts into the cup so much afflicts us, as the ingredients of our distempered passions mingled with them. The sting and core of them all is sin.
When that is not only pardoned, but in some measure healed, and the proud flesh eaten out, then a healthy soul will bear anything.
After repentance, that trouble that before was a correction, becomes now a trial and exercise of grace. 'Strike, Lord,' saith Luther, 'I bear anything willingly, because my sins are forgiven.' We should not be cast down so much about outward troubles, as about sin, that both procures them and envenoms them. We see by experience, when conscience is once set at liberty, how cheerfully men will go under any burden; therefore labour to keep out sin, and then let come what will come.
It is the foolish wisdom of the world to prevent trouble by sin, which is the way indeed to pull the greatest trouble upon us. For sin dividing betwixt God and us, moveth him to leave the soul to entangle itself in its own ways. When the conscience is clear, then there is nothing between God and us to hinder our trust. Outward troubles rather drive us nearer unto God, and stand with his love.
But sin defileth the soul, and sets it further from God. It is well-doing that enables us to commit our souls cheerfully unto him, 1 Pet. 3:21.
Whatsoever our outward condition be, 'if our hearts condemn us not, we may have boldness with God,' 1 John. 3:21. In any trouble our care should be, not to avoid the trouble, but sinful miscarriage in and
about the trouble, and so trust God. It is a heavy condition to be under the burden of trouble, and under the burden of a guilty conscience both at once. When men will 'walk in the light of their own fire, and the sparks which they have kindled themselves, it is just with God that they should lie down in sorrow,' Isa. 50:11.
Whatsoever injuries we suffer from those that are ill affected to us, let us commit our cause to the 'God of vengeance,' Isa. 59:17, and not meddle with his prerogative. He will revenge our cause better than we can, and more perhaps than we desire. The wronged side is the safer side.* If, instead of meditating revenge, we can so overcome ourselves as to pray for our enemies, and deserve well of them, we shall both sweeten our own spirits, and prevent a sharp temptation which we are prone unto; and have an undoubted argument that we are sons of that Father that doth good to his enemies, and members of that Saviour that prayed for his persecutors, Luke 23:34. And withal by 'heaping coals,' Rom. 12:20, upon our enemies, shall melt them either to conversion or to confusion.
But the greatest trial of trust is in our last encounter with death, wherein we shall find not only a deprivation of all comforts in this life, but a confluence of all ill at once; but we must know, God will be the God of his unto death, and not only unto death, but in death. We may trust God the Father with our bodies and souls which he hath created; and God the Son with the bodies and souls which he hath redeemed; and the Holy Spirit with those bodies and souls that he hath sanctified. We are not disquieted when we put off our clothes and go to bed, because we trust God's ordinary providence to raise us up again. And why should we be disquieted when we put off our bodies and sleep our last sleep, considering we are more sure to rise out of our graves than out of our beds? Nay, we are raised up already in Christ our Head, 'who is the resurrection and the life,' John 11:25, in whom we may triumph over death, that triumpheth over the greatest monarchs, as a disarmed and conquered enemy. Death is the death of itself, and not of us. If we would have faith ready to die by, we must exercise it well in living by it, and then it will no more fail us
than the good things we lay hold on by it, until it hath brought us into heaven, where that office of it is laid aside. Here is the prerogative of a true Christian above an hypocrite and a worldling, whenas their trust, and the thing they trust in, fails them, then a true believer's trust stands him in greatest stead.
In regard of our state after death, a Christian need not be disquieted, for the angels are ready to do their office in carrying his soul to paradise, those 'mansions prepared for him,' John 14:2. His Saviour will be his judge, and the Head will not condemn the members; then he is to receive the fruit and end of his faith, the reward of his hope; which is so great and so sure, that our trusting in God for that, strengtheneth the heart to trust him for all other things in our passage; so that the refreshing of our faith in those great things, refreshes its dependence upon God for all things here below. And how strong helps have we to uphold our faith in these great things which we are not able to conceive of, till we come to possess them! Is not our husband there? and hath he not taken possession for us?
Doth he not keep our place for us? Is not our flesh there in him? and his Spirit below with us? Have we not some first-fruits and earnest of it before hand? Is not Christ now fitting and preparing of us daily, for what he hath prepared and keeps for us? Whither tends all we meet with in this world, that comes betwixt us and heaven, as desertions, inward conflicts, outward troubles, and death at last, but to fit us for a better condition hereafter, and by faith therein to stir up a strong desire after it? 'Comfort one another with these things,' saith the apostle, 1 Thes. 4:18; these be the things will comfort the soul.