Part II (continued, part 5)
inordinacy of thoughts, and a fixing our minds to one thing ; as upon what we have lost, or are like to suffer. Now perfect patience corrects and orders
the extravagancies of all these, reduceth a man to possess his own soul ; as
Christ s phrase is, in Luke xxi 19, In your patience possess ye your souls, and thereby to dwell in a man s self ; whereas the violence of such affections
hurry us out of ourselves, and throw our souls out of doors, that we are not
within, or ourselves.
To instance in some particular passions
1. Inordinate grief. You know how Job s patience is cried up, and tliat
by our Apostle. For when he suffered the loss of all, both his children :nnl
estate, <fcc,, yet he expressed no grief, no trouble at all, that we ivail <>f.
\\> n
the hearsay and tidings thereof; and sure if there had b< n any upon
occasions, the story would have told it, as it doth his other impatiences,
! aii"tlnT kind, afterwards
. upon other and hkrhcr
wl-
all you read of him upon occasion of those outward losses in diap. i. is
i submission t . Uod. The Lord, says he, gave, and
all nun" pan
PATIENCE AND ITS PKEFECT WORK. 447
the Lord hath taken away, and it is the Lord who hath done both, and blessed be the name of the Lord for both. And in all this charged not God foolishly/ says the last verse.
2. Envy and passionate anger. (1.) Envy, which is apt to rise when others have no such afflictions or losses. As that such and such a one, and of my rank, should escape with his goods, &c., when the loss falls heavy on me, saith the sad heart. This secretly regrets. Good people are greatly apt to this.
< The spirit that is in us in us saints lusteth to envy/ But God in the end gives more grace ; that is, when men are humbled, as there it is said, and broken, which is usually when they have been exercised with great sufferings. The different condition of the holy apostles and some other Christians in those primitive times, gives demonstration of such a patience in this case. There were no men so eminent for sufferings and patience, next the Lord Christ, as the apostles were, who yet viewing other Christians, (as take the Corinthians, 1 Cor. iv. 8, 9,) how they were full, <fcc., Now ye are full, now ye are rich, ye have reigned as kings without us. It was a
city very rich, and the Christians in it had a fulness of outward things when he wrote this ; they were full and rich. But as for us, says he, God hath set forth us apostles last, as it were appointed to death, &c. Ye are
honourable, but we are despised ; we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwelling-place ; and labour, working with our hands : being reviled, we bless ; being persecuted, we suffer it ; being defamed, we entreat : we are made as the filth of the world, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day. And yet lie did not at all envy this their fulness in the least. No, he wisheth them all true prosperity : Would to God ye did reign, ver. 8, that is, in true and spiritual respects ; he wisheth them all good rather, in all inward enjoyments of God and Christ, together with their outward riches, &c. Now what was it that had so much rooted up envy, <fec., in him and the other his fellow-apostles ? It was his
sufferings and wants, and their being made spectacles to angels and men, as there. This had wrought his and their spirits to this. In the Old Testa ment, Joshua, though he proved a man of a choice spirit, yet when he was young in years, and but a young beginner in grace, envy rose up in him, for his good master, Moses sake. Eldad and Medad prophesy, says he, Num.
xi. 29 j but Moses said to him, Enviest thou for my sake ?* and so reproved him ; and thereupon expresseth his own heart thus : Would God that all the Lord s people were prophets ; and that the Lord would put his Spirit upon them ! Now, whence arose this blessed disposition of heart, thus free from envy in him? In the very next chapter you meet with another instance, which gives a true account both of his not envying others, as also in bearing the envy of others against himself, sharpened with the highest provocations unto anger, (which was the 2d,) it being as unkindly as unreasonable. It was the envy of his own only brother and sister, for this, that God had chosen him to utter his mind by unto his people, and reveal himself so as never to any man, as God s testimony of him is in that 12th chapter. Whereupon they had said, ver. 2,
< Hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses ? hath he not spoken also by us ? Thereupon follows the account, or bottom dis
position of spirit, which made him bear both this and the former, ver. 3, Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth. And so, good man, he would himself have passed this by, and have taken no notice at all of this affront ; but that God, it is there said, heard it, as noting that he would not put it up so for Moses sake. New what was it had tamed and made Moses thus meek and calm
443 PATIKNVK AND ITS PERFECT WOFxK.
and passive? (Vrtainly his -r -at ;\tili.-tions. And his faith, having been exercised thereby, had wrought path-mv in liini: IM>. xi. iM. :_
.">, By faith he chose rather to suffer affliction,
<fec. ; and accordingly had lived
forty years a mean shepherd, a servile life, an exile, a banished man from Pharaoh s court, honours, and pleasures of it, as an underling, in hardship and durance. And it was a sudden trial, for he fled for his life at an hour s
warning, as well as a sore and long trial of forty years ; and these sufferings, as great as any man s in that age, made him meek, very meek, which word the Dutch Annotators render patient. The Hebrew word hath affinity with
afflictions, saith Ainsworth, which had taught him patience, as sufferings did
Christ, whose type he was, Heb. v. 8. These had subdued anger and envy in him unto this so high a degree, and patience had its perfect work. For other wise we find he could be angry at times, Exod. xi. 8, xvi. 20, xxxii. 1 9 ; Lev.
x. 16; Num. xvi 15, xxxi. 14, xx. 10, 11 ; as Ainsworth hath collected them. Jesus Christ hath taught us a lesson against this envy, Matt. xx. 16, Shall I not do what I will with mine own ? Are not all things mine ? And wilt thou envy that I have taken them from thee, and not done so from another ?
Shall thine eye be evil, because I am good ? Shall a man be sick that another is in health ?
3. Inordinate fears. When too much trouble comes upon us, we use to
fear too much at the present; and are apt to project a thousand things for the future, as that poverty and beggary will follow. Many such fears lay hold upon us, because we see God s anger hath begun, and we know not the
worst, nor when or where it will end. But, saith Christ, Rev. ii. 10, Fear none of those things that thou shalt suffer : be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. Faith and faithfulness unto God, or
constancy in enduring unto death, he here opposeth to fear ; and faith works
patience, and patience eats out fear. Fortitude and courage differ from
patience in this, that a stout courage in a man of a great spirit will indeed overcome fear, if so be he sees any hope of evading, and so will rouse a man s
spirit up to resistance and defence. But patience, though it sees no hope as
to this life, yea, nothing but present death before it, it will yet strengthen the heart to bear it, and make a man faithful unto death, and constant, without prevailing fears, even unto death.
4. Murmuring against God. Patience works out that. As in Job, the
: He will blaspheme thee to thy face. He made sure account of it, and would needs turn prophet, and prophesy what Job would do, and that before God But the devil was befooled, and
devil projected his blaspheming
proved a lying prophet. Job, instead of blaspheming God, blesseth God.
4 In all this Job charged not God foolishly. I may say of it, as in the
Revelation twice it is said of the saints, Here was the patience of Job. And
it was that patient frame of spirit that God had wrought in him, which the
Scripture so extols, that enabled him hereunto.
5. Faith by patience mortifies inordinate cares. Against the times of those
great distresses that were to come upon the Jewish nation, and among th.-m
upon the Christian Jews in that nation, before the destruction of Jerusalem, which would try every vein in their hearts, Christ gives two sp ial exhorta
tions, besides divers others, Luke XXL The first, In your patience that
ia, that patience which is truly Christian and pn-jM-rly yurs possess your own souls, ver. 19. The second, Take herd t yur>-l\vs, Irst at any time
your hearts be overcharged with tinrarrs of this life a.^/ava/.
<
- and
:.-t tho BO f it into \\ild thmi-Ji
wandering anxieties. But patient* , which Christ first exhorts to, calls all
TATIENCE AND ITS PERFECT WORK.
;^ com-
in, and orders all to keep home, and not to stir out of doors abroad
* Be
poseth all, so as a man possesseth his own souL In Phil. iv. 6, 7,
careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication, with
thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God ; and the peace of
God, &c. I instance likewise for this in the difference of the two grounds
in the parable of the sower, Luke viii. 14, 15. Of the thorny ground it is
said, that the word was choked by the cares of the world; but of the
good ground oppositely, that it brings forth fruit with patience. ^ Patience
is contrary unto cares, as well as unto unquietness, or to other inordinate
affections.
This for patience, its privative work.
Second Branch of the 3d General Head. Its positive acts.
I come, secondly, to positive acts and workings of patience, which are
many. To begin with the lowest, and so rise to the higher
1. Patience includes and comprehends an act of waiting upon God, and
his good pleasure. Waiting is an act of faith continued or lengthened out ;
and where faith would of itself be short-winded, patience ekes it out. The
daughter helps the mother, with an expectation of a happy issue. You find
waiting involved in patience as an eminent act thereof, James v. 7, Be
patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the
husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long
patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Look, how and in
what manner the husbandman waits, so he sets out and exhorts a Christian
patient man should do. Mic. vii. 7, Therefore I will look unto the Lord ;
I will wait for the God of my salvation : my God will hear me, &c., until
he plead my cause, and execute judgment for me, &c., ver. 9.
2. It is a waiting with quietness. And that is patience work too. Patience
is not an enduring simply by force, which we call patience perforce, but
with quietness. In Lam. iii., the church, in her doleful condition, ex-
presseth the actings and workings of her own soul ; although she speaks
in the third person, which is usual in the Scripture, yet she means herself :
ver. 26, It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the
salvation of the Lord. This was uttered when she was under the yoke, and
so was a fruit of patience. Ver. 27, It is good for a man that he bear the
yoke in his youth. It is the nature of faith to quiet the heart in God ; Fides
habet mm quietativam. Isa. xxvi. 3, Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee ; because he trusteth in thee.
^ And, chap.
xxx. 15, In quietness and confidence shall be your strength. And when
faith hath wrought patience, it quiets the heart much more. Patience
speaks quietness in the very sound of it ; and the reason is because it hath
a strength accompanies it, Col. i. 11, Strengthened with all might, unto all
patience and long-suffering. And thence so far forth as faith and patience do strengthen the heart, so far we are able to bear, and that with quietness.
Let not your hearts be troubled, saith Christ, John xiv. Why 1 You
believe in God, believe also in me. Faith on them will cause trouble to fly
away, which is a great part of Christ s meaning when he says, ^ In patience
possess your souls, that is, dwell quietly in your own spirits, as a man
doth in his house, which our law terms his castle.
3. Patience carries on the heart without fainting or discouragement. For this cause we faint not. Isa. xlii. 4 ; the meekness and patience of
Christ is there first set forth : ver. 2, He shall not cry, nor lift up his voice
; He shall not foil nor be discouraged,
in the streets. Then follows, ver. 4,
VOL. II. 2 F
450 PA
i -brew is, that is, in spirit, so as to cease from wliat God had uivon him to do or suffer ; he should go on with his work till lu
,,,,t l,o Li
had perfected it
4. Patience in all sufferings submits to God, and tli> will of God. Tin
Apostle sedulously puts in if it be the will of God, when he had
to mention their sufferings, and he doth it twice: 1 Peter iii. 17, If it
be the will of God that ye suffer; and chap. iv. 19, Wherefore let him
<tc. And in chap. L 6, If n
that suffers according to the will of God,
be, that is, if God see it requisite to bring them on you. And the Ap would needs bring these clauses in, though by way of parenthesis; so in tv,
of these places mentioned. The stronger the sufferings are, the strong the will of God in bringing those sufferings. And it is patience in the soul
that works the heart to submission to that will, Ps. xxxix. 9, I was cluinK
I opened not my mouth ; because thou didst it. Then, when he confc
his sin of Bathsheba and murdering Uriah, he considered not the wrong done them, in comparison of that he had done against God therein. Against
thee, against thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight, Ps.
li. And now, when a retaliation for that sin, in the rebellion of his own son
Absalom, came upon him, and Shimei had likewise bitterly cursed and re
viled him, which some latter expositors have deemed to have been the occa
sions of that psalm,* he in like manner, in this his punishment, layeth asido
the consideration of all instruments that had brought those evils on him, whoever they were, whether it were these or some other, and looks only unto
God, and submits, because thou hast done it. And though he confesseth
that he was in a fume at first, notwithstanding his fixed resolution to have
been dumb as for speaking anything that should savour of murmuring before men ; yet his flesh and corruption boiled within him, as that useth to rise
and work in us first : so ver. 2, 3, I was dumb with silence, I held my
: and my sorrow was stirred, or my distemper wrought
peace, even from good
the more. My heart was hot within me, wliilst I was musing the fire
burned : then spake I with my tongue. And what he spake savours of a man weary of life itself. For he would needs know of God when his life
should be at end ; thus, ver. 4, so impatient was he. Yea, but then when
his grace came more deeply and thoroughly to be stirred, and patience to
have its perfect work, he then considers God s hand alone in it ; how that it
was he had stirred up the spirits of these wicked ones against him, and
found that himself had to do with God alone. And then he was dumb and
silent indeed to purpose. And truly his heart at that time, if the occ;i
were that of Shimei and Absalom, had been wrought up into as blessed ;-.
frame of submission to God as ever before or after, in all his lifetini
his words in that chapter before mentioned do declare, 2 {Sam. xv. 2,0.
1 And David said, If I shall find favour in the eyes of the Lord, he will bring me again, and shew me both it, viz., the ark, and his habitation : but if
he thus say, I have no delight in thee ; behold, here I am, let him do to me
as seemeth good unto him. He herein perfectly gives up himself to Clods
good pleasure. And it is as if he had said, If it be good in his eyes so to
deal, it shall be so in mine ; I wholly give myself up unto whatever his de-
* See Piscator and the Dutch Annotat And the ground why it may be BO
is the conformity which these passages in the pealm ver. 8, Make me
:h of the foolish, and this specially, ver. 9, 1 opened not my mouth, MOM
>.
if dohnl.lwith 2 Sam. xvi. 10, 11. when Shimei did cune him, upon
, f v. 1 fiimUrly spake thun, The L-r-l lutli u>\ t.. him,
David. Who shall ..y Lord
hath bidden just as h h done it
PATIENCE AKD ITS PERFECT V.
ia upon me. Yea, he casts away himself into the supposition of God s
iiavhi" no delight in him : which is the most afflicting supposition a godly man Jan make to himself of all other ; so perfectly did his will apply itself
to Cud s will. He had professed his waiting on God just before in t
psalm, Now, Lord, what do I wait for? my hope is in thcc. And now he
< I am dumb, so for the present; and, I will be dumb, so for
adds,
future : I will never open my mouth about it. Piscator and
nutator read it thus, in both tenses.
5. Patience makes a man not dumb only, or not to open his mou
through submission, but it makes him put his mouth m the Just; whereby
u deeper humiliation and submission is yet expressed.
liation to lie at God s feet with his face on the dust, which is as low as the
: that if God will tread and trample upon him, there 1
person can go
and in that posture presents and declares himself ready for that, or any uis
pcnsation from God. Lam. iii, the church cud not only wait, ver. 2o, a
wait quietly, vcr. 26, and then sit down and keep silence, ver. 28, bi
did put her mouth in the dust, ver. 29.
But you will say, All this was done when the soul had hope, as appears
those words in that Lam. iii. 20, It is good that a man should hope
wiit cmietlv and ver. 29, He puts his mouth in the dust, if so be theio
may be ope! And, indeed, Uavid, in the 3 Jth 1 sobn, and likewise in tlu,
places cited of him out of Samuel, had hope concerning that particular
thing he yet submitted unto God in, as at the 7th verse of .t psa!
: And now, Lord, what do I wait for my hope is m thee ; am
appears
then mentions the deliverance wherein his hope lay, in vcr. J
when Shimei cursed him, his soul in like manner did gather up 1
more upon it that God would bless him: 2 Sam. xvi. 12, It may be the
Lord Jll look on mine affliction, and that the Lord w.ll req. e me good
for his cursing this day. But yet, I confess, Ins hope there, and the church
before, did each rise up but to an it may be.
G But gospel patience, sixthly, will work an effect, when there i:
as to L <L and conce ,;>,nc,,>S of this life. David and the church said
If there may be hope; but patience will say, If there be no hope-
is in thTs life-that ever I should come out of this trouble. I differenced
t"nce f m Christian fortitude before by this. The apostles ud put
primitive Christians over to the day of the restitution of all lungs ami th
refreshing that should be then. Thus, James v. 7, 8, Be patient therefore,
for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for ***;
Settiron," unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waitet
ceive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; stabluJi join he.ut
for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. As if he had said. As for your
pressures I can give you no hope of release out of them during tliw life ;
reshme,,t ?5^? A
-SBS^
Eut 1 your hearts fixedly make account of no other outwar
^ref
PATIENCE AND ITS PERFECT WORK.
..lthonc;h the husbandman in all app :in:u-o lo,.ks upon all as lost until
the harvest*; yet, however, he hath before then, in tininramvhilo. tlu> early and the latter rain : and they give hope of a harvest, whilst he sees and
finds God blessing and following his corn with rain upon his ground. This
as to the husbandman s hope, which is the Apostle s similitude. And as to
the Christian s hope, I understand by the early and latter rain, accord in
the course of the similitude, to be signified those illapscs from heaven, those
refreshing bedewments which the Holy Ghost vouchsafeth all along to such
an expectant s soul, as earnests of heaven, and pledges of God s certain in
tending to give him his expected harvest, according to the proportion of his
patience and waiting. But still all these hopes wholly respect that other
life ; but as to this life, the Apostle gives no other hopes for them. Nor no
more doth the Apostle to the Hebrews, chap. x. 3G, whilst he thus speaks,
* Ye have need of patience, even to the end of your lives ; for it follows,
1 that after you have done the will of God, you may inherit the promises.
Still you will need patience to your very last. We use to speak the same
to a man whose case is remediless : You had need of patience, for your con
dition is not like to be bettered. These had suffered the spoiling of tin ir
goods already, ver. 33, and had endured a great fight of afflictions, as
there. Well, but the storm is not yet over : you have need of patience still,
you are never like to have your goods and estates again, and I can give you,
says he, no other hope but that you would patiently wait for the restitution
of all things, which is to be at the day of judgment ; for so it follows, ver.
37, For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not
tarry. And therefore cast not away your confidence, which hath great re-
compence of reward, ver. 35. So that all the hope in this life is, that the
time will not be long.
7. A seventh act or work of patience is, it causeth the soul to sanctify G<n.l
in a man s heart, all sorts of ways. I shall still instance, as I have done, more specially in Job s carriage, whose patience is so cried up by our
Apostle. When his outward losses of children, <fcc., had their full accom
plishment, and the sad tidings thereof had filled his ears and heart, chap.
L, by messenger after messenger, till he had no more to lose, the text tells
us, ver. 20, He fell down on the ground, and worshipped. He had been
frequent in worshipping before, and that upon occasion of his children, that
they might not sin, so you read, ver. 5 ; but all those, his foregone worship,
sacrifices, and prayers, could not prevail with God to preserve them, nor his
goods neither. But now when they are all gone, the first thing he doc
he falls down and worships.
Quest. What may that contain in it 1 ^ 7iA I 8hall limit myself unto what his speech thereupon doth utter, and the posture of his worshipping doth signify, both plainly shewing what was in his heart that moved him so to do, and moved within him in tin-
doing it.
1. He adores God in his sovereignty, both in his falling down, as also in
those words, The Lord hath given, and the Lord hath taken. He is Lord,
says he, the Lord of all. All was his own ; and shall he not do what he will
with his own ? as Matt. XT. 15. I am the clay, he is the potter. He IB the Lord of me, and all. Job had prayed for his sons, as we* did for the city, so
far as he had then in his view what might then concern Ilu>m ; but for all
f>r tin-in, God took them away by a violent death : and
his good prayrrs
ry with his prayer*, as with ours for the city; yet
logins to worship him afresh, and in after all And it was the
PATIENCE AND ITS PERFECT WORK.
first tiling lie applied himself unto. Faith and patience will cause the heart
to apply itself to God in all sorts of dealings, and will vent and utter graci ous dispositions some way or other. And to adore God, which was most
suitable to this condition he was in, is a higher act than to pray, simply
considered, though it be done mostly in prayer. And as thus at first, so
he retained this practice and principle all along, although he did grow very
unquiet when his sins and God s wrath came in upon him. Yet however
impatient he otherwise were, he still aiterwards continued in this manner to
adore, and fall down before God at times. Thus, in chap, xxiil 11, 12, you
shall see how this poor man falls down before God, and submits to him. He
first professeth his integrity, at ver. 10, and his faith as to the issue of his
: He knoweth the way that I take : when
trials, that all would be for good
he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. My foot hath held his steps, &c. As if he had said, But yet for all he knew my holy walking with him,
his resolution and design upon me, thus to try me, went on. And all my
prayers beforehand could not turn him therefrom, as follows ver. 13, 14, But he is of one mind, and who can turn him 1 and what his soul desireth, even that he doth : for he performeth the thing that is appointed for me ; what is my lot from him, as this was, I must take it and submit to it ; and many such things are with him, many such strange and wonderful un
usual dealings are with him, and we must magnify him in all. It is God s
sovereignty, you see, which he here adores and falls down before. And this
passage you may set upon the score of those eminent speeches wherein he
expressed his patience, which the Scripture commends it for; and in the
issue of his worst fits, we find him still adoring and submitting to God.
2. Secondly, he humbles himself to the dust, falls down to the ground.
First, as himself was a creature, poor and emptied of all. Alas ! what am
I, says he, or what have I to challenge or assume to myself as mine ? What
have I, or am I, that I have not received 1 A poor naked thing I came
into the world at first ; and but as poor and naked am I now, when bereft
of all my goods; and as naked I must return. I had nothing at first, and I
have but nothing now, and I shall carry nothing with me into the other
world. Thus spake he. When Jacob was in hazard of, and thought he should lose his goods, and
children, and all, as Job here actually lost both, see how beforehand he
humbles and debaseth himself, as you read in Gen. xxxii. 10, and how
greatly, before the Lord : I am less than the least of thy mercies. I am
not worthy of a bit of bread, and thou gavest me all I have. And what
was I once 1 He considers, as Job, his original condition, both as to matter
of estate and children. I came over Jordan but with this staff; I had no
more, says he, and now I have two bands, both of cattle and children. And
if God take all, I am but where I was, and where he once found me. And
truly Jacob s best policy and design was to have compounded the matter, and if he could but save half of either, ver. 8 ; if he might have half his
estate, and half his children, he should have been, considering the hazard of
: but now he puts in with God for the whole.
all, something well appeased
His thus humbling of himself was before he had lost anything, to the end to
preserve it, and Job s was when he had lost all ; but both express the same
humility.
And as you find him here humbled, as a poor creature, as poor as ever
any was ; so elsewhere as deeply broken for his being a sinner, and professing himself to be as naked and empty in respect of any righteousness of his own,
or of anything he had to stand upon in the sight of God. The great Apostle
AND
doth not imsolf thereof, in Phil, iii., than holy Job doth in chap. ix. 2, I know it is so of a truth : but how should man be just with i If he will contend with him, he cannot answer him one of a thousand. And
yet more deeply and expressly, ver. 20, 21, If I justify myself, mine
inouth I sinning in all my speeches, and even in this now whilst I speak
it shall condemn me : if I say, I am perfect, it shall also prove me pm His meaning further is, Had I never so perfect an inherent holiness, yet if I come before God to be justified, I know not mine own soul/
* as he tlu-iv
adds; that is, I look at nothing in my own soul, I utterly renounce all in it :
yea, I would despise my life ; that is, all that holiness I have in the cm of my life exercised, and had in me, I despise it, I count it dross and dung. Though as for an integrity, in point of sanctification, he stood upon his
points with God himself.
We find other saints in their distresses to have been patient in the sense of their sins. I might instance in David, how he humbled himself in that
great distress which we spake of, and which silenced him so, as you heard in
that fore-cited Psalm xxxix. Deliver me from all my transgressions, saith
lie, ver 8. The remembrance of those struck him dumb before God ; for
that speech immediately follows, ver. 9. So the church, Mic. vii. 9, I will bear the indignation of the Lord, for I have sinned against him.
3. A third act comprehended in Job s worshipping God is his blessing God, as his words therewith also uttered shew ; wliich blessed frame and
disposition of spirit his faith by patience had wrought in him upon tliis oc
* Blessed be the name of the Lord, says he. He blesseth him that he had given him
casion. Lo ! his high sufferings cause him to bless the Lord.
at first, and that he had afforded him those blessings of children and goods so long. The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken ; blessed, kc. And he was thankful for that ; and thought it but reasonable that if he received good, he should also receive evil, as the pleasure of God was, chap. iL 10. He
blesseth God, also, because he found that God had blessed him with such
things and blessings heavenly, which could not be taken away. He found
the love of God the same still. It is a sure rule, we never bless God but when we find that God blesseth us first ; as we do not love God, but because God loves us first. Now when the soul finds that in afflictions and tenta-
tions God doth bless it, this draws out from the soul a blessing of God again. And then doth the soul say, It is not only the will of my Father, and there
fore shall I not drink the cup he gives me? but it is the blessing of my Father, and shall not I bless him for it ? In everything give thanks, saith the holy Apostle, 1 Thess. v. 18 ; that is, whatever the condition be, still
there is matter of thanks, and so of blessing God.
Third Branch of the 3d General Head. The fwits of patience. These the Apostle terms the peaceable, quiet fruits of righteousness, whir!:
chastening yicldeth, after ye have been exercised thereby, Heb. xii, and that
is through patience gained by those afflictions.
1. The first fruit; it works contentment, a holy contentment; and that adds a perfection to the other former works of this grace, Phil. iv. 1 1, I 2, I
have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. 1 know how
to be abased, and I know how to abound : everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to IT hu: ifler
need. And i 1 it, as Chri-t ! arm-d hi.s nb.-dience, thr-
sufferings; and by
h> having run through so great a variety of condit.
* Iii n.ich a j.hraae oa when Christ says, I know yoi:
PATIENCE AND ITS PERFECT WORK. -\~>~>
A man may be content when he is not fully satisfied. When God frames a man s estate to his will, then he is satisfied; as, Ps. xvil 14, whose belly thou fillest with thy hidden treasure. But to be content is another thing.
It is not when I have an estafe according to my will, but my will is brought
to my estate ; and then I have as much content in that as in the greatest
estate; for life, says Christ, that is, the comfort of life, lies not in abund
ance. It is true, such a man would choose rather, as the Apostle speaks, a
full estate ; yet patience boweth his judgment to such an approbation of his
present condition as that which is best for him, as being that which out of
God s judgment and wisdom is allotted to him ; he so bends his will unto
such a correspondency with God s will as he rests content.
2. A second fruit of patience is self-sufficiency; the word is so, l^Tim. vL
6, But godliness with contentment is great gain. The word I^T aftragxf/f,
* content
translated contentment, is a more reaching word by far. To say
ment, that is too bare and scant a word ; but this more amply signifies self-
sufficiency. In 2 Cor. ix. 8, the same word is there translated sufficiency, but still in the Greek it hath self added to sufficiency, which imports a
sufficiency within a man s self that he needs not go abroad for anything ; he
is sufficiently supplied from what is within. The words of that verse are, And God is able to make all grace abound towards you ; that ye, always
having all self-sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work :
which let us consider.
It is true that in the word all grace he includes an outward grace,
of giving such an abundance of external blessings as they might always and in all things have enough for themselves, and to spare ; yea, to abound
in every good work to others. But yet the main of that grace he centres in
is an inward self-sufficiency in a man s own heart, as without which they would never have satisfaction at home, much less a heart to scatter abroad ;
but a man s natural self-unsufficiency, as oppositely I call it, would make his
heart clung and narrow, never contented in himself, much less abounding to
others, though he had all the whole world. So as indeed that is the grace which the Apostle puts the weight upon ; that is the grace he predicates. So as the inference or corollary, as to our purpose, from thence may justly be : that if, on the other hand, a true Christian be in never so great want,
or fallen into a condition of extreme poverty, comparatively either unto
what himself once had, which is the case of many a good soul now, or unto
others who still abound ; yet if God give him this all grace of inward self-
sufficiency, he may be, and is still, as content and sufficient within himself as
those in that abounding condition which the Apostle wisheth unto those
Corinthians.
And the reason is, that the self-sufficiency of him that hath the most of
such things lies not in those things, but depends utterly upon that inward
grace spoken of, or that inward frame of Spirit, which this grace composeth
his soul unto.
And this is evident from that place to Timothy first cited, where it is
that the Apostle useth the same word on purpose to comfort the saints, that
were in a scant and bare condition as to this world, as the coherence of ver.
<J-8 shews. Godliness with self-sufficiency, says he, is great gain, even
virtually as much, yea, infinitely more, than gaining all the world, as Christ s
speech is, which, moreover, is spoken with a connexion to these words ; for we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we carry nothing out. And therefore, if we have nothing but food and raiment, let us therewith
be content ; so it follows. And for so much God hath undertaken.
ND ITS PERFECT WORK.
And the holy Ap>stlo veritirs this in himself, that he had learned thus to be as content when he wanted as when he abounded. And in this frame we
find elsewhere his mind to have been in the midst of all, not wants only. but pressures of all sorts; which also shews that patience and endur.
through sufferings had been his tutors and instructors thereunto. For in 2 Cor. vi, he having first reckoned up his sufferings, ver. 4, and made a
catalogue of them, then in his final conclusions, ver. 10, he sums up the frame of his spirit all in this :
* As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing ; as poor,
yet making many rich ; as having nothing, yet possessing all things. In which few words he compendiously speaketh what either out of that to the
Corinthians, chap, ix., I have now insisted on, or that paradox in my text doth amount unto. For those words, as sorrowful in respect of divers
temptations, yet always rejoicing, are all one with count it all joy when
ye fall into divers tentations, as in the text. And his having nothing, yet
possessing all things there, is adequate and equivalent to the Corinthians
supposed outward abounding always, and in all things. But then his
being poor, yet making many rich, therein he exceeded and transcended what they, or any the most liberal-hearted rich man that ever was in the world could boast of, in any of their or his abounding in any or every good or charitable work, in relief to others. So we see it is possible and
attainable that a Christian may in the want of all have an all-self-suffici
ency, superabounding the fulness of him in outward things who aboundeth
most. And all this was the fruit of his patience, and continual abiding under
sufferings. For he speaks this of himself, whilst he is enumerating his suf
ferings, which in that chapter he doth at large. Thus perfect will patience make you, that, as here the Apostle in my text speaks, you shall want
nothing, even in outward things, when you have lost all.
If you ask me, Whence hath a Christian this self-sufficiency within him
self, and wherein lies it ?
I answer, If God and Christ dwell in the heart ; if I have the earnest of
the Spirit for my salvation, or am partaker of his holiness, and that grace which accompanies salvation ; and do delight in the will and glory of God, and in pleasing him, and the like to these ; then I have a self-sufficiency within me. If, as in 1 John iv. 16, we have known and believed the love
that God hath to us : God is love ; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth
in God, and God in him, then we have all within ourselves ; and is like
as a man that hath all provisions in and about his own house so plentifully as he needs not go forth for anything ; so is it, and will it be, with us.
3. A third fruit is joy : Col. ill, Strengthened with all might, unto all
patience and long-suffering with joyfulness. You have it also in the text, count it all joy, ike. And, Rom. v. 3, We glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation worketh patience.
You will say to me, How can this be ? Doth not the Apostle say, Heb.
xii. 11, No chastening seems to be for the present joyous, but grievous ; and our Saviour, You shall weep when the world shall rejoice ; and many the like)
I give these answers :
First, The object of your joy is not simply your afflictions. No, no man
can delight in them alone ; they, indeed, are grievous, thus saith the
Ap< But your joy lies in looking unto what in the issue and i-vi-nt. the end .Mid
reward of your trials by them ; and that is it you are to count the matter of
your j..y. and ail joy. To rejoice in the thing, or the all If, is one
thing ; and to rejoice in the expectation of the event and issue, is another.
PATIENCE AND ITS PERFECT WORK.
Then, secondly, if you observe it, the word in the text is favourable : says he, count it all joy ; that is, esteem it so. He doth not say, you shall have
all joy at present, but though you have not, you may count it all joy, that
is, you may reckon it as matter of all joy, as many interpreters paraphrase the words, and so reason yourselves into joy in your judgments, and so esteem it all joy, appretiative, as the school speaks, though the passion of
joy be wanting.
Thirdly, Jesus Christ himself, when he did endure the cross, and whilst he hung upon it, and likewise before, whilst within the garden, he was not in a joyous frame of spirit at that present as to the passion of joy; nay, his soul was heavy unto death that while. Yet it is said, Heb. xii. 1, that
for the joy that was set before him he did endure the cross, &c. ; and he therein is set forth as an example unto us, in the same verse, Let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus,
<fec. It is well if you look to the joy set before you, as that which you certainly expect to come, although you want the passion of joy in that which you expect to come.
Fourthly, You may perhaps not rejoice at present with great joy, yet after
wards, through much exercise of patience, it may grow up in you. And this answer the Apostle himself gives in that Heb. xii., distinguishing between what for the present, and what for afterwards, in time: ver. 11, Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous
: never
theless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. And upon the hopes of that he bids them to
lift up the hands that hang down, and strengthen the feeble knees.
Yet, fifthly, Some Christians have had, and you may have, actual joy at
that present in the midst of your afflictions. These two, great trials and great
joys, may well meet and stand together in the heart at once, as in divers re
spects ; for the Apostle hath reconciled those two, 1 Pet. i. 6, Wherein ye
greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness
through manifold temptations. That speech, wherein ye greatly rejoice, reacheth and riseth higher than to an accounting it matter of joy about what
is to come, but doth further absolutely speak of joy for the present. And
therefore to have the affection of inward joy itself greatly raised up, and
yet at that instant, in the same now as he speaks, in outward respects to be
in heaviness, are compatible. And, Col. i. 11, the Apostle speaks of such a glorious power accompanying the saints in trials as shall work patience and long-suflfering with joyfulness. And why else doth the Apostle also say, Rejoice in the Lord always; and again I say, Rejoice T He contents not
himself to have said it once, as if to have them rejoice a little, but he professeth to say it again, because they should rejoice abundantly, and this
always, and therefore in all times and in all conditions. Of the co-existence
of which two himself proposeth himself an example : As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.*
Fourth Branch of the 3d General Head. Some eminent properties or ad
juncts ofpatience, which, added, do make it and its work pei*fect.
1. When a man s spirit is brought to do these things with ease, so as he shall
not need to chide his spirit into a patient frame, nor force himself into it, but like as Ezra is said to be a ready scribe, Ezra vii. G, that is, he was per
fect at his work, his heart was prepared for it and inured to it, ver. 10, thus patience hath had a perfect work when it frames the heart to a >v
to those actings before mentioned. Thus the Apostle, Acts xxi. 13, I am
458 PATIENCE AND ITS PERFECT WORK.
not only ready to be bound, but I am ready to die at Jerusalem, for name of the Lord Jesus. His heart was so fully prepared as lie stuck nut
at all at it ; yea, it was a heart-breaking to him that his friends should
<
to dissuade him: What mean you to break my heart? &c. It \\;,s his
being inured to endurance and patience that had begotten that habit of it
in him ; his heart was not to seek for it.
2. A second adjunct or property which adds a perfection to all these i-
when the practice of it is durable, and hath some constancy in it.
As, first, not by Jits only. That was Jonah s fault Oh, he was a broken, humble man when in the whale s belly ; but how outrageous when out ! In
Moses, patience had its perfect work, in respect of the constant exercise of
that grace, and therefore it was he had the honour to be styled the meekest man on earth ; and truly it was not that meekness of his natural temper, nor
merely as a moral virtue in him, for which he is so extolled, though these
might contribute thereto, but it was a grace that was spiritual in him, the
gnice of meekness, and consequently of patience, which the Holy Ghost had
wrought in him, and which he by sufferings had learned. And my reason,
among others, principally is, that he was a type of Christ therein, according
as God s promise was to raise up a prophet like unto Moses ; like, as in other
eminencies, so especially in this grace ; for which, as Moses is commended
there, so Christ in the Evangelists, and therein proposeth himself as an ex
ample, Learn of me, for I am meek/ &c. Now, how constantly did Moses
bear all along with that perverse, murmuring, and rebelling nation, both
against God and himself, with an invincible patience, and still interceded
for them ; and thus Christ doth with us, and for us. And although we
read how Moses was and could be sometimes angry, yea, exceeding wroth,
as the words are, (whereof I gave the collection out of Ainsworth,) yet it
was often in God s cause, and still but so as the usual and constant frame
of his spirit was otherwise, for which he had that renowned denomination, and never was greatly out or overcome with impatiency, we read of, but
once, Num. xx. 10, 11, compared with Psalm cvi 32, 33.
Secondly, Patience is then perfect when it continues to the end. As a
colour Is said to be perfect when it is durable, as a dye in grain, or as the
India colours, which, while the cloth remains, they endure. Now it is he
that endures to the end, Matt, xxiv., that shall be saved. You shall there
fore find that unto patience, long-suffering is added in two several places
Col. i, Strengthened unto all patience and long-Buffering. Patience there
respects the weight or grievousness and heaviness of the aftliction we are
under; and long-suffering respects the duration and time. The other is in
an instance of the Apostle of himself, 1 Tim. iii. 10, Thou hast known my
long-suffering, charity, patience. In James v. 7, it is said of the husband
man, whose case is made the persuasive unto patience, he hath long patience. This is a perfection indeed, to bear long, and to the end : Be thou faithful
to death, Rev. il 10. To carry a great burden a quarter of an hour is an
effect of some patience, but to carry it a day, or more, or for a week, tli
long-suffering. Why is it said that when you have done the will <>f God,
<>f yur life,
you have need of patience, but because still, in the last part
after an active life for a long while ran through, even tln-n when you rue
near the promise, your patience may be then at last most of all put to it ?
3. A third property or requisite to perfect patience is, that it be universal;
.:-n a man hath been every way tried, and hath
Ihr i-.ijli .ill :,ort3 of tcntalioiu, or when In.- hath still come off with patience
in some good measure in all those wherein he hath been tried, although his
PATIENCE AND ITS PERFECT WollK. 459
trials have not been of all sorts. A man s natural spirit will help him to be patient in some things, but in other things his heart is weak, and cannot
bear. Oh ! not such a cross, of any other. But it is certain, as God tried Abraham in his Isaac, so God will the sons of Abraham in what is dearest to them, and yet enable them to bear it, as 1 Cor. x., and go through therewith. Hence in the epistles you meet with all added to patience and
long-suffering, both when patience is prayed for, as Col. i., and exhorted
unto, as 2 Tim. iv. 2. But though this universality is to be prayed for and exhorted unto, as that which makes it perfect ; yet it is well if, in the great trials of our lives, we come off with some patience suitable, and from hence
forth resolve with endurance so to do : and so much is expected. And it may seem strange that many that should be able to bear great trials between God and them with much quietness and submission, are yet easily disad-
vantaged upon smaller occasions between men and them; for which some reasons might be given.
460 PATIENCE AND ITS PERFECT WORK.
SECTION IV.
ALTHOUGH I have despatched the subject I first intended, yet I find my self obliged to proceed a little further in the opening ver. 5, in order unto a relieving against a great discouragement, which I know hath, or may have been, in many readers hearts, whilst I have been thus discoursing these great things about the perfect work of patience, &c. ; and also to
leave behind me the most apposite direction how to obtain this patience, in the perfect work of it : and I will not go out of my text for these things neither.
AN EXPOSITION OF THE STR VERSE.
Jf any of you lack wisdom, ht him ask of God, that yiveth to all men It
ally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
The discouragement I know is : Oh, how remote are and have our hearts been from this perfect work of patience
! which yet some saints have in so
great a measure attained, as those great examples given have shewn, both of
saints out of the Old and New Testaments. What then shall I think of
myself for the present ? will such a soul say ; or for the future, what shall
I do?
Why, truly, God hath provided sufficiently in the text for answer to these
queries and complaints of yours, whereby both to relieve you against your discouragement at your want of the exercise of these things, and also to
direct you to the most proper and effectual, if not the only means to obtain
them.
1. As to this present discouragement about your want, and so great
falling short of this hitherto, which you are so sensible of, those first words
* If any of you lack wisdom, will be found greatly speaking to
in the text,
your relief therein.
2. As to a direction what you should do for the future to obtain it, those
other words, Let him ask of God, point us to the most proper and effectual
remedy and way of supply in the case.
3. With this great encouragement added, first drawn from the nature of
God, Ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; then seconded with this promise, and it shall be given him. Of these three heads in what follows, briefly
I. To t/ie discourageiit The opening of these words, If any of
y<.u lark \vi<dim, will irnatly conduce to ease your heart as to that; tin- !ir.-t i.f \vhi--li is, that the A]
plainly supposcth that true 1> li. v is may both really, and in their own ap-
: illy, be found irn-atly larking in point of patience
ll them. And this I am -uiv hath reason to r i in
>be the <_; i*ra:rcment that usually falls out.
PATIENCE AND ITS PERFECT WORK. 461
This to be the supposition of the Apostle is made good by opening four
things
1. That by wisdom here is plainly meant patience, together with the
perfect work of it which he had spoken of.
2. That he speaks this unto those that were true believers; if any of you
3. How it may or can be said that true believers, who have all grace and the principles thereof in them, lack such or such a grace.
4. The intimate reason and occasion upon which the Apostle utters him
self in this supposition ; if any, &c. For the first ; wisdom sometimes is taken largely for all grace and gra cious actings whatsoever ; sometimes strictly for a particular grace. To find out the difference of which, the measure is to be taken from the scope of the
place where either of these is mentioned. Now wisdom, in this place, is to be taken strictly; that is, for that particular grace, or piece of gracious wis dom, whereby to know how to be able to manage a man s self under trials,
especially great, sore, and sudden ones, patiently; which is done when we have taken in and digested by faith such principles as our Christianity affords plenty of, as grounds that instruct and enable the soul joyfully to
entertain such trials and tentations, and to endure and go through them with a constancy of joy. For look, as the word grace is taken either
strictly or largely; that is, either for all grace, and yet again for any or
every particular grace, each of which is called grace also : As ye abound in
every grace, so ye abound in this grace also; thus, all grace is called wisdom in a large sense, as usually throughout the Book of Proverbs, but withal a particular grace is called wisdom too, as the third chapter of this
epistle, ver. 13, shews. The grace of meekness shewn in speech and con
versation, he styles it meekness of wisdom, or a wise meekness, or a meekness accompanied with and proceeding out of wisdom. And thus Cal vin and most others understand wisdom here in this my text of this special grace ;
* the scope and coherence with the former words carrying it there
unto. True patience being from such a wisdom as whereby the soul hath the skill and ability to manage a man s self patiently under tentations, to such an issue as that patience should have a perfect work in us ; and unto
this it is here to be restrained ; for this grace it is he had been, and still is,
discoursing of.
And there is a special and more peculiar reason why this skill of patience should be styled wisdom in a more eminent sense. For what he had before uttered of rejoicing in afflictions and tentations, and exhorted unto, that
patience should have its perfect work ; these things being the hardest lessons
in Christianity, do therefore need and require the highest principles of divine
wisdom, both doctrinal and practical, to be deeply inlaid and fixed in the
soul, so as to bow and frame the heart unto a real practice and willing per formance of such dictates and conformity thereunto. For then it is that
knowledge is termed wisdom ; and for that reason it is that our whole reli
gion is styled wisdom, because it rests not in bare notional knowledge, which is a differing thing from wisdom, but makes men proportionably wise
to the practice of the things in which it instructs. And particularly this
skill of enduring tentations, such as hath been described, doth deserve this
style more eminently, for it so far outvies, and is above the sphere of all
principles, whether of philosophy or what other profession or professors of
patience whatsoever, who whilst, in a sullen patience, for all of theirs was no
* Sapientiae nonien ad circumstantiarn prsesentis loci restringo. Calvin in verb.
PATIENCE AND ITS PERIT
better, they professed to be wiso-, they became foolish; an ...nity in
finitely outshoots them in what they most gloried in.
Secondly, That he speaks this to them whom he supposeth true bcli and unto them as such, is evident; although at the first blush, as \\v
the words would seem to point at and speak to unregcnerate men who
wLolly want all true wisdom and grace; and so the drift should be an
intended direction to or for such to seek true grace, which they lack, at the
hands of God, by prayer.
But the coherence manifestly shews that he speaks to such whom lie
supposeth to be already true believers. For in the next words he exhorts
the same persons whom he speaks to in these words, to ask in faith ; and
therefore supposeth them to have true faith already whom he directs this
exhortation unto. And otherwise it had been more proper, yea, requisite to
have exhorted them, if he had intended it of unregenerate men, first to seek
faith itself, and then out of faith and in that faith to seek for this wisdom, or grace of endurance. And again he speaks to them that were brethren ;
so lie calls them ; and in this passage says, if any of you, and such who,
being true professors of Christianity, were exposed unto those sundry tenta-
tions from persecutions especially. And it is such also whom he exhorts to
* count it all joy, kc., and here to ask a wisdom of God whereby to be able
to suffer for their holy profession. Furthermore, this wisdom lying in
patience having its perfect work in them, it supposeth the persons such as
had some work of patience and of other graces begun in them already. And,
indeed, to have exhorted unregenerate men, that were as yet utterly destitute
of all grace, and so out of harm s way as to any sufferings from the gospel, and to direct them to make this the first of their addresses to God, and of
their requests, that they might be able to endure tentations, and that
patience should have a perfect work in them, and so to have taught them
that which is the hardest lesson in Christianity before they had learned the
first letters thereof ; this had been utterly improper, and a lesson at too great a distance for men in their natural state first to learn. Thus much for the
persons, viz., that he speaks it unto men already regenerate, and supposed in
the faith.
The third thing proposed was, How it could be he should speak in this manner of believers, that they should lack this grace of wisdom ; whenas, if
such, they must be supposed to have all true graces in them ; why then
should he yet say, even of them, If any of you lack,
<tc. ?
Ans. This expression, to say such and such a Christian Macks such
or such a grace, is not uncouth nor unusual in the Scriptures, when
he or they have wanted the exercise of it For though Christians do re
ceive the principles of all graces, as 2 Pet i. 3, yet they may neglect to stir
up all graces, or may have been disused to the exercise of some. Why
>
and to what end, doth the Apostle in the same place stir them up to
grace to grace, as in ver. 5 ? And in those cases a Christian may be
yea, charged to lack that grace or graces which he wants the e.v For so in the same chapter, ver. 9, speaking of a dozed, negligent prol
though true, he useth this very language of him, He that lacks t
things, as I have elsewhere opened that Scripture. For idem est
et nan uti; it is all one for a thing not to be, and not to IKused, when th.
being of a thing is wholly onlainrd Tor use :i:nl operation. Now 1C*
thing is grace; and such A thing if not UM-.I. ii ai if it were the
<;>{.. Mtion th -en adding grace to grace, vn. ."*. that i rose
1 the lack: tly
PATIENCE AND ITS PERFECT WORK.
shews that phrase to be so understood, not of the utter want of the grace, but of the exercise.
The fourth thing is, the intimate reason or occasion whereupon the Apostle doth utter himself in such a supposition ; If any of you lack.*
This will appear by considering these three things
First, In respect that he had exhorted to so hard and difficult a practice ;
to count it all joy, &c. ; which requireth such high principles to be drunk in, about the good and benefit of tentations, in the issue and end of them;* which principles must also have been thoroughly concocted in their hearts
first who shall attain to this.
And, secondly, there being many poor souls, as of such that were weak, and some new converts, amongst them whom he wrote to, who might, and
did then, as many now-a-days, that yet are sincere-hearted, in the sense of
their own. weakness, find and apprehend themselves so far off and remote
from such high principles and attainments, and therefore, upon his thus
discoursing, were like to be utterly discouraged ; thinking with themselves,
judging themselves by the present frame of their infirm spirits, both that
their hearts had never yet, nor would ever be, wrought up to this pitch. What, to count it all joy
! think they ; is that it you exhort us unto ?
Alas ! our hearts tremble at the very thoughts of entering into such sudden
and so great tentations as you here forewarn us of. And of all graces else,
it is this of a patient suffering frame, and strength of spirit thereto, that is
and hath been our want. This is it we lack, nor do we know how to
manage ourselves wisely under such trials, so as to glorify God; yea, and
not shamefully to dishonour him. Nay, if we should fall into such trials and
sufferings, we are liker utterly to fall away under them, rather than to rejoice when we fall into them.
Further, thirdly, there might be many strong Christians, as to the active
part of the life of Christianity, who yet might be to seek as fresh soldiers at
the first, when such trials come unexpectedly, and thick and threefold upon them ; and that they fall into them as downfalls and precipices. And in this
dreadful a manner he had set them out to them, as impendent on them, as
was opened. And even such Christians, being surprised, might be at a loss
at first, in respect of that confidence of spirit to bear them, till by prayer and faith recollecting themselves, they should anew obtain or regain this
wisdom. Even strong Christians are apt to be stounded at first, as men are
with a great blow, and cannot well stand or keep their ground.
Now unto such, either of these, doth the Apostle in this language, If any
of you lack, apply himself, and therein speaks to their very hearts; but
especially to the first sort of weak Christians. And, indeed, speaks their
very fears, and most inward thoughts and apprehensions, they had or might have of themselves ; and so utters their misgivings of heart in their own
language. Oh, I lack these things, says the soul. If any of you lack,
says the Apostle. And it is no small comfort to such to hear an apostle, from the immediate inspiration of the Holy Ghost, to suppose that very true
and sincere Christians may thus be lacking and thus surprised.
Thus as to the removal of their main discouragement, which was the first
thing proposed.
II. The direction.
Let him ask of God. Having thus spoken their hearts, as to the fears
and apprehensions of themselves in respect of their falling short of this high
* Si quis vestrum non potest intelligere utilitatem tentationum, postulet a Deo tribui
sibi sensum Ucda in locum.
; : 1 ATIENCE AND ITS PERFECT V
duty of joy and patii-inv. iVe., he now directs them to the most proper and
sovereign means for the obtaining of it of all other, and that is faithful, instant
* Let him ask of God, fcc. And herein also he speaks the hearts of all true Christians also, even of
prayer
the weakest ; whose refuge in all their wants is to cry to God for a supply of what they lack, especially when they feel, or are apprehensive of their
lack and want in any grace that should help them in time of need. And
look, what effectual supply of this grace in tentatious all the Apostle s per suasions alone would not have effected, that, faith venting itself in constant and fervent prayer, will bring in and obtain ; and their hearts will in the end be raised and wrought up unto, so as they shall be able to abound in
tlria grace also. Weak faith, when it cannot find in its heart to suffer, or so much as to enter into trials, can yet pray; and so doth beg with desires un
utterable to have this grace, to be able to suffer these trials in this joyful manner the Apostle exhorts us unto. And the weak heart continuing so to
pray and importune God, in the end this shall be given him ; as here he
promiseth. I shall not enlarge on this further. For when an apostle shall
single forth a means, and that one single one, w
rhereby to obtain any eminent
grace: one needs, that means ought to be with all diligence put into use and
practice ; and so there needs no more to urge it.
Only observe how in this directive part he puts them not upon praying
chiefly to have tcntations and trials averted or kept off, nor to ask deliver
ance out of them, though that is lawful and may be done ; not a word of
these in this his exhortation ; but he draws the main and great intention of
their souls unto praying for grace, how to be patient and joyful, &c. This as
to the direction.
III. His encouragements to pray.
His encouragements, that by seeking a believer shall obtain, are drawn,
first, from that gracious wont and disposition of God, that yiveth to all men