Chapter XIII
The third general head : The ends for which God leaveth his children unto
this darkness. First, such as are drawn from God, and his faith fulness, &c.
III. Now let us come to those ends whicli God may have in this his dealing with one that fears and obeys him ; which are many and holy ones.
1. First, to shew his power and faithfulness, in upholding, raising up, and
healing such a spirit again as hath been long and deadly wounded with in ward terrors ; which is as great an evidence of his power as any other ; and therefore saith Heman, Ps. Ixxxviii. 10, 11, Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead 1 shall thy faithfulness be declared in destruction V That is, in raising my soul up again to joy and comfort, which is as much as to raise up a dead man ; nay more, as much as to raise up a soul already in hell ; for the same
terrors, says he, that destroy them do in like manner seize on me. In Eph.
i. 19, it is said, that the exceeding greatness of God s power was seen in
raising Christ from death to life ; and wherein lay principally the demonstra tion of that power ? Not simply in raising his body up again ; that was no more than he did to others. But in Acts ii. 24, the power is said to be shewn in this, that he having loosed the pains of death, wherewith it was impos sible he should be held, he was raised up again. His soul was heavy unto death with terrors : and those pains in themselves were deadly, though not to him, in that he being God as well as man, it was impossible for him to sink under them. Now therefore to raise up and glorify that his soul, that was so bruised, wounded, and pierced through and through, herein lay the wonder ; and such a wonder God shewed in recovering Heman. And to shew the greatness of this work, let us consider a little the depth and deadliness of this kind of distress. It is compared to the bruising of a reed ; which when it is bruised, who can make it stand upright again 1 It is called
( the wounding of the spirit/ Prov. xxviii. ; which no creature knows how to come at to heal, none but God, who is the Father of spirits, who made them, and knows how to mend them. It is not only called the sickness of the
spirit, as Isa. xxxiii. 24, where the want of the assurance of the forgiveness of sins makes poor souls to say, *I am sick; which to heal is made the
* the Sun of righteousness, arising with healing in his wings, Mai. iv. 2, but also it is called death and destruction ; for so in that 88th
prerogative of
Psalm, Heman calls that distress that he was in. And the reason is, God s favour is our life, by which we live and are upheld ; which therefore being withdrawn, the soul is ready to fail and faint, and to come to nothing, and sink into destruction, Isa. Ivii. 16. And again, the pains of those terrors are more violent, and more powerful to hold us under, than are the pangs of death ; the wounds of the guilt of sin being as deadly, and as strong, as the lusts of the power of it : and it requires as great a power to dissolve and
CHAP. XIII. ] A CHILD OF LIGHT WALKING IN DARKNESS. 301
scatter them. For all the strength that the law and God s justice hath, sin
also hath to back it ; for the strength of sin is the law, 1 Cor. xv. 56.
2. Secondly, as to know the power of Christ s resurrection, so the fel
lowship of his sufferings ; that thereby the soul may be made more con
formable to him, as it is, Phil. in. 10. As there are the sufferings for
Christ, so the sufferings of Christ : and God makes his partakers of both
persecutions without, and terrors within ; with which Christ s soul was filled
then whenas the text says, He was heard in what he feared ; and his
( My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ? and so, Isa. liii., it pleased God to bruise and wound him. Now
soul was heavy to death ; and
then, to conform us to his image, we that are his brethren, and are the per sons guilty, must suffer somewhat in spirit as well as he, and have a portion therein also. And therefore, as Christ did suffer both inwardly and out
wardly, so do many of his members : If you have suffered with him, ye
shall also be glorified with him/ The sons of Zebedee would have been
glorified in Christ s kingdom more than the rest of the apostles ; but says
Christ, Matt. xx. 22, Are ye able to drink of the cup whereof I shall drink?
* Let this cup pass, the bitter cup of God s anger, and are ye able to be baptized with the
he means that cup delivered to him at his crucifying ;
baptism I am baptized with ? namely, outward afflictions and persecutions for the name of God ; which are called baptisms, because they set God s mark on us that we are God s, as baptism doth seal to us that we are his ; and because then the church owns us, and takes notice of us as sincere, when we have believed and suffered, as at baptism the church receives us. And
of this baptism Christ speaks in the present tense, because that he was al
ready baptized with outward persecutions ; but the cup, which was inward
affliction of his spirit, this he was to drink of at his agony which I slw.ll
drink of, in the future ; which cup cast him into that sweat, ere he came
to the bottom. This, though no creature was able to drink off to the bot
tom, yet taste they might; and he tells them they should, ver. 23, Ye shall
drink of it, &c., that is, taste of inward affliction and desertion, as well as
of outward persecution, terrors within and without, and all to make us
conformable to him, and so come to know in part what he endured for us.
3. Thirdly, to put the greater difference between the estate of God s chil
dren here, and that hereafter in heaven ; to which very purpose is that speech of the Apostle, 2 Cor. v. 7, that here we walk by faith, not by sight. He had said before, that the estate of believers in this life is an estate of absence from the Lord, wherein we want his presence, and so enjoy not the sight of him ; and therefore are to exercise faith the more, which is peculiar to this
estate, and a grace given of purpose for us to walk by, whilst we live here. And though sometimes we have some light, and glimpses of him and his
presence, yet we walk not by sight always ; for we walk by faith, not by
sight. We shall have enough of the sight of God hereafter, when we shall
see him, as we are seen, face to face, and be evermore with the Lord, when in his light we shall see light, and be satisfied with his image. We may therefore be content to want it here sometimes. You may well endure
over-cloudings here, and sometimes that all sight should be taken away ; for
in the world to come there will not be one cloud to all eternity. Your in
heritance is light, Col. i. 12, 13. Light is your portion, but now is the
seed-time ; and light is sown, Ps. xcvii. 11, for the righteous. You must
be content to let it lie under-ground ; the longer it doth so, the greater crop and harvest will come up in the end. You must endure the vicissitude of
302 A CHILD OF LIGHT WALKING IN DARKNESS. [PART I.
day and night here, sorrow overnight, and joy in the morning ; for here after you shall have continual day and no night. This difference there is put between earth and heaven, to make heaven sweeter, and to exercise faith : the estate in heaven is as a state of perfect and continual health ; which that we may prize, we are ever and anon sick here, and qualms come over our
consciences, fears our sins are not forgiven ; but when we come thither, The inhabitants there shall be no more sick, but their sins shall be forgiven them, Isa. xxxiii. 24.
4. The fourth end is, to let us see whence spiritual comforts and refresh
ings come : that God alone keeps the keys of that cupboard, and alone dispenseth them how and when he pleaseth. That we may know (as it is Isa. xlv. 6, 7) that it is the Lord that formed the light and creates darkness, evil and peace ; and that as affliction riseth not out of the dust/ as Job
speaks, so nor comfort out of our hearts. Whereas if continually we en joyed comfort, we should be apt so to think. God will let us see that our hearts are nothing but darkness ; and that to cause any spiritual comfort is as much as to create light at first : therefore he says, I create the fruit of the lips ; Peace, Isa. Ivii. 19, and that he it is that doth command light to shine into our hearts, who commanded light at first to shine out of darkness/ 2 Cor. iv. G ; which can no way more fully be manifested than by withdraw
ing that light sometimes, and leaving us to darkness. As why doth he sometimes assist us in prayer, and fill the sails, and again at some times leaves our heart empty 1 Is it not that we may learn that lesson, Rom. viiL
26, that it is the Spirit that helpeth our infirmities/ and that we of our selves know not what nor how to ask ? Which lesson, although he some times straitens us, yet we are difficult in learning, nor are easily brought to
acknowledge our dependence on him for his assistance. In like manner, for the same end doth he sometimes hide, and then again sometimes reveal him
self, to shew that he is the immediate fountain of comfort, The God of all
comforts/ 2 Cor. i. 3, that so we might know whom to thank, whom to depend on, whom to go to for comfort : it being as difficult a thing for us to go out of ourselves, and from the creatures, for comfort, to God alone, as to go out of ourselves to Christ alone for righteousness. Hereby also we see, that though we have never so many outward comforts, that yet the comforts of our spirits do depend on God alone; for if he in the midst of them with draw himself, they all prove but miserable comforters.
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