The Riches of Bunyan Part 23

Our afflictions work out for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Our afflictions do it, not only because there is laid up a reward for the afflicted according to the measure of affliction, but because afflictions, and so every service of G.o.d, make the heart more deep, more experimental, more knowing and profound, and so, more able to hold, to contain, and bear more.

Let Christians beware that they set not times for G.o.d, lest all men see their folly. "It is not for you to know the times and the seasons which the Father hath put in his own power;" yea, I say again, take heed lest, for thy setting of G.o.d a seven-day's time, he set thee so many as seven times seven.

G.o.d's time is the time, the best time, because it is the time appointed by him for the proof and trial of our graces, and that in which so much of the rage of the enemy and of the power of G.o.d's mercy, may the better be discovered unto us. "I the Lord do hasten it in his time;" not before, though we were the signet upon his hand.

Afflictions are governed by G.o.d, both as to time, number, nature, and measure. In measure, when it shooteth forth, thou wilt debate with it: "He stayeth his rough wind in the day of his east wind."

Our times, therefore, and our conditions in these times, are in the hand of G.o.d, yea, and so are our souls and bodies, to be kept and preserved from the evil while the rod of G.o.d is upon us.

Ease and release from persecution and affliction come not by chance, or by the good moods and gentle dispositions of men; but the Lord doth hold them back from sin, the Lord restraineth them. 2 Chron.

18:31.

"And he stayed yet other seven days." It is not G.o.d's way with his people to show them all their troubles at once, but first he shows them a part: first, forty days, after that, seven other days, and yet again, seven days more; that coming upon them by piecemeal, they may the better be able to travel through them. When Israel was in affliction in Egypt, they knew not the trial which would meet them at the Red sea. Again, when they had gone through that, they little thought that yet for forty years they must be tempted and proved in the wilderness.

"And Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked;" the failing again of his expected comforter caused him to be up and doing.

Probably he had not as yet uncovered the ark, that is, to look round about him, if the dove, by returning, had pleased his humor; but she failing, he stirs up himself.

Thus it should also be with the Christian now. Doth the dove forbear to come to thee with a leaf in her bill as before? Let not this make thee sullen and mistrustful, but uncover the ark and look; and by looking, thou shalt see a further testimony of what thou receivest by the first manifestations. "He looked, and behold the earth was dry."

G.o.d doth not let us see the hills for our help before we have first of all seen them drowned. Look not to them, therefore, while the water is at the rising; but if they begin to cease their raging, if they begin to fall, and with that the tops of the mountains be seen, you may look upon them with comfort; they are tokens of G.o.d's deliverance. Gen. 8.

It was requisite that the hills, Gen. 7:19, should be covered, that Noah might not have confidence in them; but surely this dispensation of G.o.d was a heart-shaking providence to Noah and them that were with him; for here indeed was his faith tried, there was no hill left in all the world; now were his carnal helpers gone, there was none shut up or left. Now therefore, if they could rejoice, it must be only in the power of G.o.d.

Noah was to have respect in his deliverance not only to himself and family, but to the good of all the world. Men's spirits are too narrow for the mind of G.o.d, when their chief end, or their only design in their enjoying this or the other mercy, is for the sake of their own selves only. It cannot be according to G.o.d, that such desires should be encouraged. "None of us liveth unto himself;" why, then, should we desire life only for ourselves?

The church cries out thus: "G.o.d be merciful to us and bless us, and cause his face to shine upon us." Why? "That thy way may be known upon earth, and thy saving health among all nations." So David: "Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with thy free Spirit; then will I teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto thee."

So then, we must not desire to come out of trials and afflictions alone or by ourselves, but that in our deliverance the salvation of many may be concerned.

In every affliction and persecution, the devil's design is to impair Christ's kingdom; wherefore, no marvel that G.o.d designs in our deliverance the impairing and lessening the kingdom of sin and Satan. Wherefore, O thou church of G.o.d, which art now upon the waves of affliction and temptation, when thou comest out of the furnace, if thou come out at the bidding of G.o.d, there shall come out with thee the fowl, the beast, and abundance of creeping things. Gen.

8:17. "O Judah, he hath set a harvest for thee, when I returned the captivity of my people."

PERSECUTION.

There are several degrees of suffering for righteousness: there is the scourge of the tongue, the ruin of an estate, the loss of liberty, a jail, a gibbet, a stake, a dagger. Now answerable to these are the comforts of the Holy Ghost prepared, like to like, part proportioned to part; only the consolations are said to abound.

2 Cor. 1:5.

But the lighter the sufferings are, the more difficult it is to judge of the comforts of the Spirit of G.o.d; for it is common for a man to be comfortable under sufferings when he suffereth but little, and knows also that his enemy can touch his flesh, his estate, or the like, but little. And this maybe the joy of the flesh, the result of reason; and may be very much, if not altogether, without a mixture of the joy of the Holy Ghost therewith. The more deep, therefore, and the more dreadful the sufferings are, the more clearly are seen the comforts of the Spirit. When a man has comfort where the flesh is dead, stirreth not, and can do nothing; when a man can be comfortable at the loss of all; when he is under sentence of death, or at the place of execution--if yet a man's cause, a man's conscience, the promise, and the Holy Ghost, have all one comfortable voice, and do all together with their trumpets make one sound in the soul, then good are the comforts of G.o.d and his Spirit.

There are several degrees of sufferings; wherefore it is not to be expected that he that suffers but little should partake of the comforts that are prepared for them that suffer much. He that has only the scourge of the tongue, knows not what are the comforts that are prepared for him that meets with the scourge of the whip. And how should a man know what manner of comforts the Holy Ghost doth use to give at the jail and the gibbet, when himself for righteousness never was there?

Persecution of the G.o.dly was never intended of G.o.d for their destruction, but for their glory, and to make them shine the more when they are beyond this valley of the shadow of death.

"We that are Christians have been trained up by his Son in his school this many a day, and have been told what a G.o.d our Father is, what an arm he has, and with what a voice he can thunder; how he can deck himself with majesty and excellency, and array himself with beauty and glory; how he can cast abroad the rage of his wrath, and behold every one that is proud and abase him. Have we not talked of what he did at the Red sea and in the land of Ham, many years ago; and have we forgot him now? Have we not vaunted and boasted of our G.o.d, both in church, pulpit, and books, and spake to the praise of them that attempted to drive antichrist out of the world with their lives and their blood instead of stones; and are we afraid of our G.o.d? He was G.o.d, a Creator, then; and is he not G.o.d now? and will he not be as good to us as to them that have gone before us? or would we limit him to appear in such ways as only smile upon our flesh, and have him stay and not show himself in his heart-shaking dispensations until we are dead and gone? What if we must now go to heaven, and what if he is thus come to fetch us to himself? If we have been as wise as serpents and innocent as doves--if we can say, Neither against the law of the Jews, neither against the temple, nor against Caesar, have we offended any thing at all--of what should we be afraid? Let heaven and earth come together; I dare say they will not hurt us."

Religion that is pure is a hot thing; and il usually burns the fingers of those that fight against it.

Ah, when G.o.d makes the bed, he must needs lie easy whom weakness hath cast thereon: a blessed pillow hath. that man for his head, though to all beholders it is hard as a stone. Psa. 41:1-3.

It is as ordinary as for the light to shine, for G.o.d to make back and dismal dispensations usher in bright and pleasing.

Christian reader, let me beg of thee that thou wilt not be offended either with G.o.d or men, if the cross is laid heavy upon thee. Not with G.o.d, for he doeth nothing without a cause; nor with men, for they are the hand of G.o.d: and will they, nill they, they are the servants of G.o.d to thee for good. Psa. 17:14; Jer. 24:5. Take, therefore, what comes from G.o.d by them thankfully. If the messenger that brings it is glad that it is in his power to do thee hurt and to afflict thee, if he skips for joy at thy calamity, be sorry for him, pity him, and pray to thy Father for him: he is ignorant, and understandeth not the judgment of thy G.o.d; yea, he showeth by this his behavior, that though he as G.o.d's ordinance serveth thee by afflicting thee, yet means he nothing less than to destroy thee: by the which also he prognosticates before thee that he is working out his own d.a.m.nation by doing thee good. Lay therefore the woful state of such to heart, and render him that which is good for his evil, and love for his hatred to thee; then shalt thou show that thou art moved by a spirit of holiness, and art like thy heavenly Father. And be it so, that thy pity and prayers can do such a one no good, yet they must light somewhere, or return again, as ships come laden from the Indies, full of blessings into thine own bosom.

Poor man, thou hast thy time to be afflicted by thy enemies, that thy golden graces may shine the more; thou art in the fire and they blow the bellows. But wouldst thou change places with them? Wouldst thou sit upon their place of ease? Dost thou desire to be with them?

O rest thyself contented; in thy patience possess thy soul, and pity and bewail them in the condition in which they are.

The cup that G.o.d's people in all ages have drank of, even the cup of affliction and persecution, it is not in the hand of the enemy, but in the hand of G.o.d; and he, not they, poureth out of the same.

There are but two ways of obeying: the one to do that which I in my conscience do believe that I am bound to do, actively; and where I cannot obey actively, there I am willing to lie down and to suffer what they shall do unto me.

A Christian, when he sees trouble coming upon him, should not fly in the face of the instrument that brings, but in the face of the cause of its coming. Now the cause is thyself, thy base self, thy sinful self, and thy unworthy carriages towards G.o.d under all the mercy, patience, and long-suffering that G.o.d has bestowed upon thee, and exercised towards thee. Here thou mayest quarrel, and be revenged, and spare not, so thou take vengeance in a right way; and thou wilt do so, when thou takest it by G.o.dly sorrow. 1 Cor. 7:10,11.

It is a rare thing to suffer aright, and to have thy spirit in suffering beat only against G.o.d's enemy, sin.

Let them that are G.o.d's sufferers pluck up a good heart; let them not be afraid to trust G.o.d with their souls, and with their eternal concerns. Let them cast all their care upon G.o.d, for he careth for them.

"But I am in the dark." I answer, never stick at that. It is most bravely done to trust G.o.d with the soul in the dark, and to resolve to serve G.o.d for nothing, rather than give out. Not to see and yet to believe, and to be a follower of the Lamb and yet to be at uncertainty what we shall have at last, argues love, fear, faith, and an honest mind, and gives the greatest sign of one that hath true sincerity in his soul. It was this that made Job and Peter so famous; and the want of it took away much of the glory of the faith of Thomas. Wherefore, believe verily that G.o.d is ready, willing; yea, that he looks for and expects that thou, who art a sufferer, shouldst commit the keeping of thy soul to him as unto a faithful Creator.

Is there nothing in dark providences, for the sake of the sight and observation of which such a day may be rendered lovely, when it is upon us? Is there nothing of G.o.d, of his wisdom and power and goodness, to be seen in thunder and lightning, in hailstones, in storms and darkness and tempests? Why then is it said, he hath his way in the whirlwind and storm? And why have G.o.d's servants of old made such notes, and observed from them such excellent and wonderful things? There is that of G.o.d to be seen in such a day, which cannot be seen in another. His power in holding up some, his wrath in leaving others; his making shrubs to stand, and his suffering cedars to fall; his infatuating the counsels of men, and his making the devil to outwit himself; his giving his presence to his people, and his leaving his foes in the dark; his discovering the uprightness of the hearts of his sanctified ones, and laying open the hypocrisy of others, is a working of spiritual wonders in the day of his wrath and of the whirlwind and storm.

These days, these days of trial, are the days that do most aptly give an occasion to Christians to take the exactest measures and scantlings of ourselves. We are apt to overshoot in days that are calm, and to think ourselves far higher and more strong than we find we are when the trying day is upon us. The mouth of Gaal, Judges 9:38, and the boasts of Peter, were great and high before the trial came; but when that came, they found themselves to fall far short of the courage they thought they had. We also, before the temptation comes, think we can walk upon the sea; but when the winds blow, we feel ourselves begin to sink. Hence such a time is rightly said to be a time to try us, or to find out what we are; and is there no good in this? Is it not this that rightly rectifies our judgment about ourselves, that makes us to know ourselves, that tends to cut off those superfluous sprigs of pride and self-concitedness, wherewith we are subject to be overcome? Is not such a day the day that bends us, humbles us, and that makes us bow before G.o.d for our faults committed in our prosperity? And yet doth it yield no good unto us? We could not live without such turnings of the hand of G.o.d upon us.

Thine own doubts and mistrusts about what G.o.d will do and about whither thou shalt go, when thou for him hast suffered awhile he can resolve, yea, dissolve, crush, and bring to nothing. He can make fear flee far away, and place heavenly confidence in its room. He can bring invisible and eternal things to the eye of thy soul, and make thee see THAT, in those things in which thine enemies shall see nothing, that thou shalt count worth the loss of ten thousand lives to enjoy. He can pull such things out of his bosom, and can put such things into thy mouth; yea, can make thee choose to be gone, though through the flames, rather than to stay here and die in silken sheets. Yea, he can himself come near, and bring his heaven and glory to thee. The Spirit of glory and of G.o.d resteth upon them that are but reproached for the name of Christ. And what the Spirit of glory is, and what is his resting upon his sufferers, is quite beyond the knowledge of the world, is but little felt by saints at peace. They that are engaged, that are under the lash for Christ--they, I say, have it, and understand something of it.

Look not upon the sufferings of G.o.d's people for their religion, to be tokens of G.o.d's great anger. It is, to be sure, as our heavenly Father orders it, rather a token of his love; for suffering for the gospel and for the sincere profession of it, is indeed a dignity put upon us, a dignity that all men are not counted worthy of. Count it therefore a favor that G.o.d has bestowed upon thee his truth, and grace to enable thee to profess it, though thou be made to suffer for it.

Let G.o.d's people think never the worse of religion because of the coa.r.s.e entertainment it meeteth with in the world. It is better'to choose G.o.d and affliction, than the world, and sin, and carnal peace.

It is necessary that we should suffer, because we have sinned; and if G.o.d will have us suffer a little while here for his word, instead of suffering for our sins in h.e.l.l, let us be content, and count it a mercy with thankfulness.

The wicked are reserved to the day of destruction, they shall be brought forth to the day of wrath. How kindly, therefore, doth G.o.d deal with us, when he chooses to afflict us but for a little, that with everlasting kindness he may have mercy upon us.

Since the rod is G.o.d's as well as the child, let us not look upon our troubles as if they came from and were managed only by h.e.l.l. It is true, a persecutor has a black mark upon him; but yet the Scriptures say that all the ways of the persecutor are G.o.d's.

Wherefore as we should, so again we should not, be afraid of men: we should be afraid of them, because they will hurt us; but we should not be afraid of them as if they were let loose to do to us and with us what they will. G.o.d's bridle is upon them, G.o.d's hook is in their nose; yea, and G.o.d hath determined the bounds of their rage; and if he lets them drive his church into the sea of troubles, it shall he hut up to the neck; and so far it may go and not he drowned. Isaiah 8:7, 8.

"May we not fly in a time of persecution? Your pressing upon us that persecution is ordered and managed by G.o.d, makes us afraid to fly."

Thou mayest do in this even as it is in thy heart. If it is in thy heart to fly, fly; if it be in thy heart to stand, stand. Anything but a denial of the truth. He that flies, has warrant to do so; he that stands, has warrant to do so. Yea, the same man may both fly and stand, as the call and working of G.o.d with his heart may be.

Moses fled, Moses stood; Jeremiah fled, Jeremiah stood; Christ withdrew himself, Christ stood; Paul fled, Paul stood.

But in flying, fly not from religion; fly not, for the sake of a trade; fly not, that thou mayest have care for the flesh: this is wicked, and will yield neither peace nor profit to thy soul, neither now, nor at death, nor at the day of judgment.

The hotter the rage and fury of men are against righteous ways, the more those that love righteousness grow therein. For they are concerned for it, not to hide it, but to make it spangle; not to extinguish it, but to greaten it, and to show the excellency of it in all its features and in all its comely proportion. Now such an one will make straight steps for his feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way. Heb. 12: 13.

Now he shows to all men what faith is, by charity, by self-denial, by meekness, by gentleness, by long-suffering, by patience, by love to enemies, and by doing good to them that hate us. Now he walketh upon his high places, yea, will not now admit that so slovenly a conversation should come within his doors, as did use to haunt his house in former times. Now it is Christ-mas, now it is suffering-time, now we must keep holy day every day.

The reason is, that a man when he suffereth for Christ, is set upon a hill, upon a stage, as in a theatre, to play a part for G.o.d in the world. And you know, when men are to play their parts upon a stage, they count themselves if possible more bound to circ.u.mspection; and that for the credit of their master, the credit of their art, and the credit of themselves. For then the eyes of every body are fixed, they gape and stare upon them, Psalm 22:17, and a trip here is as bad as a fall in another place. Also now G.o.d himself looks on. Yea, he smileth, as being pleased to see a good behavior attending the trial of the innocent.

There are some of the graces of G.o.d that are in thee, that as to some of their acts cannot show themselves, nor their excellency, nor their power, nor what they can do, but as thou art in a suffering state. Faith and patience in persecution have that to do, that to show, and that to perform, that cannot be done, shown, nor performed, anywhere else but there. There is also a patience of hope, a rejoicing in hope when we are in tribulation, that is over and above that which we have when we are at ease and quiet. That also that all graces can endure and triumph over, shall not be known, but when and as we are in a state of affliction. Now these acts of our graces are of such worth and esteem with G.o.d, and he so much delighteth in them, that occasion, through his righteous judgment, must be ministered for them to show their beauty and what bravery there is in them.