And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.
— Galatians 6:9
In your patience possess ye your souls.
— Luke 21:19
And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.
— Matthew 10:22
Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding. Exalt her, and she shall promote thee: she shall bring thee to honour, when thou dost embrace her.
— Proverbs 4:7-8
What is Patience & How is it Wrought, by Thomas Goodwin. The following contains Section Two of his work, “Patience and Its Perfect Work, Under Sudden and Sore Trials Being an Exposition of James 1:1–5.
James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting. My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
— James 1:1–5
I have three general heads to treat of:—
I. What patience is.
II. How patience is wrought.
III. What it is for patience to have a perfect work.
1ST GENERAL HEAD
What the grace of patience is Take it at large,—that is, in the full comprehension of it,—it is a constant persisting, whether to do the will of God without fainting, or to suffer the will of God with submission, and quietness, and cheerfulness, to the end of a man’s days. And thus taken, it respects doing as well as suffering. The good ground is said to bring forth its fruit, all its fruit, with patience, in the parable of the sower. It respects—
First, Doing the will of God: Rom. 2:7,’To them who by patient continuance in well-doing’—the Greek is,’the patience of a good work’—’seek for glory and honour,’ &c.
And the reason why patience is required to every good work is because there is a difficulty that accompanies every duty; and to the putting forth of every grace, that we need have patience to perform the duty constantly, and to continue in the practice of that grace. There is a difficulty, not only from our own corruption, unto which the commands of God are grievous, but from the circumstances of times, places, persons we live in and amongst, though they should not persecute; as not to ‘run into the same excess of riot,’ to speak or do what we know doth not please the company we are in. Thus, to be chaste in Sodom was to Lot a trial: to condemn the world by a different carriage, as in being stricter than others on the Lord’s day, or in family duties, &c., to cross the stream: to be singular, Matt. 5:47, and the like. Heb. 12:12,’Lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees:’ wherein I observe that in doing good in any kind, we are not only lame creatures, and walk as those that halt, which breeds an awkwardness unto any duty; but further, we are apt by reason thereof to turn out of the way, as there, if rugged. The members we should walk withal are feeble; our hands we should act with are hanging down; and so the performance hath a difficulty. To go up the hill of good duties (though private and personal) without weariness, to keep straight paths, not to pick and choose our way, and not to baulk the way or work which God finds us to do, Eccles. 9:10; especially not to faint towards the end, when we come to the brow of the hill; these all have a wearisomeness in them. Now, that which principally heartens and strengthens us to all this is patience, as in ver. 1 he had prefaced,’Let us run with patience the race that is set before us;’ we need patience for every step of it, in doing as well as in suffering. And in the verse immediately before that exhortation now opened, (it is ver. 11,) the Apostle puts and devolves an even and quiet walking upon patience, obtained first by suffering, in these words,’Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous; nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.’ So as a quiet, resolute, and strong performance of all the duties of righteousness is from patience, and is much the fruit of that patience we get by chastisements. The suffering life helps and contributes much to the active life; for as there is a patience required in doing God’s will, so suffering his will fits the heart for it.
But this of patience in well-doing is not, in strict sense, that patience which is here in my text to be understood.
Patience is therefore, secondly, the suffering the will of God in any kind. And this doth patience eminently respect. And that is the renowned patience which we almost everywhere meet with, and which the text calls for; such as when sudden and unexpected trials and tentations, which they fall into, fall out, as ver. 2. And so is not meant of the difficulties that accompany our ordinary constant way of personal walking, in performing the duties of our holy profession.
Obj.—But you will say, My sufferings are not for the gospel, as theirs here intended were, but they are mere providential accidents that have fallen upon me, out of common providence, and but such as befall wicked men. They are not from outward persecution, for Christ’s sake or my profession, but from God’s hand.
Ans.—I shall answer this, here, once for all.
1. The words of this very text may somewhat relieve us herein; for it is ‘tentations’ at large that are spoken of, and tentations arising from sudden downfalls into miseries, and so of any kind. He doth not altogether restrain it to temptations by persecution, though they are mainly intended, but it may, and ought to be, extended to other providential occurrences; and the word ὑπομονὴ, used for patience, signifieth a remaining under any pressures unbroken and whole, be they of what kind soever. It respects, indeed, afflictions mainly for the gospel, yet not exclusively to afflictions in common.
2. In the prosecution of this argument, the Apostle doth manifestly carry in his eye other tentations or sufferings than from persecution, as appears from the examples he allegeth to press them to this patience. For among others, and above all others, he brings the instance of Job and his, by name only, as well as of the prophets in general, whom, Christ says, they persecuted, Matt. 5:12. Thus, chap. 5:11,’Ye have heard of the patience of Job.’ His alleging the prophets is but a general: ver. 10,’Take the prophets’—not naming any—’for an example of suffering and of patience.’ But that of Job singularly, and by name. Now, surely he would not cite his most eminent example, to confirm his exhortation to this patience he intended, of one whose case did not come within the compass and dint of his exhortation. Let us, therefore, have recourse to Job’s case and story. His losses were but providential from God. The Sabeans and Chaldeans plundered him of his goods, and slew his servants. And ‘the fire of God,’ or from God,’is fallen from heaven,’ so his messengers tell him, chap. 1:16. It is true it was the devil, out of spite, that moved them that did it; but they did it, not in a way of persecution, but as common enemies, as when the clans of one country break in upon another. But it was God and the devil agreed it together; yea, and it was God gave first occasion to the devil to move him to have leave to do it. So as that was not for the gospel’s sake in way of persecution. Nor did Job at all know of that transaction between God and Satan, not all that while his patience was in the exercise of it, but took all as the hand of God, though extraordinary.
If you now ask a description of patience, as it thus respects suffering the will of God, we must give it as it is in the word of God in the height, for that is the rule itself that directs to it, and not lown it to what is found in our hearts. And yet that which afterwards follows, and will confirm every tittle of it, is drawn mostly from examples of the saints, either in the Old or New Testaments, which shew that it is attainable, though with allowance to defects, which accompany all graces in this life.
It is a constant, thankful, joyful enduring, with perseverance to the end of a man’s life, all the trials that are grievous, how great, how long, how hopeless soever as to coming out of them; mortifying and compescing the inordinacy of opposite passions, as fear, grief, care, anxiety, which will arise upon such afflictions; with submitting to God’s will, for God’s glory, and his good pleasure’s sake; still blessing and sanctifying God in all, waiting on God, and relieving one’s self by faith in what is to be had in God, and from God, in communion with him, and from his love, in this life; in expectation also of that glory which is the reward after this life ended.
I might, in this place, confirm every word and tittle of this description, either out of examples of holy men or the rules which the word gives. But I omit the set collection of such proofs here, because that, scatteredly, up and down, in the particulars that follow, this will be found performed.
2D GENERAL HEAD
How patience is wrought
Brethren, while I shew you how patience is wrought, I do withal shew you the way and means to obtain it; for by the same it is wrought, by the same it is nourished and maintained. And I shall not go out of the text for this.
There are two principles here that work patience. The first is faith: ver. 3, ‘Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.’ And because, in Gal. 5:6, it is said,’faith worketh by love,’—that is, faith worketh by love whatever it worketh,—therefore we must find also that love works patience. And that you have in ver. 12 too,’Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.’ Why doth he put in ‘to them that love him,’ whilst he speaks of him that endureth tentations, but because it is love enables a man to endure temptation? So that faith in the first place, and then faith working by love in the second place, works patience or enduring.
And the confirmations of these two will give proofs to the latter parts of that description I gave of patience; to wit, those of the soul’s relieving itself by faith, by what is to be had in God, &c.
I. How doth faith work patience?
Ans.—First, in the general, faith is the substance of things hoped for, and indeed of all things that are revealed in the word; that is, it makes them subsistent and real to a man’s soul. Faith does this, as the eleventh to the Hebrews shews. And thereupon faith hath all the motives and considerations that the whole word affords, all which it brings in to the soul, and makes them subsistent to it, to support it in trials. All is let in by faith; that is the tunnel that fills the vessel. And by thus bringing home to a man’s soul all the considerations the word affords, which may induce a man to patience, it works it. This is but general. These considerations in the word are infinite, and I cannot stand to instance; I will only give what are most proper to faith.
First of all, Faith hath a privative, emptying work. It empties the soul of all its own worth, and righteousness, and excellency in its own eyes, and gives a thorough sight unto the soul of the sinfulness of sin, of its spiritual sins, and contrarieties of all in itself unto holiness and faith; and withal fully convinceth it of its just deservedness to be utterly destroyed, and therefore much more of its due desert of all or any afflictions whatever, they being any or all of them far less than destruction itself. And in the sight and sense of these faith lays the soul a poor, empty, naked, wretched creature in all spiritual respects, both in the sight and presence of God and in its own eyes. And this helps greatly towards working patience. You shall observe, in that golden chain of graces, whereof each latter link depends upon the former, Matt. 5:3–5, how poverty of spirit is placed first: ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit,’ that is, that are emptied of themselves, look upon themselves as having nothing, deserving nothing, able to do nothing spiritually. And this true poverty of spirit they have from faith wrought; for blessedness is only pronounced of them that believe, and of the fruits of faith in them, according to that, Rom. 4:7–9.
Then, secondly, follows,’Blessed are they that mourn,’ namely, for their sins; that in the second place. And then, thirdly,’Blessed are the meek,’ that is, those who, in the sight of their poverty and sinfulness, lie at God’s feet, so subdued and affected as God may do what he will to them or with them. Thus it is with them when they are thus emptied, which is when they have seen their sins and deservedness to be destroyed, and are humbled for them and mourn for them. These foregoing dispositions work meekness, submission to God. They have nothing to say against whatever he shall do, but to justify God in all, and to condemn themselves. And all these make them willing and patient to take any thing well at the hands of God. It is an excellent speech, to our purpose, of the church in that humbled frame of heart you find her in, Lam. 3:39, ‘Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?’ The church expresseth it as the most brutish, improper incongruity, unbecoming a man, such as there could not be imagined a greater. What I for a man to complain and think much at the punishment of his sins! a man to murmur, as the word is, against God! a sinful man against the holy God, his righteous judge! And it is certain that thinking much is the ground of all impatiency; and, on the contrary, a submiss temper of spirit unto God is the ground of all patience. But why doth she put in, besides, to convince such a one of the folly, injustice, and iniquity of it, that he is a living man; ‘Why doth a living man complain?’ Art thou alive? Art a living man still in this world? Then hast thou little cause to complain, whatever thy misery be. Whilst thou art alive, thou art not destroyed. Consider how hell and destruction is thy portion, and the due punishment of thy sins; and so thou hast infinitely less than thou deservest, and therefore thou hast no reason to complain. The church, out of her own sense and apprehension of this, had said before, ver. 22,’It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed.’ She saith not, that our goods are not consumed, or that our houses are not burnt; for indeed that was the church’s very case when she spake this. Jerusalem was burnt, their women ravished, their goods plundered, their bodies famished, as you read in the same Lamentations almost everywhere. But yet there was a remnant of persons who were not consumed; and this, said she, is of the Lord’s mercies, of his tender mercies, out of his bowels, as the word there is. And this being less than destruction, or being consumed, is her reason for that expostulation forementioned, ver. 39. As also of that her so great
submission, from that ver. 22 unto the 39th verse. You find the very same to this, as a ground of patience, expressed elsewhere, after the captivity ended: Ezra 9:13,’Thou our God hast punished us less than our iniquities deserve, after all that is come upon us for our evil deeds,’ say they,’and for our great trespasses.’ Shall, then, a living man complain for the punishment of his sin, when it is so infinitely far less than he deserves? This consideration works patience, as it hath reason. If a man deserves to be hanged, drawn, and quartered, and he is but burnt in the hand, shall this man complain? Let that man down on his knees at the bar, and thank the judge or prince that he had not his due desert, the gallows. And the consideration of this is that also which makes a man accept the punishment of his iniquity, as you have it in Lev. 26:41,’If ye accept the punishment,’ &c.; that is, if ye kiss the rod. And what makes a man come to accept the punishment of his iniquities? Oh! the punishment of my iniquity is infinitely far less than I deserve, for, thinks he, damnation is my portion. This is the first thing that works patience, the consideration of our own deservedness to be destroyed, and this is from the emptying work of faith.
Secondly, Faith brings home to a man’s soul the dominion of God, and the sovereignty of that dominion over a man’s soul and person, to do what he will with them; and that may very well hush and quiet a man. In Job 9:12,’Behold, he taketh away,’ (destroys a city, a nation, suppose, as in chap. 12:23,’He increaseth the nations, and destroys them; enlargeth the nations, and straitens them again,’) and ‘who can hinder him?’—as in that chap. 9,—’and who will say unto him, What dost thou?’ As it follows, ‘If God will not withdraw his anger, the proud helpers stoop under him;’ or,’the helpers of strength,’ as in the margin,’they bow under him.’ He took away your goods, and who could hinder him? The fire burnt this city, notwithstanding all the inhabitants that were interested, and able to have quenched it; yet the strong helpers stood helpless, looking on, weeping, shaking their heads, and crying, Alas! For why? Who could hinder him? They all bowed under him. And again, Job 34:31,’Surely it is meet to be said unto God, I have borne chastisement, I will not offend any more.’ For, as ver. 33,’Should it’—the evil or the good he is pleased to bring on thee—’be according to thy mind?’ (Heb., Should it be ‘from with thee?’) that is, from what is in and with thee. Must he ask counsel first of thee, and know what thy mind is? ‘He will recompense it,’ or dispense it as he pleaseth,’whether thou refuse, or whether thou choose,’—that is, whether thy mind be for or against it,—’and not I.’ (This is the speech of Elihu in the person of God, and on his behalf.) That is, Shouldest thou dispose of all these things for me, and not I myself? says God. This may and must silence all and every man, as well as it did Job there. For it follows, ‘Therefore speak,’ if thou hast anything to say against this,’what thou knowest.’ As if he had said, This is not to be contradicted, but to be wholly submitted to.
But, my brethren, faith brings home to the heart a message of a higher sovereignty, even of love from God borne to you, and tells all you that sincerely profess an interest in God, that God hath shewn his absolute dominion already towards you in saving your souls. It is an absolute dominion that, as Rom. 9 shews. And what else is the meaning of that speech,’I will be merciful to whom I will be merciful?’ It is a speech of dominion. Well, hath God shewed his dominion in saving thy soul with difference? hath he shewn it on this, the good side? Then truly thou mayest very well give him leave to exercise his dominion over all else that thou hast; thou mayest very well be content he shew his dominion upon thy lumber and thy appurtenances. He might have shewn his dominion in destroying both your goods and souls too, as he did the Sodomites when he burnt their city.
But, thirdly, Faith brings home the love of God, the soul’s interest in God, with a communion and fellowship with God, which may well serve to strengthen patience in the greatest distresses. This you see in David at Ziklag, when the city was burnt,—I therefore instance in it,—and his goods all plundered, and his wives carried away. And David was greatly distressed, the people talking of stoning him. Then it is said,’but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God.’ His interest in him, and the coming in of his love, as being his God, did hearten and strengthen him against all, 1 Sam. 30:6. Likewise, in extremity of famine, when there was not bread, nor oil, nor wine, nor meat to eat, this wrought the like, Hab. 3:17, 18,’Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no more
herd in the stalls;’—here are all those things enumerated as wanting that are the means to support life and nature, and it is the want of food and raiment for you and yours that you fear in the loss of your goods, and loss of your livelihoods;—’yet,’ says he,’I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.’ A man hath all in God before him still. And faith brings home all in God, or carries the heart out unto God, to fetch in comfort from him, in these the greatest extremities. There are two things there distinct. He first says he will rejoice in the Lord, even in what the Lord is in himself: a God blessed for ever, Amen! And if God be happy and blessed for evermore, I cannot be miserable, says that soul that can rejoice in this, that however God enjoys a perfect blessedness; and I do so rejoice in that, that whilst God continues to be God, and these apprehensions and disposition of heart do but continue in me, I have enough. The second is, that he is my God, the God of my salvation; so Habakkuk,’I will joy in the God of my salvation.’ And then to be sure, while he is happy, I shall be happy indeed. ‘The Lord is my portion, saith my soul,’ Lam. 3, in the midst of those troubles. The Lord help us to faith!
My brethren, the love of God brought in by faith will help a man to bear up under any condition. You know that place, Rom. 8; he had triumphed in the love of God, ver. 31,’If God be for us, who can be against us?’ And ver. 35,’Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or sword?’ Mark his resolution, expressed thereupon, in ver. 37,’Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.’ That speech,’Nay, in all these things,’ &c., is a triumphant slighting of all he had reckoned up, and it was all any way formidable, or that might be judged opposite to our comforts in this world, which he had reckoned up; and yet speaks at that rate as if faith on the love of God and Christ scorned such low and weak and poor adversaries, as not enough, or not of might enough for them to try their strength upon; and is as if he had said, Are these all that come out against us, and threaten to hurt us? But are these all indeed? Nay then, says he, if these be all, we are safe enough; we are more than conquerors in all these. But how comes this to pass? It is added,’through him that loved us.’ Not only in that he, loving us, joins his strength to ours to support us, but it is also meant objectivè, that the love of God and Christ coming in fresh upon our hearts, the apprehension of that is sufficient; and in that respect he says,’through him that loved us.’ It is objectivè spoken of Christ’s love, as it is the object of our faith, and not assistenter. We are more than conquerors through his love taken in by us, and shed abroad in our hearts; and by reason that his love comes in and supports us under all, and helps us to conquer all. As faith hath all in God to rejoice in, and so helps the soul to patience; so especially it hath its love, in all sorts of distresses.
Fourthly, Faith tells us that there will be a good issue of all as to the other world; yea, and in this world also, in such things that relate to that world, Luke 21:18, 19. He had spoken before in that chapter of the greatest distresses that could befall men,—as, if you read the verses before, appeareth,—and also of such as should fall upon the people of God amongst them personally, as well as upon the nation of the Jews in their final desolation. And besides that common calamity which befell the people of God, with the rest of that nation, he says, over and above, they shall first ‘lay their hands on you,’ ver. 12,’and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues, and into prisons, and shall put some of you to death;’—it is in all three Evangelists;—and in ver. 16,’Ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends; and ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake.’ But, says he, comfort yourselves with what will certainly be the issue: ver. 18,’There shall not a hair of your head perish.’ How? Not a hair of your head perish! What a strange saying is this, when he had said just before they should be persecuted and put to death! How doth he say then, Not a hair of your head shall perish? Why, because the issue shall be such as should make amends for every hair. The soul shall say, I have not lost a hair. Nay, besides, those of you they cannot put to death shall have a hundred-fold, and that in this life, as elsewhere, in spiritual blessings. And faith, eyeing these things, relieves the soul. Observe but what follows there as to our purpose in hand, for which I quote this place, in ver. 19, the very next verse,’In your patience possess your souls;’ the meaning from the coherence is, You may well possess your souls in patience, for I have told you the issue will be most blessed and glorious.
Fifthly, Faith brings in heaven as the reward of patient enduring; thus, in chap. 1:12 of our Apostle,’Blessed is the man that endureth temptation:
for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord Hath promised to them that love him.’ And this is the conclusion of his present discourse about patient enduring. ‘When he is tried,’ that is, when his trials are finished and gone through with; and his faith hath all along wrought patience in his course. It is persevering patience, or endurance, receives this crown. Other graces strive, but faith and patience, they are crowned. And further, in proportion it holds that as a man’s trials and temptations have been, and his patience suitable, such shall the greatness of his reward be, and accordingly measured forth unto him. And faith in the intuition of that glory heartens patience, Rom. 5. Faith having caused us first to ‘rejoice in the hope of the glory of God,’ ver. 2, causeth us also to ‘glory in tribulations,’ ver. 3, in the strength of our hope in that glory. Which hope is said further to be increased in us, through tribulations working patience, ver. 4. As thus,’patience works experience,’ ver. 5, that is, many a fresh experiment of our own graces and God’s dealings in those trials; and those experiences do work up a hope or assurance of glory (as 1 John 3:2) to that degree of firmness that maketh us not ashamed, not in respect only of the real disappointment of that glory at death, but not in a man’s own hope thereof in his own heart,—for in respect to that hope of his this is spoken,—because that over and above, and besides those foresaid experiments,’the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost’ himself immediately,’who is given to us;’ which shedding, &c., of God’s love is no other than the earnest and prelibation of that glory. And this is given as the reward of our patience and tribulations, which are but the loss of things earthly, in exchange for which we receive this hope and beginning of glory. If thou hadst had all the brass and pewter that was in thy house, and hath been melted by this fire, therewithal turned into gold; and the stones that paved thy yards, or the bricks or lime that raised thy walls, all changed into precious stones; thy glass windows, that were dissolved, converted into diamonds,—thou hadst little cause to complain at the loss. Now read Isa. 54:11, 12,’O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colours, and lay thy foundations with sapphires; I will make thy windows of agates, and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant stones.’ And if thou hast gotten any increase of grace by these losses, then hath much of this in Isaiah been truly and spiritually fulfilled in thee. And these repairs are in this life. But besides that,’Thou hast a building made without hands, eternal in the heavens,’ 2 Cor. 5:1, which stands ready for thee. Those believing Hebrews might well suffer the spoiling of their goods with joy, whilst they found sealed, and put into their hearts, bills of exchange to receive all again in eternal treasures in heaven. But this was their very case: ‘Ye took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance,’ Heb. 10:34. And this happy lot will come to be thine, if thou exercisest upon thy losses faith and patience. It follows in that Heb. 10, the following verses,’Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.’— This for faith’s working patience.
II. Our love to God works patience. Love to God in us works patience, or faith by love, as I shewed out of ver. 12. Love to God makes us cleave to God, and so to follow him through all weathers and endurances. That great convert, in whom at his conversion faith and love were so abundant, as 1 Tim. 1:14,—his heart, through love to the name of Christ, caused him in the highest passion to utter,’What mean you to weep and break my heart? for I am not ready to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem, for the name of the Lord Jesus,’ Acts 21:13. It was love to that name that fired him; yea, his love was wrought up to such an intense degree as he could have wished to have been accursed from Christ for God’s glory in the conversion of his brethren, Rom. 9. I wonder how he would have done for patience under that curse, if in hell. But that love which wished that curse would have wrought it; and so thought he, or he would never have wished this. Upon the like account of love to this name, those two apostles ‘rejoiced to suffer shame for his name,’ as Acts 5:41. Love makes the glorifying of God and Christ, and the will of God, which is always for his glory, dearer than all things to us. Yea, that God should have his will, for his own glory,—’if it be the will of God,’ says the Apostle,—of our sufferings, abundantly stills the heart in all. It is true, I may be punished in my afflictions for my sin, and I humble myself for that But beyond that, it is the good pleasure of God so to have it; and I rejoice in that, says love, that his will is done, as truly that it is done upon me, as that by me. And good is the word of God in both; and hallowed be his name! In that Rom. 8, where, as you heard,’we are more than conquerors in all these things through him that loved us,’ that love of his to us is alone indeed openly or expressly mentioned, yet withal it is our love to him that tacitly is insinuated to be a concurrent cause therewith; you must take that in too. For the intent of those very words is, that the soul apprehending his love who is that lover,—τοῦ ἀγαπήσαντος,—as that word imports, out of a reciprocated love to him again, doth hearten us in the conflict unto this conquest. And yet there is one small word put in that further argues this; it is in ver. 36,’For thy sake we are killed all the day long,’—our lives being in jeopardy every hour,—and ‘we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.’ And this ‘for thy sake’ you have in Ps. 44, and he quotes it out from thence; ‘As it is written,’ says he,’For thy sake,’ &c. Now therefore it is evidently the love that is in us to him, and our cleaving to him therewith, that is there held forth as that which makes us willing to suffer and endure, in that it is for his sake. And although the Apostle in his discourse runs upon the magnifying God’s love and Christ’s love to us, as that which, apprehended and taken in by us, doth principally work this effect; yet the Psalmist, on the other side, sets out the love of the church to God as the concurrent cause: ver. 17,’All this is come upon us; yet have we not forgotten thee, neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant.’ And, ver. 18–22,’Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from thy way; though thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons, and covered us with the shadow of death. If we have forgotten the name of our God, or stretched out our hands to a strange god; shall not God search this out? for he knoweth the secrets of the heart. Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.’ If faith and love once but say, It is for thy sake, O God; Why then, says patience, I can bear it, yea, rejoice in it, for his sake that loved me. And look, as the Apostle says he could do all things through Christ that strengthened him, so love can do all things for Christ that loved him, and gave himself for him.
And, to conclude this—
If love to our brethren, which springs from love to God, works so great a patience towards them; as in that scripture,’Love suffereth long, and is kind; envieth not, rejoiceth not in evil; bears all things, hopes all things, endures all things,’ 1 Cor. 13; all which is spoken, as in those words, of our love to man; though it was our love to God that is urged and spoken of in all the words before, and is the spring of this our love to man. Now if love, I say, unto man works so much patience in things, perhaps, that are yet injurious to us, and not only burdensome, from them,—and in a manner all those elogies of love there do run upon and speak patience; that patience being the proper fruit of that love; what else do suffering long, bearing and enduring all things, with the rest, sound and signify?—then much more, I say, will love unto God, the cause of this love to our brethren, enable us to do the like towards him who can do us no wrong nor hurt, but is holy and righteous in all his works; and all whose ways and goings forth to us are mercy and truth; and for whose sake also it is that we bear so with our brethren; and who hath loved and given his Son for us. It was a great speech of a holy soul, in an unkindly trial from man: That man should deal thus with me, I should have much ado to bear it, (as David said, Ps. 55:12,) but it is God, and I can take anything well at his hands.—And this for the second general head.
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