But and if ye suffer for righteousness’ sake, happy are ye: and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled; But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:
~ 1 Peter 3:14-15
Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest.
~ Revelation 15:4
Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Although I have cast them far off among the heathen, and although I have scattered them among the countries, yet will I be to them as a little sanctuary in the countries where they shall come.
~ Ezekiel 11:16
Most Material Pleas for Slavish Fears, by John Flavel. The following contains Chapter Seven of his work, “A Practical Treatise of Fear”.
Say ye not, A confederacy to all them to whom this people shall say a confederacy; neither fear ye (their fear) nor be afraid. Sanctify the Lord of Hosts himself, and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread; And he shall be for a sanctuary.— Isa. 8:12, 13, 14a
CHAPTER VII
Answering the most material pleas for slavish fears, and dissolving the common objections against courage and constancy of mind in times of danger.
The pleas and excuses for our cowardly faintness in the day of trouble are endless, and so would his task be that should undertake particularly to answer them all. It is but the cutting off an Hydra’s head, when one is gone, ten more start up; what is most material I will here take into consideration. When good men (for with such I am dealing in this chapter) see a formidable face and appearance of sharp and bloody times approaching them, they begin to tremble, their hearts faint, and their hands hang down with unbecoming despondency, and pusillanimity; their thoughts are so distracted, their reason and faith so clouded by their fears, that their temptations are thereby exceedingly strengthened upon them, and their principles and professions brought under the derision and contempt of their enemies: and if their brethren, to whom God hath given more courage and constancy, and who discern the mischief like to ensue from their uncomely carriage, admonish and advise them of it: they have abundance of pleas and defences for their fears, yea, when they reason the point of suffering in their own thoughts, and the matter is debated (as in such times it is common) betwixt faith and fear, O what endless work do their fears put upon their faith, to solve all the buts and ifs which their fears will object or suppose.
Some of the principal of them I think it worth while here to consider, and endeavour to satisfy, that, if possible, I may prevail with all gracious persons to be more magnanimous. And first of all.
Pleas
Plea 1. Sufferings for Christ are strange things to the Christians of this age, we have had the happy lot to fall into milder times than the primitive Christians did, or those that struggled in our own land in the beginning of reformation; and therefore we may be excused for our fears, by reason of our own unacquaintedness with sufferings in our times.
Answer 1. One fault is but a bad excuse for another, why are sufferings such strangers to you? Why did you not cast upon them in the days of peace, and reckon that such days must come? Did you not covenant with Christ to follow him whithersoever he should go, to take up your cross, and follow him? And did not the word plainly tell you, that “All that will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution,” 2 Tim. 3:12. “And that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God,” Acts 14:22. Did we fall asleep in quiet and prosperous days, and dream of halcyon days all our time on earth? that the mountain of our prosperity stood strong, and we should never be moved? That we should die in our nest, and multiply our days as the sand; Babylon’s children indeed dream so, Rev. 18:7. but the children of Sion should be better instructed. Alas! how soon may the brightest day be overcast? The weather is not so variable, as the state of the church in this world is; now a calm, Acts 9:31. and then a storm, Acts 12:1, 2. You could not but know what contingent and variable things all things on earth are; why then did you delude yourselves with such fond dreams? But as a learned man* rightly observes, Mundus senescens patitur phantasias. The older the world grows, the more drowsy and dotting it still grows, and these are the days in which the wise as well as the foolish virgins slumber. Sure it is but a bad plea, after so many warnings from the word, and from the rod to say, I did not think of such times, I dreamed not of them.
2. Or if you say, though you have conversed with death and sufferings by speculation, yet you lived not in such times wherein you might see (as other sufferers did) the encouraging faith, patience and zeal of others set before your eyes in a lively pattern and example. Sufferings were not only familiarized to them by frequency, but facilitated also by the daily examples of those that went before them.
But think you indeed that nothing but encouragement and advantage to followers, arose from the trials of those that went before? Alas, there were sometimes the greatest damps and discouragements imaginable; the zeal of those that followed have often been inflamed by the faintings of those that were tried before them. In the seventh persecution under Decius, anno 250, there were standing before the tribunal, certain of the warriors or knights, viz. Amnion, Zenon, Ptolomeus, Ingenuus, and a certain aged man called Theophilus, who all standing by as spectators when a certain Christian was examined, and there seeing him for fear, ready to decline, and fall away, did almost burst for sorrow within themselves: they made signs to him with their hands, and all gestures of the body to be constant; this being noted by all the standers by, they were ready to lay hold upon them; but they preventing the matter, pressed up of their own accord, before the bench of the judge, professing themselves to be Christians, insomuch that both the president and the benchers were all astonished, and the Christians which were judged, the more encouraged. Such damping spectacles the Christians of former ages had frequently set before them.
And it was no small trial to some of them, to hear the faintings and abnegation of those that went before them, pleaded against their constancy; as in the time of Valens, it was urged by the persecutors; Those that came to their trial before you, have acknowleged their errors, begged our pardon, and returned to us: and why will you stand it out so obstinately? But the Christians answered, Nos hac potissimum ratione viriliter stabimus, For this very reason we will stand to it the more manfully, to repair their scandal, by our greater courage for Christ. These were the helps and advantages they often had in those days, therefore lay not so much stress upon that; their courage undoubtedly flowed from an higher spring and better principle, than the company they suffered with.
3. And if precedents and experiences of others to break the ice before you, be so great an advantage, surely we that live in these latter times have the most and best helps of that nature that ever any people in the world had. You have all their examples recorded for your encouragement, and therefore think it not strange concerning the fiery trial, as though some strange thing had happened to you, as the apostle speaks, 1 Pet. 4:12. This plea is weighed, and no great weight found in it.
Plea 2. But my nature is soft and tender, my constitution more weak and subject to the impressions of fear than others: some that have robust bodies, and hardy stout minds, may better grapple with such difficulties than I can, who by constitution and education, am altogether unfit to grapple with those torments, that I have not patience enough to hear related; my heart faints and dies within me, if I do but read, or hear of the barbarous usages of the martyrs, and therefore I may well be excused for my fears and faint-heartedness, when the case is like to be my own.
Answer 1. It is a great mistake to think that the mere strength of natural constitution, can carry any one through such sufferings for Christ, or that natural tenderness and weakness divinely assisted, cannot bear the heaviest burden that ever God laid upon the shoulders of any sufferer for Christ. Our suffering and bearing abilities are not from nature, but from grace. We find men of strong bodies and resolute daring minds, have fainted in the time of trial. Dr. Pendleton, in our own story, was a man of a robust and massy body, and a resolute daring mind; yet when he came to the trial, he utterly fainted and fell off. On the other side, what poor feeble bodies have sustained the greatest torments, and out of weakness have been made strong! Heb. 11:34. The virgin Eulalia, of Emerita in Portugal, was young and tender, but twelve years old, and with much indulgence and tenderness brought up in an honourable family, being a person of considerable quality; yet how courageously did she sustain the most cruel torments for Christ! When the judge fawned upon her with this tempting language, “Why wilt thou kill thyself, so young a flower, and so near those honourable marriages and great dowries thou mightest enjoy?” Instead of returning a retracting or double answer, Eulalia threw down the idol, and spurned abroad with her feet the heap of incense prepared for the censers; and when the executioner came to her, she entertained him with this language:* “Go to, thou hangman, burn, cut, mangle thou these earthly members; it is an easy matter to break a brittle substance, but the inward mind thou shalt not hurt.” And when one joint was pulled from another, she said, “Behold what a pleasure it is for them, oh Christ! that remember thy triumphant victories, to attain unto those high dignities.” So that our constitutional strength is not to be made the measure of our passive fortitude: God can make the feeblest and tenderest persons stand, when strong bodies, and blustering, resolute, and daring minds faint and fall.
2. Are our bodies so weak, and hearts so tender, that we can bear no suffering for Christ? Then we are no way fit to be his followers. Christianity is a warfare, and Christians must endure hardships, 2 Tim. 2:3. Delicacy and tenderness is as odd a sight in a Christian, as it is in a soldier; and we cannot be Christ’s disciples, except we deliberate the terms, and having considered well what it is like to cost us, do resolve, in the strength of God, to run the hazard of all with him and for him. It is in vain to talk of a religion that we think not worthy the suffering and enduring any great matter for.
3. And if indeed, reader, thy constitution be so delicate and tender, that thou art not able to bear the thoughts of torments for Christ, how is it that thou art not more terrified with the torments of hell, which all they that deny Christ on earth must feel and bear eternally? Oh, what is the wrath of man, in comparison with the wrath of God? but as the bite of a flea to the rendings of a lion. This is the consideration propounded by Christ, in Matth. 10:28. “Fear not them who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” The infinite and insupportable wrath of the great and terrible God, should make our souls shrink and shake at the thoughts of it, rather than the sufferings of the flesh, which are but for a moment.
4. Know that the wisdom and tenderness of thy Father will proportion the burden thou must bear to thy back that must bear, it; he will debate in measure, and not overload thy feeble shoulders: thou shalt find those things easy in trial, that now seem insupportable in the terrible prospect; a way of escape or support will certainly be opened, that thou mayest be able to bear it.
Plea 3. But others plead the sad experiences they have had of their own feebleness and weakness in former trials and exercises of an inferior nature, in which their faith and patience hath failed them: and how can they imagine they shall ever be able to stand in the fiercest and most fiery trial? If we have run with the footmen, and they have wearied us in the land of peace, how shall we then contend with horses in the swellings of Jordan, Jer. 12:5.
Answer 1. We are strong or weak in all our trials, be they great or small, according to the assisting grace we receive from above; if he leave us in a common and light trial to our own strength, it will be our over-match, and if he assist us in great and extraordinary trials, we shall be more than conquerors. At one time Abraham could offer up his only son to God with his own hand; at another time he is so afraid of his life, that he acts very unsuitably to the character of a believer, and was shamefully rebuked for it by Abimelech. At one time David could say, Though an host encamp against me, I will not fear; at another time he feigns himself mad, and acted beneath himself, both as a man, and as a man enriched with so much faith and experience. At one time Peter is afraid to be interrogated by a maid; at another time he could boldly confront the whole council, and own Christ and his truths to their faces. In extraordinary trials we may warrantably expect extraordinary assistances, and by them we shall be carried through the greatest, how often soever we have failed in smaller trials.
2. The design and end of God’s giving us experience of our own weakness in lesser troubles, is not to discourage and daunt us against we come to greater, (which is the use Satan here makes of it,) but to take us off from self-confidence and self-dependence; to make us see our own weakness, that we may more heartily and humbly betake ourselves to him in the way of faith and fervent supplication.
Plea 4. But some will object that they cannot help their fears and tremblings when any danger appears; because fear is the disease, at least the sad effect and symptom of disease, with which God hath wounded them: a deep and fixed melancholy hath so far prevailed, that the least trouble overcomes them; if any sad afflictive providence befal, or but threaten them, their fears presently rise, and their hearts sink, sleep departs, thoughts tumultuate, the blood boils, and the whole frame of nature is put into disorder. If therefore the Lord should permit such great and dreadful trials to befal them, they can think of nothing less than dying by the hand of their own fears, before the hand of any enemy touch them; or, which is a thousand times worse, be driven by their own fears into the net of temptation, even to deny the Lord that bought them.
Answer. This I know is the sad case of many gracious persons, and I have reason to pity those that are thus exercised: O it is a heavy stroke, a dismal state, a deep wound indeed: but yet the wisdom of God hath ordered this affliction upon his people for gracious ends and uses; hereby they are made the more tender and watchful, circumspect and careful in their ways, that they may shun and escape as many occasions of trouble as they can, being so unable to grapple with them. I say not but there are higher and nobler motives that make them circumspect and tender, but yet the preservation of our own quietness is useful in its place, and it is a mercy if that or any thing else be sanctified to prevent sin, and promote care of duty. This is your clog to keep you from straying.
2. And when you shall be called forth to greater trials, that which you now call your snare, may be your advantage, and that in divers respects.
1. These very distempers of body and mind serve to imbitter the comforts and pleasures of this world to you, and make life itself less desirable to you than it is to others; they much wean your hearts from, and make life more burdensome to you than it is to others, who enjoy more of the pleasure and sweetness of it than you can do. I have often thought this to be one design and end of providence, in permitting such distempers to seize so many gracious persons as labour under them; and providence knows how to make use of this effect to singular purpose and advantage to you, when a call to suffering shall come; this may have its place and use under higher and more spiritual considerations, to facilitate death, and make your separation from this world the more easy to you*; for though it be a more noble and raised act of faith and self-denial to offer up to God our lives, when they are made most pleasant and desirable to us upon natural accounts, yet it is not so easy to part with them as it is when God hath first imbittered them to us. Your lives are of little value to you now, because of this burdensome clog you must draw after you, but if you should increase your burden by so horrid an addition of guilt, as the denying Christ or his known truths would do, you would not know what to do with such a life; it would certainly lie upon your hands as a burthen. God knows how to use these things in the way of his providence to your great advantage.
2. Art thou a poor melancholy and timorous person? Certainly if thou be gracious as well as timorous, this will drive thee nearer to God; and the greater thy dangers are, the more frequent and fervent will thy addresses to him be: thou feelest the need of everlasting arms underneath thee to bear thee up under, and to carry thee through smaller troubles, that other persons make nothing of, much more in such deep trials, that put the strongest Christians to the utmost of their faith and patience.
And 3dly, What if the Lord will make an advantage out of your weakness, to display more evidently his own power in your support? You know what the apostle saith, 1 Cor. 12:9, 10. “And he said unto me, my grace is sufficient for thee; for my strength is made perfect in weakness: most gladly therefore will I glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me—for when I am weak then am I strong.” If his infirmities might serve as a foil to set off the grace of God with a more bright and sparkling lustre, he would rejoice in his infirmities, and so should you: Well then, let not this discourage you, the infirmity of nature you complain of may make death the less terrible; it served to that purpose to blessed Basil, (as you heard before) when his enemy threatened to tear out his liver, he thought it a kindness to have that liver torn out, that had given him so much trouble. It may drive thee nearer to God, and minister a fit opportunity for the display of his grace in the time of need.
Plea 5. But what if God should hide his face from my soul in the day of my straits and troubles, and not only so, but permit Satan to buffet me with his horrid temptations and injections, and so I should sail like the ship in which Paul sailed, betwixt these two boisterous seas; what can I suspect less than a shipwreck of my soul, body, and all the comforts of both, in this world and in that to come?
Answer 1. So far as the fears of such a misery awaken you to pray for the prevention of it, it may be serviceable to your souls, but when it only works distraction and despondency of mind, it is your sin and Satan’s snare. The prophet Jeremiah made a good use of such a supposed evil by way of deprecation, Jer. 17:17. “Be not a terror unto me, thou art my hope in the day of evil.” q. d. in the evil day I have no place of retreat or refuge, but thy love and favour; Lord, that is all I have to depend on, and relieve myself by: I comfort myself against trouble with this confidence, that if men be cruel, yet thou wilt be kind; if they frown, thou wilt smile; if the world cast me out, thou wilt take me in; but if thou shouldest be a terror to me instead of a comforter, if they afflict my body, and thou affright my soul with thy frowns too; what a deplorable condition shall I be in then! Improve it to such an end as he did, to secure the favour of God, and it will do you no harm.
2. It is not usual for God to estrange himself from his people in trouble, nor to frown upon them when men do. The common evidence of believers stands ready to attest and seal this truth, that Christians never find more kindness from God than when they feel most cruelty from men for his sake; consult the whole cloud of witnesses, and you will find they have still found the undoubted verity of that tried word, in 1 Pet. 4:14. That “the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon sufferers.” The expression seems to allude to the dove that Noah sent forth out of the ark, which flew over the watery world, but could not rest herself any where till she returned to the ark. So the Spirit of God is called here the Spirit of glory, from his effects and fruits, viz. his cheering, sealing, and reviving influences which make men glory and triumph in the most afflicted state. The Spirit of God seems, like that dove, to hover up and down, to flee hither and thither, over this person and that, but resteth not so long upon any, as those that suffer for righteousness sake; there he commonly takes up his abode and residence.
3. And what if it should fall out in some respect according to your fears, that heaven and earth should be both clouded together? Yet it will not be long before the pleasant light will spring up to you again, Psal. 112:4. “Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness.” You shall have his supporting presence till the Comforter do come. When Mr. Glover came within sight of the stake, he suddenly cries out, Oh Austin! he is come! he is come.
Plea 6. Oh! but what if my trial should be long, and the siege of temptations tedious? Then I am persuaded I am lost; I am no way able to continue long in a prison, or in tortures for Christ, I have no strength to endure a long siege, my patience is too short to hold out from month to month, and from year to year as many have done. Oh! I dread the thoughts of long continued trials, I tremble to think what must be the issue.
Answer 1. Cannot you distrust your own strength and ability, but you must also limit God’s? What if you have but a small stock of patience? Cannot the Lord strengthen you with all might in the inner-man, unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness, according to his glorious power, Col. 1:11. And is it not his promise to confirm you to the end? 1 Cor. 1:8. You neither know how much, nor how long you can bear and suffer. It is not inherent, but assisting grace, by which your suffering abilities are to be measured. God can make that little stock of patience you have to hold out as the poor widow’s cruse of oil did, till deliverance come; he can enable your patience unto its perfect work, i.e. to work as extensively to all the kinds and sorts of trials, as intensively to the highest degree of trial, and as protensively to the longest duration and continuance of your trials as he would have it: if this be a marvellous thing in your eyes, must it be so in God’s eyes also?
2. The Lord knows the proper season to come in to the relief of your sliding and fainting patience, and will assuredly come in accordingly in that season; for so run the promises, “The Lord shall judge his people, and repent himself for his servants when he seeth that their power is gone, and that there is none shut up or left,” Deut. 32:36. Cum duplicantur lateres venit Moses; in the mount of difficulties and extremities it shall be seen. “The rod of the wicked shall not rest upon the lot of the righteous, lest the righteous put forth their hands unto iniquity,” Psal. 125:3. Ubi definit humanum, ibi incipit divinum auxilium; God’s power watches the opportunity of your weakness.
Plea 7. But what if I should be put to cruel and exquisite tortures, suppose to the rack, to the fire, or such most dreadful sufferings as other Christians have been? What shall I do? Do I think I am able to bear it? Is my strength the strength of stone, or are my bones brass, that ever I should endure such barbarous cruelties? Alas! Death in the mildest form is terrible to me: how terrible then must such a death be?
Answer. Who enabled those Christians you mention to endure these things? They loved their lives, and sensed their pains as well as you, they had the same thoughts and fears, many of them, that you now have; yet God carried them through all, and so he can you. Did not he make the devouring flames a bed of roses to some of them? Was he not within the fires? Did he not abate the extremity of the torment, and enable weak and tender persons to endure them patiently and cheerfully? Some singing in the midst of flames, others clapping their hands triumphantly, and to the last sight that could be had of them in this world, nothing appeared but signs and demonstrations of joy unspeakable. Ah friends! we judge of sufferings by the out-side and appearance, which is terrible; but we know not the inside of sufferings which is exceeding comfortable. Oh! when shall we have done with our unbelieving ifs and buts, our questionings and doubtings of the power, wisdom, and tender care of our God over us, and learn to trust him over all. Now the just shall live by faith; and he that lives by faith shall never die by fear. The more you trust God, the less you will torment yourselves. I have done; the Lord strengthen, stablish, and settle the trembling and feeble hearts of his people, by what hath been so seasonably offered for their relief by a weak hand. Amen.
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