Chapter 31: What use there is to be made of the reproaches the condition of God's people is liable to

IF it be thus, that the estate of Gods people is an estate liable to reproaches, then you that have any inclination to the ways of God, examine whether you can take his way upon these terms: Can you be content to be made a by-word and reproach, and to have men cast all manner of filth upon you? He is like to hold out in the ways of godliness, that can be content to be made a by-word and reproach for godliness, it is an argument that the soul is resigned up to God for ever: The reason that some give of that order of the Law, concerning the servant that would serve his Master for ever, that he must come to the door and have his ear bored, was that he might give an evident demonstration, that he was indeed willing to be his Masters for ever, if he would be content to endure such a reproach as that was esteemed to be amongst the Jews: Boring the ear was a note of ignominy; His ear was bored, says Cajetan, to that end, that if he feared not perpetual servitude, be might at least be afraid of publike ignominy, and therefore he was brought to the door, that he might have many to look on him, and be witnesses of this his shame.

Secondly, it should teach the godly to be accurate in their way: you live amongst those that will observe you, and cast filth on your faces, take heed you give no just occasion; it is enough we shall suffer without any just cause, let us take heed they take no filth out of our own bosoms, and cast upon our faces, that will be grievous indeed, when our consciences shall join with their reproaches. God threatens, Hos. 7. ult. as a great affliction, that his people shall be derided by the Egyptians, this shall be their derision in the land of Egypt; to have the wicked deride us, and that for our sin, is a grievous misery; Make me not a scorn, says David, to fools: It is a great evil for a professor of Religion to make himself a scorn to the fools of the world; if they will reproach us, let it be for forwardness in Gods ways, and not for our sin; sin is only a just reproach, and therefore when Joshua circumcised the people, it is said, He took away their reproach, therefore the place was called Gilgal, because their reproach was rouled away; bodily uncircumcision was a reproach, much more is spiritual uncircumcision: Let us take heed we do not manifest any filth to them, being you live among those that will revile you, whose tongues in Scripture are compared to three things, a Rasor, a Sword, and an Arrow: A Rasor that will take off every little hair, so a reviling tongue will not only take advantage of every gross sin, but the least thing that another can hardly see. Secondly, it is compared to a Sword, a sword that wounds, so the tongues of revilers do a great deal of mischief: but a sword can do mischief only near hand, it cannot do mischief afar off; and therefore, Thirdly, it is compared to an Arrow, that can do mischief a great way off, as far as one can see a man, and so revilers do not only mischief to a man in the Town where they live, but a great way off in other Towns: Now if mens tongues be Rasors, and Swords, and Arrows, the people of God had need take heed how they walk, and walk accurately, to give no just cause of reproach, that so the reproach may fall upon themselves.

The third Use of the point is this, Gods people are a people lyable to reproach: Let those who are such, from hence be exhorted, that they do not further this, I mean by reproaching one another; it is enough that the servants of God are lyable to reproach from the world, and from those that are without, let not this be furthered by those that are within, upon every pettish humor, or every discontent, presently to be casting filth one upon the face of another, this is a thing unbeseeming Religion. Hereby you come to deprive yourselves of that evidence of the truth of grace, from whence many of Gods servants receive so much comfort, love to Gods people: While they are in your way your hearts are towards them, but if they do cross you, your hearts are as perverse and froward, and appear as malicious as the hearts of any: So that the love you had to them, was because they were in your way, and not because they were the servants of God: Now if you have a heart, though you becrossed by them, to put it up without casting dirt upon their faces, your evidence will be strengthned, that you love them though they be opposite to you. Do not you tear the flesh of one another by reproaches? it is enough that the bryers and thorns of the wilderness do tear our flesh and our names; let there not be bryers and thorns amongst ourselves to tear our flesh. If children be casting mire and dirt upon the faces of one another, how unbeseeming is it? and if the father sees them, how provoked is he to correct them both? And so if we upon some pettish mood, cast dirt upon one another, expect some severe judgement from God: If children be casting dirt upon one another, this is enough to make them leave, Your Father sees you: And so you that are brethren of a Church, and are casting filth upon one another, know your Father sees you: We should not cast reproaches upon an Enemy. It is a notable speech reported of one Memon, that was General of Darius Army, when he was fighting against Alexander, one of his Soldiers reproached Alexander; the General came to him and smote him, says he, I did not hire you to reproach Alexander, but to fight against him: If a Heathen cannot endure the reproaches of his enemy, how much less should God endure his children reproaching one another? It was a brave speech of Calvin, Though Luther call me a Devil, yet I will honor him as a servant of God: and so though those that are our brethren, do cast reproach upon us, we should honor the grace of God in them, and not cast reproach upon them again, for these reproaches are bitterness.

But the main Use of the point is an Use of Direction, how to carry ourselves under reproach; this is the estate of Gods people, it has been so, and does continue so, and is like to continue so; it should teach us, as to make account of them, so when they befal us, to behave ourselves Christianly under them. This is a lesson of Use, therefore in this lesson of bearing reproaches, take these things.

First, labor to bear your reproaches Christianly, not Stoically, insensibly; for certainly they are afflictions: A good name is a precious oyntment, and therefore reproaches, though never so wrongfully, are afflictions, and not to be born insensibly.

Secondly, not to bear them desperately, not to care what become of your Names, as many desperate wretches will do. Let men speak the worst of me, I care not, I must appeal to God: Though it is true, Innocency is a good bulwark, yet we are not only to care to approve ourselves to God, but we are to care to approve ourselves to men; and not only to have a good esteem in Heaven, but to have a good esteem in the world, To provide things honest before all men, especially amongst the people of God, and the Churches of God; for to have an evil name, is a great judgement of God, Isa. 65:15 Ye shall leave your name for a curse. For people to say, they care not what men say of them, it is a great evil, for by this it appears they are not affected with shame; and those that are not affected with shame before others, they are deprived of a special bridle that should keep them from evil, and a special means to further repentance. And besides, it is an argument there is no worth, no good in you who art so careless; those who have any true worth, will be careful to preserve it, but others are desperate: As a man that has a good garden, full of good flowers and herbs, will be careful to pull up every weed, but if the place be a dunghil, or over-grown, he neglects it: Therefore let us labor to behave ourselves Christianly, not carelesly, desperately under reproach.

Again, we must not carry ourselves passionately under reproach; though it is true, it is good to be sensible of the wrong done to our names, more then the wrong done to our estates, yet neither are the wrongs to our names nor to our estates to be born passionately. There are five evils follow upon this distemper of heart.

First, there is a great disturbance to the spirit, and that is a greater evil to have the heart disturbed, then to have a great deal of dirt cast upon us: To have a disturbance within the body, is worse then a violent motion without.

Secondly, we are made lyable to discover a great deal of evil in us, that though we are unjustly reproached, yet we may discover so much evil, as to be a just cause of reproach.

Thirdly, we do feed the humor of those that reproach, they have part of their end to see us so disturbed.

Fourthly, we show the baseness of our spirits, to be so soon put out of frame. Seneca speaking of the complaint of those that are under reproach, They are, says he, the complaint of squeamish spirits.

Fifthly, it is a means to make others to think we are guilty: There is no means whereby I would think one were guilty of what he is reproached, as that, namely, a mighty inordinate passion at hearing of those things. If you hear a couple disputing, commonly he that wants arguments for his case, will fall into giving ill language, and passion, and therefore those men that have power over their passion in reasoning, do what they can to bring those they reason withal into passion, for then they have them at their will: And so those that are brought into passion, when they are reproached, gives a great suspition of the weakness of their cause, and are thought to be guilty.

Fourthly, let us not carry ourselves revengefully under our reproaches, not to desire the reproachers might have an evil name in the same kinde: It is ordinary for people that are reproached to do thus, but many though they dare not say so, yet secretly they would be willing that those that do reproach them, might have an evil name. But where have we those that do labor to clear the innocency of those that do reproach them? it would be the glory of Christians, to be so far from revenge to those that reproach them, as to clear their innocency, and to speak well of them as occasions serve, as the Apostle says, Webeing defamed, we intreat, and are not glad if they fall into any evil: Many people if any have spoken evil of them, and they fall into evil, how does it please them? Let us suffer never so much, God forbid we should think the evil of our reproach so great, as to be glad to have it wiped away with any sin against God: Such and such have sinned such and such sins, and by those sins my reproach is wiped away, and therefore I am glad: God forbid we should have the wiping away of our reproaches at so dear a rate. We read in Hosea 4. of the great charge that was laid upon the Priests, they eat up the sin of the people, because the Priests had some advantage by the sins that the people committed, for they brought Sacrifices for their sin, and the Priests had part, upon this they set their hearts, upon the sin of the people; this is an abominable thing, to be glad of the sin of another, because of any advantage that comes to us by it. True it is, God shall have a great deal of glory by clearing the innocency of his servants, but we must not desire that God may have his glory this way by the commission of any sin, nor rejoice in such a way of Gods glory.

But the special and most ordinary revenge in the bearing of reproaches, is reviling again, speaking evil for evil, if they call you one ill name, you will call them another, this is unbeseeming Christians: And consider what evil is in it.

First, this is that which is most opposite to the Spirit of Jesus Christ, and the Spirit of Gods people; that place you know, 1 Pet. 2:23 Who when he was reviled, reviled not again; if you profess yourselves to be Christs, you must not revile again when you are reviled: And so the spirits of Gods servants, as St. Paul and the Martyrs, when they were reviled, they would not give ill language again.

Again, by reviling you come to harden those that reproach you in their sin; when they sin and see the same sin in you, they think they do not worse then you, so they come to be hardned in their sin, and you come to be guilty of their sin, you turn their sin to be yours, because you harden them in theirs.

Thirdly, you by this means stir up more corruption, and more sin; whereas those that know what sin means, and are tender of it, they should by all means labor to suppress it, and beat it down, as when a neighbors house is on fire, we will labor what we can to quench it, and not to put more fire to it; shall we have more care of our neighbors house, then of our neighbors soul? his heart is on fire, and his tongue is on fire, and will you bring more fire? this is abominable.

Fourthly, you come by this means to adde your sin to his sin: What, is not God dishonored enough by his reviling, but must you adde to Gods dishonor?

Again fithly, here you show your exceeding folly, that you do not apprehend a greater evil in the evil of sin, then in the evil of suffering: for if we did apprehend the evil of suffering to be less then the evil of sin, we would never labor to deliver ourselves from the evil of suffering by the evil of sin; let a man come and cast dirt in your face, the worst that can be in this is an evil of suffering at first, till you make yourselves guilty, but how will you deliver yourselves by the evil of sin? what ignorance is this? Are you acquainted with the ways of God? Is this the way to clear yourselves, by defiling yourselves more? That filth that comes out of you, defiles you more then that which is cast upon you from without.

Again further, another evil that comes from this reviling, is this, you show a vile, base spirit, as if you had no other means to deliver you from an ill name, but an ill tongue; those that know any excellency that they have in themselves, will know that there are a great many other ways to deliver themselves from an ill name, rather then an evil tongue. But you are put to your shifts, you have evil cast upon you, and you have no way to deliver yourselves from this evil but by your reviling tongue. It is a sign there is no excellency in you, nothing but baseness in you. Seneca says of those that are disorderly affected with reproaches that are cast upon them, They show that there is no wisdom, nor no confidence of any excellency in themselves to oppose that evil.

Again, hereby you come to be injurious to yourselves, you deprive yourselves from any help of God to clear your names: If you had hearts to commit yourselves to God, he would provide for you; but when you seek to clear yourselves this way, you put yourselves from any care that God should have to provide for you. That we read of David, Psalm 38. 12, 13, 14, 15. is very observable, They which seek my hurt, says he, speak mischievous things, and imagine deceits all the day long, but I as a deaf man heard not; and again, verse 14. I was as a man that hears not; but mark verse 15. In you O Lord do I hope, you will hear: The less he heard, the more confidence he had in God that he would hear, and could the more comfortably commit his cause to him; but if he had been too quick to hear himself, God would not readily have heard for him, and what had he got by that? Now by all this you cannot but be convinced in your thoughts, that it is a great evil to revile again, and you that have been guilty of this, let your hearts smite you, and know what cause you have to be humbled before the Lord.

But is it possible not to revile again? Who can but do so when they come and give such ill language, so injurious, so false?

Those that have the Spirit of Christ can do otherwise. Those that know the evil of sin to be a greater evil then the evil of suffering, can do this. And those that are wise, and will not mischief themselves, can do this. Can any by reproaches force you to take a knife and cut yourselves! If they force you to commit sin, they force you to worse. Certainly you think every man is in bondage; consider what miserable bondage men should be in, for to be in the power of their enemies, when they list to make them to mischief themselves, can there be any worse bondage? for an enemy to draw any body where he will, is not so much, but to make me to hurt myself, this is a great and a sore bondage indeed. Therefore there is no contending with reproaches this way by reproaching again, here the overcomer is the loser. When Demosthenes was reproached by one, I will not, says he, strive with you in this kinde of fight, in which he that is overcome is the better man.

Fiftly, take heed you be not hindred in your way, or break off your course when you are reproached: what though there be filth cast in the way, shall we decline our way? though the clouds do arise, and darken the light of the Sun, does the Sun cease in its course, and cease shining because it is darkned? no, it goes on its course and shines till it breaks forth: so you are going on, shining in a good conversation, some come and cast reproach upon your way, and darkens your course; What, shall you cease? No, go on, and in time you will break through the clouds. Was there ever such a fool as to be jeered out of his inheritance? A man has an inheritance worth a thousand pounds a year, and a company shall go and scorn him, and contemn him, and reproach him, and he shall be rather willing to part with his inheritance then to be thus jeered; Was there ever any such a fool? Is not our way of Religion a greater inheritance to us, then an inheritance of a thousand pounds a year? If you should be moved to go out of your way upon reproaches, know that this will be infinite more reproach to you, then if all the men of the world did cast reproach upon you; this will reproach you to your conscience, and that before God and all the Angels and Saints, before all Gods people. And then besides, this will further reproach you before wicked men too, you will be the more scorned and vilified.

I remember a speech of a Heathen Philosopher, If any man begin to embrace Philosophy, he must be reproached; They will say, What, we shall have a Philosopher of you by and by, what pride and conceitedness is this? But do you still go on in your way, and those who reproached you before, will after admire you: But if you fall off, after you have begun (not being able to bear reproach) This, says he, deserves a double reproach: Your reproachers will reproach you much more, they will say, Here is a time-server, who will do any thing as the times serve for his turn. None so much contemned as Apostates. Those that opposed Nehemiah, and sought to hinder his work, did it to reproach him, if he had left his work for reproaching, they would have reproached him much more: How would this cut you to the heart, that those that did reproach you, if you go out of the way, should reproach you much more? Consider, does this beseem the spirit of a Christian? Had you ever any experimental knowledge of the evil of sin, or any good in the ways of God? Will this be an answer before God, when you come to give an account why you went out of your way? Lord, I suffered so much reproach, I could not bear it. And again, will it not be just with God, for to suffer you to fall into some vile scandalous sin to be reproached for, after another manner? because that you would not suffer reproach for his name, you should suffer reproach for your sin. These are the things we are to be warned of.