Chapter 8

Section 1.

We are now arrived at the last trial of grace proposed — namely, by sufferings for religion.

Thousands of hypocrites embark themselves in the profession of religion in calm; but if the wind rises and the sea swells, and they see religion will not transport them safely to the cape of their earthly hopes and expectations, they desire to be landed again as soon as may be, for they never intended to ride out a storm for Christ. So you find in Matthew 13:20-21: 'He endures for a while, but when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, by and by he is offended.'

But yet it is not every trial by suffering that separates gold from dross, and therefore my business will be to show:

First, when the fire of sufferings or persecution is hot and vehement enough to separate them.

Secondly, why it must needs discover hypocrisy when it is at that height.

Thirdly, what advantages sincere grace has to endure that severe and sharp trial.

Section 2.

Now the fire of persecution or sufferings for religion may be judged intense and high enough to separate gold and dross.

First, when religion exposes us to eminent hazard of our deepest and dearest interests in this world — such as our liberties, estates, and lives. Now it is a fierce and fiery trial indeed. Sometimes it exposes the liberties of its professors (Revelation 2:10): 'The devil shall cast some of you into prison.' Sometimes their estates (Hebrews 10:34): 'You took joyfully the spoiling of your goods.' And sometimes their lives (Hebrews 11:37): 'They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, they were slain with the sword.' While it goes no higher than some small inconveniences of life, reputation and sense of honor will hold a false heart. But when it comes to this, few will be found able to endure it but those that expect to get no more by religion than their souls, and count themselves in good case if they can but save them with the loss of all that is dear to them in this world.

Here the false heart balks; here it usually fades and falters.

Secondly, the fiery trial is then high when there remain no visible hopes of deliverance or outward encouragements to sense that the scene will alter. 'When we see not our signs, there is no more any prophet, nor any that can tell us how long' — as the case of the church was in Psalm 74:9. Then their hands hang down and their hearts faint. Nor is it to be wondered at, when the length of troubles proves so sore a temptation even to the upright as to put forth their hands to iniquity (Psalm 125:3). If such a temptation shakes such men as build on the rock, it must quite overturn those whose foundation is but sand.

Thirdly, when a false professor is engaged alone in sufferings and is singled out from the herd as a deer to be run down. Now it is a thousand to one but he quits religion to save himself. Good company will encourage a faint-hearted traveler to jog along a great way. But if he is forsaken by all, as Paul was, with no man to stand by him; if left alone, as Elijah was — what can encourage him to hold out?

Indeed if they had the same invisible supports those good men had — that the Lord was with them — that would keep them steady. But wanting that encouragement from within, and all shrinking away from without, they quickly tire downright.

Fourthly, when near relations and intimates oppose and tempt us. The prophet speaks of a time 'when a man's foes shall be the men of his own house' — it may be the wife of his bosom (Micah 7:5-6). O what a trial is that which Christ mentions in Luke 14:26 — when we must hate father and mother, wife and children, or quit our claim to Christ and heaven! This is hard work indeed.

How hard did that truly noble and renowned Galeacius Caracciolus find this! O what a conflict he found in his bowels! Now Christ and our dearest interest come to meet like two men upon a narrow bridge — if one goes forward, the other must go back. And now the predominant interest can no longer be concealed.

Fifthly, when powerful temptations are mixed with cruel sufferings — when we are strongly tempted as well as cruelly persecuted. This blows up the fire to a vehement height. This was the trial of those precious primitive believers (Hebrews 11:35-37): 'They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, they were tempted.' Here were life, liberty, and preferment set upon one hand, and death in its most formidable shape upon the other. This cannot but be a great trial to any. But especially when a cruel death and tender temptation meet, then the trial goes high indeed.

Section 3.

And that such sufferings as these will discover the falseness and rottenness of men's hearts cannot be doubted, if you consider that this is the fire designed by God for this very use and purpose — to separate the gold from the dross. So you will find it in 1 Peter 4:12: 'Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial, which is to try you' — that is, the very design and aim of providence in permitting and ordering it is to try you. The design of Satan is to destroy you, but God's design is to try you. Upon this account you find the hour of persecution, in a suitable notion, called the hour of temptation or probation (Revelation 3:10). Then professors are sifted to the very bran, searched to the very bottom principles. 'This is the day that burns as an oven, in which all the proud and all that do wickedly shall be as stubble' (Malachi 4:1).

First, in that day the predominant interest must appear and be discovered. It can be concealed no longer. 'No man can serve two masters,' says Christ (Luke 16:13). A man may serve many masters if they all command the same things, or things subordinate to each other. But he cannot serve two masters if their commands clash and interfere with each other. And such are the commands of Christ and the flesh in a suffering hour. Christ says, 'Be faithful unto death.' The flesh says, 'Spare yourself, and enjoy the comforts of life.' Christ says, 'He that loves father or mother, wife or children, lands or inheritances more than me, is not worthy of me.' Flesh says, 'He that will grieve and break the hearts of such dear relations, and forsake when he might keep such earthly accommodations, is not worthy of them.'

Thus the two interests come into full opposition. Now have but patience to wait a little, and you shall discern which is predominant. A dog follows two men while they both walk one way, and you know not which of the two is his master. Stay but a little till their path parts, and then you shall quickly see who is his master. So it is in this case.

Secondly, in that day sensible supports fail, and all a man's relief comes in by the pure and immediate actings of faith. Were it not for those reliefs, his heart would soon faint and die away under discouragements (2 Corinthians 4:17-18): 'We faint not, whilst we look not at the things which are seen, for they are temporal, but at the things which are not seen, for they are eternal.' That is, as long as we keep our eye intently fixed upon the invisible and eternal things of the coming world, we feel ourselves fainting and dying away under the troubles and afflictions of this world. 'I had fainted,' says David, 'if I had not believed.' How then, suppose you, shall the hypocrite live at such a time, who has no faith to support him — no relief but what comes in through the senses?

Thirdly, in that day all mere notion and speculation about religion vanishes, and nothing relieves and satisfies the suffering soul but what it really believes and has satisfying proof and experience of in itself. There are a great many prettily pleasing notions with which our minds are entertained with some delight in times of peace, which can do us no service at all in the day of trouble. And for our speculative, unpractical knowledge of the greatest truths in religion, as little service is to be expected from them. Except we have better evidence and security about them, we shall be loath to venture all upon the credit of them. That is a very considerable passage to this purpose in Hebrews 10:34: 'You took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that you have in heaven a better and more enduring substance.' This knowing in ourselves is by inward, sensible experience, taste, and feeling, which is abundantly satisfying to the soul. And it stands opposed to all that traditional knowledge we receive from others, which, as it leaves the mind fluctuating, so leaves the heart also dead and comfortless.

Fourthly, in that day the root and foundation of a man's faith and hope is tried, and then they that have built upon the sand must needs fail. For everything is as its foundation is. Principles are to us what a root is to a tree, or a foundation to a house. A flaw or grand defect there ruins all. This we find to be the very scope of those two famous parables in Luke 14:25 and Matthew 13:21. Lesser troubles shake but the branches, but these try the root. If nothing is found there but self-ends, the force of education, the influence of examples, surely when the winds rise high and beat upon it, they will quickly lay the loftiest professor even with the ground.

And thus you see what a crisis an hour of temptation — the suffering hour — is, and what discoveries of hypocrisy it must needs make. For now the hypocrite, like Orpah, will forsake religion, but sincerity will make the soul cleave to it, as Ruth did to Naomi.

Section 4.

What advantages sincerity gives the soul for its establishment and perseverance in suffering times, I shall briefly account for in the following particulars.

First, sincere godliness dethrones that idol — the love of this world — in all true Christians. And this is what makes men shrink and flinch from Christ in a day of suffering. I do not deny that even believers themselves love the world too much. But they love it not as their chief good; it is not their portion or happiness. 'If any man so love the world, the love of the Father is not in him' (1 John 2:15). However much a sincere Christian loves the world, yet still it is in subordination to the love of God (John 21:15). Sincerity can consist with no other love of the world; it will not suffer such a cursed weed to grow under its shadow.

Now, what is it but this inordinate, supreme love of the creature that makes men forsake Christ in time of temptation? This was the ruin of that young man (Matthew 19:22): 'He went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.' This was the overthrow of Demas (2 Timothy 4:10): 'He has forsaken me,' says the apostle, 'having loved this present world.' The love of this world, like sap in green wood, will not suffer you to burn for Christ. Get but the heart mortified to the creature by a discovery of better things in heaven, and it will establish and fix your spirit so that it shall not be in the power of creatures to shake you off from Christ your foundation.

Secondly, sincerity knits the soul to Christ, and union with him secures us in the great trials. The hypocrite, having no union with Christ, can have no communion with him, nor communications of grace from him. So that little stock of his own being quickly spent — I mean natural courage and resolution — and no income from Christ, he must needs give up in a short time. But it is with a believer in a day of trouble as it is with a garrison besieged by land but free and open to the sea, from which fresh supplies are daily sent in to relieve it. 'As the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds by Christ' (2 Corinthians 1:5). Fresh aids and daily supplies proportionable to our expenses and decays of strength. 'Strengthened with all might in the inner man, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness' (Colossians 1:11). And this is the believer's great advantage by his union with Christ in a day of trial.

Thirdly, as sincerity unites the soul with Christ, so it sets the heart upon heaven and things eternal (Colossians 3:1 and following). Surely nothing is more conducive to our stability than this, in the hour of temptation.

This is the most effectual preservative from temptations upon the right hand and upon the left. Moses could cast a kingdom at his heels, despise the riches, pleasures, and honors of Egypt, while his eye was fixed upon him that is invisible, and he had respect to the recompense of reward (Hebrews 11:24-26). And it was a brave reply of the forty martyrs to Valens the emperor, tempting them with the preferments and honors of the world: 'Why do you offer these trifles to us, when you know the whole world is contemned by us?' And for temptations on the left hand, how little can they move that soul who realizes the glory of the approaching world, and sees the afflictions and sufferings of this world preparing him for and hastening him to the enjoyment of it. Temptations meet but with cold entertainment from such souls.

Fourthly, sincerity drives but one design, and that is to please and enjoy God. And what can more establish and fix the soul in the hour of temptation than this? The reason why the hypocrite is unstable in all his ways is given us by the apostle James (1:8): 'He is a double-minded man' — a man of two souls in one body, as a profane wretch once boasted, that he had one soul for God and another for anything else. But all the designs of a gracious heart are united in one, and so the entire stream of his affections runs strong.

It is base, selfish ends and self-interests that, like a great many ditches cut out of the bank of a river, draw away the stream out of its proper channel and make its waters fail. But if the heart is united for God, as the expression is in Psalm 86:11, then we may say of such a Christian what was said of a brave young soldier: whatever he wills, he does with all his might. And this is the ground of that saying: 'God deliver me from a man of only one design' — a man of one design puts all his strength to carry it; nothing can stand before him.

Fifthly, sincerity brings a man's will into subjection to the will of God. And this being done, the greatest danger and difficulty is over with such a man. This is that holy oil which makes the wheels of the soul run nimbly even in difficult paths of obedience. Let but a man be once brought to that — 'The will of the Lord be done' (Acts 21:14) — to see the highest reason of cheerful obedience in the holy, just, and good will of God. Then the difficulty is over: he can suffer quietly what men inflict unjustly.

Sixthly, sincerity takes its measures of present things by the rules of faith and eternity. It goes not by the same reckoning and account that others do, who judge of things by sense and the respects they have to the present world (2 Corinthians 4:18): 'We look not at the things that are seen, but at the things that are not seen.' And this is given there as the reason for his not fainting under present difficulties. So Romans 8:18: 'I reckon that the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.' He will not allow himself to undervalue eternal glory by once mentioning present sufferings in a way of bemoaning himself for them. A steady eye upon the other world makes us more than conquerors over the troubles of this world.

Seventhly, to conclude: sincerity alone has all the heavenly aids and assistances to stability and perseverance in suffering times. Upright ones — and such only — have Christ's intercession in heaven for them (Romans 8:34). They have the Spirit's consolation in all their troubles (1 Peter 4:14): 'The spirit of glory and of God rests on them.' They have the beneficial ministry of angels, who are sent forth on their account (Hebrews 1:14). They have a stock of prayers going for them all the world over (Ephesians 6:18). They have multitudes of precious promises in the Scriptures, for every line, word, and syllable of which the faithfulness of God stands engaged. So that it is impossible such gold should perish in the fire.

And thus of the several ways by which grace is here tried.