Five observables touched upon, from Paul’s being in bonds 3/3

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3.  To engage their prayers for him.  Suffering saints have ever been very covetous of prayers.  Paul acts all the churches at work for him.  ‘Pray, pray, pray,’ was the usual close to Mr. Bradford’s letters out of prison.  And great reason for it; for a suffering condition is full of temptations.  When man plays the persecutor, the devil forgets not to be a tempter.  He that followed Christ into the wilderness will ever find a way to get to his saints in the prison.  Sometimes he will try whether he can soften them for impressions of fear, or make them pity themselves; and he shall not want them that will lend their tears to melt their courage and weaken their resolu­tion—may be wife and children, or friends and neighbours, who wish them well, but are abused by Satan to lay a snare be­forethem, while they express their affection to them. No doubt those good people meant well to Paul, who, with tears and passionate entreaties, endeavoured to keep him from Jerusalem—where it was foretold he should come into trouble—but Satan had a design against Paul therein, who hoped they might not only break his heart, but weaken his courage, with their tears.  When he cannot make a coward of the saint, to run from the cross; then he will try to sour and swell his spirit with some secret anger against those that laid it on.  O it is no easy matter to receive evil, and wish none to him from whose hands we have it.  To reserve love for him that shows wrath and hatred to us is a glorious but a difficult work.  If he cannot leaven him with wrath against his persecutor, then he will try to blow him up with a high conceit of himself, who dares suffer for Christ, while others shrink in their heads, and seek to keep themselves safe within their own shell.  O this pride is a salamander, that can live in the fire of suffering!  If any one saint needs the humility of many saints, it is he that is called to suffer.  To glory in his sufferings for Christ becomes him well, II Cor. 12:9; Gal. 6:14; but to glory in himself for them is hateful and odious.  Needs not he a quick eye, and a steady hand, that is to drive his chariot on the brow of so dangerous a precipice?

           In a word, a suffering condition is full of temp­tations, so the saint’s strength to carry him safely through them is not in his own keeping.  God must help, or the stoutest champion’s spirit will soon quail. ‘In all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need,’ Php. 4:12. This was a hard lesson indeed to learn .  Who was his master?  See, ‘I can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth me,’ ver. 13.  Now, as the saints’ strength to suffer is not in themselves, but Christ, so prayer is the best means to fetch it in for their help; for by it they confess their own weakness, and so God is secured from having a co-rival in the praise.  Which Paul is here free to do, and more than so; for, as he confesseth he can do nothing without Christ’s strength to enable and embolden him, so he dares not rely on his own solitary single prayers for the obtain­ing it, but calls in the auxiliary forces of his fellow-saints to besiege heaven for him; that, while he is in the valley suffering for the gospel, they might be lifting up their hands and hearts in the mount of prayer for him

Five observables touched upon, from Paul’s being in bonds 2/3

    Third Observable. Observe how close Paul sticks to the truth.  He will not part with it, though it brings him to trouble. He had rather the persecutor should imprison him for preaching the gospel, than he im­prison it by a cowardly silence.  He hath cast up his accounts, and is resolved to stand to his profession whatever it may cost him.  The truth is, that religion is not worth embracing that cannot bear one’s charges in suffering for it; and none but the Christian’s is able to do this.  Neither is he worth the name of a Chris­tian that dares not take Christ’s bill of exchange, to receive in heaven what he is sent out in suffering for his sake on earth.  And yet, alas! how hard is it to get faith enough to do this!  It is easier to bow at the name, than to stoop to the cross of Jesus.  Many like religion for a summer-house, when all is fair and warm abroad in the world; but, when winter comes, doors are shut up, and nobody to be seen in or about it.

           Fourth Observable. Observe the publication Paul makes of his sufferings to the church.  He, being now a prisoner, sends his despatches to this and other churches, to let them know his condition.  From whence,

           Note. That sufferings for the gospel are no mat­ter of shame.  Paul doth not blush to tell it is for the gospel he is ‘in bonds.’  The shame belonged to them that clapped on the chain, not to him that wore it.  The thief, the murderer, may justly blush to tell wherefore they suffer, not the Christian for well-doing.  ‘If any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf,’ I Peter 4:16. Christ himself counted it no dishonour to have the print of his wounds seen after his resurrec­tion.  Babylas, a Christian martyr, would have his chains buried with him.  The apostles ‘rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name,’ Acts 5:41.  And if it be no shame to suffer for the gospel, then surely it is none to profess it, and live up to its holy rules.  Shall the wicked ‘glory in their shame,’ and thou be ashamed of thy glory?  Shall they do the devil’s work at noonday light, and thou afraid to be seen with the good?  Yet Salvian tells us, in his days—so wicked they were, and such a scorn was cast upon holiness—that many carried Christ’s col­ours in their pocket, and concealed their piety, ne viles hab­erentur—lest they should be counted vile and base.

           Fifth Observable. Observe the end why he makes known his sufferings.

1. That they may know the true cause wherefore he suffered.  Paul’s enemies laid heavy things to his charge, and these might haply fly as far as Ephesus. When the saints’ are in a suffering condition, Satan is very industrious to defame them, and misrepresent the cause of their troubles to the world, as if it were for no good.  Now, though Paul regarded little what the wicked world said of him, yet he desired to stand right in the thoughts of the churches, and therefore acquaints them with the cause of his imprisonment.
2. To strengthen their faith and comfort their hearts.  No doubt but Paul’s chain entered their souls, and his suffering was their sorrow.  This he knew, and therefore sends them word by Tychicus—the bearer of this epistle—how it fared with him in his bonds, that they might not spend too many tears for him who had a heart so merry and cheerful in his sufferings: ‘That ye might know our affairs, and that he comfort your hearts,’ Eph. 6:22.  Thus have we seen sometimes a tender-hearted, father on his sick-bed, not so much troubled with his own pains, or thoughts of his ap­proaching death, as to see his children take them so much to heart; and therefore, forgetting his own mis­eries, address himself with a smiling countenance to comfort them.  O it is an excellent sight to behold the saints that are at liberty mourning over their afflicted brethren, and those that are the sufferers become comforters to them that are at liberty!  Never doth re­ligion appear more glorious than when they commend it who are suffering for it. And no way can they com­mend it higher than by a holy humble cheerfulness of spirit in their sufferings.  The comfortable which the martyrs in queen Mary’s days sent out of prison, did wonderfully strengthen their brethren throughout the kingdom, and fit them for the prison.  Sufferers preach with great advantage above others.  They do not speak by hearsay, but what they experiment {verified} in themselves.

Five observables touched upon, from Paul’s being in bonds 1/3

First Observable. Observe the usage which this blessed apostle finds from an ungrateful world.  A chain is clapped upon him, as if he were some rogue or thief.  He preacheth liberty to poor sinners, and is deprived of his own for his pains; he proclaims deliv­erance to the captives, and is used like a slave for his labour.  One would wonder what they could find against so holy and innocent a person to accuse him for, who made it his daily exercise to live without of­fence to God and man; yet see what an indictment Tertullus prefers against him, Acts 24, as if there had not been such a pestilent fellow in the whole country as he!  And Paul himself tells us he ‘suffered trouble, as an evil doer, even unto bonds,’ II Tim. 2:9.  Many grievous things were laid to his charge.  Whence,

Note. That the best of men may and oft do suf­fer under the notion of vile and wicked persons.  Let the saints’ enemies alone to black their persons and cause.  Christ himself must be ‘numbered among the transgressors,’ and no less than blasphemy be laid to his charge.  Persecutors think it not enough to be cruel, but they would be thought just while they are cruel—‘Ye have condemned and killed the just,’ James 5:6.  Here is a bloody murder committed with all the formalities of justice.  They condemn first, and then kill; and truly, murder on the bench is worse in God’s account than that which is perpetrated by a villain on the highway.  Well, there is a time when Paul’s cause and the rest of suffering saints’ shall have a fairer hearing than here they could meet with, and then it will appear with another complexion than when drawn with their enemies’ black-coal.  The names of the godly shall have a resurrection as well as their bodies.  Now they are buried with their faces down­ward—their innocency and sincerity charged with many false imputations; but then all shall be set right. And well may the saints stay to be cleared as long as God himself stays to vindicate his own government of the world from the hard speeches of ungodly ones.

Second Observable. Observe the true cause of Paul’s sufferings.  It was his zeal for God and his truth—‘for which I am in bonds:’ that is, for the gospel which I profess and preach.  As that martyr who, being asked how he came into prison, showed his Bible, and said, ‘This brought me hither.’  Perse­cutors may pretend what they will, but it their religion and piety that their spite is at.  Paul was an honest man, in the opinion of his countrymen, so long as he was of their opinion, went their way, and did as they did; but when he declared himself to be a Christian, and preached his gospel up, then they cried him down as fast—then his old friends turned new enemies, and all their fists were about his ears.  The wicked are but the devil's slaves, and must do as he will have them. Now, it is truth and godliness that pull down his king­dom.  When, therefore, these appear in the saints’ lives, then he calls forth the wicked world, as a prince would do his subjects into the field, to fight for him; so that it is impossible to get to heaven without blows. ‘He that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution:’ {II Tim. 3:12} that is, one way or other; and none more than the preacher.  He puts his hand into the wasp's nest, and therefore must expect to be stung; he treads on the serpent’s head, and it were strange if he should not turn again to bite him.  But let not this trouble you.  Fear not what you can suffer, only be careful for what you {do} suffer. Christ’s cross is made of sweet wood.  There are comforts pec­uliar to those that suffer for righteousness.  When Sabina, a Christian martyr, fell in travail in the pris­on, and was heard to cry and make a dolor in those her child-bearing throes, some asked her how she could endure the torments which her persecutors prepared for her, if she shrank at those?  ‘O,’ saith she, ‘now I suffer for sin, then I shall suffer for Christ.’