DIRECTIONS how to use the sword of the word AGAINST PERSECUTORS 2/3

           DIRECTION SECOND.  Improve those scriptures which teach us to dread God more and fear man less. Every man is most loath to fall into his hands whom he fears most.  So that, if God hath once gained the supremacy of thy fear, thou wilt rather skip into the hottest fire the persecutor can make, than make God thy enemy.  ‘Princes have persecuted me without a cause: but my heart standeth in awe of thy word,’ Ps. 119:161.  David had put, it seems, man’s wrath and that which God threatens in his word into the scales, and finding God’s hand to be without compare the heavier, trembles at that, and ventures the worst that the other can do against him.  Hence it is the Scripture is so much in depressing the power of man, that we may not be scared at his big looks or threats; in depressing the power of man, and representing his utmost rage to be so contemptible and inconsiderable a thing, as none that knows who God is needs fear the worst he can do.  ‘Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?’ Isa. 2:22.  ‘Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell,’ Matt. 10:28.  Pueri timent larvas, sed non timent ignem —children are afraid of bugbears that cannot hurt them, but can play with fire that will burn them.  And no less childish is it to be frighted into a sin at the frowns of a sorry man, who comes forth with a vizard of seeming dread and terror, but hath no power to hurt us more than our own fear gives him, and to play with hell-fire, into which God is able to cast us for ever.  Truly this is to be scared with painted fire in the picture, and not in the furnace where it really burns.  What was John Huss the worse for his fool’s cap that his enemies put on his head, so long  as under it he had a helmet of hope which they could not take off?  Or how much the nearer hell was the same blessed martyr for their committing his soul to the devil?  No nearer than some of their own wicked crew are to heaven for being sainted in the pope’s calendar.  Melancthon said some are anathema secundum dici —to be doubly cursed, as Luther and other faithful servants of Christ whom the pope cursed.  But what saith David?  ‘Let them curse, but bless thou,’ Ps. 109:28.  He that hath God’s good needs not fear the world’s bad.  The dog’s barking doth not make the moon change her colour.  Nor needs the saint change his countenance for the rage of his persecutors.

DIRECTIONS how to use the sword of the word AGAINST PERSECUTORS 1/3

We shall begin with the persecutor.  Now, wouldst thou, Christian, stand the shock of his furious assault, when he hangs out his bloody flag, breathing slaughter to the church and flock of Christ, if they will not let him trample upon all their glory, by defiling their consciences, and renouncing their faith at the lust of his imperious command.  Then, FIRST. Let it be thy care to get clear Scripture ground for those principles and practices of thine which stir up the persecutor’s rage against thee.  SECOND. Improve those scriptures which teach us to dread God more and fear man less.  THIRD. Be sure thou givest up thy lusts to the sword of the Spirit, before thy life is in any danger from the sword of the persecutor. FOURTH. Fortify thy faith on those promises which have an especial respect to persecution.

           DIRECTION FIRST.  Let it be thy first care to get clear Scripture grounds for those principles and practices of thine which stir up the persecutor’s rage against thee.  A man had need be well assured of that which brings life and dear enjoyments—that go all away with it—into hazard.  It is enough to weaken the courage of a valiant man to fight in a mist, when he cannot well discern his foes from his friends; and to be a damp upon the Christian's spirit in a suffering hour, if he be not clear in his judgement, and fixed in his principles that he is to suffer for.  Look, therefore, to put that out of question in thy own thoughts for which the persecutor calls thee into question.  And the rather because it ever was, and still will be the policy of persecutors to disfigure what they can the beautiful face of those truths and practices for which the servants of Christ suffer, that they may put a colour of justice upon their bloody cruelties, and make the world believe they suffer as evil-doers.  Now thou wilt never be able to bear up under the weight of this their heavy charge except thou beest fully persuaded in thy own conscience that thou sufferest for righteousness’ sake.  But if thou standest clear in thy own thoughts concerning thy cause, thou wilt easily wipe off the dirt they throw upon thee, and sweetly entertain thyself with the comfort which thy own conscience will bring to thee through the reproaches of thy enemies.  Nemo est miser sensu alieno, saith Salvian—what others say or think of us makes not miserable.  One reproof from a man's own thoughts wounds ore than the reproaches do of all the world besides.  When the Thessalonians were once satisfied of the certain truth of Paul’s doctrine—for the gospel, it is said, came to them ‘in much assurance,’ I Thes. 1:5—then they could open their door ‘with joy’ to receive it, though afflictions and persecutions came along with it, ver. 6.

How to use the Sword of the Word

‘And the sword of the Spirit,’ &c.  (Eph. 6:17).

           But haply some may say, ‘You have said enough to let us know how necessary a weapon this sword is to defend our souls, and of what admirable use in all the conflicts the Christian hath with any of his enemies. But we hope you will not leave us thus.  It is a word of counsel we now listen to hear from you, how we poor Christians may wield and use this sword for our own defence, and the vanquishing of the several enemies whose approach you have alarmed us to expect; some whereof we already, to our great terror, see in the field against us, and how soon the other may appear we know not.  What will a sword by our side, a Bible in our hand, yea mouth, do us good, if we be not instructed how we may ward off their blows, and make them feel the impression of ours therewith?’

           Your request is reasonable, and for your better satisfaction I shall sort the directions into several branches, suited to the several kinds of enemies you have to grapple with; for their assaults being of a different nature, do require a resistance suitable to their way of fight.  first. How we are to use the spiritual sword against the persecutor.  second. Against the heretic.  third. Against the army of lusts lodged within our own bosoms.  fourth. Against the bands of afflictions which from without invade, from within distress, him.

Carnal objections to the study of the word removed 3/3

1. Encouragement.  God is able to interpret his own word unto thee.  Indeed none can enter into the knowledge thereof, but he must be beholden unto his Spirit to unlock the door.  If thou hadst a riper head and higher parts than thou canst now pretend to, thou wouldst, without his help, be but like the blind Sodomites about Lot’s house, groping, but not able to find the way into the true saving knowledge thereof. He that hath not the right key is as far from entering the house as he that hath none, yea in some sense further off.  For he that hath none will call to him that is within, while the other, trusting to his false key, stands pottering without to little purpose.  The Pharisees, who were so conversant in the Scriptures, and obtained the name for the admired doctors of the chair, called, ‘the princes of the world,’ I Cor. 2:8,—because so renowned and adored among the people, yet even these missed the truth which lay before them almost in every leaf of Moses and the prophets, whom they were, in their every day’s study, tumbling over—I mean that grand truth concerning Christ, of whom both Moses and the prophets speak.  And at the same time the people whom they counted so base, yea accursed, as those that understood not the law, could see him whom they missed.  None so knowing that God cannot blind and infatuate; none so blind and ignorant whose eyes his spirit cannot open.  He who, by his incubation upon the waters at the creation, hatched that rude mass into the beautiful form we now see, and out of that dark chaos made the glorious heavens, and garnished them with so many orient stars, can move upon thy dark soul, and enlighten it, though now it be as void of knowledge as the evening of the world’s first day was of light.  The school master sometimes sends home and bids the father put him to another trade, because not able, with all his art, to make a scholar of him.  But if the Spirit of God be the master, thou shalt learn, though a very dunce: ‘The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple,’ Ps. 119:130. No sooner is a soul entered into the Spirit’s school, but he becomes a proficient.  Thence we are commanded to encourage those that discourage themselves: ‘Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees,’ Isa. 35:3.  Why? what good news shall we tell them?  ‘The eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped,’ ver. 5.  ‘An highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein,’ ver. 8.
2. Encouragement. The deeper sense thou hast of thy own weakness, the more fit thou art for the Spirit’s teaching. A proud scholar and a humble master will never agree; Christ is ‘meek, and lowly,’ and so ‘resisteth the proud,’ but ‘giveth grace unto the humble.’  Though he cannot brook him that is proud, yet he can bear with thee that art weak and dull, if humble and diligent; as we see in the disciples, whom our Saviour did not disdain to teach the same lesson over and over again, till at last they say, ‘Lo, now speakest thou plainly,’ John 16:29.  The eunuch was no great clerk when in his chariot he was reading Isaiah’s prophecy; yet because he did it with an honest heart, Philip is despatched to instruct him.

Carnal objections to the study of the word removed 2/3

 Objection Second.  But I cannot read; how can I search the Scriptures?

           Answer.  It is sad, I confess, that parents, who are God’s trustees, to whom the nurture of their children is committed, should take no more care for their souls than the ostrich doth of her eggs, not caring what becomes of them.  What do these but throw them into the devil’s mouth, by sending them out into a sinful world without the knowledge of God and his word, to become a prey to every lust that meets them?  To hell they must needs swim, if God show no more pity to them than their bloody parents have done!  But shall thy parents negligence be a plea for thy ignorance?  Wilt not thou be merciful to thyself because they were cruel?  In the fear of God be persuaded to supply their defect by thy diligence.  I hope thou dost not think it a shame to learn that, now thou art old, which thou shouldst have been taught when thou wert young. Had not thy parents learned thee a trade to get thy temporal living with, wouldst thou therefore have lived thee a beggar, rather than have applied thyself, though late, to some calling?  There are many, for thy encouragement, who have begun late, and, by God’s blessing on their diligence, have conquered the difficulty of the work.  If thou wert in prison, thou hadst rather learn to read thy neck verse, than lose thy life for want thereof.  Now, though ability to read the word be not of absolute necessity for the salvation of thy soul, yet knowledge of its saving truths is, and few better private means to obtain this than reading.  But if thou beest not capable of this, thou hast not by it an excuse for thy ignorance so long as thou hast an ear to receive instruction from others. As God sometimes recompenses the defect of one sense with the quickness of another, so may be thou shalt find thy inability to read supplied with a tenacious memory, to hold what thou hearest read or preached unto thee.  Some martyrs we find mighty in the Scriptures, able to defend the truth against learned doctors, and yet not book learned.  One amongst the rest who could not read, ‘yet carried always some part of the Scripture about with him, and when he met any Christian that could, he would get him to read some portion or other thereof to him,’ whereby he attained to such a measure of knowledge and faith, as made him wiser than his enemies, and a stout champion for the truth, even to resist to blood.

           Objection Third.  ‘O but,’ saith a third, ‘though I can read, yet I am of so weak an understanding that I fear I shall make no work with such deep mysteries as are there contained.’

           Answer.  Take heed this objection comes not from thy sluggish heart, which gets this fair pretence to ease thee of a duty thou fearest will be troublesome unto thee.  Didst thou ever make a trial, and set about the work, conscientiously using all means that might conduce towards thy instructing in the mind of god?  If not, lay not the blame on thy weak head, but wicked heart.  When thou wentest first to be an apprentice, what skill hadst thou in thy trade?  Didst thou therefore despair and run away?  No, but by thy diligence didst learn the mystery of it in a few years, so as to maintain thyself comfortably upon it; and will not thy industry to learn that, condemn thy sloth in not studying the word, which is able to bring in a better livelihood to thy soul than thy trade can do for thy body?

           But, poor soul, if what thou sayest indeed ariseth from the deep sense thou hast of thy own weakness, then ponder upon this TWOFOLD ENCOURAGEMENT

Carnal objections to the study of the word removed 1/3

           Objection First.  But you will say, ‘If we had so much time to spare as others, we would not be so unacquainted with the Scriptures.  But alas! we have so much business to do, and our hands so full with our worldly callings, that we hope God will excuse us, though we have not so much knowledge of his word as others.’

           Answer.  Is this thy plea that thou indeed meanest to use when thou comest to the bar, and art called to give thy answer to Christ thy judge upon this matter?  Does not thy heart quake within thy breast to think how he will knit his brow, and throw this thy apology with disdain and wrath upon thy face?  Did so much anger sit on the countenance of meek Jesus when on earth, and such a dreadful doom proceed from his sweet lips against those that made their farms and oxen as a mannerly excuse for not coming to his supper, sentencing them never to taste thereof? O what then will glorious Christ say—when, mounted on his tribunal, not to invite, but to judge sinners—to such an excuse as this?  Could God find heart and time to pen and send this love-letter to thee, and thou find none to read and peruse it?  The sick man no time to look on his physician’s bill!  The condemned malefactor to look on his prince’s letter of grace, wherein a pardon is tendered to him!  Poor wretch! must the world have all thy time, and swallow thee up quick?  A curse not less than that of Corah! Art thou such a slave to thy pelf as to tie thy soul to thy purse strings, and take no more time for the saving of thy soul than this cruel master will afford thee? Thou and thy money perish with thee!  His soul is in an ill ease which hath an allowance from so base a lust.  This is so far from mending the matter, that thou dost but cover one sin with another.  Who gave thee leave thus to overlade thyself with the encumbrance of the world?  Is not God the Lord of thy time?  Is it not given by him to be laid out for him? He allows thee indeed a fair portion thereof for the lower employments of this life; but did he ever intend to turn himself out of all?  This is as if the mariners, who are allowed by the merchant some small adventure for themselves, should fill the ship, and leave no stowage for his goods that pays the freight. Will it suffice for him to say, ‘There is no room left for his commodities?’  Or, as if a servant, when his master asks why he neglected such a business committed to his care for despatch, should answer, ‘He was drunk, and therefore could not do it.’  Why did you not read my word and meditate thereon? will Christ say at that day.  Darest thou then to be so impudent as to say, ‘Lord, I was overcharged with the cares, and drunk with the love, of the world, and therefore I could not?’  Well, if this be the thief that robs thee of thy time, get out of his hands as soon as thou canst, lest it also rob thee of thy soul.  The devil can desire no greater advantage against thee.  He hath thee sure enough in his trap.  He may better boast over thee than Pharaoh could over Israel.  ‘He is entangled, in the wilderness of the world, and shall not escape my hands.’

           If a friend should tell you that you kept so many servants and retainers as would beggar you, would you not listen to his counsel, and rather turn them out of doors, than keep them still to eat you out of them? And wilt thou not be as careful of thy soul?  Wilt thou keep such a rout of worldly occasions, as will eat up all thoughts of God and heaven?  Certainly thou must either discharge thyself of these, or else fairly dismiss thy hope of salvation.  But why should I speak so much to these?  This ordinarily is but a cover to men’s sloth. If they had hearts, they would find time to converse with the word in the greatest throng of their worldly occasions.  These can find time to eat and sleep, to sport and recreate themselves, but no time for God and his word.  Would they but allow their souls those broken ends of time to search the Scripture, which they spend in pastimes, idle visits, reading of empty pamphlets, it would not be long but they might give a happy account of their proficiency in their spiritual knowledge.  What calling more encumbering than a soldier’s?  And of all soldiers the general’s, to whom all resort?  Such a one was Joshua, yet a strict command to study the Scripture: ‘This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night,’ Joshua 1:8.  Must Joshua, in the midst of drums and trumpets, and distractions of war, find time to meditate on the law of God?  And shall thy shop or plough, a few trivial occasions in thy private calling, discharge thee from the same duty?  Dost thou think that the closet is such an enemy to thy shop, and the time spent with God a thief to thy temporal estate? God, I am sure, intends his people better; as appears in the former place, ‘Then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.’

Exhortation to the study of the word 2/2

           (2.) There is a necessity of means.  The word contains the whole counsel of God for the bringing of poor sinners to eternal life, and none besides this —only as they borrow their notions out of it.  If you will not search the Scripture, and sit here at the feet of the Spirit—who fits his scholars for heaven by this one book—where wilt thou meet another master?  In whose works else wilt thou find the words of eternal life?  Of Apollos, who was a man ‘mighty in the Scriptures,’ it is said, that Aquila and Priscilla ‘expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly,’ Acts 18:26. An exposition presupposeth a ‘text.’  The meaning is, they opened the Scripture more perfectly to him. This is ‘the way of God’ to lead us to God; yea, the only way.  In other journeys we may miss the right way, and yet come at last to the place we intended, though not so soon; but no way will bring us to God but this of the word; neither can we walk in this way of God, if we be ignorant of it.  A man may in his other journeys be in his right way, and, though he knows not he is right, may yet come safe home. But we can have no benefit from this way of God if wholly ignorant of it, because we can do nothing in faith.  O labour therefore to study this book, though thou beest a dunce in all besides!  What is it thou wouldst learn? Is it the true knowledge of God?  thou mayest tumble over all the philosophers that ever wrote, and, when thou hast done, not be able to frame a right notion of him.  The best of them all were but brutish in their highest knowledge of God.  Indeed, God left the wise world to run into a thousand follies and vanities, while they were by their own wisdom shaping a religion to themselves, that, having proved them dunces, he might send them and the whole world to learn this lesson in another school, and that is the ministry of the gospel, which is naught else but the explication and application of the word.  ‘After that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe,’ I Cor. 1:21.

           Wouldst thou come to the true knowledge of sin?  This also is a notion to be found nowhere else. The Scripture alone dissects the whole body of sin, and reads to us a perfect anatomy lecture upon its most minute and secret parts.  This discovers the ulcers of our wicked hearts, which thousands die of, and through ignorance of the Scriptures can never come to know what their disease is.  If lust comes not out in spots and sores, to be seen in the outward conversation, the philosopher pronounceth him a clear man. The plague of the heart, though an old disease and epidemical, yet never was found out, or treated of, but by this sacred book, and this doth it fully, yea, acquaints us where and from whom we got this infection: even from Adam, by whom the whole world was tainted and turned into a pesthouse[4].  Which of the wise ones of the world ever dreamed of this genealogy?  Poor man, till the Scripture informs him of this, he lies in the pit of sin, and knows not who threw him in!

           In a word, wouldst thou be helped out?  Thou must then be beholden to the Scripture to do this kind office for thee.  Thy own cordage is too short to reach, and too weak to draw thee thence.  If thou takest not hold of this cord of love which God lets down unto thee in his word, thy case is desperate. And now, having set life and death before thee, I leave thee to thy choice.  If yet thou beest resolved to reject the knowledge of the Almighty, and put thy soul in launch into eternity without this chart to direct thee, not caring whether thou sinkest or swimmest, at what port thou arrivest at in another world, heaven or hell; then prepare to take up thy lodgings among the damned, and harden thy stout heart, if thou canst, against those endless flames which are kindled for all those ‘that know not God, and that obey not his gospel,’ II Thes. 1:8.  And to thy terror know that, in spite of thy now wilful ignorance, thou shalt one day understand the Scriptures to the increase of thy torment.  Here thou shuttest out their light, but then it will shine full on thy face, when it would give thee some ease if thou couldst forget that ever thou didst hear of such a book as the Bible is, but then against thy will thou shalt carry the remembrance thereof to hell with thee, that thy scornful neglect of it on earth may be continually pouring new horror—as so much fire and brimstone—into thy guilty conscience.  How must it needs then fill thee with amazement to think of thy folly and madness, to sell thy soul for a little ease and sloth?  Hell from beneath would be moved for thee, to meet thee at thy coming thither.  It will stir up the dead for thee; and the poor heathens, whom thou shalt find prisoners there, will come flocking about thee, and with their taunts reproaching thee, saying, ‘Art thou also be-come weak as we?  Art thou become like unto us? Thou perish for thy ignorance, who hadst the key of knowledge at thy girdle, and at so easy a rate might have been instructed in the way of life!  We, poor heathens, cannot bring an action against God for false imprisonment, though we never heard of such a thing as the gospel, for we did not walk up to our little light; and might have known more of God had we not darkened our own foolish minds by rebelling against the light we had; but never were we at such cost to damn our souls as you, who have rejected the word of God, and broke through all the threatenings and promises thereof, to come hither!’