Seasonable Counsel

Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God, commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator (1 Pet 4:19).

This epistle was written to saints in affliction, especially those of the circumcision, for whom Peter was an apostle. It was written to counsel them and comfort them in their affliction. It counseled them about the cause for which they were afflicted, and about the right management of themselves and their cause under their affliction. It comforted them, too, both with respect to their present help from God and with reference to the reward that God would bestow on them if they continued faithfully to the end. We will have occasion to handle all of this more distinctly in the following discourse.

The text is a conclusion drawn from the counsel and comfort that the apostle had already given them in their suffering state. It is as if he said: My brothers, as you are now afflicted, so sufferings are needful for you, and therefore profitable and to your advantage. So be content to bear them. And so that you may indeed bear them with the Christian contentment and patience that becomes you, commit the keeping of your souls to your God as unto a faithful Creator. “Let them that suffer according to the will of God, commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.”

In this conclusion, then, we have three things very fit for sufferers to concern themselves with. First, a direction to a duty of absolute necessity. Second, a description of the persons who are directed to this so necessary duty. Third, a hint of the good effect that will certainly follow for those who take this blessed advice in the proper way.

The duty so absolutely necessary is that sufferers “commit the keeping of their souls to God.” The sufferers intended here are those “that suffer according to the will of God.” The good that is hinted at, which will be the effect of our truly doing this, is that we shall find God “a faithful Creator.”

We will begin first with the duty that sufferers are directed to here, namely, committing their souls to God: “Let them … commit the keeping of their souls to him, in well doing.”

And I find two things in it that need explaining before I go any further: first, what we must understand here by “the soul”; and second, what we must understand by “committing” the soul to God.

1. For the first: “the soul” here is to be taken for that most excellent part of a person that dwells in the body. It is that immortal, spiritual substance that is, and will be, capable of life and motion, of sense and reason; yes, that will remain a rational being when the body has returned to the dust as it was. This is the great thing our Lord Jesus means when, in a day of trial, he bids his disciples fear him who can destroy both body and soul in hell (Luke 12:5). That is the great thing, I say, that he there warns them to take care of. And so Peter says here: “Let them commit the keeping of their soul to him in well doing.”

2. Now, to “commit” this soul to God is to carry it to him, to lift it up to him on my bended knees, and to ask him, for the Lord Jesus Christ’s sake, to take it into his holy care and to let it be under his keeping. It is also to ask that he will be pleased to deliver it from all the snares that are laid for it between this world and the next, and that he will see to it that it is brought forth safe and sound at the great and terrible judgment, even though so many have set themselves against it. This is how David committed his soul to God when he said, “Arise, O Lord, disappoint him, cast him down: deliver my soul, O Lord, from the wicked, which is thy sword” (Ps 17:13). And again, “Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me: O Lord, make haste to help me. Let them be ashamed and confounded together that seek after my soul to destroy it” (Ps 40:13-14).

So I have shown you what the soul is, and what it is to commit the soul to God. This, then, is the duty the apostle here urges on sufferers: to carry their soul to God and leave it with him while they engage for his name in the world. Now from the apostle’s exhortation to this great duty I will draw the following conclusions.

Conclusion 1. When persecution is raised against a people, there is a design laid for the ruin of those people’s souls. This, I say, follows naturally from the exhortation. Why else would they need to commit the keeping of their souls to God? For this word, “unto God to keep them,” suggests that there is someone who would destroy them, and that persecution is therefore raised against them. I am not so uncharitable as to think that persecuting men design this. But I truly believe that the devil designs it when he stirs them up to so sorry a work. In times of trial, says Peter, “your adversary the devil walketh about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Pet 5:8).

Alas! In acts of this kind men have designs that are lower, and of a more inferior rank. Some of them look no higher than revenge on the carcass; than stripping their neighbor of his estate, liberty or life; than making themselves great in this world by the ruin of those they have power to plunder. “Their possessors slay them, and hold themselves not guilty: and they that sell them say, Blessed be the Lord, for I am rich” (Zech 11:5).

Ah, but Satan will not be put off like that. It is not a bag of money, or the punishing of such a people’s carcasses, that will please or satisfy him. It is the soul he aims at; it is the ruin of the precious soul that he has set himself to bring about. That, therefore, is what Peter’s heart is concerned with here. It is as if he said: My brothers, are you troubled and persecuted for your faith? Look to it! The hand of Satan is in this thing. Whatever men are driving at by doing as they do, the devil designs nothing less than the damnation of your souls. “Beware, hawk!” cries the falconer when the dogs are coming near her, especially if she is minding her belly too much and is too forgetful of what a dog’s nature is. Beware, Christian; take heed, Christian; the devil wants to have you.

And who could give this exhortation better than Peter himself? For not taking heed in this very thing, he was nearly swallowed up alive by the devil, as is plain to those who read carefully and consider how far he had gone when that persecution was raised against his Master (Luke 22).

When a tyrant sets out to dispossess a neighboring prince of what is lawfully his own, the men he employs in arms to conquer and take the land fight for half-crowns and the like, and are content with their wages. But the tyrant is after the kingdom; nothing will serve him but the kingdom. This is the case here. When men persecute, they are after the stuff, but the devil is after the soul, and nothing less than that will satisfy him. Let him, then, who is a sufferer “commit the keeping of his soul to God,” lest stuff and soul and all be lost at once.

Conclusion 2. A second conclusion that follows from these words is this: sufferers, if they are not careful, may be too negligent about securing their souls with God, even when persecution is upon them. For these words are not only an instruction; they are an awakening instruction. They call out as to people in danger; as to people who are not well aware of the danger; or as to a people who forget too much that their souls, and the ruin of them, are what Satan is after when trouble comes upon them for the gospel’s sake. It is as if he said: When troubles are upon you for the gospel’s sake, then take heed that you do not forget to commit your souls to God’s keeping.

Like that good man Gideon, we are naturally apt to be busy threshing out our wheat so that we may hide it from the Midianites (Judg 6:11). But we are not so naturally apt to busy ourselves securing our souls with God. The reason is that we are more flesh than spirit, and that the voice of the world makes a bigger sound in our carnal mind than the word of God does. That is why Peter here calls on us as on men with forgetful minds, saying: Let those who suffer according to the will of God take care of their souls, and take heed that the fear of losing a little of this world does not make them forget the fear of losing their souls.

That sufferers are subject to this may be seen from the stir and bustle they make at such a time to lock up safely everything that the hand of man can reach, while they are cold, chill, slack and too indifferent about committing their soul to God for him to keep. It is seen also in this: in a time of trouble for their profession, many will work harder to deceive themselves than they will to make straight steps for their feet and to commit the keeping of their souls to God. They deceive themselves by changing their notions, by laboring to persuade their consciences to let them walk with more latitude, by listening to opinions that please and gratify the flesh, by clinging to bad examples and by taking evil counsel.

What shall I say? Have there not been many who, as long as peace lasted, were great swaggerers for religion, and yet, as soon as the sun grew hot, flagged, became discontented and offended, and turned away from him who speaks from heaven? All this is because men are naturally apt to be more concerned for their goods, their carnal peace and a temporal life than they are about securing their souls with God. That is why I say these words are spoken to awaken us to consider the concerns of the soul, and how it should be safely lodged under the care, protection and mercy of God, by our committing it to him for that purpose through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Conclusion 3. Another conclusion that follows from this exhortation is this: persecution sometimes follows God’s people so hotly that it leaves them nothing but a soul to care for. They have had no house, no land, no money, no goods, no life, no liberty left them to care for. All is gone but the soul. Goods have been confiscated, liberty has been in irons, the life condemned, the neck in a noose, or the body in the fire. So for such people everything has been gone, and they have had nothing left to care for but their soul. “Let them commit the keeping of their soul to God.”

This conclusion, I say, flows naturally from the words, because the apostle here mentions only the soul, as what is left, as what still remains to the sufferer of all that he ever had. This is how they treated Christ: they left him nothing but his soul to care for. This is how they treated Stephen: they left him nothing but his soul to care for. And they both cared for that. “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit,” said Jesus (Luke 23:46). And “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit,” said Stephen (Acts 7:59). As for all other things, they were gone. They divided Christ’s very clothes among themselves before his face, even while he hung there on the tree pouring out his life before them. “They parted my garments among them,” said he, “and upon my vesture did they cast lots” (Matt 27:35; Mark 15:24; John 19:24).

This has also often been the condition of later Christians. Everything has been gone; they have been stripped of all; nothing has been left them but “soul” to care for. Job said that he had escaped with the skin of his teeth, and that is only a little. But the one who loses all that he has, life and all (we now except the soul), does not escape with even that much.

Conclusion 4. But another thing that follows from the words is this: when the devil and wicked men have done what they could in persecuting the godly, the godly have still had their souls at their own disposal. Their persecutors have not been able to rob them of their souls; they are not able to hurt their souls. The soul is not in their power to touch without the leave of God, and of him whose soul it is. “And fear not them,” says Christ, “which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul” (Matt 10:28). This, I say, also lies clearly in the text. For the exhortation supposes that whatever the sufferers mentioned there had lost, they still had their souls at their own disposal. Let those who suffer, even to the loss of goods, liberty or life, “commit the keeping of their souls to God.”

It is as if he said: Though the enemy has reached as far as their all, and stripped them of their all, yet I know that their soul is not among that all. For their soul is still free from them, at liberty, and may be disposed of just as the sufferer wishes. Therefore let him commit the keeping of his soul to God, lest through his own negligence or carelessness he be robbed of that as well. The sufferer, then, has his soul at his own disposal; he may give it away to God Almighty in spite of all that the devil and the world can do. He may indeed see men dividing his land, his household goods, yes, his very clothing among themselves, but they cannot dispose of his soul that way. They “have no more that they can do” (Luke 12:4).

Conclusion 5. Another conclusion that follows from these words is this: when a man is a sufferer, he is not able to secure his own soul from the hand of hell by any other means than by committing the keeping of it to God. Do you suffer? Are you in affliction for your profession? Then do not keep your soul in your own hand, for fear of losing it along with the rest. For no one “can keep alive his own soul” (Ps 22:29). No, not in the greatest calm; no, not when the lion is asleep. How then should he do it at such a time, when the horrible blast of the terrible ones beats against his wall? The consideration of this was what made holy Paul, a man whom persecution continually attended, commit his soul to God (Acts 20:22-24; 2 Tim 1:12). God, as I will show you shortly, is the one, and he alone, who is able to keep the soul and deliver it from danger.

Man is naturally a self-deceiver, and therefore he is not to be trusted any further than God’s watchful eye is over him. But as for his soul, he is not to be trusted with that at all. It must be wholly committed to God, left entirely with him, laid at his feet, and God must take charge of it, or else it is gone; it will be lost and will perish forever and ever. That is why it is a dangerous thing for a man who is a sufferer to be a senseless man about the danger his soul is in, and a prayerless man about committing the keeping of it to God. For such a man still has his soul, and the keeping of it, in his own deceitful hand.

And so does the man who leans on his friends, on his knowledge, on the promises of men or on the mercy of his enemies, or who has set a limit for himself in his mind, how far he will venture for religion and where he will stop. This is the man who does not make God his trust, and who therefore will surely fall in the day of his temptation. Satan, who now hunts the precious soul to destroy it, has power as well as cunning beyond what man can imagine. He has power to blind and harden the heart and make it insensible. He can also make the truth look, in the suffering man’s eyes, like a poor, little, insignificant thing. Judas had not committed the keeping of his soul to God, but relied on himself and was left to himself in his own tabernacle. And you soon see what a fine price he set on himself, his Christ, heaven and all. All of it was now not worth thirty pieces of silver to him.

And as Satan can make truth small in your esteem, so he can make sufferings great, ten times more terrible than the one who has committed the keeping of his soul to God will ever find them. A jail will look as black as hell, and the loss of a few stools and chairs as bad as the loss of so many bags of gold. Death for the Savior of the world will seem both unreasonable and intolerable. Such people will choose to run the risk of losing a thousand souls in the way of the world rather than lose one poor, sorry, passing life for the holy Word of God. But the reason, as I said, is that they have not committed the keeping of their soul to God.

For the one who has truly committed the keeping of his soul to that great One has shaken his hands free of all things here. He has said goodbye to the world, to friends and to life, and he waits on God by keeping close to his truth and walking in his ways. He has counted the cost and been persuaded to take whatever cup God allows the world to give him for doing so.

Conclusion 6. Another conclusion that follows from these words is this: God is very willing to take the charge and care of the soul (the soul that is committed to him) of those who suffer for his sake in the world. If this were not true, the exhortation would not serve its purpose. What is meant by “Let him commit the keeping of his soul to God,” but that the sufferer should actually leave that great care with him? Yet if God is not willing to be concerned with such a charge, what ground is there for the exhortation? But the exhortation does have this for its ground. Therefore God is willing to take the charge and care of the soul of the one who suffers for his name in this world. “The Lord redeemeth the soul of his servants: and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate” (Ps 34:22; 1 Sam 25:28-29). There is none, not one, who commits his soul to God’s keeping in a way of well doing who will not find him willing to be concerned with it.

“Ah,” says the sufferer, “if I could believe this, it would rid me of all my fears. But I find myself engaged for God, for I have made a profession of his name, and I cannot arrive at this belief, that God is willing to take the charge and care of my soul. So I fear that if trials rise so high that life as well as estate must go, then life and estate and soul and all will be lost at once.”

Well, honest heart, these are your fears. But let them fly away, and consider the text again: “Let them that suffer according to the will of God, commit the keeping of their souls to him … as unto a faithful Creator.” These are God’s words, Christ’s words, and the invitation of the Holy Spirit. So when you read them, be persuaded that you hear the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, all of them jointly and each of them severally, speaking to you and saying: Poor sinner, you are engaged for God in the world; you are suffering for his Word. Leave your soul with him as with one who is more willing to save it than you are willing that he should. Put your faith to work, trust God, believe his Word, and go on in your way of bearing witness for him, and at last you will find all well, and as your heart desires.

True, Satan will make it his business to tempt you to doubt this, so that your way may be made still harder and more difficult for you. For he knows that unbelief is a soul-perplexing sin, and that it makes what would otherwise be light, pleasant and easy unspeakably heavy and burdensome to the sufferer. Yes, he does this in hope of making you at last throw away your profession, your cause, your faith, your conscience, your soul and all. But hear what the Holy Spirit says again: “He shall spare the poor and needy, and shall save the souls of the needy. He shall redeem their soul from deceit and violence: and precious shall their blood be in his sight” (Ps 72:13-14). These words also are spoken for the comfort of sufferers: “For he shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him that hath no helper” (Ps 72:12). So let those who are God’s sufferers pluck up a good heart. Let them not be afraid to trust God with their souls and with their eternal concerns. Let them cast all their care on God, for he cares for them (1 Pet 5:7).

“But I am in the dark,” you say.

I answer: never let that stop you. It is a most brave thing to trust God with my soul in the dark, and to resolve to serve God for nothing rather than give up. Not to see, and yet to believe; to be a follower of the Lamb, and yet to be uncertain what we shall have at last: this argues love, fear, faith and an honest mind, and gives the greatest sign of one who has true sincerity in his soul. It was this that made Job and Peter so famous, and the lack of it that took away much of the glory of Thomas’s faith (Job 1:8-10, 21; Matt 19:27; John 20:29). So believe, truly, that God is ready and willing, yes, that he looks for and expects that you who are a sufferer should commit the keeping of your soul to him as unto a faithful Creator.

Conclusion 7. Another conclusion that follows from these words is this: God is able, as well as willing, to secure the souls of his suffering saints, and to save them from the evil of all their trials, however many, varied or terrible they may be. “Let him commit the keeping of his soul to God.” But to what good, if God is not able to keep it in his hand, and from the power of the one who seeks the soul to destroy it? But “my Father which gave them me,” says Christ, “is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand” (John 10:29). So, then, no sorrow, affliction or misery can be invented by which the devil may prevail so strongly as to pluck the soul, by that means, out of the hand of him who has received it to keep it from falling and perishing. The text therefore supposes in God a sufficiency of power to support the soul, and a sufficiency of comfort and goodness to embolden it to endure for him, let Satan and his instruments too break out to the greatest degree of their rage and cruelty.

1. There is in God a sufficiency of power to keep those who have laid their soul at his foot to be preserved. That is why he is called the soul-keeper, the soul-preserver (Prov 24:12). “The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand. The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul” (Ps 121:5-7). “The sun shall not smite thee”: that is, persecution will not dry you up and wither you away to nothing (Matt 13:6, 21). In spite of it you will be kept and preserved, carried through and delivered from all evil. Therefore, if anyone is in a suffering condition and would have his soul secured and found safe and sound at last, let him commit the keeping of it to God. For:

(1) Then your own natural weakness and timidity will not overcome you, for it will not be too hard for God. God can make the most soft-spirited man as hard as adamant, harder than flint, yes, harder than the northern steel (Ezek 3:9). “Shall iron break the northern iron and the steel?” (Jer 15:12). The man who lays into a Christian when he is in the way of his duty to God uses his sword in vain. If God has taken the charge and care of that Christian’s soul, he can shoe him with brass and make his hoofs of iron (Deut 33:25). “He can strengthen the spoiled against the strong, so that the spoiled shall come against the fortress” (Amos 5:9).

He can turn you into another man and make you what you never were. Timid Peter, fearful Peter, he could make as bold as a lion. The man who at one time was afraid of a mere girl, he could make at another time stand boldly before the council (Matt 26; Acts 4:13). There is nothing too hard for God. He can say to those who are of a fearful heart, “Be strong, fear not” (Isa 35:4). He can say, “Let the weak say, I am strong,” by such a word as that by which he created the world (Joel 3:10).

(2) Your own natural darkness and ignorance will not make you fall; he can supply your lack of wit. He can say to fools, Be wise, not only by way of correction but by way of instruction too. He “hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; … yea, things which are despised, … and things which are not, hath God chosen to bring to nought things that are” (1 Cor 1:27-28). Wisdom and might are his, and when and where he will work, no one at all can withstand him. He can give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of his Son (Eph 1:17). Indeed, he claims this as something that belongs to himself alone: “Who hath put wisdom in the inward parts? or who hath given understanding to the heart?” (Job 38:36). And he has promised that he will do this, yes, promised to do it to such a degree as to make his own, who are thus engaged for him, top and overtop all who oppose them. “I,” he says, “will give you a mouth and wisdom, that all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist” (Luke 21:15).

(3) Your own doubts and mistrust about what he will do, and about where you will go when you have suffered a while for him, he can resolve, yes, dissolve, crush and bring to nothing. He can make fear flee far away and put heavenly confidence in its place. He can bring invisible and eternal things before the eye of your soul, and in those things where your enemies will see nothing, make you see what you will count worth the loss of ten thousand lives to enjoy. He can pull such things out of his bosom and put such things into your mouth; yes, he can make you choose to be gone, even through the flames, rather than stay here and die in silken sheets. Yes, he can himself come near and bring his heaven and glory to you. The Spirit of glory and of God rests upon those who are only reproached for the name of Christ (1 Pet 4:14). And what the Spirit of glory is, and what his resting upon his sufferers is, is quite beyond the knowledge of the world, and is felt only a little by saints at peace. Those who are engaged in the fight, and who are under the lash of Christ, are the ones, I say, who have it and who understand something of it.

When Moses went up into the mountain to God the first time, the people reproached him for staying with God so long, saying, “As for this Moses … we wot not what is become of him” (Exod 32:1). Well, the next time he went up there and came down, the Spirit of glory was upon him. His face shone, though he did not know it, to his honor and to their amazement (Exod 34:29-35). Also, while Stephen stood before the council to be accused by men who had been put up to it, “All that sat in the council, looking steadfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel” (Acts 6:15). Those who honor God, he will honor. Yes, he will even put some of his glory upon them; one way or another, they shall be honored. No one can tell what God can do. He can make the things that in themselves are most fearful and terrible to look at into the most pleasant, delightful, and desirable things. He can make a jail more beautiful than a palace, and restraint far sweeter than liberty. He can make “the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt” (Heb 11:26). It is said of Christ that “for the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame” (Heb 12:2). But,

2. As there is in God a sufficiency of power to uphold us, so there is in him also a sufficiency of comfort and goodness to embolden us. I mean comfort and goodness that he imparts to us. The variety of afflictions, and the terror that attends them, call not only for seeing things but also for laying hold of them by faith and feeling. And this, too, is with God, to make his own sing in the night. Paul and Silas sang in prison. The apostles went away from the council rejoicing when they had been shamefully beaten for their preaching in the temple (Acts 5). But where did this come from, if not from an inward feeling, by faith, of the love of God and of Christ, which passes knowledge? This is why he says to those under afflictions, “Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer” (Rev 2:10). There are things to be suffered, as well as places to suffer in. And there are things to be let into the soul for its emboldening (Rom 5:5), as well as things to be shown to it.

Now the things to be suffered are many, and some of them are counted up like this: “They were tortured … had cruel mockings and scourgings; … they were stoned, were sawn asunder, were slain with the sword … were tempted; … they wandered about in sheepskins, and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented” (Heb 11:35-37). These are some of the things that good men of old suffered for their profession of the name of Jesus Christ. He enabled them to bear all of it: to bear it with patience, and to bear it with rejoicing, “knowing in themselves that they had in heaven a better, and an enduring substance” (Heb 10:32-34). And it is on this account that Paul calls to mind with rejoicing the most dreadful of the afflictions he suffered for the gospel’s sake, and tells us that he was most glad when he was in such infirmities (2 Cor 12:9-10). Yes, it is on this account that he boasts and triumphs over death, life, angels, principalities, powers, things present, things to come, height, depth, and every other creature. For he knew that there was enough in that love of God which was set on him through Christ to preserve him and to carry him through it all (Rom 8:37-39). A thousand instances might be given to show that God has done this. And we know that God will still do it, because we have his faithful promise (Isa 43:2; 1 Cor 10:13).

These things have sometimes been shown to the adversaries of the church as well, to their amazement and confusion. God showed the king of Babylon that he was with the three young men in the fiery furnace (Dan 3:24). God showed the king of Babylon again that he would be where his own people were, even in the lions’ den (Dan 6:22).

Also, in later days, anyone who reads Mr. Foxe’s Acts and Monuments will find several things there to confirm this as truth. God has power over all plagues, and so he can either intensify them or moderate and lessen them as he pleases. He has power over fire, and can take away its intolerable heat. Those in Queen Mary’s days could testify to this as well, namely Hawkes and Bainham and others, who could shout for joy and clap their hands for joy in the very flames. God has power over hunger and can moderate it, and can make one meal’s food go as far as forty used to go. This is witnessed in Elijah, when he went for his life to the mountain of God, having fled from the face of Jezebel (1 Kgs 19:8). And what a good night’s lodging Jacob had when he fled from the face of his brother Esau! The earth was his couch, the stone his pillow, the heavens his canopy, and the shades of the night his curtains (Gen 28:12-16).

“I can do all things,” said Paul, “through Christ strengthening me” (Phil 4:13). And again, “I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake” (2 Cor 12:10). But how can that be, since no affliction seems joyous for the present? I answer: though these things are not joyous in themselves, yet Christ by his presence can make them so, for then his power rests upon us. “When I am weak,” says Paul, “then I am strong”; then Christ does mighty things in me. For “my strength,” says Christ, “is made perfect in weakness,” that is, in affliction for the gospel’s sake.

It is as if Christ says, “For when my people are afflicted and suffer great distress for me, then they have my comforting, supporting, emboldening, and upholding presence to relieve them.” You have an instance of this in the three young men and in Daniel, whom I mentioned before. What, do you think, did these servants of the God of Jacob feel, feel in their souls, of his power and comforting presence, when they were suffering the rage of their enemies for his name? All the while, one like the Son of God was walking in the fire with the three, and Daniel sat and saw that the hands of the angels were made into muzzles for the lions’ mouths.

Was it not worth being in the furnace and in the den, I say, to see such things as these? Oh, the grace of God, and his Spirit and power that are with those who suffer for him, if their hearts are upright with him; if they are willing to be faithful to him; if they have learned to say, “Here am I,” whenever he calls them and whatever he calls them to! So when Peter says, “Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well-doing, as unto a faithful Creator” (1 Pet 4:19), he concludes that however outrageous, furious, merciless, or cruel the enemy may be, yet there, with God, they shall find help and succor, relief and comfort. For God is able to make those who do so stand.

Conclusion 8. We will now come to touch on what may more directly be called the reason for this exhortation. For although all the things mentioned before may be, or might be, called reasons for the point, yet in my judgment there are others still to come that may properly be called reasons. For example:

1. When a man has committed the keeping of his soul to God by faith and prayer, he gains a liberty of soul to do and suffer for God that he cannot have any other way. He who has committed his soul to God to keep is rid of that care, and is delivered from the fear of its perishing forever. When the Jews went to stone Stephen, they laid their clothes down at a distance from the place, at the feet of a young man whose name was Saul, so that their clothes would not encumber or trouble them in the work they intended to do. In the same way, when we set about driving sin out of the world by suffering for God’s truth against it, we should lay our souls down at the feet of God for him to care for. Then we will not be encumbered with caring for them ourselves. And then our care for God’s truth will not be weakened by such sudden and strong doubts as would make us say faintly, “But what will become of my soul?”

When Paul had told his son Timothy that he had been before that lion Nero, and that for the present he had been delivered out of his mouth, he adds, “And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom.” He shall, and he will! Here is a man at liberty; here are no encumbering fears. But how did the apostle come by this confidence of his well-being and of his share in another world? Why, he had committed the keeping of his soul to God (compare 2 Tim 1:12 with 2 Tim 4:18). For committing the keeping of the soul to God, if it is done in faith and prayer, leaves this holy boldness and confidence in the soul, or rather brings it in.

Suppose a man in the country were obliged to go to London, and had a great sum of money to pay in there. Suppose, also, that the road there had become exceedingly dangerous because of the highwaymen who continually lurk along it. What must this man do now in order to go on his journey cheerfully? Why, let him pay his money in to someone in the country who will be sure to have it paid out safely for him in London. Why, this is your case. You are bound for heaven, but the way there is dangerous. It is beset everywhere with evil angels who would rob you of your soul. What now? Why, if you want to go on cheerfully in your dangerous journey, commit your treasure, your soul, to God to keep. And then you may say with comfort, “Well, that care is over. For whatever I meet with on my way there, my soul is safe enough. If the thieves meet me, they cannot get at that. I know to whom I have committed my soul, and I am persuaded that he will keep it, to my joy and everlasting comfort, against the great day.”

This, therefore, is one reason why we who suffer for Christ should commit the keeping of our souls to God: because a doubt about the well-being of the soul will be a clog, a burden, and an affliction to our spirit. Yes, it will be the greatest of afflictions while we are taking up our cross and bearing it after Christ. The joy of the Lord is our strength, and the fear of perishing is what will weaken us on the way.

2. We should commit the keeping of our souls to God because merciless men sometimes make their final end of the servants of God all of a sudden. They give no warning before they strike. We need not remind you here of the massacres in Ireland, Paris, Piedmont, and other places, where some of the godly had their heart’s blood running on the ground in the night, before they were well awake, while the savage monsters cried out, “Kill, kill!” from one end of a street or a place to the other. This was sudden. Whoever had not committed his soul to God to keep was surely very hard put to it then; but whoever had done so was ready for such sudden work. Sometimes, indeed, the ax, the noose, or the stake is shown first; but sometimes, again, it comes without that warning. Up, said Saul to Doeg the Edomite, and slay the priests of the Lord (1 Sam 22:11, 18-19). Here was sudden work. Fall on, said Saul, and Doeg fell upon them, “and slew on that day fourscore and five persons that did wear a linen ephod.” “Nob also, the city of the priests, smote he with the edge of the sword, both men and women, children and sucklings …” Here was only a word and a blow. Don’t you think, you who read these lines, that those among them who had already committed their souls to God to keep were the fittest people to die?

“And immediately the king sent an executioner, and commanded his head to be brought” (Mark 6:27). The story concerns Herod and John the Baptist. Herod’s dancing girl had begged for John the Baptist’s head, and nothing but his head would satisfy her. “Well, girl,” says Herod, “you shall have it.” “Have it? Yes, but it will be a long while first.” “No, you shall have it now, right now, immediately.” “And immediately he sent an executioner, and commanded his head to be brought.”

Here is sudden work for sufferers; here is no notice beforehand. The executioner comes to John. Now, whether he was at dinner, or asleep, or whatever he was doing, the bloody man bursts in upon him, and the first word he greets him with is, “Sir, strip, lay down your neck, for I have come to take away your head.” “But hold, wait! Why? Please, let me commit my soul to God.” “No, I must not wait; I am in a hurry.” Slap goes his sword, and off falls the good man’s head. This is sudden work: work that waits for no one, work that must be done at once, immediately, or it is not worth a straw. “I will,” she said, “that thou give me by and by in a charger the head of John the Baptist” (Mark 6:25). Yes, she came in haste, and the command went out hastily, and immediately his head was brought.

3. Unless a man commits the keeping of his soul to God, it is a question whether he can hold out, stand his ground, and wrestle with all temptations. “This is the victory … even our faith” (1 John 5:4). And “who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth?” (1 John 5:5). And what encouragement does a man have to suffer for Christ if his heart cannot believe, and he cannot commit his soul to God to keep it? Our Lord Jesus suggests as much when he says, “Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a crown of life” (Rev 2:10). Why does he say this, if not to encourage those who suffer for his truth in the world to commit the keeping of their souls to him, and to believe that he has taken the charge and care of them? Paul’s wisdom was that he was ready to die before his enemies were ready to kill him. “I am now ready,” he says, “to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand” (2 Tim 4:6).

This, therefore, is a matter of great concern: namely, committing the soul to God to keep it. It is of concern, I say, to do it now, right now, quickly, whether you are yet engaged in suffering or not. For it is a good preparation for a time of persecution, as well as profitable in it. Consider it, I say. The apostle Paul says that he and his companions were bold in their God to profess the word of God and stand by it (1 Thess 2:2). But how could that be if they still had the salvation of their souls to seek? And they would certainly have had it to seek if they had not committed the keeping of their souls to him in well-doing.

Question. But what is committing the soul to God?

Answer. I have already spoken to that briefly in general, and now, for your further help, we will enlarge on it a little. So,

(1) To commit is to deliver something into custody to be kept. That is why prisoners, when they are sent to jail, are said to be committed there. So it was with Paul, “haling men and women, committing them to prison” (Acts 8:3). And so Joseph’s master committed all his prisoners to him, to his custody, to be kept there according to the law (Gen 39:22).

(2) To commit is not only to deliver into custody, but to give a charge, so that what is committed is kept safe and not allowed to be lost (Luke 16:11). So Paul was committed to prison, and the jailer was charged to keep him safely (Acts 16:23).

(3) Sometimes to commit is to leave the whole disposal of what is committed to those to whom it is committed. So the shields of the temple were committed to the guard (1 Kgs 14:27), and Jeremiah to the hands of Gedaliah (Jer 39:14).

And this is how you must commit your soul to God, to his care and keeping. It must be delivered up to his care and put under his custody. You may also, though I would speak modestly, give him a charge to take care of it: “Concerning my sons [and concerning my daughters] and concerning the work of my hands command ye me” (Isa 45:11). You must also leave all the concerns of your soul, and of your being an heir of the next world, wholly to the care of God. He who does this in the way God has told him is safe, though the sky should fall. “The poor committeth himself unto thee; thou art the helper of the fatherless” (Ps 10:14).

And to encourage us to do this, the Lord has bidden us, the Lord has commanded us, the Lord expects us to do so. Yes, you are also bidden to commit your way to him (Ps 37:5), your work to him (Prov 16:3), your cause to him (Job 5:8), your soul to him; and he will take care of it all. And if we do this as we should, God will not only take care of us and of our souls in general, but will also see that our work and our ways are so ordered that we do not fail in either. “I have trusted,” said David, “in the Lord, therefore I shall not slide” (Ps 26:1).

Before I leave this, I will say something about the way in which this committing of the soul to God must be done; and that is “in a way of well-doing.” Let them commit the keeping of their souls to him “in well-doing,” or in a way of well-doing. That, therefore, is the course in which a godly man should be found: at the time, in the act, and after he has committed his soul to God to keep. And, as the apostle says in another place, this is only a “reasonable service” (Rom 12:1). For if God is so gracious as to take care of my soul at my request, why should I not also be so gracious as to be found in a way of well-doing at his bidding? “Take care of me, master, for food and wages, and I will take care, master, that your work is faithfully done.” This is honest, and this is how Christians should speak to God. And whoever says this from the heart and means what he says shall find that God’s ways will be strength to him.

A Christian is not to commit his soul to God to keep and then grow remiss, carnal, negligent, cold, and worldly, concluding as if he had now bound God to save him while leaving himself free to choose whether he will serve him any longer in trying and troublesome times. He must commit the keeping of his soul to him “in well-doing.” He may not now abandon God’s cause, play the apostate, cast off the cross, and look for heaven all the same. Whoever does this will find himself mistaken, and will be made to know at last that God takes care of no such souls. “If any man draws back,” God says, “my soul shall have no pleasure in him” (Heb 10:38). Therefore whoever commits the keeping of his soul to God must do it in the way God has prescribed to him, which is in a way of well-doing. Alas, alas! As if there were no such word in the text! But it must be done in a way of “well-doing.” You who would commit your souls to God in suffering and troublesome times must think about this. You must do it in well-doing.

“In well-doing” means persevering in the ways of godliness, both in morals and in the worship God has instituted. Therefore, you who want God to take care of your soul must do well, just as you believe. That is, you must do good to the poor, to your neighbor, to all people, and especially to the household of faith. Benjamin must have Benjamin’s portion, and all others, as far as you are able, must feel and find the fruit of your godliness. In this way you must serve the Lord with great humility of mind, though it be through many difficulties and much temptation.

You must also keep close to gospel worship, public and private, doing the things for which you have warrant from the word, and leaving the thing or things that have no stamp of God on them to others who will cling to them. You must be found doing all of it with all your heart, and if you suffer for doing so, you must bear it patiently. For what Peter says to the women he was speaking to may be applied to all believers: “whose daughters ye are,” he says, meaning Sarah’s, “as long as ye do well, and are not afraid with any amazement” (1 Pet 3:6).

So then, the man who has committed his soul to God to keep has not at all released himself from his duty, or excused himself from persevering in that good work which he was bound to do before, in his suffering condition. No; his very committing of his soul to God to keep it has laid an obligation on him to abide with God in the calling in which God has called him. For me to commit my soul to God presupposes that I am aware of hazard and danger; but there is no danger among men when the offense of the cross has ceased. For me to commit my soul to God to keep implies my resolution to go on in that good way of God which is so dangerous to my soul, unless God takes the charge and care of it. For whoever says in his heart, “I will now commit my soul to God,” if he knows what he is saying, says this: “I am for holding on in the way of bearing my cross after Christ, though I come to the same end for doing so as he came to before me.” This is committing the soul to him in well-doing. Look to yourselves, therefore, whoever you are who talk of leaving your souls with God but live loose, idle, profane, and wicked lives. God will not take care of such people’s souls; they do not commit them to him as they should. They only flatter him with their lips and lie to him with their tongues, and think to deceive the Lord; but it is to no purpose. “He that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption.” It is the one who sows to the Spirit who shall “reap life everlasting” (Gal 6:7-8).

I come now to the second thing contained in the text, namely, to give you a more distinct description of the people who are told here to commit the keeping of their souls to God. They are described in this way: those who “suffer according to the will of God.” “Let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well-doing, as unto a faithful Creator” (1 Pet 4:19).

Two things must be inquired into here. First, what the apostle means here by the will of God. Second, what suffering according to the will of God is.

First, then, as for the will of God, the Scriptures take it in various ways. Sometimes it means the electing, justifying and sanctifying acts of God; sometimes faith and a good life; and sometimes suffering for his name (Rom 9; Eph 1:11; John 7:17; 1 John 3:23; 1 Thess 4:3; Matt 7:21). But by the will of God here we must understand, first, his law and testament, and second, his order and design.

The Will of God as His Law and Testament

First, by his will I understand his law and testament. This is called the revealed will of God, that by which he has made himself known to the children of men, and made known how he will be worshiped. Now, since I understand these words this way, I must make a distinction before I go any further. There is a difference to be put between those who suffer for breaking this law and testament and those who suffer for keeping it. Though both of them may suffer by the will of God, they are not both concerned in this text. A criminal who suffers the due punishment of his evil deeds suffers according to the will of God, as other texts declare. But, I say, this text is not concerned with him. Both this text and this whole epistle were written for the counsel and comfort of those who suffer for keeping the law and testament of God, who suffer for doing well (1 Pet 3:13-14, 17; 1 Pet 4:13-14).

The man, then, who is concerned in this advice is the one who suffers at the hands of men for keeping the word of God. He is the one who has license, leave, yes, a command, to commit the keeping of his soul to God in well-doing, as to a faithful Creator. We will enlarge on this a little.

He who keeps the word of God is someone who has regard to both its matter and its manner. The matter is the truth, the doctrine contained in it. The manner is that becoming, godly, humble, faithful way of doing it which fits a man who has to do with the law and testament of God. Both of these are contained in the text. For here, first, is the will of God to be done; and then, second, it is to be done according to his will. “Let them that suffer according to his will”: these words, I say, take in both the matter and the manner of doing. So then, the man we have to do with here, and are speaking of, is a man who suffers in the sense just given.

What makes a martyr is suffering for the word of God in the right manner. That is, when he suffers not only for righteousness, but for righteousness’ sake; not only for truth, but out of love for the truth; not only for God’s word, but according to it, that is, in that holy, humble, meek manner that the word of God requires. A man may give his body to be burned for God’s truth and yet be none of God’s martyrs (1 Cor 13:1-3). Yes, a man may suffer with a great deal of patience and yet be none of God’s martyrs (1 Pet 2:20). The first fails because he lacks that grace that should balance his heart and make him right in the manner of doing. The second fails because he lacks that word of the Holy One which alone can make his cause good as to its matter. It is matter and manner together, therefore, that make the martyr. And it is this man, as described above, who is intended in the text. So then, those who suffer for the law and testament of God in that holy and humble manner that the Word requires are the ones who, by this Word of God, are commanded to commit the keeping of their souls to God.

From this consideration two things present themselves to our sight. First, that a man may be a Christian, and suffer, and yet not suffer according to the will of God in the sense just given. Second, that there have been, and may yet be, a people in the world who have suffered, and may suffer, according to the will of God in the apostle’s sense here.

When a Christian Suffers, but Not According to God’s Will

A few words on the first of these: that a man may be a Christian, and suffer, and yet not suffer “according to the will of God” in the sense of the apostle in the text. He may be a Christian and yet not suffer as a Christian. He may lack the matter, or he may lack the manner, of suffering as a Christian.

This is evident from what this apostle suggests in several places of this epistle. For he says, “If ye be buffeted for your faults” (1 Pet 2:20). This assumes that a Christian may be buffeted for his faults. He is speaking here to the same people he speaks to in the text, though he does not put them in the same circumstances, as suffering for doing well. If you are buffeted for your faults, for what God’s word calls faults, what thanks do you get from God, or from good men, even though you take it patiently?

Again: “For it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well doing, than for evil doing” (1 Pet 3:17). Here it is plainly assumed that a Christian man may suffer for doing evil. Yes, the will of God may be that he should suffer for doing evil. For if Christians do not do well, God will vindicate himself by punishing them for doing ill. Yes, and though they are his own, he will not count them worthy to be put among the number of those who suffer for doing well.

Again: “But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men’s matters” (1 Pet 4:15). These are cautions to Christians, to persuade them to take heed to themselves, their tongues and their actions, so that everything is kept within the bounds of the Word. For it would be foolish to say that these are cautions to persuade us to beware of something it is impossible to fall into. It is possible for Christians to suffer for doing evil, and therefore let Christians beware. It is possible for Christians to be brought to public justice for their faults, and therefore let Christians beware. It is possible for Christians to suffer justly at the hand of the magistrate, and therefore let Christians beware. The text itself also implies this, and therefore let Christians beware.

There are many causes of this, and I will now briefly touch on some of them.

(1) Sin is in the best of men. As long as it is, then without great watchfulness and humble walking with God, we may be exposed to shame and suffering for it. What sin is there that a child of God is not liable to commit, except the unpardonable sin? Nor do we have a promise of being kept from any other sin, except on condition that we watch and pray (Matt 26:41).

(2) It is possible for a Christian to have an erring conscience in some things, yes, in such things as may bring us to public justice and shame if God by his grace does not prevent it. Abishai, though a good man, would have killed the king, and that out of conscience toward God and love for his master (1 Sam 26:7-8). If David had handed him over to Saul for his attempt, in all likelihood he would have died as a traitor. Peter drew his sword and would have fought with it, something for which his Master blamed him and told him, with a threat, to put it away (Matt 26:52). Besides, oppression makes a wise man mad; and when a man is mad, what evils will he not do?

Further, the devil, who is the great enemy of Christians, can send such spirits out into the world as will disturb not only individuals but nations, kings and kingdoms, raising divisions, distractions and rebellions. And he can manage matters so that the looser sort of Christians may also be dipped in and caught up in them. In Absalom’s conspiracy against his father, two hundred men were called out of Jerusalem to follow him, “and they went in their simplicity, not knowing any thing” (2 Sam 15:11). I thank God I know of no such men, nor any such thing. But my judgment tells me that if Christians may be drawn into fornication, adultery, murder, theft, blasphemy or the like, as they may, why should it be thought impossible for them to be drawn in here? So I say again: watch and pray, fear God, reverence his Word, approve of his appointments, so that you may be delivered from every evil work and way.

I said before that the will of God may be that a Christian should suffer as an evildoer. But then it is because he does not keep within the bounds of that which is also called the will of God. The will of God is that sin should be punished, even when Christians commit it, and punished according to the nature of the transgression. That is why he has ordained magistrates: magistrates to punish sin, even though it is the sin of Christians. They are the ministers of God, avengers to execute wrath, the wrath of God, on those who do evil (Rom 13). So, though the Christian as a Christian is the only man at liberty, as one whom God has called to it, yet his liberty is limited to things that are good. It gives him no license to indulge the flesh. Holiness and liberty are joined together; yes, our call to liberty is a call to holiness. Look, and you will find that a quiet and peaceable life in our respective places under the government is what we should pray for. That is, we should pray that, if it were “the will of God,” we might spend our days without molestation, in all godliness and honesty among our neighbors (see 1 Tim 2:1-3; 1 Pet 2:13-17).

I would apply this a little, and first to Christians as Christians. Take care that the cautions set before you here are not neglected by you. These evils are burning hot, as hot as a red-hot iron. It is the greatest blemish a Christian can have, to suffer as an evildoer. To say nothing of the reproach such people bring on the name of Christ, their Lord; on his law, their rule; and on the Christian profession, which should be their glory: the guilt and shame that evil actions will load the conscience with at such a time can hardly be borne. The man who suffers as an evildoer and yet wears the name of a Christian: what stumbling blocks does he lay in the way of the ignorant in a kingdom? The devil told them before that a Christian was a mischievous man, and to suffer for doing evil confirms them in that belief.

Consider also the difficulties such people must surely meet with in the last minutes of their lives. For can anyone imagine that such a person will not have combats and conflicts at the end, when he carries in his conscience the guilt and condemnation due to his deeds all the way to the place the magistrates have appointed for him to receive the reward of his works? Such a person robs not only his own soul of peace and his name of credit, but himself of life and his friends of all cause for rejoicing, and he casts reproach on religion as he is stepping out of the world. What shall I say? Christians as Christians have other things to do than to concern themselves with evil things or to meddle in other men’s matters. Let us mind our own business, and leave the magistrate to his work, office and calling among men as well.

I am speaking now to those whom the king has not called to that employment. A Christian as such has enough to do at home: in his heart, in his house, in his shop, and the like. But if you must be meddling, consider what place, office, calling or relationship God has put you in, and busy yourself, by the rule of the Word, in performing that conscientiously. Nor will you lack dignity, though you are only a private Christian. Every Christian man is made a king by Christ (Rev 5:10). But then his dominion as such reaches no further than himself. He has no dominion over another’s faith (2 Cor 1:24). His office is to govern, bridle and keep himself under; to watch over himself, and to bring his body into subjection to the will of God. The weapons he has for this purpose are not carnal, but spiritual, and mighty through God. Let him govern, then, if he will be a governor: let him govern his whole self by the Word. Let him bring down, if he must be bringing something down, his own high imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God (2 Cor 10:3-5). If he must be a warrior, let him wage war against his own unruly passions, and let him fight against those lusts that war against his soul (Gal 5:17; Jas 3:3-8; 1 Pet 2:11).

So I say, if you insist on being a ruler, you have a tongue: rule that. You have lusts: rule them. You have affections: govern them. Yes, you have excellent graces: manage them, cherish them, strengthen and replenish them according to the mind of that great One who has bestowed such power to rule on you. “Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry” (Col 3:5). Nor do I think that murmuring, shrinking, wincing, complaining and the like, when men in government lay a yoke on our necks, come from anything other than love for our flesh and distrust of God’s faithfulness to manage men, things and actions for his church. The powers that be are ordered as well as ordained by God. They are also always in God’s hand, as his rod or staff, for the good and benefit of his people. Therefore we ought, with all meekness and humbleness of mind, to accept whatever our God is pleased to lay on us by them (1 Pet 5:6).

By what I am saying now, I do not forbid groaning and crying to God under affliction. I am speaking against striving to deliver ourselves from the affliction. And since men are, as I said, the rod, staff or sword in God’s hand, we should apply ourselves to him in faith, by way of prayer, intercession, supplication and giving of thanks for those who govern. For since they are sent by God, they must surely come with some good in their hand for us; and our prayers, too, may make them more profitable to us. And we ought to do this without wrath and doubting, for this is what is good and acceptable to God (1 Tim 2).

Besides, it is a sign that we forget ourselves when we complain about the punishment of our sins. If we look into ourselves and our ways, we will see cause for heavier stripes than God has yet laid on us by men. What sin has yet been suppressed by all that has happened to us? Have pride, covetousness, looseness, treacherous dealing, schisms and other such things been put right by all the affliction we have had? Do we not, rather, grow worse and worse? Why then should we complain? Where is repentance, reformation and amendment of life among us? Why, then, do we shrink and wince?

For my part, I have often stood amazed both at the mercy of God and at the favor of the Prince toward us, and I can give thanks to God for both. And I make it my prayer to God for the king, and that God will help me with meekness and patience to bear whatever shall befall me at the hands of men for my professed subjection to Christ.

We are told, as I said before, to give thanks to God for all men, for kings, and for all who are in authority. For, as I said, there is no man we have to do with (so long as we do as we should) who does not bring some good thing to us, or do some good thing for us. Let us now come down from those who are supreme in authority to men of lower rank, and suppose that some of them act cruelly, beyond all measure. What? Can no good thing come to us out of this? Do not even the things that are most bitter to the flesh tend to awaken Christians to faith and prayer, to a sight of the emptiness of this world and the fading of the best it yields? Does not God often use these things to call our sins to remembrance and to provoke us to amend our lives? How then can we be offended at things by which we reap so much good, things that God makes so profitable for us?

Does not God often take occasion, even by the hardest things that come upon us, to visit our souls with the comforts of his Spirit, to lead us into the glory of his word, and to make us taste the love he has had for us from before the world began until now? Samson found a nest of bees and honey in the very belly of the lion that roared at him. And is all this no good? Or can we do without such holy appointments of God? Let us consider these things, and let us learn, like Christians, to kiss the rod and love it.

I have thought, again, my brothers, that since we are required to give thanks to God for all these men, it follows that we should quietly submit ourselves under whatever God does to us by them. For it seems a contradiction to me to give thanks to God for men whom I am still unwilling to see stay in the place God has set them in for me. I will love them, then, bless them, pray for them and do them good. I am speaking now of the men who hurt me, as I hinted before. And I will do this because it is good to do so, because they do me good by hurting me, because I am called to inherit a blessing (1 Pet 3:9), and because I want to be like my heavenly Father (Matt 5:43-48). “Therefore if mine enemy hunger, let me feed him; if he thirst, let me give him drink” (Rom 12:17-20).

First, we must see good in that in which other men can see none. Second, we must pass by those injuries that other men would revenge. Third, we must show that we have grace, and that we are made able to bear what other men know nothing of. Fourth, many of our graces are kept alive by the very things that are the death of other men’s souls.

Where can the excellence of our patience, our meekness, our long-suffering, our love and our faith appear, if not under trials and in the things that run against the grain of our flesh? The devil, they say, is good when he is pleased; but Christ and his saints are good when displeased.

Let us therefore earnestly desire to imitate Christ and the saints of Scripture. Let us show our works out of a good life, with meekness of wisdom. Let us beware of admitting into our minds the least thought of evil against God, the king, or those employed under him; because the cup, the king, all men and all things are in the hand of God (Ps 75:8; Prov 8:15; Prov 21:1; Lam 3:37). And he can make them better for us than if they were as our flesh wishes they were.

I have often thought that the best Christians are found in the worst of times. And I have thought, again, that one reason we are no better is that God purges us no more (John 15). I know these things go against the grain of the flesh, but they do not go against the graces of the Spirit. Noah and Lot: who were as holy as they in the day of their affliction? Noah and Lot: who were as idle as they in the day of their prosperity? I might have put in David too. While he was afflicted, he had special ways of serving God; but when he was more at large, he had ways that were not so good. Therefore the first ways of David are the ways God has commended, but the rest of his ways did not have that preeminence (2 Chr 17:3).

We need all that has befallen us so far, and more than all of it. And since his word and patience have done us no more good, we are to thank God that he has appointed men to make us better.

Therefore, to conclude, as we are to receive with meekness the engrafted word of God, so we are also to bear with patience whatever God lays upon us by means of men. Oh, that saying of God to the people of old: “Why criest thou for thine affliction? thy sorrow is incurable for the multitude of thine iniquity: because thy sins were increased, I have done these things unto thee” (Jer 30:15). We need to consider it, and to sit still and be quiet, and to reverence the ordinance of God: I mean affliction. And until we can truly come to this in our spirits, I do not expect to find very genuine Christianity among us, nor much of God among those who profess religion. When I think of Mordecai and Daniel, yes, and of David too, and of how they all behaved toward the powers they were under, I cannot help thinking that a sweet, meek, quiet, loving, godly submission to men for the Lord’s sake is an excellent token of the grace of God in us.

Second Caution: To Weak Christians. But just as I cannot help condemning the actions of such Christians as I have touched on before, so I would caution weak Christians not to be offended with true religion because of the misconduct of their fellows. There are two things that are very apt to become an occasion of offense to the weak. One is when the cross comes along with religion; the other is when others who profess religion suffer for evildoing. To both of these I would say this:

1. Though the cross is indeed grievous to the flesh, yet we should bear up under it with grace, and not be offended at it.

2. And as to the second, though we should and ought to be offended with such misconduct, yet we must not be offended with religion because of it. Some, indeed, when they see these things, take offense against religion itself. Yes, perhaps they are glad of the occasion, and so fall out with Jesus Christ. Because of the evils that attend his ways, they say to him what the ten tribes said to Rehoboam, the son of King Solomon: “What portion have we in David? neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse; to your tents, O Israel: now see to thine own house, David” (1 Kgs 12:16). And so they go quite away from him, and cling no more to him, to his people, or to his ways. But this is bad. Shun, therefore, the evil ways of Christians, but cling to the way that is Christian. Cast away the bad spirit that you see in anyone, but hold fast to your Head and Lord. Where can you go? The Lord Jesus has the words of eternal life (John 6:68). Where will you go? There is no salvation in any other (Acts 4:12).

Take heed, therefore, that you do not pick a quarrel with Jesus Christ and with his ways because of the evil doings of some of his followers. Judas sold him, Peter denied him, and many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him; but neither he himself nor his ways were the worse for that. Be careful, therefore, to distinguish truly between the good ways of Jesus Christ and the evil ways of those who profess him. Do not take occasion to throw your own soul down the throat of hell because others have vilely thrown away their lives by transgressing the law of God. No, let other men’s faults make you more wary; let other men’s falls make you look better to your own steps. Shun the rock that the one who went before you split his ship against, and cry to God to lead you in a path that is plain and good, because of those who are watching you.

Further, let not Christians on the opposite side rejoice when they see that evil has taken their brother by the heel. You should hate the garment, the thing that is bad, by which your brother’s name and reputation and life are so vilely thrown away, and take good heed lest it touch you too. But still you should pity your brother, mourn for his hard lot, and grieve that a thing so unbecoming to Christianity should be allowed to show the least part of itself among any of those who profess the gospel.

Directions for avoiding suffering for evildoing are what come next to hand.

Direction 1. If you would not suffer as an evildoer, then take heed that you do not commit evil. Evil courses bring men to evil ends. Shun all appearance of evil, and always follow what is good. And if ye be followers of that which is good, who will harm you? (1 Pet 3:13). Or if there should be such enemies to goodness in the world as to make you suffer for it, you need not be ashamed of your suffering for well-doing; nor can there be a good man who will not dare to acknowledge you and stand by you in it. Yes, your sufferings for that will make you happy, so that you can by no means be a loser by them.

Direction 2. If you would not suffer for evildoing, then beware of the occasions of evil. Beware of tempting company. Beware of men, for they will deliver you up (Matt 10:17). There have been men in the world who have sought to make their own fortunes out of the ruin of other men. Judas did this, and so did some of the Pharisees (Luke 20:19-20). Guard your mouth: “A fool’s mouth calleth for strokes … and his lips are the snare of his soul” (Prov 18:6-7). Beware of indulging and listening to the ease of the flesh and to carnal reasonings, for that will push you into wicked things.

Direction 3. If you would not suffer as an evildoer, then beware of listening to anything spoken that is not according to sound doctrine. You must withdraw yourself from those in whom you do not perceive the words of knowledge. Do not let talk against governors, against the powers, against men in authority, get a hearing with you; keep yourself far from an evil matter. “My son,” says Solomon, “fear thou the Lord, and the king, and meddle not with those that are given to change” (Prov 24:21).

Direction 4. If you would not suffer as an evildoer, do not give yourself to playing with evil, to joking and jesting and mocking at men in place and power. Gaal mocked at Abimelech and said, “Who is Abimelech, that we should serve him?” But he paid for his disdainful language in the end (Judg 9). I have heard of an innkeeper here in England whose sign was the Crown, and he was a merry man. Now he had a boy, and when he was jovial among his guests he used to say of him, “This boy is heir to the crown,” or, “This boy shall be heir to the crown.” And if I do not mistake the story, he lost his life for these words. It is bad jesting with great things, with things that are God’s ordinance, as kings and governors are. Rather, let them have the fear, the honor, the reverence, the homage that is due to their place, their office, and their dignity. How Paul gave honor and respect to men who were only deputy kings and heathen magistrates will plainly appear if you will only read of his trials before them in the book called the Acts of the Apostles. And what a charge both he and Peter have left behind them to the churches to do the same may be found, to our full conviction, if we read their epistles.

Direction 5. If you would not suffer for evildoing, then beware of being offended with magistrates because their acts of state may cross your inclinations. It is given to them to bear the sword; and you are commanded, if your heart cannot agree with everything, to suffer with meekness and patience. Discontent in the mind sometimes puts discontent into the mouth, and discontent in the mouth sometimes puts a noose around the neck. For just as a man may speak a word in jest and be hanged for it in earnest, so the one who speaks in discontent may die for it in sober seriousness. Adonijah’s discontent drove him to do what cost him his life (1 Kgs 2:13, 23). “Great peace have they that love thy law, and nothing shall offend them” (Ps 119:165); for they are subject to the will and foot of God.

Direction 6. But above all, let your conscience be possessed still more with this: that the magistrate is God’s ordinance and is appointed by God as such; that “he is the minister of God to thee for good” (Rom 13:4); and that it is your duty to fear him, and pray for him, to give thanks to God for him, and to be subject to him, as both Paul and Peter admonish us, and that not only because of wrath, but for conscience’ sake (Rom 13:5). For where this argument is missing, all other arguments fall short of binding the soul, until we believe that we are bound to it by God. I do not say these things because I know of any who are disaffected to the government; for I love to keep to myself, or else to keep company with godly men, in things that are fitting. But because I appear in public in this way, and do not know into whose hands these lines may come, I write as I do. I say it also to show my loyalty to the king and my love for my fellow subjects, and my desire that all Christians should walk in ways of peace and truth.

Christians May Suffer According to God’s Will

I come now to the second thing I proposed to speak to concerning suffering, which is this: that there have been, and may yet be, a people in the world who have suffered, and may suffer, according to the will of God, or for righteousness’ sake, in the sense the apostle means here.

That there have been such a people in the world I think nobody will deny, because many of the prophets, and Christ, and his apostles suffered in this way. Besides, since the Scriptures were written, all nations can bear witness to it, for their histories tell at large of the patience and goodness of the sufferers, and of the cruelty of those who destroyed them. And that the thing will yet happen, or come to pass again, both Scripture and reason affirm.

First, Scripture. The text tells us that God has put enmity between the woman and her seed and the serpent and his seed (Gen 3:15). This enmity, once put there, is so fixed that no one can remove it; it will still remain in the world. These two seeds have always had, and always will have, what is essentially opposite in each other. They are “the spirit of truth and the spirit of error” (1 John 4:6); sin and righteousness (1 John 3:7-8); light and darkness (1 Thess 5:5). Hence “an unjust man is an abomination to the just; and he that is upright in the way is abomination to the wicked” (Prov 29:27). So unless you could sanctify and regenerate all men, or bring it about that no more wicked men should be in power anywhere forever, you cannot prevent there still being, at times, sufferers for righteousness’ sake. “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution” (2 Tim 3:12).

Second, to prove this by reason is easy. The devil is not yet shut up in the bottomless pit; Antichrist is still alive. The government in all kingdoms is not yet managed with such light and goodness of mind as to let the saints serve God as he has said, whatever may be the case in some. And until then there will be in some places, though for my part I cannot predict where, a people who will yet suffer for well-doing, or for righteousness’ sake.

In order to handle this matter rightly, I shall divide this head into two parts: A, to show you what it is to suffer for well-doing, or for righteousness; and B, to show you what it is to suffer for righteousness’ sake. I make this distinction because I find that it is one thing to suffer for righteousness, and another to suffer for righteousness’ sake.

A. What It Is to Suffer for Righteousness

To begin with the first, namely, to show you what it is to suffer for righteousness. Now that may be done either passively or actively.

1. Passively, as when any suffer for righteousness without their own will or consent. In this way the little children at Bethlehem suffered at the hands of bloody Herod, when they died for Jesus Christ, or in his room and stead (Matt 2:16). Every one of those children died for righteousness, if Christ is righteousness; for they died on his account, each being supposed to be him. In the same way the little ones of the children of Israel who were murdered with their parents, or otherwise, because of the religion of those who fathered them and bore them, died for righteousness. The same may be said of those of them who suffered in the land of the Chaldeans on the same account. I might also bring in here those poor infants in Ireland, Piedmont, Paris, and other places who have had their throats cut and their brains dashed out against the walls for no other cause than the religion of their fathers. Many, many have suffered for righteousness in this way. Neither their will nor their consent was in the suffering, yet they have suffered for religion, for righteousness. And as this has been, so it may be again; for if men may yet suffer for righteousness, then, for all I know, their children may too, even in this sense.

Now, although this is not the chief matter of my text, a few words here may do no harm. The children who suffer in this way, though their own will and consent are not in what they undergo, may yet, for all that, be accepted as an offering to the Lord. Their cause is good; it is for religion and righteousness. Their hearts do not recoil against the cause for which they suffer. And although they are children, God can deal with them as he did with John the Baptist, and cause them in a moment to leap for joy of Christ; or else he can save them by his grace, as he saves his other elect infants, and so comprehend them, though they cannot apprehend him. Yes, why may they not only be saved, but also in some sense be called martyrs of Jesus Christ, and those who have suffered for God’s cause in the world? God comforted Rachel concerning her children whom Herod murdered in the place of Christ and on his account. He bids her keep herself from tears, with this promise: that her children would come again from the land of the enemy, from death. And again he says, “Thy children shall come again to their own border”; which, if it is meant in a gospel sense, I think must mean to the heavenly inheritance. Compare Jer 31:15-17 with Matt 2:18.

And it seems to me that this should be mentioned, not only for her sake and theirs, but to comfort all those who either have had, or may yet have, their children suffer for righteousness in this way. None of these things, as will be shown further on, happen without the determinate counsel of God. He has ordered the sufferings of little children as well as those of persons more advanced in years. And it is easy to believe that God can foresee which of his elect will suffer by violent hands in their infancy just as well as which of them will die a natural death at that age. He has saints who are small in age, as well as small in esteem or in other ways; and sometimes the least member of the body suffers violence as well as the head or the other chief parts. And although I do not wish to see such days again, yet I think it will please me to see those little ones who have already suffered for Jesus in this way standing in their white robes with the elders of their people before the throne, singing to the Lamb.

2. Actively. But to pass over this, and to come to what I more directly intend to speak to, namely, to show you who actively suffers for righteousness:

(1) It is the one who chooses, by his own will and consent, to suffer for it. All suffering that can be called active suffering must be by the consent of the will; and that happens when a man has sin and suffering set before him, and chooses suffering rather than sin. Moses chose “rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season” (Heb 11:25). And again, others did not accept deliverance (that is, on base and unworthy terms), “that they might obtain a better resurrection” (Heb 11:35).

Indeed, no one can force a Christian to suffer as a Christian without his own consent. All Christians are sufferers by will and consent. That is why it is said that they must take up their cross (Matt 10:38; Matt 16:24); and by this taking up, an act of their will is meant. So again, “Take my yoke upon you” (Matt 11:29), which also means an act of the will. This, therefore, is the first thing I would present to you. Not that an act of the will, standing alone, is enough to declare a man a sufferer for righteousness; for a man, through the strength of delusion and the power of an erroneous conscience, may be willing to suffer for the grossest opinions in the world. But I bring it to show that actual suffering for righteousness must also be by the consent of the will: the man’s mind must be in it.

(2) The one who suffers for righteousness in this way must also have a good cause. A good cause is essential to suffering for righteousness. A good cause: what is that? Why, truly, it is the truth of God, either in the whole of it, as contained in the Scriptures of truth, or in the parts of it, as set before me to believe or to do by any part of that holy Word. This may be called the matter for which one suffers; or, as it is called in another place, “the word of righteousness” (Heb 5:13). It may also be called the form of sound doctrine, or something like that. For without this Word, the matter and nature of God’s truths cannot be known. Pilate’s question, “What is truth?” (John 18:38), will still remain a question to those who do not have the Word, the rule of righteousness, or who do not regard it.

See, then, that your cause is good, you who would know what it is to suffer for righteousness. Do not step a hair’s breadth outside the bounds of the Word of truth; and beware of misunderstanding anything that is there, or of wrenching it out of its place. Let the words of the upright stand upright. Do not warp them so that they seem to agree with some crooked notion. And to prevent this, take these three short statements as your guide in this matter. The words of Scripture show men their sins, and how to close with a Savior; they require men to be holy and humble; they command men to submit themselves to authority. And whatever runs contrary to these comes from ignorance of the rule of righteousness, or from wrenching it out of its place.

But more particularly, the word of righteousness, your cause, within whose bounds you must keep if you would suffer for righteousness, is to be divided into two parts. First, it contains a revelation of moral righteousness. Second, it contains a revelation of evangelical righteousness.

As for moral righteousness, men seldom suffer for that alone. For that is the righteousness of the world, and, simply as such, it sets itself up in every man’s conscience and has a testimony for itself even in the light of nature. Besides, nothing sets itself against it except what every man is ashamed to plead for in words, and that is immorality. And this is what Peter means when he says, “And if ye be followers of that which is good, who will harm you?” (1 Pet 3:13): that is, if you are followers of moral goodness. But if it should so happen (for the case is rare) that anyone should make you sufferers because you love God and do good to your neighbor, you are happy. Though I do not think the apostle’s conclusion stops there; but more of these things later. For let a man be a good neighbor in morals; let him feed the hungry, clothe the naked, give freely out of his purse to the poor, and do what he would have another do to him; and let him stop there and not meddle with the name of Christ, and he will have only a few enemies in the world. For it is not the law, but Christ, that is the stumbling block and the rock of offense to men (Isa 8:14-15; Rom 9:31-33).

Therefore there is in God’s Word a revelation of another righteousness: a righteousness that is not so visible to the reason of man, yes, and does not suit it so well, as that moral righteousness does. Therefore this righteousness makes men righteous in principle, and makes them act accordingly, in a way that is foreign to natural men. That is why it is said to be foolishness to them (1 Cor 2:14). And again, “Its praise is not of men” (Rom 2:29). This righteousness is also revealed in the Scriptures, but the blind cannot see it. It is the work of the Holy Ghost in the heart, and is therefore called the fruits of the Spirit; and it is the grace which, in its head and fullness, is to be found only in Christ (John 1:16; Col 1:19; 1 Tim 1:14). This righteousness, once planted in the heart, leads a man out by the Word of God to seek for another righteousness, one as invisible to the natural man, and as foreign to him, as this one. And that righteousness is what is properly the righteousness of Jesus Christ: a righteousness that consists in his obedience to his Father’s law, as he was considered a common or public person; a righteousness which he brought into the world, not for himself, considered in a private capacity, but for those who will by faith venture themselves upon him, to obtain eternal life by him (Rom 5:19; Phil 3:7-10).

Again, this closing by faith with the righteousness thus found in Christ, and being taken with it, leads me on to yet another righteousness, which is instituted worship, appointed by Christ for all his followers to be engaged in. This worship is grounded on positive precepts, and so on words of righteousness, called Christ’s words, Christ’s sayings, and so on.

Now, it is on this foundation that the difference between the men of God and the world begins. For, first, by this inward principle of righteousness we come to see, and to say, that men by nature are not Christians, whatever privileges they may count themselves partakers of. But whoever is a Christian of God’s making is begotten and born of God, and made a new creature by the anointing received from the Holy One (Jas 1:18; John 3:3, 5; 2 Cor 5:17-18; 2 Cor 1:21; 1 John 2:20, 24, 27).

Now, these carnal men cannot bear to hear this, because it shuts them out entirely, as they are, from any share in the kingdom of heaven. The Christian, for his part, stands by it and backs what he says with the Word of God. Then the game begins, and the men of the world start thinking how they may get such troublesome fellows out of the way.

But because Christians love their neighbors, and will not let them die so easily in their sins, they contend with them by reasoning, by writing, by sermons and by books of gospel divinity, and they stand by what they say. The world, in turn, is angry at these sayings, sermons and books, because by them they are concluded to be people without repentance and without the hope of eternal life. Here again the carnal world judges that these people are proud, self-willed, meddlesome, contentious, self-conceited, and so insufferable. Still the Christian goes on and stands by what he has asserted. Then the poor world, as a last resort, begins to twist and overturn the gospel man’s sayings: perverting, forcing, stretching and dismembering them, and so making them say what the believer never thought, much less intended.

This is how they treated our Lord. Not being able to swallow his doctrine, they began to pervert his words, and to make some of them offensive, some erroneous, some treasonable, and that against both God and Caesar, just as they also said afterward of Luther’s words. And so they hanged our Lord up, hoping to put an end to things there. But this is only the beginning of things. For the Christian, by the word of the gospel, goes further with his censure. He also finds fault with everything this man can do by the ability of nature to free himself from the law of sin and death. He condemns him by the Word because he is in a state of nature, and he also condemns whatever he does while in that state, as something that can by no means please God (Rom 14:23; Heb 11:6).

This puts him out still more. This is taking his gods away from him. This is stripping him of his clothing, such as it is, and turning him naked into the presence of God. This, I say, puts him out completely. “These wild-brained fellows,” he says, “are never content. They find fault with us for our state; they find fault with us for our works, our best works. They blame us because we are sinners, and they find fault with us even when we mend our ways. They say that by nature we are no Christians, and that our best doings will not make us such. What would they have us do?” So they renew their quarrel. But the Christian cannot help it, unless he is willing to watch them go to hell and say nothing. For the Word of God condemns man’s righteousness as surely as it condemns man’s sin. It does not condemn man’s righteousness among men, for there it is good and profitable (Job 35:6-8); but with God, as a means to save the soul, it is no better than filthy rags (Isa 64:6).

Nor will this Christian let these carnal people deceive themselves with a change of terms. For the devil, who is the great manager of carnal men in the things that concern their souls and in the plea they make for themselves, will help them to tricks and dodges to escape the power of the Word of God. He teaches them to call the beauties of nature grace, and the acts of natural powers the exercise of the graces of the Spirit; and he will embolden them also to call man’s righteousness the righteousness of Christ, and that by which a sinner may be justified in the sight of God from the law. The Christian sees these tricks. Being faithful to God’s truth, and desiring his neighbor’s salvation, he labors to expose their falseness, and to set out better terms for this poor creature to embrace and venture his soul on: terms warranted by the New Testament, to which the natural man is a stranger.

But, I say, the things the Christian presses, being so foreign to nature and lying so cross to man’s best things, are immediately judged by the natural man to be fables or foolishness (1 Cor 2:14). So here again he takes another occasion to keep up his strife and contention against the righteous man: raising slanders against him, laying things to his charge that he does not understand, and charging his doctrine with many grievous things. Namely, that he holds that man was made to be damned; that man’s righteousness is no better than sin; that a man might as well do evil as do good; that we may believe and then do whatever we like; that holiness does not please God; and that sinning is the way to make grace abound. “Besides,” they say, “he condemns good stirrings and all good beginnings of the heart toward God. He throws away the good we have, and would have us depend for our salvation on a justice that we can by no means approve of.” And so the quarrel between the men of the world and the Christian is made wider still. But it does not stop there.

For it is possible for the carnal man to be beaten out of all his arguments for himself and his own things by the power and force of the Word, and to be brought to agree with what the Christian has said, as to the notion of the truth. I must not say this of everyone. But the breach still remains, because there still appears to be nothing more in the man than the notion of things. For though the notions of things are what God makes the means of conveying grace into the heart, yet grace does not always come with the notion of things. Often the Word stands alone in a man’s understanding and stays there, not being accompanied by such grace as can make it the power of God to salvation.

Now, when it is like this with the soul, the danger is as great as ever. For now a presumption has been begotten in the heart that the man is in a saved condition: a presumption, I say, instead of faith; a presumption that puffs up, instead of enabling the soul in a godly way to depend on God for mercy through Christ. This is what is called the word of those who are puffed up: the word only, because it is not accompanied by saving grace (1 Cor 4:19; 1 Cor 8:1; 1 Thess 1:5).

The Christian sees this too, and says it is too weak to bring the soul to glory. And he says this, indeed, because he does not want his neighbor to fall short of home. But this cannot be borne either. Here again the natural man, with his notion of things, is offended, and takes a huff against his friend because he tells him the truth, and wants him to digest the truth in such a way that it may prove eternal life to him. So he begins to fall out again, for the enmity is not yet removed. He counts him an unmerciful man, one who condemns everyone to hell but himself. And as for the things in which he stands apart from others, he counts them dreams, fanatical fancies, allegorical whimsies, vain revelations, and the effects of an erroneous judgment. For the Lord has put such darkness between Egypt and Israel as will not allow them to come together. But this is not all.

For it is possible for these carnal men to be so delighted with the notion of things that they give themselves to some kind of worship of Christ, whose notions of truth they have received. And because their love is still only carnal, and because the flesh is swelling and is pleased with pomp and sumptuousness, they will show how great an esteem they have for Christ, whom they are now about to worship, by first counting his testament, though good, a defective thing. They count it not full enough to give direction in every particular as to how they should perform their glorious doctrine to their own satisfaction. “Here, and there, and in another place,” they cry, “something is missing. Here,” they say, “nothing is said of those places, vestments, gestures, shows and outward greatness that we think fitting to be found in and with those who worship Jesus. Here sumptuous ceremonies, glorious ornaments and new-fashioned manners are lacking, all of which are necessary to adorn worship with.”

But here again the truly godly man, as he comes to see the evil of these things, makes his objections, finds fault, and counts them unprofitable and vain (Isa 29; Matt 15; Mark 7). But they in turn regard the things they have made as the very excellencies of human invention, things added as a supplement to make up for what, and wherein, as they think, the one who was faithful over his own house as a Son was defective. So they are resolved to stand on their points, and not to budge an inch from things so praiseworthy, so necessary, so convenient and so comely, things that have been judged good by so many wise, learned, pious, holy, reverend and good men. Now, if this were all, the godly could manage well enough. But their zeal is so great for what they have invented, and their spirits so hot to make others stoop and bow to it, that, as far as it lies in their power, no one who refuses to conform to it must be allowed to live and breathe. This has proved all too true in France, Spain, Germany, Italy and other places; and it is on this account that persecution has been kept alive against the church of God for so many hundreds of years in some places.

From what has been said about these things, I gather this as the sum. First, that man by nature is in a state of wrath and condemnation (Eph 2:1-4; John 3:18). Second, that the natural man, by all his natural abilities, is not able to recover himself from this condemned condition (John 6:44; Eph 1:19-20). Third, that a man may have right notions of gospel things who has no grace in his heart (1 Cor 13:2-3). Fourth, that to add human inventions to Christ’s institutions, and to make them of the same force and necessity, of the same authority and efficacy, is wrong, and is not to be submitted to (Isa 29:13; Matt 15:8-9; Mark 7:6-7).

So then, whoever says these things says what is true, for the Scriptures say the same. This, then, is a good cause to suffer for, if men will have me suffer for saying so, because it is founded on the Word of God, and the Word is the ground and foundation of all true doctrine. Let the one, then, who believes what is set out here, and who lives soberly and peaceably among his neighbors in this belief, stand by what he has received and rejoice that he has found the truth. And if anyone afflicts or troubles him for holding these things, they afflict or trouble him for holding to good things; and he suffers at their hands because his cause is good.

And as to this, such a person may boldly appeal to the Bible, which is the foundation of his principles, and to God, the author of that foundation, to judge whether what he holds is not good. He may say: “Lord, I have said that man by nature is in a state of condemnation, and they make me suffer for that. Lord, I have asserted that man, by all his natural abilities, is not able to recover himself from this condemned state, and they make me suffer for that. Lord, I have said that a natural man may have right notions of the gospel and yet be without its saving grace, and they make me suffer for that. Lord, I cannot consent that human inventions and doctrines of men should be joined with your institution as matters of worship, and imposed on my conscience as such, and they make me suffer for that. Lord, I acknowledge the government, pray for my superiors, live quietly among my neighbors, give everyone their due, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, relieve the afflicted, and show myself by my faith and life to be a true Christian; and yet my neighbors will not let me alone. True, I cannot comply with everything some men would have me comply with. No more did Daniel, and no more did Paul. And yet Daniel said that he had done the king no hurt (Dan 6:22); and Paul said, ‘Neither against the law of the Jews, neither against the temple, nor yet against Caesar, have I offended anything at all’ (Acts 25:8).”

For whoever keeps within the compass of God’s Word hurts no one and gives no one just offense, even though he does not comply with all the modes and ways of worship in the world. Nor can this appeal be judged injurious, as long as it does not come with intercessions against those who hate us. But we will pass over this and come to a second thing.

(3) As the one who suffers for righteousness must have a good cause, so the one who suffers for righteousness must have a good call.

A man, though his cause is good, ought not to run himself into suffering for it by improper means. Nature teaches the contrary, and so does the law of God. Suffering for a truth ought to be taken in hand cautiously, and carried out just as warily. I know that some men are more concerned here than others. The preacher of the Word is by God’s command made the more exposed man, for a woe is his portion if he does not preach the gospel (1 Cor 9:16). He, therefore, I say, does and ought to expose himself more than other Christians are called to do. Yet it is fitting for him also to beware, because Christ has said to him, “Behold, I send you forth as sheep, or lambs, in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves” (Matt 10:16; Luke 10:3).

A man is not bound by the law of his Lord to put himself into the mouth of his enemy. Christ withdrew himself. Paul escaped the governor’s hands by being let down in a basket over the wall of the city (2 Cor 11:32-33). And Christ has said, “If they persecute you in one city, flee ye to another” (Matt 10:23). If they will not let me preach here, I will take up my Bible and be gone. Perhaps this is because I must preach in some other place. A minister can quickly pack up, carry his religion with him, and offer what he knows of his God to another people (Acts 13:44-47). Nor should a minister strive with the magistrate, I think, over place or time. Rather, let him listen to hear what God will say by such opposition. Perhaps the magistrate must drive you out of this place because the soul that is to be converted, or helped, by your sermon today is in another place. We must also show ourselves in all things to be what by our profession we would have men believe we are: meek, gentle, not strivers, taking our Lord and our brothers the prophets as our examples.

But I will not presume to give instructions to ministers here. I will only speak a few words in general about what I think may be a sufficient call for a man to suffer for righteousness.

First, every Christian is bound by God’s Word to hold to, or stand by, his profession, his profession of faith (Heb 10:23), and to join to that profession a holy, godly life, because the Apostle and High Priest of his profession is no less a one than Christ Jesus (Heb 3:1). Christ himself expresses this in these words: “Let your light so shine” (Matt 5:16); “No man lighteth a candle to put it under a bushel”; “Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning” (Luke 12:35). And Paul bids the Philippians hold forth the word of life (Phil 2:16).

More particularly, what is intended by all this is that we should hide our faith in Christ from no one, but should rather make it known by a life that will do so. For our profession, managed in this way, is the badge and the Lord’s livery by which we are distinguished from other men. So then, if, while I profess the truth of Christ, and so walk as to make my profession of it more apparent, I am made a sufferer for it, my call is good, and I may be bold in God and in my profession. This is what Peter means when he says, “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 Pet 3:14-15).

Here, then, is a call not to meddle with others but to mind our own business: to walk in our Christian profession and adorn it with all good works; and if anyone will meddle with me and ask me a reason of the hope that I have, to give it to him with meekness and fear, whatever follows from it. This is what Peter should have done himself, there where he denied his Master three times.

The reason is that Christianity is so harmless a thing that, however openly it is professed, it hurts no one. I believe that Christ will save me; what harm is this to my neighbor? I love Christ because he will save me; what harm is this to anyone? Because of this I will worship Christ as he has commanded me; what harm is this to anybody? I will also tell my neighbors what a loving one my Christ is, and that he is willing to be good to them as he has been good to me; and what harm is this to the governor of a kingdom? But if anyone will afflict me for this, my cause is good, and so is my call to stand by my profession fully and in a godly manner.

Second, there is sometimes a call to suffer for righteousness even from the voice of necessity. That is, either when by my silence the truth must fall to the ground, or when by my shrinking back the souls of other men are in danger. This, I say, is a call to suffer, even by the voice of necessity. The case may arise when God’s ways may be trodden underfoot; yes, his Word, and ways, and name, and people, and all. This is what Goliath did for several days together (1 Sam 17), and he boasted in his doing; and there was not a man, no, not in Israel, who dared answer him a word. And now the spirit of David was stirred in him, and he would put his life in his hand and give this man an answer. He saw there was reason for it: necessity gave him a call. “Is there not a cause,” he says, “lying bleeding on the ground, and no man of heart or spirit to put a check on the bold blasphemer? I will go fight with him; I will put my life in my hand; if I die, I die.”

Consider also what Daniel did when the decree had gone out forbidding anyone, for thirty days, to petition any god or man except the king only. At that time, too, not a man of Israel made a peep (Dan 6:7). Now necessity walks about the streets, crying, “Who is on the Lord’s side? Who…?” And Daniel answers, “I am,” by opening his window and praying, as at other times, three times a day, with his face toward Jerusalem (Dan 6:10). He heard this voice of necessity, put his life in his hand, and complied with it, at the risk of being torn in pieces by the lions.

Much like this was the case of the three children. For when that golden image was set up, and worship was commanded to be given to it, not one that we read of dared to stand upright when the time came that bowing was the sign of worship. Only the three children would not bow. It was necessary that someone should show that there was a God in heaven, and that divine worship was due to him alone (Dan 3:10-12). But they ran the risk of being turned to ashes in a burning fiery furnace for doing so. But necessity has a loud voice, and a shrill one in the ears of a tender conscience. This voice will awaken jealousy and kindle a burning fire within for the name, and cause, and way, and people of the God of heaven.

Third, there is sometimes a call to suffer for righteousness by the voice of providence. That is, when by providence I am cast for my profession into the hands of the enemies of God and his truth, then I am called to suffer for it whatever God shall please to let them lay on me. Only, to make my way clearer in this matter, I will deliver what I have to say with a caution or two. (1) You must take heed that your call to this or that place, where by providence you are delivered up, is good. (2) You must also take heed that, when you are there, you busy yourself with nothing but what is good. (3) You must also take heed that you stay there no longer than while you may do good or receive good there. (4) Thus far a man is in the way of his duty, and therefore he may conclude that the providence of God he is now under is such as has mercy and salvation at its very heart, whatever it brings upon him at present.

Christ Jesus our Lord, though his death was determined, and of absolute necessity, and the chief thing for which he came into the world, chose to be taken in the way of his duty rather than in any other way or anywhere else. Therefore, when the hour had come, he takes with him some of his disciples and goes into a garden, a solitary place, to pray. When that is done, he sets his disciples to watch and falls to prayer himself. So he prays once; he prays twice; he prays three times; and he also gives good teaching to his disciples. And now, look: while he was there, in the way of his duty, busy in prayer to God and in giving good instruction to his followers, Judas comes upon him, with a multitude carrying swords and clubs and weapons to take him. To this providence he submits in all meekness, for he knew that by it he had a call to suffer (Matt 26:36-47).

In this way, too, the apostles were called to suffer, even while they were in the way of their duty. Yes, God told them to go into the temple to preach, and there he delivered them into the hands of their enemies (Acts 4:1-3; Acts 5:20-26).

If we are in the way of our duty, in the place and about the work to which God has called us, whether that work is religious or civil, we may without fear leave the outcome of things to God, who alone does wonderful things. And he who does not let a sparrow fall to the ground without his providence will not allow a hair of our head to perish except by his order (Luke 12:6-7). And since he has engaged us in his work, as he has if he has called us to it, we may expect that he will manage it and also see us through it. He will do this either by giving us a good deliverance, restoring us to our former liberty and service for him, or by carrying us well out of this world to those who are crying under the altar, “How long, holy and true.” Nor, when we get there, will we regret that we suffered for him here. Oh, how little do saints in a suffering condition think of the robes, the crowns, the harps and the song that will be given to them, and that they will have when they come upon Mount Zion (Rev 6:11; Rev 14:1-7)!

Fourth, there is sometimes a call to suffer for righteousness by an immediate and powerful impulse of the Spirit of God upon the heart. This, I say, happens sometimes, and only sometimes; for this is not God’s ordinary way, nor are many of his servants called in this manner to suffer for righteousness. Moses was called this way to suffer when he went so often to Pharaoh with the message of God in his mouth. And “he endured, as seeing him who is invisible” (Heb 11:25-27).

Paul was called this way to suffer, and he obeyed, and went, and performed that work according to the will of God. Paul calls this kind of call a binding, or a being bound in the Spirit, because the Holy Spirit had laid such a command on him to go that he could not by any means get out from under its power. “And now, behold,” he says, “I go bound in the Spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there” (Acts 20:22). For the one who is under this call has, as I said, bonds laid upon his spirit, which carry him to the place where his testimony is to be borne for God. And if he willingly submits and goes, as Paul did, he will surely have an extraordinary presence of God with him, as Paul had. And see what a presence Paul had! For after the enemy had made the second assault on him, “the night following, the Lord stood by him, and said, Be of good cheer, Paul; for as thou hast testified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome” (Acts 23:11). This is how God meets his people in their service for him, when he calls them aloud to do great service for him. The power of such a call as this, I say, is great, and people of ordinary spirit must give way to it and leave a man so bound to the God who has so bound him. All the help that such as we can give him is to follow him with our prayers, not to judge him or grieve him or lay stumbling blocks before him. No, they must not weep or mourn for him so as to make him sorrowful (see Acts 21:12-14).

His friends may point out to him what is likely to come of his present errand, as Agabus did by the Spirit to Paul. He took Paul’s belt and bound himself with it, to show him how his enemies would treat him where he was going. “Thus saith the Holy Ghost,” he said, “so shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle, and shall deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles” (Acts 21:11). But if this call is truly upon a man, all sorrow is turned into joy before him; for he is ready not only to be bound, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus (Acts 21:13).

Instances from later times might also be given of an extraordinary call to suffer for righteousness. For in the persecutions of the first three hundred years, many, when nobody knew what they were, would boldly come up to the face of their enemies, tell them what they were, and suffer death for what they professed. I remember, too, the woman whose friends had gone ahead to suffer, and how she came running and panting after them, for fear she would not get there in time to suffer for Jesus Christ.

But I will give you an instance from later times, from the very beginning of Queen Elizabeth’s reign. It concerns a Hertfordshire man who went all the way to Rome to bear his testimony for God against the wickedness of that place. When this man had arrived there and told them why he had come, they seized him and condemned him to death, that is, to be burned as a heretic. He was to ride from the prison to the place of execution on a donkey, with his face to the beast’s tail. He was to be stripped from the shoulders to the waist, so that he might be tormented all the way with burning torches continually thrust against his sides. But he, not at all afraid, spoke to the people and exhorted them to flee from their sin and idolatry. He would even catch hold of the torches and put them to his sides, to show how little he cared for the worst that they could do. And when he came to the place of execution, he suffered such cruelty there with so unconcerned a mind, and testified against them with such burning zeal for God’s truth while he could still speak, that his enemies, all amazed, cried out that he could not have suffered as he did except by the help of the devil. I have now forgotten his name, but you will find it, with the whole story, in Acts and Monuments. But we will pass over this and come to our second particular, namely:

B. What It Is to Suffer for Righteousness’ Sake

To show when a man may be said to suffer not only for righteousness, but also for righteousness’ sake.

To suffer for righteousness’ sake must be understood either according to the intention of the persecutor or else according to the intention of the persecuted. As for the persecutor: whatever a person’s suffering may be, if the persecutor afflicts him for some supposed good that he thinks the person has or professes, he makes him suffer for righteousness’ sake. So in this sense a man who has no grace may suffer not only for righteousness but also for righteousness’ sake. But I do not mean this, because the text is not concerned with it.

What I intend to speak to now, then, is this: when a man may be said to suffer what he suffers on a religious account, out of love for, or for the sake of, the good that he finds in the truths of God, or because his heart is joined and espoused to the good of the truths he professes. I do not mean that there is anything in any truth of God that is not good. But a man may profess truth not for the sake of the goodness that is in it, but on some remote account. Judas professed truth, not out of love for the truth, but out of love for the bag and the money that was put in it. People may make a profession of religion for the sake of a wife, for a trade, for friendship, or because profession is in fashion at a certain time or in a certain place. I wish there were no cause to say this. Now not one of these professes the truth for the truth’s sake, out of love for it. Nor, should they suffer as professing Christians ever so long, ever so much, ever so grievously, will God count them among those who suffer for righteousness’ sake, that is, out of unfeigned love for righteousness. So, to show you who may be said to suffer for righteousness’ sake, I will set out and speak to several things.

1. The one who suffers for well-doing, or for righteousness’ sake, in the apostle’s sense, sets his face against nothing but sin. He resists unto blood, striving against sin (Heb 12:3-4). Sin is the object of his indignation, because it is an enemy to God and to his righteous cause in the world. Sin, I say, is what such a man singles out as his opponent, as his antagonist, and that against which his heart is set. It is a rare thing to suffer rightly, and to have my spirit, in my suffering, bent only against God’s enemy, sin: sin in doctrine, sin in worship, sin in life, sin in conduct. So the one who suffers for righteousness’ sake has singled out sin to pursue it to death, long before he comes to the cross. It is sin, alas, and his hatred of it, that have brought him into this condition. He fell out with sin at home, in his own house, in his own heart, before he fell out with sin in the world or with sin in public worship. For whoever can let sin go free and unchecked at home, within himself, may suffer as long as he likes; he will not suffer for righteousness’ sake. And the reason is this: a “righteous soul,” as the phrase is in 2 Pet 2:8, has the greatest antipathy against the sin that is most ready to defile it. And that, as David calls it, is one’s own iniquity, or the sin that dwells in one’s own flesh. “I have kept me,” he says, “from mine iniquity” (Ps 18:23); that is, from my own sin. People who are afraid of fire are most concerned with what burns in their own chimney; they keep the most watchful eye on whatever is likely to burn down their own house first.

The one who suffers for righteousness’ sake also does so because he does not want sin to cling to the worship of God; and indeed this is mostly the cause of the sufferings of the godly. They will have nothing to do with worship that has sinful traditions mixed in with God’s appointments, because they know that God is jealous over his worship and has given a strict charge that all things be done according to the pattern shown to us in the mount. Such a man knows also that God will not be with that worship, and with those worshipers, that have no regard to worshiping by the rule of the testament of Christ. He is also against the sin that is apt to cling to himself while he stands in the presence of God: “I will wash mine hands in innocency, so will I compass thine altar, O Lord” (Ps 26:6). This man also chooses, if possible, to be in the practical parts of worship, for he knows that to be occupied sincerely with holy things is the way to be at the farthest distance from sin. He also chooses to be with those holy ones who are of the same mind with him against sin; for he knows that two are better than one, and that a threefold cord is not easily broken.

So look to yourselves, you who suffer, or may be called to suffer, for religion. If you do not bend yourselves against sin, if being revenged on sin is not the cause of your suffering, you cannot be said to suffer for righteousness’ sake. Take heed, therefore, that something else is not what moves you to suffer. A man may suffer to save what he has. There is credit, too, and applause; there is shame at conforming; there is carnal stoutness of spirit; there is hatred of persecutors and scorn to submit; there is fear of contempt and of the reproach of the people, and so on. These may be the motives and arguments that bring a man into a suffering state, and may really be the reason he is in jail, though all the while he cries out against popery, superstition and idolatry, and against the errors that attend the common modes of the religions of the world. I charge no man with this, as though I knew any such thing about anyone. But I suggest these things as things that are possible, and I mention them because I want sufferers to take care of themselves, and to watch and pray. For no man can be upright here who is not holy, who cannot pray and watch and deny himself for the love that he has for righteousness. I said it before, and I will say it again: it is a rare thing to be set against sin in downright honesty of heart.

2. Is it for the sake of righteousness that you suffer? Then it is because you want righteousness promoted, set up and established in the world. You are also grieved at the advantages that iniquity gains over people, over things and against yourself. “I beheld,” said David, “the transgressors, and was grieved; because men kept not thy word” (Ps 119:158). And again, these are the ones who mourn for the abominations done among men (Ezek 9:4). There is a great deal of talk about religion, a great deal of pleading for religion, that is, for the formalities of this way and that. But to choose to be religious so that I may be possessed with holiness, and to choose that religion which is most apt to possess me with it, if I suffer for this, I suffer for righteousness’ sake.

So, you who are likely to suffer for righteousness, say this to your soul: “How is it with the innermost parts of my soul? What is there? What designs, desires and reachings out are there? Why do I pray? Why do I read? Why do I hear? Why do I haunt and frequent the places and ordinances appointed for worship? Is it because I love holiness? Because I want to promote righteousness, because I love to see godliness show itself in others, and because I want to feel more of its power in myself?” If so, and if you suffer for your profession, you suffer not only for righteousness but also for righteousness’ sake.

Do you practice these things because you want to be taught to do outward acts of righteousness, and because you want to provoke others to do so too? Do you show others how you love righteousness by taking opportunities to do righteousness? How is it with you: do you show the most mercy to your dog or to your enemy, to your pigs or to the poor? Whose naked body have you clothed? Whose hungry belly have you fed? Have you taken delight in being defrauded and cheated? When you have been wronged, slandered and abused, have you willingly sat down under the loss in quietness, and acted as if you had not known, and all because you were unwilling that black-mouthed men should vilify and reproach religion on your account (1 Cor 6:7)?

The one who loves righteousness will do this, yes, and do it as to God, out of tenderness for the Word of God that he professes. And the man who thinks he can make people with eyes to see believe that when he suffers, he suffers for righteousness’ sake, while his life is empty of moral goodness and he has no heart to suffer and bear, and put up with and pass over injuries in his dealings with his enemies at home, is deceived.

There are some Scriptures that seem to be out of date among some professing Christians, especially those that call for actual holiness and acts of self-denial for God. But it will be found at the day of judgment that they alone are the peculiar people who are “zealous of good works” (Titus 2:14). God help us, it is hard now to persuade professing Christians to come up even to negative holiness, that is, to leave undone what is bad; and yet this by itself falls far short of a person’s being found in practical goodness.

But this is the man who suffers for righteousness’ sake when he suffers: the one who makes it his business, by all lawful means and according to the capacity God has put him in, to promote, set up and establish righteousness in the world. This, I say, is the man who suffers for righteousness’ sake, who suffers for doing so. And I am sure that a moral life, when joined to the profession of faith in the things that are of the Spirit of God, is absolutely necessary to the promotion of righteousness in the world. Hence Peter tells those who suffer for righteousness’ sake that they must have “a good conscience,” a good conscience toward God, toward men, toward friends, toward enemies (1 Pet 3:14-16; Acts 24:16; Acts 23:1). They must have a good conscience in all things, being willing, ready and eager to live honestly, godly and righteously in this world (Heb 13:18). Otherwise, though they may suffer for the best doctrine under heaven, they cannot suffer for righteousness’ sake.

3. Therefore, is it for righteousness’ sake that you suffer? Then your aim is the ruin of sin. This follows from what was said before; for whoever strives against sin and seeks to promote righteousness aims at the ruin of sin. “Be not,” said Paul to the suffering Romans, “overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good” (Rom 12:21). To overcome evil with good is a hard task. To rail it down, to cry it down, to petition kings and parliaments and men in authority to put it down: this is easier than to do my best to overcome it with good, that is, by doing good, as I said before. And sin must be overcome with good at home before your goodness can get out of doors to overcome evil abroad.

Abraham overcame evil with good when he quieted the discontent of Lot and his herdsmen by allowing them to feed their cattle on the best of what God had given him (Gen 13:7-8).

David overcame evil with good when he saved the life of his bloodthirsty enemy who had fallen into his hand, and also when he grieved that any harm should come to those who sought nothing so much as his destruction. “They rewarded me,” he says, “evil for good, to the spoiling of my soul. But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth, I humbled my soul with fasting … I behaved myself as though he had been my friend or brother; I bowed down heavily, as one that mourneth for his mother” (Ps 35:12-14). This is to overcome evil with good.

Job says concerning his enemy that he did not rejoice when evil found him. “Neither have I,” he said, “suffered my mouth to sin by wishing a curse to his soul” (Job 31:29-30). He means that he did the very opposite, and so overcame evil with good.

Elisha overcame evil with good when he received the men who came for his life, brought them where he could feast and comfort them, and sent them home in peace to their master (2 Kgs 6:19-23).

The New Testament also is full of this, both in exhortations and in examples. Its exhortations tell us to “resist not evil” (that is, with evil), but to “overcome evil with good” (Prov 24:29). “But whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. … And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. Give to him that asketh thee; and from him that would borrow of thee, turn not thou away. … Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven, for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil, and on the good … on the just, and on the unjust” (Matt 5:39-45).

“Bless them that persecute you: bless, and curse not” (Rom 12:14). “Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing, but contrariwise, blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing” (1 Pet 3:9; Rom 12:14). This is righteousness; these are righteous ways. And as these things are laid down as commands, so they were just as truly put into practice by those who were eminently godly in the early church.

“We are fools for Christ’s sake,” said Paul, “we are despised, we are hungry, thirsty, naked, and buffeted. … Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it; being defamed, we entreat: we are made as the filth of the earth, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day” (1 Cor 4:10-13). This is overcoming evil with good. And whoever has chosen for himself the religion that teaches these things, and loves that religion because it teaches him so, if he suffers for it, suffers for righteousness’ sake.

4. Whoever suffers for righteousness’ sake will carry righteousness with him wherever he goes. Neither the enemy nor your sufferings will be able to take righteousness from you. Righteousness must be your chamber-mate, your bedfellow, your walking companion. It is the thing without which you will feel so lost and out of place that it seems you could not live (Ps 26; Ps 25:21).

Paul in his sufferings would have righteousness with him, for it must be, as it were, his armor-bearer; yes, his very armor itself (2 Cor 6:7). Job has an excellent saying: “I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; my judgment was as a robe and a diadem. I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame; I was a father to the poor …” (Job 29:11-16). “Princes,” said David also, “did sit and speak against me, but thy servant did meditate in thy statutes” (Ps 119:23). A man who loves righteousness does as Abraham did with his Sarah: he carries it everywhere with him, even though because of it he goes in danger of his life. Righteousness! It is the only intimate a Christian has. It is that by which he takes his measures, and that which he consults about what he does, or is to do, in the world. “Thy testimonies,” said David also, “are my delight, and my counsellors” (Ps 119:24); or, as the margin has it, “the men of my counsel.”

David! He was the man of affliction, the suffering man of his day; but wherever he went he had righteousness with him, the law and godly practice. It was his counselor as a man, as a saint and as a king. I dare say that the man who lets righteousness be torn away from him by the violence and rage of men, and who throws it off, as David did Saul’s armor, so that he may keep himself safe, has no great love for righteousness, nor for the cross for righteousness’ sake. “My righteousness I hold fast,” said Job, “and will not let it go: my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live” (Job 27:6).

What? Part with righteousness! A righteous Lord! A righteous Word! A righteous profession! A righteous life! And all to sleep in a whole skin! The Lord forbid it for me, and for all whom he has counted worthy to be called by his name. Let us carry it with us from the bed to the cross, and then it will carry us from there to the crown. Let it be our companion to prison and to death; then we shall show that we are lovers of righteousness, and that we choose to suffer for righteousness’ sake.

5. Do you suffer for righteousness’ sake? Why then, your righteousness is not diminished by your sufferings, but rather increased. Righteousness thrives best in affliction: the more afflicted, the holier the man; the more persecuted, the more shining the man (Acts 6:15). The prison is the furnace; your graces are the silver and the gold. Therefore, as silver and gold are refined by the fire, and so made to show their native brightness all the more, so the Christian who has righteousness and loves it, and who suffers for its sake, is refined by his sufferings and made more righteous, more Christian, more godly (Zech 13:9). Some, indeed, when they come there, prove to be lead, iron, tin, and at best only the dross of silver. So they are fit for nothing but to be left there and consumed, and, if ever they come out, to bear the badge of reprobate silver from the mouth and sentence of their neighbors (Ezek 22:18-22; Jer 6:28-30). But Job says that when he is tried, “I shall come forth as gold” (Job 23:10).

When Saul had thrown one javelin at David, it made David walk wisely in all his ways. But when Saul added plots to take his life to his first fury, then David behaved himself yet more wisely (1 Sam 18:10-30). The hotter the rage and fury of men against righteous ways, the more those who love righteousness grow in them. For they are concerned for it, not to hide it but to make it sparkle; not to put it out but to make it greater, and to show its excellence in all its features and in all its comely proportion.

Now such a person will make straight steps for his feet, “lest that which is lame be turned out of the way” (Heb 12:13). Now he shows all men what faith is: by charity, by self-denial, by meekness, by gentleness, by long-suffering, by patience, by love to enemies, and by doing good to those who hate us. Now he walks on his high places. Yes, he will not now allow such slovenly conduct to come within his doors as used to haunt his house in former times. Now it is Christmas; now it is suffering time; now we must keep holy day every day.

The reason is that a man who suffers for Christ is set on a hill, on a stage, as in a theater, to play a part for God in the world. And you know that when men are to play their parts on a stage, they count themselves, if possible, more bound to be careful, and that for the credit of their master, the credit of their art and the credit of themselves. For then the eyes of everybody are fixed on them; they gape and stare at them (Ps 22:17). And a trip here is as bad as a fall somewhere else. Also, God himself now looks on. Yes, he laughs, as one pleased to see good behavior accompany the trial of the innocent.

(1) Whoever suffers for righteousness’ sake suffers for his goodness, and he must now labor by his works and ways to convince the world that he suffers as such a one.

(2) Whoever suffers for righteousness’ sake has many weak ones to strengthen by his sweet bearing under the cross; therefore he needs to excel in virtue.

(3) He is also, by well-doing, to put to silence the ignorance of foolish men; so he needs to be exact and circumspect in all his actions.

(4) He is to come in with his Lord and his fellows at the appearing of Jesus Christ, to be a judge, and by his faith and patience in his sufferings to condemn the world; he needs to be holy himself.

This, therefore, is the fitting sign of suffering for righteousness’ sake (1 Cor 6:1-5; Heb 11:7; 2 Thess 1:5-6; 1 Pet 4:3-5).

6. Whoever suffers not only for righteousness but also for righteousness’ sake will not exchange his cause, even though he is in jail for it, for all the ease and pleasure in the world. Those who suffered for righteousness’ sake in former times were tempted before they were sawn in two (Heb 11). Tempted, that is, enticed to come out of their present sufferings and leave their faith and profession behind them in irons. Tempted with promises of promotion, of ease, of friendship, of favor with men. As the devil spoke to Christ, so the persecutors of old used to make great promises to sufferers if they would fall down and worship. But this is all one as if they said, “Be your own butcher: make away with your righteousness and your good conscience, and you shall find the friendship of the world.” For there is no way to kill a man’s righteousness except by his own consent. Job’s wife knew this full well; that is why she tempted him to lay violent hands on his own integrity (Job 2:9).

Neither the devil nor the men of the world can kill your righteousness, or your love for it, except by your own hand, or separate it from you without your own act. Nor will the one who truly suffers for its sake, or for the love he bears it, be tempted into exchanging it for the goods of the whole world. It is a sad sight to see a man who has been suffering for righteousness restored to his former estate, while the righteousness for which he suffered remains under locks and irons, exposed to the scorn, contempt and reproach of the world, and trodden under the feet of men. “It is better,” said Paul, “for me to die, than that any man should make my glorying void” (1 Cor 9:15). And it would have been a hundred times better for that man if he had never known the way of righteousness, than, after he has known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to him.

In persecution, the struggle is over righteousness: whether it shall be set up or pulled down. The sufferer is for setting it up, and the persecutors are for pulling it down. So they strive for the mastery. Now, if a man stands by his righteousness and holds fast his good profession, then righteousness is set up; and for as long as he does, it cannot be pulled down. That is why, for so long, a man is said to overcome; and overcome he does, even if he is killed for his profession. But if he starts back, gives way, submits, recants, or refuses any longer to own that good thing which he professed and exposed himself to suffering for, then he betrays his cause, his profession, his conscience, his righteousness, his soul and all. For he has handed his profession over to be murdered before his face: “A righteous man falling down before the wicked is as a troubled fountain, and a corrupt spring” (Prov 25:26).

But this, I hope, the one who loves righteousness and suffers for righteousness’ sake will not do. I do not deny that a man may slip here, as Peter, Origen, Jerome, Cranmer, Bainham, Ormes and other good folk did; but if he is one of the right kind, a lover of righteousness indeed, he will return, and take revenge on himself in a godly way for so ungodly a deed.

7. Whoever suffers not only for righteousness but also for righteousness’ sake is not so wedded to his own notions as to slight or overlook the good that is in his neighbor. Righteousness he loves wherever he finds it, even if it is in the one who strikes him (Ps 141:5). Yes, he will own and acknowledge it as the only thing of beauty and glory in the world. All such a man’s delight is in the excellent of the earth. Therefore I make a difference between suffering for an opinion and suffering for righteousness, just as I make a difference between suffering for righteousness and suffering for righteousness’ sake.

If righteousness, if the stamp of God, if divine authority is not found on the thing I hold, let no one ever suffer for it as though it were righteousness. If sin, if superstition, if idolatry, if anything that detracts from the wisdom of Christ and from the authority and perfection of his Word, is not found in or joined to the thing I disown in worship, let me never open my mouth against it. I would rather fall in with, and be the companion of, a righteous man who has no true grace than a professing Christian who has no righteousness. It is said of the young man, even though he went away from Christ, that Christ looked on him and loved him (Mark 10:17-22). But it is never said that he loved Judas.

I know that the righteousness for which a good man suffers is not embraced by the world at that time, because then it is under a cloud. But still there is righteousness in the world as well, and wherever I see it, I hold it in high esteem. David acknowledged some of his enemies to be more righteous than he acknowledged some of his servants to be (2 Sam 4:9-11; 2 Sam 3:31-35). It is a fine thing to have righteousness, as righteousness, at the very top of my affections. The reason Christ was anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows was that he loved righteousness and hated iniquity more than they did (Heb 1:9). Love for righteousness flows from golden graces, and it is this, and this only, that can make a man capable of suffering, in our sense, for righteousness’ sake.

8. Whoever suffers not only for righteousness but also for righteousness’ sake will take care that his sufferings are so managed, with graciousness of words and actions, that righteousness may live when he is dead. Yes, and it will please him too if righteousness flourishes, even at his own loss. That is why Paul said that he rejoiced in his suffering (Col 1:24), namely, because others got good by it. And that is why he said, “Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all” (Phil 2:17). But why rejoice in this? Why, because though his sufferings distressed his flesh, they brought refreshing, comfort and stability to others. This was also what made him jostle with the false brethren among the churches, namely, “that the truth of the gospel might continue with them” (Gal 2:5).

When a man runs the risk of ruining what he has and what he is, for righteousness, for the good and benefit of the church of God, that man, if he governs himself by the rule and suffers for so doing, suffers not only for righteousness but also for righteousness’ sake. “I endure all things,” said Paul, “for the elect’s sake, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory” (2 Tim 2:10). Here was love to persons, you will say; and I will say, to things as well: to all the righteousnesses of God that are revealed in the world, so that all the elect might enjoy them to their eternal comfort and glory by Christ Jesus. For “whether we be afflicted,” he says, “it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer: or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation” (2 Cor 1:6).

The end and design of a man, if it is to promote righteousness, and he uses lawful means to accomplish it, is greatly accepted by God through Christ. It is a sign that he is a lover of righteousness; and that if he suffers for so doing, he suffers not only for well-doing as a matter of fact, but also for his love of the good thing done, and for its sake.

I have now finished with the first head that was to be spoken to, concerning the law and testament, which we said was how the will of God mentioned in the text is to be understood: “Let them that suffer according to the will of God” (1 Pet 4:19), that is, according to his law and testament. Now that we have shown what it is to suffer according to that, we come to another thing.

The Will of God as His Order and Design

Second, by the will of God we also understand his order and design. For the will of God is active, to dispose of his people, as well as preceptive, to show us our duty. The one who suffers for righteousness’ sake suffers, then, for what is good in its substance, and suffers for it in the manner that befits the truth for which he suffers; and he who suffers in this way suffers by the order and design of God. That, then, is the next thing to be spoken to, namely:

God is the great orderer of the battle that is being fought in the world against antichrist. That is why that battle is called “the battle of that great day of God Almighty” (Rev 16:14). It is not what enemies will, nor what they have resolved on, but what God wills and what God appoints, that shall be done. Christ teaches this doctrine when he says, “Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God? But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows” (Luke 12:6-7).

In the verses before, he speaks of killing, and tells them not to be afraid of that: “Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him” (Luke 12:4-5). Then he leads them to consider this: that the will of God governs his people and disposes of them to suffering, as well as declaring to them for what and how they should suffer, saying, “Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings …”

Also in Isaiah 8:9-10 and in Isaiah 51:12-13 you have, in sum, the same thing set down again. But we will not linger on proof; we will go on to demonstrate it.

Pharaoh said he would, yes, that he would; but he could not touch so much as a thread or a rag of Israel, because the will of God was against him in that thing. Saul said that he would have David, and to that end would search for him among the thousands of Judah; but David was designed for another purpose, and so Saul had to go without him (1 Sam 23:25 and following). Rabshakeh said that he had come from Assyria to Jerusalem to make “Judah eat their own dung, and drink their own piss” (Isa 36:12). But God said that he should not shoot an arrow there (Isa 37:33). And it came to pass as God had said (2 Kgs 18; 2 Chr 32). Jeremiah’s and Baruch’s enemies would have killed them, but they could not, for God hid them. How many times the Jews had a mind to destroy Jesus Christ! But they could not touch a hair of his head until his hour had come.

Those who bound themselves under a curse that they would neither eat nor drink until they had killed Paul were forced to break their oath, for the will of God was not that Paul should die yet (Acts 23:12). God’s church should therefore consider this well in the cloudy and dark day: “All his saints are in thy hand” (Deut 33:3). It is not God’s way to let the enemies of God’s church do what they will. No, the devil himself can devour only “whom he may” (1 Pet 5:8). And as no enemy can bring suffering on a man when the will of God is otherwise, so no man can save himself out of their hands when God wills to deliver him up for his glory. It remains, then, that we should not be much afraid of men, nor yet be foolishly bold. Rather, we should wait on our God in the way of righteousness and in the use of those means which his providence offers us for our safety. And we should conclude that our whole disposal, whether to liberty or to suffering, lies in the will of God, and that we shall suffer, or shall not suffer, just as it pleases him. For:

First, God has appointed who shall suffer. Suffering does not come by chance, or by the will of man, but by the will and appointment of God. “Let no man,” said Paul, “be moved by these afflictions; for yourselves know that we are appointed thereunto” (1 Thess 3:3). When affliction comes, we are apt to forget God and to think it a strange thing that those who fear God should really suffer (1 Pet 4:12). But we should not, for we suffer by the will and appointment of God. This is why those under the altar were told to rest for a while, until their fellow servants also, and their brethren who should be killed—mark that—“should be killed, as they were, should be fulfilled” (Rev 6:11). So suffering for righteousness, and for righteousness’ sake, is by the will of God. God has appointed who shall suffer. That is the first thing.

Second, as God has appointed who shall suffer, so he has appointed when they shall suffer for his truth in the world. The sufferings of this or that man are timed, as to when he shall be tried for his faith. So when Paul was afraid, at Corinth, that the heathen would fall about his ears, the Lord spoke to him by night in a vision, saying, “Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace; for I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee” (Acts 18:9-10). His time of suffering had not yet come there. It is also said of Jesus Christ that even when “they sought to take him, no man laid hands on him, because his hour was not yet come” (John 7:30). The times and the seasons, then, even for the sufferings of the people of God, are not in the hands of their enemies but in the hand of God. As David said, “My times are in thy hand” (Ps 31:15). It is by the will of God, then, that such people shall suffer at that time, but not before it. But,

Third, as God has appointed who and when, so he has appointed where this, that, or the other good man shall suffer. When Moses and Elijah appeared on the holy mount, they told Jesus of the sufferings which he would accomplish at Jerusalem. Jerusalem was the place assigned for Christ to suffer; there, too, the whole of his sufferings had to be accomplished (Luke 9:30-31).

The saints are sprinkled by the hand of God here and there, as salt is sprinkled on meat to keep it from stinking. And as they are sprinkled like this so that they may season the earth, so, accordingly, the place where they must suffer is also appointed, for the better confirming of the truth. Christ said that it could not be that a prophet should “perish out of Jerusalem” (Luke 13:33). But why could it not be that they should perish elsewhere? Were there no enemies except in Jerusalem? Were there no good men except at Jerusalem? No, no; that was not the reason. The reason was that God had appointed that they should suffer there. So then, who, when, and where are all at the will of God, and they are ordered accordingly by that will.

Fourth, as God has appointed who, when, and where, so he has also appointed what kind of sufferings this or that saint shall undergo, at this place and at such a time. God said that he would show Paul beforehand how great things he must suffer for his sake (Acts 9:16). And it is said that Christ signified to Peter beforehand “by what death he should glorify God” (John 21:19). When Herod had beheaded John the Baptist, and when the Jews had crucified Christ, it is said that they had only fulfilled what was “written of them” (Mark 9:13; Acts 13:29). Our sufferings, as to their nature, are all written down in God’s book. And though the writing may look to us like unknown characters, God understands it very well. Some of them they shall kill and crucify, and some of them they shall scourge in their synagogue, “and persecute them from city to city” (Matt 23:34). Do you think God would say, “Some of them they shall treat this way, and some of them they shall treat that way,” and yet not allot which ones are for this trial, which for that, and which for the other?

No doubt our sufferings fall on us by the will of God, as they fell long ago on the people of Jerusalem. It was appointed by God which of them should die of hunger, which by the sword, which should go into captivity, and which should be eaten up by beasts (Jer 15:2-3). So it is in this case. As God has appointed who, when, where, and the like, so he has also appointed what manner of sufferings this or that good man shall undergo for his name. Let it be concluded, then, that so far it appears that the sufferings of saints are ordered and disposed by the will of God. But,

Fifth, as all this is determined by the will of God, so it is also appointed for what truth this or that saint shall suffer this or that kind of affliction. Every saint has his course, his work, and his testimony, as it is allotted to him by God (Mark 13:34). John had a course, a testimony to fulfill for God (Acts 13:25); so had holy Paul (2 Tim 4:6-7); and so has every saint. Also, the one who is to suffer has his truth appointed him to suffer for. Christ had a truth peculiar to himself to bear witness to by way of suffering (Mark 14:61-62). John had a truth peculiar to himself to bear witness to by way of suffering (Mark 6:17-18). Stephen also had a truth, different from them both, to which he bore a holy testimony, and for which he bravely died (Acts 7:51-53).

If you read the book of Acts and Monuments, you may see a rich variety in this, and yet in it all a finely wrought harmony. Some are said there to have suffered for the Godhead, some for the manhood, some for the ordinances of Christ, and some laid down their lives for the brethren. And so far we see that he who suffers for righteousness’ sake suffers, in this sense, according to the will of God.

Sixth, as it is appointed by the will of God who, when, where, what kind, and for what truth this and that saint should suffer, so it is also appointed by whose hand this or that man shall suffer for this or that truth. It was appointed that Moses and Israel should suffer by the hand of Pharaoh. And God says that for this very purpose he raised Pharaoh up, that is, to be a persecutor and to reap the fruits of it (Exod 9:16). It was also determined that Christ should suffer by the hand of Herod and Pontius Pilate. “For of a truth,” they said, “against thy holy child Jesus … both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together, for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done” (Acts 4:27-28).

These are great instances, from which we may gather how all these things have been ordered from then down to now. For if a sparrow does not fall to the ground without God, she will not be killed without God either, nor by someone he knows nothing of. And if a Christian is better than many sparrows, it follows that God concerns himself more with, for, and about him than with, for, or about many sparrows. It follows, then, by sound reasoning, that as the person who is to be the sufferer is appointed, so are the persons who are to be the rod and the sword to afflict him. So far, therefore, it is the will of God that orders and disposes of us and of our sufferings.

Seventh, as all these things pass through the hand of God, and come to us only by his will, so how long is also just as truly determined as any of them. It is not in man, but in God, to set how long the rod of the wicked shall rest on the lot of the righteous. Abraham had to be told this. “Abraham,” says God, “know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years” (Gen 15:13). So Israel’s bondage in Babylon was not only appointed in general, but the time was set beforehand, how long it would last (Jer 25:11-12; Jer 29:10). The time of the beast’s reign, and of the witnesses’ walking in sackcloth, is precisely fixed, along with the limit beyond which they cannot go (Rev 11; Rev 12; Rev 13).

I know these are general cases, and concern the church as a whole and not particular persons. But, as was hinted before, we must argue from the greater to the lesser: that is, from four hundred years to ten days (Rev 2:10), from ten days to three (Hos 6:2), and so from the church in general to each particular member, and to the time and nature of their sufferings (Acts 23:11).

And so, in a word or two, I have finished the first two parts of the text. I have shown you what there is in Peter’s counsel and advice, and I have also shown you to whom his advice is given. In this last part, as you see, I have shown you both what the will of God is and what it is to suffer according to it. And in particular I have handled this last point in a few words, to show you that our sufferings are ordered and disposed by him. I have done it so that whenever you come into trouble for his name, you may not stagger or be at a loss, but be steady, composed, and settled in your minds, and say, “The will of the Lord be done” (Acts 21:14).

Let me also say this to you in passing: the will of God works mightily, even to order and dispose the spirits of Christians, bringing us to a willingness, a disposition, a readiness, and a resignation of ourselves to the mind of God. For it was with respect to this that the words I just quoted were spoken. Paul saw that he had a call to go up to Jerusalem, there to bear his testimony for Christ and his gospel. But those to whom he made his purpose known begged him very earnestly not to go up there, because they believed it would endanger his life. But he answered, “What, mean ye to weep, and to break my heart? for I am ready, not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus” (Acts 21:13). And when he would not be persuaded, says Luke, we ceased, saying, “The will of the Lord be done.”

From what has been said, many things will follow, such as these:

1. The rod, as well as the child, is God’s. Persecutors, as well as the persecuted, are his, and he has his own designs for both. He has raised them up, and he has ordered them for himself and for the work he has for them to do. So Habakkuk, speaking of the church’s enemies, says, “Thou hast ordained them for judgment; and, O mighty God, thou hast established them for correction” (Hab 1:12). And that is why in other places they are called the rod of God’s anger; his staff (Isa 10:5); his hand; his sword (Ps 17:13-14).

Indeed, to be disposed of in this way is a sad lot. Their lot has not fallen to them in pleasant places; they do not have the goodly heritage. But the judgments of God are a great deep. The thing formed may not say to him who formed it, “Why hast thou made me thus?” (Rom 9:20). To be appointed, to be ordained, to be established to be a persecutor and a troubler of God’s church! O tremendous judgment! O amazing anger!

The people of God should learn three things from this.

(1) Learn to pity and bewail the condition of the enemy. I know you cannot alter the counsel of God. Appointed they are, established they are for their work, and do it they must and shall. Yet it is fitting for those who see their state, and see that their day is coming, to pity and bewail their condition, yes, and to pray for them too. For who knows whether it is determined that they should remain implacable to the end, like Herod, or whether they may through grace obtain repentance for their doings, like Saul? And I say again, if your prayer should have a deciding hand in the conversion of any of them, it would be sweet to your thoughts when the scene is over.

(2) Never begrudge them their present advantages. “Fret not thyself because of evil men, neither be thou envious at the workers of iniquity” (Prov 24:19). Do not fret, even though they spoil your resting place. It is God who has bidden them do it, to try your faith and patience by it. Do not wish them ill over what they get of yours. It is their wages for their work, and before long it will become plain to them that they have earned it dearly. Their time to rejoice in what they get this way lasts only a moment; and then, if they do not repent, they are to perish forever, like their own dung (Job 20:5-7).

Poor man, you whose time it is to be afflicted by them, so that your golden graces may shine the more: you are in the fire, and they blow the bellows. But would you change places with them? Would you sit in their place of ease? Do you desire to be with them (Prov 24:1)? O rest content; in your patience possess your soul, and pity and bewail them in the condition they are in.

(3) Bless God that your lot fell on the other side: to be one who should know the truth, profess it, suffer for it, and have grace to bear you up under it, to God’s glory and your eternal comfort. Not all his saints have this honor; not all are counted worthy to suffer shame for his name in this way. Do this, I say, even though they get everything and leave you nothing but the shirt on your back, the skin on your bones, or a hole in the ground to be put in (Heb 11:23-26).

2. Labor to be patient under this mighty hand of God, and do not be hasty to say, “When will the rod be laid aside?” Mind your duty, which is to let patience have its perfect work. And bear the indignation of the Lord, because you have sinned against him, until he is pleased to awake, to arise, and to execute judgment for you (Mic 7:9). But let me pass on from this.

Are things ordered like this? Then this should teach us that there is a cause. The rod is not gathered without a cause. The rod is determined beforehand because the sin of God’s people is foreseen, and often the nature of the sin, and the anger of the Father, can be seen in the shape of the rod. God calls it the rod of his anger. A bitter and hasty nation had to be brought against Jerusalem (Hab 1:6); an enemy fierce and cruel had to be brought against the land of Israel. Their sins called for such a rod, for their iniquities were grievous.

This should teach us to be sorry for our sins with all earnestness, and to do what we can to prevent these things by falling on our faces in prayer before God. If we want such days shortened when they come on us, let us be lovers of righteousness, and get more of the righteousness of faith, and more compliance with the whole will of God, into our hearts. Then, I say, the days shall be shortened, or else we shall fare just as well. For the more harmless and innocent we are when we suffer, the greater our wages, our reward, and our glory will be when payday comes. And what if we wait a little for that?

These things are sent to make God’s people better: to make them white, to refine them as silver and purge them as gold, and to cause those who bear some fruit to bring forth more (John 15:2). We are afflicted so that we may grow. It is also the will of God that those who go to heaven should get there hardly, that is, with difficulty. The righteous shall scarcely be saved: that is, they shall be saved, but with great difficulty, so that it may be all the sweeter.

Now what makes the way to heaven so strait, so narrow, so hard, is the rod, the sword, the persecutor, who lies in the way, who marks where we haunt (1 Sam 23:22), who mars our path (Job 30:12-14), digs a pit, and sets a net, a snare for us in the way (Ps 9:15; Ps 31:4; Ps 35:7; Ps 119:110; Ps 140:5; Ps 142:3).

This, I say, is what presses us hard. But it is to try our graces, as I said, and to make heaven all the sweeter to us. To arrive there frightened and hard pursued will make us embrace the safety there with all the more exceeding gladness. And I say, get your heart still more possessed with the power of godliness, so that the love of righteousness may be still more with you. For he who suffers for righteousness’ sake shall be sure of this blessedness, this happiness.

3. Since the rod is God’s as well as the child, let us not look on our troubles as if they came from hell and were managed by hell alone. It is true that a persecutor has a black mark on him, yet the Scriptures say that all the ways of the persecutor are God’s (Dan 5:23). So in one sense we should be afraid of men, and in another we should not. We should be afraid of them, because they will hurt us. But we should not be afraid of them as if they were let loose to do to us, and with us, whatever they like. God’s bridle is on them, God’s hook is in their nose (2 Kgs 19:28; Isa 37:29). Yes, and God has set the bounds of their rage. If he lets them drive his church into the sea of troubles, it shall be only up to the neck; that far it may go and not be drowned (Isa 8:7-8). I say the Lord has hold of them and orders them. They never come out against his people except by his license and commission, which tells them how far to go and where to stop.

And now for two or three objections.

Objection 1. But may we not flee in a time of persecution? Your pressing on us that persecution is ordered and managed by God makes us afraid to flee.

Answer. First, bearing in mind what was said before about a call to suffer, you may do in this just as it is in your heart. If it is in your heart to flee, flee; if it is in your heart to stand, stand. Anything but a denial of the truth. He who flees has warrant to do so; he who stands has warrant to do so. Yes, the same man may both flee and stand, according to the call and working of God with his heart. Moses fled (Exod 2:15); Moses stood (Heb 11:27). David fled (1 Sam 19:12); David stood (1 Sam 24:8). Jeremiah fled (Jer 37:11-12); Jeremiah stood (Jer 38:17). Christ withdrew himself (Luke 9:10); Christ stood (John 18:1-8). Paul fled (2 Cor 11:33); Paul stood (Acts 20:22-23).

So there are few rules in this case. The man himself is best able to judge his present strength, and what weight this or that argument has on his heart to stand or to flee. I would be loath to impose on anyone in these things. Only, if you flee, take two or three cautions with you.

(1) Do not flee out of slavish fear, but rather because fleeing is an ordinance of God, opening a door for some to escape. That door is opened by God’s providence, and the escape is approved by God’s Word (Matt 10:23).

(2) When you have fled, do as much good as you can in every quarter you come to, for that is why the door was opened to you and you were bidden to make your escape (Acts 8:1-5).

(3) Do not think yourself secure when you have fled. It was providence that opened the door, and the Word that bid you escape; but where you are going, and for what purpose, you do not yet know. Uriah the prophet fled into Egypt because the men who were to take him dwelt there, so that he might be brought back to Jerusalem to die there (Jer 26:21).

(4) Should you flee from where you are and be taken in another place, the most that can be made of it (of your taking the opportunity to flee, as was proposed at first) is only this: you were willing to commit yourself to God in the way of his providence, as other good men have done; and your being arrested now has made clear your call to suffer here or there, which before you were in the dark about.

(5) If, therefore, you are taken after you have fled, do not be offended at God or man. Not at God, for you are his servant, and your life and your all are his. Not at man, for he is only God’s rod, and is ordained in this to do you good. Have you escaped? Laugh. Are you taken? Laugh. I mean, be pleased whichever way things go, because the scales are still in God’s hand.

(6) But do not, in fleeing, flee from religion. Do not, in fleeing, flee for the sake of a trade. Do not, in fleeing, flee so that you may have ease for the flesh. This is wicked, and will yield neither peace nor profit to your soul, neither now, nor at death, nor at the day of judgment.

Objection 2. But if I flee, some will blame me. What must I do now?

Answer. And others may blame you if you stand. Therefore, as was said before, do not flee out of slavish fear, and do not stand out of bravado. Do what you do in the fear of God, guiding yourself by his Word and providence; and as for this or that man’s judgment, refer your case to the judgment of God.

Objection 3. But if I am taken and suffer, my cause is likely to be clothed with scandals, slanders, reproaches, and every kind of false and evil speaking. What must I do?

Answer. Saul charged David with rebellion (1 Sam 22:8, 13). Amos was charged with conspiring against the king (Amos 7:10). Daniel was charged with despising the king, and so were the three children (Dan 6:13; Dan 3:12). Jesus Christ himself was accused of perverting the nation, of forbidding to give tribute to Caesar, and of saying that he himself was Christ, a king (Luke 23:2). These things, then, have happened before. But,

(1) After a due examination of yourself, can you say that as to these things you are innocent and clear? I say, will your conscience justify you here? Have you made it your business to give to God the things that are God’s, and to Caesar the things that are his, as God has commanded? If so, never mind what men say, or with what lies and reproaches they slander you; for these things, count yourself happy. “Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you … and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely” (that is, lying) “for my sake,” says Christ. “Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you” (Matt 5:11-12).

Comfort yourself, therefore, in the innocence of your soul, and say, “I am counted a rebel, and yet I am loyal (1 Sam 24:8-12); I am counted a deceiver, and yet I am true” (2 Cor 6:8). Also refer your cause to the day of judgment. For if you can rejoice at the thought that you will be cleared of all slanders and evil speaking then, that will bear up your heart as to what you may suffer now. The answer of a good conscience will carry a man through hell to heaven. Count these slanders part of your sufferings, and among those for which God will give you a reward, because you are innocent and because they are laid on you for your profession’s sake. But if you are guilty, look to yourself; I am no comforter of such.

I come now to speak to the third and last part of the text, namely, the good effect that will certainly follow for those who, in a proper manner, take the advice given above: “Let them that suffer according to the will of God, commit the keeping of their souls to him in well-doing, as unto a faithful Creator” (1 Pet 4:19).

Two things in the last clause of the text still lie before us. By them it will be shown what good effect will follow for those who suffer according to the will of God and who commit their souls to his keeping: first, that such people will find him to be a Creator to them; and second, that they will find him a faithful Creator. “Let them commit the keeping of their souls to him, as unto a faithful Creator.”

In this phrase, “a faithful Creator,” see the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, how fitly and to the point he speaks. King is a great title, and God is sometimes called a King; but he is not presented here by that title. He is presented by the title of a Creator, for it is not always in the power of a king to help and relieve his subjects who are suffering for his crown and dignity. Father is a sweet title, a title that carries in it a hint of a great deal of tender affection and compassion, and God is often presented by this title too in the holy Scriptures. But he is not presented so here; he is presented rather as a Creator. For a father, even a compassionate father, cannot always help, aid, or relieve his children, though he knows they are in affliction! Oh, but a Creator can. That is why, I say, he is presented here under the title of a Creator.

1. A Creator! Nothing can die under a Creator’s hands. A Creator can sustain everything. A Creator can, as a Creator, do whatever he pleases. “The Lord, the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary” (Isa 40:28).

The cause of God, for which his people suffer, would have been dead and buried a thousand years ago if it had not been in the hand of a Creator. The people who have stood by his cause would have been wiped out long ago, in their persons, their name, and their memory, if they had not been in the hand of a Creator. When Israel was going in, even into the mouth of the Red Sea, who could have hoped that God’s cause or that people would ever revive again? A huge host of Egyptians was behind them, and nothing but death before them and on every side of them. Yet they lived, they flourished, they outlived their enemies, for they were in the hand of a Creator.

Who could have hoped that Israel would return again from the land, from the hand, and from under the tyranny of the king of Babylon? They could not keep themselves from being carried there. They could not keep themselves from being diminished once they came there. Their power was gone, they were in captivity, they were far from home, their enemies possessed their land, their fortified city was ruined, and their houses were burned to the ground. And yet they came home again. Nothing is impossible to a Creator.

Who could have thought that the three young men could live in a fiery furnace? That Daniel could be safe among the lions? That Jonah could come home to his country when he was in the whale’s belly? Or that our Lord would rise again from the dead? But what is impossible to a Creator?

This, then, is a rare thing to consider, and those who suffer according to the will of God, and who have committed the keeping of their souls to him in well-doing, should let their hearts become well acquainted with it. They have a Creator to maintain and uphold their cause, a Creator to oppose its opposers. And this is why it is said that all who burden themselves with Jerusalem “shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it” (Zech 12:3).

2. A Creator! A Creator can support not only a dying cause but fainting spirits as well. For just as he does not faint or grow weary, so “he giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might he increaseth strength” (Isa 40:29). He is the God of the spirits of all flesh, and he holds the life of his people’s spirits in his own hand. Spirits have their being from him; he is the Father of spirits. Spirits are made strong by him, and no one can crush the spirit that God the Creator will uphold.

Is it not an amazing thing to see one poor, insignificant man, in a spirit of faith and patience, overcome all the threats, cruelties, afflictions, and sorrows that a whole world can lay on him? No one can cow him, no one can crush him, no one can bend his spirit down. No one can make him forsake what he has received from God: a commandment to hold fast. His holy, harmless, and profitable thoughts, because they are spiced with grace, give him more comfort, joy, and peace, and kindle in his soul so goodly a fire of love to God and zeal for God that all the waters of the world will never be able to quench it.

“Ah,” some say, “that is because he is headstrong and obstinate, a man who will hear no reason.” No, I say; it is because his spirit is in the hand of a Creator, under his guidance and preservation. A Creator can make spirits, uphold spirits, and make one spirit stronger to stand than all the spirits of the world are to cast it down. To stand, I say, in a way of patient endurance in well-doing, against all that hell can do to suppress it.

3. A Creator! A Creator can bring down the spirits that oppose him and make them weak and unstable as water. The Lord, the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, nor is weary; there is no searching of his understanding. He gives power to the faint, and to those that have no might, he increaseth strength. And now mark this: “even the youth shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall” (Isa 40:28-30). A Creator can strike the spirits of his enemies with fear. God can put them in fear, and make them know that they are men and not God, and that their horses are flesh and not spirit. When the enemy came to take Jesus Christ, their spirits fainted and their hearts died within them; they went backward and fell to the ground. They had hard work to stir up their spirits to enough boldness and courage, even though they brought halberds, and staves, and swords, and weapons with them, to take one unarmed man (John 18:3-7).

And although this is not as visible to the world as some other things are, yet I believe that God treads down the spirits of men, at a time when they are afflicting his people, more often than we are aware of, or than they are willing to admit. How was the hostile spirit of Esau trodden down by God when he came out to meet his poor, defenseless brother with no fewer than four hundred armed men? He fainted before his brother, and instead of killing him, he kissed him (Gen 33:4). How was the bloody spirit of Saul trodden down when David met him at the mouth of the cave, and again at the hill of Hachilah (1 Sam 24; 1 Sam 26)? God is a Creator, and as a Creator he is a spirit maker, a spirit reviver, and a spirit destroyer. He can destroy both body and soul in hell (Luke 12:5).

4. A Creator! As a Creator, he is over all the arts, inventions, and crafts of men that are set to work to destroy God’s people, whether they are soldiers, gifted orators, or anyone else at all. We will single out one: the smith, that roaring fellow who makes a continual noise with his coals and his bellows. “I have created the smith,” says God, “that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy” (Isa 54:16). The smith, what is he? I answer, he is an idol maker, a promoter of false worship, and one who makes instruments of cruelty to help suppress the true worship (Isa 41:7; Isa 44:12; Isa 46:6).

“I have created the smith,” says God, “that bloweth the coals in the fire.” The idol inventor, the idol maker, the supporter of idol worship: he is my creature, says God. He says this to teach that he has power to reach that man, and to command his sword to come at him whenever he pleases, for all the smith’s roaring with his bellows and his coals in the fire. So then, the smith cannot do what he likes in the fire, nor with his idol once he has made it. The instrument he makes to defend his idol and to suppress God’s true worship will not do the thing he designed it for. And so the very next verse says, “No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper, and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord” (Isa 54:17). And the text says, moreover, “I have created the waster to destroy.” The waster, what is that? Why, the smith makes an idol, and God has made the rust; the smith makes a sword, and God has made the rust. The rust eats them up, the moth will eat them up, the fire will devour them. “The wicked,” says the Psalmist, “have drawn out the sword, and have bent their bow, to cast down the poor and needy, and to slay such as be of upright conversation. Their sword shall enter into their own heart, and their bows shall be broken” (Ps 37:14-15).

God can do all this because he is a Creator, and no one but God can do it. That is why the apostle, by this special title of Creator, prepares support for suffering saints. He also shows by it what a good outcome there is likely to be for those who suffer for righteousness’ sake according to his will, and who commit the keeping of their souls to him in well-doing, as to a faithful Creator.

5. A Creator! A Creator can make such provision for a suffering people, in every respect, as will answer all their needs. Have they lost their peace with the world? Do they have no more peace with this world? Why, a Creator can make, can create peace; he can create peace, peace: peace with God, and peace with one’s own conscience. And that is better than all the peace that can be found anywhere else in the world (Isa 57:19). Have they lost a good frame of heart? Do they lack a right frame of spirit? Why, though this is to be had nowhere in the world, a Creator can help them to it (Ps 51:10). Have they lost their spiritual defense? Do they lie too open to their spiritual enemies? Why, a Creator can help with this too. “And the Lord will create upon every dwelling place of Mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for upon all the glory shall be a defense” (Isa 4:5).

This is the work of the Spirit. For though the Spirit himself is uncreated, all his holy works in the heart are truly works of creation. Our new man is a creation; our graces are a creation; our joys and comforts are a creation (2 Cor 5:17-18; Eph 4:24; Isa 65:17-19). Now no one can destroy a creation but a Creator, and so here is comfort. But again, God has created us in Christ Jesus, and that is something more. The sun is created in the heavens; the stars are created in the heavens; the moon is created in the heavens. Who can reach them, touch them, or destroy them but the Creator? Why, this is the case of the saint. Because he has to do with a Creator, he is fastened to Christ; indeed, he is in Christ by an act of creation (Eph 2:10). So unless Christ and the creation of the Holy Spirit can be destroyed, the one who is suffering according to the will of God, and who has committed the keeping of his soul to him in well-doing, as to a faithful Creator, is safe.

And I would have you consider this as well. The man who suffers according to the will of God does not commit to this Creator the kind of soul that dwells in carnal men: a naked soul, a graceless soul, a soul that has nothing in it but sin. No, he commits a converted soul, a regenerate soul, a soul adorned, beautified, and sanctified with the jewels, and bracelets, earrings, and perfumes of the blessed Spirit of grace.

And I say again, this is the work of a Creator, and a Creator can maintain it in its splendor. And he will do so, even if he must put forth acts of creating power for it every day.

6. A Creator! He who can create can turn and change anything into what he himself would have it be. He who made “the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning” (Amos 5:8) can “make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water” (Isa 41:18). He can make our most afflicted and desolate conditions like a little haven to us. He can make us sing in the wilderness, and can give us our vineyards from there (Hos 2:14-15). He can make Paul sing in the stocks, and good Rowland Taylor dance as he goes to the burning stake. Jails, and mockings, and scourgings, and jeers, and imprisonments, and hunger, and nakedness, and peril, and sword, and dens, and caves, and rocks, and mountains: God can so sweeten them with the honey of his Word, and make them so renowned for their setting by the glory of his presence, and so rich and fruitful by the communications of the Holy Spirit, and so comfortable by the spreading of his feathers over us, that we will not be able to say that a more convenient place or comfortable condition can be found in all the world. Some have known this, and have been more ready to long to be there than to shun it and flee from it as a most distasteful condition.

All these things, I say, God does as a Creator. He created creatures that are natural enemies, and he can make those enemies come together and have kindness for one another. The lion and the calf, the wolf and the lamb, the little boy and the viper’s den: he can reconcile them and make them be at agreement. So with sufferings and the saint, the prison and the saint, losses, crosses, and afflictions and the saint: he can make them lie down sweetly together.

7. A Creator! A Creator can make up for all that you have lost, or will lose, for the sake of your profession of faith at the hands of the children of men, whether it is friends, relatives, a world, life, or anything else you can think of.

(1) Have you lost your friend for the sake of your profession? Is the whole world set against you for your love to God, to Christ, to his cause and righteousness? Why, a Creator can make up for it all. Here, then, is the advantage that the one who suffers for righteousness’ sake has. When David had lost the help of all his own relatives, Jonathan, the very son of bloody Saul, must take up with him, stick to him, and love him as he loved his own soul (1 Sam 18:1-3). When the saints were driven even underground by the rage of Jezebel the queen, Obadiah, Ahab’s steward, was appointed by God to feed them in caves and holes of the earth (1 Kgs 18:13). Yes, even the raven complied with the will of a Creator and brought the prophet bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening (1 Kgs 17:6). When Jeremiah the prophet was rejected by everyone, and even the church of that day could not help him, he was cast into the dungeon and sank deep there in the mire. Then God the Creator, who rules the spirits of all men, stirred up the heart of Ebed-melech the Ethiopian both to petition for his release and to get him out of the dungeon with the help of thirty men (Jer 38:7-13). These, as Christ says, were fathers, mothers, brothers, and sisters to them, and like a loving wife or child (Matt 19:29).

(2) Have you lost your share in the world for the sake of your faith and your profession of it? Why, a Creator can make you houses, as he did for the midwives of Egypt (Exod 1:20-21), and can build you a sure house, as he did for David his servant (2 Sam 7). These ventured all for the love they had for the fear of God and his way. David was thrust out of Saul’s house and driven from his own, and God opened the heart of Achish the king of Gath to receive him and to give him Ziklag (1 Sam 27:5). When David was under the tyranny of Saul, he did not know what to do with his father and his mother, who were persecuted for his sake; but a Creator inclined the heart of the king of Moab to receive them into house and shelter (1 Sam 22:3-4).

(3) Is your life at stake? Is it likely to go for your profession, for your harmless profession of the gospel? Why, God the Creator is Lord of life, and to God the Lord belong the issues from death. So then, he can, if he will, keep your breath in your nostrils in spite of all the world. Or if he lets them take your life away for his glory, he can give you another ten times as good for your comfort. “He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal” (John 12:25).

(4) Is your body to be disfigured, dismembered, starved, hanged, or burned for the faith and profession of the gospel? Why, a Creator can either prevent it, or, if he allows it, can restore your very same body to you again with great and manifold advantage. He who made you to be what you are now can make you to be what you never yet were. It does not yet appear what we shall be, except only in general words (1 John 3:2; Phil 3:21).

8. A Creator! Peter sets him before us here as a Creator because he would have us live on him as such, as well as on his grace, love, and mercy. In Job’s day it was lamented that none, or only a few, said, “Where is God my maker, who giveth songs in the night?” (Job 35:10).

Creator, as I hinted before, is one of God’s special titles. It is not given to him more than five or six times in the whole Book of God. And usually, when it is given to him, it is either to show his greatness, or else to convince us that it is our duty to depend on him, and not to faint, if he is on our side, because of any adversity or under it. This is just what we are bidden to do in the text: “Let them that suffer according to the will of God, commit the keeping of their souls to him in well-doing, as unto a faithful Creator.” Shall God display his glory before us under the character and title of a Creator, and shall we still fear man? Shall he do this for us when we are in a suffering condition, and do it on purpose so that we might commit our souls to him in well-doing and be quiet, and shall we take no notice of it? “Who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made as grass; and forgettest the Lord thy maker, that hath stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth?” (Isa 51:12-13).

Even if God had concealed the fact that he is a Creator, yet since he presents himself to us in his Word under so many excellent titles, titles given to no other god besides him, I think it should make us bold in our God. But when, for our relief, he adds to all the rest that he truly is a Creator, this should make us rest in hope indeed.

Every nation will have confidence in its own gods, though they are only gods made with hands, only the work of the smith and the carpenter. And shall we not trust in the name of the Lord our God (Mic 4:5), who is not only a God but the Creator and former of all things, and consequently the only living and true God, and the one who alone can sustain us? We are therefore greatly to blame if we overlook the ground, such ground of support and comfort as presents itself to us under the title of a Creator. But we are most of all to blame if, when we have heard, believed, and known that our God is such, we are still afraid of a man who must die, and forget the Lord our maker.

We, I say, have heard, seen, known, and believed that our God is the Creator. The heavens declare his glory and the firmament shows his handiwork, and so he has shown us “his eternal power and Godhead” (Rom 1:20).

Look, then, you fearful worm, Jacob: look at the heavens, the sun, the moon, the stars. Look at the earth, the sea, the air, the fire, and the vapors. Look at all living things, from leviathan and behemoth down to the least thing that creeps in the earth and the waters. Yes, look at yourself, your soul, your body, your form, your frame, and consider: your God made all these things, and gave you this being. Yes, and he made all this out of what does not appear (Heb 11:1-3). This is what Peter calls you to consider in the text, when he lets fall from his apostolic meditation that your God is the Creator, and commands that you, in your suffering for him according to his will, should commit the keeping of your soul to him as to a faithful Creator.

The one who has the skill to do this, and who can do it in his hard straits, will never be trodden down. His God and his faith, his faith and his God, are able to make him stand. For such a man will reason like this: since the Creator of all is with him, what is there to be against him but creatures? So then, what is the axe, that it should boast itself against the one who chops with it? Or the saw, that it should magnify itself against the one who works it? That would be as if the rod should shake itself against the one who lifts it up, or as if the staff should lift itself up as though it were not wood (Isa 10:15). Read also Isaiah 40:12-31, and then say whether God as Creator is not a sure confidence to all the ends of the earth who trust in him and wait on him. As Creator, he has formed and upholds all things. Yes, his hands have formed the crooked serpent (Job 26:13), and so that serpent too is held at bay by him. And you, Lord, have made the dragon in the sea; and therefore it follows that you can cut and wound him (Isa 51:9), and give him as food to the birds and to the beasts that inhabit the wilderness (Ps 74:13-14), if he seeks to swallow up and destroy the church and people of God (Ezek 29:3-4).

9. A Creator is God! The God to whom those who suffer according to his will are to commit the keeping of their souls is the Creator. And does he take charge of them as a Creator? Then this should teach us to be far from being dismayed, as the heathen are, at his signs; for our God, the Lord, is the true God, the living God, the King of eternity (Jer 10:1-2, 10). We should glory and rejoice, with trembling, when we see him at work in the world, even in the most terrible of his dealings. God the Creator will sometimes mount up and ride through the earth in such majesty and glory that he makes everyone stand in their tent doors to watch him. Oh, how he rode in his chariots of salvation when he went to save his people out of the land of Egypt! How he shook the nations! Then “his glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise. And his brightness was as the light; he had horns coming out of his hand: and there was the hiding of his power. Before him went the pestilence, and burning coals went forth at his feet. He stood, and measured the earth: he beheld, and drove asunder the nations; and the everlasting mountains were scattered, the perpetual hills did bow: his ways are everlasting.” Then the prophet says, “I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction: and the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble. Was the Lord displeased against the rivers? was thine anger against the rivers? was thy wrath against the sea, that thou didst ride upon thine horses and thy chariots of salvation?” (Hab 3:3-8).

So David: “The earth shook and trembled,” he says; “the foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken, because he was wroth. There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it. He bowed the heavens also, and came down: and darkness was under his feet. And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly: yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind. He made darkness his secret place; his pavilion round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies. At the brightness that was before him his thick clouds passed, hail stones and coals of fire. The Lord also thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave his voice; hail stones and coals of fire. Yea, he sent out his arrows, and scattered them; and he shot out lightnings, and discomfited them. Then the channels of waters were seen, and the foundations of the world were discovered at thy rebuke, O Lord, at the blast of the breath of thy nostrils” (Ps 18:7-15).

These are glorious things, though they are dealings that shake the world. God is worthy to be seen in his dealings as well as in his Word, though the nations tremble at his presence. “Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down,” says the prophet, “that the mountains might flow down at thy presence!” (Isa 64:1). We know God, and he is our God, our own God; of whom, or of what, should we be afraid (Ps 46)? When God roars out of Zion and utters his voice from Jerusalem, when the heavens and the earth shake, the Lord will be the hope of his people and the strength of the children of Israel (Joel 3:16).

Every man keeps his spirit up or lets it fail according to what he knows of the nature of a thing. He who knows the sea knows the waves will toss themselves. He who knows a lion will not much wonder to see his paw or to hear the voice of his roaring. And shall we who know our God be struck with panic when he comes out of his holy place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity? We should stand like those who are next to the angels, and tell the blind world who it is that is mounted on his steed like this, who has the clouds for the dust of his feet, and who rides like this on the wings of the wind. We should say to them, “This God is our God for ever and ever, and he shall be our guide even unto death” (Ps 48:14).

Our God! The Creator! He can turn men to destruction and say, “Return, ye children of men” (Ps 90:3). When our God shows himself, the sight is worth seeing, even if it costs us all we have to see it. Some men will bless and admire every rascally conjurer who can merely put back together what they only seemed to break, or do something that seems to go beyond reason; yes, even though they make thunderings and noise in the place where they are, as though the devil himself were there. Shall saints, then, like slaves, be afraid of their God, the Creator? Of their own God, when he tears open the heavens and comes down? When God comes into the world to do great things, he must come like himself, like one who is a Creator. So the heavens and the earth must move at his presence, to show that they acknowledge him as such, and pay him the homage that is due to him as their God and great Creator.

We who are Christians have been trained up by his Son in his school for many a day. We have been told what a God our Father is, what an arm he has, and with what a voice he can thunder; how he can deck himself with majesty and excellency, and array himself with beauty and glory; how he can cast abroad the rage of his wrath, and look on everyone who is proud, and bring him low (Job 40:9-11). Haven’t we talked about what he did at the Red Sea, and in the land of Ham, many years ago? And have we forgotten him now? Haven’t we bragged and boasted of our God in church, in the pulpit, and in books? Haven’t we spoken in praise of those who, instead of stones, set out to drive antichrist out of the world with their lives and their blood? And are we afraid of our God?

He was God, a Creator, then; and is he not God now? And will he not be as good to us as to those who have gone before us? Or would we limit him to appear only in ways that smile on our flesh, and have him hold back and not show himself in his heart-shaking dealings until we are dead and gone? What if we must go to heaven now? What if he has come down like this to fetch us to himself? If we have been wise as serpents and innocent as doves, if we can say, “Neither against the law of the Jews, neither against the temple, nor against Caesar, have we offended anything at all” (Acts 25:8), what should we be afraid of? Let heaven and earth crash together; I dare say they will not hurt us.

Our Lord Jesus, when he spoke at length about some of the great and necessary works of our Creator, put a check beforehand on all unseemly fears, on fears that do not suit the faith and profession of a Christian. “Brother,” he says, “shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake” (Matt 10:21-22). What follows? “Fear them not” (Matt 10:28); and again, “Fear ye not” (Matt 10:31).

So again: “Nation shall rise against nation … there shall be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes…. They shall deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you…. Many shall be offended, and shall betray one another…. And many false prophets shall arise, and deceive many” (Matt 24:7-11; Mark 13:5-9). And yet for all this we are told not to be afraid. For all these things, along with all others, are ordered, limited, enlarged and narrowed, hemmed in and bounded by the will and hand and power of that God to whom Peter tells us to commit the keeping of our souls, as to a faithful Creator. To wait for God in the way of his judgments is very fitting for a Christian.

To believe that he loves us when he shows himself terrible to us is also very fitting for us. Why has he given us grace? Is it so that we should live by sight and feeling? Why has he sometimes visited us? Is it so that our hearts might be turned away from him, and that we should still love the world? And I say again, why has he told us so plainly of his greatness, and of what he can do? Isn’t it so that we might be still when the world is in turmoil, and that we might hope for good things to come out of providences that, to our senses, look as if they would eat up and devour everything?

Let us wait on God, walk with God, believe in God, and commit ourselves, our souls and our bodies, to God, to be kept. Yes, let us be content to be at God’s disposal, and rejoice to see him act according to all his wondrous works. For this is a posture that is highly fitting for those who say of God that he is their Father, and who have committed the keeping of their souls to him as to a Creator. It is a lovely thing for the soul that fears God to love and reverence him in all his appearances. We should be like the spaniel, lying at the foot of our God as the dog lies at the foot of his master. Yes, we should be glad if we could only see his face, even though he treads us down with his feet.

“Yes,” says one of his sons, “so I could, if I thought this high God would regard me, and take notice of my laying my soul at his foot while I suffer for his Word and truth in the world.” Why, just look how the Holy Spirit, for our help, hedges up the way by which unbelief would come in, so that on this point no room might be left for doubting. For as he calls the God to whom we are told to commit the keeping of our souls a Creator, so he says that he is a Creator who is faithful: “Let them commit the keeping of their souls unto him in well-doing, as unto a faithful Creator” (1 Pet 4:19). He is a Creator who will concern himself with the soul committed to his trust, and who will be faithful to it, according to all that he has promised.

This faithfulness of God, then, added to his might and power, is in itself a ground of great support to those who, in a way of well-doing, have committed themselves, their souls, to him to keep. A Creator: what is there that a Creator cannot do? A faithful Creator: what is there that one who is faithful will not do, that is, once he is engaged? And now he is engaged, because you have committed your soul to him to keep, and because he has told you to do so: “Let them commit the keeping of their soul to him, as unto a faithful Creator.”

I have sometimes seen an unfaithful man bound to his trust when a thing has been committed to him to keep. A man who is a thief, a cheat, a swindler, will still be faithful to anyone who commits a charge to him to keep. And the reason is this: though he can steal, cheat and swindle without being noticed, he must be seen and known if he is false in what has been committed to him to keep. I know the comparison is distasteful, yet such comparisons have been made by a holier mouth than mine. And as the case may be, they may be the fittest of all to illustrate what a man is setting out to explain. “Hark what the unjust judge saith,” says the Lord Jesus Christ (Luke 18).

To commit your soul to God is to trust him with it. To commit your soul to God is to engage him to look after it. And if he should not be faithful now, he will not be faithful in any case. For he himself has told you to do it; he has also promised to keep it, as was already shown in the former part of this discourse. Besides, he is said here to be faithful, to be a faithful Creator. He claims this faithfulness for himself alone: “Yea, let God be true, but every man a liar” (Rom 3:4). This, then, still helps to encourage those of us who would be faithful to him to commit the keeping of our souls to him. A faithful man will encourage a person a great deal; how much more should the faithfulness of God encourage us?

Here, then, we have a closing word indeed, a word to wrap up the text with that is as full of good as the sun is of light. What could be more fitly spoken? What can be added? What is now lacking to help the one who has committed his soul to God to keep while he is suffering according to his will in the world? God is engaged, as I said, by the act: you have committed your soul to him to keep. He is engaged by his own Word: he has told you to commit your soul to him to keep. He is engaged by declaring himself to be faithful, for that is what has encouraged you to commit your soul to him to keep. Besides, he has promised to do it; he has sworn to do it.

“For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself, saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. And so, after he had patiently endured,” (as you must do) “he obtained the promise. For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife. Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath: that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an High Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec” (Heb 6:13-20).

So you see what ground we have, we who suffer according to the will of God, and who have committed the keeping of our souls to him in well-doing, as to a faithful Creator. Here, then, I might stop and conclude this advice. But now that we are in, we will go a little further and take up three or four more particulars.

1. He will be faithful to us in this: he will keep us from those allurements of the world that a suffering saint is exposed to. Those who suffer have other kinds of temptations on this account than other Christians have. The liberty of others, while they are in chains, is a temptation to them. The peace of others, while they are in trouble, is a temptation to them. The comforts others enjoy, while their own houses are empty and their goods are being taken away, while their own water is sold to them and they are buying their own wood (Lam 5:4), are a great temptation to them. And this temptation would certainly be a great snare to them, were it not that we have to do with a God who is faithful. But “God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted,” as to this, “above that ye are able” (1 Cor 10:13).

No, a suffering man not only has these things lying before him as a temptation, but perhaps the wife of his bosom presses him, saying, “Oh, don’t throw yourself away! If you take this course, what will I do? You have said you love me; now prove it by granting me this small request. Don’t go on holding fast to your integrity.” Next to this come the children, who are all likely to come to poverty, to beggary, to be ruined for lack of the means to feed and clothe them and provide for them in time to come. Now also come kindred and relatives and acquaintances. Some scold, some cry, some argue, some threaten, some promise, some flatter, and some do all of these, to make him out a fool for so ill-advised an act as to throw himself away, and to bring his wife and children to beggary for such a thing as religion. These are heavy temptations.

Next to these come the terrors of men, the grip of the laws, the shadow of death, and who knows what else. All of these are enough to pull a man away from the gates of life, even if he were standing there, if the faithful Creator does not stand by him. “But God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” “But God is faithful.” It does not say that you are, but “God is faithful”: to his Son, to whom he has given you; to his promise, which he has given you; to his cause, to which he has called you; and to your soul, which you have committed to his trust, and which he also has taken charge of, as he is a faithful Creator.

“And will not suffer thee to be tempted.” What, not tempted? No, not above what you are able to bear. The one who tempts you does not consider your strength at all, so as to stop when he sees that you are weak. He wants to see you overthrown; that is the very reason he tempts you. But God will not allow that, because he is faithful, and because you have committed the keeping of your soul to him in well-doing, as to a faithful Creator.

“Not tempted above that ye are able.” He does not say, above what you are well able to bear. Your strength will indeed be proportioned to the temptation, but you may have none left over to spare. You will not have a bigger load than God will give you shoulders to bear. Christ bore his burden, but carrying it made him cry out and sweat as it were great drops of blood. You will bear your burden and not be destroyed by it; but perhaps you may sometimes roar under it by reason of the turmoil of your heart.

“But he will with the temptation make a way of escape.” “With the temptation,” not without it: you must be tempted, and you must escape too. “With the temptation”: as surely as Satan is licensed, so surely he is limited; and when Satan has ended all the temptation, he will depart from you (Luke 4:13). “He will with the temptation”: that is, by such a handling of it as will make it break its own neck. God can allow Satan to tempt, and make the Christian wise to handle the temptation so as to escape.

“Make a way.” It may be that you see no way of escape. It may be that there is no way, no way in all the world, to escape. Well, but God can make a way. When Israel was hemmed in at the Red Sea, there was at that time no way, no way in all the world, to escape. Oh, but God made a way, and a pathway too, and that through the mighty waters (Exod 15:8, 16; Ps 106:9; Ps 78:13). He will make a way with the temptation, or “will with the temptation make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” These are the words of the Holy Spirit, who is God. And they are spoken, yes, committed to the record, for this very purpose: that those who are under affliction might commit the keeping of their souls to him in well-doing, as to a faithful Creator. That is the first.

2. He will also be faithful to us in this: he will give us a sufficient measure of wisdom, so that in our suffering condition we may in all things be made able to manage our situation with discretion. Perhaps we are weak in natural abilities, in gifts of speech, or the like, while our adversaries are learned, eloquent and highly gifted. You have the disadvantage on your side, and they have all the world can offer to encourage them. You are weak in spirit; they are bold and strong. The great and the mighty are with your enemies, but on your side there is no comforter (Eccl 4:1).

Why, here, as to this and anything else that can be raised against us, is the faithfulness of God engaged. First, in a general promise: “I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee” (Josh 1:5; Heb 13:5-6). Second, we have an invitation to come to this faithful God for wisdom to assist and help us. For after he has said, “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations … and let patience have her perfect work,” he adds, “If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him” (Jas 1:2-5). Here is more than an invitation; here is a promise, “it shall be given him.” And all this is to show us what a faithful Creator we have committed our souls to. Does anyone lack wisdom to know how to conduct himself in a time of trial? Let him ask it of God, of the God who is wisdom itself. Let him ask it of God, the generous giver, who gives all men all that they have, and does not reproach them for their unworthiness.

Nor does the Holy Spirit stop here, but he speaks more fully, in a more particular way, to those who suffer according to the text, saying, “But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak” (Matt 10:19).

I have often been amazed in my mind at this text. For how could Jesus Christ have said such a word if he had not been able to perform it? This text, then, declares him to be God. It is also a proof of his faithfulness to those who suffer for him.

For it is as if he should say, “Try me and trust me. If I do not stand by you in a day of distress, never believe me again”: you, that is, who suffer according to the will of God and commit your souls to him in well-doing. “I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay or resist,” for that is how he puts it in Luke 21:15. Here there is no consideration of what ability the people who were to be persecuted might have. But what does it matter what they are? If they are fools, it does not matter; if they are wise, it helps nothing. A mouth and wisdom are to be given, and that by itself will do. And this agrees with that other Scripture mentioned before, where it says, “No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn” (Isa 54:17). It may happen in this, as in the former temptation, that the devil and his agents give the saints, in their pleading for the truth, their bellies full of contrary answers, double-talk, sophistries, wrong glosses and erroneous interpretations. But truth will prevail, will turn the scale, and will carry off the victory.

3. He will also be faithful to us in this: we will not lack spiritual support to help us bear up under our particular portions of suffering. I do not say that you will be comforted the whole time. But I do say he will be so faithful to you as to comfort you under those whirlwinds, gusts, blasts or battering storms that beat against your wall (Isa 32:2). Look, then, at whatever present degrees or aggravating appearances there are in your afflictions; to that degree you will at times be supported. For as surely as the Spirit of God ever moved Samson at times in the camp of Dan, when he lay against the Philistines, so surely will the Spirit of God move in you and upon you, to comfort and strengthen you while you suffer for his name in the world. As our afflictions abound for Christ, so will our consolations abound by him (2 Cor 1:5). I have observed that God lays this fact, that he is accustomed to comfort his people in a time of suffering, as an aggravation of sin on those who were accustomed to tremble and shrink under sufferings. “I,” he says, “even I, am he that comforteth you: who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die?” (Isa 51:12).

“God,” says the wise man, “hath set the one over against the other,” the day of adversity and the day of prosperity, “to the end that man should find nothing after him” to complain of (Eccl 7:14). For as certainly as there is a time to mourn, so certainly there is a time to rejoice (Eccl 3:4): set, I say, for those who suffer for God’s cause according to God’s will.

There are several degrees of suffering for righteousness. There is the scourge of the tongue, the ruin of an estate, the loss of liberty, a jail, a gallows, a stake, a dagger. Now, matching these, the comforts of the Holy Spirit are prepared, like to like, part proportioned to part; only the consolations are said to abound (2 Cor 1).

But the lighter the sufferings are, the harder it is to judge the comforts of the Spirit of God. For it is common for a man to be cheerful under sufferings when he suffers only a little, and also knows that his enemy can touch his flesh, his estate, or the like, only a little. I say, it is common for such a man to be cheerful in his sufferings, from the consideration that his enemies can touch him no further. And this may be the joy of the flesh, the product of reason, and may be very much, if not altogether, without any mixture of the joy of the Holy Spirit. So the deeper and the more dreadful the sufferings are, the more clearly the comforts of the Spirit are seen, when a man has comfort where the flesh is dead, does not stir, and can do nothing. When a man can be comforted at the loss of everything, when he is under the sentence of death or at the place of execution, when a man’s cause, a man’s conscience, the promise and the Holy Spirit all have one comforting voice, and all together, with their trumpets, make one sound in the soul, then the comforts are good, of the right kind, of God and his Spirit.

I told you before that there are several degrees of sufferings. So it is not to be expected that one who suffers only a little should share in the comforts that are prepared for those who suffer much. One who has only the scourge of the tongue does not know what comforts are prepared for one who meets with the scourge of the whip. And how should a man know what kind of comforts the Holy Spirit is accustomed to give at the jail and the gallows, when he himself has never been there for righteousness’ sake?

But whether this Christian or that one knows it, God has his consolations for his suffering people, and those too such as are proportioned to the nature or degree of their sufferings. And these will certainly be made to appear to those who, in a godly manner, stick to his truth and trust him with their souls. Joseph was thrown into prison, but God was with him. John was banished to the island called Patmos for the Word of God; but what revelations of God he had there! Such as he had been a stranger to all his life before. This, then, should be well noted. For it is a demonstration of the faithfulness of God to those who, suffering according to his will, commit the keeping of their souls to him in well-doing, as to a faithful Creator.

4. He will also be faithful to us in this: he will not let the sharpness, or keenness, or venom of the arrows of his people’s enemies reach so far as to destroy both body and soul at once. Rather, he will preserve them, when all that can be done has been done, to his eternal kingdom and glory. To be preserved in this way to his eternal kingdom and glory is a marvelous thing; but it must be so, because God has called them to it. So, after Peter had told them that the devil, their adversary, was seeking to devour them, and had told them to resist him, steadfast in the faith, he says, “But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal [kingdom and] glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you” (1 Pet 5:10).

The truth is, God never intended the persecution of the godly for their destruction, but for their glory, and to make them shine all the more when they are beyond this valley of the shadow of death. It is true that when we are persecuted we often feel the terrors of our adversaries in our minds. But that is not because they can shoot their terrors in there, nor because they have power of themselves to reach so far. It is because we, like fools, let them in through our ignorance and unbelief.

No suffering, and no one who inflicts suffering, can reach the peace of the sufferer without his own consent. This is a provision of God’s own making. Yes, and if through our folly their terror is let in to touch us, yet since we are not our own but are bought with a price, we are not so much at our own disposal that God will not keep the setting of limits and bounds to their rage, and also a power to uphold and support our spirits. “When I said my foot slipped, thy mercy, O Lord, held me up” (Ps 94:18). And the reason why, by God’s ordinance, the spirit is not to be touched in suffering is that the spirit is what must sustain the sufferer in his weakness. So God will have the spirits of his servants kept sound and in good health (Prov 18:14; Isa 57:16).

The room, then, and the ground the enemy has to play on, is the body and outward substance of the people of God. But the spirit is reserved, for the reason given before, and also so that it might be capable of keeping up communion with God. Otherwise, how could they obey that command that tells them to rejoice in tribulation (Rom 12), and to glorify God in the fires (Isa 24:15)?

But, I say, if they do not have power to touch the spirit, much less do they have power to destroy body and soul forever. The body is God’s, and he gives that over to them to destroy. The spirit is God’s, and he keeps that to himself. He does this to show both that he has power to do with us what he pleases, and that he will recover our bodies also out of their hands. For if the spirit lives, so must the body, when men have done what they can to it. This is the argument of our Lord Jesus Christ himself (Luke 20:37-38). Therefore the faithfulness of God not only is, but also will be, seen by those who dare to trust him until the next world, to his glory and their eternal comfort.

We will now conclude with a short word by way of use. You see how I have opened the text, and what has naturally followed from it. From the whole of it, the following may be gathered.

Use 1. The people of God are a suffering people, a people subject to trouble for their faith and profession. The reason is, besides what has been said already, that the power of truth is in their hearts and shows itself in their lives, and that is a thing the devil and the world can by no means abide. “He that is born after the flesh persecuteth him that is born after the Spirit” (Gal 4:29). For they cannot agree in religion. The godly are so devout, and the others are so profane, that they cannot do it. Not that God’s people are unwilling to let them alone; as they are commanded, they are willing to do so (Matt 15:14). But the others cannot bear that the godly should serve God as they have said they will, and from this persecution arises. The world would also have the religion of the godly counted false. That is a thing the godly can by no means endure. Instead they will stand by their own ways and maintain them before the world, yet always in a peaceable manner, whatever it costs.

The Christian and the carnal professor are like those two harlots you read of in the book of Kings, who fought over the living child, whose it should be (1 Kgs 3). Their contest could not be decided until it came to the king’s sword. But when the sword was drawn, with a show as if the living child must now be cut in two, then the true mother was known from the false, for her heart yearned over her son (1 Kgs 3:26-27). The world, whatever show it makes of religion, and however it insists that the truth is on its side, has no yearning of heart for it. “Let it be neither mine nor thine,” said she, “but divide it.” But the woman whose the living child was had no heart to say so. Religion may lie and die in a ditch for all that those who are given to their sins care. Nor does their zeal show itself, except when they are gripping the godly man for his faith toward God. Compassion, a yearning of the heart over God’s condemned religion, is found only in the souls of those who acknowledge that God has made it.

Use 2. Is it so? Are God’s people a suffering people? Then this should tell those who mean to be religious to prepare themselves for what is likely to come upon them for their religion. To prepare, I say, not with carnal weapons, but with the graces of the Spirit of God, which will help them to endure with meekness and patience. Sit down, then, I say, and count the cost before you engage too far in religion. Otherwise you may take it upon yourself to meddle with something you will not know what to do with in the end (Prov 25:8; Luke 14:25-30).

Many are at fault here. They have taken it upon themselves to profess, without considering what the thing they have taken in hand may cost them. So when troubles really come, they start and cry out. They do not like this, because they did not look for it. And if this is the way to heaven, then let whoever will go on in it, for all they care. So they take offense, and leave Christ’s cause and people to shift for themselves in the world (Matt 13:20-21).

Use 3. But let God’s people think none the worse of religion because of the rough welcome it meets with in the world. It is better to choose God and affliction than the world, and sin, and carnal peace. It is necessary that we should suffer, because we have sinned. And if God will have us suffer a little while here for his Word, instead of suffering for our sins in hell, let us be content, and count it a mercy with thankfulness.

“The wicked is reserved to the day of destruction: they shall be brought forth to the day of wrath” (Job 21:30). How kindly, then, God deals with us when he chooses to afflict us for only a little while, so that with everlasting kindness he may have mercy on us (Isa 54:7-8). And “it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well-doing than for evil-doing” (1 Pet 3:17).

Use 4. Do not look upon the sufferings of God’s people for their religion, then, as tokens of God’s great anger. As our heavenly Father orders it, it is, to be sure, rather a token of his love. For suffering for the gospel, and for the sincere profession of it, is indeed a dignity put upon us, and a dignity that not all men are counted worthy of. Count it a favor, then, that God has bestowed his truth upon you, and graces to enable you to profess it, though you are made to suffer for it (Acts 5:41). You might have been a sufferer for your sins in hell, but you are not. On the contrary, you are perhaps suffering for conscience toward God, and this is a dignity. For you do this by virtue of a heavenly gift, on behalf of Christ, for the gospel’s sake, and according to the will of God (Phil 1:29). This is a dignity that a persecutor will not be counted worthy of until he first turns to Christ.

Use 5. Take your affliction with meekness and patience, even though you endure grief wrongfully. “For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully” (1 Pet 2:19). Lay your hand on your mouth, then, and do not speak a word of ill against the one who does you wrong. Leave your cause and your enemy to God. Yes, rather pray that his sin may not be laid to his charge. So, as I said before, show yourself a good man now by loving, pitying, praying for, and doing good to those who treat you spitefully, as you are commanded (Matt 5:44). I know your flesh will be apt to huff, and to be angry, and to wish you could revenge yourself. But this is base, carnal, sensual, and devilish. Cast such thoughts from you, then, as thoughts not fit for a Christian’s breast, and take up those weapons that are not carnal (2 Cor 10:4). For a Christian’s artillery is the Word, faith, and prayer, and in our patience we must possess our souls (Luke 21:16-19).

Use 6. Think much about the all-sufficiency of your Father, whose cause you have embraced, whose Word you have chosen for your inheritance, and whose paths you delight to walk in. I say, think much about how the whole world is sustained by him, and how all life and breath are in his hand, to continue or diminish as he pleases. Consider also how able he is to rescue you from all affliction, or to uphold you in it with a quiet mind. Go to him continually, as to a fountain of life that stands open to supply the needy. Remember too that if he does not come at your call, and does not comfort you as soon as you would like, it is not for lack of love or compassion toward your soul. It is to try your graces, and to show the fallen angels that you will serve God for nothing rather than give up. And if it seems to you that God takes no care to help you, but has rather handed you over to the ungodly, count this too as a sign that he delights to see you hold fast his name, though you are placed under the greatest disadvantages. “If the scourge slay suddenly” (that is more than it has done to you), “he will laugh at the trial of the innocent” (Job 9:23).

It is a great delight to our God to see his people hold fast their integrity, and not deny his name, when they are under such cloudy dealings and discouraging circumstances. And to consider that your doing so is pleasing in his sight through Christ will be a support to you. God sees you, though you cannot see him now. He observes your way now, though darkness is all around him. And when he has tried you, you will come forth like gold.

Use 7. Beware of setting a boundary and limit to your sufferings, unless that limit is the grave. Do not say to those who afflict you, “Hitherto, and no further, and here shall your proud waves be stayed.” I say, beware of doing this, for fear that God should let them go beyond your limit. For a man is not prepared to suffer any further than he thinks the enemy may be allowed to go. That is why Christ sets their bounds at the loss of life, and no nearer. So then, as far as they go beyond your limit, so far they will find you unprepared, and not fortified to meet their attack with the Christian gallantry that becomes you. Look at Paul. He died daily; he was always delivered to death; he despaired of life. And this is the way to be prepared for any calamity. When a man thinks he has only to prepare for an attack by foot soldiers, how will he contend with horses? Or if he looks no further than horses, what will he do in the swellings of the Jordan (Jer 12:5)? So set your enemies no bounds. Do not say, “They will not pursue me to the death.” Have the sentence of death in yourself. For though they may only tease and toy with you at first, their sword may reach your heart’s blood at last. The cat at play with the mouse is sometimes a fitting picture of the way of the wicked with the children of God. So, as I said, be always dying; die daily. The one who is ready not only to be bound but to die is fit to meet any terror.

Use 8. If your enemies want to put you under a cloud, or actually do; if they wrap you up in a bear’s skin and then set the dogs on you, do not marvel at it. This was the portion of Joseph, of David, of Christ, and of Stephen. Only be innocent. Say nothing and do nothing that would make you guilty. Yes, always say and do what will show you to be a good neighbor, a good Christian, and a faithful subject. This is the way to help you make your appeals to God with boldness. This is the way to set your face boldly against the faces of your enemies. This is the way to keep your conscience quiet and peaceful within you. And this is the way to move God to appear for your rescue, or to avenge your blood when you are gone.

And do this because it is your duty (we must fear God and honor the king), and because this is the way to make your enemies’ work hard. Few men have the boldness to say, “I do this against you because you profess Christ.” When they persecuted the Lord himself, they said to him, “For a good work we stone thee not” (John 10:33). Pure religion is a hot thing, and it usually burns the fingers of those who fight against it. So it is not common for men to oppose religion in its own naked colors. That is why the Jews tried to fasten other charges on Christ, so as to kill him for those, though their great spite against him was for his doctrine and his miracles. It was out of envy at these that they set themselves against him, and that is what made them invent a charge of rebellion and treason against him (Matt 27:18; Luke 23:2).

Use 9. So it becomes all godly men to make it their aim to be quiet, to mind their own business, and, as much as lies in them, to be at peace with all men, owing no one anything but love. Pray, then, for all who are in authority. Pray for the peace of the country where you live. Keep company with holy, quiet, and peaceable men. Seek the advancement of godliness by every good means. Bear injuries, be good to the poor, do good in return for evil, and be patient toward all men, for “these things are good and profitable unto men” (Titus 3:8).

Do not be inclined to injure men behind their backs. Speak evil of no one. Do not revile the governor or his actions, since he is set over you. All his ways are God’s, either for your help or for the trial of your graces. So he needs your prayers, not your abuse; your peaceable conduct, not a troublesome life. I know that none of these things can save you from being devoured by the mouth of the sons of Belial (1 Kgs 21:12-13). Only, what I say is duty; it is profitable, it is commendable, it is necessary. And when the devil has done his worst, it will make you lovely to your friends, terrible to your enemies, and serviceable in your place as a Christian. It will also crown the memory of your name with a blessing among those who survive you: “The memory of the just is blessed: but the name of the wicked shall rot” (Prov 10:7).

Use 10. I will conclude, then, with a word to those professors, if there are any such, who are of an unquiet and troublesome spirit. Friends, I may say to you what our Lord once said to his disciples: “Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of” (Luke 9:55). To wish the destruction of your enemies does not become you. If you were born and called for this, that you may inherit a blessing, then please be generous with your blessing: “Bless, and curse not” (Rom 12:14). If you believe that the God whom you serve is the supreme governor, and is also wise enough to manage the affairs of the world for his church, then please keep your fingers off, and refrain from doing evil. If the counsel of Gamaliel was good when it was given to the enemies of God’s people, why is it not fit to be given to Christians themselves? Therefore “refrain from these men, and let them alone.” If the work these men are doing is something God will promote and establish forever, then you cannot overthrow it. If it is not, God has appointed the time of its fall (Acts 5:38-39).

A Christian, and of a troublesome spirit! For shame, stop it. Show your works out of a good life, with meekness of wisdom. And here let me set before you three or four things.

1. Consider that though Cain was an outright murderer, God forbade anyone to meddle with him, on pain of having it avenged sevenfold on his own head. “And the Lord said unto him, Therefore, whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold” (Gen 4:15). But why not meddle with Cain, since he was a murderer? The reason is that he persecuted his brother for righteousness’ sake, and so took up a quarrel against God. For whoever persecutes another for righteousness’ sake sets himself against God, fights against God, and seeks to overthrow him. Now the Christian must let such a man alone and stand clear of him, so that God may have his full blow at him in his own time. That is why he says to his saints, and to all who are eager to revenge themselves, Give way, stand back, let me come; leave such a man to be handled by me. “Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath; for it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord” (Rom 12:19). That is why the Lord set a mark on Cain, lest anyone who found him should kill him. You must not, indeed you must not, avenge yourselves on your enemies. Yes, though it was lawful once to do so, it is not lawful now. “Ye have heard that it hath been said to them of old time, Thou shalt love thy neighbour and hate thine enemy”; but I say, said our Lord, Love them, bless them, do good to them, and pray for them that hate you (Matt 5:43-44).

2. Consider that revenge is of the flesh. I mean this revenge of ours on our own behalf. It proceeds from anger, wrath, impatience under the cross, and unwillingness to suffer, and from too much love of carnal ease, of estates, of comforts, of relations, and the like. It also flows from a fearful, cowardly spirit. There is nothing great in it, unless it is greatness of perversity. I know that for all this there may be pretenses to justice, to righteousness, to the liberty of the gospel, to the suppressing of wickedness, and to the promoting of holiness. But these can only be pretenses, or at best the fruits of a wrongheaded zeal. For since the Lord has forbidden us to do this, as has often been said in this treatise, it cannot be imagined that he would still stir anyone up to such a thing by the Holy Spirit and the working of his graces. Let those who are so minded, then, if there are any such, be counted the narrow-spirited, carnal, fleshly, angry, waspish professors. They are the professors who know more of the Jewish religion than of the Christian, and who would rather indulge the impulses, passions, and gross stirrings of an angry mind than meekly comply with the will of a heavenly Father. You are told to be like him, and you are also shown in what way (Matt 5:45-48).

Here is a man who hates God, blasphemes his name, and despises his being; yes, he says there is no God. And yet the God he treats in this way gives him his breakfast, dinner, and supper. He clothes him well, and when night comes, he puts him to bed and gives him good rest. He blesses his field, his grain, his cattle, and his children, and raises him to high position. Yes, and our God does this not only once or twice, but until these transgressors grow old. His patience is stretched out like this, year after year, so that we might learn from him to do good.

3. Consider this. A professor, and unquiet and troublesome, discontented, and seeking to be revenged on your persecutors! Where are your graces, or what kind of graces have you got? I dare say that the ones you are acting in now are none of the graces of the Spirit. The fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance; against such there is no law. But wrath, strife, seditions, traitors, and inventors of evil things are counted among the worst of sins and sinners, and are plainly called the works of the flesh (Rom 1:29-31; 2 Tim 3:3-4; Gal 5:19-21).

But I say, where is your love for your enemy? Where is your joy under the cross? Where is your peace, when your anger has driven you to be unquiet? Where is your long-suffering? For as you act, nothing can be seen but your waspishness. Where, too, is your sweet, meek, and gentle spirit? And is goodness seen in your seeking the life or the harm of your enemy? Away, away! Your graces, if you have any, are so jostled into corners by these passions of yours, and so hemmed in for lack of room and liberty to show themselves, that by the Word of God you cannot be known to be of the right kind, whatever noise you make.

When a Christian sees trouble coming upon him, he should not fly in the face of the instrument that brings it, but in the face of the cause of its coming. Now the cause is yourself: your base self, your sinful self, and your unworthy behavior toward God under all the mercy, patience, and long-suffering that God has bestowed on you and exercised toward you. Here you may quarrel and be revenged, and spare nothing, provided you take vengeance in the right way. And you will do so when you take it by godly sorrow (2 Cor 7:10-11).

A Christian, then, should mourn over his own doings, his own unworthy doings, by which he has provoked God to bring a cloud upon him and to cover him with it in anger. When a persecutor touches him, a Christian should say, “This is my wickedness.” Yes, he should say it, and then shut his mouth and bear the indignation of the Lord, because he has sinned against him. “Thy way and thy doings have procured these things unto thee; this is thy wickedness, because it is bitter, because it reacheth unto thine heart” (Jer 4:18).

4. Consider what proof of your goodness the actions that flow from such a spirit can give to those who watch you. None at all. Indeed, a spirit that is unquiet under sufferings, and that seeks to be revenged on those who persecute you for your faith and its profession, is so far from convincing onlookers that you are right that it plainly tells them you are wrong. Even Julian the Apostate, when he had cast away whatever he could of Christ, still kept this much: that a Christian ought to take patiently whatever affliction fell on him for his Master’s sake. And he would throw it in the teeth of those who complained, or who sought redress against those who had abused them for their faith and godly profession, that their behavior was unbecoming. What will men say, if you shrink and wince and take your sufferings unquietly, except that if you yourselves were on top, you would persecute too? They have much more ground to say so when you will fight even lying on your backs. Be quiet, then. If your enemy strikes you on one cheek, turn the other to him. And if he also reviles and curses you, get down on your knees and pray for him. This is the way to convince those who watch you that you are a godly man. “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” was one of the things that convinced the centurion that Jesus was a righteous man. For he stood by the cross to watch and see how Jesus behaved in these sufferings of his, as well as to see the execution carried out (Matt 27:54; Luke 23:34-47).

5. Consider that a professor who is unquiet and turbulent under sufferings, and who seeks his own revenge, cannot be a victor over what he should conquer, nor a keeper of God’s commandments.

(1) How can a man be a victor over himself who is led up and down by the nose by his own passions? No one is a Christian victor except the one who conquers himself, the one who beats down and keeps under his body, his lusts, and his passions in the first place. Is the man who is led away with various lusts a victor? Is the man who is a servant of corruption a victor? And if the man who is held captive by his anger, wrath, passion, discontent, prejudice, and the like is not led away by them, then I am mistaken. So then, to quarrel with your superiors, or with any who trouble you for your faith and your profession, shows that you are overmastered and a captive, rather than a master and a conqueror.

(2) The same may be said under the second head. Such a man does not keep the commandments of God, for they teach him otherwise, as I have also shown. The great commands of the gospel all come down to self-denial. But if self-revenge is self-denial, then I have strayed from the Book. In the book of Revelation, Christ sets the one who keeps the commandments of God a long way off from the one who takes the sword and strikes with it: “He that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints” (Rev 13:10). That is, their patience and faith lie in this, that they refrain from doing so, and quietly suffer under those who take up the sword and afflict the godly with it. Again, “Here is the patience of the saints, here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus” (Rev 14:12). It is a patient continuing in well-doing. And if suffering for righteousness is well-doing, then patiently continuing in that, as in other things, is the way to keep God’s commandments (Rom 2:7). So, I say, the man who is angry with his enemies, and who seeks to be revenged on the one who does him harm, does not keep God’s commandments. You know the subject I am on: “The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God” (Jas 1:20). So, professors, beware. Take heed to your spirits, and see that you do not let yourselves loose under your sufferings in such excesses of spirit against your enemies as are in no way fitting or proper.

6. Consider that men who are unquiet and discontented, and who seek revenge on those who persecute them for their profession, by doing so also put themselves on the brink of ruins that others stay further from. These men are like the fly that cannot let the candle alone until she has burned herself in the flame. Magistrates and men in power have fortified themselves against attack by turbulent and unruly spirits with many wholesome laws. And indeed, if they did not, someone or other would perhaps soon be tempted to try to disturb them in the proper exercise of their authority. Now the angry man is the fly that must keep tripping and running himself onto the point of these laws. His angry spirit drives him to quarrel with his superiors. His quarreling, by words spoken in heat, brings him within reach of the net, and that, with the help of a few more, brings his neck to the noose (Esth 2:21-23). Nor is this anything other than the just judgment of God, whatever men think. “Whosoever, therefore, resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God; and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation” (Rom 13:2). So let the angry man take heed; let the discontented man take heed. The one who has a profession, and does not have the grace to know how to manage it in this matter, is likely to bring his profession to shame. So, I say, let such men take heed. The graces mentioned before, and the proper exercise of them, are what can keep us out of all such dangers.

7. Consider also what comfort such a man can have who, by his discontent and unruly behavior, has brought himself to his end in this way. He has brought himself to shame, his profession to shame, his friends to shame, and his name to contempt and scorn. Bad men rejoice at his fall, good men cannot stand by him, and weak men stumble at him. Besides, his cause will not bear him out. His heart will be weighed down with guilt, and innocence and boldness will take wings and fly away from him. Though he talks of religion on the scaffold or the gallows ladder, religion is the very thing that will blush to hear its name spoken by those who suffer for evil-doing. So, my brothers, my friends, my enemies, and all men, whatever religion, profession, or opinion you hold: fear God, honor the king, and do the duty to both that is required of you by the Word and law of Christ. And then, to say no more, you will not suffer at the hands of the governing powers for evil-doing.