Duties and Discouragement
[It will
not be difficult] to resolve that question which some require help in, namely,
whether we ought to perform duties when our hearts are altogether averse to
them. To be satisfied on this point, we must take account of certain things.
WE SHOULD PERSIST IN DUTIES
Our hearts
of themselves are reluctant to give up their liberty, and are only with
difficulty brought under the yoke of duty. The more spiritual the duty is, the
more reluctance there is. Corruption gains ground, for the most part, in every
neglect. It is as in rowing against the tide, one stroke neglected will not be
gained in three; and therefore it is good to keep our hearts close to duty, and
not to listen to the excuses they are ready to frame.
As we set
about duty, God strengthens the influence that he has in us. We find a warmness
of heart and increase of strength, the Spirit going along with us and raising
us up by degrees, until he leaves us as it were in heaven. God often delights
to take advantage of our averseness, that he may manifest his work the more
clearly, and that all the glory of the work may be his, as all the strength is
his.
Obedience
is most direct when there is nothing else to sweeten the action. Although the
sacrifice is imperfect, yet the obedience with which it is offered is accepted.
What is won
as a spoil from our corruptions will have as great a degree of comfort
afterwards as it has of obstruction for the present. Feeling and freeness of
spirit are often reserved until duty is discharged. Reward follows work. In and
after duty we find that experience of God’s presence which, without obedience,
we may long wait for, and yet go without. This does not hinder the Spirit’s
freedom in blowing upon our souls when he pleases (John 3:8), for we speak only
of such a state of soul as is becalmed and must row, as it were, against the
stream. As in sailing the hand must be to the helm and the eye to the star, so
here we must put forth that little strength we have to duty and look up for
assistance, which the Spirit, as freely as seasonably, will afford.
Yet in
these duties that require the body as well as the soul there may be a cessation
till strength is restored. Whetting a tool does not hinder, but prepares. In
sudden passions, also, there should be a time to compose and calm the soul, and
to put the strings in tune. The prophet asked for a minstrel to bring his soul
into frame (2 Kings 3:15).
OVERCOMING DISCOURAGEMENTS
Suffering
brings discouragements, because of our impatience. “Alas!,” we lament, “I shall
never get through such a trial” But if God brings us into the trial he will be
with us in the trial, and at length bring us out, more refined. We shall lose
nothing but dross (Zech. 13:9). From our own strength we cannot bear the least
trouble, but by the Spirit’s assistance we can bear the greatest. The Spirit
will add his shoulders to help us to bear our infirmities. The Lord will give his hand to heave us up
(Ps. 37:24). “Ye have heard of the patience of Job,” says James (
Therefore
it was not enough for his goodness to leave us many precious promises, but he
gives us confirming tokens to strengthen us. And even if we are not so prepared
as we should be, yet let us pray as Hezekiah did: “The good LORD pardon
everyone that prepareth his heart to seek God, the
LORD God of his fathers, though he be not cleansed according to the
purification of the sanctuary” (2 Chron. 30:18, 19).
Then we come comfortably to this holy sacrament, and with much fruit. This
should carry us through all duties with much cheerfulness, that, if we hate our
corruptions and strive against them, they shall not be counted ours. “It is no
more I that do it,” says Paul, “but sin that dwelleth
in me” (Rom. 7:17). For what displeases us shall never hurt us, and we shall be
esteemed by God to be what we love and desire and labor to be. What we desire
to be we shall be, and what we desire truly to conquer we shall conquer, for
God will fulfill the desire of them that fear him (Ps. 145:19). The desire is
an earnest of the thing desired. How little encouragement will carry us to the
affairs of this life! And yet all the helps God offers will hardly prevail with
our backward natures.
THE SOURCE OF DISCOURAGEMENTS
Where,
then, do these discouragements come from?
Not from
the Father, for he has bound himself in covenant to pity us as a father pities
his children (Ps. 103: 13) and to accept as a father our weak endeavors. And
what is wanting in the strength of duty, he gives us
leave to take up in his gracious indulgence. In this way we shall honor that
grace in which he delights as much as in more perfect performances. Possibilitas tua mensura tua (What is possible
to you is what you will be measured by).
Not from
Christ, for he by office will not quench the smoking flax. We see how Christ
bestows the best fruits of his love on persons who are mean in condition, weak
in abilities, and offensive for infirmities, nay, for grosser falls. And this
he does, first, because thus it pleases him to confound the pride of the flesh,
which usually measures God’s love by some outward excellency; and secondly, in
this way he delights to show the freedom of his grace and confirm his royal
prerogative that “he that glorieth” must “glory in
the Lord” (1 Cor. 1:31).
In the
eleventh chapter of Hebrews, among that cloud of witnesses, we see Rahab, Gideon and Samson ranked with Abraham, the father of
the faithful (Heb. 11:31-32). Our blessed Savior, as he was the image of his
Father, so in this he was of the same mind, glorifying his Father for revealing
the mystery of the gospel to simple men, neglecting those that carried the
chief reputation of wisdom in the world (Matt. 11:25-26).
It is not
unworthy of being recorded, what Augustine speaks of a simple man in his time,
destitute almost altogether of the use of reason, who, although he was most
patient of all injuries done to himself, yet from a reverence of religion he
would not endure any injury done to the name of Christ, so much so that he
would cast stones at those that blasphemed, not even sparing his own governors.
This shows that none have abilities so meagre as to
be beneath the gracious regard of Christ. Where it pleases him to make his
choice and to exalt his mercy he passes by no degree of understanding, though
never so simple.
Neither do
discouragements come from the Spirit. He helps our infirmities, and by office
is a comforter (Rom. 8:26; John 14: 16). If he convinces of sin, and so humbles
us, it is that he may make way for his office of comforting us. Discouragements, then, must come from
ourselves and from Satan, who labors to fasten on us a loathing of duty.
SOME SCRUPLES REMOVED
Among other
causes of discouragement, some are much vexed with scruples, even against the
best duties; partly by disease of body, helped by Satan’s malice in casting
dust in their eyes in their way to heaven; and partly from some remainder of
ignorance, which, like darkness, breeds fears—ignorance especially of this
merciful disposition in Christ, the persuasion of which would easily banish
false fears. They conceive of him as one on watch for all advantages against
them, in which they may see how they wrong not only themselves but his
goodness. This scrupulosity, for the most part, is a sign of a godly soul, as
some weeds are of a good soil. Therefore they are the more to be pitied, for it
is a heavy affliction, and the ground of it in most is not so much from trouble
of conscience as from a disordered imagination. The end of Christ’s coming was
to free us from all such groundless fears. There is still in some such
ignorance of that comfortable condition we are in under the covenant of grace
as to discourage them greatly. Therefore we must understand that:
Weaknesses
do not break covenant with God. They do not break the covenant between husband
and wife, and shall we make ourselves more pitiful than Christ who makes
himself a pattern of love to all other husbands?
Weaknesses
do not debar us from mercy; rather they incline God to us the more (Ps. 78:39).
Mercy is a part of the church’s marriage inheritance. Christ betroths her to
him “in mercy,” (Hosea 2:19). The husband is bound to bear with the wife, as
being the “weaker vessel,” (1 Pet. 3:7), and shall we think Christ will exempt
himself from his own rule, and not bear with his weak spouse?
If Christ
should not be merciful co our weaknesses, he should not have a people to serve
him. Suppose therefore we are very weak, yet so long as we are not found
amongst malicious opposers and underminers
of God’s truth, let us not give way to despairing thoughts; we have a merciful
Savior.
But lest we
flatter ourselves without good grounds, we must know that weaknesses are to be
reckoned either imperfections cleaving to our best actions, or actions
proceeding from immaturity in Christ, whilst we are babes, or the effects of
want of strength, where ability is small, or sudden unintended breakings out,
contrary to our general bent and purpose, whilst our judgment is overcast with
the cloud of a sudden temptation, after which we feel our infirmity, grieve for
it and from grief, complain, and, with complaining, strive and labor to reform;
finally, in laboring, we make some progress against our corruption.
Weaknesses
so considered, although a matter of humiliation and the object of our daily
mortification, yet may be consistent with boldness with God, nor is a good work
either extinguished by them or tainted so far as to lose all acceptance with
God. But to plead for an infirmity is more than an infirmity; to allow
ourselves in weaknesses is more than a weakness. The justification of evil
shuts our mouths, so that the soul cannot call God Father with childlike
liberty, or enjoy sweet communion with him, until peace be made by shaming
ourselves, and renewing our faith. Those that have ever been bruised for sin,
if they fall, are soon recovered. Peter was recovered with a gracious look of
Christ, David by Abigail’s words. If you tell a thief or a vagrant that he is
out of the way, he pays no heed, because his aim is not to walk in any
particular way, except as it suits his purpose.
WHAT ARE SINS OF INFIRMITY?
To clarify
this further, we must understand that:
Wherever
sins of infirmity are in a person, there must be the life of grace begun. There
can be no weakness where there is no life.
There must
be a sincere and general bent to the best things. Though a godly man may
suddenly be drawn or driven aside in some particulars, yet, by reason of that
interest the Spirit of Christ has in him, and because his aims are right in the
main, he will either recover of himself, or yield to the counsel of others.
There must
be a right judgment, allowing of the best ways, or else the heart is rotten.
Then it will infuse corruption into the whole conversation, so that all men’s
actions become infected at the spring-head. They then justify looseness and
condemn God’s ways as too much strictness. Their principles whereby they work
are not good.
There must
be a conjugal love to Christ, so that there are no terms on which they will
change their Lord and husband, and yield themselves absolutely over to be ruled
by their own lusts, or the lusts of others.
A Christian’s
behavior towards Christ may in many things be very offensive, and cause some
strangeness; yet he will own Christ, and Christ him; he will not resolve upon
any way wherein he knows he must break with Christ.
Where the heart
is thus in these respects qualified, there we must know this, that Christ
counts it his honor to pass by many infirmities, nay, in infirmities he
perfects his strength. There are some almost invincible infirmities, such as
forgetfulness, heaviness of spirit, sudden passions and fears which, though
natural, yet are for the most part tainted with sin. Of these, if the life of
Christ be in us, we are weary, and would fain shake them off, as a sick man his
fever; otherwise it is not to be esteemed weakness so much as willfulness, and the more will, the more sin. And little
sins, when God shall awaken the conscience and ‘set them in order” before us
(Ps. 50:21) will prove great burdens, and not only bruise a reed, but shake a
cedar. Yet God’s children never sin with full will, because there is a contrary
law in their minds by which the dominion of sin is broken and which always has
some secret working against the law of sin. Nevertheless there may be so much
will in a sinful action as may destroy our comfort to a remarkable degree
afterwards and keep us long on the rack of a disquieted conscience, God in his
fatherly dispensation suspending the sense of his love. To the extent that we
give way to our will in sinning, to that extent we set ourselves at a distance
from comfort. Sin against conscience is as a thief (A flaw in a candlewick
which causes guttering) in the candle, which spoils our joy, and thereby
weakens our strength. We must know, therefore, that willful breaches in
sanctification will much hinder the sense of our justification.
What course
shall such take to recover their peace? They must condemn themselves sharply, and yet cast themselves upon God’s mercy in Christ,
as at their first conversion. And now they must embrace Christ the more firmly,
as they see more need in themselves; and let them remember the mildness of
Christ here, that he will not quench the smoking flax. Often we see that, after
a deep humiliation, Christ speaks more peace than before, to witness the truth
of this reconciliation, because he knows Satan’s enterprises in casting such
down lower, because they are most abased in themselves and are ashamed to look
Christ in the face, because of their ingratitude.
We see that
God did not only pardon David but, after much bruising, gave him wise Solomon
to succeed him in the kingdom. We see in Song of Solomon 6:4 that, after the
church has been humbled for her slighting of Christ, he sweetly entertains her
again, and begins to commend her beauty. We must know for our comfort that
Christ was not anointed to this great work of Mediator for lesser sins only,
but for the greatest, if we have but a spark of true faith to lay hold on him.
Therefore, if there be any bruised reed, let him not
make an exception of himself, when Christ does not make an exception of him. “Come
unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden,” (Matthew 11:28). Why should we
not make use of so gracious a disposition? We are only poor for this reason,
that we do not know our riches in Christ. In time of temptation, believe Christ
rather than the devil. Believe truth from truth itself. Hearken not to a liar,
an enemy and a murderer.
