Thomas Watson-The Beatitudes Part three

 

Peter 4:16). To suffer as a Christian is to suffer with such a spirit as becomes a Christian, which

is:

When we suffer with patience. ‘Take, my brethren, the prophets for an example of suffering affliction

and of patience’ (James 5:10). A Christian must not repine but say, ‘Shall I not drink the cup’ of

martyrdom which my Father has given me? There should be such a spirit of meekness in a Christian’s

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suffering that it should be hard to say which is greater, his persecution or his patience. When Job

had lost all, he kept the breastplate of innocence and the shield of patience. An impatient martyr is

a solecism.

To suffer as Christians is when we suffer with courage. Courage is a Christian’s armour of proof.

It steels and animates him. The three children or rather the three champions were of brave heroic

spirits. They do not say to the king, ‘We ought not to serve your gods’, but ‘We will not’ (Daniel

3:18). Neither Nebuchadnezzar’s music nor his furnace could alter their resolution. Tertullian was

called an adamant for his invincible courage. Holy courage makes us (as one of the fathers says)

‘have such faces of brass that we are not ashamed of the cross’. This is to suffer as Christians, when

we are meek yet resolute. The more the fire is blown the more it flames. So it is with a brave-spirited

Christian. The more opposition he meets with the more zeal and courage flames forth. What a spirit

of gallantry was in Luther who said, writing to Melanchthon, ‘If it be not the cause of God we are

embarked in, let us desert it! If it be his cause and will bear us out, why do we not stand to it?’

To suffer as Christians is to suffer with cheerfulness. Patience is a bearing the cross; cheerfulness

is a taking up the cross. Christ suffered for us cheerfully. His death was a freewill offering (Luke

12:50). He thirsted to drink of that cup of blood. Such must our sufferings be for Christ. Cheerfulness

perfumes martyrdom and makes it the sacrifice of a sweet-smelling savour to God. Thus Moses

suffered cheerfully. ‘Moses, when he was come to years, chose rather to suffer affliction with the

people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season’ (Hebrews 11:24, 25). Observe: ‘When

he was come to years’: It was no childish act. It was not in his nonage, but when he was of years

of discretion. ‘He chose to suffer affliction,: Suffering was not so much his task as his choice. The

cross was not so much imposed as embraced. This is to suffer as Christians, when we are volunteers;

we take up the cross cheerfully, nay, joyfully. ‘They departed from the presence of the council

rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name’ (Acts 5:41). Or as it is more

emphatic in the original, ‘They rejoiced that they were so far graced as to be disgraced for the name

of Christ’. Tertullian says of the primitive Christians, that they took more comfort in their sufferings

than in their deliverance. And indeed well may a Christian be joyful in suffering because it is a

great favour when God honours a man to be a witness to the truth. Christ’s marks in Saint Paul’s

body were prints of glory. The saints have worn their sufferings as ornaments. Ignatius’ chains

were his jewels. Never have any princes been so famous for their victories as the martyrs for their

sufferings.

We suffer as Christians when we suffer and pray. ‘Pray for them which despitefully use you’ (Luke

6:28).

There are two reasons why we should pray for our persecutors.

Because our prayers may be a means to convert them. Stephen prayed for his persecutors: ‘Lord,

lay not this sin to their charge’ (Acts 7:60). And this prayer was effectual to some of their

conversions. Augustine says that the church of God was beholden to Stephen’s prayer for all that

benefit which was reaped by Paul’s ministry.

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We should pray for our persecutors because they do us good, though against their will. They shall

increase our reward. Every reproach shall add to our glory. Every injury shall serve to make our

crown heavier. As Gregory Nazianzen speaks in one of his orations, Every stone which was thrown

at Stephen was a precious stone which enriched him and made him shine brighter in the kingdom

of heaven. Thus have I shown what that suffering is which makes us blessed, and shall wear the

crown of martyrdom.

1 It shows us what the nature of Christianity is, namely, sanctity joined with suffering. A true saint

carries Christ in his heart and the cross on his shoulders. ‘All that will live godly in Christ Jesus

shall suffer persecution’ (2 Timothy 3:12). Christ and his cross are never parted. It is too much for

a Christian to have two heavens, one here and another hereafter. Christ’s kingdom on earth is the

kingdom of the cross. What is the meaning of the shield of faith, the helmet of hope, the breastplate

of patience, but to imply that we must encounter sufferings? It is one of the titles given to the church,

‘afflicted’ (Isaiah 54:11). Persecution is the legacy bequeathed by Christ to his people. ‘In the world

ye shall have tribulation’ (John 16:33). Christ’s spouse is a lily among thorns. Christ’s sheep must

expect to lose their golden fleece. This the flesh does not like to hear of. Therefore Christ calls

persecution ‘the cross’ (Matthew 16:24). It is cross to flesh and blood; we are all for reigning.

‘When wilt thou restore the kingdom again to Israel?’ (Acts 1:6). But the apostle tells of suffering

before reigning. ‘If we suffer, we shall also reign with him’ (2 Timothy 2:12). How loath is corrupt

flesh to put its neck under Christ’s yoke, or stretch itself upon the cross! But religion gives no

charter of exemption from suffering. To have two heavens is more than Christ had. Was the head

crowned with thorns and do we think to be crowned with roses? ‘Think it not strange concerning

the fiery trial’ (1 Peter 4:12). If we are God’s gold, it is not strange to be cast into the fire. Some

there are that picture Erasmus half in heaven and half out. Methinks it represents a Christian in this

life. In regard of his inward consolation he is half in heaven. In regard of his outward persecution

he is half in hell.

2 See hence that persecutions are not signs of God’s anger or fruits of the curse, for ‘blessed are

they that are persecuted’. If they are blessed who die in the Lord, are they not blessed who die for

the Lord? We are very apt to judge them hated and forsaken of God who are in a suffering condition.

‘If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross’ (Matthew 27:40).The Jews made a question

of it. They could hardly believe Christ was the Son of God when he hung upon the cross. Would

God let him be reproached and forsaken if he were the Son of God? When the barbarians saw the

viper on Paul’s hand, they thought he was a great sinner. ‘No doubt this man is a murderer’ (Acts

28:4). So when we see the people of God afflicted and the viper of persecution fastens upon them,

we are apt to say, These are greater sinners than others, and God does not love them. This is for

want of judgement. ‘Blessed are they who are persecuted’. Persecutions are pledges of God’s love,

badges of honour (Hebrews 12:7). In the sharpest trial there is the sweetest comfort. God’s fanning

his wheat is but to make it purer.

1 It reproves such as would be thought good Christians but will not suffer persecution for Christ’s

sake. Their care is not to take up the cross, but to avoid the cross. ‘When persecution arises because

of the word, by and by he is offended’ (Matthew 13:21). There are many professors who speak

Christ fair, but will suffer nothing for him. These may be compared to the crystal which looks like

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pearl till it comes to the hammering, then it breaks. Many, when they see the palm-branches and

garments spread, cry ‘Hosanna’ to Christ, but if the swords and staves appear, then they slink away.

Bezal urged King Henry the Fourth (of France), then of Navarre, to engage himself in the Protestant

religion, but he told him he would not launch out too far into the deep, so that, if a storm should

arise, he might retreat back to the shore. It is to be feared there are some among us, who, if

persecutions should come, would rather make Demas his choice than Moses his choice, and would

study rather to keep their skin whole than their conscience pure. Erasmus highly extolled Luther’s

doctrine, but when the Emperor threatened all that should favour Luther’s cause, he unworthily

deserted it. Hypocrites will sooner renounce their baptism than take up the cross. If ever we should

show ourselves Christians to purpose, we must with Peter throw ourselves upon the water to come

to Christ. He that refuses to suffer, let him read over that sad scripture, ‘Whosoever shall deny me

before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven’ (Matthew 10:33).

2 It reproves them who are the opposers and persecutors of the saints. How great is their sin! They

resist the Holy Ghost. ‘Ye do always resist the Holy Ghost; which of the prophets have not your

fathers persecuted?’ (Acts 7:51, 52). Persecutors offer affront to Christ in heaven. They tread his

jewels in the dust, touch the apple of his eye, pierce his sides. ‘Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou

me?’ (Acts 9:4). When the foot was trodden on, the head cried out. As the sin is great, so the

punishment shall be proportionable. ‘They have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou

hast given them blood to drink, for they are worthy’ (Revelation 16:6). Will not Christ avenge those

who die in this quarrel? What is the end of persecutors? Diocletian proclaimed that the Christian

churches and temples should be razed down, their Bibles burned. He would not permit any man

that was a Christian to hold an office. Some of the Christians he cast alive into boiling lead. Others

had their hands and lips cut off; only they had their eyes left that they might behold the tragedy of

their own miseries. What was the end of this man? He ran mad and poisoned himself. Felix, captain

to Emperor Charles the Fifth, being at supper at Augsburg, vowed he would ride up to the spurs in

the blood of the Lutherans. A flux of blood came up that night into his throat wherewith he was

choked. It were easy to tell how God’s hand has so visibly gone out against persecutors that they

might read their sin in their punishment.

1 Let it exhort Christians to think beforehand and make account of sufferings. This reckoning

beforehand can do us no hurt; it may do us much good.

(i) The fore-thoughts of suffering will make a Christian very serious. The heart is apt to be feathery

and frothy. The thoughts of suffering persecution would consolidate it. Why am I thus light? Is this

a posture fit for persecution? Christians grow serious in the casting up their spiritual accounts. They

reckon what religion must cost them and may cost them. It must cost them the blood of their sins.

It may cost them the blood of their lives.

(ii) The fore-thoughts of persecution will be as sauce to season our delights, that we do not surfeit

upon them. How soon may there be an alarum sounded? How soon may the clouds drop blood?

The thoughts of this would take off the heart from the immoderate love of the creature. Our Saviour

at a great feast breaks out into mention of his death. ‘She hath prepared this against my burial’

(Mark 14:8). So the fore-thoughts of a change would be an excellent antidote against a surfeit.

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(iii) The fore-thoughts of sufferings would make them lighter when they come. The suddenness of

an evil adds to the sadness. This was ill news to the fool in the gospel (who reckoned without his

host). ‘This night shall thy soul be required of thee’ (Luke 12:20). This will be an aggravation of

Babylon’s miseries: ‘Her plagues shall come in one day’ (Revelation 18:8). Not that antichrist shall

be destroyed in a day, but (‘in a day&rsquo that is, suddenly. The blow shall come unawares, when he

does not think of it. The reckoning beforehand of suffering alleviates and shakes off the edge of it

when it comes. Therefore Christ, to lighten the cross, still forewarns his disciples of sufferings that

they might not come unlooked for (John 16:33; Acts 1:7).

(iv) Fore-thoughts of persecution would put us in mind of getting our armour ready. It is dangerous

as well as imprudent to have all to seek when the trial comes, as if a soldier should have his weapons

to get when the enemy is in the field. Caesar, seeing a soldier whetting his sword when he was just

going to fight, cashiered him. He that reckons upon persecution will be in a ready posture for it.

He will have the shield of faith and the sword of the Spirit ready, that he may not be surprised

unawares.

Let us prepare for persecution. A wise pilot in a calm will prepare for a storm. God knows how

soon persecution may come. There seems to be a cloud of blood hanging over the nation.

How shall we prepare for sufferings? Do three things.

1 Be persons rightly qualified for suffering.

2 Avoid those things which will hinder suffering.

3 Promote all helps to suffering.

1 Labour to be persons rightly qualified for suffering. Be righteous persons. That man who would

suffer ‘for righteousness’ sake’ must himself be righteous. I mean evangelically righteous. In

particular I call him righteous:

(i) who breathes after sanctity (Psalm 119:5). Though sin cleaves to his heart yet his heart does not

cleave to sin. Though sin has an alliance, yet no allowance. ‘What I do I allow not!’ (Romans 7:15).

A good man hates the sin to which Satan most tempts and his heart most inclines (Psalm 119:128).

(ii) A righteous person is one who makes God’s grace his centre. The glory of God is more worth

than the salvation of all men’s souls. He who is divinely qualified is so zealously ambitious of

God’s glory that he does not care what he loses, so God may be a gainer. He prefers the glory of

God before credit, estate, relations. It was the speech of Kiliaz, that blessed martyr, ‘Had I all the

gold in the world to dispose of, I would give it to live with my relations (though in prison), yet

Jesus Christ is dearer to me than all.’

(iii) A righteous person is one who values the jewel of a good conscience at an high rate. Good

conscience is a saint’s festival, his music, his paradise, and he will rather hazard anything than

violate his conscience. They say of the Irish, if they have a good scimitar, a warlike weapon, they

had rather take a blow on their arm than their scimitar should be hurt. To this I may compare a

good conscience. A good man had rather sustain hurt in his body or estate than his conscience

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should be hurt. He had rather die than violate the virginity of his conscience. Such a man as this is

evangelically righteous, and if God call him to it he is fit to suffer.

2 Avoid those things which will hinder suffering.

(i) The love of the world. God allows us the use of the world (1 Timothy 6:7, 8). But take heed of

the love of it. He that is in love with the world will be out of love with the cross. ‘Demas hath

forsaken me, having loved this present world’ (2 Timothy 4:10). He not only forsook Paul’s company

but his doctrine. The love of the world chokes our zeal. A man wedded to the world will for thirty

pieces of silver betray Christ and a good cause. Let the world be as a loose garment that you may

throw off at pleasure. Before a man can die for Christ he must be dead to the world. Paul was

crucified to the world (Galatians 6:14). It will be an easy thing to die when we are dead before in

our affections.

(ii) Carnal fear. There is a twofold fear:

A filial fear, when a man fears to displease God. When he fears he should not hold out, this is a

good fear. ‘Blessed is he that feareth always’. If Peter had feared his own heart better, and said,

‘Lord Jesus, I fear I shall forsake thee; Lord strengthen me’; doubtless Christ would have kept him

from falling.

There is a cowardly fear, when a man fears danger more than sin, when he is afraid to be good; this

fear is an enemy to suffering. God proclaimed that those who were fearful should not go to the

wars (Deuteronomy 20:8). The fearful are unfit to fight in Christ’s wars. A man possessed with

fear does not consult what is best, but what is safest. If he may save his estate, he will snare his

conscience. ‘In the fear of man there is a snare’ (Proverbs 29:25). Fear made Peter deny Christ,

Abraham equivocate, David feign himself to be mad. Fear will put men upon indirect courses,

making them study rather compliance than conscience. Fear makes sin appear little and suffering

great. The fearful man sees double. He looks upon the cross through his perspective twice as big

as it is. Fear argues sordidness of spirit. It will put one upon things most ignoble and unworthy. A

fearful man will vote against his conscience. Fear enfeebles. It is like the cutting off Samson’s

locks. Fear melts away the courage. ‘Their hearts melt because of you’ (Joshua 2:9). And when a

man’s strength is gone he is very unfit to carry Christ’s cross. Fear is the root of apostasy. Spira’s

fear made him abjure and recant his religion. Fear hurts one more than the adversary. It is not so

much an enemy without the castle as a traitor within endangers it. It is not so much sufferings

without as traitorous fear within which undoes a man. A fearful man is versed in no posture so

much as in retreating. Oh take heed of this! Be afraid of this fear. ‘Fear not them that can kill the

body’ (Luke 12:4). Persecutors can but kill the body which must shortly die. The fearful are set in

the forefront of them that shall go to hell (Revelation 21:8). Let us get the fear of God into our

hearts. As one wedge drives out another, so the fear of God will drive out all other base fear.

(iii) Take heed of a facile spirit. A facile-spirited man will be turned any way with a word. He will

be wrought as wax. He is so tame that you may lead him whither you will. ‘With fair speeches they

deceive the hearts of the simple’ (Romans 16:18). A facile Christian is malleable to anything. He

is like wool that will take any dye. He is a weak reed that will be blown any way with the breath

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of men. One day you may persuade him to engage in a good cause, the next day to desert it. He is

not made of oak but of willow. He will bend every way. Oh take heed of a facile spirit! It is not

ingenuity but folly to suffer one’s self to be abused. A good Christian is like Mount Sion that cannot

be moved (Psalm 125:1). He is like Fabricius of whom it was said, a man might as well alter the

course of the sun as turn him aside from doing justice. A good Christian must be firm to his

resolution. If he be not a fixed, he will be a falling star.

(iv) Take heed of listening to the voice of the flesh. St Paul ‘conferred not with flesh and blood’

(Galatians 1:16). The flesh will give bad counsel. First King Saul consulted with the flesh and

afterwards he consulted with the devil. He sends to the witch of Endor. Oh, says the flesh, the cross

of Christ is heavy! There is a nail in the yoke which will tear, and fetch blood. Be as a deaf adder

stopping your ears to the charmings of the flesh.

3 Promote those things which will help to suffer.

(i) Inure yourselves to suffering. ‘As a good soldier of Christ endure hardship’ (2 Timothy 2:3).

Jacob made the stone his pillow (Genesis 28:18). ‘It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his

youth’ (Lamentations 3:27). The bearing of a lighter cross will fit for the bearing of an heavier.

Learn to bear a reproach with patience and then you will be fitter to bear an iron chain. Saint Paul

died daily. He began with lesser sufferings and so by degrees learned to be a martyr. As it is in sin,

a wicked man learns to be expert in sin by degrees. First he commits a lesser sin, then a greater,

then he arrives at custom in sin, then he grows impudent in sin, then he glories in sin (Philippians

3:19); so it is in suffering. First a Christian takes up the chips of the cross, a disgrace, a prison, and

then he carries the cross itself.

Alas how far are they from suffering who indulge the flesh: ‘. . . that lie upon beds of ivory and

stretch themselves upon their couches’ (Amos 6:4); a very unfit posture for suffering. That soldier

is like to make but poor work of it who is stretching himself upon his bed when he should be in the

field exercising his arms. What shall I say, says Jerome, to those Christians who make it all their

care to perfume their clothes, to crisp their hair, to sparkle their diamonds, but if sufferings come,

and the way to heaven has any water in it, they will not endure to set their feet upon it! Most people

are too effeminate. They use themselves too nicely and tenderly. Those ’silken Christians’ (as

Tertullian calls them) that pamper the flesh, are unfit for the school of the cross. The naked breast

and bare shoulder is too soft and tender to carry Christ’s cross. Inure yourselves to hardship. Do

not make your pillow too easy.

(ii) Be well skilled in the knowledge of Christ. A man can never die for him he does not know.

‘For which cause I suffer those things; for I know whom I have believed’ (2 Timothy 1:12). Blind

men are always fearful. A blind Christian will be fearful of the cross. Enrich yourselves with

knowledge. Know Christ in his virtues, offices, privileges. See the preciousness in Christ. ‘To you

that believe he is precious’ (1 Peter 2:7). His name is precious; it is as ointment poured forth. His

blood is precious; it is as balm poured forth. His love is precious; it is as wine poured forth. Jesus

Christ is made up of all sweets and delights. He himself is all that is desirable. He is light to the

eye, honey to the taste, joy to the heart. Get but the knowledge of Christ and you will part with all

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for him. You will embrace him though it be in the fire. An ignorant man can never be a martyr. He

may set up an altar, but he will never die for an unknown God.

(iii) Prize every truth of God. The filings of gold are precious. The least ray of truth is glorious.

‘Buy the truth and sell it not’ (Proverbs 23:23). Truth is the object of faith (2 Thessalonians 2:13),

the seed of regeneration (James 1:18), the spring of joy (1 Corinthians 13:6). Truth crowns us with

salvation (1 Timothy 2:4). If ever you would suffer for the truth, prize it above all things. He that

does not prize truth above life will never lay down his life for the truth. The blessed martyrs sealed

to the truth with their blood. There are two things God counts most dear to him, his glory and his

truth. ‘I will’, says Bishop Jewel’, ‘deny my bishopric; I will deny my name and credit, but the

truths of Christ I cannot deny.’

(iv) Keep a good conscience. If there be any sin allowed in the soul, it will unfit for suffering. A

man that has a boil upon his shoulders cannot carry a heavy burden. Guilt of conscience is like a

boil. He that has this can never carry the cross of Christ. If a ship be sound and well-rigged, it will

sail upon the water, but if it be full of holes and leaks, it will sink in the water. If conscience be full

of guilt (which is like a leak in the ship), it will not sail in the bloody waters of persecution. An

house will not stand in a storm, the pillars of it being rotten. If a man’s heart be rotten, he will never

stand in a storm of tribulation. How can a guilty person suffer when for ought he knows he is like

to go from the fire at the stake to hell-fire! Let conscience be pure. ‘Holding the mystery of the

faith in a pure conscience’ (1 Timothy 3:9). A good conscience will abide the fiery trial. This made

the martyrs’ flames beds of roses. Good conscience is a wall of brass. With the Leviathan, ‘it laughs

at the shaking of a spear’ (Job 41:29). Let one be in prison, good conscience is a bird that can sing

in this cage. Augustine calls it ‘the paradise of a good conscience’.

(v) Make the Scripture familiar to you (Psalm 119:50). The Scripture well digested by meditation

will fit for suffering. The Scripture is a Christian’s palladium, his magazine and fort-royal. It may

be compared to the ‘tower of David on which there hang a thousand bucklers’ (Canticles 4:4). From

these breasts of Scripture divine strength flows into the soul. ‘Let the word of Christ dwell in you

richly’ (Colossians 3:16). Jerome speaks of one who by frequent studying the Scripture made his

breast ‘the library of Christ’. The blessed Scripture as it is an honeycomb for comfort, so an armoury

for strength. First, the martyrs’ ‘hearts did burn within them’ (Luke 24:32) by reading the Scripture,

and then their bodies were fit to burn. The Scripture arms a Christian both against temptation and

persecution.

Against temptation: Christ himself, when he was tempted by the devil ran to Scripture for armour:

‘It is written’. Three times he wounds the old serpent with his sword. Jerome says of Saint Paul,

he could never have gone through so many temptations but for his Scripture-armour. Christians,

are you tempted? Go to Scripture; gather a stone hence to fling in the face of a Goliath-temptation.

Are you tempted to pride? Read that scripture, ‘God resisteth the proud’ (1 Peter 5:5). Are you

tempted to lust? Read James 1:15, ‘When lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin; and sin when

it is finished, bringeth forth death’.

Against persecution: When the flesh draws back the Scripture will recruit us. It will put armour

upon us and courage into us. ‘Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer. Behold the devil

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shall cast some of you into prison that you may be tried and you shall have tribulation ten days. Be

thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a crown of life’ (Revelation 2:10). O, says the Christian,

I am not afraid to suffer. ‘Fear none of those things thou shalt suffer.’ But why should I suffer? I

love God and is not this sufficient? Nay, but God will try your love. It is ‘that ye may be tried’.

God’s gold is best tried in the furnace. But this persecution is so long! No, it is but for ‘ten days’.

It may be lasting but not everlasting. What are ten days put in balance with eternity? But what am

I the better if I suffer? What comes of it? ‘I will (says God) give thee a crown of life’. Though your

body be martyred your soul shall be crowned. But I shall faint when trials comer ‘My grace shall

be sufficient’ (2 Corinthians 12:9). The weak Christian has omnipotence to underprop him.

(vi) Get a suffering frame of heart.

What is that? you say. I answer: A self-denying frame. ‘If any man will come after me let him deny

himself and take up his cross’ (Matthew 16:24). Self-denial is the foundation of godliness, and if

this be not well-laid, the whole building will fall. If there be any lust in our souls which we cannot

deny, it will turn at length either to scandal or apostasy. Self-denial is the thread which must run

along through the whole work of religion. The self-denying Christian will be the suffering Christian.

‘Let him deny himself and take up his cross’.

For the further explication of this, I shall do two things.

1 Show what is meant by this word deny.

2 What is meant by self.

1 What is meant by deny? The word ‘to deny’ signifies to lay aside, to put off, to annihilate oneself.

Beza renders it ‘let him renounce himself’.

2 What is meant by self? Self is taken four ways:

Worldly self,

Relative self,

Natural self,

Carnal self.

A man must deny worldly self, that is, his estate. ‘Behold we have forsaken all and followed thee’

(Matthew 19:27). The gold of Ophir must be denied for the pearl of price. Let their money perish

with them (said that noble Marquess of Vico) who esteem all the gold and silver in the world worth

one hour’s communion with Christ.

A man must deny relative self, that is, his dearest relations, if God calls. If our nearest alliance,

father or mother, stand in our way and would hinder us from doing our duty, we must either leap

over them or tread upon them. ‘If any man come to me and hate not father and mother and wife

and children, etc., he cannot be my disciple’ (Luke 14:26). Relations must not weigh heavier than

Christ.

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A man must deny natural self. He must be willing to become a sacrifice and make Christ’s crown

flourish, though it be in his ashes. ‘They loved not their lives unto the death’ (Luke 14:26; Revelation

12:11). Jesus Christ was dearer to them than their own heart’s blood.

A man must deny self self. This I take to be the chief sense of the text. He must deny carnal ease.

The flesh cries out for ease. It is loath to put its neck under Christ’s yoke or stretch itself upon the

cross. The flesh cries out, ‘There is a lion in the way’ (Proverbs 22:13). We must deny our self-ease.

They that lean on the soft pillow of sloth will hardly take up the cross. ‘Thou as a good soldier of

Christ endure hardness’ (2 Timothy 2:3). We must force a way to heaven through sweat and blood.

Caesar’s soldiers fought with hunger and cold.

A man must deny self-opinion. Every man by nature has an high opinion of himself. He is drunk

with spiritual pride, and a proud man is unfit for suffering. He thinks himself too good to suffer.

What (says he) I that am of such a noble descent, such high parts, such repute and credit in the

world, shall I suffer? A proud man disdains the cross. Oh deny self-opinion! How did Christ come

to suffer? ‘He humbled himself and became obedient unto death’ (Philippians 2:8). Let the plumes

of pride fall.

A man must deny self-confidence. Peter’s confidence undid him. ‘Though all men shall be offended

because of thee, yet will I never be offended; though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny

thee’ (Matthew 26:33, 35). How did this man presume upon his own strength, as if he had more

grace than all the apostles besides! His denying Christ was for want of denying himself. Oh deny

your own strength! Samson’s strength was in his locks. A Christian’s strength lies in Christ. He

who trusts to himself shall be left to himself. He who goes out in his own strength comes off to his

own shame.

A man must deny self-wisdom. We read of the ‘wisdom of the flesh’ (2 Corinthians 1:12).

Self-wisdom is carnal policy. It is wisdom (says the flesh) to keep out of suffering. It is wisdom

not to declare against sin. It is wisdom to find out subtle distinctions to avoid the cross. The wisdom

of the flesh is to save the flesh. Indeed there is a Christian prudence to be used. The serpent’s eye

must be in the dove’s head. Wisdom and innocence do well, but it is dangerous to separate them.

Cursed be that policy which teaches to avoid duty. This wisdom is not from above but is devilish

(James 3:15). It is learned from the old serpent. This wisdom will turn to folly at last. It is like a

man who to save his gold throws himself overboard into the water. So the politician to save his

skin will damn his soul.

A man must deny self-will. Saint Gregory calls the will the commander-in-chief of all the faculties

of the soul. Indeed, in innocence, Adam had rectitude of mind and conformity of will. The will was

like an instrument in tune. It was full of harmony and tuned sweetly to God’s will, but now the will

is corrupt and like a strong tide carries us violently to evil. The will has not only an indisposition

to good, but an opposition. ‘Ye have always resisted the Holy Ghost’ (Acts 7:51). There is not a

greater enemy than the will. It is up in arms against God (2 Peter 2:10). The will loves sin and hates

the cross. Now if ever we suffer for God we must cross our own will. The will must be martyred.

A Christian must say, Not my will but thy will be done.

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A man must deny self-reasonings. The fleshy part will be reasoning and disputing against sufferings.

‘Why reason you these things in your hearts?’ (Mark 2:8). Such reasonings as these will begin to

arise in our hearts:

1 Persecution is bitter.

Oh but it is blessed! ‘Blessed is he that endureth temptation . . .’ (James 1:12). The cross is heavy,

but the sharper the cross, the brighter the crown.

2 But it is sad to part with estate and relations.

But Christ is better than all. He is manna to strengthen; he is wine to comfort; he is salvation to

crown.

3 But liberty is sweet.

This restraint makes way for enlargement. ‘Thou hast enlarged me in distress’ (Psalm 4:1). When

the feet are bound with irons, the heart may be sweetly dilated and enlarged.

Thus should we put to silence those self-reasonings which are apt to arise in the heart against

sufferings.

This self-denying frame of heart is very hard. This is ‘to pluck out the right eye’. One says, a man

has not so much to do in overcoming men and devils as in overcoming himself. ‘Stronger is he who

conquers himself than he who conquers the strongest walled city’. Self is the idol, and how hard it

is to sacrifice this idol and to turn self-seeking into self-denial! But though it be difficult it is essential

to suffering. A Christian must first lay down self before he can take up the cross.

Alas! how far are they then from suffering that cannot deny themselves in the least things; who in

their diet or apparel, instead of martyring the flesh, pamper the flesh! Instead of taking up the cross

take up their cups! Is this self-denial, to let loose the reins to the flesh? It is sure that they who

cannot deny themselves, if sufferings come, will deny Christ. Oh Christians, as ever you would be

able to carry Christ’s cross, begin to deny yourselves. Consider:

Whatever you deny for Christ, you shall find again in Christ. ‘Every one that hath forsaken houses

or brethren or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for my name’s sake shall

receive an hundred-fold, and shall inherit everlasting life’ (Matthew 19:29). Here is a very saving

bargain. Is it not gain enough to have ten in the hundred, nay above an hundred for one?

It is but equity that you should deny yourselves for Christ. Did not Jesus Christ deny himself for

you? He denied his joy; he left his Father’s house; he denied his honour; he endured the shame

(Hebrews 12:2); he denied his life; he poured out his blood as a sacrifice upon the altar of the cross

(Colossians 1:20). Did Christ deny himself for you, and will not you deny yourselves for him?

Self-denial is the highest sign of a thoroughpaced Christian. Hypocrites may have great knowledge

and make large profession, but it is only the true-hearted saint that can deny himself for Christ. I

have read of an holy man who was once tempted by Satan, to whom Satan said, Why do you take

all these pains? You watch and fast and abstain from sin. O man, what do you more than I? Are

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you no drunkard, no adulterer? No more am I. Do you watch? Let me tell you, I never slept. Do

you fast? I never eat. What do you more than I? Why, says the good man, I will tell thee, Satan; I

pray; I serve the Lord; nay, more than all, I deny myself. Nay, then, says Satan, you go beyond me

for I exalt myself. And so he vanished. Self-denial is the best touchstone of sincerity. By this you

go beyond hypocrites.

To deny yourselves is but what others have done before you. Moses was a self-denier. He denied

the honours and profits of the court (Hebrews 11:24-26). Abraham denied his own country at God’s

call (Hebrews 11:8). Marcus Arethusus’ who lived in the time of Julian the Emperor endured great

torments for religion. If he would but have given an halfpenny towards the rebuilding of the idol’s

temple, he might have been released, but he would not do it, though the giving of an halfpenny

might have saved his life. Here was a self-denying saint.

There is a time shortly coming, that if you do not deny the world for Christ, the world will deny

you. The world now denies satisfaction, and ere long it will deny house-room. It will not suffer

you so much as to breathe in it. It will turn you out of possession; and, which is worse, not only

the world will deny you, but Christ will deny you. ‘Whosoever shall deny me before men, him will

I also deny before my Father which is heaven’ (Matthew 10:33).

(vii) Get suffering graces; these three in particular:

Faith; Love; Patience.

Suffering grace is faith. ‘Above all, taking the shield of faith’ (Ephesians 6:16). The pretence of

faith is one thing, the use of faith another. The hypocrite makes faith a cloak, the martyr makes it

a shield. A shield is useful in time of danger; it defends the head; it guards the vitals. Such a shield

is faith. Faith is a furnace grace. ‘Though it be tried with fire, it is found unto praise and honour’

(1 Peter 1:7). Faith, like Hercules’ club, beats down all oppositions. By faith we resist the devil (1

Peter 5:9). By faith we resist unto blood (Hebrews 11:34). Faith is a victorious grace. The believer

will make Christ’s crown flourish, though it be in his own ashes. An unbeliever is like Reuben:

‘Unstable as water he shall not excel’ (Genesis 49:4). A believer is like Joseph, who, though the

archers shot at him, ‘his bow abode in strength.’ Cast a believer upon the waters of affliction, he

can follow Christ upon the water, and not sink. Cast him into the fire, his zeal burns hotter than the

flame. Cast him into prison, he is enlarged in spirit. Paul and Silas had their prison songs. ‘Thou

shalt tread upon the lion and adder’ (Psalm 91:13). A Christian, armed with faith as a coat of mail,

can tread upon those persecutions which are fierce as the lion and sting as the adder. Get faith.

But how comes faith to be such armour of proof? I answer,

Six manner of ways.

(1) Faith unites the soul to Christ, and that blessed Head sends forth spirits into the members. ‘I

can do all things through Christ . . .’(Philippians 4:13). Faith is a grace that lives all upon the borrow.

As when we want water, we go to the well and fetch it; when we want gold, we go to the mine; so

faith goes to Christ and fetches his strength into the soul, whereby it is enabled both to do and

suffer. Hence it is that faith is such a wonderworking grace.

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(2) Faith works in the heart a contempt of the world. Faith gives a true map of the world (Ecclesiastes

2:11). Faith shows the world in its night-dress, having all its jewels pulled off. Faith makes the

world appear in an eclipse. The believer sees more eclipses than the astronomer. Faith shows the

soul better things than the world. It gives a sight of Christ and glory. It gives a prospect of heaven.

As the mariner in a dark night climbs up to the top of the mast and cries out, ‘I see a star’, so faith

climbs up above sense and reason into heaven and sees Christ, that bright and morning star; and

the soul, having once viewed his superlative excellencies, becomes crucified to the world. Oh, says

the Christian, shall not I suffer the loss of all these things that I may enjoy Jesus Christ!

(3) Faith gets strength from the promise. Faith lives in a promise. Take the fish out of the water

and it dies. Take faith out of a promise and it cannot live. The promises are breasts of consolation.

The child by sucking the breast gets strength; so does faith by sucking the breast of a promise.

When a garrison is besieged and is ready almost to yield to the enemy, auxiliary forces are sent in

to relieve it. So when faith begins to be weak and is ready to faint in the day of battle, then the

promises muster their forces together, and all come in for faith’s relief and now it is able to hold

out in the fiery trial.

(4) Faith gives the soul a right notion of suffering. Faith draws the true picture of sufferings. What

is suffering? Faith says, it is but the suffering of the body, that body which must shortly by the

course of nature drop into the dust. Persecution can but take away my life. An ague or fever may

do as much. Now faith giving the soul a right notion of sufferings and taking (as it were) a just

measure of them, enables a Christian to prostrate his life at the feet of Christ.

(5) Faith reconciles providences and promises. As it was on St Paul’s voyage, providence seemed

to be against him. There was a crosswind arose called Euroclydon (Acts 27:14), but God had given

him a promise that he would save his life, and the lives of all that sailed with him in the ship (verse

24). Therefore when the wind blew never so contrary, Paul believed it would at last blow him to

the haven. So when sense says, Here is a cross providence, sufferings come, I shall be undone, then

faith says ‘all things shall work for good to them that love God’ (Romans 8:28). This providence,

though bloody, shall fulfil the promise. Affliction shall work for my good. It shall heal my corruption

and save my soul. Thus faith, making the wind and tide go together, the wind of a providence with

the tide of the promise, enables a Christian to suffer persecution.

(6) Faith picks sweetness out of the cross. Faith shows the soul God reconciled and sin pardoned;

and then how sweet is every suffering! The bee gathers the sweetest honey from the bitterest herb.

‘A bitter medicine often gives strength to the weary’. So faith from the sharpest trials gathers the

sweetest comforts. Faith looks upon suffering as God’s love-token. Afflictions (says Nazianzen)

are sharp arrows, but they are shot from the hand of a loving Father. Faith can taste honey at the

end of the rod. Faith fetches joy out of suffering (John 16:20). Faith gets an honeycomb in the belly

of the lion; it finds a jewel under the cross; and thus you see how faith comes to be such armour of

proof. ‘Above all, taking the shield of faith’. A believer having cast his anchor in heaven cannot

sink in the waters of persecution.

2 Suffering grace is love. Get hearts fired with love to the Lord Jesus. Love is a grace both active

and passive.

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(1) Love is active. It lays a law of constraint upon the soul; ‘The love of Christ constrains us’ (2

Corinthians 5:14). Love is the wing of the soul that sets it flying and the weight of the soul that sets

it going. Love never thinks it can do enough for Christ. As he who loves the world never thinks he

can take enough pains for it, love is never weary. It is not tired unless with its own slowness.

(2) Love is passive; it enables to suffer. A man that loves his friend will suffer anything for him

rather than he shall be wronged. The Curtii laid down their lives for the Romans because they loved

them. Love made our dear Lord suffer for us. As the pelican out of her love to her young ones,

when they are bitten with serpents, feeds them with her own blood to recover them again, so when

we had been bitten by the old serpent, that Christ might recover us he fed us with his own blood.

Jacob’s love to Rachel made him almost hazard his life for her. ‘Many waters cannot quench love’

(Canticles 8:7). No, not the waters of persecution. ‘Love is strong as death’ (Canticles 8:6). Death

makes its way through the greatest oppositions. So love will make its way to Christ through the

prison and the furnace.

But all pretend love to Christ. How shall we know that we have such a love to him as will make us

suffer? I answer: True love is a love of friendship, which is genuine and ingenuous when we love

Christ for himself. There is a mercenary and meretricious love, when we love divine objects for

something else. A man may love the queen of truth for the jewel at her ear, because she brings

preferment. A man may love Christ for his ‘head of gold’ (Canticles 5:11), because he enriches

with glory. But true love is when we love Christ for his loveliness, namely, that infinite and

superlative beauty which shines in him, as Augustine says, ‘We love Jesus on account of Jesus’;

that is, as a man loves sweet wine for itself.

True love is a love of desire, when we desire to be united to Christ as the fountain of happiness.

Love desires union. The soul that loves Christ is ambitious of death because this dissolution tends

to union. Death slips one knot and ties another.

True love is a love of benevolence, when so far as we are able we endeavour to lift up Christ’s

name in the world. As the wise men brought him ‘gold and frankincense’ (Matthew 2:11), so we

bring him our tribute of service and are willing that he should rise though it be by our fall. In short,

that love which is kindled from heaven makes us give Christ the pre-eminence of our affection. ‘I

would cause thee to drink of spiced wine of the juice of my pomegranate’ (Canticles 8:2). It the

spouse has a cup which is more juicy and spiced Christ shall drink off that. Indeed we can never

love Christ too much. We may love gold in the excess, but not Christ. The angels do not love Christ

to his worth. Now when love is boiled up to this height, it will enable us to suffer. ‘Love is strong

as death’. The martyrs first burned in love, and then in fire.

3 The third suffering grace is patience. Patience is a grace made and cut out for suffering. Patience

is a sweet submission to the will of God, whereby we are content to bear anything that he is pleased

to lay upon us. Patience makes a Christian invincible. It is like the anvil that bears all strokes. We

cannot be men without patience. Passion unmans a man. It puts him beside the use of reason. We

cannot be martyrs without patience. Patience makes us endure (James 5:10). We read of a beast

‘like unto a leopard and his feet were as the feet of a bear and the dragon gave him his power . . .’

(Revelation 13:2). This beast is to be understood of the antichristian power. Antichrist may be

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compared to a leopard for subtlety and fierceness, and on his head was the name of blaspheming

(verse 1), which agrees with that description of the man of sin, ‘He sitteth in the temple of God

showing himself that he is God’ (2 Thessalonians 2:4); and the ‘dragon gave him power’ (verse 2),

that is the devil, and ‘it was given to him to make war with the saints’ (Revelation 13:7). Well, how

come the saints to bear the heat of this fiery trial? (verse 10): ‘Here is the patience of the saints.’

Patience overcomes by suffering. A Christian without patience is like a soldier without arms. Faith

keeps the heart up from sinking. Patience keeps the heart down from murmuring. Patience is not

provoked by injuries. It is sensible but not peevish. Patience looks to the end of sufferings. This is

the motto: ‘God will guarantee the end also.’ As the watchman waits for the dawning of the morning,

so the patient Christian suffers and waits till the day of glory begins to dawn upon him. Faith says,

God will come, and patience says, I will stay his leisure. These are those suffering graces which

are a Christian’s armour of proof.

(viii) Treasure up suffering promises. The promises are faith’s bladders to keep it from sinking.

They are the breast-milk a Christian lives on in time of sufferings. They are honey at the end of the

rod. Hoard up the promises.

God has made promises of direction that he will give us a spirit of wisdom in that hour, teaching

us what to say. ‘I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries shall not be able

to gainsay nor resist’ (Luke 21:15). You shall not need study. God will put an answer into your

mouth. This many of God’s sufferers can set their seal to. The Lord has on a sudden darted such

words into their mouths as their enemies could easier censure than contradict.

God has made promises of protection. ‘No man shall set on thee to hurt thee’ (Acts 18:10). How

safe was Paul when he had omnipotence itself to screen off danger! And ‘there shall not an hair of

your head perish’ (Luke 21:18). Persecutors are lions, but chained lions.

God has made promises of his special presence with his saints in suffering. ‘I will be with him in

trouble’ (Psalm 91:15). If we have such a friend to visit us in prison, we shall do well enough.

Though we change our place we shall not change our keeper. ‘I will be with him.’ God will hold

our head and heart when we are fainting! What if we have more afflictions than others, if we have

more of God’s company! God’s honour is dear to him. It would not be for his honour to bring his

children into sufferings and leave them there. He will be with them to animate and support them,

yea, when new troubles arise; ‘He shall deliver thee in six troubles’ (Job 5:19).

The Lord has made promises of deliverance. ‘I will deliver him and honour him’ (Psalm 91:15).

God will open a back door for his people to escape out of sufferings. ‘He will with the temptation

make a way to escape’ (1 Corinthians 10:13). Thus he did to Peter (Acts 12:7-10). Peter’s prayers

had opened heaven, and God’s angel opens the prison. God can either prevent a snare or break it.

‘To God the Lord belong the issues from death’ (Psalm 68:20). He who can strengthen our faith

can break our fetters. The Lord sometimes makes enemies the instruments of breaking those snares

which themselves have laid (Esther 8:8).

In the case of martyrdom God has made promises of consolation. ‘Your sorrow shall be turned into

joy’ (John 16:20). There is the water turned into wine. ‘Be of good cheer, Paul’ (Acts 23:11). In

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time of persecution God broaches the wine of consolation. Cordials are kept for fainting. Philip the

Landgrave of Hesse, professed that he himself experienced the divine consolations of the martyrs.

Stephen ’saw the heavens opened’ (Acts 7:56). Glover, that blessed martyr, cried out at the stake

in an holy rapture, ‘He is come, He is come’, meaning the Comforter.

Promises of compensation. God will abundantly recompense all our sufferings, ‘in this life an

hundred-fold, and in the world to come ‘life everlasting’ (Matthew 19:29). Augustine calls this the

best and greatest usury. Our losses for Christ are gainful. ‘He that loseth his life for my sake shall

find it’ (Matthew 10:39).

(ix) Set before your eyes suffering examples. Look upon others as patterns to imitate. ‘Take my

brethren the prophets for an example of suffering affliction’ (James 5:10). Examples have more

influence upon us than precepts. The one instruct, the other animate. As they show elephants the

blood of grapes and mulberries to make them fight the better, so the Holy Ghost shows us the blood

of saints and martyrs to infuse a spirit of zeal and courage into us. Micaiah was in the prison;

Jeremiah in the dungeon; Isaiah was sawn asunder. The primitive Christians, though their flesh

boiled, roasted, dismembered, yet like the adamant they remained invincible. Such was their zeal

and patience in suffering that their persecutors stood amazed and were more weary in tormenting

than they were in enduring. When John Huss was brought to be burned, they put upon his head a

triple crown of paper printed with red devils, which when he saw, says he, ‘My Lord Jesus Christ

wore a crown of thorns for me, why then shall I not wear this crown, how ignominious soever?’

Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, when he came before the proconsul was bidden to deny Christ and

swear by the Emperor; he replied: ‘I have served Christ these eighty-six years and he has not once

hurt me, and shall I deny him now?’ Saunders that blessed martyr, said, ‘Welcome the cross of

Christ; my Saviour began to me in a bitter cup and shall not I pledge him? You Baynham, you

papist that look for miracles, I feel no more pain in the fire than if I were in a bed of down.’ Another

of the martyrs said, ‘The ringing of my chain has been sweet music in my ears. O what a comforter

(says he) is a good conscience!’ Another martyr, kissing the stake, said, ‘I shall not lose my life

but change it for a better. Instead of coals I shall have pearls!’ Another, when the chain was fastening

to him, said, ‘Blessed be God for this wedding girdle!’ These suffering examples we should lay

up. God is still the same God. He has as much love in his heart to pity us and as much strength in

his arm to help us. Let us think with ourselves what courage the very heathens have shown in their

sufferings. Julius Caesar was a man of an heroic spirit. When he was foretold of a conspiracy against

him in the senate-house, he answered he had rather die than fear. Mutius Scaevola having his hand

held over the fire till the flesh fried and his sinews began to shrink, yet he bore it with an undaunted

spirit. Quintus Curtius reports of Lysimachus, a brave captain, that being adjudged to be cast naked

to a lion, when the lion came roaring upon him, Lysimachus wrapped his shirt about his arm and

thrust it into the lion’s mouth and taking hold of his tongue killed the lion. Did nature infuse such

a spirit of courage and gallantry into heathens! How should grace much more into Christians! Let

us be of St Paul’s mind: ‘Not counting my life dear, so that I might finish my course with joy’ (Acts

20:24).

(x) Let us lay in suffering considerations. A wise Christian is considerative.

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Consider whom we suffer for. It is for Christ, and we cannot suffer for a better friend. There is

many a man will suffer shame and death for his lusts. He will suffer disgrace for a drunken lust.

He will suffer death for a revengeful lust. Shall others die for their lusts and shall not we die for

Christ? Will a man suffer for that lust which damns him, and shall not we suffer for that Christ

which saves us? Oh remember we espouse God’s own quarrel and he will not suffer us to be losers.

If no man shall ‘kindle a fire on God’s altar for nought’ (Malachi 1:10), then surely no man shall

sacrifice himself for God in the fire for nought.

It is a great honour to suffer persecution. Ambrose, speaking in the encomium of his sister said, ‘I

will say this of her, she was a martyr’. It is a great honour to be singled out to bear witness to the

truth. ‘They departed from the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for

his name’ (Acts 5:41). It is a title that has been given to kings, ‘Defender of the faith’. A martyr is

in a special manner, a ‘defender of the faith’. Kings are defenders of the faith by their swords,

martyrs by their blood. Gregory Nazianzen calls Athanasius ‘the bulwark of truth’. It is a credit to

appear for God. Martyrs are not only Christ’s followers, but his ensign-bearers. The Romans had

their Camilli and Fabricii, brave warriors which graced the field. God calls out none but his

champions to fight his battles. We read that Abraham called forth his trained soldiers (Genesis

14:14), such as were more expert and valiant. What an honour is it to be one of Christ’s trained

band! The disciples dreamed of a temporal reign (Acts 1:6). Christ tells them (verse 8), ‘Ye shall

be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem . . ’. To bear witness by their sufferings to the truth of Christ’s

divinity and passion was a greater honour to the disciples than to have had a temporal reign upon

earth. A bloody cross is more honourable than a purple robe. Persecution is called the ‘fiery trial’

(1 Peter 4:12). God has two fires, one where he puts his gold, and another where he puts his dross.

The fire where he puts his dross is hellfire. The fire where he puts his gold is the fire of persecution.

God honours his gold when he puts it into the fire. ‘A spirit of glory rests upon you’ (1 Peter 1:7;

1 Peter 4:14). Persecution, as it is a badge of our Order, so an ensign of our glory. What greater

honour can be put upon a mortal man than to stand up in the cause of God? And not only to die in

the Lord but to die for the Lord? Ignatius called his fetters his spiritual pearls. St Paul gloried more

in his iron chain than if it had been a gold chain (Acts 28:20).

Consider what Jesus Christ endured for us. Calvin says that Christ’s whole life was a series of

sufferings. Christian, what is your suffering? Are you poor? So was Christ. ‘Foxes have holes and

the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head’ (Matthew 8:20).

Are you surrounded with enemies? So was Christ. ‘Against thy holy child Jesus whom thou hast

anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles . . . were gathered together’ (Acts 4:27).

Do our enemies lay claim to religion? So did his. ‘The chief priests took the silver pieces and said,

It is not lawful to put them into the treasury because it is the price of blood’ (Matthew 27:6). Godly

persecutors! Are you reproached? So was Christ. ‘They bowed the knee before him, and mocked

him, saying, ‘Hail, King of the Jews’ (Matthew 27:29). Are you slandered? So was Christ. ‘He

casteth out devils through the prince of devils’ (Matthew 9:34). Are you ignominiously used? So

was Christ. ‘Some began to spit upon him’ (Mark 14:65). Are you betrayed by friends? So was

Christ. ‘Judas, betrayest thou the Son of Man with a kiss?’ (Luke 22:48). Is your estate sequestered?

And do the wicked cast lots for it? So Christ was dealt with. ‘They parted his garments, casting

lots’ (Matthew 27:35). Do we suffer unjustly? So did Christ. His very judge acquitted him. ‘Then

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said Pilate to the chief priests and to the people, I find no fault in this man’ (Luke 23:4). Are you

barbarously dragged and haled away to suffering? So was Christ. ‘When they had bound him

(though he came to loose them) they led him away’ (Matthew 27:2). Do you suffer death? So did

Christ. ‘When they were come to Calvary, there they crucified him’ (Luke 23:33). They gave him

gall and vinegar to drink, the one deciphering the bitterness, the other the sharpness of his death.

Christ underwent not only the blood of the cross but the curse of the cross (Galatians 3:13). He had

an agony in his soul. ‘My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death’ (Matthew 26:38). The soul of

Christ was overcast with a cloud of God’s displeasure. The Greek Church speaking of the sufferings

of Christ, calls them ‘unknown sufferings’. Did the Lord Jesus endure all this for us, and shall not

we suffer persecution for his name? Say, as holy Ignatius, ‘I am willing to die for Christ, for Christ

my love was crucified’. Our cup is nothing to the cup which Christ drank. His cup was mixed with

the wrath of God, and if he bore God’s wrath for us, well may we bear man’s wrath of him.

Great is the honour we bring to Christ and the gospel by suffering. It was an honour to Caesar that

he had such soldiers as were able to fight with hunger and cold and endure hardship in their marches.

It is an honour to Christ that he has such listed under him as will leave all for him. It proclaims him

to be a good Master when his servants will wear his livery though it be sullied with disgrace and

lined with blood. Paul’s iron chain made the gospel wear a golden chain. Tertullian says of the

saints in his time that they took their sufferings more kindly than if they had had deliverance. Oh,

what a glory was this to the truth, when they durst embrace it in the flame! And as the saints,

sufferings adorn the gospel, so they propagate it. Basil says, the zeal and constancy of the martyrs

in the primitive times made some of the heathens to be Christianised. ‘The Church is founded in

blood and by blood it increases’. The showers of blood have ever made the church fruitful. Paul’s

being bound made the truth more enlarged (Philippians 1:13). The gospel has always flourished in

the ashes of martyrs.

Consider who it is that we have engaged ourselves to in baptism. There we took our press-money.

We solemnly vowed that we would be true to Christ’s interest and fight it out under his banner to

the death. And how often have we in the blessed supper taken the oath of allegiance to Jesus Christ

that we would be his liege-servants and that death should not part us! Now if when being called to

it, we refuse to suffer persecution for his name, Christ will bring our baptism as an indictment

against us. Christ is called ‘the Captain of our salvation’ (Hebrews 2:10). We have listed ourselves

by name under this Captain. Now if, for fear, we shall fly from our colours, it is perjury in the

highest degree, and how shall we be able to look Christ in the face another day? That oath which

is not kept inviolably shall be punished infallibly. Where does the ‘flying roll’ of curses light, but

in the house of him that ’sweareth falsely’ (Zechariah 5:4)?

Our sufferings are light. This ‘light affliction . . .’ (2 Corinthians 4:17) 1 It is heavy to flesh and

blood, but it is light to faith. Affliction is light in a threefold respect:

1 It is light in comparison of sin. He that feels sin heavy feels suffering light. Sin made Paul cry

out, ‘O wretched man that I am!’ (Romans 7:24). He does not cry out of his iron chain but of his

sin. The greater noise drowns the lesser. When the sea roars the rivers are silent. He that is taken

up about his sins, and sees how he has provoked God, thinks the yoke of affliction light (Micah

7:9).

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2 Affliction is light in comparison of hell. What is persecution to damnation? What is the fire of

martyrdom to the fire of the damned? It is no more than the pricking of a pin to a death’s wound.

‘Who knoweth he power of thine anger’ (Psalm 90:11)? Christ himself could not have borne that

anger had he not been more than a man.

3 Affliction is light in comparison of glory. The weight of glory makes persecution light. If, says

Chrysostom, the torments of all the men in the world could be laid upon one man, it were not worth

one hour’s being in heaven. And if persecution be light we should in a manner set light by it. Let

us neither faint through unbelief, nor fret through impatience.

Our sufferings are short: ‘After ye have suffered awhile’ (1 Peter 5:10); or as it is in the Greek, ‘a

little’. Our sufferings may be lasting, not everlasting. Affliction is compared to a ‘cup’ (Lamentations

4:21). The wicked drink of a sea of wrath which has no bottom. It will never be emptied. But it is

only a cup of martyrdom, and God will say, ‘Let this cup pass away’. ‘The rod of the wicked shall

not rest upon the lot of the righteous’ (Psalm 125:3). The rod may be there, it shall not rest. Christ

calls his sufferings ‘an hour’ (Luke 22:53). Can we not suffer one hour? Persecution is sharp, but

short. Though it has a sting to torment, yet it has a wing to fly. ‘Sorrow shall fly away’ (Isaiah

35:10). It is but awhile when the saints shall have a writ of ease granted them. They shall weep no

more, suffer no more. They shall be taken off the torturing wrack and laid in Christ’s bosom. The

people of God shall not always be in the iron furnace; a year of Jubilee will come. The water of

persecution like a land-flood will soon be dried up.

While we suffer for Christ we suffer with Christ: ‘If we suffer with him . . .’ (Romans 8:17). Jesus

Christ bears part of the suffering with us. Oh, says the Christian, I shall never be able to hold out.

But remember you suffer with Christ. He helps you to suffer. As our blest Saviour said: ‘I am not

alone; the Father is with me’ (John 16:32); so a believer may say, ‘I am not alone, my Christ is

with me’. He bears the heaviest end of the cross. ‘My grace is sufficient for thee’ (2 Corinthians

12:9). ‘Underneath are the everlasting arms’ (Deuteronomy 33:27). If Christ put the yoke of

persecution over us, he will put his arms under us. The Lord Jesus will not only crown us when we

conquer, but he will enable us to conquer. When the dragon fights against the godly, Christ is that

Michael which stands up for them and helps them to overcome (Daniel 12:1).

He that refuses to suffer persecution shall never be free from suffering:

Internal sufferings. He that will not suffer for conscience shall suffer in conscience. Thus Francis

Spira, after he had for fear abjured that doctrine which once he professed, was in great terror of

mind and became a very anatomy. He professed he felt the very pains of the damned in his soul.

He who was afraid of the stake was set upon the wrack of conscience.

External sufferings: Pendleton refused to suffer for Christ; not long after, his house was on fire and

he was burned in it. He who would not burn for Christ was afterwards made to burn for his sins.

Eternal sufferings: ‘Suffering the vengeance of eternal fire’ (Jude 7).

These present sufferings cannot hinder a man from being blessed. ‘Blessed are they that are

persecuted . . .’ We think, ‘Blessed are they that are rich’; nay, but ‘Blessed are they that are

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persecuted’. ‘Blessed is the man that endures temptation . . .’ (James 11, 12). ‘If ye suffer for

righteousness, sake, happy are ye’ (1 Peter 3:14).

Persecution cannot hinder us from being blessed. I shall prove this by four demonstrations:

They are blessed who have God for their God. ‘Happy is that people whose God is the Lord’ (Psalm

144:15). But persecution cannot hinder us from having God for our God. ‘Our God is able to deliver

us’ (Daniel 3:17). Though persecuted, yet they could say, ‘our God’. Therefore persecution cannot

hinder us from being blessed.

They are blessed whom God loves, but persecution cannot hinder the love of God. ‘Who shall

separate us from the love of Christ? Shall persecution?’ (Romans 8:35). The goldsmith loves his

gold as well when it is in the fire as when it is in his bag. God loves his children as well in adversity,

as in prosperity. ‘As many as I love I rebuke’ (Revelation 3:19). God visits his children in prison.

‘Be of good cheer, Paul’ (Acts 23:11). God sweetens their sufferings. ‘As the sufferings of Christ

abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth’ (2 Corinthians 1:5). As the mother, having given

her child a bitter pill, gives it afterwards a lump of sugar; persecution is a bitter pill but God gives

the comforts of his Spirit to sweeten it. If persecution cannot hinder God’s love, then it cannot

hinder us from being blessed.

They are blessed for whom Christ prays; but such as are persecuted have Christ praying for them.

‘Keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me’ (John 17:11); which prayer, though

made for all believers, yet especially for his apostles which he foretold should be martyrs (John

16:2). Now if persecution cannot hinder Christ’s prayer for us, then it cannot impede or obstruct

our blessedness.

They are blessed that have sin purged out; but persecution purges out sin (Isaiah 27:9; Hebrews

12:11). Persecution is a corrosive to eat out the proud flesh. It is a fan to winnow us, a fire to refine

us. Persecution is the physic God applies to his children to carry away their ill humours. That surely

which purges out sin cannot hinder blessedness.

(xi) The great suffering consideration is the glorious reward which follows sufferings: ‘Theirs is

the kingdom of heaven.’ The hope of reward, says Saint Basil, is very powerful and moving. Moses

had an eye at the ‘recompense of reward’ (Hebrews 11:26), yea, Christ himself (Hebrews 12:2).

Many have done great things for hope of a temporal reward. Camillus when his country was

oppressed by the Gauls, ventured his life for his country, to purchase fame and honour. If men will

hazard their lives for a little temporal honour, what should we do for the reward of glory? A

merchant, says Chrysostom, does not mind a few storms at sea, but he thinks of the emolument and

gain when the ship comes fraught home. So a Christian should not be over-solicitous about his

present sufferings, but think of the rich reward when he shall arrive at the heavenly port. ‘Great is

your reward in heaven’ (verse 12). The cross is a golden ladder by which we climb up to heaven.

A Christian may lose his life, but not his reward. He may lose his head, but not his crown. If he

that gives ‘a cup of cold water, shall not lose his reward, then much less he that gives a draught of

warm blood. The rewards of glory may sweeten all the waters of Marah. It should be a spur to

martyrdom.

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Not that we can merit this reward by our sufferings. ‘I will give thee a crown of life’ (Revelation

2:10). The reward is the legacy which free grace bequeaths. Alas, what proportion is there between

a drop of blood and a weight of glory? Christ himself, as he was man only (setting aside his

Godhead), did not merit by his sufferings, for Christ, as he was man only, was a creature. Now a

creature cannot merit from the Creator. Christ’s sufferings, as he was man only, were finite, therefore

could not merit infinite glory. Indeed, as he was God, his sufferings were meritorious; but consider

him purely as man, they were not. This I urge against the Papists. If Christ’s sufferings, as he was

man only (though as man he was above the angels), could not merit, then what man upon earth,

what prophet or martyr is able to merit anything by his sufferings?

But though we have no reward ‘ex merito’, by merit, we shall have it ‘ex gratia’, by grace. So it is

in the text, ‘Great is your reward in heaven’. The thoughts of this reward should animate Christians.

Look upon the crown, and faint if you can. The reward is as far above your thoughts as it is beyond

your deserts. A man that is to wade through a deep water, fixes his eyes upon the firm land before

him. While Christians are wading through the deep waters of persecution they should fix the eyes

of their faith on the land of promise. ‘Great is your reward in heaven’. They that bear the cross

patiently shall wear the crown triumphantly.

Christ’s suffering saints shall have greater degrees in glory (Matthew 19:28). God has his highest

seats, yea, his thrones for his martyrs. It is true, he that has the least degree of glory, a doorkeeper

in heaven, will have enough; but as Joseph gave to Benjamin a double mess above the rest of his

brethren, so God will give to his sufferers a double portion of glory. Some orbs in heaven are higher,

some stars brighter. God’s martyrs shall shine brighter in the heavenly horizon.

Oh, often look upon ‘the recompense of the reward’. Not all the silks of Persia, the spices of Arabia,

the gold of Ophir, can be compared to this glorious reward. How should the thoughts of this whet

and steel us with courage in our sufferings! When they threatened Basil with banishment, he

comforted himself with this, that he should be either under heaven or in heaven. It was the hope of

this reward which so animated those primitive martyrs, who, when there was incense put into their

hands and there was no more required of them for the saving of their lives but to sprinkle a little

of that incense upon the altar in honour of the idol, they would rather die than do it. This glorious

reward in heaven is called a reigning with Christ. ‘If we suffer, we shall also reign with him’: first

martyrs, then kings. Julian honoured all those who were slain in his battles. So does the Lord Jesus.

After the saints’ crucifixion, follows their coronation. ‘They shall reign’. The wicked first reign

and then suffer. The godly first suffer and then reign. The saints shall have a happy reign. It shall

be both peaceable and durable. Who would not swim through blood to this crown? Who would not

suffer joyfully? Christ says, ‘Be exceeding glad’ (verse 12). The Greek word signifies ‘to leap for

joy’. Christians should have their spirits elevated and exhilarated when they contemplate the weight

of glory.

If you would be able to suffer, pray much. Beg of God to clothe you with a spirit of zeal and

magnanimity. ‘To you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to

suffer for his sake’ (Philippians 1:29). It is a gift of God to be able to suffer. Pray for this gift. Do

not think you can be able of yourselves to lay down life and liberty for Christ. Peter was

overconfident of himself. ‘I will lay down my life for thy sake’ (John 13:37). But Peter’s strength

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undid him. Peter had habitual grace, but he lacked auxiliary grace. Christians need fresh gales from

heaven. Pray for the Spirit to animate you in your sufferings. As the fire hardens the potter’s vessel

which is at first weak and limber, so the fire of the Spirit hardens men against sufferings. Pray that

God will make you like the anvil that you may bear the strokes of persecutors with invincible

patience.

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An appendix to the beatitudes

His commandments are not grievous

1 John 5:3

You have seen what Christ calls for poverty of spirit, pureness of heart, meekness, mercifulness,

cheerfulness in suffering persecution, etc. Now that none may hesitate or be troubled at these

commands of Christ, I thought good (as a closure to the former discourse) to take off the surmises

and prejudices in men’s spirits by this sweet, mollifying Scripture, ‘His commandments are not

grievous.’

The censuring world objects against religion that it is difficult and irksome. ‘Behold what a weariness

is it!’ (Malachi 1:13). Therefore the Lord, that he may invite and encourage us to obedience, draws

religion in its fair colours and represents it to us as beautiful and pleasant, in these words: ‘His

commandments are not grievous.’ this may well be called a sweetening ingredient put into religion

and may serve to take off that asperity and harshness which the carnal world would put upon the

ways of God.

For the clearing of the terms, let us consider:

1. What is meant here by commandments?

By this word, commandments, I understand gospel-precepts; faith, repentance, self-denial etc.

2. What is meant by ‘not grievous?’

The Greek word signifies they are not tedious or heavy to be borne. There is a meiosis in the words.

‘His commands are not grievous’, that is, they are easy, sweet, excellent.

Hence observe that none of God’s commandments are grievous, when he calls us to be meek,

merciful, pure in heart. These commandments are not grievous. ‘My burden is light’ (Matthew

11:30). The Greek word there for ‘burden’, signifies properly ‘the ballast of a ship’ which glides

through the waves as swiftly and easily as if the ship had no weight or pressure in it. Christ’s

commandments are like the ballast of a ship, useful, but not troublesome. All his precepts are sweet

and facile, therefore called ‘pleasantness’ (Proverbs 3:17). To illustrate and amplify this, consider

two things:

1. Why Christ lays commands upon his people.

2. 2. That these commands are not grievous.

1 Why Christ lays commands upon his people. There are two reasons.

(i) In regard of Christ, it is suitable to his dignity and state. He is Lord paramount. This name is

written on his thigh and vesture, ‘King of kings’ (Revelation 19:16). And shall not a king appoint

laws to his subjects? It is one of the regal rights, the flowers of the crown, to enact laws and statutes.

What is a king without his laws? And shall not Christ (by whom ‘kings reign’, Proverbs 8:15) put

forth his royal edicts by which the world shall be governed?

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(ii) In regard of the saints, it is well for the people of God that they have laws to bind and check

the exorbitancies of their unruly hearts. How far would the vine spread its luxuriant branches were

it not pruned and tied? The heart would be ready to run wild in sin if it did not have affliction to

prune it and the laws of Christ to bind it. The precepts of Christ are called ‘a yoke’ (Matthew 11:30).

The yoke is useful. It keeps the oxen in from straggling and running out. So the precepts of Christ

as a yoke keep the godly from straggling into sin. Whither should we not run, into what damnable

opinions and practices, did not Christ’s laws lay a check and restraint upon us? Blessed be God for

precepts! That is a blessed yoke which yokes our corruptions. We should run to hell were it not for

this yoke. The laws of Christ are a spiritual hedge which keeps the people of God within the pastures

of ordinances. Some that have broken this hedge and have straggled are now in the devil’s pound.

Thus we see what need the saints have of the royal law.

2 The second thing I am to demonstrate is that Christ’s commands are not grievous. I confess they

are grievous to the unregenerate man. To mourn for sin, to be pure in heart, to suffer persecution

for righteousness’ sake, is a hard word, grievous to flesh and blood. Therefore Christ’s commands

are compared to bands and cords, because carnal men look upon them so. God’s commands restrain

men from their excess and bind them to their good behaviour. Therefore, they hate these bonds and

instead of breaking off sin, say, ‘Let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from

us’ (Psalm 2:3). A carnal man is like an untamed heifer which will not endure the yoke, but kicks

and flings, or like a ‘wild bull in a net’ (Isaiah 51:20). Thus to a person in the state of nature Christ’s

commands are grievous.

Nay, to a child of God, so far as corruption prevails (for he is but in part regenerate), Christ’s laws

seem irksome. The flesh cries out that it cannot pray or suffer. ‘The law in the members, rebels

against Christ’s law. Only the spiritual part prevails and makes the flesh stoop to Christ’s injunctions.

A regenerate person, so far as he is regenerate, does not count God’s commandments grievous.

They are not a burden, but a delight.

Divine commands are not grievous if we consider them first positively in these eight particulars:

(1) A Christian consents to God’s commands, therefore they are not grievous. ‘I consent to the law

that it is good’ (Romans 7:16). What is done with consent is easy. If the virgin gives her consent,

the match goes on cheerfully. A godly man in his judgement approves of Christ’s laws, and in his

will consents to them. Therefore they are not grievous. A wicked man is under a force; terror of

conscience hales him to duty. He is like a slave that is chained to the galley. He must work whether

he will or no. He is forced to pull the rope, tug at the oar. But a godly man is like a free subject that

consents to his prince’s laws and obeys out of choice as seeing the equity and rationality of them.

Thus a gracious heart sees a beauty and equity in the commands of heaven that draws forth consent,

and this consent makes them that they are not grievous.

(2) They are Christ’s commands, therefore not grievous. ‘Take my yoke’ (Matthew 11:29). Gospel

commands are not the laws of a tyrant, but of a Saviour. The husband’s commands are not grievous

to the wife. It is her ambition to obey. This is enough to animate and excite obedience, Christ’s

commands. As Peter said in another sense, ‘Lord if it be thou, bid me come unto thee upon the

water’ (Matthew 14:28), so says a gracious soul; ‘Lord, if it be thou that wouldest have me mourn

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for sin and breathe after heart purity; if it be thou (dear Saviour) that biddest me do these things, I

will cheerfully obey. Thy commandments are not grievous’. A soldier at the word of his general

makes a brave onset.

(3) Christians obey out of a principle of love, and then God’s commandments are not grievous.

Therefore in Scripture serving and loving of God are put together. ‘The sons of the strangers that

join themselves to the Lord, to serve him and to love the name of the Lord …’ (Isaiah 56:6). Nothing

is grievous to him that loves. Love lightens a burden; it adds wings to obedience. An heart that

loves God counts nothing tedious but its own dullness and slowness of motion. Love makes sin

heavy and Christ’s burden light.

(4) A Christian is carried on by the help of the Spirit, and the Spirit makes every duty easy. ‘The

Spirit helpeth our infirmities’ (Romans 8:26). The Spirit works in us ‘both to will and to do’

(Philippians 2:13). When God enables us to do what he commands then ‘his commandments are

not grievous’. If two carry a burden it is easy. The Spirit of God helps us to do duties, to bear

burdens. He draws as it were in the yoke with us. If the scrivener guides the child’s hand and helps

it to frame its letter, now it is not hard for the child to write. If the loadstone draw the iron, it is not

hard for the iron to move. If the Spirit of God as a divine loadstone draw and move the heart, now

it is not hard to obey. When the bird has wings given it, it can fly. Though the soul of itself be

unable to do that which is good, yet having two wings given it (like that woman in the Revelation,

(Revelation 12:14), the wing of faith and the wing of the Spirit, now it flies swiftly in obedience.

‘The Spirit lifted me up’ (Ezekiel 11:1). The heart is heavenly in prayer when the Spirit lifts it up.

The sails of a mill cannot move of themselves, but when the wind blows then they turn round.

When a gale of the Spirit blows upon the soul, now the sails of the affections move swiftly in duty.

(5) All Christ’s commands are beneficial, not grievous. ‘And now, O Israel, what doth the Lord

thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to love him, to keep his statutes which I

command thee this day for thy good’ (Deuteronomy 10:12, 13). Christ’s commands carry meat in

the mouth of them, and then surely they are not grievous. Salvation runs along in every precept.

To obey Christ’s laws is not so much of duty as our privilege. All Christ’s commands centre in

blessedness. Physic is in itself very unpleasant, yet because it tends to health no man refuses it.

Divine precepts are to the fleshy part irksome, yet, having such excellent operation as to make us

both holy and happy, they are not to be accounted grievous. The apprentice is content to go through

hard service, because it makes way for his freedom. The scholar willingly wrestles with the knotty

difficulties of arts and sciences because they serve both to ennoble and advance him. How cheerfully

does a believer obey those laws which reveal Christ’s love! That suffering is not grievous which

leads to a crown. This made Saint Paul say, ‘I take pleasure in infirmities, in persecutions’ (2

Corinthians 12:10).

(6) It is honourable to be under Christ’s commands. Therefore they are not grievous. The precepts

of Christ do not burden us but adorn us. It is an honour to be employed in Christ’s service. How

cheerfully did the rowers row the barge that carried Caesar! The honour makes the precept easy.

A crown of gold is in itself heavy, but the honour of the crown makes it light and easy to be worn.

I may say of every command of Christ, as Solomon speaks of wisdom, ‘She shall give to thine head

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an ornament of grace: a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee’ (Proverbs 4:9). It is honourable

working at court. The honour of Christ’s yoke makes it easy and eligible.

(7) Christ’s commands are sweetened with joy and then they are not grievous. Cicero questions

whether that can properly be called a burden which is carried with joy and pleasure? When the

wheels of a chariot are oiled they run swiftly. When God pours in the oil of gladness, how fast does

the soul run in the ways of his commandments! Joy strengthens for duty. ‘The joy of the Lord is

your strength’ (Nehemiah 7:10); and the more strength, the less weariness. God sometimes drops

down comfort and then a Christian can run in the yoke.

( Gospel commands are finite, therefore not grievous. Christ will not always be laying his

commands upon us. Christ will shortly take off the yoke from our neck and set a crown upon our

head. There is a time coming when we shall not only be free from our sins, but our duties too.

Prayer and fasting are irksome to the flesh. In heaven there will be no need of prayer or repentance.

Duties shall cease there. Indeed in heaven the saints shall love God, but love is no burden. God

will shine forth in his beauty, and to fall in love with beauty is not grievous. In heaven the saints

shall praise God, but their praising of him shall be so sweetened with delight that it will not be a

duty any more, but part of their reward. It is the angels’ heaven to praise God. This then makes

Christ’s commands not grievous; though they are spiritual, yet they are temporary; it is but a while

and duties shall be no more. The saints shall not so much be under commands as embraces. Wait

but a while and you shall put off your armour and end your weary marches. Thus we have seen

that Christ’s commands considered in themselves are not grievous.

Let us consider Christ’s commands comparatively, and we shall see they are not grievous. Let us

make a fourfold comparison. Compare Gospel commands:

1 With the severity of the moral law,

2 With the commands of sin,

3 With the torments of the damned,

4 With the glory of heaven

1 Christ’s commands in the gospel are not grievous compared with the severity of the moral law.

The moral law was such a burden as neither we nor our fathers could bear. ‘Cursed is every one

that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them’ (Galatians

3:10). Impossible it is that any Christian should come up to the strictness of this. The golden

mandates of the gospel comparatively are easy. For:

(1) In the gospel, if there be a desire to keep God’s commandments, it is accepted. ‘If there be first

a willing mind it is accepted’ (Nehemiah 1:11; 2 Corinthians 8:12). Though a man had had never

so good a mind to have fulfilled the moral law, it would not have been accepted. He must ‘de facto’

(in actual deed) have obeyed (Galatians 3:12). But in the gospel God crowns the desire. If a Christian

says in humility, ‘Lord, I desire to obey thee, I would be more holy’ (Isaiah 26:8), this desire

springing from love passes for current.

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(2) In the gospel a surety is admitted in the court. The law would not admit of a surety. It required

personal obedience. But now, God so far indulges us that, what we cannot of ourselves do, we may

do by a proxy. Christ is called ‘a surety of a better testament’ (Hebrews 7:22). We cannot walk so

exactly. We tread awry and fall short in everything, but God looks upon us in our surety, and Christ

‘having fulfilled all righteousness’ (Matthew 3:15), it is all one as if we had fulfilled the law in our

own persons.

(3) The law commanded and threatened, but gave no strength to perform. It Egyptianized, requiring

the full tale of brick, but gave no straw. But now God with his commands gives power.

Gospel-precepts are sweetened with promises. God commands, ‘Make you a new heart’ (Ezekiel

18:31). Lord, may the soul say, I make a new heart? I can as well make a new world. But see Ezekiel

36:26, ‘A new heart also will I give you’. God commands us to cleanse ourselves: ‘Wash you, make

you clean’ (Isaiah 1:16). Lord, where should I have power to cleanse myself? ‘Who can bring a

clean thing out of an unclean?’ (Job 14:4). See the precept turned into a promise: ‘From all your

filthiness and from your idols will I cleanse you’ (Ezekiel 36:25). If, when the child cannot go, the

father takes it by the hand and leads it, now it is not hard for the child to go. When we cannot go,

God takes us by the hand, ‘I taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their arms’ (Hosea 11:3).

(4) In the gospel God winks at infirmities where the heart is right. The law called for perfect

obedience. It was death to have shot but an hairbreadth short of the mark. It were sad if the same

rigour should continue upon us. Woe to the holiest man that lives (says Augustine) if God comes

to weigh him in the balance of his justice. It is with our best duties as with gold. Put the gold in the

fire and you will see dross come out. What drossiness in our holy things! But in the gospel, though

God will not endure haltings, yet he will pass by failings. Thus Christ’s commands in the gospel

are not grievous compared with the severity of the moral law.

Christ’s commands are not grievous compared with the commands of sin. Sin lays an heavy yoke

upon men. Sin is compared to a talent of lead (Zechariah 5:7) to show the weightiness of it. The

commands of sin are burdensome. Let a man be under the power and rage of any lust (whether it

be covetousness or ambition), how he tires and excruciates himself! What hazards does he run,

even to the endangering of his health and soul, that he may satisfy his lust! ‘They weary themselves

to commit iniquity’ (Jeremiah 9:5). And are not Christ’s precepts easy and sweet in comparison of

sin’s austere and inexorable commands? Therefore Chrysostom says well that virtue is easier than

vice. Temperance is less burdensome than drunkenness. Doing justice is less burdensome than

violence. There is more difficulty and perplexity in the contrivement (Micah 2:1) and pursuit of

wicked ends than in obeying the sweet and gentle precepts of Christ. Hence it is that a wicked man

is said to ‘travail with iniquity’ (Psalm 7:14), to show what anxious pain and trouble he has in

bringing about his wickedness. What tedious and hazardous journeys did Antiochus Epiphanes

take in persecuting the people of the Jews! Many have gone with more pain to hell than others have

to heaven.

3 Christ’s commands are not grievous compared with the grievous torments of the damned. The

rich man cries out ‘I am tormented in this flame’ (Luke 16:24). Hell fire is so inconceivably torturing

that the wicked do not know either how to bear or to avoid it. The torment of the damned may be

compared to a yoke and it differs from other yokes. Usually the yoke is laid but upon the neck of

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the beast, but the hell-yoke is laid upon every part of the sinner. His eyes shall behold nothing but

bloody tragedies. His ears shall hear the groans and shrieks of blaspheming spirits. He shall suffer

in every member of his body and faculty of his soul, and this agony though violent yet perpetual.

The yoke of the damned shall never be taken off. ‘The footprints show no return’ Sinners might

break the golden chain of God’s commands, but they cannot break the iron chain of his punishments.

It is as impossible for them to file this chain as to scale heaven.

And are not gospel-commands easy in comparison of hell-torments? What does Christ command?

He bids you repent. Is it not better to weep for sin than bleed for it? Christ bids you pray in your

families and closets. Is it not better praying than roaring? He bids you sanctify the Sabbath. Is it

not better to keep an holy rest to the Lord than to be for ever without rest? Hell is a restless place.

There is no intermission of torment for one minute of an hour. I appeal to the consciences of men.

Are not Christ’s commands sweet and facile in comparison of the insupportable pains of reprobates?

Is not obeying better than damning? Are not the cords of love better than the chains of darkness?

4 Gospel commands are not grievous compared with the glory of heaven. What an infinite

disproportion is there between service and reward! What are all the saints, labours and travails in

religion compared with the crown of recompense? The weight of glory makes duty light.

Behold here an encouraging argument to religion. How may this make us in love with the ways of

God! ‘His commandments are not grievous’. Believers are not now under the thundering curses of

the law, no, nor under the ceremonies of it, which were both numerous and burdensome. The ways

of God are equal, his statutes eligible! He bids us mourn that we may be comforted. He bids us be

poor in spirit that he may settle a kingdom upon us. God is no hard Master. ‘His commandments

are not grievous.’ O Christian, serve God out of choice (Psalm 119:3). Think of the joy, the honour,

the reward of godliness. Never more grudge God your service. Whatever he prescribes, let your

hearts subscribe.

It reproves them that refuse to obey these sweet and gentle commands of Christ. ‘Israel would none

of me’ (Psalm 81:11). We may cry out with Augustine that the generality of men choose rather to

put their neck in the devil’s yoke than to submit to the sweet and easy yoke of Christ. What should

be the reason that, when God’s ‘commandments are not grievous’, his ways pleasantness, his service

perfect freedom, yet men should not vail to Christ’s sceptre nor stoop to his laws?

Surely the cause may be that inbred hatred which is naturally in men’s hearts against Christ. Sinners

are called ‘God-haters’ (Romans 1:30). Sin begets not only a dislike of the ways of God, but hatred;

and from disaffection flows disloyalty. ‘His citizens hated him and sent a message after him, saying,

We will not have this man to reign over us’ (Luke 19:14)

Besides this inbred hatred against Christ, the devil labours to blow the coals and increase this odium

and antipathy. He raises an evil report upon religion as those spies did on Canaan. ‘They brought

up an evil report of the land’ (Numbers 13:32). Satan is implacably malicious, and as he sometimes

accuses us to God, so he accuses God to us, and says, He is an hard Master and his commandments

are grievous. It is the devil’s design to do as the sons of Eli, ‘who made the offering of God to be

abhorred’ (1 Samuel 2:17). If there be any hatred and prejudice in the heart against religion, ‘an

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The Beatitudes: An Exposition of Matthew 5:1-12 Thomas Watson

enemy hath done this’ (Matthew 13:28, 38). The devil raises in the hearts of men a twofold prejudice

against Christ and his ways:

(1) The paucity of them that embrace religion. The way of Christ is but a pathway (Psalm 119:35),

whereas the way of pleasure and vanity is the roadway. Many ignorantly conclude that must needs

be the best way which most go. I answer: There are but few that are saved, and will not you be

saved because so few are saved? A man does not argue thus in other things: there are but few rich,

therefore I will not be rich; nay, therefore, he the rather strives to be rich. Why should not we argue

thus wisely about our souls? There are but few that go to heaven, therefore we will labour the more

to be of the number of that few.

What a weak argument is this: there are but few that embrace religion, therefore you will not! Those

things which are more excellent are more rare. There are but few pearls and diamonds; in Rome,

few senators. The fewness of them that embrace religion argues the way of religion excellent. ‘It

is not every man than can get to Corinth.”

We are warned not to sail with the multitude (Exodus 23:2). Most fish goes to the Devil’s net.

(2) The ways of religion are rendered deformed and unlovely by the scandals of professors.

I answer: I acknowledge the lustre of religion has been much eclipsed and sullied by the scandals

of men. This is an age of scandals. Many have made the pretence of religion a key to open the door

to all ungodliness. Never was God&rsqu