Tag Archives: A Preparation for Suffering in an Evil Day

Edward Pohill on how the fear of God prepares us to suffer

25 Wednesday Sep 2019

Posted by in Edward Polhill, Fear, fear of God, Fear of the Lord, Uncategorized

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Pohill begins with his proposition which he seeks to prove in the ensuring discourse:

If we would be in a fit posture for suffering, we must get an holy fear in our hearts.

He then cites to two texts of Solomon which commend fear as a means of wisdom:

The wise Solomon begins his Proverbs with this; “The fear of the Lord is the beginning (or head) of knowledge,” (Prov. 1:7); and ends his Ecclesiastes with this, “That to fear God, and keep his commandments, is the whole duty of man,” (Eccl. 12:13).

He then makes the observation that the capacity to fear the God is something which belongs uniquely to human beings. Not even devils, who have great intellectual capacity can perform this task of exhibiting a holy fear of God:

Other things appertain to the beast, or the devil; but holy fear is the all of man, it makes him a perfect man, not only to do God’s will, but to suffer under it.

He then notes three ways in which a fear of God creates a basis to withstand suffering. First, he contrasts the fear of God with the fear of man. He makes a series of observations respecting the fear of other human beings. To begin with, the fear of man is irrational (compared to the fear of God), because men are everywhere accounted as weak:

It is not the fear of man but of God, that doth it. It is not the fear of man that can do it. God gives us a charge against this, “Who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die?” (Isa. 51:12). There is no cause to fear a weak piece of clay, a very breath, a fading leaf; he must die, and there is an end of him and all his thoughts perish with him.

Pohill could have cited to any number of like verses which warn us to not fear man, such as

Isaiah 2:22 (ESV)

22         Stop regarding man

in whose nostrils is breath,

for of what account is he?

Moreover, fear of man leads to sin:

The wise man tells us, “That the fear of man bringeth a snare,” (Prov. 29:25). It made Abraham dissemble as if he had no wife; David changed his behaviour, as if he had no reason; Peter curse and swear as if he knew not his master: this fear disposes to apostacy,

He takes the remedy from the remainder of Proverbs 29:25:

Proverbs 29:25 (ESV)

25     The fear of man lays a snare,

but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe.

The fear of God and the fear of man seem to be mutually exclusive categories; we can only do one or other. And thus Pohill argues that the fear of man

must be cured by that fear of God, which disposes to suffering: when we are ready to drown in worldly sorrow, it is of singular use to spring another, a godly sorrow in our hearts; and when the fear of man puts us into trembling fits, it is an excellent remedy to raise up the fear of God in our souls above the other.

The fear of God does not create a generalized anxiety; rather it is a cure to anxiety. Rather than being basis for anxiety, a concern for the Lord alone creates freedom from a concern of what happens in this world:

Thus God directs his people not to fear the confederate enemies, but to “sanctify the Lord of Hosts himself, and to let him be their fear and their dread,” (Isa. 8:12, 13). He is Lord of Hosts, God over all, and the fear of him should be above all other fears; this is the way to have him to be a sanctuary to us, as it follows. If we fear him, he will be an inviolable place of retreat, where we may repose ourselves in a day of trouble.

Second, he distinguishes fear of the Lord from fearfulness. He uses the now unusal word “diffidence” which emphasis a lack of confidence, doubt, uncertainly. The fear of the Lord does not paralyze us in place:

It is not a diffidential fear, but a fiducial one that doth it: a diffidential fear makes the mind, as meteors in the air, to hang in suspense, and, in case affliction come, to fail under the burden. St. Peter walked upon the water to go to Jesus; but when he saw the wind boistrous, he was afraid, and began to sink, (Matth. 14:29, 30.) By faith he walked, and by diffidence he began to sink.

While sinful fear creates diffidence in our heart, the fear of the Lord is consistent with faith and confidence in God:

Our condition is the very same; in the waves of a troublesome world we stand by faith, but fall by diffidence; that fear, which prepares us for suffering, must be a fiducial one. “Ye that fear the Lord, trust in the Lord, he is their help and their shield,” (Psa. 115:11).

Fear of man entails an increasing sense of protection of myself-by-myself; it is the opposite of faith. Fear of the God causes us to flee and run toward God in faith:

Holy fear is and must be in conjunction with faith. Fear flies from the evils of sin and hell; faith closes in with the promises of grace and glory; both concur to make a man fit for suffering; and such a sufferer shall have God for his help and shield.

Thus, fear of God is not a fear which causes wavering or cowardice.

Third, fear is also associated with a position of dependence. But the fear of God is not the dependence of a slave but the dependence of a child: “It is not a servile fear, but a filial one that doth it”.

The difference in these two types of fear lie in the result of such fear with respect to sin. There is a difference between fearing the consequence of sin as opposed to hating the sin:

he that hath a mere servile fear of the wrath to come, may forbear an act of sin, but he hath the love of it in his heart; “adhuc vivit in eo peccandi voluntas” the love of sin lives in him still, as an ancient hath it.

He then applies this question of fear to matter of suffering. If one merely fears pain – such as the consequence for sin – then such a one will reject all suffering. One who suffers for God suffers because the love of God is greater than the sorrow of suffering:

Such an one is not in a fit case to suffer for the truth; he hath not a love to God to move him to it, nor a capacity to have heaven after it; and how can he suffer? It is very hard for a man to suffer for a God that he loves not; or part with the good things of this world, when he hath no hope of those in a better.

He then contrasts servile fear with filial fear (the fear of a child) on the ground that filial fear is fear of God mixed with the love of a child:

That fear, which prepares for suffering, is not servile, but filial; it stands not in conjunction with the love of sin, but with the love of God; the nature of it is such, that he that hath it will displease man rather than offend God; part with a world, rather then let go the truth and a pure worship; nay, and lay down his life rather then forfeit the divine presence and favour which are better than life. Thus much touching the nature of that fear, which prepares us for suffering.

In the second half of the essay, he lists out three ways in which holy fear acts to prepare us for and help us endure through suffering. First, holy fear looks upon sin as worse than suffering. Second, holy fear takes real the suffering of hell as opposed to temporal suffering. Third, holy fear looks upon eternal loses as greater than temporal loses.

What each of these elements has in common is that holy fear, fear of God, puts our life into a different context. The fear of a bare creature is the fear of loss of some immediate good in the present creation. But holy fear looks through the present and sees things in their eternal aspect.

First holy fear looks upon sin as worse than suffering. Sin is contrary to God:

Holy fear looks upon sin as an evil much greater than any suffering: suffering is opposite to the creature,

but sin is opposite to the infinite God;

it is a rebellion to his sovereignty,

a contradiction to his holiness,

a provocation to his justice;

an abuse to his grace;

a stain cast, as much as in us lies, upon his glory;

nay, as the schools speak, it is a kind of deicidium, it strikes in a sort at the very life and being of God;

it wishes that there were none at all;

and, if it could effect it, there should be none.

Suffering does not make a man worse; but sin does:

Suffering doth not make a man worse then he was before, but sin doth it. Those saints that were destitute, afflicted, tormented, wandering in deserts, and mountains, and dens, and caves of the earth, were yet such excellent ones, “That the world was not worthy of them,” (Heb. 11:37, 38). On the other hand, Antiochus Epiphanes, (who was, as his name imports, illustrious and glorious in the world) was yet but a vile person, and was made such by his wickedness.

Next, present suffering can only affect those things which must lose. Sin will cause the lost of those things that must not lose:

Suffering strikes at the estate or body of man, but sin strikes at his soul, a thing more precious than a world; nay, and at the divine image there, which is more worth than the soul itself:

Consider the degradation which sin perpetuates:

it doth, where it can prevail, turn men into beasts in its sensual lusts, or into devils in its spiritual wickednesses: suffering may have good, nay great good in it, but sin is evil, only evil; it is called by St. James, περισσεία κακίας, the superfluity or excrement of all evil, (James 1:21).

It contains all evils in it; and if all evils (saith a worthy divine) were to have a scum or excrement, sin is it, as being the abstracted quintessence of all evil, and having nothing at all of good in it. Sin, saith Bradwardine, is a thing not to be done, “pro quantiscunque bonis lucrandis, aut pro quantiscunque malis præcavendis,” for the gaining never so great a good, or for the avoiding never so great an evil.

He that hath this holy fear in his heart, will choose suffering as the lesser evil, rather than sin, which is much the greater….It was the saying of Anselm, That if sin were set before him on one hand, and hell on the other, he would rather choose hell than sin. … Holy fear will tell us, that sin must not be done to avoid suffering; that we were better bear all reproaches than dishonour God; lose our estates than leave our religion; nay, and lay down our lives than be separated from the Divine love.

O let us look upon sin as the maximum formidable; as that which hath in it the most proper cause of fear and flight, that no external miseries and dangers may be able to drive us into it.

Second, a holy fear causes the reality of hell to overshadow the losses of this world:

Holy fear looks at the sufferings which God inflicts in hell, as incomparably greater than those which man doth or can inflict upon earth.

Our Saviour directing our fear to its right object, takes notice of the vast difference between them, “Fear not them, which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear him, which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Matt. 10:28.)

Man’s killing is one thing, but God’s destroying another: man may kill the body, and it may be in a tormenting manner; but there is no death like the second; no torments on earth are comparable to those in hell; no finite arm can strike so hard as the infinite one; no culinary or elementary fire can burn so hot as the infernal doth.

….Man may kill the body, but after that he can do no more, his engines of cruelty cannot reach the soul, or touch the inward man, which is a sanctuary for God; but God kills the soul, his wrath is in a peculiar manner poured out there where the chief seat of sin was; the never-dying worm is ever growing upon conscience. … He that hath this holy fear in him will choose any sufferings on earth rather than those in hell. One of the sons of Solomona told the tyrant Antiochus, that his fire was cold, and indeed it was so, comparatively, to the fire of hell.

St. Austin [Augustine] putting the question whom we should obey, God commanding one thing, or the emperor commanding another, makes his answer: “Da veniam, Imperator, tu carcerem minaris, ille gehennam,” Give place, O emperor, thou threatenest a prison, he a hell.

When Polycarp was threatened with fire, his answer was, That the persecutor threatened only a momentary fire, but knew not the eternal one. He that ever heard that true thunder, which is the voice of God, would hardly be afraid of such artificial cracks as the emperor Caius Caligula used to make to shew himself a God. And he that carries upon his heart an awe of those sufferings which God inflicts in hell, will hardly fear those which men inflict on earth.

Finally,

Holy fear looks upon spiritual and eternal losses, as incomparably greater than carnal and temporal ones. The loss of the world may be made up in the saving of the soul; but for the loss of a soul, nothing can make a recompense.

Moreover, the loss of this world will be more than satisfied by the gain of the world to come and the presence of our Savior:

The loss of man’s favour may be richly made up by the presence of God’s. Moses endured the king’s wrath, as seeing the invisible one; the presence of God was so with him, that he feared no human frowns. But if the divine favour be wanting, nothing can supply the defect of it.

Conversely, if we were to lose God, what good would the entire universe provide? All things in this world are temporal; the things to come are eternal.

Its riches are but poor moth-eaten things, which in a little time vanish away; its pleasures are but the titillations of sense, and perish in the using; its honours are but a blast, a little popular air which soon go away, and come to nothing. When once God, who is the fountain and spring of all good, departs, it is in vain to hope for any thing from the little rivulets and cisterns of the creature.

When we compare what will have and lose with respect to God; our concern is not to lose the creature but to lose the Creator:

The adulterous woman fears, lest her husband may come; the chaste woman fears lest her husband depart. In like manner servile fear makes us afraid that God will punish, and filial fear makes us afraid that God will depart. The loss of him is more than the loss of all things.

He finishes with this exhortation from a Martyr:

When the Martyr Menas, under the persecution of Dioclesian, was brought forth to suffer, he gave this reason for it: “Nihil est, quod meâ sententiâ conferri possit cum regno cœlorum; neque enim totus mundus potest, æquâ lance expensus uni comparari animæ;” There is nothing, in my judgment, like the kingdom of heaven; neither may the whole world, if weighed in an equal balance, be compared with one soul. He had rather lose anything in the world than a heaven and a soul. O let us labour to know where the great loss lies, that we may never for sake spiritual and eternal things for carnal and temporal.

 

The Conclusion of Edward Polhill’s Preparation for Suffering

30 Friday Jun 2017

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PREPARATION FOR SUFFERING

IN

AN EVIL DAY:

SHEWING

HOW CHRISTIANS ARE TO BEAR SUFFERINGS,

AND WHAT GRACES ARE REQUISITE THEREUNTO

SUITED FOR ALL CHRISTIANS IN THIS PRESENT TIME

 

Edward Polhill, 1682.

The first post in this series may be found here.

Polhill ends his treatise on preparing for suffering with a description of the blessing of suffering.  This is of two sorts, first how suffering well blesses God. Second, how God blesses the one who suffers.

How Suffering Well Glorifies God.

First,

Pious sufferers do glorify God in a very signal eminent manner. What is said of St. Peter’s death? that “It was a glorifying of God,” (John 21:19). The same may be said of the death of all other martyrs; we glorify God by offering praise; much more by offering our lives for him. We glorify him by giving some of our estates in charity; much more, by giving our blood for his name…..As it was with Christ, his power appeared in miracles; but above all, in that he triumphed over principalities and powers upon the cross: so it is with christians; the divine power appears in other graces, but above all in that patient suffering which overcomes the world. The truth of God is in martyrs practically proved to be exceeding precious. The fathers, in the first general councils, were so earnest for the truth, that they would not exchange a letter or syllable of it.

Second, “Pious sufferers do propagate and multiply the church.”

Third,

Pious sufferers do give an evident token to the persecutor, that the wrath of God will come upon him…. “Stand fast,” saith he, “in one spirit, with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel, and in nothing terrified by your adversaries, which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that of God,” (Phil. 1:27, 28). The persecutor comes with his torments and engines of cruelty, to terrify the martyr; but the martyr, by his Christian patience and courage, gives the persecutor an evident token that the wrath of God will come down upon him at last. If bloody persecutors, who look upon the suffering martyrs, had but their eyes open, they would see cause enough to reflect upon themselves, and say, Surely these men have a patience more than human, and therefore they suffer for God; and, if so, we in persecuting them fight against him, and may expect that his wrath should come down upon us, as it hath upon former persecutors.

How God Blesses Those Who Suffer Well:

First, “Pious sufferers are happy here and hereafter. They are happy here upon a double account.”

They give the highest proof of their sincerity that can be given. …The highest proof of grace is in suffering. That faith must be right that endures the fiery furnace; that love must be pure, that practically lifts up God above all other things; that hope must be lively that lets go a present world for a future one; that obedience must be glorious that continues unto the death.

As they give the highest proof of their sincerity, so they have the gracious presence of God in the most eminent way with them. All his glorious attributes do, as it were, pitch their tents round about them, and put forth their virtues in a gracious manner for their good. His power rests upon them to bear them up, how weak soever, in the fiery trial; his wisdom directs them how to carry themselves under the cross; his mercy melts over them, while they are under man’s cruelty; his love is shed abroad in their heart while they bear the world’s hatred: the presence of God will be to them instead of, nay, infinitely more than all other comforts. They may say, “If God be for us, who can be against us, (Rom. 8:31).

Again: They are happy hereafter, and this stands in two things:

  1. They are freed from all evils. In heaven they shall have no corruption within, nor oppression without; no noise of passion in the heart, nor rout of turbulent persecutors to disquiet them; the will of the flesh shall have a total circumcision; the infirmities of the body shall have a perfect cure; the serpent cannot hiss in paradise; no temptations or miseries can fasten on a saint in glory. There is day without night, love without fear, joy without sorrow, life without death, all happiness without the least mixture of evil. There the blessed martyrs shall be freed from all their troubles and miseries.
  2. They are endowed with all good and happiness, The promises made to the overcomer in the Revelation of St. John, shall be made good to them; they shall eat of the tree of life in a blessed immortality; they shall have the white stone in a perfect absolution; they shall be clothed in robes of glory; they shall be pillars in the heavenly temple, standing there as ornaments in an immoveable felicity; they shall sit down with Christ in his throne, and judge their enemies that condemned them; they shall inherit all things; they that lost all for God shall inherit all in him who is goodness itself, and the fountain of it; they shall see him who is the original and crystal ocean of all truth; they shall enjoy Him who is the supreme good and sabbath of souls; they shall be swallowed up in the joy of infinite truth and goodness; and their happiness shall not be for a time, but run parallel with eternity itself; they shall be for ever in the Lord in the blessed region. There, as St. Austin hath it, God who is all in all, Sine fine videbitur, sine fastidio amabitur, sine fatigatione laudnbitur: “Shall be seen without end, loved without disdain, and praised without weariness.” In the next world there will be a vast difference between persecutors and sufferers. The pride and cruelty of the one will be paid for in torments and endless misery in the prison of hell; and the patience and suffering of the other will be returned in joys and eternal felicity in the blessed heaven.

Edward Polhill, The Works of Edward Polhill (London: Thomas Ward and Co., 1844), 356–359.

 

Edward Polhill, Patience Endures and Even Conquers in Suffering and Affliction

29 Thursday Jun 2017

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The previous post in this series may be found here

The tenth thing needed to bear “an evil day” is patience.  Patience has a peculiar bearing to the evil day:

We are not only to do other commands by obedience, but, when providence calls us to it, we are to do that of taking up the cross by patience. Other graces may help to bear the cross, but patience takes it up upon his back. It is its proper peculiar office ὑπομἐνειν, to make a man abide piously under the cross.

Polhill first considers what patience is to the patient Christian, himself. (It must be noted that the word “patience” as used by Polehill in the 17th Century is similar in many respects to the word “endurance.”)

First, in patience “makes a christian possess his soul, (Luke 21:19)”. The Christian’s trouble is not truly in the outward world — that is in the Lord’s control. The Christian in patience must bear and still himself.  “All the powers in earth and hell cannot put him out of the possession of himself, or hinder his graces from coming forth into act—he will be like himself in his suffering.”

Second, in patience the Christian conquers the world. Even death cannot conquer the Christian (Rom. 9:35-37). But the Christian by patience conquers the world, because the world cannot over come the patient Christan whose hope is set upon Christ.

Third, patience takes its contentment from God — therefore, present sufferings cannot take away from the best part. Moreover, in that very patience there is a sweetness from God. James says that such patience leave one “perfect and entire”. James 1:4

Considered Godward, Polehill makes three observations about patienc.

First, patience is submission to the will of God: God is God and therefore, who am I to rebel?

Patience subjects the soul to the will of God; when the cross comes, the patient Christian’s will, with Aaron, hold their peace; or if they speak, they will do it in some such language as that of Eli, “It is the Lord, let him do what seemeth him good.” Patience will instruct them to lie in the lowest posture of humility, and to argue the matter with themselves in this manner: Is God the rector of the world, and shall we not subject to him? His presence is in all, his power is over all, his wisdom and righteousness orders all. Who can stay his hand, or say to him, what dost thou? or call him to give account of any of his matters? To strive with him is folly; to murmur at any piece of his government is rebellion; to think that things might have been better, is to blaspheme his wise and just providence; and is he the Father of spirits, and shall we not be under him? We give reverence to the fathers of our flesh, and now much rather should we be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live?

Second, patience knows that the strength to endure comes from God. Patience is a very faithful activity:

Patience waits upon God for strength to bear the cross, and for a good issue out of it: we have both these promised in that of the apostle,” God will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able, but will with the temptation make a way to escape,” (1 Cor. 10:13). In the first clause we have a promise of strength proportionable to the temptation; in the last, we have a promise of a good issue out of it. First, patience waits upon God for strength to bear the cross; this is the right method of obtaining strength: “Wait on the Lord, and he shall strengthen thy heard,” (Psa. 27:14). Strength comes in a way of dependance upon God.

And then patience looks to God for the best outcome:

True patience waits upon God for strength; but this is not all, it also waits upon God for a good issue out of the suffering; salvation belongs unto the Lord, and he gives many good issues to his suffering people: if they have an increase of graces and comforts, that is one good issue: if they hold out and persevere to the end, that is another good issue: if by death they pass from the cross to the crown, from a temporal life to an eternal one, that is the best issue of all: for such issues as these do patient souls wait, till the Lord put an end to all their troubles.

Finally, patience for the Christian is not a bear stoicism. Christian patience is one of joy and praise:

 “Count it all joy, when ye fall into divers temptations,” (Jam. 1:2); that is, when ye fall into afflictions for the gospel. All joy? how can poor afflicted souls reckon thus? In the trial their graces appear in their pure beauty; strength is made perfect in weakness; consolations abound as much, nay, more than afflictions; the beams of divine love irradiate the heart, and fill it with a sweet serenity; hope enters heaven, and fixes upon the crown of life, and heaven comes down in a spirit of glory upon the heart. Here is joy, all joy indeed; the total sum of it in this life is made up in these things. It was the saying of the martyr, Mr. Philpot, “That to die for Christ is the greatest promotion that God can bring any unto in this vale of misery; yea, so great a honour as the greatest angel in heaven is not permitted to have.” It was the prayer of Mr. Bradford, the martyr: “God forgive me my unthankfulness for this exceeding great mercy, that among so many thousands, he chooseth me to be one in whom he will suffer. It was the observation of one of the ancients, “That it was peculiar to christians to give thanks in adversity.” Jews and Gentiles can praise God for benefits, but the patient christian can thank him for afflictions. O! let us labour after patience, that we may not only suffer for Christ, but do it with joy. Thus our Saviour directs his persecuted ones; “Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven,” (Matt. 5:12). Inward and outward joys are very proper in suffering saints, because then they are arrived at the highest pitch of Christianity, and ready to enter into the blessed heaven, there to enjoy God for ever and ever.

 

Edward Polhill, The Works of Edward Polhill (London: Thomas Ward and Co., 1844), 354–356.

Edward Polhill, Obedience Prepares One for Suffering

19 Monday Jun 2017

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(The previous post in this series on Edward Polhill’s A Preparation for Suffering in an Evil Day may be found here )

 

Polhill next explains that obedience to God’s will before we suffer, will prepare us to persevere through suffering when it comes. We are fitted to God’s determination for our life through obedience, that obedience then becomes the basis for submitting to God’s will in suffering.

He proves this point with six consideration:

First, obedience is the work of the Holy Spirit in one’s life: this supernatural work of the Spirit in obedience leads to the same supernatural work of the Spirit to go through suffering:

Again, the Holy Spirit, which makes good men do God’s will, will enable them to suffer it too. St. Paul took pleasure in persecutions, because, when he was weak, then he was strong, (2 Cor. 12:10); that is, the Holy Spirit did strengthen his inward man to bear the cross. The Holy Spirit in the saints is a well of water, springing up to everlasting life, (John 4:14; 1 Peter 4:14).

Second, we must believe, because God has commanded: that it is enough. Having been fitted to obey, we are fit to suffer at God’s determination.)

Third,

True obedience makes us to grow up into Christ the head, and to be of near alliance to him. It makes us to grow up into Christ the head, (Eph. 4:15). Obedience, being the exercise of all graces, brings us into a near union with Christ, and makes us more and more like to him: the more we act our love, meekness, mercy, goodness, or any grace, the more we are united to him and incorporated with him; nay, true obedience makes us to be of near alliance to him. (Luke 8:20-21)….St. Paul bore about in his body the dying of the Lord Jesus, (2 Cor. 4:10); and the allies of Christ must be ready, at God’s call, to suffer with him.

Fourth, suffering well will take strength; we can only increase in such strength through obedience:

True obedience produces an increase of grace and spiritual strength. Obedience is a christian’s daily walk; the more he exercises himself to godliness, the more grace he hath in his soul. …Such an obedience as this admirably disposes a man for suffering. The greater his stock of grace is, the better will he hold out in the straits of the world. The more strength he hath in the inner man, the more able he will be to bear the burden of the cross:

Fifth, “True obedience obtains the gracious presence of God to help and comfort good men in the doing his will.”

Sixth, if we are in the way of obedience, we are on the way to God, and thus will endure suffering on that way:

True obedience is the way to heaven: those blessed ones, that do the commands of God, “have right to the tree of life, and enter in through the gates into the city,” (Rev. 22:14). The more obedient a man is to the divine will, the richer entrance he hath into the blessed kingdom. After sowing to the Spirit comes the crop of eternal glory; after walking in holy obedience, comes the blessed end of life and immortality…..When Basil the great was threatened with banishment, and death, he was not at all moved at it: banishment is nothing to him that hath heaven for his country; neither is death any thing to one to whom it is the way to life: He that is in the way to heaven hath great reason to break through all difficulties to get thither.

 Edward Polhill, The Works of Edward Polhill (London: Thomas Ward and Co., 1844), 352–354.

 

12 Friday Dec 2014

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The previous post in this series may be found here: https://memoirandremains.wordpress.com/2014/04/29/edward-polhill-humility-prepares-one-for-suffering/

Polhill next explains that obedience to God in the present prepares for suffering in the future. To draw the connection between the two, Polhill first explains that obedience is an act of submitting our will to our Creator’s will. Thus, it prepares us for submitting to God’s will when suffering comes. He demonstrates the connection between obedience & suffering in six parts.

First, any true obedience is a supernatural act: “Obedience being a mere supernatural act, comes from the Holy Spirit, as the prime cause thereof; a general concourse suffices not; there must be a peculiar motion and impulsion of the Spirit in it” (Edward Polhill, The Works of Edward Polhill (London: Thomas Ward and Co., 1844), 352). This is important to note, because we can easily fall into the false understanding that obedience is merely some outward conformity of the hands.  However, obedience is a willing work of the heart.

Again, the Holy Spirit, which makes good men do God’s will, will enable them to suffer it too. St. Paul took pleasure in persecutions, because, when he was weak, then he was strong, (2 Cor. 12:10); that is, the Holy Spirit did strengthen his inward man to bear the cross. The Holy Spirit in the saints is a well of water, springing up to everlasting life, (John 4:14). The persecuting world would fain stop and dam it up; but in the midst of all oppositions it springs, and never leaves springing till the saints be in heaven; and before they come thither, it is, as St. Peter speaks,” A spirit of glory resting upon them,” (1 Pet. 4:14); it brings down some glimpses of heaven into their hearts, whilst they are suffering for religion.

Edward Polhill, The Works of Edward Polhill (London: Thomas Ward and Co., 1844), 352–353.  Continue reading →

Edward Polhill: The Fear of God Which Prepares One for Affliction

13 Saturday Apr 2013

Posted by in affliction, Biblical Counseling, Edward Polhill, Fear, Isaiah, Luke, Puritan

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Much of Polhill’s instruction on how to prepare for suffering makes sense upon first consideration: For instance, a lively hope of eternal life necessarily orients one to look to beyond the suffering, and thus limit the pain which suffering can inflict (for suffering afflicts one most painfully by extending endlessly into the future — but the certain hope that it will end, that suffering can only be a “little while” (1 Peter 5:10) does much to defang the monster).

Yet, when he comes to the seventh direction, one may begin to question his wisdom:

The seventh direction is this, if we would be in a fit posture for suffering, we must get an holy fear in our hearts.

Edward Polhill, A Preparation for Suffering in an Evil Day, 347. Polhill knows the apparent difficulty with the concept, therefore he begins by defining the scope of this holy fear by means of three characteristics: It is fear of the Lord — human beings; it is a fear which springs from faith; and it is a fear mixed with love.

Fear must have its end in God: Human beings are contingent creatures — we have no life or being in ourselves; we cannot cause our life to continue; we cannot cause our body to persist. All our existence hangs from something else, and that something else rightly becomes the object of fear.

When fear does not find its object in the Creator, the human being becomes even more wretched — for the fear does not disappear by banishing God. Rather, the fear flits about for an appropriate object making the man ridiculous:

What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow
Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man,
You cannot say, or guess, for you know only
A heap of broken images, where the sun beats,
And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,
And the dry stone no sound of water.
OnlyThere is shadow under this red rock
(Come in under the shadow of this red rock),
And I will show you something different from either
Your shadow at morning striding behind you
Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;
I will show you fear in a handful of dust.

T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land, “The Burial of the Dead”. But what of one who claims to have no fear of any-thing? Look at his life? Why the absurd concern for basketball teams or politics? How could the movement of a ball across a court or field be of such moment? If no Creator or Judge concerns himself with us, then why the least concern for life or death? To concern oneself with life or death, with politics or police in the absence of any God is like anxiety for soapbubbles – in fact, bubbles existing in a meaningful universe matter more, for they can convey beauty: but what beauty can exist in absurdity?

To live without a rightly angled fear must by necessity be a persistent affliction. Thus, we seek to remedy this by landing our fear upon the image not the original. We concern ourselves with humanity which Scripture calls “fear of adam [human beings, “man”]” which is a trap:

The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is safe.

Proverbs 29:25

To fear man is to fear too little — fear must be set upon its rightful object:

4 “I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. 5 But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him! 6 Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. 7 Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows

Luke 12:4-7

Here is a curious fear: It is an existential fear — it is a fear of that which reaches to one’s existence beyond the grave. Yet, this fear becomes the basis of comfort. Having fixed our fear on its rightful and sole object — God who created us and can exercise absolute dominion over us — the fear transforms to solace, “Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.” When we finally fix our fear on Creator, than nothing of the creation can instill fear:

12 “I, I am he who comforts you; who are you that you are afraid of man who dies, of the son of man who is made like grass, 13 and have forgotten the LORD, your Maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth, and you fear continually all the day because of the wrath of the oppressor, when he sets himself to destroy? And where is the wrath of the oppressor? 14 He who is bowed down shall speedily be released; he shall not die and go down to the pit, neither shall his bread be lacking. 15 I am the LORD your God, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar- the LORD of hosts is his name. 16 And I have put my words in your mouth and covered you in the shadow of my hand, establishing the heavens and laying the foundations of the earth, and saying to Zion, ‘You are my people.'”

Isaiah 51:11-16.

When our heart fills with fear of The Lord, then we will not fear man — for man is merely something made by God. Indeed, the entire creation lies within God’s control, God “who stirs up the sea ….”

The second aspect of godly fear is faith. It makes sense to set one’s faith upon the ultimate matter of concern — God who has consumed all one’s fear:

Holy fear is and must be in conjunction with faith. Fear flies from the evils of sin and hell; faith closes in with the promises of grace and glory; both concur to make a man fit for suffering; and such a sufferer shall have God for his help and shield.

Polhill, 348. As we rightly fear God, the fear closes with faith and drives us to God. Godly fear does this by causing us to fear offending God — which drives us from sin. And, having been driven from sin, we have no choice but to run toward God.

Thus, fear of God reduces the creature to its true measure and drives us on to God.

Finally, a fear which prepare for suffering is mixed with love. Here is a peculiar fear that draws one to the one feared, for the one whom we fear is the one who draws us in love:

I led them with cords of kindness, with the bands of love, and I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws, and I bent down to them and fed them.

Hosea 11:4. The Creator looks upon the creature and has compassion upon out fraility:

13 As a father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him. 14 For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust. 15 As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field; 16 for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more. 17 But the steadfast love of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children’s children, 18 to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments. 19 The LORD has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all.

Psalm 103:13-19. As we rightly fear the King and Creator of all, our fear mixes with love and instills love. Our confessed weakness stirs our Lord’s love and protection; as when David calls out to God for protection, and God answers with rest and sleep for David:

1 O LORD, how many are my foes! Many are rising against me; 2 many are saying of my soul, there is no salvation for him in God. Selah 3 But you, O LORD, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head. 4 I cried aloud to the LORD, and he answered me from his holy hill. Selah 5 I lay down and slept; I woke again, for the LORD sustained me. 6 I will not be afraid of many thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around

Psalm 3:1-6. We will be bound to sin to the extent that we do not fear God. One who cannot and does not fear God will be bound to the world of sin — how then can he suffer for this God or suffer to lose this world (seeing it is his all):

the love of sin lives in him still, as an ancient hath it. Such an one is not in a fit case to suffer for the truth; he hath not a love to God to move him to it, nor a capacity to have heaven after it; and how can he suffer? It is very hard for a man to suffer for a God that he loves not; or part with the good things of this world, when he hath no hope of those in a better. That fear, which prepares for suffering, is not servile, but filial; it stands not in conjunction with the love of sin, but with the love of God; the nature of it is such, that he that hath it will displease man rather than offend God; part with a world, rather then let go the truth and a pure worship; nay, and lay down his life rather then forfeit the divine presence and favour which are better than life.

Edward Polhill, 348.

Hope Which Overcomes Here and Now

04 Monday Mar 2013

Posted by in Biblical Counseling, Ecclesiastes, Edward Polhill, Hebrews, Hope, Puritan, Uncategorized

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Years ago, I read Island by Aldous Huxley which recounted a man shipwrecked on an imaginary island — Huxley’s Utopia (no-place) — on which birds words would call out, “Here and now, boys! Here and now.” At the time, being in college and easily amazed at the dopiest ideas, I thought Huxley quite brilliant.

The trouble with such a thought is that it is hopeless.

Hope necessarily orients one to the future. “For who hopes for what one sees?” (Romans 8:24). Now, it would be right to now longer hope when the perfect has come — but — and this is the great mistake I made in reading Huxley — the island of his story does exist. Like Thomas Moore’s Utopia, it is no place.

I was taken in by a novel of a place that did not — could not — exist.

I may live in the present — indeed I must. And I may love in the present. And, I will suffer in the present. But must I be bound in the present?

The oppressor’s greatest taunt is that the present will never change. Oppression demands the present, it lives on the present, it denies that the present will ever change. The trouble with the false messiahs and politicians and hucksters is that offer something which they cannot deliver: something beyond the present.

Death stands unalterably before us: “And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). Between us and death there will often be pleasure and even joy — but they are made sick with the absolute knowledge they will be destroyed. Indeed, it is an unanswerable mystery how joy can be found anywhere within the space of death.

Did Huxley think an absurd denial of the future with his “Here and now” would somehow ward off sorrow?

2 Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity. 3 What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun? 4 A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever. 5 The sun rises, and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it rises. 6 The wind blows to the south and goes around to the north; around and around goes the wind, and on its circuits the wind returns.
7 All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full; to the place where the streams flow, there they flow again. 8 All things are full of weariness; a man cannot utter it; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. 9 What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun. 10 Is there a thing of which it is said, “See, this is new”? It has been already in the ages before us. 11 There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of later things yet to be among those who come after.

Ecclesiastes 1:2-11. What can we do in the face of such a reality?

Certainly not “here and now.” Jim Morrison got that point right:

Five to one baby, one in five
No one here gets out alive.

No, the only exit is hope. But what would an exit be — it would necessarily be an exit from the entire aeon.

The Christward hope is that Jesus has overcome death — that his has undone the thief that makes a mockery of life. And, as a Christian, I must hang all my hope upon that point:

12 Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised.14 And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.15 We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised.16 For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised.17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.19 If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.

1 Corinthians 15:12-19.

But Paul continues:

20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.21 For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.

Now there is a basis for hope because there has been an escape, or rather a rescue:

3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,
4 who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,
5 to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

Galatians 1:3-5. I need not trust a here and now of no-place. Huxley gave me nothing to counter suffering. Christ has given me a means to overcome through suffering.

Here, Edward Polhill helps. For he notes that the sufferings of now cannot overcome hope:

Hope assures us, that the good things of the world to come do incomparably exceed the things of this world. If the things of this world were the better, no man would leave better for worse: nay, if they were but equal, no man would part with that in possession for that in expectation: but hope assures us that the good things of the world to come do far transcend those that are in this world. The mansions in glory are better than the houses of clay; the incorruptible inheritance exceeds a fading one; eternal life is much more precious than temporal; the crowns of immortality above outshine all the titles of honor here below;

Now one may deny that such hope is real — but that claim hangs upon the resurrection. And I dare say that the resurrection is a matter which can well stand the weight.

Polhill continues: not only does the substantial hope of something more overcome present suffering, “Hope assures our interest in the things of the world to come”. The salvation of The Lord does not hang upon our merit, but upon our hope — our faith for what God will do. Life is the gift of God, given to those who will receive it.

It takes not unreal work, no hocus pocus. It is a real, substantial thing. Thus hope which overcomes our suffering is a real, substantial thing. Hebrews calls it an “anchor” of the soul:

17 So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath,18 so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.19 We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain,20 where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

Hebrews 6:17-20.

Now, one lovely effect of hope is that it transforms the one who hopes. The one who hopes becomes conformed to the object of hope. When I wedding day approached, my life became shaped by the coming wedding, because I hoped for that day. The hope of the Lord’s return conforms and transforms those who hope:

1 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.2 Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.3 And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

1 John 3:1-3. Or as Paul writes:

11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people,
12 training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age,
13 waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,
14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.
15 Declare these things; exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no one disregard you.

Titus 2:11-15. It is interesting how Paul ends the proclamation. In fact suffering will end in hope for the believer:

3 More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,
4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,
5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

Romans 5:3-5. And hope works with patience to overcome present suffering:

Faith adheres to the promise, hope waits for the good things promised; both strengthen in a day of trial. It is the very nature of divine hope to wait for the good things to come: when the sun of prosperity shines, it waits in a way of obedience; “Lord, I have hoped for thy salvation, and do thy commandments,” saith David, (Ps. 119:166). He waited in a way of obedience to God’s commands. And when the storm of persecution comes, it waits in a way of patience. Hence the apostle speaks of the patience of hope, (1 Thess. 1:3). That hope, which in prosperity waited in a way of obedience, will in adversity wait in a way of patience: hope would have the christian to be always waiting for the upper world; but when the cross comes, it presseth upon him more vehemently, and will speak after this manner to him; What, hast thou waited for the great reward in heaven in duties and ordinances, and wilt thou not wait for it in sufferings, too? Heaven is the same still, and sufferings are not worthy to be compared with it: do but suffer a little, and thou shalt be there.

Edward Pohill, A Preparation for Suffering in an Evil Day, 347.

Hope as a preparation for suffering

28 Friday Dec 2012

Posted by in 2 Corinthians, Biblical Counseling, Discipleship, Edward Polhill, Hope, Job, Philippians, Puritan

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The trouble of suffering, of evil constitutes a philosophical problem with which academics (typically) wrestle. There is a second category of problem, the actual subjective experience of evil, which drives one to ask, “How long O Lord!” (Psalm 13:1). 

 

The philosophical discussions matter little to the sufferer. While I have cherry-picked a bit, I do not believer a suffering philosopher (or a philosopher on her death bed, awaiting the prospect of eternal judgment) will be comforted by

 

In slightly more detail, and using ‘Pr(P/Q)’ to stand either for the logical probability, or for the epistemic[4] probability, of P given Q, the logic of the argument is as follows:

 

(1) Pr(O/HI) > Pr(O/T) (Substantive premise)

(2)       Pr(O/HI) = Pr(O & HI)/Pr(HI)     et cetera …..

 

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/evil/

 

The proof of God, despite suffering, or the “hope” that no God exists who will call to account matters less than (1) what I believe to be true of reality; (2) reality, itself.  In the end, most of the philosophical arguments must be wrong in whole or part, because reality does not bend to my logical construct — however, well crafted and accepted by contemporary peers.

 

Arguments tell us nothing that we need. The man holding a bleeding child, the woman with cancer, cannot drink analytic philosophy — it will not digest. We would sooner feed scrap metal to a baby. The metal may good its place, but it will not ward off hunger.

 

The responses to suffering set forth below will answer to various philosophies, but they are in a very different form.

 

Suffering admits of only three responses. First, one can deny the reality of evil. This will also entail the denial of good, of love and joy and peace. The Stoic denial of all response is inhuman. And while a bit of peace may be had, the resignation of a stone to the rain does not end the rain. Rain will wear  away the hardest stone.  The stone may not rage, but the stone does not hope.

 

The drunkennes of cultures, flooding the senses with nonsense to obviate the real, a pornographic violence to the sense which wears away the soul merely mimics the Stoic without a hint of character or trial:

 

11 Woe to those who rise early in the morning, that they may run after strong drink, who tarry late into the evening as wine inflames them! 12 They have lyre and harp, tambourine and flute and wine at their feasts, but they do not regard the deeds of the LORD, or see the work of his hands.  Isaiah 5:11-12

 

Thomas Brooks notes and rejects such a stoic resignation in his book The Mute Christian Under the Smarting Rod:

 

And so Harpalus was not at all appalled when he saw two of his sons laid ready dressed in a charger, when Astyages had bid him to supper. This was a sottish insensibleness. Certainly if the loss of a child in the house be no more to thee than the loss of a chick in the yard, thy heart is base and sordid, and thou mayest well expect some sore awakening judgment.1 This age is full of such monsters, who think it below the greatness and magnanimity of their spirits to be moved, affected, or afflicted with any afflictions that befall them. I know none so ripe and ready for hell as these.

 

Aristotle speaks of fishes, that though they have spears thrust into their sides, yet they awake not. God thrusts many a sharp spear through many a sinner’s heart, and yet he feels nothing, he complains of nothing. These men’s souls will bleed to death. Seneca, Epist. x., reports of Senecio Cornelius, who minded his body more than his soul, and his money more than heaven; when he had all the day long waited on his dying friend, and his friend was dead, he returns to his house, sups merrily, comforts himself quickly, goes to bed cheerfully. His sorrows were ended, and the time of his mourning expired before his deceased friend was interred. Such stupidity is a curse that many a man lies under. But this stoical silence, which is but a sinful sullenness, is not the silence here meant.

 

This may seem odd, because the Christian response does entail an element of resignation, yet it is a resignation coupled to hope —  I will bear this to gain that:

 

10 I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity.

11 Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.

12 I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.

13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

Philippians 4:10-13.

 

Paul bears with his circumstances, not by denying but by transcending:

 

7 So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12:7–10 (ESV)

 

A second response is to curse. Job’s wife provides a memorable example of such:

 

7 So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD and struck Job with loathsome sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head.

8 And he took a piece of broken pottery with which to scrape himself while he sat in the ashes.

9 Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die.”

10 But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.

Job 2:7-10.

 

Job’s response provides the appropriate example: the Christian may not respond with cursing or anger to God’s providence. Job seeing through the secondary causes, through Satan and the bridgands, through the storm and the disease in his body, looks to the ultimate cause: God. God has given this, therefore we must willing accept this providence.

 

A third response is resignation without cursing coupled to hope. The poet of Lamentations does not deny the trouble brougth by God:

 

7 He has walled me about so that I cannot escape; he has made my chains heavy;

8 though I call and cry for help, he shuts out my prayer;

9 he has blocked my ways with blocks of stones; he has made my paths crooked.

10 He is a bear lying in wait for me, a lion in hiding;

11 he turned aside my steps and tore me to pieces; he has made me desolate;

12 he bent his bow and set me as a target for his arrow.

13 He drove into my kidneys the arrows of his quiver;

14 I have become the laughingstock of all peoples, the object of their taunts all day long. Lam. 3

 

Yet he sees through the trouble to kindness of God to come:

 

19 Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall!

20 My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me.

21 But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:

22 The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end;

23 they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

24 “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”

25 The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.

26 It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.  Lam. 3

 

Polhill lays this truth at the heart of his response. To perserve in the midst of trial, we have a hope which transcends our circumstance:

 

THE sixth direction is this: if we would be in a fit posture for suffering, we must get a lively hope of eternal life. As our life is a sea, hope is compared to an anchor, which makes us stand steady in a storm; as our life is a warfare, hope is compared to a helmet, which covers the soul in times of danger; as the body liveth spirando, by breathing, so the soul lives sperando, by hoping. A man cannot drown so long as his head is above water; hope lifts up the head, and looks up to the redemption and salvation that is to come in another world in its fulness and perfection. Hope doth three things; it assures good things to come; it disposes us for them; it waits for them unto the end: each of which will, be of singular use to fit us for pious sufferings.

 

Edward Polhill, The Works of Edward Polhill (London: Thomas Ward and Co., 1844), 346.

How a Holy Resignation to and Love for Christ Prepares One for Suffering (Edward Polhill)

14 Wednesday Nov 2012

Posted by in 1 Peter, 2 Corinthians, Biblical Counseling, Discipleship, Edward Polhill, Obedience, Puritan

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A fourth aspect of love toward Christ lies in giving up one’s self wholly to the will of Christ, who disposes our ends and determines our place. A great deal of suffering lies not in the things itself but in our relationship to the thing. While all suffering necessarily entails pain and loss — and this is a point which we must not forget when living in love with a sister or brother who suffers: suffering is real, and we are called to enter into the suffering of others (“weep with those who weep”, Romans 12:14), and to comfort those who are afflicted (2 Cor. 1:4) — we often make our suffering worse by refusing to resign ourselves in love to our Savior.

The Christian who suffers is called to both know sorrow and joy at once. The suffering of this life causes real pain and brings real tears (John 11:35; Psalms 56:8). Yet, at the same time, there is a real joy which runs independently of the sorrow, for it is anchored, not in the circumstances, but in the eternal good of God:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials,7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith-more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire-may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory,9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
1 Peter 1:3-9

Thus, we needlessly increase our suffering when we suffer without a sure love anchored in the surety that Christ has done us good. Yet, when we in holy resignation submit our will to the determination of Christ, knowing that that his toward us is sure, we prepare for and perserve in suffering.

In fact, we must realize that such love and resignation is our reasonable service to Christ — and it is a service for which we will rejoice. As Polhill explains:

Love to Christ stands in a holy benevolence towards him; it surrenders up the whole man to him; it endeavours to serve and honour him to the utmost. Thus those many thousands cry out, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing, (Rev. 5:11, 12); they give all to Christ. This is an excellent preparative for suffering. If we would serve him in other things, we must serve him in suffering for him; if we would honour him in obedience to other commands, we must honour him in taking up the cross too. St. Paul desired that Christ might be magnified in his body, whether it were by life or by death, (Phil 1:20). If he lived he would magnify Christ by active obedience; and if he died, he would do it by passive: either way he would have Christ glorified in him. The martyr, Romanus, having a multitude of wounds in his body, thanked the persecutor for opening so many mouths to glorify Christ. In nothing is Christ so much glorified as in his suffering saints; therein they demonstrate the highest love, seal up the evangelical truths with their own blood; practically prefer Christ before all the world, and offer up themselves for him who gave himself a sacrifice for them. O let us labour to make a total resignation of ourselves to him, that if sufferings come, we may be able to bear them for his sake.

Edward Polhill, The Works of Edward Polhill (London: Thomas Ward and Co., 1844), 345-346 (Preparation for Suffering in an Evil Day).

Preparation for Suffering in an Evil Day: The Love of Christ.3

14 Friday Sep 2012

Posted by in Biblical Counseling, Edward Polhill, James, Puritan

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Polhill continues in the same vein, a love Christ makes every bitter sweet – not because the bitter of life is sweet, but because there is a source of love and joy which the world cannot invade:

Love to Christ stands in an holy complacence in him, it makes the soul enjoy a kind of heaven in his presence, and delight itself in his satisfying sweetness.

Edward Polhill, The Works of Edward Polhill (London: Thomas Ward and Co., 1844), 345. Thus, when evil days comes we do not look solely to the evil which is before us, but we look above and beyond and settle our soul in the dear love of Christ which overcomes the world. We can have such succor

in times of fear and temptation, that his presence may sweeten the bitterest condition to her. The cross of Jesus, if we taste the sweetness of it, will turn a marah into joy and comfort

Ibid. This sets us to a task now, before the evil day strikes. The moments we have meditation, of communion, of grace, of leaving off sin, of fellowship, of prayer and study, all these things must teach us to drink the undying water which transforms our souls:

O let us labour to taste more of the sweetness of Christ, to find his blood in every pardon, his Spirit in every grace, his wine cellar in every ordinance, that the divine comforts, that we experimentally feel in him, may sweeten the cross to us.

This is the way of the dear ones of God. In the midst of the Lamentations, the poet knows the goodness and blessing of God exist. How? He cannot know them from present experience, for present experience is bitter but he can say:

The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. Lamentations 3:25 (ESV)

The verb to wait can also be translated to hope. The waiting is expectant, the hope is patient but preserving. Such a hope cannot come to us but we know that God is good before the trial strikes. James encourages the early Christians to hope and not turn to grumbling and sin, but rather be patient in suffering knowing that the Lord is good:

7 Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. 8 You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. 9 Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door. 10 As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. 11 Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful. James 5:7–11 (ESV)

This is not a grim waiting, but an expectant waiting premised upon a knowledge that “the Lord is compassionate and merciful”.  The compassion and mercy of the Lord should stir our soul to love – such love that when trial and temptation fall upon us we are sure of his compassion and mercy – for trial will try our knowledge.