Tag Archives: Suffering

Thomas Boston, The Crook in the Lot.6 (the sovereignty of God)

29 Saturday Jan 2022

Posted by in Sovereignty, Thomas Boston

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , ,

IV.       HOW IS GOD INVOLVED IN THE PLACING OF THE CROOK IN THE LOT?

Boston provides the following outline for the next section of his work:

Having seen the crook itself, we are, in the next place, to consider of God’s making it. And here is to be shown, (1.) That it is of God’s making. (2.) How it is of his making. (3.) Why he makes it.

A.        God lays the crook in the lot

First, That the crook in the lot, whatever it is, is of God’s making, appears from these three considerations

1.         The crook follows as a “penal evil”

The crook, however it comes, is one sense always a “penal evil.” By this Boston means that it comes as a “punishment or affliction.” A crook is by definition something which hurts, it causes harm in terms of its experience (even if the eventual outcome results in something better).

First, It cannot be questioned, but the crook in the lot, considered as the crook, is a penal evil, whatever it is for the matter thereof: that is, whether the thing in itself, its immediate cause and occasion be sinful or not, it is certainly a punishment or affliction.

This does not mean there is a one-to-one correspondence between what we suffer and some particular conduct on our behalf.  We cannot look at someone who suffers a lingering disease and saw: this person clearly committed a great sin. This is what Boston means by “whether the thing in itself, its immediate cause and occasion be sinful or not.”

Jesus specifically rejects such thinking:

There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 2 And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? 3 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. 4 Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? 5 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

Luke 13:1–5 (ESV)

What then could possibly be the connection between the falling tower and punishment, if those particular men were not uniquely deserving of death? All death comes as the result of sin’s presence in the world. All of us have been conceived under a sentence of death. To be born is to be brought into a world where the only exit will be death.

Death is the punishment which God has brought upon the world for the presence of sin. And in that sentence of death come all of the lesser trials and losses. God takes complete ownership of sentence. Thus, if God is the only ultimate author of the sentence (God being the only one capable of enforcing the judgment), and God takes credit for such being in the world, and if such is in the world, then God must be the ultimate responsible party:

Now, as it may be, as such holily and justly brought on us, by our sovereign Lord and judge, so he expressly claims the doing or making of it, Amos 3:6. “Shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it?” Wherefore, since there can be no penal evil, but of God’s making, and the crook in the lot is such an evil, it is necessarily concluded to be of God’s making.

At this point, someone will ask, yes but what of evil brought upon one in which the pain brought is the result of an actual sin? How is God responsible for a murder? That is an issue which Boston will address later in this work. But that is a real and significant question to be considered.

2.         As a general matter, God is sovereign over all that takes place

The Scripture is plain that God is sovereign over all that takes place in human life:

It is evident from the scripture-doctrine of divine providence, that God brings about every man’s lot and all the parts thereof. He sits at the helm of human affairs, and turns them about whithersoever he listeth [he desires or he pleases]

“Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did he in heaven and in earth, in the seas and all deep places,” Psal. 135:6. There is not any thing whatsoever befals us without his over-ruling hand.

This must be grasped:

With reference to the government of Providence, it is said of God, that “he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth.” Even insensible matter is under his control. Fire and hail, snow and vapour, and stormy wind, fulfil his word: and with reference to intelligent agents, we are told that he maketh the most refractory, even the wrath of man, to praise him, and the remainder of wrath he restrains. The whole Bible exhibits Jehovah as so ordering the affairs of individuals, and of nations, as to secure the grand purpose he had in view in creating the world,—viz., the promotion of his own glory, in the salvation of a multitude which no man can number, of all nations, and kindreds, and tribes, and peoples, and tongues. One of the most prominent distinctions between divine revelation and ordinary history is, that when the same general events are narrated, the latter exhibits—(it is its province so to do—it is not able indeed to do more,) the agency of man, the former, the agency of God. Profane history exhibits the instruments by which Jehovah works; the finger of divine revelation points to the unseen but almighty hand which wields and guides the instrument, and causes even Herod and Pontius Pilate, together with the Jews and the people of Israel, to do what the hand and the counsel of God determined before to be done.—George Payne, in “Lectures on Christian Theology,” 1850.

C. H. Spurgeon, The Treasury of David: Psalms 120-150, vol. 6 (London; Edinburgh; New York: Marshall Brothers, n.d.), 194.

Boston underscores this point with the observation that God’s providence is comprehensive when it comes to our life:

The same providence that brought us out of the womb, bringeth us to, and fixeth us in, the condition and place allotted for us, by him who hath determined the times and the bounds of our habitation, Acts 17:26. It over-rules the smallest and most casual things about us, such as hairs of our head falling on the ground, Matth. 10:29, 30. A lot cast into the lap, Prov. 16:33.

There is a profoundly difficult aspect of God’s sovereignty which concerns our decisions and our will. It is one thing for God be sovereign over the rainfall and the sunshine, but is God sovereign over our decisions:

Yea, the free acts of our will, whereby we choose for ourselves, for, even “the king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water,” Prov. 21:1. And the whole steps we make, and which others make in reference to us; for “the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps,” Jer. 10:23.

And this applies to all sorts of human actions:

And this, whether these steps causing the crook to be deliberate and sinful ones, such as Joseph’s brethren selling him into Egypt; or whether they be undesigned, such as manslaughter purely casual, as when one hewing wood kills his neighbour with the head of the axe slipping from the helve, Deut. 19:5.

Boston does not unwrap the quandary of God’s providence and human decision making not being the actions of a puppet. But he does begin to open the puzzle as to how God could be involved in sinful actions:

For there is a holy and wise providence that governs the sinful and the heedless actions of men, as a rider doth a lame horse, of whose halting, not he, but the horse’s own lameness, is the true and proper cause; wherefore, in the former of these cases, God is said to have sent Joseph into Egypt, Gen. 45:7. And, in the latter, to deliver one into his neighbour’s hand. Exod. 21:13.

This then raises the confusing question of how could God be sovereign over all, and God order that sin not be committed, and also be sovereign over sin (even if it is permitted and not mandated)? While Boston will spend more time on this question, below, the unwrapping of that riddle is not his aim here. A useful article to begin wrestling with that question can be found here: https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/are-there-two-wills-in-god

3.         God’s providence is sure

The decisions of God are not potential or suggestive. God’s will is certain and his decrees unchangeable:

Lastly, God hath, by an eternal decree, immoveable as mountains of brass, (Zech. 6:1.) appointed the whole of every one’s lot, the crooked parts thereof as well as the straight. By the same eternal decree, whereby the high and low parts of the earth, the mountains and the valleys, were appointed, are the heights and depths, the prosperity and adversity in the lot of the inhabitants thereof, determined; and they are brought about, in time, in a perfect agreeableness thereto.

If God’s will is set and established before I am even more, then this crook has been laid in my lot from prior to my existence. It was here before I came upon it as I moved through time. It is as if one were hiking through the mountains and came upon a ravine without a bridge. The ravine was there before I began my hike. It could never have not been there when I came to that place:

The mystery of providence, in the government of the world, is, in all the parts thereof, the building reared up of God, in exact conformity to the plan in his decree, “who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will,” Eph. 1:11. So that there is never a crook in one’s lot, but may be run up to this original. Hereof Job piously sets us an example, in his own case, Job 23:13, 14. “He is in one mind, and who can turn him? And what his soul desireth, even that he doth. For he performed the thing that is appointed for me: and many such things are with him.”

4.         Consideration

This is not an easy matter to assimilate into one’s thinking. The argument from harm, that a good God could not possibly permit harm (and thus either God cannot prevent it, or God is not good, or there is no God), seems to be a baseline assumption of human beings.  When we pray that God remove a trouble, I know from experience (my own and others) and that we seem to believe that such trouble may have come as a surprise to God.

That it is God’s will that such trouble come upon us, is a difficult thing to understand.  Especially when we also consider promises such as “all things work together for good.” What sort of good entails me watching my child die?

Perhaps our trouble is that we fundamentally misunderstand ourselves, our world, our place in the world, God, and how these things go together.

It is a trite analogy, but it may begin to open a door as to how to think about such things as our trials: A small child cannot understand that candy which tastes good is not good for you. That broccoli which does not taste good is good for you. That the pain of a vaccination is good because it prevents a disease. And so on. Children simply lack the experience and ability to comprehend the incomprehensible things we tell them, things which are true.

If such happens between us and our children, then how much more would there be limits on our understanding compared to an infinite, eternal, all wise God? Think of how little we actually know about what God is doing with creation. Yes, we are not completely ignorant. But think for a moment of how little you can really understand about hints such as:

9 and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things, 10 so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.

Ephesians 3:9–10 (ESV). The glib answer “the angels are watching” does not begin to plumb the mystery hinted at here.

Thomas Boston, The Crook in the Lot.3

24 Monday Jan 2022

Posted by in Thomas Boston

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , ,

3.         Four Characteristics of a Crook

More particularly, the crook in the lot hath in it four things of the nature of that which is crooked.

a.         It runs contrary to what we desire

Boston describes this as being “disagreeable” and “wayward”. A crook is something which runs “crooked”. But this crookedness is only apparent, and can only be seen from our point of view:

First, Disagreeableness. A crooked thing is wayward; and being laid to a rule answers it not, but declines from it.

But this is not the ultimate truth of the matter. From the perspective of God the matter is straight:

There is not in any body’s lot, any such thing as a crook in respect of the will and purpose of God. Take the most harsh and dismal dispensation in one’s lot, and lay it to the eternal decree, made in the depths of infinite wisdom, before the world began, and it will answer it exactly without the least deviation, all things being wrought after the counsel of his will, Eph. 1:11. Lay it to the providential will of God, in the government of the world, and there is a perfect harmony.

He then takes one of many possible examples:

If Paul is to be bound at Jerusalem, and delivered into the hands of the Gentiles, it is the will of the Lord it should be so, Acts 21:11, 14. Wherefore the greatest crook of the lot, on earth, is straight in heaven: there is no disagreeableness in it there.

Boston then repeats the point: there will something crooked in the sense that we find it disagreeable. But when this is compared to what God intends, it is not a crooked line but a perfectly placed dispensation:

But in every body’s lot there is a crook in respect of their mind and natural inclination. The adverse dispensation lies cross to that rule, and will by no means answer it, nor harmonize with it. When divine Providence lays the one to the other, there is a manifest disagreeableness: the man’s will goes one way, and the dispensation another way; the will bends upward, the cross events presseth down: so they are contrary. And there, and only there, lies the crook.

And here Boston draws out an additional: The disagreeableness of the dispensation is part of its purpose. To walk by faith, and not by sight, is to trust God and follow in what he has laid before us even when our path is so disagreeable. Do you trust that God is sovereign, good, and wise? Then the path upon which you must walk is straight even though to sight it is crooked:

It is this disagreeableness which makes the crook in the lot fit matter of exercise and trial to us, in this our state of probation: in the which, if thou wouldst approve thyself to God, walking by faith, not by sight, thou must quiet thyself in the will and purpose of God, and not insist that it should be according to thy mind, Job 34:23.

b.         It is a disagreeable sight

The crook is something which is grievous to our sense:

Secondly, Unsightliness. Crooked things are unpleasant to the eye: and no crook in the lot seemeth to be joyous, but grievous, making but an unsightly appearance, Heb. 12:11.

From this, Boston draws a bit of practical counsel: Do not spend your effort brooding over the difficulty of your circumstance. I think of Psalm 3, wherein David sees his plight, turns it over to God, and then goes to sleep.

Therefore men need to beware of giving way to their thoughts to dwell on the crook in their lot, and of keeping it too much in view. David shews a hurtful experience in his, in that kind, Psal. 39:3. “While I was musing, the fire burned.”…

If we are going to take a view to our circumstance, that sight of faith must be a sight taken “in light of the holy word”:

Indeed a Christian may safely take a steady and leisurely view of the crook of his lot in the light of the holy word, which represents it as the discipline of the covenant. So faith will discover a hidden slightness in it under a very unsightly outward appearance; perceiving the suitableness thereof to the infinite goodness, love, and wisdom of God, and to the real and most valuable interest of the party; by which means one comes to take pleasure, and that a most refined pleasure in distresses, 2 Cor. 12:10. But whatever the crook in the lot be to the eye of faith, it is not at all pleasant to the eye of sense.

c.         A crook can leave us emotionally uneven

This particular element is a bit difficult to follow in Boston’s explanation. As I understand it, he is speaking of the emotional moves which take place when confronted with a crook:

Thirdly, Unfitness for motion. Solomon observes the cause of the uneasy and ungraceful walking of the lame, Prov. 26:7. “The legs of the lame are not equal.” This uneasiness they find who are exercised about the crook in their lot: a high spirit and a low adverse lot, makes great difficulty in the Christian walk.

This uneven movement leaves us vulnerable to sin and temptation:

There is nothing that gives temptation more easy access, than the crook in the lot; nothing more apt to occasion out-of-the-way steps. Therefore saith the apostle, Heb. 12:13. “Make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way.”

And here he shows pastoral sympathy:

They are to be pitied then who are labouring under it, and not to be rigidly censured; though they are rare persons who learn this lesson, till taught by their own experience. It is long since Job made an observe in this case, which holds good unto this day, Job 12:5. “He that is ready to slip with his feet, is as a lamp despised in the thought of him that is at ease.”

d.         The emotional entanglement of the crook:

The trouble provokes a strong emotional response, as we all know from experience:

Lastly, Aptness to catch hold and entangle, as with fish hooks, Amos 4:2. The crook in the lot doth so very readily make impression, to the ruffling and fretting of one’s spirit, irritating corruption,

And this irritation becomes an opportunity for temptation:

that Satan fails not to make diligent use of it to these dangerous purposes: the which point once gained by the tempter, the tempted, ere he is aware, finds himself intangled as in a thicket, out of which he knows not how to extricate himself. In that temptation it often proves like a crooked stick troubling a standing pool; the which not only raiseth up the mud all over, but brings up from the bottom some very ugly thing.

For proof of this point, he considers Psalm 73:

Thus it brought up a spice of blasphemy and Atheism in Asaph’s case, Psal. 73:13. “Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocence.” As if he had said, There is nothing at all in religion, it is a vain and empty thing that profiteth nothing; I was a fool to have been careful about purity and holiness, whether of heart or life. Ah! is this the pious Asaph! How is he turned so quite unlike himself!

The trouble stirs up our heart. Temptation taking advantage fishes out the sin which remains in our flesh (why this is a good thing is not explained at this point);

But the crook in the lot is a handle, whereby the tempter makes surprising discoveries of latent corruption, even in the best.

The wilderness had been changed into green pastures

14 Monday Oct 2019

Posted by in Psalms, Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , ,

You remember how Greatheart in the Pilgrim describes the Valley of Humiliation as the best and most fruitful land in all those parts, and how that Mercy protested that she was as well in that Valley as she had been anywhere else in all their journey. That is only the old Dreamer’s way of saying that bare and sterile places have often turned out to be “green pastures.” And that is why God “makes us to lie down” in places from which we shrink. That is why He allows loss and trouble and disappointment to befall us. He knows what graces these things and their like beget in the soul, how they breed sympathy and tenderness and humility and dependence on God. They are indeed amongst the richest and most succulent pastures. And so God makes us to lie down in them in spite of ourselves. And later we come to recognize His wisdom. We realize the gain that has come to us. “It was good for me that I was afflicted.” That was a man for whom the wilderness had been changed into the “green pastures.” It is only in retrospect we recognize all this. While we are in the midst of life’s hardnesses and difficulties and trials they may appear to us to be anything but “green pastures.” But when we look back, in the mellow light of life’s evening time, we shall realize we owe some of life’s richest blessings to its troubled times, and shall be ready with David to confess “Thou makest me to lie down in green pastures, thou leadest me beside the still waters.

The King of Love, J D Jones (1922)

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

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , ,

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 Fear of God and Suffering

25 Wednesday Sep 2019

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

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , ,

This discussion of “fear” takes place in the context of a larger concern of Pohill’s work, a preparation for suffering. The basic proposition is that “holy fear” will prepare us for suffering. Before we consider his understanding of fear, it would be well to consider something of how the concept of godly fear interacts with the problem of suffering. What makes this particularly interesting is something I heard recently of a pastor who faith was challenged by truly heart breaking instance of suffering.

Now I am not “picking on” this pastor. This concept that faith is challenged by suffering is an interesting idea. For faith to be challenged, something contrary to the faith must occur. For example, my faith in gravity would challenged by suddenly floating rather than sinking to the ground.

Thus, for suffering to challenge faith would entail a preceding belief that life would be without suffering.

Such a faith cannot be found in the Bible. The Bible is replete with precisely the opposition promise. There is an answer for suffering, but there is no promise that we will not suffer.

However, we have an implicit sort of faith that we will be exempted from trouble (and perhaps that is a modern affliction). I sympathize with such a conflict, having experienced it myself. This implicit belief is something that seems quite natural to us: if there is a God, then will exempt me (perhaps others) from suffering. It is a version of the argument if God is good and all powerful then why is there evil? When the evil is suffered by someone else, it is an abstract philosophical question. When it is suffered by me, it is a real issue.

However, it is good to note how this is problem of suffering is nuanced in the Scripture. Scripture directly confronts the concept that suffering causes us to question God, but it does not do so in the context of saying that we will not suffer. Consider Psalm 13:

Psalm 13:1–2 (ESV)

1           How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?

How long will you hide your face from me?

2           How long must I take counsel in my soul

and have sorrow in my heart all the day?

How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?

His suffering causes him to question: Not God’s existence, but God’s absence: how long will I suffer in this way?

The extended question of Job is not whether God is, but what sort of God there is.

Pohill makes this observation:

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;

When we suffer, we are brought to a question because we are personally crossed. Suffering is against us as a creature. The existence of God (which is what the modern, crisis of faith amounts to: If there is a God, then why should I suffer?) does not come into view. The creature being crossed does not prove or disprove God. Perhaps the issue for one in the position of Psalm 13 is “Is God good?” or “Does God care about me?” The question is not, Is there a God?

Fear of God puts God’s evaluation of the circumstance above my own. It is not what I intend or desire or expect. In fact, my own expectations are the cause of much human sorrow. Much of my suffering comes not merely from the event itself, but the fact that the event challenges my own belief about how the world is supposed to be. To that extent, we could say that suffering is good because suffering forces me to have a more realistic understanding of the world (all is vanity, in this world you will have sorrow). It also forces me to not set my expectations upon ease within the current world, but rather hope for the world to come.

James puts conflict at the feet of human desire. Genesis 3 puts original sin at the heart of human desire. Fear answers suffering by grounding us in the consideration of God’s valuation.

Fear is an interesting idea in this case: because it is “fear” which drives me to a different understanding of myself as a creature and God’s work in this world. (And thus, perhaps suffering is necessary to cause me to realize that I am a creature living at the sufferance and upon the grace of God; indeed all creatures live upon the sufferance and grace of God, because we are all contingent.)

Suffering does not raise the question of God’s existence, when the starting place is the fear of God based upon God’s holiness.

Now, this is not to deny suffering; nor does this answer the question of the ground for a “holy fear.”

The two sorts of trouble in this world

12 Tuesday Sep 2017

Posted by in affliction, Hope, trial, Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , ,

In Pilgrim’s Progress, Apollyon stops Christian and seeks to turn him aside from the way. One argument which Apollyon presses is the sheer difficulty of seeking to follow after Christ in this world,

Consider again, when thou art in cool blood, what thou art like to meet with in the way that thou goest. Thou knowest that for the most part his servants come to an ill end, because they are transgressors against me and my ways. How many of them have been put to shameful deaths! And besides, thou countest his service better than mine; whereas he never yet came from the place where he is, to deliver any that served him out of their enemies’ hands: but as for me, how many times, as all the world very well knows, have I delivered, either by power or fraud, those that have faithfully served me, from him and his, though taken by them! And so will I deliver thee.

John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress: From This World to That Which Is to Come. As Jesus says, “In the world you will have tribulation.” John 16:33.

The Beatitudes which begin the Sermon on the Mount list out poor of spirit, mourning, meekness, hungering and thirsting (after righteousness), showing mercy and making peace, capped with two promises of persecution: first to the first persecuted, then he shifts and says “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.”

The Church is sent out as lambs among wolves. And, this side of the age to come, there is little promise of respite.However, there is a comfort in all of this.

There are two evils which come from trouble: first there is the trouble itself, second there is the response to the trouble. We can do very little with the first trouble: the world is cursed and a grave stands at the end of every life. For those who seek to follow Christ, there is often an extra measure of trouble. These troubles are largely unavoidable.

But the second trouble comes from how we think about the first.

We have many difficulties which we undertake willingly to bring about a better end. A joint replacement surgery is quite painful (from what is reported), but the end result is worth the pain. Therefore, the pain is not experienced as an unmitigated tragedy, but as a moment to be endured for a better end. We encourage children with school by pointing to the good of an education. Athletes undergo great privation to compete.

This evil which comes from the response to the unavoidable trials of life brings the greatest pain and sorrow. When we look through the first trial to see the end, we can persevere and endure. We are commend to look “to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross”. Jesus lived through the cross for the good that would result.

It is hope which makes helps us to endure sorrow. We can afford to mourn, for we shall be comforted. We can afford the cost of showing mercy and making peace, because we shall receive mercy and be brought into God’s family. This will require hope and expectation and patience. But our hope and patience will be well rewarded.

William Perkins on the Blessings of Suffering

24 Thursday Aug 2017

Posted by in affliction

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , ,

Let us then bear them, they will have an end [Ps. 37:37]; joy will follow [Ps. 126:5]; they show us our weakness [Isa. 38:10]; they move us to pray [Hos. 5:15]; they show we are in the pathway to heaven [Luke 24:26]; and [they] make us condemn this present world [Eccl. 1:2]. By them we learn to repent us of sin past [2 Sam. 24:17], to take heed of sin present, and to foresee sin to come [Gen. 39:9]. By them we receive God’s Spirit [Acts 2:2]; are like to Christ [Phil. 3:10]; are acquainted with God’s power [Dan. 3:17]; have joy in deliverance [Ex. 15:1]; know [the] benefit of prosperity; made more hardy to suffer; and have cause to practice many excellent virtues [1 Peter 1:6–7]. They cause us (as one says) to seek out God’s promise; the promise to seek faith; faith to seek prayer; and prayer to find God. Seek, and you shall find [Matt. 7:7]; call, and He will answer [Job 21:27]; wait, and He will come [Hab 2:3].

If we were at peace, we would be asleep

16 Wednesday Aug 2017

Posted by in John Calvin

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , ,

Now, it is much better for things to be in a state of confusion so we will wake up, for if we were at peace, we would be asleep, we would no longer be aware of anything, anything at all. But if things go badly, we are forced to think about God and put our senses on alert and think about a judgment that is prepared, which is not yet apparent, and that is how our Lord leads us to hunger for the last day and the resurrection which has been promised. But the fact remains that men continue to surround themselves with false and wicked fantasies. For, as I have already said, inasmuch as events do not happen as we would like, we are tempted to suppose that God does not think of us or watch over us any longer, that serving him is a wasted effort and that there is no difference whether we live an upright life or not and that the good gain nothing by walking in fear under him.
John Calvin, Sermon on Job 24:1-9

The Conclusion of Edward Polhill’s Preparation for Suffering

30 Friday Jun 2017

Posted by in affliction, Edward Polhill, Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , ,

 

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

Posted by in affliction, Edward Polhill, Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , ,

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.