Use. I beseech you, therefore, considering all our sufferings are by the appointment and will of God, let us bring our souls to an holy resignation unto his Majesty, not looking so much to the grievance we are under as to the hand that sent it. We should with one eye consider the thing, with another eye the will of God in the same. When a man considers, I suffer now, but it is by the wiU of God'; he puts me upon it, how cheerfully will such an one commit his soul to the Lord ! It is as hard a matter to suffer God's will as to do his will. Passive obedience is as hard as active. In the active we labom- that what we do may please God ; in the passive we must endeavom* that what he doth may please us. Our hearts are as untoward to the one as to the other. Therefore, let us beg of God to bring our wills to the obedience of his blessed will in everj'tlnng. Would you have a pattern of this ? Look upon our blessed Saviour, to whom we must be conformable in obedience if ever we will be conformable in glory. ' Lo, I come,' saith he ; ' I am ready to do thy wiU, 0 Lord,' Heb. x. 9. What was the whole hfe of Christ but a doing and a suffering of God's will ? * Behold, it is written in the volume of thy book that I should do thy will,' ver. 7, and here I am ready pressed for it. It should be, therefore, the
404 THE saint's hiding-place in the evil day.
disposition of all those that are led by the Spirit of Christ, as all must be that hope to reign with him, to be willing to suffer with Christ here, and say with him. Lord, I am here ready to do and suffer whatsoever thou requirest! When once we are brought to this, all the quarrel is ended between God and us.
I come now to that which I chiefly intend, which is the Christian's duty.
Let him commit his soul to God in well-doing. Wherein observe,
1. The manner how he must commit, in well-doing.
2. What, his soul.
3. To whom, to God.
4. The reasons moving, implied in these words, as unto a faithful Creator. Now this well-doing must be distinguished into two times.
1. Before our suffering. When a son of Belial shall offer violence to a poor saint of God, what a comfort is this, that he suffers in well-doing ! Oh, beloved, we should so carry ourselves that none might speak evil justly against us, that none, unless it were wrongfully, might do us hurt. We should be in an estate of well-doing continually in our general and particular call- ings. We must not go out of our sphere, but serve God in our standings, that if trouble comes it may find us in a way of well-pleasing, either doing works of charity or else the works of our particular calling wherein God hath set us. In all that befalls thee look to tliis, that thou suffer not as an evil doer, 1 Pet. iv. 15.
2. So likewise in suffering, we must commit our souls to God in well- doing in a double regard.
1. We must carry ourselves generally well in all our sxff'enngs.
2. In particular, we must do ivell to them that do us wrong.
First, I say, in affliction our carriage must be generally good in respect of God, by a meek behaviour under his hand, without murmuring against him.
2. In regard of the cause of God, that we betray it not through fear or cowardice, through base aims and intentions, &c., but endeavom-to carry it with a good conscience in all things. When we make it clear by managing anything, that we are led with the cause and conscience of our duty, it works mightily upon them that wrong us. (1.) It wins those that are in- different ; and (2.) confounds the obstinate, and stops their mouths. There- fore, let us carry ourselves well, not only before, but in suffering. We may not fight against them with their own weapons, that is, be malicious as they are malicious, and rail as they rail. Beloved, this is as if a man should see another drink poison, and he will drink, too, for company ; he is poisoned with malice, and thou, to revenge thyself, wilt be poisoned too. What a preposterous course is this ! Ought we not rather to behave our- selves as befits the cause of Christ, as becomes our Christian profession, and as befits him whose children we are ?
We should have an eye to God, and an eye to ourselves, and an eye to others, and an eye to the cause in hand ; so we shall do well. We must not commit our souls to God in idleness, doing nothing at all, nor yet in evil doing, but in well doing. We must have a care, if we would sufier with comfort, not to study how to avoid sufiering by tricks, so to hm-t the cause of Christ. This is to avoid suffering, by sin, to leap out of one dan- ger into another. Is not the least evil of sin worse than the greatest evil of punishment ? What doth a man get by pleasing men, to displease God ? Perhaps a little ease for the present. Alas ! what is this to that inexpres- eible horror and despair which will one day seize upon thy soul eternally