2 CORINTHIANS CUAP. I, VER. 8. 119
God, as we see in Jacob and the woman of Canaan, that they may be im- portunate, and never leave him, nor take any denial.
Reason 4. Again, God suffers his children to fall into this extreme peril and dani^'cr, not only to try them, what good they have in them, but when he hath tried it to exercise it, to exercise their faith and their jiatience. St Paul had a great deal of grace in him, and God would be sure to have a great deal of trial and exercise of it ; and therefore he suffered him to fall into ex- treme dangers, that so all the patience and all the faith he had might be set on work. And so it was in Job. God had furnished his champion with a great measure of patience, and then he singles him out to the combat ; he brings him into the lists to encounter with Satan, and to triumph over Satan and all the evils he suffered whatsoever.
Reason 5. Again, it is to perfect the xcork of mortijication, to let patience have her perfect work, and faith and prayer to have their perfect work, to perfect all graces, and so to perfect the work of mortification. For in ex- treme dangers he weans us perfectly from the world as much as may be ; nothing will do it if these will not. St Paul came to many cities, and there he thought ofttimes to have great matter of entertainment ; and instead of that, he was whipped and misused. God used the matter so to mortify pride and self-conhdence in St Paul. He scoured him so from pride, that he should not go out of the city but he should be well scoured first by misusage. So, rather than God will suffer his children to go to hell, and rather than he will siiffer them to live in the world here without glory to their profes- sion, without manifesting of grace, to mortify and subdue their base, earthly affections, he will scour them, to subdue their pride and to subdue their earthly-mindeduess. We might prevent the bitterness of the cross if we would. We might prevent his mortifying of us by afflictions, by the morti- fication of the spirit ; but because we are negligent in that work, to perfect the work of mortification he is forced to lay here many crosses and ex- treme dangers upon us.
Reason 6. Lastly, God doth this for another end, that he mujht he sure hfi this means to prepare us for r/reater hlessinrjs : for in what deep measure we are humbled by any deep afiliction, in that measure we are prepared for some blessing. Humility doth empty the soul, and crosses do breed humilit}^ The emptiness of the soul fits it for receipt. God therefore doth empty us by crosses, that we may be fit vessels to receive some larger mea- sui'e of grace and comfort. For, as it is said before, ' As our tribulations increase, so our comforts increase.' Therefore, it is a good sign that God intends much spiritual good to any man, when'he lays some heavy load upon him in this world. All is to prepare for some greater comfort and some greater measure of grace.
Why doth the husbandman fall upon his ground, and tear and rend it up with the plough, and the better the ground is, the more he labours to kill weeds ? Is it because he hath an ill mind to the gi'ound ? No. He means to sow good seed there, and he will not plough a whit longer than may ser^'e to prepare the ground. It is the Holy Ghost's comparison, Isa. xxviii. 24. So likewise the goldsmith, the best metal that he hath, he tempers it, he labours to consume the dross of it, and the longer it is in the fii-e, the more pure it comes forth. So God keeps his children under crosses, and doth plough them. They neglect to plough themselves, and he is fain to set ploughers that will do it indeed, — some ill-minded men, or some cross. If they would plough themselves and examine themselves, they might spare God the labour. But when they are neghgent, God
120 COMMENTARY ON
takes the labour into his own hand, and sets others on work that will do it to purpose. But all is to prepare them for heavenly seed, for grace and comfort, that in what measure we have been depressed, as he saith here, ' we were pressed above measure,' in that measure he means to lift us up by heavenly comfort.
And, which is a clause of that, that ur mir/lit set a price upon, the comfort-x when the;/ come ; for wlien he hath so prepared us for it, and then we re- ceive it, then comfort is comfort indeed. Comfort in itself is all one, and glory in itself is all one, first and last ; but it is not all one to the person. Comfort is endeared to a person that hath been kept under and l)cen dieted before. Then when it comes he sets a great value upon it, when he hath been without it so long.
Our nature is so, that we value things by the want of them rather than by the present enjoying of them. After we have wanted it, and have been long time prepared for it, then when it comes it is welcome indeed. For these and many such like ends we must be wilHng to approve of God's holy and wise dispensation in this, in ordering matters so with his chil- dren, in bringing them to great dangers of body, in danger of life, some- times to spiritual desertions, leaving them to themselves, as if he had no care of them. But St Paul speaks especially here of outward crosses. You see the reasons of it.