The Lord's Prayer
by Thomas Watson
File 15
(... continued from file 14)
Use 1. For instruction.
(1) See hence our impotence. We have no innate power to do
God's will. What need to pray, 'Thy will be done,' if we have power
of ourselves to do it? I wonder freewillers pray this petition.
(2) If we are to do God's will on earth as it is done by the
angels in heaven, see the folly of those who go by a wrong pattern.
They do as most of their neighbours do: if they talk vain on the
Sabbath, if now and then they swear an oath, it is the custom of
their neighbours to do so; but we are to do God's will, as the
angels in heaven. We must make the angels our patterns, and not our
neighbours. If our neighbours do the devil's will, shall we do so
too? If our neighbours go to hell, shall we go thither too for
company?
(3) See here that which may make us long to be in heaven, where
we shall do God's will perfectly, as the angels do. Alas! how
defective are we in our obedience here! How far we fall short! We
cannot write a copy of holiness without blotting. Our holy things
are blemished like the moon, which, when it shines brightest, has a
dark spot in it; but in heaven we shall do God's will perfectly, as
the angels in glory.
Use 2. For reproof.
(1) It reproves such as do not God's will. They have a
knowledge of God's will, but though they know it, they do it not.
They know what God would have them avoid. They know they should not
swear. 'Swear not at all.' Matt 5: 34. 'Because of swearing the land
mourneth.' Jer 23: 10. Yet, though they pray 'hallowed be thy name,'
they profane it by shooting oaths like chain bullets against heaven.
They know they should abstain from fornication and uncleanness, yet
they cannot but bite at the devil's hook, if he bait it with flesh.
Jude 7.
They know what God would have them practice, but they 'Leave
undone those things which they ought to have done.' They know it is
the will of God they should be true in their promises, just in their
dealings, good in their relations; but they do it not. They know
they should read the Scriptures, consult with God's oracles: but the
Bible, like rusty armour, is hung up, and seldom used; they look
softener upon a pack of cards than upon a Bible. They know their
houses should be palestrae pietatis, nurseries of piety, yet they
have no religion in them; they do not perfume their houses with
prayer. What hypocrites are they who kneel down in the church, and
lift up their eyes to heaven and say, 'Thy will be done,' and yet
have no care at all to do God's will! What is this but to hang out a
flag of defiance against heaven! Rebellion is as the sin of
witchcraft.
(2) It reproves those who do not God's will in a right
acceptable manner. They do not God's will entirely. They will obey
him in some things, but not in others; as if a servant should do
some of your work you set him about, but not all. Jehu destroyed the
idolatry of Baal, but let the golden calves of Jeroboam stand. 2
Kings 10: 28, 29. Some will observe the duties of the second table,
but not the first. Others make a high profession, as if their
tongues had been touched with a coal from God's altar, but live
idly, and out of a calling; of whom the apostle thus complains: 'We
hear there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at
all.' 2 Thess 3: 11. Living by faith, and living in a calling, must
go together. It is an evil thing not to do all God's will.
They do not God's will ardently, nor cheerfully. They put not
coals to the incense; they bring their sacrifice, but not their
heart. This is far from doing God's will as the angels. How can God
like us to serve him as if we served him not? How can he mind our
duties, when we ourselves do not mind them?
Use 3. For examination.
Let us examine all our actions whether they are according to
God's will. The will of God is the rule and standard: it is the sun-
dial by which we must regulate all our actions. He is no good
workman that does not work by rule; so he can be no Christian who
goes not according to the rule of God's will. Let us examine our
actions whether they do quadrare [square with], agree to the will of
God. Are our speeches according to his will? Are our words savoury,
being seasoned with grace? Is our apparel according to God's will?
'In like manner that women adorn themselves in modest apparel,' not
wanton and garish, to invite comers. I Tim 2: 9. Is our diet
according to God's will? Do we hold the golden bridle of temperance,
and only take so much as may rather satisfy nature than surfeit it?
Too much oil chokes the lamp. Is our whole carriage and behaviour
according to God's will? Are we patterns of prudence and piety? Do
we keep up the credit of religion, and shine as lights in the world?
We pray, 'Thy will be done as it is in heaven.' Are we like our
pattern? Would the angels do this if they were on earth? Would Jesus
Christ do this? It is to Christianise, this is to be saints of
degrees; when we live our prayer, and our actions are the
counterpart of God's will.
Use 4. For exhortation.
Let us be doers of the will of God, 'Thy will be done.' It is
our wisdom to do God's will. 'Keep and do [these statutes], for this
is your wisdom.' Deut 4: 6. Further, it is our safety. Has not
misery always attended the doing our own will, and happiness the
doing of God's will?
(1) Misery has always attended the doing our own will. Our
first parents left God's will to fulfil their own, in eating the
forbidden fruit; and what came of it? The apple had a bitter core in
it; they purchased a curse for themselves and all their posterity.
King Saul left God's will to do his own; he spared Agog and the best
of the sheep, and what was the issue, but the loss of his kingdom?
(2) Happiness has always attended the doing God's will. Joseph
obeyed God's will, in refusing the embrace of his mistress; and was
not this his preferment? God raised him to be the second man in the
kingdom. Daniel did God's will contrary to the king's decree; he
bowed his knee in prayer to God, and did not God make all Persia bow
their knees to Daniel?
(3) The way to have our will is to do God's will. Would we have
a blessing in our estate? Let us do God's will. 'If thou shalt
hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, to do all his
commandments, the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all
nations of the earth: blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed
shalt thou be in the field.' Deut 28: 1, 3. This is the way to have
a good harvest. Would we have a blessing in our souls? Let us do
God's will. 'Obey my voice, and I will be your God:' I will entail
myself upon you, as an everlasting portion; my grace shall be yours
to sanctify you, my mercy shall be yours to save you. Jer 7: 23. You
see you lose nothing by doing God's will; it is the way to have your
own will. Let God have his will in being obeyed, and you shall have
your will in being saved.
How shall we do God's will aright?
(1) Get sound knowledge. We must know his will before we can do
it; knowledge is the eye to direct the foot of obedience. The
Papists make ignorance the mother of devotion; but Christ makes
ignorance the mother of error. 'Ye do err, not knowing the
Scriptures.' Matt 22: 29. We must know God's will before we can do
it aright. Affection without knowledge, is like a horse full of
mettle, but his eyes are out.
(2) If we would do God's will aright, let us labour for self
denial. Unless we deny our own will, we shall never do God's will.
His will and ours are like the wind and tide when they are contrary.
He wills one thing, we will another; he calls us to be crucified to
the world, by nature we love the world; he calls us to forgive our
enemies, by nature we bear malice in our hearts. His will and ours
are contrary, and till we can cross our own will, we shall never
fulfil his.
(3) Let us get humble hearts. Pride is the spring of
disobedience. 'Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice?' Exod
5: 2. A proud man thinks it below him to stoop to God's will. Be
humble. The humble son says, Lord what wilt thou have me to do?' He
puts, as it were, a blank paper into God hand; and bids him write
what he will, and he will subscribe to it.
(4) Beg grace and strength of God to do his will. 'Teach me to
do thy will:' as if David had said, Lord, I need not be taught to do
my own will, I can do it fast enough, but teach me to do thy will.
Psa 143: 10. And that which may add wings to prayer, is God's
gracious promise, 'I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to
walk in my statutes.' Ezek 36: 27. If the loadstone draw the iron,
it is not hard for the iron to move: if God's Spirit enable, it will
not be hard, but rather delightful to do God's will.
II. We pray that we may have grace to submit to God's will
patiently in what he inflicts. The text is to be understood as well
of suffering God's will as of doing it; so Maldonet, and the most
judicious interpreters. A good Christian, when under any disastrous
providence, should lie quietly at God's feet, and say, 'Thy will be
done.'
What is patient submission to God's will not?
There is something that looks like patience which is not: as
when a man bears a thing because he cannot help it; he takes
affliction as his fate and destiny, therefore he endures quietly
what he cannot avoid: this is necessity rather than patience.
What accompanies patient submissions to God's will?
(1) A Christian may be deeply sensible of affliction, and yet
patiently submit to God's will. We ought not to be Stoics,
insensible and unconcerned with God's dealings; like the sons of
Deucalion, who, as the poets say, were begotten of a stone. Christ
was sensible when he sweat great drops of blood, but there was
submission to God's will. 'Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou
wilt.' Matt 26: 39. We are bid to humble ourselves under God's hand,
which we cannot do unless we are sensible of it. I Pet 5: 6.
(2) A Christian may weep under an affliction, and yet patiently
submit to God's will. God allows tears: it is a sin to be 'without
natural affection.' Rom. 1: 31. Grace makes the heart tender;
strangulat inclusis dolor [grief which is held in chokes the heart];
weeping gives vent to sorrow; expletur lacrimis dolor [grief is
poured out in tears]. Joseph wept over his dead father; Job, when he
had much ill news brought him at once, rent his mantle, as an
expression of grief, but did not tear his hair in anger. Worldly
grief, however, must not be immoderate; a vein may bleed too much;
the water rises too high when it overflows the banks.
(3) A Christian may complain in his affliction, and yet be
submissive to God's will. 'I cried unto the Lord with my voice, I
poured out my complaint before him.' Psa 142: 1, 2. We may, when
under oppression, tell God how it is with us, and desire him to
write down our injuries. Shall not the child complain to his father
when he is wronged? Holy complaint may agree with patient submission
to God's will; but though we may complain to God, we must not
complain of God.
What is inconsistent with patient submission to God's will?
(1) Discontent with providence. Discontent has a mixture of
grief and anger in it, and both these must needs raise a storm of
passion in the soul. When God has touched the apple of our eye, and
smitten us in that we loved, we are touchy and sullen, and he has
not a good look from us. 'Why art thou wrath?' like a sullen bird
that is angry, and beats herself against the cage. Gen 4: 6.
(2) Murmuring cannot stand with submission to God's will.
Murmuring is the height of impatience, it is a kind of mutiny in the
soul against God. 'The people spake against God.' Numb 21: 5. When a
cloud of sorrow is gathered in the soul, and it not only drops in
tears, but out of it come hailstones, murmuring words against God,
this is far from patient submission to his will. When water is hot
the scum boils up; when the heart is heated with anger against God,
then murmuring boils up. Murmuring springs, [1] From pride. Men
think they have deserved better at God's hand; and, when they begin
to swell, they spit poison. [2] From distrust. Men believe not that
God can make a treacle of poison, bring good out of all their
troubles, therefore they murmur. 'They believed not his word, but
murmured.' Psa 106: 24, 25. Men murmur at God's providence because
they distrust his promises. God has much ado to bear this sin. Numb
14: 27. It is far from submission to God's will.
(3) Discomposedness of spirit cannot agree with quiet
submission to God's will; as when a man says, I am so encompassed
with trouble that I know not how to get out; head and heart are so
taken up, that I am not fit to pray. When the strings of a lute are
snarled, the lute can make no good music; so when a Christian's
spirits are perplexed and disturbed, he cannot make melody in his
heart to the Lord. To be under discomposure of mind, is as when an
army is routed, one runs this way and another that, all is in
disorder; so when a Christian is in a hurry of mind, his thoughts
run up and down distracted, as if he were undone, which cannot
consist with patient submission to God's will.
(4) Self apology cannot agree with submission to God's will,
when, instead of being humbled under God's hand, a person justifies
himself. A proud sinner stands upon his own defence, and is ready to
accuse God of unrighteousness, which is, as if we should tax the sun
with darkness. This is far from submission to God's will. God smote
Jonah's gourd, and he stood upon his own vindication. 'I do well to
be angry, even unto death.' Jonah 4: 9. What! to be angry with God,
and to justify this! 'I do well to be angry!' This was strange to
come from a prophet, and was far from the prayer Christ taught us,
'Thy will be done.'
What is patient submission to God's will?
It is a gracious frame of soul, whereby a Christian is content
to be at God's disposal, and acquiesces in his wisdom. 'It is the
Lord, let him do what seemeth him good.' I Sam 3: 18. 'The will of
the Lord be done.' Acts 21: 14. That I may further illustrate this,
I shall show you wherein this submission to the will of God lies. It
lies chiefly in three things:
(1) In acknowledging God's hand; seeing God in the affliction.
'Affliction comes not forth of the dust;' it comes not by chance.
Job 5: 6. Job eyed God in all that befell him. 'The Lord has taken
away.' Job 1: 21. He complains not of the Chaldeans, or the
influence of the planets: he looks beyond second causes, he sees God
in the affliction. 'The Lord has taken away.' There can be no
submission to God's will till there be an acknowledging of God's
hand.
(2) Patient submission to God's will lies in justifying God. 'O
my God, I cry but thou hearest not,' thou turnest a deaf ear to me
in my affliction. Psa 22: 2. 'But thou art holy;' ver 3. God is holy
and just, not only when he punishes the wicked, but when he afflicts
the righteous. Though he put wormwood in our cup, yet we vindicate
him, and proclaim his righteousness. When Mauricius, the emperor,
saw his son slain before his eyes, he exclaimed, Justus es, Domine,
'Righteous art thou, O Lord, in all thy ways.' We justify God, and
confess he punishes us less than we deserve. Ezra 9: 13.
(3) Patient submission to God's will lies in accepting the
punishment. 'And they then accept of the punishment of their
iniquity.' Rev 26: 41. Accepting the punishment, is taking all that
God does in good part. He who accepts of the punishment says, 'God
is the rod of the Lord;' he kisses the rod, yea, blesses God that he
would use such a merciful severity, and rather afflict him than lose
him.
Patient submission to God's will in affliction shows a great
deal of wisdom and piety. The skill of a pilot is most discerned in
a storm, so a Christian's grace in the storm of affliction.
Submission to God's will is most requisite for us while we live in
this lower region. In heaven there will be no more need of patience
than there is need of the starlight when the sun shines. In heaven
there will be all joy, and what need of patience then? It requires
no patience to wear a crown of gold; but while we live here in a
valley of tears, patient submission to God's will is much needed.
'Ye have need of patience.' Heb 10: 36.
The Lord sometimes lays heavy affliction upon us. 'Thy hand
presseth me sore.' Psa 38: 2. The word in the original for
'afflicted' signifies to be 'melted.' God sometimes melts his people
in a furnace. He sometimes lays divers afflictions upon us. 'He
multiplieth my wounds.' Job 9: I7. God shoots divers sorts of
arrows.
(1) Sometimes God afflicts with poverty. The widow had nothing
left her save a pot of oil. 2 Kings 4: 2. Poverty is a great
temptation. To have an estate reduced almost to nothing, is hard to
flesh and blood. 'Call me not Naomi, but Mara; I went out full, and
the Lord has brought me home again empty.' Ruth 1: 20, 21. This
exposes to contempt. When the prodigal was poor, his brother was
ashamed to own him. 'This thy son;' he said not, this my brother,
but this thy son; he scorned to call him brother. Luke 15: 30. When
the deer is shot and bleeds, the rest of the herd push it away, so
when God shoots the arrow of poverty at one, others are ready to
push him away. When Terence was grown poor, his friend Scipio cast
him off. The poets feign that the muses, Jupiter's daughters, had no
suitors, because they wanted a dowry.
(2) God sometimes afflicts with reproach. Such as have the
light of grace shining in them may be eclipsed in their name. The
primitive Christians were reproached as if they were guilty of
incest, says Tertullian. Luther was called a trumpeter of rebellion.
David calls reproach heart-breaking. Psa 69: 20. God often lets his
dear saints be exercised with this. Dirt may be cast upon a pearl,
and those names may be blotted which are written in the book of
life. Sincerity shields from hell, but not from slander.
(3) God sometimes afflicts with the loss of dear relations.
'Son of man behold, I take away from thee the desire of thine eyes
with a stroke.' Ezek 24: 16. This is like pulling away a limb from
the body. He takes away a holy child: Jacob's life was bound up in
Benjamin. Gen 44: 30. That which is worse than the loss of children
is, when they are continued as living crosses; where the parents
expected honey, there to have wormwood. What greater cut to a godly
parent than a child who disclaims his father's God? A corrosive
applied to the body may do well, but a bad child is a corrosive to
the heart. Such an undutiful son had David, who conspired treason,
and would not only have taken away his father's crown, but his life.
(4) God sometimes afflicts with infirmity of body. Sickness
takes away the comfort of life, and makes one in deaths oft.
God tries his people with various afflictions, so that there is
need of patience to submit to his will. He who has divers bullets
shot at him needs armour; so when divers afflictions assault, we
need patience as proof armour. He sometimes lets the affliction
continue long. Psa 74: 9. As with diseases, some are chronic, that
linger and hang about the body several years together; so it is with
affliction, the Lord is pleased to exercise many of his precious
ones with chronic affliction, such as lies upon them a long time. In
all these cases we need patience and submissiveness of spirit to
God's will.
Use 1. For reproof. It reproves such as have not yet learned
this part of the Lord's prayer: 'Thy will be done;' they have only
said it, but not learned it. If things be not according to their
mind, if the wind of Providence crosses the tide of their will, they
are discontented and querulous. Where is now submission of will to
God? To be displeased with God if things do not please us, is this
to lie at God's feet, and acquiesce in his will? It is a very bad
temper of spirit, and God may justly punish us by letting us have
our will. Rachel cried, 'Give me children, or else I die.' Gen 30:
1. God let her have a child, but it cost her her life. Gen 35: 18.
Israel was not content with manna, but they must have quails, and
God punished them by letting them have their will. 'There went forth
a wind from the Lord and brought quails; and while the flesh was yet
between their teeth, the wrath of the Lord was kindled against them,
and the Lord smote the people with a very great plague.' Numb 11:
31, 33. They had better been without their quails than had such sour
sauce to them. Many have importunately desired the life of a child,
and could not bring their will to God's to be content to part with
it; and the Lord has punished them by letting them have their will;
for the child has lived and been a burden to them. Seeing their
wills crossed God their child shall cross them.
Use 2. For exhortation. Let us be exhorted, whatever troubles
God exercises us with, aequo animo ferre [to bear with a calm mind],
to resign up our wills to him, and say, 'Thy will be done.' Which is
fittest, that God should bring his will to ours, or we bring our
wills to his? Say as Eli, 'It is the Lord, let him do what seemeth
him good;' and as David, 'Behold, here am I; let him do to me as
seemeth good unto him.' I Sam 3: 18. 2 Sam 15: 26. It was the saying
of Harpulas, Placet mihi quod Regi placet, 'That pleases me which
pleases the king;' so should we say, that which pleases God pleases
us. 'Thy will be done.' Some have not yet learned this art of
submission to God; and truly he who wants patience in affliction is
like a soldier in battle who wants armour.
When do we not submit to God 's will in affliction as we ought?
(1) When we have hard thoughts of him, and our hearts begin to
swell against hum.
(2) When we are so troubled at our present affliction that we
are unfit for duty. We can mourn as doves, but not pray or praise
God. We are so discomposed that we are not fit to hearken to any
good counsel. 'They hearkened not unto Moses for anguish of spirit.'
Exod 6: 9. Israel was so full of grief under their burdens, that
they minded not what Moses said, though he came with a message from
God to them; 'They hearkened not unto Moses for anguish of spirit.'
(3) We do not submit as we ought to God's will when we labour
to break loose from affliction by indirect means. Many, to rid
themselves out of trouble, run themselves into sin. When God has
bound them with the cords of affliction, they go to the devil to
loosen their bands. Better it is to stay in affliction than to sin
ourselves out of it. O let us learn to stoop to God's will in all
afflictive providence.
But how shall we bring ourselves, in all occurrences of
providence, patiently to acquiesce in God's will, and say, 'Thy will
be done'?
The means for a quiet resignation to God's will in affliction
are:
[1] Judicious consideration. 'In the day of adversity
consider.' Eccl 7: 14. When any thing burdens us, or runs cross to
our desires, did we but sit down and consider, and weigh things in
the balance of judgement, it would much quiet our minds, and subject
our wills to God. Consideration would be as David's harp, to charm
down the evil spirit of frowardness and discontent.
But what should we consider?
That which should make us submit to God in affliction, and say,
'Thy will be done,' is:
(1) To consider that the present state of life is subject to
afflictions, as a seaman's life is subject to storms; ferre quam
sortem omnes patiuntur nemo recusat [no one escapes bearing the lot
which all suffer]. 'Man is born unto trouble;' he is heir apparent
to it; he comes into the world with a cry, and goes out with a
groan. Job 5: 7. Ea lege nati sumus [On that condition are we born].
The world is a place where much wormwood grows. 'He has filled me
with bitterness (Heb with bitternesses); he has made me drunken with
wormwood.' Lam 3: 15. Troubles arise like sparks out of a furnace.
Afflictions are some of the thorns which the earth after the curse
brings forth. We may as well think to stop the chariot of the sun
when it is in its swift motion, as put a stop to trouble. The
consideration of a life exposed to eclipses and sufferings should
make us say with patience, 'Thy will be done.' Shall a mariner be
angry that he meets with a storm at sea?
(2) Consider that God has a special hand in the disposal of all
occurrences. Job eyed God in his affliction. 'The Lord has taken
away;' chap 1: 21. He did not complain of the Sabeans, or the
influences of the planets; he looked beyond all second causes; he
saw God in the affliction, and that made him cheerfully submit; he
said, 'Blessed be the name of the Lord.' Christ looked beyond Judas
and Pilate to God's determinate counsel in delivering him up to be
crucified, which made him say, 'Father, not as I will, but as thou
wilt.' Acts 4: 27, 28, Matt 26: 39. It is vain to quarrel with
instruments: wicked men are but a rod in God's hand. 'O Assyrian,
the rod of mine anger.' Isa 10:5. Whoever brings an affliction, God
sends it. The consideration of this should make us say, 'Thy will be
done;' for what God does he sees a reason for. We read of a wheel
within a wheel. Ezek 1: I6. The outward wheel, which turns all, is
providence; the wheel within this wheel is God's decree; this
believed, would rock the heart quiet. Shall we mutiny at that which
God does? We may as well quarrel with the works of creation as with
the works of providence.
(3) Consider that there is a necessity for affliction. 'If need
be, ye are in heaviness.' I Pet 1: 6. It is needful some things be
kept in brine. Afflictions are needful upon several accounts.
[1] To keep us humble. Often there is no other way to have the
heart low but by being brought low. When Manasseh 'was in
affliction, he humbled himself greatly.' 2 Chron 33: 12. Corrections
are corrosives to eat out the proud flesh. 'Remembering my misery,
the wormwood and the gall, my soul is humbled in me.' Lam 3: 19, 20.
[2] It is necessary that there should be affliction; for if God
did not sometimes bring us into affliction, how could his power be
seen in bringing us out? Had not Israel been in the Egyptian
furnace, God had lost his glory in their deliverance.
[3] If there were no affliction, then many parts of Scripture
could not be fulfilled. God has promised to help us to bear
affliction. Psa 37: 24, 39. How could we experience his supporting
us in trouble, if we did not sometimes meet with it? God has
promised to give us joy in affliction. John 16: 20. How could we
taste this honey of joy if we were not sometimes in affliction?
Again, he has promised to wipe away tears from our eyes. Isa 25: 8.
How could he wipe away our tears in heaven if we never shed any? So
that, in several respects, there is an absolute necessity that we
should meet with affliction; and shall not we quietly submit, and
say, 'Lord, I see there is a necessity for it?' 'Thy will be done!'
(4) Consider that whatever we feel is what we have brought upon
ourselves; we have put a rod into God's hand to chastise us.
Christian, God lays thy cross on thee; but it is of thy own making.
If a man's field be full of tares, it is what he has sown in it: if
thou reapest a bitter crop of affliction, it is what thou thyself
hast sown. The cords that pinch thee are of thy own twisting; meme
adsum qui feci [it is myself here who made them]. If children will
eat green fruit, they may thank themselves if they are sick; and if
we eat the forbidden fruit, no wonder we feel it gripe. Sin is the
Trojan horse that lands an army of afflictions upon us. 'A voice
publisheth affliction:' 'Thy way and thy doings have procured these
things unto thee; this is thy wickedness.' ,Jer 4: 15, 18. If we by
sin run ourselves into arrears with God, no wonder if he set
affliction as a sergeant on our back to arrest us. This should make
us patiently submit to God in affliction, and say, 'Thy will be
done.' We have no cause to complain of God; it is nothing but what
our sins have merited. 'Hast not thou procured this unto thyself?'
Jer 2: 17. The cross, though it be of God's laying, is of our
making. Say, then, as Micah (chap 7: 9), 'I will bear the
indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against him.'
(5) Consider that God is about to prove and try us. 'Thou, O
God, hast tried us as silver is tried, thou laidst affliction upon
our loins.' Psa 66: 10, 11. If there were no affliction, how could
God have an opportunity to try men? Hypocrites can serve in a
pleasure boat: they can serve God in prosperity; but when we can
keep close to him in times of danger, when we can trust him in
darkness, and love him when we have no smile, and say, 'Thy will be
done,' that is the trial of sincerity! God is only trying us; and
what hurt is there in that? What is gold the worse for being tried?
(6) Consider that in all our crosses God has kindness for us.
As there was no night so dark but Israel had a pillar of fire to
give light, so there is no condition so cloudy but we may see that
which gives light of comfort. David could sing of mercy and
judgement. Psa 101: 1. It should make our wills cheerfully submit to
God's, to consider that in every path of providence we may see a
footstep of kindness.
There is kindness in affliction when God seems most unkind.
[1] There is kindness in that there is love in it. God's rod
and his love may stand together. 'Whom the Lord loveth he
chasteneth.' Heb 12: 6. As when Abraham lifted up his hand to
sacrifice, Isaac loved him; so when God afflicts his people, and
seems to sacrifice their outward comforts, he loves them. The
husband man loves his vine when he cuts it and makes it bleed; and
shall not we submit to God? Shall we quarrel with that which has
kindness in it, which comes in love? The surgeon binds the patient,
and lances him, but no wise man will quarrel with him, because it is
in order to a cure.
[2] There is kindness in affliction, in that God deals with us
as children. 'If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with
sons.' Heb 12: 7. God has one Son without sin, but no son without
stripes. Affliction is a badge of adoption; it is Dei sigillum, says
Tertullian, it is God's seal by which he marks us for his own. When
Munster, that holy man, lay sick, his friends asked him how he did?
He pointed to his sores, saying, Hae sunt gemmae Dei, these are the
jewels with which God decks his children. Shall not we then say,
'Thy will be done'? Lord, there is kindness in the cross, thou uses
us as children. The rod of discipline is to fit us for the
inheritance.
[3] In kindness God in all our afflictions has left us a
promise; so that in the most cloudy providence the promise appears
as the rainbow in the cloud. Then we have God's promise to be with
us. 'I will be with him in trouble.' Psa 91: 15. It cannot be ill
with that man with whom God is; I will be with him, to support,
sanctify, and sweeten every affliction. I had rather be in prison
and have God's presence, than be in a palace without it.
We have the promise that he will not lay more upon us than he
will enable us to bear. I Cor 10: 13. He will not try us beyond our
strength; either he will make the yoke lighter, or our faith
stronger. Should not this make us submit our wills to his, when
afflictions have so much kindness in them? In all our trials he has
left us promises, which are like manna in the wilderness.
[4] It is great kindness that all troubles that befall us shall
be for our profit. 'He for our profit.' Heb 12: 10.
What profit is in affliction?
Afflictions are disciplinary, they teach us. They are, Schola
crucis, Schola lucis [the school of the cross, the school of light].
Many psalms have the inscription, Maschil, a psalm giving
instruction; so affliction has the inscription Maschil upon it, an
affliction giving instruction. 'Hear ye the rod.' Micah 6: 9. Luther
says he could never rightly understand some of the psalms till he
was in affliction. Gideon 'took thorns of the wilderness, and
briers, and with them he taught the men of Succoth.' Judges 8: 16.
God by the thorns and briers of affliction teaches us.
Affliction shows us more of our own hearts. Water in a glass
vial looks clear; but set it on the fire, and the scum boils up; so
when God sets us upon the fire, corruption boils up which we did not
discern before. Sharp afflictions are to the soul as a soaking rain
to the houses; we know not that there are holes in the house till
the shower comes, but then we see it drop down here and there; so we
do not know what unfortified lusts are in the soul till the storm of
affliction comes; then we find unbelief, impatience, carnal fear,
dropping down in many places. Affliction is a sacred collyrium [eye-
salve], it clears our eye-sight: the rod gives wisdom.
Affliction brings those sins to remembrance which we had buried
in the grave of forgetfulness. Joseph's brethren, for twenty years
together, were not at all troubled for their sin in selling their
brother; but when they came into Egypt, and began to be in straits,
their sin came to their remembrance, and their hearts smote them.
'They said one to another, we are verily guilty concerning our
brother. ' Gen 42: 21. When a man is in distress his sin comes fresh
into his mind; conscience makes a rehearsal-sermon of all the evils
which have passed in his life; his expense of precious time, his
Sabbath-breaking, his slighting of the word, come to remembrance,
and he goes out with Peter and weeps bitterly. Thus the rod gives
wisdom, shows the hidden evil of the heart, and brings former sins
to remembrance.
There is profit in affliction, as it quickens the spirit of
prayer; premuntur justi ut pressi clament [the righteous are
afflicted that in their affliction they may pray]. Jonah was asleep
in the ship, but at prayer in the whale's belly. Perhaps in a time
of health and prosperity we prayed in a cold and formal manner, we
put no coals to the incense, we scarcely minded our own prayers, and
how should God mind them? God sends some cross or other to make us
stir up ourselves to take hold of him. When Jacob was in fear of his
life by his brother, he wrestled with God, and wept in prayer, and
would not leave him till he blessed him. Hos 12: 4. It is with many
of God's children as with those who formerly had the sweating
sickness in this land, it was a sleepy disease, if they slept they
died; therefore, to keep them waking, they were smitten with
rosemary branches; so the Lord uses affliction as a rosemary branch
to keep us from sleeping, and to awaken a spirit of prayer. 'They
poured out a prayer, when thy chastening was upon them;' now their
prayer pierced the heavens. Isa 26: 16. In times of trouble we pray
feelingly, and we never pray so fervently as when we pray feelingly;
and is not this for our profit?
The Lord's Prayer
by Thomas Watson
(continued in file 16...)
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