3. (2) Solomon tells us: “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.” Eccles. 3:1. Whence we may learn, that crosses and afflictions come not by chance; but that every season of affliction is appointed to us by God. Wherefore, in our troubles let us lift up our eyes unto Him, in whose hand are our happiness and misery, our riches and poverty, our life and death; yea, and every moment of our afflictions. This is illustrated in the case of Joseph, whom, for thirteen years together, God visited with remarkable afflictions (Gen. 37:36; 41:1): “until the time that his word came: the word of the Lord tried him,” as the Psalmist tells us. Ps. 105:19. By his example we may learn how useful and necessary it is for us that God should sometimes delay his help. For when he was sold, he was seventeen years old; and when, by the hand of God he was brought out of prison, he was thirty; and the bearing of his [pg 366] cross all that season, was the very thing that qualified him for the glorious advancement that followed. In that honorable post he continued eighty years; whence we may observe, that his thirteen years of suffering, were recompensed with many years of glory and honor: for he lived a hundred and ten years. Therefore let the devout Christian that suffers imprisonment or any kind of persecution for the testimony of a good conscience, or shame, or sickness, call to mind the wonderful providence of God to Joseph, and satisfy himself that the all-wise God, who has appointed his season of affliction, has likewise determined the set time of his deliverance. For as a skilful builder knows well by what time his laborers will have finished their task, so has God measured out the weight and duration of every man's cross, and appointed the season of his deliverance. As soon as that comes, the light of divine grace will immediately break forth, and will comfort the afflicted soul.
4. (3) As God has determined the number of our crosses; so He has been pleased to conceal from us the time of our deliverance, satisfying us with that declaration of our blessed Lord, “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.” Acts 1:7. Agreeably to this are the words of God, who when he had threatened the children of Israel with the Babylonish captivity, adds, “Is not this laid up in store with me, and sealed up among my treasures?” Deut. 32:34. Thence we may learn, with what great and unsearchable wisdom God governs and corrects the children of men. To this also may be referred that saying of St. Paul: “God hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation.” Acts 17:26. In these words we are instructed, that not only the period of every man's life, but even the place and manner of it, are appointed by God. And this general determination of time and place, includes in it the crosses and afflictions appointed to every person.
5. (4) And as God has appointed the period, time, and place, of the sufferings of his servants; so has He also of the persecutions and oppressions of the wicked. When these have for a season been breathing out oppressions and slaughter, then that God to whom vengeance belongeth, awaketh and riseth to judgment; according to Deut. 32:35: “To me belongeth vengeance and recompense; their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them, make haste.” This is abundantly confirmed by the examples of heretics and tyrants that have most grievously persecuted the church of God; and when the devil has raged long enough, and his time is expired, then has the divine vengeance so confounded him and all his accomplices, that the whole world has been amazed and astonished at the righteous judgments of God. “Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts; for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold the Judge standeth before the door.” Jas. 5:8, 9.
Chapter LVI.
Showing That In Seasons Of Trial The Consideration Of The Exalted Patience Of Christ, And Of The Future And Eternal Glory, Will Alleviate The Burden Of The Cross.
Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?—Luke 24:26.
The eternal Son of God, by his most holy incarnation, took upon him all the miseries and calamities of mankind: and this not of compulsion and necessity, but of pure love, that by his example he might teach us patience, and enable us to bear the cross, and overcome the calamities of this mortal life. As he was to become man, so he willingly subjected himself to all those miseries to which man is exposed; and as he came down from heaven for the sake of all, so he took upon him the infirmities of all; so that from the moment of his birth, to the hour of his death, he was, as the prophet truly expresses it, “despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.” Isa. 53:3. There was no calamity incident to human nature, which he did not suffer, and, particularly, extreme poverty. He says of himself, “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.” Matt. 8:20. In the discharge of his office, he underwent the most bitter persecutions, being exposed to hatred, calumnies, and reproaches. In his last days he submitted to the most ignominious sufferings, so that, as the prophet expresses it, “We did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.” Isa. 53:4. His transcendent love met with the highest ingratitude, his illustrious miracles were rewarded with revilings, and his heavenly doctrines with calumnies and lies. And since our blessed Lord suffered all this, why shall we expect to be exempted from sufferings and injuries?
2. Thus the blessed Jesus, by his example, has shown us the true and only path to heaven. 1 Pet. 2:21. Let us therefore tread in his steps, and learn to imitate him in all the different scenes of his most holy and afflicted life. He went before, that we might in holy patience follow him. Whence we may learn, how far they are from the true and right way, who never regard this blessed pattern, but refuse to follow it. If men will still walk on in darkness and shut their eyes against this light, how great must their darkness be! The blessed Jesus himself calls to them, saying, “I am the light of the world; he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” John 8:12.