SEVENTH SEASON
HOW A CHRISTIAN MAY KEEP HIS
HEART FROM REVENGEFUL MOTIONS
“The seventh season calling for more than common diligence to keep the heart, is, when we receive injuries and abuses from men. Such is the depravedness and corruption of man in his collapsed state, that homo homini lupus, one man is become a wolf, a tiger, to another: they are, as the prophet complains, As the fishes of the sea, and as the creeping things, that have no ruler over them, Hab. i. 14; and as wicked men are cruel and oppressive one to another, so they conspire together to abuse and wrong the people of God, as the same prophet complains, The wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he, ver. 13. Now when we are thus abused and wronged, it is hard to keep the heart from revengeful motions; to make it meekly and quietly to commit the cause to him that judgeth righteously; to exercise no other affection but pity towards them that abuse us. Surely the spirit that is in us lusteth to revenge, but it must not be so; you have choice helps in the gospel to keep down your hearts from such sinful motions against your enemies, and to sweeten your imbittered spirits.” The seventh case then shall be this,
Case 7. How a Christian may keep his heart from revengeful motions, under the greatest injuries and abuses from men.
The gospel, indeed, allows a liberty to vindicate our innocency, and assert our rights, but not to vent our corruptions, and invade God’s right. When, therefore, thou findest thy heart begin to be inflamed by revengeful motions, presently apply the following remedies; and the first is this,
Remedy 1. Urge upon thy heart the severe prohibitions of revenge by the law of God. Remember that this is forbidden fruit, how pleasant and luscious soever it be to our vitiated appetites. O, saith nature, revenge is sweet: O but, saith God, the effects thereof shall be bitter. How plainly hath God interdicted this flesh-pleasing sin. Say not, I will recompense evil, Prov. xx. 22. Say not, I will do so to him as he hath done to me, Prov. xxiv. 29. Rom. xii. 17, Recompense to no man evil for evil; and ver. 19, Avenge not yourselves, but rather give place to wrath. Nay, that is not all; but, Prov. xxv. 21, If thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink. The word feed him, as critics observe, signifies to feed cheerfully and tenderly, as birds do their young ones: the scripture is a great friend to the peace and tranquility of human society, which can never be preserved, if revenge be not deposed. It was wont to be an argument urged by the Christians, to prove their religion to be supernatural and pure, that it forbids revenge, which is so sweet to nature; and verily it is a thousand pities such an argument should be lost. Well, then, awe your hearts with the authority of God in these scriptures, and when carnal reason saith, Mine enemy deserves to be hated, let conscience reply, But doth God deserve to be disobeyed? Thus, and thus, hath he done, and so he hath wronged me; but what hath God done, that I should wrong him? If he dare be so bold to break the peace, shall I be so wicked to break the precept? If he fears not to wrong me, shall not I fear to wrong God? O let the fear of God’s threatenings repress such sinful motions.
Remedy 2. Set before your eyes the most eminent patterns of meekness and forgiveness, that your souls may fall in love with them.
This is the way to cut off those common pleas of the flesh for revenge: as thus, No man would bear such affront: Yes, such and such have borne as bad, and worse. I shall be reckoned a coward, a fool, if I pass by this: no matter, as long as I follow the examples of the wisest and holiest of men; never did any suffer more or greater abuses from men than Christ did, and never did any carry it more peaceably and forgivingly. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; he was brought as a lamb to the slaughter, &c. Isa. liii. 7. This pattern of our Lord the Apostle sets before you for your imitation. For even hereunto are you called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that we should follow his steps: who when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously, 1 Pet. ii. 21, 22, 23.. To be of a meek forgiving spirit, is Christ-like, God-like; then shall you be the children of your Father which is in heaven, for he maketh his sun to rise upon the evil, and upon the good; and sendeth rain on the just, and unjust, Mat. v. 45. How eminently also did this Spirit of Christ rest upon his apostles? Never were there such men upon earth for true excellency of spirit. None were ever abused more, or suffered their abuses better. Being reviled, say they, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it; being defamed, we intreat, 1 Cor. iv. 12, 13. Mr. Calvin, though a man of a quick spirit, yet had attained such a degree of this Christ-like forgiveness, that when Luther had used some opprobrious language of him, the good man said no more but this, “although he should call me Devil, yet I will acknowledge him to be an eminent servant of Jesus Christ.”