John Flavel
Question 18.
But how shall I be able to undergo the severities of religion? There are difficult duties to be done, and a heavy cross to be taken up; these are the things that daunt me.
Answer.
If pain and suffering daunt you, how is it that you are not more out of love with sin than with religion? For it is most certain that sufferings for Christ are nothing compared with hell, the just reward and certain issue of sin; the pains of mortification are nothing to the pains of damnation; there is no comparison between suffering for Christ and suffering from Christ. “If thy right hand [or eye] offend thee, cut it off, [or pluck it out] . . . it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should suffer, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell” (Mt 5:30). Second, Thou seest the worst, but not the best of Christ. There are joys and comforts in those difficult duties and sufferings that you do not see: “Who now rejoice in my sufferings” (Col 1:24), said Paul. “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations” (Jas 1:2). Third, great shall be your assistance from Christ: “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Phil 4:13). “The Spirit also helpeth our infirmities” (Rom 8:26), takes the other end of the burden. What do you mean to stand upon such terms, when it is heaven or hell, eternal life or death, that lie before you?
1Taken with editing from Flavel’s Works, vol 5. Written with a particular consciousness of the dangers seamen faced in the days of sail, the Catechism applies to everyone, for we must all die. This is the last section of the Catechism. The previous question was, “The pleasures of sin engage me to it; how shall I break these cords and snares?”
Question 19.
But what use will be my endeavours to come to Christ, unless I am elected? All will be to no purpose.
Answer.
True, if you are not elected, you cannot obtain Him, or happiness by Him. Yet that should not discourage you from striving; for, in your unconverted state, your election or non-election is a secret to you. The only way to make it sure is by striving, and giving all diligence, in the way of duty (2 Pet 1:10). And if you ponder this text well, you will find that election is not only made sure in the way of diligence and striving, but calling is put before it, and lies in order to it: first make sure of your effectual calling, and then your election.
Question 20.
But I have no strength of my own by which to come to Christ; is it not absurd to urge me to do impossible things in order to be saved?
Answer.
First, you are certainly most absurd in pleading and pretending that you have no power to carry out your duty. You do think you have a power to come to Christ, or else how do you quiet your conscience with promises and resolves of conversion hereafter? Second, Though it is true that no saving act can be done without the concurrence of special grace; yet this is just as true: your inability to do what is above your power does not excuse you from doing what is in your power to do. Can you not, at least, keep from many outward acts of sin? And can you not perform, at least, the outward acts of duty? If you cannot come to Christ, yet, as the blind man, be in the way of Christ; do what you can do, and confess and bewail your lack of power to do more.
Can you not take your soul aside in secret and thus bemoan it: My poor soul, what will you do? What will become of you, you are Christless, outside the covenant, hopeless and, which is most sad, senseless and heartless? You cannot bear the infinite wrath of the eternal God, whose almighty power will be set working to torment such as you are; and yet you do nothing to prevent it! You see the busy diligence of others, and how the kingdom of heaven suffers violence by them: and are you not as deeply obliged to look to your happiness as any in the world? O that men would do this, even if they can do no more! Will hell be more tolerable to you than to others? What a combination of stupidity and sloth you are! You live as if there is neither fire in hell to torment you, nor glory in heaven to reward you. If God and Christ, heaven and hell, were but dreams and fables, you could not be less affected with them. Ah, my soul, my soul, my precious soul, is it easy to perish? Will you die as a fool dies?
And now, soul, you see what death is that you have treated so lightly; and what the only way is that we poor sons of death must go in if we are to escape its sting. You have seen here the vanity of all your pleas and pretences against conversion, and the way to Christ prepared and cast up for you. Now, I beg you in the name of God, who made you, and as if I made this request on my bended knees to you, will you not now, without any more delays, yield yourselves to the Lord. Soul, I beseech you, hasten into your room, shut your door and pray to the Lord before you dare launch out to sea again.