The Christian Soldier, or
Heaven Taken by Storm
by Thomas Watson, 1669
A practical handbook on Christian living,
showing the holy violence a Christian is
to put forth in the pursuit after glory.
"The Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, and
the violent take it by force." Matthew 11:12
Out of this text, I may draw forth
several arrows of REPROOF
1. It reproves SLOTHFUL professors who are settled on
their lees.
They make a lazy profession of piety—but use no
violence. They are like the lilies, which neither toil, nor do they spin.
The snail, by reason of its slow motion, was reckoned among the unclean,
Levit. xi. 30. St. Augustine calls idleness the burial of a man alive. There
are some faint wishes, "oh that I had Heaven!" but a man may desire venison,
and lack it, if he does not hunt for it. "The sluggard craves and gets
nothing, but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied." Proverbs 13:4
Men would be content to have the kingdom of Heaven; but
they are loath to fight for it. They choose rather to go in a feather bed to
Hell than to be carried to Heaven in a "fiery chariot" of zeal and violence.
How many sleep away, and play away, their time; as if they were made like
the Leviathan, to play in the sea! Psalm civ. 26. It is a saying of Seneca,
"No man is made wise by chance." Sure it is, no man is saved by chance—but
he must know how he came by it, namely, by offering violence. Such as have
accustomed themselves to an idle, lazy disposition, will find it hard to
shake off, "I have taken off my robe—must I put it on again? I have washed
my feet-- must I soil them again?" Song of Songs 5:3. The spouse had laid
herself upon the bed of sloth, and though Christ knocked at the door, she
was reluctant to rise and let him in.
Some pretend to be believers—but are idle in the
vineyard. They pretend to make use of faith for seeing—but not for working;
this faith is fancy. O that Christians had a spirit of activity in them, 1
Chron. xxii. 16. "Arise and be doing, and the Lord be with you." We may
sometimes learn of our enemy.
The Devil is never idle; he "walks about," 1 Peter
v. 8. The world is his diocese and he is every day going on his visitation.
Is Satan active? Is the enemy upon his march, coming against us? And are we
asleep upon our guard? As Satan himself is not idle, so he will not endure
that any of his servants should be idle. When the Devil had entered into
Judas, how active was Judas! He goes to the high priest, from thence to the
band of soldiers and with them back to the garden, and never left until he
had betrayed Christ. Satan will not endure an idle servant; and do we think
God will? How will the heathen rise up in judgment against slothful
Christians!
What pains did they take in the Olympian games:
they ran for a garland of flowers, and do we stand still who run for a crown
of immortality? Certainly, if only the violent take Heaven, the idle person
will never come there. God puts no difference between these two, slothful
and wicked, Matt. xxv. 26."You wicked and slothful servant."
2. It reproves the FORMALIST
, who puts all his
religion in gestures and vestures, and emblems of devotion, and thinks this
will entitle him to Heaven, Rev. iii. 1. "You have a name to live, and are
dead." The form and outside of Christianity is judged as all that is
necessary.
1. It is a means to keep up men's credit in the world.
Should they be visibly profane, such as are sober would not come near them:
they would be looked upon as no better than baptized heathens; therefore
they must make a show of devotion out of policy, to gain some reputation and
esteem among others.
2. A form serves to stop the mouth of conscience; had
they not some kind of outward devotion, their conscience would fly in their
face and they would be a terror to themselves; therefore they think it
expedient to have a form of godliness. But alas! what is all this? The text
speaks of offering violence to heaven. What violence is there in a form?
Here is no taking pains with the heart: a form—but no power, 2 Tim. iii. 5.
Formalists are like the statues in the churchyard, which have their eyes and
hands lifted up to Heaven—but have no soul. The formalist's devotion runs
out most in punctilios and niceties: he neglects "the weightier matters of
the law, faith and mercy," Matt. xxiii. 23. He scruples about superstitious
fancies—but makes no reckoning of sin: he is more afraid of a black cat
crossing his path, than of a harlot in his bed. He hates sanctity. Christ
had no such bitter enemies as the formal pharisees. The formalist is never
violent—but in persecuting the power of godliness.
3. It reproves such as are violent in a bad sense.
They are violent for hell; they go there in the sweat of their brows.
Jer 8:6, "Each pursues his own course like a horse charging into battle." A
war horse rushes violently among the guns and cannons: so did they rush into
sin violently. Men are violent,
1. In opposing good.
2. In pursuing evil.
1. Men are violent in opposing good. Several ways.
1. They offer violence to the Spirit of God. The Spirit
knocks at the door of sinners" hearts; he waits until his head is "filled
with dew," and "his locks with the drops of the night;" but sinners repulse
and grieve the Spirit, and send away this dove from the ark of their souls.
Acts vii. 51. "You do always resist the Holy Spirit." The Spirit offers
grace to the sinner, and the sinner offers violence to the Spirit, Isaiah
lxiii. 10. "They rebelled and vexed His Holy Spirit;" and may not the Lord
give up striving. God, who is willing to come in when we open to him, has
not promised to come again if we unkindly repulse Him.
2. They offer violence to conscience. Conscience is God's
preacher in the heart. This preacher cannot flatter; it tells men of their
pride, covetousness, abuse of mercy. But they, instead of being violent
against their sins, offer violence to conscience; they silence and imprison
conscience. But as the prophet Zachariah when he was dumb, called for a
writing table and did write, Luke i. 63. So when conscience cannot be
permitted to speak, it will write. It writes down men's sins; and when at
death they shall be forced to read the hand-writing, it will make their
hearts tremble, and their knees knock together. Men commonly offer violence
to their conscience; and what will be this outcome? Those who will not hear
the voice of conscience, shall be sure to feel the worm of
conscience!
3. They offer violence to God's image. The saints (who
are God's living picture) are opposed and shot at. This is a cursed
violence, Gal. iv. 29. "As he who was born after the flesh, persecuted him
who was born after the Spirit;" even so it is now. Christ himself is struck
at through believers. The church has always been in the torrid zone—the
ploughers have ploughed upon her back. The earth has been sown with the
bodies of the saints, and watered with their blood. Persecutors, I grant,
are of an ancient family. The first man that was born in the world was a
persecutor, namely Cain; and he has a numerous offspring: Nero, Trajan,
Domitian, Diocletian, and Maximinus. Faelix, earl of Wurtemburg, being at
supper in Augsburg, did take an oath that before he died, he would ride up
to the spurs in the blood of the Lutherans; but was afterwards choked in his
own blood. Persecutors are the curse of the creation: being some of those
"thorns and briars" which the earth brings forth.
2. Men are violent in pursuing evil.
1. They are violent in their opinions. 2 Peter ii.
1. "Privily they shall bring in damnable heresies." Arius was such a one;
and truly the spirit of Arius is yet alive at this day, when men dare deny
the Deity of the blessed Son of God. Many of the heretics of old were so
violent, that their opinion was to them a Bible: and some of them died
maintaining their heresies. These were the Devil's martyrs.
2. They are violent in their passions. Anger is a
temporary insanity, James iii. 6. "The tongue is a fire, a world of
iniquity." In this little member there is a great world, namely, a "world of
sin." Such as would be counted sober—yet are drunk with passion. Their
prayers, are cold—but their anger hot. They spit fire as the serpent does
poison. Fiery passions, without repentance, bring men to the fiery furnace.
3. They are violent for their lusts. Titus 3:3.
"Enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures." Lust is an inordinate
desire or impulse, provoking the soul to the gratifying of its carnal
desires. Aristotle calls them brutish lusts, because when lusts are violent,
they will not let reason or conscience be heard; but a man is carried
brutishly to the satisfying of the flesh.
1. Men are violent for their drunken lusts. Though
death is in the cup, they will drink it up. One having almost lost his
eye-sight, the physician told him there was no cure for him, unless he would
leave off his excessive drinking. "Then," says he, "farewell sweet light!"
He would rather lose his eye-sight than leave his drinking.
2. They are violent for their impure lusts. Men
are said to "burn in lusts," Romans i. 27. The apostle intimates that lust
is a kind of fever. Feverish heats are not more pernicious to the body, than
lust is to the soul. O what folly is it—for a drop of pleasure to drink a
sea of wrath!
3. They are violent for their oppressive lusts,
who wrong and defraud others, and by violence take away their right. Instead
of clothing the naked, they make those who are clothed, naked. These
birds of prey live upon rapine. They are cruel, as if they had been
suckled with the milk of wolves. They smile at the curses of the poor, and
grow fat with their tears. They have forgotten Christ's caveat, Luke iii.
14. "Do violence to no man." Ahab violently took away Naboth's vineyard, 2
Kings xxi. 11. Hell is taken by this violence, Proverbs iv. 17. "Who drink
the wine of violence." This wine will turn to poison at last, Psalm. xi. 5,
"He who loves violence, God's soul hates."
4. They are violent for their covetous lusts.
Covetousness is the soul's idolatry. Amos 2:7, "Who pant after the dust of
the earth." They compass sea and land to make money their proselyte. Their
God is made of gold, and to it they bow down. Those who bowed down on their
knees to drink of the waters, were accounted unfit soldiers for Gideon,
Judges vii. 6. So are those unfit for Christ, that stoop immoderately to the
care of earthly things. Those who are violent for the world, what have they
but the wind? Eccles. v. 16. "What profit has he who has labored for the
wind?" The world cannot enrich the soul, it cannot remove pain. If pangs of
conscience come, the world can no more give comfort, than a crown of gold
can cure a head-ache.
4. It reproves those who have in part left off that holy
strictness and violence in piety they once had.
Their fervor is
cooled and abated. What they do is so little, that it cannot be called
violence. They serve God—but are not fervent in spirit. They do not abandon
duty—but they grow dead in duty. They have "left their first love," Rev. ii.
4. It is with them as a fire when it is going out; or as the sun when it is
going down. Like epileptics, before they were in a paroxysm, or hot fit of
zeal; but now that the cold fit has taken them, they are formal and frozen
in piety. Time was when they called "the Sabbath a delight," Isaiah. lviii.
13. How were their hearts raised in duty! How diligently did they seek him
whom their soul loved! But now the case is altered; their piety languishes,
and even vanishes. Time was when they were in an agony, and did send forth
strong cries in prayer. Now the chariot wheels are pulled off, and the
spirit of prayer is much abated. Their prayers freeze between their lips; a
clear sign of the decay of grace. These persons are grown both lethargic
and consumptive.
1. Lethargic. Cant. v. 2, "I sleep—but my heart
wakes" Though grace was alive in her, and her heart waked; yet she was in a
dull, drowsy temper, "I sleep." When the heart burns in sin, and cools in
duty, it is a sure sign of growing to a stupid lethargy.
2. Consumptive. There are two signs of persons in
a spiritual consumption.
1. When their desire after Christ and Heaven is not as
strong as it was. A consumptive man's stomach decays. Christians have not
such violent affections to heavenly things; they can desire food and wine,
and the luscious delights of the earth; but Christ is less precious; they
are not in pangs of desire after him; a sad symptom their grace is in a
consumption.
2. When they are not so vigorous in motion. When a man is
lively and stirring at his work—it is a sign he is in health. But when he is
listless, and does not care to stir, or put his hand to anything—it is a
sign that health is declining. So when men have no heart for that which is
holy, they care not to put themselves upon the exercises of piety; they have
lost a spirit of activity for God; they serve him in a faint sickly manner.
It is is a sign they are consumptive.
When the pulse can scarcely be felt, and it beats very
low, men are near dying. So when those who were once violent for heaven—but
now we can scarce perceive any godliness in them, the pulse beats low—and
grace is ready to die, Rev. iii. 2.
To you who have abated in your holy violence, and are
grown remiss in duty, let me expostulate with you, as the Lord did by the
prophet, Jer. ii. 5. "What iniquity have your fathers found in me?"
What evil have you found in God, that you leave
off your former strictness? Has not God fed you with manna from above, and
given you his Holy Spirit to be your guide and comforter? Has he not made
you swim in a sea of mercy?
What evil have you found in prayer, that you are
less violent in it? Have you not had sweet fellowship with God? Have you not
sometimes been melted and enlarged, insomuch you have thought yourselves in
the suburbs of Heaven, when you have been upon this mount? Has not the dove
of prayer brought an olive-branch of peace in its mouth?
What evil have you found in the Word? Time was
when you did take this book and eat it—and it was honey in your mouth! Has
the Word less virtue in it now? Are the promises like Aaron's dry rod,
withered and sapless?
What iniquity have you found in the ways of God,
that you have abated your former violence in piety? "O remember whence you
are fallen, and repent, and do your first works," Rev. ii. 5.
Consider seriously—
1. The less violence for heaven, the less peace you will
have. Our consciences are never at peace in a drowsy state. It is the
lively acting of grace, which makes the heart calm and serene. These two go
together, walking "in the fear of God,"and "in the comforts of the Holy
Spirit," Acts ix. 31. Christian, if once you grow remiss in piety,
conscience will chide you. If you belong to God, he will never let you be
quiet—but will send some affliction or other to awaken you out of your
security, and make you recover that active lively frame of heart as once you
had.
2. You who grow more dead in God's service, and leave
your first love—give great advantage to Satan. The less violent you
are—the more violent he is. The less you pray—the more he tempts. What a sad
case are you now in? How can grace that is weak and sickly withstand violent
temptations? Hence it is God allows his own people sometimes to fall into
sin, as a just punishment for their lukewarmness, and to make them more
zealous and violent for the future.
3. Your remissness in piety, though it may not damn
you—it will damage you. You will lose that degree of glory, which else
you might have had. Though your remissness may not lose your crown, it will
lessen it and make it weigh lighter.
4. The more lazy a Christian's desires are, the more
lively his corruptions. The weaker the body grows, the stronger the
disease grows. O, therefore, pray for quickening grace, Psalm cxliii. 11.
Beg for fresh gales of the Spirit to blow upon you. Never leave until you
have recovered that holy violence which once you had.
2. It reproves those who have nearly abandoned all
violence—they have stopped reading and praying in their family. There is not
so much as a face of piety to be seen; they are fallen finally. Such were
Joash, Jehu, Julian. The goodly building of their profession, which others
admired, now has not one stone left upon another.
WHY do men thus run retrograde in their motion, and quite
throw off that violence which they seemed once to have?
1. Because they never had a principle of spiritual life.
Things that move from a principle of life are constant, as the motion of the
pulse. But artificial things are apt to be at a stand-still, and their
motion ceases. As a clock when the weights are hung on, goes—but take off
the weights and it stands still. So the apostate never moved in religion,
but for gain and applause. When these weights are taken off, he is at a
stand-still, he goes no further. That branch must needs wither, which has no
root to grow upon.
2. Men throw off all violence, and degenerate into
apostasy, because they never did duties of piety with delight.
Paul "delighted in the law of God in the inward man, Romans vii. 22. It was
his Heaven to serve God. A man who delights in pleasure will never give up
his pleasure. The apostate never had any true delight in the ways of God; he
was rather forced with fear, than drawn with love; he served a master whom
he never cared for; no wonder then that he leaves his service.
3. Men degenerate into apostasy through unbelief.
Psalm lxxviii. 22. "They believed not in God." verse 41. "They turned back,
and tempted God." Sinners have jealous thoughts of God; they distrust his
love, therefore desert his service. They think they may pray, and hear—and
to no purpose. Mal. iii. 14. "What profit is it that we have kept his
ordinances?" That is, "We may draw near to God in duty—but he will never
draw near to us in mercy." Thus unbelief and atheism prevailing, the livery
of piety is presently thrown off, and all former violence for Heaven ceases.
Unbelief is the mother of apostasy.
4. Men leave off their former violence, and prove to be
Judases and Devils, because they love something else more than piety.
There is some lust or other, that their heart is engaged to; and
their violence for sin has destroyed their violence for piety. Solyman, the
great Turk, seeing many professing Christians go over to Turkism, he asked
them what moved them to turn Turks. They replied, "they did it to be eased
of their taxes." They were drawn from God through the prevalency of
covetousness. If there is any predominant, lust in the heart—it will get
domination, and destroy all former zeal for piety. Abimelech, a bastard,
destroyed "seventy of his brethren upon one stone," Judges ix. 18. If there
is any lust the heart runs after, this bastard-sin will destroy seventy
duties; it will murder all that violence for Heaven, which a man did once
seem to have.
5. Men leave off former violence out of cowardice.
If they are violent in piety, they fear they may lose their profits
and preferments; nay, even their lives. The coward never yet won the field.
When carnal fear grows violent—all violence for Heaven is at an end.
Many of the Jews who were great followers of Christ, when
they saw the swords and staves, left him. (Proverbs xxix. 25. "In the fear
of man there is a snare." Carnal fear makes the sin appear less than
it is—but the danger greater.
6. Men leave off violence for Heaven—for lack of
patience.
Sensible feeling of joy is withheld, and they have no
patience to stay for the full recompense of reward. Hypocrites are all for
present pay; and if they have not that suddenly which they desire, they bid
adieu to piety; and say as that wicked king, 2 Kings vi. 33. "Why should I
wait for the Lord any longer?" They do not consider that God is a free
agent, and will dispense his blessings in the fittest season—but they try to
tie God up to their time. They forget that joy is a part of the reward; and
would have the reward, before their work not yet finished. Does the servant
receive his pay before his work is done? James v. 6. "The farmer waits for
the precious fruit of the earth." He does not expect to sow and reap in the
same day. But hypocrites are always in haste: they would reap joy before
they are done sowing the seed of repentance. And because comfort is a while
deferred, they are offended; they will serve God no longer; their patience
is at an end, therefore their violence is at an end.
7. Men leave off holy violence, and degenerate into
profaneness, out of a just judgment from God, leaving them to themselves.
They often resisted the Spirit, and sent him away sad. And now,
as a just judgment, God says, "my Spirit shall no longer strive." And if
this wind does not blow upon their sails, they cannot move. If this sun
withdraws from their climate, they must needs freeze in impenitency. They
before sinned against clear convictions; they silenced conscience—and now
God has seared it. And now if an angel should preach to them from Heaven, it
would do them no good. O how dismal is this! the thoughts of it may strike
us into a holy consternation.
Thus we see why men apostatize and leave off their
violence for Heaven.
What do they get by this? Let us see what a purchase
apostates make.
They proclaim their FOLLY. For all their former
violence for Heaven is lost. He who runs half the race and then faints,
loses the garland. Ezek. xniii. 24. "When the righteous turns away from his
righteousness, all his righteousness that he has done shall not be
mentioned." All men's prayers and tears are lost. The apostate unravels all
that he has been doing. He is like a man who with a pencil draws an
intricate picture, and then comes with his sponge and wipes it out again.
Gal. iii. 4. "Have you suffered so many things in vain?" Perhaps for piety,
a man has suffered many a reproach and affront; and have you suffered all
this in vain? Here is folly indeed.
It will be BITTERNESS in the end. Jer. ii. 19. "Know
therefore that it is an evil and bitter thing that you have
forsaken the Lord." Men, by leaving off their violence for Heaven, get a
thorn in their conscience, a blot in their name, a curse in
their souls. What did Judas get by his apostasy—but a halter? So it
will be bitterness in the end. The apostate, when he dies, drops as a
windfall into the devil's mouth!
5. It reproves those who put off this violence for the
kingdom, until old age.
When they are fit for no other work, then
they will begin this taking heaven by storm. No man says, "I will learn my
trade when I am old." It is imprudence for one to begin to work for Heaven,
when he is past his labor. There is a night of sickness and death coming,
and our Savior says, "The night comes when no man can work," John ix. 4.
Surely a man can put forth but little violence for Heaven when old age, and
old sins are upon him. Besides, how unworthy and insincere it is--to give
the Devil the flower of youth, and God the dregs of old age!
Therefore God rejected Cain's sacrifice, because it was stale before he
brought it, Gen. iv. 3. There is little hope of their salvation--who are
never seek for Heaven, until they are on the borders of eternity.
6. It reproves those who are so far from using this
violence for Heaven, that they deride it.
These are your zealous
ones, 2 Peter iii. 3. "In the last days there shall be scoffers." Holy
walking has become the object of derision. Psalm lxix. 12. "I have become
the song of the drunkard." This shows a vile heart. There are some, who,
though they have no goodness themselves—yet honor those who are good. Herod
reverenced John the Baptist. But what devils are those—who scoff at
goodness, and reproach others for doing that which God commands. This age
produces such as sit in the chair of scorners, and throw their squibs at
piety. In Bohemia, when some of the martyrs were the next day to suffer,
they comforted themselves with this—that was their last supper and tomorrow
they should feast with Christ in Heaven! A Papist standing by, asked them in
a jeer—if Christ had any cooks in Heaven to dress their supper? Oh, take
heed of such an Ishmael spirit! It is a sign of a man given over to the
devil. God 'scorns the scorner" Proverbs iii. 34. And surely, he shall never
live with God whose company God scorns.
7. It reproves those who instead of taking Heaven by
force, keep it off by force
; as if they were afraid of being
happy; or as if a crown of glory would hurt them. Such are,
1. The ignorant, who shut their eyes against the
light, and refuse to be taught the way to Heaven. Hosea iv. 6. "You have
rejected knowledge." The Hebrew word shoves to reject with disdain. As I
have read of a Scotch bishop, who thanked God he never knew what the old and
new Testaments were. I wonder where the bishop took his text.
2. The profane, who hate to be admonished, and had
rather die than reform. Amos v. 10. "They hate him who rebukes in the gate."
These keep off heaven by force. Such were those in Acts xiii. 46. "Seeing
you put away the Word from you." The Greek word may be rendered, seeing you
shove it away with your shoulders. As if a sick man should bolt out the
physician, lest he should cure him. Job xxi. 14. "Who say unto the Almighty,
depart from us!" God is reluctant to be gone; he woos and beseeches sinners
to accept his terms of mercy—but sinners will have him gone; they say to him
"Depart!" May not we say to these, "who has bewitched you? What madness
beyond hyperbole is this—that you should not only forsake mercy—but fight
against it; as if there were danger in going to Heaven!"
These who put away salvation from them, they do willfully
perish; they would not hear of anything that would save them. Were it not be
a sad epitaph if a man had written upon his tomb-stone, "here lies one who
murdered himself"? This is the condition of desperate sinners; they keep off
Heaven by force; they are self murderers. Therefore God writes their epitaph
upon their grave, Hosea xiii. 9. "O Israel—you have destroyed yourself!"