THE WORST THINGS WORKFOR GOOD 
TO THE GODLY
A minimally editedexcerpt from Thomas Watson’s AllThings For Good,
(BOT, 1986 [first published in 1663 as A Divine Cordial], 25–51)
Part 2 of 2

Last Sabbath, we reproduced the first part of this excellent treatise, in whichwe saw that the evils of affliction and temptation work out, under God’ssovereign superintendence, for good to the godly. In this concluding part ofthe study, we see temporary spiritual desertion and even sin work outultimately for good for those who love the Lord.

The Evil of Desertion Works
for Good to the Godly

The evil of desertion works for good. The spouse complains of desertion. “Mybeloved had withdrawn himself, and was gone” (Song 5:6). There is a twofoldwithdrawing; either in regard of grace, when God suspends the influence of HisSpirit, and withholds the lively actings of grace. If the Spirit be gone, gracefreezes into a chillness and indolence. Or, a withdrawing in regard of comfort.When God withholds the sweet manifestations of His favour, He does not lookwith such a pleasant aspect, but veils His face, and seems to be quite gonefrom the soul.

God is just in all His withdrawings. We desert Him before He deserts us. Wedesert God when we leave off close communion with Him, when we desert Histruths and dare not appear for Him, when we leave the guidance and conduct ofHis Word and follow the deceitful light of our own corrupt affections andpassions. We usually desert God first; therefore we have none to blame but ourselves.

Desertion is very sad, for as when the light is withdrawn, darkness follows inthe air, so when God withdraws, there is darkness and sorrow in the soul.Desertion is an agony of conscience. God holds the soul over hell. “The arrowsof the Almighty are within me, the poison whereof drinks up my spirit” (Job6:4). It was a custom among the Persians in their wars to dip their arrows inthe poison of serpents to make them more deadly. Thus did God shoot thepoisoned arrow of desertion into Job, under the wounds of which his spirit laybleeding. In times of desertion the people of God are apt to be dejected. Theydispute against themselves, and think that God has quite cast them off.Therefore I shall prescribe some comfort to the deserted soul. The mariner,when he has no star to guide him, yet he has light in his lantern, which issome help to him to see his compass; so, I shall lay down four consolations,which are as the mariner’s lantern, to give some light when the poor soul issailing in the dark of desertion, and wants the bright morning star.

(1) None but the godly are capable of desertion. Wicked men know not what God’slove means, nor what it is to want it. They know what it is to want health,friends, trade, but not what it is to want God’s favour. You fear you are notGod’s child because you are deserted. The Lord cannot be said to withdraw Hislove from the wicked, because they never had it. The being deserted evidencesyou to be a child of God. How could you complain that God has estranged Himself,if you had not sometimes received smiles and tokens of love from Him?

(2) There may be the seed of grace, where there is not the flower of joy. Theearth may want a crop of corn, yet may have a mine of gold within. A Christianmay have grace within, though the sweet fruit of joy does not grow. Vessels atsea, that are richly fraught with jewels and spices, may be in the dark andtossed in the storm. A soul enriched with the treasures of grace, may yet be inthe dark of desertion, and so tossed as to think it shall be cast away in thestorm. David, in a state of dejection, prays, “Take not thy holy spirit fromme” (Ps 51:11). He does not pray, says Augustine, “Lord, give me thy Spirit,”but “Take not away thy Spirit,” so that still he had the Spirit of Godremaining in him.

(3) These desertions are but for a time. Christ may withdraw, and leave thesoul awhile, but He will come again. “In a little wrath I hid my face from theefor a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee” (Isa 54:8).When it is dead low water, the tide will come in again. “I will not… be alwayswroth; for the spirit should fail before me, and the souls which I have made”(Isa 57:16). The tender mother sets down her child in anger, but she will takeit up again into her arms, and kiss it. God may put away the soul in anger, butHe will take it up again into His dear embraces, and display the banner of loveover it.

(4) These desertions work for good to the godly.

a) Desertion cures the soul of sloth. We find the spouse fallen upon the bed ofsloth: “I sleep” (Song 5:2). And presently Christ was gone. “My beloved hadwithdrawn himself” (Song 5:6). Who will speak to one that is drowsy?

b) Desertion cures inordinate affection to the world. “Love not the world” (1 Jn2:15). We may hold the world as a posy in our hand, but it must not lie toonear our heart. We may use it as an inn where we take a meal, but it must notbe our home. Perhaps these secular things steal away the heart too much. Goodmen are sometimes sick with a surfeit, and drunk with the luscious delights ofprosperity: and having spotted their silver wings of grace, and much defacedGod’s image by rubbing it against the earth, the Lord, to recover them of this,hides His face in a cloud. This eclipse has good effects; it darkens all theglory of the world, and causes it to disappear.

c) Desertion works for good, as it makes the saints prize God’s countenancemore than ever. “Thy lovingkindness is better than life” (Ps 63:3). Yet thecommonness of this mercy lessens it in our esteem. When pearls grew common at Rome, they began to beslighted. God has no better way to make us value His love, than by withdrawingit awhile. If the sun shone but once a year, how would it be prized! When thesoul has been long benighted with desertion, oh how welcome now is the returnof the Sun of righteousness!

d) Desertion works for good, as it is the means of embittering sin to us. Canthere be a greater misery than to have God’s displeasure? What makes hell, butthe hiding of God’s face? And what makes God hide His face, but sin? “They havetaken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him” (Jn 20:13). So,our sins have taken away the Lord, and we know not where He is laid. The favourof God is the best jewel; it can sweeten a prison, and unsting death. Oh, howodious then is that sin, which robs us of our best jewel! Sin made God desertHis temple (Ezk 8:6). Sin causes Him to appear as an enemy, and dress Himselfin armour. This makes the soul pursue sin with a holy malice, and seek to beavenged of it. The deserted soul gives sin gall and vinegar to drink, and, withthe spear of mortification, lets out the heart-blood of it.

e) Desertion works for good, as it sets the soul to weeping for the loss ofGod. When the sun is gone, the dew falls; and when God is gone, tears drop fromthe eyes. How Micah was troubled when he had lost his gods! “Ye have taken awaymy gods,… and what have I more?” (Jdg 18:24). So when God is gone, what have wemore? It is not the harp and viol that can comfort when God is gone. Though itbe sad to want God’s presence, yet it is good to lament His absence.

f) Desertion sets the soul to seeking after God. When Christ was departed, thespouse pursues after Him, she seeks Him in the streets of the city (Song 3:2).And not having found Him, she makes a hue and cry after Him: “Saw ye him whommy soul loveth?” (Song 3:3). The deserted soul sends up whole volleys of sighsand groans. It knocks at heaven’s gate by prayer, it can have no rest till thegolden beams of God’s face shine.

g) Desertion puts the Christian upon inquiry. He inquires the cause of God’sdeparture. What is the accursed thing that has made God angry? Perhaps pride,perhaps surfeit on ordinances, perhaps worldliness. “For the iniquity of hiscovetousness was I wroth…; I hid me” (Isa 57:17). Perhaps there is some secretsin allowed. A stone in the pipe hinders the current of water; so, sin livedin, hinders the sweet current of God’s love. Thus conscience, as a bloodhound,having found out sin and overtaken it, this Achan is stoned to death.

h) Desertion works for good, as it gives us a sight of what Jesus Christsuffered for us. If the sipping of the cup be so bitter, how bitter was thatwhich Christ drank upon the cross? He drank a cup of deadly poison, which madeHim cry out, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Mt 27:46). None canso appreciate Christ’s sufferings, none can be so fired with love to Christ, asthose who have been humbled by desertion, and have been held over the flames ofhell for a time.

i) Desertion works for good, as it prepares the saints for future comfort. Thenipping frosts prepare for spring flowers. It is God’s way, first to cast down,then to comfort (2 Cor 7:6). When our Saviour had been fasting, then came theangels and ministered to Him. When the Lord has kept His people long fasting,then He sends the Comforter, and feeds them with the hidden manna. “Light issown for the righteous” (Ps 97:11). The saints’ comforts may be hidden likeseed under ground, but the seed is ripening, and will increase, and flourishinto a crop.

j) These desertions work for good, as they will make heaven the sweeter to us.Here our comforts are like the moon, sometimes they are in the full, sometimesin the wane. God shows Himself to us awhile, and then retires from us. How willthis set off heaven the more, and make it more delightful and ravishing, whenwe shall have a constant aspect of love from God (1 Thes 4:17).

Thus we see desertions work for good. The Lord brings us into the deep ofdesertion, that He may not bring us into the deep of damnation. He puts us intoa seeming hell, that He may keep us from a real hell. God is fitting us forthat time when we shall enjoy His smiles for ever, when there shall be neitherclouds in His face or sun setting, when Christ shall come and stay with Hisspouse, and the spouse shall never say again, “My beloved hath withdrawnhimself.”

The Evil of Sin Works for
Good to the Godly

Sin in its own nature is damnable, but God in His infinite wisdom overrules it,and causes good to arise from that which seems most to oppose it. Indeed, it isa matter of wonder that any honey should come out of this lion. We mayunderstand it in a double sense.

(1) The sins of others are overruled for good to the godly. It is no smalltrouble to a gracious heart to live among the wicked. “Woe is me, that Isojourn in Mesech” (Ps 120:5). Yet even this the Lord turns to good. For,

a) The sins of others work for good to the godly, as they produce holy sorrow.God’s people weep for what they cannot reform. “Rivers of waters run down mineeyes, because they keep not thy law” (Ps 119:136). David was a mourner for thesins of the times; his heart was turned into a spring, and his eyes intorivers. Wicked men make merry with sin. “When thou doest evil, then thourejoicest” (Jer 11:15). But the godly are weeping doves; they grieve for theoaths and blasphemies of the age. The sins of others, like spears, pierce theirsouls. This grieving for the sins of others is good. It shows a childlikeheart, to resent with sorrow the injuries done to our heavenly Father. It alsoshows a Christ-like heart. “He… was grieved for the hardness of their hearts”(Mk 3:5). The Lord takes special notice of these tears: He likes it well, thatwe should weep when His glory suffers. It argues more grace to grieve for thesins of others than for our own. We may grieve for our own sins out of fear ofhell, but to grieve for the sins of others is from a principle of love to God.These tears drop as water from the roses, they are sweet and fragrant, and Godputs them in His bottle.

b) The sins of others work for good to the godly, as they set them the more apraying against sin. If there were not such a spirit of wickedness abroad, perhapsthere would not be such a spirit of prayer. Crying sins cause crying prayers.The people of God pray against the iniquity of the times, that God will give acheck to sin, that He will put sin to the blush. If they cannot pray down sin,they pray against it; and this God takes kindly. These prayers shall both berecorded and rewarded. Though we do not prevail in prayer, we shall not loseour prayers. “My prayer returned into mine own bosom” (Ps 35:13).

c) The sins of others work for good, as they make us the more in love withgrace. The sins of others are a foil to set off the lustre of grace the more.One contrary sets off another: deformity sets off beauty. The sins of thewicked do much disfigure them. Pride is a disfiguring sin; now the beholding ofanother’s pride makes us the more in love with humility! Malice is adisfiguring sin, it is the devil’s picture; the more of this we see in othersthe more we love meekness and charity. Drunkenness is a disfiguring sin, itturns men into beasts, it deprives of the use of reason; the more intemperatewe see others, the more we must love sobriety. The black face of sin sets offthe beauty of holiness so much the more.

d) The sins of others work for good, as they work in us the stronger oppositionagainst sin. “[The wicked] have made void thy law, Therefore I love thycommandments” (Ps 119:126, 127). David had never loved God’s law so much, ifthe wicked had not set themselves so much against it. The more violent othersare against the truth, the more valiant the saints are for it. Living fish swimagainst the stream; the more the tide of sin comes in, the more the godly swimagainst it. The impieties of the times provoke holy passions in the saints;that anger is without sin, which is against sin. The sins of others are as awhetstone to set the sharper edge upon us; they whet our zeal and indignationagainst sin the more.

e) The sins of others work for good, as they make us more earnest in workingout our salvation. When we see wicked men take such pains for hell, this makesus more industrious for heaven. The wicked have nothing to encourage them, yetthey sin. They venture shame and disgrace, they break through all opposition.Scripture is against them, and conscience is against them, there is a flamingsword in the way, yet they sin. Godly hearts, seeing the wicked thus mad forthe forbidden fruit, and wearing out themselves in the devil’s service, are themore emboldened and quickened in the ways of God. They will take heaven as itwere by storm. The wicked are swift dromedaries in sin (Jer 2:23). And do wecreep like snails in religion? Shall impure sinners do the devil more servicethan we do Christ? Shall they make more haste to a prison, than we do to akingdom? Are they never weary of sinning, and are we weary of praying? Have wenot a better Master than they? Are not the paths of virtue pleasant? Is notthere joy in the way of duty, and heaven at the end? The activity of the sonsof Belial in sin, is a spur to the godly to make them mend their pace, and runthe faster to heaven.

f) The sins of others work for good, as they are glasses in which we may seeour own hearts. Do we see a flagitious, impious sinner? Behold a picture of ourhearts. Such should we be, if God did leave us. What is in other men’s practiceis in our nature. Sin in the wicked is like fire on a beacon that flames andblazes forth; sin in the godly is like fire in the embers. Christian, thoughyou do not break forth into a flame of scandal, yet you have no cause to boast,for there is much sin raked up in the embers of your nature. You have the rootof bitterness in you, and would bear as hellish fruit as any, if God did noteither curb you by His power, or change you by His grace.

g) The sins of others work for good, as they are the means of making the peopleof God more thankful. When you see another infected with the plague, howthankful are you that God has preserved you from it! It is a good use that maybe made of the sins of others, to make us more thankful. Why might not God haveleft us to the same excess of riot? Think with yourself, O Christian, whyshould God be more propitious to you than to another? Why should He take youout of the wild olive of nature, and not him? How may this make you to adorefree grace? What the Pharisee said boastingly, we may say thankfully, “God, Ithank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers,etc.” (Lk 18:11). So we should adore the riches of grace that we are not asothers, drunkards, swearers, Sabbath-breakers. Every time we see men hasting onin sin, we are to bless God we are not such. If we see a frenzied person, webless God it is not so with us; much more when we see others under the power ofSatan, we should make our thankful acknowledgement that it is not ourcondition. Let us not think lightly of sin.

h) The sins of others work for good, as they are means of making God’s peoplebetter. Christian, God can make you a gainer by another’s sin. The more unholyothers are, the more holy you should be. The more a wicked man gives himself tosin, the more a godly man gives himself to prayer. “But I give myself untoprayer” (Ps 109:4).

i) The sins of others work for good, as they give an occasion to us of doinggood. Were there no sinners, we could not be in such a capacity for service.The godly are often the means of converting the wicked; their prudent adviceand pious example is a lure and a bait to draw sinners to the embracing of thegospel. The disease of the patient works for the good of the physician; by emptyingthe patient of noxious humours, the physician enriches himself: so, byconverting sinners from the error of their way, our crown comes to be enlarged.“They that turn many to righteousness, [shall shine] as the stars for ever andever” (Dan 12:31. Not as lamps or tapers, but as the stars forever. Thus we seethe sins of others are overruled for our good.

(2) The sense of their own sinfulness will be overruled for the good of thegodly. Thus our own sins shall work for good. This must be understood warily,when I say the sins of the godly work for good—not that there is the least goodin sin. Sin is like poison, which corrupts the blood, infects the heart, and,without a sovereign antidote, brings death. Such is the venomous nature of sin,it is deadly and damning. Sin is worse than hell, but yet God, by His mightyoverruling power, makes sin in the issue turn to the good of His people. Hencethat golden saying of Augustine, “God would never permit evil, if He could notbring good out of evil.” The feeling of sinfulness in the saints works for goodseveral ways.

a) Sin makes them weary of this life. That sin is in the godly is sad, but thatit is a burden is good. The Apostle Paul’s afflictions (pardon the expression)were but a play to him, in comparison of his sin. He rejoiced in tribulation (2Cor 7:4). But how did this bird of paradise weep and bemoan himself under hissins! “Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Rom 7:24). Abeliever carries his sins as a prisoner his shackles; oh, how does he long forthe day of release! This sense of sin is good.

b) This in being of corruption makes the saints prize Christ more. He thatfeels his sin, as a sick man feels his sickness, how welcome is Christ thephysician to him! He that feels himself stung with sin, how precious is thebrazen serpent to him! When Paul had cried out of a body of death, how thankfulwas he for Christ! “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom 7:25).Christ’s blood saves from sin, and is the sacred ointment which kids thisquicksilver.

c) This sense of sin works for good, as it is an occasion of putting the soulupon six especial duties:

(i) It puts the soul upon self-searching. A child of God beingconscious of sin, takes the candle and lantern of the Word, and searches intohis heart. He desires to know the worst of himself; as a man who is diseased inbody, desires to know the worst of his disease. Though our joy lies in theknowledge of our graces, yet there is some benefit in the knowledge of ourcorruptions. Therefore Job prays, “Make me to know my transgressions” (Job13:23). It is good to know our sins, that we may not flatter ourselves, or takeour condition to be better than it is. It is good to find out our sins, lestthey find us out.

(ii) The inherence of sin puts a child of God upon self-abasing.Sin is left in a godly man, as a cancer in the breast, or a hunch upon theback, to keep him from being proud. Gravel and dirt are good to ballast a ship,and keep it from overturning; the sense of sin helps to ballast the soul, thatit be not overturned with vain glory. We read of the spots of God’s children(Deut 32:5). When a godly man beholds his face in the glass of Scripture, andsees the spots of infidelity and hypocrisy, this makes the plumes of pride fall;they are humbling spots. It is a good use that may be made even of our sins,when they occasion low thoughts of ourselves. Better is that sin which humblesme, than that duty which makes me proud. Holy Bradford uttered these words ofhimself, “I am a painted hypocrite”; and Hooper said, “Lord, I am hell, andThou art heaven.”

(iii) Sin puts a child of God on self-judging; he passes a sentenceupon himself. “I am more brutish than any man” (Prov 30:2). It is dangerous tojudge others, but it is good to judge ourselves. “If we would judge ourselves,we should not be judged” (1 Cor 11:31). When a man has judged himself, Satan isput out of office. When he lays anything to a saint’s charge, he is able toretort and say, “It is true, Satan, I am guilty of these sins; but I havejudged myself already for them; and having condemned myself in the lower courtof conscience, God will acquit me in the upper court of heaven.”

(iv) Sin puts a child of God upon self-conflicting. Spiritual selfconflicts with carnal self. “The Spirit [lusts] against the flesh” (Gal 5:17).Our life is a wayfaring life, and a war-faring life. There is a duel foughtevery day between the two seeds. A believer will not let sin have peaceablepossession. If he cannot keep sin out, he will keep sin under; though he cannotquite overcome, yet he is overcoming. “To him that overcometh” (Rev 2:7).

(v) Sin puts a child of God upon self-observing. He knows sin is abosom traitor, therefore he carefully observes himself. A subtle heart needs awatchful eye. The heart is like a castle that is in danger every hour to beassaulted; this makes a child of God to be always a sentinel, and keep a guardabout his heart. A believer has a strict eye over himself, lest he fall in toany scandalous enormity, and so open a sluice to let all his comfort run out.

(vi) Sin puts the soul upon self-reforming. A child of God does notonly find out sin, but drives out sin. One foot he sets upon the neck of hissins, and the other foot he turns to God’s testimonies (Ps 119:59). Thus thesins of the godly work for good. God makes the saints’ maladies theirmedicines.

But let none abuse this doctrine. I do not say that sin works for good to animpenitent person. No, it works for his damnation, but it works for good to themthat love God; and for you that are godly, I know you will not draw a wrongconclusion from this, either to make light of sin, or to make bold with sin. Ifyou should do so, God wilt make it cost you dear. Remember David. He venturedpresumptuously on sin, and what did he get? He lost his peace, he felt theterrors of the Almighty in his soul, though he had all helps to cheerfulness.He was a king; he had skill in music; yet nothing could administer comfort tohim: he complains of his broken bones (Ps 51:8). And though he did at last comeout of that dark cloud, yet some divines are of opinion that he never recoveredhis full joy to his dying day. If any of God’s people should be tampering withsin, because God can turn it to good; though the Lord does not damn them, Hemay send them to hell in this life. He may put them into such bitter agoniesand soul convulsions, as may fill them full of horror, and make them draw nighto despair. Let this be a flaming sword to keep them from coming near theforbidden tree.

And thus have I shown, that the worst things, by the overruling hand of thegreat God, do work together for the good of the saints.

Again, I say, think not lightly of sin.

—28 April 2002

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