This idea of "bear Christianly" caught my attention. I think this is what the Apostle Paul often meant as he instructed Timothy and others to bear the burdens of life with Christian grace.
I went to look for verses using the word bear, and there were several.
1 Corinthians 10:13 "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it."
Galatians 6:2 "Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ."
1 Corinthians 3:2 "I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able."
But these are different ideas from what Thomas Boston and the Apostle Paul want us to understand.
What does it mean to bear Christianly? If we look at the quote, I think we can see some hints. "Let us then set ourselves rightly to bear and carry under the crook in our lot." We all have our crosses to bear and our difficulties in life. We should set ourselves rightly by submitting our wills and adjusting our attitudes to accept them with Christian grace.
"While God sees meet to continue it." Trials and difficulties have a time frame, and only God can make that call. How we deal with them while God directs them through our lives reveals our character and grows our faith. We also need to realize that nothing comes into our lives without the counsel of God, so every trial, every burden, has an eternal purpose.
"What we cannot mend." Some difficulties are our own making. Forgiveness, restitution, and humility can solve a lot of our problems. And this we should do. But some misfortunes we cannot mend. It is then that we need to look carefully at our response. Are we fighting against God, angry at the inconvenience or pain of our situation? Are we kicking against the pricks, grieving the Spirit by being unwilling to submit to learning what God might be teaching? This is the opposite of "bearing Christianly."
Here's what I think. Ephesians 4:1, 2 holds the simplest explanation. "I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love."
We are prisoners of the Lord. He captured our hearts, bought us out of the slave market, and sealed us as eternally bound to him. This is now our vocation - our calling, and we should walk worthy of our Master, whose example is the same. When He faced the cruelest of deaths, the depths of despair, and the unfairness of shameful rejection, He bore His cross with dignity, lowliness, meekness, and longsuffering in love for us.
He didn't fight against God or kick against His assignment, but rather, as 1 Peter 2:23 says, "when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously." That, my friend, is bearing Christianly.
How are you doing with that?
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