[4.] Fourthly, Another print of divine displeasure is this, that the Lord makes it a universal scarcity upon all kind of foods and sup- ports of life. Here is the * staff of bread' broken, and ' the herds and flocks fail,' and the refreshing of the wine-press, ' the seed and the vine, and the fig-tree and the olive-tree,' all become fruitless. Such a desolation is more than ordinary. Usually, when one commodity fails, another abounds. If corn be dear, cattle will be cheap. That weather ofttimes that hinders one kind of grain, helps another ; but here God blasts all the helps of nature. Therefore God compares his judgments to a fire that burns all before it : Joel ii. 3, ' The land is as the garden of Eden before it, and behind it a desolate wilderness,' and this the Lord points at as a wonder : Joel i. 2, ' Hear this, ye old men' — who can talk of dear years — ' hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers ? that which the palmer-worm hath left, hath the caterpiUers eaten.' When God begins in a way of judgment, he makes an end, he makes the decays of nature excessive and violent ; and yet Habakkuk will ' rejoice in the Lord, and joy in the God of his salvation.' In his resolution you have the first particle, ' although,' ver. 17. Now this particle is an act of forecast ; these miseries may befall us ; and in the 18th verse you have the particle ' yet,' and that is an act of preparation against these miseries. That particle * although' forecasts the misery, and that particle ' yet' fore- lays the remedy. He foresees sorrows in the first, and he provides against them in the second, ' Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, and joy in the God of my salvation.'
So Paul comes with a benedicius in his mouth — and surely it was in his heart before it was in his mouth : 2 Cor. i. 3, ' Blessed be God, even the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort : ' ver. 4, * Who comforteth us in all our tribulations, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God :' ver. 5, ' For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation aboundeth by Christ.' i The apostle begins here with thanksgiving, according to his accustomed manner in all his epistles ; but contrary to his custom doth he apply this thanksgiving wholly to himself. The reason was, saith Beza, because the Corinthians did begin to despise
' ivXbyrjTo^ ; that is, word for word, ' Let God be well spoken of.' God blesseth us really, signally, greatly ; and we blesa him verbally, mentally, practically.
508 THE SIGNAL PRESENCE OF GOD
him for liis afflictions — it being the common com'se of the world to- despise the people of God when they are under sufferings ; therefore he answered confidently for himself, that though he had been much afflicted, yet he had been much comforted ; and rejoiced the more in his comforts, because God had comforted him for that very cause, that he might be able and willing to comfort others. God is the God of all sorts and degrees of comfort, who hath all comforts at his dis- posal. This phrase, ' The God of all comforts,' intimates to us ; (1.) That no comfort can be found anywhere else ; he hath the sole gift of comfort. (2.) Not only some, but all comfort ; no imaginable com- fort is wanting in him, nor to be found out of him. Look, as the air lights not without the sun, and as fuel heats not without fire, so neither can anything soundly comfort us without God. (3.) All degrees of comfort are to be found in him^ in our greatest troubles, deepest dis- tresses, and most deadly dangers. The lower the ebb, the higher the tide ; the deeper the distress, the greater the comforts. Though the apostle was greatly afflicted, yet his comforts did exceed his afflictions : 2 Cor. vii. 6, ' Nevertheless God, that comforteth those that are cast down, comforted us by the coming of Titus.' When the Corinthians were in a very low condition, when they were even spent with grief and swallowed up in sorrows, when they were destitute of all relief and comfort, then the God of all comforts did comfort them.^ No tribulations, no persecutions, no grievances, no prison doors, no bolts, no bars, can keep out the consolations of God from flowing in upon his people. God loves to comfort his people when all their outward comforts fail them. God's comforts are not only sweet, but seasonable ; he never comes too soon, nor never stays too long. If one drop of the joy of the Holy Ghost should fall into hell, it would swallow up all the tor- ments of hell, saith Austin. ' The joy of the Holy Ghost' will certainly swallow up all the troubles and sufferings that we meet with in a way of righteousness. None have been more divinely cheerful and merry than the saints have been under their greatest sufferings, 1 Pet. iv. 12-14. John Noyes took up a faggot at the fire and kissed it, saying, ' Blessed be the time that ever I was born to come to this prefer- ment.' When they fastened Alice Driver to the stake to be burnt, ' Never did neckerchief,' said she, with a cheerful countenance, ' become me so well as this chain.' Mr Bradford put off his cap and thanked God when the keeper's wife brought him word that he was to be burnt on the morrow. Mr Taylor fetched a frisk when he was come near the place where he was to suffer. Henry and John, two Augustine monks, being the first that were burnt in Germany, and Mr Rogers, the first that was burnt in Queen Mary's days, did all sing in the flames. Thus you see that it is not the greatest troubles, nor the deepest distresses, nor the most deadly dangers, that can hinder the joy of the Lord from overflowing the soul. But,
[11.] Eleventhly, ' If God be with us, who can be against us ?' I answer, None, so as to deprive us of our gy-aces, which next to Christ are our choicest jeiuels. 1 Johniii. 9, ' Whosoever is born ofGod doth not commit sin.' That is, doth not give himself over to a voluntary serving of sin ; he does_not make a trade of sin ; he sins not totally, finally,
^ This is a most sweet attribute of God ; a breast that we should be still sucking at.
WITH HIS PEOPLE IN THEIK GREATEST TROUBLES. 509