78 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SePv. IX.
2 Cor. i. 5, ' As the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consola- tion also aboundeth by Christ.' Cordials are for a fainting time. When children are sick and weakly, we treat them with the more indulgence. God may return, and may never less forsake us inwardly than when he doth forsake us outwardly: 2 Cor. iv. 16, 'Though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.' God makes sickly bodies make way for the health of the soul, and an aching head for a better heart. When he seems to cast us off in point of our external condition, it is to draw us into a more inward communion with himself, that we might receive greater supplies of his grace.
3. There is a desertion as to comfort, and a desertion as to grace. The children of God may sometimes lose the feelings of God's love : Ps. Ixxvii. 1-3, ' My soul refused to be comforted ; I remembered God, and was troubled ; my spirit was overwhelmed.' Oh, what a word was that ! Remembering of God revives the heart ; but to think of God, and to think of his loss, that was his great trouble. Yet all this while God may hold communion in point of grace : Ps. Ixxiii. 23, ' Nevertheless, I am continually with thee : thou hast holden me by my right hand.' He had been under a conflict, lost his comfort, 5'et he acknowledgeth support ; God held him in his right hand. Trouble and discomfort hath its use ; want of comfort makes way many times for increase of grace ; and therefore, though a man may be deserted as to comfort, yet he may have a greater influence of grace from God. How often doth it fall out thus with God's children, that their right is more confirmed to spiritual blessings when their sense is lost ! Then they are more industrious and diligent to get a sense of God's love again. A summer's sun that is clouded yields more comfort and warmth to the earth than a winter's sun that sliines brightest. These cloudy times have their use and their fruit ; and Christians have the less of a happy part of communion with God, that they may have more holiness; and less of sweetness and sensible consolation, that they may have more grace.
4. There is desertio correctiva et eruditiva — a desertion for correc- tion, and a desertion for instruction. Sometimes the aim of it is merely for correction for former sin ; it is a penal overclouding for our unkind and ungracious dealing with him. God may do it for sins ; nay, many times for old sins long ago committed; he may charge them anew upon the conscience : Job xiii. 24, compared with ver. 26, ' Where- foie hidcst thou thy face, and boldest me for thine enemy ?' ' Thou makest me to possess the iniquities of my youth.' An old bruise may trouble us long after, upon every change of weather. Many that have grieved God's Spirit in their youth, after they have been converted, God will reckon with them about it in their age. A man will smart for his ungracious courses first or last. Sometimes it is merely for in- struction ; it instructs us chiefly to show us God's sovereignty, with the changeableness of the best comfort on this side heaven ; to show us his sovereignty, that he will be free to go and come at his own plea- sure. He will have his people know he is lord, and may do with his own as pleaseth him. The heavenly eradiations and outshinings of his love are not at our beck ; God will dispense them according to his pleasure. A mariner hath no cause to murmur and quarrel with God
VeR. 8.] SERMONS UPON FSALM CXIX. 79
because the wind bloweth out of the east when he desireth a westerly gale. Why ? Because it is his wind, and he will dispose these things according to his pleasure. So the comfort and outshinings of his love are his, and he will take them and give them as he thinks good. Again, to show us the changeahleness of the best comforts on this side heaven. When Christ hath been in the soul with a full and high infinx of com- fort, this doth not remain long with us ; God may withdraw. Observe it, often after the highest enlargements there may be some forsaking. Cant. V. 1, there we read of a feast between Christ nnd his beloved : ' Come eat, 0 friends ; drink, yea, drink abundantly, 0 beloved.' Here they are feasted with love ; presently we read of desertion, the spouse waxeth lazy and drowsy, and Christ is gone ; then she is forced to go up and down to find him. Paul had his raptures ; then a messenger of Satan to buffet him. The same disciples that were conscious to Christ's transfiguration — Peter, James, and John, Mat. xvii. — the same disciples are chosen also to be conscious to his agonies : Mat. xxvi. 37, 'He took with him Peter, James, and John.' First they had a glimpse of his glory, then a sight of his bitter agonies and sufferings. Jeremiah in one line singing of praise, and in the next cursing the day of his birth, Jer. xx. 13, 14 After the most ravishing comforts may be a sad suspension. Jacob saw the face of God, and Avrestled with him, but his thigh halted. There needs something to humble the creature after these experiences.