326 SERMONS UPON HEBREWS VI. 18.
longing. And so for thankfulness for mercies ; thanksgiving is the vent of comfort and joy.
3. Though it costs you pains, it will make amends at length. All excellent things are encompassed with difficulty. Comforts would not be rightly prized, nor rightly managed, if they did not cost us pains and diligence. The heir that comes to his estate without labour spends it riotously many times, whereas those that know the getting of an estate are careful in spending it ; so when we come liglitly by comfort, we are ajDt to abuse it. It must cost pains, for it is the nature of man to slight things that are easily obtained.
4. Consider, comforts were to be suspected if they cost you nothing. Foolish presumption is like a night dream, soon gone, like a mushroom that grows up in a night, or like Jonah's gourd : ' Behold, thou hast not laboured, neither madest it to grow,' saith God, Jonah iv. 10. So an idle conceit without labour, that you receive you know not how, comes to nothing. False comfort casts a false shadow upon the soul for a while, to shelter it from the wrath of God, but the worm of con- science will soon devour it. But a settled solid comfort, though it costs much pains, yet it will stick by you, and satisfy you for all the expense of labour and travail of soul to which it puts you.
Secondly, Take notice of the benefit that this comfort will bring you, how it will sweeten all thing.s, sweeten God, Christ, providence, ordi- nances, mercies, afilictions, nay, death itself.
1. It will make God sweet to you. Ps. civ. 34, David saith, ' My meditations of him shall be sweet.' Oh ! how sweet is this, when we can think of God without horror and trembling, his mercy will be sweeter to you, because it is yours; this is your portion. His justice will not be your terror, but support ; your comforts are bottomed upon God's justice as well as his mercy, 1 John i. 9. The apostle doth not say, he is faithful and gracious, but ' faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.' You have a holdfast upon God by the merit of Christ, and so you may expect a crown from a righteous judge. Nay, his very wrath will increase your comlbrt. Why ? Because this you have escaped. Look, as a sense of danger heighteneth the deliverance, so for reflections upon God's wrath, if it be opened to you in a sermon, or to your own thoughts, how may you rejoice that you are delivered from it. No man can look upon the sea with more comfort than he that hath escaped a danger of shipwreck ; so will you with comfort look upon all the bitterness, and dregs, and sourness of God's wrath, this you have escaped ; as the Israelites, when they saw the Egyptians dead on the shore, sang a song of praise. Nay, this will make the magnificence of his creating power sweet ; when you walk in the fields, and view the structure of the heavens, you will say, Heaven is my Father's palace, and mine in Christ : ' All things are yours, and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's,' 1 Cor. iii. 22, 23.
2. This will make Christ sweet, whenever he is represented in the word, and crucified before your eyes, and you can say as Thomas, ' My Lord, and my God,' John xx. 28. A possible salvation is nothing so sweet as that which assurance gives. Conjecture gives but a taste, as those hypocrites had but a ' taste of the good word of God, and the
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powers of the world to come,' Heb. vi. 5 ; but this is nothing to an actual interest. When you can say, ' My God,' how doth it fill the soul with ravishment and sweetness !
3. This will make all his providences sweet, the dreadful acts of his justice, and terrible things of righteousness which God disco vereth to the sons of men. Look, as a son is much delighted in a history where- in are recorded his own father's valiant acts, so will you take pleasure in meditating upon the providences of God ; they are the mighty acts of your God and Father.
4. This will make ordinances sweet ; as prayer, it brings the soul sweetly into God's presence. It is a far greater advantage to cry, ' Our Father,' than to cry, ' Lord, Lord.' Observe it when you will, duties are a burden, either when w^e have a false peace or none. When we have a false peace, for then we are loath to disturb our carnal quiet ; it breeds a quarrel between vile affections and natural conscience. Oh ! when we have no peace, fears are revived and come upon us anew ; as guilt ariseth at the presence of the judge or an offended party. Oh ! but when we can say, God is our reconciled God, what a comfort is this ! It is sweet to draw nigh in the assurance of faith : Heb. x. 22, • Let us draw nigh in full assurance of faith.' This will make the word sweet ; the word relishes not unless we have some interest in the comforts of it. Things which do not concern us affect us not. Though a man come with never so much comfortable promises, they taste not sweet until we have a propriety in them. A taste presupposeth hope. Oh ! but how^ sweet will it be when we shall come to the word as to the reading of our own charter, as the indenture which is drawn be- tween God and us, by which all privileges are made over to us, and can apply the promises, and say, This was God's unchangeable purpose given me in Christ. And this makes the supper of the Lord sw^eet, for then you can come as one of God's friends and invited guests : ' Eat, 0 friends, drink ; j'ea, drink abundantly, 0 beloved,' Cant. v. 1. Others hope well, but you are sure of welcome and entertainment.