Let us therefore cany this about us, as a principle of holy life, to know that our good is hid up in God, and not in the creature ; so that if all help were taken away, yet we have it immediately, purer and better in the foun- tain. What if there were not a creature in the world to help me ? What if all were against me ? Yet God may make all their powers and endea- vours fruitful. There is such fruit from God, that he can make the worst things which befalleth us fruitful when he jileaseth. There is a blessing in curses and crosses, a good fruit in them ! Who can do him harm that God tumeth the bitterest things he suffers to his good ? Let none be daunted in a good cause, but go on resolutely, seeing God hath all in himself. Was not Moses fort}' days without any earthly comfort on the mount ? Exod. xxxiv. 28. And Christ also without natural sustentation so long ? Mat. iv. 2. Did not God give light without a sun in the tirst creation ? We are tied to means, but he is not. We think if such hiends and helps :be taken away, that then all is gone ; but what were they ? Were not they means which God used at his good pleasure, and cannot he give comfort without them ? Yes, certainly ! The greatest comfort and grace is oft-
408 THE RETURNING BACKSLIDER. [SeRMON XIII.
times given immediately from God, when he salutes the soul by his own Spirit, as he did Paul and Silas in the dungeon ; who, in the midst of dis- comfort, had theii* spirits enlarged to sing hymns at midnight, Acts xvi. 25. God reserving that comfort for that time. Therefore seeing all comfort is from God, and he is not tied to this or that means, nay, can bless all con- trary means, is not this a ground of resolution ?
Use 6. Therefore now make a use of comfort of it, seeing all fruit is from God, who is in covenant with his children in Jesus Christ, and who will improve all his attributes for their good, his wisdom, goodness, power, and mercy. Let them therefore take comfort to themselves, that howsoever tli£ world may take their friends from, them, riches, liberty, and what you will, can they take God and fruit from them ? No ! ' From me is thy fruit found.' If they could take away the Spirit of God, grace, and comfort fi-om us, it were something ; but can they do that ? No ! The worst they can do is to send us to heaven, to the fountain of all grace and comfort ; so that in this world they cannot cast us into any condition wherein we cannot have communion with God, in whom all the scattered excellencies of the creature are gathered together, meeting as it were in a centre. It is he that comforts us in our fi-iends, that shews bowels to us in our mothers, wisdom and care towards us in our parents. The bowels of a mother, the care of a friend, the strength of wise assistance, hath he not all in himself, if all be taken away? He hath all. Therefore let Christians comfort them- selves, that they can never be in a condition wherein fruit shall be taken from them. The poor worldling labours all his life for fruit, riches, and friends ; and when he dies, then his fruit faileth him and falls, his leaf withereth. What becometh of his fruit then ? He laboured for that which yields him nothing but vexation and death. But a Christian doth otherwise ; he labours for grace and comfort to keep his communion and peace with God ; and when all is taken away, either by the injuiy and wrongs of men, or by the extremity of the times, or as all will, in the hour of death, his fruit is most after, in death, and after death, more than can be by om- narrow hearts conceived in the excellency thereof. Oh ! the excellent estate of a Christian ! Imagine such a one to have a tree that grows in heaven, and sends forth fruit and branches to him in whatsoever state he is in. And so indeed God reacheth fruit from heaven to the soul, being in prison and misery. He reacheth from thence the fruit of grace, of spiritual strength and comfort : a blessed estate ! Therefore let Chris- tians comfort themselves in their condition, ' that all their fruit is from him ; ' and that God especially will then shew himself abundant when they stand most in need of him. Other trees bear no fruit in winter and in storms, but God giveth fruit most in the worst times. He is a God that comforteth the abject. As it is 2 Cor. vii. 6 ; and here is said, that * in him the fatherless findeth mercy.' We have most fruit from him in the worst times. Then especially he delighteth to shew himself a God, when no comfort can be had from the creature.
Therefore do not despair, but lay up this against evil times ; never fear for the time to come. Let the mountains be cast into the midst of the sea, and let the earth and aU rage, as the psalmist says, and let things run upon a head ; come what can come, God is where he was, and God's children are where they were, in regard of the main comfort, Ps. xlvi. 2. They cannot be in such a condition, as that they can be deprived of their God, and of his assistance : ' From me is thy fruit found.' Therefore care not for any condition that thou art in, this or that, thou shalt have that condi-