The verse contains a wise prevention of scandal at the cross. St Paul was a man of sorrows if ever an)^ was, next to Christ himself, and that [he] might prevent all scandal at his crosses, and disgraceful afilicted usage, he doth shew his comforts under the cross, which he would not have wanted to have been without his cross. Therefore he begins here with praising of God.
We praise God for favours, and indeed the comforts he had in his crosses were more than the grievance he had by them ; therefore had cause to bless God ; ' Blessed be God,' &c.
' The God of all comfort.' ' The God of comfort, and the God of all comfort.' We must give St Paul leave to be thus large, for his heart was fall ; and a full heart, a full expression. And he speaks not out of books, but from sense and feeling. Though he knew well enough that ' God was the Father of mercy and God of all comfort,' that way ; yet these be words that come from the heart, come from feeling rather than from the tongue. They came not from St Paul's pen only. His pen was first dipped in his heart and soul when he wrote this. ' God is the Father of mercy, and God of all comfort.' I feel him so ; he comforts me in all tribulations.
' The God of all comfort.' To explain the word a little. Comfort is either the thing itself, a comfortable outward thing, a blessing of God wherein comfort is hid, or else it is reasons ; because a man is an under- standing creature, reasons from which comfort is gi'ounded ; or it is a real comfort, inward and spiritual, by the assistance and strength of the Spirit of God, when perhaps there is no outward thing to comfort. And perhaps reasons and discourse are not present at that time, yet there is a presence of the Spirit that comforts, as we see ofttimes a man is comforted with the very sight of his friend, without discourse. To a man endued with reason, whose discomforts are spiritual, for the most part, in the soul, the very presence of a man that he loves puts much delight into him. What is God then ? ' The God of comfort.' His very presence must needs comfort. Comfort is taken many other ways, but these are the principal, to this purpose.
1. First, comfort is the tliinri itself. There is comfort in every creature of God, and God is the God of that comfort. In hunger, meat comforts ; in thirst, drink comforts; in cold, garments comfort; in want of advice, friends comfort, and it is a sweet comfort. ' God is the God of all comfort ; ' of the comfortable things. But besides the necessary things, every sense hath somewhat to comfort it. The eye, besides ordinary colours, hath dehghtful colours to behold ; and so the ear, besides ordinary noise and sounds, it hath music to delight it ; the smell, besides ordinary savours, it hath sweet flowers to refresh it ; and so every part of the body, besides that which is ordinary, it hath somewhat to comfort it. Because God is nothing but comfort to his creature, if it be as it should be, he is God of these com- forts, ' the God of all comfort,' of the comfort of outward things, of friends, &c.
2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 3. 45
2. So he is the God of the second comfort, of comfortable reasons and arguments. For a man, especially in inward troubles, must have grounds of comfort from strong reasons. God ministereth these. He is the God of these. For he hath given us his Scriptures, his word ; and the comforts that are fetched from thence are strong ones, because they are his com- forts. It is his word. The word of a prince comforts, though he be not there to speak it. Though it be a letter, or by a messenger, yet he whose word it is, is one that is able to make his word good. He is Lord and Master of his word. The word of God is comfortable, and all the reasons that are in it, and that are deduced from it, upon good ground and conse- quence, they are comfortable, because it is God's word. He is the God of all. And those comforts in God's word, and reasons from thence, they are wonderful in the variety of them. There is comfort from the liberty of a Chi'istian laid out there, that he hath free access to the throne of gi-ace ; comfort from the prerogatives of a Christian, that he is the child of God, that he is justified, that he is the heir of heaven, and such like ; comforts from the promises of gi'ace, of the presence of God, of assistance by his presence. These things out of the word of God are wondrous plentiful. Indeed, the word of God is a breast of comfort, as the prophet calls it : ' Suck comfort out of the breasts of comfort,' Isa. Ixvi. 11.
The books of God are breasts of comfort, wells of comfort. There are springs of comfort.
God's word is a paradise, as it were. In paradise, there were sweet streams that ran through; and in paradise stirred the voice of God, not only calling, ' Adam, where art thou ? ' terrifying of him, but the voice of God promising Adam the blessed seed. Gen. iii. 9.