So in the word of God, there is God rousing out of sin, and there is God speaking peace to the soul. There is a sweet current of mercy runs from the paradise of God ; and there is the ' tree of life,' Rev. ii. 7, Christ him- self, and trees of all manner of fruit, comforts of all sorts whatsoever. And there is no angel there, to keep the door and gate of paradise with a fiery, flaming sword. No ! this paradise is open for all. And they are cruel tyrants that stop this paradise, that stop this fountain, as the papists do. As God is the God of comfort, so he is the God of comfort in that respect.
But this is not enough, to make him the God of comfort. We may have the word of God, and all the reasons from thence, from privileges and pre- rogatives, and examples, and jet not be comfortable, if
3. We have not the God of comfort, with the word of comfort, the Spirit of God, that must apply the comfort to the soul, and be the God of com- fort there.
For there must be application, and working of comfort out of God's word upon the soul, by the Spirit. The Spirit must set it on strongly and sweetly, that the soul may be ali'ected.
You may have a carnal man — he for fashion or custom reads the Scrip- tures, and he is as dead-hearted when he hath done as when ho began. He never looks to the Spirit of comfort. There must be the Spirit of God, to work, and to apply comfort to the heart, and to teach us to discourse and to reason from the word ; not only to shew the reasons of the word, but to teach us to draw reasons from the word, and to apply them to our particular state and condition. The Spirit teacheth this wisdom. And therefore it is well called the Comforter. ' I will send you the Comforter,' John xiv. 26. The poor disciples had many comforts from Christ, but be-
46 OOMMENTAEY ON
canso the Comforter was not come, they were not comfortable, but heavy. What was tlie reason ? Because ' the Comforter was not come.' When the Holy Ghost was come, after the resurrection and ascension of Christ, when he had sent the Comforter, then they were so full of comfort, that they rejoiced that they ' were thought worthy to suffer anything for Christ,' Acts V. 41 ; and the more they suffered, the more joyful, and comfortable, and glorious they are.
You see what a comfort is. It is the things themselves, and the word, and reasons from it, and likewise the Spirit of God with the reasons, and with presence. Sometimes without any reasons, with present strength, God doth establish the soul. Together with reasons, there is a strengthen- ing power of the Spirit, a vigour that goes with the Spirit of God, that joins with the spirit of the afflicted person. So whether it be the outward thing, as reasons and discourse, or the presence of the Spirit, God joining with our spirit, God is the God of that comfort, the ' God of all comfort.'
A comfort is anything that allays a malady, that either takes it away, oi allays and mitigates it. A comfort is anything that raiseth up the soul. The comforts that we have in this life, they are not such as do altogether take away sorrow and grief, but they mitigate them. Comfort is that which is above a malady. It is such a remedy as is stronger to support the soul from being cast down over much with the grievance, whether it be grievance felt, that we are in the sense of such a grievance as is feared. When the soul apprehends anything, to set against the ill we fear that is stronger than it ; when the soul hath somewhat that it can set against the present sense of the grievance that is stronger than it, though it do not wholly ex- pel it, but the discomfort remains still in some degi'ce, it may be said well to be a comfort.
The reason why I speak of this mitigation is, because in this life God never so wholly comforts his children, but there will be flesh left in them ; and that will murmur, and there will be some resistance against comfort. While there are remainders of sin, there will be ground of discomfort, by reason of the conflict between the flesh and spirit.
For instance, a man hath some cross on him : what saith the flesh ? God is mine enemy, and I will take such and such courses. I will not endure this. This is the voice of the flesh, of the ' old man.' WTiat saith the spirit ? Surely God is not mine enemy. He intends my good by these things. So while these fight, here is the ' flesh against the spirit,' Gal. V. 17. Yet here is comfort, because the spirit is predominant. But it is not fiflly comfort, because there is the ' old man ' in him, that withstand5^ comfort in the whole measure of comfort.
Therefore we must take this degi'ee. We cannot have the full comfort till we come to heaven. There all tears shall be wiped from oiir eyes. In this world we must be content to have comfort with some grief. The malady is not wholly purged.