God, as a God properly, makes something of nothing. That is to be a God ; for nothing but God can make something of nothing. Gods upon earth call men their creatures, in a kind of imitation of God ; but that is but a phrase that puffs them up. They are but gods in a kind of sense, and the other are but creatures in a kind of sense ; because, perhaps they have nothing in them, and in that sense, deservedly creatures. But it is proper to God, to make somewhat of nothing ; and so he is the ' God of comfort.' "Where there is no comfort at all, he can raise comfort, as he made the world of nothing by his very word.
And which is more, it is the property of God as God, it is peculiar to God to make comfort out of that which is contrary. Therein he shews himself most to be a God of all. He can raise comfort out of discomfort, life out of death. When Christ had been three days in the grave, he raised him. As it is with the head of comfort, with the head of believers, so it is with every particular Christian. He raiseth them out of death. Those that sow in sorrow, they reap in joy. What cannot he do that can raise com- fort out of discomfort ? and discomforts oftentimes are the occasions of the greatest comforts. Let a Christian go back to the former course of his life, and he shall find that the greatest crosses that ever he suffered will yield him most comfort, and who did this ? Certainly it must be God, that can raise all out of nothing, and that can make comfort not only out of comfortable creatures that are ordained for comfort ; but he can draw honey out of the lion's belly. ' Out of the eater came meat, and out of the strong came sweetness,' saith Samson in his riddle, Judges xiv. 14. When a honeycomb shall come out of the lion's belly, certainly this is a miracle, this may well be a riddle. This is the riddle of Christianity, that God who is the God of comfort, he raiseth comforts out of our chiefest discomforts. He can create it out of that which is contrary.
Therefore Luther's speech is very good, ' All things come from God to his church, especially in contraries ;' as he is righteousness, but it is in sin felt. He is comfort, but it is in misery. He is life, but it is in death. We must die before we live. Indeed, he is all, but it is in nothing, in the soul that feels itself to be nothing. There is the foundation for God to work on. Therefore the God of comfort can create comfort. If none be, he can make comfort. If the contrary be, he can raise contraries out of con- traries. He is the ' God of all comfort.' Every word hath emphasis and strength in it. ,
' The God of all comfort.' Amongst divers other things that flow from hence, mark the order. He is the ' God and Father of Christ' fii'st, and then the * Father of mercy,' and ' the God of comfort.'
Take him out of this order, and think not of him as a God of comfort, but as a ' consuming fire,' Heb. xii. 29. But take the method of the text,
2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VEU. 3. 49
now he is the ' God of comfort after he is the Father of Christ.' This bein" laid as a ground, the text itself as a doctrine, what subordinate truths arise hence ?
First of all, if God be ' God of all comfort,' there is this conclusion hence ; that, whatsoever the means of comfort he, God is the spring of it.
Christ is the conduit next to God ; for he is close to God. God is the God of Christ, and the Holy Ghost is usually the stream. The streams of comfort come through Christ the conduit ; from God the Father, the fountain, by the graces of the Spirit. But I speak of outward comforts. * Blessed be God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.' All are comforters ! God the Father is tlie father of comfort ; the Holy Ghost is the comforter ; Christ Jesus likewise is the God of comfort. Whatsoever the outward means be, yet God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are the comforters. Take them together. That is the conclusion hence.
I observe it the rather, to cure a disposition to atheism in men that look bnitishly to the thing. They look to the comfort, and never look to the comforter, even for outward comforts. Wicked men, their bellies are filled with the comforts of God, but it is with things that are comfortable, that are abstracted from the comforter. They care not for the root, the favour and mercy of God. So they have the thing, they care not.
Therefore they are not thankful to God, nor in their wants, they go not to the God of comfort. Why ? They think they have supply enough, they have friends, they have riches, that ' are their strongliold,' Ps. Ixxxix. 40, and if they have outward necessaries to supply and comfort them, that is all they care for. As for the * God of comfort,' they trouble not their hands-- with him.