Ohj. It may be objected, to clear the sense a little, he doth not alway comfort : for then there could be no time of discomfort.
Ans. I answer: He doth alway comfort in some degree ; for take a Chris- tian at the lowest, yet he hath so much comfort as to keep him from sinking. When he is at the depth of misery, there is a depth of mercy lower than he. 'Out of the deep have I cried unto thee, Lord,' Ps. cxxx. 1 ; and this is a comfort that he hath in the midst of discomforts, that he hath a spirit of prayer ; and if not a spirit of prayer, yet a spirit of sighing and groaning to God, and God hears the sighs and groans of his own Spirit in his chil- dren. When they cannot distinctly pray, there is a spirit to look up to God. * Though thou kill me, yet will I trust in thee,' saith Job, Job xiii. 15, in the midst of his miseries. So though God, more notoriously to the view of the world, sometime doth comfort before we come to trouble, that we may bear it the better, and sometime he doth comfort more apparently after we come out ; yet notwithstanding, in the midst of discomforts, he doth alway comfort so far as that we sink not into despair. There is somewhat to uphold the soul. For when Solomon saith, ' A wounded spirit, who can bear?' Prov. xviii. 14; that is, none can bear it; it is the greatest grief. Then I would know, what keeps a wounded spirit from sinking that it doth not despair? Is it not a spirit stronger than the ■wounded spirit ? It is f not God that is greater than the wounded con- science ? Yes ! Then there is comfort greater than the discomfort of a wounded conscience, that keeps it from despair. Those that finally despair, they are none of God's. So that, take the words in what regard or in what sense you will, yet there is a sweet and comfortable sense of them, and the apostle might well say, he is the * God of all comfort, that doth comfort us in all tribulation.'
It is here a ground supposed, that GocCs children are subject to tribulation.
We are subject here to tribulation of all kinds, for God comforts us in all our tribulations. We are here in a state, therefore, needing comfort, because we are in tribulation.
And the second is that God doth answer our state. God doth comfort his children in all tribulation.
And the ground is from himself. ' He is the God of comfort.' He doth but like himself, when he doth it. The God of comfort shews that he is 80, by comforting us in all tribulations.
First, It is supposed that in this uvrld we are in tribidations.
Indeed, that I need not be long in. We must, at one time or other, be * That is, his ' wont.'— G. t Qu. ' is it ? '—Ed.
2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 4. 59
in tribulation, some or other. For though, in reftard of outward afflictions, we are free from them sometimes, we have a few hohdays, as we say ; yet notwithstanding, there is in the greatest enhirgements of God's children in this world, somewhat that troubles their minds. For either there is some desertion, God withholds comfort from them in some measure, he shews himself a stranger, which humbles them much ; or else they have strong temptations of Satan* to sin by prospei-ity, &c., which grieves them as much as the outward cross ; or else their grievance is, that they cannot serve God with that cheerfulness of spirit. Is there nothing, whoever thou art, that troubles thee as much as the cross in the day of affliction ? Cer- tainly there is somewhat or other that troubleth the soul of a Christian. He is never out of one grievance or other.
The life of a Christian is as a web, that is woven of good and ill. He hath good days and ill days ; he hath tribulations and comforts. As St Austin saith very well, between these two, tribulation on our part, and comfort on God's part, our life runs between these two. Our crosses and God's comforts, they are both mingled together.
There is no child of God, but knows what these things mean, troubles either from friends or enemies, or both, domestical or personal, in body or mind, one way or other. That is supposed, and it were not an unproper argument to the text ; for when he saith ' in all tribulations,' it is laid as a ground that every man suffers tribulation one way or other. But I shall have fitter occasion after to enlarge this.
Again we see here, that God comforts his children in all tribulation.
And his comforts are answerable to their discomforts, and beyond them. They are stronger to master all opposites whatsoever, and all grievances. There could be no comfort else. Alas ! what are all discomforts, when God sets himself to comfort ? When he will be a God of comfort, one look, one glance of his fatherly countenance in Jesus Christ, will banish all terrors whatsoever, and make even a very dungeon to be a paradise. ' He comforteth us in all tribulation.'