If there be no means to be had, he is the God of comfort, he can create them ; and if it be so far that there be no means, but the contrary, he is a God that can comfort out of discomfort, and can, as I said, make the great- est grounds of comfort out of the gi'eatest discomforts. But he is a God of the means, if they be to be had. K there be none, then let us go to him,
2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 4. 66
and Bay, Thou God of comfort, if thou do not comfort, none can comfort ; if thou help not, none can help ; and then he will help, and help 8tron<,dy. It is necessary to look to God, whatever the means be. It is he that com- forts by them. Therefore let him have the praise. If we have any friend, any comfort of the outward man, or any solace of the inward man, by seasonable speech, &c., blessed be the ' God of comfort' who hath sent this comforter ; who hath sent me comfort by such, and such, let him have the praise. "Whatsoever the means be, the comfort is his.
And that is the cause that many have no more comfort. They trust to the means over much, or neglect the means.
Again, if ' God comfort in all tribulation,' let Christians be ashamed to be overmuch disconsolate, that have the ' God of comfort' for their God, ' who comforteth in all tribulation.' ' Why art thou so cast down ?' Ps. xlii. 11. ' Is there no balm in Gilead for thee ? Jer. viii. 22. ' Is there not a God in Israel ?' 1 Sam. x\'ii. 46. It is the fault of Christians ; they pore too much on their troubles, they look all one way. They look to the grievance, and not to the comfort.
There is a God of comfort that answers his name every way in the exer- cise of that attribute to his church. Therefore Christians must blame them- selves if they be too much cast down ; and labour for faith to draw near to this God of comfort.
It should make them ashamed of themselves that think it even a duty, as it were, to walk drooping, and disconsolate^, and deadly, to have flat and dead spirits. "VMiat ! is this beseeming a Christian that is in covenant with God, that is the ' God of comfort,' and that answers his title in deal- ing with his children, that is ready to comfort them in all tribulation ? What if particular comforts be taken from thee, is there not a God of com- fort left ? he hath not taken away himself. "What if thou be restrained, and shut up fi.-om other comforts, can any shut up God's Spirit ? can any shut up God and our prayers ?
Is not this a comfort, that we may go to God alway ? and he is with us in all estates and in all wants whatsoever ? So long as we are in covenant with the ' God of comfort,' why should we be overmuch cast down ?' ' "Why art thou so troubled, 0 my soul?' Ps. xlii. 11. David checks his soul thi-ice together for distrust in God. He is thy God, the God of all comfort.
Quest. What com'se shall we take that we may derive to ourselves com- fort from this God of comfort, who comforteth us in all our tribulations ?
Ans. 1. Let us consider %chat our malady and grievance is, especially let us look to om' spiritual grievance and malady, sin : for sin is the cause of all other evils. Therefore it is the worst evil. And sin makes us loathed of God, the fountain of good. It drives us from him, when other evils drive us to him ; and therefore it is the worst enl in that sense too.
2. Again, in the second place, look to the discowforts of sin, especially in the discomforts of conscience of those that are awakened ; and Satan useth that as a means to despair in every cross.
(1.) Therefore let us search and try our souls for our sins; for our chief discomforts are from sin. For, alas ! what are all other comforts ? and what are all other discomforts ? If a man's conscience be quiet, what are all discomforts ? and if conscience be on the rack, what are all comforts ? The disquiet and vexation of sin is the greatest of all ; because then we have to deal with God. '^Vhen sin is presented before us, and the judg- ments of God, and God as an angi-y judge, and conscience is awaked and
56 COMMENTAKY ON
on the rack, what in the world can take up the quarrel and appease con- science, when wo and God arc at diirereucc, when the soul speaks nothing but discomfort ?
In this case remember that God doth so far prevent objections in thia kind from the accusations of conscience, that he reasons tliat he will com- fort us, from that that conscience reasons against comfort. He doth this in the hearts of his children to whom he means to shew mercy : as we see in the poor publican. ' Lord, bo merciful to me a sinner,' saith he, Luke xviii. 13. God taught him that reasoning. Nature would have taught him to reason as Peter did, ' Lord, depart from me, I am a sinful man,' Luke V. 8, and therefore I have nothing to do with God.