Therefore, let none be discoiu*aged, but fly presently to the ' God of comfort and Father of mercies.' And think not that he is weary of pardon- ing, as man is, for he is infinite in mercy ; and though he be the party offended, yet he desires peace with us.
Caution. But yet, notwithstanding that we shall not love to run into his books, he doth, with giving the comfort of the pardon of sin, when we fall into it, add such sharp crosses, as we shall wish we had not given him occasion to correct us so shai-ply. We shall buy our comfort dear. We had better not have given him occasion.
God forgave the sin of David after he had repented, though he were a good man before ; but David bought the pleasure of his sin dear. He wished a thousand times that he had never given occasion to God to raise good out of his evil, to turn his sin to his comfort. Yet God wiU do this, because God would never have us in a state of despair.
2. For other grievances besides sin, the comforts that we are to apply are more easy, and they are infinite, if we could reckon the particular comforts that God comforts his children withal.
It is good to have general comforts ready for all kind of maladies and grievances, and* this poor, wretched life of ours, in our absence from God, is subject to.
(1.) As, for instance, that general comfort, the covenant of grace. Tliat is a spring of comfort, that God is our God and Father in Christ. What can come from a gracious and good God in covenant with us but that which is good ? — nothing but what is favourably good, I mean. For the covenant is everlasting. When God takes once upon him to be our Father in covenant, he is so for ever. Diim castigas pater, dx. While he cor- rects, he is a Father ; and when he smiles upon us, he is a Father.
God in the covenant of grace takes upon him a relation that ever holds. * Qu. 'that?'— Ed.
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As he is for ever the Father of Christ, so he is for ever the Father of those that are members of Christ ; and whatsoever comes from the Father of mercy, whether he correct or smile, whatsoever he doth, is in mercy.
(2.) Again, in the midst of any grievance remember the (jradous pro- mise of viitifjatlon, 1 Cor. x. 13. ' God will not suffer us to be tempted above our strength, but he will give an issue to the temptation.' He will give a mitigation, and cither he will raise our strength to the tempta- tion, or he will bring the temptation and trial to our strength. lie will fit them, and this is a comfort.
(3.) There is comfort, likewise, in all troubles whatsoever, of the pre- sence of God. God will be present with us if once we be in covenant with him. He will be present in all trials to assist us, to strengthen us, to comfort us, to raise our spirits. And if God be present, he will banish all discomforts ; for God is light, and where light is, darkness vanisheth. Now God, being the Father of light, that is, of all comfort, where he is pre- sent he banisheth discomfort in what measure he is pleased to banish it. Therefore David often reasoneth from the presence of God to the de- fiance of all troubles, Ps. iii. 6, ' If God be with me, I will not fear ten thousand that are against me.' And in Ps. xxiii. 4, ' Though I walk in the valley of the shadow of death, I will not fear, for thou art with me.' And * if God be with us, who can be against us?' Kom. viii. 33, 34. ' And when thou passest through the fire, I will be with thee,' &c., Isa. xliii. 2.
1 will be with thee, not to keep thee out, but to uphold thee, as he did the martyrs. There was a fire of comfort in them above that fire that consumed their bodies ; and, as we see, he was with the three children. There was ' a fourth, like the Son of God,' Dan. iii. 25.
So in all tribulations there is another with us, that is, the Spirit of God, that comforts us in all, and is present with us in all. The goldsmith, when he puts the wedge into the fire, he stands by till the dross be con- sumed. So God is with his children in the furnace of affliction. He brings them into affliction ; he continues with them in affliction ; and he brings them at last out of affliction. The presence of God is a main and a grand comfort in all tribulation.
(4.) Besides, in all that befalls us whatsoever, consider the end. AH is for a good end. ' All things work together for the best to them that love God,' saith St Paul, Rom. viii. 28. Why do we endure physic ? Because we know the physician is wise, and he is our friend, and he doth it to carry away burdensome, hurtful humours. We shall be better and lighter after- wards. Do we do this in our common course in the things of this life ? Grace will much more certainly teach us to do it ; to reason. It is from a father, and it is for my good. Let us look whence it comes and what it tends to, with the promise of mitigation and of God's presence in our troubles. These are main comforts, if we could think of them, if the devil did not take them out of our memory.