We may run every day into new offences against the law, to new neglect of duty, into new crosses ; let us feed upon Christ. He came into the world ' to save sinners,' 1 Tim. i. 15, to make us happy, with peace of conscience hero, and with glory afterward. Let us feed on Christ daily. As the body is fed with cordials, so this feeds, and comforts, and strengthens the soul.
This is to live by faith, to lead our lives by faith, to feed on Christ every day.
[4.] And likewise, if we will keep our souls in a perpetual temper of comfort, let us every day meditate of some prerogatives of Cliristians, that may raise our souls ; let us single out some or other. As for example, that excellent prerogative to be the ' sons of God,' 1 John iii. 2. What love ! saith the apostle, that we, of rebels and traitors, in Christ should be made the sons of God ! That of slaves, we should be made servants ; of servants, sons ; of sons, heirs ; and of heirs, fellow-heii's with Christ : what preroga- tive is this, that God should give his Son to make us, that were rebels, sons, heirs, and fellow-heirs with Christ ! Gal. iv. 7. And to consider what follows upon this liberty, that we have from the curse of the law, to go to God boldly, to go to the throne of grace through Christ, our elder Brother, by prayer ; to think of eternal life as our inheritance ; to think of God above as our Father. Let us think of our prerogatives of religion, adoption, and justification, &c.
Upon necessity we are driven to it, if we consider the grievances of this world, together with our corruptions.' Our corruptions, and afflictions, and temptations, and desertions, one thing or other, will drive us to go out of ourselves for comfort, to feed on the benefits by Christ. And consider what he hath done. It is for us, the execution of his office, and all for us ; what he is, what he did, what he suffered, what procured, all is for us. The soul delighting itself in these prerogatives, it will keep the soul in a pei*petual estate of comfort. Therefore the Scripture sets forth Christ by all terms that may be comfortable. He is the door to let us in. ' He is the way, the truth, and the life,' John xiv. 6, the water and the bread, &c. In sin, he is our righteousness ; in death, he is our life ; in our ignorance, he is our way ; in spiritual hunger and thirst, he is the bread and water of life : he is all in all. And if we cannot think of some prerogative of Christianity, then think of some promise. As I said before, think of the covenant of grace. There is a spring of comfort in that, that God in Christ is our God to death, and for ever ; and that promise I speak of, that ' iUl things shall work for the best,' Kom. viii. 28.
Let us every day think of these things, and suggest them to our own souls, that our souls may be affected with them, and digest them, that our souls and they may be one, as it were.
[5.] And every day stir up our hearts to he thankful. A thankful heart can never want comfort ; for it cannot be done without some comfort and
2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 4. 61
cheerfulness. And when God receives any praise and glory, he answers it with comfort. A thankful heart is alway comfortable.
[6.] And let us stir up our hearts to be fniilfnl in the hohj actinm. The reward of a fruitful life is a comfortable life. Besides heaven, God alwav in this life gives a present reward to any good action. It is rewarded with peace of conscience. Besides, it is a good foundation against the evil day. Every good action, as the apostle saith to Timothy, it ' lays up a good foimdation,' 1 Tim. vi. 19. The more good we do, the more we are assured that our faith is not h}qiocritical, but sound and good, and will hold out in the time of trial. It will be a good foundation that we have had evidence before, that we have a sound and fruitful faith.
What do wicked men, careless, sinful creatures, that go on in a course of profaneness and blasphemy, &c.'? They lay a ground of despair, a ground of discomfort, to be swallowed up in the evil day. Then conscience will be awaked at the last, and Satan will be ready to join with conscience, and conscience will seal all the accusations that Satan lays against them ; and where is the poor soul then ? As it is with them, so, on the contrary, the Christian soul that doth good, besides the pi'esent comfort of a good conscience, it lays a good foundation against the time to come ; for in the worst times, it can reason with itself, My faith is not fruitless, I am not an hypocrite. Though the fruits of it be weak, and mixed with corruptions, yet there is truth in them. This will comfort us when nothing else will.