Reason 2. So partly, to knit us in love one to another. For is not this a great bond to knit us one to another, when we consider that our good is hid in another ? The good that is derived to us, it is hid in others. And this makes us to esteem highly of others. How sweet are the looks and sight of a friend ! and more sweet the words of a friend, especially of an experienced friend, that hath been in the furnace himself.
Thus God, to knit us one to another in love, hath ordained that the com- fort that he conveys, it should be conveyed by the means of others. Other reasons there may be given, but these are sufficient.
Use. If this be so, then we ought from hence to learn, that whatsoever we have ice are debtors of it to others, whatsoever comfort we have, whether it be outward or inward comfort.
And even as God hath disposed and dispensed his benefits and graces to ns, so let us be good stewards of it. We shall give account of it ere long. Let every man reason with himself, why have I this comfort that another ■wants ? I am God's steward ; God hath not given it to me to lay up, but to lay out. To speak a little of outward comforts. It is cursed atheism in many rich persons, that think they are to live here only to scrape an estate for them and their children ; when in the mean time their neighbours want, and God's children want, that are as dear to God as themselves, and perish for want of comfort. If they were not atheists in this point, they would think I am a steward, and what comfort shall I have of scraping much ? That will but increase my account. Such a steward were mad that would desire a great account. The more my account is, the more I have to an- swer for, and the more shall be my punishment if I quit not all well.
2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VEE. 4. 69
Now men out of atheism, that do not bclicvo a day of judgment, a time of account, they engross comforts to them and theirs, as if there were not a church, as if there were not an afflicted body of Christ. They think not that they are stewards. Whereas the time will come, when they shall have more comfort of that that they have bestowed, than of that that they shall leave behind them to their children. That which is wisely dis- pensed for the comfort of God's people, it will comfort us, when all that we shall leave behind will not, nay, perhaps it will trouble us, the ill get- ting of it.
And so whatsoever inward comforts we have, it is for the comfort of others. We are debtors of it. Whatsoever ability we have, as occasion is offered, if there be a necessity in those that are of the same body with our- selves, we ought to regard them in pity and compassion. If we should see a poor creature cast himself into a whirlpool, or plunge himself into some desperate pit, were we not accessory to his death, if we should not help him ! if we would not pull one out of the fire ? Oh, yes ! and is not the soul in as great danger ? and is not mercy to the soul the greatest mercy ? shall we see others ready to be swallowed up in the pit of despair, with heaviness of spirit ? shall we see them dejected, and not take it to heart ? But either we are unable to minister a word of comfort to them, or else unwilling : as if we were of Cain's disposition, that we would look to our- selves only ; ' we are none of their keepers,' Gen. iv. 9.
It is a miserable thing to profess ourselves to be members of that body whereof Christ is the head, to profess the communion of saints, and yet to be so dead-hearted in these particular exigencies and occasions. It lies upon us as a duty, if God convey comforts to us from others ; and his end in comforting us any way, of putting any comfort in our hands outward or in- ward, it is to comfort others. If we do it not, we are liable to sin, to the breach of God's command, and we fi-ustrato God's end.
But if this lie upon us as a duty to comfort others, then it concerns us to know how to be able to do it.
That we may be able to comfort others, let us,
(1.) Be ready to take notice of the grievance of others; as Moses went to see the afflictions of his brethren, and when he saw it, laid it to heart, Ex. iv. 31.
It is a good way to go to * the house of mourning,' Eccles. vii. 2, and not to balk and decline our Christian brethren in adversity. God ' knows our souls in adversity, Ps. xxsi. 7 ; so should we do the souls of others, if they be knit to us in any bond of kindred, or nature, or neighbourhood, or the like. That bond should provoke us ; for bonds are as the veins and arte- ries to derive comfort. All bonds are to derive good, whether bonds of neighbourhood, or acquaintance, &c. A man should think with himself, I have this bond to do my neighbour good. It is God's providence that I should be acquainted with him, and do that to him that I cannot do to a stranger. Let us consider all bonds, and let this work upon us : let us consider their grievance is a bond to tie us,