Here is the comfort of a Christian soul, that Christ hath begun to him in all. Therefore it became him to be man, not only to redeem us, but to be a merciful high priest, a comfortable high priest.
The way, then, you see, how to comfort others, is, to get our own hearts sensible of spiritual comfort. Two irons, if they be both hot, do close to- gether presently, but unless both be hot, they do not join together hand- somely. So that that makes us join together strongly is, if two spirits meet, and both be warm ; if one godly man comfort another godly man ; if one holy man labour to breed an impression of heat in another, there is a knitting of both spirits, they join strongly together. Therefore we ought to labour to get experience, that we may comfort others, seeing none can comfort so well as experimental Christians.
Quest. Why is experience such an enabling to spiritual comfort ?
Ans. 1. I answer, because it brings the comfort home to our oiai souls. The devil knows comfort well enough, but he feels none. Experience helps faith, it helps all other knowledge. Our Saviour Christ is said to learn by experience, for ' he learned obedience in that he suffered,' Heb. v. 8. Ex- perience is such a means of the increasing of knowledge, as that it bettered the knowledge of Christ, that had all knowledge in him. He had know- ledge by looking upon God, being the ' wisdom of God,' 1 Cor. i. 30, yet he learned somewhat by the experience, he bettered himself by experience. He knew what to bear the cross was by experience. He knew what infir- mities were by experience. He knew what he could sufier by experience. So it added to his Imowledge as man. And so the angels themselves are continual students in the mysteries of the gospel. They get experimental knowledge to the knowledge that they have inbred, and that knowledge that
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they have by the presence of God. To that they add experimental know- ledge.
So then, if it bettered the knowledge of our blessed Saviour, and increased it, [if] it was a new way increased by experience, and it adds to the know- ledge of the angels, much more to ours,
2. Then, again, it fjaina a great confidence ■ in the speaker ; for what we speak with cxporioncc, we speak with a great deal of boldness.
3. Again, experimental comforts, those that we have felt ourselves, and have felt likewise the grievance, ice speak them ivith such expressions as no other can do, in the apprehension of the party whom we comfort, so well as an experienced person. For he goes about the work tenderly and gently and lovingly, because he hath been in the same himself. And that is the reason that the apostle St Paul, in the place I named before. Gal. vi. 1, presseth this duty upon spiritual men, especially because themselves have been tempted, and may be tempted. Those that have been tempted, and think they may be afterward, this doth wondrously fit them for this work of comforting others. But to add a little in this point, to shew how to comfort others by our own experience and skill, I spake before of an art of comforting ourselves. There is a skill likewise in comforting others. Even as we comfort ourselves, in that method we must comfort others. When we comfort ourselves, we must first consider our need of comfort, search our wounds, our maladies, have them fresh in our sight, that so we may be forced to seek for comfort ; and as we ought to do this daily, so when we are to comfort others,
(1.) We ought not only to comfort them, but to search them as much as we can, what sin is in them, and what misery is upon them, and acquaint them with their own estate that they are in, as far as we can discern. We may judge of them partly by ourselves. For we must not prostitute com- forts to persons that are indisposed, till we see them fitted. God doth comfort, but it is the abject. Christ heals, but [it] is the wounded spirit. He came to seek, but it is those that are lost. He came to ease, but it is those that are ' heavy laden.' Therefore, that we may comfort them to purpose, we ought to shew, and discover to them, what estate they are in, that we may force them to comfort, if they be not enemies to comfort and to their own souls.
He is an unwise physician that administers cordials before he gives pre- paratives to carry away the noisome humours. They will do little good. We ought therefore to prepare them this way, if we intend to do them good.
(2.) And then when we see what need they stand in, bring them to Chtist and the covenant of grace. That is the best way to comfort them, to bring them to see that God is their Father, when we discern some signs of grace in them. For this is the main stop in all comfort, that there is none but they shall find by experience. They are ready to say, You teach wondrous comforts, that there is an inheritance in heaven that God hath provided ; and on earth, there is an issue of all for good, and there is a presence of God in troubles ! This is true ; but how shall I know this belongs to me ? This is the cavil of flesh and blood, that turns the back to the most heavenly comforts that are. The main and principal thing therefore in dealing wdth others, and with our own hearts, is to let them see that there are some signs and evidences that they are in the covenant of grace, that they belong to God. Unless we see that, all the comfort we can give them is to tell them that they are not yet sunk into hell, and that they have space to repent. But as long as men live in sinful courses, that they are not in a state of