Alas ! when there is trouble in the conscience, awakened with the sight of sin, and the displeasure of God, what can all those precepts compose and fi-ame the soul in petty troubles ? They have their place ; and surely the neglect of them many times is that that makes the cross heavier. But alas ! in divine troubles, in terror of conscience, it must be divine comfort. It must be of like nature, or else the effect of comfort will never follow ; and those be the comforts that he means here. As our troubles and afflic- tions abound, so our consolations, our divine supports, they abound. The point is this, that
Doct. Our comfoHs are proportionable to our sufferings.
What did I say, proportionable ? It is above all proportion of suffering. As it is said, ' the afflictions of this life are not worthy of the glory that shall be revealed,' Rom. viii. 18. And indeed in this hfe the consolations abound as the sufferings abound. For God keeps not all for the life to come. He gives us a taste, a grape of Canaan, before we come to Canaan. * Qu. ' cedit medicina morho?' — Ed.
2 COEINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 5. 87
As the Israelites, they sent for f^rapes to taste the goodness of the land, and they had them brought to them by the spies, by which they might guess of the fruitfulness and sweetness of the land itself. So tlio taste and rehsh that God's children have of that fulness which is reserved in another world, it is answerable and proportionable to their sufl'erings ; and in the proportion, the exceeding part is of comfort. There is an exceeding, if not for the present, yet afterwards. The ark did rise together with the water, and comforts rise together with matter of sutlering.
But what is the reason of the proportion '? "NVhy the greatest comforts follow the gi-eatest suiTcrings ? What is the ground of it ? They are many.
Reason 1. To name some: first of all, this is a ground that the more capable the soul is of comfort, the more comfort it receives. But great troubles bring a capacity and capableness of soul, fitting it to receive comfort. How is that ? Troubles do humble the soul, and humility is a grace, and the vessel of all grace, and of comfort too. A low and meek spirit is a deep spirit, and the lower and deeper, and the larger the spirit is, the more capable it is to contain heavenly comfort. We know the more empty a man is of himself, the more fit he is for comfort ; but crosses and aflSictions empty us of ourselves, to see that there is nothing in us, that what we are we must be out of ourselves ; and the less we are in ourselves, the more we are in God. And that is the reason that St Austin saith, that nothing is more strong than a humble, empty spirit ; because it makes the creatui-e to go out of itself to him that is strength itself, and comfort itself. Now, that which makes us go out of ourselves to strength, that is strong. But this doth crosses and afilictions. That is the main reason why the proportion holds.
Reason 2. Again, another reason is this, tronhles, and afflictions, and crosses do exercise graces ; and the more grace is exercised, the more comfort is derived, for comfort follows graces. The comforts of the Spirit follow the graces of the Spirit, as the heat follows the fire, or as the shadow follows the body. Now, the more grace, the more comfort : the more aflliction, the more exercise of grace ; the more exercise of grace, the more grace it- self; as we see, the deeper the root the higher the tree. After the shai-pest winter usually there is the sweetest spring, and the fruitfulest summer and autumn ; because in the sharpest winter the ground is mellowed most, and the seed sinks the deepest ; and the ground is inwardly warmed, the soil, the earth is prepared for it ; and thereupon, when the outward heat comes to draw it forth, it comes to be abundantly fruitful. We see it in nature, that that we call antiperistasis,-'- the environing of one contrary with an- other increaseth the contrary. Whatsoever is good is increased, being en- vironed by the contrary ill, because they are put to the conflict.
So it is with the soul. It is the showers of aflliction that bring the sweet flowers of comfort after. The soul is prepared and manured for them. The soul is exercised, and enlarged, and fitted for them every way. ' In the multitude of my sorrows, thy comforts refreshed my soul,' saith Da\'id, Ps. xciv. 19. Answerable to our discomforts, God's comforts refresh our souls.
Reason 3. And God is so wise, that before we enter to suffer auij cjreat matter, he will give us more grace answerable to the greatness of our suffering, and after great sufiering he will give great comfort. God is so infinitely loving and wise, that he will not call us to sufler great troubles till he give us some grace answerable. As a captain will not set a fresh- water soldier in a * That is, ' avTiTi^ldraffig, opposition or counteraction of the surrounding parts ; in rhetoric as explained above.' — G.