And it is one ground why to think more moderately in regard of anger, fierceness, against wicked men, it is gi-ound of pitying of them ; for, alas ! poor souls, what do they ! Though they intend it of malice, they are but instruments, and shall be overruled to do good contrary to their meaning, as St Paul saith here, ' Whether I be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation.' The worst intents and designs of the enemies of religion,
* This frequently-recurrino; illustration is drawn from the Cartesian system of astronomy, which Newton's discoveries had not yet superseded. — G. VOL. III. O
98 COMMENTAEY ON
was for tlic consolation and salvation of tlio Corinthians, It is good to think of this beforehand. It is a ground of patience ; and not only so, but of comfort and joy, which is a degree above patience. God overrules all thus. Therefore we should quietly cast ourselves wholly upon him, willing to do and suffer whatsoever ho will have us, knowing that he will direct all to the good of the chui-ch, to our comfort, and his own glory.
Use 3. Again, a further use may be this, to teach us to conununicate our estate to others, because it is for their good. Good is diffusive, saith St PauL All that I do or suffer, it is for your good, to join comfort and suffering to- gether. ' If I lie comforted,' it is for you ; and if I suffer, it is for you. It must be by their taking notice of it, and that is not all that they ought to take notice, but we ought to let them take notice as much as we can, ' Come^ children, and I will teach you the fear of the Lord,' Ps. xxxiv. 11. * Come and I will tell you what the Lord hath done for my soul.' ' The righteous shall compass me about,' saith David, Ps. cxlii. 7. As when a man hath some great matter to tell, there will be a ring of people about him, desirous to hear what he saith ; so saith David, the righteous shall compass me about. When David had sweet matter of experience, to tell what God had done for him ; how he had been with him in his affliction, and delivered him, ' the righteous shall compass me about,' I will declare it to others. For God's children make others' case their own. They comfort them as they would be comforted of them again.
As they ought to do so, so we should take notice of their troubles and deliverances, how God sanctifies them to them. These things tend to edification. There is the same reason to one saint of God as to all, and God is the same to all in the like case. Experiments are made much of in other things in physic, and judged cases in law, and such like. Tried things in all professions are good. So tried truths should be valued. Now when a man teacheth another his experiment,* it is a judged case, a tried truth. It is not every truth that will stay the soul in the time of a great temptation, but a truth proved, a tried truth. Therefore it is good for parents and governors, for friends and for all degrees of men, to make it one way to spend their time fruitfully, to discourse with others of the blessed experiments which they have had of God's gracious providence, in the passages of their life. ' Abraham will teach his children,' Gen. xviii. 19, I vdll tell it to him therefore, saith God. It is a means for God to reveal many things sweetly to us, when he knows we are of a communicative, spreading disposition. God gains by that means. His glory is spread. Our grace is increased. The good of others is multiplied. — To go on.
' It is for your consolation and salvation.' Whether we be afflicted, or whether we be comforted, all is for j^our consolation and salvation. I will not trouble you here with the diverse readings of copies. Some Greek copies want the word salvation, but the most that the translations follow have both consolation and salvation. Some have consolation and salvation in the first, but they repeat it not in the second. ' Whether we be com- forted, it is for your consolation and salvation.' But because the more current have both, therefore we will join both, ' it is for your consolation and salvation' (?i).
For h^iperf in the Greek it hath a double force. It signifies either to merit ; hupon,\ to procure and merit salvation ; and so we do not under-
* That is, ' experience.' — G. f That is, uff£g = over, above. — G.
X Apparently a misprint. — Ed.
2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 6. 99
stand it. Or huper-f for your good, a final cause. It includes either a meri- torious deserving cause, or a final cause. ' Whether I bo afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation,' not by merit and desert ; — so Christ's suf- fering was — but to help it forward in the execution of it.
I speak this to cut the sinews of a popish point, as I meet it, which ig a cozening point of their religion, which indeed is not a point of religion, but a point of Komish policy, a point of cozenage; as most of their religion is but a trick for the belly. They have devices forsooth of the pope's treasury. He being the treasurer of the church, hath a treasury ; and what must that be filled with ? With the merits of saints, with the superabun- dance. For they can deserve and procure heaven for themselves, and more than obey. There is an overplus of obedience. The superabundance of that is laid in a treasmy. And who should have the benefit of that but the treasury of the church and the pope ? But how shall the church come by this abundant satisfaction and merit ? They must buy them by par- dons, and they come not to have pardons for nought, but by purchasing of them, and hence come popish indulgences. That is nothing but a dis- pensing of the satisfaction and merits of the saints, which they did, say they, for the chm-ch, abusing such phrases as these. When they had more than their own obedience, they did good to others, and others had benefit by it.