2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 22. 459
joy of the Spirit ; and theroforo when that fails, r^o to the work of sanctifi- cation, and see what stamp and resembhuice of Clirist there is ; see if thy heart he humble and broken, if thou have a loving disposition in thee like to Christ, that thou hatest that which Christ hateth, that thou seest a division in thyself. I say, when the joy of the Spirit ccascth, go to the work of the Spirit, and to this work of the Spirit, viz., the voice of the Spirit, — canst thou cry to God with prayer and supplication ? and if thou canst not pray with distinct words, canst thou moiu-n and groan to God ? This sighing and groaning is the voice of God's Spirit, and God knows the voice of his own Spirit. But for the question propounded : the soul of a Christian knows that when it finds not extraordinary comfort from God's Spirit, that God's love is constant. It can reason thus : though I find not the comfort of the Spirit, yet I have the spirit of comfort, because I had the Spirit in former times, and God's Spirit is unchangeable, and therefore though it be not with me now as in those ravishings of the Spirit, yet the love of God is the same, though my feeling be not the same ; because, though I be off and on, and my feelings ebb and flow, yet His love is not so ; and hereupon the extraordinary feeling of the Spirit, which is super- added as an extraordinary seal, it may be a sound seal of comfort from the constancy of God who gave it ; and he gave it for this end, that we might have recourse, and retire back in our thoughts, and argue it was thus and thus with me. Then we remember the times of old, as David saith, Ps. Ixxvii. 6, and help ourselves with our former feelings. He that alway hath life, is not always alike stirred. Christ may be begotten and live in us, but he stirs not always alike. So though the Spirit of sanctification be in us, and stir in us, yet his stirring is not alike so sweet ; and the stirring of the Spirit, though it be not alway, yet the Spirit is alway there. So the soul may have recourse to that which is unchangeable and constant, even God himself, and his love is as himsolf.
But to take a Christian in his worst time, in the worst and greatest atHictions, how shall he know then that he is sealed of the Spirit ? When corruption, temptation, and affliction meet together in the soul ; when temptation is joined with our corruption, and afflictions yield ground to temptations (for Satan useth the afflictions we are in as temptations to shake our faith), canst thou be a child of God, and be so exercised ? Is this grace ? So affliction is a weapon to temptation, for Satan to help his fiery darts with. Now how shall a man know that God hath any part here ?
1. He may know that he is sealed by the Spirit of God, //' he have a fipirit to thwart these, if he row against the stream, if he go contrary to all these ; if he find a spirit resisting Satan's temptations, and raising himself above afflictions, and standing against, and combating with his corruptions, and checking his carnal soul when it is drawing him down. ' Why art thou discomforted, 0 my soul?' saith David, Ps. xlii. 11 ; xliii. 5. He found corruptions, and afflictions, and Satan's temptations working with them, depressing his soul downwards ; hereupon, having the Spirit in him, saith he, ' Why art thou disquieted within me ? Trust in God.' He first chides his soul, ' Why art thou so ?' and then he lays a charge upon it, ' Trust in God.' So I say, when this is in the soul in the greatest extremity, when I can check my soul, ' "Wliy art thou thus ? yet trust in God ;' whatsoever there is in the world, yet there is hope in heaven, though there be little comfort upon earth ; this is a sign that I am sealed with the Spirit of God : and thus in the worst temptations that can come, and so in the worst times, a man may know that he is in the state of grace.
460 COMMENTARY ON
2. One use of a seal, I told you before, was to distinguish. If a man, therefore, find in himself a (listiiiiiiiishiiii/ from the errors of the times (he may know that he is ' sealed ' |. ' Manj' walk,' saith the apostle, ' of whom I have told you oft, their end is damnation, their belly is their god, they mind earthly tlnngs,' Philip, iii. 18, 19. But what did St Paul in the mean time ? what did the Spirit work in him ? ' But our conversation is in heaven,' saith he. The whole world was overspread with a deluge of sin ; but what was Noah and his family ? God by his Spirit distinguished them ; they went a con- trary course to the world ; and Lot in Sodom. So a man may know that he is scaled, when the Spirit leads him another way, that he is not led with the errors of the times.