OF COMMUNION WITH THE HOLY GHOST. 251
From this rise of all our consolation are those descriptions which we have of it in the Scripture, from its properties and adjuncts ; as, —
(1.) It is abiding. Thence it is called " Everlasting consolation," 2 Thess. ii. 1 6, " God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and giv^n us everlasting consolation ;'"' — that is, comfort that vanisheth not ; and that because it riseth from everlasting things. There may be some perishing comfort given for a little season by perishing things ; but abiding consolation, which we have by the Holy Ghost, is from things everlasting : — everlasting love, eternal redemption, an everlasting inheritance.
(2.) Strong. Heb. vi. 18, "That the heirs of the promise should receive strong consolation." As strong opposition lies sometimes against us, and trouble, whose bands are strong, so is our consolation strong; it abounds, and is unconquerable, — ^c^upa rtapdK'kr,sig. It is such as will make its way through all opposition ; it confirms, corro- borates, and strengthens the heart under any evil; it fortifies the soul, and makes it able cheerfully to undergo any thing that it is called unto: and that because it is from him who is strong.
(3.) It is precious. Hence the apostle makes it the great motive unto obedience, Avhich he exhorts the Philippians unto, chap. ii. 1, " If there be any consolation in Christ;" — " If you set any esteem and valuation upon this precious mercy of consolation in Christ, by those comforts, let it be so with you."
And this is the first general consequent in the hearts of believers of those great effects of the Holy Ghost before mentioned. Now, this is so large and comprehensive, comprising so many of our con- cernments in our walkmg with God, that the Holy Ghost receives his denomination, as to the whole work he hath to perform for us, from hence, — he is the Comforter ; as Jesus Christ, from the work of redemption and salvation, is the Redeemer and Saviour of his church. Now, as we have no consolation but from the Holy Ghost, so all his effects towards us have certainly this consequent more or less in us. Yea, I dare say, whatever we have in the kinds of the things before mentioned that brings not consolation with it, in the root at least, if not in the ripe fruit, is not of the Holy Ghost. The way whereby comfort issues out from those works of his, belongs to par- ticular cases. The fellowship we have with him consists, in no small portion of it, in the consolation we receive from him. This gives us a valuation of his love ; teacheth whither to make applications in our distress, — whom to pray for, to pray to, — whom to wait upon, in per- plexities.
2. Peace ariseth hence also. Rom. xv. 13, " The God of hope fill you Avith all peace in believing, that you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost." The power of the Holy Ghost is not
252 OF COMMUNION WITH THE HOLY GHOST.
only extended to hope, but to our peace also in believing. So is it in the connection of those promises, John xiv. 26, 27, " I will give yo\i the Comforter:" and what then? what follows that grant? " Peace." saith he, " I leave with you ; my peace I give unto you." Nor doth Christ otherwise leave his peace, or give his peace unto them, but by bestowing the Comforter on them. The peace of Christ consists in the soul's sense of its acceptation with God in friendship. So is Christ said to be " our peace," Eph. ii. 14, by slaying the enmity between God and us, and in taking away the handwriting that was against us. Rom. V. 1, " Being justified by faith, we have peace A\ath God." A comfortable persuasion of our acceptation with God in Christ is the bottom of this peace; it inwraps deliverance from eternal wrath, hatred, curse, condemnation, — all sweetly affecting the soul and con- science.
And this is a branch from the same root with that foregoing, — a consequent of the effects of the Holy Ghost before mentioned. Sup- pose a man chosen in the eternal love of the Father, redeemed by the blood of the Son, and justified freely by the grace of God, so that he hath a right to all the promises of the gospel ; yet this person can by no reasonings nor arguings of his own heart, by no considerations of the promises themselves, nor of the love of God or grace of Christ in them, be brought to any establishment in peace, until it be pro- duced in him as a fruit and consequent of the work of the Holy Ghost in him and towards him. " Peace" is the fruit of the Spirit, Gal. v. 22. The savour of the Spirit is ''life and peace," Eom. viii. 6. All we have is from him and by him.
3. Joy, also, is of this number. The Spirit, as was showed, is called " The oil of gladness," Heb. i. 9. His anointing brings gladness ^vith it, Isa. Ixi. 3, " The oil of joy for mourning." " The kingdom of God is righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost," Rom. xiv. 17; " Received the word with joy in the Holy Ghost," 1 Thess. i. 6, — " with joy," as Peter tells believers, " unspeakable and full of glor}--," 1 Epist. i. 8. To give joy to the hearts of believers is eminently the work of the Comforter; and this he doth by the particulai's before instanced in. That " rejoicing in hope of the glory of God," mentioned Rom. V. 2, which carries the soul through any tribulation, even with glorying, hath its rise in the Spirit's " shedding abroad the love of God in our hearts," verse 5. Now, there axe two ways whereby the Spirit worketh this joy in the hearts of believers: —