musick Our comfort is most glorious and God is most glorified the more it comforts others as well as our selves It s the fame of a river that it ariseth at such a fountaine runs so many hundred miles fructifies the vallies and adornes the country as it goes and then at length falls into the Ocean As of Iordan And Danube So it is the honour of spirituall comforts to doe likewise in mens hearts 4 That the excellentest comfort and way of comforting is to comfort from experience God comforts with the comfort he hath himselfe but of himselfe therefore so should we others from that we have from him so the Text. Therefore the Apostle commends experience Rom. 5 Experimentall comfort is like a medicine with a probatum est that hath been proved to be effectuall Experimentall comfort is like the Nurse warming the milke or pappe in her owne mouth before she puts it into the childs This layes a great ingagement upon a disconsolate soule to argue thus with himself when he heares anothers experimentall comforts It is in the same God the same word the same Spirit the same considerations that comforted him that now speakes to me and he was the same in every respect as I was aut sumus aut fuimus vel possumus esse quod hic est why therefore should it not comfort me also why should not I trust God as well as another where or when hath God excluded me from comfort more then him Therefore oh yee comforted Christians draw forth your experimentall comforts and serve them in to others It is excellent to be an Empirick in spirituall physicking as David speakes Come I will tell you what the Lord hath done for my soule Waters running through mineralls as Brimstone Alum c. have more strength in them for a physicall use so comfort is more fitted for men of like frailty with us and takes more with them when they have first runne thorow our hearts and have beene soaked in our experience and so communicated with a strong streame of compassions supplications and sympatheticall consent of spirits Something for this lyes in our likenesse with them something in our senses and so are more feelingly wrought upon when spiritualls are communicated in a sensible way Therefore examples oft worke more upon us then rules but the maine thing for it lyes in Gods Institution and appointment and therefore a divine blessing goes along with it God will also have the elder Christian to be an executor of Christs testament of comfort to the younger to exercise his graces and to keepe us all inunion one with another Thus of instructions 5 See wee be Gods people set wee be his that we may freely take this comfort to our selves The Apostle describes these to whom he writes 1 Cor. 1. â— to be such as are called to be saints and sanctified in Christ Iesus These import three things 1 The Qualification of them that are Gods people namely they are Saints they are holy they are of unholy made holy holy in conversation that 's their common rode and course of life Titus â— 12 And holy in heart that the complexion and temper of their hearts Their hearts are purified by faith Act. 15.9.2 The instrumentall meanes called to be Saints As the Apostle saith yee are not called to uncleannesse but to holinesse They have heard a voyce in the eare and a voyce at heart that have called them away from their former corrupt conversation yea called them from their corrupt selves from their corrupt condition into that which is holy from the world to looke towards heaven from sin to Christ So that they leave all rather then Christ as the Apostles did at Christs call That is by the call of the word and holy Spirit they could be ready to part with all rather then to part with Christ and so we fall upon the third thing the principall meanes of their Saint-ship namely sanctified in Christ Iesus not sanctified or made pure only by Christ Iesus by his word and Spirit but in Christ Iesus They are uâ—…ed to Christ looke upon themselves in Christ They reckon themselves as Rom. 6.11 dead to sinne in Christ and alive to God in Christ All their consideration is to be found in him not having their owne righteousnesse but the righteousnesse which is thâ—ough faith of Christ They behold Christ making a glorious change Isa 53 2 Cor. 5. ult He was made sinne for us upon him the iniquities of us all were layd that we might be made the righteousnesse of God So that those that are thus Gods people they live as none of their owne but as Gods for the generall of their lives 1 Cor. 6.19 20. 2 Cor. 5.15 Now those that can with a good conscience plead their sincerity in these things though not their integrity or perfection take yee the sweet comforts of this doctrine to your selves God is the fountaine so the text The father of mercyes Christ the Channel so the text the father of our Lord Jesus Christ Say not who shall ascend up to heaven to bring God or Christ downe thence God is with thee united to thee in Christ Jesus Be not as Hagar to pine for thirst for want of sight of a well at hand Be not as under Hagar that is the Law Gal. 4. thou art not under the Law but under grace Rom. 6. Thou hast the God of all comfort to be thine by many engagements as hath beene cleared to thee out of the text and doctrine Hee is the God of all comfort it is his nature He is the father of Christ who is thy saviour redeemer and thine husband He is the father of mercyes therefore of pitie to thee that art one of the miserable ones He comforteth in all tribulation therefore he is wonted to comfort yea till thou hast enough to overflow to others to comfort them Of all which wee spake in the explication now rubbe and chase this suppling Oyle of gladnesse upon thy soare soule Hee is God therefore good Fully good infinite in goodnesse Freely good because the first good Therfore exceedingly communicative of goodnesse as in the creation so in regeneration Hee creates peace he creates a clean heart He is a sunne Psal 84. Therefore must communicate himselfe by beames He is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ As God is the father of man-kind in the first Adam in a naturall way Luk. 3. ult So he is the father of beleevers in and through Christ the second Adam in a spirituall way so the text The meaning is this As sure as God is united to Christ so hee is to beleevers Joh. 14 20. Joh. 17.22 As sure as God loves Christ Mat. 3. ult So sure God loves those in him Ephes 1.6 As sure as God loves Christ as his sunne So Christ loves beleevers called his children Heb. 2. Joh. 15.9 Hee is the father of mercies wee are not so prone to bee fathers of Children as God is to
his comfort So in the Text Blessed be God c. that hath comforted us c. God will not onely give us comfort to live but to joy in him As the Sun gives forth not onely to make the plants grow but to blossome So God hatcheth up comfort unto the blossoming of joy Flores plantarum gaudia Plin. Nat. Hist As flowers are the joy of Plants so Joy the flower or blossomes of our graces as desires are the root In God faith the Psalmist we make our boast all the day long God will sweetly touch the heart-strings with the finger of his Spirit not onely to make them sound with comfort but to resound and eccho praise and make it become a Psalmist The world shall ring of the comfort Moses Deborah Hannah David Elizabeth Marie Paul Silas c. had received This heavenly sire will break forth God will delight his owne eare with his owne musick He will put joy and gladnesse into the heart till it praise him Thus the quantitie of comfort shall be like the manna He that gathered little had no want he that gathered much had no overplus more then was usefull Secondly For the qualitie of comfort it is the comfort that is of God And Gods comfort is like himself The Worlds comfort is a lying comfort The Divels comfort is a damnable flattering comfort Yea the best comfort from things below are mixed if not mudded But the comfort that is from God is in this like God that as it is much as we have heard so pure and spiritual it reacheth to the soul and spirit of a man A dram of this powder of pearle aurum pota bile this aqua Coelestis this Christ communicated comfort is more worth then an hundred weight of grosse sublunary comforts A look of Christ on Peter makes him mourne that he loved Christ no more One glympse of the transfiguration of Christ wrapps up the three disciples as into the third heaven A touch of this loadstone makes the heart forget all and to move towards it Forgeth all lines but that which immediatly tends to it This comfort makes Dauid to despise come and wine in comparison Psal 4. This makes the Disciples to despise all with It is good to be here A word of this from Christ to buffeted Paul stilled him A glance of God on Moses makes him glorious In other comforts in the midst of laughter the heart is sad But this comfort makes glad and addes no sorrow Thus of comfort Next of Gods engagement of himself to comfort his Wee will note both the matter and the method of setting down these engagements here 1. For the engagement considered in the matter to take them in order of the Text 1. He is God as much as to say he is good He is the chief good the more good in any thing the more communicative it is of it selfe God cannot be God but he must be good He cannot be most good but he must be most communicative of his goodnesse so that as soone as God was God which was from all eternity God laid up the Idea or plat-form of us in his thoughts to do us good He conceived in himselfe the model of our being and well being designed for us two worlds below one naturall for our bodies another spirituall for our soules and one of Glory in the world to come for soule and body joyntly In this world to enjoy him mediately by communication of himselfe in that to come by beatificall visions This communication of himselfe as he is good is delicately touched by the Psalmist Psal 119. Thou art good and dost good It is the impression of Gods goodnesse upon all the creation Sun Sea Elements c. that makes them communicative of comfort to man How much more is God infinitely good communicative of his comfort Therefore 1. It is said in the Text He is the God of comfort which sets forth his goodnesse 2. That he comforteth us Here is his communicativenesse the result of all is this Then God will cease to be communicative of comfort to his when he can cease to be God and not afore He causeth his Sunne to shine upon the good and the bad therefore he will ray forth beams of comfort on his Saints But are not the Saints in want of comfort when they oft and much cry for comfort We answer They want so much comfort as they desire to have but even then they have a saving degree of comfort else they would despair not poure out prayers Iâ— is some stock of comfort they turne and winde in prayer to get more as Psal 22.1 whiles hee cryed for Gods presence he had this comfort Hee was his God and vvhiles the Spouse seems to have lost Christ she enquires after him calls him her reloved Cant. 5. Thus of the first engagement 2. He is the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ Here comes in the kin And relations though of the least entitie are of the greatest efficacy As Christ is the last man as the Apostle calls him 1 Cor. 15. The second Adam is the everlasting Father to all beleevers Isai 9. so God is his Father so in the text yea as Christ is the representative of us all that beleeve so God is our Father in and through Christ being Christs Father Therefore it is said Reckon your selves as you are in him Rom. 6.11 And we are accepted in him Ephes 1.6 And Co-heirs with him Rom. 8. So as that God comforts Christ as he is the Father of Christ Heb. 5. He heard him in that he feared so God comforts us in text as younger brethren Heb. 2. as his members Eph. 4. Yea this union betweene Christ and us is set forth to bee so close and intimate Ioh. 14.20 Ioh. 17.22 That we may boldly say as long as God comforts Christ he must needs comfort us that beleeve in Christ If God will maintain his sonnes titles Lord Iesus Christ then he must comfort us through him hee must defend and succour us under his Lordship save us under his Iesusship and annoint us spiritually with the spirit by his Christship Yea Christs body now in heaven is an earnest that we shall be there too Ioh. 14.2.3 Can any relation be tenderer then that of a Father Can any son be dearer to God then Christ Can any bee nearer to Christ than we that beleeve that are said We are so joyned to the Lord that we are one spirit How then can it be possible but that God should have infinite bowels of love to Christ and so to us in him He hath no other to love as children he hath none else to bestow all his great estate upon 3. Engagement God is the Father of mercies or as it is in the Greek He is the Father of bowells of mercies Not only the Authour of mercies but the Father of mercies he gives all his gifts with a paternall affection None of his gifts to any of his are giftlesse gifts And Father
of bowels doth import that as a father is not a naturall father if he loose his bowels so God must keep his bowells of mercie as he will keep his relation of Father to his And as a fathers bowells of mercies descend to the children of his Naturall bowells so Gods compassion is to his You see by how many titles our tenure of mercies hold good One while as we are servants to God or Christ our master Truly I am thy servant saith David I am thine save me Another while as a Wife to Christ Hos 2. Another while as Children to God and brethren to Christ and so this Text And adde to all that if we should faile so as to undeserve that God should be called the Father of us as his children yet this must stand firme God is the Father of mercies Namely to pitty us as a Father doth the childe as it is Psal 103. And to spare us and beare with us as a Father doth a weak childe that serveth him as he can though as a weak childe as Malachy speaks chap. 3. vers 18. And he is the Father of Mercies in the plurall Numerosa proles Store of mercies As God cannot be the Father of Christ as Christ alone All beleevers are included in him and so is well pleased It is not said with but in him Matth. 3. So he cannot be the Father of one mercy only but of many to have some for all yea many for every One yet he that is rich in mercies cannot leave his children poor 4. Engagement It is his stile title description that hee is The God of all comfort It is here spoken as the definition of what hee is to us therefore as essentiall to him And the like is said of him Exod 34. by way of a Royall Title or Kingly stile The Lord the Lord God Iehovah mercifull gracious long suffering aboundant in goodnesse c. So that this of Gods comforting us is one of the flowers in his crowne and God must maintaine his soveraigne stile How shall he be said to be God that is as we shewed afore infinite good if not full with comfort abounding towards us And how a God of all comfort if his people shall have none 2. For the method of these engagements in a word The God of this comfort 1. removes impediments that might hinder us their minds from God are not contented with glory And the Saints beleeving in Christ whiles they have sought what was in the creature and not God through the creature have found nothing in any thing or all things conjunctim or divisim severally or conjunctively Eccles 2.1 to the 12. verse King Solomon the great in making the utmost of all creature comforts could find nothing but vanitie and vexation Reading is an high and intellectuall delight is a while a pleasure to the mind but unlesse God comes in it furfets the understanding and is a wearinesse to the flesh Eccles 12.12 Musick is pleasant to the eare but unlesse God comes in to cheere the heart it is nauseous to a man Psal 137. And as experience tels us being too long in the hearing may surfet the phantasie with too oft playing the same lesson Odours are pleasant to the smell and some say the food of the Spirits of the Braine but unlesse God come in with health they suffocate that sence and cause faintings and swownings Food is pleasant to the tast but unlesse God give in his blessing it surfeits the stomacke In the midst of laughter in all creature injoyments saith Solomon the heart is sad Yea creature-joyes with out God are mischiefes Apparrel makes more proud then warme Authority brings forth more tyrannicalnesse than reformation Honour becomes more arrogant then usefull Wine more making mad than merry The table is become a snare As it is said of wisdome that all the creatures were inquired of a generall counsell of all the world was called the creation met in consultation to give in their answer every creature for himselfe whither wisdome was in this or that or the other they all answered no. Job 28.12 c. And so it may be said of comfort if all the world be called to its Answer it cannot say conjunctively or divisively that comfort is there without God The Sea answers that it is not in mee I am a devourer and doe make many a Merchant sad The heavens answer it is not in mee For unlesse God helpe mee I cause barrennesse Hos 2. And the sonnes of men confesse if they will speake the truth that they are as Jobs friends without God miserable comforters They can see one miserable and say this and that but without the incomes of God cannot comfort One man is contented with a little why God is there Another is not contented with much Why God is not there A little that a righteous man hath saith Solomon is better than great revenues of the wicked For God is the comfort in every creature comfort and God makes every creature to give down his comfort 1. God is the comfort in every creature It is the word command or institution of God that makes bread to be meanes of life to us Mat. 4. 2. Hee makes the creature to give downe his comfort that is in him Hos 2.21 c. I will saith the Lord in that day heare the heavens and they shall heare the earth and earth shall heare the corne and the wine and the oyle and they shall hear Jezreel And all this God will do for his because hee will make a covenant with them and betreth them to himselfe ver 18. All shall be paid downe as part of their dowrie as part of that all which is theirs in Christ Jesus 1 Cor. 3.21 Therefore why doe we travell over creature comforts without God our convoy Yea why do wee travell to creature comforts to find them without God Can the Bee finde any thing in the flower without beames and drops of heaven first fall upon them So vaine is our endeavour to presse out and distill any spirits of comfort out of creatures without Gods influence or impressions first falling upon them We thinke because God comming in with creatures they sometime comfort that therefore the creatures themselves do comfort But if a divine ordinance doth not alwayes quicken but onely when God comes in as experience tells us much lesse can earthly creatures comfort without God giving in himselfe in and through them Againe we lament the losse of such and such a creature as conceiving that we have much losse of comfort thereby But I should rather thinke that God taking them away that if they were present they should not comfort nor would God come in through them to make them comfort but that God is now upon another designe namely to give in more comfort some other way as either by and in providentiall dispensations of afflictions or in instituted ordinances of Word and Sacraments or immediately by himselfe in communication of
his Spirit Just as when an earthquake stops the springs on this side the mountaine yee may expect them to breake out in some other place Ob. If creatures of themselves cannot comfort without God comming in how doe carnall men that have no interest in God rejoyce in them A. 1. Some flatter themselves that they have God and argue 〈◊〉 from their having worldly comforts that therefore God loves them 2. Others feare they have not God and so in the midst of laughter their heart is sad 3. Others have neither of those apprehensions but are Atheisticall and so their joy is but flashes as the crackling of â—â—ornes under the pot As Solomon speaks Therefore still the truth stands firme without God no comfort in creatures And therefore our surest way is to crosse our common course namely instead of going to creatures to finde God to goe to God first to have the creatures and to finde comfort in it To fetch every mercy warmed from the hand of God 4. That though the Saints may need comfort yea and from creatures too yet God hath reserved to himselfe to be the founâ—â—ine and dispenser of all comfort to them through every thing to keepe them in a dependance upon them Blessed be God saith the text the God of all comfort that hath comforted us in all our â—â—ibulations that he may comfort us and comfort us that wee may owne him the author of comfort in blessing him for it and so all our dependence on him God keeps the locke and key of all comforts we must be beholding to him for all Elijah must pray to God to unlock the clouds that it raine The Church Act. 12. pray to God to unlock the prison doores to let out Peter The Spouse prayes Cant. 1.4 that God would unlock her heart that it might be unchained and forced to run after him Therefore it is a maine spirituall duty in all our injoyments more to consider the motions of our hearts towards God through all comforts then to looke upon the movings of comforts towards us It is good to see the beames of divine favour to shine a glory upon all the flouds of our comforts but better to see the streames of them to carry us afloat to the ocean of all God himselfe This the maine of all on our part and this the great thing God lookes after as a father more looks at the childs affections towards him then upon what he layes out upon him Therefore let us aime at that most that God most looks at We see all the creation of plants manifest their dependence on the drops and beams of heaven by shooting up towards heaven Grace the activest thing under God must needs have a stronger instinct to ascend to that from whence it came A sure signe mercyes come from heaven by speciall dispensations of favour when they exhale and draw us up to a tendency thitherward when wee imbrace the creatures though as God in them we imbrace but the hand of God wee kisse his hand but when by them wee ascend up to consider God as better then all wee stroke his face and kisse his mouth that bids the creatures go serve us smiled upon us the while And farre greater is our sweet communion with the giver then our possession of the gift wee forget our letters and tokens while wee imbrace our divine husband himselfe Answer wee then to Gods designe Hee hath set all in a dependance on him as the lines and circle to a Center Therefore for all wee would have yea for all that already wee now have to be comforts to us go to god for them and so accepta referre to render back all to God againe in away of prayse Blesse him for all as it is in the Text. Let a prayer and a praise as it were hemme and compasse in God given in through the particular mercy Take in all our mercyes as accomodations to further us in our journy homewards towards God Let us delight more in parting with mercyes to serve God our freind then in keeping them to serve our selves we can doe so for men much more then let us doe so for God In every thing give thankes Phil. 4.6 Let God have an excise out of all About all things wee injoy fetch as many errands to Court as you can two at least Viz of prayer and prayse concerning every particular Mind this still that all that God doth is to mind thee of thy dependance When Adam wanted nothing God gave him a command and a threat to mind him of his dependence When he left his dependence on God in Paradise he lost all So did the very Angells in the heaven of glory As soone as they slacked their dependence on God there they fell How much more should wee mind our dependence which is hourly and minutely And therefore let us conclude that when God upon sight of our too fond setting our hearts upon creature-comforts withdrawes them from us it is that wee might sue them out upon our dependence that wee might take a new state from the chiefe Lord and not gather them up as from the earth as taking our tenour from the meane Lord yea when God afflicts it is that wee should goe to him to bee â—…ruted with comfort 3. That comfort is given to us beleevers that wee might with that comfort others So the text and wee must be like God that communicates that comfort that is in him Thus at once we can have comfort and tell where we had it to draw others to goe immediately to God This doth nothing diminish our own comfort But as a candle lighting many shines rather more then lesse it selfe the meane while our comfort if truely good is will be communicative of it selfe It is a muddie-poole not a quick spring that runnes not over wee are a mysticall body therefore our spirituall blood and spirits and warmth must be in common We talke oft of the sweet of communion of Saints Feast take feast make and wee get by this feasting others soules with our spirituall comforts The very telling of the story of the manner how wee were comforted is a chewing the cud and brings up the sweet of our comfort upon our palates afresh But in the application and pressing of it upon the hearts of others wee heate and warme our owne hearts and spirits Wee rubbe the spices and make them smell more fragrant Yea God is as well seen in his streames of comfort running through the ground of our hearts to anothers heart as in running into our hearts at first Therefore we having the first handsale the first fruits let us communicate The wicked compasse Sea and Land to make proselytes for the Devill therfore let us much more for God especially considering Gods end he gave thee comfort for that end Every thing is most eminent in its operations when it is applyed to its end and utmost end As the sun in its fullest shining the instrument for the fullest