Joy in Tribulation, Chapter 16
CHAP. XVI. Comforts arising immediatelie from God himselfe. And first in generall.
LOoke as a vessell, which is coutinually driven downe by the current of any River, will at length fall into the maine Sea, which being the common store-house of waters, both supplieth the want, and receiveth the over-plus of lesser streames; So when our soules have beene carryed along within these narrower bankes of comforts, they will easily bee wafted into that wide Ocean, whence every consolation floweth, and into it ebbeth againe, and emptyeth it selfe. Certainly, the final comfort of a Christian soule, into which all the rest are resolved, is God himselfe, infinit in all goodnes, & unchangeable in his love, and therefore an unexhausted Well, a standing & overflowing fountaine of infinite consolations.
Hence as hee challengeth this title, and calleth himselfe The God of patience and consolation;Rom. 15.5. nay, The God of all comfort;2 Cor. 1.3 so his faithfull servants, from their experience, confesse him every where their strength, joy, portion, inh… ritance, their Rocke, Towre, Shield, Fortresse, &c. Well might David rejoyce and glory in the Lord:Psal 73.26 My flesh (saith hee) faileth, and my heart also; but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever. How strong and invincible was that faith, and by it that comfort of Iob? Iob 13.15, 16.Although he kill me, yet will I trust in him, and hee shall beé my salvation. And how answerable was their practice to this their profession? Doe but consider what wee read of these holy men.
David being driven from his native Countrey, and from his Fathers house, in disgrace with the Court, and in displeasure, nay, deadly hatred of his Prince, deprived of all his deserved honours, the just recompence of his noble service, by the malice and tyrannie of Saul; and (which he accounted, farre above the rest, the greatest miserie) banished from the holy Assemblies, and the house of God; affamished, and even starved for want of that Word, (which hee preferred above all the earth) not onelyonly thrust out from abiding in the inheritance of the Lord, but by the rage of his Adversaries inforced to seeke Sanctuary in idolatous Countries,1 Sam. 26… 19. where hee might have beene seduced to serve other gods, had yet at length hid his head under the protection of an Heathenish King, and found that favour from an enemy, & a Heathen, which he had lost among his friends, and Gods people. There he placed himselfe in a forraigne City with his wives,1 Sam. 27. and some few loose men, who for their owne advantage had follow…d him. But when hee retireth thither, he findeth the City burned, his wives, and all his substance; the wives, children, and all the goods of all his followers carried away. Nothing now was left him but his souldiers; and they, (grieved and vexed at the heart for their losse) take all against him, conspire, intend, and speake to stone him: Look out now into all the world, and see where you can finde upon earth, one spark of comfort for this Saint of God: yet even then when he was utterly desolate and forlorne, he could send up his dejected soule to heaven, and there did finde, and feele infinite comfort in the Lord his God. See the 1 Sam, chap. 30. from the 1. to the 7. vers.
Doe we not find the like, nay, more in Iob? His estate was lost, and for outward blessings (goods, and children) hee was stript as naked as he was borne: His wife left him, but as a snare: His friends come to comfort him, but through the craft of Satan, shake him more thau all the rest of his afflictions. His life was yet whole in his body, but his body broken and wounded with sore plagues from the crowne of the head to the sole of the foot: But yet the Spirit of a man will sustaine his infirmitie. Pro. 18.14True; but a wounded spirit, who can beare? The inner-man embroyled by Satan, and terrors of the spirit joyned to griefes and troubles of the body; without,Iob 10.17. plagues continually renued, changes, and armies of sorrowes set against him;Iob 6.4. within, and without, the arrowes of the Almightie shot at him, sticking in him, and their venime drink…ng up his spirit; the terrours of God fighting against him, made him the most afflicted, and (if it were possible for the faithfull to be miserable) the most wretched man on earth: But even then his poore soule, over-wrastled with temptations, cast downe within him, and almost smothered with this load and heape of afflictions, could lift up the head to search out the Redeemer, and find unspeakable comfort in him.Iob 19.25 26…27. I am sure my Redeemer liveth, and I shall see God in my flesh, &c.
What was left to those three royal young men (Dan. 3.) in that burning anger of the Tyrant, and that seven-fold heated furnace? What to the Apostle persecuted by Jewes, disgraced by Heathens, stoned by the consent of both, and (as a dead carrion) dragged, and cast out of the City; yea, too little esteemed, nay, judged by his owne children in the Spirit? yet were they then even full of comfort in God. Oh consider with what noble courage those three noble Captives defie the roaring of that Lyon, even the fiercenesse of that proud King, and tell him to his Beard,Dan. 3.17. Our God can, and will deliver us out of thine hand? With what Christian valour could that great Champion of the Lord Jesus, compassed in, and pressed downe with all the most bitter persecutions of this world cry out Victory, and sing his Triumph? not onelyonly saying with the Heathen,Quàm levia sunth… quàm h…ec non curo? How light are all these things, how slightlie doe I weigh them? nay, These light momentarie afflictions cause to us an excelling excellent eternall weight of glory, 2 Cor. 4.17. but,Rom. 8.37 In all these things wee are more than Conquerors through him that loveth us. So right is it, oh thou Eternall Truth, which thou hast spoken:Esa 51.12. I, even I am hee that comfort you; who art thou, that thou shouldst feare a mortall man, & the son of man which shal be made as grasse.
Sure is it God cannot but be the greatest comfort to them whom enjoy him, because he is the greatest good: For even those heathens (as truly observed that most judicious Divine,August. de doct. Chris. l. 1. c. 7. and learned Father) who consider him by the eye of the understanding, and not by sense, preferre him above all visible, and corporall, above all intelligible, and spiritual natures: Nor can (saith he… any man be found, who thinketh God to be that, than which any thing can be better. In this all men consent, that they advance him above all things. Let us therefore, from this incomprehensible Sea of consolation, draw out some especiall and particular comforts.