for the glory of his God and Redeemer; the more shall he know by experience, that the comforts of religion overbalance the difficulties of it. In proportion as he takes pleasure in spiritual exercises, and holy performances, and that from love to Christ, and for the glory of God; the most laborious exercises of religion shall become pleasant to him, and the most difficult duties, easy. Holy consolation, in the hand of the blessed Spirit, makes every thing in holiness, a pleasure to him; and the closer he walketh with God, the God of all comfort, the stronger and sweeter is his consolation. If spiritual comfort is of such importance and utility to believers, as hath been shewn; surely, it is the duty of every believer, to use diligently, the appointed means of attaining a gradual increase of it. The apostle Paul exhorted the believers in Corinth, to be of good comfort *;" that is, to be so diligent in receiving, by the frequent exercise of faith, the comfort offered and promised to them in the gospel, as to attain more and more of the joy of faith, and of a good conscience. Nothing will carry a Christian through the inward and outward difficulties of religion, but the inward supports and delights of it. Every believer, therefore, should constantly endeavour to attain, as early as possible, much of the comfort of the Holy Spirit; that he may, the more easily and cheerfully, surmount every difficulty, and be the more resolute in the practice of universal holiness.. The hypocrite will not always call upon God," because he will not "delight himself in the Almighty." Were 1 Job xxvii. 10. k 2 Cor. xiii: 11. he to delight himself in the Almighty, especially as a God infinitely holy; he would no longer be a hypocrite, and would always call upon Him. If the true believer would, at all times, persevere in spiritual, and cheerful obedience to the commandments of Christ; he must, in the strength of promised grace, labour to attain more and more of the comfort of communion with Him in his righteousness and fulness: for, the more his heart is comforted, the more "he is established in every good word and work"." He hath always need of spiritual comfort, in this valley of tears, to strengthen him for his spiritual conflicts, and holy performances; and therefore, under an abiding sense of his need of it, he should daily employ the means of receiving fresh supplies. Once more: Is holy consolation, of such consequence to the saints? Hence it is evident, that their loss of it, must be a very great and grievous loss to them. The loss, indeed, of lively and pleasant feelings, though a grievous, yet is not usually a very great loss to the exercised Christian; but the loss of that ordinary comfort or tranquillity of mind which he has hitherto enjoyed, is both a very great, and a very grievous loss to him. He may, for a season, be without sensible and lively impressions, and yet not be deserted of God, in respect of habitual comfort, or serenity of mind. For, as it is not a cloud intervening, nor even a partial eclipse of the sun, but the absence of the sun, that occasions night; so, it is not the want of a lively impression, or a pleasant frame, but the loss of 2 Thess. ii. 17. : that peaceful tranquillity of spirit, which the believer was wont to enjoy, that causeth darkness to cover his soul. The loss of this, is an unspeakably great and grievous loss to him. If Christ the Sun of righteousness, is graciously pleased to shine upon him, all is well; but, if He hideth his countenance, the smiles of the whole creation can afford him no solid comfort. Believer, take heed that thou do not provoke the Lord, to withhold influences of holy comfort from thy soul. Do not, by carnal security, or self-confidence, or earthly mindedness, or any other iniquity, provoke Him to turn the reviving smiles of his countenance, which thou now enjoyest, into killing frowns. Thy soul is no more self-sufficient, than self-existent. If the Lord cease to refresh it with his cheering smiles, it cannot but languish and faint. CHAPTER III. OF THE WAY IN WHICH, BELIEVERS LOSE THEIR SFIRITUAL COMFORT. ALTHOUGH aholy man cannot, so much as for a mo ment, lose that principle of comfort or joy, which the Holy Spirit, in regeneration, hath implanted in his heart, nor yet that entire habit of joy, which He hath, in sanctification, implanted there; yet he some times loses the sense or feeling of it: he is at times deprived of sensible comfort, or of the joy of God's salvation. By his losing of spiritual consolation, I do not mean, his falling merely for an hour or a day, from a pleasant, into an unpleasant frame of spirit; (for his frames are almost perpetually chang ing;) but, his being more or less deprived of the sense of God's peculiar favour to him, or of the -sensible possession of spiritual comfort, and that for a considerable time. When the God of all comfort continueth, for a season, to withhold the 'cheering light of his gracious countenance from his soul; it cannot but be disquieted and disconsolate ". Though the Lord, on purpose to display his wisdom and sovereignty, to try the graces of believers, to mortify their pride, and to teach them the necessity of adventuring, as sinners, to trust simply in Christ, for all the grace of the promise, withholds for a time, sensible comfort from them; yet, for the most part, he doth it in order to chasten them, for their sins against him as their God and Father. At the same time, it is not for every sin of infirmity, that he suspends consoling influences from their souls; otherwise, as they can never so much as think a thought, without polluting it by some degree of sin, he would, at all times, be afflicting them with want of comfort; but, it is for some peculiarly aggravated transgressions, or, for relapsing often into the same sin. It is their iniquities and backslidings, that procure trouble of mind for them P. Such are God's love to them, and care of them, and such is his abhorrence of their sin; that he cannot but make even his dear children themselves feel, that he is displeased with them, when they backslide from him. His faithfulness also to his • Isa. lix. 2. P Jer. ii. 19. A Ps. xxx. 7. word, in which he threatens trouble as a fatherly chastisement, and even promises it as a blessing in disguise, to them, moves him to do so. And though the sins of some particular believers, as in the case of Job, may not in every instance, be the procuring cause of their loss of comfort; yet they are at least the occasion of it s. All that, in this Chapter, I further propose to do, is, to point out some of the leading sins and ways of sinning, by which, believers provoke their heavenly Father to suspend for a time, that degree of holy consolation from them, which they have formerly enjoyed. 1. In the first place, They provoke him to do this, by allowing themselves to continue, in a culpable degree, ignorant of his covenant of grace, and of their warrant to come, as sinners, and to trust in the Lord Jesus, for their own particular salvation. These are objects in which, the comfort of true believers, is at all times, intimately concerned; the spiritual and distinct knowledge of which, is necessary to qualify them, for deriving continual supplies of grace and consolation, from the fulness of Christ'. If believers then suffer themselves, surrounded as they are, by the clear light of the blessed gospel, to retain ignorance, or to cherish mistakes, respect-ing the covenant of Jehovah's peace", and the infinite fulness and freeness of his grace treasured up in Christ, the glorious Trustee of that covenant; they do thereby undervalue the only doctrine, on s Jer. xxxi. 18. John xvii. 3. and vi. 40. Rom. xv. 13. |