CHAPTER III: By what things the comfort of our lives is principally maintained and upheld
CHAPTER III
If we would know whether we make God our chiefest and supreme good, let us observe by what things the comfort of our lives is principally maintained and upheld.
Inquire by what things the comfort of thy life is principally maintained and upheld from day to day. For it is that which is good in this life whereby the comfort of one's life is nourished, as fire by fuel. We all live here in a miserable world, and our life is a pilgrimage of many a weary step; and the soul must have baitings and refreshings, or it will faint and fail, and not hold out to its journey's end. The comfort of a man's soul in Scripture is termed 'a man's life,'
Luke 12:15. 'Life,' says Christ, 'consists not in abundance;' by life there, he means the comfort and joy of life, which all abundance of outward things cannot give. And in this very respect, when comfort in outward things is gone and departed, the 'heart dies,' as 1 Sam.
25:37, Nabal's soul is said to 'die within him,' though he was merry over night; yet when he fell into the fear of losing all by David's plundering him, he having provoked him, it is said that his heart died within him. He lived ten days after, ver. 38, but his heart died, and became 'as a stone,' says the text; that look, as if you had beheld Lot's wife when her soul went out, and she was metamorphosed to a stone, or rather a pillar of salt, such was, in respect of the life of comfort, this man's condition. Look, as the body is not able to sustain and support itself without the soul; so, nor is the soul, which is mere emptiness, able to sustain itself in life without some good thing it hath conjunction and commerce with. Now then, what is the element thy soul lives in? It is certain that in him that is truly born again, his conversion wrought these two things in him: 1. His soul was struck
dead, as to the making the comforts of this life his chiefest good. And this humiliation usually doth work: Rom. 7:9, 'I was once alive, but I died.' Gal. 2:19, 'I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God;' and ver. 20, 'I am crucified with Christ.' There are these more eminent parts of humiliation: 1. To bring a man to nothing in his own righteousness (as 1 Cor. 1, last verses), and to kill and slay a man thereunto, that so he may be brought to accept of God's righteousness in Christ prepared for him, and to live thereby.
2. To bring the soul to nothing in outward comforts in sins, or in the creatures. And this also is the work of the law, through the cross of Christ, which goes with it. Isa. 40:7, it is made the effect of John
Baptist's ministry, of which ver. 3 speaks, 'The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a high way for our God;' that at his voice 'the grass withered, the flower faded, because the Spirit of the Lord had blown upon it.' He speaks not simply of the vanity of the creature in itself, but what it became to his hearers, that received the Spirit of bondage from his ministry, as those words that follow do shew,
'because the Spirit of the Lord,' namely, in his ministry, 'had blown upon them all,' and was ventus, a wind that blasted and withered all their good things to them; so as now they looked upon them all as withered flowers. And therefore Paul in the next verse in that Gal. 2, says he was 'crucified with Christ' also; which, Gal. 6:14, he interprets among other things to be a crucifying of the world to him, which was done by the power of the cross virtually, though by the law humbling a man instrumentally, as that Gal. 2 to me evidently importeth.
Now the end why God thus kills man by humiliation to his own righteousness and to all comforts, so as never to have help to his soul in them, is to the end he may live anew, and have a new life in both.
1. To live by going out to Christ for righteousness, 'the just shall live by faith.' And 2. To cause the soul to pitch upon God for ever as his chiefest good; and all that desired good it ever looks for in this world, or the world to come. So you have it, Ps. 16:5, 6, 'The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance, and of my cup: thou maintainest my lot.
The lines are fallen, unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage.' And this is done by faith, as it sanctifies, and by instinct of the new creature. 1 Cor. 1:3, Paul termeth God both 'the Father of mercies,' as in relation to justification and pardon, and then the 'God of all comfort.' It is an attribute he hath taken on him, as he is an object of his people's hearts; and thus, in respect of sanctification, all the comfort we look for is from him.
Use. Improve and take the light of these trials, and go down into your hearts and take the keys of them and ransack your private cupboards, and narrowly observe what junkets your souls have hitherto lived upon, and gone behind the door and there secretly and stoutly have made a meal of them. Delights are secret things, Prov.
14:10, as treasures are. As dogs (and carnal men are so compared) have bones they hide, and secretly steal forth to gnaw upon; so men have sins they hide under their tongues as sweet bits, Job 20:12. But examine what your comforts principally consist in.
Now if you would further know how it may be discerned in what your chief comforts lie, 1. Look what in distress your souls have recourse unto for relief and support.
2. In ordinary cases take this division to help you. A survey either, 1.
Of things present: 2. Past; 3. To come. For in and from all these, men take up their comforts.
1. Observe what your hearts have their ordinary recourse unto in cases of distress, or the ordinary discomfitures of this life, which God in a man's race layeth on purpose even in every man's way. Men's expectations are usually and often disappointed, especially at times, and then their hearts and spirits fail. And look, as in fears, or in a swoon, men's vital spirits run to the heart to comfort it; so in distress the heart runs out to something else, which it is inured unto, to comfort it as a cordial and consolation. And as the otter, when in
times of frost it is kept under water by the ice, yet by its breath keeps open some place as a breathing-hole, so doth the heart. Now watch and observe the haunts and breathing-holes which in distress thy soul keeps open to itself, to fetch in fresh air from; or look, as if you should see a company of rabbits grazing in a sunshiny day, and a man come by whom they fear, or a storm, you shall see them all instantly run into their several burrows, which are proper to them; and by the place whither each of them doth ran, you may discern which is proper to each: now thus in distress doth the heart run to its holes. The like men do in times of war to their several forts and garrisons, and so you may know what party they belong to: Prov.
18:10, 'The name of the Lord is a strong tower, and the righteous runs to it, and is safe;' that is, if he be a righteous man, that is his refuge, as Jer. 16:19, 'O Lord, my strength and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit.' On the contrary, take a carnal rich man who puts trust in his riches; he also in ordinary distresses runs to his tower, from the same place of the Proverbs: ver. 11, 'The substance of the rich man is his strong city.' If a cross in other things befall him, discredit, hatred of men, as an oppressor, yet he is still counting with himself, reckoning nummos in arca, the moneys in his chest, or out at use, or in revenue, populus sibi sibulet: aut mihi plaudo; he the next morning, when he wakes, bids good morrow to his gold. And thus, if one comfort be gone, he runs to another, as the prophet told that wretched man he should
'run from chamber to chamber for his life.' You may see this difference amplified in Esau and Jacob, Saul and David; the first pair compeers for a birthright, the other for a kingdom. Esau, Gen. 27, when he had that great loss befallen him as ever befell a man, namely, the loss of his birthright, and himself made apprehensive of it (witness his tears), what doth he comfort himself withal? Ver. 42, says Rebecca to Jacob, 'Behold thy brother comforteth himself, purposing to kill thee.' It was revenge; which, to a man of his constitution, an hairy man of the field, is the sweetest lust in the world to accomplish. But. Jacob, on the contrary, when he was
distressed greatly, Gen. 32:7, as the text there says, 'whither hath he recourse? Even to God,' so ver. 9; and you may see by his prayer and hopes in God's promise, ver. 12, that God would surely do him good.
See it also in Saul and David; Saul was made sensible by Samuel, that he had lost a kingdom: 1 Sam. 15:30, 'Yet honour me' (says he) 'afore the people.' David lost all at Ziklag, wives, estate, and was put into as great a ground of fear, of hazard of life (and so of his kingdom promised) as man could probably be in (for the people spake of stoning him). And in this case what had David recourse unto? The story tells you, 1 Sam. 30:6, 'David encouraged himself in his God.'
So elsewhere David says, 'My heart fails, and my flesh fails, but God is the strength of my heart,' Ps. 73:26: and Ps. 119:92, 'Unless thy word had been my delight, I had perished in my affliction.'
2. Observe whence your comforts come in; which is discerned by the heart's recourse, either unto things present, past, or to come.
(1.) For things present. Men use to take an inventory of their present things afore them, to comfort their hearts with. So doth the rich man in the gospel: 'Soul, take thine ease; thou hast' (now at present by thee) 'goods laid up for many years.' As rich men count their estates with themselves, and love to do it, so doth the soul in secret reckon up its comforts and opportunities to satisfy its lusts. In a morning when men wake, their souls look out what sports, pleasures, are ready to wait upon them that day. So they in the prophet, 'To-day shall be as to-morrow,* and much more abundant.' Whereas if a godly man hath the sense of the favour of God, he triumphs in it, and 'makes his boast in God all the day long,' Ps. 44:8. He often counts with himself, I shall hear a good sermon this day, and receive the sacraments, meet with my Saviour, my Lord and husband, when the day comes, and longs for it aforehand.
Again (2d), Men's souls have recourse for comfort unto what is past.
Thus a scholar, that is low and mean in his outward condition, takes a pleasing survey of what credit he got by such a performance, at
such a time; how he was applauded, and in the contemplation thereof his soul bears up itself. When other straits and wants to satisfy other lusts do depress him, he swims and floats in his own conceits by means of these bladders, and his soul is thereby kept up from sinking. Yea, he is carried aloft (as he vainly thinks) on the breaths and opinions of men, as feathers and bubbles which children make for their pastime on them. Thus also men make and revive in their fancies the actings of former pleasures and dalliances, &c., whereas a godly man, in the present want of outward comforts, yea, the present sense of the withdrawings of God's love, hath recourse to times past, 'the days of old,' as David recounts with himself, what
'songs had been sung in the night,' between God and him, what earnest desires: 'My soul hath longed for thee in the night.' What love and joys, sweet intercourse and communion, hath been between God and him, at such and such a time.
(3.) And especially you may discover this, by what recourse the soul hath to things to come in future hopes, and what kind, of good things those are the soul hath thus recourse unto. Men's souls do live by hopes, as much and more than by anything past or present; and we use to take up our comforts beforehand. The miserablest man that is, hath yet usually a loop-hole of hope to look out of, a door of hope for his soul to go out at, and relieve itself. Now, 1 Cor. 15:19, the hopes of a godly and carnal man are distinguished. 'If we' (that are believers)
'had hopes only in this life' (as all carnal worldlings have), 'we were of all men the most miserable;' as having given up this world for grace, both in the present and the future; and betaken ourselves to what is in the other world, by which we relieve and comfort ourselves against the miseries of this world, that befall us every day more than they do other men. Christ is our hope (so 1 Tim. 1:1), that is generally of all Christians, and 'our life is hid in God with him'; whereas a carnal man makes his gold (or some like worldly comfort or other) his hope, Job 31:24.
I shall, to clear this point further, remove one scruple, which good souls who are left to a dry faith, and to follow after God in a barren
land, may and will, upon hearsay of this, be apt unto, and to say, This doctrine strikes me dead, for I have not, nor cannot yet find, any comfortable relish or enjoyment of God, but a great deal of carnal relish of things of the world, and deeper and more impressions of sweetness from thence, than these impressions are which the word or thing of another world brings in; and how is God my chiefest good?
Ans. 1. It is a false rule, which will deceive, to measure out what is our chiefest good by what our enjoyments, possessions of, or delights are, in that which we pitch upon as our chiefest good. The rule would fail us, whether we be carnal or regenerate men. This is common to both, that in respect of enjoyment they have their disappointments, even the most godly, in this life, of him whom their souls desire. A soul that hath pitched its happiness on such an outward worldly comfort, may yet perhaps never have come to enjoy it, as in men that desire to be rich, and are disappointed in their hopes, &c., we see it verified, so as the case of the one comes all to one, and holds true as well as in the other. And a man that is carnal, lustful, worldly, may as well say he makes not preferment, or riches, or beauty his greatest good, because still he hath been kept under and disappointed; and sensible sweetness ariseth always from enjoyment.
Ans. 2. But hast thou not had thy heart emptied of all these earthly enjoyments, by what light and taste thou hast had from God? Hast thou not had such a spiritual appetite as all created comforts can never fill or quiet, instead of himself? So as thou pursuest after him with the strong intent of this, day and night. What is it thy soul hath set up in its eye, as thy mark thou intendedst for (as Paul speaks)? Is it not God's favour which thou prizest, seekest for with thy greatest contention? Affections are to be measured by what we labour after day and night to arrive at.
Ans. 3. In the mean time thou sayest, Of all outward comforts, what good will all these do me? And what are they, if I want thy favour? As a man looking diligently for a pearl or jewel meets with many things