42. Chapter II.
Chapter II.
General properties of the office of a comforter.
General adjuncts or properties of the office of a comforter, as exercised by the Holy Spirit. To evidence still further the nature of this office and work, we may consider and inquire into the general adjuncts of it, as exercised by the Holy Spirit. And they are four:
First, Infinite condescension. This is among those mysteries of the divine dispensation which we may admire but cannot comprehend; and it is the property of faith alone to act and live upon incomprehensible objects. What reason cannot comprehend it will neglect, as that which it has no concern in, nor can have any benefit by. Faith is most satisfied and cherished with what is infinite and inconceivable, as resting absolutely in divine revelation. Such is this condescension of the Holy Ghost. He is by nature "over all, God blessed forever;" and it is a condescension in the divine excellence to concern itself in a particular manner in any creature whatever. God "humbles himself to behold the things that are in heaven, and in the earth," Psalms 113:5-6; how much more does he do so, in submitting himself to the discharge of an office in behalf of poor worms here below!
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This, I confess, is most astonishing, and attended with the most incomprehensible rays of divine wisdom and goodness in the condescension of the Son. For he carried the term of it to the lowest and most abject condition that a rational, intelligent nature is capable of. Thus it is represented by the apostle, Phi 2.6-8.538 For he not only took our nature into personal union with himself, but became in it, in his outward condition, as a servant — indeed, as a worm and no man, a reproach of men, and despised of the people;Psalms 22:6 and he became subject to death, the ignominious, shameful death of the cross. Hence, this dispensation of God was filled with infinite wisdom, goodness, and grace. We will rejoice to all eternity in the contemplation of how this exinanition539 of the Son of God was compensated with the glory that ensued. And then the character of all divine excellencies will be more gloriously conspicuous on this condescension of the Son of God, than they ever were on the works of the whole creation, when this goodly fabric of heaven and earth was brought, by divine power and wisdom, through darkness and confusion, out of nothing. The condescension of the Holy Spirit to his work and office is not, indeed, of the same kind as to its object.540 He does not assume our nature; he does not expose himself to the injuries of an outward state and condition; yet it is such that it is more the object of our faith in adoration than of our reason in disquisition.541 Consider the thing in itself: how one person in the holy Trinity, subsisting in the unity of the same divine nature, would undertake to execute the love and grace of the other persons, and in their names — what do we understand of it? This holy economy, in the distinct and subordinate actings of the divine persons in these external works, is only known to, and is understood only by, themselves. It is our wisdom to acquiesce in express divine revelation. Those who deny these things have scarcely more dangerously erred than those who, by a proud and conceited subtlety of mind, pretend to have a conception of them. They express this in words and terms that, they say, are "precise and accurate." But indeed, they are foolish and curious, whether of other men’s coining, or their own discovery. Faith keeps the soul at a holy distance from these infinite depths of the divine wisdom. There it profits more by reverence and holy fear, than any soul can do by its utmost attempt to draw near to that inaccessible light in which these glories of the divine nature dwell.
370 But we may more steadily consider this condescension with respect to its object. The Holy Spirit thereby becomes a comforter to us poor miserable worms of the earth. And what heart can conceive the glory of this grace? What tongue can express it? Its eminency will especially appear if we consider the ways and means by which he so comforts us, and the opposition from us which he meets with in this. We must treat this afterward.
Secondly, Unspeakable love accompanies the susception and discharge of this office, and that works by tenderness and compassion. The Holy Spirit is said to be the divine, eternal, mutual love of the Father and the Son. I know that great wariness is to be used in declaring these mysteries, and that expressions concerning them are not to be ventured on that are not warranted by the letter of the Scripture. Yet I judge that this notion excellently expresses, if not the distinct manner of subsistence, yet the mutual, internal operation of the persons of the blessed Trinity. For we have no term for, nor notion of, that ineffable complacence and eternal rest which is in this, beyond that of "love." Hence it is said that "God is love," 1 John 4:8; 1 John 4:16. It does not seem only to be an essential property of the nature of God that the apostle intends, for it is proposed to us as a motive for mutual love among ourselves. And this does not consist simply in the habit or affection of love, but in the actings of it in all its fruits and duties. For God is love, such that the internal actings of the holy persons, which are actings in and by the Spirit, are all the ineffable actings of love, in which the nature of the Holy Spirit is expressed to us. The apostle prays for the presence of the Spirit with the Corinthians under the name of the "God of love and peace," 2 Corinthians 13:11. And the communication of the whole love of God to us is committed to the Spirit; for "the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given to us," Romans 5:5. And hence, the same apostle distinctly mentions the love of the Spirit, conjoining it with all the effects of the mediation of Christ: Romans 15:30, "I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ’s sake, and for the love of the Spirit." — That is, "I do so on account of the respect you have for Christ, and all that he has done for you, which is an irresistible motive for believers. I also do it for the love of the Spirit: all that love which he acts and communicates to you." Therefore, in all the actings of the Holy Ghost towards us — and especially in this acting of his susception542 of an office in behalf of the church, which is the foundation of them all — his love is principally to be considered. And he chooses this way of acting and working towards us, to express his unique, personal character, as he is the eternal love of the Father and the Son. And among all his actings towards us, which are all acts of love, the most conspicuous are those in which he is a comforter.
Therefore, this is of great use to us as that which ought to have (and will have, if duly apprehended) a great influence on our faith and obedience. Moreover, it is the spring of all the consolations we receive by and from him. And so we will give a little evidence of it — namely, that the love of the Spirit is principally to be considered in this office and in its discharge. For whatever good we receive from anyone, whatever benefit or present relief we have by it, we can receive no comfort or consolation in it, unless we are persuaded that it proceeds from love. And what does proceed from love, however small, has refreshment and satisfaction in it for every ingenuous543 nature. It is love alone that is the salt of every kindness or benefit, and which removes from it everything that may be noxious or hurtful. Without an apprehension of this, and satisfaction in it, multiplied beneficial effects will produce no internal satisfaction in those who receive them, nor will they put any real engagement on their minds, Pro 23.6-8.544 It is therefore of concern to us to secure this ground for all our consolation, in the full assurance of faith that there was infinite love in the susception of this office by the Holy Ghost. And it is evident that it was so —
1. From the nature of the work itself. For the consolation or comforting of any who stand in need of this, is an immediate effect of love, with its inseparable properties of pity and compassion. It must especially be so where no advantage redounds to the comforter, but the whole of what is done respects entirely the good and relief of those who are comforted. For what other affection of mind can be its principle, and from which it may proceed? Persons may be relieved under oppression by justice, and under want by bounty; but to comfort and refresh the minds of any is a particular act of sincere love and compassion. Therefore, this work of the Holy Ghost must be esteemed an act of love. I do not mean only that his love is eminent and discernible in it, but that it proceeds solely from love. Without faith in this, we cannot have the benefit of this divine dispensation, nor will any comforts we receive be firm or stable. But once this is graciously fixed in our minds, there is not one drop of comfort or spiritual refreshment administered by the Holy Ghost, which does not proceed from his infinite love, and which will not then be disposed into that frame of mind which is necessary to comply with him in his operations. And in particular, all the acts in which the discharge of this office consists, are acts of the highest love, of what is infinite, as we will see in considering them.
2. The manner of the performance of this work is so expressed as to evince and expressly demonstrate that it is a work of love. So it is declared where he is promised to the church for this work: Isaiah 66:13, "As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; and you will be comforted in Jerusalem." The one whom his mother comforts, is supposed to be in some kind of distress. Nor indeed is there distress of any kind that may befall a child whose mother is kind and tender, that she will not be ready to administer to him all the consolation she is able. And how, or in what way, such a mother will discharge this duty, is better conceived than can be expressed. We are not, in natural things, able to conceive of greater love, care, and tenderness, than is in a tender mother who comforts her children in distress. And hereby the prophet graphically represents to our minds the manner by which the Holy Ghost discharges this office towards us. Nor can a child contract greater guilt, or manifest a more depraved habit of mind, than to disregard the affection of a mother endeavoring for its consolation. Such children may sometimes, through the bitterness of their spirits, by their pains and distempers, be surprised into frowardness,545 and a present disregard of the mother’s kindness and compassion, which she knows full well how to bear with. But if they continue to have no sense of it, if it makes no impression on them, they are of a profligate constitution. And so it may be with believers sometimes. They may disregard divine influences of consolation, by forays into spiritual frowardness, by weakness, by unaccountable despondencies — but the great Comforter will bear with and overcome all these things.
Isaiah 57:15-19, "Thus says the high and lofty One that inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. For I will not contend forever, nor will I always be angry: for the spirit would fail before me, and the souls which I have made. For the iniquity of his covetousness I was angry, and struck him: I hid myself, and was angry, and he went on frowardly in the way of his heart. I have seen his ways, and will heal him: I will lead him also, and restore comforts to him and to his mourners. I create the fruit of the lips; Peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near, says the Lord; and I will heal him." When persons are under sorrows and disconsolations on account of pain and sickness, or the like, though intending to comfort them, it will still be needful sometimes to make use of means and remedies that may be painful and vexatious; and these may be apt to irritate and provoke poor, wayward patients. Yet a mother is not discouraged by this, but proceeds on in her way until the cure is effected and consolation is administered. So God deals with his church by his Spirit. His design is "to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones," Isaiah 57:15; and he gives this reason for it: namely, that if he did not act in infinite love and condescension towards them, but dealt with them according to their deservings, they would be utterly consumed, "the spirit would fail before him, and the souls which he has made," verse 16.
However, in the pursuit of this work, he must use some sharp remedies that were needful for curing their distempers and for their spiritual recovery. Because of their iniquity, "the iniquity of their covetousness," which was the principal disease they labored under, "he was angry and struck them, and hid his face from them," because doing so was necessary to their cure, verse 17. And how do they behave under God’s dealing with them? They grow peevish and froward under his hand, choosing to continue in their disease rather than be thus healed by him: "They went on frowardly in the way of their hearts," verse 17. How, therefore, does this Holy Comforter now deal with them? Does he give them up to their frowardness? Does he leave and forsake them under their distemper? No; a tender mother would not deal with her children that way. He manages his work with such infinite love, tenderness, and compassion, that he will overcome all their frowardness, and not cease until he has effectively administered consolation to them: Verse 18, "I have seen," he says, all "his ways," all his frowardness and miscarriages, and yet he says, "I will heal him;" — "I will not, even for all this, be diverted from my work and the pursuit of my design. Before I am done, I will lead him into a right frame, ’and restore comforts to him.’ And so that there may be no failure in this, I will do it by a creating act of power:" Verse 19, "I create the fruit of the lips; Peace, peace." This is the method of the Holy Ghost in administering consolation to the church, by openly evidencing that love and compassion from which it proceeds. And without this method, no soul would ever be spiritually refreshed under its dejections. For we are apt to behave ourselves frowardly, more or less, under the work of the Holy Ghost towards us. Infinite love and compassion alone, working by patience and long-suffering, can carry it on to perfection. But if we are not only froward under particular occasions, temptations, and surprisals, clouding our present view of the Holy Spirit in his work, but are also habitually careless and negligent about it; if we never labor to attain satisfaction in it, but always indulge the peevishness and frowardness of unbelief; it argues for a most depraved, unthankful frame of heart, in which the soul of God cannot be well pleased.
3. It is evidence that his work proceeds from and is wholly managed in love, that we are cautioned not to grieve him, Ephesians 4:30. And a double evidence of the greatness of his love in this, is tendered to us in this caution:
(1.) In that only those who act in love towards us, are subject to be grieved by us. If we do not comply with the will and rule of others, they may be provoked, vexed, and instigated to wrath against us; but only those who love us are grieved at our miscarriages. A severe schoolmaster may be more provoked with the fault of his scholar than the father is; but the father is grieved with it when the other is not. Therefore, though the Holy Spirit is not subject or liable to the affection of grief as it is a passion in us, we are cautioned not to grieve him — namely, this is to teach us with what love and compassion, with what tenderness and holy delight, he performs his work in us and towards us.
(2.) His love is so great in that he has undertaken the work of comforting those who are so apt and prone to grieve him, as we are for the most part. The great work of the Lord Christ was to die for us; but what puts an eminence on his love is that he died for us while we were yet his enemies — sinners and ungodly, Romans 5:6-10. And as the work of the Holy Ghost is to comfort us, a luster is put on it by this: that he comforts those who are very prone to grieve him. For although we may not hurt, molest, or grieve in return those by whom we are grieved, because we have a particular affection for them, who sets himself to comfort those who grieve him, when they do so? But the Holy Ghost commends his love to us specifically in this: that even while we grieve him, he recovers us by his consolations, from those ways which grieve him.
This, therefore, is to be fixed as an important principle in this part of the mystery of God: that the principal foundation of the susception of this office of a comforter by the Holy Spirit, is his own unique and ineffable love: for both the efficacy of our consolation, and the life of our obedience, depend on it. For when we know that every acting of the Spirit of God towards us, every gracious impression from him on our understandings, wills, or affections, are done in pursuit of that infinite singular love for which he took upon himself the office of a comforter, they cannot but influence our hearts with spiritual refreshment. And when faith is defective in this matter, so that it does not exercise itself in the consideration of this love of the Holy Ghost, we will never arrive at a solid, abiding, and strong consolation. As for those by whom all these things are despised and derided, it is no difficulty for me whether I should renounce the gospel, or reject them from an interest in Christianity —for the approbation of both is inconsistent. Moreover, it is evident how great a motive arises from this for cheerful, watchful, universal obedience. For all the actings of sin or unbelief in us are, in the first place, reactions to those actings of the Holy Ghost in us and upon us. By sin and unbelief, He is resisted in his persuasions, quenched in his motions, and grieved in himself. If there is any holy ingenuousness in us, it will excite a vigilant diligence not to be overtaken with such wickedness against unspeakable love. The one whose soul is kept under a sense of the love of the Holy Spirit in this, will walk both safely and fruitfully.
Thirdly, Infinite power is also needful to, and accordingly evident in, the discharge of this office. We have fixed that the Holy Ghost is, and ever was, the comforter of the church. Whatever is therefore said of this, belongs uniquely to him. It is expressed as proceeding from and accompanied with infinite power. And also, considering the persons and things, it is necessary that it should be so. Thus we have the church’s complaint in a deep disconsolation:
"My way is hidden from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God," Isaiah 40:27.
It is not so much her affliction and miseries which cause her dejection, as an apprehension that God does not regard her in this. And when this is added to any pressing trouble, whether internal or external, it fully constitutes a state of spiritual disconsolation. For when faith can take a prospect of the love, care, and concern of God in us and our condition, however grievous things may be to us at present, we cannot be comfortless. And what is it, in the consolation which God intends for his church, that he would have them consider in him, as an assured ground of relief and refreshment? He declares it himself in the verses which follow it:
Isaiah 40:28-31, "Have you not known? Have you not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, does not faint, nor is weary?" etc. 546 The church does not at all seem to doubt His power, but it doubts His love, care, and faithfulness towards her. But it is his infinite power that he chooses first to satisfy her in, as that which all his actings towards her were founded in and resolved into. Without a due consideration of this, all that otherwise could be expected would not yield her relief. And this being fixed on their minds, he next proposes to them his infinite understanding and wisdom:
"There is no searching of his understanding."
Conceive rightly of his infinite power, and then leave things to his sovereign, unsearchable wisdom for their management, as to the ways degrees, times and seasons. Apprehending a lack of love and care in God towards them, was what immediately caused their disconsolation; but the ground of it was in their unbelief of his infinite power and wisdom. Therefore, in the work of the Holy Ghost for comforting the church, his infinite power is to be specifically considered. So the apostle proposes it to the weakest believers for their support, and as what would assure them of the victory in their conflict, that "greater is he that is in them than he that is in the world," 1 John 4:4. That Holy Spirit which is bestowed on them and dwells in them is greater, abler, and more powerful, than Satan who attempts their ruin in and by the world, seeing that the Spirit has omnipotent power. Thoughts of our disconsolation arise from the impressions that Satan makes upon our minds and consciences by sin, temptation, and persecution. For we do not find in ourselves such an ability to resist that we may have from it an assurance of a conquest. The apostle says in essence, "You are to expect this from the power of the Holy Spirit, which is infinitely above whatever Satan has to oppose you, or to bring any disconsolation on you. This will cast out all that fear which has torment accompanying it." This may be disregarded by those who are filled with an apprehension of their own self-sufficiency as to all the ends of living and being obedient to God. They likewise apprehend that they have a never-failing spring of rational considerations about these, which are able to administer all necessary relief and comfort to them at all times. But those who are really sensible of their own condition, and that of other believers — if they understand what it means to be comforted with the "consolations of God," and how remote they are from those delusions which men embrace under the name of their "rational considerations" — will grant that faith in God’s infinite power is requisite to any solid spiritual comfort: for —
1. Who can declare the dejections, sorrows, fears, despondencies, and discouragements that believers are liable to, in the great variety of their natures, causes, effects, and occasions? What relief can be suited to them except what emanates from infinite power? Indeed, such is the spiritual frame and constitution of their souls, that they will often reject all means of comfort that are not communicated by an almighty efficacy. Hence God "creates the fruit of the lips, Peace, peace," Isaiah 57:19. He produces peace in the souls of men by a creating act of his power. And he directs us, in the passage mentioned before, to look for it only from the infinite excellence of his nature. None was therefore fit for this work of being the church’s comforter, except the Spirit of God alone. He alone, by his almighty power, can remove all their fears, and support them under all their dejections, in all that variety with which they are tempted and exercised. Nothing but omnipotence itself is suited to obviate those innumerable disconsolations that we are liable to. And those whose souls are pressed in earnest with them, and are driven from all the reliefs which not only carnal security and stout-heartedness in adversity offer, but also from all those lawful diversions which the world can administer, will understand that true consolation is an act of the exceeding greatness of the power of God, without which it will not be worked.
2. The means and causes of their disconsolation direct them to the same spring of their comfort. Whatever the power of hell, sin, and the world can effect, separately or in conjunction, it is all levelled against the peace and comfort of believers.
It would require great enlargement of this discourse to declare how great a force and efficacy these means and causes are in their attempts to disturb and ruin believers, and by what various ways and means they work to that end. And yet, after we had used our utmost diligence in an inquiry about them, we would come short of a full investigation; indeed, perhaps short of what many individuals find in their own experience. Therefore, with respect to one cause and principle of disconsolation, God declares that he is the one who comforts his people:
Isaiah 51:12-15, "I, even I, am he who comforts you. Who are you, that you should be afraid of a man who will die, and of the son of man who will be made like grass? And do you forget the Lord your maker, who has stretched out the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth? And have you feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy? And where is the fury of the oppressor? The captive exile hastens that he may be loosed, and that he should not die in the pit, nor that his bread should fail. But I am the Lord your God, who divided the sea, whose waves roared: The Lord of hosts is his name."
God sees it necessary to declare his infinite power, and to express its effects in various instances.
Therefore, if we take a view of what the state and condition of the church is, in itself and in the world— how weak the faith of most believers is; how great are their fears; how many are their discouragements; how great are the temptations, calamities, oppositions, and persecutions they are exercised with; how vigorously and sharply these things are set upon their spirits, according to all the advantages, inward and outward, that their spiritual adversaries can lay hold of — then it will be manifest how necessary it was that their consolation be entrusted to Him with whom infinite power always dwells. And if our own inward or outward peace seems to abate about the necessity of this consideration, it may not be amiss, by the exercise of faith in this, to lay in provision for the future, seeing that we do not know what may befall us in the world. And if we live to see the church in storms (and who knows but that we may), our principal support will be that our Comforter is of almighty power, wonderful in counsel, and excellent in operation.
Fourthly, This dispensation of the Spirit is unchangeable. To whomever he is given as a comforter, he abides with them forever. Our Savior expressly declares this in the first promise he made of sending him as a comforter, in a particular manner: John 14:16, "I will pray the Father, and he will give you another comforter, that he may abide with you forever." The moment of this promise lies in his unchangeable continuance with the church.
There, indeed, was a present occasion necessitating this declaration of the unchangeableness of his abode. For in this entire discourse, our Savior was preparing the hearts of his disciples for his departure from them, which was now at hand. And because the whole of the relief he would afford them in this case, is laid upon his sending the Holy Ghost, he takes care not only to prevent an objection which might arise in their minds about this dispensation of the Spirit, but in doing so, he also secures the faith and consolation of the church in all ages. For he himself had been their immediate, visible comforter during the whole time of his ministry among them. But he was now departing, and "the heaven was to receive him until the times of restitution of all things." And so they might be apt to fear that this comforter who was now promised to them, might also continue only for a season, by which they would be reduced to a new loss and sorrow. To assure their minds in this, our Lord Jesus Christ lets them know that this other comforter would not only always continue with them to the end of their lives, work, and ministry, but he would absolutely abide with the church to the consummation of all things. The Spirit is now given in an eternal and unchangeable covenant, Isa 59.21.547 He can no more depart from the church, than the everlasting and sure covenant of God can be abolished.
It may be objected by those who really inquire into the promises of Christ to send the Spirit, and after the accomplishment of these promises, for the establishment of their faith,
Why is it, that if the Comforter always abides with the church, so great a number of believers in all ages, who spend maybe the greatest part of their lives in troubles and disconsolation, have no experience of the presence of the Holy Ghost with them as a comforter? But this objection has no force to weaken our faith as to the accomplishment of this promise; for,
1. In the promise itself, there is a supposition of troubles and disconsolations to befall the church in all ages; for the Comforter is promised to be sent with respect to those. And it is but a dream for those who fancy such a state of the church in this world, that it would be accompanied with such an assurance of all inward and outward satisfaction that it scarcely stands in need of this office or work of the Holy Ghost. Indeed, the promise of his abiding with us forever as a comforter is an infallible prediction that believers in all ages will meet with troubles, sorrows, and disconsolation.
2. The accomplishment of Christ’s promise, as to its truth, does not depend on our experience, or at least not on what men sensibly feel in themselves under their distresses, much less on what they express with some mixture of unbelief. So we observed before, in that passage of the prophet concerning the church, Isaiah 40:27, that "her way was hidden from the Lord, and her judgment was passed over by her God." And she also complained, "The Lord has forsaken me, and my Lord has forgotten me," Isaiah 49:14.
Yet in both places, God convinces her of her mistake, and that indeed her complaint was only a fruit of unbelief. And so it is usual in great distresses, when individuals are so swallowed up with sorrow or overwhelmed with anguish, that they are not sensible of the work of the Holy Ghost in their consolation.
3. He is a comforter to all believers at all times, and on all occasions in which they really stand in need of spiritual consolation. Yet if we intend to experience his work in this, to have the advantage of it or benefit by it, there are various things required of us in a way of duty. If we are negligent in this, it is no wonder if we are at a loss for those comforts which he is willing to administer. Unless we understand rightly the nature of spiritual consolations, and value them both as sufficient and satisfactory, we are not likely to enjoy them, or at least not to be made sensible of them. Many under their troubles suppose there is no comfort except in removing them; and they know of no relief in their sorrows except in taking away the cause of them. At best, they value any outward relief above any internal supports and refreshments. Such persons can never receive the consolation of the Holy Spirit with any refreshing experience. To look for all our comforts from him; to value those things in which his consolations consist, above all earthly enjoyments; to wait upon him in the use of all means for receiving his influences of love and grace; to be fervent in prayer for his presence with us and the manifestation of his grace — these are required in all those towards whom he discharges this office. And while we are found in these ways of holy obedience and dependence, we will find him a comforter, and that will be forever.
These things are generally observable in the office of the Holy Ghost as he is the comforter of the church, and in the manner of his discharge of that office. What is further to be considered to guide our faith, and to participate in consolation with respect to this, will be evident in the declaration of the particulars that belong to it.