First, It cannot be denied, but that it may be the case, not only of a godly person, but even an whole Church, to be without all comfort, that nothing but sorrow and 1trouble do even devour them all the day long. See this true in Jeremiahs Lamentations, Chap. 1. 2. Chap. 2. 20, 21. The Church there sits in mourning, with tears on her cheeks, and she hath none to comfort her, neither God or man. And for a particular person, what is clearer than Job, whose soul was as full of spiritual botches and sores by sad thoughts, as his body was of corporal ones, Job 17. 13. When I said my bed shall comfort, thou scarest me with dreams, &c. Job not in his bed a place of rest, nor in the night a time of rest, can be freed from terrors and fears: yea Chap. 9. 27. when he said, I will leave off my heaviness, I will comfort my self; when he set himself with all holy endeavours to cast off this viper of sorrow, yet they did rather increase upon him: Yea, when he himself cannot remove those mountains of his heart, it may be his godly friends may, and indeed such spiritual Physicians God doth sometimes bless for that end: But Chap. 21. 34. he telleth them, They comfort him in vain; none then can deny, but there was a time at least, when God did not comfort Job in his tribulations. We read also of Heman, Psal. 88. 15. who complaineth, That he was distracted with the terrors of the Lord from his youth up; he complaineth, Gods wrath lay hard upon him; that God did afflict him with all his ways; yea he prayed, he cried, and God did hide his face from him. So that in all the Psalms there is not a word of comfort, no nor of hope or of confidence, which yet David in every Psalm almost, though never so cast down, doth in some degrees and sparks (as it were) discover, but here is nothing but disconsolateness; yet this Heman was a godly ⟨p. 175⟩man, a Penman of some Psalms; yea he was accounted one of the most eminent wise men that lived in that age; for 1 King. 4. 30, 31. Solomons wisdom is said to exceed all others; yea four wise men are instanced, whom Solomon did surpass, and this Heman was one. Whereas then, we are apt to judge such as want the sense of Gods comfort, and go in a disconsolate manner, fools and melancholy, such as will go out of their wits:
First, It cannot be denied, but that it may be the case, not only of a godly person, but even an whole Church, to be without all comfort, that nothing but sorrow and 1trouble do even devour them all the day long. See this true in Jeremiahs Lamentations, Chap. 1. 2. Chap. 2. 20, 21. The Church there sits in mourning, with tears on her cheeks, and she hath none to comfort her, neither God or man. And for a particular person, what is clearer than Job, whose soul was as full of spiritual botches and sores by sad thoughts, as his body was of corporal ones, Job 17. 13. When I said my bed shall comfort, thou skarest me with dreams, &c. Job not in his bed a place of rest, nor in the night a time of rest, can be freed from terrors and fears: yea Chap. 9. 27. when he said, I will leave off my heavinesse, I will comfort my self; when he set himself with all holy endeavours to cast off this viper of sorrow, yet they did rather increase upon him: Yea, when he himself cannot remove those mountains of his heart, it may be his godly friends may, and indeed such spiritual Physicians God doth sometimes blesse for that end: But Chap. 21. 34. he telleth them, They comfort him in vain; none then can deny, but there was a time at least, when God did not comfort Job in his tribulations. We read also of Heman, Psal. 88. 15. who complaineth, That he was distracted with the terrors of the Lord from his youth up; he complaineth, Gods wrath lay hard upon him; that God did afflict him with all his ways; yea he prayed, he cried, and God did hide his face from him. So that in all the Psalms there is not a word of comfort, no nor of hope or of confidence, which yet David in every Psalm almost, though never so cast down, doth in some degrees and sparks (as it were) discover, but here is nothing but disconsolateness; yet this Heman was a godly ⟨p. 175⟩man, a Penman of some Psalms; yea he was accounted one of the most eminent wise men that lived in that age; for 1 King. 4. 30, 31. Solomons wisdom is said to exceed all others; yea four wise men are instanced, whom Solomon did surpass, and this Heman was one. Whereas then, we are apt to judge such as want the sense of Gods comfort, and go in a disconsolate manner, fools and melancholly, such as will go out of their wits:
- 1How God comforreth his children in all their tribulations, though they often may be disconsolate.
