CXLV expository sermons upon the whole 17th chapter of the Gospel according to St.…

¹2. The Spirit of God doth not only inform of the duty of Comfort, but also directs unto the way of comfort; It doth lead into the true way of Justification, Joh. 14.16. The Comforter will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance; As he is the Comforter he will teach them what way to take, that they may have true Consolation, for as by nature it's an ingrafted principle ⟨p. 405⟩in all to desire happiness: Ask any man in the world, and he will answer affirmatively to this Question, So every man troubled and humbled for sin would willingly have comfort, as the lame man would to walk, the blind man to see, but how to have true peace with God, there is the difficulty; As there were above an hundred Opinions amongst the Philosophers, wha• was the summum bonum, So there are great disputations about that Righteousness whereby we are justified, the ground of peace, So that it's an heavenly skill to be directed into the right way for comfort, Heb. 6. The babe is unskilful in the word of Righteousness, As the young Child though it crieth for the breast, yet knoweth not how to come at it; Before the Gospel was purely preached, how many false ways were observed to comfort the afflicted conscience, how many Pilgrimages, devotional prayers, and several penitential practises were enjoined, to comfort the timerated heart through sin, but all these were like Jobs miserable Comforters, Physicians of no value; The souls Mountebanks that instead of healing did inflame and enrage the wounds more; Therefore as to the infant new-born, it's a great matter to fall into the hands of a good Nurse, for the education of it and care about it; No less is it, for people when once awakened through the guilt of sin, and deeply wounded for their iniquities, to have such spiritual Physicians that can prepare them the true Gospel-cordials, and direct them into the right way for Consolation, This is the Art of Arts, Nothing being more tender and to be handled with more c•rumspection then a wounded Spirit; These are therefore two distinct benefits, to be convinced of the duty to walk comfortably, and to be directed into the way of it, for who is not here out of the way? Doth not every one think to obtain comfort by working and not believing? Do they not labour to qualify themselves sufficiently first, and then go to Christ?