Although a holy man cannot, so much as for a moment, 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 sometimes 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 changing); 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 (Ps. xxx. 7).
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 (Isa. lix. 2). 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 (Jer. ii. 19). 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 (Heb. xii. 6; Amos iii. 2). His faithfulness also to His 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 (Ps. cxix. 75). 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 (Jer. xxxi. 18).
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 (II Sam. xxiii. 5; John xvii. 3; and vi. 40; Rom. xv. 13).
If believers then suffer themselves, surrounded as they are, by the clear light of the blessed gospel, to retain ignorance or to cherish mistakes respecting the covenant of Jehovah’s peace (Isa. liv. 10), 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 which all true comfort depends and so provoke their heavenly Father to suspend the consolations of His holy covenant from their souls. The gospel is an exhibition of God’s covenant of grace to lost sinners of mankind; and therefore it is “good tidings of great joy to all people” (Luke ii. 10). To be willingly ignorant, then, of that gracious contract is the same as to be willingly ignorant of the glorious gospel, and to retain mistaken notions of the former is the same as to err concerning the latter. When true Christians satisfy themselves with superficial and indistinct views of the covenant of grace, or with knowing little more than the first principles of the doctrine of that august contract, they so far despise the doctrine of redeeming grace, the joyful tidings of a free salvation, and so lose the joy of that salvation.
Moreover, in the administration of that everlasting covenant, Christ, with His righteousness and fulness, is freely and fully offered to sinners of mankind in common; and sinners, as such, are graciously invited, yea, and are peremptorily commanded, to believe on His Name (John vi. 32; Rev. xxii. 17; I John iii. 23). The authentic offer, call, and command founded upon the infinite intrinsic value of the righteousness of Christ, and addressed to every sinner who hears the gospel: afford to everyone a full warrant to trust in Christ for all the salvation promised in the covenant. If Christians then allow themselves to remain in a great measure ignorant of their warrant, as sinners in themselves, to place direct confidence in Christ for all their salvation, or if they cherish mistakes concerning it, they provoke the Lord, who is jealous for the honour of His covenant, and of His word of grace, to withhold from them that peace and joy which are in believing, and, at the same time, they indirectly invite Satan to tempt them to conclude that they have no warrant whatever to trust that Christ will save them. Were believers to attain a more spiritual and clear understanding of the eternal covenant and of the authentic offer of it, than they commonly do, they would see that they have, in the word of grace without them, a full and unchangeable warrant to trust at all times in the Lord Jesus for their own particular salvation, and so they would live a more holy and comfortable life than they commonly do. They would in that case clearly see that it is warrantable for them, and therefore lawful and reasonable, to trust, even with full assurance of faith in their faithful Redeemer. Ah! how sinful, how displeasing to the God of all comfort is it to treat with neglect His holy covenant, and the warrant which He graciously affords sinners of mankind as such to take hold of it! And how effectually will it mar the comfort of one’s own soul!
2. They provoke the Lord to suspend influences of consolation from them by their yielding often to disbelief and distrust of Jesus Christ.
An apostle says, “We which have believed do enter into rest” (Heb. iv. 3). “Thou wilt keep him,” saith the prophet Isaiah, “in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee; because he trusteth in Thee” (Isa. xxix. 3). And again, “If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established” (Isa. vii. 9). If a Christian frequently neglects the exercise of trusting in Christ, for fresh supplies of grace and comfort; if, instead of trusting with all his heart, and at all times, in his infinitely faithful Redeemer, for the grace which is in Him, and is brought near in the promise he often trusts to the grace that is in himself; his heart, by so doing, departeth from the Lord Jesus (Jer. xvii. 5), the only Fountain of consolation; and he places that confidence in his own renewed nature, which he is commanded to place in his Divine Redeemer. By so doing he idolizes the new creature; he trusteth in his own heart: he leans to his own understanding: he makes a saviour of his own created grace. Thus he provoketh his Heavenly Father, who is a jealous God, to hide His face from him, and to eclipse his evidences of grace from his view. It is now necessary that the Lord, who “will ever be mindful of His covenant,” should perform to him, in a higher degree than formerly, this promise: “From all your idols will I cleanse you” (Ezek. xxxvi. 25). Accordingly God, in order to chasten him for his idolatry, and to teach him the necessity of living continually by faith, withholds consolation from his soul and ceases to shine upon his evidences of grace. The consequence is that the believer now not only discerns no grace in his heart to trust to but begins to doubt if ever he had any. He formerly looked for comfort, to the principle of grace, which he discerned in himself, rather than to the fulness of grace, which is in Christ; contrary to this high command, “Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Jesus Christ” (II Tim. ii. 1). But now, that he can see and feel nothing in his heart but deep and strong corruption, nothing but a body of sin and death, he becomes at once discouraged and disconsolate.
Christian, thou never hast greater need to trust simply and firmly in thy Divine Saviour than when thy graces are most lively and most discernible, for then self-confidence is most ready so to prevail against thee as to provoke a jealous God, to withhold spiritual comfort from thy soul. If thou desirest to retain holy consolation, reprove the unsuspecting confidence of thy heart, and trust solely and constantly in thy faithful Redeemer. Apply and trust and plead His promises. If thou distrust Him, if thou yield to suspicious and hard thoughts of Him, thou transgressest against Him, without a cause. The Lord Jesus hath never dealt so, in His ways of grace and providence, with any soul as to give it cause to be suspicious of Him. Ah! what dishonour dost thou reflect upon the Glorious Immanuel, by refusing to trust solely in Him! Be not grieved that thou hast nothing to trust to for thy salvation, beside Christ and the promise, but rather rejoice that thou needest nothing besides (Ps. lxi. 2, 5, 6). Pray often and earnestly that the Holy Spirit may convince thee more deeply of the exceeding sinfulness of sin, and especially of the greatest of all sins—unbelief (John xvi. 8, 9).
3. They lose their holy comfort by making their graces or duties or lively frames their warrant or ground of right, to trust in Jesus Christ for salvation.
These, indeed, are great encouragements to continue trusting in the Saviour; but they form no part of a man’s warrant to renew his actings of trust in Him. They are fruits and evidences of saving faith; but are no part of the ground of it. To make them the ground, or even a part of the ground, of our right to confide in Jesus for salvation, would be as preposterous as it would be when transplanting a young tree to set the top branches of it in the ground instead of the roots. The faith of a believer must be grounded on faithfulness in the Word, and not feelings in the heart. If the Christian, then, instead of making the authentic offer, call, and commandment to believe, all addressed in the Gospel to him as a sinner of mankind, his warrant to renew his exercise of trusting in Christ for all his salvation, thinketh so highly of his experiences or evidences as to make them his ground of right to do so, he is guilty of presumption. He sets aside the warrant which the Holy Spirit in the Word affords him, and presumes to trust in Christ upon the ground of that in himself, which is indeed the fruit but not the root, the evidence but not the ground of faith. Thus, instead of a true faith he places an unwarrantable confidence in his Redeemer; and hereby he discovers the pride and self-righteous propensity that remain in him (I Cor. iv. 7). Sensible that his holy qualities and performances can give him no right to salvation itself; his legal spirit prompts him to conclude that they will afford him at least a right to the Saviour, a right to exercise particular trust in Him for salvation. Hence, when he discerns his evidences of personal interest in Christ he can freely trust Him; but when these are eclipsed and cannot be seen, he counts it unwarrantable and presumptuous to confide in Him. Now, seeing it is pride or a legal spirit that disposes the Christian to think that his graces and evidences can give him a right to apply and confide in Christ, and seeing the immutable design of God is to exalt the Saviour and to humble the sinner, He withholds the comfortable sense of His favour from the believer (Ps. cxxxviii. 6).
He ceases to shine upon his graces and evidences. He not only leaveth him, it may be, to fall repeatedly into some known sin, but He permitteth Satan and the man’s own proud and unbelieving heart to persuade him that he hath now no right at all to trust, that the Holy Jesus will save such a sinner as he is. Thus he has procured for himself the loss of his comfort. But even this loss, how great and grievous soever it may be, is almost less than nothing in comparison of the infinite dishonour which he hath reflected upon the Lord Jesus, by presuming to substitute his own graces and attainments in the room of the authoritative offers and calls of the Gospel as his warrant to trust in Him; and by not venturing to rely upon Him for grace except he see grace already in himself, to give him a right to place confidence in Him. Believer, if thou wouldst retain spiritual consolation, take heed that thou never build thy faith upon the reports of sense: build it only upon the sure, the unchangeable, record of God who cannot lie. Do not substitute sense in the place of His true and holy Word. Build thy faith and thy comfort upon Christ in the Word, and not upon thy experiences. Do not live upon Christ as felt in the heart, but upon Christ as offered in the Gospel.
(To be continued.)