CHAPTER IV.

THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT AS THE COMFORTER.

OUR blessed Lord intimated to his disciples before his departure, that he would not leave them desolate, or orphans, but would send them the Holy Spirit that he might abide with them for ever; and he spake of the Spirit as a paraclete (an expression which has been translated in our version—a comforter, but which admits of being rendered-an ADVOCATE, or monitor), whose office it should be to plead the cause and to secure the welfare of his people in various ways, by helping their infirmities, guiding them into all truth, strengthening them against the assaults of temptation, sustaining them under the pressure of trial, and aiding them in the exercise of prayer. It is the less necessary to dwell on the mere meaning of that expression, because unquestionably in other places the Spirit is represented as executing the office of a Comforter, as when the apostle says, "Now the God of hope fill you with all peace and joy in believing, that ye may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost." (Rom. xv. 3.) The peace, and joy, and hope which

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are here mentioned, are the constituent elements of that comfort which God has provided for his people; and elsewhere they are severally described as being of inestimable value-fruits alike sweet and precious of the riches of his grace; for this peace is called "the very peace of God which passeth all understanding;” and this joy is said to be "a joy unspeakable and full of glory;" and this hope is "a living, a lively hope, an anchor to the soul both sure and stedfast, entering into that which is within the veil."

It may be useful to direct your thoughts-to the source of this comfort; to the method in which it is bestowed; to the various degrees in which it may be enjoyed; and to the duty which is implied in the apostle's prayer, of seeking "to be filled with all peace and joy in believing, and to abound in hope."

I. With reference to the source of this comfort, it is important to remark, that the peace, and joy, and hope in which it consists, are severally ascribed in Scripture to each of the Three Persons in the Godhead, and represented as flowing to us out of the various offices which they execute under the covenant of redemption. God himself is the author of this comfort the inexhaustible fountain of his goodness being the source whence it proceeds; but it is not as the God of nature and providence,―the Creator, Preserver, and Governor of the world,-it is as the God of grace and redemption that he imparts it to his people. It is to God in his covenant relation as God in Christ-the reconciler and the Saviour of the guilty,

that the apostle refers, when he speaks of him " as the God of hope," and as "the God of patience and consolation;" and more expressly still in another place, where he says, "Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort; who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God."-As God is the author of this comfort, so it comes to us in and through Christ as the Mediator of the new covenant. He was sent "to preach peace to them that were afar off, and to them that were near." He is himself "our peace," as he is "the propitiation for our sins;" for "being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God."

Prince of peace," and his Gospel is

Christ is "the

"the gospel of

peace ;" and he was sent at once to procure and to proclaim that reconciliation on which our peace, and joy, and hope depend: "He hath anointed me to preach good tidings to the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted,"-" to comfort all that mourn; to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness." And, accordingly, both the Father and the Son are conjoined in the apostle's prayer-"Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and given us everlasting consolation

and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts, and stablish you in every good word and work."-But this comfort, flowing from God himself as its source, and through Christ the Mediator of the new covenant as the channel by which it is conveyed to us, is applied to our hearts by the gracious agency and inward operation of the Holy Spirit. The apostle prays for the Roman converts, that they might be "filled with all peace and joy in believing, and abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost;" and of the primitive believers we read, that they "walked in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost."

The Spirit's love as a Comforter is manifested in various ways. For first, It was the Spirit with which Christ himself was anointed, and by which he was qualified, in respect of his human nature, for the execution of his great design-" The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, for he hath anointed me to preach;" -secondly, It was the Spirit who dictated the whole of that message of grace and mercy which is contained in the Gospel, for "holy men of old spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost;" and to him, therefore, is to be gratefully ascribed every consolation which the Gospel imparts, and every hope which it inspires; and thirdly, It is the Spirit who, by his continued agency in the Church, and his internal operation on the minds of believers, enables them to understand the gracious import, and to feel the blessed influence of the Gospel, so that they are "filled with all peace and joy in believing, and abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost."

Such is the view which is given in Scripture of the source or origin of the comfort that is here spoken of; it is ascribed to each of the Three Persons of the Godhead, and represented as flowing to us out of the various offices which they fulfil under the covenant of redemption; and by this view, two reflections are suggested which may be briefly noticed: the first ishow gracious and lovely is the aspect in which God's character is presented, when each Person in the Godhead is declared to be so much interested, not only in the safety, but in the comfort and happiness of his people; and the second is-how sweet and comfortable is the dispensation under which we are placed, seeing that it is alike fitted and designed to fill us with all peace and joy in believing, so that we may abound in hope through the power of the Spirit of God. If, then, the Father be the very God of peace, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; and if his beloved Son be the Prince of peace; and if the Holy Spirit be the Comforter, the Spirit of all grace and consolation; and if the Gospel be indeed, as its very name imports, glad tidings of great joy,-it follows, that however, from the operation of other causes, such as the remaining darkness of their understandings, or the unsubdued corruption of their hearts, or the weakness of their faith, or the strength of their temptations, or the number and weight of their trials, God's people may sometimes have their peace disturbed, yet, in its native tendency and proper effect, the Gospel is fitted to produce and sustain "a peace which passeth all understanding," and "a joy which is un