SPIRITUAL COMFORT

There are three degrees of spiritual comfort : the lowest degree is peace of conscience $ the next is joy ; and the highest is triumph. Peace of conscience is that inward serenity, or tranquillity of mind, which arises from the faith and sense of being justified in the sight of God, or of being in a state of union with Christ, and of conformity to him. " Being justified by faith," says the apostle Paul, " we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ d." The peace, with which the God of hope filleth the hearts of the saints, is peace in believing e. It arises also b Hos. ii. 14. ' Luther says, that ' All things come from Christ to hi* church, in contraries : he is righteousness, but it is in sin felt : he is life, but it is in death : he is consolation, but it is in calamity.' Augustine likewise observes, that ' the Christian's life runs on between these two; our crosses and God's comforts.'  from the sense, or consciousness of peace with God. 'When the blood of Christ is, by faith, applied to the conscience, the conscience is purged by it from dead works  ; and the heart also is, at the same time, sprinkled by it from an evil con science8. The subject of spiritual peace, is a. conscience that is purged. Purity and peace are connected together in the conscience ; and they are both necessary to render it a good conscience \ When the conscience is sprinkled with the blood of Jesus, it is thereby set free from the dread of revenging wrath. The mind is not as formerly,. disturbed with alarming fears of God s indignation,- nor disquieted by his judgments '. This is accompanied usually, with a cordial acquiescence in. the will of the Lord, founded on a persuasion of his wisdom and sovereignty, of his holiness and goodness : and so far as a man attains this holy acquiescence in the Divine will, he is secure from disappointment ; and free from uneasiness. Now, this peaceful serenity of soul, is the first degree of spiritual comfort. When the Lord Jesus would comfort his disconsolate disciples, he said, " These things I have spoken to you, that in me ye might have peace k." Joy is a higher degree of holy consolation. Spiritual joy is that gladness of heart, which flows from the lively exercise of faith, feasting upon Christ in the offers and promises of the gospel. The apostle Paul prayed thus for the believers at Rome ; " Now the God of hope, fill you with joy and peace in believing ' :" and the apostle Peter said to the Christians of the dispersion, " Believing,  ye rejoice." It is a holy delight, in living upon Christ, and in walking in him ; and it is effected by the Holy Spirit shedding abroad in the heart, like a fragrant perfume, the love of God. When he graciously condescends to administer that reviving cordial, it elevates and enlarges the fainting soul. Arising, as it does, from the begun enjoyment, and from the hope of the full and endless enjoyment of God in Christ, it strengthens, and so comforts the drooping heart. " The joy of the Lord," saith Nebemiah, " is your strength n." Peace is negative; joy is positive comfort: the former is as the calming of the storm; the latter, as the breaking out of the sun : that is a mitigation of trouble ; this, a sense of positive enjoyment. When a condemned criminal knows that he is pardoned, he has peace ; but when he is besides advanced to preferment, he has joy. Triumph is the highest degree of consolation. The saints triumph, when they so greatly rejoice, as almost to shout for joy, on account of the vic tory given them over their spiritual enemies. They triumph, when, more than conquerors through him who loved them, they exult or rejoice, in their almighty Redeemer, with rapturous delight. This was often the attainment of the holy apostle Paul, and of his fellow-labourers in the gospel. " Thanks be unto God," says he, " which always causeth us to triumph in Christ  SPIRITUAL COMFORT A lofty description of this their triumph, fie giveth in Rom. viii. 31 —39. Hbvv high did heavenly consolation rise, in the soul of that holy apostle, when he was writing that sublime passage ! In like manner does the believer triumph, when, in his pursuit of more communion with Christ, and conformity to him, he is enabled to vanquish great opposition. In some happy moments of his life, his joy, like a river swelled by impetuous rains, bursteth all its banks, and carrieth all the joys and all the sorrows of this world before it. It is then, especially, that it may be styled, " Joy unspeakable and full of glory p." It is glorious in itself, and is attended with glorying in the Lord Jesus. When the heart of the Christian is elevated to this degree of consolation, he glories in the Lord. All that is in this' world is brought under him : the greatest calamities cannot daunt him. He sees Christ, and God in Christ, against all enemies and all evils, whether external or internal. This triumphant glorying in the Lord, is like that of the holy Psalmist, who said, " My soul shall make her boast in the Lord V It is remarkable, that •these three degrees of spiritual comfort are, by our apostle, mentioned in a single passage  : " We have," says he, " peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ ;...we rejoice in hope;...and not only so, but we glory in tribulations also."