Spiritual Comfort

Is the comfort, with which the saints are favoured, spiritual and holy comfort? Let no man then conclude,- that he is a true Christian, merely because he has felt on some occasions, natural and sensible consolation. Natural, outward, and sensible consolation is one thing; spiritual, inward, and holy comfort is another, and a very different thing. The former, is natural, and is common both to saints and sinners; the latter, is spiritual, and is peculiar only to the saints: that, is outward and sensitive, proceeding, under common providential Prov. xiv. 10. influence, from a man's natural constitution of body; this, is inward and holy, and is effected by the Holy Spirit the Comforter, dwelling in the soul. Spiritual consolation is sometimes sensible, as well as that which is natural; or rather, the former might (as it sometimes is) be styled, sensible consolation, and the latter, sensitive delight. Spiritual comfort, delights chiefly the rational and inward faculties of the soul; natural comfort, pleases only the outward and sensitive faculties of it, namely, the imagination, the natural spirits, and even the external senses. The former, is wrought in the heart, by the Holy Spirit, according to the word, spiritually understood and believed; the latter, is often produced by the external manner of the reader or preacher of the word; such as, his elocution, tone, and action. Persons of a soft natural constitution of body, have this1 sensitive delight, oftener, and in greater measure, than they of a contrary temperament. When the one, is enjoyed by the saints, they commonly can assign some reason for it; when the other, is felt by persons of any description, they usually can give no reason for the delightful sensation; but only that, something they know not what, has made a pleasing impression upon them. Spiritual comfort, is the opposite of trouble of mind on spiritual accounts; natural comfort, is the opposite of melancholy, which is a bodily disease: the former, as I already observed, is the special work of the Holy Spirit, in the hearts of sincere believers; the latter, proceeds from natural and external causes; and it is often raised by Satan, in order to confirm sinners in their delusion and hypocrisy. They hypocrites in Zion, mentioned by Isaiahf, *• took delight in approaching to God;" and the hearers compared by our Lord to the stony ground, "immediately received the word with gladness *." Thus it appears, that thousands of men and women, whose unholy lives, demonstrate them to be utter strangers to spiritual and holy consolation, have, nevertheless, on some occasions, much natural and sensible delight. Let no man therefore conclude, that he is a true Christian, merely because he has felt much sensible, and even transporting joy; for his joy may be nothing but a natural sensation.John Colquhoun

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