Principles of Comfort

Lord, I believe; help thou my unbelief. (Mark 9.24)

Though we find ourselves not what we ought to be, yet there is a principle of comfort to be had by those with afflicted consciences, as Robert Bolton describes it, if our sincere inward desire is grieved at how short we fall of the holy standard of perfection to which we are called and earnestly longs to be united to Christ and his perfect righteousness, then we may thank God for such an evidence of true saving faith, however weak that faith might be.

Henry Scudder, The Christian's Daily Walk, pp. 311-312:

Many think that they are hypocrites, who yet are sincere; wherefore try whether you be an hypocrite or upright, by the signs of uprightness before delivered, Chap. XI., Sect. I.

Only for the present, note this; when was it known, that an hypocrite did so see his hypocrisy, as to have it a burden to him, and to be weary of it, and to confess it, and bewail it, and to ask forgiveness heartily of God; and above all things to labour to be upright? If you find yourselves thus disposed against hypocrisy and for uprightness, although I would have you humbled for the remainder of hypocrisy which you discern to be in you; yet chiefly I would have you to be thankful to God, and to take comfort in this, that you feel it, and dislike it: thank God therefore for your uprightness, comfort yourselves in it, and cherish and nourish it in you, and fear not.

Robert Bolton, A Treatise on Comforting Afflicted Consciences, pp. 258-261:

There is a precious principle in the mystery of salvation, which, as a comforting cordial water, serves to quicken and revive in the swoonings and faintings of the body, defection of the spirits, and sinking of the heart; so it may be sovereign to support and succour in afflictions and dejections of soul, and weakness of our spiritual state. It is thus delivered by divines: --

"A constant and earnest desire to be reconciled to God, to believe and to repent, if it be in a touched heart, is in acceptation with God as reconciliation, faith, repentance itself." 1

"A weak faith shows itself by this grace of God, namely, an unfeigned desire, not only of salvation (for that the wicked and graceless man may have), but of reconciliation with God in Christ. This is a sure sign of faith in every touched and humbled heart, and it is peculiar to the elect." 2

"Those are blessed who are displeased with their own doubting and unbelief; if they have a true earnest desire to be purged from this distrust, and to believe in God through Christ." 3

"Our desire of grace, faith, and repentance, are the graces themselves which we desire; at least, in God's acceptation, who accepteth the will for the deed, and of our affections for the actions." 4

"Hungering and thirsting desires are evidences of a repenting heart." 5

"True desire argues the presence of things desired, and yet argues not the feeling of it." 6
...
"I think, whensoever the humbled sinner sees an infinite excellency in Christ, and the favour of God by him, that it is more worth than all the world, and so sets his heart upon it that he is resolved to seek it without ceasing, and to part with all for the obtaining it; now, I take it, is faith begun." -- "What graces thou unfeignedly desirest, and constantly usest the means to attain, thou hast." 8

"There is no rock more sure than this truth of God, that the heart that complaineth of the want of grace, desireth above all things the supply of that want, useth all holy means for the procurement of that supply, cannot be destitute of saving grace." 9

"Such are we by imputation as we be in affection. And he is now no sinner, who for the love he beareth to righteousness would be no sinner. Such as we be in desire and purpose, such we be in reckoning and account with God, who giveth that true desire and holy purpose to none but to his children whom he justifieth." 10

"We must remember that God accepts affecting for effecting; willing for working; desires for deeds; purposes for performances; pence for pounds; and unto such as do their endeavour, hath promised his grace enabling them every day to do more and more." 11

"If there be in thee a sorrow for thine unbelief; a will and desire to believe; and a care to increase in faith by the use of good means; there is a measure of true faith in thee, and by it thou mayest assure thyself that thou art the child of God." 12

"It is a great grace of God to feel the want of God's graces in thyself, and to hunger and thirst after them." 13

"If you desire healing of your nature, groan in desire for grace, perceive your foulness unto a loathing of yourself, fear not, sin hath no dominion over you." -- "Sense of want of grace, complaint and mourning from that sense, desire, settled and earnest, with such mourning to have the want supplied, use of good means, with attending upon him therein for this supply, is surely of grace." -- "What graces thou unfeignedly desirest and constantly usest the means to attain, thou hast." 14

Take it in short from me thus: --

A true desire of grace argues a saving and comfortable estate.

1 [William] Perkins, in his Grain of Mustard Seed, Concl. 3.
2 Idem, in his Exposition of the Creed.
3 Idem, upon the Sermon on the Mount.
4 [John Downame], in his Christian Warfare, chap. xlii.
5 [Daniel] Dyke, of Repentance, chap. xv.
6 T.T. upon Psalm xxxii.
8 [John] Rogers of Dedham, in his Doctrine of Faith, chap. ii.
9 [Samuel] Crook, serm. iii.
10 [Richard] Greenham.
11 Dyke, of Self-Deceiving, chap. xix.
12 Perkins, on Galatians.
13 Broad, p. 88.
14 Wilson on Faith.

Not What You Feel, But What God Promises

Obadiah Sedgwick, The Doubting Believer, pp. 137-138:

Judge not the issue by what you feel, but by what God promises. And in case, therefore, God does not show you His ancient love presently or easily, yet knock again, and provoke your heart to outbelieve all reasonings of fear and corruption. As David, Psalm 42:11, Why are thou cast down, O my soul?, and why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise Him, who is the help of my countenance, and my God. O my God, said he in verse 6 of that Psalm, my soul is cast down within me! (no question, but for the absence of God's favor). Verse 9, My Rock, why hast Thou forgotten me? Therefore (said he) will I remember Thee.

"Remember Him? O David, what encouragements do you have so to do? Your Rock seems to forget you, and all His waves and billows are gone over you. You are in a tossed and forgotten condition, and yet you say, I will remember Thee."

No, see verse 8, Yet the Lord will command His lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night His song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life.

"It is true, these afflictions and sorrows are upon me, and God seems to forget me for the present, yet I will remember Him. I know He thinks on me; He has lovingkindness, and He will command it. He can show it when He pleases. I shall assuredly have it, perhaps in the daytime, perhaps in the nighttime; and, therefore, day and night will I seek Him for His lovingkindness. I will remember Him."

But how may one support himself in the interims of this suspension of divine favor? Can one be good who is thus? Or will God do good, or does He think any good of such a one? I answer, you may support yourselves thus:

By remembering the days of old, Psalms 77:7, Will the Lord cast off forever, and will He be favorable no more? 9. Hath God forgotten to be gracious? This is my infirmity. For me thus to conclude that God will not be favorable and gracious unto me because I feel Him not so, this is my weakness and sinful error; but how, then, will you support yourself? See verse 10, I will remember the years of the right hand of the most High. 11. I will remember Thy wonders of old; and, assuredly, the remembrance of what God has done is able to support us with a confident expectation of what God will yet do for us.

The Further You Go, The Greater the Temptations

...we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God. (Acts 14.22)

C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, p. 209:

The fine flower of unholiness can grow only in the close neighbourhood of the Holy. Nowhere do we tempt so successfully as on the very steps of the altar.

Johannes Hoornbeeck, Spiritual Desertion, pp. 96-97:

Fourth, God's people have these trials in common. They do not touch you alone, with others being passed by; no, they come to everyone. It is true that they touch the one more and the other less, but since they are not sent to anyone except for the purpose of salvation, they bring greater fruit of salvation to those who are more heavily burdened. Think about the most saintly -- above whom you may not place yourself (and you do not want to). Think about Christ, our Lord. How did he bear these trials and abandonments? How much did the Son of God, who could not be abandoned completely, suffer? Truly, everything. And would you now want to be an exception above all these? Certainly not, for do you not consider yourself blessed in their company?

Augustine says, "The Master of medicine has first drunk from the bitter cup himself, so that the sick would not hesitate to drink from it." We have already spoken about Christ's trials. We know that it was said of him, "In all things he was like we are; he was tempted but without sin" (Heb. 4:15). Hence, all those who want to live a godly life in Christ have to expect such oppressions. "Who of the saints," Jerome asks, "has been crowned without battle?" Thomas à Kempis declares, "I have never known a godly person who did not at times have this removal of grace." And Otto Casmannus says, "No one becomes saved who is not trained in this battle, before or in death." All this was not foreign to the saints of the Bible either. Listen to Job in chapters 6 and 7; to David in Psalms 13, 32, 38, 39, 42; to Asaph in Psalm 77; and to Heman in Psalm 88. The man of God Luther, enabled by God, was used daily for the great work of the reformation of God's church, and he felt the abandonment of spirit. Both he and others testified to this. Casmannus says about Luther, "In 1527, the holy man Luther felt the heat of these trials so strongly that he, ill in body and soul from them, lay in bed, and later he himself testified that he would rather be imprisoned in the darkest dungeon his whole life than endure that pain again for one hour." One can name several martyrs who were similarly attacked, often just before their death. Someone therefore said, not without good reason, "Let this be a sign to you to know that when you are advancing on the road to the city of the King and are coming closer, that you will undergo the greatest temptations; the further you go, the greater the temptations. Because God does not give great gifts without great temptations."

In Thy Light Shall We See Light

For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light. (Ps. 36.9)

Joseph Symonds, The Case and Cure of the Deserted Soul, pp. 333-334:

The brightest star that shines most with light of comfort derives it from the Sun of Righteousness. And therefore, that they may have a sight of that dark and dismal nature of their own hearts, He shuts in His light. And then, when the soul lies in a mournful and distressed case in depths where it finds no bottom, and from whence none can deliver; when a man sees all creatures standing as dead pictures, and reckons himself past all hope, then, I say, God shows Himself to be the God of comfort by commanding light to shine out of darkness, and quieting the high and raging storms, which beat down all before them.

A Tale of Two Italian Lawyers

James Hain Friswell, Francis Spira and Other Poems, pp. 6-7:

A man who sinn'd th' unpardonable sin!
Sinn'd against knowledge and the Holy Ghost.
A man who, dying, lay for many days
Facing hell torments, hopeless of relief!
Not dazed, nor frenzied; horrent, unamazed,
Knowing his sin beyond the Grace of God!
And his name Francis Spira, man of Law.

One of the most fearful stories in church history concerns Francis Spira, an Italian Roman Catholic jurist (1502-1548), who converted to the Protestant religion, but after he was brought before the Inquisition, he recanted, adjuring the faith publicly at church on consecutive Lord's Days, after which, in great horror of conscience, he eventually died of illness in Judas-like despair, believing himself to have committed the unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost. Though his name may not be well-known today, throughout the centuries Spira has been an example and a byword for an extreme case of spiritual desertion. Charles Spurgeon wrote:

You know, also, the wonderful death of Francis Spira. In all literature, there is nothing so awful as the death of Spira. The man had known the truth; he stood well among reformers; he was an honored, and to a certain extent apparently a faithful man; but he went back to the Church of Rome; he apostatized; and then when conscience was aroused he did not fly to Christ, but he looked at the consequences instead of at the sin, and so, feeling that the consequences could not be altered, he forget that the sin might be pardoned, and perished in agonies extreme. May it never be the unhappy lot of any of us to stand by such a death-bed; but the Lord have mercy upon us now, and make us search our hearts.

and elsewhere:

In musing over the very dreadful sentence which closes my text, “He also will deny us,” I was led to think of various ways in which Jesus will deny us. He does this sometimes on earth. You have read, I suppose, the death of Francis Spira. If you have ever read it, you never can forget it to your dying day. Francis Spira knew the truth; he was a reformer of no mean standing but when brought to death, out of fear, he recanted. In a short time he fell into despair, and suffered hell upon earth. His shrieks and exclamations were so horrible, that their record is almost too terrible for print. His doom was a warning to the age in which he lived.

Spira's death was recounted in Henricus Scotus, Exemplum memorabile desperationis in Francisco Spera, propter abjuratam fidei confessionem (1550), for which John Calvin wrote a foreword dated December 1549. Nathaniel Woodes' historical drama, The Conflict of Conscience (1581), and Nathaniel Bacon, A Relation of the Fearful Estate of Francis Spira (1638), provided English accounts of his tragic death. One of these was influential in the conversion of John Bunyan, who quotes Spira directly through a character in The Pilgrim's Progress: the Man in the Iron Cage.

John Bunyan, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners:

163. I found it hard work now to pray to God, because despair was swallowing me up; I thought I was, as with a tempest, driven away from God, for always when I cried to God for mercy, this would come in, It is too late, I am lost, God hath let me fall; not to my correction, but condemnation; my sin is unpardonable; and I know, concerning Esau, how that, after he had sold his birthright, he would have received the blessing, but was rejected. About this time, I did light on that dreadful story of that miserable mortal, Francis Spira; a book that was to my troubled spirit as salt, when rubbed into a fresh wound; every sentence in that book, every groan of that man, with all the rest of his actions in his dolours, as his tears, his prayers, his gnashing of teeth, his wringing of hands, his twining and twisting, languishing and pining away under that mighty hand of God that was upon him, was as knives and daggers in my soul; especially that sentence of his was frightful to me, Man knows the beginning of sin, but who bounds the issues thereof? Then would the former sentence, as the conclusion of all, fall like a hot thunderbolt again.

William Perkins wrote in his Cases of Conscience:

[O]ft it will fall out that the conscience of Gods child shall bee so exceedingly tormented in temptation, that hee shall cry out, he is forsaken of God, and shalbe damned; when as indeed he stil remains the deare child of God, as Christ our Saviour did Gods welbeloved in the deepest assaults of Satan. And therefore the relation published of Francis Spira his desperation, doth inconsiderately taxe him for a cast-away; considering that nothing befel him in the time of his desperation but that which may befall the child of God: yea our owne land can afford many examples which match Francis Spira, whether we regard the matter of his temptation, or the deepnesse of his desperation, who yet through the mercy of God have received comfort. And therefore in this case Christian charity must ever bind us to thinke and speake the best.

Others who have written concerning spiritual desertion, such as Robert Bolton, Thomas Watson, Thomas Vincent, and Johannes Hoornbeeck, have consistently cited Spira as an example and a warning to believers against complete and total despair of the grace of God.

The other Italian lawyer in this tale is Pier Paolo Vergerio or Petrus Paulus Vergerius (1498–1565). He started his career as a lawyer, but soon entered the service of the Papacy, rising to the office of Papal Nuncio to Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I. While in Germany, he met Martin Luther and was exposed to the Protestant faith. He attended the Colloquies at Worms and Regensburg, in 1540 and 1541, where he met Philip Melanchthon (who presented him with a copy of the Augsburg Confession) and John Calvin, and was later charged with having conceded too much to the Protestants. He was first brought before the Inquisition in 1544, but the charges were not sustained, though he was denied the privilege of participating in the Council of Trent. In 1548, he was present during Francis Spira's deathbed agony, later writing an account of this saga, which led him to a decisive break with the Roman Catholic Church.

Philip Schaff writes:

Vergerio was overwhelmed by this experience, and brought to a final decision. He wrote an apology in which he gives an account of the sad story, and renounces his connection with Rome at the risk of persecution, torture, and death.

The story of his conversion is notably recounted in John Flavel's The Mystery of Providence, and elsewhere.

He was deposed and excommunicated in 1549, which forced him to flee Italy, finding refuge in Switzerland and Germany, where, having turned from Papal Nuncio to zealous Reformer, he wrote tracts against the Papacy, and histories of Papal persecution through the Inquisition.

While Spira is a monument to the despair and hopelessness that comes from our inability to keep God's law, Vergerio is a testimony to our only true hope, the grace of God through Jesus Christ, which is able to reach even into the heart of Rome to save a sinner.

Afflictions in Wrath, Crosses in Mercy

Timothy Rogers, Trouble of Mind and the Disease of Melancholy, pp. 124-126:

Do not mistake those things for evidences of the certain wrath of God which, perhaps, are not really so. He may suspend the expressions of His love, though He loves us still. Joseph had the tenderness of a brother, while his brethren thought he was very angry with them. Nay, in our secret supports we are not destitute altogether of His care, though we may not know how it comes. Metals that lie deep in the ground partake of the influence of the sun, though it does not shine upon them directly with light. There are few afflictions but have rather the marks of a fatherly kindness, in the seasonable correction of our faults, than the marks of displeasure. No outward losses or inward troubles, that are but for a time, are the certain signs of wrath; no, though they are very long and very grievous. It was not so in the case of Job.

Some of us will ask, "How shall I know when afflictions are in wrath?" It is a question to be answered with great tenderness and caution.

Divines have answered in this way. Afflictions are said to be in wrath:

1. When they come with great violence and suddenly destroy, as in the case of Sodom and Gomorrah, and in the great deluge. Psalm 58:9: "Before your pots can feel the thorns, He shall take them away as with a whirlwind, both living, and in His wrath." Nahum 1:9: "He will make an utter end; affliction shall not rise up the second time." And yet this must have some limitations; for a good man may be seized with a violent disease and die suddenly, of whom we ought not to say that he died by the wrath of God.

2. When there is no discernible mercy in the cross, but only what is evil.

3. When one evil makes way for another, and none are sanctified.

4. When the affliction brings some special sin to remembrance, and when sin itself deprives us of a mercy; when intemperance brings sickness, ambition brings disgrace, or covetousness and an overeager desire for riches bring poverty.

But then, even great crosses are in mercy:

1. When God not only afflicts us, but teaches us at the same time.

2. When we can be thankful for that comfort which we have lost, that is, if it is an outward loss; for I do not see how any person can be thankful for desertion while it remains upon him. That would be to thank God that He has departed, or that He has restrained the manifestations of His love, which no man is obliged to do.

3. When all our losses are made up in God, and in the graces of His Spirit.