And, as I said, consolation ariseth from the presence or
consideration of a greater good, that outbalances the evil or perplexity
wherewith we are to contend. Now, in the effects or acts of the Holy Ghost
before mentioned lie all the springs of our consolation. There is no
comfort but from them; and there is no trouble that we may not have comfort
in and against by them. That a man may have consolation in any condition,
nothing is required but the presence of a good, rendering the evil
wherewith he is pressed inconsiderable to him. Suppose a man under the
greatest calamity that can possibly befall a child of God, or a confluence
of all those evils numbered by Paul, Rom. viii.
35, etc.; let this man have the Holy Ghost performing the works
mentioned before towards him, and, in despite of all his evils, his
consolations will abound. Suppose him to have a sense of the love of God
all the while shed abroad in his heart, a clear witness within that he is a
child of God, accepted with him, that he is sealed and marked of God for
his own, that he is an heir of all the promises of God, and the like; it is
impossible that man should not triumph in all his tribulations.