I will in my poor mind assign, for the first comfort, the desire
and longing to be comforted by God. And not without some reason
call I this the first cause of comfort. For, as the cure of that
person is in a manner desperate, who hath no will to be cured, so
is the comfort of that person desperate, who desireth not his own
comfort.
And here shall I note you two kinds of folk who are in tribulation
and heaviness: one sort that will not seek for comfort, and another
sort that will.
And again, of those that will not, there are also two sorts. For
the first there are the sort who are so drowned in sorrow that they
fall into a careless deadly dullness, regarding nothing, thinking
almost of nothing, no more than if they lay in a lethargy. With
them it may so befall that wit and remembrance will wear away and
fall even fair from them. And this comfortless kind of heaviness in
tribulation is the highest kind of the deadly sin of sloth.
Another sort there are, who will seek for no comfort, nor yet
receive none, but in their tribulation (be it loss or sickness) are
so testy, so fuming, and so far out of all patience that it
profiteth no man to speak to them. And these are as furious with
impatience as though they were in half a frenzy. And, from a custom
of such behaviour, they may fall into one full and whole. And this
kind of heaviness in tribulation is even a dangerous high branch of
the mortal sin of ire.
Then is there, as I told you, another kind of folk, who fain would
be comforted. And yet are they of two sorts too. One sort are those
who in their sorrow seek for worldly comfort. And of them shall we
now speak the less, for the divers occasions that we shall
afterwards have to touch upon them in more places than one. But
here will I say this, which I learned of St. Bernard: He who in
tribulation turneth himself unto worldly vanities, to get help and
comfort from them, fareth like a man who in peril of drowning
catcheth whatsoever cometh next to hand, and that holdeth he fast,
be it never so simple a stick. But then that helpeth him not, for
he draweth that stick down under the water with him, and there they
lie both drowned together. So surely, if we accustom ourselves to
put our trust of comfort in the delight of these childish worldly
things, God shall for that foul fault suffer our tribulation to
grow so great that all the pleasures of this world shall never bear
us up, but all our childish pleasure shall drown with us in the
depth of tribulation.
The other sort is, I say, of those who long and desire to be
comforted by God. And as I told you before, they undoubtedly have a
great cause of comfort even in that point alone, that they consider
themselves to desire and long to be comforted by almighty God. This
mind of theirs may well be cause of great comfort to them, for two
great considerations.
One is that they see themselves seek for their comfort where they
cannot fail to find it. For God both can give them comfort, and
will. He can, for he is all-mighty; he will, for he is all-good,
and hath himself promised, "Ask and you shall have." He who hath
faith--as he must needs have who shall take comfort--cannot doubt
but what God will surely keep his promise. And therefore hath he a
great cause to be of good comfort, as I say, in that he considereth
that he longeth to be comforted by him who, his faith maketh him
sure, will not fail to comfort him.
But here consider this: I speak here of him who in tribulation
longeth to be comforted by God, and who referreth the manner of his
comforting to God. Such a man holdeth himself content, whether God
comfort him by taking away or diminishing the tribulation itself,
or by giving him patience and spiritual consolation therein. For if
he long only to have God take his trouble from him, we cannot so
well warrant that mind for a cause of so great comfort. For a man
may desire that who never mindeth to be the better, and also may he
miss the effect of his desire, because his request is haply not
good for him. And of this kind of longing and requiring, we shall
have occasion hereafter to speak further. But he who, referring the
manner of his comforting to God, desireth of God to be comforted,
asketh a thing so lawful and so pleasing to God that he cannot fail
to fare well. And therefore hath he, as I say, great cause to take
comfort in the very desire itself.
Another cause hath he to take of that desire a very great occasion
of comfort. For since his desire is good, and declareth to him that
he hath a good faith in God, it is a good token unto him that he is
not an abject, cast out of God's gracious favour, since he
perceiveth that God hath put such a virtuous, well-ordered appetite
in his mind. For as every evil mind cometh of the world and
ourselves and the devil, so is every such good mind inspired into
man's heart, either immediately or by the mean of our good angel or
other gracious occasion, by the goodness of God himself. And what a
comfort then may this be to us, when we by that desire perceive a
sure undoubted token that towards our final salvation our Saviour
is himself so graciously busy about us!