as he rose we shall arise As verily as he is at Gods right hand we shall be there too for by faith we sit now in heavenly places with Christ and we shall judge the world and be for ever with the Lord. Whatsoever we see in Christ interest our selves in it And therefore we must not conceive of Christ as a severed person but conceive of our selves in union and communion with Christ our head and to conceive of Christ as our head and surety and second Adam And as a quickening spirit that communicateth all to us And therefore when we are to deal with God be sure to go through Christ as we expect all from God through Christ so give all to God through Christ again Be sure to take Benjamin with us when we go come cloathed with the Garments of our elder Brother and do not doubt when we come with Christ for else we dishonour Christ shall I come in the sweet name and mediation of my Saviour that hath perfected salvation and not be accepted of God when God hath ordained him for that purpose If we stagger and doubt to receive any thing at Gods hands we wrong not only Gods bounty but Christ the Mediator carry this therefore all along with us do all in him and desire God to pardon all for his sake and God will regard us Let us therefore make this use of it and add this further That if so be God is first the Father of Christ before he is our Father and first the God of Christ before he is our God and that all our good is dependent upon what God is to Christ first then doth not this follow from hence that we should not only thank God for our selves but thank God for whatsoever he hath done to Christ not only comfort our selves in it but let God have the glory of it And this the spirit of God in the holy Apostles Peter and Paul led them to Ephes 1. Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ what and nothing but so nay with a reduplication Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ even because he is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ because out of his infinite depth of wisdom and goodness he hath found out a way to save us in Christ to be a Father to him and in him a Father to us It is said of the Virgin Mary Aâ— Generations shall call her blessed Why because she was Mother of the person that was God she was the Mother of Christ in humane nature and of God because we may not sever the persons And shall we blesse the Virgin Mary as Mother of God and not God as Father of Christ If she be the Mother of Christ-man then God is the Father of whole Christ and therefore blessed be God not only that he is our Father and our God but that he might be thus with satisfaction to divine justice he hath found out such a way to be the Father of Christ and Christ as man is an object of Gods love and predestination as well as we We deserved nothing at Gods hands but he found out â—uch a way by taking the nature of man into unity of his second person and so became a Father of Christ and of us And therefore blesse God who hath predestinated Christ to â—e the Lamb of God that hath freed him from sin and raised him from the dead that hath carried him into Heaven and set him at his right hand ordained him to be judg of quick and dead Are these things severed from us no they be favours that be ours in Christ his first then ours And therefore whensoever we think of any thing Christ hath of his glory in Heaven as he is King of Heaven and earth and hath all power committed to him glorisie God for it and think of it this is mine he is mine Husband my head he hath taken up that glory and whatsoever is in Heaven and injoyeth them he hath taken it up for me and therefore we should blesse God for it So the Apostle Peter blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ that hath begot us again to an inheritance immortal undefiled that fadeth not away reserved in the Heavens He hath begot us to a lively hope through the Resurrection of Christ from the dead So it is from the Resurrection of Christ from the dead that Christ saith God is my Father and your Father since Gods justice is satisfied by my Resurrection that is declared to be satisfied I ascend to my Father and your Father to my God and your God I beseech you let us not lose the comfort of these things since our Saviour Christ intendeth them for comfort To come to the words First Christ saith God was his God and our God because his God In what sense is God Christs God As mediator as man both in regard of his person and in regard of his office God is Christs God every way See Psal 22. which is a Psalm of Christ David being but a type of him in it Thou art my God from my mothers womb and so God is Christs God in his particular person from his Mothers womb For first God was Christs God when by his holy spirit he sanctified him in his Mothers womb and brought him out into the world Let the foolish disputes of Fryars and dreams and dotages of dunsical times go But thou art my God from my Mothers womb And 2. He is Christs God because he saved him from the massacre of the Infants Our Saviour Christ makes that prayer in Psal 22. on the Crosse My God my God why hast thou forsaken me 3. God was Christs God in protecting of him in his young time and afterward in going along with him still to his death and in death my God my God still He would own God to be his God still when God had deserted him to his sense and feeling yet my God still So God was Christs God as Christ wasâ—man take Christ as mediator God is the God of Christ for God the Father hath by his Authority put on Christ whatsoever he hath The Father hath sent him into the world The Father sealed him the Father set him out as a propitiation for our sins The Father hath declared him and annointed him and all these tearms of Authority whereby the Father hath shewed himself to be Christs God even in his office of Mediatorship So in regard of the care of his person from his Mothers womb and for ever and in regard of his office as Mediator he might well say I go to my God In regard of the intimate familiarity and acquaintance maintained even on the Crosse he might say my God But the comfort of it lyeth in the second clause That as God is the God of Christ so he is our God because he is the God of Christ What is it to be a God to any In a
word to be a God is to be all-sufficient to any to be sole-sufficient and to be self-sufficient To be a God is to be all-sufficient for every Creature to be all-sufficient when nothing else can be sufficient And to be self-sufficient to be sufficient of himself and therefore to reduce all back again to himself Now God is a God of himself for himself and by himself God is all-sufficient self-sufficient sole-sufficient and whatsoever the Creature hath it hath it from him There is in a word in God a sufficiency for all good and happiness and an efficiency to apply that sufficiency for the good of the Creature And in particular to be a God to any is to do that for a Creature that no Creature in the world can do but God To make it of nothing to free it from misery that it is beset withall when no other can free it to recover it again God is Jehovah that hath a being of himself giveth being to the Creatures that can make the Creature of nothing and being something can make it nothing Now if God be a God to any he is not only to give being to us in a certain rank of Creatures as we are advanced above other Creatures as to have a being or a life of growing or a life of sense or to advance us to a life of Creatures indowed with reason whereby we are common in that fashion with Angels and understand God himself Alas this were a poor priviledge if it went no farther then to set us in that rank of Creatures though a great favour But considering us in a lapsed estate it is a poor favour to leave us here And therefore God is said to be our God now in a state of grace when he advanceth us to an higher being and life then all this to a life of grace here and of glory hereafter When out of his soveraignty and power he reduceth all to help forward his main end the salvation of his in peculiar So God is a God in peculiar of some that he taketh out of base mankind There is a world taken out of the world as Augustine useth to speak And thus he is a God not to bestow a life of grace and supernatural being here but a glorious condition hereafter in Heaven and to make all things serviceable to that that we may say all is ours because we are Christs and Christ is Gods So that whatsoever befalleth a Christian is serviceable and conducible to the main and last end And that is for God to be God indeed to make us his in Christ Jesus to give us a new Creation and a new State better then at first Now what is the foundation of this that God is our God in the Covenant of grace we say it is founded on Christ God is Christs God and then our God and that is the reason why Christ is called Emanuel which is as much as to say as it is expounded God with us Not only because when he took our nature on him there was God and man in one person but the meaning of the word is Christ is Emanuel God with us by being God in our nature and satisfying divine justice in our nature hath brought God the Father and us together into a sweet Covenant So that God may be our God and our Father notwithstanding his justice because all is satisfied by Christ who took our nature to die for us Christ is Emanuel because he hath made God and us one So that God is our God and not only so but our Father in him Thus you see how it cometh to passe that God is our Father by Christ who came to bring us again to God as his whole office was to bring a few that had been singled out of mankind to God again from whom they fell for we all had communion with God in Adam but we lost it and now must be brought again to God which must be done by Christ God and man Thus much for the foundation of the point That God is Christs God and God in Christ is our God to do all things for us to bring us to an happy condition here and an everlasting happy condition in Heaven We see here it is brought as a ground of comfort and so indeed it is And we may observe from hence That now by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ God is not only become a Father to us but a God This is a ground of many cōforts go tell my Disciples now I am risen again therefore justice is satisfied and now they may have lively hope of a better condition hereafter For God is my God that hath raised me up and who will raise up mine too so that now we are copartners with Christ sharers with him in the Fatherhood of God and God is God in common with Christ and us This may well be brought as a point of comfort if there were any comfort in the world of sweeter efficacy then this our Saviour would have sent it to his Disciples Comfort being his main Office and his main end he would have the best comfort after his best Resurrection And he picks this from amongst them all Go tell them I go to my Father and their Father to my God and their God And therefore it is a pregnant comfort and indeed no heart can conceive the comfort of it that we have interest together with Christ in God and with the Fatherhood of God And both these the Scripture joyneth together 2 Cor. 2. 6. I will be your Father and your God To unfold the comforts more God is said to be our God in Covenant in Christ He is the God of Christ and therefore of us because he hath made himself over to us A thing is said to be another mans when the Title is past to another man Now God hath as it were past over himself to his believing Children and Members of Christ He hath made over himself to them to be their God as he was the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob and all the Patriarks Prophets and Apostles so he is of every good believing Christian to the end of the world God maketh himself over to be theirs and as the Scriptures stile is he is their portion and their Inheritance a blessed portion a blessed inheritance more to us then if all the world were ours then if Heaven were ours then if ten thousand worlds were ours for he is our God that can create millions of worlds more then this if it were needful Habet omnia qui habet habentem omnia He hath all things that hath him in Covenant that hath all things And therefore when the Scripture saith I go to their God it implyeth I go to him that is all in all to them that is larger then their hearts can be for what heart can conceive the fulnesse of the comforts arising from hence that God is our God Many know they need comfort of
brother said the King of Israel as common Offices make kindred He had but let passe the tearm of brother and they would not let it go but catcht at it thy brother Benhadad We see what wisdom flesh and blood can teach to make an improvement of any comfort in the world if by kindred or office or any relation in the world they make use of them And when we be in Christ shall not we make use of them when we be troubled with sense of sin or in desperate conditions when Christ calleth us brother shall not we answer I am thy brother Blessed be thy mercy and love that descended so low as to make me thy brother I beseech you let us not lose the comforts we may have in the Disciples being called Christs Brethren when they were in some sort enemies but he knew their hearts were sound and it was but their weakness therefore let no weakness discourage thee He will not quench the smoaking flax nor break the bruised Reed Is thy heartright to Christ art not thou a false Hypocrite a secret Traitor to Christ and to his cause and Church then be of good comfort thou mayst go to Christ as to thy brother Though Peter denyed him with his mouth yet he confest him with his heart And therefore go tell my Disciples and Peter he hath most guilt and therefore hath most need of comfort Be thy guilt never so great if thou wilt come into Covenant with God here is mercy for thee and therefore make this use of it Never forget in your worst condition that may be since Christ will stoop so low to own you to be brethren to make use of it if your hearts be right towards him Go to my brethren now I come to the Commission or Charge given to her Go to my brethren who is the party charged Mary And what is her charge to go to the Apostles under the sweet tearm of brethren When doth he call them so after his Resurrection when he was in the state of glory what is the Message it is very sweet Go say to them I ascend to my Father and your Father to my God and your God I ascend that is I presently am to ascend in a very short time I shall ascend It was but forty dayes between Easter and the Ascension and all that time Christ appeared now and then It is the nature of faith where it is glorious for to present future things as if present especially when they be near I ascend that is I shall very shortly ascend and it is all one as if I ascend presently To whom do I ascend I ascend to my Father To my Father that is not comfort enough therefore to your Father too I ascend to God that is not comfort enough therefore to my God and your God We shall unfold the words as we come at them First Mary Magdalen a woman a sinner is used in the great work of an Apostle to be an Apostle to the Apostles I would there were that love in all men to teach what they know and that humility in others to be instructed in what they know not It were a sweet conjunction if it were so She was a mean person to instruct the great Apostles But beloved where there is a great deal of love there they will teach what they know and where there is humility there they will be taught what they know not though they be never so great And God will humble the greatest to learn of the meanest sometimes therefore he sendeth Mary to the Apostles I beseech you in matters of salvation stand not on tearms Let us take truth from Christ let us see God and Christ in it see our own comfort in it not stand upon persons Aquila and Priscilla teach the great men knowledg And so it is sometimes mean persons are honored to be instruments of great comforts to persons greater then themselves She is to go to the Apostles under the name of Brethren Go tell my Brethren And she must go to the Apostles that were Christs Brethren and owned to be so now when he was in glory when he was risen and exempt from all his former abasements of the Crosse and grave where he was held captive three dayes under the dominion of sin when he was freed from all enemies of salvation and had triumphed over all Go tell my Brethren So you see there is a sweet affinity and nearness between Christ and his Christ took our nature on him for this end he became flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone that we spiritually might be flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone It is no comfort at all an inducing comfort it is but no actuall present comfort that Christ was incarnate for us for all the world might have comfort in that Turks Jews Pagans that had the nature of man in them And all have some comfort in it as their nature is dignified and that he took not on him the nature of Angels but the nature of man his spouse his Church it is that hath the comfort of it Therefore it is not sufficient that he be bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh but we must be bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh We must be ingraffed and baptized into him by faith and then the tearm holdeth and never till then so that there is a sweet nearness betwixt Christ and his Brother is a most comfortable relation It is comfort that he took our nature upon him that God would take dust and ashes earth into the unity of his person for God to become man is a great dignifying of mans nature but to take not only our nature on him but to take our person particularly near to him thou and thou to be a Member of Christ there is the honor of it It induceth us to come to Christ that hath loved our nature so much But the other is an actual present comfort when we can say I am my Beloveds my Beloved is mine Our hearts are too narrow a great deal to imbrace the whole comfort that this word affords unto us That Christ should own us as his Brother after his Resurrection for that sheweth a reconciliation Brother is a tearm of friendship nay more then a tearm of reconciliation for a man may be reconciled to an enemy but it is a tearm of amity to shew that when we believe in Christ and are one with him our sins are quitted death is overcome Satans head is crushed when God is reconciled What have they to do with us they are only to serve our turns to bring us to Heaven and fit us for it I beseech you consider of the excellent freedom and dignity of a Christian his freedom in that he is the Brother of Christ free from all being owned by Christ after his Resurrection all being quit by his death who w as our surety else he
to that which is naught There is a love of that which is good So things good things are connatural to a good man There is a relish in good Company and good things As there is sweetness in the best things so there is something in the Children of God that is answerable to the God whom they serve He is never so out of tast but he findeth his chief comfort in this thing and he is never himself so much as when he is conversant in these things though in different measure sometimes more and sometimes lesse There is an inward antipathy to God in a proud carnal man that hath not his heart subdued by grace there is a contrariety to the power of that grace which outwardly he professeth and a sympathy with the world and the spirit of the world Take a good Christian at the worst he is better then another at the best I beseech you therefore examine our dispositions how we stand affected to things of an higher nature then the things of the world to spiritual things how we can relish spiritual things Gods Ordinances any thing that is holy surely if there be the life of God and Christ in us there will be a kind of coÌ„naturalness suitableness of taste to the sweetnes that is in holy things To come to the next mark the order here Go to my Father and your Father We are the Sons of God at the second hand God is the Father of Christ first and then ours He is his God first then our God This is a weighty point for directing of our devotion that we may know in what order to look on God See God in Christ see all things in Christ first and then in us Look upon him as Father to Christ and then to us Look on him as a God to Christ first and in Christ a God to us Look on him as having elected us but elect in Christ first See our selves justified but see Christ justified first from our sins and his justification declared by his resurrection See our resurrection and ascension and glorification in Heaven not directly but in Christ our head who is in Heaven and taketh up place for us See God loving us but look on it in Christ who is Sedes amoris The next thing to God is his Son and he loveth none but in him When we consider of any spiritual blessing say with the Apostle Blessed be God who hath filled us with all spiritual blessings in Christ Otherwise we do not know our selves nor God Whatsoever is derived from God to us is through Christ all promises are his first they are made to him and to our nature in him and they are performed for his sake he taketh them from God the Father and they be performed for his sake He is the true Aaron we are but the skirts the Oyl that is powered upon his head runneth down to his skirts it runneth to the meanest Christian but the Oyntment of grace is first powred on his head Of his grace we receive grace for grace and of his fulness The first fulness is God himself the second receptacle of all is Christ God-man the third are we we have it at the third hand God emptieth himself into Christ as Mediator In him are the fulnesse of all riches the treasures of all wisdom and knowledg we are compleated in him and in him we are full His is not only a fulness of the Vessel as ours is but a fulness of the Fountain And it is for our comfort that it is so that Gods love is to Christ first There is a firm foundation when God loveth us in his Son and we are Children in his natural Son in whom we are adopted then our state is firm Oâ—r first state in the first Adam was not firm but now our nature is taken into the unity of the second person it is firm So that the love and care and Fatherly disposition of God towards us it is sweet to us because it is tender to his Son It is eternal to us because it is eternal to him He can as soon cease to love his Son as cease to love us For with the same love he loveth all Christ mystical head and members There is not the least finger of Christ the least despised member of Christ but God looketh on him with that sweet eternal tenderness with which he looketh upon his Son preserving the prerogative of the head Oh this is a sweet comfort that now all the excellent priviledges of a Christian are set on Christ and then on us and therefore we should not lose them for Christ will lose nothing When the favour of a Prince is founded on his Son whom he always loveth the affection is unalterable on the Son and therefore the case is good So Gods favour to us is foâ—nded on his love to his Son therefore unalterable and eternal we should therefore look up to God in his son put up all our PetitioÌ„s to him in his son expect all from him in his sonne He is in Heaven for us to do that that belongeth to us Expect all from God through Christ and do all to God through Christ love God in Christ and Christ in God our selves in Christ and our selves in the love of God Christ is in God and God is in Christ God and Christ are in us there is a marvellous sweet relation and communion between God and us and Christ and us It is a sweet communion and mysterious to us How sweet is the communion between the soul and the body the soule being so spiritual and the body a peece of earth But what is this to the mystery of mysteries when God takes clay and dust into unity of his person and all this is for this union The great and glorious union of Christ to our natures is that he may take us into his mystical body and so make us one with himself and one with the Father He took our natures that he might convey his Fatherly goodness and love and spirit to us The sweet union of the two natures of Christ is to confirm union between the Father and us and Christ and us And we are never happy till we be assured thaâ— we are one with Christ which is the issue of his excellent prayer John 17. Our blessed Saviour fetcheth the comfort of our Father from this that God is his Father first and so to joyn both together That God is our God because he is his God first It is a point very considerable That whatsoever comfort we look for from God and in God we must see it in Christ first before we see it in our selves because we be but Sons by adoption and we have all we have from God through Christ Whatsoever we see in Christ think this will belong to us And whatsoever we look should belong to us see it first in him As verily as he ascended we shall ascend As verily