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
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
these things shall be that is the commendations of a man and the excellency of a Christian above another man Another man doth all by sense but the Christian will trust God on his word I ascend saith Christ We must not think of the ascâ—nsion of Christ as a severed thing from us but if we would have the comfort of it we must think of it as our selves ascending with him Think of Christ as a publick person and a surety for us and then we shall have great comfort in that that he saith I ascend God prepared paradise before he made the Creature he would have him to come into a place of honour and pleasure And so God before ever we were born provided a place and paradise for us in Heaven that we might end our dayes with greater comfort We may be streightned here many a good Christian hath scarce where to lay his head but Christ is gone to prepare a place for them in Heaven And this may comfort us in the consideration of all our sins for sin past and for corruption present and for any sin that we may commit for time to come for any thing that is past if we confesse our sins to God he will forgive them the blood of Christ cleanseth us from all sins even for the present corruptions that attend on us We have one that stands between God and us as a surety he will give us his spirit to subdue our corruptions and at length make us like himself a glorious spouse If we were perfect men we needed not a Mediator and this may teach us comfort rather because we are sinners and daily subject to offend God We have one to make our peace for time to come if we sin we have an Advocate When Christ taught us to pray forgive us our daily tuespasses he supposed we would daily run into sins We have an Advocate in Heaven every day to stand between God and us to answer God to undertake that at length we should cease to offend him and for the present we are such as he shed his pretious blood for and he appeareth for us by vertue of his death which is a marvellous comfort We think if we commit sin there is no hope but what needs a Mediator but to make peace between the parties disagreeing If all things were made up between God and us what need of an intercessor but God knoweth well enough we run into daily sins by reason of a spring of corruption in us which is never idle And therefore we may daily go to God in the name of our Advocate and desire God for Christs sake to pardon and desire Christ to intercede for us let us therefore shame our selves There is not a Christian but will be in himself apprehensive of being thrown into Hell every day There is a spring of corruption in him and should God take a forfeiture of his daily rebellions his conscience tells him it were just And therefore we must every day live upon this branch of his priestly office his mediation We must live by faith in this branch of Christ and make use of it continually for this will keep us from hell And therefore if we sin every day go to God in the name of Christ and desire him to pardon us This is to feed on Christ and therefore we should more willingly come to the Sacrament When we be in heaven we shall need a Mediator no longer for we shall be perfectly holy We cannot think of these things too much they be the life of Religion and of comforts and it may teach us to make a true use of Christ in all our conditions Poor souls that are not acquainted with the Gospel they think God will cast them into hell for every sin and they live as if they had not an high Priest in Heaven to appear for them The matter of the message is Christ ascendeth to God as a common Father and God to him and them He doth not say I ascend to the Father that were no great comfort for what were that to them or to my Father only neither doth he say I ascend to our Father for that is true in the order of it for he is not in equal respect the God and Father of Christ and the God and Father of us And therefore he speaks of himself in the first place I go to my God and your God For he is first and specially Christs Father and Christs God and then ours as we shall see in the particulars We have a common Father and a common God with Christ God the Father is Christs Father by eternal generatioÌ„ as he is God and man we have therefore the nature of Christ ashe is God and man There is this difference between Gods being Christs Father and the Father of any else First of all God is Christs Father from eternity God had a being and was a Father from all eternity There is no man of equal standing with his Father he is born after his Father cometh to be a man but Christ is of God from all eternity his generation is eternall and therefore there is a grand difference Then Christ is coequal with the Father in glory and majesty every way The Sun is not coequal with the Father but Christ is with his Father Again the Son in other Generations comes of the Father and is like the Father taken out of his substance but of a different substance from the Father but Christ and the Father both the persons are in one substance in one essence The essence of the Father differeth not from the essence of the Son We must remember this to give Christ the prerogative and preheminency that God is his Father in another manner then ours He is his Father by nature ours by adoption What he is by nature we are by grace though Christ was intent upon his ascension yet he forgetteth not this grand differrnce here but mentioneth it Go to my Brethren We must not call him brother again we may think of him as our Brother but my God and my Lord as Thomas saith If the greatest person should call us Brother yet it is most behoveful for the inferior to say my God my Lord to acknowledge Christ as a great person and to make use of his love to strengthen our faith not to diminish our respect to him in any way It is his infinite mercy to tearm us Brethren but when we go to him we must have other tearms Thus we see how to conceive of Christ after his Resurrection When he hath triumphed over all his enemies and reconciled God by his death then I go to my Father and your Father Then he is a common Father by virtue of Christs satisfaction to divine wrath and justice and victory and triumphing over all his enemies So we must not conceive of God as our Father but in reference to Christs victory over death God is our
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
ever it is fit for him he will come If he should come sooner he would come too soon if afterward it would be too late He is the best discerner of times and seasons that can be and therefore wait his leasure If thou want comfort humble soul whatsoever thou art wait his leasure certainly he knoweth the best time and when the time is come he will come He that will come shall come there is no question of that Now as he sent her in all hast preferring it before any Complement to his own person so it is a constant love as it is a quick love that God bears to his Children so it is a constant invincible love They had dealt most unbrotherly with him for every one had forsaken him and Peter had denyed him yet go tell my Brethren One would think this water would have quenched this fire this unkind and unbrotherly dealing would have quenched this love in Christs breast It is true if it had been the meer love of man it had been something but it was the love of an infinite person that took our nature out of love and therefore it was a constant and invincible love nothing could conquer it not the thoughts of their unkind dealings no not their denying and forsaking of him But still go tell my Brethren Love is strong as death Death could not hold Christ in the grave but love held him on the Crosse When he came to the work of our Redemption love then held him on earth but when he was in the grave it brake through all there Indeed it was stronger then death in Christ Why is Christs love so constant so invincible that nothing can alter it The ground of it is it is free love He fetcheth the ground of his love from his own heart not from our worthiness or unworthiness but from his own freedom and Gods eternal purpose God hath purposed to save so many and those and no more he giveth to Christ to save And God looketh on his own purpose and Christs free love and that is the ground of all And therefore whom he loveth he loveth to the end because he looked on us in his election The Lord knoweth who are his the foundation is so sure if once we be Gods we are ever Gods For Christ looks on us in Gods election therefore if ever he sheweth his love to us once his love and for ever his love If any thing in man could hinder it it would have hindered it at our first conversion when we were at worst even enemies if nothing could hinder it then what can hinder it afterwards as the Apostle reasoneth strongly Rom. 5. 10. If we be reconciled by his death much more will he save us by his life If when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son now much more being reconciled shall we be saved by his life If when we had no goodness but opposition and rebellion in us we were saved by his death Christ is much more able to save us now by his life triumphing over death and being glorious in the Heavens Oh but saith the poor soul I am a poor weak Creature and ready to fall away every day I but Christs love is constant whom he loveth he loveth to the end What saith the Apostle Rom. 8. neither things present nor things to come shall be able to separate us from the love of Christ and therefore be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might do not trust to your selves nor trouble your selves for things to come If thou be free from guilt of former sins never question time to come God is unchangeable in his nature unchangeable in his love He is Jehovah I am alwayes not I was or will be but I am alwayes If ever he loved thee he will love thee for ever You see the constancy of Christs love go tell my Brethren now when they had most deeply offended him they were Renegadoes having all left him and then when he had most need of their comfort being in greatest extremity and yet go tell my Brethren Beloved let us not lose the comfort of the constancy and immutability of Christs love Let us conceive that all the sweet links of salvation are held on Gods part strong not on ours the firmness is on Gods part not on ours Election is firm on Gods part not on ours We chuse indeed as he chuseth us but the firmness is of his chusing so he calleth us we answer but the firmness is of his action He justifieth we are made righteous but the firmness is of his imputation Will he forgive sins to day and bring us into Court and damn us to morrow no the firmnesse is of his action We are ready to run into new debts every day but whom he justifieth he will glorifie The whole chain so holdeth that all the Creatures in Heaven and Earth cannot break a link of it whom he calleth he will justifie and glorifie therefore never doubt of continuance for it holds firm on Gods part not thine God imbraceth us in the arms of his everlasting love not that we imbraced him first When the Child falleth not it is from the Mothers holding the Child and not from the Childs holding the Mother So it is Gods holding of us knowing of us imbracing of us and justifying of us that maketh the state firm and not ours for ours is but a reflexion and result of his which is unvariable The sight of the Sun varieth but the Sun in the Firmament keepeth alwayes his constant course so Gods love is as the Sun invariable and for ever the same I only touch it as the foundation of wonderful comfort which they undermine that hold the contrary The next point is that Christ chose Mary to go tell his Brethren and under the sweet title of Brethren to deliver this sweet message I am going to my Father and your Father to my God and your God He telleth them the sweetest words in the worst times This point differeth from the former thus The former was that Christs love is constant and alwayes the same but now Christ most sheweth his love when we are most cast down in the worst times if our casting down be with repentance He never said Brethren before but reserved the tearm of Brethren for the worst time of all The sweetest discoveries of Christ are in the worst times of all to his Children Mothers will bring out any thing to their Children that is sweet comfortable to them in their sicknesse though they frowned on them before yet the exigency of the Child requires it when there is need any thing cometh out that may please the Child The poor Disciples were not only in affliction being the scorn of the world the Shepheard being smitten and the sheep scattered but their inward grief was greater they were inwardly confounded and
and is excellent at pleading that can non-suit all accusations laid against us by the Devil He is the Son of God and he is one of us he appeareth not as a stranger for a stranger as the Councellor is perhaps for his Clyent but he appears as our Brother Let us think of the comforts of it He appears for us to plead our Cause with acception of his person and Cause For he before whom he pleadeth God the Father sent him to take our nature die and ascend into Heaven for us to sustain the persons of particular offenders He must needs hear Christ thaâ— sent him for that purpose Where the Judge appoints a Councel it is a sign he favoureth the cause Perhaps we cannot pray are disconsolate and vexed with Satans temptations the poor Clyent hath a good cause but cannot make a good cause of it but if he get a skilful Lawyer that is favourable to him and before a favourable Judge his comfort is his Advocate can make his Cause good If we would confess our sins as that we must do we must take shame to our selves in all our distress and disconsolation of spirit we must lay open our estates to God and complain and then desire God to look upon us and Christ to plead our cause for us and answer Satan and when Satan is very malicious and subtle as he is a very cunning enemy to alledge all advantages against us to make us despair remember this we have one in heaven that is more skilful then he that is the accuser of the Brethren That accuseth us to God and to our own souls that accuseth every man to himself and maketh him an enemy to himself But we have a pleader in heaven that will take our part against the Accuser of our Brethren and quiet us at length in our Consciences Perhaps we may be troubled a while to humble us but remember that he is in Heaven purposely to plead our Cause It is a good plea to God Lord I know not what to say my sins are more then the hairs on mine head Satan layeth hard to me I cannot answer one of a thousand I confess all my sins hear me and hear thy Sonne for my sake he is now at thy right hand and pleadeth for me And desire Christ to plead for us We have not only all the Church to pray for us Our Father but we have Christ himself to plead for us and make our cause good If Christ saith I shed my blood for this person and appear now by virtue of my redemption and the condition of the Covenant is if we confess our sins he is merciful to forgive and if we sin we have an Advocate in Heaven to whom we must lay claim the party hath confest the debt and therefore the bond must be cancelled He hath performed the conditions on his part and therefore make iâ— good on thine own part And being the spirit hath shamed thee for thy sins what can the Devil say What saith Paul It is God that justifieth who shall condemn If God the party offended do justifie who shall condemn It is Christ that dyed that is not enough that is risen again that is not enough it is Christ that rose again and sitteth at the right hand of God for us and maketh intercession for us who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect let the Devil accuse what he will Christ is risen to shew that he hath satisfied and is now in heaven there appearing for us Oh that we had hearts large enough for these comforts then should we never yield to base temptations It is against the pleasure of God that we should be disconsolate therefore we wrong our own souls and sin against our own comfort when we let the rains loose by inordinate and extream sorrow We lose that sweetnesse that we might injoy by giving way to discomfortable thoughts Indeed if a man examine his life from the beginning of his conversion to the end thereof he may thank himself for all his trouble The sin against the holy Gospel is a kind of rebellion against God though we think not so when we will not be comforted nor imbrace grounds of comfort when we have them The comforts of God ought not to be of small esteem to us the sweet comforts large exceeding eternal comforts of God we ought to esteem of them as they be and therefore our Saviour Christ sendeth to them speedily All Scripture is to this end for consolation even the Scripture that tendeth to instruction and direction that so men may be in a state of comfort for Cordials are not good but where there is purgation before So all Scriptures that are purging to tell us our faults they be to bring us into a comfortable condition Other Scriptures that tend to instruct our judgements and settle us in faith what is the end of all if we walk not comfortably towards God and strongly in our places Therefore when we look not to comfort and joy in all conditions we abuse the intendments of God But I beseech you make not a bad use of it for if you know it to be so if it worketh not gratiously on you and winneth you to respect God the more and love him that is thus indulgent and gratious but go on in offending conscience and break peace off then at length conscience will admit of no comfort Many that have had excellent comforts have made havock of their consciences and will go on in spight oâ— Ministers in spight of their consciences and Gods spirit joyned with conscience at length it is just with God to give them up to despair wicked sinners that trample the blood of Christ under their feet But for all other that strive against corruption and would be better it is a ground of marvellous comfort I shall come to the Message it self tell them I ascend He speaketh of that as present which was surely to be So we should think of our future Estate as if we were presently to go to heaven Faith hath this force to make things to come present If we could keep it in us and exercise it could we live in any sin but that it is distant that is the cause of sinning we put off things in a distance if it be at the day of judgement that is far off and therefore they will not leave their present pleasure for that that shall not be they know not when But look on things in the word of a God that is Jehovah that giveth a being to all who hath spoken of things to come as if present and then you will be of another mind Faith is the priviledge of a Christian which maketh things a far off present No wicked man but would leave his swearing and prophaness if he saw the joyes of Heaven and pains of Hell and it were no thanks to him but to believe God on his word that
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
to hear all the comforts spoken of before For all to whom he is a God in the Covenant of grace and have hearts to make him so the spirit raiseth up their affections to make him a God to themselves Amor tuus Deus tuus as it is said of old what we love most is our God What we joy most in is our God what we relie and trust in most is our God as it was said of the wedge of gold And therefore if any thing hath our affections more then God or equal with God that we make our God It is a quaere of the greatest concernment in the world to put to our hearts What do I make my God as David putteth the quaere to himself now Lord what is my hope is it not in thee And so put this quaere to our selves Lord what is my joy what is my hope what is my trust what is my comfort is it not in thee If our hearts cannot make an answer to this in some sincerity surely as yet we have not made God our God Time may be that he may be so but till by the spirit of God we be brought to see an emptiness and vanity in the Creature and a nothingnesse in all in comparison of God that we can say whom have I in Heaven but thee We have not comfort because we do not make him ours by a spirit of mutuallity Where there is a Covenant of grace there must be a mutual making of God our God as he maketh himself to us Alas we may be ashamed of it the best do often forget themselves Oh how do men value the favours of a man and the promises of a man the seal of a man for such and such a benifice and how doth it grieve them to have the frowns of flesh and blood the frowns of greatness but when their Consciences tell them they are under guilt of many sins and God is not in good tearms with them how doth this affect them and when their consciences cannot say they have promises sealed in Christ of the favours and mercies of God here and hereafter alas it is dead comfort 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 give me that which is present and take you that which is to come is the Language of both How few can say from sincerity of heart that they make good to be their God And therefore it is of greater concernment then we take it Vse 2. As it is a ground and foundation of comfort so of all obedience to God as it is prefixed before the Commandements I am the Lord your God you shall have no other Gods but me do all in obedience to me from this ground But much more now then he was the Lord God that brought them out of Egypt But now God may prefix I am your Lord God in Christ that have brought you from hell and damnation that intend you Heaven and happiness and therefore do so and so Since this is the spring of all obedience we ought to labor to make it good and often to examine our selves as before what we make our God and what we pitch our affections on Alas is our soul for any thing but God hath not God made us for himself and will our hearts rest in any thing but God why then should we love vanity and besot our selves when death comes they may say as Saul said The Philistins are upon me and God hath forsaken me Death is on me trouble sickness vexation of conscience is on me and God hath forsaken me I have no God to go to what a miserable estate is this And therefore I beseech you let us labor to have interest in the Covenant of grace to make it good that God is our God in Jesus Christ Who giveth us a being to be Christians to have a new nature to have a good being but God who maintaineth and preserveth that being but God and who keepeth and preserveth us till we get into a glorious being in Heaven but God who is all-sufficient self-sufficient sole-sufficient only sufficient this God is our God now in Christ God is to us in a more special singular manner then to other Creatures because he hath raised us to a more excellent being not only as men we being in the highest rank of Creatures next the Angels and so he is a God to us more then to inferior Creatures that have a more circumscrib'd and narrow being Man hath a large being a reasonable soul and is fitted by nature to have communion with God who is wisdom it self and with Angels but all this were little comfort unless we had higher degrees of being then this If God be our God in Christ we have a spiritual being which is as much above the dignity and prerogative of our ordinary being as our being by nature is above the basest Creature in the world And so God setteth a stile upon us sutable to the excellency of our spirituall being there is nothing excellent in the world but we are learned by it Now to let out the advancement and excellency of the dignity we have from God in a special manner to be Sons Jewels his Portion his diadem to be whatsoever you can imagine that is glorious and excellent An excellent condition though spiritual and concealed from the world Gods Children are concealed men as you shall see afterward they be hidden men the world taketh no notice of them because their excellency is seen with another eye then the world hath The God of the world blindeth the eyes of worldlings They cannot see into the excellency of Gods Children no more then they can know God himself and Christ himself So you see what it is to be a God in nature and in grace to be all in all unto us to have our whole subsistance and dependence in him in him we live and move and have our being and well-being In this our excellency consisteth that God is our God in Christ who was God and that he might bring God and us to good tearms together that he might make God our God he was Emanuel God with us to make God with us in favour and love The God-head is nearest the humane nature of Christ of any Creature it is nearer to Christ then to the Angels for God hath not taken the Angels into hypostatical union to be in the same person but God in Christ is so near our nature that there is an hypostatical union they make one person our nature being taken into the second person By reason of this near union of the God-head to our nature cometh that comfort and near union between God and our nature whereby God hath sweet communion with us in Christ God by his spirit though not hypostatically yet gratiously is one with us and hath communion with us now as his Children so that sweet entercourse between God and us now is founded upon the nearness of the god-head to our nature in Christ