3. If God be our God, then all that is in God is ours : the Lord saith to a saint in covj'nant, as the king of Israel to the king of Syria, 1 Kings xx. 4., " I am thine, and all that I have." So saith God, " I am thine." How happy is he Avho not on- ly inherits the gil"t of God, but inherits God himself! All that I have shall be thine; my wisdom shall be thine, to teach thee; my power shall be thine, to support thee ; my mercy shall be thine, to save thee. God is an infinite ocean of blessedness, and there is enough in him to fill us. If a thou- sand vessels be thrown into the sea, there is cnouffh in the sea to fill them.
4. If God be our God, he will entirely love us : propriety is the ground of love. God may give men kingdoms, and not love
them ; but he cannot be our God, and not love us. He calls his covenanted saints, Jediduth Naphshi, " The dearly beloved of my soul," Jer. xii. 7. He rejoiceth over them with joy, and rests in his love, Zeph. iii. 17. ; they are his refined silver, Zech. xiii. 9. ; his jewels, Mai. iii. 17. ; his royal diadem, Isa. Ixii. 3. He gives them llie cream and flower of his love; he not only opens his hand and fills them, Ps. cxlv. 16., but opens his heart and fills them.
5. If God be our God, he will do more for us than all the world besides can. M'liat is that ? 1. He will give us peace in trou* ble: when a storm without, he will malce music within. The world can create trou- ble in peace, but God can create peace ic trouble; he will send the Comforter, who, as a dove, brings an olive-branch of peace in his mouth, John xiv. 16. 2. God will give us .1 crown of immortality : the world can give a crown of gold, but that crown hath thorns in it, and death in it : but God will give " a crown of glory that fadeth not away," 1 Pet. v. 4. The garland made of the flowers of paradise never withers.
6. If God be our God, he will bear with many infirmities. God may respite sinners a while, but long forbearance is no acquit- tance ; he will throw them to hell for their sins; but if God be our God, he will not for every failing destroy us; he bears with his spouse as with the weaker vessel; God may chastise, Ps. Ixxxix. 32., he may use the rod and the ])runing-knife, but not the bloody axe. Numb, xxili. 21., " He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob :" he will not see sin in his people, so as to destroy them ; he sees their sins so as to pity them ; he sees them as a physician sees a disease in his patient, to heal him, Isa. Ivii. 18., " I have seen his Avays, and I will heal him." Every failing doth not break the marriage- hoiul asunder. The disciples had great fiiilings, they all forsook Christ and fled ; but this did not break off their interest in God, therefore saith Christ, at his ascen- sion, " Tell my dicsiples, I go to my God and to their God."
7. If God be once our God, he is so for ever, Ps. xlviii. 14., " This God is our God for ever and ever." Wliatever worldly comforts we have are but for a season, Htfb,
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xi. 2h.; we must part with all. As Paul's friends did aecouipaiiy liim to the ship, and there Iclt him, Acts xx. 28., so all our earthly comforts will but po with us to the grave, and there leave us. You cannot say you have liealth, and shall have it for ever; you have a child, and shall have it for ever; but if God be your God, you shall have him for ever ; " This God is our God for ever and ever." If God be our God, he will be a God to us as long as he IS a God ! " You have taken away my gods," saith Micah, Judges xviii. 2i. But it can- not be said to a belieA'er, that his God is taken away; he may lose all things else, but cannot lose his God. God is ours from everlasting in election, and to everlasting in glory.
8. If God be our God, we shall enjov all our godly relations with him in heaven. The great felicity on earth, is to enjoy re- lations ; a father sees his own picture in a child ; a wife sees a piece of herself in her husband ; we plant the flower of love among our relations, aiul the loss of them is like the pulling off a limb from the body. But if God be ours, with enjoying God we shall enjoy all our pious relations in glorv. TIio gracious child shall see his godly father, the virtuous wife shall see her religious hus- band in Christ's arms : and then there will be a dearer love to relations than ever was before, though in a far different manner ; then relations shall meet and never part : " And so shall we be ever with the Lord," 1 Tliess. iv. 17.
ExoD. XX. 2. /crm the Lord thy God, Sfc.
TO all such as can make out this cove- nant union, it exhorts to several things.