6. The grounds and reasons of all nearness, or the way how it cometh about, are these four :—
106 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SER. CLXIX.
1.1 God's covenant with us.
"2.1 Our incorporation into Christ.
3. j The inhabitation of the Spirit in us.
4.] Mutual love between God and us. These are the reasons why God is near us, and we a people near unto God.
[1.] His covenant with us, or confederation in the covenant. God promiseth to be our God, and we to be his people: Jer. xxxii. 38, ' And they shall be my people, and I will be their God.' As those two kings made a league offensive and defensive, 1 Kings xxii. 4, ' I am as thou art, and my people as thy people, and my horses as thy horses ; ' so God will be ours as really as we are his ; you shall have a propriety in God, as God has in you ; not absolutely indeed the same, but enough for your comfort. You were his before the contract, and to be at his command ; but he is not at your command : you may sup- plicate and humbly sue out the effects of your right in God, and may be sure of speeding, when it is for his glory and your good. We have a right to God, and all that is in God, but not a right over him, as he hath over us. We have propriety and interest in God, but not domin- ion, as we have over the creatures, or as God hath over us. He will let out his goodness, grace, and mercy to us and for us. God still keepeth the rank of a sovereign, and yet treateth us as friends : James ii. 23, ' Abraham believed God, and it was imputed to him for right- eousness, and he was called the friend of God.' Yea, children : John i. 12, ' But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.' When we give up ourselves to God to serve him, we enter ourselves heirs to all the privileges of the gospel, and may lay claim to them.
[2.] By union with Christ ; such as are under the covenant of grace are made members of the mystical body of Christ. This union the scripture sets forth by the similitude of head and members : Kom. xii. 5, ' So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.' Vine and branches : John xv. 1,2, 'I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman; every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away; and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit/ Stock and graff, Bom. vi. 5 ; body and garment : Gal. iii. 27, ' For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ.' The con- verting of meat and drink into our substance : John vi. 56, ' He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.' House and indweller : Eph. iii. 17, ' That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.' As the members receive sense and motion from the head, the branches sap from the root, and the graff liveth in the stock, so we receive all life and being from Christ. Christ first giveth him- self to us, and with himself all things. We must have himself first, for it is he in us becometh the fountain of life : Gal. ii. 20, ' I am crucified with Christ ; nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me ; and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.' The hope of glory : Col. i. 27, ' Christ in you the hope of glory.' Now this endeareth us to God, and makes us near to him : John xvii. 21, ' That they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that
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they also may be one in us.' Christ is God-man in one person, and we are united to him mystically, though not hypostatically ; and so God and we are brought near together. For we are in him as he is in the Father, not with an exact equality, but some answerable likeness ; we are immediately united to Christ, and by Christ to God.
[3.] The inhabitation of the Spirit, that is the fruits of union, as union of confederation. The same spirit that dwelleth in Christ dwelleth in us : 1 Cor. vi. 17, ' He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit.' It is by the same spirit that the union is brought about, the same spirit that dwelleth in head and members ; this is the foundation laid on Christ's part for all our communion and commerce with God : 1 John iv. 13, ' Hereby we know that we dwell in God, and God in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.' We cannot know our communion with God as the author of grace by any other gift ; he maketh his first entry this way, uniting us to himself by his Spirit.