[L] The essence of God is thine ; he will do all things auswerably to an infinite power and goodness ; as glorious, as infinite, as mighty, as excellent as he is, it is wholly made over to us. His mercy, wisdom, love, power, justice, all this is thine ; his mercy is thine, to pardon thee; his wisdom is thine, to pi'ovide for thee; his love is thine, to bestow grace and glory, and all good things on thee ; his power is thine, to secure all to thee, and preserve thee to salvation ; his justice is thine, to fulfil all his [)romises to thee. Whole God is made over to us in <;ovenant, and will be given to ns as far as the proportion of the creature will stretch to receive him. If we be imperfeotive, the fault is in our- selves ; there is no fault in our portion ; it is able to perfect us in the way, if we were capable of perfection in it.
[2.] The subsistences in the godhead are ours. God the Father is ours to love us and to elect us — ' The Father himself loveth you,' John xvi. 27. God the Son is ours to redeem us, to be born for us, to die for us, to rise again for us, to ascend up into heaven for us, and to sit at God's right hand for us: Isa. ix. 6, 'For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given;' Cant. ii. 16, 'lam my beloved's, and my beloved is mine.' And God the Holy Ghost is ours to dwell in us and work in us, and to conduct and guide us to glory : 1 Cor. iii. 16, * Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of Gcd dwelleth in j^ou ? ' So that whatever Father, Son, and Holy Ghost
YeR. 16.] SERMONS UPON HEBREWS XI. 343
is or can do for your salvation, it is yours, and made over to you in covenant. Look, as when there was a covenant made between Jeho- shaphat and the king of Israel, Jehoshaphat promised Ahab whatever he had and could do : 1 Kings xxii. 21, ' I am as thou art, my people as thy people, my horses as thy horses ; ' so in this covenant, whatever God can do is ours -, his power is ouis ; whatever God doth is for our good ; his providence is ours. ' I will be thy God,' that is, I will do all that a God can do for thy everlasting happiness.
2. To what he is engaged ? Ans. To give us a better thing than the world can afford , to give us all spiritual and eternal blessings, and other things in order thereunto. This is the first and fundamental promise, ' I will be thy God ; ' it implieth pardon, grace, glory, the conduct of providence, or the subserviency of all the accidents and emergencies of the present life for our spiritual good, all these are in- cluded in the covenant. In the covenant of works there is no such promise, for there God did not infallibly bind himself to conduct them to glory, as he doth in the covenant of grace. The tenor of the cov- enant of works was, ' Do this and live, sin and die.' God made not this promise to Adam so explicity, * I will be thy God.' When God saith, ' I will be thy God," he means he will give us such blessings as are proper for a God to give, which none other can give ; as to pardon and justify, and God is the supreme judge, his sentence is decisive ; to sanctify, which is beyond the power of a creature ; to bless provi- dences, God is the disposer of all human affairs — ' Of him, and through him, and to him are all things,' Eom. xi. 36 ; to glorify ; and it is in his power alone to bestow heaven. These things God hath bound himself to: he will justify, which is an act of the highest judicature ; he will sanctify, which is an act of divine power, or an act of the supreme cause ; he will bless providences, which is an act of the sovereign Lord ; and he will glorify us, which is an act of the chiefest good.
3. How God will perform this engagement ? Ans. He will do all things answerable to the infinite power, greatness, and goodness of a God. As it was said of Arauna : 2 Sam. xxiv. 23, ' All these did Arauna, as a king, give unto the king.' Arauna was of the blood royal of the Jebusites, and he gave like a man of such extraction, with a royal mind. So in this promise, ' I will be thy God,' God hath pro- mised that he will not only act for us, but act as a God ; he will act by a firm covenant , we have an interest in all that he can do for our salvation ; he will pardon as a God : Hosea xi. 9, ' I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger ; I will not return to destroy Ephraim, for I am God, and not man, the Holy One in the midst of thee,' Alas ! our thoughts are limited, our patience is soon tired; we soon grow w^eary of forgiving if we forgive seven times : What ! must we forgive seven times a day ? but now he will pardon as a God, as one that hath infinite mercy, love, and patience. And he will sanctify as a God ; he will create a clean heart ; and the divine power is set a-work to give us all things necessary to life and godliness : 2 Peter i. 3, ' According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness.' And he will as a God supply our wants ; he will not only give us water out of the fountain, but out of the rock, when