268 SERMON UPON 1 CORINTHIANS VIII. 6.
accepted, and only by him must we come to God. If your repentance towards God and your faith in him be sincere, you shall have all tho blessings of the new covenant. In short, obedience and the love of God was the primitive holiness for which we were created, and from which we fell. We, by repentance, are willing to return to this again, and therefore depend upon a saviour and sanctifier, that we may be recon- ciled and renewed, and so are said, in this general sense, to come to God by him.
Secondly, More particularly we are said to come to God by Christ three ways —
1, In the exercise of our graces. I shall instance in the three radical ones, which constitute the new creature — faith, hope, and love ; for in the exercise of these communion with God doth consist.
[1.] Faith seeth God in Christ, as sitting upon a throne of grace, ready to give out all manner of grace, and seasonable relief to penitent believers in all their necessities and temptations and duties. Well, then, boldly trust him and depend upon him. Thus we come to God by Christ : 2 Cor. iii. 4, ' Such trust have we through Christ to God-ward ; ' 1 Peter i. 21, ' By him we believe in God.' This is living by faith in Christ, so often spoken of in scripture. When you make use of him in all your wants, duties, and difficulties, expecting your Father's love and blessing to come to you through him alone, and the Spirit that must help you and assist you in all your infirmities and temptations, as coming from the Father and the Son ; not only procured, but given by him your head. In all your doubts, fears, and wants, you go to him in the Spirit, and to the Father by him, and by him alone ; this is living by Christ.
[2] Love, which vents itself in a desire of full communion with God and delights in him. Desire is a coming to God, or a following hard after him ; delight is an adherence to him, as satisfied with so much as we enjoy of him. Our enjoyments here are partial, and therefore our delight is very imperfect ; but yet, such as it is, it begets a study to please God and fear to offend him. Our Father is in heaven, but on earth we have a glimpse of him, enough to make him amiable to the soul : Ps. xvii. 15, ' As for me, 1 will behold thy face in right- eousness ; I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness.' Thus we love him through Christ or in Christ ; for we study Christ to see the goodness and amiableness and love of God in him : Eph. iii. 17-19, ' That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length, and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge ; 'that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.' A condemning God is not so loved as a gracious and pardoning God. Surely we love him more as a father than as a judge. And it is the Spirit of Christ which maketh us cry ' Abba, Father ; ' not only thereby expressing our confidence and dependence, but affection : Gal. iv. 6, ' Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.'
[3.] Hope. We come to God as we longingly expect the full fruition of him. Love puts us upon seeking after God. But alas ! upon earth we do but seek ; in heaven we expect to find. Hope causeth us to hold
SERMON UPON 1 CORINTHIANS VIII. 6. 269
on, seeking till we find, and get nearer to him, and maketh us resolve that it is better to be a seeker than a wanderer ; to wait till the delight of love be perfect, than to turn the back upon God and his ways. We cannot have Mount Zion in the wilderness. For the present, Christ <loth but guide us to the land of promise ; we have a refreshing by the way, manna in the wilderness ; but not Canaan in the wilderness. Earth at the best will not be heaven. Our perfect blessedness is when God is all in all. For the present, as God is seen but as in a glass, so he is proper tionably enjoyed. The devil, the world, and the flesh, are not perfectly overcome, and therefore we have but little of God. And the ordinances cannot convey him all to us, while his interest is so crowded up in our hearts, but we wait, and look, and long till we have more. Our only coming now to him is by hope, and that partial' enjoy- ment of his love which we attain unto makes us look for more. The new nature inclineth us to hope ; for they that love God will desire to be more like him, and to get more of him. And our experience quick- eneth our hope, Rom. v. 4, But all is by Christ. The apostle saith, * The Lord Jesus himself hath given us everlasting consolation, and good hope through grace,' 2 Thes. iL 16. As at first he inclined us to set our hearts on another world, and lay up our hopes in heaven, and to part with all things seen for that God and glory which we never saw, which otherwise, by reason of unbelief and sensuality, we should never have done ; so still he inclineth us to hope and wait in the midst of difficulties and disappointments, and encourageth us by his tenderness and constant pity: Jude 21, 'Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto everlasting life.'