4. Because our interest in him is the ground of our comfort and confidence. It is not comfortable to us, or not so comfortable, that there is a God, and there is a Christ. Devils believe so far ; but the thoughts of God and Christ are a part of their torment : James ii. 19, c Thou believest that there is one God ; thou doest well : the devils believe, and tremble;' Mat. viii. 29, 'And they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God ? Art thou come to torment us before the time ? ' The remembrance of God and Christ will be troublesome to us if he be not our God and our Lord. You shall see the saints express their particular interest to be the great cause of their comfort; 1 Sam. xxx. 6, 'David encouraged himself in
36 SERMONS UPON PHILIPPIANS III. [SeR. IV.
the Lord his God ; ' Hab. iii. 18, ' Yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation;' Luke i. 47, ' My spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.' To see a good thing, and you as much need of it as others ; to see a Christ ready to save sinners, and we have no comfort and benefit by him, is a matter of grief rather than of rejoicing. Use. To press us to this application. A title to his benefits needs good evidence. But we have no reason to scruple our obligation to duty and obedience. If God hath made him Lord and Christ, let him be your Lord and Christ.
1. Kesolve to give up yourselves to him, to serve him and obey him, though you know not whether he will give himself to you, to pardon you, and bless you everlastingly. A believer cannot always say, God is mine, or Christ is mine ; yet a believer is always resolved to be his : ' I am thine, save me/ Ps. cxix. 94.
2. In applying Christ to yourselves, seek necessary grace rather than comfort. Go to him to renew and change your natures, rather than to give you peace ; not to have the grief by reason of sin assuaged only or chiefly, but to have the distemper removed. It is a mountebank's care to stop the pain and let alone the cause ; and such a cure do they seek who are more earnest for ease and comfort than for grace. A good christian is troubled with the power of sin as well as the guilt of it, and mindeth the rectitude of all his faculties as well as ease and peace of conscience, that he may be enabled to walk with God thereafter in the ways of obedience, as well as enjoy the pardon of his sins. Christ purchased this double benefit for us : Isa. liii. 5, ' The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed.' Peace and healing. He would be an unwise man who, having broken his leg, should only mind to be eased of his pain, but not take care to have it set right again ; so foolish is that christian who is earnest for comfort, but taketh no care how to be directed and enabled to please God. Sin in some sense is worse than damnation. The taking away of guilt frees us a malo naturali, from a natural evil ; but the other, a malo morali, from a moral evil. Christ delights to be obeyed in his work ; for it suiteth with his design, which is to restore us to God, and fit us for his service : Kev. v. 9, ■ Thou hast redeemed us to God.'
3. When God presseth upon youanore than ordinarily, do not receive this grace in vain, and refuse your own mercies. When he draweth, you should run, Cant. i. 4 ; when he knocketh, you should open, Kev. iii. 20. When the wind bloweth, let loose the sails, John iii. 9 ; when the waters are stirred, put in for cure, John v. 4. At such times God doth more particularly apply his grace to you ; therefore you should often apply and entertain the motions before they cool and slacken.
I come now to discourse concerning the end, ' That I may gain Christ.' The apostle would not only know Christ, but gain Christ.
1. Christ is gained when we get an interest in him and his benefits, when God hath called us to the fellowship of his Son, 1 Cor. i. 9, or, in another place, yu,eVo%ot Xpicnov, Heb. iii. 14, 'We are made partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end.' The ungodly have no part in him, but believers have. The apostle had already won Christ, but he would more and more wrin, and be more nearly conjoined to him. That I may win Christ, is
VEK. 8.] SERMONS UPON THIL1PPIANS III. 37
that I may get a larger portion in him, or more full enjoyment of him.
2. This word KepSijaa) is put in opposition to the loss that he had incurred that he might be made a partaker of Christ. There was gain enough to recompense all his losses in having Christ. If God and Christ seem not better things to us than the world, we judge ourselves to have no part in him.