And hero is a wondrous comfort, that God must needs love our salvation and redemption when he loves Christ, because ' he poured out his soul to death to save us.' Doth not God dchght that we should be saved, and our sins should be forgiven, when he loves Christ because he abased himself for that purpose ? What a prop and foundation of comfort is this, when the devil shall present God to us in a terrible hideous manner, as an avenging God, ' and consuming fire,' &c., Heb. xii. 29; indeed out of Clii-ist
A DESCEIPTION OF CHRIST. 13
he is so. Let us present to ourselves thoughts of God as the Scripture sets forth God to us ; and as God sets forth himself, not only in that sweet relation >.s a Father to Christ, but our father, 'I go to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God,' John xx. 17, having both one God, and love and care. There is none of us all but the devil will have a say- ing to us, either in the time of our life, in some terrible temptation, espe- cially when any outward abasement comes, or at the hour of death ; and all the cordials we have gathered out of the word will then be little enough to support the di*ooping soul, especially in the hour of temptation. 0 be- loved, what a wondrous stay and satisfaction to a distressed conscience doth this yield, that Christ in all that he hath wrought for us is God's chosen servant, ' whom he loves and delights in,' and delights in him for this very work, that he abased himself and gave himself for us, that he wrought God's work, because he wrought reconciliation for us ! If we can believe in Christ, we see here what ground of comfort we have, that God loves and delights in us, as he doth in his own Son.
And what a comfort is it now, in our daily approach to God, to minister boldness to us in all our suits, that we go to God in the name of one that he loves, ' in whom his soul delights,' that we have a friend in court, a friend in heaven for us, that is at the right hand of God, and interposeth himself there for us in all our suits, that makes us acceptable, that perfumes our prayers and makes them acceptable. His intercession is still by virtue of his service, dying for us. He intercedes by virtue of his redemption. If God love him for the work of redemption, he loves him for his intercession, therefore God must needs regard the prayers made by him, by virtue of his dying for us, when he loves him for dying for us. Be sure therefore, in all our suits to God, to take along our elder brother, to take our beloved brother, take Benjamin with us, offer all to God in him, oui' persons to be accepted in him, our prayers, our hearing, our works, and all that we do, and we shall be sm-e to speed ; for he is one in whom the soul of God delights. There must be this passage and repassage, as God looks upon us lovely in him, and delights in us as we are members of him. All God's love and the fruits of it come t o us as we are in Christ, and are one with him. Then in our passage to God again we must return all, and do all, to God in Christ. Be sure not to go to a naked God ; for so he is ' a consuming fii'e,' but go to him in the mediation of him whom he loves, * and in whom his soul delighteth.'
And shall God love him and delight in him, and shall not our soul delight in Christ ? This therefore should stir up our aflections to Christ, to be faithful in our conjugal affection as the spouse of Christ, to say, ' My be- loved is mine and I am my beloved's,' Cant. ii. 16. Christ calls his church, ' My love and my dove,' Cant. vi. 9. Doth Christ dehght in us, and God dehght in Christ, and shall not we dehght in Christ that delights in us, and in whom God delights ? In the 1 Cor, xvi. 22, the apostle is bold to pro- nounce a bitter curse, ' Anathema Maran-atha,' upon him that loves not the Lord Christ Jesus, a most bitter curse. When Christ shall become a servant to do our work for us, to suffer for us, to bear the burden of our sins upon the tree, to become our husband, to bestow his riches upon us, to raise us to the same condition with himself, and withal to be such a one as God hath chosen out to love and dehght in as the best object of his love, and most capable of it, and for us not to solace and delight ourselves in him that God delights in, when God dehghts in him for our sake. God loves and dehghts in him for the work of salvation and redemption by his
14 A DESCEIPTION OF CHRIST.
blood, and shall not we love and embrace bim for bis love wbicb is for our good ? Wbat good batb God by it but only the glory of bis mercy, in saving our souls tbi'ougb Christ ? Therefore if God love him for the good be doth to us, much more should we love him for the fruit of it that we receive ourselves.