7. Then we make it appear that God is our God, when we side with him, and are for him and his cause in ill times. When God seems to ciy out tmto us, * "VVho is on my side, who ? ' 2 Kings ix. 32 ; then if we can say as those in Isaiah, whereof onej says, ' I am the Lord's, and another calls himself by the name of Jacob, and another subscribes with his hand unto the Lord,' Isa. xliv. 6, it is a blessed sign. Thus the patriarchs and prophets, apostles and martyrs, were not ashamed of God, and God was not ashamed to own them. Provided that this boldness from God proceed not only from a con\-iction of the judgment, but from spiritual experience of the goodness of the cause, whereby we can justify in heart what we justify in words. Otherwise men may contend for that with others, which they have no interest in themselves. The life must witness for God as well as the tongue. It is oft easier for corrupt nature to part with life rather than with lust.
This siding with God, is with a separation from whatsoever is contrary. God useth this as an argument to come out of Babylon, because we are his people : ' Come out of her, my people,' Rev. xviii. 4. Religion is nothing else but a gathering and a binding of the soul close to God. That fire which gathers together the gold, separates the dross. Nature draws out that which is wholesome in meats, and severs the contrarj'. The good that is to be had by God, is by cleaving to him, and him only. God loves an ingenuous and full protestation, if called to it. It shews the coldness of the times when there is not heat enough of zeal to separate from a contrary faith. God is a jealous God, and so we shall find him at last. When the day of severing comes, then they that have stood for him, shall not only be his, but his treasure, and his jewels, Mai. iii. 17.
There is none of us all but may some time or other faU into such a great extremity, that when we look about us, we shall find none to help us : at which time we shall throughly know, what it is to have comfort fi-om heaven, and a God to go unto. If there be anything in the world worth labom-ing for, it is the getting sound evidence to om- souls that God is ours. What madness is it to spend all our labour to possess ourselves of the cistern, when the fountain is oflered to us ? 0 beloved, the whole world cannot weigh against this one comfort, that God is ours. All things laid in the other balance, would be too light. A moth may corrupt, a thief may take away that we have here, but who can take our God away? Though God doth convey some comfort to us by these things, yet when they are gone, he reseiwes the comfort in himself still, and can convey that, and more, in a purer and sweeter way, where he plants the grace of faith to fetch it from him. Why then should we weaken our interest id God, for
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any tiling this earth affords ? What unworthy wretches are those, that to please a sinful man, or to feed a base lust, or to yield to a wicked custom will, as much as in them lieth, lose their interest in God ? Such, little consider what an excellent privilege it is to have a sure refuge to fly unto in time of trouble. God wants not ways to maintain his, ^vithout being beholden to the devil. He hath all help hid in himself, and will then most shew it, when it shall make most for his own glory. If God be ours, it is a shame to be beholden to the devil, that ever it should be said, Satan by base courses hath made us rich. God thinks any outward thing too mean for his children, severed from himself, therefore he gives his Son, the express image of himself, 2 Cor. iv. 4, unto them. For which cause David, when he had even studied to reckon up the number of God's choice blessings, concludes with advancing of this above all, ' yea rather happy are they whose God is the Lord,' Ps. xliv. 15. If this will not satisfy the soul, what can ? Labour therefore to bring thy soul to this point with God, ' Lord, if thou seest it fit, take away all from me, so thou leavest me thyself: whom have I in heaven but thee, and there is none on earth that I desire in com- parison of thee ?' Ps. Ixxiii. 25.
Chapteb XXXII. — Of im})wvinff our evidences for comfort in several passages of our lives.
That we lose not any measure of comfort in this so sweet a privilege, we must labour for skill to improve and implead the same in the several pas- sages and occasions of our lives, and let it appear in the retail, that what- soever is in God is mine. If I am in a perplexed condition, his wisdom is mine ; if in gi-eat danger, his power is mine ; if I lie sighing under the bur- den of sin, his grace is mine ; if in any want, his all-sufficiency is mine. * My God,' saith St Paul, ' will supply all your wants,' Phihp. iv. 19. If in any danger, I am thine. Lord, save me, I am thine, the price of thy Son's blood ; let me not be lost, thou hast given me the earnest of thy Spirit, and set thy seal upon me for thy own, let me neither lose my bargain nor thou thine. What is religion itself but a spii'itual bond ? whereby the soul is tied to God as its own, and then singles out of God whatsoever is needful for any occasion : and so binds God with his own covenant and promise. Lord, thou hast made thyself to be mine, therefore now shew thyself so, and be exalted in thy wisdom, goodness, and power, for my de- fence. To walk comfortably in my Christian course, I need much grace, supply me out of thy rich store. I need wisdom to go in and out inofien- sively before others, furnish me with thy Spirit, I need patience and com- fort, thou that art the God of all consolation, bestow it on me.