In time of desertion put Christ betwixt God and thy soul, and learn to appeal, from God out of Christ, to God in Christ. Lord, look upon my Saviour, that is near unto thee as thy son, near to me as my brother, and now intercedes at thy right hand for me. Though I have siuned, yet he hath sufiered, and shed his precious blood to make my peace. When we are in any trouble, let us still wait on him, and lie at his feet, and never let him go till he casts a gracious look upon us.
So if we be to deal with God, for the church abroad, we may allege unto him that whatsoever provocations are therein, and deformity in regard of abuses and scandals ; yet it is his chm-ch, his people, his inheritance, his name is called upon, in it, and the enemies of it are his enemies. God hath engaged himself to the friends of the church, that ' they shall prosper that
272 THE SOUL S CONFLICT,
love it,' Ps. cxxii. 6 ; and therefore we may with a holy holdness press him for a blessing upon the same.
So for our children and posterity, we may incline God to respect them, because they are under his covenant, who hath promised to be our God, and the God of our seed. ' Thine they were, thou gavest them me : all that I have is thine ; these are those children which thou of thy rich grace hast given me. They are thine more than mine ; I am but a means under thee to bring them into the world, and to be a nurse unto thy children ; take, care therefore of thine own children, I beseech thee, especially, when I can take no care of them myself; thou slumberest not, thou diest not, I must,' John xvii.
Flesh and blood think nothing is cared for, but what it seeth cared for by itself. It hath no eyes to see a guard of providence, a guard of angels. It takes no knowledge that that is best cared for, that God cares for. Those that have God for their God, have enlarged hearts as they have enlarged comforts. They have an everlasting spring that supplies them in all wants, refreshes them in all troubles, and then runs most clearly and freshly, when all other streams in the world are dried and stopped up. Were we skilful in the art of faith, to improve so gi'eat an interest, what in the world could much dismay us ? Faith will set God against all.
It should fill our hearts with an holy indignation against om'selves, if either we rest in a condition wherein we cannot truly say, God is our God, or if, when we can in some sincerity of heart say this, that we make no better advantage thereby, and maintain not ourselves answerable to such a condition. What a shame is it for a nobleman's son to live like a beggar ! for a great rich man to live like a poor peasant ; to famish at a banquet ; to fall when we have so many stays to lay hold on ! Whereas if we could make this clear to our souls, that God is ours, and then take up our thoughts with the great riches we have in him, laid open in Christ, and in the promises, we need trouble ourselves about nothing, but only get a large vessel of faith, to receive what is ofiered, nay, enforced upon us.
When we can say, God is om' God, it is more than if we could say, heaven is mine ; or whatever good the creature affords is mine. Alas ! what is aU this, to be able to say, God is mine, who hath in him the sweet- ness of aU these things, and infinitely more ? If God be ours, goodness itself is ours. If he be not ours, though we had all things else, yet ere long nothing would be ours. What a wondrous comfort is this, that God hath put himself over to be om's ! that a believing soul may say with as great confidence, and greater too, that God is his, than he can say his house is his, his treasure is his, his friends are his ! Nothing is so much ours as God is ours, because by his being ours in covenant, all other things become ours ; and if God be once ours, well may we trust in him. God and ours joined together make up the full comfort of a Christian. God ! there is all to be had ; but what is that to me unless he be nnj God ? All- sufiicieney with propriety * fully stayeth the soul.
David was now banished from the sanctuary, from his friends, habitation, and former comforts ; but was he banished from his God ? No ; God was his God still. When riches, and friends, and life itself cease to be ours, yet God never looseth his right in us, nor we our interest in him. This com- fort that God is ours, reacheth unto the resurrection of our bodies and to life everlasting. God is the God of Abraham, and so of every true believer, even when his body is turned into dust. Hence it is that ' the lovingkind- ness of the Lord is better than Ufe,' Ps. Ixiii. 3, because when hfe departs, * That is, ' proi^erty, possession.' — G.