The words are expressed with a kind of glorying, ' Lo, this is our God.' So that the joy of a Christian endeth in glory, and in the highest degree of glory, as you have it, Rom. v. 3, ' We glory also in tribulation, we glor}- in hope of glory,' nay, we glory in God as ours reconciled. And if we glory in him now as a God reconciled, what shall we do in heaven ? Can a worldhng gloiy in his riches, his greatness, his favour from such a man, as Haman did ? And shaU not a Christian glory in his God '? and make his boast in his God ? And therefore in this world we should learn to glory, before we come to that glory in heaven, specially when we be set upon by anji,hing that is apt to discourage us. Glory then in our Head. Perhaps a Christian hath no wealth, no great rents to glory in, aye, but he hath a God to gloiy in, let him glory in him. The world may take all else
VOL. II. K k
514 THE MARRIAGE FEAST [SeRMON IX.
from liim, but not his God. As the church, in Cant. v. The virgins put the church to describe her beloved, ' What is thy beloved more than another beloved ? My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest of ten thousand.' Then she goeth on in particulars, ' my beloved is thus and thus ; ' and if you would know what my beloved is, ' this is my beloved.' So a Christian that hath a spirit of faith should glory in God here, for heaven is begun here, and he should gloiy in Christ his Saviour, and should set Christ against all discouragements and oppositions. If you will know what is my beloved, ' this is my beloved, the chief among ten thousands.' Ps. cxv. 3. ' Our God is in heaven, and doth whatsoever he pleaseth, in heaven, and earth, and the deeps,' yea, we make our boast of God, saith the psalmist, when there is occasion. ' This is the Lord, this is om- God ; we have waited for him,' specially in times of afflictions ; and what is the reason ? This will hold out to eternity. ' This is our God.' As in the Revelations, it is a plea, and a glory for ever ; for God is our happiness. As the schoolmen say, he is our objective huT^-piness, and our formal happiness ; he is our hap- piness, as he is ours, and he is ours in life and death, and for ever. So there is always ground of glory, only God doth discover himself to be ours by little and little, as we are able to bear him. He is om-s in our worst times. * My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ? ' Yet 7)iy God still, Mat. xxvii. 46.
He is our God to death, and he is ours in heaven. ' This is our God ; we will rejoice in him.' And therefore well may we boast of God, because in God is everlasting salvation. If we boasted in anything else, our boast- ing would determine with the thing itself; but if we rejoice in God, we re- joice in that which is of equal continuance with our souls, and goeth along with the soul to all eternity.
And therefore we should learn to rejoice in God, and then we shall never be ashamed. It is spoken here with a kind of exalting, a kind of triumph- ing over all oppositions, ' Lo, this is our God.' Beloved, this, that God is our God, and Christ is om's, is the ground of rejoicing, and of all happi- ness. All joy, all comfort is founded upon this our interest in God ; and therefore,
1. We must make this good while we live here, that God is our God, and that we may do so, observe this. Christ is called Emmanuel, God with us. God, in the second person, is God-man, and so God with us, and the Father in Emmanuel is God with us too. So we are God the Father's, be- cause we are his. * All things are yours,' saith the apostle, ' whether Paul or ApoUos, things present, things to come. 'Why?' Because you are Christ's,' 1 Cor. iii. 22. Aye, but what if I be Christ's, Christ is God's? So we must be Christ's, and then we shall be God's. If Christ be ours, God is ours, for God is Emmanuel, in Christ, Emmanuel, God is with us in Christ, who is with us. God is reconciled to us in God and man, in our nature. And therefore get by faith into Chi'ist, and get union, and get communion ; by prayer open our souls to him, entertain his speeches to us by his word and Spirit and blessed motions, and open om* spirits to him, and so main- tain a blessed intercourse.
2. Make it good that God is our God by daily acquaintance. These speeches at the latter end are founded upon acquaintance before. ' This is our God.' Grace and glory are knit together indissolubly. If God be our God here, he will be om'S also in glory ; if not here, not in glory. There is a communion with God here, before communion with him in glory, and therefore make it good that God be om* God here fii'st, by union with