Use 3. And, thirdly, let us learn, as ire are adrised, Ps. xlv. 10, ' to forget our father's house,' to forget all former base acquaintance, and to be con- tented with Christ. What saith our blessed Saviour in the Gospel ? ' Those that hear my words, they are my brother, and sister, and mother,' Mark iii. 35. Ai'e they so ? And shall not we, for Christ's sake, that is nearer than any in the world, ' hate father and mother,' &c., Luke xiv. 26, that is, not regard them for Christ. If we be so near Christ, and he will stick to us when all will leave us, then let us answer Christ's love. He is to us instead of all kindred ; let him be so, if we cannot have their love upon other terms than to forsake Christ. Thus we see what we may observe from this, that ' we are Christ's.' Now it is said here besides, that
' Christ is God's.'
Here is a sacred circle that ends where it begins ; for all things come out from God at the first, and all things go back again to God and end in him. * All are yours, and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's.' Man is, as it were, the horizon of all things ; that hath one half of the heavens below, divided and terminated, and the other above. A holy man is between all things, above him and under him. All things are his below him. They
82 A christian's portion ; or,
serve his turn and use, to help liim to heaven, as a viaticum. And all things above him are his ; that is the cause that all things below are his. Now to come to this last branch.
'And Christ is God's.'
In what sense is Christ God's? Was ho rot the Son of God? Yes! That is true, lie was the cteinial Son of God. ]5ut that is not here meant. Christ is God's, as Mediator. The Father, the first person of the Deity, is the fountain ; and the Mediator comes from him in a double sense.
First, Because the Father, the first person, was oll'ended ; therefore he must appoint a mediator. Now, by what bonds is Christ God's ? By all the strong terms that can be devised. God sent him into the world : ' Ho sent his Son,' Horn. iii. 25. God set him forth as a propitiation : ' Him hath the Father sealed,' John vi. 27. He came forth with God's broad seal. God sealed him to be IMediator in his baptism, and by his working of miracles, and raising him from the dead. God the, Father sealed him, and set his stamp upon him to be his. Ho sent him, and set him forth, and sealed him : ' lie was anointed with the oil of gladness above his fel- lows,' Ps. xlv. 7. He was anointed to shew his authority. Kings, and priests, and prophets were anointed. So God the Father hath appointed him to be king, priest, and prophet of his church. lie is anointed in all these terms : ' It pleased the I'ather that in him should all fulness dwell,' Col. i. 19. And Mat. xi. 27, ' All power is given to me of my Father, in heaven and earth.' So when he \vas to ascend, saith he, ' All power is given to me in heaven and earth,' Mat. xxviii. 18. He came out from the Father with all authority. The Scripture is marvellous pregnant in this point, to shew with what authority Christ came from the Father. The points here considerable are, first of all, that all things are Christ's, and therefore we are Christ's ; so
Ail tJii)U/s are the Father s.
This is the highest degree. We can go no further. There is the centre wherein we must rest : ' All things are the Father's.' All things are of God, that made all of nothing, and can turn all to dust at his pleasure. 'AH things are of him, and by him, and through him,' as it is Eomans xi. 1, seq., divinely set forth. There is no question of this. It were to add light to the sun to shew that all things are the Father's ; and here- upon Christ is the Father's in the first place. And then ' all things are ours,' because ' Christ is ours,' and ' Christ is the Father's.' The point that is more material, and worth standing on, is this, that
Though all things come from the Father, yet not from the Father imme- diately, hut they come from Christ.
Christ is the Father's, and we are the Father's in Christ ; and all things are ours in Christ. There is no immediate communion between us and the Father, but Christ comes between God and us.
Why is this needful ?
For many undeniable reasons.
Reason 1. First, Because there is no proportion betu'een God the Father and vs, hut a vast clisjrroportion. He is holiness and purity, and a ' consuming fire' of himself. What are we without a mediator, a middle person, with- out Christ coming between ? Nothing but stubble, fit fuel for his wrath. So that all love and good that comes from the first Person, it must come to us through a middle person : ' You are Christ's, and Christ is God's.' We cannot endure the brightness of the majesty of the Father. It is too great a presence : ' He dwells in that height that no man can attain unto,*