This should direct us in our dealing with God, not to go directly to him, but by a promise. And when we have a promise, look to Christ, in whom it is performed. If we ask anything of God in Christ's name, he will give it us, John xiv. 13. If we thank God for anything, thank him in Christ, that we have it in him. What a comfort is this, that we may go to God in Christ and claim the promises boldly, because he loves us with the same love he bears to his only beloved Son. If we get fast hold on Christ, and cleave there, God can as soon alter his love to him as alter his love to us ; his love is every whit as unchangeable to a believing member, as to Christ the head of the body. The promises are as sure as the love of God in Christ is, upon which they are founded, and from which ' nothing can sepa- rate us,' Eom. viii. 35. For promises being the fruit of God's love, and God's love being founded first upon Christ, it must needs follow, that all the promises are both made and made good to us through him.
If a prince should love a man, and his love should be founded upon the love he bears to his own son, surely such a one may have comfort : that love will never fail him, because it is an aflection natural, and therefore unalterable. He will always love his son, and therefore will always delight in him in whom his son dehghteth. Now Christ is the everlasting Son of the Father — his dear and only Son, in whom he is ever well pleased, and through whom he cannot be oflended with those that are his. So surely as God loves Christ, so surely he loves all that are united to him. There is nothing in the world can separate his love fi'om his own Son ; neither is there anything able to separate his love from us that are one with him, Rom. viii. 35. God loves Christ's mystical body, as well as his natural body. He hath advanced that to glory at his right hand in heaven ; and will he, think you, leave his mystical body, the church, in a state of abase- ment here on earth ? No certainly. God loves every member of his Son ? for as he gave us to Christ, so him hath he sealed and anointed to be a Saviour for his people.
This is the reason why God looks upon us with a forbearing eye, not- withstanding the continual matter of displeasure he finds in us : he looks on us in his Son ; his love to us is grounded on his love to Christ. And hereupon comes our boldness with God the Father, that we can go to him in all distresses with comfort, and say, ' Lord, look on thy Son whom thou hast given for us, and in him behold his poor members now before thee.' ' In ourselves we have dread, but in thy dearly beloved we have joy in thy presence.' If we come in the garments of our elder brother, we are sure to get a blessing ; but in ourselves, God cannot endure lo behold us. If we bring Benjamin to^ our father, if we carry Christ along with us, then come and welcome.
PRECIOUS PEOMISES. 121
Upon what unchangeable grounds is the love of God and the faith of a Christian buildod ? How can the gates of hell prevail against the faith of a true believer, when it is carried to the promise, and from the promise to God's love ? The love of God to Christ shall as soon fail, as the faith of a sincere Christian shall be shaken. The promises else should be of no effect ; they should be ' yea and nay,' and not ' yea and anion.'
If the promises could be shaken, the love of God and Christ should be uncertain. Overturn heaven and earth, if we overturn the faith of a true, persevering Christian. There is nothing in the world of that firmness as a believing soul is; the ground he stands upon makes him unmoveable. Our union with the Lord Jesus makes us like ' mount Sinai, that cannot be shaken.' But we must know there are three degrees or steps of love, whereof a promise is the last : — •
1. Inward love.
2. Heal i^erformance.
3. A manifestation of j)erformance intended before it he done.
Love concealed doth not comfort in the interim. Therefore God, who is love, doth not only affect* us for the |»y',s(;»?, and intend us mercy hereafter; but because he will have us rest sweetly in his bosom, and settle ourselves on his gracious purposes, he gives us in the mean time many ' rich and precious promises,' 2 Pet. i. 4. He not only loves us, and shews the same in deeds now, but he expresseth his future care of us, that we may build on him, as surely as if we had the thing performed already.
By this we see how God loves us. He hath not only an inward liking and good will to us in his breast, but manifests the same by word. He reveals the tenderness of his bowels towards us, that we may have the comfort of it beforehand. God would have us live by foith, and estab- lish ourselves in hope, because these graces fit us for the promise. If there were no promises, there could be no faith nor hope.