This is a very comfortable and useful point in the great mystery of * That is, ' standing.' — Ed. t Qu. ' He was iirst the Son of God'? — G.
332 COMMENTARY ON
Christ anil f^lorificalion, to know the foundation of God's love to us. It is seated on Christ first, and then it cometh to us; nay, and through Christ, in Christ, as an head, through Christ as mediator.
Uxt! 1. Therefore let us uiako this use of it. Never think of God iiilhout Christ. And again, never think of any spiritual favour, but think of it in Cln-ist fa-st. If wo think of any promise, think of it as given to Christ first. For all promises are made over to him, and he maketh them over to us. * All promises are in him yea and amen,' 2 Cor. i. 20. Promises come from love. Love is first in him, and therefore must come first from him ; and therefore desire God to make them good for his sake. If we think of the love of God, think of it in our flesh, in Christ first, as our head. If we think of freedom from sin, think of Christ our surety, who is first freed from it. If we think of resurrection and ascension, tliiuk of it in Christ our head. If wc think of glory, think of it in Christ ; we are glorious in our head. And have it as a fruit of his prayer, that ' we should be where he is,' John xvii. 24. Whensoever we think of anything that is good, think of it first in Christ, that God may have his scope and end, which is, that Christ the second person, that took our nature on him, may have his pre-eminency.
Use 2. And this should make us in our devotions to bless God for being the Father of Jesus Christ, when we bless him for being our Father. 0 blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for if he had not been his Father, he had never been our Father : John xx. 17, ' I go to my God and your God, my Father and your Father.' If he had not been his God and his Father, he had never been our God and our Father. Therefore bless God for his love to Christ, and Christ for his love to us ; for they both join in our salvation. As Piom. viii. 39, ' Nothing can separate from the love of God,' nor from the love of Christ. They be both together in the verse, because they be all one in Christ. See the love of the Father in Christ. See his own love in himself, together with his Father's. There- fore consider the sweet agreement of the Trinity towards the salvation of mankind ; and that we come not to heaven, are elect, and saved only by the counsel of the Father, or only by the love of the Son, or only by the operation of the Holy Ghost, but all three joining together in our salvation. God looks on us ' in the face of Jesus Christ.' God loveth us, the Son loveth us, the Holy Spirit sealeth the love of both to us. So then conclude that our salvation is strongly built. It is built on the love of the Father in Christ, and on the love of Christ, together with the Father, and on the assurance of the Holy Ghost, testifying both these to our souls. God for ever loveth his Son, and God for ever must love us, for he shiueth on us ' in the face of his Son.' Now what is the love of God to his Son ? Pure love, tender love, bowels of love, an everlasting love, and a rich love. And is not his love to us the same ? If he loveth Christ, he loveth whole Christ ; not only Christ personal, but mystical Christ, and all his mem- bers. He loveth the whole body of Christ with a pure, tender, perfect, and everlasting love. And therefore as God's love can never be removed from his own Son that lieth on his bosom, so God's true love shall never be removed from any true Christian that liveth in his Son.
It is a comfortless, fond conceit to imagine any separation in that kind, because his love is founded not upon love to their persons, but on his Son. Now having an everlasting foundation, it must be an everlasting love ; and this may comfort us in all conditions.
Use 3. To make another use to direct our devotions aright, we must not
2 CORINTHIANS CEAP. IV, VEK. 0. 333
go to an absolute God, for he is * a consuming fire,' Heb. xii. 29, hut must take Christ's name along. We must take Christ along in all our prayers. It is an unworthy conceit to think God will be pleased otherwise than in his Son, It is God must satisfy God, and not we, that be stubble to go to the fire. It is presumption, and the end of it will be confusion. Therefore go to God in the sweet name of his Son Jesus Christ. Only so. We do not conceive worthily enough of God if we think he can have any communion with us, if his love be not conceived in the person of Christ. Therefore if we will have worthy conceits of him, go to him, that is, God made flesh in our nature, a Saviour of his own appointment, a mediator of his own sending, and sealed. And God will not refuse him, if you bring his Son before him. Therefore let it be our rule to put up our prayers in the name of Jesus Christ, our head.