But why doth he say only, ' I will be thy God'? Why doth he not say,
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1 will give thee grace and protection, I will give thee heaven and life ever- lasting ?
Because all is one, for all things in the world arc in this one promise, ' I will he thy God.' See the wisdom of heaven, how much he speaks in how little. There cannot he more spoken than thus, ' I will he thy God.' For in saying, ' I will he thy God,' he implies that whatsoever he is, or hath, or can do, shall ho thine too. ' I will be thy God ; ' that is, my wisdom shall be thine, to watch over thee, to find out ways to do thee good; my power shall be thine, to keep thee from danger, to defend and rescue thee from all enemies, and to subdue them by degrees unto thee ; my pro- vidence shall be thine, to turn all things to thy good ; my mercy shall be thine, to forgive thy sins; my love shall be thine, to bestow on thee all necessary comforts. There is no phrase in the Scripture that hath so much in so little as this here, * I will be thy God,' if we could unfold and lay open this excellent promise. All other particular promises in the covenant of grace are members of this. What is the reason, as Saint Paul saith, ' all things are yours?' 'Because you are Christ's, and Christ is God's,' 1 Cor. iii. 23. God is the God of Christ, and our God. We are in covenant with the God of Christ. Christ is the heir of all, and we are members of Christ. God who is the God of all things is ours. It is a wondrous comprehensive promise.
' I will be thy God, and the God of thy seed.'
The substance of the covenant then is, that God will be a God to us. The point to be observed is this, that God fjracioushj in the blessed seed, the Messiah, Christ Jesus, he takes upon him to he a God to all those that are in covenant with him; that is, to be all-sufficient, to bring us to happiness — all-sufficient in this world and in the world to come, to be our portion, to be all in all.
This is the first and fundamental promise of all other. Indeed, it is the life and soul of all the promises, and it is the life and soul of all comfort what- soever. For all other relations spoken of God tend to this, that he is ' our God.' This is before to be a Father, before to be an3'thing. God first is a God, and then a Father, and then all in all to us. As he is first the God of Christ, and then the Father of Christ ; as you have it usually in the beginnings of the epistles, ' God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ ;' first the God, and then the Father. To be a God, then, is the fundamental and pruacipal favour. From thence cometh our election ; his choosing of us to eternal salvation before all time ; his J)rotection and preservation of us in time unto heaven.
I shall not need to speak more of this, having unfolded it before.
But you will say. How shall we know that this covenant belongeth to us ? that we are such as we may say, God is our God ?
I a,nswer, first — to lay this for a ground — you must know that to be a God is a relation. Whosoever God is a God to, he persuadeth them by his Spirit that he is a God to. The same Spirit that persuadeth them that there is a God, that Spirit telleth them that God is their God, and works a qualification and disposition in them, as that they may know that they are in covenant with such a gracious God. The Spirit as it revealeth to them the love of God, and that he is theirs, so the Spirit enableth them to claim him for their God, to give up themselves to him as to their God.
And the Spirit doth this, because friends cannot be in covenant and con- federate without there be a likeness or an agreement. There must be more words then, on'^ to a covenant. Though God's grace do all, yet we must give our consent ; and therefore the covenant is expressed under the title * Qu. ' than one ' ?— Ed.
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of marriage. In marriage there must be a consent of both parlies. In reconciUation between a king and subjects, that are fallen out, when they are rebels, there must be an accepting of the pardon, and a promise of new- subjection. So then if God be our God, there will be grace given to take him for our God ; to give him homage as a king ; to give him our consent as to our spouse. ' Thou shalt be my God, and I will cleave to thee, as to my lord and husband.' ' Can two walk together,' saith the prophet, ' and not be friends ?' Amos iii. 3. There can be no friendship with God, except there be somewhat wrought in us by his Spirit, to make us fit for friendship, that we may look on him as an object of love and delight. If ■we look on him as an object of hatred, what terms of friendship can there be ? Now, that we may look on him as an object of love, fit for converse with him, he must make us such by consent and yielding to him, by framing the inward man to his likeness, that so there may a peace be maintained with him. You see the ground of it, of necessity it must be so.