together in him. The names of all the creatures that are comfortable, God hath been pleased to take upon him, to shew us what a God he is. He is water to refresh us, a sun to comfort us, a shield to keep evil from us, a rock to support us, chambers to cover us in the time of danger, and such like ; and in every creature God hath left footsteps and beams of himself, that man, being an understanding creature, might find out God in them. In water there is a beam of his refreshing power ; in the sun, a beam of his cherishing power, and the like ; and when we receive comfort from the creature, which hath but a drop, a beam of his goodness, we should consider how good God himself is. If this be so comfortable, what is God that is my God ! Here we use the creatures to refresh us, and God deriveth his goodness usually to us by them. What will he be to us in heaven, when he will be all in all ; and whatsoever comfort God hath, Christ hath ; be- cause God and Christ join together for our good. For God is in Christ ' reconcihng the world to himself,' 2 Cor. v. 19; and if God be ours, Christ is ours ; and if God and Christ be ours, all things are ours, because all things are God's. Angels are ours, cb^rubins are ours, because God is ours. It is a point of wondrous comfort. A poor Christian, when he hath nothing to trust to, he may perhaps say sometime, that he hath no friend in the world, and he hath many enemies. Ay, but he hath a God to go to. If he have not the beam, yet he hath the sun ; if he have not the stream, yet he hath the fountain ; if he have not particular benefits that others have, yet he hath better. Whatsoever portion he have in the world, he hath a rich portion, for God is his portion. 'God is my portion,' saith the church in the 3d of Lamentations, ver. 21, 'therefore will I hope in him.' The poor church had nothing else in the world to comfort it, for it was in captivity, in the midst of enemies, had no wealth, nor friends, nor any- thing ; yea, but God is my portion, saith my soul, and therefore God being mine, in him I have friends, and wealth, and pleasure, and all whatsoever; and so hath eveiy Christian soul, and never more than when the creature and the comfort of it is taken away. He never finds God more his God than when he is deprived of those means that usually derive comfort to him, for then God immediately cometh to the soul and comforteth it ; and the disposition of a true Christian is, at those times, to take advantage by grace to get nearer to God, to cling faster to him, to solace himself more in him as his portion. What a spring of comfort is here arising to a Chris- tian in all estates ! If God be his God, then he may claim him upon all occasions and at all times, as the saints in the Scripture have done. David, Jehosaphat, and all the saints, what do they allege in their prayers to God ? ' Tbou art our God,' ' we are thy people,' ' the sheep of thy pasture,' ' the vine that thy right hand hath planted,' ' the Lord is my shepherd,' &c. What made the disciples, when they were ready to be drowned, to cry out, ' Master, save us,' but because they knew that they were servants in covenant, that he was their Master. We should use this as a plea to God in all the calamities of the church. Wo are thine, thou art ours ! Doubtless thou art our God, saith the church, though Abraham have forgotten, and Israel be ignorant of us, Isa. Ixiii. 16. It is a point of spiritual wisdom, when we know we are in covenant with God, to im prove it as an argument to persuade God to help us in any strait. ' I am thine : Lord, save me,' saith David, Ps. cxix. 94. Thou art my God ; Lord, look to me, protect me, direct me, ease me, receive my soul. This is a plea that obtaineth anything of God in all extremities whatsoever.
THE FAITHFUL COVENANTEE. Ift'
* I will establish my covenant between me and thee, and thy seed after thee,' &c.
I come now to the qualities of this covenant ; and before I speak in par- ticular of them, I beseech you observe one thing (which I will but touch, to make an entrance to that which follows), from the manner of setting down the covenant; it is not here set down as it is in other places of Scrip- tm-e : ' I will be thy God, and thou shalt be my people ; ' but here is only the first part, the main of the covenant of grace recited, 'I will be thy God.' Why doth he not say, too. Thou shalt take me for thy God? Because where the first is, he ever works the second ; our part depends upon his. All our gi'ace that we have to answer the covenant, is by reflection from God. He chooseth us, and then we choose him. He knoweth us, and therefore we come to know him. He loveth us first, and then we love him. He singleth us out to be a peculiar people, and we single out him above all things to be our portion. ' Whom have I in heaven but thee ? ' Ps. Ixiii. 25.