Now we are to draw near to God in the sacrament ; and the nearer to God, the more we honour him. Who honours God most ? Surely Christ, because he is so near him, being God and man in one person ; and next to him the blessed angels ' glorify God.' They are near him. Therefore, in Isa. vi. 2, they * cover their faces,' it being impossible for the creature to comprehend the gi-eat majesty of God ; and they cover their feet in modesty. The nearer we draw to God in the meditation and consideration of his excellency in the ordinances, the more humble and abased we shall be in ourselves ; and the more we shall honour God, seeing his excellency, especially of his love. So next to the angels the saints : ' all thy works praise thee,' Ps. cxlv. 10 ; they give matter and occasion, but ' thy saints bless thee.' If it were not for a few saints on earth, though all the works of God are matter of praise, they could not praise God : ' thy saints bless thee.' And the nearer we come to God, the fitter we are for this. Now, there is a wondrous near-coming to God in the sacrament. If we come prepared, we come to have communion and strengthening in Christ. He is both the inviter and the feast itself. We come to be made one with him : ' bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh.' Therefore, if we come prepared, this is the way to bring us to a disposition to glorify God. You see here the wondrous, infinite love of God in the sacrament, to stoop so low to his creature, to strengthen our faith by giving us these things. God had been
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good to us whether he had given us his oath and his seal or no, but he knows we are weak, and unbeHeving, and doubting ; therefore to help ua he hath given us not only his promise, but his oath, and besides his oath he hath given us signs and seals. Here is wondrous mercy. Let us be encouraged to come in and admire the love of God, not onl}^ in giving his Son Christ for us, but in aflbrding us other means to strengthen our faith. Let none be discouraged in the sight and sense of their own sins ; but let them come in, and they shall glorify God the more. ' Where sin hath abounded' in their sense and feeling, there 'grace shall more abound.' And those that have been good, and have slipped any way, let them con- sider God's infinite love in Christ. It is not a cistern, but a spring. God's mercy in Christ, and the blood of Christ, is a ' fountain opened for Judah,* &c., Zech. xiii. 1 ; that is, it serves not for our first conversion only, but every day, upon every occasion, when we have made any breach with God, we may come and wash in that bath, Christ's blood. ' The blood of Christ purgeth,' 1 John i. 7. It is in the present tense. It runs continually in the vigour of it. There is a spring of corruption in us ; there is a spring of mercy in God. There is a spring of Christ's blood, that hath a perfect efficacy to wash our souls. Therefore, if we have not yet been converted, and humbled, and cast down for our sins, let us now come in and give God the glory of his mercy ; and if we have fallen again, consider there is a fountain opened for ' Judah and Jerusalem to wash in,' and let us come and renew our repentance and faith at this time.
' Peace on earth.'
The same holy affection in the angels that moved them to wish God to have his due of glory from the creature, it moves them to wish peace to men likewise ; to shew this, by the way, that
There can he no true zeal of God's glory but ivith love to mankind.
They were not so ravished with the glory of God as to forget poor man on earth. Oh no ! They have sweet, pure affections to man, a poorer creature than themselves. Therefore let them that are injurious and violent in their dispositions, and insolent in their carriage, never talk of glorifying God, when they despise and wrong men. There are some that overthrow all peace in the earth for their own glory, but he that seeks God's glory will procure peace what he can ; for they go both together, as we see here, * Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth.'
Now, their end of wishing peace upon earth, it is that men might thereby glorify God, that God being reconciled, and peace being stablished in men's consciences, they might glorify God. Hence observe this likewise, that
We cannot glorify God till we have some knowledge of our peace with him in Christ.
We must have the first act, to cast ourselves upon God's mercy in Christ, and adhere and cleave to that mercy ; and then we shall feel so much com- fort as shall make us glorify God, though we may question it in desertion sometimes. Here the angels, intending that God should have glory of all, they wish peace on earth, in the consciences of men especially.