There is not a Christian but will be in himself apprehensive of being thrown into hell every day. There is a spring of corruption in him, and should God take a forfeiture of -= his daily rebellions, his conscience tells him it were just. And therefore we must every day live upon this branch of his priestly office, his mediation. We must live by faith in this branch of Christ, and make use of it continually, for this will keep us from hell. And therefore if we sin every day, go to God in the name of Christ, and desire him to pardon us. This is to feed on Christ ; and therefore we should more willingly come to the sacrament. When we be in heaven, we
* That is, ' from,' = should God regard his rebellion as a ' forfeiture,' &c. — G. VOL. VI. F f
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shall need a mediator no longer, for wo shall bo porfoctly hoh'. Wc can- not think of these things too much. They be the life of religion and of comforts; and it may teach us to make a true use of Christ in all our conditions. Poor souls that are not acquainted with the gospel, they think God will cast them into hell for every sin, and they live as if they had not an high priest in heaven to appear for them.
The matter of the message is, Christ ascended to God, as a common Father and God to him and them. He doth not say, I ascend to the Father. That were no great comfort ; for what were that to them ? or to my Father only. Neither doth he say, ' I ascend to our Father,' for that is true in the order of it : for he is not in equal respect the God and Father of Christ, and the God and Father of us. And therefore he speaks of himself in the first place : ' I go to my God and j^our God.' For he is first and specially Christ's Father and Chi-ist's God, and then ours ; as we shall see in the particulars. We have a common Father and a common God with Christ. God the Father is Christ's Father by eternal generation, as he is God and man. We have therefore the nature of Christ as he is God and man.
There is this difierence between God's being Christ's Father and the Father of any else.
First of all, God is Christ's Father from eternity. God had a being and was a Father from all eternity. There is no man of equal standing with his father. He is born after his father cometh to be a man. But Christ is of God from all eternity. His generation is eternal ; and therefore there is a grand difference.
Then Christ is co-equal with the Father in glory and majesty every day. The son is not equal with the father, but Christ is with his Father.
Again, The son in other generations comes of the father, and is like the father, taken out of his substance, but of a different substance from the father. But Christ and the Father, both the persons are in one substance, in one essence. The essence of the Father differeth not from the essence of the Son. We must remember this, to give Christ the prerogative and pre-eminency, that God is his Father in another manner than ours. He is his Father by nature, ours by adoption. What he is by nature, we are by gi-ace. Though Christ was intent upon his ascension, yet he forgctteth not this grand difference here, but mentioneth it : 'Go to my brethren.' We must not call him brother again. We may think of him as our brother ; but ' My God and my Lord,' as Thomas saith, John xx. 28. If the greatest person should call us brother, yet it is most behoveful for the inferior to say, ' My God, my Lord ; ' to acknowledge Christ as a great person, and to make use of his love to strengthen our faith, not to diminish our respect to him in any way. It is his infinite mercy to term us brethren. But when we go to him we must have other terms.
Thus we see how to conceive of Christ after his resurrection. "WTien he hath triumphed over all his enemies, and reconciled God by his death, then ' I go to my Father and your Father.' Then he is a common Father, by virtue of Christ's satisfaction to divine wrath and justice, and victory and triumphing over all his enemies. So we must not conceive of God as our Father, but in reference to Christ's victory over death. God is our Father by virtue of Christ's satisfaction to justice and conquest over all our ene- mies. ' The God of peace,' saith the holy apostle Paul in the epistle to the Hebrews, in the conclusion of that excellent epistle, ' that brought you from death to life through our Lord Jesus Chiist,' John v. 24. How
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Cometh he to be the God of peace to us, which bronght us from death to Hfe by our Lord Jesus ? Why, the resurrection of Christ makes him the God of peace. Who raised him ? He raised himself. But who together with himself ? The Father raised him. And could the Father raise him if he were not reconciled ? But now he is the ' God of peace ; ' for peace is made by the cross and blood of Christ, Col. iii. 15, the great peace-maker of heaven and earth ; now we may conceive of God under the sweet relation of a Father.