You shall see the extent of the comforts further by retail, as it were. If God be ours, then all is ours too. What be they ? The Scripture telle th you, and I should spend too much time in unfolding of them,
1, If God be ours, his wisdom must needs be ours, to find out ways to do us good ; for his infinite wisdom hath found out a way in Christ, by satisfaction of his justice, to bring us to heaven. He can make us go beyond all the policy of our neighbours, for his wisdom is ours.
2, If we [are] in danger, his power is ours, to bring us out,
3, If we have sinned, his mercy is ours, to forgive us. He himself being ours, his mercy must needs be ours. The whole being ours, it foUoweth out of the strength of reason that the parts also must be ours,
4, In any want, his all- sufficiency is ours, to supply it or to turn it to good, and make it up in a better kind,
5, In a word, God being ours, whatsoever is in God, whatsoever God can do, whatsoever he hath, is ours, because hiniself is ours. And there- fore, I beseech you, make this use of it, to get into Christ by faith ; to be one with Christ, that so God may be our God. Get faith above all graces, the grace of union and the grace of communion ; that being one with Christ, we are one with him. God being ours, all is ours ; yea, the worst thing in the world is ours.
If God be not ours, it is no matter what else is ours. Alas ! all things must be taken from us, we know not how soon, and we taken from all things else. What if we had a kingdom, as Saul had, if we be forsaken of God as he was ? What if we had paradise ? If we offend God, we shaU be cast out. What if we had the dignity to be apostles ? If with Judas we
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A HEAVENLY CONFERENCE.
have not God, what will all come to ? What if a man enjoy all the world ? If out of Christ, it Avould yield him no comfort ! As the emperor said, I have gone through all varieties of condition, ct nihil mild profuit, but it hath done mc no good.* If we had all, what is it but * vanity of vani- ties' ? and not only so, but 'vexation' ? Eccles. i. 2, ii. 17. Now, when we have God to be our God, he is able to lill the soul. He is larger than the soul, and he is able to quiet the soul ; he is the rest of the soul, the soul is quiet ; in him is the centre, as the place of quiet. If God be ours, then the soul restcth in it ; for God fiJleth the soul, and quiets the soul, and hath always fresh comforts for the soul, infinite still to all eternity. There is nothing in the world but we do as it were deJJorarc, take away the flower of it by use, and it becometh stale. Though a man continue many thousand years in the world, yet he will be weary of all things in the world, because there is no freshness in them. It is finite, and the soul is larger than the comforts of the world. But in God is a spring of fresh comforts to everlasting. Consider the things that enable him to be our God, to fill the soul, and to be larger than the soul ; to quiet and calm the soul in all the troubles of it ; and then to have fresh springs of comforts. What a comfort is this, to have God for their God !
Let it therefore raise up our souls to labour after God, and never rest till we have some interest in this great portion, of God to be our God. When we can by faith go out of ourselves to Christ, and lay a right and just claim to God to be our God, this is a comfort which reacheth from everlasting to everlasting. It giveth us forgiveness of sins when we had lost ourselves ; because we are in Christ, he hath forgiven us. In all extremities and troubles, when no creature can comfort us, it is his glory to shew himself a God. It reacheth to the resurrection of the body. God is Abraham's, and Isaac's, and Jacob's God when dead, because he was the God of whole Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and therefore of soul and body. And it reacheth from all favours of this world, so far as is for our good, to all eternity. Being our God, he will protect us from all extremities in this world ; he will speak comfort to our souls, which nothing can do but God. When we be dead he will raise up our dust, because he is our whole God, the God of our souls and bodies, and we shall be for ever with the Lord. It is a comfort of wonderful extent.
Use. 1. Let us therefore make this use of it. Labour to mahe him. so to lis ; for as he is to us, so God by his Spirit is our comforter, who being satisfied, giveth us his Spirit. We must make God our God, and then he will be a God to us. These be mutual wheresoever they be ; wheresoever God is God to any, they by the Spirit obtained by Christ have grace to make him so to themselves. What is it for us to make God a God to us ? It is this : to set up God a throne in our hearts ; to give him a sovereignty over all things in the world, that we may say in truth of heart, God is our joy, God is our comfort, God is our rock, God is all in all to us. When we give him supremacy of affection above all the world, we esteem nothing above him ; we value him above all esteem ; his loving-kindness is better than life itself; for else we do not make him a God to us, and then it is no comfort to hear all the comforts spoken of before. For all to whom he is a God in the covenant of grace, and have hearts to make him so, the Spirit raiseth up their affections to make him a God to themselves. Avior txius, dens tutts, as it is said of old, what we love most is our god. What we joy most in is our god, what we rely and trust in most is our god, as * Cf. note z, Vol. III. p. 531.— G.