[4.] His all-sufficiency is the last of this sort that I shall name.
God's all-sufificiency in himself is his absolute and universal per- fection, whereby nothing is wanting in him, nothing to him: no accession can be made to his fulness, no decrease or wasting can happen thereunto. There is also in him an all-sufficiency for others; which is his power to impart and communicate his goodness and himself so to them as to satisfy and fill them, in their utmost capa- city, with whatever is good and desirable to them. For the first of these, — his all-sufficiency for the communication of his goodness, that is, in the outward effect of it, — God abundantly manifested in the creation, in that he made all things good, all things perfect; that is, to whom nothing was wanting in their own khid; — he put a stamp of his OAvn goodness upon them all. But nov/ for the latter, — his giving himself as an all-sufficient God, to be enjoyed by the crea- tures, to hold out all that is in him for the satiating and making them blessed, — that is alone discovered by and in Christ. In him he is a Father, a God in covenant, wherein he hath promised to lay out himself for them ; in him hath he promised to give himself into their everlasting fruition, as their exceeding great reward.
And so I have insisted on the second sort of properties in God, whereof, though we have some obscure glimpse in other things, yet the clear knowledge of them, and acquaintance vnth them, is only to be had in the Lord Christ..
That which remaineth is, l)riofly to declare that not any of the l-Toperties of God whatever can be known, savingly and to consola-
' John i. 16.
OF COMMUNION WITH THE SON JESUS CHRIST. 91
tion, but only in him; and so, consequently, all the wisdom of the knowledge of God is hid in him alone, and from him to be obtained.
2. There is no saving knowledge of any property of God, nor such as brings consolation, but what alone is to be had in Christ Jesus, being laid up in him, and manifested by him. Some eye the justice of God, and know that this is his righteousness, •'•' that they which do such things" (as sin) " are worthy of death," Rom. i. 82. But this is to no other end but to make them cry, " Who amongst us shall dwell with the devouring fire?" Isa. xxxiii. 14. Others fix upon his patience, goodness, mercy, forbearance; but it doth not at all lead them to repentance; but " they despise the riches of his goodness, and after their hardness and impenitent hearts treasure up unto them- selves wrath against the day of wrath," Rom. il 4, 5. Others, by the very works of creation and providence, come to know " his eternal power and Godhead ; but they glorify him not as God, nor are thank- ful, but become vain in their imagination, and their foolish hearts are darkened," Rom. i. 20. Whatever discovery men have of truth out of Christ, they " hold it captive under unrighteousness," verse 18. Hence Jude tells us, verse 10, that " in what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves."
That we may have a saving knowledge of the properties of God, attended with consolation, these three things are required : — (1.) That God hath manifested the glory of them all in a way of doing good unto us. (2.) That he will yet exercise and lay them out to the ut- most in our behalf (3.) That, being so manifested and exercised, they are fit and powerful to bring us to the everlasting fruition of himself; which is our blessedness. Now, all these three lie hid in Christ ; and the least glimpse of them out of him is not to be attained.
(1.) This is to be received, that God hath actually manifested the glory of all his attributes in a way of doing us good. What will it avail our souls, what comfort will it bring unto us, what endearment will it put upon our hearts unto God, to know that he is infinitely righteous, just, and holy, unchangeablj^ true and faithful, if we know not how he may preserve the glory of his justice and faithfulness in his comminations and threatenings, but only in our ruin and destruc- tion? if we can from thence only say it is a righteous thing with him to recompense tribulation unto us for our iniquities? What fruit of this consideration had Adam in the garden? Gen. iii. What sweet- ness, what encouragement, is there in knowing that he is patient and full of forbearance, if the glory of these is to be exalted in enduring the vessels of wrath fitted for destruction? nay, what will it avail us to hear him proclaim himself "The Lord, The Lord God,^ mer-
' Exod. xxxiv. 6, 7.
92 OF COMMUNION WITH THE SON JESUS CHRIST.
ciful and gracious, abundant in goodness and truth," yet, withal, that he will " by no means clear the guilty," — so shutting up the exercise of all his other properties towards us, upon the account of our iniquity? Doubtless, not at all. Under this naked consideration of the proper- ties of God, justice will make men fly and hide. Gen. iii.; Isa. ii. 21, xxxiii. 1 5, 16; — patience, render them obdurate, Eccles. viii. 1 1 . Holi- ness utterly deters them from all thoughts of approach unto him, John xxiv. 19. What relief have we from thoughts of his immensity and omnipresence, if we have cause only to contrive how to fly from him (Ps. cxxxix. 11, 12), if we have no pledge of his gTacious presence with us? This is that which brings salvation, when we shall see that God hath glorified all his properties in a way of doing us good. Now, this he hath done in Jesus Christ. In him hath he made his justice glorious, in making all our iniquities to^ meet upon him, causing him to bear them all, as the scape-goat in the wilderness; not sparing him, but giving him up to death for us all; — so exalting his justice and indignation against sin in a way of freeing us from the condem- nation of it, Rom. iii. 25, viii. S3, 34. In him hath he made his truth glorious, and his faithfulness, in the exact accomplishment of all his absolute threatenings and promises. That fountain-threat and com- mination whence all others flow. Gen. ii. 17, " In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt die the death ;" seconded -with a curse, Deut. xxvii. 26, " Cursed is every one that continueth not," etc. [Gal. iii. 10] — is in him accomplished, fulfilled, and the truth of God in them laid in a way to our good. He, by the grace of God, tasted death for us, Heb. ii. 9 ; and so delivered us who were subject to death, verse 15 ; and he hath fulfilled the curse, by being made a curse for us. Gal. iii. 13. So that in his very threatenings his truth is made glorious in a way to our good. And for his promises, " They are all yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us," 2 Cor. i. 20. And for his mercy, goodness, and the riches of his grace, how eminently are they made glorious in Christ, and advanced for our good ! God hath set him forth to declare his righteousness for the forgiveness of sin ; he hath made way in him for ever to exalt the glory of his pardoning mercy towards sinners. To manifest this is the gTeat design of the gospel, as Paul admirably sets it out, Eph. i. 5-8. There must our souls come to an acquaintance with them, or for ever live in dark- ness.