Now, this is a saving knowledge, and full of consolation, when we can see all the properties of God made glorious and exalted in a way of doing us good. And this wisdom is hid only in Jesus Christ. Hence, when he desired his Father to glorify his name, John xii. 24, — to make in him his name (that is, his nature, his ' Isa. liii. 5, 6; Lev. xvi. 21; IJoni. viii. 3-2.
OF COMMUNION WITH THE SON JESUS CHRIST. 93
properties, his will) all glorious in that work of redemption he had in hand, — he was instantly answered from heaven, " I have both glorified it and will glorify it again." He will give it its utmost glory in him.
(2.) That God will yet exercise and lay out those properties of his to the utmost in our behalf Though he hath made them all glo- rious in a way that may tend to our good, yet it doth not absolutely follow that he will use them for our good ; for do we not see innu- merable persons perishing everlastingly, notwithstanding the mani- festation of himself which God hath made in Christ? Wherefore farther, God hath committed all his properties into the hand of Christ if I may so say, to be managed in our behalf, and for our good. He^ is " The power of God, and the wisdom of God ;" he is "The Lord our Righteousness," and is " made unto us of God wisdom, and righteous- ness, sanctification, andredemj)tion." Christ having glorified his Father in all his attributes, he hath now the exercise of them committed to him, that he might be the captain of salvation to them that do believe ; so that if, in the righteousness, the goodness, the love, the mercy, the all-sufiiciency of God, there be any thing that will do us good, the Lord Jesus is fully interested with the dispensing of it in our behalf Hence God is said to be " in him, reconciling the world unto himself," 2 Cor. V. 18. Whatever is in him, he layeth it out for the reconcilia- tion of the world, in and by the Lord Christ; and he becomes " The Lord our Righteousness," Isa. xlv. 24, 25. And this is the second thing requii'ed.
(3.) There remaineth only, then, that these attributes of God, so manifested and exercised, are powerful and able to bring us to the everlasting fruition of him. To evince this, the Lord wraps up the whole covenant of grace in one promise, signifying no less: " I will be your God." In the covenant, God becomes our God, and we are his people; and thereby all his attributes are ours also. And lest that we should doubt — when once our eyes are opened to see in any measure the inconceivable difficulty that is in this thing, what un- imaginable obstacles on all hands there he against us — that all is not enough to deliver and save us, God hath, I say, wrapped it up in this expression, Gen. xvii. 1, " I am," saith he,^ " God Almighty" (all-suf- ficient) ; — " I am wholly able to perform all my undertakings, and to be thy exceeding great reward. I can remove all difficulties, an- swer all objections, pardon all sins, conquer all opposition: I am God all-sufficient." Now, you know in whom this covenant and all the promises thereof are ratified, and in whose blood it is confirmed, —
• 1 Cor. i. 20, 30; Jer. xxiii. 6.
' " Sliiiddai, Aquila interpretatur aXx/^ov, quod nos robustuni et a,d omnia perpe- tranda siifficientein possumus dicere." — Hieion., Epist. cxxxvi.
94 OF COMMUNION WITH THE SON JESUS CHRIST.
to wit, in the Lord Christ alone; in him only is God an all-suffi- cient God to any, and an exceeding great reward. And hence Christ himself is said to " save to the uttermost them that come to God by him," Heb. vii. And these three things, I say, are required to be known, that we may have a saving acquaintance, and such as is attended with consolation, with any of the properties of God ; and all these being hid only in Christ, from him alone it is to be obtained.
This, then, is the first part of our first demonstration, — that all true and sound wisdom and knowledge is laid up in the Lord Christ, and from him alone to be obtained ; because our wisdom, consisting, in a main part of it, in the knowledge of God, his nature, and his pro- perties, this lies wholly hid in Christ, nor can possibly be obtained but by him.
II. For the knowledge of ourselves, which is the SECOND part of our^ wisdom, this consists in these three tilings, which our Saviour sends his Spirit to convince the world of, — even " sin, righteousness, and judgment," John xvi. 8. To know ourselves in reference unto these three, is a main part of true and sound wisdom; for they all respect the supernatural and immortal end whereunto we are ap- pointed ; and there is none of these that we can attain unto but only in Christ.
L In respect of sin. There is a sense and knowledge of sin left in the consciences of all men by nature. To tell them what is good and evil in many things, to approve and disapprove of what they do, in reference to a judgment to come, they need not go farther than themselves, Rom. ii. 14, 15. But this is obscure, and relates mostly to greater sins, and is in sum that which the apostle gives us, Rom. i. 32, " They know the judgment of God, that they which do such things are worthy of death." This he placeth among the common presumptions and notions that are received by mankind, — namely, that it is'* " righteous with God, that they who do such things are worthy of death." And if that be true, which is commonly received, that no nation is so barbarous or rude, but it retaineth some sense of a Deity; then this also is true, that there is no nation but hath a sense of sin, and the displeasure of God for it. For this is the very first* notion of God in the world, that he is the rcAvarder of good and