12. Christ's Father and ours

Christ’s Father and ours There is this difference 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 grace. Though Christ was intent upon his ascension, yet he forgetteth 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 20:28. 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. When 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 enemies. ’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 Christ,’ John 5:24. How cometh he to be the God of peace to us, which brought us from death to life 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 3:15, the great peace-maker of heaven and earth; now we may conceive of God under the sweet relation of a Father.

Now this relation of a father teacheth us as what we may expect from God, so what we ought to return to God again, and how we ought to carry ourselves one towards another.

I. What we may expect from God being a Father.

(1.) We may expect whatsoever a child may expect from a father. God taketh not upon him empty names. He saith he will be a Father, not only called a Father, ’but I will be your Father, and you shall be my sons,’ 2Co 6:18. All the fatherhood, and all the kindred in heaven and earth that is spiritual, the comfort of it cometh from God the Father, reconciled to us in Christ. The word in the original is so strong that we cannot express it in English. Fathers on earth are but poor fathers, and they be but beams of the fatherly affection that is in God. God will let us see by these beams of compassion that is in a father to a child, what real compassion he beareth to us. The true reality of fatherhood is in God. And therefore, when we hear of father, think of whatsoever lieth in the bowels of a father to a child; and that we may expect from God our Father, and infinite more. It is a great indulgence; as a father pitieth his child, so God will pity us, Mal 3:17. Will a father cast off his child.? Indeed, he will cleanse the child. So God will take away our abominations, and purge us when we defile ourselves. It is because of an eternal relation he casteth us not off. We may expect from him indulgence; and it is an indulgence of indulgence. God needed no son when he made us sons. Yet he had his Son and angels to praise himself withal. Can we pity and pardon a child? and will not God pardon and pity us? Why should we conceive worse of him than of ourselves? Will we give pity to a father, and not pity to the Father of all bowels and compassion? And therefore think not that God will cast us off. God pardons us, and healeth our infirmities, and pitieth us as a father pitieth his own child, Psa 103:13. It is a name under which no man must despair. What! Despair under the name of a father? Despair of mercy when we have a Father to go to? The poor prodigal, when he had spent his patrimony, his body, his good name, had lost all, and nothing left, yet he had a father, and ’I will go to him,’ Luk 15:18. And so, when we be at the last cast, and have spent all, we have a Father. Therefore go to him. What saith the church? Isaiah 63, 64, ’Doubtless thou art our Father,’ when the church was in a poor condition; ’Though our righteousness be as a menstruous cloth, and we be defiled, yet thou art our Father; we are the clay, thou art the potter,’ &c. So that it is a name of his indulgence.

You have his disposition set down by the father of the prodigal. The son saith, he will go to the father; the father runneth to him and meeteth him when he is coming. God runneth to us, and is ready to meet us, when we begin to repent of sin, and are sensible of our faults. He is more ready to pardon, than we to ask pardon.

I touch only some principal things, that you may remember against the evil day and hour of temptation. He taketh not on him the relation of a Father for nought, but will fill it up to the uttermost. It is no empty relation.

(2.) It is a name likewise of comfort. It is the speech of a natural man, ’A little punishment is enough from a father.’ ’He knoweth whereof we are made, he remembers we are but dust,’ Psa 103:14, and Heb 12:6; he knoweth we are not iron or steel; he knoweth our making; and therefore he will deal gently with us when he doth correct us. It is as necessary as our daily bread to have gentle correction, to wean us from the world; yet he doth it gently. A little punishment will serve from a gracious father.

(3.) It is a name likewise of provision, that we may expect from God; that he will in all our exigences and necessities provide for us whatsoever shall be needful. What saith our Saviour Christ to the poor disciples doubting of want? ’It is your Father’s good will to give you the kingdom.’ What then? ’Fear not, little flock,’ Luk 12:32. He that will give you a kingdom, will not he give you daily bread, viaticum, provision for a journey? He that intendeth us heaven, certainly he will provide for us here. And therefore in the Lord’s prayer, before all petitions, as a ground of all, he putteth in ’our Father’; and therefore, ’Give us our daily bread, our Father.’ And therefore he will give us grace to sanctify his name, and do his will, and forgive us our sins. Expect all from our Father, which is the ground of all. Christ had much ado to persuade his disciples that they should not want necessaries; and therefore he makes whole sermons to strengthen their faith in this: ’Your heavenly Father knoweth what you stand in need of,’ Mat 6:8. The son cannot ask, but the Father can interpret any sigh, any groan, and knoweth what we would have. And therefore being God’s children, we may fetch provision from him in all conditions.

(4.) And with provisions, protection likewise; and therefore make this use of it. In the temptations of Satan, lie under the wing of our Father. We have a Father to go to; make use of him, make use of his protection, that God would shield us, that he would be a tower, as he is a tower, and ’the righteous man may fly to him,’ Pro 11:8. Lie under his wings. He is a gracious Father, and he hath taken this sweet relation on him for this purpose, that we may have comfort in all conditions. You see then what we may expect from God, by this sweet relation he hath taken on him in Christ, to be our Father.

II. This word, it is a word of relation. It bindeth God to us and us to God. We are to honour him as our Father. This one word is sufficient to express our duty to a father, and that is a word of reverence; for it includeth a mixed affection of fear and love. And it is an affection of an inferior to a superior. He is great, therefore we ought to fear him. He is good, therefore we ought to love him. There is with him beams of majesty and bowels of compassion. As there is beams of majesty, we ought to fear him; as bowels of compassion, we ought to love him. So that fear and love mixed together is the affection we owe to God as our Father. If we tremble, and are afraid to go to him, we know not he is loving. If we go to him over-boldly and saucily, we forget that he is great. Therefore we must think of his greatness, that we forget not his goodness. We must so think of his goodness, that we forget not his greatness. Therefore go boldly to him, with reverence to the throne of Christ. In the word ’Father,’ there is more saving power than in ten thousand. It toucheth his very bowels. When a child wanteth anything, and is in distress, let it but say, Father, or Mother, and the parents yearn upon him. If God be our Father, go to him boldly; but with reverence go with affiance* to his bowels. Oh, it is a persuasive word! What cannot we look from† that majesty that hath condescended to be called ’Father,’ and to be a Father to us in all our necessities? Either we shall have what we want and lack, or else we shall have that which is better. He is a wise Father. He answereth not always according to our wills, but always according to our good. He seeth it is for our good that we are not presently comforted. The physician giveth a sharp potion. Oh, I cannot endure! And the chirurgeon lanceth. Oh, I cannot endure it! But the chirurgeon knoweth it is not healing time. Even so we would be presently taken off from under crosses; but God is a wise Father, and knoweth how long it is fit for us to continue under the cross.

Come to him boldly therefore, under the name of a father, that he may move his bowels, and surely will hear us. For in Psa 27:10, when all forsook me, ’My father and mother forsook me, but the Lord took me up.’ Fathers in the flesh, and mothers, die, but the Lord taketh us up. He is an eternal Father, and therefore a ground of eternal boldness with God, and of everlasting comfort. He was our Father before we had a father in the world, and he will be our Father when we shall cease to be in the world, They be but instruments under God to bring us into the world. God is our true Father. Our other fathers are but under God, to give us a being, to fit us for heaven. He provideth the best inheritance and paternity for us in heaven. And therefore never be disconsolate, but remember, ’I go to my Father and your Father,’ which is a word of eternal comfort. He was our Father from eternity in election; he will be our Father to eternity in glorification. ’Can a mother forget her child? yea, though she should, yet can I not forget thee, thou art written in the palm of my hand,’ Isa 49:15-16. God hath us always in his eye. A mother cannot always think of her child. She sleepeth sometimes; but God is a Father that never sleepeth. ’The keeper of Israel, neither slumbereth nor sleepeth,’ Psa 121:4. And this is our comfort in all times and for eternity. And therefore we ought to carry ourselves to God reverently, and go boldly to him, and always make use of him. And this we should learn likewise, to maintain a sweet frame between God and us. Shall God open such an advantage to us? Shall God be our Father, and bear the gracious eternal affection of a father? and shall not we, by prayer and faith, fetch from our Father all we stand in need of? As our Saviour saith, ’You that be earthly fathers, when your children ask such a thing, will you deny?’ Mat 7:9-10. And have we a Father so rich, so loving, and shall not we have intercourse with him in our daily necessities? What a trade is open to us, if we know what a comfort is laid up in the sweet relation of a father! ’Your Father knoweth what we stand in need of,’ Mat 6:8, and he will give thee the spring of all graces, not only a broken heart, a spirit of life and vigour in his service, but go to God and he will give thee his Holy Spirit, which is the best thing next Christ that can be. And therefore be encouraged to make intercourse between thee and God, considering we have a brother in heaven, our nature is there, and our spirit is below. We have the best things in heaven, next Christ, on earth, and God hath our flesh in heaven by Christ; and therefore why should we not be much in prayer, and much in praises in all our necessities? Beloved, it is a comfort of that largeness that I cannot express it. I rather leave it to your admiration, that you may see what use to make of this sweet relation of a father.

(1.) But we must know, that every one cannot say, ’my Father,’ for there are a company of men in the world that may say, in some respects, ’our Father;’ but in other respects they cannot. As our Saviour Christ saith peremptorily, John 8:44, ’You are of your father the devil.’ They bragged of God their Father, and they were of their ’father the devil.’ Therefore, consider who is fit to take this name into their mouths, ’My Father.’ Mark the disposition of the Scribes and Pharisees, and then you shall see who be fit to brag of God as their Father. They be very formal men; look to their outward devotion, who so devout as they? They studied it; but what were they for the inside? They were malicious men, they were Satanical men, men opposite to the power of religion, arrant hypocrites, painted sepulchres. It is no matter for compliment or formality. An hypocrite may have much of that in the eyes of the world, yet may be a child of the devil for all that, and a Pharisee for all that. Thou mayest be malicious against the truth, as the Pharisees sought Christ’s blood. A man may be like Herod, seeking the blood of Christ in his members, persecuting Christ, as all cruel men do. They seek to devour Christ in his professors. What they can, they disparage and dishearten them. They are enemies to the power of religion and to the ordinances of God. They be the children of the devil, and therefore have no reason at all to brag that God is their Father. Indeed, an inward bitter disposition against the power of religion, though under any formality, is a character of a Satanical spirit, and such cannot say, ’Our Father.’ If they do, it is an usurpation, for their true father is the devil.

(2.) Who can say, Our Father? Those that by the Spirit of the Father and the Son, by the Holy Ghost, are ingraffed into Christ by a spirit of adoption, and have the stamp of the Father upon them. The likeness of the Father and of Christ, whom God begets to his own likeness, that are, in a word, like Christ. Christ is the first Son, and in him, and for his sake, we are sons. He is the natural Son, and they may say ’Our Father’ that labour to express the disposition of Christ, who is the first Son. See this disposition of Christ in the gospel, how marvellously patient he was under the hand of his Father, obedient to the death of his cross, humbled, full of love, full of goodness. ’He went about doing good,’ Acts 10:38. Do we then walk as Christ did? Carry we the image of the ’second Adam’? Have we the patient, humble, meek disposition of Christ in our measure? Do we love Christ in his members, God in his image? Do we love the ordinances and the power of religion? This sheweth what we are. And is our conversation suitable to our inward disposition? Do we walk in light? Do we shew by our conversation whose children we are? Do our speeches give a character of the inward man? If this be in us, though in never so small a measure, with comfort we may say, ’Our Father.’ But may not another man, that is not in Christ, come to God under the sweet name of ’our Father?’ Yea, he may come to him as his father by creation and providence, or sacramentally a father, or as brought into the church, and having God to create him and to provide for him. Lord, thou hast shewed thyself a gracious Father thus far, though I cannot from any inward persuasion say, ’My Father.’ Thus far as I can I say, ’My Father.’ Strive against our spiritual infidelity, believe God and cast ourselves on his gracious promises in Christ. God will meet us at the same time, and he will send us his Spirit to make us his sons. And therefore let no man that hath been a wicked liver be discouraged from going to God in the name of a father, in that wherein he is a father. Lord, thou hast created me and preserved me, and it is thy mercy I am not in hell. Yet thou offerest to be my Father in Christ—thou hast made gracious promises and invited me; and upon this, when the heart yieldeth to the gracious apprehensions of God as a Father, there is a spirit of faith wrought in the heart presently. Therefore think of the name of a father, and the very thoughts of it will bring the spirit of adoption.

Only it speaks no comfort to the bitter malicious satanical enemies of Christ, and the power of religion. They be children of the devil. But now poor souls, that groan under the burden of sin, let them think that God is a Father, and of the mercies of God, though they do not see they be interested in them. By the very contemplation of the mercies of God in Christ, and his inviting them to receive them, the Spirit of God will be wrought in the soul, whereby they may have confidence to come to God as a Father.

I desire you therefore to remember this. It is the first sermon of our Saviour Christ after his resurrection, and therefore forget not to think of God as a Father and Christ as a Brother. Indeed, whatsoever comfort is in any relation, God and Christ have taken it on them. A father is more comprehensive than any other title: Christ is Father, and Husband, and Spouse. And God is our Rock and Shield; and whatsoever is comfortable he hath taken on him, and in Christ we may command him to be so. And if we had ten thousand worlds, they could not be compared to the comforts that arise from hence, that we can call God, Father. It is more to us, if we could improve it in our spiritual trade for heaven, than if we had a thousand worlds, especially in days of affliction and in the hour of death. For it improveth whatsoever is in the bowels of God for poor distressed souls. When nothing else will comfort, this will comfort, if we can say to God, ’Father.’ Though we cannot make a distinct prayer, yet if we can say ’Father,’ God can pick matter out of our broken language. Now Christ is ascended up to heaven, he doth us more good than he did when he was upon the earth. The sun in the firmament yieldeth us heat and comfort; but if it were nearer it would do us hurt, or if further off it would not do us so much good. God hath placed it, being a common light of the world, high, to enlighten inferior bodies, and to convey influence by means into them. And so Christ, the Sun of righteousness, being ascended and advanced to heaven, doth more good than on earth. And therefore saith he, ’It is for your good that I ascend.’ It is for our good that we have Christ in heaven, to appear there for us.

’I ascend to my Father, and to your Father.’ ’Father’ is here taken personally, not essentially; though it be true in that sense, ’to my Father,’ as the first person of the Trinity especially. Christ may well say, ’I ascend to my Father’ now; for he was risen again, and was mightily declared to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead. ’Thou art my Son; this day I have begotten thee;’ that is, this day have I declared thee, Rom 1:4, and Heb 1:5. It is said of things, fiunt, cum patefiunt, they are done when they be open, and declared to be done. Christ was the Son of God when he rose again, because he was discovered by his glorious resurrection to be so indeed. And therefore Christ may well say after his resurrection, ’I go to my Father, and your Father.’ Observe from hence, that God in Christ is our Father. We say, relations are minimœ entitatis,* they are little entities founded upon others, but they are maximœ consequentiœ, of great concernment.

I beseech you, before I leave the point, give me leave to go on a little further in this, to shew that wonderful mercy, that admirable goodness which the tongues and hearts of all the men in the world, and angels in heaven, are not able to express; that love of God which is contained in the relation he hath taken on him in Christ to be our Father.

(1.) Consider who, and whom. Who, the great God, that hath the Son to solace himself in. He did not adopt us because he wanted sons. He had sons of his own, and sons of his love to solace himself in. What need he have took traitors, rebels, enemies, to make them his sons? Oh it is a marvellous advancement of our nature, that God should in Christ become our ’Father.’ It is said, Psa 113:6, ’God abaseth himself to behold things below;’ and indeed so he doth, with reverence be it spoken to his great majesty: he abaseth himself in regard of things below, in regard of us worms of the earth, that be enemies, yea, devils by nature. For many, ye shall see the devil in them, in their lying and opposing of goodness. And God will always have some amongst men, to shew others what they would be, if God left them to themselves. God abaseth himself to behold things below. Not that it is a diminution of majesty to do it, but God in Christ hath stooped so low, that he could go no lower, and he is advanced as high in our nature as can be. How could God become a man, a curse, God in the second person with us, God in the first person to be so near to us as a Father, and God in the second person to make him a Father, to be so low as Christ was, which is to be as low as hell itself.

(2.) Consider to whom this message is sent. He is your Father, even a Father to you the disciples, now you are disconsolate. God owneth us for his children at the worst. He took our condition notwithstanding all our infirmities. When we be pronest by a work of the Spirit to condemn ourselves, then God is nearest to justify us. When the poor prodigal said, ’I am unworthy to be a son, make me an household servant,’ you see how the father entertaineth him, Luk 15:19. So the poor publican dareth not lift up his eyes, and yet went away justified, Luk 18:13. David, when he could not pray, but murmur and rebel, and said in his heart all men are liars, ’yet thou heardest the voice of my prayer,’ Psa 116:11; even then, when he could not pray, but groan and sigh to God: ’I said, I am cast out of thy sight, yet thou regardest the voice of my prayers;’ when he said, out of a murmuring spirit and rebelliousness of nature, I am cast out of thy sight—a speech that tended to desperation,—yet God heard the voice of his prayer. When Job said, ’I clothed myself in dust and ashes,’ God said to him, ’I have accepted thee,’ Job 42:6; Job 42:8. When we by the Spirit think ourselves unworthy to be accepted, or to look to heaven, or to tread upon the earth, then God looketh on us worthy in his Son; and never more worthy than when we acknowledge our own unworthiness. ’Go tell my disciples,’ at this time when they had dealt so unworthily, ’I go to their Father.’

It is from his own bowels, and not any goodness in us, that he loveth us. He loveth the work of his own Spirit, his own nature, that that is of his own. Though the child hath many infirmities, yet the Father seeth the nature of the child, and therefore loveth it. God seeth his image of holiness in us in some poor measure, and he loveth his own in us. And he loveth our love to him, which is in some measure. Though the disciples had got into corners, after their unkind dealing with Christ, yet he knew they loved him. As where there is love, there will be a reflection of his love back again. And then God knoweth if he should not shew mercy to sinners, he should have none to serve him on earth. And therefore saith the psalmist, Psalms 130. ver. 4, ’There is mercy with thee that thou mayest be feared;’ that is, worshipped. If God were not merciful to sinners, where should he have any to worship him? And therefore God sheweth himself to be a Father, even to sinful creatures; even in their wickedness, he seeth his own nature in them. He seeth some love, some work of respect in them, and if he should not love them, he would have none to fear him.

Beloved, live upon this. I spake before of the love of Christ. Here is the love of God the Father, who is content to be a Father even in our sinful condition. If God be a Father to us, as to Christ, then let not our hearts be discouraged in afflictions, persecutions, temptations. God was a Father to Christ in his desertion. God leaveth us to ourselves sometimes, and we fear his love. Did not he leave his own Son upon the cross—’My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?’ Mat 27:46—and yet he ceased not to be a Father. For persecution of enemies: was not Christ’s whole life filled up with persecution, and yet a Son? For temptations: thou art tempted, and thinkest thou art none of God’s children. Satan did tempt our blessed Saviour, that he might be a merciful Saviour, and know how to succour thee in times of temptation. Therefore, be not discouraged. Say not, when thou art deserted, persecuted, afflicted, tempted, God is not thy Father; for by that reason thou mayest argue, God was none of Christ’s Father. God was Christ’s Father, notwithstanding his desertion for a time; and notwithstanding his afflictions in the world, his persecutions of all sorts of men, and notwithstanding his temptations, God was his Father still. This we must observe, ’father’ is not a relation to-day, none to-morrow. It is an eternal relation. ’Dum percutis, pater es; dum castigas, pater es,’ saith Austin (h): ’While thou strikest us, thou art our Father; whilst thou correctest us, thou art our Father.’ Parents are tender to their weakest and sick children; and God is most tender of all to them that be weak. ’Go, tell Peter.’ And therefore, never be out of conceit of God or Christ. We cannot be in a condition wherein, on any sound grounds, we may run from God. But if this be so, let us learn of God to be indulgent. If I were to speak to ministers, I should be large to advise them to preach the law and the gospel. The very law is preached in mercy. The Lord taketh a severe course, but it is to order us. All God’s severity is reducible to mercy and Christ; all his afflictions, humiliations, and abasements, do they come from unfatherly affection? No; but to draw us home to him. And therefore, never be terrible to any, but with a bowel of compassion, but with a mind that they may see themselves, and see the comforts they have in Christ. We ought to be of his affection, the great Pastor and Bishop of the church. And so for ordinary Christians; they should be indulgent one to another. Some are always cutting in ulcers; always wounding and tearing themselves with ill usage and misconstruction; keeping themselves from growing up in a better life, by observing the infirmities of them that be better than themselves. Oh, but ’go, tell my brethren’ that my Father owneth them for his children, which may be a use of marvellous comfort to us. Shall a child be always prowling for itself? We think there is neither father nor mother to take care for it: your heavenly Father knoweth what you need. We ought to labour for contentment in all conditions; for God is our Father. And for others, if God be our Father, let us look to others that be our brethren; own them, and carry ourselves to them as brethren. Let the strong carry themselves lowly to the weak. It is a sign of greatest strength to be most indulgent. Many account it great commendations on their part to be censorious and to be severe. Ay, but that is the greatest part of their weakness, if they have any goodness in them. For who was more indulgent to the disciples than Christ, who saw their weakness? He be re with all their infirmities. Where we see any goodness, let us bear with many weaknesses. We ought to be peaceable men: Beati sunt pacifici.* They that be appeased in their consciences, in sense of then own pardon, are ready to shew mercy to others. Busy, contentious, quarrelsome dispositions argue they never found comfort from God himself.

If God be a Father, and we are brethren, it is a levelling word; it bringeth mountains down and filleth up valleys. All are brethren, take them in what condition you will. If they be great in the world, brethren of high degree; yet ’brother’ levelleth them. If they be of low degree, yet it filleth them up, and raiseth them to the height in this brotherhood. And therefore, ’Go, tell my brethren;’ tell them all, for they be all equally brethren.

If I were to speak to persons of quality and great parts, as I am to speak to mean, let them be put in mind of their condition. Nothing should raise us up so high, as to forget the everlasting relation of brother. Infirmity should not so far prevail with us, as to forget that which the children of. God have to eternity. And for other persons more eminent, if he be a king, let him not so mind that, as to forget all other. For all relations determine in death, and must be laid in the dust; all must stand on equal ground before God’s bar, and they that have most to answer for, have the highest account of all, and therefore it is ground of humility to all. Let them that are in greatest eminency consider this. Paul, after conversion, could say, ’Henceforth, I know no man after the flesh,’ 2Co 5:16. There is a great deal of humanity in the world: compliment is very ordinary, which is the picture and outside of humanity; but Christian love, which is a degree above humanity, the apostle calleth it Φιλαδελφὶα, ’brotherly love,’ that is the scorn of the world. They will own a brother in office; but owning them in the sweet bonds of brotherhood, as they are the sons of God, here is heaven; make much of them in that kind, that is a strange thing in the world. But we must know what it meaneth, before we come to heaven. We must respect a Christian, be he what he will be, under all his infirmities, if he hath a good spirit in him, which God the Father seeth and Christ seeth. We must bear love to all saints. Some will make much of an eminent man, that hath excellent parts, because there may be some countenance from such persons; but here is sincerity that beareth love to all saints. He wraps them up all in the general term, ’Go, tell Peter,’ among the rest, that hath offended more than the rest.

If you will know whether you be true brethren or no, or sons of God or no, make a use of trial, by what is formerly delivered. I shall enlarge myself in that point, because all dependeth upon it. God is the Father of all by creation; he is the Father in a general covenant, of all that receive the sacrament and are baptized. But if they have no other relation to God but so, they may go to hell, as Judas and others did: therefore we must know whether we may claim this relation of Father on good grounds or no, else it is an usurpation.

1. Those that belong to God, the Spirit of God witnesseth to them that they are sons. They that are adopted have the Spirit of adoption in some degree. God sendeth his Spirit into their hearts, that assures them that they be God’s children. And howsoever this is the first, yet God giveth some intimation by his Spirit, that they look to God in another familiar manner than before; and he looks on them in a fatherly manner. So there be some intimations, and insinuations, and hints, though the Spirit of adoption witnesseth not fully and gloriously to the soul always, because we are not fitted for it; but sometimes in great afflictions and desertions. Where the Spirit of God is, there is communion with God in the Spirit of adoption. And when the voice of the Spirit of adoption speaks not loudly, yet there is a work of the Spirit. There is something to us renewed by the Spirit; there is something of the new creature. When a Christian cannot hear God say to his soul, ’I am thy salvation,’ yet a man may see a work of grace. There is a love to God, to the ordinances, to the people of God; a mourning, because he cannot mourn; a sighing, because he hath not an heart pliable. He is discordant with his condition when he is disconsolate. So that there is a work of the Spirit helpeth him in his worst condition.

Besides, there is a spirit of supplication in some measure. Though he cannot make set discourses to God, yet he can in a sweet manner lay open his sorrow and grief to God, and leave them in his bosom. They be broken words, perhaps, but God can pluck sense out of them. God knoweth the meaning of the sighing of his own Spirit, though broken speeches. So that where there is any tongue for God in a man, there is a spirit of prayer; there is not a strangeness of God to go altogether by, but the spirit hath a kind of acquaintance with God; and it goeth to God in a familiarity, and layeth forth grief, and putteth forth petitions, in another manner than the world doth.

Again, A Christian in the worst condition, God not only shineth on him through the cloud, but there is a spirit in him that sigheth to go through all thick clouds to God. There is a spirit of supplication and of love in some degree, for that is promised. ’The Spirit shall help our infirmities, when we know not how to pray,’ Rom 8:26. The intercourse and communion with God is never broken off where there is any Spirit of adoption. Therefore Jonas and David, and the rest, though they could not pray, yet they sighed to God, and would not leave him. If they could embrace Christ, they would not leave him. If they could not embrace Christ, they would touch the hem of his garment. They will not yield to the stream altogether, but strive against it. And though they be carried away with the strength of the stream, and see no goodness in themselves, yet they that be with them shall see a spirit striving to another condition than they are in. Something of Christ’s, something of God’s Spirit there will be in them. And take them at the worst, they will appear better than the civil man, that thinks himself a glorious man, though he hath nothing but for show and fashion. Who would be in such a man’s condition without some brokenness of heart, some sighs?

2. Likewise we may know it by our sympathy and antipathy—our sympathy with them that be good, and antipathy to that which is naught.* There is a love of that which is good. So things, good things, are connatural to a good man. There is a relish in good company and good things. As there is sweetness in the best things, so there is something in the children of God that is answerable to the God whom they serve. He is never so out of taste but he findeth his chief comfort in this thing, and he is never himself so much as when he is conversant in these things, though in different measure: sometimes more, and sometimes less. There is an inward antipathy to God in a proud carnal man that hath not his heart subdued by grace; there is a contrariety to the power of that grace which outwardly he professeth, and a sympathy with the world and the spirit of the world. Take a good Christian at the worst, he is better than another at the best. I beseech you, therefore, examine our dispositions; how we stand affected to things of an higher nature than the things of the world; to spiritual things, how we can relish spiritual things, God’s ordinances, and anything that is holy. Surely if there be the life of God and Christ in us, there will be a kind of connaturalness and suitableness of taste to the sweetness that is in holy things. To come to the next, mark the order here, ’Go to my Father, and your Father.’ We are the sons of God at the second hand. God is the Father of Christ first, and then ours. He is his God first, then our God. This is a weighty point for directing of our devotions, that we may know in what order to look on God. See God in Christ; see all things in Christ first, and then in us. Look upon him as Father to Christ, and then to us. Look on him as a God to Christ first, and in Christ a God to us. Look on him as having elected us, but elect in Christ first. See ourselves justified, but see Christ justified first from our sins, and his justification declared by his resurrection. See our resurrection and ascension, and glorification in heaven, not directly, but in Christ our head, who is in heaven, and taketh up place for us. See God loving us, but look on it in Christ, who is sedes amoris.* The next thing to God is his Son, and he loveth none but in him. When we consider of any spiritual blessing, say with the apostle, ’Blessed be God, that hath filled us with all spiritual blessings in Christ,’ Eph 1:3. Otherwise we do not know ourselves nor God. Whatsoever is derived from God to us is through Christ. All promises are his first. They are made to him, and to our nature in him, and they are performed for his sake. He taketh them from God the Father, and they be performed for his sake. He is the true Aaron. We are but the skirts. The oil that is poured upon his head runneth down to his skirts. It runneth to the meanest Christian; but the ointment of grace is first poured on his head. ’Of his grace we receive grace for grace, and of his fulness,’ John 1:10. The first fulness is God himself; the second receptacle of all is Christ, God-man; the third are we; we have it at the third hand. God emptieth himself into Christ, as mediator. In him are the fulness of all riches, the treasures of all wisdom and knowledge. We are completed in him, and in him we are full. His is not only a fulness of the vessel, as ours is, but a fulness of the fountain. And it is for our comfort that it is so, that God’s love is to Christ first. There is a firm foundation when God loveth us in his Son, and we are children in his natural Son, in whom we are adopted. Then our state is firm. Our first state in the first Adam was not firm, but now our nature is taken into the unity of the second person, it is firm. So that the love and care and fatherly disposition of God towards us, it is sweet to us, because it is tender to his Son. It is eternal to us, because it is eternal to him. He can as soon cease to love his Son, as cease to love us. For with the same love he loveth all Christ mystical, head and members. There is not the least finger of Christ, the least despised member of Christ, but God looketh on him with that sweet eternal tenderness with which he looketh upon his Son, preserving the prerogative of the head. Oh, this is a sweet comfort, that now all the excellent privileges of a Christian are set on Christ and then on us; and therefore we should not lose them, for Christ will lose nothing. When the favour of a prince is founded on his son whom he always loveth, the affection is unalterable on the son, and therefore the case is good. So God’s favour to us is founded on his love to his Son, and therefore unalterable and eternal. We should therefore look up to God in his Son; put up all our petitions to him in his Son; expect all from him in his Son. He is in heaven for us, to do that that belongeth to us. Expect all from God through Christ, and do all to God through Christ; love God in Christ, and Christ in God; ourselves in Christ, and ourselves in the love of God. Christ is in God, and God is in Christ. God and Christ are in us. There is a marvellous sweet relation and communion between God and us, and Christ and us. It is a sweet communion, and mysterious to us. How sweet is the communion between the soul and the body, the soul being so spiritual, and the body a piece of earth! But what is this to the mystery of mysteries, when God takes clay and dust into unity of his person; and all this is for this union. The great and glorious union of Christ to our natures is that he may take us into his mystical body, and so make us one with himself, and one with the Father. He took our natures that he might convey his fatherly goodness and love and Spirit to us. The sweet union of the two natures of Christ is to confirm union between the Father and us, and Christ and us. And we are never happy till we be assured that we are one with Christ, which is the issue of his excellent prayer, John 17. Our blessed Saviour fetcheth the comfort of our Father from this, that God is his Father first, and so to join both together; that God is our God, because he is his God first. It is a point very considerable, that whatsoever comfort we look for from God, and in God, we must see it in Christ first before we see it in ourselves, because we be but sons by adoption, and we have all we have from God through Christ. Whatsoever we see in Christ, think this will belong to us. And whatsoever we look should belong to us, see it first in him. As verily as he ascended, we shall ascend; as verily as he rose, we shall arise; as verily as he is at God’s right hand, we shall be there too; for by faith we sit now in heavenly places with Christ; and ’we shall judge the world, and be for ever with the Lord,’ 1Co 6:3. Whatsoever we see in Christ, interest ourselves in it. And therefore we must not conceive of Christ as a severe person, but conceive of ourselves in union and communion with Christ our head; and to conceive of Christ as our head and surety, and ’second Adam,’ and as a quickening spirit, that communicateth all to us. And therefore when we are to deal with God, be sure to go through Christ; as we expect all from God through Christ, so give all to God through Christ again. Be sure to take Benjamin with us when we go; and come clothed with the garments of our elder brother, and do not doubt when we come with Christ, for else we dishonour Christ. Shall I come in the sweet name and mediation of my Saviour, that hath perfected salvation, and not be accepted of God, when God hath ordained him for that purpose? If we stagger, and doubt to receive anything at God’s hand, we wrong not only God’s bounty, but Christ the mediator. Carry this therefore all along with us. Do all in him, and desire God to pardon all for his sate, and God will regard us.

Use. Let us therefore make use of it, and add this further, that if so be God is first the Father of Christ before he is our Father, and first the God of Christ before he is our God, and that all our good is dependent upon what God is to Christ first, then doth not this follow from hence, that we should not only thank God for ourselves, but thank God for whatsoever he hath done to Christ; not only comfort ourselves in it, but let God have the glory of it? And this the Spirit of God in the holy apostles Peter and Paul led them to. Eph 1:3, ’Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.’ What, and nothing but so? Nay, with a reduplication, ’Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,’ even because he is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; because out of his infinite depth of wisdom and goodness he hath found out a way to save us in Christ, to be a Father to him, and in him a Father to us. It is said of the Virgin Mary, ’All generations shall call her blessed,’ Luk 1:48. Why? Because she was the mother of the person that was God; she was the mother of Christ in human nature, and of God, because we may not sever the persons. And shall we bless the Virgin Mary, as mother of God, and not God as Father of Christ? If she be the mother of Christ-man, then God is the Father of whole Christ; and therefore blessed be God, not only that he is our Father and our God, but that he might be thus with satisfaction to divine justice, he hath found out such a way to be the Father of Christ; and Christ, as man, is an object of God’s love and predestination as well as we. We deserved nothing at God’s hands, but he found out such a way by taking the nature of man into unity of his second person, and so became a Father of Christ and of us. And therefore bless God, who hath predestinated Christ to be the Lamb of God, that hath freed him from sin, and set him at his right hand, raised him from the dead; that hath carried him into heaven, and ordained him to be Judge of quick and dead. Are these things severed from us? No. They be favours that be ours in Christ; his first, then ours. And therefore whensoever we think of anything Christ hath of his glory in heaven, as he is king of heaven and earth, and hath all power committed to him, glorify God for it, and think of it, This is mine; he is mine husband, my head; he hath taken up that glory, and whatsoever is in heaven, and enjoyeth them, he hath taken it up for me, and therefore we should bless God for it. So the apostle Peter: ’Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that hath begot us again to an inheritance immortal, undefiled, that fadeth not away, reserved in the heavens,’ 1Pe 1:3. He hath begot us to a lively hope, ’through the resurrection of Christ from the dead.’ So it is from the resurrection of Christ from the dead that Christ saith, ’God is my Father and your Father.’ Since God’s justice is satisfied by my resurrection; that is, declared to be satisfied; ’I ascend to my Father, and your Father; to my God, and your God.’ I beseech you, let us not lose the comfort of these things, since our Saviour Christ intended them for comfort.