Of the Commandments
(Exodus 20:1) I am the Lord, your God, etc.
To all such as can make out this covenant-union, it exhorts to several things.
1. If God be our God, let us improve our interest in him, cast all our burdens upon him; the burden of our fears, wants, sins (Psalm 55:22). Cast your burden upon the Lord. Wicked men who are a burden to God, have no right to cast their burden upon him; but such as have God for their God, are called upon to cast their burden on him. Where should the child ease all its cares, but in the bosom of its parent? (Judges 19:20) Let all your wants lie upon me. So God seems to say to his children, let all your wants lie upon me. Christian, what does trouble you? You have a God to pardon your sins, to supply your wants: therefore roll your burden on the Lord (1 Peter 5:7). Casting all your care on him. Why are Christians so disquieted in their minds? They are taking care, when they should be casting care.
2. If God be our God, let us learn to be contented, though we have the less of other things. Contentment is a rare jewel, it is the cure of care. If we have God to be our God; well may we be contented, I know whom I have believed (2 Timothy 1:12). There was Paul's interest in God (2 Corinthians 6:10). As having nothing, yet possessing all: there was his content. That such who have covenant-union with God may be filled with contentment of spirit, consider what a rich blessing God is to the soul.
1. God is Bonum Sufficiens, a sufficient good. He who has God has enough: if a man be thirsty, bring him to the ocean, and he is satisfied; in God there is enough to fill the heaven-born soul. He gives grace and glory (Psalm 84:11). There is in God not only a sufficiency, but a redundancy: he is not only full as a vessel, but as a spring. Other things can no more fill the soul, than a mariner's breath can fill the sails of a ship. But in God is a cornucopia, an infinite fullness. He has enough to fill the angels, therefore enough to fill us. The heart is a triangle, which only the Trinity can fill.
2. God is bonum Sanctificans, a sanctifying good. First, he sanctifies all our comforts, and turns them into blessings. Health is blessed, estate is blessed, he gives with the venison a blessing (Psalm 132:15). I will abundantly bless her provision. He gives us that life we have, [reconstructed: tanquam arrabon], as an earnest of more. He gives the little meal in the barrel, as an earnest of the royal feast in paradise. Secondly, he sanctifies all our crosses. They shall not be destructive [reconstructed: punishments] but medicines; they shall corrode and eat out the venom of sin, they shall polish and refine our grace. The more the diamond is cut, it sparkles the more. God's stretching the strings of his viol, is to make the music better.
3. God is [reconstructed: bonum selectum], choice good; all things sub sole, are but [reconstructed: bassi scabelli], as Augustine, the blessings of the footstool; but to have God himself to be ours, is the blessing of the throne. Abraham gave gifts to the sons of the [reconstructed: concubines], but he settled the [reconstructed: Genesis 25:5]. Abraham gave all that he had to Isaac. God may send away the men of the world with gifts, a little gold and silver, but in giving us himself, he gives us the very quintessence, his grace, his love, his kingdom. Here is the crowning blessing.
4. God is Bonum summum, the chief good. In the chief good, there must be first delectability, it must have something that is delicious and sweet: and where can we suck those pure quintessential comforts which ravish us with delight, but in God? In Deo quadam dulcedine delectatur anima, imo rapitur; at God's right hand are pleasures (Psalm 16:11). Secondly, in the chief good there must be transcendency, it must have a surpassing excellency. Thus God is infinitely better than all other things; it is below the deity to compare other things with it. Who would go to weigh a feather with a mountain of gold? God is Fons & Origo, the spring of all entities, and the cause is more noble than the effect. It is God that bespangles the creation, that puts light into the sun, that fills the veins of the earth with silver; other creatures do but maintain life, God gives life. God infinitely out-shines all sublunary glory; he is better than the soul, than angels, than heaven. Thirdly, in the chief good, there must be not only fullness but variety; where variety is wanting, we are apt to nauseate; to feed only on honey, would breed loathing; but in God is [illegible] all variety of fullness (Colossians 1:19). He is a universal good, commensurate to all our wants; he is Bonum in quo omnia Bona, a sun, a portion, a horn of salvation: he is called the God of all comfort (2 Corinthians 1:3). There is a complication of all beauties and delights in him; health has not the comfort of beauty, nor beauty of riches, nor riches of wisdom, but God is the God of all comfort. Fourthly, in the chief good there must be eternity. God is [illegible]: he is a treasure that can neither be drawn low, nor drawn dry. Though the angels are still spending on him, he can never be spent; he abides forever. Eternity is a flower of his crown. Now if God be our God, here is enough to let in full contentment into our souls. What though we want torchlight, if we have the sun? What if God deny us the flower, if he has given us the jewel? How should this rock a Christian's heart quiet? If we say God is our God, and we are not content, we have cause to question our interest in him.
3. If we can clear up this Covenant-Union, that God is our God, let this cheer and revive us in all conditions. To be content with God, is not enough, but to be cheerful; what greater cordial can you have, than union with Deity? When Jesus Christ was ready to ascend, he could not leave a richer consolation with his disciples than this, Tell them, I go to my God and their God (John 20:17). Who should rejoice, if not they, who have an infinite, all-sufficient eternal God to be their portion, who are as rich as Heaven can make them? What though I want health, I have God, who is the health of my countenance and my God (Psalm 42:11). What though I am low in the world, if I have not the earth, I have him that made it. The philosopher comforted himself with this, though he had no music or vine trees, yet [reconstructed: here are the household gods with me]. So though we have not the vine or fig tree, yet we have God with us. I cannot be poor (says Saint Bernard,) as long as God is rich; for his riches are mine. O let the saints rejoice in this Covenant-Union. To say God is ours, is more than to say Heaven is ours. Heaven would not be Heaven without God. All the stars cannot make day without the sun. All the angels, those morning stars, cannot make Heaven without Christ the Sun of Righteousness. And as to have God for our God, is matter of rejoicing in life; so especially it will be at our death. Let a Christian think thus, I am going to my God. A child is glad when he is going home to his Father. This was Christ's comfort when he was leaving the world (John 20:17). I go to my God. And this is a believer's death-bed cordial, I am going to my God; I shall change my place, but not my kindred, I go to my God and my Father.
4. If God be our God, then let us break forth into doxology and praise (Psalm 118:28). You are my God, and I will praise you. O infinite astonishing mercy, that God should take dust and ashes into so near a bond of love, as to be our God. As Micah said (Judges 18:24), What have I more? So what has God more? What richer jewel has he to bestow upon us than himself? What has he more? That God should put off most of the world with riches and honors, and that he should pass over himself to us by a deed of gift, to be our God, and by virtue of this, settle a kingdom upon us. O let us praise him with the best instrument, our heart, and let this instrument be screwed up to the highest peg: let us praise him with our whole heart. See how David rises by degrees (Psalm 32:11). Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, and shout for joy. Be glad, there is thankfulness, rejoice, there is cheerfulness, shout, there is triumph. Praise is called incense, because it is so sweet a sacrifice. Let the saints be choristers in God's praises; the deepest springs yield the sweetest water. The more deeply sensible we are of God's Covenant-Love to us, the sweeter praises we should yield. We should begin here to eternize God's name, and do that work on earth, which we shall be always doing in Heaven (Psalm 146:2). While I live will I praise the Lord.
5. Let us carry ourselves as those who have God to be our God; that is, when we walk so that others may see there is something of God in us. Live holily. What have we to do with sin? Is it not this, that if it does not break, yet will weaken the interest (Hosea 14:8)? What have I to do any more with idols? So should a Christian say, God is my God, what have I to do any more with sin, with lust, pride, malice? Bid me commit sin, as well bid me drink poison. Shall I forfeit my interest in God? Let me rather die than willingly offend him, who is the crown of my joy, the God of my salvation.
