Chapter 2: The Arguments Proving the Proposition

There are two reasons which will serve to illustrate and confirm the proposition: all things are a believer's.

1. Because the Covenant of Grace is his. The covenant is our great charter, by virtue of which God settles all things in heaven and earth upon us. By sin we had forfeited all, therefore if all things be ours, the title comes in by a covenant; till then we had nothing to hold by. This covenant is the issue and birth of God's love — it is the legacy of free grace. This covenant is enriched with mercy, it is embroidered with promises: you may read the charter, I will be their God. And there is a parallel to it, I am God, even your God: this is a sufficient dowry. If God be ours then all things are ours.

He is, 1. Eminently good. One diamond does virtually contain many lesser pearls: the excellencies in the creature are single, and want their adjuncts. Learning has not always parentage: honor has not always virtue. No individual can be the receptacle and continent of all perfections: but those excellencies that lie scattered in the creature, are all united and concentrated in God, as the beams in the sun, the drops in the ocean.

2. He is superlatively good. Whatever is in the creature, is to be found in God after a more transcendent manner. A man may be said to be wise, but God is infinitely so; powerful, but God is eternally so; faithful, but God is unchangeably so. Now in the Covenant of Grace, God passes himself over to us to be our God; I am God, even your God.

This expression, I am your God, imports three things: 1. Pacification. You shall find grace in my sight, I will cast a favorable aspect upon you, I will put off my armor, I will take down my standard, I will be no more an enemy. 2. Donation. God makes himself over to us by a deed of gift, and gives away himself to us: he says to the believer, as the king of Israel said to the king of Syria (1 Kings 20:4), I am yours, and all that I have: this is alvearium divini mellis, a hive full of divine comfort: all that is in God is ours: his wisdom is ours, to teach us; his love is ours, to pity us; his Spirit is ours, to comfort us; his mercy is ours, to save us. When God says to the soul, I am yours, it is enough, he cannot say more. 3. Duration. I will be a God to you, as long as I am a God.

2. Reason: all things are a believer's, because Christ is his. Jesus Christ is [illegible], the pillar and hinge upon which the Covenant of Grace turns. Without Christ, we had nothing to do with a covenant. The covenant is founded upon Christ, and is sealed in his blood. We read of the mercy seat, which was a divine hieroglyph, typifying Jesus Christ (Exodus 25:17). There will I meet you, and I will commune with you from above the mercy seat, verse 22. To show that in Christ God is propitious. From above this mercy seat he communes with us, and enters into covenant. Therefore it is observable, when the Apostle had said, All things are yours, he presently adds, You are Christ's. There comes in the title, we hold all in capite. This golden chain, things present, and things to come, is linked to us, by virtue of our being linked to Christ. By faith we have an interest in Christ; having an interest in Christ, we have an interest in God; having an interest in God, we have a title to all things.