but because there is a God that made it. Whence comes there to be a beginning of the creation? but because there Now this name of God di- was a Creator without beginning. rects us to right thoughts of him. laboured under a great disadvantage; they did not know this name of God; they knew as much of God as God thought fit to reveal of himself, and they knew as much of God as might be food to their faith; that God was a gracious God, and a God in covenant with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and the patriarchs; but this great name of God, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, they did not know. We find Jacob, when he is pleading and wrestling with the angel, What is thy name? saith he; as if the good man should have said, "I know thou art God, but what is thy name? how "shall I know thee again? what light wilt thou send forth, by which I may know thee more clearly and better?" Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name? saith the Lord; "it is secret; the time is not yet come for the revealing of "it; and thou must believe in the dark." The poor Jews, and the poor Gentiles and Heathens, they did not know God by this name, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and such are in a miserable case. But to bring this matter a little nearer; there are a great many Christians, (if you will call them so, and we must call them so, because they will call themselves so, and would take it ill to be called by another name) that yet do not know God by this name, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. All their thoughts, and all their exercises, are about God as in himself, about God as revealed in his word, about God as revealed in his works, and clothed with so many glorious attributes, that the word speaks of; a God of infinite power and infinite wisdom, and infinite justice and truth. But, sirs, we have not the right God for all this. It is true, these are some dark glances at the true God; for the true God is certainly infinite in power, wisdom, justice, and truth: Ay, but who is this God? It was well observed by a blessed servant of Jesus Christ now in heaven, that the greatest part of people take up their religion in the knowledge of what God is; but they do not mind who this God is; they are concerned about the nature of VOL. IV. I the true God, but they do not know the person of this true God, who this God is; it is only the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It was a great word of blessed Luther, though few have ears to hear it well, and to understand it well; "an absolute God," saith he, "is the idol of this "world." The grand idol of this world is an absolute God: a God not clothed with his grace and glory, shining in the face of Jesus Christ, is but an idol; a God that is not the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, is but a dream of pagans. Blessed be God for the discoveries, that the light of his word makes to us, that the name of the true God is, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2dly, This truth, this name of God, gives us great directions in our thoughts of Jesus Christ; all our thoughts of Jesus Christ must be determined and fixed by the Father's relation to him, and his relation to the Father. When the apostle John is writing his short letter to a godly lady, the elder, saith he, to the cleet lady; our precise Quakers, who will not give names of civil honour to persons of quality, should be ashamed in the reading that epistle, the elder to the elect lady: such was her quality in the world, and the apostle acknowledgeth it. The elder to the elect lady: grace unto you from God the Father, and from Jesus Christ the Son of the Father: "the Son of the Father;" remember that in all your thoughts of Jesus Christ, this must be continually in your mind, his relation to his Father. As we must not conceive of an absolute God, without his relation to Jesus Christ-for otherwise we cannot know him savingly-so we must not conceive of Jesus Christ without his relation to the Father; God the Father is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 3dly, This may direct us to the knowledge of the original spring of our salvation; this is the scope of the apostle in these words; Whence comes our salvation first? From the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. We do owe Jesus Christ himself, and all his great undertakings, and the eternal life that he hath brought in by that undertaking, we owe it all to the grace and love of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Athly, This name of God may instruct us about believing on Jesus Christ; I say, this may instruct us about faith in Jesus Christ. It is a strange thing, Sirs, that this matter of faith in Jesus Christ, for all that is spoken of it in the Bible, and for all that is daily spoken of it in the preaching of the word, yet still it remains a riddle to all unbelievers, and it "will do so to the end of the world; and there is no help for it. It is a vain thing for a minister to dream that he is able by words to make an unbeliever know what believing is; they may as well think to make a blind man, born so, know what seeing is. However, to speak a little of it from this name of God, that he is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ: What is believing? You have heard many times concerning faith; I will tell you one thing more concerning it, from my text: faith in Jesus Christ is a poor sinner's claiming kindred with God by Jesus Christ. The poor sinner hears in the gospel of one called Jesus Christ, who hath God for his God and Father; the poor sinner hath God neither for his God nor his Father; God is an enemy to him, a stranger to him, and against him; but he hears of this blessed one Jesus Christ, that hath God to he his God and Father, and he comes in and claims kindred with God by Jesus Christ; for all our kindred with God is by faith in Jesus Christ. The poor sinner saith in himself, "I am a stranger to God, and "God is an enemy to me: I cannot claim a relation to God by my first father Adam; his sin hath broken that relation, " and he thereby fell under the wrath and rebuke of God; but there is, a new man come into the world, Christ Jesus, "who hath God for his God and Father, and all that are in him have God for their God and Father too." Remember, Sirs, and know from this name of Jesus Christ, what the precise nature of faith is, faith in Jesus Christ, is a poor sinner's coming in for kindred with God, and kindness from him, by Jesus Christ. The great reason of all our confidence in resting upon Christ by faith, is, that this Lord Jesus, whom we believe in, is a mighty one with God; God is his God and Father: God was never a God and Father to any, but he becomes a God and Father to all that are in him. If we lay hold but on the skirts of this Jesus Christ, we are im mediately thereby made partakers of an interest in God as our God and Father. 7 5thly, This truth directs you about the worship of God. Wheresoever there is any notion of the being of God, there is immediately a conviction following of a debt of duty and worship to him; and according to the light that men have in the knowledge of God, such is the nature of that worship which they pay to him. When we come to know the true name of the true God, we come to know what is the true worship that we should pay to him. His name is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and all the worship that is paid unto him, not under this name, is mistaken and false worship. First, They that do not worship God under this name, they do not worship the true God. What! do not they worship the God that made the heavens and the earth? But this is not the true God for all that. I know indeed there is no idol that can make heaven and earth, and I know that all the attributes of God are proper to him only, and can be given to no idols; but they do not worship the true God for all this. This is life eternal, saith our Lord, to know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent, John xvii. 3. Unless men worship God as sending Christ, and worship him as in Christ Jesus, they do not worship the true God. We are in him that is true, saith the apostle, 1 John v. 20. : and this is the true God, and eternal life: little children, keep yourselves from idols, in the very next words: as if the apostle should have said, "All those gods are but idols, that are not "known and worshipped as God is revealed in the face of "Christ." 2dly, It is false worship, that is not paid to God under this name: for they who worship God out of Christ, do not worship him in the right place. The worship of God under the Old Testament, when all things went by types and shadows, was only to be in one place, whither all their worship was directed; to the temple, and to the mercy-seat especially for that was the holiest of all in that ministration. But there is no place now where God is to be worshipped but in Christ Jesus. My meaning is, that there is no place now, that will make our worship to be more acceptable in than another. We may now worship God every where, there is no difference in places; it is a piece of Popish superstition to dream that consecrated churches are better places for worship than others: halls, houses, fields, are all alike as to this. I will therefore, saith the apostle, that men pray EVERY WHERE, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting. "In every place, be where they will." But, if I may so say, there is one place that consecrates the worship, and if so be the worship is not performed there, it is stark naught; and that is the true tabernacle that God pitched, and not man, as the apostle's phrase is, Heb. viii. 2. namely, in the temple and tabernacle of our Lord Jesus Christ. Thither all our worshipping of God is to be directed and therefore a great many people's prayers will be cast back into their faces with abhorrence by God, on this very account: "You have prayed, "and worshipped me, and sought me; but your prayers "were not put up in the right place; you forgot the Lord "Jesus Christ, who is the only place to which all our wor ship to God is to be directed." 3dly, All such worship is naught, because it is not put up by a Mediator. You see in the text here, that the name of the Mediator is contained in the name of God; Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; the name of the Mediator, by which only you can prevail, is contained in the name of the God that you can only worship therefore, saith our Lord, to the poor woman of Samaria, Ye worship ye know not what; "You "do not know the Father, because you do not know the Son;" but we know what we worship; for salvation is of the Jews: "the Mediator is to come of them; and therefore all your "worshipping is but worshipping an unknown God." 6thly, and lastly, This name, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, may be of great use to us in directing our walk and conversation, and behaviour towards God. Is God the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ? then this may tell us how to guide all the providences of God towards us; write but this name upon all providences, and how easy and sweet will they be? these are the doings of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ: so are all your mercies; all your mercies come from the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, saith the apostle, Eph. i. 3. who hath blessed us with |
