An expository comment, doctrinal, controversial, and practical upon the whole first chapter to the…An expository comment, doctrinal, controversal, and practical upon the whole first chapter to the…

This being laid as a foundation, let us come to consider this as a ground of our ¹comfort. For you may say, Why is God to besa blessed by us? Because he is the Father of Jesus Christ. For what doth that appertain to us? Indeed to wicked and ungodly men, who perish in their sins, this makes no more for their comfort, then for apostate Angels, whose nature Christ took not upon him: But as for the godly, the true believer, this is the foundation of all their comfort. For

1. 1How Christs being the Son of God is the foundation of a Christians comfort.

First, In that he is the Father of Christ, by this means he cometh to be the Father in him. For seeing Christ is ours, then he who is the Father of Christ must be our Father also, as will appear in the second place. But the first consideration of comfort is, That Gods paternal relation to us, is grounded upon the Fathers relation to Christ; Christ merited at Gods hands, that he should be a reconciled Father with us; for without Christ, God is not the Father of mercies, but a dreadful and terrible Judge, He is a consuming fire, and we cannot with any confidence draw nigh to him, but through Christ; God assumeth a new relation to us, of a Judge he becometh a Father. So that we see, this is the fountain of all our comfort: Therefore is God a Father to us, because he is to Christ; and this is the reason, why the Apostle mentioneth (as you heard) this Title so often with Doxology, because without Christ, God is not a Father; We cannot expect a drop of mercy, or the least glimpse of favour from him.

First, In that he is the Father of Christ, by this means he cometh to be the Father in him. For seeing Christ is ours, then he who is the Father of Christ must be our Father also, as will appear in the second place. But the first consideration of comfort is, That Gods paternal relation to us, is grounded upon the Fathers relation to Christ; Christ merited at Gods hands, that he should be a reconciled Father with us; for without Christ, God is not the Father of mercies, but a dreadfull and terrible Judge, He is a consuming fire, and we cannot with any confidence draw nigh to him, but through Christ; God assumeth a new relation to us, of a Judge he becometh a Father. So that we see, this is the fountain of all our comfort: Therefore is God a Father to us, because he is to Christ; and this is the reason, why the Apostle mentioneth (as you heard) this Title so often with Doxologie, because without Christ, God is not a Father; We cannot expect a drop of mercy, or the least glimpse of favour from him.