A Body of Practical Divinity

Use 1. Above all things let us get this great Charter confirmed, that God is our God: Deity is not comfortable without Propriety: Tolle meum & tolle Deum. Aug. O let us labour to get sound Evidences, that God is our God: We cannot call Health, Liberty, Estate ours: O let us be able to call God ours, and say as the Church, Psal. 67.6. God, even our own God shall bless us. Let every Soul here labour to pronounce this Shibboleth, My God. And that we may endeavour after this to have God for our God: Consider 1. The Misery of such as have not God for their God; in how sad a Condition are they, when an hour of distress comes? This was Saul's Case, 1 Sam. 28.15. I am sore distressed; for the Philistines make war against me, and the Lord is departed from me. A wicked Man in time of Trouble, is like a Vessel tossed on the Sea without an Anchor, it falls on Rocks or Sands: A Sinner not having God to be his God, though he makes a shift while Health and Estate last; yet when these Crutches are broken he leaned upon, his Heart sinks. It is with a wicked Man, as it was with the Old World when the Flood came; the Waters at first came to the Valleys, but then the People would get to the Hills and Mountains: But then the Waters came to the Mountains: Then there might be some Trees on the high Hills, and they would climb up to them: I but then the Waters did rise up to the tops of the Trees: Now all hopes of being saved were gone, their Hearts failed them. So it is with a Man that hath not God to be his God: If one Comfort be taken away, he hath another: If he lose a Child, he hath an Estate: I but then the Waters rise higher, Death comes and takes away all; now he hath nothing to help himself with, no God to go to, he must needs dye despairing. 2. How great a Privilege it is to have God for our God, Psal. 144.15. Happy are the People whose God is the Lord. ⟨p. 254⟩Beatitudo hominis est Deus, Aug. That you may see the Privilege of this Charter,

Use 1. Above all things let us get this great Charter confirmed, that God is our God: Deity is not comfortable without Propriety: Tolle meum & tolle Deum. Aug. O let us labour to get sound Evidences, that God is our God: We cannot call Health, Liberty, Estate ours: O let us be able to call God ours, and say as the Church,