4. Fourthly, There is a peculiar relation of God and Christ to the
4. Fourthly, There is a peculiar relation of God and Christ to the church; upon which account this doctrine must needs be true. God is set out in all relations to manifest his great care of his people. He is a Father to provide for them, Isa. 64:8; a mother to suckle them, Isa.
49:15. Christ is a husband to love and protect them, Eph. 5:29; a brother to counsel them, John 20:17. And when all these relations meet in one and the same person, the result of it must be very strong.
Any one relation where there is affection is a great security; but here all the relations are twisted together with the highest affections of them in God to the church. A father will order all for the good of his child, a mother for her infant, a husband for his wife, and one kind brother for another; so doth God for his people; and whatsoever those relations bind men to on earth, in respect of care, love, and faithfulness, that is God to his church. The church hath the relation to God which none in the world have besides. They are his jewels, therefore he will keep them; they are his children, therefore he will spare them, Mal. 3:17. They shall have protection from him as they are his jewels, and compassion from him as they are his sons. The church is Christ's flesh, as dear to him as our flesh is to us; as much his, as our flesh is ours: Eph. 5:29, 'No man hates his own flesh, but nourisheth it, as Christ doth his church.' No man can have a higher value for his own flesh than Christ hath for his church. The church, as Tertullian speaks, is nothing else but Christus explicatus;* and as considered in union with Christ, is called Christ, 1 Cor. 12:12. It is
'the apple of his eye,' Zech. 2:8, a tender and beloved part. The church is Christ's spouse; the contract is made, the espousals shall be at the last day. The members are picked out one by one to be presented to the Lamb at last as a glorious bride for him, Rev. 21:2.
And all God's dealings with them in the world are but preparations of them for that state. Upon the making of the match God promises a communion of goods: Hosea 2:20, 'I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness,' which is a fruit of marriage, the wife being invested in her husband's estate. When God hath given the blood of his Son for the church, he will not deny her the service of the creatures, but jointure her in that as one part of her dowry. 'In that day will I hear