planted, but also implanted grace excited, grace in act : for a man may have the habits of faith, love, and delight in him ; and yet be without actual communion with God ; for by this grace is awakened and put into act. A believer when he is asleep, and acts no grace, is in a state of communion with God ; but if he will have actual communion, his faith, love, and delight must be awakened ; they must not lie asleep in the habit. " Thou saidst. Seek ye my face ; my '' heart said unto thee. Thy face Lord will I seek," Psal. xxvii. 8. It was in order to actual communion with Christ that the church so earnestly begs fresh influences of the Spirit to excite her graces into act, Cant. iv. 16. " Awake, O north wind, and come thou south, '' blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Let '' mv beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits.'*' And though believers are not so to wait for the influences of the Spirit, as in the mean time to neglect all proper outward means of exciting their own graces, engaging their hearts to approach unto God, Jer. xxx. 21. yet certainly it is the work of God's Spirit, and without him we can do nothing to any purpose. The seamen may trim the sails, weigh the anchor, put all into a sailing posture ; but till a gale come from heaven there is little or no motion. The same Spirit that plants the habits, is he also that excites the acts of grace. These three things therefore are pre-requisites unto all communion with God.
2. Next let us consider wherein this heavenly privilege of com- munion with God doth consist; and more generally it will be found to lie in a spiritual correspondency betwixt Christ and the soul. God lets forth influences upon our souls, and we, by the assistance of his Spirit, make returns again unto God. Commu- nion is a mutual action ; so in the text, " I will sup w ith him, and *' he with me." We cry to God, and God answers that cry by the incomes of spiritual grace upon the soul; Psal. cxxxviii. 3. " In the day that I cried, thou answeredst me, and strengthenedst *' me with strength in my soul." More particularly, tliere are many ways and methods wherein men have this spiritual corres- pondence or communion with God, viz.
1. In the contemplation of his attributes.
2. In the exercises of our graces in rehgious duties.
3. In liis various providences. In all these the saints have communion with him.
1. There Is a sweet and sensible communion betwixt God and his people, in the contemplation of the Divine attributes^ and the impressior.s God makes by them upon our souls, whilst we meditate orf them. As for instance,
(1.) Sometimes the Lord discovers and manifests to the souls of his people his immense greatness ; the manifestation of which attri-
bute makes an awful, humbling impression upon the soul, make;} them seem as nothing to themselves. Thus when Abraham, that great believer considered the greatness of that God with whom lie had to do ; that siglit of God seems to reduce him to his first principles, to crumble him, as it were, into dust and ashes again, Gen. xviii. 27. " I that am but dust and ashes have tal^en upf>n me *' to speak unto God."" He now looks upon himself as a heap of vileness and unworthiness ; so David, Psal. viii. 12. ''When I *' consider the heavens, the work of thy hands, the moon and " the stars which thou hast made,"" (from hence he inferred the greatness of the Creator) " Lord, what is man that thou art mind- ful of him ?^ q. d. When I consider what a great God the Creator of the world is, I am justly astonished that ever he should set his heart upon so vile a thing as man. When men compare themselves among themselves, and measure themselves by themselves, their spirits are apt to swell with pride ; but would they look up to God, as these holy men did, they would admire his condescension. And this is communion with God in the meditation of his immense greatness.
(2.) The representation and meditations of the puritt/ and holi- ness of God, working shame and deep abasement in the soul, for the pollutions and sinful filthiness that are in it. This is commu- nion with God, and an excellent way of fellowship with him. Thus, when a representation of God, in his holiness, was made unto the propliet, Isa. vi. 3, 4, 5. there were the seraphims, cover- ing their faces with their wings, and crying one to another, saying, " Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts ; the whole earth is full of " his glory." The effect this produced, or the return made by the prophet to this manifestation of God in his holiness, was a deep abasement of soul for his unsuitableness to so holy a God ; ver. 5. " Then said I, woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of " unclean lips," &c. And this is real communion with God in his holiness. Thus Job who had stiffly defended his own integrity against men, yet when God enters the lists with him, and he saw what a great and holy God he had to do with, cried out, Job xL 4, 5. " Behold, I am vile, what shall I answer thee ? I will lay my " hand upon my mouth. Once have I spoken, but I will not an- " swer ; yea, twice, but I will proceed no farther." q. d. I have done. Lord, I have done ; I could answer men, but I cannot answer thee : Thou art holy, but I am vile.
2. There are sometimes representations of the goodness and mercy of God ^ made unto the souls of his people ; when these produce an ingenuous thaw and melting of the heart, into an humble, thank- ful admiration of it, and an answerable care of pleasing him in the ways of obedience, then have men communion with God in his
04:2 EXt;LAXD's DUTY.