voL. xr. c
34 SERMONS UPON JOHN xvii. [Ser. XXXVL
ness ! God dwelleth in both ; in light, to show the excellency of his nature ; and in darkness, to show the weakness of our apprehension. The Son is begotten by the Father, yet is in the Father, and the Father in him ; the Spirit proceedeth from them both, and yet is in both ; all in each, and each in all. They were the more three because one, and the more one because three. Were there nothing to draw us to desire to be dissolved but this, it were enough : John xiv. 20, ' At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.' It is no small part of our portion in heaven. For the present, how much cause have we to bless God for the revelation of this mystery ! Let us adore it with a humble faith, rather than search into it by the bold inquiries of reason. It is enough for us to know that it is so, though we know not how it is. God were not infinitely great if he were not greater than our understanding.
2. Christ and God are one as mediator. There is a personal union of the two natures. The Father may be said to be in him, because the divine nature is in him ; he is Emmanuel. In Christ there are two natures, but one person. His blood could not be the blood of God if the human nature were not united to the second person of the Trinity. It is so united that the human nature is the instrument. As the hand is man's instrument, not separated from the communion of the body, as a pen or knife ; it is man's instrument, but yet a part of himself; so is Christ's human nature joined to his divine nature, and made use of as the great instrument in the work of redemption. So that the human nature is a temple ' in which the fulness of the Godhead dwelleth bodily,' Col. ii. 9. Now because of that union, the natures are in one another, and dwell in one another, as the soul dwelleth in the body, and the body is acted and enlivened by the soul. Hence the flesh of Christ is called the flesh of God, and the blood of Christ is called the blood of God : Acts xx. 28, ' Feed the Church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.' God was made man, but not man made God ; because God was a person of himself, that assumed flesh, and united it to himself. All his actions are the actions of God-man, and so have a merit and a value. The human nature is a passive instrument, but the divine nature giveth it a sub- sistence, necessary gifts, and honour. Besides all this, there is a union and consent of will in the work of redemption ; the Father's acts and Christ's acts are commensurable; God loveth Christ, and Christ obeyeth God.
Secondly, The resemblance between the mystical union and the unity of the persons in the divine nature. The Spirit is indissolubile trinitatis vinculum, as one saith, the eternal bond of the Trinity. So among believers, it is the Holy Ghost who joineth us to Christ. Christ, as one with the Father, liveth the same life that the Father doth; so do we, as one with Christ: John vi. 57, 'As the living Father hath Fent me, and I live by the Father ; so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.' It is a close union, beyond conception, but yet real ; ours is also close, hard to be understood : John xiv. 20, ' At that day ye shall know that I am in the Father, and you in me, and I in you.' There is the highest love wherewith the Father and the Son love one another. Believers have a room in Christ's
VeR. 21.] SERMONS UPON JOHN XVII. 35
heart, as Christ in the Father's bosom ; they love Christ again, that loved them first. The union is everlasting, for in the divine nature there can be no change ; Christ's mystical body cannot lose a joint. It is a holy union ; be one as we are one, holy as we are holy ; so must ours be with one another. An agreement in evil is like that of Herod and Pilate, who shook hands against Christ. In the divine persons there is order and distinction ; the unity of the Trinity doth not confound the order of the persons ; they are one, and still three, the Father, the Word, and the Spirit, from whom, in whom, and to whom are all things ; they keep their distinct personalities, and distinct personal operations. The unity of the church doth not confound the order of it ; there are diversity of gifts and ministrations, but one body. The persons of the Godhead mutually seek the glory of one another ; the election of the Father maketh way for the redemption of the Son ; and the redemption of the Son for the application of the Holy Spirit, and so upward : John xvi. 14, ' He shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you ;' and John xiv. 13, 'And whatsoever je shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son;' Phil. ii. 9, 'Wherefore God hath, highly exalted him, and given him a name above every name.' So in the spiritual union, Christ puts honour on the church, and the church honours Christ ; they throw their crowns at the Lamb's feet, and the members are careful of one another : 1 Cor. xii. 25, ' That there be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care one of another.' To endear us one to another, Christ did not only leave us the relation of brethren, but of fellow-members ; we are not only in the same family, but in the same body. Brothers that have issued from the same womb, and been nursed with the same milk, have defaced all the feelings of nature, and been divided in interests and affections ; Cain and Abel, Jacob and Esau, are sad pre- cedents ; but there is no such strife between members of the same body. Who would use one hand to cut off another ? or divide those parts which preserve the mutual correspondence and welfare of the whole ? At least, brothers have not such a care for one another ; each liveth for himself, a distinct life apart, and studieth his own profit and advantage ; but it is not so in the body, each member liveth in the whole, and the whole in all the members, and they all exercise their several functions for the common good.