[2.] In your care not to dishonour your head : 1 Cor. vi. 15, ' Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ ? Shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot ? God forbid ! '
[3.] By your delight and complacency. You should make more of the person of Christ: Cant. i. 13, ' A bundle of myrrh is my beloved unto me ; he shall lie all night between my breasts.' Keep Christ close to the heart, delight in his company, and in frequent thoughts of him. This should be the holy solace of the soul.
[4.] By your aims to glorify him. The Father studieth the honour of Christ, so doth the Spirit. Thou art his, and all thine is his. Christ hath a title to thy wit, wealth, estate, strength, to all thou hast or canst do in the world. Dost thou spend thy estate as if it were not thine, but Christ's ? use thy parts as if they were not thine, but Christ's ? Use thy parts as Christ's.
2. To your fellow-members. Walk as those that are one, as Christ and the Father are one, seeking one another's welfare, rejoicing in one another's graces and gifts, as if they were our own ; contributing counsel, assistance, sympathy, prayers for the common good, as if thy own case were in hazard ; living as if we had but one interest. This is somewhat like the Trinity.
Use 2. Let it put us upon thanksgiving. No other union with us would content Christ but such as carrieth some resemblance with the Trinity, the highest union that can be. In love to our friends we wear their pictures about our necks ; Christ assumed our nature, espouseth our persons ; how should we be ravished with the thought of the honour done us ! We were separated by the fall, and became base creatures ; yet we are not only restored to favour, but united to him.
Thirdly, The ground of this union, ' Cue with us.' By the mystical union we are united to the whole Trinity. Our communion with the Father is s[)oken of, 1 John i. 3, ' That ye also may have fellowship with us, and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.' Communion with the Son : 1 Cor. i. 9, ' God is faith- ful, by whom we are called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.' And communion with the Spirit : 2 Cor. xiii. 14, ' The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the com-
38 SERMONS UPON JOHN XVII. [SeK. XXXVI.
munion of the Holy Ghost be with you all. Amen.' To distinguish them accurately is very hard, only thus in general. We must have com- munion with all or none. There is no coming to the Father but by the Son : John xiv. 6, ' I am the way, the truth, and the life ; no man Cometh to the Father, but by me.' None can come to the Son but by the Father : John vi. 44, ' No man can come to me, except the Father, which hath sent me, draw him.' And none can come to both but by the Spirit. Unity is his personal operation : Eph. iv. 3, ' Endeavour- ing to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.' The Father hath a hand in it, Christ hath a hand, the Spirit hath a hand.
Well, then, let us bless God that we have such a complete object for our faith as Father, Son, and Spirit. The Father bestoweth Christ ou us, and us on Christ, as marriages are made in heaven. The meri- torious cause of this union is Christ the mediator, by his obedience, satisfaction, and merit ; otherwise the Father would not look upon us ; and the Spirit is sent from the Father and the Son to bring us to tlie Father by the Son. The Spirit worketh this union, continueth it, and manifests it. All the graces of God are conveyed to us by the Spirit ; the Spirit teacheth, comforteth, sealeth, sanctifieth ; all is by the Holy Ghost. And so are all our acts of communion ; we pray by the Spirit ; if we love God, obey God, believe in God, it is by the Spirit, that worketh faith, love, and obedience. We can want nothing that have Father, Son, and Spirit ; whether we tliink of the Father in heaven, the Son on_ the cross, or feel the Spirit in our hearts. Election is of the Father, merit by the Son, actual grace from the Holy Ghost : 1 Peter i. 2, ' Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience, and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.' Our salvation standeth on a sure bottom ; the beginning is from God the Father, the dispensation through the Son, the application by the Spirit. It is free in the Father, sure in the Son, ours in the Spirit. We cannot be thankful enough for this privilege.
Fourthly, The end and issue, ' That the world may believe that thou hast sent me.' By the luorld is not meant the unconverted elect, for Christ had comprehended all the elect in these words, ' Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe in me through their word,' ver. 20. The matter of his prayer is, ' That they may be one,' &c. ; and the reason, * That the world may believe that thou hast sent me.' So that by the world is meant the reprobate lost world, who shall continue in final obstinacy. , By believing is meant not true saving faith, but common conviction, that they may be gained to some kind of faith, a temporary faith, or some general profession of religion ; as John ii. 23, 24, ' Many believed in his name, when they saw the miracles which he did ; but Jesus would not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men ; ' and John xii. 42, 43, ' Nevertheless among the chief rulers also many believed on him, but because of the pharisees, they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue : for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.' There believing is taken for being convinced of the truth of his religion, which he had established, though they had no mind to pro- fess it ; or if so, yet they did not come under the full power of it.