64 SERMONS UPON JOHN XVII. [SeR. XXXIX.
in him : it is proclaimed from heaven, that we might not be afraid to go to God.
2. If you expect anything from him, you must expect it in Christ. Christ is not only the meritorious cause, but the means. All we look for is not only from him, but in him. As God first loveth Christ, then loveth us ; he is the primum amabile, the first beloved of all ; so he is first in Christ, and then in us ; he is primum recipiens, the first object of blessing and grace : 1 Cor. iii. 22, 23, ' All are yours, for you are Christ's, and Christ is God's.' We have it at second-hand, Christ Cometh between God and us, to convey the influences and bounty of heaven to us. Therefore it is said : 2 Cor. i. 20, ' All the promises of God in him are Yea, and in him Amen.' God doth whatever we desire him, in him. God doth not bless us as persons distinct from Christ, but as members of his body. There is as much need of the union of our persons to the person of Christ, as there was of the union of the haman nature to the divine nature. Christ must be in us, as well as God in Christ ; we must be Christ's as well as Christ is God's. The mediator hath an interest in God, and you must have an interest in the mediator. Look, as by the personal union, Christ merited all for us ; so, by the union of persons, he conveyeth all to us. Christ could not suffer till he had united our flesh to his godhead ; and we cannot receive the virtue of his sufferings till he unites our person to his person.
Secondly, Observe, Christ is in us, as God is in Christ. The two unions are often compared in this chapter ; and here it is said, ' I in them, and thou in me.' How is God in Christ ? By unity of essence, and by constant influence ; and so is Christ in us. (1.) God is in Christ by unity of essence, or co-essential existency ; Christ and He communicates in the same nature : ' The fulness of the godhead dwelt in him bodily,' Col. ii. 9. Now there is something which answereth to this in the mystical union ; there is a communion of spirit between us and Christ, though not the same nature. The same Spirit dwelleth in Christ awfiaTLKm, bodily, that is, essentially ; in us irvevfiaTLKM';, spiritually ; we partake of the divine nature in some gifts and qualities. (2.) By constant influence. God is in Christ by a communication of life, virtue, and operation.
1. The Father is the perpetual beginning, foundation, and root of life to Christ as mediator : John vi. 57, ' As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father ; so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.' So is Christ to us : Gal. ii. 20, ' Nevertheless I live ; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me : an(i the life that I live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.'
2. The divine essence sustained the person of Christ as mediator. The humanity could not subsist of itself, but by constant influence from the godhead : Isa. xlii. 1, ' Behold my servant, whom I uphold.' Christ had constant sustentation from the Father ; he upheld him, and carried him through the work. So are we ' preserved in Jesus Christ,' Jude 1. We have not only the beginning and principle of life from Christ, but constant support. We can no more keep ourselves than make our- selves ; all things depend upon their first cause.
VeR. 23.] SERMONS UPON JOHN XVII. 65
3. The Father concurreth to all the operations and actions of Christ, and so the Father is in Christ as he worketh in him : John xiv. 10, ' Behevest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me ? The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself ; but the Father, that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.' The divine power was in- terested in Christ's works as mediator, especially in the miracles that he wrought to confirm the truth of his person. So is Christ in believers, as he worketh in them all their works for them : John xv. 5, ' I am the vine, ye ar^ the branches : he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit ; for without me ye can do notliing.' He doth not say, nihil magnum, no great thing ; but, nihil, nothing at all. Thinking is the most sudden and transient act ; sure the new nature tliere may get the start of corruption. But, 2 Cor. iii. 5, ' Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God.' Actions are more deliberate, there is more scope for the interposition of corrupt nature ; but of ourselves we cannot think a good thought.