What use shall we make of this ?
Use 1. If Christ be in us, as God was in Christ, let us manifest it as Christ did. Christ manifested the Father to be in him by his works : John X. 37, 38, ' If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not ; but if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works, that ye may know and believe that tlie Father is in me, and I in him.' Works and miracles exceeding the power and force of nature showed that Christ was a divine person ; sure the Father is in him, or else he could not do these works. So St James puts hypocrites upon the trial, ' Show me thy faith by thy works,' James ii. 18. Do we do any worlvs exceeding the power of corrupt nature ? That would be a proof of Christ's work- ing in you. When Jacob counterfeited Esau, Isaac felt his hands. So what are your works ? If you walk as men, do no more than an ordinary man, that hath not the Spirit of God, where is the proof of Christ's working in you ? Many boast of Christ in them ; if Christ were in them, he would be there, as the Father was in Christ ; they would bewray it by their operations. You may know what is within by what cometh out ; if Christ be within thee, there will come out prayer, sighs, and groans for heaven, fruitful discourses, heavenly walk- ing, a mortified conversation ; all this cometh out, because Christ is within. But now, when ye belch out filthy discourses, rotten com- munication, there is nothing cometh out but vanity and sin, how dwelleth Christ in you ? are these the fruits of his presence ?
Use 2. Learn dependence upon Christ, All the power we have to work is from Christ. Whence hath the body the vigour it hath to work, and to move from place to place, but from the soul ? And whence hath a christian his power but from Christ ? We derive all our strength from Christ. We are as glasses without a bottom ; they cannot stand of themselves, but they are broken in pieces. Christ can do all things without us, but we can do nothing without him, as the soul can subsist apart from the body ; Christ hath no need of us, but we cannot live and act without him. Sine te nihil, in te toium possumus Phil. iv. 13, ' 1 can do all things tluough Christ, which strengtheneth' me.' The apostle doth not speak it to boast of his power, but to pro-
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G6 SERMONS UPON JOHN XVII. [SeR. XXXIX.
fess his dependence. It was never seen that a father woiild cast away the child that hangeth on him.
Thirdly, I shall now speak of Christ's being in believers apart, that I may a little enforce this argument. How is Christ in believers ? We must not go too high, nor too low. It is not to be understood essentially, so he is everywhere, and cannot be more peculiarly in one than in another : ' Wlrither shall I go from thy Spirit ? or whither shall I flee from thy presence ? ' Ps. cxxxix. 7. He is here, and there, and everywhere, in heaven, in earth, in hell. Personally he is not in us ; that cannot be without a personal union ; if the Spirit were per- sonally in us, that would make us to become one person with the Holy Ghost, as the divine and human nature make but one person ; but mystically, with respect to some peculiar operations which he worketh in us, and not in others. Christ is in us as the head is in the members, by influence of life and motion ; not such influence as tendeth to life natural — so natural men live in him, move in him, and have their being in him; there is a union of dependence between God and all his creatures ; — but influence with respect to life spiritual. In short, Christ is not only in us as in a temple or house — that is one way of his being in us, therefore he is said ' to dwell in our hearts by faith,' Eph. iii. 17, — but he is in us as the head in the members, and as the vine in the branches, John xv. 1, where there is not only a presence, but an influence. Once more, he is not only in us in a moral way, in aff'ec- tions ; his heart is with us, and our heart is with him, and his love and his joy is in and towards us : Prov. viii. 31, ' Eejoicing always in the habitable parts of the earth, and my delights were with the sons of men ; ' but he is in us in a mystical and gracious way : John xvii. 26, ' That the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.' He is in us as the soul is in the body, to give us life, sense, vigour, and operation.
Use 1. To press us to labour after an interest in this privilege, that Christ may be in us. It is the saddest mark if Christ be not in us : 1 Cor. xiii. 5, ' Know ye not that Christ is in you, except ye be repro- bates ? ' reprobates disallowed of God.