2. His work. Have you the work of the Spirit ? What is that ? The work of the Spirit is to sanctify and cleanse : Eph. v. 25, 26, ' Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it.' It is the greatest sign of God's anger and wrath that can be to live and die under the power of sin, not to be sanctified, not to be cleansed, not to be washed from sin. And therefore are you sanctified, cleansed, and washed ? Eev. i. 5, ' To him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his blood.' Is there any care of obedience stirred up in your hearts ? The Spirit will cause us to grow in obedience : John xiv. 23, ' If a man love me, he will keep my words, and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.'
3. There is one thing more in the expression, ' that the love where- with thou hast loved me may be in them,' and that is. If God love thee, thou canst not but love him again : 1 John iv. 16, ' For we have known, and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.' If thou lovfist God, his people, his ordinances, and delightest in communion with him, his love is in thee. These are the fruits and effects of it.
Use 3. To press us to labour after the sense of his love. We should go to heaven as comfortably and as richly as we can ; not only creep thither, but labour after ' an abundant entrance,' 2 Peter i. 12. Though it is not always our sin to want it, yet it is our duty to strive after this sense of God's love in us. The sense of God's love, it is the flame of faith : Gal. ii, 20, ' I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me ; and the life which I live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.' It is the ground of our love to him again : 1 John iv. 19, ' We lov^e him, because he first loved us.' The more full and direct the beams are cast upon any solid body, the stronger the reflection. It is the life of joy which enlargeth our hearts in thankfulness. It is our stay in afflictions, and our strength in duties, especially in prayer. How can we call God Father, unless in custom and hypocrisy, except we have some sense of our adoption ? Therefore labour after the sense of his love, that it may be in you.
SEKMON XLV.
And I have declared unto them thy name, and luill declare it ; that the love ivherewith thou hast loved me may be in tltem, and I in them. — John XVII. 26.
'And I in them.' This is the next aim of Christ, the mystical union. This is fitly coupled with the former privilege. God's love is the fountain of all mercy, and mystical union is the means of conveyance. The Father's love and the Son's inhabitation are elsewhere conjoined:
142 SERMONS UPON JOHN XVII. [SeR. XLV.
John xiv. 23, ' My Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.' God's love cannot be in us unless Christ be in us, nor Christ be in us without the Father's love. God loveth the elect freely in Jesus Christ, and therefore giveth us his Spirit to work faith in our hearts, that Christ may dwell there, and be one with us, and we with him : love is the rise of all. And again, without the perpetual residence of Christ in the heart, we cannot have a sense of God's love. Again, from this conjunction we may learn the presence of the whole Trinity in the heart of a believer, as in a conse- crated temple. The love of the Father it is in us, by the Holy Ghost given to us : Rom. v. 5, ' The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us.' Now we have not only the Holy Ghost to assure us of the love of God, but we have Christ as the head and fountain of vital influence. Once more, ' I in them.' Christ doth not only communicate gifts of grace to us, but himself.
Observe that the gospel is made known to us to this intent, that Christ may be in us ; or, this is one great privilege of the gospel, that Christ may be in us by a perpetual residence, as a principle and fountain of the spiritual life.
First, What is meant by Christ's being in us ? How can one man be in another ? I shall answer —
First, Negatively ; how it is not to be understood, that we may remove all false, gross, and unworthy thoughts.
1. It is not contiguity that we speak of, but union. Two pieces of wood lying together are not united. Christ is in heaven, we on earth ; there is no contiguity, and if there were, it would not cause a union. There is indeed a union of contact, as when two hands are joined to- gether, which may resemble this union ; for there is a mutual or reciprocal apprehension ; Christ apprehendeth us, and we him : Phil, iii. 12, * If that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.' He taketh hold of us by his Spirit, and we take hold of him by faith. But of this by and by.