4. Communion and fruition maketh way for familiarity, for real inter- courses of love between Christ and the soul. He dwelleth and walketh with us, and we with him ; he directeth, counselleth, and quickeneth us, and we live in a holy subjection and obedience to the motions and inspirations of liis grace : Ps. xxvii. 8, ' Thou saidst. Seek ye my face : my heart said, Thy face. Lord, will I seek.' He speaketh to believers by the excitations of his grace, and the infusion of spiritual comforts ; and they to him in holy thoughts, prayers, and addresses unto his majesty. There is a constant interchange of donatives and duties, graces and services, prayers and blessings. More especially this .familiarity and converse is either in solemn ordinances and duties of religion, or in a constant course of holiness. First, In solemn duties of religion. Prayer is called an access to God, Eph. iii. 12 ; a spiritual acquaintance with him. Job xxii. 21. By constant commerce men settle into an acquaintance with one another. Secondl}'', In a constant course of holiness : 1 John i. 7, ' If we walk in the light as he is in the light, then have we fellowship one with another.' Conformity is the ground of communion. When we love what God loveth, and hate what he hateth, then he is with us, maintaining, directing, sup- porting us in all our ways ; and we are with him, fearing, loving, pleasing, and serving him, and glorifying his name.
II. This union and communion is not only as it is begun, but con- tinued. All union must have some bonds and ties by which it is effected ; so this mystical spiritual union. The primary bands are those which begin the union, the secondary bands are those which continue it. The primary bands are the Spirit and faith, the secondary are the constant inhabitation and influence of the same Spirit with faith and other graces.
VeR. 6.] SERMONS UPON 1 JOHN 111. 27
1. Primary. God maketh his first entry into us by his Spirit, for it is the Spirit wliich planteth us into the mystical body of Clu'ist : 1 Cor. xii. 13, ' For by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body.' For by the quickening virtue of this Spirit is faith wrought in us, and then the soul embraceth and receiveth Christ, and the nuptial knot is tied. Christ, as the most worthy, and as having the quickening and life- making power, beginneth with and taketh hold of us, that we may take hold of him : Phil. iii. 12, ' That I may apprehend that for which I am apprehended of Christ.' The Spirit is the bond on Christ's part, and faith the principal bond on ours. And if you ask me what act it is ? I answer — A broken-hearted and tliankful acceptance of Christ, as God offereth him to us ; that is the closing act on our part ; then Christ and we join hands, when we resolve to cleave to him, and receive him as our Lord and Saviour, John i. 12.
2. For the continuance of this union, or our abiding in him, the Spirit is still necessary: 1 John iv. 13, 'Hereby we know that God dwelleth in us, and we dwell in God, by the Spirit that he hath given us.' So is faith : Eph. iii. 17, ' That he may dwell in your hearts by faith.' Faith is the means whereby Christ dwelleth in us by the Spirit, and it is also the means of our dwelling in him, and our adherence to him, and dependence upon him. We do not use Christ at a pinch, or as a pen to write with, and lay it down when we have done, but as the branches use the vine, and the members the head which they live by, and from which when they are separated, they dry and wither. The heart must be habituated to a constant dependence on Christ. Well, then, the communion between Christ and his members is mutual, they being in him by faith and a steady dependence, and he in them by his Spirit as the root of their spiritual being ; but then all other graces concur, and have their use and influence, as chiefly love, wliich causeth a delightful adhesion to him : Deut. x. 20, ' Thou shalt serve the Lord thy God, and to him shalt thou cleave.' We cleave to him by love, as we live in him by faith. As Jonathan's soul clave to David, or was knit to the soul of David, 1 Sam. xviii. 3, or Jacob's life was said to be bound up with the lad's life, because of his tender love to him. Gen. xliv. 30, so a believer's soul cleaveth to Christ; love cannot endure a separation : Rom. viii. 35, ' What shall separate us from the love of Christ? sliall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword ? ' When we will not suffer ourselves, either by the allurements or terrors of the world, or solicitations of the flesh, or temptations of the devil, to be withdrawn from the profession of his name, or zeal for his truth, or the observance of his precepts, then are we said to abide in him. Well, then, love is necessary, only there is a difference between faith and love. Faith is the primary bond, and love the secondary ; for the union is begun by faith, but continued by love. The first thing that tieth the nuptial knot is faith, or choosing and receiving Christ, and that which continueth it is con- jugal loyalty and fidelity, or cleaving to Christ by love. Once more, the moral union of hearts is by love, the mystical by faith. Christ must dwell in us as the head and fountain of om- life, but by love we embrace him as our friend whom we most dearly love and esteem. Lastly, by faith he dwelleth in us effectively, by his influence maintaining