First, I sa}', the union, viz., the union of persons, which is before aU comfort and communion of graces, ' I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine.' Christ's person is ours, and our persons are his. For, as it is in marriage, if the person of the husband be not the wife's, his goods are not hers, nor his titles of honour ; for these come all to her, because his per- son is hers : he having passed over the right of his own body and of his person to his wife, as she hath passed over all the right of herself to her husband. So it is in this mystical marriage. That that entitles us to communion of graces is union of persons between Christ and his church. * I am my beloved's, and my beloved himself is mine.' And indeed nothing else will content a Christian's heart. He would not care so much for heaven itself, if he had not Christ there. The sacrament, word, and comforts, why doth he esteem them ? As they come from Christ, and as they lead to Christ. It is but an adulterous and base afiection to love any- thing severed from Christ.
Now, from this union of persons comes a communion of all other things whatsoever. ' I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine.' If Christ himself be mine, then all is mine (w). What he hath done, what he hath sufiered, is mine ; the benefit of all is mine. What he hath is mine. His prerogatives and privileges to be the Son of God, and heir of heaven,
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and the like, all is mine. Why ? Himself is mine. Union is the founda- tion of communion. So it is here with the church, * I am my beloved's.' My person is his, my hfe is his, to glorify him, and to lay it down when he will. My goods are his, my reputation his. I am content to sacrifice aU for him. I am his, all mine is his. So you see there is union and communion mutually, between Chiist and his church. The original and spring hereof is Christ's uniting and communicating himself to his church first. The spring begins to* the stream. What hath the stream or cistern in it, but what is had from the spring ? First we love him, because he loved us fii'st, 1 John iv. 19. It was a true speech of Augustine, Quicquid botiurn, &c. : whatsoever is good in the world or lovely, it is either God or from God ; it is either Christ or from Christ. He begins it. It is said in nature, love descends. The father and the mother love the child before the child can love them. Love, indeed, is of a fiery nature. Only here is the dissimiUtude, fire ascends, love descends. It is stronger, descending from the greater to the less, than ascending up from the meaner to the greater, and that for this amongst other reasons.
Became the greater person looks upon the lesser as a piece of himself — sees himself in it. The father and mother see themselves in their child. So God loves us more than we can love him, because he sees his image in us. Neither is there only a priority of order. He loves us first, and then we love him. But also of causality. He is the cause of our love, not by way of motive only. He loves us, and therefore from an ingenuous spirit we must love him again. But he gives us his Spirit, circumciseth our hearts to love him, Deut. xxx. 6 ; for all the motives or moral persuasions in the world, without the Spirit, cannot make us love, 1 Thess. iv. 9. We are taught of God to love one another, our brethren whom we see daily, saith Paul, much more need we to be taught to love him whom we never saw, so that his love kindles ours by way of reflection.
In the new covenant God works both parts, his own and our parts too. Our love to him, our fear of him, our faith in him, he works all, even as he shews his own love to us.
K God love us thus, what must we'do ? Meditate upon his love. Let our hearts be warmed with the consideration of it. Let us bring them to that fire of his love, and then they will wax hot within us, and beg the Spirit, ' Lord, thou hast promised to give thy Spirit to them that ask it,' Luke xi. 10, and to circumcise our hearts to love thee, and to love one another, ' give thy Holy Spii'it, as thou hast promised.'
In a word, these words, * I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine,' to join, them both together.
1. They imply a mutual propriety, f Christ hath a propriety in me, and I in Christ. Peculiar propriety. Christ is mine, so as I have none in the world. So mine, ' whom have I in heaven but Christ ? ' and what is there in earth in comparison of him ? He is mine, and mine in a peculiar man- ner, and I am his in a peculiar manner. There is propriety with pecu- liarity.