The like also is said of love. 1 John ii. 1 5, " If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him;" that is, the love which we bear to him, not that which we receive from him. The Father is here placed as the object of our love, in opposition to the world, which takes up our afifections ^ ayann toZ Uarpog. The Father de- notes the matter and object, not the efficient cause, of the love in- quired after. And this love of him as a Father is that -which he calls his " honour," Mai. i. 6.
Farther : these graces as acted in prayer and praises, and as clothed with instituted Avorship, are peculiarly directed unto him. " Ye call on the Father," 1 Pet. i. 17. Eph. iii. 14, 15, " For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named." Bowing the knee compriseth the whole worship of God, both that which is moral, in the universal obedience he requireth, and those peculiar ways of carrying it on which are by him appointed, Isa. xlv. 23, "Unto me," saith the Lord, "every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear." Which, verses 24, 25, he declareth to consist in their ac- knowledging of him for righteousness and strength. Yea, it seems sometimes to comprehend the orderly subjection of the whole crea- tion unto his sovereignty.^ In this place of the apostle it hath a far more restrained acceptation, and is but a figurative expression of prayer, taken from the most expressive bodily posture to be used in
' Isa. ix. 6; 1 Cor. i. 30; Matt. v. IG, 45, vi. 1, 4, G, S, vii. 21, xii. fiO; Luke xxiv. 49; John iv. 23, vi. 45. xii. 2G, xiv. 6, 21, 23, xv. I, xvi. 25, 27, xx. 17; Gal. i. 1, 3; I'lph. ii. 18, V. 20; 1 Thoss. i. 1; James i. 17: 1 Tet. i. 17; 1 John ii. 13, etc.
= lloni. xiv. 10, 11; Phil. ii. 10.
OF COMMUNION WITH EACH TEKSON DISTINCTLY. 1,'}
that duty. This he farther manifests, Eph. iii. 1 6, 1 7, declaring at large what his aim was, and whereabouts his thoughts were exercised, in that bowing of his knees. The workings, then, of the Spirit of grace in that duty are distinctly directed to the Father as such, as the fountain of the Deity, and of all good things in Christ, — as the " Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." And therefore the same apostle doth, in another place, expressly conjoin, and yet as expressly distin- guish, the Father and the Son in dhecting his supplications, 1 Thess. iii. 11, "God himself even our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, direct our way imto you." The like precedent, also, have you of thanksgiving, Eph. i. 8, 4, " Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Clnrist," etc. I shall not add those very many 'places Avherein the se\'oral paiticulars^ that do concur unto that whole divine worship (not to be communicated unto any, by nature not God, with- out idolatry) wherein the saints do hold communion with God, are distinctly directed to the person of the Father.
2. It is so also in reference unto the Son. John xiv. 1, "Ye be- lieve in God," saith Christ, "believe also in me;" — "Believe also, act faith distinctly on me ; faith divine, supernatural, — that faith whereby you believe in God, that is, the Father." There is a believing of Christ, — namely, that he is the Son of God, the Saviour of the world. That is that whose neglect our Savioiir so threatened unto the Pharisees, John viii. 24, " If ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins." In this sense faith is not immediately fixed on the Son, being only an owning of him (that is, the Christ to be the Son), by closing with the testimony of the Father conceming him. But there is also a believing on him, called " Believing on the name of the Son of God," 1 John v. 13; so also John ix. 36; — yea, the distinct affixing of faith, affiance, and confidence on the Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God, as the Son of God, is most frequently pressed. John iii. 16,
'■' God" (that is, the Father) " so loved the world, that whosoever
believeth in him" (that is, the Son) " should not perish." The Son, who is given of the Father, is believed on. " He that beheveth on him is not condemned," verse 18. "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life," verse 36. "This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent," John \d. 29, 40; 1 John v, 10. The foundation of the whole is laid, John v. 23, "That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him." But of this honour and worship of the Son I have treated at large elsewhere f and shall not in general insist upon it again. For love, I shall only add that solemn apostolical benediction, Eph. \\. 24, " Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity," ^ Jer. X. 10, xvii. 5, 6; Gal. iv. 8. ' Vind. Evaii., cap. x. vol. xii.