I shall not need to add any more proofs. This is that which is demonstrated: — There is love in the person of the Father 2:)eculiarly held out unto the saints, as luherein he will and doth hold commu- nion with them.
Now, to complete commimion with the Father in love, two things are required of believers : — (1.) That they receive it of him. (2.) That they make suitable returns unto him.
(1.) That they do receive it. Commimion consists in giving and receiving. Until the love of the Father be received, we have no communion with him therein. How, then, is this love of the Father to be received, so as to hold fellowship with him? I answer, By faith. The receiving of it is the believing of it. God hath so fully, so emi- nently revealed his love, that it may be received by faith. " Ye be- lieve in God," John xiv. 1 ; that is, the Father. And Avhat is to be believed in him? His love; for he is "love," 1 John iv. 8.
It is true, there is not an immediate acting of iaith upon the Fa- ther, but by the Son. " He is the way, the tnith, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by him," John xiv. 6. He is the
' " Te quod attiiiet non sumus solliciti, — illiid niodo dcsiderannis, ut patrcin no- bis vel st'iiiol intiicri coDcedatur." — Cartwi-i^lit liar, in .Tolm xiv. 8.
OF COMMUNION WITH GOD THE FATHER. 23
merciful liigh priest over the house of God, by whom we have^ access to the throne of grace : by him is our manuduction unto the Father ; by him we beheve in God, 1 Pet. i. 21. But this is that I say, — When by and througii Christ we have an access unto the Father, we then behold his glory also, and see his love that he peculiarly bears unto us, and act faith thereon. We are then, I say, to eye it, to believe it, to receive it, as in him; the issues and fruits thereof being made out unto us through Christ alone. Though there be no light for us but in the beams, yet we may by beams see the sun, which is the fountain of it. Though all our refreshment actually lie in the streams, yet by them we are led up unto the fountain. Jesus Christ, in respect of the love of the Father, is but the beam, the stream; wherein though actually all our light, our refreshment lies, yet by him we are led to the fountain, the sun of eternal love itself. Would believers exercise themselves herein, they would find it a matter of no small sjnritual improvement iu their walking with God.
This is that which is aimed at. Many dark and disturbing thoughts are apt to arise in this thing. Few can carry up their hearts and minds to this height by faith, as to rest their souls in the love of the Father; they live below it, in the troublesome region of hopes and fears, storms and clouds. All here is serene and quiet. But how to attain to this pitch they know not. This is the will of God, that he may always be eyed as benign, kind, tender, loving, and unchange- able therein ; and that peculiarly as the Ftither, as the great fountain and spring of all gracious communications and fruits of love. This is that which Christ came to reveal, — God as a Father, John i. 18; that name which he declares to those who are given him out of the world, John xvii. 6. And this is that which he effectually leads us to by himself, as he is the only way of going to God as a Father, John xiv. 5, 6 ; that is, as love : and by doing so, gives us the rest which he promiseth ; for the love of the Father is the only rest of the soul. It is true, as was said, v/e do not this formalli/ in the first instant of believing. We believe in God through Christ, 1 Pet. i. 21 ; faith seeks out rest for the soul. This is presented to it by Christ, the mediator, as the only procuring cause. Here it abides not, but by Christ it hath an access to the Father, Eph. ii. 18, — into his love; finds out that he is love, as having a design, a purpose of love, a good pleasure towards us from eternity, — a delight, a complacency, a good-will in Christ, — all cause of anger and aversation being taken away. The soul being thus, by faith through Christ, and by him, brought into the bosom of God, into a comfortable persuasion and spiritual per- ception and sense of his love, there reposes and rests itself And this
1 Eph. ii. 18.
24) OF COMMUNION WITH GOD THE FATHER.
is the first thing the saints do, in their communion with the Father; of the due improvement whereof, more afterward.
(2.) For that suitable return which is required, this also (in a main part of it, beyond which I shall not now extend it) consisteth in love.^ God loves, that he may be beloved.^ When he comes to command the return of his received love, to complete communion with him, he says, "My son, give me thine heart," Pro v. xxiii. 26, — thy affections, thy love. " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind," Luke x. 27; this is the return that he demandeth. When the soul sees God, in his dispensation of love, to be love, to be in- finitely lovely and loving, rests upon and delights in him as such, — then hath it communion with him in love. This is love, that God loves us first, and then we love him again. I shall not now go forth into a description of divine love. Generally, love^ is an affection of union and nearness, with complacency therein. So long as the Father is looked on under any other apprehension, but only as acting love upon the soul, it breeds in the soul a dread and aversation.^ Hence the fi3T.ng and hiding of sinners, in the Scriptures. But when he who is the Father is considered as a father, acting love on the soul, this* raises it to love again. This is, in faith, the ground of all acce|)table obedience, Deut. v. 10; Exod. xx. 6; Deut. x. 12, xi. 1, 13, xiii. 3.