cency in his love. There is in the Hebrew hut a metathesis of a letter between the word that signifies a love of will and desire {-'j'^ is so to love), and that which denotes a love of rest and acquiescency (which is, i^^'?) ; and botli are applied to God. He wills good to us, that he may rest in that will. Some say, d/aT^v, " to love," is from ayav -zokffOai, perfectly to acquiesce in the thing loved. And when God calls his Son dyairri-ov, " beloved," Matt. iii. 1 7, he adds, as an e.K2")Osition of it, h c5 iudoxriga, " in whom I rest well pleased."
{2dly.) The return that the saints make unto him, to complete com- munion with him herein, holds some analogy with his love in this ; for it is a love also of ^ rest and delight. " Return unto thy rest, 0 my soul," says David, Ps. cxvi. 7. He makes God his rest; that is, he in whom his soul doth rest, without seeking farther for a more suitable and desirable object. "Whom have I," saith he, "in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee," Ps. Ixxiii. 25.* Thus the soul gathers itself from all its wanderings, from all other beloveds, to rest in God alone, — to satiate and content itself in him ; choosing the Father for his present and eternal rest. And this also with delight. "Thy loving-kindness," saith the psalmist, " is better than life ; therefore will I praise thee," Ps. Ixiii. 3. " Than life," 12 '''C'?, — before lives. I will not deny but life in a single con- sideration sometimes is so expressed, but always emphatically; so that tlie Avhole life, with all the concernments of it, which may ren- der it considerable, are thereby intended. Austin, on this place, reading it^ " super vitas," extends it to the several courses of life that men engage themselves in. Life, in the whole continuance of it, with all its advantages whatever, is at least intended. Supposing himself in the jaws of death, rolling into the grave through innu- merable troubles, yet he foinid more sweetness in God than in a long life, under its best and most noble considerations, attended with all enjoyments that make it pleasant and comfortable. From both these is that of the church, in Hos. xiv. 3, " Asshur shall not save us; we will not ride iqoon horses: neither will we say any more to the work of our hands. Ye are our gods: for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy." They reject the most goodly appearances of rest and con- tentment, to make up all in God, on whom they cast themselves, as otherwise helpless orphans.
2dli/. The mutual love of God and the saints agrees in this,— that
' *■ Focisti iios ail to, domino, et irro([iiictiun est cor nostnun iloiioc voiiiiit ;i(l tc." — Aug. Conf.
' I's. xx.xvii. 7; Isa. xxviii. 12; lleb. iv. }).
' " yupcr vitas: cjuas vitas? Qiias sibi liomiiies elij^uiit ; alius elei,'it silii vitani jie{;;ocia!i(li, alius vitain rusticandi; alius vitaui fccnoraiidi, alius vitam iniiitaiuli, alius illain, alius illaiu. DiviTSic sunt vita\ scd melior est misericoidia tua super vit;is nosh-as." — Auc^. Euaii-at. in Ps. Ixii.
OF COMMUNION WITH GOD THE FATHER. 2?
the way of communicating the issues and fruits of these loves is only in Christ. The Father communicates no issue of his love unto us but through Christ ; and we make no return of love unto him but through Christ. He is the treasury wherein the Father disposeth all the riches of his grace, taken from the bottomless mine of his eternal love; and he is the priest into whose hand Ave put all the offerings that we return unto the Father. Thence he is first, and by way of eminenc}^, said to love the Son ; not only as his eternal Son, — as he was the de- light of his soul before the foundation of the world, Prov. viii. 30, — but also as our mediator, and the means of conveying his love to us. Matt. iii. 17; John iii. 35, v. 20, x. 17, xv. 9, xvii. 24, And we are said through him to believe in and to have access to God.
(Is^.) The Father loves us, and " chose us before the foundation of the world;" but in the pursuit of that love, he " blesseth us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ," Eph. i. 3, 4. From his love, he sheds or pours out the Holy Spirit richly upon us, through Jesus Christ our Saviour, Tit. iii. 6. In the pouiing out of his love, there is not one drop falls besides the Lord Christ. The holy anointing oil was all poured on the head of Aaron, Ps. cxxxiii. 2 ; and thence went down to the skirts of his clothing. Love is first poured out on Christ ; and from him it drops as the dew of Hemion upon the souls of his saints. The Father will have him to have " in all things the pre-eminence," Col. i. 18; "it pleased him that in him all fulness should dwell," verse 19; that " of his fulness we might re- ceive, and gi'ace for grace," John i. 16. Though the love of the Father's purpose and good pleasure have its rise and foundation in his mere grace and will, yet the design of its accomplishment is only in Christ. All the fruits of it are first given to him ; and it is in him only that they are dispensed to us. So that though the saints may, nay, do, see an infinite ocean of love unto them in the bosom of the Father, yet they are not to look for one drop from him but what comes through Christ. He is the only means of communication. Love in the Father is like honey in the floiver; — it must be in the comb before it be for our use. Christ must extract and prepare this honey for us. He draws this water from the fountain through union and dispensation of fulness; — we by faith, from the wells of salvation that are in him. This was in part before discovered.