And if this be so (to shut up all), how many that go under the name of Christians, come short of the truth of it ! How unacquainted are the generality of professors with the mystery of this communion, and the fruits of it ! Do not many very evidently hold communion with their lusts and with the world, and yet would be thought to have a portion and inheritance among them that are sanctified ? They have neither new name nor white stone, and yet would be called the people of the Most High. May it not be said of many of them, rather, that God is not in all their thoughts, than that they have com- munion with him ? The Lord open the eyes of men, that they may see and know that walking with God is a matter not of form, but power ! And so far of peculiar communion with the Father, in the in-
40 OF COMMUNION WITH THE SON JESUS CHRIST.
stance of love which we have insisted on. " He is also faithful who hath called us to the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord ; " — of which in the next place.
TART II.
CHAPTER I.
Of the fellowship which the saints have with Jesus Christ the Son of God — That they have such a fellowship proved, 1 Cor. i. 9; Rev. iii. 20; Cant. ii. 1-7 opened; also Prov. ix. 1-5.
Or that distinct communion which we have with the person of the Father we have treated in the foregoing chapters; we now proceed to the consideration of that which we have with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Now the fellowship we have with the second person, is with him as Mediator, — in that office whereunto, by dispensation, he submitted himself for our sakes; being "made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons," Gal. iv. 4, 5. And herein I shall do these two things: — I. Declare that we have such fellowship with the Son of God. II. Show wherein that fellowship or commu- nion doth consist: —
I. For the first, I shall only produce some few places of Scripture to confirm it, that it is so: — 1 Cor. i. 9, "God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord." This is that whereunto all the saints are called, and wherein, by the faithfulness of God, they shall be preserved, even fellowship with Jesus Christ our Lord. We are called of God the Father, as the Father, in pursuit of his love, to communion with the Son, as our Lord.
Rev. iii. 20, " Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me."^ Certainly this is fellowship, or I know not what is. Christ will sup with believers: he refreshes him- self with his own graces in them, by his Spirit bestowed on them. The Lord Christ is exceedingly delighted in tasting of the sweet fruits of the Spirit in the saints. Hence is that prayer of the spouse that she may have something for liis entertainment when he cometh to her. Cant. iv. 16, " Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my
» John xiv. 23.
OF COMMUNION WITH THE SON JESUS CHRIST. 41
Beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits." The souls of the saints are the garden of Jesus Christ, the good ground, Heb. vi. 7; — a garden for delight; he rejoices in them; "his delights are with the sons of men/' Pro v. viii. 31 ; and he " rejoices over them," Zeph. iii. 17; — and a garden for fruit, yea, pleasant fruit; so he describes it. Cant. iv. 12-14, "A garden inclosed is my sister, my spouse ; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed. Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits ; camphire, with spikenard, spikenard and saffron ; calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense ; myrrh and aloes, with all chief spices." Whatever is sweet and delicious for taste, whatever savoury and odoriferous, what- ever is useful and medicinal, is in this garden. There is all manner of spiritual refreshments, of all kinds whatever, in the souls of the saints, for the Lord Jesus. On this account is the spouse so earnest in the prayer mentioned for an increase of these things, that her Be- loved may sup with her, as he hath promised. " Awake, 0 north wind," etc.; — "0 that the breathings and workings of the Spirit of all grace might stir up all his gifts and graces in me, that the Lord Jesus, the beloved of my soul, may have meet and acceptable enter- tainment from me ! " God complains of want of fruit in his vineyard, Isa. V. 2; Hos. x. 1. Want of good food for Christ's entertamment is that the spouse feared, and labours to prevent. A barren heart is not fit to receive him. And the delight he takes in the fruit of the Spirit is unspeakable. This he expresses at large, Cant. v. 1, "I am come," saith he ; " I have eaten, I am refreshed." He calls it ^I^P ''1^, "The fruit of his sweetnesses ;" or most pleasant to him. Moreover, as Christ sups with his saints, so he hath promised they shall sup with him, to complete that fellowship they have with him. Christ pro- vides for their entertainment in a most eminent manner. There are beasts killed, and wine is mingled, and a table funiished, Prov. ix. 2. He calls the spiritual dainties that he hath for them a "feast," a "wed- ding," ^"a feast of fat things, wine on the lees," etc. The fatted calf is killed for their entertainment. Such is the communion, and such is the mutual entertainment of Christ and his saints in that communion.