C^dhj.) The accepting of Christ by the will, as its only husband. Lord, and Saviour. This is called "receiving" of Christ, John i. 12; and is not intended only for that solemn act whereby at first entrance we close with him, but also for the constant frame of the soul in abiding with him and owning of him as such. When the soul consents to take Christ on his own terms, to save him in his own way,^ and says, " Lord, I would have had thee and salvation in my way, that it might ' Rom. ix. 31, 32, x. 3, 4.
OF COMMUNION WITH THE SON JESUS CHRIST. 69
have Leeu partly of mine endeavours, and as it were by the works of the law ; I am now "willing to receive thee and to be saved in thy way, — merely by grace : and though I would have walked according to my own mind, yet now I wholly give up myself to be ruled by thy Sphit : for in thee have I righteousness and strength,^ in thee am I justified and do glory;" — then doth it carry on communion with Christ as to the grace of his person. This it is to receive the Lord Jesus in his comeliness and eminency. Let believers exercise their hearts abun- dantly unto this thing. This is choice communion with the Son Jesus Christ. Let us receive him in all his excellencies, as he bestows him- self upon us ; — be frequent in thoughts of faith, comparing him with other beloveds, sin, Vv^orld, legal righteousness; and prefemng hun before them, counting them all loss and dung in comparison of him. And let our souls be persuaded of his sincerity and willingness in giving himself, in all that he is, as mediator unto us, to be ours ; and let our hearts give up themselves unto him. Let us tell him that we will be for him, and not for another: let him know it from us; he delights to hear it, yea, he says, " Sweet is our voice, and our counte- nance is comely ; " — and we shall not fail in the issue of sweet refresh- ment with him.
DiGEESSION L
Some excellencies of Christ proposed to consideration, to endear our hearts unto him — His description, Cant, v., opened.
To strengthen our hearts in the resignation mentioned of ourselves unto the Lord Christ as our husband, as also to make way for the stirring of us up to those consequential conjugal affections of which mention shall afterward be made, I shall turn -aside to a more full description of some of the personal excellencies of the Lord Christ, whereby the hearts of his saints are indeed endeared unto him.
In " The Lord our Righteousness," then, may these ensumg things be considered; which are exceeding suitable to prevail upon our hearts to give up themselves to be wholly his: —
1. He is exceeding excellent and desirable in his^ Deity, and the glory thereof He is " Jehovah our Righteousness," Jer. xxiii. 6. In the rejoicing of Zion at his coming to her, this is the bottom, " Be-
' Isa. xlv. 24.
« Numb. xxi. 5; 1 Cor. x. 9; Ps. Ixviii. 18; Eph. iv. 8, 10; Ps. xcvii, 7; Heb. i. 6; Ps. cii. 25; Isa. vii. 14; Luke ii. 34; Rom. ix. 5; 1 Pet. ii. 6; Isa. xl. 3, xliv. 6, xlv. 22, xlviii. 12; Kom. xiv. 10; Rev. i. 11; Mai. iii. 1; Ps. ii. 12; Isa. XXXV. 4, lii. 5, 6, xlv. 14, 15; Zech. ii. 8, 12, iii. 1, xii. 10; Matt. xvi. 16; Luke i. 16, 17; John v. 18, 19, x. 30, i. 1, 3, 10, 14, vi, 62, viii. 23, 58; Col. i. 16; Heb. i. 2, 10-12; John iii. 13, 31, xvi. 28; Mic. v. 2; Prov. viii. 23; John xvii. 5; Jer.
60 OF COMMUNION WITH THE SON Jp:SUS CHRIST.
hold thy God ! " Isa. xl. 9. " We have seen his glory," saith the apostle. What glory is that? " The glory of the only-begotten Son of God/' John i. 1 4. The choicest saints have been afraid and amazed at the beauty of an angel ; and the stoutest sinners have trembled at the glory of one of those creatures in a low appearance, representing but the back parts of their glory, who yet themselves, in their highest advancement, do cover their faces at the presence of our Beloved, as conscious to themselves of their utter disability to bear the rays of his glory, Isa. vi. 2 ; John xii. 89-41. He is " the felloiu of the Lord of hosts," Zech. xiii. 7. And thovigh he once appeared in the fonn of a servant, yet then " he thought it not robbery to be equal with God," Phil. ii. 6. In the gloiy of this majesty he dwells in light inaccessible. We " cannot by searching find out the Almighty inito perfection : it is as high as heaven ; what can we do ? deeper than hell; what can we know? the measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea," Job xi. 7-9. We may all say one to another of this, " Surely we are more brutish than any man, and have not the understanding of a man. We neither learned wis- dom, nor have the knowledge of the holy. Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended? who hath gathered the wind in his fists? who hath bound the waters in a garment? who hath established all the ends of the earth ? what is his name, and what is his Son's natne, if ye can tell," Prov. xxx. 2—4.