' " 'r^iQivTvyx'^viiv, est advocatoruiii qui clientibiis desideria dictant." 2 I Sam. i. 13. s Isa. xxxviii. 14; Exod. xiv. 15.
* Isa. Ixiv. 6; Ps. cxxx. 3.
124 OF COMMUNION WITH THE SON JESUS CHRIST.
wherein he had trusted. But yet, men may ask that wliich is in the promise, and yet not have their prayers regulated by the promise. They may pray for what is in the promise, but not as it is in the promise. So James says some " ask and receive not, because they ask amiss, that they may spend it on their lusts," chap. iv. 3. Though the things which God would have us ask be requested, yet if not accord- ino- as he would have us do it, we ask amiss.
Two things are required, that we may pray for the things in th( promise, as they are in the promise: —
(1st.) That we look upon them ixs promised, and promised in Christ ; that is, that all the reason we have whence we hope for attaining the things we ask for, is from the mediation and purchase of Christ, in whom all the promises are yea and amen. This it is to ask tlie Father in Christ's name, — God as a father, the fountain ; and Christ as the procurer of them.
(2cUi/.) That we ask for them for the end of the promise, not to spend on our lusts. When we ask pardon for sin, with secret^ reserves in our hearts to continue in sin, we ask the choicest mercy of the covenant, to spend it on our lusts. The end of the promise the apostle tells us, 2 Cor. vii. 1, " Having these promises, let us cleanse ourselves from all pollution of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." When we ask what is in the promise, as it is in the promise, to this end of the promise, our supplications are accord- ing to the will of God. And this is the first conjugal affection that Christ exerciseth towards believers, — he delights in them; which that he doth is evident, as upon other considerations innumerable, so from the instance given.
In return hereunto, for the canying on of the communion between them, the saints delight in Christ; he is their joy, their crown, their rejoicing, their hfe, food, health, strength, desire, righteousness, sal- vation, blessedness: without him they have nothing; in him they shall find all things. Gal. vi. 14, " God forbid that I shoidd glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. " He hath, from the foundation of the world, been the hope, expectation, desire, and delight of all beUevers. The promise of him was all (and it was enough) that God gave Adam in his inexpressible distress, to relieve and comfort him. Gen. iii. 15. Eve perhaps supposed that the promised seed had been born in her first-bom, when she said, " I have gotten a man from'' the Lord" (so most properly, nx denoting tlie fourth case) ; and this was the matter
» Ps. Ixxvili. 35-37.
' According to tlie view to wliich Owen refers, the preposition should be dropped from the translation, and ns regarded as in apposition with Jehovah,—" I have gotten a man, Jehovah." The particle r-s occurs in this sense, as simply demon- strative, forty times in the first four chapters of Genesis.— Ed.
OF COMMUNION WITH THE SON JESUS CHRIST. 125
of her joy, Gen. iv. 1. Lamech having Noah given to him as a type of Christ and salvation by him, cries out, " This same shall comfort lis concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed," Gen. v. 29 ; he rejoices in him who was to take away the curse, by being made a curse for us. When Abraham was in the height of his glory, returning from the conquest of the kings of the east, that came against the confederate kings of the vale of Sodom, God appears to him with a glorious promise, Gen. XV. 1, " Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward." What now could his soul more desire? Alas! he cries (as Keuben afterward, upon the loss of Joseph), " The child is not, and whither shall I go?" Verse 2, " Lord God, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless?" " Thou hast promised that in my seed shall all the earth be blessed; if I have not that seed, ah ! what good will all other things do me?" Thence it is said that he " rejoiced to see the day of Christ; he saw it, and was glad," John viii. 56; the thoughts of the coming of Christ, which he looked on at the distance of two thousand years, was the joy and delight of his heart. Jacob, blessmg his sons, lifted up his spirit when he comes to Judah, in whom he considered the Shiloh to come, Gen. xlix. -8, 9; and a little after, wearied with the foresight and consideration of the distresses of his posterity, this he diverts to for his relief, as that great delight of his soul: "I have waited for thy Salvation, O God;" — for him who was to be the salvation of his people. But it would be endless to instance in particulars. Old Simeon sums up the whole: Christ is God's salvation, and Israel's glory, Luke ii. 30, 31; and Avhatever was called the glory of old, it was either himself or a type of him. The glory of man is their delight. Hence, Haggai ii. 7, he is called " The Desire of all nations." Him whom their soul loves and delights in, [they] desire and long after. So is the saints' delight in him made a description of him, by way of eminence, Mai. iii. 1 : " The Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messen- ger of the covenant whom ye delight in." " He whom ye seek, whom ye delight in," is the description of Christ. He is their delight and desirable one, the person of their desire. To fix on something in particular : —