nesses of his Majesty : for they were with him in the Holy Mount, when he received from God the Father honour and glory, and when there came to him a voice from the Excellent Glory, saying, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased ■"." Whether therefore they speak of his sufferings or his glory, their testimony may be relied on : and we may be sure that in Him is salvation, and in Him alone.]
The extreme urgency of the Apostle in commending to us his testimony, leads to contemplate, II. The benefit of receiving it —
The Apostles themselves were brought into a most exalted state through faith in this Divine Saviour — [" Hear what the Apostle speaks respecting it :" " Truly," says he, " our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ." By the Lord Jesus Christ they were brought into a state of reconciliation with God ; and were enabled to regard him in the endearing character of a Father. " Through Him too, and by the Holy Spirit, they had access to God^ " at all times, pouring out their hearts before him, making known to him their every want, and committing to him their every care. Through the same divine channel, God descended into tlieir bosoms, making known to them his will, communicating to them his grace, and shedding abroad in their hearts a sense of his love. Nay more, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghosthad comedown and taken up iheir residence within them, dwelling in them as in a temple, c \d manifesting to them, as far as they were capable of beho'. ling it, all the glory of the Godhead '. From hence arose witl ; ' i them infallible peace and joy, which were to them an earuest and foretaste of their heavenly inheritance; for they " k. ew that Christ was in the Father, and in them also; and tha they too were in him"." Such had been their happy state tY.-m the first moment that they had believed in Christ; more ^oaringly indeed in the first instance, but progressively adva' ng as their knowledge of Christ became more intimate, an.' ': iieir affiance in him more entire.]
And we also, by the same (ruth, are brought to a participation of all the same piivileges —
[" These thmgs," says the A]^ ■ le, "we declare untoyou, that ye may have fellowship with i . And in what does that fellowship consist, but in a partic ■ ion of all the same privi- leges and blessings which they v : yed ? And this is in- deed the portion of all who rec,: ^ their testimony aright.
All " 2Pet.i. 16— 18. '^Eph.ii. 18,
' John xiv. 16, J 7, 18, 2 ) ; " Jolin xiv. 20.
204 1 joiix, I. 1—3. [1176.
All Believers are brought into one family, of which Christ is the Head". The moment we believe, '' we come to Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and Church of the first-born which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant, and to tile blood of sprinkling, which speaketh better things than that of Abel \" Now here we see the whole family: hei'e is God the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ the Mediator ; here also are the angels who never sinned, and all the hosts of the redeemed in heaven, and all the saints that are still on earth : all are brought together into one family, and all have fellowship with each other as the head and the members of the same body : so that every individual Believer now has the same fellowship with the Apostles, as they had with each other and with tile })ropliets who had gone before them ; and the same " felIowshi{> too with the Father and with his Son Jesus Clu-ist." Does this appear too strong ? It is not so strong as what our blessed Saviour himself has spoken upon the subject. For he not only declares to us, that " both He and liis Father will come to us, and make their abode with us";" but he declared to his Father also, " I have given them the glory wliich thou gavest me, that they may be one, even as we are one ; I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one^" Here, I say, the union of the dif- ferent members of his body is compared with tlie union which subsists between the different persons of the Godhead, than whicli nothing can be conceived so entu'e, so mysterious, so luiciiangeable.