50 M.EDITATIONS A Having premised these things in general, concerning the glory of divine communications, I shall proceed to declare in particular, the grounds and way whereby the Lord Christ communicates himself; and therewithal all the benefits of his mediation unto them'that do believe, as it is before proposed. We on our part are said bereits to receive him, and that by faith, John i. 12. Now where he is received by us, he must be tendered, given, granted, or communi- cated unto us. And this he is by some divine acts of the Father, and some of his own. The foundation of the whole is laid in a sovereign net of the will, the pleasure,. the grace of the Father. And this is the order and method of all divine opera- tions in the way and work of grace. They originally proceed all from him; and having effected their ends, do return, rest, and centre in, him again. Eph. i. 4, 5, 6. Wherefore, that Christ is made ours, that he is communicated unto us, is originally from the free act, grant, and donation of the Father. 1 Cor. i. 30. Rom. v. 15, 16, 17. And hereunto sundry things do concur. As, (1.) His eternal purpose which he purposed in him- self, to glorify his grace in all his elect, by this com- munication of Christ, and the benefits of his media- tion unto them, which the apostle declares at large, Eph. i. (2.) His grantingall the elect unto Christ to be Isis own, so to do and suffer for them what was anteceda- neously necessary unto the actual communication of himself unto them. Thine they teere, and thou gayest these to nee, John xvii. 6. (3.) The giving of the promise, or the constitution of the rule and law of the gospel, whereby- a participa- tion of. Christ, an interest in him, and all that he is, is made over, and assured unto believers, John i, 12. I John i. 1 -4. (4.) An act of almighty power, working and Creat- ing faith in the souls of the elect, enabling them to receive Christ so exhibited and communicated unto them by the gospel, Eph. I. 19, 20. Chap. ii, 5 -8. These things which 1 have but named, havean influ- ence into the glory of Christ herein; for this com- munication of him unto the church, is an effect of the eternal counsel, wisdom, grace, and power of the NI) DISCO1111SES. But they are the acts of Christ himself herein, which principally we inquire into, as those which manifest the glory of his wisdom, love, and condescension. And.. 1. He gives and communicates unto them his Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit as peculiarly his, as grant- ed unto him of the Father, as inhabiting in him in all fidness. The Spirit abiding originally as to his person, and immeasurably as unto his effects and operations in himself, he gives unto all believers to inhabit and abide in them also, John xiv. 14, 20. 1 Cor. vi. 17. Rom. viii. 8. Hence follows an ineffable union between hint and them. For as in his incarnation he took our na- ture into personal union with his own; so herein he takes our persons into a mystical union with himself. Here- by he becomes ours, and we are his. And herein is he unspeakably glorious. For this mystery of the inhabitation of the some Spirit in him as the head, and the church as his body animating the whole, is a transcendent effectof divine wisdom. There is nothing Of this nature in the whole creation besides: no such union, no such mutual communication. The strictest unions and relations in nature are but shadows of it. Eph. v. 25-30. Herein also is the Lord Christ precious unto them that do believe, but a stone ofstumbling, and a rock of offence unto the disobedient. This glorious ineffableeffect of his wisdom and grace, this rare, peculiar, singular way of the communication of himself unto the church, isby many despised. They know it may be, some of them; what it is to be joined to an harlot, so as to.become one flesh; but what it is to be joined unto the Lord, so as to become one spirit, they know not. But this principle and spring of the spiritual life of the church, and of all vital spiritual motions towards God, and things heavenly, wherein, "and whereby our life is hid with Christ in God, is the glory, the exalta- tion, the honour, the security of the church unto the praiseof the graceof God. The understanding of it in its causes, effects, operations, and privileges where- with it is accompanied, is to be preferred above all the wisdom in, and of the world. 2. He thus communicates himself unto us, by the formation of a new nature, his own nature in us; so as that the very same spiritual nature is in him, and in the church, Only it is so with this difference, that in Father, him, it is in the absolute perfection of all those glorious
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