074. A Sermon On Ephesians 3:17
A SERMON ONEphesians 3:17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith Some general premises touching the whole prayer This prayer of Paul’s for the Ephesians is according to the utmost elevation or height of his own experience of what he could pray for. I give some general animadversions, as premises upon the whole prayer first, ere I enter upon this particular part of it.
1. That all the three Persons, and the dispensations of each of them, are all of them mentioned, though the order of them be inverted; for he begins with the Spirit, the last Person, ‘That ye may be strengthened with all might by the Spirit;’ that is the first petition. Secondly, ‘That Christ,’ who is the second Person in the order inverted, ‘may dwell in your hearts by faith.’ Thirdly, ‘That you may be rooted and grounded in love;’ that is, of the Father, to whom love is especially attributed in Scripture. And then ultimately, and last of all, that the Godhead, and so the communication of all three Persons, may be manifested in you, and to you, and upon you: ‘That you may be filled,’ saith he, ‘with all the fulness of God;’ that is the first, that all the three Persons are here mentioned.
2. In the second place, that which he prays for is, what dispensations Father, Son, and Holy Ghost have towards us after conversion. He writes to saints already, and he doth not pray for their conversion, or what operations or influences the three Persons have in conversion; he supposeth that: but the things he prays for are what are after conversion. As when he saith, ‘that Christ might dwell in their hearts,’ he supposeth them to have been already in Christ. Dwelling is a continuance of inbeing. Also when he adds, that ye may be ‘rooted and grounded in love,’ he supposeth them ‘to be first planted into the love of God.
3. He prays for what in this life is to be obtained: as when he prays that Christ may dwell in their hearts by faith; now faith in the other world ceaseth.
4. I add this, it is for what is attainable by all saints, though not attained but by few. He prays indeed that all saints may comprehend,—not only you Ephesians, but all saints,—‘that ye may comprehend with all saints.’ But alas! the most of saints complain that they have not this; that they perceive not that Christ dwells in their hearts by faith, that they are rooted and grounded in love, but want a settled assurance, which is a being rooted in love; nor are they filled with all the fulness of God.
There are two things I shall prosecute upon this passage:—
I. That Christ dwells in us.
II. That he dwells in our hearts by faith.
I. An explication of Christ’s dwelling in us, and of his union with us: whether by his person first and immediately, or only by his Spirit and graces effectively.
I shall explain this great point by way of answers to several queries.
Query 1.—How is it so peculiarly attributed to Christ that he dwells in us seeing we find in Scripture that the other two Persons dwell in us also?
1. The Father dwells in us: 1 John 4:12-13, ‘If we love one another, God dwelleth in us.’ And ‘hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.’ And, 1 John 4:15, ‘Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.’ Now it is evident that it is God the Father spoken of, for he speaks of him in the next words, 1 John 4:14, who ‘sent his Son to be the Saviour of the world;’ and he speaks of God as distinct from Christ: ‘Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God’—there is Christ—‘God dwelleth in him.’ Who? The Father. My brethren, by the way I observe, this seems to have been a phrase to express a man to be a Christian by, that God dwelt in him, and Christ dwelt in him. Thus in the primitive language; for you see he brings signs of it: ‘Hereby we know that we dwell in him, and he in us;’ and so again, in 1 John 3:24, ‘He that keeps his commandments dwells in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us.’ So that he makes this to be the character of a Christian, that he is one in whom God dwells, and Christ dwells; and this to be the sign of it, that he keepeth his commandments, and hath his Spirit in him. The like language you have in 2 Corinthians 13:5, ‘Know ye not that Christ is in you,’ &c. This of the Father, that he dwells in us. But—
2. The Spirit dwells in us: Romans 8:11, ‘He that raised up Jesus from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.’ Here is the Holy Ghost dwelling in us too.
3. You see Jesus Christ dwells in us too. That you have here in this place. So he prays ‘that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.’ So that all the three Persons dwell in you; that is the first animadversion, which is introductory to others that follow.
Query 2.—But then you will say to me,—and it is the second query for the explication of the text,—How are these distinct? How is it that God the Father dwells in us? and how is it that God the Son dwells in us? and how is it that God the Holy Ghost dwells in us?
Truly, brethren, it is a very hard thing to distinguish it. Yet often you find some eminent character or other attributed to one Person by an eminence which is proper to him, and not to another; whereby there is some distinction which ariseth unto us. Now take this of dwelling in us, and you shall find that distinction thus:—
1. God the Father is said to dwell in us by love. God the Father doth more eminently dwell in us by our apprehensions of him in love; both in his love to us, and our loving of him: so you will find it in 1 John 4:16, ‘And we have known and have believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.’ Brethren, a man that hath great apprehensions, or any true apprehensions of the love of God to him, and his heart is kept dwelling and abiding on them, he doth thereby dwell in God the Father. If you look to the whole Scripture, the eminent property that is ascribed to the Father is love: ‘The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God the Father.’ Though Christ loves us too, yet it is the Father’s love is the original of all. The more you apprehend the love of the Father, whether you do it in assurance, or whether you do it in adoring that love, and cleaving to that love, and following after that love you apprehend in the Father; the more you do this, the more doth God the Father dwell in you: therefore the Apostle prayeth ‘that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that ye being rooted and grounded in love:’ but it is in the love of God the Father. But—
2. Jesus Christ dwelleth in us by faith,—so it is said here,—and we live in Christ by faith: Galatians 2:20; ‘I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God.’ But doth not Christ dwell in us by love too? It is certain that Jesus Christ dwelleth in us by love too; for he is our husband, and therefore it must be that he also dwelleth in us by love. But yet for all that, though he dwell in us by love as well as the Father, yet our converses with him are more eminently by faith; he dwelleth in us by faith,—not but that the Father dwelleth in us by faith too,—but Christ more properly. And in Acts 20:21, it is called ‘repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ:’ not but that we repent unto Christ too, but faith is the most eminent thing towards Christ in this life. But—
3. The Spirit is said to dwell in us also; but, my brethren, the Spirit is not said to dwell in us by faith: which yet is not to be understood as if we do not believe in him, but that the soul doth exercise the main of its acting of faith upon Christ, as its more specially delighted object: but the Spirit lies, as it were, hid in the heart, and works faith in us towards Christ, and love in us towards God. I do not say that we are not at all to exercise faith and love upon the Spirit: there is faith in the Spirit,—it is said in the Creed, ‘I believe in the Holy Ghost,’—and love to the Spirit, in a Christian; as you find Romans 15:30. It is said there, ‘for Christ’s sake, and for the love of the Spirit.’ So that there is a love towards the Spirit in a Christian; a love in us to the Spirit, for the Spirit’s own love to us. As also, because it is the Spirit that sheds abroad the love of God in our hearts. The Spirit works in us love to God and faith in Christ Jesus: but he lies hid, and as it were dormant in our hearts, and we little perceive how he is in us.
I shall add another query for the further explanation of the text:—
Query 3.—Doth Christ dwell in our hearts only by faith? or doth he not otherwise dwell in us than by the exercise of our faith upon him? Doth not the person of Christ himself dwell in us, and not only by our faith?
I answer, according to that light I have,—and I humbly submit what I shall say,—Christ himself dwells in you immediately by himself. That is my answer; and I oppose it to those that either say that he dwells in us only by his Spirit, or to many others who would lower that also, and say that both Christ’s and the Spirit’s dwelling in us is but by the graces they work in us; for still, in their speaking of this union, they express no more; and not so only, but also so limit it thereto herein. It must be acknowledged that their graces do dwell in us, and that they with their graces. Yea, others say, that his very dwelling in us by faith is but by faith as it is a grace; which were all one and to say, he dwells no otherwise in us by faith than as he doth by our mourning for sin, and by every act that is holy which we put forth, for they are graces. Even as some have said of late that we are justified by love, and mourning for sin, and every grace, as well as by faith. No, brethren, Jesus Christ dwells in us by faith, taking him as its most proper object appointed for it, and by going out of ourselves to him: Galatians 2:20-21, ‘I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.’ And faith, by letting him into the heart, is as the eye which lets in the sun, or any other beautiful object, into the fancy, and the common sense, stirring the affections; and this is peculiar unto the grace of faith to do. But to say Christ dwells in us only by his graces, how doth this bring those great things which Christ himself, John 14, 17, and other scriptures do speak of this union, unto so great a lowness? As when Christ is said to be ‘our life,’ Colossians 3:4, which yet some would have understood only causaliter, merely as the cause of our life, or grace in us. But Galatians 2:20 speaks, if not further, yet more clearly: ‘It is not I that live, but Christ lives in me.’ And it is certain, all principles of life, whatever life it be, must be the most intimate indwellers in them which are said to live thereby. The animal and vital spirits and the blood, that are said to be the life of a beast, as in the Old Testament, do run and dwell within the body, and veins, and arteries, and may be said to be the most proper inmates. And so the principal parts of the body, as the heart, &c., that are the fountain of life; especially the rational soul that acts all in us. And this holds true of Christ much more; he is intimior intimo nostro.
Rollock, both in his English sermons upon the Colossians, and his Latin comments on the Galatians and the Colossians, also urgeth this. ‘The manner of speech,’ saith he, ‘ “Christ our life,” notes this, that that spiritual life we begin to live here is not so much a life different from his life, as it is the very life that Christ lives himself, the very same in number; that same very life, and no other, extends to us, so far as we are capable. Liveth the body another life than the head? There is but one life in the man, and that the head hath, the same the whole body hath, and it quickeneth every member of the body. And there is a nearer conjunction and inbeing betwixt Christ and us than there is between this head of ours and the body.’ And in the Galatians, ‘the Apostle says not,’ says he, ‘ “by Christ I live,” but it is, “Christ liveth in me.’ ”[108]
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If there were a head so full of life, as if joined to a body wholly dead, or having the dead palsy, and could yet quicken it so far as it should live, and be a living, active animal; this must be done by its union with it, and diffusing its own vivific life and spirit into the members of that body; now this is the case between Christ and us. He not only raiseth us up from the dead, by an efficient power, but also he doth by himself quicken us, and therefore dwells in us as the soul that enlivens the body, And this is by his Godhead or divine nature, that he is thus able to dwell in us: which is called ‘the Spirit of holiness’ in him, Romans 1:4; and, Hebrews 9:14, ‘the eternal Spirit’ by which he ‘offered up himself.’ And that divine nature, as dwelling first in his own humanity, doth by coming into us as a sovereign soul into our dead souls, he quickens us; and so lives in us, as Galatians 2, and is not as one wholly without us, that by an external power raiseth, as he will do wicked men, much less by another only, viz. his Spirit, the Holy Ghost only, but himself immediately; and so he is the primum vivens in us in respect of spiritual life. And whereas you will say, the graces wrought are an inward principle of spiritual life,—vitale principium, as the schools call them,—yet he is intimior intimo nostro; more within us than we ourselves are within ourselves, or our own graces. And hence it is that when Paul speaks of this life of graces, and of our spiritual life as it is in us, whilst comparing it with Christ’s living in us, he doth as it were renounce that of his graces to be his life, or the chief inward principle of living, in that Galatians 2:20, not absolutely, but in comparison unto Christ’s being our life. ‘Nevertheless, it is not I that live, but Christ lives in me:’ and that not I is not only his carnal corrupt I, or self which he renounceth, (ego non sum ego,) but even his spiritual I, as in that like abrenunciation it is to be understood, ‘Yet not I, but the grace of God that is with me:’ it is his spiritual I as it is his own, he renounceth in that speech likewise, in Romans 7; when he says it is ‘not I, but sin,’ the I or self there, is his regenerate self; it is his inward graces, which yet in comparison unto Christ he denies, in Galatians 2. It is observable also, that there is this difference in scripture language,—and we find it in both those places, Galatians 2 and Colossians 3,—that when he speaks of our dying to sin, he puts that indeed upon a conformity with. Christ and the operation of Christ: ‘I am crucified with Christ,’ but he says not that Christ died in him. But when he comes to express our life, he says, ‘It is not I, but Christ that lives in me,’ for the reason aforesaid. The body of sin in us, which is ourself, dies with him; but in, or by, or with its dying in us, through the body of Christ, as Romans 7, Christ is never said to die in us. But then when he comes to that point of his being our life, and that the life we have by him be spoken of, then we are not only said to be alive with him, but plainly that he lives in us.
I find that divines say that our union with Christ is a substantial union; that is, it is a union of the substance of his person and of ours, which the Lord’s Supper is the symbol of, and is ordained to signify: and therefore not only by his Spirit or graces.
Query 4.—But the far greater question will be, Whether Christ dwells in us, and is made one with us, only by his Spirit’s indwelling in us first and immediately, and not that himself first and immediately?
Now towards this I must first say,—which I shall after explain,—I could never see any reason against this, that the person of the Son of God, in and with the divine nature of him, may not, by means or reason of his union with the manhood in which he personally dwells first, and then through his relation to us thereby,—may not, I say, dwell in us, as well as the third Person, the Holy Ghost, doth, which our divines very generally affirm; yea, and that he should as immediately dwell in us as the Spirit.
1. What! hath the addition of the manhood unto his person made that person, as he is God, incapable of dwelling in us immediately, as well as the person of the Spirit? Is he disprivileged thereby, whenas indeed by reason of his relation to us as God-man it is that he doth dwell in us any way?
2. It hath also seemed somewhat strange to me that he that is ordained to be the means of our union with God, and is the prime object and terminus of our union, the designed bridegroom that is to be married, the person to be one and in conjunction with us: ‘I in them, and thou in me, that they also may be one in us,’ as in John 17. It were strange, I say, that be who is the person in whom and by whom the union is effected with himself and the other two persons, and is the person most concerned in this matter of union; that himself should be married, and come to be in his nearest conjunction with us only by a proxy, viz., the Holy Ghost, and him to be sent into our hearts only to dwell in his stead: insomuch as I have been much inclined further to think that Christ joins himself to us first and immediately, and then we are made one with the Father, and then he sends his Spirit into our hearts.
Brethren, you have heard lately something of God’s electing us to union with himself; but you have heard withal that Christ is the means of that union with God, and the immediate means, yea, and the first means: and to it is proposed in those scriptures where the weight of union is put upon the foundation of it, in John 14, 17, God united his Son immediately into one person with a man, and then ordained him, and that union of his, purposely, among other things, to bring about a union of us with himself. ‘That they may be one in us,’ speaking to his Father, says Christ there. How one in us? ‘As thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee; that so they also may be one in us.’ Then take John 17:23; mark the order, ‘I in them, and thou in me.’ So as I take these, says Christ, to be one with me; and so thou, Father, comest to be in them by me. You have the like in John 14:20, ‘I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.’ The person of the Father dwells in the person of the Son, yea, in the man Jesus. And so far as the thing is capable, he prays for a like union between us and themselves, but by means of himself. And therefore first now, we are capable to have the person of Christ dwell in us immediately, and yet to have room left of an infinite distance between the Son of God dwelling in the man, as personally one person with him, and his person to dwell in us immediately, and not by graces only.
Other divines have expressed this thus: that it is a substantial union, or dwelling in us substantially; whereby I understand, and I believe it to be their meaning, that the person of the Son doth dwell in our persons, though not as one person with us; which is the man Jesus’ sole and only privilege, who is the founder of this our union. But we have the next union unto that which can be supposable, or which we are capable of. And surely he that dwells, as he is God, in common in all the creatures, his person and Godhead may well be thought to dwell in us by a special appropriated inhabitation, ns in his own house, which we are, says the Apostle, Hebrews 3, yea, and not only so, but his body also. And this union did Christ, in whose human nature the Godhead dwells bodily, or personally, bring in for us, not only such a union as Adam had, in whom it is true that the Spirit dwelt but by graces, which were the only bond of that union; and therefore when graces were forfeited and failed, that union was instantly dissolved: for the Spirit’s union was founded thereupon. And verily the forementioned speeches which Christ expresseth our union by, do give the loud sound of higher things by far than that union with God which Adam had, as to be ‘one in us,’ &c., John 17, by a union next degree unto that which the man Jesus, as then and now one person with the Son, had and enjoyed, and thereby with the other two persons of the Trinity. And perhaps if our union with himself, who is there made the means of our union with the Father, had needed to have been first and immediately made by the third Person, the Spirit, he would have said, ‘The Spirit in them, which Spirit is mine, and I in the Spirit, and thou in me.’ And this had been meet and requisite to have been said, if the Spirit had necessarily been the person who should first have come between Christ’s self and them, ere Christ could have been united to us; but he there mentions not the Spirit explicitly at all. The Father dwells not in the human nature of Christ but by the Spirit; and then why may it not be allowed that the person of Christ should dwell first in us by himself immediately, and then to send his Spirit? Yea, I would have it inquired, whether at all Christ is said to dwell in us by his Spirit? Indeed that the Spirit of Christ is in us, and that the Spirit of the Son dwells in us, is often said; but this is far from saying that he dwells in us by his Spirit, much less that his person dwelleth in us but as by his Spirit dwelling in his stead.
Query 5.—You may ask now in the fifth place, What need the Spirit of God to dwell in us, if that the person of Christ, the Son of God, in his own person, immediately dwell in us, and doth all for us, and in us?
Brethren, shall I give you a short answer: It is ex abundanti, out of the abundancy and fecundity of the Godhead, which hath three Persons in it, and the exuberancy of the love of God, and of all the three Persons in the Godhead, towards you; that so you may have the whole of the Godhead, both divine nature and all the three Persons to dwell in you: yet so as Christ’s person is still to be understood to be the medium or means of this union of the other two; and that not only by meriting or purchasing this union with the other two for us, and with himself, but by his own inhabitation first and immediate in us.
I shall give you a plain instance. You know that the human nature of Jesus Christ is now personally united to the Son of God. I will but ask him that asks the former question the very same question concerning Christ, that this questionist asks concerning us. Why and how doth the Spirit dwell in that human nature? Is it not that by the second Person’s personally dwelling therein, the fulness of the Godhead, and all those glorious fulnesses, do dwell in that man also? And doth not the second Person dwell in him, and fill him immediately by his personal presence in him, and with him, with all graces? And doth not he, and is not he fully sufficient to act all in him that is any way to be acted by him? Was not that human nature raised up by that Spirit of holiness, that is, the divine nature in him? as Romans 1:4. What needed he then to have the Spirit above measure? The ground is, that where one Person is, there the other must needs be also: and therefore the gifts and graces in the man Jesus without measure are attributed to the Spirit, as well as to the second Person, the Son, in him; and his being raised up is ascribed to the power of his Father in him, as well as to the second Person, Romans 6. To bring this home to this point in hand, of Christ’s dwelling in us, you must know that take the human nature of Christ, considered as such, and the Holy Ghost dwells no otherwise therein, for the manner or kind of his indwelling, than he doth in us, although in two things there is a vast difference. First, in the measure or degree; secondly, in the right or ground of his doing it, there is an infinite difference; but for the kind or manner he is in us as in him, and but in us as in him.
It is true that the union of the second Person, the Son, with his human nature, is of a higher and superior kind than that union which the Holy Ghost hath with him as he is man; for the second Person is one person with that man, but so is not the Holy Ghost, nor is the Father, nor in that manner united to that nature. It is true also that, take the second Person, considered simply as God, and a person in the Godhead, without the assumption of the manhood, that then it must be said that the Father and the Spirit did and do dwell in him, so as not in us, by a circumincession, as the school-men term it; which I cannot stand to explain. And so they dwelt in that divine person before the human nature was taken up into union with it, and do still in an appropriate manner, and shall, and must do so to eternity. But withal it is as true, that in the human nature that is taken up and made into one person with the Son, both the Father and Spirit do dwell therein, as simply considered, but with the same kind of union wherewith they dwell in us. And the reason hereof is, for their dwelling in the human nature is nut that they are personally united thereunto, so as it might be said that the Father is one person with the man Jesus, or that the Holy Ghost is one person with that man. No, it is only the man and the Son of God that are become one person; much less is it to be said that the man is essentially become God. And if neither of these, then it must remain that the Holy Ghost dwells in him as man; but by the inhabitation both of his person, and by the same Holy Ghost’s person, filling him with gifts and graces above measure; now thus in our measure and proportion also it must be said that he dwells in us. And again, if the man Christ were united in one person with the Father, and into one person with the Spirit, then one and the same human nature would be indeed the three, by virtue of such a personal union, if any such were. He then must be said to be one person with all of them together, and with each of them asunder. He might be termed the Father and the Spirit, as well as the Son of God. Now if these two persons, the Father and the Spirit, dwell not thus in that human nature personally, nor each as one person, respectively with the man Jesus, then it remains that they dwell but in the same kind, or in that manner, in that nature, wherewith they dwell in us; which is that their persons dwell in us, with their operations of graces, but not personally. As to the right whereupon the Spirit and the Father dwell in the human nature of Christ, that is infinitely transcending this of the Spirit’s dwelling in us; for the Father and Spirit do dwell in his human nature, as he is now become one of the persons—the man, God’s fellow—in their communicative society together. For lay but these things together. First, All three persons are essentially one God, although persons distinct enjoying that Godhead. And thus the Father and Spirit do dwell naturally or essentially in him, as he is the second Person, simply considered. And thus do each of the persons dwell one in another, and hold an intimate indwelling, and converse one in and with another; though as persons distinct. And this mutual union of the persons one in another is the highest and nearest that can be, and is indeed founded on the identity of the Godhead. But then, secondly, come to that union which the persons of the Father and Spirit have with the human nature in the Son, which is founded not upon an essential oneness with the Son, but is merely personal; that is, in its being one person with the Son. And so, thirdly, from these two doth spring forth a right to that human nature, by way of privilege, he being one person with one of them,—namely, the Son,—that the persons both of the Father and the Spirit should dwell therein, according to its utmost capacity of having union with them, which is not personal. And this is a necessary consequent of the two former assertions. But still it riseth not up that they should be personally united unto that man, who is thus personally united to this one distinct person, the Son; and but so united to him alone. From whence two things follow:—
First, That for the kind of their union, it is the same that is in us; for it is lower than that of a personal union with that man.
Secondly, There is a right due to that human nature, supposing its personal union with the Son, that they should dwell in that nature; which right is not to be found in us to our union. And this right is of that manhood, founded upon a double account:—
1. For else the man who is now one and the same person with the second Person, should be deprived of a personal privilege appertaining necessarily to him; which is to participate in the most near and intimate communion with those other two persons, Father and Spirit; into fellowship with whom he is now so highly admitted, unto the utmost that as a man so united he is capable of. And therefore as of these three Persons it is said to be, considered as they are persons, that the Father is in the Son, and the Son in the Father; so this privilege must of right descend unto the man, to enjoy the most intimate indwelling of them in himself which a creature now made a person with them, can be capable of. And surely above what all other creatures have a fitness or right to receive. Yea—
2. The divine person of the Son would be dishonoured if they did not so dwell in this human nature, according to his utmost receptivity of having them to dwell in him: it is the natural efflux or overflow of their dwelling in the person of the Son, simply considered, that breaks forth into a union with the man; that when the man is united once, they having their divine inbeing in that second Person, which is essentially, should break forth into an indwelling and possession of that manhood. And God forbid I should make any comparison at all between the indwelling of them in us we speak of, and that their indwelling in Christ’s human nature, in these respects, thus stated. But as for that other respect, the kind of it, mentioned therein, the likeness and similitude may and doth hold, the infinitely distant proportions for degrees, &c., being observed. And we are as capable to have the person of the Spirit to dwell in us for the kind of an indwelling as the human nature of Christ is. But our right to the Spirit’s indwelling in us is wholly derived, and but by Christ’s right for us, and by our relation to Christ, and also by his purchase of the Spirit for us; which are all secondary, and wholly precarious, and borrowed.
These things being forelaid, as to the points forementioned, which have been given in the answer to the foregone queries, I come to confirm them by instances, from the example or similitude of the Spirit’s dwelling in Christ’s humanity, to be in that kind that is in us; my assertion being this— That Christ’s, and so the Holy Ghost’s, dwelling in us, is not only, or primarily for, and by that his person works such and such graces in us, and the actings thereof; but that his person first gives himself and comes into us, in order to work these effects. This I confirm from the similitude or likeness of the Spirit’s dwelling in Christ’s human nature.
1. I would ask, doth the Spirit dwell in the human nature of Christ by his graces and operations only joining himself to it? No, but the person of the Holy Ghost fills the whole substance of that nature with his own person: that precious ointment, the Spirit, which Christ’s humanity is anointed withal, doth wholly diffuse himself into the whole and inwards of him; and thereby, and from thence, and therewith, fills that holy one, with those odours of gifts and graces which he so infinitely abounds in. And as concerning us, it is, in Romans 8:11, thus spoken of us, and of the Spirit in us: that ‘he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken our mortal bodies by his Spirit,’ or as it is in the margin, ‘because his Spirit that dwelleth in us:’ the Holy Spirit dwells in our bodies when dead and in the ground. Our bodies are his temples—1 Corinthians 6:19-20, ‘What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? for ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s’—as well as our souls, and he never ceaseth to dwell in them, after he is once come into them; as he did not withdraw from Christ’s body. And I am sure you will not say, as to what concerns us, that he dwells in the bodies of the saints when they are dead, by his graces; the soul carries them all to heaven with it and in it; it is therefore his person, that having once taken them into his possession, and acted in them, keeps possession in them until the resurrection.
2. Another part of this likeness between these two indwellings is, that, look, as because the Son of God, the second Person, dwelling first in, and possessing the human nature of Christ as one person with him, that then and thereupon the Spirit comes to dwell in that nature also; and that so it is in his indwelling in us, as to this respect that Christ first dwells in us, and then sends his Spirit to dwell in us; though upon another ground and right, as was said, than that whereupon the Spirit dwells in Christ.
3. As for that point of Christ’s divine nature, or as he is second Person and subsisting in that nature, his dwelling as such immediately in us; I argue thus from what hath been said, that this divine nature, and he as second Person, and so the divine nature in him, is as capable and able to dwell immediately in us as the Spirit, the third Person, is: whose Person many divines acknowledge to dwell immediately in us and in our persons, and not by his graces only; and then, why may not the second Person also, and the divine nature of him? Why may not that person fill us immediately with his Godhead? For as such he is a Spirit, yea, that Spirit in that he is God, John 4:24. And spirits do and can easily mingle; the Godhead, that is a Spirit, can readily join with our souls that are spirits, and be both in them, and through them, as Paul speaks. Satan, a spirit, can possess your bodies; yea, he doth fill the hearts of men oftentimes, in that intimate way and manner which a man is not able to do, as the Scripture speaks. Can Satan do it because he is a spirit, and cannot Christ and the Spirit of God much more intimately and closely, who is God, and as he is God? And it is his divine nature that is termed spirit in Christ often in Scripture, in distinction from his humanity, which in a contradistinction is styled his flesh; doth his being united to that man debar him, or hath it made him incapable of this? Surely no, for even after the day of judgment, when it is said that ‘God shall be all in all,’ 1 Corinthians 15:28, many understand it—and it cannot well be understood otherwise in its coherence—that God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and the Godhead in them all, shall in an immediate manner be all in all to the saints for ever, and immediately dwell in us for ever. And yet the second Person shall not then lay down his being man, no not to all eternity; for it is in respect thereof that Christ is said in that very place to be subject to his Father for ever, and therefore continues God-man for ever; for in respect thereof it is that his Father is greater than he, and so that he continues subject to his Father. There is then no obstacle that the second Person subsisting in the divine nature should be united to us immediately, from this his personal union with the man. And that there is a capacity, that he as second Person may do this, may further appear, in that both Father and Spirit are now, and shall one day be so united to us, as hath now been observed, though indeed at that day, the effect of that immediate union, or of God’s being all in all, will be an answerable immediate communion and enjoyment of Father, Son, and Spirit, which is suspended in this life, but then consummated. But you may say, Doth not this hinder, that now since the second Person is united to the human nature, that whatever he doth, he doth only through the humanity and by it, and so unites himself to us only by it? Likewise that he unites himself to us as he is Mediator, and therefore as God-man, and not simply as second Person; for that were but what is common to the other two persons, if his divine nature, as such, should thus, as I seem to affirm, unite himself unto us? And therefore the divine nature unites himself no otherwise to us, than by the union first of the human nature with us, and not immediately his divine nature, or as second Person? For answer unto which I give these following cautions and explanations:—
1. This foregoing assertion of mine is not to be understood as if the second Person did perform this act of union of himself with us, singly considered, as second Person separate from the human, or without all consideration or relation had to the human nature, either of his actual union with it which hath been from his incarnation, or of God’s ordination he should be man, and his own undertaking so to be, which was before his incarnation.
No; but, first, I affirm that unless the second Person had been actually united to the human nature as now he is; and withal, unless he had been ordered by God so to be, he had not united himself unto any of us men, neither before his incarnation nor since.
2. Hence, secondly, when I say the second Person subsisting in the divine nature doth immediately unite himself to us, I mean not by that immediateness that the second Person, considered as separate from, or without all consideration of his union with the human nature, doth, or should have ever come to dwell in us; but by immediateness I understand immediate putting forth of an act of uniting his divine nature unto us. So that though the union of the divine and human nature be either in actual assumption or God’s ordination, as before the assumption, the necessary prerequisite unto the divine nature’s actual union with us, and in the virtue of which, as necessarily presupposed, it always comes to pass that the divine nature of the second Person is united unto any, either under the Old Testament or the New; yet that human nature is not, nor was not, the medium, or organ, much less the sole way or means by which the divine nature is united unto us, but it is his own immediate exerting that act: not to be understood as to this sense, that the human nature in Christ were the only immediate uniter by which alone the divine comes to be one with us, and so itself to be but mediately united; as the soul in the body takes hold of a thing by the hand only immediately, but itself doth not so much as touch it immediately. It is one thing for one to do a thing by reason of another, and another to do it by the means and intervention of another’s doing it, or as by the sole immediate act of another. As the soul doth many rational acts immediately itself whilst it is in the body, and by reason of its dwelling in the body, or to the things and persons in the world it hath to do with, by reason of its being in the body, and not otherwise, which if single and separate it would not do, wherein yet it useth not the body, as by which it doth them. One may do a thing himself immediately, and yet upon the virtual intuition or consideration of some other thing or person he is joined with, which has the influence of a moral cause: but to do a thing by another, as the necessary organ, or physical cause, as when a man’s hand cannot immediately cut but by the intervention of a knife or sword. Here—
3. I utterly deny that the divine nature in Christ should not work an act of mediation in us and for us, but by the physical virtue or instrumentality of the human nature, and particularly this of union with us, for which to me there is this evidence. The saints of the Old Testament were united to Christ as their head as truly as we; but it could not then be by the physical virtue put forth by the human instrumentality of such a kind. For that nature was not in respect of physical existence extant, who then must be the immediate uniter, by his own vis or power exerted in it; and it is certain such a power must have been exercised in it; who but the second Person subsisting then in the divine nature, or, if you will, the divine nature subsisting in the person; and it could be no other, that either he who was extant then must himself immediately do it; or there was no immediate union of Christ at all to any saint under that dispensation. And this may well stand with what was said in the second caution, that the virtual consideration the human nature to be one day united, and in the virtual intuition thereof, this union with the saints was then made as well as now; yet it was not so as that any vis, or physical virtue of that nature, could be instrumental, as by which it might be said that the divine nature did it by the human; the divine nature of the second Person, that was the immediate cause of it. A man doth a thing in the virtue of a law, or order of state, but yet himself doth the act immediately; so the second Person, that then acted in the virtue of God’s ordination of the manhood, and his own undertaking that he should be man, and sustaining that person. And surely if he did thus unite himself before, he may do it now the humanity is assumed; for—besides the former reasons, which will reach to prove this—otherwise the saints of the Old Testament should have a higher union, and so a greater privilege thereby, than we now under the New have. For their union was the immediate act of the divine nature, and the Godhead in the second Person dwelt immediately in them then, which now dwells in us but mediately by our union with the human nature, and the divine nature dwells but secondarily in us. It might have been said of them that they were partakers of the divine nature in such a manner as we are not. Hence—
4. Although the second Person, as he is God, be immediately united, yet the ground of this union is such as is proper and peculiar to him as he is God-man; as it may not be alleged as an absurdity upon this my assertion, that if the second Person so dwell as God in us, that then upon the same account the other two persons may be said to dwell in us too, for they are God as well as he. Thus the Papists urge. But for answer, the fallacy lies in this, that though his union with us be as he is God, as the subject of this indwelling, yet for the ground of that his uniting himself, as God, to us, it is not as God simply considered, but as dwelling, or ordained to dwell in our nature personally, which additional empowered him for the union; but this additional ground is wanting in the other two persons. And although the persons of them dwell in us, subjectively considered, as they are God as well as he; yet they take of his, for the ground of that their dwelling in us, they borrow that from him. It is certain that, had not the divine person in Christ had personal union with that man Jesus, that neither God the Father nor the Spirit had ever come to dwell in us, nor the second Person himself neither; it is in the virtue of this that they all dwell in us. And so this my assertion, as it introduceth not a ground common unto the other two persons with him, the second Person, and sole Mediator, but borrows, as it were, the ground of their indwelling from him, and that of his; so it may be improved to prove that he as God is the ground, yea, the sole means of our union with the Deity, and so may well be allowed, in the application of, or effecting this union in us, to be the first indweller himself, and first to unite himself unto us. And thereby is it that the other persons come and make their habitation with us; that Father, Son, and Holy Ghost come and make their abode with us, as Christ says.
But, secondly, it may be added that his union with the human nature was not only the ground of the other two persons dwelling in us and his own, which is an honour proper to him; but further, that there is some special peculiarity in the union itself which he hath with us, that is not found in the union of the other two persons with us; for he unites himself to us as our husband, and so in an appropriate way the relation of husband speaks union, as the special fruit of it, or indeed in which it consists, and distinguishes the person of him that is so from all others. Now that relation, as Zanchy observes, is properly Christ’s, and so as not the Father’s nor the Spirit’s. It was the voice of the Son before the human nature assumed,[109]Hosea 2:19-20, ‘I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving-kindness, and in mercies. I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness; and thou shalt know the Lord.’ And he is the Lord there utters it, whom they should know as a wife her husband; there must be some further specially eminent thing in our union with Christ as our husband that is not in our union with the other two; for as the relation of union is, such must the union itself be.
Thirdly, That it is by virtue of his being our Mediator in both natures, that his divine nature cometh to dwell immediately in us, and all the whole virtue be fundamentally in him as he is God and second Person, and that is the virtue of drawing us into union with himself; as it is the loadstone itself that draws the iron, yet it exerts this more efficaciously when set in steel, yet still so as each nature works in every mediatory act proper to each nature; hence the divine nature in the second Person dwells in us as he is God. The man Jesus dwells in us according to his capacity as he is man, yet both joining still so to do according to their ability proper to each.
These things have been concerning our union with Christ, but the main thing, fourthly, is Christ’s dwelling in our hearts by faith. Let there be a union of Christ in us, as hath been spoken before, yet you will say, What is all this to his dwelling in us by faith? Why do you make this query? Why, his dwelling by faith in us is only on our parts, whereas now his person dwelling in us, as hath been discoursed, that as his dwelling in us is on his part; and the Apostle doth not pray here that Jesus Christ’s person might dwell in our persons, but that we acting faith upon him on all occasions,—and we have all occasion so to do,—he might thereby manifest himself in our hearts. Christ dwelling in us by faith is not the dwelling of his person in our persons, for he takes hold of us before we believe, and works faith in us, but it is when our faith hath taken hold of him. He dwells in us by the continual acting of our faith upon him; and this is after our conversion. My brethren, there is a threefold union with Christ. The first is relative, whereby we are said to be his and he ours. As you know he is called our husband, and the church is called his wife; and before husband and wife company together there is such a relation made by marriage; and the husband may be in one place, and the wife in another, so that there can be no communion between them, and yet be man and wife. So is the union between Christ and you as complete in the relation, before he act anything upon you, though he be in heaven and you on earth, as if you were in heaven with him. The second is an actual inbeing of his person, which is as the soul dwells in the body. The third is objectivè, by way of object: when by faith we view Christ as the faculty doth view an object; as the sight of a person doth let down the idea of him into the heart of another. Christ as the object of faith is said to dwell, and to dwell in us so far as we act faith towards him; this is that the Apostle prays for. He prays not that his person may dwell in them, but that he might dwell in them by faith. Brethren, to explain this to you, what is it for Christ to dwell by faith: I shall give you these assertions to explain it:—
Assertion 1.—It is an operative dwelling: the person of Christ may be in us, and is in us, when faith doth not operate and work in us; there may be that real inbeing. As when a man is in a swoon, his soul is in him; and when the arm is out of joint, it is still united to the body and the head, but it cannot operate; which is the case of men when they fall into presumptuous sins. For Christ to dwell in us by faith is that there may be a continual eying of Christ, and acting on Christ by us, as an object who hath virtue to convey into us, and to come in upon our hearts, and work upon our souls; that is the first: for Christ to dwell in our hearts by faith is by operation and working, whereof faith is the instrument.
Assertion 2.—That, the person of Christ dwelling in us, there are thousands of operations and influences of Christ’s person in us whereto our faith contributes nothing. Christ’s working in us is not to be limited to that; it were ill for us if it were so. Jesus Christ works a thousand and a thousand operations in our souls to which our faith concurs nothing; it were ill for us if Christ did work no more in us than we have faith for; our faith is too narrow to limit and bound his operations by. I will give you an instance. There were two disciples went to Emmaus, but they knew not that Christ talked with them; yet, said they, he warmed our hearts; and yet they did not believe nor act faith upon him. Christ dwells in us and works in us, when we act not and know not our union, nor that it is he that works. But, saith the Apostle, I pray that Christ may do nothing, but that your faith might go along with him in it. Oh! that were blessed and glorious indeed, that Christ should do everything in you, and for you, through your believing and exercising your faith on him for it; and so that through your faith on Christ all might be derived unto you; and that the whole management of the dispensations of God towards you might be by faith; and that we might attain the highest indwellings and operations in us through faith.
Assertion 3.—That when the Apostle prays that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, it is not only by faith as justifying, but all sorts of ways whatsoever, whereby we are to exercise faith upon Christ, and that through all ways whatsoever; and that thereby Christ might still take their hearts, and dwell in their hearts, be the occasion what it will be; whatsoever it be in Christ that is considered and eyed by them. My brethren, Jesus Christ, whole Christ, contains a wonderful deal more than as the object of your faith justifying; Jesus Christ is a mighty large thing for your faith and your thoughts to work upon. All that you know of his person, all that you know he hath done and will do, all these are matter for the exercise of your faith on Christ. Jesus Christ serves for infinite other things than to justify us, and faith serves for infinite other things than to justify us; yet this I must add, that no man can act faith upon Christ heartily, spiritually, or effectually, for other things, that hath not first acted faith upon Christ for justification. If a man have not acted faith for his justification on Christ, he will have no heart to go to him for sanctification, deliverance, freedom from wrath, hell, and other things. No, according as we act on him for justification, we shall act on him for other things; but all I drive at here is to shew that faith is acted on Christ for other things beside justification. Galatians 2:19, ‘I am dead to the law,’ saith the Apostle, ‘that I might live unto God;’ to live to God is the whole life of a Christian, and not only to live the life of justification; and then he adds, Galatians 2:20, ‘I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh is by the faith of the Son of God.’ Hence I gather that Christ’s living in him extends not to justification only, but to the whole life of a Christian; he adds also that Christ’s living in him is by faith, and that the whole course of his life in this world is by faith. So that this I gather as a strong argument, that all the life of the Apostle to God, every manner of way, whether natural or spiritual, it was by faith on Christ. My brethren, take the whole of Jesus Christ, whatsoever you can know of him, or learn of him, for you to act faith upon him, to view him as such, thereby Jesus Christ is let down into your souls dwelling in you, making impressions upon your souls according to what you know of him; and he doth accordingly work in you dispositions to him, adorations of him, according as you know him; so he works also in you affections to him, and all holy impressions whatsoever: so he works in you according as you act faith on him, or think of him in any consideration whatsoever, whether in his death, or resurrection, or any other consideration.
Brethren, set your hearts to think on Christ as dying for your sins, and see what dispositions of heart this works in your souls unto Christ; and so go over other considerations of Christ; inure your hearts thus to think of Christ, and join prayer to God to work with you, and you will find that going from one thing to another, all of Christ will affect your heart; and Jesus Christ hereby works upon you, applieth himself to you, supplies you, and changeth your heart into his likeness and image.
Grace in us should be so wrought in us to such a height as that nothing but the image of Christ should be in the actings of our hearts; and that there should be in us dispositions suitable to everything we know and believe of Christ, that so Christ, thus in his image, may indeed dwell in your hearts by faith; for the image of Christ in you is called Christ: and I might give you scriptures for it.
Act faith on Christ as dying for you, and you shall see that it will make a lust to shrink and die in you. As one said of a lust at a sacrament, that when he acted faith on Christ as dying, his lust shrunk and skulked presently; so would it be with us: and indeed we need no other religion but this, to act faith upon Christ constantly, and then we should find all this in us; though we are apt to be discouraged that we find it not presently.