Communion with God—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
By John Owen, D.D.—
( A Review by J C Philpot March, 1858.)
As no heart can sufficiently conceive, so no tongue can adequately express, the state of wretchedness and ruin into which sin has cast guilty, miserable man. In separating him from God, it has severed him from the only Source and fountain of all happiness and all holiness. It has ruined him, body and soul. The one it has filled with sickness and disease; in the other it has defaced and destroyed the image of God in which it was created. It has shattered all his mental faculties; it has broken his judgment, polluted his imagination, and alienated his affections.
It has made him love sin, and hate God; it has filled him from top to toe with pride, lust, and cruelty, and has been the fruitful parent of all those crimes and abominations under which earth groans, and the bare recital of some of which, reaching our ears from "India's coral strand," has filled so many hearts with disgust and horror. These are the more visible fruits of the fall. But nearer home, in our own hearts, in what we are or have been, we find and feel what wreck and ruin sin has made. There can be no greater mark of alienation from God than wilfully and deliberately to seek pleasure and delight in things which his holiness abhors.
But who of the family of God has not been guilty here? Every movement and inclination of our natural mind, every desire and lust of our carnal heart, was, in times past, to find pleasure and gratification in something abhorrent to the will and word of the living Jehovah. There are few of us who, in the eye of our flesh, have not sought pleasure in some of its varied but deceptive forms. The theatre, the race-course, the dance, the sports of the field, the card-table, the midnight
revel, or the stolen waters of sin were resorted to by some of us to afford what
the Apostle calls "the pleasures of sin for a season." Our mad, feverish, thirst
after excitement; the continued cry of our wicked flesh, "Give, give!" our
miserable recklessness or headlong, daring determination to enjoy ourselves,
as we called it, cost what it would, plunged us again and again into the sea of
sin, where, but for sovereign grace, we should have sunk to rise no more. Or,
if the restraints of morality put their check upon gross and sinful pleasures,
there still was a seeking after such allowable, as we deemed them amusements,
as change of scene and place, foreign travel, the reading of novels and works
of fiction, dress, visiting, building up airy castles of love and romance,
studying how to obtain human applause, devising plans of self-advancement
and self-gratification, occupying the mind with cherished studies, and
delighting ourselves in those pursuits for which we had a natural taste, as
music, drawing, poetry, or, it might be, severer studies and scientific
researches.
We have named these middle-class pursuits as less obvious sins than such gross crimes as drunkenness and vile debauchery in the lower walks
of life; but, viewed with a spiritual eye, all are equally stamped with the same
fatal brand of death in sin. The moral and the immoral, the refined and the
unrefined, the polished few or the rude many, are alike "without God and
without hope in the world," until renewed in the spirit of their mind. We are
often met with this question, "What harm is there in this pursuit or in that
amusement?" "Is God there?" should be the answer. The harm is, that the
amusement is delighted in for its own sake; that it occupies the mind, and fills
the thoughts, shutting God out; that it renders spiritual things distasteful; that
it sets up an idol in the heart, and is made a substitute for God. Now this we
never really know nor feel till divine light illuminates the mind, and divine life
quickens the soul. We then begin to see and feel into what a miserable state sin
has cast us; how all our life long we have done nothing but what God abhors;
that every imagination of the thoughts of our hearts has been evil, and only
evil continually; that we have brought ourselves under the stroke of God's
justice, under the curse of his righteous law, and now there appears nothing
but death and destruction before our eyes.
And yet, with all this misery and wretchedness, through all this remorse for
the past and dread for the future, there are raised up desires after God—the
fruit and work of his grace in the heart. These are the first breathings after
communion with God, the first movement of the soul quickened from above
towards its Father and Friend.
But whence comes this movement of the soul upward and heavenward? What
is the foundation on which a sinner may venture nigh, yea, as brought near,
may realise what holy John speaks of, "And truly our fellowship is with the
Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ?" (1 John 1:3.)
God himself has laid the foundation in the gift of his dear Son. Had Jesus not
taken our nature into union with his own divine Person, there never could
have been any communion of man with God. This is beautifully unfolded by
the Apostle. (Heb. 2.) "Forasmuch, then, as the children are partakers of flesh
and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same, that, through death,
he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil, and
deliver them who, through fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to
bondage." "The children whom God had given him" were partakers of flesh
and blood. But this flesh and blood had sinned, was become alienated from
God, was tyrannised over by the devil, was subject to death, and the judgment
that cometh after death, and the fear of death held them in continual bondage.
Unless these poor bondslaves of sin, Satan, and death were redeemed, they
could not be reconciled to God, or brought near so as to have any fellowship
or communion with him. But the Son of God "took on him the seed of
Abraham," that is, he assumed human nature as derived from Abraham; for
the Virgin Mary, of whose flesh he took, was lineally descended from
Abraham; and thus was "made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem
them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons."
And so "in all things being made like unto his brethren," (sin only excepted,
of which he had no taint or stain,) "he became a merciful and faithful high
priest to make reconciliation for the sins of the people." Without this
redemption, without this reconciliation, there could be no communion.
Communion means fellowship; fellowship implies mutual participation and
mutual interest. It is not single, but twofold—a community of nature, or
interest, or affection, in which each party gives and takes. Thus the foundation
of all communion with God is laid in this blessed truth, that the Son of God
has taken our flesh; this gives him communion with man. He is himself God;
this gives him communion with God. In the ladder that Jacob saw in vision,
the lowest part rested on earth, the highest was lost in heaven. Thus the
human nature of Christ touches earth with its sorrows, but his divine rises up
to heaven with its glory; and man, poor, wretched man, may, by having
communion with Christ in his sufferings, have communion with God in his
love. John blessedly opens up this in his first epistle: "That which was from
the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which
we have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the Word of life." (1
John 1:1.) What had John heard from the beginning? What had he seen with
his eyes? What had he looked upon, and his hands had handled of the Word
of life? What but the Son of God in the flesh? His ears had heard the voice; his
eyes had seen the form; his hands had handled the feet and hands of the Word
of life; and not merely bodily, for that would no more have given him life than
it did the Jewish officers who bound his hands, or the Roman soldiers who
nailed him to the cross. It was the spiritual manifestation of the Word of Life
to his soul, (as he himself declares: "For the life was manifested, and we have
seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life which was with
the Father, and was manifested unto us,") which enabled him to say, "That
which we have seen and heard, declare we unto you, that ye also may have
fellowship with us, and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his
Son Jesus Christ." (1 John 1:3.) Now, as this divine way is opened up to our
hearts, we begin to find access to God through Jesus Christ, as "the way, the
truth, and the life." Until he is in some measure revealed and made known to
the soul, there is no ground of access to God. Sin, guilt, and condemnation
block up the path; the law curses, conscience condemns, Satan accuses, and in
self there is neither help nor hope. But as Christ is revealed and made known,
and the virtue and efficacy of his blood is seen and felt, faith becomes
strengthened to approach the Father through him, until after many a struggle
between hope and despair, the love of God is shed abroad in the heart, and
this gives fellowship with God.
Dr. Owen in the work before us, has penetrated into the depths of this divine
subject, as few but himself could have done. He has shown, with his usual
clearness, the foundation on which all communion with God is based; and he
has in a very sweet and experimental manner, unfolded the fruits that spring
out of it, in the heart and life of a child of God.
As God exists in a Trinity of Persons and a Unity of Essence, the Doctor has
divided his work into three leading branches, and has unfolded in the first,
communion with the Father, in the second, communion with the Son, and in
the third, communion with the Holy Ghost. As it is, like most of Owen's, a
very deep and elaborate treatise, sounding the depths and ascending to the
heights of communion with a Three-One God, we can hardly give a sufficient
idea of the work from a few detached extracts. Yet the following passages,
taken from different parts of the work, will serve to show the spiritual and
experimental manner in which he has handled his heavenly subject:
There are three things in general, wherein this personal excellency and grace
of the Lord Jesus Christ doth consist.
1. His fitness to save. The uniting of the natures of God and man in one person
made him fit to be a Saviour to the uttermost. He lays his hand upon God by
partaking of his nature; (Zech. 13:7;) and he lays his hand upon us by being
partaker of our nature; (Heb. 2:14-16;) and so becomes a daysman or umpire
between both. By this means he fills up all the distance that was made by sin
between God and us, and we who are far off are made nigh in him. Upon this
account it was, that he had room enough in his breast to receive, and power
enough in his spirit to bear all the wrath that was prepared for us. This
ariseth from his union of the two natures of God and man in one person;
(John 1:14; Isa. 9:6; Rom. 1:3-5;) the necessary consequences whereof are: 1.
The subsistence of human nature in the person of the Son of God, having no
subsistence of its own. (Luke 1:35; 1 Tim. 3:16.) 2. That communication of
attributes in the person whereby the properties of either nature are
promiscuously spoken of the person of Christ, whether as God or man. (Acts
20:28; 3:28.) 3. The execution of his office of mediation in his single person, in
respect of both natures, wherein is to be considered the agent, Christ himself,
God and man; he is the principle that gives life and efficacy to the whole
work, that which operates, which is both natures distinctly considered; the
effectual working itself of each nature. And lastly, the effect produced, which
ariseth from all, and relates to them all; so resolving the excellency I speak of
into his personal union.
2. His fulness to save,from the effects of his union which are free, and
consequences of it, which is all the furniture that he received from the Father
by the union of the Spirit for the work of our salvation. "He is able to save
unto the uttermost them that come unto God by him;" (Heb. 7:25;) having all
fulness unto this end communicated unto him; "for it pleased the Father that
in him all fulness should dwell." (Col. 1:19.) And he received not the Spirit by
measure; (John 3:34;) and from this fulness he makes out a suitable supply
unto all that are his, grace for grace; (John 1:16;) had it been given him by
measure, we had exhausted it.
3. His excellency to endear, from his complete suitableness to all the wants of
the souls of men. There is no man whatever that hath any want in reference
unto the things of God, but Christ will be unto him that which he wants. I
speak of those who are given him of the Father. Is he dead? Christ is life. Is he
weak? Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. Hath he the sense
of guilt upon him? Christ is complete righteousness, "the Lord our
Righteousness." Many poor creatures are sensible of their wants, but know
not where their remedy lies. Indeed, whether it be life or light, power or joy,
all is wrapped up in him.
There are two things that complete this self-resignation of the soul.
1. The loving of Christ for his excellency, grace, and suitableness, preferring
him in the judgment and mind above all other beloveds. In Cant. 5:9, 10, the
spouse, being earnestly pressed by professors at large to give in her thoughts
concerning the excellency of her beloved in comparison of other endearments,
answereth expressly that he is the "chiefest of ten thousand, yea, (verse 16),
altogether lovely," infinitely beyond comparison with the choicest created
good or endearment imaginable. The soul takes a view of all that is in the
world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, and sees it
all to be vanity—that the world passeth away, and the lust thereof. (1 John
2:16, 17.) These beloveds are no way to be compared unto him. It views also
legal righteousness, blamelessness before men, uprightness of conversation,
and concludes of all, as Paul doth, "Doubtless I count all these things loss for
the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord." (Phil. 3:8.) So also
doth the church (Hos. 14:3, 4) reject all assistances, that God alone may be
preferred. And this is the soul's entrance into conjugal communion with Jesus
Christ, as to personal grace, the constant preferring him above all pretenders
to its affections, counting all loss and dung in comparison of him. Beloved
learning, beloved righteousness, beloved duties, all loss compared with Christ.
2. The accepting of Christ by the willas its only husband, Lord, and Saviour.
This is called receiving of Christ, (John 1:12) 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 him as such.
When the soul consents to take Christ on his own terms, to be saved by him in
his own way, (Rom. 9:31, 32;. 10:3, 4,) and says, "Lord, once I would have had
thee and salvation in my way, that it might have been partly of mine
endeavours, and as it were by works of the law; but 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 Spirit, for in thee have I righteousness and strength, (Isa. 45:24,)
in thee am I justified and do glory;" then doth it carry on communion with
Christ as to the grace of his person. This is to receive the Lord Jesus in his
comeliness and eminency. This is choice communion with the Son Jesus
Christ. Let us receive him in all his excellences, as he bestows himself upon us.
I shall choose out one particular from among many, for the proof of this
thing; and that is, Christ reveals the secrets of his mind unto his saints, and
enables them to reveal the secrets of their hearts to him—an evident
demonstration of great delight. It is only a bosom friend unto whom we will
unbosom ourselves.
There is no greater evidence of delight in close communion than this, that one will reveal his heart unto him whom he takes into society, and not entertain him with things common and vulgarly known. And therefore have I chosen this instance from amongst a thousand that might be given of this delight of Christ in his saints. He communicates his mind unto his saints and unto them only; his mind, the counsel of his love, the thoughts of his heart, the purposes of his bosom for our eternal good. His mind, the ways of his grace, the workings of his Spirit, the rule of his sceptre, and the obedience of his gospel—all is spiritual revelation of Christ. "He is the true light that enlighteneth every man that cometh into the world." (John 1:9.) He is the dayspring, the day-star, and the sun. So that it is impossible any light should be but by him, "the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him; and he shows them his covenant," (Psa. 25:14,) as he expresses it at large, John 15:14,15.
Now the things which in this communion Christ reveals to them that he
delights in may be referred to these two heads: Himself; His Kingdom.
Christ reveals himself to his people. "He that loveth me shall be loved of my
Father; and I will love him, and will manifest myself in all my graces,
desirableness, and loveliness; he shall know me as I am, and such I will be
unto him, a Saviour, a Redeemer, the chiefest of ten thousand. He shall be
acquainted with the true worth and value of the pearl of price; let others look
upon him as no way desirable, he will manifest himself and his excellences
unto them in whom he is delighted, that they shall see him altogether lovely.
The saints with open face shall behold his glory, and so be translated to the
image of the same glory as by the Spirit of the Lord." He also reveals his
kingdom. They shall be acquainted with the government of his Spirit in their
hearts, and also his administration of authority in his word among his
churches. Thus does he manifest his delight in his saints; he communicates his
secrets unto them; he gives them to know his Person, his excellences, his grace,
his love, his kingdom, his will, the riches of his goodness, and the bowels of his
mercy, more and more, when the world shall neither see nor know any such
thing.
And he also enables his saints to reveal their souls unto him, so that they may
walk together as intimate friends; Christ knows the minds of all. "He knows
what is in man, and needs not that any man testify of him." (John 2:26.) He
"searcheth the hearts and trieth the reins of all." (Rev. 2:23.) But all know not
how to communicate their mind to Christ. It will not avail a man at all, that
Christ knows his mind, for so he does of every one whether he will or no; but
that a man can make his heart known unto Christ, this is consolation. Hence,
the prayers of the saints are "incense," "odours;" and those of others are
"howling," "cutting off a dog's neck, offering of swine's blood," "an
abomination unto the Lord."
When such a pen as Dr. Owen's has written on this subject, well may ours be
slow to add anything to his wise and weighty words; yet we should be hardly
satisfied to bring our Review abruptly to a close without expressing a little of
what we see and feel upon this vital point, for in it we are thoroughly
convinced lie the very life and power of all saving religion. Nothing
distinguishes the divine religion of the saint of God, not only from the dead
profanity of the openly ungodly, but from the formal lip-service of the lifeless
professor, so much as communion with God.
How clearly do we see this exemplified in the saints of old. Abel sought after
fellowship with God when "he brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of the
fat thereof," for he looked to the atoning blood of the Lamb of God. God
accepted the offering, and "testified of his gifts" by manifesting his divine
approbation. Here was fellowship between Abel and God. Enoch "walked
with God;" but how can two walk together except they be agreed? And if
agreed, they are in fellowship and communion. Abraham was "the friend of
God;" "The Lord spake to Moses face to face;" David was "the man after
God's own heart;"—all which testimonies of the Holy Ghost concerning them
implied that they were reconciled, brought near, and walked in holy
communion with the Lord God Almighty.
So all the saints of old, whose sufferings and exploits are recorded in Heb. 11 lived a life of faith and prayer, a life of fellowship and communion with their Father and their friend; and though "they were stoned, sawn asunder, and slain with the sword;" though "they wandered about in sheep-skins and goat-skins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented;" though "they wandered in deserts and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth," yet they all were sustained in their sufferings and sorrows by the Spirit and grace, the presence and power of the living God, with whom they held sweet communion; and, though tortured, would "accept no deliverance," by denying their Lord, "that they might obtain a better resurrection," and see him as he is in glory, by whose grace they were brought into fellowship with him on earth.
This same communion with himself is that which God now calls his saints
unto, as we read, "God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship
of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord," (1 Cor. 1:9,) for to have fellowship with his
Son is to have fellowship with him. As then he called Abraham out of the land
of the Chaldees, so he calls elect souls out of the world, out of darkness, sin,
and death, out of formality and self-righteousness, out of a deceptive
profession, to have fellowship with himself, to be blessed with manifestations
of his love and mercy. To this point all his dealings with their souls tend; to
bring them near to himself, all their afflictions, trials, and sorrows are sent;
and in giving them tastes of holy fellowship here, he grants them foretastes
and prelibations of that eternity of bliss which will be theirs when time shall
be no more, in being for ever swallowed up with his presence and love.
Even in the first awakenings of the Spirit, in the first quickenings of his grace,
there is that in the living soul which eternally distinguishes it from all others,
whatever be their profession, however high or however low, however in
doctrine sound or unsound, however in practice consistent or inconsistent.
There is, amidst all its trouble, darkness, guilt, confusion, and selfcondemnation,
a striving after communion with God; though still ignorant of
who or what he is, and still unable to approach him with confidence. There is
a sense of his greatness and glory; there is a holy fear and godly awe of his
great name; there is a trembling at his word; a brokenness, a contrition, a
humility, a simplicity, a sincerity, a self-abasement, a distrust of self, a dread
of hypocrisy and self-deception, a coming to the light, a labouring to enter the
strait gate, a tenderness of conscience, a sense of unbelief, helplessness, and
inability, a groaning under the guilt and burden of sin, a quickness to see its
workings, and an alarm lest they should break forth—all which we never see
in a dead, carnal professor, whether the highest Calvinist or the lowest
Arminian. In all these, whatever their creed or name, there is a hardness, a
boldness, an ignorance, and a self-confidence which chill and repel a child of
God. Their religion has in it no repentance and no faith—therefore no hatred
of sin or fear of God. It is a mere outside, superficial form, springing out of a
few natural convictions, and attended with such false hopes and self-righteous
confidence as a Balaam might have from great gifts, or an Ahithophel from
great knowledge, or the Pharisee in the temple from great consistency, but as
different from a work of grace as heaven from earth. How different from this
is he who is made alive unto God. His religion is one carried on between God
and his own conscience, in the depths of his soul, and, for the most part, amid
much affliction and temptation. Being pressed down with a sight and sense of
the dreadful evil of sin, he at times dares hardly draw near to God, or utter a
word before the great and glorious majesty of heaven. And yet he is
sometimes driven and sometimes drawn to pour out his heart before him, and
seek his face night and day, besides more set seasons of prayer and
supplication. And yet this he cannot do without peculiar trial and temptation.
If he stay away from the throne, he is condemned in his own conscience as
having no religion, as being a poor, prayerless, careless wretch; if he come, he
is at times almost overwhelmed by a sight of the majesty and holiness of God,
and his open, dreadful sins against and before the eyes of his infinite purity. If
he is cold and dead, he views that as a mark of his own hypocrisy; if he is
enlarged, and feels holy liberty and blessed confidence spring up in his soul,
he can scarcely believe it real, and fears lest it be presumption, and that Satan
is now deceiving him as an angel of light; if he has a promise applied, and is
sweetly blessed for a time, he calls it afterwards all in question; if favoured
under the word, to see his interest clear, he often questions whether it were
really of God; and if his mouth is opened to speak to a Christian friend of any
sweetness he has enjoyed, or any liberty that he has felt, he is tried to the very
quick, before an hour is gone over his head, whether he has not been deceiving
a child of God.
But by all these things living souls are instructed. The emptiness of a mere
profession, the deceitfulness of their own hearts, the darkness, misery, and
death that sin always brings in its train when secretly indulged, the vanity of
this poor, passing scene, the total inability of the creature, whether in
themselves or others, to give them any real satisfaction, all become more
thoroughly inwrought into their soul's experience. And as they get glimpses
and glances of the King in his beauty, and see and feel more of his blessedness
and suitability to all their wants and woes; as his blood and righteousness,
glorious person, and finished work are more sensibly realised, believed in,
looked unto, and reposed upon; and as he himself is pleased to commune with
them from the mercy-seat through his word, Spirit, presence, and love, they
begin to hold close and intimate fellowship with him. Every fresh view of his
beauty and blessedness draws their heart more towards him; and though they
often slip, stumble, start aside, wander away on the dark mountains, though
often as cold as ice and hard as adamant, with no more feeling religion than
the stones of the pavement, and viler in their own feelings than the vilest and
worst, still ever and anon their stony heart relents, the tear of grief runs down
their cheek, their bosom heaves with godly sorrow, prayer and supplication go
forth from their lips, sin is confessed and mourned over, pardon is sought with
many cries, the blood of sprinkling is begged for, a word, a promise, a smile, a
look, a touch, are again and again besought, till body and soul are alike
exhausted with the earnestness of expressed desire. O, how much is needed to
bring the soul to its only rest and centre. What trials and afflictions; what
furnaces, floods, rods, and strokes, as well as smiles, promises, and gracious
drawings! What pride and self to be brought out of! What love and blood to
be brought unto! What lessons to learn of the freeness and fulness of
salvation! What sinkings in self! What risings in Christ! What guilt and
condemnation on account of sin; what self-loathing and self-abasement; what
distrust of self; what fears of falling; what prayers and desires to be kept;
what clinging to Christ; what looking up and unto his divine majesty, as faith
views him at the right hand of the Father; what desires never more to sin
against him, but to live, move, and act in the holy fear of God, do we find,
more or less daily, in a living soul!
And whence springs all this inward experience but from the fellowship and
communion which there is between Christ and the soul? "We are members,"
says the Apostle, "of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones." As such there is
a mutual participation in sorrow and joy. "He hath borne our griefs, and
carried our sorrows." "He was in all points tempted like as we are, yet
without sin." He can, therefore, "be touched with the feelings of our
infirmities," can pity and sympathise; and thus, as we may cast upon him our
sins and sorrows, when faith enables, so can he supply, out of his own fulness,
that grace and strength which can bring us off eventually more than
conquerors.
But here, for the present, we pause, having only just touched the threshold of
a subject so full of divine blessedness. Such a subject as this, descending to all
the depths of sin and sorrow, and rising up to all the heights of grace and
glory, embracing fellowship with Christ in his sufferings and fellowship with
Christ in his glory, is a theme for Paul after he had been caught up into the
third heaven, and for John in Patmos, after he had seen him walking in the
midst of the seven golden candlesticks; nor even could their divinely-taught
souls adequately comprehend, nor their divinely-inspired pens worthily
describe all that is contained in the solemn mystery of the communion that the
Church, as the Bride of the Lamb, is called to enjoy with Father, Son, and
Holy Ghost, the great and glorious Three-in-One God.
(Concluded, April, 1858.)
What Christ is to the Church, what the Church is to Christ, can never be
really known till time give place to eternity, faith to sight, and hope to
enjoyment. Nor even then, however beyond all present conception the powers
and faculties of the glorified souls and bodies of the saints may be expanded,
however conformed to the glorious image of Christ, or however ravished with
the discoveries of his glory and the sight of him as he is in one unclouded
day,—no, not even then, will the utmost stretch of creature love, or highest
refinement of creature intellect, wholly embrace or fully comprehend that love
of Christ, which, as in time so in eternity, "passeth knowledge," as being in
itself essentially incomprehensible, because infinite and divine. Who can
calculate the amount of light and heat that dwell in, and are given forth by the
sun that shines at this moment so gloriously in the noonday sky? We see, we
feel, we enjoy its bright beams; but who can number the millions of millions of
rays that it casts forth upon all the surface of the earth, diffusing light, heat,
and fertility to every part? If the creature be so great, glorious, and
incomprehensible, how much more great, glorious, and incomprehensible
must be its divine Creator! The Scripture testimony of the saints in glory is
that "when Christ shall appear they shall be like him, for they shall see him as
he is;" (1 John 3:2;) that they shall then see the Lord "face to face, and know
even as also they are known;" (1 Cor. 13:12;) that their "vile body shall be
fashioned like unto his glorious body;" (Phil. 3:21;) that they shall be
"conformed to his image," (Rom. 8:29,) and "be satisfied when they awake
with his likeness;" (Ps. 17:15;) that they shall be "before the throne of God,
and serve him day and night in his temple;" (Rev. 7:15;) that "their sun shall
no more go down, for the Lord shall be their everlasting light;" (Isa. 60:20;)
that they shall have "an exceeding and eternal weight of glory;" (2 Cor.4:17;)
and shall "shine as the brightness of the firmament, and as the stars for ever
and ever." (Dan. 12:3.) But, with all this unspeakable bliss and glory, there
must be in infinite Deity unfathomable depths which no creature, however
highly exalted, can ever sound; heights which no finite, dependent being can
ever scan. God became man, but man never can become God. He fully knows
us, but we never can fully know him, for even in eternity, as in time, it may be
said to the creature, "Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find
out the Almighty unto perfection? It is as high as heaven; what canst thou do?
deeper than hell, what canst thou know? The measure thereof is longer than
the earth, and broader than the sea." (Job 11:7-9.) But if, as we believe,
eternity itself can never fully or entirely reveal the heights and depths of the
love of a Triune God, how little can be known of it in a time state! and yet that
little is the only balm for all sorrow, the only foundation of solid rest and
peace.
In resuming, therefore, our subject, we are at once led to feel how little here
below we can realise of that love of Christ in the knowledge and enjoyment of
which mainly consists all communion with him. But we are encouraged to
drop a few more hints on this sacred subject, not only from its peculiar
blessedness, and in the hope that its further consideration may be profitable to
our readers, but from the testimony that we have received from some of them
that what we were enabled to write in our last Number met with their
acceptance, and was read by them with interest and pleasure.
Love is communicative. This is a part of its very nature and essence. Its
delight is to give, and especially to give itself; and all it wants or asks is a
return. To love and to be beloved, to enjoy and to express that ardent and
mutual affection by words and deeds; this is love's delight, love's heaven. To
love, and not be loved,—this is love's misery, love's hell. God is love. This is
his very nature, an essential attribute of his glorious being; and as he, the
infinite and eternal Jehovah, exists in a Trinity of distinct Persons, though
undivided Unity of Essence! there is a mutual ineffable love of the three
Persons in the sacred Godhead the Scripture abundantly testifies: "The
Father loveth the Son;" (John 3:35;) "And hast loved them as thou hast loved
me;" (John 17:23;) "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased."
(Matt. 3:17.) And as the Father loves the Son, so does the Son love the Father:
"But that the world may know that I love the Father," are his own blessed
words. (John 14:31.) And that the Holy Ghost loves the Father and the Son is
evident not only from his divine personality in the Godhead, but because he is
essentially the very "Spirit of love," (Rom. 15:30, 2 Tim. 1:7,) and as such
"sheds the love of God abroad in the heart" of the election of grace. (Rom.
5:5.)
Thus man was not needed by the holy and ever-blessed Trinity as an object of
divine love. Sufficient, eternally and amply sufficient, to all the bliss and
blessedness, perfection and glory of Jehovah was and ever would have been
the mutual love and intercommunion of the three Persons in the sacred
Godhead. But love—the equal and undivided love, of Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit, flowed out beyond its original and essential being to man; and not
merely to man as man, that is to human nature as the body prepared for the
Son of God to assume, but to thousands and millions of the human race, who
are all loved personally and individually with all the infinite love of God as
much as if that love were fixed on only one, and he were loved as God loves his
dear Son. "I have loved thee with an everlasting love," is spoken to each
individual of the elect as much as to the whole church, viewed as the mystical
Bride and Spouse of the Lamb. Thus the love of a Triune God is not only to
the nature which in due time the Son of God should assume, the flesh and
blood of the children, the seed of Abraham which he should take on him,
(Heb. 2:14-16,) and for this reason viewed by the Triune Jehovah with eyes of
intense delight, but to that innumerable multitude of human beings who were
to form the mystical body of Christ. Were Scripture less express, we might
still believe that the nature which one of the sacred Trinity was to assume
would be delighted in and loved by the holy Three-in-One. But we have the
testimony of the Holy Ghost to the point, that puts it beyond all doubt or
question. When, in the first creation of that nature the Holy Trinity said, "Let
us make man in our image, after our likeness," and when, in pursuance of
that divine council, "the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul,"
God thereby uniting an immortal soul to an earthly body, this human nature
was created not only in the moral image of God, (Eph. 4:24,) but after the
pattern of that body which was prepared for the Son of God by the Father.
(Heb. 10:5.) The Holy Ghost, therefore, in Ps. 8, puts into the mouth of the
inspired Psalmist an anthem of praise flowing from the meditations of his
heart upon the grace and glory bestowed upon human nature, as exalted in
the person of Christ above all the glory of the starry heavens: "When I
consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which
thou hast ordained: what is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of
man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the
angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to
have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his
feet." (Ps. 8:3-6.) Here the Psalmist bursts forth into a rapture of admiration
at beholding how man, that is, human nature, in itself so weak and fragile, so
inferior in beauty and splendour to the glorious orbs that stud the midnight
sky, should yet attract the mind, and be visited by the love of God; how that
nature, "made a little lower than the angels" in its original constitution, yet
should, by virtue of its being taken into union with the Person of the Son of
God, be crowned with honour and glory, and dominion given to it over all the
works of God's hands in heaven and in earth. (Matt. 28:18.) That this is the
mind of the Holy Ghost is evident from the interpretation given of the Psalm
by the inspired Apostle: "But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is
man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that thou visitest him?
Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst him with
glory and honour, and didst set him over the works of thy hands. Thou hast
put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection
under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet
all things put under him. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than
the angels, for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he
by the grace of God should taste death for every man." (Heb. 2:6-9.) When,
then, the Son of God took our flesh into union with his own divine Person, he
not only invested that nature with unspeakable glory, but by partaking of the
same identical substance, the same flesh, and blood, and bones, wedded the
Church unto himself. This is the true source, as it is the only real and solid
foundation of all the union and communion that the Church enjoys with
Christ on earth, or ever will enjoy with him in heaven. He thus became her
Head, her Husband, and she became his body, his wife. Nor are these mere
names, and titles, any more than husband and wife are mere names and titles
in their natural relationship. The marriage relation is an unalterable tie, an
indissoluble bond, giving and cementing a peculiar but substantial union,
making man and wife one flesh, and investing them with an interest in each
other's person and property, happiness and honour, love and affection, such
as exists in no other relationship of life. Thus the assumption of human nature
made the Lord Jesus Christ a real, not a nominal husband, yea, as much a
husband to the Church as Adam became husband to Eve on that memorable
morn in Paradise, "when the Lord God brought her unto the man" in all her
original purity and innocence, (beautiful type of the Church as presented to
Christ in her unfallen condition!) "and Adam said, This is now bone of my
bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman because she was taken
out of man." (Gen. 2:23.) As then in the marriage union man and wife become
one flesh, (Gen. 2:24,) and, God having joined them together, no man may put
them asunder, (Matt. 19:5,) so when the Lord Jesus Christ, in the "everlasting
covenant, ordered in all things and sure," betrothed the church unto himself,
they became before the face of heaven one in indissoluble ties. As he
undertook in "the fulness of time" to be "made of a woman," she became one
with him in body by virtue of a common nature; and becomes one with him in
spirit when, as each individual member comes forth into a time state, the
blessed Spirit unites it to him by regenerating grace. Such is the testimony of
the word of truth. "We are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his
bones;" (Eph. 5:30;). "He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit." (1 Cor.
6:17.) Her union, therefore, with his flesh ensures to her body conformity in
the resurrection morn to the glorified body of Jesus; and her union with his
spirit ensures to her soul an eternity of bliss in the perfection of knowledge,
holiness, and love. Thus the union of the church with Christ commenced in the
councils of eternal wisdom and love, is made known upon earth by
regenerating grace, and is perfected in heaven in the fulness of glory.
The church, it is true, fell in Adam from that state of innocence and purity in
which she was originally created. But how the Adam fall, in all its miserable
consequences, instead of cancelling the bond and disannulling the everlasting
covenant, only served more fully and gloriously to reveal and make known the
love of Christ to his chosen bride in all its breadth and length and depth and
height! She fell, it is true, into unspeakable, unfathomable depths of sin and
misery, guilt and crime; but she never fell out of his heart or out of his arms.
Yet what without the fall would have been known of dying love or of the
mystery of the cross? Where would have been the song of the redeemed,
"Unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood?"
Where the victory over death and hell, or the triumphs of superabounding
grace over the aboundings of sin, guilt, and despair? Where would have been
the "leading captivity captive," the "spoiling principalities and powers, and
making a show of them openly, triumphing over them in himself?" What
would have been known of that most precious attribute of God—mercy? What
of his forbearance and long-suffering; what of his pitiful compassion to the
poor lost children of men? As then the church's head and husband could not
and would not dissolve the union, break the covenant, or alter the thing that
had gone out of his lips, and yet could not take her openly unto himself in all
her filth, and guilt, and shame, he had to redeem her with his own heart's
blood, with agonies and sufferings such as earth or heaven never before
witnessed, with those dolorous cries under the hidings of his Father's face,
which made the earth to quake, the rocks to rend, and the sun to withdraw its
light. But his love was strong as death, and he endured the cross, despising the
shame, bearing her sins in his own body on the tree, and thus suffering the
penalty due to her crimes, reconciled her unto God "in the body of his flesh,
through death, to present her holy, and unblameable and unreprovable in his
sight." (Col. 1:22.) Having thus reconciled her unto God, as she comes forth
from the womb of time, he visits member after member of his mystical body
with his regenerating grace, that "he may sanctify and cleanse it with the
washing of water by the word," and thus eventually "present it to himself a
glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing." (Eph. 5:26,
27.) Communion with Christ, therefore begins below, in our time state. It is
here that the mystery of the marriage union is first made known; here the
espousals entered into; (Jer. 2:2, 2 Cor. 11:2;) here the first kiss of betrothed
love given. (Song 1:2.) The celebration of the marriage is to come; (Rev. 19:7-
9;) but the original betrothal in heaven and the spiritual espousals on earth
make Christ and the church eternally one. As then the husband, when he
becomes united to his wife in marriage ties, engages thereby to love her,
cherish her, feed her, clothe her, count her interests his interests, her honour
his honour, and her happiness his happiness, so the blessed Jesus, when in the
councils of eternity, he betrothed the Church to himself, undertook to be to
her and do for her everything that should be for her happiness and honour,
perfection and glory. His own words are, "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." (Hos. 2:19, 20.) And again, "For
thy Maker is thine husband; the Lord of Hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer
the Holy One of Israel; the God of the whole earth shall he be called." (Isa.
54:5.) "For as a young man marryeth a virgin, so shall thy sons* marry thee;
and as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over
thee." (Isa. 62:5.) There must be union before communion, marriage before
possession, membership before abiding in Christ and he in us, a being in the
vine before a branch issuing from the stem. It is the Spirit that quickeneth us
to feel our need of him; to seek all our supplies in him and from him; to
believe in him unto everlasting life, and thus live a life of faith upon him. By
his secret teachings, inward touches, gracious smiles, soft whispers, sweet
promises, and more especially by manifestations of his glorious Person,
finished work, atoning blood, justifying righteousness, agonising sufferings,
and dying love, he draws the heart up to himself. He thus wins our affections,
and setting himself before our eyes as "the chiefest among ten thousand and
altogether lovely," draws out that love and affection towards himself which
puts the world under our feet. What is religion without a living faith in, and a
living love to the Lord Jesus Christ? How dull and dragging, how dry and
heavy, what a burden to the mind, and a weariness to the flesh, is a round of
forms where the heart is not engaged and the affections not drawn forth!
Reading, hearing, praying, meditation, conversation with the saints of God—
what cold, what heartless work where Jesus is not! But let him appear, let his
presence and grace be felt, and his blessed Spirit move upon the heart, then
there is a holy sweetness, a sacred blessedness in the worship of God and in
communion with the Lord Jesus that makes, whilst it lasts, a little heaven on
earth. Means are to be attended to, ordinances to be prized, the Bible to be
read, preaching to be heard, the throne of grace to be resorted to, the
company of Christian friends to be sought. But what are all these unless we
find Christ in them? It is He that puts life and blessedness into all means and
ordinances, into all prayer, preaching, hearing, reading, conversing, and every
thing that bears the name of religion. Without him all is dark and dead, cold
and dreary, barren and bare. Wandering thoughts at the throne, unbelief at
the ordinance, deadness under the word, formality and lip service in family
worship, carelessness over the open Bible, carnality in conversation, and a
general coldness and stupidity over the whole frame—such is the state of the
soul when Jesus does not appear, and when he leaves us to prove what we are,
and what we can do without him. He is our sun, and without him all is
darkness; he is our life, and without him all is death; he is the beginner and
finisher of our faith, the substance of our hope, and the object of our love. All
religion flows from his Spirit and grace, presence and power. Where he is, be
it barn or hovel, field or hedge, closet or fireside, there is a believing soul, a
praying spirit, a tender conscience, a humble mind, a broken heart, and a
confessing tongue. Where he is not, be it kitchen or chapel, public worship or
private prayer, hearing the word or reading the Bible, all is alike empty and
forlorn to a living soul, pregnant with dissatisfaction and loaded with self - condemnation.
It is this inward sense of the blessedness of his presence and
the misery of his absence, the heaven of his smile and the hell of his frown,
that makes the sheep of Christ seek communion with Him. He has won their
heart to himself by discovering to them his beauty and his love, and they
having once seen the glory of his Person, heard the sweetness of his voice, and
tasted the grace of his lips, follow him whithersoever he goeth, seeking to
know him and the power of his resurrection, and counting all things dung and
loss that they may win him, and have some manifestation of his love. What is
to support the soul under those trials and temptations that at times press it so
sore, relieve those cruel doubts which so disquiet, take away those fears of
death which so alarm, subdue that rebelliousness which so condemns, wean
from the world which so allures, and make it look beyond life and time, the
cares of the passing hour, and the events of the fleeting day, to a solemn and
blessed eternity, but those visitations of the Blessed Lord to the soul which
give it communion with himself? Thus were the saints of God led and taught
in days of old, as the Holy Ghost has recorded their experience in the word of
truth. Remembering the past, one says, "Thy visitation hath preserved my
spirit" (Job 10:12.) Longing for a renewal, another cries, "O when wilt thou
come unto me?" (Ps. 101:2;) and under the enjoyment of his presence the
church speaks, "He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over
me was love." (Cant. 2:4.)
* We prefer the rendering, "thy Maker," which only requires the change of a
point in the Hebrew, and is not only more agreeable to the meaning, but
corresponds more exactly to the parallel clause in the same verse. Bishop
Lowth renders it "thy Restorer;" literally, it is "thy Builder."
We are, most of us, so fettered down by the chains of time and sense, the cares
of life and daily business, the weakness of our earthly frame, the distracting
claims of a family, and the miserable carnality and sensuality of our fallen
nature, that we live at best a poor, dragging, dying life. We can take no
pleasure in the world, nor mix with a good conscience in its pursuits and
amusements; we are many of us poor, moping, dejected creatures, from a
variety of trials and afflictions; we have a daily cross and the continual plague
of an evil heart; get little consolation from the family of God or the outward
means of grace; know enough of ourselves to know that in self there is neither
help nor hope, and never expect a smoother path, a better, wiser, holier heart,
or to be able to do to-morrow what we cannot do to-day. As then the weary
man seeks rest, the hungry food, the thirsty drink, and the sick health, so do
we stretch forth our hearts and arms that we may embrace the Lord Jesus
Christ, and sensibly realise union and communion with him. From him come
both prayer and answer, both hunger and food, both desire and the tree of
life. He discovers the evil and misery of sin that we may seek pardon in his
bleeding wounds and pierced side; makes known to us our nakedness and
shame, and, as such, our exposure to God's wrath, that we may hide ourselves
under his justifying robe; puts gall and wormwood into the world's choicest
draughts, that we may have no sweetness but in and from him; keeps us long
fasting to endear a crumb, and long waiting to make a word precious. He
wants the whole heart, and will take no less; and as this we cannot give, he
takes it to himself by ravishing it with one of his eyes, with one chain of his
neck. If we love him it is because he first loved us; and if we seek communion
with him, it is because he will manifest himself to us as he doth not unto the
world.
Would we see what the Holy Ghost has revealed of the nature of this
communion, we shall find it most clearly and experimentally unfolded in the
Song of Solomon. From the first verse of that divine book, "Let him kiss me
with the kisses of his mouth," to the last expressed desire of the loving bride,
"Make haste, my beloved, and be thou like to a roe, or like to a young hart
upon the mountains of spices," all is a "song of loves," (Ps. 45 title,) all a
divine revelation of the communion that is carried on upon earth between
Christ and the Church. She "comes up from the wilderness leaning upon her
beloved," whilst "his left hand is under her head, and his right hand doth
embrace her." She says, "Look not upon me because I am black;" but he
answers, "Thou art all fair, my love, there is no spot in thee." At one moment
she says, "By night, on my bed, I sought him whom my soul loveth; I sought
him, but I found him not;" and then again she cries, "It was but a little that I
passed from them, but I found him whom my soul loveth. I held him, and
would not let him go, until I had brought him into my mother's house, and
into the chamber of her that conceived me." (Song Sol. 3:4.) Comings and
goings; sighs and songs; vain excuses and cutting self-reflections; (5:3-6;)
complaints of self and praises of him; (5:7-16;) the breathings of love, and the
flames of jealousy; (8:6;) the tender affections of a virgin heart, and the
condescending embraces of a royal spouse; (1:7; 2:3-7;)—such is the
experience of the Church in seeking or enjoying communion with Christ as
described in this divine book.
O that we could walk more in these gracious footsteps! Whatever be our state
and case, if it can truly be said of us what the angel said to the women at the
sepulchre, "I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified," we have a divine
warrant to believe that, "he is gone before us into Galilee. There shall we see
him." He is risen; he has ascended up on high, and "has received gifts for
men, yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them."
He is now upon the mercy seat, and he invites and draws poor needy sinners
to himself. He says, "Come unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden,
and I will give you rest." He allows us, he invites us to pour out our heart
before him, to show before him our trouble, to spread our wants at his feet, as
Hezekiah spread the letter in the temple. If we seek communion with him, we
may and shall tell him how deeply we need him, that without him it is not life
to live, and with him not death to die. We shall beg of him to heal our
backslidings; to manifest his love and blood to our conscience; to show us the
evil of sin; to bless us with godly sorrow for our slips and falls; to keep us
from evil that it may not grieve us; to lead us into his sacred truth; to preserve
us from all error; to plant his fear deep in our heart; to apply some precious
promise to our soul; to be with us in all our ways; to watch over us in all our
goings out and comings in; to preserve us from pride, self-deception, and selfrighteousness;
to give us renewed tokens of our interest in his finished work;
to subdue our iniquities; to make and keep our conscience tender; and work
in us everything which is pleasing in his sight. What is communion but mutual
giving and receiving, the flowing together of two hearts, the melting into one
of two wills, the exchange of two loves—each party maintaining its distinct
identity, yet being to the other an object of affection and delight? Have we
nothing then to give Christ? Yes, our sins, our sorrows, our burdens, our
trials, and above all the salvation and sanctification of our souls. And what
has he to give us? What? Why, everything worth having, everything worth a
moment's anxious thought, everything for time and eternity.
We conclude our Review, already perhaps too long, with one more extract
from the wise and weighty words of Dr. Owen:
"First. The saints cordially approve of this righteousness, as that alone which
is absolutely complete, and able to make them acceptable before God. And
this supposeth five things:
"1. Their clear and full conviction of the necessity of a righteousness
wherewith to appear before God. This is always in their thoughts. Many men
spend their days in obstinacy and hardness, adding drunkenness unto thirst,
never once inquiring what their condition shall be when they enter into
eternity. Others trifle away their time and their souls, sowing the wind of
empty hopes, and preparing to reap a whirlwind of wrath. But this lies at the
bottom of all the saint's communion with Christ—a deep, fixed persuasion of
the indispensable necessity of a righteousness wherewith to appear before
God. The holiness of God's nature, the righteousness of his government, the
severity of his law, the terror of his wrath, are always before them. They have
been convinced of sin and have looked on themselves as ready to sink under
the vengeance due to it. They have cried, 'Men and brethren, what shall we do
to be saved?' and have all concluded, that if God be holy, and of 'purer eyes
than to behold iniquity,' they must have a righteousness to stand before him;
and they knew what will be the cry, one day, of those otherwise minded.
"2. They weigh their own righteousness in the balance, and find it wanting.
And this in two ways: 1st. In general; when men are convinced of the necessity
of a righteousness, they catch at everything that presents itself to them for
relief; as men ready to sink in deep waters catch at what is nearest to save
them from drowning, which sometimes proves a rotten stick that sinks with
them. So did the Jews; (Rom. 9:31, 32;) they caught hold of the law, and it
would not relieve them; the law put them upon setting up a righteousness of
their own; this kept them doing, but kept them from submitting to the
righteousness of God. Here many perish, and never get one step nearer to God
all their days. This the saints renounce. They have no confidence in the flesh;
they know all they can do will not avail them. See what judgment Paul makes
of a man's own righteousness, Phil. 3:8-10. This keeps their souls humble, full
of a sense of their own vileness, all their days. 2nd. In particular; they daily
weigh all their particular actions in the balance, and find them wanting as to
any such completeness as upon their own account to be accepted with God.
'O,' says a saint, 'if I had nothing to commend me unto God but this prayer,
this duty, this conquest of a temptation, wherein I myself see so much
imperfection, could I appear with any boldness before him? Ah, it is all as
filthy rags.' (Isa. 64: 6.) These thoughts accompany them in all their duties, in
their best and most choice performances. Lord, what am I, in my best estate!
How little suitableness unto thy holiness is in my best duties! O spare me, in
reference to the best thing that ever I did in my life! When a man who lives
upon convictions hath got some enlargement in duties, some conquest over a
temptation, he hugs himself, like Micah, when he had got a Levite to be his
priest: now surely God will bless him; he hath peace in what he hath done.
But he who has communion with Christ, when he is highest in duties of
sanctification, is clearest in the apprehension of his own unprofitableness, and
renounces every thought of setting his peace in them or upon them. He says to
his soul, Should God deal with thee according to thy best works, thou must
perish.
"3. They value and rejoice in this righteousness for their acceptance, which
the Lord Jesus hath wrought out and provided for them. This being
discovered to them, they approve of it with all their hearts, and rest in it. (Isa.
45:24.) 'Surely shall one say, In the Lord have I righteousness and strength.'
This is their voice and language when once the righteousness of God in Christ
is made known to them. 'Here is righteousness indeed, here have I rest for my
soul.' Like the merchantman in the gospel, (Matt. 13:45, 46,) that finds the
pearl of price. When first the righteousness of Christ, for acceptance with
God, is revealed to a poor labouring soul, that hath sought for rest and hath
found none, he is surprised and amazed; and such a one always in his heart
approves this righteousness on a fivefold account. (1.) As full of infinite
wisdom. 'Unto them that believe,' saith the apostle, 'Christ crucified is the
wisdom of God,' (1 Cor. 1:24,) they see infinite wisdom in this way of their
acceptance with God. In what darkness, says such a one, was my soul! How
little able was I to look through the clouds and perplexities wherewith I was
encompassed! I looked inwards, and there was nothing but sin; I looked
upwards, and saw nothing but wrath; I knew that God was a holy and
righteous God; I knew that I was a poor, vile, unclean and sinful creature, and
how to bring these two together in peace I knew not. But in the righteousness
of Christ doth a world of wisdom open itself, dispelling all difficulties, and
manifesting a reconciliation of all this. 'O the depths of the riches both of the
wisdom and knowledge of God!' (Rom. 11:33, and Col. 2:3.)"
J C Philpot