t glorious, and so much we may
apprehend of this unity of the saints with God. Oh love is an uniting and
transforming thing. "God is love, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in
God, and God in him." He dwelleth in us by love, this makes him work in
us, and shine upon us. Love hath drawn him down from his seat of majesty,
to visit poor cottages of sinners, Isa. lxvi. 1, 2 and xlvi. 3, 4. And it
is that love of God reflecting upon our souls that carries the soul upward
to him, to live in him, and walk with him. O how doth it constrain a soul
to "live to him," and draw it from itself! 2 Cor. v. 15. Then the more
unity with God, the more separation from ourselves and the world, the
nearer God the farther from ourselves, and the farther from ourselves the
more happy, and the more unity with God, the more unity among ourselves,
among the brethren of our family. Because here we are not fully one with
our Father, therefore there are many differences between us and our
brethren because we are not one perfectly in him, therefore we are not
one, as he and the Father are one. But when he shall be in us, and we in
him, as the Father is in the Son and the Son in the Father, then shall we
be one among ourselves, then shall we meet in the unity of the faith, into
a perfect man, "into the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ,"
Eph. iv. 13. Christ is the uniting principle. While the saints are not
wholly one, _uni tertio_, they cannot be perfectly one _inter se_, among
themselves. Consider this, I beseech you Christ's union with the Father is
the foundation of our union to God, and our union among ourselves. This is
comfortable, the ground of it is laid already. Now it is not simply the
unity of the Father and the Son in essence that is here meant, for what
shadow and resemblance can be in the world of such an incomprehensible
mystery? But it is certainly the union and communion of God with Christ
Jesus as mediator, as the head of the church which is his body. Therefore
seeing the Father is so wonderfully well pleased and one with Christ, his
well beloved Son and messenger of the covenant, and chief party
contracting in our name, he is by virtue of this, one with us, who are his
seed and members. And therefore, the members should grow up in the head
Christ, from whom the whole body maketh increase "according to the
effectual working [of the Spirit] in it," Eph. v. 1, 16. Now, if the union
between the Father and Christ our head