CHAPTER IV: Persons in the Godhead have an Union and Communion Between Themselves
and I in him.' David is said to be in Spirit when he brings in the Lord speaking to the Lord. By which speech was discovered both these persons to be in the Godhead, and distinct as persons, speaking thus one to another, 'The Lord said unto my Lord,' Ps. 110. 'David in Spirit,' says Christ, 'said this,' Matt. 22:43, 44; and I remember not that phrase spoken of David upon any other occasion, but this; although it be said, 'The Spirit of the Lord spake by me;' and this was necessary, for reason would, of all else, never have revealed it, nor entertained it as it is revealed. Heaven opened when there was the first open distinct discovery of the three. The Father spake, 'This is my Son,' and the Holy Ghost descended; for but by opening heaven, and upon occasion of discovering the Son, was this distinctly revealed.
CHAPTER IV
That the three persons in the Godhead have an union and communion between themselves apart, and incommunicable unto us.
The assertion which I undertake to prove is this, That God and Christ, and by consequence the Holy Ghost, have an union and communion of a higher kind than what we are ordained ever to receive; and therefore I call it the supreme sovereign union. In a word, the creatures are not God veiled under the appearance of creatures, and so hidden as under a veil, which is the impious falsification of many of the ranters of our late age, as appears by their writings, and which put me upon writing this discourse.
I. To prove that there is a sovereign, supreme union between the three persons in the Godhead, peculiar and proper to themselves alone, and which cannot be communicated to any mere creature, I
have chose those passages in Christ's prayer whereon to found my discourse, John 17:21, 22, 23. 'That they all may be one; as thou,
Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me, I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.' Whatever use I have made of this
17th of John, in discoursing of this union to another purpose,* my scope now is to shew, how all the ancients have judged this very thing, (which I have asserted) with clear evidence of reason, from Christ's manner of speech, both negatively and affirmatively, as I shall allege their testimonies by and by.
This alone of itself will evidence it, that an eternity of time did pass when there were no creatures at all; but the three persons wholly enjoyed themselves all that time without interruption. And this also will further be demonstrated in the second head of this discourse, which will be a demonstration of the differences and distances of that communion which is between Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and that which we have with those persons.
But to return to the exposition of John 17. That the union of the three persons in the Godhead is of a higher kind, and not communicable to us, is evident from the manner of Christ's speech in that his prayer.
1. Negatively, from what he forbears to say in it. He does not pray, that 'we all may be one with them,' (as if speaking of the Father, and himself, and the saints altogether): no; but that 'we all may be one in them,' and so with a differing union from theirs. Thus Austin, he prays not that they may be one with us, but one in us.
2. Positively. He speaks of an union of him and his Father, as standing apart entire from that of the saints with them; and which, though it admit this addition of that union of the saints, yet still remains inviolate in itself notwithstanding, no way intermingled
with, or intercommoning with it. He repeats that union of his and his Father's five or six times, from verse 11 to the end; and every time with a character of such a difference as this. (1.) He speaks of the saints and their union as at a distance from himself and his Father, and of their union also between themselves, 'that they all may be one, as we.' Of the we he speaks, as of those who are of a superior order, and are one by a superior union. But of them as with a distance, that they, that these undersort creatures, this vulgus creaturarum, utterly differing and separated from us of themselves, that they yet may be
'one in us.' (2.) In his repetition of it a second time, ver. 22, 'that they also,' there is an emphasis in the word also as to this purpose. [1.]
Also, that is, over and besides that union which we have and keep within among ourselves, even then when they are supposed united to us, 'One in us.' The us still remains in a separate association apart, and retains a consortium, an association as a superior, we. [2.] It is a speech of diminution of their union in comparison of the us, and sounds thus; as if Christ, looking down from an higher orb, sphere, and throne of union, whereon himself and his Father sits, upon these poor things infinitely below, who are void of such a condition in their native proper state; upon them Christ, looking down in love, prays,
Let these poor things also partake of union with us, little ones who of themselves are so far below us, no way worthy to attain, aspire to any such thing, and yet by grace are capable of in us. [3.] In his saying,
'that they be one, as I in thee, and thou in me,' verse 21, observe, he says not either, ut sint in te unum, sicut ego in te unum sum, that they may be one in thee, as I am one in thee. No; but that they may be one in us, as I in thee, and thou in me, he therein entertaining and reserving still an union as peculiar to himself. Nor he says not, that 'thou mayest be one in us,' as involving and reckoning himself but as one of them and their rank, and we all one in thee. No; but he says,
'As thou in me, and I in thee' (ita se à creaturis separans*), 'and they one in us;' whereby he manifestly separates himself from them, and betakes himself to a peculiar union and interest with God above them.
The repetition of it a second time, verse 23 (which I most observe), is put there by way of caution, and as with a wariness that that union of himself and his Father be kept inviolate; 'I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one;' as if he had said, when they arrive to their highest perfection of union, yet let them know, (1.) their distance, that I am above them in it, 'I in them, and thou in me;'
(2.) their dependence and derivation of it from me, 'I in them, and thou in me.' And this still continueth, 'that so they may be perfected in one;' he speaks it not, nor would allow it them upon any other terms. As if he should have said, when they are at their height of union, thou art not, nor ever canst be in them with that immediate union thou art withal in me, and I in thee; I must come in as a middle between them and thee, when they are with us in glory. The descent is, 'The glory thou hast given me, I have given them,' ver. 22; they hold of me even then, 'I in them, thou in me,' and this is their highest perfection. Yea, at the last verse, when he prays his Father's love might be in them filling them, his prayer, you see, is not only that God's love may be to them, but in them, for the height of our union is the fulness of God communicated in love; as Eph. 3:19, 'And to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.' There is first love, then all the fulness of God mentioned, for heaven is but a communication of God in love; yet even there Christ will needs step in between, even God's love in the communication of it, 'and I in them.' The love of God is not so in us, so that we become the love of God; nor is God or Christ so in us, as we become God or Christ; nor is Christ left out when God communicates himself in the highest manner. But as Paul saith,
'herein is your calling,' so say I of this, here is the descent of that union on them, God one with Christ, and you with God in Christ.
Yea, I observe further his caution in this great point to be such, that if, in praying for our oneness, he mention himself first, he will needs bring in his Father's being in him; so ver. 23, 'I in you,' is not that enough to make them perfect in one? No; but 'thou in me.' Again, if he mention his Father's love first, as verse the last, he comes in himself for a share also, and 'I in them.' He turns it every way. So that whether God be in us, it is because Christ is in us; or Christ be in
us, and so we one, it is because God is in Christ. Lastly, which is Ambrose his note, nos unum erimus, sed Pater et Filius unum sunt.
He speaks of that union of himself and his Father as already in being and perfection, yea, as that which he then needed not to pray for, and which never needed praying for by him; but he prays that we may be one. He prays not that his Father and he should be one, for they were as fully one already as for ever they could be, to be sure as second person naturally, and as man, it was so bestowed at once for ever, as it needed no praying for anew; for though it was a grace at first, yet to the divine person that the man was now one withal, it was none, yea, it was a condescending in him, the second person, to match so low as his own speech, when he was to assume it, imports, Heb. 10:5,
'a body hast thou fitted me.' He speaks diminutively of it, and yet assumes it. But that the saints shall be one with this high and mighty us, this us, this is, and was with Christ, a matter of, and, subject for, prayer; and this at this time, when yet they were united unto Christ already, as this text implies; for this of ours depends for ever on grace, not so that of Christ's human nature. But once the union being made, transit in jus, it then becomes a right, though at first it was the highest grace to that nature. For why? He is thereby advanced to be the natural Son of God.
And whereas the word καθὼς, that they may be one, as we are one, is urged by some for sameness or oneness of union in kind, it is evident by all that hath been spoken, that it is but unum similitudinis,* of imitation and similitude, or perhaps of causality, because we are one.
The instances of which latter are so frequent I need not mention any of them; as, 'be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect,' 'forgive us, as we forgive,' as we use the speech in the Lord's prayer.
II. There is not only this superior union of the three persons, so far above that union which we poor creatures have with God; but there is also a supreme and independent communion between those persons in the Godhead, having an entire abstracted converse among themselves, and incommunicable to any mere creature; and this
communion, which they had one with another from all eternity, consists, 1. In that divine eternal life of the three persons among themselves.
2. In the mutual interest, or propriety, which they have in the things of each other.
3. In a mutual communication and enjoyment.
4. In a mutual knowledge and acquaintance one with another.
5. In a mutual communication, and imparting of secrets, a discovery of each other's mind.
6. In mutual love and delight.
7. In their possession of one common and equal glory and blessedness.
1. As to the first, the life of the three persons among themselves. That excellent man in his age, Bishop Usher, in a sermon before King
James, expressed the dependence which the best of saints, the apostles, held upon the supreme life of Christ, considered as second person in the Trinity; John 1:16, 'And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.' There is (said he) plenitudo fontis, the fulness of the fountain; Ps. 36:9, 'With thee is the fountain of life,' spoken of God much more, and there is plenitudo vasis, the fulness of the vessel, which is but the pittance of the best of saints, and that but received, which is soon dried up if not supplied, and they receive but grace for grace, glory for glory, all from Christ. We have our grace and glory by measure, but Christ had the Spirit without measure.
Life is an excellency added to being. And the divine life of God is a pure activity and quickness, which never ceaseth nor abateth. All three persons therefore have the title of living. Of the Father there is none that questions it; Jesus Christ is the Son of the living God, Mat.
16:16, and that imports he is a person of the same substance and nature with God. And as man begets his like, so God begets his like, and he is his only begotten Son. The Spirit is said, to the same purpose, to be the 'Spirit of the living God,' 2 Cor. 3:3. And as Christ is compared to the Son of a living Father, as being begotten of his substance, so the Spirit is compared to the soul that dwells in a man, which is his life. 1 Cor. 2:11 is express for it, 'What man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him?' And the life of all three is God, and the enjoying of the life of God, and exercising all the acts of life among themselves.
This is for their life abstracted, such as they had in eternity, when no creature was.
Now to the point proposed, the difference and dependence of our union, and the life thereof, upon this of the three persons that has been specified, take that place in the 6th of John, with the rest that are to follow, when at the third verse Christ had declared of all believers, 'He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life,' and then had explained himself, and founded that communication of life, ver. 56, upon our union with himself, wherein he speaks of that sort of union which is between his divine and human nature, and also of our union with himself, as the next words of the verse shew, 'He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him,' which union of ours with himself, the very similitude of eating and drinking doth alone import (for what we eat or drink becomes one with our bodies). Yet his adding
'dwelleth in me, and I in him,' doth explicitly declare it in the letter.
This done, as if he could not pass over this declaration of our union (as neither in that 17th of John he doth, as may be observed), without superadding how it was that it was communicated from that his superior union with his Father; and that from thence it is, that life is first communicated to himself, and also from him to us, as it expressly immediately follows, ver. 57, 'As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father; so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.'
Yea, and withal, to give a clear and evident instance that this union of his with the Father, and ours with him, are of a differing kind, yea, and infinitely differing, let us but add to this what himself had said of this communication and descent of life from his Father to us, by virtue of his own union, in the former chapter; John 5:26, the words are these, 'As the Father hath life in himself, so he hath given to the Son to have life in himself.' The sense whereof is (as I understand it), that his very subsistence as a Son is from his Father, as he is the only begotten of him. Can this be said of us, or of our having life, though spiritual and heavenly, that it is given us to have life in ourselves, as Christ hath, or as the Father hath in himself independently, and with power to give life to others; so as to be the lords of life, and to be able to bestow it as we please? But thus doth Christ, ver. 21, 'For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will.' And this power to give life to others he declares to this end, ver. 23, 'that all men may honour the Son as they honour the Father.' May this be said of us, poor things that we are! Alas! we are so far from having life thus in ourselves, or to be lords of life, that it is well for us (take us as we are fallen), if as condemned persons we have that life derived unto us at all, nay, that we have our lives, it is well if we scape so. This infinite grace, as I have thus set it out, the 24th verse indigitates, 'Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death to life;' thus low and flat do we fall when his life and union with his Father are compared with ours. To gather up this; our tenure of life is but a copyhold of life, in respect of our whole dependence for it, by way of influence, from him, and as it is derived from him, and from his life. Tenants at will I may not call us, in regard he hath endowed us with an eternal donation of it (why else called 'eternal life'?), and estated it on us for ever; yet still in regard both of the original of it at first from him, and his continual influential maintaining it, and 'keeping our souls in life,' which is the very phrase the psalmist expresseth our life by, there appears an infinite difference and distance between us and him, in that eternal life which is his and ours; but upon a differing tenure, for he is the
lord paramount of life, to 'have life in himself;' but we are to hold all from him, from first to last, though for ever. And if our dependence on him for life be so vastly different from his in himself, then out union is accordingly answerable thereto, distant in inferiority and subordination; and so in like proportion differing; for life, as the effect, flows from union as the cause. Therefore, good souls, set your hearts at rest, know your own imum, your own bottom, and lowness you stand in, in the best condition as saints you could have been set in. Be not deceived neither, to soar or aspire too high upon conceits of unions which are above you, nor of which indeed you are not capable. You must needs acknowledge that the setting these mutual unions of Christ and the Father in their συζυγίας from that of the saints, and first theirs, and then ours apart by themselves, that they hold forth at least this to you, that though by means of your union with Christ you have a union with the Father, yet that Christ hath a union separate from your union, apart by himself, with the Father, and the Father with him, which you can never attain. Would you be all Christs? Then let us see you redeem your lost brethren of the sons of men, whom Christ died not for effectually, or who of them have not as yet taken hold of his death to save themselves from sin and hell. The psalmist speaks thus, 'None is able to redeem his brother from the grave,' and to quicken whom he will; no, nor is able to raise up himself at the day of judgment, as Christ did. And are you hypostatically united to the person of Christ then?
You might see this truth of the infinite disproportion between these two unions of God and Christ, and us and Christ, in a thousand other like effects, which you might make demonstrations, that argue it, if a man had time to gather them, or indeed to utter them. I come to a second instance like to this.
2. Mutual interest or propriety, which the three persons have in the things of each other.
Mutual interest and propriety in one another follows upon union.
Now there is a vast subordination of the mutual interests, the one of
Christ in and with the Father, and that other of Christ with us; and such therefore must there also be in the several unions. Will you see your pedigree emblazoned? 'All things are yours, and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's.' Here is the interest, the propriety and right of a Christian to God, Christ, all things, yet in a chain of subordination set forth thus; therefore it must be so in the union also. Christ is in the Father, and the Father in Christ; and this their mutual inbeing, as the ground of their sharing in the same common stock, causeth answerable interest in the things of each other, even of all things. If you take a view of this, in the first and highest supreme union of all, between Christ considered simply as a second person, they are one in the Godhead, and all things therein, or belonging to it, are thereupon equally common to both. 'All things the Father hath are mine,' John
16:15. And John 17:10, 'All mine are thine, and thine axe mine.' And how is it that they have this equal mutual interest in all things? It is because they are one, as the next verse hath it, ver. 11. And their union and their interest runs parallel. But we cannot speak thus as Christ doth, we must lowly and humbly acknowledge all things are ours, because they are Christ's, and Christ is God's. And again, that the man Jesus hath a personal oneness with the Son, and so with God; hence it is, that all things are committed unto him of the Father; and he also may say, 'All thine are mine,' &c. And now we are
Christ's, and Christ is God's; and so all things become ours derivatively, as our union is but a secondary union. As the unions have their subordination, so answerably the interests.
3. As to their communication and enjoyment mutual.
You may view these gradations and descents in the communications and enjoyments mutual that pass between God and Christ, and Christ and us. Union is for mutual delight, and communication, and knowledge each of other. As the Father and Son have an union superior and entire to themselves (with the Spirit) which is immediate, and differing from that of ours with them, so they have an entire communication of themselves one to and with another, distinct and apart from us; and they had it ere ever any
communication of themselves did descend unto us; and when they have communicated a suitable share to us like theirs, yet theirs still continues incommunicable to us, apart by themselves.
4. Compare the communications of them in mutual knowledge one of another, and acquaintance.
Where there is a union of persons, there is, or shall follow in the end, a making each other known one to the other. So it is in our union, which is inferior, 'At that day ye shall know that I am in the Father, and you in me, and I in you,' John 14:20. And because these of Christ's and the Father, and ours are unions of a differing order, you shall see he speaks of their knowledge still in the same style of transcendency as he doth in parallel language unto what he doth of union in those texts, John 14 and 17 chapters; making one sort of knowledge, and so converse by knowledge, proper, and peculiar, and entire to the Father and the Son, distinct and apart from us, and infinitely above ours; and a lower of ours, passeth between God, and Christ, and us. Thus, John 10:14, 'I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.' Here you see first there is an intercourse between his sheep and him expressed, as his union with them here; but still he having another sort of intercourse, which, as Son of God, he drave with his Father (and Christ had the experience of both), which was the cause and pattern of ours, he adds, 'As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father,' ver. 15. You see he could not pass by the mention of one sort between him and his sheep, but he must withal mention that other sort between his Father and himself.
5. And together with this knowledge, there passeth a communication of, and imparting of secrets, a discovery of each other's mind.
Now, as there is that superior order of union, and a transcendent singular affection that accompanies it, between the Father and the Son, so the manifestation of the Father to the Son is answerable: 'The Father loveth the Son, and shews him all things that himself doth,'
John 5:20. He shews them all unto his Son, as one that is a coworker with him in all the things himself doth; as the words afore and after shew, ver. 19, 'Whatsoever things he doth, these also doth the Son likewise.' Thus high is this original union, that is proper and alone between themselves, even to an equality; for this speech of his comes in to justify himself against the Jews who accused him, in ver.
18, that he called God his own Father, ἴδιον πατέρα, 'making himself equal with God;' which he justifies against them, ver. 19, 'Then answered Jesus, and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you,
The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doth, these also doth the Son likewise.' But as for us, as our union is far remote, so the manifestation both of Christ and God to us is also very far off from this. They shew us indeed, and reveal many blessed secrets indeed to us that concern our own salvation; but what we have thus discovered to us, is but at second-hand of what they speak about us among themselves. The Spirit tells us again what they say, as John 16:15, 'The Spirit shall take of mine, and give it unto you;' and ver. 13, 'Whatsoever he'
(speaking of the Spirit) 'shall hear, that shall he speak,' namely, to you. He speaks of him as a messenger sent, who conveys to us the mind of them that send him; but we have it but as from another's hearsay. And hence also, whilst Christ speaks of his communication to us by his Spirit, by virtue of our interest in him, he doth withal insert the mention of that his own interest in and union with his
Father, as the supreme original union, so to shew the descent of ours, ver. 15, 'All things the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shew it unto you;' that is, thus it comes to pass, that you have all manifested to you from me, in that I have all things that my Father hath, and so the Spirit reveals from us both.
But still to shew that their union is entire of Father, Son, and Spirit, apart and incommunicable, kept up among themselves, he tells us that their communication, conference, and consultations are thus in private held among themselves, apart from us; that they hold a private, secret council, which we are never immediately admitted into. What the Father hath the Son hath, and the Spirit heareth both; and as none knoweth what is in man but the spirit of man within
him, so none knows what is in God but the Spirit, who searcheth the deep things of God, and revealeth them, 1 Cor. 2:11, 12; and the Son, who, as in John 1:14, is in the bosom of the Father. These three drive an intercourse and intelligence in secret, into the bosom of which we never enter; but the Spirit reveals, and Christ declares, as is said in those places. And thus, but at second-hand, we have the mind of God and Christ, 'For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ,' 1 Cor. 2:16. And but how little (as in Job) do we know thereof!
6. Take and compare the communications of mutual love, breathings forth of affection, mutual delights, and mutual pleasures in each other, which follows union.
They are represented to us in the very same gradation as union here Prov. 8:30, 'I was,' says Wisdom, the Son of God, 'daily his delight;' his Son in whom he hath alone considered an entire, complete delight, an immediate delight in him; and I was always also rejoicing afore him, and so in him again, so that there was a communication of mutual love, or interchangeable breathings forth, or casts of love each to other. Mutual love is the consequent of union; and the Father being united to the Son, with a supreme union (transcendent in comparison of that of ours), loves the Son with a transcendent, primary love, who therefore is called 'the Son of his love,' ὑιὸς τῆς ἀγαπῆς, Col. 1:13, as he that engrosseth the whole of it all to himself; likewise, 'This is my well-beloved Son,' Mat. 3:17. As the Son hath life in himself, so the Father loves the Son for himself, with a natural love, as that is wherewith he loveth himself. But his love to us is secondary and collateral, which shews our union is at second-hand, but as we are in Christ, and Christ in us. And from thence the care of the Father is derived to us, because Christ is in us, and we are united to him; this you have John 17:26, 'And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it; that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.' An original, primary union hath a love answerable, a derivative union but a love proportionable. Our union is immediate unto, and with, Christ Jesus; so as he and we are
the immediate termini, or correlates united. And thereby it is we become united to God, namely, through him. And therefore God's love is said to be to us in him, 'Who shall separate from the love of God in Christ Jesus?' Rom. 8:39. These were their proper, natural, incommunicable delights each in other, as their union is, and was, afore the world was; 'I in my Father, and my Father in me,' John
14:10, as dwelling in one another, so rejoicing in one another always; and these continue proper to themselves, and will do for ever, and cannot be communicated to us otherwise than by way of similitude and likeness. But then they intended to make creatures, and so to have their made artificial accessory delights, as I may so speak. The Father shewed the Son a platform of a world below, in which men should dwell, which Christ calls his Father's 'habitable earth,' and therein the sons of men, his elect, given to him to be one for ever with him. Now, as he was God's delight, and God his immediately and naturally, so these were made for Christ's delight. He therefore subjoins, 'rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth, and my delights were with the sons of men,' Prov. 8:31. Observe the subordination still, as 'he is in the Father, and the Father in him,' so he was in his
Father's delights, and he in his; and then, as we say of men, 'we in Christ, and Christ in us.' And the union is more direct and immediate between us and him; so we were primitively his delights, even as afore you heard 'Christ was God's, and we Christ's.' The chain of interest, and of delight also, have the same parallel subordinate links.
7. Come we last to glory, and the communication of blessedness (as we began with that particular of eternal life), there is therein found the like subordination and descent, Rev. 3:21, Christ hath with his
Father a throne, in those words, 'As I am on his throne;' to which throne we never ascend (mark that). But there is another, which he calleth his throne, and which considered as man, he admits us to a share in our proportion: 'To him that overcometh, I will grant to sit on my throne.' There is still a differing rank and order, thrones higher and lower, even as of the unions also; and καθὼς, or 'As I with my Father, so they with me,' you see, hath run along through all; for some parallel likeness will be found in all these unions that are thus
subordinate, though of so differing a kind, that they have their infinite distance and disproportion proper to them, which must be taken in and considered if we will know the nature and condition of each.
Uses. Christ here, John 14:20, tells his apostles, for their comfort, that there was a day coming in which they should have a clear, and full, and intuitive knowledge of this their union, and its descent to them from the Father; and the parallel of it with his own union with the Father, 'In that day ye shall know that I am in the Father, and you in me, and I in you.' This being a matter of so great moment for all Christians to know, and to discern in their own selves and hearts, and accordingly reserved as the proper work of the Holy Ghost, when he should come as a comforter, that though this union itself is wrought when we are regenerated by him, yet the sense, the knowledge of it, is reserved to the last, after Christ's resurrection and ascension; yea, and as others would interpret it, until after our resurrection and the day of judgment. The uses of which knowledge are:
1. For our comfort; for this knowledge Christ here intends is, that which the Spirit as a comforter, ver. 16, was to bring; and it conduceth much to our comfort to know and meditate our genealogy and alliance that we have and derive (by reason of our union with Christ) from the Father, and how it holds of him, that although our union be of a lower degree and kind, yet it is the offspring of the highest and noblest union, even of that between God and Christ; a second person first, and then of the man with the second person.
By which also we shall perceive the sureness, the stability of our union with and standing in Christ, when we understand how it is founded; that it is so riveted into, and indented with, that supreme union of the Father and the Son, that as that of theirs is indissoluble, and cannot be broken, so nor shall this of ours.
It is counted a matter of great moment unto noble families, if but for honour's sake, to know their descent from houses more ancient and sovereign (as of the king of Egypt, the prophet speaks that he was
'descended of ancient kings'); that they have sprung from such and such marriages, and conjunctions of sovereign princes; although they be in alliance very far removed from them. So is this here to us; the saints they are 'a chosen generation, a royal priesthood,' as Peter speaks, 1 Pet. 2:9, the royallest family heaven or earth affords; and that in respect of the descent thereof, which is here heralded, 'My
Father in me, and I in you;' and Eph. 3:14, 15, 'I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named.'
2. As for our comfort, so for our satisfaction to our knowledge in this great mystery. As in lower matters, when we see the rise, the dependence, and derivation of things, running along in the channel of, and from their causes, it uses to be a great contentment to us.
Then here much more to see how our union hath the union among the three persons for its foundation, and pattern, and original; and to hear the story how union is let down to the man Christ Jesus first, and in him conveyed to us; to know and behold the union of three persons in one divine nature, Father, Son, Holy Ghost, one God blessed for ever, producing, in imitation of them, an union of the two natures of God and man in the person of Christ Jesus; to whom be all glory for ever; and then, that occasioning a third union, yea, the next that could be, though more removed; an union of persons (though not personal), yea, of multitudes of persons united unto one Christ
Jesus; to make up one body, yea, one man, as Eph. 2:15 hath it, 'Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace,' to the end we may be one spouse unto Christ as our head and husband; and then to see the derived influence the first hath upon the man Jesus, and both upon this union of ours; 'As I live by the Father, so you by me,' John 6:57.
As also the parallel and correspondency that is held between the one and the other, that same καθὼς ἡμε͂ις, inculcated by Christ, John 17,