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Now, communion is the mutual communication of such good things as wherein the persons holding that communion are delighted, bottomed upon some union between them. So it was with Jonathan and David; their souls clave to one another (1 Sam. xx. 17) in love.11 There was the union of love between them; and then they really communicated all issues of love mutually.12 In spiritual things this is more eminent: those who enjoy this communion have the most excellent union for the foundation of it; and the issues of that union, which they mutually communicate, are the most precious and eminent.

Of the union which is the foundation of all that communion we have with God I have spoken largely elsewhere, and have nothing farther to add thereunto.

Our communion, then, with God consisteth in his communication of himself unto us, with our returnal unto him of that which he requireth and accepteth, flowing from that union13 which in Jesus Christ we have with him. And it is twofold:— 1. Perfect and complete, in the full fruition of his glory and total giving up of ourselves to him, resting in him as our utmost end; which we shall enjoy when we see him as he is; — and, 2. Initial and incomplete, in the first-fruits and dawnings of that perfection which we have here in grace; which only I shall handle.

It is, then, I say, of that mutual communication14 in giving and receiving, after a most holy and spiritual manner, which is between God and the saints while they walk together in a covenant of peace, ratified in the blood of Jesus, whereof we are to treat. And this we shall do, if God permit; in the meantime praying the God and Father of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath, of the riches of his grace, recovered us from a state of enmity into a condition of communion and fellowship with himself, that both he that writes, and they that read the words of his mercy, may have such a taste of his sweetness and excellencies therein, as to be stirred up to a farther longing after the fulness of his salvation, and the eternal fruition of him in glory.

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Footnotes

  1. Καὶ ἡ κοινωνία δὲ ἡ ἡμετέρα, etc. ↩

  2. Ὡς περικαθάρματα τοῦ κόσμου. — 1 Cor. iv. 8–13; Rom. viii. 35–36; Heb. x. 32–34. “Christianos ad leones. Et puto, nos Deus apostolos novissimos elegit veluti bestiarios.”—Tert. de Pud., Acts xvii. 18; Gal. vi. 12. “Semper casuris similes, nunquamque cadentes.” ↩

  3. John i. 5; 2 Cor. vi. 14; Eph. v. 8; John v. 21; Matt. xxii. 32; Eph. ii. 1; 1 John iv. 8; Rom. viii. 7. ↩

  4. “Magna hominis miseria est cum illo non esse, sine quo non potest esse.”— August. ↩

  5. Eccles. vii. 29; Jer. xiii. 23; Acts iv. 12; Isa. xxxiii. 14. ↩

  6. John i. 18; Heb. x. 19–21. “Unus verusque Mediator per sacrificium pacis reconcilians nos Deo; unum cum illo manebat cui offerebat; unum in se fecit, pro quibus offerebat; unus ipse fuit, qui offerabat, et quod offerebat.”— [Slightly changed from] August. de Trinit., iv. c. 14. ↩

  7. Παῤῥησίαν καὶ τὴν προσαγωγὴν ἐν πεποιθήσει. ↩

  8. John iii. 1. Φίλων μὲν ὄντων, οὐδὲν δεῖ δικαιοσύνης· δίκαιοι δὲ ὄντες προσδέονται φιλίας. — Arist. Eth., lib. viii. cap. 1. ↩

  9. “Quemadmodum enim nobis arrhabonem Spiritus reliquit, ita et a nobis arrhabonem carnis accepit, et vexit in cœlum, pignus totius summæ illuc quandoque redigendæ.”— Tertul. De Resur., c. li. ↩

  10. Ἀκριβὴς μὲν οὖν ἐν τοιούτοις οὐκ ἔστιν ὁρισμός, ἕως τίνος οἱ φίλον πολλῶν γὰρ ἀφαιρουμένων, ἔτι μένει, πολὺ δὲ χωρισθέντος, οἷον τοῦ Θεοῦ οὐκ ἔτι. — Aristot. Eth., lib. viii. c. 7; Cicer. de Nat. Deor. lib. i. ↩

  11. Πάντα τὰ τῶν φίλων κοινά. ↩

  12. Καὶ ἡ παροιμία, κοινὰ τὰ φίλων, ὀρθῶς, ἐν κοινωνίᾳ γὰρ ἡ φιλία. — Arist. Eth., viii. ↩

  13. “Nostra quippe et ipsius conjunctio, nec miscet personas, nec unit substantias, sed affectus consociat, et confœderat voluntates.” — Cyp. de Cœn. Domini. [No treatise of Cyprian bears such a title. There is a treatise, “De Cœnâ Domini,” ascribed to Cyprian, but on grounds so questionable and insufficient that it is sometimes not included among his supposititious works. A statement referring to the union between Christ and his people, as illustrated by the sacramental elements, occurs in his letter to Cœcilius, “De Sacramento Dominici Calicis;” but the words of the above quotation are not contained in it.] ↩

  14. “Magna etiam illa communitas est, quæ conficitur ex beneficiis ultro citro, datis acceptis.” — Cic. Off., lib. i. c. 17. ↩

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