(1.) That they do receive it. Communion consists
in giving and receiving. Until the love of the Father be
received, we have no communion with him therein. How, then, is this love
of the Father to be received, so as to hold fellowship with him? I answer,
By faith. The receiving of it is the believing of it. God hath
so fully, so eminently revealed his love, that it may be received by faith.
“Ye believe in God,” John xiv.
1; that is, the Father. And what is to be believe in him? His
love; for he is “love,” 1 John iv.
8.