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Cor. i. 30. How rich and great a perfon do the little arms of faith clafp and embrace! "All is yours," 1 Cor. iii. 22. All that Chrift hath becomes ours, either by communication to us, or im provement for us: His Father, John xx. 17. His promifes, 2 Cor. i. 20. His providences, Rom. viii. 28. His glory, John xvii. 24. It is all ours by virtue of our union with him.

Thus you fee briefly what the myftical union is. improve it.

Next we shall

Inference 1. If there be fuch a union betwixt Chrift and believers, Oh then what tranfcendent dignity bath God put upon believers.

Well might Conftantine prefer the honour of being a member of the church, before that of being head of the empire*; for it is not only above all earthly dignities and honours, but, in fome refpect, above that honour which God hath put upon the angels of glory.

Great is the dignity of the angelical nature: the angels are the highest and most honourable fpecies of creatures; they also have the honour continually to behold the face of God in heaven, and yet, in this one refpect, the faints are preferred to them, they have a myftical union with Chrift, as their head of influence, by whom they are quickened with fpiritual life, which the angels have not.

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It is true, there is an avexas, or gathering together of all in heaven and earth under Chrift as a common head, Eph. i. 10. He is the Head of angels as well as faints, but in different refpects. To angels he is an head of dominion and government, but to faints he is both an head of dominion, and of vital influence too; they are his chief and moft honourable fubjects, but not his mystical pxmbers they are as the Barons and Nobles in his kingdom, but the faints as the dear Spouse and Wife of his bofom. This dignifies the believer above the greatest angel. And as the nobles of the kingdom think it a preferment and honour to ferve the Queen, fo the glorious angels think it no degradation or difhonour to them to ferve the Saints; for to this honourable office they are appointed, Heb. i. 14. to be miniftering or ferviceable fpirits, for the good of them that fhall be heirs of falvation. The chiefeft fervant difdains not to honour and ferve the heir.

Some imperious grandees would frown, fhould fome of these perfons but prefume to approach their prefence; but God fets them before his face with delight, and angels delight to ferve them.

Infer. 2. If there be fuch a strict and infeparable union betwixt

If thou would be called a man of power, put on Chrift who is the power and wifdom of God, and in all things join thyfelf to the Lord, that thou mayeft be one ípirit with him, and then thou shalt become a man of power. g. Hom, iz Num. xxxj.

Chrift and believers, then the grace of believers can never totally fail: Immortality is the privilege of grace, because fanctified perfons are infeparably united to Chrift the Fountain of life: "Your life is hid with "Chrift in God," Col. iii. 3. Whilft the fap of life is in the root, the branches live by it. Thus it is betwixt Chrift and believers, John xiv. 19. "Because I live, ye fhall live alfo." See how Chrift binds up their life in one bundle with his own, plainly intimating, that it is as impoffible for them to die, as it is for himfelf; he can not live without them.

True it is, the fpiritual life of believers is encountered by many ftrong and fierce oppofitions: It is alfo brought to a low ebb in fome, but we are always to remember, that there are fome things which pertain to the effence of that life, in which the very being of it lies, and fome things that pertain only to its well-being. All thofe things which belong to the well-being of the new creature, as manifeftations, joys, fpiritual comforts, &c. may, for a time, fail, yea, yea, and and grace itfelf may fuffer great loffes and remiffions in its degrees, notwithstanding our union with Chrift; but still the effence of it is immortal, which is no fmall relief to gracious fouls. When the means of grace fail, as it is threatened, Amos viii. 11, when temporary, formal profeffors drop away from Chrift like withered leaves from the trees in a windy day, 2 Tim. ii. 18. and when the natural union of their fouls and bodies is fuffering a dif folution from cach other by death, when that filver cord is loofed, this golden chain holds firm, Cor. iii. 23.

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Inf. 3. Is the union fo intimate betwixt Chrift and believers? How great and powerful a motive then is this, to make us open-handed and liberal in relieving the neceffities and wants of every gracious perfon! For in relieving them, we relieve Chrift himself.

Chrift perfonal is not the object of our pity and charity, he is at the fountain-head of all the riches in glory, Eph. iv. 10. but Chrift myftical is expofed to neceffities and wants, he feels hunger and thirst, cold and pains, in his body the church; and he is refrethed, relieved, and comforted, in their refreshments and comforts. Chrift the Lord of heaven and earth, in this confideration, is fometimes in need of a penny; he tells us his wants and poverty, and how he is relieved, Mat. xxv. 35, 40. A text believed and underftood by very few. "I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat: "I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a ftranger, and ye "took me in. Then fhall the righteous anfwer, Lord, when faw "we thee an hungred, &c. And the King fhall anfwer, and fay

He who is not moved with the condition of a brother in the church, let him be moved with the contemplation of Chrift: and he who does not regard his fellow fervant in ftraits and want, led him regard the Lord, dwelling in that man whom he defpites. Cyprian on Werks and Charity.

"unto them, verily I fay unto you, in as much as ye have done “it unto one of the leaft of thefe my brethren, ve have done it unto me."

It was the faying of a great Divine, that he thought scarce any man on earth did fully understand and believe this truth, and he conceives fo much hinted in the very text, where the righteous themfelves reply, "Lord, when faw we thee fick," &c. intimating in the question, that they did not thoroughly understand the nearnefs, yea, oneness of thofe perfons with Chrift, for whom they did thefe things. And indeed, it is incredible that a Chriftian can be hard-hearted and clofe-handed to that neceffitous Chriftian, in refreshing and relieving of whom, he verily believes, that he minifters refreshment to Chrift himself.

O think again and again upon this fcripture; confider what forcible and mighty arguments are here laid together, to engage relief to the wants of Chriftians.

Here you fee their near relation to Chrift; they are myftically one perfon; what you did to them, you did to me. Here you fee alfo how kindly Chrift takes it at our hands, acknowledging all thofe kindneffes that were beftowed upon him, even to a bit of bread: He is, you fee, content to take it as a courtesy, who might demand it by authority, and bereave you of all immediately upon refufal.

Yea, here you fee one fingle branch or act of obedience, (our charity to the faints) is fingled out from among all the duties of obedience, and made the teft and evidence of our fincerity in that great day, and men bleffed or curfed according to the love they have manifefted this way to the faints.

O then, let none that underftand the relation the faints have to Chrift, as the members to the head, or the relation they have to each other thereby, as fellow-members of the fame body, from henceforth fuffer Chrift to hunger, if they have bread to relieve him, or Christ to be thirsty, if they have wherewith to refresh him this union betwixt Chrift and the faints affords an argument beyond all other arguments in the world to prevail with us. Methinks, a little rhetoric might perfuade a Chriftian to part with any thing he hath for Chris who parted with the glory of heaven, yea, and his own blood for his fake.

Inf. 4. Do Chrift and believers make but one myftical perfon? How unnatural and abfurd then are all those acts of unkindness, whereby believers wound and grieve Jefus Chrift! This is as if the hand fhould wound its own head, from which it receives life, fenfe, motion, and ftrength.

When fatan finites Chrift by a wicked man, he then wounds him

with the hand of an enemy; but when his temptations prevail upon the faints to fin, he wounds him as it were with his own hand: As the eagle and tree in the fable complained, the one that he was wounded by an arrow winged with his own feathers; the other, that it was cleaved afunder by a wedge hewn out of its own limbs.

Now the evil and difingenuity of fuch fins are to be measured not only by the near relation Chrift fuftains to believers as their Head; but more particularly from the feveral benefits they receive from him as fuch; for in wounding Chrift by their fins,

Firft, They wound their Head of influence, through whom they live, and without whom they had ftill remained in the ftate of fin and death, Eph. iv. 16. Shall Christ send life to us, and we return that which is death to him! O how abfurd, how difingenuous is this!

Secondly, They wound their Head of government. Chrift is a guiding, as well as a quickening Head, Col. i. 18. He is your wifdom, he guides you by his counfels to glory: but muft he be thus requited for all his faithful conduct! What do you, when you fin, but rebel against his government, refusing to follow his counfels, and obeying, in the mean time, a deceiver, rather than him.

Thirdly, They wound their confulting Head, who cares, provides, and projects, for the welfare and fafety of the body. Chriftians, you know your affairs below have not been steered and managed by your own wifdom, but that orders have been given from heaven for your fecurity and fupply from day to day. "I know, O Lord, "(faith the prophet) that the way of man is not in himself, neither " is it in him that walks to direct his own fteps," Jer. x. 23.

It is true, Chrift is out of your fight, and you fee him not: but he fees you, and orders every thing that concerns you. And is this a due requital of all that care he hath taken for you? Do you thus requite the Lord for all his benefits? What, recompenfe evil for good! O let fhame cover you.

Fourthly, and lastly, They wound their Head of honour. Chrift your Head is the Fountain of honour to you: This is your glory that you are related to him as your head : You are, on this account, (as before was noted) exalted above angels.

Now then confider, how vile a thing it is to reflect the leaft difhonour upon him, from whom you derive all your glory. O confider and bewail it.

Inf. 5. Is there fo ftrict and intimate a relation and union betwixt Chrift and the faints? Then furely they can never want what is good for their fouls or bodies.

Every one naturally cares and provides for his own, especially for his own body: yet we can more eafily violate the law of nature,

and be cruel to our own flesh, than Chrift can be fo to his myftical body*. I know it is hard to reft upon, and rejoice in a promife, when neceffities pinch, and we fee not from whence relief fhould arife; but O! what fweet fatisfaction and comfort might a neceffitous believer find in thefe confiderations, would he but keep them upon his heart in fuch a day of ftraits.

Fir, Whatever my diftreffes are for quality, number, or degree, they are all known even to the leaft circumstance, by Christ my Head: He looks down from heaven upon all my afflictions, and understands them more fully than I that feel them, Pfal. xxxviii. 9. "Lord, all my defire is before thee, and my groaning "is not hid from thee."

Secondly, He not only knows them, but feels them as well as knows them; "We have not an High-prieft that cannot be touch"ed with the feeling of our infirmities," Heb. iv. 15. In all your afflictions he is afflicted; tender fympathy cannot but flow from fuch intimate union; therefore, in Mat. xxv. 35. he faith, I was an hungred, and I was a-thirft, and I was naked. For indeed. his fympathy and tender compaffion gave him as quick a refentment, and as tender a sense of their wants, as if they had been his own. Yea,

Thirdly, He not only knows and feels my wants, but hath enough in his hand, and much more than enough to fupply them all; for all things are delivered to him by the Father, Luke x. 22. All the storehoufes in heaven and earth are his, Phil. iv. 19.

Fourthly, He beftows all earthly good things, even to fuperfluity and redundance upon his very enemies, "They have more than "heart can wifh," Pfal. Ixxiii. 7. He is bountiful to strangers; he loads very enemies with these things, and can it be fuppofed he will in the mean time ftarve his own, and neglect those whom he loves as his own flesh? It cannot be. Moreover,

Fifthly, Hitherto he hath not fuffered me to perifh in any former ftraits; when, and where was it that he forfook me? This is not the firft plunge of trouble I have been in; have I not found him a God at hand! How oft have I feen him in the mount of difficulties!

Sixthly, and lafly, I have his promife and engagement that he will never leave me nor forfake me, Heb. xiii. 5. and John xiv. 18. a promise which hath never failed fince the hour it was first made. If then the Lord Jefus knows and feels all my wants, hath enough, and more than enough to fupply them, if he gives even

Qui mifit filium, immifit fpiritum, promifit vultum, quid tandem denegabit? i. e. He who hath fent his Son, put the Spirit within us, and promised his fmiles, What will he deny us?

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