After such a mercy as this, let them never open their mouths any more to repine and grudge at the outward inconveniencies of their condition in this world. What are the things you want, compared with the things you enjoy ? What is a little money, health, or liherty, to wisdom, righteousness, sanctifi cation, and redemption ? All the crowns and sceptres in the world, sold to their full value, are no price for the least of these mercies. But I will not insist here, your duty lies much higher than contentment.
Be thankful, as well as content, in every state. " Blessed be " God, (saith the apostle) the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, •* who hath blessed us with all [spiritual blessings] in heavenly " places in Christ :" O think what are men to angels, that Christ should pass by them to become a Saviour to men ? And what art thou among men, that thou shouldst be taken, and others left! And among all the mercies of God, what mercies are comparable.
SERM. II. THE METHOD OF GRACE. 38
to these conferred upon thee ? O bless God in the lowest ebb of outward comforts, for sueh privileges as these.
And yet you will not come up to your duty in all this, except you be joyful in the Lord, and rejoice evermore, after the receipt of such mercies as these, Phil. iv. 4. " Rejoice in the Lord ye " righteous, and again I say rejoice." For hath not the poor captive reason to rejoice, when he hath recovered his liberty ? The debtor to rejoice when all scores are cleared, and he owes nothing ? The weary traveller to rejoice, though he be not owner of a shil- ling, when he is come almost home, where all his wants shall be supplied ? Why this is our case, when Christ once becomes yours : you are the Lord's freemen, your debts to justice are all satisfied by Christ ; and you are within a little of complete redemption from all the troubles and inconveniences of your present state. Thanhs be to God for Jesus Christ.
Wherein the Union of the Believer with Christ, as a principal Part of effectual Application, is stated and prac- tically improved.
John xvii. 23. / in them, and Thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one.
JL HE design and end of the application of Christ to sinners is the communication of his benefits to them ; but seeing all communica- tions of benefits necessarily imply communion, and all communion as necessarily presupposes union with his person : I shall therefore, in this place, and from this scripture, treat of the mystical union betwixt Christ and believers ; this union being the principal act, wherein the Spirit's application of Christ consists, of which I spake (as to its general nature) in the former sermon.
In this verse (omitting the context) we find a threefold union, one betwixt the Father and Christ, a second betwixt Christ and believers, a third betwixt believers themselves.
First, Thou in me : This is a glorious ineffable union, and is fundamental to the other two. The Father is not only in Christ, in respect of dear affections, as one dear friend is in another, who is as his own soul ; nor only essentially, in respect of the identity and sameness of nature and attributes, in which respect Christ is the express image of his person, Heb. i. 3. But he is in Christ also as Mediator, bv communicating the fulness of the Godhead,
34 Tin; method of grace. seem. ii.
which dwells in him as God-man, in a transcendent and singular manner, so as it never dwelt, nor can dwell in any other, Col.
Secondly, I m them : Here is the mystical union betwixt Christ and the saints, q. d. Thou and I are one essentially, they and I are one mystically : and thou and I are one by communication of the Godhead, and singular fulness of the Spirit to me as Mediator ; and they and I are one, by my communication of the Spirit to them in measure.
Thirdly, From hence results a third union betwixt believers themselves ; that they may be made perfect in one ; the same Spirit dwelling in them all, and equally uniting them all to me, as living members to their Head of influence, there must needs be a dear and intimate union betwixt themselves, as fellow-members of the same body.
Now my business, at this time, lying in the second branch, name- ly, the union betwixt Christ and believers, I shall gather up the substance of it into this doctrinal proposition, to which I shall apply this discourse.
Doct. That there is a strict and dear union betwixt Christ and all true believers.
The scriptures have borrowed from the book of nature four elegant and lively metaphors, to help the nature of this mystical union with Christ into our understandings ; namely, that of pieces of timber united by glue ; that of a graft' taking hold of its stock, and making one tree ; that of the husband and wife, by the mar- riage-covenant, becoming one flesh ; and that of the members and head animated by one soul, and so becoming one natural body. Every one of these is more lively and full than the other : and what is defective in one, is supplied in the other ; but yet, neither any of these singly, or all of them jointly, can give us a full and com- plete account of this mystery.
Not that of two pieces united by glue, 1 Cor. v. 17. " He that " is joined to the Lord is one spirit," xoXkaixwog, glued to the Lord. For though this cementeth, and strongly joins them in one, yet this is but a faint and imperfect shadow of our union with Christ; for though this union by glue be intimate, yet not vital, but so is that of the soul with Christ.
Nor that of the grafF and stock, mentioned Rom. vi. 5. for though it be there said, that believers are tfu/xf uro/, implanted, or ingrafted by way of incision, and this union betwixt it and the stock be vital, for it partakes of the vital sap and juice of it ; yet here also is a remarkable defect, for the grafF is of a more excellent
SERM. TT. THE METHOD OF GRACE. 35
kind and nature than the stock, and, upon that account, the tree receives its denomination from it, as from the more noble and excellent part ; but Christ, into whom believers are ingrafted, is infinitely more excellent than they, and they are denominated from him.
Nor yet that conjugal union, by marriage-covenant, betwixt a man and his wife ; for though this be exceeding dear and intimate, so that a man leaves father and mother, and cleaves to his wife, and they two become one flesh ; yet this union is not indissolvable, but may and must be broken by death ; and then the relict lives alone without any communion with, or relation to, the person that was once so dear ; but this betwixt Christ and the soul can never be dissolved by death, it abides to eternity.