All divine and spiritual life is originally in the Father, and cometh not to us, but by and through the Son, John v. 26. to
him hath the Father given to have an avro^cr/j, a quickening,
enlivening power in himself; but the Son communicates this life which is in him to none but by and through the Spirit, Rom. viii. 2. " The Spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus, hath made " me free from the law of sin and death.11
The Spirit must therefore first take hold of us, before we can live in Christ ; and when he doth so, then we are enabled to exert that vital act of faith, whereby we receive Christ ; all this lies plain in that one scripture, John vi. 57. " As the living Father " hath sent me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth me, i% (that is bv faith applies me) even he shall live by me." So that
38 THE METHOD OF GRACE. SE11M. II.
these two, namely, the Spirit on Christ's part, and faith, his work on our part, are the two ligaments by which we are knit to Christ.
So that the Spirit's work in uniting or ingrafting a soul in Christ, is like the cutting off the graff from its native stock (which he cloth by his illuminations and convictions) and closing it with the living, when it is thus prepared, and so enabling it (by the in- fusion of faith) to suck and draw the vital sap, and thus it becomes one with him. Or as the many members in the natural body, being all quickened and animated by the same vital spirit, become one bodv with the head, which is the principal member, Eph. iv. 4. " There is one body and one spirit.""
More particularly, we shall consider the properties of this union, that so we may the better understand the nature of it. And here I shall open the nature of it both negatively and affirmatively.
First, Negatively, by removing all false notions and misappre- hensions of it. And we say,
First, The saints union with Christ is not a mere mental union onlv in conceit or notion, but really exists extra meniem, whether we conceit it or not. I know the atheistical world censures all these things as fancies and idle imaginations, but believers know the reality of them, John xiv. 20. " At that day you shall know " that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.11 This doctrine is not fantastical, but scientincal.
Secondly, The saints union with Christ is not a physical union, such as is betwixt the members of a natural body and the head ; our nature indeed is assumed into union with the person of Christ, but it is the singular honour of that blessed and holy flesh of Christ, to be so united as to make one person with him ; that union is hvpostatical, this only mystical.
Thirdly, Nor is it an essential union, or union with the divine nature, so as our beings are thereby swallowed up and lost in the Divine being.
Some there be indeed that talk at that wild rate, of being god- ded into God, and christed into Christ ; and those unwary expres- sions of Greg. Naz. Qsorromv, and Xuco.-ostv, do but too much counte- nance those daring spirits ; but oh, there is an infinite distance betwixt us and Christ, in respect of nature and excellency, not- withstanding this union.
Fourthly, The union I here speak of, is not a federal union, or an union by covenant only : such an union indeed there is betwixt Christ and believers, but that is consequential to and wholly de- pendent upon this.
F'tfthly, and lastlv, It is not a mere moral union by love and affection ; thus we say, one soul is in two bodies, a friend is another
PERM. IT. THE METHOD OF GRACE. 39
self; tlie lover is in the person beloved ; such an union of hearts and affections there is also betwixt Christ and the saints, but this is of another nature; that we call a moral, this is a mystical union; that only knits our affections, but this our persons to Christ.
Secondly, Positively. And, Ffo*$t, Though this union neither makes us one person nor essence with Christ, yet it knits our per- sons most intimately and nearly to the person of Christ. The church is Christ's body, Col. i. 24. not his natural, but his mysti- cal body ; that is to say, his body is a mystery, because it is to him as his natural body. The saints stand to Christ in the same relation that the natural members of the body stand to the head, and he stands in the same relation to them, that the head stands in to the natural members ; and consequently they stand re- lated to one another, as the members of a natural body do to each other.
Christ and the saints are not one, as the oak and the ivy that clasps it are one, but as the graff and stock are one ; it is not an union by adhesion, but incorporation. Husband and wife are not so near, soul and body are not so near, as Christ and the believing soul are near to each other.
Secondly, The mystical union is wholly supernatural, wrought by the alone power of God. So it is said, 1 Cor. i. 30. " But of " him are ye in Christ Jesus." We can no more unite ourselves to Christ, than a branch can incorporate itself into another stock ; it is of him, i. e. of God, his proper and alone work.
There are only two ligaments, or bands of union betwixt Christ and the soul, viz. the Spirit on his part, and faith on ours. But when we say faith is the band of union on our part, the meaning is not, that it is so our own act, as that it springs naturally from us, or is educed from the power of our own wills; no, for the apostle expressly contradicts it, Eph. ii. 8. " It is not of yourselves, " it is the gift of God." But we are the subjects of it, and though the act on that account be ours, yet the power enabling us to be- lieve is God's, Eph. i. 19, 20.
Thirdly, The mystical union is an immediate union ; immediate I say, not as excluding means and instruments, for several means and many instruments are employed for the effecting of it ; but immediate, as excluding degrees of nearness among the members of Christ's mystical body.
Every member in the natural body stands not as near to the head as another, but so do all the mystical members of Christ's body to him: every member, the smallest as well as the greatest, hath an im- mediate coalition with Christ, 1 Cor. i. 2. " To the church of God, " which is at Corinth, to them that arc sanctified in Christ Jcsus>
THE METHOD OF GRACE. SER3I. II*-
" called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the k* name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours."
Among the factions in this church at Corinth, those that said, / am of Christ, as arrogating Christ to themselves, were as much a faction, as those that said, / am of Paul, 1 Cor. i. 30. To cure this he tells them, he is both theirs and ours. Such inclosures are against law.