Inf. 4. Do Christ and believers male but one mystical person ? How unnatural and absurd then are all those acts of unkindness, whereby believers wound and grieve Jesus Christ! This is as if the hand should wound its own head, from which it receives life, sense, motion, and strength.
When satan smites Christ by a wicked man, he then wounds him
SERM. II. THE METHOD OF GRACE. 45
with the hand of an enemy ; but when his temptations prevail upon the saints to sin, 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 J) is own feathers ; the o*ther, that it was cleaved asunder by a wedge hewn out of its own limbs.
Now the evil and disingenuity of such sins are to be measured not only by the near relation Christ sustains to believers as their Head ; but more particularly from the several benefits they receive from him as such ; for in wounding Christ by their sins,
First, They wound their Head of influence, through whom they live, and without whom they had still remained in the state of sin and death, Eph. iv. 16. Shall Christ send life to us, and we re- turn that which is death to him ! O how absurd, how disingenu- ous is this !
Secondly, They wound their Head of government. Christ is a guiding, as well as a quickening Head, Col. i. 18. He is your wis- dom, he guides you by his counsels to glory : but must he be thus requited for all his faithful conduct ! What do you, when you sin, but rebel against his government, refusing to follow his counsels, and obeying, in the mean time, a deceiver, rather than him.
Thirdly, They wound their consulting Head, who cares, provides, and projects, for the welfare and safety of the body. Christians, you know your affairs below have not been steered and managed by your own wisdom, but that orders have been given from heaven for your security and supply from day to day. " I know, O Lord, " (saith the prophet) that the way of man is not in himself, neither " is it in him that walks to direct his own steps," Jer. x. 23.
It is true, Christ is out of your sight, and you see him not : but he sees 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 recompense evil for good ! O let shame cover you.
Fourthly, and lastly, They wound their Head of honour. Christ 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 consider, how vile a thing it is to reflect the least dis- honour upon him, from whom you derive all your glory. O con- sider and bewail it.
Inf. 5. Is there so strict and intimate a relation and union be- twixt Christ and the saints? Then surely they can never want what is good for their souls or bodies.
Every one naturally cares and provides for his own, especially for his own body : yet we can more easily violate the law of nature,
46 THE METHOD OF GRACE. SEEM. II.
and be cruel to our own flesh, than Christ can be so to his mys- tical body *. I know it is hard to rest upon, and rejoice in a pro- mise, when necessities pinch, and we see not from whence relief should arise ; but O ! what sweet satisfaction and comfort might a necessitous believer find in these considerations, would he but keep them upon his heart in such a day of straits.
Firsts Whatever my distresses are for quality, number, or de- gree, they are all known even to the least circumstance, bv Christ my Head: He looks down from heaven upon all my afflictions, and understands them more fully than I that feel them, Psal. xxxviii. 9. " Lord all my desire 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-priest that cannot be touch- " ed with the feeling of our infirmities," Heb. iv. 15. In all your afflictions he is afflicted ; tender sympathy cannot but flow from such intimate union ; therefore in Matt. xxv. So. he saith, I was an hungered, and I was athirst, and I was naked. For indeed his sympathy and tender compassion gave him as quick a resent- ment, 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 supply them all ; for all things are delivered to him by the Father, Luke x. 22. All the storehouses in heaven and earth are his, Phil. iv. 19.
Fourthly, He bestows all earthly good things, even to superfluity and redundance upon his very enemies, " They have more than " heart can wish," Psal. lxxi'ii. 7. He is bountiful to strangers ; he loads very enemies with these things, and can it be supposed he will in the mean time starve his own, and neglect those whom he loves as his own flesh ? It cannot be. Moreover,
Fifthly, Hitherto he hath not suffered me to perish in any for- mer straits ; when, and where was it that lie forsook me ? This is not the first plunge of trouble I have been in ; have I not found him a God at hand ! How oft have I seen him in the mount of difficulties !
Sixthly, and lastly, I have his promise and engagement that he will never leave me nor forsake me, Heb. xiii. 5. and John xiv. 18. a promise which hath never failed since the hour it was first made- If then the Lord Jesus knows and feels all my wants, hath enough, and more than enough to supply them, if he gives even
* Qui misit JUium, immisit spiritum, promisit vullum, quid tandem denegnbit ? i. e. He who hath sent his Son, put the Spirit within us, and promised his smiles, What « ill he deny us ?
SERM. II. THE METHOD OF CEACE, 47
to redundance unto his enemies, hath not hitherto forsaken me, and hath promised he never will ? Why then is my sold thus dis- quieted in me ! Surely there is no cause it should be so.
Inf. 6. If the saints are so nearly united to Christ, as the mem- bers to the head ; O then, how great a sin, and full of' danger is it for any to wrong and persecute the saints! For in so doing, they must needs persecute Christ himself
" Saul, Saul, (saith Christ) why persecutest thou me ?" Acts ix. 4. * The righteous God holds himself obliged to vindicate op- pressed innocency, though it be in the persons of wicked men ; how much more when it is in a member of Christ ? " He that toucheth " you toucheth the apple of mine eye," Zech. ii. 8. And is it to be imagined that Christ will sit still, and suffer his enemies to hurt or injure the very apples of his eyes? No, " He hath ordained " his arrows against the persecutors,1' Psalm vii. 13.