is good therefore to be found in the way of the Spirit. Had that poor man, that lay so long at the pool of Bethesda, reasoned thus with himself, So long have I lain here in vain expecting a cure, it is to no purpose to wait longer, and so had been absent at that very time when the angel came down, he had, in all likelihood, carried his disease to the grave with him.
How dost thou know but this very sabbath, this sermon, this prayer, which thou hast no heart to attend, and are tempted to neglect, may be the season and instrument wherein, and by which, the Lord may do that for thy soul which was never done before ?
Infer. 8. To conclude, How are all the saints engaged to put forth all the power and ability they have for God, who hath put forth his infinite Almighty Power to draw them to Christ ?
God hath done great things for your souls ; he hath drawn you out of the miserable state of sin and wrath ; and that when he let others go, by nature as good as you, he hath drawn you into union with Christ, and communion with his glorious privileges. O that you would henceforth employ all the power you have for God in the duties of obedience, and in drawing others to Christ, as much as in you lies, and say continually with the Church, " Draw me, " we will run after thee," Cant. i. 4.
Tl tanks be to God for Jesus Christ.
Of the Work of the Spirit more particularly, by which the Soul is enabled to apply CHPasT.
Eph. ii. 1. And you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins.
XN the former sermons we have seen our union with Christ in the general nature of it, and the means by which it is effected, both ex- ternal, by the preaching of the gospel, and internal, by the draw- ing of the Father. We are now to bring our thoughts yet closer to this great mystery, and consider the bands by which Christ and believers are knit together in a blessed union.
And if we needfully observe the scripture expressions, and pon- der the nature of this union, we shall find there are two bands which knit Christ and the soul together, viz.
1. The Spirit on Christ's part.
SERM. V. THE METHOD OF GRACE. 85
The Spirit, on Christ's part, quickening us with spiritual life, whereby Christ first takes hold of us, and faith on our part, when thus quickened, whereby we take hold of Christ ; accordingly, this union witli the Lord Jesus is expressed in scripture sometimes by the one and sometimes by the other of the menus or bands by which it is effected. Christ is sometimes said to be in us ; so Col. i. 27. " Christ is in you the hope of glory." And Rom. viii. 10. " And " if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin." At other times it is expressed by the other band on our part, as 1 John v. 20. " We are in him that is true, even in his Son Christ " Jesus." And 2 Cor. v. 17. " If any man be in Christ, he is a " new creature."
The difference betwixt both these is thus aptly expressed by a late author*. Christ is in believers by his Spirit, 1 John iv. 13. " The believer is in Christ by faith, John i. 12. Christ is in the " believer by inhabitation, Rom. iii. 17. The believer is in Christ " by implantation, Rom. vi. 35. Christ is in the believer as the " head is in the body, Col. i. 18. As the root in the branches, " John xv. 5. Believers are in Christ as the members are in the " head, Eph. i. 23. or as the branches are in the root, John u xv. 1, 7. Christ in the believer implieth life, and influence " from Christ, Col. iii. 4. The believer implieth communion and "fellozvship with Christ, 1 Cor. i. 30. When Christ is said to be " in the believer, we are to understand it in reference to sanctifi- " cation. When the believer is said to be in Christ, it is in order " to justification."
Thus we apprehend, being ourselves first apprehended by Jesus Christ, Phil. iii. 12. AVe cannot take hold of Christ till first he take hold of us ; no vital act of faith can be exercised till a vital principle be first inspired : of both these bands of union we must speak distinctly, and first of " Christ quickening us by his Spirit, " in order to our union with him," of which we have an account in the scripture before us, " You he hath quickened, who were " dead in trespasses and sins :" In which words we find these two things noted, viz.
1. The infusion of a vital principle of grace.
2. The total indisposedness of the subject by nature.
First, The infusion of a vital principle of grace, You hath he quickened. These words [hath he quickened] are a supplement made to clear the sense of the apostle, which else would have been more obscure, by reason of that long parenthesis betwixt the first and fifth verses, u for as the •)• learned observe, this word vpag, you, is
* Mount Pisgah, p. 22, 23.
| Nud vua: regitur a <rj',t?wroir,<fe, v. 5. est igitur hoc teco ct hyperbaton &
86 THE METHOD OF GRACE. SERM. V.
" governed by the verb <fvv-/£uo-7roirt<ys, hath he quickened, ver. 5. So " that here the words are transposed from the plain grammatical " order, by reason of the interjection of a long sentence, there- " fore, with good warrant our translators have put the "verb into " the first verse, which is repeated, ver. 5. and so keeping faith- " fully to the scope, have excellently cleared the syntax and order " of the words." Now this verb o-vs^uoxoir^s, hath he quickened. imports the first vital act of the Spirit of God, or his first enliven- ing work upon the soul, in order to its union with Jesus Christ : For look, as the blood of Christ is the fountain of all merit, so the Spirit of Christ is the fountain of all spiritual life ; and until he quicken us, i. e. infuse the principle of the divine life into our souls, we can put forth no hand, or vital act of faith, to lay hold upon Jesus Christ.
This his quickening work is therefore the first in order of nature to our union with Christ, and fundamental to all other acts of grace done and performed by us, from our first closing with Christ throughout the whole course of our obedience ; and this quicken- ing act is said, ver. 5. to be together with Christ. Either noting (as some expound it) that it is the effect of the same power by which Christ was raised from the dead, according to Eph. 1. 19. or rather, to be quickened together with Christ, notes that new spiritual life which is infused into our dead souls in the time of our union with Christ : " For it is Christ to whom we are conjoined " and united in our regeneration, out of whom, as a fountain, all " spiritual benefits flow to us, among which this vivification or " quickening is one *, and a most sweet and precious one."