514 THE SIGNAL PRESENCE OF GOD
ever be able to dissolve tbis union ; and herein lies the peculiar tran- scendent blessedness of this union above all other unions. They all may cease, be broken, and come to nothing ; every one of them is soluble: the head may be separated from the members, and the members from the head ; the husband must be separated from the wife, and the wife from the husband ; the parents must be separated from the children, and the children from the parents, and bosom friends must be separated one from another. The foundation and the house may be separated, and the branches may be cut off from the vine — yea, the soul and body may be disunited by death, but the mystical union stands fast for ever. Christ and a gracious soul can never be separated ; God hath joined them together, and no mortal shall ever be able to put them asunder. Mat. xix. 6. There is not only a continuation of it all our life, but also in death itself. Our very bodies sleeping in the dust are even then in Union with Christ. There are two abiding things in the saints, their unction and their union. Their unction abides, ' But the anointing which ye have re- ceived of him abideth in you,' 1 John ii. 27 ; and their union abides, for it follows, ' and ye shall abide in him.' Christ earnestly prays that we might be one, as he and his Father are one, John xvii. 20-23 ; not essentially, nor personally, but spiritually, so as no other creature is united to Christ. There can be no divorce between Christ and the believing soul. Christ hates putting away, Mai. ii. 16. Sin may for a time seemingly separate between Christ and the believer, but it can never finally separate between Christ and the believer. Look, as it is impossible for the leaven that is in the dough to be separated from the dough after it is once mixed, for it turneth the nature of the dough into itself ; so it is impossible for the saints ever to be separated from Christ : for Christ is in the saints as nearly and as really as the leaven is in the dough. Christ and believers are so incorporated as if Christ and they were one lump, Kom. viii, 10 ; Col. i. 27 ; 1 John iii. 21 ; John xvii. 23. Oar nature is now joined to God by the in- dissoluble tie of the hypostatical union in the second person ; and we in our persons are joined to God by the mystical indissoluble bond of the Spirit, the third person. Our union with the Lord Jesus is so near, so close, and so glorious, that it makes us one spirit with him. In this blessed union the saints are not only joined to the graces and benefits which flow from Christ, but to the person of Christ, to Christ himself, 1 Cor. vi. 17. All the powers on earth, and all the powers in hell, can never separate Christ from the believer, nor the believer from Christ. When all other unions are dissolved, this union holds good, John i. 16 ; Eom. viii. 32 ; 1 Cor. iii. 21-23.
I readily grant that the sense and apprehension of this union may in this life be much interrupted, and many times greatly darkened, but the substance of the union still remains. And I readily grant that a believer may be much assaulted and tempted to doubt of his union with Christ, and to question his union with Christ, and yet nevertheless a believer's union with Christ continues and abides for ever. And I readily grant that the influences of it for some time may be suspended, but yet the union itself is not — nay, cannot be dissolved. As it was in the hypostatical union ; for a time there was a suspend-
WITH HIS PEOPLE IN THEIR GREATEST TROUBLES. 515
ing of the comforting influences of the divine nature in the human, insomuch that our Saviour cried out, ' My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ?' Mat. xxvii. 46 ; yet for all this the union between the two natures was not in the least abolished. So here in the mystical union the sensible effects, comforts, and benefits of our union with Christ may sometimes be kept in and not appear, but yet the union itself abides, and shall abide firm and inviolable for ever ; it is an inseparable and insuperable union. Look, as no power on earth is sufficient to overpower the Spirit of Christ, which on Christ's part makes the union, so no power on earth shall be able to conquer faith, which on our part also makes the union, John x. 27-31 ; 1 John iv. 4 ; 1 Pet. i. 5 ; Luke xxii. 31, 32. Satan and the world may make attempts upon this union, but they wiU never be able to break this union, to dissolve this union ; yea, though death be the bane of all natural unions, yet death can never be the bane of this mystical union. Though death puts a period to all other unions, yet death can never put a period to this union. When the believer is in his grave his union with Christ holds good. But,
[15.] Fifteenthly. ' If God be with us, who can be against us?' I ajiswer, None, so as to deprive us of our crowns. There is no power nor policy on earth or in hell that can deprive a Christian,