2. It is the ground of that exchange that is between Christ and us ; we communicate to him our nature, our sins, and troubles, and Christ communicateth to us his nature and merits and privileges. What hath Christ from thee ? Thy nature, thy sins, thy punishments, thy wrath, thy curse, thy shame ; and thou hast his titles, his nature, his spirit, his privileges. All this interchange between us and Christ is by virtue of union. All interests lie in common between Christ and the church ; he taketh our nature, and is made flesh, and we are made ' partakers of the divine nature,' 2 Peter i. 4. He is made the Son of man, we the sons of God ; he had a mother on earth, we a Father in heaven ; lie is made sin, we righteousness : 2 Cor. v. 21, ' Who hath made him to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.' He was made a curse that we might have the blessing of Abraham : Gal. iii. 13, 14, ' Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us ; for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree ; that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ.' Thus he imparteth his privileges to us, and assumeth our miseries to himself. He hath a share in all our sorrows, and we have a share in his triumphs ; he is afflicted in our afflictions, as we ascend in his ascension : Eph. ii. 6, ' He hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.' We live by his life : Gal. ii. 20, ' I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me,' &c. And we are glorified by his glory. He sufiereth with us in heaven, and we reign with him on earth ; he sufFereth with us, non per passionem, sed compassioncm, not that glorified Christ feeleth any grief in heaven, but his bowels yearn to an afflicted member, as if he himself were in our stead ; and we are set down with him in heavenly places, because our head is there, and liatli seized upon heaven in our right. It is a notable expression : Col. i. 24, ' Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up, varepyjfxa ffki^y^eoiv XpL(TTov, that which is behind of the sufi'erings of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church.' Christ and the church are considered as one person, whose afflictions are determined by pro- vidence ; thus much the head must suffer, thus much the members. Christ suffered his share, and we ours in our turn. In short, Christ sufFereth no more in the body that he carried to heaven, but in his body that he left upon earth. Every blow that lighteth on a member, lighteth on his heart : Acts ix. G, ' Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me ? ' Christ was in heaven at that time ; how could he say, ' Why persecutest thou me ? ' Did he climb up into heaven, and war upon Christ in the midst of his glory ? No ; Saul persecuted the christians, and them Christ calleth me, his mystical body. As in a throng, if some- body treadeth upon your foot, the tongue crieth out. You have hurt me ; the tongue is in safety, but it is in the same body with the foot, and so their good and bad are common ; for though Christ's person be above abuse, he still suffereth in his members; and he that persecuteth the church persecuteth Jesus Christ.
3. If once interested in the mystical union, then they are safe, pre- served in Jesus Christ: Jude 1, 'Sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ ;' ver. 24, ' Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling,' &c. The union is indissoluble ; that is a cabinet.
30 SERMONS UPON JOHN XVII. [SeR. XXXV.
where God's jewels are kept safe. If a member could be lost, Christ's body could be maimed ; as the union between the two natures could not be dissolved ; it was the body of Clirist in the grave ; there was a separation between his human body and human soul, yet both still remained united to the divine nature ; so this union cannot be dissolved. You may as well sever the leaven and the dough, when they are kneaded together, as separate Christ and the church when once united. Impossihile est massam a pasta separare. Christ will not suffer his body to be mangled ; the cutting off of a joint goeth to the quick.
Use 1. To press us to look after an interest in this great privilege. It is the main work of your lives. To move you, consider the honour and the happiness of them, that they are thus one with God through Christ.
1. The honour. What am I, to be son-in-law to the king? What are you, to be members of Christ? Christ counteth himself to be incomplete and maimed without us : Eph. i. 23, ' The church is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.' How are we TrXrjpa/jia avTov, ' the fulness of him ' ? It relateth not to his personal perfec- tion. Take Christ absolutely as God, and he is a person most perfect and glorious. Before the assumption of the human natui-e, before any creature in the world was made, there was enough in Christ to satisfy his Father's heart. Nay, take him relatively as mediator, what doth Christ want? Doth the body give aught of perfection to the head? No ; ' The fulness of the godhead dwells in him bodily,' and ' he filleth all things.' But taken in his mystical person, Christ mystical, as head and members are called Christ : 1 Cor. xii, 12, ' As the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body ; so also is Christ.' So he is not perfect without his body, as a head without members is not perfect. Now, what an honour is this, that he accoonteth himself imperfect without us ! And till all his members be gathered in, Ave are not grown up to the state wherein Christ is full : Eph. iv. 13, ' Till we all come to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.' Christ's mystical body hath not its complete stature till all the saints be gathered. This honour is not put upon the angels ; they are servants, but not members. He did not take their seed to be a head to them, nor die for them, nor took them for his members, as he doth us : Pro v. viii. 31, ' Rejoicing in the habitable parts of the earth, and my delights were with the sons of men.' He left the company of angels to dwell with us ; his heart was set upon our good, that, next to the title of Son of God, he valueth this of being head of the church. He purchased it with his blood. He loveth his mystical body above his natural, for he gave his natural body to redeem the church, which is his mystical body ; as husbands love their wives as their own body. 0 christians ! is not this a mighty privilege ? We are not only his, but him, and Christ knoweLh us and loveth us as parts of his own body, and will glorify us not only as his clients and servants, but members ; all the injuries and wrongs done to the church, Christ taketh it as done to himself. Wicked men they are his footstool ; Christ is over them, but not as a mystical head. As the head of a king is lifted up above all his subjects, and governeth them, and weareth the garland of honour,