VeR. 21.] SERMONS UPON JOHN XVII. 31
but in a peculiar manner it governeth and guidetli his own natural body; so Christ is 'head over all things to the church.' Eph. i. 22. Certainly this is a great honour put upon poor worms. What are the fruits of it ? We are interested in all Christ's communicable privileges ; we need not stretch it too far, it is ample enough of itself. Some things are incommunicably proper to Christ, neither given to man nor angel ; as the name above all names, to be adored, to be set at the right hand of God, to be head of the church, the Lord our righteous- ness. But other things are communicated to us, first to Christ, and then to us. Christ is one with the Father, and a poor christian, though never so mean, is one with Christ. Christ is called ' God's fellow,' Zech. xiii. 7, and every saint is Christ's fellow : Ps. xlv. 7, ' Thou hast anointed him with the oil of gladness above his fellows.' The Father loveth him because he is the express image of his person, and delights in the saints because they are the image of Christ. God is his God and our God, his Father and our Father ; where Christ is, they are, because they are a part of his body. Alas ! we should count it blasphemy to speak so, if the word did not speak it before us.
2. The happiness : ' In him the fulness of the Godhead dwelleth bodily.' There is a sufficiency in Christ for all his members. We have all things in him, which is as good as if we had it in our hands, and better ; for he is a better steward and keeper of the treasures of wisdom, grace, and comfort, than we are. If he hath it, it is for our use ; for Christ is full as an officer to impart life, sense, and motion to all the body. It is the office of the liver to impart the blood to the veins ; it were monstrous and unnatural to keep it. As a treasurer, it is his office to pay money out upon all just demands : Ps. xvi. 2, 3, ' My goodness extendeth not to thee ; but to the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is all my delight.' Thou shalt not be forgotten, for the care of Christ extendeth to every member. To neglect a member is to neglect ourselves. If a man could forget a child, yet certainly he could not forget his members. This is your re- lation to Christ ; if he hath bid the ' members to take care one of another,' 1 Cor. xii. 25, what will the head do ? These grounds of comfort and faith you have.
Use 2. How shall we know that we have a share in this mystical union? I answer — By the Spirit of Christ: 1 John iv. 13, 'Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.' There is a communication of the Sjjirit ; so Kom. viii. 9, 'Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his ;' his creature, but not his member ; a limb of Satan, not a member of Christ. Christ's Spirit is poured on all his brethren ; it is shared among them, it is given to every member as soon as they are added to Christ's body.
Now, how shall we know whether we have the Spirit of Christ ?
Ans. By life and conformity.
1. Life and stirring. A man may know whether the Spirit of Christ be dwelling in him, as a woman knoweth whether the child in the womb be quickened, yea or no, she knoweth it by the stirring ; so you may know wliether the Spirit of Christ be in you by its working. Tliey aie no members of Christ that are not quickened by the life of
32 SERMONS UPON JOHN XVII. [SeR. XXXVI.
grace ; there is no withered member in his body. If a member of a lingering i body be dead and numb, we rub it and chafe it to bring heat and spirits into it again : so do you feel any grace, any spiritual love ? Gal. ii. 20, ' I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me ; and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.' As we know there is life by the beating of the pulses, so there is spiritual life when there is a striving against corruption, complaining of it, sighing, groaning under it, seconded with a constant endeavour to grow better. These sighs and groans are in the greatest desertion.
2. Conformity. Where the Spirit of Christ is it fashioneth us into the likeness of Christ: 2 Cor. iii. 18, ' We all beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord,' It maketh us to represent Christ, to be such as he was in the world, meek, holy, humble, useful, as if Christ were come again to converse with men. If you are acted with an unclean, proud, carnal, wrathful spirit, who is it that dwelleth in. you ? whose image do you bear? There is a changing, transform- ing power that ariseth from this union, that we delight to do the will of our Father, wherein the conformity lieth chiefly. We shall be humble, meek, gentle: Mat. xi. 29, 'Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly of heart;' thinking humbly of ourselves, not aspiring after greatness. This spirit is a spirit of obedience, enabling us to look to our Father's glory and commandment in all things. We shall have compassionate melting hearts to the miseries of others, as he had bowels yearning to see sheep without a shepherd.