284 A VINDICATION OF
ing to eternal happiness. It must be confessed, that of Christ working as a creator and a governor of the world, by providence all are par- takers ; — not all partakers of that grace whereby he inhabiteth whom he saveth. Again: as he dwelleth not by grace in all, so neither doth he equally work in all them in whom he dwelleth. ' Whence is it,' saith St Augustine, ' that some be holier than others are, but because God doth dwell in some more plentifully than in others?' And because the divine substaace of Christ is equally in all, his human substance equally distant from all, it appeareth that the par- ticipation of Christ, wherein there are many degxees and differences, must needs consist in such effects as, being derived from both natures of Christ really into us, are made our own : and we, by having them in us, are truly said to have him from whom they come ; Christ also, more or less, to inhabit and impart himself, as the graces are fewer or more, greater or smaller, which really flow into us from Christ. Christ is whole with the whole church, and whole with every part of the church, as touching his person, which can no way divide itself, or be possessed by degrees and portions. But the participation of Christ hnporteth, besides the presence of Christ's person, and besides the mystical copulation thereof with the parts and members of his whole church, a true actual influence of grace, whereby the life which we live according to godliness is his; and from him we receive those perfections whereui our eternal happiness consisteth. Thus we par- ticipate Christ : — partly by imputation ; as when those things which he did and suffered for us are imputed unto us for righteousness; — partly by habitual and real infusion ; as when grace is inwardly be- stowed while we are on earth; — and afterward more fully, both our souls and bodies made like unto his in glory. The first thing of his so infused into our hearts in this life is the Spii'it of Christ ; where- upon, because the rest, of what kind soever, do all both necessaiily depend and infallibly also ensue, therefore the apostles term it some- times the seed of God, sometimes the pledge of our heavenly inherit- ance, sometimes the hansel or earnest of that which is to come. From whence it is that they which belong to the mystical body of our Sa- viour Christ, and be in number as the stars of heaven, — divided suc- cessively, by reason of their mortal condition, into many generations, — are, notwithstanding, coupled every one to Christ their head, and all unto every particular person amongst themselves; inasmuch as the same Spirit which anointed the blessed soul of our Saviour Christ doth so formalize, unite, and actuate his whole race, as if both he and they were so many limbs compacted into one body, by being quick- ened all with one and the same soul. That wherein we are partakers of Jesus Christ by imputation, agreeth equally unto all that have it ; for it consisteth in such acts and deeds of his as could not have longer
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continuance than while they were in doing, nor at that very time belong unto any other but to him from whom they come : and there- fore, how men, either then, or before, or since, should be made par- takers of them, there can be no way imagined but only by imputation. Again : a deed must either not be imputed to any, but rest altogether in him whose it is ; or, if at all it be imputed, they which have it by imputation must have it such as it is, — whole. So that degrees being neither in the personal presence of Christ, nor in the participation of those effects which are ours by imputation only, it resteth that we wholly apply them to the participation of Christ's infused grace ; al- though, even in this kind also, the first beginning of life, the seed of God, the first-fruits of Christ's Spirit, be without latitude. For we have hereby only the being of the sons of God: in which number, how far soever one may seem to excel another, yet touching this, that all are sons, they are all equals; some, happily, better sons than the rest are, but none any more a son than another. Thus, therefore, we see how the Father is in the Son, and the Son in the Father; how they both are in all things, and all things in them : what communion Christ hath with his church; how his church, and every member thereof, is in him by original derivation, and he personally in them, by way of mystical association, wrought through the gift of the Holy Ghost; which they that are his receive from him, and, together with the same, what benefit soever the vital force of his body and blood may yield ; — yea, by steps and degrees they receive the complete mea- sure of all such divine grace as doth sanctify and save throughout, till the day of their final exaltation to a state of fellowship in glory with him, whose partakers they are now in those things that tend to glory."