refpects. To angels he is an head of dominion and government, but to faints he is both an head of dominion, and vital influence too: They are his chief and most honourable fubjects, but not his myftical members: They are as the Barons and Nobles in his kingdom, but the faints as the dear fpoufe and wife of his bofom. This dignifies the believer above the greatest angel. And as the nobles of the kingdom think it a preferment and honour to serve the queen, fo the glorious angels think it no degradation or difhonour to them to ferve the faints; for to this honourable office they are appointed, Heb. i. 14. to be miniftring, or ferviceable spirits, for the good of them that shall be heirs of falvation. The chiefeft fervant difdains not to ho nour and ferve the heir.

Some imperious grandees would frown, fhould fome of thefe perfons but prefume to approach their prefence; but God fets them before his face with delight, and angels delight-to ferve them.

Infer. 2. If there be such a strict and infeparable union betwixt Chrift and believers, then the graces of believers can never totally fail: Immortality is the privilege of grace, becaufe fanctified perfons are infeparably united to Chrift the fountain of life : "Your life is hid with Chrift in God," Col. iii. 3. Whilft the fap of life is in the root, the branches live by it. Thus it is betwixt Chrift and believers, John xiv. 19. "Because I live, ye fhall live alfo." See how Chrift binds up their life in one bundle with his own, plainly intimating, it is as impoffible for them to die, as it is for himfelf, he cannot live without them.

True it is, the spiritual life of believers is en countred by many ftrong and fierce oppofitions: It is alfo brought to a low ebb in fome, but we are always to remember, there are fome things which pertain to the effence of that life, in which the very being of it lies, and fome things that pertain only to its well-being. All thofe things which belong to the well-being of the new creature, as manifeftations, joys, fpiritual comforts, &c. may, for a time, fail, yea, and grace itself may fuffer great loffes and remiffions in its degrees, notwithstanding our union with Chrift; but ftill the effence of it is immortal, which is no small relief to gracious fouls: When the means of grace fall, as it is threatned, Amos viii. 11. When temporary, formal profeffors drop away from Chrift like withered leaves from the trees in a windy day, 2 Tim. ii. 18. And when the natural union of their fouls and bodies is fuffering a diffolution from each other by death, when VOL. II. T

SERM. II. that filver cord is loofed, this golden chain holds firm, 1 Cor.

iii. 23.

Infer. 3. Is the union fo intimate betwixt Chrift and believers? How great and powerful a motive then is this, to make us openhanded and liberal in relieving the neceffities and wants of every gracious perfon! For in relieving them we relieve Chrift himJelf.

Chrift perfonal is not the object of our pity and charity, he is at the fountain-head of all the riches in glory, Eph. iv. 10. but Chrift mystical is exposed to neceffities, and wants, he feels hunger and thirft, cold and pains, in his body the church *; and he is refreshed, relieved, and comforted, in their refreshments and comforts. Chrift the Lord of heaven and earth, in this confideration, is fometimes in need of a penny; he tells us his wants and poverty, and how he is relieved, Mat. xxv. 35, 40. A text believed and understood by very few. "I was an

hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me "drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in. Then shall the "righteous answer, Lord, when faw we thee an hungred, &c. "And the King fhall anfwer, and fay unto them, verily I fay "unto you, in as much as ye have done it unto one of the leaft "of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."

It was the faying of a great divine, that he thought scarce any man on earth did fully understand, and believe this truth, and he conceives fo much hinted in the very text, where the righteous themfelves reply," Lord, when faw we thee fick," &c. intimating in the question, that they did not thoroughly understand the nearness, yea, oneness of those persons with Christ, for whom they did these things. And, indeed, it is incredible, that a Christian can be hard-hearted, and close-handed, to that ne ceffitous Christian, in refreshing and relieving of whom, he verily believes, that he minifters refreshment to Chrift himself.

O think again and again, upon this fcripture, confider what forcible and mighty arguments are here laid together, to engage relief to the wants of Christians.

Here you fee their near relation to Chrift; they are mystically one perfon; what you did to them, you did to me. Here you fee also how kindly Chrift takes it at our hands: acknow

*He who is not moved with the condition of a brother in the church, let him be moved with the contemplation of Christ: and he who does not regard his fellow fervant in ftraits and want, let him regard the Lord, dwelling in that man whom he defpifes Cyprian on Works and Charity.

ledging all thofe kindneffes that were bestowed upon him, even to a bit of bread: He is, you fee, content to take it as a courtesy, who might demand it by authority, and bereave you of all immediately upon refufal.

Yea, here you fee one fingle branch or act of obedience, (our charity to the faints) is fingled out from among all the duties of obedience, and made the test and evidence of our fincerity in that great day, and men blessed or curfed according to the love they have manifested this way to the faints.

O then, henceforth, let none that understand the relation the faints have to Chrift, as the members to the head, or the relation they have to each other thereby, as fellow-members of the fame body, from henceforth fuffer Chrift to hunger, if they have bread to relieve him, or Chrift to be thirsty, if they have wherewith to refresh him: this union betwixt Christ and the faints, affords an argument beyond all other arguments in the world to prevail with us. Methinks, a little rhetoric might perfuade a Christian to part with any thing he hath for Chrift who parted with the glory of heaven, yea, and his own blood for his fake.

Infer. 4. Do Chrift and believers make but one mystical person? How unnatural and abfurd then are all thofe acts of unkindness, whereby believers wound and grieve Jefus Chrift! This is as if the hand fhould wound his own head, from which it receives life, Jenfe, motion, and ftrength.

When fatan fmites Chrift by a wicked man, he then wounds him with the hand of an enemy; but when his temptations prevail upon the faints to fin, he wounds him, as it were with his own hand: As the eagle and tree in the fable complained, the one that he was wounded by an arrow winged with his own fea thers; the other, that it was cleaved afunder by a wedge hewn out of its own limbs.

Now the evil and difingenuity of such fins, are to be measured, not only by the near relation Chrift fuftains to believers as their Head; but more particularly, from the several benefits they receive from him as fuch; for in wounding Chrift by their fins,

Firft, They wound their head of influence, through whom they live, and without whom they had still remained in the state of fin and death, Eph. iv. 16. Shall Christ send life to us, and we return that which is death to him! O how abfurd, how difigenuous is this;

Secondly, They wound their head of government. Christ is a

guiding, as well as a quickening head, Col. i. 18. He is your wisdom, he guides you by his counfels to glory: but must he be thus requited for all his faithful conduct! What do you, when you fin, but rebel against his government, refusing to follow his counfels, and obeying, in the mean time, a deceiver, rather than him.

Thirdly, They wound their confulting head, who cares, pro vides, and projects, for the welfare and fafety of the body. Chrif tians, you know your affairs below have not been steered and managed by your own wisdom, but that orders have been given from heaven for your fecurity and supply from day to day. "I "know, O Lord, (faith the prophet) that the way of man is not in himfelf, neither is it in him that walks to direct his own "Ateps," Jer. x. 23.

It is true, Chrift is out of your fight, and you fee him not: but he fees you, and orders every thing that concerns you. And is this a due requital of all that care he hath taken for you? Do you thus requite the Lord for all his benefits? What, recom penfe evil for good! O let fhame cover you.

Fourthly, and lastly, They wound their head of bonour. Chrift your Head, is the fountain of honour to you: This is your glory that you relate to him as your head: You are, on this account, (as before was noted) exalted above angels,

Now then confider, how vile a thing it is to reflect the leaft difhonour upon him, from whom you derive all your glory. O confider and bewail it.

Infer. 5. Is there fo ftrict and intimate a relation and union betwixt Chrift and the faints? Then furely they can never want what is good for their fouls or bodies.

Every one naturally cares and provides for his own, especially for his own body; yet we can more eafily violate the law of nature, and be cruel to our own flesh, than Chrift can be so to his myftical body *. I know it is hard to reft upon, and rejoice in a promife, when neceffities pinch, and we fee not from whence relief thould arife; but O! what sweet fatisfaction and comfort, might a neceffitous believer find in thefe confiderations, would he but keep them upon his heart in fuch a day of strait.

First, Whatever my diftreffes are for quality, number, or degree, they are all known even to the leaft circumftance, by Chrift my Head: He looks down from heaven upon all my af

* Qui mifit filium, immifit spiritum, promifit vultum, quid tandem denegabit ? i. e. He who hath fent his Son, put the Spirit with in us, and promised his countenance, What will he deny us?

fictions, and understands them more fully than I that feel them, Pfal. xxxviii 9. "Lord, all my defire is before thee, and my groaning is not hid from thee."

Secondly, He not only knows them, but feels them, as well as knows them; "We have not an High-priest that cannot be "touched with the feeling of our infirmities," Heb. iv. 15, In all your afflictions he is afflicted; tender fympathy cannot but flow from fuch intimate union; therefore, in Matth. xxv, 35. he faith, I was an hungred, and I was a-thirst, and I was naked. For indeed his fympathy, and tender compaffion, gave him as quick a refentment, and as tender a sense of their wants, as if they had been his own. Yea,

Thirdly, He not only knows and feels my wants, but bath enough in his hand, and much more than enough to fupply them all; for all things are delivered to him by the Father, Luke x. 22. All the storehouses in heaven and earth are his, Phil. iv. 19.

Fourthly, He beftows all earthly good things, even to superfluity and redundance, upon his very enemies," They have more than heart can with," Pfal. lxxiii. 7. He is bountiful to strangers; he loads very enemies with these things, and can it be fuppofed he will in the mean while frarve his own, and neglect those whom he loves as his own flesh? It cannot be, Moreover,

Fifthly, Hitherto he hath not fuffered me to perish in any former ftraits; when, and where was it, that he forfook me? This is not the first plunge of trouble I have been in; have I not found him a God at hand! How oft have I feen him in the mount of difficulties !

Sixthly, and Laftly, I have his promife and engagement that he will never leave me nor for fake me, Heb. xiii. 5. and John xiv. 18. a promise which hath never failed, fince the hour it was first made. If then the Lord Jefus knows and feels all my wants, hath enough, and more than enough to fupply them, if he gives even to redundance unto his enemies, hath not hitherto forfaken me, and hath promifed he never will? Why then is my foul thus difquieted in me! Surely there is no cause it fhould be fo.

Infer. 6. If the faints are fo nearly united to Chrift, as the members to the head: O then how great a fin, and full of danger is it for any to wrong and perfecute the faints! For in fo daing, they must needs perfecute Chrift himself.

Saul, Saul, (faith Chrift) why perfecuteft thou me?" Acts