E p HE s. 2. 14, i5' t6. -------~ TJ,e ·Influence, thitt ou; being reconciled to God in one 'Body, hatb into our IJ\!conciliatiotl mutual, in two emintnt reJ!eEls. ·IF any fholl ~sk, What Influence and Virtue this their being conlidered as one Body, met in his Body, and under that confideration reconciled to God, bath .into their Re~onciliation one with another? I anfwer, Much every way; nei· .ther js it mentioned Jail, as Jail in Order, but as the Foundation of all other Confiderations thereto belonging. 1. In thot they were thus all once met in one Body, in the Body of Chrifr; both in his intendment, and his Father's view, this Conlideration (if no more) bath fotce enough in it to bring them together again in after Times. Even this <;landdline Union ( fuch indeed in refpect of our knowledg of it then, yet ha0ving all three Perfons t)le Witneffes in Heaven prefent) this Pre-contraCl:, this anticipated Onenefs, this for<·hand Union bath fuch virtue in it, that let them af. terwards fall out never fo much, they mufr be brought together again, and be one. Heaven and Earth may be diffolved, but thisUnion once folemnized, can -never be fruflrated or diffolved; what God and Chri[t did thus put together, Sin and-Devil, Men and Angels, cannot always anMpr ever keep afunder. His Fa· ,ther's donation of them to him, nod Chrifr's own reprefentation of the fame Per· -fom to his Father again, have a proportionable like virtue in them; for there is · · the fame reafon of both. Now of the one Chrifr fays, .dUthat the Father giveth !ne, f/Ja/1 come to me, John 6. 37· Chrifr mentions that Gift of them by the lump lo him, by the Father, as the reafon orcaufe (rather) why they could not ever );le kept from him: And as none can keep them from him, becaufe given of the Father to him, in like manner, and for the like rcafon, the whole Body of them cannot be kept one from another, becaufe prefented by him again to the Father: .Chrifr mentions both rhele Conliderations, as of equal efficacy in that Prayer, whereby he fanctified that Sacrifice of himfelf, John 17. Thine they were, and thOIJ gavejl them 11te : All mine are thim, and thine are TJtine : And I pray, v. 2 t. that they all may be one, (and that in this World) as we are. Chrilt then not only died for his Sheep apart, that they might come to himfelf, as John to. 15. but fhrther, that they might beone Fold, as it follows there. And as the Evangelifr interprets Cdlphais Prophecy, He did, to gather together in one the Children of God tba~ were fcattered abroad, John 11. 51, 52To make fure Which gathering to come, he in and at his Death gathered them together reprefentatively, they met all in him, .and afcrnded the Crofs with him, as Peter's Phrafe is of all their Sins, (therefore much mote their Perfons) 1 Pet. 2. 24. "os &uTds ocv!ultyK.v lv rrr.lp.«7t ciu-ril bI-n\ fu/\ov, He himfelf carried 11p i11 (or together with) his "Body, o11r Sins up to theTree: Aji:c"'lere fecit Jitrjim jim11l c11m feipfo. The Crofs was the fir(l: general l\endezvouze in this World, appointed for him and his Members, where they were crucified in him, and with him, as the Apofrle ofren fpeaks. Chri!l: told the Jews, If I be lifted Jtp, John 12. 32. ( fpeaking of his Death on the Crofs, V-33-) I will draw all to me: Andhereyoufcethereafonofit, forirt their lifting up him, they lift up all his with him, as hung to, and adjoined with ·him in one Body, in his Body. This great and univerlal Loadfrone, fet in that Steel of the Crofs, having then gathered all thefe lefier magnetick Bodies, Pieces ofhimfelf, into himfclf ; the virtue thereof will draw them all together in one ·again, as they come to exifr in the World: They may be foattered, they rnay fall out ; but as Branches united in one Root, tho fevered by Winds and Storms, and beaten one from and againfr another, yet the Root holding thern in a firm and indiffoluble Union, it brings them to a quiet Order and Station again. And if the now fcattered Jews mufr one day come together, and make one Body ·again, becaufe thofe dry Bones (theVmbr.e,the ghafllyShadows of them) were fcen once to meet in Ezc/;jel's ViGon; how much more fhall the Elell: coalefce in one new Man, becatife they once met in him, that is the Body, and not the Sha· dow? If rhofc Jews mufr meet, that the Prophecy, the Vifion might be fulfilled, thefe mufr much more, that the end of his death, and his hanging on the Tree, E may
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