E pH E s, 3· 17. ~c~h (ego 1101t jimz ego) but even his Spiritual [I 1 As in thatlikc abrcnunciation tt IS to be underfiood, Yet not I, h11t ihe Gr.ce •fGod that 11 w1th me: 'tis his Spi– ritual [I] as'tis his own, he renounceth that·Speech likewife, in Rom. 7· fVheti he lays it is not [I] h11t Sin, the I or Self there, is his regenerate !elf; it is his in– ward Grace•, which yet in comparifon unto Chrifi he denies, in Gal. 2. !t is ob– fervable alfo, that there is this difference in Scripture Language, and we finJ it in both thole places: Gal.. 2. aAdCol. 3· That when he fpeak~ of our dying to Sm, he puts that indeed upon a Conformity with Chtill, and the Operation of Chrill: I am crHciji'ed nith Chrift, but he lays not, that Chrifi died in him : But when he comes to exprefs our Life, he fays, It is not I, b11t Chrift that livu in me, for the reafon aforefaid. The Body of Sin in us, which is our felf, dies with him; but in, or by, or with its dying in us, thn•ugh the Body of Chrifl, as Rom. 7· Chrifi is never laid to die in us: But then when he comes to that Point of his being our Lift, and that the Life we have b,y htm be fpoken of; then we are not only faic! to be alive with him, but plamly, that He lives t1t us. I find that Divines fay, That our Union with Chrifi is a jitbjlantial Vnion ; thads, it is an Union of the Subllance of his Phfon, and of ours, which the Lord's Supper is the Symbol of, and is ordained to fignify; and therefore not only by his Spirit or Graces. ff(!!ery 4· But the far greater ~efiion will be, Whether Chrifl dwells in m, and is made one with us, only by his Spirits indweUing in us jirfl and i!JmJ<diatly,. and not that Hinl;[elf jirfl and intmediatly ? Now towards this I mufi firll: fay, (which I !hall after explain) I could never fee any reafon againfi this, that the Perfon of the Son of God, in and with the Divine Nature.of Him, may not (by means or rcafon of his Union with the Manhood, in which He perfonally dwells firfi) and then through his Relation to us thereby, may not (I fay) dweU in us, as wcll as the third Perfon the Holy– Ghofi cloth, which our Divines very generally affirm; yea, and that he fhould as immediatly dwell in us, as the Spirit. r. What ! hath the Addition of the Manhood unto his Perfon, made that Perfon, as he is God, uncapable of dwelling in us immediatly, as well as the Perfon of the Spirit? Is he difprivileged thereby, when as indeed by reafon of his relation to us as God-Man, it is that he cloth dwell in us any way. 2. It hath al(o 'feemed fomewhat firange to me, that he that is ordained to be the Means of our Union with God, and is the prime Object and Terminus ofour Union, .the defigned Bridegroom that.is to be married, the Perfon to be one and in conjunction with us : I in them, a11d thou in tJte, that they alfo may be one in ut, as in John 17. It were firange, I fay, that He who is the Perfon, in whom and by whom the Union is effected with himfelf, and the other two Perfons, and is the Perfon mofi concerned in this matter of Union;. that Himlclf fhould be married, ~ and come to be in his nearefl conj'!nction with us, only by a Proxy, viz.. th'l Holy-Ghofi, and him to be fent into our Hearts only to dwell in his fiead: Into– much as I have been m!lch inclined further to think, that Chrifi joins himlclf to us firfi and immediatly, and then we are made one with the Father, and then he fendshis Spirit into our Hearts. . • Brethren, you have heard lately fomething of God's electing us to Union with Himfelf; but you have heard withal, that Chrifl: is the Means of that Union with God, and the immediate Means, yea, and the firfl Means : and fo it is propofed in thole Scriptures, w.here the weight of Union is put upon the Foundation of it; in Jobn 14& 17 chap. God united his Son immediatly into one Perfon with a Man, and then ordained him, and that Union of his, purpofely, among other things, to bring about an Union of <Us with Himfelf: ThJt tfJey mtiJ be one in us, fpeaking to his Father, (lays Chrifi there) : how one in us? As tho11, Father, art in me, a11d I in thee; that fo they alfo "'"Y be one in us; then take the 23d v. Mark the Order, I in them, a11d th011 in me. Therefore our b~ing one with the Father lies in this, that Chrifi is firfl in tis : I ifl them, afld thll/t i" me. So as I take thefe (lays Chrifi) to be one with ll)e; and fo thou Father comefi to be )n them by me. Youhavethelike in John 14.20. laminmyF~ther, andyotlinnu, F •r.d 33
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