ON HOSEA XIV.- VERSES 5 -7. 213 digences or abilities, they do interchangeably minis- ter to one another towards the growth of the whole. And this is that which is here further requisite to the increase of the body called. Here is the supply of service, and the supply of nourishment which one part affords unto another, and so to the whole. This is principally from the head to the members, called by the apostle, " The supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ," Phil. i. 19. of whose fulness we receive grace for grace, John i. 16. into whose image we are transformed from glory to glory, 2 Cor. iii. 18. but it is proportionably between the members amongst themselves ; for as several particu- lar ingredients make up one cordial, and several in- struments concur to the perfecting of one consummate work, and the beauty of every thing ariseth out of the variety and order, and mutual serviceableness that the parts thereof have unto one another : so is it in the church too, which Christ bath so tempered together, that they might all stand mutually in need of one ano- ther. Therefore we find the saints in scripture com- municating to one another their experiences, tempta- tions, deliverances, comforts, for their mutual edifica- tion, Psa. xxxiv. 3. 6. John i. 41. 45. iv. 29. 2 Cor. i. 4. 6. Phil. i. 12 -14. Col. ii. 1, 2. And God's dealings with saints in particular are, therefore, re- gistered in scripture, both that we might learn that way of building up one another, and that by their ex- amples we might support our faith, and through pa- tience and experience of the scripture have hope ; because what hath been done unto one, is in the like condition applicable unto every other, James v. 10, 11. 17. Rom. xv. 4. 1 Cor. x. 6. After all this there is an effectual working, a faculty to form, and to concoct the matter which bath been
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