SERM: X.] THE HIDDEN LINE OP A CHRISTIAN. 1755 blessings answerable to that rich variety, with which our Lord Jesus Christ, the High-treasurer of heaven, was furnished from the hand of the Father. And to this pur- pose, perhaps, John v. 26. may be interpreted, corn- pared with ver. 21. As the Father hath life in himself so bath he given to the Son to have life in himself; that as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them,. even so the Son may quicken'whom he will. The blessed Spirit itself, as it is the great promise of the New Testament, and the glorious gift of God- to men,, was communicated to the Son, and by him be- stowed upon us; for he went to heaven to receive the promise of the Spirit from the Father, and he shed it forth upon the apostles and the believers; Acts ii. 33. I't is this Spirit who gave miraculous gifts to them here=° tofore, that is the immediate principle, or worker, of divine life in dead soulsnow : And it is by this same Spi- rit, that he shall raise our dead bodies from the grave; Rom. viii. 11. He isthe spring of our spiritual and eter- nal life; and he is dispensed to us from the Father, by the hands of the Son. And here it is proper to take notice of the special manner wherein the Lord Jesus Christ is the treasurer, or keeper of life, and all divine benefits for the saints, and 'becomes the dispenser thereof to his people: He is ordained to stand in the relation of a head to them,. and they are his body, his members. Thus our life is hid- den with Christ, as. he is the vital head of all his saints. Their life is.hid with Christ, as the spirits and springs of life, for all the members in the natural body are said to be contained in the head. Christ is the head of his own mystical body, Eph. iv. 16. from whom the whole body, fitly joined together, tnaketh increase to its own edification : it is the same vital spirit that runs through head and members. He that is"joined to the Lord, is one Spirit; 1 Cor. vi. 1-j. and therefore partakes of the same life.. Thus you see, that though the life of a christian is hidden in God, in the all-sufficiency of his nature, and the purposes of his will ; yet our Lord Jesus Christ, as- Mediator, is entrusted to keep it for hire, and dispense it to him. 2 Our life is hid with Christ, as he is our forerunner,
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