your you are source, as converting and sanctifying grace is. Would you be humbled and abased before God, you must learn of Christ to be meek and lowly of heart, Matt. xi. 29. Would affections placed upon have you things above, you must remember, that " dead, and that your life is hid with Christ in God," Col. iii. 2, 3. Would you have enlargement of soul, and cheerful hope in God's mercy, when you approach his presence, Christ in you is your hope of glory, Col. i. 27. In whom you may have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him, Eph. iii. 12. And be accepted in the Beloved, Eph. i. 6. Would you enjoy the earnest of your future inheritance, it must be upon your believing in him, that you are sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of your inheritance, Eph. i. 13, 14. Would you have joy and peace in believing, you must "rejoice in Christ Jesus, without confidence in the flesh," Phil. iii. 3. Would you have the communications of the Divine love to your soul, it must be from Christ's loving you, and manifesting himself to you, John xiv. 22. To conclude: certain it is, that without union there can be no communion; and it therefore concerns you not only to consider whether you are indeed united to Christ, and have access to God through faith in him; but also, whether your deadness, formality, and distractions in duty, which you so often complain of, are not owing to the want of a cheerful dependence upon Christ, as the head of holy influences; or else to your vain attempts to quicken your soul by some endeavours of your own, without looking to him for the incomes of his Spirit and grace. I may add once more, our perseverance in grace here, and our perfection of grace in glory, do necessarily depend on our union to Christ. As we are ac ་ cepted in the Beloved, so it is by Christ's dwelling in our hearts by faith that we are rooted and grounded in love, Eph. iii. 17. We stand by faith in him, Rom. xi. 20. It is because Christ lives, that we live also, John xiv. 19. And if we do "live, it is not we, but Christ liveth in us," Gal. i. 20. We have no source of spiritual life, but in him; no stability in the exercises of the spiritual life, but by continual supplies of grace from him. It is because none can pluck us out of Christ's hand, that we shall have eternal life, and never perish, John x. 28. Here, and here only, is the believer's stability and security; he belongs to Christ, is a member of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. And will the blessed Saviour neglect his own body? Will he leave any of his members to perish ? Is it in the power of hell or earth, of sin or Satan, to prevail against him? Or can he, who is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever, change the purposes of love and eternal kindness towards those whom he has once loved and united to himself? And are not all the promises of the believer's perseverance yea and amen in Christ, with whom the believer is one mystical and spiritual person? Sooner shall heaven and earth pass away, than the blessed Redeemer shall forget, or neglect the members of his body, and the objects of his love they were eternally chosen in him, they are his by covenant, they are united to him by faith, their interest is his, and he is gone to take possession of their inheritance, that where he is, there they may be also. Thus are we kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation. But how could we stand one day, or hour, against the force of our own corruptions, the craft, malice, and power of Satan's temptations, and the snares and entanglements of a wicked world, if we were not founded upon this Rock? And now, sir, you are to judge, whether there be not more than a doctrinal acquaintance with our union to Christ necessary for us, if we would either be justified in the sight of God, obtain that holiness without which no man can see the Lord, live near to God, or hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end. By what has been said, you cannot but see that it should be your great inquiry how this union may be obtained, if you have not the evidence of it; or how it should be evidenced to yourself, if you are in doubt about it. If you have no evidence of your union to Christ, it concerns you to realize your natural enmity of heart to God, deeply to affect your soul with a sense of the dreadful misery of a Christless state, and to lament before God the pollution of your nature, the hardness of your heart, the guilt of your sins, and the amazing destruction and perdition to which you are thereby exposed. It concerns you (as I have often advised you) to lie at mercy, to come to the footstool of sovereign grace, self-loathing, and self-condemning, pleading with importunate ardour for the powerful influences of the blessed Spirit to draw and unite you to Christ. It concerns you, to be careful and diligent in your attendance upon all the duties of religious worship. It concerns you, though watchful, active, and diligent, yet utterly to despair of all help in yourself, and to maintain a lively impression, that all the progress of spiritual life must flow from your union to Jesus Christ; and that you must therefore rely upon him only to do all in you and for you. It likewise concerns you to look unto Jesus Christ, not only as a sufficient, but a compassionate Saviour; willing to receive you to mercy in your present state, how bad soever; and therefore cheerfully and immediately to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, without waiting for moral qualifications to recommend you to the Redeemer's acceptance; and let Christ Jesus be your steady hope and confidence, whatever darkness, difficulties, trials, or temptations, you may meet withal in your way. If you are in doubt about your state, and in an uncomfortable suspense whether you are united to Christ or not, do not rest satisfied in such a case, wherein your eternal ALL is at stake, and in a precarious uncertainty; but labour to resolve your doubts, by the lively exercise of faith, and by an humble, cheerful confidence and delight in the blessed Saviour. Then may you know that he "dwells in your heart by faith,” when you are "rooted and grounded in love," Eph. If iii. 17. Labour to evidence your union to Christ, by having your heart purified by faith, and your affections spiritual and heavenly. Then may you know that you are risen with Christ, when you seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God, and when you place your affections on things above, and not on things on the earth, Col. iii. 1, 2. Labour to clear up this doubt, by the exercise of all the several graces of the Spirit of life. you live in the exercise of faith, repentance, love to God, humility, hope in Christ, desire after, and delight in him; if you bring forth the fruits of the Spirit, which are love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, hereby you know that he abideth in you, by the Spirit which he hath given you, 1 John iii. 24. Labour, likewise, to clear up this difficulty not only by the life, but by the growth of grace. If you grow more humble, selfabasing, and self-condemning; if you grow more penitent, and more passionately groan under the burden of all your sins, and mourn for deliverance from them; if your love to God increases, and you take more delight in him and in his ways, or at least long after a life of nearer communion with him, with more ardent desire; if you are more spiritual in your thoughts, meditations, and affections-more heavenly in your conversation, and more careful of your respective duties both to God and man; then you may know that Christ abideth in you and you in him, in that you bring forth much fruit, John xv. 5. If you get satisfying evidences of your union to Christ, adore, admire, and praise the infinite condescension, and the astonishing love of the glorious Redeemer, in taking such dust and ashes, such a sinful, polluted creature, into union with himself. Contemplate the amazing transaction of love with admiration; and let the love of Christ constrain you to live to the praise of the glory of that grace by which you become accepted in the Beloved. That Christ may abide in you, and you in him; that you may win Christ, and be found in him at his appearance, and kingdom; and that you may reign with him for ever, is the prayer of, SIR, Yours, &c. |