We cannot be

We cannot be justified by works. justified by a conformity to any imaginary law of grace, without a vital union to Christ by faith. For "he that believeth not is condemned already;" and "he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." But then, on the other hand, being united to his person, we are united to his benefits, and partake with him in all the merits of his obedience, in his righteousness, victories, graces, and inheritance. This, then, shows you what necessity there is of your acquaintance with the doctrine of our union to Christ. There is a necessity for it, that you may know what is the foundation of your eternal hope, how you may find acceptance with God, and how "you may know Christ, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, and be made conformable to his death."

Moreover, our sanctification does likewise immediately and necessarily depend upon a vital union unto the Lord Jesus Christ. The Scriptures do indeed exhort us to be holy, as our Father which is in heaven is holy; and to that end exhort us to watch and pray, to crucify our flesh with its affections and lusts, to mortify our members which are upon earth, and to place our affections upon things that are above, and to the like exercises of religious duty. But they no where exhort us to attempt these in our own strength, or to expect a renewed nature by any performance of them within our power. To attempt our sanctification merely by our endeavours, were to press oil out of a flint, For in the Lord, shall men say, we have righteousness and strength;" his grace, and that only, is sufficient for us; and without

him we can do nothing. I have shown you, that all supplies of grace are treasured up in Christ for us, and that we are to receive them all out of his fulness. How then can we partake of them, whilst estranged and disunited from him? Can a branch cut off from the vine bring forth fruit? No more can we except we abide in him. Can the branches of an olive tree flourish without the root? Surely we cannot bear the root, but the root must bear us; and we must therefore be grafted in, if we would partake of the root and fatness of the olive tree. Can we live and act, when separated from our life? Christ is our life; and until he quicken us, we are dead in trespasses and sins. In a word, our carnal minds are enmity to God; we are altogether as an unclean thing; and when love to God can be the production of enmity itself, and purity and holiness of nothing but defilement and uncleanness, then, but not till then, can we be holy without a union to Jesus Christ. If, therefore, you would obtain that holiness without which no man can see the Lord, you must, with active diligence, repair to him for it. You must by faith depend upon him as the fountain of all grace. You must receive all from him, and give him the glory of all you receive.

Our communion with God does likewise wholly depend upon our union to Jesus Christ. I have already shown you, that all sanctifying grace is derived from our union to Jesus Christ; and I think I need not use arguments to prove that we cannot exercise grace before we have it. All quickening, comforting, strengthening grace, must derive from the same source, as converting and sanctifying grace

does. Would you be humbled and abased before God, you must learn of Christ to be meek and lowly of heart. Would you have your affections placed upon things above, you must remember, that "you are dead, and that your life is hid with Christ in God." 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." "In whom you may have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him. And be accepted in the Beloved." 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." Would you have joy and peace in believing, you must " rejoice in Christ Jesus, without confidence in the flesh." 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. 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 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 neces

sarily depend on our union to Christ. As we are accepted in the Beloved, so it is by Christ's dwelling in our hearts by faith that we are rooted and grounded in love. "We stand by faith in him." It is because Christ lives, that we live also. And if we do "live, it is not we, but Christ liveth in us." 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. 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? of his members to perish? hell or earth, of sin or Satan,

Is

Is

it in the

Will he leave any it in the power of

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 efforts 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 steadfast 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 unto 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, and to be "steadfast and immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, if you would not have your labour in vain in the Lord." It concerns you, though