filled in his Life; and a full propitiation for the sin that was past, accomplished in his Sufferings and Death. The whole of which, he did; as containing the People in Himself, who are upon that account, not only represented as being in Him, in his Birth, as above; but also in the whole of his Life, Death, and Resurrection. In him were they circumcised, and the body of the sins of their flesh, put off by the circumcision of Christ. In him fulfilling the Law, and walking in all the ordinances of God blameless. Crucified with him, t and that the resurrection of Christ was the resurrection of the people, from Death, as the wages of sin, the Holy Ghost testifies by the prophets : Thy Dead shall live, my Dead Body shall they arise. And§ after two days, will he revive us, in the third day he will raise us, and we shall live in his sight. And by the Apostle as,|| Even when we were Dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ. From hence it is evident, that the Union Isaiah xxvi. 19. * Col. ii. 11. § Hosca vi. 2. † Gall. ii. 20. between Christ, and the People, was such (as Head and Members in one Body) that they were with him and in him, in his Birth, his Life, his Death, Resurrection and Glory. Therefore his Sufferings, Wars, and Triumphs, all are theirs And they have a right from this to rejoice in him; in what he has done, in what he is, and in the acceptance he hath found with the Father; and that, over all the weakness, and vanity, they perceive in themselves... Again, the Union of Christ and his Church, is taught from the similitude of a Building; of which Christ is both the Foundation, and the Top-stone: As appears from, behold I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone. And, the stone which the builders refused, the same is become the head of the corner. As the whole building is locked in, and inclosed, between the Foundation-stone, and the Head-stone : so also is Christ. He is the Alpha and Omega. The Building was begun, and finished in him: He is the foundation of Isaiah xxviii. 16. † Luke xx. 17. our election, grace, and sonship; We having all by Union with him: And the whole is supported by him; so is he, as the Author, and finisher of our salvation, as made wisdom, righteousness, and sanctification, unto us, the Head of the Corner: Our first and last, our Security in Eternity, and Time. In whom you also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit. We consider Christ appointed the Saviour of Man in the eternal Decree, as the foundation laid; and in his incarnation, holy birth, and life of righteousness, as the building rising; until through his Sufferings, Death, Resurrection, Justification in the Spirit, and reception in Glory, the building was finished; and the head-stone brought forth with shoutings, crying grace, grace, unto it. The people as chosen in Christ, had this Grace given them, that Jew, and Gentile should be builded together in him, until they were found a meet habitation of God through the Spirit. The foundation and corner-stone, with the middle stones, make one Building: so Christ and the * Eph. ii. 22, People make one House, where God delights to dwell: One Temple, the glory of which as the latter is greater than that of the former. Here God walks in the midst of the people, as he hath promised; because his dwelling in Christ is his dwelling in them. To come up to the faith and understanding of this, in the Spirit; is the substance of that shadow, where the Tribes of Israel, at a certain age, came up from every quarter of the Land, to the Temple at Jerusalem to worship. Again, the Union of Christ and his Church is represented under the figure of a Man and his Wife: For this cause shall a Man leave his Fa ther, and Mother, and shall be joined unto his Wife, and they two shall be one flesh : This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and his Church.* Those words of the Apostle, are a quotation from :t where Adam on the first sight of his Eve, declares the Union subsisting between them. It is evident from his words, that this relation did not consist in that matrimonial connexion, which commenced, when by mutual consent and * Eph. v. 31, 32. + Gen. ii, 23, 24. covenant, they cohabited and possessed each other but was dependant on something prior to this. The source of their Union, and kindred relation, was their being one in the Love of the Father; where they were undistinguished in sex, &c. there being neither Male nor Female, in Christ Jesus, in whom they were loved, and chosen, before the world began. And yet the man was not without the woman, nor the woman without the man in the Lord This source, had its first opening in their concreation, in one Body, and Human intelligence: which Body, and intelligence, was Male; though not without including the Female: But the Latter, according to the distinction of Sex and personal existence, was, as being in the Male in a state of passivity, and the Male, the active consciousness of the twain in one. Adam considering his perfection in knowledge, could not be ignorant of this, his true state; and therefore expecting the Woman, to be distinguished in person and sex, as a manifestation to his senses, of the truth of her Being, and Union unto him; he knew her when the I |