drink? or wherewithal shall we be clothed? for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things." Seasonable correction is likewise their privilege as sons: so they are not suffered to pass with their faults, as happens to others who are not children, but the servants of the family, and will be turned out of doors for their miscarriages at length, Heb. xii. 7. "If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons ; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not ?" They are heirs of, and shall" inherit the promises," Heb. vi. 12. Nay, they are "heirs of God," who him self is the portion of their inheritance," Psal. xvi. 5. "and joint-heirs with Christ," Rom. viii. 17. And because they are the children of the great King, and young heirs of glory, they have angels for their attendants, who are sent forth to minister unto them that shall be heirs of salvation," Heb. i. 14.

A fourth benefit is sanctification, 1 Cor. i. 30. "But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification." Being united to Christ, they partake of his Spirit, which is "the Spirit of holiness." There is a fulness of the Spirit in Christ, and it is not like the fulness of a vessel, which only retains what is poured into it; but it is the fulness of a fountain for diffusion and communication, which is always sending forth its waters, and yet is always full. The Spirit of Christ, that spiritual sap, which is in the stock, and from thence is communicated to the branches, is "the spirit of grace," Zech. xii. 10. And where the spirit of grace dwells, there will be found a complication of all graces. Holiness is not one grace only, but all the graces of the Spirit: it is a constellation of graces; it is all the graces in their seed and root. And as the sap conveyed from the stock into the branch, goes through it, and through every part of it; so the Spirit of Christ sanctifies the whole man. The poison of sin was diffused through the whole spirit, soul, and body, of the man; and sanctifying grace pursues it into every corner, 1 Thess. v. 23. Every part of the man is sanctified, though no part is perfectly so. The truth we are sanctified by, is not held in the head,

as in a prison; but runs with his sanctifying influences, through heart and life. There are indeed some graces, in every believer, which appears as top-branches above the rest; as meekness in Moses, patience in Job: but seeing there is in every child of God a holy principle going along with the holy law, in all the parts thereof, loving, liking, and approving of it, as appears from their universal respect to the commands of God; it is evident they are endowed with all the graces of the Spirit; because there can be no less in the effect, than there was in the cause.

Now this sanctifying Spirit, whereof believers partake, is unto them, (1.) A spirit of mortification "Through the spirit they mortify the deeds of the body," Rom. viii. 13. sin is crucified in them, Gal. v. 24. They are planted together, (namely with Christ) "in the likeness of his death," which was a lingering death, Rom. vi. 5. Sin is the saint, though not quite dead, yet is dying. If it were dead, it would be taken down from the cross and buried out of his sight: but it hangs there as yet, working and struggling under its mortal wounds. Look, as when a tree has got such a stroke aз reaches the heart of it, all the leaves and branches thereof begin to fade and decay: so, where the sanctifying Spirit comes, and breaks the power of sin, there is a gradual ceasing from it, and dying to it in the whole man; so that he "no longer lives in the flesh, to the lusts of men." He does not make sin his trade and business; it is not his great design, to seek himself, and to satisfy his corrupt inclinations; but he is for Immanuel's land; and is walking in the highway to it, the way which is called, "the way of holiness:" though the wind from hell, that was on his back before, blows now full in his face, makes his travelling uneasy, and often drives him off the highway. (2.) This Spirit is a spirit of vivification to them, for he is the Spirit of life," and makes them live unto righteousness, Ezek. xxxvi. 27. “And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes." These that have been planted together with Christ," in the likeness of his death, shall be also in the likeness of his resurrec

tion," Rom. vi. 5. At Christ's resurrection, when his soul was reunited with his body, every member of that blessed body was enabled again to perform the actions of life so the soul being influenced by the sanctifying Spirit of Christ, is enabled more and more to perform all the actions of spiritual life. And as the whole of the law, and not some scraps of it only, is written on the holy heart; so believers are enabled to transcribe that law in their conversation. And although they cannot write one line of it without blots; yet God, for Christ's sake, accepts of the performances, in point of sanctification; they being disciples to his own Son, and led by his own Spirit.

This sanctifying Spirit, communicate by the Lord Jesus to his members, is the spiritual nourishment the branches have from the stock into which they are ingrafted; whereby the life of grace, given them in regeneration, is preserved, continued, and actuated. It is the nourishment whereby the new creature liveth, and is nourished up towards perfection. Spiritual life needs to be fed, and must have supply of nourishment: and believers derive the same from Christ their Head, whom the Father has constituted the head of influences, to all his members, Col. ii. 19. "And not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands, having nourishment ministered or supplied," &c. Now this supply is "the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ," Phil. i. 19. The saints fed richly, "eating Christ's flesh, and drinking his blood," for their spiritual nourishment: yet our Lord himself teacheth us, that it is the Spirit that quickeneth, even that Spirit who dwells in that blessed body, John vi. 63. The human nature is united to the divine nature, in the person of the Son, and so (like the bowl in Zechariah's candlestick, Zech. iv.) lies at the fountain-head, as the glorious means of conveyance of influences from the fountain of the Deity; and receives not the Spirit by measure, but ever hath a fulness of the Spirit, by reason of that personal union. Hence believers, being united to the man Christ, (as the seven lamps to the bowl, by their seven pipes, Zech. iv. 2.) his flesh is to them "meat indeed, and his blood drink

indeed "for, feeding on that blessed body, (i. e. effectually applying Christ to their souls by faith) they partake more and more of that Spirit, who dwelleth therein; to their spiritual nourishment. The holiness of God could never admit of an immediate union with the sinful creature, nor (consequently) an immediate communion with it: yet the creature could not live the life of grace, without communion with the Fountain of life. Therefore, that the honour of God's holiness, and the salvation of sinners, might jointly be. provided for; the second person of the glorious Trinity, took into a personal union with himself, a sinless human nature; that so this holy, harmless, and undefiled humanity, might immediately receive a fulness of the Spirit, of which he might communicate to his members, by his divine power and efficacy. And like as, if there were a tree, having its root in the earth, and its branches reaching to heaven; the vast distance betwixt the root and the branches would not interrupt the communication betwixt the root and the top-branch: even so the distance betwixt the man Christ, who is in heaven, and his members who are on earth cannot hinder the communication betwixt them. What though the parts of mystical Christ (viz. the head, and the members,) are not contiguous, as joined together in the way of corporal union? The union is not therefore the less real and effectual. Yea, our Lord himself shews us, that albeit we should eat his flesh, in a corporal and carnal manner, yet it would profit nothing, John vi. 63. We would not be one whit holier thereby. But the members of Christ on earth are united to their Head in heaven by the invisible bond of the self-same Spirit dwelling in both; in him as the head, and in them as the members: even as the wheels, in Ezekiel's vision, were not contiguous to the living creatures, yet were united to them by an invisible bond of one Spirit in both; so that, "When the living creature went, the wheels went by them, and when the living creatures were lift up from the earth, the wheels were lift up," Ezek. i. 19. "For," says the prophet," the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels," ver. 20.

Hence we may see the difference betwixt true sanctification, and that shadow of it, which is to be found amongst some strict professors of Christianity, who yet are not true Christians, are not regenerate by the Spirit of Christ, and is of the same kind with what has appeared in many sober heathens. True sanctification is the result of the soul's union with the holy Jesus, the first and immediate receptacle of the sanctifying Spirit; out of whose fulness, his members do, by virtue of their union with him, receive sanctifying influences. The other is the mere product of the man's own spirit, which whatever it has, or seems to have, of the matter of true holiness, yet does not rise from the supernatural principles, nor to the high aims and ends thereof: for, as it comes from self, so it runs out into the dead sea of self again; and lies as wide of true holiness, as nature doth of grace. They who have this bastard holiness, are like common boat-men, who serve themselves with their own oars: whereas the ship bound for Immanuel's land, sails by the blowings of the Divine Spirit. How is it possible there should be true sanctification without Christ? Can there be true sanctification, without partaking of the Spirit of holiness? Can we partake of that Spirit, but by Jesus Christ, "the way, the truth, and the life?" The falling dew shall as soon make its way through the flinty rock, as influences of grace shall come from God to sinners, any other way, but through him whom the Father hath constituted the head of influences, Col. i. 19. "For it hath pleased the Father, that in him should all fulness dwell." And chap. ii. 19. "And not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered and knit together, increase with the increase of God." Hence see, how it comes to pass that many fall away, from their seeming sanctification, and never recover: it is because they are, not branches truly knit to the true vine. Meanwhile, others recover from their decays; because of their union with the life-giving stock, by the quickening Spirit, 1 John. ii. 19. "They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they