not unmindful of thy son, (or daughter,) who is poor and despised, overwhelmed with sorrow, and in the anguish of death. Let not the songs of the holy angels, and the praises of all the glorified spirits, hinder thee from listening to my sighs and groans. O Almighty and merciful Lord! look upon me with an eye of love, and reach out unto me thy helping hand. Send to my assistance thine angels of light, to protect me from the angels of darkness, that endeavour to destroy me, and to drag me headlong into hell. Let those glorious spirits that fly at thy command, deliver me out of the paws of death and bear me upon their wings to thy bosom. I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God. Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. Amen.

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CHAPTER XIX.

The seventh Consolation against the Fears of Death is, our strict and inseparable union with Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit, and the first fruits of our blessed immortality.

OUR Lord Jesus Christ not only lives and triumphs in heaven, but it is from him our life, our glory; and our blessed immortality proceed: For as the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself; and as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom he will, John v. 21, 26; so that we may not only say unto him with St. Peter, Thou hast the words of eternal life, John vi. 68, but also, with the royal prophet, With thee is the fountain of life; in thy light shall we see light, Psal. xxxvi. 9. Therefore, all those that are united to, and incorporated with this Prince of Life, partake of

the fulness of the Holy Spirit, which is to him-ward, whereby they become happy and immortal. Now, by the goodness and merey of God, we are not only made partakers of Christ's death and passion, but we are also united to and incorporated with him; we not only have the great and precious promises of a glorious immortality, which he hath purchased for us, but we receive the first fruit, the foretaste of it.

The high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, revives the spirit of the humble, Isa. lvii. 15, and dwells in our hearts by faith, Eph. iii. 17. He sheds into our soul his holy and quickening Spirit, For because we are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying Abba, Father, Gal. iv. 6. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his, Rom. viii. 9. By the means of this Spirit, he dwells in us, and we in him; we become members of his body, and can boast, that we are of his flesh, and of his bones, Eph. v. 30.

All things, the most strictly united by nature or art, are made use of to represent to us this admirable union which we enjoy with Christ, by the means of his Spirit, that quickeneth us, John vi. 63. Hence are derived these expressions of the holy apostles, We have put on the Lord Jesus Christ, Rom. xiii. 14. Gal. iii. 27. To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious, we also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, 1 Pet. ii. 4, 5. For the same reason our Saviour tells us, that he is the true vine, and that we are the branches, John xv; and St. Paul assures us, that if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection, Rom. vi. 5.

To express to us, that the bond of this sacred union is love, our Lord Jesus Christ is represented as our brother, our father, and our bridegroom. Accordingly the apostle tells us, That he is not ashamed to call us brethren, saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, Heb. ii. 11, 12; and elsewhere, That God hath predestinated us to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first-born among many brethren, Rom. viii. 29; and after his resurrection, our Lord himself speaks thus to Mary Magdalene, Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father; but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God, John xx. 17. Likewise, this glorious Redeemer, showing himself unto God with all the elect, saith, Behold, I, and the children which thou hast given me, Heb. ii. 13; and speaking to his church by the mouth of the prophet Hosea, he makes her this promise, I will betroth thee unto me for ever, yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving kindness, and in mercies, chap. ii. 19. Hence the church is often called in the Revelations, the Bride, the Lamb's Wife; and in the Canticles, the spiritual union betwixt Christ and his church is all along represented by the allegory of a marriage.

And because the meat and drink which we take for our nourishment, unites with the body in such a manner as to become one substance with it, Jesus Christ assures us, That his flesh is meat indeed, and his blood is drink indeed; that he is the true bread which came down from heaven, which giveth life unto the world; and that if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever, John vi.

But, among all the similitudes employed to represent to us our union with Jesus Christ, by his Holy Spirit that quickeneth us, there is none more frequently made use of in Holy Scripture, than that of the human body; nor indeed is there any more proper: for as all the spirits that give life and motion to the body proceed from the head, and the members die as soon as separated from it; in like manner, the Spirit that quickeneth us, and maketh us become new creatures, proceeds from Jesus Christ; so that every one that separates himself from this head, falls into death and eternal destruction. And as there are many members, which nevertheless, make up but one body, because they are all animated with the same Spirit, and are kept alive by the same head; so there are many members belonging to Christ's mystical body, some fighting the good fight upon earth, and others glorified in heaven; nevertheless, they make up only one mystical and spiritual body, forasmuch as they are all quickened by the same Spirit, and receive their celestial influences from the same head. This is what St. Paul expressly teacheth us in these divine words, For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond® or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit, 1 Cor. xii. 12, 13. Finally, because the same Spirit that is in our Lord, as in the head and fountain, and in the church in general, as in the body quickened and moved, is also in every member. The holy apostle is not satisfied with calling by the name of Christ, this precious body, composed of Christ and his church, but he tells us

moreover, with respect to every believer in particular, But he that is joined unto the Lord, is one spirit, 1 Cor. vi. 17.

These, and all other representations of the same nature, however lively and noble they may appear, are but dark shadows, and imperfect images of our union with Jesus Christ by his Holy Spirit that quickeneth us. For the richest and most magnificent garments cannot keep off diseases, nor hinder the corruption of the body which they invest. There is no foundation, though ever so firm and well settled, that can secure the house built upon it from the breaches of time. Although the sap mounts up from the root of the vine, and circulates into the twigs and branches, they wither at last, and are cast into the fire. The rarest meats, and the most exquisite drinks, cannot make our bodies immortal. Death snatches, every day, the brother from the brother, the father from the child, and the wife from the husband. A stroke of the sword can separate the head from the healthiest and most vigorous body; nay, without any such violence, the head dies as well as the body; and the spirits that proceed from it are so far from hindering the corruption of the members, that they corrupt of themselves, and disappear. In short, the strictest unions of nature and art are dissolved by time; and every thing under the sun is subject to vanity and inconstancy, Eccl. i.. But the Spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ is the principle of an eternal life, the seed of an incorruptible glory; whosoever is united to him by this Spirit, nothing can separate him from Christ, neither life, nor death, nor the world, nor hell, nor things present, nor things to come, Rom. viii. 38. Therefore, when our blessed Saviour could find nothing upon earth, nor amongst all