produceth joy which is a little higher then the former is the common gifts and graces of the Spirit of God as working of miracles healing the sicke dispossessing men of Devills and those gifts that among us are now extant as the gift of illumination prayer preaching expounding the Scriptures and if you looke on these things as divided from Christ either the having of them or the exercise of them both these things may bring joy but not full joy The having of them Judas Simon Magus and the disciples whom our Lord compares to the second and third grounds had these gifts amongst them some Matth. 13. more some lesse and they rejoyced saith the text Mat. 13. but you know Iob saith that the joy of the hypocrites is but for a moment And notwithstanding all these gifts yea and the performances or plausible duties which flowe from them without union with Christ men are but hypocrites wee may call them so and so their joy is not full being but for a moment Secondly there is some joy in the acting and exercising of common gifts and graces as wee read in Luk. where the disciples had been abroad casting out Devills and rejoycing therein our Lord checkes them In this saith he rejoyce not that the spirits are subject to you Luke 10. 20. but rather rejoyce that your names are written in Heaven The meaning is not you shall not at all rejoyce for Christ to have a company of poore fishermen persecuted in the world to worke on people so as to dispossesse them of Devills to heale the sicke c. doubtlesse they were in a sort allowed to rejoyce but the meaning is this Rejoyce not that is expect not compleate joy from these things take no such great delight and pleasure in these things but rather rejoyce that your names are written in Heaven that is in a manner the same as if he had said that you have union and communion with the Father and his Sonne Jesus Christ The third good thing wee use to rejoyce in is farre higher then this and yet produceth not fulnesse of joy that is the saving graces of the Spirit of God I pray Beloved understand me in this warily There is a great deale of joy surely in the having or exercising any saving spirituall grace Therefore the Apostle saith righteousnesse and peace and joy in the holy Ghost Rom. 14. 1 Wheresoever there is righteousnesse peace in the heart there joy in the holy Ghost followes And in doing any thing out of a sincere spirit out of the power of grace there is much joy which God allowes us I meet him saith God that rejoyceth and worketh righteousnesse Esa 64. 5. There is no act of righteousnesse that is done in sincerity but it is as meate and drinke to us as our Lord Christ saith John 4. yet for all this there is not there cannot be fulnesse of joy from the apprehension of any grace or the exercise of it in our soules For if you take grace and abstract it from our head Christ but in your thoughts and imaginations for so you may doe it is but as a dead thing as blessed Preston saith it is but a creature and would perish as other creatures were we not united to a Fountaine of grace he that hath most grace in him his grace would die and be extinct Grace is as the beames of the Sun in a house through a window cut off the beames from the Sun shut the window they are gon So I may sum up all these things and comprehend them respectively in those words of the Prophet Behold al yee that kindle a fire compasse your Esa 50. ult selves about with sparkes walke in the light of your fire and in the sparkes that yee have kindled This shall yee have of mine hand yee shall lie downe in sorrow Beloved all these put together certainly make many fine sparkes of joy some more some lesse but if you goe no further yea if it were possible that you who have saving grace should rise no higher and seeke joy no where else all that yee should have at the hand of God in the end would be yee should lie downe in sorrow But lastly there is a fourth good that brings indeed fulnesse of joy and that is the Good if I may so say that is in God himselfe by Iesus Christ For wee cannot thinke a thought of God but only in Jesus Christ and that and that onely brings fulnesse of joy If you ask how It brings it especially 3 wayes First this good is exceeding full and perfect the others are scantie and imperfect Things fully good bring full comfort and joy If a man looke on his owne grace for instance love he shall see little of love but a great deale of envie and hatred or if there be a little delight in God there is withall a great deale of awkwardnesse and aversnesse but if wee looke into the fulnesse of Christ wee shall see unsearchable treasures riches that have no end Ephes 3. 8. Secondly the good in Christ hath a perpetuity in it as David saith in thy presence is fulnesse of joy and in Psalme 16. the next words pleasures for evermore Beloved there is an end of all the comforts of this world As the Apostle saith those that rejoyce should be as though they rejoyced not they that buy as if they possessed not for the 1 Cor. 7. fashion of this world passeth away and there will be an utter end of those things that are below But what is in God and in Jesus Christ wil be full and fresh to all eternity Thirdly a Saint hath a right and interest in all this Good to all eternity and here comes in the fulnesse of joy and not before The second Question for the opening of this truth is this What manner of union this is that wee have with Jesus Christ that brings in this fulnesse of joy For answer to that take notice of these 4 things First it is a very neere union that a poore Saint hath with Christ I say Saints because poore sinners drunkards enemies to godlinesse they have not yet any share in this union or benefit from it God may in his time give it them but Saints and beleivers they have a neere union with Christ You will say how neere If an Angel were to speake to you he cannot satisfie you fully in this only as farre as our understanding can reach it and the creatures can serve to illustrate these things thus Whatsoever by way of comparison can be alleadged concerning the combination of any one thing with another whatsoever it be in the whole Creation of God that and much more may be said of our union with Jesus Christ To give instances out of the Scripture see what one stick is to another being glewed together see what one friend is to another as Jonathan and David that are said to be woven and knit each
THE SAINTS FULNESSE OF JOY in their fellowship with God PRESENTED In a Sermon preached July 21. 1646. Before the Honorable House of Commons in Margarets Westminster Being the day appointed for Thankesgiving for the surrender of OXFORD By the least of Saints and the meanest of the Ministers of the Gospel W. Cradock LONDON Printed by Matthew Simmons and are to be sold by George VVhittington at the blew Anchor neere the Royall Exchange 1646. THere was an Order from the Honorable House of Parliament to print this Discourse such as it is allowing me the usuall priviledges vouchsafed in this kind in obedience to which Order I appoint Matthew Simmons and Hannah Allen to print the same W. C. TO THE HONORABLE House of Commons ASSEMBLED IN PARLIAMENT PEACE among Brethren is the Pearle that is lost in these dayes which many pretend to seek and all justly complaine is wanting many out-cryes there are for it in the mouth 's of some whose hearts and principles are full of warre and contention Their words are Ps 55. 21. softer then oyle and yet they be drawne swords Yea such is the hypocrisie of this age that it is become almost the Character of a Malignant or Atheist in all companies with much seeming zeale and devotion to pray and desire Peace Union Reconciliation neglecting the while all meanes that may conduce to the same Others there are and those not a few who long for Peace and that sincerely but not hitting the right way to attaine to it doe often cast more Oyle into the flame and make the breach wider This following Discourse though it be the meanest of any that ever hath been presented unto you points out the surest and readiest way to finde this Jewel i. Fellowship with the Father and his Sonne Jesus Christ Fellowship with God necessarily begets fellowship between men He onely is an enemy to Man that is not upon tearmes of friendship with God God is love and when we are in him and walke with him wee cannot but be like him Could wee fully apprehend God as our Father Christ as our Head all the Saints his members chosen and beloved wee should no longer bite teare and devoure one another a spirit of Love Goodnesse Meeknesse Long-suffering that is in God and dwells in Christ would run through all our veines tempering our hearts and framing our carriages Euk. 6. Ephes 5. towards men as God's in Christ hath been towards us Yea it would mollifie our spirits towards all even the worst of men and make us live peaceably as much as in us lieth with all men To give no offence to any man Rom. 12. 1 Cor. 10. Titus 3. 1 Cor. 4. Mat. 5. To speake evill of no man To blesse when wee are blasphemed To give up our cloakes to him that takes away our coat c. And because there is a generall distance growne between men and God an intermission of spirituall fellowship therefore these Scriptures are become now Apocryphall which were precious Truths formerly to the Saints and it may be still are to a few who studied rather to conforme themselves to the strictest Rules then wrest the Rule to their owne carnall senses and corrupt lusts a practice too common in these times Oh that wee could then doe as the wise Traveller who being wilderd in a Forrest despairing to finde the way forward returnes thither where he first lost his way We have lost our way our selves our God and all almost by an Over-violent contention about Things externall Wee have cast durt upon each other that will not be wiped off our names in many Ages opened the mouth 's of the wicked rejoyced the hearts of Papists grieved the Spirit of God Oh how happy should wee yet be if wee would returne to our GOD renewing our fellowship with him in the Spirit Surely it was better with us then when wee made our Hos 2 Fellowship with God Holinesse Righteousnesse our chiefe studie when Christianitie and the power of Godlinesse was the Cement that united us together When wee were distinguished from the world and knowne to one another by the style of Saints Professors of Godlinesse Honest-men It is one of my firmest Principles and by Gods Grace shall ever be my practice to make union and communion with God my maine worke to studie peace with all men To Love Honour Receive SAINTS quà SAINTS To receive I say those whom Christ hath received The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ binde up every one of your soules in that bundle and so preserve your whole spirit soule and body blamelesse unto his comming which shall ever be the most unfeigned prayer of Your most humble servant W. CRADOCK A SERMON PREACHED at the late Thankesgiving before the Honourable House of COMMONS 1 IOHN 1. 3 4. And truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Sonne Jesus Christ And these things write wee unto you that your joy may be full THe chiefe end Beloved of your meeting here this day is to rejoyce together for those manifold mercies that the Lord hath been pleased to bestow of late especially upon you and the whole Kingdom and I suppose that we I meane the Ministers that are called hither by you are intended to be as the Scripture saith as furtherers of Phil. 1. 25. your joy But truly Beloved those mercies of themselves that are in your thoughts and that have been spoken of here already at large I meane those victories and surrenders of Garrisons c. though I confesse they be very great and glorious yet they may in a sort be reckoned among naturall things they are at best but temporall mercies and so they can produce but a kind of naturall joy For as wee heard this morning vide Mr. Wilkinsons Sermon the effect must be as the cause is And as it is somewhat beneath a Christian to insist much upon those naturall things thereby to expresse naturall affections so is it much more below the worke of a Gospel Minister to stir you up to such joyes as these things doe properly produce Therefore my designe at this time is as God shall inable me to raise you up a little above all these things to lead you to spirituall joy which indeed is the onely true joy at least the fountaine of all joy For take any other joy and abstract it from its spiritualities then indeed you may say of it with Solomon it is but as the crackling of thornes Eeles 7. 6. it is light short superficiall and will undoubtedly end in everlasting sorrow Therefore as I would not put you out of your way of rejoycing so I wish I could scrue you up to the truest joy that is to the most spirituall joy which is fully laid downe here in my text And truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Sonne Jesus Christ And these things write wee unto you that your joy may be full The Apostle in this
Epistle writes to Saints though he doth not describe or decipher them by their names condition or the places of their habitation as Paul and Peter and other Apostles doe yet he styles them by a glorious title viz. Beleivers as you may see 1 John 5. 13. These things have I written unto you that beleive on the name of the Sonne of God c. And in writing thus to beleivers his scope as I conceive was twofold or he aimes principally at two things as you may clearely see if you peruse the whole Epistle First to build them up in their holy faith to raise their faith to an higher pitch or degree whereby they might have and injoy more fellowship with God the Father and his Sonne Jesus Christ and so by consequence be more joyfull holy and obedient This you shall see if you compare 1 John 5. 13. with this 1 John 1. The other thing that the Apostle aimes at is to increase Christian and spirituall love betweene one beleiver and another And this he speakes much of throughout the Epistle especially in the 3. and 4. chap. I shall not at all at this time meddle with this latter my businesse lieth wholly in the former Now the only meanes and way that the Apostle here takes to attaine to this his aime is by discovering or laying open Jesus Christ clearely and fully unto them as we see ver 1 2 3. That which was from the beginning which wee have heard which wee have seen with our eyes which wee have looked upon and our hands have handled of the word of life c. He takes this as the chiefe meanes to build them up in faith joy love and holinesse a discovery I say or laying open of Jesus Christ unto them and that not simply or carnally but in his spirituality and glory And therefore he useth an elogie for his person which of all other is the most comprehensive that I know in Scripture he calls him the Word and then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 withall he sets him out with his graces and the priviledges we have by him comprehending them all in the word Eternall life For as of all the titles that doe expresse the personall excellencies of the Lord Christ that is the most glorious 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word so of all that hold forth the priviledges that wee have by him there is not one word that expresseth them so fully as this of Eternall life for it containes and comprehends all the grace and glory wee have with him This is the course and meanes that he takes to wind up the Saints to a higher pitch of faith holinesse c. Neither doeth he propose Christ to them though in his glory as a thing uncertaine but he sets him forth with a great deale of evidence and assurance therefore he saith That which was from the begininng which we have HEARD which we have SEEN with our eyes which we have looked upon c. The meaning is not properly that John having been an Apostle with Christ did sometimes handle him sometimes lay in his bosome and so this to be understood in a corporall way but the meaning I conceive is this we have knowne Jesus Christ he hath been so revealed to us with that fulnesse of assurance with that perspicuity and clearenesse that as in naturall things you have many senses concur together to discover them as eyes eares hands c. these things are very sure and certaine so Brethren saith John that I may build you up in faith c. I would lay open Jesus the word of God that hath eternall life with him as a thing that is as sure and certaine as if yee had seene him and tasted him heard him and handled him as wee our selves have done for as Jesus Christ by the Spirit of God had been made knowne in that cleare manner with that certainty to John so he goeth about to cleare him with the same assurance also to other beleivers that they also might have fellowship with the Father and with Iesus Christ as he had I will detaine you no longer in the coherence of the words In the words themselves there are three things to be observed First an Assertion our fellowship is with the Father and his Sonne Jesus Christ It is a glorious one as any I know in this blessed booke Secondly an Asseveration if I may so call it to this blessed Assertion TRVLY saith he and truly our fellowship is with the Father c. though I confesse the Greeke word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not so emphaticall as our word truly in English yet as it stands here in its coherence comparing it with the beginning of the chapter and observing the vehemency of his expression we have seen and tasted and handled the word of life we may well call truly a kind of Asseveration to this Assertion Thirdly the end that the Apostle hath to speake thus highly of this his fellowship is not out of pride or vaine-glory as the Pharisee Luke 18. I thanke God I fast twice in the weeke I am not as other men John did not speake thus out of pride of spirit when he saith Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Sonne Jesus Christ as if he should meane all others are punyes or carnall people in comparison of himself no but with humility and love out of a desire to doe my brethren good these things I write unto you that your joy may be full I write not these things to boast of and make a shew but I am forced to write these things because I see with so much certainty the excellency that is in Jesus Christ and doe taste so much sweetnesse in communion and fellowship with him that I cannot chuse but write thus unto you that you also may have fellowship with him I will stand no longer upon the explication and division of the words there is enough already said to lead us to many wholsome blessed truthes that lie in and about these words if God give us his Spirit and we had time to looke into them there are many truthes I say that well become Iohn the Divine as he is called they are all divine transcendently divine and spirituall I will only touch 3. or 4. Observations and then pitch upon one The first is this The more spirituall or divine Christians are the more Obser 1 they wil be taken up and imployed about spirituall worke John is called John the Divine not as wee call Divines from Office but from the excellency of Grace and the clearenesse of divine manifestations therefore the Ancients compare him to an Eagle now John in his whole Epistle medleth not with controversies especially about outward and externall things but being wholly spirituall he writes altogether spiritually about spirituall substantiall things from the beginning to the end Mistake me not I doe not say that it is not lawfull and sometime convenient for Ministers and others to have to
doe with such things but this is that I only ayme at whereas divers conceive that it is their spiritualnesse the excellency of their grace that they are carried on in Pulpits and Presses so vehemently in wrangling and striving about external things it is to be feared that much of that zeale violence and labour is fleshly and were wee more spirituall hundreds I beleive of those Questions would be removed that lie now like stumbling blocks in our way according to that in the 2. of this Epist ver 10. He that loves his brother abideth in the light and there is no occasion of stumbling in him And were wee filled with the knowledge of God the love of Christ humility and selfe-deniall preferring each other before our selves certainely a world of these controversies would soone vanish away As those that are spirituall can speake by experience A second thing I would have you to observe is this The best way to bring either a Sinner to God or to build up a Saint in any grace or in any point of godlinesse whatsoever Obser 2 is the spirituall promulgation manifestation or declaration of Jesus Christ in his person excellencies and Priviledges doings and sufferings c. This is the best meanes therefore John useth onely that he layes down Jesus Christ as one that had beene seene heard felt as it were to be the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the eternall word that brought eternal life and he expects that this should worke in the soule faith joy c. I beseech you beare with mee beloved I feare we spend a great deale of our time almost in vaine and waste much of our labour when we would bring our owne hearts or others to a duty or stir up a grace we use and urge so many morall Motives and Meanes not that I say but wee may use motives and meanes spirituall and morall but if we did study to open Iesus Christ fully to the soule Iohn 3. 14. if we did lift up the Brazen Serpent so as poore people might behold him we should not need the tenth part of those meanes exhortations and paines that we now take For in the Gospel wee shall see and it is our wisdome to follow the scripture the neerer that the better the Apostles when they went forth to preach they told them a story if I may so speake with reverence of one Jesus Christ that was the word of God and that was become man and how he was crucified at Jerusalem and how he was raised from the dead and all this in a plaine simple spirituall way and manner and while they were telling these blessed stories the Spirit fell upon people and they beleived and had faith wrought in them Faith is not wrought so much in a rationall way I meane in a way of ratiocination as by the Spirit of God comming upon the soules of people by the relation or representation of Christ to the soule and this our Lord himselfe hintes As Moses lifted up the Serpent in the wildernesse even so must the Sonne of Iohn 3. 14. man be lifted up that whosoever beleiveth in him should not perish but have everlasting life You know the very beholding of the brazen Serpent when people were stung God so ordered it that the very beholding should bring help though we know not how to those that were wounded and stung by those Serpents so God hath ordained in his blessed wisdome that the discovery of Jesus Christ the beholding of him the eying of him by faith should be that which shall transforme us into his image and so conforme us to any duty as the Apostle saith wee are transformed while wee behold him with open face to his glory Hence it is that in Scripture 2 Cor. 3. 18. all godlinesse and every point of godlinesse is often called the knowledge of Christ For instance justification in Scripture is called the knowledge of Christ By his knowlede shall my righteous servant justifie many So also sanctification Esay 53. 2 Pet. 3. 18. Grow in grace in the knowledge of Christ After that by the knowledge of Jesus Christ they were cleansed from their sins c. Truly Beloved every grace is 2 Pet. 2. comprehended in the knowledge of Jesus Christ did we know Jesus Christ aright savingly spiritually effectually we should be full of faith full of godly feare full of humility full of self-deniall full of diligence and readines to every good word and worke so that our maine defect is in that but I passe by that also A third thing be pleased to observe from the coherence of these words that Divine objects seene by faith if it be a saving and right faith carries with them as much evidence certainty and assurance as any naturall thing that wee apprehend by any or all our naturall senses We have seen heard and tasted the more of our senses are imployed to apprehend a thing the more assurance confidence and evidence it carries with it Put the five senses together to discover any naturall object whatsoever that cannot be more sure and certaine to us then all spirituall objects apprehended by a spirituall Christian through a lively faith are to him therefore it is said that faith is the evidence of things not seen Heb. 11. 1. of things invisible he doth not say that faith is an opinion a probability a conjecture or a wild guesse but faith saith he is the evidence of things not seen that is of things that by naturall reason you cannot see yet making them as reall and as evident as any thing wee doe see by reason sense and all And thence Beloved you see that godly men in all ages have been so free to part with their credit to renounce their profit to lay downe their lives for spirituall things sake now did they not apprehend a reality and certainty in them surely they were no lesse then mad men to forgoe substances for shadowes It were no lesse then madnesse for a man to give himselfe up to be a prisener when he might be free to be a foole when he might be accounted wife to be poore when he might be rich if he did not see a reality in spirituall things for which he willingly forsakes and leaves all these other The Saints in all ages have done so wee read in the Epistle to the Hebrew of Moses and Abraham how Heb. 11. they forsooke all Abraham forsooke his countrey Moses forsooke Pharaohs house and they were no children for Moses was forty yeares old saith the Scripture when he refused the pleasures of Pharaohs house to imbrace afflictions with the poore Saints Whence was this thinke you Moses saw him that was invisible how by faith for all that chapter hath reference to and is but an illustration of the first verse Faith is the Heb. 11. evidence of things not seen and all the rest are examples of the same He saw him that is invisible and by the same
to other see how neere the Father and the Child are how neere the Husband and Wife are one to another see what union is betweene the branches and the vine the members and the head nay one thing more see what the soule is to the body such is Christ and so neere is he and neerer to the person of every true beleiver as Paul saith I live not but Christ liveth in me as if he should say Jesus Christ is to my soule and Gal. 2. 20. body as the soule is to the body of a naturall man that acts quickens it naturally Beloved there is a marvellous neerenesse in this union Secondly it is the most reall union these things make for our joy for it was not in vaine that Christ spake of these things before he went to Heaven that their joy might be full I say it is a most reall union As there is a greater neerenesse so there is a greater reality in our union with Christ then is betweene any naturall things whatsoever they are but shadowes of spirituall things It is not a notionall union as some conceive that Christ and wee are united as the object is united to the understanding for when a man conceives of any thing that thing is united in an abstracted metaphysicall way to the understanding so hypocrites may have a great deale of union with Christ they may goe far and have much knowledge and light in the apprehension of spirituall things You may see the difference of this union by comparing that union an husband hath with his wife and that union which his minde and understanding hath with any other person it is not as when a mans understanding conceiveth of another woman by meere imagination and thought of her there is a kind of union betweene her and his understanding But this is another kind of union that is betweene a man and his wife by the bond and tye of Matrimony that is a reall union that is conceived by some to be the meaning of that place Hos 2. I will marry thee in faithfulnes judgement or in truth as some read it I will marry thee in truth I would not have you think the union betweene Christ and the Saints is nothing but a poore empty Notion or imagination but I will marry thee in truth i. thou shalt be my wise in reality as much or rather more really then man and wife are united by Marriage Thirdly It is a totall union that is betweene Jesus Christ and his poore Saints Oh this is full of comfort if you looke on it spiritually that is whole Christ is united to the whole beleever soule and body Thou hast all Christ whatsoever thou canst conceive to be in the Father or in Jesus Christ 't is really and wholly thine as I could give instances had I time out of Scripture Thou art one with him in his Nature in his Name thou hast the same Image and grace and Spirit in thee as he hath the same precious promises the same accesse to God by prayer as he thou hast the same love of the Father all that he did or suffered thou hast a share in it all is thine thou hast his life and death as the Apostle saith so on thy part he hath thee wholly thy Cor. 4. nature thy sinnes the punishment of thy sinnes thy wrath thy curse thy shame so he would have thee all thy wit thy wealth thy strength all that thou art or hast and canst doe for him so thou hast Jesus Christ It is a totall union My Beloved is mine and I am his whole Christ from top to toe is mine and all that I am have or can doe for evermore is his it is totall Lastly it is an inseparable union it can never be broken I will make saith God an everlasting Covenant with them that I will not turne away from them to doe them good I will put my feare in their hearts that they shall not depart from me Jeremiah 32. This is a glorious word but the poore Christian will say T is true thou wilt not turne away from me I know thou wilt not but I shall turne away from thee I turne every day towards sin and Satan Why saith God I will put my feare in thy heart tbat thou shalt not turne away from me we shall be kept together for evermore and never separated Thence Paul triumphantly challenges al enemies in heaven or rather in Hell to doe their worst to breake this knot Who shall separate us from the love of God in Christ shall tribulation Rom. 8. distresse famine c come all that can together and see if that blessed union betwene me Christ shall ever be broken or dissolved by all that you can doe Now Beloved a word or two of Use I will wave the other Question that happily would be necessary for the further opening of this Doctrine because I will not weary you you see what fulnesse of joy is and what this union is and by what you have heard already you may easily convince your selves that fellowship and union with Jesus Christ will bring fulnesse of joy to the soule The uses are these briefly The first is this you may hence behold if the Lord Vse 1 open your eyes for so it must be what a glorious state and condition God hath placed a Christian in a poore Saint be he never so meane or miserable otherwise in the eye of the world his condition what is it He is one with Jesus Christ as Christ is one with the Father There is a blessed place in Zachary where Jesus Christ is called Gods fellow Awake oh sword against my shepheard Zach. 13. 7. against the man my fellow Christ is one with the Father he is his fellow and every Saint is Christ's fellow he is anointed with the oyle of gladnesse above his Psal 45. 7. fellowes Christ is Gods fellow and wee are Christ's fellowes There is a kind of analogicall proportion not Geometricall of equalitie as they call it betweene Christ and Saints in every thing run them over in your thoughts and take a view of all Christ what he is in his Person in his glory in his Spirit in his graces in his Fathers love and in the accesse he hath to the Father in all these with what more you can imagine in Christ wee are in a sort fellowes with him Only with this difference that you may not stumble Christ hath the preheminence in all things every Col. 1. thing in its owne order The Father is above all and wee by him all comes from the Father first to Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 15. and all wee have is by Marriage with Iesus Christ and wee must abide in our union with Christ as he doth abide with his Father Moreover betweene him and the person of the Father there is an Essentiall union and ours is virtuall by the power of the Spirit of God he by his union hath all