Looking unto Jesus a view of the everlasting gospel, or, the souls eying of…

2. It is a very near union: You will say, how near? If an Angel were to speak to you, he cannot satisfy you in this: only as far as our understanding can reach it, and the Creatures can serve to illustrate these things, take it thus: Whatsoever by way of comparison can be alleged concerning the combination of any one thing with another: that, and much more may be said of our union with Jesus Christ. To give instance out of the Scripture: see what one stick is to another being glued together: see what one friend is to another, as Jonathan and David, who were said to be woven and knit each one to other: see how near the father and the child are: how near the husband and the wife are:¹ see what union is between the Branches and the Vine, the members and the head; nay, one thing more; see what the the soul is to the body: such is Christ, and so near is Christ, and nearer to the person of every true believer: I live, yet not I (saith Paul) but Christ liveth in me: ²q. d. as the soul is to the body of a natural man, that acts and enlivens it naturally, so is Jesus Christ to my soul and body. O there is a marvellous nearness in this mystical union.

2. It is a very near union: You will say, how near? If an Angel were to speak to you, he cannot satisfie you in this: only as far as our understanding can reach it, and the Creatures can serve to illustrate these things, take it thus: Whatsoever by way of comparison can be alledged concerning the combination of any one thing with another: that, and much more may be said of our union with Jesus Christ. To give instance 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, who were said to be woven and knit each one to other: see how near the father and the child are: how near the husband and the wife are:¹ see what union is between the Branches and the Vine, the members and the head; nay, one thing more; see what the the soul is to the body: such is Christ, and so near is Christ, and nearer to the person of every true believer: I live, yet not I (saith Paul) but Christ liveth in me: ²