The real Christian, or, A treatise of effectual calling wherein the work of God…

In Marriages, union is with the person, not with the goods; hence if the person please not, (as some will say, if I had her money, take her person who will) such Marriages will meet with miserable miscarriages, because that with which the person is united pleaseth not, and there being the greatest tie, there proves the greater affliction. Christ hath riches unsearchable, Ephes. 3.8. might but an unsound heart have some of the riches of Christ, as to his Person it matters not, take him who will; but the real Christian is taken with the love of his Person; nay, no found Christian can rest without God himself, Christ himself, the goods will not satisfy, no not all the good things God or Christ gives distinct from himself, because God is better than his goods, Christ is better than his goods; therefore the understanding being savingly enlightened, to know God and Christ, and the will renewed, as good is its Object, so the best good is its Object; if there be any better good than other discovered, the sanctified hungry will must have it: but God and Christ are discovered as better goods than the benefits of communion, therefore the will cannot rest, but in the union with, and enjoyment of himself; all the blessings of communion, being either such as make a relative or real change in the Believer, ⟨p. 253⟩gracious habits, which make the real change, are but Accidents or Adjuncts; these do not satisfy. If holiness, the Image of God, be good, then God, whose Image holiness is, is better: If reconciliation with God be good, then God himself is better: If Christ be the Peace-maker, then he is better than the Peace it self; if his Righteousness be good, then he himself is better, else his Righteousness could not be so good. So that in this substantial good, God himself, Christ himself, doth the will of a real Christian take up its rest.

In Marriages, union is with the person, not with the goods; hence if the person please not, (as some will say, if I had her money, take her person who will) such Marriages will meet with miserable miscarriages, because that with which the person is united pleaseth not, and there being the greatest tye, there proves the greater affliction. Christ hath riches unsearchable, Ephes. 3.8. might but an unsound heart have some of the riches of Christ, as to his Person it matters not, take him who will; but the real Christian is taken with the love of his Person; nay, no found Christian can rest without God himself, Christ himself, the goods will not satisfie, no not all the good things God or Christ gives distinct from himself, because God is better than his goods, Christ is better than his goods; therefore the understanding being savingly enlightned, to know God and Christ, and the will renewed, as good is its Object, so the best good is its Object; if there be any better good than other discovered, the sanctified hungry will must have it: but God and Christ are discovered as better goods than the benefits of communion, therefore the will cannot rest, but in the union with, and enjoyment of himself; all the blessings of communion, being either such as make a relative or real change in the Believer,