Grace: the truth and growth and different degrees thereof. The sum and substance of…Grace: the truth and growth and different degrees thereof. The summe and substance of…

2. Though there be abundance of grace in Christ,¹ yet let all such as have no interest in Christ, take heed how they flatter themselves into a conceit, that they shall receive grace from Christ; Interest in the Person, gives communication of his grace. As it was in Christs Person, he could not have had those excellencies and attributes which were in God, had not his two natures humane and divine been personally united in him. And therefore it is said by virtue of the hypostatical union,² that in him, i. e. in his Person, dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. So unless there be that mystical union between Christ and us, we could not be Partakers nor grow strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Union is the ground of Communion, ³and therefore we read first of receiving Christ, and then afterwards of receiving of his fullness grace for ⟨p. 197⟩grace. Though thou art near Christ by Profession, yet if thou art not one with Christ by faith, thou canst not receive any virtue from him. If a man tie food to any part of his body, it will not nourish him, because it is not received, concocted or concorporated; that only nourishes, which becomes one and the same substance with us. So we receive strength and increase of grace from Christ, as we are united unto him by faith Take a graft, and tie it to a tree, and it brings forth no fruit, but let it be united unto a tree by implantation, then the graft grows fruitful: so without Christ, (or as it is in the Original) separate from Christ you can do nothing. ⁴He that by faith is not planted together in the likeness of Christs death, shall never receive spiritual nourishment from him. He that doth not abide in Christ, is cast forth as a Branch, he was never a true Branch,⁵ only seemed to be one. Christ is a fountain of grace, but it is faith that draws out of this fountain, Christ is a treasury of grace, but it is faith that unlocks this treasury. By our communion with Christ we receive grace for grace. We are made by love, meekness and patience like unto Christ, but by faith we are made one with Christ; and that Union is the cause of communion, and therefore Christless persons are graceless persons.