Christus in corde, or, The mystical union between Christ and believers considered in its…

The first Operation of the Spirit in Believers, is this; He forms all holy Graces in them; he draws the very Picture of Christ upon them, in humility, love, meekness, mercy, goodness, heavenliness, patience: this operation is requisite upon a double account: One, that Christ may have a seed; the Father promised him a seed; he himself merited one; yet a seed he could not have, unless the Spirit did work these Graces, which make us to bear a resemblance of him. Another, that God might have a Temple; under the Old Testament he had an ⟨p. 189⟩outward Temple, but even then he would have an inward one, a Sanctuary in the heart; under the New Testament he had a Temple in the humane nature of Christ; but even in that he aimed to have a Tabernacle in men; but this could not be, unless the Spirit did come and turn the heart into an holy place for him.

As touching this Operation, the holy Graces may be considered under a double notion, either as they make us to have one common nature with Christ; and thus they import union with him: or else as they are tokens of the divine Presence: and thus they import the Inhabitation of God in us.

These Graces make us to have one common nature with Christ: and thus they import union with him; there is, as the learned Camero observes, a double union, one ab uno communi simpliciter, from one common nature simply considered: thus all men are united, there being one humane nature in them: another ab uno communicato, from one nature communicated: thus a Father and a Son are united, the Son having the same nature communicated from the Father. To apply this distinction. First, Believers have one common humane nature with Christ; not only ⟨p. 190⟩in that large sense, in which all men have the same nature with him; but in a more strict sense peculiar to believers only; He that sanctifieth, and they who are sanctified, are all of one,