Human nature in its fourfold state ... In several practical discourses

FIRST, In the general, for understanding the union betwixt the Lord Jesus Christ, and his elect, who believe in him, and on him.

1. It is a spiritual union. Man and wife, by their marriage-union, become one flesh: Christ and true believers, by this union, become one spirit, 2 Cor. vi. 17. As one soul or spirit actuates both the head, and the members, in the natural body; so the one Spirit of God dwells in Christ and the Christian; for, If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his, Rom viii. 9. Corporal union is made by contract; so the stones in a building are united: but this is an union of another nature. Were it possible we could eat the flesh, and drink the blood of Christ, in a corporal and carnal manner; it would profit nothing, John vi. 63. It was not Mary's bearing him in her womb, but her believing on him, that made her a saint, Luke xi. 27, 28. ⟨p. 166⟩A certain woman—said unto him, Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked But he said, Yea, rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it

2. It is a real union. Such is our weakness in our present state, so much are we immersed in sin, that we are prone to form in our fancy an image of every thing proposed to us; and as to whatsoever is denied us, we are apt to suspect it to be but a fiction, or what has no reality. But nothing is more real, than what is spiritual; as approaching nearest to the nature of Him who is the fountain of all reality, namely, God himself. We do not see with our eyes the union betwixt our own soul and body; neither can we represent it to ourselves truly, by imagination, as we do sensible things: yet the reality of it is not to be doubted. Faith is no fancy, but the substance of things hoped for, Heb xi. Neither is the union thereby made betwixt Christ and believers, imaginary, but most real: for we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones, Eph v. 30.