Christ; and, by administering comforts by the Spirit, which supplieth every part, the whole edifying itself in love, and increaseth with the increase of God. The worst part of this mystical body is the natural head of it, I mean Adam. The first Adam in his fallen state, corrupted it all; and the body must be infected with the leprosy while the plague is in the head, Levit. xiii. 44. For Adam, having lost the image of God, he begat sons in his own likeness. Not in light, but in darkness; not in righteousness, but in condemnation; not in love, but in enmity; not in holiness, but in sin; not in wisdom, but in ignorance. And this earthly image God despises. We are conceived in sin, and shapen in iniquity; for, through the disobedience of Adam, judgment came upon all men unto condemnation. Hence the elect are by nature the children of wrath, even as others. "Now the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.' And over this seed God has appointed a new head, a second Adam, the quickening Spirit, the Lord from heaven. He takes part of the children's flesh and blood, and is born under the law. He obeys the law that Adam broke; he bears our sins that Adam communicated, and endures the curse that Adam incurred; satisfies the justice of God that Adam had offended, and suffers the wrath brought on us by Adam's fall, and dies the death denounced on Adam's sin, In this business the devil will be busy, and makes better haste than

good speed; and of the wisest of all serpents he becomes the greatest fool. He gains both Jew and Gentile to assist him against the Son of God, and works in them all to conspire his death, the death of the cross. And here the devil falls in his own pit; the most artful fowler is taken in his own snare, and all his violent dealings return on his own pate. To the cross the Saviour nails the law of death; upon the cross he takes away the sting of death; and, by redeeming man, he through death destroys, as a usurper, him that had the power of death, that is, the devil. On the third day he rises from the dead; righteousness looks down from heaven well pleased, and truth springs out of the earth in eternal triumph; to heaven he reascends, lord both of the dead and of the living, and bears the keys both of hell and of death; and, upon taking his throne as king mediator, he receives and sends forth his most holy Spirit of promise to blot out the image of the earthly Adam, and to reinstamp his own, consisting of glorious light, righteousness, love, holiness, and spiritual knowledge; and to set up an empire of grace, supported, ordained, and established, by the Holy Ghost, which preserves this image, and supports this empire for ever more. Thus are all the elect restored and reinstated in God's love, and in the image of the second Adam; while the devil and his angels, together with all the seed of the serpent, who hate the church and her seed, are left in the

chains of sin, and under the wrath of God, and the dominion of endless death.

Nothing of Satan's usurped dominion remains in the elect of God but the body of death, the old man. This remains to magnify the grace of God, to keep the saints watchful, humble, and diligent, and to make the glories of another world appear an eternal weight. At death the old man is removed; at the resurrection mortality, corruption, and death, are swallowed up, the devil and his adherents judged and damned, a new heaven and a new earth appear, in which righteous persons shall dwell; and this will be the destruction of the devil and all his works. Thus have I shewed the new head of the church Christ Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering death, now crowned with glory and honour, God having put more abundant honour upon that part that lacked. But this glorious Head must be loved, honoured, adored, and always uppermost in the heart and affections of his saints.

Another part which much lacked is the heart, which is the strong man's palace, a den of dragons, a cage of unclean birds; from whence evil thoughts, thefts, blasphemies, adultery, fornication, covetousness, enmity, malice, rebellion, infidelity, and every other evil, proceed. But abundant honour is put upon this: Christ dwells in the heart by faith. With the heart man believes unto righteousness. The heart is circumcised to love God. Here the laws of God are written; and here the fear

of God, the word of God, and the grace of God, are put; yea, God dwells with the broken and contrite heart. All which is abundant honour; and it is put upon that part which lacked. Nothing can be a greater honour to a poor sinner than that of adoption. To be a son of God, what can come up to it! "And because you are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father." Here is the Spirit of God in the heart, claiming in us the honour of adoption, and bearing his witness to the truth of it. Now this abundant honour is given to that part which lacked.

"That there should be no schism in the body;" that is, no division or separation. And those who are united in heart to Christ, and made one spirit with him, and who know the plague of their own heart, and whose hearts have been made broken and contrite; in whose heart Christ the hope of glory is formed; and who are of one judgment in the truth; who are of one heart and one soul; who are cemented together with meekness, tenderness, and humility, and bound up together in the bundle of life with the Lord their God: these, in heart, will cleave close to Christ and to one another, even when the chaff is blown away, the vile separated from the precious, the heretic discovered, and the hypocrite banished from the presence of God; as we see by the apostles when Judas was gone; by the friends of David when Ahithophel was made manifest; and by the fear

that fell upon the churches when Ananias and Sapphira were sent out of the world. For at such times God gives more grace to his own dear children, that the weak may say I am strong, when the towers fall, and even after fanning times, which are suffered in order to purge the floor; at which times the Lord often visits his own people with more of his presence, which makes the union of the saints the stronger, and their affections to each other wax the warmer, and abound.

"That the members should have the same care one for another;" a concern for each other's welfare, bearing a part of their burdens when in trouble, and sharing their joys when in prosperity. If one member suffers, all the members suffer with it, and if one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it. Souls bound together in the threefold cord of everlasting love, live in concord and move in concert; and if one is in affliction the Spirit will touch the hearts of the rest to put up their prayers for it, and mingle their sympathy with him; and when God comforts Ephraim, he comforts his mourners also. Daniel is in danger of being slain with the wise men of Babylon, and he requests his three friends to assist him in desiring mercy of the God of heaven concerning the secret of the king's dream. The three friends of Daniel get into the furnace; Daniel is out, that he may pray for them. Daniel goes into the lions' den; the three friends are out to pray for him.

Peter gets into prison; prayer by the