Let us oft think of this nearness between Christ and us, if we have once given our names to him, and not be discouraged for any sin or unworthiness in us. Who sues a wife for debt, when she is married? Uxori lis non intenditur. Therefore answer all accusations thus:—'Go to Christ.' If you have anything to say to me, go to my husband. God is just, but he will not have his justice twice satisfied, seeing whatsoever is due thereunto is satisfied by Christ our husband. What a comfort is this to a distressed conscience! If sin cannot dismay us, which is the ill of ills and cause of all evil, what other ill can dismay us?

Christ your Head is risen, therefore you cannot be lost: nay, he is not only risen from the dead himself, but is also "become the first-fruits of them that slept," 1 Cor. 15: 20. Believers are his members, his fulness, he cannot therefore be complete without you: a part of Christ cannot perish in the grave, much less burn in hell. Remember, when you feel the natural union dissolving, that this mystical union can never be dissolved: the pangs of death cannot break this tye.

When they demand, How can we be justified by the righteousness of another? Can I be rich with another man's money, or preferred by another man's honours? Our answer is, yes, if that other be my surety or husband. Indeed Peter can not be justified by the righteousness of Paul; but both may be justified by the righteousness of Christ imputed to them; they being members, jointly knit to one common Head. Principal and surety are one in obligations and constructions of law. Head and members are one body, branch and stock are one tree; and it is no strange thing to see a graff live by the sap of another stock, when once it is ingrafted into it.

That the great God purposed and designed an union with himself of those whom in a special manner he had set himself to love; and that this union is the deepest and furthest design of his heart, of any he hath toward them, or the whole creation. The full demonstration of his manifold wisdom and power moved him to make a variety of persons, things, yea, of worlds; but then his goodness and his love moved him to reduce out of that variety an all out of every sort, as a pledge of his respect to all, unto an unity again, and that with himself; and this union is the top perfection of all his works, as that, John 17:23, ‘I in them, and they in me, that they may be made perfect in one.’ It is the perfection of the creature, whereof the unity of the three Persons is the pattern, and the perfection of God’s design.

On the part of the saints, it is their free, willing consent to receive, embrace, and submit to the Lord Jesus, as their husband, Lord, and Saviour—to abide with him, subject their souls to him, and to be ruled by him for ever.