rise
and not draw up the members after him. Certainly he will not cease till he
have drawn up all his members to him. If the head be above water, it is a
sure pledge that the body will win out of the water, if the root be alive,
certainly the branches will out in spring time, they shall live also.
There is that connexion between Christ and believers, that wonderful
communication between them, that Christ did nothing, was nothing, and had
nothing done to him, but what he did, and was, and suffered, personating
them, and all the benefit and advantage redounds to them. He would not be
considered of as a person by himself, but would rather be still taken in
with the children. As for love he came down and took flesh to be like
them, and did take their sin and misery off them, and so was content to be
looked upon by God as in the plate of sinners, as the chief sinner, so he
is content and desirous that we should look on him as in the place of
sinners, as dying, as rising for us, as having no excellency or privilege
incommunicable to us. And this was not hid from the church of old, but
presented as the grand consolation, "Thy dead men shall live, together
with my dead body they shall rise." And, therefore, may poor souls awake
and sing. Though they must dwell in the dust, yet as the dew and influence
of heaven maketh herbs to spring out of the earth, so the virtue of this
resurrection shall make the earth, and sea, and air, to cast out and
render their dead, Isa. xxvi. 19. Upon what a sure and strong chain hangs
the salvation of poor sinners? I wish Christians might salute one another
with this "Christ is risen, and so comfort one another with these
words,"--or rather, that every one would apply this cordial to his own
heart, "Christ is risen," and you know what a golden chain this draweth
after it, therefore we must rise and live.

The other cause, which is more immediate, and will actively accomplish it,
is the Spirit dwelling in us, for there is a suitable method here too. As
the Lord first raised the head, Christ, and will then raise the members,
and he that doth the one cannot but do the other, so the Spirit first
raiseth the soul from the woful fall into sin, which killed us, and so
maketh it a temple, and the body too, for both are bought with a price,
and, therefore, the Spirit possesseth both. But the inmost residence is in
the soul, and the bodily members are made servants of righteousness, which
is a great honour an