.
16. And what is that,--Christ to walk in believers? It is nothing else but
Christ by his Spirit making them to walk in his way. There is so little in
us to principle a spiritual action, even when renewed and quickened, that
we should look on ourselves not so much as workers with him, but as being
acted by him. We should look on soul and body as pieces of organized clay
that cannot move, but as they are moved by him as the soul and life of
them; so that, according to the Scripture dialect, a Christian is nothing
else, but Christ living and walking in such a person. This is it which
Christ, when he is to go out of the world, instructs his disciples into,
John xv. 1. He is the vine, and we the branches. The branch must be first
united to the tree, and implanted into the tree, ere it bring forth fruit.
Without the tree it withers. So must a soul be first ingraft in Jesus
Christ, implanted in him by faith in his death and sufferings, before it
can grow up into the similitude of his resurrection, or "walk in newness
of life," as Paul speaks, Rom. vi. 4, 5. "Without me ye can do nothing."
Ye must first be one with him, by believing in him, and receiving him as a
complete Saviour, and then the sap and virtue of the tree flows into the
dead branch, and it shoots forth, and blossoms and bears.

Now, if this doctrine of Christ and his apostles were duly pondered and
believed, O what a change would it make on the lives and spirits of
Christians! Since this is the order established in the gospel, and an
order suitable both to his grace and our necessity, (as all that is in it
speaketh forth an excellent contriver)--when we go about to establish our
souls in another method, how is it possible that we should not weary and
vex our souls in vain? How can we choose but torment ourselves and
intricate ourselves still more? Our method and way is just contrary. We
perplex our souls how to find the fruits of the Spirit of Christ, how to
walk after the Spirit, without first closing entirely with Christ himself.
We trouble ourselves to find the operations of a spiritual life, before we
lay hold on Christ, who is the life of our souls. It is made an argument
by many, to keep them from believing in Christ, because they do not find
that spiritual life stirring in them. How cross is this to the declared
mind of Christ in the gospel! It cannot choose but both darken the spirit
more, and dry up the influences of the Spirit of God, because it keeps