And here it is proper to take notice of the special manner wherein the Lord Jesus Christ is the treasurer, or keeper of life, and all divine benefits for the saints, and becomes the dispenser thereof to his people: He is ordained to stand in the relation of a head to them, and they are his body, his members. Thus our life is hidden with Christ, as he is the vital head of all his saints. Their life is hid with Christ, as the spirits and springs of life, for all the members in the natural body are said to be contained in the head. _Christ is the head of his own mystical body_; Eph. iv. 14-16. _from whom the whole body, fitly joined together_, maketh increase to its own edification: it is the same vital spirit that runs through head and members.——_He that is joined to the Lord, is one Spirit_; 1 Cor. vi. 17. and therefore partakes of the same life. Thus you see, that though the life of a christian is hidden in God, in the all-sufficiency of his nature, and the purposes of his will; yet our Lord Jesus Christ, as Mediator, is entrusted to keep it for him, and dispense it to him. 2. Our life is hid with Christ, as he is our forerunner, and the possessor of life, spiritual and eternal, in our name. And this may be described in a variety of instances, according to the various parts, as well as the several advancing degrees of our spiritual life, and the perfection of it in life eternal. When his human nature was first formed complete in holiness, it was a pledge and assurance, that we should be one day completely holy too; for, as is the head so must the members be. In the original sanctification of his spirit, flesh, and blood, we may read the certain future sanctification of every believing soul, with its body too; See John xvii. 19. and Heb. ii. 11. Again; when his body was raised from the dead, it was a pledge and pattern of our being raised from a death in sin, unto the spiritual life of a saint, as well as a certain assurance of the resurrection of our bodies into future glory. The first is evident from Eph. ii. 6. _When we were dead in sin, he hath quickened us together with Christ._ And Rom. vi. 4. _As Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we must also walk in newness of life; for we are planted in the likeness of his resurrection_; ver. 5. And in 1 Cor. xv. 12, &c. the apostle builds his whole argument of the resurrection of the bodies of saints who are dead, from the rising of our Lord Jesus Christ out of his grave: _For Christ being risen from the dead_; ver. 20. _is become the first-fruits of them that slept_. And as all that are united to Adam, by having him for their head must die; so all who are one with Christ, and have him for their head, shall be made alive: which seems to be the meaning of the 22d verse: _As in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive._