Selected quad for the lemma: earth_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A53708
|
Meditations and discourses on the glory of Christ, in his person, office, and grace with the differences between faith and sight applied unto the use of them that believe / by the late Reverend John Owen, D.D.
|
Owen, John, 1616-1683.
|
1641
(1641)
|
Wing O769A; ESTC R38162
|
148,329
|
290
|
This could not be done by us But through the Obedience of Christ by vertue of this his Mystical Conjunction with the Church the Law was so fulfilled in us by being fulfilled for us as that the Glory of God in the giving of it and annexing eternal Rewards unto it is exceedingly exalted see Rom. 8. 3 4. THIS is that Glory of Christ whereof one view by faith will scatter all the fears answer all the objections and give relief against all the Despondencies of poor tempted doubting souls and an Anchor it will be unto all believers which they may cast within the Vail to hold them firm and stedfast in all Tryals Storms and Temptations in Life and Death CHAP. X. The Glory of Christ in the Communication of himself unto Believers ANOTHER instance of the Glory of Christ which we are to behold here by Faith and hope that we shall do so by sight hereafter consists in the Mysterious Communication of himself and all the Benefits of his Mediation unto the souls of them that do believe to their present happiness and future eternal Blessedness HEREBY he becomes theirs as they are his which is the Life the Glory and Consolation of the Church Cant. 6. 3. Chap. 3. 16. Chap. 3. 10. He and all that he is being appropriated unto them by vertue of their Mystical Union There is there must be some Ground formal Reason and Cause of this Relation between Christ and the Church whereby he is theirs and they are his he is in them and they in him so as it is not between him and other Men in the World THE Apostle speaking of this Communication of Christ unto the Church and the Union between them which doth ensue thereon affirms that is a Great Mystery for I speak saith he concerning Christ and the Church Ephes. 5. 32. I SHALL very briefly enquire into the Causes Ways and Means of this Mysterious Communication whereby he is made to be ours to be in us to dwell with us and all the benefits of his Mediation to belong unto us For as was said it is evident that he doth not thus communicate himself unto all by a natural Necessity as the Sun gives light equally unto the whole World nor is he present withall by an Ubiquity of his humane Nature nor as some dream by a Diffusion of his rational Soul into all nor doth he become ours by a carnal eating of him in the Sacrament but this Mystery proceeds from and depends on other Reasons and Causes as we shall briefly declare BUT yet before I proceed to declare the way and manner whereby Christ communicateth himself unto the Church I must premise something of Divine Communications in General and their Glory And I shall do this by touching a little on the harmony and Correspondency that is between the Old Creation and the New 1. ALL Being Power Goodness and Wisdom were originally essentially infinitely in God And in them with the other Perfections of his Nature consisted his Essential Glory 2. THE Old Creation was a Communication of Being and Goodness by Almighty Power directed by Infinite Wisdom unto all things that were created for the manifestation of that Glory This was the first Communication of God unto any thing without himself and it was exceeding glorious see Psal. 19. 1. Rom. 1. 21. And it was a curious Machine framed in the subordination and dependency of one thing on another without which they could not subsist nor have a continuance of their Beings All Creatures below live on the Earth and the products of it the Earth for its whole production depends on the Sun and other Heavenly Bodies as God declares Hos. 2. 21 22. I will hear saith the Lord I will hear the Heavens and they shall hear the Earth and the Earth shall hear the Corn and the Wine and the Oil and they shall hear Jezreel God hath given a subordination of things in a Concatenation of Causes whereon their Subsistence doth depend Yet 4. IN this mutual Dependency on and Supplies unto one another they all depend on and are influenced from God himself the Eternal Fountain of Being Power and Goodness He hears the Heavens and in the Continuation of this Order by constant Divine Communication of Being Goodness and Power unto all Things God is no less glorified than in the first Creation of them Act. 14. 15 16 17. Chap. 17. 24 25 26 27 28 29. 5. THIS Glory of God is visible in the Matter of it and is obvious unto the Reason of Mankind for from his Works of Creation and Providence they may learn his Eternal Power and Godhead wherein he is essentially glorious 6. BUT by this divine Communication God did not intend only to glorifie himself in the essential Properties of his Nature but his Existence also in Three Persons of Father Son and Spirit For although the whole Creation in its first framing and in its Perfection was and is by an Emanation of Power and Goodness from the Divine Nature in the Person of the Father as he is the Fountain of the Trinity whence he is said peculiarly to be the Creator of all things yet the immediate Operation in the Creation was from the Son the Power and Wisdom of the Father Joh. 1. 1 2 3. Col. 1. 16. Heb. 1. 3. And as upon the first Production of the Mass of the Creation it was under the especial care of the Spirit of God to preserve and cherish it unto the production of all distinct sorts of Creatures Gen. 1. 2. So in the Continuance of the whole there is an especial Operation of the same Spirit in all things Nothing can subsist one Moment by vertue of the Dependance which all things have on one another without a continual Emanation of Power from him see Psal. 104. 29 30. BY these divine Communications in the production and preservation of the Creature doth God manifest his Glory and by them alone in the way of Nature he doth so and without them although he would have been for ever essentially glorious yet was it impossible that his Glory should be known unto any but himself Wherefore on these divine Communications doth depend the whole Maninifestation of the Glory of God But this is far more eminent though not in the outward Effects of it so visible in the new Creation as we shall see 1. ALL Goodness Grace Life Light Mercy and Power which are the Springs and Causes of the New Creation are all originally in God in the divine Nature and that infinitely and essentially In them is God eternally or essentially glorious and the whole Design of the New Creation was to manifest his Glory in them by external Communications of them and from them 2. THE first Communication of and from these things is made unto Christ as the Head of the Church For in the first place it pleased God that in him should all the fulness of these things dwell so as that the whole New Creation might consist
26. The same is frequently expressed elsewhere Rom. 14. 9. Phil. 2. 5 6 7 8. So much as we know of Christ his Sufferings and his Glory so much do we understand of the Scripture and no more THESE are the Two Heads of the Mediation of Christ and his Kingdom and this is their Order which they communicate unto the Church first Sufferings and then Glory If we suffer we shall also reign with him 2 Tim. 2. 12. They do but deceive themselves who design any other Method of these things Some would reign here in this World and we may say with the Apostle would you did reign that we might reign with you But the Members of the mystical Body must be conformed unto the Head In him Sufferings went before Glory and so they must in them The Order in the Kingdom of Satan and the Word is contrary hereunto First the Good Things of this Life and then Eternal Misery is the Method of that Kingdom Luk. 16. 25. THESE are the two Springs of the Salvation of the Church the two anointed ones that stand before the Lord of the whole Earth from which all the golden Oyl whereby the Church is dedicated unto God and sanctified doth flow This Glory of Christ in his Exaltation which followed on his Sufferings is that which we now enquire into And we shall state our Apprehensions of it in the ensuing Observations 1. THIS is peculiarly that Glory which the Lord Christ prays that his Disciples may be where he is to behold it It is not solely so as it is considered absolutely but it is that wherein all the other Parts of his Glory are made manifest It is the Evidence the Pledge the Means of the Manifestation of them all As unto all the Instances of his Glory before insisted on there was a Vail drawn over them whilst he was in this World Hence the most saw nothing of it and the best saw it but obscurely But in this Glory that Vail is taken off whereby the whole Glory of his Person in it self and in the Work of Mediation is most illustriously manifested When we shall immediately behold this Glory we shall see him as he is This is that Glory whereof the Father made grant unto him before the Foundation of the World and wherewith he was actually invested upon his Ascention 2. BY this Glory of Christ I do not understand the Essential Glory of his Divine Nature or his being absolutely in his own Person over all God blessed for ever But the manifestation of this Glory in particular after it had been vailed in this World under the Form of a Servant belongs hereunto The Divine Glory of Christ in his Person belongs not unto his Exaltation but the Manifestation of it doth so It was not given him by free Donation but the Declaration of it unto the Church of Angels and Men after his Humiliation was so He left it not whilst he was in this World but the direct Evidence and Declaration of it he laid aside until he was declared to be the Son of God with Power by the Resurrection from the Dead WHEN the Sun is under a total Eclipse he loseth nothing of his Native Beauty Light and Glory He is still the same that he was from the beginning a great Light to rule the Day To us he appears as a dark useless Meteor but when he comes by his course to free himself from the Lunar Interposition unto his proper Aspect towards us he manifests again his Native Light and Glory So was it with the Divine Nature of Christ as we have before declared He vailed the Glory of it by the Interposition of the Flesh or the Assumption of our Nature to be his own with this Addition that therein he took on him the Form of a Servant of a Person of mean and low Degree But this temporary Eclipse being past and over it now shines forth in its Infinite Lustre and Beauty which belongs unto the present Exaltation of his Person And when those who beheld him here as a poor sorrowful persecuted Man dying on the Cross came to see him in all the infinite increated Glories of the Divine Nature manifesting themselves in his Person it could not but fill their Souls with Transcendent Joy and Admiration And this is one reason of his Prayer for them whilst he was on the Earth that they might be where he is to behold his Glory For he knew what ineffable Satisfaction it would be unto them for evermore 3. I do not understand absolutely the Glorification of the Human Nature of Christ That very Soul and Body wherein he lived and died suffered and rose again tho that also be included herein This also were a Subject meet for our Contemplation especially as it is the Exemplar of that Glory which he will bring all those unto who believe in him But because at present we look somewhat further I shall observe only one or two things concerning it 1. THAT very Nature it self which he took on him in this World is exalted into Glory Some under a Pretence of great Subtilty and Acuracy do deny that he hath either Flesh or Blood in Heaven that is as to the Substance of them however you may suppose that they are changed purified glorified The great Foundation of the Church and all Gospel Faith is that he was made Flesh that he did partake of Flesh and Blood even as did the Children That he hath forsaken that Flesh and Blood which he was made in the Womb of the Blessed Virgin wherein he lived and died which he offered unto God in Sacrifice and wherein he rose from the Dead is a Socinian Fiction What is the true Nature of the Glorification of the Humanity of Christ neither those who thus furmise nor we can perfectly comprehend It doth not yet appear what we our selves shall be much less is it evident unto us what he is whom we shall be like But that he is still in the same Human Nature wherein he was on the earth that he hath the same rational Soul and the same Body is a fundamental Article of the Christian Faith 2. THIS Nature of the Man Christ Jesus is filled with all the Divine Graces and Perfections whereof a limited created Nature is capable It is not Deified it is not made a God it doth not in Heaven coalesce into one Nature with the Divine by a Composition of them It hath not any Estential Property of the Deity communicated unto it so as subjectively to reside in it It is not made Omniscient Omnipresent Omnipotent But it is exalted in a Fulness of all Divine Perfection ineffably above the Glory of Angels and Men. It is incomprehensibly nearer God than they all hath Communications from God in glorious Light Love and Power ineffably above them all But it is still a Creature FOR the Substance of this Glory of the Human Nature of Christ Believers shall be made Partakers of it for when we see