God in his Immense Essence is invisible unto our Corporeal Eyes and will be so to Eternity as also incomprehensible unto our Minds For nothing can perfectly comprehend that which is Infinite but what is it self Infinite Wherefore the Blessed and Blessing Sight which we shall have of God will be always in the Face of Jesus Christ. Therein will that Manifestation of the Glory of God in his Infinite Perfections and all their blessed Operations so 〈…〉 Souls as shall immediately fill us with Peace Rest and Glory THESE things we here admire but cannot comprehend We know not well what we say when we speak of them yet is there in True Belivers a Fore-sight and Fore-taste of this Glorious Condition There enters sometimes by the Word and Spirit into their hearts such a sense of the uncreated Glory of God shining forth in Christ as Affects and Satiates their Souls with ineffable Joy Hence ariseth that Peace of God which is above all Understanding keeping our Hearts and Minds through Jesus Christ. Phil. 4. 7. Christ in Believers the Hope of Glory gives them to taste of the First fruits of it yea sometimes to bath their Souls in the Fountain of Life and to drink of the Rivers of Pleasure that are at his Right hand Where any are utterly unacquainted with these things they are Carnal yea Blind and seeing nothing afar off These Enjoyments indeed are rare and for the most part of short Continuance Rara hora brevis mora But it is from our own Sloth and Darkness that we do not enjoy more Visits of this Grace and that the Dawnings of Glory do not more shine on our Souls Such things as these may excite us to Diligence in the Duty proposed unto us AND I shall enquire 1. What is that Glory of Christ which we do or may behold by Faith 2. How do we behold it 3. Wherein our doing so differs from immediate Vision in Heaven And in the whole we shall endeavour an Answer unto the Enquiry made unto the Spouse by the Daughters of Jerusalem Cant. 5. 9. What is thy Beloved more than another Beloved thou fairest among Women What is thy Beloved more than another Beloved that thou dost so charge us CHAP. II. The Glory of the Person of Christ as the only Representative of God unto the Church THE Glory of Christ is the Glory of the Person of Christ. So he calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Joh. 17. 28. That Glory which is mine belongeth to me unto my Person THE Person of Christ may be considered two ways 1. Absolutely in it self 2. In the Susception and Discharge of his Office with what ensued thereon His Glory on these distinct Accounts is distinct and different but all equally his own How in both respects we may behold it by Faith is that which we enquire into THE first thing wherein we may behold the Glory of the Person of Christ God and Man which was given him of his Father consists in the Representation of the Nature of God and of the Divine Person of the Father unto the Church in him For we behold the Glory of God in the Face of Jesus Christ 2 Cor. 4. 6. Otherwise we know it not we see it not we see nothing of it that is the way of seeing and knowing God declared in the Scripture as our Duty and Blessedness The Glory of God comprehends both the Holy Properties of his Nature and the Counsels of his Will and the Light of the Knowledge of these things we have only in the Face or Person of Jesus Christ. Whatever obscure imperfect Notions we may have of them otherways we cannot have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Light of the Illuminating iradiating Knowledge of the Glory of God which may enlighten 〈…〉 fie our Hearts but only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Face or Person of Jesus Christ for he is the Image of God 2 Cor. 4. 4. The Brightness of the Fathers Glory and the express Image of his Person Heb. 1. 2. The Image of the invisible God Col. 1. 16. I do here only mention these things because I have handled them at large in my Discourse of the Mistery of Godliness or the Person of Christ whereunto I refer the Readers for their full Declaration and Vindication Herein is he glorious in that he is the great Representative of the Nature of God and his Will unto us which without him would have been eternally hid from us or been invisible unto us we should never have seen God at any time here nor hereafter Joh. 1. 18. IN his Divine Person absolutely considered he is the Essential Image of God even the Father He is in the Father and the Father in him in the Unity of the same Divine Essence Joh. 14. 10. Now he is with the Father John 1. 1. In the Distinction of his Person so is he his Essential Image Col. 1. 15. Heb. 1. 2. In his Incarnation he becomes the Representative Image of God unto the Church 2 Cor. 4. 6. without whom our Understandings can make no such Approach unto the Divine Excellencies but that God continues to be unto us what he is in himself the Invisible God In the Face of Jesus Christ we see his Glory THIS is the Original Glory of Christ given him by his Father and which by Faith we may behold He and he alone declares represents and makes known unto Angels and Men the Essential Glory of the Invisible God his Attributes and his Will without which a perpetual comparative Darkness would have been on the whole Creation especially that part of it here below THIS is the Foundation of our Religion the Rock whereon the Church is built the Ground of all our Hopes of Salvation of Life and Immortality All is resolved into this namely the Representation that is made of the Nature and Will of God in the Person and Office of Christ If this fail us we are lost for ever if this Rock stand firm the Church is safe here and shall be triumphant hereafter HEREIN then is the Lord Christ exceedingly glorious Those who cannot behold this Glory of his by Faith namely as he is the great Divine Ordinance to represent God unto us they know him not In their Worship of him they worship but an Image of their own devising YEA in the Ignorance and Neglect hereof consists the formal Nature of Unbelief even that which is inevitably ruinous unto the Souls of Men. He that discerns not the Representation of the Glory of God in the Person of Christ unto the Souls of Men is an Unbeliever Such was the State of the unbelieving Jews and Gentiles of old They did not they would not they could not behold the Glory of God in him nor how he did represent him That this was both the Cause and the Formal Nature of their Unbelief the Apostle declares at large 1 Cor. 1. 21 22 23 24 25. Not to see the Wisdom of God and the Power of God and
vitious Habits When the Minds of Men are vehemently fixed on the pursuit of their Lusts they will be continually ruminating on the Objects of them and have a thousand Contrivances about them until their Eyes become full of an Adulteress and they cannot cease from sinning as the Apostle speaks The Objects of their Lusts have framed and raised an Image of themselves in their Minds and transformed them into their own Likeness is this the way of them who go down to the Chambers of Death Do they thus frame their Souls and make them meet for Destruction until their Words Gestures Actions proclaim the Frame of their Minds unto all that look upon them And shall we be slothful and negligent in the Contemplation of that Glory which transforms our Minds into its own Likeness so as that the Eyes of our Understandings shall be continually filled with it until we see him and behold him continually so as never to cease from the holy Acts of Delight in him and Love unto him 4. WOULD we then behold the Glory of God as he manifesteth it in and by the holy Properties of his Nature with their blessed Operations and Effects without which we have nothing of the Power of Religion in us whatever we pretend this alone is the Way of it Go to the whole Creation and all things contained in it they can say no more but we have heard the Fame and Report of these things and what we have heard we declare but it is but a little Portion of them that we are acquainted withal The Heavens indeed declare the Glory of God and the Firmament sheweth his handy Work The invisible things of God are understood by the things that are made even his Eternal Power and Godhead But comparatively it is but little that we can hence learn of these things as unto what we may behold of them in Christ Jesus How blind herein was the best Philosopher in comparison of the meanest of the Apostles yea of him who is least in the Kingdom of Heaven BUT herein it is required that we rest not in the Notion of this Truth and a bare Assent unto the Doctrine of it The affecting Power of it upon our Hearts is that which we should aim at Wherein doth the Blessedness of the Saints above consist Is it not herein that they behold and see the Glory of God in Christ And what is the Effect of it upon those blessed Souls Doth it not change them into the same Image or make them like unto Christ Doth it not fill and satiate them with Joy Rest Delight Complacency and ineffable Satisfaction Do we expect do we desire the same State of Blessedness It is our present View of the Glory of Christ which is our Initiation thereinto if we are exercised in it until we have an Experience of its Transforming Power in our Souls THESE things are it may be of little use unto some Such as are Babes in spiritual Knowledge and Understanding either because they are Carnal 1 Cor. 3. 1 2. or slothful in hearing Heb. 5. 12 13 14. are not capable of these Divine Mysteries And therefore the Apostle did in an especial manner declare this Wisdom of God in a Mystery unto them that were perfect 1 Cor. 2. 6 7. That is who were more grown in spiritual Knowledge and had their Senses exercised to discern Good and Evil. It is unto them who are exercised in the Contemplation of invisible things who delight to walk in the more retired Paths of Faith and Love to whom they are precious SOME few Inferences from the Whole of what hath been declared shall put a Close to this part of our Discourse 1. THE Holy Properties of the Divine Nature are not only represented unto our Faith in Christ as unto their own essential Glory but as they are in the Exercise of their Powers for the Salvation of the Church In him do we behold the Wisdom Goodness Love Grace Mercy and Power of God acting themselves in the Contrivance Constitution and efficacious Accomplishment of the great Work of our Redemption and Salvation This gives as unto us an unutterable Lustre unto the Native Amiableness of the Divine Excellencies The Wisdom and Love of God are in themselves infinitely Glorious infinitely Amiable nothing can be added unto them there can be no encrease of their essential Glory Howbeit as they are eternally resident in the Divine Nature and absolutely the same with it we cannot so comprehend them as to have an endearing satiating View of their Glory But as they are exerted in the Work of the Redemption and Salvation of the Church as they are expressed communicating their blessed Effects unto the Souls of them that do believe which is done only in Christ so the Beams of their Glory shine unto us with unspeakable Refreshment and Joy 2 Cor. 4. 6. Hence the Apostle on the Consideration of the Actings of the Holy Properties of God in this blessed Work falls into that Contemplation O the Depth of the Riches both of the Wisdom and Knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his Judgments and his Ways past finding out For who hath not known the Mind of the Lord or who hath been his Counsellor or who hath first given unto him and it shall be recompensed unto him again For of him and through him and to him are all things to whom be Glory for ever Amen Rom 11. 33 34 35 36. 2. IN and through Christ we do believe in God 1 Pet. 1. 24. This is the Life of our Souls God himself in the infinite Perfections of his Divine Nature is the ultimate Object of our Faith but he is not here the immediate Object of it but the Divine Way and Means of the Manifestation of himself and them unto us are so Through Christ we believe in God By our Belief in him we come to place our Faith ultimately in God himself and this we can no otherwise do but by beholding the Glory of God in him as hath been declared 3. THIS is the only way whereby we may attain the saving sanctifying Knowledge of God Without this every Beam of Divine Light that shines on us or gleans from without as the Light shineth into Darkness when the Darkness comprehendeth it not Joh. 1. 5. Every Spark that ariseth from the Remainders of the Light of Nature within do rather amaze the Minds of Men than lead them into the saving Knowledge of God So a Glance of Light in a dark Night giving a transient View of various Objects and passing away doth rather amaze than direct a Traveller and leave him more exposed unto wandring than before Such were all those Notions of the Divine Being and its Excellencies which those who boasted themselves to be wise among the Heathen embraced and improved They did but fluctuate in their Minds they did not transform them into the Image and Likeness of God as the saving Knowledge of him doth Col. 3. 10. SO the Apostle expresseth this
we do see are more fully represented though remote enough from being so perfectly Such a Glass is the Gospel without which we can make no discovery of Christ at all but in the use of it we are far enough from beholding him in the just dimensions of his glory AND he adds another intimation of this Imperfection in an Allusion unto the way whereby things are proposed and conveyed unto the Minds and Apprehensions of Men Now this is by Words And these are either plain proper and direct or dark figurative and parabolical And this latter way makes the Conception of things to be difficult and imperfect and by reason of the imperfection of our View of the glory of Christ by Faith in this World the Apostle saith it is in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a Riddle These 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Psalmist calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 darklaying Psal. 78. 2. BUT here it must be observed that the description and Representation of the Lord Christ and his glory in the Gospel is not absolutely or in it self either dark or obscure Yea it is perspicuous plain and direct Christ is therein evidently set forth crucified exalted glorified But the Apostle doth not here discourse concerning the Way or Means of the Revelation of it unto us but of the Means or Instrument whereby we comprehend that Revelation This is our Faith which as it is in us being weak and imperfect we comprehend the Representation that is made unto us of the Glory of Christ as Men do the sence of a dark Saying a Riddle a Parable that is imperfectly and with difficulty ON the account hereof we may say at present How little a portion is it that we know of him as Job speaks of God Chap. 26. 14. How imperfect are our Conceptions of him How weak are our Minds in their Management There is no part of his glory that we can fully comprehend And what we do comprehend as there is a Comprehension in Faith Eph. 3. 18. we cannot abide in the steady contemplation of For ever blessed be that Soveraign Grace whence it is that he who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined into our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of his own Glory in the face of Jesus Christ and there in of the glory of Christ himself that he hath so revealed him unto us as that we may love him admire him and obey him but constantly steadily and clearly to behold his glory in this life we are not able for we walk by Faith and not by Sight HENCE our sight of him here is as it were by Glances liable to be clouded by many interpositions Behold he standeth behind the wall he looketh forth at the windows shewing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 flourishing himself at the lattess Cant. 2. 9. There is a great Interposition between him and us as a Wall and the means of the discovery of himself unto us as through a Window and Lattess include a great instability and imperfection in our view and Apprehension of him There is a Wall between him and us which yet he standeth behind Our present mortal state is this Wall which must be demolished before we can see him as he is In the mean time he looketh through the Windows of the ordinances of the Gospel He gives us sometimes when he is pleased to stand in those Windows a view of himself but it is imperfect as is our sight of a man through a Window The appearances of him at these Windows are full of refreshment unto the souls of them that do believe But our view of them is imperfect transient and doth not abide We are for the most part quickly left to bemoan what we have lost And then our best is but to cry As the hart panteth after the water-brook so panteth my soul after thee O God my soul thirsteth for God for the living God when shall I come and appear before thee When wilt thou again give me to see thee tho but as through the Windows Alas what distress do we oftentimes sit down in after these views of Christ and his Glory But he proceeds further yet and flourishes himself through the lattesses This displaying of the glory of Christ called the flourishing of himself is by the promises of the Gospel as they are explained in the ministry of the word In them are represented unto us the desirable beauties and glories of Christ how precious how amiable is he as represented in them How are the Souls of Believers ravished with the views of them Yet is this discovery of him also but as through a Lattess We see him but by parts unsteadily and unevenly SUCH I say is the sight of the glory of Christ which we have in this world by Faith It is dark it is but in part It is but weak transient imperfect partial It is but little that we can at any time discover of it It is but a little while that we can abide in the contemplation of what we do discover rara hora brevis mora Sometimes it is unto us as the Sun when it is under a Cloud we cannot perceive it When he hideth his face who then can behold him As Joh speaks so may we Behold I go forward but he is not there and backward but I cannot perceive him on the left hand where he doth work but I cannot behold him he hideth himself on the right hand that I cannot see him chap. 23. 8 9. Which way soever we turn our selves and what duties soever we apply our selves unto we can obtain no distinct view of his glory Yet on the other hand it is sometimes as the Sun when it shines in its brightness and we cannot bear the rays of it In infinite condescention he says unto his Church Turn away thine eyes from me for they have overcome me Cant. 6. 5. As if he could not bear that overcoming affectionate love which looks through the eyes of the Church in its acting of Faith on him Ah! How much more do we find our souls overcome with his love when at any he is pleased to make any clear discoveries of his glory unto us LET us now on the other hand take a little Consideration of that Vision which we shall have of the same Glory in Heaven that we may compare them together VISION or the sight which we shall have of the glory of Christ in Heaven is immediate direct intuitive and therefore steady even and constant And it is so on a double Account 1. Of the Object which shall be proposed unto us 2. Of the Visive Power or faculty wherewith we shall be endued from the imperfection of both which in this World ariseth the imperfection of our view of the glory of Christ by faith as hath been declared 1. THE Object of it will be real and substantial Christ himself in his own person with all his glory shall be continually with us before us proposed unto
send the spirit to them John 16. 7. Hereon they had a clearer view of the Glory of Christ than they could have by beholding him in the flesh This is our spiritual posture and condition We are past the knowledge of him according to the flesh we cannot attain nor receive the sight of him in Glory but the life which we now lead is by the Faith of the Son of God I SHALL not here enquire into the nature of this vision or the power and ability which we shall have in Heaven to behold the Glory of Christ. Some few things may be mentioned as it relates unto our Minds and our Bodies also after the Resurrection 1. FOR the Mind it shall be perfectly freed from all that Darkness Unsteadiness and other Incapacities which here it is accompanied with and whereby it is weakened hindred and obstructed in the Exercise of Faith And they are of two sorts First such as are the remainders of that depravation of our Natures which came upon us by sin Hereby our Minds became wholly vain dark and corrupt as the Scripture testifieth utterly unable to discern spiritual things in a due manner This is so far cured and removed in this Life by Grace as that those who were darkness do become light in the Lord or are enabled to live unto God under the Conduct of a new spiritual Light communicated unto them But it is so cured and removed in part only it is not perfectly abolished Hence are all our remaining Weaknesses and Incapacities in discerning things spiritual and eternal which we yet groan under and long for deliverance from No Footsteps no Scars or Marks that ever it had place in our Minds shall abide in glory Ephes. 5. 27. Nothing shall weaken disturb or incapacitate our Souls in acting all their Powers unimpeded by Vanity Diversions Weakness Inability upon their proper Objects The Excellency hereof in universal Liberty and Power we cannot here comprehend Nor can we yet conceive the Glory and Beauty of those immixed spiritual actings of our Minds which shall have no Clog upon them no Encumbrance in them no Alloy of Dross accompanying of them One pure Act of spiritual Sight in discerning the Glory of Christ one pure Act of Love in cleaving unto God will bring in more Blessedness and Satisfaction into our Minds than in this World we are capable of 2. THERE is an Incapacity in our Minds as unto their Actings on things spiritual and eternal that is meerly natural from the Posture wherein they are and the Figure which they are to make in this Life For they are here cloathed with Flesh and that debased and corrupted Now in this State though the Mind act its Conceptions by the Body as its Organ and Instrument Yet is it variously streightned encumbred and impeded in the exercise of its native Powers especially towards things heavenly by this Prison of the Flesh wherein it is immured There is an Angelical Excellency in the pure Actings of the Soul when delivered from all material Instruments of them or when they are all glorified and made suitable helps in its utmost spiritual Activity How and by what degrees our Minds shall be freed from these Obstructions in their beholding the glory of Christ shall be afterwards declared 2. AGAIN a new light the light of Glory shall be implanted in them There is a Light in Nature which is the Power of a Man to discern the things of Man An Ability to know perceive and judge of things natural It is that Spirit of a Man which is the Candle of the Lord searching all the inward parts of the belly Prov. 20. 27. BUT by the light hereof no man can discern spiritual things in a due manner as the Apostle declares 1 Cor. 2. 11 12 13 14 15. Wherefore God gives a superior a supernatural Light the Light of Faith and Grace unto them whom he effectually calls unto the knowledge of himself by Jesus Christ. He shines into their hearts to give them the knowledge of his Glory in the face of his dear Son Howbeit this new Light doth not abolish blot out or render useless the other Light of Nature as the Sun when it riseth extinguisheth the Light of the Stars But it directs it and rectifies it as unto its principle object and end Yet is it in its self a Light quite of another Nature But he who hath only the former Light can understand nothing of it because he hath no Taste or Experience of its Power and Operations He may talk of it and make Enquiries about it but he knows it not NOW we have received this Light of Faith and Grace whereby we discern spiritual things and behold the glory of Christ in the Imperfect manner before described But in Heaven there shall be a superadded light of Glory which shall make the Mind it self shine as the Firmament Dan. 12. 3. I shall only say three things of it 1. That as the Light of Grace doth not destroy or abolish the Light of Nature but rectifie and improve it so the Light of Glory shall not abolish or destroy the Light of Faith and Grace but by incorporating with it render it absolutely perfect 2. That as by the Light of Nature we cannot clearly comprehend the true Nature and Efficacy of the Light of Grace because it is of another Kind and is seen only in its own Light so by the Light of Grace we cannot absolutely comprehend this Light of Glory being of a peculiar Kind and Nature seen perfectly only by its own Light It doth not appear what we shall be 3. That this is the best Notion we can have of this Light of Glory that in the first Instance of its Operation it perfectly transforms the Soul into the Image and Likeness of Christ. THIS is the progress of our nature unto its Rest and Blessedness The principles remaining in it concerning Good and Evil with its practical convictions are not destroyed but improved by grace as its blindness darkness and enmity to God are in part taken away Being renewed by Grace what it receives here of spiritual Life and Light shall never be destroyed but be perfected in Glory Grace renews Nature Glory perfects Grace and so the whole Soul is brought unto its rest in God We have an Image of it in the blind Man whom our Saviour cured Mark 8. 22 23 24. He was absolutely blind born so no doubt Upon the first touch his Eyes were opened and he saw but very obscurely he saw men walking like Trees But on the second he saw all things clearly Our minds in themselves are absolutely blind The first visitation of them by Grace gives them a sight of things spiritual heavenly and eternal but it is obscure and unsteady The sight of Glory makes all things clear and evident 2ly THE body as glorified with its senses shall have its use and place herein After we are cloathed again with our flesh we shall see our Redeemer with our
contrary to the promise of Christ himself who hath assured that even 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even now in this life in this world distinct from eternal life in the world to come we shall receive an hundred-fold recompence for all that we can lose or suffer for his his sake Mat. 10. 30. as also unto the experience of them who in all ages have taken joyfully the spoiling of their goods as knowing in themselves by the experience which they have of its first fruits that they have in heaven a better and more abiding substance Heb. 10. 29 30. If we come short in a participation of these things if we are strangers unto them the blame is to be laid on our selves alone as it shall be immediately declared NOW the design of the Lord Christ in thus withdrawing himself from us and hiding his glory from our view being the exercise of our Graces and to stir us up unto diligence in our enquiries after him here lieth our guidance and direction in this case Do we find our selves lifeless in the spiritual duties of Religion Are we strangers unto the heavenly visits of consolation and joys those visitations of God whereby he preserves our souls Do we seldom enjoy a sense of the shedding abroad of his love in our hearts by the holy Ghost We have no way of Recovery but this alone To this strong Tower must we turn our selves as Prisoners of hope unto Christ must we look that we may be saved It is a steady view or contemplation of his Glory by faith alone that will bring in all these things in a lively experience in our hearts and souls AGAIN In the second place it is from our selves principally if we lose the views of the Glory of Christ and the exercise of faith be obstructed therein All our spiritual disadvantages do arise from our selves It is the remainder of lusts and corruptions in us either indulged by sloth and negligence or excited and inflamed by Satans Temptations that do obstruct us in this duty Whilst they are in any disorder or disturbance it is in vain for us to expect any clear view of this Glory THAT view of the Glory of Christ whereof we treat consists in two things namely its especial Nature and its necessary Adjunct or effect The first is a spiritual perception or understanding of it as revealed in the Scriptures For the revelation of the Glory of his Person Office and Grace is the Principal Subject of them and the principal Object of our Faith And the other consists in multiplied thoughts about him with actings of Faith in Love Trust Delight and longing after the the full enjoyment of him 1 Pet. 1. 8. If we satisfie our selves in meer notions and speculations about the Glory of Christ as doctrinally revealed unto us we shall find no transforming power or efficacy communicated unto us thereby But when under the conduct of that spiritual Light our affections do cleave unto him with full purpose of heart our minds are filled with thoughts of him and delight in him and faith is kept up unto its constant exercise in Trust and Affiance on him virtue will proceed from him to purifie our hearts increase our holiness strengthen our Graces and to fill us sometimes with joy unspeakable and full of Glory This is the just temperature of a state of spiritual health namely when our Light of the knowledge of the Glory of God in Christ doth answer the means of it which we enjoy and when our Affections unto Christ do hold proportion unto that light and this according unto the various degrees of it for some have more and some have less Where Light leaves the Affections behind it ends in Formality or Atheism And where Affections outrun Light they sink in the Bog of Superstition doting on Images and Pictures or the like But where things go not into these excesses it is better that our affections exceed our light on the defect of our understandings than that our light exceed our affections from the corruption of our wills In both these is the exercise of faith frequently interrupted and obstructed by the remainder of corruption in us especially if not kept constantly under the discipline of Mortification but some way indulged unto For 1. THE steam of their disorder will cloud and darken the understanding that it shall not be able clearly to discern any spiritual object least of all the greatest of them There is nothing more acknowledged even in things natural and moral than that the disorder of the passions and affections will blind darken and deceive the mind in its Operations And it is much more so in things spiritual wherein that Disorder is an immediate Rebellion against its proper conducting Light that is against the Light and Rule of Grace THERE are three sorts of them unto whom the Gospel is preached in whom there are various Obstructions of this view 1. THERE is in obstinate unbelievers a darkness that is an effect of the power of Satan on their minds in blinding of them which makes it impossible for them to behold any thing of the Glory of Christ. So the Apostle declares it If our Gospel be hid it is hid unto them that are lost in whom the God of this World hath blinded the minds of them that believe not lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ who is the Image of God should shine unto them 2 Cor. 4. 3 4. Of these we do not speak 2. THERE is in all men a corrupt natural darkness or such a depravation of their minds by nature as that they cannot discern this Glory of Christ in a due manner Hence the Light shineth in darkness and the darkness comprehendeth it not John 1. 5. For the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned 1 Cor. 2. 14. Hence it is that although Christ be preached among us continually yet there are very few who discern any Glory or Beauty in him for which he should be desired as the Prophet complains Isa. 53. 1 2. But I speak not of this natural darkness in general But even these persons have their minds filled with prejudices against the Gospel and darkned as unto the Glory of Christ according as corrupt lusts and affections are prevalent in them see Joh. 1. 44. chap. 12. 43. Hence is the difference that is among the common hearers of the word For although no man can do any thing of himself for the receiving of Christ and the beholding of his Glory without the especial aid of the Grace of God Mat. 11. 24. John 6. 44 45 Yet some may make more opposition unto believing and lay more hindrances in their own way than others which is done by their lusts and corruptions 3. THERE are those in whom both these evils are cured by faith wherein the eyes of our understandings are enlightened to
perceive and discern spiritual things Ephes. 1. 16 17 18. But this cure is wrought in this life but in part 1 Cor. 13. 12. And in this cure by a supply of a principle of saving light unto our minds there are many degrees For some have a clearer light than others and thereby a more clear discerning of the Mystery of the Wisdom of God and of the Glory of Christ therein But whatever be our attainments herein that which obstructs this light that hinders it from shining in a due manner that obstructs and hinders faith in its view of the Glory of Christ. And this is done by the remainders of corrupted nature in us when they act in any prevalent degree For they darken the mind and weaken it in its spiritual Operations That is where any corrupt and inordinate affections as love of the world cares about it inclinations unto sensuality or the like spiritual disorders do prevail faith is weakened in its spiritual acts especially in discerning and beholding the Glory of Christ. For the mind is rendred unsteady in its enquiries after it being continually distracted and diverted with vain thoughts and Imaginations PERSONS under the Power of such Distempers may have the same doctrinal knowledge of the Person of Christ his Office and his grace with other men and the same evidence of its Truth fixed on their minds but when they endeavour a real intuition into the things themselves all things are dark and confused unto them from the uncertainty and instability of their own minds THIS is the sum of what I do design We have by Faith a View of the Glory of Christ. This View is weak and unsteady from the Nature of Faith it self and the way of its proposal unto us as in a Glass in comparison of what by Sight we shall attain unto But moreover where corrupt Lusts or inordinate Affections are indulged unto where they are not continually mortified where any one sin hath a perplexing prevalency in the Mind Faith will be so far weakened thereby as that it can neither see nor meditate upon this Glory of Christ in a due manner This is the Reason why the most are so weak and unstable in the performance of this Duty yea are almost utterly unacquainted with it The Light of Faith in the Minds of Men being impaired clouded darkned by the prevalency of unmortified Lusts it cannot make such discoveries of this Glory as otherwise it would do And this makes the preaching of Christ unto many so unprofitable as it is SECONDLY In the View of the Glory of Christ which we have by Faith it will fill the Mind with Thoughts and Meditations about him whereon the affections will cleave unto him with delight This as was said is inseparable from a spiritual View of his Glory in its due exercise Every one that hath it must and will have many Thoughts concerning and great affections to him See the description of these things Phil. 3. 8 10. It is not possible I say that we should behold the Glory of his Person Office and Grace with a due conviction of our concernment and interest therein but that our Minds will be greatly affected with it and be filled with contemplations about it Where it is not so with any it is to be feared that they have not heard his voice at any time nor seen his shape whatever they profess A spiritual sight of Christ will assuredly produce love unto him and if any Man love him not he never saw him he knows him not at all And that is no love which doth not beget in us many thoughts of the object beloved He therefore who is partaker of this Grace will think much of what Christ is in himself of what he hath done for us of his love and condescention of the manifestation of all the glorious excellencies of the Divine Nature in him exerted in a way of infinite Wisdom and Goodness for the Salvation of the Church Thoughts and Meditations of these things will abound in us if we are not wanting unto the due exercise of Faith and intense inflamed Affections unto him will ensue thereon at least they will be active unto our own refreshing experience And where these things are not in reality though in some they may be only in a mean and low degree Men do but deceive their own Souls in hopes of any benefit by Christ or the Gospel THIS therefore is the present case Where there are prevailing sinful Distempers or inordinate Affections in the Mind such as those before mentioned as Self-love love of the World cares and fears about it with an excessive valuation of relations and enjoyments they will so far cumber and perplex it with a multitude of thoughts about their own Objects as shall leave no place for sedate Meditations on Christ and his Glory And where the thoughts are engaged the Affections which partly excite them and partly are led by them will be fixed also Col. 3. 1 2. THIS is that which in the most greatly promoteth that imperfection which is in our View of the Glory of Christ by Faith in this Life According to the proportion and degree of the prevalency of Affections corrupt earthly selfish or sensual filling the Heads and Hearts of Men with a multitude of thoughts about what they are fixed on or inclined unto so is Faith obstructed and weakened in this Work and Duty WHEREFORE whereas there is a remainder of these Lusts as to the Seeds of them in us all tho more mortified in some than in others yet having the same effects in the minds of all according to the Degree of their remainder thence it is as from an Efficacious cause of it that our View of the Glory of Christ by Faith is in many so weak imperfect and unsteady THIRDLY We have interruption given unto the work of Faith herein by the Temptations of Satan His original great design wherever the Gospel is preached is to blind the Eyes of Men that the Light of the glorious Gospel of Christ who is the Image of God should not shine into them or irradiate their Minds 2 Cor. 4. 4. And herein he prevails unto astonishment Let the Light of the Gospel in the preaching of the Word be never so glorious yet by various means and artifices he blinds the Minds of the most that they shall not behold any thing of the Glory of Christ therein By this means he continues his rule in the Children of Disobedience With respect unto the Elect God overpowers him herein He shines into their Hearts to give them the Knowledge of his Glory in the face of Christ Jesus vers 6. Yet will not Satan so give over He will endeavour by all ways and means to trouble discompose and darken the mind even of them that believe so as that they shall not be able to retain clear and distinct Views of this Glory And this he doth two ways 1. WITH some he imploys all his Engines useth all
and Power are in like manner in sundry places represented unto us And as one Star differeth from another in Glory so it was one way whereby God represented the Glory of Christ in Types and Shadows under the Old Testament and another wherein it is declared in the New Illustrious Testimonies upon all these things are planted up and down in the Scripture which we may collect as choice flowers in the Paradise of God for the Object of our Faith and Sight thereby SO the Spouse in the Canticles considered every part of the Person and Grace of Christ distinctly by it self and from them all concludes that he is altogether lovely Chap. 5. 10 11 12 13 14 15 16. So ought we to do in our study of the Scripture to find out the Revelation of the Glory of Christ which is made therein as did the Prophets of old as unto what they themselves received by immediate Inspiration They searched diligently what the spirit of Christ which was in them did signifie when it testified-before hand the sufferings of Christ and the glory which should ensue 1 Pet. 1. 11 12. But this seeing of Christ by parts in the Revelation of him is one cause why we see him here but in part SOME suppose that by Chopping and Painting and Gilding they can make an Image of Christ that shall perfectly represent him to their Sences and carnal Affections from head to foot But they feed on ashes and have a lie in their right hand Jesus Christ is evidently crucified before our eyes in the Scripture Gal. 3. 1. So also is he evidently exalted and glorified therein And it is the Wisdom of Faith to gather into one those parcelled Descriptions that are given of him that they may be the Object of its View and Contemplation IN the Vision which we shall have above the whole Glory of Christ will be at once and always represented unto us and we shall be enabled in one act of the Light of Glory to comprehend it Here indeed we are at a loss our minds and understandings fail us in their Contemplations It will not yet enter into our hearts to conceive what is the beauty what is the Glory of this compleat Representation of Christ unto us To have at once all the Glory of what he is what he was in his outward State and Condition what he did and suffered what he is Exalted unto his Love and Condescention his Mystical Union with the Church and the Communication of himself unto it with the Recapitulation of all things in Him and the Glory of God even the Father in his Wisdom Righteousness Grace Love Goodness Power shining forth eternally in him in what he is hath done and doth all presented unto us in one view all comprehended by us at once is that which at present we cannot conceive We can long for it pant after it and have some foretasts of it namely of that State and Season wherein our whole Souls in all their powers and faculties shall constantly inseparably eternally cleave by Love unto whole Christ in the sight of the Glory of his Person and Grace until they are watered dissolved and inebriated in the Waters of Life and the Rivers of Pleasure that are above for evermore So must we speak of the things which we admire which we adore which we love which we long for which we have some foretasts of in sweetness ineffable which yet we cannot comprehend THESE are some few of those things whence ariseth the difference between that view which we have here of the Glory of Christ and that which is reserved for Heaven namely such as are taken from the difference between the means or instruments of the one and the other Faith and Sight IN the last place the great difference between them consists in and is manifested by their effects Hereof I shall give some few instances and close this discourse 1. THE Vision which we shall have of the Glory of Christ in Heaven and of the Glory of the immense God in him is perfectly and absolutely transforming It doth change us wholly into the Image of Christ. When we shall see him we shall be as he is we shall be like him because we shall see him 1 Joh. 3. 2. But although the closing perfecting act of this Transformation be an act of sight or the sight of Glory yet there are many things towards it or degrees in it which we may here take notice of in our way 1. THE Soul upon its Departure from the Body is immediately freed fom all the Weakness Disability Darkness Uncertainties and Fears which were impressed on it from the Flesh wherewith it was in the strictest Union The Image of the first Adam as fallen is then abolished Yea it is not only freed from all irregular sinful Distempers cleaving to our Nature as corrupted but from all those sinless Grievances and Infirmities which belong unto the Original Constitution of it This necessarily ensues on the Dissolution of the Person in order unto a blessed State The first entrance by Mortality into Immortallity is a step towards Glory The ease which a blessed Soul finds in a deliverance from this Encumbrance is a Door of entrance into eternal Rest. Such a change is made in that which in it self is the Center of all Evil namely Death that it is made a means of freeing us from all the Remainders of what is evil FOR this doth not follow absolutely on the Nature of the thing it self A meer Dissolution of our Natures can bring no Advantage with it especially as it is a part of the Curse But it is from the Sanctification of it by the Death of Christ. Hereby that which was Gods Ordinance for the Infliction of Judgment becomes an effectual Means for the Communication of Mercy 1 Cor. 5. 22. Chap. 15. 54. It is by vertue of the Death of Christ alone that the Souls of Believers are freed by Death from all impressions of Sin Infirmity and Evils which they have had from the Flesh which were their Burden under which they groaned all their Days No Man knows in any measure the Excellency of this Priviledge and the Dawnings of Glory which are in it who hath not been wearied and even worn out through long conflicting with the Body of Death The Soul hereon being freed from all Annoyances all Impressions from the Flesh is expedite and enlarged unto the Exercise of all its gracious Faculties as we shall see immediately WITH wicked Men it is not so Death unto them is a Curse and the Curse is the Means of the Conveyance of all Evil and not Deliverance from any Wherein they have been warmed and refreshed by the Influences of the Flesh they shall be deprived of it But their Souls in their separate State are perpetually harrased with the disquieting Passions which have been impressed on their Minds by their corrupt fleshly Lusts. In vain do such Persons look for Relief by Death If there be any thing
consequently all the other holy Properties of his Nature in Christ is to be an Unbeliever THE Essence of Faith consists in a due Ascriptio of Glory to God Rom. 4. 20. This we cannot attain unto without the Manifestation of those Divine Excellencies unto us wherein he is Glorious This is done in Christ alone so as that we may glorifie God in a saving and acceptable Manner He who discerns not the Glory of Divine Wisdom Power Goodness Love and Grace in the Person and Office of Christ with the way of the Salvation of Sinners by him is an Unbeliever HENCE the great Design of the Devil 〈…〉 beginning of the Preaching of the Gospel was to blind the Eyes of Men and fill their Minds with Prejudices that they might not behold this Glory of his So the Apostle gives an Account of his Success in this Design 2 Cor. 4. 3 4. If our Gospel be hid it is hid unto them that are lost in whom the God of this World hath blinded the Minds of them that believe not lest the Light of the glorious Gospel of Christ who is the Image of God should shine unto them By various Ways and Methods of Deceit to secure the Reputation he had got of being God of this World by Pretences and Appearances of supernatural Power and Wisdom he laboured to blind the Eyes of Men with Prejudices against that glorious Light of the Gospel which proposed the Lord Christ as the only Image of God This Blindness this Darkness is cured in them that believe by the mighty Power of God For God who commanded the Light to shine out of Darkness hath irradiated our Hearts with the Knowledge of the Glory of God in the Face of Jesus Christ v. 6. wherein true saving Faith doth consist Under this Darkness perished the unbelieving World of Jews and Gentiles and such is the present Condition of all by whom the Divine Person of Christ is denied for no mere Creature can ever make a perfect Representation of God unto us But we must a little further enquire into this Mystery SINCE Men fell from God by sin it is no small part of their Misery and Punishment that they are covered with thick Darkness and Ignorance of the Nature of God They know him not they have not seen him at any time Hence is that Promise to the Church in Christ Isa. 60. 1 2. For behold the Darkness shall cover the Earth and gross Darkness the People but the Lord shall arise upon thee and his Glory shall be seen upon thee THE Antient Philosophers made great Enquiries into and obtained many Notions of the Divine Being its Existence 〈…〉 And these Notions they adorned with great Elegancy of Speech to allure others unto the Admiration of them Hereon they boasted themselves to be the only Wise Men in the World Rom. 1. 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they boasted that they were the Wise But we must abide in the Judgement of the Apostles concerning them in their Enquiries He assures us that the World in its Wisdom that is these wise Men in it by their Wisdom knew not God 1 Cor. 1. 21. And he calls the Authors of their best Notions Atheists or Men without God in the Word Ephes. 2. 12. For 1. THEY had no certain Guide Rule nor Light which being attended unto might lead them infallibly into the Knowledge of the Divine Nature All they had of this Kind was their own 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Reasonings or Imaginations whereby they commenced 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great Disputers of the World but in them they waxed vain and their foolish Heart was darkned Rom. 1. 21. They did at best but endeavour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to feel after God as Men do in the Dark after what they cannot clearly discern Acts 17. 27. Among others Cicero's Book De Natura Deorum gives us an exact Account of the Intention of the Apostle in that Expression And it is at this Day not Want of Wit but Hatred of the Mysteries of our Religion which makes so many prone to forgo all Supernatural Revelation and to betake themselves unto a Religion declared as they suppose by Reason and the Light of Nature like Bats and Owls who being not able to bear the Light of the Sun betake themselves unto the Twi-light to the Dawnings of Light and Darkness 2. WHATEVER they did attain as unto rational Notions about things invisible and incomprehensible yet could they never deliver themselves from such Principles and Practises in Idolatry and all manner of flagitious Sins as that they could be of any Benefit 〈…〉 so effectually demonstrated by the Apostle in the First Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans as that we need not to insist upon it MEN may talk what they please of a Light within them or of the Power of Reason to conduct them unto that Knowledge of God whereby they may live unto him But if they had nothing else if they did not boast themselves of that Light which hath its Foundation and Original in Divine Revelation alone they would not excel them who in the best Management of their own Reasonings knew not God but waxed vain in their Imaginations WITH respect unto this Universal Darkness that is Ignorance of God with horrid Confusion accompanying it in the Minds of Men Christ is called and is the Light of Men the Light of the World because in and by him alone this Darkness is dispelled as he is the Son of Righteousness 2. THIS Darkness in the Minds of Men this Ignorance of God his Nature and his Will was the Original of all Evil unto the World and yet continues so to be For 1. HEREON did Satan erect his Kingdom and Throne obtaining in his Design until he bare himself as the God of this World and was so esteemed by the most He exalted himself by Vertue of this Darkness as he is the Prince of Darkness into the Place and Room of God as the Object of the Religious Worship of Men. For the things which the Gentiles sacrificed they sacrificed unto Devils and not to God 1 Cor. 10. 21. Levit. 17. 7. Chap. 32. 17. Psal. 108. 27. Gal. 3. 8. This is the Territory of Satan yea the Power and Scepter of his Kingdom in the Minds of the Children of Disobedience Hereby he maintains his Dominion unto this Day in many and great 〈◊〉 and with individual persons innumerable 2. THIS is the spring of all wickedness and confusion among men themselves Hence arose that flood of Abominations in the Old World which God took away with a Flood of Desolation Hence were the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah which he revenged with fire from Heaven In brief All the Rage Blood Confusion Desolations Cruelties Oppressions Villanies which the World hath been and is filled withal whereby the souls of men have been and are flouded into eternal destruction have all arisen from this corrupt Fountain of the Ignorance of God 3. OF such
in and dealt with the Church under the Old Testament from first to last in so doing he constantly assumes unto himself Human Affections to intimate that a season would come when he would immediately act in that Nature And indeed after the fall there is nothing spoken of God in the Old Testament nothing of his Institutions nothing of the way and manner of dealing with the Church but what hath respect unto the future Incarnation of Christ. And it had been absurd to bring in God under perpetual Anthropopathis as grieving repenting being angry well-pleased and the like were it not but that the Divine Person intended was to take on him the Nature wherein such Affections do dwell 4. IT was represented in Propheticat Visions So the Apostle affirms that the Vision which Isaiah had of him was when he saw his Glory John 12. 41. And it was a blessed Representation thereof For his Divine Person being exalted on a Throne of Glory his Train filled the Temple The whole Train of his Glorious Grace filled the Temple of his body This is the true Tabernacle which God pitched and not man The Temple which was destroy'd and which he raised again in three days wherein dwelt the fulness of the Godhead Col. 1. 9. This Glory was now presented unto the view of Isaiah Chap. 6. 1 2 3. which filled him with Dread and Astonishment But from thence he was relieved by an act of the Ministry of that Glorious one taking away his Iniquity by a coal from the Altar which typified the purifying efficacy of his Sacrifice This was food for the Souls of Believers in these and on the like occasions did the whole Church lift up their voice in that Holy Cry Make hast our Beloved and be thou like to a Roe or to a young Hart on the Mountain of Spices OF the same Nature was his Glorious Appearance on Mount Sinai at the giving of the Law Exod. 19. For the description thereof by the Psalmist Psal. 68. 17 18. is applyed by the Apostle unto the Ascension of Christ after his Resurrection Ephes. 4. 8 9 10 11. Only as it was then full of outward Terror because of the giving of the fiery Law it was referred unto by the Psalmist as full of Mercy with respect unto his Accomplishment of the same Law His giving of it was as Death unto them concerned because of its Holiness and the severity of the the Curse wherewith it was attended his fulfilling of it was Life by the Pardon and Righteousness which issued from thence 5. THE Doctrine of his Incarnation whereby he became the Subject of all that Glory which we enquire after was revealed although not so clearly as by the Gospel after the actual accomplishment of the thing it self In how many places this is done in the Old Testament I have elsewhere declared at least I have explained and vindicated many of them for no man can presume to know them all Vindic. Evangel One instance therefore shall here suffice and this is that of the same Prophet Isaiah chap. 9. v. 6 7. Unto us a child is born unto us a Son is given and the government shall be on his shoulder and his name shall be called Wonderful Counsellor the mighty God the everlasting Father the Prince of Peace of the encrease of his government and peace there shall be no end upon the Throne of David and upon his Kingdom to order it and establish it with judgment and Justice from henceforth and for ever the zeal of the Lord of Hosts will perform this This one Testimony is sufficient to confound all Jews Socinians and other Enemies of the Glory of Christ. I do acknowledge that not-notwithstanding this Declaration of the Glory of Christ in his future Incarnation and Rule there remained much darkness in the minds of them unto whom it was then made For although they might and did acquiesce in the truth of the Revelation yet they could frame to themselves no notions of the way or manner of its accomplishment But now when every word of it is explained declared and its Mystical Sence visibly laid open unto us in the Gospel and by the accomplishment exactly answering every expression in it it is Judicial Blindness not to receive it Nothing but the Satanical Pride of the hearts of men which will admit of no effects of Infinite Wisdom but what they suppose they can comprehend can shut their eyes against the Light of this Truth 6. PROMISES Prophesies Praedictions concerning his Person his coming his Office his Kingdom and his Glory in them all with the Wisdom Grace and Love of God to the Church in him are the Line of Life as was said which runs through all the Writings of the Old Testament and take up a great portion of them Those were the things which he expounded unto his Disciples out of Moses and all the Prophets Concerning these things he appealed to the Scriptures against all his adversaries Search the Scriptures for they are they that testifie of me And if we find them not if we discern them not therein it is because a vail of Blindness is over our minds Nor can we read study or meditate on the Writings of the Old Testament unto any Advantage unless we design to find out and behold the Glory of Christ declared and represented in them For want hereof they are a sealed book to many unto this day 7. IT is usual in the Old Testament to set out the Glory of Christ under Metaphorical Expressions yea it aboundeth therein For such Allusions are exceedingly suited to let in a sense into our minds of those things which we cannot distinctly comprehend And there is an Infinite Condescention of Divine Wisdom in their way of Instruction Representing unto us the Power of Things Spiritual in what we naturally discern Instances of this kind in calling the Lord Christ by the Names of those Creatures which unto our senses represent that Excellency which is spiritually in him are innumerable So he is called the Rose for the sweet savour of his Love Grace and Obedience the Lilly for his gracious Beauty and Amiableness the Pearl of Price for his worth for to them that believe he is precious the Vine for his fruitfulness the Lion for his Power The Lamb for his Meekness and Fitness for Sacrifice with other things of the like kind almost innumerable THESE Things have I mentioned not with any design to search into the depth of this Treasury of those Divine Truths concerning the Glory of Christ but only to give a little Light unto the words of the Evangelist that he opened unto his disciples out of Moses and all the Prophets the things which concerned himself and to stir up our own souls unto a contemplation of them as contained therein CHAP. IX The Glory of Christ in his intimate Conjunction with the Church VVHAT concerns the Glory of Christ in the Mission of the Holy Ghost unto the Church with all the Divine
Church is the Effect of the Work of the Redemption that which rose out of it which was made and constituted by it and cannot be so the Object of it as that which was to be redeemed by vertue of an antecedent Conjunction with it I answer 1. ALTHOUGH this Mystical Conjunction is not actually consummate without an actual Participation of the Spirit of Christ yet the Church of the Elect was designed antecedently unto all his sufferings to be his Spouse and Wife so as that he might love her and suffer for her so it is said Hos. 12. 13. Israel served for a wife and for a wife he kept sheep Howbeit she was not his married wife until after he had served for her and thereby purchased her to be his Wife yet as he served for her she is called his Wife because of his Love unto her and because she was so designed to be upon his Service So was the Church designed to be the Spouse of Christ in the Counsel of God whereon he loved her and gave himself for her HENCE in the work of Redemption the Church was the Object of it as designed to be the Spouse of Christ and the Effect of it inasmuch as that thereby it was made meet for the full consummation of that Alliance as the Apostle expresly declares Eph. 5. 25 26 27. 2. ANTECEDENTLY unto all that the Lord Christ did and suffered for the Church there was a supreme act of the Will of God the Father giving all the Elect unto him entrusting them with him to be redeemed sanctified and saved as himself declares Joh. 17. 6 9. Chap. 10. 14 15 16. And on these Grounds this Mystical Conjunction between Christ and the Church hath its vertue and efficacy before it be actually consummate 3. THERE is a foederal Conjunction between distinct Persons And as this is various according unto the variety of the Interests and Ends of them that enter into it so that is most eminent where one by the common consent of all that are concerned undertakes to be a Sponsor or Surety for others to do and answer what on their part is required of them for attaining the ends of the Covenant So did the Lord Christ undertake to be Surety of the new Covenant in behalf of the Church Heb. 7. 22. and thereon tendred himself unto God to do and suffer for them in their stead and on their behalf whatever was required that they might be sanctified and saved These things I have treated of at large elsewhere as containing a great part of the Mystery of the Wisdom of God in the Salvation of the Church Here therefore I do only observe that this is that whereby the Mystical Conjunction that was between Christ and the Church whereon it was meet just and equal in the sight of God that what he did and suffered should be imputed unto us is compleated THESE are some of the Foundations of that Mystery of transmitting the sins of the Church as unto the guilt and punishment of them from the sinners themselves unto another every way innocent pure and righteous in himself which is the Life Soul and Center of all Scripture Revelations And herein is he exceedingly Glorious and precious unto them that believe No heart can conceive no Tongue can express the Glory of Christ herein Now because his Infinite Condescension and Love herein have been spoken to before I shall here only instance its Greatness in some of its Effects 1. IT shines forth in the Exaltation of the Righteousness of God in the forgiveness of sins There is no more adequate conception of the Divine Nature than that of Justice in Rule and Government Hereunto it belongs to punish sin according unto its desert And herein consisted the first actings of God as the Governour of the Rational Creation They did so in the Eternal punishment of the Angels that sinned and the casting of Adam out of Paradise an Emblem also of everlasting Ruin Now all the Church all the Elect of God are sinners They were so in Adam they have been and are so in themselves What doth become the Justice of God to do thereon Shall it dismiss them all unpunished Where then is that Justice which spared not the Angels who sinned nor Adam at the first Would this procedure have any consonancy thereunto be reconcilable unto it Wherefore the Establishment of the Righteousness of God on the one hand and the forgiveness of sin on the other seem so contradictory as that many stumble and fall at it eternally see Rom. 10. 3 4. BUT in this interposition of Christ in this Translation of punishment from the Church unto him by vertue of his Conjunction therewith there is a blessed harmony between the Righteousness of the God and the forgiveness of sins the exemplification whereof is his Eternal Glory O Blessed Change O Sweet permutation as Justine Martyr speaks BY Vertue of his Union with the Church which of his own accord he entred into and his undertaking therein to answer for it in the sight of God it was a righteous thing with God to lay the punishment of all our sins upon him so as that he might freely and graciously pardon them all to the Honour and Exaltation of his Justice as well as of his Grace and Mercy Rom. 3. 24 25 26. HEREIN is he Glorious in the sight of God Angels and Men. In him there is at the same time in the same Divine Actings a Glorious Resplendency of Justice and Mercy of the one in punishing of the other in pardoning The appearing inconsistency between the Righteousness of God and the Salvation of sinners wherewith the Consciences of convinced Persons are exercised and terrified and which is the Rock at which most of them split themselves into Eternal Ruin is herein removed and taken away In his Cross were Divine Holiness and Vindictive Justice exercised and manifested and through his Triumph Grace and Mercy are exerted to the utmost This is that Glory which ravisheth the Hearts and satiates the Souls of them that believe For what can they desire more what is farther needful unto the Rest and Composure of their Souls than at one view to behold God eternally well pleased in the declaration of his Righteousness and the exercise of his Mercy in order unto their Salvation In due apprehensions hereof let my Soul live in the faith hereof let me dye and let present Admiration of this Glory make way for the eternal enjoyment of it in its beauty and fulness HE is Glorious in that the Law of God in its Preceptive part or as unto the Obedience which it required was perfectly fulfilled and accomplished That it should be so was absolutely necessary from the Wisdom Holiness and Righteousness of him by whom it was given For what could be more remote from those Divine Perfections than to give a Law which never was to be fulfilled in them unto whom it was given and who were to have the advantages of it
promises of the present reward in these spiritual Priviledges And how shall we be thought to believe them when we do not endeavour after an experience of the things themselves in our own souls but are even contented without them But herein men deceive themselves They would very desirously have evangelical Joy Peace and Assurance to countenance them in their evil frames and careless walking And some have attempted to reconcile these things unto the ruin of their souls But it will not be Without the diligent exercise of the Grace of Obedience we shall never enjoy the Grace of Consolation But we must speak somewhat of these things afterwards IT is peculiarly in the view of the Glory of Christ in in his approaches unto us and abiding with us that we are made Partakers of Evangelical Peace Consolation Joy and Assurance These are a part of the Royal Train of his Graces of the Reward wherewith he is accompanied His reward is with him Wherever he is graciously present with any these things are never wanting in a due measure and degree unless it be by their own fault or for their trial In these things doth he give the Church of his loves Cant. 7. 12. For if any man saith he loveth me I will love him and manifest my self unto him Joh. 14. 21. Yea I and the Father will come unto him and make our abode with him v. 23. and that so as to sup with him Rev. 3. 20. which on his part can be only by the Communication of those spiritual refreshments The only enquiry is by what way and means we do receive them Now I say this is in and by our beholding of the Glory of Christ by Faith 1 Pet. 1. 9 10. Let that Glory be rightly stated as before laid down the Glory of his Person his Office his Condescention Exaltation Love and Grace let Faith be fixed in a view and contemplation of it mix it self with it as represented in the Glass of the Gospel meditate upon it embrace it and virtue will proceed from Christ communicating spiritual supernatural refreshment and joy unto our souls Yea in ordinary cases it is impossible that believers should have a real prospect of this Glory at any time but that it will in some measure affect their hearts with a sense of his love which is the spring of all consolation in them In the exercise of Faith on the discoveries of the Glory of Christ made unto us in the Gospel no man shall ever totally want such intimations of his Love yea such effusions of it in his heart as shall be a living spring of those spiritual refreshments Joh. 4. 14. Rom. 5. 5. When therefore we lose these things as unto a sense of them in our souls it is evident that the Lord Christ is withdrawn and that we do not behold his Glory BUT I cannot here avoid another short digression There are those by whom all these things are derided as distempered fancies and imaginations Yea such things have been spoken and written of them as contain a virtual renunciation of the Gospel the powers of the World to come and the whole work of the Holy Ghost as the comforter of the Church And hereby all real entercourse between the Person of Christ and the souls of them that do believe is utterly overthrown reducing all Religion to an outward shew and a pageantry fitter for a stage than that Temple of God which is in the minds of men According unto the sentiments of these prophane scoffers there is no such thing as the shedding abroad of the love of God in our hearts by the Holy Ghost nor as the witnessing of the spirit of God with our spirits that we are the Children of God from which these spiritual joys and refreshments are inseparable as their necessary effects No such thing as the lifting up of the Light of Gods countenance upon us which will put gladness into our hearts that gladness which comprizeth all the things mentioned No such thing as rejoycing upon Believing with joy unspeakable and full of Glory no such thing as Christs shewing and manifesting himself unto us supping with us and giving us of his loves that the divine promises of a feast of fat things and Wine well refined in Gospel-Mercies are empty and insignificant words that all those ravishing joys and exultations of spirit that multitudes of faithful Martyrs of old and in later ages have enjoyed by a view of the Glory of God in Christ and a sense of his love whereunto they gave testimony unto their last moments in the midst of their torments were but fancies and Imaginations But it is the height of impudence in these profane scoffers that they proclaim their own Ignorance of those things which are the real powers of our Religion OTHERS there are who will not deny the truth of these things They dare not rise up in contradiction unto those express Testimonies of the Scripture wherewith they are confirmed And they do suppose that some are partakers of them at least they were so formerly but as for their parts they have no experience of them nor do judge it their duty to endeavour after it They can make a shift to live on hopes of Heaven and future Glory As unto what is present they desire no more but to be found in the performance of some duties in answer unto their convictions which gives them that sorry peace which they do enjoy So do many countenance themselves in their spiritual sloth and unbelief keeping themselves at liberty to seek for refreshment and satisfaction in other things whilst those of the Gospel are despised And these things are inconsistent While men look for their chief refreshment and satisfaction in temporal things it is impossible they should seek after those that are spiritual in a due manner And it must be confessed that when we have a due regard unto spiritual evangelical Consolations and Joys it will abate and take off our affections unto and satisfaction in present enjoyments Phil. 3 8 9. BUT there is no more sacred truth than this That where Christ is present with Believers where he is not withdrawn for a season from them where they live in the view of his Glory by faith as it is proposed unto them in the Gospel he will give unto them at his own seasons such intimations of his love such supplies of his spirit such holy joys and rejoycings such repose of soul in assurance as shall refresh their souls fill them with joy satisfie them with spiritual delight and quicken them unto all acts of holy Communion with himself LET no such dishonour be reflected on the Gospel that whereas the faith of it and obedience unto it are usually accompanied with outward Troubles Afflictions Persecution and Reproaches as we are foretold they should be that it doth not by its inward consolations and divine refreshments outballance all those evils which we may undergo upon the account of it So to suppose is expresly
Christ will never in any one instance on any occasion so much as one moment withdraw himself from us or Eclipse the proposal and manifestation of himself unto our sight This he doth sometimes in this life and it is needful for us that so he should do We shall be ever with the Lord 1 Thes. 4. 17. without end without interruption This is the Center of good and evil as to the future different states of Men. They shall be for ever Eternity makes them absolutely good on the one hand and absolutely evil on the other To be in Hell under the wrath of God is in it self the greatest penal Evil But to be there for ever without the Intermission of Misery or Determination of Time is that which renders it the greatest evil unto them who shall be in that condition So is Eternity the Life of future Blessedness We shall be ever with the Lord without Limitation of Time without Interruption of Enjoyment THERE are no vicissitudes in the heavenly state The New Hierusalem hath no Temple in it for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the Temple thereof Revel 21. 24. There is no need of instituted means of Worship nor of Ordinances of Divine Service For we shall need neither encrease of Grace nor Excitations unto its exercise The constant immediate uninterrupted enjoyment of God and the Lamb supplieth all And it hath no need of the Sun nor of the Moon to shine in-it for the Glory of God doth enlighten it and the Lamb is the Light thereof The Light of the Sun is excellent howbeit it hath its Seasons after it hath shone in its brightest Lustre it gives place to the night and darkness So is the Light of the Moon of great use in the Night but it hath its Seasons also Such is the Light we have of the Glory of God and the Lamb in this World Sometimes it is as the Light of the Sun which under the Gospel is seven fold as the Light of Seven Days in one in comparison of the Law Isa. 30. 26. Sometimes as the Light of the Moon which giveth relief in the Night of Temptations and Trials But it is not constant we are under a vicissitude of Light and Darkness Views of Christ and a loss of him But in Heaven the perpetual presence of Christ with his Saints makes it always one Noon of Light and Glory 3. THIS Vision is not in the least liable unto any weaknings from internal defects nor any assaults from Temptations as is the sight of Faith in this Life No Doubts or Fears no disturbing Darts or Injections shall there have any place There shall no Habit no Quality no Inclination or Disposition remain in our Souls but what shall eternally lead us unto the Contemplation of the Glory of Christ with delight and complacency Nor will there be any defect in the gracious Powers of our Souls as unto a perpetual exercise of them and as unto all other opposing Enemies we shall be in a perpetual triumph over them 1 Cor. 15. 55 56 57. The mouth of iniquity shall be stopped for ever and the voice of the self avenger shall be heard no more WHEREFORE the Vision which we shall have in Heaven of the Glory of Christ is Serene always the same always new and indeficient wherein nothing can disturb the Mind in the most perfect Operations of a blessed Life And when all the faculties of the Soul can without any internal weakness or external hindrances exercise their most perfect operations on the most perfect Object therein lies all the blessedness which our nature is capable of WHEREFORE whenever in this life we attain any comfortable refreshing View of the Glory of Christ by the exercise of Faith on the Revelation of it with a sense of our interest therein we cannot but long after and desire to come unto this more perfect abiding invariable Aspect of it CHAP. XIV Other Differences between our Beholding the Glory of Christ by Faith in this World and by Sight in Heaven AMONG the many other Differences which might be insisted on altho the greatest of them are unto us at present absolutely incomprehensible and so not to be enquired into I shall name two only and so put a close to this Discourse 1. IN the View which we have here of the Glory of Christ by Faith we gather things as it were one by one in several parts and parcels out of the Scripture and comparing them together in our Minds they become the Object of our present Sight which is our spiritual comprehension of the things themselves We have no proposal of the Glory of Christ unto us by Vision or illustrious appearance of his Person as Isaiah had of old Chap. 6. 1 2 3 4. or as John had in the Revelation Chap. 1. vers 13 14 15 16. We need it not it would be of no advantage unto us For as unto the assurance of our Faith we have a word of prophesie more useful unto us than a Voice from Heaven 2 Pet. 1. 17 18 19. And of those who received such Visions tho of eminent use unto the Church yet as unto themselves one of them cryed out Wo is me I am undone and the other fell as dead at his feet We are not able in this life to bear such glorious Representations of him unto our Edification AND as we have no such external proposals of his Glory unto us in Visions so neither have we any New Revelations of him by immediate inspiration We can see nothing of it know nothing of it but what is proposed unto us in the Scripture and that as it is proposed Nor doth the Scripture it self in any one place make an entire proposal of the Glory of Christ with all that belongs unto it nor is it capable of so doing nor can there be any such Representation of it unto our capacity on this side Heaven If all the Light of the Heavenly Luminaries had been contracted into one it would have been destructive not useful to our sight But being by Divine Wisdom distributed into Sun Moon and Stars each giving out his own Proportion it is suited to declare the Glory of God and to enlighten the World So if the whole Revelation of the Glory of Christ and all that belongs unto it had been committed into one series and contexture of Words it would have overwhelmed our Minds rather than enlightned us Wherefore God hath distributed the Light of it through the whole Firmament of the Books of the Old and New Testament whence it communicates it self by various parts and degrees unto the proper use of the Church In one place we have a description of his Person and the Glory of it sometimes in words plain and proper and sometimes in great variety of Allegories conveying an heavenly Sense of things unto the Minds of them that do believe In others of his Love and Condescention in his Office and his Glory therein His Humiliation Exaltation
by the Apostle 2 Cor. 4. We are troubled on every side yet not distressed we are perplexed but not in despair persecuted but not forsaken cast down but not destroyed But for this cause we faint not but tho' our outward man perish yet the inward man is renewed day by day For our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory While we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen For the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal OUR beholding by Faith things that are not seen things spiritual and eternal will alleviate all our Afflictions make their burden light and preserve our Souls from fainting under them Of these things the Glory of Christ whereof we treat is the principal and in a due since comprehensive of them all For we behold the Glory of God himself in the face of Jesus Christ. He that can at all times retreat unto the comtemplation of this Glory will be carried above the perplexing prevailing sense of any of these evils of a confluence of them all Crus nil sentit in nervo dum animus est in coelo IT is a woful kind of Life when men scramble for poor perishing Reliefs in their Distresses This is the Universal Remedy and Cure the only Balsom for all our Diseases Whatever presseth urgeth perplexeth if we can but retreat in our minds unto a view of this Glory and a due consideration of our own Interest therein Comfort and Supportment will be administred unto us Wicked men in their Distresses which sometimes overtake even them also are like a troubled Sea that cannot rest Others are heartless and despond not without secret repinings at the wise disposals of Divine Providence especially when they look on the better Condition as they suppose of others And the best of us are apt all to wax faint and weary when these things press upon us in an unusal manner or under their long continuance without a prospect of Relief This is the strong hold which such Prisoners of hope are to turn themselves unto In this Contemplation of the Glory of Christ they will find Rest unto their own Souls For 1. IT will herein and in the discharge of this Duty be made evident how slight and inconsiderable all these things are from whence our Troubles and Distresses do arise For they all grow on this root of an Over-valuation of Temporal things And unless we can arrive unto a fixed judgment that all things here below are transitory and perishing reaching only unto the outward man or the body perhaps unto the killing of it that the best of them have nothing that is truly substantial or abiding in them that there are other things wherein we have an assured Interest that are incomparably better than they and above them it is impossible but that we must spend our lives in Fears Sorrows and Distractions One real view of the Glory of Christ and of our own concernment therein will give us a full relief in this matter For what are all the things of this Life what is the good or evil of them in comparison of an Interest in this transcendent Glory When we have due Apprehensions hereof when our minds are possessed with thoughts of it when our Affections reach out after its enjoyments let Pain and Sickness and Sorrows and Fears and Dangers and Death say what they will we shall have in readiness wherewith to Combat with them and overcome them and that on this Consideration that they are all outward transitory and passing away whereas our minds are fixed on those things which are eternal and filled with incomprehensible Glory 2. THE minds of men are apt by their Troubles to be cast into Disorder to be tossed up and down and disquieted with various Affections and Passions So the Psalmist found it in himself in the time of his Distress whence he calls himself unto that account Why art thou cast down O my Soul and why art thou disquieted in me And indeed the mind on all such Occasions is its own greatest Troubler It is apt to let loose its Passions of Fear and Sorrow which act themselves in innumerable perplexing thoughts until it is carried utterly out of its own Power But in this state a due Contemplation of the Glory of Christ will restore and compose the mind bring it into a sedate quiet frame wherein Faith will be able to say unto the Winds and Waves of distempered Passions Peace be still and they shall obey it 3. IT is the way and means of conveying a Sense of Gods Love unto our Souls which is that alone wherein ultimately we find Rest in the midst of all the troubles of this Life as the Apostle declares Rom. 5. 2 3 4 5. It is the Spirit of God who alone communicates a Sense of this Love unto our Souls It is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost Howbeit there are ways and means to be used on our part whereby we may be disposed and made meet to receive these Communications of Divine Love Among these the principal is the contemplation of the Glory of Christ insisted on and of God the Father in him It is the season it is the way and means at which and whereby the Holy Ghost will giva a sense of the Love of God unto us causing us thereon to rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of Glory This will be made evident in the ensuing Discourse This will lift the minds and hearts of Believers above all the Troubles of this Life and is the Soveraign Antidote that will expel all the Poyson that is in them which otherwise might perplex and enslave their Souls I HAVE but touched on these things as designing to enlarge somewhat on that which doth ensue And this is the advantage we may have in the discharge of this Duty with respect unto Death it self It is the assiduous Contemplation of the Glory of Christ which will carry us chearfully and comfortably into it and through it My principal work having been now for a long season to Dye daily as living in a continual expectation of my Dissolution I shall on this occasion acquaint the Reader with some few of my thoughts and reliefs with reference unto Death it self THERE are sundry things required of us that we may be able to encounter Death chearfully constantly and victoriously For want of these or some of them I have known gracious Souls who have lived in a kind of Bondage for fear of Death all their days We know not how God will manage any of our minds and souls in that season in that Tryal For he acts towards us in all such things in a way of Sovereignty But these are the things which he requireth of us in a way of Duty 1. PECULIAR actings of Faith to resign and commit our departing Souls into the hand of Him who is
able to receive them to keep and preserve them as also to dispose of them into a state of Rest and Blessedness are required of us THE Soul is now parting with all things here below and that for ever None of all the things which it hath seen heard or enjoyed by its outward senses can be prevailed with to stay with it one hour or to take one step with it in the Voyage wherein it is ingaged It must alone by it self lanch into eternity It is entring an Invisible World which it knows no more of than it hath received by Faith None hath come from the dead to inform us of the State of the other World Yea God seems on purpose so to conceal it from us that we should have no evidence of it at least as unto the manner of things in it but what is given unto Faith by Divine Revelation Hence those who died and were raised again from the dead unto any continuance among men as Lazarus probably knew nothing of the Invisible State Their Souls were preserved by the Power of God in their Being but bound up as unto present Operations This made a great Emperor cry out on the approach of Death O animula tremula vagula blandula quae nunc abibis in loca horrida squalida c. O poor trembling wandring Soul into what places of darkness and defilement art thou going HOW is it like to be after the few moments which under the pangs of Death we have to continue in this World Is it an Annihilation that lies at the door is Death the Destruction of our whole Being so as that after it we shall be no more So some would have the state of things to be Is it a state of subsistence in a wandring condition up and down the World under the Influence of other more powerful Spirits that rule in the Air visiting Tombs and Solitary places and sometimes making appearances of themselves by the Impressions of those more powerful Spirits as some imagine from the story concerning Samuel and the Witch of Endor and as it is commonly received in the Papacy out of a compliance with their Imagination of Purgatory Or is it a state of universal misery and wo a state incapable of comfort or joy Let them pretend what they please who can understand no comfort or joy in this Life but what they receive by their Sences they can look for nothing else And whatever be the state of this Invisible World the Soul can undertake nothing of its own conduct after its departure from the Body It knows that it must be absolutely at the disposal of another WHEREFORE no man can comfortably venture on and into this condition but in the exercise of that Faith which enables him to resign and give up his departing Soul into the Hand of of God who alone is able to receive it and to dispose it into a Condition of Rest and Blessedness So speaks the Apostle I am not ashamed for I know whom I have believed and am perswaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day HEREIN as in all other Graces is our Lord Jesus Christ our great example He resigned his departing Spirit into the hands of his Father to be owned and preserved by him in its state of Separation Father into thy hands I commit my spirit Luk. 23. 46 as did the Psalmist his Type in an alike condition Psal. 31. 5. But the Faith of our Lord Jesus Christ herein the object and exercise of it what he believed and trusted unto in this Resignation of his Spirit into the Hand of God is at large expressed in the sixteenth Psalm I have saith he set the Lord always before me because he is at my right hand I shall not be moved therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoyceth my flesh also shall rest in hope For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption Thou wilt shew me the path of life in thy presence is fulness of joy at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore He left his Soul in the hand of God in full assurance that it should suffer no evil in its state of Separation but should be brought again with his Body into a blessed Resurrection and eternal Glory So Stephen resigned his Soul departing under violence into the hands of Christ himself When he died he said Lord Jesus receive my Spirit THIS is the last Victorious act of Faith wherein its conquest over its last enemy Death it self doth consist Herein the Soul says in and unto it self Thou art now taking leave of Time unto eternity all things about thee are departing as shades and will immediately disappear The things which thou art entring into are yet invisible Such as eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor will they enter into the heart of man fully to conceive Now therefore with quietness and confidence give up thy self unto the Sovereign Power Grace Truth and Faithfulness of God and thou shalt find assured rest and peace BUT Jesus Christ it is who doth immediately receive the Souls of them who believe in him So we see in the instance of Stephen And what can be a greater encouragement to resign them into his hands than a daily Contemplation of his Glory in his Person his Power his Exaltation his Office and Grace Who that believes in him that belongs unto him can fear to commit his departing Spirit unto his Love Power and Care Even we also shall hereby in our dying moments see by Faith Heaven opened and Jesus standing at the right hand of God ready to receive us This added unto the Love which all Believers have unto the Lord Jesus which is enflamed by Contemplation of his Glory and their desires to be with him where he is it will strengthen and confirm our minds in the Resignation of our departing Souls into his hand SECONDLY It is required in us unto the same end that we be ready and wiling to part with the flesh wherewith we are cloathed with all things that are useful and desirable thereunto The Alliance the Relation the Friendship the Union that are between the Soul and the Body are the greatest the nearest the firmest that are or can be among meer created Beings There is nothing like it nothing equal unto it The Union of Three persons in the one single Divine Nature and the Union of two Natures in one person of Christ are infinite ineffable and exempted from all comparison But among created Beings the Union of these two essential parts of the same Nature in one Person is most excellent Nor is any thing equal to it or like it found in any other Creatures Those who among them have most of life have either no Bodies as Angels or no Souls but what perish with them as all Brute creatures below ANGELS being pure immaterial Spirits have nothing in them nothing belonging
Sin he kindled in his most Holy Soul those desires for the Application of all its Benefits unto his Church which are here expressed and wherein his Intercession doth consist IT is only one passage in the Verse above named that at present I design an enquiry into And this is the subject matter of what the Lord Christ here desires in the behalf of those given him by the Father namely That they may behold his glory IT is evident That in this Prayer the Lord Christ hath respect unto his own Glory and the manifestation of it which he had in the entrance asked of the Father ver 4 5. But in this place he hath not so much respect unto it as his own as unto the Advantage Benefit Satisfaction and Blessedness of his Disciples in the beholding of it For these things were the end of all that Mediatory Glory which was given unto him So Joseph charged his Brethren when he had revealed himself unto them that they should tell his Father of all his Glory in Egypt Gen. 45. 13. This he did not for an Ostentation of his own Glory but for the Satisfaction which he knew his Father would take in the Knowledge of it And such a manifestation of his Glory unto his Disciples doth the Lord Christ here desire as might fill them with Blessed Satisfaction for evermore THIS alone which is here prayed for will give them such satisfaction and nothing else The Hearts of Belivers are like the Needle touched by the Load-stone which cannot rest until it comes to the Point whereunto by the secret Vertue of it it is directed For being once touched by the Love of Christ receiving therein an impression of secret ineffable Vertue they will ever be in motion and restless until they come unto him and behold his Glory That Soul which can be satisfied without it that cannot be eternally satisfied with it is not partaker of the efficacy of his Intercession I shall lay the Foundation of the ensuing Meditations in this one Assertion namely That one of the greatest Priviledges and Advancements of Believers both in this World and unto Eternity consists in their BEHOLDING THE GLORY OF CHRIST This therefore he desires for them in this Solemn Intercession as the complement of all his other requests in their behalf That they may behold my Glory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they may see view behold or contemplate on my Glory The Reasons why I assign not this glorious Priviledge only unto the Heavenly state which is principally respected in this place but apply it unto the state of Believers in this World also with their Duties and Priviledges therein shall be immediately declared ALL Unbelievers do in their Heart call Christ Ichabod Where is the Glory They see neither form nor comeliness in him that he should be desired They look on him as Michael Saul's Daughter did on David dancing before the Ark when she despised him in her Heart They do not indeed many of them call Jesus Anathema but cry Hail Master and then Crucifie him HENCE have we so many Cursed Opinions advanced in derogation unto his Glory some of them really destructive of all that is truly so yea denying the only Lord that bought us and substituting a false Christ in his room And others there are who express their slight thoughts of him and his glory by bold irreverent enquiries of what use his person is in our Religion as though there were any thing in our Religion that hath either Reality Substance or Truth but by vertue of its Relation thereunto And by their Answers they bring their own Enquiries yet nearer unto the borders of Blasphemy NEVER was there an Age since the name of Christians was known upon the Earth wherein there was such a direct Opposition made unto the Person and Glory of Christ as there is in that wherein we live There were indeed in the first Times of the Church swarms of proud doting brainsick persons who vented many foolish imaginations about him which issued at length in Arianism in whose Ruines they were buried The Gates of Hell in them prevailed not against the Rock on which the Church is built But as it was said of Caesar Solus accessie sobrius ad perdendam Rempublicam He alone went soberly about the Destruction of the Commonwealth So we now have great Numbers who oppose the Person and Glory of Christ under a pretence of Sobriety of Reason as they vainly plead Yea the disbelief of the Mysteries of the Trinity and the Incarnation of the Son of God the sole Foundation of Christian Religion is so diffused in the World as that it hath almost devoured the power and vitals of it And not a few who dare not yet express their minds do give broad intimations of their intentions and good will towards him in making them the Object of their scorn and reproach who desire to know nothing but him and him Crucified GOD in his appointed time will effectually Vindicate his Honour and Glory from the vain attempts of Men of corrupt minds against them IN the mean time it is the Duty of all those who love the Lord Jesus in sincerity to give Testimony in a peculiar manner unto this Divine Person and Glory according unto their several Capacities because of the Opposition that is made against them I HAVE thought my self on many accounts obliged to cast my Mite into this Treasury And I have chosen so to do not in a way of controversie which formerly I have engaged in but so as together with the vindication of the Truth to promote the strengthning of the Faith of true Believers their Edification in the Knowledge of it and to express the Experience which they have or may have of the Power and Reality of these things THAT which at present I design to Demonstrate is That the Beholding of the Glory of Christ is one of the greatest Priviledges and Advancements that Believers are capable of in this World or that which is to come It is that whereby they are first gradually conformed unto it and then fixed in the Eternal enjoyment of it For here in this life beholding his Glory they are changed or transformed into the likeness of it 2 Cor. 3. 18. and hereafter they shall be for ever like unto him because they shall see him as he is 1 Joh. 3. 1 2. Hereon do our present Comforts and future Blessedness depend This is the Life and Reward of our Souls He that hath seen him hath seen the Father also Joh. 14. 9. For we discern the Light of the Knowledge of God only in the Face of Jesus Christ 2 Cor. 4. 6. THERE are therefore two ways or degrees of beholding the Glory of Christ which are constantly distinguished in the Scripture The one is by Faith in this World which is the Evidence of things not seen The other is by Sight or immediate vision in Eternity 2 Cor. 5. 7. We walk by faith and not by sight We
a dry Season that soaketh not unto the Roots of things the power of them doth not enter into us Is it not all from hence that their notions of future things are not enduced out of the Experience which we have of the Beginnings of them in this World without which they can make no permanent aboad in our minds nor continue any Influence upon our Affections yea the Soul is disturbed not edified in all Contemplations of future Glory when things are proposed unto it whereof in this life it hath neither foretaste sense experience nor evidence No man ought to look for any thing in Heaven but what one way or other he hath some experience of in this Life If Men were fully perswaded hereof they would be it may be more in the exercise of Faith and Love about Heavenly things than for the most part they are At present they know not what they enjoy and they look for they know not what HENCE is it that Men utterly strangers unto all Experience of the Beginning of Glory in themselves as an effect of Faith have filled their Divine Worship with Images Pictures and Musick to represent unto themselves somewhat of that Glory which they fancy to be above For into that which is truly so they have no prospect nor can have because they have no experience of its power in themselves nor do they taste of its Goodness by any of its First-fruits in their own minds Wherefore by that view alone and not otherwise which we have of the Glory of Christ by Faith here in this World we may attain such blessed conceptions of our beholding his glory above by immediate vision as shall draw out our Hearts unto the Admiration of it and desires of its full enjoyment 3. HEREIN then our present edification is principally concerned For in this present beholding of the Glory of Christ the Life and Power of Faith are most eminently acted And from this Exercise of Faith doth Love unto Christ principally if not solely arise and spring If therefore we desire to have Faith in its vigor or Love in its Power giving Rest Complacency and Satisfaction unto our own Souls we are to seek for them in the diligent discharge of this Duty elsewhere they will not be found Herein would I live Herein would I Dye Hereon would I dwell in my Thoughts and Affections to the withering and consumption of all the painted Beauties of this World unto the Crucifying all things here below until they become unto me a dead and deformed thing no way meet for affectionate Embraces FOR these and the like Reasons I shall first enquire into our Beholding of the Glory of Christ in this world by Faith And therein endeavour to lead the Souls of them that Believe into the more retired walks of Faith Love and Holy Meditation whereby the King is held in his Gatleries Cant. 7. 5. BUT because there is no Benefit in nor advantage by the Contemplation of this Sacred Truth but what consists in an improvement of the practice of the duty declared in it namely the constant beholding of the Glory of Christ by Faith I shall for the promotion of it premise some few Advantages which we may have thereby 1. WE shall hereby be made fit and meet for Heaven Every man is not so who desires it and hopes for it For some are not only unworthy of it and excluded from it by reason of Sin but they are unmeet for it and incapable of any advantage by it All men indeed think themselves fit enough for Glory what should hinder them if they could attain it But it is because they know not what it is Men shall not be clothed with Glory as it were whether they will or no. It is to be received in that Exercise of the Faculties of their Souls which such Persons have no Ability for Musick hath no Pleasure in it unto them that cannot hear nor the most beautiful Colours unto them that cannot see It would be no Benefit unto a Fish to take him from the bottom of the Ocean filled with Cold and Darkness and to place him under the Beams of the Sun For he is no way meet to receive any Refreshment thereby Heaven it self would not be more advantagious unto Persons not renewed by the Spirit of Grace in this Life HENCE the Apostle gives thanks unto the Father who hath made us meet to be Partakers of the Inheritance of the Saints in Light Col. 1. 12. Indeed the Beginning here and the Fulness of Glory hereafter are communicated unto Believers by an Almighty Act of the Will and Grace of God But yet he hath ordained Ways and Means whereby they may be made meet receptive Subjects of the Glory so to be communicated unto them That this Way and Means is by the beholding of the Glory of Christ by Faith shall be fully declared in our Progress This therefore should excite us unto this Duty for all our present Glory consists in our Preparation for future Glory 2. NO Man can by Faith take a real View of this Glory but Vertue will proceed from it in a transforming Power to change him into the same Image 2 Cor. 3. 18. How this is done and how we become like unto Christ by beholding his Glory shall be fully declared in our Progress 3. THE constant Contemplation of the Glory of Christ will give Rest Satisfaction and Complacency unto the Souls of them who are exercised therein Our Minds are apt to be filled with a Multitude of perplexed Thoughts Fears Cares Dangers Distresses Passions and Lusts do make various Impressions on the Minds of Men filling them with Disorder Darkness and Confusion But where the Soul is fixed in its Thoughts and Contemplations on this glorious Object it will be brought into and kept in an Holy Serene Spiritual Frame For to be Spiritually minded is Life and Peace And this it doth by taking off our Hearts from all undue Regard unto all things below in comparison of the great Worth Beauty and Glory of what we are conversant withal See Phil. 3. 7 8 9 10 11. A Defect herein makes many of us Strangers unto an Heavenly Life and to live beneath the Spiritual Refreshments and Satisfactions that the Gospel doth tender unto us 4. THE Sight of the Glory of Christ is the Spring and Cause of our Everlasting Blessedness We shall be ever with the Lord 1 Thes. 4. 17. Or be with Christ which is best of all Phil. 1. 23. For there shall we behold his Glory Joh. 17. 24. and by seeing him as he is we skall be made like him 1 Joh. 3. 2. which is our Everlasting Blessedness THE Enjoyment of God by Sight is commonly called the Beatifical Vision and it is the sole Fountain of all the Actings of our Souls in the State of Blessedness which the old Philosophers knew nothing of neither do we know distinctly what they are or what is this Sight of God Howbeit this we know that
desire besides thee Psal. 73. 25. For who in the Heavens can be compared unto the Lord Who among the Sons of the mighty can be compared unto the Lord Psal. 89. 6. HE himself out of his infinite Love and ineffable Condescention upon the Sight and View of his Church and his own Graces in her wherewith she is adorned doth say Thou hast ravished my Heart my Sister my Spouse thou hast ravished my Heart with one of thine Eves with one Chain of thy Neck Cant. 4. 8. How much more ought a believing Soul upon a View of the Glory of Christ in whom it pleased the Father that all Fulness should dwell to say Thou hast ravished my Heart taken it away from me O thou whom my Soul loveth One Glance of thy glorious Beauty upon me hath quite overcome me hath left no heart in me unto things here below If it be not thus with us frequently if we value not this Object of our Minds and Affections if we are not diligent in looking up unto him to behold his Glory it is because we are carnal and not in any good measure partakers of the promise that our Eyes shall see the King in his Beauty 2. OUR second Direction unto the same End is That we diligently study the Scripture and the Revelations that are made of this Glory of Christ therein To behold it is not a Work of Fancy or Imagination It is not conversing with an Image framed by the Art of Men without or that of our own Fancy within but of Faith exercised on Divine Revelations This Direction he gives us himself Joh 5. 39. Search the Scriptures for they are they that testifie of me The way whereby this is done is fully set before us in the Example of the holy Prophets under the old Testament 1 Pet. 1. 11 12 13. THIS Principle is always to be retained in our Minds in reading of the Scripture namely that the Revelation and Doctrine of the Person of Christ and his Office is the Foundation whereon all other Instructions of the Prophets and Apostles for the edification of the Church are built and wherein to they are resolved as is declared Ephes. 2. 20 21 22. So our Lord Jesus Christ himself at large makes it manifest Luk. 24. 26 27 45 46. Lay aside the Consideration hereof and the Scriptures are no such thing as they pretend unto namely a Revelation of the Glory of God in the Salvation of the Church nor are those of the Old Testament so at this Day unto the Jews who own not this Principle 2 Cor. 3. 13 14 15 16. There are therefore such Revelations of the Person and Glory of Christ treasured up in the Scripture from the beginning unto the end of it as may exercise the Faith and Contemplation of Believers in this World and shall never during this Life be fully discovered or understood and in Divine Meditations of these Revelations doth much of the Life of Faith consist THERE are three ways whereby the Glory of Christ is represented unto us in the Scripture First by direct Descriptions of his glorious Person and Incarnation See among other places Gen. 3. 15. Psal. 2. 7 8 9. Psal. 45. 2 3 4 5 6. Psal. 68. 17 18. Psal. 110. Isa. 6. 1 2 3 4. Chap. 9. 6. Zech. 2. 8. Joh. 1. 1 2 3. Phil. 2. 6 7 8. Heb. 1. 1 2 3. Chap. 2. 14 15 16. Rev. 1. 17 18. Secondly by Prophecies Promises and express Instructions concerning him all leading unto the Contemplation of his Glory which are innumerable Thirdly By the sacred Institutions of Divine Worship under the Old Testament For the end of them all was to represent unto the Church the Glory of Christ in the Discharge of his Office as we shall see afterwards WE may take notice of an Instance in one kind under the Old Testament and of one and another under the New HIS Personal Appearances under the Old Testament carried in them a Demonstration of his Glory Such was that in the Vision which Isaiah had when he saw his Glory and spake of him Chap. 6. 1 2. I saw the Lord sitting upon a Throne high and lifted up and his Train filled the Temple About it stood the Seraphims c. It was a Representation of the Glory of the Divine Presence of Christ filling his Humane Nature the Temple of his Body with a Train of all glorious Graces And if this Typical Representation of it was so glorious as that the Seraphims were not able stedfastly to behold it but covered their Faces upon its Appearance v. 2. how exceeding glorious is it in it self as it is openly revealed in the Gospel OF the same Nature are the immediate Testimonies given unto him from Heaven in the New Testament So the Apostle tells us he received from God the Father honor and glory when there came such a Voice unto him from the excellent Glory This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased 2 Pet. 1. 17. The Apostle intends the Time of his Transfiguration in the Mount for so he adds Ver. 18. And this Voice which came from Heaven we heard who were with him in the holy Mount Howbeit at sundry other times he had the same Testimony or to the same purpose from God even the Father in Heaven Herein God gave him Honor and Glory which all those that believe in him should behold and admire not only those who heard this Testimony with their bodily Ears but all unto whom it is testified in the Scripture are obliged to look after and contemplate on the Glory of Christ as thus revealed and proposed From the Throne of his Excellency by audible Voices by visible Signs by the opening of the Heavens above by the descent of the holy Spirit upon him God testified unto him as his eternal Son and gave him therein Honor and Glory The Thoughts of this Divine Testimony and the Glory of Christ therein hath often filled the Hearts of some with Joy and Delight THIS therefore in reading and studying the holy Scripture we ought with all diligence to search and attend unto as did the Prophets of old 1. Pet. 11. 12. if we intend by them to be made wise unto Salvation WE should herein be as the Merchant-man that seeks for Pearls he seeks for all sorts of them but when he hath found one of Great Price he parts with all to make it his own Mat. 13. 45 46. The Scripture is the Field the Place the Mine where we search and dig for Pearls see Prov. 2. 1 2 3 4 5. Every sacred Truth that is made effectual unto the good of our Souls is a Pearl whereby we are enriched but when we meet with when we fall upon this Pearl of price the Glory of Christ this is that which the Soul of a Believer cleaves unto with joy THEN do we find Food for our Souls in the Word of Truth then do we taste how gracious the Lord is therein then is the
Scripture full of Refreshment unto us as a Spring of Living Water when we are taken into blessed Views of the Glory of Christ therein And we are in the best Frame of Duty when the principal Motive in our Minds to contend earnestly for retaining the possession of the Scripture against all that would deprive us of it or discourage us from a daily diligent search into it is this that they would take from us the only Glass wherein we may behold the Glory of Christ. This is the Glory of the Scripture that it is the great yea the only outward Means of representing unto us the Glory of Christ and he is the Sun in the Firmament of it which only hath Light in it self and communicates it unto all other things besides 3. ANOTHER Direction unto this same End is That having attained the Light of the Knowledge of the Glory of Christ from the Scripture or by the Dispensation of the Truth in the preaching of the Gospel we would esteem it our Duty frequently to meditate thereon WANT hereof is that fundamental Mistake which keeps many among us so low in their Grace so regardless of their Priviledges They hear of these things they assent unto their Truth atleast they do not gainsay them but they never solemnly meditate upon them This they esteem a Work that is above them or are ignorant totally of it or esteem themselves not much concerned in it or dislike it as Fanatacism For it is that which no Considerations can ingage a carnal Mind to delight in The Mind must be spiritual and holy freed from earthly Affections and Encumbrances raised above things here below that can in a due manner meditate on the Glory of Christ. Therefore are the most Strangers unto this Duty because they will not be at the Trouble and Charge of that Mortification of earthly Affections that Extirpation of sensual Inclinations that Retirement from the Occasions of Life which are required there unto See the Treatise of Spiritual-mindedness IT is to be feared that there are some who profess Religion with an Appearance of Strictness who never separate themselves from all other Occasions to meditate on Christ and his Glory And yet with a strange Inconsistency of Apprehensions they will profess that they desire nothing more than to behold his Glory in Heaven for ever But it is evident even in the Light of Reason that these things are irreconcilable It is impossible that he who never meditates with delight on the Glory of Christ here in this World who labors not to behold it by Faith as it is revealed in the Scripture should ever have any real gracious Desire to behold it in Heaven They may love and desire the Fruition of their own Imaginations they cannot do so of the Glory of Christ whereof they are ignorant and wherewith they are unacquainted It is therefore to be lamented that Men can find time for and have inclinations to think and meditate on other things it may be earthly and vain but have neither Heart nor Inclinations nor Leasure to meditate on this glorious Object What is the Faith and Love which such Men profess how will they find themselves deceived in the Issue 4. LET your occasional Thoughts of Christ be many and multiplied every Day he is not far from us we may make a speedy Address unto him at any time so the Apostle informs us Rom. 10. 6 7 8. Say not in thine heart who shall ascend into Heaven that is to bring Christ down from above or who shall descend into the deep that is to bring up Christ again from the dead for the word is nigh thee even in thy mouth and in thy heart The things that Christ did were done at a Distance from us and they are long since past But saith the Apostle the Word of the Gospel wherein these things are revealed and whereby an Application is made of them unto our Souls is nigh unto us even in our hearts that is if we are true Believers and have mixed the Word with Faith and so it exhibiteth Christ and all the Benefits of his Mediation unto us If therefore this Word is in our Hearts Christ is nigh unto us If we turn at any time into our selves to converse with the Word that abideth in us there we shall find him ready to receive us into Communion with himself that is in the Light of the Knowledge of Christ which we have by the Word we may have sudden occasional Thoughts of him continually and where our Minds and Affections are so filled with other things that we are not ready for converse with him who is thus nigh unto us by the Word we are spiritually indisposed SO to manifest how nigh he is unto us it is said that he stands at the door and knocks Rev. 3. 20. in the continual tender that he makes of himself and his Grace unto our Souls For he is always accompanied with the glorious Train of his Graces and if they are not received he himself is not so It is to no purpose to boast of Christ if we have not an Evidence of his Graces in our Hearts and Lives But unto whom he is the Hope of Future Glory unto them he is the Life of present grace SOMETIMES it may be that he is withdrawn from us so as that we cannot hear his Voice nor behold his Countenance nor obtain any sence of his Love though we seek him with diligence In this state all our thoughts and Meditations concerning him will be barren and fruitless bringing in no spiritual Refreshment into our Souls And if we learn to be content with such lifeless in affecting thoughts of him as bring in no experience of his Love nor give us a real View of the Glory of his Person we shall wither away as unto all the power of Religion WHAT is our Duty in this Case is so fully expressed by the Spouse in the Canticles as represents it plainly unto the Minds of Believers who have any Experience of these things Chap. 3. 1 2 3 4 5. By night on my Bed I sought him whom my Soul loveth I sought him but I found him not I will rise now and go about the City in the Streets and in the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loveth I sought him but I found him not The Watch-men that go about the City found me to whom I said saw ye him whom my soul loveth It was but a little I passed from them but I found him whom my soul loveth I held him and would not let him go The like account she gives of her self and of her Behaviour on the like Occasion Chap. 5. 2 3 4 5 6 7 8. THIS is the substance of what by this Example we are instructed unto The Lord Christ is pleased sometimes to withdraw himself from the spiritual Experience of Believers as unto any refreshing sense of his Love or the fresh communications of consolatory Graces Those who never had
Mind and Accord he graciously condescended unto the Susception and Discharge of it So the Apostle expresseth it Phil. 2. 5 6 7 8. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God but made himself of no reputation and took on himself the form of a Servant and was made in the likeness of Men and being found in fashion as a man he humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the Cross. IT was the Mind that was in Jesus Christ which is proposed unto our Consideration and Imitation What he was enclined and disposed unto from himself and his own mind alone And that in general which is ascribed unto him is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exinanition or Self-emptiness he emptied himself This the Ancient Church called his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as we do his Condescention an Act of which kind in God is called the humbling of himself Psal. 113. 6. WHEREFORE the Susception of our Nature for the Discharge of the Office of Mediation therein was an Infinite Condescention in the Son of God wherein he is exceedingly Glorious in the Eyes of Believers AND I shall do these three Things 1. Shew in general the Greatness of this Condescention 2. Declare the Especial Nature of it And 3. Take what view we are able of the Glory of Christ therein 1. SUCH is the transcendent Excellency of the Divine Nature that it is said of God that he dwelleth on high and humbleth himself to behold the things that are in Heaven and in the Earth Psal. 113. 5 6. He condescends from the Prerogative of his Excellency to behold to look upon to take notice of the most glorious Things in Heaven above and the greatest Things in the Earth below All his Respect unto the Creatures the most glorious of them is an Act of Infinite Condescention And it is so on Two Accounts 1. BECAUSE of the Infinite Distance that is between his Essence Nature or Being and that of the Creatures Hence all Nations before him are as the Drop of a Bucket and are counted as the small Dust of the Ballance yea that they are as nothing that they are accounted unto him less than nothing and vanity All Being is essentially in him and in comparison thereunto all other things are as nothing And there are no Measures there is no Proportion between infinite being and nothing Nothing that should induce a Regard from the one unto the other Wherefore the Infinite Essential Greatness of the Nature of God with its Infinite Distance from the Nature of all Creatures thereby causeth all his Dealings with them to be in the way of Condescention or humbling himself So it is expressed Isa. 57. 15. Thus saith the high and lofty one who inhabiteth Eternity I dwell in the high and holy Place with him also who is of a concrite and humble Spirit to revive the Spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones He is so the high and lofty one and so inhabiteth Eternity or existeth in his own Eternal Being that it is an Act of mere Grace in him to take notice of things below and therefore he doth i◠in an especial manner of those whom the World doth most despise 2. IT ariseth from his Infinite Self-Sufficiency unto all the Acts and Ends of his own Eternal Blessedness What we have a Regard unto what we respect and desire it is that it may add unto our Satisfaction So it is so it must be with every Creature no Creature is self-sufficient unto its own Blessedness The humane Nature of Christ himself in Heaven is not so it lives in God and God in it in a full dependance on God and in receiving blessed and glorious Communications from him No rational Creature Angel or Man can do think act any thing but it is all to add to their Perfection and Satisfaction they are not Self-sufficient God alone wants nothing stands in need of nothing nothing can be added unto him seeing he giveth unto all Life and Breath and althings Act. 17. 25. The whole Creation in all its Excellency cannot contribute one Mite unto the Satisfaction or Blessedness of God He hath it all in Infinite Perfection from himself and his own Nature our Goodness extends not unto him A Man cannot profit God as he may profit his Neighbour If thou sinnest what dost thou against him and if thy Transgressions are multiplied what dost thou unto him God loseth nothing of his own Self-sufficiency and Blessedness therein by all this and if thou be righteous what givest thou unto him or what receiveth he at thy hand Job 35. 6 7 8. And from hence also it follows that all Gods concernment in the Creation is by an Act of Condescention HOW glorious then is the Condescention of the Son of God in his Susception of the Office of Mediation For if such be the Perfection of the Divine Nature and its distance so absolutely Infinite from the whole Creation and if such be his Self-sufficiency unto his own Eternal Blessedness as that nothing can be taken from him nothing added unto him so that every Regard in him unto any of the Creatures is an Act of Self-Humiliation and Condescention from the Prerogative of his Being and State what Heart can conceive what Tongue can express the Glory of that Condescention in the Son of God whereby he took our Nature upon him took it to be his own in order unto a discharge of the Office of Mediation on our Behalf BUT that we may the better behold the Glory of Christ herein we may briefly consider the Especial Nature of this Condescention and wherein it doth consist BUT whereas not only the Denial but Misapprehensions hereof have pestered the Church of God in all Ages we must in the first place reject them and then declare the Truth 1. THIS Condescention of the Son of God did not consist in a laying aside or parting with or separation from the Divine Nature so as that he should cease to be God by being Man The Foundation of it lay in this that he was in the form of God and counted it not robbery to be equal with God Phil. 2. v. 6. That is being really and essentially God in his Divine Nature he professed himself therein to be equal with God or the Person of the Father He was in the Form of God that is he was God participant of the Divine Nature for God hath no Form but that of his Essence and Being and hence he was equal with God in Authority Dignity and Power Because he was in the Form of God he must be equal with God for there is Order in the Divine Persons but no Inequality in the Divine Being So the Jews understood him that when he said God was his Father he made himself equal with God For in his so saying he ascribed unto himself equal Power with
Eternal Admiration we walk in darkness It is the most ineffable Effect of Divine Wisdom and Grace Where are our Hearts and Minds if we can see no Glory in it I know in the Contemplation of it it will quickly overwhelm our Reason and bring our Understanding into a loss But unto this loss do I desire to be brought every day For when Faith can no more act it self in Comprehension when it finds the Object it is fixed on too great and glorious to be brought into our Minds and Capacities it will issue as we said before in holy Admiration humble Adoration and joyful Thanksgiving In and by its actings in them doth it fill the soul with Joy unspeakable and full of Glory CHAP. V. The Glory of Christ in his Love IN the Susception and Discharge of the Mediatory Office by the Son of God the Scripture doth most eminently represent his Love as the sole impelling and leading cause thereof Gal. 2. 20. 1 Joh. 3. 16. Rev. 1. 5. HEREIN is he glorious in a way and manner incomprehensible For in the Glory of Divine Love the chief Brightness of Glory doth consist There is nothing of Dread or Terror accompanying it nothing but what is amiable and infinitely refreshing Now that we may take a view of the Glory of Christ herein by Faith the Nature of it must be enquired into 1. THE Eternal Disposing Cause of the whole work wherein the Lord Christ was engaged by the Susception of this Office for the Redemption and Salvation of the Church is the Love of the Father Hereunto it is constantly ascribed in the Scripture And this Love of the Father acted it self in his Eternal Decrees before the foundation of the world Eph. 1. 4. and afterwards in the sending of his Son to render it effectual Joh. 3. 16. Originally it is his Eternal Election of a Portion of mankind to be brought unto the enjoyment of himself through the Mystery of the Blood of Christ and the Sanctification of the Spirit 2 Thes. 2. 13 16. 1 Ephes. 1. 4 5 6 7 8 9. 1 Pet. 1. 2. THIS Eternal Act of the Will of God the Father doth not contain in it an actual approbation of and complacency in the state and condition of those that are elected but only designeth that for them on the Account whereof they shall be accepted and approved And it is called his Love on sundry Accounts 1. BECAUSE it is an act suited unto that glorious Excellency of his Nature wherein he is Love for God is Love 1 John 4. 8 9. And the first Egress of the Divine Properties must therefore be in an act of communicative Love And whereas this Election being an Eternal Act of the Will of God can have no moving cause but what is in himself if we could look into all the Treasures of the Divine Excellencies we should find none whereunto it could be so properly ascribed as unto Love Wherefore 2. IT is stiled Love because it was free and undeserved as unto any thing on our part For whatever good is done unto any altogether undeserved if it be with a design of their Profit and Advantage it is in an Act of Love and can have no other cause So is it with us in respect of Eternal Election There was nothing in us nothing foreseen as that which from our selves would be in us that should any way move the Will of God unto this Election For whatever is good in the best of men is an effect of it Ephes. 1. 4. Whereas therefore it tends unto our eternal Good the spring of it must be Love And 3. THE Fruits or Effects of it are inconceivable Acts of Love It is by multiplied Acts of Love that it is made effectual John 3. 16. Jerem. 31. 5. Eph. 1. 3 4 5 6. 1 John 4. 8 9 16. THIS is the Eternal Spring which is derived unto the Church through the Mediation of Christ. Wherefore that which put all the Design of this Eternal Love of the Father into Execution and wrought out the Accomplishment of it was the Love of the Son which we enquire after and Light may be given unto it in the ensuing Observations 1. THE whole Number or Society of the Elect were Creatures made in the Image of God and thereby in a State of Love with him All that they were had or hoped for were effects of Divine Goodness and Love And the Life of their Souls was Love unto God And a blessed State it was preparatory for the Eternal Life of Love in Heaven 2. FROM this State they fell by sin into a state of Enmity with God which is comprehensive of all Miseries Temporal and Eternal 3. NOTWITHSTANDING this woful Catastrophe of our first state yet our Nature on many Accounts was recoverable unto the Enjoyment of God as I have at large elsewhere declared 4. IN this Condition the first Act of Love in Christ towards us was in Pity and Compassion A Creature made in the Image of God and fallen into Misery yet capable of Recovery is the proper Object of Divine Compassion That which is so celebrated in the Scripture as the Bowels the Pity the Compassion of God is the acting of Divine Love towards us on the consideration of our Distress and Misery But all Compassion ceaseth towards them whose condition is irrecoverable Wherefore the Lord Christ pitied not the Angels that fell because their Nature was not to be relieved Of this Compassion in Christ see Heb. 2. 14 15 16. Isa. 63. 9. 5. AS then we lay under the Eye of Christ in our Misery we were the Objects of his Pity and Compassion But as he looketh on us as recoverable out of that state his Love worketh in and by Delight It was an inconceivable Delight unto him to take a prospect of the deliverance of mankind unto the Glory of God which is also an act of Love see this divinely expressed Prov. 8. 30 31 as that place hath been elsewhere explained 6. IF it be enquired whence this compassion and delight in him should arise what should be the cause of them that he who was eternally blessed in his own self-sufficiency should so deeply concern himself in our lost forlorn Condition I say it did so merely from the Infinite Love and Goodness of his own Nature without the least procuring inducement from us or any thing in us 1 Pet. 3. 16. 7. IN this his Readiness Willingness and Delight springing from Love and Compassion the council of God concerning the way of our Recovery is as it were proposed unto him Now this was a way of great difficulties and perplexities unto himself that is unto his Person as it was to be constituted Unto the Divine Nature nothing is grievous nothing is difficult But he was to have another Nature wherein he was to undergo the difficulties of this way and work It was required of him that he should pity us until he had none left to pity himself when he stood in need
of it that he should pursue his delight to save us until his own soul was heavy and sorrowful unto death that he should relieve us in our sufferings by suffering the same things that we should have done But he was not in the least hereby deterred from undertaking this work of Love and Mercy for us Yea his love rose on this Proposal like the Waters of a mighty Stream against opposition For hereon he says Lo I come to do thy will O God it is my delight to do it Heb. 10. 5 6 7. Isa. 50. 4 5 6 7. 8. BEING thus enclined disposed and ready in the Eternal Love of his Divine Person to undertake the Office of Mediation and the work of our Redemption A body was prepared for him In this Body or Human Nature made his own he was to make this Love effectual in all its Inclinations and Actings It was provided for him unto this end and filled with all Grace in a way unmeasurable especially with Fervent Love unto Mankind And hereby it became a meet Instrument to actuate his Eternal Love in all the fruits of it 9. IT is hence evident that this Glorious Love of Christ doth not consist alone in the Eternal Actings of his divine Person or the Divine Nature in his Person such indeed is the Love of the Father namely his Eternal Purpose for the communication of Grace and Glory with his Acquiescency therein but there is more in the Love of Christ. For when he exercised this Love he was man also and not God only And in none of those Eternal Acts of Love could the Human Nature of Christ have any interest or concern yet is the Love of the Man Christ Jesus celebrated in the Scripture 10. WHEREFORE this Love of Christ which we enquire after is the Love of his Person that is which he in his own Person acts in and by his Distinct Natures according unto their Distinct Essential Properties And the acts of love in these distinct Natures are infinitely distinct and different yet are they all acts of one and the same Person So then whether that Act of Love in Christ which we would at any time consider be an Eternal Act of the Divine Nature in the Person of the Son of God or whether it be an act of the Human performed in time by the Gracious Faculties and Powers of that Nature it is still the Love of one and the self same Person Christ Jesus It was an Act of inexpressible Love in him that he assumed our Nature Heb. 2. 14 17. But it was an act in and of his Divine Nature only For it was antecedent unto the existence of his Human Nature which could not therefore concur therein His laying down his life for us was an act of inconceivable Love 1 John 8. 16. Yet was it only an act of the Human Nature wherein he offered himself and died But both the one and the other were Acts of his Divine Person whence it is said that God laid down his life for us and purchased the Church with his own Blood THIS is that Love of Christ wherein he is glorious and wherein we are by Faith to behold his Glory A great part of the Blessedness of the Saints in Heaven and their Triumph therein consists in their beholding of this Glory of Christ in their thankful contemplation of the Fruits of it see Rev. 5. 9 10. c. THE illustrious Brightness wherewith this Glory shines in Heaven the All satisfying Sweetness which the view of it gives unto the Souls of the Saints there Possessed of Glory are not by us conceivable nor to be expressed Here this love passeth knowledge there we shall comprehend the Dimensions of it Yet even here if we are not slothful and carnal we may have a refreshing prospect of it and where Comprehension fails let Admiration take place MY present Business is to exhort others unto the Contemplation of it though it be but a little a very little a small portion of it that I can conceive and less than that very little that I can express Yet may it be my duty to excite not only my self but others also unto due Enquiries after it unto which End I offer the things ensuing 1. LABOUR that your minds may continually be fitted and prepared for stch Heavenly Contemplations If they are carnal and sensual or filled with earthly things a due sense of this Love of Christ and its Glory will not abide in them Vertue and Vice in their highest Degrees are not more diametrically opposite and inconsistent in the same mind than are an habitual Course of sensual worldly Thoughts and a due Contemplation of the Glory of the Love of Christ Yea an earnestness of Spirit pregnant with a multitude of Thoughts about the lawful Occasions of Life is obstructive of all due Communion with the Lord Jesus Christ herein FEW there are whose Minds are prepared in a due Manner for this Duty The Actions and Communications of the most evidence what is the inward Frame of their Souls They rove up and down in their Thoughts which are continually lead by their Affections into the Corners of the Earth It is in vain to call such Persons unto Contemplations of the Glory of Christ in his Love An holy Composure of Mind by virtue of spiritual principles an Inclination to seek after Refreshment in Heavenly Things and to bath the Soul in the Fountain of them with constant Apprehensions of the Excellency of this Divine Glory are required hereunto 2. BE not satisfied with General Notions concerning the Love of Christ which represent no Glory unto the Mind wherewith many deceive themselves All who believe his divine Person profess a Valuation of his Love and think them not Christians who are otherwise minded But they have only General Notions and not any distinct Conceptions of it and really know not what it is To deliver us from this Snare peculiar Meditations on its principal Concerns are required of us As 1. WHOSE Love it is namely of the divine Person of the Son of God He is expresly called God with respect unto the Exercise of this Love that we may always consider whose it is 1 Job 3. 16. Hereby we perceive the Love of God because he laid down his Life for us 2. BY what Ways and Means this wonderful Love of the Son of God doth act it self namely in the divine Nature by Eternal Acts of Wisdom Goodness and Grace proper thereunto and in the humane by Temporary Acts of Pity or Compassion with all the Fruits of them in doing and suffering for us see Ephes. 3. 19. Heb. 2. 14 15. Rev. 1. 5. 3. WHAT is the Freedom of it as unto any desert on our Part 1 Joh. 4. 10. It was Hatred not Love that we in our selves deserved which is a Consideration suited to fill the Soul with self-abasement the best of Frames in the contemplation of the Glory of Christ. 4. WHAT is the Efficacy of it in
its Fruits and Effects with sundry other Considerations of the like Nature By a distinct Prospect and Admiration of these Things the Soul may walk in this Paradise of God and gather here and there an Heavenly Flower conveying unto it a sweet Savour of this Love of Christ. See Cant. 11. 2 3 4. MOREOVER Be not contented to have right Notions of the Love of Christ in your Minds unless you can attain a gracious Taste of it in your Hearts no more than you would be to see a Feast or Banquet richly prepared and partake of nothing of it unto your Refreshment It is of that Nature that we may have a spiritual Censation of it in our Minds whence it is compared by the Spouse to Apples and Flagons of Wine We may taste that the Lord is gracious And if we find not a Relish of it in our Hearts we shall not long retain the Notion of it in our Minds Christ is the Meat the Bread the Food of our Souls Nothing is in him of an higher spiritual Nourishment than his Love which we should always desire IN this Love is he Glorious for it is such as no Creatures Angels or Men could have the least Conceptions of before its Manifestation by its Effects And after its Manifestation it is in this World absolutely incomprehensible CHAP. VI. The Glory of Christ in the Discharge of his Mediatory Office AS the Lord Christ was Glorious in the Susception of his Office So was he also in its Discharge An unseen Glory accompanied him in all that he did in all that he suffered Unseen it was unto the Eyes of the World but not in his who alone can judge of it Had Men seen it they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory Yet to some of them it was made manifest Hence they testified that in the Discharge of his Office they beheld his glory the glory as of the only begotten of the Father Joh. 1. 14. And that when others could see neither Form nor Comliness in him that he should be desired Psal. 53. 2. and so it is at this day I shall only make some few Observations first on what he did in a way of Obedience and then on what he suffered in the Discharge of his Office so undertaken by him 1. WHAT he did what Obedience he yielded unto the Law of God in the Discharge of his Office with respect whereunto he said Lo I come to do thy Will O God yea thy Law is in my Heart it was all on his own free choice or Election and was resolved thereinto alone It is our Duty to endeavor after Freedom Willingness and Chearfulness in all our Obedience Obedience hath its formal Nature from our Wills So much as there is of our Wills in what we do towards God so much there is of Obedience and no more Howbeit we are antecedently unto all Acts of our own Wills obliged unto all that is called Obedience From the very Constitution of our Natures we are necessarily subject unto the Law of God All that is left unto us is a voluntary Compliance with unavoidable Commands with him it was not so An Act of his own Will and Choice preceded all Obligation as unto Obedience He obeyed because he would before because he ought He said Lo I come to do thy Will O God before he was obliged to do that Will. By his own Choice and that in an Act of Infinite Condescention and Love as we have shewed he was made of a woman and thereby made under the Law In his Divine Person he was Lord of the Law above it no more obnoxious unto its Commands than its Curse Neither was he afterwards in himself on his own Account unobnoxious unto its Curse merely because he was Innocent but also because he was every way above the Law it self and all its force This was the Original Glory of his Obedience The Wisdom the Grace the Loye the Condescention that was in this Choice animated every Act every Duty of his Obedience rendring it amiable in the sight of God and useful unto us So when he went unto John to be baptized he who knew he had no need of it on his own Account would have declined the Duty of administring that Ordinance unto him but he replied Suffer it to be so now for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness Mat. 3. 15. This I have undertaken willingly of my own accord without any need of it for my self and therefore will discharge it For him who was Lord of all universally thus to submit himself to Universal Obedience carrieth along with it an Evidence of Glorious Grace 2. THIS Obedience as unto the use and end of it was not for himself but for us We were obliged unto it and could not perform it he was not obliged unto it any otherwise but by a free Act of his own Will and did perform it God gave him this Honour that he should obey for the whole Church that by his obedience we should be made righteous Rom. 5. 19. Herein I say did God give him Honour and Glory that his Obedience should stand in the stead of the perfect Obedience of the Church as unto Justification 3. HIS Obedience being absolutely universal and absolutely perfect was the great Representative of the Holiness of God in the Law It was represented glorious when the Ten Words were written by the Finger of God in Tables of Stone It appears yet more eminently in the Spiritual Transcription of it in the Hearts of Believers But absolutely and perfectly it is exemplified only in the Holiness and Obedience of Christ which answered it unto the utmost And this is no small Part of his Glory in Obedience that the Holiness of God in the Law was therein and therein alone in that one Instance as unto human Nature fully represented 4. HE wrought out this Obedience against all Difficulties and Oppressions For although he was absolutely free from that Disorder which in us hath invaded our whole Natures which internally renders all Obedience difficult unto us and perfect Obedience impossible yet as unto Opposition from without in Temptations Sufferings Reproaches Contradictions he met with more than we all Hence is that glorious Word Although he were a Son yet he learned Obedience by the things which be suffered Heb. 5. 8. See our Exposition of that place But 5. THE Glory of this Obedience ariseth principally from the Consideration of the Person who thus yielded it unto God This was no other but the Son of God made Man God and Man in one Person He who was in Heaven above all Lord of all at the same time lived in the World in a Condition of no Reputation and a Course of the strictest Obedience unto the whole Law of God He unto whom Prayer was made prayed himself Night and Day He whom all the Angels of Heaven and all Creatures worshiped was continually conversant in all the Duties of the Worship of God He who
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
him as he is we shall be like him but as unto the Degrees and Measures of it his Glory is above all that we can be made Partakers of There is one Glory of the Sun another of the Moon and Stars and one Star differeth from another in Glory As the Apostle speaks 1 Cor. 15. 45. And if there be a difference in Glory among the Stars themselves as to some degrees of the same Glory How much more is there between the Glory of the Sun and that of any Star whatever Such is the difference that is and will be unto Eternity between the Human Nature of Christ and what glorified Believers do attain unto But yet this is not that properly wherein the Glory of Christ in his Exaltation after his Humiliation and Death doth consist The Things that belong unto it may be reduced unto the ensuing Heads 1. IT consisteth in the Exaltation of the Human Nature as subsisting in the Divine Person above the whole Creation of God in Power Dignity Authority and Rule with all things that the Wisdom of God hath appointed to render the Glory of it illustrious I have so largely insisted on the Explication and Confirmation of this Part of the present Glory of Christ in the Exposition of Heb. 1. ver 2 3. that I have nothing more to add thereunto 2. IT doth so in the Evidence given of the Infinite Love of God the Father unto him and his delight in him with the Eternal Approbation of his Discharge of the Office committed unto him Hence he is said to sit at the right hand of God or at the right hand of the Majesty on high That the Glory and Dignity of Christ in his Exaltation is singular the highest that can be given to a Creature incomprehensible that he is with respect unto the Discharge of his Office under the eternal Approbation of God that as so gloriously exalted he is proclaimed unto the whole Creation are all contained in this Expression 3. HEREUNTO is added the full Manifestation of his own Divine Wisdom Love and Grace in the Work of Mediation and Redemption of the Church This Glory is absolutely singular and peculiar unto him Neither Angels or Men have the least Interest in it Here we see it darkly as in a Glass above it shines forth in its brightness to the eternal Joy of them who behold him THIS is that Glory which our Lord Jesus Christ in an especial manner prayed that his Disciples might behold This is that whereof we ought to endeavor a Prospect by Faith By Faith I say and not by Imagination Vain and foolish Men having general Notions of this Glory of Christ knowing nothing of the real Nature of it have endeavored to represent it in Pictures and Images with all that Lustre and Beauty with the Art of Painting with the Ornaments of Gold and Jewels can give them This is that Representation of the present Glory of Christ which being made and proposed unto the Imagination and carnal Affections of superstitious Persons carrieth such a shew of Devotion and Veneration in the Papal Church But they err not knowing the Scripture nor the eternal Glory of the Son of God THIS is the sole Foundation of all our Meditations herein The Glory that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the real actual Possession of in Heaven can be no otherwise seen or apprehended in this World but in the Light of Faith fixing it self on Divine Revelation To behold this Glory of Christ is not an Act of Fancy or Imagination It doth not consist in framing unto our selves the Shape of a glorious Person in Heaven But the steady Exercise of Faith on the Revelation and Description made of this Glory of Christ in the Scripture is the Ground Rule and Measure of all Divine Meditations thereon HEREON our Duty it is to call our selves to an Account as unto our Endeavor after a gracious View of this Glory of Christ When did we stedfastly behold it When had we such a View of it as wherein our Souls have been satisfied and refreshed It is declared and represented unto us as one of the chief Props of our Faith as an Help of our Joy as an Object of our Hope as a Ground of our Consolation as our greatest Encouragement unto Obedience and Suffering Are our Minds every day conversant with Thoughts hereof Or do we think our selves not much concerned herein Do we look upon it as that which is without us and above us as that which we shall have time enough to consider when we come to Heaven So is it with many They care neither where Christ is nor what he is so that one way or other they may be saved by him They hope as they pretend that they shall see him and his Glory in Heaven and that they suppose to be time enough But in vain do they pretend a Desire thereof in vain are their Expectations of any such thing They who endeavor not to behold the Glory of Christ in this World as hath been often said shall never behold him in glory hereafter unto their Satisfaction nor do they desire so to do Only they suppose it a part of that Relief which they would have when they are gone out of this World For what should beget such a Desire in them Nothing can do it but some View of it here by Faith which they despise or totally neglect Every Pretence of a Desire of Heaven and of the Presence of Christ therein that doth not arise from that is not resolved into that Prospect which we have of the Glory of Christin this World by Faith is mere Fancy and Imagination OUR constant Exercise in Meditation on this Glory of Christ will fill us with Joy on his Account which is an effectual Motive unto the Duty it self We are for the most part Selfish and look no farther than our own Concernments So we may be pardoned and saved by him we care not much how it is with himself but only presume it is well enough We find not any Concernment of our own therein But this Frame is directly opposite unto the Genius of Divine Faith and Love For their principal Actings consist in preferring Christ above our selves and our Concerns in him above all our own Let this then stir us up unto the Contemplation of this Glory Who is it that is thus exalted over all Who is thus encompassed with Glory Majesty and Power Who is it that sits down at the Right Hand of the Majesty on high all his Enemies being made his Foot-stool Is it not he who in this World was poor despised persecuted and slain all for our Sakes Is it not the same Jesus who loved us and gave himself for us and washed us in his own Blood So the Apostle told the Jews that the same Jesus whom they slew and hanged on a Tree God had exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour to give Repentance unto Israel and the forgiveness
of sins Act. 5. 30. 31. If we have any valuation of his Love if we have any concernment in what he hath done and suffered for the Church we cannot but rejoyce in his present State and Glory LET the World rage whilest it pleaseth let it set it self with all its Power and Craft against every thing of Christ that is in it which whatever is by some otherwise pretended proceeds from an hatred unto his Person Let Men make themselves drunk with the blood of his Saints we have this to oppose unto all their attempts unto our supportment Namely what he says of himself Fear not I am the first and the last he that liveth and was dead and behold I am alive for evermore and have the Keys of Hell and Death Rev. 1. 16 18. BLESSED Jesus We can add nothing to thee nothing to thy Glory but it is a Joy of heart unto us that thou art what thou art that thou art so gloriously exalted at the right hand of God and do long more fully and clearly to behold that Glory according to thy Prayer and Promise CHAP. VIII Representations of the Glory of Christ under the Old Testament IT is said of our Lord Jesus Christ that beginning at Moses and all the Prophets he declared unto his Disciples in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself Luk. 24. 27. It is therefore manifest that Moses and the Prophets and all the Scriptures do give Testimony unto him and his Glory This is the line of Life and Light which runs through the whole Old Testament without the conduct whereof we can understand nothing aright therein And the neglect hereof is that which makes many as blind in reading the Books of it as are the Jews the same vail being upon their minds It is Faith alone discovering the Glory of Christ that can remove that vail of darkness which covers the minds of men in reading the Old Testament as the Apostle declares 2 Cor. 3. 14 15 16. I shall therefore consider briefly some of those ways and means whereby the glory of Christ was represented unto Believers under the Old Testament 1. IT was so in the Institution of the Beautiful Worship of the Law with all the means of it Herein have they the Advantage above all the splendid Ceremonies that men can invent in the outward worship of God they were designed and framed in Divine Wisdom to represent the Glory of Christ in his Person and his Office This nothing of Human Invention can do or once pretend unto Men cannot create Mysteries nor give unto any thing natural in it self a Mystical signification But so it was in the Old Divine Institutions What were the Tabernacle and Temple What was the Holy Place with the Utensils of it What was the Oracle the Ark the Cherubims the Mercy-Seat placed therein What was the High-Priest in all his Vestments and Administrations What were the Sacrifices and annual sprinkling of Blood in the most Holy Place What was the most whole Systeme of their Religious Worship Were there any thing but Representations of Christ in the Glory of his Person and his Office They were a Shadow and the Body represented by that shadow was Christ. If any would see how the Lord Christ was in particular foresignified and represented in them he may peruse our Exposition on the ninth Chapter of the Epistle unto the Hebrews where it is handled so at large as that I shall not here again insist upon it The Sum is Moses was faithful in all the House of God for a Testimony of those things which were to be spoken afterwards Heb. 3. 5. All that Moses did in the erection of the Tabernacle and the institution of all its services was but to give an antecedent Testimony by way of Representation unto the Things of Christ that were aftewards to be revealed And that also was the substance of the Ministry of the Prophets 1 Pet. 1. 11 12. The dark apprehensions of the Glory of Christ which by these means they obtained were the life of the Church of Old 2. IT was represented in the Mystical Account which is given us of his Communion with his Church in Love and Grace As this is intimated in many places of Scripture so there is one entire Book designed unto its Declaration This is the Divine Song of Solomon who was a Type of Christ and a Penman of the Holy Ghost therein A Gracious Record it is of the Divine Communications of Christ in Love and Grace unto his Church with their returns of love unto him and delight in him And then may a man judge himself to have somewhat profited in the experience of the Mystery of a blessed entercourse and communion with Christ when the expressions of them in that holy Dialogue do give Light and Life unto his mind and efficaciously communicate unto him an experience of their power But because these things are little understood by many the book it self is much neglected if not despised Yea to such impudence have some arrived in foaming out their own shame as that they have ridiculed the expressions of it but we are foretold of such mockers in the last days that should walk after their own ungodly lusts they are not of our present consideration THE former Instance of the Representations of the Glory of Christ in their Institutions of outward Worship with this Record of the inward communion they had with Christ in Grace Faith and Love gives us the Substance of that view which they had of his Glory What holy strains of Delight and Admiration what Raptures of Joy what solemn and divine Complacency what ardency of Affection and Diligence in Attendance unto the means of enjoying communion with him this discovery of the Glory of Christ wrought in the souls of them that did believe is Emphatically expressed in that discourse A few days a few hours spent in the frame characterised in it is a Blessedness excelling all the treasures of the Earth and if we whose Revelations of the same Glory do far exceed theirs should be found to come short of them in Ardency of Affection unto Christ and continual holy Admiration of his excellencies we shall one day be judged unworthy to have received them 3. IT was so represented and made known under the Old Testament in his personal Appearances on various occacasions unto several Eminent Persons Leaders of the Church in their Generations This he did as a Praeludium to his Incarnation He was as yet God only but appeared in the assumed shape of a man to signifie what he would be He did not create an Human Nature and unite it unto himself for such a Season only by his Divine Power he acted the Shape of a Man composed of what AEtherial Substance he pleased immediately to be dissolved So he appeared to Abraham to Jacob to Moses to Joshua and others as I have at large elsewhere proved and confirmed And hereon also because he was the Divine Person who dwelt
of the Creation unto God bearing forth the Renovation of his Image in the World Herein the Lord Christ is and will be glorious unto all Eternity I only mention these things which deserve to be far more largely insisted on 3. HE doth the same by that actual Insitition or Implantation into himself which he gives us by Faith which is of his own Operation For hereon two Things do ensue one by the Grace or Power the other by the Law or Constitution of the Gospel which have a great Influence into this Mystical Communication of Christ unto the Church AND the first of these is that thereby there is communicated unto us and we do derive Supplies of spiritual Life Sustentation Motion Strength in Grace and Perseverance from him continually This is that which himself so divinely teacheth in the Parable of the Vine and its Branches Joh. 15. 1 2 3 4 5. Hereby is there a continual Communication from his All fulness of Grace unto the whole Church and all the Members of it unto all the Ends and Duties of spiritual Life They live nevertheless not they but Christ liveth in them and the Life which they lead in the Flesh is by the Faith of the Son of God And the other by vertue of the Law and Constitution of the Gospel is that hereon his Righteousness and all the Fruits of his Mediation are imputed unto us the Glory of which Mystery the Apostle unfolds Rom. 3. 4 5. I MIGHT add hereunto the mutual Inbeing that is between him and Believers by Love for the way of the Communication of his Love unto them being by the shedding of it abroad in their Hearts by the Holy Ghost and their returns of Love unto them being wrought in them by an Almighty Efficiency of the same Spirit there is that which is deeply mysterious and glorious in it I might mention also the Continuation of his Discharge of all his Offices towards us whereon all our Receptions from him or all the Benefits of his Mediation whereof we are made Partakers do depend But the few Instances that have been given of the Glory of Christ in this Mysterious Communication of himself unto his Church may suffice to give us such a View of it as to fill our Hearts with holy Admiration and Thanksgiving CHAP. XI The Glory of Christ in the Recapitulation of all things in him IN the last Place the Lord Christ is peculiarly and eminently glorious in the Re-capitulation of all things in him after they had been scattered and disordered by sin This the Apostle proposeth as the most signal Effect of Divine Wisdom and the soveraign Pleasure of God HE hath abounded towards us in all Wisdom and Prudence having made known unto us the Mystery of his Will according unto his good Pleasure which he hath purposed in himself That in the Dispensation of the fulness of time he might gather together in one all things in Christ both which are in the Heavens and which are on Earth even in him Ephes. 1. 8 9 10. FOR the Discovery of the Mind of the Holy Ghost in these Words so far as I am at present concerned namely as unto the Representation of the Glory of Christ in them sundry brief Observations must be premised and in them it will be necessary that we briefly declare the Original of all these things in Heaven and Earth their Primitive Order the Confusion that ensued thereon with their Restitution in Christ and his Glory thereby GOD alone hath all being in him Hence he gives himself that Name I AM Exod. 3. 14. He was eternally All when all things else that ever were or now are or shall be were nothing And when they are they are no otherwise but as they are of him and from him and to him Rom. 11. 36. Moreover his Being and Goodness are the same The Goodness of Good is the Meetness of the Divine Being to be communicative of it self in its Effects Hence this is the first Notion of the Divine Nature Infinite Being and Goodness in a Nature intelligent and self-subsistent So the Apostle declares it He that cometh unto God must believe that he is and that he is a Rewarder Heb. 11. 6. 2. IN this State of Infinite Eternal Being and Goodness antecedent unto any Act of Wisdom or Power without himself to give Existence unto other Things God was and is eternally in himself all that he will be all that he can be unto Eternity For where there is Infinite Being and Infinite Goodness there is Infinite Blessedness and Happiness whereunto nothing can be added God is always the same That is his Name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psal. 102. 27. Thou art he always the same All things that are make no addition unto God no change in his State His Blessedness Happiness Self-satisfaction as well as all other his Infinite Perfections were absolutely the same before the Creation of any thing whilst there was nothing but himself as they are since he hath made all things For the Blessedness of God consists in the Ineffable mutual Inbeing of the Three holy Persons in the same Nature with the immanent reciprocal Actings of the Father and the Son in the eternal Love and Complacency of the Spirit Hereunto nothing can be added herein no Change can be made by any external Work or Effect of Power Herein doth God act in the perfect Knowledge and perfect Love of his own Perfections unto an infinite Acquiescency therein which is the Divine Blessedness This gives us the true Notion of the Divine Nature antecedent unto the Manifestation of it made by any outward Effects Infinite Being and Goodness eternally blessed in the Knowledge and Enjoyment of it self by inconceivable ineffable internal Actings answering the manner of its Subsistence which is in three distinct Persons 3. THIS Being and Goodness of God by his own Will and Pleasure acting themselves in Infinite Wisdom and Power produced the Creation of all things Herein he communicated a finite limited dependent Being and Goodness unto other things without himself For all Being and Goodness being as was said in him alone it was necessary that the first outward Work and Effect of the Divine Nature must be the Communication of Being and Goodness into other things Wherefore as when he had given unto every thing its Being out of nothing by the Word of his Power saying Let them be and they were so it is said that he looked on all that he had made and behold they were exceeding good Gen. 1. last Being and Goodness must be the first outward Effects of the Divine Nature which being wrought by Infinite Power and Wisdom do represent unto us the Glory of God in the Creation of all things Infinite Being in Self-subsistence which is necessary in the first Cause and Spring of all things Infinite Goodness to communicate the Effect of this Being unto that which was not and Infinite Wisdom and Power in that Communication are gloriously manifested therein 4.
Eyes We know not here what power and spirituality there will be in the acts of our glorified Bodies Such they will be as shall bear a part in eternal Blessedness Holy Stephen the first Martyr took up somewhat of Glory by Anticipation before he died For when he was brought to his Tryal before the Council all that sate therein looking stedfastly on him saw his face as the face of an Angel Act. 6. 15. He had his Transfiguration according unto his measure answerable unto that of our Blessed Saviour in the Mount And by this initial Beam of Glory he received such a piercing vivacity and edge on his bodily eyes that through all those inconceivable distances between the earth and the residence of the Blessed he looked stedfastly into Heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God Act. 7. 55 56. Who then can declare what will be the power and acting of this sense of sight when perfectly glorified or what sweetness and refreshment may be admitted into our Souls thereby IT was a priviledge who would not have longed to partake of it to have seen him with our bodily eyes in the days of his flesh as did the Apostles and other his Disciples Howbeit he was not then glorified himself in the manifestation of his Glory nor they who saw him in the change or transformation of their nature How great this privilenge was himself declares unto those that so saw him Mat. 13. 17. Verily I say unto you that many Prophets and righteous Men have desired to see those things which ye see whereunto we shall speak immediately And if this were so excellent a priviledge as that we cannot but congratulate them by whom it was enjoyed how excellent how glorious will it be when with these eyes of ours gloriously purified and strengthned beyond those of Stephen we shall behold Christ himself immediately in the fulness of his Glory He alone perfectly understands the greatness and excellency hereof who prayed his Father that those who believe in him may be where he is so to behold his Glory THESE are some of the grounds of this first difference between our beholding the Glory of Christ by Faith here and by immediate Vision hereafter Hence the one is weak imperfect obscure reflexive the other direct immediate eaven and constant and we may stay a little in the contemplation of these things THIS view of the Glory of Christ which we have now spoken unto is that which we are breathing and panting after that which the Lord Christ prays that we may arrive unto that which the Apostle testifies to be our best the best thing or state which our nature is capable of that which brings eternal rest and satisfaction unto our Souls HERE our Souls are burthened with innumerable Infirmities and our Faith is clogged in its Operations by Ignorance and Darkness This makes our best estate and highest attainments to be accompanied with groans for deliverance We which have received the first fruits of the spirit even we our selves groan within our selves waiting for the Adoption even the redemption of the body Rom. 8. 23. Yea whilst we are in this Tabernacle we groan earnestly as being burthened because we are not absent from the body and present with the Lord 2 Cor. 5. 2 4 8. The more we grow in Faith and Spiritual Light the more sensible are we of our present burthens and the more vehemently do we groan for deliverance into the perfect liberty of the Sons of God This is the posture of their minds who have received the first fruits of the Spirit in the most eminent degree The nearer any one is to Heaven the more earnestly he desires to be there because Christ is there For the more frequent and steady are our views of him by faith the more do we long and groan for the removal of all obstructions and interpositions in our so doing Now groaning is a vehement desire mixed with sorrow for the present want of what is desired The desire hath sorrow and that sorrow hath joy and refreshment in it like a shower that falls on a Man in a Garden in the Spring it wets him but withall refresheth him with the Savor it causeth in the Flowers and Herbs of the Garden where he is And this groaning which when it is constant and habitual is one of the choicest effects of Faith in this life respects what we would be delivered from and what we would attain unto The first is expressed Rom. 7. 24. The other in the places now mentioned And this frame with an intermixture of some sighs from weariness by the troubles sorrows pains sicknesses of this life is the best we can here attain unto ALAS we cannot here think of Christ but we are quickly ashamed of and troubled at our own thoughts So confused are they so unsteady so imperfect Commonly they issue in a groan or a sigh Oh when shall we come unto him when shall we be ever with him when shall we see him as he is And if at any time he begins to give more than ordinary evidences and intimations of his Glory and Love unto our Souls we are not able to bear them so as to give them any abiding residence in our Minds But ordinarily this trouble and groaning is amongst our best attainments in this World a trouble which I pray God I may never be delivered from until deliverance do come at once from this state of mortality Yea the good Lord encrease this trouble more and more in all that believe THE heart of a believer affected with the Glory of Christ is like the Needle touched with the Loadstone It can no longer be quiet no longer be satisfied in a distance from him It is put into a continual motion towards him The motion indeed is weak and tremulous Pantings breathings sighings groanings in prayer in meditations in the secret recesses of our Minds are the life of it However it is continually pressing towards him But it obtains not its point it comes not to its center and rest in this World BUT now above all things are clear and serene all plain and evident in our beholding the Glory of Christ we shall be ever with him and see him as he is This is Heaven this is Blessedness this is Eternal Rest. THE Person of Christ in all his Glory shall be continually before us and the eyes of our understandings shall be so gloriously illuminated as that we shall be able steadily to behold and comprehend that Glory BUT alas here at present our Minds recoil our Meditations fail our Hearts are overcome our Thoughts confused and our Eyes turn aside from the Lustre of this Glory nor can we abide in the Contemplation of it But there an immediate constant view of it will bring in everlasting refreshment and joy unto our whole Souls THIS beholding of the Glory of Christ given him by his Father is indeed subordinate unto the ultimate vision of
sence withdrawn and that we do not behold his Glory We retain Notions of Truth concerning his Person Office and Grace but faith is not in constant exercise as to real views of him and his Glory For there is nothing more certain in Christian Experience than this is that while we do really by Faith behold the Glory of Christ as proposed in the Gospel the Glory of his Person and Office as before described and so abide in Holy Thoughts and Meditations thereof especially in our private Duties and Retirements all Grace will live and thrive in us in some measure especially love unto his Person and therein unto all that belongs unto him Let us but put it to the trial and we shall infallibly find the promised event DO any of us find decays in Grace prevailing in us deadness coldness lukewarmness a kind of Spiritual Stupidity and senseless coming upon us Do we find an unreadiness unto the exercise of Grace in its proper season and the vigorous actings of it in Duties of Communion with God And would we have our souls recovered from these dangerous diseases Let us assure our selves there is no better way for our healing and deliverance yea no other way but this alone namely the obtaining a fresh view of the Glory of Christ by faith and a steady abiding therein Constant contemplation of Christ and his Glory putting forth its transforming power unto the revival of all Grace is the only relief in this case as shall further be shewed afterwards SOME will say that this must be effected by fresh supplies and renewed communications of the Holy Spirit Unless he fall as dew and showers on our dry and barren hearts unless he causeth our Graces to spring thrive and bring forth fruit unless he revive and increase faith love and holiness in our souls our backslidings will not be healed nor our spiritual state be recovered Unto this end is he prayed for and promised in the Scripture see Cant. 4. 16. Isa. 44. 3 4. Ezek. 11. 19. chap. 36. 26. Hos. 14. 5 6. And so it is The immediate efficiency of the revival of our souls is from and by the Holy Spirit But the enquiry is in what way or by what means we may obtain the supplies and communications of him unto this end This the Apostle declares in the place insisted on We beholding the Glory of Christ in a Glass are changed into the same image from glory to glory even by the spirit of the Lord. It is in the exercise of Faith on Christ in the way before described that the Holy Spirit puts forth his renewing transforming Power in and upon our souls This therefore is that alone which will retrive Christians from their present decays and deadness SOME complain greatly of their State and Condition none so dead so dull and stupid as they They know not whether they have any spark of heavenly life left in them some make weak and faint endeavours for a recovery which are like the attempts of a man in a dream wherein he seems to use great endeavours without any success Some put themselves unto multiplied duties Howbeit the Generallity of Professors seem to be in a pining thriftless condition And the reason of it is because they will not sincerely and constantly make use of the only remedy and relief like a man that will rather chuse to pine away in his sickness with some useless transient refreshments than apply himself unto a known and approved remedy because it may be the use of it is unsuited unto some of his present occasions Now this is to live in the exercise of Faith in Christ Jesus This himself assures us of Joh. 15. 4 5. Abide in me and I in you As the branch cannot bear fruit of it self-except it abide in the vine no more can ye except you abide in me I am the vine ye are the branches he that abideth in me and I in him the same bringeth forth much fruit for without me ye can do nothing THERE is a twofold coming unto Christ by believing The first is that we may have life that is a spring and principle of spiritual life communicated unto us from him for he is our life Col. 3. 3. and because he liveth we live also Joh. 14. 19. Yea it is not so much we that live as he liveth in us Gal. 2. 1 9 20. And unbelief is a not coming unto him that we may have life Joh. 5. 40. But secondly there is also a coming unto him by believers in the actual exercise of Faith that they may have this life more abundantly Joh. 10. 10. That is such supplies of Grace as may keep their souls in a healthy vigorous acting of all the powers of spiritual life And as he reproacheth some that they would not come unto him that they might have life so he may justly reprove us all that we do not so come unto him in the actual exercise of Faith as that we might have this life more abundantly SECONDLY When the Lord Christ is near us and we do behold his Glory he will frequently communicate spiritual refreshment in peace consolation and joy unto our souls We shall not only hereby have our graces excited with respect unto him as their object but be made sensible of his actings towards us in the communications of himself and his love unto us When the Sun of Righteousness ariseth on any soul or makes any near approach thereunto it shall find healing under his Wings his beams of Grace shall convey by his spirit holy spiritual refreshment thereunto For he is present with us by his spirit and these are his fruits and effects as he is the Comforter suited unto his Office as he is promised unto us MANY love to walk in a very careless unwise profession So long as they can hold out in the performance of outward duties they are very regardless of the greatest Evangelical Priviledges of those things which are the marrow of divine Promises all real endeavours of a vital communion with Christ. Such are spiritual peace refreshing consolations ineffable joys and the blessed composure of assurance Without some taste and experience of these things profession is heartless lifeless useless and Religion it self a dead carcass without an animating soul. The peace which some enjoy is a meer stupidity They judge not these things to be real which are the substance of Christs present reward and a renunciation whereof would deprive the Church of its principal supportments and encouragements in all its sufferings It is a great evidence of the power of unbelief when we can satisfie our selves without an experience in our own hearts of the great things in this kind of Joy Peace Consolation Assurance that are promised in the Gospel For how can it be supposed that we do indeed believe the promises of things future namely of Heaven Immortality and Glory the faith whereof is the foundation of all Religion when we do not believe the
his Methods of Serpentine Subtilty and casts in his fiery Darts so to disquiet discompose and deject them as that they can retain no comfortable Views of Christ or his Glory Hence arise fears doubts disputes uncertainties with various Disconsolations Hereon they cannot apprehend the Love of Christ nor be sensible of any Interest they have therein or any refreshing perswasions that they are accepted with him If such things sometimes shine and beam into their Minds yet they quickly vanish and disappear Fears that they are rejected and cast off by him that he will not receive them here nor hereafter do come in their place hence are they filled with Anxieties and Despondencies under which it is impossible they should have any clear View of his Glory I KNOW that Ignorance Atheism and Obstinate Security in sensual Sins do combine to despise all these things But it is no new thing in the World that Men outwardly professing Christian Religion when they find gain in that Godliness should speak evil of the things which they know not and corrupt themselves in what they know naturally as bruit Beasts 2. WITH others he deals after another manner By various means he seduceth them into a careless Security wherein they promise Peace unto themselves without any diligent search into these things Hereon they live in a general presumption that they shall be saved by Christ although they know not how This makes the Apostle so earnest in pressing the Duty of self-examination on all Christians 2 Cor. 13. 5. Examine your selves whether you be in the Faith prove your own selves know you not your own selves that Christ is in you except you be reprobates The Rule of Self-judging prescribed by him is whether Christ be in us or no and in us he cannot be unless he be received by that Faith wherewith we behold his Glory For by Faith we receive him and by Faith he dwelleth in our hearts Joh. 1. 12. Eph. 3. 17. THIS is the principal way of his prevailing in the World Multitudes by his Seduction live in great security under the utmost neglect of these things Security is granted to be an Evil destructive of the Souls of Men but then it is supposed to consist only in Impenitency for great and open Sins but to be neglective of endeavouring an experience of the Power and Grace of the Gospel in our own Souls under a Profession of Religion is no less destructive and pernicious than impenitency in any course of sin THESE and the like Obstructions unto Faith in its Operations being added unto its own imperfections are another cause whence our View of the Glory of Christ in this World is weak and unsteady so that for the most part it doth but transiently affect our Minds and not so fully transform them into his likeness as otherwise it would IT is now time to consider that sight which we shall have of the Glory of Christ in Heaven in comparison of that which we have here below Now this is equal stable always the same without interruption or diversion And this is evident both in the causes or means of it as also in our perfect Deliverance from every thing that might be an hindrance in it or an obstrunction unto it 1. WE may consider the state of our minds in Glory The faculties of our Souls shall then be made perfect Heb. 12. The Spirits of just Men made perfect 1. Freed from all the clogs of the flesh and all its influence upon them and restraint of their Powers in their Operations 2. Perfectly purified from all Principles of instability and variety of all Inclinations unto things Sensual and Carnal and all Contrivances of Self-preservation or Advancement being wholly transformed into the Image of God in spirituality and holiness And to take in the state of our Bodies after the Resurrection even they also in all their Powers and Senses shall be made entirely subservient unto the most spiritual actings of our Minds in their highest Elevation by the Light of Glory Hereby shall we be enabled and fitted eternally to abide in the Contemplation of the Glory of Christ with joy and satisfaction The understanding shall be always perfected with the Vision of God and the Affections cleave inseparably to him which is Blessedness THE very essential faculties of our Souls in that way and manner of working which by their Union with our Bodies they are confined unto are not able to comprehend and abide constantly in the Contemplation of this Glory So that though our sight of it here be dim and imperfect and the proposal of it obscure yet from the weakness of our minds we are forced sometimes to turn aside from what we do discern as we do our bodily eyes from the beams of the Sun when it shines in its brightness But in this perfect State they are able to behold and delight in this Glory constantly with eternal satisfaction BUT as for me saith David I will behold thy face in Righteousness I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness Psal. 17. 15. It is Christ alone who is the Likeness and Image of God When we awake in the other World with our Minds purified and rectified the beholding of him shall be always satisfying unto us There will be then no Satiety no Weariness no Indispositions but the Mind being made perfect in all its faculties powers and operations with respect unto its utmost end which is the enjoyment of God is satisfied in the beholding of him for evermore And where there is perfect satisfaction without Satiety there is blessedness for ever So the Holy Spirit affirms of the four living Creatures in the Revelation They rest not day nor night saying holy holy holy Lord God Almighty Chap. 4. 8. They are continually exercised in the Admiration and Praises of God in Christ without weariness or interruption Herein shall we be made like unto Angels 2. AS our Minds in their essential powers and Faculties shall be enabled to comprehend and acquiesce in this Glory of Christ so the means or instrument of the beholding of it is much more excellent than Faith and in its kind absolutely perfect as hath in part been before declared This is vision or sight Here we walk by Faith there by Sight And this Sight is not an external aid like a Glass helping the weakness of the visive faculty to see things afar off but it is an internal power or an act of the internal power of our Minds wherewith they are endowed in a glorified state Hereby we shall be able to see him face to face to see him as he is in a direct comprehension of his Glory for this sight or visive power shall be given us for this very end namely to enable us so to do Hereunto the whole Glory of Christ is clear perspicuous and evident which will give us eternal Acquiescency therein Hence shall our sight of the Glory of Christ be invariable and always the same 2. THE Lord
expeperience of it in the Minds of Men carnal and ignorant of the mystery of believing as it is at present by many derided tho it be the life of Religion Fancy and Superstition provided various supplies in the room of it For they found out Crucifixes and Images with Paintings to represent him in his Sufferings and Glory By these things their carnal Affections being excited by their outward Senses they suppose themselves to be affected with him and to be like unto him Yea some have proceeded so far as either by Arts Diabolical or by other means to make an appearance of wounds on their hands and feet and sides therein pretending to be like him yea to be wholly transformed into his Image But that which is produced by an Image is but an Image an imaginary Christ will effect nothing in the Minds of Men but imaginary Grace THUS Religion was lost and died When Men could not obtain any experience in their Minds of the spiritual Mysteries of the Gospel nor be sensible of any spiritual Change or Advantage by them they substituted some outward Duties and Observances in their stead as I shall shew God willing elsewhere more at large These produced some kind of effects on their Minds and Affections but quite of another nature than those which are the real effects of true Evangelical Grace This is openly evident in this substitution of Images instead of the representation of Christ and his Glory made in the Gospel HOWEVER there is a general Supposition granted on all hands namely that there must be a View of Christ and his Glory to cause us to love him and thereby to make us conformable or like unto him But here lies the difference those of the Church of Rome say that this must be done by the beholding of Crucifixes with other Images and Pictures of him and that with our bodily eyes We say it is by our beholding his Glory by Faith as revealed in the Gospel and no otherwise And to confess the Truth we have some who as they reject the use of Images so they despise that spiritual View of the Glory of Christ which we enquire after Such Persons on the first occasion will fall on the other side For any thing is better than nothing BUT as we have a sure word of Prophesie to secure us from these abominations by an express prohibition of such Images unto all ends whatever so unto our stability in the profession of the Truth and experience of the efficacy of this Spiritual View of Christ transforming our Souls into his own likeness is absolutely necessary For if an Idolater should plead as they do all that in the beholding of the Image of Christ or of a Crucifix especially if they are sedulous and constant therein they find their Affections unto him greatly excited increased and inflamed as they will be Isa. 57. 5. and that hereon he endeavours to be like unto him what shall we have to oppose thereunto For it is certain that such Images are apt to make impressions on the Minds of Men partly from the readiness of the senses and imagination to give them admittance into their thoughts and partly from their natural inclinations unto superstition their aversation from things spiritual and invisible with an inclination unto things present and visible Hence among them who are satisfied that they ought not to be adored with any Religious Veneration yet some are apt upon the sight of them to entertain a thoughtful Reverence as they would do if they were to enter into a Pagan Temple full of Idols and others are continually making approaches towards their use and veneration in Paintings and Altars and such outward postures of Worship as are used in the Religious Service of them But that they do sensibly affect the Minds of Men carnal and superstitious cannot be denyed and as they suppose it is a love unto Christ himself However certain it is in general and confessed on all hands that the beholding of Christ is the most blessed means of exciting all our Graces spiritualizing all our Affections and transforming our Minds into his likeness And if we have not another and that a more excellent way of beholding him than they have who behold him as they suppose in Images and Crucifixes they would-seem to have the advantage of us For their Minds will really be affected with somewhat ours with nothing at all And by the pretence thereof they inveagle the carnal affections of Men ignorant of the Power of the Gospel to become their Proselytes For having lived it may be a long time without any the least experience of a sensible impression on their Minds or a transforming power from the Representation of Christ in the Gospel upon their very first Religious Devout Application unto these Images they find their Thoughts exercised their Minds affected and some present change made upon them BUT there was a difference between the Person of David and an Image with a bolster of Goats Hair though the one were laid in the room and place of the other And there is so between Christ and an Image though the one be put into the place of the other Neither do these things serve unto any other end but to divert the Minds of Men from Faith and Love to Christ giving them some such satisfactions in the room of them as that their carnal Affections do cleave unto their Idols And indeed it doth belong unto the Wisdom of Faith or we stand in need of spiritual Light to discern and judge between the working of natural Affections towards spiritual Objects on undue motives by undue means with indirect ends wherein all Papal Devotion consists and the spiritual Exercise of Grace in those Affections duely fixed on spiritual Objects BUT as was said it is a real experience of the Efficacy that there is in the spiritual beholding of the Glory of Christ by Faith as proposed in the Gospel to strengthen encrease and excite all Grace unto its proper exercise so changing and transforming the Soul gradually into his likeness which must secure us against all those Pretences and so I return from this Digression HEREBY we may understand whether the Lord Christ doth so withdraw himself as that we do not as that we cannot behold his glory by Faith in a due manner which is the thing enquired after For if we grow weak in our Graces unspiritual in our Frames cold in our Affections or negligent in the exercise of them by holy Meditation it is evident that he is at a great distance from us so as that we do not behold his Glory as we ought If the weather grow cold Herbs and Plants do whither and the Frost begins to bind up the earth all men grant that the Sun is withdrawn and makes not its wonted approach unto us And if it be so with our Hearts that they grow cold frozen withering lifeless in and unto spiritual Duties it is certain that the Lord Christ is in some