nothing stands in need of nothing nothing can be added unto him seeing he giveth unto all Life and Breath and all things 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-â—ufficiency 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-umiliation 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 the Father as unto all Divine Operations My Father saith he worketh hitherto and I work Joh. 5. 17 18. And they by whom his Divine Nature is denied do cast this Condescention of Christ quite out of our Religion as that which hath no Reality or Substance in it But we shall speak of them afterwards BEING in this state it is said that he took on him the form of a servant and was found in fashion as a Man ver 7. This is his Condescention It is not said that he ceased to be in the Form of God but continuing so to be he took on him the form of a Servant in our Nature He became what he was not but he ceased not to be what he was so he testifieth of himself Joh. 3. 13. No man hath ascended up into heaven but he that came down from heaven the Son of man which is in heaven Although he was then on Earth as the Son of Man yet he ceased not to be God thereby in his Divine Nature he was then also in Heaven HE who is God can no more be not God than he who is not God can be God And our difference with the Socinians herein is we believe that Christ being God was made Man for our Sakes they say that being only a Man he was made a God for his own sake THIS then is the foundation of the Glory of Christ in this Condescention the Life and Soul of all heavenly Truth and Mysteries namely that the Son of God becoming in time to be what he was not the Son of Man ceased not thereby to be what he was even the Eternal Son of God Wherefore 2. MUCH less did this Condescention consist in the Conversion of the Divine Natura into the Humane which was the Imagination of some of the Arians of old and we have yet to my own knowledg some that follow them in the same Dotage They say that the Word which was in the Beginning by which all things were made being in it self an Effect of the Divine Will and Power was in the fulness of time turned into Flesh that is the Substance of it was so as the Water in the Miracle wrought by our Saviour was turned into Wine for by an Act of the Divine Power of Christ it ceased to be Water substantially and was Wine only not Water mixed with Wine So these Men suppose a Substantial Change of the one Nature into the other of the divine Nature into the humane like what the Papists imagine in their Trasubstantiation So they say God was made Man his Effence being turned into that of a Man BUT this no way belongs unto the Condescention of Christ. We may call it Ichabod it hath no Glory in it It destroys both his Natures and leaves him a Person in whom we are not concerned For according unto this Imagination that Divine Nature wherein he was in the Form of God did in its own Form cease to be yea was utterly destroyed as being substantially changed into the Nature of Man as the Water did cease to be when it was turned into Wine and that humane Nature which was made thereof hath no Alliance or Kindred unto us or our Nature seeing it was not made of a Woman but of the Substance of the Word 3. THERE was not in this Condescention the least Change or Alteration in the Divine Nature Eutiches and those that followed him of old conceived that the two Natures of Christ the Divine and Humane were mixed and compounded as it were into one And this could not be without an Alteration in the divine Nature for it would be made to be essentially what it was not for one Nature hath but one and the same Essence BUT as we said before altho the Lord Christ himself in his Person was made to be what he was not before in that our Nature hereby was made to be his yet his Divine Nature was not so There is in it neither variableness nor shadow of turning It
not change it into a thing Divine and Spiritual but preserved it entire in all its Essential Properties and Actings Hence it really did and suffered was tried tempted and forsaken as the same Nature in any other Man might do and be That Nature as it was peculiarly his and therefore he or his Person therein was exposed unto all the temporary Evils which the same Nature is subject unto in any other Person THIS is a short general View of this incomprehensible Condescention of the Son of God as it is described by the Apostle Pil. 2. 5 6 7 8. And this is that wherein in an especial manner we are to behold the Glory of Christ by Faith whilst we are in this World BUT had we the Tongue of Men and Angles we were not able in just measure to express the Glory of this Condescention For it is the most ineffable Effect of the Divine Wisdom of the Father and of the Love of the Son the highest Evidence of the Care of God towards Mankind What can be equal unto it What can be like it It is the Glory of Christian Religion and the animating Soul of all Evangelical Truth This carryeth the Mystery of the Wisdom of God above the Reason or Understanding of Men and Angels to be the Object of Faith and Admiration only A Mystery it is that becomes the Greatness of God with his Infinite Distance form the whole Creation which renders it unbecoming him that all his Ways and Works should be comprehensible by any of his Creatures Job 11. 4 5 9. Rom. 11. 34 35 36. HE who was eternally in the Form of God that is was essentially so God by Nature equally participant of the same Divine Nature with God the Father God over all blessed for ever who humbleth himself to behold the things that are in Heaven and Earth he takes on him the Nature of Man takes it to be his own whereby he was no less truly a Man in time than he was truly God from Eternity And to encrease the Wonder of this Mystery because it was necessary unto the end the designed he so humbled himself in this Assumption of our Nature as to make himself of no Reputation in this World yea unto that Degree that he said of himself that he was a Worm and no Man in comparison of them who were of any Esteem WE speak of these things in a poor low broken manner We teach them as they are revealed in the Scripture We labour by Faith to adhere unto them as revealed But when we come into a steady direct View and Consideration of the thing it self our Minds fail our Hearts tremble and we can find no rest but in an Holy Admiration of what we cannot comprehend Here we are at a loss and know that we shall be so whilst we are in this World But all the ineffable Fruits and Benefits of this Truth are communicated unto them that do believe IT is with reference hereunto that that great Promise concerning him is given unto the Church Isa. 8. 14. He shall be for a Sanctuary namely unto all that believe as it is expounded 1 Pet. 2. 8. but for a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence even to them that stumble at the Word being disobedient whereunto also they were appointed HE is herein a Sanctuary an assured Refuge unto all that betake themselves unto him What is it that any Man in distress who flies thereunto may look for in a Sanctuary A Supply of all his Wants a Deliverance from all his Fears a Defence against all his Dangers is proposed unto him therein Such is the Lord Christ herein unto sin-distressed Souls he is a Refuge unto us in all spiritual Distresses and Disconsolations Heb. 6. 18. See the Exposition of the Place Are we or any of us burdened with a Sense of Sin Are we perplexed with Temptations Are we bowed down under the Oppression of any Spiritual Adversary Do we on any of these accounts walk in Darkness and have no Light One View of the Glory of Christ herein is able to support us and relieve us UNTO whom we betake our selves for Relief in any case we have regard to nothing but their Will and their Power If they have both we are sure of Relief And what shall we fear in the Will of Christ as unto this end What will he not do for us He who thus emptied and humbled himself who so infinitely condescended from the Prerogative of his Glory in his Being and Self-sufficiency in the Susception of our Nature for the Discharge of the Office of a Mediator on our Behalf will he not relieve us in all our Distresses Will he not do all for us we stand in need of that we may be eternally saved Will he not be a Sanctuary unto us NOR have we hereon any Ground to fear his Power For by this infinite Condescention to be a suffering Man he lost nothing of his Power as God Omnipotent nothing of his Infinite Wisdom or glorious Grace He could still do all that he could do as God from Eternity If there be any thing therefore in a Coalescency of Infinite Power with Infinite Condescention to constitute a Sanctuary for distressed Sinners it is all in Christ Jesus And if we see him not glorious herein it is because there is no Light of Faith in us THIS then is the Rest wherewith we may cause the weary to rest and this is the Refreshment Herein is he an hiding place from the Wind and a Covert from the Tempest as Rivers of Water in a dry place and as the shadow of a great Rock in a weary Land Hereon he says I have satiated the weary soul and have refreshed every sorrowful soul. Under this Consideration it is that in all Evangelical Promises and Invitations for coming to him he is proposed unto distressed Sinners as their only Sanctuary HEREIN he is a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence unto the unbelieving and disobedient who stumble at the Word They cannot they will not see the Glory of this Condescention they neither desire nor labour so to do yea they hate it and despise it Christ in it is a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence unto them Wherefore they chuse rather utterly to deny his Divine Person than allow that he did thus abase himself for our Sakes Rather than they will own this Glory they will allow him no Glory A Man they say he was and no more and this was his Glory This is that Principle of Darkness and Unbelief which works effectually at this day in the Minds of many They think it an absurd thing as the Jews did of old that he being a man should be God also or on the other hand that the Son of God should thus condescend to take our Nature on him This they can see no Glory in no Relief no Refuge no Refreshment unto their souls in any of their Distresses Therefore do they deny his Divine
Entrance into Dust and Darkness is no way to be compared with what is to ensue Eternal Distress lies at the Door But yet look up once more and behold me that thou mayest have some Glymps of what is in the Designs of Infinite Wisdom Love and Grace Come forth from thy vain Shelter thy hiding Place I will put my self into thy Condition I will undergo and bear that Burthen of Guilt and Punishment which would sink thee eternally into the bottom of Hell I will pay that which I never took and be made temporally a Curse for thee that thou mayest attain unto Eternal Blessedness To the same purpose he speaks unto convinced Sinners in the Invitation he gives them to come unto him THUS is the Lord Christ set forth in the Gospel evidently crucified before our Eyes Gal. 3. 1. Namely in the Representation that is made of his Glory in the Suffering he underwent for the Discharge of the Office he had undertaken Let us then behold him as poor despised persecuted reproached reviled hanged on a Tree in all labouring under a Sense of the Wrath of God due unto our Sins Unto this End are they recorded in the Gospel read preached and represented unto us But what can we see herein What Glory is in these things Are not these the things which all thâ— World of Jews and Gentiles stumbled and took Offence at Those wherein he was appointed to be a Stone of stumbling and a Rock of offence Was it not esteemed a foolish thing to look for Help and Deliverance by the Miseries of another To look for Life by his Death The Apostle declares at large that such it was esteemed 1 Cor. 1. So was it in the Wisdom of the World But even on the Account of these things is he Honorable Glorious and Precious in the sight of them that do believe 1 Pet. 2. 6 7. For even herein he was the Wisdom of God and the Power of God 1 Cor. 1. 24. And the Apostle declares at large the Grounds and Reasons of the different Thoughts and Apprehensions of Men concerning the Cross and Sufferings of Christ 2 Cor. 4. 3 4 5 6. CHAP. VII The Glory of Christ in his Exaltation after the Accomplishment of the Work of Mediation in this World WE may in the next Place behold the Glory of Christ with respect unto his Office in the Actings of God towards him which ensued on his Discharge of it in this World in his own Exaltation THESE are the two Heads whereunto all the Prophesies and Predictions concerning Jesus Christ under the Old Testament are referred namely his Sufferings and the Glory that ensued thereon 1 Pet. 1. 11. All the Prophets testified beforehand of the Sufferings of Christ and the Glory that should follow So when he himself opened the Scriptures unto his Disciples he gave them this as the Sum of the Doctrine contained in them Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter unto his Glory Luk. 24. 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 behelâ— him here as a poor sorrowful persecuted Man dying on the Cross câ—me to 〈…〉 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 surmise 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 Essential 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 his 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
this mutual Dependency on and Supplies unto one another they all depend on and are influenced from God himself the Eternal Fountain of Being Power and Goodness He hears the Heavens and in the Continuation of this Order by constant Divine Communication of Being Goodness and Power unto all Things God is no less glorified than in the first Creation of them Act. 14. 15 16 17. Chap. 17. 24 25 26 27 28 29. 5. THIS Glory of God is visible in the Matter of it and is obvious unto the Reason of Mankind for from his Works of Creation and Providence they may learn his Eternal Power and Godhead wherein he is essentially glorious 6. BUT by this divine Communication God did not intend only to glorifie himself in the essential Properties of his Nature but his Existence also in Three Persons of Father Son and Spirit For although the whole Creation in its first framing and in its Perfection was and is by an Emanation of Power and Goodness from the Divine Nature in the Person of the Father as he is the Fountain of the Trinity whence he is said peculiarly to be the Creator of all things yet the immediate Operation in the Creation was from the Son the Power and Wisdom of the Father Joh. 1. 1 2 3. Col. 1. 16. Heb. 1. 3. And as upon the first Production of the Mass of the Creation it was under the especial care of the Spirit of God to preserve and cherish it unto the production of all distinct sorts of Creatures Gen. 1. 2. So in the Continuance of the whole there is an especial Operation of the same Spirit in all things Nothing can subsist one Moment by vertue of the Dependance which all things have on one another without a continual Emanation of Power from him see Psal. 104. 29 30. BY these divine Communications in the production and preservation of the Creature doth God manifest his Glory and by them alone in the way of Nature he doth so and without them although he would have been for ever essentially glorious yet was it impossible that his Glory should be known unto any but himself Wherefore on these divine Communications doth depend the whole Maninifestation of the Glory of God But this is far more eminent though not in the outward Effects of it so visible in the new Creation as we shall see 1. ALL Goodness Grace Life Light Mercy and Power which are the Springs and Causes of the New Creation are all originally in God in the divine Nature and that infinitely and essentially In them is God eternally or essentially glorious and the whole Design of the New Creation was to manifest his Glory in them by external Communications of them and from them 2. THE first Communication of and from these things is made unto Christ as the Head of the Church For in the first place it pleased God that in him should all the fulness of these things dwell so as that the whole New Creation might consist in him Col. 1. 17 18 19. And this was the first Egress of divine Wisdom for the Manifestation of the Glory of God in these holy Properties of his Nature For 3. THIS Communication was made unto him as a Repository and Treasury of all that Goodness Grace Life Light Power and Mercy which were necessary for the Constitution and Preservation of the New Creation They were to be laid up in him to be hid in him to dwell in him and from him to be communicated unto the whole Mystical Body designed unto him that is the Church And this is the first Emanation of divine Power and Wisdom for the Manifestation of his Glory in the New Creation This Constitution of Christ as the Head of it and the Treasuring up in him all that was necessary for its Production and Preservation wherein the Church is chosen and preordained in him unto Grace and Glory is the Spring and Fountain of divine Glory in the Communications that ensue thereon 4. THIS Communication unto Christ is 1. Unto his Person and then 2. With respect unto this Office It is in the Person of Christ that all Fulness doth originally dwell On the Assumption of human Nature into personal Union with the Son of God all Fulness dwells in him bodily Col. 2. 9. And thereon receiving the Spirit in all Fulness and not by Measure all the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge were hid in him Col. 2. 3. and he was filled with the unsearchable Riches of Divine Grace Ephes. 3. 8 9 10 11. And the Office of Christ is nothing but the way appointed in the Wisdom of God for the Communication of the Treasures of Grece which were communicated unto his Person This is the end of the whole Office of Christ in all the parts of it as he is a Priest a Prophet and a King They are I say nothing but the Ways appointed by infinite Wisdom for the Communication of the Grace laid up in his Person unto the Church The transcendent Glory hereof we have in some weak measure enquired into 5. THE Decree of Election prepared if I may so say the Mass of the New Creation In the oldâ— Creation God first prepared and created the Mass or Matter of the whole which afterwards by the Power of the holy Spirit was formed into all the distinct Beings whereof the whole Creation was to consist and animated according to their distinct Kinds AND in order unto the Production and Perfecting of the Work of the new Creation God did from Eternity in the holy purpose of his Will prepare and in design set apart unto himself that Portion of Mankind whereof it was to consist Hereby they were only the peculiar Matter that was to be wrought upon by the Holy Ghost and the glorious Fabrick of the Church erected out of it What was said it may be of the Natural Body by the Psalmist is true of the Mystical Body of Christ which is principally intended Psal. 139. 15 16. My substance was not hid from thee when I was made in secret and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth Thine eyes did see my substance yet being imperfect and in thy Book all my members were written which in continuance were fashioned when as yet there was none of them The substance of the Church whereof it was to be formed was under the Eye of God as proposed in the Decree of Election yet was it as such imperfect It was not formed or shaped into Members of the Mystical Body But they were all written in the Book of Life And in pursuance of the Purpose of God there they are by the holy Spirit in the whole course and continuance of time in their several Generations fashioned into the Shape designed for them 6. THIS therefore is herein the glorious Order of divine Communications From the infinite eternal Spring of Widsom Grace Goodness and Love in the Father all the Effects whereof unto his end were treasured up in the Person and
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 〈◊〉 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 â—hat 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 Job speaks so may we Behold I go forward but he is not there and backward but I cannoâ— 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 Visivé 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 us We shall no longer have an Image a Representation of him such as is the delineation of his Glory in the Gospel We shall see him saith the Apostle face to face 1 Cor. 13. 12. which he opposeth unto our seeing him darkly as in a glass which is the utmost that faith can attain to We shall see him as he is 1 Joh. 3. 2 not as now in an imperfect description of him As a man sees his neighbour when they stand and converse together face to face So shall we see the Lord Christ in his glory and not as Moses who had only a transient sight of some parts of the Glory of God when he caused it to pass by him THERE will be use herein of our bodily eyes as shall be declared For as Job says in our Flesh shall we see our Redeemer and our eyes shall behold him Chap. 19. 25 26 27. That corporeal sence shall not be restored unto us and that glorified above what we can conceive but for this great use of the eternal beholding of Christ and his Glory Unto whom it is not a matter of rejoycing that with the same eyes wherewith they see the tokens and signs of him in the Sacrament of the Supper they shall behold himself immediately in his own person But principally as we shall see immediately this vision is intellectual It is not therefore the meer Human Nature of Christ that is the object of it but his Divine Person as that nature subsisteth therein What is that perfection which we shall have for that which is perfect must come and do away that which is in part in the comprehension of the hypostatical Vnion I understand not but this I know that in the immediate beholding of the Person of Christ we shall see a glory in it a thousand times above what here we can conceive The excellencies of Infinite Wisdom Love and Power therein will be continually before us And all the glories of the Person of Christ which we have before weakly and faintly enquired into will be in our sight for evermore HENCE the ground and cause of our Blessedness is that we shall be ever with the Lord 1 Thes. 4. 17. As himself prays that we may be with him where he is to behold his glory Here we have some dark views of it we cannot perfectly behold it until we are with him where he is Thereon our sight of him will be direct intuitive and constant THERE is a glory there will be so subjectively in us in the beholding of this glory of Christ which is at present incomprehensible For it doth not yet appear what we our selves shall be 1 John 3. 2. Who can declare what a glory it will be in us to behold this Glory of Christ And how excellent then is that glory of Christ it self THIS immediate sight of Christ is that which all the Saints of God in this life do breath and pant after Hence are they willing to be dissolved or desire to depart that they may be with Christ which is best for them Phil. 1. 23. They chuse to be absent from the body and present with the Lord 2 Cor. 5. 8. Or that they may enjoy the inexpressibly longed for sight of Christ in his glory Those who do not so long for it whose souls and minds are not frequently visited with earnest desires after it unto whom the thoughts of it are not their relief in Trouble and their chiefest Joy are carnal blind and cannot see afar off He that is truly spiritual entertains and refresheth himself with thoughts hereof continually 2. IT will be so from that Visive Power or faculty of beholding the Glory of Christ which we shall then receive Without this we cannot see him as he is When he was transfigured in the Mount and had on his Human Nature some reflections of his Divine Glory his Disciples that were with him were rather amazed than refreshed by it Mat. 17. 4. They saw his glory but spake thereon
he had therein neither form nor comelinesâ— that he should be desired his visage was so marred more than any Man and his form more than the sons of men Isa. 52. 14. Chap. 53. 2 3. All things appeared in him as became a Man of Sorrows Nor 3. Was it absolutely the Eternal Essential Glory of his Divine Nature that is intended For this no Man can see in this World What we shall attain in a view thereof hereafter we know not But 4. It was his Glory as he was full of Grace and Truth They saw the Glory of his Person and his Office in the Administration of Grace and Truth And how or by what means did they see this Glory of Christ It was by Faith and no otherwise For this Priviledge was granted unto them only who received him and believed on his name ver 12. This was that Glory which the Baptist saw when upon his coming unto him he said unto all that were present Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the Sin of the World Joh. 1. 29 30 31 32 33. WHEREFORE let no Man deceive himself He that hath no Sight of the Glory of Christ here shall never have any of it hereafter unto his Advantage It is not therefore unto Edification to discourse of Beholding the Glory of Christ in Heaven by vision until we go through a tryal whether we see any thing of it in this World by Faith or no. 2ly THE beholâ—ing of Christ in Glory is that which in it self is too High Illustrious and Marvellous for us in our present condition It hath a splendor and glory too great for our present Spiritual visible faculty as the direct immediate sight of the Sun darkens our sight and doth not relieve or strengthen it at all Wherefore we have no way to take into our minds any true Spiritual Apprehensions of the Nature of Immediate Vision or what it is to see the Glory of Christ in Heaven but by that View which we have by Faith in this life of the same Glory Whatever otherwise falls into our Minds is but conjecture and imagination Such as are the Contemplations of most about Heavenly things I have seen and read somewhat of the Writings of of Learned Men concerning the state of future glory some of them are filled with excellent Nations of Truth and Elegancy of Speech whereby they cannot but much affect the minds of them who duely consider what they say But I know not well whence it comes to pass many complain that in reading of such discourses they are like a Man who behold his natural face in a Glass and immediately forgets what manner of Man he was as one of old complained to the same purpose upon his perusal of Plato's contemplations about the Immortality of the Soul The things spoken do not abide nor Incorporate with our minds They please and refresh for a little while like a showre of Rain in 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 Faish 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 Galleries Caut. 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 noâ— 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
invisible God Col. 1. 1◠I do here only mention these things because I have handled them at large in my Discourse of the Mistery of 〈◊〉 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. ◠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 beheld 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 Vnbelief 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 consequently all the other holy Properties of his Nature in Christ is to be an Unbeliever THE Essence of Faith consists in a due Ascription 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 in the 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 Excellencies 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 Judgment 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 maxed 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 unto them This is 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 Vniversal 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 Nations 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 as those described we are the Posterity and Off-spring Our Fore-fathers in this Nation were given up unto as brutish a service of the Devil as any Nation under the Sun It is therefore an effect of infinite mercy that the day hath dawned on us poor Gentiles and that the day-spring from on high hath visited us See the glory of this Grace expressed Ephes. 3. 5 6 7 8 9 10. God might have left us to perish in the blindness and ignorance of our Fore-fathers but of his own accord and by his own powerful Grace alone he hath translated us out of darkness into his marvellous light But alas the horrible ingratitude of men for the glorious light of the Gospel and the abuse of it will issue in a fore revenge GOD was known under the Old Testament by the Revelation of his Word and the Institution of his Worship This was the glory and priviledge of Israel as the Psalmist declares Psal. 147. 19 20. He sheweth his word unto Jacob his statutes and his judgments unto Israel He hath not dealâ— so with any Nation The Church then knew him yet so as that they had an apprehension that he dwelt in thick darkness where they could not have any clear views of him Exod. 20. 21. Deut. 5. 22. 1 Kings 8. 12. 2 Chron. 6. 1. And the Reason why God so represented himself in darkness unto them was to instruct them in their imperfect state wherein they could not comprehend that glory which should afterwards be revealed For as he is now made known in Christ we see that he is light and in him there is no darkness at all 4. HITHERTOâ— darkness in general covered the Earth and gross darkness the people as unto the knowledge of God only there was a twilight in the Church The day did not yet dawn the shadows did not flee away nor the day-star shine in the hearts of men But when the Son of Righteousness did arise in his strength and beauty when the Son of God appeared in the flesh and in the discharge of his Office God himself as unto his Being and manner of Existence in three distinct persons with all the glorious properties of the Divine Nature were illustriously manifested unto them that did believe and the light of the knowledge of them dispelled all the shadows that were in the Church and shone into the darkness which was in the world so as that none continued ignorant of God but those who would not see See Job 1. 5 14 17 18. 2 Cor. 4. 3 4. HEREIN is the Lord Christ glorious And this is that which I shall now speak unto namely How we may behold the glory of Christ in the Representation and Revelation that is made of God and his glory in his Person and Office unto all that do believe For it is not so much the declaration of the nature of the things themselves wherein the glory of Christ doth consist as our way and duty in the beholding of them which at present is designed HE calls unto us saying Behold me look unto me and be saved Isa. 45. 2. What is it that we see in Christ What do we behold in him He asketh that Question concerning his Church What will ye see in the Shulamite Whereto he answers as it were the company of two armies Cant. 6. 13. or the Two Churches of the Old and New Testament in order and beauty We may enquire What shall we what do we see in him Do we see him as the Image of the invisible God representing him his Nature Properties and Will unto us Do we see him as the Character the express Image of the Person of the Father so as that we have no need of Philip's Request Lord shew us the Father because having seen him we have seen the Father also John 14. 9. THIS is our first saving view of Christ the first instance of our beholding his glory by faith So to see him as to see God in him is to behold his glory for herein
is he eternally glorious And this is that Glory whose view we ought to long for and labour after And if we see it not we are yet in darkness yea tho' we say we see we are blind like others So David longed and prayed for it when yet he could behold it only in Types and Shadows Psal. 63. 1 2. O God thou art my God early will I seek thee my soul thirsteth for thee my flesh longeth for thee to see thy power and thy glory so as I have seen them in the sanctuary For there was in the Sancturay an obscure representation of the Glory of God in Christ. How much more should we prize that view of it which we may have with open face tho' yet as in a glass 2 Cor. 3. 18. MOSES when he had seen the Works of God which were great and marvellous yet found not himself satisfied therewith Wherefore after all he prays that God would shew him his Glory Exod. 33. 18. He knew that the Ultimate Rest Blessedness and Satisfaction of the Soul is not in seeing the works of God but the Glory of God himself Therefore did he desire some immediate dawnings of it upon him in this World I beseech thee shew me thy Glory And if we have right apprehensions of the Future State of Blessedness we cannot but have the same desire of seeing more of his Glory in this life But the Question is How me may attain it If we are left unto our selves in this Enquiry if we have no other way for it but the immediate fixing of our thoughts on the Immensity of the Divine Nature we must come every one to the Conclusion that Agur makes on the like consideration Surely I am more brutish than any Man and have not the Vnderstanding of a Man I neither learned Wisdom nor have the Knowledge of the Holy Who hath ascended up into Heaven or descended Who hath gathered the wind in his fist Who hath bound the waters in a garment Who hath established all the ends of the earth What is his name and what is his sons name if thou canst tell Prov. 30 2 3 4. IT is in Christ alone that we may have a clear distinct view of the Glory of God and his Excellencies For him and him alone hath he appointed the representative of himself unto us And we shall take an Account hereof in one or two especial Instances 1. INFINITE Wisdom is one of the most glorious Properties of the Divine Nature It is that which is directive of all the external Works of God wherein the Glory of all the other Excellencies of God is manifested wherefore the manifestation of the whole Glory of God proceeds originally from Infinite Wisdom But as Job speaks Where shall this Wisdom be found and what is the place of understanding Chap. 28. 12. Can we by searching find out God Can we find out the Almighty to perfection Chap. 11. 7. As it is in it self an Essential Eternal Property of the Divine Nature we can have no comprehension of it We can but adore it in that infinite distance wherein we stand from God but in its Operations and Effects it may be discerned for they are designed of God for its manifestation Among these the most excellent is the contrivance of the great Work of the Salvation of the Church so it is celebrated by the Apostle Eph. 3. 9 10 11. To make all Men see what is the fellowship of the mystery which from the beginning of the World hath been hid in God who created all things by Jesus Christ to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in Heavenly places might be known by the Church the manifold Wisdom of God If we have any Interest in God if we have any hopes of Blessedness in beholding of his Glory unto Eternity we cannot but desire a view such as is attainable of this Infinite manifold Wisdom of God in this life But it is in Christ alone that we can discern any thing of it for him hath the Father chosen and sealed to represent it unto us All the Treasures of this Wisdom are hid laid up and laid out in him Herein lies the essence and form of Faith Believers by it do see the Wisdom of God in Christ in his Person and Office Christ the Wisdom of God Unbelievers see it not as the Apostle argues 1 Cor. 1. 22 23 24. IN beholding the Glory of this Infinite Wisdom of God in Christ we behold his own Glory also the Glory given him of his Father for this is his Glory that in and by him and him alone the Wisdom of God is manifested and represented unto us When God appointed him as the great and only means of this end he gave him honour and glory above the whole Creation for it is but little of Divine Wisdom which the works of it declare in comparison of what is manifested in Christ Jesus We no way deny or extenuate the manifestation that is made of the Wisdom of God in the works of Creation and Providence It is sufficient to detect the folly of Atheism and and Idolatry and was designed of God unto that end But it 's comparative insufficiency with respect unto the rerepresentation of it in Christ as unto the ends of knowing God aright and living unto him the Scripture doth abundantly attest And the abuse of it was Catholic as the Apostle declares Rom. 1. 20. c. To see this Wisdom clearly is our Wisdom and a due apprehension of it fills the Souls of Believers with joy unspeakable and full of Glory 2. WE may also instance in the Love of God The Apostle tells us that God is Love 1 Joh. 4. 8. Divine Love is not to be considered only in its effects but in its Nature and Essence and so it is God himself For God is Love And a blessed Revelation this is of the Divine Nature It casts out Envy Hatred Malice Revenge with all their Fruits in Rage Fierceness Implacability Persecution Murther into the Territories of Satan They belong not unto God in his Nature or Actings for God is Love So the same Apostle tells us that he who slew his Brother was of the wicked one 1 Joh. 3. 12. He was of the Devil his Father and his works did he do BUT the Enquiry is as before How shall we have a view of this Love of God as Love By what way or means shall we behold the Glory of it It is hidden from all living in God himself The Wise Philosophers who discoursed so much of the Love of God knew nothing of this that God is Love The Most of the Natural Notions of men about it are corrupt and the best of them weak and imperfect Generally the Thoughts of men about it are that he is of a facile and easie Nature one that they may make bold withal in all their occasions as the Psalmist declares Psal. 50. 21. And whereas it must be learned in its Effects Operations
and Divine Ways of its manifestation those who know not Christ know nothing of them and many things in Providence do interpose to hinder our view of this Love for although that indeed God is Love yet his wrath is revealed from Heaven against the ungodliness of Men As all things at this day are filled with Evidences of his anger and displeasure How then shall we know wherein shall we behold the Glory of God in this that he is Love The Apostle declares it in the next words ver 9. Herein was manifest the love of God towards us because God sent his only begotten Son into the World that we might live through him This is the only Evidence given us that God is Love Hereby alone is the Divine Nature as such made known unto us namely in the Mission Person and Office of the Son of God Without this all is in Darkness as unto the true Nature and supream Operation of this Divine Love HEREIN do we behold the Glory of Christ himself even in this life This Glory was given him of the Father Namely That he now should declare and evidence that God is Love and he did so that in all things he might have the Preheminence Herein we may see how Excellent how Beautiful how Glorious and Desirable he is seeing in him alone we have a due Representation of God as he is Love which is the most joyful Sight of God that any Creature can obtain He who beholds not the Glory of Christ herein is utterly ignorant of those Heavenly Mysteries he knoweth neither God nor Christ he hath neither the Father nor the Son He knows not God because he knows not the holy Properties of his Nature in the Principal way designed by infinite Wisdom for their Manifestation he knows not Christ because he sees not the Glory of God in him Wherefore whatever Notions Men may have from the Light of Nature or from the Works of Providence that there is Love in God however they may adorn them in elegant affecting Expressions Yet from them no Man can know that God is Love In the Revelation hereof Christ hath the Preeminence nor caâ— any Man comprehend any thing of it aright but in him It is that which the whole Light of the Creation cannot discover for it is the Spring and Center of the Mystery of Godliness THESE things are of the deep things of God such as belong unto that Wisdom of God in a Mystery which they that are Carnal cannot receive as the Apostle testifies 1 Cor. 2. 14. But the meanest Believer who lives in the Exercise of Faith may have an Understanding of them so far as is needful unto his Love and Obedience The Sum of the whole is this if you would behold the Glory of Christ as the great Means of your Sanctification and Consolation as the only Preparation for the beholding of his Glory in Eternal Blessedness Consider what of God is made known and represented unto you in him wherein God purposed and designed to glorifie himself in him Now this is all that may be known of God in a saving manner especially his Wisdom his Love his Goodness Grace and Mercy whereon the Life of our Souls doth depend And the Lord Christ being appointed the only Way and Means hereof how exceeding glorious must he be in the Eyes of them that do believe THESE things being promised I shall close this first Consideration of that Glory of Christ which we behold by Faith in this World with some such Observations as may excite us unto the Practise of this great Duty and Improvement of this great Priviledge the greatest which on this side Heaven we can be made Partakers of THERE are some who regard not these things at all but rather despise them They never entertain any serious thoughts of obtaining a View of the Glory of God in Christ which is to be Unbelievers They look on him as a Teacher that came forth from God to reveal his Will and to teach us his Worship and so indeed he was But this they say was the sole use of his Person in Religion which is Mahumetism The Manifestation of all the holy Properties of the Divine Nature with the Representation of them unto Angels above and the Church in this World as he is the Image of the incisible God in the Constitution of his Person and the Discharge of his Office are things they regard not yea they despise and scorn what is professed concerning them for Pride and Contempt of others were always the safest Covert of Ignorance otherwise it would seem strange that Men should openly boast of their own Blindness But these Conceptions of Mens Minds are influenced by that Unbelief of his Divine Person which maketh havock of Christianity at this Day in the World I speak of them whose minds are better disposed towards heavenly things and unto them I say Wherefore do you love Jesus Christ for so you profess to do Wherefore do you trust in him Wherefore do you honour him Wherefore do you desire to be in Heaven with him Can you give a reason of this hope that is in you An account why you do all or any of these things If you cannot all that you pretend towards him is but fancy and imagination you fight uncertainly as men beating the air or is one of your reasons hereof That in him you do by Faith behold that glory of God with the Holy Properties of his Nature and their Principal Operations in order unto your own Salvation and Blessedness which otherwise would have been eternally hid from you Hereon is he precious unto them that do believe LET us therefore as many as are spiritual be thus minded Let us make use of this Priviledge with rejoycing and be found in the discharge of this Duty with diligence For thus to behold the glory of Christ is both our priviledge and our duty The duties of the Law were a burthen and a yoke but those of the Gospel are Priviledges and Advantages IT is a Promise concerning the days of the New Testament that our eyes shall see the King in his beauty Isa. 33 17. We shall behold the Glory of Christ in its Lustre and Excellency What is this Beauty of the King of Saints Is it not that God is in him and he is the great representative of his Glory unto us Wherefore in the contemplation of this Glory consists the principal exercise of Faith And who can declare the Glory of this Priviledge That we who are born in Darkness and deserved to be cast out into utter Darkness should be translated into this marvellous Light of the knowledge of the Glory of God in the Face of Jesus Christ. WHAT are all the stained Glories the fading Beauties of this World Of all that the Devil shewed our Saviour from the Mount What are they in comparison of one View of the Glory of God represented in Christ and of the Glory of Christ as his great Representative
produced OTHERS there are who may be some way Strangers but are no way Enemies unto this Mystery and to the practical Exercise of Faith therein Unto such I shall tender the ensuing Directions 1. RECKON in your Minds that this beholding of the Glory of Christ by beholding the Glory of God and all his Holy Properties in him is the greatest Priviledge whereof in this Life we can be made Partakers The Dawning of Heaven is in it and the First Fruits of Glory for this is Life Eternal to know the Father and whom he hath sent Christ Jesus John 17. 3. Unless you value it unless you esteem it as such a Priviledge you will not enjoy it and that which is not valued according unto its Worth is despised It is not enough to think it a Priviledge an Advantage but it is to be valued above other things according unto its Greatness and Excellency Destruction and Death say we have heard the Fame of it with our Ears Job 28. 22. And if we do no more we shall die Strangers unto it We are to cry after this Knowledge and lift up our Voice for this Vnderstanding if we design to attain it 2. AS it is a great Priviledge which requires a due Valuation so it is a great Mystery which requires much Spiritual Wisdom to the right understanding of it and to direct in its Practise 1 Cor. 2. 4 5. Flesh and Blood will not reveal it unto us but we must be taught of God to apprehend it John 1. 12 13. Mat. 16. 16 17. Mere unsanctified Reason will never enable us unto nor guide us in the Discovery of this Duty Men are not so vain as to hope for Skill and Understanding in the Mystery of a secular Art or Trade without the diligent Use of those Means whereby it may be attained and shall we suppose that we may be furnished with spiritual Skill and Wisdom in this sacred Mystery without Diligence in the Use of the Means appointed of God for the attaining of it The Principal of them is Fervent Prayer Pray then with Moses that God would sâ—ew you this his Glory pray with the Apostle that the Eyes of your Vnderstandings may be enlightened to behold it Pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of Glory may give unto you the spirit of Wisdom and Revelation in the Knowledge of him Fill your Minds with spiritual Thoughts and Contrivances about them Slothful and lazy Souls never obtain one View of this Glory the Lion in the way deters them from attempting it Being carnal they abhor all Diligence in the Use of spiritual Means such as Prayer and Meditation on things unto them uneasie unpleasing and difficult Unto others the Way partakes of the Nature of the End the Means of obtaining a View of the Glory of Christ are of the same Kind of the same Pleasantness with that View it self in their Proportion 3. LEARN the Use hereof from the Actings of contrary 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 shalt 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 hoâ—y 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 Famâ— 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 Truth Where is the Wise Where is the Scribe Where is the Disputer of this World Hath not God made foolish the Wisdom of this World For after that in the Wisdom of God the World by Wisdom knew not God it pleased God by the foolishness of Preaching to save them that believe For the Jews require a sign and the Gentiles seek after Wisdom but we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews a Stumbling-block and unto the Greeks Foolishness but unto them that are called both Jews and Greeks Christ the Power of God and the Wisdom of God 1 Cor 1. 20 21 22 23 24. AFTER it was evident unto all that the World the Wise the Studious the Contemplative Part of it in the Wisdom of God disposing them into that Condition wherein they were left unto themselves in their own Wisdom their Natural Light and Reason did not could not come to the saving Knowledge of God but were pusâ—ed up into a Contempt of the only way of the Revelation of himself as Weakness and Folly it pleased God then to manifest all their Wisdom to be Folly and to establish the only Means of the Knowledge of himself in Christ Jesus CHAP. III. The Glory of Christ in the Mysterious Constitution of his Person THE Second Thing wherein we may behold the Glory of Christ given him of his Father is in the Mysterious Constitution of his Person as he is God and Man in one and the same Person There are in him in his one single individual Person two distinct Natures The one Eternal Infinite Immense Almighty the Form and Essence of God The other having a beginning in Time Finite Limited Confined unto a certain Place which is our Nature which he took on him when he was made Flesh and dwelt among us The Declaration of the Nature of this Glory is a Part of my Discourse of the Person of Christ whereunto I refer the Reader My present Design is of another Nature THIS is that Glory whose Beams are so illustrious as that the blind World cannot bear the Light and Beauty of them Multitudes begin openly to deny this Incarnation of the Son of God this Personal Union of God and Man in their distinct Natures They deny that there is either Glory or Truth in it and it will ere long appear it begins already to evidence it self what greater Multitudes there are who yet do not who yet dare not openly reject the Doctrine of it who in Truth believe it not nor see any Glory in it Howbeit this Glory is the Glory of our Religion the Glory of the Church the sole Rock whereon it is built the only Spring of present Grace and future Glory THIS is that Glory which the Angels themselves desire to behold the Mystery whereof they bow down to look into 1 Pet. 1. 12. So was their Desire represented by the Cherubims in the most holy Place of the Tabernacle for they were a Shadow of the Ministry of Angels in the Church The Ark and Mercy Seat were a Type of Christ in the Discharge of his Office and these Cherubims were made standing over them as being in Heaven above but earnestly looking down upon them in a Posture of Reverence and Adoration So they did of Old and in their present Contemplation of it consists no small part of their Eternal Blessedness HEREON depends the Ruine of Satan and his Kingdom His Sin so far as we can conceive consisted of two Parts 1. His Pride against the Person of the Son of God by whom he was created For by him were all things created that are or were when first created in Heaven whether they be Thrones or Dominions or Principalities or Powers Col. 1. 16. Against him he lifted up himself which was the Beginning of his Transgression 2. Envy against Mankind made in the Image of God of the Son of God the First-born This compleated his Sin nothing was now left whereon to act his Pride and Malice Unto his Eternal Confusion and Ruine God in infinite
Wisdom unites both the Natures he had sinned against in the one Person of the Son who was the first Object of his Pride and Malice Hereby his Destruction is attended with Everâ—â—sting Shame in the Discovery of his Folly wherein he would have contended with infinite Wisdom as well as Misery by the Powers of the two Natures united in one Person HERE lies the Foundation of the Church The Foundation of the whole Old Creation was laid in an Act of absolute Soveraign Power Hereby God hanged the Earth upon nothing But the Foundation of the Church is on this Mysterious immoveable Rock Thou art Christ the Son of the living God on the most intimate Conjunction of the two Natures the Divine and Humane in themselves infinitely distant in the same Person WE may name one place wherein it is gloriously represented unto us Isa. 9. 6. For unto us a Child is born unto us a Son is given and the Government shall be on his Shoulders and his Name shall be called Wonderful Counsellor the mighty God the everlasting Father the Prince of Peace Here must the whole Church fall down and worship the Author of this wonderful Contrivance and captivating their Understandings unto the Obedience of Faith humbly adore what they cannot comprehend THIS was obscurly represented unto the Church of old Exo. 3. 2 3 4 5 6. And the Angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a Flame of Fire out of the midst of a Bush and he looked and behold the Bush burned with Fire and the Bush was not consumed And Moses said I will now turn aside and see this great Sight why the Bush is not burnt And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see God called unto him out of the midst of the Bush and said Moses Moses and he said here am I. And he said draw not nigh hither â—ut of thy Shooes from off thy Feet for the Place whereon thou standest is holy Ground Moreover he said I am the God of â—hy Fathers the God of Abraham c. THIS Fire was a Type or Declaration of the Presence of God in the Person of the Son For with respect unto the Father he is called an Angel the Angel of the Covenant but absolutely in himself he was Jehovah the God of Abraham c. And of his Presence the Fire was a proper Representation For in his Nature he is as a Consuming Fire and his present Work was the Delivery of â—he Church out of a Fiery Tryal This Fâ—â—e placed it self in a Bush where it burned but the Bush was not consumed And although the Continuance of the Fire in the Bush was but for a short season a present Appearance yet thence was God said to dwell in the Bush The good will of him that dwelt in the Bush Deut. 33. 16. And this is so spoken because the being of the Fire in the Bush for a season was a Type of him in whom the fulness of the Godhead dwelt bodily and that for ever Col. 2. 9. Of him who was made flesh and dwelt among us Joh. 1. 14. The Eternal Fire of the Divine Nature dwells in the Bush of our frail Nature yet is not consumed thereby God thus dwells in this Bush with all his Good will towards Sinners MOSES looked on this sight as a marvellous and wondrous thing And if it were so in the Type what is it in the Truth Substance and Reality of it AND by Direction given unto him to put off his shooes we are taught to cast away all fleshly Imaginations and carnal Affections that by pure Acts of Faith we may behold this Glory the Glory of the only begotten of the Father I DESIGN not here to insist on the Explication or Confirmation of this glorious Truth concerning the constitution of the Person of Christ in and by his Incarnation What I can comprehend what I do believe concerning it I have fully declared in a large peculiar Treatise Here I take the Truth it self as known or as it may be thence learned My present Business is only to stir up the Minds of Believers unto a due Contemplation of the Glory of Christ in the sacred Mysterious Constitution of his Person as God and Man in one So much as we abide herein so much do we live by the Faith of the Son of God and God can by a Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation open the Eyes of our Understandings that we may behold this Glory unto our ineffable Consolation and Joy And unto the diligent Discharge of our Duty herein I shall offer the ensuing Directions 1. LET us get it fixed on our Souls and in our Minds that this Glory of Christ in the Divine Constitution of his Person is the best the most noble useful beneficial Object that we can be conversant about in our Thoughts or or cleave unto in our Affections What are all other things in comparison of the Knowledge of Christ In the Judgment of the great Apostle they are but Loss and Dung Phil. 3. 8 9 10. So they were to him and if they are not so to us we are carnal WHAT is the World and what are the things thereof which most men spend their Thoughts about and fix their Affections on The Psalmist gives his Judgment about them in comparison of a View of this Glory of Christ Psal. 4. 6. Many say who will shew us any good Who will give and help us to attain so much in and of this World as will give Rest and Satisfaction unto our Minds That is the good enquired after But saith he Lord lift up the Light of thy Countenance upon us The Light of the Glory of God in the Face of Christ Jesus is that satisfactory Good alone which I desire and seek after THE Scripture reproacheth the Vanity and Folly of the Minds of Men in that they spend their Money for that which is not Bread and their Labour for that which profiteth not They ingage the Vigor of their Spirits about perishing things when they have durable Substance and Riches proposed unto them HOW do Men for the most part exercise their Minds What are they conversant about in their Thoughts SOME by them make provision for the flesh to fulfil it in the Lusts thereof as Rom. 13. 14. They search about continually in their Thoughts for Objects suited unto their Lusts and carnal Affections coyning framing and stamping of them in their Imaginations They fix their Eyes with delight on Toads and Serpents with all noisome filthy Objects refusing in the mean time to behold the Beauty and Glory of the Light of the Sun So is it with all that spend their Thoughts about the Objects of their sinful Pleasures refusing to look up after one view of this Glory of Christ. SOME keep their Thoughts in continual Exercise about the Things of this World as unto the Advantages and Emoluments which they expect from them Hereby are they transformed into the Image of the World becoming earthly carnal
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 â—aken 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 at least they do not gain say 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 iâ— nigh unto us even in our hearts that is if we are
Mediator and the Discharge thereof IN our beholding of the Glory of Christ herein doth the Exercise of Faith in this Life principally consist so the Apostle declares it Phil. 3. 8 9 10 11 12. Yea doubtless and I count all things loss for the Excellency of the Knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. To know him and the Power of his Resurrection and the Fellowship of his Sufferings and to be made conformable unto his Death This therefore we must treat of somewhat more at large THERE is one God saith the Apostle and one Mediator between God and Man the Man Christ Jesus 1 Tim. 2. 5. In that great difference between God and Man occasioned by our Sin and Apostacy from him which of it self could issue in nothing but the utter Ruine of the whole Race of Mankind there was none in Heaven or Earth in their Original Nature and Operations who was meet or able to make up a Righteous Peace between them Yet must this be done by a Mediator or cease for ever THIS Mediator could not be God himself absolutely considered for a Mediator is not of one but God is one Gal. 3. 20. Whatever God might do herein in a way of Sovereign Grace yet he could not do it in the way of Mediation which yet was necessary unto his own Glory as we have at large discoursed elsewhere AND as for Creatures there was none in Heaven or Earth that was meet to undertake this Office For if one Man sin against another the Judge shall judge herein but if a Man sin against the Lord who shall entreat for him 1 Sam. 2. 25. There is not any days-man betwixt us to lay his hand upon us both Job 9. 33. IN this State of Things the Lord Christ as the Son of God said Lo I come to do thy Will O God sacrifice and burnt offerings thou wouldst not but a body hast thou prepared me and Lo I come to do thy Will Heb. 10. 5 6 7 8 9. By the Assumption of our Nature into Union with himself in his one Divine Person he became every way meet for the Discharge of this Office and undertakes it accordingly THAT which we enquire after at present is the Glory of Christ herein and how we may behold that Glory And there are three things wherein we may take a prospect of it 1. IN his Susception of this Office 2. In his Discharge of it 3. In the Event and Consequence thereof or what ensued thereon IN the Susception of this Office we may behold the Glory of Christ. 1. In his Condescention 2. In his Love 1. WE may behold his Glory in his Infinite Condescention to take this Office on him and our Nature to be his own unto that end It did not befall him by Lot or Chance it was not imposed on him against his Will it belonged not unto him by any Necessity of Nature or Condition he stood not in need of it it was no addition unto him but of his own 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 〈◊〉 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 alor◠And that in general which is ascribed unto him is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Self emptiness he emptied himself This the Ancient Church called his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as we do his Condescention an Act of which 〈◊〉 God is called 〈◊〉 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 contrite 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 losty 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 it 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-ufficient 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-ufficient God alone wants
abode the same in him in all its Essential Properties Actings and Blessedness as it was from Eternity It neither did acted nor suffered any thing but what is proper unto the Divine Being The Lord Christ did and suffered many things in Life and Death in his own Person by his Human Nature wherein the Divine neither did nor suffered any thing at all although in the doing of them his Person be denominated from the Nature so God purchased his Church with his own Blood Act. 20. 28. 4. IT may then be said what did the Lord Christ in this Condescention with respect unto his Divine Nature The Apostle tells us that he humbled himself and made himself of no reputation Phil. 2. 7 8. He vailed the Glory of his Divine Nature in ours and what he did therein so as that there was no outward Appearance or Manifestation of it The World hereon was so far from looking on him as the true God that it believed him not to be a good Man Hence they could never bear the least intimation of his Divine Nature supposing themselves secured from any such thing because they looked on him with their Eyes to be a Man as he was indeed no less truly and really than any one of themselves Wherefore on that Testimony given of himself Before Abraham was I am which asserts a Pre-existence from Eternity in another Nature than what they saw they were filled with Rage and took up stones to cast at him John 8. 58. And they give a Reason of their Madness Joh. 10. 33. Namely that he being a Man should make himself to be God This was such a thing they thought as could never enter into the Heart of a wise and sober Man namely that being so owning himself to be such he should yet say of himself that he was God This is that which no Reason can comprehend which nothing in Nature can parallel or illustrate that one and the same Person should be both God and Man and this is the Principal Plea of the Socinians at this Day who through the Mahumetans succeed unto the Jews in an Opposition unto the Divine Nature of Christ. BUT all this difficulty is solved by the Glory of Christ in this Condescention for although in himself or his own Divine Person he was over all God blessed for over yet he humbled himself for the Salvation of the Church unto the Eternal Glory of God to take our Nature upon him and to be made Man and those who cannot see a Divine Glory in his so doing do neither know him nor love him nor believe in him nor do any way belong unto him SO is it with the Men of these Abominations Because they cannot behold the Glory hereof they deny the Foundation of our Religion namely the Divine Person of Christ. Seeing he would be made Man he shall be esteemed by them no more than a Man So do they reject that Glory of God his Infinite Wisdom Goodness and Grace wherein he is more concerned than in the whole Creation And they dig up the Root of all Evangelical Truths which are nothing but Branches from it IT is true and must be confessed that herein it is that our Lord Jesus Christ is a stumbing Stone and a Rock of Offence unto the World It we should confess him only as a Prophet a Man sent by God there would not be much Contest about him nor Opposition unto him The Mahumetans do all acknowledge it and the Jews would not long deny it for their Hatred against him was and is solely because he professed himself to be God and as such was believed oâ— in the World And at this day partly through the Insinuation of the Socinians and partly from the Efficacy of their own Blindness and Unbelief Multitudes are willing to grant him to be a Prophet sent of God who do not who will not who cannot believe the Mystery of this Condescention in the Susception of our Nature nor see the Glory of it But take this away and all our Religion is taken away with it Farewel Christianity as unto the Mystery the Glory the Truth the Efficacy of it let a refined Heathenism be established in its Room But this is the Rock on which the Church is built against which the Gates of Hell shall not prevail 4. THIS Condescention of Christ was not by a Phantasm or an Appearance only One of the first Heresies that pestered the Church immediately after the Days of the Apostles was this that all that was done or suffered by Christ as a Man were not the Acts Doings or Sufferings of one that was truly and really a Man but an outward Representation of things like the Appearance of Angels in the Shape of Men eating and drinking under the Old Testament and suitably hereunto some in our Days have spoken namely that there was only an Appearance of Christ in the Man Jesus at Jerusalem in whom he suffered no more than in other Believers But the ancient Christians told those Men the Truth namely that as they had feigned unto themselves an imaginary Christ so they should have an imaginary Salvation only BUT the true Nature of this Divine Condescention doth consist in these three Things 1. THAT the Eternal Person of the Son of God or the Divine Nature in the Person of the Son of God did by an ineffable Act of his Divine Power and Love assume our Nature into an individual Subsistence in or with himself that is to be his own even as the Divine Nature is his This is the infallible Foundation of Faith even to them who can comprehend very little of these Divine Mysteries They can and do believe that the Son of God did take our Nature to be his own so as that whatever was done therein was done by him as it is with every other Man Every Man hath human Nature appropriated unto himself by an Individual Subsistence whereby he becomes to be that man which he is and not another or that Nature which is common unto all becomes in him to be peculiarly his own as if there were none Partaker of it but himself Adam in his first Creation when all human Nature was in him alone was no more that individual Man which he was than every Man is now the Man that he is by his Individual Subsistence So the Lord Christ taking that Nature which is common unto all into a peculiar Subsistence in his own Person it becometh his and He the man Christ Jesus This was the Mind that was in him 2. BY reason of this Assumption of our Nature with his doing and suffering therein whereby he was found in fashion as a Man the Glory of his Divine Person was vailed and he made himself of no reputation This also belongs unto his Condescention as the first general Effect and Fruit of it But we have spoken of it before 3. IT is also to be observed That in the Assumption of our Nature to be his own He did
Person Here Faith triumphs against them it â—inds that to be a Glorious Sanctuary which they cannot at all discern BUT it is not so much the Declaration or Vindication of this Glory of Christ which I am at present engaged in as an Exhortation unto the practical Contemplation of it in a way of believing And I know that among many this is too much neglected yea of all the evils which I have seen in the Days of my Pilgrimage now drawing to their close there is none so grievous as the Public contempt of the Principal Mysteries of the Gospel among them that are called Christians Religion in the Profession of some Men is withered in its vital Principles weakned in its Nerves and Sinews but thought to be put off with outward Gaiety and Bravery BUT my Exhortation is unto diligence in the Contemplation of this Glory of Christ and the exercise of our Thoughts about it Unless we are diligent herein it is impossible we should be steady in the principal Acts of Faith or ready unto the principal duties of Obedience The Principal Act of Faith respects the Divine Person of Christ as all Christians must acknowledge This we can never secure as hath been declared if we see not his Glory in this Condescention And whoever reduceth his Notions unto experience will find that herein his Faith stands or falls And the Principal Duty of our Obedience is self-denial with readiness for the Cross. Hereunto the Consideration of this Condescention of Christ is the Principal Evangelical Motive and that wherein to our Obedience in it is to be resolved as the Apostle declares Phil. 2. 5 6 7. And no Man doth deny himself in a due manner who doth it not on the Consideration of the self-denial of the Son of God But a prevalent Motive this is thereunto For what are the things wherein we are to deny our selves or forgo what we pretend to have a Right unto It is in our Goods our Liberties our Relations our Lives And what are they any or all of them in themselves or unto us considering our Condition and the end for which we were made Perishing things which whether we will or no within a few days death will give us an everlasting separation from Things under the Power of a Feaver or an Asthma c. As unto our Interest in them But how incomparable with respect hereunto is that Condescention of Christ whereof we have given an Account If therefore we find an unwillingness in us a Tergiversation in our minds about these things when called unto them in a way of Duty one view by Faith of the Glory of Christ in this Condescention and what he parted from therein when he made himself of no Reputation will be an Effectual cure of that sinful Distemper HEREIN then I say we may by Faith behold the Glory of Christ as we shall do it by Sight hereafter If we see no Glory in it if we discern not that which is matter of 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 recoverahle 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 â—o 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 failâ— 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. LABOVR that your minds may continually be fitted and prepared for sâ—ch 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 Joh. 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 Vnseen 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 â—ea 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 Love the Condescention that was in this Choice animated every Act every
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 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 Prophetical 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. Vnto 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
punishing one for another that therefore the conjunction in the same Nature betwixt Christ and the Church is not a sufficient and just foundation of his suffering for us and in our Stead For by an act of his own will and choice he did partake of of our Nature and that for this very end that therein he might suffer for us as the Holy Ghost expresly declares Amongst others there neither is nor can be any thing of this Nature and so no objection from what is equal or inequal amongst them can arise against what is equal between Christ and the Church And herein is he glorious and precious unto them that believe as we shall see immediately 2. THERE is a Mystical Conjunction between Christ and the Church which answers all the most strict real or moral Vnions 〈◊〉 Conjunctions between other persons or things Such is the Conjunction between the head of a body and its members or the tree of the vine and its branches which are real or between an Husband and Wife which is moral and real also That there is such a Conjunction between Christ and his Church the Scripture plentifully declares as also that it is the Foundation of the Equity of his suffering in its stead So speaks the Apostle Eph. 5. 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32. Husbands love your Wives even as Christ also loved the Church that is his Wife the Bride the Lambs Wife and gave himself for it c. Being the Head and Husband of the Church which was to be sanctified and saved and could be so no otherwise but by his Blood and Sufferings he was both meet so to suffer and it was righteous also that what he did and suffered should be imputed unto them for whom he both did it and suffered Let the adversaries of the Glory of Christ assign any one Instance of such a Conjunction Union and Relation between any amongst mankind as is between Christ and the Church and they may give some countenance unto their Cavils against his Obedience and Sufferings in our stead with the imputation of what he did and suffered unto us But the Glory of Christ is singular herein and as such it appears unto them by whom the Mystery of it is in any measure spiritually apprehended BUT yet it will be said that this Mystical Conjunction of Christ with his Church is consequential unto what he did and suffered for it for it ensues on the conversion of Men unto him For it is by Faith that we are implanted into him Until that be actually wrought in us we have no Mystical Conjunction with him He is not an Head or an Huusband unto unregenerate unsanctified unbelievers whilst they continue so to be And such was the state of the whole Church when Christ suffered for us Rom. 5. 8. Eph. 2. 5. There was therefore no such Mystical Conjunction between him and the Church as to render it meet and equal that he should suffer in its stead Wherefore the Church is the Effect of the Work of the Redemption that whâ—ch 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 the 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
Mediation of the Son the holy Spirit unto whom the actual Application of them is committed communicates Life Light Power Grace and Mercy unto all that are designed parts of the New Creation Hereon doth God glorifie both the essential Properties of his Nature his infinite Wisdom Power Goodness and Grace as the only eternal Spring of all these things and also his ineffable glorious Existence in three Persons by the Order of the Communication of these things unto the Church which are originally from his Nature And herein is the glorious Truth of the Blessed Trinity which by some is opposed by some neglected by most looked on as that which is so much above them as that it doth not belong unto them made precious unto them that believe and becomes the Foundation of their Faith and Hope In a View of the glorious Order of those divine Communications we are in a steady Contemplation of the ineffable Glory of the Existence of the Nature of God in the Three distinct Persons of Father Son and Holy Ghost 7. ACCORDING unto this Divine Order the Elect in all Ages are by the holy Spirit moving and acting on that Mass of the New Creation formed and animated with spiritual Life Light Grace and Power unto the Glory of God They are not called accidentally according unto the external Occasions and Causes of their Conversion unto God but in every Age at his own Time and Season the holy Spirit communicates these things unto them in the Order declared unto the Glory of God 8. AND in the same manner is the whole New Creation preserved every Day every moment there is vital Power and Strength Mercy and Grace communicated in this Divine Order to all Believers in the World There is a continual Influence from the Fountain from the Head into all the Members whereby they all consist in him are acted by him who worketh in us both to will and to do of his own good pleasure and the Apostle declares that the whole Constitution of Church-order is suited as an external Instrument to promote these Divine Communications unto all the Members of the Church it self Eph. 4. 13 14 15 16. THIS in general is the Order of Divine Communications which is for the Substance of it continued in Heaven and shall be so unto Eternity For God is and ever will be all and in all But at present it is invisible unto Eyes of Flesh yea the Reason of Men. Hence it is by the most despised they see no Glory in it But let us consider the Prayer of the Apostle that it may be otherwise with us Ephes. 1. 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23. For the Revelation made of the Glory of God in the old Creation is exceeding inferior to that which he makes of himself in the New HAVING premised these things in general concerning the Glory of Divine Communications I shall proceed to declare in particular the Grounds and Way whereby the Lord Christ communicates himself and therewithal all the Benefits of his Mediation unto them that do believe as it was before proposed WE on our part are said herein to receive him and that by Faith John 1. 11 12. Now where he is received by us he must be tendred given granted or communicated unto us And this he is by some divine Acts of the Father and some of his own THE Foundation of the whole is laid in a Soveraign Act of the Will the Pleasure the Grace of the Father And this is the Order and Method of all divine Operations in the Way and Work of Grace They originally proceed all from him and having effected their Ends do return rest and center in him again see Ephes. 1. 4 5 6. Wherefore that Christ is made ours that he is communicated unto us is originally from the free Act Grant and Donation of the Father 1 Cor. 1. 30. Rom. 5. 15 16 17. And hereunto sundry things do concur As 1. His Eternal Purpose which he purposed in himself to glorifie his Grace in all his Elect by this Communication of Christ and the Benefits of his Mediation unto them which the Apostle declares at large Ephes. 1. 2. His granting all the Elect unto Christ to be his own so to do and suffer for them what was antecedaneously necessary unto the actual Communication of himself unto them Thine they were and thou gavest them to me Joh. 17. 3. The giving of the Promise or the Constitution of the Rule and Law of the Gospel whereby a participation of Christ an Interest in him and all that he is is made over and assured unto Believers Joh. 1. 12. 1 Joh. 1. 1 2 3 4. 4. An Act of Almighty Power working and creating Faith in the Souls of the Elect enabling them to receive Christ so exhibited and communicated unto them by the Gospel Ephes. 1. 19 20. Chap. 2. 5 6 7 8. THESE things which I have but named have an Influence into the Glory of Christ herein For this Communication of him unto the Church is an effect of the eternal Counsel Wisdom Grace and Power of the Father BUT they are the Acts of Christ himself herein which principally we enquire into as those which manifest the Glory of his Wisdom Love and Condescention AND 1. He gives and communicates unto them his holy Spirit the holy Spirit as peculiarly his as granted unto him of the Father as inhabiting in him in all fulness This Spirit abiding originally as to his Person and immeasurably as unto his Effects and Operations in himself he gives unto all Believers to inhabit and abide in them also Joh. 14. 14. 20. 1 Cor. 6. 16 17. Rom. 8. 8. Hence follows an ineffable Vnion between him and them For as in his Incarnation he took our Nature into personal Union with his own so herein he takes our Persons into a Mystical Vnion with himself Hereby he becomes ours and we are his AND herein is he unspeakably glorious For this Mystery of the Inhabitation of the same Spirit in him as the Head and the Church as his Body animating the whole is a transcendent Effect of Divine Wisdom There is nothing of this Nature in the whole Creation besides no such Union no such mutual Communication The strictest Unions and Relations in Nature are but Shadows of it Ephes. 5. 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32. Herein also is the Lord Christ precious unto them that do believe but a Stone of stumbling and a Rock of offence unto the Disobedient This glorious ineffable Effect of his Wisdom and Grace this rare peculiar singular Way of the Communication of himself unto the Church is by many despised They know it may be some of them what it is to be joyned unto an Harlot so as to become one Flesh but what it is to be joyned unto the Lord so as to become one Spirit they know not But this Principle and Spring of the spiritual Life of the Church and of all vital spiritual Motions towards God and Things
heavenly wherein and whereby our Life is hid with Christ in God is the Glory the Exaltation the Honor the Security of the Church unto the Praise of the Grace of God The Understanding of it in its Causes Effects Operations and Priviledges wherewith it is accompanied is to be preferred above all the Wisdom in and of the World 2. HE thus communicates himself unto us by the Formation of a new Nature his own Nature in us so as that the very same spiritual Nature is in him and in the Church Only it is so with this difference that in him it is in the absolute perfection of all those glorious Graces wherein it doth consist in the Church it is in various Measures and Degrees according as he is pleased to communicate it But the same Divine Nature it is that is in him and us for through the precious Promises of the Gospel we are made Partakers of his Divine Nature It is not enough for us that he hath taken our Nature to be his unless he gives us also his Nature to be ours that is implants in our Souls all those gracious Qualifications as unto the Essence and Substance of them wherewith he himself in his human Nature is endued This is that new Man that new Creature that Divine Nature that Spirit which is born of the Spirit that Transformation into the Image of Christ that putting of him on that Workmanship of God whereunto in him we are created that the Scripture so fully testifieth unto Joh. 3. 6. Rom. 6. 3 4 5 6 7 8. 2 Cor. 3. 18. Chap. 5. 17. Ephes. 4. 20. 24. 2 Pet. 1. 4. AND that new Heavenly Nature which is thus formed in Believers as the first vital Act of that Union which is between Christ and them by the Inhabitation of the same Spirit is peculiarly his Nature For both is it so as it is in him the Idaea and the Exemplar of it in us inasmuch as we are predestinated to be conformed unto his Image and as it is wrought or produced in our Souls by an Emanation of Power Vertue and Efficiency from him THIS is a most heavenly Way of the Communication of himself unto us wherein of God he is made unto us Wisdom and Sanctification Hereon he says of his Church This now is Bone of my Bone and Flesh of my Flesh I see my self my own Nature in them whence they are comely and desirable Hereby he makes way to present it to himself a glorious Church not having Spot or Wrinkle or any such thing but holy and wiâ—hout Blemish On this Communication of Christ unto us by the forming of his own Nature in us depends all the Purity the Beauty the Holiness the inward Clory of the Church Hereby is it really substantially internally separated from the World and distinguished from all others who in the outward forms of things in the Profession and Duties of Religion seem to be the same with them Hereby it becomes the First Fruits 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 Vnto 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. IN this State all things that were made depended immediately on God himself without the Interposition of any other Head of Influence or Rule They had the Continuance of their Being and its Preservation from the immediate Actings of these Properties of the Divine Nature whereby they were made and their Dependance on God was by Vertue of that Law which was implanted on the Principles and Powers of their several Natures by God himself 5. THUS in the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth He provided himself of two distinct Rational Families that should depend on him according to a Law of Moral Obedience and thereby give Glory to him with two distinct Habitations for them cognate unto their Nature and Use Heaven above and the Earth beneath The Earth he appointed for the Habitation of Man which was every way suited unto the Constitution of his Nature the Preservation of his Being and the End of his Creation in giving Glory to God Heaven he prepared for the Habitation of the Angels which was suited unto the Constitution of their Nature the Preservation of their Being and the End of their Creation in giving Glory to God Wherefore as Man had Power and Dominion over all things here below and was to use them all unto the Glory of God by which means God received Glory from them also though in themselves bruit and inanimate so the Angels had the like Dominion over the Coelestial and Aetherial Bodies wherewith God had fitted the Place of their Habitation that through the Contemplation and Use of them God might have a Revenue of Glory and Praise from them also To suppose any other Race of Intellectual Creatures besides Angels in Heaven and Men on Earth is not only without all Countenance from any Divine Testimony but it disturbs and disorders the whole Representation of the Glory of God made unto us in the Scripture and the whole Design of his Wisdom and Grace as declared therein Intellectual Creatures not comprehended in that Government of God and Mystery of his Wisdom in Christ which the Scripture Reveals are a Chimera framed in the Imaginations of some Men scarce duly sensible of what it is to be wise unto Sobriety 6. THIS Order of things was beautiful and comely Hence were they all said to be exceeding good For each of these Families had their own immediate distinct Dependance on God He was the immediate Head of them There was no other common Head interposed between God and them They were not an Head unto one another There were no Communications unto them but what were immediate from God himself And their Union among themselves was in this alone that all their Obedience did meet and center in God So God made the Heavens and the Earth and two distinct Families in them for himself 7. THIS beautiful Order in it self this Union between the two Families of God was disturbed broken dissolved by the Entrance of Sin For hereby part of the Family above and the whole Family below fell off from their Dependance on God and ceasing to center in him as their Head they fell into Variance and Enmity among themselves For the Center of this Union and Order being removed and lost nothing but Enmity and Confusion remained among them Hereon to shew that its Goodness was lost God cursed the Earth and all that was in it for it was put in Subjection unto Man who was now fallen from him Howbeit he cursed not the Heavens which were in Subjection unto the Angels because some of them only left their Habitation and the Habitation of the Residue was not to be cursed for their Sakes But Mankind was wholly gone off from God 8. THE Angels that sinned God utterly rejected for ever as an Example of his Severity the whole Race of Mankind he would not utterly cast off but determined to recover and save a Remnant according to the Election of Grace which how he did it in a way of Condecency unto all his Divine
Perfections I have elsewhere declared 9. HOWBEIT he would not restore them into their former State so as to have again two distinct Families each in an immediate Dependance on himself though he left them in different and distinct Habitations Eph. 3. 15. But he would gather them both into one and that under a new Head in whom the one Part should be preserved from sinning and the other delivered from sin committed 10. THIS then is that which the Apostle declares in these Words To gather together in one all things which are in Heaven and which are in Earth even in him And so he again expresseth it Col. 1. 20. To reconcile all things unto himself in him whether they are things in Heaven or things in Earth all things were fallen into disorder and confusion by sin they were fallen off from God into variance among themselves God would not restore them into their first Order in an immediate Dependance on his Divine Perfections He would no longer keep them in two distinct Families but he would in his infinite Wisdom and Goodness gather them up into one common Head on whom they should have their immediate Dependance and be reconciled again among themselves 11. THIS New Head wherein God hath gathered up all things in Heaven and Earth into one one Body one Family on whom is all their dependance in whom they all now consist is Jesus Christ the Son of God incarnate see 1 Cor. 11. 3. Eph. 1. 21 22 23. This Glory was reserved for him none other could be meet for it or worthy of it see Col. 1. 17 18 19 20 12. TO answer all the Ends of this New Head of Gods recollected Family all Power in Heaven and Earth all Fulness of Grace and Glory is committed unto him There is no Communication from God no Act of Rule towards this Family no Supply of Vertue Power Grace or Goodness unto Angels or Men but what is immediately from this New Head whereinto they are gathered In him they all consist on him do they depend unto him are they subject in their Relation unto him doth their Peace Union and Agreement among themselves consist This is the Recapitulation of all things intended by the Apostle 13. IT is true that he acts distinctly and variously towards the two parts of the Recollected Family of Angels and Men according as their different States and Conditions do require For 1. We had need of a Reparation by Redemption and Grace which the Angels had not 2. Angels were capable of immediate Confirmation in Glory which we are not until we come to Heaven Therefore 1. He assumed our Nature that it might be repaired which he did not the Nature of the Angels 2. He gives us Union unto himself by his Spirit which exalts us into a Dignity and Honour meet for Fellowship with them in the same Family THIS is a brief Account of the mysterious Work of Divine Wisdom in the Recapitulation of all things in Jesus Christ and herein is he transcendently glorious or his Glory herein is far above our Comprehension Yet some few things may be observed to direct us in the View and Contemplation of it As 1. HE alone was a meet and capable Subject of it He only could bear the weight of this Glory No meet Creature in Heaven or Earth was meet to be thus made the Head of the whole new Creation of God In none of them could all things consist None of them was meet to be thus in the Place of God to have all things depend upon him and be put in subjection unto him so as that there should be no Communication between God and the Creation but by and through him alone Wherefore when the holy Ghost assigns this Glory unto him he so describes him as that we may discern his singular meetness for it as that he is the Brightness of the Fathers Glory and the express Image of his Person upholding all things by the Word of his Power Heb. 1. 3. That he is the Image of the invisible God the first born of every Creature by whom all things were created that are in Heaven and that are in the Earth visible and invisible whether they be Thrones or Dominions or Principalities or Powers all things were created by him and for him and he is before all things and by him all things consist Col. 1. 15 16 17 18 19. Such an one alone and no other was meet to bear and uphold this Glory And the Glory of his Person is such as that it is the Blessedness of all Creatures to center in this Glory of his Office 2. THIS is that Glory which God designed unto his only Son incarnate and it gives us a little View into the Glory of that Mystery the wonderful eternal Design of God to glorifie himself in the Incarnation of Christ. God would have his eternal his only begotten Son to be incarnate to take our Nature on him to be made Man What is his Design in this incomprehensible Work of his Wisdom Love and Power Indeed in the first place it was for the Redemption of the Church by the Sacrifice of himself and other Acts of his Mediation But there is that which is more general and comprehensive and wherein all the concerns of the Glory of God do center And this was that he might gather all things into one in him that the whole Creation especially that which was to be eternally blessed should have a new Head given unto it for its Sustentation Preservation Order Honor and Safety All Springs are in him and all Streams are unto him and in and by him unto God Who can express the Divine Beauty Order and Harmony of all things that are in this their Recapitulation in Christ The Union and Communion between Angels and Men the Order of the whole Family in Heaven and Earth the Communication of Life Grace Power Mercy and Consolation to the Church the Rule and Disposal of all things unto the Glory of God do all depend hereon This Glory God designed unto his Son incarnate and it was the greatest the highest that could be communicated unto him For as the Apostle observes All things are put in subjection unto him he only excepted who doth â—o make them subject that is God the Father 1 Cor. 15. THERE is no Contemplation of the Glory of Christ that ought more to affect the Hearts of them that do believe with Delight and Joy than this of the Recapitulation of all things in him One View by Faith of him in the place of God as the supream Head of the whole Creation moving acting guiding and disposing of it will bring in spiritual Refreshment unto a believing Soul AND it will do so the more in that it gives a glorious Representation of his Divine Nature also For that any meer Creature should thus be an Head of Life Motion and Power as also of soveraign Rule and disposal of the whâ—le new Creation with all things reduced into
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 â—hem 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 〈◊〉 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 rendered 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
it is partial 1. AS unto the manner of its Operation it is gradual and doth not at once transform us into the Image of Christ. Yea the degrees of its Progress therein are unto us for the most part imperceptible It requires much spiritual Wisdom and Observation to obtain an Experience of them in our own Souls The inward man is renewed day by day whilst we behold these invisible things 2 Cor. 4. 16 17 18. but how even as the outward Man decays by Age which is by insensible Degrees and Alterations Such is the Transformation which we have by Faith in its present View of the glory of Christ. And according to our Experience of its Efficacy herein is our Evidence of its Truth and Realty in the beholding of him No Man can have the least ground of assurance that he hath seen Christ and his glory by Faith without some Effects of it in changing him into his Likeness For as on the Touch of his Garment by the Woman in the Gospel Vertue went out from him to heal her Infirmity So upon this View of Faith an influence of transforming Power will proceed from Christ unto the Soul 2. AS unto the Event it is but partial It doth not bring this Work unto perfection The change wrought by it is indeed great and glorious or as the Apostle speaks it is from Glory to Glory in a Progress of glorious Grace But absolute perfection is reserved for Vision As unto Divine Worship Perfection was not by the Law It did many things preparatory unto the Revelation of the Will of God concerning it but it made nothing perfect So absolute Perfection in Holiness and the Restoration of the Image of God is not by the Gospel is not by Faith however it gives us many preparatory degrees unto it as the Apostle fully declares Phil. 3. 10 11 12 13 14. SECONDLY Vision is Beatifical as it is commonly called and that not amiss It gives perfect Rest and Blessedness unto them in whom it is This may be a little opened in the ensuing Observations 1. THERE are continual Operations of God in Christ in the Souls of them that are glorified and Communications from him unto them For all Creatures must eternally live even in Heaven in dependance on him who is the eternal Fountain of Being Life Goodness and Blessedness unto all As we cannot subsist one moment in our Beings Lives Souls Bodies the inward or outward Man without the continual Actings of divine Power in us and towards us so in the glorified State our All shall depend eternally on Divine Power and Goodness communicating themselves unto us for all the ends of our blessed Subsistance in Heaven 2. WHAT is the way and manner of these Communications we cannot comprehend We cannot indeed fully understand the Nature and way of his Spiritual Communications unto us in this Life We know these things by their Signs their outward Means and principally by the Effects they produce in the real change of our Natures But in themselves we see but little of them The wind bloweth where it listeth and we hear the Sound thereof but we know not whence it cometh and whither it goeth so is every one that is born of the Spirit Joh. 3. 8. All Gods real Operations in Heaven and Earth are incomprehensible as being Acts of infinite Power and we cannot search 〈…〉 3. ALL Communications from the Divine Being and infinite Fulness in Heaven unto glorified Saints are in and through Christ Jesus who shall for ever be the Medium of Communication between God and the Church even in glory All things being gathered into one head in him even things in Heaven and things in Earth that Head being in immediate dependence on God this Order shall never be dissolved Ephes. 1. 10 11. 1 Cor. 3. 23. And on these Communications from God through Christ depends entirely our Continuance in a State of Blessedness and Glory We shall no more be self-subsistent in glory than we are in Nature or Grace 4. THE way on our part whereby we shall receive these Communications from God by Christ which are the eternal Springs of Life Peace Joy and Blessedness is this Vision the Sight whereof we speak For as it is expresly assigned thereunto in the Scripture so whereas it contains the perfect Operation of our Minds and Souls in a perfect State on the most perfect Object it is the only means of our Blessedness And this is the true Cause whence there neither is nor can be any Satiety or weariness in Heaven in the eternal Contemplation of the same glory For not only the Object of our sight is absolutely infinite which can never be searched into the bottom yea is perpetually new unto a finite understanding so our subjective Blessedness consisting in continual fresh Communications from the infinite Fulness of the Divine Nature derived unto us through Vision is always new and always will be so to Eternity Herein shall all the Saints of God drink of the Rivers of Pleasure that are at his Right Hand be satisfied with his Likeness and refresh themselves in the eternal Springs of Life Light and Joy for evermore THIS effect that View which we have by Faith of the glory of Christ in this World doth not produce It is Sanctifying not Glorifying The best of Saints are far from a perfect or glorified State in this Life And that not only on the account of the outward Evils which in their Persons they are exposed unto but also of the Weakness and Imperfection of their inward State in Grace Yet we may observe some things unto the Honour of Faith in them who have received it As 1. IN its due Exercise on Christ it will give unto the Souls of Believers some previous Participation of future glory working in them Dispositions unto and Preparation for the Enjoyment of it 2. THERE is no Glory no Peace no Joy no Satisfaction in this World to be compared with what we receive by that weak and imperfect View which we have of the Glory of Christ by Faith Yea all the Joys of the World are a thing of nought in Comparison of what we so receive 3. IT is sufficient to give us such a Perception such a Foretaste of future Blessedness in the Enjoyment of Christ as may continually stir us up to breath and pant after it But it is not Beatifical OTHER Differences of an alike Nature between our Beholding of the Glory of Christ in this Life by Faith and that Vision of it which is reserved for Heaven might be insisted on but I shall proceed no further There is nothing farther for us to do herein but that now and always we shut up all our Meditations concerning it with the deepest Self-abasement out of a Sense of our Unworthiness and Insufficiency to comprehend those things Admiration of that excellent Glory which we cannot comprehend and vehement Longings for that Season when he shall see him as he is be ever with him
abide thrive and grow to the end is three ways testified unto in the Scripture 1. IN that it is compared unto things of the most infallible increase and Progress For besides that it 's growth is frequently likened unto that of Plants and Trees well watered and in a fruitful Soil which fail not to spring unless it be from some external violence it is likewise compared unto such things as whose progress is absolutely infallible Prov. 4. 18. The path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more to the perfect day The path of the Just is his Covenant-walk before God as it is frequently called in the Scripture Psal. 119. 35. 105. Isa. 26. 7. Psal. 23. 3. Mat. 3. 3. Heb. 12. 13. and it comprizeth the Principle Profession and Fruits of it This faith the Wise Man is as the shining Light that is the Morning Light And wherein is it so Why as that goeth on by Degrees and shineth more and more unto the high Noon though it may be interrupted sometimes by Clouds and Storms So is this Path of the Just it goes on and increaseth unto the high Noon the perfect Day of Glory It is in it's Nature so to do though it may sometimes meet with obstructions as we shall see afterwards and so doth the Morning light also THERE is no visible difference as unto Light between the Light of the Morning and the Light of the Evening yea this latter sometimes from gleams of the Setting Sun seems to be more Glorious than the other But herein they differ the first goes on gradually unto more Light until it comes to perfection the other gradually gives place unto Darkness until it comes to be Mid-night So is it as unto the Light of the Just and of the Hypocrite and so is it as unto their Paths At first setting out they may seem alike and equal yea Convictions and Spiritual Gifts acted with corrupt ends in some Hypocrites may for a time give a greater lustre of Profession than the Grace of others sincerely Converted unto God may attain unto But herein they discover their different Natures the one increaseth and goeth on constantly though it may be sometimes but faintly the other decays grows dim gives place to darkness and crooked walking THIS then is the Nature of the path of the Just And where it is otherwise with us in our Walk before God we can have no Evidence that we are in that Path or that we have a living growing Principle of Spiritual Life in us And it is fit that Professors of all sorts should be minded of these things for we may see not a few of them under visible Decays without any sincere endeavours after a Recovery who yet please themselves that the root of the matter is in them It is so if Love of the World Conformity unto it negligence in Holy Duties and coldness in Spiritual Love be an Evidence of such Decays But let none deceive their own Souls wherever there is a saving Principle of Grace it will be thriving and growing unto the end And if it fall under Obstructions and thereby into Decays for a Season it will give no rest or quietness unto the Soul wherein it is but will labour continually for a Recovery Peace in a Spiritually decaying condition is a Soul-ruining Security better be under terror on the account of surprizal into some Sin than be in peace under evident Decays of Spiritual Life AND by the way this comparing of the Path of the Just unto the Morning Light minds me of what I have seen more than once That Light hath sometimes chearfully appeared unto the World when after a little season by reason of Clouds Tempests and Storms it hath given place again to Darkness like that of the Night but it hath not so been lost and buried like the Evening Light after a while it hath recovered it self unto a greater lustre than before manifesting that it increased in it self whilst it was eclipsed as to us So hath it been with not a few at their first Conversion unto God great Darkness and Trouble have by the Efficacy of Temptation and Injections of Satan possessed their minds But the Grace which they have received being as the Morning Light hath after a while disentangled it self and given Evidence that it was so far from being extinguished as that it grew and thrived under all those Clouds and Darkness For the Light of the Just doth in the issue always increase by Temptations as that of the Hypocrite is constantly impaired by them AGAIN As it is as the Morning Light than which nothing hath a more assured Progress so it is called by our Saviour Living water Joh. 4. 10. yea a Well of water springing up unto Everlasting Life ver 14. It is an indeficient Spring not a Pool or Pond though never so large which may be dryed up Many such Pools of Light Gifts and Profession have we seen utterly dryed up when they have come into Age or been ensnared by the Temptations of the World And we may see others every day under dangerous decays their Countenances are changed and they have lost that Oyl which makes the face of a Believer to shine namely the Oyl of Love Meekness Self-denial and Spirituality of Converse and instead thereof there is spread upon them the falsome Oyntment of Pride Self-love Earthly-mindedness which increaseth on them more and more But where this Principle of Spiritual Life is it is as the Morning Light as an indeficient Spring that never fails nor can do so untill it issue in Eternal Life and sundry other ways there are whereby the same Truth is asserted in the Scripture 2. THERE are sundry Divine Promises given unto Believers that so it shall be or to secure them of such supplies of Grace as shall cause their Spiritual Life to grow increase and flourish unto the end such as that in the Psalm which we have considered For these Promises are the Means whereby this Spiritual Life is originally communicated unto us and whereby it is preserved in us by them are we made partakers of this Divine Nature 2 Pet. 1. 4. and through them is it continued in us Now Promises of this Nature namely that by the Dispensation of the Spirit of Christ and supplies of his Grace our Spiritual Life shall flourish and be made fruitful to the end I shall briefly call over one of them only at present which is recorded Isa. 44. 3 4. I will pour water on him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed and my blessing upon thine Off-spring and they shall spring up as among the Grass as willows by the water courses ALTHOUGH this Promise may have respect unto the Gracious dealing of God with the People of the Jews after their Return from the Captivity yet hath it so only as it was Typical of the Redemption of the Church by Jesus Christ But it
of slumber seems to be poured on many 2. TO improve this Conviction I would ask of some whether they have been able to maintain Spiritual Peace and Joy in their Souls I take it for granted that ordinarily they are inseparable Adjuncts of the Life of Faith in an humble fruitful Walk before God The Scripture testifieth that they are so and no Experience lyes against it in ordinary Cases And I suppose that those unto whom I speak do in some measure know what they are and do not delude themselves with Fancies and Imaginations they have substance in them however by some derided and to some unknown Have this Peace and Joy been maintained and born sway in your Minds Have they under all Tryals and Surprizals been quickly composed by them Or are you not rather on all Occasions uneasie and perplexed This is certain that a decaying Spiritual State and solid Spiritual Peace are inconsistent And if ever you had such Peace you may by the loss of it know into what state you are come 3. NOT to enquire further into things internal and hidden wherein Men may justifie themselves if they please there are too many open visible Evidences of these Decays among Professors of Religion they have not kept them from he Eyes of the Church nor yet from the World Do not Pride Selfishness Worldliness Levity of Attire and Vanity of Life with corrupt unsavoury Communication abound among many The World was never in a worse posture for Conformity than it is at this day wherein all Flesh hath corrupted it's ways and yet as unto things of outward appearance how little dinstinction is left between it and those who would be steemed more strict Professors of Religion was this the way and manner of the Saints of old of those that went before us in the same Profession Was it so with our selves in the time of our first Espousals when we went after God in the Wilderness in a Land that was not sown as Jerem. 2. 2 Some understand what I say If we have not some of us had better days we never had good days in our Lives if we have had them why do we not stir up our selves to look after a Recovery 4. MAY not God say of many of us what he said of his People of old Thou hast been weary of me O Israel Isa. 43. 22. Have we not been weary of God untill we have abundant cause to be weary of our selves The most I presume will be ready with them in Malachi to say How or wherein have we been weary of God Do we not abide yea abound in the Duties of his Service What can be more required of us wherein are we to blame This were something indeed but that it is often so that Men are weary of Cod when they even weary God with their Duties and Services Isa. 1. 13 14. God says in his Word He is weary They say in their Hearts they are weary Mal. 1. 13. But I answer MANY cannot with any modesty make use of this pretence Their Sloth Indifferency and Negligence in the Observance of the Duties of Divine Worship both in private and publick is notorious In particular is not the Duty of Family Prayer neglected by many at least as to it's constancy and fervency And although it be grounded in the Light of Nature confirmed by the general Rules of the Scripture requisite unto the Dedication of a Family unto God strengthened by the constant Example of all the Saints of old and necessary in the Experience of all that walk with God yet do not many begin to seek out pleas and arguings to justifie their Omission hereof Are not all things filled with the fruits of the negligence of such Professors in the Instruction of their Children and Servants And hath not God given severe Rebukes unto many of us in their fearful miscarriages And as unto the publick Worship of God I wish that Sloth and Indifferency did not appear upon too many under various pretences But 2. THIS is not that which I do intend Men may be weary of God whilst they abide in the observance of a multitude of outward Duties 1. THEY may be so with respect unto that Spirituality and Intention of mind unto the Exercise of all Grace which are required unto such Duties These are the Life the Soul the animating Principle of them without which their outward performance is but a dead Carkass Men may draw nigh to God with their Lips when their Hearts are far from him This is that which becomes God in his Worship and is useful to our own Souls for God is a Spirit and he will be worshipped in Spirit and in Truth which he is not but in the Exercise of the Graces of his Spirit in the Worshippers For bodily exercise profiteth little but Godliness is profitable unto all things 1 Tim. 4. 8. TO keep up the Mind unto this frame to stir up all Grace unto a constant vigorous Exercise in all Holy Duties is a matter whereunto great Spiritual Diligence and Watchfulness is required Watch unto Prayer A thousand pretences rise against it all the Arts of Sloth Formality weariness of the Flesh and the business of Life do contend to frustrate the design of it And the suitableness of resting in the work done unto the Principles of a Natural Conscience gives efficacy to them all And when Men come to satisfie themselves herein it may be it were better that for a time such Duties were wholly omitted for in that case Conscience it self will urgently call on Men not hardened in Sin to a consideration of their Condition wherefore much Spiritual Labour and Diligence is required in this matter The outward performance of Religious Duties be they never so many or however strictly enjoyned as the daily and nightly Canonical hours amongst the Popish Devotionists is an easie task much inferiour unto the constant labour which some Men use in their Trades and Callings And in them in the performance of them either publick or in their Families men may be weary of God And according as they are remiss in the constant keeping up of Spirituality and the Exercise of Grace in sacred Duties so is the Degree of their Weariness And there is almost nothing whereby Men may take a safer Measure of their Decays or Growth than by the usual frame of their Minds in these Duties If they do constantly in them stir up themselves to take hold of God as Isa. 64. 7. it is an evidence of a good Temper of Spiritual Health in the Soul But this will not be done without the utmost Watchfulness and Care against Impressions from the Flesh and other Temptations But Sloth and Formality herein is a sign of a thriftless State in the inner man And all Inventions of such Formality are disserviceable unto the Interest Grace 2. SO is it with them also who attending unto the outward Duties of Religion do yet indulge themselves in any known Sin for there
it's Exercise for it first respects him and then other things for him when the Mind is fixed on him and his Glory every Grace will be in a Readiness for it's due Exercise And without this we shall never attain it by any Resolutions or Endeavours of our own let us make the Tryal when we please 3. THIS will assuredly put us on a vigilant watch and constant conflict against all the deceitful workings of Sin against all the Entrances of Temptation against all the ways and means of Surprizals into foolish frames by vain Imaginations which are the causes of our Decays Our Recovery or Revival will not be effected nor a fresh Spring of Grace be obtained in a careless slothful Course of Profession Constant watching fighting contending against Sin with our utmost endeavour for an absolute Conquest over it are required hereunto And nothing will so much excite and encourage our Souls hereunto as a constant view of Christ and his Glory every thing in him hath a constraining Power hereunto as is known to all who have any Acquaintance with these things FINIS Books Sold by William Marshall at the Bible in Newgate-street Books written by the late Dr. John Owen In Folio 1. His Exposition on the whole Epistle to the Hebrews with Exercitations concerning the Messiah Wherein the Promises concerning him to be a Spiritual Redeemer of Mankind are explained and vindicated His Coming and Accomplishment of his Work according to the Promises is proved and Confirmed The Person or who he is declared The whole Oeconomy of the Mosaical Law Rites Worship and Sacrifices is explained And in all the Doctrine of the Person Office and Work of the Messiah is opened The Nature and demerit of the first Sin is unfolded The Opinions and Traditions of the Ancient and Modern Jews are examined Their Objectious against the Lord Christ and the Gospel are Answered The time of the Coming of the Messiah is stated And the great fundamental Truths of the Gospel vindicated In four Volumes Folio 2. A Discourse concerning the Holy Spirit Wherein an Account is given of his Name Nature Personality Dispensation Operations and Effects His whole Work in the Old and New Creation is Explained The Doctrine concerning it vindicated from Oppositions and Reproaches The Nature also and Necessity of Gospel Holiness the Difference between Grace and Morality or a Spiritual Life unto God in Evangelical Obedience and a Course of Moral Vertues are stated and declared Fol. 3. The Doctrine of the Saints Perseverance explained and confirmed Or the certain Permanency of their 1. Acceptation with God and 2. Sanctification from God manifested and proved from 1. The Eternal Principles 2. The Effectual Causes And 3. The External Means thereof c. Fol. Books in Quarto written by the same Author 1. THe True Nature of a Gospel Church and its Government Wherein these following particulars are distinctly handled I. The Subject Matter of the Church II. The formal Cause of a particular Church III. Of the Polity Rule or Discipline of the Church in general IV. The Officers of the Church V. The Duty of Pastors of Churches VI. The Office of Teachers in the Church VII Of the Rule of the Church or of Ruling Elders VIII The nature of Church Polity or Rule with the Duty of Elders IX Of Deacons X. Of Excommucation XI Of the Communion of Churches Price Bound 3. s. 2. The Doctrine of Justification by Faith through the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ explained confirmed and vindicated 3. An Enquiry into the Original Nature Institution Power Order and Communion of Evangelical Churches With an Answer to the Dscourse of the Vnreasonableness of Separation written by Dr. Edward Stillingfleet And in the Defence of the Vindication of Nonconformists from the Guilt of Schism 4. The Grace and Duty of being Spiritually Minded declared and practically Improved 5. A Discourse of Communion with God the Father Son and Holy Ghost each Person distinctly In Love Grace and Consolation Or the Saints fellowship with the Father Son and Holy Ghost unfolded 6. Vindiciae Evangelicae Or The Mystery of the Gospel vindicated and Socinianism examined in the Consideration and Confutation of a Catechism called A Scripture Catechism written by J. Biddle M. A. And the Catechism of Valentinus Smalcius commonly called the Racovian Catechism 7. A Display of Arminianism Being a Discovery of the Old Pelagian Idol Free-will with the New Goddess Contingency advancing themselves into the Throne of the God of Heaven to the prejudice of his Grace Providence and Supreme Dominion over the Children of Men. Wherein the main Errors of the Arminians are laid open by which they are fallen off from the received Doctrine of all the Reformed Churches with their Opposition in divers particulars to the Doctrine established in the Church of England Discovered out of their own Writings and Confessions and confuted by the Word of God 8. The Death of Death in the Death of of Christ. A Treatise of the Redemption and Reconciliation that is in the Blood of Christ with the Merit thereof and the Satisfaction wrought thereby Wherein the proper End of the Death of Christ is asserted the immediate Effects and Fruits thereof assigned with their Extent in respect of it's Object and the whole Controversie about Vniversal Redemption fully discussed In four Parts 9. A Declaration of the Glorious Mystery of the Person of Christ God and Man With the Infinite Wisdom Love and Power of God in the Contrivance and Constitution thereof As also the Grounds and Reasons of his Incarnation the Nature of his Ministry in Heaven the Present State of the Church above thereon and the Use of his Person in Religion With an Account and Vindication of the Honour Worship Faith Love and Obedience due unto him in and from the Church Books in Octavo written by the same Author 1. THe Nature of Apostasie from the Profession of the Gospel and the Punishment of Apostates declared in an Exposition of Heb. 6. 4 5 6. With an Enquiry into the Causes and Reasons of the Decay of the Power of Religion in the World or the present general Defection from the Truth Holiness and Worship of the Gospel Also of the Proneness of Churches and Persons of all sorts unto Apostasie With Remedies and Means of Prevention 2. Exercitations concerning the Name Original Nature Use and Continuance of a Day of Sacred Rest. Wherein the Original of the Sabbath from the Foundation of the World the Morality of the Fourth Commandment with the Change of the Seventh Day are enquired into Together with an Assertion of the Divine Institution of the Lord's Day and Practical Directions for it's due Observation 3. The Nature Power Deceit and Prevalency of the remainders of Indwelling-Sin in Believers Together with the ways of it's working and Means of Prevention Opened evinced and applyed with a Resolution of sundry Cases of Conscience thereunto appertaining 4. An Answer to a Book entituled Fiat Lux. 5. A Vindication of the