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
THE most pernicious effect of Unbelief under the preaching of the Gospel is that together with an influence of Power from Satan it blinds the eyes of mens minds that they should not see this Glory of Christ whereon they perish eternally 2 Cor. 4. 3 4. BUT the most of those who at this day are called Christians are strangers unto this duty Our Lord Jesus Christ told the Pharisees that notwithstanding all their boasting of the knowledge of God they had not heard his voice at any time nor seen his shape that is as Moses did They had no real acquaintance with him they had no spiritual view of his Glory and so it is amongst our selves Notwithstanding the general profession that is of the Knowledge of Christ they are but few who thus behold his Glory and therefore few who are transformed into his Image and Likeness SOME Men speak much of the Imitation of Christ and following of his Example and it were well if we could see more of it really in effect But no Man shall ever become like unto him by bare Imitation of his Actions without that view or iâ—â—ition of his Glory which alone is accompanied with a transforming power to change them into the same image THE Truth is the best of us all are wofully defective in this Duty and many are discouraged from it because a Pretence of it in some hath degenerated into Superstition But we are loth at any time seriously to engage in it and come with an unwilling kind of Willingness unto the Exercise of our Minds in it THOUGHTS of this Glory of Christ are too high for us or too hard for us such as we cannot long delight in we turn away from them with a kind of Weariness yet are they of the same Nature in general with our beholding of the Glory of Christ in Heaven wherein there shall be no weariness or Satiety unto Eternity Is not the Cause of it that we are unspiritual or carnal having our Thoughts and Affections wonted to give Entertainment unto other things For this is the principal Cause of our Unreadiness and Incapacity to exercise our Minds in and about the great Mysteries of the Gospel 1 Cor. 3. 1 2 3. And it is so with us moreover because we do not stir up our selves with Watchfulness and Diligence in continual Actings of Faith on this Blessed Object This is that which keeps many of us at so low an Ebb as unto the Powers of an Heavenly Life and spiritual Joys DID we abound in this Duty in this Exercise of Faith our Life in walking before God would be more sweet and pleasant unto us our spiritual Light and Stâ—â—ngth would have a daily Encrease we should more represent the Glory of Christ in our Ways and Walking than usually we do and Death it self would be most welcome unto us THE Angels themselves desire to look into the things of the Glory of Christ 1 Pet. 1. 10 12. There is in them Matter of Enquiry and Instruction for the most high and holy Spirits in Heaven The manifold Wisdom of God in them is made known unto Principalities and Powers in heavenly Places by the Church Ephes. 3. 10. And shall we neglect that which is the Object of Angelical Diligence to enquire into especially considering that we are more than they concerned in it IS Christ then thus glorious in our Eyes Do we see the Father in him or by seeing of him Do we sedulously daily contemplate on the Wisdom Love Grace Goodness Holiness and Righteousness of God as revealing and manifesting themselves in him Do we sufficiently consider that the immediate Vision of this Glory in Heaven will be our everlasting Blessedness Doth the imperfect View which we have of it here encrease our Desires after the perfect Soght of it above With respect unto these Enquiries I shall briefly speak unto sundry sorts of Men. SOME will say they understand not these things nor any Concernment of their own in them If they are true yet are they Notions which they may safely be without the Knowledge of for so far as they can discern they have no Influence on Christian Practice or Duties of Morality And the preaching of them doth but take off the Minds of Men from more necessary Duties But if the Gospel be hid it is hid unto them that perish And unto the Objection I say 1. NOTHING is more fully and clearly revealed in the Gospel than that unto us Jesus Christ is the Image of the invisible God that he is the Character of the Person of the Father so as that in seeing him we see the Father also that we have the Light of the Knowledge of the Glory of God in his Face alone as hath been proved This is the Principal Fundamental Mystery and Truth of the Gospel and which if it be not received believed owned all other Truths are useless unto our Souls To refer all the Testimonies that are given hereunto to the Doctrine which he taught in Contradistinction unto his Person as acting in the Discharge of his Office is Antievangilical Antichristian turning the whole Gospel into a Fable 2. IT is so that the Light of Faith is given unto us principally to enable us to behold the Glory of God in Christ to contemplate on it as unto all the Ends of its Manifestation So is it expresly affirmed 2 Cor. 4. 6. If we have not this Light as it is communicated by the Power of God unto them that do believe Ephes. 1. 17 18 19. we must be Strangers unto the whole Mystery of the Gospel 2 Cor. 4. 3 4. 3. THAT in the beholding of the Glory of God in Christ we behold his Glory also For herein is he infinitely glorious above the whole Creation in that in and by him alone the Glory of the Invisible God is represented unto us Herein do our Souls live This is that whereby the Image of God is renewed in us and we are made like unto the First born 4. THIS is so far from being unnecessary unto Christian Practice and the sanctified Duties of Morality that he knows not Christ he knows not the Gospel he knows not the Faith of the Catholick Church who imagins that they can be performed acceptably without it Yea this is the Root whence all other Christian Duties do spring and whereon they grow whereby they are distinguished from the Works of Heathens He is no Christian who believes not that Faith in the Person of Christ is the Spring of all Evangelical Obedience or who knows not that this Faith respects the Revelation of the Glory of God in him IF these things are so as they are the most important Truths of the Gospel and whose Denial overthrows the Foundation of Faith and is ruinous to Christian Religion Certainly it is our Duty to live in the constant Exercise of Faith with respect unto this Glory of Christ. And we have sufficient Experience of what kind of Morality the Ignorance of it hath
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
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
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
way or manner of its accomplishment But now when every word of it is explained declared and its Mystical Sence visibly laid open unto us in the Gospel and by the accomplishment exactly answering every expression in it it is Judicial Blindness not to receive it Nothing but the Satanical Pride of the hearts of men which will admit of no effects of Infinite Wisdom but what they suppose they can comprehend can shut their eyes against the Light of this Truth 6. PROMISES Prophesies Praedictions concerning his Person his coming his Office his Kingdom and his Glory in them all with the Wisdom Grace and Love of God to the Church in him are the Line of Life as was said which runs through all the Writings of the Old Testament and take up a great portion of them Those were the things which he expounded unto his Disciples out of Moses and all the Prophets Concerning these things he appealed to the Scriptures against all his adversaries Search the Scriptures for they are they that testifie of me And if we find them not if we discern them not therein it is because a vail of Blindness is over our minds Nor can we read study or meditate on the Writings of the Old Testament unto any Advantage unless we design to find out and behold the Glory of Christ declared and represented in them For want hereof they are a sealed book to many unto this day 7. IT is usual in the Old Testament to set out the Glory of Christ under Metaphorical Expressions yea it aboundeth therein For such Allusions are exceedingly suited to let in a sense into our minds of those things which we cannot distinctly comprehend And there is an Infinite Condescention of Divine Wisdom in their way of Instruction Representing unto us the Power of Things Spiritual in what we naturally discern Instances of this kind in calling the Lord Christ by the Names of those Creatures which unto our senses represent that Excellency which is spiritually in him are innumerable So he is called the Rose for the sweet savour of his Love Grace and Obedience the Lilly for his gracious Beauty and Amiableness the Pearl of Price for his worth for to them that believe he is precious the Vine for his fruitfulness the Lion for his Power The Lamb for his Meekness and Fitness for Sacrifice with other things of the like kind almost innumerable THESE Things have I mentioned not with any design to search into the depth of this Treasury of those Divine Truths concerning the Glory of Christ but only to give a little Light unto the words of the Evangelist that he opened unto his disciples out of Moses and all the Prophets the things which concerned himself and to stir up our own souls unto a contemplation of them as contained therein CHAP. IX The Glory of Christ in his intimate Conjunction with the Church VVHAT concerns the Glory of Christ in the Mission of the Holy Ghost unto the Church with all the Divine truths that are branched from it I have at large declared in my Discourse concerning the whole dispensation of the Holy Spirit Here therefore it must have no place amongst those many other things which offer themselves unto our contemplation as part of this Glory or intimately belonging thereunto I shall insist briefly on Three only which cannot be reduced directly unto the former heads AND the first of these is That intimate Conjunction that is between Christ and the Church whence it is just and equal in the sight of God according unto the Rules of his Eternal Righteousness that what he did and suffered in the Discharge of his Office should be esteemed reckoned and imputed unto us as unto all the fruits and benefits of it as if we had done and suffered the same things our selves For this conjunction of his with us was an act of his own Mind and Will wherein he is ineffably glorious THE Enemies of the glory of Christ and of his Cross do take this for granted That there ought to be such a conjunction between the guilty person and him that suffers for him as that in him the guilty person may be said in some sense to undergo the punishment himself But then they affirm on the other hand That there was no such conjunction between Christ and sinners none at all but that he was a man as they were men and otherwise that he was at the greatest distance from them all as it is possible for one man to be from another Socin de Servat lib. 3. cap. 3. The falseness of this latter Assertion and the gross ignorance of the Scripture under a pretence of subtilty in them that make it will evidently appear in our ensuing Discourse THE Apostle tells us 1 Pet. 2. 24. That in his own self he bare our sins in his own body on the tree and chap. 3. 18. That he suffered for sin the just for the unjust that he might bring us unto God But this seems somewhat strange unto Reason where is the Justice where is the Equity that the just should suffer for the unjust Where is Divine Righteousness herein For it was an act of God The Lord hath laid on him the iniquites of us all Isa. 53. 6. The Equity hereof with the grounds of it must be here a little enquired into FIRST of all it is certain that all the Elect the whole Church of God fell in Adam under the curse due to the transgression of the Law It is so also that in this curse Death both Temporal and Eternal was contained This curse none could undergo and be saved Nor was it consistent with the Righteousness or Holiness or Truth of God that sin should go unpunished Wherefore there was a necessity upon a supposition of Gods Decree to save his Church of a Translation of punishment namely from them who had deserved it and could not bear it unto one who had not deserved it but could bear it A SUPPOSITION of this Translation of punishment by Divine dispensation is the foundation of Christian Religion yea of all supernatural Revelation contained in the Scripture This was first intimated in the first promise and afterwards explained and confirmed in all the institutions of the Old Testament For although in the Sacrifices of the Law there was a revival of the greatest and most fundamental principal of the Law of Nature namely That God is to be worshipped with our best yet the principal end and use of them was to represent this translation of punishment from the offender unto another who was to be a Sacrifice in his stead THE reasons of the equity hereof and the unspeakable glory of Christ herein is what we now enquire into And I shall reduce what ought to be spoken hereunto to the ensuing Heads 1. IT is not contrary unto the nature of Divine Justice it doth not interfere with the principles of natural light in man that in sundry cases some persons should suffer punishment for the fine