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
whose Ruines they were buried The Gates of Hell in them prevailed not against the Rock on which the Church is built But as it was said of Caesar Solus accessie sobrius ad perdendam Rempublicam He alone went soberly about the Destruction of the Commonwealth So we now have great Numbers who oppose the Person and Glory of Christ under a pretence of Sobriety of Reason as they vainly plead Yea the disbelief of the Mysteries of the Trinity and the Incarnation of the Son of God the sole Foundation of Christian Religion is so diffused in the World as that it hath almost devoured the power and vitals of it And not a few who dare not yet express their minds do give broad intimations of their intentions and good will towards him in making them the Object of their scorn and reproach who desire to know nothing but him and him Crucified GOD in his appointed time will effectually Vindicate his Honour and Glory from the vain attempts of Men of corrupt minds against them IN the mean time it is the Duty of all those who love the Lord Jesus in sincerity to give Testimony in a peculiar manner unto this Divine Person and Glory according unto their several Capacities because of the Opposition that is made against them I HAVE thought my self on many accounts obliged to cast my Mite into this Treasury And I have chosen so to do not in a way of controversie which formerly I have engaged in but so aâ— together with the vindicaâ—ion of the Truth to promote the strengthning of the Faith of true Believers their Edification in the Knowâ—edge of it and to express the Experience which they have or may have of the Power and Reality of thâ—se â—hings THAT which at present I design to Demonstrate is That the Beholding of the Glory of Christ is one of the greatâ—st Priviledges and Advancements that Believers are capable â—f in this World or that which is to come It is that whereby they are first gradually conformed unto it and then fixed in the Eternal enjoyment of it For here in this life beholding his Glory they are changed or transformed into the likeness of it 2 Cor. 3. 18. and hereafter they shall be for ever like unto him because they shall see him as he is I Joh. 3. 1 2. Hereon do our present Comforts and future Blessedness depend This is the Life and Reward of our Souls He that hath seen him hath seen the Father also Joh. 14. 9. For we discern the Light of the Knowledge of God only in the Face of Jesus Christ 2 Cor. 4. 6. THERE are therefore two ways or degrees of beholding the Glory of Christ which are constantly distinguished in the Scripture The one is by Faith in this World which is the Evidence of things not seen The other is by Sight or immediate vision in Eternity 2 Cor. 5. 7. We walk by faith and not by sight We do so whilst we are in this World whilst we are present in the Body and absent from the Lord ver 8. But we shall live and walk by Sight hereafter And it is the Lord Christ and his Glory which are immediate objects both of this Faith and Sight For we here behold him darkly in a Glass that is by Faith but we shall see him face to face by immediate vision 〈◊〉 we know him in part but then we shall know him as we are known 1 Cor. 13. 12. What is the difference between these two ways of beholding the Glory of Christ shall be afterwards declared IT is the first way namely by Vision in the Light of Glory that is principally included in that prayer of our Blessed Saviour that his Disciples may be where he is to behold his Glory But I shall not confine my enquiry thereunto nor doth our Lord Jesus exclude from his desire that Sight of his Glory which we have by faith in this World but prays for the Perfection of it in Heaven It is therefore the first way that in the first place I shall insist upon and that for the Reasons ensuing 1. NO Man shall ever behold the Glory of Christ by Sight hereafter who doth not in some measure behold it by Faith here in this World Grace is a necessary preparation for Glory and Faith for Sight Where the Subject the Soul is not previously seasoned with Grace and Faith it is not capable of Glory or Vision Nay persons not disposed hereby unto it cannot desire it whatever they pretend they only deceive their own Souls in supposing that so they do Most Men will say with confidence living and dying that they desire to be with Christ and to behold his Glory But they can give no Reason why they should desire any such thing only they think it somewhat that is better than to be in that evil condition which otherwise they must be cast into for ever when they can be here no more If a Man pretend himself to be enamoured on or greatly to desire what he never saw nor was ever represented unto him he doth but dote on his own Imaginations And the pretended desires of many to behold the Glory of Christ in Heaven who have no view of it by Faith whilst they are here in this World are nothing but self-deceiving imaginations SO do the Papists delude themselves Their Carnal Affections are excited by their outward Senses to delight in Images of Christ in his Sufferings his Resurrection and Glory above Hereon they satisfie themselves that they behold the Glory of Christ himself and that with Love and great Delight But whereas there is not the least true Representation made of the Lord Christ or his Glory in these things that being confined absolutely unto the Gospel alone and this way of attempting it being laid under a severe interdict they do but sport themselves with their own deceivings THE Apostle tells us concerning himself and other Believers when the Lord Christ was present and conversed with them in the Days of his Flesh that they saw his Glory the Glory as of the only begotten of the Father full of Grace and Truth Joh. 1. 14. And we may enquire what was this Glory of Christ which they so saw and by what means they obtained a prospect of it For 1. It was not the Glory of his outward condition as we behold the Glory and Grandeur of the Kings and Potentates of the Earth For he made himself of no Reputation but being in the Form of a Servant he walked in the Condition of a Man of low Degree The Secular Grandeur of his pretendedVicar makes no Representation of that Glory of his which his Disciples saw He kept no Court nor House of Entertainment nor though he made all things had of his own where to lay his Head Nor 2. Was it with respect to the outward Form of the Flesh which he was made wherein he took our Nature on him as we see the Glory of a comely or beautiful Person For
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
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
order thereby is not only an impious but a foolish Imagination DID we live more in the Contemplation of this Glory of Christ and of the Wisdom of God in this Recapitulation of all things in him there is not any thing of our Duty which it would not mind us of nor any thing of Priviledge which it would not give us a Sence of as might easily be demonstrated 3. IN particular the Lord Christ is glorious herein in that the whole Breach made on the Glory of God in the Creation by the Entrance of Sin is hereby repaired and made up The Beauty and Order of the whole Creation consisted in iâ—s dependance on God by the Obedience of the rational Part of it Angels and Men. Thereby were the being the goodness the wisdom and power of God made manifest But the Beauty of this Order was defaced and the Manifestation of the Divine Perfections unto the glory of God eclipsed by the Entrance of Sin But all is restored repaired and made up in this Recapitulation of all things in one new Head Christ Jesus yea the whole curious Frame of the Divine Creation is rendred more beautiful than it was before Hence the whole of it groaneth for the Interest of each Part in this Restauration of all things Whatever there is of Order of Beauty of Glory in Heaven above or in Earth beneath it all ariseth from this new Relation of the Creation unto the Son of God Whatever is not gathered into one even in him in its place and according to its measure is under Darkness Disorder and the Curse Hence the Jews have a saying that in the days of the Messiah all things shall be healed but the Serpent that is the Devil and wicked Men which are as his Seed 4. HE is glorious herein in that he is appointed as the only means of exerting and expressing all the Treasures of the Infinite Wisdom of God towards his Creatures The Wisdom of God is absolutely always and in all things Infinite God doth not God cannot act with more Wisdom in one thing than in another as in the Creation of man than in that of any inanimate Creatures In the first Creation Infinite Wisdom was the inseparable companion of Infinite Power How marvellous are thy works O Lord in Wisdom hast thou made them all But when the effects of this Divine Wisdom in their principal beauty and glory were defaced greater Treasures of Wisdom were required unto their Reparation And in this Recollection of all things in Christ did God lay them forth unto the utmost of whatever he will do in dealing with his Creatures so the Apostle expresseth it Ephes. 3. 10. To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God By the Recapitulation of all things into this one head the manifold various unsearchable Wisdom of God was made known unto the Angels themselves They knew not before of the Design and Work of God after the Entrance of Sin These could not comprehend the Wisdom that might repair that Loss They knew not that Divine Wisdom had another way to take herein at least they knew not what way that should be But hereby the manifold Wisdom of God his infinite Wisdom in the Treasures of it able by various ways to attain the ends of his Glory was made known unto them Herein namely in the Recollection of all things in Christ Divine Wisdom hath made known and represented it self in all its Stores and Treasures unto Angels and Men. In him are hid and by him are displayed all the treasures of Wisdom Col. 2. 3. Herein is he glorious and will be so to Eternity 5. He is glorious herein in that hereby firmness and security is communicated unto the whole new Creation The first Creation in its Order was a curious and glorious Fabrick But every thing depending immediately on God by vertue of the Principles of its own Nature and the Law of its Obedience all was brought unto a Loss by the sin of Angels and Men. But now every thing that belongs unto this new Creation even every Believer in the World as well as the Angels in Heaven being gathered together in this one Head the whole and all and every part and member of it even every particular Believer are secured from Ruine such as befel all things before In this New Head they have an indissoluble Consistency BUT manum de Tabula I shall insist on no more Instances of this Nature which plentifully offer themselves in the Scripture unto us For who can declare this glory of Christ Who can speak of these things as he ought I am so far from designing to set forth the whole of it that I am deeply sensible how little a Portion I can comprehend of the least part of it Nor can I attain unto any Satisfaction in these Meditations but what Issue in an humble Admiration CHAP. XII Differences between our beholding the Glory of Christ by Faith in this World and by sight in Heaven The first of them explained WE walk here by faith and not by sight 2 Cor. 5. 7. That is in the Life of God in our walking before him in the whole of our Obedience therein we are under the Conduct and Influence of Faith and not of Sight Those are the two spiritual Powers of our Souls by the one whereof we are made Partakers of Grace Holiness and Obedience in this Life and by the other of eternal Blessedness and Glory BOTH these namely Faith and Sight the one in this Life the other in that which is to come have the same immediate Object For they are the Abilities of the Soul to go forth unto and to embrace their Object Now this Object of them both is the Glory of Christ as hath been declared as also what that glory is and wherein it doth consist wherefore my present Design is to enquire into the difference that is between our beholding of the Glory of Christ in this World by Faith and the Vision which we shall have of the same Glory hereafter THE latter of these is peculiarly intended in that Prayer of our Lord Jesus Christ for his Disciples Joh. 17. 24. Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me may be with me where I am that they may behold my Glory which thou hast given me But I shall not distinctly insist upon it my design being another way respecting principally the Work of God in this Life and the Priviledges which we enjoy thereby Yet I shall now take a short Prospect of that also not absolutely but in the Differences that are between Faith and Sight or the View which we have of the glory of Christ in this World by Faith and that which they enjoy by Vision who are above the Object of them both being adequately the same BUT herein also I shall have respect only unto some of those things which concern our Practise or the
designs cursed self-pleasing Imaginations feeding on and being fed by the Love of the World and self do abide and prevail in them But we have not so learned Christ Jesus CHAP. XIII The second Difference between our beholding the Glory of Christ by Faith in this World and by Sight in Heaven FAITH is the Light wherein we behold the Glory of Christ in this World And this in its own Nature as unto this great End is weak and imperfect like weak Eyes that cannot behold the Sun in its Beauty Hence our sight of it differs greatly from what we shall enjoy in Glory as hath been declared But this is not all it is frequently hindred and interrupted in its Operations or it loseth the view of its object by one means or other As he who sees any thing at a great distance sees it imperfectly and the least interposition or motion takes it quite out of his sight So is it with our Faith in this matter whence sometimes we can have little sometimes no sight at all of the Glory of Christ by it And this gives us as we shall see another Difference between Faith and Sight NOW although the consideration hereof may seem a kind of Diversion from our present Argument yet I choose to insist upon it that I may evidence the Reasons whence it is that many have so little experience of the things whereof we have treated that they find so little of Reallity or Power in the exercise of this Grace or the performance of this Duty For it will appear in the issue that the whole defect is in themselves the truth it self insisted on is great and efficacious 1. WHILST we are in this life the Lord Christ is pleased in his Sovereign Wisdom sometimes to withdraw and as it were to hide himself from us Then do our Minds fall into Clouds and Darkness Faith is at a loss we cannot behold his Glory yea we may seek him but cannot find him So Job complains as we observed before Behold I go forward but he is not there and backward but I cannot perceive him on the left hand where he doth work but I cannot behold him he hideth himself on the right hand that I cannot see him Chap. 23. 8 9. Which way soever I turn my self whatever are my endeavours in what way or work of his own I seek him I cannot find him I cannot see him I cannot behold his Glory So the Church also complains Verily thou art a God that hidest thy self O God of Israel the Saviour Isa. 45. 15. And the Psalmist How long Lord wilt thou hide thy self for ever Psal. 89. 46. This hiding of the face of God is the hiding of the shining of his Glory in the face of Christ Jesus and therefore of the Glory of Christ himself for it is the Glory of Christ to be the Representative of the Glory of God The Spouse in the Canticles is often at a loss and herein bemoans her self that her Beloved was withdrawn that she could neither find him nor see him Chap. 3. 1 2. Chap. 5. 6. MEN may retain their Notions concerning Christ his Person and his Glory These cannot be blotted out of their Minds but by Heresie or obdurate Stupidity They may have the same Doctrinal Knowledge of him with others but the sight of his Glory doth not consist therein They may abide in the outward performance of Duties towards him as formerly but yet all this while as unto the especial gracious Communications of himself unto their Souls and as unto a chearful refreshing view of his Glory He may withdraw and hide himself from them AS under the same outward dispensations of the word he doth manifest himself unto some and not unto others How is it that thou wilt manifest thy self unto us and not unto the world Joh. 14. 22. Whereon they to whom he doth so maniâ—est himself do see him to be beautiful glorious and lovely for unto them that believe he is precious whilst the others see nothing hereof but wonder at them by whom he is admired Cant. 5. 9. So in the same dispensation of the word he sometimes hides his face turns away the Light of his countenance clouds the beams of his Glory unto some whilst others are cherished and warmed with them TWO Things we must here speak unto 1. WHY doth the Lord Christ at any time thus hide himself in his Glory from the Faith of Believers that they cannot behold him 2. HOW we may perceive and know that he doth so withdraw himself from us so that however we may please our selves we do not indeed behold his Glory AS unto the first of these tho what he doth is supposed an act of Sovereign unaccountable Wisdom yet there are many holy ends of it and consequently reasons for it I shall mention one only He doth it to stir us up in an eminent manner unto a diligent search and enquiry after him Woful sloth and negligence are apt to prevail in us in our Meditations on heavenly things Tho our hearts wake as the Spouse speaks Cant. 5. 2. in a valuation of Christ his Love and his Grace yet we sleep as unto the due exercise of Faith and Love towards him Who is it that can justifie himself herein That can say My heart is pure I am clean from this sin Yea it is so far otherwise with many of us that he is for ever to be admired in his patience that on the account of our unkindness and woful negligence herein he hath not only withdrawn himself at seasons but that he hath not utterly departed from us Now he knows that those with whom he hath been graciously present who have had views of his Glory altho they have not valued the mercy and priviledge of it as they ought yet can they not bear a sense of his absence and his hiding himself from them By this therefore will he awake them unto a diligent enquiry after him Upon the discovery of his absence and such a distance of his Glory from them as their Faith cannot reach unto it they become like the Doves of the Valleys all of them mourning every one for his iniquity and do stir up themselves to seek him early and with diligence see Hos. 5. 5. So wherever the Spouse intimates this withdrawing of Christ from her she immediately gives an account of her restless diligence and endeavours in her enquiries after him until she have found him Chap. 3. 1 2 3 4 5. Chap. 5. 2 3 4 5 6 7 8. And in these enquiries there is such an exercise of Faith and Love tho it may be acting themselves mostly in sighs and groans as is acceptable and well pleasing to him WE are like him in the Parable of the Prophet that spake unto Ahab who having one committed unto him to keep affirms that whilst he was busie here and there he was gone Christ commits himself unto us and we ought carefully to keep his presence I held him saith
is the most blessed means of exciting all our Graces spiritualizing all our Affections and transforming our Minds into his likeness And if we have not another and that a more excellent way of beholding him than they have who behold him as they suppose in Images and Crucifixes they would seem to have the advantage of us For their Minds will really be affected with somewhat ours with nothing at all And by the pretence thereof they inveagle the carnal affections of Men ignorant of the Power of the Gospel to become their Proselytes For having lived it may be a long time without any the least experience of a sensible impression on their Minds or a transforming power from the Representation of Christ in the Gospel upon their very first Religious Devout Application unto these Images they find their Thoughts exercised their Minds affected and some present change made upon them BUT there was a difference between the Person of David and an Image with a bolster of Goats Hair though the one were laid in the room and place of the other And there is so between Christ and an Image though the one be put into the place of the other Neither do these things serve unto any other end but to divert the Minds of Men from Faith and Love to Christ giving them some such satisfactions in the room of them as that their carnal Affections do cleave unto their Idols And indeed it doth belong unto the Wisdom of Faith or we stand in need of spiritual Light to discern and judge between the working of natural Affections towards spiritual Objects on undue motives by undue means with indirect ends wherein all Papal Devotion consists and the spiritual Exercise of Grace in those Affections duely fixed on spiritual Objects BUT as was said it is a real experience of the Efficacy that there is in the spiritual beholding of the Glory of Christ by Faith as proposed in the Gospel to strengthen encrease and excite all Grace unto its proper exercise so changing and transforming the Soul gradually into his likeness which must secure us against all those Pretences and so I return from this Digression HEREBY we may understand whether the Lord Christ doth so withdraw himself as that we do not as that we cannot behold his glory by Faith in a due manner which is the thing enquired after For if we grow weak in our Graces unspiritual in our Frames cold in our Affections or negligent in the exercise of them by holy Meditation it is evident that he is at a great distance from us so as that we do not behold his Glory as we ought If the weather grow cold Herbs and Plants do whither and the Frost begins to bind up the earth all men grant that the Sim is withdrawn and makes not its wonted approach unto us And if it be so with our Hearts that they grow cold frozen withering lifeless in and unto spiritual Duties it is certain that the Lord Christ is in some sence withdrawn and that we do not behold his Glory We retain Notions of Truth concerning his Person Office and Grace but faith is not in constant exercise as to real views of him and his Glory For there is nothing more certain in Christian Experience than this is that while we do really by Faith behold the Glory of Christ as proposed in the Gospel the Glory of his Person and Office as before described and so abide in Holy Thoughts and Meditations thereof especially in our private Duties and Retirements all Grace will live and thrive in us in some measure especially love unto his Person and therein unto all that belongs unto him Let us but put it to the trial and we shall infallibly find the promised event DO any of us find decays in Grace prevailing in us deadness coldness lukewarmness a kind of Spiritual Stupidity and senseless coming upon us Do we find an unreadiness unto the exercise of Grace in its proper season and the vigorous actings of it in Duties of Communion with God And would we have our souls recovered from these dangerous diseases Let us assure our selves there is no better way for our healing and deliverance yea no other way but this alone namely the obtaining a fresh view of the Glory of Christ by faith and a steady abiding therein Constant contemplation of Christ and his Glory putting forth its transforming power unto the revival of all Grace is the only relief in this case as shall further be shewed afterwards SOME will say that this must be effected by fresh supplies and renewed communications of the Holy Spirit Unless he fall as dew and showers on our dry and barren hearts unless he causeth our Graces to spring thrive and bring forth fruit unless he revive and increase faith love and holiness in our souls our backsâ—idings will not be healed nor our spiritual state be recovered Unto this end is he prayed for and promised in the Scripture see Cant 4. 1. 6. Isa. 44. 3 4. Ezek. 11. 19. chap. 36. 26. Hos. 14. 5 6. And so it is The immediate efficiency of the revival of our souls is from and by the Holy Spirit But the enquiry is in what way or by what means we may obtain the supplies and communications of him unto this end This the Apostle declares in the place insisted on We beholding the Glory of Christ in a Glass are changed into the same image from glory to glory even by the spirit of the Lord. It is in the exercise of Faith on Christ in the way before described that the Holy Spirit puts forth his renewing transforming Power in and upon our souls This therefore is that alone which will retrive Christians from their present decays and deadness SOME complain greatly of their State and Condition none so dead so dull and stupid as they They know not whether they have any spark of heavenly life left in them some make weak and faint endeavours for a recovery which are like the attempts of a man in a dream wherein he seems to use great endeavours without any success Some put themselves unto multiplied duties Howbeit the Generallity of Prifessors seem to be in a pining thriftless condition And the reason of it is because they will not sincerely and constantly make use of the only remedy and relief like a man that will rather chuse to pine away in his sickness with some useless transient refreshments than apply himself unto a known and approved remedy because it may be the use of it is unsuited unto some of his present occasions Now this is to live in the exercise of Faith in Christ Jesus This himself assures us of Joh. 15. 4 5. Abide in me and I in you As the branch cannot bear fruit of it self except it abide in the vine no more can ye except you abide in me I am the vine ye are the branches he that abideth in me and I in him the same bringeth forth much fruit for without
and know him even as we are known FINIS CHAP. I. Application of the foregoing Meditations concerning the Glory of Christ. First in an Exhortation unto such as are not yet Partakers of Him THAT which remains is to make some Application of the Glorious Truth insisted on unto the Souls of them that are concerned And what I have to offer unto that end I shall distribute under two Heads The First shall be with respect unto them who are yet Strangers from this Holy and Glorious One who are not yet made partakers of him nor have any especial Interest in him And the Second shall be directed unto Believers as a Guide and Assistance unto their Recovery from Spiritual Decays and the Revival of a Spring of vigorous Grace Holiness and Obedience in them FOR the first of these although it seems not directly to lye in our way yet is it suited unto the method of the Gospel that wherever there is a Declaration of the Excellencies of Christ in his Person Grace or Office it should be accompanied with an Invitation and Exhortation unto Sinners to come unto him This method he himself first made use of Mat. 11. 27 28 29 30. Joh. 7 37 38. and consecrated it unto our use also Besides it is necessary from the nature of the things themselves for who can dwell on the consideration of the Glory of Christ being called therewith to the Declaration of it but his own mind will engage him to invite lost Sinners unto a participation of him But I shall at present proceed no further in this Exhortation but only unto the Proposal of some of those Considerations which may prepare encline and dispose their Minds unto a closure with him as he is tendred in the Gospel As 1. LET them consider well what is their present State with respect unto God and Eternity This Moses wisheth for the Israelites Deut. 32. 29. Oh that they were wise that they understood this that they would consider their latter end It is the greatest Folly in the World to leave the Issues of these things unto an uncertain hazzard And that Man who cannot prevail with himself strictly to examine what is his State and Condition with respect unto Eternity doth never do any good nor abstain from any evil in a due manner remember therefore that many are called but few are chosen To be called is to enjoy all the outward Priviledges of the Gospel which is all you unto whom I speak can pretend unto yet this you may do and not be chosen Even among those unto whom the Word is preached they are but few that shall be saved In the Distribution made by our Lord Jesus Christ of the Hearers of the Word into four sorts of ground it was but one of them that received real Benefit thereby and if our Congregations are no better than were his Hearers there is not above a fourth part of them that will be saved it may be a far less number And is it not strange that every one of them is not jealous over himself and his own Condition Many herein deceive themselves until they fall under woful surprizals And this is represented in the Account of the final Judgment for the generality of those who have professed the Gospel are introduced as complaining of their Disappointments Mat. 25. 41 42 43. For what is there spoken is only a Declaration of what befell them here in the close of their Lives and their Personal Judgment thereon 2. TAKE heed of being deluded by common Presumptions Most men have some thoughts in general about what their State is and what it will be in the issue But they make no diligent search into this matter because a number of common presumptions do immediately insinuate themselves into their minds for their relief and they are such as all whose force and efficacy unto this end lies in this that they differ from others and are better than they as that they are Christians that they are in the right way of Religion that they are partakers of the outward priviledges of the Gospel hearing the Word and participation of the Sacraments that they have light and convictions so as that they abstain from Sin and perform Duties so as others do not and the like All those with whom it is not so who are behind them in these things they judge to be in an ill State and Condition whence they entertain good hopes concerning themselves and this is all that most trust unto It is not my present business to discourse the vanity of Presumptions it hath been done by many I give only this warning in general unto those who have the least design or purpose to come to Christ and to be made partakers of him that they put no trust in them that they rely not on them for if they do so they will eternally deceive their Souls This was a great part of the preparatory Ministry of John the Baptist Mat. 3. 9. Think not to say within your selves we have Abraham to our Father This was their great comprehensive priviledge containing all the outward Church and Covenant Advantages These they rested in and trusted to unto their Ruine Herein he designed to undeceive them 3. CONSIDER aright what it is to live and die without an Interest in Christ without a participation of him Where this is not stated in the mind where thoughts of it are not continually prevalent there can be no one step taken in the way towards him Unless we are throughly convinced that without him we are in a state of Apostacy from God under the Curse obnoxious unto Eternal Wrath as some of the worst of God's Enemies we shall never flee unto him for Refuge in a due manner The whole have no need of a Physician but the sick Christ came not to call the Rightous but Sinners to Repentance And the Conviction intended is the principal end of the Ministry of the Law The Miseries of this State have been the subject of innumerable Sermons and Discourses but there is a general misery in the whole that few take themselves to be concerned therein or apply these things unto themselves Let us tell men of it a thousand times yet they either take no notice of it or believe it not nor look on it as that which belongs unto the way and course of preaching wherein they are not concerned These things it seems Preachers must say and they may believe them who have a mind thereunto It is a rare thing that any one shall as much as say unto himself Is it so with me And if we now together with this Caution tell the same Men again that whilst they are uninterested in Christ not ingrafted into him by Faith that they run in vain that all their labour in Religion is lost that their Duties are all rejected that they are under the Displeasure and Curse of God that their End is eternal Destruction which are all unquestionably certain yet will they let
your Net this once more upon the Command of Christ venture this once more to come unto him on his Call and Invitation you know not what success he may give unto you 2. CONSIDER that it is not failing in this or that Attempt of coming to Christ but a giving over your Endeavours that will be your Ruine The Woman of Canaan in her great outcry to Christ for Mercy Mat. 15. 22. had many a Repulse First it is said he answered her not a word then his Disciples desired that he would send her away that she might not trouble him any more whereon he gives a Reason why he would not regard her or why he could justly pass her by she was not an Israelitess unto whom he was sent yet she gives not over but pressing into his presence cries out for Mercy ver 25. being come to that issue to try and draw out her Faith to the utmost which was his design from the beginning he reckons her among Dogs that were not to have Childrens bread given unto them Had she now at last given over upon this severe Rebuke she had never obtained Mercy but persisting in her Request she at last prevailed ver 27. 28. It may be you have prayed and cryed and resolved and vowed but all without success as you suppose Sin hath broken thorough all however if you give not over you shall prevail at last you know not at what time God will come in with his Grace and Christ will manifest his love unto you as unto the poor Woman after many a rebuke It may be after all he will do it this day and if not he may do it another do not despond Take that word of Christ himself for your Encouragement Prov. 8. 34. Blessed is the man that heareth me watching daily at my Gates waiting at the posts of my doors If you hear him and wait though you have not yet admission but are kept at the gates and posts of the doors yet in the issue you shall be blessed 3. THE Rule in this case is Hos. 6 3. Then shall we know if we follow on to know Are you in the way of knowing Christ in the use of Means hearing the Word and sincere Endeavours in holy Duties though you cannot yet attain unto any Evidence that you have received him have closed with him nothing can ruine you but giving over the way wherein you are for then shall you know if you follow on to know the Lord. Many can give you their Experiences that if they had been discouraged by present overwhelming Difficulties arising from their Disappointments breaking of Vows relapses into Folly they had been utterly ruined whereas now they are at rest and peace in the Bosom of Christ. On a great surprizal Christ lost at once many Disciples and they lost their Souls John 6. 66. They went back and walked no more with him take heed of the like Discouragements III. SOME may say yea practically they do say That these things indeed are necessary they must come to Christ by believing or they are undone but this is not the season of it there will be time enough to apply themselves unto it when other occasions are past At present they have not leisure to enter upon and go through with this Duty wherefore they will abide in their present State for a while hearing and doing many things and when time serves will apply themselves unto this Duty also 1. THIS is an uncontrollable evidence of that Sottishness and Folly which is come upon our Nature by Sin A Depravation that the Apostle places in the head of the Evils of corrupted Nature Tu. 3. 3. Can any thing be more foolish sottish and stupid than for men to put off the consideration of the Eternal Concernment of their Souls for one hour being altogether uncertain whether they shall live another or no to preferr present Trifles before the Blessedness or Misery of an Immortal State For those who never heard of these things who never had any Conviction of Sin and Judgment to put the evil day far from them is not much to be admired But for you who have Christ preached unto you who own a necessity of coming unto him to put it off from day to day upon such slight pretences it is an astonishable Folly May you not be spoken unto in the language of the Wisdom of God Prov. 6. 9 10 11. You come to hear the Word and when you go away the language of your Hearts is Yet a little sleep a little slumber a little folding of the hands to sleep We will abide a little while in our present State and afterwards we will rouze up our selves Under this Deceit do multitudes perish every day This is a dark Shade wherein cursed Unbelief lyes hid 2. CONSIDER that this is the greatest Engine that Satan makes use of in the World among them that hear the Word preached unto them for the ruine of their Souls He hath other Arts and Ways and Methods of dealing with other Men as by sensual and worldly Lusts But as unto them who through their Convictions do attend unto the preaching of the Word this is his great and almost only Engine for their Ruine There needs no haste in this matter another time will be more seasonable you may be sure not to fail of it before you dye However this present day and time is most unfit for it you have other things to do you cannot part with your present frame you may come again to hear the Word the next opportunity Know assuredly if your Minds are influenced unto delays of coming to Christ by such insinuations you are under the Power of Satan and he is like enough to hold you fast unto Destruction 3. THIS is as evil and dangerous a Posture or frame of Mind as you can well fall under If you have learned to put off God and Christ and the Word for the present Season and yet relieve your selves in this that you do not intend like others alwayes to reject them but will have a time to hearken to their calls you are secured and fortified against all Convictions and Perswasions all fears one answer will serve for all within a little while you will do all that can be required of you This is that which ruines the Souls of multitudes every day It is better dealing with Men openly profligate than with such a trifling promiser See Isa. 5. 7 10. 4. REMEMBER that the Scripture confines you unto the present day without the least intimation that you shall have either another day or another tender of Grace and Mercy in any day 2 Cor. 6. 2. Heb. 3. 7. 13. Chap. 12. 15. Take care lest you come short of the Grace of God miss of it by missing your opportunity Redeem the time or you are lost for ever 5. AS unto the pretence of your Occasions and Business there is a ready way to disappoint the craft of Satan in that pretence namely
who are not concerned herein I confess I know not what to make of them or their Religion 4. I proceed unto that which was proposed in the fourth or last place namely the Way and Means whereby Believers may be delivered from these Decays and come to thrive and flourish in the inward Principle and outward Fruits of Spiritual Life which will bring us back unto the Consideration of that Truth which we may seem to have diverted from And to this end the things ensuing are proposed unto Consideration 1. THE State of Spiritual Decays is recoverable No Man that is fallen under it hath any Reason to say There is no hope provided he take the right way for his Recovery If every step that is lost in the way to Heaven should be irrecoverable Woe would be unto us we should all assuredly perish If there were no Reparation of our Breaches no healing of our Decays no Salvation but for them who are always progressive in Grace if God should mark all that is done amiss as the Psalmist speaks O Lord who should stand Nay if we had not Recoveries every day we should go off with a perpetual Backsliding But then as was said it it required that the right means ofâ— it be used and not that which is destructive of what is designed whereof I shall give an Instance When Trees grow old or are decaying it is useful to dig about them and manure them which may cause them to flourish again and abound in Fruit But instead hereof if you remove them out of their Soil to plant them in another which may promise much advantage they will assuredly wither and dye So it is with Professors and hath been with many finding themselves under manifold Decays and little or nothing of the Life and Power of Religion left in them they have grown weary of their Station and have changed their Soyl or turning from one way in Religion unto another as some have turned Papists some Quakers and the like apprehending that fault to be in the Religion which they professed which was indeed only in themselves You cannot give an instance of any one who did not visibly wither and dye therein but had they used the proper means for their Healing and Recovery they might have lived and brought forth Fruit. 2. A strict Attendance unto the Severities of Mortification with all the Duties that lead thereunto is required unto this end So also is the utmost Diligence in all Duties of Obedience These things naturally offer themselves as the first Relief in this case and they ought not to be omitted But if I should insist upon them they would branch themselves into such a multitude of particular Directions as it is inconsistent with my Design here to handle Besides the way which I intend to propose is of another Nature though consistent with all the Duties included in this Proposal yea such as without which not one of them can be performed in a due manner Wherefore as unto these things I shall only assert their Necessity with a double Limitation 1. THAT no Duties of Mortification be prescribed unto this end as a Means of Recovery from Spiritual Decays but what for Matter and Manner are of Divine Institution and Command All others are laid under a severe Interdict under what pretence soever they may be used Who hath required these things at your hands Want hereof is that whereby a pretended Design to advance Religion in the Papacy hath ruined it They have under the name and pretence of the means of Mortification or the Duties of it invented and enjoyned like the Pharisees a number of Works Ways Duties so called which God never appointed nor approved nor will accept nor shall they ever do good unto the Souls of Men. Such are their Confessions Disciplines Pilgrimages Fastings Abstinence framed Prayers to be repeated in stated Canonical hours in such a length and number In the bodily Labour of these things they exercise themselves to no Spiritual Advantage BUT it is Natural to all Men to divert to such Reliefs in this case Those who are throughly convinced of Spiritual Decays are therewithall pressed with a sense of the Guilt of Sin for it is Sin which hath brought them into that Condition Hereon in the first place they set their Contrivance at work how they may atone Divine Displeasure and obtain Acceptance with God And if they are not under the actual Conduct of Evangelical Light two things immediately offer themselves unto them First Some extraordinary course in Duties which God hath not commanded This is the way which they betake themselves unto in the Papacy and which Guilt in the Darkness of corrupted Nature vehemently calls for Secondly An extraordinary multiplication of such Duties as for the substance of them are required of us An instance in both kinds we have Micah 6. 6 7. Wherewith shall I come before the Lord and bow my self before the high God Shall I come before him with burnt-offerings with Calves of a year old Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of Rams or with ten thousands of Rivers of Oyl Shall I give my First-born for my Transgressions the Fruit of my Body for the Sin of my Soul And by this means they hope for a Restitution into their former Condition And whereas Spiritual Decays are of two sorts First from the Power and Effect of Convictions only which are multiplied among Temporary Believers And Secondly from Degrees in the Power and Effects of Saving Grace Those whose Decays are of the first sort are never to be diverted from attempting their Relief by such means And when they find them fail for the most part they cease contending and abandon themselves to the power of their Lusts for they have no Evangelical Light to guide them in another course UNTO them who are of the second Sort is this Direction given in an endeavour for a Recovery from Backsliding and thriving in Grace by a redoubled Attendance unto the Duties of Mortification and New Obedience Let care be taken that as unto the matter of them they be of Divine Appointment and as to the manner of their performance that it be regulated by the Rules of the Scripture Such are constant Reading and Hearing of the Word Prayer with fervency therein a diligent watch against all Temptations and occasions of Sin especially an Endeavour by an Holy Earnestness and vehement Rebukes of the entrance of any other Frame to keep the Mind Spiritual and Heavenly in it's Thoughts and Affections 2. LET them take heed that they attempt not these things in their own strength When Men have strong Convictions that such and such things are their own Duty they are apt to act as if they were to be done in their own strength They must do them they will do them that is as unto the outward work and therefore they think they can do them that is in a due manner The Holy Ghost hath for ever rejected this confidence none
shall prosper in it 2 Cor. 3. 5. Chap. 9. 8. But hereby many deceive themselves labouring in the Fire while all they do doth immediately perish they have been negligent and careless whereby things are come to an ill posture with them and that peace which they had is impaired But now they will pray and read and fast and be liberal to the poor and now an Abstinence from Sin All these things they suppose they can do of themselves because they can and ought to perform the outward works wherein the Duties intended do consist Hereby Christ is left out of the whole Design who when all is done is the Lord that healeth us Exod. 1 5. 26. And there is another evil herein for whatever Men do in their own Natural Abilities there is a secret Reserve of some kind of Merit in it Those who plead for these things do averr there can be no merit in any thing but what proceeds from our own Free-will and what is so done hath some kind of merit inseparably accompanying of it And this is enough to render all Endeavours of this kind not only useles and fruitless but utterly rejected Faith 〈…〉 the Assistance of Christ and his in and unto these Duties or however they may be multiplied they will not he effectual unto our Healing and Recovery These things are to be used according as we receive supplies of Grace from above in Subordination unto that Work of Faith that shall be declared Wherefore 3. THE Work of recovering Backsliders or Believers from under their Spiritual Decays is an Act of Soveraign Grace wrought in us by vertue of Divine Promises out of this Eater cometh meat Because Belivers are liable to such Declensions Backslidings and Decays God hath provided and given unto us great and precions Promises of a Recovery if we duly apply our selves unto the Means of it One of the places only wherein they are recorded I shall here call over and explain Hosea 14. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8. O Israel return unto the Lord they God for thou hast fallen by thine Iniquit◠Take with you words and turn with the Lord say unto him Take away all Iniquity and receive 〈◊〉 graciously so will we render the calves of our lips c. I will heal their Backslidings I will love them freely for mine Anger is turned away from him I will be as the dew unto Israel be shall grow as the Lilly and cast out his Roots as Lebanon His Branches shall spread and his Beauty shall be as the Olive Tree and his smell as Lebanon They that dwell under his shadow shall return they shall revive as the Corn and grow as the Vine the scent thereof shall be as the Wine of Lebanon 〈◊〉 Wall say What have I to do any more with Idols I have heard him and observed him I am like a green Fir-tree from me is thy fruit found THE whole matter treated of in general both as unto the Disease and Remedy is fully stated in this passage of Scripture and that in the Experience of the Church and God's dealing with them we may therefore receive many plain Directions from it and a safe Guidance in our Progress which we shall endeavour to take in the ensuing Observations 1. THIS Application of God unto Israel O Israel return was made when the generality of the People were wicked and devoted unto utter Destruction So it is declared in the last words of the foregoing Chapter and their Desolation fell out not long after accordingly Wherefore no Season nor Circumstances of things shall obstruct Soveraign Grace when God will exercise it towards his Church It shall work in the midst of desolating Judgments 2. IN such a time the true Israel of God the Elect themselves are apt to be overtaken with the Sins of the whole and so to Backslide from God and so to fall into Spiritual Decays So Israel had now done though she had not absolutely broken Covenant with God He was yet unto her The Lord thy God yet she had fallen by her Iniquity Times of publick Apostacy are often accompanied with partial defects in the best Because Iniquity aboundeth the love of many shall wax cold Mat. 24. 12. 3. WHEN God designs to heal the Backsliding of his People by Soveraign Grace he gives them effectual Calls unto Repentance and the use of means for their Healing So he doth here by his Prophet O Israel return take with you words And if I could see that God did stir up his Faithful Ministers to apply themselves in a peculiar manner unto this Work of pressing vehemently all their Congregations with their Duty herein and let them know that there is no other way to prevent their Ruine but by returning unto the Lord according to the ways of it here prescribed I should not doubt but that the time of Healing were at hand 4. THE means prescribed unto this end that our Backslidings may be healed in a way suited unto the Glory of God is renewed Repentance And this acts it self 1. IN servent Prayer Take with you words and say Consider the Greatness and Importance of the Work before you and weigh well what you do in your dealing with God The matter of this Prayer is twofold 1. The pardon of all Iniquity that is the taking of it away And no Sin is omitted all being now become equally burthensome take away all Iniquity When the Souls of Sinners are in good earnest in their Return unto God they will leave out the Consideration of no one Sin whatever Nor are we meet for Healing nor shall we apply our selves unto it in a due manner without some previous sense of the Love of God in the pardon of our Sin 2. Gracious Acceptation Receive us graciously The words in the Original are only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and receive good but both the words being used variously the Sense eminently included in them is well expressed by receive us graciously After we have cast our selves under tokens of thy Displeasure now let us know that we are freely accepted with thee And this also lyes in the Desires of them who design to obtain an Healing of their Backslidings for under them they are sensible that they are obnoxious unto Gods Displeasure 2. AFFECTIONATE Confessions of the Sin wherein their Beckslidings did consist or which were the Occasions of them Ashur shall not save us c. we will say no more to the work of our hands Ye are our Gods Fleshly Confidence and False Worship were the two great Sins that had now ruined the Body of the People These Believers themselves had an Accession unto them more or less as now they have unto the prevailing Sins of the Days wherein we live by Conformity unto the World Of these Sins God expecteth a full and free Confession in order unto our Healing 3. A renewed Covenant Engagement to renounce all other Hopes and Expectation and to betake themselves with their whole Trust and Confidence
2. Are we then any of us under Convictions of Spiritual Decays or do we long for such Renovations of Spiriritual strength as may make us flourish in Faith Love and Holiness we must know assuredly that nothing of all this can be attained but it must come from Jesus Christ alone We see what Promises are made what Duties are prescribed unto us but however we should endeavour to apply our selves unto the one on the other they would yield us no Relief unless we know how to receive it from Christ himself 2. THE only way of receiving Supplies of Spiritual Strength and Grace from Jesus Christ on our part is by Faith Hereby we come unto him are implanted in him abide with him so as to bring forth Fruit. He dwells in our Hearts by Faith and he acts in us by Faith and we live by Faith in or on the Son of God This I suppose will be granted that if we receive any thing from Christ it must be by Faith it must be in the Exercise of it or in a way of Believing nor is there any one word in the Scripture that gives the least Encouragement to expect either Grace or Mercy from him in any other way or by any other means 3. THIS Faith respects the Person of Christ his Grace his whole Mediation with all the Effects of it and his Glory in them all This is that which hath been so much insisted on in the foregoing Discourses as that it ought not to be again insisted on This therefore is the issue of the whole A steady view of the Glory of Christ in his Person Grace and Office thrô Faith or a constant lively Exercise of Faith on him according as he is revealed unto us in the Scripture is the only effectual way to obtain a Revival from under our Spiritual Decays and such Supplies of Grace as shall make us Flourishing and Fruitful even in Old Age. He that thus lives by Faith in him shall by his Spiritual thriving and growth shew That the Lord is upright that he is our Rock and that there is no unrighteousness in him WE may consider briefly First How this is is testified unto in the Scripture and then what are the ways whereby this Grace or Duty will produce this effect and so put a close unto this part of the Application of the Sacred Truth before declared 1. THIS Direction is given us Psal. 34. 5. They looked unto him and were lightened and their Faces were not ashamed That it is Christ or the Glory of God in him that is thus looked unto I need not prove it will not be denied And it is their Faith which is expressed by their looking unto him which is nothing but that beholding of his Glory which we have described For it is an Act of Trust arising from an Apprehension of who and what he is The issue or effect hereof is that they were lightened that is received fresh Communication of Spiritual Saving Refreshing Light from him and consequently of all other Graces whence their Faces were not ashamed nor shall we fail in our Expectation of new Spiritual Communication in the Exercise of the same Faith THIS is that which we are called unto Isa. 45. 22. Look unto me and be saved all ye ends of the Earth On this look to Christ on this view of his Glory depends our whole Salvation and therefore all things that are needful thereunto do so also This is the way whereby we receive Grace and Glory This is the Direction given us by the Holy Ghost for the attaining of them SO is the same Duty described Micah 7. 7. Therefore I will look unto the Lord I will wait for the God of my Salvation my God will hear me The Church knew not any other way of Relief whatever her Distresses were A Look unto Christ as Crucified and how Glorious he was therein hath been declared is made the Cause and Fountain of that Godly Sorrow which is a Spring unto all other Graces especially in those who have fallen under Decays Zech. 12. 10. and it is so also of desiring strength from him to enable us to endure all our Tryals Troubles and Afflictions with patience unto the end Heb. 12. 2. THE only Enquiry remaining is How a constant view of the Glory of Christ will produce this Blessed Effect in us And it will do so several ways 1. IT will be effected by that transforming Power and Efficacy which this Exercise of Faith is always accompanied withal This is that which changeth us every day more and more into the likeness of Christ as hath been at large before declared Herein all Revivals and all Flourishings are contained To have a good measure of Conformity unto Christ is all whereof in this Life we are capable The perfection of it is Eternal Blessedness According as are our Attainments therein so is the thriving and flourishing of the Life of Grace in us which is that which is aimed at other ways and means it may be have failed us let us put this to the Tryal Let us live in the constant Contemplation of the Glory of Christ and vertue will proceed from him to repair all our Decays to renew a right Spirit within us and to cause us to abound in all Duties of Obedience This way of producing these effects Flesh and Blood will not reveal it looks like washing in Jordan to cure a Leprosie But the Life of Faith is a Mystery known only unto them in whom it is 2. IT will fix the Soul unto that Object which is suited to give it Delight Complacency and Satisfaction This in perfection is Blessedness for it is caused by the Eternal Vision of the Glory of God in Christ And the nearer Approaches we make unto this State the better the more Spiritual the more Heavenly is the State of our Souls And this is to be obtained only by a constant Contemplation of the Glory of Christ as hath been declared And it is several ways effectual unto the end now proposed For 1. THE most of our Spiritual Decays and Barrenness arise from an inordinate admission of other things into our Minds for these are they that weaken Grace in all it 's Operations But when the Mind is filled with thoughts of Christ and his Glory when the Soul thereon cleaves unto him with intense Affections they will cast out or not give admittance unto those causes of Spiritual Weakness and Indisposition See Col. 3. 1 2 3 4 5. Ephes. 5. 8. 2. WHERE we are ingaged in this Duty it will stir up every Grace unto it's due Exercise which is that wherein the Spiritual Revival enquired after doth consist This is all we desire all we long for this will make us fat and flourishing namely that every Grace of the Spirit have it's due Exercise in us See Rom. 5. 3 4 5. 2 Pet. 1. 5 6 7 8. Whereas therefore Christ himself is the first proper adequate Object of all Grace and all
true Believers and have mixed the Word with Faith and so it exhibiteth Christ and all the Benefits of his Mediation unto us If therefore this Word is in our Hearts Christ is nigh unto us If we turn at any time into our selves to converse with the Word that abideth in us there we shall find him ready to receive us into Communion with himself that is in the Light of the Knowledge of Christ which we have by the Word we may have sudden occasional Thoughts of him continually and where our Minds and Affections are so filled with other things that we are not ready for converse with him who is thus nigh unto us by the Word we are spiritually indisposed SO to manifest how nigh he is unto us it is said that he stands at the door and knocks Rev. 3. 20. in the continual tender that he makes of himself and his Grace unto our Souls For he is always accompanied with the glorious Train of his Graces and if they are not received he himself is not so It is to no purpose to boast of Christ if we have not an Evidence of his Graces in our Hearts and Lives But unto whom he is the Hope of Future Glory unto them he is the Life of present grace SOMETIMES it may be that he is withdrawn from us so as that we cannot hear his Voice nor behold his Countenance nor obtain any sence of his Love though we seek him with diligence In this state all our thoughts and Meditations concerning him will be barren and fruitless bringing in no spiritual Refreshment into our Souls And if we learn to be content with such lifeless in affecting thoughts of him as bring in no experience of his Love nor give us a real View of the Glory of his Person we shall wither away as unto all the power of Religion WHAT is our Duty in this Case is so fully expressed by the Spouse in the Canticles as represents it plainly unto the Minds of Believers who have any Experience of these things Chap. 3. 1 2 3 4 5. By night on my Bed I sought him whom my Soul loveth I sought him but I found him not I will rise now and go about the City in the Streets and in the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loveth I sought him but I found him not The Watch-men that go about the City found me to whom I said saw ye him whom my soul loveth It was but a little I passed from them but I found him whom my soul loveth I held him and would not let him go The like account she gives of her self and of her Behaviour on the like Occasion Chap. 5. 2 3 4 5 6 7 8. THIS is the substance of what by this Example we are instructed unto The Lord Christ is pleased sometimes to withdraw himself from the spiritual Experience of Believers as unto any refreshing sense of his Love or the fresh communications of consolatory Graces Those who never had Experience of any such thing who never had any refreshing communion with him cannot be sensible of his Absence they never were so of his Presence But those whom he hath visited to whom he hath given of his Loves with whom he hath made his Abode whom he hath refreshed relieved and comforted in whom he hath lived in the Power of his Grace they know what it is to be forsaken by him though but for a moment And their Trouble is increased when they seek him with diligence in the wonted ways of obtaining his presence and cannot find him Our Duty in this case is to presevere in our Enquiries after him in Prayer Meditation Mourning Reading and Hearing of the Word in all Ordinances of Divine Worship private and publick in diligent Obedience until we find him or he return unto us as in former Days IT were well if all Churches and Possessors now would manifest the same Diligence herein as did the Church of old in this Example Many of them if they are not hardened by the Deceitfulness of Sin cannot but be sensible that the Lord Christ is variously withdrawn from them if ever they had experience of the Power of his Presence Yet are the generality of them far from the frame of heart here described in the Spouse for they are slothful careless negligent and stir not up themselves to enquire after him or his return unto their Souls So was it with Laodicea of old so was it with Sardis and so it is to be feared that it is with many at present But to return GENERALLY Christ is nigh unto Believers and of a ready Access and the principal Actings of the Life of Faith consists in the frequency of our Thoughts concerning him for hereby Christ liveth in us as he is said to do Gal. 2. 20. This we cannot do unless we have frequent thoughts of him and converse with him It is often said among Men that one lives in another this cannot be but where the Affections of one are so ingaged unto another that night and day he thinks of him and is thereby as it were present with him So ought it to be between Christ and Believers He dwells in them by Faith but the Actings of this Life in them as where-ever Life is it will be in act and exercise are proportionable unto their Thoughts of him and Delight in him IF therefore we would behold the Glory of Christ the present direction is That on all occasions and frequently when there are no occasions for it by the performance of other Duties we would abound in thoughts of Him and his Glory I intend not at present fixed and stated Meditations which were spoken unto before but such Thoughts as are more transient according as our opportunities are And a great Rebuke it ought to be unto us when Christ hath at any time in a day been long out of our Minds The Spouse affirms That ere she was aware her soul made her as the Chariots of Amminadab Cant. 7. 12. It so fell out that when she had no thoughts no design or purpose for attendance or communion with Christ that she was surprised into a readiness and willingness unto it So will it be with them that love him in sincerity Their own Souls without previous designs or outward occasions will frequently engage them in holy thoughts of him which is the most eminent character of a truly spiritual Christian. 4. THE next Direction is That all our Thoughts concerning Christ and his Glory should be accompanied with Admiration Adoration and Thanksgiving For this is such an Object of our Thoughts and Affections as in this Life we can never fully comprehend an Ocean whose Depths we cannot look into If we are spiritually renewed all the Faculties of our Souls are enabled by Grace to exert their respective powers towards this glorious Object This must be done in various Duties by the Exercise of various Graces as they are to be acted by the distinct powers of the
Faculties of our Minds This is that which is intended where we are commanded to love the Lord with all our souls with all our minds with all our strength All the distinct powers of our Souls are to be acted by distinct Graces and Duties in cleaving unto God by Love In Heaven when we are come to our Center that State of Rest and Blessedness which our Nature is ultimately capable of nothing but one infinite invariable Object of our Minds and Affections received by Vision can render that State uninterrupted and unchangeable But whilst we are here we know or see but in part and we must also act our Faith and Love on parts of that Glory which is not at once entirely proposed unto us and which as yet we cannot comprehend Wherefore we must act various Graces in great Variety about it some at one time some at another according unto the powers of all our renewed Faculties Of this fort are those mentioned of Adoration Admiration and Thanksgiving which are those Acts of our Minds wherein all others do issue when the Object is incomprehensible For unto them we are enabled by Grace ONE end of his illustrious coming unto the Judgment of the last Day is that he may be admired in all them that believe 2 Thes. 1. 11. Even Believers themselves shall be filled with an overwhelming Admiration upon his glorious Appearance Or if the meaning be not that he shall be admired by them but admired in them because of the mighty Works of his Grace and Power in their Redemption Sanctification Resurrection and Glory it is to the same purpose he comes to be admired And according to the prospect which we have of that Glory ought our Admiration to be AND this Admiration will issue in Adoration and Thanksgiving whereof we have an eminent Instance and Example in the whole Church of the Redeemed Rev. 5. 9 10 11 12 13 14. They sang a new Song saying Worthy art thou to receive the Book and to open the Seals thereof for thou wast slain and hast bought us unto God by thy Blood out of every Tribe and Tongue and People and Nation and hast made us Kings and Priests unto God and we shall reign upon the Earth And I saw and heard the Voice of many Angels round about the Throne and of the living Creatures and of the Elders and the Number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands saying with a loud Voice Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive Power and Riches and Wisdom and Strength and Honour and Glory and Blessing and every Creature that is in Heaven and in the Earth and under the Earth and that are in the Sea and all things in them heard I saying Blessing and Honour and Power and Glory be unto him that sits on the Throne and unto the Lamb for ever and ever THE Design of this Discourse is no more but that when by Faith we have attained a View of the Glory of Christ in our Contemplations on his Person we should not pass it over as a Notion of Truth which we assent unto namely that he is thus glorious in himself but endeavor to affect our Hearts with it as that wherein our own principal Interest doth lie wherein it will be effectual unto the Transformation of our Souls into his Image BUT some it may be will say at least I fear some may truly say That these things do not belong unto them they do not find that ever they had any Benefit by them They hope to be saved as well as others by the Mediation of Christ but as unto this beholding of his Glory by constant Meditation and Actings of Faith therein they know nothing of it nor are concerned in it The Doctrine which they are taught out of the Scripture concerning the Person of Christ they give their Assent unto but his Glory they hope they shall see in another World here they never yet enquired after it SO it will be It is well if these things be not only neglected because the Minds of Men are carnal and cannot discern spiritual things but also despised because they have an Enmity unto them It is not for all to walk in these retired Paths Not for them who are negligent and slothful whose Minds are earthly and carnal Nor can they herein sit at the Feet of Christ with Mary when she chose the better part who like Martha are cumbred about many things here in this World Those whose principal Design is to add unto their present Enjoyments in the midst of the prosecution whereof they are commonly taken from them so as that their Thoughts do perish because not accomplished will never understand these things Much less will they do so whose Work it is to make provision for the Flesh to fulfil it in the Lusts thereof THEY must make it their Design to be heavenly minded who will find a Relish in these things Those who are Strangers unto holy Meditation in general will be Strangers unto this Mystery in a peculiar manner SOME Men can think of the World of their Relations and the manifold Occasions of Life but as unto the things that are above and within the Vail they are not concerned in them WITH some it is otherwise They profess their Desire to behold the Glory of Christ by Faith but they find it as they complain too high and difficult for them They are at a Loss in their Minds and even overwhelmed when they begin to view his Glory They are like the Disciples who saw him in his Transfiguration they were filled with Amazement and knew not what to say or said they knew not what And I do acknowledge that the Weakness of our Minds in the comprehension of this Eternal Glory of Christ and their Instability in Meditations thereon whence we cannot stedfastly look on it or behold it gives us an afflicting abasing Consideration of our present State and Condition And I shall say no more unto this Case but this alone When Faith can no longer hold open the Eyes of our Understandings unto the beholding of the Son of Righteousness shining in his Beauty nor exercise orderly Thoughts about this incomprehensible Object it will betake it self unto that holy Admiration which we have spoken unto and therein it will put it self forth in pure Acts of Love and Complacency CHAP. IV. The Glory of Christ in his Susception of the Office of a Mediator First in his Condescention THE Things whereof we have thus far discoursed relating immediately unto the Person of Christ in it self may seem to have somewhat of Difficulty in them unto such whose Mind are not duly exercised in the Contemplation of Heavenly Things Unto others they are evident in their own Experience and instructive unto them that are willing to learn That which remains will be yet more plain unto the Understanding and Capacity of the meanest Believer And this is the Glory of Christ in his Office of