Father into Execution and wrought out the Accomplishment of it was the Love of the Son which we enquire after and Light may be given unto it in the ensuing Observations 1. THE whole Number or Society of the Elect were Creatures made in the Image of God and thereby in a State of Love with him All that they were had or hoped for were effects of Divine Goodness and Love And the Life of their Souls was Love unto God And a blessed State it was preparatory for the Eternal Life of Love in Heaven 2. FROM this State they fell by sin into a state of Enmity with God which is comprehensive of all Miseries Temporal and Eternal 3. NOTWITHSTANDING this woful Catastrophe of our first state yet our Nature on many Accounts was recoverable unto the Enjoyment of God as I have at large elsewhere declared 4. IN this Condition the first Act of Love in Christ towards us was in Pity and Compassion A Creature made in the Image of God and fallen into Misery yet capable of Recovery is the proper Object of Divine Compassion That which is so celebrated in the Scripture as the Bowels the Pity the Compassion of God is the acting of Divine Love towards us on the consideration of our Distress and Misery But all Compassion ceaseth towards them whose condition is irrecoverable Wherefore the Lord Christ pitied not the Angels that fell because their Nature was not to be relieved Of this Compassion in Christ see Heb. 2. 14 15 16. Isa. 63. 9. 5. AS then we lay under the Eye of Christ in our Misery we were the Objects of his Pity and Compassion But as he looketh on us as recoverahle out of that state his Love worketh in and by Delight It was an inconceivable Delight unto him to take a prospect of the deliverance of mankind unto the Glory of God which is also an act of Love see this divinely expressed Prov. 8. 30 31 as that place hath been elsewhere explained 6. IF it be enquired whence this compassion and delight in him should arise what should be the cause of them that he who was eternally blessed in his own self-sufficiency should so deeply concern himself in our lost forlorn Condition I say it did so merely from the Infinite Love and Goodness of his own Nature without the least procuring inducement from us or any thing in us 1 Pet. 3. 16. 7. IN this his Readiness Willingness and Delight springing from Love and Compassion the council of God concerning the way of our Recovery is as it were proposed unto him Now this was a way of great difficulties and perplexities unto himself that is unto his Person as it was to be constituted Unto the Divine Nature nothing is grievous nothing is difficult But he was to have another Nature wherein he was to undergo the difficulties of this way and work It was required of him that he should pity us until he had none left to pity himself when he stood in need of it that he should pursue his delight to save us until his own soul was heavy and sorrowful unto death that he should relieve us in our sufferings by suffering the same things that we should have done But he was not in the least hereby deterred from undertaking this work of Love and Mercy for us Yea his love rose on this Proposal like the Waters of a mighty Stream against opposition For hereon he says Lo I come to â—o thy will O God it is my delight to do it Heb. 10. 5 6 7. Isa. 50. 4 5 6 7. 8. BEING thus enclined disposed and ready in the Eternal Love of his Divine Person to undertake the Office of Mediation and the work of our Redemption A body was prepared for him In this Body or Human Nature made his own he was to make this Love effectual in all its Inclinations and Actings It was provided for him unto this end and filled with all Grace in a way unmeasurable especially with Fervent Love unto Mankind And hereby it became a meet Instrument to actuate his Eternal Love in all the fruits of it 9. IT is hence evident that this Glorious Love of Christ doth not consist alone in the Eternal Actings of his divine Person or the Divine Nature in his Person such indeed is the Love of the Father namely his Eternal Purpose for the communication of Grace and Glory with his Acquiescency therein but there is more in the Love of Christ. For when he exercised this Love he was man also and not God only And in none of those Eternal Acts of Love could the Human Nature of Christ have any interest or concern yet is the Love of the Man Christ Jesus celebrated in the Scripture 10. WHEREFORE this Love of Christ which we enquire after is the Love of his Person that is which he in his own Person acts in and by his Distinct Natures according unto their Distinct Essential Properties And the acts of love in these distinct Natures are infinitely distinct and different yet are they all acts of one and the same Person So then whether that Act of Love in Christ which we would at any time consider be an Eternal Act of the Divine Nature in the Person of the Son of God or whether it be an act of the Human performed in time by the Gracious Faculties and Powers of that Nature it is still the Love of one and the self same Person Christ Jesus It was an Act of inexpressible Love in him that he assumed our Nature Heb. 2. 14 17. But it was an act in and of his Divine Nature only For it was antecedent unto the existence of his Human Nature which could not therefore concur therein His laying down his life for us was an act of inconceivable Love 1 John 8. 16. Yet was it only an act of the Human Nature wherein he offered himself and died But both the one and the other were Acts of his Divine Person whence it is said that God laid down his life for us and purchased the Church with his own Blood THIS is that Love of Christ wherein he is glorious and wherein we are by Faith to behold his Glory A great part of the Blessedness of the Saints in Heaven and their Triumph therein consists in their beholding of this Glory of Christ in their thankful contemplation of the Fruits of it see Rev. 5. 9 10. c. THE illustrious Brightness wherewith this Glory shines in Heaven the All satisfying Sweetness which the view of it gives unto the Souls of the Saints there Possessed of Glory are not by us conceivable nor to be expressed Here this love passeth knowledge there we shall comprehend the Dimensions of it Yet even here if we are not slothful and carnal we may have a refreshing prospect of it and where Comprehension failâ— let Admiration take place MY present Business is to exhort others unto the Contemplation of it though it be but a little a very little a small portion
me to see thee tho but as through the Windows Alas what distress do we oftentimes sit down in after these views of Christ and his Glory But he proceeds further yet and flourishes himself through the lattesses This displaying of the glory of Christ called the flourishing 〈◊〉 himself is by the promises of the Gospel as they are explained in the ministry of the word In them are represented unto us the desirable beauties and glories of Christ how precious how amiable is he as represented in them How are the Souls of Believers ravished with the views of them Yet is this discovery of him also but as through a Lattess We see him but by parts unsteadily and unevenly SUCH I say is the sight of the glory of Christ which we have in this world by Faith It is dark it is but in part It is but weak transient imperfect partial It is but little that we can at any time discover of it it is but a little while that we can abide in the contemplation of â—hat we do discover rara hora brevis mora Sometimes it is unto us as the Sun when it is under a Cloud we cannot perceive it When he hideth his face who then can behold him As Job speaks so may we Behold I go forward but he is not there and backward but I cannoâ— perceive him on the left hand where he doth work but I cannot behold him he hideth himself on the right hand that I cannot see him chap. 23 8 9. Which way soever we turn our selves and what duties soever we apply our selves unto we can obtain no distinct view of his glory Yet on the other hand it is sometimes as the Sun when it shines in its brightness and we cannot bear the rays of it In infinite condescention he says unto his Church Turn away thine eyes from me for they have overcome me Cant. 6. 5. As if he could not bear that overcoming affectionate love which looks through the eyes of the Church in its acting of Faith on him Ah! How much more do we find our souls overcome with his love when at any he is pleased to make any clear discoveries of his glory unto us LET us now on the other hand take a little Consideration of that Vision which we shall have of the same Glory in Heaven that we may compare them together VISION or the sight which we shall have of the glory of Christ in Heaven is immediate direct intuitive and therefore steady even and constant And it is so on a double Account 1. Of the Object which shall be proposed unto us 2. Of the Visivé Power or faculty wherewith we shall be endued from the imperfection of both which in this World ariseth the imperfection of our view of the glory of Christ by faith as hath been declared 1. THE Object of it will be real and substantial Christ himself in his own person with all his glory shall be continually with us before us proposed unto us We shall no longer have an Image a Representation of him such as is the delineation of his Glory in the Gospel We shall see him saith the Apostle face to face 1 Cor. 13. 12. which he opposeth unto our seeing him darkly as in a glass which is the utmost that faith can attain to We shall see him as he is 1 Joh. 3. 2 not as now in an imperfect description of him As a man sees his neighbour when they stand and converse together face to face So shall we see the Lord Christ in his glory and not as Moses who had only a transient sight of some parts of the Glory of God when he caused it to pass by him THERE will be use herein of our bodily eyes as shall be declared For as Job says in our Flesh shall we see our Redeemer and our eyes shall behold him Chap. 19. 25 26 27. That corporeal sence shall not be restored unto us and that glorified above what we can conceive but for this great use of the eternal beholding of Christ and his Glory Unto whom it is not a matter of rejoycing that with the same eyes wherewith they see the tokens and signs of him in the Sacrament of the Supper they shall behold himself immediately in his own person But principally as we shall see immediately this vision is intellectual It is not therefore the meer Human Nature of Christ that is the object of it but his Divine Person as that nature subsisteth therein What is that perfection which we shall have for that which is perfect must come and do away that which is in part in the comprehension of the hypostatical Vnion I understand not but this I know that in the immediate beholding of the Person of Christ we shall see a glory in it a thousand times above what here we can conceive The excellencies of Infinite Wisdom Love and Power therein will be continually before us And all the glories of the Person of Christ which we have before weakly and faintly enquired into will be in our sight for evermore HENCE the ground and cause of our Blessedness is that we shall be ever with the Lord 1 Thes. 4. 17. As himself prays that we may be with him where he is to behold his glory Here we have some dark views of it we cannot perfectly behold it until we are with him where he is Thereon our sight of him will be direct intuitive and constant THERE is a glory there will be so subjectively in us in the beholding of this glory of Christ which is at present incomprehensible For it doth not yet appear what we our selves shall be 1 John 3. 2. Who can declare what a glory it will be in us to behold this Glory of Christ And how excellent then is that glory of Christ it self THIS immediate sight of Christ is that which all the Saints of God in this life do breath and pant after Hence are they willing to be dissolved or desire to depart that they may be with Christ which is best for them Phil. 1. 23. They chuse to be absent from the body and present with the Lord 2 Cor. 5. 8. Or that they may enjoy the inexpressibly longed for sight of Christ in his glory Those who do not so long for it whose souls and minds are not frequently visited with earnest desires after it unto whom the thoughts of it are not their relief in Trouble and their chiefest Joy are carnal blind and cannot see afar off He that is truly spiritual entertains and refresheth himself with thoughts hereof continually 2. IT will be so from that Visive Power or faculty of beholding the Glory of Christ which we shall then receive Without this we cannot see him as he is When he was transfigured in the Mount and had on his Human Nature some reflections of his Divine Glory his Disciples that were with him were rather amazed than refreshed by it Mat. 17. 4. They saw his glory but spake thereon
present want of what is desired The desire hath sorrow and that sorrow hath joy and refreshment in it like a shower that falls on a Man in a Garden in the Spring it wets him but withall refresheth him with the Savor it causeth in the Flowers and Herbs of the Garden where he is And this groaning which when it is constant and habitual is one of the choicest effects of Faith in this life respects what we would be delivered from and what we would attain unto The first is expressed Rom. 7. 24. The other in the places now mentioned And this frame with an intermixture of some sighs from weariness by the troubles sorrows pains sicknesses of this life is the best we can here attain unto ALAS we cannot here think of Christ but we are quickly ashamed of and troubled at our own thoughts So confused are they so unsteady so imperfect Commonly they issue in a groan or a sigh Oh when shall we come unto him when shall we be ever with him when shall we see him as he is And if at any time he begins to give more than ordinary evidences and intimations of his Glory and Love unto our Souls we are not able to bear them so as to give them any abiding residence in our Minds But ordinarily this trouble and groaning is amongst our best attainments in this World a trouble which I pray God I may never be delivered from until deliverance do come at once from this state of mortality Yea the good Lord encrease this trouble more and more in all that believe THE heart of a believer affected with the Glory of Christ is like the Needle touched with the Loadstone It can no longer be quiet no longer be satisfied in a distance from him It is put into a continual motion towards him The motion indeed is weak and tremulous Pantings breathings sighings groanings in prayer in meditations in the secret recesses of our Minds are the life of it However it is continually pressing towards him But it obtains not its point it comes not to its center and rest in this World BUT now above all things are clear and serene all plain and evident in our beholding the Glory of Christ we shall be ever with him and see him as he is This is Heaven this is Blessedness this is Eternal Rest. THE Person of Christ in all his Glory shall be continually before us and the eyes of our understandings shall be so gloriously illuminated as that we shall be able steadily to behold and comprehend that Glory BUT alas here at present our Minds recoil our Meditations fail our Hearts are overcome our Thoughts confused and our Eyes turn aside from the Lustre of this Glory nor can we abide in the Contemplation of it But there an immediate constant view of it will bring in everlasting refreshment and joy unto our whole Souls THIS beholding of the Glory of Christ given him by his Father is indeed subordinate unto the ultimate vision of the essence of God What that is we cannot well conceive only we know that the pure in heart shall see God But it hath such an immediate connexion with it and subordination unto it as that without it we can never behold the face of God as the objective blessedness of our Souls For he is and shall be to eternity the only means of Communication between God and the Church AND we may take some Direction in our looking into and longing after this perfect view of the Glory of Christ from the example of the Saints under the Old Testament The sight which they had of the Glory of Christ for they also saw his Glory through the obscurity of its Revelation and its being vailed with types and shadows was weak and imperfect in the most illuminated believers much inferior unto what we now have by faith through the Gospel Yet such it was as encouraged them to enquire and search diligently into what was revealed 1 Pet. 1. 10 11. Howbeit their discoveries were but dark and confused such as Men have of things at a great distance or in a Land that is very far off as the Prophet speaks Isa. 33. 16. And the continuance of this Vail on the Revelation of the Glory of Christ whilst a Vail of Ignorance and Blindness was upon their Hearts and Minds proved the ruin of that Church in its Apostacy as the Apostle declares 2 Cor. 3. 7 13 14. This double vail the covering covered the vail vailed God promised to take away Isa. 25. 7. And then shall they turn to the Lord when they shall be able clearly to behold the Glory of Christ 2 Cor. 3. 16. BUT this caused them who were real Believers among them to desire long and pray for the removal of these Vails the Departure of those shadows which made it as Night unto them in comparison of what they knew would appear when the Sun of Righteousness should arise with healing in his Wings They thought it long ere the day did break and the shadows flee away Cant. 2. 17. Chap. 4. 6. There was an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle speaks Rom. 8. 19. A thrusting forth of the head with desire and expectation of the exhibition of the Son of God in the flesh and the accomplishment of all divine promises therein Hence he was called the Lord whom they sought and delighted in Mal. 3. 1. AND great was the spiritual Wisdom of believers in those days They rejoyced and gloried in the Ordinances of Divine Worship which they did enjoy They looked on them as their chiefest priviledge and attended unto them with diligence as an effect of Divine Wisdom and Love as also because they had a shadow of good things to come But yet at the same time they longed and desired that the time of Reformation were come wherein they should all be removed that so they might behold and enjoy the good things signified by them And those who did not so but rested in and trusted unto their present Institutions were not accepted with God Those who were really illuminated did not so but lived in constant desires after the revelation of the whole Mystery of the Wisdom of God in Christ as did the Angels themselves 1 Pet. 1. 3. Ephes. 3. 9 10. IN this frame of heart and suitable actings of their Souls there was more of the power of true faith and love than is found among the most at this day They saw the promises afar oâ—â— and were perswaded of them and imbraced them Heb. 11. 13. They reached out the arms of their most intent Affections to embrace the Things that were promised We have an instance of this frame in Old Simeon who so soon as he had taken the Child Jesus in his Arms cryed out Now Lord let me depart now let me dye this is that which my Soul hath longed for Luk. 2. 28 29. OUR present darkness and weakness in beholding the Glory of Christ is not like theirs It is not
It doth change us wholly into the Image of Christ. When we shall see him we shall be as he is we shall be like him because we shall see him 1 Joh. 3. 2. But although the closing perfecting act of this Transformation be an act of sight or the sight of Glory yet there are many things towards it or degrees in it which we may here take notice of in our way 1. THE Soul upon its Departure from the Body is immediately freed from all the Weakness Disability Darkness Uncertainties and Fears which were impressed on it from the Flesh wherewith it was in the strictest Union The Image of the first Adam as fallen is then abolished Yea it is not only freed from all irregular sinful Distempers cleaving to our Nature as corrupted but from all those sinless Grievances and Infirmities which belong unto the Original Constitution of it This necessarily ensues on the Dissolution of the Person in order unto a blessed State The first entrance by Mortality into Immortallity is a step towards Glory The ease which a blessed Soul finds in a deliverance from this Encumbrance is a Door of entrance into eternal Rest. Such a change is made in that which in it self is the Center of all Evil namely Death that it is made a means of freeing us from all the Remainders of what is evil FOR this doth not follow absolutely on the Nature of the thing it self A meer Dissolution of our Natures can bring no Advantage with it especially as it is a part of the Curse But it is from the Sanctification of it by the Death of Christ. Hereby that which was Gods Ordinance for the Infliction of Judgment becomes an effectual Means for the Communication of Mercy 1 Cor. 5. 22. Chap. 15. 54. It is by vertue of the Death of Christ alone that the Souls of Believers are freed by Death from all impressions of Sin Infirmity and Evils which they have had from the Flesh which were their Burden under which they groaned all their Days No Man knows in any measure the Excellency of this Priviledge and the Dawnings of Glory which are in it who hath not been wearied and even worn out through long conflicting with the Body of Death The Soul hereon being freed from all Annoyances all Impressions from the Flesh is expedite and enlarged unto the Exercise of all its gracious Faculties as we shall see immediately WITH wicked Men it is not so Death unto them is a Curse and the Curse is the Means of the Conveyance of all Evil and not Deliverance from any Wherein they have been warmed and refreshed by the Influences or the Flesh they shall be deprived of it But their Souls in their separate State are perpetually harrased with the disquieting Passions which have been impressed on their Minds by their corrupt fleshly Lusts. In vain do such Persons look for Relief by Death If there be any thing remaining of present good and usefulness to them they shall be deprived of it And their Freedom for a Season from bodily pains will no way lie in the Ballance against that Confluence of Evils which Death will let in upon them 2. THE Spirits of just Men being freed by Death from the Clog of the Flesh not yet refined all the Faculties of their Souls and all the Graces in them as Faith Love and Delight are immediately set at Liberty enabled constantly to exercise themselves on God in Christ. The end for which they were created for which our Nature was endowed with them was that we might adhere unto God by them and come unto the Enjoyment of him Being now freed wholly from all that Impotency perversness and Disability unto this End with all the Effects of them which came upon them by the Fall they are carried with a full Stream towards God cleaving unto him with the most intense Embraces And all their Actings towards God shall be natural with Facility Joy Delight and Complacency We know not yet the Excellency of the Operations of our Souls in divine things when disburdened of their present Weight of their Flesh. And this is a second step towards the Consummation of Glory For IN the Resurrection of the Body upon its full Redemption it shall be so purified sanctified glorified as to give no Obstrnction unto the Soul in its Operations but be a blessed Organ for its highest and most spiritual Actings The Body shall never more be a Trouble a Burthen unto the Soul but an Assistant in its Operations and participant of its Blessedness Our Eyes were made to see our Redeemer and our other Sences to receive impressions from him according unto their Capacity As the Bodies of wicked Men shall be restored unto them to encrease and compleat their Misery in their Sufferings so shall the Bodies of the Just be restored unto them to heighten and consummate their Blessedness 3. THESE things are preparatory unto Glory The compleat Communication of it is by the Infusion of a new heavenly Light into the Mind enabling us to see the Lord Christ as he is The Soul shall not be brought into the immediate Presence of Christ without a new Power to behold him and the immediate Representation of his Glory Faith now doth cease as unto the manner of its Operation in this Life whilst we are absent from Christ. This Light of Glory succeeds into its Room fitted for that State and all the ends of it as Faith is for that which is present And 4. IN the first Operation of this Light of Glory Believers shall so behold the glory of Christ and the glory of God in him as that therewith and thereby they shall be immediately and universally changed into his Likeness They shall be as he is when they shall see him as he is There is no growth in glory as unto Parts there may be as unto Degrees Additions may be outwardly made unto what is at first received as by the Resurrection of the Body but the internal Light of Glory and its transforming Efficacy is capable of no degrees though new Revelations may be made unto it unto Eternity For the infinite Fountain of Life and Light and Goodness can never be fathomed much less exhausted And what God spake on the Entrance of sin by the way of contempt and aproach Behold the Man is become like one of us upbraiding him with what he had foolishly designed on the Accomplishment of the Work of his Gace he says in Love and infinite Goodness Man is become like one of us in the perfect Restoration of our Image in him This is the first Effect of the Light of Glory FAITH also in beholding the glory of Christ in this Life is accompanied with a transforming Efficacy as the Apostle expresly declares 2 Cor. 3. 18. It is the Principle from whence and the Instrumental Cause whereby all spiritual change is wrought in us in this Life but the Work of it is imperfect first because it is gradual and then because
Duty of his Obedience rendring it amiable in the sight of God and useful unto us So when he went unto John to be baptized he who knew he had no need of it on his own Account would have declined the Duty of administring that Ordinance unto him but he replied Suffer it to be so now for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness Mat. 3. 15. This I have undertaken willingly of my own accord without any need of it for my self and therefore will discharge it For him who was Lord of all universally thus to submit himself to Universal Obedience carrieth along with it an Evidence of Glorious Grace 2. THIS Obedience as unto the use and end of it was not for himself but for us We were obliged unto it and could not perform it he was not obliged unto it any otherwise but by a free Act of his own Will and did perform it God gave him this Honour that he should obey for the whole Church that by his obedience we should be made righteous Rom. 5. 19. Herein I say did God give him Honour and Glory that his Obedience should stand in the stead of the perfect Obedience of the Church as unto Justification 3. HIS Obedience being absolutely universal and absolutely perfect was the great Representative of the Holiness of God in the Law It was repreâ—â—nted glorious when the Ten Words were written by the Finger of God in Tables of Stone It appears yet more eminently in the Spiritual Transcription of it in the Hearts of Believers But absolutely and perfectly it is exemplified only in the Holiness and Obedience of Christ which answered it unto the utmost And this is no small Part of his Glory in Obedience that the Holiness of God in the Law was therein and therein alone in that one Instance as unto human Nature fully represented 4. HE wrought out this Obedience against all Difficulties and Oppressions For although he was absolutely free from that Disorder which in us hath invaded our whole Natures which internally renders all Obedience difficult unto us and perfect Obedience impossible yet as unto Opposition from without in Temptations Sufferings Reproaches Contradictions he met with more than we all Hence is that glorious Word Although he were a Son yet he learned Obedience by the things which be suffered Heb. 5. 8. See our Exposition of that place But 5. THE Glory of this Obedience ariseth principally from the Consideration of the Person who thus yielded it unto God This was no other but the Son of God made Man God and Man in one Person He who was in Heaven above all Lord of all at the same time lived in the World in a Condition of no Reputation and a Course of the strictest Obedience unto the whole Law of God He unto whom Prayer was made prayed himself Night and Day He whom all the Angels of Heaven and all Creatures worshiped was continually conversant in all the Duties of the Worship of God He who was over the House diligently observed the meanest Office of the House He that made all Men in whose Hand they are all as Clay in the Hand of the Potter observed amongst them the strictest Rules of Justice in giving unto every one his Due and of Charity in giving good things that were not so due This is that which renders the Obedience of Christ in the Discharge of his Office both mysterious and glorious 2. AGAIN The Glory of Christ is proposed unto us in what he suffered in the Discharg of the Office which he had undertaken There belonged indeed unto his Office Victory Success and Triumph with great Glory Isa. 63. 1 2 3 4 5. but there were Sufferings also required of him antecedently thereunto Ought not Christ to suffer and to enter into his Glory BUT such were these Sufferings of Christ as that in our Thoughts about them our Minds quickly recoil in a Sense of their Insufficiency to conceive a Right of them Never any one launched into this Ocean with his Meditations but he quickly found himself unable to fathom the Depths of it Nor shall I here undertake an Enquiry into them I shall only point at this Spring of Glory and leave it under a Vail WE might here look on him as under the Weight of the Wrath of God and the Curse of the Law taking on himself and on his whole Soul the utmost of Evil that God had ever threatned to Sin or Sinners we might look on him in his Agony and bloody Sweat in his strong Cries and Supplications when he was sorrowful unto the Death and began to be amazed in apprehensions of the things that were coming on him of that dreadful Tryal which he was entring into we might look upon him conflicting with all the Powers of Darkness the Rage and Madness of Men suffering in his Soul his Body his Name his Reputation his Goods his Life some of these Sufferings being immediate from God above othâ—rs from Devils and wicked Men acting according to the Determinate Counsel of God we might look on him praying weeping crying out bleeding dying in all things making his Soul an Offering for sin So was he taken from Prison and Judgment and who shall declare his Generation for he was cut off from the Land of the Living For the Transgression saith God of my People was he smitten Isa. 53. 8. But these things I shall not insist on in particular but leave them under such a Vail as may give us a Prospect into them so far as to fill our Souls with holy Admiration LORD What is Man that thou art thus mindful of him and the Son of Man that thou visitest him Who hath known thy Mind or who hath been thy Councellor O the depth of the Riches both of the Wisdom and Knowledg of God! How unsearchable are his Judgments and his Ways past finding out What shall we say unto these things that God spared not his only Son but gave him up unto Death and all the Evils included therein for such poor lost Sinners as we were that for our Sakes the Eternal Son of God should submit himself unto all the Evils that our Natures are obnoxious unto and that our Sins had deserved that we might be delivered HOW Glorious is the Lord Christ on this Account in the Eyes of Believers When Adam had sinned and thereby eternally according unto the Sanction of the Law ruined himself and all his Posterity he stood ashamed afraid trembling as one ready to perish for ever under the Displeasure of God Death was that which he had deserved and immediate Death was that which he looked for In this State the Lord Christ in the Promise comes unto him and says Poor Creature How woful is thy Condition How deformed is thy Appearance What is become of the Beauty of the Glory of that Image of God wherein thou wast created How hast thou taken on thee the monstrous Shape and Image of Satan And yet thy present Misery thy
they knew not what Luk. 9. 30 33. And the reason hereof was because no man in this life can have a Visive Power either spiritual or corporeal directly and immediately to behold the real Glory of Christ. SHOULD the Lord Jesus appear now to any of us in his Majesty and Glory it would not be unto our edification nor consolation For we are not meet nor able by the Power of any Light or Grace that we have received or can receive to bear the immediate appearance and representation of them His beloved Apostle John had leaned on his bosom probably many a time in this life in the intimate familiarities of love But when he afterwards appeared unto him in his Glory he fell at his feet as dead Rev. 1. 17. And when he appeared unto Paul all the account he could give thereof was that he saw a light from Heaven above the brightness of the Sun whereon he and all that were with him fell to the ground Act. 26. 13 14. AND this was one Reason why in the days of his Ministry here on earth his Glory was vailed with the infirmities of the flesh and all sorts of sufferings as we have before related The Church in this life is no way meet by the Grace which it can be made partaker of to converse with him in the immediate manifestations of his Glory AND therefore those who dream of his Personal Reign on the earth before the day of Judgment unless they suppose that all the Saints shall be perfectly glorified also which is only to bring down Heaven to the Earth for a while to no purpose provide not at all for the edification or consolation of the Church For no present grace advanced unto the highest degree whereof in this World it is capable can make us meet for an immediate converse with Christ in his unvailed Glory How much more abominable is the folly of men who would represent the Lord Christ in his present Glory by Pictures and Images of him When they have done their utmost with their burnished Glass and Guildings an eye of flesh cannot only behold it but if it be guided by reason see it contemptible and foolish But the true Glory of Christ neither inward nor outward sight can bear the rays of in this life THE dispensation which we are meet for is only that of his presence with us by his Spirit We know him now no more after the flesh 2 Cor. 5. 16. We are advanced above that way and means of the knowledge of him by the fleshly carnal Ordinances of the Old Testament And we know him not according unto that bodily presence of his which his Disciples enjoyed in the days of his flesh We have attained somewhat above that also For such was the nature of his Ministry here on earth that there could not be the promised dispensation of the spirit until that was finished Therefore he tells his Disciples that it was expedient for them that he should go away and send the spirit to them John 16. 7. Hereon they had a clearer view of the Glory of Christ than they could have by beholding him in the flesh This is our spiritual posture and condition We are past the knowledge of him according to the flesh we cannot attain nor receive the sight of him in Glory but the life which we now lead is by the Faith of the Son of God I SHALL not here enquire into the nature of this vision or the power and ability which we shall have in Heaven to behold the Glory of Christ. Some few things may be mentioned as it relates unto our Minds and our Bodies also after the Resurrection 1. FOR the Mind it shall be perfectly freed from all that Darkness Unsteadiness and other Incapacities which here it is accompanied with and whereby it is weakened hindred and obstructed in the Exercise of Faith And they are of two sorts First such as are the remainders of that depravation of our Natures which came upon us by sin Hereby our Minds became wholly vain dark and corrupt as the Scripture testifieth utterly unable to discern spiritual things in a due manner This is so far cured and removed in this Life by Grace as that those who were darkness do become light in the Lord or are enabled to live unto God under the Conduct of a new spiritual Light communicated unto them But it is so cured and removed in part only it is not perfectly abolished Hence are all our remaining Weaknesses and Incapacities in discerning things spiritual and eternal which we yet groan under and long for deliverance from No Footsteps no Scars or Marks that ever it had place in our Minds shall abide in glory Ephes. 5. 27. Nothing shall weaken disturb or incapacitate our Souls in acting all their Powers unimpeded by Vanity Diversions Weakness Inability upon their proper Objects The Excellency hereof in universal Liberty and Power we cannot here comprehend Nor can we yet conceive the Glory and Beauty of those immixed spiritual actings of our Minds which shall have no Clog upon them no Encumbrance in them no Alloy of Dross accompanying of them One pure Act of spiritual Sight in discerning the Glory of Christ one pure Act of Love in cleaving unto God will bring in more Blessedness and Satisfaction into our Minds than in this World we are capable of 2. THERE is an Incapacity in our Minds as unto their Actings on things spiritual and eternal that is meerly natural from the Posture wherein they are and the Figure which they are to make in this Life For they are here cloathed with Flesh and that debased and corrupted Now in this State though the Mind act its Conceptions by the Body as its Organ and Instrument Yet is it variously streightned encumbred and impeded in the exercise of its native Powers especially towards things heavenly by this Prison of the Flesh wherein it is immured There is an Angelical Excellency in the pure Actings of the Soul when delivered from all material Instruments of them or when they are all glorified and made suitable helps in its utmost spiritual Activity How and by what degrees our Minds shall be freed from these Obstructions in their beholding the glory of Christ shall be afterwards declared 2. AGAIN a new light the light of Glory shall be implanted in them There is a Light in Nature which is the Power of a Man to discern the things of Man An Ability to know perceive and judge of things natural It is that Spirit of a Man which is the Candle of the Lord searching all the inward parts of the belly Prov. 20. 27. BUT by the light hereof no man can discern spiritual things in a due manner as the Apostle declares 1 Cor. 2. 11 12 13 14 15. Wherefore God gives a superior a supernatural Light the Light of Faith and Grace unto them whom he effectually calls unto the knowledge of himself by Jesus Christ. He shines into their hearts to give
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