' The glory of God that shineth in the face of Jesus Christ.' Therefore, I beseech you, let us now value and esteem the great mystery of the incar- nation and Christ crucified, because Christ is the common centre of heaven and earth, in whom we all concentre : Father, Son, and Holy Ghost meet in Christ the Mediator. The first person sees us in Christ, the second person took our nature into union with himself, and the Holy Ghost sancti- Tliat is, == apart from Christ, or in ourselves. — G. t ' Who.' — G.
2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. IV, VER. 0. 329
fieth it ; so all meet together in Christ, He is the abridgment of all the elect in one, so that all the three persons, as they appeared at his baptism, met together in him. Let us mainly labour to get into Christ, and then grow up in Christ, in the knowledge of God the Father, and love of the Father, to grow more and more acquainted with the secret will of the Father to our salvation ; and therefore esteem much of all the blessed means sanctified to strengthen our faith in the word and sacraments. In tho sacrament see the Father. When the minister giveth the bread and wine, think that God the Father giveth his Son to every one of us in particular, and all to strengthen our faith ; see God the Father together with God tho Son. The Father was the person first ofi"ended, and therefore God tho Father is reconciled by Christ. And it is more comfort that God tho Father, the person oflended, hath the chief hand in the plot of salvation ; ' He gave Christ's body to be broken, and his blood to be shed for our sins,' Eom. iii. 25.
I beseech you therefore to labour to be acquainted every day more and more with these mysteries, and do not take these as any encouragement to a sinful course, because the glory of mercy shineth in Jesus Christ, and therefore turn grace into wantonness. Mark this one thing. Amongst other attributes that shine in God, there is specially his holiness and dis- pleasure against sin, for God shewed his displeasure against sin in turning his angels out of heaven. Heaven itself could not brook* sin. It turned Adam out of paradise, and is the chiefest procurer of God's wrath ; but all these are nothing to that hatred of sin that appeared in Christ. The purity of God appeared in him above all things in the world, and it will at the day of judgment appear more in sending the greatest part of the world to eternal destruction and torment. But it is not so much as in making his Son a curse. Therein we see the holiness of God, that rather than man's sins should not be satisfied for, he would set apart his own Son to satisfy it. How much then is the holiness of Christ, that offered himself for it ? how much is the holiness of God, that gave his Son to take it away ? Can any man now believe in God as his Father first, and in Christ as his Saviour, and live in sin ?
\ We mnst look on sin as the Father when he gave the Son, and on sin as the Son did when he gave himself. Therefore if we do not look on sin as most opposite to holiness, and have not an antipathy rooted in our hearts, how can we bear God's image and the image of Christ resembling him in all things ? How can we think ourselves his members when we want his Spirit ? How can we say we be his, when he walks in light and we in darkness ?
If that holiness be not rooted to look on sin, in some measure, as God the Father and Son [doj, we can as yet have no comfort, and therefore there is no reason to ' turn the grace of God into wantonness,' Jude 4.
And then remember this one caveat more. Whatsoever I spoke of the love of God the Father, and Christ the Son, is nothing unto us, unless every [one] of us labour in particular to have the Spirit of the Father and the Son discovering to us in particular this, that the Father is our Father, and the Son our Saviour, for that is the issue of our ministry. We must not rest in the ministerial discovery of things, but if we belong to God there is a work of the Spirit, and the chief work of it is to particularise and to bring truths home to every man's soul ; and therefore Christ is nothing to us, unless the mind of God to us in particular be discovered. The Spirit * That is, ' bear.'— G.
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kiiowcth tlio ' secrets of God,' and rcvcaleth to every particular man their particular interest in God the Father and God the Son, and this should be our desire and prayer every day, together with all knowledge, that God would give his Spirit to discover to us his peculiar love in Jesus Christ, and that Christ would by his Spirit discover our interest in him. Minis- terial light will not servo for comfort unless our spirits be scaled to be the Bons of God. Therefore are the sacraments to seal in particular an interest in Jesus Christ. Therefore we should set our faith on work. God in par- ticular died for me, as if for none but me, and God the Father giveth me comfort in Christ. As I taste the outward element with outward sense, so with my inward taste of ftiith I taste of Christ. These be the things will stand in stead against temptation. He is the Saviour of the elect ; but what though ? The Spirit of the Father and the Sou must discover the love of the Father to us in his Son.