His person, therefore, is the foundation of the church — the great mystery of godhness, or the religion we profess — the entire life and soul of all spiritual truth — in that all the counsels of the wisdom, grace, and goodness of God, for the redemption, vocation, sanctifica- tion, and salvation of the church, were all laid in him, and by him were all to be accomplished.
GOD IN HIS OWN NATURE INCOMPREHENSIBLE, 65
CHAPTER V.
The Person of Christ the great Representative of God and his Will.
What may be kno'svn of God, is, — Ids nature and existence, with the holy counsels of his will. A representation of them unto us is the foundation of all religion, and the means of our conformity unto him — wherein our present duty and future blessedness do consist. For to know God, so as thereby to be made like unto him, is the chief end of man. This is done perfectly only in the person of Christ, all other means of it being subordinate thereunto, and none of them of the same nature therewithal. The end of the Word itself, is to instruct us in the knowledge of God in Christ. That, therefore, which I shall now demonstrate, is, that in the person and mediation of Christ (which are inseparable, in all the respects of faith unto him) there is made unto us a blessed representation of the glorious properties of the divine nature, and of the holy counsels of the will of God. The first of these I shall speak unto in this chapter — the other, in that which ensues; wherein we shall mani- fest how all divine truths do centre in the person of Christ. And the consideration of sundry things is necessary unto the expHcation hereof.
1. God, in his own essence, being, and existence, is absolutely incomprehensible. His nature being immense, and all his holy properties essentially infinite, no creature can directly or perfectly comprehend them, or any of them. He must be infinite that can perfectly comprehend that which is infinite; wherefore God is per- fectly known unto himself only — but as for us, how little a portion is heard of him ! Hence he is called " The invisible God," and said to dwell in " light inaccessible." The subsistence of his most single and simple nature in three distinct persons, though it raises and ennobles faith in its revelation, yet it amazeth reason which would trust to itself in the contemplation of it — whence men grow giddy who will own no other guide, and are carried out of the way of truth. " No man hath seen God at any time ; the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, ho hath declared him:" John i. IS; 1 Tim. vi. 16.
2. Therefore, we can have no direct intuitive notions or apprehen- sions of the divine essence, or its properties. Such knowledge is too wonderful for us. Whatever is pleaded for an intellectual vision of the essence of God in the liglit of glory, yet none pretend unto a possibility of an immediate, full comprehension of it. But, in our
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66 THE PERSON OF CHRIST.
present state, God is unto us, as he was unto Moses under all the external manifestations of his glory, " in thick darkness : " Exod. XX. 21. All the rational conceptions of the minds of men are swallowed up and lost, when they would exercise themselves directly on that which is absolutely immense, eternal, infinite. When we say it is so, we know not what we say, but only that it is not other- wise. What we deny of God, we know in some measure — but what we affirm we know not; only we declare what we believe and adore. " Neque sensus est ejus, neque phantasia, neque opinio, nee ratio, nee scientia," says Dionys. De Divin. Nomine, 1. We have no means — no corporeal, no intellectual instrument or power — for the comprehension of him; nor hath any other creature: 'Ets/ aurh oVsp hriv 6 @shg, ou /JjOVOv irpo^rirai, dXX' ov6s ayyiXoi ddov^ o'Jn dp^dyyiXoi' aXK edv spurrjSric, auTovg, dx,ovffrj vspi [liv rrig ovfflag oudsv aToxpivo/xsvoug' do^a ds IV V'^ldroig /j^ovov clhovrag tuj QiSj' nav irapd tuv Xipov^iju, 7] ruv '2ipa(pi/jj s'TTidu/jjyjffrjg ri fiahrj, ro /MVffriKov tov ayiaff/ji^ov //.sXog dxovffT}, xai on TXriprig 6 oupavog x.ai 7] yjj rrig do^j^g avrov. — " For that which is God " (the essence of God) " not only have not the prophets seen, but neither the angels nor the archangels. If thou wilt inquke of them, thou shalt hear nothing of the substance of God, but only hear them say, ' Glory to God in the highest.' If thou askest the cherubim and seraphim, thou shalt only hear the praise of holiness, 'The whole earth is full of his glory,'" says Chrysostom, on John i. 18. That God is in himself absolutely incomprehen- sible unto us, is a necessary effect of our infinite distance from him. But as he externally represents himself unto us, and by the notions which are ingenerated in us by the effects of his properties, are our conceptions of him : Ps. xix. 1 ; Rom. i. 20. This is declared in the answer given unto that request of Moses : " I beseech thee, show me thy glory: " Exod. xxxiii. 18. Moses had heard a voice speaking unto him, but he that spake was " in thick darkness" — he saw him not. Glorious evidences he gave of his majestatical presence, but no appearance was made of his essence or person. Hereon Moses desireth, for the full satisfaction of his soul, (as the nearer any one is unto God the more earnest will be his desire after the full fruition of him,) that he might have a sight of his glory — not of that created glory in the tokens of his presence and power which he had beheld, but of the uncreated glory of his essence and being. Through a transport of love to God, he would have been in heaven whilst he was on the earth ; yea, desired more than heaven itself will afford, if he would have seen the essence of God with his corporeal eyes. In answer hereunto God tells him, that he cannot see his face and live; none can have either bodily sight or direct mental intuition of the Divine Being. But this I will do, saith God, " I will make