(2.) Because nothing that can fall into the invention or imagina- tion of men could make any other but false representations of him, and so substitute an idol in his place. His own immediate works have great characters of his divine excellencies upon them, though unto us obscure and not clearly legible without the light of revela- tion. Somewhat he did, of old, represent of his glorious presence —
CHRIST THE ONLY PERFECT IMAGE OF THE FATHER. 69
though not of his being — in the visible institutions of his worship. But all men's inventions to this end, which are neither divine works of nature, nor divine institutions of worship, are all but false repre- sentations of God, and therefore accursed by him.
Wherefore it is granted, that God hath placed many characters of his divine excellencies upon his works of cieation and providence — many [characters] of his glorious presence upon the tabernacle and temple of old — Ijut none of these things ever did or could give such a representation of him as wherein the souls of men might fully acquiesce, or obtain such conceptions of him as might enable them to worship and honour him in a due manner. They cannot, I say — by all that may be seen in them, and learned from them — represent God as the complete object of all our affections, of all the actings of our souls in faith, trust, love, fear, obedience, in that way whereby he may be glorified, and we may be brought unto the everlasting fruition of him. This, therefore, is yet to be inquired after. Wherefore —
5. A mere external doctrinal revelation of the divine nature and properties, without any exemplification or real representation of them, was not sufficient unto the end of God in the manifestation of himself This is done in the Scripture. But the whole Scripture is built on this foundation, or proceeds on this supposition — that there is a real representation of the divine nature unto us, which it declares and describes. And as there was such a notion on the minds of all men, that some representation of God, wherein he might be near unto them, was necessaiy — which arose from the consideration of the in- finite distance between the divine nature and their own, which allowed of no measures between them — so, as unto the event, God himself hath declared that, in his o^vn way, such a representation was need- ful—unto that end of the manifestation of himself which he de- signed. For —
6. All this is done in the person of Christ. He is the complete image and perfect representation of the Divine Being and excellen- cies. I do not speak of it absolutely, but as God proposeth himself as the object of our faith, trust, and obedience. Hence it is God, as the Father, Avho is so pecu/'' rly represented in him and by him ; as he says: " He that hath seen me hath seen the Father :" John xiv. 9.
Unto such a representation two things are required: — (1.) That all the properties of the divine nature — the knowledge whereof is necessary unto our present obedience and future blessedness — be expressed in it, and manifested unto us. (2.) That there be, therein, the nearest approach of the divine nature made unto us, whereof it is capable, and which we can receive. And both these are found in the person of Christ, and therein alone.
7:0 THE PERSON OF CHRIST.
In the person of Christ we consider both the constitution of it in the union of his natures, and the respect of it unto his work of mediation, which was the end of that constitution. And —
(1.) Therein, as so considered, is there a blessed representation made unto us of all the holy properties of the nature of God — of his wisdom, his power, his goodness, grace, and love, his righteousness, truth, and holiness, his mercy and patience. As this is affirmed con- cerning them all in general, or the glory of God in them, which is seen and known only in the face of Christ, so it were easy to mani- fest the same concerning every one of them in particular, by express testimonies of Scripture. But I shall at present confine myself unto the proofs of the whole assertion which do ensue.
(2.) There is, therein, the most incomprehensible approach of the divine nature made unto ours, such as all the imaginations of men did ever infinitely fall short of — as hath been before declared. In the assumption of our nature into personal union with himself, and our cognation unto God thereby, with the union which believers ob- tain with liim thereon — ^being one in the Father and the Son, as the Father is in the Son, and the Son in the Father, (John xvii. 20, 21,) — there is the nearest approach of the Divine Being unto us that the nature of things is capable of Both these ends were de- signed in those representations of God which were of human inven- tion ; but in both of them they utterly failed. For, instead of repre- senting any of the glorious properties of the nature of God, they debased it, dishonoured it, and filled the minds of men with vile conceptions of it; and instead of bringing God nearer unto them, they put themselves at an infinite moral distance from him. But my design is the confirmation of our assertions from the Scripture.