3. As he took our nature upon him, or in the assumption of our nature into personal union with himself, in order unto the work of his mediation. So is he the only representative image of God unto us — in whom alone we see, know, and learn all the divine excellen- cies— so as to live unto God, and be directed unto the enjoyment of him. All this himself instructs us in.
He reflects it on the Pharisees, as an effect of their blindness and ignorance, that they had neither heard the voice of God at any time, nor seen his shape: John v. 37. And in opposition here- unto he tells his disciples, that they had known the Father, and seen him : chap. xiv. 7. And the reason he gives thereof is, because they that knew hmi, knew the Father also. And when one of his disciples, not yet sufficiently in^structed in this mystery, replied, " Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us," (verse 8,) his answer is, " Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not knoAvn me ? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father : " verse 9.
Three things are required unto the justification of this assertion.
1. That the Father and he be of the same nature, have the same essence and being. For otherwise it would not follow that he who had seen him had seen the Father also. This ground of it he declares in the next verse: "The Father is in me, and I am in the Father" — namely, because they were one in nature and essence For the divine nature being sunply the same in them all, the divine persons are in each other, by virtue of the oneness of that nature.
2. That he be distinct from him. For otherwise there cannot be a seei)ig of the Father by the seeing of him. He is seen in the Son
THE father's glory SEEN IN THE SON. 73
as rejjresented by him — as his image — the Word — the Son of the Father, as he was with God. The unity of nature and the distinc- tion of pei'sons is the gi'ound of that assertion of our Saviour : " He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father also."
3. But, moreover, the Lord Christ hath a respect herein unto him- self, in his entire person as he was incarnate, and therein unto the discharge of his mediatory work. " Have I been so long time with you, and hast thou not known me?" Whilst he was with them, dwelt among them, conversed with them, he was the great repre- sentative of the glory of God unto them. And, notwithstanding this particular mistake, they did then see his glory, " the glory of the only-begotten of the Father:" John i. 14. And in him was mani- fested the glory of the Father. He " is the image of the invisible God." In him God was, in him he dwelt, in him is he known, in him is he worshipped according unto his own will, in him is there a nearer approach made unto us by the divine nature than ever could enter into the heart of man to conceive. In the constitution of his person — of two natures, so infinitely distinct and separate in them- selves— and in the work it was designed unto, the wisdom, power, goodness, love, grace, mercy, holiness, and faithfulness of God, are manifested unto us. This is the one blessed " image of the invisible God," wherein we may learn, wherem we may contemplate and adore, all his divine perfections.
The same truth is testified unto, Heb. i. 3. God spake unto us in the Son, who is " the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person." His divine nature is here included, as that Vvdthout which he could not have made a perfect representation of God unto us. For the apostle speaks of him, as of him " by whom tiio worlds were made," and who " upholdeth all things by the word of his power." Yet doth he not speak of him absolutely as he was God, but also as he who " in him^self purged our sins, and sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high ;" that is, in his whole person. Herein he is dffaiyaff/ia rris do^ris, the effulgency, the resj)len- dency of divine glory, that wherein the divine glory shines forth in an evident manifestation of itself unto us. And as a farther expli- cation of the same mystery, it is added, that he is the character or " express image " of the person of the Father. Such an impression of all the glorious properties of God is on him, as that thereby they become legible unto all them that believe.
So the same apostle affii'ms again that he is the " image of God," 2 Cor. iv. 4 ; in what sense, and unto what end, he declares, verse 6 : " We have the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." Still it is supposed that the glory of God, as essen- tially in him, is invisible unto us, and incomprehensible by us. Yet
74 THE PERSON OF CHRIST.