3. It is the highest degeneracy from the mystery of the Christian religion, for men to satisfy themselves in natural discoveries of the Divine Being and excellencies, without an acquaintance with that perfect declaration and representation of them which is made in the person of Christ, as he is revealed and declared in the Gospel. It is confessed that there may be good use made of the evidence which
78 THE PERSON OF CHRIST.
reason gives or takes from its own innate principles — with the consi- deration of the external works of divine wisdom and power — con- cerning the being and rule of God. But to rest herein — to esteem it the best and most perfective knowledge of God that we can attain — not to rise up unto the more full, perfect, and evident manifestation of himself that he hath made in Christ — is a de- claration of our unbelief, and a virtual renunciation of the Gos- pel. This is the spring of that declension unto a mere natural reli- gion which discovers itself in many, and usually ends in the express denial of the divine person of Christ. For when the proper use of it is despised, on what grounds can the notion of it be long retained ? But a supposition of his divine person is the foundation of this dis- course. Were he not the essential image of the Father in his own divine person, he could not be the representative image of God unto us as he is incarnate. For if he were a man only — however mira- culously produced and gloriously exalted, yet the angels above, the glorious heavens, the seat and throne of God, with other effects of creating power and wisdom, would no less represent his glory than it could be done in him. Yet are they nowhere, jointly nor separately, styled " the image of the invisible God" — " the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person;" nor doth God shine into our hearts to give us the knowledge of his glory in the face of them. And it argues the woful enmity of the carnal mind against God and all the effects of his wisdom, that, whereas he hath granted us such a glorious image and representation of himself, we like it not, we de- light not in the contemplation of it, but either despise it or neglect it, and please ourselves in that which is incomparably beneath it.
4. Because God is not thus knoivn it is — ^that the knowledge of him is so barren and fruitless in the world, as it manifests itself to be. It were easy to produce, yea, endless to number the testimonies that might be produced out of heathen writers, given unto the being and existence of God, his authority, monarchy, and rule; yet what were the effects of that knowledge which they had? Besides that wretched idolatry wherein they were all immersed, as the apostle declares, Rom. i, it rescued them from no kind of wickedness and villany; as he there also manifests. And the virtues which were found among them were evidently derived from other causes, and not from the knowledge they had of God. The Jews have the knowledge of God by the letter of the Old Testament ; but yet — not knowing him in Christ, and havmg lost all sense and apprehen- sion of those representations which were made of his being in him, in the Law — they continue universally a people carnal, obstinate, and wicked. They have neither the virtues of the heathens among them, nor the power of the truth of religion. As it was with them
DIVINE TRUTH ESSENTIAL AND DECLARATIVE. 79
of old, SO it yet continueth to be ; " they profess that they know God, but in works they deny him, being abominable and disobedient, and to every good work reprobate:" Tit. i. 16. So is it among many that are called Christians at this day in the world : great pretence there is unto the knowledge of God — yet did flagitious sins and wickedness scarce ever more abound among the heathens themselves. It is the knowledge of "God in Christ" alone that is effectually powerful to work the souls of men into a conformity unto him. Those alone who behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ are changed into the same image, from glory to glory.
CHAPTER VL
The Person of Christ the great Repository of Sacred Truth — Its Relation
thereunto.
Divine supernatural truth is called by the apostle, "The truth which is after godliness:" Tit. i. 1. Whereas, therefore, the person of Christ is the great mystery of godliness, we must, in the next place, inquire — What is the relation of spiritual supernatural truth there- unto ? And this I shall do, in pursuit of what was proposed in the foregoing chapter, viz., that he is the great representative unto the church, of God, his holy properties, and the counsels of his will.
All divine truth may be refeiTed unto two heads. First, that which is essentially so ; and then that which is so declaratively. The first is God himself, the other is the counsel of his will.
First, God himself is the first and only essential Truth, in whose being and nature the springs of all tnith do lie. Whatever is truth — so far as it is so, derives from him, is an emanation from that eternal fountain of it. Being, truth, and goodness, is the principal notion of God; and in him they are all the same. How this is represented in Christ — as in himself he is the essential image of the Father, and as incarnate the representative image of him unto us • — ^hath been declared.