3. That in the beholding of the glory of God in Christ, we behold his glory also. For herein is he infinitely glorious above the whole creation, in that in and by him alone the glory of the invisible God is represented unto us. Herein do our souls live. This is that whereby the image of God is renewed in us, and we are made like unto the first-born.
4. This is so far from being unnecessary unto Christian practice, and the sanctified duties of morality, that he knows not Christ, he knows not the Gospel, he knows not the faith of the catholic church, who imagines that they can be perforaied acceptably without it. Yea, this is the root whence all other Christian duties do spring, and whereon they grow, whereby they are distinginshed from the works of heathens. He is no Christian who believes not that faith in the person of Christ is the spring of all evangelical obedience ; or who knows not that faith respects the revelation of the glory of God in him.
If these things are so, as they are the most important truths of the VOL. I. 20
306 THE GLORY OF CHRIST
Gospel, and whose denial overthrows the foundation of faith, and is ruinous to Christian religion, certainly it is our duty to live in the constant exercise of faith with respect unto this glory of Christ. And we have sufficient experience of what kind of morality the ignorance of it hath produced.
Others there are who may be some way strangers, but are no way enemies, unto this mystery, and to the practical exercise of faith there- in. To such I shall tender the ensuing directions: —
1. Reckon in your minds, that this beholding of the glory of Christ by beholding the glory of God, and all his holy properties in him, is the greatest privilege whereof in this life we can be made partakers. The dawning of heaven is in it, and the first-fruits of glory; for this is life eternal, to know the Father, and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent, John xvii. 3. Unless you value it, unless you esteem it as such a privilege, you will not enjoy it; and that which is not valued according unto its worth is despised. It is not enough to think it a privilege, an advantage ; but it is to be valued above other things, according unto its greatness and excellency. " Destruction and death say, We have heard the fame thereof with our ears," Job xxviii. 22. And if we do no more, we shall die strangers unto it; we are to " cry after this knowledge, and lift up our voice for this understanding," if we design to attain it.
2. As it is a great privilege, which requires a due valuation; so it is a great mystery, w^hich requires much spiritual wisdom to the right understanding of it, and to direct in its practice, 1 Cor. ii. 4, 5. Flesh and blood will not reveal it unto us, but we must be taught of God to apprehend it, John i. 12, 13; Matt. xvi. 16, 17. Mere unsanctified reason will never enable us unto, nor guide us in, the discovery of this duty. Men are not so vain as to hope for skill and understand- ing in the mystery of a secular art or trade, without the diligent use of those means whereby it may be attained ; and shall we suppose that we may be furnished with spiritual skill and wisdom in this sacred mystery, without diligence in the use of the means appointed of God for the attaining of it ? The principal of them is fervent prayer. Pray, then, with Moses, that God would show you this his glory ; pray with the apostle, that " the eyes of your understanding may be en- hghtened to behold it;" pray that the " God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and re- velation in the knowledge of him." Fill your minds with spiritual thoughts and contrivances about them. Slothful and lazy souls never obtain one view of this glory; the "lion in the way" deters them from attempting it. Being carnal, they abhor all diligence in the use of spiritual means, such as prayer and meditation on things unto them uneasy, unpleasing, and difficult. Unto others the way partakes of
AS THE REPRESENTATIVE OF GOD. 30 7
the nature of the end ; the means of obtaining a view of the glory of Christ are of the same kind^ of the same pleasantness, with that view itself in their proportion.
3. Learn the use hereof from the actings of contrary vicious habits. When the minds of men are vehemently fixed on the pursuit of their lusts, they will be continually ruminating on the objects of them, and have a thousand contrivances about them, until their " eyes become full of adulteries, and they cannot cease from sinning," as the apostle speaks. The objects of their lusts have framed and raised an image of themselves in their minds, and transformed them into their own likeness. Is this the way of them who " go down to the chambers of death V Do they thus frame their souls, and make them meet for destruction, until their words, gestures, actions, proclaim the frame of their minds unto all that look upon them ? And shall we be sloth- ful and negligent in the contemplation of that glory which transforms our minds into its own likeness, so as that the eyes of our under- standings shall be continually filled with it, until we see him and behold him continually, so as never to cease from the holy acts of delight in him and love to him ?