IN THE CONSTITUTION OF HIS PERSON. 811
Here Vies the foundation of the church. The foundation of the whole old creation was laid in an act of absolute sovereign power. Hereby God " hanged the earth upon nothing." But the foundation of the church is on this mysterious, immovable rock, " Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God ;" — on the most intimate conjunction of the two natures, the divine and human, in themselves infinitely distant, in the same person.
We may name one place wherein it is gloriously represented unto us, Isa. ix. 6, " For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given ; and the government shall be upon his shoulder : and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." Here must the whole church fall do"\vn and worship the Author of this wonderful contrivance ; and, captivating their understandings unto the obedience of faith, humbly adore what they cannot comprehend.
This was obscurely represented unto the church of old, Exod. iii. 2-6, " And the Angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush; and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. And he said, Draw not nigh hither : put off thy shoes from off thy feet ; for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. Moreover he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham," &c.
This fire was a type or declaration of the presence of God in the person of the Son. For >vith respect unto the Father he is called an Angel, the Angel of the covenant ; but absolutely in himself, he was Jehovah, the "God of Abraham," &c. And of his presence the fire was a proper representation. For in his nature he is as a " consuming fire ; " and his present work was the delivery of the church out of a fiery trial. This fire placed itself in a bush, where it burned ; but the bush was not consumed. And although the continuance of the fire in the bush was but for a short season, a present appearance, yet thence was God said to dwell in the bush: " The good-will of him that dwelt in the bush," Deut. xxxiii. 16. And this is so spoken, because the being of the fijre in the bush for a season was a type of him in whom " the fulness of the Godhead dwelt bodily," and that for ever, CoL ii. 9, — of him who was " made flesh, and dwelt among us," John i. 14. The eternal fire of the divine nature dwells in the bush of our frail nature, yet is it not consumed thereby. God thus dwells in this bush, with all his good-will towards sinners.
Moses looked on this sight as a mai-vellous and wondrous thing.
312 THE GLORY OF CHRIST
And if it were so in the type, what is it in the truth, substance, and reahty of it ?
And by direction given unto him to " put off his shoes," we are taught to cast away all fleshly imaginations and carnal affections, that by pure acts of faith we may behold this glory, — the glory of the only- begotten of the Father.
I design not here to insist on the explication or confirmation of this glorious truth, concerning the constitution of the person of Christ in and by his incarnation. What I can comprehend, what I do believe concerning it, I have fully declared in a large peculiar treatise.^ Here I take the truth itself as known, or as it may be thence learned. My present business is only to stir up the minds of believers unto a due contemplation of the glory of Christ in the sacred, mysterious consti- tution of his person, as God and man in one. So much as we abide herein, so much do " we live by the faith of the Son of God;" — and God can, by a spirit of wisdom and revelation, open the eyes of our understandings, that we may behold this glory unto our ineffable consolation and joy. And unto the diligent discharge of our duty herein I shall offer the ensuing directions : —
1. Let us get it fixed on our soids and in our minds, that this glory of Christ in the divine constitution of his person is the best, the most noble, useful, beneficial object that we can be conversant about in our thoughts, or cleave unto in our affections.
What are all other things in comparison of the " knowledge of Christ?" In the judgment of the great apostle, they are but " loss and dung," Phil. iii. 8-10. So they were to him; and if they are not so to us we are carnal.
What is the world, and what are the things thereof, which most men spend their thoughts about, and fix their affections on ? The Psalmist gives his judgment about them, in comparison of a view of this glory of Christ, Ps. iv, 6, " Many say, Who will show us any good V — Who will give and help us to attain so much in and of this world as will give rest and satisfaction unto our minds ? That is the good inquired after. But, saith he, " Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us." The light of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus is that satisfactory good alone which I desire and seek after.