UNDER THE OLD TESTAMENT. 349
And that also was the substance of the ministry of the prophets, 1 Pet. i. 11, 12. The dark apprehensions of the glory of Christ, which by these means they obtained, were the Hfe of the church of old.
2. It was represented in the mystical account which is given us of his communion with his church in love and grace. As this is inti- mated in many places of Scripture, so there is one entire book designed unto its declaration. This is the divine Song of Solomon, who was a t}^e of Christ, and a penman of the Holy Ghost therein. A gracious record it is of the divine communications of Christ in love and grace unto his church, with their returns of love unto him, and delight in him. And then may a man judge himself to have somewhat profited in the experience of the mystery of a blessed intercourse and communion with Christ, when the expressions of them in that holy dialogue do give hght and life unto his mind, and efficaciously communicate unto him an experience of their power. But because these things are little understood by many, the book itself is much neglected, if not despised ; yea, to such impudence have some arrived, in foaming out their own shame, as that they have ridiculed the expressions of it. But we are foretold of such mockers in the last days, that should walk after their own ungodly lusts ; they are not of our present consideration.
The former instance of the representations of the glory of Christ in their institutions of outward worship, with this record of the inward communion they had with Christ in grace, faith, and love, gives us the substance of that view which they had of his glory. What holy strains of delight and admiration, what raptures of joy, what solemn and divine complacency, what ardency of affection, and diligence in at- tendance unto the means of enjoying communion with him, this discovery of the glory of Christ wrought in the souls of them that did believe, is emphatically expressed in that discourse. A few days, a few hours spent in the frame characterized in it, is a blessedness ex- celling all the treasures of the earth ; and if we, whose revelations of the same glory do far exceed theirs, should be found to come short of them in ardency of affection unto Christ, and continual holy admi- ration of his excellencies, we shall one day be judged unworthy to have received them.
3. It was so represented and made knoAvn under the Old Testa- ment, in his personal appearances on various occasions unto several eminent persons, leaders of the church in their generations. This he did as a prceludium to his incarnation. He was as yet God only ; but appeared in the assumed shape of a man, to signify what he would be. He did not create a human nature, and unite it unto himself for such a season ; only by his divine power he acted the shape of a man composed of what ethereal substance he pleased, im- mediately to be dissolved. So he appeared to Abraham, to Jacob,
8;")0 THE GLORY OF CHRIST
to Moses, to Joshua, and others ; as I have at large elsewhere proved and confirmed. And hereon, also, because he was the divine person who dwelt in and dwelt with the church, under the Old Testament, from first to last, in so doing he constantly assumes unto himself human affections, to intimate that a season would come when he would immediately act in that nature. And, indeed, after the fall there is nothing spoken of God in the Old Testament, nothing of his institutions, nothing of the way and manner of dealing with the cliurch, but what hath respect unto the future incarnation of Christ. And it had been absurd to bring in God under perpetual anthropo- pathies, as grieving, repenting, being angry, well pleased, and the like, were it not but that the divine person intended was to take on him the nature wherein such affections do dwell.
4. It was represented in prophetical visions. So the apostle affirms that the vision which Isaiah had of him was when he saw his gloiy, John xii. 41. And it was a blessed representation thereof; for his divine person being exalted on a throne of glory, " his train filled the temple." The whole train of his glorious grace filled the temple of his body. This is the true tabernacle, which God pitched, and not man ; — the temple which was destroyed, and which he raised again in three days, wherein dwelt the fulness of the Godhead, Col. ii. 9. This glory was now presented unto the view of Isaiah, cha.p. vi. 1-5 ; which filled him with dread and astonishment. But from thence he was relieved, by an act of the ministry of that glorious one, taking away his iniquity by a coal from the altar; which typified the purifying efficacy of his sacrifiice. This was food for the souls of believers : in these and on the like occasions did the whole church lift up their voice in that holy cry, " Make haste, our Beloved, and be thou like to a roe, or to a young hart, on the mountains of spices."
Of the same nature was his glorious appearance on mount Sinai at the giving of the law, Exod. xix. ; — for the description thereof by the Psalmist, Ps. Ixviii. 17, 18, is applied by the apostle unto the ascension of Christ after his resurrection, Eph. iv. 8. Only, as it was then full of outward terror, because of the giving of the fiery law, it was referred unto by the Psalmist as full of mercy, with respect unto his accomplishment of the same law. His giving of it was as death unto them concerned, because of its holiness, and the severity of the curse wherewith it was attended; his, fulfilling of it was life, by tlie pardon and righteousness which issued from thence.