To sum up briefly what hath been spoken : There are three things to be considered concerning the glory of Christ, three degrees in its manifestation,— the shadoiu, the perfect image, and the substance it- self Those under the Law had only the shadow of it, and of the things that belong unto it; — they had not the perfect image of them, Heb. X. 1. Under the Gospel we have the perfect image, which they had not; or a cleai', complete revelation and declaration of it, pre-
388 THE GLORY OF CHRIST.
seiiting it unto us as in a glass: but the enjoyment of these things in their substance is reserved for heaven; we must be " where he is, that we may behold his glory." Now, there is a greater difference and distance between the real substance of any thing and the most perfect image of it, than there is between the most perfect image and the lowest shadow of the same thing. If, then, they longed to be freed from their state of types and shadows, to enjoy the repre- sentation of the glory of Christ in that image of it which is given us in the Gospel ; much more ought we to breathe and pant after our deliverance from beholding it in the image of it, that we may enjoy the substance itself For, whatever can be manifest of Christ on this side heaven, it is granted unto us for this end, that we may the more fervently desire to be present with him.
And as it was their wisdom and their grace to rejoice in the light they had, and in those typical administrations of divine worship which shadowed out the glory of Christ unto them, yet did always pant after that more excellent light and full discovery of it which was to be made by the Gospel ; so it will be ours also thankfully to use and improve the revelations which we enjoy of it, and those institutions of worship wherein our faith is assisted in the view thereof, — yet so as continually to breathe after that perfect, that glorifying sight of it which is reserved for heaven above.
And may we not a little examine ourselves by these things? Do we esteem this pressing towards the perfect view of the glory of Christ to be our duty? and do we abide in the performance of it? If it be otherwise with any of us, it is a signal evidence that our pro- fession is h3rpocritical. If Christ be in us, he is the hope of glory in us ; and where that hope is, it will be active in desires of the things hoped for. Many love the world too well, and have their minds too much filled with the things of it, to entertain desires of speeding through it unto a state wherein they may behold the glory of Christ. They are at home, and are unwilling to be absent from the body, though to be present with the Lord. They hope, it may be, that such a season will come at one time or another, and then it will be the best they can look for when they can be here no more. But they have but a little sight of the glory of Christ in this world by faith, if any at all, who so little, so faintly desire to have the immediate sight of it above. I cannot understand how any man can walk with God as he ought, or hath that love for Jesus Christ which tnie faith will pro- duce, or doth place his refreshments and joy in spiritual things, in things above, that doth not on all just occasions so meditate on the glory of Christ in heaven as to long for an admittance into the im- mediate sight of it.
Our Lord Jesus Christ alone perfectly understood wherein the
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE FAITH AND SIGHT OF IT. 389
eternal blessedness of them that believe in him doth consist. And this is the sum of what he prays for with respect unto that end, — namely, that we may be where he is, to behold his glory. And is it not our duty to live in a continual desire of that which he prayed so earnestly that we might attain? If in ourselves we as yet apprehend but little of the glory, the excellency, the blessedness of it, yet ought we to repose that confidence in the wisdom and love of Christ, that it is our best, — infinitely better than any thing we can enjoy here below. Unto those who are inured unto these contemplations, they are the salt of their lives, whereby ever}' thing is condited and made savoury unto them, as we shall show afterward. And the want of spiritual diligence herein is that which hath brought forth a negligent, careless, worldly profession of religion, which, countenancing itself with some outward duties, hath lost out of it the power of faith and love in their principal operations. Hereby many deceive their own souls. Goods, lands, possessions, relations, trades, with secular interests in them, are the things whose image is drawn on their minds, and whose charac- ters are Avritten on their foreheads, as the titles whereby they may be known. As believers, beholding the glory of Christ in the blessed glass of the Gospel, are changed into the same image and likeness by the Spirit of the Lord ; so these person.s, beholding the beauty of the world and the things that are in it in the cursed glass of self-love, are in their minds changed into the same image. Hence perplexing- fears, vain hopes, empty embraces of perishing things, fruitless desires, earthly, carnal designs, cursed, self-pleasing imaginations, feeding on, and being fed by, the love of the world and self, do abide and prevail in them. But we have not so learned Christ Jesus.