Some suppose that by chopping, and painting, and gilding, they can make an image of Christ that shall perfectly represent him to
410 THE GLOEY OF CHRIST.
their senses and carnal affections from head to foot. But they " feed on ashes," and have " a he in their right hand." Jesus Christ is evi- dently crucified before our eyes in the Scripture, Gal. iii. 1. So also is he evidently exalted and glorified therein. And it is the wisdom of faith to gather into one those parcelled descriptions that are given of him, that they may be the object of its view and contemplation.
In the vision which we shall have above, the whole glory of Christ will be at once and ahvays represented unto us; and we shall be enabled in one act of the light of glory to comprehend it. Here, in- deed, we are at a loss ; — our minds and understandings fail us in their contemplations. It will not yet enter into our hearts to conceive what is the beauty, what is the glory of this complete representation of Clirist unto us. To have at once all the glory of what he is, what he was in his outward state and condition, what he did and suffered, what he is exalted unto, — his love and condescension, his mystical union with the church, and the communication of himself unto it, with the recapitulation of all things in him, — and the glory of God, even the Father, in his wisdom, righteousness, grace, love, goodness, power, shining forth eternally in him, in what he is, hath done, and doth,— all presented unto us in one view, all comprehended by us at once, is that which at present we cannot conceive. We can long for it, pant after it, and have some foretastes of it, — namely, of that state and season wherein our whole souls, in all their powers and faculties, shall constantly, inseparably, eternally cleave by love unto whole Christ, in the sight of the glory of his person and grace, until they are watered, dissolved, and inebriated in the waters of life and the rivers of pleasure that are above for evermore. So must we speak of the things which we admire, which we adore, which we love, which we long for, which we have some foretastes of in sweetness ineffable, which yet we cannot comprehend.
These are some few of those things whence ariseth the difference between that view which we have here of the glory of Christ, and that which is reserved for heaven, — namely, such as are taken from the difference between the means or instruments of the one and the other, faith and sight.
II. In the last place, the great difference between them consists in, and is manifested by, their effects. Hereof I shall give some few instances, and close this Discourse.
First, The vision which we shall have of the gloiy of Christ in heaven, and of the glory of the immense God in him, is perfectly and absolutely transforming. It doth change us wholly into the image of Christ. When we shall see him, we shall be as he is ; we shall be like him, because we shall see him, 1 John iii. 2. But although the closing, perfecting act of this transformation be an act of sight, or the
DIFFEEENCE BETWEEN THE FAITH AND SIGHT OF IT. 411
sight of glory, yet there are many tilings towards it, or degrees in it, which we may here take notice of in our way.
1. The soul, upon its departure from the body, is immediately freed from all the weakness, disability, darkness, uncertainties, and fears, which were impressed on it from the flesh, where%vith it was in tlie strictest union. The image of the first Adam as fallen is then abolished. Yea, it is not only freed from all irregular, sinful distem- pers cleaving to our nature as corrupted, but from all those sinless grievances and infirmities which belong unto the original constitution of it. This necessarily ensues on the dissolution of the person in order imto a blessed state. The first entrance by mortality into im- mortality, is a step towards glory. The ease which a blessed soul finds in a deliverance from this encumbrance, is a door of entrance into eternal rest. Such a change is made in that which in itself is the centre of all evil, — namely, death, — that it is made a means of freeing us from all the remainders of what is evil.
For this doth not folloAV absolutely on the nature of the thing it- self A mere dissolution of our natures can brinsr no advantaoe with it, especially as it is a part of the curse. But it is from the sanctifi- cation of it by the death of Christ. Hereby that which was God's ordinance for the infliction of judgment, becomes an effectual means for the communication of mercy, 1 Cor. xv. 22, 54. It is by virtue of the death of Christ alone, that the souls of believers are freed by death from all impressions of sin, infirmity, and evils, which they have had from the flesh; which were their burden, under which they gToaned all their days. No man knows in any measure the excellency of this privilege, and the dawnings of glory which are in it, who hath not been wearied, and even worn out, through long conflicting with the body of death. The soul hereon being freed from all annoyances, all impressions from the flesh, is expedite and enlarged unto the exer- cise of all its gracious faculties, as we shall see immediately.