THE CHASIBER OF IMAGERY. DOi>
But the principal design of this discourse is, to warn others of these abominations, and to direct unto their avoidance; for if they should be outwardly pressed unto the practice of this idolatry, whatever is of carnal affection, of blind devotion, or superstition in them, mil quickly be won over unto a conspiracy against their convictions. No- thing will then secure them, but an experience of the efficacy of that representation which is made of Christ in the gospel. It is, there- fore, the wisdom and duty of all those who desne a stability in the profession of the truth, continually to endeavour after this experience, and an increase in it. He who lives in the exercise of faith and love in the Lord Jesus Christ, as revealed in the gospel, as evidently cni- cified, and evidently exalted therein, and finds the fruit of his so doing in his own soul, will be j)reserved in the time of trial. With- out this, men will, at last, begin to think that it is better to have a false Christ than none at all; they will suppose that something is to be found in images, when they can find nothing in the gospel.
Sect. II. It is a prevalent notion of truth, that the worshij} of God ought to he beautiful and glorious.
The very light of nature seems to du-ect unto conceptions hereof What is not so may be justly rejected, as unbecoming the divine Majesty; and therefore, the more holy and heavenly any rehgion pre- tends to be, the more glorious is the worship prescribed in it, or ought so to be. Yea, the true worship of God is the height and excellency of all glory in this world : it is inferior unto nothing but that which is in heaven, which it is the beginning of, the way unto, and the best preparation for. Accordingly, even that worship is declared to be glorious, and that in an eminent manner, above all the outward wor- ship of the Old Testament, in the tabernacle and temple, whose glory was great, and, as unco external pomp, inimitable. To this purpose the apostle disputes at large, 2 Cor. iii. 6-11. This, therefore, is agreed, that there ought to be beauty and glory in divine worship; and that they are most eminently in that which is directed and re- quired in the gospel. But withal the apostle declares, in the same place, that tlys glory is spiritual, and not carnal : so did our Lord Jesus Christ foretell that it should be; and that, unto that end, all distinc- tion of places, with all outward advantages and ornaments belonging unto them, should be taken away, John iv. 20-24.
It belongs, therefore, unto our present design, to give a brief account of its glory, and wherein it excels all other Avays of divine worship that ever were in the world ; even that under the Old Testa- ment, which was of di\dne institution, wherein all things were ordered " for beauty and glory." And it may be given in the instances that ensue : —
1. The express object of it is God, not as absolutely considered, but
6oG THE CHAMBER OF IMAGEHY.
as existing in three ■persons, of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is the principal glory of Christian religion and its worship. Under the Old Testament, the conceptions of the church about the existence of the divine nature in distinct persons were very dark and obscure; for the full revelation of it was not to be made, but in the distinct actings of each person in the works of redemption and salvation of the church; — that is, in the incarnation of the Son, and mission of the Spuit after he was glorified, John vii. 39. And in all the ways of natural worship, there was never the least shadow of any respect hereunto. But this is the foundation of all the glory of evangelical worship. The object of it, in the faith of the worshipper, is the holy Trinity; and it consists in an ascription of divine glory unto each person, in the same individual nature, by the same act of the mind. Where this is not, there is no glory in religious worsliip.
2. Its glory consists in that constant respect which it hath unto each divine ^Jerso/^, as unto their peculiar work and actings for the salvation of the church. So it is described, Eph. ii. 18, "Through him" — that is, the Son as mediator — "we have access by one Spirit unto the Father." This is the immediate glory of evangelical wor- ship, comprehensive of all the graces and privileges of the gospel; and to suppose that the glory of it doth consist in any thing but the light, graces, and privileges which it doth itself exhibit, is a vain ima- gination. It will not borrow glory from the invention of men. We shall therefore a little consider it as it is here represented by the apostle : —
(1.) The idtimate object of it, under this consideration, is God as THE Father: "We have access" therein "unto the Father." And this consideration, in our worship, of God as a Father — relating unto the whole dispensation of his love and grace by Jesus Christ, as he is his God and our God, his Father and our Father — is peculiar imto gospel worship, and contains a signal part of its glory. We do not only worship God as a Father, — so the veiy heathens had a notion that he was the Father of all things, — but we worship him who is the Father; and as he is so, both in relation to the eternal generation of the Son, and the communication of grace by him unto us, as our Father. So, "No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him," John i. 18. This access in our worship unto the person of the Father, as in heaven, the holy place above, as on a throne of grace, is the glory of the gospel. See Matt. vi. 9; Heb. iv. 16, x. 19-21.