(2.) The Son is here considered as a Mediator; — through him we have this access unto the Father. This is the glory that was hidden from former ages, but brought to light and displayed by the gospel. So speaks our blessed Saviour liimsolf unto his discipU's: " Whatso-
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ever ye shall ask the Father m my name, he will give it you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name : ask, and ye shall receive," John xvi. 23, 24. To ask God expressly in the name of the Son, as mediato]-, belongs unto the glory of the gospel worship.
The especial instances of this glory are more than can be enume- rated. The chief of them may be reduced to these three heads: —
1st. It is he who makes both the persons of the worshippers and their duties accepted of God. See Heb. ii. 17, IS, iv. IG, x. 19.
2dly. He is the administrator of all the worship of the church in the holy place above, as its gi-eat High Priest over the house of God, Heb. viii. 2; Rev. viii. 3.
Zdly. His pr-esence with and among gospel worshippers in their worship gives it gloiy. This he declares and promises, Matt, xviii. 19, 20, " If two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." All success of the prayers of the church dependeth on, and ariseth from, the presence of Christ amongst them : he is so present for their assistance and for their con- solation. This presence of a living Christ, and not a dead crucifix, gives glory to divine worship. He who sees not the glory of this wor- ship, from its relation unto Christ, is a stranger unto the gospel, with all the light, graces, and privileges of it.
(3.) It is in ONE Spirit that we have access unto God in his wor- ship : and in his administration doth the apostle place the glory of it, in opposition unto all the glory of the Old Testament, as doth our Lord Jesus Christ also in the place before referred unto ; for, —
1st. The whole ability for the observance and performance of it, according to the mind of God, is from him alone. His communica- tion of grace and gifts unto the church is that alone which makes it to give glory to God in his divine service. If this should cease, all acceptable worship would cease in the world. To think to observe the worship of the gospel without the aid and assistance of the Spirit of the gospel, is a lewd imagination. But where he is, there is liberty and glory, 2 Cor. iii. 17, 18.
2dly. By hun the sanctified minds of believers are made temples of God, and so the principal seal of evangelical worship, 1 Cor. iii. 16, vi. 19. This temple being of God's own framing, and of his own adorning by his Spirit, is a much more glorious fabric than any that the hands of men can erect.
3dly. By him is the church led into internal communion and con- verse with God in Christ, in light, love, and delight, with holy l)old- ness; the glory whereof is expressed by the apostle, Heb. x. 19, 21, 22.,
In these things, I say, doth the true glory of evangelical worsliip
558 THE CHAMBER OF I.MAGERY.
consist ; and if it doth not, it hath no glory in comparison of that- wliich did excel in the old legal worsliip. For the wit of man was never yet ahle to set it off with half the outward beauty and glory that was in the worship of the temple. But herein it is that it not only leaves no glory thereunto in comparison, but doth unspeakably excel whatever the wit and wealth of men can extend unto.
But there is a spiritual light required, that we may discern the glory of this worship, and have thereby an exj^erience of its power and efficacy in reference unto the ends of its appointment. This the church of believers hath. They see it as it is a blessed means of giving glory unto God, and of receiving gTacious communications from him ; which are the ends of all the divine institutions of worship : and they have therein such an experience of its efficacy, as gives rest, and peace, and satisfaction, unto their souls. For they find, that as their worship directs them unto a blessed \dew, by faith, of God in his in- effable existence, with the glorious actings of each person in the dis- pensation of grace, w^hich fills their hearts with joy unspeakable ; so also, that all gi'aces are exercised, increased, and strengthened in the observance of it, with love and delight.
But all light into, all perceptions of this glory, all experience of its power, was, amongst the most, lost in the world. I intend, in all these instances the time of the papal apostasy. Those who had the conduct of religion could discern no glory in these things, nor obtain any experience of their power. Be the worship what it will, they can see no glory in it, nor did it give any satisfaction to their minds ; for having no light to discern its glory, they could have no experience of its power and efficacy. What, then, shall they do? The notion must be retained, that divine worship is to be beautiful and glorious. But in the spiritual worship of the gospel they could see nothing thereof; wherefore they thought necessary to make a glory for it, or to dismiss it out of the world, and set up such an image of it as might appear beautiful unto their fleshly minds, and give them satis- faction. To this end they set their inventions on work to find out ceremonies, vestments, gestures, ornaments, music, altars, images, paintings, with prescriptions of great bodily veneration. This pageantiy they call the beauty, the order, the glory, of di^'ine worship. This is that which they see and feel, and which, as they judge, doth dispose their minds unto devotion. Without it they know not how to pay any reverence unto God himself; and when it is wanting, what- ever be the life, the power, the spirituality of the worship in the wor- sliippers — whatever be its efficacy unto all the proper ends of it — how- ever it be ordered according unto the prescription of the word, — it is ^unto them empty, indecent; they can neither see beauty nor glory in it. This light and experience being lost, the mtroduction of beg-