1. Whose love it is; namely, of the divine person of the Son of God. He is expressly called God, with respect unto the exercise of this love, that we may always consider whose it is, 1 John iii. 16. Hereby we perceive the love of God, because he laid down his life for us.'

2. By what ways and means this wonderful love of the Son of God doth act itself; namely, in the divine nature, by eternal acts of wisdom, goodness, and grace proper thereunto; and in the human, by temporary acts of pity or compassion, with all the fruits of them in doing and suffering for us. See Eph, iii. 19. Heb. ii. 14, 15. Rev. i. 5.

3. What is the freedom of it as unto any defect on our part; 1 John iv. 10. It was hatred, not love, that we in ourselves deserved, which is a consideration suited to fill the soul with self-abasement, the best of frames in the contemplation of the glory of Christ.

4. What is the efficacy of it in its fruits and effects, with sundry other considerations of the like nature. By a distinct prospect and admiration of these things, the soul may walk in this paradise of God, and gather here and there a heavenly flower, conveying unto it a sweet savour of this love of Christ. See Cant. xi. 2-4.

Moreover, be not contented to have right notions of the love of Christ in your minds, unless you can attain a gracious taste of it in your hearts; no more than you would be to see a feast or banquet richly prepared and partake of nothing of it unto your refreshment. It is of that nature that we may have a spiritual sensation of it in our minds, whence it is compared by the spouse to apples and flagons of wine. We may taste that the Lord is gracious. And if we find not a relish of it in our hearts, we shall not long retain the notion of it in our minds. Christ is the meat, the bread, the food of our souls. Nothing is in him of a higher spiritual nourishment than his love, which we should always desire.

In this love is he glorious; for it is such as no creatures, angels, or men could have the least conceptions of, before its manifestation by its effects: and after its manifestation, it is in this world absolutely incomprehensible.

CHAP. VI.

The glory of Christ in the discharge of his mediatory office. As the Lord Christ was glorious in the susception of his office, so was he also in its discharge. An unseen glory accompanied him in all that he did, in all that he suffered. Unseen it was unto the eyes of the world, but not in his who alone can judge of it. Had men seen it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. Yet to some of them it was made manifest. Hence they testified that in the discharge of his office, they beheld his glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father;' John i. 14. And that when others could see neither form nor comeliness in him that he should be desired;' Psal. liii. 2. And so it is at this day. I shall only make some few observations; first, on what he did in a way of obedience, and then on what he suffered in the discharge of his office so undertaken by him. 1. What he did, what obedience he yielded unto the law of God, in the discharge of his office (with respect whereunto he said, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God; yea, thy law is in my heart'), it was all on his own free choice or election, and was resolved thereinto alone. It is our duty to endeavour after freedom, willingness, and cheerfulness in all our obedience. Obedience hath its formal nature from our wills. So much as there is of our wills, in what we do towards God, so much there is of obedience, and no more. Howbeit we are antecedently unto all acts of our own wills, obliged unto all that is called obedience. From the very constitution of our natures, we are necessarily subject unto the law of God. All that is left unto us, is a voluntary compliance with unavoidable commands; with him it was not so. An act of his own will and choice preceded all obligation as unto obedience. He obeyed because he would, before because he ought. He said, 'Lo I come to do thy will, O God,' before he was obliged to do that will. By his own choice, and that in an act of infinite condescension and love, as we have shewed, he was 'made of a woman,' and thereby made under the law.' In his divine person he

divine nature of Christ, as we have before declared. He veiled the glory of it by the interposition of the flesh, or the assumption of our nature to be his own, with this addition, that therein he took on him the form of a servant,' of a person of mean and low degree. But this temporary eclipse being past and over, it now shines forth in its infinite lustre and beauty, which belongs unto the present exaltation of his person. And when those who beheld him here as a poor, sorrowful, persecuted man, dying on the cross, came to see him in all the infinite uncreated glories of the divine nature, manifesting themselves in his person, it could not but fill their souls with transcendent joy and admiration. And this is one reason of his prayer for them whilst he was on the earth, that they might be where he is to behold his glory. For he knew what ineffable satisfaction it would be unto them for evermore.

3. I do not understand absolutely the glorification of the human nature of Christ; that very soul and body wherein he lived and died, suffered and rose again, though that also be included herein. This also were a subject meet for our contemplation, especially as it is the exemplar of that glory which he will bring all those unto, who believe in him. But because at present we look somewhat farther, I shall observe only one or two things concerning it.

1. That very nature itself which he took on him in this world, is exalted into glory. Some, under a pretence of great subtilty and accuracy, do deny that he hath either flesh or blood in heaven; that is, as to the substance of them however, you may suppose that they are changed, purified, glorified. The great foundation of the church, and all gospel faith is, that he was made flesh, that he did partake of flesh and blood, even as did the children. That he hath forsaken that flesh and blood which he was made in the womb of the blessed Virgin; wherein he lived and died, which he offered unto God in sacrifice, and wherein he rose from the dead, is a Socinian fiction. What is the true nature of the glorification of the humanity of Christ, neither those who thus surmise, nor we can perfectly comprehend. It doth not yet appear what we ourselves shall be, much less is it evident unto us what he is, whom we shall be like. But that he is still in the same human nature, wherein he

was on the earth, that he hath the same rational soul and the same body, is a fundamental article of the Christian faith.

2. This nature of the man Christ Jesus, is filled with all the divine graces and perfections whereof a limited, created nature is capable. It is not deified, it is not made a God; it doth not in heaven coalesce into one nature with the divine by a composition of them; it hath not any essential property of the Deity communicated unto it, so as subjectively to reside in it; it is not made omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent; but it is exalted in a fulness of all divine perfection ineffably above the glory of angels and men. is incomprehensibly nearer God than they all; hath communications from God, in glorious light, love, and power, ineffably above them all. But it is still a creature.

It

For the substance of this glory of the human nature of Christ, believers shall be made partakers of it; for when we see him as he is, we shall be like him: but as unto the degrees and measures of it, his glory is above all that we can be made partakers of. There is one glory of the sun, another of the moon and stars; and one star differeth from another in glory,' as the apostle speaks, 1 Cor. xv. 45. And if there be a difference in glory among the stars themselves as to some degrees of the same glory; how much more is there between the glory of the sun and that of any star whatever? Such is the difference that is, and will be unto eternity, between the human nature of Christ, and what glorified believers do attain unto. But yet this is not that properly wherein the glory of Christ in his exaltation, after his humiliation and death, doth consist. The things that belong unto it may be reduced unto the ensuing heads.

1. It consisteth in the exaltation of the human nature, as subsisting in the divine person above the whole creation of God in power, dignity, authority, and rule, with all things that the wisdom of God hath appointed to render the glory of it illustrious. I have so largely insisted on the explication and confirmation of this part of the present glory of Christ, in the exposition of Heb. i. 2, 3. that I have nothing more to add thereunto.

2. It doth so in the evidence given of the infinite love of God the Father unto him, and his delight in him, with the

eternal approbation of his discharge of the office committed unto him. Hence he is said to sit at the right hand of God,' or at the right hand of the majesty on high.' That the glory and dignity of Christ in his exaltation is singular, the highest that can be given to a creature incomprehensible; that he is with respect unto the discharge of his office, under the eternal approbation of God; that, as so gloriously exalted, he is proclaimed unto the whole creation, are all contained in this expression.

3. Hereunto is added the full manifestation of his own divine wisdom, love, and grace, in the work of mediation and redemption of the church. This glory is absolutely singular and peculiar unto him. Neither angels or men have the least interest in it. Here we see it darkly as in a glass : above, it shines forth in its brightness to the eternal joy of them who behold him.

This is that glory which our Lord Jesus Christ in an especial manner prayed that his disciples might behold. This is that whereof we ought to endeavour a prospect by faith. By faith, I say, and not by imagination. Vain and foolish men having general notions of this glory of Christ, knowing nothing of the real nature of it, have endeavoured to represent it in pictures and images with all that lustre and beauty which the art of painting, with the ornaments of gold and jewels, can give unto them. This is that representation of the present glory of Christ, which being made and proposed unto the imagination and carnal affections of superstitious persons, carrieth such a shew of devotion and veneration in the Papal church. But they err, not knowing the Scripture, nor the eternal glory of the Son of God.

This is the sole foundation of all our meditations herein. The glory that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the real actual possession of in heaven, can be no otherwise seen or apprebended in this world, but in the light of faith, fixing itself on divine revelation. To behold this glory of Christ is not an act of fancy or imagination. It doth not consist in framing unto ourselves the shape of a glorious person in heaven. But the steady exercise of faith on the revelation and description made of this glory of Christ in the Scripture, is the ground, rule, and measure, of all divine meditations thereon.