Owen - Houston-Packer Collection BT300 .O9 1679

7 2 The Perfon of (_brifl the great ~prefentatirve is received thereby is operativeand ejfet1ual unto all the ~nds ofthe Life ofGorl. For we fi.ve by Faith here, as we ·fhall by S~rJ;ht hereafter. Reafon alone efpecially as it is corrupted · and depraved, can difcern no Glory in the Reprefentation of God by Chrifl Yea all that is fpoken thereof or .declared in the Gofpel> is fool~fhnefs unto it. Hence many live in a profeilion of the Faith of the letter of the Go[pel, yet having ti.oLight, Guide nor Condufr, but that .ofReafon, they do not, they cannot really behold i:he Glory of God in the face of Jefus Chrijl ; nor hath the Revelation ofit any Ejlicacy upon their fouls. The manife1ation of him in the Light of Na– ture by the works ofCreation and Providence, is fuited unto their Reafon, and cloth aff:~B:: it: Fo r that which is made in Chrifl:, they fay ofit, as the lfraelites did of Manna that came do~'n from Heaven, what is it? we know not the meaning of 1t. For it is macle unto Faith alone, and all men have not Faith. And where Godfoines · into the heart, by that Faith which is of Dtvine Operation, there, with open face we be- · hold the Glory of God as in agla[s, or have the Knowledge of the Glory ofGod in the face of Jefus Chri:fl:. There is not the meanefl: Belever, but in the real exercife of Faith in Chrifl:, bath more glorious apprehenjiont ofGod, his Wifdom, Goodnefs and Grace, ofall his glorious Excellencies, than the mofl: learned and wife in the world can attain unto; in the exercife ~f R;eafon, on the proper objeB::s of it. So are thefe things o'ppofed by the Apofl:le, I Cor. 1. Wherefore Faith i n Chrijl is the nnly means ofthe true Knowledge of ' God; and the difcoveries which are made of him and · his Exce: lencies th-ereby, are thofe alone which are eJfeftualto conform us unto his Image and Likenefs . . And this is the Reafon why fame men are fo little affeB:ed with the Gofpel, notwithfl:anding the continual Preaching of it unto them, and their outward profeilion of it: It d<:>th not inward[v affefl

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