36 11IEDITATIONS AND DISCOURSES CHAPTER IlI. THE GLORY OF CHRIST IN THE MYSTERIOUS CONSTITUTION OF HIS PERSON. THE second thing wherein we may behold the glob ofChrist given him ofhis Father, is in the mysterious constitution of his person, as he is God and man inone and the same person. There are in him in his one, single, individual person, two distinct natures; the one eternal, infinite, immense, almighty, the form and es- sence of God; the other having a beginning in time, finite, limited, confined unto a certain place, which is our nature, which he took on him when he was made ,Mesh, and dwelt among us. The declaration of the na- ture of this glory, is a part of my DISCOURSE or THE PERSON OF CHRIST, whereunto I refer the reader. My present design is of another nature. This is that glory whose beams are so illustrious, as that the blind world cannot bear the light and beauty of them. Multitudes begin openly to deny this incar- nation ofthe Son of-God, this personal union of God and man in their distinct natures; they deny that there Is either glory or truth in it; and it will ere long ap- pear, it begins already to evidence itself, what greater multitudesthere are, who yet do not, who yet dare not openly reject the doctrine of it, who in truth believe it not, nor see any glory in it. Howbeit, this glory is the glory of our religion, the glory of the church, the sole rock whereon it is built, the only spring ofpresent grace and future glory. This is that glory which the angels themselves desire to behold, the mystery whereof they bow to look into, 1 Pet. i. 12. So was their desire represented by the cherubims in the most holy place of the tabernacle; for they were a shadow of the ministry of angels in the church. The ark and mercy-seat were a type of Christ in the discharge of his office; and these cherubims were made standing over them, asbeing in heaven above; but earnestly looking down upon them in a posture of rev- erence and adoration. So they did of old, and in their present contemplation of it, consists no small part of their eternal blessedness. Hereon depends the ruin of Satan and his kingdom. His sin, so for as we can conceive, consisted of two parts. (I.) His pride against the person of the Son of God, by whom he was created. For by him were all - things creat- ed that.are (or were when first created) in heaven, wheth- er they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers. Col. i. 16. Against him he lifted uphimself; which was the beginning of his transgression. (2.) En- vy against mankind made in the image of God, of the Son of God the first-born. This completed his sin; nothing was now left whereon to act his pride and ma. lice. -Unto his eternal confusion and ruin, God in in- finitewisdom, unites both natures he had sinned against, in the one person of the Son, who seas the first object of his pride and malice. Hereby his destruction is at- tended with everlasting shamein thediscovery ofhisfol- ly, wherein he would have contended with infinite wis- dom, as well as misery, by the powers of the two na- tures united in one person. Here lies the foundation of the church. The founda- tion of the whole old creation was laid in an act of ab- solute sovereign power. Hereby God hanged the earth upon nothing. But the foundation of the church is on this mysterious immoveable rock, thou art Christ, the Son. of the living Gods on the most intimate conjunction of the two natures, the divine and human, in themselves infinitely distant, in the same person. We may name one place wherein it is gloriously re- presented us, lsa. ix. 6. '5 For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder; and his name shall be called Won- " derful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting w Father, the Prince of Peace." Here must thewhole church fall down and worship the author of this won- derful contrivance, and captivating their understandings unto the obedience of faith, humbly adore what they cannot comprehend. . This was obscurely represented unto the church of old, Exod. iii. 2, 6. " And the angel ofthe Lord an- " peered unto him in a flame of fire out ofthe midst of
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