ON THE GLORY OF CHRIST. 39 us in his own blood? So the apostle told the Jew,men make themselves drunk with the blood of his saints, that the same" Jesus, whom they slew and hanged on "a tree, God bad exalted with his right hand tobe " a Saviour, to give repentance unto Israel, and thefer- ,i giveness of sins." Acts v. 3O, 8I. If we have any valuation of his love, if we have any concernment in what he bath done and suffered for the church, we can- not but rejoice in his present state and glory. Let the world rage whilst it pleaseth; let it set itself with all its power and craft against every thing of Christ that is in it; which, whatever is by some otherwise pre- tended, proceeds from an hatred unto his person; let we have this to oppose unto all their attempts, unto our supportment, namely, what he says of himself; " Fear " not, I am the first and the last, he that liveth andwas " dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, and have the keys of hell and death." Rev. i. 17, 18. Blessed Jesus! we can add nothing to thee, nothing to thy glory; but it is a joy of heart unto us, that thou art what thou art; that thou art so gloriously exalted at the right bond of God: and we do long more fully and . clearly to behold that glory, according to thy prayer and promise. CHAPTER VIII. REPRESENTATIONS OF THE GLORY OF CHRIST UNDER THE OLD TESTNNIENT: TT is said of our Lord Jesus Christ, that as beginning s, at Moses, and all the prophets, he declared unto his .e disciples in all the scriptures the things concerning " himself:" Luke- xxiv. 267. It is therefore manifest, that Moses and the prophets, and all the scriptures, do give testimony unto him and his glory. This is the line of life and light, which runs through the whole Old Testament; without the conduct whereof, we can understand nothing aright therein: and the neglect here- of is that which makes many as blind in reading the books of it, as are the Jews, the same veil being upon their minds. It is faith alone, discovering the glory of Christ, that can remove that veil of darkness which cov- ers the minds of men in reading the Old Testament, as the apostle declares, 2 Cor. iii'. 14, 1,5, 16. I shall therefore consider briefly some of those waysand means whereby the glory of Christ, was represented unto be- lievers under the Old Testament:. 1.. It was so in the institution of the beautifulwor- .ship of the law, with all the means- of it. Herein have they the advantage above all the splendid ceremonies that men can invent, in the outward worship of God; they weredesigned -and framed in divine wisdom to re- present the glory of Christ in his person and his office.. This nothing of human invention cando, or once pre- tend unto. Men cannot create mysteries, nor give un- to anything natural in itself, a mystical signification. But so it was intheold divine institutions. What were the tabernacle and the temple? what was the holy place` with the utensils of it?' what was the oracle, the ark, the cherubims, the mercy-seat placed therein? what was the high-priest in all bis vestments and administrations? what were the sacrifices and annual sprinkling, of blood in the most holyy place? what was the whole system -of their religious worship? were they any thing but re presentations- of Christ in the glory of his person and his office? they were a shadow,, and the body represent- ed by that shadow was Christ.- If any would see how the Lord Christ was- in particular foresignified and re- presented in them,-hemay peruse our expositionon the ninth chapter of the epistle unto the Hebrews, where it is handled so at large, as that I shall-not here again in- sist upon- it. The sum. is " Moses was faithful in all " the house of God, for a- testimony of those things - " which were to be spoken afterwards." rieb.- iii. 5. All that Moses did in the erection of the tabernacle, and the institution of all its services, was but to givean antecedent testimony, by way of representation, unto the things of Christ that were afterwards to be revealed. And that also was- the substance of the ministry of the prophets, 1 Pet. i.-11 -; 12:. 66 Searching what or what "manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them " did signify, when-it testified beforehand the sufferings "of Christ, and the glory that should follow. Unto- " whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but at unto us they did minister the things which are now i's ï
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