40 " reported unto you by them that have preached the e, gospel unto you, with the Holy Ghost sent down " from heaven; which things the angels desire to look " into." The dark apprehensions of the glory of Christ which by these means they obtained, were the life of the church of old. E. It was represented in the mystical account which is given us of his communion with his church in love and grace. And this is intimated in many places of scripture; so there is one entire book designed unto its declaration. This is the divine Song of Solomon who was a type of Christ, and a penman of the Holy Ghost therein. A gracious record it is of the divine commu- nications of Christ in love and grace unto hischurch, with their returns of love unto him, and delight in him. And thenmay a man judge himself to have somewhat profited in the experience of the mystery of a blessed intercourse and communion with Christ, when the ex- pressions of them in that holy dialogue, do give light and life untohis mind, and efficaciously communicate unto him an experience of their power. But because these things are little understood by many, the book it- self is much neglected, if not despised, Yea to such impudence have some arrived, in foamingout their own shame, as that they have ridiculed the expressions of it; but we are foretold ofsuch mockers in the last days, that should walk after their oven ungodly lusts; they are not of our present consideration. The former instance of the representations of the glo- ry of Christ in their institution of outward worship, with this record of the inward communion they had with Christ in grace, faith, and love, gives us the substance . of that view which they had of his glory. What holy strains of delight and admiration, what raptures ofjoy, what solemn and divine complacency, what ardency of affection, and diligence in attendance unto the meansof enjoying communion with him, this discovery of the glory of Christ wrought in the souls of them that did believe, is emphatically expressed in that discourse. A fewdays, a few hours spent in the frame character- ised in it, is a blessedness excelling all the treasures of the earth; and if we, whose revelations of the same glo- ry do far exceed theirs, should be found to come short of them in ardency of affection unto Christ, and con- tinual holy admiration of his excellencies, we shall one day he judged unworthy to have received them. 3. It was so represented and made known under the MEDITATIONS AND DISCOURSES Old Testament in his personal appearances on various occasions unto several eminent persons, leaders of the church in their generations. This he did as a prcelu- dium to his incarnation. He was as yet God only; but appeared in the assumed shape of a man, to signify what he would be. He did not create an human nature, and unite it unto himself for such a season; only by his di- vine power he acted the shape of a man, composed of what etherial substance he pleased, immediately to be dissolved. So he appeared to Abraham, to Jacob, to- Moses, to Joshua, and others, as I have at large elsewhere proved and confirmed. And hereon also, because he was the divine person who dwelt in, and dealt with the church under the Old Testament from first to last, in so doing, he constantly assumes unto himself human affections, to intimate that a season would come, when he would immediately act in that nature. And indeed after the fall, there is nothing spoken of God in the Old Testament, nothing of its institutions, nothing of the way and manner of dealing with the church but what bath respect unto the future incarnation of Christ. And it had been absurd to bring in God under a perpetual anthropapathia as grieving, repenting, being angry, well pleased, and the like, were it not but that the di- vine person intended was to take on him the nature wherein such affections do dwell. 4. It was represented in prophetical visions. So the apostle affirms that the vision which Isaiah had of him was, when he saw his glory. John xii. 41. And it was a blessed representation thereof: for his divine person being exalted on a throne of glory, his train filled the temple. The whole train of hisglorious grace filled the temple of his body. This is the true tabernacle which God pitched, and not man: the temple which was de- stroyed, and whichhe raised again in three days, where- in dwelt the fulness ofthe Godhead. Col. i. 19. This glory was now,presented unto the view of Isaiah, chap. vi. 1, 5. which filled him with dread and astonishment. But from whence he was relieved, by an act of the ministry of that glorious one, taking away his iniquity by a coal from the altar, which typified the purifying efficacy of his sacrifice. This was food for the souls of believers; in these, and on the like occasions, did the whole church lift uptheir voice in that holy cry, " Make m, haste, our beloved, and be thou like a roe, or a u young hart on the mountains of spices." 11/4'' ,+ ¡:
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