78 MEDITATIONS AND DISCOURSES And it is the wisdom of faith to gather into ;;;;;thosebelike him, because we shall see him." i Sohn ii`. 2 parcelled descriptions that are given of him, that they may be the object of its view and contemplation. In the vision which we shall have above, the whole glory of Christ will be at once and always represented unto us; and we shall be enabled in one act of the light ofglory to comprehend it. Here indeed we are at a loss; our minds and understandings fail us in their con- templations. It will not yet enter into our hearts to conceive what is the beauty, what is the glory of this complete representation of Christ unto us. To have at once all the glory of what he is, what he was in his out- ward state and condition, what he did and suffered, what he is exalted unto, his love and condescension, his mys- tical union with the church, and the communication of himself unto it, with the recapitulation of all things in him; and the gloryof God, even the Father, in his wis- dom, righteousness, grace, love, goodness, power, shin- ing forth eternally in him, in what he is, hath done, and Both, all presented unto us in one view, all comprehended by us at once, is that which at present we cannot con- ceive. We can long after it, apant after it, and have some foretastes of it; namely, of that state and season, where- in our whole souls, in all their powers and faculties, shall constantly, inseparably, eternally cleave by love unto whole Christ in the sight of the glory ofhis person and grace, until they are watered, dissolved, and inebriated in the waters of life, and the rivers of pleasure that are above for evermore. So must we speak of the things which we admire, which we adore, which we love, which we long for, which wehave some foretastes of in sweetness ineffable, which yet we cannot comprehend. These are some few of those things whence ariseth the difference between that view which we have here of the glory of Christ, and that which is reserved for hea- ven; namely, such as are taken from between the means or instruments of the one and the other, faith and sight. In the last place, the great difference between them consists in, and is manifested by their effects. Hereof I shall give some few instances, and close this discourse. First. The vision which we shall have of the glory of Christ in heaven, and of the glory of the immense God in him is perfectly and absolutely transforming. It loth change us wholly into the image of Christ. a, When we shall see him, we shall be as he is: we shall But although the closing, perfecting act of this trans. formation be an act ofsight, or the sight of glory; yet there are many thingstowards it, or degrees in it, which . we may here take notice of in our way. 1. The soul upon its departure from the body, is im- mediately freed from all the weakness, disability, dark- ness, uncertainties, and fears, which were impressed on it from the flesh; wherewithit was in the strictestunion. The image of the first Adam as fallen, is then abolished. Yea, it is not onlyfreed from all irregular sinful distem- pers cleaving to our nature as corrupted, but from all those sinless grievances and infirmities which belongun- to the original constitution of it. This necessarily en- sues on the dissolution of the person, in order unto a blessed state. The first entrance by mortality into im- mortality, is a step towards glory. The ease which a blessed soul finds in a deliverance from this incumbrance, is a door of entrance into eternal rest. Such a change is made in that, which in itself is the centre of all evil, namely, death, that it is made a means offreeing us from all the remainders of what is evil. For this Both not follow absolutely on the nature of the thing itself. A mere dissolution of our natures can bring no advantage with it, especially as it is a part of the curse. But it is from the sanctification of it by the death of Christ. Hereby that which was God's ordi- nance for the infliction ofjudgment, becomes an effec- tual means for the communicationof mercy. 1 Cor. xv. 54. It is by virtue of the death of Christ alone, that the souls ofbelievers are freed by deathsfrom all impres- sions of sin, infirmity, and evils, which they have had from the flesh, which were their burden, under which they groaned all their days. No man knows in any mea- sure the excellency of this privilege, and the dawnings of glory which are in it, who bath not been wearied, and even worn out, through long conflicting with the body of death. The soul hereon being freed from all annoy- ances, all impressions from the flesh is expedite and en- larged unto the exercise of all its gracious faculties as we shall see immediately. With wicked men it is not so. Death unto them is a curse; and the curse is the means of the conveyance of all evil, and not deliverance from any. Wherein they have been warmed and refreshed by the influences of the flesh, they shall be deprived of it. But their souls
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