REPRESENTATIVE Or GOD AND HIS WILL. 29 them, conversed with them, he was the great represen- Christ io cgoa nrwrs xenrrii; for in him that glory is re- Mire of the glory of God unto them. And notwith- presented unto us. standing this particular mistake, they did then " see his This was the testimony which the apostles gave con - glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father," cerning him, when he dwelt among them in the days of John i. 14. And in him was manifested the glory of the his flesh. " They saw his glory, the glory as of the on- Father. He is the image of the invisible God. In ly begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth," him God was, in him he dwelt, in him is he known, John i. 14. The divine glory was manifest in him, and in him is he worshipped according unto his own will, in in him they saw the glory of the Father. So the same bim is there a nearer approach made unto us, by the apostle witnesseth again who recorded this testimony, divine nature, than ever could enter into the heart of 1 John i. 2. " For the life was manifested, and we man to conceive. In the constitution ofhis person, of have seen it, and bear witness, and shew tinto you that two natures, so infinitely distinct and separate in them- eternal life whichwas with the Father, and was manifes- selves, and in the work it was designed unto, the wis- ted unto us." In the Son incarnate that eternal life dom, power, goodness, love, grace, mercy, holiness, which was originally in and with the Father, was mani- and faithfulness of God, are manifested unto us. This fest unto ns. is the one blessed image of the invisible God, wherein It may be said, that the scripture itself is sufficient for we may learn, wherein we may contemplate and adore this end of the declarationof God unto us, so that there all his divine perfections. is no need of any other representation of him ; and. The same truth is testified unto, Heb. i. 3. "God these things serve only to turn the minds of men from spake unto us in the Son, who is the brightness of his learning the mind and will of God therein, to seek for glory, and the express imageof his person." His di- all in the person of Christ. But the true end of pro- vine nature is here included, as that without which he posing these things, is to draw men unto the diligent couldnot have made a perfect representation of God un- study of the scripture, wherein alone they are revealed to us. For the apostle speaks of him, as of him by and declared. And in its proper use, and unto its whom the worlds were made, and who upholdeth all proper end it is perfect and most sufficient. It is things bythe word ofhis power. Yet doth he not speak atyoe ríí ócáí, the word of God; howbeit, it is not of him absolutely as he was God, but also as he, who Aóysc áicahk, the internal essential Word of God, but in himselfpurged our sins, and is sat down at the right xiTos sreofi1 a o, the external word spoken by him. It hand of the Majestyon high, that is, in his whole per- is not therefore, nor can be the image of God, either son. Herein he is inrabyetmint 84p4, the eff'ulgency, the essential or representative, but is the revelation and resplendency of divine glory. That wherein the divine declaration of it unto us, without which we can know glory shines forth, in an evident manifestation of itself nothing of it. unto us. And as a farther explicationof the same my- Christ is the image of the invisible God, the express stery, it is added that he is the character or express image image of the personof the Father. And the principal of the person of the Father. Such an impression of all -end of the whole scripture, especially of tbegospel, is to the glorious properties of God is on him, as that there- declare him so to be, and how he is so. What God by they become legible unto all them that believe. promised by his prophets in the holy scriptures, con- So the same apostle affirms again, that he is the image cerning his Son Jesus Christ, that is fully declared in of God, 2 Cor. iv. 4. In what sense, and unto what the gospel, Rom. i.1-4. Thegospel is the declaration end he declares, ver. 6. " We have the knowledge of of Christ as " the power of God, and the wisdom of the glory of God in the face ofJesus Christ." Still it God," 1 Cor. i. 23, 24.; or an evident representation is supposed, that the glory of God, as essentially in of God in his person and mediation unto us, Gal. iii. him, is invisible unto us, and incomprehensible by us. 1. Wherefore three thingsare herein tobe considered, Yet is there a knowledge of it necessary unto us, that 1. Objectum reale etformale fadei; the real formal ob- we may live unto him, and come unto the enjoyment óf ject of our faith in this matter. This is the person of him. This we obtain only in the face or person of Christ the Son of God incarnate, the representative image 2 I H i1111151,,,'-,;, u
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