32 THE PERSON OF CHRIST THE GRÈAT sential image ofthe Father inhis own divine person, he all immersed, as the apostle declares, Rom. i. it rescu- could not be the representative image of God unto us, as he is incarnate. For if he were a man only, how- ever miraculously produced, and gloriously exalted, yet the angels above, the glorious heavens, the seat and throneof God, with other effects of creating power and wisdom; would no less represent his glory thanit could be done in him. Yet they are no wherejointly nor se- parately styled the image of the invisible God ; the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person ; nor doth God shine into our hearts to give us the knowledge of his glory in ,the face of them. And it argues the woeful enmity ofthecarnal mind against God, and all the effects of his wisdom, that whereas he hath granted us such a glorious image and representation of himself, we like it not, we delight not in the contempla- tion of it, but either despise it, or neglect it, and please ourselves in that which is incomparably beneath it. 4. Because God is not thus known, it is that the knowledge of him is so barren'and fruitless in. the world, as it manifests itself to be. It were easy to produce, yea, endless to number the testimonies that might be produced out of Heathen writers, given unto the being and existence of God, his authority, mónarclT and rsde: yet what were the effects of that knowledge which they liad? Besides that wretched idolatry wherein they were ed them from no kind of wickedness and villany, as be there also manifests. And the virtues which were found among them, were evidently derived from other causes, and not from the knowledge they had of God. The Jews have the knowledge of God by the letter of the Old Testament. But yet not knowing him in Christ,.. and having lost all sense and apprehension of those re- presentations which were made of his being in him in the law, they continue universally a people carnal,ob- stinatef and wicked. They haveneither the virtues'ol the heathens among them, nor thepower of the truth, . of religion. As it was with them of old, so it yet con- tinueth to be; " they profess that they know God,. but in works they deny him, being abominable and disobe- dient, and to every good work reprobate," Tit. i. 16. So is it among many that are called Christians at this day in the world. Great pretence there is unto the know- ledge of God.; yet did flagitious sins and wickedness scarce ever more abound among the heathens. them- selves. It is the knowledge of God in Christ alone that is effectually powerful to work the souls of menun- to a conformity unto him. Those alone who behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, are chang- ed into the same image, from glory to glory. CHAP..VI. THE PERSON OF CHRIST THE GREAT REPOSITORY, OF SACRED TRUTH. ITS RELATION THEREUNTO. DIVINE supernatural truth is- called by the apostle, the "truth which is according to godliness," Tit. i. 1. Whereas therefore the person of Christ is the great mystery ofgodliness, we must in the next place inquire what is the relation of spiritual supernatural truth thereunto. And this shall I do in pursuit of what was proposed in the foregoing chapter, namely, that he is the great representative unto the church, of God, his holy properties, and the counsels of his will. All divine truth may be referred unto two heads. First, that which is essentially so, and secondly that which is, so declaratively. The first is God himself, the other arethe counsels of his will. 1. God himself is the first andonly essential truth, in whosebeing and nature the springs of all truth do lie. Whatever is truth, so for as it isso, derives from him; is an emanation from that eternal fountain of it. Be- ing, truth, and goodness, are the principal notions of God, and in him they are all the same. How this is represented in Christ, as he is in himself the es- sential image of the Father, and as incarnate the re- presentative image of him unto us, hath been declar- ed. 2. The counsels ofGod are the next spring andcause, as also the subject- matter or substance of alltruth, that is, so declaratively. " Divine truth is the declaration of
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