DISCOURSE IL 577 Il It discovers also the distinct capacities with which he is furnished to fulfil those glorious offices of government and judgment, that the Father has invested him with. While we give a sacred freedom to our meditations on this subject, we may feel ourselves inspired with holy breathings to- ward the upper world, where the person of our great Redeemer dwells at the right-handof God. Such an elevation of thought may awaken in us yet further degrees of humble and sacred cu- riosity to arrive at a better acquaintance with the great " The- anthropos," or God in our nature, whom having not seenwe love, and in whom, though now we see him not, yet believing we re- joice; 1 Pet. i. 8. This should make us long until the time comes, when our doubtful and imperfect guesses at his glory shall vanish ; when we shall view him no longer through the darkness of a glass, but see him as he is, and behold him face to face. Then shall it appear, that eternal life in our possession of it, as well as in our way to it, consists in the knowledge of the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom he has sent, John xvii. 3. Then shall the Son of God himself, and all the saints together, rejoice in the accomplishment of that glorious language of his intercession ; John xvii. 24. Father, I will that they also whom thou hast givenme be with me where 1 am, that they may beholdmy glory which thou hast given me: and this will be a great part of our heaven. Amen. SECT. IV.Testimonies from other Writers. Since I have finished this discourse, I have met with several authors who Were zealous and hearty friends of the doctrine of the deity of Christ, and yet have raised their meditations to a sublime degree concerning the " extensive powers and capaci- ties of his human nature now glorified:" Perhaps it will allure some readers into a more favourable sentiment of this doctrine, when they shall find that it is not a loose-and wild flight of ima- gination, but the settled and sedate judgment of former writers of worth and eminency ; and for this reason I have made the following citations. If we were to consult the writings of ancient fathers, Doe for Whitby* assures us in his Annotations on Philip. ii. 9. that- " they refer this high exaltation of Christ; not to his divine but human nature ; and that the apostle speaks not here of the exal- tation of his divine nature by the manifestation of his concealed glory and power, but of the exaltation of that nature which had suffered, for this is represented in scripture as the reward of his passion ; lieb. ii. 9. Wesee him, saitlz the apostle, who was made R' However Doctor. Whitby in his latter days fell, inpretty.much with Doc- tor SamuelClarke's opinion ; yet when he wrote his annotations, he was zealous against Arianism, and a fervent defender of the proper deity òf Christ, so that hìs'sense on this point cannotbe suspected here. Vox. vi. 0 o
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=