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representation that is made of the nature and will of God in the person and office of Christ; if this fail us, we are lost forever; if this rock stand firm, the church is safe here, and shall be triumphant hereafter.

Herein then is the Lord Christ exceedingly glorious. Those who cannot behold this glory of his by faith, namely, as he is the great divine ordinance to represent God unto us, they know him not. In their worship of him, they worship but an image of their own devising.

Yea, in the ignorance and neglect hereof, consists the formal nature of unbelief, even that which is inevitably ruinous unto the souls of men. He that discerns not the representation of the glory of God in the person of Christ unto the souls of men, is an unbeliever. Such was the state of the unbelieving Jews and Gentiles of old; they did not, they would not, they could not behold the glory of God in him, nor how he did represent him. That this was both the cause, and the formal nature of their unbelief, the Apostle declares at large, 1 Cor. i. 21 For after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe; ver. 22. For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks, seek after wisdom; ver. 23. But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling-block, and unto the Greeks foolishness; ver. 24. But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. ver. 25. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.' Not to see the wisdom of God, and the power of God, and consequently all the other holy properties of his nature in Christ, is to be an unbeliever.

The essence of faith consists in a due ascription of glory to God, Rom. iv. 20. This we cannot attain unto, without the manifestation of those divine excellencies unto us, wherein he is glorious. This is done in Christ alone, so as that we may glorify God in a saving and acceptable manner. He who discerns not the glory of divine wisdom, power, goodness, love, and grace, in the person and office of Christ, with the way of the salvation of sinners by him, is an unbeliever.

Hence the great design of the devil in the beginning of the preaching of the gospel, was to blind the eyes of men, and fill their minds with prejudices, that they might not behold this glory of his; so the Apostle gives an account of his success in this design, 2 Cor. iv. 3, 4. If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.' By various ways and methods of deceit, to secure the reputation he had got, of being god of this world, by pretences and appearances of supernatural power and wisdom, he laboured to blind the eyes of men with prejudices against that glorious light of the gospel, which proposed the Lord Christ as the only image of God. This blindness, this darkness, is cured in them that believe, by the mighty power of God; for 'God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath irradiated our hearts with the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ,' 2 Cor. iv. 6. wherein true saving faith doth consist. Under this darkness perished the unbelieving world of Jews and Gentiles; and such is the present condition of all by whom the divine Person of Christ is denied; for no mere creature can ever make a perfect representation of God unto us. But we must a little further inquire into this mystery.

Since men fell from God by sin, it is no small part of their misery and punishment, that they are covered with thick darkness and ignorance of the nature of God. They know him. not, they have not seen him at any time. promise to the church in Christ, Isa. lx. 2. darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people; but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.'

Hence is that For behold, the

The ancient philosophers made great inquiries into, and obtained many notions of the divine Being, its existence and excellencies. And these notions they adorned with great elegancy of speech, to allure others unto the admiration of them. Hereon they boasted themselves to be the only wise men in the world, Rom. i. 22. they boasted that they were the wise. But

we must abide in the judgment of the Apostles concerning them in their inquiries; he assures us, that the world in its wisdom, that is, these wise men in it, by their wisdom knew not God, 1 Cor. i. 21. And he calls the authors of their best notions, Atheists, or men without God in the world, Eph. ii. 11. For,

1. They had no certain guide, rule, nor light, which being attended unto, might lead them infallibly into the knowledge of the divine nature. All they had of this kind was their own reasonings or imaginations, whereby they commenced the great disputers of the world; but in them they waxed vain, and their foolish heart was darkened, Rom. i. 21. They did at best but endeavour to feel after God, as men do in the dark, after what they cannot clearly discern, Acts xvii. 27. Among others, Cicero's book de natura deorum, gives us an exact account of the intention of the Apostle in that expression. And it is at this day not want of wit, but hatred of the mysteries of our religion, which makes so many prone to forego all supernatural religion, and to betake themselves unto a religion declared, as they suppose, by reason and the light of nature; like bats and owls, who being not able to bear the light of the sun, betake themselves unto the twilight, to the dawnings of light and darkness.

2. Whatever they did attain, as unto rational notions about things invisible and incomprehensible, yet could they never deliver themselves from such principles and practices in idolatry, and all manner of flagitious sins, as that they could be of any benefit unto them. This is so effectually demonstrated by the Apostle, in the first chapter of the epistle to the Romans, as that we need not to insist upon it. Men may talk what they please of a light within them, or of the power of reason to conduct them unto that knowledge of God, whereby they may live unto him; but if they had nothing else, if they did not boast themselves of that light which hath its foundation and original in divine revelation alone, they would not excel them, who in the best management of their own reasonings, knew not God, but waxed vain in their imaginations.

With respect unto this universal darkness, that is ignorance of God, with horrid confusion accompanying it in the minds of men, Christ is called, and is the light of men, the light of the

world, because in and by him alone this darkness is dispelled, as he is the Sun of righteousness.

3. This darkness in the minds of men, this ignorance of God, his nature and his will, was the original of all evil unto the world, and yet continues so to be. For,

(1.) Hereon did Satan erect his kingdom and throne, obtaining in his design until he bare himself as the god of this world, and was so esteemed by the most. He exalted himself by virtue of this darkness (as he is the prince of darkness), into the place and room of God, as the object of the religious worship of men. For the things which the 'Gentiles sacrificed, they sacrificed unto devils, and not to God,' I Cor. x. 21. Lev. xvii. 7. This is the territory of Satan; yea, the power and sceptre of his kingdom in the minds of the children of disobedience. Hereby he maintains his dominion unto this day in many and great nations, and with individual persons innumerable.

(2.) This is the spring of all wickedness and confusion among men themselves. Hence arose that flood of abominations in the old world, which God took away with a flood of desolation; hence were the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah, which he revenged with fire from heaven. In brief; all the rage, blood, confusion, desolations, cruelties, oppressions, villanies, which the world hath been, and is filled withal, whereby the souls of men have been, and are flooded into eternal destruction, have all arisen from this corrupt fountain of the ignorance of God.

(3.) Of such as those described, we are the posterity and offspring. Our fore-fathers in this nation, were given up unto as brutish a service of the devil, as any nation under the sun. It is therefore an effect of infinite mercy, that the day hath dawned on us, poor Gentiles, and that the day-spring from on high hath visited us. The glory of this grace is expressed, Eph. iii. 5. Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; ver 6. That the Gentiles should be follow-heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ, by the gospel; ver. 7. Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me, by the effectual working of his power. ver. 8. Unto me who am

less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; ver. 9. And to make all men see, what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ; ver. 10. To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places, might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God.' God might have left us to perish in the blindness and ignorance of our forefathers; but of his own accord, and by his own powerful grace alone, he hath translated us out of darkness into his marvellous light. But alas! the horrible ingratitude of men, for the glorious light of the gospel, and the abuse of it, will issue in a sore revenge.

God was known under the Old Testament, by the revelation of his word, and the institution of his worship. This was the glory and privilege of Israel, as the Psalmist declares, Psal. cxlvii. 19, 20. He sheweth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel; he hath not dealt so with any nation.' The church then knew him, yet so as that they had an apprehension that he dwelt in thick darkness, where they could not have any clear views of him, Exod. xx. 21. Deut. v. 22. 1 Kings viii. 12. 2 Chron. vi. 1. And the reason why God so represented himself in darkness unto them, was to instruct them in their imperfect state, wherein they could not comprehend that glory which should afterwards be revealed. For as he is now made known in Christ, we see that he is light, and in him there is no darkness at all.

4. Hitherto darkness in general covered the earth, and gross darkness the people, as unto the knowledge of God; only there was a twilight in the church. The day did not yet dawn, the shadows did not flee away, nor the Day Star shine in the hearts of men. But when the Sun of righteousness did arise in his strength and beauty, when the Son of God appeared in the flesh, and in the discharge of his office; God himself, as unto his being, and manner of existence in three distinct persons, with all the glorious properties of the divine nature, were illustriously manifested unto them that did believe, and the light of the knowledge of them dispelled all the shadows that were in the

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