when he was 'made flesh and dwelt among us.' The declaration of the nature of this glory, is a part of my discourse of the person of Christ, whereunto I refer the reader: my present design is of another nature.

This is that glory whose beams are so illustrious, as that the blind world cannot bear the light and beauty of them. Multitudes begin openly to deny this incarnation of the Son of God, this personal union of God and man in their distinct natures. They deny that there is either glory or truth in it; and it will ere long appear, it begins already to evidence itself what greater multitudes there are, who yet do not, who yet dare not, openly reject the doctrine of it, who in truth believe it not, nor see any glory in it. Howbeit this glory is the glory of our religion, the glory of the church, the sole rock whereon it is built, the only spring of present grace, and future glory.

This is that glory which the angels themselves desire to behold, the mystery whereof they bow down to look into ;' 1 Pet. i. 12. So was their desire represented by the cherubims in the most holy place of the tabernacle; for they were a shadow of the ministry of angels-in the church. The ark and the mercy-seat were a type of Christ in the discharge of his office; and these cherubims were made standing over them, as being in heaven above; but earnestly looking down upon them in a posture of reverence and adoration. So they did of old, and in their present contemplation of it consists no small part of their eternal blessedness.

Hereon depends the ruin of Satan and his kingdom. His sin, so far as we can conceive, consisted of two parts: 1. His pride against the person of the Son of God, by whom he was created. For by him were all things created that are' (or were when first created) 'in heaven, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers;' Col. i. 16. Against him he lifted up himself, which was the beginning of his transgression. 2. Envy against mankind made in the image of God, of the Son of God the first-born. This completed his sin; nothing was now left whereon to act his his pride and malice. Unto his eternal confusion and ruin, God in infinite wisdom unites both the natures he had sinned against, in the one person of the Son, who was the first object of his pride and malice. Hereby his destruction is

attended with everlasting shame in the discovery of his folly, wherein he would have contended with infinite wisdom, as well as misery, by the powers of the two natures united in one person.

Here lies the foundation of the church. The foundation of the whole old creation was laid in an act of absolute sovereign power. Hereby God 'hanged the earth upon nothing.' But the foundation of the church is on this mysterious immoveable rock; thou art Christ the Son of the living God;' on the most intimate conjunction of the two natures, the divine and human, in themselves infinitely distant in the same person.

We may name one place wherein it is gloriously represented unto us; Isa. ix. 6. 'For unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given, and the government shall be on his shoulders; and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.' Here must the whole church fall down and worship the author of this wonderful contrivance, and captivating their understandings unto the obedience of faith, humbly adore what they cannot comprehend.

This was obscurely represented unto the church of old; Exod. iii. 2-6. And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy whereon thou standest is holy ground.

feet; for the place Moreover he said,

I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham,' &c.

This fire was a type or declaration of the presence of God in the person of the Son. For with respect unto the Father he is called an angel, the angel of the covenant; but absolutely in himself, he was Jehovah, the God of Abraham,' &c. And of his presence the fire was a proper representation. For in his nature, he is as a 'consuming fire;' and his present work was the delivery of the church out of a fiery trial. This fire placed itself in a bush, where

it burned, but the bush was not consumed. And although the continuance of the fire in the bush, was but for a short season, a present appearance; yet thence was God said to dwell in the bush; The good will of him that dwelt in the bush ;' Deut. xxxiii. 16. And this is so spoken, because the being of the fire in the bush for a season, was a type of him in whom the fulness of the Godhead dwelt bodily,' and that for ever; Col. ii. 9. Of him who was made flesh and dwelt among us ;' John i. 14. The eternal fire of the divine nature, dwells in the bush of our frail nature, yet is not consumed thereby. God thus dwells in this bush, with all his good will towards sinners.

Moses looked on this sight as a marvellous and wonderous thing. And if it were so in the type, what is it in the truth, substance, and reality of it?

And by direction given unto him, to 'put off his shoes,' we are taught to cast away all fleshly imaginations and carnal affections, that by pure acts of faith, we may behold this glory, the glory of the only-begotten of the Father.

I design not here to insist on the explication, or confirmation of this glorious truth, concerning the constitution of the person of Christ, in and by his incarnation. What I can comprehend, what I do believe concerning it, I have fully declared in a large peculiar treatise. Here I take the truth itself as known, or as it may be thence learned. My present business is only to stir up the minds of believers unto a due contemplation of the glory of Christ in the sacred, mysterious constitution of his person, as God and man So much as we abide herein, so much do we live by the faith of the Son of God;' and God can by a spirit of wisdom and revelation, open the eyes of our understandings, that we may behold this glory unto our ineffable consolation and joy. And unto the diligent discharge of our duty herein, I shall offer the ensuing directions.

in one.

1. Let us get it fixed on our souls and in our minds, that this glory of Christ in the divine constitution of his person, is the best, the most noble, useful, beneficial object, that we can be conversant about in our thoughts, or cleave unto in our affections.

What are all other things in comparison of the 'knowledge of Christ?' In the judgment of the great apostle, they

are but 'loss and dung;' Phil. iii. 8-10. So they were to him, and if they are not so to us, we are carnal.

What is the world, and what are the things thereof, which most men spend their thoughts about, and fix their affections on? The psalmist gives his judgment about them, in comparison of a view of this glory of Christ, Psal. iv. 6. 'Many say, Who will shew us any good?' Who will give and help us to attain so much in and of this world, as will give rest and satisfaction unto our minds? That is the good inquired after. But, saith he, 'Lord, lift up the light of thy countenance upon us.' The light of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus, is that satisfactory good alone, which I desire and seek after.

The Scripture reproacheth the vanity and folly of the minds of men, in that they spend their money for that which is not bread, and their labour for that which profiteth not.' They engage the vigour of their spirits about perishing things, when they have durable substance and riches proposed unto them.

How do men for the most part exercise their minds? What are they conversant about in their thoughts?

Some by them 'make provision for the flesh, to fulfil it in the lusts thereof,' as Rom. xiii. 14. They search about continually in their thoughts for objects suited unto their lusts and carnal affections, coining, framing, and stamping of them in their imaginations. They fix their eyes with delight on toads and serpents, with all noisome filthy objects; refusing in the mean time, to behold the beauty and glory of the light of the sun. So is it with all that spend their thoughts about the objects of their sinful pleasures, refusing to look up after one view of this glory of Christ.

Some keep their thoughts in continual exercise about the things of this world, as unto the advantages and emoluments which they expect from them. Hereby are they transformed into the image of the world, becoming earthly, carnal, and vain. Is it because there is no God in Israel that these applications are made unto the idol of Ekron?' That there is no glory, no desirableness in Christ for men to inquire after, and fix their minds upon? O the blindness, the darkness, the folly of poor sinners! Whom do they despise, and for what?

Some of more refined parts and notional minds, do arise unto a sedulous meditation on the works of creation and providence. Hence many excellent discourses on that subject adorned with eloquence, are published among us. And a work this is worthy of our nature, and suited unto our rational capacities; yea, the first end of our natural endowment with them. But in all these things there is no glory in comparison of what is proposed unto us in the mysterious constitution of the person of Christ. The sun hath no glory, the moon and stars no beauty, the order and influence of the heavenly bodies have no excellency in comparison of it.

This is that which the psalmist designs to declare, Psal. viii. 'O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens. When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast ordained; what is man that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou hast made him to have dominion over the work of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet.'

He is engaged in a contemplation of the glory of God in his works; and he concludes that the fabric of heaven, with the moon and stars, the rain (for it was his meditation by night, when he beheld them) was exceeding glorious, and greatly to be admired. This casts his thoughts on the poor, weak, infirm nature of man, which seems as nothing in comparison of those glories above: but immediately hereon falls into an admiration of the wisdom, goodness, and love of God, exalting that nature incomparably above all the works of creation in the person of Jesus Christ, as the apostle expounds this place, Heb. ii. 5, 6.

This therefore is the highest, the best, the most useful object of our thoughts and affections. He who hath had a real view of this glory, though he know himself to be a poor, sinful, dying worm of the earth, yet would he not be an angel in heaven, if thereby he should lose the sight of it; for this is the centre wherein all the lines of the manifestation of the divine glory do meet and rest.

Look unto the things of this world, wives, children, pos