with his likeness, that they cannot look upon another object. It is faid, Ifa. xxiv. 23. "The moon fhall be confounded, and the fun afhamed, when the Lord of hofts fhall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerufalem, and before his antients gloriously." O but precious Christ must have a fair face, when the fun blufhes and is ashamed to shine before him! Though a child of God were in a hell of mifery and trouble all his life-time in this world, yet the firft blink of this fair IMMANUEL in heaven would make amends for all. We may preach this wonderful Lord while we live, but we will never out-preach him; we may praise him to eternity, but fhall never out-praife him: "Bleffed are they that dwell in his house, they will be ftill praising him; yea, they will be like him, for they will fee him as he is."

8. Do they that fee Chrift, fee the Father? Hence learn the grand difference betwixt the wicked and the godly; they differ like darkness and light, blindnefs and fight fometimes they wonder at one-another, as if they were monfters. The godly man wonders at the wicked, to fee their carnal life and wicked temper.Oh! how can they laugh and be merry, when they are ready to drop into hell! The wicked alfo wonder at the faints, and that they run not with them into the fame excess of riot: why, the one lives upon base, visible, earthly things, the other upon invifible glory, as feeing him who is invifible. Give a carnal man the world at his will, he cares not though God's face be hid; he is in his element, as the fifh in the water; his language is, "Who will fhew us any good;" a good bargain, and a flourishing trade? But the faint is of another temper; the language of his heart is, "Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us," Pfal. iv. 6. Give him all the world, he cares not a ftraw for it, if God hide his face. This makes the difference alfo betwixt a faint and himself; to-day he is full of joy, though he hath but a bare houfe, and bare cloaths, and a bare prospect of earthly enjoyments; yea, and be fadly haraffed with trouble and reproaches; yet he fings, and rejoices and triumphs. At another time he is full of heavinefs, even though it fhould be better with him in

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his outward worldly circumftances, he goes fighing and forrowing: Why? The reafon is, One day the Lord fhines, and then he is full of joy; another day the Lord hides his face, and then he is troubled: his heaven lies in feeing Chrift's glory, in which he fees the Father's glory alfo.

9. Do they that fee Chrift, fee the Father? Hence learn, what an honour it is to be conformed to the Son of God, as it is faid, Rom. viii. 29. "Whom he did foreknow, them he did predeftinate to be conform to the image of his Son." Is it the honour of Chrift, as Mediator, to be the reprefentative image of God, in whom the glory of God is to be feen? What an honour then is it for the faints to be conformed to the image of Christ? As Chrift is in the form of God, fo they are in the form of Chrift, having Chrift formed in them, Gal. iv. 19. And being renewed after his image, as the more we fee Chrift, the more we fee God; fo the more of Christ we fee about a man, the more of God we fee in him: This is the honour of all the faints, according to the measure of their fanctity.

10. Do they that fee Chrift, fee the Father? Hence learn, what a dangerous thing it is to flight Chrift, and contemn him, who is the brightnefs of the Father's glory, and the exprefs image of his perfon. If any defpife the picture, it is an argument of their defpifing the perfon represented by it: " They that despise Christ, despise the Father." And many defpife Chrift, that do not confider that they are doing fo; particularly when they defpife his fent ambaffadors: "He that defpifes you," fays Chrift,

defpifes me: He that defpifes me, defpifes him that fent me." See John xv. 23, 24. Why, who would be fo mad, fay you, as to flight Chrift? Even all you that flight his counfels, calls, and warnings given you by his word; that flight his people; and flight his ordinances; that flight his worship, such as prayer and praises, whether fecret or focial, private or public, wherein Christ is honoured and enjoyed. In flighting thefe, you flight Chrift himself; and in fo doing you despise the Father: for, you defpife his reprefentative image; and I will affure you, God will retaliate this treatment, and pay you

home

home in your own coin: "O Lord, when thou awakefl, thou fhalt defpife their image," Pfal. lxxiii. 20.

II. Do they that fee Chrift, fee the Father? Hence learn, the awfulnefs of the day of judgment that is approaching. Though Chrift is confiitute to be the judge, Acts xvii. 31.; yet the Father will judge the world' in him, and by him; "For God is judge himself," Pfal. 1. 6. Then will Chrift be feen upon the throne of judgment; "Behold, he cometh with clouds, and every eye fhall fee him," Rev. i. 7.; and when they fee him, they will fee the Father in him; they will fee. God in him. It is true, he will not then be God's reprefentative, in the capacity of a Saviour to finners, as now he is, but as a righteous Judge of finners and faints. A fight of God in Chrift will not then be a pleasant fight to the wicked; for, he will appear to them, not as a Redeemer, but a revenger for, "He will appear in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and obey not the gofpel :" But to believers, who look for him, and to whom he hath appeared graciously, fo as they have now feen him, and the Father in him, and who will then be all perfect faints, he will appear glorioufly, the fecond time, without fin, to their complete falvation, Heb. ix. 28. How dreadfully awful will that day be to the wicked that fhall fee him, and fee God in him no other way but as a confuming fire! How joyfully awful alfo will it be to the faints, who fhalt fee him then, and fee the Father in him, as their everlafting joy, and exceeding great reward?

12. Do they that fee Chrift, fee the Fatlier? Hence alfo learn the great reafon and foundation of many other truths; fuch as,

(1.) Why is it that a fight of Chrift hath fuch virtue, and creates fuch bleffed effects, as we fee in fcripture fpoken of it? Even becaufe they who fee him, fee the Father.-Why is the fight of Chrift fo aftonishing? Because then the wifdom of God in a myflery appears. Why is the fight of Christ so humbling? Why, because then God is feen in his majefty and mercy both.Why is it fuch a ftrengthening thing, even because then the power of God is difcovered.-Why is a fight

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of Chrift fo fatisfying? Becaufe then the grace of God appears. The fight is quieting to the confcience, for then the righteousness of God, in the remiffion of fin, is declared and manifefted, Rom. iii. 25.-The fight is fweetly filling and fatiating, for then the all-fufficiency of God is difcovered.-Why is a fight of Christ fo heart-chearing, that the believer can never get his heart up, when preft with guilt, till he get a fight of Chrift, and then he gets ease to his mind, and not till then? Why, because when he fees Chrift, he fees the Father; and he finds God is in him reconciled and well-pleased. In a word, why is a fight of Chrift fo fanctifying and transforming, that as they that fee him perfectly in heaven are like him? Because they fee him as he is, 1 John iii. 2. So they that even fee him through a glafs darkly, are more and more like him, and changed into the fame image, from glory to glory, 2 Cor. iii. 18.— Well then, they fee the glory of a holy God in him, and the fight affects the heart, both with a sense of their difconformity to him, and with a strong defire of conformity to him; yea, the Spirit darting in the rays of the Sun of righteoufnefs difpels the darkness of fin, and inforces the contrary light of holinefs upon the whole man gradually and powerfully, according to the measure of the manifeftation and communication.

(2.) Why is it that fuch honour, worship, and adoration is due to Chrift? Even because he is the Father's representative image as man, even as he is his effential image as God. It is grofs idolatry to worship God out of this image, or by any other image, either mental or real. Ah! fhall the devil make men worship the image of the beaft? Rev. xiii. 1,-8.; and shall not we for ever honour this ever-living, everlasting image of our God? Why is it that what honour is done to Christ, is done to the Father, and what difhonour is done to him, is done to the Father? John v. 23. Because the Father hath ordered, "That all men fhould honour the Son, even as they honour the Father:" And declares, "He that honours not the Son, honours not the Father." Why? Even as they that fee not Chrift, fee not the Father; and they that know not Chrift, know not

the

the Father; fo they that do not honour Christ, do not honour the Father. They that disobey Christ, disobey the Father; they that difplease Chrift, difplease the Father; they that believe in Chrift, believe in the Father; therefore, fays Chrift, here in the context, "Ye believe in God, believe alfo in me:" which intimates this, among other things, that though one may believe in God, in fome refpect, without believing in Christ, yet we cannot believe in Chrift, without believing in God; for, "By him we believe in God," 1 Pet. i. 21. Again,

(3.) Why is it that the Father honours them that serve and follow Chrift? John xii. 26. "If any man ferve me, him will my Father honour."-Why, they that ferve Chrift, ferve the Father. Why does the Father love them that love Chrift? John xiv. 23. Why, the lovers of Christ are the lovers of God; and they are but haters of the Father, that are not lovers of the Son.

(4.) Why is the anointing faid to teach all things? 1 John ii. 27. Why, when the Spirit makes known Christ, he makes known the Father; and furely they *know all things neceffary to be known; they know all, who know him, who is all in all. Thus the meanest believer knows more than the wifeft philofopher that ever was in the world, if he was ignorant of Chrift.

(5.) Why is it that the Father is employed in glorifying Chrift in heaven, and the Spirit fent to glorify Christ on earth? See how the Father glorifies him in heaven, Phil. ii. 9, 10. "He became obedient unto death, even the death of the crofs: wherefore God hath highly exalted him, and given him a name that is above every name." What is the reafon? fee it ver. 11. "It is to the glory of God the Father:" for when the Son of man is glorified, God is glorified in him, John xiii. 31.--See alfo how the Spirit is fent to glorify him on earth, John xvi. 14. Why fo? even becaufe when he is glorified, the Father is glorified in him, ver. 15. "All things that the Father hath are mine." O Sirs, if the Spirit hath been fent to glorify Chrift among us to-day, then the Father hath been glorified in the Son.

(6.) Why