of it, though it be but a little, a very little, a small portion of it that I can conceive; and less than that very little, that I can express. Yet may it be my duty to excite not only myself, but others also unto due inquiries after it; unto which end I offer the things ensuing.

1. Labour that your minds may continually be fitted and prepared for such heavenly contemplations. If they are carnal and sensual, or filled with earthly things, a due sense of this love of Christ and its glory, will not abide in them. Virtue and vice in their highest degrees, are not more diametrically opposite and inconsistent in the same mind, than are an habitual course of sensual worldly thoughts, and a due contemplation of the glory of the love of Christ; yea, an earnestness of spirit, pregnant with a multitude of thoughts about the lawful occasions of life, is obstructive of all due communion with the Lord Jesus Christ herein.

Few there are whose minds are prepared in a due manner for this duty. The actions and communications of the most, evidence what is the inward frame of their souls. They rove up and down in their thoughts, which are continually led by their affections into the corners of the earth. It is in vain to call such persons unto contemplations of the glory of Christ in his love. An holy composure of mind by virtue of spiritual principles, an inclination to seek after refreshment in heavenly things, and to bathe the soul in the fountain of them, with constant apprehensions of the excellency of this divine glory, are required hereunto.

2. Be not satisfied with general notions concerning the love of Christ, which represent no glory unto the mind; wherewith many deceive themselves. All who believe his divine person, profess a valuation of his love, and think them not Christians who are otherwise minded; but they have only general notions, and not any distinct conceptions of it, and really know not what it is. To deliver us from this snare, peculiar meditations on its principal concerns are required of us. As,

(1.) Whose love it is; namely, of the divine person of the Son of God. He is expressly called God, with respect unto the exercise of this love: that we may always consider whose

it is, 1 John iii. 16. Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us.'

(2.) By what ways and means this wonderful love of the Son of God doth act itself; namely, in the divine nature, by eternal acts of wisdom, goodness, and grace proper thereunto; and in the human, by temporary acts of pity or compassion; with all the fruits of them in doing and suffering for us, Eph. iii. 19. And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.' Heb. ii. 14, 15. Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their life-time subject to bondage.' Rev. i. 5. 'Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,' &c.

(3.) What is the freedom of it, as unto any desert on our part, 1 John iv. 10. 'Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.' It was hatred, not love, that we in ourselves deserved, which is a consideration suited to fill the soul with selfabasement, the best of frames in the contemplation of the glory of Christ.

(4.) What is the efficacy of it in its fruits and effects, with sundry other considerations of the like nature. By a distinct prospect and admiration of these things, the soul may walk in this paradise of God, and gather here and there an heavenly flower, conveying unto it a sweet savour of this love of Christ, Cant. ii. 2, 3, 4. As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters. As the apple-tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste. He brought me to the banqueting-house, and his banner over me was love.'

Moreover, be not contented to have right notions of the love of Christ in your minds, unless you can attain a gracious taste of it in your hearts; no more than you would be to see a feast or banquet richly prepared, and partake of nothing of it unto

your refreshment. It is of that nature that we may have a spiritual sensation of it in our minds; whence it is compared by the spouse to apples, and flagons of wine. We may taste that the Lord is gracious; and if we find not a relish of it in our hearts, we shall not long retain the notion of it in our minds. Christ is the meat, the bread, the food of our souls. Nothing is in him of an higher spiritual nourishment than his love, which we should always desire.

In this love is he glorious; for it is such as no creatures, angels or men, could have the least conceptions of, before its manifestation by its effects; and after its manifestation, it is in this worldabsolutely incomprehensible.

CHAP. VI.

THE GLORY OF CHRIST IN THE DISCHARGE OF HIS MEDIATORY OFFICE.

As the Lord Christ was glorious in the susception of his office ; so was he also in its discharge. An unseen glory accompanied him in all that he did, in all that he suffered. Unseen it was unto the eyes of the world, but not in his who alone can judge of it. Had men seen it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. Yet to some of them it was made manifest. Hence they testified that in the discharge of his office they beheld his glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, John i. 14. and that when others could see neither 'form nor comeliness in him that he should be desired,' Isa. liii. 2. And so it is at this day. I shall only make some few observations; first, on what he did in a way of obedience, and then on what he suffered in the discharge of his office so undertaken by him.

1. What he did, what obedience he yielded unto the law of God in the discharge of his office, (with respect whereunto he

said, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God, yea, thy law is in my heart,) it was all on his own free choice or election, and was resolved thereinto alone. It is our duty to endeavour after freedom, willingness, and cheerfulness in all our obedience. Obedience hath its formal nature from our wills. So much as there is of our wills, in what we do towards God, so much. there is of obedience, and no more. Howbeit, we are antecedently unto all acts of our own wills, obliged unto all that is called obedience. From the very constitution of our natures, we are necessarily subject unto the law of God. All that is left unto us, is a voluntary compliance with unavoidable commands; with him it was not so. An act of his own will and choice preceded all obligation unto obedience. He obeyed because he would, before because he ought. He said, 'Lo, I come to do thy will, O God,' before he was obliged to do that will. By his own choice, and that in an act of infinite condescension and love, as we have shewed, he was made of a woman, and thereby made under the law. In his divine person he was Lord of the law, above it, no more obnoxious unto its commands, than its curse. Neither was he afterwards in himself on his own account unobnoxious unto its curse, merely because he was innocent, but also because he was every way above the law itself, and all its force.

This was the original glory of his obedience. The wisdom, the grace, the love, the condescension that was in this choice, animated every act, every duty of his obedience, rendering it amiable in the sight of God, and useful unto us. So when he went unto John to be baptized, he who knew he had no need of it on his own account, would have declined the duty of administering that ordinance unto him; but he replied,' Suffer it to be so now; for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness,' Mat. iii. 15. This I have undertaken willingly of my own accord, without any need of it for myself, and therefore will discharge it. For him who was Lord of all universally, thus to submit himself to universal obedience, carrieth along with it an evidence of glorious grace.

2. This obedience as unto the use and end of it, was not for himself, but for us. We were obliged unto it, and could not per

form it; he was not obliged unto it any otherwise but by a free act of his own will, and did perform it. God gave him this honour, that he should obey for the whole church, that by his obedience we should be made righteous,' Rom. v. 19. Herein, I say, did God give him honour and glory, that his obedience should stand in the stead of the perfect obedience of the church. as unto justification.

3. His obedience being absolutely universal, and absolutely perfect, was the great representative of the holiness of God in the law. It was represented glorious when the ten words were written by the finger of God in tables of stone; it appears yet more eminently in the spiritual transcription of it in the hearts. of believers; but absolutely and perfectly it is exemplified only in the holiness and obedience of Christ, which answered it unto the utmost. And this is no small part of his glory in obedience, that the holiness of God in the law was therein, and therein alone in that one instance, as unto human nature, fully represented.

2. He wrought out this obedience against all difficulties and oppressions. For although he was absolutely free from that disorder which in us hath invaded our whole natures, which internally renders all obedience difficult unto us, and perfect obedience impossible; yet as unto opposition from without, in temptations, sufferings, reproaches, contradictions, he met with more than we all. Hence is that glorious word, 'Although he were a Son, yet he learned obedience, by the things which he suffered,' Heb. v. 8. See our exposition of this place. But,

5. The glory of this obedience ariseth principally from the consideration of the person, who thus yielded it unto God. This was no other but the Son of God made man; God and man in one person. He who was in heaven, above all, Lord of all, at the same time lived in the world in a condition of no reputation, and a course of the strictest obedience unto the whole law of God. He unto whom prayer was made, prayed himself night and day. He whom all the angels of heaven, and all creatures worshipped, was continually conversant in all the duties of the worship of God. He who was over the house, diligently observed the meanest office of the house. He that made all men,