The Excellency of the Gospel Above the Law, Treatise · Part 10 – Part 12
With open face.
We see the glory of God with boldnesse in the Gospell,Boldnesse in the Gospell. we goe boldly to God, Christ takes us by the hand, and leades us to his Father, we have boldnesse and accesse to God through Christ by the Spirit, as S. Paul teacheth in diverse places, God is not terrible to us, now in Christ Gods nature is Fatherly and sweete to us, Christ in the Gospell is our head, therefore wee goe boldly to God in Christ, and Christ by his Spirit brings us to his Father, we may boldly lay open our soules in prayer, and all our complaints before him as to a Father, we come not as malefactors to a judge, as slaves to a Lord, but as children to a father, as a wife to her spouse, with open face in the Gospell, wee behold God, that is, with boldnesse we goe to him: the Gospell by shining upon us takes away a Spirit of feare,Feare taken away by the Gospell. and bondage, the more we see Christ the lesse feare, the more love the lesse feare, the more we see the grace of God in Christ, it diminisheth a Spirit of feare, and puts into us a Spirit of love and boldnesse, for it presents to us in Christ, full satisfaction to divine justice, that when we offer Christ to the Father whom he hath sent and sealed for us, God cannot refuse a Saviour of his owne sending, and sealing and appointing to satisfie his justice, therefore wee goe boldly to the throne of grace, it is a mervailous priviledge, that wee see God clearely in the Gospell, with open face, with a Spirit of boldnesse, the vayle of ignorance being taken away, for the sight of God to a conscience that is naturall, and is not convinced of the mercy of God by the Spirit, it is a terrible sight, a guilty conscience cannot see a man but it trembles, it cannot see a judge without trembling, and will not the trembling conscience, the guilty soule, flee from the face of God a pace, that trembles at the sig…t of a man? What is so contrary, as the nature of God, to the nature of man out of Christ? the unholy, impure, and uncleane nature of man to the pure, holy nature of God, if Christ had not taken our nature, and sanctified it in himselfe, and satisfied justice in it, what boldnesse could this uncleane nature of ours have had to goe to the holy God… let us I beseech you be wrapped up in admiration of the singular love of God to us, especially in the dayes of the Gospell, that now we see in a glasse, in a cleare glasse the love of God in Christ, and with open face boldly we may goe to God.
Sometimes when the soule is bold in sinne,Boldnesse in sinne weakneth boldnesse of faith it weakeneth boldnesse and faith, and makes us looke upon that object that our sinnes hath deserved, upon a wise God: for howsoever we may behold his glorious face in Christ, yet if we behold sinne against conscience, God will hide himselfe, Christ will hide his face, and hide the promises, and leave us to terrours of conscience, and the soule shall not apprehend his gracious face in Christ, but that correction that our sinne hath deserved, God hath power over the soule, and makes the soule appreh…nd what obj…ct he will, and he presents to a bold soule that runnes into sinne what it deserves, hell for the present; there is no terrours to the terrour of a Christian that is bold in sinne, till God shine upon him in his grace againe, sinnes against conscience especially wasting sinnes, weaken fai…h, that wee cannot goe so boldly to God, therefore those that say when they sinne against conscience, that all the cause of their griefe is because they doe not conceive the free mercy of God, they are ignorant of Gods wayes, God is wise, and though hee pardon sinne, (as sinne is pardoned in heaven, before it be pardoned in the conscience) they shall never be pardoned in thy conscience, till God have made thy conscience smart for it, and God will let wrath into thy conscience, and thy faith shall stagger, it is a sinne for faith to stagger, it should not doe so, but it will …remble, and quake, till wee have humbled our selves before God.
What is the way, after wee have had boldnesse and sweete familiarity with God, and it hath beene interrupted by sin, how shall we recover our selves?
Surely, to apprehend our sinnes to be pardonable in Christ,How to …ecov…r boldnesse with God. and that God is an everlasting Father, and that the covenant of grace is everlasting, and that there is mercy in Isra…ll, for this thing, and the conceite of mercy, must worke our hearts to griefe and shame that is certaine: for marke in the Gospell, Come unto me all ye that are weary, and heavy laden, hee cals us when we find our consciences afflicted, and tormented, Hee came to save that which was lost: by the blessed power of the Spirit, & the blood of Christ is as a fountaine for Iudah, and Ierusalem to wash in, and the blood of Christ purgeth us from sinne, and Christ bids us for daily trespasses aske pardon, daily therefore conceive goodnesse in God still, an everlasting current of mercy, and this must work upon us griefe, and shame, and recover and strengthen our faith againe, for Gods children after breaches arise the stronger, rather then ever they were before, but this onelyonly by …he way, we see here how Gods glorious grace is conveyed to us, and what is wrought in us to apprehend it, a spirituall eye to see it, in the glasse of the Gospell, and with open face wee behold it, wee may goe boldly to the throne of grace.
I beseech you let not this priviledge be forgotten, this priviledge of the Gospell, what is the glory of the times we live in, but Gods face discovered in Christ? in the Gospel faith is wrought in us, to apprehend this, to see Gods face openly, and that we may come boldly with Benjamin our elder brother, come with Esaus garments, come with Christ, and wee cannot be too bold, remember alway there must be a reverent familiarity, because hee hath Majesty mixed with his bowels of mercy, both are mixed together, beames and bowels, so our carriage to him must bee loving and familiar, as he is full of bowels of mercy, but then he hath Majesty, a reverent familiarity is fit for a father, and for so gracious, and so sweete a God, therfore that phrase wee see in the Scriptures, We goe boldly, and cry Ab. ba Father; Father is a word of reverence, that is, we goe boldly to God in Christ, & open our wants as to a Father, with love, and reverence, as it is said here, with open face, let us not forget this priviledge.
We all.
Here is the generality, Wee all, before, in Moses time, hee alone went into the Mount and saw God, but now, We all, …ewes, and Gentiles, where the Gospell is Preached, Wee all. Therefore, you see here the Church is enlarged by the comming of Christ. And it was a comfort to Saint Paul, and to all good Christians, to thinke of the inlargement of the Church, by taking in the Gentiles, as it will be a comfort hereafter to thinke of the inlargeing of the Church, by taking in the lewes againe. The more the better in religion. Why is it a priviledge for many, that we all? because in matters of grace and glory there is no envy at all, all may share without prejudice, all cannot be Kings here upon earth, nor all cannot bee great men, because the more one hath, the lesse another hath, but in Christ and in Religion, all may be gracious, God respects every one, as if there were none but them, hee respects all as one, and one, as if there were none but he, every man in solidum (as Civillians expresse it) entirely enjoyeth Christ, as if there were none but he, he is to all as one, and to one, as if there were none but hee,Comfort in community in Religion there is no envy as I said, in grace and glory, where all may share alike, and that is the reason why it is alway comfortable, to thinke of community in Religion it is joyned with comfort.
And indeed so it is matter of comfort to see a communion of many in one: for what is the misticall body of Christ Iesus, but many members joyned in one body, under one gracious and glorious head? and therefore it is a deformed sight to see fraction; and disunion it is that the divell rules in, divide & rule, it is fit for the devill, God and Christ rule in union, the same Spirit of God that knits the members to the head by faith, knits the members one to another in love, and all grace is derived from the head to the members, as they are united to the body, if there be therefore disunion, there is no grace conveyed so farre as there is disunion, there is no grace conveyed from the head: for the body growes up as compact under one head.
Therefore let us labour to cherish union,To labour for union. and as we hate distraction it self, so hate distraction and division, for dissipation causeth distraction, therefore by all meanes labour for union, especially now wee are to take the Communion, that is a seale of our Communion with Christ by faith, and one with another; by love let us labor to bring our hearts to a holy Communion, none gaines by disunion, but the devill himselfe, alway his pollicy is to make the breach greater where any is, therefore let us labour by all meanes to bee united, the more joyne together in the blessed mysteries of the Gospell; the more comfort, and the more glory when all live, and joyne together in holy things, of God, and in sweete love one to another, it is the glory of that place, and society, and state, so much for that, We all.
And are changed.
I shewed before, how mans happinesse stands partly in commnnion with God, and partly in his conformity, and likenesse to God. And surely whersoever there is communion, there will be conformity. This conformity is here set downe springing from communion. We all behold the glory of God, now reconciled in Iesus Christ, what doth that beholding worke? a conformity, we are Changed into the same Image, from glory to glory. In these words we see,
First, a necessity of a change, changed we must be:
Then in this change, there must bee a patterne of conformity, wee are changed into the Image of Christ, who is the pretotipe, the first type, and Idea of all perfection, we are changed into the same Image.
And then, how this change is wrought to the Image of Christ, it is by beholding the glory of Christ in the Gospel, there is a transforming power, in beholding the glory of Gods mercy in Christ, it is not a delighting object, onelyonly to see the mercy of God in Christ, but it is a powerfull object that hath an influence upon the soule.
And then the state of man after this change, it is a glorious condition, Wee are changed from glory.
And then it is a growing condition, wee are changed from glory to glory, still till wee come to that pitch, where there can be no growth, when the soule shall bee filled with the fulnesse of God, as the Apostle speakes, when the soule shal have (all the powers that it hath to receive, and retaine, & comprehend) al the corners of it filled, so we grow from glory to glory till then, these things follow one another: To begin with the first.