21. Christ's mind discovered in the gospel

Christ’s mind discovered in the gospel How is this grace of God in Christ conveyed to us yet nearer? By the gospel.

’As in a glass.’ The gospel is the ’good word of God,’ Hebrews 6:5. It reveals the good God to us, and the good Christ. It is a sweet word. For Christ could do us no good without the word, if there were not an obligation, a covenant made between God and us, the foundation of which covenant is the satisfaction of Christ. If there were not promises built upon the covenant of grace, whereby God hath made himself a debtor, what claim could a sinful soul have to Christ and to God’s mercy? But God hath bound himself in his word. Therefore the grace of God shines in Christ, and all that is in Christ is conveyed to us by the word, by the promise. The gospel then is a sweet word. You know that breeding promise of all others, Genesis 3:15, ’The seed of the woman.’ That repealed* and conveyed the mercy of God in Christ to Adam. So the continuance of that and all the sweet and gracious promises bud from that; all meet in Christ as in a centre, all are made for him and in him. He is the sum of all the promises. All the good things we have are parcels of Christ. Christ he is the Word of the Father, that discovers all from the bosom of his Father. Therefore he is named ’the Word.’ The gospel is the Word from him. Christ was discovered to the apostles, and from the apostles to us, to the end of the world, by his Spirit accompanying the ordinance. So the mirror wherein we see the glorious mercy of God, is first Christ. God shines in him, and then there is another glass wherein Christ is discovered, the glass of the gospel. Thus it pleaseth God to condescend to stoop to us poor sinners, to reveal his glory, the glory of his mercy, fitly and suitable in a Saviour, God-man, God incarnate, God our brother, God our kinsman, and to do it all yet more familiarly, to discover it in a word. And then to ordain a ministry together with the word, to lay open the riches of Christ; for it is not the gospel considered nakedly, but the gospel unfolded by the ministry.

Christ is the great ordinance of God for our salvation. The gospel is the great ordinance of God, to lay open ’the unsearchable riches of Christ,’ Ephesians 3:8. The casket of this jewel, the treasury of his treasure, the grace and love and mercy of God, are treasured in Christ; and Christ and all good things are treasured in the gospel. That is the rich mine; and the ministry of the gospel lays open that mine to the people. Nay, God yet goes further. He gives his Holy Spirit with the ministry. It is the ministry of the Spirit, that howsoever there are many that are not called and converted in the gospel, yet the Spirit of God is beforehand with them. There are none under the gospel but the Spirit gives them sweet motions. He knocks at their hearts, he allures and persuades them; and if they yield not, it is because of the rebellion of their hearts. There is more grace of the Spirit offered than is entertained. So that the mouths of men shall be stopped. Thus God descends, and Christ, and grace, the gospel, the ministry, the Spirit, all in way of love to us, that we may do all in a way of love to God again. It should therefore work us to do all with ingenuous hearts to him again. The gospel is the glass wherein we see this glory. Christ indeed in some sort is the glass, for we cannot see God out of Christ but he is a terrifying sight. But in the glass Christ we can see God, as we see the sun in the water. If we cannot see the sun in his glory, that is but a creature, how can we see God himself but in some glass? Therefore we must see him in Christ, and so his sight is comfortable. And in the dispensing of the gospel, especially in the preaching and unfolding of the word, the riches of God in Christ are unfolded, and not only unfolded, but the Spirit in unfolding conveys the sense, assurance, and persuasion thereof unto us.

There is such a connection between the evangelical truth of God and Jesus Christ, that they have both one name,* to insinuate to us that as we will be partakers of Christ, so it must be of Christ, as he is revealed in the gospel, not in conceits of our own. The word is truth, and Christ is truth. They have the same name; for were there never so much mercy and love in God, if it were concealed from us, that we had nothing to plead, that we had not some title to it by some discovery of it in his will, the word and the seal of the word, the sacraments (for the sacrament is but a visible word, they make one entire thing, the word and sacraments; the one is the evidence, the other the seal), what comfort could we take in it? Now his will is in the promise, wherein there is not only a discovery of what he doth or will do, but he hath engaged himself: ’If we believe, we shall not perish, but have life,’ John 3:15; and ’Come unto me,’ Matthew 11:28, and be refreshed, saith Christ. Every one that thirsts, come and be satisfied, John 7:37. And now we may claim the performance of what he hath spoken, and bind him by his own word. ’He cannot deny himself,’ John 7:37. So now we see him comfortably in the glass of the word and sacraments.

These three go together, the glory of God; Christ the foundation of all grace, in the covenant of grace; and then the gospel of grace, the gospel of the kingdom, the gospel of life, that discovers the gracious face of God shining in Christ. We have communion with God through Christ, with Christ through the gospel; therefore in the gospel ’we behold as in a glass the glory of God.’ This is suitable to our condition while we are here below. We cannot see divine things otherwise than in a glass. That sight of God that we shall have in heaven, immediately, without the word and sacraments, that is of a higher nature; when our natures shall be perfect. But while we live here we cannot see God but in Christ, and we cannot see him but in the word and sacraments. Such is the imperfection of our sight, and such is the lustre and glory of the object, the glory of God, that we cannot perfectly see it but in a glass. God said to Moses, ’None can see me and live.’ His meaning is, none can see me as I am, none can see me immediately and live. If we would see God, and the glory of God immediately without a glass, we must see it in heaven. We must die first. We must pass through death to see God face to face as he is; then, not as he is, but more familiarly than we can now. Then God will represent himself so as shall be for our happiness, though not simply as he is; for he is infinite, and how should finite comprehend infinite? We shall apprehend him, but not comprehend him (f). While we are in earth, therefore, we must be content to see him in a glass, which is the gospel, especially unfolded.

Now in this word ’glass,’ in which we see the glory of God, is implied both a perfection and some imperfection.

Perfection, because it is as a clear crystal glass in regard of the glass that was before; for those under the law saw Christ in a glass of ceremonies. And, as I said before, there is difference between one’s seeing his face in water and in a crystal glass. So then this implies perfection in regard of the former state.

Again, in regard of heaven, it implies imperfection, for there we shall not see in a glass. Sight in a glass is imperfect, though it be more perfect than that in water. For we know out of the principles of learning and experience, that reflections weaken, and the more reflections, the more weak. When we see a thing by reflection, we see it weakly; and [when] we see it by a second reflection from that, we see it more weakly. When we see the sun on the wall, or any thing that is light, it is weaker than the light of the sun itself. When a man seeth his face in a glass, it is a weaker representation than to see face to face. But when we see the sun upon the wall, reflexing upon another wall, the third reflection is weaker than the first. The more reflections the more weak. So here all sight by glasses is not so powerful as that sight and knowledge which is face to face in heaven. That is the reason that St James saith, that he that seeth his face in a glass is subject to forget (1:23). What is the reason that a man cannot remember himself, when he seeth his face in a glass, so well as he can remember another man’s face when he seeth it? Because he seeth himself only by reflection. Therefore it is a weaker presentation to him, and the memory and apprehension of it is weaker. When he seeth another face to face, he remembers him longer, because there is a more lively representation. It is not a reflection, but face to face. So there is imperfection in this sight that we have of God, while we are here, as in a glass. It is nothing to that when we shall see face to face, without the word and sacraments or any other medium, which sight, what it is, we shall know better when we are there. We cannot now discover it. It is a part of heaven to know what apprehensions we shall have of God there. But sure it is more excellent than that that is here. Therefore this implies imperfection.

We consist of body and soul in this world, and our souls are much confined and tied to our senses. Imagination propounds to the soul greater things than the senses. So God helps the soul by outward things that work upon the senses; sense upon the imagination, and so things pass into the soul.

God frames his manner of dealing suitable to the nature he hath created us in. Therefore he useth the word and sacraments, and such things, whereby he makes impressions upon the very soul itself. And this indeed, by the way, makes spiritual things so difficult as they are ofttimes, because we are too much enthralled to imagination and sense, and cannot abstract and raise our minds from outward sensible things to spiritual things. Therefore you have some, all the days of their life, spend their time in the bark of the Scriptures; and they are better than some others that are all for notions and outside: such things as frame to the imagination, and never come to know the spirit of the Scriptures, but rest in outward things, in languages and tongues, and such like. Whereas these things lead further, or else they come not to their perfection. The Scripture is but a glass, to see some excellencies in it. ’We see as in a glass.’

Now the use of a glass among us especially is twofold.

(1.) It is either to help weakness of sight against the excellency of the object. When there is a weak sight and an over excellent object, then a glass is used, or some polite* and clear body, as we cannot see the sun in itself. The eye is weak and the sun is glorious. These two meeting therefore together, we help it by seeing the sun in water, as in an eclipse. If a man would judge of an eclipse he must not look on the sun, but see it in water, and there behold and discern these things; so to see the glory of God in himself, it is too glorious an object. Our eyes are too weak. How doth God help it? He helps it by a glass, by ’God manifest in the flesh,’ 1 Timothy 3:16, and by the word and sacraments whereby we come to have communion with Christ. To apply this more particularly.