01.07. Chapter 7

CHAPTER VII. On the Vision of Christ. What our Life, Glory, and Blessedness will be, in consequence thereof. This will be declared from the written Word.

IT is the very blessedness of faith to behold Christ. Looking unto Jesus is the very perfection of it. Hence the apostle says, We see Jesus. Our whole salvation is in the object of our faith. We receive the knowledge of Christ into our minds; we have communion with him in our hearts; we have real intercourse with him, and receive real communications from him, by faith, through faith, and in the exercise of faith. This is the faculty by which we know and enjoy Christ now. The gospel is the glass in which we behold the glory of the Lord. This is well suited for us in our present embodied state. The Holy Ghost by it reveals Christ to our renewed minds. We received hereby such an intuitive apprehension of Christ, as will continue in our souls for ever. Yet this is to be still more perfected not in the nature of it, but in the degree of it. Our knowledge of Christ is as real as it will be in heaven; but it is not now so complete and comprehensive as it will be in glory. The church of Christ on the earth is the school in which we begin the knowledge of Christ, and heaven is the university in which we are advanced to further degrees in the knowledge of him. Accordingly, there are two different mediums whereby we receive the apprehension of him into our minds. The gospel is the medium now: from it the Holy Ghost makes known Christ unto us. We enjoy him, and live on him by faith. In heaven, we receive an increasing knowledge of him, and know him, in a different way. It is there wholly intuitively; it is by sense and vision. The apostle says, Now we see through a glass, darkley; but then, face to face. 1 Corinthians 13:12. As the knowledge of Christ, which will be let in upon our minds by being admitted into the open vision of his person in glory, will be altogether of a higher degree than we can at present comprehend, so it will put down all we ever knew of him on earth. The weakest saint on earth, taken up into heaven, and favoured with a sight of Christ by the open vision of him, will receive such intellectual and intuitive knowledge of him, as will perfect his mind for ever. All the knowledge of Christ we have here is but as the ground work for a fresh edition of the knowledge of Christ, by open vision, sight, and sense in glory. Our life, glory, and blessedness in heaven, will be the result thereof. This I shall aim to shew, as declared in the written word.

I would here say, that like as a real sight of Christ by faith lifts the mind up above, and far above and beyond all its own acts and exercises, and leads to a fixation on Christ even so, a sight of Christ by vision will lift off the minds of the glorified from all consideration of the life, glory, and blessedness which they enjoy, and that so as for them to be swallowed up in the views they have of Christ. He is in his church on earth the ordinance of salvation; he is to his church in heaven the ordinance of glory. He once shone forth upon earth as he now does in heaven. This was when he was transfigured on the holy mount. He was then so seen, that those who saw him declared his glory was the glory as of the only begotten of the Father. Peter says, Me were eye-witnesses of his majesty. Now it is in the same glory and majesty, only in a greater measure and degree, that our Lord shines forth before all his saints in heaven. They being clothed with immortality and eternal glory, are capacitated to behold him thus. In this vision of him, their perfection is contained; in the sight of him, they live for ever. The person of Christ is the glory of heaven; he, the man in God, the glory of whose soul, the perfection of whose body, are beyond all conception: the mirror and perfection of all the works of God, in which, as inhabited by personal union with the essential and only begotten Son of the living God, dwelleth all the fullness of the God head. He is the wonder of heaven. The full blaze of the complete shining forth of Christ in his personal glory, is the essence of everlasting bliss, Now, on the entrance of the disembodied souls of believers, they are admitted to a sight of Christ; to be with Christ; to see him as he is; to see him visibly. Stephen saw Christ in heaven. He cried out, and said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right-hand of God. Acts 7:56. Paul saw Christ in a vision; he was going to Damascus, and Christ looked out of heaven upon him. He saw him also when he was praying in the temple, and was bidden to get quickly out of Jerusalem. Acts 22:18. Christ appeared in a vision to John in the isle of Patmos. What is visible is to be seen with our bodily eyes; what is invisible, is only to be seen with the eyes of our minds; when, therefore, we speak of the glories of Christ, and of his shining forth in the invisible state, and of what saints there see and enjoy, we give the term vision to these. We cannot behold the sun without an eye; we must have an eye suited to it, or we could not behold it; nor can we see it but in its own light. So Christ in heaven can only be seen by the glory reflected from him. He, as God-man, is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light, which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see, to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen. 1 Timothy 6:15-16. I conceive Christ is so seen by open vision, as for all his saints to be alike illumined, and so as for the glory and majesty of his person to be reflected on them, by means of which their whole minds are swallowed up in views and intuitive apprehensions of his glory, being swallowed up in him, and fixed immutably on him. From hence, I conceive, all the life, blessedness, and glory of saints spring; it is from the views they have of him, and the intuitive knowledge which they receive into their own minds of his person and of his glory. I conceive the vision of Christ makes way for the knowledge of him, which the saints have in glory. Their knowledge of him in his person and glory, makes way for their life of immortal blessedness, which is fed and maintained as Christ shines, and reflects his glory within, and upon their minds. This is their life in Christ, the very life which they live in the immediate presence of Christ, in glory everlasting, And this is life indeed! Yet even then and there the foundation and essence of all this life will consist in Christ’s living in us. Our living in Christ now is the fruit of his living in us. Christ liveth in me, says the apostle; and it will be the same in heaven. It is Christ’s living in us, and possessing our every faculty, which will be our life. Our living in the enjoyment of all bliss and glory in a communicated way and manner, is the glorious fruit and effect of it. Where I asked how I would define this life, enjoyed by saints in their own minds, I should say it consisted in such intuitive views and conceptions of the Lord Jesus Christ, as led continually into those apprehensions of him which made him the very center and circumference of all the thoughts and exercise of the whole mind. The glory which saints will receive from this knowledge, will fill them with inward glory and outward splendor. Surely, if Moses, when he was in the mount forty days and forty nights, had the glory of the Lord so reflected on him, as to cone down from the mount with rays of fight, bright and luminous, conveying outward evidence what immediate converse with God is;-and this was also the case with Christ, when he came down from the mount of transfiguration;-it must then be easily conceivable, that saints, who are in the very presence-chamber with Christ, and behold his glory, and have communion with him in his glory, that they must be so glorified thereby as to be filled with glory, and to be so full of it as to cast the reflection thereof. It is Christ, the glory of heaven, who will shine as the sun of glory on all his saints in heaven: lie will be their glory, and they will shine ,as they are shone upon by him; and they will reflect glory, as he reflects his own on them; and their blessedness will consist in the communion they shall be admitted to have with him. It will all proceed from the knowledge they have of him in his glory. The mind will be perpetual activity; the Lord of glory will be the spring and fountain of it: it will be perpetually swallowed up in views of him. This will produce glory, which will last for ever, and be in perpetual vigour; this will issue into, and promote such immediate communion with Christ and saints, as the tongues of men and angels can never express. When believers are exercising their thoughts on heavenly and eternal glory, let them think on these things, for they are divine truths they are most important realities. It is the true knowledge of them in our own souls, from the word, and by the Spirit, which only can cause us to long to see Christ-to be with Christ, to live with Christ for ever and ever. Where our minds really exercised on these most sublime subjects, we should have most blessed conceptions of what will, be our blessedness when we see Christ in his kingdom of glory. Our most adorable Lord says on the behalf of his people, to his divine Father, And the glory which thou gayest me I have given them, that they may be one, even as we are one. I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may now that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou host given me, for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. John 17:22-24. The union glory between Christ and his saints cannot be accomplished but by their being raised up to be where lie is, and to see him in his glory. It is expressly declared, When Christ our life shall appear, we shall also appear with him in glory. The apostle says, Behold, what manner of love the Father bath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know, that when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. 1 John 3:1-2.

I beheld, and lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindred’s, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; And cried with a laud voice. saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders, and the four beasts, and Jell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God, saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever, Amen. Revelation 7:9-12. The God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, will admit all his saints in his own time and way, to a real possession of the same. We, who are the called according to God’s purpose and grace, given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, are heirs of eternal life; we are partakers of the glory that shall be revealed; we are entitled to the kingdom of glory. Our all is there; Christ is there; our whole inheritance is there; we must be there, that in the ages to come, God may shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness towards us through Jesus Grist. O that the true knowledge of these glorious mysteries might lift up the mind to the Lord! I would now turn the subject and substance of all this into meditation.

0 my soul! thou shalt not die, but live. The death of thy body, which is but a sheath in which thou art at present enclosed, will lye the means. of setting thee free from every evil; therefore, instead of fearing it, thou mayest well rejoice at the prospect of it. Thou wilt by it be delivered from the whole body of sin from every evil. This will be for ever; all sorrowing and sighing will be done away. This is not all. No; but being unclothed of thy mortal flesh, and clothed in thy mind, so as for mortality to be swallowed up of life, thou wilt be received into the kingdom of glory, to see Christ, and to enjoy communion, with him for ever. This will be blessedness: it is impossible to desire beyond what is contained in it. O my soul, how art thou affected with this? Art thou looking out, and saying, Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly ? It is now a long season since thou wast first brought into an acquaintance with the holy and immaculate Lamb. More than fifty years are passed since he first looked on thee in a manifestative way. He bath often favoured thee with his presence; he hath blessed thee with his company; he hath outshone thy sin; he hath many a time exceeded all thy misery. Thou art now nearer heaven than ever thou wast. Thy salvation is much nearer than when thou wast brought first to believe. The day of glory will soon break forth upon thee; thou wilt soon be admitted to see Christ in person; to see him on his throne. How is it thou art not more desirous of this? How is it thou art so seldom elevated with real apprehension hereof? Surely it must be for want of exercising thy mind on the person and glories, of Christ. 0, to think on being for ever with the Lord! to enjoy life, blessedness, and glory flowing into the mind, from immediate sights of him, and beholding his glory, there is something vastly glorious, solemn, and divine in such contemplations as these. I will put my thoughts into prayer, and thus address my Lord.

0 thou glorious Christ, who art heaven’s glory, the mirror of everlasting love, perfection, and blessedness, I would pray thee to shine forth afresh upon me, and enlighten my mind with some blessed inward conceptions of thy person and glory. I want to have some scriptural conceptions, formed in my mind from thy holy word, of what is contained in the vision of thee. I confess, to the praise of the glory of thy grace, that I do apprehend that all life, glory, and blessedness, must be contained therein. I want such apprehensions of the glory in which thou shinest forth within the veil, before thy saints and glorified ones, and that fills their minds with wonder, and feeds them with eternal delight and joy; that my soul may rejoice and be exceeding glad in the prospect and view of the same. Thou hast at tints favoured me with some special thoughts on thy life and glory in heaven; of the life thou thyself livest; of the glory thou art invested with; and of thy personal blessedness. I have conceived, I do conceive, from hence must flow forth all the life, glory and blessedness, thy saints enjoy in heaven. It must all originate from the vision of thee, from their sight and view of thee. I must confess before thee, when I have been thus favoured with real contemplation of thee, I have conceived more of eternal life, glory, blessedness, and heaven, than by any other thoughts whatsoever. I am fully persuaded, that were these apprehension fully and, powerfully to prevail in and on the mind, I could not but long to depart and to be with thee. Lord Jesus, I am fully persuaded it is spiritual and supernatural views of thee, formed in the mind by thy. holy Spirit, from the word of revelation, which only can raise up my heart to thee, and fix it eternally on thee. I conceive thus of it, that my mind, which is now enlightened by thee into a real apprehension of thy person, love, blood and righteousness, mercy and salvation, will, when it is disengaged from the body, be raised up to see thee in heaven; and in the real sight of thee, by sense and vision, enjoy all contained in eternal life, immutable glory, and endless blessedness. I would therefore pray, O thou blessed Christ, that thou wouldest so enlighten my mind, and establish my views and prospects of the same, as I may live in the constant belief of these eternal verities, and die in the real apprehensions of all thus expressed. Amen.