God, being denominated according to his superior nature, and, in that sense, is God. And He is also the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of Truth, the Comforter* (n) in his spiritual nature clothed with humanity and leadeth into all Truth: and in this union He is also the Light of the world, who could never have beheld Him in his unveiled Deity. We must therefore not remain in a bare report of God and Christ, though we find it in the Holy Scriptures, and that testimony is for ever true; but we must look unto God through Christ the Mediator, near unto ourselves, as Christ said of his own Spirit.† "He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you; I will not "leave you comfortless; I will come to you." Again; He came unto his own, and his own received him not; but as many as received Him, to them "He power to become the sons of God, even to them "that believe on his Name," as He is the Word of God, and not only as man. 66 gave The Jews were his own in a more particular manner than other men, by a covenant of works made with their fathers by the mediation of Moses the servant at Mount Sinai; but they rejected Christ as a deceiver, though He is the Son of God, and Mediator of a more excellent law and covenant, which shall endure for ever; yet there was a remnant of them that believed and received Him; and to them, but not unto the unbelievers, He gave power to become the sons of God. Not by eternal generation, as the Son Himself is, but by regeneration in time, whereby they are made partakers of the Divine Nature: as it is written, "Forasmuch then as the children are par"takers of flesh and blood, He (the Son) Himself like† Ibid. xiv, 17. ‡ 1 Peter, i, 32. * John, xiv, 6. (n) The Spirit of Truth, the light and life of God in the soul. And this is the only Saviour and Deliverer for the children of men that was ever known to deliver any one.-Here we have what the apostle calls Christ within. Oh! that we might come to the same righteous spirit that he was in. The true image of God's righteousness brought about by the same power of light and life. For the wisdom and power of God in the soul of Man is the only thing that can save the soul. When we look to the substance it is this spirit and wisdom of God displayed in the children of men, that is the Saviour of men. The body is a tabernacle for the Spirit while in a state of probation, in which it can grow up out of this state into a state of Divine knowledge, and fitness to become a son of God. (Sermon IV, Green Street, p. 78.) lished among the people; yet though He spake as never man spake; with respect to that wisdom and power in which He did speak, few there were who understood Him; so that they were still short, at that time, of the true and full end of his appearance; for He was to be made manifest, not only to the Jews, but universally unto all nations, (in a nearer and more divine and excellent way than his outward appearance was, though that was indeed glorious,) but by degrees, from one dispensation to another, according to the prophecy of Isaiah, the evangelical Prophet, where he speaketh of the Son of God, as man, in the state of a Servant of God, and even in a manner, as such (a servant) in the sight of men, and in which He did indeed first appear in the flesh, that "Behold my Servant whom I uphold, mine 66 ELECT, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my Spirit upon Him; He shall bring forth judgment to "the Gentiles."*" I the Lord have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a Covenant of the peo'ple, for a Light of the Gentiles, to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and "them that sit in darkness out of the prison-house.' is to say: 66 " This prophecy was uttered and recorded several hundreds of years* before the Lord Christ came to that people. We may see plainly by this, there was a fore-promise of Him to all nations, as a Light to enlighten them. (k) The Most High is invisible, he dwelleth in divine eternal Light inaccessible. No creature can behold Him as He is; there is therefore a medium and qualification needful to us, whereby we may *Isa. xviii, 1. Ib. verses 6, 7. + About 712 years before Christ. (k) "I am the way, the truth, and the life," Jesus declared when he was outwardly present, as a teacher and Messiah to Israel. They did not look any higher. He was their director, their Saviour. He it was that saved them from their outward sicknesses. He was only an outward Saviour, that healed their outward diseases, and gave them strength of body to enjoy that outward good land. This was a figure of the great Comforter, which he would pray the Father to send them. An inward one, that would heal all the diseases of their souls, and cleanse them from all their inward pollutions. That thing of God. That thing of eternal life. It was the soul that wanted salvation. This no outward Saviour could do; no external Saviour could have any hand in it. (Sermon III, Western Meeting, p. 51.) approach him, come unto Him, and be saved with an everlasting and glorious salvation; and therefore he hath sent forth his word, clothed with a reasonable human mind and human body, to declare Him, according to that saying: "Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire, mine ears hast thou opened: burnt-offering "and sin-offering hast Thou not required: then said I, "lo! I come: in the volume of the Book it is written "of me; I delight to do thy will, O God! yea, thy law "is within my heart." This Son of the Highest, thus clothed with humanity, is the Mediator between God and all other men, by whose holy Spirit and power the mind of man is washed, sanctified, and qualified, so as, through this veil, to behold the inaccessible glory of the Father, and live. Now the word Himself is the glory of the Father thus veiled, and is Light in men, variously proportioned in point of manifestation, and proposed as the object of the faith of all men, as He is Divine Light; the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh "into the world." And it is said, "The Gentiles shall come to this Light, and kings to the brightness of his "arising. And in his name shall the Gentiles trust." The Father hath sent his Son Christ, that all mankind may believe in Him, and look unto the Father in and by Him; and there is not another way. Mankind were in darkness, in ignorance, they had lost the knowledge of God; and we likewise by nature are all ignorant of God, and can never come to the knowledge of Him, and look to Him so as to be saved by Him, till we look unto Him in his own Light.() * Psalm xl, 6, 7. Isaiah i, 11, lxvi, 3, Heb. x, 5. |