3. It is evident, therefore, that our conceptions of God, and of the
glorious properties of his nature, are both in generated in us and
regulated, under the conduct of divine revelation, by reflections of
his glory on other things, and representations of his divine
excellencies in the effects of them. So the invisible things of God,
even his eternal power and Godhead, are clearly seen, being manifested
and understood by the things that are made: Rom. 1: 20. Yet must it be
granted that no mere creature, not the angels above, not the heaven of
heavens, are meet or able to receive upon them such characters of the
divine excellencies, as to be a complete, satisfactory representation
of the being and properties of God unto us. They are all finite and
limited and so cannot properly represent that which is infinite and
immense. And this is the true reason why all worship or religious
adoration of them is idolatry. Yet are there such effects of God's
glory in them, such impressions of divine excellencies upon them, as
we cannot comprehend nor search out unto perfection. How little do we
conceive of the nature, glory, and power of angels! So remote are we
from an immediate comprehension of the untreated glory of Gods as that
we cannot fully apprehend nor conceive aright the reflection of it on
creatures in themselves finite and limited. Hence, they thought of
old, when they had seen an angels that so much of the divine
perfections had been manifested unto them that thereon they must die:
Judges 13: 21, 22. Howbeit, they [the angels] come infinitely short of
making any complete representation of God; nor is it otherwise with
any creature whatever.

4. Mankind seem to have always had a common apprehension that there
was need of a nearer and more full representation of God unto them
than was made in any of the works of creation or providence. The
heavens indeed declared his glory, and the firmament always showed his
handy-work--the invisible things of his eternal power and godhead were
continually made known by the things that are made; but men generally
miscarried and missed it in the contemplation of them, as the apostle
declares, Rom 1. For still they were influenced by a common
presumption, that there must be a nearer and more evident
manifestation of God--that made by the works of creation and
providence being not sufficient to guide them unto him. But in the
pursuit hereof they utterly ruined themselves; they would do what God
had not done. By common consent they framed representations of God
unto themselves; and were so besotted therein, that they utterly lost
the benefit which they might have received by the manifestation of him
in the works of the creation, and took up with most foolish
imaginations. For whereas they might have learned from thence the
being of God, his infinite wisdom, power, and goodness--viz., in the
impressions and characters of them on the things that were made--in
their own representations of him, they "changed the glory of the
invisible God into an image made like unto corruptible man, and to
birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things:" Rom. 1: 23.
Wherefore this common presumption--that there was no way to attain a
due sense of the Divine Being but by some representation of it--though
true in itself, yet, by the craft of Satan, and foolish superstitions
of the minds of men, became the occasion of all idolatry and
flagitious wickedness in the world. Hence were all those "epifaneiai",
or supposed "illustrious appearances" of their gods, which Satan
deluded the gentiles by; and hence were all the ways which they
devised to bring God into human nature, or the likeness of it.
Wherefore, in all the revelations that ever God made of himself, his
mind and will, he always laid this practice of making representations
of him under the most severe interdict and prohibition. And this he
did evidently for these two reasons:--

(1.) Because it was a bold and foolish entrenching upon his
provisional wisdom in the case. He had taken care that there should be
a glorious image and representation of himself, infinitely above what
any created wisdom could find out. But as, when Moses went into the
mount, the Israelites would not wait for his return, but made a calf
in his stead; so mankind--refusing to wait for the actual exhibition
of that glorious image of himself which God had provided--broke in
upon his wisdom and sovereignty, to make some of their own. For this
cause was God so provoked, that he gave them up to such stupid
blindness, that in those things wherein they thought to show
themselves wise, and to bring God nearer unto them, they became
contemptibly foolish--abased their nature, and all the noble faculties
of their minds unto hell, and departed unto the utmost distance from
God, whom they sought to bring nest unto them.

(2.) Because nothing that can fall into the invention or imagination
of men could make any other but false representations of him, and so
substitute an idol in his place. His own immediate works have great
characters of his divine excellencies upon them, though unto us
obscure and not clearly legible without the light of revelation.
Somewhat he did, of old, represent of his glorious presence--though
not of his being--in the visible institutions of his worship. But all
men's inventions to this end, which are neither divine works of
nature, nor divine institutions of worship, are all but false
representations of God, and therefore accursed by him.

Wherefore it is granted, that God has placed many characters of his
divine excellencies upon his works of creation and providence--many
[characters] of his glorious presence upon the tabernacle and temple
of old--but none of these things ever did or could give such a
representation of him as wherein the souls of men might fully
acquiesce, or obtain such conceptions of him as might enable them to
worship and honour him in a due manner. They cannot, I say--by all
that may be seen in them, and learned from them--represent God as the
complete object of all our affections, of all the acting of our souls
in faith, trust, love, fear, obedience, in that way whereby he may be
glorified, and we may be brought unto the everlasting fruition of him.
This, therefore, is yet to be inquired after. Wherefore--

5. A mere external doctrinal revelation of the divine nature and
properties, without any exemplification or real representation of
them, was not sufficient unto the end of God in the manifestation of
himself. This is done in the Scripture. But the whole Scripture is
built on this foundation, or proceeds on this supposition--that there
is a real representation of the divine nature unto us, which it
declares and describes. And as there was such a notion on the minds of
all men, that some representation of God, wherein he might be near
unto them, was necessary--which arose from the consideration of the
infinite distance between the divine nature and their own, which
allowed of no measures between them--so, as unto the event, God
himself has declared that, in his own way, such a representation was
needful--unto that end of the manifestation of himself which he
designed. For--

6. All this is done in the person of Christ. He is the complete image
and perfect representation of the Divine Being and excellencies. I do
not speak of it absolutely, but as God proposeth himself as the object
of our faith, trust, and obedience. Hence it is God, as the Father,
who is so peculiarly represented in him and by him; as he says: "He
that has seen me has seen the Father:" John 14: 9.

Unto such a representation two things are required:--(1.) That all
the properties of the divine nature--the knowledge whereof is
necessary unto our present obedience and future blessedness--be
expressed in it, and manifested unto us. (2.) That there be, therein,
the nearest approach of the divine nature made unto us, whereof it is
capable, and which we can receive. And both these are found in the
person of Christ, and therein alone.

In the person of Christ we consider both the constitution of it in
the union of his natures, and the respect of it unto his work of
mediation, which was the end of that constitution. And--

(1.) Therein, as so considered, is there a blessed representation
made unto us of all the holy properties of the nature of God--of his
wisdom, his power, his goodness, grace, and love, his righteousness,
truth, and holiness, his mercy and patience. As this is affirmed
concerning them all in general, or the glory of God in them, which is
seen and known only in the face of Christ, so it were easy to manifest
the same concerning every one of them in particular, by express
testimonies of Scripture. But I shall at present confine myself unto
the proofs of the whole assertion which do ensue.

(2.) There is, therein, the most incomprehensible approach of the
divine nature made unto ours, such as all the imaginations of men did
ever infinitely fall short of--as has been before declared. In the
assumption of our nature into personal union with himself, and our
cognition unto God thereby, with the union which believers obtain with
him thereon--being one in the Father and the Son, as the Father is in
the Son, and the Son in the Father, (John 17: 20, 21,)--there is the
nearest approach of the Divine Being unto us that the nature of things
is capable of. Both these ends were designed in those representations
of God which were of human invention; but in both of them they utterly
failed. For, instead of representing any of the glorious properties of
the nature of God, they debased it, dishonoured it, and filled the
minds of men with vile conceptions of it; and instead of bringing God
nearer unto them, they put themselves at an infinite moral distance
from him. But my design is the confirmation of our assertions from the
Scripture.

"He is the image of the invisible God:" Col. 1: 15. This title or
property of "invisible," the apostle here gives unto God, to show what
need there was of an image or representation of him unto us, as well
as of one in whom he would declare the counsels of his will. For he
intends not only the absolute invisibility of his essence, but his
being unknown unto us in himself. Wherefore, (as was before observed,)
mankind was generally prone to make visible representations of this
invisible God, that, in them, they might contemplate on him and have
him present with them, as they foolishly imagined. Unto the craft of
Satan abusing this inclination of mankind, idolatry owes its original
and progress in the world: howbeit, necessary it was that this
invisible God should be so represented unto us by some image of him,
as that we might know him, and that therein he might be worshipped
according unto his own mind and will. But this must be of his own
contrivance--an effect of his own infinite wisdom. Hence, as he
absolutely rejecteth all images and representations of him of men's
devising, (for the reasons before mentioned,) and declares that the
honour that any should think would thereby redound unto him was not
given unto him, but unto the devil; so that which he has provided
himself, unto his own holy ends and purposes, is every way approved of
him. For he will have "all men honour the Son, even as they honour the
Father;" and so as that "he who honoureth not the God, honoureth not
the Father:" John 5: 23.

This image, therefore, is the person of Christ; "he is the image of
the invisible God." This, in the first place, respects the divine
person absolutely, as he is the essential image of the Father: which
must briefly be declared.

1. The Son is sometimes said to be "en Patri", "in the Father," and
the Father in the Son: "Believest thou not that I am in the Father,
and the Father in me?" John 14: 10. This is from the unity or sameness
of their nature--for he and the Father are one: John 10: 30. Thence
all things that the Father has are his, (chap. 16: 15,) because their
nature is one and the same. With respect unto the divine essence
absolutely considered, wherein the Father is in the Son, and the Son
in the Father, the one cannot be said to be the image of the other.
For he and the Father are one; and one and the same thing cannot be
the image of itself, in that wherein it is one.

2. The Son is said not only to be "en Patri", "in the Father," in the
unity of the same essence; but also "pros ton Patera" or "Theon",
"with the Father," or "with God," in the distinction of his person:
"The Word was with God, and the Word was God:" John 1: 1. "The Word
was God," in the unity of the divine essence--and "the Word was with
God," in its distinct personal subsistence. "The Word"-- that is, the
person of the Son, as distinct from the Fathers" was with God," or the
Father. And in this respect he is the essential image of the Father,
as he is called in this place, and Heb. 1: 3; and that because he
partakes of all the same divine properties with the Father.

But although the Father, on the other side, be partaker of all the
essential divine properties of the Son, yet is not he said to be the
image of the Son. For this property of an image respects not the
things themselves, but the manner of the participation of them. Now
the Son receives all from the Father, and the Father nothing from the
Son. Whatever belongs unto the person of the Son, as the person of the
Son, he receives it all from the Father by eternal generation: "For as
the Father has life in himself, so has he given unto the Son to have
life in himself:" John 5: 26. He is therefore the essential image of
the Father, because all the properties of the divine nature are
communicated unto him together with personality --from the Father.

3. In his incarnation, the Son was made the representative image of
God unto us--as he was, in his person, the essential image of the
Father, by eternal generation. The invisible God--Whose nature and
divine excellencies our understandings can make no approach unto--does
in him represent, exhibit, or make present unto our faith and
spiritual sense, both himself and all the glorious excellencies of his
nature.

Wherefore our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, may be considered
three ways.

1. Merely with respect unto his divine nature. This is one and the
same with that of the Father. In this respect the one is not the image
of the other, for both are the same.

2. With respect unto his divine person as the Son of the Father, the
only-begotten, the eternal Son of God. Thus he receives, as his
personality, so all divine excellencies, from the Father; so he is the
essential image of the Father's person.

3. As he took our nature upon him, or in the assumption of our nature
into personal union with himself, in order unto the work of his
mediation. So is he the only representative image of God unto us--in
whom alone we see, know, and learn all the divine excellencies--so as
to live unto God, and be directed unto the enjoyment of him. All this
himself instructs us in.

He reflects it on the Pharisees, as an effect of their blindness and
ignorance, that they had neither heard the voice of God at any time,
nor seen his shape: John 5: 37. And in opposition hereunto he tells
his disciples, that they had known the Father, and seen him: chap. 14:
7. And the reason he gives thereof is, because they that knew him,
knew the Father also. And when one of his disciples, not yet
sufficiently instructed in this mystery, replied, "Lord, show us the
Father, and it sufficeth us," (verse 8,) his answer is, "Have I been
so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me? He that has
seen me has seen the Father:" verse 9.

Three things are required unto the justification of this assertion.

1. That the Father and he be of the same nature, have the same
essence and being. For otherwise it would not follow that he who had
seen him had seen the Father also. This ground of it he declares in
the next verse: "The Father is in me, and I am in the Father" namely,
because they were one in nature and essence. For the divine nature
being simply the same in them all, the divine persons are in each
other, by virtue of the oneness of that nature.

2. That he be distinct from him. For otherwise there cannot be a
seeing of the Father by the seeing of him. He is seen in the Son as
represented by him--as his image--the Word--the Son of the Father, as
he was with God. The unity of nature and the distinction of persons is
the ground of that assertion of our Saviour: "He that has seen me, has
seen the Father also."

3. But, moreover, the Lord Christ has a respect herein unto himself,
in his entire person as he was incarnate, and therein unto the
discharge of his mediatory work. "Have I been so long time with you,
and hast thou not known me?" Whilst he was with them, dwelt among
them, conversed with them, he was the great representative of the
glory of God unto them. And, notwithstanding this particular mistake,
they did then see his glory, "the glory of the only-begotten of the
Father:" John 1: 14. And in him was manifested the glory of the
Father. He "is the image of the invisible God." In him God was, in him
he dwelt, in him is he known, in him is he worshipped according unto
his own will, in him is there a nearer approach made unto us by the
divine nature than ever could enter into the heart of man to conceive.
In the constitution of his person--of two natures, so infinitely
distinct and separate in themselves--and in the work it was designed
unto, the wisdom, power, goodness, love, grace, mercy, holiness, and
faithfulness of God, are manifested unto us. This is the one blessed
"image of the invisible God," wherein we may learn, wherein we may
contemplate and adore, all his divine perfections.

The same truth is testified unto, Heb. 1: 3. God spoke unto us in the
Son, who is "the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his
person." His divine nature is here included, as that without which he
could not have made a perfect representation of God unto us. For the
apostle speaks of him, as of him "by whom the worlds were made," and
who "upholdeth all things by the word of his power." Yet does he not
speak of him absolutely as he was God, but also as he who "in himself
purged our sins, and sat down at the right hand of the majesty on
high;" that is, in his whole person. Herein he is "apaugasma tes
doxes", the effulgency, the resplendency of divine glory, that wherein
the divine glory shines forth in an evident manifestation of itself
unto us. And as a farther explication of the same mystery, it is
added, that he is the character or "express image" of the person of
the Father. Such an impression of all the glorious properties of God
is on him, as that thereby they become legible unto all them that
believe.

So the same apostle affirms again that he is the "image of God," 2
Cor. 4: 4; in what sense, and unto what end, he declares, verse 6: "We
have the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ".
Still it is supposed that the glory of God, as essentially in him, is
invisible unto us, and incomprehensible by us. Yet is there a
knowledge of it necessary unto us, that we may live unto him, and come
unto the enjoyment of him. This we obtain only in the face or person
of Christ--"en prosoopooi tou Christou"; for in him that glory is
represented unto us.

This was the testimony which the apostles gave concerning him, when
he dwelt among them in the days of his flesh. They saw "his glory, the
glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth:"
John 1: 14. The divine glory was manifest in him, and in him they saw
the glory of the Father. So the same apostle witnesses again, who
recorded this testimony: "For the life was manifested, and we have
seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life which
was with the Father, and was manifested unto us:" 1 John 1: 14. In the
Son incarnate, that eternal life which was originally in and with the
Father was manifest unto us.

It may be said, that the Scripture itself is sufficient for this end
of the declaration of God unto us, so that there is no need of any
other representation of him; and [that] these things serve only to
turn the minds of men from learning the mind and will of God therein,
to seek for all in the person of Christ. But the true end of proposing
these things is, to draw men unto the diligent study of the Scripture,
wherein alone they are revealed and declared. And in its proper use,
and unto its proper end, it is perfect and most sufficient. It is
"logos tou Theou--"the word of God;" howbeit it is not "logos
ousioodes", the internal, essential Word of God--but "logos
proforikos", the external word spoken by him. It is not, therefore,
nor can be, the image of God, either essential or representative; but
is the revelation and declaration of it unto us, without which we can
know nothing of it.

Christ is the image of the invisible God, the express image of the
person of the Father; and the principal end of the whole Scripture,
especially of the gospel, is to declare him so to be, and how he is
so. What God promised by his prophets in the holy Scriptures
concerning his Son, Jesus Christ, that is fully declared in the
Gospel: Rom. 1: 1-4. The gospel is the declaration of Christ as "the
power of God, and the wisdom of God," 1 Cor. 1: 23, 24; or an evident
representation of God in his person and mediation unto us: Gal. 3: 1.
Wherefore three things are herein to be considered.

1. "Objectum reale et formale fidei"--"the real, formal object of our
faith in this matter. This is the person of Christ, the Son of God
incarnate, the representative image of the glory of God unto us; as in
the testimonies insisted on.

2. "Medium revelans", or "lumen deferens"--the means of its
revelation, or the objective light whereby the perception and
knowledge of it is conveyed unto our minds. This is the gospel;
compared unto a glass because of the prospect which we have of the
image of God therein: 2 Cor. 3: 18. But without it--by any other
means, and not by it--we can behold nothing of this image of God.

3. "Lumen praeparans, elevans, disponens subjectum"--"the internal
light of the mind in the saving illumination of the Holy Spirit,
enabling us--by that means, and in the use of it--spiritually to
behold and discern the glory of God in the face of Christ: 2 Cor. 4:
6.

Through both these, in their several ways of operation, there
proceedeth--from the real object of our faith, Christ, as the image of
God-a transforming power, whereby the soul is changed into the same
image, or is made conformable unto Christ; which is that whereunto we
are predestinated. But we may yet a little farther contemplate on
these things, in some instances wherein the glory of God and our own
duty are concerned.

1. The glory of God's wisdom is exalted, and the pride of the
imaginations of men is proportionally debased. And in these two
consists the real foundation of all religion in our souls. This God
designed in the dispensation of himself and his will, 1 Cor. 1: 29,
31; this he calls us unto, Isa. 2: 22; Zech 2: 13. As this frame of
heart is prevalent in us, so do all other graces shine and flourish.
And it is that which influences all our duties, so far as they are
acceptable unto God. And there is no truth more instructive unto it
than that before us. It is taken for granted--and the event has
demonstrated it to be so--that some express representation should be
made of God unto us, wherein we might contemplate the glorious
excellencies of his nature, and he might draw nigh unto us, and be
present with us. This, therefore, men attempted to effect and
accomplish; and this God alone has performed, and could so do. And
their several ways for this end are herein manifest. As the way
whereby God has done it is the principal exaltation of his infinite
wisdom and goodness, (as shall be immediately more fully declared,) so
the way whereby men attempted it was the highest instance of
wickedness and folly. It is, as we have declared, in Christ alone that
God has done it. And that therein he has exalted and manifested the
riches, the treasures of his infinite wisdom and goodness, is that
which the Gospel, the Spirit, and the church, do give testimony unto.
A more glorious effect of divine wisdom and goodness, a more
illustrious manifestation of them, there never was, nor ever shall be,
than in the finding out and constitution of this way of the
representation of God unto us. The ways of men, for the same end, Were
so far from giving a right representation of the perfections of the
divine nature, that they were all of them below, beneath, and unworthy
of our own. For in nothing did the blindness, darkness, and folly of
our nature, in its depraved condition, ever so exert and evidence
themselves, as in contriving ways for the representation of God unto
us--that is, in idolatry, the worst and vilest of evils: so Ps. 115: 4-
8; Isa. 44; Rev. 9: l9, 20, &c. This pride and folly of men was that
which lost all knowledge of God in the world, and all obedience unto
him. The ten commandment are but a transcript of the light and law of
nature. The first of these required that God--the only true God--the
Creator and Governor of all--should be acknowledged, worshipped,
believed in, and obeyed. And the second was, that we should not make
unto ourselves any image or representation of him. Whatever he would
do himself, yet he strictly forbade that we should make any such unto
ourselves. And here began the apostasy of the world from God. They did
not absolutely reject him, and so cast off the *first* fundamental
precept of the law of nature--but they submitted not unto his wisdom
and authority in the *next*, which was evidently educed from it. They
would make images and representations of him unto themselves; and by
this invention of their own, they first dishonoured him, and then
forsook him, giving themselves up unto the rule and service of the
devil. Wherefore, as the way that God in infinite wisdom found out for
the representation of himself unto us, was the only means of recovery
from the first apostasy--the way found out by men, unto the same end,
was the great means of casting the generality of mankind unto the
farthest degree of a new apostasy from God whereof our nature is
capable. And of the same kind will all our contrivances be found to
begin what belongs unto his worship and glory--though, unto us, they
may appear both pious and necessary. This, therefore, should lead us
into a continual admiration of the wisdom and grace of God, with a due
sense of our own vileness and baseness by nature. For we are in
nothing better or wiser than they who fell into the utmost folly and
wickedness, in their designs for the highest end, or the
representation of God unto us. The more we dwell on such
considerations, the more fear and reverence of God, with faith, trust,
and delight in him, will be increased--as also humility in ourselves,
with a sense of divine grace and love.

2. There is a peculiar ground of the spiritual efficacy of this
representation of God. The revelations that he has made of himself,
and of the glorious properties of his nature, in the works of creation
and providence, are, in themselves, clear, plain, and manifest: Ps.
19: l, 2; Rom. 1: 19, 20. Those which are made in Christ are sublime
and mysterious. Howbeit, the knowledge we have of him as he is
represented unto us in Christ is far more clear, certain, steady,
effectual and operative, than any we can attain in and by all other
ways of revelation. The reason hereof is, not only because there is a
more full and extensive revelation made of God, his counsels and his
will, in Christ and the gospel, than in all the works of creation and
providence; but because this revelation and representation of God is
received by faith alone, the other by reason only: and it is faith
that is the principle of spiritual light and life in us. What is
received thereby is operative and effectual, unto all the ends of the
life of God. For we live by faith here, as we shall by sight
hereafter. Reason alone--especially as it is corrupted and depraved--
can discern no glory in the representation of God by Chn6t; yes, all
that is spoken thereof, or declared in the Gospel, is foolishness unto
it. Hence many live in a profession of the faith of the letter of the
Gospel, yet--having no light, guide, nor conduct, but that of reason--
they do not, they cannot, really behold the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ; nor has the revelation of it any efficacy upon their
souls. The manifestation of him in the light of nature, by the works
of creation and providence, is suited unto their reason, and does
affect it: for that [manifestation] which is made in Christ, they say
of it, as the Israelites did of manna, that came down from heaven,
"What is it?" we know not the meaning of it. For it is made unto faith
alone, and all men have not faith. And where God shines into the
heart, by that faith which is of divine operation--there, with "open
face, we behold the glory of God, as in a glass;" or have the
knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. There is
not the meanest believer, but--in the real exercise of faith in Christ
has more glorious apprehensions of God, his wisdom, goodness, and
grace, of all his glorious excellencies, than the most learned and
wise in the world can attain unto, in the exercise of reason on the
proper objects of it. So are these things opposed by the apostle, 1
Cor. 1. Wherefore, faith in Christ is the only means of the true
knowledge of God; and the discoveries which are made of him and his
excellencies thereby are those stone which are effectual to conform us
unto his image and likeness. And this is the reason why some men are
so little affected with the Gospel--notwithstanding the continual
preaching of it unto them, and their outward profession of it. It does
not inwardly affect them, it produceth no blessed effects in them.
Some sense they have of the power of God in the works of creation and
providence, in his rule and government, and in the workings of natural
conscience. Beyond these, they have no real sense of him. The reason
is, because they have not faith--whereby alone the representation that
is made of God in Christ, and declared in the gospel, is made
effectual unto the souls of men. Wherefore--

3. It is the highest degeneracy from the mystery of the Christian
religion, for men to satisfy themselves in natural discoveries of the
Divine Being and excellencies, without an acquaintance with that
perfect declaration and representation of them which is made in the
person of Christ, as he is revealed and declared in the Gospel. It is
confessed that there may be good use made of the evidence which reason
gives or takes from its own innate principles--with the consideration
of the external works of divine wisdom and power--concerning the being
and rule of God. But to rest herein--to esteem it the best and most
perfective knowledge of God that we can attain--not to rise up unto
the more full, perfect, and evident manifestation of himself that he
has made in Christ a declaration of our unbelief, and a virtual
renunciation of the Gospel. This is the spring of that declension unto
a mere natural religion which discovers itself in many, and usually
ends in the express denial of the divine person of Christ. For when
the proper use of it is despised, on what grounds can the note of it
be long retained? But a supposition of his divine person is the
foundation of this discourse. Were he not the essential image of the
Father in his own divine person, he could not be the representative
image of God unto us as he is incarnate. For if he were a man only--
however miraculously produced and gloriously exalted, yet the angels
above, the glorious heavens, the seat and throne of God, with other
effects of creating power and wisdom, would no less represent his
glory than it could be done in him. Yet are they nowhere, nowhere,
jointly nor separately, styled "the image of the invisible God"--"the
brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person;" nor
does God shine into our hearts to give us the knowledge of his glory
in the face of them. And it argues the woeful enmity of the carnal
mind against God and all the effects of his wisdom, that, whereas he
has granted us such a glorious image and representation of himself, we
like it not, we delight not in the contemplation of it, but either
despise it or neglect it, and please ourselves in that which is
incomparably beneath it.

4. Because God is not thus known it is--that the knowledge of him is
so barren and fruitless in the world, as it manifests itself to be. It
were easy to produce, yea, endless to number the testimonies that
might be produced out of heathen writers, given unto the being and
existence of God, his authority, monarchy, and rule; yet what were the
effects of that knowledge which they had? Besides that wretched
idolatry wherein they were all immersed, as the apostle declares, Rom.
1, it rescued them from no kind of wickedness and villainy; as he there
also manifests. And the virtues which were found among them were
evidently derived from other causes, and not from the knowledge they
had of God. The Jews have the knowledge of God by the letter of the
Old Testament; but they--not knowing him in Christ, and having lost
all sense and apprehension of those representations which were made of
his being in him, in the Law--they continue universally a people
carnal, obstinate, and wicked. They have neither the virtues of the
heathens among them, nor the power of the truth of religion. As it was
with them of old, so it, yet continueth to be; "they profess that they
now God, but in works they deny him, being abominable and disobedient,
and to every good work reprobate:" Tit. 1: 16. So is it among many
that are called Christians at this day in the world: great pretence
there is unto the knowledge of God--yet did flagitious sins and
wickedness scarce ever more abound among the heathens themselves. It
is the knowledge of "God in Christ" alone that is effectually powerful
to work the souls of men into a conformity unto him. Those alone who
behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ are changed into
the same image, from glory to glory.