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draw near, and look on this Sun of righteousness, Jesus Christ, what a spring of joy would it be within you? How would your graces be fresh and green? How would you forget your winter-sorrows? How early would you rise (as those birds in the spring) to sing the praise of our great Creator, and dear Redeemer.

6. Consider that your eye on Jesus will preserve the vigor of all your graces. As the body is apt to be changed into the temper of the air it breathes in, and the food it lives on; so will your spirits receive an alteration, according to the objects which they are exercised about. You that complain of deadness and dulness, that you cannot love Christ, nor rejoice in his loves, that you have no life in prayer, nor any other duty, and yet you never tried this quickening course, or at least you were careless and unconstant in it; what, are not you the cause of your own complaints? Say, "Is not your life hid with Christ in God?" O! whither must you go but to Christ for it? If you would have light and heat, why then are you not more in the sunshine? If you would have more of that grace which flows from Christ, why are you no more with Christ for it? For want of this recourse to Jesus Christ your souls are as candles that are not lighted, and your duties are as sacrifices which have no fire; fetch one coal daily from this altar, and see if your offerings will not burn; keep close to this reviving fire, and see if your affections will not warm. Surely, if there be any comfort of hope, if any flames of love, if any life of faith, if any vigor of dispositions, if any motions towards God, if any meltings of a softened heart, they flow from hence. Men are apt to bewail their want of desire and hope, and joy, and faith, and love to Jesus Christ, whilst this very duty would nourish all these.

7. Consider, it is but equal that your hearts should be on Christ, when the heart of Christ is so much on you. Christ is our friend, and in that respect he loves us, and bears us in his heart; and shall not he be in ours? Surely this is ill requital; this is a great contradiction to the law of friendship: but Christ is our Lord as well as friend; and if the Lord of glory can stoop so low as to set his heart on sinful dust, one would think we should easily be persuaded to set our hearts on Jesus Christ. Christians! do you not perceive that the heart of Christ is set upon you? and that he is still minding you with tender love, even when you forget both yourselves and him? Do you not find him following you with daily mercies, moving on your souls; providing for your bodies, and preserving both? Doth he not bear you continually in the arms of love, and promise that "all shall work together for your good?" Doth he not give his angels charge over you, and suit all his dealings to your greatest advantage? And can you find in your hearts to cast him by? Can you forget your Lord, who forgets not you? Fie upon this unkind ingratitude! when the Lord speaks of his thoughts and respects to us, he gives this language, "Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will not I forget thee. Behold I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands, thy walls are continually before me," Isa. 49:15,16. But when he speaks of our thoughts to him, the case is otherwise; "Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? Yet my people have forsaken me days without number," Jer. 2:32. q. d. You would not forget the clothes on your backs, you would not forget your braveries, your ornaments, your attires, and are these more worth than Christ? Yet you can forget me day after day.

8. Consider it is a command of Christ, that we should look to Jesus. “Behold me, behold me, lo I, lo I." A command not only backed with

authority, but accompanied with special ordinances appointed to this end: what is baptism? And what is the Lord's supper, but the representation of Jesus Christ? Is it not Christ's command in his last supper, "This do in remembrance of me?" And, "this do ye as oft as ye drink it in remembrance of me," 1 Cor. 11:24,25. In this ordinance we have Christ crucified before our eyes, and can we forget him? Or can we hold our eyes off him? Can we see the bread broken, and the wine distinctly severed from the bread, and not call to mind (according to the scripture) Christ's agony in the garden, and on the cross? Can we take and eat the bread, and take and drink the cup, and not apprehend Christ stooping down from heaven to feed our souls? At such a time if we forget the Lord Jesus Christ, it will argue our disaffection, our ingratitude, our disobedience every way

9. Consider it is both work and wages to look unto Jesus. Hence David professed, "It is good for me to draw near to God," Psal. 73:28. And my meditation of him shall be sweet," Psal. 104:34. The word imports a sweetness with mixture, like compound spices, or many flowers. Every thought of Jesus is sweet and pleasant, nay, it is better than wine, "we will remember thy love more than wine." Sol. Song 1:4 There is more content in contemplating on Christ, more refreshing to the spirit, than wine gives to the body, "How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God!" Ps. 139:17. Look, in what kind soever you account a thing precious, so precious are the thoughts of God and Christ to a man, whose heart is in right frame. Such a one loves every glance of Christ, and the more it sees, the more it loves. It is said of one Eudoxius, that he wished he might be admitted to come near the body of the sun, to have full view of it, though it devoured him; he was something rash in his wish, but there is something proportionable in a godly spirit, he so loves Christ, that he could be content to be swallowed up in the beholding of him. Certainly there is a blessing in his work: when we are bid to look unto Jesus, it is but to receive from Jesus. Is it any thing else but to call and invite us to look on the most pleasing and delightful object; that in beholding of it, it may convey itself unto us, and we be delighted and filled with it? It is all one if he should bid us sit down by a well of life, and drink; or if he should bid us be as the angels are, who are blessed in the beholding of this Jesus. Why come then; if this be a blessed work, why will we unbless ourselves? If the work will exalt us, why will we debase ourselves in not closing with it? If we might live above in heaven, why will we live below? Certainly when thoughts of Christ are moving in us, Christ himself is not far off, he will come, and enter too: and how sweet is it for Christ to come and take up his habitation in our souls?

10. Consider how the angels exceedingly desire to look on Jesus. They stoop down and pry into the nature, offices, and graces of Jesus Christ," which things (saith the apostle) the angels desire to look into," 1 Pet. 1:12. He alludes to the manner of the cherubim looking down into the mercy-seat This is the study, yea, this is the delight and recreation of the elect angels to look on Jesus, and to look on the several scopes of our salvation by Jesus Christ, to behold the whole frame and fabric of it, to observe all the parts of it from the beginning to the end, to consider all the glorious attributes of God; his wisdom, power, justice, mercy, all shining and glittering in it like bright stars in the firmament; this, I say, is their work, yea, this is their festivity and pastime. And shall not we imitate the angels? shall not we think it our honor to be admitted to the same privilege with the angels?

11. Consider that looking unto Jesus is the work of heaven; "it is begun in this life, (saith Bernard,) but it is perfected in that life to come;" not only angels, but the saints in glory do ever behold the face of God and Christ: if then we like not this work, how will we live in heaven? The dislike of this duty is a bar against our entrance; for the life of blessedness is a life of vision; surely if we take no delight in this, heaven is no place for us.

12. Consider that nothing else is in comparison worth the minding, or looking after. If Christ have not your hearts, who, or what should have them? O! that any Christian should rather delight to have his heart among thorns and briers, than in the bosom of his dearest Jesus! why should you follow after drops, and neglect the fountain? Why should you fly after shadows, and neglect him who is the true substance? If the mind have its current from Christ toward other things, these things are not only of less concernment, but destructive; "They are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain," Jer. 2:5. How unworthy the world is of the look of Christians, especially when it stands in competition with Jesus, we have discussed before.

Many other motives might be given, but let these suffice. I have done with the exhortation; in the next place I shall lay open to you the particular way of this duty, which all this while I have been persuading to.

SECT. VIII. Use of Direction.

Use 3. Is inward experimental looking unto Jesus a choice or high gospel ordinance? why then, some directions how we are to perform this duty. Practice is the end of all sound doctrine, and duty is the end of all right faith: now, that you may do what you have heard in some good measure, I shall prescribe the directions in the next part prescribed.

But first in the work, observe those two parts of the text, the act, and object; the act is looking unto; and the object is Jesus.

God

1. By looking unto, we mean (as you have heard) an inward experimental knowing, desiring, hoping, believing, loving, calling on Jesus, and conforming to Jesus. It is not a bare swimming knowledge of Christ; it is not a bare thinking of Christ. As Christ hath various excellencies in himself, so hath he formed the soul with a power of divers ways apprehending, that so we might be capable of enjoying those divers excellencies that are in Christ; even as the creatures having their several uses. hath accordingly given us several senses, that so we might enjoy the delights of them all: what the better had we been for pleasant odoriferous flowers, or sweet perfumes, if we had not possessed the sense of smelling? Or what good would language, or music, have done us, if God had not given us the sense of hearing? Or what delight should we have found in meats or drinks, or sweetest things, if we had been deprived of the sense of tasting? So what pleasure should we have had even in the goodness and perfection of God in Christ, if we had been without the faculty and power of knowing, desiring, hoping, believing, loving, joying, and enjoying? As the senses are to the body, so are these spiritual senses, powers, affections to the soul the very way by which we must receive sweetness and strength from the Lord Jesus.

2. By Jesus, who is the object of this act, we mean a Saviour, carrying on the great work of man's salvation from first to last; hence we shall follow this method, to look on this Jesus as our Jesus in these several periods. 1. In that eternity before all time until the creation. 2. In the

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creation, the beginning of time, until his first coming coming, the fulness of time, until his coming again.

again, the very end of time, to all eternity. In every one of...

oh what a blessed object is before us! Oh what wonders of love... to look upon! Before I direct you how to look on him in these respect, must, in the first place, propound the object: still we must lay the colors of this adinirable beauty before your eyes, and then tell you the art how you are to look upon them.

You may object, The apostle in this text refers this look only to the passion and cession of Christ. But a worthy interpreter tells us out of these words, (Andr. Ser.) on the words, "That Christ our blessed Saviour is to be looked on at all times, and in all acts; though indeed, then, and in those acts more especially." Besides, we are to "look unto Jesus, as the author and finisher of our faith." And why, as the author and finisher of our faith, but to hint out to us that we are to stand still, and to behold, as with a steadfast eye, what he is from first to last? You have called us hither (say they in Sol. Song) to see your Shulamite, "What shall we see in him?" What, saith the spouse, "but as the company of two armies?" that is, many legions of good sights; an ocean of bottomless depths of manifold high perfections. Or if these words be understood of the spouse, and not of Christ, yet how many words do we find in Sol. Songs, expressing in him many goodly sights? "Myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon, all the perfumes, all the trees of frankincense, all the powders of the merchants are in him; he is altogether lovely:" he is all, every whit of him, a confluence, a bundle, an army of glorious sights; all in one cluster, meeting and growing upon one stalk. There are many glorious sights in Jesus; I shall not, therefore, limit myself to those two especial ones, but take all those before me I have now propounded.

And now, if ever, stir up your hearts. Say to all worldly business and thoughts, as Christ to the disciples, "Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder," Matth. 26:36. Or, as Abraham, when he went to sacrifice Isaac, left his servants and ass below the mount, saying, "Stay you here, and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you;" so say you to all worldly thoughts, Abide you below, while I go up to Christ, and then I will return to you again. Christians! yourselves may be welcome, but such followers may not.

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LOOKING UNTO JESUS.

THE SECOND BOOK.

CHAPTER I.

SECTION I.

I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty-I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and what thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches.-Rev. 1: 8.11.

OF THE ETERNAL GENERATION OF JESUS.

We must "look unto Jesus, the beginner and finisher of our faith:" we must behold Jesus as with a steadfast eye from first to last. As he is "Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, the first and the last;" so accordingly we must look unto him. 1. He is Alpha, the beginner, (so it is in the original,) Archegon, the beginner, the inceptor, the first wheel of our faith, Heb. 12:2. and of the end of our faith, the salvation of our souls, 2 Thess. 2:13. 2 Tim.1:9. Tit. 1:2. Now, Christ may be called a beginner, in respect of the decree, or execution. I shall begin with the decree, wherein he begun before the beginning of time to design our happiness, for the praise of the glory of his grace, Eph. 1:6. Many depths are in this passage. To this purpose we told you, that Jesus is God's Son, and our Jesus, eternally begotten before all worlds. In this first period we shall look on him; 1. In relation to God; 2. In relation to us.

1. In his relation to God. "Who shall declare his generation?" Isa. 53:8. He is God's Son, having his subsistence from the Father alone, of which Father, by communication of his essence, he is begotten from all eternity.

For the opening of this eternal generation of our Jesus, we shall con. sider, 1. The thing begotten; 2. The time; 3. The manner of begetting; 4. The mutual kindness and love of him that begets, and of him that is begotten, which brings forth a third person, or subsistence, which we call the Holy Ghost.

1. For the thing itself, it is Jesus Christ; who must be considered two ways, as he is a Son, and as he is God. Now, as he is a Son, he is the thing begotten, but not as he is a God. As he is God, he is of himself, neither begotten, nor proceeding: the Godhead of the Father, and the Godhead of the Son is but one and the same thing, and therefore essentia filii est a seipso, et hac ratione dici potest [auto Theos] The Son, as he is God, he is God of himself, without beginning, even as the Father; Essen

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