know and understand, if he remain in that flate, thoughtlefs of Chrift, and difregarding him, that Chrift will come in flaming fire, and take vengeance on him, 2 Thef. i. 7, 8. So, on the other hand, the man that hath got fuch difcoveries of Chrift, as to create high, fpiritual, and elevated thoughts of Chrift, he may, from thence underftand, that Chrift thinks well of him, and that his thoughts towards him are thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give him an expected end. It is true, Chrift's thoughts of the believer, are not of a fleeting nature, up and down, high and low, as the believer's thoughts of him are; nay, Chrift's thoughts are unchangeably the fame : but, when the believer's thoughts of Chrift are raised, then he is in the best cafe to know and understand Chrift's loving thoughts towards him. Why, even as a fountain may be known by the streams, fo it is here; our knowledge, faith, love, and esteem of Chrift, are but ftreams that flow from Chrift's kind heart towards us; "We love him, because he firft loved us;" we think of him, becaufe he firft thinks of us. And, therefore, by what we think of Chrift, we may know what he thinks of us: if you think honourably of him, you may thence know he thinks favourably of you; if you think much of him, you may know he thinks much of you. O! may a believer fay, I have reason to think much good of him; for, he is fairer than the fons of men, the fpotlefs Lamb of God: but he hath reafon to think much ill of me; for, I am all black and deformed, like hell and the devil. But, I will tell you, believer, that all his thoughts of you, make you to be in him, what he thinks you to be in him, however deformed you are in yourfelves, and fee yourselves to be; yet, I fay, as his thoughts make things to be, (for he but thought there fhould be a world, and there was a world; whenever it was his mind that it fhould be, then it was; and whatever he thought it to be, that it was, according to his thought;) and as his thoughts of you make you to be in him, what you are in him: fo, if you think him fair, and altogether lovely, he is not behind with you, for he thinks you fair too; hence he fays to the fpoufe, who was admiring his beauty, "Thou art art all fair, my love; there is no fpot in thee," Song iv. 7. . And he doth not fay any thing, but what he thinks, his words exprefs his thoughts; for, "He cannot lie, who is the ftrength of Ifrael." Now, believer, if you cannot think, or believe, that you are altogether fair in him, becaufe you fee yourself altogether filthy in yourself; know, that if you faw yourself to be altogether fair in yourfelf, there would be no need of, or room for believing that you are all fair in him. Hence he hath left deformities about you, that there may be room for faith therefore, let the feeling of your deformity make you humble; but let it not hinder your faith, which must not ftand upon feeling, but must act contrary to it upon Chrift's word: for, if you ground your faith upon what you feel in yourself, you will never believe what Chrift fays concerning your being all fair, and your being made the righteoufnefs of God in him, 2Cor. v. 21. If your faith then can act fo as to raise your thoughts of Christ as altogether lovely, fair, and fpotlefs, you have ground to conclude, by the fame act of faith, that he hath high thoughts of you, as being all fair and fpotlefs in him, whatever deformity you feel in yourself. Chrift is infinitely more to you, believer, than you believe kim to be but, whatever you believe him to be, you may be fure he is that to you; for, faith's feeing, and having, is all one, even as believing is explained by receiving, and receiving by believing; "As many as received him, to them gave he power [or PRIVILEGE] to become the fons of God, even to them who believe on his name," John i. 12. What you believe then, you receive; and, what you receive, you have; and what you have in him, you are in him having beauty, and riches, and righteoufnefs in him; you are beautiful, rich, and righteous and confequently, when you belevingly think he is all fair and glorious, you may knowhe thinks you are all fair and glorious in him: and he thinks no more of you than what you really are in him. The queftion then is put, becaufe you may know, by what you think of Christ, what Chrift thinks of you. 10. This queftion, What think ye of Chrift? is put, because we can never think too much of him, who is the Y 4 God God-man, David's Son, and David's Lord; being God as well as man. O what a glorious object of our contemplation is here! You may think too much of yourfelves, and your own righteoufnefs; but you cannot think too much of Chrift, and his righteoufnefs: yea, when you think any thing of yourself, and your righteoufnefs, you think too much of it; but when you think as much as you can of Chrift, and his righteoufnefs, you think too little of him.-You may think too much of creatures, but you cannot think too much of Christ. Yea, you may think too much of angels, as the apofile John did, when he fell down to worship towards the feet of the angel, Rev. xxii. 8. To think of the nature of angels, with that inward reverence and adoration which we are to have when we think of Chrift, would be idolatry; and to think of Chrift, with the fame frame of heart as we do of angels, would be profanenefs. Thus we may think too highly and reverently of angels; but we cannot think of Chrift too highly, too reverently; nor can we think too much of him, who is the Lord of angels, and whom we are to honour even as we honour the Father.-Thefe are the reafons of the queftion. IV. The fourth general head propofed, was, To make Application of the whole. And it may be applied for the following ufes. 1. For Information. 2. For Conviction. 3. For Trial. 4. For Lamentation. 5. For Exhortation. And, 6. For Direction. Firft, It may be applied for Information, in thefe and the like leffons following. 1. Hence we may learn, feeing the great question in the Chriftian Catechifm is, What think ye of Chrift? then the fum of Chriftian knowledge lies in this one word, viz. CHRIST. It is not in Chrift abfolutely confidered, by what he is in himfelf; but in God relatively confidered, by what he is to us, namely, in Chrift: therefore, I observe, the question is not, What think ye of GOD? but, What think ye of CHRIST? For, as God out of Chrift ftands in no relation to us finners, but that of an enemy, and a confuming fire; fo the nature, effence, and immenfity of God, and what he is in himself, is not the the great Chriftian queftion; but rather, what he is to us, and fo what he is in Chrift. All the faving manifeftations of God to his people in fcripture were ftill, not of God, abfolutely and eflentially, in what he was in himfelf, and in his nature; but relatively, in what he was to them; and fo it was always in Chrift. Thus, when he came to Abraham, he faid, "I am thy fhield, and thy exceeding great reward," Gen. xv. 1. "I am thy God, and the God of thy feed: which Seed was Chrift," Gal. iii. 16. in whom that covenant and promife was established to Abraham and his offspring. And when God manifefted himfelf to the patriarchs that came of Abraham, Ifaac, and Jacob, his ordinary way was to make himfelf known upon that ground of the new covenant, established in Chrift, Abraham's Seed; hence, when he came to them, he used to say to them, “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Ifaac, and the God of Jacob" that is, he manifefted himfelf to them, not abfolutely, by what he was in his nature; but relatively, by what he was to them in Chrift, the promised Seed. If we begin to dive into that question, What think ye of God? we may foon lofe ourselves, and come to the philofopher's demand of a day to answer that queftion, and then a week, and then a month, and then tell it is impoffible to anfwer it: nay, we ought not to be curious in fearching into the nature of God, left we get a dafh; for, human philofophy cannot reach it; yea, I doubt if angelical wifdom can. It is the only pleasant, faving, and profitable enquiry, to ftudy this queftion, What think ye of Chrift? Here we find what God is to us. To enquire what God is in himself, abfolutely and effentially, is no faving or profitable enquiry. What profit is it for a man, who lives under the north-pole, and fees not the fun for one half of the year, though he fhould count the course of the fun all that time that he fees it not? Or, what profit were it for a man to go and count what rent the king of Morroco or emperor of China draws every year, and he gets none of it? As foolish is it for us to begin and ftudy what God is abfolutely in himself, and not what he is relatively to us; therefore the question is not, What think ye of God? but, What What think ye of CHRIST? And this, by the bye, fhews the difference that there is between learned fools and wife Chriftians; why, the learned fools feek to know and comprehend what God is; what is this myftery of the Trinity, and the like; and there he lofes himfelf: he feeks to know what God is himfelf, and not what he is to him. But the poor Chriftian is herein wiser than that learned clerk, for all his wit; for the Chriftian ftudies Christ, and fo knows what God is to him, better than all the learned Rabbies with their curious fpeculations though yet the poor foul may ctherwife be very ignorant and illiterate, yet it is wife unto falvation, because he knows Chrift, and Chrift is made of God to him wifdom, righteoufnefs, fanctification, and redemption and when he knows Chrift, he is upon the fureft and fafeft way to know God; for he fees God in Chrift, and God related to him in Chrift; for Chrift is our relation as God-man, Mediator. And indeed, Sirs, to believe in Chrift, is to believe God's relation to us, and God reconciled to us: for, when we look to Chrift, we fee God in him; and when we see God in him, we see that he is reconciled in him to us, and well-pleased in him with us; 2 Cor. v. 19. " God is in Chrift reconciling the world to himself." Matth. iii. 17. “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleafed." I own, indeed, a man may be a believer, and yet apprehend God to be his enemy; but then he is not believing, he is not thinking of Chrift by faith: it is an unbelieving thought he hath then of God; for a believing thought of Christ would give him another thought of God, even as a Friend and Father in him. This then, I hope, is an useful inference, That the sum of Christian knowledge is Chrift. 2. Hence fee what is the beft matter for meditation, and the best rule for felf-examination. Here is the most noble fubject of meditation, namely, to think of Chrift; and here is the moft excellent rule for examination, namely, to afk our fouls that queftion, What think we of Chrift? Meditation and felf-examination are duties much neglected among us; they are spiritual exercises, directly crofs and oppofite to our vain, wandering, idle, and unfixed hearts. A man will rather go betwixt the |