d

is my first born") herein was their double portion above all other nations, that they had the oracles of God committed unto them; that they were intrusted with the custody of that honourable law, which, as the apostle saith, was "holy, just, and good." And in like manner, in the Christian church, the gospel, which is the law of Christ', is called by the apostle "a glorious gospel," because it is the riches and the salvation of those that enjoy it'; insomuch that the very feet of those that bring glad tidings thereof, are said to be beautiful. (Rom. x. 15) And therefore as we read of Moses ", that his face shined when he came down from the mount; to signify the glory and lustre of the legal ministry", as the apostle teacheth us; so likewise do we read of Christ, that his face shined as the sun °, in his transfiguration on the mount, to signify the far more excellent glory of the evangelical ministry of life and righteousness P: in which respect he is called 'the glory of his people ',' and 'a diadem of beauty unto the residue of them " for where Christ walketh in the midst of the golden candlesticks, having his ordinances in their vigour and efficacy duly administered, he thereby rendereth his church beautiful in these four respects:

1. By the verity of his heavenly doctrine. When a people are taught of the Lord, then their stones are laid with fair colours, and their foundations with sapphires, their windows of agates, their gates of carbuncles, and their borders of precious stones. (Isa. liv. 11, 12, 13) When the earth is full of the knowledge of the Lord, then is his rest, or the place of his abode, glorious. (Isa. xi. 9, 10) And therefore when Christ was ascended up on highs, far above all heavens, that he might fill all things, he gave unto his church, apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers, in order to the perfecting and edifying of his body, and carrying it on unto the measure of the stature of his fulness, wherein alone the beauty thereof consisteth.

2. By the purity of spiritual worship. When sacrifices are offered with acceptance upon God's altar, (and none are so but spiritual sacrifices) then doth he glorify the house of his glory, and beautify the place of his sanctuary, and make it an eternal excellency: then doth he give gold for brass, and silver for iron: then doth he call the walls of the church salvation, and her gates praise. (Isa. lx. 7, and xiii. 15, 17, 18) Therefore the second temple, though far inferior in outward splendor to the former, is said to exceed that in glory; because unto it the Desire of all nations' should come, and set up therein his spiritual worship. (Hag. ii. 3, 7, 8, 9) For as the soul, which is the breath of life, puts beauty into the body; so the spirit of Christ, poured out upon his church, doth enliven and beautify that, and turn the wilderness into a fruitful field."

6

3. By sanctity of life, renewing them after the image of Christ. For when the church is sanctified, and cleansed with the washing of water by the word, then it is fit to be presented unto Christ as a glorious church. (Eph. v. 26, 27) Holiness is called by the apostle the renewing of the Holy Ghost, the forming of Christ in us,' the quickening and creating us in him unto good works.' Look what beauty the renewing of a ruinous and decayed building bringeth upon that; what beauty the re-union of a living soul unto a ghastly body doth restore unto that; what beauty the creation brought upon the void and indigested chaos, when it was wrought unto that goodly frame and structure which we now behold;-the same, and much more, doth the forming of Christ and the spirit of holiness, bring upon our deformed and defiled nature by the efficacy of the ordinances.

4. By decency of order, rendering the church "beautiful as Tirzah, comely as Jerusalem, terrible as an army with banners." a Thus the church of Israel marched in the wilderness in the manner of a formed camp, with exquisite beauty and order, whereof we have an ample description, Numb. 2. In like manner, the new Jerusalem which descended out of heaven, beautified with the glory of God, whose street was pure gold as transparent glass, whose foun

dation was garnished with all manner of precious stones, is said to be four-square, having an accurate proportion and symmetry in all the parts thereof. (Rev. xxi. 16) And thus the apostle directed all things to be done, in the church of Christ, with decency and order; (1 Cor. xiv. 40) and rejoiced to see the order which was in the church of the Colossians. (Col. ii. 5) When every member keepeth his own rank, and every officer doth his proper duty, according to the pattern and commission given him by Christ,then is the pastoral office administered with the staff of Beauty.'

In one word, the ordinances are thus the beauty of a church, because in and by them Christ is spiritually present therein, and the treasures of his grace are unfolded unto it. He who is the chiefest among ten thousand, and altogether lovely, who was the Desire of all nations, and the hope of glory to his people f, in comparison of whose excellencies all other things are but loss and dung, whose very afflictions and reproaches are preferred before the pleasure and riches of the world, in whose very sufferings there is joy ',—he is in his ordinances evidently set forth before our eyes; his righteousness the robe wherewith his church is clothed', his comeliness the beauty wherewith she is adorned "; and made high above all the people in praise", and in name, and in honour, by her interest in him, and relation unto him. She hath a new name given her, 'Hephzibah,' the Lord's delight", who delighteth over her as the bridegroom over the bride, esteeming her his rest, his dwelling-place, his desire P :—so that glorious things are spoken of her.

These beauties of Christ in his ordinances, and in his church by means of them, were typified and prefigured by the glorious garments of the priests'; with allusion whereunto we are said in baptism to put on Christ, whose righteousness is unto his church a garment of praise. By the splendour of the tabernacle, and of Solomon's temple, and

:

all the vessels and utensils belonging unto the worship of God therein, all which were exceeding glorious and magnificent for the building and providing whereof, David prepared as immense a treasure as we shall likely read of in any history" in which respect that holy house is called the 'throne of God's glory.' (Jer. xiv. 21) By the city Jerusalem, the mountain of the Lord's holiness, and the joy of the whole earth; by the holy oil, wherewith the tabernacle, the ark, the holy vessels and priests were anointed, compounded of the principal spices after the art of the apothecary; by the beautiful order which was in Solomon's family 2; by the dressing and preparing of a bride for the bridegrooma, as we read of the long and costly purification of the virgins to go unto King Ahasuerus. (Esther ii. 12) So here, in the ordinances, the spouse of Christ is attired and made ready, being arrayed in fine linen, clean and white, and thereby prepared unto glory, and unto every good work. Lastly, By a straight, smooth, even, and pleasant path ", wherein is no crookedness, from whence all stumbling-blocks and offences are removed.

The author and efficient of all this beauty is the Lord, all whose works are perfect, who hath made every thing beautiful in his time. The sum and total of all God's works are, the world and the church; the world is called xóμos, for the beauty and comeliness of it; in which, every thing was very good", when the Lord took a view of it. But the Lord hath chosen his church, upon which to bestow more abundant glory. It is called a land of ornament; (Dan. xi. 16) A land of desire; (Jer. iii. 19) in the building whereof the Lord is said to appear in his glory. (Psal. cii. 16) The world is beautified with the power and wisdom of God; the church besides that, with his love and grace: in the world we have the foot-prints of his greatness; but, in the church, we have the image of his holiness. The world was made by

u 1 Chron. xxii. 14. Vid. Brierwood de nummis, p. 16. Budæum de Asse fol. 112. Sir W. Rawleigh, Hist. 1. 2. c. 17. sect. 9. x Psalm xlviii. 2.

y Exod. xxx. 23. Psalm xlv. 8. 2 Cor. xiv. 15. 1 John ii. 27.
x. 5.
a Isai. lxi. 10. Psalm xlv. 13, 14.

c Rom. ix. 23. 2 Tim. ii 21.

z 1 Kings

b Rev. xix. 7, 8. d Psalm v. S. Heb. xii. 13. Prov. iv. 25. f Deut. xxxii. 4.

iii. 17. Isai. xl. 3, 4. g Eccles. iii. 11.

• Isai. lxii. 10. lvii. 14.

h Gen. i. 31.

him, the church like him; the world to show forth his glory, the church to enjoy it; the world a tenement for his crea tures to dwell in, the church a palace for himself to dwell in: he hath desired it for his habitation; it is his rest for ever. Above all excellencies, holiness is the beauty of a creature; and therefore the angels, who excel in all created perfection, are, above all other appellations, honoured with the name of 'saints;' (Deut. xxxiii. 2), they differ not in nature from devils; in holiness, they do. Derived holiness consisteth in conformity to primitive holiness. The Lord is most holy in himself; and our holiness standeth in his image and likeness, so far forth as he hath, by a holy law, made his holiness a pattern for ours. And when we threw away that image of God, wherein our created holiness consisted, and the Lord was pleased in any of us to renew it again, he did it by the pattern of his beloved Son, who is the image of the invisible God; and the character of his person, full of grace and truth. Now then according to the excellency of the pattern, we are to measure, and take an estimate of that beauty, wherein we are conformable unto that pattern; and what pattern more glorious than the blessed God, and the holy Son of God, the chiefest of ten thousand? unto whom, therefore, the conformity of a creature must be its chief and principal beauty.

There are several attributes or properties, whereby the excellency of this beauty may be further discovered.

Light and lustre for as a great part of the corporal beauty is in the life and vigour of the eye, so of spiritual beauty in the clarity and brightness of the mind; when the Lord, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness', shineth in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. As the sun is the greatest beauty of the visible world, so Christ, as a sun of righteousness, by the excellency of his knowledge", is the glory and beauty of the invisible.

2. Rectitude and straitness. The Wise man thus expresseth our primitive beauty, That God made man perfect°: and we do then recover this beauty, when we are without guile,

i Psalm cxxxii. 13, 14. lxxvi. 2. Exod. xxv. 8. Heb. i. 3.

k Col. i. 15.

12 Cor. iv. 6.

in Matth. iv. 2.

n Phil. iii. 8.