A51837:89
Christs eternal existence, and the dignity of his person asserted and proved in opposition…
Christs eternal existence, and the dignity of his person asserted and proved in opposition to the doctrine of the Socinians : in several sermons on Col. I, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 verses / by the Reverend Tho. Manton.
London printed : s.n., 1685
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
2. In his Word: where God is revealed to us savingly, so as we may be brought into Communion with him, so it is said, least the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ, who is the Image of God, should shine unto them, 2 Cor. 4.4. As God shineth forth in Christ, so doth Christ shine forth in the Gospel: there we have the Record of his Doctrine, Miracles, and the end for which he came into the World; and this is the great instrument by which the virtue and power of God is conveyed to us, for the changing of our hearts and lives, 2 Cor. 3.18. 'Beholding the glory of the Lord as in a glass, we are changed into his Image and likeness from ⟨p. 35⟩glory to glory. Some sight of God we must have, or else we cannot be like him: the knowledge or sight of God, with mortal or bodily eyes is impossible, the external manifestations and representations in the creature is imperfect, and sufficeth rather for Conviction, then Conversion, or to leave us without excuse, then to save the soul, Rom. 12.1. (they have not the excuse of faultless ignorance.) To know him in the Law, or Covenant of works doth but work wrath, Rom. 4.15. or revive in us a stinging sense of our hopeless condition. To know him in Person, or to see his glorious works, or hear his glorious words, was a privilege vouchsafed but to few, and to many that made no good use of it; therefore there is only reserved his Word, to bring us into Communion with God. Or the glass of the Gospel to represent the glory of the Lord, that we may be changed into his likeness from glory to glory. There the knowledge of God is held out powerfully in order to our Salvation.
2. In his Word: where God is revealed to us savingly, so as we may be brought into Communion with him, so it is said, least the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ, who is the Image of God, should shine unto them, 2 Cor. 4.4. As God shineth forth in Christ, so doth Christ shine forth in the Gospel: there we have the Record of his Doctrine, Miracles, and the end for which he came into the World; and this is the great instrument by which the virtue and power of God is conveyed to us, for the changing of our hearts and lives,