Meditations and Discourses on the Glory of Christ

4. LET your occasional Thoughts of Christ be many, and multiplied every Day, he is not far from us; we may make a speedy Address unto him at any time: so the Apostle informs us, Rom. 10. 6, 7, 8. Say not in thine heart who shall ascend into Heaven (that is to bring Christ down from above) or who shall descend into the deep; that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead; for the word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart. The things that Christ did, were done at a Distance from us, and they are long since past. But saith the Apostle, the Word of the Gospel wherein these things are revealed, and whereby an Application is made of them unto our Souls, is nigh unto us, even in our hearts; that is, if we are true Believers, and have mixed the Word with Faith: and so it exhibiteth Christ and all the Benefits of his Mediation unto us. If therefore this Word is in our Hearts, Christ is nigh unto us. If we turn at any time into our selves to converse with the Word that abideth in us, there we shall find him ready to receive us into Communion with himself, that is, in the Light of the Knowledge of Christ which we have by the Word, we may have sudden occasional Thoughts of him continually; and where our Minds and Affections are so filled with other things, that we are not ready for converse with him who is thus nigh unto us by the Word, we are spiritually indisposed.

SO to manifest how nigh he is unto us, it is said that he stands at the door and knocks, Rev. 3. 20. in the continual tender that he makes of himself and his Grace unto our Souls. For he is always accompanied with the glorious Train of his Graces, and if they are not received, he himself is not so. It is to no purpose to boast of Christ, if we have not an Evidence of his Graces in our Hearts and Lives. But unto whom he is the Hope ⟨p. 52⟩of Future Glory, unto them he is the Life of present grace.