Meditations and Discourses on the Glory of Christ

TO sum up briefly what hath been spoken. There are three things to be considered concerning the Glory of Christ, three degrees in its manifestation; The Shadow, the perfect Image, and the Substance it self. Those under the Law had only the Shadow of it, and of the things that belong unto it, they had not the perfect Image of them, Heb. 10. 1. Under the Gospel we have the perfect Image, ⟨p. 159⟩which they had not; or a clear complete revelation and declaration of it presenting it unto us as in a glass: But the enjoyment of these things in their Substance is referred for Heaven; we must be where he is, that we may behold his Glory. Now there is a greater difference and distance between the real substance of any thing, and the most perfect image of it, than there is between the most perfect image, and the lowest shadow of the same thing. If then they longed to be freed from their state of Types and Shadows, to enjoy the Representation of the Glory of Christ in that Image of it, which is given us in the Gospel; much more ought we to breath and pant after our deliverance from beholding it in the Image of it, that we may enjoy the Substance it self. For whatever can be manifest of Christ on this side Heaven, it is granted unto us for this end, that we may the more fervently desire to be present with him.

TO sum up briefly what hath been spoken. There are three things to be considered concerning the Glory of Christ, three degrees in its manifestation; The Shadow, the perfect Image, and the Substance it self. Those under the Law had only the Shadow of it, and of the things that belong unto it, they had not the perfect Image of them, Heb. 10. 1. Under the Gospel we have the perfect Image, ⟨p. 159⟩which they had not; or a clear compleat revelation and declaration of it presenting it unto us as in a glass: But the enjoyment of these things in their Substance is referred for Heaven; we must be where he is, that we may behold his Glory. Now there is a greater difference and distance between the real substance of any thing, and the most perfect image of it, than there is between the most perfect image, and the lowest shadow of the same thing. If then they longed to be freed from their state of Types and Shadows, to enjoy the Representation of the Glory of Christ in that Image of it, which is given us in the Gospel; much more ought we to breath and pant after our deliverance from beholding it in the Image of it, that we may enjoy the Substance it self. For whatever can be manifest of Christ on this side Heaven, it is granted unto us for this end, that we may the more fervently desire to be present with him.