A53708:527
Meditations and Discourses on the Glory of Christ
Meditations and discourses on the glory of Christ, in his person, office, and grace with the differences between faith and sight applied unto the use of them that believe / by the late Reverend John Owen, D.D.
London: printed by B.A., 1691
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Chapter 13: The second Difference between our beholding the Glory of Christ by Faith in this World,…
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.
BUT there is no more sacred truth than this; That where Christ is present with Believers, where he is not withdrawn for a season from them, where they live in the view of his Glory by faith as it is proposed unto them in the Gospel, he will give unto them at his own seasons such intimations of his love, such supplies of his spirit, such holy joys and rejoicings, such repose of soul in assurance, as shall refresh their souls, fill them with joy, satisfy them with spiritual delight, and quicken them unto all acts of holy Communion with himself.
BUT there is no more sacred truth than this; That where Christ is present with Believers, where he is not withdrawn for a season from them, where they live in the view of his Glory by faith as it is proposed unto them in the Gospel, he will give unto them at his own seasons such intimations of his love, such supplies of his spirit, such holy joys and rejoycings, such repose of soul in assurance, as shall refresh their souls, fill them with joy, satisfie them with spiritual delight, and quicken them unto all acts of holy Communion with himself.
LET no such dishonour be reflected on the Gospel, that whereas the faith of it, and obedience unto it, are usually accompanied with outward Troubles, Afflictions, Persecution and Reproaches, as we are foretold they should be; that it doth not by its inward consolations and divine refreshments, outbalance all those evils which we may undergo upon the account of it. So to suppose, is expressly contrary to the promise of Christ himself who hath assured that even [Greek or Hebrew] even now in this life, in this world, distinct from eternal life; in the world to come, we shall receive an hundred-fold recompense for all that we can lose or suffer for his his sake, Mat. 10. 30. as also unto the experience of them who in all ages have taken joyfully the spoiling of their goods, as knowing in themselves (by the experience which they have of its first fruits) that they have in heaven a better and more abiding substance, Heb. 10. 29, 30. If we come short in a participation of these things, if we are strangers unto them, the blame is to be laid on our selves alone, as it shall be immediately declared.