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you, that there is no way of knowing the Father favingly, but by knowing me; and if you knew me more, you would know the Father more: let me, therefore, again tell you, Philip, and, in you, all my difciples to the end of the world," He that hath feen me, hath feen the Father."

In which words you have the believer's fiducial vision, which is much the fame fpecifically with the beatific vifion that he will have in heaven for ever, notwithstanding of whatever gradual difference there will be betwixt them. Particularly,

1. You have the act of this vifion, it is called a SEEING; and being expreffed by fight, it imports a clear and diftinct knowledge.

2. You have the immediate object of this vifion, namely, CHRIST, who is here fpeaking, "He that hath feen me;" not only ME, as God co-effential with the Father; ME, as the Son of God, the fecond perfon of the glorious Trinity; but also Me, as God-man, Mediator betwixt God and man; ME, as the brightness of the Father's glory, and the exprefs image of his perfon.

3. You have the ultimate object of this vifion, namely, the FATHER; he hath feen the Father; that is, either the Father effentially confidered, as God; one God with the Son and the Holy Ghoft; or perfonally confidered, as the first perfon of the glorious Trinity, and as the God and Father of our Lord Jefus Chrift. And here is the fartheft fight of faith's profpect in time, the far end of faith's view, even to fee the Father in Chrift.

4. You have here the connection betwixt the act of feeing the immediate object, with the act of seeing the ultimate object, flowing from the effential oneness betwixt the Father and the Son, notwithstanding of their perfonal diftinction: "He that hath feen me, hath feen the Father." Of this myfterious one nefs as the foundation of this connexion betwixt feeing him, and feeing the Father, the Lord Jefus infifts, ver. 10. faying, "I am in the Father, and the Father in me. And again, ver. 11. I am in the Father, and the Father in me." Hence the doc

trine I incline to treat of, for explaining this purpose more fully, is this;

DOCT. That such is the oneness betwixt Chrift and the Father, that he that hath feen Chrift, hath feen the Father.

Though believers, who have feen, and fee but thro' a glafs darkly, may not diftinctly know that they have feen the Father, when they have seen Chrift, as the context clears; yet fuch is the myfterious unity and oneness betwixt glorious Chrift, and his glorious Father, that a faving fight of Chrift does neceffarily carry in it a faving fight of the Father, as Christ declares, "He that hath feen me, hath feen the Father."

And now, my friends, fo great is the fubject I am propofing to speak of, that frequently I have had thoughts of giving it over, as too fublime and glorious for me to handle. It is fuch, that if we could fpeak aright about it, not only elect finners, but elect angels, who pry into the gofpel-mystery, might be edified by it. If we should effay to fpeak of the heaven of heavens, and all the glory of it, it would not be fuch a great fubject as to speak of feeing Chrift, and of feeing the Father in him. They are blind that do not fee the need we have of the affiftance of the eternal Spirit, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, when we are thus effaying to speak of feeing the Father in the Son. Therefore, O endeavour, with your hearts, to lift up a prayer, for the conduct and help of the Spirit of God and of glory, that in speaking and hearing of fuch a subject, we may fee the glory of Chrift, and the glory of the Father in him.

The method I propofe to follow in clearing and illuftrating this doctrine, as the Lord fhall be pleafed to affift, is this,

I. To fpeak of that ONENESS that is betwixt the Father and the Son.

II. To offer fome thoughts, or remarks, concerning a faving fight of Chrift.

III. To

III. To fhew in what refpects it is, that they who fee CHRIST, fee the FATHER.

IV. How, and in what manner the Father is seen in Chrift.

V. Offer fome grounds of the doctrine, fhewing whence it is, that they that fee Chrift, do see the Father.

VI. Draw fome inferences from the whole, for application thereof.

I. The First thing propofed is, to fpeak of the ONENESS that is betwixt the Father and the Son. This onenefs is declared by our Lord Jefus; and, indeed, it is a mystery of pure revelation, and what we could not otherwife know; and it is what we cannot fully comprehend yet it is the object of our faith, ver. 10, II. "Believeft thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me?" It is what our Lord Jefus tells his difciples, they fhall more fully know afterwards, ver. 20. "At that day ye fhall know that I am in my Father; and you in me, and I in you." Our Lord Jefus exprefly afferts this onenefs, John x. 30. "I and my Father are one." He makes it the ground of all Chriftian unity, John xvii. 21. "That they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee; that they alfo may be ONE in us." Hence alfo our Lord Jefus, much in the fame manner as in the words of the text, John xii. 44, 45. "He that believeth on me, believeth on him that fent me. He that feeth me, feeth him that fent me." Such then is the onenefs betwixt the Father and the Son, that he who hath feen Chrift, hath feen the Father. But to explain this oneness a little more particularly, we muft confider,

ift, Negatively, that we are not to understand this oneness in respect of perfonality; the Father and the Son are not one perfon, but two perfons: the Father is one perfon, and the Son is another perfon of the adorable Trinity. They are distinct in refpect of personal properties, namely, it is proper to the Father to beget the Son; and to the Son to be begotten of the Father; even as it is to the Holy Ghoft to proceed from the Father

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and the Son, from all eternity. I hope I need not fland to enlarge upon this to you, that make use of our Catechifms, with the fcripture-proofs; only carry ftill along with you this perfonal diftinction, the Father is not the Son, nor the Son the Father; the Father was not incarnate, nor did humble himself and die for finners as Chrift did; the Father fent the Son.-Neither are you to understand this oneness betwixt Christ and the Father in refpect of Chrift's humanity; the two natures of Chrift must not be confounded; the humanity of Chrift is not one with God; the humanity is unite to Chrift the Son, not to the Father; it is Chrift who is Mediator, God-man, in one perfon. Hence, when Chrift fays, John xiv. 28. " My Father is greater than I," it must be underflood of Chrift's humanity, and of Chrift in the form of a fervant; who yet, in re. gard of his divine nature, is in the form of God, and thinks it no robbery to be equal with God, Phil. ii. 6, 7. Therefore,

2dly, And pofitively, we are to view this oneness betwixt the Father and the Son, in thefe following refpects, 1. There is an oneness in point of nature and effence betwixt them; Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are but one God; " Hear, O Ifrael, the Lord our God is ONE JEHOVAH, Deut. vi. 4. There are three that bear witnefs in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Spirit, and thefe three are ONE," IJohn v. 7. Hence it is faid,

"In our Lord dwells all the fulness of the God-head bodily," Col. ii. 9. The Father and the Son, then, are one in effence and being with the Holy Ghoft: These three are one God, the fame in fubfiance, equal in power and glory.'

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2. There is an oneness betwixt the Father and the Son in point of essential properties and attributes; Christ is, together with the Father and Holy Ghoft, one Spirit, 'infinite, eternal, unchangeable, in his being, wifdom, 'power, holinefs, juftice, goodnefs, and truth.' Is the Father omnipotent? fo is the Son; He is the mighty God, Ifa. ix. 6. Is the Father omniprefent? fo is the Son; "Lo, I am with you always to the end of the world," Mat. xxviii. 20.; and, "Where two or three are gathered VOL. II.

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together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." Is the Father omnifcient? fo is the Son; "Thou that knoweft all things, knows that I love thee," John xxi. 17. Chrift faii to Nathaniel, "When thou waft under the fig-tree, I faw thee." Here was a token that none in the world knew bnt Nathaniel himself, upon which he was convinced of the deity of Chrift, which made him fay, Truly thou art the Son of God, thou art the King of Ifrael."Is the Father eternal? fo is Chrifl; "Before Abraham was, I am."-Is the Father immortal? fo is Chrift; "The King eternal and immortal."-Is the Father immutable: fo is Chrift; "The fame yesterday, today, and for-ever, and without all variableness or fhadow of turning."

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3. There is an oneness betwixt them in point of work: the works that are proper only to God are ascribed to Christ. I cannot ftand upon all the fcriptures that are cited by orthodox divines on thefe fubjects. In fhort, "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work," fays Chrift. The work of creation is afcribed to him, "All things were made by him, John i. 3. Thou, Lord, in the beginning haft laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of thine hands," Heb. i. 10.-The work of prefervation alfo, and the fuftentation of the world; Upholding all things by the word of his power,' Heb. i. 3.-The work of redemption; Acts xx. 28. "Feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood."-The donation of the Spirit, is his work; "When the Comforter is come, whom I will fend unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he fhall testify of me," John xv. 26. And, "I will fend him unto you." The raifing of the dead out of their graves, is his work, and that both in a spiritual and corporal fenfe; "The hour comes, when the dead fhall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear fhall live," John v. 25. The government of the world, and the judging of the world, at the laft day, is his work; "The Father judg eth no man, but hath committed all judgment to the Son," John v. 22.; and he will judge the world in righteoufnefs. The inftitution of ordinances and offices in

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