saints beside them saw the Lord in his incarnate state; yet they were not called and appointed to be witnesses of this, as the apostles were. So that here we are to conceive the apostle, by the words he here uses, to include his fellow-apostles, when he says, 66 Which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled." Not that they all saw so much of Christ as he did. There were but two beside himself, who were present when our Lord raised the daughter of Jairus from death to life. There were but the same two, with himself, who saw Christ shine forth on the holy mount, and "were eyewitnesses of his majesty when he received from God the Father honour and glory," when" there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." His brother James, and Peter, were they, who with himself, were witnesses of our Lord's agony and bloody-sweat. When he says in the 14th verse of the first chapter of his Gospel, "We beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father," he refers to our Lord's transfiguration; a sight reserved for him, and his brother James, and Peter. These, with all the rest of the apostles, heard Christ's voice, they saw his Person, they beheld his miracles, they heard his sermons, they looked stedfastly on him, they touched his sacred Person, they handled him so as that they had the utmost satisfaction their minds and senses, both mentally and by sight, hearing, feeling, and handling, could give them, that our Lord had really and truly a palpable body. This the apostle therefore bears his, and their, testimony unto. This was then, and is to the present, and ever will remain to be a matter of the utmost importance. The evidence the apostles had of his Person, and incarnation, was different from ours. We receive ours from them: and that in a way of believing; whereby we receive into our minds, from their holy and sacred writings, which they have given us, through the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, the true spiritual and supernatural knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ into our minds, and are thereby led to believe on him to the salvation of our souls. They had the evidence of sense as truly as we have the evidence of faith. They saw with their corporeal eyes the Lord Messiah. It was by faith they believed in their minds, from the scriptures of truth, and by the power of the Holy Ghost, they received, believed, and acknowledged him to be the Son of God, who was to come into the world. Yet the sight they had of Christ, and which John is here speaking of, is quite distinct and different from that which we shall ever be favoured with. They saw him with their bodily eyes; they heard him with their bodily ears; they looked on him in the days of his flesh; and they bore their testimony to the truth of this. True believers hear the voice of Christ in his word, and in hearing it their souls live. They see Christ in the light of the gospel, and behold salvation and everlasting life in him; but this is with the eyes of their mind. They touch, they taste, and handle Christ mystically and representatively, at his holy table, in their fellowship with him in his holy supper, yet this is quite distinct and different from what the apostle is here speaking. Yet it is as effectual to us for our souls' benefit, as theirs was. Yet notwithstanding this, the different ends answered by the same are so essential, that they ought to be distinguished. The period of our Lord's incarnation was the centre of the close of the Old Testament, and the beginning of the New. Persons were chosen by the Lord, and called to be witnesses of Christ's ap

pearing in the flesh. They were to record His life. His words. His miracles. His threatenings. His promises. His prophecies. His holiness. His rightouseness. His passion. His death. His burial. His resurrection. His ascension into heaven. His session at the right hand of the Majesty on high. His coronation in glory. And his sending down the Holy Ghost from heaven, to prove him to be the Lord's Messiah, the Saviour of the world. Now the apostles who were to be witnesses of all this unto the people, and who actually did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead, could say, as one of them does for all the rest, "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life." For they saw God incarnate, and conversed with him, and were his companions in his incarnate state. He who shone forth between the cherubim of glory, in the Holy of Holies; whom Isaiah saw in a vision, and of whom he said, Mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts. This most adorable Person the apostles saw with their bodily eyes, in his incarnate state. A sight we shall never behold. It is everlastingly impossible we should. That state being past. We shall see God incarnate. God-Man, in heaven-we shall see him face to face, in the resurrection state-we shall see him as he is-we shall see him in the state of ultimate glory, as he will there shine forth in his personal glory. We see him now, in the glass of the everlasting gospel, as truly and efficaciously as the apostles did, in our measure and degree, though not as they did with their bodily eyes. We see him with the eye of faith, as certainly as those persons did with the eyes of their body, and as truly, yet not so clearly and fully, as saints in heaven do by sense and vision. I would observe, like as all the apostles were not alike favoured with a view of their Lord's glory, when his face shone as the sun, and his raiment was white and glistering, so all saints in their present militant state, are not equally favoured, and shone upon by our Lord Jesus Christ, with his manifestative, and influential presence. There is a holy variety the Lord Jesus is pleased to exercise here. I conceive some saints so far surpass other saints, in the communications Christ imparts to them, and the communion he is pleased to hold with them; that there is herein a vast difference in the experiences of the one, and the other.

In

4. I come to the title John gives this most wonderful One. He styles him, The Word of life; "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life." Our Lord bears in various parts of the inspired volume, the title of the Word. the Old Testament it is recorded of him, that God said, Let there be light: and there was light. Which is thus explained, "By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth." Psalm xxxiii. 6. We read the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram; I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward. Gen. xv. 1. David says, For thy word's sake, and according to thine own heart, hast thou done all these great things, to make thy servant know them." 2 Samuel vii. 21. In all these passages our Lord bears the title of the Word. I mention it, because some conceive it is our apostle alone who styles him so. It is a truth he begins his gospel, with calling Christ, the Word. The reason of the title is generally explained thus. The word is the index

of the mind. By it what is contained in the mind is expressed. So Christ as one in the self-existing Essence, speaks out the mind of the eternal Father. It was by his Almighty fiat, the heavens and the earth were created, and all the host of them. It was by him, all the secrets of the Most High were spoken out and proclaimed, and the invisible God brought out of his invisibility. So says our evangelist in the first chapter of his Gospel, "No man hath seen God at any time: the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him." 18. It is in him the full, revelation of Godhead is made known. It is by the personal union of the Son of God, with the man Christ Jesus, there is the clearest evidence given us, of the Trinity in Unity, which we can possibly receive. It is in the essential word all the mind of God is opened, all the love of God expressed, the whole of God declared. It is as this essential word, and only begotten Son of God, shines forth as God-Man, in his most glorious person, mediation, work, grace, and salvation, in the everlasting gospel, and enlightens his Church therewith, that they in his light see light. The following scripture seems to be very properly produced; and which I conceive may be looked on as a confirmation of this vast, deep, and most glorious subject. "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." 2 Cor. iv. 6. It is in the person of Christ, GodMan, all of God shines forth.-It is in his person the fullest display of Godhead is made manifest; so that he is the light; the true light; the light of everlasting life; and as he is styled by the apostle Paul, the word of God's grace, he being the gift of the Father's love to the Church; and all the grace of God being revealed in him, and the whole fulness of it treasured up in him, that out of his fulness we might receive grace for grace; so our apostle gives him this title here, the Word of life. "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life." The words of Paul which I have referred unto, are his surrender of the elders of Ephesus to the Lord. "And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the Word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified." Acts xx. 32. It is not the written word he here speaks of, but the same of whom he says, "For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do." Heb. iv. 12, 13. The Word of life, the title John gives here to Christ, as God-incarnate, is very emphatical; he is life essentially; he is life manifestatively; he is life communicatively; he is the very fountain of life, as the head of his body, the Church, from whence the very apostles themselves received all their spiritual life, and who would be to them life eternal in the kingdom of glory. Christ might well be styled by the apostle the Word of life, he being the life of the whole creation, whether visible or invisible; the life of all creatures is in him, as it is also from him. He is the life of all the elect angels of his presence in glory.-H.

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is the life of glory to all his saints, who are in the state of glory.—He is their everlasting Light, and their everlasting glory.-He is the life of this whole church upon earth. He lives in all his called and regenerated members; he continues and maintains life spiritual, and life eternal in their minds; and all the life they will ever enjoy is alone in him. When Christ our life shall appear, then (says the apostle to the saints at Colosse) shall ye also appear with him in glory. The title, the Word of life, is glorious. It is worthy of Christ. He is called the Prince of life. Acts iii. 15. It is Peter who there gives our Lord that title; and here John entitles him, the Word of life and says, he and his brethren had found and proved him to be such. Our hands have handled of the Word of life. It would be well for us to consider this title; according to it, we can have no true spiritual life in our souls; we receive it all from him; we live it all to him; graces and comforts are but the effects of it; our communion with God, either on earth or in heaven, is not this life, it is only the effect of it. These words of Christ are great; we can take in but a very small apprehension of the same; He says, "For as the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself." John v. 26; which I conceive to concern Christ, as God-Man, who lives a life of independent blessedness as such; who is over all, in all, and through all, God blessed for ever. Rom. ix. 5. He is the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God; the blessed and only potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen. As the whole fulness of the Godhead dwelleth in the humanity, which is one person with the Son of the living God, so the fulness of that glory must be everlastingly too great, fully to shine forth on saints, even in glory; so that none can ever fully conceive of it, nor be admitted to the full blaze thereof. I hope I have made no mistake in what I have been delivering on this subject. I do not mean concerning the subject itself. It is fully revealed in the word of revelation; yet the mystery is so transcendently great, it requires very great supernatural light and teaching, rightly to apprehend it. If, therefore, I have not been so clear on these momentous truths, may the Lord pardon me; and by the light and teaching of his holy Spirit, bless what in it is acceptable in his sight. Amen,

SERMON II.

(For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us).—1 JOHN i. 2.

We have a continuation of the former subject in the foregoing verse, in which the Person, Eternity, and Incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ, and knowledge given of the same, were by the apostle declared. This most divine Person sustains the title, The Word of Life. The apostle had in his gospel entitled Him, The Word. The Light. The True Light. In the words of our present text, he speaks of Him, by the titles of, The Life. Eternal Life. He is in the former, and in this verse also, speaking of Christ, as the Christ of God. Of what He is in himself—in his Person, abstracted from all consideration of what He is to his church, as their Head, their Lord, their Bridegroom, their Mediator, their Saviour, their Wisdom, their Righteousness, their Sanctification, their Redemption. The whole of my text is included in a parenthesis; the reason for which I cannot say, unless it be to distinguish the peculiar sight and knowledge the apostles had of our Lord Jesus Christ, in those particulars mentioned in both the verses, beyond the rest of saints. Like as in the 14th verse of the first chapter of John's gospel, he includes the following words in a parenthesis." We beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father." As this sight was peculiar to Peter, James, and John, it referring to our Lord's transfiguration; so it may be, the same may be here made use of, thus to distinguish the apostles, and their sight, and witness concerning the Dignity, Majesty, Glory, Honour, Incarnation, Life, and Death, from all others. In the words before us, the apostle speaks of Christ's manifestation in the flesh-of his being the Life of his being The Eternal Life. He declares Him to have been with the Father before his open incarnation—that himself, and the other apostles, saw Him in his incarnate state: they bear witness of Him; they shewed this truth concerning Him to the people. Yea, they declared most freely this, as the very essence of truth, that he was manifested unto them, which is almost the same with the former verse, which for the sake of its connection, and to preserve the same, I will recite. "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us)." As we read these verses together, the one seems to explain the other. He who was in the beginning, was the Word of Life. This Word of Life was manifested. He was that Eternal Life which was with the Father. He was manifested unto us,

says the apostle. This is what He was. The Word of Life. The Life manifested. He was that Eternal Life which was with the Father. What He was, He is the same now, and will remain the same to all eternity. He says, "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come,