y is and
the richer the comfort is. Suppose the manifestation of glory should not
be so great, yet the manifestation of love is so much the greater. And
this is the great design, "God so loved the world" &c. John iii. Nay, I
may say, even the glory of the only begotten Son of God was the more
visibly manifested, that he appeared in so low and unequal a shape. For
power to show itself in weakness, for glory to appear in baseness, for
divinity to kythe(228) in humanity, and such glorious rays to break forth
from under such a dark cloud, this was greater glory, and more majesty,
than if he had only showed himself in the perfection of the creatures. Now
it is easy to distinguish the vail from that it covers,--to separate
infirmity from divinity. But then it had been more difficult, if his
outward appearance had been so glorious, to give unto God what was God's,
and to give the creatures what was the creatures'. The more near his
outward shape had been to his divine nature, the less able had we been to
see the glory of his divinity through it.

Now, my beloved, when both these are laid together, the ancientness of our
Saviour, and withal the newness of his appearance in the flesh by which he
hath come so near us, and, as it were, brought his own Majesty within our
sphere, to be apprehended by us,--and for no other end but to make life and
immortality to shine forth as beams from him, to the quickening of dead
souls,--O how should this conjunction endear him to us! That the
everlasting Father should become a child for us, that is one wonder. The
next wonder is, that we who are enemies should be made the children of God
by him. When the dark and obscure prophesying of this,--when the twilight
of Jewish types and shadows did create so much joy in the hearts of
believers, insomuch that they longed for and rejoiced to see afar off that
day,--when such a dark representation of this Word of life, was the very
life of the godly in the world for four thousand years,--O how much is the
cause of joy increased, by the rising of the Sun of righteousness himself,
and his appearing in the very darkest night of superstition and idolatry
that ever was over the world! When the true Life hath risen himself, and
brought to open light that life that was obscurely couched up in
prophecies and ceremonies, as hid under so many clouds. O then, let us
open our hearts to him, and then entertain these new and fresh tidings
with new delights. Though thes