of him
and his ways; yea, sometimes, all the thoughts they can get of God are
vain and idle, if not misshapen and blasphemous.

4. That as we are, we cannot see God; "for no man hath seen him," Matt.
xi. 27. John iv. 46; for he is an invisible God, 1 Tim. i. 17. Heb. xi.
27. "He dwelleth in light which no man can approach unto. Him no man
hath seen, nor can see," 1 Tim. vi. 16. 1 John iv. 12.

5. That all that knowledge of God which is saving, is to be found in
Christ, who is the "brightness of his glory, and the express image of
his person," Heb. i. 2; "and the image of the invisible God," Col. i.
15; and is for this end come out from the bosom of the Father, that he
might acquaint us with him, and with all his secrets, John i. 18. Matt.
xi. 27, so far as is needful for us to know. He is God incarnate, that
in him we may see the invisible. Thus "God is manifest in the flesh," 1
Tim. iii. 16; "and the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us," John i.
14.

6. That therefore if we would see and know God, we must go to Christ,
who is the temple in which God dwelleth and manifesteth his glory; and
in and through him, must we see and conceive of God. The light that we
get of the knowledge of the glory of God, must be in the face of Jesus
Christ, 2 Cor. iv. 6; that is, in the manifestations that Christ hath
made of himself, in his natures, offices, ordinances, works,
dispensations of grace, mediate and immediate, &c. And thus doth God,
who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, "cause this light of
the knowledge of his glory shine into our hearts," viz. in the face of
Jesus Christ, that is, in the dispensations of grace in the gospel,
which is the glorious gospel of Christ, 2 Cor. iv. 4, and, as it were,
the face of Jesus Christ; for as by the face a man is best known and
distinguished from others, so Christ is visibly, and discernibly, and
manifestly, seen and known, in and by the gospel dispensations; there
are all the lineaments and draughts of the glory of God which we would
know, lively and clearly to be seen.

So then, if we would make use of Christ for this end, that we may win to
a right sight of God, and suitable conceptions of his glory, we would
consider those things:

1. We would live under the sense and thorough conviction of the
greatness and incomprehensibleness of God, as being every way past
finding out; and also under the conviction of our own darkness and
incapacity to conceive aright of him, e