of an
immediate ray of divine glory: it would kill us outright.

6. We must then go to Christ, and there see God; for he who seeth him
seeth the Father also, John xiv. 9. Particularly, we must go the face of
Jesus Christ, that is, that whereby he hath made himself known, the
noble contrivance of the glorious gospel, wherein all things are so
carried on, as that God is glorified in his Son, in the salvation of
poor sinners. The whole work of salvation is laid on Christ, and the
Father is glorified in him, who is his Servant and his Chosen, whom he
upholdeth and furnisheth for the work, Isa. xlii. 1,2. He is called the
covenant itself. He is the undertaker in the covenant of redemption and
in the covenant of grace; all is founded on him; all the good things of
it are given out by him; all the grace by which we close with it, and
accept of him according to it, is given by him. Now, in this gospel
contrivance are all the lines of the glorious face of Christ to be
seen; and in that face must we see and discern the glory of God, all the
rays of which are centered in Christ, and there will we get a noble
prospect of that glorious object. So that all such as would make use of
Christ for this end, that they might come to have right and suitable
thoughts and apprehensions of God, must be well acquainted with the
whole draught and frame of the gospel; and so acquainted therewith, as
to see Christ the substance, ground and all of it, and to see him in
every part of it.

7. Whatever we know or learn of God by his works of creation and
providence, in the world or about ourselves, we would bring it in here
that it may receive a new tincture and a deeper impression. That is
done, when we find and learn something of Christ there, and are brought
nearer Christ thereby, and made thereby to discover something more of
the glory of God in the face of Christ; or are made to understand better
something of the revelation that is made of God in the gospel, or moved
thereby to improve it better.

8. In all this matter, we must not go without our guide, lest we wander
in this wilderness, and it prove a labyrinth to us. We must take Christ
with us all along; he must teach us to understand his own face, and to
read the glorious characters of that excellent glory which is to be seen
in his face. He must be our interpreter, and teach us how to read this
book, and how to understand what is written therein; he must give the
discerning eye, and the u