Looking unto Jesus a view of the everlasting gospel, or, the souls eying of Jesus as carrying on the great work of mans salvation from first to last / by Isaac Ambrose ...

SECT. I. An Explanation of the Act and Object.

1. FOr the act, you must look.] Looking is either ocular, or mental.

First, for ocular vision, there may be some use of that in heaven, for there we shall look on Jesus; with these eyes shall I behold him, saith Job; & we shall see him as he is, saith the Apostle; now we see him, as in a glass, but then we shall see him face to face. But till then we must walk by faith, and not by sight.

Secondly, for mental vision, or the inward eye, that is it that will take up our dis∣course, and that is it which the Apostle speaks of in his prayers for the Ephesians, that the eyes of their understanding may be opened, that they may know, &c. Now the ex∣cellency of this mental sight is far above the ocular sight; for there are more excel∣lent things to be seen by the eye of the mind, than by the eye of the body; we only see a peece of the creation by the eye of the body, but the mind reacheth every thing that is in it, yea the mind reacheth to him that made it; God is invisible, & yet this eye sees God; it is said of Moses, that he saw him that is invisible. 2. It is the sight of the mind that gives light and vigour to the sight of the eye, take away the inward light, and the light of the external sense is but as darkness and death. 3. It is the sight of the mind that looks into the worth, use, &c. propriety of any thing presented; the eye can see a thing, but not the worth of it; a beast looks on gold as well as a man, but the sight and knowledge of the worth of it is by the internal light of the mind, so the eye can see a thing but not the use of it; a child looks on a tool in the hand of a work∣man, but the sight and knowledge of the use of it, is only by a man of reason that hath internal light to judge of it: and so the eye can see a thing, but not the propriety of it; a beast looks on his pasture, but he likes it not because it is his, but because it is a pasture, and well furnished. Now we know that the worth, and use, and propriety of a thing, are the very cream of the things themselves, and this the eye of the mind con∣veys, and not the eyes of the body. It is said of Joseph, that he saw hi•• brethren, and knew them, but they knew not him: this was the reason why Joseph was so exceedingly ta∣ken at the sight of his Brethren, that his bowels wrought with joy, and a kind of com∣passion towards them, but they were before him as common strangers, though they saw Joseph their brother a Prince, yet they were taken no more with the sight of him than of any other man, because they knew him not.

Again, this mental looking is either notional and theoretical; or practical and ex∣perimental; the first we call barely the look of our minds; it is an enlightning of our un∣derstandings with some measure of speculative sight in spiritual and heavenly mysteries: the second we call the look of our minds and hearts, whereby we not only see spiritual things, but we are affected with them; we desire, love, believe, joy, and embrace them. To this purpose is that rule, that words of knowledge do sometimes signifie the affections in the heart, and the effects thereof in our lives. And this was the look which Paul longed for, that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection; (i.e.) that he might have ex∣perience of that power, that it might so communicate it self unto him, as to work upon him to all the ends of it. And this was the look that Bernard preferred above all looks. In reading of books (saith he) let us not so much look for science, as savoriness of truth upon our hearts. This I pray (said the Apostle) that your love may abound yet more and more,

in knowledge, and in all judgement; (i.e.) in knowledge and feeling. And certainly this feeling, this experimental Looking on Jesus, is that my Text aims at; it is not a swimming knowledge of Christ, but an hearty feeling of Christs inward workings; it is not heady notions of Christ, but hearty motions towards Christ, that are implied in this inward looking.

2. For the Object, you must look on Jesus.] It is the blessed'st Object that the eye of the mind can possibly fix upon; of all Objects under Heaven, Jesus hath the prehemi∣nence in perfection, and he should have the preheminence in our Meditation. It is he that will make us most happy when we possess him, and we cannot but be joyfull to look upon him, especially when looking is a degree of possessing. — Jesus, for the name signifies Saviour; it is an Hebrew name; the Greeks borrowed it from the He∣brews, the Latines fom the Greeks, and all other Languages from the Latines: It is used five hundred times in Pauls Epistles, saith Genebrard: it comes from the Hebrew word Jehoshua, or Joshua, which in the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah (written after the Babylonian captivity) is Jeshua, and so is our Saviours Name always written in the Syriack translation of the new Testament. This name Jesus was given to Christ the Son of God, by his Father, and brought from Heaven by an Angel, first to Mary, and then to Joseph; and on the day when he was circumcised (as the manner was) this Name was given him by his Parents, as it was commanded from the Lord, by the Angel Gabriel. Not to stand on the Name, for the matter it includes both his office, and his natures; he is the alone Saviour of man, for there is none other name under Heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved, and he is a perfect and an absolute Saviour; he is able to save them to the uttermost, that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. I will not deny, but that the work of salvation is common to all the three persons of the Trinity; it is a known rule, all outward actions are equally common to the three persons; for as they are all one in Nature and Will, so must they be also one in Operation; the Father saveth, the Son saveth, and the holy Ghost saveth; yet we must distinguish them in the manner of saving; the Father saveth by the Son, the Son saveth by paying the ransom and price of our salvation, the holy Ghost saveth by a particular applying of that ransom unto men: Now whereas the Son pays the price of our redemption, and not the Father, nor the holy Ghost, therefore in this special respect he is called our Saviour, our Jesus, and none but he.

This object, though contained in a word, is very comprehensive; herein is set forth to our view, the offices of Christ, the two Natures of Christ, the qualities of Christ, the excellencies of Christ: O what variety of sweet matter is in Jesus? he hath in him all the powders of the merchants; an holy soul cannot tyre it self in viewing Jesus; we know one thing tyres quickly, unless that one be all: which so is Christ, and none else, he is all, and in all, all belonging to being; and all belonging to well-being; in things below Jesus, some have this excellency, and some have that, but none have all, and this withers contemplation at the root; contemplation is soul recreation, and recreation is kept up by variety; but, O what variety is in Jesus? variety of time, He is Alpha and Omega; variety of beauty, he is white and ruddy: variety of quality, he is a Lion and a Lamb, a servant and a Son; variety of the excellency in the world, he is Man, and God. O where shall we begin in this view of Jesus? Who shall declare his Generation? or who shall count and reckon his Age? All the Evangelists exhibit unto us the Saviour, but every one of them in his particular method; Mark describes not at all the gene∣alogy of Jesus, but begins his history at his Baptism; Matthew searcheth out his origi∣nal from Abraham; Luke follows it backwards as far as Adam; John passeth further up∣wards, even to the Eternal Generation of this Word that was made flesh: so they lead us to Jesus, mounting up four several steps; in the one we see him only among the men of his own time; in the second he is seen in the Tent of Abraham; in the third he is yet higher, to wit in Adam; and finally, having traversed all ages, through so many generations, we come to contemplate him in the beginning, in the bosom of the Father, in that eternity in which he was with God before all worlds: And there let us begin, still Looking unto Jesus, as he carries on the great work of our salvation from first to last, from everlasting to everlasting.

Notes

• Job 19 27. 1 John 3 2. 1 Cor. 13.12. 2 Cor. 5.7.
• Ephes 1.18.
• Sim••••ds sight and saith.
• Heb. 11.27.
• Gen. 42.7, 8.
• Sub oculo∣rum nomine-omnes affectus notari non ra∣rum est. Calv. in Ps. 25.17. Phil. 3.10.
• In legendu li∣b••is non quae∣ramus scienti∣am sed sapo••em Dei. Phil 1.9.
• Ezra 5.2. Nehem. 8.17
• Luke 1.26.31
• Act. 4.12.
• Heb. 7.25.
• Opera trinita∣tis ad extra sunt indivisa.
• Cant. 3.6.
• Col. 3.11.
• Esa. 53.8.