through the voluntary humiliation of the Son of God, made rich. In the first advent of Messiah, God was made man. In the second advent, man is made like unto the Son of God. Behold, He cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see Him; that is, He comes to fill His spiritual temple with His glory, even the brightness of His glory. Like our first parents, after their fall in the first paradise, when their eyes were opened they knew they were naked; so the eyes of every man and every woman shall be opened; not their bodily eye, for the kingdom of God cometh not with observation, but is within you; and they shall know that they are naked, when the Son of God cometh with power and great glory; He being 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 Neither is there any creature

that is not manifest in

His sight; but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. The clouds in which He will come, and under which the brightness of glory will be concealed, are the bodies, the flesh and blood of men, of which the clouds of heaven, filled with water, are a figure; that is, human nature, full of God, full of life, full of the Holy Ghost. Now, beloved, are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. Now, no man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten He hath declared Him. For no man hath ascended up into heaven, but He that came down from heaven, even the Son of man, who is in heaven; that is, flesh and blood cannot see, and cannot

enter into the kingdom of God; moreover, heaven being a figure of the invisible glory of the Father, no man knoweth that except the Son; for the Son came from the Father, and the Son alone returned to the Father, and the Son was in the Father, and the Father in the Son. No man knoweth the Son but the Father, neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him. There was to be a famine of the word of God, a time when men should seek death, and should not find it; that is, should desire to die unto sin and live unto righteousness; but because of the famine of the word, death should flee from them. Therefore the Son of God saith, a little while and ye shall not see me. During the time that the locusts were upon the earth, the king over whom was Apollyon -the Destroyer-death and hell-the glory of the onlybegotten Son of God would not be seen. But again, a little while and ye shall see me. Ye shall weep and lament, but the world of wicked spirits shall rejoice; and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come; but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world. And ye now therefore have sorrow; but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from In that day I shall show you plainly of the Father, because I go to the Father. I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world; again I leave the world and go to the Father; that is, God was manifest in the flesh, but after being justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, and believed on in the world, He was again received up

you.

into glory that same invisible glory which He had before the world was. God became poor, that through His poverty man might be made rich. He who was God became man, that we who are men might be made like unto the Son of God. Therefore He said, If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said I go unto the Father; for my Father is greater than I; that is, you should not entertain the idea of again seeing your God Himself, as He was once for all manifested in the flesh, to make His soul an offering for sin. Know ye not that He was then abased? Know ye not that He was then a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief? Know ye not that we hid as it were our faces from him? Know ye not He was despised, and we esteemed Him not? Know ye not that surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted? Know ye not that He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with his stripes we are healed? Know ye not that all we, like sheep, had gone astray; we had turned every one to his own way; but the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all? So Christ was once and unto them that

offered to bear the sins of many; look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto judgment. The Son of God shall appear again upon our earth. But who is this Son of God? Is He not the Lord of glory, who hath ascended once more above all heavens, and now fills all things? Believer, wouldst thou make thy God a man a second time? Wouldst thou seek once more that He who is rich should become poor? Knowest thou not that after He had offered one sacrifice for sins, He for ever sat down on the

right hand of God? Knowest thou not that the holiest of all in the Jewish tabernacle and temple was a figure of the inapproachable nature and being of thy God? Knowest thou not there was also a sanctuary in which was the candlestick, the figure of the humam temple, the church; and the table, the figure of the human altar, our faith, upon which we lay our sacrifices; and the showbread, the figure of them that worship therein, who have purged out the old leaven, that they may be a new lump, unleavened? Know ye not between the two, the holiest of all and the sanctuary, there was a separation, figurative of the great gulf which sin had fixed between God and man, as also the wide difference in their natures? Know ye not that the Holy Ghost thus taught that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while the first tabernacle was standing? Know ye not that when Christ died upon the cross the vail of separation in the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom, which was a figure, that the Son of God in whom it pleased the Father all fulness should dwell, having made peace through the blood of His cross, did reconcile all things unto Himself, whether things in earth or things in heaven, and you that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled, in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and unblameable, and unreprovable in His sight? Know ye not that the eternal purpose of your God was to make you like unto His own Son; to crown you with honour and glory, and give you dominion over all things? Wouldst thou rather see thy God again in human nature, and behold Him incarnate with thy bodily eye, which would make Him poor a second time, and would not make you rich?

Or wouldst thou not rather become thyself a partaker of the divine nature? have in thy soul the delights of God? have in thy heart the love of God? have in thee that mind which was also in Christ? Oh! believer, what good would it do thee to see thy God coming like an earthly monarch, or sitting on an earthly throne, or swaying an earthly sceptre? Is it not above all measure more desirable to have the fulness of thy God within thyself; to have a heaven, a state of holy and endless felicity within thine own soul? Is it not above all measure more to be desired that thou shouldest see God as He is within thy soul, and be made like unto Him when thou thus seest Him, than to see Him in the veil of another human nature, which, however lovely as a sight to behold, could give thee no personal, enduring happiness? Wilt thou not now rejoice, when thou knowest that thou must not expect to see thy Redeemer, thy God, any more Himself, with all the incommunicable attributes of His person manifested in one human nature, and that not thine own; but art to see thy Redeemer in the flesh, in thine own flesh-not with thy bodily eye, but with the eye of thy mind; that within thyself God's throne shall be set; that within thyself God's fulness shall dwell; that within thyself shall abound the love of God, which passeth all knowledge, and the peace of mind which passeth all understanding? Is this not more to be desired than all external grandeur, which, however magnificent, and however delighting to a mind filled with God, is nevertheless a weary wilderness within to the soul that knoweth not God? The Son of God has returned to His Father; again does He dwell in that light which flesh and blood never has seen, and never can see. But because He hath returned unto the Father, the Father