The Glory of CHRIST Unveiled
Joseph Hussey
Originally Printed In 1706
Posted On March 9, 2015
The Glory of CHRIST Unveiled or the Excellency of CHRIST Vindicated in his Person, Love, Righteousness, &c., being an Exposition of the Mystery which was kept secret since the world began.
Joseph Hussey, 1660-1726, born at Fordingbridge, in Hampshire. The first elements of learning he received under the tuition of Robert Whitaker, who had been ejected from his fellowship in Magdalen College, Cambridge, in 1662, and then lived at Fordingbridge. After attending an Academy at Newington Green, he preached his first sermon at Mr. Jenkyn's Meeting-house in Jewin Street, London, on the 14th of August, 1681. During the years 1681-1688, he served as a Chaplin, and so continued to preach till his removal to Cambridge, in 1691. He was ordained at Annesley's Meetinghouse, Little St. Helen’s, Oct. 26, 1688, in the presence of six Presbyterian ministers. The thesis he defended was, that the pope was the Antichrist; and his testimonial was signed by Dr. Annesley, Samuel Slater, John Quick, John Turner and Robert Franklin. Prior to his eyes being opened to the Wonders of Divine Grace, and the Lord granting unto him true Gospel Repentance unto the acknowledging of the Truth; {Acts 11:18, II Tim.2:25} it would appear that he, along with other ‘evangelical’ cohorts opposed many of those ‘high grace’ truths that he would later be brought to love and embrace. Needless to say, his Gospel sentiments underwent a revolution during his residence at Cambridge. When he set out in life and during the earlier years of his ministry, his faith was much the same as that of the bulk of Presbyterians; but God, in Grace, had now begun to establish his heart in the Divine Truth of the pre-eminent Glory of Christ. When the Act of Uniformity took place, the fruits of Nonconformity in the county of Cambridge were very abundant. This circumstance, combined with the liberty granted to Nonconformists by the Act of Toleration, occasioned the Dissenters of Cambridge to separate into distinct societies. One of these congregations settled on Hoghill, near Cambridge, and consisted chiefly of Presbyterians. Mr. Hussey was their first pastor, and settled there on Thursday Nov. 19, 1691. The church then consisted of seventy-six members. He exercised his ministry at Cambridge with great success, till October, 1696, at which time his church had increased to 122 communicants. The constitution of the church was then altered by the vote of a considerable majority. Seventy-six members, with the pastor, were for a Congregational discipline, and twenty-four were against it. Upon this, the latter withdrew, and formed the Presbyterian Society in Green-Street. Those who remained behind signed a rigid covenant, drawn up by Mr. Hussey. In 1706, he published his great work, entitled, “The Glory of Christ Unveiled,” against a work published by John Hunt, of Northampton, on the subject of Christ’s Pre-eminent Glory, God’s Decrees, &c. In this singular performance, Mr. Hussey sets himself seriously to prove, that the Arminians are guilty of breaking the whole of the Ten Commandments. In the following year, 1707, he gave to the public, in octavo, another celebrated work, entitled, "God’s Operations of Grace; but no Offers of Grace;" which is written expressly against the heresy of Arminianism in preaching. Mr. Hussey’s design, and that of other ministers who have adopted his method, was to secure to the Holy Spirit the sole glory of converting and sanctifying the souls of the elect. Mr. Hussey continued pastor of this new modeled Congregational church, and great success attended his ministry, till 1718, when some disputes about church discipline chiefly, and partly about his doctrine, rendered him very uneasy; and at the close of the year 1719, he accepted an invitation from the late Mr. Humphrey’s church, in Petticoat-Lane, London, and removed from Cambridge in January, 1720, leaving a congregation of 1100 persons, and a church of more than 150 members. Mr. Hussey continued with his church in Petticoat-Lane till his death, which happened at his house in Hoxton-Square, on the 15th of November, 1726, in the sixty-seventh year of his age.
Joseph Hussey’s GLORY OF CHRIST UNVEILED, {a massive volume totaling nearly 1000 small print pages} was originally printed in 1706. A short abridgement of the work {only 51 pages} was published in 1761 in London, printed for J. Fuller of Newgate Street & L. Luckman of Coventry. This abridged version was once again reprinted by W. Brackett of Sudbury in 1790. According to one source, only five hundred copies of Hussey’s Original Edition were printed in 1706, and we know from a remark by Hussey, in his Preface to his next book {GOD’S OPERATIONS} that almost all were sold by 1707. The massive Title Page Introduction from the original Edition will be a great Introduction to the book itself. The Full Title of this Volume is, “the glory of CHRIST Unveil’d or The Excellency of CHRIST Vindicated in his Person, Love, Righteousness, &c., being an Exposition of the Mystery which was kept secret since the world began; wherein the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity is manifested in the Glory-Man, the Lord JESUS, and that Christ’s bearing the Iniquity of our Sin in his Sufferings was the Atonement he made to God for the Elect; set forth against the Socinian and Neonomian triumphs, and against some other Cowardly Professions. It is likewise demonstrated that an Interest in Christ is built alone upon the Free, Absolute and Everlasting Love of the Father, Son, and Spirit, towards an elect Remnant in Christ Jesus, against the Arminians. And therein is some account given of the Mystery of the Elect and their Union in Christ Jesus before the Foundation of the World; proving that their Free Grace Union according to God’s Ancient Settlements was never, as to the Comprehensive and Supreme Relation of the elect in Jesus Christ destroyed by their Subordinate Nature-Fall in Adam. To these things are added a Vindication of the Excellency of God’s Free Grace against the whole Arminian Scheme. And lastly, the Spiritual Operations of the Holy Ghost are Vindicated, as the Immediate Spring, Life and Source of all True Religion.”