but know their work what a glorious and great Dispensation is committed to them how would they labour to behave themselves in that great charge Here be many things observable in the words 1. The Preface or Porch 2. The Fabrick it selfe In the Preface is 1. The manner of his speech and that twofold first the affection he speakes it with he is so as a man in rapture that speakes in pure sentences without Controversie c. He breakes off as it were from all that he had formerly spoken and sits down and wonders at the greatnesse of that Mystery which the Gospell held forth 2. That he speakes of its Godlinesse 3. The description he gives it he cals it a Mystery and that with this Adjunct that it is a great Mystery 4. The confidence he speakes it in without Controversie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 manifest è ex confesso without doubt or question it is so none that ever knew God or ever felt the power of it but said it was a great mystery Then secondly you have this Mystery unfolded and cleared up in these severall particulars of it which he deduceth to these sixe heads God manifested in the flesh Justified in the spirit Seene of Angels Preached unto the Gentiles Beleeved on in the World Received up into Glory So that here is Truth and that truth is Godlinesse and that godlinesse is a great Mystery and all that is laid out in various manifestations of God Here are many glorious things to be insisted on all Divinity comprehended in these few lines the very marrow and pith the foundation and fountaine of all that we need to know or to be acquainted with And before we come to Launch out in the Ocean we must cast an eye upon the Connexion of the words Obs First That which the Apostle cals Truth in the former verse he cals Godlinesse here Truth is not a fancy or notion but it is holinesse it selfe and none can know Truth in the nature and power of it but they must be godly First Truth is the patterne and platforme of Holiness it is the mould of Godlinesse that is godlinesse which is conformable to divine truth Truth is Gods mind and godliness is a soule conformable unto that mind or transformed into that truth therefore the Apostle when he would relate the godlinesse of the Romans Rom. 6.17 he saith they obeyed that doctrine or truth into the forme of which they were delivered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he makes the truth of the Gospell as a type a mould into which they were cast Secondly godlinesse is truth because truth works godliness Christ praies the Father to sanctifie them with truth Joh. 17.17 It is the nature of truth to sanctifie and worke holinesse truth is light and life and doth as the Sun both enliven and enlighten all soules on whom its beames shines errour never makes holy though it may be in a holy person and shadowed with the holinesse in whom it is but all the truths of Christ they are as fire that convert soules to its own nature whatever holiness is in the soule is no more but truth digested turned into life and spirit Use So that first let not the world mistake themselves concerning truth It is not enough that men have abundance of notions concerning God or Christ except it be holy truth sanctifying truth this world is growing exceeding knowing men boast of many great and mysterious truths which they know but where is godliness Truth without godliness is as an Oracle without a voice a body without a soule as letters in brass without life Brethren what is it for a man to have found a peece of Gold when he is hungry and can find no meat It is cleare men know little of truth they are so unacquainted with godliness that is truth indeed which moulds the soule into the nature of God which draws a soule into pure fellowship with God which elevates the spirit into the glory of God which turnes all things into life and power in the soule other things are but notions to have truth written in thy Bible and not in thy heart what is it For thee to have a forme of truth in thy understanding the letters transcribed in thy fancy and not be turned spiritually into that forme godliness is nothing else but truth baptized in the soule truth with a new name that soule hath not a sparkle of truth which hath not a motion of life from it truth came out of Gods bosome and is the manifestation of his life and glory and it will turne the heart sutable to that life Vse 2. Would you know what it is to be godly not to have a forme of this and that way of Religion of our owne making but to be conformable to divine truth as good principles and notions without divine impressions of it on the soule are nothing so godliness without a principle of truth to lead it is superstition as truth works godliness so godliness lives answerable unto truth godliness consists not in any forme of worship set us by men though never so glorious but by being one with truth in serving God after his own mind and heart Vse 3. Againe know who are the knowing and the godly men what those who barely and nakedly confess the Articles of faith who beleeve in a cursory manner what is said of God and Christ in the Gospell no but those which are made godly by these truths It is impossible for any to know Jesus Christ and the mystery of the Gospell but they must have the life of it in them if men will judge as God doth of their knowledge by their hearts how few knowing men shall we have in the world God values mens knowledge by their affections by the value they set on truth all our knowledge and speculations of truth without godliness is but a humane knowledge of divine things you know much you see great mysteries of truth what life what spirit hath it put in you If you have seen Jesus Christ as the Center and substance of truth where are the transformations and the raisings of your soules after this Christ apprehended When principles are turned into practice and speculations into power and notions into spirit then your truth is godliness Will you know the reason why there is so much profession of truth and so little practice of godliness why the heads of men have so outgrown their hearts I think it be this either first that which men call truth is errour or the fancies of their own braine not the Vision on the mount Or else secondly they have but the bare and leane apprehensions do not see them in their own nature men place Religion in knowledge and godlinesse in a meere conceit doubtlesse it truth were seene in her naked glory without her hood or gowne only as she comes out of the bosome of Jesus Christ the beames of her glory would pierce the very hearts and soules of men and
things so let him be the full and compleat subject of your Faith and Love and Joyes and Delights the more you see him the more your hearts will be lost in love to him you may see every day new mysteries of Love and Beauty in Jesus Christ new depths of wisdome and fulnesse Oh how could the Apostle choose when he thought of Christ but break out as he did Let them be Anathema Maranatha that love not the Lord Jesus Cursed for ever be those soules that cannot love such a Christ there can be no curse too dreadfull But so much only in the generall which yet is worth your observation The particulars in themselves are so glorious as they dazle my eyes something might be said of them but the depth and glory of them can never be exprest To begin with the first God manifest in flesh This is the bottome of all the mysteries in the Gospell every word speaks Paradoxes God manifested is wonderfull for no man ever saw God at any time But God manifested in flesh that is a contradiction it is more absurd to nature then to say a spirit is flesh God hath gone beyond us exceedingly in the work of our own salvation yet because that the thing is made known we must pry into the mystery of it and of all the mysteries in the Gospell this is the first and greatest the foundation of all the rest In the opening of it we must observe 1. What is meant by God 2. What by God manifested 3. What by flesh and the manifestation in flesh 4. How God hath manifested himselfe in flesh 5. The eminency of this manifestation above all other 6. The mystery of all this For the first By God is not meant God essentially the very God-head indefinitely but God personally in such a person though the whole god-head be included yet it is manifested but in one Person to wit the second Person Jesus Christ because all actions are done by Persons not by Natures Therefore this is a manifestation of God in his owne Son God's essence was never manifested no man ever saw God only the onely begotten Son He that came out of his bosome to reveale him And this is none other but an exact description of Christ which is God manifest in the flesh Now secondly by God is not barely meant an apparition of God in flesh which he meant to lay downe againe upon an occasion but as the word signifies passively conspicuus factus est in carne is made known and cleer to us in flesh This manifestation notes not a transcient shew of God to us but a cleer and constant demonstration of God and the only great and glorious first way of the manifesting God unto us as the word signifies a making of a thing to shine as the Sun to our eyes that convinceth every man of what he seeth And this not only as a glimpse of God which was very glorious and so away but as the cleerest and richest way of discovery that ever was or should be in this world But thirdly VVhat this flesh should be is a mystery Flesh is taken severall ways in Scripture First For sinne and its sinfull Nature we have See the lusts of the flesh that cannot be here meant God hath made no appearance of himselfe in sin Secondly Flesh taken for our humane Nature All flesh have corrupted their waies Gen. 6. That is all men their Natures are defiled So Rom. 7. in my flesh dwels no good thing that is in my Nature either in soule or body or both Thirdly Flesh is commonly taken for the weaknesse and infirmities of that Nature All flesh is grasse and the glory of it as the flower 1 Pet. 1. And the Holy Ghost speaking of the Aegyptian Horses tels you that they are flesh and not spirit it is weak and not strong So that Fourthly How hath God manifested himselfe in flesh not in the first sence but the two latter in appearing in our Nature in taking our infirmities and weaknesse sutable unto that Nature sin still excepted And what is here called the manifestation of God in flesh is in other Scriptures parallell explain'd As he is said to be Immanuell God with us Mat. 2. How can that be but only because of being in the same common Nature with us It is said the word was made flesh and dwelt among us 1 John 14. it is the same phrase with this for the word was God v. 1. And yet it was made flesh not that there was any transmutation of God into flesh that was blasphemy but only by reason of the union of flesh to him who was God This is farther exprest in the Apostle to the Hebrews Heb. 2.16 He took not on him the Nature of Angels but the seed of Abraham 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He assumed not to himselfe that is God did manifest himselfe or appeared in any Angelicall Nature but in the Nature of men And was made in all things like unto us sin only excepted There is another cleer place Phil. 2.6 7 8. Which the Apostle urgeth about the manner of this discovery that Christ though he were in the forme of God and thought it no robbery that is did God no wrong to say he was equall with him yet assumed or took on him or appeared in the forme or the likenesse of a servant it is our Nature which was in subjection and servitude unto God So that now this manifestation of God in flesh is no other then God in the second person assuming to himselfe the humane Nature and so revealing himselfe to men sutably to their condition and this is Christ This manifestation is an effect of Gods assumption of our Nature so that this expression literally imports 1. The assuming of our Nature and the union with God God taking up us to himselfe as one in our common Nature 2. The full discovery of God to us in our owne Nature God acting forth his glory in our owne flesh And al this is stil but to denote out Christ who is the person set forth in the Gospell who was with God and was God and dwelt among us as the Apostle saith that is took up his Tabernacle of flesh in our Nature thereby to converse with us Yet many would faine wrest this Scripture from the person of Christ for some of the old Interpreters as Beza observes leave out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and put in only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod manifestè est omit God and put in which mystery manifested in flesh thereby to take off the glory of Christs as God Erasm by flesh here he understands the whole world and by manifestation the Gospell intimating that this is the mystery that God should be manifested to the world but that is contrary unto this place for he afterwards speaks of the Preaching of it to the Gentiles that is to the whole world It is doubtlesse meant of God as in our Nature making up the person of Jesus
pleased with him It is said that Christ entred into heaven there to appeare before God for us As a confident Debtor who hath paid the Creditor comes into the Court and askes who hath any thing to say to him he owed no man a farthing all is paid let the Law take its course So did Christ he entred into heaven as one asking justice what will you have more for poore sinners here I am if the Law hath any thing to say to these soules which I have dyed for have not I given satisfaction to the utmost I here appeare to answer in their behalfe who cannot speake for themselves Justice is silent gives the acquittance and God sets Christ down at his right hand no place no honour and advancement is too good for him who hath purchased so much So that now a poore soule by faith may see a discharge indeed of all sin do but thinke that Christ is taken up into glory and there cannot remaine a thought that any sin is unsatisfied for God is pleased so as that nothing but glory is to be expected 3. This imports a new designe to be acted in heaven for us he is taken up into glory that he may act gloriously the second part of our happinesse he acted one part in flesh in the habit of a begger cloathed with rags He is now gone to act the person of a Prince in robes of glory and all this to mannage our salvation in the richest way that can be he is now gone to follow his bloud and to get all into his own hands that he may make ready mansions of glory for us Two great things Christ acts for us now in glory which is of exceeding consequence to the salvation of our soules First He is in place of an Advocate for us Heb. 7.25 he lives to intercede for us he is alwaies begging of favour and love for us he lies there to stop whatever plea may be brought in against us by the Devill or the Law So that no sin can come in to make plea there but Christ answers it with his old satisfaction he is there to get out fresh pardons for new sins Secondly He is the great provider and caterer for us against we come there he is laying up a store and stock of glory for us he went before to take up Gods heart for us and now is drawing out the riches of love from him and laying it in banke for us therefore the Apostle saith My God shall supply your wants according to his riches in glory now he is in glory he intimating that Christs riches lye in glory now he hath the possession of them all And this is that which thirdly is here so great a part of the Mystery of Godlinesse that God who was manifested in flesh should be received up into glory he who dwelt in glory and was nothing but glory should yet be represented as at a distance from glory and said to be received into it but especially the mystery lies in this That Christ went not up as a single person but taken up as a common person carrying all the Elect with him whatever was to be done on us was done representatively and vertually on Christ as in our nature he dyed as a common person and was justified as a common person and so now he is received up into glory he went not up alone but though it is meant properly of his person yet vertually and mystically it is meant of all the Saints they were all taken up with Jesus Christ into glory not that they are so actually but mystically as in Christ their head And this is the designe God comming downe to us to bring us up to himselfe letting aside his glory from whence we were departed and then taking it up againe and us with him It is no mystery for Christ as God to be in glory so he cannot be said to be received into it for he never was without it but it is meant of his humane nature Neither was Christs humane nature received up for it selfe but as it was a figure of us Christs person was the great modell and first draught of all that shall be done to his body the Saints therefore he is said to be the Captaine of our salvation that leads us all on and our forerunner into heaven he breakes the clouds first appeares first before God and is glorified then we follow Christ wears the Crown in heaven as our King and he is united and married to God as our Proxy This is the mystery poore sinners taken into glory with Jesus Christ God himselfe in our owne nature is gone into glory for us Christ is not only gone to heaven to prepare a place for us Joh. 14. but sits in heaven in our roome and God looks on him as the great Picture of all that body and delights himselfe in seeing them all glorified as in him And even the Saints now are said to sit downe with Christ already Eph. 2. in supercoelestibus in heavenly places in supercoelestiall places And as though now we be the Sons of God we know not what we shall be when we come to glory but that we shall be like Christ so though we know Christ is gone up to glory yet what new mystery he acts there and how he acts out our salvation as in glory we know not untill we be actually taken up into the same glory we have but hints of that transaction Vse 1. What a stately Tower have we erected for to see heaven on What a faire prospect have we of the heavenly state of blessed soules Faith may stand on this mount and see it selfe in glory it is like some optique glasses which bring in all which is done without in the streets into one roome this expression opens heaven to every beleever and so fully that he cannot but see glory Is Christ received up into glory What is this but the investing all Saints with the same priviledge your faith is led up very high to take in glory it selfe Faith stands very lofty when it may both see earth and heaven at once all that God hath acted for it here and all that he will act in heaven Faith should eye Christ as far as he goes if he be ascended so should faith if he go into glory so should you also by beleeving Jesus Christ is lifted up thus that we might be drawn after him it is a great encouragement to us to think that Christ was dead for our sins and is risen againe as our justification But much more that Christ is gone into glory and hath carried all our names with him into the Fathers bosome beleevers should look on Christ under a twofold notion 1. As one from whom all their happinesse comes as a head ordained on purpose to convey life and influence unto the soule one who is filled with all fulnesse to fill them 2. As the plat-forme and idea of what they shall be and this is a
the rate of such a mystery aske of Christ communications according to his riches in glory let all your actings be glorious all your walkings joyes breathings let them all be as in glory view Christ and see him as in that relation and condition and you will soone have the sparkles of the same glory on your hearts bound not your faith and expectations within this poore world and the enjoyments of in it but ever and anon cast glances into glory and if you will be in such an estate you must get Christ that is received up into glory in you as the hope of glory Col. 1.27 It is only as Christ breakes forth in your hearts by faith that you come to have such sights of glory that glorified person that is now in heaven must be in you by his spirit of glory or else you can have no hope of glory beleevers you see your object you know his person never be quiet untill you come into his condition as you must go through all ordinances and creatures untill you come to Christ so through all the conditions of Christ untill you come to glory Let us now view it in the whole as it were as it concernes Christ and the Saints together and this is the end of that it is received up into glory As God in Christ was condemned in flesh so are the Saints and justified in the spirit so are they and at last they with Christ are received up into glory Quest Now the great question is How Christ and the Saints are received up into glory Sol. As for Christ it is cleare that he was taken up in his humane nature as he was God-man in the world so he is now in heaven Jesus Christ hath a reall body now in glory as he had in the world But it is taken into glory and so a glorious body Phil. 3. ult In any other respect Christ could not be taken up into glory for nothing wanted it but his humane nature And so must all the Saints be received into glory in the same way not only in their soules but bodies for the Saints have not phantasmes in heaven they are not annihilated in their being and made in another essentiall forme but are taken into glory in regard of the whole man as it consists of body and soule For that place in 1 Cor. 15. where it is said flesh and bloud cannot inherit the kingdome of heaven therefore no reall bodies shall be there It is answered that the meaning is flesh and bloud without a change as it is mortall and weake not simply the being of flesh and bloud but it is expounded in the same verse neither can corruption inherit incorruption that is no flesh and bloud as subject to corruption as it is weake and sinfull shall not enter in For it shall be made a spirituall body still a body but spirituall and free from corruption having a being of immortality put to it And this is so cleare as it cannot be denied except we will imagine a chimaera of a man without soule or body let this be considered whether the man that sinned shall not be saved the same individuall man if the man then certainlie both in his soule and body without which he is no man the being of him as a man lying in the compositum And besides the same that is redeemed must be saved now we are redeemed in soule and body but yet this body shall be a glorious body so changed as that whatever may denote weakenesse and corruption shall be done away it shall put on incorruption And how strange is this that the same man which is justified and sanctified shall not be glorified But I leave that as the excrescency of the pride of this wanton age who would frame a glory to themselves out of their own fancie Let all us know that Christ and his body shall be taken up in their soules and bodies to one and the same glorie and though now we dwell in houses of clay and walke in raggs of dust and ashes we shall one day be taken into glorie This should comfort us in all conditions that this is not our place and draw out our spirits to scorne this world and to breath and long after another fulnesse which is to be revealed the more high and aspiring our spirits are from the world and all enjoyments to that glorie into which we are to be taken the more we expresse our assurance of it And this glorie is so great that there is no taking it in but we are received up into it Oh what a blessed time will that bee when the whole man shall be cast into glorie lost as it were in glorie as in an infinite Ocean Thus I have presented in a short view to your eyes that which hath been acted from eternitie and will be yet acted to eternitie It is little hath been said to what might have and to what shall be really done I have only shewed you the things in a rude lumpe let you see the outside of inward and unexpressible glory I have glanced at that which will be the prospect of the strongest eyes for ever but alas who is able for these things God must act it in us that we may know it in it selfe it is a worke for the spirit of the living God who searcheth the deep things of him I shall only in conclusion sum up all and set before your eye a small map of the whole continent of this mystery that you may see what God is adoing for poore sinners the Apostle comprehends all in this expression of a mystery and a great mystery and then laies it out in these particulars which are enumerated in this verse God manifested in flesh c. Here is a chaine of mysteries the first end of it is tyed to Gods heart and the other end 's in glory in the whole you may take notice of these things 1. The plot and designe 2. The contrivance of it 3. The way of acting it 4. The effecting and issue of it The plot was to save so many poore sinners who lay in the bottome of hell and had so offended God as that nothing but eternall wrath was their portion the spring of this and invisible wheeles from whence it was acted was Gods eternall love and goodnesse that he might discover it freely to his creatures because this designe might go on glorious It was contrived that the same nature which sinned should save and that the manifestation of God should not be untill the time of the sin and misery of the poore creature and that the riches of love might be showne wisdome contrived that God himselfe in another forme should act out all our salvation Thus God comes to be manifested in flesh and cals himselfe Christ takes up our nature and joynes it to his Godhead to be one person and in that person dies and suffers and satisfies himselfe and is justified as in our stead he himselfe is made
Christ and this will yet appeare if you consider the 4 Thing that this was the greatest manifestation of God that ever was God was manifested in nothing like this for look first over the manifestation of God in the first creation there was but only some outside of God's glory discovered nothing of Gods Nature The whole world never saw what God was truly by that Indeed the Apostle saith Rom 1. That the invisible things of God were knowne by the things that are made even God's eternall power and wisdome but these were manifested in an ordinary and common way as a Picture shewes the art of the Painter but yet you may not know his person But in this God himselfe is manifested for first here is not only so much of God manifested as humane nature it selfe could demonstrate for then it had been a poor manifestation of God who can see God in seeing all the men in the world or in all the Saints in the world in their flesh but it sets out a speciall way of assumption of our Nature unto the person of Christ who was God making these two natures but one person 2. This manifestation was in union of flesh in the neerest way to God himselfe not as a lanthorne to hold the light only of God's glory but as one intire person to represent what God is in himselfe all the whole world was never united to God before though God did manifest some thing to our Nature as to Adam yet God did never unite any creature to himselfe before and though God was manifest to flesh yet never in flesh before that is the great mystery God is manifest to his Saints but he is not manifested in the flesh or in the Nature of any but Jesus Christ This is so great a manifestation as that God is become man as it were by reason of the union of their Natures the word was made flesh and dwelt among us as if God had relinquished his own Name and Nature and lost himselfe in our Nature he was found in the forme of a servant Now let us but thinke what a manifestation of God this must be which is God not only letting forth himselfe in a way of communication but God in union with the same Nature which we are in Therefore Christ is called the expresse image of the person of the Father not an image as he was the second person meerly for so he was not the image but God himselfe but an image because in that union of our Nature with God there was the exactest discovery of God himselfe as possible could be to the creature 2 Cor. 3 ult Therefore Christ is called a glasse wherein a man may with open face behold the bright glory of God But 6. How great must this mystery needes be God manifested in flesh how is that possible flesh hides God he is of a spirituall Nature it is as much as to say the Sun manifested in a cloud or light manifest in darknesse I confesse my heart could rather stand and admire then speak any thing more What ever is a medium of conveyance of any thing in Nature must be proportion'd unto the thing it discovers as the aire not a mud wall conveys the light of the Sun to us flesh and God what proportion is there between them let flesh be but thought God must needs be forgotten for they are at an infinite distance yea contrary yet this is the mystery 1. God not only setting our himselfe thorough flesh in a transient way shining thorough it but being made flesh being one with flesh 2. Not in innocent Nature but in the likenesse of sinfull Nature Rom. 8.3 To manifest himselfe in the flesh of Rebels and Traytours and honour that flesh which had so sinned and was so polluted this is a mystery 3. To act in this Nature in the world to dye and be despised and suffer the utmost contradiction of sinners who is able to fathom the depth of this mystery As one saith of the Trinity they were like three sisters which spun one piece of a garment and only one weares it so had all these three an hand in the making of this Nature but only Christ the second Person weares it and all their glory is laid out in it how one Person could be God and man how God should be put to death in our Nature to reconcile us to himselfe flesh filled with the fulnesse of God is beyond the apprehension of men and Angels to declare But we may tell that it is so and admire it as we speake Blessednesse to be made a curse Heaven let downe into Hell the God of the world shutting himselfe up as it were in a body the invisible God made visible to sense he which hath all things in Heaven and Earth at his command not have a house in the world glory it selfe of no comelinesse What shall I say all things become nothing making it selfe of no reputation And a thousand more such paradoxes are wrapt up in this one expression Oh how great a depth is in this glorious design of God he was manifested to Adam to Moses and many others but here was his utmost manifestation in our flesh For the nature of this manifestation know 1. It is not a bare manifestation of some attributes of God but it is a manifestation of God in his own nature the fulnesse of the God-head dwelt in Christ bodily or really Col. 2. Not that God is circumscribed in our Nature but that the God-head it selfe is united to Christs body and dwels in it fils it and abides upon him 2. Neither is it a manifestation of God absolutely as in himselfe but as in order to reconciliation and salvation of soule For God might have been manifested else in our flesh to have consumed us But as the Apostle saith God was in Christ reconciling the World to himselfe That is God was in Christs Nature as a God in order to the reconciling poor soules and this is the great mystery God was offended by our Nature and God takes that Nature on himselfe to reconcile us to himselfe by himselfe God himselfe will pay the price out of his own glory for our offences only assumes our Nature as if it should be thought to act it out for us and joines it to his sonne and cals that Christ and this is the Gospell-notion of Christ God manifest in flesh in order to the reconciliation of poor soules Thus God must satisfie himselfe and save us himselfe only takes our Nature to doe it in and cals it Christ a Saviour when it is none other then God himselfe in our Nature transacting our peace This manifestation is a peculiar one For First God was never manifested as one with flesh before he was not one with Adam's Nature or with any of the first Creation but this is a manifestation of ownnesse Secondly God never manifested himselfe in his God-head before in such a manner many of his glorious attributes were
the Gentiles and beleeved on in the world and received up to glory now none will be so grossely ignorant as to attribute this to Saints Saints are not preached to the Gentiles nor believed on in the world nor yet all received up to glory 3. God as manifest in flesh did dye in that flesh was crucified to make atonement for sin for this was a manifestation in order unto reconciliation now who will say that the bodies of the Saints did dye and were offered up in sacrifice and did make our peace with God which they must be said to do if the meaning of the phrase be according to that interpretation We had need be wary in the letting out our thoughts on the Scripture and fastening interpretation of things seeing such strange consequences may follow And especially take heed of advancing Saints so as to lessen Christ he must have the preheminence above Saints and Angels and know that there is not only a distinction between Christ and Saints meerly as head and members but a distinction of them in regard of their persons for Christ is a head in regard of his person as the husband is the head of his wife and though they be one body yet he is a distinct person and hath those incommunicable prerogatives that cannot be appropriated either to Saints singly or as his body Gods manifestation to the flesh of Saints is at second hand thorough Christ of his fulnesse that is of that fulnesse which resides eminently and distinctly in his person they receive grace for grace Indeed God is said to dwell in us and we in God but how not as God dwels in Christ but because he dwels in us by his own nature and we by union with Christ partake of that fulnesse according to our measure God dwels in Christ immediately and as a God he dwels in us through Jesus Christ Christ letting out part of that fulnesse on our hearts And thus God was pleased that in him all fulnesse should dwell and by him to reconcile all things to himselfe that in all things he might have the preheminence and that his person might be distinctly admired above all Creatures The difference of Gods manifesting himselfe in flesh that is in Christs humane nature and ours lies in this that this manifestation was as in an ordinance of life and salvation making that person which had our nature the great conveyer of eternall peace and comfort through that flesh so the Apostle Col. 1.22 In the body of his flesh through death he is to present us blamelesse and spotlesse to his Father wherefore saith the Apostle againe Heb. 2.17 It became him in all things to be made like his brethren that he might be a mercifull high Priest c. that is that he might be fit to convey life and salvation to poore soules But Gods manifestation in the flesh or persons of the Saints is as into severall Cisternes which lye under the fountaine to receive their proportion God manifesting himselfe in Christs flesh is as of a fulnesse to fill all but in the person of the Saints it is but of severall degrees and measures in order to a fulnesse that we may come to the fulnesse of the measure God hath manifested himselfe in our nature that by that he might at length fill all our persons Thus is our nature joyned to the Godhead to be as a great pipe set at the mouth of some full spring that through that God might run out his love and glory by degrees on our heart first Christ receives it at once and then thorough his Spirit discovers it in us In a word Gods manifestation in Christs flesh was as a Saviour a Redeemer a Head yea as the Author of eternall Salvation to us And this is the mysterie of mysteries he which reads this may very well cease to wonder at any thing else This is the foundation of all Gods other actings to us the pole on which they all turne all the discoveries of God are wrapt up in this one this unlocks Gods own Cabinet wherein all his designes lye Election Redemption Glorification all is wrapt up in this and made cleare when we understand this one expression God manifested in flesh it is the being of light and immortality to light at once it opens heaven and earth 1. This is the foundation of our union with God and Sonship it is from hence that God is one with our nature God is manifested as a Father in our own flesh we are Sons because Christ is he was really and naturally the Son and wee through him receive the adoption of sons For he which sanctifieth and they which are sanctified are all one therefore he is not ashamed to call them brethren Heb. 2.11 So you have Gal. 4.4 5. God sent forth his Son in our flesh that we might receive the adoption of Sons God first takes our nature and marries it to his own Son that so we might be united to him in his nature This is the Antitype and modell of all relations God one with flesh here is Father and Son Husband and Wife all relations meet in this one 2. It is by this that we have communion with God we had never seen God had not he manifested himselfe thus familiarly in our own flesh communion is in things and betweene persons sutable There was no sutablenesse between God and us untill he appeared in our own likenesse but now he made himselfe as it were fit for converse with the unworthiest Creatures there is a sweet sympathy between Christ and us by reason that he dwels in the same house of clay as it were with us the devill himselfe when he comes to the Indians as their God to draw their hearts to worship him appeares in the forme of a man that so he might the better converse with them The blessed God was willing to manifest infinite goodnesse to the Creature and to converse with them and that all terrifying apparitions might be shunned he appears as a man that so we may have intimate fellowship and communion with him with what a holy boldnesse may soules draw nigh to God and delight to behold him and converse with him now he is in such a habit of love and sutablenesse unto our own sences Why art thou strange poore trembling soule and standest afar off as if it were death to draw nigh Of whom art thou afraid What vision of amazement dost thou behold Is God come down among men and thou canst not look on him lest thou dye and perish for ever Why cast one look more and be not discouraged It is true God is come down but not in flaming fire not in the armour of justice and everlasting burnings but cloathed with the garments of flesh and sweetly desires to converse with thee after thine owne forme Nothing can be a stronger motive to allure poore soules unto termes of peace and love as this that God is come down not to consume them with
as manifested in flesh and justified in spirit But this sets it out in regard of the outward effect it had on the highest Creatures it was the object of their admiration not that this is part of the mystery it selfe but an expression which the Apostle puts in in the midst of all to raise our thoughts of it because Angels did look into it and adore it that we may therefore open this we will consider 1. What this mystery was which Angels saw 2. What is meant by this sight or how they may be said to see it 3. How it doth magnifie this mystery For the first the mystery which is here held out as the object of Angels sight is none other than Jesus Christ acting as a Mediatour for poore sinners concerning whom all these expressions are Christ being a visible God in the world God manifest in flesh a full justification for his Elect all the working of this mystery was in the person of the Lord Jesus and he is the sum and substance of all the Apostle brings not any thing as a part of this mystery which was done meerely in God which lay in his own heart and were immanent acts of his nature such as Election Predestination and the like but only of the way or contrivance of this as it was acted in the person of Jesus Christ who was God in our flesh all these things are included and imployed in this discovery it is Jesus Christ who is the mystery that was presented to the eyes of the Angels as the most glorious object for their sight God as in our nature dying and satisfying and being justified for poore sinners this mystery was seen of Angels that is 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seene it is not meant of a bare sight but of a sight which astonished the understanding and takes up the heart else it had been a poore expression to raise the glory of this mystery that Angels saw it but it was so great and wonderfull that they tooke the greatest delight to behold it it was that which they were ravished in beholding as at some new and strange object as we use to say of some wonderfull apparition it was seen by such and such that is they were happy to behold it exceedingly taken with it therefore the Apostle Peter when he would express the glory of this mystery saith the Angels do desire to looke into them 1 Pet. 1.12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their whole spirits were taken up with this it was to them as the blessedest sight that they could ever behold so that the meaning of this that he was seen of Angels is this that Jesus Christ who was to act out the peace and comfort of the Saints was discovered to the Angels and they lookt on him as so great a mystery that they could not look off but stand and admire it So when Jesus Christ was borne there was a heavenly host of Angels praising and admiring God for this discovery Luke 2.13 14. leaping for joy but to bring the news of him to the world you have no such expressions of the joy of all the world besides as they tooke but in the seeing and manifesting this great mystery But 3. Well may this be brought in to advance the greatnesse of this mystery in our eyes that it was seen of the Angels Angels who are creatures of the highest order who are of the finest make of the noblest spirits who behold the face of God himselfe and are taken up with the immediate enjoyments of his fulnesse for them to look into this mystery as if nothing else were worthy of knowledge besides as if the face of God himself were not so sweet nor so taking and satisfactory excuse the expression but they must see this mystery as the top of their knowledge and that which went beyond all their other enjoyments and which is more this being a designe not so principally concerning them they being in it as a far off and in generall but being a mystery of the salvation of sinners yet that Angels should prefer this to all their sights and sit down viewing this Christ before all their own proper happinesse how doth it swell up the glory of this designe Thus you have the meaning of the words in the generall opened I shall draw up the scope of it more particularly in this Doctrine Doct. That Jesus Christ in the mystery of the Gospell is the object of Angelicall vision and admiration The things of the Gospell are not common or shallow things but that which the blessed Angels have their divine spirits taken up in the adoring of Sight in Scripture is put to expresse the inward motions of the affections Joh. 1.14 We saw his glory as of the only begotten Son of God c. that is we were taken with him as with God himselfe So Paul useth the same expression Gal. 1. He was seene of me also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 speaking of that glorious sight which he had of him which converted him and for ever tooke his heart with love to him So here seen of Angels that is Angels beheld the glory of this mystery and were taken up with it as the greatest joy of their hearts For opening this Seeing the Apostle puts so much upon it as to put it in one great expression to open the greatnesse of the mystery of Godlinesse that it was seen of Angels I shall propound these things to handle 1. What sight the Angels have of the mystey of the Gospell 2. How they come to the knowledge of it 3. That this is a mystery that Angels should come to see this Christ 4. VVhat is in this mystery that should so affect them For the first Angels being creatures of a spirituall Nature are vast in knowledge they having no bodyes to cloud their apprehensions but are purae intelligentiae see things nakedly as they lye in themselves yet their knowledge is imperfect being creatures they know not all things which God knows though they know all that is made Now for their sight of Christ in the mystery of the Gospell doubtlesse they see much into it for they are said to bring the first newes of it to wait on Christ in this mystery to comfort him in his sufferings to administer cordials to him in these fainting fits of his passion they sate in the Grave to informe the women and his Disciples concerning his Resurrection when he ascends up to Heaven they come to the men of Iudea and Ierusalem and aske them Why gaze yee here Christ is taken up into Heaven and they spake further of his second comming He shall come againe as you have seen him goe up So that Angels now know much of the mystery of Jesus Christ They which have followed Christ from step to step from the birth to the grave from the grave to Heaven must needs be acquainted much with these things and not only a bare Historicall knowledge but a knowledge of the mystery of