Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A30928
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Jesus Christ the great wonder discovered for the amazement of saints in a sermon preached before the right honorable the Lord Major of London and the honorable Court of Aldermen at Pauls / by Matthew Barker.
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Barker, Matthew, 1619-1698.
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1651
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Wing B776; ESTC R23640
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31,549
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55
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of the divinity to dwel and shine forth in the humanity and the humanity not to be extinguisht or overwhelmed by it is very wonderful And so Noahs Ark a strange thing That being without Rudder Anchor Ballast c. should yet preserve Noah his house and all the creatures with him upon the raging waters for an hundred and fifty dayes So Gen. 7. 24. Jesus Christ in a more wonderful manner doth preserve his people from that deluge of divine wrath wherewith others are overwhelmed Again Moses rod turned into a Serpent devoured the Serpents of the Egyptians a very strange thing So Jesus Christ that brazen Serpent in the likeness of serpentine sinful flesh doth devour the Serpent of sin and the flesh within us So also the red Sea divided a wonderful thing To see a vast raging Sea to divide it self being at the place of its division at least 36. English miles over and the waters to stand as a solid wall on each side and so to continue for several dayes together as is probable that so many thousand Israelites with their wives and children with their beasts and cattel might pass over whereas nothing is so fluid and more hardly contained within its bounds as water is And then for the waters to move and take their course upon the Egyptians that not one of them was saved and to keep still divided for the Israelites to pass over that not one of them was drowned and that at one and the same time also as may be conceived is not this wonderful Yet this great wonder is but the shadow of a far greater in our Lord Jesus He is this red Sea into whose death and grave believers spiritually enter by dying to sin and retiring from the world and by this as the Israelites they pass into life salvation victory and the Rest of God leaving the lusts of the flesh as the Egyptians behind them to be both covered and destroyed for ever And so water out of the rock a wondrous thing for a dry rock to give forth water and this water to go along 1 Cor. 10. 4. with the people as the Apostle speaks and administer refreshment to them in their march through the Wilderness This water and rock are Jesus Christ So the brazen Serpent a strange thing to heal by looking upon it and that which otherwise might seem incurable This healing Serpent is Iesus Christ And so Aarons rod a marvellous thing for a dry rod to bud blossom and bring forth Almonds is very strange This dry rod is Jesus Christ who though a root out of a dry ground yet doth daily bud blossom and bring forth as he puts forth several degrees of life holiness and glory in the spirits of Saints But I pass this And come next to look upon this wonderful person in a more direct and immediate aspect And so we shall present him as three wayes Wonderful In his Person In his Offices In his Works 1. First in his Person which is really as it was hyperbolically affirmed of Dionysius the Areopagite 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Treasury of mysteries He is wonderful as God as Man and as God-Man 1. As God And I hope I have not to deal either with Arrians or Socinians that deny it In God there is nothing but what is infinite incomprehensible and inconceivable and therefore wonderful When we turn our eys upon Divinity we are presently swallowed up As those waters of the Sanctuary we read of Ezek. 47. were first to the Ancles and then to the Knees and then to the Loyns and then became waters that could not be passed over waters to swim in So as we ascend from inferiour beings to those that are superiour we find the waters rising higher and higher upon us as we meet with perfections of a greater heighth and depth till we arrive at the being of the ever blessed God and there we are swallowed up Touching the Almighty saith Iob We cannot find him out Job 37. 23. And in ver 19. We cannot order our speech by reason of darkness And ver 20. If a man speak surely he shall be * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 swallowed up Of that which is called God saith a Learned Ancient Penitus absorbebitur Nec est sensus nec ratio nec judicium nec phantasia nec Dionys Areopa opinio Neither sence reason judgement phansie or opinion can comprehend him And the same Author in an Epistle to Caius the Monk hath this divine passage * Quo propius ad deum ascendimus eo clarius cognoscimus eum esse supra omnem cognitionem By how much the nearer we come to God the more clearly we know him to be above all knowledge Bradwardine brings in several Philosophers giving several descriptions of God One this Deus est qui solâ ignoranti◠mente concipitur God is best known by ignorance for all knowledge falls infinitely short of him And therefore we best know him when we come most fully to see that he cannot be known Another this Deus est tenebrae post omnem lucem in mente relictae That darkness or ignorance that is left in the mind after all its light I conceive he meant that what a man comprehends of God that is not God but that which is yet above him hidden in the dark from him that is God And Plato speaks thus of him The maker of this Vniverse it is as hard to find out as having found out to speak worthily of him But to leave his Divinity which doth over-match all finite understanding we shall descend to his Humanity and so we shall find him wonderful 2. In the second place as Man He was indeed a man but the Phoenix of the world and None-such a wonderful man Wonderful in his Conception formed by the immediate finger of the Spirit without the concurrence of any natural Plastique power from man which David in his own person as the type speaks of Psal 139. 14. I am fearfully and wonderfully made And therefore it was said to the Virgin Mary The power of the most High shall overshadow thee to imply that Christ was to be formed in a dark hidden and mysterious way within her And so he was a man wonderful in wisdom His wisdom was wonderful both in respect of the conveighance of it and the extent and perfection of it First for the conveighance not attained by study travel and inquiry as Humane knowledge and wisdom ordinarily are but immediatly descending upon him in the light of the Divinity the Godhead opening it self upon him and pouring forth it self into him And therefore the Baptist tels us that what Christ saw and heard that he testified He saw and heard all in God Joh. 3. 32. which made the people to wonder at him saying Whence hath this man this wisdom not having known letters Mark 6. 2. Secondly For the perfection of it all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge were hid in him when he
Jesus Christ THE Great VVonder DISCOVERED FOR THE Amazement of SAINTS IN A SERMON Preached before the Right Honorable the Lord Major of London and the Honorable Court of Aldermen at Pauls By MATTHEW BARKER Preacher of the Gospel at Leonards East-Cheap LONDON O the depth of the Riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgements and his wayes past finding out Rom. 11. 33. Quando mens se ad deum cum amâ—re integrè convertit incomprehensibili luce in sundum ejus effulgente rationis intellectus oculus reverberatus caligat Isagog Corderii ad myst Theol cap. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dionys Areop de divin nomin Cap. 7. LONDON Printed by R. W. for Rapha Harford at the Bible and States-Arms in Little Brittain 1651. TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE Thomas Andrews LORD MAIOR AND The HONORABLE COURT of ALDERMEN YOu were pleased to Order this Sermon to the Press but I hope it hath already had one Impression upon your hearts and I intended it for no other and is the most noble and excellent kind of Printing when the heart comes to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a Book ingraven with the ingravings of God the Epistle of Jesus Christ written not with ink but the Spirit of the living God What I before 2. Cor. 3. 3. presented to your ears I now again present to your eyes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and if by either or both it shall reach your hearts I have my reward You should have had it sooner but some troubles in my spirit and some affairs in my hand have retarded it But now you have it and neither in matter or form much different from what it was And the blessing of heaven attend it that it may either make or renew some heavenly impressions upon your souls for though it is true what the Apostle saith Rom. 10. That Faith cometh by hearing yet it is also as true what the Church saith Lam. 3. 51. Mine eye affecteth my heart Then are the senses of the body in their highest and properest operations when they let in upon the soul those Idea's which will indeed raise refresh and nourish it My great plot was in this Discourse pardon this plot to make you all Captives not to my self but to TRVTH and JESVS CHRIST and I knew not how to do it by a more probable stratagem then to set up this Jesus in his WONDERFVLNES before you as conceiving that to men truly rational he cannot be presented under a more powerful and perswasive Notion And so I thought it might be very sutable to men in Power and place for the heart that is most effectually caught and captivated of Jesus Christ is best accomplisht for the sincere and vigorous prosecution of publique affairs Never doth the soul move aright in any service if it be not originally drawn of him and ultimately carried forth unto him And O that your choisest affections might centre in his person and your chiefest endeavours in his glory We read in Rev. 19. 1. of a great voyce of much people in heaven saying Allelujah salvation and glory and honour and power to the Lord our God What salvation what glory what honour and power the Lord hath given to his people in these dayes he expects they should give them back again to him that as they are his by their coming from him so they may again be made his by returning them back unto him and then shall we approve our selves to be of those people in heaven Apelles when he had drawn some curious piece would set it in publique view and place himself behind the curtain to hearken what would be said of it by the people passing by Jesus Christ hath set before us in his great works among us a fair draught a lively representation of his glorious power wisdom justice and mercy and doth he not now stand still and listen what the hearts tongues and actings of his people speak concerning it Our great transactions were lately in our VVars abroad they are now likely to be in our Counsels at home Much of God hath been seen in those and O that nothing of self might be seen in these I hope at last God will direct us to find out one Common Centre of Truth and Righteousness wherein all honest hearts will meet The Lord give your Lordship and all others that sit with you at the Stern of this City wisdom to sayl between the two rocks of ANARCHY and TYRANNY and then I hope you will arrive safe at the much longed for Haven of common righteousness and peace It is not for me to prescribe any thing in this nature Only I shall pray that the two Staves of BANDS and BEAUTY may alwayes stand at the gates of this City by our sweet enjoyment of Jesus Christ in his Ordinances and of one another in unity and love Our first degree of happiness would be not to differ but the second is to mannage our differences with humility and wisdom and to take them up before they prove like a breach of the Sea We ought to mark those that cause divisions much more those that delight in them I shall no longer detain you from the perusal of those poor and broken meditations that follow though they came from me in weakness yet I hope they will rise up in you with power which will be a CROWN of Glory and rejoycing to him who desires to his utmost to be serviceable to the great Interest of your spiritual Estate Matthew Barker Isaiah Chap. 9. part of the 6. ver And his name shall be called Wonderful c. OF all the Prophets this Prophet Isaiah is the most Evangelical what Paul was among the Apostles in the New Testament that is Isaiah among the Prophets in the Old as the One had the highest Revelation the Other had the clearest Vision of which you read Isaiah 6. and is expresly said to be of Christ in his glory John 12. 41. speaking more distinctly of Christ in his birth natures life sufferings death his kingdom and glorious administrations in the world then the rest of the Prophets * Qui Isaiam legerit versari se putet in Evangelio Hier. so that he is oftener quoted in the New Testament then all the rest of the Prophets In the beginning of this Chapter he speaks pure Gospel having in the preceding Chapters been foretelling and threatning a gloomy night of Captivity and desolation coming upon Iudah and Ierusalem as you read Chap. 7. 17 18. and Chap. 8. 7 8. in this Chapter to keep their heads above water that they might not sink under the fear or feeling of those heavy afflictions doth present to their thoughts the near approach of the Messiah and that glorious restitution salvation and deliverance which come along with him upon the world that they might be able to look through the darkness of the night to the beauty and glory of that day that was