of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth Yet so wert thou made flesh as not by conversion into flesh but as by assumption of flesh to thine eternall Deity assumption not into the nature of the Godhead but into the person of thee who art God everlasting O mystery of Godlinesse incomprehensibly glorious Cease cease O humane curiosity and where thou canst not comprehend wonder and adore SECT. III. BUt O Savior was it not enough for thee to be manifested in flesh Did not that elementarie composition carry in it abasement enough without any further addition since for God to become man was more then for all things to be redacted to nothing but that in the rank of miserable manhood thou wouldst humble thy self to the lowest of humanity and become a servant Shall I say more I can hear Bildad the Shuhite say Man is a worm and I hear him who was a noble Type of thee say as in thy person I am a worm and no man a reproach of men and despised of the people O Saviour in how despicable a condition do I find thee exhibited to the world lodged in a stable cradled in a manger visited by poor shepheards imployed in an homely trade attended by mean fishermen tempted by presumptuous Devils persecuted by the malice of envious men exposed to hunger thirst nakednesse wearinesse contempt How many sclaves under the vassalage of an enemie fare better then thou didst from ingratefull man whom thou camest to save Yet all these were but a mild and gentle preface to those thy last sufferings wherewith thou wert pleased to shut up this scene of mortality there I find thee sweating blood in thine agonie crowned with thorns bleeding with scourges buffeted with cruell hands spat upon by impure mouths laden with thy fatall burden distended upon that torturing crosse nailed to that tree of shame and curse reviled and insulted upon by the vilest of men and at last that no part of thy precious bloud might remain unshed pierced to the heart by the spear of a late and impertinent malice Thus thus O God and Saviour wouldst thou be manifested in the flesh that the torments of thy flesh and spirit might be manifested to that world which thou camest to redeem thus wast thou wounded for our transgressions thus wast thou bruised for our iniquities thus were the chastisements of our peace upon thee and thus with thy stripes are we healed O blessed but still incomprehensible mystery of Godliness God thus manifested in the flesh in weakness contempt shame pain death Once only O blessed Jesus whiles thou wert wayfaring upon this globe of earth didst thou put on glory even upon Mount Tabor in thy heavenly transfiguration then and there did thy face shine as the Sun and thy raiment was white as thy light How easie had it been for thee to have continued this celestiall splendor to thy humanity all the whole time of the so journing upon earth that so thou mightest have been adored of all mankinde How would all the Nations under heaven have flockd to thee and fallen down at the feet of so glorious a Majesty What man in all the world would not have said with Peter Lord it is good for us to be here Or if it had pleased thee to have commanded Moses and Elias to wait upon thee in thy mediatorie perambulation and to attend thee at Jerusalem on the Mount of Sion as they did in the Mount of Tabor whom hadst thou not in a zealous astonishment drawn after thee But it was thy wil and the pleasure of thy heavenly Father that this glorious appearance should soon be over shadowed with a cloud And as those celestiall guests now in the midst of thy glory spent their conference about thy bitter sufferings and thine approaching departure out of the world So wert thou for the great work of our Redemption willing to be led from the Mount Tabor to Mount Calvarie from the height of that glory to the lowest depth of sorrow pain exinanition Thus vile wert thou O Saviour in the flesh but in this vilenesse of flesh mannifested to be God how did all thy Creatures in this extremity of thine abasement agree to acknowledge and celebrate thine infinite Deity The Angels came down from heaven to visit and attend thee the Sun pulled in his head as abhorring to look upon the sufferings of his maker the Earth was covered over with darkness and quaked for the horror of that indignity which was offered to thee in that bloody passion the rocks rent the graves opened themselves and sent up their long-since putrefied Tenants to wait upon thee the Lord of life in thy glorious Resurrection so as thou in thy despised and crucified flesh wert abundantly manifested to be the Almighty God of Heaven and Earth SECT. 4. O blessed Saviour thou the true God manifested in the flesh be thou pleased to manifest unto the soul of thy servant the unspeakable riches of thy love and mercie to mankind in that great work of our Redemption Vouchafe to affect my heart with a lively sense of that infinite goodnesse of thine towards the wretcheddest of thy creatures that for our sake thou camest down and cloathedst thy self in our flesh and cloathedst that pure and holy flesh with all the miseries that are incident to this sinfull flesh of ours and wast content to undergo a bitter painfull ignominous death from the hands of man that by dying thou mightest overcome death and ransome him from that hel to which he was without thee irrecoverably forfeited and fetch him forth to life liberty and glory O let me not see only but feel this thy great mysterie of Godlinesse effectually working me to all hearty thankfulnesse for so inestimable a mercie to all holy resolutions to glorifie thee in all my actions in all my sufferings Didst thou O Saviour being God eternall take flesh for me and shall not I when thou callest be willing to lay down this sinfull flesh for thee again Wert thou content to abridge thy self for the time not onely of thy heavenly magnificence but of all earthly comforts for my sake and shall not I for thy dear sake renounce all the wicked pleasures of sin Didst thou wear out the dayes of thy flesh in poverty toil reproach and all earthly hardship and shall I spend my time in pampering this flesh in wanton dalliance in the ambitious and covetous pursuit of vain honours and deceivable riches Blessed Lord thou wert manifested in the flesh not only to be a Ransome for our souls but to be a Precedent for our lives Far far be it from me thus to imitate the great pattorn of holiness O Jesu the author and finisher of my faith and salvation teach me to tread in thy gracious steps to run with patience the race that is set before me to endure the cross to despise the shame to be crucified to the world to work all righteousnesse
upon the dark souls of these poor Infidels and enlighten them with the saving knowledge of the great mysterie of Godlinesse Let the beams of thy Gospell break forth unto them and work them to a sound beleef in thee their God manifested in the flesh Fetch home into thy fold all those that belong to thy mercifull election bring in the fulnesse of the Gentiles gather together the out-casts of Israel and glorifie thy self in completing a world of beleevers And for us on whom the ends of the world are come as we have been graciously called to the comfortable notice of this mysterie of godlinesse and have professed and vowed a steadfast beleef in thy name so keep us by thy good spirit in an holy and constant avowance of all those main truths concerning thy sacred Person Natures and Offices unto our last end For thou seest O blessed Jesu that there is now such an hell of the spirits of errour broken loose into the world as if they meant to evacuate this part of the mysterie of godlinesse Christ beleeved on in the world O do thou by thy mighty power restraine and quell these pernicious heresies and send down these wicked spirits back to their chains so as our most holy faith may ever remain inviolable till the day of thy glorious return Neither let us sit down contented that we hold fast and beleeve the meer historie of thy life death and resurrection without which as we can be saved so with it alone we cannot but do thou by thy good spirit work and settle in our souls a sound lively operative justifying faith in thee whereby we may not only beleeve on thee as a common Saviour but beleeve in thee as ours bringing thee home to our hearts and confidently relying upon thee for the acquittance of all our sins and for our eternall salvation O that thou mightest be thus beleeved on in the world and if not by them in the notion of their universality yet by us who professe thy name to thy great glory and our everlasting comfort SECT. XV IN these occurrences on the earth Great is the mysterie of godlinesse but the highest pitch of this great mysterie O Saviour is that thou thus manifested in our flesh wert received up into glorie even that celestiall glorie which thou enjoyest in the highest heavens sitting on the right hand of majesty seen and adored by all that blessed company of the souls of just men made perfect and the innumerable troops of glorious Angels If some erroneous fancies have placed their heaven here below upon earth ours is above and so is thine O blessed Jesu who wert taken up in glorie thou couldst not be taken up to any earthly ascent since thou tookest thy farewell on the top of Mount Olivet but from this globe of earth thou ascendest through the skies to that Empyreall heaven where thou remainest in glorie infinite and incomprehensible The many and intentive beholders of thy last parting did not cast their eyes down into the valley neither did see cause with the fifty sons of the Prophets to seek for thee as they would needs do for Elijah in vallies and mountains they saw and worishpped thee leasurely ascending up through the region of this lower heaven till a cloud intercepted thee from their sight neither then could easily be taken off either by the interposition of that dark body or by the interpellation of Angels And now O blessed Saviour how is my soul ravished with the mediation of thy glorious reception into thine Heaven Surely if the inhabitants of those celestial mansions may be capable of any increase of joy they then both found and shewed it when they saw and welcomed thee entering in thy gorlifi'd humanity in to that thy eternal palace of blessedness and if there could be any higher or sweter ditty then Hallelujah it was then sung by the Chore of Angels and Saints And may thy poor servants warfairing and wandring here upon earth ever second them in those heavenly songs of praises and gratulations for wherein stands all our safety hope comfort happinesse but in this that thou our Jesus art received up into glorie and having conquered all adverse powers sittest on the right hand of God the Farher crowned with honour and majesty O Jesu thou art our head we are thy body how can the body but participate of the glory of the head as for thy self therefore so for us art thou possessed of that heavenly glorie as thou sufferedst for us so for us thou also raignest Let every knee therefore bow unto thee of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth O blessed be thy name for ever and ever Thine O Lord is the greatnesse and the power and the glorie and the victorie and the majestie for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine thine is the kingdom O Lord and thou art exalted as head over all And now O Saviour what a superabundant amends is made to thy glorified humanitie for all thy bitter sufferings upon earth Thine Agonie was extreme but thy glorie is infinite thy crosse was heavie but thy crown transcendently glorious thy pains were unconceivably grievous but short thy glory everlasting If thou wert scorned by men thou art now adored by Angels Thou that stoodst before the Judgment Seat of a Pilate shalt come in all heavenly magnificence to judge both the quick and the dead Shortly thou which wouldst stoop to be a servant upon Earth rulest and raignest for ever in Heaven as the King of eternall glorie O then my soul seeing thy Saviour is received up into this infinite glorie with what intention and fervour of spirit shouldst thou fix thine eyes upon that heaven where he lives and raigns How canst thou be but wholly taken up with the sight and thought of that place of blessednesse how canst thou abide to grovell any longer on this base Earth where is nothing but vanity and vexation and refrain to minde the things above where is all felicitie and glorie with what longings and holy ambiâ—ion shouldst thou desire to aspire to that place of eternall rest and beatitude into which thy Saviour is ascended and with him to partake of that glory and happinesse which he hath provided for all that love him O Saviour it is this clog of wretched infidelity and earthlinesse that hangs heavie upon my soul and keeps me from mounting up into thy presence and from a comfortable fruition of thee O do thou take off this sinfull weight from me and raise up my affections and conversation to thee enable me constantly to enjoy thee by a lively faith here till by thy mercie I shall be received into thy glorie FINIS Prov. 16. â—7 Jer. 2. Hos. 4. 2. Actâ— 10. 35. Jude 3. phes 4. 5 1 Cor. 3. 11. 1 Cor. 7. 20 1 Tim. 3. 16. Great is the Mysterie of Godlinesse 1 Pet. 1. 12. God manifested In the flesh Job 1. 14 Job 25 6. Psal. 22. 6. Esay 53. 5. Mat. 17. 2. Mark 29. Luke 9. 28. 2 Cor. 5. 16. Rom. 1. 20. Justified in the Spirit Luk. 2. 9 10 13 1 Rom. 4. 25. Rom. 8 33. Seen of Angels Dan. 8. 19 17. Mat. 18. 10. Luk. 2. 9. 15. Act 12. 7 8 10. Luk. 22. 41. Heb. 1. 9. Mat. 28. 2 3 4. Joh. 20. 12. Act. 1. 10 11. 1 Pet. 1. 12. Ephes. 3. 9. Ephes. 3 8. Psal. 76. 1. Ephes. 2. 12. Esay 25. 7. Luk 2. 32. Esay 66. 18. Esay 2. 2 3. Esay 49. 2â— Esay 55. 5. Psal. 96. 7 Ps. 66. 4. Ps. 22. 27 Cant. 8. 8. Hos. 2. 19. Râ—m 11. 2â— Rom. 22. Rom. 11. 1. Rom. 11. 20 Act. 10. 11. â—2 Beleeved on in the world Esay 53. 1. 2 Cor. 1. 23. Mat. 21. 9. 1 Joh. 5. 19. Rom. 11. Psal 147. 2. Received up into glory Heb. 12. 22. 23. 2 King 2. 16. Phil. 2. 11. 2 Chr. 2. 11.
the East for their adoration Is not this he whose birth declared by one glorious Angell was celebrated by a multitude of the heavenly host with that divine Anthem of Glory to God in the highest and on earth Peace good will towards men Is not this he that filled the world with his divine and beneficiall miracles healing all diseases by his Word restoring limbs to the lame giving eyes to the borne blind casting out Devils raising the dead commanding windes and seas acknowledged by an audible voice from heaven Is not this he whom the very ejected Devils were forced to confess to be the son of the everliving God whom the heaven and al the elements owned for their almighty Creatour whose sufferings darkened the Sun and shooke the Earth and rent the Rocks in pieces and justly whom the dead Saints and the heavenly Angels attended in his powerfull Resurrect on and glorious Ascension O Saviour abundantly justified in the spirit against all the malignances of men and Devils SETC. VIII If thy malicious persecutours whose hand was in thy most cruell crucifixion shall for the covering of their own shame blazon thee for a Deceiver of the people How convincingly wert thou justified in the spirit by the dreadfull and miraculous descent of the holy Ghost in the cloven and fiery tongues and that suddain variety of language for the spreading of the glory of thy name over all the Nations of the earth If the unbeleiving world bewitched with their former superstition shall furiously oppose thy name and Gospell in the times immediately succeeding how notably art thou justified in the spirit by the suddain stopping of the mouths of their hellish Oracles by the powerfull predications of thine holy Apostles Prophets Evangelists Pastors and Doctors seconded by such undeniable miracles as shamed and astonished if not won the gainsayers But O Saviour being thus clearly instified in the spirit against the old spight of hell with what shame and horrour do I see thine eternall Godhead called into question by the misgoverned wits of certaine late mis-named Christians who as if they would raise up cursed Arrius from his hatefull grave have dared to renew those blasphemous cavils against thy sacred person which with so great authority and full evidence of the spirit were long since cryed downe to that hell whence to the great contumelie of heaven they were most wickedly sent up into the world Woe is me their damned sounder did not send down his soul into that fatal draught in a more odious way then these his followers vent themselves upward in most unsavoury and pestilent contradictions to thee the Lord of life and glory But even against these art thou justified in the spirit speaking in thy divine Scriptures whose evident demonstrations do fully convince their calumnies and false suggestions and vindicate thy holy Name and blessed Deity from all their devillish and frivolous argutations Is there any weak soul that makes doubt of thy plenarie satisfaction for his sinne of the perfect accomplishment of the great work of mans Redemption how absolutely art thou justified O blessed Jesu in the spirit in that thou raisedst thy selfe from the dead quitting that prison of the grave whence thou couldst not have come till thou hadst paid the utmost farthing wherein we stood indebted to heaven O Saviour not more concealed in the flesh then manifestly justified in the spirit for my all-sufficient Redeemer not more meekly yeilding to death for our offences then powerfully raised up again for our justification how should I blesse and praise thee both for thine humble self-dejection in respect of thine assumed flesh and for thy powerfull justification in thine infinite and eternall spirit that holy Ghost whereby thou wert conceived in the womb of the Virgin justified thee in thy life death resuscitation Now then how confidently can I trust thee with my soul who hast approved thy self so compleat and almighty a Reedemer O blessed Jesu with what assurance do I cast my self upon thee for thy present protection for my future salvation how boldly can I defie all the powers of darknesse whiles I am in the hand of so gracious and omnipotent a Mediator Who shal lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect It is God that justifieth Even thou the God who wast manifested in the flesh and justified in the spirit shalt justifie and save my spirit soul and body in the day of our appearance before thee SECT. IX O Saviour it is no mysterie that being manifested in he flesh thou wert seen of men but it is no small part of the great mystery of Godliness that thou who art the God of Spirits wert seen by those heavenly spirits cloathed in flesh It could not be but great news to the Angels to see their God born and conversing as man with men For a man to see an Angell is a matter of much wonder but for an Angell to see God become man is a far greater wonder since in this the change concernes an infinite subject in the other a finite though incorporeall But pause here awhile O my soul and inquire a little into these strange spectators Seen of Angels who or what might those be Are three any such reall incorporeall permament substances or are they onely things of imagination and extemporary representations of the pleasure of the Almighty Wo is me that no errour may be wanting to this prodigious age do we live to see a reviction of the old Sadduciâ—â—â— so long since dead and forgotten Was Gabriel that appeared and spake to Daniel nothing but a supernatural phâ—ntasme And what then was a he Gabriel that appeared with the happy newes of a Saviour to the blessed Virgin What are the Angels of those little ones whereof our Saviour speakes which do alwaies behold the face of his Father in heaven What were those Angels that appeared to the shepherds with the tidings and gratulations of the Saviour borne at Bethlem What was that beneficent spirit that visited Peter in the Prison smote him on the side to wake him from his sleep shook off his chains threw open the iron gate and rescued him from the bloody hands of Herod What are those spirits who shall be Gods reapers at the end of the world to cut down the tares and gather the wheat into his barn Shortly what were all those spirits whereof both Testaments are full which God was pleased to imply in his frequent missions to the earth were these phantasms too Certainly though there may be many Orders yet there is but one generall condition of those Angelicall attendants on the throne of the Almighty Even in the old Testament was it a supernaturall apparition of fancie that in one night smote all the first borne in the land of Aegypt was it a supernaturall apparition of fancie that in one night laid an hundred fourscore and five thousand Assyrians dead upon the ground Could these be any other then the acts
of living and powerful agents It is not for us to contend about words those that are disposed to devise paradoxes may frame to themselves what senses they please of their own terms this we are sure of that the Angels are truly existing spirituall intelligent powerfull eviternall Creatures whose being is not exposed to our sense but evidenced both to our faith and reason not circumscribed in any grosse locality but truly being where they are and acting according to their spiritual nature Of these Angels O blessed Saviour wert thou seen manifested in the flesh to their wonder and gratulation That thou who hadst taken our flesh wert visible was no whit strange herein thou wert a plain and happy object to all eyes but how the Angels being meerly spirituall substances could see thee may be part of this great mysterie Doubtlesse they saw thee both before and ever since thou camest into the world with eyes like themselves spirituall and not seldome saw thee being incarnate with the assumed eyes of those bodies wherein they appeared Thus they saw and adored and proclaimed thee in thy first saluration of the world when thou layest in that homely posture in the Manger at Bethlehem singing that sweet and celestiall caroll at thy nativity Glory be to God in the highest They saw thee in the wild desert where no creatures appeared to thee but either beasts or Devils there they saw thee pined with fasting conflicted with the Prince of darknes they saw thee foiling that presum ptuous enemy not without wonder doubtlesse at the boldnesse of that daring spirit and joyfull applause at thy happy victory they saw thee but as knowing there was no use of seconds in this duel of thine unseen of thee till the full end of that great combat then they shewed themselves to thee as willing to be known to have been the secret witnesses of the fight and glad congratulators of thy Triumph then they came and ministred unto thee Never were they but ready to have visibly attended thee hadst thou been pleased to requite so sensible a service but the state of a servant which thou choosedst to undergoe suited not with the perpetuity of so glorious a retinue whether therefore they were seen to thee or not seen it was their great honour and happinesse and a main part of the great mysterie of Godliness that thou who art the true God manifested in the flesh wert seen of Angels They saw thee in the garden in thy sad agonie and if Angels could have been capable of passion in that state of their glory could have been no doubt content to suffer in and with thee with what eyes do we think they lookt upon thy bloody sweat and the frownes of thine heavenly Father which they saw bent against thee in our persons for the sin of mankind which thou camest to expiate Now in this dolefull condition so wert thou seen of Angels that the Angels were seen of thee For lo there appeared an Angell from heaven strengthening thee O the deep humiliation of God manifested in the flesh that thou O Jesu the God and Lord of all the Angels of heaven shouldst in this bloody conflict with thy Fathers wrath for our sins need and receive comfort from a created Angel thy servant Whilest thou wert grapling with the powers of darkness there was no need of aid only after the fight Angels came and ministred to thee but now that thou must struggle under the wrath of thy Father for mans sin there was use of the consolation of one of those Angels whereof thou commandest millions O blessed Saviour had not the face of thy heavenly Father been clouded to thee standing in the stead of our guiltinesse it had been no lesse then presumption in any finite power to tender thee any suggestions of comfort but now alas those beatificall beams were so for the time hid from thine eyes and the sweet influences of light and joy arising there-from were for that sad instant suspended so as nothing appeared to thee that while but the darknesse of displeasure and horrour now therefore the comforts of a creature could not be but seasonable and welcome so that thou disdainedst not to be strengthened by an Angel Extreme distresse looks not so much to the hand that brings supply as to the supply it brings If but one of thy three drouzy clients could have shaken off his sleep and have let fall to thee some word of consolation in that heavy fit of thine thou hadst not refused it how much lesse the cordiall intimations of an heavenly monitor neither was it improper for thee who wast content to be made a little inferiour to the Angels to receive some spirituall aid from the hands of an Angell What then O Saviour was the strengthening which thou receivedst from this officious spirit in this pang of thine agony Doubtless it was not any communication of an additionall power to bear up under that heavy pressure of the sins of the whole world which drew from thee those sweats of blood No Angell in heaven was able to contribute that to the Sonne of God but it was a sweet and forcible representation to thy disconsolate humanity of the near approach of an happy eluctation out of those torments of thy sufferings and of the glorious crown of thy victory immediately succeeding SECT. X. ANd now soon after those Angels that saw thee sweating in thine agonie and bleeding on thy crosse saw thee also triumphing over Death in thy Resurrection they attended thee joyfully in the vault of thy sepulture and saw thee trampling upon the last enemie being then sutably habited to so blessed an occasion in white shining vestures how gladly were they imployed about that most glorious solemnity both as actors in the service and as the first heralds of thy victories over Death I find one of them obsequiously making ready for thy coming out of those chambers of death upon thine Easter morning rolling away that massy stone which the vain care of thine adversaries had laid curiously sealed upon the mouth of that Cave for the prevention of thy fore-threatned resurrection and sitting upon it with a countenance like lightning and his garment white as snow the terrour of whose presence made the guard to shake and to become as dead men I find two of them no lesse glorious sitting the one at the head the other at the feet of that bed of earth whereon thou hadst newly slept By these Angels wert thou both seen and attended and no doubt but as at thy first coming into the world when but one Angell published thy birth he was seconded by a multitude of the heavenly host praising God with hymns of rejoycing for thy nativity so when but one or two Angels were seen at thy second birth which was thy glorious resurrection there were more of that heavenly company invisibly celebrating the joyfull triumph of that blessed day wherein having conquered Death and Hell thou
is the case through their wilfull incredulity altered they are the dogs and we the children we sit at a full table whiles their hunger is not satisfied with scraps The casting away of them was the reconciling of the world their fall our exaltation It is not for us to be high-minded but to fear The great sheet with four corners is let down from heaven with al manner of four-footed beasts of the earth and creeping things and fowls of the air we may kill and eat without any difference of clean or unclean but even of clean meats we may surfet O Saviour it is thy great mercie that thou hast been thus long preached amongst us Gentiles that we in the remote ends of the World have seen the salvation of our God but if we shall abuse thy graces to wantonness and walk unanswerably to this freedome of thy Gospell how both just and easie is it for thee to withdraw these blessings from us and to return us to the wofull condition of our old forlornnesse O let it not be enough that thou art preached amongst us Gentiles but do thou work us to an holy obedience of thy blessed Gospell reclaim us from our abominable licentiousnesse of life from our hellish heresies of opinion and teach us to walk worthy of that great salvation which thou hast held forth unto us so shall it be our happiness that thou wert preach'd to us Gentiles otherwise our condemnation shall be so much the deeper as our light hath been more clear and our means more powerfull SECT. XIII SO poor and despicable O Saviour wouldst thou have thy coming in the flesh that it is no marvail if the vain world utterly disregarded thee For what is the mis-judging world led by but by outward pomp magnificence yea thy very domestick followers after so long acquaintance with thy person and doctrine even when thou wert risen from the dead could thinke of the royalty of a temporall kingdome to be restored to Israel and still the perverse generations of Jewish Infidels after the conviction of so many hundred years gape for an earthly Monarchy of their expected Massiah that therefore appearing to the world in so contemptible means so born so living so dying thou shouldst be universally beleeved on in the world is the just wonder of the mysterie of Godlinesse It was the largness of thy divine bountie to allow thy Gospell preached to every creature but alas it is liberally preached sparingly received Who hath beleeved our report and to whom is the arme of the Lord revealed It was the complaint of thy chosen vessell the Doctor of the Gentiles We preach Christ crucified to the Jewes a stumbling block to the Greeks foolishnesse What a power therefore is there in the mysterie of Godlinesse that thou art not preached only but beleeved on in the world Hadst thou exhibited thy self in the magnificence and majesty of the Son of God attended either with the glorious Angels of heaven or the mighty Monarchs of the earth scattering honors and riches upon thy followers in abundance how large a train wouldst thou have had how would all the Earth have rung with Hosonnas to the highest but now that thou wouldst come as the Son of man in the homeliest condition of birth education life and death not having so much as an house wherein to put thy head or a grave wherein to lay thy dead body now that thou wouldst suffer thy self to be spat upon scourged crucifed reviled that the stub born hearts of men should be so convinced by the truth and power of thy Deity that thou art beleeved on in the world is the great mysterie of Godlinesse The powers of darknesse could not but see their kingdome shaken by thy coming down to the earth upon this errand of thy Mediation How busie and violent therefore were those gates of hell in opposing so glorious a worke How did they stirr up cruell Tyrants in the first dawning of thy Gospell furiously to persecute this way unto death what exquisite torments of all kinds did they devise for the innocent professors of thy name How drunken was the earth with the blood of thy Martyrs in all parts And when they saw how little force could prevaile since this Palm-tree grew the more by depression how did they set their wits on work in attempting by fraud to bring about their cut fed designes How cunningly did they go about to undermine that wall which they could not batter now whole troops of the skilfullest Engineers of hell are sent up by damned heresies to blow up and overthrow that truth which they could not beat down One while thine eternall Deity another while thy sacred humanitie is impugned by those who yet stile themselves Christians One while either of thy natures another while thy intire Person is laid at by those that profess themselves thy friends and clients One while thine Offices another while thy Scriptures are opposed by those who yet would seem thine And though their insinuations have been so eraftily carried and their colours so well laid that no small part of the world hath been for the time beguiled by them and drawn into a plausible misbeleef yet still great hath the truth ever been and ever prevailed happily triumphing over those damnable heresies that have dared to lift up their head against her and chasing them into their hell So as in spight of men and Devils the great mysterie of Godliness is gloriously vindicated and God manifested in weak flesh is beleeved on in the world SECT. XIIII The world is not all of one making there is a world of creatures not capable of beleef there is a world of men that lyeth in wickednesse refusing to beleeve there is a world of faithfull souls that do beleeve and in beleeving are saved And O blessed Saviour that thou wouldst graciously enlarge this world of beleevers Wo is me what a world of this world of men lyes still under the damnable estate of unbelief Alas for those poor savage Indians that know nothing of a God which out of their fear and tyrannicall superstition worship Devils that they may not hurt them for those ignorant and wofully blindfolded Mahumetans that are not allowed to see any more then one blinke of thee as a great Prophet being taught to blaspheme thy Deity and to enslave their faith to a wretched Impostor for those obstinate Jews that are wilfully blind and will not see the light of that truth concerning thee their Messiah which shineth forth clearly to them in the writings of the Prophets in the undeniable accomplishment of all former predictions in the powerfull conviction of miraculous works What Christian is there whose bowels do not yearn whose heart doth not bleed at the thought of so many millions of miserable unbeleevers O thou the God of infinite mercy and compassion in whose hands are all the hearts of the sons of men look down graciously from heaven