before him in his Temple for ever A sweet meditation especially in the time of sicknesse and in the houre of death against the crawling wormes and the place of silence I know saith Iob that my Redeemer liveth and that hee shall stand at the latter day upon the Earth and though after my skin Wormes destroy this body yet in my flesh shall I see God whom I shall see for my selfe and mine eyes shall behold and not another though my reines be consumed within me Iob 19.25 26 27. O what meanes doe many use to keepe themselves aliâ—e yea to preserve the bodies of their friends being dead from putrifaction they imbalme them in Spices and lay them up in Marble yet all will not do the bodies of Kings and Queens must yeeld to rottennesse onely a good life makes our bodies immortall Fifthly Our bodies shall bee spirituall 'T is sowne saith the Apostle a naturall body 't is raised a spirituall body For then they shall bee sustained by the Spirit without meat and drinke not as Moses on the Mount for fortie dayes onely but for ever and ever and whereas now the flesh lusteth against the Spirit there being a Law in the members rebelling against the law of the minde Then the body shall bee subject to the Spirit and in all things attend on him Sixtly and lastly This body saith the Apostle is sowne in weakenesse it riseth in power whereas now wee are weary of kneeling in prayer weary of Prayer it selfe Insomuch that Aaron and Hur must attend Moses to hold up his inseebled hands but then shall our bodies bee able to performe their owne actions without desatigation they shall then bee able to move themselves any way with ease upwards downwards backwards forwards more easily then now to lift up an hand and hee shall change our vile bodies and make them like unto his glorious body according to his mighty working whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himselfe Yea not onely man but the Heavens and the Earth shall in that day bee as it were new borne Behold saith God I create a new Heaven and a new Earth So it is likewise in 2 Pet. 3. Whereas the Heavens now give raine and snow c. then they shall exhibit Christ Matth. 26.64 Hereafter shall yee see the sonne of man sitting on the right hand of power and comming in the clouds of Heaven Whereas the Heavens are now ever whirling and wheeling about alwayes winding up the thread of mans life then they shall stand fast for ever the Heavens shall rest from their motion and receive a greater perfection of brightnesse and claritie The ayre shall be purged from obscurity the fire from consuming quality the water from putrifaction the earth from weeds and all hurtfull creatures yea from barrennesse she shall bring forth as before the Fall without labour and Husbandry And all this for the comfort of the Saints who are to passe this way into Heaven in their long white Robes as Princes through some Gallerie into their Chambers of Presence Then this Earth howsoever now a Valley of Teares shall be unto us a Doore of Hope in the Valley of Achor The wicked shall see this and by it as through a Crevise the glory of Heaven but themselves shut out of both But when shall this regeneration of the Creatures be When the Sonne of man shall sit in the Throne of his glory First Christ shall come to judge the quick and dead so it is said Acts 10.42 And he commanded us to preach unto the people and to testifie that it is hee which was ordained of God to be the Judge of quick and dead So againe in the 17. Chapter verse 31. Because he hath appointed a day in the which hee will judge the world in righteousnesse by that man whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in that hee hath raysed him from the dead And so wee beleeve Hee knowes all even our most secret thoughts Hell and destruction saith Salomon are before the Lord how much more the hearts of the sonnes of men All things are naked and broken up before him and as hee knowes all so hee is able to punish and that not the body onely hee can cast both body and soule into Hell Revel. 20. Whosoever was not found written in the Booke of the Lambe was cast into the Lake of fire First this should teach us feare and trembling Knowing the terrors of the Lord saith the Apostle Paul wee perswade men And saith the Apostle Peter if yee call him Father who without respect of persons judgeth every man according to his workes passe the time of your sojourning here in feare 1 Peter 1.17 Secondly learne from hence to looke to your Packes see what Wares you carry with you for in that Day all must be opened Thirdly learne hence to agree with your adversarie while you are in the way If you were to dye to morrow what would you doe to day how spend your time And yet you may dye sooner Take heed At the Tree falleth there it lyes Fourthly Art thou injured slandered mifused any way Remember a Day is comming wherein all must stand at Christs Tribunall You saith Corah with his Complices unto Moses and Aaron you take too much upon you Numb. 16. And what doth Moses answer To morrow saith hee the Lord shall shew who are his And 1 Cor. 4.3 4. But with me it is a very small thing that I shon'd be judged of you or of mans judgement yea I judge not mine owne selfe for I know nothing by my selfe yet am I not hereby justified but he that judgeth me is the Lord Therefore judge nothing before the time untill the Lord come who both will bring to light the hidden things of darknesse and will make manifest the counsels of the heart and then shall every man have prayse of God Fifthly Art thou afraid to appeare before the Judge Remember it is thy Saviour the dyed for thee If Pharaohs Butler feared not to got before him because Joseph had assured him of Libertie how comfortably then are wee to appeare before the Judge being alreadie assured all shall goe well with us Hee is our Judge who is our Saviour and Mediatour a most comfortable Meditation I am your Brother saith Joseph unto his Brethren I am your Brother Joseph This could not but comfort them howsoever conscious of their injuries done him So it is here Sixthly It Christ must be our Judge how warily then and holily are wee to live now that wee may not be ashamed at his Comming Peter being on the Seas and seeing his Master on the yonder shoare girds his Coat about him One would thinke hee should rather have cast his Coat from him No no hee was to appeare before his Master and hee would appeare comely 2 Cor. 5.10 For wee must all appeare before the Iudgement-Seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body
suffer in love and if wee love wee shall serve and suffer long as Jacob for Rachel and think all nothing only because we love Love is that lively motive which makes our obedience full 't is that vertue which comprehends all other vertues Gradn eminentia for if we doe and suffer out of love we are at the highest pitch possible attainable Love saith the Apostle fulfils the Law nor can any vertue so long hold out 'T is as strong as death Cant. 8.6 7. Acquaint your selves with Gods transcendent excellencies but above all set your thoughts a working in deepest and humblest meditation of his love to you in Christ God loved us loved us first loved us being enemies yea so loved us as to give his Sonne to us yea as to give him to death for us to an accursed and shamefull death and he asketh nothing of us but this that we beleeve in him and so hee good to our soules If Faith be in the worke Love will break out yea break out into teares of joy to an exrasie Psal. 31.21 Psal. 116.1 I love the Lord because hee hath heard my voyce and may supplications because hee hath inclined his eare unto mee therefore I will call upon him so long as I live Gal. 2.20 The result of all is this Wee must suffer and indure afflictions as out of love so with joy The Argument That which makes for our eternall blessednesse is to be indured with joy But Afflictions makes for out eternall blessednesse erge not that we are to rejoyce in our afflictions but in the act exercise of our patience or rather Christs working them in us and so in the assurarce of Gods love and favour as the penitent not in his sinnes but in his teares for sinne Acts 5.41 And they departed from the presence of the counsell rejaycing that they wene counted worthy to suffer shame for his Name And 2 Cor. 12.10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmâ—ies in reproaches in necessities in persecutions in distresses for Christs sake But be you therefore cheerefull in afflictions they are but for a few dayes and then comes glory Every Bird can sing in a cleare Heaven onely the Nightingale sings in a storme Rom. 5.2 3. By whom wee have accesse by faith into this grace wherein wee stand and rejoyce in the glory of God and not onely so but wee glory in tribulation knowing that tribulation worketh patience c. If your hearts grow heavie recover your selves with David Psal. 42.5 Why art thou so sad O my soule and why so disquieted within me Trust in God for I shall yet prayse him who is the health of my countenance and my God Soli Deo gloria THE MYSTERIE OF GODLINESSE I TIMOTHIE 3.16 And without controversie great is the Mysterie of Godlinesse God was manifest in the Flesh justified in the Spirit seene of Angels preached unto the Gentiles beleeved on in the World received up into Glory WHat the Evangelists speake of Christ by way of Historie the Apostle here discovers as a great Mysterie Without all controversie great is the Mysterie of Godlinesse c. Where behold as in a Scale of Gradation first a Mysterie secondly a great Mysterie thirdly a great Mysterie of Godlinesse fourthly a great Mysterie of Godlinesse without all controversie Next the Veyle being as it were rent wee see what that great Mysterie is God made manifest in the flesh So then the Apostle here shewes you first that there is a Mysterie secondly declares what that Mysterie is First a Mysterie This word in its owne language speaks some sacred and secret thing full furnished with matter of knowledge but not clearely understood either because there is something betweene us and it or because it selfe is too hard for us and Mysteries there are many 1 Cor. 13. If faith the Apostle I knew all Mysteries thereby giving us to understand that there are Mysteries of severall sorts some greater some lesser whatsoever others are this is great Secondly a great Mysterie {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} This saith the Apostle speaking of Marriage Eph. 5.32 is a great Mysterie because it shadoweth forth unto us the Union that is betwixt Christ and his Church But Thirdly 't is not onely great but godly a Mysterie of Godlinesse Godlinesse is the scope of it it teaches not onely to beleeve what God promiseth but to obey what God commandeth and godlinesse faith the Apostle is great gaine it hath the promise of this life and the life to come it s therefore a Trade saith one of a good returne which way soever you looke Nay more Fourthly the Mysterie here is not onely great a Mysterie of Godlinesse but all this without controversie There are many great Mysteries in the world but not great without controversie nay not without great Controversies The world you see is full of desperate Disputes about Truth whilest Truth her selfe lyes neglected in the middle like Moses his body when the Devill and the Archangel strove about it dead and buried no man can tell where Religion as one complaines of old is even lost in Questions about Religion wee pull so violently in our unprofitable Disputes that at length breaking the Rope wee sall more asunder yea the one side if not both must at last fall to the ground But what is the Mysterie here so great so godly and both without controversie God made manifest in the flesh So that here is first Height God secondly Depth in the flesh thirdly Breath manifest that is God not onely made man but shewing himselfe a man First Height God Job 6.26 Secondly Depth God in the flesh that is the Godhead not absolutely considered but as personally restrained to the Sonne and to him not simply neither as he is God but as a Person subsisting in the Godhead The Word was made flesh saith S. John that is the second Person {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} The Word of God who as wee begat words out of our thoughts beget his Sonne out of himselfe as it were by thinking within himselfe an eternall Generation Not the Father nor the holy-Ghost is made man for then there should have beene two Sonnes but the middle person betweene both as to preserve the integritie of the blessed Trinitie so the better to undertake the office of Mediation betweene God and man But yet though Father and holy-Ghost had no communion with the incarnation of the Sonne {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Damascen otherwise then by assent and approbation yet for as much as the Sonne is of the same substance with the Father coeternall coessentiall with him God blessed for ever Amen for as much as the Word and Deitie are both one subject should wee exclude the nature of God from incarnation wee should make the Sonne of God not to be very God Undoubtedly therefore the Nature of God in the Person of the Sonne is incarnate and therefore though incarnation may not be granted to any
God and Man are enemies the reconciler of both must have an interest in both behold Jesus Christ God and Man John 20.19 Gâ— to my Brethren and sayâ—nte them I ascend to my Father and year Father to my God and 〈◊〉 God When Christ shall enter our appearance in his Name and shall say to his Father Heb. 2.13 Behold I and the Children which thou hast given me This shall make God and Man friends againe And me thinkes the consideration of this should make us all friends How this that you have heard first is a Mysterie considering the premisses you will easily grant it The whole Gospel is a Mysterie Coloss. 2.2 it is the Mysterie of God and of Christ Magnum Sacramentum say the Rhemists following the vulgar as by the Conventicle of Trent they must but the word in it own Language speakes a Sacred Secret Thâ— {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} 1 Gor. 1.7 Though the Gospel be every where preacht yet is it not by every one understood 't is still a Mysterie The naturall man faith the Apostle perceiveth not the things of God none but they to whom it s given understand this none but the Sparituallâ— To you faith Christ is given to know the Mysteries of the Kingdoms note Mysteria 〈…〉 regis and then they that know know but in part but darkly the rest know nothing 2 Cor. 4.3 4. The Gospel is hid to those that are lost Now whatsoever in the Gospel is most mysterions the inoarnation of the Some of God is more yet Secondly 'T is a great Mysterle both in the making and in the maâ—festing of it First in the making That God should be made Man Had he come in the shape of an Angel or in the beautie and glory of any other Creature above or under the Sunne or had he come in the beautie and power of our nature or as on Mount Tabor betweene Moses and Elias when his face was as the Sunne and his garments as the Lightning this had beene abasement enough but to come in the flesh of man which is but dust and ashes oh this is that de basement beyond expression Every precious thing is abased by mingling with a worse and still the worse the thing is wherewith mingled the more the debasement If then Gold be abased by being mingled with Silver much more when mingled with rust or Iron or with the drosse of Lead This debasement of Christ oh it is infinitely more then if the Soâ—ne of the greaâ—st 〈◊〉 in the World should if it were possible he might be turned into the basest Creature on the face of the earth See Proverbs 30.4 Who bath ascended up into Heaven or desconded Who bath gathered the Winds in his fists Who bath bound the Waters in a Garment Who bath established all the ends of the Earth What is his 〈◊〉 and what is his Soâ—es Name of thou canst tell You may reade the first Letter of his Name in Isay 9.6 Wonderfull And wonderfull he was and did â—derously when he appeared unto Manaaâ— Judgers 13.18 19. Bâ— all the Wonders that ever were Creation and all from thence and that which shall be last of all but not least of all the Resurâ—ection from the dead must give place to 〈◊〉 You have here the highest pitch of Gods Wisdoâ—e Goodnesse Power Glory and Mercie if any thing may be said to be highest in that which is infiâ—te and exempt from all measure and dimension Dan. 2.11 'T is a 〈◊〉 thing a sayâ— Chaldeans to the Question propounded them by the King of Babel and none can shew the like except the gods whose dwelling is not in flesh But here the raritie lyes in the contrary He who is over all God blessed for ever is come in our flesh c. 2 Chron. 6.18 But will Gad in very deed dwell with 〈…〉 earth Behold Heaven and the Heaven of Heavens cannot containe him how much lesse this house that I bâ— built Words of wonder But see here a greater matter the Sonne of God is made the sonne of man cloâ—thed with our flesh and 〈…〉 Deus â—asciâ—ur the great Jehâ— is become a 〈…〉 sagens where Eternitie hath put on our moâ— He that is incorporeall is cloathed with our flesh the Ancient of dayes is become an infant Made of a Woman borne of a 〈…〉 that it was given for a signe unto belâ— long before the accomplishment a figue of Gods owne châ—ing one Ray of the Wonders in the depth breath on the beight above Isa. 7.14 Bohold a Virgin shall 〈◊〉 a Sonne and shall 〈◊〉 his name Emanuel That the Sonne of God should be made the some of 〈◊〉 made of a woman yea that woman which he himselfe made That her Wombe then and the Heavens now should containe him whom the Heaven of Heavent cannot containâ— That he should be both God and Man in one Person and both distinctly and so have a Father in Heaven without a Mother and on Earth a Mother without a Father That his Father should be greater then hee and yet hee equall to his Father That â—ee should be before Abraham and yet be borne well-nigh two thousand yeares after him That hee should be Davids sonne and yet Davids Lord That hee should have neither beginning nor end of dayes c. Let Egypt cease to talke of her Mole-hils of Brick Ephesus of her Temple Babyloâ— of her Walls Rhodes of her Colosâ—e here is a Wonder infinitely beyond all God is made flesh Nay more Secondly made manifest in the flesh {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} What may be knowâ—e of God saith the Apostle Rom. 1.20 is manifest in the Creatures but here you have God made manifest in the flesh of Man God himselfe is hid from our eyes Isa. 45.15 Truly O Lord thou art hid from our eyes So that God himselfe is a Mysterie and that which makes the Mysterâ— the greater God is hâ—d with Light Hee dwells saith the Apostle In Light maccessible 1 Tim. 6.16 But what have wee to doe with an hidden God a God that cannot will not be seeâ— Make us gods say the people unto Aaron may goe before us Exâ— 32. Behold here God not onely made but made manifest in the flesh And behold here a lower degree of abasement Men especially if great howsoever abased cannot endure to have their basenesse knowne Oh tell it not in Gâ—h Even Naoâ— in her distresse is ashamed of her Name Call mâ— no more beautifull but bitter far the Aloâ—ghtie hath dealt bitterly with me Ruth 1.20 But Christ is not onely made flesh but made manifest in the flesh yea so sarre from being ashamed of it that a little before his death hee gives a Charge to have it preached all over the world And if the incarnation of Christ be a Mysterie so great a Mysterie them must wee learne silently to 〈…〉 it s no shame to be ignorant of the things wee cannot know nay ' â—is Docta ignorantia Câ—lv Wee