of the ladder stood upon the earth his divine nature which was the top of the ladder reached to heaven The Arrians and Socinians deny his Godhead as the Valentians do his manhood * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ignat. Ep. ad Antioch If the God-head be in him he must needs be God but the God-head shines in him Col. 2.9 In him dwells 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All the fulnesse of the God-head * Non dicit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod discrimen contra Eutichianos notatu dignum Beza and to confirme us in this truth let us consult with those Scriptures which do clearly assert his Godhead 1 Cor. 8.6 To us there is but one God the Father of whom are all things and one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things and Phil. 2.6 who being in the form of God Basil lib. 1. Cont. Eunom which is as much saith Basil as to exist in the essence of God 1 Tim. 3.16 God was manifest in the flesh and 1 John 5.20 We are in him that is true even in his sonne Jesus Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 THIS IS THE TRUE GOD * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ignat. Besides these testimonies of Scripture which do expressely assert the God-head of Christ it may be clearly demonstrated by those incommunicable properties belonging to the Deity which are ascribed to Christ and are the flowers of his Crown As 1. Omnipotency * Justin Martyr Orat. 1. ad Graec. Heb. 1.3 2. Omnisciency Mark 2.8 3. Ubiquity Mat. 28.20 4. Power of sealing pardons Mat. 9.6 5. The mission of the holy Ghost John 16.7 6. Coequality with God the Father Phil. 2.6 both in power John 5.19 21. and dignitie John 5.23 Thus we see his God-head proved and as he is God-man he is altogether lovely He is the very picture of his fathers glory Therefore he is called the expresse image and character of his person * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 1.3 The very effigies and print of Gods face is seen in Christ the glory of Gods wisdome holinesse mercy doth most transparently shine forth in him Thus his person is lovelie 2. Christ is lovely in his disposition A good nature is able to render deformity it self lovely Christ is lovely not only in his complexion but in his disposition He is of a loving and merciful disposition and in this sense may be called deliciae humani Generis * Titus Vespas It is reported of Marcus Aurelius the Emperour that he was of a most affable winning temper given to clemency and every day he would set one houre apart to hear the causes of the poor Thus Jesus Christ is of a most sweet disposition * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Macar He will not alwayes chide Psalme 103.9 He is inclinable to shew mercy to the penitent He delights in mercy Micah 7.18 He envites sinners to come to him Mat. 11.28 he begs of them that they would be saved 2 Cor. 5.20 he knocks at their hearts by his Spirit till his head be fill'd with dew and his locks with the drops of the night Rev. 3.20 If any poor soul accepts of his offer and doth arise and go to him how doth Christ welcome him * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Macarius Christ makes the Feast Luke 15.23 and the Angels make the musick verse 7. But if men will not receive the tenders of grace Christ grieves Mark 3.5 He is like a Judge that passeth the sentence with teares in his eyes Luke 19.42 And when he came nigh the City he wept Ah sinners I come to save you but you put away salvation from you * Acts 13. I come with healing under my wings but you bolt out your Physician I would have you but open your hearts to receive me and I will open heaven to receive you but you will rather stay with your sinnes and die than come to me and live Psalme 81.11 Israel would none of me Well sinners I will weep at your Funerals Oh how lovely is Christ in his disposition he comes with his suppling oyle to poure into sinners wounds He would faine break their hearts with his mercies He labours to overcome their evil with his good 3. Christ is lovely in his sufferings when he did make expiation for our sins * 1 Pet. 2.24 but what lovely in his sufferings lovely when he was buffeted spit upon besmeared with blood O yes he was most lovely upon the crosse * Rubore sui sanguinis nos candidos effecit Ghislerus because then he shewed most love to us He bled love at every veine His drops of blood were love-drops The more bloody the more lovely * Quanto pro me vilior tanto mibi charior Aug. The more Christ endured for us the more deare he ought to be to us Osorius writing of the sufferings of Christ saith Gal. 6.14 that the crown of thornes bored his head with seventy two wounds * Doles domine non tua vulnera sed mea Ambrose Quid dicamin crucem tollere Tully and Tully when he comes to speak of the death of the Crosse shews his rhetorique best by an Aposiopesis or silence what shall I say of this death Though a great Orator he wanted words to expresse it Nor did Christ only endure paine in his body but agony in his soul He conflicted with the wrath of God which he could never have done if he had not been more than a man We reade that the Altar of wood was overlaid with brasse that so the fire on the Altar might not consume the wood Exod. 27.1 2. This Altar was a type of Iesus Christ The humane nature of Christ which was as the wood was covered with the divine nature which was like the brasse else the fire of Gods wrath had consumed it and all this Christ suffered was nostra vice in our stead * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ignat. Isa 53.5 We eat the soure Grape and his teeth were set on edge We climbed the tree we stole the forbidden fruit and Christ goes up the ladder of the Crosse and dies Oh how lovely ought a bleeding Savior * Pendet anima dulcia poma de ligno decerpit Bern. de Floribus to be in our eys Let us weare this blessed crucifix alwayes in our heart * Inspice vulnera pendentis sanguinem morientis caput habet inclinatum ad osculandum cor apertum ad diligendum brachia extenia ad amplexandum totum corpus expositum ad redimendum haec quanta sint cogitate haec in statera vestri cordis appendite ut totus vobis figatur in corde qui totus pro nobis fixus fuit in Cruce Aug. lib. de Virgin Crux Christi clavis paradisi The Cross of Christ saith Damascen is the golden key that opens Paradise to us How beautiful is Christ upon the Crosse The ruddinesse of his blood took away
an ensigne and doth but hisse his very enemies shall be up in armes to revenge his quarrel * Isa 5.56 Who would provoke this God! It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God * Laneos habet pedes sed ferrcas manus Heb. 10.31 as a Lion he tears in pieces the adversaries Psalme 50.22 Oh meditate on this power of God The meditation of Gods power would be a great stay to faith A Christians faith may anchor safely upon the rock of Gods power It was Sampsons riddle out of the strong came forth sweetness * Judg. 14.14 While we are meditating on the power of God out of this strong comes forth sweetnesse Is the Church of God low he can create Jerusalem a praise * Is 65.18 Is thy corruption strong God can break the head of this Leviathan Is the heart hard is there a stone gotten there God can dissolve it The Almighty makes my heart soft * Job 23.16 Faith triumphs in the power of God out of this strong comes forth sweetnesse Abrabam meditating on Gods power did not stagger through unbelief Rom. 4.20 He knew God could make a dead womb fruitful and dry breasts give suck 5. Meditate upon the mercy of God Meditate on the mercy of God mercy is an innate disposition in God to do good as the Sun hath an innate property to shine Psalme 86.5 Thou Lord art good and ready to forgive and plentious in mercy to all them that call upon thee Gods mercy is so sweet that it makes all his other attributes sweet Holinesse without mercy and Justice without mercy were dreadful Geographers write that the City of Syracuse in Sicily is so curiously scituated that the Sunne is never out of sight though the children of God are under some clouds of affliction yet the Sun of mercy is never quite out of fight Gods justice reacheth to the clouds his mercy reacheth above the clouds How slow is God to anger He was longer in destroying Jericho than in making the world He made the world in six dayes but he was seven dayes in demolishing the walls of Jericho How many warning-pieces did God shoot against Jerusalem before he shot off his murdering-piece Justice goes a foot-pace Gen. 18.21 mercy hath wings * Psal 57.1 the sword of justice oft lies a long time in the scabbard and rusts till sinne doth draw it out and whet it against a Nation Gods justice is like the widows oyle which ran a while and ceased 1 Kings 4.6 Gods mercy is like Aarons oyle which rested not on his head but ran down to the skirts of his garment Psalme 133.2 So the golden oyle of Gods mercy doth not rest upon the head of a good parent but is poured on his children and so runnes down to the third and fourth generation even the borders of a religious seed Often meditate upon the mercy of God The meditation of mercy would be a powerful loadstone to draw sinners to God by repentance * Rom. 2.4 It would be as a cork to the net to keep the heart from sinking in despaire behold a City of refuge to flie to God is the Father of mercies 2 Cor. 1.3 mercy doth as naturally issue from him as the childe from the parent God delights in mercy Micah 7.18 Chrysostome saith 't is delightful to the mother to have her breasts drawn and how delightful is it to God to have the breasts of mercy drawn mercy finds out the worst sinner mercy comes not only with salvation in its hand but with healing under its wings The meditation of Gods mercy would melt a sinner into tears One reading a pardon sent him from the King fell a weeping and burst out into these words A pardon hath done that which death could not do it hath made my heart relent 6. Meditate upon the truth of God Meditate on the truth of God mercy makes the promise and truth performes it Psal 89.33 I will not suffer my faithfulness to faile God can as well deny himself as his Word He is abundant in truth Exod. 34.6 What is that if God hath made a promise of mercy to his people he will be so far from coming short of his Word that he will be better than his Word God often doth more than he hath said never lesse he oft shoots beyond the mark of the promise he hath set never short of it He is abundant in truth God may sometimes delay a promise he will not deny it The promise may lie a long time as seed hid under ground but it is all the while a ripening The promise of Israels deliverance lay four hundred and thirty yeares hid under-ground but when the time was come the promise did not go a day beyond its reckoning Exod. 12.41 Exo. 12.41 The strength of Israel will not lie 1 Sam. 15.29 Meditate on the truth of God The meditation of Gods truth would 1. Be a pillar of support for faith The world hangs upon Gods power and faith hangs upon his truth 2. The Meditation of Gods truth would make us ambitious to imitate him We should be true in our words true in our dealings Pythagoras being askt * Quidnam homines diis similes faciat cum vera loquuntur what did make men like God answered When they speake truth SECT 2. Meditate on the promises THe second subject of meditatation is Meditate upon the promises of God * Habenâ—ubera vere vino meliora fragrantia unguentis optimis Ber. The promises are flowers growing in the paradise of Scripture meditation like the Bee sucks out the sweetness of them The promises are of no use or comfort to us till they are meditated upon For as the Roses hanging in the garden may give a fragrant redolency yet their sweet water is distilled only by the fire so the promises are sweet in reading over but the water of these Roses the spirits and quintescence of the promises are distill'd into the soule onely by meditation The Incense when it is pounded and beaten smells sweetest Meditating on a promise like the beating of the Incense makes it most odoriferous and pleasant The promises may be compar'd to a golden Mine which then only enricheth when the gold is digged out by holy meditation we digge out that spiritual gold which lies hid in the Mine of the promise and so we come to be enriched Cardan saith there 's no precious stone but hath some hidden vertue in it They are call'd precious promises 2 Pet. 1.4 When they are applied by meditation then their vertue appears and they become precious indeed There are three sorts of promises which we should chiefly meditate upon 1. Promises of remission I even I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake and will not remember thy sinnes Isa 43.25 Whereas the poore sinner may say alas I am deep in arrears with God I feare I have not fill'd
dwellings Another infected thou art free Behold the golden feathers of protection covering thee 2. What spiritual dangers hath God prevented when others have been poyson'd with errour thou hast been preserved God hath sounded a retreat to thee thou hast heard a voice behinde thee saying this is the way walk in it * Isa 30 21 When thou hast listed thy self and taken pay on the devils side that God should pluck thee as a brand out of the fire that he should turne thy heart and now thou espousest Christs quarrel against sinne Behold preventing grace here 's an experience to meditate upon 3. Hath not God spared you a long time Whence is it that others are struck dead in the act of sinne as Ananias and Saphira * and you are preserv'd as a monument of patience Here is an experience God hath done more for you than for the Angels he never waited for their repentance but he hath waited for you year after yeare Isa 30.18 Therefore will the Lord wait that he may be gracious He hath not only knockt at your heart in the Ministry of the Word but he hath waited at the doore How long hath his Spirit striven with you like an importunate suitor that after many denials yet will not give over the suit My thinks I see justice with a sword in its hand ready to strike and mercy steps in for the sinner Lord have patience with him a while longer My thinks I hear the Angels say to God as the King of Israel once said to the Prophet Elisha 2 Kings 6.22 Shall I smite them shall I smite them So my thinks I heare the Angels say shall we take off the head of such a drunkard swearer blasphemer and mercy seems to answer as the Vinedresser Luk. 13.8 let him alone this year See if he will repent Is not here an experience worth meditating upon Mercy turns Justice into a rain-bow the rain-bowe is a bowe indeed but hath no arrow in it that justice hath been like the rainbowe without an arrow that it hath not shot thee to death Here is a receit of patience to read over and meditate upon 4. Hath not God often come in with assisting grace when he hath bid thee mortifie such a lust and thou hast said as Iehoshaphat 2 Chr. 20 12. I have no might against this great army Then God hath come in with auxiliary forces his grace hath been sufficient When God hath bid thee pray for such a mercy and thou hast found thy self very unfit thy heart was at first dead and flat all on a sudden thou art carried above thy own strength thy tears drop thy love flames God hath come in with assisting grace If the heart burn in prayer God hath struck fire The Spirit hath been tuning thy soul and now thou makest sweet melody in prayer Here is an experience to meditate upon 5. Hath not God vanquished Satan for you * Satan nihil non molitur contra Sanctos scutum fidei aggreditur his tentationum arie tibus sic porest copium obsi dere in tantas dubitationes praâ—pitareout deum expauescat ei irascatur aliquando blasphemet Nâ—que turâ—a neque Caesar unquam tanto impetu pessunt civitatem aliquam oppugnare quam Satan aliquando conscientias piorum Luthâ—r in Ps 118. When the Devill hath tempted to infidelity to self-murder when he would make you beleeve either that your graces were but a fiction or Gods promise but a counterfeit bond now that you have not been foil'd by the Tempter it is God who hath kept the garrison of your heart else his fiery darts would have entred Here 's an experience to meditate upon 6. Have you not had many signal deliverances When you have been even at the gates of death God hath miraculously recovered you and renued your strength as the Eagle may not you write that writing which Hezekiah did Isa 38 6. The writing of Hezekiah King of Judah when he had been sick and was recovered of his sicknesse you thought the Sunne of your life was quite setting but God made this Sunne returne back many degrees Here 's an experience for meditation to feed upon When you have been imprisoned your foot taken in the snare and the Lord hath broken the snare nay hath made those to break it who were the instruments of laying it Behold an experience Oh let us often revolve in minde our experiences If a man had physick receits by him he would be often looking over his receits You that have rare receits of mercy by you be often by meditation looking over your receits The meditation of our experiences would 1. Raise us to thankfulnesse Considering that God hath set an hedge of providence about us he hath strewed our way with roses this would make us take the Harp and Vial and praise the Lord and not only praise but record * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato 1 Chr. 16.4 The meditating Christian keeps a Register or Chronicle of Gods mercies that the memory of them doth not decay God would have the Manna kept in the Ark many hundred years that the remembrance of that miracle might be preserved a meditating soul takes care that the spiritual Manna of an experience be kept safe 2. The meditation of our experiences would engage our hearts to God in obedience Mercy would be a needle to sowe us to him We would cry out as Bernard * Duas babeo minutias domine c. Bern. I have Lord two mites a soule and a body and I give them both to thee 3. The Meditation of our experiences would serve to convince us that God is no hard master we might bring in our experiences as a sufficient confutation of that slander When we have been falling hath not God taken us by the hand When I said my foot slippeth thy goodnesse O Lord held me up Psalme 94.18 How often hath God held our head and heart when we have been fainting * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euripides and is he a hard Master is there any master besides God who will wait upon his servants Christians summon in your experiences What vailes have you had * Ps 19.11 What inward serenity and peace which neither the world can give nor death take away a Christians own experiences may plead for God against such as desire rather to censure his ways than to try them and to cavil at them than to walk in them 4. The meditation of our experiences would make us communicative to others We would be telling our children and acquaintance what God hath done for our souls * Psal 44.1 at such a time we were brought low and God raised us at such a time in desertion and God brought a promise to remembrance which dropt in comfort The meditation of Gods gracious dealing with us would make us transmit and propagate our experience to others that the mercies of God shewn to us may bear a plentiful crop of