assumed or taken into The Word both being united into one Person the Natures being preserved entire and distinct without any Mixture or Confusion For as the Fourth General Council hath defined it He was so made Flesh that he ceased not to be the Word never changing that he was but assuming that which he was not And though our Humanity was advanced by it yet his Divinity was not at all diminished and the Mystery of Godliness God manifested in the flesh was no Detriment to the Godhead which is always unchangeably the same And therefore the seeming Harshness of this Expression may be easily molified by comparing it with others of the same import for elsewhere where it is said that he was manifest in the flesh 1 Tim. 3.16 which only denotes that the Divinity was made known and did appear in the World in a Humane Nature Elsewhere it is said that he took on him the Nature of Man Heb. 2.16 which only denotes that the Divinity did assume the Humane Nature to it and was personally united with it So here The Word was made flesh that is The Word was made one with the Flesh by assuming the Humane Nature into a personal Union with it self Having thus explain'd to you the Sense and Meaning of the Words I shall now conclude this Argument with three or four short Inferences from the whole 1. From hence we may infer the Eternal Divinity of our Blessed Saviour even from this great name The Word that is here attributed to him For since it is so apparent that this Phrase is a Term of Art derived from the Schools of the Jews and Gentiles and since by it they did all so generally understand a Divine Person subsisting from all Eternity it must necessarily follow that the Holy Ghost deriving it from them and applying it to our Blessed Saviour must use it to the same Sense for otherwise He were better never to have used it at all because by discoursing in the same Language with them he will give us just occasion to think that he means the same thing namely that Christ whom he calls The Word is a Divine Person subsisting from all Eternity which if he doth not mean by using that Term he will almost necessarily betray us into a false Belief concerning our Saviour As to instance briefly in a Case of another Nature Our Saviour in his Sermons doth frequently press us to Meekness and Patience Humility and Charity all which are Terms frequently used long before in the Moral Philosophy both of the Jews and Gentiles by which they signify fuch and fuch particular Virtues Since therefore our Saviour doth use the same Terms with them we have just Reason to conclude that he mean the same Virtues by them and should he mean any thing else his very using of these Terms would necessarily impose upon us a false Sense of his meaning for how should we understand his Meaning but by his Words and how should we understand his Words but by the common Import and Signification of them And can we imagine that the Spirit of Truth would have ven described our Saviour by a Term that was so generally used to signify a Divine Person subsisting from all Eternity and used it too as he doth without any Restraint or Limitation nay and so seemingly at least to the same Purpose as he doth in the three first Verses of his Chapter where he describes the Divine Nature and Operations of Christ The Word in the same terms in which the Jews and Gentiles were wont to describe the Divinity of their ΛΟΓΟΣ can we imagine I say that the Holy Spirit would have done thus had he known Christ to be nothing but a meer Man that never was before he was born of his Mother Far be it from us to charge that Blessed Spirit with imposing such a Delusion upon Mankind 2. Hence I infer the astonishing Love of our Blesed Saviour in condescending so low as to be made Flesh for us and assume our Nature For what he was before he took our Nature you have heard already He was no less than the Eternal Word of the Father in whose Bosom he enjoyed the supremest Degree of Bliss and Happiness being crowned with Glory and incircled about with the Essential Rays of the Divinity And yet such was his Love to poor Mortals so infinite was his Zeal and Concern for our Happiness that seeing the Misery we were plunged into he could not rest no not in the blessed Arms of his Father but strip himself of all his Majesty and Bliss and comes down among us and assumes our Nature to save and rescue us and invite and lead us to those Heavenly Mansions from whence he descended to us Lord what a Prodigy of Love was here as doth not only puzzle my Conceit but out-reach my Wonder and Admiration For when I seriously consider it though it be a Blessing beyond all my Hopes and such as I could never have had the Impudence to desire yet it fills my Mind with an awful Horror to think that there was a Time when the great God was here upon the Earth in my Form and Nature and conversed familiarly with such mortal Wights as my self and for my sake and such poor Worms as I patiently under-went the common Infirmities of Men and willingly exposed himself to the Contempt and Scorn of a malevolent World and the Malice and Cruelty of those barbarous Men to whom he gave Being and could with the Breath of his Nostrils have scattered into Atoms and all this in meer Compassion to a Company of apostatized Natures who had so highly deserved to be thrown from his Care and Mercy for ever O my Soul how am I astonished at this Miracle of Love Methinks when I consider it I am looking down from a stupendous Precipice whose Height fills me with a trembling Horror and even over-setting Reason 3. From hence I infer what might Obligations we have for ever to love and serve our Blessed Redeemer If our Hearts are capable of being warmed into any degree of Affection sure 't is impossible but we must be affected at such an unheard of Instance of Love For the Son of God to leave his Father's Bosom where he was infinitely more happy then we can express and think of and disguise himself in mortal Flesh and become a Man of Sorrows that the might make me a Man of endless Joys can my Heart hold when I think of this Is it possible I should reflect upon such a prodigious Instance of Affection without being wrapt into an Extasy of Love Blessed Jesus what barbarous Hearts do we carry about with us that will not melt before the Flames of thy Love Flames that are sufficient to kindle Seraphims and to fill all reasonable Breasts with burning Affections towards thee For how is it Possible that any Man I had almost said that any Devil should be so disingenuous and ill-natured as not to be affected with such stupendous
excellent and divine Doctrine which he taught was such as became the only begotten Son For certainly if we consider the excellent Frame and Contrivance of the Christian Religion we cannot but confess it to be most Divine and Godlike most worthy of that infinite Wisdom and Goodness from whence it was derived For Religion in general is the means of advancing Rational Beings to that Perfection and Happiness for which the great Creator hath designed and intended them and certainly never was there any Religion in the World more adapted to advance this noble Design of God than that which our Saviour hath taught For as for its Agenda what it requires to be done ' they all consist in acting reasonably and according to the Dignity of our Nature in thinking speaking and practising in loving and hating disiring and delighting hoping and fearing as becomes Reasonable Beings placed in our Condition and Circumstances and do require nothing of us but that we should regulate our Practice by the Rules of Right Reason and direct all our Faculties and Affections to their proper Ends and Objects and when we come to this Pitch always to think that which is most reasonable and always to practise what we think so then we are advanced to the topmost Round of our Perfection in which is founded the utmost Happiness we are capable of So that in all the Course of our Christian Practice we are in a direct Progression and Tendency towards our Perfection and Happiness And as for the Credenda of Christianity the Doctrines it requires us to believe they are all of them pregnant with the most strong and vehement Motives to engage us to the Practice of what it enjoins Motives that have such a Potent I had almost said Omnipotent Force in them that 't is impossible for any Man heartily to believe and throughly to weigh and consider them and not be effectually perswaded by them Since therefore it was so highly convenient that the Son of God in Person should come down from Heaven among us that so the Dignity of his Person might give Authority to that Religion by which the World was to be governed and since he did come down upon this honourable Errand it was impossible for him to have taught any Doctrine that could more effectually have promoted the great End of Religion or more fully expressed his infinite Wisdom and Goodness and Zeal for the Welfare of the Souls of Men htan that which is contained in the Christian Religion which is every way so adapted to make Men good and happy so accommodated to the Nature and Condition of Mankind that there is nothing could better become the only begotten Son to teach in the World or that could be more worthy of all those infinite Perfections that are lodged in his Nature and do speak him to be the most genuine Offspring of the most High For so excellent was his Doctrine that his very Enemies were astonished at the Wisdom that was given him Mark 6.2 3. and wondred at the gracious Words that proceeded out of his Mouth Luke 4.22 Well therefore might he say of himself I am the Light of the World he that followeth me shall not walk in Darkness but shall have the Light of Life Joh. 8.12 4thly And lastly The incomparable Sanctity and Purity of his Life was such as very well became the only begotten Son For as it was highly convenient that he should come down into the World and in his own Person teach us that Religion by which he intended to govern us that thereby he might stamp it with a more awful Authority so to render it more fuccessful it was no less convenient that he should come down in our Natures that therein he might be capable of practising what he taught us and setting us an Example of what he would have us to do that so we might see that he enjoined nothing upon us but what was practicable and what did become the most glorious Person that ever did assume our Natures that thereby we might be encouraged to our Duty and animated with a noble Emulation of treading in his blessed Footsteps Since therefore all this was so highly convenient and the Son of God in Compliance with this Convenience did actually assume our Nature it was impossible for him to lead a Life that better comported with this Design of his Incarnation or better became the Dignity and Excellency of his Person than he did For now that he was become a Man he was obliged to act suitably to his Nature and should he have done any thing that was unsuitable to the State and Circumstances of his Nature he would not have acted becoming himself So that it was highly convenient that he should become a Man and being a Man it was indispensably necessary that he should live like a wise and a good Man in the Condition and Relations wherein he was placed and nothing could be more worthy of or becoming him then so to do though he was still the only begotten Son of the Father For it is the Glory of God himself that he always acts most reasonably according to the State and Relations of a God and therefore when God becomes Man by assuming our Nature to his own it is his Glory to act most reasonably in the State and Relations of a Man And thus did the blessed Jesus do in the whole Course of his Conversation upon Earth for his Life was a most exact Pattern of all humane Virtues in which all that is ornamental to humane Nature was represented in its fairest Colours There you may see a fair Example of the most ardent Love to and constant Dependance upon God of the most profound Humility and perfect Resignation to his Heavenly Will There you may behold the Moderation of Humane Passions and Appetites set forth to the Life and fairly delineated in its most exquisite Perfections in a word there you will find Loyalty and Submission to Superiors Fidelity and Justice to Equals Courtesy and Candor and Condescention to Inferiors universal Love and an unbounded Charity to all practised to the Height and Exactness and which way soever you turn your Eyes on this fair Monument of Virtues you can discover nothing but what is lovely and adorable and infinitely becoming the only begotten Son of the Father Having thus explained and demonstrated the Proposition to you I shall conclude with these four Inferences from this four-fold Glory of the Word which they saw 1. They saw the glorious Splendor which invested his Person at his Baptison and Transfiguration From whence I infer his Deputation from the most High God and Father of all Things to be his Representative and Vice-Roy in the Christian Church For this visible Glory with which he was invested was always the peculiar Character of the immediate Representative of God and therefore by way of Appropriation it is called the Glory of God and the Glory of the Lord and wheresover God as Supream Monarch
together by a Triumvirate of Arians Jews and Pagans who were all of them known Impostors in the Ages wherein they lived So that to confront Christianity with any of these is to light up a Rush Candle and resolve to outface the Sun with it For as for Christianity 't is a Religion made up of the most divine and Godlike Institutions its Precepts being such as are most worthy of God enjoining nothing but what is either true Godliness and most generous Morality or what are the most efficacious Means and Instruments of promoting them And as for its Doctrine it partly consists of those Principles of Natural Religion which all wise Men of whatsoever Nation or Religion have owned and acknowledged such as the Existence Vnity and Providence of the Godhead the Imortality of the Soul and the Rewards and Punishments of Another Life together with the great Day of Accounts wherein Men shall receive according to what they have done in the Flesh And even the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity which is the profoundest Mystery of all our Religion hath been owned and professed by the greatest and most famous Philosophers that ever were And as for those Doctrines that are purely Christian such as the Birth and Life and Death the Resurrection and Ascension of our Saviour together with his Sitting on the Right-hand of God and coming at the last Day to judge the World they are all of them so excellently contrived to serve the great Ends of Religion so wonderfully pregnant with Motives and Arguments to engage Men to the greatest Purity and Goodness that by their own native Beauty and excellent Contrivance they manifest themselves to be the Products of a divine Wisdom So that there can be no reasonable Pretence to contemn Christianity either because it is a Revealed Religion or because it contains any thing in it that is any ways unworthy of the Revealer And that there wants not sufficient Evidence to demonstrate it to be the Revelation of God I have already proved in the former Inference So that after all the lewd Talk of these confident Men it 's apparent there is not the least Colour of Reason for their impious Censures of Christianity But alas it's evident that the Foundation of their Quarrel against it lies not so much in their Reason as their Lusts Christianity lays them under severe Restraints and will not permit them to be wicked in quiet which provokes them to arm their Wit and the little Reason that they have against it that so having baffled or rather laughed themselves out of their Religion they may be left at liberty to play the Fools and Mad-men without Controul or Disturbance And I make no doubt but if instead of that strict Piety and Virtue which Christianity enjoins it had but indulged to them the Liberties of the Heathen Religion so that they could have but acted all their Wickedness with Devotion sacrificed to the Gods in drunken Bowls and worshiped in the Arms of a Strumpet there are no Men in the World would have been more zealous Christians than they But let no Man be so foolish as to imagine that he can alter the Nature of Things by laughing at them or that Christianity will cease to be true in Compliance with our wicked Interest and Desires no no Things will be as they are in despite of us and howsever we will please to fancy them And if after all our rude Contempts of Religion it be found to be true as I doubt not but it will we shall be sensible when it is too late that it had been more for our Safety to have play'd before the Mouth of a Cannon while it is spitting Fire or to have catch'd hold of a Thunderbolt as it comes roaring down from the Clouds than to have plaid with Religion and made it the Subject of our impious Scorns and Buffooneries 4. And lastly They saw the Glory of his immaculate Holiness and Purity From whence I infer that Holiness and true Goodness is the greates Glory and Honour to humane Nature For this was the Glory of the Son of God himself when he assumed our Nature and dwelt among us and there is nothing more glorious in Christ than his Goodness and notwithstanding those excellent Doctrines that he preached those stupendous Miracles that he wrought and that visible Splendor in which he was inrobed he had not deserved the Name of a great and glorious Man if he had not been just and charitable temperate and humble and Heavenly-minded and eminent in all those divine and humane Virtues which are the proper Glory and Ornament of humane Nature For that which makes a Man more honourable then a meer Animal and advances us into the next Degree of Beings to Angels is our Reason by which alone we border upon the Divinity and do claim Kindred with the Angelical Natures That therefore which is truly our Honour and Glory consists in living according to that Reason by which we are advanced above all sublunary Natures that is in governing our Passions and Appetites Words and Actions according to those Eternal Rules of Righteousness which Right Reason dictates to us and if instead of doing thus we wholly resign up our selves to the Dominion of our brutish and unreasonable Inclinations we thereby render our selves more despicable and infamous than the most beastly Brutes in all the Creation and even those Goats and Wolves and Swine and Tygers whom we resemble in our beastly Manners could they see our Shame would doubtlesly hiss at us and reproach us for Greater Beasts than themselves for they all live up to the best of their Natures and regularly pursue the highest End for which they were created whereas we who are Allyed to the noblest of Beings and are created and designed for the most glorious Ends do by our base and unreasonable Condescentions shamefully under-value our selves in pursuing no Ends but what are extremely unworthy of us So that it had been much more for our Honour and Reputation to have assumed the Shape and Nature of Brutes when we assumed their Manners and Customs for then our Actions would have very well become us and neither God nor Men could have justly upbraided us for them But to lead the Lives of Brutes in the Shape and Nature of Men is monstrous 't is to advance the Beast above the Man to place our Heels where Nature hath placed our Head and become our own Reverse and Antipodes OF THE AUTHORITY OF THE Holy Scripture JOHN V. 39. Search the Scriptures for in them ye think ye have eternal life BY the Scriptures here must be meant the Old Testament for as yet the greatest Part of the New was unrevealed and the whole of it unwritten They were those very Scriptures was now preaching owned and acknowledged to be the Word of God for in them says our Saviour ye think ye have eternal life which it's certain they did not think of any other Scriptures but only those
Kindness When we see a Child slight his careful and indulgent Parents we are ready to account him an unnatural Monster when we see a Man neglect his Friend or disregard his Benefactor we presently call him base and ungrateful nay when we see one abuse a poor brute Creature that fawns upon him and expresses its Kindness to him we look upon it as an undoubted Sign of a very hard Heart and an ill Nature What Term then can we find in all the World of Words that is odious enough to express our Disaffection to our Blessed Redeemer to whom we are so infinitely obliged Base Disingenuous Ill-natured and Vngrateful are all too soft 't is something beyond Barbarous and Devilish For one would think that neither the most inhumane Canibal on Earth nor the blackest Devil in Hell could ever be guilty of so foul a Crime which hath something in it too monstrous for any Words to express Well therefore may the Heavens be astonished and the Earth tremble and all the Creation of God stand amazed at us to see how insentible we are of this most ravishing and endearing Love Well may we be amazed at our selves and wonder at our own Stupidity to think that the Son of God should be so kind as to come down from Heaven to visit us to leave the Habitation of his Glory and shroud his Divinity in mortal Flesh and make himself a miserable Wight meerly that he might make us happy and advance us to that Glory and Bliss which for our sakes he willingly abandoned and yet that we are no more touched and affected with it than with the most indifferent Thing in the World Blessed God what are we made of What kind of Souls do we carry about with us that no Kindness will oblige us no not the most endearing that ever was known or heard of Doubtless should any Man have shewn us but half this Kindness should a Friend but offer to die for us or a Prince to descend from his Throne and put himself into the State of a Beggar to inrich and advance us in the World we should have thought our selves bound to him as long as we lived and should we have thought any Services too much any Requitals too dear for him we should have been lookt upon as Monsters of Ingratitude as the Peproaches and Scandals of humane Nature and been hiss'd out of all Society for a Company of infamous Villains unworthy of the least Repsect or Favour from Mankind But for a Friend to die or a Prince to become a Beggar for our sakes alas what poor inconsiderable Things are they compared with the Condescentions of the Son of God who humbled himself much lower in becoming a Man than the most glorious Angel in Heaven could have done in assuming the Nature of a Worm And can we be so inhumane as not to be moved by such a Miracle of condescending Love Is it the less because it is the Lore of God or doth it less deserve our Requital What Excuse then can we make for our wretched Insensibility O ungrateful that we are with that Confidence can we shew our Heads among reasonable Beings after we have so barbarously slighted our best Friend and behaved our selves so disingenuously towards our greatest Benefactor How can we pretend to any thing that is modest or ingenuous tender or apprehensive in humant Nature when nothing will oblige us no not that astonishing Love that made the Son of God leave all his Glory and become a poor miserable Mortal for our sakes O blessed Jesus what do thy holy Angels think of us how do thy blessed Saints resent our Unkindness towards thee yea how justly will the Devils themselves reproach and upbraid our Baseness who had as they are were never so much Devils yet as to spurn the Love of a Redeemer coming down from Heaven to die and suffer for their sakes Wherefore as we would not be hiss'd at by all the reasonable World and become Spectacles of Horror to God and Angels and Devils let us endeavoun to affect our selves with the Love of our Redeemer and to inflame our own Souls with the Sense of his Kindness who hath done such mighty things to endear and oblige us 4. From hence I infer what monstrous Disingenuity it would be in us to think much of parting with any thing or doing any thing for the sake of Christ who for our sakes parted with his Father's Bosom and all those infinite Delights which he there enjoyed and united himself to our miserable Nature that he might make us good and happy for ever And now after all this with what Conscience or Modesty can we grudge to do any thing which he shall require at our hands Should he command me to descend into the lowest Form of Beings and to become the most wretched and contemptible of all Animals could I be such a Caitif as to deny him who descended much lower for the sake of me Should he remand me back into Non-entity and bid me cease to be for ever alas the Distance is nothing so great between me and nothing as 't was betwixt him and that humane Nature which he assumed for my sake Should he require me to die for him under all those lingering and exquisite Tortures which the blessed Martyrs suffered for his Name what Proportion were there between what he requires of me and what he hath done for me He only requires that I should pass through Death to Heaven for him but he came from Heaven to pass through Death for me so that for his sake I should only put off a wretched Garment of Flesh that I may be inrobed with Glory and Immortality but for my sake he put off his Robes of Glory and Majesty that he might wear my frail and mortal Flesh and therein reconcile me to God and make me everlastingly happy And when I may advance my self into an Equality with Angels by suffering the Agonies of a miserable Death for him shall I refuse or thing much of it when he who was equal with God in Glory and Happiness was so ready to be born a wretched miserable Man for me Should he require me to give my Substance to the Poor and leave my self destitute of all Supplies and Comforts could I deny so poor a Request to him who forsook a Heaven of Infinite Pleasures for my sake and exposed himself naked to the Mercy of a wretched wicked and ill-natured World from whom he could expect nothing but the most barbarous Contempt and Cruelty Sure one would thing 't were impossible for any reasonable Being to deny such poor such inconsider able Boons to such a great and deserving Benefactor and yet these are much more then what he ordinarily requires at our hands For that which he ordinarily requires of us is that we would forsake those Vices which are as injurious to us as they are hateful to him and which are therefore hateful to him because they are our Enemies and
that we would practise those Virtues in which the Perfection and Happiness of our Nature is involved and which we can no more be happy without then we can be without Being And can I think much to part with those Lusts for his sake which are my Shames and Infelicities who never grudg'd to part with Heaven for mine Can they be as dear to me as his Father's Bosom was to him and yet he left that for Love of me and shall not I leave these for Love of him Methinks if we will not part with them for our own sakes as being destructive to our Peace and Happiness yet had we the least spark of Ingenuity in us we should gladly part with them for the sake of our Saviour who for ours was so ready to part with all that was dear to him Can we be such Wretches as to refuse to serve him when he requires nothing of us but what we are obliged to by our own Interest Are we so lost to all that is ingenuous and modest that we will not obey him when he only requires us to be kind to our selves O wretched Mortals doth his Coming down from Heaven to save you deserve this barbarous Treatment at your hands that to spite him you should injure your selves and wound his Authority thro' your own Sides Had he been wholly indifferent to you it had been very unreasonable to reject his Service when it altogether consists in serving your selves but to disobey so dear a Friend to whom we are obliged by such stupendous Favours when he enjoins us nothing but the Means of our own Happiness is such a Piece of monstrous and unnatural Baseness as the Devil himself can hardly parallel O unkind that we are that we will not be good to our selves for our Saviour's sake and that when he conjures us to it as he doth even by all the Love that we owe him For so John 14.15 If ye love me saith he keep my Commandments Consider what mighty things I have done for you how I left my Throne in Heaven for your sakes and became a miserable mortal Man And now that I am going from you and am offering up my Life to redeem you if ever I have merited any Love at your hands express it in keeping my Commandments 'T is no great matter that I require of you 't is only that you would be kind to your selves that you would let Misery alone and endeavour to be as happy as Heaven can make you This is all the Requital that I expect at your hands that you would be as good and happy as I would have you and this which is the sum of all my Commands I conjure you strictly to observe even by all the Love that you owe me O blessed Jesus one would have thought thou hadst been requiring some mighty Trial of our Love to thee that we should do some great Thing for thee to which nothing could prompt us but only our Gratitude and Kindness But when thou only requirest us to express our Love to thee in doing that which is the highest Expression of our Love to our selves can we be so disingenuous as not to do that for thy sake to whom we are so insinitely obliged which we are bound to do for our own sakes as well as thine 5. And lastly Hence I infer what a glorious Thing it is to do Good since the Son of God having so great an Opportunity of doing Good to the World thought it worth his While to come down from Heaven and assume our Natures and undergo our Miseries as if he esteemed it more glorious and becoming the Majesty and Divinity of his Person to dwell upon Earth with poor miserable Mortals among whom he might do the greatest Good than to sit above upon the Throne of Heaven and receive the most humble Adorations of Angels for 't was only for an Opportunity of doing the greatest Good that he exchanged the Glory and Happiness of Heaven chusing rather to become a miserable Man to make others good and happy than to continue among those infinite Delights with which the Heavenly State abounds What a most glorious Thing then is it to do Good when our most wise Redeemer chose it before Heaven it self when he thought it more eligible to come down upon Earth and make us haply than to dwell in the Bosom of his Father and shine in Heaven with the Brightness and Glory of his Divinity And if there be nothing in Heaven so glorious as doing Good what is there upon Earth that may be compared unto it What dim what sullied Things are all the Pomps and Splendors of this World compared with the Glory of doing Good to others when God preferred it before Heaven it self To conquer Kingdoms to lead the World in Triumph after us how mean and inconsiderable are they compared with that Glory which the Son of God forsook meerly to do Good to the World A Thing which he esteemed so great and illustrious that he did not only leave Heaven for it but scorned and despised the Kingdoms of the Earth finding nothing below that was worthy of him but only to go about doing Good For this was his constant Imployment as you may see Acts 10.21 And now is it possible that after this great Example we should think Beneficence a cheap or vulgar Thing Can we think it a Dishonour to stoop to the meanest Offices whereby we may serve the Souls or Bodies of our Brethren when the Son of God came down from Heaven and vailed his Glory in mortal Flesh for no other End but to do Good O foolish Creatures that we are did we but understand and consider what a magnificent Thing it is to supply the Necessities of Men and contribute to their Happiness we should doubtless embrace it as our greatest Preferment and think our selves bound to bless God for ever for furnishing us with Occasions of doing Good that he doth deem us worthy of such an illustrious Imployment to have some share with himself in the Glory of it that he will vouchsafe to us an Opportunity to honour and magnify our selves by acting this Divine this Godlike Part in the World Never then let us think that we dishonour our selves though we stoop never so low when it is to do Good no though it be to visit a Beggar to dress the Sores of a poor Lazar to instruct or comfort the meanest Wretch in all thy Neighbourhood For now thou actest the Part of God in doing the most glorious Thing in all the World a Thing for which the greatest Princes may envy thee and the blessed God for ever applaud thee Now thou art doing that which the Son of God came down from Heaven to do and which he thought more worthy of his Choice than to reign over Angels in Heaven So that either we must say that He was unwise for preferring it before Heaven or else we must acknowledge that we are infinitely foolish in preferring any
seems to signify the same with He reigned among us in his Father's stead as one who bore his Authority and represented his Person and to whom for the future we were to pay the same Homage and Reverence that we were bound to render to the most High himself who under himself hath authorized him to be our Prince and Governour to declare his Divine Will to us and exact our Obedience thereunto by rewarding and punishing us according to the Tenour of those Laws which he hath established in his blessed Gospel for this is plainly implied in his Shechanizing or Tabernacling viz. his being the glorious Representative of God in the World He tabernacled among us that is he acted in God's stead as one that represented his Father and this he did in our Flesh in a far more glorious manner than ever he did in the Mosaic Tabernacle For in our Flesh and Nature he tabernacled full of Grace and Truth which brings me to the next Enquiry viz. 2. What is here meant by his dwelling among us full of Grace and Truth By these two Phrases the Design of the holy Penman is doubtless to distinguish the Manner of his dwelling among us from that of his dwelling among the Jews in the Tabernacle For a little after he uses the same Phrases in Contradistinction to the Law of Moses The Law saith he was given by Moses but Grace and Truth by Jesus Christ v. 17. God the Eternal Word gave the Law to Moses and Moses gave it to the People of Israel but Jesus Christ that is the Eternal Word incarnate gave not the Law but Grace and Truth So in the Text The Word incarnate or tabernacled in our Flesh did Shechanize or perform the Part of his Father's supreme Representative among us full of Grace and Truth which implies something beyond what he did when he dwelt in the Tabernacle of Moses and there as the Vice-Roy of God reigned over the House of Jacob. That I may therefore more fully explain this Matter to you I will briefly consider these two Phrases apart and shew you in what Particulars they each of them distinguish his dwelling among us from his dwelling in the Mosaick Tabernacle 1. He dwelt among us full of Grace which distinguishes his dwelling among us from that more severe and rigorous manner in the former Tabernacle and that is these following Particulars 1st He dwelt among us full of Grace in respect of the Sweetness and Obligingness of his Behaviour in Contradistinciton to that more dreadful and terrible manner of his conversing with the Jews when he tabernacled among them The Jews being a most stubborn and stiff-necked Generation as they are often called in the Old Testament the Eternal Word thought fit to converse among them in such a way as was most suitable to their Genius and Temper to break their Stubbornness with the Dread of his Power and awe them with the Terror of his Majesty And accordingly you find that when he came down first upon Mount Sinal he was attended with a loud sounding Trumpet with Thunders and Lighting 's with Fire and Smoak and all the Equipage of a most dreadful Majesty such as caused the Mountain and the People to tremble Exod. 19.16 20. And afterwards it is said that the Glory in which he appeared when the People saw him upon the Mount was like a devouring Fire in which glorious Appearance he afterwards removed into the Tabernacle and there abode between the Cherubims Exod. 40.34 35. And when in all this dreadful Majesty he appeared unto them they are kept at a great Distance from him and were severely forbid to approach him lest he should break forth upon them and destroy them Exod. 19.24 And whenever they provoked him by their Murmurings and Rebellions his Wrath broke forth like Lightning upon them and consumed the ring-leading Rebels that by their Example the rest might be warned to do no more wickedly Thus in all his Converses with them he clothed himself in a formidable Majesty to break and awe their sturdy Spirits and force their stiff Necks to yield to the Yoke of his Sovereign Authority But when he assumed our Nature and tabernacled among us in our Flesh he laid by that astonishing Majesty that was wont to render him so dreadful to the Israelites and put on all the Condescentions and Sweetnesses of a most familiar and endearing Conversation and conversed amongst Men in such a generous friendly and courteous Manner as was most apt to charm and inamour the World He was free without being vain or trifling serious without being sour and morose his Humour always chearful and uniform and his Gravity was equally distant from Moroseness and Vanity and in a word his Deportment was made up of all the Accomplishments that can command either Love or Honour And though now and thn he falls into high Expressions of Indignation yet 't was only against those base Fellows the Pharisees who under a Pretence of being Saints and the Godly Party were bloted up with Pride and Arrogance and canker'd with Malice and ill Nature for which they were so abominable in his Eyes whose Temper was altogether so loving and divine that he could not mention them without calling them Hypocrites and the Children of the Devil And if to all this you add his profound Humility and Condescention his Meekness under Reproaches and his Constancy and Patience under the greatest Sufferings how much more sweet grateful and charming was this than when he appeared in such a dreadful and astonishing Majesty upon Mount Sinai and in the Tabernacle of Moses 'T is true the Innoccncy and Purity of his Life the Divinity of his Doctrine and the many mighty Miracles that he wrought could not but imprint an awful Majesty upon his Person ubt yet 't was a graceful Majesty a Majesty full of Grace and Sweetness and such as was much more apt to endear than to affright Men For as for the Virtue of his Life and the Divinity of his Doctrine it could not but attract all those who had any Love and Esteem for Virtue and Goodness And as for his Miracles they were vastly different from those which he wrought in the Wilderness which had little else in them but Matter of Terror and Astonishment but these were all such as did express his Kindness to the World and so were much more apt to oblige than to terrify those that beheld them For he went about doing good and healing all that were oppress'd with the Devil Acts 10.38 and healing all manner of Sickness and all manner of Diseases among the People Matth. 4.23 So that in respect of the Sweetness and Obligingness of his Conversation he tabernacled among us full of Grace in Contradistinction to that terrible Majesty in which he tabernacled among the Jews 2dly He tabernacled among us full of Grace in regard of the Sweetness and Gentleness of his Laws in Contradistinction to those many burthensom Precepts which he gave when he
came to tabernacle among us and our Natures he was full of Truth that is of Substance and Reality For then instead of the Shadows and Pictures of them he exhibited to us the Things themselves then he brought down the Mysteries of the Gospel out of that Cloud of Types in which they were before involved and set them before us in a clear and open Light But that I may more fully demonstrate this to you I shall briefly give you some particular Instances of his dwelling or conversing among us full of Truth in Contradistinction to that obscure typical Way of his conversing or tabernacling aomg the Jews which I shall rank under these four Heads 1. His Personal Transactions 2. The Purity and Spirituality of his Laws 3. The Condition and Quality of his Kingdom 4. The Rewards and Recompences which he promises to his Subjects 1. One great Instance of his conversing among us full of Truth in Contradistinction to that obscure and typical Way of his conversing among the Jews is his own Personal Transactions The Eternal Word being to assume our Natures thoguht fit to give the Jews whilst he tabernacled among them a Specimen or Pattern of those glorious Things he was to transact in his Incarnate State and this he did chiefly by the High Priest and those Expiatory Sacrifices which he ordained and instituted among them as you may find it demonstrated at large in the Epistle to the Hebrews For as to the High Priest he was to be called and ordained of God Heb. 5.4 in which the Eternal Word represented to them his Commission from the Father to descend into the World as his Embassador to Men. Secondly He was to be born of a Woman that came a pure Virgin into the Arms of his Father Levit. 21.14 in which he seems to represent to them his own pure Nativity of a Virgin-Mother Thirdly He was to be washed with Water and his Flesh and Loyns were to be covered with the whitest and the cleanest linnen Exod. 29.7 and 28.42 by which Christ typified to them the IMMACVLATE Sanctity and Innocence of his humane Life Fourthly He was to be clothed in the most glorious Garments that could possibly be made by the most excellent Workmen Exod. 28.2 3. which seems to denote the Majesty of Christ's Person and those glorious Works by which he render'd himself so illustrious in the World Fifthly The Colours of the Embroideries of his Garment being blue purple scarlet and white seem to denote the Truth of his Prophetick Office the Majesty of his Royal the Perfection of his Priestly and his Innocence and Sanctity in the Execution of them all Sixthly He wore a holy Crown on his Head and a Plate on his Forehead engraven with Holiness which denotes the Divine Authority of Christ and the Sacredness and Divinity of his Person And Seventhly Upon his Breast he wore the Vrim and Thummim in which was prefigured the Height and Purity of Christ's Doctrine and the Holiness and Perfection of his Laws In a word the High Priest was to offer Sacrifice for the Sins of the People on the great day of Expiation which Sacrifice was to be a Beast without blemish voluntarily presented at the Door of the Tabernacle whither the High Priest being come he was to strip off his glorious Garment to lay his Hand on the Head of the Beast and to confess the Peoples Sins over it and then to slay the Beast and carry some of the Blood of it within the Vail and sprinkle it upon and before the Mercy-Seat by which he is said to make an Attonement for their Sins that is to obtain Authority from God to bless and pardon In which the Eternal Word gives us a plain Representation of his future Sacrifice upon Earth and Intercession in Heaven for he being both our Sacrifice and High Priest did freely divest himself of the Glory and Dignity of his Humane Nature and offer up himself to die for us by which he laid his Hand as it were upon his own spotless and immaculate Head did as our Representative acknowledge what we had deserved that for our Sins we have justly merited to die for ever by the Hand of God even as He for our sakes did submit to die by the Hand of Man And having performed this bloody Sacrifice he enters into Heaven which is the true Holy of Holies and there by the Oblation of his Blood and Obedience makes an Attonement for our Sins and obtains Authority from his Father to pardon and receive into Favour every truly penitent Offender in the World Thus you see how the Personal Transactions of our Saviour were under the Law of Moses represented in mystical Types and Figures but when he came to tabernacle among us he did all that which before he only represented He actually came down from the Father to us was born of the Holy Virgin lived a most holy and innocent Life died a Sacrifice for our Sins and is gone into Heaven to intercede for us So that now instead of Types and Figures we have the Substances and Realities that were obscurely shadowed and represented in them 2. Another great Instance of his conversing among us full of Truth is the Purity and Spirituality of his Laws It 's apparent that those which he gave to the Jews according to the literal Sense of them did only oblige them to an External Obedience and therefore St. Paul calls the whole Law a carnal Commandment Heb. 7.16 and the Precepts of it he calls carnal Ordinances imposed upon them till the time of Reformation Heb. 9.10 But yet it is apparent that by these carnal Ordinances the Eternal Word did designedly typify and represent that internal Purity of Soul which the Evangelical Law doth exact For he seeing that the Jews were not only a perverse but also a dull and sottish People as those generally are who are born and bred in Slavery and that therefore they were incapable of sublime and spiritual Precepts and would be apt to forget plain ones He therefore thought it most proper and suitable to their Capacity and Genius to instruct them by sensible and material Signs even as Parents do sometimes teach their Children by Pictures for of this his Condescention to their Dulness and Capacity the Prophet Isaiah takes notice Chap. 28.10 11. where he saith that he gave them precept upon precept line upon line here a little and there a little with a stammering tongue that is he look'd upon them as Children and so condescended to their Weakness and spoke to them in their own Dialect And this Way of instructing them by outward and visible Signs was the most probable to take effect because it was much in use in the Eastern Countries but more especially in Egypt whose Manners they were infinitely fond of to wrap up their most excellent Precepts in Hieroglyphicks which were nothing but Pictures and material Sings by which they represented their Divine and Moral Institutions Thus therefore by such