things so let him be the full and compleat subject of your Faith and Love and Joyes and Delights the more you see him the more your hearts will be lost in love to him you may see every day new mysteries of Love and Beauty in Jesus Christ new depths of wisdome and fulnesse Oh how could the Apostle choose when he thought of Christ but break out as he did Let them be Anathema Maranatha that love not the Lord Jesus Cursed for ever be those soules that cannot love such a Christ there can be no curse too dreadfull But so much only in the generall which yet is worth your observation The particulars in themselves are so glorious as they dazle my eyes something might be said of them but the depth and glory of them can never be exprest To begin with the first God manifest in flesh This is the bottome of all the mysteries in the Gospell every word speaks Paradoxes God manifested is wonderfull for no man ever saw God at any time But God manifested in flesh that is a contradiction it is more absurd to nature then to say a spirit is flesh God hath gone beyond us exceedingly in the work of our own salvation yet because that the thing is made known we must pry into the mystery of it and of all the mysteries in the Gospell this is the first and greatest the foundation of all the rest In the opening of it we must observe 1. What is meant by God 2. What by God manifested 3. What by flesh and the manifestation in flesh 4. How God hath manifested himselfe in flesh 5. The eminency of this manifestation above all other 6. The mystery of all this For the first By God is not meant God essentially the very God-head indefinitely but God personally in such a person though the whole god-head be included yet it is manifested but in one Person to wit the second Person Jesus Christ because all actions are done by Persons not by Natures Therefore this is a manifestation of God in his owne Son God's essence was never manifested no man ever saw God only the onely begotten Son He that came out of his bosome to reveale him And this is none other but an exact description of Christ which is God manifest in the flesh Now secondly by God is not barely meant an apparition of God in flesh which he meant to lay downe againe upon an occasion but as the word signifies passively conspicuus factus est in carne is made known and cleer to us in flesh This manifestation notes not a transcient shew of God to us but a cleer and constant demonstration of God and the only great and glorious first way of the manifesting God unto us as the word signifies a making of a thing to shine as the Sun to our eyes that convinceth every man of what he seeth And this not only as a glimpse of God which was very glorious and so away but as the cleerest and richest way of discovery that ever was or should be in this world But thirdly VVhat this flesh should be is a mystery Flesh is taken severall ways in Scripture First For sinne and its sinfull Nature we have See the lusts of the flesh that cannot be here meant God hath made no appearance of himselfe in sin Secondly Flesh taken for our humane Nature All flesh have corrupted their waies Gen. 6. That is all men their Natures are defiled So Rom. 7. in my flesh dwels no good thing that is in my Nature either in soule or body or both Thirdly Flesh is commonly taken for the weaknesse and infirmities of that Nature All flesh is grasse and the glory of it as the flower 1 Pet. 1. And the Holy Ghost speaking of the Aegyptian Horses tels you that they are flesh and not spirit it is weak and not strong So that Fourthly How hath God manifested himselfe in flesh not in the first sence but the two latter in appearing in our Nature in taking our infirmities and weaknesse sutable unto that Nature sin still excepted And what is here called the manifestation of God in flesh is in other Scriptures parallell explain'd As he is said to be Immanuell God with us Mat. 2. How can that be but only because of being in the same common Nature with us It is said the word was made flesh and dwelt among us 1 John 14. it is the same phrase with this for the word was God v. 1. And yet it was made flesh not that there was any transmutation of God into flesh that was blasphemy but only by reason of the union of flesh to him who was God This is farther exprest in the Apostle to the Hebrews Heb. 2.16 He took not on him the Nature of Angels but the seed of Abraham 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He assumed not to himselfe that is God did manifest himselfe or appeared in any Angelicall Nature but in the Nature of men And was made in all things like unto us sin only excepted There is another cleer place Phil. 2.6 7 8. Which the Apostle urgeth about the manner of this discovery that Christ though he were in the forme of God and thought it no robbery that is did God no wrong to say he was equall with him yet assumed or took on him or appeared in the forme or the likenesse of a servant it is our Nature which was in subjection and servitude unto God So that now this manifestation of God in flesh is no other then God in the second person assuming to himselfe the humane Nature and so revealing himselfe to men sutably to their condition and this is Christ This manifestation is an effect of Gods assumption of our Nature so that this expression literally imports 1. The assuming of our Nature and the union with God God taking up us to himselfe as one in our common Nature 2. The full discovery of God to us in our owne Nature God acting forth his glory in our owne flesh And al this is stil but to denote out Christ who is the person set forth in the Gospell who was with God and was God and dwelt among us as the Apostle saith that is took up his Tabernacle of flesh in our Nature thereby to converse with us Yet many would faine wrest this Scripture from the person of Christ for some of the old Interpreters as Beza observes leave out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and put in only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod manifestè est omit God and put in which mystery manifested in flesh thereby to take off the glory of Christs as God Erasm by flesh here he understands the whole world and by manifestation the Gospell intimating that this is the mystery that God should be manifested to the world but that is contrary unto this place for he afterwards speaks of the Preaching of it to the Gentiles that is to the whole world It is doubtlesse meant of God as in our Nature making up the person of Jesus
Christ and this will yet appeare if you consider the 4 Thing that this was the greatest manifestation of God that ever was God was manifested in nothing like this for look first over the manifestation of God in the first creation there was but only some outside of God's glory discovered nothing of Gods Nature The whole world never saw what God was truly by that Indeed the Apostle saith Rom 1. That the invisible things of God were knowne by the things that are made even God's eternall power and wisdome but these were manifested in an ordinary and common way as a Picture shewes the art of the Painter but yet you may not know his person But in this God himselfe is manifested for first here is not only so much of God manifested as humane nature it selfe could demonstrate for then it had been a poor manifestation of God who can see God in seeing all the men in the world or in all the Saints in the world in their flesh but it sets out a speciall way of assumption of our Nature unto the person of Christ who was God making these two natures but one person 2. This manifestation was in union of flesh in the neerest way to God himselfe not as a lanthorne to hold the light only of God's glory but as one intire person to represent what God is in himselfe all the whole world was never united to God before though God did manifest some thing to our Nature as to Adam yet God did never unite any creature to himselfe before and though God was manifest to flesh yet never in flesh before that is the great mystery God is manifest to his Saints but he is not manifested in the flesh or in the Nature of any but Jesus Christ This is so great a manifestation as that God is become man as it were by reason of the union of their Natures the word was made flesh and dwelt among us as if God had relinquished his own Name and Nature and lost himselfe in our Nature he was found in the forme of a servant Now let us but thinke what a manifestation of God this must be which is God not only letting forth himselfe in a way of communication but God in union with the same Nature which we are in Therefore Christ is called the expresse image of the person of the Father not an image as he was the second person meerly for so he was not the image but God himselfe but an image because in that union of our Nature with God there was the exactest discovery of God himselfe as possible could be to the creature 2 Cor. 3 ult Therefore Christ is called a glasse wherein a man may with open face behold the bright glory of God But 6. How great must this mystery needes be God manifested in flesh how is that possible flesh hides God he is of a spirituall Nature it is as much as to say the Sun manifested in a cloud or light manifest in darknesse I confesse my heart could rather stand and admire then speak any thing more What ever is a medium of conveyance of any thing in Nature must be proportion'd unto the thing it discovers as the aire not a mud wall conveys the light of the Sun to us flesh and God what proportion is there between them let flesh be but thought God must needs be forgotten for they are at an infinite distance yea contrary yet this is the mystery 1. God not only setting our himselfe thorough flesh in a transient way shining thorough it but being made flesh being one with flesh 2. Not in innocent Nature but in the likenesse of sinfull Nature Rom. 8.3 To manifest himselfe in the flesh of Rebels and Traytours and honour that flesh which had so sinned and was so polluted this is a mystery 3. To act in this Nature in the world to dye and be despised and suffer the utmost contradiction of sinners who is able to fathom the depth of this mystery As one saith of the Trinity they were like three sisters which spun one piece of a garment and only one weares it so had all these three an hand in the making of this Nature but only Christ the second Person weares it and all their glory is laid out in it how one Person could be God and man how God should be put to death in our Nature to reconcile us to himselfe flesh filled with the fulnesse of God is beyond the apprehension of men and Angels to declare But we may tell that it is so and admire it as we speake Blessednesse to be made a curse Heaven let downe into Hell the God of the world shutting himselfe up as it were in a body the invisible God made visible to sense he which hath all things in Heaven and Earth at his command not have a house in the world glory it selfe of no comelinesse What shall I say all things become nothing making it selfe of no reputation And a thousand more such paradoxes are wrapt up in this one expression Oh how great a depth is in this glorious design of God he was manifested to Adam to Moses and many others but here was his utmost manifestation in our flesh For the nature of this manifestation know 1. It is not a bare manifestation of some attributes of God but it is a manifestation of God in his own nature the fulnesse of the God-head dwelt in Christ bodily or really Col. 2. Not that God is circumscribed in our Nature but that the God-head it selfe is united to Christs body and dwels in it fils it and abides upon him 2. Neither is it a manifestation of God absolutely as in himselfe but as in order to reconciliation and salvation of soule For God might have been manifested else in our flesh to have consumed us But as the Apostle saith God was in Christ reconciling the World to himselfe That is God was in Christs Nature as a God in order to the reconciling poor soules and this is the great mystery God was offended by our Nature and God takes that Nature on himselfe to reconcile us to himselfe by himselfe God himselfe will pay the price out of his own glory for our offences only assumes our Nature as if it should be thought to act it out for us and joines it to his sonne and cals that Christ and this is the Gospell-notion of Christ God manifest in flesh in order to the reconciliation of poor soules Thus God must satisfie himselfe and save us himselfe only takes our Nature to doe it in and cals it Christ a Saviour when it is none other then God himselfe in our Nature transacting our peace This manifestation is a peculiar one For First God was never manifested as one with flesh before he was not one with Adam's Nature or with any of the first Creation but this is a manifestation of ownnesse Secondly God never manifested himselfe in his God-head before in such a manner many of his glorious attributes were
the brightnesse of his glory but to beseech them to see with their own eyes their eternall happinesse Let all poore soules come and put in their hands and they may feele Gods heart come and behold life and immortality inhabiting the tabernacles of earth and their own peace and eternall happinesse in their owne flesh Who can make any excuse now that he beleeves not Why do soules now stand off What can be desired by lost soules more Oh that I might see God say some soules why he is come down in the likenesse of man he walkes in our own shape Oh saith another might I have my heart united to God why he is come down on purpose and hath united our own nature to himselfe God hath left all the world without excuse he hath condescended below himselfe that we might be above our selves In a word by this the way of life is paved and all the bars and blocks taken out of the way all objections stifled in the birth and answered before they are made In this manifestation justice and mercy sweetly kisse each other and have their equall joy free grace and merit bounty and beauty fulnesse and nothingnesse are made one and triumph together the most hidden things revealed and the worst things advanced all things become nothing and nothing all things our nature which lay in rags enriched with the unsearchable treasures of glory that flesh which was so weake as not able to put forth a hand to save its own life enabled to save millions of soules and bring forth the greatest designes of God and that flesh which the Apostle cals a vile body enobled and advanced beyond the nature of Angels This this is the great mystery hid from Ages and Generations of men that God lives in our flesh and there acts all the parts of his glory It is now no wonder that man is made one to God and hath boldnesse through faith even to go into heaven seeing God is come to carry them up with him this was the first and great experiment which ever God did make of the fulnesse of his love and glory and we have now seene that in our flesh which could never have been seene in it selfe Vse 1. Seeing this is so great a mystery what use can we make enough of it doubtlesse it cannot be accounted lesse than a spring of unconceivable comfort to all poore soules yea in whatever condition they be give leave to extract some few grounds of strong support and joy and we need no chymicall art the consideration doth naturally drop the strongest spirits of rejoycing and incouragement that can be possible Unto two sorts I shall especially direct this use 1 To poor soules that are yet in the embryo under the first and lowest convictions of their owne condition who first for feare of there wrath to come and would faine draw neer but dare not touch the staffe of their eternall comfort this point will yield water of life at the first striking unto their poor soules yea and more then their soules are able to beare or their doubts are able to answer if they will but observe what the weight of this expression is 2. To beleevers who are yet trembling at the sight of their many sins and not yet cleered up in the spirituall notions of the Gospell For the first Let me speak to you drooping hearts who long after life and salvation and to see God as yours more then life it selfe what ailes thy heart who hath made thee afraid what is that shakes thy knees and dryes up thy marrow and breaks thy bones and cuts thy joynts and nerves Oh why dost thou start back in the day of thy trouble Why you will say God is mine enemy I am a stranger to him I shall never see a glimpse of the face of God where all my happinesse lies sin hath brought forth death and misery in my soule God's law condemnes me my owne conscience accuseth me and justice will have its due These and such like are the usuall apprehensions of such convinced soules Yet notwithstanding all this let word of the Gospell be heard let the truth be heard speak for it selfe God is manifested in the flesh VVhen thy soule lost seven fold more then it is the spirit of this expression is able to recover thee and set thee upon thy legs with a crowne of glory on thy head 1. God himselfe is come into the world to offer the tearms of love and peace unto thy poor soule because it was impossible for thee to come to God he is come to thee and hath laid aside as it were his owne glory while he converses with thee This is no ordinary design that God hath to drive when he is so wonderfully manifest in thy own flesh when God manifesting himselfe as formerly in Thunder and Lightning with an innumerable company of Angels all having their swords of justice and vengeance drawne well might poor soules tremble and run into corners for who would ever be able to indure his comming but loe poor soule God is come in flesh with an Olive branch of eternall peace in his hand and bids you all be witnesse he is not come to destroy but to save There be but two things in God which might discourage poor soules from making approaches to him the infinite brightnesse of his glory whereby there is such a great distance between God and his poor creatures 2. The infinite severity and exactnesse of his justice whereby he is clothed with vengeance but behold these terrifying sights are you God hath made his appearance as a man as one of us and there shall not be the least distance between us and this God is likewise in our own Nature to satisfie himselfe and to gratifie his own justice for this is the naturall meaning of this phrase that God hath taken flesh to reconcile flesh to himselfe Bring out thy sins and weigh them to the utmost aggravation of them and take in every circumstance both of law and Gospell and set but this in the other scale that God is manifested in flesh to take away sin how would all thy iniquities seem lighter then vanity yea be as nothing in comparison to that which is laid downe as a propitiation for these sins It is most true that nothing can reveale God at such a distance from a soule as sin it being that which is most contrary to his blessed Nature who is infinitely pure and holy Yet here is the mystery of godlinesse that God himselfe is become the satisfier of himselfe and that in our owne Nature The utmost height of sin lies in regard that it is a contradiction to the immortall God therefore it is so hainous that the death of Angels and men could never expiate it or reconcile sinners to God but if God will dye in our Nature and lay downe himselfe as a ransome how is the demerit of sin swallowed up in the incomprehensible redundancy of divine glory and
but his inside blessed 2. Externally he was notwithstanding all the visible actings of him in the world and the misapprehensions of wicked men yet the spirit did still justify him and cleer him and declare him to be righteous Two things were laid on Christ which he had need to be justified from 1. The false aspersions which the world laid on him they lookt on him as a deceiver a friend of Publicans and Sinners one which blasphemed when he said he was the sonne of God one which had a Devill and wrought all his miracles by the Devill 2. The state he stood in under our sins have had the guilt and the punishment of them laid on him whereby he stood as a visible malefactor and under the visible sentence of condemnation For Christ was really charg'd with the satisfaction of our sins and was liable to all that the Law could say to us for them Now he had need to be justified from this by having an acquittance and absolution by the spirit of God Now in both these wayes may Christ be said to be justified 1. He was justified in the spirit from all those wicked imputations his enemies laid on him none were accounted of so vile as Jesus Christ all the reproaches that could be invented were laid on him they called him a Devill commonly Now see how he was justified in the spirit that is first how cleer he was within in his spirit no guile was found in his mouth 2. By his Godhead what bright sparklings of God was in the face of Jesus Christ to the conviction of his enemies many times when they came to catch him they were catch'd by the beauty of his glory and faine to confesse he was a righteous one and that never any spake or acted like him in all that ever he did in the acts of his humiliation he was justified in it God clearing it up that he was the true Messias and Saviour of the world when he was borne wise men came by the spirit to see him and worship him when he was baptized the spirit came downe visibly on him and proclaim'd from Heaven that he was the beloved Son of God with him he was infinitely well pleased Nay come to the uttermost degree of his humiliation when he hung on the Crosse between two thieves by his spirit he converted one of them and made them acknowledge he was the righteous man and they only the sinners In a word what ever he did or spoke the spirit did act it in him and justified him in it I speak not of myselfe but God testifyes of me Iohn 6. He was begotten in the wombe by the spirit led up and downe in the spirit offer'd up by the eternall spirit raised from the dead by the spirit That place in the Romans 1.3 cleers up this He was declared to be the Sonne of God with power by the spirit of holinesse in his Resurrection It is a place which answers this He was of the seed of David as concerning the flesh but declared to be the Sonne of God in the spirit when he did rise againe as much as to say he was God manifest in flesh that is in weakness and yet he was justified by the spirit of holinesse to be the sonne of God Christ would often call himselfe the son of God and for that he was called a blasphemer and for that they sought to put him to death as if they had said we will try that thou canst not dye if thou be the Son of God And so when he was put to death they were confirmed that he was a deceiver But now when he rose againe of himselfe then he was declared with power to be the son of God that is justifyed by the spirit of holinesse or the holy spirit that spirit did declare that he was full of holinesse But this was the least part of Christ's justification 2. Christ stood under the charge of all the sins of the Elect as a common person and so was by God himselfe condemned he bore our sins on the Tree in his owne body that is was really charged with the guilt and the punishment of it and though he was not guilty of any sinne yet was punished as the greatest malefactor standing as our surety Christ may seem to be condemned even by God himselfe and he must come off cleer or else lye under the punishment of it for ever for once the charge was laid on Christ the law looks to him Now Christ that was thus visibly condemned he is justified in the spirit not only that he was appointed to satisfie but that he had satisfied and took away these sins and it was reason that if God did charge him with the debt of our sins that after he had paid it he should be acquitted and declared just and the Justifyer of these for whom we undertook Now this is the great meaning of this phrase that whereas Christ was manifest as God in our flesh and so stood under the guilt of our sins he was justified in his spirit and cleered by God that he had fully satisfied him That whereas God was manifested in flesh that is as the Apostle saith Rom. 8. To condeme sin in the flesh that same God-man was also justified in the spirit that is freely and fully acquitted by his God-head from all these sins and so taken up into glory And Christ himselfe in a Prophesie when he was to dye and be judged as a condemned man he comforts himselfe with the thoughts of this He is neer that justifies me who shall condemne Esa 50.8 9. So likewise the Apostle speaking of Christs Resurrection he was put to death in the flesh but quickned in or by the spirit 1 Pet. 3.18 a place fully paralell unto this Paul saith he was justified in the spirit and Peter that he was quickned in the spirit both meane one and the same thing viz. that new life which Christ had from the dead when he left all our sins behind him and rose againe and by spirit is meant his God-head or divine nature whereby he was both raised from the grave and the guilt of sin together he was quickned and justified as a Malefactor by an absolution receives a new life after the sentence of death and this worke of justifying Christ is especially laid on Christs resurrection who when he dyed was as a condemned man but when he rose againe appeares as a righteous man which had finished his worke For justification implies and supposeth a former guilt laid to ones charge of which he is acquitted There was reason that if Christ bore our sins and stood as one condemned having done away sin should likewise be justified from the guilt of what was laid on him and be pronounced righteous Christ was under the greatest attainder that ever man was he stood publikely charged with the guilt of a world of sins and if he had not been justified by the spirit he had still laine under the
the rate of such a mystery aske of Christ communications according to his riches in glory let all your actings be glorious all your walkings joyes breathings let them all be as in glory view Christ and see him as in that relation and condition and you will soone have the sparkles of the same glory on your hearts bound not your faith and expectations within this poore world and the enjoyments of in it but ever and anon cast glances into glory and if you will be in such an estate you must get Christ that is received up into glory in you as the hope of glory Col. 1.27 It is only as Christ breakes forth in your hearts by faith that you come to have such sights of glory that glorified person that is now in heaven must be in you by his spirit of glory or else you can have no hope of glory beleevers you see your object you know his person never be quiet untill you come into his condition as you must go through all ordinances and creatures untill you come to Christ so through all the conditions of Christ untill you come to glory Let us now view it in the whole as it were as it concernes Christ and the Saints together and this is the end of that it is received up into glory As God in Christ was condemned in flesh so are the Saints and justified in the spirit so are they and at last they with Christ are received up into glory Quest Now the great question is How Christ and the Saints are received up into glory Sol. As for Christ it is cleare that he was taken up in his humane nature as he was God-man in the world so he is now in heaven Jesus Christ hath a reall body now in glory as he had in the world But it is taken into glory and so a glorious body Phil. 3. ult In any other respect Christ could not be taken up into glory for nothing wanted it but his humane nature And so must all the Saints be received into glory in the same way not only in their soules but bodies for the Saints have not phantasmes in heaven they are not annihilated in their being and made in another essentiall forme but are taken into glory in regard of the whole man as it consists of body and soule For that place in 1 Cor. 15. where it is said flesh and bloud cannot inherit the kingdome of heaven therefore no reall bodies shall be there It is answered that the meaning is flesh and bloud without a change as it is mortall and weake not simply the being of flesh and bloud but it is expounded in the same verse neither can corruption inherit incorruption that is no flesh and bloud as subject to corruption as it is weake and sinfull shall not enter in For it shall be made a spirituall body still a body but spirituall and free from corruption having a being of immortality put to it And this is so cleare as it cannot be denied except we will imagine a chimaera of a man without soule or body let this be considered whether the man that sinned shall not be saved the same individuall man if the man then certainlie both in his soule and body without which he is no man the being of him as a man lying in the compositum And besides the same that is redeemed must be saved now we are redeemed in soule and body but yet this body shall be a glorious body so changed as that whatever may denote weakenesse and corruption shall be done away it shall put on incorruption And how strange is this that the same man which is justified and sanctified shall not be glorified But I leave that as the excrescency of the pride of this wanton age who would frame a glory to themselves out of their own fancie Let all us know that Christ and his body shall be taken up in their soules and bodies to one and the same glorie and though now we dwell in houses of clay and walke in raggs of dust and ashes we shall one day be taken into glorie This should comfort us in all conditions that this is not our place and draw out our spirits to scorne this world and to breath and long after another fulnesse which is to be revealed the more high and aspiring our spirits are from the world and all enjoyments to that glorie into which we are to be taken the more we expresse our assurance of it And this glorie is so great that there is no taking it in but we are received up into it Oh what a blessed time will that bee when the whole man shall be cast into glorie lost as it were in glorie as in an infinite Ocean Thus I have presented in a short view to your eyes that which hath been acted from eternitie and will be yet acted to eternitie It is little hath been said to what might have and to what shall be really done I have only shewed you the things in a rude lumpe let you see the outside of inward and unexpressible glory I have glanced at that which will be the prospect of the strongest eyes for ever but alas who is able for these things God must act it in us that we may know it in it selfe it is a worke for the spirit of the living God who searcheth the deep things of him I shall only in conclusion sum up all and set before your eye a small map of the whole continent of this mystery that you may see what God is adoing for poore sinners the Apostle comprehends all in this expression of a mystery and a great mystery and then laies it out in these particulars which are enumerated in this verse God manifested in flesh c. Here is a chaine of mysteries the first end of it is tyed to Gods heart and the other end 's in glory in the whole you may take notice of these things 1. The plot and designe 2. The contrivance of it 3. The way of acting it 4. The effecting and issue of it The plot was to save so many poore sinners who lay in the bottome of hell and had so offended God as that nothing but eternall wrath was their portion the spring of this and invisible wheeles from whence it was acted was Gods eternall love and goodnesse that he might discover it freely to his creatures because this designe might go on glorious It was contrived that the same nature which sinned should save and that the manifestation of God should not be untill the time of the sin and misery of the poore creature and that the riches of love might be showne wisdome contrived that God himselfe in another forme should act out all our salvation Thus God comes to be manifested in flesh and cals himselfe Christ takes up our nature and joynes it to his Godhead to be one person and in that person dies and suffers and satisfies himselfe and is justified as in our stead he himselfe is made
seen and discovered as his wisdome power But no man saw God at any time the only begotten Sonne revealed him and the fulnesse of the God-head dwelt in no Nature bodily but in our Nature which Christ had Thirdly God never manifested himselfe in such a straine of love as in our flesh it was the highest manifestation of Love that ever was that God loved our very Nature so as to be one with us herein was his love manifested and commended indeed that he would come down in our Nature to us And as one said well God did so love the very Nature of his Elect that though he had them not all with him in Heaven for the present yet he must have their picture of their own Nature in his Sonne to see them in and love them 1. Vse Then here is still ground of new admiration and wonder to soules God is come downe and hath left as it were his owne habitation to dwell amoâ—â— the sonnes of men This is the first and great mystery of the Gospell God out of infinite goodnesse would make a revelation of himselfe to the world to doe it in his pure glory would consume all flesh especially seeing it was to be a manifestation unto sinners but he cloths himselfe with flesh with our own Nature and so appears to us as in infinite love and sweetnesse there be many great designes in this one 1. By this he takes away the distance between his majesty and us for he is now become Immanuell God with us The thoughts of God would have been sufficient terror we could never have come nigh God for we were infinitely below him But now Gods taking up our Nature as one with himselfe and appearing as in our own form and likenesse hath broken down the wall of partition in Nature as that which takes away the dwelling nature of Gods glory yet reflects the reall sweetnesse of it to us 2. By this God would indeare and sweeten himselfe to his poor creature and fit a way of sweet converse with us if God had manifested himselfe in his own naked glory still while we are sinners we should not only be daz'led but shrunk up to nothing to see the Sun as it shines in its owne lustre would spoile the sight of the strongest eye But to look upon it as in an eclipse in water or thorough a glasse that is not offensive to consider God in himselfe is to have our soules swallowed up but to look on God in our nature brings down his glory to our eye and wooes us to behold it 3. By this God hath raised up a statue and visible monument of his own infinite love to his Elect for ever For rather then they shall want a sutable discovery of himselfe he will come and take up their owne nature and be called after their names as if he would be any thing to shew his love This is the fullest visible demonstration of God's love that ever was It was more for God to take our nature then simply to save us more then let a out bare mercy and grace in it selfe For a King to save a murtherer from the Gallowes by his owne prerogative and dispence with the Law is not such an act of love and mercy as to take the murtherers clothes and weare them as his richest livery and give as a mark of honour to his owne Sonne and to make an honourable order of the rags of that garment as that King did of a Garter God hath done more in taking our Nature what love was this that God will be no more God as it were simply but take up another Nature rather then the brightnesse of his owne glory shall undoe us 4. By this God would shew what he means to bring us unto he took our nature up to himselfe as a pattern or type of what he would bring all Saints unto God is come down in our likenesse to bring us up into his likenesse Nature was never so advanced it is the highest glory that is possible to be put upon nature it is more then to fill all our souls with a fulnesse of grace for our nature is united in a personall union with the second person then which there cannot be more glory What a faire step is now made for the bringing the person up to the injoyment of God Oh let none say now that God is not willing to save soules who is come down so low as live among us say not who shall goe up to Heaven to bring downe God or downe unto the deeps to fetch him up God is nigh you even in your owne flesh You may but turne about and see God manifested to your owne eyes we preach not fancy when we lay out the riches of Gods glory in love and mercy But as the Apostle saith what we have seen and what we have felt and tasted that we declare unto you 1 Joh. 1.1 2 3. Say not unbelieving soule how shall I come nigh God why God is come to thee he dwels in the Tabernacles of men In a word God is manifested in our flesh that our flesh may be taken up into his fulnesse SERMON IV. 1 TIM 3.16 God manifested in the flesh c. I Made an entrance on this the last day but there are new mysteries yet arising and no sooner doth one discovery passe but another comes on this bottomlesse depth of Gods glory in the Gospell can be sounded by none but God himselfe we have some manifestations of it and that in flesh or else we had never imagined what thoughts God had towards his poore Creatures besides what hath been spoken as to the opening of the words still this must be taken in That it is not God in flesh mystically but personally Or else thus It is not meant of God manifested in flesh that is in the whole mysticall body of Christ the Saints But only God assuming our nature into the union of Christs person and this had need to be observed because all these places where it is said that it pleased the Father that in him all fulnesse should dwell Col. 1.19 and that the fulnesse of the God-head dwelt in him bodily Col. 2. and this place is spoken of Christ mystically or in his body not personally intimating that God dwels in the flesh of the Saints as much as in the humane nature of Jesus Christ and that there is no other distinction than of head and members Now to cleare up this to you I shall not need to go farther than this verse 1. This is spoken of a thing that is already done God is or was manifested in flesh now if it were meant of the whole mystical body of Christ it must have been said God will manifest himself in flesh for all that body is not yet made up are not capable of any such manifestation thousands of them being yet unborne 2. God that is manifested in flesh is justified in spirit and seen of Angels and preached unto
the Gentiles and beleeved on in the world and received up to glory now none will be so grossely ignorant as to attribute this to Saints Saints are not preached to the Gentiles nor believed on in the world nor yet all received up to glory 3. God as manifest in flesh did dye in that flesh was crucified to make atonement for sin for this was a manifestation in order unto reconciliation now who will say that the bodies of the Saints did dye and were offered up in sacrifice and did make our peace with God which they must be said to do if the meaning of the phrase be according to that interpretation We had need be wary in the letting out our thoughts on the Scripture and fastening interpretation of things seeing such strange consequences may follow And especially take heed of advancing Saints so as to lessen Christ he must have the preheminence above Saints and Angels and know that there is not only a distinction between Christ and Saints meerly as head and members but a distinction of them in regard of their persons for Christ is a head in regard of his person as the husband is the head of his wife and though they be one body yet he is a distinct person and hath those incommunicable prerogatives that cannot be appropriated either to Saints singly or as his body Gods manifestation to the flesh of Saints is at second hand thorough Christ of his fulnesse that is of that fulnesse which resides eminently and distinctly in his person they receive grace for grace Indeed God is said to dwell in us and we in God but how not as God dwels in Christ but because he dwels in us by his own nature and we by union with Christ partake of that fulnesse according to our measure God dwels in Christ immediately and as a God he dwels in us through Jesus Christ Christ letting out part of that fulnesse on our hearts And thus God was pleased that in him all fulnesse should dwell and by him to reconcile all things to himselfe that in all things he might have the preheminence and that his person might be distinctly admired above all Creatures The difference of Gods manifesting himselfe in flesh that is in Christs humane nature and ours lies in this that this manifestation was as in an ordinance of life and salvation making that person which had our nature the great conveyer of eternall peace and comfort through that flesh so the Apostle Col. 1.22 In the body of his flesh through death he is to present us blamelesse and spotlesse to his Father wherefore saith the Apostle againe Heb. 2.17 It became him in all things to be made like his brethren that he might be a mercifull high Priest c. that is that he might be fit to convey life and salvation to poore soules But Gods manifestation in the flesh or persons of the Saints is as into severall Cisternes which lye under the fountaine to receive their proportion God manifesting himselfe in Christs flesh is as of a fulnesse to fill all but in the person of the Saints it is but of severall degrees and measures in order to a fulnesse that we may come to the fulnesse of the measure God hath manifested himselfe in our nature that by that he might at length fill all our persons Thus is our nature joyned to the Godhead to be as a great pipe set at the mouth of some full spring that through that God might run out his love and glory by degrees on our heart first Christ receives it at once and then thorough his Spirit discovers it in us In a word Gods manifestation in Christs flesh was as a Saviour a Redeemer a Head yea as the Author of eternall Salvation to us And this is the mysterie of mysteries he which reads this may very well cease to wonder at any thing else This is the foundation of all Gods other actings to us the pole on which they all turne all the discoveries of God are wrapt up in this one this unlocks Gods own Cabinet wherein all his designes lye Election Redemption Glorification all is wrapt up in this and made cleare when we understand this one expression God manifested in flesh it is the being of light and immortality to light at once it opens heaven and earth 1. This is the foundation of our union with God and Sonship it is from hence that God is one with our nature God is manifested as a Father in our own flesh we are Sons because Christ is he was really and naturally the Son and wee through him receive the adoption of sons For he which sanctifieth and they which are sanctified are all one therefore he is not ashamed to call them brethren Heb. 2.11 So you have Gal. 4.4 5. God sent forth his Son in our flesh that we might receive the adoption of Sons God first takes our nature and marries it to his own Son that so we might be united to him in his nature This is the Antitype and modell of all relations God one with flesh here is Father and Son Husband and Wife all relations meet in this one 2. It is by this that we have communion with God we had never seen God had not he manifested himselfe thus familiarly in our own flesh communion is in things and betweene persons sutable There was no sutablenesse between God and us untill he appeared in our own likenesse but now he made himselfe as it were fit for converse with the unworthiest Creatures there is a sweet sympathy between Christ and us by reason that he dwels in the same house of clay as it were with us the devill himselfe when he comes to the Indians as their God to draw their hearts to worship him appeares in the forme of a man that so he might the better converse with them The blessed God was willing to manifest infinite goodnesse to the Creature and to converse with them and that all terrifying apparitions might be shunned he appears as a man that so we may have intimate fellowship and communion with him with what a holy boldnesse may soules draw nigh to God and delight to behold him and converse with him now he is in such a habit of love and sutablenesse unto our own sences Why art thou strange poore trembling soule and standest afar off as if it were death to draw nigh Of whom art thou afraid What vision of amazement dost thou behold Is God come down among men and thou canst not look on him lest thou dye and perish for ever Why cast one look more and be not discouraged It is true God is come down but not in flaming fire not in the armour of justice and everlasting burnings but cloathed with the garments of flesh and sweetly desires to converse with thee after thine owne forme Nothing can be a stronger motive to allure poore soules unto termes of peace and love as this that God is come down not to consume them with
now how doth grace superabound infinite wise laid down for satisfaction of the transitory and finite transgressions of the poor creature the Law-giver suffering for the offences done against the Law Doth not your hearts yet begin to leap within you and the blood to come againe in your faces and strength into your sinews In the apprehensions of this mystery of comfort surely that soule is shut up in the inmost dungeon of unbeliefe where never a beam of the glory of God shines But yet will you have more at least to leave you without excuse This manifestation is not only a discovery in flesh but to flesh And therefore as he come in our Nature to satisfie so he comes in the Gospell freely and fully to offer the tearmes of love in the richest and most alluring expressions And if God cannot satisfie your death what will VVhat ever was done in our Nature in order to redemption was none other then God acting out his owne love and grace and glory So the Apostle saith the blood of God was offered meaning that the efficacy and life of all that offering was from God in our Nature using that as an Organ or instrument to act by Let unbeliefe come forth and make its plea and let it dare to appear before this consideration is not God enough to satisfie thy conscience Oh come nigh poor soules see what an infinite ground of comfort is laid in for you let the rich and glorious openings of the heart of the almighty overcome your hearts had God spoke from Heaven by himselfe and called poor creatures that lye in the midst of sin crying out who shall deliver and had he said I will pardon you by my owne prerogative I made the Law I will dispence with it rather then you shall perish what soule would not have been raised but up even from the bottome of Hell and yet unbeliefe might scruple and say what shall become of infinite justice shall that be dishonored to save me But alas that were not as much as for God to come in our flesh and come as a price and pay himselfe before our eyes In the Rom. 9. The Apostle gives this as the great reason of all his actions he hath mercy on whom he will have mercy if there were nothing else but God's will in the salvation of poor soules who hath contradicted his will But God hath not only showne his willingnesse but hath really undertaken the effect of it by his God-head and ingaged his owne honour and all his glory in the transacting of it Oh then why shouldst thou feare to cast thy selfe into the infinite Ocean of God's owne glory notwithstanding all thy vilenesse God himselfe stands to lead thee by the hand and hath put a price sufficient in the hands of justice to stop the clamors against thee and if thou yet fearest to come to God yet come to thy owne flesh goe to Christ as having thy owne Nature and knowes how to pitty thee VVhat can be said more to draw on thy trembling heart if God himselfe and God so fitted and qualified as it were will not must not men dye and perish in unbeliefe and who can pitty them that when God's justice is satisfied our Conscience should be unsatisfied that when God is come downe so low to us we should stand questioning whether wee should come to him what is it but to say all that God is and doth is lesse or too little to comfort me 2. Vse reacheth to these poor beleevers who yet stand afarre off and though they have hopes yet have little Faith and cannot so fully close in with the Gospell nor draw nigh so boldly befor God thorough the fears of their owne hearts This point opens a door of rich entrance into the presence of God himselfe the blessed God hath made a Portall into Heaven not of Iron or Brasse but of thy owne flesh this is that new and living way which is consecrated from Heaven and now with what freenesse and boldnesse of heart mayest thou draw neer to God Unbeliefe is strangled after this consideration since God is come in the flesh we may believe any thing for this is the greatest impossibility that could be VVhy is God come downe so sutable so lowly if he would have thy poor soule be afraid to come to him if he had any other intention but to give strong consolation to the most sad soules he would have appeared in another forme made use of another way which should have bespoke such a design But what is the meaning of this at first sight God manifest in flesh but this as if God had said you will not come to me I will come to you and that you may see how reall and tender I am of your good I have taken up your owne flesh to make my great discoveries in put your hand into my heart and see how love beates and look into your owne hearts and see what you want I have taken the same Nature that I may more sensibly supply you and that nothing may disquiet your hearts or dazle your eyes I have set out my owne glory in love and sutablenesse to your capacities this and much more of the like expressions are the very naturall speakings of this blessed mystery Oh consider once againe what a heart of love was in this design and what a ground of eternall comfort and support is there to thy heart in this God is in thy owne Nature to take upon him all the miseries of thy Nature and to supply thy flesh with his fulnesse this is none other then God's heart leaping out into our bosomes and as much as if God should have said expressely poor soules I cannot keep from you I love your very Nature I will be nothing so you may be something my glory shall not hinder me but I will vaile it rather then it shall hurt you I will take as much delight in your flesh as in my owne Son so I may but shew my selfe kind and tender to you and so I may have communion with you and you with me I care not if I become one with you live in your very flesh Oh that ever there should be a heart of unbeliefe after these sensible demonstrations of divine glory and love wilt thou stand off now doubt now why what wilt thou have God to doe can he manifest himselfe in a more taking alluring sutable way to thy condition Is there any thing below flesh wherein the great God can humble himselfe for our good think of another and a better way or else for ever beleeve VVhat art thou shye of God who is so sweet to thee many soules thinke it a great part of their humility to see their owne unworthinesse so as to draw back from God Oh it is pride to the utmost when God hath made himselfe low and is come so nigh to us not to take notice of him to draw back from such a blessed one who drawes
so nigh unto us I beseech you gather up your spirits and annoint your hearts with the oyle of gladnesse for God himselfe is come to live among you and professeth he will have no other life but among you there he will manifest himself in all his sweetnesse and blessednesse to your soule Lay aside all coynesse and strangenesse of spirit seeing such a way of familiarity and entercourse is made between you and God It is very sad to see believers still so shye of approaching to God so doubtfull of their acceptance when God himselfe stoopes first and is so in love with our acquaintance as that he will be as wee are Let not such a Rocke of strength be slighted But every day entertaine sweet and pretious thoughts of this design and inure your hearts to a way of believing in this God so fully discovered Lastly Let men and Angels look about them what a mount of vision is raised up for the strongest and quickest eye to take the fairest prospect of glory from seeing God is manifest in flesh If God begins so gloriously how will he end If God be so full of love as to come down in flesh oh what matter of hope is laid before us of what he will be to us What doth God meane to bring poore soules unto If his heart and glory be let out so full at first beleeve and wait for the most glorious openings of all Gods glory seeing that he hath took the first rise of his manifestations so sutable to us he is now manifested in flesh and hath laid out a world of glory in that but he shall be manifest in himselfe SERMON V. 1 TIM 3.16 God manifested in the flesh c. ALl divine truths though they are but one in substance and nature yet they are various in their manifestatations and have their particular glory and lustre that sparkles from them Here is in this verse one and the same glory of God discovered in divers administrations and yet every one shining forth in a distinct excellency God was manifested in flesh made the object of shame and misery in the world humbled and abased in our flesh and that God is againe justified in the Spirit and set forth as an object for Angels to looke and admire and for the world to lay hold on and beleeve and then this God is taken up againe into glory that is advanced to that dignity which he seemed to leave and bid adieu unto for a while and all this but a delineation of the various conditions and considerations of one and the same person Jesus Christ and carrying on but one designe in severall representations for the good of poore sinners This is that which the Apostle cals a great mystery that is the most hidden and profound designe that ever God undertooke to act wherein all the depth of his counsels and heart was For here is nothing else but God appearing in manifold shapes and formes to make poore soules partakers of himselfe and raise up our conditions to a state of happinesse and glory Of the first of these particulars we have largely spoken it being the prime and great mystery in this great order of mysteries And yet there is so much in it as may againe take up our thoughts with new wonderment what can be more sweet and precious than a manifestation of God to poore Creatures but for God to be manifested in flesh so sutable to us herein lies the mystery that is 1. God manifesting himselfe in a way of humiliation as one that would lay aside his glory to come and live with us and undergoe the poorest and meanest condition for us 2. In flesh that God should make our owne nature which had sinned against him and was so infinitely below him to be our great ordinance of reconciling us to himselfe and the organ of union and communion with his own blessed nature for God to manifest himselfe unto flesh is not such a mystery it may soone be conceived God did manifest himselfe to Adams nature But that God should be manifest in flesh is the great mystery of godlinesse God himselfe taking flesh and dwelling in it with all his fulnesse and advancing that flesh into onenesse and making that flesh more glorious than Angels through that flesh opening all his Counsels dying and satisfying for the transgressions of flesh and making the richest discoveries of love and free grace unto the sons of men this may well be called a mystery and a great mystery an astonishing and amazing expression And all other mysteries are wrapt up in this this is that which Angels do so pry into Let us view it a little more in the contrivance and depth of it God had an eternall design to discover his infinite love to some besides himselfe he therefore creates a world of Creatures some rationall and only capable of love others irrationall and serviceable to that one Creature which he makes the top of the whole Creation set up one man Adam as a common person to represent the rest gives him abundance of glorious qualifications set him over the workes of his hands made all subject to him as if he were the darling of love Now one would thinke Gods love and glory had been centred here that he had taken up his abode for ever but behold this man was but for a day he fell from God and all that were in him even the whole world and all these beloved ones that were in Gods eye from eternity fell with him into the same gulph of sin and misery Gods face is hid not a sight of him but in flaming fire to condemne sinners and execute vengeance but God had a further reach of love and wisdome and out of this darke cloud let some glimpses of another discovery though so darkly that few could spell it or make any comfortable sence or application of it to their own soule But by degrees God hints it out more points out with the finger by types and shadows makes some models of it in outward Ceremonies yet all hid and darke that in three thousand yeares men were but guessing and hoping through promises for a manifestation of God And this is the meaning of that in Eph. 3. that it was hid from Ages and Generations of men that is hid in Gods brest from them they knew not what to make of this designe but at last God opens himselfe fully and what doth all this workings end in why in this that God is manifested in flesh the whole of all this mystery is summed up in this that God tooke the flesh of these poore sinners which he had so loved and joynes himselfe to it and cals it Christ a Saviour and Redeemer of these poore sinners that lay condemned by the Law and under condemnation with the whole world and God comes to lye in the wombe of a Virgin to be borne as we are to live in the world in the poorest and meanest estate as if he had
not wherewithall to lay his head he dies in that flesh and is glorified in it and joynes it so nigh as that there is a communion of properties between them that attributed to God which is proper to flesh as to be borne to suffer that to flesh which is only proper to God who can choose but wonder when he thinkes of this phrase that a peece of flesh should be called God and God who is immortall incomprehensible be made flesh and dwell among us flesh infinitely provoking God and God in the same Flesh infinitely pleased and satisfied God veiling himselfe with Flesh which was a way to darken his glory and yet unveiling at the same time the deepest and darkest of his designes in the most blessed and comfortablest way to soules this swallows up our thoughts and raiseth our faith to beleeve any thing after this when a soule can look on God as in his owne flesh and see him at one time as Saviour and his Father and his Friend and his Reconciler as his Justification and his Sanctification how can his heart containe within it selfe but leap out of it selfe as one lost in the admiration of it all the actings of Salvation turne upon this hinge when Christ was borne into the world the Apostle saith Joh. 1.14 We saw his glory as of the only begotten Son of God full of grace and truth noting out that at first sight of him so much glory sparkled from him as could appear from none but a God walking up down the world or at least his own naturall Son that came out of his bosome I will adde but two things by way of use to shut up this point Vse 1. Study this mystery above all things nothing so pleasant nothing more deep come but once to know the mystery of God in our flesh and thou wilt desire soone to be taken into fellowship with it the Apostle desired to know nothing but Christ and him crucified this is none other than the Lord Jesus whatever expression is given of godlinesse it is none other than God in Christ what delight should soules take in the looking on their own happinesse with what joy should we draw water out of this well of Salvation the great reason of the shallownesse of our comforts the shortnesse of our hopes the faintnesse of our spirits the lownesse of our graces is from the not knowing this mystery we looke on our selves on our present attainements at some scattered promises but not fully on God in Christ God in our own flesh a soule would see here a fountaine opened of grace and comfort that could never run dry 1. God hath set our own nature as a vast pipe to his Godhead that it may flow out in all manner of fulnesse upon our hearts our flesh stands not for a cypher but it is an Organ of life and grace to us If we saw such a fulnesse in our owne flesh laid in on purpose to inrich us would we be so poor want so much VVe eye this and that but know not that all the fulnesse of God lies in our own Flesh to be emptied upon us 2. God hath in our own flesh laid out the modell and draught of what he will doe unto all his Saints for ever for he made Christ the great Epitome of all his designe and thou maiest see thorough thy flesh at once what thou art design'd unto and how high and rich thou shalt be what a design God hath upon thee for look what was done to our Nature in Christ shall at length be done to all the persons of the Saints in Heaven If we knew this how high would our hopes be and how lofty our expectations after the utmost inrichings of the great God For to what end hath God made flesh so glorious but to shew what he will by that make us 3. What ever God is in himselfe thorough our flesh he is to us if he be good or mercifull or gracious or powerfull c. For this manifestation is a suiting of all that God is to us that when we eye this mystery we may see what ever God is acted out to the comfort and benefit of our owne poor soules God himselfe making all his attributes and glory serviceable to the good ends of his poor creature and that in and thorough their owne flesh Oh my Brethren let not such a strong hold be passed by not such a treasury be unlookt into In this mystery you have Heaven brought downe to Earth yea more then Heaven For God himselfe is come downe to open his heart to you Let nothing take off your eye from this set Faith on work immediately to eye this fulnesse one mite of Faith on God in Christ that is in our owne Nature brings in more grace and comfort then a thousand considerations of any thing else yea indeed it is the only spirituall way of conveighing all comfort to the soule there is no saving knowledge of God but as he is manifest in Christ and doe not thinke that God is gone out of flesh that is that Christ hath left his humane Nature behind him and is only gone up in his spirit to Heaven nor but this flesh of thine is received up into glory and stand as an eternall monument of love and is the great Ordinance unto the end of the world of life and salvation and God shall come againe in the same flesh though not as abased but glorified Oh Brethren what successive sweetnesse and without any intermission would flow out on your hearts if you did by Faith lay your heads at this pipe How canst thou want grace when thy own flesh hath it without measure and on purpose to fill thee why art thou sad when thy own Nature is made reconciler of thee to God Bretheren you live not like men under this design that know what such a mystery meanes you would see enough and to spare a redundancy of every thing you want in this Lord Jesus and the floods of immortality and glory would soone break over your unbeliefe and swell your hopes and joyes beyond all bounds God hath made our Nature a Myne of all sorts of rich and pretious graces that by digging into it we may see our estate Whatever the person of Christ hath in himselfe is all to convey unto us Oh that you were but insighted into these glories had but acquaintance with this discovery of God how blessed might you live What a happinesse must it needs be to see God in our own Nature and our Natures in him and to behold nothing else but love acting in a fulnesse of all grace and glory to a poor soule Let your whole spirits be carried out thus fully to Jesus Christ and with both hands even with heart and soule claspe about Jesus Christ and you will soon find depths of love and grace power and sweetnesse overflowing and swallowing up your heart A soule hath space enough to expatiate its selfe and hath a
sure Rock to rest on other things are narrow and circumscribe the thoughts all the promises of particular graces are gathered up in this one manifestation of God Thinke upon love in this or that communication either in outward or inward graces still we are shut up our thoughts can goe beyond all that but God manifested in Christ there is room enough for a soule to let out his utmost thoughts and to inlarge his affections and yet there is no taking in by one soule the vastnesse of this mystery or the compleatnesse of this fulnesse When a soule hath got out grace enough for this condition and yet still that fountaine runs and knowes no proportion if we would therefore study to know how to use this mystery we should find out comforts exceeding our doubts and our supplies our wants VVhen Saylers are out in the Ocean they feare not though storms arise and the Ship tosse But when they come nigh land then they feare Sand and Rocks then lye undiscovered So it is with a poor soule as long as he lancheth out by Faith into the fulnesse of Christ it is safe in the midst of the greatest stormes all the feares of unbeliefe are when we come nigh the shore of our own duties and performances and come to see the land of our weak workings then wee come into shallow water and stick fast in misprisions and are scattered by doubts and feares because there is not water enough not a stream deep enough to bear up the burthen of our sinking and dying soules That we may therefore know how to act our Faith to get strong consolation and full supplies 1. Faith must goe directly unto God as in our flesh that is unto Jesus Christ and take in nothing by the way which may divert its strength never stop untill it fasten on this fulnesse of God in Christ For when the eye of Faith roles here and there and takes in but partiall sights of Christ as in some particular promise only of this and that grace and doth not fully set on Jesus Christ as God in our Nature it loseth the efficacy of that influence which also would come and besides it divides the strength of its owne act which is most strong as it doth adaequately relye on Jesus Christ and singly closeth in with him for the truth is promises and actings or what ever way God lets out himselfe is but to allure and draw on the soule to an immediate close with the person of Jesus Christ 2. Know that though there be some things in Christ which are most proper for some acts of Faith as Christ dying and crucified for a recumbents Faith unto the satisfying of his soule in the pardon of sin yet the strongest and purest acts of Faith are these which take in Christ as such a person laid out in all his glory and all his offices as sutable to the condition of the soule And the more comprehensive acts of Faith are taken in Christ in his fulnesse the more are the injoyments of it and the more lively the influences As the more Iron is set at the advantage of the strongest point of the Loadstone and adaequately laid for an immediate close the stronger expression is left and the more powerfull it is attracted all such electricall bodies worke as all other according to the propinquity immediation and adaequatenesse of the approach of other things of a sutable Nature to them Therefore the Apostle saith Heb. 12. looking unto Jesus the Author and finisher of our Faith standing and beholding as with a stedfast eye what he is from first to last as the Author and finisher of our Faith So in another place 1 Pet. 2. To whom come as to a living stone we are built up c. These loose and transient glances on the actions and offices of Christ bring in but loose and ordinary communications but hearty and full out-goings to him as God is in him and as such a person thus and thus qualified from Heaven carries power and life with it And these vast and serious spirits who are not content only with flashie or secondary actings on Jesus Christ but are longing to be diving into the depths of Christs glory and excellency carry along with them impressions of an abiding and transforming Nature Oh therefore be ambitious only of apprehending what is the riches of this glorious mystery and let not course and common apprehensions of Christ content you Some think it a carnall apprehension of Jesus Christ to know him as in flesh it is true to apprehend him absolutely so as only having flesh and going up and down in weaknesse But to consider Christ as God manifested in flesh and that flesh acted by God and filled with God is a true and spirituall apprehension of Christ and that wherein lies one of the greatest mysteries of godlinesse for we are not to understand this as a mystery only for that time As if God came and once manifested himself in flesh to satisfie for the sins of his Elect and so to leave it down againe but very flesh remaines to this day and shall remaine and all the spirit and life which the Saints shall have unto the end of the world is to be conveyed through that person which hath our flesh yea the Spirit it selfe dwels in it and is conveyed through it therefore looke upon this as a standing manifestation of God to your soules and beleeve perfectly on it See but how God hath fitted an object for faith in this mystery This expression that God was manifest in Flesh is so laid out that it doth as it were create faith in every soule that looks in it 1. What is fitter for a poore soule who hath nothing than God himselfe who is the utmost object of faith the happinesse of the poore creature depending on his relying on God But 2. Because God himselfe is offended and the soule cannot find ground for faith in God himselfe you have God manifested in our own Flesh that is God takes up our nature and joynes it to himselfe as one person and laies out that before faith So that here is God and God suited to the particular state and condition of the sinner and not only barely acting towards us but manifested in the greatest love and fulnesse to us whatever may feed the humour of unbeliefe is destroyed in this For God hath laid in that in our own nature which doth not only suit but swallow up the wants and miseries of poore soules There be but three things can hinder faith 1. The infinite exactnesse of divine justice which must be satisfied 2. The exceeding unworthinesse of the soule 3. And in the sight of both these the want of a Mediatour or some sutable person which may stand between the sinner and God which the soule may go unto and first close withall before it deales with the infinite glory of God himselfe Now in this mystery faith is fully satisfied 1. God hath
seemed to passe by and overlook the unworthinesse of his Creature himselfe disdaines not to be as they are to weare their own flesh and 2. That his justice may be satisfied and their hearts quieted he hath by the union of that flesh set up a person which is nothing but fulnesse and righteousnesse love and bowels to receive the first acts of our faith and to have immediate union and communion with us and yet still this is God himselfe manifested to us and though we pitch not our saith immediately on God yet at last we come to him and our faith lives in God before it is aware as it were through the sweet intervention of that person which is God himselfe called but by another name Take faith as it lies in adherence and recumbency or as it may be sometimes taken for an act of assurance both have enough to lay hold on in this mystery For the first Take the poorest soule that groanes under the saddest wants and burthens and seemes by sin to lye at the vastest distance from God yet he hath ground here to beleeve that is to go unto and rely and cast himselfe freely and fully with the greatest confidence on Jesus Christ For here is none other than God himselfe offering himselfe as the righteousnesse and riches of such a poore foule and that in such a way as he shall be judge with his own eyes and for the faith of assurance what a ground is there for a soule to be perswaded of all the reality and truth of Gods intentions seeing he hath so sensibly demonstrated it in taking our own flesh if God cannot content himselfe who shall And he professeth he is pleased and delighted in that Union and satisfaction by it which he hath in our nature This is my beloved Son in whom my soule is well pleased Mat. 3. ult Doubtlesse Gods heart must needs be much in yea and infinitely set on the salvation of the souls of poor sinners seeing he hath made such an overture to advantage it as the taking up our flesh which was so far below him and what can poore soules now beleeve otherwise but that God cannot be content with his own honour and glory alone but he must impart it yea and to those which have beene the most unworthy and most contrary to him and his glory So that Beleevers you see how heaven and earth God and man are combined together to do you good and what opportunity have you of living gloriously upon God in your owne nature Faith desires no more but an incouragement and a person to close with and in both you have a sutablenesse from this that God is manifest in flesh that God is manifested in such a way as flesh is enough to move any heart to beleeve that he is as he acts but this expression doth not only stir up hope but fits the very person so sweetly as if one would desire or propose a thing to ones desires it could not be more qualified than this that God is manifested in flesh for here is God himselfe brought downe to our termes and made subject to our owne propositions Oh that this exhortation might be of force but to improve this glorious designe to the supplying of all your wants and the making up all your losses and when you make use of Christ go not to him as one who hath something but all things yea let faith have its course and hinder it not from a full and immediate laying hold on the riches and fulnesse of God himselfe both for Justification and Sanctification for it is God himselfe which in your flesh is made the proper object of your faith Use 2. That seeing God is manifest in flesh that is so blessedly in Christ for us labour to get a manifestation of God in your own flesh for this is the comfort to your soules what if God be made one with a common nature in Christs person if he be not made one with my spirit You heare often that there is a mystery in Gods being discovered in Flesh but who among you have had the manifestation of this God in your own soules The Apostle speaking of the sweet fruit of his suffering saies it lay in this that the life of Christ was manifested in his mortall flesh doubtlesse Gods designe of manifesting himselfe in flesh in generall was that by that he might manifest himselfe to flesh in particular and these soules can have no speciall comfort in this that God is manifest in their nature that is in Christ except they have a speciall discovery of this God to themselves actions are sutable to the being of things if God be in our nature he will act in that nature what may be most glorious to the good of soules Look to your own hearts what manifestations of God are there Dost thou say thou beleevest that God was manifest in flesh And yet there is not a glimpse of Gods glory in thy own heart why the Devils can say as much and perish why hath God taken up our nature What for himselfe No But by that as a medium he might communicate himselfe to our persons Let not soules flatter themselves with generall notions of the Gospell and the mystery of it If God be not in thy person as truly though not as fully as in thy nature thou hast no particular comfort from this designe when Paul speaks of the Gospell in generall he speaks particularly of the manifestation of it to him as his comfort It pleased God to reveale Christ in me Gal. 1. whatever is done in our nature in common is to be done spiritually though not litterally on our persons and if God be revealed in Christ and that Christ be not revealed in us all is nothing the end of God is by that to bring up our hearts to himselfe and that we may know what is the riches of that glory which he intends to communicate by the first fruits of it in our own soules SERMON VI. 1 TIM 3.16 Justified in the spirit c. HAving spoken of the first and great mystery of godlinesse which the Apostle reckons up in this verse that God was manifested in flesh Another presents it selfe before our eyes to be admired In the things of the Gospell you go from glory to glory you can no sooner come out of one roome of blessednesse but you step into another as glorious every step to heaven is a new opening of Gods glory What would a soule expect more than a manifestation of God and in flesh so fitly for his good Who would not sit down under the shadow of this happinesse and go no farther but yet this is not all this God is set forth in another mystery as Justified in the spirit before one is able to go to the bottome of one mystery he is led into the bosome of another so thick and fast doth the glory of God break in upon the poore soule as he is not able to keep his
eye fast on one thing but another as glorious comes to be presented Brethren what a blessed thing is it to live in God to be viewing the mysteries of godlinesse Seeing God himselfe is laid out before your eye as in manifold manifestations of his own glory Saints may do nothing else but ravish their hearts with the diversity of heavenly light which breakes forth from the bosome of God One would thinke there needed no other mystery to take up the thoughts of a Saint but this that the blessed God is manifested in flesh Who is able to reach the fulnesse of this discovery But yet you have another mystery as great and amazing springs out before your eyes to astonish you that this God was justified in spirit The first respects his humiliation in our flesh The other the beginning of his exaltation and yet these are only various expressions of Jesus Christ our Mediatour There was two great things to be done for the salvation of sinners Satisfaction and Justification God now in regard of these two considerations manifests himselfe as in two form as First in flesh as abased and humbled that in our own nature he might satisfie for our sins and lay a ground-worke of eternall communion with us and then as a testimony of the reality of this satisfaction he was justified by or in the spirit So that you have Christ set out in these two considerations as standing in our own flesh to beare the guilt and charge the misery and punishment of our sins and as discharged and justified from all these by the spirit There be these things to be opened 1. What it is to justifie 2. What meant by spirit 3. How God is said to be justified in spirit For the first to justifie or to be justified are words though commonly spoken yet much mistaken Bellarmine and the Jesuits take it ever in a Physicall sence for the infusing habituall principles of grace in the heart and so make it all one with Sanctification that so by that they might have a way of setting up their own righteousnesse equall with if not above the righteousnesse of Christ and yet it is not to be denied but sometimes this word signifies to make just But the common and usuall signification is first to pronounce or declare one just So Luke 16.15 Wisdome is justified of her children that is all the sons of wisdome will vindicate her from all the false aspersions cast on her by the sons of folly in the world and pronounce her righteous that there are the issues of life in her waies That thou mayest be justified by thy sayings Rom. 3.4 that is declared to be just So in Mat. 12. saith Christ out of thy words thou shalt be justified or condemned that is pronounced just according as thy words are good Secondly It is taken sensu forensi in a legall sense for the acquitting or absolving a Malefactor from the guilt and punishment of the Law Esa 5.23 he which justifies the wicked and condemns the righteous is an abomination to the Lord speaking of the Rulers and these which sit in judgement that is he which laies guilt on an honest man but acquits a wicked man How is a man said to be justified this way 1. When as he is falsely accused and is declared by the Judge not to have done the fact but to be righteous then he is justified from that act 2. When a man is really accused and yet for and in consideration of some other thing is acquitted and absolved from the guilt and punishment of that which was laid to him then he is said to be justified also For the second thing what is meant by Spirit This word is likewise taken divers waies in Scripture Sometimes for the soule and life of a man Into thy hands I commend my spirit Psal 31. Christ cried and gave up his spirit Mat. 27. that is his life departed from him But especially it is taken these foure waies 1. For the whole divine Nature or the God-head God is a spirit that is the Nature of God is spirituall unknown to flesh 2. It is sometimes taken for the divine Nature of Christ so the Lord is that spirit that is Jesus Christ is that spirit which is opposed to all the outward and fleshly ordinances of the Law 3. It is taken for the Holy Ghost or third person of the Trinity as distinct from the Father and the Sonne There be three that beare witnesse in Heaven the Father the VVord and the Spirit 1 John 5. It is the spirit which beares witnesse for he is truth I will send the Comforter even the spirit of truth Iohn 14. And I will pray the Father for it Iohn 3. 4. Taken for the product or work of the Spirit what is borne of the Spirit is Spirit that is of the same Nature with the Spirit it selfe So that now for God to be justified in the Spirit is not meant as if he had any righteousnesse infused in him which he had not before but that he was justified that is declared to be righteous one who had no sin neither was guile found in his mouth and that he was absolved from all that charge of the guilt and punishment of sin which was laid upon him and one who had finished his course and done his worke compleatly both satisfyed the law and the justice of God and that in or by the Spirit that is his God-head or by the vertue and merit of his divine Nature which made all he did efficacious and satisfactory the Spirit it selfe bearing witnesse of it and fully discharging him from what was laid upon him For these words as one saith to be brought in answer to an objection which might be made on this that Christ was God manifest in flesh that is humbled and abased or else he could not have suffered why hence the world thought he was a deceiver that he was not such a one as he pretended took upon him as a malefactor and used him so why but he was not so for though he was manifested in that base and low way and so united and clouded in flesh yet he was justifyed in the spirit they saw not that inward glory and power which was in Christ's Nature but what ever men esteemed of him yet the spirit it selfe justified him But seeing this is so great a mystery set in the second ranck of the deep things of God we had need look more narrowly into it and see what the Scripture saith concerning this how Jesus Christ may be said to be justified This is to be premised in generall that it is spoken in opposition to his humiliation or manifestation in flesh for in that he seemed to be condemned to walke up and downe as a sinner one which was the shame of the world and therefore he is said to be justified in the spirit that is 1. Internally what ever he was without yet within he had a spirit of glory his outside was meane
as manifested in flesh and justified in spirit But this sets it out in regard of the outward effect it had on the highest Creatures it was the object of their admiration not that this is part of the mystery it selfe but an expression which the Apostle puts in in the midst of all to raise our thoughts of it because Angels did look into it and adore it that we may therefore open this we will consider 1. What this mystery was which Angels saw 2. What is meant by this sight or how they may be said to see it 3. How it doth magnifie this mystery For the first the mystery which is here held out as the object of Angels sight is none other than Jesus Christ acting as a Mediatour for poore sinners concerning whom all these expressions are Christ being a visible God in the world God manifest in flesh a full justification for his Elect all the working of this mystery was in the person of the Lord Jesus and he is the sum and substance of all the Apostle brings not any thing as a part of this mystery which was done meerely in God which lay in his own heart and were immanent acts of his nature such as Election Predestination and the like but only of the way or contrivance of this as it was acted in the person of Jesus Christ who was God in our flesh all these things are included and imployed in this discovery it is Jesus Christ who is the mystery that was presented to the eyes of the Angels as the most glorious object for their sight God as in our nature dying and satisfying and being justified for poore sinners this mystery was seen of Angels that is 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seene it is not meant of a bare sight but of a sight which astonished the understanding and takes up the heart else it had been a poore expression to raise the glory of this mystery that Angels saw it but it was so great and wonderfull that they tooke the greatest delight to behold it it was that which they were ravished in beholding as at some new and strange object as we use to say of some wonderfull apparition it was seen by such and such that is they were happy to behold it exceedingly taken with it therefore the Apostle Peter when he would express the glory of this mystery saith the Angels do desire to looke into them 1 Pet. 1.12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their whole spirits were taken up with this it was to them as the blessedest sight that they could ever behold so that the meaning of this that he was seen of Angels is this that Jesus Christ who was to act out the peace and comfort of the Saints was discovered to the Angels and they lookt on him as so great a mystery that they could not look off but stand and admire it So when Jesus Christ was borne there was a heavenly host of Angels praising and admiring God for this discovery Luke 2.13 14. leaping for joy but to bring the news of him to the world you have no such expressions of the joy of all the world besides as they tooke but in the seeing and manifesting this great mystery But 3. Well may this be brought in to advance the greatnesse of this mystery in our eyes that it was seen of the Angels Angels who are creatures of the highest order who are of the finest make of the noblest spirits who behold the face of God himselfe and are taken up with the immediate enjoyments of his fulnesse for them to look into this mystery as if nothing else were worthy of knowledge besides as if the face of God himself were not so sweet nor so taking and satisfactory excuse the expression but they must see this mystery as the top of their knowledge and that which went beyond all their other enjoyments and which is more this being a designe not so principally concerning them they being in it as a far off and in generall but being a mystery of the salvation of sinners yet that Angels should prefer this to all their sights and sit down viewing this Christ before all their own proper happinesse how doth it swell up the glory of this designe Thus you have the meaning of the words in the generall opened I shall draw up the scope of it more particularly in this Doctrine Doct. That Jesus Christ in the mystery of the Gospell is the object of Angelicall vision and admiration The things of the Gospell are not common or shallow things but that which the blessed Angels have their divine spirits taken up in the adoring of Sight in Scripture is put to expresse the inward motions of the affections Joh. 1.14 We saw his glory as of the only begotten Son of God c. that is we were taken with him as with God himselfe So Paul useth the same expression Gal. 1. He was seene of me also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 speaking of that glorious sight which he had of him which converted him and for ever tooke his heart with love to him So here seen of Angels that is Angels beheld the glory of this mystery and were taken up with it as the greatest joy of their hearts For opening this Seeing the Apostle puts so much upon it as to put it in one great expression to open the greatnesse of the mystery of Godlinesse that it was seen of Angels I shall propound these things to handle 1. What sight the Angels have of the mystey of the Gospell 2. How they come to the knowledge of it 3. That this is a mystery that Angels should come to see this Christ 4. VVhat is in this mystery that should so affect them For the first Angels being creatures of a spirituall Nature are vast in knowledge they having no bodyes to cloud their apprehensions but are purae intelligentiae see things nakedly as they lye in themselves yet their knowledge is imperfect being creatures they know not all things which God knows though they know all that is made Now for their sight of Christ in the mystery of the Gospell doubtlesse they see much into it for they are said to bring the first newes of it to wait on Christ in this mystery to comfort him in his sufferings to administer cordials to him in these fainting fits of his passion they sate in the Grave to informe the women and his Disciples concerning his Resurrection when he ascends up to Heaven they come to the men of Iudea and Ierusalem and aske them Why gaze yee here Christ is taken up into Heaven and they spake further of his second comming He shall come againe as you have seen him goe up So that Angels now know much of the mystery of Jesus Christ They which have followed Christ from step to step from the birth to the grave from the grave to Heaven must needs be acquainted much with these things and not only a bare Historicall knowledge but a knowledge of the mystery of
suffer no contrary objections to believing as the riches and righteousnesse of God are laid out before you and demonstrated to your very senses so give faithfull witnesse to all by beleeving the more you beleeve the more you get the sweetnesse of call this fulnesse and you act in the mystery your selfe for not only Christ but your Faith on him is part of the great mystery of godlinesse SERMON X. 1 TIM 3.16 Received up into Glory WEE are now come to the last step of this long ascent at the top of which you have the full sight of all divine workings God seems to begin low takes flesh upon him and is condemned but then riseth higher and is justified in the spirit and admired by Angels preached in power to the Gentiles yea and beleeved on in the world and now received up into Glory This notes the highest advancement of our Nature in the Person of Jesus Christ The great subject of this mystery is Jesus Christ he is the centre in which all these lines end the great and common representative of all the Elect and he is set forth here as under diverse formes and conditions he past through and the severall wayes of his manifestation to the creature as condemned and justified as admired and preached and beleeved on in the world and now at last as received up into glory And it is no more then to set forth the 3 great acts which Christ did as Mediatour for us in transacting our salvation he was manifest in flesh to dye for our sins he rose againe for our justification he ascended up into Heaven to sit at Gods right hand for us This is put in opposition unto his lowest extremity of humiliation for us He that descended also ascended farre above the Heavens So that now we must view this mystery as in another world and follow it up to Heaven where it is acted in glory The greatest part is yet behind it seems now to be gone out of sight as the sun when it is gone from our Horison begins a new day in another part of the world So God having acted that part of the mystery which was for this world takes him up into Glory there to act the rest in a new and blessed way By glory is meant Heaven where Gods sets forth his glory most For the cleerer opening of this I shall propound these things 1. Who or what it is that is taken up into glory 2. What it doth import comprehend 3. The mystery which is in it For the first It is no other but Jesus Christ who was God manifest in flesh who after he had suffered entred into his glory having done his worke as the Apostle saith he entred into his rest Heb. 4. He came out of the lap of his Fathers love into a wide and miserable world to lead a contemptible and mean life in the form of a servant and having finished his course is againe taken up into that glory and high dignity from whence he came This was the prayer of Christ that when he had ended his worke in the world that God would restore him to that glory he had with him from the beginning of the world John 17. He left his place for a while seemed to be turned out of it as one not worthy of it untill he should purchase it by his owne blood He was let fall out of glory into a forme of misery and lost his station for a while and againe is restor'd to it with an addition of highest honour That this is meant properly of the person of Christ is cleer for the same is receiv'd up to glory who was God manifest in flesh and justified in spirit who died and rose againe that none of the Saints did neither can any other be said to be seen of Angels nor preached to poor sinners nor is any the object of Faith but Jesus Christ but yet this must be granted that mystically and representatively the Saints likewise are received up into glory with him as I shall shew anon and if you will that Jesus Christ that in the names of all the Elect was condemned and made a sacrifice for sin and justified in the Spirit in their stead that Christ is also received up into glory as in their stead But secondly what doth this hold forth that Christ is received up into glory You must look on this as containing a glorious designe and a great part in the salvation of soules 1. It implies a compleat finishing of that worke he had to do for us here that there was no more to be done in this world for us that the satisfactory worke to justice was finished and he and his sacrifice accepted before God Heb. 10. having by one offering perfected those which are sanctified he entred into the holiest place viz. heaven and there sate down at the right hand of God having no more to do justice being satisfied justification for sinners procured this was evident when he rose againe For if he had not paid the debt he had never come out of prison but much more evident seeing he is received up into heaven taken into the Fathers bosome many break prison and walke up and down securely as if all were paid but they dare not come in the face of the Court and behold the Judge or come nigh any of their Creditors this is the greatest ground of security that can be possible that sin is done away and that redemption is purchased because that Christ is received up into glory God would never have let Christ come so nigh him if he had any of the smell of his grave-cloaths on him had left any one sin unsatisfied for 2. It imports not only a bare satisfaction of justice but clearly demonstrateth how infinitely God is pleased with Jesus Christ and what he hath done that his heart is contented and he hath over and over pleased him many a broken debt may be paid by a third penny and composition and the Creditor pronounce satisfaction in Law But Christ did not agree so with God by way of composition but Christ paid the utmost farthing that justice could command and in such a way that God is infinitely taken with him and his Oblation and so delighted in him as that he thinkes him not fit to stay any longer in this world but takes him up to glory cannot be without him in heaven gives him a name above every name that he may aske what he will he hath the command of all Gods treasuries of all his riches When Christ went up and down the world and was but about the work he could not hold but must send the Spirit to proclaime to all the world This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased as if he had said Whatever he shall do I will accept But now how much more when he hath so faithfully acted out his will and is received up into his glory and is received up into his glory is God