fulnesse which so doth dwell in him is the NATURE Now there dwelleth in him not onely the fulnesse of the Godhead but the fulnesse of the Manhood also for we beleeve him to be both perfect God begotten of the substance of his Father before all worlds and perfect Man made of the substance of his Mother in the fullnesse of time And therefore we must hold that there are two distinct Natures in him and two so distinct that they doe not make one compounded nature but still remaine uncompounded and unconfounded together But Hee in whom the fulnesse of the Manhood dwelleth is not one and hee in whom the fulnesse of the Godhead another but he in whom the fulnesse of both those natures dwelleth is one and the same Immauel and consequently it must be beleeved as firmly that he is but one Person And here wee must consider that the Divine Nature did not assume an humane Person but the divine Person did assume an humane Nature and that of the three Divine Persons it was neither the first nor the third that did assume this Nature but it was the middle Person who was to bee the middle one that must undertake this mediation betwixt God and us which was otherwise also most requisite aswell for the better preservation of the integrity of the blessed Trinity in the Godhead as for the higher advancement of Mand-kinde by meanes of that relation which the second Person the Mediatour did beare unto his Father For if the fulnesse of the Godhead should have thus dwelt in any humane person there should then a fourth Person necessarily have been added unto the Godhead And if any of the three Persons beside the second had been borne of a Woman there should have been two Sonnes in the Trinity whereas now the Sonne of God and the Sonne of the blessed Virgin being but one Person is consequently but one Sonne and so no alteration at all made in the relations of the Persons of the Trinitie Againe in respect of us the Apostle sheweth that for this very end f God sent his owne SON made of a woman that WE might receive the Adoption of SONS and thereupon maketh this inference Wherefore thou art no more a servant but a SON and if a SON then an HEIRE of God through Christ intimating thereby that what relation Christ hath unto God by Nature we being found in him have the same by Grace By Nature hee is g The only begotten Sonne of the Father but this is the high Grace he hath purchased for us that h as many as received him to them he gave power or priviledge to become the Sonnes of God even to them that beleeve on his Name For although he reserve to himselfe the preeminence which is due unto him in a * peculiar manner of being i the first borne among many brethren yet in him and for him the rest likewise by the grace of adoption are all of them accounted as first-bornes So God biddeth Moses to say unto Pharaoh k Israel is my Sonne even my first-borne And I say vnto thee Let my sonne goe that he may serve me and if thou refuse to let him goe behold I will slay thy sonne even thy first borne And the whole Israell of God consisting of Jew and Gentile is in the same sort described by the Apostle to be l the generall assembly and Church of the first borne inrolled in Heaven For the same reason that maketh them to be Sons to wit their incorporation into Christ the selfe-same also maketh them to be first-bornes so as how ever it fall out by the grounds of our common Law by the rule of the Gospell this consequence will still hold true m If children then heires heires of God and joynt-heires with Christ And so much for the SON the Person assuming The Nature assumed is the seed of Abraham Hebr. 2. 16. The seed of David Rom. 1. 3. The seed of the Woman Gen. 3. 15. The WORD n the second Person of the Trinity being o made FLESH that is to say p Gods own Sonne being made of a Woman and so becomming truly and really q The fruit of her wombe Neither did he take the substance of our nature only but all the properties also and the qualities thereof so as it might be said of him as it was of r Elias and the s Apostles that he was a man subject to like passions as we are Yea he subjected himselfe t in the dayes of his flesh to the same u weaknesse which we finde in our own fraile nature and was compassed with like infirmities and in a word in all things was made like unto his brethren sinne only excepted Wherein yet we must consider that as he took upon him not an humane Person but an humane Nature so it was not requisite he should take upon him any Personall infirmities such as are madnesse blindnesse lamenesse and particular kinds of diseases which are incident to some only and not to all men in generall but those alone which do accompany the whole Nature of mankinde such as are hungring thirsting wearinesse griefe paine and mortality We are further here also to observe in this our x Melchisedeck that as he had no Mother in regard of one of his natures so he was to have no Father in regard of the other but must be borne of a pure and immaculate Virgin without the helpe of any man And this also was most requisite as for other respects so for the exemption of the assumed nature from the imputation and pollution of Adams sinne For y sinne having by that one man entred into the world every Father becommeth an Adam unto his child and conveyeth the corruption of his Nature unto all those whom hee doth beget Therefore our Saviour assuming the substance of our Nature but not by the ordinary way of naturall generation is thereby freed from all the touch and taint of the corruption of our flesh which by that meanes only is propâ—gated from the first man unto his posterity Whereupon he being made of man but not by man and so becomming the immediate fruit of the wbome and not of the Loynes must of necessity be acknowledged to be z that HOLY THING which so was borne of so blessed a Mother who although shee were but the passive and materiall principle of which that precious flesh was made and the holy Ghost the agent and efficient yet cannot the man Christ Jesus thereby be made the Son of his a owne Spirit Because Fathers do beget their children out of their owne substance the holy Ghost did not so but framed the flesh of him from whom himself proceeded out of the creature of them both b the hand-maid of the Lord whom from thence all generations shall call blessed That blessed wombe of hers was the bride-chamber wherein the Holy Ghost did knit that indissoluble knot betwixt
our humane nature and his Deity the Son of God assuming into the unity of his Person that which before he was not and yet without change for so must God still be remaining that which he was Whereby it came to passe that c this holy thing which was borne of her was indeed and in truth to be called the SONNE of GOD Which wonderfull connexion of two so infinitely differing natures in the unity of one person how it was there effected is an inquisition fitter for an Angelical inteliigence than for our shallow capacity to look after To which purpose also we may observe that in the fabrick of the Arke of the Covenant d the posture of the faces of the Cherubims toward the Mercy-seat the type of our Saviour was such as would poynt unto us that these are the things which the Angells desire to * stoop and look into And therefore let that satisfaction which the Angell gave unto the Mother Virgin whom it did more specially concerne to move the question e How may this be content us f The power of the highest shall over-shadow thee For as the former part of that speech may informe us that g with God nothing is unpossible so the latter may put us in minde that the same God having over-shadowed this mystery with his own veile we should not presume with the men of h Bethshemesh to looke into this Arke of his least for our curiosity we be smitten as they were Only this we may safely say and must firmly hold that as the distinction of the Persons in the holy Trinity hindreth not the Unity of the Nature of the God-head although every person entirely holdeth his own incommunicable property so neither doth the distinction of the two Natures in our Mediatour any way crosse the unity of his Person although each nature remaineth intire in it selfe and retaineth the properties agreeing thereunto * without any conversion composition commixtion or confusion When i Moses beheld the bush burning with fire and yet no whit consumed he wondred at the sight and said I will now turne aside and see this great sight why the bush is not burnt But when God thereupon called unto him out of the midst of the bush and said Draw not nigh hither and told him who he was Moses trembled hid his face and durst not behold God Yet although being thus warned we dare not draw so nigh what doth hinder but we may stand aloofe off and wonder at this great sight k Our God is a consuming fire saith the Apostle and a question wee finde propounded in the prophet l Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire who amongst us shall dwell with the everlasting burnings Moses was not like other Prophets but m God spake unto him face to face as a man speaketh unto his friend and yet for all that when hee besought the Lord that he would shew him his glory he received this answer n Thou canst not see my face for there shall no man see mee and live Abraham before him though a speciall o friend of God and the p Father of the faithfull the Children of God yet held it a great matter that he should take upon him so much as to q speak unto God being but dust and ashes Yea the very Angells themselves r which are greater in power and might are fain to s cover their faces when they stand before him as not being able to behold the brightnesse of his glory With what astonishment then may we behold our dust and ashes assumed into the undivided unitie of Gods owne person and admitted to dwell here as an inmate under the same roofe and yet in the midst of those everlasting burnings the bush to remain unconsumed and to continue fresh and green for evermore Yea how should not we with Abraham rejoyce to see this day wherein not only our nature in the person of our Lord Jesus is found to dwell for ever in those everlasting burnings but in and by him our owne persons also are brought so nigh thereunto that t God doth set his Sanctuarie and Tabernacle among us and dwell with us and which is much more maketh us our selves to be the u house and the x habitation wherein he is pleased to dwell by his Spirit according to that of the Apostle y Yee are the Temple of the living God as God hath said I will dwell in them and walke in them and I will be their God and they shall be my people and that most admirable Prayer which our Saviour himselfe made unto his father in our behalfe z I pray not for these alone but for them also which shall beleeve on me through their Word that they all may be one as thou Father art in mee and I in thee that they also may be one in us that the world may beleeve that thou hast sent me I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one and that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me To compasse this conjunction betwixt God and us he that was to bee our a Jesus or Saviour must of necessity also bee Immanuel which being interpreted is GOD with us and therefore in his Person to bee Immanuel that is God dwelling with our flesh because he was by his Office to be Immanuel that is he who must make God to be at one with us For this being his proper office to be b Mediatour between God and Men he must partake with both and being before all eternity consubstantiall with his Father he must at the appoynted time become likewise consubstantiall with his children c For asmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood he also himselfe likewise tooke part of the same saith the Apostle We read in the Romane history that the Sabines and the Romans joyning battell together upon such an occasion as is mentioned in the last Chapter of the booke of Iudges of the children of Benjamin catching every man a wife of the daughters of Shilo the women being daughters to the one side and Wives to the other interposed themselves and tooke up the quarrell so that by the mediation of these who had a peculiar interest in either side and by whose meanes this new alliance was contracted betwixt the two adverse parties they who before stood upon highest termes of hostility * did not only entertaine Peace but also joyned themselves together into one body and one state God and we were d enemies before wee were reconciled to him by his Sonne He that is to be e our Peace and to reconcile us unto God and to slay this enmity must have an interest in both the parties that are at variance and have such a reference unto either of them that he may be able to send this
IMMANVEL OR THE MYSTERY OF THE INCARNATION OF THE SON OF GOD Unfolded by JAMES ARCHBISHOP of ARMAGH IOHN 1. 14. The Word was made flesh OXFORD Printed by LEONARD LICHFIELD Printer to the Vniversity 1643. THE MYSTERIE OF THE INCARNATION of the SON of GOD THe holy Prophet in the Book of the a Proverbs poseth all such as have not learned wisedome nor known the knowledge of the holy with this question Who hath ascended up into heaven or descended who hath gathered the wind in his fists who hath bound the waters in a garment who hath established all the ends of the earth What is his Name and what is his SONS name if thou canst tell To help us herein the SON Himselfe did tell us when he was here upon earth that b None hath ascended up to heaven but he that descended from heaven even the Son of man which is in heaven And that we might not be ignorant of his name the prophet Esay did not long before foretell that c Vnto us a child is borne and unto us a Son is given whose name should be called Wonderfull Counsellour The mighty God The Everlasting Father The Prince of peace Where if it be demanded how these things can stand together that the Son of man speaking upon earth should yet at the same instant be in heaven that the Father of Eternity should be born in time and that the mighty God should become a Childe which is the weakest state of Man himselfe we must call to minde that the first letter of this great Name is WONDERFUL When he appeared of old to Manoah his name was Wonderfull and he did wonderously Judge 13. 18 19. But that and all the wonders that ever were must give place to the great mystery of his Jncarnation and in respect thereof cease to be wonderfull For of this work that may be verified which is spoken of those wonderfull judgements that God brought upon Egypt when he would d shew his power and have his name declared throughout all the earth e Before them were no such neither after them shall be the like Neither the creation of all things out of nothing which was the beginning of the works of God those six working dayes putting as it were an end to that long Sabbath that never had beginning wherein the Father Sonne and Holy Ghost did infinitely f glorifie themselves and g rejoyce in the fruition one of another without communicating the notice thereof unto any creature nor the resurrection from the dead and the restauration of all things the last workes that shall goe before that everlasting Sabbath which shall have a beginning but never shall have end neither that first I say nor these last though most admirable peeces of worke may be compared with this wherein the Lord was pleased to shew the highest pitch if any thing may be said to bee highest in that which is infinite and exempt from all measure and dimensions of his Wisedome Goodnesse Power and glory The Heathen Chaldeans to a question propounded by the King of Babel make answer h that it was a rare thing which hee required and that none other could shew it except the Gods whose dwelling is not with flesh But the raritie of this lyeth in the contrary to that which they imagined to be so plaine that hee i who is over all God blessed for ever should take our flesh and dwell or * pitch his Tabernacle with us That as k the glory of God filled the Tabernacle which was l a figure of the humane nature of the Lord with such a kinde of fullnesse that Moses himselfe was not able to aproach unto it therein comming short m as in all things of the Lord of the house and filled the Temple of Salomon a Type likewise n of the body of our Prince of Peace in o such sort that the Priests could not enter therein so p in him all the fulnesse of the Godhead should dwell bodily And therefore if of that temple built with hands Salomon could say with admiration q But will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth Behold heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot containe thee how much lesse this house which I have built of the true temple that is not of this building we may with greater wonderment say with the Apostle r Without controversie great is the mystery of Religion God was manifested in the flesh Yea was made of a Woman and borne of a Virgine A thing so s wonderfull that it was given for a signe unto unbeleevers 740. yeeres before it was accomplished even a signe of God's own chusing among all the wonders in the depth or in the height above Therefore the Lord himselfe shall give you a signe Behold a Virgin shall conceive and beare a Son and shall call his name Immanuel Esai 7. 14. A notable wonder indeed and great beyond all comparison That the Son of God should be t made of a Woman even made of that Woman which was u made by himselfe That her Wombe then and the x heavens now should contain him whom y the Heaven of Heavens cannot containe Than he who had both Father and Mother whose pedigree is upon record even up unto Adam who in the fulnesse of time was brought forth in Bethlehem and when he had finished his course was cut off out of the land of the living at Jerusalem should yet notwithstanding be in truth that which his shadow Melchisedek was onely in the conceit of the men of his time z without Father without Mother without Pedigree having neither beginning of dayes nor end of life That his Father should be a greater than he and yet he his Fathers b equall That he c is before Abraham was and yet Abrahams birth preceded his well nigh the space of two thousand yeares And finally that he who was Davids Sonne should yet be Davids Lord d a case which plunged the greatest Rabbies among the Pharesies who had not yet learned this Wisedome nor known this knowledge of the holy The untying of this knot dependeth upon the right understanding of the wonderfull conjunction of the Divine and humane Nature in the unity of the Person of our Redeemer For by reason of the strictnesse of this Personall union whatsoever may be verified of either of those Natures the same may be truely spoken of the Whole Person from whether soever of the Natures it be denominated For the clearer conceiving whereof we may call to minde that which the Apostle hath taught us touching our Saviour e In him dwelleth all the fulnesse of the Godhead bodily that is to say by such a personall and reall union as doth unseparably everlastingly conjoyn that infinite Godhead with his finite Manhood in the unity of the selfe-same individuall Person He in whom that fulnesse dwelleth is the PERSON that
his yearly rent which of it selfe would have been due although no default had been committed so the due payment of the yearly rent after the default hath been made is no sufficient satisfaction for the penalty already incurred Therefore our surety who standeth chargeable with all our debts as he maketh paiment for the one by his Active so must he make amends for the other by his Passive obedience he must first n suffer thē enter into his glory o For it became him for whom are all things and by whom are all things in bringing many sons unto glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect that is a perfect accomplisher of the work wch he had under takē through sufferings The Godhead is of that infinit perfection that it cannot possibly be subject to any passion He therefore that had no other nature but the Godhead could not pay such a debt as this the discharge whereof consisted in suffering and dying It was also fit that Gods justice should have bin satisfied in that nature which had transgressed and that the same nature should suffer the punishment that had committed the offence p For asmuch then as the children were partakers of flesh and blood he also himselfe likewise tooke part of the same that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death that is the Devill and deliver them who through feare of death were all their life time subject to bondage Such and so great was the love of God the Father towards us that q Hee spared not his owne Sonne but delivered him up for us all and so transcendent was the love of the Sonne of God towards the sonnes of men that he desired not to be spared but rather than they should lye under the power of death was of himselfe most willing to suffer death for them which seeing in that infinite nature which by eternall generation he received from his Father he could not doe he resolved in the appoynted time to take unto himselfe a Mother and out of her substance to have a body framed unto himselfe wherein he might r become obedient unto death even the death of the crosse for our redemption And therefore s when he commeth into the world he saith unto his Father A body hast thou fitted me Lo I come to doe thy will O God By the which will saith the t Apostle we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all Thus we see it was necessary for the satisfaction of this debt that our Mediator should be Man but he that had no more in him than a Man could never be able to goe thorow with so great a worke For if there should be found a Man as righteous as Adam was at his first creation who would be content to suffer for the offence of others his suffering possibly might serve for the redemption of one soule it could be no sufficient ransome for those u innumerable multitudes that were to be x redeemed to GOD out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation Neither could any Man or Angell be able to hold out if a punishment equivalent to the endlesse sufferings of all the sinners in the world should at once be laid upon him Yea the very powers of Christ himselfe upon whom y the Spirit of might did rest were so shaken in this sharp encounter that he who was the most accomplisht patterne of all fortitude stood z sore amazed and a with strong crying and teares prayed that b if it were possible the hour might passe from him c This man therefore being to offer one sacrifice for sins for ever to the burning of that sacrifice he must not only bring the d coals of his love as strong as death and as ardent as the fire which hath a most vehement flame but he must adde thereunto those everlasting burnings also e even the flames of his most glorious Deity and therefore f through the eternall Spirit must he offer himselfe without spot unto God that hereby he might g obtaine for us an eternall redemption The bloud whereby the Church is purchased must be h Gods owne blood and to that end must i the Lord of glory be crucified k the Prince and author of life be killed he l whose eternall generation no man can declare be cut off out of the land of the living and the man that is Gods owne fellow be thus smitten according to that which God himselfe foretold by his Prophet m Awake O sword against my shepherd and against the man that is my fellow saith the Lord of hosts smite the shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered The people of Israell we reade did so value the life of David their King that they counted him to be worth n ten thousand of themselves how shall we then value the life of o Davids Lord p who is the blessed only Potentate the King of kings and Lord of lords It was indeed our nature that suffered but he that suffered in that nature q is over all God blessed for ever and for such a person to have suffered but one houre was more than if all other persons had suffered ten thousand millions of years But put case also that the life of any other singular man might be equivalent to all the lives of whole mankinde yet the laying down of that life would not be sufficient to doe the deed unlesse he that had power to lay it down had power likewise to take it up again For to be detained alwayes in that prison r from whence there is no comming out before the payment of the uttermost farthing is to lie alwaies under execution and so to disanull quite the plea of that full paymēt of the debt wherein our surety stood engaged for us And therefore the Apostle upon that ground doth rightly conclude that s if Christ be not raised our faith is vaine we are yet in our sinnes and consequently that as he must be t delivered to death for our offences so he must be raised again for our justification Yea our Saviour himselfe knowing full well what he was to undergoe for our sakes told us before hand that the Comforter whom he would send unto us should u convince the world that is fully satisfie the consciences of the sonnes of men concerning that x everlasting righteousnesse which was to be brought in by him upon this very ground Because I goe to my Father and ye see me no more For if he had broken prison and made an escape the payment of the debt which as our surety he took upon himselfe being not yet satisfied he should have been seene here againe Heaven would not have held him more then Paradise did Adam after he had fallen into Gods debt and danger But our Saviour raising himselfe from
the dead presenting himselfe in Heaven before him unto whom the debt was owing and maintaining his standing there hath hereby given good proofe that he is now a free-man and hath fully discharged that debt of ours for which he stood committed And this is the evidence we have to shew of that righteousnesse whereby we stand justified in Gods sight according to that of the Apostle y Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect It is God that justifieth who is he that condemneth It is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again who is even at the right hand of God who also maketh intercession for us Now although an ordinary man may easily part with his life yet doth it not lye in his power to resume it againe at his own will and pleasure But he that must doe the turne for us must be able to say as our IESVS did z I lay down my life that I may take it again No man taketh it from me but I lay it downe of my selfe I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it againe and in another place a Destroy this Temple and in three dayes I will raise it up saith he unto the Jewes speaking of the Temple of his body An humane nature then he must have had which might be subject to dissolution but being once dissolved he could not by his owne strength which was the thing here necessarily required raise it up againe unlesse he had b declared himselfe to be the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead The Manhood could suffer but not overcome the sharpnesse of death the Godhead could suffer nothing but overcome any thing He therefore that was both to suffer and to overcome death for us must be partaker of both natures that c being put to death in the flesh he might be able also to quicken himselfe by his owne Spirit And now are wee come to that part of Christs mediation which concerneth the conveiance of d the redemption of this purchased possession unto the sons of men A deare purchase indeed which was to be redeemed with no lesse price then the bloud of the Sonne of God but what should the purchase of a stranger have been to us or what should we have beene the better for all this if we could not derive our descent from the purchaser or raise some good title whereby we might estate our selves in his purchase Now this was the manner in former time in Israell concerning redemptions that unto him who was the next of kinne belonged the right of being e Goël or the Redeemer And Iob had before that left this glorious profession of his faith unto the perpetuall memory of all posterity f I know that my Goël or Redeemer liveth and at the last shall arise upon the dust or stand upon the earth And after this my skinne is spent yet in my flesh shall I see God Whom I shall see for my selfe and mine eyes shall behold and not another for me Whereby we may easily understand that his and our Redeemer was to be the invisible God and yet in his assumed flesh made visible even to the bodily eyes of those whom he redeemed For if he had not thus assumed our flesh how should we have been of his bloud or claimed any kindred to him and unlesse the Godhead had by a personall union beene unseparably conjoyned unto that flesh how could he therein have beene accounted our next of kinne For the better clearing of which last reason we may call to mind that sentence of the Apostle g The first man is of the earth earthy the second man is the Lord from heaven Where notwithstanding there were many millions of men in the world betwixt these two yet we see our Redeemer reckoned the second man and why but because these two were the only men who could be accounted the prime fountains from whence all the rest of mankinde did derive their existence and being For as all men in the world by meane descents do draw their first originall from the first man so in respect of a more immediate influence of efficiencie and operation do they owe their being unto the second man as he is the Lord from heaven This is Gods own language unto Jeremy h Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee and this is Davids acknowledgement for his part i Thy hands have made me and fashioned me k thou hast covered me in my mothers wombe l thou art he that took me out of my mothers bowels and Jobs for his also m Thy hands have made me and fashioned me together round about thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh and hast fenced me with bones and sinews and the n Apostles for us all In him we live and move and have our being who inferreth also thereupon both that we are the off-spring or generation of God and that he is not farre from every one of us this being to be admitted for a most certaine truth notwithstanding the opposition of all gain-sayers that * God doth more immediately concurre to the generation and all other motions of the creature then any naturall agent doth or can doe And therefore if o by one mans offedce death raigned by one much more they which receive abundance of grace of the gift of righteousnes shall raign in life by one Jesus Christ considering that this second man is not only as universall a principle of all our beings as was that first and so may sustaine the common person of us all as well as he but is a far more immediate agent in the production thereof not as the first so many generations removed from us but more near unto us then our very next progenitours and in that regard justly to be accounted our next of kinne even before them also Yet is not this sufficient neither but there is another kinde of generation required for which we must be beholding unto the second man the Lord from heaven before we can have interest in this purchased Redemption For as the guilt of the first mans transgression is derived unto us by the meanes of carnall generation so must the benefit of the second mans obedience be conveyed unto us by spirituall regeneration And this must be layd downe as a most undoubted verity that p except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdome of God and that every such must be q born not of bloud nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God Now as our Mediatour in respect of the Adoption of Sons which he hath procured for us r is not ashamed to call us Brethren so in respect of this new birth whereby he begetteth us to a spirituall everlasting life he disdaineth not to owne us as his Children s When thou shalt make his