on the Mothers side man and no God and yet both God and Man For Eternity had begotten man but once because begotten from Eternity his Father begot him equall to God his Mother bare him like to Man he was man besides God and therefore Man and no God and yet God and Man for when he was made man he ceased not to be God which he was before like as the Sun loseth not its brightnesse though shadowed in the clouds so not Christ his glory though obscuted in flesh he was not so conceived in his Mother as to be separated from his Father Christ was not lesse equal to his Fathet by being like his Mother the Word was made flesh St. John 1.14 and not lesse Word then Flesh by an assumption of the flesh not consumption of the Word the Word that God by flesh did present to our sight was real Flesh and was not lesse God still for he is no lesse God now that he is clad in humane clay then when onely clothed with deified Glory he remaines God and Man in one person very God and very Man in one singular subsistence he took the person of Man and the substance by converting the person to his proper being and that this may not altogether seeme strange to your understandings please to turn your eyes inward and an example thereof will be presented for if man hath the life of Plants and the sense of Beasts and both in conjunction with the reasonable soul in an individual being why may not Christ take the Soul of man into union with himself and yet consist in his Divinity making a Trinity in the union of his Person For as he was God and Man in the humane nature he consisted of a Deity a soul and a body there a Trinity in unity here unity in Trinity he was one person not divided a person of the Trinity distinguished not divided for every person in the Sacred Trinity is perfect God distinguished into persons but not divided in substance for all take propriety each with the other the Father God the Son God and the holy Ghost God and yet not three but one God as we are taught by the holy Catholick Faith to beleeve yet that God might redeeme us from our iniquities he that was perfect God equal with the Father took upon him our flesh and therefore it is that God was said to suffer what man himself should have borne onely here is the admired union of natures but not natural of persons But what were the reasons why he whose name is I am should be borne so as to say of himself To this end was I borne and for this cause came I into the world to bear witnesse to the truth 1. To make God and Man one by atonement and therefore it was necessary he should be of both natures whose office is to reconcile both persons 2. He was to doe that for us which was impossible for man to doe and to suffer what was unmeet for God to undergoe and that he might both doe and suffer for us he took the blessed Virgin Mary for his mother that from her he might receive a body capable of suffering but it was his Divinity which enabled his Humanity to suffer what our Souls deserved 3. He was to undergoe for an infinite offence for man had sinned and none but God could satisfie for an infinite offence it being reasonable that the same nature that broke the Law should pay the Debt and therefore it was necessary for him to be God as well as Man that did undertake to make God and Man to be reconciled and made one 4. Had he been God and not Man man could not have been redeemed had he been onely man and not God the Devils would have boasted but he was both God and man that our redemption might be finished and the Devils malice silenced whence wisely was our redemption shared between God and man because the arbitrement was such that a mere man could not undertake to appease a God offended neither one nor the other nature would have or could have relieved us single because he must be God that will be mediator from God to man and he must be man that he may be an intercessor to God for man and this mystery though our reason cannot fathom yet our belief must reach it our faith must believe what our hearts and tongues cannot expresse our faith is then proficient when it hath attained so high and not before for we can say more by silence then by words when we find him in our souls by Hallelujahs and praise we shall then know thee O Saviour not for thy self but our selves and it is our faith to believe that as thou art so shall we be though not so fully therefore let every one make it his request O that thou wouldst come down from heaven and dwell in our hearts by faith and love who out of love to mankind came in flesh when faith and truth were banished out of the earth and that thou shouldst so come as to say To this end was I born and for this cause came I into the world c. And so much may suffice for that part of his incarnation the end of his coming I now come to that of his Nativity his coming into the world and here three things are to be considered 1. The Dignity of his person 2. The Humility of his condescention 3. The Place of his entertaintainment 1. The Dignity of his person in that he was the Sonne of God 2. The Humility of his condescention in that he would clothe himself with the rags of our mortality 3. The Place unworthy of his enterment being the world Of these in their order 1. The Dignity of his person and that as he is the Sonne of God by nature and as in his Birth the most noble person that ever was on the Fathers side he is God very God the very God of one substance with the Father as you have heard and which to deny is no lesse then blasphemy for when he calls God Father the Iewes knew that thereby he made himself equall with God St. John 10.33 He as Gods Sonne was alwayes with the Father and so everlastingly great as he was God and not onely so but he was full of dignity on his Mothers side as he was descended from the Patriarchs and Royal Kings of Iudah so he was a Prince renowned 1. For his authority because he doth what he will both in heaven and in earth Psal 13.5 6. in the sea and in all deep places 2. For his power St. Mar. 4.41 he commands the wind and the waves and they obey him 3. For the largeness of his dominions heaven and earth is his Psal 72.8 and the fulness thereof his dominion is from one part of heaven and earth unto the other 4. For multitude of Subjects Angels Saints and Kings yea and those that depose Kings are his Subjects either voluntarily
racketed from one temptation to another till at last he hazard eternal ruine reeling from one extreme to another untill he fall into perpetual misery Therefore to conclude let me implore every soul that expects and looks for eternal life as who doth not to get cleansed from all your iniquities whether secret or open latent or revealed before you come unto the brink of misery from whence is no return before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains wherein is no security let no iniquity ever have any more dominion over you get all your actions salted with true grace that God may smell a sweet savour in your holy devotions and pious services knowing that your best performances are but gilded appearances and glittering abominations if God should with severity inspect them so that we must all say with holy David in the words of my Text If thou Lord shouldst be extreme c. FINIS SERM. III. LUKE 2.7 And she brought forth her first-born son and wrapped him in swadling-clothes and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the Inne Introduction GOd is a most pure Act never was he idle but alwaies in being even when this world was not in being he was in himself love and nigh enough to himself yet when he was so he thought of some eminent act of bounty wherein to produce an Idea of his goodness and accordingly wills thoughts to himself of shewing mercy to mankind for yet he would do good to all therefore all his wayes are good his being and well-being envied as yet by none no not by Satan the first parent of malice and grand enemy both of Gods unspeakable glory and mans eternal felicity not enduring to entertain the least thought of seeing humane nature deified yet God to shew the freedome of his love in rich mercy stamps his own Image upon man for it was his goodness as well as his power that he made us good as well as men but what was at first made good we soon made sin for God made man upright but he hath sought out many inventions so that had not God redeemed us we had been miserable to all eternity much rather had our souls not been then not be happy When man was made holy and had sinned though such iniquity deserved the ruine of what he was before having defaced that image yet God is prone to mercy when provoked goodness would rescue that part of himself from ruine for scarce one had sinned but one was promised to save the Son of God was promised and presented to the Patriarchs being revealed to them by his promises and foretold by his Prophets that God would send his Son he saw a fit vessel wherein he would inclose his son viz. the Blessed Virgin and therefore he sends his Angel to provide a lodging telling her that she was highly honoured of God Luke 7.3 and she shall conceive in her womb and bring forth a Son and shall call his name Iesus that God would give him a name above every name and of his kingdom there shall be no end she examined and believed the Angels Message and and was found with child of the holy Ghost Luke 1. the power of the highest over-shadowing her But loe she is summoned to another travel for there is a decree from Augustus Caesar and behold she takes no small pains to obey for though her appearance might have been excused yet she would not disobey the lawful magistrates command the custome of women is on Mary but alas desolate Virgin she is driven to that pass that having no room in the inne necessity compels her to make a chamber of the stable and to turne the manger the place wherein is laid the food of beasts into a Cradle the now onely receptacle for the bread of life and at once both mother and midwife for she brought forth her first-borne son and wrapt him in swadling-clothes and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the Inne In which words consider with me these four general parts 1 A Virgins travail 2 A mothers tenderness 3 A childs poverty 4 The peoples inhospitality 1 A Virgins travail She brought forth her first-borne sonne 2 A mothers tenderness She wrapped him in swadling-clothes 3 A childs poverty laid in a manger 4 The peoples inhospitality There was no roome in the Inne I begin with the first 1. The virgins travail she brought forth her first-born son Wherein consider 1. The person she 2. The birth brought forth 3. The fruit her first-born child 1. For the woman she was a virgin but what a virgin to bear to bring forth a son a wonder and she her self cryes out I know not a man well might the Prophet Ierem. say Behold a Virgin and the Prophet Isai likewise yet she is the same Isa the 7.14 vers but that Christ was conceived of the holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary is an article of our faith not of our understanding best known is the manner to him that hath the power virgins are not usually pregnant yet the spirit ingenders flesh we take it not from his nature but power the Holy Ghost produces the man Christ not of himself but by his power Christ begotten of himself as one with the Father sending him on the great errand of mans salvation for all the three Persons in the sacred Trinity have a share in this great work the Father begetting the Son begotten and the Holy Ghost produced him at the fulness of time I call the Holy Ghost Father as his shadow the virgin his mother as his substance or the matter of his person whereby he is called the son of man that by this means he might be joyned to our nature and so become surety for us as for example we christians are born of water of the spirit are not called the sons of water but of the spirit because of the spirit we are made one with Christ and are thereby become the sons of God that Christ was conceived of the Holy Ghost and of Mary is most certain but for our sakes called the son of Mary and not of the Holy Ghost yet hath the son an equality with the spirit and is perfect God as well as man therefore is it that the Holy Ghost concurs with Mary in the conception both agree to make Christ but not one way for t is his the shadow hers the substance hers the carkase his the quintessence how could it be but a holy thing being of the Holy Ghost though she had sin yet Christ took none from her because he would expel it from her for had Christ been born of an Harlot of Mary Magdalen yet she could not have contaminated his integrity but commended his power and mercy he could have sanctified the most sinful person and unhallowed womb Being conceived of the holy Ghost he took our flesh but not our corruption can the sun shine untainted on the
Word that gave the world a being can carry her again to the grave of destruction leaving her in the same confused Chaos which his merciful goodness at first found her in and the same six dayes which past away in building of her up if it so please him with as much facility may take it down though his excellent Mercy will have no less then six thousand years to bring a period to the same as most learned interpreters expound the words of Saint Peter 2 Pet. 3.8 So that a priori you see there is power enough in God not only to be angry with but infinitely to punish the sinnes of his people 2. A posteriori Who sees Nebuchadnezzar grazing like an Ox and acknowledges not Gods Power to be Infinite and can do with ease what seemeth good in his sight who sees Belshazar in the midst of his carousing cups weighed in the ballance of the Sanctuarie and found too light and acknowledges not his Justice who sees Goshen full of light and Egypt covered with thick darkness and acknowledges not an Infinite Deity Examples are most profitable illustrations of his power in dealing with the sonnes of men and in this case are almost infinite What son of Adam is there that knows not of his fathers fall and the dreadful curse the just consequent thereof In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die Gen. 2.17 and it was surely performed witness Cains inability to bear the loud cry of his brothers blood C ham justly cursed by his Father as the reward of his shameful action Esau sadly and too late seeking a sold Blessing the flames of provoked fire licking up sinful Sodom the earth of her self making a grave for Corah and his wicked Complices the great deeps swallowing up Pharaoh and his Host as the just avenger of his intolerable Persecution But these are but temporal evils but there are eternal miseries for when he is extreme his eyes shall not spare his enemies But you 'l say what means this Can God destroy that which he hath made Can he that delights in man destroy or despise the works of his hands Will he pluck down with one hand what but now he built And can he laugh when their fear comes who hath sworn he delights not in the sinners death Nothing less yet we must not say with Iob I am righteous though he hath condemned me for shall not the Iudge of all the earth do right and glorifie himself in and upon his Creatures For if we go astray he must and will hedge up our way with thornes Though it is true God afflicts not willingly yet he doth and will punish the sonnes of men when they sinne and wilfully go astray and that for these reasons 1. To remove that grand idol which men make and set up in their own hearts that God is all mercy and will not punish or all love and cannot endure to afflict his people deceive not your selves with such vain delusions for the soul that sinneth that soul shall surely die Ezek. 18.4 As sure as there is a God that mercifully saves them that repent so sure will the same God infinitely punish them that continue in sin as it is his Mercy that offers and invites us to accept of Salvation so also will it be the office of his Justice infinitely to punish all those that refuse to come when called by his Word and Spirit Remember the story of the great Supper and Gods severe answer to them that would not come when invited I say unto you that none of those men which were bidden shall tast of my Supper S. Luke 14.24 though God spare us for a time yet he will send forth Iudgment unto victory 2. To remove the Atheism that lodges in mens hearts of no revenging Justice that men live and speak as if there was no God uttering that in words and actions which holy Davids fool entertained in his heart that men being to think there is no God because they see no fearful examples of his Justice set before them in the destruction of his enemies that the wickeds prosperity in evil makes him boast himself and despise his Maker I remember Saint Austin brings in the proud man speaking thus when he was at peace and no disturbance injured him saith he of himself if I had nothing worth despising I should be a God blasphemously imagining God were ignorant of that which men call contempt but faith the Father It was not long ere I saw the same wretch cast down with utter amazement by a small clap of thunder when God did but seem to clothe himself with the garment of vengeance he presently fell down with humble obeisance Therefore God will sometimes be extreme in punishing that he may rescue the glory of his justice out of the hands of the wicked 3 Such is the nature of sinne it justly provokes God to be extreme because 1 It s a transgression of his righteous law and if earthly Monarchs punish their rebels with temporal well may the Lord of Heaven and earth reward his traitors with eternal death if temporal magistrates are so tender of their precepts that they esteem each breach thereof as an injury done to their persons well may the Father of spirits cast away with scorne all those that are found fighters against his commands .. But that 's not all for 2 Every sin is not onely a transgression of Gods law but it s an injury offered to his sacred person there being no act of evil wherein our whole man deliberately concurs but it is as much as in us lyes to dethrone the Majesty of heaven and if it lay in our power also to ungod the sacred Trinity an action which my soul trembles to think of much more to utter and were it not that I might leave the impression thereof so deep as to imbitter sinne unto you I should not have named it But that 's not all for 3 Every sin is so much the greater because it is committed by persons that have received all sorts of kindness and are under all manner of obligations to the contrary therefore well may God be extreme for sin when found in them that are engaged to the contrary 4 Such is the nature of Gods justice that it requires exact and equal proportion of punishment to the sinnes that have been committed now every sinne is of an infinite duration for did the sinner alwayes live he would for ever be guilty of sinne therefore it is but just the punishment should be infinite also for if God reward us with glory if we serve him above our deserts can we condemn him for but rewarding us according to our faults and if he do spare us and not inflict the extremity of his justice it is because his mercy intercedes that glorious attribute wherein is his chief delight but God will sometimes be extreme to punish because the nature of his justice is such as that it will proportion its punishment
and send a pardon in the name of my Son and thy Jesus 2 Mercy is exercised about him as his creature to receive him into favour not to punish him above measure though he be out of measure sinful Isa 46.9 Remember the former things of old for I am God and there is none else I am God and there is none like me That God punishes sinful man is the act of his justice that he is not severe in punishing is an act of his mercy yea so loth he is to be cruel that he would have his creatures put him in mind of his mercy as if nothing so much delighted him as to have his servants to think and believe him to be merciful for so you read Put me in remembrance let us plead together declare thou that thou maiest be justified Isa 43.29 wherein he that runs may read this sacred truth that God is not alwaies extreme to mark what is done amiss but is full of compassion And this he doth 1. For his names sake which in holy Moses stile is no other then the Lord the Lord God merciful and gracious long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity transgression and sin Exod. 34.6 And that the power of this glorious name may never fall nor the remembrance thereof fail in the hearts of the sons of men he will still go on to make his merciful name in much glory in much majesty to pass before them for all the waies of the Lord are mercy and truth Ps 26.10 For though many sorrowes shall be to the wicked yet he that trusteth in the Lord mercy shall compass him about Ps 32.10 He is onely the God that heareth and can answer prayer therefore to him must all flesh come it is his glorious name alone which is as an oyntment poured out the excellency of whose favour perfumes the hearts of all that love him whose very goings rejoyce the morning and evening seasons Other names and titles may give us free passage among the sons of men and get or lose their favour but it is onely the name Iehovah who is mighty to save that can give us a name to live when dead in sin whose goodness crownes not onely the years Ps 60.11 but the hearts of his people with joy unspeakable and full of glory And so I pass to the second ground of mercy 2. For his natures sake whose very property is to have mercy therefore when God in mercy spares his people from demerited wrath he compares himself to a father vailing his compassion under that tender relation but when justice can no longer spare but by being injurious to its honour by the provocation of our sins calling for vengeance to be poured upon our persons then he represents himself like a woman big with pain and travailing with grief if I may so speak to bring forth that just ire he hath been long in conceiving Yea mercy appears and is seen in hell it self because though he punish to extremity of time yet not to a fulness of horror in intension of torment whereas justice like the harlots will have the sinner divided soul from body to be different sharers in eternal misery Let thy lawes O Lord be writ in bloody characters upon the sinners head is justices language that so he may eternally wound the hairy scalp of him that hath wilfully gone astray but mercy like the true mother continually cries spare the child Lord and save the sinner from eternal woe and at length this mournful voice proves effectual in the ears of Heaven and with Iacob obtaines the blessing for indeed mercy is the true mother of our lives which else had long since been a sacrifice for our sins had not the scape-goat carried them away into the land of forgetfulness and by becoming a victime for the same buried all our transgressions in his grave that so they may never be able to rise in judgement either against our persons or our services whose very nature it is to become an advocate for rebells and like an affectionate surety pay the debt that so the debtor may go free and this he doth not for our righteousness or any merit that is to be found in us or our performances but for his name and natures sake And so I pass to the third ground of mercy namely 3. For his glories sake For his glory 1. In general 2. In particular First for his glory in general that being the utmost my limited time and your patience will give leave to discuss reserving the more particular parts together with the dispatch of the two last doctrines to our second part of this discourse but I say 1. Generally and in that I shall onely but point you to those excellent graces wherewith he is pleased to furnish the hearts of the sons of men that thereby they may become vessels fit for the masters service God is delighted with shewing compassion and mercy is so joyned to his nature that he would have it wrought in as well as bestowed upon us that in this glorious attribute we may again bear his heavenly image to that end sometimes our trials are made the subject for his love to work on at other times he presents others misery as the opportunity for our mercy and therein he cals out our faith to believe that he who hath inclined our hearts to pitty others will shew abundant compassion to us our hope that God will deal no worse with our soules then he hath commanded us to use the soul of our brother and lastly he calls our charity to exercise its benevolence knowing that besides the hundred-fold which in this life we shall receive for one drop of cold water bestowed in his name and given for his sake we shall receive in the life to come a crown of righteousness which shall never be taken from us for his mercy is over all his works else should we be soon consumed which made holy Iob cry out Remember I beseech thee that thou hast made me as the clay and wilt thou bring me unto dust again Job 10.9 and again Job 7.17 20. What is man that thou shouldest magnifie him and that thou shouldest set thy heart upon him I have sinned what shall I do uâ—to thee O thou preserver of men why hast thou set me as a mark against thee c. Once for all take it in the 14. chap. 2. vers and so on Man cometh out like a flower and is cut down he fleeth also as a shadow and continueth not and doest thou open thine eyes upon such an one and bringest me into judgement with thee as a leaf also is he blown away with every wind so is our soul tossed with various temptations sometimes with the east wind of presumption on the contrary with the west of despair now hurried with the north of rage by and by carried away with the southwind of lust thus like a tennis-ball is poor man
breeds in them enmity both against the truth and the revealers thereof 3. Discredit rebuke the persons that commit such deeds as are offensive to Almighty God and presently they conclude their reputation is vanished for they think truth no sooner beholds then accuses their actions and which they account worst of all it condemnes them and their courses for truth hath the nature of light it will discover all the darknesse of our works and therefore doe men hate the light of truth because their deeds are evil for truth in the whole tenor of it cannot be otherwise then a revealer of evil for though no man can hate the truth as pleading for it self in the generall yet men doe envy it when particularly it shines upon them and lets them see themselves and because men would have a full swindge in their courses therefore doe they take offence at the truths of God when manifest to their faces but however it should not discourage any whether Minister or other from the discharge of their duty if we doe it in the discharge of a good conscience because the world frownes upon us for so doing knowing this for a truth that while we bear the ill will of men in witnessing for the truth yet we gain the good will of God What though flesh and blood shall say favour thy self and comply with wicked men for thy safety and bid thee change thy voice as often as the men of the world their principles and advise thee that this or that thing is true because the great ones will have it so doe not thou incline to any such perswasions for Solomon saith Better is a dinner of herbs where love is then a stalled Ox and hatred therewith Prov. 15.17 Which shewes that the enjoyment of Gods love in the depth of misery is more to be priced then the greatest plenty and the anger of God therewith But flesh and blood will perswade to the contrary as if truth had place but not at all times but our Saviour shewes it is farre otherwise for now being before Pilate he carries the same face he had when he was in the Temple Innocency is as meekly bold and faithfully confident when pleading at the barre as preaching in the Pulpit nor is it lesse ashamed of truth because pleading before men whose intentions are to condemne not to applaud it for the same our nakednesse and inability to secure us from their malice and cruelty should not at all frighten us from our duty in witnessing to the truth but rather incourage our whole man to be employed in so acceptable a service for we should bear witnesse to the truth in our understanding opinion practice and in our good workes for the testimony of the tongue without the hand is not sufficient profession of good workes is the whole work of a Christian and walking contrary to the truth is a deniall or casting a soul aspersion on the truth we should bear witnesse to the truth both in words and workes and it is certainly a great offence to be guilty of either but most offence when found tardy in both yet of the two it is the farre greater sinne to deny God in workes then in words and that will appear if you consider these following reasons 1. From the Object the greater it is that we sinne against the greater is the sinne we commit now to deny the truth is to sinne against God himselfe because he is the Author of truth therefore to work wickednesse against God must needs be most criminall the sinnes against the first Table being those which especially concern him for which cause Divines conclude him the greater sinner that is found guilty of the first then he that offends against the second Table onely because that by the one he is but guilty of impiety against men but in the other of wickednesse against God the one being of defect the other of excesse so that the Object which is offended in the first Table being the greater must needs make the sinne to be the more grievous 2. From the greater evidence he that denies the truth with his lips as Saint Peter did he evidently injures God and Christ but he that by a wicked life denies the truth and the God of truth not onely injures their natures himself but incourageth others also to doe the same by giving them an example of wickedness the difference as to men is onely this the one seemes openly to deny him in words the other with his works the one speaks and the other doth evil against him 3. The sinne is greater in regard of punishment inflicted for a farre greater punishment is imposed upon the swearer and blasphemer under the Law then upon him that offended man onely the denyall of God in the old Law was to suffer no other punishment then stoning to death and the civill Law amongst us doth command that offenders in this kinde should have their tongues cut out or bored thorow which it seemes was thought too gentle a punishment among the people of the Iewes And if evil tongues deserve this heavy doom what think you is the just desert of wicked hands and evil works so that still it remaines a truth that he that denies God and his truth by a wicked life is a farre greater sinner then he that doth it onely with his lips which will more fully appear if you consider but these four grounds of sinne in their severall causes and degrees 1. Consider the moving cause 2. The voluntarinesse 3. The perfection 4. The full signification of sin 1. From the moving cause of sinne the more forcible it is the more grievous it will be to us after the commission thereof for the seeming pleasures which move men to wicked lives end in no other then reall disquiet and let the moving cause of open denying the truth be what it will yet this is certain the lesse forcible it is from any extrinsecal cause the more guilt we contract by doing of it as for example the fear of death may sometimes make a man to deny the truth with his lips which in many respects will receive a more favourable construction then if with violence we should turn from professors in shew to reall persecutors of the truth 2. From the voluntariness thereof where there is no consent of the Will the sin is little but where there is full consent of the will there is very much of sin and sin is therefore sin because voluntary therefore he who denies the Truth only with his lips for fear of death doth sin lesse than he who with a wicked life sins with a full liberty of the will by a free consent and unconstrained thereunto by either tyranny or self-interest 3. From the perfection of all the parts of a man united in full strength to resist and persecute the Truth which very much differs from compulsion because in the one there is a full consent of perfect parts and in the other there