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
two heads Gods manifestation in Christ and Christs manifestation in us God in Him and He in us and both these are laid out to the full in the Text. We may well admire the fullnesse and shortnesse of Divine expression in the Scripture that so much should be wrapt up in so little more then to have Homers Iliads compriz'd in a nut-shell Turn over all the Volumes of Nature all the large writings of Prophane or Divine Authors they containe not so much matter as one of these expressions will hold forth unto us That which I shall begin with is the generall description of Divinity which is laid down in these words Great is the Mystery of Godlinesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wherein you have first the thing described that is Godlinesse or else you have The subject Godlinesse The predicate Mystery The adjunct a Great Mystery 2. The description it selfe it is a Mystery 3. The adjunct our Title to expresse by it is a Great Mystery The Apostle cannot containe himselfe in ordinary expressions to say it was a mystery is an exceeding large expression beyond our apprehensions but in that he cals it a great mystery he raiseth our thoughts and loseth our understanding This observe by the way you can never speake too high of nor admire too much any thing of the Gospell when you have spoken to the utmost and have lost your selfe and your hearers yet then you are below what glory is conteined in them you may speake too much of any creature and presently transgresse in your commendations but it is impossible that ever any expressions should reach Gospell-mystery Hyperboles in the world are the excretion of our frothy wits and serve but only to indulge our corrupt affections but as one saith Deus Coelum non patitur hyperbolen all the height of expressions and wit strained through the narrowest and purest fancy can never be too high in expressing Gospell-glory Gods own spirit is as it were streightned and at a losse for expressions to set forth the deep mysteries of the Gospell and though what is spoken of them be proper yet they are far under the things themselves and no more than Pictures and Phantasmes to the reality of those things themselves What words can be given to set forth invisible and immortall and immense glory God hath help'd our senses and understandings by those expressions though in all that is written he hath spoken below himselfe if a man should paint the glory of the sun what colours could he use or how would he limb out the nature of a soule why spirituall mysteries are far more invisible and glorious 1. I shall begin in the first place with the subject of the proposition that it Godliness 2. Shew that it is mystery 3. That it is a Great mystery That every word as well single as compounded may have its weight For the first the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies the right worshipping of God in the generall signification of it and it is used by the heathens to expresse the worship of their Gods But in that notion it is not meant here besides what was said the last time of the nature of Godlinesse in regard of the communion of the two expressions truth and godlinesse I shall proceed more particularly to express the nature of it It is used three waies in Scripture 1. For the whole doctrine of the Gospell as a generall word which containes whatever is demonstrated concerning God so it is called the doctrine which is according to godlinesse 1 Tim. 6.3 thus godlinesse is truth 2. It is put for the inward worke of all these truths on the heart for the gracious qualifications of a soule sutable to the truths of the Gospell they are put both together by the Apostle Tit. 1.1 2. the acknowledgement of the truth which is after godliness it imports the inward frame of the soule in conformity to the truths which are godliness 3. It is put forth the holy walkings of a Saint in the world from the patterne of these spirituall truths 1 Tim. 4.7 exercise thy selfe in godlinesse that is in all the waies of holiness by godliness here is meant the whole sum of divinity the circumference of all Religion especially that which contains the great contrivance of Gods wisdome and love in the Gospel and the manifestation and working of it in us It is not meant barely of the truths themselves but of the workes of these truths in the Saints So that godliness consists in the light of truth and in the life of grace God manifesting himselfe in the light of truth and working in the life of love and grace in the heart There is a forme of godlinesse which the Apostle speaks of 2 Tim. 3.5 a meere externall profession and garbe of godlinesse there is no mystery in that men may take up a curious picture of holiness without much ado nature can reach that mystery but there is a power of godliness which consists in the life and spirit of truth in the soule that is a mystery Will you know then what godliness is It is the openings of Gods glory in its selfe and the workings of it gloriously in the soule Godlinesse lies not in the bare expression of words nor in the externall forme of profession of these words But it lies in the divine glory of God which is wrapt up in these words and the gracious dispositions and affections of the soule to these things What a great matter is it for a man to confess Jesus Christ to be the Son of God to pray and express outward words accordingly But to see the mystery of that glory which is in this that Christ is Gods Son and to have the powerfull influence of it in the soule this is godlinesse and that which is called a great mystery Thus then the whole manifestation of God in the Gospell all the actings of his glory in truth and all those truths wrought in the soule is this godlinesse which the Apostle well cals a great mystery though this must be added that the Apostle especially aimes here at the truths themselves and Gods manifestation of his glory in them Now secondly This he cals a mystery It is a high expression and worthy to be appropriated unto godlinesse and the Holy Ghost ever makes use of it when he would set forth the unexpressible nature of gospell-Gospell-truth therefore to open it 1. It signifies some secret and hidden thing that is above vulgar apprehension its word that comes from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to shut up and hide a thing that none may find it and know where it is as men hide jewels and precious things from common hands therefore Daniel saith It is God in heaven that reveales mysteries or secret things Dan. 2.28 Thus godlinesse is a mystery hidden from the eyes of thousands hidden in Gods own breast from everlasting and as the Apostle expresseth in Eph. 3. hidden from generations of men The
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
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