upon the dark souls of these poor Infidels and enlighten them with the saving knowledge of the great mysterie of Godlinesse Let the beams of thy Gospell break forth unto them and work them to a sound beleef in thee their God manifested in the flesh Fetch home into thy fold all those that belong to thy mercifull election bring in the fulnesse of the Gentiles gather together the out-casts of Israel and glorifie thy self in completing a world of beleevers And for us on whom the ends of the world are come as we have been graciously called to the comfortable notice of this mysterie of godlinesse and have professed and vowed a steadfast beleef in thy name so keep us by thy good spirit in an holy and constant avowance of all those main truths concerning thy sacred Person Natures and Offices unto our last end For thou seest O blessed Jesu that there is now such an hell of the spirits of errour broken loose into the world as if they meant to evacuate this part of the mysterie of godlinesse Christ beleeved on in the world O do thou by thy mighty power restraine and quell these pernicious heresies and send down these wicked spirits back to their chains so as our most holy faith may ever remain inviolable till the day of thy glorious return Neither let us sit down contented that we hold fast and beleeve the meer historie of thy life death and resurrection without which as we can be saved so with it alone we cannot but do thou by thy good spirit work and settle in our souls a sound lively operative justifying faith in thee whereby we may not only beleeve on thee as a common Saviour but beleeve in thee as ours bringing thee home to our hearts and confidently relying upon thee for the acquittance of all our sins and for our eternall salvation O that thou mightest be thus beleeved on in the world and if not by them in the notion of their universality yet by us who professe thy name to thy great glory and our everlasting comfort SECT. XV IN these occurrences on the earth Great is the mysterie of godlinesse but the highest pitch of this great mysterie O Saviour is that thou thus manifested in our flesh wert received up into glorie even that celestiall glorie which thou enjoyest in the highest heavens sitting on the right hand of majesty seen and adored by all that blessed company of the souls of just men made perfect and the innumerable troops of glorious Angels If some erroneous fancies have placed their heaven here below upon earth ours is above and so is thine O blessed Jesu who wert taken up in glorie thou couldst not be taken up to any earthly ascent since thou tookest thy farewell on the top of Mount Olivet but from this globe of earth thou ascendest through the skies to that Empyreall heaven where thou remainest in glorie infinite and incomprehensible The many and intentive beholders of thy last parting did not cast their eyes down into the valley neither did see cause with the fifty sons of the Prophets to seek for thee as they would needs do for Elijah in vallies and mountains they saw and worishpped thee leasurely ascending up through the region of this lower heaven till a cloud intercepted thee from their sight neither then could easily be taken off either by the interposition of that dark body or by the interpellation of Angels And now O blessed Saviour how is my soul ravished with the mediation of thy glorious reception into thine Heaven Surely if the inhabitants of those celestial mansions may be capable of any increase of joy they then both found and shewed it when they saw and welcomed thee entering in thy gorlifi'd humanity in to that thy eternal palace of blessedness and if there could be any higher or sweter ditty then Hallelujah it was then sung by the Chore of Angels and Saints And may thy poor servants warfairing and wandring here upon earth ever second them in those heavenly songs of praises and gratulations for wherein stands all our safety hope comfort happinesse but in this that thou our Jesus art received up into glorie and having conquered all adverse powers sittest on the right hand of God the Farher crowned with honour and majesty O Jesu thou art our head we are thy body how can the body but participate of the glory of the head as for thy self therefore so for us art thou possessed of that heavenly glorie as thou sufferedst for us so for us thou also raignest Let every knee therefore bow unto thee of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth O blessed be thy name for ever and ever Thine O Lord is the greatnesse and the power and the glorie and the victorie and the majestie for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine thine is the kingdom O Lord and thou art exalted as head over all And now O Saviour what a superabundant amends is made to thy glorified humanitie for all thy bitter sufferings upon earth Thine Agonie was extreme but thy glorie is infinite thy crosse was heavie but thy crown transcendently glorious thy pains were unconceivably grievous but short thy glory everlasting If thou wert scorned by men thou art now adored by Angels Thou that stoodst before the Judgment Seat of a Pilate shalt come in all heavenly magnificence to judge both the quick and the dead Shortly thou which wouldst stoop to be a servant upon Earth rulest and raignest for ever in Heaven as the King of eternall glorie O then my soul seeing thy Saviour is received up into this infinite glorie with what intention and fervour of spirit shouldst thou fix thine eyes upon that heaven where he lives and raigns How canst thou be but wholly taken up with the sight and thought of that place of blessednesse how canst thou abide to grovell any longer on this base Earth where is nothing but vanity and vexation and refrain to minde the things above where is all felicitie and glorie with what longings and holy ambiâ—ion shouldst thou desire to aspire to that place of eternall rest and beatitude into which thy Saviour is ascended and with him to partake of that glory and happinesse which he hath provided for all that love him O Saviour it is this clog of wretched infidelity and earthlinesse that hangs heavie upon my soul and keeps me from mounting up into thy presence and from a comfortable fruition of thee O do thou take off this sinfull weight from me and raise up my affections and conversation to thee enable me constantly to enjoy thee by a lively faith here till by thy mercie I shall be received into thy glorie FINIS Prov. 16. â—7 Jer. 2. Hos. 4. 2. Actâ— 10. 35. Jude 3. phes 4. 5 1 Cor. 3. 11. 1 Cor. 7. 20 1 Tim. 3. 16. Great is the Mysterie of Godlinesse 1 Pet. 1. 12. God manifested In the flesh Job 1. 14 Job 25 6. Psal. 22. 6. Esay 53. 5. Mat. 17. 2. Mark 29. Luke 9. 28. 2 Cor. 5. 16. Rom. 1. 20. Justified in the Spirit Luk. 2. 9 10 13 1 Rom. 4. 25. Rom. 8 33. Seen of Angels Dan. 8. 19 17. Mat. 18. 10. Luk. 2. 9. 15. Act 12. 7 8 10. Luk. 22. 41. Heb. 1. 9. Mat. 28. 2 3 4. Joh. 20. 12. Act. 1. 10 11. 1 Pet. 1. 12. Ephes. 3. 9. Ephes. 3 8. Psal. 76. 1. Ephes. 2. 12. Esay 25. 7. Luk 2. 32. Esay 66. 18. Esay 2. 2 3. Esay 49. 2â— Esay 55. 5. Psal. 96. 7 Ps. 66. 4. Ps. 22. 27 Cant. 8. 8. Hos. 2. 19. Râ—m 11. 2â— Rom. 22. Rom. 11. 1. Rom. 11. 20 Act. 10. 11. â—2 Beleeved on in the world Esay 53. 1. 2 Cor. 1. 23. Mat. 21. 9. 1 Joh. 5. 19. Rom. 11. Psal 147. 2. Received up into glory Heb. 12. 22. 23. 2 King 2. 16. Phil. 2. 11. 2 Chr. 2. 11.
the East for their adoration Is not this he whose birth declared by one glorious Angell was celebrated by a multitude of the heavenly host with that divine Anthem of Glory to God in the highest and on earth Peace good will towards men Is not this he that filled the world with his divine and beneficiall miracles healing all diseases by his Word restoring limbs to the lame giving eyes to the borne blind casting out Devils raising the dead commanding windes and seas acknowledged by an audible voice from heaven Is not this he whom the very ejected Devils were forced to confess to be the son of the everliving God whom the heaven and al the elements owned for their almighty Creatour whose sufferings darkened the Sun and shooke the Earth and rent the Rocks in pieces and justly whom the dead Saints and the heavenly Angels attended in his powerfull Resurrect on and glorious Ascension O Saviour abundantly justified in the spirit against all the malignances of men and Devils SETC. VIII If thy malicious persecutours whose hand was in thy most cruell crucifixion shall for the covering of their own shame blazon thee for a Deceiver of the people How convincingly wert thou justified in the spirit by the dreadfull and miraculous descent of the holy Ghost in the cloven and fiery tongues and that suddain variety of language for the spreading of the glory of thy name over all the Nations of the earth If the unbeleiving world bewitched with their former superstition shall furiously oppose thy name and Gospell in the times immediately succeeding how notably art thou justified in the spirit by the suddain stopping of the mouths of their hellish Oracles by the powerfull predications of thine holy Apostles Prophets Evangelists Pastors and Doctors seconded by such undeniable miracles as shamed and astonished if not won the gainsayers But O Saviour being thus clearly instified in the spirit against the old spight of hell with what shame and horrour do I see thine eternall Godhead called into question by the misgoverned wits of certaine late mis-named Christians who as if they would raise up cursed Arrius from his hatefull grave have dared to renew those blasphemous cavils against thy sacred person which with so great authority and full evidence of the spirit were long since cryed downe to that hell whence to the great contumelie of heaven they were most wickedly sent up into the world Woe is me their damned sounder did not send down his soul into that fatal draught in a more odious way then these his followers vent themselves upward in most unsavoury and pestilent contradictions to thee the Lord of life and glory But even against these art thou justified in the spirit speaking in thy divine Scriptures whose evident demonstrations do fully convince their calumnies and false suggestions and vindicate thy holy Name and blessed Deity from all their devillish and frivolous argutations Is there any weak soul that makes doubt of thy plenarie satisfaction for his sinne of the perfect accomplishment of the great work of mans Redemption how absolutely art thou justified O blessed Jesu in the spirit in that thou raisedst thy selfe from the dead quitting that prison of the grave whence thou couldst not have come till thou hadst paid the utmost farthing wherein we stood indebted to heaven O Saviour not more concealed in the flesh then manifestly justified in the spirit for my all-sufficient Redeemer not more meekly yeilding to death for our offences then powerfully raised up again for our justification how should I blesse and praise thee both for thine humble self-dejection in respect of thine assumed flesh and for thy powerfull justification in thine infinite and eternall spirit that holy Ghost whereby thou wert conceived in the womb of the Virgin justified thee in thy life death resuscitation Now then how confidently can I trust thee with my soul who hast approved thy self so compleat and almighty a Reedemer O blessed Jesu with what assurance do I cast my self upon thee for thy present protection for my future salvation how boldly can I defie all the powers of darknesse whiles I am in the hand of so gracious and omnipotent a Mediator Who shal lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect It is God that justifieth Even thou the God who wast manifested in the flesh and justified in the spirit shalt justifie and save my spirit soul and body in the day of our appearance before thee SECT. IX O Saviour it is no mysterie that being manifested in he flesh thou wert seen of men but it is no small part of the great mystery of Godliness that thou who art the God of Spirits wert seen by those heavenly spirits cloathed in flesh It could not be but great news to the Angels to see their God born and conversing as man with men For a man to see an Angell is a matter of much wonder but for an Angell to see God become man is a far greater wonder since in this the change concernes an infinite subject in the other a finite though incorporeall But pause here awhile O my soul and inquire a little into these strange spectators Seen of Angels who or what might those be Are three any such reall incorporeall permament substances or are they onely things of imagination and extemporary representations of the pleasure of the Almighty Wo is me that no errour may be wanting to this prodigious age do we live to see a reviction of the old Sadduciâ—â—â— so long since dead and forgotten Was Gabriel that appeared and spake to Daniel nothing but a supernatural phâ—ntasme And what then was a he Gabriel that appeared with the happy newes of a Saviour to the blessed Virgin What are the Angels of those little ones whereof our Saviour speakes which do alwaies behold the face of his Father in heaven What were those Angels that appeared to the shepherds with the tidings and gratulations of the Saviour borne at Bethlem What was that beneficent spirit that visited Peter in the Prison smote him on the side to wake him from his sleep shook off his chains threw open the iron gate and rescued him from the bloody hands of Herod What are those spirits who shall be Gods reapers at the end of the world to cut down the tares and gather the wheat into his barn Shortly what were all those spirits whereof both Testaments are full which God was pleased to imply in his frequent missions to the earth were these phantasms too Certainly though there may be many Orders yet there is but one generall condition of those Angelicall attendants on the throne of the Almighty Even in the old Testament was it a supernaturall apparition of fancie that in one night smote all the first borne in the land of Aegypt was it a supernaturall apparition of fancie that in one night laid an hundred fourscore and five thousand Assyrians dead upon the ground Could these be any other then the acts
shewedst thy self in a glorified condition to the redeemed world of men After this when for the securance of thy Resurrection upon which all our faith justly dependeth thou hadst spent forty dayes upon earth I find thee upon Mount Olivet at thy most glorious ascension not seen only but proclaimed and fore-promised in thy certain and at least equally-glorious return by the blessed Angels And behold while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up two men stood by them in white apparel which also said Ye men of Galilee why stand yee gazing up into heaven This same Jesus which is taken from you into heaven shall so come again as ye have seen him go into heaven But O Saviour these views of thee by thine Angels hitherto were but speciall and visible even by bodily eyes How do I by the eyes of my soul see thee both attended up in that heavenly progresse and welcomed into thine Empyreall heaven by all the host of those celestiall spirits no small part of whose perpetuall happiness it is to see thee in thy glorified humanity sitting at the right hand of Majestie there they enjoy thee there they sing continuall Hallelujahs to him that sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb for ever and ever SECT. XI If thine Angels O blessed Jesu desired to look into this great and deep mysterie of the Gospell their longing is satisfied in the sight of thy blessed incarnation and the full accomplishment of the great Office of thy Mediatorship since now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places is made knowne the manifold wisdome of God in this wonderfull work of mans Redemption which from the beginning of the World hath been hid in God who created all things by thee But that the unsearcheable riches of Christ should be preached to the Gentiles how marvailous an accession is it to the greatness of this divine mysterie of godlinesse of old In Judah was God known his name was great in Israel In Salem was his Tabernacle and his dwelling place in Sion but in the mean while we miserable Gentiles sate in darknesse and in the shadow of death without God in the world exposed to the displeasure of heaven tyrannized over by the powers of hell strangers from the covenants of promise for lorn without hope of mercy That therefore O Saviour thou vouchsafedst in the tender bowels of thine infinite compassion to look down from heaven upon us and at the last graciously to visit us in the clear revelation of the saving truth of thy Gospell to break down the partition wal whereby we were excluded from any participation with thee to own us for thy people and to admit us unto the fellowship of thy Saints O the wonderfull mysterie of Godlinesse effectually manifested to us out-cast Gentiles to our conversion to our eternall salvation What a vail O God was spread over all Nations A dark vail of ignorance of errour of impiety How did our fore-fathers walk in their own wayes following the sinfull lusts of their own hearts worshipping dumb Idols sacrificing to all the host of heaven offering not their substance only but their sons and daughters to Devils It was thine own infinite goodnesse that moved thee to pity our woful and despaired condition and to send thine eternall Son into the world to be no lesse a light to lighten the Gentiles then to be the glory of thy people Israel How fully hast thou made good thy gracious promises long since published by thy holy Prophets It shall come that I will gather all Nations and tongues and they shall come and see my glory And again It shall come to pass in the last dayes that the mountain of the Lords house shall be established in the top of the mountaines and shall be exalted above the hils and all Nations shall flow to it And many people shall go and say Come ye let us go up to the mountain of the Lord to the house of the God of Jacob and he will teach us his wayes and we will walk in his paths And again Behold thus saith the Lord I will lift up my hand to the Gentiles and set up my standard to the people and they shall bring thy sons in their arms and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders And again Behold thou shalt call a Nation that thou knowest not and Nations that know not thee shall run unto thee because of the Lord thy God and for the holy One of Israel for he hath glorified thee O blessed then ever blessed be thy name O God that thou wouldest vouchsafe to be made known among us Gentiles Give unto the Lord O ye kindreds of the people give unto the Lord glory and strength Give unto the Lord the glory due to his name All the earth shall worship thee and shall sing unto thee they shall sing unto thy name All the ends of the world shall remember and run unto the Lord and all the kinreds of the Nations shall worship before thee How did we O Saviour of old lye under the pity and contempt of those thy people which challenged a peculiarity of thy favour We have a little sister said thy Iewish Spouse and she hath no brests what shall we do for our sister when she shall be spoken for Take no thought for us O thou oncebeloved Synagogue of the Jews thy little sister is not only spoken for but contracted but happily married to her Lord and Saviour having been betrothed to him for ever in righteousnesse and in judgement and in loving kindnesse and in mercies so as we can now return our pity to thee and say We had an elder sister which had brests but her brests are long since wrinkled and dryed up what shall we doe for our sister in these dayes of her barrennesse and just neglect We shall surely pray for our sister that God would be pleased to return to her in his compassion of old and restore her to the happy state of her former fruitfulnesse We follow them with our prayers they us with malice and despight with how envious eyes did they look upon those first heralds of the Gospell who carried the glad tidings of salvation to the despised Gentiles what cruell storms of persecution did they raise against those blessed messengers whose feet deserved to be beautifull wherein their obstinate unbelief turned to our advantage for after they had made themselves unworthy of that Gospell of peace that blessing was instantly derived upon us Gentiles and we happily changed conditions with them The naturall branches of the good Olive tree being cut off we that were of the wild Olive contrary to nature are graffed in O the goodness and severity of God! on them which fell severity on us which succeeded goodness They were once the children and we the dogs under the table the crums were our lot the bread was theirs now