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
The Great MYSTERY of GODLINESS Laid forth by way of affectuous and feeling MEDITATION Also the INVISIBLE WORLD Discovered to Spirituall Eyes and reduced to usefull Meditation IN THREE BOOKS By JOS HALL D. D. B. Norwich London Printed by E. Cotes â—or John Place at Furnivals Inne-gate 1659. To all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity Grace and Peace Dear Brethren IF I have in a sort taken my leave of the world already yet not of you whom God hath chosen out of the world and endeared to me by a closer interest so as ye may justly expect from me a more speciall valediction which I do now in all Christian affection tender unto you And as dear friends upon a long parting are wont to leave behind them some takens of remembrance where they most affect so have I thought good before my setting forth on my last journey to recomend unto you these my two finall Meditations then which I suppose nothing could be more proper for me to give or more likely to merit your acceptation For if we were half way in heaven already what can be a more seasonable imployment of our thoughts then the great Mysterie of Godlinesse which the Angels dâ—sire to look into And now when our badily eyes are glutted with the view of the things that are seen a prospect which can offord us nothing but vanity and vexation what can be more meet then to feed our spirituall eyes with the light of Invisible glories Make your use of them both to the edisying of your selves in your most holy faith and aspire with me towards that happiness which is laid up above for all those that love the appearance of our Lord Jesus Withall as the last words of friends are wont to bear the greatest weight and to make the deepest impression so let these lines of holy advise wherewith after many well-meant discourses I shall close up the mouth of the Presse find the like respect from you Oh that I might in the first place effectually recommend to you the full recovery of that precious Legacy of our blessed Saviour Peace peace with God Peace with men next to Grace the best of all blessings Yet wo is me too too long banished from the Christian world with such animosity as if it were the worst of enemies and meet to be adjudged to a perpetuall mitrnatit ion Oh for a fountain of tears to bewaile the slain of Gods people in all the coasts of the Earth How is Christendome become an universall Aceldama How is the earth every where drenched with humane bloud â—oured out not by the hands of cruell Infidels but of brethren Men need not go so farre as Euphrates for the execution of Turks and Pagans Christians can make up an Armageddon with their own mutuall slaughter Enough my dear brethren enough yea more then too much hath been the effusion of that bloud for which our Saviour hath shed his Let us now at the last dry up these deadly issues which we have made and with soveraigne balms bind up the wounds we have given Let us now be not more sparing of our tears to wash off the memory of these our unbrotherly dimications and to ppease the anger of that God whose offended justice hath raised war out of our own bowels As our enmity so our peace begins at heaven Had we not provoked our long suffering God we had not thus bled and we cannot but know and beleeve him that said When a mans wayes please the Lord he maketh his enemies to be at peace with him Oh that we could throughly reconcile our selves to that great and holy God whom we have irritated by our crying sins how soon would he who is the commander of all hearts make up our breaches and calme and compose our spirits to an happy peace and concord In the next place give me leave earnestly to exhort you that as we have been heretofore palpably faulty in abusing the mercies of our God for which we have soundly smarted so that now we should be so much the more carefull to improve the judgments of God to our effectuall reformation we have felt the heavie hand of the Almighty upon us to purpose Oh that our amendment could be no lesse sensible then our sufferings But alas my brethren are our wayes any whit holyer our obedience more exact our sins less and fewer then before we were thus heavily afflicted 〈…〉 our God too justly 〈…〉 that complaint which he made once by his Prophet Jeremiah Ye have transgressed against me saith the Lord In vain have I smitten your children they received no correction Far be it from us that after so many sad and solemne mournings of our Land any accuser should be able to charge us as the Prophet Hosea did his Israel By swearing and lying and killing and stealing and committing adulterie they break out and blood toucheth bloud We be to us if after so many veins opened the blood remaining should not be the purer Let me have leave in the third place to eâ—cite you to the practise of Câ—â—â—stian charity in the mutuall constructions of each others persons and actions which I must tell you we have heedlesly violated in the heat of our holy intentions whiles those which have varied from us in matter of opinion concerning some appendances of Religion and outward forms of administration we have been apt to look upon with such disregard as if they had herein forfeited their Christian profession and were utter aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel though in the mean time sound at the heart and endeavouring to walk close with God in all their wayes whereas the father of all mercies allows a gracious latitude to his children in all not-forbidden paths and in every nation and condition of men he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted with him Beware we my dear brethren lest whiles we follow the chase of Zeal we out-run charity without which piety it self would be but unwelcome As for matter of opinion in the differences of Religion wherewith the whole known world not of Christians only but of men is wofully distracted to the great prejudice of millions of souls let this be our sure rule Whosoever he be that holds the faith which was once delivered to the Saints agreeing therefore with us in all fundamentall Truths let him be received as a brother For there is but one Lord one Faith one Baptism And other foundation can no man lay then that which is laid which is Jesus Christ Let those which will be a devising a new Creed look for a new Saviour and hope for another heaven for us we know whom we have beleeved If any man be faulty in the doctrines of superstructure let us pity and rectifie his errour but not abandon his person The Communion of Saints is not so sleight that it should be violated by weak mistakings If any man through ignorance or simplicity shall strike
SECT. V. HOw easily could I be drawn to envie the priviledge of those eyes which saw thee here walking upon Earth O God and Saviour in the dayes of thy manifesting thy self in flesh Oh what an happy spectacle was this to see the face of him in whom the Godhead dwelt bodily All the world is not worth such a sight whither could I not wish to go to see but a just portraiture of that shape wherein thou wert pleased to converse with men But thine holy Apostle checks this uselesse curiosity in me whiles he saies If we have knowne Christ after the flesh yet now henceforth know we him so no more It is not the outside of thine humane form the view whereof can make us more holy or more happy Judas saw thee as well as he that lay in thy bosome those saw thee that maligned and persecuted thee and shall once again see thee to their utmost horror see him whom they pierced They saw that flesh in which God was manifested they saw not God manfested in the flesh It is our great comfort and priviledge that it was flesh wherein God was manifested but it is not in the flesh but in the Deity to render us blessed O Saviour I dare not beg of thee so to manifest thy self to me as thou didst to thy chosen Vessell in his way to Damascus or to thy first Martyr in the storm of his Lapidation these miraculous manifestations are not for my meanness to sue for But let me never cease to crave of thee a double manifestatioÌ„ of thy self to me Be pleased to manifest thy self to me in the clear illuminations of thy Spirit let me by the eyes of my faith clearly see thee both sprawling in the Manger and walking upon earth and tempted in the Wildernesse and arraigned in the Judgment-hall and suffering upon Calvarie and rising out of thy Tomb and a soending from thy Olivet and reigning in Heaven and there interceding for me And after my approaching dissolution let my soul see thee in that glorified flesh wherein thou wert manifested to the World and in the Majesty of that all-glorious Deity which assumed it to that ever blessed society of glory SECT. VI IT was thy mercy O God that thou wouldst not keep up thy self close in thine eternall spirituall and incomprehensible essence unknown to thy creatures upon earth but that thou wouldest be manifested to the world It was yet thy further mercy that thou wert not only pleased to manifest thy self to man in the wonderfull works of thy Creation since those invifible things of thine are understood and clearly seen by the things that are made even thine eternall power and God-head but to manifest thy self yet more clearly to us in thy sacred Word the blessed Oracles of thine eternall truth but it was the highest pitch of thy mercy that thou wouldst manifest thy self yet more to us in the flesh Thou mightst have sent us thy gracious messages by the hands of thine Angels those glorious ministring spirits that do continually attend thy throne this would not content thee but such was thy love to us forlorn wretches that thou wouldst come thy self to finish the work of our Redemption Neither didst thou think it enough to come to us in a spirituall way imparting thy self to us by secret suggestions and inspirations by dreams and visions but wouldst vouchsafe openly to be manifested in our flesh how then O my God how wert thou manifested in the flesh was not the flesh thy vail and wherefore serves a vail but to hide and cover Did not thy Deity then lie hid and obscured whiles thou wert here on earth under the vail of of thy flesh How then wert thou manifested in that flesh wherein thou didst lye obscured Surely thou wert certainly manifested in respect of thy presence in that sacred flesh of thine though for the time thy power and Majesty lay hid under the vail Sometimes thou wert pleased that this sun of thy Deity should break forth in the glorious beams of divine operations to the dazeling of the eyes of men and Devils to the full eviction of thine omnipotent power against thy envious gainsayers at other times thou wert content it should be clouded over with the dim and dusky appearances of humane infirmity The more thou wert obscured the more didst thou manifest thy most admirable humility and unparallelable love to mankinde whose weaknesse thou disdainedst not to take up And the more thou didst exert thy power in thy miraculous works the more didst thou glorifie thy self and vindicate thine Almighty Deity thus manifested in the flesh Oh that thou wouldst enable me to give thee the due praiss both of thine infinite mercie in this thine humble obscurity and of thy divine omnipotence who as thou wert manifested in the flesh so wast also justified in the spirit SECT. VII HE that should have seen thee O Saviour working in Josephs shop or walking in the fields or streets of Nazareth or journying towards Ierusalem would have looked upon thee as a meer man neither did thy garb or countenance bewray any difference in thee from the ordinary sort of men so did â—hy God-head please to conceal it for a time in that flesh where in thou wouldst be manifested it was thine al-working and coessentiall spirit by whose evident testimonies and mighty operations thy Deity was irrefragably made good to the world If the doubtfull sons of men shall in their peevish Infidelity he apt to renew the question of Johns Disciples Art thou he that should come or shall we looke for another thine ever blessed and coeternal Spirit hath fully justified thee for that only true absolute perfect mediator by whom the great work of mans redemption is accomplished Whiles the gates of hell want neither power nor malice nor subtletie it is not possible that thy divine person should want store of enemies These in all successions of times have dared to open their blasphemous mouthe against thy blessed Deity But against all their hellish oppositions thou wert still and shalt be ever justified by thy co-omni potent spirit In those convictive wonders which thou wroughtst upon earth in those miraculous gifts and graces which thou powredst out upon men in that glorious resurrection and ascension of thine wherein thou didst victoriously triumph over all the powers of death and hell Lo then ye perverse Jews and scoffing Gentiles that are still ready to upbraid us with the impotency and sufferings of a despised Redeemer and to tell us of the ragges of his Manger of the homelinesse of his Education of his temptation and transportation by the Devill of his contemptible train of his hunger and thirst of his weariness and indigence of his whips and thorns of his agonie in the garden of Gethsemane of his opprobrious crucifixion in Calvarie of his parted garments and his borrowed grave Is not this he to whose homely cradle a glorious and supernaturall star guided the sages of
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.
to salvation As our Saviour repelled the Devill so do ye the fanatick spirits of these brain-sick men with It is written Let those who would be wiser then God justly perish in their presumption My soul for yours if ye keep you to S. Pauls guard not to be wise above that which is written I could easily out of the exuberance of my Christian love overcharg you with multiplicity of holy counlses but I would not take a tedious farewell May the God of heaven bless these and all other wholesom admonitions to the furtherance of your souls in grace and may his good spirit ever lead guide us in all such wayes as may be pleasing to him till we happily meet in the participation of that incomprehensible glory which he hath prepared for ill his Saints till when Farewel from your fellow-pilgrim in this vale of tears Jos. Hall HIGHAM neer NORWICH Nov. 3. 1651 THE Great Mysterie OF GODLINESS Laid forth by way of Affectuous and Feeling MEDITATION By JOS. HALL D. D. B. N. London Printed by E. Cotes for John Place at Furnivals Inne-gate 1659. THE GREAT MYSTERIE OF GODLINESS SECT. I. LET no man goe about to entertain the thoughts of the Great Mystery of Godliness but with a ravished heart an heart filled with a gracious composition of love and joy and wonder Such a one O Saviour I desire through thy grace to bring with me to the meditation of that thine infinitely glorious work of our Redemption It was as possible for thy chosen Vessell who was by a divine extasie caught up into Paradise and there heard unutterable words to express what he saw and heard above as to set forth what was acted by thee here below as therefore unable either to comprehend or utter things so far above wonder he contents himself with a patheticall intimation of that which he saw could never be enough admired Great is the Mysterie of Godlinesse There are great Mysteries of Art which the wit and experience of skilfull men have discovered there are greater Mysteries of Nature some part whereof have been described by Art and Industrie but the greater part lyes hidden from mortall eyes but these are lesse then nothing to the great mystery of Godliness For what are these but the deep secrets of the Creature mean therefore and finite like it self but the other are the unfadomable depths of an infinite Deitie fitter for the admiration of the highest Angels of heaven then for the reach of humane conception Great were the mysteries of the Law neither could the face of Moses be seen without his veile But what other were these but the shadowes of this great Mystery of Godliness what did that golden Ark overspread with glorious Cherubims that gorgeous Temple those perfumers Altars those bleeding Sacrifices that sumptuous Priesthood but prefigure thee O blessed Saviour which in the fulnesse of time shouldst be revealed to the World and make up this great Mystery of Godliness There is nothing O dear Jesu that thou either didst or sufferedst for mankind which is other then mysterious and wonderfull but the great and astonishing mysterie of Godlinesse is thy self God manifested in the flesh Lo faith it self can never be capable to apprehend a mysterie like this Thou who art a Spirit and therefore immateriall invisible to expose thy self to the view of earthen eyes Thou who art an infinite Spirit to be enwrapped in flesh Thou an al-glorious eternal Spirit to put on the rags of humane mortality Thou the great Creatour of all things to become a Creature Thou the omnipotent God to subject thy self to miserable frailty and infirmity O mysterie transcending the full apprehension of even glorified souls If but one of thy celestial Spirits have upon thy gracious mission assumed a visible shape and therein appeared to any of thy servants of old it hath been held a spectacle of so dreadfull astonishment that it could not be consistent with life even so much honour was thought no less then deadly neither could the Patient make any other account then to be killed with the kindnesse of that glory What shall we say then that thou who art the God of those Spirits and therefore infinitely more glorious then all the Hierarchy of heaven vouchsafedst not in a vanishing apparition but in a setled state of many years continuance to shew thy self in our flesh and to converse with men in their own shape and condition O great mysterie of Godlinesse God manifested in the flesh so great that the holy ambition of the heavenly Angels could not reach higher then the desire to look down into it SECT. II. BUt O Saviour that which raised the amazement at the appearance of thine Angels was their resplendent glorie whereas that which heightens the wonder of thy manifestation to men is the depth of thine abasement Although thou wouldst not take the nature of Angels yet why wouldst thou not appear in the lustre and majesty of those thy best creatures Or since thou wouldst be a man why wouldst thou not come as the chief of men commanding Kings and Princes of the earth to attend thy train Thou whose the earth is and the fulnesse thereof why wouldst thou not raise to thy self a palace compiled of all those precious stones which lye hid in the close cofers of that thine inferiour Treasurie why did not thy Court glitter with pearle and gold in the rich furnitures and gay suits of thy stately followers why was not thy Table furnished with all the delicacies that the world could afford O Saviour it was the great glory of thy mercy that being upon earth thou wouldest abandon all earthly glory there could not be so great an exaltation of thy love to mankinde as that thou wouldst be thus low abased Manifested then thou wert but manifested in a despicable obscurity whether shall I more wonder that being God blessed for ever thou wouldst become man or that condescending to be man thou wouldst take upon thee the shape of a servant a servāt to those whose Lord whose God thou wert What proportion could there be O blessed Jesus betwixt a God and a Man betwixt finite and infinite the onely power of thy everlasting and unmeasurable love hath so reduced one of these to the other that both are united in that glorious person of thine to make up an absolute Saviour of mankind O the height and depth of this supercelestial mysterie that the infinite Deity and finite flesh should meet in one subject yet so as the humanity should not be absorpted of the Godhead nor the Godhead coarcted by the humanity but both inseparably united that the Godhead is not humanized the humanity is not deifred both are indivisibly conjoyned conjoined so as without confusion distinguished so as without division So wert thou O God manifested in the flesh that thou the word of thine eternall Father wert made flesh and dwelledst among us and we men beheld thy glory the glory as
of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth Yet so wert thou made flesh as not by conversion into flesh but as by assumption of flesh to thine eternall Deity assumption not into the nature of the Godhead but into the person of thee who art God everlasting O mystery of Godlinesse incomprehensibly glorious Cease cease O humane curiosity and where thou canst not comprehend wonder and adore SECT. III. BUt O Savior was it not enough for thee to be manifested in flesh Did not that elementarie composition carry in it abasement enough without any further addition since for God to become man was more then for all things to be redacted to nothing but that in the rank of miserable manhood thou wouldst humble thy self to the lowest of humanity and become a servant Shall I say more I can hear Bildad the Shuhite say Man is a worm and I hear him who was a noble Type of thee say as in thy person I am a worm and no man a reproach of men and despised of the people O Saviour in how despicable a condition do I find thee exhibited to the world lodged in a stable cradled in a manger visited by poor shepheards imployed in an homely trade attended by mean fishermen tempted by presumptuous Devils persecuted by the malice of envious men exposed to hunger thirst nakednesse wearinesse contempt How many sclaves under the vassalage of an enemie fare better then thou didst from ingratefull man whom thou camest to save Yet all these were but a mild and gentle preface to those thy last sufferings wherewith thou wert pleased to shut up this scene of mortality there I find thee sweating blood in thine agonie crowned with thorns bleeding with scourges buffeted with cruell hands spat upon by impure mouths laden with thy fatall burden distended upon that torturing crosse nailed to that tree of shame and curse reviled and insulted upon by the vilest of men and at last that no part of thy precious bloud might remain unshed pierced to the heart by the spear of a late and impertinent malice Thus thus O God and Saviour wouldst thou be manifested in the flesh that the torments of thy flesh and spirit might be manifested to that world which thou camest to redeem thus wast thou wounded for our transgressions thus wast thou bruised for our iniquities thus were the chastisements of our peace upon thee and thus with thy stripes are we healed O blessed but still incomprehensible mystery of Godliness God thus manifested in the flesh in weakness contempt shame pain death Once only O blessed Jesus whiles thou wert wayfaring upon this globe of earth didst thou put on glory even upon Mount Tabor in thy heavenly transfiguration then and there did thy face shine as the Sun and thy raiment was white as thy light How easie had it been for thee to have continued this celestiall splendor to thy humanity all the whole time of the so journing upon earth that so thou mightest have been adored of all mankinde How would all the Nations under heaven have flockd to thee and fallen down at the feet of so glorious a Majesty What man in all the world would not have said with Peter Lord it is good for us to be here Or if it had pleased thee to have commanded Moses and Elias to wait upon thee in thy mediatorie perambulation and to attend thee at Jerusalem on the Mount of Sion as they did in the Mount of Tabor whom hadst thou not in a zealous astonishment drawn after thee But it was thy wil and the pleasure of thy heavenly Father that this glorious appearance should soon be over shadowed with a cloud And as those celestiall guests now in the midst of thy glory spent their conference about thy bitter sufferings and thine approaching departure out of the world So wert thou for the great work of our Redemption willing to be led from the Mount Tabor to Mount Calvarie from the height of that glory to the lowest depth of sorrow pain exinanition Thus vile wert thou O Saviour in the flesh but in this vilenesse of flesh mannifested to be God how did all thy Creatures in this extremity of thine abasement agree to acknowledge and celebrate thine infinite Deity The Angels came down from heaven to visit and attend thee the Sun pulled in his head as abhorring to look upon the sufferings of his maker the Earth was covered over with darkness and quaked for the horror of that indignity which was offered to thee in that bloody passion the rocks rent the graves opened themselves and sent up their long-since putrefied Tenants to wait upon thee the Lord of life in thy glorious Resurrection so as thou in thy despised and crucified flesh wert abundantly manifested to be the Almighty God of Heaven and Earth SECT. 4. O blessed Saviour thou the true God manifested in the flesh be thou pleased to manifest unto the soul of thy servant the unspeakable riches of thy love and mercie to mankind in that great work of our Redemption Vouchafe to affect my heart with a lively sense of that infinite goodnesse of thine towards the wretcheddest of thy creatures that for our sake thou camest down and cloathedst thy self in our flesh and cloathedst that pure and holy flesh with all the miseries that are incident to this sinfull flesh of ours and wast content to undergo a bitter painfull ignominous death from the hands of man that by dying thou mightest overcome death and ransome him from that hel to which he was without thee irrecoverably forfeited and fetch him forth to life liberty and glory O let me not see only but feel this thy great mysterie of Godlinesse effectually working me to all hearty thankfulnesse for so inestimable a mercie to all holy resolutions to glorifie thee in all my actions in all my sufferings Didst thou O Saviour being God eternall take flesh for me and shall not I when thou callest be willing to lay down this sinfull flesh for thee again Wert thou content to abridge thy self for the time not onely of thy heavenly magnificence but of all earthly comforts for my sake and shall not I for thy dear sake renounce all the wicked pleasures of sin Didst thou wear out the dayes of thy flesh in poverty toil reproach and all earthly hardship and shall I spend my time in pampering this flesh in wanton dalliance in the ambitious and covetous pursuit of vain honours and deceivable riches Blessed Lord thou wert manifested in the flesh not only to be a Ransome for our souls but to be a Precedent for our lives Far far be it from me thus to imitate the great pattorn of holiness O Jesu the author and finisher of my faith and salvation teach me to tread in thy gracious steps to run with patience the race that is set before me to endure the cross to despise the shame to be crucified to the world to work all righteousnesse