Pulpit but him that speaketh from Heaven which is Christ himself according to what we read Heb. 12. 25. See that ye refuse not him that speaketh For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth much more shall not we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven Christ speaketh from Heaven in every Sermon wherein truth is delivered unto you He saith to the drunkard from Heaven Become sober and to the wanton he saith from Heaven Become chaste to the unbeliever Lay hold on Christ It is said from Heaven when it is said from the Pulpit If men will go on in sin in spight of Heaven God will confound them in spight of the world they must to Hell in spight of the world Though hand joyn in hand they shall not go unpunished If men will not hear him speak on earth they must not expect to have him to hear when they would have Heaven That is the third thing Christ is called the word in reference to the word uttering because he is the substance of all his Father's Revelations and Promises Let us therefore learn from hence to grow in the knowledge of what we read and whatsoever we hear from the word of God because he is the substance of all Thus take any Scripture gage it and you will find Christ in the bottom of it If it be a Precept it leadeth you to Christ for strength to perform it If it be a Threat it leadeth you to Christ for grace to escape it If it be a Promise it clearly conveyeth Christ In him all the promises are Yea and Amen and therefore called Pretious promises not that they have any more price in them of themselves than any other Truths have but pretious promises That is a pretious Box that hath a rich Jewell in it Every Promise is pretious that hath Christ in more latitude than other places of Scripture have Therefore let us labour to find Christ in every one The old World had but one Promise for a great many years together from Adam to Abraham we read but of one Promise which God made to Adam in Paradise and yet Adam a holy man and Enoch a holy man and yet but one Promise Now we that have so many Promises cannot we find Christ in some of them to rely upon Having therefore these promises dearly Beloved let us cleanse our selves Let us seek for Christ and Cleansing in the Promises I have done now with the Subject of these three Propositions The Word The first thing that is predicated of the Word is that Propositi ∣ on 1 which we meet with in the first Proposition namely His eternall Existency In the beginning was the word The other Evangelists especially Matthew and Luke they have spoken fully of the temporall Generation of Christ So Matthew beginneth The book of the generation of Jesus Christ the son of David the son of Abraham Now John whose aim was to insist upon those things that concern the Divinity of Christ he beginneth with his Eternall Generation In the Beginning was the Word Beginning and was saith Basil these two terms are like two Anchors which the ship of a man's soul may safely ride at come what storms will come None of those Heresies that deny the Divinity of Christ shall be able to shame that man that layeth hold upon these In the beginning and Was. There was a Beginning when other things received their Beeing I but Christ was in that Beginning and so before the things had received their Beeing Much ado there is amongst Interpreters to little purpose to find out severall senses of this word Beginning I will not trouble you with them That of Mark will clearly give you the meaning of it In the beginning of the Creation of God Mar. 13. 19. Such as was not from the beginning of the Creation which God created Here is the thing clear The beginning of the Creation that God created is the same that Moses meaneth Gen. 1. 1. In the beginning God created heaven and earth It is something remarkable that Moses with whom God spake face to face and John the Evangelist who lay in Christ's bosome should both of them have one Exordium In the beginning saith Moses and In the beginning saith John It is thought that John doth allude to Moses onely with this clear difference Moses speaking of the Creation of the World saith In the beginning God made heaven and earth He speaks of a World that was made John speaking of a Word that was not made saith In the beginning was the word He doth not say He was made as if Christ were a creature but when all other creatures were made Christ was Christ had a Beeing when they did but begin to be therefore he was before them That which was in the beginning must needs be eternall Why Why because before the creatures began to be there was nothing but God What was before the Beginning Let that be the question Quest It will lead you into the Abysse of Eternity what may Answ be before the Creation Here Faith may enter into the darknesse of Eternity where it may lose it self and can see nothing but God before all and God after all and God in all Before the Creation nothing but God Christ was before the Creation when they began to be he was Therefore Christ was Eternall there was no beginning before that Indeed there was God before the Creation but God hath no beginning Though there be principium ordinis there is not principium temporis as the Father first and The Father Son and holy Ghost Eternall Son secondly and the holy Ghost the third Here is principium ordinis Order but no Time wherein the Father Son or holy Ghost began to be So Christ was in the beginning had a beeing then There was no beginning till the Creation Therefore Christ was from all Eternity This may be confirmed with more strength because the holy Ghost throughout the Scripture when he would expresse Eternity useth to do it thus Such a thing was before the world that is it was Eternall Psal 90. 1 2. Lord thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations Before the mountains were brought forth or ever thou hadst formed the earth or the world from everlasting to everlasting thou art God How proveth he that Because he was before the Mountains or Earth was made Christ was before the world therefore God from everlasting to everlasting Joh. 17. 5. Now O Father glorifie thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was That is from Eternity Take a clear place for those that clearly apprehend Christ to be meant by Wisdom as undoubtedly He is Prov. 8. 22. and so forward to the 30 verse a place to which our Evangelist is thought to have alluded here and it is fully parallel where Wisdom saith The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his waies Just as in the
teacheth us to distinguish when he speaks of his being rapt up into the third Heaven Therefore there is a second and first as well as a third And these three Heavens were sweetly resembled by those three Courts in Solomons Temple There was the first Court the outward Court and the Court of the Gentiles which was common for all sorts of people to come into So is the first Heaven here below Men breathe in the aire birds and beasts they live and breathe in the aire which is the first Heaven The second Court was something more hidden In that the golden Candlesticks were which were the Lights that lighted the Temple So are the Sun Moon and Stars in the second Heaven The third Court was the Holy of Holies into which entred none but the high Priest And the third Heaven is the Heaven of Heavens into which Jesus Christ the high Priest is entred to prepare a place for all his Members All these Heavens were of Christ's making Hebr. 110. Thou Lord in the beginning hast laid the foundations of the World and the Heavens are the work of thy Hands The second head is the Earth the Circle of the World the pavement of this glorious Fabrick the foot-stool of the 2. Earth most high God Of his making it you have an excellent expression in Job Job 38. 4 5 6. Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the Earth saith God there declare if thou hast understanding who hath laid the measure thereof if thou knowest or who hath stretched out the line thereof wherein are the foundations thereof fastned or who laid the Corner-stone thereof God hath so made it as to make it The admirablenesse of the fabrick of the Earth admirable to our understandings that such a vast body as the Earth is of a round figure and so fit for motion should be still immoveable a body so heavy should yet be able to hang as it doth in the midst of the air Why God hath fastned it by a Word of his own power Job 26. 7. He stretcheth out the North over the empty place and hangeth the Earth upon nothing Which of us can hang a ball in the aire without some support God He hangeth the Earth how upon nothing but upon the aire without side of it Then Thirdly the Sea Psal 95. 5. The sea is his and He made it so as to make all men rejoyce in the thoughts of it 3. Sea Psal 97. 1. The Lord reigneth let the Earth rejoyce let the multitude of the Isles be glad thereof It is with an Emphasis All sorts of men that dwell in Islands have much cause to rejoyce because God reigneth For if He did not Reign and Rule and bound the Seas with which they are compassed they would quickly be destroyed If God did God boundeth the Seas being above the Earth else the Islands would be destroyed not reign the naturall place of the Sea is above the Earth and how should we in this Island be overflowed in a moment if He bounded not the seas Ye shall see an elegant comparison in Job 38. 8 9 10. Who shutteth up the Sea with doors when it breaketh forth as if it had issued out of the Womb when I made the Clouds the garments thereof and thick darknesse a swadling band for it and brake up for it my decree'd place and set barres and doors Here he compareth the sea to a Child breaking out of the Womb of his Decree to a Child swadled as it were with a Cloud That is the expression Thick darknesse hath swadling bands for it And it is rock't as it were in a Cradle of Providence The fourth head is These All things as that place in Exodus telleth you are the things that are within this Heaven 4. All things and Earth and Sea And all things therein Which Paul reduceth to two heads Things Visible and Things Invisible Col. 1. 16. By Him were all things Created that are in Heaven and Earth visible and invisible Zanchius addeth a third branch to this distinction and maketh it more plain by saying That all things that were made are either visible or invisible or mixt Visible things as the Stars and Fouls and Clouds of Heaven the fish in the sea and beasts upon the earth Invisible things as the Angells they also were made They were not the Makers of the World as some Hereticks have thought Then there is a third sort of Creatures which are of a mixt nature partly visible in regard of their bodies and partly invisible in regard of their souls and those are Men. And so you have The all things Not to stand upon that I will passe to another head Secondly let us Consider In what order these things were made That so we may learn the more to magnifie the 2. In what Order Creatour This ye shall have under sundry Considerations No way more profitable First all things were made so in such an order as that 1. Heaven made before the Earth Heaven a place of blessednesse was made before the Earth the Stage of vanity In the beginning God created Heaven and Earth To teach us that we should begin our search and desires and love where God began his Work first at Heaven and then at Earth It is a Praeposterous course that is taken to begin with earth God did not so He first made the Heavens First seek the Kingdome of God Math. 6. 33. And yet through the Corruption of mens souls Curvae in terras animae Coelestium inanes The most are bowed down to the Earth and few look up towards Heaven There are in the Militant Church some dead and some living Children some true and some false Professors Suppose a Woman should have a dead and a living Child together in her Womb. The dead Child would make no way for his birth the living would so it is here such as are dead Professors in the Womb of the Church they do not make forward towards Heaven But every living soul that is born for Heaven and ordained for Heaven will to Heaven Every soul that is baptized with the Holy Ghost and with Fire hath a fire in it that will carry it up Heaven-ward Secondly as in order to the Creation Things of lesse perfection 2. Things lesse-perfect before more-perfect in the visible world were made before things that are more perfect as if ye come to the visible World especially not that otherwise the invisible Heavens are more perfect then any thing we see But I say the visible World God in the work of Creation went from things lesse perfect to those that had more perfection in them First he made the Elements then the mixt bodies compounded of them and amongst them such as had life before those that had sense and such as had sense before those that had reason A thing profitable to observe that so ye may look at Gods method both in Nature and Grace His method is
the fulnesse of the Godhead In him dwelleth all the fullnesse of the Godhead bodily Not a parcell but all and bodily that is either really If ye take body as it standeth in opposition to shadowes and figures then the Godhead is said to dwell in Christ bodily in opposition to the shadowes Under the law the body dwelt figuratively in the Ark and thence the glory of the Lord filled the house But now it dwelleth in Christ as the substance of all those shadowes It dwells in him bodily Or if ye take body as it sometimes signifieth person The Hebrewes were wont to put the soul for the whole person so many souls went down with Jacob into Egypt The Greeks were Gen. 46. 27. wont to put body for the whole person I beseech you brethren by the mercies of God present your bodies as a living sacrifice so then to dwell bodily is to dwell personally Now the fulnesse of the Godhead dwells personally in Jesus Christ because he was the second Person in the Trinity The Son of God as full of the Divinity as the Father himselfe was The fulnesse of the Godhead dwelt as truly in the Son as in the Father Now Sonship implieth Identity of nature As if it will not be tedious to you Four things go to make up a perfect Sonship There Four things make up a perfect Sonship must be 1. Similitude 2. Procession and Production 3. Life and 4. Identity If any of these be wanting A person cannot be said to be the son of another I say Similitude Procession Life Identity There is a likenesse between the whitenesse of the wall and the whitenesse of the snow but no sonship between them because there is no production The whitenesse of the wall doth not produce the whitenesse of the snow Fire begets fire Here is a production But the fire is not the son of the fire because here wanteth Life The body of a living Man breeds worms Here is a production and life but yet the worm is not the son of Man because here is no Identity of nature The worm hath not the nature of man There must be a Coherence in all these four which you find in Christ in reference to God the Father There is a similitude He is the expresse Image 1. Similitude 2. Procession of his Fathers person There is a procession For the Son proceedeth from the Father and is begotten of the Father from all eternity There is Life For the Son hath Life 3. Life 4. Identity in himselfe as himselfe saith And there is Identity of nature The very same essence with that of the Father And a greater Identity then between any man and his son That take along with you too Take Abraham and Isaac Isaac hath the same nature with Abraham But how the same The same in species not in Individualls The same in kind not the same Individuall nature For it is possible that the father may be saved and the son damned or the son saved and the father damned But now the Lord Jesus Christ is the same Individuall nature with the Father because but one Deity and one Divinity and one Essence and the same Person pertakes of the same Individuall substance Here is the first fulnesse The fulnesse of Divinity Secondly There is in Jesus Christ A fulnesse of sufficiency Secondly a fulnesse of sufficiency for the work of the Mediator-ship which he undertook as God-man That which Divines call the grace of unction They speak of a double grace that dwelleth in Christ The grace of union namely that favour by which the human Nature was united Personally to the Godhead Secondly The grace of unction namely that anointing with the holy Ghost which Christ-Man had who is therefore said to be annointed with the oyle of gladness above his fellowes There is therefore this fulnesse of sufficiency because there was a fulnesse of Divinity there is therefore this grace of unction because by that grace of union Christ is therefore annoynted because the Manhood is so united to the Divinity The nearer any thing commeth to the Cause the more it taketh of the Effect Fire is the cause of heat therefore the nearer a man stands to the fire the hotter he is the farther off the lesse he partakes of the influence of the fire The Human Nature having a union with the Godhead must needs partake of all grace Write the letters of the Alphabet upon a seal and then put that upon the wax the wax will bear the image of all the letters Here is the Divinity The Godhead falls upon as it were and takes to it self the whole Manhood and therefore the Manhood bears the impression of the whole Godhead as far as the Manhood is capable Now indeeed it was necessary there should be a fulnesse of sufficiency in Christ because as Mediator he had three great Offices to discharge and every one of them requireth a fulnesse without which he could not have gone through with his work Accordingly ye shall find A three-fold fulnesse in Christ as to his Offices a fulnesse of power in Christ as King a fulnesse of wisdom in Christ as Prophet and a fulnesse of righteousnesse in Christ as he was the Priest of his Church which three make up the fulnesse of Sufficiency There is in Christ as King a fulnesse of power That is 1. As King the fulnesse of Power it which he speaks of Matth. 28. 18. Jesus came and spake to them saying All power is given to me in heaven and in earth Go ye therefore and teach all Nations and I will be with you to the end of the world Christ hath all power in Heaven and Earth yea and in Hell too Of the two former this place speaks All power is given to me in heaven He hath the Angels in heaven at his command and can send them out as an heavenly hoast to assist his people All power is given to him on earth over all the Princes in the world Therefore he is King of kings and Lord of lords And this he telleth his Apostles before he sent them to preach the Gospell to encourage them Preach to all Nations all Nations all Mankind All power in heaven and in earth is given to me Therefore go preach I am with you And as all power in heaven and earth is given to Christ as King of the Church so all power in Hell Ye have an expression that may haply bear this sense Rev. 1. 18. I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I am alive for evermore Amen And have the keys of hell and of death Christ hath the keyes of hell and can send whom he will thither and keep whom he will from thence The Keys argue Power It is a metaphor taken from Conquerors when they take a City they have the Keys thereof delivered into their hands in token the City is now at their command If Hell be here taken for the Grave
lusts before the embracing of and yielding obedience to our blessed Saviour We are ready to defie the Jewes for crying Not him but Barabbas and yet our actions cry as loud Not Him but the world not Him but the flesh Rather imitate good Tremelius who was himself a Jew born and after when he turned Christian in reference to what his Country-men the Jews had once said Not him but Barabbas he made this his Motto Non Barabbam sed Christum Not Barabbas Tremelius his Motto after his Conversion but Christ to intimate his having renounced all for the Lord Jesus Christ Let it be thine Not the world but Christ not the creature but Christ not the flesh but Christ He was before all and shall be before all in my esteem Whom have I in heaven but thee Psal 73. 25. That is one Duty we are to learn from hence Secondly Seeing Christ is Eternall trust him for Eternall things expect such from him that is an everlasting Father Isa 9. 6. Do you think an everlasting Father will lay up none but temporall blessings for his children He that was from the beginning hath provided something that shall be after the end for everlasting for you if ye will seek after him Remember what the Apostle saith 2 Cor. 4. ult While we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporall but the things which are not seen are eternall Oh! look at those eternall things trust in an eternall Saviour who hath purchased them first and since provided them for you He is gone before to provide heavenly things for you Grace is a thing which hath something of eternity in it The way of holinesse the Scripture calleth it the everlasting way Psal 139. ult Lead me in the way everlasting Seek to Christ for that For your everlasting Saviour will give you that which Grace begets Glory hath an influence into eternity so Grace hath It is an immortall seed that begets its glory and that is everlasting too Ye have a Promise Isa 45. 17. Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation He that was before the world hath happinesse world without end for all that believe in him So much for the first Proposition namely In the beginning was the word The second is that that concerneth the Personall Coexistency Propositi ∣ on 2d of the Word with the Father and it lyeth in these words The word was with God By the Word we still understand the same Person Jesus Christ By God in this Proposition ye are to understand the Father For you must know this tearm God is taken two manner of waies in this Verse Sometimes the term God is taken essentially and so it is appliable to all the Persons in the Trinity as when it is said God is a Spirit God there is taken so as to signifie the Nature of God and the Essence of God which is common to all the three Persons And so it is taken in the last clause of this Verse The word was God But otherwhile it is taken Personally and so it signifieth not the whole Essence but some one Person in the Trinity As when it is said God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself The Father in the Son When it is said Joh. 3. 16. God so loved the world that he gave his onely begotten Son Here is God loving the world and giving Christ So in the second Proposition The word was with God that is with God the first Person This implyeth at once a Nearnesse and a Distinction A Nearnesse to God The word was God and yet a Distinction from him for it was but with him Now that which is with another doth imply a person distinct We do not say a man is with himself but Peter is with Paul or Paul with Peter So here The word was with God Take two or three places to help you to understand this Joh. 1. 18. No man hath seen God at any time the onely begotten Son which is in the bosome of the Father c. Here is the Son in the bosom of the Father that is the Word with God Here is a nearnesse and yet a Personall Christ near to and yet distinct from the Father distinction Nearnesse for it is in the bosom and yet a Personall distinction it is the Son in the Father's bosom One more clear that is fully parallel with the Text that is 1 Joh. 1. 2. The life was manifested and we have seen it and bear witnesse and shew to you that eternall life which was with the Father Eternall life is a Person here By Eternall life ye must understand the very self-same Person who is called the word of life in the first verse Eternall life is something that was seen and born witnesse to namely the Lord Jesus Christ of whom saith he vers 1. they have seen him and lookt upon him and have handled the word of life So that it is no new thing for John to call Christ the Eternall life He saith This is the true God and eternall life What doth he say of this Eternal life Why that we have seen it and bear witnesse That is of that Eternall life which is with the Father Take another which is parallel to the Text Prov. 8. 29 30. where by Wisdom is understood Christ which saith of it self Then I was by him as one brought up with him and was daily his delight Rejoycing alwaies before him rejoycing in the habitable part of his earth and my delights were with the sons of men Where Christ is spoken of as a son in the presence of the Father He is said to be with him as here in the Text. Take notice of two Praepositions there used in reference to Christ In and With 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is said Joh. 14. 10. Believest thou not saith Christ to Philip He that hath seen me hath seen the Father And then he saith I am in the Father and he in me Here Christ is said to be in the Father and in my Text with the Father with this difference in that noteth Unity with that importeth Distinction in that falls upon the Essence with that falleth upon the Person So as in plain tearms Christ is in the Father in regard of the Unity of the Essence which is the same with that of the Father Christ is with the Father in regard of the Distinction of his Person So as between the Son and the Father there is alius alius but not aliud aliud as Divines say That is The Son is another Person from the Father but not another thing from the Father The Father and the Son are Unum but not Unus the Father and the Son are one Thing but not one Person Ye may truly say The Son is with the Father as my Text hath it but ye cannot say The Son is
Tent upon Earth as the word signifieth Joh. 1. 17. He dwelt amongst us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is as in a Tent or Tabernacle Do but consider the difference of these two states that which Christ left and that which Christ took The former was a state of incomprehensible glory In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God What was the state of the Word See Joh. 17. 5. Now O Father glorifie thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was I had with thee glory before the world was Here is the Word with God in the state of glory From this state of glory he is pleased to descend To what To take shame It is emphatically said for that is one half of Christ's sufferings Shame is Heb. 12. 2. Looking to Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the crosse and despised the shame He came to Isa 53. 3 Luk. 23. 36 39 Luk. 17. 34. Matth. 9. 11 34. Matth. 12. 24. 10. 25. be buffeted and spit upon and reviled and called a friend of publicans and sinners a wine-bibber yea the prince of devills They called Christ Beelzebub Before he came into the world he was in a state of Joy as well as of Glory The Text saith He was with God and wheresoever God is there is joy as the Psalmist saith In thy presence is fulnesse of joy and at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore What is that Christ took instead of joy He came to sorrow sorrow and deadly sorrow surrounded his soul on every side From that eternall joy he is pleased to descend to those intolerable sorrows to be a man of sorrows acquainted with grief Blessed Saviour may we well say Isa 53. 3. What a change hast thou made for thy love to us of being with God to be with Man from the Father's Bosom to the Virgin 's Womb from Heaven to Earth from Glory as ye have heard to Shame and from Joy to Grief And all this for our sakes Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus 2 Cor. 8. 9. Christ saith the Apostle who though he were rich yet for your sakes he became poor that ye through his poverty might become rich How should this fir'e and inflame our hearts with love to Christ He who was the delight of his Father from all Eternity had his delight with the sons of men How should the sons of men have their delight in him Hath Christ left Heaven for me and shall not I leave the world for Christ Hath he thus emptyed himself for me of his Joy and Glory for a time and shall not I deny my self for him in my pleasures and profits and ease What a poor sorry joy is that which the world affordeth us to that which Christ hath first given us Let us love him who loved us so as that he was pleased to become Emmanuel God with us So The Word was with God This is that which concerneth the Personall Co-existency of Christ with God the Father In the Beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God There is hardly any place of Scripture more abused in a way of superstition than the beginning of this Gospell It was a common thing in times of Popery and I would to God it were abolished wholly at this day to write these words in certain Characters and to tye the paper or parchment about people's necks as a Charm against Agues or as a Spell to prevent some other mischief We shall I hope make better use of them by how much this Scripture hath been wronged by others These words are a Charm indeed but it is against Hereticall Opinions and carnall discouragements The Deniers of Christ's Divinity never had such a Charm as this is Joh. 11. We have made some of them to that end and hope to make more as we do proceed The Fifth Use from hence is that this very Proposition Vse 5 that the Word was with God holdeth forth Comfort to us For he that was with God in the beginning is with him still and will be with him for everlasting with God then and with God now and with God to all eternity And that under the notion of our Advocate 1 Joh. 2. 1 2. If any man Christ our Advocate sin we have an Advocate with the Father So the phrase is here With the Father Jesus Christ the righteous and he is the propitiation for our sins He is there as an Advocate to plead a cause And what cause His own as well as ours We know when a Counsellor is employed in a Cause that concerneth himself as well as his Clyent he is wont to be exceeding active in that businesse more than in other he will neglect no opportunity in such a Cause So Christ is such an Advocate as to be a Propitiation for our sins And Christ should lose the price of his own Blood if our Cause should miscarry before God the Father with him where he appeareth for us Heb. 9. 24. Christ is not entred into the holy places made with hands which are the figures of the true but into Heaven it self to appear in the presence of God for us Observe that With God and For us He appeareth there as an Advocate appeareth for his Clyent when such a Cause is called upon he pleadeth that Cause as an Advocate So Christ appeareth for us as our Proctor He is God with us and for us and therefore able to save to the uttermost all that come to God by him because he liveth to make intercession for them Heb. 7. 25. Never fear that any thing shall be wanting to thy salvation Christ will be sure to perfect it He will save to the uttermost because he liveth for ever Well may Satan's accusations trouble us on Earth they shall never trouble us in Heaven for Christ appeareth there for us He is ever with the Father I passe now to the third Clause of this first Verse which concerneth the Divine Essence of Christ The Word was God So with God a distinct Person from the Father as to be God of the same Essence with the Father The word God is taken essentially for the Father the First-Person in the Trinity This is a point of high concernment that Christ is God so high as whosoever buildeth not upon this buildeth upon the sands This is the Rock of our salvation The Word was God But there will be frequent occasion in this Gospell of meeting with it and therefore I shall speak now but briefly of it Take a few clear places such as our enemies know not how to evade that in Rom. 9. 5. Of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came who is over all God blessed for evermore Christ is here himself called God blessed for ever So Tit. 2. 13. Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearance of
Wherefore my Brethren pray that ye may understand these things for indeed they are things that depend upon Revelation therefore they call for prayer Saith Bernard of the Mystery of the Trinity The best way of seeking it and the easiest way of finding it is not to enter upon Disputings but Prayer To Prayer add the use of the best Means reading the Word of God in which these Mysteries are revealed that concern the Eternity and Personality and Divinity of Jesus Christ Scripture will help you more then Reason here There are two sorts of things Some things there are which we do first understand and then believe Others which we first believe and then come to understand If ye Naturall things are first understood then believed Supernaturals not so go to naturall things first ye understand them apprehend the inside and outside of them and then believe them because ye understand them But now in these great supernaturall Mysteries that ye may understand them you must first believe them For this there are two rules If ye will first set Reason on work believe no more then ye can find out in these Mysteries That will hinder Faith But if after ye have believed them ye will set reason a work that may help faith The Arians of old that denied the Divinity of Christ they got a great deal of advantage especially over Women by putting questions for grounds of reason to them They were wont to come to Women and The Arians delusion and sophistry aske them Hast thou born a Child say they Yes And art thou not older then the Child thou hast born why yes say they And yet say they our Adversaries They tell us that God hath a Son and that the Son is Co-eternall with the Father Athanasius goeth to work to confute them thus I aske you a question Canst thou build a house without Timber and Stone and other Materialls no yet God made the World without any of these things If Gods building be not as an Artificer's God made the World without Materialls He hath his Son from Eternity but not as a naturall parent for who can declare his generation If ye will aske a question Ask the Sun if ever it were without its beams Aske the Sun if it did not shine as soon as it was Created And aske the Fountain if ever it was without its streams As the Sun was never without its beams nor the Fountain without its streams so God was never without his Son In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God both Co-existent and Eternall Vers 3. All things were made by Him and without Him was not any thing made that was made Who is here meant by Him the fore-going verses tell you namely the Word And who is meant by the Word ye have heard at large namely Christ Whose Divinity the Evangelist had affirmed vers 1. The Word was God confirmed in the second verse The same was in the beginning with God And here he proveth it by a new argument from the Creation of the World All things were made by Him and without Him was nothing made that was made Now the Apostle telleth you Hebr. 3. 4. He that built Syllogism all things is God Christ built all things saith my Text Therefore Christ is God The argument lieth fair and undeniable But whereas the Apostle Paul speaks of a new Creation we are hinted to think of a double Creation There is the old Creation and the new Creation Now some Hereticks make a question which of the two is here meant There is the old Creation spoken of by Moses in Genesis In the beginning God Created Heaven and Earth And there is the new Creation spoken of by Paul 2 Cor. 5. 17. If any man be in Christ he is a new Creature old things are past away behold all things are become New The question is which of these the Text is meant of All things were made by Him Socinus who denieth the Socinus his damnable heresie and opinion Divinity of Christ together with his Satisfaction maketh it to lay hold upon the latter of these and saith that in the Text ye must understand the new Creation As In the beginning was the Word He understandeth the beginning of the Gospell not of the World All things were made by Him that is all things were made new when Christ was born of the Virgin Mary These are the all things meant in the Text saith Socinus As this is not true so it will not serve his turn It is not true nor consonant to the Text which doth not say that all things were made new by Him but that all things were made by Him and undeniably spoken of the Creation of the World Neither will it serve his turn He hopeth by this evasion to avoid the dint of this argument taken from the Creation of the World to prove the Divinity of Christ but it faileth him for take that which he granteth By all things here we must mean the new things the new Creature If this be the thing we will prove Christ to be God in spight of Socinus For who can turn a heart of stone into an heart of flesh who can work faith and love faith in an unbelieving heart love in an hating heart and meeknesse in a passionate heart who but God! Do not these things declare an Almighty power This by his owne Confession proves him to be God But we are to understand it of the old Creation of the World which Moses telleth us of All things were made by Him that is the proposition An illustration of it in the following words without Him was nothing made that was made In the proposition observe two things First the Effect All things were made Secondly The Efficient By Him This is an excellent help and of great Concernment The making of all things is the first lesson that God Almighty teacheth us in the Bible In the beginning the Lord made Heaven and Earth Therefore worthy the dwelling a while upon and making inquiry into these five things for the clearing of these words First What are the things here meant Secondly In what Order Thirdly In what space of time Fourthly In what manner Fifthly To what end were they all made When these are done we shall come clearly to shew that the Lord Jesus Christ had an influence as the Efficient cause of all these All things were made by Him First What things are here meant All things These 1. All things are here meant are words of a vast Comprehension but you shall find them all reduced to four heads by God himselfe In the fourth Commandement Exod. 20. 11. In six dayes the Lord made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all things that are therein These are the heads of the All things First the Heaven Heaven is a fair building a glorious Fabrick of three Stories the first second and third Heaven 1. Heaven So Paul
to begin with the lowest and so goe upward to begin with lesse perfection and so go on to more Do we aime at the top of Grace Wee must climb up by certain steps The New Creature goeth on as the Old Creature dyeth from the lesse perfect to the more perfect Never expect Love and Fear and Joy and all at the first God's work will be going on still from lesse to more perfection Thirdly as to the poynt of order in the making of all 3. The essentiall part of the world made before its Ornaments things God he made the Essentiall part of the World before he made their Ornaments As ye know he made the the Heaven and Earth and Sea before he made their furniture before He furnished the Heaven with Starres and the Earth with Plants and Beasts and the Sea with Fishes To teach us to look in the poynt of Grace too for the like proceeding There are Essentiall Graces and Graces that tend to Ornament Essentiall Graces that goe to the Constitution of a Christian Such are Faith and Love And accessary graces that tend to his Ornament and well-being Such are joy and assurance Observe now Gods method He first begins with the most essentiall happinesse but he that by faith layeth hold on Christ and by love cleaveth to Christ it may be God will make him stay some time for his Ornaments before he furnisheth him with full Assurance even as a Heaven before starres to furnish it Again It may be observed in order of Gods Creation 4. He made things dependent before the things they depend upon That he made some things which now depend upon others before the things upon which they depend For instance the light ye know dependeth upon the Sun the Sun being removed we shall have no light but yet God made the light before any Sun The light was the work of the second day and the Sun not made till afterwards The growing of Plants and Fruits now depend much upon the husbandry of men and upon showers and rain yet God made them before any raine or any man to till the ground Gen. 2. 5. Every plant of the field before it was in the earth and before it grew for the Lord had not caused it to rain upon the earth and there was not a man to till the ground To teach us thus much That all the Creatures though they be subordinate one to another doe yet depend more upon God the first Cause then upon any second Cause And to let us understand That we have reason to depend upon God though we see no meanes He that can maintain a light without a Sun and cause things to grow without rain he can maintain grace in thy heart though thou hast no means or but small means of thriving in that way I do but hint these things by the way as profitable Observations from the Creation of the World Lastly in poynt of order God made Man last of all He ye know was the workmanship of the sixth day and that to 5. He made Man last of all the end we might see both his wisdome and his goodnesse a great deal of wisdome in this That after God had raised such a glorious Fabrick as the world is he should do as sometimes men are wont to do A man that buildeth suppose a Library or Exchange or some such Monumentall place It is usuall for such persons to send their Pictures thither and to have them hanged up therein that all may know at whose charge that was done So God made the World and furnisheth it and then sendeth his own Picture and maketh man after his own Image and putteth him into the World And at such a time as the Wisdome of God had provided it and furnished it That man should be so made as to let him see that he was made to serve God as other things to serve him Therefore he is not created till the latter end of the sixth day immediately before the Sabbath that so the first work which he takes in hand might be the worship of God that made him Here is wisedome and goodnesse in this aboundant goodness God would not invite man unto bare walls but first he buildeth and furnisheth a house and then bringeth his guest into the house that Man at first might taste and see how good the Lord was And that all men might learn for ever to trust him He that provided for us a being will he not now he hath given us a being maintain us These things I observe to you from the Order Thirdly Let us inquire into the space of Time wherein 3. In what space of time all these things were made I do it the rather to let you see what Doctrine may be sucked out of these first Principles of Religion In six dayes the LORD created Heaven and Earth the Sea and all things therein Here are divers Considerations to be deduced from hence 1. God could have done all things in a moment yet it pleased him to be six dayes about this great work Dayes 1. To teach us Deliberation and not Moments First to teach us the necessity of Deliberation in all matters of Consequence We understand God could have done all in a Moment but he was pleased to take time about it that he might thereby inform us of the necessity of taking time when we undertake things of Consequence Many a man doth that in haste that he Serius absolvit qui nimiùm properat repenteth him of at leisure whereas he should not have had cause to repent if he would have taken leisure in doing of it Dan. 2. 16. He required time of the King when he had a hard taske Secondly dayes and not years Here is an observeable 2. To blesse God more for Redeeming us than for Making us difference between the work of Creation and the work of Redemption The one was finished in six dayes but it cost Christ three and thirty years pilgrimage upon earth before he came to say It is finished So much more noble is the one work than the other So much doe we owe more to God for his having Redeemed us than for his having Made us There is not one of us but oweth himself to God for his Creation If we had a thousand yea ten thousand selves we should owe them all to Christ for our Redemption because that is the greater worke it tooke God a longer time Thirdly in poynt of time All things were made in six distinct severall dayes That so God might help us the better 3. To help us the better to understand the making of all things to understand this great work It is too vast for us to comprehend at once The making of all things Therefore God was pleased to cast it into six severall dayes that so he might follow his work in our meditations Moses saith Such a day was such and such a Creature made that we might runne through all
us such a glorious piece as this is and shall not we consider it with a Contemplative eye An Artist thinketh himself negglected when he hangeth forth a Picture to be viewed and no body give it the beholding All creatures are active upon the stage of the world but Man is a Spectator as well as an Actor therefore they should observe not themselves Man is not to observe himself onely but what God doth in other Creatures onely but whatsoever God doth in other creatures and towards other creatures as well as in and towards themselves To this end God hath fitted them with Sense to let the consideration of him into their Understandings and set them in such a place of the world as that they are compassed about both with lasting works of Creation Sun Moon Stars Beasts Plants and the like and also with transient works of Providence that passe over their heads daily O therefore that men would praise the Lord and glorifie him in and for all these things that he hath made That is the Use we should make of it Rev. 4. ult Thou art worthy O Lord to receive glory and honour and power for thou hast created all things For thee they are and were created Rom. 1. 20. Therefore give him the glory of his power Who but God could have created such a Palace as Heaven and Pond as the Sea and Pavement as the Earth Give Him the glory of His wisdom O Lord how manifold are thy works In wisdom hast thou made them all It requireth wisdom to manage a great Family much wisdom to martiall a great Army What wisdom is it in God not onely to make but to govern all the host of all the Creatures In wisdom hast thou made them all in wisdom dost thou govern them Let all therefore give Him the praise of his Goodnesse for the next words there say The earth is full of thy riches namely of his goodnesse to the sons of men because for us were all these things made and we were made for God as ye heard before And therefore made after his own Image Now my Brethren What doth God expect from us in a way of requitall for all these things but that as they serve As the Creature serveth us so we should serve the Lord. us so we should serve him That seeing we are made after his own Image we should represent him in our dispositions and carriages towards the sons of men in being holy and meek and loving even as God himself is Whose image and superscription is this will God ask one day that is upon thy soul Is it God's after which thou art made or is it Satan's If the Devill 's give to Satan that which is Satan's God will give the Devill his due one day If he findeth his own Image spunged out of us and the Devill 's stampt upon us wo be to us As it is said of Queen Elizabeth that passing by the streets and seeing some of her Pictures hang for Signes that were not made like her she was angry and caused them to be pulled down and thrown into the fire Brethren I speak it with trembling Should any of you carry souls about you that do not look like God they must be thrown down and cast into the fire Thus have I run over a sort of Considerations from the great and glorious work of the Creation The next thing is to discourse of Christ as the Maker the Efficient Vers 3. All things were made by him and without him was made nothing that was made Vers 4. In him was life and the life was the light of men The Divinity of Jesus Christ under the tearm of the Word hath been asserted in the former Verse In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God And this our Evangelist proveth by an Argument taken from the Creation First Generally from the Creation of all things All things were made by him and without him was not any thing made that was made Secondly More Especially from the Creation of living things living Creatures In him was life And Particularly from the Creation of Man The life was the light of men That part of the Argument which is most Generall lyeth in the third Verse Where ye have two things The Argument first Propounded And secondly Illustrated Propounded All things were made by him Illustrated Without him was not any thing made that was made In the Proposition are two things Here is the Effect All things made The Efficient By him Of the Effect I have spoken already I proceed now to the Efficient Christ the Eternall Word was the Maker of them All things were made by him The Eternall Word was the Creator of all things Ye shall have this truth established in the mouth of two or three witnesses Ephes 2. 9. Who created all things by Jesus Christ The Epistle to the Hebrewes will afford two pregnant testimonies Heb. 1. 2. He hath in these last daies spoken to us by his Son whom he hath appointed heir of all things by whom also he made the worlds This may seem something difficult because he speaketh of Worlds whereas we acknowledg but one Let it be considered whom he writes to the Hebrews whose custome it was to style God Rabboni Dominus mundorum The Lord of the Worlds They were wont to speak of three Worlds the lower World the higher World and the middle World The lower World containeth the Elements Earth and Water and Aire and Fire The higher World that containeth the Heaven of the Blessed And the middle World that containeth the Starry Heaven We now being acquainted with this Language and the Apostle writing to them he saith That God by Christ made the Worlds those worlds which they were wont to speak so frequently of And whereas one scruple might arise from this expression in the Text By him were all things made that in the Ephesians God created all things by Jesus Christ this to the Hebrews By whom he made the worlds As if Christ were onely an Instrument in the Creation and not the principall Efficient Therefore another place in this first Chapter will clear it which speaketh of Christ as the principall Efficient of all things Heb. 1. compare the 8th and 10th Verses together To the Son he saith Thy throne O God is for ever and ever And Thou Lord verse 10. hast laid the foundations of the earth and the heavens are the work of thy hands Namely thine that is the Son which he spake of before There is no great distinction here in all Objections for this Praeposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not alwaies signifie an Instrument but sometimes it noteth a principall Agent It is said of God Of him and through him and to him are all things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 11. 36. by him which we render through him Ye will have a more clear place Gal. 1. 1. Paul an Apostle not of man neither by
concerning the Divinity of Christ which is the very end for which they bring this argument The builder of all things is God Heb. 3. 4. Christ was the builder of all things saith my Text. Therefore Christ is God In the beginning God Created Heaven and Earth and Sea and all therein saith Moses Christ created Heaven and Earth and the Sea saith my Syllogism Text. Therefore Christ is God To bring things together that are infinitly distant requireth an infinite power The distance which is between Beeing and No-beeing is infinite Therefore He must needs be God that can bring all things out of nothing and he that Createth doth so This exalteth God above all Idolls None of them can make a World So the Apostle argueth Act. 14. to turn them from Idolls to the living God 15. vers We are men of like passion with you and preach to you that you should turn from these Idolls to the living God which made Heaven and earth and all things therein Justin Martyr quoteth two Greek verses out of Pythagoras to prove there is but one God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. saith Pythagoras If any will assume to himself and say I am God except onely one let him lay such a Worid as this is to stake and say This World is mine then I will believe him otherwise not He is God that made the World Christ made the World Therefore he is God Secondly It instructeth us concerning the Excellency of Christ above all things By him were all things made Therefore he himself must needs be better then all things for he made them The cause is better then the effect The Carpenter better than the house and the Shipright then the ship Look whatsoever excellency is in the Creature it All creature excellency is from Christ came from Christ Therefore he hath a greater excellency than the Creature hath Yea whatsoever are in the Creatures they meet in Christ Therefore it is that there are names borrowed from all the most excellent Creatures to decipher Christ by in Scripture to shew that all their excellencies are eminently in Him from whom they have their beeing Amongst things in earth that have barely a beeing the most excellent are Jewells and pretious Stones Christ taketh a name from thence He is called the Corner-stone elect pretious 1 Pet. 2. So Isa 28. he is the great pretious stone the Jewell of Jewells Amongst Vegetables Plants and Trees the most excellent is the Vine and Olive Christ is the true Vine Joh. 15. and the good Olive-tree Rom. 11. Amongst Beasts that have sense the most excellent amongst wild Beasts is the Lion and amongst tame Beasts the Lamb Christ taketh name from these The Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world Joh. 1. The Lion of the tribe of Judah as in the Revelations And so if ye look up into Heaven the most excellent Quality is the Light the most excellent Luminary is the Sun Christ hath names from both these This is the true light that lighteneth every man that commeth into the world And The Sun of Righteousnesse with healing under his wings Mal. 4. So as it sheweth to us in the second place the excellency of Christ above all things Thirdly It instructeth us concerning the primitive good 3. Christ so good as to make nothing ill of all the Creatures they are all of Christ's making and therefore must needs be good good in themselves and good to us For he is so good as that he can make nothing ill He beareth such affection to us as that he will do us no harm He that in fulnesse of time was made for us of a Woman made under the Law will make all things usefull for us that he undertakes to create It is true many things are now become hurtfull to man Whence commeth this Not from Christ It is said by Moses in the end of the Creation God looked upon the works of his creation and behold they were all good If any thing be evill now in the end of the world we may thank our selves and the Devill for that for they came all good from Christ Therefore let not us play the Balaam and beat the Asse when we are in the fault as he did Jude telleth you vers 15 16. of a generation of men and the world is full of them that are Murmurers and Complainers men that alwaies find fault with what God hath made their lot This very consideration might help us to complain of our selves not of God not of the Creator As Physitians sometimes do when a man bleedeth excessively at the nose they open a vein in the arme to divert the blood If we will be complaining here is a diversion Our complaint should onely be against sin not against God we should complain of our sinne that hath brought all this misery kill sinne and all is good Nothing more frequent then for a man to deal with God as Hiram did with Solomon 1 King 9. 11 12 13. It is there said that Solomon gave Hiram twenty Citties in the land of Galilee and he came out from Tyre to see the Citties which Solomon had given him and they pleased him not and he said What Citties are these which thou hast given me and he called them the land of Cabul to this day which signifieth Dirty Solomon had bestowed Cities upon Hiram and in all likelyhood they stood in very fertile places only they had this Inconveniencie with their fertility they were Mire and Dirty therefore he was displeased at them God hath bestowed many blessings upon us and yet if there be any dirt goeth along with the fruit many times the fattest soile is lyable to that we are apt to call them Cabul never looking at God that gave them Let us remember that all creatures as they came from God are good Therefore if we will be finding fault find fault with our selves I now come to the Consolations Vse First here is matter of Comfort in case of the want of the Of Consolation in case of Want Creatures When men are destitute either of temporall blessings ot spirituall blessings that belong to the new creature Let them solace themselves in this Though the creatures be wanting if faith be not wanting they have Christ that made them all and they may have the comforts of all in Him Thus the Psalmist comforteth himself in such a case Psal 146. 5 6. He had said before Put not your trust in princes nor in the sons of men in whom there is no help His breath goeth forth he returneth to the earth in that very day his thoughts perish Here he speaketh against the creatures the greatest men Princes they are gone What followeth Man's happinesse in trusting in God and not in Man Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help whose hope is in the Lord his God who made heaven and earth and the sea and all that is therein
Saviour telleth us there was none greater than John excepting Christ who had not a naturall generation Matth. 11. 11. Verily I say unto you Amongst them that are born of a woman there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist This great John the first What is his Employment Certainly so honourable a Person must be called to some honourable service It is The employment of the Ministers of the Gospel is an honourable employment Luk 2. 11. Mar. 16. 6. To bear witnesse to the light than which no service is more honourable It is that which Angels have not disdained They ye know bare witnesse to Christ's Incarnation they tell the shepheards That to them is born in the City of Bethlehem a Saviour which is Christ the Lord. And then they bore witness of his Resurrection to women at the Sepulcher God the Father and the holy Ghost thought it no disparagement to them to bear witnesse to Christ God the Father at his Birth This is my beloved Son in whom I am well Matth. 3. 17. Matth. 17. 5. pleased and at his Transfiguration in the Mount And it is the great work of the holy Ghost in all his negotiations to the sons of men to testifie of Christ Joh. 15. 26. When the Comforter shall come whom I will send to you from the Father even the Spirit of truth he shall testifie of me There is his work I will not insist long upon this Let us learn onely from hence every one in his and her place to bear witnesse to Christ Ministers by preaching Christ as Paul did who desired to know nothing amongst his people but Christ and him crucified therefore he is called a Chosen vessell Paul is But to what end Act. 9. 15. The Lord said to him Go thy way for he is a chosen vessell to me to bear my name before the Gentiles and Kings and children of Israel Here is the Minister's work to bear Christ's name before the people like those Pitchers of Gideon Judg. 7. earthen pitchers indeed and so earthen vessells as Paul calleth them but they have a Lamp in them and are chosen vessells to bear the name of Christ to witness to this truth And so Believers in their conference should bear witness to Christ by telling one another what great things he hath done for their souls discoursing of him as the Disciples in the way to Emmans their talk was of Christ As people when they come from Market they tell of their penny-worths When people How to bear witnesse to Christ come from Sermons they speak what they have heard and what a good bargain Christ is All of all sorts are called to witness for Christ by their living and if they be called to it by their dying living to him dying for him there is witness born to Christ both these waies All are not indeed called to Martyrdom and so to testifie of Christ by their death but all are called to Testifie of Christ by their Life As ye read of some that professed God in their works so some confesse Christ in their lives those that shew forth the grace of Christ as Peter speaketh who are called out of darknesse into his marvellous Light Those that can carry themselves meekly towards the malitious and humbly towards the proud they may hereby by their Carriage bear witnesse to that meeknesse and humility which they receive from Christ as the head and fountain of it Whosoever hath received Christ Jesus the Lord truly he will walk in him not onely talk of him but confesse him not only with his mouth but his life Here is a way of witnessing to him That ye may be incouraged to witnesse for Christ take two Considerations First If we do not witnesse for Christ now Christ will one day witnesse against us Mal. 3. 5. I will come neer to you in judgment and I will be a swift witnesse against such and such sinners as he there mentioneth Christ himself will be a witnesse against us if we be not witnesses for him and a swift witnesse too And now beloved Consider with your selves what astonishment seized upon the souls of Joseph's brethren as soon as he stept up to witnesse against them and said I am Joseph whom ye sold into Egypt And yet he did this meerly to inform them and not to affright Gen. 45. 3. them Who can tell the horrour and amazement which will fall upon the souls of men when Christ will at the last day say I am Jesus whom ye Crucified and whom ye refused to believe and whose Word and Gospell ye have trampled under your feet Secondly Consider That if we do witnesse for Christ we shall have Three witnessing for us in whose Testimony we shall receive aboundance of Comfort First We shall have a witnesse without us and a witnesse within us and a witnesse above us Without us That is the Testimony of men that fear God If we witnesse for Christ They will witnesse for us even the Consciences of wicked men will be inforced many times to witnesse for us when their words witnesse against us But though they should not yet by faith the Elders obtained a good report Hebr. 11. 2. The Saints will have a good report amongst them that are Saints like themselves Jonathan will witnesse for David though he incurre Saul's displeasure for so doing Secondly We shall have a witnesse within us That is the Testimony of our Consciences Though there should be storms without yet there will be a calme within And it is the wind within that maketh the Earth-quake And the wind within that maketh the soul to quake Conscience is a witnesse within us Thirdly God is greater then our hearts He is a witnesse for us so saith Job Job 16. My witnesse is in Heaven and my Record is on high Though men upon earth should witnesse against him and though he should not at all times have the peace of his Conscience speaking good things for him yet he hath a witnesse above all His witnesse is in Heaven and his Record on high As Augustine saith Deus major Conscientia pro nostra Conscientia testatur That is one end why God will have men witnesse for him because he might have occasion to witnesse for them if time serve what a comfort is here to have him witnesse for us who is our Judge whose sentence will never Certainly go against his Testimony I have done with that and proceed now to another argument which the Evangelist useth to prove That Christ is the Fountain of Light namely from the effect of Illumination generall Illumination Vers 9. That was the true Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the World Here is both the Agent the Act and the Subject The Agent Christ under the name of true Light The Act Lightning The Subject Every man that cometh into the World That was the true Light Light ye know was the first distinct Creature that God made And as
the World and the World was made by Him and the World knew him not Ye have here the World in another sense The world in the beginning of the verse is taken for the whole Fabrick of Heaven and Earth as Aristotle saith The World is a Masse made up of Heaven and Earth In this sense it is said He was in the World the World was made by Him Now in the latter Clause of the verse The world knew Him not The World there is put for the Inhabitants of the earth for the men of the World Rom. 5. 12. The World and Men are all one By one man's disobedience sin entred into the World and death by sin and so death passed over all-Men Here is the World and all men The world was made by Him and the world that is the men of the world knew him not It is a Rule in Divinity Verba Cognitionis affectiones important c. Words of knowledge import affections and operate suitably So to know carrieth more then meer speculation When Christ is said to know us The Holy Ghost telleth us It is more then barely to take notice of us It is to take care for us Joh. 10. 14. Christ knoweth his sheep that is he taketh care of his Elect. And he is known of his that is He is served and obeyed and worshipped and believed on by them So the world knew him not that is the World worshipped him not as God The world did not owne Him and serve Him as became their Creator So as now the words thus opened The observation lieth clear before us namely That notwithstanding Christ's Observ being in the world and the world being made by Him the men of the world knew him not Take a place or two to clear up this especially in reference to the Gentiles for to them properly it belongeth I should have told you that the word World is sometimes confined to them If the fall of them be the diminishing of the world and the fall of them the riches of the Gentiles He came to his owne and his owne received him not That is did not know him 1 Joh. 2. 1. Therefore the world knoweth us not because it knew not him There is yet a clearer place 1 Cor. 1. 21. After that in the wisdome of God the world by wisdome knew not God All the wisdome the Heathens had could not raise them to a due knowledge of God The world by wisdome knew not God Christ was in the world but the world knew him not A threefold ignorance of Christ was found in all the Gentiles First They knew him not as the second person in the Trinity Secondly They knew him not as Mediator Thirdly They knew him not as Creator which is properly here spoken to He made the world and the world knew him not Let me run over these briefly first They knew him not 1. The Gentiles knew not Chtist as the second Person in the Trinity as the second person in the Trinity so they are said to have been without Christ and without God in the world Ephes 2. 12. speaking there of the Gentiles saith he At that time ye were without Christ being aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel and strangers from the Covenants of promise having no hope and without God in the World They had the great book of the Creatures to read but that did shew them nothing of Christ as the second person in the Trinity Naturall reason could never find out that Mystery in it selfe Therefore men when they go to find out this great mystery of the Trinity they are at their wit's end They might find out a God and that he was Good and Great and that he was One but to find out a Trinity of Persons a Father Son and Holy Ghost This they could not Take a curious piece a well drawn Picture he that seeth it may be able to say that he that drew it was a skilfull and exact Painter But whether an English man or a Spaniard or a Dutch man or an Italian that he cannot tell by the Picture why because he made this piece as an Artist but not as a German or English man Therefore he discovereth his Art by the piece but not his Country So God made the World not as Father Son and Holy Ghost Three in one and one in three All the works towards the Creatures works ad Extra are common to all the persons in the Trinity God as God made the world Therefore by the sight of the world men may be able to know that it is a God that made it and that this God is good because he made so many things useful in the world this God is wise because of the variety of the creatures and this God is One because of the order of things But to say This God is Three in One the Creation of the world doth not bear this If the works be ad Intra as Generation these are the works of some one Person but the works ad extra they represent the Godhead but not the Persons Secondly They did not know Christ as Mediator therefore 2. They knew not Christ as Mediator they raised up many Mediators 1 Cor. 8. 5 6. Though there be that are called gods whether in heaven or in earth as there be gods many and lords many But to us there is but one God the Father of whom are all things and we in him and one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things and we by him The Apostle doth here clearly allude to the custom of the Heathens who had two sorts of gods they had their dii Coelestes their supream heavenly gods which they worshipt as the Sun Moon and Stars and then besides these they had their dii Terrestres inferiour gods gods on earth who were men that lived upon the earth which were afterwards canonized and made gods That is the true meaning of this There be many that are called gods whether in heaven or in earth So there be gods many and lords many gods many those are their supream gods lords many those are their inferiour gods Baalim as they called him who was the first King of Babel and the first that was made a god and all those kinds of gods therefore after him were called Baalim as Caesar being the first Emperour all Emperours after him were called Caesars Now saith the Apostle To us is but one God not many but one Lord not many but one Mediator Christ Jesus Thirdly They knew him not as Creator therefore Paul 3. They knew not Christ as Creator when he came to Athens found them ignorant of this Greece was the Eye of the world and Athens was the Eye of Greece yet even at Athens Paul found an Altar To an unknown God and that same God was the God that made the world God the Creator Act. 17. 23 24. saith Paul For as I passed by and beheld your devotions I found an Altar with this inscription
the world If one 1. Of the world's unthankfulnesse should build an house for a man then furnish it and afterwards put the poor man that was harbourlesse before into it and put a stock into his hands to trade withall and keep his house in repair for him and require no other Rent but some small acknowledgment Would not all the world cry shame of this man if he should not be thankfull It is our case God hath made a world for man and furnished it before he brought man into it Jesus Christ he hath been in the world ever since the Creation upholding all things by the word of his power And yet such is the unthankfulnesse of men that they know not Christ He was in the world the world was made by him and the world knew him not therefore did not acknowledge him as their Creator and Preserver Such is the madnesse of men that they are over-apt to bestow divine honour upon those it belongeth not to and to deny it to Christ to whom it appertaineth When Paul and Barnabas had cured the Creeple Act. 14. 11. they had much ado to stave off the people from making gods of them Now when the people saw what Paul had done they lifted up their voices saying in the speech of Lycaonia The gods are come down to us in the likenesse of men And they called Barnabas Jupiter and Paul Mercurius The Priests of Jupiter offered sacrifice to them Christ doth a great deal more than this commeth to and yet men own him not Do ye thus requite the Lord as Moses said O foolish people and unwise Secondly It helpeth to clear God and to magnifie the 2. Of the patience of Christ patience of Christ He made the world the world knowes him not and yet he letteth the world stand for all this He hath let the world continue almost six thousand years notwithstanding all this ingratitude of the world We may well upon this occasion call to mind that which the Prophet Hosea recordeth Hos 11. 8 9. How shall I give thee up Ephraim how shall I deliver thee Israel how shall I make thee as Admah how shall I set thee as Zeboim My heart is turned within me my repentings are kindled together I will not execute the fiercenesse of mine anger I will not return to destroy Ephraim For I am God and not man the holy One in the midst of thee and I will not enter into the City For I am God and not man Here is a great evidence that Christ is God and not man otherwise the world had been made as Admah and Zeboim long ere this Suppose Moses himself the meekest man upon earth to be indowed with that power that Christ had in his hands from the beginning of the world and suppose him to have hated sin as Christ doth It would have been impossible even for Moses to have held his hands He that cryed out at the Rock Ye rebells shall I bring water out of this Rock to you would certainly have cryed out Ye rebells I will send down fire Exod. 17. 2. upon you from heaven to consume you What an high provocation is this when Christ hath done so much to have all sleighted Men take it ill when there is any competency of worth in them to be neglected Not to speak of the worth of Christ as Redeemer look to his works of Creation see what glorious Attributes shine in them do but compare them with the works of men If a workman doth many things surely they are not great for one great thing will take up a great deal of time If he produceth a great piece he doth not make many such if many and great commonly they are but great Torrasses things of no worth or both botchingly and bunglingly done Now here in the work of Creation is both Mercy and Greatnesse here is Comelinesse and Usefulnesse kissing each other And yet all this sleighted by the sons of men and that for so many years together and yet the earth standeth Oh! the Patience of God notwithstanding all this provocation Thirdly Ye may see the happiness of Christians Though the 3. See the happinesse of Christians world knoweth not God there is a certain sort of Men in the world that do 1 Tim. 3. 16. God manifested in the Flesh justified of the Spirit seen of Angels preached to the Gentiles believed on in the world Believed on in the world This is the great priviledge of us Christians The poor Gentiles knew there was a God and might come to the knowledge of some of his Attributes but when their consciences flew in their faces they were then at a great stand They had learned that God was and was mercifull and that he would pardon sin but they had not the knowledge of a Mediator nor how to make a friend to God This God hath made known to them that live under the means of grace and hold the Ministry of the Gospell He hath let them see what wayes they have to make to God The Lord Jesus Christ hath held forth the wayes of Truth and Life Truth and life by Jesus Christ No man goeth to the Father but by Him Therefore if that Philosopher of whom we read thought he had so much cause to blesse God that had made him not a Barbarian but a Grecian and amongst Grecians an Athenian amongst Athenians a Philosopher Certainly we have cause to magnifie the grace of God that we are born not Pagans but Christians in regard of an outward Covenant and not Papists but Protestants and amongst Protestants English men Because this Island of ours hath by the grace of God been the Goshen wherein this light of the Gospell hath shined more than in any Kingdome of Christendome I have done with that verse and proceed to the Eleventh which concerneth the Jewes especially Vers 11. He came to his owne and his owne received The Jewes refuse to receive Christ him not He came two wayes There are many sorts of Christ's coming which will be needlesse to repeat to you He came First In his Ordinances Secondly In the Flesh First Christ is said to come amongst a people whom 1. Christ cometh to a people in his Ordinances He blesseth with his Ordinances according to that Exodus 20. 24. In all places where I record my Name I will come to thee and blesse thee The Gospell never cometh to a place but Christ cometh with it Secondly He came in the flesh This is a faithfull saying 2. Christ came in the flesh and worthy of all men to be received saith Paul 1 Tim. 1. 15. That Jesus Christ came into the World to save sinners Thus he came He came to his owne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word is and may be rendred thus He came to his owne home So the word is rendred Acts 21. 6. When we had taken leave of one another we took ship and they returned home again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
found in this Relation as to take away the bitternesse of all other dispensations and providences though in other respects very averse Our Chroninicles tell us of King Edward the first when he was in forraigne parts newes was brought him at once both of the death of his father and of his son The King was exceedingly struck into sadnesse at the relation but especially at the death of his father For saith he I may have more sons but never another father We may have more friends and more estates if we lose our friends or estates but we can have no more fathers if we once lose our God we shall never have such a Father as he lose him once and all is gone Am not I said Elkanah to Hannah better to thee then ten sons Well may God say to us Am not I better to you then ten thousand sons and ten thousand times ten thousand estates All sweetnesse concenters in this Relation God is our Father we are his Children But there may be a great deal of wealth and honour 5. It is a safe estate and freedome and sweetnesse and yet no safety may attend this condition This is a safe estate that is the commendations of it This honour and riches and freedome and sweetnesse they shall all continue The servant he abideth not in the house for ever but the son abideth ever saith our Saviour Joh. 8. 35. Therefore fear not little flock saith Christ It is your Fathers pleasure to give you the Kingdome Nothing shall intervene so as to hinder a son from the Inheritance It is his Fathers good pleasure and his will shall stand to give them a Kingdome in the issue So it is clear that this is an high priviledge What use shall we make of it First examine whether we be thus preferred yea or Vse 1 no. It is that which almost every one in the visible Church Examine our selves wherher we be sons or not pretendeth to be a son and daughter of God It is therefore worth the while to try whether the Lord Jesus Christ hath made us partakers of this priviledge It is a use both for the assurance of the Saints and for the discarding of Hypocrits that are but pretenders to it They favour even those men of whom Christ saith You are of your father the Devill They pretend sonship to God Joh. 8. 41. We say they be not born of fornication we have one Father even God And yet Christ saith to them ye are of your father the Devill We are of God say they ye are of your father the Devill saith Christ One way to try this and the onely one that I will name is by the spirit of adoption If we be sons then God hath sent forth into our hearts the spirit of adoption by which we cry Abba Father This ye have expressely laid down in so many words Gal. 4. 6. Because ye are sons God hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts crying Abba father Wheresoever there is sonship there will be crying Abba Father Crying implyeth fervency of spirit as Why cryest thou to me faith God to Moses when he was in a great strait at the Red-sea Because both the profane persons and formall professors will put on for a share before we can break the childrens bread we must discard them from the comforts of this If crying Father and if praying argue my sonship Formality and Prophaneness reproved then I am a son saith the profane person for I say my prayers ever and anon Alas what is this to the purpose Thy praying is but craving yea thy praying is but houling in God's esteem Isa 7. 14. They have not cryed to me with their hearts when they houled upon their beds How irksom is the houling of dogs to the ears of men such is that which profane persons call Praying in the ears of God The truth is their praying is but a driving of contradictions because their life all the while giveth their tongue the lie Our Father saith the profane person which art in heaven and in the mean while he serveth his father the devill which is in hell Hallowed be thy Name so say his lips but in the mean time he dishonoureth God in swearing and lying and whoring and drinking and prophaneness Thy kingdom come and in the mean while he opposeth the Kingdom of Christ in his heart and in the lives of his Saints and doth what he can to hinder the comming of it Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven and in the mean while he doth the will of Satan that will which the damned do in hell Give us this day our daily bread seemingly acknowledging that he receiveth all even his outward mercies from God and in the mean while perhaps sacrificeth to his own net commending his own skill for the estate he hath gotten Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespasse against us and in the mean while he goeth on in malice and envy sinning to his very hour of death as it were Lead us not into temptation in the mean while he tempteth the devill to tempt him He cryeth Deliver us from evill and delivereth himself up to evill while he saith so He layeth the reins upon the neck of his lusts that run away with him into all mischief Call you this praying I but saith the formall professor I pray and that frequently not in distress onely but haply keep a constant course of prayer Surely I must go for a child of God That we be not deceived let us consider It is one thing to draw nigh with the heart and another thing to draw nigh with the lips You know the complaint of Isaiah compare two places together Isa 1. 15. When ye so read forth your hands I will hide mine eyes from you and when you make many prayers I will not hear you And yet he complaineth of them by Isaiah Isa 4. They make many prayers and yet none heareth that prayer Why Because Isa 29. 13. This people draw near to me with their mouths but remove their hearts far from me Therefore they pray and their prayers are no prayers because their hearts are not in them I will not deny but many a formall professor may have attained to the gift of prayer but that which I make an argument of Sonship was a spirit of prayer the spirit of adoption by which we cry Abba Father What that is ye may see Zach. 10. 12. I will pour out upon Jerusalem the spirit of grace and supplication How worketh that They shall look upon me whom they have pierced and mourn for me as one mourneth for his onely son Wheresoever the spirit Spirituall Prayer looks up to Christ of prayer is there will be a looking up to Jesus Christ in all our devotions The spirit of Adoption that commeth from the Son guideth to the Son and taketh us along with him in all our addresses to God They that
Adopted cannot enjoy the Adopter and the Inheritance both at once enjoy his father and the inheritance both at once till the adopting father be dead what is left him by the Adoptor doth not come into his hands But now herein lyeth another excellency of this Spirituall Adoption Every believer may at once enjoy both the Inheritance and the Father because he that adopteth him liveth for ever yea because his Father is his Inheritance So the truth standeth He that adopteth us to an Inheritance Himself is that Inheritance which he adopteth us to for we are adopted to the fruition of our God Psal 16. 5. The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance So that here is Father and Inheritance joyned both together because the Father is the Inheritance Lastly In Civill Adoption it is but some petty Inheritances 5. They are poor petty things that we are here adopted to which men are adopted to by their adopting fathers some poor things it may be a Farm or Lordship or Mannor What if it be a Kingdom It is in comparison but a poor thing to that Inheritance which Christ hath adopted us to which we shall find described to the life 1 Pet. 1. 4. To an inheritance incorruptible undefiled that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for you Here are the super-excellent properties of that Inheritance the consideration of which will exceedingly inhaunce this priviledge of Adoption First It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an incorruptible inheritance 1. An incorruptible Inheritance Whatsoever Inheritances we have here below they are liable to corruption If a man's estate lie in Mony that may rust or the thieves may break through and steal it If in Cattle they may die if in Houses they may be burnt if in Lands an enemy may invade them But here is an Inheritance that cannot be corrupted because it lyeth in God For the Father is our Inheritance and the immortall God is not lyable to any corruption Secondly It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Inheritance undefiled 2. An Inheritance undefiled There are few inheritances here below but some defilement sticketh to them they are either ill got or ill kept An Inheritance may be got by oppression or if not so yet there may be defilement in the keeping of it He that commeth to inherit it may behave himself oppressively If when riches encrease the heart commeth to be set upon them there will be defilement with the inheritance But here is an Inheritance undefiled No unclean thing shall enter into heaven not so much as a Serpent to tempt in that Paradise that is above Mahomet telleth his followers of a defiled inheritance wherein there shall be a great deal of filthiness But Christ hath provided another kind of Inheritance for his which is without sin undefiled Thirdly It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Inheritance that 3. An Inheritance that fadeth not away fadeth not away a Metaphor taken from flowers The beauty of a flower and the sweetnesse of it is quickly gone withereth in a moment and fit for nothing then but to be cast away So it is with all other temporall Inheritances they lose their glory after a while they cease to minister that content which a man hoped to have found in them which may be had at the first possessing of them yea all the glory of the world is like the flower of the field that fadeth away But herein lyeth the excellency of this Inheritance it fadeth not away It is a flower that never withereth their joyes are alwaies flourishing a continuall spring of flourishing consolations ariseth from the enjoyment of God and every day sweeter and sweeter Fourthly It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an inheritance 4. An Inheritance reserved reserved We cannot say so of temporall inheritances they may be gone A trick at Law may put a man out of his estate he may be wrangled out of it by some device or other an enemy may come and spoile him of it he can have no assurance Though men purchase houses and lands for themselves and their heirs for ever alas how soon are some men dead and gone and it may be the next generation knoweth no such houses or lands nor no such men But here is an inheritance reserved All the Devills in hell shall never wrangle a man out of This Possession reserved Lastly It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an inheritancc reserved 5. An Inheritance reserved in Heaven in heaven which is still a farther addition Whatsoever is in Heaven is excellent Many fading things are on earth The least thing in heaven is above the best things in the world And it is a consideration that addeth much to the sweetnesse of the Inheritance to consider where it lyeth As Who would not rather desire to have a small competency of land in England amongst his own friends where he was born than to have much in the Indies amongst strangers It is an Inheritance reserved in heaven which is our Country the Believer's home Every man is born from above 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his kindred live in Heaven his Father is there and his Mother there We are strangers upon earth therefore our inheritance is in heaven which is much more worth than our inheritance below So excellent is this Inheritance Therefore how great is this love of Christ in giving us this priviledge to become the sons of God Secondly Let us learn from hence to judge of our How to know whether we be the sons of God estates how things stand between God and us whether we be sons and daughters yea or no nothing concerneth us more Therefore time spent in this scrutiny will be profitable Our Sonship is evidenced two waies By way of Testimony and By way of Inference First By way of Testimony So we come to know our 1. By the witnesse of the Spirit selves to be sons and daughters by the witnesse of the Spirit which ye read of Rom. 8. 16. The Spirit it self beareth witnesse to our spirits that we are the children of God This Spirit it is that keepeth the Records of Heaven The holy Ghost is conscious to all the secrets of God knoweth what names are written in the book of life therefore he is able to make them known to us None but the Son of God can Redeem and none but the Spirit of God can Assure so as to make your Evidences clear and infallible and above all doubt and fear But this doth not now lie so clear in my way Secondly It is therefore evidenced by way of Inference Vers 8 9. Our Sonship dependeth upon our receiving 2. By way of Inference Christ It may be inferred from hence As many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God Therefore every son of God hath received him and every one that hath received him may know himself to be the Son of God This I shall insist upon hoping you will excuse me
though I be a little large in it To help you in your search I shall endeavour to shew what it is to receive Jesus Christ aright because your sonship hangeth upon the having or not having Jesus Christ Give me leave therefore to tell you First What it Supposeth Secondly What it Includeth Thirdly What it Produceth That by laying all together ye may come to some estimate of your own condition First It Supposeth certain Acts of the Understanding Secondly It Includeth certain Acts of the Will Thirdly It produceth certain Effects to bear witnesse to the truth of the former Acts. First Receiving Christ supposeth certain Acts of men's 1. To receive Christ supposeth certain Acts of the Understanding understanding their Graces Father sanctifie them through thy truth thy Word is truth I say certain acts of the understanding namely certain due apprehensions concerning diverse particulars I shall name to you which in an ordinary course we come to have the knowledge of before we come to receive Christ I speak not what the work of God hath in the souls of Infants when he conveyeth Christ to them but in an ordinary course when men and women come to years there are certain precedent apprehensions of the understanding First Concerning the Person and Office of Jesus Christ 1. The Person and Office of Christ is to be understood No man receiveth he knoweth not what We receive not Christ till we desire him Ignoti nulla cupido and we desire him not till we know him The soul first cometh by the Spirit of Christ to have some apprehensions wrought concerning the Person of Christ to know him as God-Man the Word made flesh The Man-God onely Suffering as Man Satisfying as God There lyeth much in this in the right apprehension of Christ's Person which is the object of our faith as it justifyeth As they say of marriage-contracts If there be a mistake of the person the Contract is not valid as if by some way of deceit when the Contract cometh to be made up another woman be brought in the habit and room of that party to whom the man intendeth to contract himselfe here is an errour of person As it was with Laban that gave to Jacob Leah under colour of Rachell and that made void the marriage How can a soul be married to Christ and mistake the person and not know what Christ is nor acknowledge his Godhead Here is an errour of the person Christ is another kind of person than they take him for As there must be knowledge of the person of Christ so of his office too We must know him as the great Priest our sacrifice No other sacrifice would have served our turn and none could have offered that sacrifice but himselfe The Eternall spirit offered himselfe without spot to God The Priest sacrificing and The Priest interceding These are the two great parts of his Priestly office And so know him as our Prophet guiding us by the Word This is my beloved Son hear him guiding us by his spirit We shall be all taught of God And as King ruling us and subduing our Enemies under his feet Secondly It supposeth due apprehensions about the nature 2. It supposeth due apprehensions about the nature and danger of sin and danger of sin For till men have some consideration about this they do not use to look out for a Saviour Therefore the first thing the spirit of God doth when he cometh to convert is to convince He shall convince the World of sin because they believed not on me To let men see sin as for its nature extreamly odious That there are two great evils in it Aversion fron God and Conversion to Sin defined the Creature Jer. 2. 13. Ye have committed two great evils by forsaking Me the fountain of living waters and hewing to your selves Cisterns yea broken Cisterns that will hold no water And for the danger of it It is such as exposeth men to eternall death And till this be seen there will be no 3. It supposeth due apprehensions about rhe necessity of a Saviour looking out for Remedy where Justice is wages must be paid Now God is just therefore sin is dangerous Thirdly It supposeth due apprehensions about the necessity of a Saviour which followeth upon the sight of sin Acts 16. 30. The convinced Gaoler cryed out Sirs what shall I do to be saved Till men come to be sensible of their spirituall drought they never look out for the waters of life It is not every cut-finger that causeth a man to send to the Chirurgion nor every head-ache that maketh him to go to the Physitian but when he is wounded when he is sick to death then send for the Chirurgion for the Physitian when sin lieth heavy upon the soul then they make out for Christ Those that scoffed at Noah all the while he was building the Ark when the Deluge was come indeed when they saw no other shift then they cried out A World for an Ark. When we are ready to be turned over the Ladder pardon then is pardon indeed Fourthly It supposeth some due apprehensions about 4. It supposeth no salvation by any thing or person but by Christ the utter impossibility of obtaining salvation by any thing or by any person but by Christ alone That which Peter taught Acts 4. 12. Neither is there salvation in any other for there is no other Name under Heaven given amongst men by which we must be saved If there were another way open for salvation then there were no such necessity of receiving Christ but seeing this is not onely a way but the onely way of Gods appointment seeing as Naomi once said to her daughters in Law when they would needs follow her Why saith she Ruth 1. 11. Have I any more sons in my Womb that they may be your Husbands So Hath God any more sons in the Womb of his Eternall decree but Christ alone that they may be Mediators for us Seeing there is no Saviour but He therefore there is an utter impossibility of obtaining salvation by any other person or thing besides When the soul cometh to see this it maketh way for the receiving of Christ As for all the Creatures David saith No man can by any means redeem the soul of his brother from death he must let that alone for ever There is no man or means or ordinances but all say of salvation as Job bringeth them in speaking of wisdome Job 28. 13 14 15. Where shall wisdome be found where is the place of understanding Men know not the price thereof nor is it found in the Land of the living The deep saith It is not in me and the sea saith It is not with me It cannot be got for Gold neither shall Silver be weighed for the price thereof So may I say of Salvation Who knoweth the price thereof where shall salvation be found where is the place of happinesse The Law saith It is not
something hard This is the Case for Christ to have taken our nature as it was in Adam while he stood cloathed in his Integrity and flood right in the sight of God had not been so much as when Adam was fallen and proclaimed Traitor As Bernard saith Quò pro me vilior eò mihi charior Domine Lord thou shalt be so much the more dear to me by how much the more thou hast been vile for me Here is Condescension indeed that Christ should stoop so low to take flesh and flesh wlth infirmities You know what King Ahasuerus did when he met with the passage in the Chronicles which laid open what good service Mordecay had done for him saith he What hath been done for this man and when he saw nothing was done he thinks presently of advancing him Hest 6. 3. Let us call to our selves and say What hath been done for this Jesus that hath done so much for my soul If nothing at all It is time to fall upon this duty and to think of some way to Testifie our thankfullnesse to Christ How shall we do it Christ is above we are not able to reach Him True but He hath members here on Earth though He be in Heaven He will take it as done to himselfe if ye do it to one of them Would you be thankfull to Christ be kind to his people Kings when they go their progresse and come to this and that Town and are presented with some summe of Money or piece of Plate the Present they receive to give the people content but they give away the thing to some of their Favourites So it is with Christ He giveth away the things ye tender him he taketh it well but he is content that his Children should have what you give He himselfe standeth in no need of what we can do but if we do it to his people he will accept it as if it was done to himselfe Matth. 25. 40. Therefore David maketh a full Confession of this Psal 16. 2 3. Thou art my Lord saith he my goodnesse extendeth not to thee but to the Saints on the Earth and to the Excellent in whom is all my delight You see what use may be made now of what was said of the Divine nature of Christ as he is called the Word what of his human nature as he is said to be made flesh and what followeth and what hath been said of the personall union of these two natures Ye may from hence take a view of one of the deepest The greatest mystery in the World is the Word made flesh Mysteries in all the World for it is one of the deepest in all Religions and the Christian Religion containeth such mysteries â—s the world cannot shew besides all the depths of the world are but shallow to the things of God Here is one of the deepest things of God The Word being made flesh There are three great Unions that are three great Mysteries the deepest of any that are The Substantiall union The Personall union The Mysticall union And this is one of them First The Substantiall union of three Persons in one 1. The Substantiall union Nature and one Substance So Father Son and holy Ghost make but One God Secondly There is the Personall union of two Natures 2. The Personall union in one Person So God and Man make but one Christ Thirdly There is the Union of Severall both Persons 3. The Mysticall union and Natures in one Mysticall body and so Elect Angels and Men and Christ together make but one Body whereof Christ is the Head Here are the three great Mysteries of Religion That I speak of is the second of these The Personall union In the first of these Divines use to observe that there is alius and alius but not aliud and aliud another Person but not another Thing The Father is Alius a Filio a distinct Person from the Son and the Son is Alius à sancto Spiritu a distinct Person from the holy Ghost but not a distinct Thing The Father Son and holy Ghost make but one Essence there is not aliud to be found in them In the Second is aliud but not alius a distinct Thing but not distinct Persons The Human Nature is a distinct thing from the Godhead and the Godhead a distinct thing from the Manhood but not a distinct person from the Manhood for God and Man make but one Person In the Third the Mysticall union there is both aliud and alius but not alienus There is distinct Things and distinct Persons the Angelicall Nature and Human Nature the persons of Believers and the Person of Christ but there is not alienus amongst them One of these are united to another in near relation they are not aliud one from another Though there be different things and different persons there is a union between them That is one thing that ye may learn from hence Secondly Ye may learn from hence a ground of that communication of Properties which is a very mysterious thing in Religion that which they call Communicatio Idiomatum a thing not so easily understood But by reason of this personall union of the two Natures in Christ there is a communication of Properties that is That which belongeth to the Manhood may be ascribed and given to Christ though denominated from the Godhead and that that belongeth to the Godhead may be denominated to Christ because it belongeth to the Manhood A man may truly say The Son of How the Son of Mary made the world and how the Son of God shed his blood Mary made the world Here Christ is denominated from his human Nature but it is Christ as God that made the world not Christ as the Son of Mary for he was not the Son of Mary till many thousand years after the world was made On the other side you may say The Son of God was crucified and shed his blood upon tâ—â— Crosse Here ye ascribe that to Christ under the denomination of the Son of God which belongeth to him as Man to shed his blood as God he hath none to shed But yet this may properly be said because the Person is both God and Man It is not without precedent in Scripture Joh. 3. 13. No man hath ascended up to heaven but he that came down from heaven even the Son of man which is in heaven Christ here when he conversed upon earth he said The Son of man was in heaven Why Because that Person was in heaven according to his Godhead and yet the Son of man denominated from the Godhead is said to be in heaven whereas nothing more certain that Christ-Man was upon earth and yet in heaven as God And so on the other side Act. 20. 28. Take heed to the flock over which the holy Ghost hath made you overseers to feed the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood God hath no blood yet God is
Demetrius and the Silver-Smiths cried-up Act. 19. 28. Diana of the Ephesians because they got their Living by making of her Silver-shrines The merits of Christ will bring us more than the shrines of Diana can bring to them We shall have Life and Life Eternall with this Life Therefore we have more cause to cry up Great is the Lord Jesus Great is the Lord the Rock of our Salvation and our Righteousnesse And the rather because in few words the best way in the World to cry down both sin and errour is to cry up Christ Lust and Heresie both will fall like Dagon before the Ark if Christ were once up in men's hearts There is use of other Arguments and Considerations as of the Law and the terrour of the day of Judgement and torments of Hell these have their place There is nothing so effectuall to draw sinners out of hell as the setting up of Christ when they know Christ is Crucified they then are crucified with Christ A man may be terrified with the threats of the Law and thoughts of iudgement to come and yet have an heart filled with lust all this while If Christ once come into the heart he driveth out these lusts before him The like may be said of Errors Corrupt opinions If the Sun of Righteousnesse comes in it is his beams that causeth all these shadowes to fly away nothing so soon nothing so sure Instance in Popery There may be great use of preaching against the particular points of it against Purgatory Transubstantiation and Worshipping of images But if once a man could set up Christ in his heart How soon would these vanish Saith Calvin Popery cannot stand but where the ignorance of Christ is brought in for the knowledge of Christ maketh Popery to fall Christ and Antichrist are like two buckets in a Well if the one goeth up the other goeth down Popery cannot thrive in that soyl where Christ is planted Thus much from these words the manner of his bearing witnesse He came crying Thirdly For the Time that I told you lay in these 3. The time when he did bear witnesse words This was he of whom I spake Whence it is gathered That John the Baptist having testified of Christ when he came to his Baptism continued his bearing witnesse to him now when Jesus was gone into the wildernesse which ye know was presently after he was baptized That difference is between this Evangelist and the former he relateth what they omitted and omitteth many of those things that they relate The other had spoken of the testimony that John gave to Christ before he made himself known our Evangelist speaketh nothing of this but falleth upon those Testimonies which he gave to Christ after he was made known Now he was made known at his baptism This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Chemnitius maketh it appear plainly that what John saith in my Text was spoken after Christ was baptized when he was drawn aside into the wildernesse to be tempted of the Devill I said This was he yet he came after me and was before me Observe from hence this namely That the Baptist was honouring Christ when the devill was tempting of him Observ While Satan was using all his subtlery to overcome Christ in the wildernesse John is using all his earnestnesse and endeavour to cry him up to exalt him in the hearts of his hearers This is a speciall piece of Christian prudence for men to counterwork the devill to appear so much the more for Christ by how much the more Satan and his instruments appear against him There should be a kind of Antiperistasis in the soul of every believer as in the fire that burns hottest then when the aire round about it is coldest The middle Region is therefore coldest because the great heat of each takes the reflection from the lower and the upper heat above Such an Antiperistasis should be found in Christians they should be witnesses in the deadest times and their hearts should be softest in the hardest times and fullest of activity for Christ in the times of the greatest opposition against him As John is a honouring of him when the Devill is a tempting him The reason lyeth in that enmity which was put at first between the Serpent and the Seed of the woman for enmities work one against another contraries expell one another The Devill will be sure to crosse us if he can when we go to any spirituall duty as When the high Priest Zachary was standing before the Lord then it is said There was Satan standing at his right hand to resist him Zach. 3. 1. Therefore when we see Satan plotting any mischief we should stand at his right hand to resist him We should do what we can for Christ at such times more especially Then our service is most acceptable and most usefull For men not to be ashamed of Christ in the midst of a crooked and an adulterous generation yet for men to appear for Christ in a back-sliding generation run through the stories of all times and ye shall find this hath been the spirit of the Saints When Herod sought for Christ to destroy Matth. 2. 14. him in his Infancy then was Joseph and Mary most carefull of him and took him into Egypt When the Priests When Christ is most opposed then we should most appear for Him and Levites and Scribes and Pharisees did much oppose him in his Members then the Apostle's most of all appeared for him and tell the Rulers to their faces Whether it be better to obey God or man judge ye In the Primitive times when it was death to bear the name of a Christian then did Pausanius when they asked him what he was say My name is Christian and my sirname is Catholick His name was Christian to distinguish him from Hereticks and those that opposed Christianity I need not tell you of our Worthies in Queen Mary's daies that not onely by their Writings but by their Sufferings witnessed for Christ not onely in black and white but in red too It should be so still the very thoughts of their flames should kindle zeal in us Christ is opposed even at this day in many waies therefore we should strive for him There are many tempters and revilers now therefore Christ should have many Champions now Heaven and Earth may both teach us this lesson Time was when our Saviour came to the men of Bethlehem He came to his own and his own received him not they refused to entertain Christ as became him Then doth the Star from heaven own him that comes and sheweth Matth. 2. 9. the Wise-men where he was and standeth before the house Afterwards when his own rejected him Not him but Barabbas said they When the Jewes that pronounced Joh. 18. 40. him not worthy to live had got their ends then the Sun is darkned and the Earth quaked they owned their Lord and Maker then when the
yet there be other places that shew that Christ hath power over the Devills of hell That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in Phil. 2. 20. earth and things under the earth Christ could not have run through his Kingly Office if he had not had this power over devills because he could not have been able to have bound the strong man if he himself had not been stronger There is in Christ as he is the Prophet of his Church 2. The fulness of Wisdom the fulnesse of wisdom Col. 2. 3. In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge Though that wisdom the creatures have is but a poor small moiety we may have our pounds perhaps or not so much What we have is but as shillings and pence and farthings All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hid in Christ and that too from the very first moment of his Incarnation though he did not begin to exercise his Propheticall gifts till afterwards But when God onely wise was pleased to joyn himself to a Creature that Creature was made partaker of the wisdom of God There is a place that may seem to stumble some Luk. 2. ult where it is said that Christ encreased in wisdom Object and stature and in favour with God and man If he encreased in wisdom then all the treasures of wisdom were not hid in him from the beginning For this you must know there is in Christ a two-fold Answ wisdom An Uncreated wisdom and A Created wisdom An uncreated wisdom which belongeth to him as the Second Person in the Trinity that is alwaies one and the same Secondly There was a created wisdom that did belong to Christ as Man and of that it may be said in some sense that Christ encreased in wisdom Haply all the habits of wisdom were not at once infused into the Human Nature and there might be no encrease of them yet as to act there might be a grouth And as to particular application of wisdom to this and that object there might be a grouth in experimentall wisdom though not in habituall wisdom There was no time wherein God did not favour Christ This is my Matth. 3. 17. beloved Son in whom I am well pleased But yet the favour of God was not manifested to Christ at all times alike it was manifested more at his Transfiguration than when he was in the Garden when he sweat water and blood and more when the voice came from heaven and gave that testimony of him This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased then when he hung upon the Crosse and cryed out My God my God Why hast thou forsaken me In experimentall Mar. 15. 34. favour Christ grew and so he might grow in experimentall knowledge too What if a man might say The habits of this created knowledge were enlarged in Christ because as Christ grew in years the Human Nature grew in a capacity of more and more knowledge and accordingly there might be an enlargement in that sense If a man cut his name in small letters in the bark of a tree they are but small at the first as the tree growes the letters grow and when the tree commeth to the full grouth the letters stand at a stay too Thus the Human Nature of Christ was extended as he grew in Nature But this we are sure of In him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge as he was a Prophet Thirdly To this fulnesse of sufficiency is a third remaining 3. The fulness of righteousnesse ing that is A fulness of Righteousnesse as he was Priest of which ye read Joh. 16. 10. He will convince the world of sin and righteousness and judgment Of righteousness because I go to the Father and ye see me no more Here is a clear argument that there was a fulnesse of righteousnesse in Jesus Christ because he rose from the dead and went to the Father notwithstanding he had undertaken as our Surety to pay our debts He is now gone to the Father up to Heaven Heaven had been too hot for him if he had left any thing to pay But He convinced the world of righteousnesse because I go to the Father and ye shall see me no more which he could not have done if all had not been discharged which argueth he did fulfill whatsoever he undertook Therefore he is called Jesus the righteous 1 Joh. 2. 1. If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father even Jesus Christ the righteous he is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours onely but also for the sins of the whole world Had he not been Jesus the righteous he could not have been Jesus our propitiation For we have broken the Law if he had not fulfilled it for us he could not have been a propitiation for our sins therein lyeth his righteousnesse Now there is a fulnesse of righteousnesse in Jesus Christ because he fully answered whatsoever the Law could challenge The Law requires a three-fold righteousnesse of us it The Law requires a three-fold righteousnesse of us requires An Habituall righteousness A Practicall righteousness A Passive righteousnesse Habituall righteousness that is a conformity of our 1. Habituall righteousnesse natures to the horridnesse of the Law Originall sin is against that Practicall righteousnesse is a conformity of our lives to 2. Practicall righteousnesse the precepts of the Law and every act seems to be a violation of that Passive righteousness is a conformity of our sufferings 3. Passive righteousnesse to the threatnings and curse of the Law which is Cursed be every one that continueth not in every thing of the Law to do it Now all these are to be found in Christ as our Surety All these in Christ and great high Priest There is in him an Habituall righteousnesse a conformity 1. Habituall righteousnesse of his Nature to the holinesse of the Law for He is a Lamb without spot and blemish The Law could never have required so much righteousnesse as is found in Him For Practicall righteousnesse there was never any aberration 2. Practicall righteousnesse Joh. 14. 30. in his thoughts words or deeds The prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me And for Passive righteousnesse there is a conformity of 3. Passive righteousnesse his sufferings to the threats and curse of the Law What doth the Law threaten Why a privation of comfort which answereth to our omission of good and an infliction of torment which answereth to our commission of evill Both these are to be found in Christ Time was when he was deprived of the comforts and influence which at other times he had from the Divinity so far as to cry out that he was forsaken And time was when he lay under torment and sense of wrath which made him to sweat water and blood So here is a Law exactly answered which is the fulnesse
even as the Angels It is said of them that they behold the face of God Matth. 18. 20. Christ saith there I say to you that in heaven their Angels do alwaies behold the face of my Father which is in heaven So when men come to be like Angels in a state of glory they shall also see the face of God But no man hath seen God at any time during this life God in his Essence For this we have more than one place of Scripture the same words in the Text are repeated in 1 Joh. 4. 12. No man hath seen God at any time And Paul hath a place to the same purpose 1 Tim. 6. 16. Who onely hath immortality dwelling in light which no man can approach unto whom no man hath seen nor can see There are but three waies that can be imagined by which man in a state of mortality can see God in his Essence either it must be by his Bodily eyes or by the eye of Reason or by the eye of Faith But a man cannot see God by any of these therefore no man can see God in that sense First No man can see God by his Bodily eye for the very 1. The eyes of our bodies cannot behold the Essence of God light wherein he dwelleth is inaccessible to the eye of sense we cannot so much as see our own souls or the Angels that are inferiour spirits How then shall we be able with our bodily eyes to see the Father of spirits the Lord of glory The Israelites could not so much as endure the shining of Moses his face How then can the eye of the body be imagined capable of that infinite glorious light that is in the essence of God And yet there is a place that speaks as if a man in the state of mortality by his bodily eyes had seen God Gen. 32. 30. Jacob called the name of the place Penuel for I have seen God face to face and my life is preserved Here is a man in the state of mortality that saw God face to face For this ye must know that Jacob did indeed see God but God in a representation not God in his essence He saw the Second Person in the Trinity in the shape of a man that wrestled with him This was all the sight of God that he had The Second Person in the Trinity before he took the nature of man took the shape of man such a shape had Christ taken here in which he wrestled with Jacob and this is that God which Jacob saw face to face not God in his essence but God in a representation And that very thing of God appearing in the Old Testament in a representation to the eyes of the body sheweth that he never appeared to them in his essence because his representations are many and his essence is one He appeared in a Bush to Moses and to Eliah in a still Voice to Jacob as a Wrestler to Joshua as a Captain of the Lord's hoast These were all representations that God was pleased to make of himself and thus men saw him But his essence all this while was invisible neither could it be diversified as his representations were being but one That is memorable which Isaiah saith Isa 6. 5. Mine eyes have seen the King the Lord of hosts The Jews took this advantage against him and said he was a false Prophet Why He said he had seen the King the Lord of hoasts whereas God saith to Moses Thou canst not see my face and live Therefore they put him to death No man can see God in his essence and live But Isaiah saw him and he said true but it was in a representation Secondly No man can see God in his essence no not by the eye of Reason Reason hath but three waies by which it 2. The eye of our Reason cannot behold him in his Essence Reason knoweth God three waies 1. By way of Causality comes to the knowledge of God and those are known to Schollars by these names Via causalitatis via Remotionis and via Eminentiae First By way of Causality and so reason comes to gather of God by all the creatures which it seeth lovely and looks at all these as effects of God as the cause of all and so comes to the knowledge of God as the first cause Thus Reason collects of God But how far is this from seeing the essence of God Reason discovers a God but not what God is in his Beeing onely that He is For no effect can shew the nature of its cause fully but either such as manifesteth the whole force of the cause or else such as is of the same kind with the cause as burning that sheweth the nature of the fire because the fire being a naturall agent burns to the utmost of its power Therefore burning sheweth what nature the fire is of as carrying the nature of the force in it As a child sheweth the nature of the father because of the same nature with the father But the creatures cannot shew God because they are of effects different from him These are parts of the way but how little proportion is readd of him The thunder of his power who can understand Neither are the creatures of the same rank and kind with God as the child is with the father they are all of them finite God is infinite So that all that Reason can do this way is to gather that there is a God but not what he is Secondly There is the way of Remotion by looking over 2. By way of Remotion all the creatures and by setting aside whatsoever savours of imperfection in them and ascribing the remainder to God Thus we say that God is Immortall Impassible Impeccable because we say that to die to suffer and to sin are the imperfections of the creature God cannot sin God cannot die God cannot lie God cannot suffer But this still comes short of seeing God in his essence for by this we see what God is not not what he is by this way of Remotion 3. The third way which is a way of Eminency Reason 3. By way of Eminency goeth over the creatures once again and looks whatsoever is good in them and savours of perfection in them and ascribes that to God as the Author of those perfections So when it seeth in Man wisdom and strength and goodnesse Reason can ascribe to God as the cause of them a more eminent goodness and wisdom and strength And this is the nearest and the farthest Reason can go And yet in all these it cometh short of the essence of God because in this way it findeth out what he is rather in regard of his qualities speaking after the manner of men then what he is in his essence Thus we cannot see God in his essence no not by the eye of Reason There is onely one more that is the eye of Faith which â— The eye of Faith cannot apprehend God in his
hath said is True and whatsoever he hath done is Just whether we can believe the truth of the one and consent to the Justice of the other yea or no. Therefore it is good to take the counsell of Augustine Vis tu disputare mecum Potiùs admirare mecum Wilt thou be disputing with me rather wonder with me and cry Oh Profunditas Oh the depth Let us both thou and I agree in fearing and trembling at the Counsels of God lest we both perish for our Curiosity in searching too farre into them And of all Disputers none more guilty in this kind than the Arminians therefore I name them Men that take upon them to state the Decrees of God as if they had been of his Councill when he made them men that seem to wade where Paul was past his depth which made him cry O the depth They make it clear to you to give you a reason of all God's Decrees if you take for granted what they say If you ask them Why Peter was elected and Judas not they say Because God foresaw Peter would believe and Judas not Why Peter was saved and Judas not Because Judas willed to persevere in sin and Peter did not Are not here men of God's Council that leave nothing unsearched Saith Paul when he was discoursing of these high points Rom. 9. 13 14. It is written Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated What shall we say then Is there unrighteousness with God God forbid He speaketh as a man puzl'd and non-plussed at the thoughts of this how God should come to chuse Jacob and hate Esau He saw no unrighteousnesse with God God hath done it and therefore Just And yet these people speak as if they could have fetched Paul out of his non-plus which is but to say That God foresaw that Jacob would believe and Esau would not therefore he loved the one and hated the other So as a man according to this reckoning may learn more in Arminius his School in a few daies then Paul had learned in the third heavens Let us take this for a conclusion As God cannâ—◠〈◊〉 seen in his Essence so not known in his Counsels to any man on this side Heaven 2. The second Use is this No man hath seen God at any time Why then let us all from hence be set to long for Use 2 heaven where we shall enjoy that which is not attainable by any man here below a sight of God a beatificall sight a scientificall sight ye shall have them both there in one place 1 Cor. 13. 12 13. Now we see through a glasse darkly but then face to face there is the beatificall Now I know in part but then shall I know even as also I am known there is the scientificall St. John tells you in another place a speech that might set the hearts of the people of God a leaping within them for joy to think of that day 1 Joh. 3. 2. Beloved now are we the sons of God and it doth Excellent things are spoken of the City of God not yet appear what we shall be but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is Who would not long for this day and for this appearance When he shall appear we shall see him as he is No day so joyfull as this to the people of God The Sabbath that is a joyfull day therefore the Saints have learned to call the Sabbath a delight as it is in Isaiah Behold here a rest for the people of God an eternall Sabbath a Sabbath that hath no working-day after it a Sabbath which whosoever hath once arrived at shall rest from his labours for evermore It was a joyfull day that when the people of Israel passed over Jordan and got into the land of Canaan which they had been so long looking for Think of that spirituall Canaan of which the other was but a type flowing with better milk and hony in likeness to God and vision of God We shall be like him and see him as he is If Moses longed for that think what cause the people of God have to long for the other because there they shall have the sight of God The year of Jubilee was a joyfull time before the appearing of Christ When we shall be restored to that we fell from in Adam we shall partake of the glorious liberty of the sons of God as the Apostle speaketh But that which is so joyfull is the sight of God which cannot be attained till then The very sight of Ghrist in the flesh afforded much joy Simeon got him in his arms and desired to die Now let thy servant depart in peace for mine eyes have seen thy salvation The Greeks Joh. 12. they came to Philip and said Sir we would see Jesus It was a joyfull sight to see Christ even in the flesh What is it then to see Christ in his glory and God in his Essence as far as a finite creature can be capable of such a sight If the Disciples upon the Mount were so over-joyed with the sight of Christ and two glorified creatures with him Moses and Elias so as Peter forgot himself there What joy will there be in the souls of men that come to see Christ attended with thousand thousand times ten thousand Saints and Angells not Christ transfigured but Christ in his utmost glory Wonder not if I speak but Balbusantèr of these things for all words come short let us make it up in affections Learn to long for this sight and for that place where it is attainable But then take this with you before I leave the Point Caution how to walk that we may see God Be carefull as you desire to have that which you cannot attain here a beatificall and scientificall sight of God be carefull to walk in Purity and in Peace for the sight of God is promised upon these conditions First In Purity Matth. 5. 8. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God It is not for every eye to see 1. In Purity God the pure in heart they shall see him Sore eyes cannot endure to see the light impure souls shall never be honoured with the sight of God The Jews whom Christ was speaking to here were men that stood much upon legall purifications He putteth them off from them and saith Blessed are the pure in heart A man that was not legally pure might not come to see God in the Sanctuary so will morall uncleanness much more keep us from the sight of God in Heaven Walk in Purity I and in Peace too so saith the Apostle Heb. 12. 14. 2. In Peace Follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. As not without holiness so not without peace He that hopeth to see the Prince of peace in another world to his comfort must carry the Son of peace here That of Augustine is an
to the Captains when they went out against Absolom See ye do the young man no harm Plague Fire Sword see ye do no hurt to him they shall not be able to do any Lastly here is comfort in case of parting with the Creatures as we must all do at death Consider how mean they 4. In case of parting with the Creatures are I do but go at Death if I am a Believer from inferiour beeings to the superiour Beeing leave the creature but go to the Creator of all things to Him that putteth all the goodnesse all the sweetnesse into the creatures which I find in them or can expect from them and hath infinitely more goodnesse and sweetnesse in himself Shall I then complain of a Losse by death No I shall be a Gainer I leave the Stream and Rivolets and go into the vast Ocean of all blisse and comfort Shall a man that hath wandred and travelled all night by Star-light which can hardly help him to see his way complain when the Sun ariseth that is a better guid All the creatures they are but Stars they cannot all make Our great advantage by dying in the Lord. a day put them altogether it is but a dimn light you have from thence Let no man complain that he is hardly dealt withall that dyeth in Christ then the Sun riseth and he shall go to a higher light from the fruition of the creature to Him that made him even to God himself Therefore he may comfortably commit his soul to God as to a faithfull Creator as Peter saith Because God will find his own Image upon that soul and accordingly will own it for his own He may comfortably commit his body to the grave in assurance of the Resurrection upon this ground because Christ made all things and he that made the body of man out of the dust can raise the body of man out of the dust Our remainders after death cannot be so little as our beeing was before the world Cannot that God who fetched all things out of nothing repair our bodies out of something out of ashes out of dust Therefore when a man most needeth comfort here is consolation from hence even in case of parting with the creatures at death Ye have had the Instructions and Consolations I come now to the Directions in point of Practise and of them briefly First Seeing Christ is the Creator of all things and not Direct 1 any one thing was made without him Learn we from To fear God the Creator of all things hence First to stand in awe of him upon this ground Psal 33. 6 7 8. By the word of the Lord were the heavens made and all the hostes of them by the breath of his mouth He gathereth the waters of the Sea together as an heap he layeth up the depths in a store-house Let all the inhabitants of the world fear him All must fear him because he made all If they were at his making then they must be disposed of by him As we carry our selves to Christ so shall the creatures carry themselves to us serviceably or if we walk contrary to him no wonder if we find the creatures walking contrary to us Amos. 3. 12 13. Thus saith he will I do to thee O Israel And because I will do this to thee prepare to meet thy God O Israel For lo he that formed the mountains and created the winds that dwelleth upon the high places of the earth the Lord of hosts is his name He created all therefore prepare to meet him in a way of fear and reverence because if the Creator of all things be offended at us he will arm all things against us it is but giving the creature a commission and how soon is man destroyed If Christ say Take him Plague and consume him take him Fire and burn him take him Water and drown him Earth open and swallow him Hell be inlarged and dispatch him it must be so Therefore stand in awe of him Secondly Learn we from hence to commit our souls Direct 2 to him in well-doing as to a faithfull Creator That ye To commit our souls to him as to a faithfull Creator have 1 Pet. 4. ult Let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well-doing as to a faithfull Creator If a Watch had understanding doubtlesse it would commit the keeping of it self to none but to him that made it because when it is out of frame he best knoweth how to set it right again because it is his own workmanship therefore he will have more regard to it than any other man will have Christ hath been the Creator of our souls let him have the keeping of them Cast all your care upon him for he careth for you saith Peter Shall not he that made thee be able to keep thee Doth not the Artificer love the work of his own hands He that hath given so much power to many creatures as to the Angels hath he not reserved much more power to himself who is able to keep and to keep to salvation Ye are kept by the power of God through faith to salvation How secure do men think themselves if some excellent creatures do but take care of them Suppose a great Prince should say to any of us that have a great many children Take no care for such and such a child send him to me I will take care for him How would such a person think himself at rest concerning that child With what security may we build upon the love of God in Christ if we commit our souls to him in well-doing as to a faithfull Creator Thirdly Learn we to get an interest in him as a Redeemer otherwise we shall have no more shew for Salvation Direct 3 than the brute beasts have for he is their Creator as well as To get an interest in him as a Redeemer ours All things were made by him He gave life to other creatures as well as to man Believe it whosoever thou art an Ox or an Asse may be saved as well as a Man or a Woman if that Man or Woman will not believe in Christ Thou art the workmanship of his hands true so is the brute beast It is not enough to be Christ's creatures we must be Christ's Members before we can get to Heaven Do not say He that madens will save us What saith the Prophet Isa 27. 11. It is a people of no understanding therefore he that made them will not have mercy upon them and he that formed them will shew them no favour It is not our being framed creatures by Christ but his framing the new creature within us to help us in the way to Heaven Give up your selves to Prayer as David doth Psal 119. 73. Thine hands O Lord have made and fashioned me give me understanding that I may learn to keep thy commandments He resteth not in his being made by God
but Give me understanding to keep thy commandments Fourthly seeing all things were made by Christ Learn Direct 4 from hence to consider the works of the Creation It is a To consider the works of the Creation with admiration dishonour to Christ to have the works of the Creation neglected and no man to look after them in a way of Admiration As it would be a dishonour to a curious Poet that hath framed an excellent Comedy and brought it upon the Stage to have no spectators God hath laid out a great deal of his Wisdom in the works of the world and calleth upon men to behold the works of his hands How ill will he take it if we consider them not If he hangeth out such a Master-piece as the world is and we go as swine and never behold it we do much neglect the Lord. See how ill the Lord taketh it and how ill men fare and from this very sin Psal 28. 5. Because they regard not the works of the Lord nor the operations of his hands he shall destroy them and not build them up He will destroy them for want of considering the works of his hands Lastly Seeing Christ is the Maker of all things Let all be improved in his service to his praise that is the end he Direct 5 To be improved in the service of Christ to his praise made them for Rev. 4. ult Thou art worthy O Lord to receive glory and honour and power for thou hast created all things He is worthy to receive honour and glory because he created all things Col. 1. 16. All things were created by him and for him Not onely by him as the Efficient but for him as the End Therefore we should employ our strength and parts and means whatsoever we have employ it to the service of Christ because from him we had it Take along with you this Rule That is a vain thing that misseth its end That is a cursed thing that crosseth its end That which misseth its end which it was made for is a vain thing For instance Christ hath given me a tongue to glorifie him withall I have my tongue in vain if I do not speak of Christ with it as David did who made his tongue as the Pen of a ready Writer But if I shall not onely speak of Christ but against him blaspheme him deny his Divinity and Satisfaction as the Socinians do here is a curse upon my tongue here it crosseth the end of its creation And so it is when a man employeth his wits to scoff against God and goodnesse with it when he groweth proud of his wealth or parts or apparell or any thing that God hath given him when he abuseth his strength to intemperance or luxury Here the end of his Making is crossed and here is a curse upon his parts and all other gifts his blessings are a curse to him I conclude with Col. 3. 17. Whatsoever ye do in word or deed do all things in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ giving thanks to God and the Father by him So I have done with the third Verse and proceed to the fourth Vers 4. In him was Life and the Life was the Light of Men. An Argument of Christ's Divinity taken from the Creation considered in generall in the making of all things He commeth now to speak more specially of things that have life and then more particularly of Himself and Man In him was life and the life was the light of men Three degrees of Communications there are from Christ as a Creator Esse Vivere Intelligere To some things he giveth a beeing as to Stones and Stars to other things he giveth life as well as beeing as to Plants and Birds and Fish and Beasts some whereof have the life of Vegetation others both of Vegetation and of Sense And then there is a third degree of Communication that is Intelligere Understanding that God giveth to men and Angels Of the first degree he had spoken before of all things that are made in generall now he speaketh in speciall manner of the second degree of communication which is giving of life to all the creatures that is in these words In Him was Life In Him namely in the Word For he had spoken that Life in Christ two manner of waies in Christ life was two waies Formaliter and Causaliter Life was Formally in Christ as in the Subject of it Life was Causally in Christ as in the Fountain of it Ye may give me leave to speak of both though the second haply be principally intended In him was life as in the Subject of it Take from hence an Observation That 1. As in the Subject 2. As in the Fountain Christ ever liveth and is the giver of all life He ever liveth life is in him as the Subject He is the giver of all life life is in him as the Fountain First He ever liveth that is He is the living God according to that Joh. 5. 26. As the Father hath life in himself so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself There was no time wherein Christ did not live he liveth from all eternity had life in himself even as the Father had If any question be it must be at that time wherein his Soul was parted from the Body when the Body lay in the grave Yet even then Christ lived One of his last words upon the Crosse was to the Thief To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise He had his Soul and Divinity in Paradise even while his Body lay and was housed in the Grave Christ lived in Heaven though his soul parted for a time from the Body neither was the Hypostaticall union dissolved So the life was not lost But the main thing intended is the Second In him was life Causally as in the Fountain of life When he created all things life was originally in him and from him derived to certain creatures which he then made Hence it is that Christ is called The Word of life The Prince of life The Life of life Because as he is the End so he communicates life to all things that partake of it He is called The Word of life 1 Joh. 1. 1. which we have lookt upon and our hands have handled of the Word of life He is called The Prince of life Act. 3. 15. They killed the Prince of life whom God raised from the dead whereof we are witnesses He calleth himself The Life Joh. 14. 6. I am the War the Truth and the Life And because his is not onely life in himself but life to us therefore he is called Our Life Col. 3. 4. When Christ who is Our Life shall appear then shall we also appear with him in glory All this is to shew that whatsoever life is communicated to the creature it commeth from Christ it is in him as in the Fountain With thee is the fountain of life Psal 36. 9. So as here now