Jesus Christ THE Great VVonder DISCOVERED FOR THE Amazement of SAINTS IN A SERMON Preached before the Right Honorable the Lord Major of London and the Honorable Court of Aldermen at Pauls By MATTHEW BARKER Preacher of the Gospel at Leonards East-Cheap LONDON O the depth of the Riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgements and his wayes past finding out Rom. 11. 33. Quando mens se ad deum cum amâ—re integrè convertit incomprehensibili luce in sundum ejus effulgente rationis intellectus oculus reverberatus caligat Isagog Corderii ad myst Theol cap. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dionys Areop de divin nomin Cap. 7. LONDON Printed by R. W. for Rapha Harford at the Bible and States-Arms in Little Brittain 1651. TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE Thomas Andrews LORD MAIOR AND The HONORABLE COURT of ALDERMEN YOu were pleased to Order this Sermon to the Press but I hope it hath already had one Impression upon your hearts and I intended it for no other and is the most noble and excellent kind of Printing when the heart comes to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a Book ingraven with the ingravings of God the Epistle of Jesus Christ written not with ink but the Spirit of the living God What I before 2. Cor. 3. 3. presented to your ears I now again present to your eyes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and if by either or both it shall reach your hearts I have my reward You should have had it sooner but some troubles in my spirit and some affairs in my hand have retarded it But now you have it and neither in matter or form much different from what it was And the blessing of heaven attend it that it may either make or renew some heavenly impressions upon your souls for though it is true what the Apostle saith Rom. 10. That Faith cometh by hearing yet it is also as true what the Church saith Lam. 3. 51. Mine eye affecteth my heart Then are the senses of the body in their highest and properest operations when they let in upon the soul those Idea's which will indeed raise refresh and nourish it My great plot was in this Discourse pardon this plot to make you all Captives not to my self but to TRVTH and JESVS CHRIST and I knew not how to do it by a more probable stratagem then to set up this Jesus in his WONDERFVLNES before you as conceiving that to men truly rational he cannot be presented under a more powerful and perswasive Notion And so I thought it might be very sutable to men in Power and place for the heart that is most effectually caught and captivated of Jesus Christ is best accomplisht for the sincere and vigorous prosecution of publique affairs Never doth the soul move aright in any service if it be not originally drawn of him and ultimately carried forth unto him And O that your choisest affections might centre in his person and your chiefest endeavours in his glory We read in Rev. 19. 1. of a great voyce of much people in heaven saying Allelujah salvation and glory and honour and power to the Lord our God What salvation what glory what honour and power the Lord hath given to his people in these dayes he expects they should give them back again to him that as they are his by their coming from him so they may again be made his by returning them back unto him and then shall we approve our selves to be of those people in heaven Apelles when he had drawn some curious piece would set it in publique view and place himself behind the curtain to hearken what would be said of it by the people passing by Jesus Christ hath set before us in his great works among us a fair draught a lively representation of his glorious power wisdom justice and mercy and doth he not now stand still and listen what the hearts tongues and actings of his people speak concerning it Our great transactions were lately in our VVars abroad they are now likely to be in our Counsels at home Much of God hath been seen in those and O that nothing of self might be seen in these I hope at last God will direct us to find out one Common Centre of Truth and Righteousness wherein all honest hearts will meet The Lord give your Lordship and all others that sit with you at the Stern of this City wisdom to sayl between the two rocks of ANARCHY and TYRANNY and then I hope you will arrive safe at the much longed for Haven of common righteousness and peace It is not for me to prescribe any thing in this nature Only I shall pray that the two Staves of BANDS and BEAUTY may alwayes stand at the gates of this City by our sweet enjoyment of Jesus Christ in his Ordinances and of one another in unity and love Our first degree of happiness would be not to differ but the second is to mannage our differences with humility and wisdom and to take them up before they prove like a breach of the Sea We ought to mark those that cause divisions much more those that delight in them I shall no longer detain you from the perusal of those poor and broken meditations that follow though they came from me in weakness yet I hope they will rise up in you with power which will be a CROWN of Glory and rejoycing to him who desires to his utmost to be serviceable to the great Interest of your spiritual Estate Matthew Barker Isaiah Chap. 9. part of the 6. ver And his name shall be called Wonderful c. OF all the Prophets this Prophet Isaiah is the most Evangelical what Paul was among the Apostles in the New Testament that is Isaiah among the Prophets in the Old as the One had the highest Revelation the Other had the clearest Vision of which you read Isaiah 6. and is expresly said to be of Christ in his glory John 12. 41. speaking more distinctly of Christ in his birth natures life sufferings death his kingdom and glorious administrations in the world then the rest of the Prophets * Qui Isaiam legerit versari se putet in Evangelio Hier. so that he is oftener quoted in the New Testament then all the rest of the Prophets In the beginning of this Chapter he speaks pure Gospel having in the preceding Chapters been foretelling and threatning a gloomy night of Captivity and desolation coming upon Iudah and Ierusalem as you read Chap. 7. 17 18. and Chap. 8. 7 8. in this Chapter to keep their heads above water that they might not sink under the fear or feeling of those heavy afflictions doth present to their thoughts the near approach of the Messiah and that glorious restitution salvation and deliverance which come along with him upon the world that they might be able to look through the darkness of the night to the beauty and glory of that day that was
was but a child he was found in the Temple disputing with the Doctors and putting them to silence and we often read that when the Scribes and Pharises and Doctors of the Law came to entrap him by the wisdom of his answers he delivered himself and sent them away ashamed And so further he was a man wonderful in power What manner of man is this say the people that the Winde and Seas obey him Beloved while you look upon him speaking to the devils and they tremble at his voyce speaking to the dead and they rise to the graves and they open doth not this declare him a man wonderful in power He was also wonderful in his holiness a man without the least tincture of sin and amidst all the tentations and defilements of this world round about him yet kept himself unspotted and pure never departing from his Fathers Will never seeking himself in any one act never so much as beholding any object through a false and deceitful notion And all divine and heavenly perfection and vertues did shine forth in a wonderful manner in him wonderful patience strange humility unconceiveable mercy astonishing kindness and goodness We might add also how he was wonderful at his death when as the rocks rent the graves opened the dead arose and darkness was upon the face of the earth which made a learned man in those times cry out * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Diony Areopagita Vid. Tertul. Apologet. Either God suffers or doth sympathize with him that suffers But thirdly Considering him as God-man so we shall again find wonderful things in him Here in General you may see the Eternal God coming down into the lowest depth of debasement and humility and frail man raised up into the highest pitch of dignity and glory so that as Divinity could not well stoop lower so neither could Humanity be raised higher 1. First Here we see a poor low Creature made one person with the highest God two natures infinitely distant yet so wonderfully united as to make one person To see the Elements of differing and contrary qualities to meet together in one compound body to see the soul that is of a spiritual substance to be in so near affinity and conjunction with an earthly body is strange but to see God and man met together in one Person is such a mystery that neither men nor Angels can comprehend So that by vertue of this union the properties of the Godhead are ascribed to the Manhood as to be Infinite Omnipotent c. And the properties of the Manhood are attributed to the Godhead as to shed blood dye and suffer and the like Yea for the Creator to become a Creature for the Eternal Spirit to be made Flesh for the Holy God to be made Sin the Ever-blessed God to be made a Curse the strong God to become weak the Lord of Life to dye for riches and poverty glory and shame strength and weakness righteousness and sin fulness and emptiness to meet thus together in this union is such a Mystery as swalloweth up all finite Understandings 2. And Secondly In this union again we see Heaven and Earth embracing and that two ways First by way of Reconciliation Christ in the nature of man doth reconcile man and this whole Creation to the Father as the Apostle speaks Col. 1. 20. By him to reconcile all things to himself whether they be things in earth or things in heaven Secondly by way of union man being made one with God who is in himself a little world this whole Creation is come also into a union with God Christ clothing himself with our nature was in a manner invested with the whole Creation and all his works did do him Homage and Service and bring in praise and glory to him in the Man Christ Jesus The Apostle speaks forth this Mystery Eph. 1. 10. That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things which are in heaven and which are on earth even in Incarnatio est elevatio totius universi in divinam personam him And learned Cajetan speaks thus saith he The incarnation of Christ is the lifting up of the whole Vniverse into the Divine person 3. Thirdly In this union we see Man in the soveraignty and power of God Man exercising power and dominion over all the works of God for the Humanity doth co-operate with the Divinity in swaying the Scepter both of heaven and earth Math. 28. 18. All power is given unto me both in Heaven and in Earth And is not this wonderful to see our Nature sitting upon the Throne of God and raigning in the same authority and soveraignty with the Eternal God 4. Fourthly In this union we yet see further wonders we see the wonderful perfections of Almighty God shining forth in the highest and clearest discoveries of themselves to the world Though God is wonderful in all his works this fabrick of Heaven and Earth is a wonderful piece and much of Gods glory appears in it yet nowhere is he so fully and gloriously declared as in the Man Christ Jesus so that the Angels themselves as it were passing by the rest of Gods works do especially gaze upon those discoveries that God hath made of himself in Jesus Christ we read 1 Pet. 1. 12. Ephes 3. 10. whether ye speak of Mercy or of Truth or of Patience or of Justice or of Power or of Wisdom all these in an eminent and astonishing way shine forth in the Man Christ Jesus Thus we have shewed him first wonderful in his person 2. In the second place we shal present him wonderful in his Offices as King Priest and Prophet And it is sometheir wonderful to see these three formally to meet in their highest perfection in one and the same person Melehizedeck was a King and a Priest Solomon a King and a Prophet Samuel a Priest and a Prophet but we read of none in whom all these Offices did formally meet together but in Christ alone 1. But to consider them distinctly First He is a wonderful King wonderful in respect of outward meanness a great King and yet in the meanest garb in the lowest state born a King and yet laid in a Manger a King and yet had not where to lay his head a King and yet riding upon a poor silly Ass In nothing was he like the Kings of this world The Thiefe upon the Cross desires him to remember him when he came into his Kingdom to whom I remember Augustine makes these witty Interrogatories O thief what royalty dost thou see Dost thou see any other Crown on his head but Thorns any other Scepter in his hand but nailes any Throne but a Cross any Purple but Blood any Guard but Executioners Again A strange King if you look upon his anointing The Spirit was that oyl wherewith he was annointed of God and the Scepter he sways is a strange Scepter other Scepters are of gold and silver
Jesus Christ are the highest mysteries and the greatest rarities that Heaven and Earth can afford Was not this that which drew the Queen of Sheba from the uttermost parts of the Earth the report which she heard of the wonderful wisdom of King Solomon And do not stories tell us that men came from all parts of the earth to behold the rare beauty of Penelope But yet lo A greater then Solomon is here one in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge and a beauty which that of Penelope was scarce a shadow of Oh that men would come to feed and to feast their souls in the contemplation of those rare excellencies delights and perfections which are treasured up in Jesus Christ Yea here are all perfections not only to gaze upon but to be improved for your salvation and happiness Here is wonderful mercy shal be improved to pardon thee wonderful grace to accept and entertain thee wondrous goodness to relieve and supply thee wonderful power to redeem and support thee wonderful wisdom to instruct and guide thee and wonderful holiness to adorn and sanctifie thee and wonderful fulness to fill and satisfie thee And as for you who already know him seeing he is wonderful be you still searching and enquiring into him his Person his Offices his Works for in all he is wonderful Things that are wonderful have a heighth depth and bredth in them not easily discovered and the further we search into this great mysterie the Lord Jesus the more will his wonderfulness shine forth upon us And though we may see an end of all created perfection yet in him there is still a perfection beyond our reach to entertain our admiration Solomon doth advise us to seek after wisdom as silver and to search after her as hidden treasure This wisdom is our Lord Jesus in whom all the treasures of heaven are hidden and laid up and are discovered unto those spirits that are in the power and light of God searching into them The Apostle in the third to the Ephes having spoken in the beginning of the Chapter of the great mysterie of Christ which was hid in God comes to pray in ver 18. that the Ephesians might be able with all Saints to comprehend what is the heighth depth length and breadth In natural things there are but three dimensions length breadth and depth but here are four for Saints to be daily exercised in the comprehending of Oh that therefore you would bend your thoughts hither and fix your contemplation upon the wonders of Jesus Christ Especially considering that Christ hath this name Wonderful given him in order to your salvation and as he is the Saviour of his people So that you do but discover the treasures of your own comfort happiness and glory while you are enquiring and searching into him As you finde him a rich Mine and unsearchable riches treasured up in him so are they all laid out upon your salvation As the eye of your soul goes before and makes discovery so Faith the hand of your soul may follow after and take hold of what is discovered He that is heir apparent to the Crown looks upon the Majesty Royalty and Riches of the King with another eye then a meer stranger the one may gaze upon them and wonder but the other doth behold them as in a propriety and so doth secretly possess them rejoyce and glory in them Vse 2. If the Lord Jesus be thus wonderful then let us not circumscribe and limit him not confine and measure him by our narrow understanding seeing he is in every respect wonderful And 1. Take heed of limiting his Person by framing mean and low conceptions of those immense perfections that are in himself we are apt to conceive of him by what we see in the creature and to measure the Infinite by the finite his infinite beauty mercy sweetness and wisdom by what we see of these among the creatures below Indeed Jesus Christ hath all these perfections of the creature in himself but in such an eminent and transcendent manner as no created understanding can reach To whom will you liken the Lord saith the Prophet or what likeness will you compare unto him Isa 40. 18. And there is nothing that can be compared to him in Heaven or Earth And therefore when thou fallest down before him to worship him take heed of representing him to thy self under any created form lest thou worship an Idol set up in thy brain instead of God Si quis viso Deo cognovit id quod vidit non illum vidit saith a Learned man Thou that sayest thou seest God if thou dost Comprehend what thou seest thou seest not God for he is infinitely above all comprehension 2. Take heed of limiting him in respect of his working for he is herein also wonderful Which speaks out three things 1. Prescribe him not his way dictate not to him his method for if we do we limit him He will accomplish his own designs and end but haply in such a way as thou didst never imagine for he is wonderful Who Isa 40. 13. hath directed the Spirit of the Lord or being his Counsellor hath taught him saith the Prophet In nothing is God more wonderful then in the path and method wherein he walks And this is that which many forward Professors in our dayes have been offended at having prescribed to God his way wherein they intended to follow him he choosing out another-way to himself they have then deserted him and departed from him 2. Again do not distrust him for then we limit him As the Israelites thus limited God Can God say they prepare a Table in the wilderness Can he give us water in this dry and thirsty Land We forget this name of his in the Text when ever we distrust him we say indeed that he is Almighty and Al-sufficient but when we come into such extremities that Almightiness must help us or nothing how do our hearts faint and die within us He is wonderful in Counsel to guide thee in Power to support thee in Mercy to pardon thee in Goodness to supply thee and therefore distrust him not Thou haply seest the work of thy salvation encountred with great difficulties and strong opposition and great mountains laid in the way of Sions glory yet let the remembrance of this name of his support thy faith against them all 3. Do not censure him when he hath put thy reason to a stand and is quite gone out of thy sight and is doing his work under the dark clouds that thou canst not see him and where thou wouldst least look for him censure him not for he is wonderful He will answer the prayers of his people and work out the salvation of Sion but in a way that few shall be able to bear We have cryed and prayed for Justice for Reformation for the Kingdom of Christ the throwing down the Man of Sin but few of us knew what indeed
mysteries of the Gospel in whom the god of this world hath blinded 2 Cor. 4. 4. their eyes that the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ shines not upon them but live as if there was neither Christ nor Gospel nor Heaven nor God in the world And though he hath made his arm so naked in his might works among us yet have not seen him or taken notice of him to this day David sadly complains in Psal 106. 7. Our Fathers understood not thy wonders in Eggpt c. but provoked thee at the sea even the red sea so many understand not the present design of God and the import of his late glorious works but by their murmurings discontents and detractions from his glory provoke him to anger against them Others are taken up about things secular and earthly about their private ends personal interests raising their estates advancing themselves and their children and are so buried in the world that they look not up to Jesus Christ to admire those divine wonders that are evidently held forth in him The Prophet complains of some Isa 5. 12. That the Harp the Viol the Tabret and wine are in their Feasts but they regard not the works of the Lord nor consider the operation of his hands Men whose eyes are bewitched and dazzeled with the inchanting splendor of earthly things are disabled from beholding and admiring the Spiritual glory of Jesus Christ and of his works Philo Judaeus speaking of such persons gives them this Lib. de mundi opificio Character 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more admiring the world then the maker of the world God hath made the creatures and all the beauties and delights of them to be as so many steps to raise men up to himself and they determine their thoughts and affections upon them and rise no higher and so are spiritually guilty of that Idolatry which the Apostle chargeth upon the Heathens Rom. 1. Who worshipped and served the creature more then the Creator God blessed for ever Rom. 1. 25. But that we may now in the close of all excite you to this heavenly work of Admiration we shall set it before you both in the sublimity and the efficacy of it that you may not look upon it as a fancy or a meer speculation 1. First for the sublimity of it This divine admiration is that act of the soul which of all others doth most sublimate and raise it It is a kind of divine rapture wherein the soul is brought to see that which is infinitely above all sight and to enjoy that which is beyond all comprehension The soul hath never such a clear sight of God as God then when she is rapt up highest in the admiration of him for so long as in our pursuits after God in his being or in his works we comprehend what we pursue we conceive him under some finite notion and make but a creature of him but when the soul loseth it self in him when all understanding ceaseth and is silently wondring at what it cannot comprehend and lies down astonisht under the brightness of that glory it cannot behold now hath it a rude discovery even of infinity and incomprehensibleness And thus the Saints in glory though their spirits are raised enlarged fortified that they might be able to receive living streams of bliss pleasures and beauty that flow from the face of God yet there is something still in him infinitely beyond what they receive or can possibly comprehend into which they are absorpt and swallowed up and enjoy it only by a holy amazement and admiration of it 2. But Secondly look upon it in the efficacy of it this admiring Jesus Christ will 1. Enlarge and open our mouths in his praises How natural is it for greatness and admired excellency to set the heart and tongue upon praising Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh If the heart be filled with anger the tongue will be bitter and invective If with joy it is full of singing and triumphant expressions of its own contentment and so if it be filled with admiration of any excellency though for a while it may be silenced yet will presently break forth into exaltation and praise It is said Matth. 15. 31. When the multitude heard the dumb to speak and saw the lame to walk they wondred and glorified God first wondred and then glorified And so 2 Thes 1. 10. It is said Christ shall come to be admired in his Saints and to be glorified in them that believe We cannot but glorifie him when once we do admire him And indeed what is not wonderful to us that we are not apt much to extoll or praise As I have read of a fellow who having perused a very obscure and difficult Author and being demanded his judgement of it Answered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. What I understood in him was excellent and what I understood not sure was more excellent so will the soul that hath a real acquaintance with Jesus Christ say what I know and understand of him is very sweet glorious and worthy of praise but what I cannot understand but is yet above my reach that is sure more sweet more glorious and more praise worthy 2. This will also possess the soul with an awful and reverential fear of him A divine and holy fear of God fills the heart whiles it is wondring at him When the soul is gazing upon a majesty and glory that is infinitely above it it cannot but secretly tremble before it As the Disciples beholding the glory of Christ at his Transfiguration Matth. 17. it is said they fell on their faces and were sore afraid And Job having looked upon and wondred at the incomprehensible works of God confesseth Chap. 37. 1. That his heart trembled and was moved out of its place Therefore well have the Schoolmen made admiration one of the kinds of fear for the soul hath a secret fear of the greatness of that object which it wonders at but cannot comprehend As Augustine speaking of the deeps of divine Aug. de verb. Apost Serm. 20. Providence and the secrets of Predestination against those that cavil at them saith Quaeris turationem ego expavescam altitudinem Art thou enquiring a reason I will tremble at the heighth c. When a man is beholding the infinite wisdom purity and excellency of Christ it cannot but make him to reflect upon his own darkness filthiness and baseness with an holy fear and trembling 3. This will also draw out the soul to a more confident dependance upon Jesus Christ Could we comprehend the utmost bounds of that power and wisdom that righteousness and fulness that is in him they were but finite and so we might distrust them as not able to serve our turns But seeing he is every way wonderful his righteousness a wonderful righteousness his power wisdom mercy all wonderful above all our thoughts this makes him to be a sure Bulwark a strong and
everlasting Rock for the soul to rest and betrust it self upon So that hast thou been a wonderful sinner here is a more wonderful Saviour are thy sins wonderfully great here is a more wonderful mercy to pardon them and righteousness to attone for them And are thy wants thy weakness thy distempers wonderful that thou canst not know them here is power holiness fulness more wonderful and farther above thy knowledge And therefore cast thy self with much confidence upon him in all streights wants dangers and difficulties whatsoever 4. This will also have another effect it will take off thine heart from admiring the creature By thy wondring at Jesus Christ thy soul will be so raised and enlarged that it will apprehend all things besides him but mean and trivial The Eye having beheld the brightness of the Sun seeth all other light far below it Moses seeing him that is Invisible beheld such riches and glory enjoyed such sweetness and pleasures in God as made the Heb. 11. 24. 25. 29. glory and pleasures of Pharoahs Court mean and worthless in his esteem Paul being rapt up to the third heavens and in a divine extasie admiring the unutterable things Phil. 3. 8. of Christ accounted all but loss and dung for the knowledge of him And our Lord Jesus living alwaies in the clear sight of his Fathers glory was not at all allured or affected with the glory of the Kingdoms of this world when it was by Satan set before him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Philosopher Men of great and raised spirits despise those things which others are taken with And nothing will be so effectual to bring down the thoughts of man to a mean esteem of himself then to be thus raised in the admiration of Jesus Christ That act of the soul that doth most exalt Christ doth most debase man As those two Stars called Gemini the one ariseth as the other falleth So as Christ is raised and exalted in us so do we fall down lower and lower in the esteem of our selves 5. Lastly This will also lead the heart into an holy boasting and triumphant rejoycing in Jesus Christ As man will more boast in a treasure that he knows is inexhausted then in the greatest riches and possessions that he can discover the bounds of So whiles we are beholding the fulness and riches of Christ as inexhausted and unsearchable and are wondring at them this will naturally carry out our spirits to boast and triumph in him When after all thy knowledge of him thy Commmnion with him thy enjoyments and receits from him thou hearest yet a voice speaking to thee thou shalt yet enjoy and see greater things then these Vse last I have only one word more to add If Jesus Christ be thus wonderful and declares this name of his especially in our salvation Let us learn and endeavor to be wonderful in our actings for him as he is in his actings for us That we may now all strive to be as it was said of Zach. 3. 8. Joshua the Priest and his fellows in another sense men of wonder Surely if we do visibly deny our selves subject all our own Interests to the glory of Christ the promoting the Gospel and establishing Justice and Righteousness in the Nation and in our whole conversation cross the common course of the world we shall be men of wonder in our generation and in generations yet to come that England may be made the wonder of the world for righteousness wisdom truth and holiness as it hath been made the wonder of the world for salvations and deliverances Surely we shall not answer the extraordinary appearances of Christ for us if we do not now extraordinarily and eminently appear for him He now hath put us to the tryal by giving great opportunities into our hands and certainly great things may be done if we lay down Animosities self-ends and corrupt principles and with sincerity wisdom and unity address to the great works of God and the Nation that are before us The change of Government will avail us little the name of a Commonwealth will do little service if we do not see the common good sought and promoted common grievances and burthens removed and Common Justice impartially administred throughout the Nation And O that you Right Hnorable who sit at the Stern of this City and those that do or hereafter may sit at the Stern of this Commonwealth would set their shoulders effectually to these great works that the poor Church of Christ may live and flourish under the wings of such Rulers and Governors which the Lord hath promised she should enjoy in these last times And that sweet promise may be fulfilled upon her Isai 60. 17 18. I will also make thy Officers peace and thine Exactors Righteousness Violence shall no more be heard in thy Land wasting nor destruction within thy borders but thou shalt call thy wals Salvation and thy gates Praise FINIS