The Great MYSTERY of GODLINESS, Laid forth by way of affectuous and feeling MEDITATION: Also the INVISIBLE WORLD, Discovered to spiritual Eyes, and reduced to useful Meditation. IN THREE BOOKS. By JOS HALL, D. D. B. Norwich. London, Printed by E. Cotes, ●or John Place at Furnival's inn-gate, 1659. To all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, Grace and Peace. Dear Brethren, IF I have, in a sort, taken my leave of the world already; yet, not of you, whom God hath chosen out of the world, and endeared to me by a closer interest: so as ye may justly expect from me a more special valediction; which I do now in all Christian affection tender unto you: And, as dear friends upon a long parting are wont to leave behind them some takens of remembrance, where they most affect; so have I thought good, before my setting forth on my last journey, to recomend unto you these my two final Meditations; than which, I suppose, nothing could be more proper for me to give; or more likely to merit your acceptation: For, if we were half way in heaven already, what can be a more seasonable employment of our thoughts, than the great mystery of godliness, which the Angels d●sire to look into? And, now when our badily eyes are glutted with the view of the things that are seen (a prospect, which can offord us nothing but vanity and vexation) what can be more meet, then to feed our spiritual eyes, with the light of Invisible glories? Make your use of them, both, to the edisying of yourselves in your most holy faith; and aspire with me, towards that happiness which is laid up above for all those that love the appearance of our Lord Jesus. Withal, as the last words of friends are wont to bear the greatest weight, and to make the deepest impression; so let these lines of holy advice, wherewith after many well-meant discourses) I shall close up the mouth of the press, find the like respect from you. Oh that I might in the first place, effectually recommend to you the full recovery of that precious Legacy of our blessed Saviour, Peace: peace with God, Peace with men; next to Grace the best of all blessings: Yet, woe is me, too too long banished from the Christian world, with such animosity, as if it were the worst of enemies, and meet to be adjudged to a perpetual mitrnatit ion. Oh for a fountain of tears to bewail the slain of God's people in all the coasts of the Earth: How is Christendom become an universal Aceldama? How is the earth everywhere drenched with human blood? ●oured out, not by the hands of cruel Infidels, but of brethren: Men need not go so far as Euphrates for the execution of Turks and Pagans, Christians can make up an Armageddon with their own mutual slaughter. Enough, my dear brethren, enough; yea more than too much hath been the effusion of that blood, for which our Saviour hath shed his: Let us now, at the last, dry up these deadly issues, which we have made; and with sovereign balms bind up the wounds we have given: Let us now be, not more sparing of our tears, to wash off the memory of these our unbrotherly dimications, and to ppease the anger of that God, whose offended justice hath raised war out of our own bowels: As our enmity, so our peace begins at heaven: Had we not provoked our long suffering God, we had not thus bled; and we cannot but know and believe him that said. When Prov. 16. ●7. a man's ways please the Lord, he maketh his enemies to be at peace with him; Oh that we could throughly reconcile ourselves to that great and holy God, whom we have irritated by our crying sins, how soon would he, who is the commander of all hearts, make up our breaches, and calm and compose our spirits to an happy peace and concord! In the next place give me leave earnestly to exhort you, that, as we have been heretofore palpably faulty in abusing the mercies of our God for which we have soundly smarted) so that now, we should be so much the more careful to improve the judgements of God, to our effectual reformation: we have felt the heavy hand of the Almighty upon us to purpose; Oh that our amendment could be no less sensible than our sufferings; But, alas, my brethren, are our ways any whit holier? our obedience, more exact, our sins less and fewer than before we were thus heavily afflicted? 〈…〉 our God too justly 〈…〉 that complaint, which he made once by his Prophet Jeremiah, Ye have transgressed against Jer. 2. me, saith the Lord, In vain have I smitten your children, they received no correction: Far be it from us, that after so many sad and solemn mournings of our Land, any accuser should be able to charge us, as the Prophet Hosea did his Israel, Hos. 4. 2. By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth blood: We be to us, if after so many veins opened, the blood remaining should not be the purer. Let me have leave, in the third place, to e●cite you to the practice of C●●●stian charity, in the mutual constructions of each others persons, and actions; which (I must tell you) we have heedlessly violated in the heat of our holy intentions; whiles those which have varied from us in matter of opinion, concerning some appendances of Religion, and outward forms of administration, we have been apt to look upon with such disregard, as if they had herein forfeited their Christian profession, and were utter aliens from the commonwealth of Israel; though in the mean time, sound at the heart; and endeavouring to walk close with God in all their ways: whereas the father of all mercies allows a gracious latitude to his children, in all not-forbidden paths: and in every nation and condition of Act●. 10. 35. men, he that feareth God, and worketh righteousness▪ is accepted with him: Beware we (my dear brethren) lest whiles we follow the chase of Zeal, we outrun charity, without which, piety itself would be but unwelcome: As for matter of opinion in the differences of Religion, wherewith the whole known world, not of Christians only, but of men, is woefully distracted, to the great prejudice of millions of souls, let this be our sure rule. Jude. 3. Whosoever he be that holds the faith which was once delivered to the Saints, agreeing therefore with us in all fundamental Truths, let him be received as a brother: For there is but one Lord, one Faith, one phes. 4. 5 Baptism: And, other foundation 1 Cor. 3. 11. can no man lay, then that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ: Let those which will be a devising a new Creed, look for a new Saviour, and hope for another heaven; for us we know whom we have believed: If any man be faulty in the doctrines of superstructure, let us pity and rectify his error, but not abandon his person. The Communion of Saints is not so slight that it should be violated by weak mistakings: If any man through ignorance or simplicity, shall strike at the foundation of faith, let us labour by all gentle means, and brotherly conviction, in the spirit of meekness to reclaim him: If after all powerful endeavours he will needs remain, obstinate in his evil way; let us disclaim his fellowship, and not think him worthy of a God-speed. But if he shall not only wilfully undermine the groundwork of Christian faith, by his own damnable opinions, but diffuse his heretical blasphemies to the infection of others; let him be cut off by spiritual censures; and so dealt with by public authority that the mischief of his contagion may be seasonably prevented, and himself be made sensible of his heinous crime. In all which proceedings, just distinction must be made betwixt the seduced soul, and the pestilent seducer, the one calls for compassion, the other, for severity: So than my brethren let us pity and pray for all that have erred and are deceived; let us instruct the ignorant, convince the gainsaying, avoid the obstinate, restrain the infectious, and punish the self-convicted heresiarch. In the fourth place, let us, I beseech you, take heed of being swayed with self-interests in all our designs: These have ever been the bane of the best undertakings, as being not more plausibly insinnuative, then pernicious: For that partial self-love, that naturally lodges in every man's breast, is ready to put us upon those projects, which, under fair pretences, may be extremely prejudicial to the public weal; suggesting not how lawful or expedient they may be for the common, but how beneficial to ourselves; drawing us by insensible degrees to sacrifice the public welfare to our own advantage, and to underwork, and cross the better counsels of more faithful patriots: Whereupon, many flourishing Churches, kingdoms, States, have been brought to miserable ruin: Oh that we could remember, that as all things are ours, so we are not our own; that we have the least interest in ourselves, being infinitely more considerable as parts of a community, then as single persons; that the main end of our being, (next to the glory of our maker) is an universal serviceableness to others: in the attaining whereof, we shall far more eminently advance our own happiness, then by the best of our private self-seeking endeavours. But withal, it will be meet for us to consider, that, as we are made to serve all, so only in our own station: There can be no hope of a continued well being without order: There can be no order without a due subordination of degrees, and diversity of vocations; and in vain shall divers vocation● be ordained, if all professions shall interfere with each other. It is the prudent and holy charge of the Apostle, 1 Cor. 7. 20 Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he is called. We are all members of the same body, every one whereof hath his proper employment: The head is to direct and govern, the feet to walk, the eyes to see, the ears to hear: How mad would we think that man, that should affect to walk on his head, to hear with his eye, to see with his ear? Neither surely is it less incongurous for men in divine and civil administrations, to offer to undertake, and manage each others' function; in their nature and quality no less desperate: So then, let us endeavour to advance the common good, as that a pious Zeal may not draw in confusion; and that we may not mistakeingly rear up the walls of Babel, whiles we intend Jerusalem: Not religion only, but policy calls us to encouragement of all useful professions; and of the sacred so much more, as the soul is more precious than all the world beside. Heed therefore must be taken to avoid all means, whereby the study of learning and knowledge may be any way disheartened; as without which the world would soon be overrun with ignorance, & barbarism: All arts therefore, as being in their kind excellent, may justly challenge their own rights, and if they shall want those respects, which are due to them, will suddenly languish: But above all, as Divinity is the Queen of Sciences, so should it be our just shame that whiles her handmaids are mounted on horseback, she should wait on them on foot. Fifthly, As it is our greatest honour that the name of Christ is called upon us; so let it, I beseech you, be our care, that our profession be not formal, empty, and barren like the Jewish figtree, abounding with leaves, void of fruit; but real, active, fruitful of all good works, and exemplary in an universal obedience to the wholwill of God: For it is a scandal never to be enough lamented, that any of those who are Saints by calling (such we all are, or should be) should hug some darling sin in their bosom, which at last breaks forth to the shame of the gospel, and to the insultation of Gath and Ascalon: woe be to us if we shall thus cause the name of our God to be evil spoken of: There are two many of those, whom I am loath, and sorry to style heathen-Christians; Christians in name, Heathens in conversation: these, as they come not within the compass of my Dedication, (for, alas, how should they love the Lord Jesus, when they know him not?) so I can heartily bewail their condition, who, like Gideon's fleece, continue altogether dry, under so many sweet showers of Grace; wishing unto their souls, even thus late, a sense of the efficacy of that water which was once poured on their faces: These, if they run into all excess of riot, what can be other expected from them? but for us, that have learned to know the great mystery of godliness, and have given up our name, to a strict covenant of obedience, if we shall suffer ourselves to be miscarried into any enormous wickedness, we shall cause heaven to blush, and hell to triumph. Oh therefore, let us be so much the more watchful over our ways, as our engagements to the name of our God, are greater, and the danger of our miscarriages more deadly. Lastly, let me beseech, and adjure you, in the name of the Lord Jesu, to be careful in matter of Religion, to keep within the due bounds of God's revealed will. A charge which I would to God were not too needful in these last days; wherein, who sees not what Spirits of error are gone forth into the world, for the seducing of simple, and ungrounded souls? Woe is me, what throngs are carried to hell by these devilish impostures? One pretends Visions, and Revelations of new verities, which the world was not hitherto worthy to know; another boasts of new lights of uncouth interpretations, hidden from all former eyes▪ one despises the dead letter of the scriptures, another distorts it to his own erroneous sense. O the prodiges of damnable, heretical, Atheous fancies, which have hereupon infested the Christian Church; (for which, what good soul doth not mourn in secret?) the danger whereof ye shall happily avoid, if ye shall keep close to the written word of our God which is only able to make you wise to salvation: As our Saviour repelled the devil, so do ye the fanatic spirits of these brainsick men, with, It is written; Let those who would be wiser than God, justly perish in their presumption; My soul for yours, if ye keep you to S. Paul's guard, not to be wise above that which is written. I could easily out of the exuberance of my Christian love overcharg you with multiplicity of holy counlses, but I would not take a tedious farewell. May the God of heaven bless these, and all other wholesome admonitions to the furtherance of your souls in grace; and may his good spirit, ever lead & guide us in all such ways, as may be pleasing to him, till we happily meet in the participation of that incomprehensible glory, which he hath prepared for ill his Saints; till when, farewell from your fellow-pilgrim in this vale of tears, Jos. Hall. HIGHAM near NORWICH, Nov. 3. 1651 THE Great mystery OF GODLINESS, Laid forth by way of Affectuous and Feeling MEDITATION. By JOS. HALL, D. D. B. N. London, Printed by E. Cotes, for John Place at Furnival's inn-gate, 1659. THE GREAT mystery OF GODLINESS. SECT. I. LET no man go about 1 Tim. 3. 16. Great is the mystery of godliness. to entertain the thoughts of the Great Mystery of Godliness, but with a ravished heart, an heart filled with a gracious composition of love, and joy, and wonder: Such a one, O Saviour, I desire, through thy grace, to bring with me to the meditation of that thine infinitely glorious work of our Redemption: It was as possible for thy chosen vessel who was by a divine ecstasy caught up into Paradise, and there heard unutterable words to express what he saw and heard above, as to set forth what was acted by thee here below; as therefore unable either to comprehend, or utter things so far above wonder, he contents himself with a pathetical intimation of that, which he saw could never be enough admired; Great is the mystery of godliness. There are great Mysteries of Art, which the wit and experience of skilful men have discovered; there are greater Mysteries of Nature, some part whereof have been described by Art and industry, but the greater part lies hidden from mortal eyes: but these are less than nothing to the great mystery of Godliness: For, what are these but the deep secrets of the Creature? mean therefore, and finite like itself; but the other are the unfadomable depths of an infinite deity: fitter for the admiration of the highest Angels of heaven, then for the reach of human conception. Great were the mysteries of the Law; neither could the face of Moses be seen without his veil: But what other were these, but the shadows of this great Mystery of Godliness? what did that golden Ark overspread with glorious Cherubims, that gorgeous Temple, those perfumer's Altars, those bleeding Sacrifices, that sumptuous▪ Priesthood, but prefigure thee, O blessed Saviour, which in the fullness of time shouldst be revealed to the World, and make up this great Mystery of Godliness? There is nothing, O dear Jesu that▪ thou either didst or suffered'st for mankind, which is other then mysterious, and wonderful; but the great and astonishing mystery of godliness is thy▪ self; God manifested in the flesh: Lo, faith itself can never be capable to apprehend a mystery like this; Thou who art a Spirit, and therefore immaterial, invisible, to expose thyself to the view of earthen eyes; Thou, who art an infinite Spirit to be enwrapped in flesh; Thou an all-glorious eternal Spirit to put on the rags of human mortality; Thou, the great creator of all things, to become a Creature; Thou, the omnipotent God, to subject thyself to miserable frailty and infirmity: O mystery transcending the full apprehension of even glorified souls! If but one of thy celestial Spirits have upon thy gracious mission assumed a visible shape▪ and therein appeared to any of thy servants of old, it hath been held a spectacle of so dreadful astonishment, that it could not be consistent with life; even so much honour was thought no less than deadly; neither could the Patient make any other account then to be killed with the kindness of that glory; What shall we say then, that thou who art the God of those Spirits, and therefore infinitely more glorious than all the Hierarchy of heaven, vouchsafedst, not in a vanishing apparition, but in a settled state of many years continuance, to show thyself in our flesh, and to converse with men in their own shape and condition? O great mystery of godliness, God manifested in the flesh▪ 1 Pet. 1. 12. so great that the holy ambition of the heavenly Angels could not reach higher than the desire to look down into it. SECT. II. BUt O Saviour, that which God manifested. raised the amazement at the appearance of thine Angels▪ was their resplendent glory; whereas that which heightens the wonder of thy manifestation to men, is the depth of thine abasement: Although thou wouldst not take the nature of Angels, yet why wouldst thou not appear in the lustre and majesty of those thy best creatures? Or, since thou wouldst be a man, why wouldst thou not come as the chief of men, commanding Kings and Princes of the earth to attend thy train? Thou, whose the earth is, and the fullness thereof, why wouldst thou not raise to thyself a palace compiled of all those precious stones, which lie hid in the close coffers of that thine inferior treasury? why did not thy Court glitter with pearl, and gold, in the rich furnitures, and gay suits of thy stately followers? why was not thy Table furnished with all the delicacies that the world could afford? O Saviour, it was the great glory of thy mercy, that being upon earth, thou wouldest abandon all earthly glory; there could not be so great an exaltation of thy love to mankind, as that thou wouldst be thus low abased; Manifested than thou wert, but manifested in a despicable obscurity: whether shall I more wonder, that being God blessed for ever, thou wouldst become man; or, that condescending to be man, thou wouldst take upon thee the shape of a servant, a servant to those whose Lord, whose God thou wert. What proportion could In the flesh there be, O blessed Jesus betwixt a God and a Man; betwixt finite, and infinite; the only power of thy everlasting and unmeasurable love hath so reduced one of these to the other, that both are united in that glorious person of thine to make up an absolute Saviour of mankind: O the height, and depth of this supercelestial mystery, that the infinite Deity, and finite flesh should meet in one subject? yet so, as the humanity should not be absorpted of the Godhead; nor the Godhead coarct by the humanity, but both inseparably united; that the Godhead is not humanized, the humanity is not deifred, both are indivisibly conjoined: conjoined so, as without confusion; distinguished so, as without division: So wert thou, O God, manifested in the flesh, that thou the word of thine eternal Father wert made flesh; and dwelledst among us; and we Job. 1. 14 men beheld thy glory, the glory, as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth; Yet so wert thou made flesh as not by conversion into flesh, but as by assumption of flesh to thine eternal Deity: assumption, not into the nature of the Godhead, but into the person of thee, who art God everlasting: O mystery of godliness, incomprehensibly glorious! Cease, cease O human curiosity, and where thou canst not comprehend, wonder and adore. SECT. III. BUt, O saviour, was it not enough for thee to be manifested in flesh? Did not that elementary composition carry in it abasement enough, without any further addition? (since for God to become man was more than for all things to be redacted to nothing) but that in the rank of miserable manhood, thou wouldst humble thyself to the lowest of humanity, and become a servant? Shall I say more? I can hear Bildad the Shuhite say, Man is Job. 25 6. a worm; and I hear him, who was a noble Type of thee, say, as in thy person, I am a worm Psal. 22. 6. and no man, a reproach of men, and despised of the people: O Saviour, in how despicable a condition do I find thee exhibited to the world? lodged in a stable; cradled in a manger; visited by poor shepherds; employed in an homely trade; attended by mean fishermen; tempted by presumptuous Devils; persecuted by the malice of envious men; exposed to hunger, thirst, nakedness, weariness, contempt? How many sclaves under the vassalage of an enemy fare better than thou didst from ingrateful man, whom thou camest to save? Yet all these were but a mild and gentle preface to those thy last sufferings, wherewith thou wert pleased to shut up this scene of mortality: there I find thee sweating blood in thine agony, crowned with thorns bleeding with scourges, buffeted with cruel hands, spat upon by impure mouths, laden with thy fatal burden, distended upon that torturing cross, nailed to that tree of shame and curse, reviled and insulted upon by the vilest of men, and at last, (that no part of thy precious blood might remain unshed) pierced to the heart by the spear of a late and impertinent malice. Thus, thus, O God and Saviour, wouldst thou be manifested in the flesh, that the torments of thy flesh and spirit might be manifested to that world, which thou camest to redeem; thus wast thou wounded for our transgressions; thus wast thou bruised for Esay 53. 5. our iniquities; thus were the chastisements of our peace upon thee; and thus with thy stripes are we healed▪ O blessed, but still incomprehensible mystery of Godliness; God thus manifested in the flesh, in weakness, contempt, shame, pain, death. Once only, O blessed Jesus whiles thou wert wayfaring upon this globe of earth, didst thou put on glory; even upon Mount Tabor, in thy heavenly transfiguration; then, and there Mat. 17. 2. Mark. 29. Luke 9 28. did thy face shine as the Sun; and thy raiment was white as thy light: How easy had it been for thee to have continued this celestial splendour to thy humanity all the whole time of the so journing upon earth; that so thou mightest have been adored of all mankind? How would all the Nations under heaven have flockd to thee, and fallen down at the feet of so glorious a Majesty? What man in all the world would not have said with Peter, Lord it is good for us to be here? Or if it had pleased thee to have commanded Moses and Elias to wait upon thee in thy mediatory perambulation, and, to attend thee at Jerusalem, on the Mount of Zion, as they did in the Mount of Tabor, whom hadst thou not in a zealous astonishment drawn after thee? But it was thy will and the pleasure of thy heavenly Father, that this glorious appearance should soon be over shadowed with a cloud: And as those celestial guests, now in the midst of thy glory, spent their conference about thy bitter sufferings, and thine approaching departure out of the world▪ So wert thou, for the great work of our Redemption, willing to be led from the Mount Tabor to Mount Calvary; from the height of that glory to the lowest depth of sorrow, pain, exinanition. Thus vile wert thou, O Saviour, in the flesh; but in this vileness of flesh mannifested to be God; how did all thy Creatures in this extremity of thine abasement, agree to acknowledge and celebrate thine infinite Deity? The Angels came down from heaven to visit and attend thee; the Sun pulled in his head as abhorring to look upon the sufferings of his maker, the Earth was covered over with darkness▪ and quaked for the horror of that indignity, which was offered to thee in that bloody passion; the rocks rent, the graves opened themselves, and sent up their long-since putrefied Tenants to wait upon thee, the Lord of life, in thy glorious Resurrection; so as thou, in thy despised and crucified flesh wert abundantly manifested to be the Almighty God of Heaven and Earth. SECT. 4. O blessed Saviour, thou the true God manifested in the flesh, be thou pleased to manifest unto the soul of thy servant, the unspeakable riches of thy love and mercy to mankind, in that great work of our Redemption: vouchsafe to affect▪ my heart with a lively sense of that infinite goodness of thine towards the wretcheddest of thy creatures; that for our sake thou camest down, and cloathedst thyself in our flesh and cloathedst that pure and holy flesh with all the miseries that are incident to this sinful flesh of ours; and wast content to undergo a bitter, painful, ignominous death from the hands of man, that by dying thou mightest overcome death and ransom him from that hell, to which he was (without thee) irrecoverably forfeited; and fetch him forth to life, liberty, and glory: O let me not see only, but feel this thy great mystery of godliness effectually working me to all hearty thankfulness for so inestimable a mercy; to all holy resolutions to glorify thee in all my actions, in all my sufferings: Didst thou, O Saviour, being God eternal, take flesh for me; and shall not I, when thou callest, be willing to lay down this sinful flesh for thee again? Wert thou content to abridge thyself, for the time, not only of thy heavenly magnificence, but of all earthly comforts, for my sake, and shall not I, for thy dear sake, renounce all the wicked pleasures of sin? Didst thou wear out the days of thy flesh in poverty, toil, reproach, and all earthly hardship; and shall I spend my time in pampering this flesh in wanton dalliance, in the ambitious, and covetous pursuit of vain honours, and deceivable riches? Blessed Lord thou wert manifested in the flesh, not only to be a ransom for our souls, but to be a Precedent for our lives: Far, far be it from me thus to imitate the great pattorn of holiness. O Jesu, the author and finisher of my faith and salvation, teach me to tread in thy gracious steps, to run with patience the race that is set before me▪ to endure the cross, to despise the shame to be crucified to the world, to work all righteousness. SECT. V. HOw easily could I be drawn to envy the privilege of those eyes, which saw thee here walking upon Earth, O God and Saviour, in the days of thy manifesting thyself in flesh? Oh what an happy spectacle was this, to see the face of him, in whom the Godhead dwelled bodily? All the world is not worth such a sight: whither could I not wish to go to see but a just portraiture of that shape, wherein thou wert pleased to converse with men? But thine holy Apostle checks this 2 Cor. 5. 16. useless curiosity in me, whiles he says; If we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him so no more; It is not the outside of thine human form, the view whereof can make us more holy or more happy: Judas saw thee as well as he that lay in thy bosom; those saw thee that maligned and persecuted thee, and shall once again see thee to their utmost horror, see him whom they pierced: They saw that flesh in which God was manifested; they saw not God manifested in the flesh: It is our great comfort and privilege, that it was flesh wherein God was manifested▪ but it is not in the flesh, but in the Deity to render us blessed: O Saviour, I dare not beg of thee, so to manifest thyself to me, as thou didst to thy chosen vessel in his way to Damascus, or to thy first Martyr in the storm of his Lapidation; these miraculous manifestations are not for my meanness to sue for: But let me never cease to crave of thee a double manifestation of thyself to me▪ Be pleased to manifest thyself to me in the clear illuminations of thy Spirit; let me by the eyes of my faith clearly see thee both sprawling in: the Manger, and walking upon earth, and tempted in the wilderness, and arraigned in the judgement-hall, and suffering upon Calvarie, and rising out of thy Tomb, and a soending from thy Olivet▪ and reigning in Heaven, and there interceding for me: And after my approaching dissolution, let my soul see thee in that glorified flesh, wherein thou wert manifested to the World, and in the Majesty of that all-glorious Deity▪ which assumed it to that ever blessed society of glory. SECT. VI. IT was thy mercy, O God, that thou wouldst not keep up thyself close in thine eternal, spiritual, and incomprehensible essence, unknown to thy creatures upon earth, but that thou wouldest be manifested to the world: It was yet thy further mercy that thou wert not only pleased to manifest thyself to man in the wonderful works of thy Creation, Rom. 1. 20. (since those invifible things of thine are understood, and clearly seen by the things that are made, even thine eternal power and godhead) but to manifest thyself yet more clearly to us in thy sacred Word, the blessed Oracles of thine eternal truth: but it was the highest pitch of thy mercy, that thou wouldst manifest thyself yet more to us in the flesh. Thou mightst have sent us thy gracious messages by the hands of thine Angels, those glorious ministering spirits, that do continually attend thy throne; this would not content thee, but such was thy love to us forlorn wretches, that thou wouldst come thyself, to finish the work of our Redemption. Neither didst thou think it enough to come to us in a spiritual way, imparting thyself to us by secret suggestions, and inspirations, by dreams and visions, but wouldst vouchsafe openly to be manifested in our flesh: how then, O my God, how wert thou manifested in the flesh? was not the flesh thy veil? and wherefore serves a veil, but to hide and cover? Did not thy Deity then lie hid, and obscured, whiles thou wert here on earth under the veil of of thy flesh? How then wert thou manifested in that flesh, wherein thou didst lie obscured? Surely, thou wert certainly manifested in respect of thy presence, in that sacred flesh of thine; though for the time thy power and Majesty lay hid under the veil: Sometimes thou wert pleased that this sun of thy Deity should break forth in the glorious beams of divine operations, to the dazzling of the eyes of men and Devils, to the full eviction of thine omnipotent power against thy envious gainsayers; at other times, thou wert content it should be clouded over with the dim and dusky appearances of human infirmity; The more thou wert obscured, the more didst thou manifest thy most admirable humility, and unparallelable love to mankind, whose weakness thou disdainedst not to take up; And the more thou didst exert thy power, in thy miraculous works, the more didst thou glorify thyself, and vindicate thine Almighty Deity thus manifested in the flesh; Oh that thou wouldst enable me to give thee the due praiss both of thine infinite mercy in this thine humble obscurity, and of thy divine omnipotence, who as thou wert manifested in the flesh, so wast also justified in the spirit. SECT. VII. HE that should have seen Justified in the Spirit. thee, O Saviour, working in Joseph's shop, or walking in the fields or streets of Nazareth, or journeying towards Jerusalem, would have looked upon thee as a mere man: neither did thy garb or countenance bewray any difference in thee from the ordinary sort of men; so did ●hy godhead please to conceal it for a time in that flesh, where in thou wouldst be manifested; it was thine all-working and coessential spirit, by whose evident testimonies, and mighty operations, thy Deity was irrefragably made good to the world: If the doubtful sons of men shall in their peevish Infidelity, he apt to renew the question of John's Disciples: Art thou he that should come, or shall we look for another? thine ever blessed and coeternal Spirit, hath fully justified thee, for that only true, absolute, perfect mediator, by whom the great work of man's redemption is accomplished: Whiles the gates of hell want neither power, nor malice, nor subtlety, it is not possible that thy divine person should want store of enemies; These, in all successions of times, have dared to open their blasphemous mouth against thy blessed Deity: But against all their hellish oppositions, thou wert still, and shalt be ever justified by thy coomni potent spirit; In those convictive wonders which thou wroughtest upon earth; in those miraculous gifts and graces, which thou powredst out upon men; in that glorious resurrection and ascension of thine wherein thou didst victoriously triumph over all the powers of death and hell. Lo then, ye perverse Jews and scoffing Gentiles, that are still ready to upbraid us with the impotency and sufferings of a despised Redeemer; and to tell us of the rags of his Manger, of the homeliness of his Education, of his temptation and transportation by the devil, of his contemptible train; of his hunger and thirst, of his weariness and indigence, of his whips and thorns, of his agony in the garden of Gethsemane, of his opprobrious crucifixion in Calvarie, of his parted garments and his borrowed grave: Is not this he▪ to whose homely cradle a glorious and supernatural star guided the sages of the East for their adoration? Is not this he, whose birth declared by one Luk. 2. 9, 10, 13, 1 glorious angel, was celebrated by a multitude of the heavenly host with that divine Anthem of [Glory to God in the highest, and on earth Peace, good will towards men?] Is not this he that filled the world with his divine and beneficial miracles? healing all diseases by his Word, restoring limbs to the lame, giving eyes to the borne blind, casting out Devils, raising the dead, commanding winds and seas, acknowledged by an audible voice from heaven? Is not this he whom the very ejected Devils were forced to confess to be the son of the everliving God? whom the heaven and all the elements owned for their almighty creator? whose sufferings darkened the Sun, and shook the Earth, and rent the Rocks in pieces? and justly, whom the dead Saints and the heavenly Angels attended in his powerful Resurrection, and glorious Ascension? O Saviour, abundantly justified in the spirit against all the malignances of men and Devils. SETC. VIII. If thy malicious persecutors, whose hand was in thy most cruel crucifixion, shall for the covering of their own shame, blazon thee for a Deceiver of the people; How convincingly wert thou justified in the spirit, by the dreadful and miraculous descent of the holy Ghost in the cloven and fiery tongues; and that sudden variety of language for the spreading of the glory of thy name over all the Nations of the earth? If the unbeleiving world, bewitched with their former superstition, shall furiously oppose thy name and gospel in the times immediately succeeding: how notably art thou justified in the spirit, by the sudden stopping of the mouths of their hellish Oracles, by the powerful predications of thine holy Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors and Doctors, seconded by such undeniable miracles as shamed and astonished, if not won, the gainsayers? But, O Saviour, being thus clearly justified in the spirit against the old spite of hell, with what shame and horror do I see thine eternal Godhead called into question by the misgoverned wits of certain late misnamed Christians: who as if they would raise up cursed Arrius from his hateful grave, have dared to renew those blasphemous cavils against thy sacred person, which with so great authority, and full evidence of the spirit were long since cried down to that hell, whence (to the great contumely of heaven) they were most wickedly sent up into the world: Woe is me, their damned sounder did not send down his soul into that fatal draught, in a more odious way, than these his followers vent themselves upward in most unsavoury and pestilent contradictions to thee, the Lord of life and glory▪ But even against these art thou justified in the spirit, speaking in thy divine Scriptures, whose evident demonstrations do fully convince their calumnies and false suggestions; and vindicate thy holy Name, and blessed Deity from all their devilish and frivolous argutations. Is there any weak soul that makes doubt of thy plenary satisfaction for his sin, of the perfect accomplishment of the great work of man's Redemption? how absolutely art thou justified O blessed Jesus, in the spirit, in that thou raisedst thyself from the dead; quitting that prison of the grave, whence thou couldst not have come, till thou hadst paid the utmost farthing, wherein we stood indebted to heaven: O Saviour, not more concealed in the flesh, then manifestly justified in the spirit for my all-sufficient Redeemer, not more meekly yielding Rom. 4. 25. to death for our offences, then powerfully raised up again for our justification: how should I bless and praise thee, both for thine humble self-dejection in respect of thine assumed flesh, and for thy powerful justification in thine infinite and eternal spirit; that holy Ghost whereby thou wert conceived in the womb of the Virgin, justified thee in thy life, death, resuscitation; Now then, how confidently can I trust thee with my▪ soul, who hast approved thyself so complete and almighty a Reedemer? O blessed Jesus, with what assurance do I cast myself upon thee for thy present protection for my future salvation? how boldly can I defy all the powers of darkness, whiles I am in the hand of so gracious and omnipotent a Mediator? Who shall Rom. 8 33. lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Even thou the God who wast manifested in the flesh, and justified in the spirit, shalt justify and save my spirit, soul and body in the day of our appearance before thee. SECT. ix.. O Saviour, it is no mystery Seen of Angels. that being manifested in he flesh, thou wert seen of men; but it is no small part of the great mystery of Godliness, that thou who art the God of Spirits, wert seen by those heavenly spirits, clothed in flesh: It could not be but great news to the Angels to see their God born, and conversing as man, with men. For a man to see an angel is a matter of much wonder, but for an angel to see God become man, is a far greater wonder: since in this▪ the change concerns an infinite subject, in the other, a finite, though incorporeal▪ But, pause here awhile, O my soul, and inquire a little into these strange spectators: Seen of Angels? who, or what might those be? Are three any such real, incorporeal, permanent substances; or are they only things of imagination, and extemporary representations of the pleasure of the Almighty? Woe is me, (that no error may be wanting to this prodigious age,) do we live to see a reviction of the old Sadduci●●●, so long since dead and forgotten? Was Dan. 8. 19, 17. Gabriel that appeared and spoke to Daniel, nothing but a supernatural ph●ntasme? And what then was a he Gabriel▪ that appeared with the happy news of a Saviour to the blessed Virgin? Mat. 18. 10. What are the Angels of those little ones, whereof our Saviour speaks, which do always behold the face of his Father Luk. 2. 9 15. in heaven? What were those Angels that appeared to the shepherds with the tidings and gratulations of the Saviour borne at Bethlem? What Act 12. 7, 8, 10. was that beneficent spirit that visited Peter in the Prison, smote him on the side to wake him from his sleep; shook off his chains, threw open the iron gate, and rescued him from the bloody hands of Herod? What are those spirits, who shall be God's reapers at the end of the world, to cut down the tares, and gather the wheat into his barn? Shortly, what were all those spirits (whereof both Testaments are full,) which God was pleased to imply in his frequent missions to the earth? were these phantasms too? Certainly, though there may be many Orders, yet there is but one general condition of those angelical attendants on the throne of the Almighty: Even in the old Testament, was it a supernatural apparition of fancy, that in one night smote all the first borne in the land of Egypt? was it a supernatural apparition of fancy, that in one night laid an hundred fourscore and five thousand Assyrians dead upon the ground? Could these be any other than the acts of living, and powerful agents? It is not for us to contend about words; those that are disposed to devise paradoxes, may frame to themselves what senses they please of their own terms; this we are sure of, that the Angels are truly existing, spiritual, intelligent, powerful, eviternall Creatures, whose being is not exposed to our sense, but evidenced both to our faith and reason; not circumscribed in any gross locality, but truly being where they are, and acting according to their spiritual nature. Of these Angels, O blessed Saviour, wert thou seen manifested in the flesh, to their wonder and gratulation: That, thou who hadst taken our flesh wert visible, was no whit strange; herein thou wert a plain and happy object to all eyes: but how the Angels, being merely spiritual substances, could see thee, may be part of this great mystery: doubtless, they saw thee both before and ever since thou camest into the world, with eyes like themselves, spiritual, and, not seldom, saw thee being incarnate with the assumed eyes of those bodies wherein they appeared; Thus they saw, and adored, and proclaimed thee in thy first saluration of the world, when thou layest in that homely posture, in the Manger at Bethlehem; singing that sweet and celestial carol at thy nativity, Glory be to God in the highest. They saw thee in the wild desert, where no creatures appeared to thee, but either beasts or Devils, there they saw thee pined with fasting, conflicted with the Prince of darkness: they saw thee foiling that presum ptuous enemy, not without wonder, doubtless, at the boldness of that daring spirit, and joyful applause at thy happy victory; they saw thee, but (as knowing there was no use of seconds in this duel of thine) unseen of thee, till the full end of that great combat; then they showed themselves to thee, as willing to be known to have been the secret witnesses of the fight, and glad congratulators of thy Triumph, than they came and ministered unto thee; Never were they but ready to have visibly attended thee, hadst thou been pleased to requite so sensible a service; but the state of a servant, which thou choosedst to undergo, suited not with the perpetuity of so glorious a retinue; whether therefore they were seen to thee, or not seen, it was their great honour and happiness, and a main part of the great mystery of Godliness, that thou, who art the true God manifested in the flesh, wert seen of Angels. They saw thee in the garden, in thy sad agony; and if Angels could have been capable of passion in that state of their glory, could have been no doubt, content to suffer in, and with thee; with what eyes do we think they looked upon thy bloody sweat; and the frowns of thine heavenly Father, which they saw bent against thee, in our persons, for the sin of mankind, which thou camest to expiate? Now in this doleful condition, so wert thou seen of Angels, that the Angels were seen of thee: For lo, there appeared Luk. 22. 41. an angel from heaven strengthening thee. O the deep humiliation of God, manifested in the flesh, that thou, O Jesu, the God and Lord of all the Angels of heaven, shouldst in this bloody conflict with thy father's wrath for our sins need and receive comfort from a created▪ Angel thy servant▪ Whilst thou wert grappling with the powers of darkness there was no need of aid; only after the fight Angels came, and ministered to thee; but now, that thou must struggle under the wrath of thy Father, for man's sin, there was use of the consolation of one of those Angels, whereof thou commandest millions: O blessed Saviour, had not the face of thy heavenly Father been clouded to thee, standing in the stead of our guiltiness, it had been no less than presumption in any finite power to tender thee any suggestions of comfort; but now, alas, those beatifical beams were so for the time hid from thine eyes, and the sweet influences of light and joy arising therefrom, were for that sad instant, suspended; so as nothing appeared to thee, that while, but the darkness of displeasure and horror; now therefore the comforts of a creature, could not be but seasonable and welcome; so that thou disdainedst not to be strengthened by an Angel: Extreme distress looks not so much to the hand that brings supply, as to the supply it brings: If but one of thy three drowsy clients could have shaken off his sleep, and have let fall to thee some word of consolation, in that heavy fit of thine▪ thou hadst not refused it; how much less, the cordial intimations of an heavenly monitor? neither was it improper for thee, who wast content to Heb. 1. 9 be made a little inferior to the Angels, to receive some spiritual aid from the hands of an angel. What then, O Saviour, was the strengthening which thou receivedst from this officious spirit in this pang of thine agony? Doubtless it was not any communication of an additional power to bear up, under that heavy pressure of the sins of the whole world, which drew from thee those sweats of blood; No angel in heaven was able to contribute that to the son of God; but it was a sweet, and forcible representation to thy disconsolate humanity, of the near approach of an happy eluctation out of those torments of thy sufferings, and of the glorious crown of thy victory immediately succeeding. SECT. X. ANd now, soon after, those Angels that saw thee sweating in thine agony, and bleeding on thy cross, saw thee also triumphing over Death, in thy Resurrection; they attended thee joyfully in the vault of thy sepulture, and saw thee trampling upon the last enemy; being then suitably habited to so blessed an occasion, in white shining vestures; how gladly were they employed about that most glorious solemnity, both as actors in the service, and as the first heralds of thy victories over Death? I find one of them obsequiously making ready for thy coming out of those chambers of death, upon thine Easter morning; rolling away that massy stone, which the vain care of thine adversaries had laid (curiously sealed) upon the mouth of that Cave, for the prevention of Mat. 28. 2, 3, 4. thy fore-threatned resurrection; and sitting upon it with a countenance like lightning, and his garment white as snow, the terror of whose presence made the guard to shake, and to become as dead men; I find Joh. 20. 12. two of them no less glorious, sitting the one at the head, the other at the feet of that bed of earth whereon thou hadst newly slept; By these Angels wert thou both seen and attended; and, no doubt, but as at thy first coming into the world, when but one angel published thy birth he was seconded by a multitude of the heavenly host▪ praising God with hymns of rejoicing for thy nativity; so when but one or two Angels were seen at thy second birth (which was thy glorious resurrection) there were more of that heavenly company invisibly celebrating the joyful triumph of that blessed day; wherein having conquered Death and Hell, thou show'dst thyself in a glorified condition to the redeemed world of men: After this, when for the securance of thy Resurrection, (upon which all our faith justly dependeth) thou hadst spent forty days upon earth, I find thee upon Mount Olivet, at thy most glorious ascension, not seen only, but proclaimed, and forepromised in thy certain, and at least equally-glorious return, by the blessed Angels. And behold while they looked Act. 1. 10, 11. steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, two men stood by them in white apparel; which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven; This same Jesus which is taken from you into heaven, shall so come again, as ye have seen him go into heaven] But, O Saviour, these views of thee by thine Angels hitherto were but special, and visible even by bodily eyes; How do I, by the eyes of my soul, see thee both attended up in that heavenly progress, and welcomed into thine empyreal heaven, by all the host of those celestial spirits: no small part of whose perpetual happiness it is, to see thee in thy glorified humanity; sitting at the right hand of majesty; there they enjoy thee, there they sing continual Hallelujahs to him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever. SECT. XI. If thine Angels, O blessed Jesus, desired to look into this great and deep mystery of the gospel; their longing is satisfied in the sight of thy blessed incarnation, and the full accomplishment of the great Office 1 Pet. 1. 12. of thy Mediatorship, since, now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places, is made known the manifold wisdom of God, in this wonderful Ephes. 3. 9 work of man's Redemption; which from the beginning of the World hath been hid in God, who created all things by thee; But, that the unsearchable riches of Christ should be preached to the Gentiles, how Ephes. 3 8. marvelous an accession is it to the greatness of this divine mystery of godliness? of old, In Judah was God known, his name was great in Israel: In Salem was his Tabernacle, and his dwelling place in Zion; but in the Psal. 76. 1. mean while, we miserable Gentiles sat in darkness, and in the shadow of death, without God in the world, exposed to the displeasure of heaven, tyrannised over by the powers of Ephes. 2. 12. hell, strangers from the covenants of promise, for lorn, without hope of mercy: That therefore, O Saviour, thou vouchsafedst in the tender bowels of thine infinite compassion, to look down from heaven upon us, and at the last, graciously to visit us, in the clear revelation of the saving truth of thy gospel, to break down the partition wall whereby we were excluded from any participation with thee; to own us for thy people, and to admit us unto the fellowship of thy Saints: O the wonderful mystery of godliness, effectually manifested to us out-cast Gentiles, to our conversion, to our eternal salvation! What a veil, O God, was spread over all Nations? Esay 25. 7. A dark veil of ignorance, of error, of impiety? How did our forefathers walk in their own ways, following the sinful lusts of their own hearts worshipping dumb Idols, sacrificing to all the host of heaven, offering not their substance only, but their sons and daughters to Devils? It was thine own infinite goodness, that moved thee to pity our woeful and despaired condition; and to send thine eternal Son into the world, to be no less a light to lighten the Gentiles, then to Luk 2. 32. be the glory of thy people Israel! How fully hast thou made good thy gracious promises long since published by thy holy Prophets: It shall come, Esay 66. 18. that I will gather all Nations, and tongues, and they shall come and see my glory; And Esay 2. 2, 3. again, It shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and all Nations shall flow to it; And many people shall go, and say▪ Come ye, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us his ways, and we will walk in his paths. And again, Behold, thus saith the Lord, I will lift up my hand to the Gentiles, and set up my Esay 49. 2●. standard to the people, and they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders: And again, Behold thou shalt call a Nation that thou Esay. 55. 5. knowest not, and Nations that know not thee, shall run unto thee, because of the Lord thy God, and for the holy One of Israel, for he hath glorified thee. O blessed then, ever blessed be thy name, O God, that thou wouldest vouchsafe to be made known among us Gentiles; Psal. 96. 7 Give unto the Lord, O ye kindreds of the people, give unto the Lord, glory and strength; Give unto the Lord the glory due to his name: All the earth shall worship thee, Ps. 66. 4. and shall sing unto thee, they shall sing unto thy name; All Ps. 22. 27 the ends of the world shall remember, and run unto the Lord, and all the kindreds of the Nations shall worship before thee. How did we, O Saviour, of old lie under the pity, and contempt of those thy people, which challenged a peculiarity of thy favour: We have a little sister (said thy Jewish Spouse) and she hath no breasts, what shall we do for our sister, when she shall be spoken for? Take no thought for us, O thou oncebeloved Cant. 8. 8. Synagogue of the Jews, thy little sister is not only spoken for, but contracted, but happily married to her Lord and Saviour; having been Hos. 2. 19 betrothed to him for ever, in righteousness, and in judgement, and in loving kindness, and in mercies: so as we can now return our pity to thee, and say, We had an elder sister which had breasts, but her breasts are long since wrinkled, and dried up; what shall we do for our sister in these days of her barrenness, and just neglect? We shall surely pray for our sister, that God would be pleased to return to her in his compassion of old, and restore her to the happy state of her former fruitfulness: We follow them with our prayers, they us with malice and despite: with how envious eyes did they look upon those first heralds of the gospel, who carried the glad tidings of salvation to the despised Gentiles? what cruel storms of persecution did they raise against those blessed messengers, whose feet deserved to be beautiful? wherein their obstinate unbelief turned to our advantage; for after they had made themselves unworthy of that gospel of peace, that blessing was instantly derived upon us Gentiles; and we happily changed conditions with R●m. 11. 2●. them: The natural branches of the good Olive tree being cut off, we, that were of the wild Olive contrary to nature, are graffed in; O the goodness and severity of God on them Rom. 22. which fell, severity, on us, which succeeded, goodness; They were once the children, and we the dogs under the table; the crumbs were our lot, the bread was theirs; now is the case, through their wilful incredulity, altered; they are the dogs, Rom. 11. 1. and we the children: we sit at a full table, whiles their hunger is not satisfied with scraps; The casting away of them was the reconciling of the world, their fall, our exaltation; It is not for us to be high-minded, but Rom. 11. 20 to fear: The great sheet with four corners is let down from heaven, with all manner of fourfooted beasts of the earth, and creeping things, and fowls of Act. 10. 11. ●2. the air; we may kill, and eat; without any difference of clean or unclean; but even of clean meats we may surfeit. O Saviour, it is thy great mercy, that thou hast been thus long preached amongst us Gentiles, that we in the remote ends of the World have seen the salvation of our God: but if we shall abuse thy graces to wantonness; and walk unanswerably to this freedom of thy gospel, how both just and easy is it for thee to withdraw these blessings from us, and to return us to the woeful condition of our old forlornness: O let it not be enough that thou art preached amongst us Gentiles; but do thou work us to an holy obedience of thy blessed gospel; reclaim us from our abominable licentiousness of life, from our hellish heresies of opinion, and teach us to walk worthy of that great salvation, which thou hast held forth unto us: so shall it be our happiness that thou wert preached to us Gentiles; otherwise our condemnation shall be so much the deeper, as our light hath been more clear, and our means more powerful. SECT. XIII. SO▪ poor and despicable, O believed on in the world Saviour▪ wouldst thou have thy coming in the flesh, that it is no marvel if the vain world utterly disregarded thee: For what is the misjudging world led by but by outward pomp & magnificence? yea, thy very domestic, followers after so long acquaintance with thy person and doctrine, even when thou wert risen from the dead, could think of the royalty of a temporal kingdom to be restored to Israel: and still the perverse generations of Jewish Infidels after the conviction of so many hundred years, gape for an earthly Monarchy of their expected Massiah: that, therefore, appearing to the world in so contemptible means, so born, so living, so dying, thou shouldst be universally believed on in the world, is the just wonder of the mystery of godliness. It was the largeness of thy divine bounty to allow thy gospel preached to every creature; but alas, it is liberally preached, sparingly received; Who hath believed our report, Esay, 53. 1. and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? It was the complaint 2 Cor. 1. 23. of thy chosen vessel the Doctor of the Gentiles, We preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block, to the Greeks foolishness: What a power therefore is there in the mystery of godliness, that thou art not preached only, but believed on in the world? Hadst thou exhibited thyself in the magnificence and majesty of the Son of God, attended either with the glorious Angels of heaven, or the mighty Monarchs of the earth, scattering honours and riches upon thy followers, in abundance: how large a train wouldst thou have had? how would all the Earth have rung with Hosonnas to the highest? but now, that thou wouldst come as the Mat. 21. 9 Son of man, in the homeliest condition of birth, education life and death; not having so much as an house wherein to put thy head, or a grave wherein to lay thy dead body; now, that thou wouldst suffer thyself to be spat upon, scourged, crucifed, reviled; that the stub born hearts of men should be so convinced by the truth, and power of thy Deity, that thou art believed on in the world, is the great mystery of godliness▪ The powers of darkness could not but see their kingdom shaken by thy coming down to the earth, upon this errand of thy Mediation; How busy and violent therefore were those gates of hell in opposing so glorious a work? How did they stir up cruel Tyrants, in the first dawning of thy gospel, furiously to persecute this way unto death? what exquisite torments of all kinds did they devise for the innocent professors of thy name? How drunken was the earth with the blood of thy Martyrs in all parts? And, when they saw how little force could prevail, (since this palmtree grew the more by depression,) how did they set their wits on work in attempting by fraud, to bring about their cut fed designs. How cunningly did they go about to undermine that wall, which they could not batter; now, whole troops of the skilfullest Engineers of hell, are sent up by damned heresies to blow up, and overthrow that truth, which they could not beat down▪ One while thine eternal Deity, another while thy sacred humanity is impugned by those, who yet stile themselves Christians: One while either of thy natures, another while thy entire Person is laid at, by those that profess themselves thy friends, and clients▪ One while thine Offices, another while thy Scriptures are opposed by those who yet would seem thine; And though their insinuations have been so eraftily carried, and their colours so well laid, that no small part of the world hath been for the time, beguiled by them, and drawn into a plausible misbeleef▪ yet still, great hath the truth ever been, and ever prevailed, happily triumphing over those damnable heresies that have dared to lift up their head against her, and chasing them into their hell: So as, in spite of men and Devils, the great mystery of Godliness is gloriously vindicated, and God manifested in weak flesh is believed on in the world. SECT. XIIII. The world is not all of one 1 Joh. 5. 19 making, there is a world of creatures, not capable of belief; there is a world of men that lieth in wickedness, refusing to believe; there is a world of faithful souls, that do believe, and in believing are saved: And, O blessed Saviour, that thou wouldst graciously enlarge this world of believers! Woe is me, what a world of this world of men lies still under the damnable estate of unbelief? Alas, for those poor savage Indians, that know nothing of a God; which out of their fear, and tyrannical superstition, worship Devils, that they may not hurt them; for those ignorant, and woefully blindfolded Mahometans, that are not allowed to see any more, than one blink of thee, as a great Prophet, being taught to blaspheme▪ thy Deity, and to enslave their faith to a wretched Impostor; for those obstinate Jews that are wilfully blind and will not see the light of that truth concerning thee their Messiah, which shineth forth clearly to them, in the writings of the Prophets, in the undeniable accomplishment of all former predictions, in the powerful conviction of miraculous works; What Christian is there, whose bowels do not yearn, whose heart doth not bleed at the thought of so many millions of miserable unbelievers? O thou the God of infinite mercy and compassion, in whose hands are all the hearts of the sons of men, look down graciously from heaven upon the dark souls of these poor Infidels and enlighten them with the saving knowledge of the great mystery of godliness: Let the beams of thy gospel break forth unto them, and work them to a sound belief in thee their God, manifested in the flesh: Fetch home into thy fold all those that belong to thy merciful election; bring in the fullness of the Gentiles; gather together the outcasts of Israel, and glorify thyself in completing a world of believers. Rom. 11. Psal, 147. 2. And for us, on whom the ends of the world are come; as we have been graciously called to the comfortable notice of this mystery of godliness, and have professed, and vowed a steadfast belief in thy name; so keep us by thy good spirit in an holy and constant avowance of all those main truths, concerning thy sacred Person, Natures, and Offices, unto our last end; For thou seest, O blessed Jesu that there is now such an hell of the spirits of error broken loose into the world, as if they meant to evacuate this part of the mystery of godliness, (Christ believed on in the world;) O do thou by thy mighty power restrain and quell these pernicious heresies, and send down these wicked spirits back to their chains; so as our most holy faith may ever remain inviolable till the day of thy glorious return. Neither let us sit down contented that we hold fast and believe the mere history of thy life, death, and resurrection; (without which, as we can be saved, so with it alone we cannot) but do thou by thy good spirit, work and settle in our souls, a sound, lively, operative, justifying faith in thee; whereby we may not only believe on thee, as a common Saviour, but believe in thee, as ours: bringing thee home to our hearts, and confidently relying upon thee, for the acquittance of all our sins, and for our eternal salvation: O that thou mightest be thus believed on in the world; and if not by them, in the notion of their universality, yet by us who Received up into glory. profess thy name, to thy great glory and our everlasting comfort. SECT. XV. IN these occurrences, on the earth; Great is the mystery of godliness, but the highest pitch of this great mystery, O Saviour, is, that thou thus manifested in our flesh, wert received up into glory: even that celestial glory which thou enjoyest in the highest heavens, sitting on the right hand of majesty, seen and adored by all that blessed company of the Heb. 12. 22. 23. souls of just men made perfect, and the innumerable troops of glorious Angels: If some erroneous fancies have placed their heaven here below upon earth, ours is above; and so is thine O blessed Jesu, who wert taken up in glory; thou couldst not be taken up to any earthly ascent, since thou tookest thy farewell on the top of Mount Olivet: but from this globe of earth thou ascendest through the skies to that empyreal heaven, where thou remainest in glory, infinite, and incomprehensible. The many and intentive beholders of thy last parting, did not cast their eyes down into the valley, neither did see cause with the fifty sons 2 King 2. 16. of the Prophets, to seek for thee (as they would needs do for Elijah) in valleys, and mountains; they saw and worishpped thee, leisurely ascending up through the region of this lower heaven, till a cloud intercepted thee from their sight; neither then could easily be taken off, either by the interposition of that dark body, or by the interpellation of Angels: And now, O blessed Saviour, how is my soul ravished with the mediation of thy glorious reception into thine Heaven? Surely, if the inhabitants of those celestial mansions may be capable of any increase of joy, they then both found and showed it, when they saw and welcomed thee entering in thy gorlified humanity, in to that thy eternal palace of blessedness; and if there could be any higher, or sweeter ditty then Hallelujah, it was then sung by the Chore of Angels and Saints. And may thy poor servants warfairing and wandering here upon earth, ever second them in those heavenly songs of praises and gratulations: for wherein stands all our safety, hope, comfort, happiness, but in this, that thou our Jesus art received up into glory? and having conquered all adverse powers, sittest on the right hand of God the farther, crowned with honour and majesty? O Jesu, thou art our head, we are thy body: how can the body but participate of the glory of the head? as for thyself therefore, so for us, art thou possessed of that heavenly glory: as thou suffered'st for us, so for us thou also raignest; Let Phil. 2. 11. every knee therefore bow unto thee, of things in heaven, and things on earth, and things under the earth; O blessed be thy name for ever and ever: Thine, 2 Chr. 2. 11. O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty; for all that is in the heaven, and in the earth is thine: thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and thou art exalted as head over all: And now, O Saviour, what a superabundant amends is made to thy glorified humanity, for all thy bitter sufferings upon earth? Thine agony was extreme, but thy glory is infinite, thy cross was heavy, but thy crown transcendently glorious: thy pains were unconceivably grievous, but short, thy glory everlasting: If thou wert scorned by men, thou art now adored by Angels: Thou that stoodst before the judgement Seat of a Pilate, shalt come in all heavenly magnificence to judge both the quick and the dead; Shortly, thou which wouldst stoop to be a servant upon Earth, rulest and raignest for ever in Heaven as the King of eternal glory. O then, my soul, seeing thy Saviour is received up into this infinite glory, with what intention and fervour of spirit shouldst thou fix thine eyes upon that heaven where he lives, and reigns? How canst thou be but wholly taken up with the sight and thought of that place of blessedness? how canst thou abide to grovel any longer on this base Earth, where is nothing but vanity and vexation; and refrain to mind the things above, where is all felicity and glory? with what longings, and holy ambi●ion shouldst thou desire to aspire to that place of eternal rest, and beatitude, into which thy Saviour is ascended? and with him to partake of that glory and happiness which he hath provided for all that love him? O Saviour, it is this clog of wretched infidelity and earthliness that hangs heavy upon my soul, and keeps me from mounting up into thy presence, and from a comfortable fruition of thee: O do thou take off this sinful weight from me, and raise up my affections and conversation to thee; enable me constantly to enjoy thee by a lively faith here: till by thy mercy I shall be received into thy glory. FINIS.