The great mystery of godliness laid forth by way of affectuous and feeling meditation : also the invisible world discovered to spirituall eyes and reduced to usefull meditation in three books / by Jos. Hall.

The great mystery of godliness laid forth by way of affectuous and feeling meditation : also the invisible world discovered to spirituall eyes and reduced to usefull meditation in three books / by Jos. Hall.

Table of contents

Title page

To all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, Grace and Peace.

Title page

SECT. I.

SECT. II.

SECT. III.

SECT. 4.

SECT. V.

SECT. VI.

SECT. VII.

SETC. VIII.

SECT. IX.

SECT. X.

SECT. XI.

SECT. XIII.

SECT. XIIII.

SECT. XV.

[Page] [Page] THE GREAT MYSTERIE OF GODLINESS.

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The Great MYSTERY of GODLINESS, Laid forth by way of affectuous and feeling MEDITATION:

Also the INVISIBLE WORLD, Discovered to Spirituall Eyes, and reduced to usefull Meditation.

IN THREE BOOKS.

By JOS HALL, D. D. B. Norwich.

London, Printed by E. Cotes, [...]or John Place at Furnivals Inne-gate, 1659.

To all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, Grace and Peace.

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Dear Brethren,

IF I have, in a sort, taken my leave of the world already; yet, not of you, whom God hath chosen out of the world, and endeared to me by a closer interest: so as ye may justly expect from me a more speciall valediction; which I do now in all Christian affection tender unto you: And, as dear friends [Page] upon a long parting are wont to leave behind them some takens of remembrance, where they most affect; so have I thought good, before my setting forth on my last journey, to recomend unto you these my two finall Meditations; then which, I suppose, nothing could be more proper for me to give; or more likely to merit your acceptation: For, if we were half way in heaven already, what can be a more seasonable imployment of our thoughts, then the great Mysterie of Godlinesse, which the Angels 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 [Page] us nothing but vanity and vexation) what can be more meet, then to feed our spirituall eyes, with the light of Invisible glories? Make your use of them, both, to the edisying of your selves in your most holy faith; and aspire with me, towards that happiness which is laid up above for all those that love the appearance of our Lord Jesus.

Withall, as the last words of friends are wont to bear the greatest weight, and to make the deepest impression; so let these lines of holy advise, wherewith after many well-meant discourses) I shall close up the mouth of the Presse, find the like respect from you.

[Page]Oh that I might in the first place, effectually recommend to you the full recovery of that precious Legacy of our blessed Saviour, Peace: peace with God, Peace with men; next to Grace the best of all blessings: Yet, wo is me, too too long banished from the Christian world, with such animosity, as if it were the worst of enemies, and meet to be adjudged to a perpetuall mitrnatit ion.

Oh for a fountain of tears to bewaile the slain of Gods people in all the coasts of the Earth: How is Christendome become an universall Aceldama? How is the earth every where drenched with humane bloud? [...]oured out, not by the hands [Page] of cruell Infidels, but of brethren: Men need not go so farre as Euphrates for the execution of Turks and Pagans, Christians can make up an Armageddon with their own mutuall slaughter. Enough, my dear brethren, enough; yea more then too much hath been the effusion of that bloud, for which our Saviour hath shed his: Let us now, at the last, dry up these deadly issues, which we have made; and with soveraigne balms bind up the wounds we have given: Let us now be, not more sparing of our tears, to wash off the memory of these our unbrotherly dimications, and to ppease the anger of that God, whose offended justice [Page] hath raised war out of our own bowels: As our enmity, so our peace begins at heaven: Had we not provoked our long suffering God, we had not thus bled; and we cannot but know and beleeve him that said. WhenProv. 16. [...]7. a mans wayes please the Lord, he maketh his enemies to be at peace with him; Oh that we could throughly reconcile our selves to that great and holy God, whom we have irritated by our crying sins, how soon would he, who is the commander of all hearts, make up our breaches, and calme and compose our spirits to an happy peace and concord!

In the next place give me leave earnestly to exhort [Page] you, that, as we have been heretofore palpably faulty in abusing the mercies of our God for which we have soundly smarted) so that now, we should be so much the more carefull to improve the judgments of God, to our effectuall reformation: we have felt the heavie hand of the Almighty upon us to purpose; Oh that our amendment could be no lesse sensible then our sufferings; But, alas, my brethren, are our wayes any whit holyer? our obedience, more exact, our sins less and fewer then before we were thus heavily afflicted? [...] our God too justly [...] that complaint, which he made once by his Prophet Jeremiah, [Page] Ye have transgressed againstJer. 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 solemne 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 adulterie, they break out, and blood toucheth bloud: We be to us, if after so many veins opened, the blood remaining should not be the purer.

Let me have leave, in the third place, to e [...]cite you to the practise of C [...]stian charity, in the mutuall constructions of each others persons, and actions; which [Page] (I must tell you) we have heedlesly violated in the heat of our holy intentions; whiles those which have varied from us in matter of opinion, concerning some appendances of Religion, and outward forms of administration, we have been apt to look upon with such disregard, as if they had herein forfeited their Christian profession, and were utter aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel; though in the mean time, sound at the heart; and endeavouring to walk close with God in all their wayes: whereas the father of all mercies allows a gracious latitude to his children, in all not-forbidden paths: and in every nation and condition ofAct [...]. 10. 35. [Page] men, he that feareth God, and worketh righteousness▪ is accepted with him: Beware we (my dear brethren) lest whiles we follow the chase of Zeal, we out-run charity, without which, piety it self would be but unwelcome: As for matter of opinion in the differences of Religion, wherewith the whole known world, not of Christians only, but of men, is wofully distracted, to the great prejudice of millions of souls, let this be our sure rule.Jude. 3. Whosoever he be that holds the faith which was once delivered to the Saints, agreeing therefore with us in all fundamentall Truths, let him be received as a brother: For there is but one Lord, one Faith, onephes. 4. 5 [Page] Baptism: And, other foundation1 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 beleeved: If any man be faulty in the doctrines of superstructure, let us pity and rectifie his errour, but not abandon his person.

The Communion of Saints is not so sleight that it should be violated by weak mistakings: If any man through ignorance or simplicity, shall strike at the foundation of faith, let us labour by all gentle means, and brotherly conviction, in the spirit of meeknesse to [Page] reclaim him: If after all powerfull indeavours he will needs remain, obstinate in his evill way; let us disclaim his fellowship, and not think him worthy of a God-speed. But if he shall not only wilfully undermine the ground-work of Christian faith, by his own damnable opinions, but diffuse his hereticall blasphemies to the infection of others; let him be cut off by spirituall censures; and so dealt with by publick authority that the mischief of his contagion may be seasonably prevented, and himself be made sensible of his hainous crime.

In all which proceedings, just distinction must be made betwixt the seduced soul, [Page] and the pestilent seducer, the one calls for compassion, the other, for severity: So then 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 punissh the self-convicted heresiarch.

In the fourth place, let us, I beseech you, take heed of beeing swayed with selfinterests in all our designs: These have ever been the bane of the best undertakings, as being not more plausibly insinnuative, then pernicious: For that partiall self-love, that naturally lodges in every mans brest, is ready to put us upon those [Page] projects, which, under fair pretences, may be extreamly prejudiciall to the publique weal; suggesting not how lawfull or expedient they may be for the common, but how beneficiall to our selves; drawing us by insensible degrees to sacrifice the publique welfare to our own advantage, and to underwork, and cross the better counsails of more faithfull patriots: Whereupon, many flourishing Churches, Kingdomes, States, have been brought to miserable ruine: Oh that we could remember, that as all things are ours, so we are not our own; that we have the least interest in our selves, being infinitely more considerable as parts of a community, then [Page] as single persons; that the main end of our beeing, (next to the glory of our maker) is an universall serviceablenesse to others: in the attaining whereof, we shall far more eminently advance our own happiness, then by the best of our private self-seeking indeavors.

But withall, 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 wel 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 enterfere with each other. It is the prudent [Page] 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 lesse incongurous for men in divine and civill administrations, to offer to undertake, and manage each others function; in their nature and quality no lesse disperate: So then, let us indeavour to advance the common good, as that a pious Zeal may not draw in [Page] confusion; and that we may not mistakeingly rear up the walls of Babel, whiles we intend Jerusalem: Not religion only, but policie cals us to encouragement of all usefull professions; and of the sacred so much more, as the soul is more precious then all the world beside. Heed therefore must be taken to avoid all means, whereby the study of learning and knowledge may be any way disheartned; as without which the world would soon be over-run 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 [Page] above all, as Divinity is the Queen of Sciences, so should it be our just shame that whiles her handmaids are mounted on horsback, 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 fig-tree, abounding with leaves, void of fruit; but reall, active, fruitfull of all good workes, and exemplary in an universal obedience to the wholwill of God: For it is a scandall never to be enough lamented, that any of those who are Saints by calling (such we all are, or should be) should hug some dearling [Page] sin in their bosome, which at last breaks forth to the shame of the Gospell, and to the insultation of Gath and Ascalon: Wo be to us if we shall thus cause the name of our God to be evill 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 compasse 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 Gideons fleece, continue altogether dry, under so many sweet shewres of Grace; wishing unto their souls, even thus late, a sense of [Page] the efficacy of that water which was once poured on their faces: These, if they run into all excesse of riot, what can be other expected from them? but for us, that have learned to know the great Mysterie of Godlinesse, and have given up our name, to a strict covenant of obedience, if we shall suffer our selves to be miscarried into any enormious wickedness, we shall cause heaven to blush, and hell to triumph. Oh therefore, let us be so much the more watchfull over our ways, as our engagements to the name of our God, are greater, and the danger of our miscariages more deadly.

Lastly, let me beseech, and adjure you, in the name of the Lord Jesu, to be carefull [Page] in matter of Religion, to keep within the due bounds of Gods revealed will. A charge which I would to God were not too needfull in these last dayes; wherein, who sees not what Spirits of Errour are gone forth into the world, for the seducing of simple, and ungrounded souls? Wo is me, what throngs are carried to hell by these devillish 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, hereticall, 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 [Page] repelled the Devill, so do ye the fanatick spirits of these brain-sick men, with, It is written; Let those who would be wiser then God, justly perish in their presumption; My soul for yours, if ye keep you to S. Pauls guard, not to be wise above that which is written. I could easily out of the exuberance of my Christian love overcharg you with multiplicity of holy counlses, but I would not take a tedious farewell. May the God of heaven bless these, and all other wholesom admonitions to the furtherance of your souls in grace; and may his good spirit, ever lead & guide us in all such wayes, as may be pleasing to him, till we happily meet in the participation of that incomprehensible glory, which he hath prepared for ill his Saints; till when, Farewel from your fellow-pilgrim in this vale of tears,

Jos. Hall.

HIGHAM neer NORWICH, Nov. 3. 1651

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THE Great Mysterie OF GODLINESS, Laid forth by way of Affectuous and Feeling MEDITATION.

By JOS. HALL, D. D. B. N.

London, Printed by E. Cotes, for John Place at Furnivals Inne-gate, 1659.

SECT. I.

LET no man goe about1 Tim. 3. 16. Great is the Mysterie of Godlinesse. to entertain the thoughts of the Great Mystery of Godliness, but with a ravished heart, an heart filled with a gracious composition of love, and joy, and wonder: Such a one, O Saviour, I desire, through thy grace, to bring with me to the meditation of that thine infinitely glorious work of our Redemption: It was as possible for thy chosen Vessell who was by a divine extasie caught up into Paradise, [Page] and there heard unutterable words to express what he saw and heard above, as to set forth what was acted by thee here below; as therefore unable either to comprehend, or utter things so far above wonder, he contents himself with a patheticall intimation of that, which he saw could never be enough admired; Great is the Mysterie of Godlinesse. There are great Mysteries of Art, which the wit and experience of skilfull men have discovered; there are greater Mysteries of Nature, some part whereof have been described by Art and Industrie, but the greater part lyes hidden from mortall eyes: but these are lesse then nothing to the great mystery of Godliness: For, what are these but the deep secrets of the Creature? mean therefore, and finite like it self; but the other are the unfadomable depths of an infinite Deitie: [Page] fitter for the admiration of the highest Angels of heaven, then for the reach of humane conception. Great were the mysteries of the Law; neither could the face of Moses be seen without his veile: But what other were these, but the shadowes of this great Mystery of Godliness? what did that golden Ark overspread with glorious Cherubims, that gorgeous Temple, those perfumers Altars, those bleeding Sacrifices, that sumptuous▪ Priesthood, but prefigure thee, O blessed Saviour, which in the fulnesse of time shouldst be revealed to the World, and make up this great Mystery of Godliness? There is nothing, O dear Jesu that▪ thou either didst or sufferedst for mankind, which is other then mysterious, and wonderfull; but the great and astonishing mysterie of Godlinesse is thy▪ self; God manifested in the flesh: Lo, faith it self can never be [Page] capable to apprehend a mysterie like this; Thou who art a Spirit, and therefore immateriall, invisible, to expose thy self to the view of earthen eyes; Thou, who art an infinite Spirit to be enwrapped in flesh; Thou an al-glorious eternal Spirit to put on the rags of humane mortality; Thou, the great Creatour of all things, to become a Creature; Thou, the omnipotent God, to subject thy self to miserable frailty and infirmity: O mysterie transcending the full apprehension of even glorified souls! If but one of thy celestial Spirits have upon thy gracious mission assumed a visible shape▪ and therein appeared to any of thy servants of old, it hath been held a spectacle of so dreadfull astonishment, that it could not be consistent with life; even so much honour was thought no less then deadly; neither could the Patient make any other [Page] account then to be killed with the kindnesse of that glory; What shall we say then, that thou who art the God of those Spirits, and therefore infinitely more glorious then all the Hierarchy of heaven, vouchsafedst, not in a vanishing apparition, but in a setled state of many years continuance, to shew thy self in our flesh, and to converse with men in their own shape and condition? O great mysterie of Godlinesse, God manifested in the flesh▪ 1 Pet. 1. 12. so great that the holy ambition of the heavenly Angels could not reach higher then the desire to look down into it.

SECT. II.

BUt O Saviour, that whichGod manifested. raised the amazement at the appearance of thine Angels▪ was their resplendent glorie; whereas [Page] that which heightens the wonder of thy manifestation to men, is the depth of thine abasement: Although thou wouldst not take the nature of Angels, yet why wouldst thou not appear in the lustre and majesty of those thy best creatures? Or, since thou wouldst be a man, why wouldst thou not come as the chief of men, commanding Kings and Princes of the earth to attend thy train? Thou, whose the earth is, and the fulnesse thereof, why wouldst thou not raise to thy self a palace compiled of all those precious stones, which lye hid in the close cofers of that thine inferiour Treasurie? why did not thy Court glitter with pearle, and gold, in the rich furnitures, and gay suits of thy stately followers? why was not thy Table furnished with all the delicacies that the world could afford? O Saviour, it was the great glory of [Page] thy mercy, that being upon earth, thou wouldest abandon all earthly glory; there could not be so great an exaltation of thy love to mankinde, as that thou wouldst be thus low abased; Manifested then thou wert, but manifested in a despicable obscurity: whether shall I more wonder, that being God blessed for ever, thou wouldst become man; or, that condescending to be man, thou wouldst take upon thee the shape of a servant, a servāt to those whose Lord, whose God thou wert.

What proportion couldIn the flesh there be, O blessed Jesus betwixt a God and a Man; betwixt finite, and infinite; the onely power of thy everlasting and unmeasurable love hath so reduced one of these to the other, that both are united in that glorious person of thine to make up an absolute Saviour of mankind: O the height, and depth of this supercelestial mysterie, [Page] that the infinite Deity, and finite flesh should meet in one subject? yet so, as the humanity should not be absorpted of the Godhead; nor the Godhead coarcted by the humanity, but both inseparably united; that the Godhead is not humanized, the humanity is not deifred, both are indivisibly conjoyned: conjoined so, as without confusion; distinguished so, as without division: So wert thou, O God, manifested in the flesh, that thou the word of thine eternall Father wert made flesh; and dwelledst among us; and weJob. 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 eternall Deity: assumption, not into the nature of the Godhead, but into the person of thee, who art [Page] God everlasting: O mystery of Godlinesse, incomprehensibly glorious! Cease, cease O humane curiosity, and where thou canst not comprehend, wonder and adore.

SECT. III.

BUt, O Savior, was it not enough for thee to be manifested in flesh? Did not that elementarie composition carry in it abasement enough, without any further addition? (since for God to become man was more then for all things to be redacted to nothing) but that in the rank of miserable manhood, thou wouldst humble thy self to the lowest of humanity, and become a servant? Shall I say more? I can hear Bildad the Shuhite say, Man isJob. 25 6. a worm; and I hear him, who was a noble Type of thee, say, [Page] as in thy person, I am a wormPsal. 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 shepheards; imployed in an homely trade; attended by mean fishermen; tempted by presumptuous Devils; persecuted by the malice of envious men; exposed to hunger, thirst, nakednesse, wearinesse, contempt? How many sclaves under the vassalage of an enemie fare better then thou didst from ingratefull man, whom thou camest to save? Yet all these were but a mild and gentle preface to those thy last sufferings, wherewith thou wert pleased to shut up this scene of mortality: there I find thee sweating blood in thine agonie, crowned with thorns bleeding w [...]th scourges, buffeted with cruell hands, spat upon [Page] by impure mouths, laden with thy fatall burden, distended upon that torturing crosse, nailed to that tree of shame and curse, reviled and insulted upon by the vilest of men, and at last, (that no part of thy precious bloud might remain unshed) pierced to the heart by the spear of a late and impertinent malice.

Thus, thus, O God and Saviour, wouldst thou be manifested in the flesh, that the torments of thy flesh and spirit might be manifested to that world, which thou camest to redeem; thus wast thou wounded for our transgressions; thus wast thou bruised forEsay 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.

[Page]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 thereMat. 17. 2. Mark. 29. Luke 9. 28. did thy face shine as the Sun; and thy raiment was white as thy light: How easie had it been for thee to have continued this celestiall splendor to thy humanity all the whole time of the so journing upon earth; that so thou mightest have been adored of all mankinde? How would all the Nations under heaven have flockd to thee, and fallen down at the feet of so glorious a Majesty? What man in all the world would not have said with Peter, Lord it is good for us to be here? Or if it had pleased thee to have commanded Moses and Elias to wait upon thee in thy mediatorie perambulation, and, to attend thee at Jerusalem, on the Mount of Sion, as they did in [Page] the Mount of Tabor, whom hadst thou not in a zealous astonishment drawn after thee? But it was thy wil and the pleasure of thy heavenly Father, that this glorious appearance should soon be over shadowed with a cloud: And as those celestiall guests, now in the midst of thy glory, spent their conference about thy bitter sufferings, and thine approaching departure out of the world▪ So wert thou, for the great work of our Redemption, willing to be led from the Mount Tabor to Mount Calvarie; from the height of that glory to the lowest depth of sorrow, pain, exinanition.

Thus vile wert thou, O Saviour, in the flesh; but in this vilenesse of flesh mannifested to be God; how did all thy Creatures in this extremity of thine abasement, agree to acknowledge and celebrate thine infinite Deity? The Angels [Page] 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 [Page] servant, the unspeakable riches of thy love and mercie to mankind, in that great work of our Redemption: Vouchafe to affect▪ my heart with a lively sense of that infinite goodnesse of thine towards the wretcheddest of thy creatures; that for our sake thou camest down, and cloathedst thy self in our flesh and cloathedst that pure and holy flesh with all the miseries that are incident to this sinfull flesh of ours; and wast content to undergo a bitter, painfull, ignominous death from the hands of man, that by dying thou mightest overcome death and ransome him from that hel, to which he was (without thee) irrecoverably forfeited; and fetch him forth to life, liberty, and glory: O let me not see only, but feel this thy great mysterie of Godlinesse effectually working me to all hearty thankfulnesse for so inestimable a mercie; to all holy resolutions [Page] to glorifie thee in all my actions, in all my sufferings: Didst thou, O Saviour, being God eternall, take flesh for me; and shall not I, when thou callest, be willing to lay down this sinfull flesh for thee again? Wert thou content to abridge thy self, for the time, not onely of thy heavenly magnificence, but of all earthly comforts, for my sake, and shall not I, for thy dear sake, renounce all the wicked pleasures of sin? Didst thou wear out the dayes of thy flesh in poverty, toil, reproach, and all earthly hardship; and shall I spend my time in pampering this flesh in wanton dalliance, in the ambitious, and covetous pursuit of vain honours, and deceivable riches? Blessed Lord thou wert manifested in the flesh, not only to be a Ransome for our souls, but to be a Precedent for our lives: Far, far be it from me thus to imitate [Page] the great pattorn of holiness.

O Jesu, the author and finisher of my faith and salvation, teach me to tread in thy gracious steps, to run with patience the race that is set before me▪ to endure the cross, to despise the shame to be crucified to the world, to work all righteousnesse.

SECT. V.

HOw easily could I be drawn to envie the priviledge of those eyes, which saw thee here walking upon Earth, O God and Saviour, in the dayes of thy manifesting thy self in flesh? Oh what an happy spectacle was this, to see the face of him, in whom the Godhead dwelt bodily? All the world is not worth such a sight: whither could I not wish to go to see but a just portraiture of that shape, wherein thou wert pleased [Page] to converse with men? But thine holy Apostle checks this2 Cor. 5. 16. uselesse curiosity in me, whiles he saies; If we have knowne Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him so no more; It is not the outside of thine humane form, the view whereof can make us more holy or more happy: Judas saw thee as well as he that lay in thy bosome; those saw thee that maligned and persecuted thee, and shall once again see thee to their utmost horror, see him whom they pierced: They saw that flesh in which God was manifested; they saw not God manfested in the flesh: It is our great comfort and priviledge, that it was flesh wherein God was manifested▪ but it is not in the flesh, but in the Deity to render us blessed: O Saviour, I dare not beg of thee, so to manifest thy self to me, as thou didst to thy chosen Vessell in his way to [Page] 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 manifestatiō of thy self to me▪ Be pleased to manifest thy self to me in the clear illuminations of thy Spirit; let me by the eyes of my faith clearly see thee both sprawling in: the Manger, and walking upon earth, and tempted in the Wildernesse, and arraigned in the Judgment-hall, and suffering upon Calvarie, and rising out of thy Tomb, and a soending from thy Olivet▪ and reigning in Heaven, and there interceding for me: And after my approaching dissolution, let my soul see thee in that glorified flesh, wherein thou wert manifested to the World, and in the Majesty of that allglorious Deity▪ which assumed it to that ever blessed society of glory.

SECT. VI.

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IT was thy mercy, O God, that thou wouldst not keep up thy self close in thine eternall, spirituall, and incomprehensible essence, unknown to thy creatures upon earth, but that thou wouldest be manifested to the world: It was yet thy further mercy that thou wert not only pleased to manifest thy self to man in the wonderfull works of thy Creation,Rom. 1. 20. (since those invifible things of thine are understood, and clearly seen by the things that are made, even thine eternall power and God-head) but to manifest thy self yet more clearly to us in thy sacred Word, the blessed Oracles of thine eternall truth: but it was the highest pitch of thy mercy, that thou wouldst manifest thy self yet more to us in the [Page] flesh. Thou mightst have sent us thy gracious messages by the hands of thine Angels, those glorious ministring spirits, that do continually attend thy throne; this would not content thee, but such was thy love to us forlorn wretches, that thou wouldst come thy self, to finish the work of our Redemption. Neither didst thou think it enough to come to us in a spirituall way, imparting thy self to us by secret suggestions, and inspirations, by dreams and visions, but wouldst vouchsafe openly to be manifested in our flesh: how then, O my God, how wert thou manifested in the flesh? was not the flesh thy vail? and wherefore serves a vail, but to hide and cover? Did not thy Deity then lie hid, and obscured, whiles thou wert here on earth under the vail of of thy flesh? How then wert thou manifested in that flesh, [Page] wherein thou didst lye obscured? Surely, thou wert certainly manifested in respect of thy presence, in that sacred flesh of thine; though for the time thy power and Majesty lay hid under the vail: Sometimes thou wert pleased that this sun of thy Deity should break forth in the glorious beams of divine operations, to the dazeling of the eyes of men and Devils, to the full eviction of thine omnipotent power against thy envious gainsayers; at other times, thou wert content it should be clouded over with the dim and dusky appearances of humane infirmity; The more thou wert obscured, the more didst thou manifest thy most admirable humility, and unparallelable love to mankinde, whose weaknesse thou disdainedst not to take up; And the more thou didst exert thy power, in thy miraculous works, the more didst thou [Page] glorifie thy self, and vindicate thine Almighty Deity thus manifested in the flesh; Oh that thou wouldst enable me to give thee the due praiss both of thine infinite mercie in this thine humble obscurity, and of thy divine omnipotence, who as thou wert manifested in the flesh, so wast also justified in the spirit.

SECT. VII.

HE that should have seenJustified in the Spirit. thee, O Saviour, working in Josephs shop, or walking in the fields or streets of Nazareth, or journying towards Ierusalem, would have looked upon thee as a meer man: neither did thy garb or countenance bewray any difference in thee from the ordinary sort of men; so did [...]hy God-head please to conceal it for a time in that flesh, where [Page] in thou wouldst be manifested; it was thine al-working and coessentiall spirit, by whose evident testimonies, and mighty operations, thy Deity was irrefragably made good to the world: If the doubtfull sons of men shall in their peevish Infidelity, he apt to renew the question of Johns Disciples: Art thou he that should come, or shall we looke for another? thine ever blessed and coeternal Spirit, hath fully justified thee, for that only true, absolute, perfect mediator, by whom the great work of mans redemption is accomplished: Whiles the gates of hell want neither power, nor malice, nor subtletie, it is not possible that thy divine person should want store of enemies; These, in all successions of times, have dared to open their blasphemous mouthe against thy blessed Deity: But against all their hellish oppositions, thou wert still, and [Page] shalt be ever justified by thy co-omni potent spirit; In those convictive wonders which thou wroughtst upon earth; in those miraculous gifts and graces, which thou powredst out upon men; in that glorious resurrection and ascension of thine wherein thou didst victoriously triumph over all the powers of death and hell. Lo then, ye perverse Jews and scoffing Gentiles, that are still ready to upbraid us with the impotency and sufferings of a despised Redeemer; and to tell us of the ragges of his Manger, of the homelinesse of his Education, of his temptation and transportation by the Devill, of his contemptible train; of his hunger and thirst, of his weariness and indigence, of his whips and thorns, of his agonie in the garden of Gethsemane, of his opprobrious crucifixion in Calvarie, of his parted garments and his borrowed grave: Is not this he▪ [Page] to whose homely cradle a glorious and supernaturall star guided the sages of the East for their adoration? Is not this he, whose birth declared by oneLuk. 2. 9, 10, 13, 1 glorious Angell, was celebrated by a multitude of the heavenly host with that divine Anthem of [Glory to God in the highest, and on earth Peace, good will towards men?] Is not this he that filled the world with his divine and beneficiall miracles? healing all diseases by his Word, restoring limbs to the lame, giving eyes to the borne blind, casting out Devils, raising the dead, commanding windes and seas, acknowledged by an audible voice from heaven? Is not this he whom the very ejected Devils were forced to confess to be the son of the everliving God? whom the heaven and al the elements owned for their almighty Creatour? whose sufferings darkened the Sun, and shooke the [Page] Earth, and rent the Rocks in pieces? and justly, whom the dead Saints and the heavenly Angels attended in his powerfull Resurrect on, and glorious Ascension? O Saviour, abundantly justified in the spirit against all the malignances of men and Devils.

SETC. VIII.

If thy malicious persecutours, whose hand was in thy most cruell crucifixion, shall for the covering of their own shame, blazon thee for a Deceiver of the people; How convincingly wert thou justified in the spirit, by the dreadfull and miraculous descent of the holy Ghost in the cloven and fiery tongues; and that suddain variety of language for the spreading of the glory of thy name over all the Nations of the [Page] earth? If the unbeleiving world, bewitched with their former superstition, shall furiously oppose thy name and Gospell in the times immediately succeeding: how notably art thou justified in the spirit, by the suddain stopping of the mouths of their hellish Oracles, by the powerfull predications of thine holy Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors and Doctors, seconded by such undeniable miracles as shamed and astonished, if not won, the gainsayers?

But, O Saviour, being thus clearly instified in the spirit against the old spight of hell, with what shame and horrour do I see thine eternall Godhead called into question by the misgoverned wits of certaine late mis-named Christians: who as if they would raise up cursed Arrius from his hatefull grave, have dared to renew those blasphemous cavils against thy sacred [Page] person, which with so great authority, and full evidence of the spirit were long since cryed downe to that hell, whence (to the great contumelie of heaven) they were most wickedly sent up into the world: Woe is me, their damned sounder did not send down his soul into that fatal draught, in a more odious way, then these his followers vent themselves upward in most unsavoury and pestilent contradictions to thee, the Lord of life and glory▪ But even against these art thou justified in the spirit, speaking in thy divine Scriptures, whose evident demonstrations do fully convince their calumnies and false suggestions; and vindicate thy holy Name, and blessed Deity from all their devillish and frivolous argutations.

Is there any weak soul that makes doubt of thy plenarie satisfaction for his sinne, of the perfect accomplishment of the [Page] great work of mans Redemption? how absolutely art thou justified O blessed Jesu, in the spirit, in that thou raisedst thy selfe from the dead; quitting that prison of the grave, whence thou couldst not have come, till thou hadst paid the utmost farthing, wherein we stood indebted to heaven: O Saviour, not more concealed in the flesh, then manifestly justified in the spirit for my all-sufficient Redeemer, not more meekly yeildingRom. 4. 25. to death for our offences, then powerfully raised up again for our justification: how should I blesse and praise thee, both for thine humble self-dejection in respect of thine assumed flesh, and for thy powerfull justification in thine infinite and eternall spirit; that holy Ghost whereby thou wert conceived in the womb of the Virgin, justified thee in thy life, death, resuscitation; Now then, how confidently can I trust [Page] thee with my▪ soul, who hast approved thy self so compleat and almighty a Reedemer? O blessed Jesu, with what assurance do I cast my self upon thee for thy present protection for my future salvation? how boldly can I defie all the powers of darknesse, whiles I am in the hand of so gracious and omnipotent a Mediator? Who shalRom. 8 33. lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect? It is God that justifieth. Even thou the God who wast manifested in the flesh, and justified in the spirit, shalt justifie and save my spirit, soul and body in the day of our appearance before thee.

SECT. IX.

O Saviour, it is no mysterieSeen of Angels. that being manifested in he flesh, thou wert seen of men; but it is no small part of [Page] the great mystery of Godliness, that thou who art the God of Spirits, wert seen by those heavenly spirits, cloathed in flesh: It could not be but great news to the Angels to see their God born, and conversing as man, with men. For a man to see an Angell is a matter of much wonder, but for an Angell to see God become man, is a far greater wonder: since in this▪ the change concernes an infinite subject, in the other, a finite, though incorporeall▪ But, pause here awhile, O my soul, and inquire a little into these strange spectators: Seen of Angels? who, or what might those be? Are three any such reall, incorporeall, permament substances; or are they onely things of imagination, and extemporary representations of the pleasure of the Almighty? Wo is me, (that no errour may be wanting to this prodigious age,) do we live to see a reviction [Page] of the old Sadduci [...], so long since dead and forgotten? WasDan. 8. 19, 17. Gabriel that appeared and spake to Daniel, nothing but a supernatural ph [...]ntasme? And what then was a he Gabriel▪ that appeared with the happy newes of a Saviour to the blessed Virgin?Mat. 18. 10. What are the Angels of those little ones, whereof our Saviour speakes, which do alwaies behold the face of his FatherLuk. 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? WhatAct 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 Gods reapers at the end of the world, to cut down the tares, and gather the wheat into his [Page] barn? Shortly, what were all those spirits (whereof both Testaments are full,) which God was pleased to imply in his frequent missions to the earth? were these phantasms too? Certainly, though there may be many Orders, yet there is but one generall condition of those Angelicall attendants on the throne of the Almighty: Even in the old Testament, was it a supernaturall apparition of fancie, that in one night smote all the first borne in the land of Aegypt? was it a supernaturall apparition of fancie, that in one night laid an hundred fourscore and five thousand Assyrians dead upon the ground? Could these be any other then the acts 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, [Page] that the Angels are truly existing, spirituall, intelligent, powerfull, eviternall Creatures, whose being is not exposed to our sense, but evidenced both to our faith and reason; not circumscribed in any grosse 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 meerly spirituall substances, could see thee, may be part of this great mysterie: Doubtlesse, they saw thee both before and ever since thou camest into the world, with eyes like themselves, spirituall, and, not seldome, saw thee being incarnate with the assumed eyes of [Page] 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 celestiall caroll 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 darknes: they saw thee foiling that presum ptuous enemy, not without wonder, doubtlesse, at the boldnesse of that daring spirit, and joyfull 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 shewed themselves to thee, as willing to be known to have been the secret witnesses of the [Page] fight, and glad congratulators of thy Triumph, then they came and ministred 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 undergoe, 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 happinesse, and a main part of the great mysterie 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 agonie; 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 lookt upon thy bloody sweat; and the frownes of thine heavenly Father, which [Page] they saw bent against thee, in our persons, for the sin of mankind, which thou camest to expiate? Now in this dolefull condition, so wert thou seen of Angels, that the Angels were seen of thee: For lo, there appearedLuk. 22. 41. an Angell 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 Fathers wrath for our sins need and receive comfort from a created▪ Angel thy servant▪

Whilest thou wert grapling with the powers of darkness there was no need of aid; only after the fight Angels came, and ministred to thee; but now, that thou must struggle under the wrath of thy Father, for mans sin, there was use of the consolation of one of those Angels, whereof thou [Page] commandest millions: O blessed Saviour, had not the face of thy heavenly Father been clouded to thee, standing in the stead of our guiltinesse, it had been no lesse then presumption in any finite power to tender thee any suggestions of comfort; but now, alas, those beatificall beams were so for the time hid from thine eyes, and the sweet influences of light and joy arising there-from, were for that sad instant, suspended; so as nothing appeared to thee, that while, but the darknesse of displeasure and horrour; 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 distresse looks not so much to the hand that brings supply, as to the supply it brings: If but one of thy three drouzy clients could have shaken off his sleep, and have let [Page] fall to thee some word of consolation, in that heavy fit of thine▪ thou hadst not refused it; how much lesse, the cordiall intimations of an heavenly monitor? neither was it improper for thee, who wast content toHeb. 1. 9. be made a little inferiour to the Angels, to receive some spirituall aid from the hands of an Angell.

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 additionall power to bear up, under that heavy pressure of the sins of the whole world, which drew from thee those sweats of blood; No Angell in heaven was able to contribute that to the Sonne of God; but it was a sweet, and forcible representation to thy disconsolate humanity, of the near approach of an happy eluctation out of [Page] 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 agonie, and bleeding on thy crosse, 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 enemie; being then sutably habited to so blessed an occasion, in white shining vestures; how gladly were they imployed 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 [Page] 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 ofMat. 28. 2, 3, 4. thy fore-threatned resurrection; and sitting upon it with a countenance like lightning, and his garment white as snow, the terrour of whose presence made the guard to shake, and to become as dead men; I findJoh. 20. 12. two of them no lesse 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 Angell published thy birth he was seconded by a multitude of the heavenly host▪ praising God with hymns of rejoycing for thy nativity; so when but one or two Angels [Page] were seen at thy second birth (which was thy glorious resurrection) there were more of that heavenly company invisibly celebrating the joyfull triumph of that blessed day; wherein having conquered Death and Hell, thou shewedst thy self in a glorified condition to the redeemed world of men: After this, when for the securance of thy Resurrection, (upon which all our faith justly dependeth) thou hadst spent forty dayes upon earth, I find thee upon Mount Olivet, at thy most glorious ascension, not seen only, but proclaimed, and fore-promised in thy certain, and at least equally-glorious return, by the blessed Angels. And behold while they lookedAct. 1. 10, 11. stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, two men stood by them in white apparel; which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand yee gazing up into heaven; This same Jesus which is [Page] taken from you into heaven, shall so come again, as ye have seen him go into heaven] But, O Saviour, these views of thee by thine Angels hitherto were but speciall, and visible even by bodily eyes; How do I, by the eyes of my soul, see thee both attended up in that heavenly progresse, and welcomed into thine Empyreall heaven, by all the host of those celestiall spirits: no small part of whose perpetuall happiness it is, to see thee in thy glorified humanity; sitting at the right hand of Majestie; there they enjoy thee, there they sing continuall Hallelujahs to him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.

SECT. XI.

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If thine Angels, O blessed Jesu, desired to look into this great and deep mysterie of the Gospell; their longing is satisfied in the sight of thy blessed incarnation, and the full accomplishment of the great Office1 Pet. 1. 12. of thy Mediatorship, since, now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places, is made knowne the manifold wisdome of God, in this wonderfullEphes. 3. 9. work of mans Redemption; which from the beginning of the World hath been hid in God, who created all things by thee; But, that the unsearcheable riches of Christ should be preached to the Gentiles, howEphes. 3 8. marvailous an accession is it to the greatness of this divine mysterie of godlinesse? of old, In Judah was God known, his name was great in Israel: In Salem [Page] was his Tabernacle, and his dwelling place in Sion; but in thePsal. 76. 1. mean while, we miserable Gentiles sate in darknesse, and in the shadow of death, without God in the world, exposed to the displeasure of heaven, tyrannized over by the powers ofEphes. 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 Gospell, to break down the partition wal whereby we were excluded from any participation with thee; to own us for thy people, and to admit us unto the fellowship of thy Saints: O the wonderfull mysterie of Godlinesse, effectually manifested to us out-cast Gentiles, to our conversion, to our eternall [Page] salvation! What a vail, O God, was spread over all Nations?Esay 25. 7. A dark vail of ignorance, of errour, of impiety? How did our fore-fathers walk in their own wayes, following the sinfull lusts of their own hearts worshipping dumb Idols, sacrificing to all the host of heaven, offering not their substance only, but their sons and daughters to Devils? It was thine own infinite goodnesse, that moved thee to pity our woful and despaired condition; and to send thine eternall Son into the world, to be no lesse a light to lighten the Gentiles, then toLuk 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; AndEsay 2. 2, 3. again, It shall come to pass in [Page] the last dayes, that the mountain of the Lords house shall be established in the top of the mountaines, and shall be exalted above the hils, and all Nations shall flow to it; And many people shall go, and say▪ Come ye, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us his wayes, and we will walk in his paths. And again, Behold, thus saith the Lord, I will lift up my hand to the Gentiles, and set up myEsay 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 thouEsay. 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 [Page] 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; AllPs. 22. 27 the ends of the world shall remember, and run unto the Lord, and all the kinreds of the Nations shall worship before thee.

How did we, O Saviour, of old lye under the pity, and contempt of those thy people, which challenged a peculiarity of thy favour: We have a little sister (said thy Iewish Spouse) and she hath no brests, what shall we do for our sister, when she shall be spoken for? Take no thought for us, O thou oncebelovedCant. 8. 8. Synagogue of the Jews, thy little sister is not only spoken for, but contracted, [Page] but happily married to her Lord and Saviour; having beenHos. 2. 19. betrothed to him for ever, in righteousnesse, and in judgement, and in loving kindnesse, and in mercies: so as we can now return our pity to thee, and say, We had an elder sister which had brests, but her brests are long since wrinkled, and dryed up; what shall we doe for our sister in these dayes of her barrennesse, and just neglect? We shall surely pray for our sister, that God would be pleased to return to her in his compassion of old, and restore her to the happy state of her former fruitfulnesse: We follow them with our prayers, they us with malice and despight: with how envious eyes did they look upon those first heralds of the Gospell, who carried the glad tidings of salvation to the despised Gentiles? what cruell storms of persecution did they raise against those blessed messengers, [Page] whose feet deserved to be beautifull? wherein their obstinate unbelief turned to our advantage; for after they had made themselves unworthy of that Gospell of peace, that blessing was instantly derived upon us Gentiles; and we happily changed conditions withR [...]m. 11. 2 [...]. them: The naturall branches of the good Olive tree being cut off, we, that were of the wild Olive contrary to nature, are graffed in; O the goodness and severity of God! on themRom. 22. which fell, severity, on us, which succeeded, goodness; They were once the children, and we the dogs under the table; the crums were our lot, the bread was theirs; now is the case, through their wilfull 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 [Page] fall, our exaltation; It is not for us to be high-minded, butRom. 11. 20 to fear: The great sheet with four corners is let down from heaven, with al manner of fourfooted beasts of the earth, and creeping things, and fowls ofAct. 10. 11. [...]2. the air; we may kill, and eat; without any difference of clean or unclean; but even of clean meats we may surfet. O Saviour, it is thy great mercie, 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 freedome of thy Gospell, how both just and easie is it for thee to withdraw these blessings from us, and to return us to the wofull condition of our old forlornnesse: O let it not be enough that thou art preached amongst us Gentiles; but do thou work us to an holy obedience [Page] of thy blessed Gospell; reclaim us from our abominable licentiousnesse 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 preach'd to us Gentiles; otherwise our condemnation shall be so much the deeper, as our light hath been more clear, and our means more powerfull.

SECT. XIII.

SO▪ poor and despicable, OBeleeved on in the world Saviour▪ wouldst thou have thy coming in the flesh, that it is no marvail if the vain world utterly disregarded thee: For what is the mis-judging world led by but by outward pomp & magnificence? yea, thy very domestick, followers after so long acquaintance with thy [Page] person and doctrine, even when thou wert risen from the dead, could thinke of the royalty of a temporall kingdome 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 beleeved on in the world, is the just wonder of the mysterie of Godlinesse. It was the largness of thy divine bountie to allow thy Gospell preached to every creature; but alas, it is liberally preached, sparingly received; Who hath beleeved our report,Esay, 53. 1. and to whom is the arme of the Lord revealed? It was the complaint2 Cor. 1. 23. of thy chosen vessell the Doctor of the Gentiles, We preach Christ crucified, to the Jewes a stumbling block, to the [Page] Greeks foolishnesse: What a power therefore is there in the mysterie of Godlinesse, that thou art not preached only, but beleeved on in the world?

Hadst thou exhibited thy self 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 honors 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 theMat. 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 thy self to be spat upon, scourged, crucifed, reviled; that the stub born hearts of men should be [Page] so convinced by the truth, and power of thy Deity, that thou art beleeved on in the world, is the great mysterie of Godlinesse▪

The powers of darknesse could not but see their kingdome shaken by thy coming down to the earth, upon this errand of thy Mediation; How busie and violent therefore were those gates of hell in opposing so glorious a worke? How did they stirr up cruell Tyrants, in the first dawning of thy Gospell, 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 prevaile, (since this Palm-tree grew the more by depression,) how did they set their wits on work in attempting by fraud, [Page] to bring about their cut fed designes. 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 eternall Deity, another while thy sacred humanitie is impugned by those, who yet stile themselves Christians: One while either of thy natures, another while thy intire 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▪ [Page] 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 spight of men and Devils, the great mysterie of Godliness is gloriously vindicated, and God manifested in weak flesh is beleeved on in the world.

SECT. XIIII.

[Page]

The world is not all of one1 Joh. 5. 19. making, there is a world of creatures, not capable of beleef; there is a world of men that lyeth in wickednesse, refusing to beleeve; there is a world of faithfull souls, that do beleeve, and in beleeving are saved: And, O blessed Saviour, that thou wouldst graciously enlarge this world of beleevers! Wo is me, what a world of this world of men lyes 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 tyrannicall superstition, worship Devils, that they may not hurt them; for those ignorant, and wofully blindfolded Mahumetans, [Page] that are not allowed to see any more, then one blinke 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 powerfull 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 unbeleevers? 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 [Page] knowledge of the great mysterie of Godlinesse: Let the beams of thy Gospell break forth unto them, and work them to a sound beleef in thee their God, manifested in the flesh: Fetch home into thy fold all those that belong to thy mercifull election; bring in the fulnesse of the Gentiles; gather together the out-casts of Israel, and glorifie thy self in completing a world of beleevers.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 mysterie of godlinesse, and have professed, and vowed a steadfast beleef in thy name; so keep us by thy good spirit in an holy and constant avowance of all those main truths, concerning thy sacred Person, Natures, and Offices, unto our last end; For thou seest, O blessed Jesu that there is now such an hell [Page] of the spirits of errour broken loose into the world, as if they meant to evacuate this part of the mysterie of godlinesse, (Christ beleeved on in the world;) O do thou by thy mighty power restraine and quell these pernicious heresies, and send down these wicked spirits back to their chains; so as our most holy faith may ever remain inviolable till the day of thy glorious return. Neither let us sit down contented that we hold fast and beleeve the meer historie of thy life, death, and resurrection; (without which, as we can be saved, so with it alone we cannot) but do thou by thy good spirit, work and settle in our souls, a sound, lively, operative, justifying faith in thee; whereby we may not only beleeve on thee, as a common Saviour, but beleeve in thee, as ours: bringing thee home to our hearts, and confidently relying [Page] upon thee, for the acquittance of all our sins, and for our eternall salvation: O that thou mightest be thus beleeved on in the world; and if not by them, in the notion of their universality, yet by us whoReceived up into glory. professe thy name, to thy great glory and our everlasting comfort.

SECT. XV.

[Page]

IN these occurrences, on the earth; Great is the mysterie of godlinesse, but the highest pitch of this great mysterie, O Saviour, is, that thou thus manifested in our flesh, wert received up into glorie: even that celestiall glorie which thou enjoyest in the highest heavens, sitting on the right hand of majesty, seen and adored by all that blessed company of theHeb. 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 glorie; thou couldst not be taken up to any earthly ascent, since thou tookest thy farewell on the top of Mount [Page] Olivet: but from this globe of earth thou ascendest through the skies to that Empyreall heaven, where thou remainest in glorie, infinite, and incomprehensible. The many and intentive beholders of thy last parting, did not cast their eyes down into the valley, neither did see cause with the fifty sons2 King 2. 16. of the Prophets, to seek for thee (as they would needs do for Elijah) in vallies, and mountains; they saw and worishpped thee, leasurely ascending up through the region of this lower heaven, till a cloud intercepted thee from their sight; neither then could easily be taken off, either by the interposition of that dark body, or by the interpellation of Angels: And now, O blessed Saviour, how is my soul ravished with the mediation of thy glorious reception into thine Heaven? Surely, if the inhabitants of those celestial mansions may be capable of [Page] any increase of joy, they then both found and shewed it, when they saw and welcomed thee entering in thy gorlifi'd humanity, in to that thy eternal palace of blessedness; and if there could be any higher, or sweter ditty then Hallelujah, it was then sung by the Chore of Angels and Saints. And may thy poor servants warfairing and wandring here upon earth, ever second them in those heavenly songs of praises and gratulations: for wherein stands all our safety, hope, comfort, happinesse, but in this, that thou our Jesus art received up into glorie? and having conquered all adverse powers, sittest on the right hand of God the Farher, crowned with honour and majesty? O Jesu, thou art our head, we are thy body: how can the body but participate of the glory of the head? as for thy self therefore, so for us, art thou possessed of that heavenly glorie: [Page] as thou sufferedst for us, so for us thou also raignest; LetPhil. 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 greatnesse, and the power, and the glorie, and the victorie, and the majestie; for all that is in the heaven, and in the earth is thine: thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and thou art exalted as head over all: And now, O Saviour, what a superabundant amends is made to thy glorified humanitie, for all thy bitter sufferings upon earth? Thine Agonie was extreme, but thy glorie is infinite, thy crosse was heavie, but thy crown transcendently glorious: thy pains were unconceivably grievous, but short, thy glory everlasting: If thou wert scorned by men, thou art now adored by Angels: Thou that stoodst before the Judgment Seat of a Pilate, shalt [Page] come in all heavenly magnificence to judge both the quick and the dead; Shortly, thou which wouldst stoop to be a servant upon Earth, rulest and raignest for ever in Heaven as the King of eternall glorie.

O then, my soul, seeing thy Saviour is received up into this infinite glorie, with what intention and fervour of spirit shouldst thou fix thine eyes upon that heaven where he lives, and raigns? How canst thou be but wholly taken up with the sight and thought of that place of blessednesse? how canst thou abide to grovell any longer on this base Earth, where is nothing but vanity and vexation; and refrain to minde the things above, where is all felicitie and glorie? with what longings, and holy ambi [...]ion shouldst thou desire to aspire to that place of eternall rest, and beatitude, into which thy Saviour is ascended? and [Page] with him to partake of that glory and happinesse which he hath provided for all that love him? O Saviour, it is this clog of wretched infidelity and earthlinesse that hangs heavie upon my soul, and keeps me from mounting up into thy presence, and from a comfortable fruition of thee: O do thou take off this sinfull weight from me, and raise up my affections and conversation to thee; enable me constantly to enjoy thee by a lively faith here: till by thy mercie I shall be received into thy glorie.

FINIS.

Information about this book

Title statement

The great mystery of godliness laid forth by way of affectuous and feeling meditation : also the invisible world discovered to spirituall eyes and reduced to usefull meditation in three books / by Jos. Hall.

Hall, Joseph, 1574-1656.

Edition statement

1659

Publication

Publisher

Text Creation Partnership,

Place of publication

Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) :

Date

2006-06 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1).

ID [DLPS]

A45250

ID [STC]

Wing H384

ID [STC]

ESTC R28688

ID [EEBO-CITATION]

10741159

ID [OCLC]

ocm 10741159

ID [VID]

45597

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This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal. The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission.

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Early English books online.

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(EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A45250)

Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 45597)

Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 1403:25)

Source

— The great mystery of godliness laid forth by way of affectuous and feeling meditation : also the invisible world discovered to spirituall eyes and reduced to usefull meditation in three books / by Jos. Hall., Hall, Joseph, 1574-1656..

Extent

[25], 71 p.

Printed by E. Cotes for John Place,. London :: 1659.. (Has added t.p. at end of preface.) (Reproduction of original in the Harvard University Library.)

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