THE MYSTERY OF THE Incarnation of the SON OF GOD. (2)

When Moses beheld the bush burning with fire, and yet no whit consumed, he wondred at the sight, and said; I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. But when God thereupon called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Draw not nigh hither, and told him who he was; Moses trembled, hid his face, and durst not behold God. Yet, although being thus warned, we dare not draw so nigh; what doth hinder but we may stand aloof off, and wonder at this great sight? Our God is a consuming fire; saith the Apostle: and a question wee finde propounded in the Prophet. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who amongst us shall dwell with the everlasting burnings? Moses was not like other Prophets, but God spake unto him face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend: and yet for all that, when hee besought the Lord that he would shew him his glory; hee received this answer, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live. Abraham before him, though a special friend of God, and the father of the faithfull, the children of God; yet held it a great matter that he should take upon him so much as to speak unto God, being but dust and ashes. Yea, the very Angels themselves ( which are greater in power and might) are fain to cover their faces, when they stand before him; as not being able to behold the brightnesse of his glory.

With what astonishment then may wee behold our dust and ashes assumed into the undivided unity of Gods own Person; and admitted to dwell here, as an inmate, under the same roofe; and yet in the midst of those everlasting burnings, the bush to remain unconsumed, and to continue fresh and green for evermore? Yea, how should not wee with Abraham rejoyce to see this day, wherein not onely our nature in the Person of our Lord Jesus is found to dwell for ever in those everlasting burnings; but, in and by him, our own persons also are brought so nigh thereunto, that God doth set his Sanctuary and Tabernacle among us, and dwell with us; and (which is much more) maketh us our selves to be the house and the habitation, wherein he is pleased to dwell by his Spirit, according to that of the Apostle, Yee are the Temple of the living God, as God hath said; I will dwell in them and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And that most admirable prayer, which our Saviour himself made unto his Father in our behalf. I pray not for these alone, but for them also which shall beleeve on me through their word: that they all may be one, as thou Father art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us; that the world may beleeve that thou hast sent me. I in them, and thou in mee, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved me.

To compasse this conjunction betwixt God and us, he that was

to be our JESUS or Saviour, must of necessity also be IMMANUEL; which being interpreted is, God with us: and therefore in his Person to be Immanuel, that is, God dwelling with our flesh; because he was by his Office to to be Immanuel, that is, he who must make God to be at one with us. For this being his proper office, to be Mediatour between God and men, he must partake with both: and being before all eternity consubstantiall with his Father, he must at the appointed time become likewise consubstantiall with his children. Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and bloud; he also himself likewise took part of the same, saith the Apostle. We read in the Romane history, that the Sabines and the Romanes joyning battell together, upon such an occasion as is mentioned in the last chapter of the book of Judges, of the children of Benjamin, catching every man a wife of the daughters of Shiloh: the women being daughters to the one side, and wives to the other, interposed themselves and took up the quarrell: so that by the mediation of these, who had a peculiar interest in either side, and by whose means this new alliance was contracted betwixt the two adverse parties; they who before stood upon highest tearms of hostility, did not onely entertain peace, but also joyned themselves together into one body, and one state.

God and we were enemies; before wee were reconciled to him by his Son. Hee that is to be our peace, and to reconcile us unto God, and to slay this enmity, must have an interest in both the parties that are at variance, and have such a reference unto either of them, that he may bee able to send this comfortable message unto the sons of men: Goe to my brethren, and say unto them: I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God. For, as long as hee is not ashamed to call us brethren;

God is not ashamed to bee called our God. And his entring of our apparance, in his own name and ours, after this manner; Behold, I, and the children which God hath given mee; is a motive strong enough to appease his Father, and to turn his favourable countenance toward us: as on the other side, when wee become unruly and prove rebellious children; no reproofe can bee more forcible, nor inducement so prevalent (if there remaine any sparke of grace in us) to make us cast downe our weapons and yeeld, then this.

Doe ye thus requite the Lord, O foolish people and unwise? Is not hee thy Father that hath bought thee? and bought thee, not with corruptible things, as silver and gold, but with the precious bloud of his own Son?

How dangerous a matter it is to be at ods with God, old Eli sheweth by this main argument. If one man sin against another, the Judge shall judge him▪ but if a man sinne against the Lord, who shall plead or intreat for him? and Job, before him. He is not a man as I am, that I should answer him, and we should come together in judgment: neither is there any Days-man or Vmpire betwixt us, that might lay his hand upon us both. If this generall should admit no manner of exception, then were we in a wofull case, and had cause to weep much more then S. John did in the Revelation; when

none was found in heaven, nor

in earth, nor under the earth, that was able to open the book which he saw in the right hand of him that sate upon the Throne, neither to looke thereon. But as S. John was wished there, to refrain his weeping; because the Lyon of the tribe of Juda, the root of David, had prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof: so he himself elsewhere giveth the like comfort unto all of us in this particular. If any sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and he is a propitiation for our sins; and not for ours onely, but also for the sins of the whole world.

For as there is one God, so is there one Mediatour betweene God and men, the man Christ Jesus: who gave himself a ransome for all; and in discharge of this his office of mediation, as the onely fit umpire to take up this controversie, was to lay his hand aswell upon God the party so highly offended, as upon Man the party so basely offending. In things concerning God, the Priesthood of our Mediatour is exercised: For every high Priest is taken from among men, and ordained for men in things pertaining to God. The parts of his Priestly function are two; Satisfaction and Intercession: the former wherof giveth contentment to Gods justice; the latter soliciteth his mercy, for the application of this benefit to the children of God in particular. Whereby it commeth to passe, that God in shewing mercy upon whom he will shew mercy, is yet for his justice no loser: being both just, and the justifier of him which beleeveth in Jesus.

By vertue of his Intercession, our Mediatour appeareth in the presence of God for us, and maketh request for us. To this purpose, the Apostle noteth in the IIIIth. to the Hebrewes, I. That we have a great high Priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God. (vers. 14.) II. That we have not an high Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all things tempted as we are; yet without sin. (vers. 15.) Betwixt the having of such, and the not having of such an Intercessor, betwixt the heighth of him in regard of the one, and the lowlinesse in regard of his other nature, standeth the comfort of the poor sinner. He must be such a sutor as taketh our case to heart: and therefore in all things it behoved him to be made likeunto his brethren, that he might be a mercifull and faithfull high Priest. In which respect as it was needfull he should partake with our flesh and bloud, that he might be tenderly affected unto his brethren: so likewise for the obtaining of so great a sute, it behoved he should bee most dear to God the Father, and have so great an interest in him, as he might always be sure to be heard in his requests: who therefore could be no other, but he of whom the Father testified from heaven; This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. It was fit our Intercessor should be Man, like unto our selves; that we might boldly come to him, and find grace to help in time of need: It was fit he should be God, that he might boldly goe to the Father, without any way disparaging him; as being his fellow, and equall.

But such was Gods love to justice, and hatred to sinne; that he would not have his justice swallowed up with mercie, nor sinne

pardoned without the making of fit reparation. And therefore our Mediatour must not look to procure for us a simple pardon without more adoe; but must be a propitiation for our sinnes, and redeem us by fine and ransome: and so not onely be the master of our requests, to intreat the Lord for us; but also take upon him the part of an Advocate, to plead full satisfaction made by himself, as our

surety, unto all the debt wherewith we any way stood chargeable. Now the satisfaction which our surety bound himself to perform in our behalfe, was of a double debt: the principall, and the accessorie. The principall debt is obedience to Gods most holy Law: which man was bound to pay as a perpetuall tribute to his Creator, although he had never sinned; but, being now by his own default become bankrupt, is not able to discharge in the least measure. His surety therefore being to satisfie in his stead, none will bee found fit to undertake such a payment, but he who is both God and Man.

Man it is fit he should bee, because Man was the party that by the articles of the first Covenant was tyed to this obedience; and it was requisite that, as by one mans disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one man likewise many should be made righteous. Again, if our Mediatour were onely God, he could have performed no obedience (the Godhead being free from all manner of subjection:) and if he were a bare man, although he had been as perfect as Adam in his integrity, or the Angels themselves; yet being left unto himselfe amidst all the temptations of Satan and this wicked world, he should be subject to fall, as they were: or if he should hold out, as the elect Angels did; that must have been ascribed to the grace and favour of an other: whereas the giving of strict satisfaction to Gods justice was the thing required in this behalf. But now being God, as well as Man, he by his own eternall Spirit preserved himself without spot: presenting a far more satisfactory obedience unto God, then could have possibly been performed by Adam in his integrity.

For, beside the infinite difference that was betwixt both their Persons, which maketh the actions of the one beyond all comparison to exceed the worth and value of the other: we know that Adam was not able to make himselfe holy; but what holinesse he had, he received from him who created him according to his owne image: so that whatsoever obedience Adam had performed, God should have eaten but of the fruit of the vineyard which himselfe had planted; and of his own would all that have been, which could be given unto him. But Christ did himself sanctifie that humane nature which he assumed; according to his own saying, Joh. 17. 19. For their sakes I sanctifie my self: and so out of his own peculiar store did he bring forth those precious treasures of holy obedience, which for the satisfaction of our debt he was pleased to tender unto his Father. Againe, if Adam had done all things which were commanded him, hee must for all that have said: I am an unprofitable servant; I have done that which was my duty to doe: whereas

in the voluntary obedience, which Christ subjected himself unto, the case stood far otherwise.

True it is, that if we respect him in his humane nature, his Father is greater then he; and he is his Fathers servant: yet in that he said, and most truly said, that God was his Father, the Jews did rightly infer from thence, that he thereby made himself equall with God; and the Lord of Hosts himselfe hath proclaimed him to bee the man that is his fellow. Being such a man therefore, and so highly born; by the priviledge of his birth-right, hee might have claimed an exemption from the ordinary service whereunto all other men are tyed: and by being the Kings Son, have freed himself from the payment of that tribute which was to be exacted at the hands of Strangers. When the Father brought this his first-begotten into the world, he said; Let all the Angels of God worship him: and at the very instant wherein the Son advanced our nature into the highest pitch of dignitie, by admitting it into the unity of his sacred Person, that nature so assumed was worthy to be crowned with all glory and honour: and he in that nature might then have set himself down at the right hand of the throne of God; tyed to no other subjection then now he is, or hereafter shall be; when after the end of this world he shall have delivered up the kingdome to God the Father. For then also, in regard of his assumed nature, he shall be subject unto him that put all other things under him.

Thus the Son of God, if he had minded onely his own things, might at the very first have attained unto the joy that was set before him: but looking on the things of others, he chose rather to come by a tedious way and wearisome journey unto it, not challenging the priviledge of a Son, but taking upon him the form of a mean servant. Whereupon in the dayes of his flesh, hee did not serve as an honourable Commander in the Lords host, but as an ordinary soldier: he made himself of no reputation, for the time as it were emptying himself of his high state and dignity; hee humbled himself, and became obedient untill his death; being content all his life long to be made under the Law: yea, so farre, that as he was sent in the likenesse of sinfull flesh, so he disdained not to subject himself unto that Law, which properly did concern sinfull flesh. And therefore howsoever Circumcision was by right appliable onely unto such as were dead in their sins, and the uncircumcision of their flesh; yet he, in whom there was no body of the sins of the flesh to be put off, submitted himself notwithstanding thereunto: not onely to testifie his communion with the Fathers of the old Testament; but also by this means to tender unto his Father a bond, signed with his own bloud, whereby he made himself in our behalf a debtor unto the whole Law. For I testifie (saith the Apostle) to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to the whole Law.

In like manner Baptisme appertained properly unto such as were defiled, and had need to have their sins washed away: and therefore when all the land of Judea and they of Jerusalem went out unto John, they were all baptized of him in the river Jordan, confessing