CHAPTER II.

SECT. 1. Of knowing Jesus, as carrying on the great work of our salva. tion in his birth.

WHAT looking comprehends, you have heard before: and that we may have an inward experimental look on him, whom our souls pant after, let us practise all these particulars. As

1. Let us know Jesus, carrying on the great work of our salvation in his first coming or incarnation. Come, let us learn what he did for us, when he came amongst us. There is not one passage in his first appearing, but it is of mighty concernment unto us; is it possible that the great God of heaven and earth should so infinitely condescend, (as we have heard) but on some great design. And what design could there be, but only his glory and the creature's good? O my soul! if thou hast any interest in Christ, all this concerns thee: the Lord Jesus in all these very transactions had an eye to thee: he was incarnate for thee; he was conceived, and born for thee: look not on these things as notionals or generals: look not on the bare history of things, for that is but unprofitable: the main duty is in eyeing the end, the meaning and intent of Christ; and especially as it relates to thee, not to others, but to thyself. Alas! what comfort were it to a poor prisoner, if he should hear, that the king or prince, of his mere grace and love, visited all the prisoners in this and that dungeon, and that he made a gaol-delivery, and set all free; but he never came near the place where he, poor wretch, lies bound in fetters and cold irons? Or, suppose he gives a visit to that very man, and offers him the tenders of grace and freedom, if he will but accept of it; and, (because of his waywardness) persuades, entreats, commands him to come out, and take his liberty, and yet he will not regard or apply it to himself; what comfort can he have? What fruit, what benefit shall he receive? Dear soul, this is thy case, if thou art not in Christ, if thou hast not heard the offer, and embraced and closed with it, then what is Christ's incarnation, conception, nativity unto thee? Come, learn, not merely as a scholar, to gain some notional knowledge: but as a Christian, as one that feels virtue coming out of Christ in every of these respects: study close this great transaction in reference to thyself. I know not how it happens, whether out of the generality of some preachers, handling this subject, or whether out of the superstition of the time, wherein it usually hath been handled, it either savors not with some Christians, or it is seldom thought of by the most: O God, forbid we should throw out of the doors such a blessed necessary truth! if rightly applied, it is a Christian's joy, "Behold, I bring you glad tidings of great joy, that shall be to all people, for unto you is born in the city of David, a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord," Luke 2:10,11. Sure the birth of Christ is of mighty concern. ment unto thee, "Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given," Isa. 9: 6. There is not any piece of this transaction but it is of special use, and worth thy pains. How many break their brains, and waste their spirits in studying arts and sciences, things in comparison of no value; whereas Paul otherwise "determined not to know any thing among you but Jesus Christ?" 1 Cor. 2:2. To know Jesus Christ in every piece and point, whether in birth, or life, or death, it is saving knowledge: O stand not upon cost, whether pains or study, tears or prayers, peace or wealth, goods or name, life or liberty, sell all for this pearl: Christ is of that worth and use, that thou canst never over-buy him, though thou gavest thyself and all the world for him; the study of Christ is the study of studies; the

knowledge of Christ is the knowledge of every thing that is necessary either for this world, or for the world to come. O study Christ in every of the aforesaid respects.

SECT. II. Of considering Jesus in that respect.

2. LET us consider Jesus carrying on this great work of our salvation at his first coming or incarnation. It is not enough to study, and know these great mysteries, but, according to the measure of knowledge we have, we must muse, and meditate, and ponder, and consider of them. Now this consideration brings Christ nearer and closer to the soul; consideration gathers up all the long-fore passed acts and monuments of Christ, and finds a deal of sweetness and power to come flowing from them; consideration fastens Christ more strongly to the soul, and as it were rivets the soul to Jesus Christ, and fastens him in the heart; a soul that truly considers and meditates of Christ, thinks and talks of nothing else but Christ; it takes hold and will not let him go. "I will keep thee, (saith the soul in meditation) for thou art my life," Prov. 4: 13. Why thus, O my soul, consider thou of Christ, and of what he did for thee when he was incarnate? And that thou mayest not confound thyself in thy meditations, consider apart of these particulars. As,

1. Consider Jesus in his forerunner, and the blessed tidings of his coming in the flesh: now the long looked for time drew near, a glorious angel is sent from heaven, and he comes with an olive branch of peace. First, He presents himself to Zachary, and then to Mary; to her imparts the message, on which God sent him into this nether world, "Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus," Luke 1:31. Till now human nature was less than that of angels, but by the incarnation of the Word, it was to be exalted above the cherubim. What sweet news? What blessed tidings was this message? The decree of old must now be accomplished, and an angel proclaim it upon earth: hear, O ye sons of Adam, this concerns you as much as the virgin; were you not all undone in the loins of your first father? Was not my soul and your soul in danger of hell fire? Was not this our case and condition, that after a little life upon earth, we should have been thrown into eternal torments, where had been nothing, but weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth? and now that God and Christ should bid an angel tell the news, "Ye shall not die; lo, here a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and he shall be your Jesus; he shall save you from this hell, and death, and sin: he shall deliver your souls, he shall save you to the utmost; his name is Jesus, and he shall not bear his name for nought, believe in him, and ye shall live with him in glory." O blessed news! men may talk what they will of this and that news, every one gapes after it, but there is no news so welcome to one even now ready to perish, as to hear of a Saviour. Tell a man in sickness of one that will make him well again; tell a man in captivity of one that will rescue him, and set him free again; tell a man in prison condemned to die, of one with a pardon that will save his life; and every one of these will say, This is the best news that ever was heard. O then if it be good tidings to hear of a Saviour, where is only a matter of loss of life, or of this earth; how much more, when it comes to the loss of heaven, to the danger of hell, when our souls are at stake, and like to be damned for evermore? What glad tidings would that be to hear of one that could save our souls from that destroyer? Is not such a Saviour worth hearkening after? Were not the birth of such an one good news? O my

soul, ponder on these words, as if an angel seeing thee stand on the brim of hell, should speak to thee, even to thy soul.

2. Consider Jesus in his conception; no sooner is the news heard, but Christ is conceived by the Holy Ghost in the virgin's womb; this concep. tion is worthy our consideration; what, that the great God of heaven should condescend so far as to take our nature upon him, and to take it in the same way, and after the same manner that we do? The womb of the vir. gin was surely no such place, but he might well have abhorred it; true, but he meant by this to sanctify our very conceptions; and to that purpose, he is conceived in an holy manner, even by the Holy Ghost; we must not be too curious to inquire after the manner of the Holy Ghost's operation, who therefore overshadowed the virgin: this is work for our hearts and not merely for our heads; humble faith, and not curious inquisition, shall find the sweetness of this mystery. It was David's complaint, "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me," Psal. 51:5. O my soul, this was thy case, in thy very first being or beginning, and hadst thou died in that condition, the word is express, that, "nothing defiled nor unclean shall enter into the city of glory." But here is the remedy, thy sinful conception is sanctified by Christ's holy conception; the holiness of thy Jesus serves as a cover to hide thy original pollutions from the eyes of God. O consider of this! Jesus Christ was not conceived in vain, he was not idle, while he was in his mother's womb; he that from all eternity began, he was then carrying on the great work of our salvation for us: Ó consider this conception thus, till thou bringest it near and close to thy soul, till thou feelest some sweetness and power coming and flowing from Jesus in the womb.

3. Consider the duplicity of natures in Jesus Christ: "The Word was made flesh," John 1:14. No sooner was he conceived, but he was Godman, man-God; he was perfectly framed, and instantly united to the eternal Word: "God sent his Son," there is the nature divine; "made of a woman,” Gal. 4:4. there is the human nature. Certainly great is this mystery, that the Word is made flesh; that the Son of God is made of a woman; that the star gives light to the sun: that a branch doth bear the vine; that a creature gives being to the Creator: that the mother was younger than what she bare, and a great deal less than what she contained. Admire, O my soul at this! but withal consider, that all this was for us, and our salvation; he was man, that he might die for us; and he was God, that his death might be sufficient to save us; had he been man alone, not God, he might have suffered, but he could never have satisfied for sin, he could not have been Jesus a Saviour of souls; and had he been God alone, not man, he had not been of kin to our nature offending, and so he could not have satisfied the justice of God in the same nature wherein it was offended; neither could he as God alone have died for sin; and the decree was out, that our Redeemer must die for sin, "For without shedding of blood there is no remission," Heb. 9:22. And no shedding of blood, no passion could possibly befall the Godhead of Jesus Christ. I shall not dispute the power of God, whether he was able to lay down another kind of way of man's redemption than by the incarnation of the Son of God: without controver sy this was the will of God, and he appointed no other way, because he could not. O my soul, consider of this in relation to thyself: he is God-man, that he might suffer and satisfy for thy sins; he is God-man that he might be able, and fit most fully to finish the work of thy salvation; as God, he is able, and aз man, he is fit to discharge the office of Mediator; as God he is able to bear the punishment of sin, and as man he is fit to suffer

for sin; O the wisdom of God in this very way! Man's nature can suffer death, but not overcome it; the divine nature can overcome death and all things, but cannot suffer it; and hence there is a duplicity of natures in Jesus Christ: O muse on this, it is a matter worthy of thy serious consid. eration.

4. Consider the real distinction of these two natures in Christ. As the unapproachable light of the Godhead was put into the dim and dark lantern of human flesh; so these two natures remained entire without any conversion, commixion or confusion; they were not as wine and water that become one by mixing, there is no such blending the divine and human nature, they were not as snow and water, that become one by the dissolving of the snow into the water; there is no such changing of the human nature into the divine, or of the divine nature into the human: some say indeed, That the Godhead was more plentifully communicated with the manhood after his resurrection, than now at his conception; but howsoever, it did not then swallow up the truth of his manhood, as a whole sea would swallow up one drop of oil; look, as at first moment of his conception, he was God and man, so these two natures continued still distinct in substance, properties and actions. Why, consider this, O my soul, in reference to thyself: O there is comfort in this! by this means thou hast now free access unto the throne of grace, that thou mayest find help in thy necessities; and as thou hast free access, so thou mayest boldly draw near; his Deity indeed confounds, but his humanity comforts faint and feeble souls; his divine nature amazeth, but his human nature encourageth us to come unto him; even after his resurrection, he was pleased to send this comfortable message to the sons of men, "Go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God," John 20:17. Now, as long as he is not ashamed to call us brethren, "God is not ashamed to be called our God," Heb. 11:16. Othe sweet fruit that we may gather off this tree, "The real distinction of two natures in Christ." As long as Christ is man as well as God, we have a motive strong enough to appease his Father, and to turn his favorable countenance towards us; here is our happiness, That "there is one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus," 1 Tim. 2:5.

5. Consider the union of the two natures of Christ in one and the same person: as he was the branch of the Lord, and the fruit of the earth, so these two natures were tied with such a gordian knot, as sin, hell, and the grave were never able to untie. Yea, though in the death of Christ, there was a separation of the soul from the body, yet in that separation, the hypostatical union remained firm, unshaken and indissoluble: in this mediation, thou hast great cause, O my soul, to admire and adore, wonderful things are spoken of thee, O Christ! he is God in person of a Godhead, so as neither the Father, nor the Holy Ghost were made flesh; and he is man in the nature of man, not properly the person; the human nature of Christ never having any personal subsistence out of the Godhead; this is a mystery that no angel, much less man, is able to comprehend: we have not another example of such an union, (as you have heard) only the nearest similitude or resemblance we can find, is that of the branch and tree into which it is engrafted; we see one tree may be set into another, and it groweth in the stock thereof, and becometh one and the same tree, though there be two natures or kinds of fruit still remaining therein; so in the Son of God made man, though there be two natures, yet both being united into one person, there is but one Son of God, and one Jesus Christ. If thou wilt consider this great mystery of godliness any further, review

what hath been said in the object propounded, where this union is set forth more largely and particularly; but especially consider the blessed effects of this union in reference to thyself; as our nature in the person of Christ is united to the Godhead, so our persons in and by this union of Christ are brought nigh to God. Hence it is, that God doth set his sanctuary and tabernacle among us; and that he dwells with us, and which is more, that he makes us houses and habitations, wherein he himself is pleased to dwell by his Holy Spirit. "Ye 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," 2 Cor. 6:16. Was not this Christ's prayer in our behalf? "I pray not for these alone, but for them also which shall believe 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 believe that thou hast sent me: I in them, and thou in me, That they may be perfect in one, and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved me," John 17:20,21,22,23. By reason of this hypostatical union of Christ, the Spirit of Christ is given to us in the very moment of our regeneration, “And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father," Gal. 4:6. " and hereby we know, that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit," 1 John 4:13. As the members of the body, however distinct among themselves, and all differing from the head; yet by reason of one soul informing both the head and members, they all make but one compositum, or man: so all believers in Christ, however distinct persons among themselves, and all distinct from the person of Christ, and especially from the Godhead, which is incommunicable, yet by one and the same Spirit abiding in Christ and all his members, they become one, "There is one body and one Spirit," Eph. 4:4. "He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit," 1 Cor. 6:17. O my soul, consider of this, and in considering, believe thy part in this, and the rather, because the means of this union, on thy part is a sure and lively faith; faith is the first effect and instrument of the Spirit of Christ, disposing and enabling thy soul to cleave unto Christ, and "for this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith," Eph. 3:14.17.

6. Consider the birth of Christ, this man-God, God-man who in his divine generation was the Son of God, in his human generation was born in a stable, for the saving of the children of men who were as the ox and mule having no understanding. It were a fruitful meditation to consider over and over that sweet resemblance of Christ being a vine; methinks I hear the voice of my beloved, "Rise up, my love,-the fig tree putteth forth the green figs, and the vine with the tender grapes gives a good smell: arise, my love, my fair one, and come away," Sol. Song 2:10.13. If Christ knocks at the door, who will not awake, and arise? If Christ comes in view, who will not look unto Jesus? If Christ the vine calls us to come see the vine with the tender grape, who will not taste the goodness, smell the sweetness? And after a little taste of that goodness, and sweetness that is in him, who would not long after more, till we come from the first fruits, to the last fruits of the Spirit, even to those visions and fruitions of Christ in glory? Consider, O my soul, of this vine till thou hast brought Christ near and close unto thyself! suppose thy heart the garden, wherein this vine was planted, wherein it budded, blossomed, and bare fruit; suppose the Holy Ghost to come upon thee, and to form and fashion in thee Jesus Christ; (thus Paul bespeaks the Galatians, "My little chil