Chap. 3. not look upon it with approbation; His righteous hands will not let it go unpunished. Sin is a very vile thing, it defpifes Gods Authority, cafts off his Soveraignty, contradicts his Purity, provokes his Justice; nay, it ftrikes at his very Being: it fays, Who is Lord, that he should be obeyed? It is the most prodigious Rebel that ever was; weaknefs, folly, corruption rifing up in arms against Power, Wisdom, and infinite Perfection. The Holy One, because he is such, must needs hate fuch a filthy abominable thing: He can no more cease to hate it, than he can cease to be Holy. His antipathy against it is fo great, that he can no more admit one drop of it into himself, than he can fuffer an extincti on of his Effence. 2. It imports a love of Holiness in the creature. Holiness is a very choice thing; 'tis a pure breath from God, a participation of the Divine Nature: an Image or resemblance of the Deity; more of the beauty and glory of God fhines forth in it, than in all the world befides. The other creatures are but a dark shadow to it; nay, it is a thousand times more divine than the Soul it felf. The Holy One, who loves himself, must needs love fo excellent a Picture of his own Sanctity. The righteous Lord loveth righteousness, Pfalm 11.73 because he is righteous in himself, therefore he loves righteousness in the creature. Such, as I faid, is Gods Holiness; The display of it in Jefus Chrift fucceeds. 1, The first part of his Holiness, by which he does all in a juft decorum to his excellent Being, feems to be contradicted in this Difpenfation. May God God be made flesh? May Majesty be humbled? Chap. 3. May the immutable One be changed in an Incarnation? May the immortal One die in a bloudy Paffion? These things at the first blush look as if they could not be congruoufly done. But I anfwer, The corrupt Reafon of Man, which would fhape all things according to its own model and Idea, hath, under colour of avoiding indecencies and inconveniencies, made very strange work about this Mysterie. In the Pagan Sophi, it looked upon a crucified God as meer folly and inde-cency. In the unbelieving Jews, it reproached Chrift as a Talui, a poor hanged man, altogether incapable to be a Meffiah or Saviour. In the Hereticks of the Church, it tore and mangled his facred Perfon all to pieces, and that under pretence of avoiding one inconvenience or other. Arius, that he might not fall into that Gentile-vanity, a plurality of Gods, took away Chrifts Deity. Apollinaris fpared his Deity, but took away his humane Soul; the room of that being better supplied by the Deity. Saturninus and Bafilides took away his body, leaving only a Phantafm, a meer Umbra in the room of it: or if there must be a real Body, Apelles thought fit that it should be a Sydereal one, which in his paflage from Heaven he affumed, and after his Refurrection reftored again. Nefto- Noli gloriari, Judae, non rius, left the impaffible Deity fhould fuffer, would crucifixifti Dehave two Chrifts; one the Son of man who fuf- um. So Nestom· fered, another the Son of God, who dwelt in the other as in his Temple. Eutyches, fuppofing that there could not be two Natures in Chrift, without two Perfons, thought it convenient, that after the rius. Chap. 3. veritatem aliquo impedi ticas voces, non Union there fhould be but one Nature in Christ; the humane Nature being swallowed up in the Divine. And the reafon of all this is, because, as an In an in- Ancient hath it touching the Eutychians, they look fipientiam cadunt, qui, cum not fo much to the Sacred Scriptures, as to themad cognofcen- felves, being willing that their own Reason should dan ver be Umpire in facred Mysteries; they become Mauntur obfcuro, fters of Errour, who would not be Difciples of non ad prophe Truth. By this heap of Experiments we may plainad Apoftolicas ly fee, that the decorum of this Mysterie is too great literas, non ad a thing to be judged by humane Reafon: if we will know any thing of it, we must address our fed ad femetip- felves to the divine Oracle, Jefus Chrift, the infinite Jos recurrunt: ideo magiftri increated Wisdom of God, who never had fo much erroris exiftunt, as an indecorous thought, delighted in the fons of difcipuli non men, Prov. 8.31. in the profpect of a future Incarfuere. Leo pri- nation. It was rò giov, a thing becoming him, to mus, Epift. 10, fulfil all righteousness, Matth. 3.15; when yet it Evangelicas authoritates, quia veritatis could not have become him in an unbecoming Nature. There was a ▲, a must, upon his Death and Sufferings, Matth. 16. 21; when yet it was utterly impoffible, that any neceffity fhould prefs him into an indecency. There was therefore an excellent congruity in this Myfterie. God indeed was made flesh, but how? Non mutando quod erat, fed affumendo quod non erat, not by changing his Deity, but by affuming his Humanity. Majefty was humbled, not in it felf, but in the affumed flesh, which was as a Veil over all the Glory. The change and death was not in the Divine, but Humane nature, which was taken into his Sacred Perfon in the Incarnation, and fuffered death in his Paffion upon the Crofs. There was a juft decorum in all: Nay, in this very Mysterie, at which humane Reafon cries Chap. 3. out of indecency, God hath hid fuch an Abyss of Wisdom, as no created Understanding is able to fathom; a glimpse of which appears in the next particular. 2. That part of Holiness, by which God doth all things for himself, for his own Glory, eminently appears in Jefus Christ. In general it appears, that God is the great Center, the ultimate end of all; and all creatures, none excepted, are as fo many Lines and Mediums tending thereunto. The Humane nature of Chrift, a Creature above all creatures, lifted up above the highest pitch of Angels, elevated into an Union with an infinite Perfon, was not yet a Center to it felf. It had no fubfiftence of its own, neither did it operate for it felf; I feek not mine own glory, faith Christ, Joh.8.50. Nay, He adds, If I honour my self, my honour is nothing; as much as to fay, a creature referred to it felf is an unprofitable Nullity. In all his Doings and Sufferings, he did but minifter to the Will and Glory of God; in the end he will deliver up the Kingdom to the Father, that God may be all in all, I Cor. 15. 24, & 28. Hence it is demonftratively evident,that no Creature, no, not the higheft, is or can be an End or Center to it felf; all of them are but as Medium's to the glory of God: all must circulate into their firft Fontal-principle, that it in all things may be glorified. In particular, the Glory of God breaks forth in this Difpenfation. Jefus Chrift, who in respect of the eternal generation is the arayara, the fplendor or glorious effulgence of his Fathers glory, is in the Incarna Chap. 3. tion the Glafs or bright Evidence of the Divine Excellencies. Never was there fuch a Conftellation of Attributes as here. Wisdom in the deep of its unsearchable Counfels laid the great plot of our Salvation. Justice was paid to the full in Sufferings infinitely valuable, fuch as did more than ballance the fufferings of a World. Holiness was abundantly gratified in the pure and fpotlefs obedience of our Saviour, which was as a Glofs and living Commentary upon the whole Law. Mercy and Love opened a bofom of infinite sweetness to receive penitent fouls into favour and a bleffed Immortality. Power raised up an humane Nature in an extraordinary way, and then fhewed forth it felf therein in the glory of innumerable Miracles. Truth triumphed, in that He who is the complement of the Law the fubftance of the Shadows, and the Center of the Promifes, was come into the World. Never did the brightness of Glory fo excellently manifest it self as upon the Theatre of Chrifts humane Nature. Hence Heaven and Earth ring with the high Praises of it. At his Nativity an Host of Angels cry out, Glory to God in the Highest, Luke 2.14. In the Church there is glory to him by Jefus Christ throughout all Ages, world without end, Ephef. 3. 21. Saints and Angels must now fall upon their faces, and fay, Blessing, Glory, and Wisdom, and Thanksgiving, and Honour, and Power, and Might be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen, Revel. 7. 12. Eternity it felf will be little enough to fpend in the praises of this incomparable Mysterie. 3. Holiness, as it imports an hatred of fin, fignally demonstrates it felf in this Difpenfation. God * hath |