Fellowship with God, Sermon 2
SERMON II·
1 Joh. 1.1.
That which was from the beginning, &c.
THings are commended sometimes, because they are ancient, especially Doctrines in Religion, because truth is before error, and falshood is but an aberration from truth; and therefore th…re is so much ple… and contention …mong men, about Antiquity, as if it were the sufficient rule of verity; but the abuse is, that men go not far enough backward in the steps of Antiquity, that is, to the most ancient rule, and pro…ession, and practice of truth in Scripture, to Christ and his Apostles, but halt in their Grand-fathers Tombs. But sometimes things a…e commended, …ec…e new; the nature of man being inclined to change and variety, and ready to su…fe…t and loath accustomed things: Even as the stomach finds appetite for new and unusual dyets, so the mind of man hath a sec…et longing a…ter new doct…ines, and things. Now we have both these combined together in this Subject, which makes it the more excellent and wonder…ul; Antiquity, and Novelty: for Antiquity, it is that which was from the beginning, and which was with the Father, and that is before all Antiquity, even from eternity; not only from the beginning of time, but before all time, be…ore all imaginable beginnings. He, of whom he speaks, Christ Iesus, the Fathers Word, was with the Father, from the beginning, with the Ancient of Dayes, who infinitly, and unmeasurably, antidates all antiquity, to whose endurance, all antiquity that is renowned among men, is but novelty, to whom, the world is but as of six dayes standing, or but as of yesterday, if we consider that infinit, beginningless, immensurable endurance of God, before this world: What a boddom or clew is that, that can never be untwined by the imaginations of men and Angels; To all eternity they should never unwind it, and come to the end of that threed, of the age of the Father, and the Son; who possessed one another before the hills were, and before the foundations of the mountains: This is it that maketh Religion the rich…st an… most tra…c…ndent subj…ct in the world, that it p…esent… us with a two…old ete…nity, and invi…o…s the soul befo…e and behin… with an eternity without beginning, only proper to God, and an ete…nity without …nd, communicated to Angels and men, from God. That which was from the beginning, and before all beginning, either real, or im…gined, How much moment …nd weight is in that, to perswade a soul, and compose it, beyond all the specious and painted appearances of the wo…ld? to consider that such … Saviour is holden out unto us, to come unto, and lean upon, that is the Rock of ages, upon whose word, this huge frame is bottomed, and stands fi…m; one who infinitly exceeds and prevents all things, visible or invisible, all their mutations and changes, one who was possessed of the Father, as hi… delight, before the foundation of the world, and so most likely to reconcile him to us, and prevail with him; yea, most certainly, they must have one will, and one delight, who were undivided from all eternity; and they then rej…y…i…g in the h…bitable parts of the earth, taking complacency in their own thoughts of peace and good-will they had toward us, afte…wa…ds to b…eak forth. And if both delighted in their very projects and plots upon the business, what may we think the accomplishment of the whole design will add, if it were possible to supe…add to their delight? I would have you upon this, to gather two considerations, …o… your edification: One, to think what an incompa…ably excellent Saviour we have, one with God, equal to him, yea, one with him from all ete…nity, and so how strong a foundation there is for faith and confidence? What a Rock to establish a tossed soul upon? Mans misery and curse being for all eternity, their is one to deliver from that, who was from all eternity. And who could purchase unto us such absolute bl…ssedness throughout all ete…nity, who was not himself from all eternity? What marvellous congruity and beauty is in the ways of God? How is all fitted and …ramed by infinit wisdom? to the end that we may have strong consolation. Do you not see the infinit evil, and hainousness of sin, in the giving of such a p…ecious ransome for it? O how is the black visage of sin pourtrayed in the beauty and glory of the Mediators Person? How is it painted, even to horrour in his death? Again, what divinity and worth is put upon the immortal soul of man, that is but of yesterday, since the beginning? When he that was the delight of God, before all beginning, is weighted in the ballance, as it were, with it, and no other thing found sufficient for exchange and compensation, that the soul may be redeemed: And doth not this answer all the jealousies, and suspicious thoughts, and fea…ful apprehensions, arising from the consideration of our own weaknesse and infirmity? When such an one is offered, as is able to save to the utmost. Then I would desire you may believe, that the Father is as well minded to the salvation of sinne…s, as the Son; …or they were sweet company together from all eternity, and, as it we…e, contrived this plot and design between them, to save and …edeem mankind. Some intertain ha…sher thoughts of the Father, as if Christ were more accessible, and exorable; but the t…uth is, he hath given his Son this command, and the…efore he professed, that it was not so much his will, as his Fathers, he was about: Therefore correct your apprehension…, do not stand aback from the Father, as it were, till you have prevailed with Christ, no, that is not the way; come in your fi…st addresse to the Father, in the Son, for so he wills you; not because he must be ove…come by his Sons perswasion, but because he would have his love to run in th…t ch…nnel, through Christ to us: And indeed our S…viour was much in holding out the love of the Father, and laboured to perswade the wo…ld of it. Withall, I wish you to consider whom ye neglect and despise, who hear this Gospel daily, and the word of life holden out unto you; and yet suffer not your hearts to be moved, or stirred after him. Alas, my beloved, to forsake so great a mercy, as the eternal Word of Life, as the infinit Wisdome of the Father, and to let the offer of this, every day run by us, and never to find leasure and vacancy from the multitude of businesses, and throng of the thoughts, and lusts of the world, never to start so far backward, as to look beyond this world, to God, and his Son Iesus Christ, never to mind seriously, either him that was before all things visible, or our own souls, th…t must survive, and out-live all this visible frame. This, I say, is the great misery and condemnation of the world, that this eternal light hath shined, and you love your own darkness better: But be perswaded, that one day ye will think one offer of this Word of Life, better then life, better, infinitly better then the most absolute life that the attendance and concurrance of all the creatures could yeeld you. O then that ye would incline your ears and heart… to this that is declared unto you, to receive this Word of Life, that was from the beginning, and ye may be perswaded, ye shall enjoy a blessednesse without end.
But there is withall a newness in this subject, which both increases admiration, …nd may the more engage our affection; for the life was manifested (saith he) vers. 2. and he is such a word of life, as though he was invisible, and untouchable from the beginning, yet he wa… lately cloathed with flesh, that mad… him both visible, and capable of being handled. Now truly these …re the two Poles, about which the mystery, glory, and wonder of Christianity turns: the antiquity of his real existence, as God; and the latenesse or novelty of his appearance in the flesh, a… man; Nothing …o old, …or he hath the infinit fore-start of the oldest and most ancient Creatu…e…. Take those Angels, the Sons of God, who sung together in the fi…st morning of the Creation, yet their generation can soon be told, and their years numbered; it is easie to calculat all antiquity, and we should not reach six thousand years, when it is taken at the largest measure; and what are six thousand years in his sight, but as six dayes, when they are past? and if we would run backward, as far before that point of b…ginning, and calculat other six thousand, yet we a…e never a jote nearer the age of the Son of God. Suppose a mountain of sand, as big a… the ea…th, and an Angel to take from it one g…ain every year, your imagin…tion would weary it self, e…e ye reckoned in what space this mountain should be diminished, or removed: It would ce…tainly trouble the Arithmetick of the wisest Mathematician. Now imagine as many years, or ages of years, to have run out before the world took its beginning, a… the years in which the Angel would exhaust this mountain; yet we have not come a white nearer the endur…nce of our Lord and Saviour, whose being is lik… a Circle, without beginning, or end. Behold he is great, and we know him not, and the number of his years c…nnot be searched out, Job 36.26. and who can declare his generation? The age of thi… Word is such a labyrinth, with innumerable turning…, and wind…ngs in it, which will alwayes lea… them round that enter in it; and so they are, after the longest progress and sea…ch, but just where th…y we…e, alwayes beginning, and n… ver coming nea…er the beginning of his duration, because it is the beginning of all things that have a beginning, but hath none it sel…. Now he that was thu… blessed from everlasting, who dwelt in ina…cessible light and glory, which no m…n hath seen, nor can …ee, infinitly …emoved from all humane capacities and sense…; he, I say, begins to be mani…ested in the fulnesse o… time; and to make himself visible, he takes on o…r flesh; and all for this pu…po…e, that he who was the substantial life in himself, and the eternal life, in an essential and necessary way, might become l…e to poor dead sinners, and communicate to them eternal life; and truly it was no wonder that all ages were in expectation of this, from the beginning of the world, since it was first promised, that the Inhabitants of Heaven were in a longing expect…tion to see, …nd look into this myste…y, for ther… is something in it more wonderful then the creation of th…s huge frame of Heaven and Earth: God made himself in … manner visible, by making the visible world: His power, goodnesse, and wisdome, are every where imprint…d in great Characters o… the whole, and all the parts of it: the light, How glorious a garment is it? with which he is, as it were, cloathed: the Heavens, How Majestick a Throne? the Earth, How stately a Foot-stool? the Thunder, How glorious and te…rible a voice? In a word, the beeing, the beauty, the ha…mony, and proportion of this huge frame, is but a visibl… appe…rance of the invisible God. But in taking on our flesh, the Word is more wonderfully mani…ested, and made visible; for, in the fi…st, the Creator made creatures to start out of nothing, at his command; but in this, the Creator is made a Creature: He once gave a beginning of being to thing… that were not; being before all beginning himself; he now takes a beginning, and become… flesh, that he was not. And what i… it in which he was manifested? Is it the spiritual nature of Angel…? But though that far excell ours, yet it i… no manifestation of him to us; for he should still be as unknown as ever. Is it in the glory, pe…fection, and flower of the visible world, as in the Sun, and lights of Heaven? But though that hav… more shew of glory, then the flesh of man; yet it makes not much to our comfort; there would not be so much consolation in that manifest…tion. Therefore, O how wisely and wonderfully is it contrived, for the good of lost man? That the Son of God shall be made of a woman, that the Father of spirits shall be manifested in the lowest habit of our flesh: and the lower and baser that be, in which he appears, the higher the mystery is, and the richer the comfort is; suppose the m…nifestation …f glory should not be so great, yet the manifestation of love is so much t…e g…eater; and this is t…e great design; God so loved, &c. Ioh. 3. Nay, … may say, even the glory of the only begotten Son of God, was the more …isibly manifested, that he appeared in so low and unequal a shape; for power, to shew it self in weaknesse, for glo…y, to …ppear in basenesse, for divinity, to kyth in humanity, and such glorious rayes, to b…eak forth from under such a dark cloud; this was greater Glory, and more M…jesty, then if he had only shewed himself in the perfection of the creatures. Now it is easie to distinguish the vail, from that it covers; to separat infirmity from divinity: but then it had been more difficult, if his outw…rd …ppearance had been so glorious, to give unto God what was Gods, and to give the creatures what was the creatures: The more near his outward shape had been to his divine nature, the lesse able had we been to see the glory of his Divinity through it.
Now, my beloved, when both these are l…id together, the …ncientnesse of our Saviour, and with…l the newness of his appearance in the flesh, by which he hath come so near us, and, as it were, brought his own Majesty within our sphear, to be apprehended by us; …nd for no other end, but to make life and immort…lity to shine forth, …s beams from him, to the quickning of dead souls. O how should this conjunction endear him to us: that the everlasting Father should become a Child for us; that is one wonder. The next wonder i…, that we who are enemies, should be made the children of God by him: when the da…k and obscure prophesying of this, when the twilight of Jewish type… and shadows did creat so much joy in the hea…t… of …elievers, in so much that they longed fo…, and …ejoyced to see afar off th…t day; when such a da…k …epresentation of this Word of L…fe, wa… the very life of the godly in the wo…ld, …or …our thousand years; O how much i… the cau…e of joy increased, by the rising of the Sun of Rig…teousn…sse himself, and appearing in the very da…kest nig…t of Supe…stition and Idolatry that was ever over the wo…ld? When the true Life hath …risen himself, and b…ought to open light that life that wa… obscu…ely couched up in P…ophecies and Ce…emonies, a… hid under so many Clouds. O then, let us open our h…rts to him, and intertain th…se new and fresh tidings, with new delights: Though these be now mo…e then 16…0. years old, yet they …re still recent to a believing heart; th…re is …n everlasting spring in them, th…t …ends out every day fresh c…nsolation on to souls, a… refreshing, as the fi…st day▪ thi… spring was opened. This is the new Wine that never grows old, nay, it is …ather every gene…ation renewed, with the accession of some new manifestation of the love of God. Ch…ists Incarnation was the fi…st manifestation of the Sun, the very morning of light and life, the day-spring, vi…ng the world, tha… was bu…ied in an hel…i…h darknesse of Heathen Idolatry: and even the Church of God, in the grave of Superstition, and corruption of Doctrine and manne…s: then did that Sun of Righteousnesse fi…st set up his head above the Ho…zon; but it is but one day still, he hath been but coming by degrees to the Meridian, and shining more and more to the perfec… day; That Sun hath not set since, but made … course, and gone a round about the World, in the Preaching of the Gospel, and brought life, & light about, by succession, from one nation …o another; and on… generation to another; and there…ore we ought to intertain it this day with acclamations, and jubilation of heart, as the people that ly under th… North, do welcome the Sun when it …mes once a year to them. After that the kindnes… and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, Tit. 3.4. foreign, his kindly and affectionat love to mankind, that is it that shines so brightly; the beams of grace and love to men, are the rayes that are scattered from this Sun of Righteousness. O the hardness of mens hearts, the impenetr…ble obstinacy of man, that this cannot melt or pierce. How damnable and miserable a case are they into, who can neither be perswaded with the eternity of this subject, to adore it, nor moved with the late appearance of the love of God to the world, in sending of his Son? whom neither Christs Majesty, nor his Humility, can draw. Certainly this make… sinners under the Gospel, in a more deplorable condition then So…om; because if he ha… not come, they had not had such sin, but now it i… without excuse, &c.