admonitions, to the furtherance of your souls in grace: and may his Good Spirit ever lead and guide us in all such ways, as may be pleasing to him, till we happily meet in the participation of that incomprehensible glory, which he hath prepared for all his Saints. Till when, Farewell; from your fellow pilgrim in this vale of tears, JOSEPH HALL. THE GREAT MYSTERY OF GODLINESS. 1 Tim. iii. 16. Great is the SECT. I. LET no man go about to-entertain the thoughts of the Great Mystery of Godliness, but with a ravished heart; a heart filled with a gracious composition of love, mystery of god- and joy, and wonder: such a one, O Saviour, Í desire, through thy grace, to bring with me to the meditation of that thine infinitely glorious work of liness our redemption. It was as possible for thy Chosen Vessel, who was, by a divine ecstasy, caught up into paradise, 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 pathetical intimation of that, which he saw could never be enough admired: Great is the Mystery of Godliness. There are great mysteries of art, which the wit and experience of skilful men have discovered: there are greater mysteries of nature, some part whereof have been described by art and industry; but the greater part lies hidden from mortal eyes but these are less than nothing, to the Great Mystery of Godliness. For, what are these, but the deep secrets of the creature? mean, therefore, and finite, like itself: but the other are the unfathomable depths of an Infinite Deity; fitter for the admiration of the highest angels of heaven, than for the reach of human conception. Great were the mysteries of the Law; neither could the face of Moses be seen without his veil: but what other were these, but the shadows of this Great Mystery of Godliness? What did that golden ark overspread with glorious cherubims, that gorgeous temple, those perfumed altars, those bleeding sacrifices, that sumptuous priesthood, but prefigure thee, O Blessed Saviour, which, in the fulness of time, shouldest 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 than mysterious and wonderful: but the great and astonishing Mystery of Godliness is thyself, God manifested in the flesh. Lo, faith itself can never be capable to apprehend a mystery like this. Thou, who art a spirit, and therefore immaterial, invisible, to expose thyself to the viewof earthen eyes: thou, who art an infinite spirit, to be enwrapped in flesh: thou, an all-glorious eternal spirit, to put on the rags of human mortality: thou, the great creator of all things, to become a creature: thou, the Omnipotent God, to subject thyself to miserable frailty and infirmity: O mystery, 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 dreadful astonishment, that it could not be consistent with life: : even so much honour was thought no less than deadly : neither could the patient make any other account, than to be killed with the kindness of that glory: what shall we say then, that thou, who art the God of those spirits, and therefore infinitely more glorious than all the hierarchy of heaven, vouchsafedst, not in a vanishing apparition, but in a settled state of many years' continuance, to shew thyself in our flesh, and to converse with men in their own shape and condition? O Great Mystery of Godliness, God manifested in the flesh: so great, that the holy ambition of the heavenly angels could not reach higher, than the desire to look down into it; 1 Pet. i. 12. SECT. II. fested, BUT, O Saviour, that, which raised the amazement at the appearance of thine angels, was their resplendent God maniglory; whereas, that, which heightens the wonder of thy manifestation to men, is the depth of thine abasement. Although thou wouldest not take the nature of angels; yet, why wouldest thou not appear in the lustre and majesty of those thy best creatures? Or, since thou wouldest be a man, why wouldest 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 fulness thereof, why wouldest thou not raise to thyself a palace comprised of all those precious stones, which lie hid in the close coffers of that thine inferior treasury? Why did not thy court glitter with pearl 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 thy mercy, that, being upon earth, thou wouldest abandon all earthly glory: there could not be so great an exaltation of thy love to mankind, as that thou wouldest 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 wouldest become man; or, that, condescending to be man, thou wouldest take upon thee the shape of a servant; a servant to those, whose Lord, whose God thou wert? What proportion could there be, O blessed Jesu, betwixt a God and a Man; betwixt finite and infinite? The in the flesh- only 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 mystery; that the Infinite Deity and finite flesh should meet in one subject! yet so, as the Humanity should not be -absorbed of the Godhead, nor the Godhead coarcted by the Humanity; but both inseparably united: that the Godhead is not Humanized, the Humanity is not Deified; both are indivisibly conjoined; conjoined so, as without coufusion distinguished. So wert thou, O God, Manifested in the flesh, that thou, The Word of thine Eternal Father, wert made flesh; and dwellest amongst us; and we men beheld thy glory, the glory as of the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth; John i. 14. Yet, so wert thou made flesh, as not by conversion into flesh, but as by assumption of flesh to thine Eternal Deity; assumption, not into the nature of the Godhead, but into the person of thee who art God everlasting. O Mystery of Godliness, incomprehensibly glorious! Cease, cease, O human curiosity; and, where thou canst not comprehend, wonder and adore. SECT. III. BUT, O Saviour, was it not enough for thee to be manifested in flesh? Did not that elementary composition carry in it abasement enough, without any further addition? since, for God to become man, was more, than for all things to be redacted to nothing: but that, in the rank of miserable manhood, thou wouldest humble thyself to the lowest of Humanity, and become a servant? Shall I say more? I can hear Bildad, the Shuhite, say, Man is a worm; Job xxv. 6: and I hear him, who was a noble type of thee, say, as in thy person, I am a worm and no man, a reproach of men, and despised of all the people; Psalm xxii. 6. 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 shepherds; employed in a homely trade; attended by mean fishermen; tempted by presumptuous devils; persecuted by the malice of envious men; exposed to hunger, thirst, nakedness, weariness, contempt! How many slaves, under the vassalage of an enemy, fare better than thou didst, from ingrateful 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 agony; crowned with thorns; bleeding with scourges; buffeted with cruel hands; spat upon by impure mouths; laden with thy fatal burden; distended upon that torturing cross; 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 blood might remain unshed, pierced to the heart, by the spear of a late and impertinent malice. Thus, thus, O God and Saviour, wouldest thou be manifested in the flesh, that the torments of thy flesh and thy spirit might be manifested to that world, which thou camest to redeem: thus, wast thou wounded for our transgressions; thus, wast thou bruised for our iniquities; thus, were the chastisements of our peace upon thee; and thus, with thy stripes are we healed; Isaiah liii. 5. O blessed, but still incomprehensible Mystery of Godliness; God thus manifested in the flesh, in weakness, contempt, shame, pain, death! Once only, O Blessed Jesu, while thou wert wayfaring upon this globe of earth, didst thou put on glory; even upon Mount Tabor, in thy heavenly Transfiguration: then, and there, did thy face shine as the sun, and thy raiment was white as the light; Matt. xvii. 2. Mark ix. 2, 3. Luke ix. 29. How easy had it been for thee, to have continued this celestial splendor to thy Humanity, all the whole time of thy sojourning upon earth, that so thou mightest have been adored of all mankind! How would all the nations under heaven have flocked unto 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 mediatory perambulation; and to attend thee at Jerusalem, on the Mount of Sion, as they did in the Mount of Tabor; whom hadst thou not in a zealous astonishment, drawn after thee? But, it was thy will, and the pleasure of thy Heavenly Father, that this glorious appearance should soon be overshadowed with a cloud: and, as those celestial 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 Calvary, 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 vileness of flesh, manifested to be God. How did all thy creatures, in this extremity of thine abasement, agree to acknowledge and celebrate thine Infinite Deity! The angels came down from heaven, to visit and attend thee: the sun pulled in |