holy ambition of the heavenly angels could not reach higher, than the desire to look down into it. But, O Saviour, that which raised the amazement at the appearance of thine angels, was their resplendent glory; 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 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 confusion distinguished. So wert thou, O God, "manifested in the flesh," that thou, the Word of thine eternal Father, wert "made flesh, and dwelledst amongst us; and we" men "beheld thy glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." 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, 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;" 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 the people." 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 trangressions;" thus wast thou "bruised for our iniquities;" thus were the chastisements of our peace upon thee; and thus with thy stripes are we healed. 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. 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 his head, as abhorring to look upon the sufferings of his Maker; the earth was covered over with darkness, and quaked for the horror of that indignity which was offered to thee in that bloody passion; the rocks rent; the graves opened themselves, and sent up their long since putrefied tenants to wait upon thee, the Lord of life, in thy glorious resurrection: so that thou, in thy despised and crucified flesh, wert abundantly manifested to be the almighty God of heaven and earth. O blessed Saviour, thou, the true "God manifested in the flesh," be thou pleased to manifest unto the soul of thy servant the unspeakable riches of thy love and mercy to mankind in that great work of our redemption. Vouchsafe to affect my heart with a lively sense of that infinite goodness of thine towards the wretchedest of thy creatures; that for our sake thou camest down and clothedst thyself in our flesh; and clothedst that pure and holy flesh with all the miseries that are incident to this sinful flesh of ours; and wast content to undergo a bitter, painful, ignominious death from the hands of man; that by dying thou mightest overcome death, and ransom him from that hell to which he was, without thee, irrecoverably forfeited, and fetch him forth to life, liberty, and glory. O, let me not see only, but feel this thy great mystery of godliness effectually working me to all hearty thankfulness for so inestimable a mercy; to all holy resolutions to glorify thee, in all my actions, in all my sufferings. Didst thou, O Saviour, being God eternal, take flesh for me; and shall not I, when thou callest, be willing to lay down this sinful flesh for thee again? Wert thou content to abridge thyself, for the time, not only of thy heavenly magnificence, but of all earthly comforts, for my sake; and shall not I, for thy dear sake, renounce all the wicked pleasures of sin? Didst thou wear out the days of thy flesh in poverty, toil, reproach, and all earthly hardship; and shall I spend my time, in pampering this flesh in wanton dalliance, in the ambitious and covetous pursuit of vain honours and deceivable riches? Blessed Lord, thou wert manifested in the flesh, not only to be a ransom for our souls, but to be a precedent for our lives: far, far be it from me thus to imitate the great pattern of holiness. O Jesu, the Author and Finisher of my faith and salva tion, teach me to tread in thy gracious steps; to run with patience the race that is set before me; to endure the cross, to despise the shame; to be crucified to the world; to work all righteousness. How easily could I be drawn to envy the privilege of those eyes which saw thee here walking upon earth, O God and Saviour, in the days of thy manifesting thyself in flesh! O, what a happy spectacle was this, to see the face of him in whom the Godhead dwelt bodily! All the world is not worth such a sight. Whither could I not wish to go to see but a just portraiture of that shape, wherein thou wert pleased to converse with men? But thy holy apostle checks this useless curiosity in me, while he says, "If we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him so no more," 2 Cor. v. 16. It is not the outside of thy human form, the view whereof can make us more holy or more happy. Judas saw thee, as well as he that lay in thy bosom; those saw thee that maligned and persecuted thee, and shall once again see thee to their utmost horror, see him whom they pierced. They saw that flesh in which God was manifested; they saw not "God manifested in the flesh." It is our great comfort and privilege, that it was flesh wherein God was manifested; but it is not in the flesh, but in the Deity, to render us blessed. O Saviour, I dare not beg of thee so to manifest thyself to me, as thou didst to thy chosen vessel in his way to Damascus; or to the first martyr in the storm of his lapidation: these miraculous manifestations are not for my meanness to sue for. But let me never cease to crave of thee a double manifestation of thyself to me. Be pleased to manifest thyself to me in the clear illuminations of thy Spirit; let me by the eyes of my faith clearly see thee both laying in the manger, and walking upon earth, and tempted in the wilderness, and arraigned in the judgment-hall, and suffering upon Calvary, and rising out of thy tomb, and ascending from thy Olivet, and reigning in heaven, and there interceding for me: and, after my approaching dissolution, let my soul see thee in that glorified flesh, wherein thou wert manifested to the world; |