Therefore, let not Satan abuse our imaginations, if we have a mind to turn to God ; for, as I said, there is no comfort to them that go on in their sins. God w'ill wound the ' hairy scalp of them that go on in iniquity,' Ps. Ixviii. 21; and, ' they treasure up wrath against the day of wrath,' Rom. ii. 5. There is nothing but discomfort to such : ' The wrath of God abides upon them,' John iii. 3G. They are in danger of damnation every minute of their lives. There is but a step between them and hell. But for such as intend to turn to God, God meets them half-way. We see the prodigal did but entertain a purpose to come to his father, and his father meets him. ' God in our flesh ' hath made God peaceable to us. If we go to Christ, and lay hold on him for the forgiveness of our sins, God in him is become a loving, gracious, sweet Father to us. Let us frame our conceits of God as the Scripture doth. When sorrow for sin possesseth our souls, take heed of going away from God, that took our nature for this very purpose, that we may boldly go to him.
Oh what boldness have we now to go to ' God in our flesh.' To think of God absolutely, without God in the flesh, he is ' a consuming fire,' Heb. xii. 29, every way terrible ; but to think of God in our nature, we may securely go to him : ' He is bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh,' Gen. ii. 23. We may securely go to God our brother, to him that is of one nature with us, and now having our nature in heaven. Think of God born of a virgin, of God lying in the cradle, sucking the breast ! Think of God going up and down teaching and doing all good ! Think of God sweating for thee, hanging on the cross, shedding his blood, lying in the grave, raising himself again, and now in heaven ' sitting at the right hand of God,' our intercessor ! Eph. i. 20. Conceive of God in this ' flesh ' of ours, lovely to us ; and now our nature must needs be lovely to him. The nature of God must needs be lovely to us, since he hath joined our poor beggarly flesh to the unity of the second person. Let us thus think of ' God mani- fest in the flesh.' To think of God alone, it swallows up our thoughts ; but to think of God in Christ, of God ' manifest in the flesh,' it is a com- fortable consideration. To see the sun alone in itself, in the glory and lustre of it, it is impossible, without hurting of the eye ; but to see the sun m water, as we do in au eclipse, &c., we may do it. So we cannot conceive
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of God alone absolutely ; but to conceive of ' God in our flesb ' is to look upon tbe sun as it were in tbe water, or upon the ground. God in himself is so glorious that we could never see him, as he tells Moses, Exodus xxxiii. 20, ' None can ever see God and live ;' that is, God nakedly or absolutely. Oh but ' God manifest in our flesh ' we may see ; and it shall be our happiness in heaven to see him there, to see ' God in our flesh face to face,' Exodus xxxiii. 11,
We cannot too often meditate of these things. It is the life and soul of a Christian. It is the marrow of the gospel. It is the wonder of wonders. We need not wonder at anything after this. It is no wonder that our bodies shall rise again ; that mortal man should become afterwards immortal in heaven, since the immortal God hath taken man's nature and died in it. All the articles of our faith and all miracles yield to this grand thing, 'God manifest in the flesh.' Believe this, and believe all other. Therefore, let us often have these sweet cherishing conceits of God in our flesh, that it may strengthen, and feed, and nourish our faith, especially in the time of temptation.
Use 2. Again, From this, that God was 'manifest in our flesh,' let "us take heed that ice defile not thisfiesh of ours, this nature of ours. What ! Is this * flesh ' of mine taken into unity with the second person ? Is this ' flesh ' of mine now in heaven, ' sitting at the right hand of God ? ' And shall I defile this flesh of mine that I profess to be a member of Christ ? ' Shall I make it the member of an harlot?' 1 Cor. vi. 15. Shall I abuse it, as intemperate persons do ? Let us honour our nature, which Christ hath so honoured ; and let us take a holy kind of state upon us, to think ourselves too good, since God hath so advanced our nature, to abase it to the service of sin.
Use 3. Likewise, it should teach us to stoop to any service of Christ or our brethren. What ! Did the love of God draw him into the womb of the virgin ? Did it draw him to take my nature and flesh on him ? And shall I think much to be serviceable to my poor brethren, for whom God ■was made flesh, and not only so, but was crucified ? Such thoughts will take down such proud conceits as enter into our hearts when we are about any work of charity for the members of Christ. Shall I have base conceits of any man, whose flesh Christ hath taken ? Especially, when I see any goodness in him, let me abase myself to any work of charity.