N00830:99
The blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the Great God our Saviour, Jesus…
The blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the Great God our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Opened & applied, in several sermons. / By Increase Mather, president of Harvard College in Cambridge, and preacher of the Gospel, at Boston, in N.E. ; [Nine lines of Scripture texts]The blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the Great God our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Opened & applied, in several sermons. / By Increase Mather, praesident of Harvard Colledge in Cambridge, and preacher of the Gospel, at Boston, in N.E. ; [Nine lines of Scripture texts]
Boston: printed by Timothy Green for Nicholas Boone, 1701
Title page typeset from the transcription.
The Blessed HOPE, And Glorious Appearing of JESUS CHRIST. › Sermon 3 › Application 1: USE I.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
USE I.
If Christ is the great God, then it was an infinite Condescension in Him to become a Man. I do not say, that his Incarnation was part of his State of Humiliation, as his Sufferings were: For His State of Humiliation is now past, whereas His State of Incarnation continues, & will do so to all Eternity. But it was an act of condescension, & in that respect He humbled himself. God condescends infinitely, if He does so much as look on any of his Creatures: If he does so much as look upon the most glorious Angel in Heaven, it is an infinite condescension in him; Psal 113.6 He humbles himself to behold the things in Heaven. He stoops down infinitely, to behold the Angels in Heaven. The Angels there, acknowledge that they are not worthy that the Son of God should look upon them▪ Isa. 6.2 they are represented as covering their Faces before His glory, thereby confessing, that they are not worthy that the Son of God should look upon them. If the Son of God should have assumed an Angel into Personal […] with Himself, what an Infinite condescension would that have been? But he has condescended ⟨p. 64⟩more than this; For men are beneath Angels. Christ in respect of his becoming a man, is made a little lower than the Angels· But then, Oh! how great was his condescension, in that He was willing to be not only a man, but a Poor mean man, in the Opinion of the world; 2 Cor 8.9 You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that tho' He was Rich, yet for our sakes He became Poor. He was Rich, all the Riches in the world belong to God. Christ the great God, though he were Rich, yet became Poor for our sakes. A Poor Man, one that had not where to lay his Head One that was Mocked at, Scoffed at, Spit upon, Buffeted, Crucified. That HE who is the great God should condescend to this, what a wonderful thing is it? That He should condescend not only to be a man, but to be Enosh, a Sorrowful Man. We read in the Gospel, of his Weeping; we never read of Christs Laughing, but of his Weeping more than once. He Wept over the grave of Lazarus; He Wept over Jerusalem. And we read of his Sighing; He fetched deep Sighs and Groans, several times. But we never read any thing of his Mirth. He was a Man of Sorrows, and acquainted with Grief. Sorrow was no stranger to him. Now, that God should condescend thus for our sakes, how wonderful is it?