James Fisher

“ What are you, men and angels, that you should thus stand beside him? That you shall set your head with in that world, he is pleased to dwell in? Did he not wonderfully condescend, you might run out without the very creation? What is our strength and beauty? On whose legs do we stand? Are we able for one moment, to persevere in our integrity without him? Should we not all become deformed in sin? Can he draw into himself what he darts forth? How is this paradise of GOD planted with goodly trees, blossoming and flourishing with an eternal verdour? ”

“ Verily thou art both the shame and glory of creatures: created excellency is exalted in thee, to the highest pitch; and all created excellency is beautified and obscured before thee. This is the man, men and angels, by whom all things in heaven and earth do flourish and bloom. This is the Tree of life,' the great Vine of glory,' into which we are all ingrafted, as so many boughs and twigs; All the glory of his Father's house hangs upon him, the 'Offspring and Issue,' as so many chips and pieces darting out from him. This is he, in whom we have been ordain'd to this blessedness from eternity ”

“ Hide yourselves and be confounded, all lower excellencies; be ye silent, all creatures, when he begins to speak; cover your faces, all you little glories and beauties, when he doth shew his face; you are nothing, you are vanity compared to him, he is all things. Verily in him dwells all fulness Thou are not O heaven of heavens, worthy to be a footstool for his glorious feet. Infinite worlds erected above one another were low for him to tread upon. ”

“ Who other could have given hell such a blow as it shall never be able to rise? and raised men and angels to such a pitch, as that they shall never fall? Who other could have led captivity captive, and purchased gifts for men, even for the rebellious? Who other could have opened the gates of this celestial Paradise, shut upon base, ungrateful man? and exalted him, by thousands of stages, to more glory and excellency than he fell from? ”

“ Since the essential image of God standeth here clothed with the human nature, as our ‘everlasting king priest’ the great Lord ‘mediator of the new covenant’ the boundless treasure of all fulness, out of which we shall all be filled and satiated for evermore. ”

“ It is ten heavens of joy, o Well-beloved, to know that thy love is unchangeable; and that these that are united to thee, by faith, in time, and immediate beholding, in eternity, shall never be disjoined from thee; but shall ever remain close locked in the arms of eternal love. ”

“ Were not devils and wicked men fools, that imagined to bind him with any ties? What would chains greater then many worlds? What would infinite numbers of mountains of brass, be to hold him down that he rise not again. ”

“ Art thou not love, discovered to the full? mercy manifested in its highest perfection? judgment and righteousness visibly, in its full splendor; what have we, which is not in thee? and what can a creature, want, which is not in thee? ”

“ This is he, by whom the carnal and beggarly elements of the world were destroyed, the clear evident Gospel dispensation was brought in; the hand-writing of the law cancelled, the vail betwixt Jew and Gentile was rent assunder; the nations were ingrafted into the old stock of the peculiar people, the abstruse secrets of eternity were opened, the kingdoms were shaken the princes of the earth were set up and pulled down; the church was preserved, and flourished. in despite of all the world this is the man who ‘wounded the heads’ over many countries ”

“ What an inconceivable transportation is this? that any of the curfed stock of mankind, should be adopted. co-heirs with the essential Heir of all things! 'Of him are we, in Christ Jesus, who of GOD is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemption, and all. Thousand times blessed counsel of eternity! 'That chofe us in him before the foundation of the world: having predestinate us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ, unto himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace ”