1J..roamg unto 'jdu.s. Chap.2.SecL6. ---------- -- ----- - -- ------ Father and the Son are with me; though in that eternity th~re was no Cre;~~; thefe three perfons 010uld communicate their Love ; yet was there a glorious communi– John 17 • 5 _ cation, and breaking out of Lovefromone to another; before there was a world, the Father, <on, and Holy Gho!l:dtd mfinndy glorifie themfelves, John 17. 5. Surely they Prov. s. 3°· loved one another, and thejl rejoycedin the fruition of one another, Prov 8. 30. What need then was there of the dlfcovery of Gods love to any one beiides himlelf? 0 my foul, I know no nec~ffity for it, only thus was the pleafure of God ; E1xn fo Farber, for fo tt feemedgood tn thy fight : fuch was the love of God, tlllt 1t would not comain it fdf within that infinite Ocean of himfelf, but it w~uld needs have Rirers 2nd ·channels into which it might run and overflow. ' 2. God in profecution of his delign, creates a world of Creatures. fome rational and only capable of Love; others irrational, and ferviceoble to th;t one Cre1ture: wbtch he makes the top of the whole Creation ; then it was that he fer up one man Adam, as a common per[on, to reprefent the reft; to him he gives abundance of glorious quJli– ficattons, and lum he fets over all the work of his hands, as if he were the very DJrling of ~ove; tf we Owuld view the excellency of this Creature either in the outward, or th~tnner man,who would not wonder? his body had its excellency, which made the PfalPia'. 'l9·'4,tl mt!l: fay,Iwill praife thce,for I am fearfully and tvJnderfu!ly made, ---awl C~<riol<JIJ wro:lght in the loweft part of the earth. It is a fpeech borrowed from thofe who work Arras-work· the body of n1an is a piece of curious Tapeflry, or Arras-work, conlifling of skin: bones, mufcles, finews, and the like ; what a goodly thing the body of man was before the Fall, may be gueffed by the excellent gifts found in rhe bodies of fome men lince the Fall; as the CompleC!ion of David, I Sam. I6. I2. the fwiftnefs of Eiaz.ael, 2 Sam. 2. I 8. the beauty of Abfo!on, 2 Sam. If. 25. If all thefe were bur joined in one, as cer– tainly they were in Adam, what a rare Body would fuch a one be 1 bJJt what was this body in comparifon of that foul? the foul was it, that was efpecially made after the I– mage of God; the foul was it, that was tempered in the fame Mortar with the heavenly fpirits; the foul was Gods fparkle, a beam of his divine Glory, a ray, or eman>tion of God himfelf; as man was the principal part of the Creation, fo the Soul was the principal part of man : here was it that Gods Love and Glory were centred for the time; here was it that Gods love fer and fi.xt it felf in a fpecial man, whence flowed tlllt Com– munion of God with .Ad•m, and that familiarity of .Adam with God. 3. Within a while, this man, the objeCt of Gods L?ve, I ell away from God, and as he fell, fo all that were in him ; even the whole world fdl together \virh him ; and here– upon Gods face was hid; not a fight of him but in flaming fire, ready to feize on the Sons of rnen. And yet Gods Love would not thus leave the Objetr; he had yet a funher reach of Love, and out of this dark Cloud he lets fall fome glimpfes of another difcovery: Thefe glimpfes were fweet : but alas, they were fo dark that very few could fpell them, or make any fenfe, or comfortable application of them: bur by degrees God hints it out more; he points it out with the finger by types and lhadows, he makes fome models of it in ·Outward Ceremonies, and yet fo hid and dark, that in four thoufand years, men were but gueffing, and hoping through promifes, for a manifeftation of Gods Love. this is the meJning of rhe Apo!l:le, Col. t. 16. who tdls us of the Myjfery that wao hid fro'm A •es, and from CetJer."tions , but now if rdad< manifeft to hu Saints: This Love of God was hrd tn the brea!l: of God from the Sons of men for an Age, fo that they knew not what to make of this great Deiign: I fpeak of the generality of men ; for in refpeCt of fome Par– ticulars, as to Adam, and A~raha,., and Mofes, and Davtd_, and the Patrtarchs, you have heard the Lord made his Loves clear to them tn a Covenant-way ; and ftill -the nearer to Chrifl, · the clearer and clearer was the Covenant of Grace. 4· At !all: God fully opens himfelf; in t~e. ful_nefs of time God takes _the llefl1 of thofe poor finners which he had fo loved, and )OtnS tt to htmfelf, and he call.-tt Chnll:, a Saviour: 0! now was it that God defcended , and lay tn the womb of a Vtr– gin; now was it that he is born as we are b~rn i now was it that he joined our llefl1 fo nigh to himfclf, as that there is a Commumcauon of properties betwtxt them both, · that being attributed to God which is proper to flefh, as to be born, to futfer; and that being attributed to flefh which is proper to God, as to create, to redeem: wh~ can chufe but wonder when he rhinks of this phrafe, that apiece of llefl1 fhould be callde Go ?
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=