~--------.----,.,.------. ~~--.,-----------~,....,.--- Phi\1.7 Book IV. Looking unto :Jeff#. Chap.t Sed. 6 is called the fruirf-ul Vine. ln every of thefe refpects Cbrifi is ca\1ed a Vine; who by bs incarna rion took 11 pon him the lowefl: condition, and "Mdr him [elf by emptying himfelf of nortpHration: - but he was the fruitful left Vine that ever the earih bore and in this refpeCl: no Vioe,no~ all the Vines on the·earrh were w~rthy to be iompar~ with him , OJ; to be fo much as refemblance,s 9f him. ·I !hall not p-rofecure the refemblances throughout , for , fo 1' might paffe from his birth to his life, and from his life ro his · death; when the blood of the grapes was preffed out; · onely for the· prefent wec:'le ta~.e a view of this Vine. 1 . In its plant, 2 . fn its bud, 3. 'nits bloffome, ·4- In its fruit; and fo an end. . 1 . For the plant : the way -()f Vim·sis not to be fowed, bllt , planted ; that thus tranflated they might betterfructifie: fo our Jefus, firft fprung !1om his Father, is planted_in a Virgins womb; God from God ,- coeternal with·God, ·bur by his incar.narion made that he was not , and yet remaining that he was; God of 'his father, and man ofhis mother; betore -all time, yet firm! · 1 _ - the beginning, B ernard tdls us, that this ,Vine fprung of the ~c~. depaffionc Vine , is God begt tun of God, the Son of the Father , bot,h coeterom. ~ nal anJ conf ubftantial with the F,r t her , buuhat he migkr better ' frut1ifte, he nuts planted inJhe rlirt~;(i ). hewes concei1Hdin a Virgins womb. There is indeed a refemblance in this, yet in this refemblaflce we mufl: be careful to obferve that communicationof properties; of which I. told you; we may truly fay, that God was planted , or conceived, but not the Godhead; God is a concrete word, and !1gnifies the p<!rfDn of Chrifr, and-his perfon was pl-anted ·Drconc<!ived ,~ not.Gmply as God , _but in ~:efped ofthe manhood united to it ; . and thus he that is infi nite was conceived; ' artd he that is eternal ," ~ven he was born ; the very ful netfe of 'all perfecti9n, and all the properties of the divine elfence are 'by thiuommunicat~on given to the nature of man in the pcrfon ~frhe Son ofGod; no wonder therefo're that we f-ay , tboc this Vine (the <, on ofGod) i~ planted in c.Mary ;,I know fome would have ' the plant more early , and therefore they·fay, That Chriff was .a Vine planted in· eAdam, budded in Drw id , and Jiourifhed in }yfa- · · ry ; but I take this but for a fiourilb; all before c.Mary were but typ_es , now was the truth ; now in c7J.far) was Chrifr planted , . and not before~ as in. the be.ginning there was 11ot anlanJo till
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