Ambrose - BT200 A42 1658

- Book.IV. Looking unto '':fe{us. Cbap.2. Sed.tS that infinite ocean of himfelfe, but it would needs have rivers and channells' into which it might run and overflow. 2. God in profecution of his deligne creates a world of creatures; fome rational, and only capable of love; others irrati- , onal, and ferviceable to that one creature,which he makes rhe top ofthe whole creation; then it was that he fee up one man Adam~ as a common perfon, to reprefent the refl:; to him he gives abundance of gloriot- s qualificatiom, and him he fets over all the work of his hands, as if he were the very darling of love; ifwe ffiould view the excellency of this creature either i!'l the outward, or the inr.er man, who would not wonder ?. his bodv had its excellency, which made the Pfalmifl: fay, I will praiferhee, fi r I pr. 139 . 14,1 ~am f earfully and wonderfully made,-and curioujly wro11ght in t he /oweft part ofthe earth. It is a fpeech borrowed from thofe who work Arraf-work;:thc body ofman is a peece ofcurious Tapefl:ry, or Arras-work, confifl:ing ofsk:n, bones, mufcles,finewes , 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 [orne men fi nce the fall; a5 the ;~=ompl ed:ion of David, ~ Sam. 16 12. the fwifrnefs of Ha.Mel, 2 S am. 2. 18. the beauty of Abf6lon, 2 Sam. I 4-2) . if aU thefe were but joyned in one, as certainly ehey were in A dam, what ~rare bPdy would fuch a one be..? but what was this body in comparifon of that foul ! the foul was it, that was efpecially made af er the image of God; the foul was it that was tetnpered ip the fame rnorter with the heavenly fpirits; the foul was .God's fparkle, a beame of his divine glory, a ray, or emanarion of God himfelfe; as man,was the principal part of the creation, fo the foul was the principal part ofman: hfre was it that Gods love and glory were centred for the time; here was .it that Gods love iet and fix't it felfe in a fpecial manner , whence flowed tl1at communion of God with Adam , and that familiarity of (ldam with God. 3. Within a while thisman, the o'bject of Gods love, fell away from God; and as he fell, fo all that were in him, even tl1e whole, world fell together with him; and here upon Gods fac~ was hid, not a fight of him but in flaming fire rea.dy to feaze on the fons ~men. And yet Gods love would not thus leave the object; · · he . \

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