Goodwin - BX9315 G6 v2

and hi.r Son !fejus Chrifl. Knowledg of God in the Face, ( or as others read it) the 'Perfon of Jefus ~ Chrifl:. That as the Soul looks om in the Face,. and you fee more of a !-"an's ~ Difpofition in a Look, a Cart of hiS Eye, a Wmk,. a ~lu~ there, than m all his Body ; (o of the G?d-head in Cbnll: Jefus, whtch IS hrs Face. He is the brightnef of his p,,thers Glory, fhmmg m and through a Vat! of Fle!h (whereof the fhining of Mofes's Face was but a Type and Shadow! through the Lamhorn of his Humamty, ( tf I may fo compare It) fo to reheve our Eyes in beholding the God-head, whtch no Eye cou.Id oth~rwtfe have done. There is a Sun bohind that Vail, the Glory of whtch tmmedtately fhtnmg, would have put cut our Eyes. Now obferve, how in this Defign God exceedingly condefcended to our Frailty. We are reafonable Creatures, clothed with Senfes, delirous to prie and fee what we know and hear of,· to have fomethtng vtfible, as the difpofi– tion of the People of lfracl iliewed; and alfo appears in that Speech of Mofes, Exod. 33· r8. Let me jee thy Glory. Now hereby God hath fatisfied this innate Curiofity that is in us; Here wc may, and !hall fee the God that goes afore m, (as they defired, Exod. 32. I.); here we may fay, as the Apoflle did, r John 1. I, 2, 3· Tbdt 1vhicb was from t/:.c begmmng, whrch we have herJrd, 1vhirh we have Jew rrith our E;es, 1vhiCIJ 1ve have loof«d upon, and 011r Hands have handled of the Word of Ufo; (For the L ife was 11Mnifejled, and we have f:en it, and fear wit– nef, ar;d jbew unt_o ymt th~t Eternul Life which war rvith the Father, tmd w.u ma– nijejlcd 1111/o H!) ' Th.1~ rvkrcb we !JtJve feen and heard,. d:cla~e we unto you, that ye alfo ""IJ have foUowjhtp wtlh 111 ; and truly our fillowjhtp u With tbe Frllher,and .vith his Son JcfuJ Cbrijl. I will infl:ance but in the manifcfl:ation of one Attribute, and that is that which is mentioned in Rom. I. 2 0. as that which is more efpecially infl:an– ced in, as feen in the Creation, bis Etcmal Power and God·head. The very knitting Man's Nature· into one Perfon with the Son of ~od, was a greater Work of Power than God ever dtd befides. That God ts made Fleili, is a greater wonder, than to have made Worlds; therefore in this Conception, and work of uniting that Nature, it is faid, The Power of God JbaU over)badow thee, Luke 1. 35· It argues great Power, to join divers Elements in one Body, and then unto that Body to unite a Soul, and breath a Breath of Life; as when God made Man, his choicell: Piece and Workmanfhip, a Living So11l. But he did not only all this in framing Chrifl:'s Humane Nature, the fame that ours is, immediately himfelf, by the Holy Gholl:, but further united the Son of God ; and this Nature infinitely more disjoined and difproportioned each to other than the reafonable Soul and our Bodies : Which he did, when he made him~ q11ickring Spirit. All the Works in Nature are fo £1r iliort of this, that they afford nota full fimilitudcof it. Yea, all God's Works of Nature and Grace, arc altogether bound up in it, (as the Schoolmen well iliew) and exceeded by it. Of all other Worl<s, we may fay, That, De111 pot11it foccre meliw & rna– j•u; If we take but this Work out of the Order and Chain of Things, out of the Syfl:cm of this World. Btit we may fafely fay, that a greater Work than this could not have been done by God himfelf: Which therefore is the amaze– ment of Angels. This one IHll:ance is but for a tafre of the rell:. God's fecond End refpeCl:s the Creatures ; which was to !hew his Love un– to, and communicate Himfelf unto his Creatures. Now by this Union alone (if no other Dcfign had been in it ) he !hould have done it more than any other way. Befides, .that by this happy Marriage, and Union of both Natures, God bath given the urmofl: Pledg of his Love to his whole Creation ; a l<indnefs and re– fpeCl: is doneumothem all; not only in that he !hews he loves his Creatures, fo that he w1ll aflumc one of that Rank and Sort fo near him; but further in this, That that Creature fo a!fumcd, was the Epitome the Compendiumof them all. Man a little World, call'd, Every Crealtm, Mark r6. '5· To the making of whom, the Poets feigned a piece of every Creature to have been taken. And

RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=