Goodwin - BX9315 G6 v2

Of the I(_nowledg of (jod the Father~ ~ the Office of the Eternal Prie!lhood ; and God fought out one that was perfe/1 l:loo" Ill. for evermore : So, of all meer Creatures, it mull: be faid, as to this his Office of ~ Lordfbip, they all had infirmity. If it be [1id yet, If God would, could he not have madeone· great enough for this ? The Anfwer is, Even for this very R.ealon, that fl1ll all would have been but meerly a made Greatnef; Even therefore,. fuppofe what you can or will, it proves too little, ·and falls fhort : For alas, tt were all but wholly bor– rowed; yea, and of which Greatnefs, thefe very Stones were as Immediately capable without him, by God's foie rai6ng them to fuch an E!l:ate, as himfelf once was thereof. vod could have made as good fuch Chri!ls, and Lords of them, as the ~Baptijl fays, Mat. 3· 9· Sons of Abraham out of Stones ; He that is capable of fo high an Office, mufl be One that is God, which we have even now proved. This for the fir!l:, That this One Lord, here in the Text, is and mufl be God. And yet again, 2dly, If he be to be made a Lord, and Chrifl, (as the Scrip– ture fpeaks ailo of him) ; He mufl, together herewith, be tomething that i 1 made, as well as God, who cannot be made : He is to be, (in refpect of this Office) under God, lower than God, between God and all things made by God ; otherwife, this Great End, which was to greaten God as God, by !hew– ing viGbly and demon!l:ratively, that infinite diflance between God and all his Creatures, had not been attained : for Cuch a Perfon as was God only, as well as himfelf, had been equal unto him : But God, to !hew his Greatnefs, defigned Cuch aOne as fhould be alfo under him, and yet God ; and withal, a Sovereign Lord of all his Creatures. And we find Chrifl accordingly fpeaks of himfelf,. My Father is greater than I. So then, fome one of the Creatures mufi be taken in, to make up this Lord, to be made one Perfon with him that is God ; and fo this Lord will rake his Place in the midfl, between God and all things. For, 3d6·· This Creature (whom ever this Honour is to fall npon) in God's Eternal Purpoles (for we are flill in the Came Sphere of meer poffibility) mufl: be made into one Perfon, wirh a Perfon that is God; for elfe, frill he is not [One] ¥>rd. God, you fte, would have but One Lord, as God Himfelf is but One. The Text fpeaks it both Negatively, Not many Lords; and alfo Affirmatively, Om Lord : two compleat Perfons of them can never make one, and thefe two mull: be made one Perfon. A King and Queen, though one in Marriage, (the nearefl Conjunction) never did, nor never can, make one King, or one Prince, (as Philip and Mary with us did not ). And again, if we would fuppofe, that many Creatures, and not one only, had been taken up into Union with Come Perlon that was God ; yet flill there would have been Lords many. But God will have fuch a Lord as is perfec.tly One, who therein fhall be the perfect Image of his Sovereignty and Monarchy over all Things ; and therefore will have but One, to whom all Things elfe, without exception, are to be fubject. 4thly. Which of the Three Perfons in the God-head, and what fort of the Creatures, was fittefi to make up, in a way of Perfonal Union, this One Lord i' r. As to the P-erfon of the Trinity, it mull: not be the Father; it was no way proper for him, that was the Fountain of the Perfons, and of the whole Crea•ion, to undertake any Office what-ever, and fo not to become this Lord, which is an Office under God, as the Text exprefly affirmeth. Who then? God the Son is next, who in that he is the Son, is, by a proper natural Right, Lord ofall Things; for he is the Heir unto this his Father, in that he is the Son; and it is the common Law, even from God to Creatures downwards, That the Hezr i< Lord of rdl, Gal. 4· J. Tis fitte!l: then that he, the Son, fhould have this Office and Title of Lord transferred on him ; and none Co fit to be the ap· pointed Heir of all Things, Heb. 1. 2. who, in his Perfon,is naturally next God the Father, the begotten Hm of all Thingr, who is not made, but begotten, and the only Begotten, namely, of this One God the Fr1ther; John 1.3, 14, 18. compa· red, .AI/1/.mgs were made by him, and rvitho11t him was not any Thing m.1de th<~l W45 made. .And. the Word"'"" made Flejb, and dwell among 111, (and we behe!tl his

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