Of the J\!towledg of (jod the Father~ ~ imports, as if this Chrift indeed had been concealed, and came not into the BooK Ill. World, but then when the Golpel was to be revealed and manifefted, (of ~ which he there !peaks as a Myflery hid ) ; yet unto him, as thus to come imo the World, was the World beholden for th~ir Creation; and this Glory of Chrifl, God concealed, until the full revelation of h1m, m the great Work of Redemption ; that fo all his Revenues of_Glory might come in together. Yea, if he were at all to be made a Creature, 1t was h1s due Perfonal PriVIledg, to have been firft himlelf made, and himfelf to have been God's lnftrument in it and to have uttered thole words Hill which were fpoken by God, (yet as 0~ purpofe relating to him, as Cameron well obferves) Let there be Light; Let there be Sun, A-Ioon, &c. Even as it was his due, when he a!fumed our Nature to have been filled with all that perfonal Glory which he bath now in Heaven; but that for accomplifhment of other Ends alfo it was fufpended; namely, that he might firft become Sin and a Curfe for us : So, I fay, it was his due to have exill:ed in his Humane Nature firfl, ( fuppofing fuch a Decree that he lliould af– fume); and then he, as God's Word and lnll:rument, to have created all Things, as he wrought Miracles when he was on the Earth ; but God having a further and more glorious End, fufpended that ( as he did his Perfonal Glory due to him when he came) and contrived his coming afier the Fall, in order to Redemption. He yet gives him that Glory of Creation virtually, and that he created all Things by him, and by virtue of his Incarnation ; and in create– ing (to ll1ew he fhould have done it as his My@>, a Word to be made Flefh) he accordingly acts his Part, as in Gen. L God faid, Let there be Light, and the like; which but for this very Myfiery needed not have been. Yea, fuch feerns to have been his fubferviency to God herein,that John contents not himfelf only to have faid, that aU Thing; were made by him ; but further adds, and without him nothing mu made that wm made: Unto the interpretation of which place hereto annexed, I refer the Reader for a further Explication and Confirmation of this Trmh. And the Reafon of this is, partly to honour his Son, to make that hi• Atl: of undertaking to a!fume our Nature, (whereby the Son fhould be made lefs than his Father, even in the greatell: height of Glory that could be put upon him ; and yet he did this to rnanifefi the God-head to the utmoll: ) the Foundation of the Creation, as he did his Incarnation in frail Flelli, together with his Suffel'– ings, the Foundation of our Salvation, (for upon the Decrees of God's Will, we will luppofe the connexion of thele to depend); but yet partly witha~ becaufe it was not meer, nor did it become the Great God to make any meer Creatures, though never lo glorious, but upon Chrifi's undertaking firfi himfelf to be a Creature ; and that for two Reafons. Firfi, For if God glorify himfelf by Creation at all, he will glorify himfelf ns God, the utmofi way that may be, or elfe he cloth not like himfelf: God is curious in the Works which his Hands mean to make, and will rnanifefi his God-head unto the utrnoll:. Now all that could have been held forth and ma– nifefied of the God-head, in and to meer Creatures, had fallen fhort, had not been to the utmoll: ; therefore if God fatisfie himfelf, it mufi be by that which is the utmofi, or he would have torn all Projects of Models of Worlds in pie– ces, and never have put them in execution; for fiill he fays with himfelf, I fhall not do my befi and utmofi, if there be not an Union of Come Creature into one Perfon with us, nothing elfe would have fatisfied his vafi defires of be– ing glorified. And, fecondly, The Holinefs of meer Creatures would not have come up to a contentment of his; as the manifefiation of the God-head in the Creation of rneer Creatures,would not have given fi1ll contentment to his Power and Wifdom, fo no mcer created Holinefs to his Holinefs. He finds folly in the Angels pof!i– bility of Mutability, an Imperfection, but there is none in God incarnate. Now therefore if his Son will undertake to be a Creature, he is [o pleafed here· with, as he can be content to condefcend ( as the 'PfalmiJI's word is) to look down upon the making Works of a lower Nature. Which all ferve alfo to illu!lrat~
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