6 Of t/;e CreatTtrer; and the Condition ~Pflzlrmjl: He b. I, 10. Attd thou Lord i11 the begt~mmg haf/ lazd the Fowzdati· !looK I, o11s of the Earth, rmd the Hravms are the works cf thy !"mds ; that is, he ~was loin the beginning of the making of all things whatfotver, fo as tobe the · Founder ot them, and therefore exi(hng alore them. In which placeof Johli, two things are faid of him in difference from Creatures; '· Th>t l,e waswzth God betore, which the Creatures were not, nor exi!\ent in him as he was 1 And further, Secondly, much lefs were they God befOre, as he was, but they all were made by him. Add to this, (to !hew it was his peculiar Priviledge above the Creation, that he thus was with God; ) that in .Prov. 8. Verj. 2 4 Whe1lthere was'11o depths, I waJ broughtforth,wheu there WfiS no Fou11ta11z; a6omzdi11"~ wzth water; 6rfore the Mou11tams were Jetted, .before th el1zlls wM I brought forth, whzte as j•et he had 110t made the EIYt.h \!)c. So on to the 3oth Verfe, Thett w as I wzth him as 01le brought 11p wrth him. This Wifdom makes her boall of, as a Prerogative no Creature bad; and Wifdom' in the P roverbs, is put for the perfon of Chrill himfelf; So L11ke 1 r. 49: compared with L~tke 7· J4, lS'· wherein Chrill fpeaking of himfelf, fays iR, that t I Cb,zp. 49· Therefore a!Jo j 11d the Wt(dom of Goi, I will fend them Prophets and Apof/les,'tf;c. And in Luke 7· H· he cxprelly flys, T!Jis Wifdom is he who was the Son of Man: VerJ. l4• The Sou of M t111 is come e<Zting aud dri11ki11g, mzd) 'e Jay, behold a glt~ttouous M .m, &c. But Wrfdvm is juflzfitd· of her Cbzldt·m: So plainly affirming of himfelf, I my felf am that Wifdom !pollen of, which is ju{lified of my Children : And in M.7tth. 1 I, 19. he fays the fame: And that fpeech, The Wzjdom of God jiud, I will feud Prophets mzd Apo(ltes,\!Jc.as it mull refer in general,to fome fpecch or other, fomewhere in the Old Te!\ament uttered by one that takes on him ro be a PerJo11, as the [I] imports,and that perfon fiiled [The Wifdom of' God] lo particularly,it re– lers unto what Wtjdom had laid of her felf in the Book of the .Proverbs, Chap. 1. fromVerj. 29. to the end, of [mdi11g forth Prerzchers, by whom !he ttt· ters her voice"' the Streets, a11d cries i11 the chief places of C01ICo11rje. And when our Saviour Chrill fpeaks of that Union which he had with the Father, ifl that his prayer, JohlliJ. he fays, that be had aglory with the Father h· fore tbe World wM: And this he makes a peculiar priviledge of himfelf, as be· ing then aperfon, who was thenex!fling, and fo were that Glory afore God the Father: Whereas if all the EleCt had exilled in God actually then, as well as Chrift, this had not been peculiar unto him; And yet there alfo he fpeaks of their exi!\ence in God's Decree and EleCtion, 'tbiue they were, ']oh11 '7· 6. And therefore, what he fays of himfelf, of the glory that he had before the World was, mull be fpoken by reafon of an Exillen:c befides that which he had in Decree, which exillence the eleCt had not, ' Thirdly, by this, God doth fet forth his own Greatnefs to humble Jo6, and in him, the whole Creation ; and how poor a ']ob cloth he make of him ! And if that God himfelf ihould fpenk unto thefe Blafphemers of our days, as he did to 1o6 there, how would they inftantly !hake and tremble; and fall to nothing,unlcfs he fupported them? You have (Job 38. 2, l·) God !\eps in from behind the hangings, as one that bad, undifcerned,overheard ']obs rant· ings and llandings upon his points; Who is this, f•ys God, that darke11s Cormfelby words without knowledge'! Gzrd tip 11ow tby loi11s like'' Man, if thou.hall any Metal, or the Sp:rit of a Man in thee; And to confound thee, I will ask thee but one Qgefiion; For I wi/J demmzd of thee, mzd anJwer tho11 me bttt this one thitzg; Where w aft tbo11 wbm I laid the Fotmdatrons of tbe Earth? 'Declare, :J thott ha{lzmderf/a11di11g. Nay, Can{/ thotz tell who h111h taidthemeajizres thereof? Or who bath flretcbed the li1re ttpon it? Where· 11po11 are the Fotmdatiolls thereoffaf/ned? Or who hatb lttid the Cor11erSto11< thereof? God hereby fi1ool< up 'Jobfo, and gave him fuch a Ratling, and yet appeared not as he is in himfelf; but fpeaks all this out of aWhirlwi11d, wili'h he took to cove.r him: And the iffue with ,7oh, of all this , was, as in (bap. 42. 2. I abhor my [elf m dttj/ and ajhes, You fee this once, and fit(\ Qgcry, which is home to the point i11 hand, and point-blank (as we fay) againll that wicked opinion, which afferts all things to be Coetcrnal with God. Thefc God chofeout of all other weapons, to overthrow Job with: Where wert tbott? Alas!
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