Burroughs - Puritan 01030

On the Excellen t) of ch rifi.

what a God bee Is that it hath to deal with t Shall not that ex

cellency op his that hathbeen opened untoyou, makeyouafraid,

and caufe you to fear jack a God

Now thenhaving fpoken

fomewhat aboutthe Excellency of God , and whatapprehepfi-

ins wee are tohave of God in all our wayes-, wee are now to

fpeak, fomewhat concerning the

Excellency

Chrift,

and fo

flew you what apprehenjions youare to have of Jeftts. th r ift.

For this is eternal life, to know thee, and thy Son

;

to know

God

and not toknowhim in Chrift , is to very’little purpofe.

If is no faving knowledge of God, if wee were able to dif-

courfe never fo much of him , except wee kjtow him in fefrn

Chrift, .in his Son.

And' therefore for the knowledge of

Chrift, which I f a l l endeavour to prefent as briefly as I

did the knowledge of God, You may bee pleafed to turn

to that Scripture in

Ifaiah p.

part of

verf.6. onely in thefe

words,

A nd his Name fhaH bee called Wonderful\ .

F you read thisverfe, and that that follows , you might

think that you,wore rather reading an Evarigelift, than a

Prophet, one rather relating a Hiftoryof what was done

than a Prophecie of what was to bee done.

Ifaiah

here pro-

phefies clearlyof Chrift, as if hee had been come at that

time, and yet it wasbetween feven and eighthundred years

before the coning of Chrift that this Prophecie was,

Unto us

a chide is born,untous a Son is given,and the Government (hall

bee upon his flrm ld erA n d his Name {hall bee called Won

derful.

But it is the ufual way of Scripture to fet before us

thingsto bee done,as if theywere already done, to note the

certainty of what God reveals to beedone, and faith will

make things that are not, to bee, as if they were really pre

fent. And indeed, faith never hath a proper workfo much

asm this

in makingthitigs that are not prefent, to bee as if

they wereprefent, to.makg them real. It was a time of

great diftrefs and trouble to the Church God, when: this.

ProphecieWa s a s will appear from-the fevench, Chaprer

even

Text.