- - --to theE P H E S I A N S. LIS, and with our perfons alfo, as con!idcrcd in and through his beloved Son;even ,....,_,'-"""1 as a fat:er that meap,s to be11ow lm Son upon fuch a Woman, lir!ltakes a !1kemg Ser. \ 11 to the Woman, (here JS the Love of good wtll) which makes him choofe her vY'--1 for his Daug 11 ter, nnd pitch upon her, rather ti,cn upo.n any other, to make her his Son's Wile. But yet when he hath betrothed her to IllS Son, then he loves her . with an other and a further kind of Love; he <~Crepts her, he deltghts in her, and hath a complaceiiC)' 111 her, as conGder,ing her to be his Daughter as Wife unto this his Son.This I take to be the ord<rly )oynmg and mcanmg ofthcfe tWo words; [ hav 111 gpredefliwzted Usttnto /ldopttolt, aud accepted 1IJ 11t hu beloved, J the latter ACI: followmg upon the former. The next Q;te11ion 1s, how this ACl: of God towards us', may be faid to ,have been ji·om Evrrl<lf/mg; and how God may be iil!d to have delighted in us before we were ? 1• For this, that God did put forth fuch an ACt from evcrlafling, confider that Scripture, Pro. 8. 3o,p. If you read the vcrfes before, Chrifl tells Y,ou there, what God and he did before the World was. I ( fays Wtfdom 9r Chn11) was by /mn I WtiS brought ttp wtth him, andI WM daif;•hi& deltght; rejoyl:i11g a!– w1rys b;fore htm 111 the IM6Jta6te part of hi& Earth, a11dmy delights were wtth the SotJs of Mfll. All titis was from everlafling, for read the 2), 26, 27. verfes; and he f,uth,lt wa1 before the Mott1lflli1ts were j'ettled, or the Fit/is brot~ghtjorth; e!)c. So that Chrifl did theri look upon us as delightful unto him, and God d;d the fame iri his Son, . . 2. For the clearing of it, we mu!i remember what was laid before; that when once God had firfl chafe usin Chri!i, .look how far it may be faid we had a being in him. So far God might take, and did take a view of us, as reprefented exifi– ing in him; and fo pleafe himfclf with us, as fa viewed and confidered, and look upon us with a gracious eye; and alfo rejoyceand comfort himfelfin what he had done tor us. And by this our reprefenrattve bewg as m Chnfi; I mean not that kir.d of being before God, which aHother Creatures, he meant to produce,had in rbeir fcveral Idea's, or appearances m h1s thoughts. But we further had a repre– fentative being_ in Chrifl, who actually fiood before God, or by him, (as Solo– won's word is,) this reprefentation becometh then real, when made in him and ~y htm, by his undertaking to fiand for us, andas i~ our ~ead,underraking as out head toreprefent us; and this gave us a real bemg m Chr.ift, and as far differing and oxcelling thofe Idea's of other Creatures, as the Images or fhadows of men pitl:ured for the Gho!i~ of ri1en, when t~ey are dead; do trom thofe drawn with the bnghtell 0nent colours m Oyl, which Pamters make tofet out men alive to theutmoft life thatmay be. . Andbywayof difference, we call the firfl but . fhadows; and fucb. were the Idea's of all other Creatures in the mind of' God, in compariton to what the EleCt had iri God's mind, being fer in Chrifl, who gives a bemg ot him, yea, and in Chrifi Jefus. But fiill I mull remember nou ofrhefe two things, I foofren mentioned , that my meaning may be underfiood. The Firfl, that this benefit of Accepration of our perfons in the beloved,! refer to thofe other Antelapfarian benefits, fevered from thofe of Redemption as hath been all along inculcated; that is, as flowing to us from Chrifi, as our head of union with God ; and to its as i:onfidercd as purely Creatures and abflratl:lv be– fore Sin b.efel us in that fuperriatural fiate;which we were at the lirfi fight of us by ~1m,ordamed unto as Creatures,and our perfons alfo confidered as one with Chnfi. The Second, that it is that acceptance of us in Chrifi, which comes and tlows neerly from the perfon ofChrifi as God-man. From which Y.ou may Obferve, That when the Apoflle faith, God hath hus accepted us m theBelc1ved,he doth not fay,that this acceptat:on ofus.is in the !load ofthe Beloved, or the merits ofthe Beloved : It is not fa founded but it is ounded upon our relation to his perfon. Cod had chofe us in him to have'relarion o his Per!on; and fo,Jefus Chrift being beloved, God accepteth us in him;for this ur relations fake unto him as the principal beloved,As a Father when be hath be, tothed hisSon unto a Woman, he loves her for the relation ll1e hath to the perrori . o.bis fon;fo cloth our God.This acceptation ofus,even ofour perfons fromevetla'fi• in1,it is founded upon Chrifl's being beloved.And therefore you/hall find, that'the LC>e wherewith God lovedChrift,and the Love wherewith he loved us are,faid to b~
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