io the E PH E S I _AN S. There is a third thing that is t? be added to the fi~nifitat!oh of this word,~ there is.:,.:, that he cloth this agam; there:ts _a gathenng together under one Serm. Xl; Head again the fecond time; fo th~ word llgmfieth, Thts fame ;,,~"~"""'"'-·•~ ( as r remember Bifhop A11drew~ m a Sem10~ upon thts Text h_ath tt) fauh he, the force of it (s not only to ligmfie a eollethon, a ~athenng of all; but tt ts a recolleCtion. It is true our Tranllators took rtot nouce oftt,they_ tran!late tt limply, gather together in one; but all !mow that the word figmlieth agam; to gather together ag~in under one Head. : • . . . . Now this gathenng together agatd 'tftay tmport twp rhmgs. Fnft? a gat_he– ring a fecond time of all things in Heaven,.and in Earth. Secondly, tt doth tm· ply a fcattering firfl; that he doth after his firfl gathermg of them, .fcatter all a– pieces as it were, fevereth them onelfrd~ another, and from htmfelt They are Jike members dis;efla, hke· members ren~ u~d feparated f~om thetr head; and then he gatheretl1 them all together again, ,IW.iu~·>.a•il"'b"' tmportetl.' recoUefJi– btum, they were fcattded "from Chri!t, andfogathered again tohtm; as to a Head. Againfl this Interpretation thete is this great rubb in the way;that the Angels; the things in Heaven, they never were fcattered : why !11ould they be faid to be gathered together again, with all things on Eart_h, unto.Chrifl as a. Hea~ ? Therefore Interpreters have been exceedmg ffiy of mterpretmg, All thmgs m Heaven, to be meant of Angels. I mufr firfr remove this rubb, it is the main difficulty. There are two interpretations that may help to remove it.The firft is this,That although both things in Heaven, and things on Earth, were not both fcattered ; yet if things on Earth were, it may be faid to be a gathering together of all: take them altogether its fmfis compojito, though not in Jenfu divifo, Some ex– plain it by this iimilitude: Suppofe two Nations were united under one Monarch, and one of them falls off, and turn all Rebels· unto him, and rend themfelves a– way from that otherNation with which they were at Peace andUnion under that one Head. As ·when thofe Seven Provinces revolted from the Spaniard there wereTen remained frill firm unto him.Ifever thefe Seventeen(the Seven and the Ten) unite themfelves together again, and fubjeet themfelves, as before, to him as their Head and Monarch, and lay doWd hoftility againfr him; it might be faid that here is a gathering of them all, a reducing of them all to their for– mer obedience, though but one part fell off. This is a fimilitude that one giveth of it to explain it. The like you find inCalvin. Suppofe you find (faith he) a houfe, a great part whereof were fallen down, and fome frood frill; if that part that is fain be built up again, the whole houfe is faid to be rebuilt. So it is here. And this is the firfl interpretation to reconcile this difficulty; that becaufe meri were fcattered, that part of the houfe on Earth, the family on Earth, were fcat– tered from him, which were once joyned \Into him, unto one head, unto Chri[t (God united all, Angels and Men unto him) yet now being gathered togethet agairl, all is faid to be gathered together in one unto him. There is a Second which I do find, that both Gfllvhz and others have, and is more hard to explain; I will do it as clearr'y and as briefly as I can, I fhall ex– prefs my meaning ~erh~ps in fomewhat a differing way from theirs, yet it comes all to ~ne. And ltiS thts: That even of the Angels themfelves, there is a dou– ble kmttmg of them unto God, Firfr acommon that they and the Devils (cre– ~ted once holy) had; and that ..Adam in innocency, and all mankind in him had mc'?mmon together. And the other is a fpecial Union unto God, and that by" Ch~tfr, So that though there was not an aCtual fcatterirlg of them from that firil: Umon of them,but even that alfo held and continued firm ; yet it was prevented by a further. Umon, by a gathering of them in one in Chrifr, as their Head,unto God, that dtd fix them for ever to !\and firm ltnto him, I may expref~ it unto you well thus, That God to magnilie his Grace the more, both hts glanrymg Grace to Angels and Men, and fuperllatural Grace to frand for ever, (\~h!ch is a fupernatural Grace)he did ordain (to exalt this Grace) two fe– vera~ kmttmgs,two Unionsand Communions of his Creatures(made holy at firfr) to htmfelf: whereof the firfr was not fure not freelfa!l:, nor would not perhaps -have held to Etermty ; they would have dropped off one after another, if God had
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