Mather - Houston-Packer Collection BS478 .M3 1705

46 The Gofpel Preached under the Old 5. His peculiar Goodnefs. r. That there might be an harmony between this and the other Works ofGod, It is fo in other works ofGods, as well as inhis fpeaking and revealing of his Mind. As in the Creation ofthe World, he could have made it all at once ;but he choferather to make it in fix days : and he made various and feveral kinds of Creatures. Therefore this variety of Adminiftration in the Difcoveries of himfelf and his Gofpel, is fuitable to all the reft of bis Works, wherein he ever delights, with Unity to mixVariety, with IdentityDiverfity, and Difagreement in fome refpeás, with Confent in other. So we fee in the outward Lineaments ofmens Faces fo in the inward abilities and dif?ofitions of their Minds, both in the common and faving, in natural and fpiritual endowments ; what a wonderful Compofition there is, and how great variety : And fo indeed in every Creature and Work of God. Though in conclufion, Omnia fiant ab seno ad imam. God is the Author and theEnd of all. So in the Church, L Cor. i a: 4, 5, 6. there are diverfities ofGifts, differences of Adminiftrations, diverfitier - of Operations, but from thefame Author. Symmetria Ecclefue Cady, in loc. multiplici sat ita loquar imitate confat ; the Symmetry of the Church confifts, as I may fo fay, in a manifold Unity. 2. To manifef the ineftimable Worth and Gloryof the Myftery ofthe Gofpel ofbis Son: Which appears,in that it was attended with fuch a multitude of means of divers kinds for the Difpenfation of it. That fo many Or. dinances, Providences, Perfons and things in feveral ages of the World Ihould all be fubfervient to the Exhibition of this one Myfteryof Chrift, and Redemption by him : This (hews the Glory of it, Col. I. 27. 3. To manifeft the variety of his Wifdom. that noAumíat eca maple, variegate (apientia. It is like a party coloured Garment, Ephef 3. ío. As in the works of Creationand Providence : So it is in the Difpenfations of his Grace : the Wifdom ofGod cannot be fufñciently manifeffed in any one, or ina few things ; or in one manner of working : And therefore it refraas it Pelf intomany parcels, and fcatters its Beams every manner of way : that all put together may argue unto Man the inexhauftible depth and infinite largenefs thereof : Hence he hath found out many ways and means to convey the fame Grace : and every feveral manner bath fome peculiar Beam of Wifdom and Worth in it. This great variety and change ofhis Difpenfations was not becaufe in procefs of timeGod found out abetter way, and fo relinquifh'd the old: As in the work ofCreation, he did not profit by Experience, though hemade Man lafl;, the molt peefeû Creature lift. For the Inequalities and Degrees ofthings came from the Wifdom ofGod,as well as thedivers kinds

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