EjfeFJ of '])i.-vine H' tjdom audQoodnefl 2 5 ' The way alone whereby this manifefl:ation may be. made> is by outward Acts and Effects. For in it felf the Divine Na– ture is hid from all living, and dwelleth in that Light where– unto no creature can approach. T-his therefore God firfl: made by theCreation of all things out of nothing The Crea– tion of Ivfan himfelf with the principles of a rational intelli– gent Nature, a confcience atteiling his fubordination unto · God, and of all other things declanng the Glory of his WiC: dom, Goodnefs and ·Power, was the immediate ground of aU Natural Religion, ~nd yet continues fo to be. And the · Glory of it, ahfwers the means and waies of the manifefra– tion of the Divine Being, Exill:ence, Excellencies andProper~ ties. And where this manifefl:ation is defpifed or negletl:ed, .there God himfelf is fo; as the Apofl:le difcourfeth at large, · Rom. I. r8, I9,20)ll,22. But of all the Effects of the Divine Excellencies, the con– fiitution of the Perfonof Chrill: as the Foundation ofthe New Creation, as the- Myjlery of Godlinefs, was the mofi ineffable and glorious. I fpeak not of his Divine Perfon abfolutely. · For his .difiinfr Perfonality and Subfifience was by an inter· nal, and eternal A& of the Divine Being in the Perfon of the Father, or eternal generation, which is e!fential unto the Divine Eifence, whereby nothing anew was outwardly wrought or did exifi. He was not, he is not in that fenfe, the .Effect of Divine Wifdom and Power of God , but the E!fential W'ifdom and Power of God hlmfelf. But we fpeak of him only as incarnate, as he alfumed our Na– ture into Perfonal Subfiflence with hirpfelf. His conception in the womb ofthe Virgin, as unto the integrity of Humane Nature, was a .miraculous operation of- the Divine Power. But the prevention of that Nature from any Subfifience of its. own, by its a~umption into Perfomt-1 Union with the Son ?f God, in the firfl: infiance of its copception, is that which. 1s above all miracles, nor can be defigned by tha~ name. A E myftery
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