xVll PREFA It belongs unto this great mystery, and is a fruit of divine wisdom, that our deliverance should be wrought in and by the same nature, wherein and whereby we were ruined. The reasons hereof, and the glory ofGod therein, are at large discoursed in the ensuing treatise. To the same purpose speaks the same holy writer, lib. 5. cap. 14. Non ist semetipso recapitulasset beet Domi- nus, nisi ipse caro et sanguisseceseduns principalemplos matioazemfaetusfuisset; salvano in semetipso infine, illud quadpes erat-inprincipio in Adanz. Siardent-oh alter-. am quadam dispositionem Dominus incarnatus est,- et ex altera substantia carneoz attulit, non ergo in semetipso recapitulates est hominem, adlase etiam nec caro dici potesthabuit ergo et ipsecarneen et sangazinens, noes al- teram quondam, sed ipsam principalem Patrisplasma- tionem in se recapitalans, exquirens id quad pe'ierat. And to the same purpose, lib. 5. cap. 1. Néque eazim vere esset sanguinem et cartoon hábens, per pans nos redimet, nisi antiquam plasmationean Adee in seipsum recapitulasset. That which these passages gave testi- mony unto, is what we have discoursed concerning the necessity of our redemption, in and by thenative that sinned; and yet withal, that it should be free from all that contagion which invaded our nature by the fall. And these things are divinely expressed. " Our Lord, saith he, had not gathered up these things in himself, " had not hebeenmade flesh and blood, according unto '< its original creation." (The reader may observe, that none of the ancient writers do so frequently expressthe fall of Adam, by ourapostacyfromGod, and our recovery by a recapitulation in Christ, as Irenteus doth. His reca- pitulation being nothing butthe asseagsssatse,s, orgather- ing up in the head, mentioned by the apostle, Eph. -i: 10. And he hereaffirms, that unto this end the Lord was made flesh, secatndum principalemplasnaationem, as his words are rendered; that is plainly, the original creation of our nature, in innocency, uprightness, puri- ty and righteousness.) " So he saved in himself in the " end, what perished in Adam at the beginning: (The " same nature, in and by the same nature.) For if the " Lord had been incarnate for any other disposition, (that is, cause, reason, or end), and had brought " flesh from any other substance, (that is, ceelestial or aetherial, as the Gnostics imagined), he had not re- " covered men, brought our nature unto an head in " himself, nor could he have been said to be flesh. CE.. He therefore himsetfhad flesh and blood, not of any " other kind; but he took tohimself that whieh was on " ginally created of the Father, seeking that which was, " lost. The same is observed by Austin, lib. de fide, ad Petr ant Diaconum. Ste igitatr.Christum Dei Filium,. is est, urea ex Trinitatepersonam, Deans verum crede, ut divinitatem ejus de natura Patris natam esse anon Subi- tes; et sic cans verum hominem crede, et duo carnem, non ccelestis, non serer, non alterius cujasquamputes esse . naturte, sed ejus cujus est omniumcars; idest, quam ipso. Deus, homini primo de terraplasmavit, et eateris homi- nibansplasmas. " So believe Christ the Son of God, " that is, oneperson ofthe Trinity, to be the true God, t! that you doubt not but that his divinity sass born (by. " eternal generation) of the nature of the Father; and " so believe him to be a trueman, thatyou supposenot " his flesh to be aerial, or heavenly, or of any other. " nature, but of that which is the flesh of all men; et that is, which God himself formed in the first man of " the earth, and which he forms in all other men." That which he speaks of oneperson of the Trinity, bath respect unto the heretical opinionof Hormisda the bish- op of Rome, who contended, that it was unlawful to say, that one person of the Trinity was incarnate, and persecuted some Scythian monks, men not unlearned, about it, who were strenuously defendedby Maxentius one of them. It carrieth in it a great condecency unto divine wis- dom, that man should be restored unto the image of God, by him who was the essential image ofthe Father, as is declared in our discourse: and that he was made like unto us, that wemight be made like unto him, and unto God through him. So speaks the same Irenaeus, lib. 5. Prcefat. Verbunn Dei Jesus Christas, qui proper immensam susen dilectionem, foetusest, quad amans nos, set nosperfzceret quadest ipse. " JesusChrist theWord cc of God, who from his own infinite love, was made 55 what we are, that he might malte us what he is; that ". is, by the restoration of the image of God in us." And again, lib. s. cap. 2o. Filius Dei existeras apart Patrem, et hamsfactus, longam honninum eipositionem in seipso- recapitulorit;. in coanpendio notais salutem prie- star, ut quadpedideramus in Adam, id est, secunduan ianaginent et similitudinem esse Dei, hoc in Christo Jesu reciperemus; quia enim anon erat possibile qui semel ric- tusfuerat et clisaas per inobedientiam, replasmare et obti- A . _' ._;r_, __ v:P -' _ _ _3 :-. -,- ..,-
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