92 cfdDeclaration of the Glorious MYSTERY [i.] Inreference unto the firft of thefe, the enfuingpofition shall be the fubjed of the remainder of this chapter: The perfon of Chrift is the principal objef of the love of 'God, and of thewhole creation participant of his image. The reafon why I thus extend the affertion, will appear in the declaration ofit. I. No (mall part of the eternal bleffednefs of the holy God, confiftetlt in the mutual love ofthe Father and.the Son, by the fpirit. As he is the only begotten of the Father, he is the heft neceffary, adequate, compleat objed of the whole love ofthe Father. Hence he Pays of üinifelf, thatfrom eternity he was by him, as brought up with him, and was daily his delight, rejoycing always before hint, Prov. yin. go. Which place was opened be- fore. In hint was the ineffable, eternal, unchangeable delight andcom- placency of the Father, asthe full object of his love. The -fame is expref- fed'in that defcription of him, John i. 18. The only begotten Son, who is in the bofom of the Father. His being the only begotten Son declares his eternal relation unto the perfon of the Father, of whom he was begotten in the entire communication of the whole divine nature. Hereon he is in the bofom of the Father. In the eternal embracesof his love, as his only begotten Son. The Father loves, and cannot but love his own'na- tureand effential image in him. Herein originally is God love. For God is love, s John iv. 8. This is the fountain and prototype of all love, as being eternal and neceffary. All other ads of love are in God, but e- manations from hence, and effefs of it. As he dohgood, becaufe he is good, fo he lover', becaufe he is love. He is love eternally and neceffarily in this loveof the Son; and all other workings of love, are but ads dim will, wherebyfomewhatof it is outwardly expreffed. And all love in the creation was introduced from this fountain, to give a íhadow -and refeam blance of it. Love is that which contemplative meti have always almoft adored. Many things have they fpoken to evince it to be the light, life, luftre and glory of the whole creation. But the original and pattern of it, was always hid from the wifeft Philofophersof old. Something they reached after about God's love unto himfelf with cell and complacency in his own infiniteexcellencies. But of this ineffable mutual love of the Father and Son, both inand by that fpirit which proceeds from them both, they liad neither apprehenfion nor conjeeture. Yet as herein doth the principal patt (if we may fo(peak) of the bleffednefs of tise holy God confail, fo is it the only fountain and prototype of all that is truly called love. A blefling andglory which the creation had never been made partaker of, but only to exprefs according to the capacity of their feveral natures, this infinite and eternallove of God. For God's love of himfelf, which is natural and neceffary unto the divine being, confafts in the mutual complacency of the Father and the Sonby the fpirit. Andit was to exprefs himfelf, that God made any thing without himfelf. He made the heavens and the earth to exprefs his being, goodnefs and power. He created man inhis own image, to exprefs his holinefs and righteoufnefs, and lie implanted love in our na- tures, to exprefs this eternal mutuallove of the holy perfonsof the Trinity. But we muff leave it under the vail of infinite incomprehenfiblenefs; though admiration and adoration of it be not without the higheft fpiri- tual fatisfadion. Again, he is the peculiar objeét of the love of the Father, of the love ofGod; as he is incarnate, as he Bath taken on him, and bath now dif- charged theworkofmediation, or continues in the difcharge of it; that is, theperfon ofChrifi,as God-man, is the peculiar object of the divine love of the Father.
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