of the PERSON Of CHRIST. 25 Chrift bis delight continually, before the foundationof the world; in that in him were all thefe counfels laid, and throughhim were they all to beac- complilhed. The conftitution of his perfon was the only way whereby divine wifdom andgoodnefs would at and communicate of themfelves un- to mankind, in which a&rags are the eternal delight and complacency of the divine being. 3. Love and grace have the fame influence into the counfels of God, as wifdom and goodnefs have : and in the fcripture notion of thefe things they fuperad into goodnefs this confideration, that their obje& is finners, and thofe that areunworthy. God doth univerfally, communicate of his goodnefs unto all his creatures, though there be an efpecial exercife of it towards them that believe. But asunto his love and grace as they are pe- culiar unto his elet1, the church chofen in Cbri/f before the foundation of the world, fo they refpe& them primarily in a loft undone condition by fin, Rom. v.8. God commendeth his love unto us, in that whìl we were yet (inners Chrifl dyed for us. God is love, faith the apoftle, his nature is effentially fo. And the belt conceptionof the natural internal aflings ofthe holy perfons is love. And all the alts ofit are full of delight. This is, as it were the womb of all the eternal counfels of God; which ren- ders his complacency in them ineffable. Hence doth he fo wonderfully exprefs his delight and complacency in the adinga of his love towards the church, Zeph. iii. 17. The Lord thy God in the midfl of thee is mighty; hewill fave; be will rejoyce over thee with joy ; be will refi in his love; he will rejoyce over thee with finging. The reafonwhy in the falvationof the church, he rejoyceth with jay,. and joyeth with finging, the higheft ex- preffion of divine complacency, is becaufe he refleth in bis love, and fo is pleafed in the exercife of its efFeds. But we muff return to manifeft inparticular how all thefe counfels ofGod were laid in theperfonof Chrifl, to which end the things enfuing may be diffin&ly confidered.' 1. God made all things in the beginninggood, exceeding good. The wholeof his work was difpofed into a perfell harmony, beauty and order, fuited unto that manifeltationofhis own glory which he defigned therein. And as all things had their own individual exiftence, and operations fuited unto their being, and capable of an end, a refit, or a bleffednefs, congru- ousunto their natures andoperations; fo in thevarious refpe&s which they had each to other in their mutual fuppies, affiftances and co-operation, they all tended unto that ultimate end, of his eternal glory. For as in their be- ings and exiftence they were effefs of infinite power, fo were their mutu- al refpe&s and ends difpofed in infinite wifdom. Thereon were the eternal power and wifdom of God glorified in them ; the one in their produ&ion, the other in their difpofal into their order and harmony. Man was a crea- ture that Godmade, that by him he might receive the glory that he aimed at in and by the whole inanimatecreation, both that belowwhich was for hisufe, and that above which was for his contemplation. Titis was the end of our nature in its original conftitution. Thereunto are we againre- Bored inChrift, yam. i. 18. Pfal.civ. 24. cxxxvi. 5. Rom. i. 206 2. God was pleafed to permit the entranceoffin, both in heavenabove and inearth beneath, whereby this whole order and harmony was difturbed. There are yet charaPers ofdivine power, wifdom and Goodnefs remaining on the works of creation, and infeparable from their beings. But the pri- mitive glory that was to redound unto God by them, efpecially as unto all things here below, was from the obedience of man unto whom they were put infubje&ion. Their good eftate depended on their fubordination unto H him n
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