proper shadow Some think this following sense to be intended by St. Paul in these words Christ is the Image of the invisible God the first-born of the whole Creation or of every Creature Col. 1. God in that same second Person which is the Godhead in its essential Image which in the fulness of time took flesh of the Virgin Mary in the beginning of Time came forth from the secret and unaccessible Light of Eternity in a shadowy Image This Image was the full figure of his Person with all its Divine Glories according to the capacity of a shadow This was the whole Creation compleat in its first Draught All the Glories of the Divine Nature which are imitable were here first distinctly figured in the primitive and pure forms of all the Creatures Thus was he the Image of the Invisible God the first-born of the whole Creation in general and of each Creature in particular Thus was He in the Language of the Jews the great Adam who brought forth the little Adam in his own likeness Thus was Jesus Christ in Adam at once the life of all in his essential Glories the Original Copy or first Draught of the Creature in the whole compass of it of each Creature in particular All this in the Humane Soul in Adam as the only perfect and proper Figure of this Original I understand nothing in this interpretation of St. Pauls words contrary to the Analogy of Faith or the Scriptures There seemeth to be in it a compleat Harmony and order in the nature of things according to this sense 1. All things stand first in an Uncreated Subsistence and Essence Then in an Uncreated Subsistence or Person they come forth into Created Essences or Natures Lastly By this medium uniting all they pass in Created Subsistencies and Essences into created Persons and Natures 2. Jesus Christ gradually descends from his essential Glories into an Universal Original Figure of himself of the whole Creation of each Creature Through this He passeth into the particular form of faln man in the Womb of the Virgin So he descends to the nethermost parts of the Earth ascends again through all forms of things with all united in his own Person above all Heavens and fills All. After this manner the Lord Jesus is the Mediatour of the Creation as well as of the Reconciliation and Regeneration All things are made by him and nothing that is made or brought forth from the beginning of things to the end comes forth without him As according to his appearances in Grace or Glory the Saints appear together with him so according to his Appearances in Nature all things appear together with him He lives and subsists in the form of every Creature Every Creature subsists by its transcendental Union with him in Nature Thus it is most true That we are in this World as he is in this World We are Sojourners together with him in his Land He suffers in all our Sufferings is straitned in all our straitnings He is in all things made like unto us Sin only excepted He carries along in every particular form the Universal Harmony the Divine Glory even in all the sufferings and straitnings of every Creature The Universal Harmony and Divine Glory is to him the liberty the joy of Paradise Heaven Eternity in each straitning and suffering Sin only is the breach of this Harmony the violation of this Glory not by a privation only but a Contradiction and Enmity founded in the privation This can bear no part in the Divine Harmony save as it is reduced into Order and the Harmony carried on through the Wrath and Righteousness of God in the Death and Resurrection of the Lord Jesus But I desire to leave my self and my Reader free in this Point I have now finished in four Distinctions my Answer to the first part of the Objection made against the Variety of forms in the Unity of the Soul In this part of my Answer I have endeavoured to state the presence of God with and in the Soul of man as perspicuously as my dark and narrow mind is capable of taking in and expressing a Divine Mystery of so great an amplitude and such an heigth of Glory I pass now to the second part of my Answer which concerns the Angels 2. Answer Angels with the whole Company of invisible substances or separated Forms and immortal Spirits are contained in the Unity of the Soul these two wayes 1. They are Superior and Universal Causes subordinate to the first Cause Thus they are most intimately and inseparably present in the Constitution of the Soul As Entity or Being and substantiality in their Superiour and Universal Nature descend into incorporeal Spirits and through these into Corporeal Shapes and Bodies so do all the Angels greater in Might and Glory cloath themselves with the Incorporeal Form of the immortal Soul communicating all their divers Virtues Powers and Glories to this Form in which themselves subsist and live together with it being an head of Glory to it 2. All Angelical Immortal Spirits are another way in the Soul as making up the full diversity of all Forms in it and so composing its Essence Thus all Angels all Essences all Forms of things in their immortal Substances as Intellectual Spirits meet in the proper Unity under the peculiar Character and Diversity of each Intellectual Soul as in some obscure resemblance Variety of colours in a particular colour or as all the Elements in each Element in each mixt Form under the proper Character of the predominant Element or Form 3. Answer The Intellectual Soul containeth all Corporeal Forms or Bodies in it self two wayes 1. Virtually 2. Formally 1. The Soul hath in it self all Bodies virtually from the Angels above it as the shining Bosome where the eternal Spring through Jesus Christ powres forth its living streams Here the Soul drinketh in the Essences and essential forms of things in their Angelick Truth and Goodness These feast and fill the Understanding and the Will In the Understanding or Angelick Light of the Soul they shine as the Exemplars or Patterns of all below in the visible World In the Will as in the Angelick Love of the Soul they lie as in the Womb or in the seminal Virtue or executive Power which brings them forth 2. This Soul comprehends the Corporeal World in it self formally The Essences of all Bodies as they are Objects only of the Understanding and not of Sense so are they according to the Nature and Law of all Essences Intellectual Unities and Forms in the Unity or essential Form of this Intellectual Spirit The Soul in these distinct Essences floweth forth into these shadowy forms with which our Senses the shadows of the Intellectual Light are entertained The Intellectual Unity diffuseth it self into the continued parts of these divisible Forms This Unity formeth the Proportions of the parts in their mutual Correspondencies knitteth them together unto a mutual sympathy in each natural Body For as I have
new upon the supream Goodness in its heavenly Image of the eternal Truth that here by its Will it may lie down for ever with a most blissful Rest with the fulness of all unexpressible complacency in the fruition of the supream Goodness shining forth upon it immediately clasping and enfolding in its own naked immortal most precious most pleasant Form the perfection of Beauty the Essence of all Beauty Truth Goodness and Love in One But it is time now for me to pass from this second Excellency in the Mediatory Form and Person of our Jesus the Harmonious Order and Proportion of the parts The third Excellency in this Mediatory Form of Christ is the Unity of the whole and of the parts as in themselves so with the whole The ground of this Unity is two-fold 1. The Spiritual Nature 2. The Divine Person 1. One ground of this Unity is the Spiritual Nature of all things here St. Paul speaking of the Lord Jesus in this his proper Kingdom and Glory saith of him The Lord is that Spirit That Spirit in the same place he describeth to be the Spirit in which the Vail the Shade and Cloud of Flesh is entirely removed where all things are with open face in the Liberty of the Divine Light and Glory The Lord Jesus faith of himself The words that I speak unto you they are Spirit and they are Life It is the Spirit which quickneth the Flesh profiteth nothing Jesus in his Mediatory Kingdom and Glory casts off the Vail of Flesh as from his Divine so from his Humane Nature The days of his Flesh are now past He is a quickning Spirit all Spirit and Life His Humane Nature is now all Spirit and by having the Godhead hath the Fountain of Spirits and Life in it self All his words in this spiritual state are substantial living immortal Spirits springing forth from and abiding in himself as their heavenly Root and Element After this manner do all Forms of things arise and flourish in him being his words of Power and Glory as the Images in Humane or Angelical Understandings are the words of those Minds Spirits are Unities There is with them no distance of Space or division of Parts All Spirits intimately entirely throughout penetrate possess and inhabit each other transcending all this Image and measure of space of place of corporeal extension The streets in the heavenly Jerusalem are said to be Gold and Glass If I conjecture aright Jesus Christ in his Mediatory State is this glorious City where the great Assembly of the First-born all Spirits born of the Father of Lights Humane or Angelical on Earth or in Heaven dwell together in One. It is expresly said That this City hath the Glory of God that the Glory of the Lord 〈◊〉 it and that the Lamb is the Light thereof How agreeth all this with that Description of Christ the brightness of the Glory of God In this City of glorious and immortal Spirits which is it self the Spirit of Unity and of Glory where Jesus Christ is built up not only into a Temple but into a City in this Spirit the streets the lowest Forms of things are Gold and Glass Such gold as hath the transparency of glass Such glass as hath the substance the solidity the glory the incorruptibleness of Gold Thus is the Unity in the spiritual Nature of things most beautifully and most agreeably figured to us Like Gold it is every where full of it self compact and uniform sending forth continually all various Forms as Beams of Glory Like Glass it discovereth all Forms of things within it self in every point of it self by a perfect transparency all Forms of things endlesly appear in each form At every single view at every single glance the eye of the Spirit is every where terminated no where bounded every where at rest no where restrained 2. The second ground of the Unity in this heavenly Image is the Divine Person All things here are joyned by an hypostatical or personal Union all are one Person A Person is an Intellectual Unity an Intellectual Essence compleatly existing and subsisting in it self The Unity here is not that only of an Intellectual but of a Divine Person God is the Person here As is the Person such is the Unity both are supream The eternal Spirit God himself in the height of Eternity makes both Natures the Uncreated with the Created one in our Lord Jesus without any confusion or lessening the Distinction between the Natures themselves The Unity of a Person is understood by these three Maxims concerning it in Metaphysicks 1. The Person is the Subsistence or the Existence that Unity which is both the Spring and the Chanel the Center and the Circle of the whole Essence or Nature by which it is one by it self and distinct from all other things distinct from it self as it lies in its Causes and is there one with them 2. All Operations are from the Person 3. All denominations belong to the Person The Person then is the indivisible Unity which within it self according to its amplitude springs up into all Varieties of Forms Operations Denominations through the whole Essence and Nature in its utmost extent This is that which works all in all Operations which appears in all Forms which hath all names and denominations which in all these is one and the same hath one Form one Name which comprehendeth all entirely clearly distinctly undividedly According to these grounds we shall see a three-fold Divine and Personal Unity in this Mediatory Form of Christ. 1. The whole is one entire and Divine Person altogether compleat all over divinely beautiful and pleasant All Distinctions Diversities Distances Divisions Contrarieties meet here without distance diversity or division in the supream Unity of one Divine Person onc all-glorious Spirit one Life one most harmonious Image one Love one eternal Joy Behold the Beauty of this more than heavenly Person in these several Elements which compose all Beauty 1. Here is the Variety of lines and colours All forms of things in their richest Variety lie together here 2. Here is Light The substance of the created Image in this Person is the Flower of Light the most immediate sweetest freshest Sun-shine from the Face of the Godhead it self 3. Here is Life esteemed the chief part of Beauty Here is the Life of Love As it is Life which heightens so is it Love which sweetens all A Divine eternal Spring of Life and Love openeth it self in every part and from every part with most pleasant intermixtures diffuseth it self through the whole Thus are all the Beauties here perpetually in sweetest motion in the liveliest and loveliest activity of mutual fruition and the delightful exchange of their Divine Sweetnesses their never-fading Pleasures 4. All this Variety Light Life and Activity are composed into and governed by the most charming the most exact the most universal Harmony 5. The eternal Sun of Beauty it self the eternal Spirit of Harmony the
all her changes were but circlings through the various parts of the Divine Harmony within her self within the heavenly compass of her own Divine Essence While all that while she with her beautiful Essence and Form lies in the embraces of the Divine Essence it self There compleating in her self the circle of the Universal and Eternal Harmony returning thither as into the Bosome of her Beloved Bridegroom from whence she first came forth as from her everlasting Father and first Cause Thus I have endeavoured to bring to the Eye the Ear of our Understanding the Beauty the Musick of the Divine Harmony in the discords of Humane Nature in the Fall of Man which excludes all undetermined Liberty in the Will as altogether inconsistent with this Harmony and the Divine Unity the band of this Harmony I pass now to the Essence of the Soul in the third Scene into which it opens it self or that third state into which it rouls it self within it self My design is the same here to shew how the sacred and irresistible force of the Divine Harmony restores the Soul without any thing of Free-Will in the sense in which we have stated it intermingling it self in this Work 3. State This third state of the Soul is its return or restitution This is clearly and compleatly described by St. Paul after the lively Picture which he hath given us of the storm in the Fall But now the Righteousness of God is made manifest without the Law being witnessed to by the Law and the Prophets Rom. 3. 21. Even the Righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ on all that believe verse 22. Being justified freely by his Grace through the Redemption which is in Jesus Christ verse 24. Whom God hath set forth to be a Propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his own Righteousness for the remission of Sins verse 25. To declare I say at this time his own Righteousness that he by his his own Righteousness or Justice might be just and by the same his his own Righteousness the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus vers 26. Take here four brief Notes upon the words 1. The Righteousness of God is with great care and skill distinguished here and specificated in its distinction from the Righteousness of Man under the Law in the state of Innocency You have this distinction emphatically set out and sealed with a deep impression four times over The Right eousness of God without the Law vers 21. Even the Righteousness of God vers 22. God to declare his own Righteousness vers 25. To declare I say his own Righteousness or Justice That he may be just or righteous and the Justifier or the Maker righteous by his own Righteousness This is the Righteousness of the Gospel by which we have the pardon of Sins and are justified This the Law the Prophets Nature in its Purity in all its natural Improvements point out to us in shadows and pictures But cannot set before us nor give to us no more than the Picture can give a sight or fruition of the Life the living Beauty 2. Grace free Love alone without the Conjunction of Free-will discovers and brings in this Righteousness This Righteousness is the Beauty of the Divine Harmony Grace or Love is the sweetness the sweet force of this Harmony or the Unity in this Harmony which alone carries it on through all things and makes all things perfect in it 3. Jesus Christ with his Blood and Faith in him are means to this end the declaration of the Righteousness of God This Divine Harmony which is the Beauty and the Righteousness of the Divine Nature as the last end is the first Mover carries on it self by its own sweet most agreeable and irresistable force which is the Grace and Love in the Godhead This forms and fashions all its own means brings forth Jesus Christ to die for us to live in us by Faith and it self in this Jesus through the death and the life of this Jesus 4. The essential Righteousness of God as it brings forth it self through Jesus Christ is that in which we have the pardon of Sin and Justification It is his own Righteousness or Justice by which God is just himself and maketh us just In Greek the words are all the same his Righteousness that he may be just and the Justisier You will understand this and the elegant force of this Scripture which is very much lost in English by the change of the word in the Translation from Righteousness to Just and Justifier When you know that in Greek Righteousness and Justice are both one word as in the sense and in nature they are both one thing This essential Righteousness of God alone hath an infiniteness of value and virtue in it to be a satisfaction for the infinite Demerit and Guilt in Sin to make a Saint infinitely amiable and lovely that it may be proportioned to the Eye and infinite Love of an infinite Spirit We say our Jesus was Man that he might Suffer God that he might Merit by suffering We are rightly taught That it is the Person in Christ which gives the value to his Active and Passive Obedience That gives the value and virtue to the whole work of his Mediation The Person in Christ is God the second Person in the Trinity the essential Image of the Godhead eternal unchangeable infinite It is then the essential eternal infinite Beauty Value Virtue Righteousness of this Person which declares it self through the Humane Nature of Christ in the Humiliations the Exaltations of that unto the Remission of Sins unto Justification to make us infinitely amiable in the eye of an infinite God the worthy Objects of an infinite Love the worthy Subjects of an infinite Glory and Blessedness in the eternal unlimited free and full fruition of an infinite Object infinite in Loveliness and Delights But let us endeavour according to the meanness of our capacity in taking in so great Glory to give some Light to this so sweet and so high a mystery Righteousness and Justice in Greek are the same Justice is defined that which giveth every one it s own That is to every thing it s own due and proper to it which makes up the Harmony and Unity of the whole in that part The Harmony and Unity of the whole is the perfection of the whole and of each part Every part is in order to the whole as its end As it is perfection which is due to each thing So the end of each thing is its perfection Thus Justice consists in the Harmony and Unity of things Righteousness is that by which we are right and do right Right is a conformity to its rule The first in every kind is the measure and rule of all the rest God is absolutely universally the first of all things so is He the absolute measure and rule of all The Righteousness of God then is the conformity of the Divine Nature to
break it up into its own clear Light springs forth from the Womb of the Virgin Mary into Flesh and Blood in the dejected form of fallen man Made in all things like unto us sin only excepted The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us or tabernacled in the midst of us John 1. The Word was made flesh See there the Incarnation of the Son of God He tabernacled in the midst of us behold his Life in the Flesh. Two Natures meet in one the Word and Flesh God and Man The manner is exprest the Word is made or become Flesh not by transmutation The Word ceaseth not to be the Word The Godhead in its essential Image retaineth all its Glories its immutability and eternity in Flesh neither is the Word made Flesh by any kind of composition The Divine Nature in flesh retaineth its simplicity its purity its absolute all-comprehending incomprehensible Unity The Word is made flesh by assumption taking the Humane Nature into the Unity of the same Divine Person with it self God in his essential Image in the entireness absoluteness and Unity of his own undivided unconfined Person with the fulness of his eternal Glory descendeth into Flesh. The eternal Spirit which is Jesus himself in his Divine Form and Power comes down upon over-spreads the Virgin Mary with his Ideal force He also becomes the seminal Virtue in her So he springs up out of her Womb into a distinct individual man a frail fallen man though without spot in the Person of God Thus is he Father and Son to himself Father and Husband and Son to his Mother Yea he is also his own Mother in his Mother of his own flesh taking flesh from her inasmuch as he alone fills all in all and is the Truth of all The Word was made Flesh. God in his essential Image and Glory is the entire and compleat Person in the Humane Nature This is the Unity in it this subsists in it this appears in every part and state of it this acts and suffers all in it this is named by every name of it these are all proper to the Person Thus all the Glories of the essential of the Mediatory of the shadowy Image of Christ in their most universal Latitude as according to their several Orders they comprehend all Forms of things in themselves being united in the simplicity of this Divine Person do all meet in this Flesh fill it shine through it become one with it pass through all states and changes live and die with it and in it In like manner this Flesh subsists in the Unity of this Divine Person in the midst of all its Divine Forms and Glories In the fellowship of these surrounded with these it acts and suffers all things it appears in every part and state under every name it bears the name of these passing through all the changes of Mortality in their Divine and immortal unchangeableness We saw his Glory saith St. John speaking of Christ in the Flesh the Glory as of the only begotten Son of God Joh. 1. Thus is Jesus the same yesterday to day and for ever amidst all the changes of Flesh and Time unchangeable in the Unity of this Divine Person The Word made Flesh is the whole Tree of Being Uncreated and Created the Root the Body with all the branches putting forth themselves into one little top-branch now withering that through its death they may renew all unto a fresh and flourishing spring The Lord Jesus now being an universal Person as the essential Image of God as the spiritual and Mediatory Image as the shadowy Image the Head the Original frame of the whole Creation in its utmost Latitude as the Seed of the whole Creation spread through all the parts of it running along through all Generations bringing it forth and sustaining it in it self by taking Flesh and the Nature of fallen man upon himself sets himself in the place of us all in our lowest estate He takes our Sins and Sorrows all the Diseases of our Bodies and Minds upon himself that he may take them away from us Taking together with our Flesh our Guilt Shame Weaknesses Demerits Enemies and Enmities Death the Divine Wrath into the Unity of the Divine Person He makes an end of the Transgression with its trains of evils consuming all swallowing up all in the most beautiful and blissful flame of those Divine Purities Powers Righteousness Rest Glories Pleasantnesses Immortality which receive them into themselves in the Unity of this blessed and eternal Person The holy Ghost clearly and fully expresseth this Mediatory Work of our Redemption by Christ in this ground and superstructure Heb. 1. 3. Who being the brightness or effulgency out-shining of the Glory of God the express Image of his Person or Substance bearing up all things by the word of his Power having purged away our Sins by himself Jesus in his essential Image is the Glory of God as the Woman is said to be the glory of the Man In his Mediatory Form he is the Brightness Effulgency or out-shining of this Glory The shadowy Image in which Christ is the immediate Head of the first Creation is properly according to the Greek word the Character of his Divine Nature and Person For a Character is properly the engraving or impression of a Figure upon some forreign matter as a Figure cut upon a Seal or from a Seal imprinted upon Wax or Letters stampt in Ink upon Paper Such a Character is the Image of God in the Creature The word in this Text bearing signifieth properly a twofold sense bringing forth and bearing up as 〈◊〉 Seed its Plant So Jesus Christ is in the whole Creation and in every Creature all along bearing all things by the Word or flux of his Power that is by his seminal Virtue flowing forth and springing up in all Upon this ground in this universal Person Jesus Christ taking our flesh upon him in our lost estate into the Unity of his Person doth by himself that is by the Divinity of his Person purge away all our Sins and in them all our Evils Thus in the Incarnation in the Word made Flesh the Sun of Righteousness begins to turn towards us The Day-spring from on high visiteth us in the midst of the shades of Night and Death Righteousness begins to look down from Heaven and to spring up out of the Earth as this blessed Person in his Divine Union at once shineth forth from above and springeth up in our flesh here below He dwelt among us The words in Greek are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he tabernacled in the midst of us See here the Life of Christ in Flesh. His Flesh was the Tabernacle in which he journeyed through the Wilderness of this World the Antetype to the Tabernacle in which God sojourned with the Children of Israel resting in the midst of them marching before them through the Desart into the Land of Promise This word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is constantly used for
Curse with all evils in their greatest extent and extremity shame pain the pain of loss and of sense then fell most sensibly upon him when he cryed out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me A Wound is said to be a solution or separation of the Continuity or parts united by one common Life The Sun was eclipsed at the Death of Christ beyond the course of Nature for it was eclipsed totally not by the interposition of a dark Body between that and the Earth but by the failing of the Light it self in the very body of the Sun Was ever any Wound so bitter so full of pain and anguish as this Was ever any Eclipse so prodigious so dreadful and direful God in his own Person in the most sweet most vital the supream Unity of his Divine Person is separated and divided from himself by the force and fury of an unexpressible Wrath. The Person of God in his own Spirit in its Divine Strengths Solaces and Glories by a fury sharper and fiercer than any Sword or Flame is divided from himself in his own Flesh. The all-chearing and all-quickning Light of the eternal Sun faileth in the Person of God as he is in Flesh being turned into Sack-cloth and Blood Jesus now truly suffereth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Torments not only of an Eve-eternity but of Eternity for his Sufferings are extended and heightned not only according to the capacity of a particular individual man in flesh of an immortal Soul or an Angel great in Power but according to the proportion of the Super-Angelical Head of the whole Creation eminently and transcendently comprehending all Creatures in himself And not only so but his Sufferings in this nature are suited to the Divine and eternal Person subsisting and supporting the Nature and to the Divine and eternal Person offended coming down upon him in the full weight of his Wrath in the full Opposition the full Contrariety the full Enmity of all the Attributes of God of his entire Godhead to his proper most contrary irreconcilable Enemy the evil of Sin This is the manner of Christ's Sufferings Thus God personally suffered in Flesh. The merit of these Sufferings consisteth in this that this Flesh which suffereth and the Sufferings of this Flesh stood in the Unity of the Divine Person Our Jesus was God and Man in one Person that being Man he might suffer and this Man being God might merit by suffering By this hypostatical or personal Union by this mutual and indivisible Unity of the same Person in both Natures the Righteousness the Beauty the Sweetness the Glory all the united Excellencies and Blessedness of the Godhead stood entirely in every Wound in every Sigh in every Blush of shame in every pang of pain in every part in every degree of sufferings through the whole flesh of Christ. All these reciprocally were filled and encompassed with the full Glory with the united Excellencies of the Divine Nature Thus were they a Divine Price indeed paid down for us in the Blood and Life of our dear Saviour Now the same Divine Person the God of all Loves and Lovelinesses the God of all Peace Righteousness Joy and Immortality in the Tempests and Flames of Divine Justice and Wrath from above In the tempests and flames of all guilt sufferings and shame from below meeteth with himself on both sides in all these So the tempests and flames of Justice and Wrath from above in a moment vanish into a golden Calm and Sun-shine of Divine Loveliness and Love In the same moment the tempests and flames of guilt shame and sufferings below are transformed into the Divine unspotted Beauty of an everlasting Righteousness into the triumphs of an eternal Life Love and Joy In a word the whole Contrariety thus come to its utmost point returns into and is swallowed up in the most pure the most perfect Sweetness and Harmony of that Divine Unity from which it went forth So is our Jesus become Hylasterion the Propitiation the Atonement Thus the Blood of God in the Person of Christ washeth Crimson and Scarlet sins double died in the Blood of God himself unto the whiteness of the wool of the Lamb of God and of the Snow coming down new unstained from Heaven As Jesus Christ was a Divine Person so was he an universal Person in his Sufferings As Christ is God he is the universal Being in which all things have their Being which is most intimately and universally in each thing as the Being of every Being He is the Mediator by which all things in every kind or degree of Being descend and ascend He is the Head the Root the pure and primitive Spirit of the whole Creation as the Spirit containeth in it self the outward Form and Image He goes forth into all forms and states of things from above the highest Heavens to the nethermost parts of the Earth filling all He espouseth into the Unity of his Divine Person the Humane Nature the Harmony and Model of the whole Creation unconfined by any particular personality He takes upon him the Humane Nature in its lowest state in fading frail and dying flesh The Father hath given him to the World and for the World Joh. 3. He hath â—…iven himself for us Gal. 2. ult Thus he suffereth as an universal Person and becomes a ransome for all So St. Paul layeth down the ground of this Ransome and this Ransome 1 Tim. 2. There is one God the Father of all there is one Mediator between God and man the man Christ Jesus who gave himself a Ransome for all The Death of Jesus Christ is the finishing of his Sufferings and of his abode in Flesh. This is as the Mid-night that Point in which the Sun of the Godhead in the Heaven of Christ's Person is gone to the utmost distance from him to the utmost degree of Contrariety to him and now is returning towards him again in the beautiful and blessed Unity of the Divine Love There is a two-fold mystery in the Death of Christ 1. An universal Dissolution 2. An universal Resolution 1. The Death of Christ is an universal Dissolution He spoiled Principalities and Powers making a shew of them openly and triumphing over them on his Cross Col. 2. This true Sampson dying taketh hold of the Pillars of the World by a Divine force in his Death pulls them down and the whole Creation to fall together with himself into his Grave Some teach us That the Sun is the Center the Corner-stone the immediate Foundation of this visible World and that if this should fall out from Heaven or should lose its Light and Course in Heaven all Motions and so all Forms of things here would cease and be no more Jesus Christ of a truth is the true Sun the shining Pillar which holds the Foundation of all things visible and invisible the Root of all created Light and so of the whole World He dying all things die in him all things die together with
him If any man be in Christ saith St. Paul he is a new Creation old things are passed away 2 Cor. 5. It is a known story recited by Plutarch That of a great Cry with dreadful shrieks and groans to Thamus a Pilot as he passed by a desolate Island in the Reign of Tiberius under whom Christ was put to death Great Pan is dead this great All is dead The Heathen figured the whole Creation in the Person of their God Pan the Angelical Coelestial and Elementary parts of it 2. The Death of Christ is an universal Resolution or Return of all things as they stand in Christ into their first and Divine Principles The Light the Life the Forms the Essences of all things return into their Ideal Forms their incorruptible Originals and Patterns their pure eternal Springs in the Mediatory Form and Divine Nature of Christ. The shadowyness returns into that blessed shade that fell immediately from the Person of Christ in Glory that Primitive and Divine Darkness which was before the first Day the Womb of the first Light and of the whole Creation which composed those Nights of Beauty Peace and Pleasure the Nights of the six Days the Night of the seventh Day and all the Nights of Paradise Thus was Jesus with the good Thief and all things with him in him in Paradise at his Death The Jewish Rabbins distinguish Paradise from Heaven thus Heaven is a state of Divine Glory and Pleasure above in the open Light of â—…e Godhead Paradise is a state of Divine incorruptible Glory and Pleasure below beneath the shades of the Earth This is that pure primitive Divine Darkness of which I speak which was the shade out of which the pure Earth with all the unstained Forms of things at first arose and into which they now return again in Christ. This is the Divine sleep of all things in the Death of Christ their retirement into their Divine Patterns their sweet and entire rest in them their contemplation and fruition of all the immortal Joys and Glories of their Patterns and of themselves in those Joys and Glories as a Divine dream in this sleep within this sweet this amiable this more than Angelical shade which over-spreads them Here they desirously and delightfully wait for the Day of the Resurrection from the Face of God which they see by degrees dawning and rising upon them when the sweet Peace of this lovely shade shall break up into the more full and glorious sweetness of the supream Light and that eternal Day St. Paul expresseth all this to us when he teacheth us That Christ hath gathered up all things into one in himself Col. 2. The Greek word properly signifies there the Resolution or Return of things back into their first Principle their Original Spring and Pattern 3. The third and last part of the Mediation of Christ in our Redemption as it was accomplished in his own Person is his Resurrection and Ascension These two agree are the same in nature and kind differing only in degree The Resurrection of Christ is the breaking up of that primitive shade which over-spread him into a clear Light of Glory Now he springs up and flourisheth throughout his whole Person and all things together with him in his Person in the Beauty and Immortality of his Mediatory Form He is now become an entire Spirit in his Humane Nature both Soul and Body This two Scriptures make clear to us Jesus Christ saith to Nicodemus Joh. 3. 6. That that which is begotten of the Spirit is Spirit The word there is a Substantive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a spiritual substance or substantial Spirit Now it is manifest in the Scriptures that the Resurrection of Christ in the Body was an immediate Generation by the eternal Spirit So Divines interpret and apply those words Heb. 1. 5. cited from the second Psalm Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee Suitable to this is that Scripture Rom. 1. 4. Declared the Son of God with power according to the holy spirit by the Resurrection from the dead Two things are manifest from this Scripture 1. That Jesus Christ was raised from the Dead by the immediate Power and Operation of the holy Spirit 2. That this Resurrection was a Divine Generation by the Spirit through which he was brought forth into the proper Form of the Son of God That which we read declared 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth properly defined or determinately formed This receives further Light from St. Peter 1 Pet. 3. 18. Being put to death truly in the flesh but quickned in the spirit We read it by the Spirit but in Grâ—… the Flesh and Spirit do so exactly answer one another in the construction and manner of expression that one would think nothing to be plainer than the intention of the Holy Ghost to signifie that the Flesh and the Spirit had both the same relation to the Person of Christ in those different states of his dying and rising again that by this change the Spirit came in the place of the Flesh and that the Flesh was changed into a Spirit as by a natural Generation that that was Water or Air is made Fire The words are these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the same sense in which he died in Flesh or to the Flesh So he rose again in the Spirit or to Spirit That same Body which died a fleshly compounded mortal substance rose again a simple pure immortal Spirit As the Humanity of Christ rose again a Spirit so it rose in an immediate inseparable Union with the eternal Spirit upon the same Root into the same Life and Image St. Paul instructeth us in this mystery 1 Cor. 15. 45. The first Adam was made a living Soul the last Adam a quickning Spirit vers 45. The subject of St. Paul's Discourse there and in many verses before is the Resurrection of the Body He said immediately before It is sown a natural Body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Body proper for a Soul It is raised a spiritual Body a Body proper for a Spirit vers 44. He illustrates this afterwards The first man is of the Earth earthly the second man is the Lord from Heaven vers 47. Then he distinguisheth them by the names of the earthly and the heavenly man or the Super-Coelestial vers 48. He likewise distinguisheth their two Images the Image of the earthly and the Image of the heavenly or super-coelestial vers 49. Then he concludes with a a positive and emphatical Declaration But this I say brethren that flesh and blood cannot enter into the Kingdom of God vers 50. From these Scriptures laid together these particulars seem evidently to arise 1. Jesus Christ by the Resurrection in his whole Humane Nature both Soul and Body is a supernatural super-coelestial Spirit far above the nature of Souls or Angels in the first Creation 2. The humanity of Christ hath now its Root in Heaven in that Heaven out of which it comes forth
to be where he is to see the Glory of his Godhead to see all Glories and themselves also like him in that Glory Thus Jesus Christ ascends and sits down at the right hand of the Father above all Principality and Power and Dominion and above every Name that is named not only in this World but in that which is to come This World is the World of Angels and of their Glories The Names of Principalities Powers Dominions Thrones are the Names of Angels and Names named in this their World The World to come is the Mediatory World the Kingdom of the Mediator where Christ alone Reigns over all and in all where Christ hath his own proper Glory above the Glory of the Angels beneath the Glory of the Father where Christ alone is named in every Name by Names above every Name which is named in this World of Angels This distinction between these two Worlds seemeth to appear plain in the comparison of this Scripture with that Heb. 2. 5. For he hath not put that World to come of which we speak in subjection to Angels Then this is confirmed by a citation of the Psalmist vers 7. Having made him a little lower than the Angels thou hast crowned him with Glory and Honour and set him over the Works of thine hands Thou hast put all things even the Angels themselves with their World and their Glory under his feet In like manner thâ—… Ascension of our Lord Jesus is represented to us in great Majesty and Glory with a great pomp and train of Glories Eph. 4. 10. He that descends is the same who also ascends far above all Heavens Behold our Jesus ascending through all the Heavens of Angels all the Hâ—…hvens of his own Mediatory Form and Kingdom leaving them all behind him Behold himat the right hand of the Father in the Bosom of the Father in the purity and simplicity of the Godhead entred into the Holy of Holies ascended to an height above every name of Heavens or Glories or any thing named in any the highest Heavens by any Glories by any the highest and sweetest Names Behold him carrying along with him up to this height in his own Person and by the Power of his Person and Spirit drawing up after him the long pomp and train of all these Heavens and their several Glories Here now Jesus sits down in his eternal Rest upon the Throne of Eternity having nothing higher to which he may ascend The Resurrection of Christ is the beginning of his Ascension his Ascension is the finishing of his Resurrection Now Jesus Christ is perfectly ascended thither where he was at first The Godhead of Christ in his Mediatory Form shineth forth immediately nakedly but gradually in answerable degrees the Humane Nature of Christ is Light in the Light of the Godhead a clear pure Light in the naked Bosom of that Light but an increasing Light Now in the Ascension of Christ the Glory of the Father shines out not only immediately and nakedly but entirely fully The Union the Communion the Conformity of the Humane Nature with the Divine is compleat as in kind so also in degree God is now all in all in the Person of Christ and in both Natures God is totus totalitèr in toto Christo in qualibet parte Christi God is entirely full and fully in the whole Person of Christ in the whole Manhood of Christ and in every part God is all with his whole Godhead all in every kind in every degree in every way and manner in all Christ in all the humanity of Christ. The Humane Nature of Christ is now by a mutual entire Union Similitude and Society married to its Idea its heavenly Pattern as it stood in the Mediatory Form of Christ being an uncreated and a created Spirit of Light Glory and Immortality in one Spirit Now this created Spirit of Light Glory and Immortality it self and the Humane Nature of Christ together with it in it lieth in the mutual embraces of its first Idea and Pattern in the simplicity of the Godhead in the high and holy place of Eternity in its highest and purest simplicity in its Idea and Pattern its ever-flourishing Father and Husband In this Bosome is the Marriage consummate In this Light the Humane Nature seeth the Godhead eye to eye is become like it embraceth it being embraced by it as it is in its full Glories fully powring forth themselves into its Bosome after which and beyond which there is no Glory This is the sense of St. Paul when he saith Col. 2. 9. That in Christ dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily that is substantially entirely distinctly FINIS The same in the Arg. of Kleg
before said a mutual correspondency of parts suited exactly each to other through the whole Corporeal Frame a concurrence in all the parts of the sensations mutations or impressions seated in each distinct and divided part seemeth altogether unimaginable if there be not an undivided Unity which is one and the same in all the divided parts where all the parts meet in one and are one By this Unity alone can all the parts have a mutual proportion a comprehension penetration sensation or feeling of each other through out as they have of themselves and in the same undivided moment This rend the sympathy true and perfect The Unity then of the Intellectual Soul as it diffuseth it self into all Bodies in all their extended forms and divided parts so it bindeth them all up within it self This is the substance to these shadows and Contextures of shadowy Forms or Accidents in which they subsist This is the Spring out of which they rise up every moment This is the band which joyns and tyes them together in one This is the Bosome or proper place which incompasseth imbraceth brings forth sustains and cherisheth them I have now answered the Objection and so endeavoured to clear from all Clouds the beauty of the Soul as all Varieties shine most pleasantly in the face of it in the diversity indeed of the shadowy Image but an Angel-like Diversity and a God-like Image Thus I have finished the two Propositions in the Description of the Souls Essence Asserting 1. The Unity 2. The Variety in the Diversity 3. Prop. The Image of God resulting from the most harmonious Union of these two the Unity and the Diversity of Forms is the proper Essence and essential form of the Soul This Harmonious Union consists in a two-fold Perfection 1. The Unity and Variety of things under a form of Diversity meet in the Essence of the Soul with the Character or Propriety of the Unity and Harmony When God had drawn the several parts of his Divine Image in the several Angels and Creatures according to the Diversities of their several Characters or Properties He now summons them and calls them all together to meet in Man in him to be united and compleated in the entire Unity and full Harmony of the Divine Image Thus he speaketh to himself in the Trinity to all the Quires of Angels to all his fore-going Works Let us saith He make man in our Image in our own likeness The expression is doubled to give the more force and emphasis to it So afterward God created man in his own Image in the Image of God created he him The entireness the Eminency the Principality of the Divine Image in man is thus set forth and therefore the Dominion is immediately added to it Angels and all other Creatures have their distinct Ideas in the Divine Mind But God himself in his own essential Image in the Person of the Son the Idea of Ideas is the Idea of Man This therefore alone as it is his glorious beginning in Nature is his Beatifical End in Grace and Glory his Righteousness Rest Eternal and full Blessedness in his full immediate entire Union Conformity Communion with it The Lord Jesus is the Head the Unity the Harmony of the whole Creation in this Region of Diversity The Angels in the heights of a Created Glory next him are like Notes in a Musical Lesson Diversities in the Harmony springing forth from this Unity But each of these Diversities as the top of the Beams next the Sun standing in the highest degree of Diversity beneath the Unity bear in themselves the Universal Harmony the Universal Nature of Diversity the whole Creation in the shadowy figure of the Godhead Therefore are they in Scripture stiled Thrones Principalities Gods They are so many Divine Unities in a shadowy Image but under the Character and Property of so many distinct Diversities Thus are they ministring Spirits As they are shadowy Unities They are shadowy Gods But as they are Unities under the several Characters of Diversity they are ministring Deities or ministring Spirits They are Servants to the Lord Jesus the proper Unity and Harmony in its own full Character and Divine Property From him they minister the whole Creation in the several Diversities of the Universal Forms and undivided Essences unto man In man they all meet as in their proper Unity and Harmony answering exactly to the Person of the Lord Jesus So the Sun in Heaven by his several Beams figureth himself into a Sun in a Cloud by his side or in a clear stream beneath him Thus are the Angels so many Chariots and the whole Society of Angels one Chariot in which Jesus Christ rides forth into the Humane Nature unto a compleat Image of himself in man After this manner Angels Rule over Man are superior to him in Glory and Might as he is the shadowy Image in which all the lines of Nature meet and terminate themselves He is now the Heir under Age subject to Tutors and Guardians But the spiritual man made lower than the Angels in its shadowy Image upon the stage of the first Creation grown up to its Age of maturity in the Resurrection of Christ is now crowned with Honour and Dignity is Heir of all things Lord of the Angels Together with Jesus Christ he rideth forth upon the Angels as the Chariots and Horses which he now governs Thus in this shadowy Image and state of Diversity the Unity and the Variety meet in man with the most Harmonious Union the fullest Character of the Unity in the Variety So man becomes the principal the compleat Image of the Godhead in the whole Creation ministred from the Lord Jesus the Head and Harmony of the whole Diversity by the concurrent service of all the Angels as the whole Creation in so many Diversities 2. The Harmonious Union constituting the Divine Image in man consists in the Unity of the Soul in its undivided Essence subsisting in all diversity of Forms circling through them all returning ever into it self As the same spacious and delightfully various Prospect seen through several clear Glasses diversly but delicately shaded So the Soul by the Unity of its Essence subsists and contemplates it self within it self in all forms of things from the highest to the lowest according to their several Angelical Diversities as so many pleasingly new and richly distinct but sweet and transparent shades This is the Soul in the perfection of its natural Form a Divine Cirâ—…le a compleat Paradise Every where presenting the whole the form of a man in the Divine Image the Beginning and the End meeting themselves in each Point The Intellectual Soul by its Unity at once subsisteth diversly in all Diversity of Forms and circleth through them all within it self The Soul by its Idea and Divine Unity hath its Throne in the Divine World By its Intellectual Life and Intuitive Light it spreads its self in flames of heavenly Love in beams of heavenly Beauty among the
externae pepulerunt singere Causae Materiae fluitantis opus verum insita summi Forma boni livore carens Tu cunct a superno Ducis ab exemplo pulchrum pulcherrimus ipse Mundum mente gerens similique in imagine formans Perfect asque jubens perfectum absolvere partes Tu numeris Elementa ligas ut frigora flammis Arida conveniant liquidis ne purior ignis Evolet aut mersas deducant pondera terras Tu triplicis mediam naturae cuncta moventem Connectens animam per Consona membra resoluis Quae cum sect a duos motum glomeravit in orbeis In semet reditura meat mentemque profundam Circuit simili convertit imagine Caelum Tu causis animas paribus vitasque minores Provehis levibus sublimeis curribus aptans In Caelum terramque seris quas lege benigna Ad te conversas reduci facis igne reverti Da pater Augustam menti conscendere sedem Da fontem lustrare boni Da luce reperta In te conspicuos animi Desigere visus Deiice terrenae nebulas pondera molis Atque tuo splendore mica tu namque serenum Tu requies tranquilla piis te cernere finis Principium Vector Dux semita terminus idem The English O thou who by the golden linked Chain Of reason's Musick with an even strain Conductest all from thy bright Throne on high Father of shady Earth and shining Skie By undiscovered Tracts Time's stream and spring Thou from Eternity's vast Sea doest bring Motion and change ever unknown to thee From thee deriv'd and by thee guided be This work of floating matter which we see By inbred form of good from envy free By sweetest force of Native Loves rich seeds Without external cause from thee proceeds In Loves eternal Garden as its flowers Flourish in their first forms and fullest powers All Beauties These are the life the living Law From which thou dost all forms of Being draw As light to dazled eyes all things below From these pure Suns in fading circles flow A World all fair from thee supreamly fair Shines in thy mind above controul or care In an harmonious Image thou the same By perfect parts dost to perfection frame By potent Charms of sacred numbers bound The waving Elements keep their set round Fire Aire Earth Water in mysterious Dances Move to thy Musick through all times and chances Mixt into various figures with sweet grace In each form undivided they embrace Earth sinks not nor doth fire to Heav'n fly Frosts Flames Droughts Floods meet in an Unity The three-fold Natures golden Knot mid-band The Soul thou tyest in one by Love's bright hand Then it by thee unloosned spread doth lie In Limbs well suited to a sympathy Of motion and distinct melody Diffus'd through things below or those on high This is the Spring and Circle ampler far And purer than the Christal Heavens are The universal Beauties charming face Where sweetly spring and dance each lovely grace Within it self divided this great Soul Into a double Globe it self doth roul One hidden from us by excess of light One with shades sweetly temper'd to our sight As thorough these it moves it still returns Into it self still with Love's fire it burns By force of this it still doth circle round Th' eternal minds great deep Heav'n thus doth found And in like figure of those unseen Lights Doth turn about these Glories in our sights Brought forth from causes like Souls and less lives Thy will aloft in airy Chariots drives And sows in Heaven in Earth which by Love's Law Turn'd back to thee thou to thy self dost draw By the innate returning flame Grant Father to our minds thy glorious Mount To climb to view of good the sacred Fount In thine own Light which doth within us shine To fix the clear eyes of our Souls on thine Cast down the mists and weight of earthly mold The joyous splendors of thy face unfold Thou art to holy minds the golden Calm The sweet repose the grief appeasing Balm To see Thee our Beginning is our End Guide Chariot Way our Home to which we tend I mean to take no notice of any thing in this Poem besides that alone which immediately concerns the Soul In that part I shall after the manner of a brief Commentary present the Reader with some few Notes upon the several Passages for the illustration and confirmation of my fore-going Discourse upon the Nature of the Humane or Intellectual Soul 1. Passage The three-fold Natures golden knot Mid-band The Soul Thou tiest in one Triplicis Naturae mediam Connectens Animam  1. Note The three Natures here are manifestly The Invisible Incorporeal Nature Immortal Spirits The Visible Corporeal Nature Bodies Mortal or Immortal The Soul the middle between both these 2. Note The Soul is a middle-nature between both these not by Abnegation or Separation but by Participation and Connection So that word imports Connectens the Golden Knot lying all in one The Soul is a middle-nature three wayes 1. The Soul extendeth her self through both Natures to their utmost Heighths above and Depths beneath by her Idea which is her Golden Head by her Angel which is her Arms and Breast of her Silver her immediate Image and Birth as she springs forth from her Idea her incorruptible Essence above all motion the first seat of her Life Understanding Virtue Power as they flow from her Ideal Spring Thus Plotinus believed the Soul her self in her Essence in her Intellectual Form at its first abstracted heighth and purity to be her own good Angel But the Soul dissuseth her self also by her Coelestial Garment or Body through the wide-spread Heavens These are her Belly and Thighs of Brass the Springs of Generation the first seat of Motion Division and successive Forms By her Elemental Body she swims in this uncertain Sea of Generation and Corruption The Elements in their Orbs compose her Legs and Feet of Iron Here is the lowest Region of Division Motion and Change Here is the scene of Corruption here is the Soul most obscured In the lowest parts of this Earth is she resolved into a shade 2. The Soul is a Nature distinct from the other two Angelical Spirits are Omniforme or Universal Bodies are extended into divisible parts The Intellectual is composed of both universal and particular Forms all which it contains in an indivisible Unity The Soul circles through all forms of things universal and particular as they subsist apart or united appearing mutually infolding each other within the undivided Unity of its own Essence whilst in the Unity and Majesty of its undivided Essence it rouls through all forms and parts of it self as the Sun through the whole compass of the Heavens In this is a more glorious Sun and Heaven that it is in each point of it self at once as a distinct Sun in its full glory and every Sun a spacious transparent Glass in which the whole Heaven of its Essence with all its
hid beneath the ruines of the fall Thus Knowledge springing in the Soul seems to be a remembrance the Life of all good an awakening by reason of the primitive Image of pure Nature raising it self by degrees and sparkling through the Rubbish the confusions of the present state Thus also hath the Souâ—…n her self the measure of all Truth and Good in this pure â—…age which hidden in the Center of the Soul containeth all Forms of Truth and Good in it self 2. That Clause in the 20. vers From the Creation of the World relates not to the sight but to the invisibility of God as appears by the place the point the sense For otherwise there were a Tautology in the Creation of the World and the things that are made There is a Scripture like to this Ephes. 3. The mystery of Christ is there mentioned which is the unvailing of God that he may be seen in the Light of his own essential and eternal Glories in his own proper naked and sweet form of Love unmixt unlimited Thus he appears in the Face and Person of Christ who as he is the Godhead in its essential and eternal Image comes in the Spirit of the Gospel full of Grace or Love and Truth the Light the Life of the Godhead in its unvailed Sweetnesses and Glories This mystery is said to be hid in God from the foundation of the World The Creation of the World was a Vail cast upon the Face of God with a figure of the Godhead wrought upon this Vail and God himself seen through it by a dim transparency as the Sun in a morning or Mist is seen by a refracted Light through the thick medium of earthly Vapours But I shall now attempt from the Life in this Scripture to draw the Picture of the Humane Soul in its natural Perfections and paradisical Beauties In order to this I shall present to you three Propositions into which this Text seems naturally to resolve it self 1. 1. Proposition God is present and shines forth in the Soul of Man in the highest and fullest appearance in which any created Understanding is capable of receiving him in which he is capable of being manifested or communicated by any Image beneath or without himself This is the plain sense of those words That which may be known of God is manifested in them Every Being in every kind and degree is a Beam or Emanation and manifestation of the first the supream Being which is God The whole Creation then all the Creatures in it with all their Essences Substances Accidents in all their Orders Places Postures Motions with every Circumstance of Being are as real in their full proportion as much according to the life in the Humane Soul as in themselves They all as so many lines and features drawn from the Face of God form the Essence of the Soul by forming it into a living Image of God God himself as he is the Author of Nature is as a Sun with all the Creatures as a Ring of Beams round about him which at once hide him and discover him So the Sun the Figure with a Vail of Beams hides from every eye the too bright Glories of that naked Body of Light But by the same Beams is himself seen in a most beautiful though shadowy Image Thus this eternal Sun surrounded with this Ring of Beams forms a Pareâ—…s tâ—… similitude of himself by himself in the Soul of Man In the mean time God himself as he is before this similitude of himself shining upon it is also within it the vital Centre in the midst of it the Root the Truth the Life of it Thus are these two Suns two Eyes full set each with other as they look forth through this Image this Vail of Beams The Soul by its senses takes in only the accidental forms of each Creature the shadow of the shadow The Understanding takes hold of takes the essential Form the Substance The whole visible World is the World of sense the Object of sense The Invisible the Angelical World is the Intellectual World the proper Object of the Understanding If that which may be known of God be manifested in the Soul if every distinct degree of Being be a distinct manifestation of God a distinct mode or form of the Divine appearance then doth the Humane Soul contain the whole World visible invisible with it self in its full greatness and glory in all its most exact Distinctions and Varieties It penetrates it it fills it all within and without with its Intellectual Light In its Unity as the Divine Centre it sits and unites all In its Variety as in the full majesty of its Divine Essence it spreads it self into all Forms and so many Divine Figures in a most beautiful and Divine Order All Being in its whole compass is Intelligible the adoequate Object of the Understanding The Understanding is all in potentiality in its natural capacity tendency and desire These are the Doctrines of the Schools The Understanding then in Act in the perfection of its primitive state is actually perfectly all It is married by an Angelical marriage as in the Marriage of Spirits into a most intimate Union of Essences into a most essential Unity with the whole Creation as it is one Divine Figure of the Divine Beauty and so through this figure with Jesus Christ with God who lives and appears in it 2. Proposition All these forms of things spring up to the Soul from within it self from its own Fountain from God the Fountain of the Soul in the Centre of it the Fountain of all in the Soul to the Soul That which may be known of God is manifest in them for God hath manifested it to them vers 19. The last Clause well observed in the force of the words and the Connexion will appear to every judicious eye as I humbly conceive to have no common or vulgar sense They seem to contain in them this two-fold mystery 1. God the proper Idea of the Humane Soul that is it s most inward inseparable Principle which hath in it self the Pattern the exemplar form of the Soul sends it forth from it self forms it furnisheth filleth it with all forms of things He also comprehends and conserves it in himself as its own proper place and habitation as a Light sprung from him and abiding in him the Father of Lights He fashioneth it into an Understanding as an Intellectual Angelical Divine Sun This is the greatest Light in the Soul its utmost Centre and outmost Circle encompassing the whole Essence of the Soul the whole nature of things in all their Forms Operations and Motions This shines in the day of the invisible World This as the Region of Angels contains the Essences and Intellectual Forms of all things in it self as so many Angels or Angelical Spirits each of which is a distinct Sun a distinct world of Angels of all Angelical Spirits and Intellectual Forms In the next place God figures this Light which is
from the beginning to the end He presents himself to the Soul as its Idea its Original Image its beginning its way and itsend in whose bosome the Soul hath alwayes lien there meeting with every change every scene of things springing up within it in that bosome while the same Jesus hath lien in its bosome as the seed of its Being and of every Change This is the Souls Father Brother Bridegroom and Perfection As Jesus Christ thus appears and unvails himself within the Soul he at once gathers up the Soul into the most intimate the most entire Union with it self He transforms it into the likeness of the same Image with himself in the full Glory of the Divine the Universal the eternal Harmony in the Unity of the same Spirit the Spirit of this Harmony and Glory The Lord Jesus as he is the universal the eternal Image and Harmony of the Divine Nature of all Variety in the Divine Nature as he is the Idea of Ideas thus is he the Original Image the Idea of the Intellectual Soul or of Man As then he forms himself in this Soul he also formeth all things in it that man comes forth from the bosome of his Idea replenished with the Ideas of all things He is now the whole Creation the universal Nature within himself This Jesus then being risen springs up into Man in the virtue of his Resurrection and together becomes the Resurrection of all things in man to man In like manner through man as the head of all he riseth again in all the particular Forms of things as they stand without man in themselves in their own proper Existencies In the Lord Jesus God through Christ the universal Image inhabiteth in the proper Ideas of each Creature with the fulness of his Divine Glories in the Unity of the blessed Spirit According to this Original Jesus Christ the Universal Harmony through the humane Nature his immediate his full Image his compleat Birth and Bride rests entirely and distinctly upon each form of things as the Divine Race of this heavenly Marriage-Bed in the Resurrection As all together make up the Universal Harmony in the Soul in Christ the end of them all So each one enjoyeth the whole Harmony in it self being upon its own proper Form cloathed with the Universal Form the Form of the heavenly Man and of Christ in Glory So all dwell together in the Unity of the same Divine Spirit the Spirit of a Saint and of Christ. In the Unity of this Spirit all mutually are Divine Palaces each to other clearly compleatly comprehending and comprehended by each other eternally feasting upon the heavenly Beauties and Virtues drinking in the Sweetnesses the Lives the Spirits of each other And of Jesus Christ of God the Unity and the Variety in all This is the Kingdom of God which is Righteousness Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost Jesus Christ the essential Image of God the Divine and eternal Harmony is the Righteousness the mutual Peace and Joy of this Kingdom In this Kingdom Jesus Christ cometh with his own Glory the Glory of his Father and of all his holy Angels united in one in each form of things The lowest form of things here is an Angel an Angel made new in the Resurrection of Christ where each Angel being only a distinct part of the Harmony yet hath the Universal Harmony resting upon that part This is that new Jerusalem where the street the lowest form of things is as Gold and Glass The pure Glory of the eternal Spirit as the finest Gold shineth in each Creature like the Cherubim or the Angels standing up out of the Mercy-Seat made of the same piece of massy Gold together with it The lowest Creature here is an Angel of Glory the street that sustains us is composed of Angels Angelical Glories In every Angel as a particular Glory all the Angels with their several Varieties of Glory the Glory of Christ and all the Saints which is the full the Universal Glories of the Divine and Humane Nature the Original and its best beloved Image in Union The Glory of God as the Father in its simplicity in its paternity and transcendency over all meet all in one This Unity of the Spirit in each Creature renders it divinely transparent like the finest glass In the beauty of every Face we have the prospect of Eternity We see in each single Face fresh Beauties all Beauties with an endless Variety opening themselves one within another one beyond another all equally clear present and pleasant in every one Thus Jesus Christ becomes according to St. Paul the first-born from the dead and the first-born among his Brethren the Saints The Saints in the Language of St. James are the first-fruits of the Creation which is brought forth in its proper time and order into the liberty of the Glory of the Sons of God Thus is our Jesus the great Jubilee where all Debts are remitted all Servants go free all persons return to their Inheritances to the free Possession the full fruition of themselves and them In the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus from him as the Root springing up into the Body of the Saints through them into the rest of the Creatures as Branches of the same Tree All Sins are pardoned the whole Creation is set free from its bondage to Vanity and Corruption All things return to a free fruition of themselves of all Beauties and Joys in their native Inheritance their Original Images their proper Ideas in Christ first Christ then the Saints through them Heaven and Earth and the Seas with all things in them are made new by being married anew by being newly reinvested with the Glories of their Original The Reader is again desired to take Notice That neither the remainder of this Fourth Argument nor any thing upon his Fifth could be found amongst the Authors Papers A DISCOURSE OF THE Freedome of the Will The SECOND PART Wherein the Arguments for it are considered and answered HAving finished those Arguments ranked under their several Heads in opposition to that Liberty of the Will which is placed in the determining of its power received from the first cause unto a Contrariety or Contradiction in its actings with an independency upon the first cause the order and connexion of Causes and the Understanding We pass now to a consideration of the Reasons upon which that Opinion of this Freedome is established These Reasons are taken 1. From the Will it self 2. From the nature of Sin and the Divine Justice 3. The Language of the Scripture 4. From the end of Laws 5. From the order and nature of things 1. Reason The Prerogative and Excellency of the Will consisteth in this Liberty 1. How otherwise doth man excel bruit Creatures and natural Agents 2. How otherwise is man free and not necessitated in all his Actions To that I shall give two several Answers 1. Answ. This Freedome of the Will of which we speak and which is opposed to necessity
rule of Justice and Goodness by which this is to be tryed The general Rule or Law of Justice is this To give to every thing its due or its own Solomon expresseth this Rule of Justice from the Mouth of God in his Proverbs after this manner With-hold not good from them to whom it is due or from the Owners thereof when it is in thine hand to do it Divines interpret those Owners to be all persons in want all Subjects in any capacity of receiving any good from us Beneficence or a disposition to do good to all is with the Heathen Philosphers a branch of this Vertue of Justice The Law of God which is the Rule of Justice commands to love our Neighbour as our self St. Paul interprets this Neighbour to be every other Rom. 13. 8. He that loveth another hath fulfilled the Law The Jews teach us that the Law is founded in the Name that is in the Nature of God Man was made in the Image of God The Perfection then of the humane Creature is the Image of that Perfection which is in the Divine Nature the Law of the humane Nature is the transcript of the Divine Nature Our Lord Jesus interprets this Universal Law of humane Commerce and Justice among men Thou shalt love thy Neighbour after this manner Love your Enemies do good to them that hate you He layeth the ground of this Universal Justice in the Divine Nature That you may be the Children of your Father which is in Heaven He adds for a clearer Conviction If you love them that love you do not even the Publicans the same He concludes by referring the perfection of men to the Divine Perfection as its Original and Law Be ye therefore perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect Thus we see the Rule of Justice with God and with men to give our Love and all good according to our utmost power to every other as to the Owner of that love and good to whom they are due 2. The second Rule or Law is that of Goodness The Law of Goodness and its Essence is to diffuse and communicate it self The law of each thing is to act according to its nature of Light to shine of sweet Waters to send forth sweet waters of good to do good This Law is most deeply rooted and highly radiant in the Divine Nature inasmuch as God is the Chief the Universal the only good Accordingly he makes his Rain his Sun both Coelestial and Supercoelestial in their season to fall and to shine upon the Just and the Unjust Having stated the Case between Free-will and the Will predeterminated in its Causes and having set the Rule by which the Case is to be tryed Let us come to the Point in which we must joyn Issue 1. Both Cases agree in four grand Circumstances First In both Cases God makes man and the Will of Man from nothing according to the absoluteness of his Will and Power Secondly The event which is eternal ruine and torment to the greatest part of Mankind is alike certain to both by a certainty of infallibility 3. God before and in the making of his work clearly seeth and perfectly understandeth that this will be infallibly the event of his Workmanship Can it then with any reason be thought that the event of the work of an infinite Wisdom fore-seen should not be agreeable to the design of that Wisdom and the Will of that infinitely Wise Spirit whose Power is as infinite as his Wisdom 4. God could have made man otherwise in a Divine necessity of being good and blessed like himself in a confirmed state of Grace and Glory like the Elect Angels and Saints These are the Circumstances in which both Cases agree 2. The grand dâ—…fference between the two Cases where they joyn Issue is this In that Case of Free-will Man perisheth because God with-holds the good which he hath in himself and might have given to him that is a confirmation in good In the other case of the Will predetermined Man perisheth because God withdraws the good which he had once given him There are two Fathers with their two little Children one Father setteth his Child down so that he may run into a pleasant Field or a devouring Flood He fore-seeth that he will certainly run not into the Field but into the Flood he suffers him to run and perish in the Flood when he may as easily prevent him by laying his hand upon him or taking him into his arms The other Father holdeth his Child fast and safe in his arms for a while over the cruel Flood then he casteth him not in but he taketh away his arms and leaves him by his own weight necessarily to drop into the Flood and perish there I appeal now to every equal and impartial Judge whether both these Fathers seem not both guilty or innocent Whether they be not both likely to be cleared or convicted if they be tryed by those fore-mentioned Rules of Justice and Goodness Is not the two-fold Plea of both these Wills of equal force against the Justice and Goodness of God 1. Why hath he made me thus certainly to perish What is it to me whether this certainty be a certainty of infallibility only from the mutability of my nature or a certainty of inevitableness from the necessity of nature while I certainly perish 2. Why is he yet angry who hath resisted his Will Is not the certain event of his Work clearly fore-seen by him from the beginning interpretatively his Will Which Opinion shall we prefer That of the Will predetermined gives to God the full Glory of his Soveraignty Absoluteness Wisdom Power making his work in the whole and in every part from the beginning to the end one entire piece altogether dependent upon himself wrought throughout by himself and conducted from one supream principle by one universal Form of the Divine Understanding and the Divine Image to one Universal and Ultimate end the Divine Glory But it seemeth to cast an imputation upon the Divine Justice and Goodness The other Opinion of Free-will seemeth to violate the Soveraignty and Absoluteness of God making his actings dependent upon the actings of Creature The Power of God in giving to the Creature the determination of it self with an independence upon him in these Cardinal Acts of the Will upon which the whole Circle and Globe of things in the Divine Love Justice and Wrath in the happiness or misery of Man from eternity is turned about His Wisdom while his work hath breaches and gaps in it like a Chain whose links are not fastned one in another while the Harmony is thus broken while all the great effects and end of his work are casual uncertain in their Causes and in their Nature inasmuch as all depend upon the free and fortuitous motions of the Will independent upon and undetermined by all preceding or superior Causes even the first and universal Cause it self Together with all this Cloud which the Opinion
Contexture of Beams living in and springing immediately freshly every moment from this entire Person which is all one most clear and lively Face of the most compleat and Original Beauty The Divine Person is not hid but shown by this Garment Mi Jesu pelluces Our Jesus shines all clearly thorow it far more clearly than a beautiful Person swimming all naked in a clear stream or the richest Diamond in a Case of purest Christal The Person here the Divine Sun is at once the eminent Head of all the Beams shining above them the vigorous Root of all the Beams springing up in them the pleasant and glorious flower flourishing forth from the end of every Beam the full Glory filling with it self each part of the Beam and every where in every Beam presenting it self entirely to every eye All the Beams in One are one entire Image of this Sun Every distinct Beam a distinct Birth and Figure of a distinct Ideal Light and Glory in this Sun Yet is the Sun in that full compass of all its Glories seen by every eye in every Beam For so is this Divine Sun the essential Idea of the Godhead the same one undivided entire full in all the Ideas in all the Original Forms and Patterns of each Creature The Beams here are Daughters Sisters and Brides to the Sun They flow forth immediately from it They stand upon the same root of the Divine Nature and Personality God is the only Person in this Jesus Both are cloathed with the same Image Both by mutual embraces lie in the bosoms of each other wrapt up together in the same Joys and Glories Yet are the Beams and created Beauties in this Mediatory Image not only distinct as the Ideas in the Godhead where the most perfect Distinction is married to the most absolute Unity with a most exact equality But all the Forms of created Glory here have besides a distinction from their Sun the Divine Glory and from each other a diversity also an inequality a subordination in an hypostatical or personal Unity But I now anticipate my self This will have a more proper place in the following Character of our Jesus in his Mediatory Kingdom 4. Christ here in his created Nature is a Spirit a great and universal Spirit comprehending the whole Creation eminently in himself before it have a subsistence in it self The whole Creation is here in greater majesty in greater clearness and glory than in it self when it is freshest and fairest It is the very Iustre and effulgency of the Godhead it self all transparent the Divine Essence at once shining thorow it filling it cloathing and comprehending it as a Temple founded upon it self framed by it self of its own most immediate Light and clearest brightness The King's Daughter is said to be all glorious within and her Garments of wrought Gold Psal. 45. The first Marriage is that of the most High and holy Trinity to which eternity it self is the Marriage-day celebrated with Joys and Glories transcending all measures or bounds The Father and the Son are here mutually the Bridegroom and the Bride while both are in both the Father in the Son the Son in the Father the Love-Spring in its lovely and beautiful Image the Lovely-Image the first and highest Beauty in its Love-spring the first the sweetest the fruitfullest Love and Fountain of Loves The Holy Spirit the conspiration of both these in One is their Marriage-band and Marriage-bed where they preserve entire their Unity and their Distinction in a most blissful Union to make their Loves and Joys more full From this Marriage-bed doth flow the God-like Race of Divine Ideas surmounting all numbers and natures of things The second Marriage is in this Middle-Glory between the Uncreated and created Beauty joyned together in one Divine eternal Person and Spirit The Divine Nature is here the King and the Bridegroom this created Spirit is the Kings Daughter his Queen and his Bride This Queen is described to be all glorious within and to have her Garment of wrought Gold The Hebrew word within signifieth properly in her Person in her naked Face which are within all her Garments and Vails Her God her Bridegroom Jesus in his essential Image her eternal Idea is her Person her Face her internal Form Thus is she all glorious within For the Lamb himself her Bridegroom is her Glory The Glory of the Lord himself in his eternal Splendors enlightneth all within This Queens Garment is all of wrought Gold The word Wrought signifieth properly a work of Eyes set all over the Garment So Dr. Hammond expoundeth it Her Garment was all over set with round Oes like so many Eyes or Suns wrought in Gold The created form of this Spirit being the pure lustre of the eternal Sun the Divine Essence is the Queen's Garment The numberless Ideas of the Divine Nature in each of which the Godhead it self is entire in its Sacred Unity comprehending all its Ideas or Variety in a Variety entirely thorowout infinitely fresh and new form in this Garment secondary Ideas their own most immediate fairest and fullest Effulgencies or Life-Pictures In every one of these is this Queen also according to the Original Patterns in her Father King and Bridegroom compleat with all the full Glories of her Person and equally distinct in a new Variety of all her Glories as a new Queen a new Person a distinct Spirit These are the Divine Suns and Eyes in the Garment of this Queen in which the eternal Eyes and Suns shining in the Divine Essence look forth as thorow Casements of pure living and immortal Christal Each Form each distinction of every kind in the Creation here below is such an eye such a Sun wrought in Gold such a Spirit of incorruptible Glory such a Bride and Queen to the eternal King Every one in particular is a spiritual and heavenly Member all together make up the spiritual and heavenly Body of our Jesus in this Personal Kingdom of his where he in his own Person is a Kingdom to himself containing the Creator with the Creation in all their Amplitudes and Varieties married together into one Person Spirit and Glory which is to it self Bride-groom Bride Ofspring and All. See if this be not that heavenly Hierusalem the Hierusalem above which is indeed free in the spacious embraces and unlimited Amplitudes of the Godhead which at the same time is by the inviolable sweetness of a sweetly-invincible necessity the eternal Law of supream Love confined to these embraces in which she becometh the glorious Virgin-Mother of us all Is not this the Hierusalem whose heavenly transparencies whose Divine lustre whose unstain'd incorruptible Beauties and Virtues are figured by Gold Pearls precious Stones and Glass Glass of Christal Is not this that Bride of the Lamb which cometh down from God out of the Heaven of the essential Image of the Godhead as out of the Bosom of her Father and Bridegroom with this Character in which the perfection of Beauty and
a Divine Satisfaction a Divine Atonement The Wrath and the Contrariety now ceaseth being reconciled and charmed by these Divine Harmonies into the Unity of eternal Love Thus is the Cross of our Lord Jesus the utmost bound of things In this Cross the Divine Design is finished the Mystery is finished the Vail is rent all things in Heaven and on Earth are reconciled and gathered up into One tuned to a Divine and Universal Harmony which is the Musick of Eternity Now is that Song sung O Death where is thy sting O Grave where is thy Victory The sting of Death is Sin and the strength of Sin is the Law but thanks be to God who giveth us the Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ on his Cross hath swallowed up the Law Sin and Death in the Victory of the Divine Love the Divine Purities the Beauties of Holiness and eternal Life Eternal Life eternal Love that is our Jesus now cries with a triumphant shout O Death I will be thy Plague and Death This is the Day of the manifestation of the Righteous Judgments of God Now in the close and end of all the Divine Design through all the parts and passages of it clearly opens and unfolds it self Now it appears unto all Eyes and Hearts to be all throughout in every point of it divinely-beautiful and pleasant transcending the Understanding the Affections the Expectations the Desires the most unbounded Imagination of all Men or Angels proportioned only to a God and that God which is so Light that there is no darkness in him So Love that there is no Fury in him Now is that found clearly compleatly true All his ways are ways of peace and all his paths are pleasantness This is our God and we will praise him our Fathers God and we will exalt him This is our Jesus whom our Soul loves we will rejoyce in him and wait for him Pardon me courteous Reader if I seem something longer in this tract of my Discourse describing that most beautiful and Divine Harmony with which all things lie together most delightfully in this shining Seat of all Truth and enflaming Object of all Love the dear and adored Form and Person of our great Mediator This is the Eye the Heart of my design and work If the entire and naked Face of Divine Truth were rightly drawn and set before us in any degree answerable to the Life in this heavenly Image how powerfully would it attract all Understandings into its embraces how pleasantly would it subdue them to it self far beyond the force of all Disputes and Syllogisms which gather up only small divided and dead parts of this Divine Form like Ae as collecting the scattered members of his Son Absertus thrown up and down at diverse distances by his bloody Sister Medea to retard his way Or like the Philosophers in Boetius which take hold of the Garment only of Divine Truth and tear that into deformed shreds of which they possess themselves and in which they glory If I could entirely conceive that of which I seem to my self to have some little but rich and pleasant glances If I could clearly express and conveigh into the Minds of men that which I conceive of the nature of God and his Work which appeareth to me to have been gathered from all things Humane and Divine from Poetry Philosophy and Theology From Nature and Grace the letter of the Scriptures and the Spirit according to my little acquaintance with them and less understanding of them I am perhaps too vainly apt to perswade my self that I should make the noblest Conquest a Conquest of Hearts which would be equally Conquerors with me partaking equally in the Joy and Glory of the Conquest For what Understanding would not gladly be swallowed up into the richly unfathomable Depths of the Divine Wisdom if it were touched with this sense that the whole Understanding and Mind of God in its utmost and unlimited compass is taken up and filled with a Love of equal extent to it and equally unlimited What Understanding would not joyfully lie down for ever and lose it self in the gloriously soft and bright Bosom of the Divine Wisdome if it once by the least sweet glimpse perceived this that the Divine Wisdom throughout is no other than the beautiful and blissful Harmony of the Divine Love that all the Work of his Wisdom within and without is a deep delightful God-like contrivance of Love on which the whole Godhead layeth out it self to the utmost of all its unbounded fulnesses and treasures For this Love to bring forth and express it self with all possible advantage with all beautifyings sweetnings and heightnings as in the whole contrivance so in each part and point of it through all which this Love by this Wisdom conducteth it self with an inevitable force and sweetness This is that which the holy Apostle hath testified speaking of things which he had seen when the Father revealed Jesus Christ in his Spirit that God by Jesus Christ in his Grace that is his Love hath abounded towards us in all Wisdom and Prudence What Will of Man or Angel if it had in it self the greatest Arbitrarinâ—…s and highest Soveraignty over its own Actions would not with unexpressible pleasure resign its Arbitrariness its Soveraignty its self and all to the Divine Will when this Will should appear unto it in nothing Arbitrary but Goodness it self it s own Object Rule and Perfection a Goodness eternal unalterable and inviolable The supream and universal Goodness containing in it self all kinds and degrees of Goodness at an equal height with it self A Goodness which bringeth forth it self into the supream and universal Beauty its proper and essential Image to which every Will by its own Principle and most essential activity and motion is carried with a necessity and irresistableness most rational and most voluntary that is most divinely-harmonious and agreeable What Spirit endued with an Understanding and a Will can forbear from casting it self with most enamoured and most sweetly forcible transports into the Arms and absolute Conduct of this our Jesus this our God when by the first and most obscure beam of his own Light it is awakned unto this Divine Sight that this Jesus our God is Goodness it self most pure most perfect whose continued Birth and essential Image is Truth it self Beauty it self Truth and Beauty in their clearest Glories in their highest Sweetnesses in their fullest Amplitude Extent and Majesty Truth and Beauty comprehending all things within themselves as one Truth and Beauty with themselves bringing forth all things from themselves as Flowers from their Garden-beds filling all shining through all forming themselves upon all Shall not the Understanding and Will of every Spirit now be as Wings of Divine Light and Love on which the Spirit flies with a sweet and a swift strength into the Bosom of the Lord Jesus that here by its Understanding it may feast it self with an Appetite and Delight ever
that Tabernacle and particularly often Heb. 9. Jesus Christ saith to the Jews Destroy this Temple and in three days I will build it up The Spirit addeth there expresly That he spake of his Body in St. John The Humane Nature of Christ in the Flesh was a moveable Tabernacle to be taken down and so figured by the Tabernacle in the Wilderness The Humanity of Christ in the Resurrection in the Spirit was the true Temple immoveable immutable eternal in the Heavens answering to Solomon's Temple on Mount Sion or Mount Moriah In the Tabernacle under the Law there was a three-fold Perfection 1. All things there were exact Figures of the Pattern upon the Mount 2. These Figures were taken immediately from the Pattern it self formed wrought and ordered by the same Spirit in Bezaleel Aholiab Moses Aron the Priests and the Levites 3. The Pattern it self in its Glory dwelt in the Tabernacle The Scriptures laid together seem to demonstrate Jesus Christ to be this Pattern upon the Mount The Law is said to have the shadow of good things to come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not the very Image of the thing Heb. 1. 1. This very Image can be no other than the first the principal the substantial Image the Pattern it self upon the Mount This word is applied to Jesus Christ Col. 1. 15. He is said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Image of the invisible God And that the very Image the Original Image is understood appears by that which is added The first-born of every Creature The Jewish Rabbins teach us That the Tabernacle was a model of the whole Creation of the Divine World as it is the Head of the Creation and at the Head of the Creation appears in a created Figure of the Angelical and of the visible World These were represented by the Holy of Holies the holy place and the outward Court Thus far they were right but in this they fell short that they looked not to the beginning and end of these The Messias in in his own Mediatory Glory and in his Fathers Glory as he was the Pattern of these upon the Mount and as these stood originally in him But according to this Type in the Tabernacle in his Flesh and in his Life on Earth he fulfilled all Righteousness the Righteousness of the Creature the Law and the Letter the Righteousness of God and of the Gospel Jesus Christ saith of himself What I see my Father do that do I The words that I speak are not mine but my Fathers he doth the Works The Humane Nature of Christ in Flesh his Motions his Rest all his Words and his Works answered to the Pattern upon the Mount his own heavenly Image in the Glory of God and were formed from that Pattern by the same Spirit forming his Humane Nature subsisting in it and acting it The Father saith he hath sent me and I live by the Father The mission of the Father and his living by the Father were his springing forth from the Father according to the eternal Image of things in the Father by the Spirit of the Father in his Birth Life and Death Thus he fulfilleth all Righteousness according to the Law as it was at first engraven on the heart of man as it was afterwards renewed on Tables of Stone in the Moral Ceremonial and Judiciary parts of it The Pattern it self also the heavenly and Divine Image with the Original Righteousness and Glory dwelt in this Flesh of Christ in all his Motions and Rests filling the figures with the substance Thus it is said of him The Word was made Flesh and dwelt among us full of Grace and Truth Joh. 1. 14. It is said again vers 17. The Law was given by Moses but Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ. Grace is eternal Love the naked Face of God as it shines and smiles with all pleasantness in it opposed to the Law as it is a Ministry of Wrath and a Vail upon the Divine Nature Truth is the very Image the Pattern the everlasting Righteousness the Original and eternal Glory of God opposed to the shadows the fading Righteousness the vanishing Glory of the Law Thus this Tabernacle of Flesh in the Unity of Christ's Person was full of Grace and Truth The everlasting Love and everlasting Righteousness with their Sweetnesses Strengths and Glories which never fade nor pass away at once formed filled and rested upon their own perfect and spotless figures in the flesh of Christ. So he fulfilled the first part of his Mediation and our Redemption while as an universal Person comprehending all Mankind and the whole Creation in himself He presents himself in his Birth in his Life unto God in the place of all and all in himself as a perfect Figure of the Divine Righteousness and Glory as in an exact Harmony so in an inseparable immediate Union with its Pattern 2. The second Part of Christ's Mediatory Work in our Redemption comprehendeth the Sufferings and Death of the Lord Jesus The Sufferings of Christ are to be considered in the manner and the merit of them The manner of the Sufferings of Christs are set forth in diverse Scriptures Isa. 53. 6. God laid the Iniquity of us all upon him And vers 10. He made his Soul an offering for Sin St. Paul seems to relate to these Prophesies when he saith 2 Cor. 5. ult Him who knew no sin hath God made sin for us It is frequent in the Hebrew Language and Idiom to express Sin and metanomically the Sacrifice for sin the panishment of sin by the same word Gal. 3. 13. Christ hath purchased us from the Curse of the Law being made a Curse for us A cursed Person is a Person charged with all guilt and filth and universal abomination and detestation to God to Angels and Men. A Person devoted to Divine Vengeance and Wrath excluded from all things holy and good exposed to the opposition and enmity of all things holy and good set apart to be cut off and quite taken away in the shamefulest dreadfulest and direfulest manner Thus God personally in our flesh suffered Our Jesus takes away our Sins the Sins of the whole World Joh. 1. by taking them upon himself He stands in the place and person of all Sinners He beareth the Sins of the whole World upon himself Behold the Lamb of God which takes away the sins of the World Joh. 1. The Greek word comprehendeth both senses to take up and to take away He is set as the abominable execrable detestable thing in the Eyes of God and of all the Creatures He is devoted by the most solemn most sacred Curses to bear the weight of all Guilt to satisfie the Divine Justice to sustain the Divine Wrath to the utmost As the Sin-Offering was all consumed by fire and was burnt without the Camp so went Jesus out of the City separated from the Society of all in Heaven and on Earth bearing his shame and to endure the pain The
and appears as Lord of all the Heaven of the Fathers Bosom the Heaven of the eternal Spirit and of the Godhead where it hath the Root of its Personality and its Life hidden with God from the natural eye of every Creature 3. The whole Manhood of Christ is cloathed with an heavenly or super-coelestial Image an Image suitable and proper to that Heaven out which he springs 4. The Manhood of Christ is so immediately entirely mutually united to the eternal Spirit the Godhead it self that Christ as he is man is said to be a quickning spirit The Humane Nature and the Divine in the Lord Jesus are so far now become one Spirit as in a mystical Marriage where at the height of their Unity they keep the distinction as high and clear 5. â—…us Christ in his Humane Nature in his Body as well as his Soul is thus become a Spirit in opposition to the earthly and fleshly substance of the natural Body of the first man which is declared incapable of entring into the Kingdom of God 6. This spiritual and super-coelestial state above the natural Body and above the natural Soul of the first man in his primitive state and so above the Creation in its visible or invisible part when it was most pure is properly the Kingdom of God to which that of St. Paul agreeth when he placeth the Kingdom of God in the eternal Spirit Thus the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus is his Return with his Humane Nature with his shadowy Image with the whole Creation in himself into the Immortality and Glory of his Mediatory Form to be there as he was at first This is the Object of his Hope the subject of his Prayer Now O Father glorifie me with thy self with that Glory which I had with thee before the World was Joh. 17. 5. What time that now relates unto you may understand by the fore-going verse I have glorified thee on Earth I have finished the Work which thou gavest me to do Jesus Christ speaketh this by a Prolepsis or Anticipation having his Eye upon the finishing his Work upon the Face of the Earth by dying and finishing his Work in the Heart or nethermost parts of the Earth by lying the appointed time in the Grave Jesus Christ points out to us three eminent Circumstances in his Resurrection 1. The first is a Glory with his Father an Union and Fellowship with the Godhead and with the Person of the Father in his own proper and Divine personal Glory He expresseth this twice over as the chiefest sweetness of his Hopes and the principal Glory in the Glory Glorifie me with thy self with the Glory which I had with thee 2. This Glory transcends that of the whole Creation in its greatest Perfection as it also antecedes it as it also is a Glory which was before the World was 3. Here are three states distinctly represented to us 1. Jesus Christ in Glory before he came into this World before this World was 2. Jesus Christ coming forth from that Glory into this World and being without that Glory all that interval of his Life here 3. The return of Christ at his Death and Resurrection into the same Glory These three states must necessarily respect Jesus Christ in the same form under the same relation to accommodate this sense and make that proper The Person of Christ in his shadowy Image in which he was the Head of the whole Creation and comprehended this all in himself as he took flesh of the Virgin Mary and set himself in the place of all in their fallen estate So He was without the Glory Before all this in his Mediatory Form he stood together with God and his Father in his shadowy Image in Flesh and Blood with all the changes accompanying him after a spiritual manner filled and cloathed with a super-coelestial and eternal Glory Two Scriptures laid together give more light and strength to this place and this sense Jesus Christ having spoken to the Jews of eating his Flesh and drinking his Blood Joh. 6. 56. Of his being the Bread coming down out of Heaven vers 58. Understanding the Jews to murmur and be offended at the hardness of this saying vers 60 61. makes this Reply to their murmurs What if ye shall see the Son of man ascending thither where he was at first or before It is the Spirit quickneth the Flesh profiteth nothing The words which I speak they are Spirit and Life The other Scripture is that Rom. 1. 4. Christ was raised from the dead by the Glory of God From these two Scriptures compared the Truth of this mystery shines forth in these parts 1. The flesh and blood of Jesus Christ in the proper sense of Christ's words are Spirit and Life 2. They were Spirit and Life in the Glory of God before the coming down of Christ upon the Earth 3. From that state they came forth into their shadowy appearance here in this shadowy Image 4. They returned again together with this shadowy Image into that first state where casting off the Vail or rather converting the Vail into the same Nature and Form they were again all Spirit and Life by the Glory of God in the Resurrection springing up in them coming down upon them and taking them into it self Lastly The flesh and blood of Christ even when they are come forth from this spiritual and immortal Glory while they are in this shadowy state upon the Earth abide unchangeably in this Glory and are there still all Spirit all Life without any Vail or Cloud Thus are they the food of a Saint The Lord Jesus expresseth this sense No one hath ascended into Heaven but he who comes down out of Heaven the Son of Man who is in Heaven Two things are remarkable here 1. The being in Heaven is expressed by the Participle of the present Tense a present and constant Act. 2. The Title of the Son of Man is particulary added to that clause of the being in Heaven constantly without interruption while he comes down out of Heaven while he ascends into Heaven in the interval or space of his being on Earth between both these Jesus Christ as he is the Son of Man comes down at first out of that Heaven into which at last he returns and re-ascends In the same Heaven also hath he his present and constant abode while he is on Earth As the Heaven of Christ's Mediatory Glory and of the Fathers Glory which are far above all created Heavens the Heavens of this Creation come down together with him upon the Earth obscured beneath the Vail of Flesh and in this Flesh act all the parts of his living and dying here So do these Heavens also at once comprehend this Earth in the Person of Christ his flesh their obscurity before it All the parts of his Life and Death in the flesh as parts of Glory in these Heavens As Spirit and Life as spiritual and immortal Glories in the Fountain of Life and