up unto a correspondency with him in his affections to love those persons and things which he loveth and to detest whatsoever he hateth Courtiers usually seeme at least to proportion all their passions unto those of the Princes minion They admire whatsoever he liketh they adore whomsoever he affecteth and professe a deepe dislike of all that he disaffecteth They affront and quarrell all upon whom he frowneth Well then may not we be ashamed that there is not the like compliance in us with Gods favourite We dote upon sin which his soule abhorreth We delight in that company and those places unto which he is a stranger We loath those ordinances which have his most evident approbation and institution Those unsavoury and prophane jests rotten communication that are an abomination unto him and stinke before him are the matter of our greatest merriment We distast most the conversation of those that have most intimate communion with him Those are an eye-sore unto us who are as tender unto him as the Apple of his eye His jewels Mal. 3.17 his crowne jewels his crowne of glory and royall diademe Isay 62. ver 3. are accounted by us as the filth of the world and offscouring of all things 1 Cor. 4.13 There is nothing that he esteemeth more amiable in men then the beauty of holinesse the Image of God This is the chaine upon the neck of his spouse Cant. 4.9 that ravisheth his heart And there is nothing more that our hearts rise against O what a dangerous thing is this antipathy unto him that is in the bosome of the father at his right hand How unsafe is it to be thus opposite unto his affections Hereby we must needs incurre the displeasure both of him his father and that is the undoubted path unto everlasting ruine and destruction for in their favour is lise Psalm 30.5 7. And lastly If Christ be so great and gracious with God It then very much concerneth us to labour for assurance of his love and favour For we must needs be liable unto perpetuall torment and terrour of mind as long as we are in suspense of our eternall condition As long as we are doubtfull whether we shall be for ever miserable or happy And the wrath of Christ who is chiefe in the affection of the father is as Solomon speakes of the wrath of a King as the messengers of death and roaring of a lyon Whereas on the other side in the light of his countenance is life and his favour is as a cloud of the latter raine Prov. 16.14,15 and 19.12 and 20.2 If he smile upon a soule nothing can make it miserable and if he frowne upon it nothing can make it happy For God is reconciled to none but in and through him He makes none blessed but for his sake Well then we can expect no tranquility of spirit no solid comfort no sound peace of conscience no joy unspeakable and full of glory untill we have attained a certaine and well bottomed perswasion that the sonne of Gods love in whom alone he is well pleased hath lifted up the light of his countenance upon us What I have said touching our assurance of Christs love may be applied unto our assurance of Gods love of us in and for Christ For it is of no lesse importance as being inseparably connexed therewith and the ground and cause thereof and therefore without Gods love of us for Christ his sake we can never be happy and without assurance of it we can never be comfortable Hereupon is it that in the salutations prefixed unto most of Paul's epistles peace is made a sequele of grace from God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ Without the grace of acceptation with the father and the Lord Jesus Christ and also sense and apprehension thereof no peace of conscience no serenity of spirit is to be expected That man that is doubtfull of Gods love in and for Christ if his conscience be awak'ned cannot but have a perpetuall tempest in his bosome For he can apprehend God â—o otherwise then a consuming fire And such a consideration must needs beget unutterable horrour Our Saviour himselfe makes this assurance the scope of the revelation of Gods goodnesse and mercy in the gospell John 17.26 And I have declared unto them thy name and will declare it that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them There be some that understand that clause that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them concerning the extension or termination of Gods love of Christ unto Believers as a secondary object and they thus glosse the words That thou may'st love them for my sake that thou may'st love them with that love wherewith thou hast loved me Believers are made by faith one body with Christ and therefore cannot but share in Gods love of Christ If God love him They cannot but be beloved in and for him and therefore our Saviour addes and I in them which is saith Maldonate because I am in them to wit as the head in the members As if he should have said seeing I am in them seeing I dwell in their hearts by faith so that I and they make but one body mysticall therefore thy love of me cannot but be derived unto them If thou lovest me it is impossible thou should'st hate them This termination of Gods love of Christ unto Believers is in regard of the fruites and effects of it so it is the same with it's presence of influence on them The body of the Sun is in the heavens but the efficacy of it reacheth unto the lowest of the elements the earth causing on its surface light and warmth and producing in the very bowels of it many rich metalls and minerals Thus the love wherewith God loveth Christ is in God himselfe if we speake of a presence of inherence taking the word largly as it is applicable unto any adjuncts even such as the attributes of God are But it is in all them that believe in regard of a presence of influence and effective presence for it enlightneth and comforteth them and produceth in their bosomes the precious gifts and graces of the spirit But now the love wherewith God loveth Christ is said to be in believers not onely in regard of their participation but also perception of it not onely effectively in regard of its effects grace and glory but also objectively in regard of an objective or intentionall presence as it is the object of their knowledge apprehension and assurance And they never fully and truly know and apprehend it as they ought but in the rebound and by way of reflection untill they be assured of it's being terminated unto and reflected upon them untill as it is Rom. 5.5 the love of God be shed abroad in their hearts untill they have a full sence and feeling of that love wherewith God loveth them in Christ untill they have tasted that the Lord is good
and gracious unto them for Christ Psalm 34.8 1 Pet. 2.3 A practicall and experimentall full knowledge then and assurance of Gods love of Christ implieth in the result knowledge and assurance of Gods love of us so that they who are doubtfull and distrustfull of Gods love of themselves fall short in a due apprehension of Gods love of Christ The reason for this coherence of these two assurances is the connexion betwixt their objects Gods love of Christ and Gods love of us For 1. If wee looke upon the act of each as considered in God so they are one and the same decree of election Gods election of Christ and his members are not different acts à parte rei à parte rationis in our manner or way of conceiving they are as Dr Twisse often sheweth coordinate and simultaneous as being parts of one formall compleat decree de mediis 2. If we compare the fruites of each love so the fruits or effects of God's love of us all the good we enjoy for the present or expect for the future depend upon the effects of Gods love of Christ the habituall grace of his humane nature the satisfaction and merit of his obedience c. This assurance and feeling that believers have of Gods love of Christ and of themselves for Christ is amplified here from the cause and from a concomitant of it 1. From the cause of it manifestation of the name and revelation of the arme of the Lord Isai 53.1 I have declared unto them thy name and will declare it that the love wherewith thou hast loved mee may be in them By the name of God is meant the x Cyrilli interpretationem magis probo nomen hoc loco pro gloria positum esse ut apud Solomonem cùm dicit melius est nomen bonum quam divitiae multae Hoc ita esse ex eo perspicuum est quod pro eodē accipiat glorificare Patrem id est ejus declarare apud homines gloriam nomen ejus hominibus manifestare Continet ergò hoc loco nomē Dei quicquid in Deo gloriosum quicquid beneficum quicquid hominibus salutare est quale imprimis fuit quod ita mundum dilexerit ut filium suum unigenitum daret ut omnis qui credit in eum non pereat sed habeat vitam aeternam Maldonate glory of God even as the name of men is taken for that credit estimation and regard which they are in There is a glory of God which the very creatures declare Psal 19.1 Rom. 1.20 The glory of his power wisdome and generall love as he is the creatour preserver governour of the world But now the glory which is the name of the Lord of which Christ here is the revealer is that of especiall saving and redeeming love and mercy which shineth in the Gospell covenant of grace The heavens and firmament declare not so much glory as the crosse of Christ What glory of God can be cōparable unto his so loving the world that lieth in wickednesse as to give for it his only begotten son Joh. 3.16 And therefore this glory doth most eminently merit to be intitled his name Well you see the knowledge sence of Gods love of Christ and of us in Christ is the maine end and drift of Christs manifesting this name this glory of God by his word and Spirit And therefore we should give all diligence to make this love sure to have a due and deep taste and feeling of it to have it shed abroad in our hearts If believers have not attained hitherto they walke as yet below the revelation of Gods name and arme in the Gospell But now the first manifestation of Gods name at our first conversion will not serve the turne I have declared unto them thy name and will declare it c. I have manifested it in their first illumination and I will manifest it in the further growth and progresse of their knowledge Hence then we may observe that to raise believers unto such an height as the due assurance of this love there will be continuall need of new fresh farther and fuller discoveries or manifestations of Gods name in the Gospell And therefore let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisedome Col. 3.16 Watch daily at the gates of wisdome waiting at the posts of her doores Prov. 8.34 Narrownesse in the manifestations of Gods name is ever followed with weaknesse and feeblenesse in our assurance of his love They to whom the arme of the Lord is revealed but in a small measure may presume much but they know but little of the love wherewith God loveth Christ and his members 2. We have this assurance of believers amplified from the concomitant of it growth in their union with Christ That the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them The meaning of those last words and I in them is that I may dwell more and more in their hearts by faith The increase of our union with Christ is inseparably connexed with our assurance of Gods love of us for Christ as a necessary effect thereof And this may serve both for comfort and triall 1. For Comfort For what an unspeakable Comfort and advantage doe believers reape by their assurance in that it thus promoteth their union with Christ by knowledge and assent by love and adherence It begets more clearenesse and evidence in their knowledge of more certainty in their assent unto the promises of the Gospell It workes fulnesse in their love of and firmnesse in their adherence unto Christ and so every way in every regard it knits and unites more closely unto him and increase of our union with him enlargeth our communion with him in all the blessings flowing therefrom and depending thereon 2. This may serve for tryall of the soundnesse and sincerity of believers assurance of Gods love wheresoever it is there is a progresse in their union with Christ he dwelleth more and more in their hearts by faith He doth not onely knock at the doores of their hearts as a passenger but he comes in unto them and makes his abode with them Joh. 14.23 He dwels in them He doth not onely dwell in their tongues and in their understandings but he dwelleth in their hearts Ephes 3.17 He hath his throne in their wills and affections Those that grow in such an union as this with Christ they have fruitfulnesse for their character assigned by Christ himselfe Joh. 15.5 He that abideth in mee and I in him the same bringeth forth much fruit He in whom Christ hath his abode is no barren professour but is filled with the fruits of righteousnesse which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God Phil. 1.11 2. Christ as a man was the subject of a fulnesse of grace He had a twofold grace the grace of his favour towards us the grace of his spirit in himselfe and of both there was
saith that we are saved by hope Rom. 8. vers 24. that is we are saved here in this life not in regard of a present and plenary possession or fruition but onely in respect of an assured expectation thereof And thus I have ended with the exposition of the words in themselves I am in the next place briefely to examine the inference of them from the foregoing There dwelleth in Christ as man all-fulnesse of the Godhead bodily therefore ye who believe in Christ are compleat in him for he is able to make you compleat Because hereupon it followeth 1. that in all that he did and suffer'd there was an infinite merit able to purchase this compleatnesse 2. That there was in him an insinite power able to conferre this compleatnesse Some understand those words of our saviour Joh. 6.63 concerning the humanity of Christ considered alone without his Deitie It is the spirit that quickneth that is it is the Godhead united unto the humane nature that giveth spirituall life The flesh profiteth nothing that is the humane nature of Christ if it were disunited from the divine it would be of little availe unto the quickenance of our soules It s concurrence is not onely profitable but necessary yet it is onely instrumentall and therefore in the vertue of it's principall agent the fulnesse of the Godhead dwelling bodily in it If Christ had beene meere man though clothed with all the power that a creature is capable of He could not have saved so much as one single soule from eternall death But he is God as well as man and therefore able to justifie sanctifie and glorifie even millions of worlds With thee saith the Psalmist unto God is the fountaine of life Psalm 36.9 A fountatine that can never be exhausted The fulnesse of the Godhead in Christ is not as a river but as a sea whence flow all those streames that make glad the city of God Psalm 46.4 It was from his Deity that there was in him an ample sufficiency to finish the transgression to make an end of sinnes and to make reconciliation for iniquity and to bring in everlasting righteousnesse Dan. 9.24 Because his righteousnesse is the righteousnesse of God Phil. 3.9 therefore it is appliable to and available for all the believers that ever were are or shall be in the world Because it was the great God that was our Saviour and gave himselfe for us Therefore he hath redeemed us from all iniquity and purified us unto himselfe a peculiar people Tit. 2.13,14 Because he is the Sonne of God therefore his bloud cleanseth us from all sin 1 Joh. 1.7 therefore by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified Heb. 10.14 Because the Father hath by eternall generation given unto the Sonne to have life in himselfe Joh. 5.26 therefore he quickeneth whom he will vers 21. He can quicken those soules that are dead in sinns and trespasses and he will at the last day quicken those bodies that have for thousands of yeares beene rotten in their graves Because he is the Lord from heaven 1 Cor. 15.47 The Lord of Glory 1 Cor. 2.8 therefore he can clothe our mortall and corruptible bodies with incorruption and immortality He can change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body according unto the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himselfe Phil. 3.21 Can you desire more comfort then that which this point yeeldeth It promiseth as much perfection as our natures can hold But it is indeed onely unto those who are qualified as those Colossians were unto whom our Apostle directs this Epistle Saints and faithfull Brethren Chapt. 1.2 who have received Christ Jesus the Lord rooted and built up in him and established in the faith abounding therein with thanksgiving Chapt. 2. vers 6 7. This restriction is implied thinke some in that the Apostle doth not say ye are compleate from him or by him but ye are compleat in him That clause 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in him containeth say they a description of those that are thus compleate They are such as are in Christ as have an actuall inexistence in him Such as are incorporated and implanted into him by the spirit and faith And they are all new creatures 2. Cor. 5.17 they have all the spirit of Christ Rom. 8.9 Men may take a full draught of a * Musculus Da venant naturall fountaine and yet not goe into it but stand without it But now as for this spirituall fountaine Christ Jesus none can so much as sippe of the water of life in him without passing into him by the act of a faith that purifyeth the heart Acts 15.9 and worketh by love Galat. 5.6 and out of the belly of him that believeth shall flow rivers of living water John 7.38 Branches separate from the vine wither and grow saplesse Members cut off from the head are dead and become carrion Professours disunited from Christ can have no vitall communion with him no participation of any true and reall compleatnesse from him They are but livelesse pictures of Christians have onely a forme of Godlinesse onely the carcasse of that perfection which Christ imparteth unto his members and therefore however they may be for their naturall and acquired endowments most accomplished persons yet as touching spirituals they are next to divels of all creatures most imperfect and incompleate wretched and miserable poore blind and naked Revel 3.17 able to doe nothing John 15.5 In a second place Paul inferreth from the personall union the dignity of the humane nature of Christ in comparison of the good Angels Because in him dwelleth all fulnesse of the Godhead therefore he is the head of all principality and power Here examine we 1. what is meant by principality and power 2. How Christ as man is the head of all principality and power 1. Then enquire we what is meant by principality and power In vers 15. of this chapter and in Ephes 6.12 they signify evill Angels But here they are taken onely for the good Angels Angels which are tearmed in scripture the elect Angels 1 Timoth. 5.21 the Angels of heaven Math. 24.36 the Angells of light 2 Cor. 11.14 the sonnes of God Job 1.6 Job 38.7 who are tearmed 1. Principalities from that excellency which they have by nature and grace above other creatures they are the chiefe of the creation as it were Princes in comparison of other creatures 2. They are stiled powers for that Authority which God hath delegated unto them over other creatures For the restriction of the tearmes here unto the good Angels I shall alleadge 3 arguments 1. This headship is a sequele of the personall union and therefore no meere creature shareth in it But if it denoted barely a superiority over the wicked Angels it were a priviledge communicable unto the good Angels 2. To be head is properly a superiority that is some way or other beneficiall unto those
banner to them that feare thee that it may be displayed because of the trueth If the great men of the world be averse from us slight and contemne us it matters not Christ's desire is unto us Can. 7.10 He will put us as a seale upon his heart and his arme Can. 8.6 Though we have but little favour with the world we have a fulnesse of favour riches of grace with Christ We should not be discouraged at the unspeakable and implacable malice and hatred of our rageing persecutors as long as we have an unexpressible and incomprehensible love of Christ to oppose unto it We should not be dismayed at the depth's of Satans envy and malignity Revel 2.24 For in Chri'sts love there are all dimensions We should not afflict our selves for our povertie meannesse of birth and calling and the like outward abasures For none of them exclude from the grace of Christ He is rich unto all that call upon him We should not therefore despaire of pardon though guilty of many and great enormities For Christ's love passeth knowledge the comprehension of men or Angels and therefore hideth covereth nay quite burieth a multitude of sins All the sinnes of believers But now that prophane persons may not abuse this comfortable doctrine of the fulnesse of Christ's love I shall desire you to take notice of the character that the Scripture giveth of those unto whom it is appropriated The riches of his Glory that is glorious grace is made knowne only on vessells of mercy Rom. 9.23 and vessells of mercy are vessells unto honour sanctified and meet for the masters use and prepared unto every good worke 2 Tim. 2.21 The Lord Jesus Christ is rich in mercy but it is only unto those that call upon him to wit out of an unfeigned faith and undissembled love Rom. 10.12 that have a Spirit of prayer and supplication powred upon them 2. From this fulnesse of Christs love we may be exhorted unto three dutyes 1. Thankefulnesse for it 2. A diligent study and 3. a carefull imitation of it 1. Thankefulnesse for it We will remember thy love more then wine saith the Church unto Christ Cant. 1.4 But she hath a thankfull tongue as well as heart as she remembreth it inwardly in her selfe so with joy and triumph she outwardly publisheth and manifesteth it unto others chap. 2. chap. 3. chap. 7. And this her recognition and commemoration of Christs love is not in a formall dull cold and unpracticall way for it hath such an impression upon her heart as that it makes her even sicke with the love of him Cant. 2.5 It begets in her a love of a most powerfull and unconquerable influence It is a love as strong as death Cant. 8.6 that is it is as forcible and irresistible trampling upon and breaking through all difficulties that occurr in performance of duties unto or undergoing of sufferings for Christ This love is inflamed into jealousy and this jealousy is as cruell or hard as the Grave ibid. that is as inexorable unto all the enemies of Christ unto her most profitable and pleasant sins her darling and most indulged lusts This love is for its intensivenesse motion upwards unto heaven and consumptive efficacy compared unto fire ibid. The coales thereof are as coales of fire which hath a most vehement flame 1. Fire is the hottest of elements So the Churches love of Christ is more solidly intense then her love of any creature whatsoever She is as it were all in a fire with the love of him 2. The motion of fire is upwards towards heaven The love of Christ is as a fiery Chariot whereby a soule is carried up unto heaven 3. Fire burnes all things combustible So love of Christ consumeth all a mans corruptions And whereas elementary fire may be quenched the love of Christ is a celestiall flame Many waters cannot quench it neither can the flouds drowne it Cant. 8.7 It cannot be extinguished or abated by calamities And in the last place it is so sincere and incorrupt as that it cannot be bribed by any treasure If a man would give all the substance of his house for love it would utterly be contemned ib. If your love of Christ reach not this height we have described it comes short of a due gratitude we are unthankfull for Christs fulnesse of love if it be not as a loadstone to attract from us a love of him with all our hearts soules and might In the language of the Scripture we are utterly forgetfull of Christs love if it do not constraine unto duty and restraine from sin We despise the riches of Christs goodnesse grace and bounty forbearance and long-suffering if it do not lead us unto a strict and severe repentance 2. The fulnesse of Christs love may provoke unto a most diligent study of it It is an inexhaust fountaine an unfathomeable ocean a bottomelesse unsearcheable mine There is therefore more then enough in it to satisfy the restlesse inquiries of those that are most curious and thirsty after knowledge In Eph. 3.13,16,17,18 There be 4. Motives unto this study of Christs love 1. The comprehensivenesse 2. the incomprehensiblenesse of this love 3. The subject and 4. the influence of the knowledge thereof 1. The comprehensivenesse of the Love of Christ It takes in all the d Paulus nihil per istas dimensiones intelligit quam Christi charitatem de quâ continuò post significans eum cui verè perfectè cognita est undequaque sapere ae si diaeisset quaquaâ—versùm respiciant homines nihil reperient in salutis doctrinâ quod non huc referendum sit Continet enim una Christi dilectio omnes sapientiae numeros ideo quo facilior sit sensus ita resolvi debent verba ut valeatis comprehendere Christi dilectionem quae est longitudo latitudo profunditas alâ—…tudo sapientiae nostrae hoc est tota perfectio Similitudinem enim sumit à Mathematicis ut à partibus totum desigâ—et Quoniam hic omnium ferè communis est morbus rerum inutilium studio ardere utilis vallè est ista admonitio quod scire nobis expediat quid Dominus considerare nos velit sursum deorsum ad dextram sinistram à fronte à tergo Dilectio Christi nobis proponitur in cujus meditatione nos exerceamus dies ac noctes in quam nos quasi demergamus Hanc unam qui tenet satis habet extra eam nihil est solidum nihil utile nihil â—enique rectum aut sanum Circumeas licet coelum terras maria non altius transcendes quin legitimum sapiendi finem transilias Calvin in Ephes 3. v. 18. dimensions the length breadth depth height of spirituall wisedome all the objects of saving knowledge which are some way or other reducible unto it And hereupon that great Doctor of the Gentiles resolved to study privately and to preach publikely nothing but what did some way or other referre unto that
I shall at large handle those words Math. 28.18 All power is given to me in heaven and in earth Here by power may be understood either a physical power of efficacy or a moral power of authority 1. A physical power of efficacy and that is say some the omnipotency of his God-head or else as others determine a spiritual power of his manhood 1. Some take this all power for the omnipotency of his Godhead and they are againe subdivided 1. Divers Orthodoxe writers affirme that omnipotency is given unto Christ as he is the eternal Son of God Others 2. as the Vbiquitaries hold that it is given unto him as man 1. Divers Orthodoxe writers averre that omnipotency is given unto Christ as he is the eternal Son of God and that againe two waâ—es 1. By eternal generation 2. In respect of the declaration thereof at his resurrection 1. They affirme that omnipotency together with all other divine properties are communicated from the Father unto the Son by eternal generation and whereas perhaps some may think it strange that any thing should be given unto the eternal Son of God to satisfy such they alleadge John 5.26 As the Father hath life in himselfe so hath he given unto the Son to have life in himselfe That is as the Father hath the divine essence or Godhead independently So hath he given unto the Sonne to wit non gratuito dono saith Cajetan sed naturaliâ—generatione to have it also without dependance on any The learned Gillespie in his Aarons rod blossoming c. pag. 217. 218. Undertaketh to prove this interpretation to be agreeable as unto the analogy of faith so also unto the cohesion and dependance of the words Christ saith he being to give a commission to the Apostles to go and preach the Gospel to all nations he first anticipateth a great objection which might arise in the Apostles minds they might thinke how shall we be able to carry the Gospel through the nations We shall have all the powers of the world against us To remove this fear he said all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth as if he had said Doe you believe that I who send you out am the Son of the living God Then know assuredly that my divine power and soveraignty shall be for you and I will so over-rule all the Kings and Potentates and States of the world as may be most for my glory and your good fear not therefore but go and preach to all nations The same Author addeth that all power in heaven and in earth may be said to be given unto Christ as he is the eternal Son of God in another respect namely in respect of the Declaration thereof at his resurrection He was declared to be the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead Rom. 1.4 This sense he tels us Gomarus and others give in answer unto the Vbiquitaries as also that they clear it by Augustin's rule Aliquid dicitur fieri quando incipit patefieri And this is no more strange then to say That Christ was begotten that day when he was raised from the dead Act. 13.33 Unto both these interpretations I oppose these following particulars 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Beza urgeth upon the text against the Lutherans signifieth properly not might and ability but right and authority And why shall we recede from the proper acception of the word without some cogent reason which to me is yet invisible 2. A gift to speak properly is free and arbitrary Whereas the communication of omnipotency unto the Son by eternal generation is natural and necessary and therefore cannot be said to be given unless by a metaphor And then as for manifestation of this omnipitency by the resurrection that is said to be a donation thereof only metonymically Now why should we hunt for tropes as long as the words may fairly be interpreted in their native and proper sense 3. In all probability the power that is here given unto Christ is for it's general nature the same which in the following words he d Loquitur hic non de qualibet potestate sed ea quam Apostolis dabat id est de potestate regni sui spiritualis acquirendi colligendique quam ad rem Apostolos mittâ—bat Maldonat in locum communicates unto his Apostles But this is a power of office and authority a power to teach and baptize all nations and therefore unlikely that the former should be a power of efficacy And these exceptions I make against both interpretations joyntly Against the first I shall yet farther argue in particular And my arguments shall be drawn 1. from the ground 2. From the Antecedent and 3. from a comparison of this donation 1. From the ground of this donation Gods free love and grace Joh. 3.35 Because God loveth the Son therefore he giveth all things into his hands Phil. 2.9 God hath given him a name which is above every name The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth hath given freely and frankly out of grace But now the communication of the God-head and it's properties and consequently omnipotency unto the Sonne is not by grace but by nature For the Father did not beget the Son freely as freedome implieth indifferency and is opposed unto not only coaction but also intrinsecal and naturall necessity Because it was not in the power of the Father to forbeare the begetting of his Son he could not but beget him and therefore the Fathers generation of the Sonne was not say the * Suarez de Deo uno Trino tract 3. de trinitate lib. 6. cap. 4. pag. 445 446. Raynaudus de libertate pag. 52 53. Schoolmen voluntary causally but objectively He willed it not with an antecedent will by way of a cause or principle but with a concomitant will He willed it not with a will of desire but with a will of most perfect complacency or approbation Whereupon he is termed the Son of his love Col. 1.13 the Son in whom he was wel-pleased Math. 3.17 he was well pleased with and delighted in the communication of the Godhead unto him 2. From the Antecedent of this donation c. which is Christ's humiliation and obedience unto the death of the Cross together with his resurrection as appeareth by Phil. 2.7,8,9,10 and Ephes 1.20,21,22 which are places generally looked upon by Interpreters as of the same importance with this in Mathew But now the communication of omnipotency unto the Son by eternal generation can have no such antecedent 3. From a comparison of this donation of all power unto Christ with the sending of him by the Father for the Syriack Interpreter as Beza informeth me quotes Joh. 20.21 as a place paralel unto this As my Father hath sent me so send I you He thought it seemeth that this giving of all-power in heaven and in earth unto Christ was the same with the Father's sending of him And his Fathers sending of him was
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The keyes of an house towne or city are a badge of power and Authority And therefore in the yeelding of places the keyes are render'd unto the conquerour In Garrisons the keyes are every night deposited with the Governour The Steward of an house hath the keyes of it committed unto him Thus it is said of Eliakim the Steward of Hezekiahs pallace Isai 22.20,21,22 And it shall come to passe in that day that I will call my servant Eliakim c. And I will commit thy government into his hand c. And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder so he shall open and none shall shut and he shall shut and none shall open 2 Kings 18.18 That herein he was a type and figure of Christ the principall steward of Gods house is evident by the holy Ghosts application of the words of the place unto Christ Revel 3.7 He hath the key of David he openeth and no man shutteth and shutteth and no man openeth that is saith Diodati he is the soveraigne Lord and governour of his Church whose power is soveraigne and absolute not subject unto any contradiction diction opposition or hinderance Indeed Christ gives unto Peter in the behalfe of all the ministers of the Gospell the keyes of the Kingdome of heaven Math. 16.19 But that as Durand l. 4. dist 18 q. 1. noteth is only a key of ministery The key of excellency saith hee is Christs prerogative as the key of Authority belongs principally unto God Lastly the fulnesse of Christs Kingly office may be proved from the fulnesse of his pastorall office for the duty of a shepherd is as to feed so to governe and protect his flock and hereupon Kings are termed shepherds of their people Now what proofs we have for the fulnesse and perfection of Christ's pastorall office you may read above touching his Propheticall office I come unto a second sort of proofes that confirme Christ's Fulnesse of Authority as Mediatour as man not only in but also out of his Church his Vniversall soveraignty and dominion over all Creatures in Heaven and Earth Heb. 1.2 He hath appointed the sonne heire of all things Estius observeth that there is a Catechresis in the word heire very usuall in Scripture Psal 89.27 Gal. 4.1 For properly an heire succeeds a dead father But the Apostle termes him an heire because his father hath made him as an heire Lord of all things He is the heire the Lord not only of all things in the Church but also of all things in the world He is the heire the Lord of all persons Angels and men elect and Reprobate He is the heire the Lord not only of all persons but of all things whatsoever and that not only by nature as God but by appointment as mediatour according unto the nature which he assumed Whom he hath appointed heire of all things John 3.35 the father loveth the sonne and hath given all things into his hand g Non apponitur hic conjunctio enim quia non referuntur haec verba ad immediate praecedentia sed ad illa qui de caelo venit supra omnia est Et ut penetres contextum adverte quod quum dixisset illa duo scilicet qui de caelo venit supra omnia est quod vidit audivit hoc testatur prosecutus est priùs secundum subjungendo testimonium et reliqua spectantia adtestimonium ejus modo prosequitur primum scilicet qui de coelo venit supra omnia est Et assignat rationem quarè Jesus qui de coelo venit supra omnia est ex paternâ dilectione Pater inquit diligit silium Cajetan fetcheth the coherence of the words not from those immediatly foregoing but from those in v. 31. he that cometh from Heaven is above all Here the Baptist assigneth a reason of this his supremacy It is from his fathers love the father loveth the sonne c. And because love is the ground and reason of this his supreme Authority h Formalis sermo cogit ad inteligendum quod de filio incarnato est sermo Nam dilectio quâ pater diligit filium ratio est quod incarnato omnia tradita sunt non est ratio quòd filio prout est ab aeterno genitus tradita sint omnia Quonia◠non dilectione sed generatione omnia tradita sunt unigenita Dei sed eidem unigenito filia hominis ex paterna dilectione omnia tradita sunt Cajetan concludes that it is to be understood of Christ as he is incarnate the sonne of man for all things are given into his hands as he is the only begotten son of God not by dilection but by eternall generation John 5.22 The father judgeth no man but hath committed all judgment unto the sonne that is say some he hath committed unto him all kingly power power to governe the world and to dispose of all things therein for judgment by a Synechdoche may stand for the whole duty of a king and consequently judiciary power by the like trope may be put for all the power of a king John 13.3 Jesus knowing that the father had given all things into his hands and that he was come from God and went to God Cajetan amongst those all things comprizeth the Devill the heart of Judas and every machination of the Jewes against Christ And that this soveraignty over all things agreeth here unto Christ as man is evident from the following words where we have two grounds of it 1. His incarnation that he was come from God 2. His exaltation that was at hand and went to God The chiefest creatures in heaven and the chiefest creatures in earth are not exempted from his dominion for the chiefest in heaven are the Angels and he is the head of all principalities and dominion Col. 2.10 Angels are made subject unto him 1 Pet. 3.22 The chiefest creatures in earth are men and his dominion extendeth vnto all men Thou hast given him power over all flesh Joh. 17.2 Where by all flesh is understood all men and so it is frequently used in Scripture Isai 40.6 Gen. 6.12 The most renowned and glorious of all the sonnes of men are potentates the Kings and Princes of the earth and even they are subject unto his disposall however they may resist his commands He is the Prince of the kings of the earth Revel 1.5 He hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written King of kings and Lord of Lords chapt 19. v. 16. and 17.14 He can prevaile with his father for the deposing uncrowning and dethroning of whom he pleaseth for the propagation of the Gospell he can depresse a Maxencius and a Licinius and raise a Constantine unto the Imperiall throne But this his Authority reacheth unto more powerfull Princes then any earthly Monarch whatsoever unto death the king of terrors Job 18.14 unto Beelzebub the prince of Devils Math. 9.34 the prince and
Eph. 2.20 in which he will dwell and walke The high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity who dwelleth in the high and holy place would never have dwelt and tabernacled amongst us Joh. 1.14 never have dwelt in the flesh unlesse it had been his gratious purpose to dwell with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit To revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones Isay 57.15 The personall union you see considered single by it's selfe is a very high demonstration of Christ's love unto mankind But it is capable of farther amplification and exaggeration by comparison with his actions and sufferings in our nature Hereby perceive we the love of God because he laid downe his life for us 1 Joh. 3.16 Because Christ who was God laid downe his life for us because he in whom dwelled all fulnesse of the Godhead bodily submitted himselfe unto the shamefull and painfull death of the crosse unto the curse of the law and the wrath of God and that for us that harboured nothing but thoughts of hostility against him This therefore speaks such a matchlesse eminency of love as is beyond the comprehension of either men or Angels To distrust the constancy and future expressions of such a love is a high piece of ingratitude Seeing a person so infinitely great and glorious hath done and suffered so much for the purchase of our salvation we may therefore collect that it was his absolute decree to apply and conferre the salvation thus purchased and consequently to accomplish all things requisite for the compleating thereof He will make knowne the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy which he had afore prepared unto glory Rom. 9.23 Thirdly from the personall union we may be dehorted from embasure of our natures by sin The relative presence of God in the midst of his people was used as an argument against not only Morall but also Leviticall and Ceremoniall uncleannesse Defile not the land which ye shall inhabit wherein I dwell for I the Lord dwell amongst the Children of Israel Num. 35. ver 34. And the Lord said unto mee Son of man the place of my throne and the place of the soles of my feet where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel for ever and my holy name shall the house of Israel no more defile neither they nor their Kings by their whoredome nor by the carcasses of their Kings in their high places Ezek. 43.7 And the Lord spake unto Moses saying Command the Children of Israel that they put out of their camp every leper and every one that hath an issue and whosoever is defiled by the dead c. that they defile not their camp in the midst whereof I dwell Num. 5.1,2,3 Now this relative presence is nothing almost in comparison of that substantiall and personall presence of the Godhead in Christ's humane nature and therefore that is a more effectuall disswasive from the pollution of sin There can be no greater grace shewed towards man then that God should vouchsafe to unite to mans nature the person of his only begotten son Hooker p 297 We should then be very mindlesse of and unthankfull for Gods thus gracing and exalting of our nature if we should by sinfull lusts corruptions defile our natures which are for sort or kind the same with that of the only begotten son of God 4. From this doctrine of the personall union we may first be exhorted unto the worship of Christ 2. Directed in our worship of God 1. We may hence be exhorted unto a divine worship and a religious adoration of him Revel 1.5,6 Chapt. 5.8,12,13,14 Chapt. 7.9,10 the fulnesse of the Godhead in him is the ultimate formall and adequate object of divine worship and calls for a divine faith and trust in him Joh. 6.29 John 14.1 John 16.9 As also for such an height of love as cannot be given unto a meere creature without Idolatry Luk. 14.26 Because he is the Lord therefore serve him with feare and rejoyce with trembling He is the son therefore kisse him least he be angry and ye perish from the way when his wrath is kindled but a little Psalm 2. v. 11 12. He is thy Lord and worship thou him Psal 45.11 He is the Lord of Hosts therefore sanctify him and let him be your feare and your dread Isai 8.13 He is God and none else therefore let every knee bow unto him let every tongue swear by him Isai 45.22,23 He thought it not robbery to be equall with God Phil. 2.6 And therefore let us honour him even as we honour the father Joh. 5.23 He is God over all and therefore let him be blessed for ever Rom. 9.5 He is the mighty God Isai 9.6 therefore let us humble our selves under his mighty hand 1 Pet. 5.6 He is worthy to receive glory honour and power for he hath created all things Revel 4. ult 2. From the personall union we may take direction for our worship of God The Israelites under the old testament were to bring all their holy thinges their offerings and sacrifices before the Altar and Tabernacle and afterwards the Temple the habitation of Gods howse and the place where his honour dwelt Levit. 16.13,14 Deut. 12.5,6 They were to pray and worship towards the city which God had chosen and towards the howse the holy temple which God had built for his name 1 Kings 8.35,44,48 Psalm 5.7 Dan. 6.10 But now the Arke tabernacle and temple were but types of Christ's manhood and the presence of God in them was but typicall In the manhood it selfe there is a personall presence of the Godhead And therefore we should bring all our duties and services all our acts of worship unto Christ man and present them in his name and through his mediation that is in our performance of them we should eye Christ man as the instrument and morall cause meriting of and interceding for their acceptation From above the mercy seate where God dwelt typically betwixt the Cherubims Psalm 80.1.2 Kings 19.15 there God communed with Moses and met with his people Exod. 25.22 Exod. 29.42,43 Numb 7.89 And this was to teach that all the approaches of Gods people unto him and all acts of their communion with him in faith hope love prayers prayses hearing of the word and receiving of his sacraments should be in Christ our alone mercy seate or propitiation 1 Joh. 2.2 as the way and means of their acceptance For in him onely dwelleth all-fulnesse of the Godhead bodily and therefore in him alone for his sake meerely will God be well pleased with our persons and services all the worship and honour that we tender him For farther application of this point I shall referre the reader unto what I have said on Joh. 1.14 and for the present I shall onely dispatch the consideration of those inferences that the Apostle himselfe drawes from it in this place in the words foregoing and
that expression in Joh. 1.18 He is in the bosome of his father that is in his bowels in his dearest and tenderest affections Forâ— as Pelargus upon the place observeth the bosome is the place of love and therefore to be in the bosome of the father is to be dilectissimus the most beloved of the father Thus in common speech intimates are tearmed bosome friends and Joh. 13.23 the disciple whom Jesus loved leaned on his bosome For Lazarus to be in the bosome of Abraham Luk. 15.16 was to have a most intimate loving and friendly fellowship and communion with him and all Believers in glory The intimacy that ought to be betwixt husband and wife is expressed in Scripture by their being mutually in one another's bosomes And therefore the husband is tearmed the husband of the wifes bosome Deut. 28.56 And the wife the wife of her husbands bosome Micah 7.5 Whereas our Saviour in Joh. 17.11,21,22 affirmeth that he and the father are one that the father is in him and he in the father Cajetan and others expound this of that onenesse of affection which is between him as man and the Father Indeed Christ as God is one with the father in regard of the divine essence and will as he himselfe affirmeth John 10.30 But that he is to be considered here as man Cajetan proveth by this at least probable argument Christ is to be considered here as praying Now he prayeth as man and not as God And therefore he speaketh of himselfe as incarnate Christ man and the father are one by the indissoluble bond of mutuall love They dwell in one another by love the father is in the sonne as a person that is loved is in the partie loving And The sonne is in the father as his beloved as he in whom he is well pleased The fulnesse of Christ's grace or favour with the father is in part implied by that metaphoricall expression of Christ's sitting at the right hand of God For in wordly courts this was the highest place next to the King and therefore a marke of speciall and extraordinary favour and hereupon Solomon placed his mother and hu Queene at his right hand 1 King 2.19 Psalm 45.9 In John 3.35 you may gather the eminency of the fathers love of the sonne from the vastnesse of the Authority that he hath committed unto him The father loveth the sonne and hath given all things into his hand Because the father loveth the sonne therefore he hath given all things into his hand therefore he hath submitted the whole universe unto his disposall and government Indeed we may best take the measure of the love of God towards Christ from the fruits and effects thereof that great dignity and Authority those great and glorious endowments with which Christs humane nature was enriched Christ may be said saith Rhada Sup. lib. 3. Senten controver 4 art 3. pag 107. To be beloved by and gratious with God in regard of a threefold gratiousnesse The first is terminated to the person of the word and t is that love wherewith the Father loveth Christ as his naturall and onely begotten son and therefore t is as substantiall so naturall and necessary for t is the same love wherewith he loveth himselfe and besides t is in every regard infinite for the person loving is infinite and the person beloved is Infinite and so infinitely lovely and amiable The second is terminated to the manhood and belongs to the grace of union and this be tearmeth a personall gratiousnesse and he describeth it to be the free and spontaneous love of God by which he imparted unto the humanity the personall being of the word and therefore infinitely beloved of God The third gratiousnesse of Christ is accidentall and agreeth unto his manhood by habituall grace which formally perfected his soule and elevated it to a participation of the divine nature thereby rendred it very gratious and acceptable in the eyes of God Of that I have spoken already and of these I shall hereafter treat at large The scripture acquaints us with two reasons that invest him into this high favour of God 1. his relation unto him 2. His service of him 1. His relation unto him Because he was his onely begotten sonne Math. 3.17 Math. 17.5.2 Pet. 1.17 In which words there be 4. particulars that signify the singularity of the fathers love unto Christ 1. The q Notanda est in Graeco inculcatio articuli 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quae emphasin habet ad significandum filium naturalem ac propriè ex ipso genitum dum dicitur Ille filius meus ille dilectus Estius in 2 pet 1.17 Articulum duplicem expressi cujus videtur hic esse emphasis maxima non tam ut distinguatur à filiis aliis â—… cùm fit unigenitus quà m ad dignitatis commendationem Nos enim non naturâ sed adoptione sumus silii quâ ratione etiam Christus ipse dicitur primogenitus inter multos fratres quia licet unicus sit proprio jure princeps tamen est inter multos quatenus adoptionis fons est ac caput Beza in Matth. 17.5 repetition of the demonstrative Article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for that hath it's weight and importeth that he is beloved of the father by way of excellency And therefore some expresse the force of doubling the Article thus this is that my sonne that my beloved The doubling of the Article then doth not so much difference him from as advance him above all other sonnes whether Saints or Angels For he is a sonne by nature they by adoption in which regard he is called the first borne among many brethren because though he be of right the onely sonne yet he is chiefe among many in that he is the fountaine and head of our adoption and therefore hath the supremacy in the affection of the father For the father to say that he is his sonne is a sufficient intimation of his affection unto him But he addeth 2. that he is his r Additur autem dilectus graecè 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non restrictionis causa tanquam Deus filium naturalem habeat aliquem non sibi dilectum quod in hominibus persaepe contingit sed ut epithetum necessarium Neque enim potest filiusey Deo naturaliter genitus in quo perfecta est similitudo patris non esse ei perfecto summoquè amore dilectus Estius 2 Pet. 1.17 beloved sonne The word beloved is added not for restrictions sake as if God had any naturall sonne unbeloved as it often happens amongst men but as a necessary epithete For the sonne begotten naturally of God in whom there is the perfect similitude of the father cannot but be beloved by the father with a perfect and the highest love 3. The father doth not content himselfe to say that he is his beloved sonne but affirmeth farther that he is his beloved sonne in whom he is well pleased Men may have sonnes whom they
God will make plentifull provision for all their wants It is the inference of the Apostle himselfe Rom. 8.32 He that spared not his owne sonne but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things He that soared not his owne sonne his deare son his most tenderly beloved sonne but delivered him up for us all unto the slaughter how shall he not with him freely give us all things that is all things needfull for our eternall happinesse and salvation all things that pertaine to life and godlinesse 2 Pet. 1.13 The promises of the life that now is and of that which is to come 1 Timoth. 4.8 4. They may hence be certaine of a continuall confirmation of their graces and preservation from Apostacy Gods t If Kings bear goodwill to some family if his love begin in some chief one who is with him at court as his speciall favourite it is so much the firmer to all the rest of them Thus here how firme and sure is his love to us whoâ—n he hath loved unto life in Christ our head and eldest brother who is his naturall sonne from whom it is impossible that his love should ever start and when it is sure to the head can the body be forsaken Mr Bayne on Eph. â— ver 4. pa. 39. love of them is like his love of him immutable Thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me saith Christ Joh. 17.23 If the head be alwaies the beloved the members can never be hated The fruits therefore of this love the gifts and callings of God are without repentance Rom. 11.29 If the naturall sonne of God be daily his delight and that as well unto as from eternity Therefore with everlasting kindnesse he will have mercy on his adoptive sonnes The mountaines shall depart and the hils be removed But my kindnesse shall not depart from them neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed saith the Lord that hath mercy on them Isai 54.8,10 But now if he should not uphold and establish them by his spirit Psalm 51.12 if he should not continually support and underprop their graces but suffer them totally and finally to decay and wither this would be a palpable withdrawing of his loving kindnesse and a shutting up his tender mercies in anger Besides the sonnes love of them resembleth the fathers love of him Joh. 15.9 As the father hath loved me so have have I loved you Now there is no change in the fathers love of him therefore neither in his love of them And therefore we may conclude that as it is their duty so it shall be their priviledge and happinesse to continue in his love The Apostle Paul professeth in the behalfe of all believers that nothing can divorce them from the love of God in Christ that is for Christ I am perswaded saith he that neither death nor life nor Angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord Rom. 8.38,39 In those last words which is in Christ Jesus our Lord The Apostle layeth downe the ground of the perpetuity of God's love of his children 'T is not in themselves but in Christ Jesus that is it is for his sake for that unalterable affection which he beareth unto him Lastly from the eminency of God's favour unto Christ his members may with confidence expect the perfect and full glorification of their soules and bodies hereafter in heaven For our Saviour himselfe in that prayer of his Joh. 17. having petitioned for the glory of all that were to believe on him he inforceth this his petition by representing unto the Father the love that he hath borne unto him as man from all eternity Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with mee where I am that they may behold my glory which thou hast given mee for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world ver 24. Is is as if he had said That love which thou bearest unto me expresse unto those that are mine As thou loved'st mee invest them with that glory which thou hast decreed unto my humanity Believers then may as confidently expect their owne glory as they are assured of the Fathers affection unto Christ and this assurance should digest all their sorrowes and miseries here in this life From Consolations I proceed unto Exhortations and they shall be directed either unto the enemies or members of Christ 1. Then for enemies and aliens they may hence be exhorted 1. Unto humiliation for their past enmity against Christ 2. Unto a serious and earnest endeavour after reconciliation and union with him 1. Unto humiliation for their past enmity against him and his his members ministers and other ordinances Who dare almost oppose the Minions of earthly Princes for History presents us with plentifull instances of such whom their very frownes have ruined O then the hatred of heavens favourite must needs be infinitely more fatall and unfortunate Because he is able to crush his most potent adversaries tremble then to consider that all thy life long thou hast hated the beloved loathed and abhorred God's darling been averse from the Son of his love rejected his elect servant in whom his soule delighteth been a most disaffected and malignant Antagonist unto him in whom the Father is well-pleased 2. Because Christ is so highly graced with God all his enemies may be exhorted to doe what lieth in them for the future for reconciliation and union with him by application of themselves unto the diligent use of such meanes and ordinances as God hath sanctified and set apart for that purpose For those that are not united with him cannot expect so much as a good look from God because God is reconciled onely in him 2 Cor. 5.19 he accepts none but in the beloved Ephes 1.6 He is well pleased with none but such as are in him Those that are out of him lye under the displeasure and wrath of God which is a consuming fire In terrene courts how ambitious are men to be related unto the grand favourite as knowing that he is the channell of all considerable preferments Should it not then be the utmost ambition of men to have relation unto Christ for through him onely God dispenseth all saving favours unto the sonnes of men We may say of him in reference unto God as Tacitus did of Sejanus the powerfull favourite of Tiberius ut quisque Sejano intimus ita ad Caesaris amicitiam validus Contrà quibus infensus esset metu ac sordibus conflictebantur He that was an intimate of Sejanus needed not with any great labour search for honours He that had him his enemy languished under dispraise and misery None had any honour without his favour Neither without him could any keep any place of either profit or credit with security Besides
I shall yet farther propound by way of motive to stirre up unto this union this following difference betwixt the Court of Heaven and those of earth Though men do not shine and glitter in earthly Courts they may be safe in a retired privacy But now in the Court of Heaven there is no middle betwixt the two extreams of intimacy and hatred They are all either enemies or intimates Those are under a cloud that are not in grace and favour All they are rejected that are not accepted in the beloved And therefore in disunion from Christ there is nothing to be expected but rejection disgrace shame everlasting contempt and confusion I passe on unto those exhortations that concerne the members of Christ and they are seven 1. If we compare the transcendency of Gods love of Christ with the greatnesse of his sufferings for their sins this will afford a strong argument unto an hatred of and sorrow or humiliation for sinne For nothing can more lively discover the hainousnesse of sin and the terrour of Gods wrath against it Christ was an object of a fulnesse of grace and favour and withall he was the object of a fulnesse of wrath as our sins were charged upon him as our surety He was wounded for our transgressions bruised for our iniquities Isai 53.5 For the transgressions of my people was he stricken ver 8. He made his soule an offering for sinne ver 10. God would never have used such a rigour and extremity of severity towards his deare Sonne for sinne imputed to him if sinne had not beene a thing which he infinitely abhorred O what horrour is there in that for which God was u Irae autem hujus objectum fuit Christus non absolute sed tantummodo quoad paenam quae per iram infertur quam ille tanquam sponsor noster subivit Ames med Theol. lib. 1. c. 22. sect 9. angry with the son of his love for which for a while he deserted him in whom he was well pleased which turned the favourable countenance of a loving father into frownes against a beloved sonne 2. They may hence be exhorted unto a fulnesse in their love of Christ If he be the beloved of God it is fit that he should be their beloved too that they may say unto him as the Church Cant. 1.7 O thou whom our soule loveth He is in the bosome of the Father therefore he should be no stranger unto our bosomes We should alwaies lodge him in our hearts thoughts and affections We should not be cold and remisse in our love of the Sonne of Gods love He ever was is and will be the delight of God and therefore our complacency should be in him above all the creatures God hath set his whole love upon him and therefore we semblably should set our whole hearts upon him also and not divide them betwixt him and the creature betwixt him and our corruptions 3. The members of Christ may hence be provoked unto thank-fulnesse and that both unto the father and unto Christ himselfe 1. Unto the father and that in regard of two considerations 1. Because his love of him is the Originall of his love of us 2. The giving of a person so highly beloved unto the death for us is a most evident demonstration of the unmeasurablenesse of his affection unto us 1. Then let us glorify him for the fulnesse of his love unto Christ as man and mediatour because it is the Originall of all the love that he bareth unto his Children if we speake of Gods love quoad effectum that is it is the fountaine of all the good decreed unto them Christ's election is the cause of our election non quoad actum eligentis not of the act of election for that being in God is the same with God himselfe and therefore independant and without a cause but quoad res electione praeparatas as touching the grace and glory unto which we are by election designed All the fruits and effects of our election are derived unto us from Christ's election And if Christ as man had not been elected unto the grace of personall union a fulnesse of habituall grace and perfection of glory we had been for ever rejected from the presence and favour of God If he had not beene the sonne of Gods love we had all of us been for ever Children of wrath and sonnes of perdition and therefore is it that John the Baptist in his testimony of Christ ascribes unto him the comming of grace or favour unto men The law was given by Moses but grace c. came by Jesus Christ Joh. 1.17 If Jesus Christ had not come in the flesh the grace of God that bringeth salvation had never appeared unto the sonnes of men Tit. 2.11 but they had all of them for ever layne under the curse and condemnation of the Law In that benediction of the Apostle 2 Cor. 13.14 grace is appropriated unto Christ and that not onely as God but also as man The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ He was in himselfe the principall object of Gods grace and favour he was the meritorious cause of it's derivation unto us He purchased and procured all the grace and favour we enjoy with God Hence also is it that the Angels in their doxologie averre that the good will of God accrewed unto men by Christ incarnate Luk. 2.14 After the fall all the expressions of Gods good will unto mankind were for the merits of his beloved In him alone he was well pleased Our Saviour himselfe Joh. 17.24 prayeth for the glorification of believers upon the account of his Fathers love of him Father I will that they also whom thou hast given mee be with mee where I am that they may behold my glory which thou hast given mee for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world This sufficiently intimates that they owe all their glory unto Gods love of Christ as man and mediatour for otherwise there were little congruence in bringing this as an argument to back his prayer for that If God then had not loved Christ before the foundation of the world lapsed man could never have been glorified never have seen the face of God in heaven God hath blessed us saith the Apostle with all spirituall blessings in Christ Eph. 1.3 that is for Christ's sake All the sweet and precious promises of the Gospell are as so many beames of Gods love and that they shine upon us it is onely by reflection from this Sun of righteousnesse If the light of Gods countenance had not shined upon him we had still sate in darknesse and in the shadow of death Not so much as one promise of the Gospell had ever shone upon our poore soules for all the promises of God in him are yea and in him Amen that is they are all made and performed for him 2 Cor. 1.20 2. The dearnesse of Christ unto the Father compared with the Fathers exposall of him unto death for us
clearly demonstrates the matchlesse eminency of the Fathers love unto us and so is a very pressing argument for our thanksgiving See what our Saviour himselfe speakes in exaltation and as it were admiration of this love Joh. 3.16 God so loved the world that he gave his onely begotten sonne c. The particle so points out such an height of love as is unexpressible Ransacke all the Poëts and in all their fictions you can find no paralell unto this love That he should seeme for a time to suspend his love unto his beloved that he might extend his love unto enemies unto traytors and rebels that he should deliver up the sonne of his love unto the utmost severity and rigour of the law for the ransome of Children of wrath that he should not spare him for this intent that he might spare them that hee should make him a curse to redeeme them from the curse of the law Galat. 3.13 that hee should scourge him to heale them Isai 53.5 punish him to save them give him up unto death that they might enjoy eternall life that he should desert him in point of consolation that they might not be eternally lost but embraced in the armes of his love for ever O this speaketh the most transcendent love that ever God shewed towards any miserable creature And therefore the most enlarged thankes and praises will fall infinitely short of it In the next place if we consider the connexion of this fulnesse of Gods love unto Christ with Christ's fulnesse of love unto us we shall find very great reason for the direction of our thankes and praises unto Christ himselfe as well as unto the Father We have these two fulnesses of love connexed by Christ under the name of wisdome Prov. 8.30,31 Though he was by God as one brought up with him and was daily his delight rejoycing in the habitable part of his earth and his delights were with the sons of men Which passage we may expound by those words of our Saviour Joh. 15.3 As the Father hath loved me so have I loved you O what an astonishable condescention is there in this love of our Saviour that the darling and onely beloved of the great God of glorious heaven should fetch a spouse from this miserable earth should cast his eye and set his heart upon such forlorne creatures and depraved sinners as we are that he which is in the bosome of the Father should take such despicable wretches as we are into his owne bosome marry us unto himselfe and rejoyce over us as a Bridegroome rejoyceth over his bride Isai 62.5 Such was the happinesse of Christ in the fruition of his Fathers eternall love as that it was uncapable of any further improvement But yet notwithstanding this his happy state and condition he stooped so low as to make his rebellious servants the objects of a boundlesse affection Was not this as it were a debasing of himselfe and such a mercy unto us as is above recompence All that we can do is humbly and thankfully to acknowledge admire and adore it to resigne up our selves unto the service of him and unto suffering for him if he honour us with a call thereunto and to make it the chiefest matter of our care to decline whatsoever is unsuitable unto this high place of grace and favour with him and will reflect any dishonour or reproach thereon 4. The height of Christs grace and favour with God should prevaile with us for obedience unto his doctrine and submission unto his directions This use was made of it by Christ himselfe Prov. 8.30,32 c. I was dayly his delight Now therefore hearken unto me O ye Children for blessed are they that keepe my wayes vers 33. Heare instruction and be wise and refuse it not It is also pressed by his father in his transfiguration Math. 17.5 This is my beloved son in whom I am well-pleased Heare ye him that is in the language of scripture obey him accept him not onely as a priest to satisfy for you as a redeemer to save you but also as a prophet to instruct you as a King and soveraigne Lord to governe and guide you The onely begotten sonne is alone in the bosome of the father and therefore best acquainted with his mind and will and consequently best qualified and enabled for the revelation thereof He onely can declare him for no man besides him hath seen God at any time Joh. 1.18 Unto him therefore in his word let us onely have recourse for instruction in things towards God And unto such instructions let us lend an open eare and heart let us yield a ready and full conformity without farther consulting with flesh and bloud 5. Because Christ is in such great grace and favour with God it will be discretion to have all our addresses unto and worship of God in his name through his mediation He is the powerfull favourite of heaven and therefore all accesses unto the God of Heaven are by him all dispatches from heaven unto earth passe through him not a promise not a saving mercy not a word of peace and comfort is conveyed unto a believing soule but through his mediatorship The greatest part of publicke ceremoniall worship under the law was lawfull and acceptable unto God onely at the Temple in Jerusalem Sacrifices were to be offered onely upon the Altar there Isai 20.4 and 56.7 The Temple and Altar were herein types of Christ in whom alone the whole morall worship and service of God is acceptable out of him God rejecteth and looketh upon the most glorious performances as heathenish abominations as the butchery of a man the cutting off a dogs neck the offering swines bloud the blessing of an Idol Isay 66.3 It is in the beloved alone that God accepteth of and is well pleased with as our persons so our services all prayers preferred all duties performed in his name will speed well and find a gracious and favourable reception It is related in Plutarch of Themistocles that when he fled from the fury of his Citizens unto Admetus King of the Molossians whom yet he had formerly provoked he tooke the Kings little young sonne in his armes and went and kneeled downe before the Altar in his chappel which humble manner of sueing the Molossians tooke to be most effectuall and such as was not to be refused When being pursued by the guilt and cry of our sinnes the rigorous sentence of the law the accusations of Sathan and the terrours of our owne conscience for them we runne unto an incensed God for mercy there is no way to appease him but to take his deare sonne in the armes of our faith and to lodge or offer him as it were upon the Altar of his bosome This is such an enforcing manner of supplication as that God in his new covenant of grace hath engaged himselfe unto a complyance with it 6. Because Christ is so eminently gracious with God the father we should be stirred
Priests bearing the names of the children of Israel upon his two x Quod verò spectat usum Ephod seu amiculi debuit reliquis vestibus summi Sacerdotis superindui eidem pectorale inseri in gemmis quae humero aptarentur habere nomina duodecim filiorum Israel ut significaret Christum Ecclesiam ejusque membra omnia semper in memoria habere etiam obverso tergo propter amorem ardentissimum quo eos prosequitur ac propter ipsos coram Deo semper apparere Heb. 7.16 Rivet in locum shoulders for a memoriall as well as on his breast plate ver 12. His heart is towards them when his face is not I shall close all these testimonies with that of the Apostle Paul Ep. 3.18,19 then which no one place of Scripture more fully expresseth the transcendency of Christs love unto us 1. Vers 18. He ascribes unto Christ's love one dimension more then Naturalists attribute unto bodies not onely length breadth depth but also height a Dickson in locum Length in regard of it's eternity breadth in respect of it's extent unto all ages and orders of men unto the Catholique Church scattered over the face of the whole earth depth in regard of it's condescension unto a deliverance of us out of an abysse of sinne and misery Height in regard of it's exaltation of us unto an heavenly happinesse Aquinas as Estius informeth mee thinkes that the Apostle here alludeth unto Job 11.8,9 It is as high as heaven what canst thou doe Deeper then Hell what canst thou know the measure thereof is longer then the earth and broader then the sea But now in vers 19. we have this immensity of Christ's love set forth more plainly The love of Christ passeth knowledge that is cannot be perfectly fully and exactly knowne either by men or Angels The Apostle thinks b Videri potest Apostolus respice real Gnosticos qui hoc superbo nomine sese nuncupaverunt à scientia quam sihi peculiariter venditabant utitur enim vocabulo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Atqui longè majus est scire charitateÌ„ Christi â—…pote quae universam Gnosticorum omniúmque Philosophorum scientiam excedit quia mysterium charitatis Christi quâ semetipsum pro nobis tradidit in cor hominis cujusquam non ascendit sicut in genere de hujusmodi mysteriis sapientiae Christianae testatur Apostolus 1. Cor. 2.9 Estius seems to have regard unto the Gnosticks who called themselves by this proud name from that knowledge which they pretended unto above others To take them off from this overweening conceit the Apostle tels them that the love of Christ is so incomprehensible as that it surpasseth all the capacity of our wits fully to conceive it in our minds and therefore it is able to puzzle and non-plus them and all others that vainly boast a knowledge of darke and hidden mysteries Unto these testimonies I shall adde two other arguments of the fulnesse of Christs love 1. The freenesse of it And 2. the unmeasurablenesse of it's fruits or effects 1. The absolute freenesse of it It was neither for his advantage as an end nor for our deservings as a motive He first loved us 1 Joh. 4.19 While we were sinners Christ died for us Rom. 5.8 When we were enemies we were reconciled unto God by the death of his Sonne vers 10. As it is unmerited so secondly its fruits and effects to wit his purchase and application of our redemption are unmeasurable by our understandings here in this life 1 His purchase of our redemption not by corruptible things as silver and gold but with the precious bloud of Christ 1 Pet. 1.18,19 did so farre exceed humane reason as that it became thereunto a rocke of offence Greater love saith our Saviour hath no man then this that a man lay downe his life for his friend Joh. 15.13 But he himselfe hath given us a greater expression of his owne love He hath laid downe his life for enemies for traytours and rebels and besides this life that he laid downe cannot be equalled by the lives of the greatest of all the sons of men For it was the life of the Son of God and therefore of peerelesse and inestimable value 1 Joh. 3.16 2. As for his application of our redemption if we endeavour to search it unto the bottome it will be found farre to surmount humane reach Is not the originall of it our election one of the most mysterious points in all Divinity are not the parts of it vocation justification adoption sanctification glorification all matters of perplext difficulty Alas how endlesse intricate are the disputes of most learned Theologues touching their nature order and distinction And we should but flatter our selves to expect a decision of these disputes fully and clearely satisfactory as long as we remaine cloathed with corruptible flesh To make now some briefe application of this fulnesse of Christ's love unto us 1. It yeilds abundant consolation unto all true believers That may be said of them which was prophesied of Naphtali Deut. 33.23 They shall be satisfied with favour and full of the blessing of the Lord. The earth is full of the goodnesse of the Lord Psal 33. â—5 Therefore much more the Church Riches of patience long suffering and forbearance are extended unto vessels of wrath Rom. 9.22 Rom. 2.4 therefore undoubtedly the c Divitias gloriae pro gloriofissimas Hebraismus Pareus riches of glory that is glorious grace or the most glorious riches of grace Rom. 9.23 shall be heaped and poured upon vessels of mercy If Christ as a private person out of Charity unto the humane nature as * Dr Twisse some hold did commiserate the impenitent Jewes and wept over them Luk. 19.41 O then what yearning of bowels what tendernesse of compassion is there in him by vertue of his office as he is mediator towards those whom his father hath given him If our hearts be sad and disconsolate our spirits weary wounded and heavy laden with the sense of sinne Why Christ's love saith the Church is better then wine Cant. 1.2 Wine is a very comfortable creature making glad the heart Psal 104.15 and the life merry It maketh the needy and those that are of heavy heart to forget their poverty and remember their misery no more Prov. 31.6,7 and therefore may very well by a synecdoche be put for all worldly delights The words then may be thus paraphrased Thy love is sweeter more comfortable pleasant and rejoycing the heart then the choicest of earthly pleasures If we are assayled by our Corruptions within by temptations afflictions and persecutions without why Christ's love is a banner over us animating us to quit our selves as becommeth the souldiers of the Lord of Hosts for the use of a banner standard or ensigne is as to draw and keepe souldiers togeither Isay 5.26 and 11.10 So also to encourage them Psal 60.4 thou hast given a
great expression of Christs love his death upon the crosse 1 Cor. 2.2 I determined not to know any thing among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified Indeed Christs love is the epitome and center the fulfilling of both Law and Gospell Rom. 13.8 it was out of love that he performed the duties and sufferd the penalties of the law for us It is out of love that he hath revealed and will accomplish the promises of the Gospell unto us A second motive unto the study of the love of Christ is the incomprehensiblenesse of it It passeth knowledge and therefore though we arrive unto never so great a degree in our knowledge of the love of Christ yet still there will be a terra incognita place for new and farther discoveries Christs love is a structure of vast indeed infinite extent It is as it is said of God Iob. 11.8,9 As high as heaven deeper then hell larger then the earth and broader then the sea and therefore impossible we should exactly measure it in all these dimensions However let us labour to measure it as exactly as we can that we may comprehend so much of the length breadth depth and height thereof as is discoverable by the saints here in this life The love of Christ then is a most spacious object for contemplation in the meditation of which we may exercise our selves day and night and into which to use the expression of Calvin nos quasi demergamus we may as it were plunge our selves over head and eares as into an ocean that hath no bottome A third motive in this place is from the proper and adequate subject of this knowledge That ye may be able to comprehend with all Saints c. The knowledge of Christs love is the priviledge of the saints common unto all believers and withall it is so proper and peculiar unto them as that it belongs unto none but saints If thou hast an effectuall and applicative knowledge though but in a remisse degree of the transcendent love of Christ thou art then a saint and if thou art a gratious faint here on earth thou maist be confident that thou shalt be a glorious saint in heaven But now if on the other side thou livest dyest in ignorance or meerely in a notionall or uneffectuall knowledg of the love of Christ thou can'st have no evidence of thy saintship And if thou art not a saint here thy portion will be with damned Fiends and Divels in hell hereafter A fourth motive is the influence of the knowledge of Christ's love and that is 1. preservative from fainting in tribulations here 2. preparative for the allfulnesse of God in heaven hereafter 1. Preservative from fainting in tribulation here And this may be gathered from comparison of these verses with the foregoing For vers 13. The Apostle dehorts them from fainting at the newes of his troubles I desire that you faint not at my tribulation for you and in the following verses he backes this dehortation with a most humble and fervent petition the preface unto which we have verses 14 15. for this cause I bow my knee unto the father of our Lord Jesus Christ c. The matters or things petitioned for are three 1. Corroboration and confirmation by the spirit of God vers 16. that he would grant you according unto the riches of his glory to be strengthned with might by his spirit in the inner man 2. A further union with Christ vers 17. and 3. which belongs unto our purpose a practicall and experimentall apprehension of the love of Christ that ye may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge c. 18 19. By this coherence you see that a feeling and efficacious knowledge of Christs love and the dimensions thereof will embolden and hearten the saints in their owne and others troubles and as a soveraigne cordiall keep them from all despondency and sinking of spirit A second branch of its influence is preparative for the all fullnesse of God vers 19. I bow my knees unto the father of our Lord Jesus Christ vers 14. that ye may be able to comprehend c. and to know the love of Christ c. that ye might be filled with all the fullnesse of God vers 18 19 that is with a full knowledge of God in the beatificall vision the full image of God a full participation of the divine nature a full union with fruition of God full and immediate influences from God according unto that of the Apostle 1 Cor. 15.28 God shall be all in all that is in all the elect he shall be vice omnium instead of all ordinances unto their soules instead of all meanes and helpes unto their bodies And I saw no temple therein for the Lord God almighty and the Lamb are the Temple of it And the city had no need of the Sun neither of the Moone to shine in it for the glory of God did lighten it and the Lamb is the light thereof Revel 21.22,23 The meaning of the place is that God shall immediatly by himselfe supply the efficiency of all second causes whatsoever Before I leave these words I shall out of them direct unto a cause of the knowledge of the love of Christ to wit to be rooted and grounded in love vers 17. that is either in our assurance of Gods love in Christ unto us or else in the habit of our love unto God and Christ I bow my knees unto the father c. that ye being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend know the love of Christ c. They which are rooted and grounded in love are able to reach the dimensions of Christs love to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge c. A full and firme assurance of Gods love in Christ unto us and our firme and constant love of God and Christ will put us upon a most industrious search after all the secrets of Christs love unto our soules Whereas on the other side those that either despaire or doubt of that love of God and Christ as also those that have but faint affections and inconstant desires towards them all such make but a very slow progresse in the study and knowledge of Christs love The last exhortation is unto an imitation of this fulnesse of love Walke in love saith the Apostle as Christ also hath loved us and hath given himselfe for us an offering and a sacrifice unto God c Ephes 5.2 In which words we have 1. An exhortation unto the duty of love walke in love 2. A direction unto a patterne whereunto we must conforme our selves in performance of this duty 1. As for the exhortation it is observed by the solid and judicious Zanchy that it is not barely to love but to walke in love that is to passe the whole course of our life to spend all
our dayes in the fruits and offices of love so that all our actions flow from love be manaâ—…d in love and end in love 2. The Apostle directs us to conforme our selves herein unto Christs love of us Walke in love as Christ hath loved us There be foure things especially wherein our love of our brethren should be conformable unto Christs love of us 1. Constancy 2. Freenesse 3. Selfe-denyall and humility 4. Reality of expressions 1. Constancy As God he hath loved us from everlasting Prov. 8.30 As man he loveth his owne in the world unto the end Iohn 13.1 That is for ever Our love of our Brethren should therefore be perpetuall and not be altered interrupted or abated by their petty unkindnesses much lesse by the greatest and most miserable change of their outward condition Prov. 17.17 2. Freenesse He died for the ungodly and for sinners Rom. 5.6,8 He loved us in the very height of our rebellion How did he weep over Jerusalem and bemoane its sad fate though it were a place replenisht with persons that breathed nothing but hostility against him Luk. 19.41,42 c. And at his death how fervently prayed he for the pardon of his rageing and insulting crucifyers Luk. 23.34 If we will walke by this patterne of Christs love we must exercise some love unto the most impious and undeserving wretches imaginable We must love our enemies blesse them that curse us doe good to them that hate us and pray for them which despitefully use us and persecute us Math. 5.44 3. Our love must be conformable unto Christs love in the selfe-denyall and humility of it 2 Cor. 8.9 Phil. 2.5,6,7,8 His love was so humble as that it condescended unto the very washing of his disciples feet Iohn 13. We must so farr deny our selves in our love as to shew it though it make nothing unto our advantage nay though it make much unto our disadvantage though it be with the hazard of peace reputation wealth and in some cases of life We must stoop unto the lowest and meanest offices of love especially to promote the good of soules Lastly we should imitate Christs love in the reality of its expressions He went about all his life doing good Act. 10.38 and at last sacrificed 〈◊〉 life for us and therefore we should love not in word neither in tongue but in deed and in truth 1 Ioh. 3.18 Iam. 2.15,16 There should be a labour and worke of our love 1 Thes 1.3 Heb. 6.10 that is our love should be laborious and working ministering unto the saints Christs love was so liberall as that he gave himselfe his blood his life his soule for us and he communicates unto us the satisfaction and merit of his sufferings the graces of his spirit and all his communicable prerogatives There should be likewise such a franke disposition in our love as that we should impart what we hold dearest for the good of Gods Church and people We should lay downe our lives for some brethren 1 Iohn 3.16 Thus Aquila and Priscilla for the life of Paul laid downe their owne necks Rom. 16.3,4 Christ expressed his love in forgiving those that offend as well as in giving those that want He forgiveth us ten thousand talents infinite treasons and rebellions we should not therefore be inexorable unto our brethren for a debt of an hundred pence Math. 18. from verse 24. unto the end of the chapter I proceed unto the second fulnesse of grace that dwelleth and inhereth in Christ's humanity The fulnesse of the grace of the spirit which shall be by me with all possible brevity and plainnesse 1. explained and cleared 2. confirmed 3. applied 1. For explication In the words of the Apostle under this sence we have an adjunct grace set forth unto us 1. By its extent and excellency 2. By its subject 3. By its inhesion in that subject 4. By its cause and originall 1. The extent and excellency of it is expressed in two severall gradations It was 1. A fulnesse 2. An all-fulnesse of grace 2. It s subject was Christs humane nature in him that is in Christ as man 3. We have the inhesion of this adjunct grace in this subject him dwelleth Of which terme I conceive choice is made to denote that this all-fulnesse was in Christ after a permanent and fixed manner it dwelled in him Sutable to which expression is that of the Prophet Isaiah chap. 11. ver 2. And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him Vbi verbum requiescit saith Suarez ibi indicat permanentiam per modum habitus The word rest signifieth the permanency and constancy of abode that the spirit was to make in him it was habitually to rest in him 4. Lastly we have the cause of all of all this fulnesse dwelling in him the decree of the father It pleased the father that in him should all fulnesse dwell Christ owed it not either to his owne or others merits but solely to the free purpose and independant pleasure of heaven Indeed the word father is not found in the Originall yet it is understood and therefore rightly supplied by Erasmus who herein is followed by the best translations All that I shall say in farther unfolding these words as understood of Christ's habituall grace shall be in giving satisfaction unto these two questions 1. What is meant by this fulnesse of grace in Christ 2. How an all-fulnesse of grace can be said to be in his humane nature 1. What is meant by this fulnesse of grace in Christ Antonius Delphinus upon John 1.14 puts a difference between these two expressions To be full of grace and to have the fulnesse of grace A river nay a pit or pond the least vessell or measure may be full of water only a fountaine the sea hath in it a fulnesse of water A starr a beame nay a glasse inlightned by the Sun may be full of light only the Sun hath in it the fulnesse of light Even so divers of the saints the virgin Mary Iohn the Baptist Zacharias Elizabeth and Stephen are in Scripture said to be full of the holy Ghost and grace full as vessells as streames full as starrs as beames But Christ only had in him the fulnesse of grace he was full of grace as a fountaine as a sea as a sun He was not only full of grace but the fulnesse of grace dwelled in him so that in his grace there was an all-sufficiency an indeficiency 1. An all-sufficiency sufficient it was for ornament unto himselfe and for influence upon others He had so much as was requisite for the dispensation of all his offices and for transacting all businesses belonging to his Church and as was necessary for his filling up all the emptinesse of grace expelling all the fulnesse of sinne and supplying all the defects and wants possible in his members 2. An indeficiency It will never faile Chrysostome in the beginning of his 13. Homily upon the first of John illustrates this by the
Now that this progressive fulnesse is attainable here in this life may be evinced From the commendations that are given in Scripture unto the Saints for it from the exhortations to it from the prophesies promises and relations of it from the prayers both of petition and thanksgiving for it that occurre in Scripture 1. From the commendations that are given in Scripture unto the Saints for it as unto Elizabeth Luk. 1.41 Zacharias v. 67. Stephen Act. 6.8 7.55 Dorcas Act. 9.36 and Barnabas Act. 11.24 one part of the character of the Angell of the Church of Smyrna is that notwithstanding his outward poverty he was yet rich Rev. 2.9 to wit inwardly towards God Luk. 12.21 with true riches Luk. 16.11 Paul witnesseth of the Corinthians 2 Cor. 8.7 that they did abound in every thing in faith and utterance and knowledge and diligence and in their love towards the Ministers of the Gospel and he gives also as large a testimony of the better part of the Romans such as were strong and growne Christians I my selfe also saith he am perswaded of you my brethren that ye also are full of goodnesse filled with all knowledge able to admonish one another Rom. 15.14 In which words we have three things considerable 1. What fort of fulnesse it was that the Apostle speakes of 2. The matter of it goodnesse and all knowledge 3. The result or sequel of it That ye may be able also to admonish one another 1. Enquire we what sore or kind of fulnesse it was There is a twofold fulnesse of grace one of parts another of degrees 1. Of parts when one hath all the graces of sanctification for sort or kind And such a fulnesse is conferred upon even the weakest in the faith and that at their first conversion for then they have so much grace as doth in some measure enable them for the mortifying of every lust for the performance of all duties whether of the first or second Table In a second place there is a fulnesse of degrees and that againe either absolute or comparative Now the Romanes were not in regard of degrees absolutely full of goodnesse filled with all knowledge For such a perfection of fulnesse Paul himselfe disclaimeth Phil. 3.12 as being the alone priviledge of triumphant Saints Their fulnesse then was onely comparative in comparison of such imperfect beginnings as were in novices and babes in Christ such as were weake in the faith 2 We have the matter of this fulnesse goodnesse and all knowledge 1. Goodnesse by which the Greeke Expositours as Beza informeth me understand vertue in generall and oppose it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unto wickednesse so that it comprehendeth all vertuous and gracious habits whatsoever 2. All knowledge that is the knowledge of all things necessary unto faith godlinesse and salvation 3. Lastly we have the result or sequel of this fulnesse Qualification of them for the duty of mutual admonition unto which is requisite a gracious heart and a gifted head Because they were full of goodnesse they had hearts propense unto so good a worke Because they were filled with all knowledge they were able to mannage it for the best advantage unto Gods glory and their owne edification The foure beasts were full of eyes before behind and within Rev. 4.6,8 that is the ministers of the Gospell comprehended under the foure Evangelists were full of knowledge and vigilant care They were full of eyes before to looke towards God and behind to looke towards their people and within to looke to themselves A second Argument for the attainablenesse of this progressive fulnesse is the exhortations that occurre in scripture unto it Paul exhorts the Corinthians to be perfect 2 Cor. 13.11 to perfect holinesse in the feare of the Lord 2 Cor. 7.1 and to be abounding in the worke of the Lord 1 Cor. 15.58 The Colossians to abound in faith Col. 2.7 the Hebrewes to goe on unto perfection Heb. 6.1 He beseecheth the Thessalonians by the Lord Jesus to abound more and more to wit in spirituals that is in graces and duties Thirdly there are Prophecies of this progressive fulnesse in the old Testament Esay 33.5 The Lord is exalted Christ is risen and ascended into heaven for he dwelleth on high that is he sitteth at the right hand of the Father And the fruit hereof is the filling of the Church with grace and goodnesse He hath filled Sion with judgement and righteousnesse The spirit shall be powred upon us from on high And the wildernesse shall be a fruitfull field Isaiah 32.15 The desert shall rejoyce and blossome as the Rose It shall blossome abundantly the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it The excellency of Carmel and Sharon Esay 35.1,2 A fourth Argument is the promise that is made in Scripture of this progressive fulnesse Whosoever hath to him shall be given and he shall have more abundance Our Saviour propounds this promise twice 1. In the parable of the sower unto the having or possession of grace Math. 13.12 2. In the parable of the talents unto the diligent use of grace 1. In the parable of the sower unto the having or possession of grace and then the words may be thus paraphrased Whosoever hath the initials of sanctifying and saving grace the beginnings of faith and repentance unto him shall be given increase thereof Phil. 1.6 and this increase shall not be sparing but very plentifull And he shall have more abundance The good ground the honest and believing heart that heareth the word and understandeth it beareth fruit and bringeth forth some an hundred fold some sixty some thirty Math. 13.23 a sparke shall grow to be a flame That light which at first was but as the dawning shall at last shine more more unto the perfect day He that abideth in me and I in him saith our Saviour the same bringeth forth much fruit John 15.5 And the reason hereof wee may fetch from the second verse of the same chapter Every branch that beareth fruit the father purgeth it that it may bring forth more fruit The * Mr. John Goodwin in his Pagans debt and dowry Arminians will not allow this promise to be restrained unto the elect and the regenerate but would extend it unto the generalitie of mankind unto even the Heathen unto whom the sound of the Gospell never came But this our restraint of the words I shall justify out of our renowned Twisse Vindic. grat lib. 3. pag. 140 141 142. by three arguments first from the caution premised vers 9. secondly from the words immediatly foregoing vers 11. of which they are a confirmation 3. From the words following which are an illustration of them by way of Antithesis or opposition 1. From the caution premised vers 9. who hath eares to heare let him heare Where by eares is meant the inward eare of faith and spirituall understanding Now that they who have eares to heare are the same with our Saviours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
None of all these render a man uncapable of being the object of this filling here spoken of of the giving of gifts unto men For such is the objective latitude thereof as that it excludes no times no places nor any condition of men whatsoever q Caeterum mihi non displicet illa quoque interpretatio quae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 interpretatur omnia Christi officia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pro persicere Duo enim officiorum genera injuncta fuerunt a patre Christo perficienda primum continebat omnia quae in terris pro nostra redemptione perficienda erant ut pati mori sepeliri Vbi haec perfecit ait apostolus eum ascendisse ut reliqua etiam omnia impleret in caelo scilicei è caelo Inter quae etiam erat hoc de quo immediate loquitur Apostolus de donis scilicet è caelo dandis distribuendis hominibus in Ecclesia Et eò magis jâm haec interpretatio placet quia complectitur etiam superiorem de effundendo suo spiritu donisqúe spiritus S. super omnem carnem sed illa superior non complectitur hanc Certè erant etià m multa alia Christo implenda in caelo è caelo ut supra declaratum est Ergò quia latiùs patet haec postrema eam amplector Zanchy after he hath insisted upon that interpretation which we have now gone over acquaints us with another that he dislikes not and it is that which by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 understand's all Christs offices and render's the word translated fill fulfill discharge or performe For there were saith he two sorts of offices enjoyned Christ by his father The first contained all those things which were to be performed here below on earth for our redemption as to suffer to dye and to be buried c. As soone as he had finished these the Apostle saith that he ascended that he might fulfill all those other offices which remaine to be performed by him in and from heaven for us at the right hand of his father But this is no prejudice unto what we have said in our sence of the place because one of these offices as Zanchy himselfe informeth us was that which the Apostle speakes of immediatly before the giving of gifts from heaven unto men And the reason why he approveth of this interpretation is because it is so comprehensive as that it takes in the former sence concerning the pouring of his spirit and the gifts thereof upon all flesh The last head of arguments is from the prayers for this progressive fulnesse of the saints recorded in scripture from the prayers of petition and from the prayers of thanksgiving for it 1. From the prayers of petition for it which doubtlesse had a gracious answere and returned into the bosomes of those that put them up This I pray saith Paul unto the Philippians that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment That ye may approve things that are excellent that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ being filled with the fruits of righteousnesse which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God Phil. 1.9,10,11 We do not cease to pray for you saith he to the Colossians and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledg of his will in all wisedome and spirituall understanding Col. 1.9 He prayed unto the Lord to make the Thessalonians to increase and abound in love one towards another and towards all men c. 1 Thes 3.12 He puts up also a petition unto the God of peace c. in the behalfe of the Hebrewes to make them perfect in every good worke Heb. 13.21 You have Peter also 1 Pet. 5.10 petitioning for the perfection of such converts of them as were scattered throughout Pontus Galatia Cappadocia Asia Bithynia The God of all grace who hath called us unto his eternall glory by Jesus Christ c. make you perfect stablish strengthen settle you Thus also Epaphras was a petitioner for the spirituall compleatnesse and perfection of the Colossians Epaphras who is one of you a servant of Christ saluteth you alwaies labouring fervently for you in prayers that ye may stand perfect and compleate in all the will of God Col. 4.12 2. From the prayers of thanksgiving for it which if this progressive fulnesse were unattaineable would be but a taking of Gods name in vaine I thanke my God alwaies in your behalfe saith he to the Coâ—inthians for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ that in every thing ye are enriched by him in all utterance and in all knowledg c so that ye come behind in no gift c. 1 Cor. 4.5,7 The same Apostle Ephes 1.3,7,8 blesseth the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ for that in the riches of his grace he hath abounded tawards us in all wisedome and prudence In the 1 Timoth. 1.12,14 We have him presenting his thankes unto Christ Jesus our Lord because the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant towards himselfe with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus And thus have I at large proved that the members of Christ shall enjoy every one of them 1. A communion in the fulnesse of Christ's grace in their justification 2. A conformitie unto it in their sanctification I proceed now unto the last thing which I promised in this use to shew that from the premises Christ's members may reape a double comfort 1. against the strength and fulnesse of sinne 2. against their wants in and emptinesse of grace 1. Against the strength and fulnesse of sinne Naturally there is a fulnesse of sinne in us Our powers and members are full of sinne And the very fulnesse of sinne is in them Now where there is a fulnesse of a thing there that thing must needs be exceeding strong How strong are the waters of the sea onely because the sea is full of waters and the fulnesse of waters is there Against this fulnesse of sin now that is in our natures we have comfort nay a full joy and triumph in the fulnesse of grace that dwelleth in Christ for it is imputed to us that is accepted for us And God will make us conformable unto it And therefore it gives us assurance that Christ will quench cure and expell all our sins If in us there be the treasury of an evill heart bottomlesse depths of folly lust and ignorance in Christ there are hid unsearchable riches and treasures of grace and wisedome If corruption in us be of an unbounded rage if we be out of measure sinfull why the grace of Christ is answerably of an unstinted measure The spirit was not given by measure unto him Joh. 3.34 If sin abound in us grace doth much more abound in him Excedit quippe pietas Jesu omnem criminum quantitatem seu numerositatem as Bernard in Vigilia nativitatis Domini Serm. 1. If the
those whom thou hast given me c. And to be given unto Christ signifies the state of Election for it signifies a good and happy state or condition precedaneous unto effectuall vocation Iohn 6.37 All that the father giveth me shall come unto me But to come unto Christ is to believe in Christ by an effectuall Vocation By this then you may gather that none shall communicate in the fulnesse of Christs glory but such as the father hath given unto him by election And they are such as in God's appointed time are drawne and wrought over to come unto Christ that is to believe in Christ by an effectuall calling None then can have a sound confidence of their future glorification that are not assured of their past election and a well built assurance of election presupposeth an assurance of vocation and of comming unto Christ thereby and therefore the Apostle Peter in his exhortation 2 Pet. 1.10 premiseth the making sure of their calling unto the making sure of their election Give diligence to make your calling and election sure None can make their election sure that have not first made their calling sure Those mens hopes therefore of glory are but rash and ungrounded presumptions who turne the deafe eare unto the call and command of Christ who stand of and refuse to come in and submit to his Regiment but stick still in their sins without repentance and wallow in that filthinesse wherein the world lieth 1 Joh. 5.19 A second amplification of this glory which awaits believers is from the causes of it and that both moving and disposing 1. From the moving causes of it to speake of God after the manner of men and the impulsive causes of it are either outward or inward outward Christs intercession inward 1. Gods love of Christ 2. Gods righteousnesse The dispositive cause is a sanctifyed and saving knowledge of Christs mission To begin with the moving causes of it and 1. with that which is outward and procatarticke Christs intercession Father I will that those c. It is not voluntas imperantis but optantis rogantis It is not a will of command but a will of desire request and prayer and God cannot but gratify Christ in all his petitions He cannot but fulfill his will and satisfy his desires Christ intercedeth for the future glory of his members and therefore they cannot but be happy for impossible that the father should deny him any thing for which he is a suter Iohn 11.42 The inward or proegumenall moving causes of the glory of believers come next to be considered 1. Gods love of Christ 2. Gods righteousnesse 1. Then they have Gods love of Christ as it were a pawne and pledg of their compleate glory in heaven Father I will that those whom thou hast given me be with me where I am c. for thou hast loved me before the foundations of the World The summe of the words is because thou hast loved me the head therefore glorifie them my members Thou hatest all those whom thou dost not glorifie and hatred of the members is inconsistent with love of the head If thou lovest me thou canst not hate them and therefore as thou lovest me let them be where I am and there participate in my glory Can believers desire greater security against the hazard of their blisse and salvation They cannot misse of heaven and happinesse unlesse there be a change in Gods affection unto his owne sonne whom as man and our mediatour he hath loved before the foundation of the world That love of God then which raised Christ from his grave the state of the dead unto a throne and crowne at the right hand of the majestie on high will also in due time exalt all believers unto a full conformitie unto his glory It will place them with him in his throne Revelat. 3.21 and kingdome 2 Timoth. 2.12 and distribute unto them fulnesse of joy and pleasures for evermore Secondly The second impulsive cause of the glorification of those whom the father hath given unto the sonne is his righteousnesse compared with the dispositive cause thereof on their part their faith the condition of the new Covenant O righteous Father c. these have knowne that thou hast sent me It is as if he had said because thou art righteous therefore let those whom thou hast given me be with me where I am and behold my glory For in them there is the condition prerequired unto a full enjoyment of glory They believe in me and they know that thou hast sent me And faith in Christ which is often expressed by knowledge of Christ is the prerequisite of eternall life and glory Iohn 17.3 This is life eternall that they might know thee the onely true God and Iesus Christ whom thou hast sent Unto these then compleatnesse of glory is due though not by debt of desert yet by debt of promise Therefore though eternall life be the gift of God through Iesus Christ our Lord Rom. 6.23 yet it is also tearmed a crowne of righteousnesse which the Lord the righteous judge will give 2 Timoth. 4.8 And the reason of this appellation of it is because God by his promise hath bound himselfe to give it and in the performance of his promise he is approved righteous The righteousnesse then of God that Christ here appealeth unto in the behalfe of believers is justitia fidelitatis Gods truth and fidelity in the making good of his word and promise Believers have the fidelity and veracity of God engaged for their perfect and compleate happinesse Lastly We have the disposing cause of their glory These have knowne that thou hast sent me Because they have knowne this let them be where I am and there behold my glory The knowledge of an object in scripture ever implieth suitable affections and actions To know Christ then is to believe in him to adhere unto him to imbrace and love him to obey him c. To know that the father hath sent him is besides the knowledge hereof and assent hereunto to accept Christ in regard of all those offices for the discharge of which he was sent by the father to depend upon him as a prophet for the declaration and revelation of his father to rest upon him as a priest for the remission of our sinnes and acceptation of our persons to submit unto him as a king for government and guidance in all spirituals Such a knowledge as this is though not a meritorious yet a disposing cause of heaven a necessary antecedent thereof the way thereunto Our future happinesse and glory is stiled in scripture the light of life Iohn 8.12 the inheritance of the saints in light Col. 1.12 and therefore what qualification or preparation for it more congruent then the light of such a knowledge as we have described By it we are made meete to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light Whereas on the contrary the darknesse of Ignorance is a
Therefore immediate conjunction with the vertue of the principall cause is sufficient to constitute and denominate an instrument in actu primo For answere that usuall saying may have two t Suarez in tert part Thomae disp 31. sect 6. p. 496. sences Either that there is an utter nullity of vertue or that there is an improportion and insufficiency in the vertue of instruments towards their effects 1. That there is an utter and absolute nullity of vertue in instruments towards their effects that they worke not by any vertue which they have intrinsecally in themselves but only by the extrinsecall vertue of the principall agent And this if we speake of physicall instruments is most untrue For action is a second act and therefore ever presupposeth in the Agent which it denominateth a first act an active power not onely extrinsecall which is without it but also intrinsecall which is either in it or really the same with it Impossible is it for any thing to have so much as an instrumentall concurrence unto that in respect of which it is not cloathed with a power of Agency 2. This saying may have another meaning It may denote onely the improportion and insufficiency of the vertue that is in instruments towards their effects that they are not able of themselves to produce their effects without the supply and assistance or motion and application of their principall efficient Thus an axe though it hath an edge a fitnesse to cut yet it cannot actualy cut unlesse it be applied by the hand of the workeman And this sence I grant to be true and sound but then it maketh nothing to the purpose A second evasion which others fly to is an obedientiall active power compleated by the extraordinary concurse of God and here they passe ab hypothesi ad thesin and affirme there is such a power in every creature Looke say they as there is an obedientiall passive power in every creature to receive whatfoever God will put into it and to be made whatsoever God will make of it God is able of these stones to raise up Children unto Abraham Math. 3.9 So likewise there is in every creature an obedientiall active power whereby it may be elevated unto the working of whatsoever God will effect by it According unto this power the sacraments say they are elevated to be physicall instruments of grace Materiall fire in hell inabled to burne and torment spirits the words of consecration in the mouth of a massing priest exalted to be physically instrumentall in the transubstantiation of bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ This power they tearme radicall or fundamentall because it is undistinguished from the entity of every creature and superaddeth nothing thereunto but a non-repugnancy or a relation And they call it also a remote power because it hath only an inchoate and incompleate proportion unto miraculous and supernaturall effects which is compleated by the extraordinary concurse or influence of God elevating the creature beyond the power and force of it 's owne nature For answere 1. The instances they bring for confirmation of this obedientiall active power are a most pitifull and miserable begging of the question for they are denied by not onely Protestants but also Papists As Vasquez Becanus Faber Faventinus and generally all Scotists And if I guesse not amisse this knack was devis'd for the support of the sacraments physicall efficiency of grace As also of the physicall operativenesle of the words of consecration in that new an impious figment of transubstantiation To bring then these two as a chiefe proofe thereof bewrayes a great barrennesse of other arguments Revius in his Suarez repurgatus pag. 922 923. supposeth that this obedientiall active power in every creature unto any effect is a kind of omnipotency The attribution of which unto a creature every one will acknowledge to be blasphemous Indeed Suarez in tert part Thomae tom 1. disp 31. § 6. p. 509. stickes not to tearme it omnipotency And afterwards pag. 514 515. he saith that though it be finite and limited intensively and entitatively yet it is infinite and unlimited extensively and objectively It may be extended unto any thing whatsoever which God can doe either by himselfe or by any other creature I know they will say that this omnipotency is but subordinate secondary derived and instrumentary But omnipotency is an incommunicable attribute of the Deitie and to talke of a communication of incommunicable attributes is new and strange divinity Suarez him selfe in the controversy of the Vbiquitaries would disclaime any secondary omnipresence of Christs humanity And why then here doth he contend for a secondary or derived omnipotency of it But I shall more particularly argue against this obedientiall active power 1. from the distribution of an active power in generall 2. From the utter disproportion that is betweene any creature and supernaturall or miraculous effects 3. From a comparison betwixt an obedientiall active and passive power 1. From the adequate distribution of an active power in generall Every active power of â—…creature is either naturall or supernaturall For it is either it's entity or naturall quality and then it is naturall or else it is supernaturally superadded and infused by God and then it is supernaturall But now this obedientiall active power is neither naturall nor supernaturall It is not naturall for then what proportion could it have unto supernaturall effects neither is it supernaturall because it is say the inventors of it really the same with the nature of every creature Suarez answereth that however this obedientiall active power be sometimes naturall sometimes supernaturall entitativè in regard of it's entity yet it can never be naturall quoad usum seu quoad munus potentiae vel quoad modum agendi quia non agit juxta commensurationem vel propriam institutionem seu specificationem suae entitatis neque cum concursu seu auxilio sibi debito nec denique ad effectum vel actionem suae naturae proportionatam In tert part Thom. disp 31. sect 6. pag. 507. Unto This I reply that there is a suitablenesse or proportion betwixt every active power and the adequate use or application thereof and therefore if the entity of this obedientiall active power be naturall so must also the adequate and totall use and application thereof be too A second argument is from the utter and totall disproportion that is betwixt every creature and miraculous and supernaturall effects I know they distinguish of a compleate or consummate and an inchoate or incompleate proportion unto any thing that God can produce either immediately by himselfe or mediately by any other creature But can they expresse or imagine what inchoate proportion there is in a stone unto the beatificall vision or in a fly unto the production of an Angell Are not things materiall and immateriall altogeither disproportioned What Physicall influence can water or fire have upon the efficiency of grace faith hope or
love And answerably how can grace be physically productive of water or fire Some creatures are in regard of qualities contrary and therefore impossible they should be in any the least degree proportioned in regard of mutuall production What proportion can there be in fire unto the production of water or in water unto the production of fire I know the patrons of this obedientiall active power swallow these and greater absurdities of which the rehearsall is a sufficient confutation And I confesse I should be transported with just wonder at the infatuation of such rationall men if the Apostle had not told me 2 The. 2.10,11,12 That because some men receive not the love of the truth therefore God shall send them strong delusions that they should believe a lie c. If any one yet desire a refutation of such sencelesse fopperies they may meet with it in their own Vasquez and in Faber Faventinus out of the * In quartum sentent disp 2. p. 15 16. latter of which I shall insert this following argument If there be an obedientiall active power inevery creature unto any effect whatsoever then there is in an ant or pismire such a power unto the acts of understanding or willing and oonsequently an ant or pismire remaining an ant or pismire without any change at all in it's nature may by God be elevated to enjoy God to understand discourse which are effects that not onely surmount it's nature but are also repugnant thereunto For what grosser contradictions can there be then to affirme that a livelesse being whiles such can be inabled for the performance of vitall operations The last argument shall be drawne from a comparison of an obedientiall active power with an obedientiall passive power There is more limitation in that then in this For there is no creature but can suffer that which it cannot doe can receive that which it cannot produce But now the obedientiall passive power of every creature is limited therefore so also is it's obedientiall active power No creature is capable of receiving all things much lesse can it be advanced unto such a pitch of efficiency as to be physically instrumentall in the working of all things That every creature is not capable of receiving all things is thus proved out of the subtile Scotus Things materiall are not capable of receiving things spirituall and spirituall or immateriall things are not capable of receiving things bodily or materiall A stone cannot receive wisedome nor an Angell whitenesse For then we may denominate a stone to be wise an Angell to be white I know Franciscus bonae Spei in 8. libros Phys Arist pag. 131. acknowledgeth all these things to he possible But then a thing altogeither irtationall may be rationall a spirituall substance may be corporeall which are such grosse contradictions that an ordinary understanding may easily discerne them And thus have I proved in generall that there is no physicall instrumentall power in Christ's humanity of working any supernaturall or miraculous effects I shall next bring one argument to prove this particularly concerning such supernaturall or miraculous effects as were or are wrought by Christ at a remote distance from his humanity A physicall cause cannot worke unlesse it be present Impossible to write here by a penne at Rome whereupon Aquinas Sum. part 1. quaest 8. Art 1. proves Gods omnipresence from his influence upon or cooperation with all things But now many miracles were wrought by Christ at too great a distance to conveigh any physicall influxe from his manhood Thus he cured the Centurions servant Math. 8.8,13 and the rulers sonne unto whom he never approached Joh. 4.50,51,52,53 and therefore he healed them by the omnipotency of his Godhead and not by any physicall power of his manhood The heavens receive the humanity of Christ untill the times of restitution of all things Acts 3.21 And at such a distance there can be no physicall contact betwixt it and the soules of men and therefore it cannot be physically instrumentall in their regeneration Lastly Christ may be considered according unto his two fold state of humiliation and exalation 1. According unto his state of humiliation and in that there was a fulnesse of satisfaction and merit a fulnesse of satisfaction to make ample amends unto Gods enraged justice a fulnesse of merit to purchase reconciliation acceptation of both their persons and services the image of God the kingdome of heaven and an inheritance of glory This fulnesse of Christs satissaction and merit was first typified under the Old Testament secondly asserted in the New Testament Thirdly really evidenced by his exaltation as a signe Fourthly clearly demonstrated from the worthinesse and infinitenesse of his person as the cause and originall thereof 1. It was typified under the Old Testament I shall at this present instance but in three types of it 1. The u Bilson in his survey of Christs sufferings pag. 112.113 burning or consuming of the sacrifice by fire miraculously delivered by God which made them ascend towards the place of his glorious presence in token of his full and favourable acceptation of Christs sacrifice prefigured by them Lev. 1.9 Judges 6.17,21 2 Chron. 7.1,3 1 King 18.38,39 2. The compleatnesse of the daily bloudy sacrifice for that had conjoyned together with it the unbloudy sacrifice of the meat offering and another of the drinke offering Exod. 29.40 And the fuller the sacrifice was the more it did resemble the sufficiency of Christs humiliation 3. The sweetnesse of the things required in their meat drinke offerings that were joyned with their burnt offerings flowre oyle and wine Exod. 29.40 unto which we may adde the fragrancy of frankincense which was to be put on their volunâ—ary meat-offerings Levit. 2.2,15 These things did serve aptly to figure how sweet and well pleasing unto God the sacrifice of Christ should be Secondly We have this point plainly asserted in the New Testament Christ hath given himselfe for us an offering and a sacrisice to God for a sweet smelling savour Ephes 5.2 In which words we have two things pertinent unto our present purpose the sufficiency the fragrancy of Christs humiliation 1. The sufficiency of it He gave himselfe for us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an offering and a sacrifice unto God Where the first word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth either all sacrifices in generall or else unbloudy ones in particular meat and drink-offerings The second word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 denoteth bloudy and slaughtered sacrifices Now the comparison of Christs humiliation and obedience unto an offering and sacrifice sheweth that it was the substance of all offerings and sacrifices whatsoever under the law whether unbloudy or bloudy and that therein they had all their full accomplishment There was nothing foreshadowed by either meat-offerings drink-offerings or burnt-offerings but was perfectly fulfilled in his oblation sacrifice of himselfe Secondly We have here the fragrancy and acceptablenesse unto God of the offering and sacrifice of