as one that having read the Book of the Revelation said this of it Non Reprobo quod non Intelligo sed eo magis admiror quo minus assequor I do not reject what I do not understand but the less I can understand the more I wonder By Admiration we give God the glory of his Incomprehensibleness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dionys Areop De Divinis nominibus Whereby as one speaks not only our Knowledge but our Ignorance turns to his Praise This is that Act of the Soul that best agrees to Infinity While the Soul is admiring God it is as it were gone out of its own finitness into his infinitness Quando mens se ad Deum cum amore integre convertit rationis Intellectus oculus reverberatus Caligat Isagoge Corderii ad Myst Theol. where it is gone beyond its depth as in the deep Ocean where men may swim but cannot wade And hence it is that the Works of God are so often said in Scripture to be wonderful Works which shews they are above Knowledg and so they and much more their Maker are the Objects of our Admiration Only let me add here also Let us admire him as Christians not only to astonish our Reason but to the sanctifying our Hearts 1. Let our admiration of him lead us to love him and that not only for what we know of him but for that also which is above our knowledg and if possible to love him infinitely which we come nearest to when after all our love of him we are still wishing we could love him yet more abundantly 2. It should also lead us infinitely to esteem him Hic nec videri potest visu clarior est nec comprehendi tactu purior est nec aestimari sensu major est ideo sic eum digne aestimamus dum inaestimabilem dicimus Cypr. De Idolorum Vanitate p. 289. and to despise all things in comparison of him and account them as nothing for so indeed they are compared with him Our highest esteem is of those things which we do not comprehend Any Excellency the more we admire it the more we esteem it As the Eye that hath been gazing upon the Sun is darkned to the sight of other things So the Soul that is employed in the true beholding and admiring the excellencies of God's Being hath thereby the glory of this World darkned to it 3. Again it should lead the Soul forth with strong desires to the knowledge and fruition of him 1. Knowledg of him As things that are wonderful are most desirable to be known The Mind of Man hath a natural propension to Knowledg especially to the knowledg of things great and wonderful 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist And the Philosophers defined Wisdom to be the knowledg of things great and wonderful And admiration put them upon the study of them First They admired and then searched And therefore it was well stiled Principium Philosophiae the Original of Philosophy So God being the Object of our admiration it should excite our Minds to more diligent enquiries into the knowledg of him Although he being an infinite Object we cannot comprehend him yet to search after him so far as our finite capacity may extend and then sit down and leave the rest to an holy admiration As the Apostle prayes for the Ephesians that they may know the Love of Christ which passeth knowledg Ephes 3. 18. So though the infinite Being of God passeth Knowledg yet we should search into the knowledg of him 2. The Fruition of him For God is an Object not only to be known but enjoyed And to enjoy him so far as we are capable in this Life and to send forth our earnest Desires to the fuller fruition of him in the Life that is yet to come especially seeing he is best known by enjoying as every good is So that as the Mind is to travel into the knowledg of him as he is the most excellent Object to be known so is the will to pursue after him as the chiefest Good to be enjoyed The admiring any Good satisfies not without the enjoying it CHAP. VII The Creation of the World considered with respect to Christ How all Things are said to be made by him in Scripture Some places of it briefly vindicated against the Socinians and Arrians How the Creation is most properly attributed to the Son of God The Creator of the World is also the Saviour of it Many great Considerations resulting thence All things made for Christ as well as by him A brief Account of those Works of Christ with respect to which the World was created Some Inferences thence I Shall next consider the Worlds Creation with a particular respect to Jesus Christ and our Redemption by him And herein consider 1. That all things were made by Him 2. For Him 1. All things were made by him So we have it made known to us by Scripture-Revelation as Joh. 1. 1. where the Apostle enters his Discourse of Christ from his Divinity In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God All things were made by him and without him was nothing made that was made This beginning is not the beginning of the Gospel as the Socinians speak but the beginning of Time And all things made by him are not the things of the New Creation but of the First But if they cavil at this Text because they own not Christ's Eternal God-head and any preexistence of him to his Incarnation what can they say to that in Colos 1. 16. For by him were all things created that are in Heaven and that are in the Earth Visible or Invisible whether they be Thrones Dominions Principalities or Powers c. Where not only Things but Persons and Persons that are the chief of the whole Creation are said to be created by Jesus Christ and it is spoken of a proper Creation for the Angels needed not a Restoration as fallen Man did which is called by the name of Creation in an improper sense And Heb. 1. 2. it's expresly said concerning Christ By whom also he made the Worlds Not as by an Instrument as the Arrians held as if God first made Christ and then all things by him but by him as the eternal Word and Wisdom of the Father And by Worlds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not meant the new state of things under the Messiah which is called by the Apostle according to the Jews usual appellation the World to come Heb. 2. But by Worlds he means the whole created Universe which the Jews usually exprest by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gnolamim and the Apostle in Greek by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying the World both in its succession and duration or in the two or three or four parts of it according to the several distributions they differently made of it and so called plurally Worlds Doth not the Psalmist speak of Christ when he saith Ps 95.
in that light of the Knowledg of God that hath already shined into their hearts For this New Creation begins in Light as the first did which the Apostle takes notice of 2 Cor. 4. 6. God who commanded Light to shine out of Darkness hath shined into our hearts And as he proceeded in the first Creation till the whole was made perfect so will he do in the New where he hath begun a good Work he will perfect it he will proceed from that first Light of Grace wherein he shined into the Soul to the perfection of his Work in the eternal Light of Glory 4. Observe also that our Reconciler to God is he that made the World As the Apostle in Col. 1. 1. speaks of Christ as the Creator of the World vers 16. and then as our Reconciler by the Blood of his Cross v. 20. And having made peace by the Blood of his Cross by him to reconcile all things unto himself How may this strengthen our Faith in Christ's Blood seeing it is the Blood of him that made the World As it doth manifest stupendious love that the Creator should die for his Creature so it may assure us that his death must needs be infinitely meritorious Under the Law the Blood of Creatures was shed for the People but that could of it self merit nothing but now under the New-Testament there is the Blood of the Creator shed for us Here is the Lord of all Life himself dying and he that gave Being to all things emptying himself and as it were made nothing What unspeakable Merit must hence arise for us Certainly the merit of the Creator must needs infinitely exceed all demerit of the Creature And as hence we may conclude an infinite merit so we may observe the fitness of him that was the Creator to make Reconciliation for us Who so fit to look after poor lost Creatures as he that made them He had the greatest property in us and therefore was concerned most to look after us As when the Sheep are wandred the Praprietor is the fittest Person to take care for the bringing them home again So that as our Creator he had not only Jus Proprietatis the Right of Property to redeem us but also Jus Idoneitatis the Right of Fitness also 5. Lastly We may hence take notice of the Bounty and Goodness of Christ Jesus our Saviour We may see it in the Creation of the World which is every where filled with the Effects hereof When he made the World he shewed not only his Power but the infinite benignity and goodness of his Nature And this Nature he hath still whereby we may encourage our selves to go to him for spiritual Blessings beholding the Creation filled with his common Blessings As from the Afflictions and Temptations of his Humane Nature we may be encouraged to go to him for succour when we are tempted and tryed So from the infinite benignity of his Divine Nature shining forth in his Creation we may be encouraged to ask the things that are necessary for our Salvation Hath he in his creating Goodness provided food for every Creature when it was not asked and will he not give thee bread for thy Soul when thou goest and askest him for it Did his Goodness so freely flow out to his whole Creation and hath that Nature no goodness remaining in it to his own People that are nearer to him than any other Creature And are not only Parts of his Natural but the Subjects of his New-Creation which as it is Spiritual is the better part of it But secondly As all Things were made by Christ so also for him as the Scripture in many places asserts Col. 1. 16. All things were made by him and far him It was usually said by the Jews All things were made for the Messias Rev. 4. ult Thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created The first Adam was set over the works of God's Hand but he sinning against his Creator it came into the hand of the second Adam and all things were put under his Feet But this fell out not by chance or accident but according to the Counsel of God when the World was made And accordingly the management of the Creation hath been in his hands from the beginning as it appears in the Records of the Old Testament And when he came into our Nature our Humanity was invested in this power with the Divine Person of Christ especially at his Resurrection and Ascention into Heaven and therefore he speaks as if it was then given him Matth. 28. All power is given me both in Heaven and Earth And John 17. Thou hast given him power over all flesh c. Now this was in the Counsel of Heaven and this was the end of this Worlds Creation that being put under the Dominion of Jesus Christ it might be governed and all things managed therein to the highest exaltation of the Glory of God For this Son of God 1. He brings forth the Knowledg of the eternal Counsels of God concerning Man's Redemption wherein he shews forth the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the deep things of God Wherein the infinite Wisdom Mercy Love Justice and Holiness of God are manifested in the World in the most resplendent edition of them And for that end he hath inspired men by his Spirit in the several Ages of the World whereby this great Mystery might be made known to the Glory of his Father For though there have been Prophets speaking of it ever since the World began Luk. 1. 70. yet it was by the Spirit of Christ that they so spake 1 Pet. 1. 11. 2. He hath also delivered to men the Rules of Worship and Obedience and such as conduce more in the practice of them to the honour of God than what was performable in Man's Primitive State the Conditions of Life under the New-Covenant being more to his Glory than those of the â—ormer were 3. He hath in all Ages been gathering in some of the Children of men into a state of Salvation out of that lost and ruined state into which the sin of the first Adam had cast them acquainting them with the Counsel of God for that end giving them his Spirit to enlighten their Minds and to sanctifie their Hearts and so forming them to the praise of God and as Vessels of Mercy preparing them for his Glory And this he did before his Incarnation 4. In the fulness of time he came himself into the flesh of Man and brought forth upon the Stage of the World that great Mystery of the Incarnation When also he declared the infinite Love and the Counsels and Purposes of the Heart of God more fully than had before been made known encountred and conquered the utmost Temptations of Satan and the World and then offered up that great Sacrifice of himself for to make atonement for sin which had been signified from the beginning of the World And then being buried
he rose again loosing the Bands of Death and the Grave and ascended triumphantly into Heaven and acquired a new Title to his Dominion over the World in his conquest of it 5. And being now in Heaven yet still the Creation is in his hand and bringing in revenews of Glory to God by him He disposeth of Kingdoms and Nations as he pleaseth sometimes throwing down the mighty from their Seats and then exalting the lowly and meek as was prophesied of him Luk. 1. 70. Sometimes straitning the Nations in his displeasure and then enlarging them again in his mercy and goodness He takes care for the upholding and propagating the everlasting Gospel accompanies it with his Spirit to the conversion of Souls to God and building them up an habitation for him fits them for his Service and Praise in this World and then gathers them into the presence of his Father to stand before him and to minister to him for ever He also orders their Tryals and Sufferings as he seeth them requisite to the Glory of God and their preparation for Heaven and then when he seeth it meet delivers them out of them also 6. After all this at the time of the Consummation of all things he will come down from Heaven and judge the World receiving some into the Kingdom of his Father and sending others into everlasting Fire wherein the riches of God's Grace and Mercy and the clearness of his Justice will most illustriously shine forth to his eternal Praise and Glory And when this is done he delivers up his Kingdom and Dominion to his Father that he had received from him having subdued all Enemies under his feet and put down all Rule 1 Cor. 15. 28. Authority and Power his Father becomes All in All. Thus with respect to Christ and to the accomplishment of these Glorious Works which I have but briefly touched was this Creation of the World erected and which are transcendently more to the glory of God than what could have been under the first Adam either by any obedience performed by him or the dispensation of God towards him under that first Covenant And from hence I shall briefly make three Inferences Inference 1. That the Redemption of the World is a greater Work than the Creation of it seeing it was erected for the Son of God to transact that glorious Work in The end hath a pre-eminence above all those means that are made use of in a subserviency to it This lower World was made with respect to it where the Foundation of this Work is begun and laid And the upper World also where it is compleated and finished On Earth God hath the praise of it begun and in Heaven it shall be made perfect And if the Angels that are the chief part of God's Creation are made and appointed with a subserviency to it to be ministring Spirits to Christ and to the Heirs of Salvation Heb. 1. ult much more than sure the inferiour part of it And when all the Elect which are these Heirs shall be inflated in their Inheritance and fully possest of it then comes the dissolution upon this visible Creation as having then served the end for which it was first erected Inference 2. It also may be observed hence How the Nature of Man is in Christ advanced to the top of God's Creation For the World was created that it might be set under the government of the Son of God in the Nature of Man So that as I took notice before of its advancement by its union with him so here by the Dominion it hath over the whole Creation by vertue of that Union and the determination of God therein He first descended and assumed our Nature and then ascended and carried it up far above all Heavens Principalities and Powers which are the highest parts of God's Creation being made subject to him Ephes 1. 21. Our Nature was advanced in the first Adam into a great Dominion over the Creatures but it is advanced higher in the second Adam There it had a dignity upon Earth but here it hath a dignity both in Heaven and Earth There it had dominion over the Creatures of this lower World that were of an inferior Nature to it Here it hath dominion over the Angels in the upper World that are of a superior Nature and Order Lord what is Man saith the Psalmist that thou art mindful of him and the Son of Man that thou visitest him Thou hast made him a little lower than the Angels Thou hast crowned him with Glory and Honour Thou madest him to have dominion over the Works of thine hand Thou hast put all things under his feet And the Psalmist had respect not so much to the dignity of Man's Nature in the first Adam as in the Second For these words are in Heb. 2. applyed to Christ and the dignity God exalted him to Being first made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a little while lower than the Angels by his debasement and suffering in this lower World and then exalted into Power and Dignity above them all in his ascending the upper World being crowned with Glory and Honour Oh the mysterious depths of Wisdom and Goodness that here meet together in the Man Christ Jesus Oh the stupidity and blindness of fal'n Man that takes so little notice of these great Works of God with respect to which the World was principally made With what sacred astonishment should we behold these Counsels of Heaven With what thanks givings and adorations should we celebrate this unspeakable Love Especially if we consider Man's Nature to be thus advanced after it had transgrest the Law of its Creation and corrupted it self more than any inferiour Nature Inference 3. We may hence conclude That the whole Creation being made for Christ and put into his hand shall be managed to the highest exaltation of the Glory of God However the course of things may run for a while and the reason of many things hid out of our sight yet all things will at last meer in this general Issue the universal end of all things which is the Glory of God The first Adam was made and placed upon the Stage of the World that through him God might have the Glory of his Creation but he being mutable fell from his Station lost his Strength and so could not serve the end of his Being Therefore God hath now put all things into a surer hand and his Glory stands upon a surer bottom For he that is both God and Man is likely to bring in both higher and surer glory to God than he that was but meer Man If he should fail in it it should be either because he wants ability which cannot be because he made all things or because he wants love and good will to God which cannot be neither because he is his only begotten Son And seeing the Work of Man's Redemption and Salvation was principally in the eye of God when he made the World as that Work
of Man yet God knows them better then the Spirit of Man yea he knows the Spirit it self and that better then it knows it self Let then Christians walk continually under an awful sence of this And take heed of all sin because it is all known especially that of Hypocrisie an Hypocrite pleaseth himself that he is not known to Men But let him consider that he is known to his own Conscience and that condemns him And he is known better to God then to his own Conscience and therefore God will condemn much more as knowing all things 1 Joh. 3. 20. And suppose a Man should be unknown to himself as we know the Heart of Man is deceitful not only to the deceiving of others but even of it self yet nothing in the Heart is hid to God So that when the question is put The heart is deceitful above all things who can know it It is answered I the Lord search the heart c. Jer. 17. 9 10. It should ingage every Christian to search and know his own Heart because it is searched and known of God That he that knows the Heart may find uprightness and truth in the inward parts which he is said to Love II. Consolation A true Christian may comfort himself in God's knowledge of him 1. That God knows the weakness of our Nature carries comfort in it to his people As 103. Psalm 14. He knoweth our frame he remembreth that we are dust He knows he made us at first out of the dust and he remembers it still and as he makes it to himself an Argument of pity as the Psalmist speaks in the 13. verse so we may thence also frame an Argument to our own comfort in the daily feeling we have of it 2. That he also knows the Heart is no small comfort to the upright in Heart And that 1. In respect of the obloquies censures and misjudgings of Men. 2. In respect of the failings and defects that attend our Services God can look through them all to that integrity that is in the Heart which is known to him Hezekiah was guilty of many failings but he had this to comfort him that his Heart was upright with God and that God knew this for he prays God to remember it 38. Isa 3. 3. In respect of Inability to perform what good we desire God doth not only know what we act but that desire of the Heart out of which we act and where the Desire is beyond the Act as it is in all true Saints God knows that desire to accept it though the Act falls short of it David was under such a deep sence of God's goodness to him that he knew not how sufficiently to express his thankfulness but he comforts himself in this that God knew him 2 Sam. 7. And what can David say more unto thee for thou knowest thy servant Infer II. If God be the Creator of Man it followes that Man is not his own God hath a supreme right to him as his Maker He hath made us and his we are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as those words may be read Psal 100. 3. He hath made us and not we our selves And this Original Right of God cannot be alienated either by any extrinsick Power or by any Compact made by our selves Though Men sell themselves to work wickedness as Ahab did yet they cannot sell away God's right to them as their Creator As he that is the true proprietor will claim his goods where he sinds them though sold over and over by such as had no right And therefore for Men to be their own and live to themselves hath a manifold Evil wrapt up in it 1. It is Ingratitude If it be Ingratitude not to improve and devote the additional Comforts of our Being to God much more not to devote our Being it self Being it self is the greatest favour we receive from him and therefore it is the greatest unthankfulness not to give him the Praise of it by living to him If any of us should raise a Man into some good condition in the World and then should not be acknowledged by him that is thus raised we should justly brand him with Ingratitude Much more Ingratitude is it not to acknowledge God that hath raised us out of Non-being into Being When Paul desired a favour of Philemon with respect to Onesimus he presseth it by this Argument that he could tell him that he owed himself unto him Philem. 19. It would have been great ingratitude had Philemon denyed his request though he did not owe himself to the Apostle in that Supreme and absolute Right as we owe our selves to God And he that made us reasonable Creatures could have made us Brutes ought we not then to be thankful to our Creator for making us such and no Man is truly thankful that is his own and reserveth himself from him Man's service of God may be accounted reasonable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cultus rationalis Beza as making him a reasonable Creature and not a Brute Rom. 12. 1. 2. It is Injustice He that is his own and lives to himself detaineth from God that which is His and that is Injustice And as the Heathen Poet speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. all Vertue is comprehended in Justice so injustice runs through the Nature of all sin and all sin is radically comprehended in this In Mans being his own The unprofitable servant in the Parable was Condemned for not improving his Masters Talent to his use and the unjust Steward was cast out of his Office for imbezeling his Masters goods And there was injustice found in them both For Man not to improve the Talent of his Being to the use of his Creator is unjust much more to imbezel and waste it upon the service of his Lusts For what are all the faculties of our Souls and Bodies but our Masters Goods and to be devoted to his use Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 6. 9. He mentions afterwards several sorts of sinner s but in this they all agree they are all unrighteous 3. It is folly should a Man live to himself when he cannot make himself happy Happiness is that which all desire why should then Man make himself his End when he cannot be his own happiness was Man self sufficient he need not go out of himself but be his own Principle Rule and End But seeing he is not sufficient to his own happiness it is folly for him to live to himself If Man in his fullest state of perfection was not his own happiness how much less can he be now in his Indigent empty state When Man changeth his ultimate end from himself to God he now returns to the true Wisdom and is delivered from that folly that sin had possest him with For Men imagine they can make themselves happy else they would not