the Act of creating as it is in God its Principle is God as it is in the Creature where it is terminated is the Creature In like manner the Privation of Grace as it hath its beginning in the Author of Grace from an Act of the Divine Wisdom and Will designing or determining the with-holding of it is thus Divinely-beautiful and good The same privation of Grace as it is terminated and seated in a created Spirit is an evil of Sin the highest deformity the first the greatest evil the fountain of all evils most properly in its own nature and in the Eye of God As being the first and foulest privation of the first Good or the heighest Beauty and the Fountain of all following Privations extending their poisonous and baleful shades to the bottomless pit to the nethermost Hell God saith in the Prophet Isaiah of Nebuchadnezzar he is a Rod in my Hand but he thinketh not so Nebuchadnezzar was as in the hand of God but as a Musicians Quill The Acts of Enmity Tyranny and Cruelty exercised by him and upon the people of God were from the Divine Musician the Master of the universal Musick skilful stroaks and tender touches upon his Harps or Lutes which are his Saints making the universal the eternal Harmony compleat in their Persons and in his whole Work But the same Acts as they were from Nebuchadnezzar were a disorder a breach of the Harmony a Contrariety of an enmity which is the highest opposition to it In the same sweet and beautiful sense of Divine Love that loveliest figure of our Lord Jesus saith to his Brethen concerning their savageness selling sacrificing him to their envy and malice directed against the Divine Glory declaring it self in him by heavenly Visions Ye thought evil against me God meant it unto good Gen. 50. 20. Thus he comforted them concerning their greatest sins who were now humbled for them After the same manner to the same end the Truth himself the Lord Jesus by his Spirit striketh upon the heart of the Jews who had crucified him that now themselves might bleed inwardly from the sense of that precious blood of his which they had shed Act. 2. 23. Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and fore-knowledge of God ye have taken and with wicked hands crucified See that Act the most bloody and direful that ever the Sun saw by which the Suns Sun in Flesh and on Earth suffered the most mournful and tragical Ecclipse attributed at once to the determinate Counsel of God and to the wickedness of men Here that was eminently true which was represented by the former Scripture in the figure that which men thought evil against their Jesus their only Joy their God their only Good and Glory the same thing the cursed sale and cruel sacrificing of their God he meant unto good to bring to pass as at this day to save much people alive to bring many Sons to eternal Life and Glory A learned man cites from Aristotle in his Metaphysicks a passage in which he affirms That all the several parts are referred to the good of the order in the whole as the end of all Upon this he discants that this good of order depends upon the vilest as well as the most precious things that it consisteth in the interval and proportion between these That in respect to this order the vilest things are determined and framed with the same most exact skill as the most curious things Thus the sufferings of Joseph the crucifying of Jesus as they lay eternally determinate in the determinate Counsel of God designed and fashioned there unto good the highest Good the supream End the universal Order the Divine Glory which wraps up in it the blessedness of all the Saints so it self was a part of the Order a part of the Glory a Grace a Beauty a Perfection in the universal Order and Divine Glory But as this proceeds from the hearts and hands of Men the Instruments of it who like Nebuchadnezzar thought not so like Josephs Brethren thought it for evil like the Crucifiers of Christ were wicked in it It is a deordination a disorder a real evil the worst of evils not only a falling short of the Glory of God which is the Divine Image and effulgency in the Harmony of things as St. Paul describes Sin nor yet a transgression and breach only of the Law which is the rule and measure of this Order as another Apostle defines sin but an Enemy to it as all sin is in its root and essence according to the Language of St. Paul in another place So the discord in Musick is truly in its own particular nature and apart a discord so a black crooked line a dark shade is in it self truly black crooked dark offensive to the eye contrary to Light Rectitude and Beauty although the discord be a part of the Harmony this line and shade a part of the Beauty in the whole Object But you will perhaps say All these things seem hitherto to confirm the Ranters in their licentious Principles and Practices For why should not Sinners with the freedom of all sinful pleasures rest and rejoyce in the absoluteness of the Divine Conduct the Perfection of the Divine Order and Beauty which giudes them through all which accompanieth them in all as the Motion and Musick of those heavenly Spheres the Divine Wisdom Power and Goodness comprehending all things with their courses as Stars fixed in them what place is there here for shame guilt displeasure or punishments Answ. I am sensible of the weight of this Work in which I have by degrees engaged my self and how unfit my shoulders are for it When that wise Queen of Sheba saw the attendance of Solomons Servants and the order of his House there was no more any spirit left in her What then is the order in the House of God in his Work from the beginning to the end of it What the attendance and ministry of all the parts of this Work as the Servants in this House according to the Divine Order What Cherubim or Seraphim would have any more any Spirit left in it while it contemplates this Order which at the height of its most ravishing Contemplations remains still for the excess of Glory incomprehensible to it This is that Wisdom in a mystery which the most princely Spirits and Understandings of the whole Creations in their natural capacities are unable to take in What then is my spirit what my faculty that I should be capable of taking off the Vail from this Divine Chain of heavenly Pearl so closely and curiously set to behold in my self by any imperfect glimps to present any glance of it in its Divine lustre and order to other eyes and to preserve it from the feet of Swine or mouth of Dogs What am I that I should attempt to take the Cloud off from this heavenly Paradise which is in the midst of us before us round about us in which all things and
flow from his unvailed Person his naked presence and appearance As the Sun carrieth along with him in his Circuit a sweet flourishing Spring and Summer When God withdraws himself behind clouds of darkness and of night when he withholds the sweet beams and pleasant influences of his own face and person behind thick coverings strange forms and disguises Now man withers and dyes away in all the beauties and sweetnesses of the Divine Image in the place of these Deformity and Death spring up from that deficiency which is inseparable to the natural principles of the Creature which then discovers it self and overspreads the whole man with the shadow of Death and Hell when those principles are no more fed and supplyed from their eternal springs in the bosom of Christ. In this sense these words are most properly true Thy destruction is of thy self but thy Salvation is of me O Israel saith the Lord. 3. God in himself and in the person of the Lord Jesus as he is the essential Image of God is a most simple Unity comprehending all Varieties within himself In this Unity he is Love it self the first the supream the most pure the most potent unconfined love All pleasantnesses are in his Face and Presence he is the Bridegroom entirely fair and pleasant altogether delightful the Object of all Loves Desires the Seat of all Delights and Glories the Spring of Immortality and Eternity As himself is such in the highest affinity and resemblance is his work as it springs immediately from him his principal design and contrivance with which he begins in which he ends and rests eternally which he carrieth along as his first and Ultimate design throughout all things This then is one entire universal piece comprehending all Variety in it self this is one entire piece of sweetest Loves of riches Lights of purest Glories All scenes all forms of darkness and death are subordinate and subservient to this are parts of this are comprehended in this drawn forth from it terminated in it by a Divine and delightful skill set with a shining amiableness in their proper places overspread with a sweetness and lustre in the Unity of the grand design and finally in a manner most pure most harmonious most ravishing swallowed up into the eternal Lights in which the whole piece terminateth Of him and through him and to him are all things who is blessed for ever How true is it how exceeding large now is this truth in all senses in all languages Humane or Divine That God willeth not the death of a Sinner That Destruction is not of him As the Understanding of God is Truth it self the highest and most universal Truth the measure of all Truth so is the Will of God which is himself the first the highest the most comprehensive the unconsined Good the only reason and measure of all good We have passed through those Reasons which seem of greatest moment and to have greatest difficulty in them We hope that we draw near to our Haven and that with easie and gentle stroaks we shall now soon arrive at it The Reasons on this part which now remain seem to be rather mistakes arising from vulgar or general conceptions unexamined undistinguished than from the exercised judgments of wise and learned Spirits They are derived from the nature of things Moral Physical or Metaphysical I shall continue them in the same order with the precedent Reasons 4. Reason If the Will of Man be not free all Laws seem useless Answ. The force of this Reason seemeth to be entire and powerful on the contrary part If the Will of Man be free undeterminated by the dictates of the Understanding Laws have no more any signification or efficacy For the intent of these is clearly to work upon the Understanding Precepts and Prohibitions are Rules propounded Lights set up to the Understanding to inform what road or course is to be followed what to be carefully avoided in our Navigation through the Sea of this World that we may pass safely free from the danger of Rocks and Shelves to our desired Port. Rewards and Penalties are to be weighed and judged by the Understanding according to whose standard and estimate they have all their value Vexatio dat intellectum The proper end of Punishments and Rewards is to excite the Understanding The proper end of Precepts and Prohibitions is to enlighten the Understanding The excellency and efficacy of every Law is to impress upon us the sense of Good and Evil. So Moses the Law-Giver among the Jews saith to them I have set before you this day Good and Evil Life and Death What effect hath the sense of Good and Evil seated in the Understanding if the Will be guided by an absolute ungoverned arbitrariness within it self without Order without Harmony without Connexion without respect to the dictates of the Understanding How useless how fruitless are all impressions of Good or Evil if the Will be not by the Law of its own Essence by its own essential Principles determined to good sub ratione boni under the formal appearance of good 5. Reason Who meeteth not with this frequent experiment in himself which the Poet expresseth in the person of Medea as I remember Video meliora proboque deterior a sequor Better things I see approve The evil yet I choose and love Answ. This thin mist is easily scattered and cleared into a pure Air by the beam of one distinction between good propounded in the Thesis in its abstracted and general nature or in the Hypothesis cloathed with all its practical and individuating circumstances In the first it is the subject of the Dictamen practicum intellectus of the Understanding in its proposal of general Rules of practice to the Will In the other the good is the subject of the Dictamen practice practicum of the Understanding in its dictates and directions to the Will in arenâ upon the place in the singular and individual action now this moment lying before it with all its circumstances The Schools well distinguish between Act us signatus and Act us exercitus An Act marked out and described by the Understanding or an Act now immediately presenting it self unto a real existency out of all its Causes Whoever vieweth and distinguisheth exactly the sentiments of his Understanding the commerce between those and the motions of his Will maketh this clear discovery if I be not very much deceived That in the general conception and rule in the practical dictate and direction in the exactest contemplation and description of a moral Act one thing seemeth good to us when after this when we come upon the place to exercise the Act it self our sense is altogether changed The practically practical dictate of the Understanding its sentiments now in the moment of action in the presence and immediate impressions of all Circumstances differeth from the precedent Rules and passeth quite to a contrary Point to present that as the present good the good of the
and Divine Harmony through the Death and Resurrection of the Lord Jesus But we will leave these things to their proper places In the mean time this Truth seemeth tâ—… be firmly established upon unmoveable grounds that nothing as it lies in the whole in all its causes concurrences relations and circumstances is mean vile or little unworthy of the Divine Mind which if it were a stranger to any the least circumstance of things even the first most unperceptible motions of the Will were uncapable of judging of the Harmony of the whole of Good and Evil which consist in order and disorder especially of moral Good and Evil the chief Good and Evil of the chief pieces of the whole Work Intellectual Spirits whose Good and Evil in order to an eternity of Happiness or Misery are defined and determined by every motion of the Will If I have been at the expence of much time and pains upon this Subject the Omniscience of God or the universality of his Knowledge and the exactness of it in this Universality I humbly conceive that I have not done it impertinently being moved to it by these two Reasons 1. Learned men know that this Flower in the Crown of the Great King this Attribute of God hath been denied to him in the face of the whole World with great confidence with bold pretences of Reason and Learning opposed to it I have heard this perfection of the Divine Nature in the Process of a Discourse upon this freedome of the Will questioned Whether it were proper to God or a Perfection and this Question made soberly there where modesty goodness and learning have met together 2. This Argument of the Divine Omniscience appeareth to mewith so great weight in this cause that if this be freely granted and clearly understood I cannot at all comprehend by what way or means the liberty of the Will now examined can suppart it self without the overturning the whole fabrick of our Philosophy and Divinity with the absolute ruines of all their beauties and strengths I hope in a few words to manifest this in the Second Part of this Argument which now follows 2. Part. The Second Part is the Original of the Divine Knowledge This knowledge of God ariseth not from without but from within himself This Truth seemeth to carry the full and sweet light of its own evidence brightly shining in the face of it If God receive any thing from without he is no more immutable impassible independent a pure Act a perfect eternal Act a simple Unity but a composition of divers and different ingredients If any Species or Image if any Knowledge flow in upon the Divine Understanding from any external Object not only all the Properties Perfections and Attributes ascribed to God but his Godhead it self with all its most essential Glories are shaken overthrown and utterly demolished If God be receptive of any thing from any other he is no more the first the universal Being the Fountain of all Being and so no more God It is generally and rightly affirmed That the Essence of God and the Operations are the same that his Knowledge is Himself If then He receive the knowledge of any thing He receiveth also Himself and his Godhead from a Forreign Spring Wâ—…o saith St. Paul hath been his Counsellor or who hath given to Him first that He should repay Object Some eminent Divines seeming to understand the force of the Reason in this Point to lie in the fore-knowledge of God have believed themselves to have gained a full Victory over it by an imagined co-existence of God with the Creature For say they God is infinite as in his Essence so in his duration By virtue of this infiniteness he after an immutable manner co-exists with the Creature in all its changes Eternity which is the duration of the Divine Essence in its undivided and unchangeable but unconfined Unity co-exists with time the duration of the Creature in all its numerous and successive motions in all its undivided moments Thus say they God properly foreknows nothing but knoweth every Creature as it is present with Him in its own proper existence and time Answ. If all this in the full Latitude be freely granted I humbly conceive that the present Argument remains still in its full force unshaken untoucht But first I shall crave leave to offer some incongruities and mistakes which make me uncapable of satisfying my self with this co-existence thus formed and founded 1. This seems to take away out of the mouth of God Himself speaking by the Prophet Isaiah one Principal proof of his Godhead which he pleaseth to make use of several times over and in which he glories challenging all the gods of the Heathen to come and try their Divinities by this Test This is the Power of Prophecying the declaring of things to come 2. Doth not the Co-existence mentioned commensurate God with the Creature make God the Subject of a Relation to the Creature establish a proportion between Him and the Creature which are all contrary to the infiniteness of God as to the most uncontroverted Principle of Divinity shining in upon us by the light of Nature or of Revelation 3. If God by Co-existing with the Creature in the moment of the Fall at the beginning of time declares that full Victory of Christ over the Serpent at the end of time which he knows only by coexisting with that action in its proper scene and duration at the winding up of all Ages Doth it not follow that the beginning and the end of time in their proper seasons and durations co-exist and fall in with each other For this is a Maxim of universal force That those two things which meet in a third meet in themselves 4. The best Understandings pure and clear as the Sun it self clouded with flesh while they see through so thick a medium are capable of various and disproportionate views of their Object A weaker sight fixed on and confined to some narrower and more particular Image may in that sometimes discover to better eyes which extend themselves to a more spacious Object an error in that smaller Point Accordingly those great Spirits with whom I now treat perhaps may find themselves mistaken in their sense of the Divine Co-existence with the Creature if they please to consider this which I shall now propound God indeed is infinite By this infiniteness he is above all proportion to all commerce with every thing that is finite By this infiniteness he comprehends in himself all Creatures with all theirExistencies Formalities and Modifications after an infinite manner eminently and with the highest transcendency Thus he beholdeth thus he converseth with all things within Himself Divines generally place the Joys of glorified Spirits in that Beatifical Vision which is the sight of all things in the most amiable face of the most highly adored Trinity as in the only clear Glass of all Images of things in their eternal Truths Is not God Himself blessed in the
latter being the shadow of the former Then he adds The Light shined in Darkness but the Darkness comprehended it not This seemeth to be a clear allusion to the work of the first day when God called Light out of Darkness dividing at the same time between the Light and the Darkness The Light now shined in the midst of the Darkness enlightning the Darkness so that it still remaineth incomprehensible to the Darkness as that abode in its own natural form divided from the Light All generally agree that Moses comprehended the History of the whole Creation in this Chapter And under the Covert and Vail of the visible part as a figure divinely describeth the Intellectual Angelical and more Divine part as the immediate Original and Life of this Figure We have an Image of this in the Body of Heaven with the Sun-shining in it by day or the Moon and Stars by night when they present themselves to our eyes by plain figures of themselves formed in a flowing stream here below The Jews therefore say That a man of Flesh and Blood cannot understand the first Chapter of Genesis St. Paul affirmeth That the invisible things are perceived being understood by the things that are made By these words he seemeth plainly to signifie that while Moses painteth out to us the visible world and framing of it his design is to set before us a lively Picture of the invisible part of things which is as the heavenly Person whose Picture is drawn on this Table The Light then which is the work of the first day being not only Sensitive but Intellectual is the first Creature the first and most immediate effulgency irradiation or out-shining of the Godhead the beginning of the Creation of God St. Paul saith That which makes manisest is Light Then the first Light is the first the most eminent the amplest the clearest the compleatest manifestation of God and so of the whole Creation as its golden Head The first day according to the Hebrew Idiom is the one day which Idiom hath this mystery wrapt up in it That the Unity the Fountain of numbers is the first in order from which we begin to number This Light which is the first Creature the work of the first day is the first procession of the Divine Unity without it self It retains therefore the highest Image of this Unity and partakes of it in the highest degree that any created Nature is capable of This is the Unity of the Divine Person or subsistency in a distinct created Essence or Form Thus you have in this lovely Form of the purest the sweetest of all created Lights the Person of Jesus Christ as he is the first Creature divinely subsisting in the Godhead This is that Light which while it shineth with a derived brightness in the midst of that darkness which is the first matter of every Creature it remaineth in the Unity and Divinity of its Person and subsistence vailed to the highest and most glorious of all Creatures For even in this blessed Person the darkness is a dividing Vail between the Nature and the Godhead in which that Nature subsists The Jewish Masters by a two-fold tradition seem to seal up this mystery for Posterity First they number the Soul of the Messias among those sacred and sublime Glories which were before the world Secondly They mysteriously affirm the Light of the first day to be a Light in which the whole work of Creation in all the parts of it with all its Revolutions from its first beginning to its last end are clearly and distinctly seen But say they at the fall of man by Sin this Light was hid beneath the Throne of God until the days of the Messias Can any thing more plainly express our Jesus as He is the first and universal Creature the first the fairest the clearest draught of the whole Creation in the whole course and conduct of it pre-existent to every Creature comprehending all the works of God from the first line to the last finishing of it in one most delightful View in one most agreeable Prospect in one Spirit and Form of purest sweetest life more than Angelical only less then Divine yet subsisting in a Divine Person If the will of man with its motions be seen and pre-exist here are they not here predetermined But I have said before that I would neither insist long upon this Point nor lay any thing of the weight of this Cause upon it being it self by few received or understood I divided my discourse of the Mediatorship into three Heads 1. Christ as he is the ground of all the Works of God in which also lies the ground of his Mediatorship 2. Christ as he is the Way 3. Christ as he is the End of the whole Work of God There are two parts in the way 1. Christ as he is the beginning of the Works of God the first Creature 2. Christ as the coming forth and the conduct of every Creature from the beginning to the end is in him and by him This I am now to take in hand Christ is Mediator as he is the way of the coming forth and the conduct of the Work of God in the whole and every part of it As in a Plant the seminal Spirit hath treasured up in it the seminal Reasons the whole Harmony all the proportions of the Plant in the whole Plant and in every part of it as this seminal Spirit hath in it self the formative power of the Plant according to the proportion as this Spirit putteth forth it self into every part of the Plant springeth up together with it gives it its proper measures and proportions suited to the Harmony of the whole Plant appears in each part as a living Image of that particular proportion or harmony which with an invisible Beauty flourisheth within it self resides on every part of the Plant with the full harmony of the whole being one and the same altogether undivided in the whole Plant and in all its parts Thus is Christ after a more eminent and divine manner the seminal Spirit of the whole Creation I have before represented him from clear Scriptures as the Wisdome and Power of God by virtue of which he is clearly a Spirit containing in himself the seminal Reasons and the formative Power by which every Creature is formed universally in its production and in its conduct Jesus Christ is frequently known in the Scriptures by that Name of the Seed which though it relates eminently to the state of Grace and Glory where it cometh up into its ripe fruit and entire form yet doth it relate to the state of Nature For by virtue of this Seed Adam was the Son of God By this Seed and in it were all things made as Plants springing forth from it although the Seed were yet come up in them only into the green Leaf or smiling Blossoms at the best That Name given in Greek to Jesus which is translated the Word signifieth as properly Reason Jesus
harmonious Motions and most regular diversity of Forms appear together by virtue of the Unity every where indivisible 3. Within the Unity of the Soul lie both the other Natures in a way proper to the nature of the Soul The Angelical the Divine Natures above are there with contracted and dimmer Glories appearing through Images of less brightness and less Majesty All Corporeal Natures are there exalted into Spirits in their Intellectual Patterns and Powers in their rational Forms and Virtues in their Imaginative figures and force in their seminal Reasons and plastical or formative Power That mystical Picture which the Prophet Esay draws of the Seraphim from the Life it self when he saw them will serve in its proportion for the figure of the Intellectual Soul They had each six wings with two they covered their Face with two their Feet with two they flew Spirits are described by Wings The Images of things springing up within them are their Wings not by change of place without them but by these inward Images are they present with things and in each place By these they work after the way of a Natural or rather Angelical Magick By raising and converting themselves to Images in their minds they bring forth new forms without as the Off-spring or Emanations from those Images like shadows from Bodies Upon this account Angels are said to work Cognoscendo by the force of figures in their minds Each Soul hath like a Seraphim six wings The face of the Soul is his Divine his Angelical Idea in which the face of God and the face of the Angel in their proper forms are seen The two uppermost wings with which the Soul covers her Angelical Face and within that her Divine Face is the Divine Image shining in the Angelical Image These wings are full of eyes within and without As by the eyes without they see the Images of Angelical and Divine Glories So by the eyes within they see the Faces of Angels and of God and in them their own faces vailed beneath these Images full of eyes These Eyes are the living Light the reflection of the Angelical and Divine Glory of which these Images are composed and by virtue of which they according to their pure Natures stand in a mutual inseparable Union with the Angels and in the Angels with the Divine Glory By vertue of this Union they at once look inward to their Ideal Beauties and outward to the Images of these Beauties The two lowest wings are the Images of all Corporeal Natures of all Bodies which cover these as the feet of the Soul Nymphs which are Souls according to Porphyrius are described in Poets with silver feet Bodily Natures in their extended and divisible parts are the feet of the Soul its lowest descent the lowest and shadowest forms figured upon it These in the Soul it self which is an Unity appear only in their seminal Unities and Beauties as Spirits in the Harmony of this Universal Spirit For this cause are they represented by silver feet shining and incorruptible for the same reason are they said to be covered with wings which are those Spirits the lowermost forms of things in the Soul the seminal Unity and Harmonies out of which Bodies immediately flow and in which they are seen as in a mystical Glass The middle-wings of the Soul are the proper Image of the Soul it self by which it performs its own proper Motions and Operations flying between those Angelical those Divine Images above and the shady forms of Bodies below The Images or Natures of Spirits are exprest by pairs of wings not only for congruity and the decency of the Parable but from the Truth of the mystery for in Spirits each Image distinguisheth it self by a most substantial Variety into its own Original and Image by that self-reflection or spiritual Generation which is the essential Act of each Understanding of each Intellectual Nature of each Spirit Thus much of this first passage the three-fold Nature united in the Soul 2. Passage Then it by thee unloosened spread doth lye Through Limbs well suited to a sympathy Per Consona membra resoluis Note How elegantly doth this Divine Philosopher and Poet at once paint out to us the Soul extended into Corporeal Forms in divisible parts languishing obscure with a faint and fading light weak with a feeble and dying force as also present in its Divine Unity the spring of Light of Life through the whole extent of these Bodies and binding them up into an indivisible Unity This Unity every where present with all the parts of the wholy Body This Unity comprehending them all in one making them all one by a mutual comprehension of each other in it self is the only ground of the Consonancy the Harmony and Sympathy The Unity of the same Spirit answering to it self every where presenting all the parts in an Unity in it self is every where in all Corporeal Forms the Beauty the Musick the Harmony 3. Passage Of motion and divinest Melody Diffus'd through things below or those on high This is the Spring and Circle Cuncta moventem 1. Note The difficulties in Motion are inexplicable if Motion have not for its Spring and Seat an essential substantial Unity which contains at once in it self the terms of the Motion its Beginning and End the Way the Forms or Parts of that which is moved Without this how shall the Motion be directed How shall the Forms or parts of that which is moved give place to or pass into the place of each other How shall the Impression or force of Motion be communicated But now all things move by a divinely natural Magick that is by the force of Harmony in the Unity of the same Soul or Spirit inhabiting and acting all presenting it self in every form part and motion Now all motions present themselves to our eyes as exact and Divine Dances of persons to a Divine Musick from unseen Musicians sounding entirely and distinctly in the ear of each person to which they all at once in their order move most agreeably 2. Note Immutablity Mutation or Change Motion differ after the same manner with Eternity Aeviternity Time This is best explained by the three-fold Unity the Divine the Angelical Unity the Unity of the Soul 1. The Divine Unity is alone a true and perfect Unity substantial supream unbounded This hath a perfect boundless Variety in it with an Uniformity All forms of things here as they are most perfectly distinct by the perfection of the Variety so are they most perfectly one by the perfection of the Unity This is the Divine World containing innumerable Divine Worlds within it self of which every one is infinitely new and various from all the rest yet entirely one with all the Rest including at once innumerable Divine Worlds all new and all the same As the Variety there comprehends all distinctions below it and infinitely transcends them So each the minutest the least distinction here being a Variety there is a new
Divine World having all the other Varieties compleat in it self as so many Divine Worlds all new This is Eternity above all change 2. The Angelical Unity follows Here the Divine Unity descends into a shadow beneath which it shades it self This is a shadowy Unity the first and most perfect of all shadowy Unities The shade here bounds and diversifieth the Unity But the Light and the Unity in the shadow predominate over the Darkness and Diversity The Divine Variety is here contracted and obscured in a diversity of Forms But in this diversity of Forms is an Omniformity Each Form is Universal and Omniform Each Form hath this Angelical Unity in it where all diversity of Forms meet to compose it and shine together in it according to the diversity and property of that Form Thus every Form of things here is an Angel every Angel is the whole World in himself the whole World and a new World of Angels In this World is motion not properly or simply but with a predominancy of station over the motion for as the Unity is continually rouling through diversity of Forms so it is Omniform Universal cloathed with possessing and enjoying in it self all diversity of Forms and so the full compass of the whole Angelical Harmony in each Form This is Aeviternity where mutability or change begins 3. The Unity of the Soul is the last this is mixt of Eviternity and Time Of Change where station predominates over motion and motion single in its own kingdom The Soul in its superior part is in the form of an Angel In its Angelical Unity it comprehends and rouls through all diversity of Forms in their Universality and Omniformity carrying the whole pomp and full splendor of all universal Forms of all Angelical Beauties along with it in the face of it into each diverse Form Thus it is all Forms in every Form In its inferior part the Soul descends into all particular Forms where the Unity in its Angelick majesty and lustre in its universal Form and Glory is gradually contracted and obscured by the encreasing shade The Soul now becomes each particular Form Here in this inferior part of the Soul Motion and Time have their first birth and seat Time is defined to be the number of Motion in an orderly Priority and Posteriority Accordingly the Soul in respect to its inferior part most properly is described to be a self-moving number As numbers by a just order spring up one out of the other the succeeding numbers being ever less universal removed further from the Unity and multiplied more into particular Unities then the fore-going numbers So doth the Soul after the manner of number which is the measure of all proportion and order from its supream and universal Unity descend and re-ascend through all particular Forms in the most just order and most exact proportions The Soul being the first seat of Motion and Time is also the first seat of Musick which is a motion measured by Time and by the order of Ascents or Descents It is therefore defined by an Harmony There is a three-fold Harmony in the motions of the Soul 1. All the motions of the Soul through all particular Forms lie together after a most agreeable and harmonious manner in the supream Unity of the Soul in its universal Form which is its Essence By the Harmony here are measured all the motions of the Soul in its passage through inferior Forms and so all Time 2. The Soul in its Unity diffuseth it self through all its particular Forms and Motions dwelleth as an hidden seed of Harmony in each of them figureth it self upon each particular and upon the whole uniteth and bindeth up all by it self in it self into one entire piece into one universal Harmony which includes all particular Harmonies all sorts of Musick in it self 3. The Soul by virtue of its Unity and universal ' Form within the embraces and incompassings of that descends most regularly to the lowest Forms Then ascends again ending in that Point that Unity where it first begun So it finisheth in it self the Divine Circle of Musick or Harmony within which lies all Harmony and Musick in all its most delightful diversity of Modes or Figures Thus the Soul in it self as it spreads it self through time and motion the first the universal Musick the measure the Spirit of all Musick all time and motion here make up the universal Musick Again as all universal and particular Forms all motion and time appear at once in one view in the Unity of the Souls Essence and universal Form so is the Soul the first the universal Beauty the Measure the Spirit of all Beauty Forms and Harmony This is spoken of the Soul in comparison with the Corporeal Beauties Musick and Harmony Coelestial or Terrestrial But the Harmony of the Angelick Nature transcends this of the Soul That also is infinitely surmoâ—…nted by those unexpressible incomprehensible Harmonies of the Divine Effence which it is not possible for any created sense to take in 4. Passage It still returns Into it self It still doth circle round The eternal minds great deep Heav'n thus doth found And in like figure of those unseen Lights Doth turn about these Glories in our sights In semel reditura meat mentemque profundam Circuit simili convertit imagine Caelum 1. Note How the Soul in all her motions returns into her self you see in the Harmony of the Soul described in the last Note upon the fore-going Passage I will here only add this The Soul is an indivisible Unity yet spacious enriched with a Variety of Powers and Forms far beyond the compass or glory of this visible World with all its Starry Christalline or Empyrean Heavens This Soul from it self within it self circles through vast and various Forms of richest Lights deepest Shades with all their mixtures in a most exact and ravishing order making all one Piece one Structure one Palace one Person one Face of Beauty most divinely beautiful where all forms of Beauty meet in one As it is thus from it self within it self circles through all forms so in each form it springs up and brings forth it self entire in the Unity of its Essence Thus in every Point the beginning and the end meet the circle of the Souls Essence and of all Beauties the Divine Piece the Divine Palace with all its bright Inhabitants and shining Furniture the Divine Person the Face of Beauty is all finisht and compleat with all the sweet and beautiful Varieties in every part in every point Thus the Soul in all its motions by virtue of the most charming Harmony and transporting Unity every where entire and undivided is ever returning into it self 2. Note The Souls Original the manner of its Divine Procession from its eternal King is with an admirable brevity perspicuity and depth represented to us in the Souls circling round the Minds great deep The Platonists distinguish all invisible Being into three ranks The Unity which is God the Mind
motions of things spring and flourish as Divine Plants in a Divine Order to open it to the view of the Sanctified Beholder and at the same time to defend it from prophane Spirits by the flaming Sword by the sparkling penetrating consuming or refining beams of a Cherubim We will therefore penetrate so far as we may into this bright Deep which so delightfully swalloweth up the most Angelical Understanding may our dependance be upon that Spirit alone which moveth upon the shining Face of this Deep and is a Baptism of heavenly fire purifying the beloved Soul illuminating with an heavenly Light the purified Eye enflaming with heavenly Love the purified Heart and so initiating him into these holy mysteries But keeping off every profane Eye and Heart by darkning dazeling affrighting and burning upon them Divine Truth is as a Rose-Tree which as it hath its beautiful and perfumed Roses so it hath prickels to guard those Roses from rash and rude hands My Answer then to the fore-mentioned Objection shall be divided into these gradual steps First No Sinner in a sinful state no Soul in any act of sin can see the Divine Order in the Work of God which Order is Jesus Christ the Image the Wisdom the Glory of the invisible God figuring himself upon the whole Work from the beginning to the end as one entire lively living Picture of himself himself being the Life of it and shining in the face of it Sin is the Souls falling short of the Glory of God into the darknesses below being unable to raise its Understanding to the Beauty of this Light Sin is the violation or breach of this sacred Harmony by which the Soul cuts off and separates it self from it by which it over-casts the Glory with a deep stain and a black Cloud which take it altogether out of its sight all defilement is an undue mixture Every sin confounds the Soul it wraps it up in an universal confusion sin is an enmity to this Harmony of things It is a dark confusion from below rising up as a poysonous vapour to over-spread the pure Light of this heavenly Order The Divine Order then and all things as they lie in the Divine Order fight against sin and the sinner their common and only Enemy As the Stars in their courses fought against Sisera St. John the beloved Disciple having first declared God to be Light without the mixture of any Darkness at all Then testifieth That if we say that we have fellow ship with him and walk in darkness we lye and do not the truth Sinners universally in the Scriptures are stiled Children of Darkness and not of the Light The Light of the Divine Order and Glory the acting of a part in this Divine Order in the light and truth of it are inconsistent in any Spirit with the darkness of sin 2. If any Spirit by the highest improvement of its Intellectual Powers by Angelical assistances and heightnings by the more sublime and supernatural though common illuminations of the Spirit of Grace himself form to it self an heavenlâ—… Image of this Divine Order and that anointed by the same Operations of the same Spirit with an heavenly Beauty Sweetness and Virtue This Spirit thus far will be sanctified by this sacred Light being taken up out of the tempestuous Seas of its sins into the sweet and pure the calm and clear stream of this Harmony as into a River of Milk and Honey But if this Spirit do take from hence arguments to sin encouragements to sin now it no more seeth a right Image of this heavenly Glory no not in the notion of it As St. Paul speaketh of the Gospel that which shines in this Spirit now this Image perverteth and so the Order is changed into a disorder and confusion That Divine figure sprung from the holy Spirit is withdrawn together with that Spirit a Spirit from below is sprung up as by an hellish Magick or Inchantment into a counterfeit but perverted representation of that heavenly Beauty Thus sin deceives this Spirit then defiles it and so slays it by extinguishing the sweet of sight of its true Light Let such Spirits tremble lest they be found in the number of those unhappy Spirits who having tasted the good Word of God and the Powers of the World to come tread under their feet the Son of God that good Word of God that Wisdom of God that golden Chain of heavenly Harmony in Divine Providence and offer injury and dispight to the Spirit of Grace by which the Son of God sweetly lives and shines in the sacred order of things and by which they were once sanctified having been washt in this Spirit of Grace the Fountain of this lovely Order from the Pollutions of the World Are not these the Spirits upon whom wrath is to come so long as Christ shall Reign 3. My two first steps have been as the preparatory to my Answer like the Porch to the main Building my third step will bring you into the House it self which I shall endeavour to present to you as perfectly and perspicuously as I can In this will consist the strength the beauty of the Answer If I be able to set it forth in its proper strength and beauty I am sensible how far I am below this I therefore intreat those that read or hear this Discourse for their own sakes and the Truths sake to assist my weakness with the utmost strength of their candor attention and understanding Dionysius the Areopagite saith in one place That God reduceth into order those things which are out of order and so establisheth all in good and beauty There are two Rules and Maxims concerning Harmony and Order 1. The Order and Harmony is there perfect where the Variety is full Contrariety is an eminent part of the Variety which enlargeth the Variety and heightens the Harmony Contraria juxt à se posita magis elucescunt Contraries illustrate and heighten one another 2. The Order or Harmony is there most compleat where the Unity is preserved most entire and conspicuous in the fullest Variety To this it is necessary that there be no where any leap or gap This makes the Beauty this makes the Musick to which all Spirits sensual and Intellectual on Earth or in Heaven spring and dance with sweetest and liveliest motions of delight and wonder when the Unity unfolds it self into its amplest Variety by just degrees even numbers and exact proportions When one extream passeth not to another but through all the middle terms that stand between these extreams When one passeth not to three but by two Now the Unity is preserved the middle term being as the band or the connexion of the two extreams which joyneth them in one Now the Variety lies in the explication of the Unity as it lies complicated in the Unity when as the Ternary by being first gathered up into a duality lieth folded up in the bosom of the Unity so the Unity from the bosom of the
Lamb that was slain where his wounds appear in his glorified Person not as Wounds but as Beauties not as Fractures or Stains but as Diamonds or Pearls in the Crown of his Righteousness and Glory Perhaps I may seem too long upon this part of my Discourse but we read of a Sanctuary into which the Holy Spirit entreth when it is perplext with the outward face of the Divine Providence in the evil of sin and Sinners and of Sufferings to the Saints There it seeth the end of all There the mystery openeth it self into an universal Uniform piece and prospect of Divine Beauty and Delight Psal. 73. If I be not deceived Jesus risen from the dead in this order and manner is this Sanctuary this Temple of Grace and Truth He hath now rent the Vail of his Flesh and opened himself into an universal eternal Spirit He now shines out with a sweet amiable clearness and glory into an universal eternal Light In this Spirit which is this Light of Life the whole course of his Work in the Creation and in Providence his Incarnation Sufferings and Death present themselves in all the smallest threads and contextures of them as one Diâ—…ine piece as full of Divinity every where Here all in the whole and in the parts present themselves to the spiritual Eye as beautiful and blessed Spirits in numberless troops by a Divine sport figuring their immortal Glories in all Varieties of lights and shades hiding their Glories beneath these figures breaking with their Glories out of these figures as so many Suns out of their Clouds shewing their figures themselves as Glories Like the Palms and Lilies and Cherubims of the Temple carved first in Cedar and then covered with massy Gold In the mean time all these numberless Spirits in their whole play from the beginning to the end are comprehended in this one Spirit the universal Spirit of Harmony Order Beauty and pleasantness in all Jesus risen from the dead the first and the last the same yesterday to day and for ever O the Wisdom the Power the Grace the Glory the unsearchable Riches of the mystery of God in Christ What a depth is this without any bottom What an heighth without any bound What a breadth what a length without any measure How doth it stretch forth it self beneath all above all through all beyond all things or thoughts Who can ever satisfie himself with any the richest the fullest forms of words or conceptions in conceiving or expressing this Mystery this Jesus But I have now brought to an end according to my weak manner the reducing the disorder it self into order in the Person of Christ by these three sacred steps of Expiation Compensation Abolition of the Disorder in the Order or which is the same the Renovation of the Order in all I have endeavoured to shew how every thing of partâ—…cular order and disorder hath been made beautiful in its season keeping its time in the Universal Harmony of this Song of the Lamb in the Musick of the eternal Word I have also attempted to open that mystery how this Work of God in every part of it with its Beauty is for eternity the light of eternity being the only light of Truth with a golden Calm an unstained Sun-shine of purest perpetual Peace Pleasantness and Glory In this light of eternity alone is the Work of God seen aright in the entire piece in the whole design from the beginning to the end As all times appear in this Light less than a moment a point nothing being as eternity in the undivided Unity of eternity so are all the disorders of time no more not so much as a shadow in a dream that is past but as the highest and sweetest Harmony in the undivided Unity of the eternal Harmony All this is true in the Person of Christ to which the Scriptures give a clear Testimony All things are gathered together in one in Christ both which are in Heaven and which are on Earth Ephes. 1. 10. Having made peace through the blood of his Cross God hath by him reconciled all things to himself by him whether they be things on Earth or in Heaven Col. 1. 20. These are true in us as Christ springs up in us Then only are we our selves baptized Then only do we see all things unto us together with us baptized into the sweet shining boundless bottomless Sea of this universal aâ—…d eternal Harmony when we are baptized into Christ. As many of us as are baptized into Christ are baptized into his Death and into â—…is Resurrection from the dead How then can we live any longer in sin being now dead to it How can we live any life besides that of Holiness and Heaven being now risen again with Christ into the Glory of God Thus St. Paul excludes all pleas of the Flesh for a licentiousness in sin from this Doctrine of the free and rich Grace of God in Christ Rom. 6. 1 2 3 4. I am now come to the end of my design upon this Scripture Eccles. 3. I have been large in the prosecution of my design upon this Scripture my purpose was to reconcile the absoluteness of the Divine Sovereignty Wisdom and Power through this whole Work with the Divine Justice Goodness and Glory in the determination of the Will by its essential Principles by the uninterrupted order and connexion of causes by the first and universal Cause which is most intimate to every effect and worketh most of all Secundum modum naturae in a natural way as being the nâ—…tura naturans I promised two other Scriptures for the making good of this design I will lightly touch them and so hasten to an end of my Discourse The Lord hath made all things for himself yea even the Wicked for the day of evil Prov. 16. 4. There are four parts clear and distinct in this Scripture 1. An efficient cause or beginning The Lord Jehovah 2. The final cause or end For himself 3. The universality of the effect and influence of these Causes The Lord hath made all things for himself 4. A confirmation of this universal influence of these Divine Causes upon every Effect by a particular and most eminent instance Yea even the Wicked for the day of evil Three things are remarkable in this particular instance 1. It is brought in as an anticipation of an Objection and with a two-fold Asseveration Yea even Here in this point men are apt most of all to doubt the continuation and universality of the Divine influence What say they hath God made all things for himself What the evils of Sin and of Suffering Here men of greatest wit through all Ages have been at a stand not knowing how to fasten the golden Links of the Divine Chain in the Work of God one within another Here they have broken the Chain of the holy and heavenly Order Here therefore the Divine Wisdom by Solomon peculiarly fasteneth the Links and maketh the Chain entire that he may enclose
the whole Work as one compleat piece within the same Divine beginning and Divine end knit together by the same Divine influence running equally through all parts and making all one The Lord hath made all things for himself yea even the Wicked for the day of evil 2. The effect in this particular instance is remarkable This effect is every wicked person under the formality of a wicked person As a Creature an Angel or a Man he cannot be the subject of any question or doubt The evil of sin by which he is constituted and denominated wicked is clearly designed by this emphatical instance I have often already expressed the manner of the influence and operation of the Divine Power and Providence upon the evil of sin and so of a Sinner under the formality of sin All evil being a defect depends upon the first Cause together with all intermediate Causes in their deficiency only and in the ordination of circumstances 3. This instance brings in this particular effect in its inseparable connexion with its subordinate end The day of evil The Lord hath made all things for himself yea even the wicked person who becomes wicked by the evil of sin He hath made the inseparable connexion between the evil of sin and the evil of sufferings He hath made this evil person by an inviolable Order for the day of evil the evil of Sufferings He hath made this evil person this evil of sufferings the connexion between these two as the effect and next subordinate end For himself the Ultimate and last end the blessed the glorious Crown of all I will finish this Subject with two or three brief and clear Observations drawn from this Text. 1. The beginning and the end of all things are the same God in his most glorious Essence the only the supream the universal the essential Good an infinite Good 2. The end is the first and chief Cause moving all other Causes and directing their motions from the first to the last motion 3. All things are bounded by these two The first beginning and the last end All things in every step of all effects of all subordinate ends are in motion and in the way to the last end They rest not they attain not their mark to which they are designed from the beginning by the first and universal Mover till they arrive at this their last end 4. â—…he last end gives amiableness beauty and perfection to all things as the means of bringing forth this end It gives this beauty and perfection to them three wayes 1. It self runs along through all things in their whole way to it as the first universal Mover as the first and universal virtue and force which moves in all and moves all throughout from the beginning to the end 2. It comprehends all in it as the bosom or nest in which the whole is designed and formed 3. It rests upon all things in every part of the work and step of the way as the life and light of the universal Order and Harmony which attracts directs and conducts all to it self 4. It gathers up all things at last into its self as the term and mark to which all things move in which alone all motions cease and are changed into rest Every thing in its Ultimate end gaineth its perfection its true and proper self Every thing is so far it self as it is perfect so far as it is imperfect it falls short of it self every imperfection being a privation of being and so to each self a privation of it self according to its degree This is the sweet and musical close This is the bright and beautiful crown of all things the beginning and the end meeting in one 5. The end it self as it is the first Mover so doth it last of all cease from its motions and terminate them in its own beatifical Rest. This is the end perfectly accomplished when all things tending to this end meet in the perfection of the end The end therefore never returns to its rest till it rests with its full perfection in every part of the Work in every particular form directed to it self Our Divines teach us That the Glory of God is the Ultimate end of all things not the essential but the manifestative Glory so the Glory of God then only finds rests when it rests with a full revelation of it self unvailing all its Beauties unfolding all its Sweetnesses in the bosom and face of each part of the whole Work of God So the Divine operation and motion ceaseth not in any part of this Divine Work until all rest in the bosom of this Glory perfectly displaying all its Pleasures and Delicacies upon it For this manifestative Glory is the end of all The end mutually gives to and takes from all the means to the end rest and perfection Thus God hath made all things all effects with all their subordinate ends yea even the wicked also for the day of evil his subordinate end for this Great and Ultimate end himself in the brightness and full out-shinings of his Glory I pass now to the third Scripture Rom. 11. If I deceive not my self I seem to my self to discern in this Scripture a rich Mine of Divinity of Divine Truth and Glory in which no Workman hath yet laboured But it is not agreeable to my present time or purpose to open or point out this Mine if I were furnished with an heavenly strength and skill sufficient for it I shall now only touch at some verses in this Chapter which contibute to my present Design verse 23. God hath shut up or as it is in the Greek God hath locked up together all in unbelief that he may have mercy upon all St. Paul in this Chapter sets before us God as the most skillful Painter sweetning and beautifying his Work in the whole and in the parts of it by the mixtures and interchanges of Light and Shades Grace and Severity still terminating all in the sweetness and light of the Divine Grace as the end of all From this Contemplation he raiseth himself into and loseth himself in the pleasant heighths of a Divine Extasy verse 33. O the depth of the Riches and the Wisdom and the Knowledg of God How unsearchable are his Judgments and his wayes past finding out Every Work of God hath a three-fold Depth of Riches 1. A Depth of Riches the riches of Power Purity Beauty Love Goodness Grace and Glory 2. A Depth of Wisdom of Divine Contrivance of perfect Harmony 3. A Depth of Knowledge comprehending all endless and infinite Varieties in a clear view at once In every part of the Work of God do all these Depths meet which swallow up the most capacious Spirits of Saints and Angels into themselves but can be fathomed by no Spirit The distinct judgment in which any one the least piece of this Work is wrought hath so boundless a depth heighth and compass in it that it is altogether unsearchable The way of
its whole Pilgrimage Thus is the eternal Spirit and the Divine VVisdom unstained conducting this heavenly Seed through all these diversities and contrarieties while they keep their spiritual their Divine Beauties entire by keeping the entire Unity and so the Order the Harmony of the Divine Variety VVe read Rom. 8. That the Saints which are in the heavenly Seed are predestinated to be conformed to the Image of the Son of God Of this Son we read Eph. 4. That he who ascended is the same who descended first That he descended into the nethermost parts of the Earth and ascended far above all Heavens that he might fill all That the Variety might be full in his Person and that he might fill each part of the Variety from the nethermost parts of the Earth to an heighth above the highest Heavens by carrying the Unity and so the full Variety and so the Universal Harmony into each step and form of this Variety whether it were as a shade or a light as a crooked or streight line in this Divine Face whether it were a Discord or Concord in this Universal Musick In this Divine Glass we see the Law in the midst of the love contrivance and glory of the Gospel rising up as a tragical scene with all the black and fiery shapes of sin and wrath acting their parts to the uttermost in this shaded scene spring up from the womb of darkness opening it self in the Bosom of the eternal Light as it was now opening it self in the Gospel to an heavenly Marriage-day between the ever glorious Bridegroom and this spotless Bride All this was done that the Variety might be full That he who cometh after this King might find nothing to add to his Work Yet through this whole scene of the Law with all its mournful and affrighting Apparitions the purity the sweetness the life of the Gospel runs along sowing it self in it vailing it self beneath it casting it self into this shade and sleep and dream springing up through it making it all a shadow a Divine though obscure Figure of it self by which also it heightens it self while the Unity in this part of the Variety also preserveth it self entire tuning it and composing it binding it up into one Universal Harmony of the Divine Beauty and Melody in the whole Variety in which it is set according to the Order which is the Divine Unity diffusing it self through all in its proper place and time Here the Author concludes the last part of his Discourse of the Freedom of the Will but the Reader will in the following Pages find the the enlargement which was before promised upon the Argument taken from Christ's Mediation which is here continued under the same Title because it aims at the same design with the rest of the whole Book A DISCOURSE OF THE Freedome of the Will An enlargement upon the Argument taken from the Mediation of Christ. I Intended to have passed lightly over this Argument But being moved by some Friends who by their Understandings have an authority with me and by their Loves a power over me I reflected again upon it in my thoughts and found as I humbly conceive that nothing would more confirm and illustrate the Subject of which I treat than the Mediatorship of our Lord Jesus rightly understood I do therefore resume it and shall attempt to unfold its Glories in order to my present design as clearly compleatly and compendiously as I shall be able I shall take for the ground of this part of my Discouse that Scripture Colos. 1. Vers. 15. Who is the Image of the invisible God the first-born of every Creature or of the whole Creation Vers. 16. For by him were all things created that are in Heaven and in Earth visible and invisible whether Thrones or Dominions or Principalities or Powers all things were created by him and for him Vers. 17. And he is before all things and by him all things consist Vers. 18. And he is the Head of the Body the Church who is the beginning the first-born from the dead that in all things he might have the preheminence Vers. 19. For it pleased the Father that in him all fulness should dwell Give me leave to make some notes upon the version of these words vers 15. In Greek it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth both the whole Creation and every Creature Vers. 16. That which we read by him is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in him This in the beginning of the verse In the end for him is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unto or into him Vers. 17. By him all things consist is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All things stood together in him In these Verses we have in a lively Draught or Portrait with incomparable Sweetness and Glory set before us Jesus Christ with a two-fold Mediatorship One in the Work of Nature The other in the Work of Grace In respect to one he is stiled The first-born of the whole Creation In respect to the other The first-born from the dead vers 15 18. The first Mediatorship is described vers 15 16 17. The second verâ—… 18. Both are crowned with a double Epiphonema or Conclusion vâ—… 1. That he in all things have the preheminence vers 18. 2. It pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell In order to my treating of the Mediatorships of Christ I shall lay down briefly these four grounds 1. There is no vaâ—… no breach no gap in the Divine Wisdom or Work Wisdom is defined by Proclus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A fulness of things If there were any 〈◊〉 in the Wisdom or Work of God which is the â—…rth and Design of his Wisdom There would be a wound upon iâ—… and a deformity in the face of it by the dissolution of the Continuity of the Unity of the Harmony 2. There is no leap in the Divine Work no passing from one extreme to the other without a passing thorow the medium the middle-space or middle-state This would make that vacuity a breach in the whole which we before-mentioned as altogether unsuitable to a Divine or to any wise Contrivance 3. There is a two-told Medium or Mediatorship One Medium participationis A Medium of participation The other Medium abnegationis A Mediator of separation and abnegation In this last sense the Seas are Mediums between the Lands which they divide and keep from meeting So sin is a medium of separation between God and the Creatures partaking of neither inasmuch as it is a privation of Being dividing both as an unpassable Gulf between them while it remains After the first manner all middle-colours are mediums of Participation and Union between the two extreme colours white and black So the Soul is a medium of Union and Participation between things invisible and visible comprehending both in it self and so joyning both in One. Such a Mediator is Jesus Christ. 4. The Lord Jesus then as a Mediator of Union by Participation toucheth both