John vi. 32 : ' The bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life to the world.' Now, observe, wherefore God chose that way of feeding them in the wilderness, Deut. viii. 16: ' Who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers knew not, that he might humble thee.' But wherein lay this great humbling of them ? Were they not shrewdly humbled, think you, to be fed with a dainty dish, which had God for its cook, and is called ' angels' food,' for its delicacy? Psa. Ixxviii. 25 ; such, that if they needed any repast, might well suit their table. I answer, it was not the mean- ness of the fare, but the manner of having it, which God intended should humble them. Man is proud, and loves to be his own purveyor, and not stand to another's allowance : the same feast, sent in by the charity and bounty of another, will not go down so Avell with his high stomach, as when it is provided at his own cost and charges ; he had rather have the honour of keeping his own house, though mean, than to live higher upon the alms and allowance of another's charity. Tliis made them wish themselves at their onions in their own gardens in Egypt, and flesh-pots there, which, though they were grosser diet, liked them better, because bought with their own penny.
Section III. — Tliirdly, That it might be a peace, with the greatest advan- tage possible ; that God and man might meet again on better terms, by this pacification, than when Adam stood in all his primitive glory. God, no doubt, would not have set the beauty of his first workmanship to be so defaced by sin, had he not meant to have reared a more magnificent structure out of its ruins. Now, God intending to print man's happiness in the second edition, with a fairer character than at the first, he employs Christ in the work, as the only fit instru- ment to accomplish so great a design ; Christ himself tells us as much, John X. 10: 'I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.' His coming was not to give those who were dead and damned, bare peace, naked life, but more abundantly than ever man had them before the breach. It was Christ in the second temple, who filled it with a glory super- lative to the first ; Christ in the second creation of man, that lifts his head above his first state in happiness. As Adam was a pattei-n to all his seed, what he was in his innocent state, that should they all have been, if sin had not altered the scene ; so Christ is a pattern to all his seed of that glory which they shall be clothed with ; 1 John iii. 2 : ' We are now the sons of God, but it doth not yet appear what we shall be ; but we know, when he appears, we shall be like him,' that is, ' our vile bodies like his body, gloi'ious,' as the apostle hath it, Phil. iii. ; and oiu- souls also like his glorious soul. Now, by how much our natvn-e in Christ is more glorious than it was in Adam, by so much the taste of a reconciled sinner sui-passeth Adam's first condition. Some little discoveiy whereof, take in two particulars. First, Tlie reconciled sinner hath the advantage of Adam in his union to God. Secondly, In his communion with God.
First, In his union to God. And that, first, as it is nearer; secondly, as it is stronger. First, It is nearer; because God and man make one person in Christ. This is such a mystery, as was not heard of by Adam, in all his glory ; he, in- deed, was in league of love and friendship with God, and that was the best jewel in his crown ; but he could lay no claim to such kindred and con- sanguinity, as now, with reverence be it spoken, the reconciled soid can with God. This comes in by the marriage of the Divine nature with the human, in the person of Christ, which personal union is the foundation of another, a mystical union betwixt Christ and the person of every believer; and this is so near a union, that as by the union of the Divine nature and human, there is one person, so also, by this mystical union, the saints and their Head make one Christ : ' For, as the body is one, and hath many membei's, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ,' 1 Cor. xii. 12. Ecclesia est Christus explicatus ; the church is nothing but Chi"ist displayed. Who can speak what an advance this is to the human nature in general, and to the persons of believers in especial ? such a one, as it leaves not only Adam, but angels beneath a reconciled sinner, in this respect. Adam at first was made but little lower than the angels; but by this pair of unions, God hath set the re- conciled soul more than a little above them both; for Christ, by taking on him, not the nature of angels, though the more ancient and noble house, but the
THE GOSPEL OF PEACE. <^^g