CHRIST S PEESON THE BASIS OF THE DIVINE COUNSELS. 57
said to be " given us in Christ Jesus before tlie world began : " 2 Tim. i. 9.
In tliese counsels did God delight — or in the person of Christ, as his eternal wisdom in their contrivance, and as the means of their accomplishment in his future incarnation. Hence he so testifieth of him: "Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth ; " (Isa. xlii. 1 ;) as he also proclaims the same delight in him, from heaven, in the days of his flesh : Matt. iii. 1 7, xvii, 5. He was the delight of God, as he in whom all his counsels for his own glory, in the redemption and salvation of the church, were laid and founded : " My servant, in whom I will be glorified ; " (Isa. xlix. 3 ;) that is, " by raising the tribes of Jacob, restoring the pre- served of Israel, in being a light unto the Gentiles, and the salvation of God unto the ends of the earth : '' verse 6.
We conceive not aright of the counsels of God, when we think of nothing but the effect of them, and the glory that ariseth from their accomplishment. It is certainly true that they shall all issue in his glory, and the demonstration of it shall fill up eternity. The mani- festative glory of God unto eternity, consists in the effects and accomplishment of his holy counsels. Heaven is the state of the actual accomplishment of all the counsels of God, in the sanctification and salvation of the church. But it is not with God as it is with men. Let men's counsels be ever so wise, it must needs abate of their satisfaction in them, because their conjectures (and more they have not) of their effects and events are altogether uncertain. But all the counsels of God having their entire accomplishment through revolutions perplexing and surpassing all created understandings, enclosed in them infallibly and imm.utably, the great satisfaction, complacency, and delight of the Divine Being is in these counsels themselves.
God doth delight in the actual accomplishment of his works. He made not this v»^orld, nor any thing in it, for its own sake. Much less did he make this earth to be a theatre for men to act their lusts upon — the use which it is now put to, and groans under. But he made " all things for himself," Prov. xvi. 4 ; he " made them for his pleasure," Eev. iv. 11; that is, not only by an act of sovereignty, but to his own delight and satisfaction. And a double testimony did he give hereunto, with respect unto the works of creation. (1.) In the approbation which he gave of the whole upon its survey : and " God saw all that he had made, and, behold, it was very good : " Gen. L 31. There was that impression of his divine wisdom, pov/er, and goodness upon the whole, as ma,nifested his glory; wherein he was well pleased. For immediately thereon, all creatures capable of the conception and apprehension of his glory, " sang forth his praise : "
58 THE PERSON OF CHRIST.
Job xxxviii. 6, 7. (2.) In tliat he rested from liis works, or in them, when they were finished : Gen. ii. 2. It was not a rest of weariness from the labour of liis work — but a rest of complacency and delight in what he had wrought — that God entered into.
But the principal delight and complacency of God, is in his eternal counsels. For all his delight in his works is but in the effects of those divine properties whose primitive and principal exercise is in the counsels themselves, from whence they proceed. Especially is it so as unto these counsels of the Father and the Son, as to the redemption and salvation of the church, wherein they delight, and mutually rejoice in each other on their account. They are all eternal acts of God's infinite wisdom, goodness, and love — a delight and complacency wherein is no small part of the divine blessedness. These things are absolutely inconceivable unto us, and ineffable by us; we cannot find the Almighty out unto perfection. However, certain it is, from the notions we have of the Divine Being and excellencies, and from the revelation he hath made of himself, that there is an infinite delight in God — in the eternal actings of his wisdom, goodness, and love — wherein, according to our weak and dark apprehensions of things, we may safely place no small portion of divine blessedness. Self-existence in its own immense being — thence self-sufficiency unto itself in all things — and thereon self- satisfaction — is the principal notion we have of divine blessedness.
1. God delighteth in these his eternal counsels in Christ, as they are acts of infinite wisdom, as they are the highest instance wherein it will exert itself Hence, in the accomplishment of them, Christ is emphatically said to be the " Wisdom of God ; " (1 Cor. i. 24 ;) he in whom the counsels of his wisdom were to be fulfilled. And in him is the manifold wisdom of God made known : Eph. iii. 10. Infinite wisdom being that property of the divine nature whereby all the actings of it are disposed and regulated, suitably unto his own glory, in all his divine excellencies — he cannot but delight in all the acts of it. Even amongst men — whose wisdom compared with that of God is foUy itself — yet is there nothing wherein they have a real rational complacency, suitable unto the principles of their nature, but in such actings of that wisdom which they have (and such as it is) towards the proper ends of their being and duty. How much more doth God delight himself in the infinite perfection of his own wisdom, and its eternal acting for the representation of all the glo- rious excellencies of his nature ! Such are his counsels concerning the salvation of the church by Jesus Christ; and because they were all laid in him and with him, therefore is he said to be his " delight continually before the world was." This is that which is proposed as the object of our admiration, Kom. xi. 33-36.