By these divine communications, in the production and preservation of the creature, doth God manifest his glory, and by them alone in the way of nature he doth so ; and without them, although he would have been for ever essentially glorious, yet was it impossible that his glory should be known unto any but himself Wherefore, on these divine communications doth depend the whole manifestation of the
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glory of God. But this is far more eminent, though not in the out- ward effects of it so visible, in the new creation ; as we shall see.
1. All goodness, grace, life, light, mercy, and power, which are the springs and causes of the new creation, are all originally in God, in the divine nature, and that infinitely and essentially. In them is God eternally or essentially glorious; and the whole design of the new creation was to manifest his glory in them, by external communica- tions of them, and from them.
2. The first communication of and from these things is made unto Christ, as the Head of the church. For, in the first place, it pleased God that in him should all the fulness of these things dwell, so as that the whole new creation might consist in him, Col. i. 17-19. And this was the first egress of divine wisdom for the manifestation of the glory of God in these holy properties of his nature. For, —
3. This communication was made unto him as a repository and treasury of all that goodness, grace, life, light, power, and mercy, which were necessary for the constitution and preservation of the new crea- tion. They were to be laid up in him, to be hid in him, to dwell in him ; and from him to be communicated unto the whole mystical body designed unto him, — that is, the church. And this is the first emana- tion of divine power and wisdom, for the manifestation of his glory in the new creation. This constitution of Christ as the head of it, and the treasuring up in him all that was necessary for its production and preservation, wherein the church is chosen and pre-ordained in him unto grace and glory, is the spring and fountain of divine glory, in the communications that ensue thereon.
4. This communication unto Christ is, (1.) Unto his person; and then, (2.) With respect unto his office. It is in the person of Christ that all fulness doth originally dwell. On the assumption of human nature into personal union with the Son of God, all fulness dwells in him bodily. Col. ii. 9. And thereon receiving the Spirit in all fulness, and not by measure, all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge were hid in him, Col. ii. 3, and he was filled with the unsearchable riches of divine grace, Eph. iii. 8-11. And the office of Christ is nothing but the way appointed in the wisdom of God for the communication of the treasures of grace which were communicated unto his person. This is the end of the whole office of Christ, in all the parts of it, as he is a priest, a prophet, and a king. They are, I say, nothing but the ways appointed by infinite wisdom for the communication of the grace laid up in his person unto the church. The transcendent glory hereof we have in some weak measure inquired into.
5. The decree of election prepared, if I may so say, the mass of the neiv creation. In the old creation, God first prepared and created the mass or matter of the whole ; which afterward, by the power of the
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Holy Spirit, was formed into all the distinct beings whereof the whole creation was to consist, and animated according to their distinct kinds. And in order unto the production and perfecting of the work of the new creation, God did from eternity, in the holy purpose of his will, prepare, and in design set apart unto himself, that portion of mankind whereof it was to consist. Hereby they were only the peculiar matter that was to be wrought upon by the Holy Ghost, and the glorious fabric of the church erected out of it. What was said, it may be, of the natural body by the Psalmist, is true of the mystical body of Christ, which is principally intended, Ps. cxxxix. 15, 16, " My sub- stance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought m the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my sub- stance yet being unperfect ; and in thy book all my members were Avritten, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them." The substance of the church, whereof it was to be formed, was under the eye of God, as proposed in the decree of elec- tion ; yet was it as such imperfect. It was not formed or shaped into members of the mystical body ; but they were all written in the book of life. And in pursuance of the purpose of God, there they are by the Holy Spirit, in the whole course and continuance of time, in their several generations, fashioned into the shape designed for them.
6. This, therefore, is herein the glorious order of divine communi- cations. From the infinite, eternal spring of wisdom, grace, goodness, and love, in the Father, — all the effects whereof unto this end were treasured up in the person and mediation of the Son, — the Holy Spirit, unto whom the actual application of them is committed, communi- cates life, light, power, grace, and mercy, unto all that are designed parts of the new creation. Hereon doth God glorify both the essential properties of his nature, — his infinite wisdom, power, goodness, and gTace, — as the only eternal spring of all these things, and also his in- effable glorious existence in three persons, by the order of the com- munication of these things unto the church, Avhich are originally from his nature. And herein is the glorious truth of the blessed Trinity, — which by some is opposed, by some neglected, by most looked on as that which is so much above them as that it doth not belong unto them, — made precious unto them that believe, and becomes the foun- dation of their faith and hope. In a view of the glorious order of those divine communications, we are in a steady contemplation of the inef- fable glory of the existence of the nature of God in the three distinct persons of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.