CHAPTER XI.
The Glory of Christ in the Recapitulation of all things in Him.
In the last place, the Lord Christ is peculiarly and eminently glo- rious in the recapitulation of all things in him, after they had been scattered and disordered by sin. This the apostle proposeth as the most signal effect of divine wisdom, and the sovereign pleasure of God.
"He hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence; hav- ing made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure, which he hath purposed in himself: that, in the dis- pensation of the fulness of times, he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth, even in him," Eph. i. 8-10.
S68 THE GLORY OF CHRIST
For the discoveiy of the mind of tlie Holy Ghost in these words, so far as I am at present concerned, — namely, as unto the representa- tion of the glory of Christ in them, — sundry brief observations must be premised; and in them it will be necessary that we briefly declare the original of all these things in heaven and earth, their primitive order, the confusion that ensued thereon, with their restitution in Christ, and his glory thereby.
1. God alone hath all being in him. Hence he gives himself that name, " I AM," Exod. iii. 14. He was eternally All; when all things else that ever were, or now are, or shall be, were nothing. And when they are, they are no otherwise but as " they are of him, and through him, and to him," Rom. xi. S6. Moreover, his being and goodness are the same. The goodness of God is the meetness of the Divine Being to be communicative of itself in its effects. Hence this is the first notion of the divine nature, — infinite being and goodness, in a nature intelligent and self-subsistent. So the apostle declares it, " He that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a re warder," Heb. xi. 6.
2. In this state of infinite, eternal being and goodness, antecedent unto any act of wisdom or power without himself to give existence unto other things, God was, and is, eternally in himself all that he vdll be, all that he can be, unto eternity. For where there is infinite being and infinite goodness, there is infinite blessedness and happi- ness, whereunto nothing can be added. God is always the same. That is his name, N-in nm — Ps. cii. 27, "Thou art he," — always the same. All things that are, make no addition unto God, no change in his state. His blessedness, happiness, self-satisfaction, as well as all other his infinite perfections, were absolutely the same before the creation of an}^ thing, whUst there was nothing but himself, as they are since he hath made all things : for the blessedness of God consists in the ineffable mutual inbeing of the three holy persons in the same nature, with the immanent reciprocal actings of the Father and the Son in the eternal love and complacency of the Spirit. Hereunto nothing can be added, herein no change can be made by any external work or effect of power. Herein doth God act in the perfect know- ledge and perfect love of his own perfections, unto an infinite acqui- escency therein, — which is the divine blessedness. This gives us the true notion of the divine nature antecedent unto the manifestation of it made by any outward effects: — infinite being and goodness, eter- nally blessed in the knowledge and enjoyment of itself by inconceiv- able, ineffable, internal actings, answering the manner of its subsis- tence, which is in three distinct persons.
3. This being and goodness of God, by his own will and pleasure acting themselves in infinite wdsdom and power, produced the crea-
IN THE RECAPITULATION OF ALL THINGS. 369
tion of all things. Herein he communicated a finite, limited, depen- dent being and goodness unto other things without himself. For all being and goodness being, as was said, in him alone, it was necessary that the first outward work and effect of the divine nature must be the communication of being and goodness unto other things. Wherefore, as when he had given unto every thing its being out of nothing, by the word of his power, saying, Let them be, and they were ; so it is said, that he looked on all that he had made, " and, behold, they were exceeding good," Gen. i. 31. Being and goodness must be the first outward effects of the divine nature, which, being wrought by infinite power and wisdom, do represent unto us the glory of God in the crea- tion of all things. Infinite being in self-subsistence, which is neces- sary in the first cause and spring of all things, — infinite goodness to communicate the effect of this being unto that which was not, — and infinite wisdom and power in that communication, — are gloriously manifested therein.
4. In this state, all things that were made, depended immediately on God himself, without the interposition of any other head of influ- ence or rule. They had the continuance of their being and its pre- servation from the immediate actings of these properties of the divine nature whereby they were made ; and their dependence on God was by virtue of that law, which was implanted on the principles and powers of their several natures by God himself