reign in subordination to him; and the Holy Ghost, as proceeding from both, will continue to reign in subordination to both. Thus to everlasting ages only the Trinity in Unity shall reign, and by its own immediate will and influence rule and bless all that heavenly world over which it spreads its almighty wings, and so it shall be all in all.

SECT. XIII.

Of the reason and wisdom of this method of God's governing sinful men by his own eternal Son in our nature.

THOUGH we are not, either by our natural reason or revelation, to fathom the depth of the divine wisdom, or to trace out all the reasons of its methods and conduct, yet upon diligent inquiry we can plainly discern the tracts of an admirable wisdom in all the stated methods of Providence; and though we cannot say, that this or that is the main or only reason why God doth so or so, (for infinite wisdom may have infinitely greater and infinitely more reasons of its actions than our shortsighted reason can at present discover,) yet, by comparing one action of his with another, and diligently observing the drift and tendency of them all, how they concur to one common end, and subserve each other to promote and accomplish it, we cannot avoid discovering reason enough in them to convince and satisfy us, that they all proceed from a most wise and intelligent agent, and this more especially in the admirable economy of the mediation, viz. the eternal Son of God's assuming our nature, and therein becoming our Prophet, Priest, and King: for what reasons there are why he should assume our nature, therein

to be our Prophet and our Priest, hath been shewn before. And now we shall proceed, so far as our short inquiries will reach, to shew what admirable reason there is why he should be our King also, to rule and govern us in the same assumed nature wherein he is our Prophet and our Priest; of which, according to the best light that revelation affords us, there are these five reasons assignable :

First, That he might govern us in a way more accommodated to this degenerate state of our na

tures.

Secondly, That he might the more effectually cure and prevent the spreading contagion of idolatry. Thirdly, That he might the more powerfully encourage our obedience.

Fourthly, That he might oblige us to himself with a stronger tie of gratitude and ingenuity.

Fifthly, That he might give us the more ample assurance of our future reward.

I. God governs us by his own eternal Son in our natures, the better to accommodate his government to this our degenerate state, which renders us extremely unfit to be governed immediately by God. It is true, whilst man continued in his primitive innocence and perfection, he was in a condition fit to converse with God face to face, and to live under his immediate dominion; for then his sense being under the conduct of his reason, and all his brutal affections entirely subjected to the government and directions of his superior faculties, he was as much ruled and influenced by the objects of his reason, as he is now by those of his sense, and was as powerfully moved and affected by what he only knew and believed, as he is now by what he sees and feels; so

For

that then God, that great invisible Spirit, who is removed from all the perceptions of bodily sense, and is only perceivable by our reason and faith, did as powerfully impress man's hopes and fears, and all the other principles of action in him, as he could have done, had he appeared as amiable and dreadful to the man's sight and feeling, as he then did to his faith and reason. In this state and condition therefore man was duly qualified to be governed immediately by God, to receive his impressions, and to be moved and acted by the overruling influence of his immense perfections. But when once he had degenerated from this pure and blessed state of his nature, and had thrown off the government of his reason, and subjected himself to the tyrannic sway of his brutal appetites, he thereby unqualified himself to live under God's immediate dominion. now he being governed by his sensual appetites, and they by the sensual objects that surround him, scarce any thing else can strike upon his hopes and fears, but what is carnal and sensual; or if any thing else doth, to be sure some carnal object immediately interposes and breaks the stroke, and renders it faint and ineffectual; so that now God, who is solely the object of our faith and reason, can scarce be admitted to speak with our hopes and fears, by which we are made to be governed; or if he be, his soft still voice is immediately drowned in the perpetual clamour which these sensitive goods and evils raise about us. Wherefore having thus unqualified ourselves, by our apostasy from the primitive state of our nature, to live under the immediate wing and government of God, and he being resolved, in tender commiseration to us, not to aban

don us for ever, did, in his infinite wisdom, project a new method of governing us, more accommodated to this our degenerate state, viz. by uniting himself to sensible matter, and therein addressing to our bodily senses in audible voices, visible appearances, and finally in our own form and nature, which, of all other sensible things, we are most apt to be affected with, to love, and honour, and reverence, and obey. For so immediately after his fall God appeared to Adam, probably in a glorious human form, and spake to him in an audible voice; and afterwards he did the same to the patriarchs, and to the whole nation of the Jews from mount Sinai, among whom he also dwelt in a visible glory: by which means he acquired to himself the same advantage of governing those sensual men that sensible objects had, which, by striking on their bodily sense, did more powerfully insinuate themselves into their wills and affections. But all these sensible appearances of God were only as so many præludia to his assuming our nature into personal union with his Godhead, and therein exhibiting himself familiarly to the bodily senses of mankind, which though he now ceases to do, as being exalted far above our sight, on the right hand of God the Father, there to reign till the consummation of all things, yet seeing we believe he is there visible in himself, clothed in a most glorious human form, we can by imagination supply the want of our sight of him, and reach him by our inward sense, though we cannot come at him by our outward. And whereas, were he a mere Spirit, we could have no imagination of him, because imaginations are nothing but the images of sensible things, we can now, by the

strength of our imagination, fetch him down from the heavens when we please, and set him before our minds in all that venerable majesty wherein he sits at the right hand of his Father. So that though he be never present to our outward sense, yet, which is almost equivalent, whenever we have occasion to converse with him, we can make him present to our inward, viz. our fancy and imagination; into this spacious gallery of the pictures of sensible things our mind can walk when it pleases, and there behold him in effigy, though it cannot see him face to face and considering how much we are governed, in this degenerate state of our nature, by fancy and imagination, as well as by sight and feeling, it is doubtless a most advantageous circumstance of God's government of the world, that he governs us by one whom we can fancy and imagine, when we cannot see or feel him. There are a great many men that never saw the king, who yet are overawed by the imagination they have of his majesty and greatness; whereas was not the king a man, but a pure invisible spirit, they could form no imagination of him, the want of which would very much abate, if not utterly extinguish, their awe and reverence of his person.

Considering therefore how much we are governed by our sense in this state of our apostasy, it was doubtless a wonderful wise contrivance of God, who is a pure spirit, to assume to himself some sensible matter, that therein, by presenting himself to our outward or inward sense, he might strike the deeper awe on us, and thereby the more effectually rule and govern us. But of all sensible matter, none could be so proper to this purpose as a human