The true gain more in worth then all the goods in the worldThe true gaine more in worth then all the goods in the world

To proceed further, the second part of the comparison [Christ is my gain] is amplified by a gradation on this manner: I esteem the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord an excellent thing: I desire to gain Christ: I desire to be found in Christ. Of these in order. By the knowledge of Christ, we are to understand, the doctrine of the gospel, or the doctrine of the person & offices of Christ conceived & known of us. To this knowledge an excellency is ascribed, of which I will speak a little. ⟨p. 47⟩This excellency appears partly in the matter and contents, & partly in the effects thereof. Touching the matter, it is full of excellent mysteries, which Paul reduceth to fix heads in his epistle to Timothy.¹ The first is the Incarnation of the Son of God in these words,§1 God made manifest in the flesh. And here two wonders offer themselves to be considered: the first, whereas Adams flesh and Adams sin are inseparably joined together in respect of all that nature can do, yet did the Son of God take unto him mans nature and flesh without mans sin: because he was conceived of a virgin by the operation of the holy ghost: whereas if he had been conceived by natural generation, he had with Adams flesh taken Adams corruption. The other wonder in the Incarnation of Christ is, that the flesh of man is united to the person of the Son of God, & thence hath his subsistence, otherwise having no subsistence of his own. The like example is not to be found in the world again: saving that we have some resemblance thereof in ⟨p. 48⟩the plant called Mistletoe, which hath no root of his own, but grows as a branch of the oak, or some other tree, and hath his life and sap from the root thereof. §2The second mystery in the knowledge of Christ, is the Justification of Christ in these words, justified in the spirit: and it was on this manner. Christ made man became our Surety and was subject to the law for us. Hereupon our sins were imputed to him, and the punishment due thereto laid upon him, that is, the first death with the pains of the second: yea further death in the grave had dominion over him. After all this, by his spirit or power of the godhead he raised himself from death, and thereby acquit himself of our sins; and this acquittal or absolution is his justification, whereby he declareth himself to be a Saviour perfectly righteous.