Looking unto Jesus a view of the everlasting gospel, or, the souls eying of…

And now we come to the manner of this high, mystical, spiritual generation of Jesus the Son of God. As the understanding of God doth act and reflect upon it self from all ⟨p. 25⟩eternity, so it works this effect, that it understands and conceives it self; it apprehends in the understanding an image of that Object which it looks upon, and this very image is the Son of God. This we shall lay out by some similitudes. A mans soul (we know) doth sometimes muse and meditate on other things; as it thinks of Heaven, or it thinks of earth; this we call a right or direct, or emanant thought; but sometimes the soul doth muse, or meditate on it self, as when it thinks of its own Essence, or faculties, or the like; and this we call a reflect thought; why now the soul understands it self, now it hath some Idea, or image of it self, now it conceives it self; this is our phrase, it conceives it self. There is not only a carnal, but a spiritual Conception; as when I understand this or that, I say, I conceive this or that, I have the Idea, or image of this or that, within my Soul. Or as in a glass, a man doth conceive and get a perfect image of his own face by a way of reflection; so God in beholding and minding of himself, doth in himself beget or conceive a most perfect, and a most lively image of himself, which very image is that in the Trinity which we call the Son of God. Thus you read in Scripture that Jesus the Son of God is called the brightness of his Fathers Glory, ¹and the express Image of his person. 1. The brightness of his Fathers Glory, herein God the Father is compared unto a lightsome body, and God the Son unto a beam, or splendour sent forth, or issuing out from that glorious body. 2. The express Image of his Person, herein God the Father is compared unto a seal, and God the Son unto an impression resulting from the seal; Now look as wax upon a seal, hath the engraven Image of the Seal; so the Son of God (which the Father hath begotten or conceived of his own understanding) is the very Image of his Fathers understanding; hence not only the Father, but also the Son is called Understanding it self. I have Counsel and Wisdom, (saith Christ) I am Understanding; ²whatsoever the Father is, the Son is; indeed the understanding in men, and the thing understood, are not usually one and the same, but in God it is all one: