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

2. God in prosecution of his design, creates a World of Creatures; some rational, and only capable of Love; others irrational, and serviceable to that one Creature, which he makes the top of the whole Creation; then it was that he set up one man Adam, as a common person, to represent the rest; to him he gives abundance of glorious qualifications, and him he sets over all the work of his hands, as if he were the very Darling of Love; if we should view the excellency of this Creature either in the outward, or the inner man, who would not wonder? his body had its excellency, which made the Psalmist say, I will praise thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made,—and curiously wrought in the lowest part of the Earth. ¹It is a speech borrowed from those who work Arras-work; the body of man is a piece of curious Tapestry, or Arras-work, consisting of Skin, Bones, Muscles, Sinews, and the like; what a goodly thing the body of man was before the Fall, may be guessed by the excellent gifts found in the bodies of some men since the Fall; as the Complexion of David, 1 Sam. 16.12. the swiftness of Hazael, 2 Sam. 2.18. the beauty of Absalom, 2 Sam. 14.25. If all these were but joined in one, as certainly, they were in Adam, what a rare Body would such a one be? but what was this body in comparison of that soul? the soul was it, that was especially made after the Image of God; the soul was it, that was tempered in the same Mortar with the Heavenly Spirits; the soul was Gods sparkle, a beam of his divine Glory, a ray, or emanation of God himself; as man was the principal part of the Creation, so the Soul was the principal part of man: here was it that Gods Love and Glory were centred for the time; here was it that Gods love set and sixth it self in a special man, whence flowed that Communion of God with Adam, and that familiarity of Adam with God.

2. God in prosecution of his design, creates a World of Creatures; some rational, and only capable of Love; others irrational, and serviceable to that one Creature, which he makes the top of the whole Creation; then it was that he set up one man Adam, as a common person, to represent the rest; to him he gives abundance of glorious qualifications, and him he sets over all the work of his hands, as if he were the very Darling of Love; if we should view the excellency of this Creature either in the outward, or the inner man, who would not wonder? his body had its excellency, which made the Psalmist say, I will praise thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made,—and curiously wrought in the lowest part of the Earth.