A29699:272
Paradise opened, or, The secrets, mysteries, and rarities of divine love, of infinite wisdom,…Paradice opened, or, The secreets, mysteries, and rarities of divine love, of infinite wisdom,…
Paradise opened, or, The secrets, mysteries, and rarities of divine love, of infinite wisdom, and of wonderful counsel laid open to public view also, the covenant of grace, and the high and glorious transactions of the Father and the Son in the covenant of redemption opened and improved at large, with the resolution of divers important questions and cases concerning both covenants ... : being the second and last part of The golden key / by Thomas Brooks ...Paradice opened, or, The secreets, mysteries, and rarities of divine love, of infinite wisdom, and of wonderful counsel laid open to publick view also, the covenant of grace, and the high and glorious transactions of the Father and the Son in the covenant of redemption opened and improved at large, with the resolution of divers important questions and cases concerning both covenants ... : being the second and last part of The golden key / by Thomas Brooks ...
London: printed for Dorman Newman, 1675
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
The third Scripture is that, Isa. 49. 1. Listen, Oh Isles, unto me, and hearken ye people from far; the Lord God hath called me from the womb, from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name. These words are spoken in the person of Christ, he tells us how he is called by his father, to be a Mediator and Saviour of his people. Jesus Christ would not take one step in the work of our Redemption, till he was called and commissionated by his father to that work. God the father, who from Eternity, had fore-assigned Christ to this office of a Mediator, a Redeemer; did both while he was in the womb, and as soon as he was come out of it, manifest and make known this his purpose concerning Christ, both to men and Angels. Christ did not thrust himself, he did not intrude himself at random, into the office of a Redeemer. No man takes 1this honour to himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron. So Christ took not upon himself the office of a Mediator, a Saviour, but upon a call and a commission from God: The sum is, that Christ took up the office of a R•deemer• by the ordinance of his father, that he might fulfil the work of our Redemption, unto which he was destmated; vers. 2. And he made my mouth like a sharp ⟨p. 72⟩sword, in the shadow of his hand hath he hid me; and made me a polished shaft, in his quiver hath he hid me. Christ having avouched his fathers calling of him to the work of man's Redemption, he gives you a relation in this verse, of God's fitting and furnishing of him with abilities sufficient for so important a work; together with his sustaining and supporting of him, in the performance of the same. Here are two similitudes or comparisons: 1. That of a sharp sword: That of a bright and sharp arrow; to2 show the efficacy of Christ's Doctrine. The word of Christ is a sword of great power and efficacy, for the subduing of the souls of men to the obedience of it, and for the cutting off of whomsoever, or whatsoever shall oppose or withstand it: Christ was not sent of the father, to conquer by force of arms, as earthly Princes do; but he conquers all sorts of sinners, even the proudest and