A30345:648
A treatise of the covenant of grace wherein the gradual breakings out of Gospel…A treatise of the covenant of grace wherein the graduall breakings out of Gospel…
A treatise of the covenant of grace wherein the gradual breakings out of Gospel grace from Adam to Christ are clearly discovered, the differences betwixt the Old and New Testament are laid open, divers errors of Arminians and others are confuted, the nature of uprightness, and the way of Christ in bringing the soul into communion with himself ... are solidly handled / by that faithful servant of Jesus Christ, and minister of the Gospel, John Ball ; published by Simeon Ash.A treatise of the covenant of grace wherein the graduall breakings out of Gospel grace from Adam to Christ are clearly discovered, the differences betwixt the Old and New Testament are laid open, divers errours of Arminians and others are confuted, the nature of uprightnesse, and the way of Christ in bringing the soul into communion with himself ... are solidly handled / by that faithfull servant of Jesus Christ, and minister of the Gospel, John Ball ; published by Simeon Ash.
London: printed by G. Miller for Edward Brewster, 1645
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 meaning then of this phrase is not to be admitted to1 equality to the divine nature, for this Christ ever had as God, and could not but have: neither to be admitted into the divine blessedness setledly to enjoy it: for Christ as God ever had and could not but have that essential beatitude. Neither doth it import thus much, That the humane nature of Christ is elevated to this honour, that it may freely use the divine Attributes, omniscience, omnipresence, omnipotency, so as to become by them omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent no less properly then the divine, though after a manner far otherwise; the divine nature being thus by natural necessity: the humane being thus by union with the divine, by gracious communication of these unto it, with liberty to2 use them for the perfecting of it self. So that according to this opinion, the humane nature of Christ is made omnipresent with the omnipresence of the divine nature, not as a thing subjectively inhering in it, but so really communicated with it, that it is made truly omnipresent by it, though the divine Attribute never go forth of the nature of God, in which as the proper subject they grant it immovably inherent. The ground of this error is, that they suppose upon the union of the two3 natures in Christ a real communication of divine Properties to follow, as that the humane nature is made truly omnipotent or omniscient, not by any confusion of Properties, ⟨p. 308⟩nor yet by any bare communion and concourse of it to the same effect, each nature working that which belongeth to it with communion of the other, but by a real donation, by which the divine omnipotency doth so become the omnipotency of the humane nature, that it may work omnipotently with it, no less then the divine nature doth it self. But the union cannot cause the humane nature partake more in the Properties of the divine, then it causeth the divine partake in the Properties of the humane. Again, if a true and real communication did follow of divine attributes, it must needs be of all, as eternity and infiniteness, seeing these are the divine essence, which can no way be divided. Beside in the union of soul and body which is personal, the life of the soul is not communicated with the body, but an effect of it only. And to what end should created gifts serve, when now more noble Properties do enter?