A44344:801
A comment upon Christ's last prayer in the seventeenth of John wherein is opened…
A comment upon Christ's last prayer in the seventeenth of John wherein is opened the union believers have with God and Christ, and the glorious privileges thereof ... / by that faithful and known servant of Christ, Mr. Thomas Hooker ... ; printed from the authors own papers written with his own hand, and attested to be such in an epistle by Thomas Goodwin and Philip Nigh.A comment upon Christ's last prayer in the seventeenth of John wherein is opened the union beleevers have with God and Christ, and the glorious priviledges thereof ... / by that faithful and known servant of Christ, Mr. Thomas Hooker ... ; printed from the authors own papers written with his own hand, and attested to be such in an epistle by Thomas Goodwin and Philip Nye.
London: printed by Peter Cole, 1656
Verse continued 23 › God the Father loveth the Faithful, as he loveth Jesus Christ.
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.
And this will appear, if we compare the surpassing excellency of this Union, and the intimate nearness, which every Believer hath with God in the Covenant of Grace, with that which Adam could attain unto by the Covenant of Works. Had Adam stood, and attained the utmost perfection, it was possible for him to be made partaker of, by the improvement of the Spiritual Stock of Grace bestowed upon him: The utmost of all his happiness had been confined within this compass. 1. A man ⟨p. 159⟩by the Principle of Grate, was f•• to close with God, and perform the Covenant made betwixt God and him.
And this wil appear, if we compare the surpassing excellency of this Union, and the intimate neerness, which every Beleever hath with God in the Covenant of Grace, with that which Adam could attain unto by the Covenant of Works. Had Adam stood, and attained the utmost perfection, it was possible for him to be made partaker of, by the improvement of the Spiritual Stock of Grace bestowed upon him: The utmost of al his happiness had been confined within this compass. 1. A man ⟨p. 159⟩by the Principle of Grate, was f•• to close with God, and perform the Covenant made betwixt God and him.
But since the Fall of our first Parents, and departure from God, it was impossible for any Creature, or any created Grace, to bring back the soul to God; therefore the God-head of Christ dwelling in the Nature of Man assumed bodily, must bring the Nature of Man again unto God. Man, out of the mutability of his Grace, departed from God; but neither man nor Grace, but the infinite Power of the God-head, must bring man to God again, and keep him with him. So that the Second Person in the Glorious Trinity, taking our Nature upon him, did not only purchase, by the power of the Deity all for us; but by the same power, enables us to receive the Work of his Spirit, by which he carries us unto himself, and the Father. So that it is not any created Principle of Grace, or gracious habit, which either fits us for Christ, or carries us to him, as we have heard. But the same Spirit by the same power that raised Christ from the dead, works it.