A51837:130
Christs eternal existence, and the dignity of his person asserted and proved in opposition…
Christs eternal existence, and the dignity of his person asserted and proved in opposition to the doctrine of the Socinians : in several sermons on Col. I, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 verses / by the Reverend Tho. Manton.
London printed : s.n., 1685
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.
What ever good intention they might have by setting forth the Creation by these expressions, yet you see they are not proper and accurate. These expressions may have their use to raise mans understanding to contemplate the excellency and Majesty of the Creator; for they all show his incomparable Excellency and Perfection, together with the vanity, nothingness, or smallness of the Creature, if compared with him, as great a bulk as it beareth in our eye. They are but as a Ray from the Sun, a stream from the fountain, or a drop to the Ocean; an Image in the Glass, or a shadow ⟨p. 58⟩to the substance, or like a foot-print of a ma• in the Clay or Sand; and so are but certain signs leading up to the thing signified; or Letters and Syllables out of which we may spell God. As the streams lead us to the fountain, the image to the man, the shadow to the body, or the track to the foot that made it. But the Scripture leaving those comparisons, showeth us that the World came out from the Creator, as the Workmanship from the Artificer, the building from the Architect, Heb. 11.10. Now every Artificer and builder worketh merely out of the Counsel of his own Will, and herein they resemble God, but only what they do with great labour, God doth with the beck of his own Will and Word: Psal. 33.6. By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. A bare word of his immediately created all the World; the Heavens and Earth and all that is in them.
What ever good intention they might have by setting forth the Creation by these expressions, yet you see they are not proper and accurate. These expressions may have their use to raise mans understanding to contemplate the excellency and Majesty of the Creator; for they all shew his incomparable Excellency and Perfection, together with the vanity, nothingness, or smallness of the Creature, if compared with him, as great a bulk as it beareth in our eye. They are but as a Ray from the Sun, a stream from the fountain, or a drop to the Ocean; an Image in the Glass, or a shadow ⟨p. 58⟩