Speculum theologiæ in Christo, or, A view of some divine truths which are either…

CHAP. I.

Chap 1 A short View of Gods All-sufficiency and condescension in revealing himself. The various ways of Manifestation; In the making of the World and Man; After the fall, in the moral Law; and in types and shadows: Lastly and above all, in and by Jesus Christ.

GOD All-sufficient must needs be his own happiness; he hath his Being from himself, and his happiness is no other than his being radiant with all Excellencies, and by intellectual and amatorious reflections, turning back into the fruition of it self. His Understanding hath prospect enough in his own infinite Perfections: his Will hath rest enough in his own infinite Goodness; he needed not the pleasure of a World, who hath an eternal Son in his bosom to joy in; nor the breath of Angels or men, who hath an eternal Spirit of his own: he is the Great All, comprising all within himself: nay, unless he were so, he could not be God. Had he let out no beams of his glory, or made no intelligent creatures to gather up and return them back to himself, his happiness would have suffered no eclipse or diminution at all: his Power would have been the same, if it had folded up all ⟨p. 2⟩the possible Worlds within its own arms, and poured forth never an one into being to be a monument of it self. His Wisdom the same, if it had kept in all the orders and infinite harmonies lying in its bosom, and set forth no such series and curious contexture of things as now are before our eyes. His Goodness might have kept an eternal Sabbath in it self, and never have come forth in those drops and models of Being which make up the Creation. His Eternity stood not in need of any such thing as time or a succession of instants to measure its duration; nor his Immensity of any such Temple as Heaven and Earth to dwell in, and fill with his presence. His Holiness wanted not such pictures of it self as are in Laws or Saints; nor his Grace such a channel to run in as Covenants or Promises. His Majesty would have made no abatement, if it had had no train or host of creatures to wait upon it, or no rational ones among them, such as Angels and men, to sound forth its praises in the upper or lower World. Creature-praises, though in the highest tune of Angels, are but as silence to him, as that Text may be read,