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

TO THE CHRISTIAN READER.

IT was anciently observed by St. Austin, touching the Prophets under the Old Testament, Non tantum lingua illorum hominum, verum etiam vita fuit Prophetica: They did not only prophesy, or reveal the mind of God by words; but by things done by or upon them. Isaiah must walk naked and barefoot, to show the shame of the Egyptian captivity. Jeremiah must go down to the Potters House, and there see the Vessel marred, to give the Jews a pregnant demonstration, that God could unmake and destroy them. Ezekiel was to remove and bring forth his stuff, to give them a lively representation of their captivity. Above all, this was eminently seen in our great Prophet Jesus Christ; He did not only reveal the Gospel, but he himself is the substance and marrow ⟨image 3⟩of it. He is the very mirror of Divine Truths and Perfections. His stile is the Image of the invisible God, the brightness of the Fathers Glory. As an eternal Son, he is such in himself; As incarnate, he is such to us. The Messiah (say the Rabbins) is facies Dei, the face of God. The Glory of God (faith the Apostle) is in the face of Jesus Christ. The Divine perfections appear in him, as beauty doth in the face. The invisible one may here be seen; the inaccessible Majesty may be approached unto. Infinity, to accommodate it self to our Model, appears nube carnis, in a Cloud of flesh, that his glory might not swallow us up. In our Emanuel we have a body of Theology, an excellent Summary of Divine Truths, in a very lively manner set forth to us. The Atheist, who owns not a God in Heaven, might here, if he had eyes of Faith, see God in the flesh. The Wisdom of God doth here appear, not in the orders and harmonies of nature; but in a plot much greater, and more admirable: God and Man, infinite and finite, Eternal and Temporal are met in conjunction, ⟨image 3⟩