OF the highest & last discovery of God to man saith Saltm. 201. They say (speaking of Familists) Adam was a way by which God preached first to man, and was not the first man in whom all stood and fell, 1but a way by which this mystery of God was made to appear first to the creation, and Adam held forth nature or a part of this creation in communion with God as to grace and love while he stood, and another part of the creation or nature out of communion with God, as to love and grace, (he should say as to no love, no grace) but in communion or union to God as to Law and Justice, & thus they interpret these scriptures of mans first glory, & fall, less in the very letter, and more in the mystery, and in this twofold state were all the rest, Cain and Abel &c.—They say the Gospel or fullness of time of the clearer discovery of this mystery was the Lor• Jesus himself, or God manifested in the flesh, or as in one man, a figure of the whole mystery, as to grace and love, or God in flesh, or in his; or of God in that other part of his creation his Church or Saints—And all that Christ did from his childhood to his crucifying, death, and cross, was a discovery of God by this figure in the whole mystery, how God is in all his, & how he works, & hath his times of law and of graces, and gospel, of crucifying and offering up all to death through the eternal spirit which is the blood of the everlasting Covenant, or Seal, whereby God witnesseth to his people, that he is their God, and they his people, by killing all the strength, and life, and power of the first creation, and carrying it up into a more excellent life, his own Spirit: And so all Christs birth, growing, submitting to ordinances, crucifying, death, burial, resurrection, ascension, were so many discoveries as to us in the flesh, of the whole mystery of God in the ⟨p. 219⟩Saints, made out in these parts and degrees, and several ages and conditions, to show how God weakens and brings to nothing the life of nature, or of this creation in which he will dwell, and make his Tabernacle, and carry it up into a higher and more excellent life, even himself and his own glory:
OF the highest & last discovery of God to man saith Saltm. 201. They say (speakinge of Familists) Adam was a way by which God preached first to man, and was not the first man in whom all stood and fell, 1but a way by which this mystery of God was made to appeare first to the creation, and Adam held forth nature or a part of this creation in communion with God as to grace and love while hee stood, and another part of the creation or nature out of communion with God, as to love and grace, (he should say as to no love, no grace) but in communion or union to God as to Law and Justice, & thus they interpret these scriptures of mans first glory, & fall, lesse in the very letter, and more in the mystery, and in this twofold state were all the rest, Cain and Abel &c.—They say the Gospel or fulnesse of time of the clearer discoverie of this mystery was the Lor• Jesus himselfe, or God manifested in the flesh, or as in one man, a figure of the whole mystery, as to grace and love, or God in flesh, or in his; or of God in that other part of his creation his Church or Saints—And all that Christ did from his childhood to his crucifing, death, and crosse, was a discovery of God by this figure in the whole mystery, how God is in all his, & how he works, & hath his times of law and of graces, and gospel, of crucifing and offering up all to death through the eternall spirit which is the blood of the everlasting Covenant, or Seale, whereby God witnesseth to his people, that he is their God, and they his people, by killing all the strength, and life, and power of the first creation, and carrying it up into a more excellent life, his own Spirit: And so all Christs birth, growing, submitting to ordinanecs, crucifying, death, buriall, resurrection, ascension, were so many discoveries as to us in the flesh, of the whole mystery of God in the ⟨p. 219⟩Saints, made out in these parts and degrees, and severall ages and conditions, to shew how God weakens and brings to nothing the life of nature, or of this creation in which he will dwell, and make his Tabernacle, and carry it up into a higher and more excellent life, even himselfe and his own glory:
- 1The first & second Adam men only in figures not truly and really by the way of Saltmarsh.The first & second Adam men only in figures not truly and realy by the way of Saltmarsh.
