A Wakening Call, Chapter 3
CHAP. III. The preparatory Condescensions of God, towards accomplishing the said two-fold Purposes or Counsels, with reference to the twofold Creation of Angels and Men.
1. THE first of the three distinct Powers in the Divine Nature, call'd Father, did by the peculiar Operation thereof, in the one Divine Mind of all three, produce, beget, form and set up a Creature-spirit of originally immortal Holiness, everlasting Righteousness, infallible Truth, and eternal Life. This, in the Creature-part of Christ's wonderful compounded Person, is call'd by the Name of its peculiar Divine Producer, Father.
This was the first Step of God's preparatory Condescension towards the Creation of Angels and Men; the Beginning of the Creation of God (Revel. 3. 14.) that will have no ending. This is the supream Root of all Creature-being and Life, in both Creations or Worlds (Heb. 1. 2.) natural and spiritual, by a first and second Creation of Angels and Mer, and also of the Creature-Son and Branch in the very Mediator's Person. This originally unchangeable Creature-Spirit, in personal Union with the divine Nature, was situated too high, above the Capacity of being the immediate Hand of God, either for the first Creation of Angels and Men, or the giving them eternal Life by a second, so as to answer and fulfil the twofold Counsels of God concerning them.
2. The second therefore of the Divine Three in One, call'd the Word, did, in the one Divine Mind of the Three, cause the said Creature-root to bring forth a Creature-Son and Branch, in the Fountain-purity of all earthly mortal First covenant Law-life, determin'd of God to be set up in Angels and Men, by a first Creation of them.
This Creature-Son and Branch is call'd by the Name of its peculiar divine Causer, in the Creature-part of the Mediator's Person, the Word. This Word, as the Lamb slain from the Foundation of the World, (Revel. 13. 8.) and exalted by and out of that Death, into the originally unchangeable Life of his Creature-root and Father, became the living Word of God, and immediate Creator of all Angels and Men, by a first Creation, and of an innumerable Multitude of both by a second. He will also be the immediate Performer of the whole Divine Will, on all Angels and Men, good and bad, in the final Love or Wrath of God, in Heaven or Hell, to all Eternity.
3. In order to all this, did the third of the Divine Three, call'd Holy Ghost, cause the said Creature-root and Father, as the supream mystical Abraham, to perform a sacrificing Death-work on his Creature-Son; and caus'd the said Creature-Son, as the supream mystical Isaac, not only to submit thereto, in a compleat Passive Obedience to the Divine Will; but (in the supreamly partaken of heavenly Creature-life of his Root, and Love thereto) to join therewith, in Active Obedience to the Divine Will, for carrying on the said Death-work on himself. The like did he, in our mortal Nature, when in the Fulness of God's appointed time, taken by him, in the Fountain-purity thereof, above and beyond what it was in the first Adam, before his Fall. He was, therein, also full of Grace and Truth, John 1. 14. full of the Holy Ghost, Luke 4.1. He was Son of Man in Heaven (in full Possession of the eternal Life of his Creature-root, without any mortal Life about him) at same time, that he was Son of Man on Earth in our mortal Nature (Iohn 3. 13.) and long before. All in Christ's Person, below his infinite Divinity and Creature-root, is call'd Man. His whole Creature-nature, Root and Branch, in personal Union, is the heavenly Creature-spirit or Holy Ghost, render'd communicable to Angels and Men, by the exalted Creature-Son and Branch. This Creature-Son was one of the three Men that did eat of Abram's Meat, else would not have own'd his worshipping him, in Prayer, for Sodom, when the other two created Angels were gone towards it, to destroy it, and deliver Lot, &c. The two good Angels are also call'd Men, Gen. 18. 1-8. and v. 22-33. Satan also with his evil Angels, are Men of Sin, 2 Thess. 2. 3.
Christ was active in carrying on the Death-work upon himself, as First-born of every Creature; and so was he, in his second Sacrifice, by carrying on the Death of our whole mortal Nature, in him, Spirit, Soul and Body. By the Holy Ghost or heavenly Creature-spirit in him, did he crucify the Spirit of our Nature in himself, Luke 12. 49, 50. He was also a voluntary Giver up of his Body into the Hands of Men, under Devils, to put a full Period to all that was mortal about him, Iohn 10. 17, 18. He laid down the Life of our whole mortal Nature, and took it up again, in the originally incorruptible, immortal, eternal Creature-life of his Root, above all Deaths, or Enemies. And by his communicated heavenly Creature-spirit, or Holy Ghost in Saints, will he enable them to be active in carrying on the like Death-work on the Spirit of Nature, at best, in themselves; and freely also to give up their bodily Life, into the Hands of evil Angels and Men, God's and their Enemies, where God so permits and orders, for the witnessing his Gospel-Truths.
The Record, Witness, or Products of the first and second of the Divine Three, Father and Word, in the Creature-part of the Mediator's Person, as brought into inseparable Union by the Third, bears the Name of the peculiar Divine Causer, Holy Ghost. All these things were transacted and done, by and within God himself, before any meer Creatures, Angels or Men were brought forth. The Three in the Divine Nature, with their Record in Heaven (the Divine Form) are one; and the same Three, as bearing Witness in Earth (the Creature-part of the Mediator) agree in one. The one Divine Mind is declar'd and done, in and by both, and all, 1 Iohn 5.7,8. By what was done of the Divine Three, by their distinct Products and Operations, in the Creature-part of the Mediator, will they let down themselves to the Sight and Enjoyment of blessed Angels and Saints for evermore.
The Divine is not the Creature-nature in Christ; nor, in his whole Creature-nature, is the Creature-root, the exalted Branch. And his whole Divine and Creature-Person, is most intimately one with the Divine Essence or Father, the Head of all in him, 1 Cor. 11. 3. All are one incomprehensible God, Iohn 10. 30. The exalted Branch in Christ, is the immediate Head of his true Gospel-Church. The Creature-root in him, Head of that; his Divine Form, Head of his whole Creature-nature, Root and Branch; the Divine Essence or Father, Head to his whole Divine and Creature-person; yet remains uncompounded with Creature-nature, as the Divine Form or Son is, Gal. 3. 20. 1 Tim. 2. 5. After all this account of Superiorities and Inferiorities in all that's truly call'd God, the lowest Creature-part in the Mediator, the exalted Branch, or living Word of God, thinks or infallibly knows, that 'tis no Robbery or unwarrantable Presumption in him, to reckon himself equal with God, as in personal Union with his Creature-root and infinite Divine Nature, Phil. 2.6. These are strange, seeming Contradictions to Man's Wisdom, which is Foolishness to God's, and to be destroy'd (Isa. 29. 14.) in all self-confident Disputers of this World, 1 Cor. 1. 19, 20.