Owen - Houston-Packer Collection BT300 .O9 1679

of all thf Counfels ofGod. 49 the works of Creation, and infeparable from their Beings· But the primitive Glory that was · to redound unto God by them, efpeciallyas uhto.all things here below, was from the 0/Jeclience of man unto whom they were put in fubjefrion. Their Good efiate depended on their Subordination unto him in away of natural uje, as his did on God in the way of mural 0/Jeclience, Gen. 1. 26, 28, Pfct!. 8. 6,7,8. Man, as was faid, is a creaturew~ich God made, that by him he might receive the GJ.ory that he aimed at, in and by the whole inanimate Creation. This was the end of our Nature in its Original confiitution. Thereunto are we again refiored in Chrifi, Jam. 1. 18. But the Entrance of fin cafl all thi~ Order into Confufion, and brought the Curfe on all things here below. Hereby were they deprived of that efiate wherein they were , declared exceeding Good, and cafi into that of Panity under the burden whereof they groan, and will do-fo to the End, Gen. 3· 17,18. Rom. 8. 20, 21. And thefe things we mufi a– gain confider afterward_s. 3· Divine Wifdom was no way Surprized with this dif. after: God had from all eternity laid in Provifions ofCoun. feJs Jor the Recovery of all things into a better and more permanentEfiateth~n what was lofi by Sin. This is the dvd~~~~~the )};roy.,g.7di:jta.Olg '7Ili,~""roJI', theR'e·vificat ion, the Refiitw · tion of all things,Atl. 3-.19,21.The dvct'itfcpct/l.ct.iwOls,or thegathe– ring all things in Heaven and Earth into a new head in Chrifi: Jefus, Ephe. 1. 1 o. For although it may be, there is more of Curiofity than of Edification, in a Scrupulous enquiry into the Method or Order of Gods eternal Decrees orCounfels, and the difpofal of them into a fubferviency one unto another; yet this is neceffary from the Infiriite T1lifdom, Prefcienceand and Immutability of God, that he is furprizedwith nothing, that he is put unto no new Counftls by any Events .in the Works of Creation. All things were difpofed by him, into H thofe

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