112 Of the f\.nowledg of (jod tbe Father, ~ on ; for that was an Act of God's Will : but that other, by a natural Act of a ~-myfierious Generation. . I am now approaching to that fecond Royalt1 mentioaed in this Branch, Chrijl's being alfo the final Ca(Jje or £,;cl for whor11 all ThmgJ were made. And this is fuch a Refpcct, as the Creatures were not capable of one towards another. Which Point is conjuncr with this of his Priority in God's Decrees, and indeed is the grcatefl Confirmation and Proof of it. All acknowledge a Priority, though not of one ACJ: of God's Decrees before another in a fucceffive order as in refpect of the Decrees themfelves, ( fuch as in our Pmpofes and Thoughts there is through our Imperfection) yet in re– fpect of the Objects of God's Decrees compared together among themfe!ves. So one thing decreed by God, IS ordered by hJS Will to have a reference Unto or dependence upon another thing, though at the fame time decreed. And f~ in that refpect there comes to be attnbuted, even to the Acts of God's Will, as termimted upon fi.1ch Objects. That he intended one thing firfl: and chiefly, and another fi1bordinately unto it. And accordingly the Scripture fpeaks of God's Decrees condefcending therein to the Conceptions of Men. And though in Men there are fucceffive Acts m the1r Purpofes and Refoluttons, becaufe Men are not wife enough, in the fame infl:ant in which they fet up an End, to fee and take in all the Means that fhall conduce to the attaining of it; or if they were, yet they are not able, by the fame Act, to judg which is the bell: and mofl convenient: yet God, through the perfection of his Knowledg, can do this, and fo make but one Atl: of all, both one and the other. Yet fiill, what is in Man imperfectly, is to be look'd at as an Image of God's proceedings here– in, in a tranfcendent way of Perfection: And fo we may truly attribute the f.1me Thing unto God's Will in his Decrees, as to the fubfl:ance of them in that perfeCJ: way of his, that we do unto Man in his that is imperfetl:, And hence God is f:tid tO work by Counfel, Ephef I. I L In J<hom alfo we have obtained an lnberitance, being predefoinated according to the Pttrpofis of him who worf<stb aU Things after tbe C01mfil of his own WiU. It is in Affimilation or Likenefs unto what is in Man: Becaufe as an Atl: of Knowledg and Deliberation is faid to be firfl in us, e're an Atl: of Will or Determination what to do : fo in God him– felf, an Atl: of Knowledg, or of the full Cognizance of what is to be done, is (after the manrter of Men ). fuppofed to be before an Atl: of his Will. And anfwerably in his Will, the Intention of the End is faid to be before the Imen– tention of the Means. And this Priority of the End afore the Means, is taken for granted to have been in God's Decrees: for if God had not thus pro– ceeded, by ordaining the Means unto the End, he could not by us have been conceived to work with that perfetl:ion of Wi(dom which mull: be in him. For Wifdom always confiders, firll, an End, then fit Means tending to that End. Yet flill this is but what is common to all other Things that are ordained to be as Ends by God, unto which other Things are fubordinated ; and in this Scale there isa kind of Priority allowed one Creature to have had in God's Decrees, in refpetl: of others its fell0w-Creatures. As theSun was intended for the enlightning ofthe World, and the Generation and Confervation ofall things therein, by it$ heat apd influence; and yet both it and the World were intended for Man, and Man and all the World for tbe Eletl:, as the Apofl:le lays, I Cor. 3· ult. AUThings are yours, and you are Cbrijl's, and Chrijl i1 God';. Now all the Creatures fall infinitely fhort of that Royalty which I hence at– tribute to Chrifi, God-Man, when I affirm him to have been the ji11al Cmtfi or E11d of aU Things. And look how far his Prerogative herein is found to exceed that which may be fuppofed m1ght have been any of theirs; by fo much is there– by confirmed (according to the ground even now laid) a priority as tranfcen– dent that he verily holdeth in God's Decrees. Now be holdeth a preheminence in this infinitely above all Creatures, and therefore even in this his being the End of all ai!O. And
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