12 The Parties in the Integrity, if they would. Thus, fi·om etern!ty, the ~0 .. vena,nt ofworks in all the parts and appurtenances t-hereof, lay before the eternal Mind; rho' beino- mad~ with a meer man, it could not actually be ent~ed in· to, till once Jl!an was created .But, ' known unto Goa &lre all his works from the bcginning .of the world/ ' .<\eh xv. 18. 2 . He decreed alio horneternity, to per· . mit the firfi man, the reprefentative of the whole fa– mily, to faH, an<J fo to break the covenant, and in– volve himfelf and all h-is pofterity in ruins. It is evi– dent from the fpotlefs holinefs of God;. :md the n4ture of the thing, that the Divine permiilion .was not the cal:lfe of man's fall ; a~d from the neceffary depend– ence of the Clieatme upon the Creator, that, without it, he could not have falled. .But the fovereign Lord of the creatures pennitted the fall of man, for his own holy ends, ·purpofing· to bring about good from it. Now God the party·contracrer on Heaven's Jide in the cov€nant of grace, is · to b.e confidered in that matter, in a. threefold view. . Fir//, He is to be confidered in it, as an offended God ; offended with all the iins of all mankind, ori· ginal .::tnd actual.' Looking upon the'children ofmen,' ' the whole mafs of mankind ~ppeared, in .the eyes of his glory, cortupt and lothfome, the very reverfe of , his bolinef's : He faw them' all gone afide, together become filthy, none doing good, no not one,' Pfalm ·~ xiv. 2, 3· In the firfi covenant, God contraB:ed with · ' man himf<:lf, as a friend ; without the interpo.fition of ;. Mediator. But, in the fecond covepanr, it was not fo; and it ~ouJd not be fo : for, in it, man '\•VaS, confidered, ~s ~Jalle9 creature,~ t~anfgreffor ofth,: Jaw, a.n;l · an enemy -to God; and, 1t 1s .a covenant ot reconclli– ation, a covemmt ofpeace for thofe who had been at war with Heaven. ~econdly, But with~, God is to ~e con!idered h~rein, as a God purpofing an·d decreemg from eternity, to manifdt the glQry of his.free grace, love, and mera cy,
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