34 The Parties in the And therein, they col}le uhder a three-fold confide ~ ·ration. Firjl, They were confidered as /inners, l~fl:, win– ed, and undone in Adam; ' 'lofi ilieep of the houfe ' of ljrael,' Mat. xv. 24. In the firfl: covenant, the whole flock of mankind was pLit under the hand of one fuepherd, to wit, Adam: but he, lofing himfelf, lo!l: all the flock, and was never able to recover fo much as one of them again : God had, from all eternity, put a fecret mark on fome of tllem, whereby he dif– tinguiihed them from th« refi,. 2 Tim. ii. ~'9· ' Hav– ing this fea~, The Lord ~noweth 'them th in are his.' And them alfo he faw among others, gone .away from their pafture, wandring as waifs and !trays, a prey to every devourer ; but, in order to thdr being fought oulr, and returned, and kept in f.1fety for ever, the new.covenant was enter'd into with another Shepherd, even our Lord j t fi1s Chrifi; and ~hey are. put under hls hand, as the Shepherd of lfrael. In Adam~s re– prefentation, in the covenant of works, the party re– prefented was confidered as ·an upright feed, Eccl. vi. :29. But in ChriH's reprefentation, in the cove_nant of grace, the party reprefented was confidered as a cor-; . rupt finful mafs, laden with guilt, un_der ths wrat};l of God and curfe of the law. And who would have repre- . fented fuch a company, putting himfelf in .their room and fl:ead ? .but free love engag'd our Lord Jefus – to k - So the holy One of God, reprefented wretched finners ': the Beloved of the Father, reprefented the cur(ed .company. ,S,econdly, They were confidered alfo, as , utterly unable to help themfe lves, in whole or in part; · as Being without flrength, Rom. v. 6. They were debt– ors, but quite unable to pay off one farthing of the debt :- they were criminals, but quite un~ble to bear · their own punifhment to the fatisfacrion of jufi.ice; had it lain on them to have paid the debt, or born the · punifhment, they behov'cf to hav~ funk under th~ lo~d · . for
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