Owen - Houston-Packer Collection BT300 .O9 1679

in the Conflittttion ofthe Pe;fon of C/;r~!l 337 his Glory. There.could have been no orit)nal defefl in·the . natural or moral order of things, but it mufi have proceeded from adefect in Wifdom. For the difpo£1l of. a'l things int<? their proper -order, belo~ged unto the contnvance th.ereot. And the Harm~ny of all thmgs among themfelves, Wlth ail their mutual Relations and ,Afpects, m a regular tendency unto their proper and utmofi end, whereby though every individual Subfifience or Being hath a peculiar end ofitsown, yet all their actings, and all their ends tend directly unto one utmofi common end of them ali, is the principal effect of Wifdom. And thus was it at the beginning; when God himfelf beheld the Univerfe, and foe it was exceeding, good. All things being thus created and fiated, it belonged unto the Nature ofGod to be the Reflor and dif}ofer of them all. It was .not a meer free Afr ofhis vVill, \.vhereby God d10fe to rule and govern the Creation, according unto the Law-vf the nature of all things, and their relation unto him; but it was nece[{ary from his Divine Being and Excellenc:es, that fo he il1ould do. Wherefore it cm1cerned both the \:Vifdom and RighteoufnefS of God to take care that either all things il1ould be preferved in the fiate wherein they were created, and no diforder be fuffere'd to enter into the ,Kingdom and Rule of God, or that in a way fuited unto them, lJis Glory il1ould be retrived and re-efl:ablifl1ed. For God is not the God cf conf11/ion, neither the Author nor Approver of it,. neither in his Works, nor in his Rule. But fin actually brought di.f o.rcler into the Kingdom and Rule of God. And this it did not in any one par~icular Ini1:ance, but that which was uni– verfal as unto aJI things here below. For the original I-.far– mony and Order of all things confified in their fubordination unto the Glory of God. But this they alllofi, as was before · declared. Hence he who looked on them in their firfi con– fiifution, and to manifefl his eomplacency in them, affirmed them

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