Owen - Houston-Packer Collection BT300 .O9 1679

in the Conftitution of the Perforz ofCMifi. 245 dealing with the Anuels that ~nned. Fpr when man had voluntarily---broken all the RelatiOn of Love and moral Good between God and him, had' defaced his Image, the only Re– prefentation of his Holinefs and Righteoufnefs in this lower world, and deprived him of all his Glory from the works of his hands, and had put himfelf into the fociety, and under the conduCt of the Devil; what difhonour could it have been unto God, what diminution would there have been ofhis Glory, if he had left him unto his own choice, to eat for e·ver of the fruit of his own waies, and to be filled with his own devices. unto eternity ? It is only l~tfnite Wifclom that could find out a way for the_falvation of any one of the whole Race of Mankind, fo as that it might be reconciled unto the Glory of his Holinefs, Righteoufnefs and Rule. Wherefore as we ought alwaiesto admire So·veraign Grace in the few th_at fhalf ,. be faved ; [o we have no ground to reflect on Divine Goodnefs in the multitudes that perifh, efpecially coniider:– ing that they _all voluntarily continue in their Sin and A2ofiafy. · 1 2. I grant the Nature of man was not reparable nor reco– verable, by any fuch acti~gs of the ·Properties ofGod as- he had exerted in the Creltion and Rule of all things. Were there not other Properties -of the Divine [Nature than what were di(covered and revealed in the(reation of all; werenot [ome of them fo declared capabfe of an exercife in another way or in higher ·degrees than what had as yet been in!l:anced in, it mufl: be acknowledged that the Reparation of mankind could not be conceived compliant with the Divine Excellen cies, nor to be effeCted by them. I f11aH give one infiance in each fort, namely, .firfi in Properties of another J:ind than - any wbich had been manifefied in the works of Creation, and - then the acrings of fome 'of them fo manifefied, in another "2... 4-~ ~~try, or farther degree than what they \Vere before exerted m or by. , 1. Of

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