Owen - Houston-Packer Collection BT300 .O9 1679

in the Contrivance oftl1e VVork of~demjJtion. i 8 I 2. No meer creature could fecure this Inheritaflce that it ihould be loft no more; and yet if it were fo, it would be highly derogatory unto the Glory of God. For two things were required hereurrto. (r.) That he in whom this Trufr1s veiled, ihould be in himfelf uncapable of any fuch failure 1 as through which by the immutable eternal Law of Obedience unto God, a forfeiture of itfhould be made. (2.) That he un– dertake for them all who fhall be Heirs of Salvation, who ihall enjoy this Inheritance, that none of them fhould lofe or forfeit their own Pedonal Interefi in it, pr the ·Terms whereon it is conveyed and communicated unto them. But no meer creature was fufficient unto thefe ends. For no one of them in and by himfelf, in the conilitution of his Nature, is abfolutelyfree from falling from God, himfel£ They may receive, the Angels in Heaven, and the glorified Saints have received fuch a confirmation in and by Grace, as that they flmll never aClually apoilatize or fall from God.. But this they have not from themfelves, nor the Principles of their own Nature, which is neceifary unto him that Tiull receive this Truil. For fo wh~n it was fidl: veiled in Adam, he was left to preferve it by the innate concreated abilities of his own ;Nature. And as unto the latter, all the Angels in Heaven cannot undertake to fecure the Obedience of any one man, fo as that the conveyance of the Inheritance may be fure ur. to him. \\' herefore with refpecr· hereunto , thofe Angels themfelves, though the mofr holy and glorious of all the creatures of God, have no greater Trufl: or Intereil, than to be miniflringfpirits, je11t forth to mini}ler for them who }hall be Heirs ofSalvation, Heb. 1.14.So unmeet are they to have the whole Inheritance veiled in any of them. But all this In~nite Wifdom hath provided for in the great Myfloy ofGodlinefs, God manifefl in tbe fiejh. God herein makes his only Son the J-leir of all thitJgs, and veils the . · 0 o whole

RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=