of the PERSON of CHART. I26 reafon to triumph againft him, ifs if he had defeated the great defign of his goodnefs, wifdom and power. SO he would have continued to do; if no way had been provided for his difappointment. This therefore alfo belonged unto the care of divine wifdom, namely that the glory of God in none of the holy properties of his nature did fuffer any diminution hereby. All this, and inconceivably more than the are able to exprefs; being contained in the fin ofour apoftafy from God ; it Inuit needs fol- low that the condition of all mankind became thereby inexpreftibly evil. As we had done all the moral evil which oar nature was capable to ad, fo it was meet we fhould receive all the portal evil which oar na- ture was capable to undergo. And it all iffued in death temporal and eternal inflifted from the wrath of God, This is the firft thing to be tonlidered in our tracing the footftetits of divine wifdom in our deli- veranceby the incarnationof the Son ofGod. Without due conceptions of the nature of this fin and apoftafy, of theprovocationgiven unto God there- by, of the injury attempted to be done unto the gloryof all his properties, of his concernment in their reparation, with the unfpeakable mifery that mankindwas fallen into, we cannot have the leaft view of the glori- ous aftings of divine wifdom in our deliverance by Chrift. And there,. fore the molt of tltofe who are infenfhle of thefe things, do Wholly re- je& the principal initánces of infinite wifdom in our redemption, as we ¡halt yet fee farther afterwards. And the great reafon why the glory of God in Chrift, Both fo little irradiate the minds of many, that it is fo much tieglefted and defpifed, is becaufe theyare not acquainted nor afrefted with the nature of out first fin and apoftafy, neither in it felf, nor in its wo, ful effects and confequents. But on the fuppofition of thefe things, a double enquiry arifeth with reference unto the wifdom of God, and the other holy properties of his nature immediately concerned in our fin and apoftafy. [t.] Whereas man by fin had defaced the image of God, and loft it, whereby there was nb reprefentation of his holinefs and righteoufn :fm left in the whole creation herebelow; no way of rendering any glory to him, in, for, or by any other of his works ; no means to bring man unw the enjoyment of God for which he was made, And whereashe had brought confufion and diforder into the rule and kingdonì of God, which accor- ding unto the law of creation and its fanftion could not be rectified but by the eternal ruine of the firmer ; and had moreover given up himfelf un- to the rule and conduft of fatan: whether I fay hereon, it was meet with refpeft unto the holy properties of the divine nature, that all mankind fhould be left eternally in this condition, without remedy or relief: or whether there were not a cotídeceney and fuitablenefs unto them, that at lean our nature in fome portion of it fhould be reftored, [z.] Upon a fuppoltion that the grantingof a recoverywas fuited unto the holyperfeflions ofthe divine nature, acing themfelves by infinite will, dom, what rays of that wifdom may we difcetn in the finding out and confutation of the way andmeans of that recovery. The firft of thefe I (hall fpeak but briefly unto in this place, becaufe I have treated more largely concerning it in another. For there ate many things which argue a condecencyunto the divine perfe&ions herein; namely, that mankind fhould not be left utterly remedilefs in that golf of ttiifery Whereinto it was plunged. I fholl at prefent only infift on and of timori. 'God had originally Created two forts of intellectual creatures capable of rht eternal enjoyment of hitem lf; namely, angels and men : that he would fa make either fett or both, was it meet effect of his fevereigm wifdom I i and
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