Owen - Houston-Packer Collection BX9315 .O8 1721

of the .PERSON pf CH1tIST. ballancing all the evil in thefins ofmankind.; that more honour and glory acorewed untotheholinefs andlaw of God by dais obedience, than dilhonour was cafkmill= by the difobedience of ddám and all his;pofterity. 4.) The way whereby the church was to be recovered and fared was byfuch works and ae'tings, as one Should take on himfdlf to perform in the wayofan. officecoinnamed unto him for That end. For whereas flan could not recover, ranfom, nor fave himfelt as w.e have proved, the whole muff be wrought for him by another. The undertaking hereof by ano- ther, muff depend on the :infinite wifdom, counfel and pleafure of :God, with the will and content of him who was to undertake it. So alto did the .conftitution of the way and means in ,particular where- by this deliverance was to be wrought. Hereon it became his office to do the things which were required unto that end. But we have before ,proved apart by it felf.that no.office unto this,purpofe could be difcharged towards God, or the whole church, by any one who was a man only. ] Gall not therefore here farther infiff upon it, although there be goodar- gument in it unto our prefent purpofe. g.) If man.be.recovered, he muff be reftored into the fame Rate, eon- dition and dignity wherein he was placed before the fall. To reftore him with any diminution of honour and hleffednefs, was not fuited un- to divine wifdom and bounty. ]lea feeing it was the infinite grace,good- nefs and mercy of God to reftore.hint, it Teems agreeable unto the glory of divine excallencies in their operations, that lie Gould be brought into a better and more honourable condition than that which he had loft. But be- fore the fall man was not fubjeft not obedient unto anybut untoGod alone, fomewhat leis he was in dignity than the angels, howbeit he owed them no obedience, they,were his fellow-fervants. And as for all other things here below, they were made fisbjefî sratto bim, andplat under his feet, lie himfelf being in fubjeftion unto God alone. But if be were redeemed andreftoted. by one who was a meer creature, hecould not he reftored unto this flare and dignity. For on all grounds of right andequity, he mutt '.ow all ferviceand obedience unto him by whom he was redeemed, reftor- ed and recovered, as the author of the flare wherein he is. For when ,we are bought with a price, we are not our own, as the apoftle affirms, Cor. ix. 19, 20. We are therefore his who bath bought us. and him are we bound to frs-c in. our fouls and bodies which are his. Accordingly in the purchafe of us, the Lord Chriff became our abfolute Lord, unto -whom we owe all religious.fubjeftion of foul and confcience, "Rom. xiv. 7, e, 9. .It would follow therefore thatif we were redeemed and recovered by the interpofition of usurer creature, ifSuch an one were our redeemer, Saviour and deliverer, into the ferviceof a meer creature, that is religious fervice and obedience, we .Gould be recovered. And fo they believe who affirm the Lord Clarifbto be a man and no snore. But on this fuppoítion we are fo far from anadvancement in ftate and dignityby our reftoration, that we do not recover what we were firft enftated in. For it belonged thereunto, thatwe Should owe.religious fervice and obedience unto him alone wlro was God .by nature-over.all bleffed.for ever. Ana they bring all confufon into chritlian religion, who _make. a .uneer creature the objëc't ofour faith, love, adoration, invocation and all fatted worflaip. But in our prefent reftoration we are made.fubjeft anew as unto rej,jgious ferrite only unto God alone. Therefore the holy angels, thehead of the creati- on, do openly difclaim any fuch fervice and veneration froth us, becaufe they are only the fellow fervants of them that have the teftimgnyofJefos, -kev..xix. to. : Nor loath God put the world to come, the gofpel flare of 1,4 m the

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