This inferior World Mans Habitation and his preservation Thirdly This Worlds restoration by redemption And these three comprehend all the Works of God and every one had a threefold beginning known to God as concerning the first namely Angels it will be handled in the thirteenth Chapter Secondly this inferior World and Man its principal part had a threefold beginning First from its original Fountain Gods own Essence its potential and virtual productive cause and so this World in all its parts Man the chief was in God Heb. 7.9 10. as Levy was when he was not but in Abrahams loynes potentially And as that vertue was in Christ which healed the woman of the bloudy Issue before it was extended to her health and as a Rose is in its root in Winter when it is not existent so this World in all its parts had its first beginning in Gods Essence its potentiall virtual and productive cause and therefore this beginning must needs be known to God it being so in himself The second beginning of the world not in time but in the order of Nature was the second step of God to all his Works namely the Councel of his own Will for the Text saith He worketh all things after the Councel of his own Will Eph. 1.11 and so the world was framed in all its parts before it was created and so known to God in this beginning it being also in himself The third beginning of the World was when God reduced the said potency and councel as he purposed in himself Gen. i. to verse last to the production of the Creation in all its parts by his Creative word as appears in Genesis Secondly Gods work of Redemption and Restauration of the World by Christ when the Creation in all its parts in Adams transgression deservedly fell into corruption vanity and bondage but not to its depth because God immediately did interpose the imputation of Adams unrighteousness upon the whole world in all its parts Psal 145.9 Rom. 5.18 with the imputative satisfactory righteousness of Christ the second Adam and so extended his tender mercies over all his works in this inferior world Rom. 8. from 18 to 24. and so put the whole creation into a posture of travelling from that bondage of corruption unto now untill the glorious liberty of the Sons of God for this travel ariseth not from its own will or natural instinct but by God who hath subdued it by Christ's aforesaid righteousness and this work of God had a threefold beginning as well as the Creation for it is manifest by the Oracles of God that Christ the seed of the woman was from Gods potency and his councel as is implyed in that he was fore ordained to be the Redeemer in time before the world was and it is also implyed that then God look'd upon man as in the fallen Mass in Adams loynes as under blame unholy 2 Tim. 1.9 and an object not lovely For saith the Text He chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before him in love so that he saved us and called us with one holy calling not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace which was given to us through Iesus Christ before the world was 1 Pet. 1.10 which God that cannot lie hath promised before the world began Prov. 8.22 23 24. Therefore the great work of the worlds restauration had the aforesaid threefold beginning and is and was so known from the beginning to God 2 Tim. 1.9 and from the premises thus proved it clearly follows that not only the innumerable number of men and Angels were known to God before they or the world did exist Tit. 1.2 but also all their arbitrary motions operations and contingent workings and all contingent events were known to God as certain and not contingent to him Heb. 1.2 as that the Angels would apostate from their own habitation and tempt man and that man also would apostate from his first estate and that from two particulars First from mans remissness to Gods word and rule Secondly from the natural liberty of his will implanted in him by God which consists in this to chuse and refuse all objects as it likes or as it likes them not From this ground it is that man in his innocency might or might not sin and so the ground how God permitted sin to be both in men and Angels and the ground of all contingency in their operations events and contingencies And therefore when God would make a means to carry on his final end unchangeably he past by that contingent faculties in men and Angels and pitcht only upon the seed of the woman personally God Man ordained thereunto before the world as we see and as will appear in its due place Now the ground why God knows all his works as is proved is this also not only because he made all but also the whole Creation with the innumerable company of men and Angels together with their contingent events in all their works with all circumstances amounts but to a finite thing or things Rom. 4.17 and therefore to the infinite God are as nothing for him to know who calleth things that are not as if they were who discerneth the thoughts and intents of the heart neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight Heb. 4.12 13. but all things are open and naked to his eyes and saith the Text All the Nations are as a drop of the bucket and counted as the small dust of the ballance he taketh up the Isles as a very small thing all Nations are before him as nothing and they are counted unto him less then nothing and vanity And therefore it was all one to God to know all things when they were not as now when they are and are as nothing to him so much for the first thing premised namely In what sense known to God are all his works from the beginning of the world The second thing premised is this What Gods final end is for which he made all things namely both men and Angels and all his creative works subservient to them and their use In brief it is no more then this that which is and shall be upon men and Angels executed last that was in creating all things by God in order of nature intended first and that was his final end whatsoever it was But more particular this is his final end namely that he will make both men and Angels by their use of all that he hath indued them with vessels of honour or vessels of dishonour to eternity according to their works good or bad by his rule made suitable to them But as concerning men I must premise one thing before I come to the point That is all mankind departing this world in infancy or the like are considered by God under another capacity for
Timothy before the Elect Angels therefore some of them are elected Secondly The others were rejected from the good that the other were elected to to an evil equivolent contrarily for the Text affirms That God cast them down to hel that is when the rest remained in heaven and delivered them saith the Text into Chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgement and Iude saith Iud. v. 6. God hath reserved them in an everlasting Chain under darkness unto the judgement of the great day and our Lord saith For them is prepared everlasting fire therefore these Angels stand rejected by God for ever from the said good to the contrary evil Thirdly The ground of that rejection is named in the fore-cited Texts namely sin for the Text saith God spared not the Angels that sinned also Iude saith those Angels kept not their first estate but left their own habitation and our Lord points out the same For when he had said the Devil was a murtherer from the beginning he also saith and abode not in the truth therefore the ground of their rejection was sin Joh. 8.44 Fourthly if they sinned as we see it is proved this must needs follow 1 Ep. Joh. 3 4. Rom. 5 13. a law they had which they transgressed For as saith the Text sin is not imputed where there is no Law and our Lord himself implyes They stood bound by a Law to worship God their maker as they are his crreatures therefore said he to the Devil It is written Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve and therefore a Law they had for it is propper to God only to be without Law Luk. 4.8 who is without limits in his essence and therefore so in his operations Fifthly in a word the Law they had and transgressed was no more but this namely The Law of Nature that is their nature and existency which they had received from their maker bound them and by an innate principle called upon them by their operations in flames of burning love in all their strength to worship and serve him so to return him the sole glory of all that they had received from him for from this ground our Lord alleadged the same Law that God gave to man against them because they were his creatures aswell as man saying It is written Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve and we all know Gods Law written in mans heart and in Gods Law is one and the same thing in kind yet with this difference in man imperfect otherwise man could not do the things by nature contained in the Law having not the Law as before is proved Sixthly The ground why and to what God elected them that stood to more then what they had together with the rest before they fell was this Job 4.18 Before the fall they were all alike unstable in that estate according to that in Iob he found not steadfastness in his Angels the reason is because of the contingent events that might arise to them all being included in the natural liberty of their will from whence they all alike might refuse or chuse to give their maker his glory due unto him or might chuse or refuse to assume his glory unto themselves because the natural liberty of the will in Men and Angels consists in this as is said namely to chuse or refuse all objects as it likes or as it likes them not therefore their estate stood all alike contingent for the future to stand in it or to fall from it Therefore because these Angels did voluntarily refuse to assume Gods glory to themselves and did chuse to render the sole glory of all they had to him in all their strength therefore this was the ground why God elected them for as certainly as God rejected the others for rejecting his glory due unto him as is proved so certainly he elected these Angels to an establishment in their choice namely so to render him glory to eternity as a reward of their labour of love consequently to be blessed to eternity because they might refuse so to do as did the others Thus God did render to all the Angels according to their works good or bad some to honour some to dishonour and so accomplished his final end on them all to eternity And because this final execution hath thus passed upon them all it follows That as the rejected Angels can never will to render glory to God as once they might before they abused it because by the justice of that execution God doth deny them any influence or efflux from him to them to convey or continue any good in them more then to be that they may eternally be to be eternally miserable so on the contrary by the same execution there flows a continual influence from God to the elect Angels to keep and support them in the said choice to render him his sole glory to eternity which indeed is their blessedness for ever for the service of God is perfect freedom to men and Angels Objection If the workings of men and Angels be a moving cause to God thus to reject or elect them then the moving cause is not in or from God himself but from causes extrinsical which cannot be I answer it is true and so it is in this case because he was moved to work all things not according to their works but after the councel of his own will as he purposed in himself that is to propound this his final end and all the means suitable to accomplish it from whence issued forth the Creation of men and Angels in their natural liberty of their will that so the events of the operations of men and Angels might be contingent that from thence might arise their works good and bad and accordingly to be elected or rejected some to honour some to dishonour therefore the moving cause was and is in God himself to carry on and accomplish his final end by his own means as is described Hence we may inform our selves aright of two things Use First What it is that is Gods great decree upon which all things depend in which he is irrevocably unchangeable that is in that he decreed this final end and all the said means to accomplish it for we see for this end he created the Heavens and the Earth with all therein and both in relation to men and Angels and to carry on this end we see he elected and ordained the seed of the woman Christ the Lord the second Adam the seventh means to carry on this final end Secondly We may hence inform our selves that God made not the heaven of heavens for Angels sakes although it be their own habitation nor this world for mans sake although it be with all therein related to mans use and good I say he made it not for mans sake but all for his own names sake in reference to his final end and it must needs
in the loss of his glory and to his dishonour for ever by nulling his truth in that all mankind together with themselves might fall into eternal misery and so not one ever should aspire to eternal happiness that glory over theirs For in Adam all die that is eternally vessels of dishonour But for the further enlargement of the fall of man I refer the Reader to the third Chapter of my former Treatise but now in this particle of time when man fell and the world with him then God gave being to the seventh means to cary on his final End by the assent of humane nature to eternal glory in his manifold wisdom to the rebounding of his glory to all eternity notwithstanding what was done by the Apostate Angels as will appear in the next Chapter and Chapters following CHAP. IV. In this Chapter is proved that God gave being to the seventh means to accomplish his final end IN this case as is said God passed by Men and Angels because this means is not man only nor God only but personally God Man that is the second in the one God assumed not the person of any man but the nature of every man as it was said the seed of the woman And this person by this personal union was made the the seventh means in the beginning of time namely in that instant of time in which the whole frame of Nature fell by its principal part as is described Gen. 3.15 for then saith God I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed affirmatively concluding he shall break thy head Luk. 1.70 so that this seventh means was then known by name that is the seed of the woman And thus God spake by the mouth of his holy Prophets since the world began and accordingly when the fulness of time was come Gal. 4.4 God sent forth his son made of a woman and so forth And because the Text saith God sent forth his Son made of a woman he tels us that himself was the sole efficient of this means for womans seed was but the subject matter and no formal cause nor man any efficiency in it but God only and alone according to his word to the Serpent I will and so forth Wherefore when an Angel said unto Mary Luk. 1.31 32 33 34 35. Loe thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bear a son Then said Mary unto the Angel How can this be seeing I know not man The Angel then tels her how saying The holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the most high shall overshadow thee therefore that holy thing which shall be born of thee Heb. 1.4 5 6. shall be called the Son of God From this ground the Text saith Who shall declare his generation implying none but God himself he being so much better then the Angels as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name then they For unto which of the Angels said he at any time thou art my son this day have I begotten thee Again when he bringeth in his first begotten into the world he saith And let all the Angels of God worship him Quest In regard he was not born nor begotten until the fulness of time how can he be Gods first begotten Answ I answer He was begotten so as never none was nor ever shall be by the power of the most High and so the first begotten in this sense that ever was Secondly The first begotten in priority of time for he was the first born of man from the dead fall of Adam in that word of God when he threatned destruction to the designe of apostate Angels by womans seed and so the first begotten from the dead fall of the whole frame of Nature this was intimated by God when he instituted the earths first fruits to be his and of the beasts which first opened the womb to be his and the first-born of man to be his implying that Christ was the only first-born from the dead of every creature in an universal relation and that he was the seventh means to destroy all the apostate Angels foresaid means and so to carry on Gods final end is clear For this purpose saith the Text was the Son of God manifested that he might destroy the works of the Devil and our Lord himself saith For this end was I born 1 Epist Ioh. 3.8 and for this cause came I into the world that I should bear witness to the truth The which truth may be considered negatively or affirmatively Negatively thus That God never did Ioh 18.37 nor now doth intend glory to himself by mans operations good or bad everlastingly but according to his rules made suitable to man Or affirmatively thus That God really intended and still doth to return glory to himself for ever by mans operations good or bad according to his rule suitable to man that is some to honour and some to dishonour according to their works to all eternity and not as the apostate Angels lyingly affirmed that God really intended neither for we see they denyed man should die at all and for life God intended no such thing to us in our first parents as precedently is proved Consequently it must follow from their lies as our Familistical Ranters affirm that all shall be alike that is none saved nor damned Iohn 8.44 As the Scriptures affirm But these filthy dreamers are the children of their Father the Devil whose works they will doe But for the further inlargement how our Lord did witness the truth and what that righteousness of his is which is imputed to the world in general and to man believing the truth more special I refer the Reader to the eighth Chapter of my former Treatise to the which the fourth Chapter in the same Book will give much light Because the Text saith Observ God sent his Son in the fulness of time Hence observe what is implyed in those words namely That it was ful time then for God to send him and for him to com because by that time the apostate Angels had not only seduc d Noa's posterity by apostacy from that posture God put them in by Christ to Heathenish Idolatry universally as in due place wil appear and also what that posture was which they left Rom. 10 11 12 but also seduced Abrahams seed in the like apostacy excepting some very few of both sorts by which Gods final end became almost as it was in the fall of Adam Psal 2.3 Therefore when the Lord lookt down from heaven upon the children of men as saith the Text to see if there were any that would understand and seek God he concludes all are gone out of the way and so forth but when the time was come that by the just judgement of God he shut up all men in unbelief it was to this end that he might have mercy upon all to be put into the said posture and