is attributed to the Father; as there is unto the Son, or f man's fide. And that, of the party-contractor on Heaven's fide, wer may conceive aright in this matter; these two things are 1 in the firft place, to be taken notice of. 1. He, from all eternity, decreed the creation of man after his own image, d and the making of the covenant of works with him, in e time. All things, brought forth in time, lay from eterni ty in the womb of God's decree; in virtue whereof, they a have their being in time; for which caufe, the decree is 1 faid to bring forth, as a woman doth a child, Zeph. ii. 22. And the creation of angels and men, with the providence about them, made many lines in the volume of the fealed book of the decrees. God felf-fufficient needed neither I man nor angel; but for the manifeftation of his own glo ry, he purpofed from eternity to create them, and more over, to enter into fuch a covenant with man, as one fhould therein reprefent the whole family; fovereign pleafure meanwhile, taking another method with the angelic tribe; but withal purpofing to give both the one and the other a fufficient ability to ftand in their integrity, if they would. Thus, from eternity, the covenant of works, in all the parts and appurtenances thereof, was before the eternal mind: though being made with a mere man, it could not actually be entered into, till once man was created. But, Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world, A&ts xv. 18. 2. He decreed alfo from eternity, to permit the firft man, the reprefentative of the whole fa mily, to fall, and fo to break the covenant, and involve himself and all his pofterity in ruins. It is evident from the fpotlefs holinefs of God, and the nature of the thing, that the divine permiffion was not the cause of man's fall: and from the neceffary dependence of the creature upon the Creator, that without it he could not have fallen. But the fovereign Lord of the creatures permitted the fall of man, for his own holy ends, purpofing to bring about good from it. Now, God, the party-contractor on Heaven's fide in the grace, is to be confidered in that matter in a threefold view. 1. He is to be confidered in it as an offended God; of t a |