Universal redemption of mankind, by the Lord Jesus Christ stated and cleared by the…

Let us again remember Amesius's words, that Redemption is to the whole work of Grace (viz. both common and special) what Creation is to the work of Nature. Nay, better we may say, what Creation was to Gods Governing Administrations under the first Law, that is, Redemption to Gods Governing Administrations under the Second or New Law. For in Creation God did two things.

1. He gave man his Being, that he might be a Subject fit for Government.

2. He gave him his Right Being Real and Relative; making him after his Image, in his favour, and in a state of happiness: and in this state he made a Law with him, (even with all mankind in Adam and Eve,) promising him further everlasting life on condition of obedience. Now here Gods Creation of man in his favour and in rectitude, was a common work; and so was his giving him that Law: But so was not the fulfilling of its Promise, which implieth the Intervention of mans performance of the condition. Suppose now that man had been multiplied by propagation before the fall of any, and then one half of mankind had kept this Law of Works, and the other had broke it: Had it been fit for any man to say, that God did not Create any of those that fell, in his favour, or placed them not in happiness, or set them not in the way to a further happiness, because he did not infallibly cause them to keep his Law, ⟨p. 434⟩which was the condition of further happiness? No more can it be truly said that Christ did not Redeem them because he did not cause them infallibly to believe. Indeed it may be said of both, that God in Creating or in Redeeming had not the same Decree or Absolute Resolution to save them, as he had to save the Elect whom he causeth to perform the condition. And yet our Divines use commonly to say, that God created all Mankind in Adam in a state of happiness, and to a further happiness: that is, as Legislator, set them in a way to a further happiness, and conditionally promised it to them (whether it were any greater happiness, or only the perpetuation of the same, I will not now dispute.) And so hath Christ done all for men that pertains to a satisfier of Justice, and setteth them in a way to full deliverance from the misery that they were fallen into, and conditionally promiseth it to them, with an additional happiness.