3o The Perfon o1 Cl:>rifl the moft Ineffable Subjijlence with himfel£ This is the only Rock and a.lTured Foundation of the Relation of rhe Church unto -God, which now can never utterly fail. Our Nature is eternally fecured in that Union, and we our felves, as we i11all fee thereby.. Col. 1. 17, 18. In him all things confiff; wherefore whatever Beauty and Qlory there was in the Relation that was between God and Man, and the Relation of all things unto God. by Man, in the prefervation whereof ·Natural Religion did con- . _ fifl:, it had no Beauty nor Glory in comparifon of this which cloth ·excel ; or the manitefl:ation of God in the flei11, the An– pearance and Subfifl:ence of the Divine and Humane NatJ]r~s in the fame fingle Individual Perfon. And whereas God in that fl:ate. had givenMan dominion over the jijh of the Sea, and the fowl of the Air, and over the Cattel, and over all the Earth, Gen. r. 26. It was all but an obfcure reprefentation of the exaltation of our ·Nature in Chrifi, as the Apofl:le de· dares, He/;. 2. 6, 7, 8, 9· There was true Religion in the world after the fall, both before and after giving of the Law ; a Religion built upon and refolved into Divine Revelation. And as for the out· ward Glory of it, the Admini11:ration that it was brought in.._ to under the Tabernacle and Temple, it was beyond what is reprefented in the Infl:itutions of the Gofpel. Yet is Chri– fiian ReJigion, our Evangelical Profeffion, and ~he fl:ate of the Church thereon,far more glorious, beautiful ,and perfeCt, then that fiate of Religion was capable of, or could attain. ~ And as this is evident from hence becaufe God in hisWifdom, Grace and Love to the Church, hath removed that fl:ate, and introduced this in the room thereof; [o the Apoflle proves it in all confiderable infl:ances, in his Epiflle to the E-Jebtews; written unto tha,t purpofe. There were two things before in Religion. The Promife which was the Life of it, and the lnjlitutio11s ofWot:i11ip under th~ Law,.which were the out- . ward
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