4.2 c%$ 'Declaration of the Glorious MYSTERY Both thefe the apoftle infifts upon at large, s Cor. xv. So is it with all other truths whatever. 'Wherefore all divine fupernatural truths revealed in 'the fcripture, being nothing but the declaration of thefe coun- fels of God, whole foundation was laid in the perfon of Chrifl; and where- as they are all of them exprglve of the love, wifdom, goodnefs and grace ofGod unto us, or intiruitive in our obedience and duty to him, all the adings of God towards us, and all ours towards him, being in and through him alone. And whereas all the life and power of thefe truths, all their beauty, fymtnetry, and harmony in their union and conjunction which is expreflive of divine wifdom, is all from him who as a living fpirit diffufed through the whole fyflevn both ads and animates it, all the treafures Of truth, wifdom and knowledge May be well fäid to be hid in hiss. And we may confiderfome things that enfue hereon. s. Hence it is that thefe who rejed the divine perfon of Chtift, who believe it not, who difcern not the wifdom, grace, love and power of God therein, doconftanly reject or corrupt all other fpiritual truths of divine revelation, nor can it otherwife be. For they have a continency only lit their relation unto the myflery ofgodlinefs, God manife f in the fleh t ; and and from thence derive their fnfe and meaning. This beimg removed, the truth in all other articles of religion immediately fallsto the ground. An intance hereof we have in the Sociítians. For although they retain the common notions of the unity and exiflence of the divine nature, which are indelibly fixed on the minds of men, yet is there no one truth that belongs peculiarly unto chriftian religion, but they either deny it, or horribly de- prave it. Many things concerning God and his effential properties; as his immutability, imtnenfity, prefcience, they have greatly perverted. So is that f.Ifiled in them which was fpoken by Jude the apoftle, v. to. They Beak evil of the things which they know not, and what they do know na- turally as brute beans, in them they corrupt themfelver. So they do in the things mentioned wicereof.there are natural notions in the minds of men. But of evangelical truths, Which they know not, they fpeak evil, and deride them. The Holy Trinity they blafpheme; the incarnation of the Son of God they from ; the work of his mediation in his oblationand interceftion, with the fatisfadion and merits of his obedience and fuffer- ing they rejed-. So do they whatever we are taught of the depravation of our natures by the fall, ofthe renovation of them by the Holy Ghoft, and unto all other articles of our faith do they offer violence to corrupt therm. '$he beginning of their tranfgrefiion or apoftafy is in a disbelief of the di- vine perfon of Chrift. That being rejected, all other faded truths are re- moved from their balls and center; that whichh gives them their unity and harmony. Hereon they fluctuateup and down in the minds ofmen, and appearing unto them under various deceiving colours, are eafily mifappre- hendedor disbelieved. Yea there can no diced proper reprefentation be madeof them unto the underflandings of men. Diffolve the knot, center and harmony in the molt heatiful competition or ftrudure, and every part will contribute as muchunto the deformity and ruin of the whole, as it did before unto its beauty and confìftency. So is it with every doctrine; fo is it with the whole fyftemof evangelical truths. Take the perfon of Chrift out of them, diffolve their harmonyin relation thereunto, whereby we no longer hold the head in the faith and profeflion of them, and the minds of men cannot deliver them from an irreconcilable difference among them felves. Hereon fome of rhem are immediately rejeded, and fome of them corrupted. For they lofe their native light and beauty. They will neither agree nor confft any where but in Chrift. Hence it is, that no inftance
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