C 2 of Salvation. Not that this Revelation was fo defiriteiy* given, as to need no farther Illustration; becaufe the whole patriarchal and legal (Economy, being only typi- cal, was to be underftood of better Things to come : But that thegrand ObjeEt of Worfhip, and the great Out- line of Redemption, were communicated to the dark- ened Understanding of fallen Man; that he might both know, to whom he flood indebted for his Recovery, and how that Recovery was to be esfectted. If this be not admitted; it must then be allowed, that the antedi- luvian and patriarchal Church, called in Scripture the Sons of God, were left in a melancholy State refpe&- ing their eternal Hopes; and that, as they knew nothing, and could know nothing, of GOD, by the Exercife of Faculties impaired and ruined by Sin, they confequently could not worship him, or conceive the Ufe of fome religious Inftitutions, which we are affured they corn- plied with as delivered from Heaven itfelf. But, as we find that they attended to feveral Ordinances, which were (as they believed) rendered facred by the immedi- ate Command of their Maker, and attended to them in Faith *; it follows, that, they knew the End and De- fign of thofe Ordinances, from fome Explanation given, of which the Sum or Epitome was contained in the alle- gorical Declarationof bruiting the Serpent's Head by Him who would become the Seed of the Woman. It will next follow, that, as GOD gave them a Revelation of him- felf, he was the Objeél of their Adoration, and the Ground on which their Faith mull rest for the Fulfil- ment of his Promifes. The Revelation, which GOD gave concerning himfelf, mutt have been by Names, Afcriptions, or Titles, expreffìve either of his own Na- ture, or of thofe Engagements which he had determined and covenanted to perform. Accordingly, we find fe- veral_ Diftin&ions and Epithets, applied to GOD from the Beginning of the World, in the Holy Scriptures. A Revelation likewife of their Import muit have been Hebr. xii, 4. By Faith Abel, &c. given
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