[ 5 Nature; for the Mode of GOD's Exi(lence is not an Obje& of Man's. Reafon, nor could poflïbly be known by him without Information. A Çlod of Earth might as foon emit Light from itfelf and become a Sun. The abfurd Opinions of the wifeft Heathens prove the Truth of this Affertion; for even the molt intelligent Plato (as Labiantius obferves) fomniaverat Deum, non cognove- rat,' " dreamed about GOD, but did not know him." And if this Doftrine of the Trinity mutt necefl'arily have been revealed, it mutt have been principally re- vealed in the divine Names; becaufe we find in the Old Teftament a peculiar Strefs laid upon them, and moth of the other Evidences of this great Truth arifing from or ultimately referring to them. But if this Truth, (viz. that there is a Perfonal Plurality in the divine Effence) be indeed revealed in thofe Names, which it is one great Defign of this Treatife to thew; then the Names were fitted and defigned to convey the Knowledge of it, and the Knowledge of it is contained in them. Not only the Nature and the Name of GOD were above the Inveítigation or Exprefüon of Man, which the wifeft Heathens have confeffed ; but the Rite alfo of Sacrifice, which was ufed by 14bel (if not by Adam himfelf) and approved by GOD, could not, for thofe very Reafons, have been an Invention merely human.t Lib. v, c. is. $ The excellent Witut, with great Probability, obferves, that the Skins of Beafts, put by GOD on our firft Parents, were thofe of facrífcedBeafts. He further obferves, that Sacrifice was a divine Inftitution, for the following Reafons: " tlt. Abel ojèred by Faith, s. e. he knew, that himfelf and his Sacrifice were acceptable to GOD, and in his Offering he looked by Faith to the future Offering of the Meab. But fach a Faith plainly frafuppofes the divine In- flitution ofSacrifices, and a REVELATION about their Signification. 2. Becaufe GOD gave Teftimony to the Sacrifices of the antient Pa- triarchs, whereby he declared they were acceptable to him. But, in the Matters of Religion, nothing pleafes him, but what himfelf has commanded. All Will-worfhip is condemned. Col. U. 23. 3. Be- caufe there was a Diftinftion between clean and unclean Animals before the Deluge, whichwas not fromNature, but from the mere good Pleafure of GOD, and has a particular Refpeft to Sacrifices." Qertm. Fad 1. iv. c. 7. 4, s, 6. SPANH. Hit. Eccles. V. c!'. p. 275. B 3 . Reafon,
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