268 THE bOCTRINE O'r THE TRINITY, ['SEEM. %LIP. Thus I have finished the second general head of dis- course, and shewn that these are the glorious and divine methods, whereby, such guilty and sinful creatures, as we, have access to God the Father: This is the mediation of his Son Jesus Christ, who procures peace and reconci . liation for us : and these are the inward -and powerful operations of his Holy Spirit, whereby our hearts are re- conciled to God, and trained up to a fitness for his hea- venly presence. In that presence there isadivine ful- ness of joy, and at his right-hand are pleasures for ever- more;" Ys. cvi. 1I. The third general head, contained in my text, is the union of all nations in this last and best of religions, which God' ever taught the children of men: Both Jews and gentiles have access to the Father in this way, that is, through this one Mediator, and ,by one Spirit. From the first apostacy of Adam, till the days of Abraham, all the forms and instituted ordinances of re- ligion, which were given to men, were designed as a ge- neral instruction for all the nations of the earth, to shew them, in what- manner, such guilty andsinful creatures might hàve access to God, and find acceptance with him. And these forms and ordinances,' which were of such infi- nite importance, should have been preserved alive, by- 'constant tradition, amongst all mankind. Whatsoever divine instructions God gave to Adam and Noah, were the appointed methods of, worship and access to God for all their posterity, that is, for all the world, till God should reveal some new methods to them : for each of those two patriarchs were the fathers of all mankind ; one before, and the other after the flood. But when Gad called Abraham, he favoured hire,' and his household, with peculiar privileges, and appointed to them new and peculiar forms of worship, and access to himself. And here began. the distinction of the world into two parts :' Some were obliged to the religion of Abraham, the rest left to the religion of Noah. But as most of the postérity Of Nòah soon forgot the true God,. and degenerated into various forms of idolatry, so the re- ligion ofAbraham was also, for the most part, lost among the families of Ishmael and the sons of Keturah, and was chiefly retained and practised in the household of Isaac, . and in the tribes of Jacob,- surnamed Israel.
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