a christian community all sorts of errors that can be named, it would-1. destroy all exposition and interpretation of Scripture; for without words different from, though agreeable to the sacred Scriptures, we can never express our sense of them.-2. To be obliged to express ourselves about divine things in the bare words of Scripture, must tend to make the ministry and preaching of the word in a great measure useless. -3. This must in a great measure cramp all religious conversation about divine things, if not destroy it. To what purpose is it for them that fear God to meet frequently and speak often one to another about the things of God and truths of the gospel, if they are not to make use of their own words, to express their sense of these things by them?-4. Indeed, if this is the case as it would be unlawful to speak or write otherwise than in the words of Scripture, so it would be unlawful to think or conceive in the mind any other than what the Scripture expresses.-5. In this way, the sentiments of one man in any point of religion cannot be distinguished from those of another, though diametrically opposite; so an Arian cannot be known from an Athanasian; both will say, in the words of Scripture, that Christ is the great God, the true God, and over all God blessed for ever; but without expressing themselves in their own words, their different sentiments

will

not be discerned; the one holding that Christ is a created God, of a like, but not of the same substance with his Father; the other that he is equal with him, of the same nature, substance, and glory.-6. It does not appear that those men who are so strenuous for the use of Scripture-phrases only in ar ticles of religion, have a greater value for the Scriptures than others; nay, not so much; for if we are to form a judgment of them by their sermons and writings, one would think they never read the Scriptures at all, or very little, since they make such an unfrequent use of them: you shall scarcely hear a passage of Scripture quoted by them in a sermon, or produced by them in their writings; more frequently Seneca, Cicero, and others; and it looks as if they thought it very unpolite, and what might serve to disgrace their more refined writings, to fill their performances with them.

The subject of the following pages being theology, or what we call divinity, it may be proper to consider the signification and use of the word, and from whence it has its rise. I say, what we call divinity; for it seems to be a word, as to the use of it in this subject, peculiar to us; foreign writers never entitle their works of this kind, corpus vel systema vel medulla divinitatis, a body or system, or marrow of divinity, but corpus vel systema vel medulla theologie, a body or system or marrow of theology. The word divinitas, from whence our word - divinity comes, is only used by Latin writers for deity or godhead; but since custom and use have long fixed the sense of the word among us, to signify, when used on this subject, a treatise on the science of divine things, sacred truths, and Christian doctrines, taken out of the Scriptures; we need not scruple the use of it.

Theology is a Greek word, and signifies a discourse concerning God and things belonging to him; it was first in use among the heathen poets and philosophers. Lactantius says,* the most ancient writers of Greece were called Theologues ; these were their poets who wrote of their deities, and of the genealogies of them. The priests of Delphos, are called by Plutarch, the Theologues of Delphos. It is from hence. now that these words Theology and Theologues have been borrowed, and made use of by Christian writers; and I see no impropriety in the use of them; nor should they be thought the worse for their original, no more than other words which come from the same source; for though these words are used of false deities, and of persons that treat of them; it follows not but that they may be used, with great propriety, of discourses concerning the true God, and things belonging to him, and of those that discourse of them. The first among Christians that has the title of Theologue, or Divine, is St. John, the writer of the book of the Revelation; for so the inscription of the book runs, "the Revelation of St. John the Dis vine." Whether this word Theologue, or Divine, was ori

De Ira c. 11: † De defect. Orac. p. 417. vid. ib. 410, 435.

ginally in the inscription of this book, I will not say. These words Theologue and Theology are to be met with frequently in the ancient fathers, in following ages, and in all ages, and in all Christian writers to the present times. Upon the whole, it appears that Theology, or Divinity, as we call it, is no other than a science or doctrine concerning God, or a discoursing and treating of things relating to him; and that a Theologue, or a Divine, is one that understands, discourses, and treats of divine things.

Natural theology may be considered either as it was in Adam before the fall, or as in him and his posterity since the fall. Adam, before the fall, had great knowledge of things, divine as well as natural, moral and civil; he was created in the image of God, which image lay in knowledge, as well as in righteousness and holiness; before he came short of this glory, and lost this image, or at least was greatly impaired and obliterated in him by sin, he knew much of God, of his nature and attributes, of his mind and will, and the worship of him. But this kind of theology appeared with a different aspect in Adam after his fall, and in his posterity; by sin his mind was greatly beclouded, and his understanding darkened; he lost much of his knowledge of God, and of his perfections, or he could never have imagined that going among the trees of the garden would hide him from the presence of God, and secure him from his justice, What a notion must he have of the omnipresence of God? and what also of his omniscience, when he attempted to palliate and cover his sin by the excuse he made? Of the weakness and insufficiency of natural theo logy to instruct men in the knowledge of divine things, destitute of a divine revelation, more may be said hereafter.

Supernatural theology, or what is by pure revelation, may be next considered, in its original rise and progress; and as it has been improved and increased, or has met with checks and

obstructions.

The state of this theology may be considered as it was from the first appearance of it, after the fall of Adam, to the flood in the times of Noah, or throughout the old world. What

gave rise unto and is the foundation of it, is what God pronounced to the serpent: it (the seed of the woman) shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel: these words contain the principle articles of Christian theology. This received some further improvement, from the coats of skin the Lord God made and cloathed our first parents with, an emblem of the justifying righteousness of Christ, and of the garments of salvation wrought out by his obedience, sufferings, and death; signified by slain beasts; and which God puts upon his people, and clothes them with, through his gracious act of imputation. And what serves to throw more light on this evangelical theology, are the sacrifices ordered to be offered up; and which were types of the sacrifice of Christ; and particularly that which was offered up by Abel, who, by faith in the sacrifice of Christ, offered up a more excellent sacrifice than Cain; which also was a lamb, the firstling of his flock, and pointed at the lamb of God, who by his sacrifice takes away the sins of his people. Within this period of time men seem to have increased in light, as to the worship of God, especially public worship; for in the times of Enos, the grandson of Adam, men began to call upon the name of the Lord.

The next period of time in which supernatural theology may be traced, is from the flood, in the times of Noah, to the giving of the laws to Israel, in the times of Moses. The true religion, as it was received from the first man, Adam; was taught by Noah, and the knowledge of it conveyed to his posterity, partly in the ministry of the word by him, for he was a preacher of righteousness. The sacrifices he offered were of clean creatures, and were a sweet savour to God, and were typical of the purity of Christ's sacrifice for sin, and of the acceptance of it to God, which is to him a sweet smelling savour. Moreover, the waters of the flood, and the ark in which Noah and his family were preserved, were a type of an evangelical ordinance, the ordinance of baptism; which is an emblem of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ; by which men are saved; for Noah and his family going into the ark, where, when the fountains of the great deep were broken up below,

and the windows of heaven opened above, they were like per. sons covered in water, and immersed in it, and as persons bu ried; and when they came out of it, the water being carried off, it was like a resurrection, and as life from the dead; the like figure, or antitype whereunto, the apostle says, even baptism, doth also now save us, by the resurrection of Christ Jesus signified thereby, 1 Pet. iii. 21. Likewise the rainbow, the token of the covenant; which, though not the covenant of grace, yet of kindness and preservation, was an emblem of peace and reconciliation by Christ, the mediator of the covenant of grace; and may assure of the everlasting love of God to his people, and of the immoveableness of the covenant of his peace with them. Moreover, as the gospel was preached unto Abraham, Gal. ii. 8. there is no doubt but that he preached it to others; and as he had knowledge of the Messiah, who should spring from him, in whom all nations of the earth would be blessed, and who saw his day and was glad; so his grandson Jacob had a more clear and distinct view of him, as God's salvation, as the Shiloh, the peace-maker and prosperous one, who should come, before civil government was removed from the Jews, and when come, multitudes should be gathered to him, Gen. xlix. 10-18. Idolatry within this period first began among the builders of Babel. The worship of the sun and moon prevailed in the times of Job, in Arabia; who lived about the time of the children of Israel being in Egypt.

The next period is from the giving of the law to Israel by the hand of Moses, to the times of David and the prophets;

in which supernatural theology was taught by types; as the passover, the manna, the brazen serpent, and other things; which were emblems of Christ and his grace: the whole cer. emonial law, all that related to the priests, their garments, and their work and office, had an evangelical signification; it was the Jews gospel: Moses wrote of Christ. According to the Jews there was a divinity-school in the times of Samuel. There were within this time some checks to the true knowledge and worship of God, by the idolatry of the calf at Sinai ;