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or his being the Word and Wisdom of God, implies a visible form, which refpects the whole creation; and, therefore, the light and truth of the whole creation must be merely the light and truth of Chrift, or the display of the divine will in him.-The argument of the divine theory, therefore, is the actual conformity of the works of God to the divine. principle, or the actual exhibition of Christ in the whole creation; and the work before us is fimply the illuftration of the truth that Chrift is all in all.

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The foregoing Statement and Definition of the divine principle, may be fummed up in the following theorems.

1. The principle of divine knowledge, which is the difcoverable Divine Being, is of the voluntary nature, or of the nature of a purpose or will; and the divine fubftance being fimple and uncompounded, it is wholly of this nature.

2. The Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last of the divine fyftem, is comprised in the purpose or will of God.

3. The divine purpose or will is a matter of real fact.

4. The divine will is infinite, eternal and unchangeable; holy, juft and good; and the fubject of all the divine characters.

5. The divine will is discoverable, and capable of ample illustration.

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6. The divine will fhews a trinity in unfty; it fhews a Father, a Son, and a Holy Ghost; and that these three diftin&t persons are immediately one in will.

7. The divine will presents the doctrine of Chrift; and the truth to which he bare witnefs in the world, is traced, as to its origin, in this act of his inauguration; and which is of the nature of a covenant tranfaction, or a matter of record between parties.

8. The divine will confifts of a precept, and a promise, or a requirement and a reward; it is a commandment, rule, &c. which embraces eternal life.

9. The requirement of the divine will is, that of the Setting up and full exhibition of the authority and glory of the Father; the reward is, that of being fet up, and exhibited in this authority and glory.

10. The divine will is the truth laid down in the teftimony of Jefus, which was the matter of his accufation, and which he confeffed before Pontius Pilate, and for which he fuffered upon the cross; that he is Lord and Chrift; and, in the approaching day, upon the throne of David, at the head of his church and people, he shall reign over the world. —And this is the mere gospel itself.

11. The divine will, comprifing the doctrine of Chrift, unfolds the relation of Father and Son, the union of Chrift and believers, the law and adminiftration of the church, the duty and bleffednefs of the faints, and the whole everlafting glory of the kingdom of

God.

12. The divine will embraces the glory which Chrift had with the Father, before the world was the wonderful fcene of his humiliation-the present and future glory of his exaltation, and the whole divine exhibition in all the works of God.-And being a matter of fact, and discoverable, it lies before us as the perfect pattern, type, or map of the whole universe.

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GIVING A

VIEW THEREOF,

TOGETHER WITH ITS

DIVISIONS,

AND

GENERAL ILLUSTRATIONS.

IN

A VIEW OF THE THEORY.

N the unfolding and full display of the divine principle, we fhall behold Chrift, the Sun of the universe, exhibited first in his antecedent, or primitive ftate, as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber:-We shall then behold him in his intermediate or covenant service state, as a strong man, with cheerful zeal, running a race: Finally, we fhall behold him in his confummate or glorified state, as the fun, full orbited, from whofe heat nothing is hid; or, as the bridegroom rejoicing in his bride.

Now that he afcended, what is it but that he alfo defcended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that defcended is the fame alfo that afcended ub far above all heavens, that he might fill all things. Eph. iv.—This, his defcending, implies, that, in a primitive flate, he was high; and thus we have his glorious K

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