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lifhed to this, and to another work of the fame Author, intitled, The Scheme of literal Prophecy confidered. Bishop Warburton alfo, in the fixth Book of the Divine Legation of Mofes, has anfwered what Collins had objected against a fecond Senfe of Prophecy. Laftly, Doctor Fortin, not to mention fome learned Authors who are ftill alive, and who have written very ably on Prophecy, has given us some very judicious Obfervations, both concerning Prophecy in general, and concerning a double Senfe of fome Prophecies, in the firft Volume of his Remarks on EccleLaftical Hiftory.

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THE

THE

REASONABLENESS

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CHRISTIANITY,

AS DELIVERED IN THE

SCRIPTURES.

PREFACE..

THE little fatisfaction and confiftency that is to be found in moft of the fyftems of divinity I have met with, made me betake myfelf to the fole reading of the fcripture (to which they all appeal) for the understanding the Chriftian religion.

What from thence, by an attentive and unbiaffed fearch I have received, Reader, I here deliver to thee.

If by this my labour thou receiveft any light or confirmation in the truth, join with me in thanks to the Father of lights for his condefcenfion to our understandings.

If, upon a fair and unprejudiced examination, thou findeft I have miftaken the fenfe and tenor of the gospel, I befeech thee, as a true Chriftian, in the fpirit of the gospel (which is that of charity) and in the words of fobriety, fet me right in the doctrine of falvation..

T is obvious to any one who reads the New Teftament, that the doctrine of redemption, and confequently of the gospel, is founded upon the fuppofition of Adam's fall. To understand therefore what we are reftored to by Jefus Chrift, we must confider what the fcripture fhews we loft by Adam. This I thought worthy of a diligent and unbiaffed fearch: fince I found the two extremes, that men run into on this point, either on the one hand fhook the foundations of all religion, or on the other made Chriftianity almoft nothing. For whilft fome men would have all Adam's pofterity doomed to eternal infinite punishment, for the tranfgreffion of Adam, whom millions had never heard of, and no one had authoVOL. IV.

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rized to tranfact for him, or be his reprefentative; this feemed to others fo little confiftent with the juftice or goodness of the great and infinite God, that they thought there was no redemption neceffary, and confequently that there was none, rather than admit of it upon a fuppofition fo derogatory to the honour and attributes of that Infinite Being; and fo made Jefus Chrift nothing but the reftorer and preacher of pure natural religion; thereby doing violence to the whole tenor of the New Teftament. And, indeed, both fides will be fufpected to have trefpaffed this way, against the written word of God, by any one, who does but take it to be a collec tion of writings defigned by God for the inftruction of the illiterate bulk of mankind in the way to falvation; and therefore generally and in neceflary points to be understood in the plain direct meaning of the words and phrafes, fuch as they may be fuppofed to have had in the mouths of the fpeakers, who used them according to the language of that time and country wherein they lived, without fuch learned, artificial, and forced fenfes of them, as are fought out, and put upon them in most of the fyftems of divinity, according to the notions that each one has been bred up in.

To one that thus unbiaffed reads the fcriptures, what Adam fell from, is vifible, was the state of perfect obedience, which is called " juftice" in the New Teftament, though the word which in the ori ginal fignifies "justice” be translated "righteousness" and by this fall he loft paradife, wherein was tranquillity and the tree of life, i. č. he loft blifs and immortality. The penalty annexed to the breach of the law, with the fentence pronounced by God upon it, fhews this. The penalty ftands thus, Gen. ii. 17. "In the day that thou "eateft thereof thou fhalt surely die." How was this executed? He did eat, but in the day he did eat, he did not actually die, but was turned out of paradife from the tree of life, and fhut out for ever from it, left he fhould take thereof and live for ever. This fhews that the ftate of paradife was a state of immortality, of life without end, which he loft that very day that he eat his life began from thence to fhorten and waste, and to have an end; and from thence to his actual death, was but like the time of a prifoner between the fentence paft and the execution, which was in view and certain. Death then entered and fhewed his face, which before was shut out, and not known. So St. Paul, Rom. v. 12. « By one man "fin entered into the world, and death by fin;" i. e. a ftate of death and mortality and 1 Cor. xv. 22. "In Adam all die ;" i. c. by reafon of tranfgreffion all men are mortal, and come to die.

This is fo clear in these cited places, and fo much the current of the New Teftament, that nobody can deny but that the doctrine of the gospel is, that death came on all men by Adam's fin; only they differ about the fignification of the word "death." For fome will have it to be a ftate of guilt, wherein not only he, but all his pofterity was fo involved, that every one defcended of him deferved endlefs torment in hell-fire. I fhall fay nothing more here, how far, in the apprehenfions of men, this confifts with the juftice and

goodiefs

goodness of God, having mentioned it above: but it seems a ftrange way of understanding a law, which requires the plaineft and directeft words, that by "death" fhould be meant eternal life in mifery. Could any one be fuppofed by a law, that fays, " for felony thou "fhalt die," not that he fhould lofe his life, but be kept alive in perpetual exquifite torments? And would any one think himfelf fairly dealt with, that was fo ufed?

To this they would have it be also a state of necessary finning and provoking God in every action that men do: a yet harder fenfe of the word " death” than the other. God fays, "That in the day that thou eateft of the forbidden fruit, thou fhalt die;" i. e. thou and thy pofterity fhall be ever after uncapable of doing any thing, but what fhall be finful and provoking to me, and fhall justly deferve my wrath and indignation. Could a worthy man be fuppofed to put fuch terms upon the obedience of his fubjects? much lefs can the righteous God be fuppofed, as a punishment of one fin wherewith he is difpleafed, to put a man under a neceffity of finning continually, and fo multiplying the provocation? The reafon of this ftrange interpretation we fhall perhaps find in fome mistaken places of the New Teftament. I must confefs, by death here, I can understand nothing but a ceafing to be, the lofing of all actions of life and fenfe. Such a death came on Adam and all his pofterity by his firft difobedience in paradife, under which death they would have lain for ever, had it not been for the redemption by Jefus Chrift. If by death threatened to Adam, were meant the corruption of human nature in his pofterity, it is ftrange that the New Teftament fhould not any where take notice of it, and tell us, that corruption feized on all because of Adam's tranfgreffion, as well as it tells us fo of death. But, as I remember, every one's fin is charged upon himself only.

Another part of the fentence was, "Curfed is the ground for thy "fake; in forrow fhalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life, in the fweat of thy face fhalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto "the ground for out of it waft thou taken; duft thou art, and to "duft fhalt thou return." Gen. iii. 17, 19. This fhews that paradife was a place of blifs as well as immortality, without toil and without forrow. But when man was turned out, he was exposed to the toil, anxiety, and frailties of this mortal life, which fhould end in the duft, out of which he was made, and to which he should return; and then have no more life or fenfe than the duft had, out of which he was made.

As Adam was turned out of paradife, fo all his pofterity was born out of it, out of the reach of the tree of life. All like their father Adam in a state of mortality, void of the tranquillity and bliss of paradife. Rom. v. 12. " By one man fin entered into the world, "and death by fin." But here will occur the common objection, that fo many ftumble at: how doth it confift with the justice and goodness of God, that the pofterity of Adam fhould fuffer for his in; the innocent be punished for the guilty? Very well, if keepB 2

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