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 THE FIEND 
 
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 LIBRARY 
 
 OP THE 
 
 Theological Seminary, 
 
 PRINCETON, N. J. 
 
 BT 155 .M175 G7 
 Gray, James, 1770-1824. 
 The fiend of the reformation 
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THE 
 
 FIEND 
 
 THE REFORMATION 
 DETECTED. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 THE TWO SOPHISMS DETECTED, 
 
 Which have split the Reformers into Calvinists, Arminians, Redemptional 
 Uuiversalists, &c, 
 
 PART II. 
 
 A BRIEF REVIEW OF THE PRESENT STATE OF THE REFORMED 
 CHURCHES; 
 
 Their Controversies— Sermons— Theological Seminaries— Some of the chief 
 
 Causes of their Divisions assigned — and some Hints suggested, 
 
 respecting the Cure of their Schisms. 
 
 ^ 
 
 BY JAMES GRAY, D. D. 
 
 'Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord." Hosea. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA : 
 
 PRINTED BY W. BROWN, PRUNE-STREET 
 I8I7. 
 
ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 The author is extremely sorry that he should have 
 to apologise to his subscribers, for oftering them only 
 half the work he so lately promised them. But to ef- 
 fect "more at present, is impossible. The exhaustion 
 occasioned by intense application during this scorch- 
 ing season, and two very violent attacks of sickness, 
 have so much reduced his animal vigour, that he must 
 have some relaxation. 
 
 At the same time, each part of this work forms a 
 complete whole ; and the second part shall appear 
 as soon as the author's health will permit him to com- 
 plete his manuscript. 
 
 Philadelphia^ August H, I8I7. 
 
CONTENTS OF PART I. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The History of Mr. M'C.'s Controversy. 
 SECT. I. 
 That man is a representative animal 
 SECT. II. 
 
 Of Adam's representative character 
 
 Proofs of ihe fact ....... 
 
 Two questions. — 1. The formal consideration in which 
 men were viewed in the covenant of works. — 2. The 
 bond which connects them with Adam in the cove 
 nant 
 
 Jesus Christ not represented by Adam — and why 
 
 Eve represented by Adam — and why 
 
 Comparison of Eve and Jesus Christ 
 
 That Adam did not know all his posterity 
 
 That God did know all Adam's posterity, and included 
 them by name in the covenant . . . . 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 6 
 
 10 
 
 11 
 12 
 14 
 18 
 
 20 
 
 2t 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 That there is no covenant of works but that mentioned 
 
 — Gen. ii. 17" 23 
 
 Insolvable questions 25 
 
 SECT. III. 
 
 Representation by Jesus Christ.— Proof of an eternal 
 
 covenant of grace 32 
 
 Grace given to men in Christ Jesus, before the world 
 
 began ... , , . , 37 
 
 That some men must be saved .... 39 
 
 That the number to be saved is fixed and definite . 42 
 
 Why Mr. M'C. has neglected to enquire whether there 
 
 is an eternal covenant of grace .... 44 
 
 That Mr. M'C.'s system admits no eternal covenant 46 
 
 SECT. IV. 
 
 Of Christ's righteousness . . 
 
 A work on sophistry much wanted 
 Danger of premature generalization 
 That Jesus Christ obeyed the precept, as well as suffer- 
 ed the penalty of the law, for men 
 
 SECT. V. 
 
 48 
 49 
 51 
 
 52 
 
 Does the imputability of Christ's righteousness depend 
 
 on ^is representative character .... 53 
 
 Various systems of theology formed on the afErmative 
 of the above questions — 54, Universalist^55, Ar- 
 minian — 57, another sect — 58, another— 5 9, another 
 
 That Mr. M'C. assumes the affirmative of the»above 
 
 question 60 
 
 SECT. VI. 
 
 That the hnputability of Christ's righteousness does not 
 
 depend on his representative charaster . . 62 
 
Of the individualising system .' . 
 
 Mr. M'C.'s ideas on the subject so peculiar, that no 
 
 body ever adopted them .... 
 The belief of the church, respecting the individuals 
 
 who were placed under the two covenants 
 No absurdity in this belief .... 
 Of the reformation and reformers 
 Probable origin of Mr. M'C.'s system 
 Character of the advocate of truth 
 Character of the investigator of truth 
 The danger of Calvinists becoming philosophers 
 The causes why Calvinists have not been good moral 
 
 philosophers 
 
 72 
 
 CONTEKTS. VII. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Proof . 54 
 
 Of the nature* of a remedial law .... 66 
 The reason why the imputability of Christ's righteous- 
 ness has been ascribed to his representative character 69 
 Mr. M'C.'s system consists of a word without a mean- 
 ing 
 
 Of the nature of the unity between Christ and believers 72 
 Mr. M'C.'s theory worth nothing , , . , 7S 
 
 SECT VIL 
 
 The universality of the gospel call ... 76 
 
 Anecdote of the council of Nice • , , , • 77 
 
 SECT. VIII. 
 
 Gospel call. — Mr. M'C.'s system does not allow the 
 
 gospel to be preached to any sinner ... 79 
 
 SECT. IX. 
 
 Of the capaciousness of the covenants . . . 81 
 SECT. X. 
 
 12 
 
 84 
 
 85 
 88 
 90 
 91 
 92 
 94 
 97 
 
VUl. COKTENTS. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Character of president Edwards .... 99 
 
 The troubled state of the churches 100 
 
 An address to young preachers .... 101 
 
 Moral systems, and their origin .... 103 
 
 The grand error of die reformation church . . 105 
 The main doctrine of the reformation church . . 106 
 Preaching the philosophy of Christianity, is not preach- 
 ing Christianity ...... Ill 
 
 An address to theorists 112 
 
 SECT. XI. 
 
 The author's reward for his. trouble, two pickles of chaff 114 
 
 Strictures on the manner of preaching the gospel . 115 
 
 That the fiend has out-generalled the clergy . • 118 
 
 What is the use of the doctrine of original sin . . 121 
 
 A troublesome problem for the clergy . . . 123 
 
 SECT. XII. 
 
 The reason why salvation is offered to all men . 124 
 
 The half-bred metaphysician 128 
 
 No reason for the imputation of Adam's sin to his de- 
 scendants, but the will of God . . . .129 
 
 SECT. XIII. 
 
 Comparison of philosophers with divines . . 130 
 The reason why philosophy is advancing so rapidly — 
 while theology has continued stationary for ages 
 
 Conclusion 134 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 IN" the yeai' 1814, the Rev. James M^Chord, of 
 Lexington in Kentucky, published a book denomi= 
 nated the Body of Christ ; the object of which was, 
 to exhibit a new theory of Christ's representative 
 character in the covenant of grace, and of Adam's 
 REPRESENTATIVE character in the covenant of works ; 
 and to demonstrate the beneficial practical results of 
 that theory. Neither the theory, nor what Mr, 
 M^Chord deduced from it under tlie name of practical 
 results, were satisfactory to the Associate Reformed 
 Presbytery of Kentucky, of which Mr. M^Chord was 
 a member : so great was their displeasure with Mr. 
 M^Chord's publication, that they preferred a libel 
 against him, containing charges against both the theo- 
 ry, and the results, imputed to it, by its author ; which 
 bears date, Lexington, Oct. 13th, 1815. Under this 
 libel Mr. M'Chord was eventually found guilty, and 
 deposed from the office of the holy ministry. He pro- 
 tested against the sentence, and appealed to the Gene- 
 ral Synod. Papers containing the protest and appeal, 
 and extracts from the minutes of the Presbytery, were 
 laid before the Synod at its meeting in Philadelphia, 
 in May 1816 ; but, as the whole matter was in a very 
 perplexed state, and Mr. M^ Chord not present to plead 
 his own cause, the Synod directed him to submit to 
 
11 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the decision of liis Presbytery, till he should appear, 
 and shew cause why that decision should be set aside. 
 Mr. M'Chord appeared before the synod at its meet- 
 ing in May, 1817 ; aud the Synod, after hearing the 
 defence, affirmed the sentence of the Presbytery in re- 
 gard to the THEORY ALONE, rejecting the other charges 
 as irrelevant. Mr. M'Chord protested against this de- 
 cision of the Synod, and has appealed to the judgment 
 of the Christian church at large. 
 
 In a circular letter, directed by Mr. M^Chord to 
 many, and to myself among others, bearing date Lex- 
 ington, Kentucky, 12th Sept. 1816, Mr. M'Chord uses 
 the following words : — " The opinions I hold up to 
 the light of Heaven ; shew me that they are erroneous, 
 and I cheerfully relinquish them." As the Synod has 
 pronounced the charges against Mr. M'Chord's senti- 
 ments respecting Christian communion and psalmo- 
 dy irrelevant, nothing need be said on these subjects ; 
 and I candidly own, that they ever have been my own 
 sentiments, and I have long been in the habit of acting 
 on them, whenever the providence of God appeared to 
 me to require it as a duty. And I do not think this 
 an officious declaration of these sentiments, because all 
 the world should know, that we are not disposed to 
 surrender to any authority the liberty by which ^' Christ 
 bas made us free" — the liberty of submitting our con- 
 sciences to no authority but his own : and of knowing 
 no law of duty but his law, which is the perfect law of 
 liberty. Those who know their conscientious liberty 
 should be open and candid, but at the same time, mo- 
 dest, in asserting it. The thkory alone is at present 
 in question, and I consider Mr. M'Chord as address- 
 ing himself to me personally in these w^ords : " Shew 
 me icherein I am wrong, and I cheerfully relinquish 
 
INTRODUCTION. Ill 
 
 my opiniovsy I do know whkrein lie is wrong, and 
 I consider myself in tliity bound, both as a Christian 
 and as a man, to comply with a request so Christum and 
 80 manly. The duty also is strongly enforced by this 
 consideration, that although it has been decided, both 
 by presbytery and synod, that Mr. M'Chord is wrong, 
 yet no person, so far as I have heard, has yet attempt- 
 ed to shew him wherein is his error. And it now 
 becomes Mr. M'Chord's duty to listen candidly and 
 patiently, and to divest himself, so far as the state of 
 humanity admits, of all fondness for his past opinions, 
 that he may so listen, to what I am about to offer him. 
 It is his duty, not only to be willing to admit the light, 
 but to pray earnestly to the Father of lights for the spi- 
 rit of illumination ; and to take as much trouble, to 
 submit to as much labour, to know the right from the 
 ivrong, as it has cost me to write this volume. 
 
 I enter upon this subject, with the stronger impres- 
 sions of duty, when I consider that this is tlie error 
 which has split up the reformed churches into so many 
 parties, of Calvinists, Redemptional Univeisalists, Ar- 
 minians, and a numerous list of other sects, as the rea- 
 der will find in the sequel; and has converted them in- 
 to hostile clanns, carrying on a perpetual war on each 
 others borders, too much in the spirit, and with too 
 many of the effects, of a bordering war, tlie embittered 
 strife of brothers. The present subject is not new to 
 my mind, but I have never been called in providence 
 before, to trouble the church, sufficiently troubled al- 
 ready from other causes, with my ideas on this subject. 
 And without such a call, they should have gone to the 
 grave with me. 
 
 After this declaration, the reader will have prepared 
 himself to move along with me, in the cool temper, and 
 
IV INTRODUCTION. 
 
 slow pace of analytic investigation. "We shall march 
 with perfect composure, and in perfect good humour, 
 without one malicious thought towards any human be- 
 ing, intent only to reach the object of our journey, 
 TRUTH. So taking up our staves in our hands, " Then 
 shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord," let 
 us move forward. 
 
PART I. 
 
 The Tivo Sophisms Detected. 
 
 The reader who recollects the operations of his own 
 heart under the ministrations of the gospel, knows — and 
 the reader who is acquainted with the opinions of other 
 men under those ministrations knows^ that the doctrine 
 of Adam's representation, and the consequence of that 
 representation, original sin, on the one hand ; and the 
 doctrine of Christ's representation, and the conse- 
 quence of that representation, imputed righteousness, 
 on the other hand — are the ground on which sinners 
 stumble and fall, many of them to rise no more. And 
 even those who at last stand firm on this ground, have 
 obtained their stability in consequence of much totter- 
 ing and falling. The reader of ecclesiastical history 
 knows, that the two doctrines before stated, are the 
 ground on which most of the schisms and lieresies 
 which have taken place in the Christian cliurch, have 
 originated : that, on this ground, sects, each of which 
 have retained the gospel of our Lo :1 Jesus Christ, have 
 departed from each other in ill blood, and each taken 
 its several way, accusing the others of dangerous, and 
 even damning errors. Yet every one of them believed 
 the Scriptures to be the word of God ; and admitted 
 that every decision of God in his word, ought to be 
 taken as a first principle in all our religious argumen- 
 
tations. What axioms are to the mathematician, and 
 facts to the philosopher, the same is a thus saith the 
 LoRD^to the theologian. Now, since whatever God says 
 must be true ; it follows, that no man reasoning fairly 
 from scripture truth can fall into error. Yet theolo- 
 gians contradict each other, and therefore some of them 
 must be wrong. Now there are, in ^his case, only two 
 sources of error ; the first lies in permitting something 
 which is not divine, which is not true, to mingle with 
 our first principles ; and the second lies in illogical rea- 
 soning. Illogical reasoning is easily refuted, but to 
 detect those atomic sophisms which sometimes mingle 
 with original truths — hie labor , hoc opii^ est — this is the 
 task. And this is the task which 1 must now attempt, 
 under the divine guidance. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 The Doctrine of Bepresentation, 
 
 As it is my wish that the following discussion should 
 not merely exhibit detached objections against a parti- 
 cular theory ; but that it should also present a connect- 
 ed view of the whole subject, I begin with a few obser- 
 vations on the representative character of man ; fore- 
 warning the reader, that he is to expect to find those 
 points which are commonly conceded, very concisely 
 stated ; while a more detailed and precise argument is 
 reserved for those topics which belong to the new doc- 
 trine. 
 
 It is, I believe, conceded by all, that man is a re- 
 presentative animal ; that is, that notwithstanding the 
 free agency which constitutes the individuality of every 
 single man, and renders each individually responsible 
 
for his own proper actions ; such is the constitution of 
 our nature, that one man frequently acts for many 
 others, who are subject to the evil effects of his con- 
 duct, or enjoy its good effects, as fully and entirely 
 as if they had acted for themselves. This is what we 
 understand by representation. He who thus acts for 
 others, is called their representative, and they who are 
 subject to the good or evil consequences of his actions, 
 are said to be represented by him. Thus, by the mar- 
 riage covenant, the husband becomes the representative 
 of his wife in a vast variety of civil transactions; by the 
 law of nature, parents are the representatives of their 
 children ; and by the constitution of civil society, ma- 
 gistrates are the representatives of their respective 
 tribes and nations. In a word, representation diffuses 
 itself through all the ramifications of social life. Art 
 is man's nature, society man's element, and represen- 
 tation the chief and grand characteristic of human so- 
 ciety. Now whether this system of representation 
 should exist, or should not, is not left to the free will 
 and suffrage of mankind. It must exist. The law of 
 our nature, which determines that we should be born 
 helpless babes, and grow up to maturity, through va- 
 rious stages of increase, has imposed on us the in- 
 vincible necessity of standing in relations wonderfully 
 diversified to each other ; from whence the virtues and 
 vices of others shall influence and affect our well-being 
 equally as if they had been our own virtues and vices. 
 Upon the whole, though each of us possesses his own 
 individuality, and must exist as an individual, in order 
 to support any social relation, yet the social character 
 of man predominates over his individual character. 
 
 Now, as all the destinies of man in this life depend 
 on his representative character, it might be expected that 
 
Lis eternal destinies will be made to turn on the same 
 hinge. Accordingly, the Scriptures teach us, that 
 God constituted the first man the representative of the 
 whole race ; and made the whole of their fortunes, for 
 time and eternity, all their felicity and comfort hi this 
 life, and their eternal misery or happiness in the life 
 to come, to rest entirely on their ancestor's obedience 
 or disobedience, upon his virtue or his vice, upon his 
 righteousness or unrighteousness. 
 
 I grant, indeed, that it is an awful thought, that I, 
 who am conscious of my own free will and personality, 
 who can think and act for myself, and who have so 
 important interests at stake, should be placed in cir- 
 cumstances where I am liable to be doomed to toil and 
 pain, and death in one world, and everlasting misery 
 in another, for the conduct of a man over whom I had 
 no control, and for a sin which no volition of mine 
 could either eftect or prevent. This is the view of the 
 subject which always presents itself to our fallen race; 
 it is the precise profile of the subject which is placed 
 in our view, in the position which we occupy as fallen 
 sinners. And it is on this view that so many have de- 
 nied the existence of the covenant of works, and stur- 
 dily denied the representative character of Adam ; on 
 the allegation that such a constitution of things were 
 incompatible with the moral justice of God. But this 
 objection, which I have no doubt many have made in 
 the sincerity of their hearts, proves by far too much ; 
 it concludes against the moral justice of ten thousand 
 things which we know God to have done, and which 
 we see him every day doing, and under which we are 
 every day smarting. Is it just, I ask, that a brave na- 
 tion should bleed at every pore, that millions of most 
 industrious men should be stripped, every year, and 
 
every day, of the fruits of their labour, and doomed to 
 suffer the combined affliction of excessive toil, and ex- 
 cessive hunger because their supreme magistrate chooses 
 to plunge them into ambitious wars ? Is it justice that 
 millions of men, ardent lovers of liberty, should be 
 doomed to the most degrading bondage and grinding 
 oppression, for centuries together, because their su- 
 preme magistrate chooses to play the tyrant? Is it just 
 that millions of our race should be born to no inheri- 
 tance but disease and infamy, because their parents 
 choose to be vicious ? These things indisputably oc- 
 cur in the government of a righteous God 5 and how 
 shall they be reconciled with his justice? But you 
 will say, that these evils grow out of the system of hu- 
 man things. True, and God of his own free will at 
 first established, and still supports, that system ; and 
 produces and regulates all its movements. The sys- 
 tem of human nature is worthy of God, because he has 
 established it ; and it is a representative system, in 
 which the good or evil conduct of a representative en- 
 tails blessings or curses, happiness or misery, on those 
 whom they represent ; and of consequence, there is no- 
 thing repugnant to the moral perfections of the Su- 
 preme Being in a system which shall stake the inte- 
 rests, — the highest interests — of millions, and of mi- 
 riads of millions of men, on the conduct of a single re- 
 presentative. 
 
 SECTION 11. 
 
 Of Adam^s Representative Character, 
 
 The doctrine of Adam's representation is admitted 
 among ourselves ; but as this piece may chance to fall 
 
+ 10 
 
 into the bands of some who deny that doctrine, and 
 who, of consequence, must esteem the following argu- 
 ment entirely nugatory, I think it absolutely necessary 
 to give here a short scriptural demonstration of the 
 fact, that Adam did represent the human family in the 
 covenant of works. I quote for this purpose, the fol- 
 lowing well known passages. Rom. v. 12, 13, i% — 
 " Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world 
 and DEATH by sin ; and so death passed on all men, 
 for that all have sinned; (for until the law sin was in 
 the world, but sin is not imputed where there is no 
 LAW,) nevertheless death reigned, from Adam unto 
 Moses, even over them ivho had not sinned after the 
 similitude of Mam^s transgression ^ who is the figure 
 of him that is to come." See also ver. 15 — 19. I for- 
 bear any other quotations ; as my intention is, simply 
 to state the doctrine as exhibited in scripture, and not 
 to illustrate it at large. From the passage quoted, and 
 that referred to, we collect the following points of doc- 
 trine : 
 
 1. That by one man's (Adam's) sin — and that a sin- 
 gle transgression — sin entered the world. 
 
 S. That in consequence of sin, death, which is its 
 wages, also entered into the world. 
 
 3. That from the universality of death in this world, 
 we must infer that all men are sinners. 
 
 4. That as sin is the transgression of the law, all men 
 who are under Adam's sin, were under the law which 
 Adam transgressed. 
 
 5. But, since it might be alleged, that men die for 
 their own personal transgressions, and not for Adam's 
 sin; the apostle states, that ^'^ death reigned from Adam 
 to Moses," not only over those who had forfeited their 
 lives by their own actual transgressions, but '^ even 
 
11 
 
 over them who had not sinned after the similitude of 
 Adam's transgression," namely, infants and idiots, 
 who were incapable of sinning voluntarily. And there- 
 fore, since death is the wages of sin, and sin the trans- 
 gression of the law ; and, that those persons who ne- 
 ver transgressed the law by any act of their own die, it 
 follows, that they are under the law because Adam was 
 under it, transgressed it in Adam's sin, and suffer the 
 penalty of death for that transgression. 
 
 This is the outline of the scripture doctrine, on the 
 subject of Adam's sin, and its imputation to those 
 whom he represented, exhibited in the simplicity of 
 the scriptural stile. 
 
 But two questions have been moved and much agi- 
 tated on the subject, to which we must pay some atten- 
 tion ; or rather, a great deal of attention, for a great 
 deal will be necessary to qualify us for thoroughly un- 
 derstanding the exact amount of their meaning. The 
 first of these questions respects the formal considera- 
 tion in which mankind were viewed in the covenant of 
 works. The second regards the bond which connects 
 mankind with Adam, and brings them under the ope- 
 ration of the covenant. Instead of dealing in subtle 
 speculations and strifes of words, I think it the most 
 advantageous course to state, from indisputable scrip- 
 tural facts, what 1 know of the subject, in a manner 
 that shall be as intelligible to the plainest Christian at 
 the spinning-wheel or at the loom, as to the first meta- 
 physician of the age. 
 
 It is granted on all hands, that in the covenant, xldam 
 represented human nature as it existed In his own 
 person. This is nothing more than to say, that he be- 
 came personally responsible for his personal conduct. 
 But the passage which has been quoted from tlie epis- 
 
tip to the RomanS; proves, that the whole human fa- 
 mily were as much interested in that transaction as 
 Adam himself; they were personally hound by the di- 
 vine institution, and rendered personally responsible, 
 so soon as they should have personal existence, and 
 be capable of the personal attributes of merit or guilt ; 
 and the personal experience of happiness or misery. 
 We infer, like the apostle Paul, the doctrine from thtt 
 fact. And that a covenant, which was to affect hu- 
 man persons, and human persons alone, should regard 
 them in their human personality, appears to me too 
 plain to require much proof. But, to make assurance 
 doubly sure, to concentrate every ray of divine light 
 which we have it in our power to concentrate, on a sub- 
 ject so deeply interesting to every mortal man, T shall 
 show, that Adam did not represent human nature gene- 
 rally — but human nature, existing in human persona- 
 lity. The fact is simple, the proof is short. 
 
 Jesus of Nazareth was a man ; his Heavenly Fa- 
 ther prepared hira a body — sent forth his son, made 
 of a woman. He possessed human nature in all its 
 parts, — a true body, and a reasonable soul. He was 
 of the blood of that Adam, with whom the covenant 
 was made in paradise, a living part of that human na- 
 ture, which was represented by Adam in the covenant. 
 >iow, 1 ask, was he represented by Adam in that co- 
 venant. — or was he not? If he was, then he appeared 
 in more than the likeness of sinful flesh : lie was sinful 
 flesh ; he was born under the wrath and curse of God, 
 like other sinners of the race ; he was not a holy thing, 
 born of the virgin ; he could not become the Lamb of 
 God that taketh way the sin of the world. But these 
 are conclusions which no one wearing the nayne of 
 Christian ever has drawn. And I would not have 
 
13 
 
 troubled tlie reader with a detailed state of the argu- 
 ment, but to prepare him for a question which I shall 
 propose, when he takes the other side of the dilemma. 
 
 Let it be denied, then, as it must, that Adam repre- 
 sented the Redeemer of the world, Jesus of Nazareth ; 
 I ask, then, why was not Jesus represented in that co- 
 venant? Here is human nature, entire human nature ; 
 why is it exempted from the law of human nature ? 
 What attribute of a human being did Adam possess, 
 which Jesus of Nazareth possessed not? The answer 
 is simple, — he did not possess human jiersonality ; in 
 other words, he was not a human person : and it was 
 the want of that human personality, and that want 
 alone, that exempted him from the personal guilt com- 
 mon to mankind. I know my reader is quite impa- 
 tient to pour in upon me an objection, or to give a dif- 
 ferent solution. I shall not trifle with his patience a 
 moment longer. I shall state his solution myself. 
 
 The solution contemplated is, that Jesus did not de- 
 scend from Adam by ordinary generation ; and that, 
 as ordinary generation is the bond which unites us to 
 Adam, the extraordinary generation of our Lord pre- 
 vented a federal union with Adam, and acquitted him 
 from any personal responsibility for Adam's conduct. 
 And I acknowledge, that this is the solution of the 
 question given in the confessions, and catechisms, and 
 formularies of all the reformed churches, and in the 
 writings of the ablest divines; and the solution to which 
 Mr. M'C. repeatedly recurs, through all his publica- 
 tions on federal representation. And I feel that it 
 must excite prejudice against me, to declare, that 1 am 
 not satisfied with it : a pruriency to deal in new words 
 and phrases, is at once a proof of shallow science and 
 false taste. But, several years ago, when engaged in 
 
studying the covenant of works from the inspired page 
 itself, I was compelled to drop this account of the mat- 
 ter, and search for another ; which, I hope, will prove 
 as satisfacto>*y to my reader as it is to myself. 1 must, 
 however, be indulged, in justice to myself, to say, that 
 I advance no new doctrine; I admit, that Adam's na- 
 tural posterity are under the covenant; and that Jesus 
 Christ was not — but I insist, that natural generation is 
 not the circumstance that brought the former under, 
 nor extraordinary generation the circumstance that ex- 
 empted the other from it. 
 
 The jet of the question is here — Was Eve repre- 
 sented hj Adam in the covenant of works ? 
 
 It appears, from the sacred history, that after the 
 Creator had formed Adam in his own image, he took 
 him into the garden of Eden, and surrendered into his 
 possession all its vegetable treasures, save the tree of 
 the knowledge of good and evil ; and this he made the 
 object of his supreme law, of that divine constitution, 
 which, viewed simply as a law, flowing from supreme 
 authority, bound the conscience of man, as a voluntary 
 subject of Jehovah's government ; and which, viewed 
 as a law sanctioned both with penalty and reward, pos- 
 sesses the strict nature of a covenant. " Of the tree of 
 the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of 
 it ; for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely 
 die." After this God brought to Adam the various 
 tribes of domestic animals, teaching him their natures, 
 names, and uses ; and delivering them into his posses- 
 sion. It was not till after all these transactions had 
 taken place, and till Adam was made experimentally 
 to know, that, notwithstanding all the rich resources of 
 his pure and exalted soul, notwithstanding the rich 
 and exuberant abundance of this blessed planet, a life 
 
15 
 
 of solitude would be a life without happiness. It was 
 not till after all this, that the Lord formed for him a 
 rational and moral companion ; a companion that he 
 could love, with whom he could hold rational con- 
 versation, with whom he could enjoy, in high and 
 holy moral communion, all the bounties and bless- 
 ings of God. '^ And God caused a deep sleep to 
 fall upon Adam and he slept, and he took one of his 
 ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof: and the 
 rib which the Lord God had taken from man, made 
 he a woman, and brought her unto man — and God 
 blessed them, and God said unto them, be fruitful, and 
 multiply, and replenish the earth and subdue it, and 
 have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the 
 fowls of the air, and over every living thing that mov- 
 eth on the earth." 
 
 From the scriptural account of this whole transac- 
 tion, I presume every candid inquirer after truth will 
 see cause to believe, t\\i\t when the covenant was made 
 with Adam, he had not so much as an idea of any hu- 
 man being but himself. How should he ? But when 
 Eve was formed and brought to Adam, and the bless- 
 ing of fruiifulness pronounced on them both, 1 have no 
 doubt (though the matter is not stated in so many 
 words) that he was commanded to instruct her, and 
 their progeny, when they should in due time arise, 
 in the nature of the divine law under which they were 
 placed ; and told, that he was to act for them, as well 
 as for himself, in his covenant relation, ajid that obe- 
 dience on his part should be life — and , disobedience 
 death, not only to himself, but to them all. I think all 
 this obviously true, and shall not inquire, at present, 
 whither it may carry me. 
 
 But, one thing is certain, from Eve's reply to 
 
'*' 16 
 
 the tempter, that she did consider ^erseZf under the 
 bond of the covenant. " Tlie woman said unto the 
 serpent, loe may eat of the fruit of the trees of the gar- 
 den ; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst 
 of the garden, God hath said ye shall not eat of it." 
 Certainly Eve did consider herself as under the cove- 
 nant ; and, as she had no instructor but either God or 
 Adam, it is impossible she should have been instruct- 
 ed wrong. It is true, some commentators (suo more) 
 have borne hard upon the phrase neither shall yp touch 
 it, as an officious addition to the divine law ; but they 
 forget that Eve was, at tliat time, female innocence in 
 person, and stood as yet far too liigh for the censure 
 of any of her degenerate sons or daughters : and even 
 though these words should not have been in the origi- 
 nal institute, (a point on which, as we know nothing, 
 we need say as little) they should be suffered to pass 
 as the amiable comment, of an innocent female ; mMio, 
 timid least she sliould tarnish her honour, is willing to 
 keep farther from danger than is absolutely necessary 
 to avoid it. 
 
 We may argue Eve's interest in the covenant of 
 works, from a different set of promises. For, if she 
 had no interest in that, she can have none in the cove- 
 nant of grace ; if she be not one of them that died in 
 Adam, neither is she of those w ho shall be made alive 
 by Jesus Christ. If Eve was not under the law, and 
 Jesus Christ was made under the law to redeem tliem 
 that were under the law, she has neither lot nor i)ortion 
 in his redemption ; and then, as the law of works and 
 the law of grace, are the only laws ever God gave to 
 mankind, it will follow, that Eve never was under any 
 law. The koran of Mahomet alone can inform us for 
 
17 
 
 what worthy purpose such a being was introduced 
 among iis. 
 
 Perhaps I may be accused of discussing points not 
 in question, too much in detail. But, when page after 
 page is employed, and speech after speech expended, 
 in proving and explaining the covenant of works, by 
 shadowy metaphors and abstractions, and by phrases 
 which melt into mist when the ray of truth touches 
 them ; I hope I may be excused for treating the same 
 subject, as an article of Christian faith, and endea- 
 vouring to exhibit it in the pure light of revelation. 
 Besides, it is my wish, instead of a partisan skirmish, 
 to lead up truth in solid columns, capable of present- 
 ing a tirm front to any foe, from any quarter. But not 
 to run my credit too close — I proceed to my argu- 
 ment. 
 
 If Eve was represented by Adam in the covenant, I 
 ask, what formed the bond of connection between her 
 and him ? Was it ordinary generation P That cannot 
 be. Of all that ever descended from Adam, the most 
 extraordinary beyond compare, was this very Eve. 
 Jesus of Nazareth was only half ^s extraordiaary. He 
 was conceived by a mother, and brought f«rth by a 
 mother ; one half the law of human generation was ob- 
 served in his case ; in Eve's case, the whole of that 
 law was unknown. She had neither father nor mo- 
 ther ; of consequence, ordinary generation was not the 
 bond which connected Eve with Adam as her cove- 
 nant head. And, therefore, I conclude, that ordinary 
 generation does not connect any one with Adam as a 
 covenant head ; for that which can be dispensed with 
 in one case, may be dispensed with in another, and in 
 another, till the exceptions will not leave a single in- 
 stance to exemplify the rule. 
 
18 
 
 If I were not afraid of getting into subtleties, which 
 might puzzle my readers, and perhaps puzzle myself 
 eventually, I should proceed much farthes-. But I shall 
 content myself with saying, that the inscrutable counsels 
 of the wonderworking God, should strike us with awful 
 solemnity ; and in no part of creation more than in the 
 creation of ourselves. In Adam we behold a man cre- 
 ated out of the ground — in Eve, a woman created out 
 of a rib of Adam — in their posterity, thousands created 
 as much by the immediate agency of God, as either 
 of the former : and, though < he event occurs more fre- 
 quently, it is not the less unaccountable ; yet Adam, 
 Eve, and their posterity, all created by God so many 
 human persons, though created in a different manner, 
 have their destinies bound together by one covenant. 
 But enough. 
 
 Let us now bring together Eve and Jesus Christy 
 for the purpose of comparison. In how many points 
 do they agree ; both derived human nature from Adam, 
 both derived human nature from him pure and holy, 
 and without a flaw — both derived it from him in an 
 extraordinary manner ; but in this they differ, one is 
 under the covenant of works, the other is not. Upon 
 what other difference is this founded ? Reader, on this, 
 and only this. Eve possessed human nature in human 
 personality, — Jesus had no human fevsonality ; his 
 humanity was united to the personality of his divinity. 
 Reader, reflect upon this. Confidence of opinion is 
 more frequently the result of feebleness, than of strength 
 of understanding, and as often the result of pride as of 
 either ; but, if I dare at all trust to the impression of 
 evidence on my own mind, I must pronounce this argu- 
 ment conclusive. Adam did not represent human na- 
 ture, simply as human nature ; for then lie would have 
 
19 
 
 represented Jesus Christ, whom he did not represent. 
 Neither did he represent human persons as descend- 
 ing from him by ordinary generation; for then he could 
 not have represented Eve, whom yet he did represent. 
 But he represented human nature as existing in human 
 personality ; whether that person were formed out of 
 the ground, as himself was formed, or taken out of his 
 side by one process of creative agency ; or created ac- 
 cording to the ordinary law of nature, by another spe- 
 cies of creative agency. 
 
 The general conclusion is, that they were human 
 persons, under the formal consideration of their human 
 personality, that Adam represented. So far, I trust, 
 we are on safe ground. The question is not, how did 
 they obtain their human personality, but, do they jpos- 
 sess it? 
 
 Having brought the discussion thus far, that it ap- 
 pears fixed and determined that they were human per- 
 sons, deriving their humanity from Adam, in whatever 
 way God should think proper to determine, whether 
 by ordinary generation or otherwise ; that they were 
 human persons under the formal consideration of their 
 personality ; it is time to inquire, whether all the indi- 
 viduals of Adaui's posterity were distinctly contem- 
 plated in tite covenant. Upon this question, let us en- 
 deavour to ascertain as much of the truth as comes 
 witnln the horizon of our vision. 
 
 1. Tliere is no quesition that the covenant, from its 
 own uAiure, left t\\e number oi its subjects to be deter- 
 mined by the sovereign wisdom of God. The law was 
 the law of human nature, existing in human persona- 
 lity. Had Adam fullilled the righ'eousness of that 
 lav/, it would, according to the naturi*. of the covenant, 
 have been transmissible or imputable to every human 
 
pergon, be ^he number more or less, on thp final catas- 
 tropjie 0' he human drama. Ai»cl now tha; he has sin- 
 npil, his sin is imputed to every human person, and 
 would, from the nature of the covenant, be imputed to 
 each one, were the number a million times more than 
 thf'y are, or ever will be. Sin is the transgression of 
 the law, and its waj^es is death ; and what the law 
 saithj it saith to every one that is under the law Adam 
 transgressed the law iu one point ; and James informs 
 us, that he who transgresses in one point is guilty 
 of I he whole : though obedience must be universal, 
 cursed is he who continueth not in all things written in 
 the book of the law to do them. In a word, the righ- 
 teousness of the law is a unit, and the transgression of 
 the law a unit, and both are imputed without defalca- - 
 tion, in their integrity and wholeness, to every indivi- 
 dual to whom they are imputed at all. Should twenty 
 men tell the same lie, though there is but one lie, tisere 
 are twenty liars in the world : and should twenty assas- 
 sins plunge their daggers at the same instant into an 
 honest man's bosom, though there is but one murder, 
 there are twenty murderers, who ought to be hanged. 
 
 This doctrine is so obvious, that I do not recollect of 
 ever hearing it contradicted or questioned ; and was a 
 good deal astonished that Mr. M'C. should have 
 thought it necessary to prove so much in detail, and in 
 so warm and impassioned a manner, that Adam's guilt 
 is not cut up into shreds, and dealt out in parcels 
 among his posterity ; and that Christ's righteousness is 
 not parcelled out among the faithful in the same man- 
 ner. How could they ? That which is less than a 
 whole sin is nothing at all ; and that which is less than 
 righteousness, is no righteousness at all. 
 
 2. It is not supposabie that Adam knew all his pos- 
 
SI 
 
 terity by name, or could contemplate them individually 
 by name in the covenant transaction. I have already 
 said, that it does not appear, that, at the making of the 
 covenant, he had any idea of any human being but him- 
 self. But, when Eve was created, and the blessing of 
 fruitfulness pronounced upon them, he certainly did 
 expect posterity ; and certainly was informed, that his 
 standing or falling, should be the standing or falling 
 of himself, his wife, and all his posterity, leaving the 
 number of that posterity to be determined by the sove- 
 reign counsels of Jehovah. And knowing, (1 presume 
 he knew) that God had his own counsels on the sub- 
 ject, and that those counsels included the whole of the 
 human family, their times, and places, and modes of 
 existence, from the first of them to the last, he cousi- 
 dered himself bound for the whole, and for each indi- 
 vidual of them. After this is granted, (and can it be 
 denied?) it seems to me a needless refinement, to siy, 
 that Adam did not represent every individual of the 
 human race, as an individual; and I cannot see the uti- 
 lity of the refinement. Adam certainly did intend (or 
 else he acted dishonestly in the transaction) to repre- 
 sent all those, whom God determined lie should repre- 
 sent. Let us, therefore, attend to the view which God 
 must have had in this transaction. 
 
 3. The question now is. Did God, in the making of 
 the covenant, design the precise number, and the par- 
 ticular individuals, who should be represented in that 
 covenant, and affected by it ? This is no very abstruse 
 point. But, as God's law is a light to the feet, and a 
 lamp to the path ; and as this light, shining with direct 
 rays on the understanding, without the reflections or 
 refractions of human science or human arguments, 
 produces the purest illumination, while it cheers the 
 
feelings and awes the conscience, I shall gratify the 
 reader with a few texts of scripture. The diamond 
 will 2;litter, even in a coarse setting. " Known unto 
 God,'^ says an apostle, " are all his works from the 
 beginning of the world." " He hath made of one 
 blood," says another, " all nations of men for to dwell 
 upon the face of t!ie earth, and hath determined the 
 times before appointed, and the hounds of their habita- 
 tion." Indeed it is tlie universal tenor of the sacred 
 Scriptures, and capable of being demonstrated by the 
 soundest philosophical reasoning, that God knew and 
 determined all his works from all eternity. Thai he de- 
 termined the number of the human family, the time 
 and place when each individual should be born, their 
 faculties and their features, their characters and their 
 condition, and the whole scenes and train of their for- 
 tunes ; all in them, and about them was known to him, 
 and he called them all hy name. In the covenant of 
 works, therefore, God fixed the number of mankind, 
 and designated them in his counsels, who should de- 
 scend from Adam. He subjected them all to the bond 
 of that covenant ; not one more, not one less, not one 
 else, than those precise, specified individuals compris- 
 ed in the eternal purpose, and present to the divine 
 mind at the making of the covenant with Adam, was 
 brought under that covenant, or ever shall be af- 
 fected by it. And each person, as soon as he becomes 
 a person, as soon as human personality can be predi- 
 cated of him, has his individual personal interest in 
 that covenant, according to the condition in which he 
 finds it. 
 
 This is substantially the doctrine of the church of 
 God in all ages; of the reformed churches it is the doe- 
 trine. It has been usually considered, that as God 
 
knew and determined all the individuals of the human 
 family, and destined them to be under the bond of the 
 covenant; and as Adam was bound to assent to the 
 constitution prepared and established ; therefore, all 
 those individuals were represented in the covenant, in 
 their individual personality of character. But this view 
 does not satisfy Mr. M'C. He insists, that Adam re- 
 presented (what he calls) his own body, but not the in- 
 dividuals in their distinct personality. This is, 1 be- 
 lieve, a fair statement of the question ; but tliis is not 
 the proper ground on which to decide it. There is 
 here a cross light, which mingles and confounds t!ie 
 features of heavenly truth, and prevents us from discri- 
 minating the exactness of tiie painting. We shall meet 
 this subject again, in another position, under the direct 
 ray of the light, which, coming into the world, en- 
 lighteneth every man. 
 
 Before dropping the subject of the covenant* of works, 
 I beg leave to make myself distinctly understood, that 
 I allude entirely to the transaction recorded in the 
 17th ver. of the 2nd chap, of Gen. — to a covenant, ex- 
 pressed by Jehovah in so many words, and of conse- 
 quence assented to by Adam. Other covenant of works 
 I know none. The Holy Scriptures are entirely ig- 
 norant of any divine system of religion, save the law of 
 works and the law of grace ; at tlie head of the former 
 stood Adam — at the head of the latter stands Jesus 
 Christ. And both these covenants were distinctly ex- 
 pressed in words among the contracting parties. 
 
 I am perfectly aware, that men of highly, and not 
 more highly than justly, respected merit in the Chris- 
 tian church, and from whose merit the s[)irit of mean- 
 ness alone could wish to detract ; have distinguished 
 between the natural state of the covenant of works, 
 
and its positive state ; have talked of a covenant inlaid 
 in man's nature ; of a covenant concreated with Adam. 
 But of such a covenant the Scriptures sa.y not one 
 word, from the beginning to the end. That candour, 
 however, that fairness of feeling and conduct, which 
 ought ever to distinguish the investigators of divine 
 truth, require, that we should attempt to ascertain their 
 exact idea ; and though we should be obliged to con- 
 demn their language, as inapplicable to the subject, 
 and calculated to mislead ; we may perhaps find, that 
 they were contemplating dimly through the haze of 
 verbage, a substantial truth. 
 
 If, by the natural state of the covenant of works — if, 
 by a covenant inlaid in the nature of man — if, by a co- 
 venant concreated with Adam, be meant no more, than 
 that there was a natural adaptation in Adam to be 
 placed under such a covenant ; and that it would have 
 been unworthy of the Divine Wisdom to have formed 
 such a being, and destined him to be the father of mil- 
 lions, according to the present law of human descent; and 
 not to have given liim such a law and covenant — if this 
 be all that is meant, it is, unquestionably, sound and 
 true. And this I honestly believe to be the meaning of 
 those who hold this language. But still, the language 
 is improper ; an adaptation to receive a covenant, is 
 not a covenant. When the Creator causes a valley 
 to form an inclined plain, in its innumerable windings 
 and meanderings among the interlacing mountains and 
 intervening cascades, from the top of the Alps, or An- 
 des, or Allegany, down to their respective oceans ; he 
 has given that valley a natural adaptation to become 
 the bed of a river : but this adaptation to become the bed 
 of a river, is not a river. To produce the river, the 
 rains must descend, and the springs gush from the 
 
23 
 
 mountain's side. To exemplify onr assertion on moral 
 subjects ; every woman who is adapted to the mai riage 
 state, is not therefore a wife ; nor is every man adiipied 
 to the marriage state, therefore a husband. >iow, al- 
 though Adam was naturally adapted to become a cove- 
 nant head, the covenant itself is something di^^!nct 
 from that adaptation ; it required a positive, open trans- 
 action between the Creator and his creature. Such 
 was the covenant recorded in the second chapter of 
 Genesis, and there never was any other covenant of 
 works made with man. 
 
 This theory, that establishes a covenant of works 
 anterior to, and distinct from, the verbal covenant made 
 with Adam in paradise, seems to be built upon the 
 same airy foundation, which supports so many ten thou- 
 sand similar structures of the human imagination — I 
 mean the opinion, that Adam, without any instruction 
 from God, without any revealed law, without any pre- 
 scribed rule, might, by the unassisted operations of his 
 natural faculties, have become a very intelligent, mo- 
 ral, and religious creature ; and might have trained up 
 a progeny as intelligent, moral, and pious as himself, 
 and entailed upon them all his blessings. Notwith- 
 standing the boundless extent of this principle, it has 
 been very generally assumed, and assumed without any 
 species of evidence, that I can conceive, either of phi- 
 losophy or of faith. For, if you ask the abettors of 
 this opinion, what philosophical evidence they have for 
 its truth — what single phenomenon they can produce 
 as the basis of an induction so extensive — if you ask 
 them what man, without instruction, ever acquired the 
 use of language ; what man, without the use of lan- 
 guage, ever cultivated his understanding ; what man, 
 without speech and mental cultivation, ever rose to mo- 
 
 E 
 
S6 
 
 rality and piety, or ever transmitted them to others : 
 they are silent. They produce not one single instance; 
 not one single phenomenon, to substantiate so wide and 
 extensive a theory. On the contrary, you can press 
 them with ten thousand opposing phenomena ; that the 
 deaf are also dumb, — that, without instruction and cul- 
 tivation, the human animal is distinguishable from 
 brutes, only by superior stupidity, indocility — vicious;^ 
 intractable, and unmanageable. 
 
 If you go to the Scriptures, with the exceptions of a 
 few texts, as I apprehend, very much misapplied, they 
 can furnish as little proof of their assumption. Cer- 
 tainly the Mosaic history teaches us as plainly as it is 
 possible, though very briefly, that when God created 
 Adam, he taught him the use of language, and the ru- 
 diments of natural history, agriculture, astronomy, and 
 religion. This is the scriptural accouut of man's ori- 
 gin. Never did the boundless mind of Buike pro- 
 nounce a profounder adage, than when he said " Art 
 is man's nature." 
 
 It was the purpose of the all wise Creator to form 
 the first man in his own image, and to take his new- 
 born child under his paternal tutelage ; to impart to 
 him all useful instruction respecting his conduct in 
 life ; to place him under a regimen of parental autho- 
 rity, exercised by a revealed, specific law ; and to bind 
 all his posterity in the same general system. 
 
 But let me put this question with another much dis- 
 cussed, because both depend on one principle. 1. 
 Some have asked, what would have been the conse- 
 quence, if, after creating him in the integrity of all his 
 powers, God had left Adam without instruction or po- 
 sitive law? — and they decide in favour of a religion. 
 2. What would have beea the consequence, if, after 
 
S7 
 
 the transgression of our first parents, the Son of God 
 had not interposed as mediator? Here two parties 
 are formed ; the one affirming, that as all Adam's pos- 
 terity were included in the covenant, the divine faith- 
 fulness required, that they should be brought into ex- 
 istence to suffer its penalty. Others insist, that the pe. 
 nalty must have been inflicted the moment guilt was 
 incurred ; and that, therefore, Adam and Eve would 
 have been put to death, unless Jesus Christ had inter- 
 posed ^< in the nick of time.'' This last seems to be 
 Mr. M^C.'s opinion. There are obvious glances at it 
 in his first publication ; and he quotes the passage 
 above transcribed in his defence before the synod, with 
 apparent approbation, and even reasons from it. Let us 
 then bring these propositions to the test, and ascertain 
 whether they mean any thing, or nothing ; let us try 
 whether the questions admit of solution, or whether 
 they lie '^ ultra flammantia mcenia mundi,'' where no 
 ray of light visible to mortal eye ever fell. 
 
 You ask me what would have been the consequences 
 to Adam and his posterity — if — If what ? If God 
 had given him no supernatural instruction, no revealed 
 law of religion ? 
 
 I answer,! do not know. I have laid before me, God's 
 plan of his world in the bible, you draw your diameter 
 through the periphery of that diviue j)lan, and ask me 
 how God should make a world out of the other half, 
 I answer, I do not know. But this I know, it is no 
 longer a circle, but a semicircle. It is no longer the 
 plan of God's world. You allow God to make half a 
 world according to his own plan : asul throwing away 
 the remainder of his plan ; you command me to com- 
 plete the draft. 
 
 You ask me what would have been the consequence 
 
to Adam and liis posterity after the fall — If the Son 
 of (rod had not interposed ? 
 
 Here again I reply, that the Scriptnres, teach us, 
 that the rt^demption by Jesus is an essential part of 
 the divine plan, that, the two covenants, the two cove- 
 nant heads, and their respective subjects, and all the 
 resiiltiug consequences, form but one grand whole, 
 one mighty conception of the infinite mind ; and again 
 you draw your diameter through the periphery of the 
 system ; you present me one half; and ask me how 
 God could make a whole world out of it ; without era- 
 ploying the other half. Are these questions which 
 admit solution ? Can they 6e known ? Is not all this 
 world making ? Let us take warning from the fate 
 of our physical cosmogonists, who, after employing 
 centuries by lire and by water making a world, some 
 out of something, and others out of nothing ; some 
 out of indivisible particles of matter, and some out of 
 indivisible mathematical points, have succeeded, at 
 last, in leaving chaos doubly confounded. I am 
 afraid the moral cosmogonists will fare no better. And 
 truly a pity it is, and a tearful jest, to see human specu- 
 lation so lavished on insolvable questions, while those 
 which are not only solvable, but of incalculable practi- 
 cal importance, are so generally neglected, perhaps 
 sometimes despised. But it must be so. We will, 
 it seems, expend on perpetual motions, time that had 
 better be employed on carts and wheel-barrows ; and 
 weary ourselves in squaring the circle ; while by ne- 
 glecting a few ragged accounts of a few paltry dollars 
 and cents, we step out of the world, bequeathing jea- 
 lousies and wrath, lawsuits and strife, and the long in- 
 terminable feuds of kindred blood, to our heirs, exe- 
 eutors; and assigns for ever. 
 
But let us sura up the positive doctrine which has 
 been ascertained in this discussion. 
 
 1. That God, by his sovereign wisdom and power, 
 created Adam with a natural adaptation to be the pa- 
 rent and representative of a race, each of whom might 
 be affected by his virtue or vice, and participate in his 
 happiness or misery. 
 
 2. That God did, in his infinite wisdom, make a 
 positive, explicit, verbal covenant with Adam, exactly 
 corresponding with the natural powers and adaptation 
 of the creature ; in which he promised life, as the re- 
 ward of obedience, and threatened death as the punish- 
 ment of disobedience ; and that this covenant, this 
 law, includes Adam's posterity, or more strictly every 
 human person. 
 
 3. That in this covenant Adam did not represent 
 simple human nature, for he did not represent Jesus 
 Christ, who possessed human nature : nor human na- 
 ture considered as descending from him by ordinary 
 generation, for he represented Eve, who did not so 
 descend from him. But that he represented all human 
 persons, considered in their distinct personality, de- 
 scending from him in any way which God might be 
 pleased to appoint. 
 
 4. That though Adam did not know his posterity 
 individually ; yet God knew them all ; their names, 
 periods, habitations, and every thing respecting them, 
 and did intend that this covenant should include 
 every one of them, and no one else — and Adam must 
 have assented to this covenant in its fullest terms. 
 
 These then I consider as established truths, and shall 
 hold myself intitled to assume them as truths, in the 
 subsequent part of this investigation. 
 
 Let us, on the other hand, sum up the subjects 
 
30 
 
 which we have rejected as false, or incapable of being 
 proved. 
 
 1. A covenant of works, distinct from that made 
 verbally with Adam, we have proved to be withont 
 scriptural support, and to be an erroneous conception. 
 
 2. That we cannot decide what sort of world this 
 would have been, had God not instructed Adam, and 
 given him the revealed law, or covenant — that we dare 
 not assert that to create a world on such a plan would 
 be worthy of God. But we are sure enough that this 
 is not the plan of the world which God has actually 
 created. 
 
 3. That we do not know what would have been the 
 consequence in respect to the human family, if Jesus 
 Christ had not immediately interposed — we do not 
 know whetlier Adam and Eve would have suffered 
 the iniiiction of death instantly on their transgression, 
 if Christ had not interposed — we do not know whether 
 without such interposition they must have been kept in 
 being, in order that all their posterity might come into 
 being. — In fine, we do not know whether it would 
 have been worthy of God to create such a race as ours, 
 foreseeing their fall and fate ; and not to provide a 
 remedial system. — But this we know, that such is not 
 the world that God lias made. And leaving the world- 
 maker to inhabit his own world, 
 
 ' Quas condidit arces 
 Ipse colat. 
 
 We shall content ourselves with humbly tracing the 
 laws, enjoying the comforts, and attempting the duties 
 which belong to the world, in which divine sovereignty 
 has been pleased to order our lot. 
 
 Now we shall in our further discussions reject all 
 
31 
 
 these notions, and questions wliicli we have thus prov- 
 ed to be either false or insolvahle. We sliall not pay 
 the least notice to them, nor once name their name, nor 
 look after a single one of the numerous consequences 
 they generate ; unless some of them should happen so 
 to block up our way that we cannot readily pass. If, 
 therefore, any one should think that he will have need 
 of any or all of these principles, in any future part of 
 this discussion, or any other discussion whatever, I 
 give him fair warning to turn back and examine care- 
 fully what has been offered on each subject ; let him 
 prove to his own satisfaction, that these subjects are 
 decided in the sacred volume. — Let him prove to Jiis 
 own satisfaction, that they are capable of ever being 
 solved by the human mind. — I say, let him prove 
 these things to his oicn satisfaction ; and then let him 
 state with simplicity the evidence which has satisfied 
 his mind, and I have no doubt it will satisfy mine. 
 But until this is done, I insist on excluding all those 
 questions intirely. This, I trust, is fair and honoura- 
 ble dealing towards truth, and towards the friends of 
 truth. The analysis of religious truth, like the analy- 
 sis of natural truth, is a work of patience, circum- 
 spection, and time. He that detects a mistake does 
 much, he that adds one ascertained truth to the com- 
 mon stock does more. But let us not be hasty in sys- 
 tem-making. Let us lay up the few truths we are 
 sure of properly labelled and described 
 
 Poma carpent nepotes. 
 
 The reader may recollect, that in page S3, 1 reserved 
 a subject for future discussion ; I now add, that I re- 
 serve some others in relation to the covenant oT works; 
 as they will come up under more favourable circum- 
 
3S 
 
 stances, after we shall have examined the covenant of 
 grace, and come to compare the two institutions to- 
 gether. This course will save the trouble and disgust 
 of repetition ; besides that notwithstanding the very 
 extensive analogy which runs through the two cove- 
 nants of works and of grace ; some of the elemental 
 trutlis are best studied, and easiest illustrated in the 
 one institution, and some in the other. Here, accord- 
 ingly, I conclude this part of my task, praying that 
 the spirit of wisdom and grace may lead us into all 
 truth according to the Scriptures. 
 
 SECTION ITI. 
 
 Mepresentation by Jesus Christ. 
 
 I proceed now to investigate the subject of Christ's 
 representative character, in the covenant of grace ; 
 and as the production of human authority on this sub- 
 ject would exact more reading and research, than I 
 have either time or inclination at present to bestow ; 
 and as such authority, when come at, is frequently very 
 difficult to be understood, and after all not conclusive, 
 I shall not trouble myself with inquiring what others 
 may have thought or said on the subject ; but shall go 
 directly to the divine word, where truth blazes in its 
 own essential light and native sphere. I shall also 
 abstain for the present from all definitions ; as it will 
 be time enough (indeed the precise time which scientific 
 investigation prescribes) to define things, when we shall 
 have ascertained what they are. I shall select the 
 few following passages of Scripture out of many. 
 
 Prov. viii. 2% &c. " The Lord possessed me in the 
 beginning of his way, before his work of old. I was 
 
33 
 
 anointed a covenant head from everlasting, from the 
 beginning, or ever the earth was, when there were no '^, 
 depths, I was begotten ; when there were no fountains © 
 abounding with water. Before the mountains were ?:> 
 settled, before the hills was I begotten. While as 
 yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor tiie 
 highest part of the dust of the world. When he pre- 
 pared the heavens, I was there : when he set a com- 
 pass upon the face of the depth : when he established 
 the clouds above : when he strengthened the foun- 
 tains of the deep : when he gave to the sea his decree^ 
 that the waters should not pass his commandment : 
 when he appointed the foundations of the earth, then 
 was 1 by him, as one brought up with him : and I 
 was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him : 
 rejolcmg in the habitable jjarts of his earth : and my 
 delights were with the sons of men. JVow therefore, 
 hearken unto me, O ye children ; for blessed are they 
 that keep my ways. Hea«' instruction, and be wise, 
 and refuse it not. Blessed is the man that heareth me, 
 watching daily at my gates, watching at the posts of 
 Riy doors. For whoso findeth me, tindeth life, and 
 shall find favour of the Lord. But he that sinneth 
 against me wrongeth his own soul. All they that 
 hate me love death." 
 
 The above passage overflowing, at once, with the 
 richness of evangelical truth and the richness of elo- 
 quence, is one of the most distinguished, among the 
 distinguished proofs, afforded in the Old Testament, 
 that the ancient Israelites were not those babes ia the- 
 ology, which they are sometimes represented to be ; 
 but, while they must be allowed to stand far below the 
 New Testament church in regard to the extent of their 
 veligious knowledge and attainments, they were acca- 
 
 F 
 
34 
 
 lately acquainted with the grand elements of the re- 
 medial system ; the eternal divinity and sonsliip of 
 Messiali, his eternal unction to the mediatorial office, 
 his eternal love to the fallen sons of men ; and his 
 execution, in time, of the duties of his sacred trust, 
 in proclaiming salvation to them all, securing life and 
 happiness to all who should receive his instructions, 
 and submit to his authority ; and pronouncing the sen- 
 tence of death, inevitable and irremediable death, 
 upon those obstinate sinners, who should wrong their 
 own souls by rejecting him. It is pleasant to ex- 
 patiate thus on Jewish ground, aiid to iind in tliis land 
 which the Lord has blessed, the same trees, and fruits, 
 and flowers, and the same productions of every kind, 
 which beautify, and which enrich the paradise of the 
 christian church. The eye pleads to be indulged in 
 reposing a little on the enchanting scene ; imagination 
 w^ould wish to give scope to all her powers in quest of 
 boundless enjoyment. But sober truth reminds us that 
 we live here rather for labo/ir than for enjoyment ; and 
 that our spiritual food, as well as our natural, must be 
 earned by the sweat of our brow. Let us proceed 
 then to cultivate the intellectual field, to weed out the 
 briars, and thorns, and thistles, that whatever may be 
 the issue in respect to ourselves, we may leave the in- 
 tailed estate to our posterity, at least not worse than 
 when it came into our hands. 
 
 As the liberty has been taken to make a couple of 
 alterations in the translation, it is proper that the 
 reasons of the change should be laid before the reader, 
 that he may judge for liimself whether they are legi- 
 timate improvements, and really necessary to convey 
 the s( nse of the inspired oiiginals. This shall be 
 done with as little of the air of criticism as possible ; 
 
25 
 
 the learned reader needs only to have the subject sug- 
 gested ; aud even those who are unaccjuainte 1 with 
 Hebrew literature ; will, from the nature of the sub- 
 ject be able to form a sound judgment. 
 
 In the 24th verse I have changed the phrase I was 
 brought forth, into I ivas begotten : The Hebrew 
 word *^^> used in the passage, designates the relation 
 between a parent, whether father or mother, and a 
 child ; and is sometimes to be translated to beget, 
 sometimes to hear or bring forth. But since, through- 
 out the whole of the sacred Scriptures, the relation be- 
 tween the first and second persons in the adorable tri- 
 nity is always represented by that of father and son, 
 of son and father, the appropriate translation of the 
 word in this place is begotten, not brought forth. This 
 every reader of the Scriptures will assent to. 
 
 In the 23d verse, instead of I was set up from ever- 
 lasting ; I use the phrase I was anointed a covenant 
 head. The original word signifies to anoint ^pj and 
 is frequently used to denote the appointment of a pub- 
 lic officer, because the rite of anointing with oil was 
 common on such occasions. It is the same word 
 which is used Psalms ii. ^ " Yet I have set (>nDD3 ^ 
 have anointed) ray king upon my holy hill of Zion ;" 
 a text which serves the double purpose of estaldishing 
 the criticism and the doctrine. From this rite of 
 anointing at their inauguration, princes, or supreme of- 
 ficers, are deuominated tDODl' ^i" anointed ones The 
 translation I have given, viz. I icas anointed a cove- 
 nant head, is indeed paraphrastic ; btit the idea con- 
 veyed is indisputably correct. The Son of God was 
 set up from everlasting, was anointed a supreme offi- 
 cer ; so says the text; and the M'hnle current of 
 scripture language goes to prove that he was set up, 
 
 -T T 
 
 
30 
 
 anil anointed the covenant head of the church ; nor 
 is the slightest hint given us from the beginning of the 
 Bible to its end, that ever he was appointed to another 
 office. Let us now sum up the elementary doctrines 
 of tins passage. 
 
 1. It teaches us that the eternal, and eternally begot- 
 ten, Son of God, was set up, and anointed the head of 
 his church, *• from everlasting," from the beginning, 
 (from all eternity) or ever the earth was — before the 
 foundation of our world was laid. There was, there- 
 fore, a covenant between the eternal Father and his 
 Sou from all eternity. Whether this was a covenant 
 of redemption, or was not, the reader perhaps has al- 
 ready decided in his own mind. — I reserve my deci- 
 sion as yet. 
 
 2. The Son of God being anointed a covenant head 
 from all eternity, was, by his Father (v. 30.) as one 
 brought up with him ; and was daily his delight ; 
 rejoicing always before him ; rejoicing in the habitable 
 parts of the earth, and his delights were ivith the sons 
 of men. Now these delights must have been placed 
 on men viewed in innocence, or subsequent to the fall. 
 They were not placed on ^n viewed in innocence ; 
 for not to mention that to call Adam and Eve the sons 
 of men would be a very singular phraseology, there 
 was no reason why innocent men should be more an 
 object of the Sou of God's delight than innocent an- 
 gels, who at that time were more than merely innocent, 
 they were meritorious, and had secured their eternal 
 standing in the divine favour by their approved fide- 
 lity. Of consequence, the objects of his delight were 
 men viewed after the fall : and as there was nothing 
 in the foul and guilty race to excite the pure delights 
 of the iatinitely holy Son of God — As they were cast 
 
37 
 
 out into the open field weltering in their hlood, to the 
 loathing of their persons ; it follows that they must 
 have heen viewed as objects of redemption. 
 
 This is all I siiall determine for the present ; that 
 the Son of God having been, from all eternity, anoint- 
 ed a covenant head, a Kedeemer of men, delighted in 
 the ol)jects of that redemption. But I do not inquire, 
 at this stage of investigation, whether these objects 
 comprehend all mankind, or only a part of them ; nor 
 under what formal consideration they were viewed. 
 But it is highly probable that the reader will, as usual, 
 have shot ahead of the writer, and concluded, that 
 those who were the objects of the Redeemer's delight 
 from all eternity^ are the very same who shall be tiie 
 objects of his inelfable delight to all eternity — and that 
 it is not very liiiely, that the Son of God delighted 
 from all eternity in those, to whom he will say in the 
 day of judgment, Depart from me ye icorkers of ini- 
 quity^ 1 never Jcnetc you. 
 
 The next passage I shall produce, is found 2d Tim. 
 i. 8, &c, *' Be not thou, therefore, ashamed of the tes- 
 timony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner; but be 
 thou a partaker of the afflictions of the gospel, accord- 
 ing to the power of God ; who hath saved us, and call- 
 ed us with an holy calling, not according to our works, 
 but according to his own purpose ; and the grace 
 which was given us in Clirist Jesus before the world 
 began, but is now made manifest by the appearance of 
 our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, 
 and brought life and immortality to light through the 
 gospel." 
 
 1 have made a small alteration in the translation, 
 because our present versicm is neither a correct trans- 
 lation, nor correct English j the sense, however, is not 
 
38 
 
 affected, and of the propriety of the change of phra- 
 seology, the learned will judge. 
 
 The apostle speaks of Tinioth}^ and himself as con- 
 verted persons, real living saints; and asserts, that 
 grace was given them in Clirist Jesus before the world 
 began, and that they had been converted according to 
 God's eternal j)urpose, and according to that grace which 
 was given them in Christ Jesus before the world be- 
 gan. Now. what was true in respect to Paul and Ti- 
 mothy, purely as saints, or converted persons, is true 
 respecting all saints ; and will be true respecting all 
 saints in the judgment day, namely, that they were 
 called with a holy callij)g, and made living Christians, 
 according to the purpose of God, and the grace which 
 was given them in Christ Jesus before the world be- 
 gan. 
 
 But how was grace given them in Christ Jesus be- 
 fore the world began ? Look back to the foregoing ar- 
 ticle, and compare the Old Testament scriptures with 
 those of the New. Jesus Christ was anointed a cove- 
 nant head from everlasting ; and in that very anoint- 
 ing, grace was given in him to all who ever shall be- 
 lieve in his name , and they shall be called with a holy 
 calling, according to the 'purpose of him who gave 
 them grace in his own Son before the world began. 
 
 I might go on to reason on these data, and, placing 
 before my imagination the doleful throng on the left 
 hand of the Redeemer, in the judgment day, and the 
 glorious throng on his right ; I might say grace was 
 given to all these in the Son of God before the world 
 began ; and they were all called with a holy calling, 
 according to the purpose of him who gave the grace — 
 but was grace given in Christ Jesus before the world 
 began, to those to whom neither he nor his Father 
 
39 
 
 have given grace in time ? Did God purpose to call 
 with a holy calling, those whom he has not called, and 
 never will call ? I can well believe that the delighis 
 of the Son of God were with you, ye glorious sainfs of 
 his, before the foundation of the world ; but, can I be- 
 lieve that his delights were then with those abandoned 
 rebels, whom he abhors and dooms to everlasting burn- 
 ings ? But, although it is impossible not to spare a 
 passing glance to these trains of argumentation, it is not 
 our intention to forsake our present purpose, which is 
 merely to establish elements for a system : and the 
 reader is forewarned to keep the rein on his impa- 
 tience, as a great deal remains still to be done, before 
 we shall be prepared for systematizing. The hewers 
 are in the mountains, and the quarrymen are in the 
 quarries ; every beam must be squared, every joint 
 and tenon must be fitted; every stone must be chiselled 
 to its exact form and dimensions ; and, should we suc- 
 ceed in all this, according to the draft and plan which 
 the Divine Architect has furnished us, you shall soon 
 see stone come to its stone, and beam to its beam, till 
 the temple of the Lord shall tower towards the hea- 
 vens, without the sound of a hammer. 
 
 The next passage I produce, is found Isa. liii. lOth, 
 &c. — '^ When thou shalt make his soul an oifering for 
 sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, 
 and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. 
 He shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be sa- 
 tisfied : and by the knowledge of himself shall my 
 righteous servant justify many : for he shall bear their 
 iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with 
 the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong ; 
 because he shall pour out his soul unto death : and he 
 
40 
 
 was numbered with the transgressors ; and he bare the 
 sins of inany, and made intercession for the transgres- 
 sors." 
 
 The only critical remark which it is necessary to 
 make on this passage is, tJiat I have changed his knoiv- 
 led^e into the knowledge of himself, and for this rea- 
 son ; the phrase Ms knowledge, according to the usual 
 English idiom, means the knowledge of which he is 
 the subject, or the knowledge which he possesses. 
 >iow, the knowledge M'hich Jesus Christ possesses 
 cannot justify any person ; or, if it did justify any, it 
 must justify all. But the knowledge of which Jesus 
 is the oisject, or the knowledge which men have of iiim 
 as the mediator between God and man, is the justifica- 
 tion of all who are justified, according to the Scrip- 
 tures. " This is life eternal, to know thee the only 
 true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.'* 
 But to cut off all possibility of mistake, I would re- 
 mark, that the knowledge of Christ in question is not 
 a naked, metaphysical, speculative knowledge — for 
 even a devil c<»uld say, ^^ I know thee who thou art, the 
 holy one of God ;'-* hut it is that knowledge which 
 the Holy Ghost giveth when he taketh of the things 
 that are Christ's and sheweth them unto us — it is a 
 knowledge which issues in faith, love, and obedience. 
 
 The points which 1 wish to establish by the above 
 passage, are the following : 
 
 1. That the Son of God engaged to make his soul an 
 offering for sin, and to bear the sins of many ; and that 
 this engagement took place when he was anointed a 
 covenant head ; that is, " from everlasting," or "ever 
 the earth was." 
 
 * Mark i. 24. 
 
41 
 
 g. That his Heavenly Father engaged, that, in con- 
 sequence of his making his soul an offering for the 
 sins of many, he should have them as his reward, — he 
 should justify many, he should travail in sore travail, 
 but not without effect, — he should see his offspring : 
 and the pleasure of the Lord, the salvation of sinners, 
 should prosper in his hand. 
 
 3. From the two foregoing principles I deduce a 
 third, that, so sure as the faithful Son of God should 
 fulfil his part of the covenant, by bearing the sins of 
 many, and making his soul an offering for sin, — so 
 surely would his Heavenly Father give him the tra- 
 vail of his soul ; and that, of consequence, some men 
 must be saved hy the mediation of Jesus, in order to 
 vindicate the faithfulness of God the Father. But who ? 
 How many? Was the number definite or indefinite ? 
 
 'I'wo or three passages more from the sacred page, 
 and I am done on this subject. John xvii. 1, &c. — 
 " These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to 
 heaven and said, Father, the hour is come, glorify thy 
 son that thy son also may glorify thee : as thou hast 
 given him power over all flesh, that he should give 
 eternal life to as many as thou hast giifen him.^^ John 
 vi. 37. " All that the Father giveth me shall come to 
 me, and him that cometh to me 1 will in no wise cast 
 out." 
 
 As I established from the 53d of Tsaiah, that a seed 
 was pledged to Messiah as the travail of his soul, and 
 of consequence, that some men must be saved, in or- 
 der to preserve inviolate the fidelity of the eternal Fa- 
 ther ; so 1 infer from these passages, that the number 
 was fixed and definite ; that Jesus Christ received 
 power overall flesh, that he should give eternal life to 
 as many as the Father hath given him ; that all who 
 
42 
 
 were the Father's by electing love, were Christ's by the 
 covenant bund, and that they shall come to him ; and 
 that he tliat cometh, shall in no wise be cast out. 
 
 We are now ready for the summation of this se- 
 ries, 1 hope the reader has been sufficiently attentive 
 to render an enumeration of the principles which have 
 been established superfluous, I trust that matter to him- 
 self. 
 
 But now 1 must ask, had Christ Jesus, the Eternal 
 Son of God, the same relation in the eternal covenant 
 to those who shall be saved, and to those who shall 
 not ? Let this question be well considered ; and, that 
 it may be well considered, let us turn it around, and 
 survey it in every position. Jesus Christ, the Eternal 
 Son of God, was anointed a covenant head from all 
 eternity ; was it to head to everlasting glory those 
 whom he will head in the judgment day, or those 
 whom he shall not head ? Was he a covenant head 
 for those whom the Father gave him, or for those 
 whom he did not give him ? Did lie travail, as in 
 birth, for the children whom God gave him, or for 
 those whom God gave him not? But enough, surely. 
 That the Eternal Father, and his Eternal Son, in that 
 covenant, which was from everlasting, knew every in- 
 dividual who ever should be saved by Jesus Christ, 
 and had a respect to, each one of them by name, is an 
 indubitable fact : it is the high prerogative of infinite 
 wisdom to be incapable of ignorance ; it is the glorious 
 prerogative of God never to do any thing in the end, 
 which he did not propose to do from the beginning. 
 
 In the above questions I have used the phraseology, 
 Had Chris< Jesus, the Eternal Son of God, any rela- 
 tion to those whom the Father gave him in the ever- 
 lasting covcuant — difler«nt from his relation to those 
 
who were not given him. I did not use the word repre- 
 sentation ; that spectre shall be put down on another 
 field. But if the Son of God, when he was from ever- 
 lasting anointed a covenant head, bore a relation to 
 those whom the Father gave him — which relation he 
 did not bear to those who were not given hira — where 
 is the use of disputing about words ? It is that rela- 
 tion, whatever it is, that is intended to be expressed 
 by those who assert, that, in the eternal covenant, the 
 Son of God was the representative of the elect, of those 
 whom the Father gave him. 
 
 1 am not one of those, God forbid I ever should, 
 who ascribe every defect in a publication, to a cunning 
 artiiice of the author to conceal the truth. But I con- 
 fess, I have been astonished not to find in any of Mr. 
 M'C's publications, a single glance at the eternal co- 
 venant between the Father and the Son. And yet, 
 this is precisely the subject in dispute. It has been 
 customary with all divines, who admit a covenant of 
 grace at all, to make, in one way or other, a distinc- 
 tion between the transaction of the Father and Son la 
 Heaven from all eternity, and the ejQTects of that trans- 
 action in time. Some have called the former the co- 
 venant of redemption, and the latter the covenant of 
 grace ; making them two covenants. Some again, who 
 insist that there is but one covenant, make a distinc- 
 tion between that covenant and its execution. Now 
 Mr. M*C. confines himself entirely to what the latter 
 call the execution of the covenant. In this view his 
 first publication (The Body of Christ,) has its merit ; 
 I mean the merit of being perfectly sound. It is an 
 absolute truth, as he states, that the Holy Spirit is the 
 bond of union between Jesus Christ and believers; and 
 that this same work of that spirit, produces on their 
 
44 
 
 part faith, love, and submission, and gives tliem an in- 
 terest in the righteousness and i^race of the Redeemer, 
 so that they are one with him ; and that they all stand 
 or fall together — *' because I live ye shall live also." 
 His treatise relates entirely (o what we have been in the 
 habit of calling, the execution of the covenant of grace ; 
 and his views are correct, but he has not added a sin- 
 gle idea to the stock in circulation time ou of mind. 
 
 But why did he not {.rofesstdly examine whether 
 the Scriptures reveal an eternal covpuani between the 
 Father and Son ? Why does the whoh^ amounnt of 
 his reasoning go to the denial of sjich a transaciion ? 
 I understand that there are sever 1 who are about 
 adopting his theory ; all of whom avoid this ground ; 
 one of them at least who was toierably ardetii in the 
 cause ; when pressed with scriptural authority for an 
 eternal covenant, and asked whether there was any 
 covenant before the creation of man ; declined giving 
 any answer. From which it was natural to conclude, 
 that this part of the subject has not been studied by 
 them. The only honourable conjecture I can form re- 
 specting the cause of so strange an omission, is, that 
 whenever some favourite idea, sparkling with the bril- 
 liancy of novelty, takes possession of the human mind, 
 all the stars in the intellectual horizon are absorbed 
 in its splendour; wherever we turn, wherever we look, 
 "we see it, and it alone : It enlightens all subjects, it 
 resolves all diificulties, it removes all objections ; and 
 we are perfectly astonished how purblind mortals con- 
 trived to grope their way on this dark planet before 
 the rising of our star. To this species of fascination 
 all who think, are subject, and subject according to 
 the ardour of their temperament, and the only cure 
 is to lock up the pen, and clap a wafer ou the lips : 
 
45 
 
 and leave to lime, the great subduer of all our passions, 
 to moderate a romantic ardour. 
 
 I have proved from the Holy Scriptures that the Son 
 of God was set up — was anointed a covenant head 
 from all eternity — That a seed was given hiui to be 
 the fruit of his souFs travail — That power was given 
 him over all flesh, that he might give eternal life to as 
 many as the Father had given him — That all those that 
 the Father hath given him shall come unto him — That 
 he rejoiced from all eternity in the habitable parts of the 
 earth, and that his delights were with the sons of men. 
 
 I do therefore assert, that the covenant of grace 
 was made between the Father and the Son from all 
 eternity : That the Son of God did stand in a relation 
 to the elect, which relation did not exist between him 
 and the rest of mankind ; And it is this relation which 
 we mean, when we say that Christ Jesus represented 
 the elect in the covenant of grace. If the special re- 
 lation be admitted, it is idle to dispute about the 
 sound by which we shall express it. Thus far we are 
 sure we are right, and cannot possibly be wrong. Mr. 
 M^Chord will doubtless be looking forward for diffi- 
 culties ; and will already be asking, If this special 
 relation be admitted, how can you reconcile to candour, 
 moral truth, and justice, God's commanding those who 
 do not stand in this peculiv^r relation to his Son, to ac- 
 cept his righteousness, and submit to his authority ? I 
 reply that this difficulty shall be decided on its own 
 proper ground. It is not forgotten nor shall it be forgot- 
 ten. In the mean time, we are sure that in the eternal 
 covenant, the Son of God was anointed a covenant 
 head with a special relation to his elect ; which relation 
 did not exist between him and the non-elect. We are 
 sure this is God's truth ; and we shall not dread any 
 
46 
 
 tliflBculties to which it may expose ns. The same di- 
 vine truth which carries us into difficulties, will carry 
 us out of them. 
 
 We are now on the ground to decide a question 
 which we have in reserve. By turning back to page 
 2S, the reader will find it. This question is now 
 decided, but I shall sum the evidence. Mr. M'^C/s 
 idea is, that a covenant can include only beings 
 actually existing, that Adam represented himself in 
 the covenant of works, and that his posterity are re- 
 presented only when they actually exist, and they are 
 represented only as a part of the original Adam. He 
 carries the same idea into the covenant of grace ; that 
 no believer is represented by Jesus Christ till he ac- 
 tually exists as a believer. If this be true there could 
 be no such thing as an eternal covenant, because there 
 was nothing to represent. Most assuredly the Son of 
 God did not represent himself in the covenant of 
 grace — most undoubtedly he did not come into this 
 world to seek and to save the Son of Grod : most un- 
 doubtedly he did not shed his blood to ransom the Son 
 of God, either personally or substantially considered. 
 As^it was impossible that he should represent himself, 
 so according to Mr. M^Chord's ideas it was impossi- 
 ble that he should represent human persons, or even 
 human nature, for human nature did not exist. There 
 could be no representation, unless any one can brook 
 the blasphemous nonsense, that the glorious Son of 
 God condescended to become the representative of 
 nothing. On this system there was no eternal cove- 
 nant. But I have the word of the Eternal Son of 
 God, that he was anointed a covenant head from all 
 eternity — And that before the earth existed his delights 
 were with the sons of men. My bayonet now more 
 
47 
 
 than crosses that which opposes me. It drinks the 
 heart's blood of the new system : but it is not mine 
 — He gave it me, and his be all the glory. But 
 I cannot but conjure those who are for setting aside 
 the eternal covenant of grace, only to consider with 
 whom it is they are at issue — the way, the truth, 
 AND THE LIFE. Lay thy hand on thy mouth. Say no 
 more. ~ ' 
 
 The reader will have the goodness to apply the 
 principle of this reasoning to the covenant of works ; 
 and to satisfy himself that human beings may be in- 
 cluded in a covenant long before they are born — That 
 God had determined the number, and the names, and 
 the bounds of the habitation, of all who should be af- 
 fected by Adam's covenant, in his own infinite mind, 
 when he bound them all in the covenant of works. 
 He knew them all, and intended that they jointly 
 and individually should be affected by that covenant. 
 To this covenant Adam consented, and it did not re- 
 quire more humility than he possessed to assent to the 
 will of God ; notwithstanding that, he could not fore- 
 see the extent of the consequences — Though a similar 
 assent to the will of God without an explanation might 
 perhaps require more humility than we can furnish in 
 this philosophical age. But alas, we lost our humility 
 at the same time that we lost our wisdom, and all oui 
 other merits. 
 
 But gentle reader, thou art probably tired, and so 
 am I : wishing thee therefore a good night, and sound 
 repose, I withdraw. In the morning we shall be calle,d 
 to tempt our perilous way. 
 
 Per lupes, scopulosque, adituque carentiasaxa- 
 Qua via difficilis, quaque est via nulla. 
 
48 
 
 The last phrase is too strong : there is a way ; and 
 the pii/ar of a cloud by day, and the pillar of Jire by 
 ni^^ht shall be our guide ; wlien it stands we encamp, 
 and when ii moves we march ; and though we should 
 lay our hones in the naked sands, we shall not attempt 
 to cross the awful wilderness by any other guide. 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 
 Of ClirisVs Righteousness, 
 
 The subject proposed for discussion, is not properly 
 any part of the question at issue respecting the new 
 doctrine. Mr. M"C. has the same views respecting 
 the righteousness — tlie atonement — the obedience and 
 suiTerings of Christ, with the purest churches of the 
 reformation. This public notice is given, least the 
 reader finding me in opposition to that gentleman in 
 some things, should imagine me opposed to him in 
 every thing ; and should infer that because 1 attempt to 
 establish a doctrine, therefore he denies it. It is indeed, 
 one of the grand secrets of controversy, to prove what 
 your adversary admits, and it is still better to prove 
 what nobody ever denied — To heap argument on ar- 
 gument, and demonstration on demonstration — To 
 challenge your opponent and the whole human race to 
 contradict you — And then you may fling out a dozen 
 or two hard terras about intellectual force, and intel- 
 lectual debility, about prejudice, and fools, and ideots ; 
 nine-tenths of your readers will all this time imagine 
 that your opponent is the driveller at whose solid head 
 the thunderbolts are launched ; and that you are the 
 intellectual giant, whose single arm is law. When- 
 
49 
 
 ever a good treatise shall be published on the art of 
 sophistry, this precept will occupy a distinguished 
 place in it. 
 
 Nee Phoebo gratior ulla est, 
 
 Quam sibi quae Vari praescripsit fragina nomen. 
 
 Such a work is a desideratum in modern literature ; 
 and if well executed, would bid more fair for public 
 usefulness than any of the voluminous and endless 
 publications of our age. O that some logical M^ichia- 
 vel might arise, to shew mankind not how they ought 
 to reason, for that would do them little good — but to 
 shew them how they do reason. The logician might 
 then be bound in the same vellum, and placed on the 
 same shelf with the prince. 
 
 The sole object of discussing the subject of Christ's 
 righteousness in this place, is a desire that the present 
 treatise may contain something like a synopsis of the 
 scriptural doctrine respecting the fall and recovery of 
 man. The points which are generally acquiesced in 
 shall be briefly noticed, and the principal attention di- 
 rected towards the points where truth is either assault- 
 ed or menaced. 
 
 That sinners of mankind are saved by Jesus Christ, 
 and by him alone, is the sum total of the doctrine 
 taught in the Holy Scriptures ; a doctrine which no 
 man can deny without giving up those Scriptures as 
 false, and delusive ; and becoming a real iniidel, by 
 whatever name he may choose to be called. And if 
 any one desires to know what this Saviour has done, 
 is doing, and will do, for the salvation of sinners, let 
 him search the Scriptures, and he shall be satisfied. 
 The few following passages of Scripture, it is hoped 
 will give a sufficiently satisfactory idea of the subject* 
 
dO 
 
 John X. 14, &c. ^^lam the s;ood slieplierd, and 
 know my sheep, ai d m known of mine. As the Fa- 
 ther knoweth me, even so know I the Father : and I 
 lay down my life for the sheep. And other sheep I 
 have, which are n >r 'd this foid ; them also I must 
 bring, and they shall hear my voice : and there shall 
 be one fold, and 0'!e s! epherd.' 
 
 ^* Therefore doth my father love me, because I lay 
 down my life, that I might take it agaiy. !\o person 
 take'h it from me, but I lay it down of myself: I have 
 power to lay it down, and I have power to take it 
 again. This commandment have I received of my 
 Father." 
 
 It is apparent that our Lord speaks of his sheep 
 under different considerations : some of them alrea.'y 
 knew him, were already obedient to his voice ; I know 
 iny sheep, and am known of mine — Some of them were 
 yet strangers ; But them also, says he, must I bring, 
 and they shall hear my voice : but for both he laid 
 down his life. 
 
 Titus ii.l4. " Who gave himself for us, that he might 
 redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a 
 peculiar people zealous of good works." 
 
 Heb. ii. 10. " It became him, for whom are all things, 
 and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons 
 unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation per- 
 fect through sufferings.'^ 
 
 Gal. iv. 4, 5. " But when the fulness of time was 
 come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman ; made 
 under the law, to redeem them that were under the 
 law, that we might receive the adoption of sons." 
 
 Mat. V. 17. ^* Think not that I am come to de- 
 stroy the law or the prophets ; I am not come to destroy, 
 
 but to FULFIL." 
 
 '< Mat. iii. 13, &e. " Then cometh Jesus from GaU 
 
Si 
 
 like to Jordan, unto John, to be baptized of hitn. But 
 John forbade him, saying, I have need to be baptized 
 of thee, and cotaest thou to me. But Jesus answering, 
 said unto him, suffer it to be so now : for thus it be- 
 cometh us to fulfil all righteousness." 
 
 These texts are sufficient, though it would require 
 only the trouble of transcription, to produce ten times 
 as many ; but these are sufficient to prove to any in- 
 quirer, that the Son of God was born under the law of 
 the broken covenant of m orks. That he was subject 
 to that law, and fulfilled it ; that he paid the penalty 
 incurred by Adam's transgression ; and wrought out 
 the righteousness which the law required — that he 
 left nothing undone, either in regard to suffering, or in 
 regard to obedience, which the law did, or could de- 
 mand — and that he was thus subject to the law — that 
 he thus fulfilled all its requisitions, not of necessity, 
 but of his own free choice. It is this fulfilling of the 
 law in all things, that is meant by Christ's righteous- 
 ness. And it is no absurd, it is no unphilosophical 
 assertion, to say that men are saved by the righteous- 
 ness of Jesus Christ ; for it is no more* than to say 
 that they arc saved by the original law, which God 
 gave them, in Paradise. In fact, men are ultimately 
 saved by the covenant of works ; but truly not l)y 
 works of righteousness which they themselves have 
 done. 
 
 While the generalization of our ideas, while sys- 
 tematizing, marks the dignity of the human understand- 
 ing, premature generalization, systems formed out of 
 defective materials, have done immense injury. Some 
 theorists, for reasons which it would not he difficult to 
 assign, have admitted that the sufferings of Jesus, but 
 not his obedience, are the grounds of a believer's justi- 
 
fication. They had a system, and to preserve the ifl- 
 teg'ity of their system, tuey must reject as plain a truth 
 as the Scriptures contain ; aud adopt a notion as in- 
 conceiva))le, and as absurd as any that ever entered 
 the mind of man. For, if the Son of God had not been 
 under the precept of the law, he never could have 
 been under the penalty ; the latter is entirely subsidi- 
 ary to the former ; till he was under the precept of the 
 law, he could no more owe it satisfaction for past vio- 
 lation, than obedience, and if he was under it all, he 
 must owe it both. And so it commonly fares with sys- 
 tem-mongers. Happier is the man, and safer by far, 
 who governs himself by a few ascertained truths, 
 though they should be as detached, and unsystematiz- 
 ed, as the proverbs of Solomon, or the proverbs of 
 Saneho Panza, than the man who rashly makes a sys- 
 tem without materials. 
 
 Now it is salvation by this righteousness of Jesus 
 Christ, this perfect fulfilment of the law which God 
 originally gave to man, which is proclaimed in the 
 the gospel. Rom. i. 16, &c. " I am not ashamed of 
 the gospel of Christ : for it is the power of God unto 
 salvation, to every one that believeth ; to the Jew first, 
 and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteous- 
 ness of God, revealed from faith to faith, as it is writ- 
 ten the just shall live by faith." I had marked for 
 quotation a great many passages of Scripture on this 
 subject, in order to shew that the covenant of grace is 
 essentially the covenant of works — that it is the most 
 philosophical thing in the world, a philosophy of 
 which no man need be ashamed, to assert, that in the 
 gospel a righteousness of God's own — which righte- 
 ousness is neither less uor more than a complete fulfil- 
 ment of the original law — is revealed to man — and 
 
53 
 
 that every subject of that law, who possesses this 
 righteousness shall be, and must be justified by it. 
 But the work swells under my hand, and I am 
 pinched for time. I therefore proceed directly to the 
 fatal spot where the battle must be decided one way or 
 other. 
 
 SECTION V. 
 
 The question then is this. Does the merit and im- 
 putability of Christ's righteousness depend on his re- 
 presentative character ? 
 
 Reader, put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the 
 place whereon thou standest is holy ground ! A sacred 
 horror chills my blood through all my veins — Horres- 
 co referens. On this sacred central spot, chiefs of 
 mighty armies and high renown have fallen : here the 
 fiend has ten thousand times triumphed. From this 
 spot branch off in all directions these human systems 
 of theology, which have injured the beauty of the gos- 
 pel ; and been the cause of so much schism, strife, and 
 controversy, and malignant passion in the church of 
 God. Systems around which theologians j? xvy.ai, en- 
 gage, nor quit the grinning hold, vitamque in vulnere 
 pouunt. Let us therefore pause on this spot, and in- 
 voking the spirit of all truth to guide our every step, 
 let us advance with sacred awe and sacred caution. 
 
 And since it cannot be denied that Adam's guilt is 
 ours, because he represerited us — that God visits the ini- 
 quities of the father's on their children, because those 
 fathers represented them — that nations are punished 
 for the sins of their rulers, because those rulers laere 
 their representatives j let us suppose that the imputa- 
 
54 
 
 bility of Christ's righteousness depends on his repre- 
 sentative character — that is, his righteousness is meri- 
 torious of human salvation, and capable of being im- 
 puted to men, because he represented them in the 
 covenant of grace. Adopting this idea, let us try- 
 whither, in conjunction with undoubted trutlis, it will 
 carry us : and let us mark every step of our progress* 
 
 I. ROAD. 
 
 4. Eternal salvation, or in other words, the righte- 
 ousness of Jesus Christ, the procuring cause of that 
 salvation, is offered to all mankind by God himself in 
 the gospel. 
 
 2. Therefore the righteousness of Jesus Christ is 
 meritorious of the salvation of all mankind, and is ca- 
 pable of being imputed to every one of them. 
 
 3. But the righteousness of Jesus is meritorious and 
 imputable to men, because he is their representative. 
 
 4. Therefore Jesus Christ represented all mankind, 
 and every man of them, in the covenant of grace. 
 
 5. Consequently all mankind and every man, will 
 eventually be saved. Though worlds should perish, 
 though ages of torment should hold on their incalcula- 
 ble round, though system should succeed to system, 
 till the human imagination becomes incapable of grasp- 
 ing the vast idea — still the son of God will conduct to 
 glory all that he represented. 
 
 Here then we have the system of the redemptional 
 universalists. The deistical universalists are a differ- 
 ent breed, and closely allied to the family of atheists. 
 
 The reader is requested to put the above train of ar- 
 gument to the severest test. Let it be tortured, to con- 
 fess if it has a single secret error about it ', with the 
 
5^ 
 
 exception of the third step, which I have put ia italic, 
 merely to mark it as suspicioiiSy for even the guilty 
 shall not be condemned till the jury are satisfied with 
 evidence, and a2;reed to a man in their verdict. But 
 admitting this step to be legitimate, I pronounce the 
 whole system invulnerable. 
 
 II. ROAD. 
 
 1. Eternal life is oifered to all men by God, and they 
 are commanded by God to accept it. 
 
 2. It is therefore equally capable of becoming the 
 property of all. 
 
 3. But the reason Jesus can impart life to all, is be- 
 cause he gave his life for all, or represented all men, in 
 the covenant of grace. 
 
 4. Therefore Jesus Christ made a universal atone- 
 ment for all mankind. 
 
 5. But as it is impossible to imagine that he should 
 atone for the sins of all men, and withhold from some 
 of them the grace requisite to make the atonement pro- 
 fitable ; universal grace is given to all men to be saved 
 by the atonement. 
 
 6. And as some men are saved and others not, it 
 follows, that those who are saved, are not saved by the 
 atonement of Jesus Christ, nor by the grace originally 
 given them ; for these were equally the possession of 
 those who are not saved ; consequently they who are 
 saved must be saved by their own fersonal faith and 
 righteousness, which are the only circumstances in 
 which they differ from the others. 
 
 7. Therefore Jesus Christ did not save men ; but 
 placed them in a saveable state ; and by his universal 
 
56 
 
 retlemption and universal grace, put them in a condi- 
 tion to save themselves. 
 
 8. Since the atonement and grace are universal, and 
 some believe and otliers do not believe, it foUovi^s that 
 the grace is not necessarily efficacious ; and since no 
 other cause can be assigned of its efficacy in any, we 
 must ascribe it to the free-will of man. 
 
 9. And since the grace of the Lord Jesus is no4 ne- 
 cessarily efficacious, on this free-will, it follows that a 
 saint's standing in grace is not infallibly secured, he 
 may tlierefore fall away and be lost. 
 
 This is the Arminian system ; and let the reader be 
 conjured to put it to the torture, and ti'y its metal. 
 With the exception of the third step, now become 
 doubly suspicious, I do believe that it will stand the 
 most rigorous investigation that can be given. I can 
 only speak for myself, and must say this system ap- 
 pears to me, with the single exception mentioned, to 
 be one of the most gigantic efforts of human genius. 
 Neither St. Paul's at London, nor St. Peter's at Rome, 
 nor any other basilic, ancient or modern, exhibits such 
 grandeur of design, such proportion of parts, such 
 powerful combinations, such totality, as this system. 
 I do not believe the system to be true ; and therefore 
 I wonder at it the more ; what painful researches ; 
 what troublesome objections ; what searching of the 
 Scriptures ; what textual difficulties ; what verbal 
 niceties ; and yet after all the structure is finished off, 
 and covered in with so bold and awful a dome, that 
 we gaze with wonder and with terror, and ask if the 
 architect was a man ! But wonder at what we may, it 
 is no wonder at all that the heads which put this system 
 together should hitherto have double distanced all 
 competitors on the field of moral science. I speak of it 
 
57 
 
 merely as a system ; it is possible to batter it all around 
 with texts of Scripture ; but if its elemental principles 
 be granted, it will be impossible to find a flaw in the 
 the arguments. 
 
 Let us advert to one curious circumstance, which 
 shows the struggle of sound faith with false philoso- 
 phy. The Arminian has often been puzzled with the 
 question, why, seeing you maintain universal atone- 
 ment and universal grace, do you not also admit uni- 
 versal salvation ? And he certainly would have, ac- 
 cording to fair reasoning, to have admitted universal 
 salvation, had not his faith hedged him in. He saw 
 in the Scriptures that all men will not be saved ; and 
 admitting this among his elemental truths ; he had to 
 part wiih the redemptional universalist. His task be- 
 came more diflBcult ; but his system became grander, 
 and more complex. 
 
 III. ROAD. 
 
 1. The oflPer of everlasting life is made to all men 
 in the gospel. 
 
 S. Jesus Christ specifically atoned for the elect ; or 
 ^represented the elect alone in the covenant of grace. 
 
 3. But this atonement, or its imputability, depended 
 on his representative character. 
 
 4. Now since he specifically died for the elect, and 
 is proclaimed a Saviour to the non elect, it follows that 
 lie must in some sense have died for all men. 
 
 What that some sense is we are not told ; but it 
 would seem that he did not die for the non-elect in the 
 same sense in which he died for the elect. 
 
 This doctrine I have read in a book written by a 
 
58 
 
 New England divine, who had the honour of repre- 
 senting his country in the congress of the United 
 States. The same doctrine may be found in the writ- 
 ings and speeches of others ; but I cannot name any 
 party or denomination who have made it their badge 
 and shibboletii. 
 
 IV. ROAD. 
 
 1. The gospel oflfers righteousness and life to all 
 men, by Jesus Christ. 
 
 2. Therefore men indefinitely have a right to ac- 
 cept this atonement. 
 
 3. ihe imputability of that atonement depends 
 on his representation. 
 
 ■■:-. Con -equently Jesus Christ died not for all men — 
 nor for any man in particular, but for men indefinitely. 
 With respect to this system of indefinite atonement, 
 I mean to say only this much, that it has this singular 
 merit, honour, and glory, beyond all the other systems 
 that ever were in this world, that it is built up without 
 the expense of one single idea, good or bad. 
 
 Is it any wonder that the human understanding, 
 after finding itself tantalized with a vocabulary of 
 sounds, about an atonement made for those who were 
 not intended to be saved by it — and made in some sense 
 for all men — about an indefinite atonement, made for 
 every man, and for no man — Should turn away with 
 disgust from sounds which neither profit the head nor 
 the heart, nor fit a man for either this life or the next ; 
 and give up the atonement altogether. There is no 
 mystery respecting the cause of the increase of Soci- 
 nianism, it is only ceasing to use a word, that has long 
 lost its meaning. 
 
59 
 
 V. ROAD. 
 
 The most frightful idea on the suhject of atonement^ 
 or any other subject, that ever entered the human heart, 
 was broached some years ago in Edinburgh. It was 
 this : That Jesus Christ did indeed die for all — both 
 elect and non-elect. That he purchased them all from 
 his heavenly Father ; the elect, that he might confer 
 upon them eternal life, the non-elect, that he might 
 inflict on them everlasting wrath. That, in conse- 
 quence of this purchase, he has the privilege of bestow- 
 ing on the one, the everlasting consolations of heaven ; 
 and of inflicting on the other, the superior torments of 
 what they csiWed gospel wrath ; in short, that the Son 
 of God laid down his life, as much that he might damn 
 one class of mankind, as that he might save the other. 
 But I have never understood, that a party could be 
 gotten to rally round so black a standard. The heart 
 recoiled from giving both God and the Saviour such a 
 character, that it could not behold them without terror 
 and hatred. 
 
 I could name some other systems, corrupted by the 
 same sophism ; but as the worst of all surfeits, is a 
 logical surfeit, I forbear. There are, however, some 
 straggling, unsystematized ideas floating in society, 
 which I may just hint at ; such as the following :•— 
 That we offer eternal life to all the hearers of the gos- 
 pel, because we do not know who are elected. This 
 is a very lank sophism ; because since it is God, 
 who knoweth all things, that makes the offer of life to 
 all men, it follows, that either it ought to be complied 
 with, or ought not : and if complied with, the salvafion 
 of the applicant must be possible, nay certain. Again, 
 
60 
 
 we have heard it said, that there is not a promise in 
 the whole word of God, except to believers : which is 
 as much as to say, tl-iat a man must believe, before 
 there is any thing for him to believe ; or, speaking in 
 the technical phrase, the act of faith must exist before 
 its object ; or, taliving with mathematicians, I must 
 demonstrate a proposition before there can be any pro- 
 position to be demonstrated. But I forbear. 
 
 Let us now sum up our acquisitions. We have 
 found, that by assuming the principle that Christ's 
 righteousness is imputable to men, because he repre- 
 sented them in the covenant — and, combining it with 
 truths of unquestionable authority, it universally led 
 us astray ; it made us, in one set of principles, univer- 
 salists, in another, Arminians, in another, something 
 else ; in a word, there was not an error on the subject, 
 into which it did not lead us ; till we were obliged to 
 give up atonement all together : Can this principle 
 then be true ? Can that condiment which mixed with 
 every dish of every kind, converts them all into poison, 
 be any thing but poison ? Did ever truth in conjunc- 
 tion with truth generate error ? 
 
 Now this very principle is assumed through the 
 whole of Mr. M^C.^s scheme. Nay, it was the as- 
 sumption of this principle that laid the necessity for 
 his scheme. It mingles itself with the whole, and 
 leavens the whole ; it is the anima mundi of the system, 
 from it all things proceed, and into it all things are 
 finally resolved. I shall verify this by a quotation. 
 
 Plea, p. S8, 29. After proving, by several quota- 
 tions, that the gospel offers peace, and pardon, and 
 everlasting life, to every creature, he goes on to argue 
 thus : 
 
 ^* Clearly then, if the commission embraces ^ every 
 
6i 
 
 creature/ and is to be executed in this way, the proffer 
 of the gospel must include all the virtues of the atone- 
 ment, intercession, and every other official act of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, which enter iuto tlie ground work 
 of salvation. Now let it be inquired how such a pro- 
 clamation of the gospel of peace can possibly comport 
 with the assumptions laid down in the individualizing 
 scheme ? Did our Lord Jesus Christ formally and 
 from the first, include under his rejiresentation all 
 those whom it is his pleasure shall be saved ? Did he 
 do it in such a way that the virtues of his office, while 
 they must of necessity extend to them formally and le- 
 gally speaking, cannot by possibility be extended to 
 others, but upon the supposition, that as they were not 
 represented^ they must be pardoned without satisfac- 
 tion, justified without righteousness, and saved without 
 intercession ? — then, we say, that the proclamation of 
 the gospel to characters of this description, would not 
 merely amount to a piece of solemn mockery ; it would 
 be directly and unequivocally the proclamation of a 
 lie ; and the doctrine which authorizes it, is nothing 
 less than blasphemy against Almighty God. What ! 
 men officially appointed to offer pardon and righteous- 
 ness, and eternal life, in God's name, ^ in Christ's 
 stead,' when no pardon has been produced, tiiat the 
 law will permit to be applied to them ! When no 
 righteousness has been prepared, that by possibility of 
 application might be made to cover them ! When no 
 intercessor could, consistently with his official engage- 
 ment, undertake for them ! And when they are left, to 
 all intents and purposes, in the same relations, and in 
 the same condition in law and in fact, as if no such 
 thing as a Saviour had been appointed for the world ! 
 Who dare ascribe to God this worse that Punic faith ? 
 
03 
 
 Who that does ascribe it, dare presume to say that 
 ' faithfulness shall be the giidie of his reins ?' " 
 
 Clearly then Mr. M^Chord does assume, as a prin- 
 eiple, that the imputability of Christ's riajbteousness 
 depends on his representative character — and that 
 if mankind were not represented by Jesus Christ, 
 this rij^hteousness would not be capable of being 
 imputed to them. And truly, if I believed the as- 
 sumption, I could not get free from the conclusion. 
 And then I must either give up the bible as a poor de- 
 lusion ; or hold it, without being able to see its con- 
 sistency with any one moral attribute of the Deity. 
 Mr. M^C. does not draw his conclusions too strong, 
 he does not speak too loud ; human language has not 
 thunders loud enough to anathematise the idea, that 
 Christ's righteousness is not imputable to every soul of 
 man ; that every soul of man, who hears the joyful 
 sound, has not a right, nay, is not bound in duty, 
 bound under everlasting penalties, to accept the prof- 
 ferred life — And that every soul who doth embrace 
 the proffered life, shall enjoy it, so surely as it is true, 
 that God, who cannot lie, hath said it. I therefore go 
 en to demonstrate. 
 
 SECTION VI. 
 
 TJiat the imputability of Chrisfs righteousness does 
 not dependM any manner, nor in any degree, on his 
 representative character. 
 
 But what ! my reader will say, did you not tell me, 
 at the beginning, that the imputability of Adam's guilt 
 depended on his representative character ? I did. And 
 
63 
 
 did you not admit that the imputation of merit and de- 
 merit, in human societies, depended on the representa- 
 tion of those societies by tlieir rulers ? I did. And 
 do you assert that the imputability of Christ's merit 
 does not depend on his representative character? 1 do. 
 I assert, that it does not at all depend on such repre- 
 sentation. Will you not then involve yourself in a 
 difficulty by assigning representation as the ground of 
 imputation in the one case, and not in the other ? But 
 what if I should get into a difficulty, since I cannot 
 avoid it ? At least you had better remove the difficulty 
 before you go farther. No, Sir, I am not fond of diffi- 
 culties, and keep out of them as long as I can. And 
 I shall tell you how I mean to manage this one. I 
 shall try to demonstrate my doctrine ; If I fail ia 
 my proof I shall never meet the difficulty — should 
 I succeed in proving that this is the very truth, then I 
 shall hold it in spite of ten thousand difficulties. And 
 whenever I meet a difficulty which I cannot remove, 
 or jump over, I shall plant my standard, and let the 
 commander in chief call a better soldier to carry it 
 farther. 
 
 I do not here urge the proof which has been offered, 
 that the assumptiom of the truth of the principle in ques- 
 tion, has always corrupted the faith of the gospel; and 
 I should have spared myself the trouble of stating the 
 subject with so much formality : but I thought it a fair 
 occasion to pay an old debt, long due to old foes. We 
 never have met without a battle ; and we never shall 
 meet without a battle. They have had their day, and 
 I shall have mine ; for the feud is sworn and deadly 
 on both sides. I have showed to all, the very spot on 
 which those who have hitherto corrupted the church's 
 faith, have stumbled. It was bv assumius; that the im- 
 
6h 
 
 pulation of Christ's rigliteousness depends on his repre' 
 sentative character. And it is an anxious desire to dis- 
 charge a duty of love to Mr. M'C. by setting liim, as 
 soon as possible, on his feet, and keeping him from the 
 most unfortunate of all situations, that of a leader in er- 
 roneous doctrine — that induced me to hasten so rapidly, 
 this publication. I do not believe that his error has 
 yet essentially affected his faith, and perhaps he might 
 continue to hold his otherwise salutary creed. But 
 when I consider that this single mistake has, in all in- 
 stances, issued in fearful consequence, I must not be 
 slack. 
 
 By the righteousness of Jesus Christ, I understand 
 his complete fulfilment of the law of works, both by 
 obeying its precept, and paying the penalty incurred 
 by human transgression. But if you ask why it is me- 
 ritorious ? I ask again, what makes light to be light? 
 what makes truth to be truth ? Because it is their na- 
 ture, you will reply — right ! And let me add, that it 
 is the glorious nature of righteousness to be meritori- 
 ous, according to tlie nature of the law% Now the law 
 of works was of such a nature, that its righteousness, 
 whenever wrought out, was capable of being imputed 
 to all the subjects of that law. If Adam had fulfilled 
 the law, this righteousness would have been imputable 
 to all mankind. This law Jesus Christ actually ful- 
 filled, and produced its perfect righteousness. But the 
 righteousness which the law required, was a righteous- 
 ness capable of being imputed to every human being; 
 consequently the righteousness of Jesus Christ is ca- 
 pable of being imputed to every man. If he had not 
 produced a righteousness capable of saving every man 
 under the law, he would not have produced the righte- 
 ousness of the law. Of consequence, the imputability 
 
65 
 
 of Christ^s righteousness, springs entirely from the na- 
 ture of the covenant of works. I call this demonstra- 
 tion unassailable ! v <• / ; v ^ 
 
 The provisions of the covenant of grace have nothing 
 to rlo with this subject. To whom God will eventual- 
 ly bestow this righteousness — how many he will give 
 to his Son, as the travail of his soul, are questions for 
 them to settle among tliemselves. They may do wiiat 
 they will with their own. Let no man presume to 
 juestion them ! But the righteousness of the law of 
 works is capable of saving all mankind. If Jesus 
 Christ had not represented a single human creature, 
 still his righteousness would have been what it is, the 
 righteousness of the law. If he had represented the 
 whole, still his righteousness would not have been any 
 thing else than what it is, the righteousness of the law. 
 Should all men reject it, it would still be the righte- 
 ousness of the law that they rejected ; and should all 
 men accept it, it would be nothing more than the righte- 
 ousness of the law. It was not the representative cha- 
 racter of Jesus in the covenant of grace, but the repre- 
 sentative character of Adam in the covenant of works, 
 that rendered the righteousness of that law capable of 
 being imputed to mankind. 
 
 And now, reader, I have finished my demonstration, 
 and do honestly believe, that I have proved that the 
 imputability of Christ's righteousness does not depend 
 in any manner, nor i any degree, on his representa- 
 tive character in the covenant. And it would, per- 
 haps, be doing thee no disservice to leave thy difficul- 
 ty to be solved by thy own ingenuity. Yet I shall 
 just touch it with the wand of truth, to enfeeble it a lit- 
 tle ; it is not with the trouble of dissection. 
 
 The reason why Adam's merit or demerit was im- 
 
 K 
 
66 
 
 putable, by reason of his representative character — 
 and why the iuiputability of Christ's ng'^ieousness does 
 not depend on his representative cbas acter, is this : 
 the former was an original institute— ihe latter a re- 
 medial law. 
 
 Mr. M^C. will understand me. He once studied 
 law ; and has enriched our ecclesiastical vocabulary 
 with (what it could well have spared) a new word horn 
 that source. He can turn to his Blackstone, or any 
 other elementary legal philosopher^ on the nature of 
 remedial statutes. He will find the following to be the 
 amount of the doctrine. An original law establishes 
 its own principle : and the covenant of works esta- 
 blishes its principle, that the righteousness of Adam, 
 or his guilt, should be transmissible to all mankind. I 
 say this representative principle was established by the 
 covenant of works, and by it alone. I have already 
 discussed that covenant, and shall not repeat my ob- 
 servations. Mr. M'C. thinks otherwise. — Page 26. 
 
 ^^ And, now, in what column of this array do you find 
 any other connecting principle than the one which I 
 avowed? We were told, indeed, by Mr. Craig, when 
 this matter was discussed, that the covenant itself is the 
 bond of union. — That is, in plain English, the cove- 
 nant of works is the bond of the covenant of works. 
 Now I should have supposed that the covenant of 
 works was the bond wlwch united together the Creator 
 and the creature in a covenant relation ; and I should 
 have imagined, that to say so, however orthodox the 
 sentiment, would have been to assert a mere truism 
 which nobody need repeat. But the question is not, 
 what biuds humanity in a covenant relation with God? 
 But, what binds all the human rare together ? What 
 is it that identifies them with Adam^ their common 
 
67 
 
 head, so as to render them one with him in the relation 
 in which he stood to God ? I have named natural ge- 
 neration as the bond ; your Confession and catechisms 
 conspire to name it frequently ; and they name no 
 other. This your Presbyter}- have noted as a heresy; 
 and T call upon this Synod to chastise their error." 
 
 There is a little good humoured superciliousness in 
 this passage, arising from too great security respecting 
 the strength of his fortress. It turns out, however, in 
 this case, that Mr. Craig was the philosopher. I have 
 proved that Mr. M^C's. principle of union is siiadowy, 
 but I cannot dilate : I pledge myself, liowever, to 
 prove, on a moment's notice, that the natural relations 
 of man, and their moral obligation, though exact cor- 
 relates, are distinct systems. 1 sliall show you every 
 natural relation, without its correlate moral obligation; 
 and every moral obligation without its correlate na- 
 tural relation. 
 
 The covenant of grace, on the contrary, was a re- 
 medial law. If the principle of a law be found wrong, 
 or totally useless, through some change in the state of 
 society, the statute is abolished. But if the principle 
 of the law be good and useful, and yet its operation 
 injurious, by reason of some change in society, a reme- 
 dial statute is introduced ; which always allows the 
 principle of the original law to continue in all its ori- 
 ginal and unmodified force : and provides a remedy 
 against the evils, and means to secure all the good ef- 
 fects of the original institute. 
 
 Now, the principle of the law of works was, that its 
 righteousness wrought out by an individual, siiould be 
 transmissible to all other individuals. This principle 
 is not once touched, changed, or modified by the cove- 
 nant of grace. 
 
i5S 
 
 But, owini^ to a change in the state of society, this 
 principle must have produced the most tremendous ef- 
 fects ; it would liave left God without a worshipper 
 among a whole race of rational creatures ; and would 
 have entailed wrath and destruction on every creature 
 that ever should come under the law. This is the evil 
 to bo remedied by the remedial law. Let us see by 
 what means it is effected. 
 
 1. A new covenant head must be found, and he must 
 possess human nature, because the covenant was made 
 for human nature ; but he must not be a human per- 
 son, because every human person under that covenant is 
 condemned to death on his own account. But ^^ O the 
 depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge 
 of Grod — how unsearchable are his judgments, and his 
 ways past finding out." He sees that his own Son, 
 uniting himself to human nature, and voluntarily plac- 
 ing himself under the broken law of the covenant of 
 works, could fulfil its rigliteousuess, which must be a 
 transmissible righteousness. 
 
 3. It is determined that a seed, definite in number, 
 and known to both parties by name, shall be brought 
 to him by the father, and become heirs of this righte- 
 ousness, and of the life which is its reward : these the 
 father promises ; and these Jesus accepts as the travail 
 of his soul. 
 
 3. Power over all flesh, yea, power over the 
 whole universe is given to the Son of God, that he may 
 give eternal life to as many as the Father hath given 
 him. 
 
 This is the remedial covenant ; The condition of it 
 was, on the one hand, that the Son of God should fulfil 
 the broken covenant of works — and on the other, that 
 he should receive the elect as his reward — And power 
 
69 
 
 over the universe, that he may collect these beloved 
 objects at the respective times agreed upon by him and 
 and his Father. Now it has always been customary 
 to consider Jesus as bearing a relation to those elected 
 ones, which he does not bear to the non-elect ; as 
 knowing them, delighting in them, coming into the 
 world to save them ; while no such language is used 
 of the others. The texts are not rightly interpreted, 
 which are brought to prove that he knew all men 
 alike as his from all eternity, loved all alike, and came 
 into the world with the design of bringing them all to 
 glory. 
 
 The reader, by turning to page 43, will find me 
 pledged to put down the spectre of imaginary repre- 
 sentation, on its own proper field. This is that field. 
 The two covenants have been viewed as distinct ori- 
 ginal institutions of similar parts, and propoitions, and 
 something must be looked for in the one exactly simi- 
 lar to what is in the other ; and hence as Adam's 
 guilt is imputable, because of his representation, so of 
 course must Christ's righteousness be imputable, in 
 consequence of his representation. But the former 
 covenant only is an original institution ; and there- 
 fore its radical principle must be peculiar to itself, 
 and must be supposed, not enacted in the remedial 
 law. 
 
 Mr. M*C has now the means put into liis hands of 
 disabusing himself of a mistake which must have given 
 him a prodigious deal of trouble. And perhaps I 
 might safely trust the matter to his own industry. But 
 knowing, as I do, the strong parental storge that 
 throbs and yearns in the bosom over those children 
 of the brain, how we admire their every feature, mark 
 their bone and muscle, anticipate their future achieve- 
 
70 
 
 ments, live over our life again in theirs, and enjoy the 
 inchanting dream of immortality on earth : when I 
 reflect that in no case, are those feelings more justifia- 
 ble, more amiable, and more admirable, than when a 
 minister of the gospel verily believes that he has dis- 
 covered an idea, which will, in some future day, ena- 
 ble many a troubled preacher to expound many a text ; 
 which will quench the fiery darts of the devil in many 
 a wounded conscience ; which will hammer down the 
 towers of error, that overlook the walls of our Jerusa- 
 lem ; when I consider all these things ; and that se- 
 veral others are beginning to contract a fondness for 
 this smiling and promising babe, I beg to be indulged 
 in a little more slow and cool investigation of its me- 
 rits. 
 
 Such investigation has satisfied me, that this is a 
 mere metaphysical deception, and that, like all such, 
 it is at bottom only a word, without auy real meaning, 
 and therefore just fit to pick up with some stroll of er- 
 ror on the first occasion. 
 
 Let us again tread metaphysical ground. It is very 
 true that Adam represented his own person ; and that 
 we then existed substantially. But T apprehend that 
 this is true only in respect to these mortal bodies : 
 begging pardon of the physiologists for trespassing 
 on their grounds, I must deny that our souls existed in 
 Adam in any sense. M^^ soul refuses to acknowledge any 
 father but the Creator of angels and of men,* the Grod 
 and Father of Jesus Christ. How little then did actual- 
 ly exist in Adam, only the germs of these animal struc- 
 tures ; how much have we by natural generation from 
 him, only the germs of these animal structures, miris 
 
 * An^uili iimle o Ta???, or something like it, says Homer. 
 
71 
 
 in modis ; but soon to be a feast to the worms. And 
 this is another proof that I did not decide erroneously, 
 that it is not natural generation that is the bond of our 
 union to Adam in the covenant — for on that supposi- 
 tion he could have represented only our bodies, our 
 souls he could not represent ; and then, on the one 
 hand, bodies without souls were not worth represent- 
 ing, and were incapable of either guilt or righteousness 
 — And, on the other, our souls are perfectly free from 
 Adam's guilt, have no interest in Christ's righteous- 
 ness, never were under the law of works, nor the law of 
 grace, nor any other moral law. It is therefore a mere 
 figure to say, we substantially existed in Adam. I 
 grant that it is a fair figure, for the Scriptures use it; 
 there was a material unity established by the law of 
 creation, between our bodies and his — And there was 
 a moral unity established between our souls and his, 
 by the law of the covenant. It is, therefore, only figu- 
 ratively true that we all substantially existed in Adam, 
 that we all are no more than Adam evolved. The 
 proper use of figurative language should be known. 
 
 By figurative language only can mental conceptions 
 or general ideas be conveyed to human beings. The 
 philosophy of the human mind has already reached to 
 such a degree of maturity, that we might expect tiiat 
 a system of theology would not be founded on mistak- 
 ing a figurative term. Yet true it is, that the new sys- 
 tem is nothing less or more, than a mistaken figure of 
 speech. I repeat it again, we did not substantially 
 exist in Adam, (using the literal sense of the phrase) 
 for our souls did not exist in him, and therefore 
 we were not represented by him, because we exist- 
 ed in him substantially. And O, that I had time to 
 prove, what I have time only to throw out, probabjy to 
 
7S 
 
 be knocked about as a paradox, I should prove that the 
 moral system of our race was not made for the natural, 
 but the natural for the moral. If the reader can make 
 any thing of this, it is at his service, if not, he can let 
 it alone. 
 
 Let me then go on to consider Mr. M^C.'s idea, of 
 the representation of the Son of God. And here he has 
 not even a mathematical point to stand on. The de- 
 ception which has been eflPected on his understanding 
 by his imagination, is of the most extraordinary kind. 
 We are all represented by Christ when we believe ; 
 because we, in fact, are one with him ; and nothing 
 more than Christ evolved. How ? Did any one hu- 
 man being ever derive a particle of his body from the 
 Lord Jesus Christ ? Did ever one human soul become 
 a part of the soul of Jesus Christ in the day of effec- 
 tual vocation ? Are either our souls or our bodies a 
 part of the divine nature of Jesus Christ? Not at all ! 
 The conception of such an idea is impossible. And 
 yet the Scriptures say we are one with Christ, and 
 they use the only language by which the idea can be 
 expressed. But let us, avoiding all hard terms, ascer- 
 tain how much we really know of this unity ; that we 
 may know by what name to call it, and how to inter- 
 pret it. 
 
 God elected men to eternal life, and promised them 
 to him as the travail of his soul : they w ere therefore 
 one with him in the covenant relation ; according to 
 the sovereign will, and solemn sanction of the high 
 contracting partias. 
 
 God imputes his Son's righteousness to them, and 
 then they are one with him, being equally justified 
 by the law of works. And yet in this case there is 
 this remarkable difference, that though Jesus pur- 
 
78 
 
 cliased a pardon and Iieaven for them, he did not pur- 
 cha*;e either for himself. 
 
 (rod seinls his Holy Spirit to work upon their hearts 
 —He shoH 8 them that Jesus Christ is willing to save 
 then*, he in^jilres them with faith in the Lord Jesus, iills 
 them with love to him and to his Father, and to righte- 
 ousness. They are one with him in moral righteous- 
 ness. 
 
 Anil as they wish to be near him, they all offer him 
 their service. Their first cry is, can I render thee any 
 service ? What siiall I render to my Lord for all his 
 love ? The elotjuent offers his tongue, the learned his 
 pen, the rich his purse, his house, and his all, the 
 brave offers his gvvord to defend the sacred ark, for 
 even military courage may be sanctified into a christian 
 grace. And when they cannot serve him by action, 
 why then they offer themselves to suffer for him : they 
 present themselves to hunger and nakedness, to penu- 
 ry and toil, to reproach and shame, to slander and 
 scorn ; they offer themselves to the chains of dungeons, 
 and to the contortions of the shameful tree ; they of- 
 fer themselves to be torn by wild beasts, to be tortured 
 by racks, to be sawn asunder, to be burned as candle- 
 wicks. If they cannot have action, they will have suf- 
 fering in his cause ; that they may demonstrate that 
 his love is better than life to them ; and exhibit to 
 mankind the more than angelic majesty of a spirit pu- 
 rified by the blood of the Son of God. 
 
 But is there in all this any thing more than a mere 
 moral or spiritural unity. I know perfectly what you 
 mean, when you tell me of two friends that they have 
 but one soul. I know all about it : I can conceive a 
 common love, confidence, interest : already I see them 
 engaged in the same cause, rushing into the same dan- 
 
 L 
 
n 
 
 ger, and breathing out their souls together on the same 
 field of battle. You have told me a volume in a me- 
 taphor. call me not to metaphysical abstractions, 
 to let me know in what exact manner their two souls 
 were melted, or glewed into one. And it is as absurd to 
 undertalie to show christians are literally one with 
 Jesus Christ, and to prove that thousands were actually 
 melted into one soul. I tell you again there is not one 
 drop of Jesus's bodily blood in one of his saints, there 
 is not a particle of his rational soul in one of them, 
 and here too I must use a metaphor ; and 1 must have 
 the use of another metaphor to say there is not a parti- 
 cle of his divinity in one of them. 
 
 I tell you there is no such thing. 1 tell you it is all 
 a metaphor and nothing else than a metaphor. And 
 the whole system is, and ever will be, nothing more 
 than a Pyrrhei dance of military metaphors, armed 
 for battle, and dancing on to the charge. I do not say 
 these things with a single atom of triumphant or exult- 
 ing feeling ; the man who detects such errors forfeits 
 all claim to a triumph over his antagonist — For he 
 never would have detected them, if he had not 6nce 
 been guilty of them. 
 
 The Holy Scriptures treating subjects which are the 
 deep things of God; the divine nature, persons, perfec- 
 tions, and government ; the things of the eternal world; 
 the employments and operations of an2;els and arch- 
 angels ; the station in reserve for man, and the man- 
 ner in which he is to be conducted there ; are under & 
 necessity of dealing largely in metaphors, in order to 
 give men of dust and clay any ideas at all of such su- 
 blime themes. 
 
 On no subject are metaphors more profusely poured 
 
75 
 
 out, than on the moral or spiritual unity between Jesus 
 and his people. 
 
 He is a vine, and they are the branches ; he is the 
 foundation stone, and they are built on him into a holy 
 temple. He is their brother, their redeemer, their 
 master, their prophet, their priest, their king : when the 
 church is represented as a bride, then he becomes the 
 bridegroom. And if the human body be chosen as the 
 object of figurative meaning, of course he must be the 
 head, and they the members. All these metaphors 
 express a real unity ; and fall very far short of the 
 amount of that unity. What man would attempt to find 
 a literal resemblance between any one of them and the 
 thing signified by them all. There is however, one 
 metaphor, and only one in all the Bible, which rises 
 above thesublimity of this unity; and the reason is, that 
 there is but one more sublime thing within the range of 
 infinite intelligence. The metaphor alluded to is this : 
 lin them, and they in me, that they may be one in us. 
 The union of persons in the Sacred Trinity is employ- 
 ed to illustrate the unity of believers with their Sa- 
 viour. But the metaphor far excels the object illus- 
 trated. For the Son of God possesses the very sub- 
 stance, perfection, and glory of the Father, by eternal 
 and necessary generation ; but believers are not at all 
 possessed of the very nature of God, or of his perfec- 
 tions and glory ; though they do possess perfections 
 and glory of their own, bearing some resemblance to 
 his. 
 
 I have now examined Mr. M'Chord's Theory of 
 Representation, and do solemnly assure him, that it 
 never will do all, or any one of the many good tilings 
 he has laid out for it to do : nay, that it never will, and 
 never can do any good of any kind: as it consists intirely 
 
76 
 
 of a misunderstood metaphor. But it may very possibly 
 do a great deal of harm. By unhinging the estal'.lish- 
 ed religious vocabulary, it unhinges the ideas express- 
 ed by words of well known meaning. By introducing 
 a new mode of speech it will introduce endless strifes 
 and confusions of words, and by introducing a false 
 principle it will probably terminate in the denial of the 
 atonement. Never once has that false principle got ia 
 a creed without doing mischief; and its direction in 
 this system is towards Socinianism. Your bomb-shell 
 has fallen in the midst of us, and the fuse is blazing, 
 let us try to put it out : it cannot explode without do- 
 ing who knows what damage. 
 
 And now as this scheme is purposely devised to 
 vindicate the moral perfections of Jehovah in respect 
 to the universality of the gospel call, let us proceed 
 to that subject. 
 
 ' SECTION VII. 
 
 Of the Universality of the Gospel Call. 
 
 1. The authority which the gospel minister has to 
 preach the gospel to every creature, or to any creature, 
 is the command of his master : " Go ye therefore and 
 teach all nations ; baptizing them in the name of the 
 Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teach- 
 ing them to observe all things whatsoever I have com- 
 manded you." To preach the gospel, is to preach it 
 as a system enforced by divine authority, commanding 
 submission in the name of the Lord Jesus, under the 
 pain of eternal death ; and with a promise of eternal 
 life, to all who shall hear it. The philosophy of the 
 
77 
 
 system, and it has its philosophy, is another affair. 
 Every christian must have sometimes been sensible of 
 an indescribable majesty and authority in the preacher 
 who proclaims the gospel, solely as the word of God ; 
 commanding submission in his name. This 1 presume 
 is what is meant by preaching it, not with the enticing 
 words of man's wisdom, but in the demonstration of 
 the spirit and with power. 
 
 I beg the readers acceptance of the following anec- 
 dote, from Cave's Life of Athanasius. 
 
 " The bishops, before they formally met in the solemn 
 council,^ spent some days in preliminary discourses 
 and disputations;! wherein they were attacked by cer- 
 tain philosophers ; men versed in subtilties, and the 
 arts of reasoning, whom either curiosity had drawn 
 thither, or, as some suspect, Arius had brought along 
 with him, to plead his cause, and to retard and entan- 
 gle the proceedings of the Synod. One of which, prid- 
 ing himself, in the neatness and elegancy of his dis- 
 courses, reflected with scorn upon the fathers of the 
 council. A piece of insolence so intolerable, that an 
 ancient confessor, then in the company, a man plain, 
 and unskilled in the tricks and methods of disputing, 
 not being able to bear it, offered himself to undertake 
 him. For which he was laughed at by some, while 
 others more modest and serious, feared what would be 
 the success of his entering the lists with so able and 
 famed a disputant. The good man, however, went on 
 with his resolution, and bluntly accosted his adversary 
 in this manner. * In the name of Jesus Christ, philo- 
 
 * Council of Nice. 
 
 t Even in the olden time, grave bishops could find leisure to 
 trifle, when they had very weighty business on hand. 
 
78 
 
 gopher, give ear. There is one God, maker of heaven 
 anfJ earth, and of all things visible and invisible, who 
 created all these things by the power of his word, and 
 ratifies them hy the sanctity of his holy spirit. This 
 word, which we call the Son of God, pitying the apos- 
 tacy and brutish state of mankind, condescended to be 
 born of a woman, to dwell amongst men, and to die for 
 them ; who shall come again to sit as judge upon what- 
 ever we do in this life. These things we plainly be- 
 lieve. Strive not, therefore, to no purpose, to endea- 
 vour the confutation of what we entertain by faith, or 
 to find out how these things may, or may not be ; but 
 answer me if thou dost believe.' The philosopher, 
 astonished and thunderstruck with the zeal and plain- 
 ness of the old man's discourse, answered that he did 
 believe ; and thanking that conqueror that overcame 
 bim, yielded up himself to his sentiments and opinions, 
 persuading his companions to do the like ; solemnly 
 affirming, that it was by an unspeakable power, and 
 not without immediate direction from heaven, that he 
 was brought over to be a christian." 
 
 2. The authority of Jesus to give such a commission, 
 was the commandment of his Father, who gave his Son 
 power over all flesh, that he might give eternal life to 
 as many as were given him : for as he says himself, 
 (this commandment received I of my Father). For I 
 came not to do my own will, but the will of him that 
 sent me. 
 
 3. And now the question comes up, where was the 
 candour, where was the truth, where was the justice of 
 Jehovah, in calling on all mankind to believe on his 
 Son. *• 
 
SECTION VIII. 
 
 Gospel Call, 
 
 Let us now examine if the new system justifies the 
 moral attributes of Jehovah, and of Jesus Christ, in 
 commanding all men to believe. 
 
 And here we meet with something so extraordinary, 
 that I am afraid I shall be accused of employing one 
 of the artifices of controversy in mentioning it. But 
 certain it is, that this is the only system that ever was 
 broached on the subject, which does not authorize the 
 Lord Jesus Christ to command a single sinner to be- 
 lieve on him. Reader, such is the fact ; and thou 
 shalt he convinced of it. 
 
 The hypothesis is, that Jesus Christ is at the head 
 Gf a system, which consists of himself, and all those 
 who are vitally united to him by the Holy Ghost. Now, 
 such a system does authorize him to display all his 
 grace — to exercise all his authority over all those who 
 are thus united to him. But does it authorize him to 
 go beyond the limits of his own kingdom ; and beat up 
 for recruits in other lands, under other governments? 
 It does not. 
 
 Let me use an illustration which Mr. M'C. has em- 
 ployed for another purpose. The government of the 
 United States has a right to govern its own citi- 
 zens ; admit also, that it has a right to naturalize ; ad- 
 mit farther, that keeping within its own territory, it has 
 a right to invite the citizens of other governments to 
 come and enjoy the blessings of this nation. And I 
 believe this is the extent of its rights in the case. But 
 
80 
 
 has it a right to send out agents into other lands, to 
 preach rebellion against other governments — to com- 
 mand all men in every country to forsake all that they 
 have, and to remove into the United States; threatening 
 that if this command is disobeyed, the United States 
 will send a great array, cut them all to pieces, and re- 
 duce all they have to ashes. Is this totally unwarrant- 
 ed by the essential principles of government ? Then 
 I ask if Jesus Christ be only the head of actual be- 
 lievers, what is there in such a system, to authorize 
 him to command all sinners, under pain of eternal 
 death, to accept his salvation ? If he has such autho- 
 rity, it is not provided for in Mr. M'Chord's system. 
 
 There is a great diiference in many respects, be- 
 tween the covenants of works and grace : there is an 
 analogy between them ; but analogies do not prevent 
 great and essential differences. The covenant of works 
 covers the whole ground of our animal nature ; so that 
 wherever it finds men, it finds subjects. >Jot so vtith 
 the covenant of grace : all its subjects are enlisted at 
 the drum head of the captain of their salvation. Now 
 I want to know what authority the new system gives 
 to the Lord Jesus to beat up for such recruits ? 
 
 Perhaps the answer may be, that regeneration in the 
 new covenant, is the point which analogizes with ge- 
 neration in the old, and that Jesus Christ has a right to 
 assume authority over all that are born of the spirit — 
 true ! But what authority had he over them before 
 they were born of the spirit ? And what authority can 
 he have over those who are never born of the spirit. 
 Some systems have made no provision for preaching 
 the gospel to the unelected ; but this system has made 
 no provision for preaching it to the unconverted, whe- 
 ther elected or not. Thus at every test it fails ! 
 
81 
 
 SECTION IX. 
 
 Of the Capaciousness of the Two Covenants. 
 
 Mr. M^C. has, for some cause or other, found it ne- 
 cessary to prove, in considerable detail, that the cove- 
 nant of works, in its own nature, and without any re- 
 spect to the limiting will of God, is capable of compre- 
 hending millions of millions of men, for every indivi- 
 dual of the human family destined to exist by the sove- 
 reign decree of God. And that the covenant of grace, 
 in its own nature, and without reference to any limit- 
 ing decree of God, would be capable of granting sal- 
 vation to the whole of all these millions, supposing 
 them all to have fallen from innocence as we have. 
 He also argues out the same principle in relation to 
 human laws and constitutions. And he might, if he 
 chose, have added, that this is essential to the nature 
 of all laws of every kind. The proportionality of four 
 numbers remains tJie same, though you should multiply 
 each of them by millions. A triangle which you could 
 cover with your thumb, has the same parts, laws and 
 proportions, with a similar triangle, which could take 
 the solar system in its bosom. Were our globe tea 
 times as large as it is, the principle of attraction would 
 keep its particles together ; its revolutions on its axis 
 would give us day and night ; and were every orb in 
 the solar system, ten times as large as it is, there would 
 be no alteration in the astronomy of the J^stem. And 
 new editions of the abstract principles of the astrono- 
 mers of our little world, would be published for the use 
 of schools, in the mammoth world we are speaking of. 
 
 M 
 
If Mr. M^Chord found himself in circumstances that 
 obliged him to prov^ that every law possesses this pro- 
 perty of infinity, or in other words, that a law is a law, 
 I do sincerely pity him ; and, to use a phrase of his 
 own, think he might have been excused " so inglorious 
 an achievement.'' 
 
 He is also perfectly right in asserting that created 
 objects must necessarily be finite in number ; and that 
 the number of Adam's descendants are definite, the 
 number to be affected by his covenant definitely fixed 
 by God ; and also that the number to be affected by 
 the covenant of grace, is definitely fixed by the same 
 God. And, therefore, since there is not only no contra- 
 diction, but no indistinctness of idea on these subjects, 
 we may proceed to another subject, for our object is 
 not controversy, but investigation. 
 
 SECTION X 
 
 Of the Individualising System, 
 
 It was with some difficulty that I could comprehend 
 what Mr. M^C. could mean, by saying individuals 
 were not included in either of the covenants — that men 
 were not individually included ; and by calling such a 
 conception the individualising scheme. But on compar- 
 ing several passages together ; and finding him very 
 precise in proving that Adam's sin was not such, that 
 being cut up into so many parcels, as that each would 
 suffice to dJmn an individual, there would be nothing 
 more left ; and no more posterity of course born to him ; 
 but that the whole of his guilt descends entire to each 
 individual ; that the guilt which damns one man, is 
 
83 
 
 sufficient for the condemnation of every individual of 
 the human family ; and would be sufficient to condemn 
 the whole human family, from the first man to the last, 
 though every unit in its millions were multiplied by as 
 many millions more. And when, on the other hand, 
 I found him proving that the sins of every elect indi- 
 vidual were not thrown into a common heap, and im- 
 puted to Christ Jesus ; and that Jesus Christ did not 
 make such atonement, that being divided into parcels, 
 each parcel would suffice to wash out the sins of an 
 elect soul ; that he did not work out such a righteous- 
 ness, as being divided into so many parcels, each 
 parcel would, on imputation, save an elect soul, and 
 then he could save no more. But, that on the con- 
 trary, it would require the same atonement and righte- 
 ousness to save one man, as to save all men ; that the 
 righteousness of Christ Jesus goes whole and entire to 
 every believer ; and that the same righteousness is suf- 
 ficient to save all the millions of the human family, 
 and would be adequate to save the whole, were they 
 as many more. I say on observing all this ; and this 
 is the exact amount of all he has said on the subject, I 
 perceived his meaning. And I did regret that infelicity 
 of human speech, which occasions that what from one 
 man's mouth is accepted as a compliment, should from 
 another man's mouth cause a quarrel. For I will ven- 
 ture to assert, that Mr. M'Chord never did see a man 
 mad enough, and never will see a man mad enough, in 
 the Associate Reformed Church, or out of it, to believe 
 in any such individualisation. Nor is such the doc- 
 trine of any man in the Associate Reformed Church, 
 or in the United States, or in the world : notwith- 
 standing that Mr. M'C. so frequently looking his 
 brethren itt the face, calls this " your individualising 
 
 i 
 
84- 
 
 scJieme.^^ Let Mr. M^C. name the man who admitted 
 the imputation of Adam's guilt, and who charged man- 
 kind with less than the Avhole of that guilt ! What 
 preacher ever told his hearers, that when the guilt of 
 Adam's sin is divided by the number of his descend- 
 ants, the quotient resulting is the guilt which each man 
 must answer for ! What preacher ever offered the 
 righleousness of Jesus to a sinner, as the ground of his 
 hope, and did not offer the entire righteousness ! Who 
 ever told his hearers that when Christ's righteousness 
 is divided by the number of the elect, the quotient re- 
 sulting is the righteousness to which the believer must 
 trust his soul, when the judge of all the earth unsheaths 
 Lis flaming sword, and seats himself on the tribunal ! 
 
 W^hy then should Mr. M'Chord call this your indU 
 vidualishig scheme ? Will he say it is the conse- 
 quence of principles which you admit ? I assert that 
 even that would not render it oiivs. If the consequen- 
 ces of every opinion were charged on every man who 
 holds it, I do not doubt that every error that ever 
 was in the christian church might be charged on every 
 man in it. But what we reject, what we abhor is not 
 ours. Divine justice will never call it ours — but con- 
 troversial justice — why she is of another family. 
 
 So intirely is this system of individualisation a 
 creature of Mr. M'C.'s own brain, that I do not re- 
 collect ever to have heard of it, or to have read of any 
 thing like it. If ever it was mentioned before, it was 
 mentioned as an absurdity. 
 
 Still it may be said, that this absurdity really be- 
 longs to our system^ though it may not belong to our- 
 selves : The weakness of our heads has secured the 
 innocence of our hearts ; but verily our logic is in 
 fault : and that if we could only reason coiTectly; we 
 
S5 
 
 should be compellefl either to swallow the conclusion, 
 ©r give up the principle. Well then, let us close once 
 more, and let us be cool. 
 
 1. We believe, and say, and are ready to prove, 
 that God having created Adam, did enter into a cove- 
 nant with him, promising to grant him, on a specified 
 condition, life ; and, on the transgression of that spe- 
 cified condition, threatening him with death : which 
 covenant God intended should include every human 
 person descending from Adam, but whether this inten- 
 tifm was at that time declared, ice say not, because we 
 know not. 
 
 S. That after the formation of Eve, and her mar- 
 riage with .Adam, and the pronunciation of the bless- 
 ing of fruitfnlness on them both, we presume (though 
 we cannot prove the fact by so many words of scripture,) 
 that Adam was informed by God, that the covenant 
 extended not only to himself, but to Eve, and to every 
 human -person descending from them. 
 
 3. That God at that time had determined in his own 
 mind, what, and how many human persons should de- 
 scend from Adam and Eve ; and at what time, and in 
 what circumstances each should descend ; and had de- 
 termined that each of these persons, so soon as he 
 should obtain personality, should have a personal in- 
 terest in that covenant ; so that if Adam should have 
 kept that covenant, such person should be personally 
 justified ; and if Adam should have broken that cove- 
 nant, sucii person should be personally condemned. 
 
 4. That since the future existence of these persons 
 was decreed by Jehovah ; and their future connection 
 with Adam, and participation in his righteousness and 
 its reward ; or in his guilt, and its punishment ; were 
 also determined by the same immutable will ; we can- 
 
 # 
 
not but thiiilc, that they, even then, bad a connection 
 with, ami interyst in, Adam; which non-en ities, con- 
 cerning whom Jehovah decreed that they should re- 
 main non entities to all eternity, could not have. 
 
 5. Now this connection between Adam and bis pre- 
 determined descendants, is what we view, when we 
 say that Adam was their covenant bead ; that Adam 
 was their representative. 
 
 And what is there in all this about dividing x\dara's 
 guilt into shreds according to the number of his poste- 
 rity ? We suppose that if be dies, they die : and if 
 they die as well as be, we presume, and we say, that 
 they were as guilty as be. We do not want a Becca- 
 ria to instruct us that the Infinite Judge ^of#all the 
 earth proportions punishments to crimes. From equa- 
 lity of punishment, we infer equality of guilt. 
 
 But if any one will insist on making this a mathe- 
 matical question, to mathematics let us go. And then 
 we get the following ratio : Supposing (by hypothe- 
 sis) that Adam and bis descendants amount to a mil- 
 lion, a very small calculation ; but mathematicians 
 know that the doctrine of ratios does not depend on 
 the particular value of antecedents and consequents. 
 We have the following proportion, 
 
 . . , , . Tk ., Adam's sin Death 
 
 As Adam's sm : Death : : -j-^^-^^ : ^^000,000 
 
 Tliat is, for readers who are not mathematicians 
 ought to know something about this subject, each of 
 the million in the covenant was guilty of one millionth 
 part of a sin, and shall suffer the one millionth part of 
 death. Header, thou mayest pronounce this any thing 
 but sense or argument. 
 
 But who is guilty of this nonsense ? We assert that 
 if one million of men (according to hypothesis) were 
 
 % 
 
87 
 
 included by God, in an aggregate number, to be affect- 
 ed by Adam's sin or righteousness ; then, since the 
 whole includes all its parts, one million of men in- 
 cludes one million individuals of mankind : and we 
 say, if each one of these individuals die for this single 
 sin of Adam, then was each man guilty of that one sin. 
 Therefore each individual of the million was guilty of 
 the one sin of Adam. 
 
 Mr. M^C. seems to think, that the decree of Je- 
 hovah, and even his sacred covenant, are worth nothing; 
 and leave their objects among the non-entities, which 
 are decreed ever to remain non-entiiies. Let me pro- 
 pose him a problem — Have the bodies of the saint's, 
 now in their graves, any interest in the resurrection of 
 the just, and the glories of the heavenly state, which 
 the bodies of sinners have not ? If so, does it arise 
 from the covenant of grace ? 
 
 In relation to the covenant of grace, we believe, and 
 have believed, since the days of the reformation, and 
 I pledge the man who says to the days of the apostles, 
 or as far back as he pleases to go — We believe that 
 the eternal Father and his Eternal Son, foreseeing 
 n^ from all eternity (for what can be hid from Infinite 
 v*wisdom, which knoweth all that can be known) that 
 .>- Adam would transgress the covenant ; and yearning 
 with bowels of infinite compassion, such bowels as 
 mortal man knoweth not, nor can know, over a poor, 
 foreseen, lost race — of noble powers and high destinies ; 
 did determine to interpose : and to show to surround- 
 ing spheres, what is mercy, and did solemnly cove- 
 nant and vow to each other as follows. 
 
 That if, on the one hand, the Eternal Son should 
 pledge his truth and honour to assume human nature 
 into a personal union with his divine, and should vo- 
 
88 
 
 luntarily submit himself to the broken law ; should 
 ei)d(ire the penalty incurred by Adam's sin, should 
 fulfil the righteousness of the law by obeying its every 
 precept. 
 
 Then, on the other hand, he should receive as his 
 reward, a certain number of the whole race ; to be 
 given him, some in this age, some in the next, some 
 in the succeeding age, and so on till the last of the 
 race should be born, and should have finished his, 
 destined conrse on earth. 
 
 And that he should have full authority and power 
 over the whole race of mankind, and over the world 
 which they inhabit ; that he might pick out each one 
 at the day and hour appointed ; that he should have au- 
 thority to command any and all the angels of God, and 
 the whole created universe of God, to render him any 
 assistance, they could, in recovering and preserving 
 to eternal life, this travail of his soul ; And that he 
 should have the command and direction of the Infi- 
 nite Spirit of God, to enlighten, purify, and sanctify 
 these destined ones, and hring them to glory. 
 
 And in relation to all mankind, that since they were 
 under the law, and since he had pledged himself to 
 work out the righteousness of the law, he should give 
 them a free offer of that righteousness, as he should see 
 cause. 
 
 And finally, that all who believe on the Lord Jesus 
 Christ shall be saved. 
 
 All this we profess to believe — And it has, in a 
 good degree, been the faith of the professing church 
 of God from the beginning. And we are too tender 
 of the honour of our intellectual reputation, not to stake 
 the whole of it in this cause. We do believe that the 
 Eternal Father, and his Eternal Son, equally omni- 
 
scient, did intend that the new covenant, or the eternal 
 covenant of grace, (we have proved it to be eternal) 
 should save a definite number of mankind — (ask God 
 wliy not all!) And as we (by hypothesis) supposed 
 that a million were included in Adam's covenant; so 
 we shall suppose (by hypothesis) that half a million is 
 included in the covenant of grace — God forbid that this 
 ratio should not be too small — (and no man can prove 
 by the Scriptures that it is not) we are not ashamed to 
 say, that we believe, that if God saves half a million 
 of men, he must save half a million of individucU men : 
 that if half a million men were pledged as the travail 
 of the Redeemer's soul, in the eternal covenant of 
 grace, (for we have proved it to be eternal) then half a 
 million of individual men were pledged. And again, 
 we stake our intellectual reputation on the assertion, 
 that those who were thus given by the Father, and ac- 
 cepted by the Son, and known to both, did stand in a 
 relation to that Son, different from the rest of mankind. 
 Call him their covenant head — call him their repre- 
 sentative if you will — call him by any relative name 
 you will — we again stake our intellectual reputation 
 on the assertion that his relation to the travail of his 
 soul, to those who were given hira to be saved, is dif- 
 ferent from the relation he bore to those who were not 
 given him to be saved. 
 
 If after all we are pronounced incapable of perceiv- 
 ing the truth of an axiom, we must console under the 
 mortifying imputation, by reflecting that Mr. M'C. is 
 just as ill af as we. For as no axiom can be proved 
 by argument ; and as men of common sense cannot 
 perceive the intuitive light of his axiom, it follows that 
 Mr. M'C. will never be able to reveal his discovery by 
 
 N 
 
90 
 
 any species of intellectual process. It seems to be an 
 axiom intended for the sole use of the inventor. 
 
 It is now too late to call in question, whether the 
 glorious reformation, in which God said, let there be 
 light, and there was light : and intellect burst her 
 chains, and religion poured her light ; and science 
 burst forth into birth ; and tyi^nny shrunk back ; and 
 the spirit of liberty waved her flag, and cried, to arms, 
 my sons, to arms ; when Europe was regenerated, to be- 
 come the regenerator of the world. It is too late to en- 
 quire whether this was the work of God ! Can I believe 
 that the Melancthons, and the Luthers, and the Mo- 
 rells, and the Calvins, and the Jewels, and the Owens, 
 and twenty others, whom I could name, ind a thousand 
 others of whom I have never heard, did not under- 
 stand the gospel. In reading their works I have often 
 paused and palpitated, and asked what has become of 
 this race of noble blood ? Were they all Monks ? 
 Have they no sons at all ? In this age, scarcely can 
 be found a man who holds a lamp that can show us 
 how to step over a gutter: those held lamps tliat shed 
 light over half a world. How were they so great? 
 Surely God poured on them his spirit in no ordinary 
 degree — surely they studied the holy word — surely 
 they prayed for the spirit of illumination when they 
 studied. 1 find them expressing for each other a man- 
 ly esteem ; and I see them interchanging the side- 
 long-glance of love, in a way that lovers only can see : 
 but I have not found a single puif at each other, in all 
 that I have read of them. Indeed they were made of 
 too weighty metal to be puflfed up by the breath of mor- 
 tal man. And am I to be told that these men did not 
 understand the gospel ? Am I to be told that they 
 
91 
 
 '» chattered''^ tlie gospel call in terms that made Jesus 
 Christ a cheat and a liar. 
 
 I do not say that they were always right. God left 
 so much human frailty in them, as warns us to depend 
 not on them, hut on his oivn spirit and word.^ In some 
 instances I think them wrong, and then, with timid 
 step, I take a different way. But never have I told, 
 and never shall 1 tell, the public, that I learned the 
 way to truth by my father's errors. No, ye heroes, if 
 ever I name your name, save for praise, may my name 
 rot. 
 
 The churches of the reformation were, I hope, not 
 wrong in any essential point of doctrine, worship, or 
 practical law. I hope so, because I am sure, that if 
 the case be otherwise, I shall never live to see the er- 
 ror rectified. Is it possible to believe that the glorious 
 churches of Switzerland — that the glorious churches 
 of France, and of Holland — that the glorious churches 
 of England, and of Scotland, and of Ireland, and of 
 the United States of America ; that all these churches, 
 and all their anointed instructors, the lights of the 
 world, should all of them, and every man of them, all 
 this time have been proclaiming the gospel in terms 
 which make God a cheat and his Son a liar ! It can- 
 not be ! This new discovery must be a strife of words. 
 The fathers were right : and instead of their gospel, 
 you have offered you a metaphor, metamorphosed 
 
 INTO A METAPHYSIC. 
 
 I shall pursue the new theory no farther. 
 It is not absolutely impossible to form a veri-simili- 
 tude conjecture of the causes which have produced 
 
 * Their doctrine I believe to be always right — when they 
 chanced to slip in a bit of philosophy, a system, it was wrong. 
 
9S 
 
 this new system. We fiad here and there some glo- 
 rious ideas, the result of long analysis, beyond the 
 years and mental training of Mr. M'T. were his talents 
 ten-fold what they are. We are sure these ideas are 
 not the result of his researches, because we see that 
 he does not know what to do with them. When they 
 are put together with other materials, the whole resem- 
 bles nothing so much as a modern Mahomedan struc- 
 ture in Greece, where a fine piece of antique sculpture 
 is found in the wall turned up side down, and a 
 Corinthian pillar is found supporting a wretched 
 hovel. 
 
 I say not this to disparage Mr. M'C.'s talents ; for I 
 know', and very willingly say, that he possesses very 
 respectable talents ; and talents which, if rightly used, 
 are well calculated to render him a very useful man, 
 in the latitude and longitude, in the soil and climate, 
 where Divine Providence has placed him. But whe- 
 ther they are the talents of an Investigator of Truth, 
 it is hard to say. The present specimen is unfavour- 
 able ; but it is not decisive of the question, by any 
 means. The advocate of truth, however, has his own 
 glory, as well as the Investigator. Neither are the 
 two characters quite incompatible. The Advocate' 
 may grow into an Investigator. But it is to be feared 
 that there is some immutable law of our nature, which 
 has decreed that no man shall, at the same period of 
 his days, excel in both. To this law there are, to say 
 the least, few exceptions. And Dr. Goldsmith spoke 
 truth, when he said of Edmund Burke, that Proteus of 
 genius, that his trade was to cut blocks with a razor. 
 Of one of the characters spoken of, the world needs 
 but few ; of the other it can never have too many. 
 
 The Advocate of Truth, is a man of masculine 
 
9S 
 
 port and nervous arm : his open brow and sparl^ling 
 eye, indicate the iionesty of his intentions : quick of 
 perception, irritable of feeling, in fancy versatile, en- 
 thusiastic in all things. He fears nothing: and why 
 should he fear. He mounts the Pulpit: he pours on 
 his audience the direct ray of plain Gospel truth : he 
 appeals to their understanding, and they know it — 
 he appeals to their heart, and they feel it; he brings 
 forward — not the objections of a drivelling logician — 
 created only to be damned — but the objections which 
 the true orator reads in the eyes and in the hearts of 
 his audience. He states these objections in more tre- 
 mendous form than ever they appeared in before. The 
 audience is terrified — they tremble for themselves — they 
 tremble even for the preacher. He touches the spec- 
 tres with the wand of truth, they are gone ! His soul 
 takes fire, his audience are on fire. They see more 
 than they see, they know more than they know, they 
 are more than themselves. He spreads his pinions, 
 and spurns the earth, and away they are all gone toge- 
 ther in the whirlwind. 
 
 Such a man is worth — but his Master will estimate 
 his worth. He has always this singular felicity, that 
 he is the immediate instrument of good to mankind. 
 He sees himself surrounded by his children, and his 
 children's children. He sits under the trees which 
 his own hand has planted, and plucks and eats their 
 fruit. He enjoys his honours in his own days: and, 
 provided God receives supreme glory as the author of 
 all, I protest I cannot see why it should be a sin, to 
 exult in the consciousness of having merited well of 
 one's kind ; and delighting in the thought, that God 
 has given mankind grace enough to acknowledge their 
 obligations. 
 
For such men, in this country, and at this day, there 
 is a great demand: and they are the onl^ class of the 
 intellectual breed for whom there is any demand. 
 
 The Investigator of truth is a very diiferent cha- 
 racter. Occasionally pale, occasionally hectic ; al- 
 ways thoagliifiil, pensive, absent, lost, absorbed, fond 
 of solitude. His ardour has nothing to do with the 
 blood or thf*. passions ; it is kindled entirely by the 
 "will, by a doli berate, stubborn determination that he 
 will know the truth. His courage is of a singular 
 character : it consists in an awful terror of being de- 
 feated. Having formed his determination, he buckles 
 on his knapsack, with a few mathematical instruments 
 in it, takes his staff in his Iiand, and bidding adieu to 
 the whole human race, places himself in the very mid- 
 dle of the highway, and steps off, with the earth be- 
 neath his feet, the heavens over his head, and the God, 
 who made both the heavens and the earth, his sole 
 companion, and his only trust. He proceeds slowly, 
 marking every thing, till coming to a place, where the 
 road has been strewed with trees torn up by a hurricane, 
 and greatly injured by torrents, and looking to one side, 
 he sees a fine open way, and reads on the finger board 
 this is the road — and hastily taking it he proceeds. 
 He comes to a lofty structure, and reads a name in 
 LARGE CAPITALS. I am right, he cries. This is a 
 triumphal pile, erected, to the glory of some miglity 
 chief, who on this spot reaped the laurels of vic- 
 tory in the cause of truth. On he goes, and passes 
 many such monuments ; but at last he finds himself 
 between two mountains, towering perpendicularly to 
 the heavens, and a dark, noisome gulf before him, he 
 can advance no further ! 
 
 Keader, he went out in search of truth; and he has 
 
9^ 
 
 not lost his labour — He has discovered, that tlie truth 
 which he is in quest of, is not to be found in that road, 
 and that no man ever will find it there. He has solved 
 one problem, he knows he is wrong ; but how did he 
 get wrong ? This is his next problem. He retraces 
 his steps, and now he reads, as he returns, the whole 
 of the inscriptions on the monuments ; and to his utter 
 amazement, finds that these are all of them, the tombs 
 of mighty chiefs, who in times of old had encamped 
 with their armies on these spots ; and had perished 
 during the night, by some pestilential vapours peculiar 
 to the soil. He hastens on to the jinger-jjost, and 
 finds the whole inscription to be this, The I'oad to de- 
 struction. 
 
 Placing himself once more in the very middle of the 
 high way, he moves right forward, and after infinite 
 toil, at last surmounts every obstacle, and finds him- 
 self in the right road. Willingly would he repair the 
 breach, and remove all the obstructions, but he is una- 
 ble ; and his duty calls him to go forward. But be- 
 fore he proceeds, he notes accurately the longitude and 
 latitude of the spot ; and then commits himself once 
 more to his journey. And thus he proceeds, night 
 and day, through winter's cold and summer's heat ; ia 
 all winds and all weathers, some times lost in wrong 
 roads, often in the right ; and sometimes in the dismal 
 darkness of the night, under the pitiless pelting of the 
 storm, he begins to doubt whether there be any road 
 at all, till he recollects that he is sure he once was 
 in it ; sometimes in the desperate agonies of his heart, 
 he is tempted to wish he never had heard there was a 
 road, till at last he is relieved from his doubts, and 
 catches a momentary glance of the path by the flashes 
 of the lightning of heaven. 
 
96 
 
 Reader, the number of men who set out on this jour- 
 ney is probably greater than we imagine ; but many 
 of them are lost in the false ways, and many of them 
 breathe out their souls in the true way, solitary and 
 unknown. Like Houghton and Parke, they perish in 
 the noble attempt to trace a path by which civilization 
 may travel into the abodes of horrid cruelty ; but un- 
 like Houghton and Parke — etiain jpeviere ruince — 
 their very names have perished. 
 
 Should one of these travellers live to return home 
 after his circumambulation, he finds himself a stranger 
 in his own land. When his neighbours see him seated 
 in his own plain cottage, drinking only the water of 
 the same well, and feeding on the fruit of the same 
 tree, as in his youth ; they are apt to consider him as 
 a weak and visionary man, who gave himself a great 
 deal of trouble to little purpose. But the censure is 
 not entirely well-founded. For he sits more securely 
 in his cottage than formerly, knowing that it is the only 
 one on earth, that is thunder proof ; he drinks of his 
 spring more copiously, because he knows that its wa» 
 ters alone know no poisonous mixture, no impure sedi- 
 ment ; and eats his fruits with greater delight, because 
 he is sure that they grew on thetree of life. And though 
 the aged may have grown too wise to need his instruc- 
 tion, he may have an opportunity of warning their chil- 
 dren to stay at home in their own native land ; which 
 is the glory of all lands. But if any one of them should 
 determine to see the world for himself, the old travel- 
 ler hands him his map, bids him God speed, and prays 
 earnestly for his safe return. 
 
 But reader, lost thou shouldst think that I carry 
 thee too far out of thy road ; I shall carry thee riglit 
 iuto the middle of the Calvinistic churches. 
 
97 
 
 When I see a new moral theory springing up in 
 other churches and denominations, I caie little 
 about the matter ; considering the theorist to be, among 
 his party, a very innoxious animal. Eut when I see 
 a theorist among Calvinists, I tremble. This oddity of 
 temperament ; or, as the great American physician 
 would call it, this idiosyneracy of constitution, has 
 arisen, I suspect, from the following causes. The pe- 
 culiar attribute which has distinguished the Calvinistic 
 sect, in all nations, and in all ages, is a firm and stub- 
 born faith. I use these epithets in their fullest and 
 most favourable sense ; a Calvinist will believe God's 
 word, but he will believe nothing else, in matters of re- 
 ligion. Talk to him of the decisions of ten thousand 
 councils, he cares nothing about them, and indeed, rare- 
 ly gives himself trouble to know any thing about them. 
 Talk to him of moral theories, expand their beauties, 
 display their uses : he listens patiently, and when you 
 have done, laconically quotes at you a text of scripture. 
 In short, the head of a Calvinist is bullet proof against 
 any cannon of any calibre, unless the bullet be a text 
 of scripture. This is not satire. It is only truth with a 
 benevolent smile; and I treat that lady, as I do all her 
 sex, I prefer her smiles to her frowns by far. I men- 
 tion it to the honour of that section of the christian 
 church ; and I mention it as the great secret of their 
 characteristic firmness in doctrine, and other matters 
 connected with doctrine. 
 
 But causes produce effects. And this characteristic 
 devotion to faith has been the cause, that while no sect 
 has been so rich in sound theologians, who have taught 
 the pure doctrines of the gospel, who have enforced its 
 pure morality, who have conducted afflicted souls 
 through all the mysteries and mazes of Satanic tempt- 
 Q 
 
98 
 
 ations. and saintly feelings and experience ; no sect 
 has been so poor in moral philosophers. I cannot re- 
 collect the name of one single moral philosopher in 
 the whole, I mean a philosopher with a theory. When- 
 ever such a philosopher has appeared, he has led off 
 his column from the army, and formed a new encamp- 
 ment, at first bidding defiance to his ancient friends, 
 and afterwards making war on them. Such were Arius, 
 Socinus, Wesley, Priestley, and others. I mention 
 these names only as exemplifications of the fact, that a 
 Calvinist with a new theory always leads off his co- 
 lumn from the grand army ; but I protest against rank- 
 ing them together as equals. 
 
 Perhaps the instance of president Edwards may be 
 quoted against me ; but I do not think it ought. He was 
 the cause, he sowed the seed, of the Hopkinsian sect ; 
 but if he were back on earth, with the principles he 
 had when he left it, he would not join those who call 
 themselves his pupils. And even he is a strong proof, 
 that the moment a Calvinist turns philosopher, there is 
 a danger of a schism. Is the doctrine of the bible then 
 in opposition to philosophy ? No : That is not my 
 meaning. It is philosophical, most philosophical ; 
 infinite wisdom cannot establish a constitution which 
 shall not be infinitely philosophical. 
 
 But ray meaning is, that the philosophy of Christi- 
 anity is by far too vast and too profound to be under- 
 stood, till the philosophy of language, and the philoso- 
 phy of the human mind, and the philosophy of man in 
 general, as a sentient, intelligent, social being, has 
 made great advances. We can, however, enjoy Chris- 
 tianity without its philosophy : as Pliny enjoyed the 
 sun, when his philosophy had ascertained no more 
 than that it was just a little bigger than Mount Athos. 
 I can eat my dinner without being a chymist, or a phi- 
 
99 
 
 sologist. I can enjoy the light of the sun, whether I 
 believe he moves or stands still. By looking in the 
 almanac, 1 can tell when it will be flood tide at market 
 street wharf, whether I can calculate the moon's situa- 
 tion in her orbit or not ; and it is the easiest course ; 
 and the very one that the best astronomer in the city of 
 Philadelphia would resort to. Go to your Bible for 
 the rule of your faith, and leave Jesus Christ to an- 
 swer for its philosophy : assure yourselves that he 
 who is the wisdom of the Father, will, in the end, flout 
 at the wisdom of those who impeached the philosophy 
 «f his gospel. 
 
 Jonathan Edwards had all the talents requisite to 
 form a systematic moralist : acuteness and grasp of in- 
 tellect, coolness and patience in investigation, a tho- 
 rough power of reading all that was going on in his own 
 bosom, great acquaintance with the Holy Scriptures, 
 great experience of the work of the holy spirit on his 
 own heart, much experience of the ingratitude, injus- 
 tice, and cruelty of men ; he loved truth, he adored 
 truth as an attribute of his God; he felt the power of in- 
 vestigating truth to be the peculiar talent God had 
 given him, and was as free as any man from base am- 
 bition and vanity. Every one of these elements is es- 
 sential to the composition of a systematic moralist.* 
 
 * Ought not good humour to be added to this enumeration of the 
 elements of a good metaphysician ? Thirty years ago, the great 
 Dr. Reid was emeritus iirofessor of Moral Philosophy in the Uni- 
 versity of Glasgow : whenever he appeared on the walks of the 
 college green, every eye was turned to him ; every student gave 
 the word, there's Dr. Reid. And yet his great talents and science 
 were never thought of. His gentleness, his kindness, his sim- 
 plicity, his amiability, made the whole impression. It was not 
 the great man that was admired, but the good man, the good old 
 
106 
 
 But he went to work too soon. In his days, the phi- 
 losophy of mind was in babyhood. He laboured also 
 under some hallucinations of mind, which have led 
 astray many of the ablest of the human race. He went 
 out in quest of a radical truth, a radical virtue ; from 
 whieh all truth, all virtue, must descend, by legitimate 
 logical deduction. And he seems to have thought, 
 that if we have an absolutely certain knowledge of two 
 ti'uths, it must be possible to trace the connecting links 
 which bind tliem tosinther. The sect which sprung 
 out of his tomb, is celebrated for extreme logical sub- 
 tlety ; and use weapons so delicately {)ointed, that no- 
 body but themselves can see their point, nor be abso- 
 lutely certain whether they have any point at all. But 
 their conclusions confound and terrifj'. Like Hobbes, 
 the best logician ever England produced, they land 
 you in conclusions that you are sure are wrong. 
 
 The churches are in awful troubles. Satan has 
 great wrath, because he knows liis time is short. 
 And he manages with admirable dexterity. This 
 is a philosophical age, and men will think, and 
 
 patriarch, the grandfather of them all, that they venerated and 
 loved. Bishop Berkley was a most chivalrous philanthropist. 
 John Locke was a good humoured facetious companion. Who 
 ever saw in the christian church, an ill-natured man, who had the 
 slightest pretensions to the name of a metaphysician ? On the con- 
 trary, all the deistical and atheistical metaphysicians are ill-na- 
 tured and malignant — selfish, retiring within their own shell; 
 without friendship ; their ambition, their interest, engrossing all 
 their soul. So destitute of affection to their kind, that they can- 
 not love even a woman : — so conscious of dishonesty, that they 
 can trust nobody ; and hence few of them ever marry. They 
 wrote their systems for their own fame and profit, and to do evil 
 to a race they cordially hated. They mixed their poisons because 
 they intended to kill. 
 
101 
 
 thought discovers truth, and truth is naturally proma- 
 tive of piety, virtue, peace and happiness ; it is his po- 
 licy, therefore, to corrupt truth at its fountain. He 
 is taking the brilliant discoveries of this age, in all 
 sorts of philosophy, and converting them into machines 
 to batter down the fortress of the christian faith, or to 
 corrupt its fountains by deleterious infusions. To 
 arms then, ye sons of the brave : but let no man rein 
 a steed on this field who cannot establish his title to 
 that honour, by the scars and experience of twenty 
 campaigns. One who has the true coup d'ceil ; one 
 who can estimate his enemies' force as well as his own; 
 who sees at a glance the meaning of every movement, 
 and quicker than lightning, has a counter movement to 
 meet it ; one who knows and has poised every weapon 
 on each side of the war. But keep back the youth, 
 or rather let them have the discretion to keep back 
 themselves. One of them will do more harm than a 
 hundred of them are worth. 
 
 Willingly would I suppress what I am going to say, 
 could I recoucile the suppression to a sense of duty. 
 But somebody must be found to tell young preachers 
 their duty, on the same terms that they impress duty 
 on the consciences of their audience — eternal responsi- 
 bility to the Son of God. And I wish the application 
 to be as extensive as the applicability of the remarks. 
 I would tell young preachers, then, that Jesus Christ 
 lias sent them to preach his holy gospel, to gather in 
 the travail of his soul, to feed his lambs, to visit the 
 forsaken, to find out the forgotten, and to bind up the 
 broken hearted. And they are to preach his gospel as 
 his own word, sanctioned by his own authority ; and 
 not to permit themselves to be questioned wiiy, and 
 how, and wherefore these things can be. While you 
 
i03 
 
 are engaged in these holy and delightful duties, give 
 yourselves much to meditation and prayer ; to deep 
 meditation on your own hearts, and constant searching 
 of the holy word. Feeding on such angels' food, who 
 can tell how great you may grow ? 
 
 But I tell you what he has not sent you to do. He 
 has not sent you to make new systems of theology or 
 philosophy — he cannot have sent you to do what it is 
 impossible you should be competent to perform. How 
 many years have you spent searching the Holy Scrip- 
 tures in the fear of God ? How many years have you 
 patiently toiled in examining the philosophy of your 
 age, and testing it by the inspired word ? And yet you 
 say you have a new system already ! 
 
 Don't let your youthful inexperience deceive you. 
 Depend upon it, that all the fine systems which shine 
 with such lustre to the enraptured imagination of youth, 
 will not be found to be of God. Depend upon it, there 
 hang up, like models of perpetual motions in the cabi- 
 nets of the curious — there hang up in the heads of all 
 men who have ever troubled their heads with moral 
 speculations, a great many moral systems, and fine 
 theories. They laboured long on them, they propor- 
 tioned them curiously, filed and polished them to the 
 utmost, and put them firmly together. And now the 
 decisive moment being come, the artist, with palpitating 
 bosom, puts his machine in motion, and it moves, and 
 the inventor bounds to the ceiling. 
 
 This is true glory, for he has done what never was 
 done before ! And it will be an admirable present to 
 mankind. It will abolish all wind-mills and water- 
 mills ; watch-springs, and clock pendulums, and steam 
 engines. And, in the coming age, nothing in this wide 
 world will move but itself — ^And then begins the 
 
103 
 
 millenium. Dear delusions, I love you though I 
 laugh at you. You too have your uses. 
 
 Now all the systems which improve the christian 
 religion are precisely these perpetual motions, issued 
 and uttered in the moment that the enthusiasm of tlie 
 inventor was in its delirium. Men more cautious let 
 the machine stop, and try it again and again, and at last 
 finding that it always comes to rest, place it on the shelf. 
 Frequently the same artist lives to finish half a dozen 
 of them. But he gives it up at last as a bad business, 
 locks up his work shop, and puts the key in his pocket. 
 Now he will not let a young artist into his workshop, 
 lest he should fall in love with one of these machines, 
 and either steal it, or go home and make something 
 like it. But when he meets an artist who has laboured 
 at the trade, and given it up fairly, they go in, and 
 laugh at their folly, and wonder how like to wisdom 
 folly can look ; and how very much the follies of dif- 
 ferent men may resemble each other. 
 
 But to speak of religious systems with great serious- 
 ness. I believe that Satan is permitted to lead thought- 
 ful minds, with the most upright and honest intentions, 
 into these whimsical speculations ; and that if they are 
 cool and cautious they will be brought ojff honourably j 
 and be brought to see a more excellent way. And even 
 the time spent in system making will not be lost to them; 
 they will be put on their guard respecting the tremen- 
 dous cunning of that adversary with whom all must 
 contend, but, beyond all, the ambassadors of the cross. 
 They will, by a few such instances, learn how, and 
 by what means Christianity is corrupted. It is (speak- 
 ing respecting its doctrine) seeking after the phi- 
 sophy of that doctrine : God tells us things are so ; 
 and we go to ask how these things are so : and not 
 
10* 
 
 finding the law of the system, we frequently destroy 
 the bodies which compose it. That men are free agents, 
 is one scripture doctrine ; that the grace of God is in- 
 fallibly efficacious, is another scripture doctrine ; hoio 
 can these things be, we cry ? And in searching after 
 this law of the system, one party finds it convenient to 
 deny free will in order to establish their law — and the 
 other balances the account by denying free grace. The 
 Scripture tells us, that all Adam's descendants are 
 guilty of his sin, and liable to its punishment. How 
 does the sin become theirs, we cry ? Now this is a 
 philosophical question — And it has been answered, 
 that it flows down in the blood. Now this assertion, 
 if it were true, is no part of Christianity, it belongs to 
 the philosophy of Christianity. And I have demon- 
 strated, that this is false philosophy. Yet Mr. M^C. 
 brings this false philosophy into his system. What 
 that system may turn out no soul can divine. It is in 
 the egg ; but when hatched it will be a serpent, and 
 bite. That Christ's righteousness is imputed to be- 
 lievers, and procures for them eternal life, is the scrip- 
 tural doctrine. But all demur and ask, how can it be 
 imputed ? Now I assert that this question entirely re- 
 lates to the philosophy of Christianity. The reason why 
 a thing is so, is nothing else than a philosophical 
 question. And if nobody could believe in Jesus 
 Christ, except those who can enter into the fine meta- 
 physical doctrine respecting representation, there would 
 not be one Christian for a thousand that now praise this 
 Redeemer. All your charming babes, boy and girl, 
 tvhochaunt their Redeemer's praise must be pronounc- 
 ed incapable of believing. Does one of them know 
 any thing about the reason ivhy Christ's righteousness 
 can be imputed to them ? poor babes, the stones in 
 
105 
 
 the street know as ranch of the matter as they. Yet 
 they believe in Jesus, and his lighteousness. The 
 gospel was given, to be preached to the poor, to the 
 illiterate, to lisping babes, but we preach it in a man- 
 ner that only philosophers can understand : and some 
 of us in a manner which philosophers themselves 
 cannot understand. 
 
 The answer to this philosophical problem comes up 
 again and fires my blood. It is said his righteous- 
 ness may be ours because he represented us. I 
 have demonstrated this to be a piece of false philo- 
 sophy. And 1 pronounce it one of the most pestilent 
 pieces of false philosophy, with which the chief of the 
 fallen hosts ever corrupted the christian church. It 
 was one of his most masterly strokes of general- 
 ship to bring the church on that ground. Against 
 this wicked philosophy I raise the hue and cry. I 
 lift up my voice like a trumpet, and in the name of 
 the Lord Jesus Christ I call on the whole christian 
 church to hunt this wisdom of the devil out of the 
 world. I call on all gospel ministers, upon whom God 
 has conferred the power of accurate discrimination, 
 to bring this philosophy to the test. Whatever they 
 may have heretofore thought, or said, on this subject, 
 I call upon them to test it again. It is a doctrine of 
 the devil and not of God. 
 
 If you ask me what is the grand error of the refor- 
 mation churches, what has produced most schism, most 
 controversy, most malignity, and been worse than any 
 thing else, or all things else ; I name this philosophi- 
 cal doctrine, that Christ's righteousness is imputable 
 to men, because he represented them in the covenant 
 of grace. Look back to page 54, &;c. and see how 
 many sects, and of what class and character, have 
 p 
 
106 
 
 sprung from this doctrine. To these add the nume- 
 rous other sects that have sprung out of these sects, 
 and then say what ought to be thought of this Satanic 
 philosophy. 
 
 I cant say by which one of the reformers this piece 
 of philosophy was introduced into the church The 
 idea which presents itself to my imagination, concern- 
 ing the mode of its introduction is this. I conceive one 
 of the old reformers sitting writingon the subject of jus- 
 tification by faith ; and Saian standing at his right 
 hand to resist him, whispers the question, how can the 
 righteousness of the Son of God he imputed to a mor- 
 tal man? And making a hasty r( i»]y, perhaps whisper- 
 ed to him, the reformer \\rote down in the first glow 
 of approving thought, that Christ's righteousness is im- 
 puted to believers because he represented them in the 
 covenant. 
 
 Be this as it may, thus much is certainly known, that 
 the doctrine of justification by faith in the blood of 
 Christ was tlw doctrine of the reformation. 
 
 E en a politician states this as the doctrine, the 
 the soul, the cause of the reformation : as creating a 
 new society all over Europe ; as giving in every king- 
 dom existence to a society, all of which were bound 
 together by this common faith ; and felt its influence 
 like the influence of the heart, in the animal system, 
 extending to the remotest members, and even to the 
 slightest excrescences. He represents this principle 
 or doctrine, as giving their societies all the effect of 
 corporate and political organizatio a unity of ob- 
 ject, a unity of interest, a unity of affection, a unity of 
 co-operation. Touch this doctrine, in any one nation, 
 and the electric shock was felt, at the same instant, 
 over all the nations of Europe, by every individual of 
 
lor 
 
 the same faith. And when that doctrine was attacked, 
 110 tie of kindred, or of blood, no tie of allegiance, no 
 tie of patriotism, could bind a member of that society. 
 Thdy felt only for their society : This attacked doc- 
 trine was their Palladium, their ark, their all in life, in 
 death, through eternity. It was the cause of God, and 
 of man, and of the universe. These are the views of 
 a politician. But he was a politician whose eye 
 ranged over the whole of human society, through all 
 its various organizations, and its mysterious and in- 
 terwoven ramifications ; and while it ranged over the 
 whole, it penetrated to the centre of each, and per- 
 ceived, and estimated, the individual momentum, and 
 particular direction of the individual forces, whose 
 united power produces what is called the state of 
 society. It was the opinion of Edmund Burke, but 
 what is most to our purpose is, that it is the truth. 
 
 Satan had vanquished the heroes of old, on the field 
 of wordly ambition. I have no doubt, that at that 
 time, he vanquished them by drawing up their own 
 sons against them ; youths full of genius, fire, and me- 
 tal ; fond of speaking, and fond of premature influence. 
 To behold the church passing from persecution to pro- 
 tection, from protection to influence, and from influ- 
 ence to power, wealth, honour, titles, dignities, su- 
 premacy ; must certainly have conveyed to vulgar 
 minds, an idea of a prosperous and flourishing condition. 
 And I don't doubt but when the old father exclaimed 
 in the counsel, "' This day I see 'poison hroiight into 
 the church,'^ there was a fine, eloquent, ardent youth, 
 who arose, and demonstrated that there was no danger 
 at all in the new reformation. ^' What ! moderator, 
 (would he sayj can there be any danger in the new re- 
 formation ? You have been long complaining of pover- 
 
108 
 
 ty, and here is Avealth for you : yon have been praying 
 to God to deliver yon from perseMition, and here is 
 more than deliverance, here is political power, it s pro« 
 mised that kings shall be nursing fathers, and queens 
 nursing mothers to the church, and lo the promise ful- 
 filled, they put us to the breast ! It is written that the 
 saints shall inherit the earth, and now that it is offered 
 us, shall we refuse it. 1 greatly venerate, njo«lerator, 
 my very venerable and worthy father, who lias just 
 spoken. But, really sir, 1 much doubt if he be as ca- 
 pable of judging of the state of things, in the present 
 times, as he was fifty year? ago. T;se state of society is 
 vastly altered, all thing? are improved, and 1 think it 
 will be prudent, and were I answering to my equal, I 
 should think it no more titan justice, f«>r those who are 
 just stepping out of the church, and out of the world, 
 prudently and tiracously, and with a good grace, 
 to surrender a little of the (SirectJon of both into 
 younger and more vigorous hands.'' 
 
 Well sir, the reformation took place. The fiend 
 triumphed, and left it to the church, wirh her own 
 hand, to complete a system of tyranny, that left man- 
 kind no liberty in the use of any one faculty of soul or 
 body. 
 
 But in the true reformation, of which we are 
 speaking, the fiend saw the regeneration of the 
 world. He saw a tremendous sight — the blood of 
 Jesus proclaimed aloud by a thousand tongues — 
 bis spirit shed on tens of thousands: the Holy Scrip- 
 tures their daily study, translated into their own lan- 
 guages ; and their own languages the vehicle of their 
 praises and their prayers : and their high, their lofty 
 claim, the liberty of ordering the whole of their con- 
 duct according to the prescriptions of that word alone. 
 Could Satan view such a scene without dismay ! He 
 
109 
 
 saw that in a very short time, they would sweep igiio= 
 ranee, superstition, and tyranny in all its forms, out of 
 Europe, and out of the world : he saw that they mul- 
 tiplied faster than all his tyrants, of both breeds, could 
 kill them. He therefore fell upon a new plan. He 
 must make themselves the instruments of their own 
 ruin. How ? not by chopping off toes arid fingers, not 
 by slitting noses and cropping ears, but by corrupting 
 their blood at the fountain of the heart. By corrupting 
 their grand doctrine, justification by the righteous- 
 ness of Christ. The doctrine itself could not be de- 
 nied all at once. The whole body of the reformed be- 
 lieved it, and had a thousand texts of Scripture to sup- 
 port it ; and would have given up their whole religion, 
 their Bibles, and all their hopes, the moment they gave 
 up this doctrine. And that was a sacrifice he knew 
 they could not, and would not make. And if they 
 kept that doctrine, he might annoy, but he could not 
 triumph over them. They would reach the portals of 
 glory at last. Corrupted it must be. But how ? By 
 making them philosophers, by starting questions which 
 they cannot answer, and whenever they give an igno- 
 rant answer, accept it, get it into their creed, into their 
 pulpits, into all their ideas respecting divine things : 
 and then, getting a philosopher of fine brain, and logi- 
 cal talents, and making him take their own foolish phi- 
 losophy, and argue it against them, and show them 
 that by the laws of that intellect which God has given 
 them, if they reason from their own principles, they 
 must in the end, give up some part of God's truth. 
 
 The event was well calculated. In all this we are 
 only supposing the devil to have been a good logician. 
 And every logician knows, that one of the finest trips 
 within the wrestling ring of sophistry, consists in ask- 
 
110 
 
 ing a question, and if the respondent answers wrong, 
 don't touch hlni yet — ask him to prove its connection 
 with the truth which he is defending, and you impugn- 
 ing ; he does it ardently, and as he imagines irrefuta- 
 bly. The sophism is now, by the chemical attraction 
 of the imagination, identified with the truth. But if 
 you are a true sophist, don't touch him yet : — ask him 
 again what good consequences will flow from the 
 whole. He proves one good consequence and another, 
 and these generate other consequences. Now clench 
 him. Revive the answer to your first question, de- 
 monstrate from other principles, that it is absolutely 
 wrong, he will struggle, but he must submit at last ; 
 and you cut up all his fine consequences, and the truth 
 which he united to them, shares their fate. You have 
 triumphed ; and so triumphs the fiend, when he cheats 
 the gospel minister in a little bit of false philosophy, 
 and persuades him to mingle it with the churches food; 
 the pure gospel of Christ. 
 
 It may be said that the particular idea which has 
 given rise to this whole discussion, and has been treat- 
 ed as so dangerous a sophism, and false philosophy, is 
 to be found in the writings of the most distinguished 
 chiefs of the. Calvanistic churches, and is heard in the 
 sermons of most Calvanistic preachers. It must be 
 admitted that this is matter of fact. And though I am 
 not quite sure that it is altogether innoxious there — 
 for it has generated questions, whether the essence of 
 saving faitli consists in believing that Jesus Christ died 
 intentionally to save me — it has created troubles in 
 many honest, anxious hearts, respecting their right 
 to believe the gospel — and some things else perhaps : 
 yet it has been, in a great degree, neutralised by the 
 stubborn faith, the glorious characteristic of the Cal- 
 
Ill 
 
 vanistic family. For although consequences after con- 
 sequence, in a train of argument, should be carrying a 
 Calvanist towards the gulph of error, the moment he 
 gets his foot on a text of Scripture which he under- 
 stands, he recovers his feet. How he got there, per- 
 haps he knows not, perhaps he cares not, but he is sure 
 he is right. 
 
 Perhaps I may be cautioned, that there are among 
 those who hold this idea, men who are unquestioned 
 philosophers, on every ground within the range of li- 
 beral science, and no where so much philosophers as 
 on the grouud of Christianity. I rejoice in asserting 
 that it is so : and did I not know that they are a mag- 
 nanimous race, who love truth, and love the man, who 
 utters it, I should blush for my own insignificance, 
 while I thus speak. 
 
 After all, preaching the philosophy of Christianity, 
 is not preaching the gospel. Perhaps there is too much 
 preaching of this philosophy of Christianity. 1 do not 
 presume to judge the men who are capable. They 
 are capable of judging for themselves ; but I give my 
 opinion. That it is imprudent and dangerous to preach 
 the philosophy of Christianity, unless on the ground, 
 and at the time, that the devil's philosophy is publicly, 
 and from the pulpit, troubling the church. In that case 
 you have no choice, you must gaff chicken against 
 chicken, the true philosophy, against the false, and 
 look on — never fear, there is no doubt of the main. 
 
 I said I trembled for the day when Calvinists should 
 turn philosophers, and let the churches look to it and 
 tremble too. It is this philosophy of Christianity 
 which we too often hear, and always complain that we 
 do not understand it. And this very philosophy of 
 Christianity is most frequently taken up by our young- 
 
lis 
 
 est men, that's the danger. God knows in what a man- 
 iier they frequently manage the matter ! You shall see 
 a youth just licensed, assuming the most dangerous 
 positions in all the wide universe of Christianity, and 
 challenging to conflict, single-handed, the most fearful 
 champions that ever the devil sent to hew down the 
 armies of tlie living God. 
 
 If this plain speaking should be received with a 
 sneer, as if it were only the result of the vanity of age 
 irritated by the vanity of youth, let them cry — Go up 
 bald head ! — In defiance of what mortal man can 
 think or say of me, 1 tell the young, and tell the old, 
 and I tell the whole of you, that this everlasting 
 preaching of the philosophy of Christianity by all sorts 
 of men of all sizes, will work mischief. We have got 
 one theorist already, and perhaps some other may be 
 just putting on, and flapping his wings, for an aerial 
 flight. be admonished, and keep the ground, re- 
 member the fate of Icarus. The pinions you have, are 
 borrowed pinions, and they are stuck together with 
 wax ; and assuredly they will melt, and down you 
 come. 
 
 Nititur pennis vitro daturus 
 Nomina ponto. 
 
 If you must have an aerial flight wait till wings 
 have grown on your own shoulders. You tell me you 
 have a new theory which will be of vast service, in- 
 deed you dont see the extent of it, it is so large : well 
 go on in secret and unravel the mystery. that would 
 require a long time, and all that time the world will 
 want the use of it. I will publish it to the church, 
 and improve it by the objestions and suggestions of 
 others : and then, if it is found worth nothing, or per- 
 
113 
 
 jiicious, T shall retract it. Will you? In the name o£ 
 your Lord, how dare you throw into the midst of hia 
 church this unknown thing? VV'^hatif it should turn out 
 some monstrous hydra, and devour the sons of men ? 
 And though somebody, though yourself should at last 
 slay the monster, will that resuscitate those whom it 
 has devoured ? 
 
 You tell me that you see something dimly twink- 
 ling through the mist, on the field of Christianity, and 
 you promise yourself a discovery, but it is difficult. 
 I ask, did you go out to look for difficulties, that you 
 might have the glory of ranking with discoverers ? 
 Then the devil must have been your guide. And yon- 
 der he is, in that dim light, and as you advance it will 
 grow brighter and brighter, and carry you on farther and 
 farther, now towards this point of the compass, and now 
 towards that, till at last, if divine grace interpose not, 
 down it goes, and down you go in some Seibonian bog. 
 Did you challenge the fiend, or did the fiend challenge 
 you ? If you challenged, mind you must fight the 
 battle without a second. You'll be beaten, and killed 
 too, unless some one comes by, and rescues you out of 
 his hands. But did the fiend meet you at your mas- 
 ter's work, and clutch you ? then you must buckle to, 
 your master has pitted his own blood against Satanic* 
 powers ; himself for your second ; let no one hear your 
 voice but him ; and be cool. And if the field be the 
 philosophy of Christianity, long and dubious will this 
 conflict be : and bitterly shalt thou l)leed, and mourn- 
 fully shalt thou groan, and dolefully shalt thou call on 
 thy master for help. And when all thy veins are 
 sluiced, and thou liest wallowing in thy own blood, 
 and all thy joints dislocated, and every bone in thy body 
 broken : in the last deadly grasp of desperate deter- 
 
 Q 
 
 1 
 
114j 
 
 mination, just as the film begins to cover thy eye, thy 
 master will give the victory. Ahd thou shalt find thy- 
 self Tar stronger and sprightlier than when thou com- 
 mencedest the conflict : a very feeble thing in thine own 
 eyes, but thy master will be glorious in thy eyes. Thou 
 wilt never desire such another conflict : though thou 
 "Wilt not decline it on receiving; thy master's orders. 
 For now experience has assured thee that he will 
 stand thy second, and in all his battles bring thee off 
 more than conqueror. 
 
 SECTION XL 
 
 But, reader, I must now loolc to myself, for I am not 
 sufficiently philanthropic to love every body but my- 
 self. After this long and laborious day's work, in 
 reaping, and threshing, and winnowing, what have I 
 got to myself, as my wages ? Why, reader, here it is ! 
 just two pickles of chaff! Mr. M^Chord put them to- 
 gether according to the forms and ceremonies of the 
 metaphysical community, and they have begotten a 
 third pickle ; and by and by intermarriages will take 
 place, and marriages such as Caesar describes in a cer- 
 tain island, and the earth will be replenished with 
 them. 
 
 I say I have gotten two pickles of chaff for my share 
 of the spoils — two sophistries of false philosophy, 
 which the devil had mixed in the Lord's field of wheat. 
 Here they are — That Adam's sin is imputed to man, 
 BECAUSE they descend from him by ordinary generation 
 — And that Christ's righteousness is imputable to men, 
 BECAUSE he represented them in the covenant of 
 
±15 
 
 The gospel of Jesus Christ teaches, that God does 
 impute Adam's sin to his posterity: and that God 
 does impute the righteousness of his Son to believers : 
 and that he offers that righteousness to all men, pro- 
 mising eternal life to every man who receives it by 
 faith, and threatening eternal death to all who re- 
 ject it. 
 
 This is the gospel ; I have added nothing to it. I 
 sucked it from the blessed breasts of the Holy Spouse 
 of God when 1 was a babe. And now that I am a man, 
 shall I permit any one to stain those blessed breasts 
 with bitter poisonous drugs, to cause the babes to turn 
 away with nausea ? or if in fainting hunger they must 
 have milk, shall I permit the bitter poison to mingle 
 with that milk, and throw their tender bodies into con- 
 vulsions ? And shall any fear of any thing that man 
 can do, deter me from washing it away in the very best 
 manner and most effectual way that I can devise ? Oh, 
 no ! mother — such is not thy son ; No ! babes — such is 
 not thy brother ! 
 
 Reader, thou and I lie chained in the same dun- 
 geon, under sentence of death, to be hanged on the 
 same tree ; there is no appeal, for the sentence 
 is pronounced by the Supreme Judge of the universe. 
 There is no escaping hence, for our keeper is omnis- 
 cient — and there can be no rescue, for the execution- 
 er is omnipotent. And is it not very foolish, and very 
 wicked in us to be thus breaking each others heads 
 with the very chains which we wear, disputing about 
 how that judge can be just in pronouncing that sen- 
 tence ? 
 
 But, reader, here is a strange thing ! The Son of the 
 King himself has just come into our dungeon with a 
 lamp which makes it brighter than day. And he tells 
 us that he has given himself to be hanged on the same 
 
116 
 
 tree that we wfere to have been hanged on, in consc- 
 qnence ofan a2;r'"ement between him and thfl King his 
 Father, that if he would so die he should have a right 
 to come iulo our prison, and offer us life ; and he pro- 
 mises that if we follow him, he will treat us as his own 
 brothers, and the King his Father will treat us as his 
 own sons ; we shall wear the very same robes he 
 wears himself; we shall sit at the same table, and eat 
 the same food with himself ; that wherever he goes he 
 will take us with him, tliat he will give us a share of 
 all his honours, and that when he triumphs, we shall 
 triumph with him ; and that this sort of life shall con- 
 tinue through all eternity. 
 
 Reader, shall we take him at his word, and go 
 along with him ? That open, honest brow bespeaks 
 him no deceiver ; that indescribable eye beams only 
 with benevolence ; such lips as those never could utter 
 a falsehood ; Reader, arise, and let us follow him ! 
 
 Or say, shall we sit down, and keep him standing, 
 and waiting our leisure, while we cross question him ? 
 Let us ask him — What right had you to die for us ? 
 Was it just in the King your Father to impute our sins 
 to you, and put you to death for us ? How can he im- 
 pute your righteousness to us, and give us all the fine 
 things you promise, because you died on the tree on 
 which we were condemned to die ? Remember, Sir, 
 we are rational creatures, every thing ought to be 
 made visible to rational understandings. And if you 
 can satisfy us on these points, we pledge ourselves to 
 go witii you — provided, always, that no new objec- 
 tion should occur. Reader, is this the way to go to 
 work ? 
 
 reader, all that is preached from our pulpits is 
 not the gospel. 1 wish that one half of it may be 
 
117 
 
 founri gospel in the judgment day. I cannot get out 
 of this subject. 
 
 My leg is broken, run and call a physician. He 
 seats himself gravely by my agonizing couch, and thus 
 begins. ^' Before I bind up this broken bone, 1 must 
 first tboroiigdly satisfy thee concerning all the possible 
 w ays, and means, and manners in which bones can pos- 
 sibly be broken ! In the iirst place, then, some men 
 fall and break their own bones; and, in the second 
 place, some men fall and break their own bones, and 
 other people's bones too. O reader, it is a tearful jest; 
 and I laugh, and I weep, alternately, over my paper. 
 
 Is not this precisely what we are doing, preaching 
 dissertations how bones can be broken ? How it was 
 possible that Adam broke his own bones, and broke 
 our bones. It is not pressing home on sinners their 
 guilt — but explaining how they came to be guilty, that 
 engages us. What matter how they became guilty^ • 
 since they are so ? 
 
 Let us dismiss the quack, and call a good physician, 
 if we should not mistake the mere title of a profession- 
 al man, for real professional talent. 
 
 Dear Doctor, my leg is broken ; the pain is excruci- 
 ating ; cure me quickly. Sir, before I proceed to the 
 cure, it is necessary that I inform thee how broken legs 
 are healed. I care nothing about how they are healed. 
 Heal my broken leg. You must know that the human 
 bone is composed — I know nothing about its composi- 
 tion. You ought to know this much, at least, that out 
 of the sides of the fracture of a fractured bone — Be- 
 gone, ni be a dead man before this dissertation is 
 ended. Go quickly, and call a physician who actually 
 has set a broken bone. 
 
 Here sir, is a physician; who says he has healed 
 
118 
 
 many broken bones. Dear Doctor, here's my le^. 
 Let me have it. A dreadful compound fracture ; but 
 my life for yours not mortal ; only trust. There's the 
 remedy that never did fail, and never will fail, so long 
 as there are men on earth. The remedy is applied ; 
 the bone is healed. 
 
 Reader, is not this the right way of doing business? 
 Convince men that they are (no matter how they are) 
 sinners; and depend upon it, when they are con- 
 vinced that they are sinners, the thought is so absorb- 
 ing, that it leaves only one other thought in the whole 
 compass of the human soul — What shall I do to be 
 saved P Answer that question, for pity's sake, as quick 
 as you can. 
 
 I cannot get out of this subject yet. But as I am 
 preaching to clergymen, the public, I hope, will ex- 
 cuse my lengthiness. The clergy will not take it 
 amiss. They know the Jordan sometimes overflows 
 its banks. 
 
 Fellow-soldiers, the fiend has out-generaled us. 
 We are entirely in the wrong. He has kept us a great 
 deal of our time preaching for his interest, and not for 
 the interest of Jesus Christ. I mean we have been 
 preaching something which is not the gospel; and 
 which has as effectually served the devil's interests, as 
 preaching the gospel subserves the interest of the Re- 
 deemer ; and we have been doing the former while 
 we should have been doing the latter. 
 
 Tell me how sinners' souls are exercised, all the 
 time a preacher is showing how it could be just in God, 
 to commit the eternal safety of mankind to Adam ? 
 How it can be just in God to punish them for the guilt 
 in Adam ? By what possible means, and through what 
 possible channels could Adam's transgression reach 
 
119 
 
 them ? Why, they sit asking themselves these ques- 
 tions, which their preacher is in vain attempting to 
 solve. How could it be just in God to make Adam 
 my covenant head ? How could Adam sin for me ? 
 How can God impute Adam's sin to me ? Through 
 what possible channel could Adam's sin reach me ? 
 What is the amount of all this on the mind of a sinner ? 
 Recollect how you felt yourself, when as a sinner you 
 heard these things. Ask any candid man who is not 
 of your sect, how he feels under such sermons. And 
 what will be better than all, as a test of this matter, 
 ask your own heart how it feels. Is it softened ? is it 
 melted with a conviction of its sinful condition ? No, 
 no ! But it is lost in stupid wonder : wondering how 
 it is possible that these things can be true, which God 
 has declared to be true. Now, if exciting doubts and 
 wonders respecting the truth of God's word, and the 
 justice of the divine dispensations, be subservient of 
 Satan's kingdom, judge ye ! 
 
 But there is a far, far more loudly crying sin to an- 
 swer for. When the preacher is giving him a long 
 dissertation ; shewing him exactlyi how it is possible 
 that God can offer him everlasting life — the poor trem- 
 bling convict, wringing his hands, cries out aloud, I 
 do not ask how it is possible — but I ask, does he offer 
 it to me ? When the preacher is proving to him, and 
 showing to him in what manner the righteousness of 
 Christ can be imputed to him, his bursting soul ex- 
 claims, I ask not in what manner it may be mine, but 
 can I get it at all ? While the preacher is proving, by 
 a metaphysical process, that eternal life may he offered 
 to all men, in a perfect consistency with all the divine 
 perfections and purposes of Jehovah, the poor con- 
 vict's soul cries within itself, I don't care about all that 
 
ISO 
 
 — is there any oflPer of salvation for me ? All tliis time 
 not one word of the gospel has been preached ; and 
 the poor afflicted souls are all the time lost in doubts 
 and wonders, how it is possible that Jesus Christ 
 should have suffered for them : — how God could pos-. 
 sibly impute their sins to his own Son : — how it is 
 POSSIBLE that an offer of salvation should be made to 
 him? That is, he is tortured with questions about 
 God's right to give salvation — Christ's right to procure 
 salvation, and the preacher's right to offer salvation, 
 and his own right to accept salvation ; but all this time 
 there is no salvation at all. All this time Satan looks 
 on, rejoices that the salvation of the convict is delayed 
 — delights in the torments of his conscience — rejoices 
 that possibilities have been talked of, and not realities : 
 that rights have been only demonstrated ; but the thing 
 to which the right is proved, not put into the possession 
 of him who has a right to it : exults to see that it is 
 considered so far a dubious point, that it requires proof 
 that the preacher has any right at all to oft'er salva- 
 vation : and the poor creature is led to awful doubts, 
 whether he has any right to accept of eternal life. 
 Now I ask, is not this doing the very thing the devil 
 would wish you to do? If he can keep you out of pul- 
 pits, he will. If he cannot, what can he do better 
 than to employ you in discussions which will delay 
 the coming of the sinner to Christ — which will fill his 
 mind with doubts about his right to come to Christ — - 
 which will call in question, whether Christ will re- 
 ceive him, and the Father accept him ? All such dis- 
 cussions before a Christian congregation, (with very, 
 very, very rare exceptions) are. What is the use of the 
 doctrine of Adam's representation and original sin ? 
 Aye, what is the use of this doctrine in the grand arch 
 
121 
 
 of the rainbow of the covenant. For surely it is one 
 thing to say a proposition is true, and anothe • o de- 
 termine what that truth good for. The doctrine of 
 Adam's representation and original sin is in the Bible ; 
 but the question is, What was it put there for, and 
 what use ought we to put it to? Here are a few ele- 
 ments which I mean to make use of in solving this 
 question, for my own individual satisfaction. 
 
 1. I will ask myself, if ever any prophet, sent by 
 God, of old, to awaken a sinful age, awed their con- 
 sciences, and enlightened their understanding, by de- 
 monstrating Adam's representative character, and prov- 
 ing that mankind are guilty of his sin? Or did they 
 thunder against the sins, the actual, the peculiar sins 
 of that very age ; ardently wishing to convince men 
 that they were sinners? 
 
 S. I shall enquire into John the Baptist's preaching, 
 and examine how he, who came to prepare the way of 
 our Lord, thundering the law, that Jesus miglit flash 
 the light of the gospel — how he produced correction in 
 that viperous age, when the tongue that uttered truth, 
 sacrificed the head it belonged to. Was it by preach- 
 ing the representative character of Adam and original 
 sin : or by reproving men for their sins, their own 
 sins, their peculiar sins, with all their aggravations ? 
 
 3. I shall again read over carefully, the sermons of 
 the master himself, v. ho knew perfectly well how to 
 preach his own gospel ; and if I find him proving 
 Adam's representative character, and urging home ori- 
 ginal sin on the consciences of his auditors, and prov- 
 ing to them that God is just in all this, then the pro- 
 blem will be solved. Or if I find him charging home 
 on the age, the sins wliich that age had committed, 
 
 R 
 
13S 
 
 and were committing, then the problem will be solved. 
 He himself was living law. 
 
 4. I sliall next enquire how the Apostles, in the days 
 of Pentecost, awakened sinners to a sense of their 
 guilt. 
 
 5. I shall enquire what is the meaning of some 
 strange things that we meet with, in the writings of 
 some good old authors ; and have often heard from the 
 lips of some good old men ; that original sin is the last 
 sin men are convinced of. 
 
 These and some other enquiries I intend fo make^, 
 will afford me a satisfaction as to what the doctrines of 
 Adam's representation and original sin are not useful. 
 If I iind, on enquiry, that they are never once employ- 
 ed by the sacred inspired ambassadors of the skies, in 
 awakening a guilty, perishing age, from the fatal se- 
 curity, to a sense of their sins, and a sacred terror of 
 Jehovah's wrath, then shall I conclude, that these doc- 
 trines are of no use in awakening sinners, and. bring- 
 ing them to Jesus. 
 
 Ah ! cries some prudent, cautious man, take care ! 
 This may excite a suspicion that that doctrine is not 
 true, or at least, that you doubt its being useful. Well, 
 since men must have their suspicions, let them suspect 
 what they please. I tell them, and I tell those who 
 deny the doctrine, that it is in the Bible. But the 
 question is, to what end is it there ? What purposes 
 does it serve ? Here is a stone ; well, what is the use 
 of it — To place in a building — to cut for a seal — to 
 set in a ring ? What is it good for ? 
 
 I have as good a right to trouble the church of God 
 as others have. And I will give this trouble to the 
 brains of ministers, in order to save a great deal of 
 trouble to the souls of their people. I will propose this 
 
123 
 
 problem to theni — IVTiat is precisely the use which the 
 sacred writers make of the doctrine of Adam^s repre- 
 sentation and original sin P 
 
 Till this problem is solved, let them labour to con- 
 vince sinners that they are sinners. No great matter 
 how they came to be such, since they actually are so, 
 and under an awful doom. And the moment they 
 confess guilt, invite them to Jesus. When they ar& 
 once safe in his securing arms, they can ask him many 
 things as they lean on his bosom. He will teach 
 every day more and more of the wickedness of their 
 desperately wicked nature ; and perhaps may lead 
 them up to view the desperate wickedness of the 
 whole race of men, and to see something respecting 
 Adam's representative character. But they are his, and 
 don't trouble them with puzzling problems. If they 
 cannot see that they are guilty of Adam's — caution 
 them only not to deny the doctrine, to repent of their 
 own sins, and rely on the grace of their Lord. 
 
 When the above problem is resolved, the resolver 
 will have a right to propose his question ; and will 
 greatly oblige me if he proposes the following : What 
 is the precise use which the sacred writers make of 
 the doctrine of election, and of ChrisVs representa- 
 tion ? 
 
 One thing has long been ascertained, that it is not 
 the doctrine which should be taught to poor trembling 
 convicts under a sense of the displeasure of the Awful 
 Supreme. 
 
134 
 
 SECTION XII. 
 
 The reason ivJiy eternal life is offered to all men in the 
 Gospel, 
 
 That salvation is freely offered to all men who hear 
 the gospel — and that every individual man who hears 
 the gospel, is commanded to accept that salvation, un- 
 der the pains and penalty of everlasting condemnation, 
 in case of a refusal — are truths so obviously taught in 
 the Holy Scriptures, that one wonders how any hu- 
 man being should ever have entertained a doubt on 
 the subject. 
 
 Those, however, who believe in the doctrine of elec- 
 tion — who believe that Jtisus Christ died to save a 
 certain number of mankind, have been repeatedly and 
 sorely pressed to assign a cause for offering salvation 
 to the unelected, which should vindicate the moral 
 candour and justice of Jehovah. And so long as they 
 maintained that the imputahility of Christ's righteous- 
 ness depended on his representative characters in the 
 covenant of grace — so long, I humbly conceive, their 
 answer was unsatisfactory. We ought to speak freely 
 and openly to our brothers of Adam's family ; and in 
 this spirit I do declare, that I never could be satisfied 
 with the current explanations. 
 
 And yet nothing can be more certain, than that God 
 is candid, true, and just, in this offer of life to man- 
 kind in general : And we can see and know that all 
 his moral attributes stand clear of imputation in this 
 offer. Nay, we shall attempt to show that all his 
 moral attributes required that he should make such an 
 
125 
 
 offev of salvation to all mankind. We shall show that 
 God is not only just in this general oifer, but tliat he 
 would not have been just not to give it to all, provided 
 he thought proper to give it to any. 
 
 In surveying such a statue as the Apollo Belvidere, 
 one artist may be most struck with this profile, and ano- 
 ther with that; while all admit that it is a miracle of art. 
 In like manner, different men contemplating the gene- 
 ral call of the gospel may be differently affected. One 
 may view it as a merciful act in God so to offer life to 
 offenders : another may consider it as some unaccount- 
 able mystery, which he is sure God can unravel, though 
 he owns that he cannot. Now I must say, that this 
 general offer of salvation to all men by Jesus Christ, 
 never appears to me so glorious as when it is placed 
 under the direct beam of pure justice. My meaning 
 is this, that if God reveals the righteousness of Christ 
 to mankind, he must command them to accept it : and 
 that he would not be a just God if he did not so com- 
 mand them. 
 
 The reasoning is as follows : God does require of 
 all men the righteousness of the law. It must be so ; 
 for if he did not require this, he could require nothing, 
 and all moral law, moral order, moral responsibility, 
 would be at an end. God requires the righteousness 
 of the law ; but the gospel reveals the righteousness of 
 Christ as the righteousness of the law ; of conse- 
 quence, God requires men to present to him the right- 
 eousness of Christ. Christ's righteousness is the 
 righteousness of the law : but God requires the righte- 
 ousness of the law ; therefore God requires the righte- 
 ousness of Christ of every man who hears the gospel 
 sound. Can any thing be plainer ? But let us turn it 
 
126 
 
 round and around, and again dicies repetita placehit ; 
 our admiration will increase with acquaintance. 
 
 Suppose God did not require men to present to him 
 the righteousness of his Son — then he would not re- 
 quire them to present the righteousness of his law — 
 that is, he would release them from the obligation of 
 the moral law altogether. Is this possible ! Then our 
 high born race, made only /or a little while lower than 
 the angels, this glorious race, created in the image of 
 God, must rank with the beasts that perish ; no moral 
 law, no moral order, no moral pleasure, no moral re- 
 ward ! Such a state of things is inconceivable. 
 
 The only possible evasion that the subtlest logician 
 could avail himself of in order to keep clear of this 
 conclusion is, the allegation that God might require 
 men personally to work out the righteousness of tiie 
 law, and refuse to allow them the righteousness of the 
 Son. It is proper to treat such subjects vvitli great 
 modesty and fear. Who can say what Jehovah may 
 or may not do ? Who shall set limits to the Holy One 
 of Israel ? But I cannot conceive the supposition stat- 
 ed, to be at all worthy of God. The justice of God is 
 the justice of a Being of infinite goodness, kindness, 
 mercy — of infinite equity. And can I suppose that 
 such a Being should require a righteousness which is 
 not in the ivorld ; and refuse a righteousness which is 
 in the world ? Can it be supposed that he should say, 
 I demand the righteousness of the law — here is the 
 righteousness of the law — but I do not demand it. 
 
 Culling from the analogies of human things with 
 divine, let me suppose the following case. My bro- 
 ther was under a contract, to effect a piece of work, 
 and to receive ten thousand dollars on its completion, 
 or pay a fine of ten thousand dollars in case of fail- 
 
127 
 
 ure. He fails to eflfect the work, and must pay the 
 forfeit. If now I come forward, and pay down the ten 
 thonsand dollars to the original contractor, saying my 
 brother has failed, but I am able to pay all his debts ; 
 what should I think or say of that contractor, if he 
 were to refuse the money, and cast my brother into 
 prison, under an allegation that 1 was not known in 
 the original contract? 
 
 I would not push analogies too far, on so vast and 
 awful a theme. If I rightly understand the Scriptures, 
 it is an act of grace in God to accept a vicarious^ in- 
 stead of a personal righteousness ; and yet the Scrip- 
 tures do not intimate that God would be just in reject- 
 ing the righteousness of the law, when presented to 
 him. Let justice, equity and love, then, entwine their 
 unfading glories ! Let others view matters in that 
 light which is afforded them ; but for my single self, 
 I must say, that if the righteousness of God's law is in 
 the world, he wills to be satisfied with it ! What does 
 he ask ? The righteousness of his law. Does he ask 
 more of me, or less of me ? Neither less nor more. 
 And can I imagine that the Father of all mercies, and 
 God of all consolations, the Father of this spirit, and 
 the fashioner of this mortal body, will show me the 
 real righteousness of his law, already wrought out and 
 finished, and demand of me, not to accept this righte- 
 ousness, but to work out a righteousness of his own, 
 which he knows I cannot do ? 
 
 There is something in the human mind, like an en- 
 larged intuition, a sort of vision, which is blind to the 
 slow steps of verbal logic, but perceives with assur- 
 ance, what is in the main truth : and that intuition, 
 or whatever it is, seems to assure me that if my elder 
 brother is both able and willing to pay my debt ; my 
 
128 
 
 heavenly Father will not refuse to accept his due, 
 merely because it is not I, but my elder brotiier, that 
 has earned it with sweat and toil. Nay, when I stand 
 before him, trembling for my doom, I think I hear him 
 saying to me, your elder brother is both able and wil- 
 ling to pay your debt : nothing would give him great- 
 er pleasure : bid him settle for you. Such, I must 
 think, is something like the sentiments of the Father 
 of us all. I cannot see how such a glorious Jehovah 
 should proclaim salvation among his own creatures, 
 the work of his own hands, and not command them to 
 accept it. 
 
 A half bred metaphysician is a wonderful enchanter: 
 he lives in the middle of a great world of words. If 
 you get in you will never get out, unless you draw 
 your axe, and cut your way. Let me see. This 
 same word represenfaf/oH, sounds to my ear very like 
 ^vsi\itation. Old father Newton has demonstrated 
 that bodies really and truly do gravitate, but if you 
 ask him the cause, he sends you to the poets ^'«5 ^' 
 tiixeilo ^ayiic — it is thc wiU of God : and all his sons vote 
 with their old, father. What short cuts these philo- 
 sophers take of us ! We call for reasons, for causes^ 
 for hows and whys, and they with most provoking gra- 
 vity give ws facts, plain naked facts, and nothing but 
 facts. The fact occurs in nature, that's all. They 
 have thrown away all this learned vocabulary of 
 sounds about occult principles, and what not, and are 
 content with the ascertainment of facts. And since 
 they have acted in this manner their work goes on 
 cheerily. It is amazing how they advance. An old 
 hoary headed philosopher will have to ask his own 
 son, before the lad is allowed to give a vote at an elec- 
 tion, what the present state of science is. Certainly 
 
129 
 
 the philosophers have got on the right track ; they 
 get along so rapidly. If they could only he kept 
 from making worlds, it is impossihle to say with what 
 brilliancy science would shortly blaze. 
 
 Now it is to be hoped, that as soon as divines be- 
 come philosophers, in the true sense of the word, their 
 work will advance in the same rapid felicitous manner. 
 Whenever that day comes, they will know that in re- 
 spect to imputation of sin and righteousness in the co- 
 venant of works, all that can be known is the fact : 
 That in respect to the reasunahleness of that dispensa- 
 tion, all that can he known is that wjinite reason esta- 
 blished it : that in respect to its justice^ nothing can 
 be known save th^it Jehovah the source of all justice, 
 has done it. If this will satisfy mankind, the preach- 
 ers of the gospel can satisfy tliem with undoubted scrip- 
 tural authority. And if that will not satisfy them, why 
 let the v;orms crawl on their throne, and call their 
 maker to account for having made them thus. He 
 will trample them in his wrath — unless his bowels 
 should yearn, and then he will give them a new heart 
 and new mind ; and they will acknowledge that he has 
 done all things well. If any one imagines that he 
 ever will know any reason why God created our race 
 to be saved or damned, by the imputed righteousness, 
 or imputed sin of a representative, let me hasten to 
 cure him of his delirium ; let me give him a lethean 
 draught, that lie may forget his ttriene follies, and 
 reconcile himself to his fate. This is the medicine of 
 the mind. 
 
 Isa. 45, ix. &c, ^' Woe unto him that striveth with 
 his maker ! Let the potsherds strive with the pot- 
 sherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that 
 fashions th it, what makest thou ? Or thy work, He 
 
130 
 
 hath no hands ? Woe unto him that saith unto his 
 father, what hegettest thou ? or to the woman, what 
 hast thou brou2;ht forth ?'' 
 
 ^ ^^ Thus saith the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, 
 and his Maker. Ask me of things to come concern- 
 ing my sons, and concerning the work of my hands, 
 command ye me ! ! !'^ 
 
 I had thought to have paraphrased this passage : 
 but T can't touch it. Who is this that darkeneth coun- 
 sel by words without wisdom ? If you can see — see : 
 If not, I can do no more. 
 
 SECTION XIII. 
 
 Those among men, who are devoted to high intel- 
 lectual efforts, may be divided into two classes, the 
 students of nature, and the students of grace, jjhiloso- 
 phers and divines. 
 
 " One sire begat them, and one mother bore V^ And 
 sorry I am, when I see any fraternal strife among 
 them. Could they but agree, they would soon kick 
 out of the world the bastard breed of sceptics, infidels, 
 and atheists. 
 
 After all, the divines are of the nobler family. But 
 the philosophers have, as yet, played the man in the 
 higher style. Their scale goes down to the ground 
 with a most ponderous gravity ; while our scale kicks 
 the beam, as if there was nothing in it. What can be 
 the reason that for two centuries, less or more, philo- 
 sophy should be making such prodigious advances, 
 and divinity standing stock still ? 
 
 Look, ye divines, at your twin brothers ! There is 
 one, with his crucible la one hand, and his thermome- 
 
131 
 
 ter in the otlier — covered all over with sweat and cin- 
 ders — a true son of Vulcan, putting; nature to the tor- 
 ture, to compel lier to reveal some of her secrets. 
 Look up ! there is one of them scramblins; to the very 
 top of the Andes ! Now I would not be along side of 
 him for all beneath the sun. What does the fellow 
 mean ? Is he going to get a tenement among the stars? 
 !N o ! he is a philosopher, and bye and bye he will 
 come down, (if he should not break his neck) and will 
 bring in his pocket some lichens and mosses, and peb- 
 bles : and when he gets his brothers about him, you 
 will wonder to hear what conclusions they will draw, 
 conclusions which excite the sneer of ridicule only in 
 countenances where the lambent smile of wisdom ne- 
 ver played. Look there ! just at your feet, there is 
 one of them going perpendicularly down to the shades, 
 through the shaft of a horrible mine-hole : before fif- 
 teen minutes he will be fifty fatlioms into the very 
 bowels of tlie earth, among pitfalls, and choak damps ; 
 and the earth every moment threatening to cave in on 
 his head. 
 
 Well, are all these men fools? No. They are 
 students of nature ; and they mind their books. What 
 is the result? Behold what the God of nature has 
 given them as the reward of their devotion and indus- 
 try. Tell any one of these blades that you have got a 
 new theory ; he laughs in your face ; and asks you 
 where are your facts ? From that family theories have 
 long been banished. 
 
 But how is it in the other family — among the theo- 
 logians ? What have you been doing all this time ? 
 What have you discovered for a few centuries ? Just 
 nothing. Did you mind your books — the books of the 
 sacred volume — these are your books — did you mind 
 
them ? Tr you had, I am sure the God of grace is not 
 so nggardly of his favours, as to refuse you some game 
 for you'- hunting. The Bihle, the Bible, cried Chil- 
 lingworth, is the religion of Protestants. And any one 
 who pleases, may cry, the Bible, the Bible, is the 
 world of the theologian. Don't be mistaken. The 
 Bible is not explored. There is many a terra austra- 
 lis incos;nita, in that moderate volume. And until 
 theologians place themselves for life on the holy page, 
 we shall have no discoveries ! Perhaps some may have 
 worn epaulets for seven years, and never measured, 
 with the line in his hand, a single encampment : per- 
 haps a man may have been seven yeras a minister of 
 the gospel, and never have analysed a single book of 
 the sacred volume, nor expounded it to his flock. How 
 can there be divines in this way of working. 
 
 The philosophers are playing the men. Nothing in 
 the heavens above, or in earth below, can escape them. 
 Not a star can show its head, but they will know some- 
 thing about it. Not a substance in nature but they will 
 find some use for. All this is as it ought to be. But how 
 goes the day among the divines ? V\ hat are they do- 
 ing ? What single thing has been done by them now, 
 for centuries, to purify the churches faith, and bring 
 her up in all things, to the purity of the sacred model. 
 Are not all the systems of false philosophy, that ever 
 corrupted the church of God, in full vigour, corrupting 
 it still ? Are there not as many parties in the Christian 
 church, as ever there were, with their jarring doctrines, 
 and mutual contradictions ? And what arc the divines 
 doing; they are very gravely looking on, and leaving it 
 to one metaphysician, to destroy the theory of another 
 metaphysician. That much is easily done ; he tears one 
 system down, and builds up another; and thus leaves 
 
133 
 
 tbp wor^*^! a«! well off as he found it. The metaphysi- 
 cians will never be able to do this work, they will never, 
 to all eternity, produce a good moral theory. God re- 
 serves that work for his own sons of the holy anointing 
 oil ; and they will come forth with the holy sword of 
 the spirit, and jngnlate these human sophistries : and 
 preach the gospel just as they find it in their Bible. 
 And then the world will enjoy a good system, as fine 
 a theory as ever infinite wisdom devised. 
 
 " O mihi tam longae maneat pars ultima vitae 
 Spiiilus ct quantum sat erit luu dicere facta." 
 
 Bat the sigli is in vain ! A new generation must arise 
 in the Christian church — the race of commentators. 
 The world is just ready for them. The pioneers have 
 cleared the w ay. They have rummaged every monk's 
 cell ; they have dusted every little tatter of a manu- 
 script which contained so much as one jot, or one tittle 
 of the sacred volume. They have put them into the 
 hands of the Bible critics, who have weighed each one of 
 these jots and tittles, with as much scrupulosity as if their 
 everlasting all were at stake. They have given us the 
 sacred volume, as complete and as pure, as we expect 
 ever to get it. But now we want a race of men to 
 search the Scriptures, and tell us exactly what they 
 contain. Whenever the church beholds her sons stu- 
 dying the sacred books, with the same ardour, assidui- 
 ty, and perseverance, which the philosophers are now 
 displaying on the book of nature, she will find herself 
 already reformed ; her wrinkles all gone ; and herself 
 restored to the virgin beauty of her youth. 
 
 The Christian church does need a race of philoso- 
 phical ministers. But they must be philosophers of 
 
134 
 
 the right kind — not system-makers, but system-break, 
 ers ; true iconoclasts every man of them. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 Reader, 1 did not trouble thee with a long introduc- 
 tion of myself to thy acquaintance. But after having 
 travelled so long in thy company, it would give me 
 some pain, to think that thou hast no curiosity to learn 
 w hat induced me to become thy companion. In plain 
 terms, I may reasonably be asked, what induced me to 
 write this book. To which question I would make the 
 following reply. 
 
 That 1 strongly suspect, tliat some of the ideas con- 
 tained in this book, would at one time or another, have 
 made their way to the public, under some shape and 
 form. But entertaining an opinion, that if the Father 
 of lights reveals any thing to any man, with an inten- 
 tion that it should ultimately be communicated to the 
 world, he will at one time or another, give a provi- 
 dential call to that man to speak out ; I was in no haste 
 to obtrude myself upon the public notice. But when 
 Mr. M'C.'s book (The Body of Christ,) came to my 
 hand, I suspected the time was come when I ought to 
 speak out. I accordingly cat-lugged several of his 
 pages for reference, and took up my pen. But when 
 I recollected that I had reasons, peculiar to myself, 
 why I should be the last man in the Avorld to bear 
 hard on a youth, who, in pursuit of what he esteemed 
 truth, had the misfortune to come into collision with 
 Presbyteries and Synods ; and when I considered, 
 that since the Synod was yet to pass judgment in the 
 
135 
 
 caae, it might be that God had prepared some others 
 to plead his cause, far better than I could do ; the pen 
 dropped from my hand : neither head, nor heart, nor 
 hand, would move in the business. 
 
 During the time that Mr. M^C's appeal was under 
 discussion in the Synod, I never once entered the 
 liouse ; but I was often asked my opinion, by several 
 of the members. Of Mr. M^C. I had as favourable an 
 opinion as any of them : of his system, I thought worse 
 than they all. I freely offered my weapons to differ- 
 ent members : but no one would have them. Some 
 seemed to doubt their goodness ; and I could not teach 
 their use to any body. 
 
 The Synod eventually confirmed the sentence of 
 suspension, passed on Mr. M*C. by the Presbytery of 
 Kentucky-, on account of his doctrines. But I was in- 
 formed by every man who attended the debates, that 
 they did not at all refute Mr. M'C. ; nor demonstrate 
 icherein he was wrong ; but acted entirely on the de- 
 fensive. They did not strike the Redeemer's flag, but 
 neither did they fire an offensive gun. I do not men- 
 tion this by way of reflection upon that venerable court ; 
 but only as a reason to justify my own procedure, in 
 having troubled the world with the present publica- 
 tion. Mr. M'C. protested against the Synod's deci- 
 sion, and appealed to churches better informed, and to 
 the public at large ; and handed me, among others, a 
 copy of his plea. 
 
 It was then the trumpet sounded its loudest charge. 
 Ezek. xxxiii. 1. &c. — ^* Again the word of the Lord 
 came unto me saying, son of man, speak unto the chil- 
 dren of thy people, and say unto them, when I bring 
 the sword upon a land, if the people of the land take a 
 man of their coasts, and set him for their watchman : if 
 
136 
 
 when lie seetli the sword come upon the land, he blow 
 the trumpet and warn the peoj)le ; then whosoever 
 heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warn- 
 ing, if the sword come and take him away, his hlood 
 shall be upon liis own head ; he heard the sound of 
 the trumpet, and took not warning. His blood sliall 
 be upon him. But he that taketh warning shall de- 
 liver his soul. But if the watchman see the sword 
 come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not 
 warned ; if the sword come and take any person from 
 among tiiem, he is taken away in his iniquity, but his 
 blood will 1 require at the watchman- s hand P^ 
 
 '• So thou, O son of man, I liave set thee a watch- 
 man unto the house of Israel ; therefore thou shalt hear 
 the word at my mouth, and warn them from me !" 
 
 Just then I found myself ready, and sprung into the 
 field with what armour 1 had : how 1 have acted, let 
 people judge ; but let no man ask me farther why i am 
 here. 
 
 In respect to the manner of communication, I dis- 
 embarrassed myself of all tiie solemn formalities of au- 
 thorship. And seating myself in my chair, poured my 
 thoughts along, in whatever drapery they thought pro- 
 per to bring with them. This 1 am sure is the easiest 
 way for an author to e\ press his thoughts, in the na- 
 tural order and series in which they spring up in his 
 ow^n mind ; and I strongly suspect, that thoughts ex- 
 pressed in this manner, will appear more perspicuous 
 and natural to the reader, than tiiose which are forced 
 into the attitudes and dress of a more technical rl»etoric. 
 The real truth, however, is, that it was my own ease 
 I studied. 
 
 Perhaps some very grave people may complain that 
 there is too much pleasantry in these pages. With- 
 
137 
 
 out presuming to sit on the jury which is to try myself, 
 I would make this simple remark : that I hope it 
 is all of the genuine sort — all of the family of bene- 
 volence. Is there a single sentence that can wound 
 the honourable feelings, or hurt the honest fame of any 
 one man, alive or dead ? If I thought there was, I 
 would throw my book, now nearly printed off, into the 
 fire, and my pen after it. Is there any thing to dis- 
 parage the fair pretensions of any one human being? 
 It has escaped me. But since controversial theology 
 has dealt so largely in bitterness and wrath, in sly in- 
 uendoes, and tart speeches, was it not worth the trou- 
 ble of an experiment, whether it might not be seasoned 
 equally well with good humour? But if any man should 
 think that ridicule, fiilriy and honestly applied, is not 
 a weapon forged, tempered and polished by the spirit 
 of Grod, and destined to gleam on fields where no other 
 weapon would be of any use ; let that man read the 
 44th chapter of Isaiah, and tell me whether the eagle 
 of the Jewish church was an owl. 
 
 The extreme rapidity with which this work has 
 passed under the pen, and under the press, must ex- 
 pose it to just criticism, in respect to the delicate graces 
 of classical composition. I am still more afraid that 
 the same cause may subject it to the censure of occa- 
 sionally dropping a link in the chain of accurate de- 
 monstration. Perhaps, however, some readers will be 
 apt to think, that there is a surplus, an exuberance of 
 proof. And I wish they may think so. It was, how- 
 ever, with every intention in the world, that this pleni- 
 tude of argument was employed. The general doc- 
 trine is of immense importance, and draws after it a 
 train of consequences so vast and momentous, that it 
 became a most imperative duty to place it in a great 
 
 T 
 
138 
 
 variety of lights and attitudes ; that those who could 
 not approve it in one, might perhaps approve it in 
 another. 
 
 Perhaps some of those who are fonder of contem- 
 plating modesty in others, than of practising it them- 
 selves, may think that the general tone is too decisive; 
 and that where ideas are exhibited so different from 
 those of so many great and good men, a little hesita- 
 tion and faultering of speech would have been more 
 becoming. I do assure such, that wherever I had any 
 hesitation, T have expressed it ; and where I had no 
 hesitation, I of course had none to express. Surely hy- 
 pocritical humility is no great virtue, in either man or 
 author ! Surely when a man ventures to address the 
 church of God, on the awful subject of her eternal 
 hope, there is something more at stake than bis reputa- 
 tion with the public. Has God authorised us to utter 
 his truth in such faultering accents, as may teach the 
 world that we hardly believe it ourselves ? 
 
 If the public should see cause to condemn the doc- 
 trine herein advanced, I cannot, with truth, and there- 
 fore I shall not at all, either in this world or in the 
 next, plead youthful indiscretion as an apology for the 
 error. Boy, and youth, and man, must all go down 
 together. I trod the listed field at first, on all my jper^ 
 sonal responsibinty. I have trodden it now publicly, 
 on all my social responsibility. This must suffice. 
 
 And since these doctrines must be mine, I give the 
 world fair notice ; that whatever strictures may be 
 made upon them, by either tongue or pen, I shall pre- 
 serve not a sullen cynical silence, but I trust a meek 
 and resigned christian silence. I have thought the 
 cause, and argued the cause as well as I could ! 
 That's all. 
 
139 
 
 Some readers will probably have sagacity enough 
 to perceive, that if the views of divine things herein 
 exhibited, be correct, they lead to practical conclu- 
 sions of the most sweeping kind ; and, perhaps, terri- 
 fied at these practical conclusions, they may struggle 
 against the principles. I am candid enough to declare, 
 that T mean to support all those practical conclusions ; 
 and to an extent which few of my readers can at all 
 conjecture. This sliall be done, by divine permission, 
 in the second part of this treatise. 
 
 I present this little treatise to my Lord, a small, 
 (such my dove-cotes afford,) but a very sincere thank- 
 offering, for his kindness in showing me something of 
 his truth. 
 
 I lay at the feet of my mother, the church, a few so- 
 IJhisms, wrung from the fiend, by the least of all her 
 sons, after a long conflict on that bloody field : — fed 
 only with her milk, armed only with the panoply di- 
 vine, encouraged only by my Lord. A thousand times 
 my helmet was cleft in twain, and I lay stunned and 
 bleeding ; till he set me on my feet, healed my wound, 
 put on a new helmet, and set me to again. I lay them 
 at her feet ; and Wo ! Wo ! Wo ! to the man who 
 shall give them back into his hand, to stab her and her 
 babes. 
 
 1 present it to those men whotn God has appointed to 
 rid his church of false philosophy, as a proof of ar- 
 dent love, and high ambition to be among them. 
 
 Atque utinam ex vobis unus, vestrique, fuissem 
 
 I present it to Mr. M^C. as a proof that there is, at 
 least, one man in the world, who will neither abuse 
 
140 
 
 him, nor persecute him : nor yot condemn him with a 
 silent vote : bnt who will step into the field of investi- 
 gation, and try to put him right. And now 1 do insist 
 that he shall read this work over and over ; and weigh 
 it thoroughly : that he shall not object to any little 
 trifling matters, which he may think, and which pro- 
 bably are, wrong ; but that he shall try to grasp the 
 main argument ; and if that be correct, let him acqui- 
 esce. Let him lay a reign on his impetuosity, and not 
 draw a quill in reply for twelve months. A single act 
 of rashness, and he's gone ! 
 
 1 present this little work to system- makers, to show 
 them how very easy it is to create a great deal of trou- 
 ble in this world of ours. If it requires so much toil to 
 pull down a system, how immense must be the toil of 
 building one ! 
 
 I present it to young theologians, as a specimen of 
 the cool and cautious manner in which divine truth 
 ought to be investigated. For their sakes, I wish it 
 were far less imperfect than it is. But such as it is, 
 I must present it to them as such a specimen : and not 
 a single nerve of mine will feel a thrill of mortification, 
 should somebody antiquate my labours, by producing 
 a more perfect specimen to-morrow. 
 
 And now it shall be my joy, that I have got this 
 field to myself. In the social ranks I could have 
 done nothing. All my tine selected positions would 
 have been denied me ; and the only weapons on which 
 I trusted, would have been wrung from my hands, by 
 my brother's arms. 
 
 To close the whole ; I have consulted my heart, and 
 am sure that no oifence to any human being has been 
 intended in this publication. I have consulted my best 
 judgmeat, and am told that no reasonable ground of 
 
141 
 
 offence haa been given. But if, after all, I must sutfer — 
 my fortitude whispers in ray ear ; I have supported 
 you under ten times worse evils than can come, in- 
 curred for ten times less than no offence, and I shall 
 never forsake you in a good cause ! Here^ at least, I 
 shall not be deceived. My motto is 
 
 The opinions of men, their criticisms, their censures, 
 and their applause, are, in reality, very little tilings. 
 Their love, and their hatred, and their envy, will short- 
 ly have perished ; neither will they have any more a 
 portion, for ever, in any thing that is done under the 
 sun. But divine truth — she trieth all things, and is 
 herself tried of none ; she judgeth all, and is herself 
 judged of none: times and seasons change, the opinions 
 and doctrines, and systems of men revolve through end- 
 less mutations ; but divine truth remains through all 
 ages and generations immutable, the pure essential ray 
 of the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, 
 nor shadow of turning. 
 
 Tfl GHJi AOSA 
 
 END OF THE FIRST PART. 
 
POSTSCRIPT. 
 
 In page 1, of the introduction, 8tli line from the bot- 
 tom, it is said that Mr. M'C. was " deposed from the 
 office of the holy ministry." This is an error ; the 
 sentence was " suspension from the exercise of his of- 
 fice." 
 
 Page 13, are the following words : — ^-The solution 
 contemplated is, that Jesus did not descend from 
 Adam by ordinary generation ; and that as ordinary 
 generation is the bond which unites us to Adam, the 
 extraordinary generation of our Lord prevented a fe- 
 deral union with Adam ; and acquitted him from any 
 personal responsibility for Adam's conduct. And I 
 acknowledge that this is the solution of the question 
 given in the confessions, and catechisms, and formula- 
 ries of all the Reformed Churches, and in the writings 
 of the ablest divines." Such is the impression on my 
 mind, from what I have read on the subject. It would 
 be well worthy the labour of some one, fond of theo- 
 logical reading, to trace the growth of the doctrines of 
 reformation, from their first germ ; and then to trace 
 their decline, and its causes. I strongly suspect, that 
 such a man would bring to light some precious disco- 
 veries, respecting the causes which have given so much 
 diversity to men's religious ideas, that one wonders 
 sometimes whether all men be of the same species. 
 Our religious opinions are strangely modified, by tlie 
 philosophy, the superstitions, and the manners of our 
 age. The common method of resolving a man's pe- 
 culiar opinions into his pride, his love of fame, his en- 
 mity to the truth, &c. has two inconveniences, which 
 
JfOSTSCRlPT. 
 
 render its practicable utility very questionable. The 
 first of these inconveniences is, that it is equally capa- 
 ble of application in all cases, which would not leave 
 an honest man on earth : — the second is, that we can-, 
 not be absolutely certain of its truth in any case. 
 
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