: Pre-exiftent Lapfe o F HUMAN SOULS Demonftrated from REASON ; SHEWN TO BE THE Opinion of the moft eminent Writers of Antiquity, SAQRED AND PROFANE: Proved to be the Ground-work likewife of the GOSPEL DISPENSATION* And the Medium through which many material Topics, relative thereto, are fet in a clear, rational, and confident Light : By C A P E L B E R R O W, A. M. Reftor of Finningley, Nottinghamfhire. S. Bafil. de Spirit. San. - Make not impoffible That which but feems unlike. SHAKER. LONDON: Printed for J. WHISTON and B. WHITE, in Fleet-ftreet i and G. KBARSLY, in Ludgate-ilreet. M.DCC.LX1I. f-& ADVERT. ISEMEN T. AS the author was at a great uiftance from the prefs when the following' flieets were printed off, it is to* be hoped that the reader will be candid enough to overlook, or ra- ther, to correct for himfelf the Errata (of which there are not a lew, in .the Gieek quotations more efpeciaily) and other excep- tional-le'ocptfffions to be met with, which the author, had there been opportunity fur it, would have prevented. Perfpicuity, however, requires, that the pafTages below fhould be corrected as follow, viz. Page 30. for, As the inherent depravity of the foul, Sec. evidently proceeds from, read, evidently proceeds not from. Page 78, from line the ninth, to line the third is p. 79, in \vhich interval the author's meaning is fadly obfcured, read as follows : - * the famefrail perkhable mortal body which Adam, contracted by his tranfgreflion, defcending; of conrfe to his pofierity ; nothing but a miraculous interpofition of divine power, an immediate renovation of the Pi otoplaft's corporeal frame, could prevent this from being the unhappy conle- quence. And though it may be a matter of furprife that means were not concerted, by which fuppofi-J innocence might efcape being involved in the punifhmcnt due only to guilt, " the generality of the Chriftian world is taught to believe t &c. Page 28, for, or was implanted read, by its Creator, or that it was implanted, &rc. Page 31, for, from tho hands of God; and then, read,, for then. Page 62, for, impieties to offend heaven, &c. fraud to entrap men, read, impieties wherewith to offend heaven, fraud by which to entrap men. Page 72, for, mould fit in darknefs, &c. and that- others, read, mould for A while fie in darknefs &C., that others, &c. crrvr* i\- Gsr EETTA/JS. To His Grace T H O M A S, Lord Archbifhop of CANTERBURY, AND PRIMATE of all England. My Lord, Y aim in publifhing the fol- lowing work, is to illuftrate truths, in which Chriftianity is, as I humbly apprehend, eflentially intereft- ed. I need not, therefore, I hope, apologize for throwing it under your Grace's patronage. A freedom by which I am the lefs apprehenfive of giving offence, from the DEDICATION* the idea I entertain of your Grace's zeal for the honour, dignity, and fur- therance of the Gofpel Difpenfation; to which, I flatter myfelf, the performance will not a little contribute. I am, my Lord* your Grace's moft dutiful Son$ and Servant, CAPEL BERROW. t*ii .1 j\ ^; >'t -J-i, ^>r , ,,-J * \ ' 1 PREFACE. READER, DIVEST yourfelf of prejudices of every kind in your perufal of the work before you, and judge of it with a freedom and independency becoming a man. Attend not, I pray you, to the manner of the performance, but to the matter of it, as the latter only is of any real confequence, and the former, that, in which the author is not, perhaps, exceptionable. A pre-exiftent lapfe of human fouls he cannot help regarding as a truth equally de- monftrable from fcripture, as is the redemp- tion of man by Jefus Chrifl ; nay, as that on which alone the gofpel oeconomy is grounded. Jf, however, it mould appear that he is miftaken in his opinion, he hopes to be in- formed of fuch miftake with candour, and not calumny, from the pen of fome one or other of the judicious and unprejudiced. To proceed, therefore, without farther pre- face, to the work itfelf. CONTENTS, CONTENTS. CHAP. I. Pre exiftent Hate of fouls deducible from feveral pafTages in Holy Writ Page jc C H A P. II. The Article of the Church of- England, concern- ing Original Sin, examined - - - - 5 CHAP. III. A pre-exiftent lapfe of human fouls deduced from the infelicities and imperfections of man's pre- fentftate - - 12 CHAP. IV. The depravity of the human mind confidered, and fhewn to be the effect of a pre-exiflent lapfe - ... j CHAP. V. A pre-exiftent lapfe of human fouls the belief of the moft learned and ingenious among the an- cient philofophers, the Greek and Latin fathers, and of fome very eminent writers of a more modern date - 36 CHAP. CONTENTS. CHAP. VI. A lapfe of human fouls, as above-confidered, a branch of Chriftian theology 42 CHAP. VII. The fcripture account of the Fallen Angels il- lultrated, an'd confirmed ; and the human race Ihewn to be complicated, and involved in their guilt - 46 CHAP. VIII. Apre-exiftent guilt in man, arifing frow a prior afibciatipn with the apoftate powers, the very ground-work of the gofpel difpenfation - 68 CHAP. IX. The hypothefis of a pre-exiftent lapfe of human fouls applied,, and leveral important points of doftrine viewed in a clear and confiftent light through that medium - 70 CHAP. X. The application of the foregoing hypothefis con- tinued - 74 CHAP. XII. Objections to the above hypothefis, flated and removed - - ( t ) Pre-exiftence C H A P. 1 t i pre-exi/tent jlate of fouls deducible from federal pajfages in Holy Writ. i. If T has been a matter of no fmall concern to me to obferve many pafiages in holy JL writ, which, to the impartial eye, feem either diftantly allufive to, or pofitively declarative of a Hate pre-exiftent, manifeftly perverted, by mil- judging or mifguided interpreters, into a mean- ing quite foreign to the real truth. Among which is, in the firft place, the follow- ing paffage from Job, ch. xxxviii. ver. 21. God having queftioned Job about the nature and place of light, fays, according to our tranfla- tion of the paffage, which is a bad one, B " Knoweft ( 2 > " Knoweft thou it, becaufc thou waft then " born, or bccaufe the number of thy days is " great." The meaning of which paflage fome interpret thus. " Thou waft not fo much as born, whett\I " fet a diftinction between day and night, be- *' tween light and darknefs. Thy days are not of " fo long continuance. How then canft thou " certainly know what was done before thou wert " born?" Others again read the whole verfe ironically, thus ; " Thou knoweft it, for thou " waft then born, and for that the number of thy " years mould be great." But the true reading of the pafTage is, I think, that of Junius, 1'remellius, and fome others. " Noveris te jam turn natum fuiffe, et numero * c dies tuos efle multos." " Know thou, or I would have thee to know, " that thou waft then born, and that in number " thy days are many.'* 2. Another fcriptural paflage, brought in fup- port of the fame doclrine, is that faying of God to Jeremias : " Before I formed thee in the belly I " knew thee, and before thou cameft out of the " womb I gave thee wifdom." Ch. i. ver. 5. Which, agreeably to the opinion of moft com- mentators, contains nothing more than God's de- claration to the prophet Jeremias, that, before his entrance into the womb, he had fore-ordained him to the office, to which he was then called. In like manner as Jofias^ Cyrus, John the Baptift, &V. were co-operating inftruments, fore-ordained by God for the better carrying on, and compleating.. the noble purpofes of the Gofpel difpenfation. But why mu ft we fuppofe necefiarily that all thefe \vere in nan-entity at the time they were pre- ordained ( 3 ) tfrda'ined to their feparate offices ? Or rather, why ihould we not conclude the very reverfe, from even that very emphatical expreffion, I knew thee, Ag- novi te, as rendered by Junius and fremellius ; which grammarians fuppofe to be, generally fpeaking, applied to a pcrlbn known before, and as then actually exiftent : Agnofcimus* quos antea novimus , togiufcimus^ quos nunquam prius vidimus. 3. Another pafifage, to be urged in proof of the above point, is, our Saviour's ardent ejacula- tion to his Either, juft before his pafiion, which we meet with in St. John, ch. xvii. ver. 5. " And now, O Father, glorify me with thine " own glory, with the glory which I had with " thee before the world was." Which necefiarily refpccls the fu&crdinate nature, and glory of Chrift, as his fupreme glorification could never have de- parted from him. 4. To which may be added the anfwer which the difciples gave to our Saviour's demand of them, whom men faid that he was, viz. " Some " fay, that thou art John the Baptift, fome Ellas* " or pne of the prophets." A fufficient* dcmon- ftration, that a deicent of the human fpecies upon earth, from a prior ftate, was a prevailing opinion among the Jews ; which our Saviour, inftead of objecting to, feemed rather to acquieice in, by only afking them, in return to their information, " But whom fay ye that I am ?" And the fame obfervation may likewiie be made on that quef- tion put to our Saviour, concerning the blind man j " Matter, was it for this man's fin, or his " parents, that he was born blind ?" A queftion upon which our Saviour did not take upon him at all to animadvert, or reprove, as undoubtedly he would have done, had it feemed to him to favour of an opinion wrong, and unwarrantable. Our B 2 Saviour's ( 4 ) Saviour's anfwer is, " Neither hath this man " finned, nor his parents, but that the works of , " God Ihould be made manifeft in him." Which he faid (according to the opinion of fome whom I efteem the beft commentators on the Scriptures extant) not ** fimply, for fo, both he and his parents had finned (as Ckryfoftom notes) but nei- ther this man's fins, nor his parents,, were a caufe why he, rather than, all other Tinners, was born blind, but that God's glory might appear in his cure. See Affembly of Divines Annot. (printed 1622). To the above I will add the following declara- tion of Solomon* . " Yea, rather being good," (comparatively fa he means) " I came into a body undefiled." Wif- dom, ch. viii. ver. 20. Wherein he manifeftly de- clares himfclf to have been a moral agent, in a it ate prior to bis abode here. That thefe paffages, if not pofitive declarations of, are, however, tranfient glances at the foul's pre-exiitence, we fhall be the more induced to be- lieve, when we take into our confideration the principal end^ and defign of the Gofpel difpenfation r which has, as will be fliewn hereafter, a manifeft reference, and relation as well to a pricr* as to- a future ftate. And as the doctrine of a future Hate has experienced its alternate Jails and re- coveries, it is not to be wondered, if the fame fate mould have happened likewife to the belief of a prior exiftence. C H A P, ( 5 ) CHAP. II. Article of the Church of England, concerning Original Sin, examined. i. " X^VRIGINAL fin," fays the ninth V^/ article of the church of England, " ftandech not in the following 'of Adam, (as the " Pelagians do vainly boaft) but ic is the nature of " every man that is naturally engendered of the * { offspring of Adam, whereby man is very far " gone from original righte-ouihefs, and is of his " own nature inclined to evil, fo that the flefh " lufteth always contrary to the fpirit, and there- *' fore in every peribn born into the world it de- " ferves God's wrath, and damnation." 2. From the firfl claufe of which article there are two propofitions plainly deducible ; the former of which is affirmative, and the other negative. Firft, it is therein pofitively implied (though not indeed actually, and in exprefs terms declared) that there is a particular kind of fin chargeable upon mankind, which is peculiarly, and moil pro- perly termed original; but that, Secondly, and negatively, the fin fo called is not what the Pelagians pronounced it to be. 3. Now, though with refpe& to the firft: pro- pofition it muft not be concealed, that the term original, as applied to Jin, is no where to be men with in holy writ, yet have we, notwithftandi'ng that, full, fufncient authority from thence, for imputing to the whole race of mankind, what may aptly enough be termed the guilt of original fin ; of which perfuafion was the church in the fifth century, though as to their ideas of the nature of ;t ? a.n4 the cjrcumftances wherein it confuted, (he, B and ( 6 ) and a let of Pelagians widely differed, without be- ing either of them, as it happened, in the right. 4. The former refolved it all into Adams fa- tal offence, the latter into fuch kinds of trefpafies as were peculiarly mens own. The one fuppofed, that the fin of Adam was of fuch an univerfal and diffufive efficacy, as to derive a guilt and {lain to mankind in all ages of the world, and this on ac- count of the relation which all men have to Adam, as their natural and moral principal, or head, from whom they therefore derived a general depravity of nature, and a mind prone to fm and wickednefs ; the other u r ed, that Adam's tranfp-refilon was a C3 * +J crime of a perfonal nature only, and not derivative of a.-iy the leaft guilt to his defendants ; that it was not productive of any of thofe bad prepen- fions obfrrvable fincc in mankind, but that both he and they were originally created perfe6Hy pure and innocent, though fallible and peccable at the fame time -, and that confequently fin took its ori- gin from, and could only be imputable to every man's own perfonal ac~ls and trefpafTcs*. Though. of thefe two opinions on this point, the latter makes by much the nearefi. approach to truth, the former admitting of no kind of defence from either realbn or fcripture, as will hereafter be fully fhewn, yet does it not fufnciently coincide with holy writ, which, whilft it gives plain intimations of another kind of guilt imputabk to mankind, than what arifes merely from their own perfonai trefpalTes here, is however repugnant altogether to * Hsrcfin illius (Pelagii) quod attinet fumma hue fere redit. Peccatum originate funditus fuftulit, docens Adami peccatum foboli ejus nonimputari, unumquemque e contra in eadem qua Adam creatus eft vo'untateperfe&iond nafci. Vid. Cave. Script. Ecclef. Hut. Liter. Vol. i. p. 382. Pelagiufs ( 7 ) Petagiufs conjecture, that Adam and his pofterity came into this world perfectly pure and innocent. We are, fays the apollle, by nature the children of wrath, &c. 5. Amidft this great oppofition of opinions between the church and the Pelagians, concerning original fm^ in which each of them ran wide of the mark, the compilers of our articles, by their openly condemning the one, and tacitly rejecting the other, feem to me to have had an eye to a Jtate pre-exiftent) as the only hypothecs by means of which could fairly be removed every difficulty ly- ing in the way of both. If that be not the cafe, it will be difficult, if not abfolutely impofilble, to ex- plain that article in any rational or confident fenle at all. 6. " Original fin, fays the article, ftandeth " not in the following of Adam (as the Pelagians " do vainly talk) " ;'. e. It ftandeth not in finning, like him, perfonally here, and againft an exprels law of God. Well, but how then doth it Hand ? Standeth it in ajiy crime relative or irnputative ? No. Standeth it in any guilt or ftain in mankind, derived to them from Adam's tranfgreffion, on ac- count of the relation which all men bear to him, as their natural principal ^or head ? No fucli thing. But it is What ? " Why it is the fault, or cor- " ruption of the nature of every man, that natu- " rally is engendered of the offspring of Adam, " whereby man -is far gone from original righ- " teoufneis, and is of his own nature inclined to evil." 7. Now it will notconlift with the reafon and nature of things, or with our ufual ideas of the amiable and all-perfect attributes of God, to ima- gine that the fault or corruption of the nature of every man is therefore finful, fo as to deferve God's B 4 ( * ) ivratb, and damnation, because he is of the offspring of Adam. Nor fliould we haftily afcrioe to the Compilers of our articles an opinion fo horrid, not to fay blafphemous. When they therefore fay, that original fin is a fault, or corruption of the nature of every man ? that is naturally engendered of the offspring of Adam^ they can, I apprehend, mean nothing more or lefs than this, viz. That it is a fault or corrup- tion interwpven in the nature of every offspring of Adam^ whereby, or on account of which fault or corruption, man is far gene from original righ- teoufnefs (that righteoufnefs in which he was ori- ginally created) and is therefore of his own nature, not any kind of nature derived to him from Adam> of hi? oivn nature inclined to evil. 8. Let us fee then what, upon a further ex r amination of this article, as above ftated and ex- plained, may be fairly deduced therefrom, relative to the doctrine of original fin. . Firft then, it tells us what it is not, and Secondly, it informs us what in reality it is. It is not what the Pelagians elteerned it to be, whofe opinion on that head we have before con- iidered, and iha]l not need now to repeat, but it is What? Why it is the guilt of a. particular kind of fin emphatically termed origmpl, the nature of which we find exprefsly represented to us under the idea of a fault or corruption of the nature of every man naturally engendered of the offspring of Adi-nij &c. But how the fault or corruption of every offspring viAdam? Are we by that to un- derltp.nd, that Ailanis fin is tranfmitted to us by traduclion ? That cannot, with any fhaciow of reafon, be fuppofed. Nothing but a man's own perfonal diibbedience can make him a finner in the fight of -God, or of man. He only that fins can ( 9 ) be a firmer*. No one can fin by proxy, can fin by virtue of any act of another peYfon, to which he himfelf was not privy, or in any fhape concern- .ed. And it neecis no proof furely, that we could be neither mediately, nor immediately, agents in the fmful aft of Adam, which was committed at a diftance of more than 5000 years before we are fuppoied to have had a vital existence. 9. If however it be urged, that the article cannot mean, that we are confidered as actual fm- ners, but only that we are trtated as fuch in con- fequence c-f Adam's tranigreffion ; that not hisy?#, but that body of fin, which he contracted by fin, is tranfmitled to us by traduftion, on account of which -we are made naturally fubjecT: to fin, and of confequenee equally expoied with him to the guilt and punilhment of it ; what is this but a reflection * " A repreferstative of a moral action, fays doftor Taylor, is what I can by no means digeft. A reprefentative, the guilt of whofe conduct fliall be imputed to us, and vvhofe fins fliali corrupt and debauch our nature, is one of the greateft abfurdi- ties in all the iyfkm of" corrupt religion. That any man, without my knowledge or confent, fhould fo repreient me, that when he is guilty, I am to be reputed guilty ; and when he tranfgrenes, 1 iha'l be accountable and punimable for his tranfgrellion, and thereby .fubjeded to the wrath and curfe of God ; nay further, that his wickednefs fhall give me a iinful nature, and all this before I am born, and confequently while I am in no capacity of knowing, helping, or hindering what he doth ; finely any one, fays that moft ingenious and rational writer, who dares ufe his underftanding, mult clearly fee this is unreafonable, and altogether inconfiftent with the truth and guodnefs of God." See Dr. Taylor's fupplement to Scrip. Docl. of orig. fin, p. 109. " Nor does the apoflle, in Rom. v. 12 20, as the fame judicious writer had bciorc obfervcd, mention, or intimate, the conveyance of a iaiiul nature, or any conffquence of Adam's offence, in which all mankind are concerned, befides thac death .vhich all men die, v.hen they leave this world." \ id. ibid. p. icy, on on the juftice and wifdom of God, as unworthy as the former? Suppofmg us not accountable, I mean, for any prior fin there being no diffe- rence, that I can perceive, between making fin it- felf necefiary, hereditary, or eflential to the foul, and the cloathing it with a body, that neceffarily prompts, difpofes, or gives fuel to evil actions. io. When our article therefore fays, that original fin is the fault or corruption of the nature of every man that is naturally engender- ed of the offspring of Adam^ it can only in reafon mean, that fin is born with every fuch offspring of Adam^ and brought into the world with him from the very womb, not by any derived, imputed guilt of another * ; but from fome actual and inherent depravity in his own nature, and that too contract- ed, of courfe, in a prior ftate ; for the article, in exprefs terms, declares, that, on account of this fault or corruption of the nature of man, he is far gone from original righteoufnefs. But this ori- ginal righteoufnefs, what can that be, but that In which man was originally created, and from which he had fallen in a prior Hate ? For is it poffible a man can \\zvt fallen from that, to which he had not before arrived? And how is it that he had arrived to original righteoufnefs, but in a ftate prior to this* into which fcripture allures us he entered as a child of wrath, and on account of which our article in- forms us, he is far gow from original righteoufnefs ? * e{ It is not pcflible, fays Mr. Brocklefby, that Adam, by his tranfgreflion, (hould merit for the fouls of all his offspring their fte of blindnefs, pravity, fpiritual death, to be deprived of the holy fpirit and the divine image, with all the honours and felicities thereof, and to be fubje&ed to eternal punim- ment in the world to come ; for it never was, nor can be in any man's power to kill fouls, fays he, without their own con- fcnt." Brocklefby, Gofpel Theifin, p. 468. tfovifnefs ( II ) ii. If it be faid, that by original rightc- oufnefs we arc to underftand that ftate of righ- teoufncfs only in which Adam was created, and from which man is far gone, /, e. widely differs from -quam longijjime diftat by means of a vitio- fity of nature with which he comes into the world ; would ask, how we can make it reconcileable with reafon to fuppofe, that God mould, in the ex- ercife of his creative power and authority, indicate fo cruel a partiality towards the deicendants of Adam, as to force them into exiftence with a lefs jfhare of infufcd righteoufnefs in their nature, than was vouchfafed to their 'primogenitor ? Or that be- caufe the one forfeited at length that integrity and uprightriefs of foul with which he was at firft formed, his offspring mould be necefTarily created in fin ? mould, at their fuppofed firft entrance into life, be made (laves to impetuous paffions and af fections, which the former, being created in the image of God, (Gen. i. 27.) could, of courfe, only have contracted by a fubtequent abufe of his rea- fon and underftand ing? This is a view of the divine Being and his providence, comprehenfive, may I not fay, of abfolute blafphemy ? 12.1 cannot therefore fee what elfe can be meant by the original right eotifnefs mentioned in the article under confideration, than a fuppofed adtual flate of righteoufnefs, in which the intellectual inhabitants of this world wereoriginally created, and from which they had fwerved in a prior flate. Whether that be the cafe or not, it mufl be left to the reader's judgment to determine. This, however, is clearly the fenie of the article, as to the nature of original fm, or that wherein it confifts, viz. that it is the fault or corruption of the nature of every man that h naturally engendered of Adam. 13. If then, as man comes engendered of Adam he comes frji formed by the hands of his Creator, it it follows that that Creator is the author of evil -, from which horrid conclufion the hypothefis of a fre-exiftent lapfe- cf fouls only can let us clear, as will hereafter appear. CHAP. III. pre-exrftent lapfe of human fouls deduced -from' the infelicities and imperfeftions of man's prefent faff. i. r*f~"^ H A T God is infinitely benevolent, as well as wife and powerful, we efteem to be a truth as nnqueftionable as is his ex- iftence; nor can I conceive it more natural and efiential to the fun to give warmth, than for the Deity, when calling creatures into a rational ex- iftence, to impart to them inftant happinefs. The very reverfe of which idea of the Creator is implied- in the fuppofal that the prefent is the firil ftate of exigence in which we have made our appearance. We are born to troubles, as the fparks fly up- wards. We fuck in mifery with our mother's milk, and the very firft point of knowledge at which we are enabled to arrive, is to know what forrow meaneth. Thole piercing cries, with which the new-born babe fakues the opening world, how do they eccho forth an inward grief ? How reluctantly does it meet its enlargement from the imprifoning womb, as if confcious that it was a paffage only to a place of punifhment ? How like an outcaft of heaven afterwards is the helplefs in- lant, " mewling and puking p his mother's *' arms!" Its mental facuUirs, how in.ept are they, and inactive! Its organic powers, how inert and languid ! Call you this an original, and the ai'cr God ? But where then the nnifhings >vorthy ( 13 ) worthy the hand of the divine" matter ? Where thole exalted breathings of a frefh-formed foul* realon, reflection, active purity ? Where the open, ever-fmiling countenance and eyes, that beam forth the glowing happinefs within ? Theie, what but thefe can be the genuine lineaments of a true image of God ? But can we find them, even in miniature, in infant man ? Alas ! no. Whence then fo imperfect and unftnifhed a piece ? Is it not an original ? And the artift, was it not God ? Yes. But who does not lee that it is an original tetribly damaged ? Faded every beauty, every feature marred ! 2. If now, from this unpleafing picture of man in his infant ftate, we proceed to trace him through the other progreffive ftages of life, how unpleafing and uncomfortable an appearance does he ftill make ? Youth has its thoufand crofies and difappointments. And the trifling pieafures, which in that feafon of giddinefs and folly, capti- vate and amufe for a while, are more than over- balanced by the occurrence of fome Jhado-uy grie- vances and diftrefles, that fit upon the mind with a weight equal to fulftantial ones. Inttruclion is a tax upon the youth's diverfions, not to be endured - r and reitraint of any kind, however feafonable, is a feverity not to be borne ; and till he can ruin him- felf in his own iva)\ he is quite unhappy. 3. View now this offspring of providence ripened at length into man -, and how does it fare with him then * Why then his former follies, are exchanged for flagrant vices ; and his imaginary troubles and misfortunes for fuch as are real. And Ihould even prudence, piety, and virtue be the governing principles of his after-life, yet what precarious prefervatives are theie againft calami- ties ! The good and bad, alas ! (hare them more- cr or Icfs indifcriminately. Prefuming thereforr, that the Deity could not but communicate happi- nefs to all his inte'lectual creatures, at the very inftant that he conferred on them life, I infer from the above retrofpect into man's ftate from his birth, that he muft have experienced a vital ex- iftence/>r/0r to this *. 4. If it be urged, that this fuppofed firft will not be the laft ftage of man's existence, and that therefore it is eafy to conceive how the defects, inconveniencies, diforders, and calamities, under which he now labours, will be removed in aftate fa corns ; and that if he is made miferable, as icrip- ture informs us he is, through the default of one, he will be there fufficiently rewarded for that mt- iery, by the all-fufficient merits of another ; what is this but inverting the idea of divine Providence, and fuppofing God to end only with man in a manner with which we would rather expect he would begin, and as one who delightcth not more in m rcy, than in his creatures mifery ? 5. Can the God of infinite rectitude and goodnefs view, with an eye of indignation^ crea- tures juft darting into a rational exiitence, by the power of his almighty fiat /--And for no crime ? No crime ? Ay, for no crime. For can creatures, previoufly to the power of acting at all t commie * If all is not deceit and illation, it muft he evident to a demonflration, that nothing unhappy in its order can come out cf the hands of infinite goodnefs ; and yet it is fa& that all femk'nt ;ind intelligent beings here are uhiverfally more or lefs nuerable, and that there never was any human creature in his j it- ht Jenfes, which, in a whole duration of human life, felt rot, and thought not himfelf uhhuppy and miferable for fome time, if rot for the moft part of his rational life, and wifhed, ret hinife. ; f earneilly better, \vifer, and more happy. Vid. Dr. Cheyne's Difcourfes, p. 305 31. crimes ? ( 15 ) crimes ? And to fuffer for the offence of another is to fuffer wrongfully. Such therefore cannot be the will of God towards man. If man then comes, which undoubtedly he does, as a fuffering creature here, muft he not have rendered himfelf obnoxious to fuch fuffer ings by fome -prior trefyajfes ? This will be more fully coniidered hereafter. CHAP. IV. The depravity of the human mind conjidered, and Jhewn to be the effeft of a pre-exiftent lapfe. i. T T Q W great the depravity of human XjL nature is, fcripture, and the experience of palt ages, as well as the preiertt, abundantly evince. 2. With refpect to the former, take for the prefent the two or three following pafifages only ; namely, fVho might offend, and hath not offended? Or done evil, and hath not done it ? O Jerusalem, fays the prophet Jeremiah, wajh thine heart from ivickednefs , that thou may eft be faved, bow longjhall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee? Again, fays he, 'The heart is deceitful above all things, and defperately wicked, who can know it ? 'The Lcrd kncweth the thoughts of men, that they are but vain, fays the pfalmift. Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, adultery, fornication, theft, &c. fays our Saviour. And again, We are lorn in fin, as fays the apoftle, and are by nature the children of wrath. 3. If from fcripture we turn to experience, what abundant evidence have we of the depravity of man's nature, from thofe itrong propenfions to evil evil difcoverable, more or lefs, in all of us, as foot? after our firft entrance into life as we are at all capable of acting in it. Man, froward man, longs to go aftray, from his very cradle ; and were his infant efforts not reftrained by the occafional rea- fonings, rewards, or corrections of the watchful parent, what crimes would he not devife ? What enornvties would he not perpetrate ? To what fol- lies would he not become enflaved ? Infomuch that nature, who fhould feern firft entitled to the guar- dianfhip of her own offspring, is the very laft thought of, with whom to entruft the important charge. A truth which every Jyjlcm of morality fug- gefts, and education implies. The end and defign of each is not only to ftrengthen, invigorate, and enrich a weak, languid, and barren ynderftanding^ut to correct and reform a vicious and corrupt will. 4. The firft dawnings of fenfe and reflection in the infant's mind difcover lome uprifing paffion or affection, fome youn difeafe, \vhich, as the poet fays, Grows with his growth, and ftrengthens with his ftrength j is alike conftttutional to the foul, as maladies of various kinds are to the body *. And as, from its natural or acquired temperature, the latter be- comes more or leis fuiceptible of infection from a peitilent air, or other noxious influences from without, fo fares it evidently with the former. A kind of conftitution there is in the fouls of men, * Nam vitiis nemo fins nafcitur, optinius ills eft Qui irufiiiiiis urgetur Her. Sat. 3. lib. i: as _ . . as well as in their bodies, which, though not equally bad in fome as in others, is more or lefs difeafed in all. And in proportion to the diffe- rence obfervable in this constitutional frame of fouls in different men, are they more or lefs af- fected by one and the fame kind of objects, are excited to different forts of gratifications, and vary from each other as much in their paffions as in their peribns, or choice of food*. 4. So that whilft certain objects work uptin the fancy of fome, with a force and energy too powerful for human means alone to repel, they operate feebly, or not at all, perhaps, on others. When attracted therefore by fuch as are congru- ous to a -peculiar turn of affection, a man commits crimes enormoufly deteflable, the reflecting part of the world will not fail heartily to pity the offen- der, at the fame time that they think it neceflary to punim the offence, and will confider it rather as a matter of good fortune, than any kind of merit in themfelves or others, that they ftand exempt from tranfgreffions for which they have no degree of relifli j which take not their rife from either bad precepts, or bad examples, but grow fponta- neoufly, as it were, from nature. The former, viz. bad precepts and bad examples do indeed too frequently influence men to the practice of com- mon crimes j evil counfel, adrniniftered with fkill, Quemvis media erue turba Aut ob avaritiam, aut mifera ambitione laborat: Hie nuptarum infanit amoribus ; hie puerorum ; Huhc capit argenti fplendbr ; ftupet Albius sere; Hie mutat merces furgente a fole, ad eum quo Vefpertina tcpet regio ; quin per mala prasceps Fertnr, uti pulvis colledlus turbine, ne quid Surnma deperdat metuens, aut ampliet ut rem. Hor. Sat. 4. lib. i; C may rfaa'y enfnare a weak aflbciate into theft, or form* cation, or adultery. When he feeth a thief he may covfent unto hr,n^ and be partaker with the adulterer , and as Sbakefpear fays, " "Who fo firm that cannot Be feduced * ?' J But thofe affedions of the mind to which I her allude, and from which is proveable man's depra- vity of nature, are not capable of being inftilkd any more than they are of being difpelled by ad- vice, authority, or example; and thefe, together with thofe 'preternatural propenfions above glanced at, are envy, malice, cruelty, revenge, covetouf- nefs, and other more venial frailties. Where any of thefe take place, there nature herfelf gives the fettlement f . 5. And * Julius Casfar. Warburton, pv 16. -where die power of advice, however pernicious, is ftrongly painted. Well, Brutus, (fays his fellow-confpirator Caffius) [Brutus gone] - i ~ - Thou art noble ; yet I fee Thy honourable metal may be wrought upon From what it is difpofed; therefore 'tis meet, That noble minds keep ever with their likes j For who fo firm as cannot be feduced ? f- The very ingenious Dr. Baker, in his treatife De Affeftr- bns Animi, has a paflage fo effectually illuftrative of my mean- ing, that I could not help giving it an Englifh drefs. This paffion, fays he, (fpeaking of envy) is the moft trou- blefome inmate of the human heart; it is an inteftine plague, diffufing its poifonous influence through the whole rnais of blood and juices, Sucks up the marrow from the folid bone, Nor leaves within the limbs one drop 01 blood. And, ftrange as it may appear, "yet is it, notwithftandifigv true, from known fatts, that fymptoms ot- envy appear in the ^ 5. And what character is there in public life, t>r among thofe in a lower fphere of action, either amiable or great, that is not fullied by an unlucky intermixture of one or other of nature's foibles, if not flagrant vices. To felect a couple of characters in common life only, in order to avoid invidious and unwilling reflections on the eminent of the paft or prefent times. 6. AgriopJoihis and Philantbropus are men whofe lives form an entire contrail. In the on you have what is completely odious and deteftable, in the general eftimation of the world; in the other the truly adiiable and engaging. And yet it is remarkable, that in that particular courfe of behaviour, wherein Philanthropies differs moft from the temper and conduct of Agriopbilus, he is moft reprehenfible. the infant ftate of man from his very cradle. -Infomuch that it is not unufual to fee a babe pining and languifhing in a fcnoft wretched manner with this paffion, as with a confumptive malady. Nor is it capable of being freed from the over- powering diforder by any medical art or afliftance whatever, but by either a total removal, or a pretended flight of the in- fant rival, Haze eft hofpes (nempe invidia) humani pe&oris moleftiffi- ma ; hsc inteftina peftis, quse fanguinc, humoribufque noftris malum fuum immifcet virus ; qux Inta&is vornt offibus medullas, Et totum bibit artubus cruorem. Edam in tenella hominis state, ipfifque ab incunabulis (mi- *um eft quod difturus fum, at experientia fads pervulgatum) produnt fe haud obfcura quasdam zelotypise figna; ita ut in- iantulum videat liceat ex hoc affe&u tabe miferrime extenuari, ac languefcere ; non nifi rival! infantulo aut amoto oculis, aut pragis de induftria neglefto, arte ulla, aut auxilio medicorum a. gravi morbQ liberandum. Vid. D. Baker de AfFeft. Anim. &c. p. 23, 24. C 2 Agriofkilu* (' 36- ) is morofe, covetous, cruel, and TK- vengeiul , Philanthropus quite the reverfe , he is affable, generous, tender-hearted, compaffionate. But how does it grieve one to lee thefe, and many other fhining virtues obfcured at once by one fingle foible of nature, indifcretion ? A frailty, which accompanied him from his earlieft life. Agriofbilus is covetous^ Philanthropus is extrava- gant. Agricphilus hides himfelf from the world, as loving no part of it but that from which he can make a thirty, forty, or an hundred per cent, ad- vantage. Philanthropus, on. the contrary, holding fuch a- mean, low-fpirited mind in the utmoft con- tempt, rims into a culpable negligence in his af- fairs, and a too excefTive fondnefs for friendfhips, popularity, and vain applaufe. But is it not won- derful, that two fuch contrafted difpofitions mould exift in men whofe fituation and circumftances in life give them opportunities of acting entirely the fame part in it ? slgriophilus has as much money to fquander away as Philanthropus ever poflefled v but he would not, if he could help it, part with a fhilling ; and Pbllanibro^nis could have availed himfelf t>f as many powerful pleas for ^economy and frugality as Agric-philus, and would, had he ever been directed by "prudence. But how mail we account for a diffonancy of principles and pro- penfions in thefe two ; a difibnancy as great as if it exifled in beings of a different fpecits? Is it re- folvable all into the force of example, advice, or follicitation ? Certainly no. For the one is as vmiverfally defpiied for his inferifibility and bru- tality, and he knows it, as the other is condemned for his gaiety and indifcretion. To what, in fhorr, but adifHrnilarity of tafte alone can we afcribe the extraordinary difference? Tafte, which- makes as. well t 21 ) the moral man, as the mujician^ painter, or It is tafte, the foul's conftitutional frame f mean, that makes the man ; nor can you with lefs difficulty whip one lad at fchool into a nice and exquifite relifh for mufick, painting, poetry, or other arts, than give another, by the ufe of the beft methods you can devife, a nice and delicate turn for honour, integrity, and .public fpirit. And it is notorious what very different effects arife fre- quently from the fame courfe of difcipline, in ge- neral, the fame falutary precepts, patterns, and examples, in two or more youths, the offspring of the fame parents. How amazingly different very oft are their tempers, genjus, paffions, inclinations, purfuits * ? 7. And yet I would not be thought to aflert, that that which we here call tafte, that predomi- nant, conititutional turn of mind, with which each man comes into the world irrefiftibly, and by a kind of fatality, determines him to his peculiar' purfuits. For, generally fpeaking, its influence either lefiens, or is encreafcd, in proportion to the encouragement or checks it may occafionally meet with, in the courfe of a well or ill-conducted edu- cation. The former will do wonders in breaking * '* Car alter fratrum ceflare, et ludere, et ungi, *' Prasferat Herodis palmetis pinguibus ; alter " Sylveftrem flammis, et ferro midget agrum : " Scit genins, natale comes, qui temperat ailrum, " Natime deus humans." By the term Genius Horace means the natural turn and difpofition or fpirit of a man, and it is called the Deus humans -naturae, as being that \yhich gives life and activity to the whole intellectual frame. " Le genie, fays madam Dacier, qui prefide a la naifTance r< de tous les hommes, et qui etant different, fit la difference ' des inclinations, et des temperans. Ce genie n'cft autre *' fhofe, quc lewr efprit." Dacier in loco. C 3 cra K^ S'fQeu gcibv @POTOV w $(>voc$ sjoAasj SySs^iEi/. ot'c-61? wa rovTij y iTrs^fxcraTo, e^i? ffia$fw I9r,xz rot u,(ppovx, tij xaxov eaw.ov. (i ^' Affx^Triadct.^ rouro touxe Stoc, wTOy eumM - 1- 4 2 9* Thi s '$ 8. Nor would the argument for the foul's de- pravity be at all weakened, fhouid it be infifted C 4 on, This paflage, which I have taken upon me to tranflate, the reader is defired to attend to with proper caution, and not to forget that it comes from the pen of an heathen moralift, un- acquainted, of courfe, with thofe all-fufficient refources for the fuppreffion of thofe bad paffions, to which Chriftians are di- rected, and from which they may, if they are not wanting to themfelves, reap the defired advantage. And it is introduced here in proof, or illultration of this one obvious truth only, that man comes into the world naturally bad. I would not however be underllood to mean, from what has here been advanced, that no one either does, or ever did come into this world altogether uninfe&ed with vicious principles and propenfions ; the reverfe having been evidently the caie, as may be abundantly proved as well from hiftory, facred and profane, as alfo from even the prefent times ; but only that, generally fpeaking, man has at the beft, and under the advantages of .education, interwoven with his virtues fo many natural frail- tics, imperfections, not to fay immoralities, that reafoa will not allow us to imagine, that a foul could come fo imperfectly and immorally conilructed immediately from the hands of its .maker, and that therefore we muft look further back for the origin of man, than to his formation in the womb. As to the exalted examples of piety and virtue, recorded either in facred }iiftory or profane, or of what even the prefent times may be thought to boaft, thefe, when compared with the bulk of man- kind in general, not to mention the more than ordinary pow- ers, with which mofl, if not all of the former, came furnifhed, that they might become exemplary patterns of purity and ho- linefs to a wicked and degenerate world (a), thefe, I fay, are inftances fo feemingly fingular and extraordinary, as do not in the leaft difprove, what is all that I would be meant to aflert, that the untutored and undifciplined mind of man is, in gene- ral, not only averfe to that which is good, but prone, in reality, to practices abfolutely bad, fuch as are a difgrace to the ho- nour and dignity of intelligent and rational beings. (a) The patriarchs, fays Eufebius, were adorned with a life that is according to nature, (to original nature) by right reafon- ings they were adorned with the virtue of religion ; by natural Deafenings and unwritten laws, fleering the right courfe of vir- tue, they paffed beyond fleihly pleafures into an every-way wile on, or could it be even proved that her vices or frailties are propagated among men, by either the influence of bad example, or by an incogitant neglect, or grpfs perverfion of right reafon ; lince, in the firft place, bad examples prefuppofe a vitiofity of mind in thofe who at ftrft fet the ex- amples ; and from the refitlance and oppofition, which in various inftances they are found to meet with in fome, it may reasonably be prefumcd, that they never prevail at all, but where there is a cor- refpondent aptitude of mind for receiving the de- ftructive impreflion * ; and then kcondly, the en- quiry here is not by what means we may cure, check the progrefs, or avoid the infection of thofe diforders and difeafes of the foul, which fink it fo far below the rank and dignity of intellectual and rational beings ; but how to trace them to their fountain-head. It cannot be fuppofed, that the Deity himfelf infufed them ; nor can we, with any degree of propriety, afcribe them, as will, in the next chapter, be (hewn, to any obliquity of nature derived from Aiam> derived, I mean, from the nature of that body which we do in reality inherit wife and religious life. Befides which, he fays, that they had extraordinary appearances of God, and convcrfe with him ; were &o fpt;x)nsvra*, " the friends of God and prophets." fcufeb. Prep. Evan. lib. vii. cap. 5, 7. They nre therefore, as fays Brocklefby, not to be looked upon merely as holy men, but as fonie extraordinary minifters of religion. Brock. 731. & When we fay men are milled by external circumftances of temptation, it cannot but be understood that there is fome- what within therr.felves, to render thofe circumftances tempta- tions, or to render them fufceptible of impreflions from them; fo when we fay, they are mifled by paffions, it is always fup- 'pofed, that there are occafions, circumftances, and^bje&s ex- citing thofe pafiions, and affording means tor gratifying them, Vkl. Butler's Anal. p. 107. from him. And yet fuch has been, and is ftill too much the prevailing opinion among men, owing to their not forming to themfelves clear conceptions of that duplex compofition of which fcripture and experience prove us to conlift, viz. the carnal man and fpiritual. Some in- deed have been wife enough to afcribe to man a triple foul, the vegetative, animal, and ra- tional * ; imagining, that among fo many different fpecies of fouls, it was a chance but that there might be one, upon which they could, with pro- priety, fix the rife and propagation of bad paffions. In anfwer to this, it may, with great confidence, I think, be affirmed, that the belief of a double or triple foul in man is abfurd to the laft degree , that only one and the fame foul actuates and animates that duplex, that fpiritual and animal nature, of which we now confift , and that, from its acting under two feparate and diftinct relations, there arifes the exertion of two forts of propenfions or defires, in their nature effentially different : thefe Malebrancke chufes to diftinguifh by the terms paf- Jlons and natural inclinations , I would rather call them our 'paffions and our natural c.ffcSlions. The former are the rcfult and confequence of the foul's relation to, and union with the body ; the latter the effential workings of its own free and independent felf. The one are, the cravings, as it were, of the foul, to which the nature and conftitution of the body make her fubject, which are neceffary for her fupport and nourifhment, and which we have * Allufive to which abfurdity, fays Ben Johnfon in his Boetafter : " What, {hall I turn {hark upon my friends, or my " friends' friends ? I fcorn it with my three fouls." Vid. Warburton, in Slwkefpear's Twelftjb Night, p. 144. ifl ' ( 26) sn common with brutes*, viz. hunger, thirft, concupifcence, felf-affeftion, &c. and thefe we may term htrjufffiflv* in con trad iftinction to thofe intellectual and independent motions, which are efiential to, or however arife from her fpiritual frame, and which may therefore be molt properly ftiled the foul's affections. The firft are what the apoftle means by that Law in his members warring againft the law of his mind^ and bringing him into cap- tivity to the law cffin^ that carnal mind, which is enmity againft God., whence proceed what he (tiles the luftsoftheflejh, viz. adultery, fornication, &c. the latter are what the fame apoftle terms thefruifs of the fpirit) ilz. love, joy, peace, gentlenefs, meek- * Agreeably to which the generality of philofophers, fays the learned Mr. Brocklefby, diftinguifh two parts in the foul of man, the inferior and fuperior. The one is common to the brutes, and falleth within the comprehenfion of fenfitive na- ture, which they call wa^nxoy (the feat of the bodily appetites, affections, and paffions) the other is TO Xoytxor, the rational na- ture ; and between thefe two, as contrary operative principles, there is ufually a conflict and combat. Alrlis yap t'r* \*.a.-xpp.iv* $ucrt{ EK w KtxcGitw, for two natures, conflicting one with ths other, are conjoined, the fenfitive (the appetites to fenfitive good) reililing, and withilanding the rational nature, difcern- 5ng and dictating the good of honefty. In jthis conflict the fenfitive nature ufually prevails by its deceit and impetuous violence, not only ag;iintt mens refolutions to the contrary in their fober mood, bet againft the prelent light and dictates of their minds, ix ^ia, :-~-jt'::.ji? &t irfooj?&avcrau % ayztrt, xj sAxtfcn, fc'y the force of their denies, which carry and drag them. The mind is tvrannically lorded over by brutal affections, which are ufuaiiy in motion and commotion, the irrational paffions pofieffing it, and detracting it, and in fome fort com- pelling it to do the things that are defirable to them. Foe every paffion Las a compulfory force in it ; it dethrones or expels reafonirigf. See Brocklelby's Gofpel-Theifm, p. 708. With regard to this author, if the reader {hail at any time cbferve in nim a kind of uncouth, inelegant phrafeology, he -A-;!; find it neverthelefs expreffive pf very clear, clofe, compre- Kccuve reitfocing^ nef? ( 27 ) pefs, &c. When we are enquiring therefore into the rife and progrefs of the various vices and frail- ties of mankind, we fhould carefully diftinguifh between fuch propenfions as are in reality their fault, and thofe which are only their misfortune, The foul's paMIons, thofe to which (he is made fubject by her alliance with the body, are neceflary for the fupport and continuance of that union and connection, and are confequently only fmfui when gratified beyond the bounds and reilrictions which reafon, religion, and the laws of fociety prefcribe. Thefe we derive necefiarily from the nature and conftitution of that body we inherit from Adam. And thefe are, properly fpeaking, noc the foul's faults, but her misfortunes , as being of a carnal, fenfual nature onlyj nor are thefe the affec- tions of the mind to which I allude, and from which, is proveable the depravity of nature ; which confifts, pnd only confifts of irregularities, inconfiftencies, and actual blemifhes in her intellectual frame ; fuch as are envy, malice, revenge, cruelty, &c. And when the apoftlc ranks even thefe in his ca- talogue of the ivorks of the flefey we are not to con- fider him as pronouncing them the genuine, neccf- fary effects and productions of the flefh, but as principles which are mod ufually difcernible in, and lefs retrained by thofe, whole defires termi- nate more on the gratification of fenfual appetites and pafllons, than in correcting and reforming the degeneracy of their fpiritual and more natural affections. 9. We fee then how frail, imperfect, and de- praved a being the foul is in its natural ftate. And, in order to afcertain the real catife of this de- pravity, reafon and philofophy oblige us to con- clude, either that it arifcs from the accidental ftate and condition of that body we inherit from Adam, -ctf C 2$ ) .or was implanted by its Creator, or is the effect of a pre-exiftent lapfe. That the firil cannot be the cafe, even this fingle confideration evinces, viz. that we are not tmiverfally affected by that body i.n a fimilar man- ner. Men differ from each other as much in their affections as in their faces. And if to this it be replied, that that may be owing to fome different texture and modification of one and the fame fpe- cies of matter, I would afk, how it comes to pafs that fuch a great contrariety of tempers mould be fo frequently met with in perfons of the very fame kind of complexion, and feemingly fimilar texture of body * ? The external form and figure indeed is that by which your phyfiognomifts aim to read the inter- nal man -f-, yet experience mews, that that is not an index which invariably and infallibly points true. 10. Nor is there the leaft reafon in nature to expect that it mould. It is not poffible that.purely paffive matter mould impart principles not its own, or, in other words, the active properties andeffen- tials offpirit. So that it is of courfe not poffible, that the foul can receive either her good or bad in- telkffual qualities from this or that frame or tem- perature of the body. We may as well fuppofe the very conftruction of the foul to be materfal, as make it dependent on matter for its properties. * The reader is to take notice, that I am now fpeaking of the real affections of the mind, not the fenfual paffions, that arjfe from the foul's connection with the body. f A!;O; cite 1 of SaA^ttJ nj TG vvr^.a. pc&in. Theoc. And the wife fon of Sirach fays, " A man may be known " by his look*," Eccluf. xix. 29, ii. The ii. The foul's native powers indeed are fb far dependent on the nature and quality of that heterogeneous vehicle wherein it is contained, and from which it is furnifhed with all its proper in- ftruments of fenfe and reflection, as to be enabled to operate to only that confined degree of excel- lence and perfection, to which the properties of that vehicle are fuited. Hence it is that we are enabled to account, in a great degree, for that leeming fubordination of intellectual abilities, ob- fervable now in the leveral fpecies of animated and intelligent natures. Hence it is that brute crea- tures are become inferior to us in the ufe of their reafoning faculties, as we are perhaps to angels. Brutes can reafon and reflect only in 'part, and how inconfiderable and contracted is the utmoft range of human reafoning, when compared with the intellectual powers of the angelic hoft! Had the fouls of brutes been lodged in the fame kind of vehicle with our own, it is probable that they would have attained to as high a degree of ra- tionality in this their fublunary fphere of action, as we have done j and that we fnould ourfelves have fallen to as low a flate of fenfibility and reflection as they are reduced to, had we been thrown into a body entirely organized, as is theirs *. 12. As * Moil of the ancient philofophers taught, that the fouls of beafts were rational ; from whence it follows, that they be- lieved thofe fouls to differ in degrees of rationality only from thofe of men. Anaxagoras placed that difference in this parti- cular, viz. " That men are capable of explaining their rea- " fonings, whereas beafts are not able to explain theirs." Vid. Plutarch, de Placit. Philof. lib. v. cap. 20. p. 908. Pythagoras and Plato had the fame thoughts on this point. They faid, that the fouls of beafts, though truly rational, aft not according to reafon, bccaufe they want the ufe of fpeech, and ( 3) -. t2. As the inherent depravity o the Tout therefore evidently proceeds from the conftitutional qualities and their organs artf not well-proportioned, That the mere difpofition of the organs hindered reafon from appearing iit beafts, as it appears in men. See Bayle's life of Pereira. Agreeably to vvhich^ fays Virgil, Jgneus eft ollis vigor, et cceleftis origo Seminibus : quantum non noxia corpora tardant, Terfenique hebetant artus, moribundaque membra. And that the fouls of men and beafts are* in their nature, in- trinfically the fame, we feem aiithorifed to conclude, from what the facred preacher fays upon the poirtt. c ' I faid in mine heart, concerning the eftate of thefons of " men, that God might rhanifeft, or (as agreeably to the origi- " nal k mould be rendered) God will make manifeft, that they " are beafts. For that which befalleth the fons of men be- " falleth beafts, even one thing befalleth theih : as one dieth, " fo dieth the other, yea they have all one breath, fo that a '" man hath no pre-eminence over a beaft. All go unto one " place, all are of duil, and all turn to duft again." Ecclef. iii. 19, 20. Diogenes faid, that beafts are made up of a body and a foul, and that if their foul does not actually feel and reafon, it is bccaufc the thicknefs of its organs, and the great quantity of humours, reduce it to the condition of mad men. See Plut. de Plac. Philofoph. Nor can we fee an equality of providence towards the brute creation, without fuppofmg them poflefled of fouls capable of being reccmpenfed in an hereafter, and dcfigned fo to be, for the toils and miferies they undergo here. Appofite to this reflection is the following extraft from the ingenious author of Reflections on the (Economy of Nature in Animal Life. It is certain, fays he, that the felf-motive and felf-aftiye principle, or fpiritual fubftance, that actuates or animates or- e;anifed matter, muft have, eflentially and actually, inherent in U all thole natural qualities, faculties, and endowments, in the hitheil perfection, that it ever exerts or attains to in any time of its duration. To augment or encreafe in eflential qualities is an abfurdity, and to augment or encreafe naturally is only the property of body and matter; but fpititual fubftance being indivisible and immortal, if it could admit of more or lefs, in natural (3' ) qualities of that body it is made to inhabit here,, fo neither is it, Secondly, to be confidered as implanted by him that formed it. 13. It is impofiible that the Deity can be the parent of imperfection. By which I do not mean to affert, that God cannot produce any thing more of, or inferior to perfection itfelf. For then finite beings could not be the offspring of an infinite one, nor an effect be unequal to the caufe from whence it proceeded. But this I do venture to aflert, that nothing imperfect in its kind can come out as iiich immediately from the hands of God. And yet however true and unquestionable fuch a po- ll tion is, the reverfe would evidently be the cafe, if man in his ftate of nature^ is as he came firft from the hands of God j and then every intellectual de- natural or eflential qualities, it might eeafe to be j I mean as to its natural qualities of living, perceiving, and willing, /. e. of Cogitation or thinking ; for as to its moral qualities of juftice, goodnefs, and truth, they may encreafe or decreafe to any de- gree, fmce they entirely depend on the free will ; and there- fore the natural faculties of living, perceiving, and willing ; and thus feveral degrees and modifications of activity, fagacity, and defire, are effentially and uniformly permanent in it in their order and degree, whatever kind of body it animates j and when it does not exert thefe innate and eiTential qualities, it is becaufe it is limited and retrained by the nature of grofs matter, and the laws of the body which it animates, which is a foreign impediment, infuperable to its degree of felf-activity and felf-mobility. For an angel is^as truly an angel, as to its Spiritual nature and faculties, informing the body of a ferpent, or any other organized body, as informing the body of a man. And an angel, animating an human body, would be only a more perfed man, and, by its natural and eflential qualities could then only more perfectly exert human functions and operations. An unorginized body could produce no vital functions ; it could only put it into particular motions. Vid Cheyne, Nat. Method of curing difcafes of the body and mind, p. i, 2, 3. formitjr (32 ) fortuity and irregularity is a blemifti iri the crea- ture, chargeable wholly and folcly upon God its Creator. Then the envious, the malicious, the cruel and revengeful, are not more excentric from the laws of virtue and purity, or, in other words, not worfe than they fhould or could be j and the thing formed may fay unto him that formed it, Why haft thou made me thus ? 14. Moft writers on the fubject of the human pamons affert indeed, what may be judged perhaps a furtkient anfwer to the above remark, that mod, if not all of thoie pafiions, which men ufually deem bad, are, in various inftances, con fequenti ally good, and of courfe not to be looked upon as blemifhes and imperfections in our nature. That ambition, for example, is productive of deeds that ferve, in many refpects, to aggrandize the prince and his people , introduces into a public fphere of action, men beft qualified to advance the honour, reputa- tion, and interefts of their king and country; and transmits to poiterity many illuflrious examples of magnanimity and undaunted bravery. That the paflion of pride fwells the mind to a refinance of mean, fclfim, abject cohfiderationsl or any difho- nourable or unjuft attacks. That even envy has apparently its advantages, inafmuch as it fpurs a man on to a rival/hip of another in his virtues and noble exploits. That ctroeioufntfs ferves to create an abundance, which the heir, actuated by a dif- ferent kind of fpirit from the firft pofTefibr, is en- abled to diffufe in various acts of generofity, and a well-placed beneficence. This is the light irt which, as far as I can recollect, writers on this fubjccl, place, for the moft part, thefe and other pafiions of the human brealt, in order to mew, that they are not, what I elteem them to be, real blen:iPjes. But if reafon may be allowed to be a proper C 33 ) proper judge in this cafe, I would afk, whether this is not absolutely confounding the efiential difference between good and evil, judging of the nature of our pafiions from their accidental: 'offeffs and confequmc'ca, and blending the effenp.e. of things with their ends and tifes? For fuppofmg, though not granting;, the accidental effcffs iffuino; from O O* f*r O thofe above-mentioned paffions, to be a proper criterion whereby to ascertain their expediency and real value, we mail even then* I think, find fufficient reafon to pronounce them, in general, lad. They are as frequently mifcblwous in their dfec~b, as beneficial, and perhaps more fo. It was ambition, you'll fay, that msdt Alexander mine with fuch eclat in the annals of fame, and I'll grant it; but did it not give to the world at the fame time, and in the fame perfon, a madman, and a murderer of millions ? It was to the monarch's pride that Babylon owed her magnificent temples, and her other fumptuous buildings; that were the glory and wonder of the age in which he lived ; but did not that fame intoxicating paflion fink at laft the renowned lord thereof into the fimilitucle of a creature inferior to the lowclt of the human fpecies ? With rcfpeft to envy *- ; ~s a y firft what caufe Mov'd our grand parents in that happy ftatc, Favour'd of Heaven fo highly, to fall off From their Creator, and tranfgrels his will For one reftraint lords of the world befides ? Who firft feduc'd them to that foul revolt ? Th' infernal Serpent, he it was, whofe guile, Stirr'd up with envy and revenge, deceiv'd The mother of mankind.- D As ( 34 ) As for covetcufnefS) if that be, either in principle or in practice, a virtue^ then with regard to all vices whatever, the greatejt of them is Ckarity. 15. In ihort, it will not be denied, but that, in the general courfe of God's providence, good will frequently arife out of evil. But then it ought to be confidered, that the good accidentally irTu- ing therefrom does not alter it fpecific nature and quality. And as there are paffions which, without any kind of difpute, are intrinlically good^ the re- verfe of thofe paffions muft of courfe be intrinfi- cally bad^ be they in their confequences accidentally this or that ; elfe adieu to all diftinclions between good and evil, between virtue and vice, between the righteous and the wicked ! As therefore among the various affections incident to the human kind, there are forne which muft undoubtedly be denominated bad, thofe are a blemifh in the crea- ture chargeable wholly and folely on the Creator, if the former had not an exiftence prior to its appear- ance here. 1 6. It is urged indeed by a very lively and fprightly writer, " That in the fcale of beings *' there muft be fomewhere fuch a creature as " man, with all his infirmities about him, that a " removal of thefe would be altering his very na- " ture, and that as foon as he became perfect, he " muft ceafe to be man.-\" The removal of man's infirmities would be al- tering undoubtedly the very nature of man ; but is the inference from thence juft, that man comes into the world with all his imperfections about him, " lecaufe there mulb be fomewhere in the t See Nat. and Origin, of Evil, p. 98. ( 35 ) ** fcale of beings a creature fo unfortunately and l immorally formed ? " 17. To fuppofe God neceffitated to call in to his aid evil, for the better carrying on his moral government of the world, is methinks an idea of Providence not fhort of mental blafphemy. If the ingenious author had faid, that moral evil will, in the final iffue of things, be productive of a far fu- perior degree of moral good, it would have been judged by the generality of his readers, I imagine, a fufficient apology for the introduction of moral evil into the world. In fhort, man, and man only, brought evil into the world, by his having before (in a prior (late) brought evil upon himfelf. A truth which will, I doubt not, appear in the fequel very evident to every free and impartial reader. Having fhewn, then, that the depravity of the human mind is not occaiioned either by the grofs ftate and condition of that body in which the foul is now lodged, or implanted by him that formed it, it would be an affront to common fenfe, and to the reader's judgment, to doubt his granting me the condujion, that it can be none elfe than the effect of a pre-exiftent laple ; efpecially if to what has already been obferved, he adds an im- partial attention to the enfuing chapters. ffcvm jf^~, J?Si.^Wl% D 2 CHAP. CHAP. V. -ex$ettt lapfe of human fouls tie belief of thf moft learned and ingenious among the ancient philofophers, the Greek and Latin fathers, and of feme 'very eminent writers of a more modern date. I- TT7ITH refpeel: to the former of thefe, VV I nmft beg the reader to be Satisfied at prefent with the following quotation from the great Dr. More, which we have allb in Glanville's Lux Orientals. " Let us caft our eyes, fays Dr. More, into " what corner of the world we will, that has been " famous for wifdom and literature, and the " wifeft of all nations you will find the afTertors " of the foul's pre-exiftence. " In Mgypt, that ancient nurfery of all hidden " fciences, that this opinion was in vogue among " the wifeft men there, thofe fragments of Trifme- " gift's do fufficiently witnefs : of which opinion " not only the Gymnofophijts, and other wile men " of Mgffi were, but z\fo ihtBrachmans oi India, " the Magi of Babylon and Perfia : to which may " be added the abftrufe philofophy of the Jews, c which they call the Cablala of the foul's pre- lenfe of Seneca upon the point. Tune animus nofter habebit, quod gratuletur fibi, cum emiflfus e tenebris in quibus volutatur, non tenui vilu elara perfpexerit, led totum diem admiferit, et redditus Caelo fuo fuerit. Cum re- ceperit locum, quem occupavit forte nafcendi. Surfum vocant ilium initia fua. Senec. Ep. 79. & 120. 7. It is the firm perfwafion of the antient fathers, that the fouls of men were originally pof- fefied of the divine image, which now they have loft, and that their regeneration is a reiteration, aftd reduction thereto. Greg. Nazianzen fays, that the foul is of God, and divine, and partakes of the fu- pernal nobility, which is alfo her ancient nobility. She is of God, fays St. Chryfdftom not only in the general way, as all beings are of God, theirCreator ; nor only as being of more than human original [God being peculiarly, the father of fouls, or fpirits] but if me was originally poffefled of the Divine image, me was of God, as iflliing from paternal fanttity. The fouls of all men were di- vinely virtuous in their original creation ; nor have they fo totally loft the divine image, but that there are, as fays St. Auguftine^ the feeble remains, the weak relicks of the image of God, the rudera, or broken pieces of our firit building.- St. Aug. de Sp. & Lit. 6. 28. And how agreeable is all this- to the nature and genius of the Chriftian difpenla- tion ! The end and defign of the Chriftian regene- ration being to renew in us the loft image of God, wherein we were originally created. Agreeably to which is a note of Grotius upon the Parable of the Prodigal Son. All men, fays he, are, originally, the fons of God, as this parable declares, but they lofe that privilege ( 46 ) privilege by alienating themfelves from God.- Hence, when he is converted, and regenerated, he is laid to be, Deo fuo reftitutus, reftored to his God, fays St. Cyprian. Therefore he did fome time before belong to God, as one of his divine family. So the loft Jheep, and the loft groat, that afterwards were found, were Ibmetime in pofTeffiori of their owner. And the mighty benefits which Chriftianity brings to the fouls of men, are reco- vering, and reftoring what was, not the introduc- tion of what never was. And Chrift fends, fays St. Cyril, his fpirit into the fouls of believers* transforming them >&? 7 <%<:'?, into the antient O and original form. And Maximus, the martyr, fays, that the defign of Chrift's incarnation was to make us partakers of a divine nature, ^ "fx?** as in the beginning. The defign of Chriftianity, therefore, to rege- nerate fouls into the holy life, and to raife them to the heavenly ftate of purity, implies, that they are fallen from both, as the Fathers explicitly affirm, when they fuppofe the renovation of fouls into the Divine image is their reftauration. See Brocklefbfs Gcfpd-Theifm, p. 504, &c. CHAP. VII. The fcripture account of the Fallen Angels ilhiftrd- ted, and confirmed; and the human ttottjhe&h to be complicated, and involved in their guilt. I. ^ A H A T hitman fouls are of coeval origiti with angelic, and both the production of one inftantaneous exertion of infinite power, it leems necefiary to conclude ; becaufe in the firft place no reafon can be affigned, why the Deity fhould ( 47 ) friould give the preference implied in a priority of creation to this, or that order of intelligent na- tures, rather than to another And fecondly, be- caufe afuccej/ive traduEtion of fouls, or a daily crea- tion of them, one or other of which muft elfe be fuppofed, is the one an aclual impoffibility in na- ture, and the other a fnppofition, fuggefting an idea of the Creator, than which there cannot be one more grofs and unworthy -j-. 2. And that the Mofak was not the original creation of all things^ but that, prior to it, there exifted an univerfe of rational beings, I look up- on as a truth of which none but men of the mofl contracted ientiments can entertain the leaft doubt J. 3. And t A fucceffive traduftion of fouls is, as Dr. Henry More obferves, " A plain contradiction to the notion of a foul, which is a fpirit, and therefore of an indivifible, that is, of an indifcerpible efience. And a daily creation of them im- plies both an indignity to the majefty of God (in making him the chiefefl affiilant and actor in the higheft, freeft, and moft particular way in which the Divinity can be conceived to aft, in thofe abominable crimes of whoredom, adultery* and inceft, by fupplying thofe foul coitions with new-created fouls for the purpoft) and alfoan injury to the fouls themfelves; that they being ever thus created by the immediate hand of God, and therefore pure, innocent, and immaculate, fhould be imprifoned in unclean, difeafed, and difordered bodies, where very many of them feem to be fo fatally over- maftered, and in fuch an utter incapacity of clofing with what is good and virtuous, that they muft needs be adjudged to that extreme calamity, which attends all thole that forget God." See Dr. More's Immortality of the Soul, p. 113. See alfo Glanville's Lux Orientalis ; where the above argu ments are expatiated upon in a moft comprehenfive and ma terly manner. f It is the opinion of the generality of writers, who look no further than to the letter of the Mofaic hiftory, that the whole frame of nature comes within the compafs of the fw days crea- tion: ( 43 J 3. And as every part of creation muft, when iffuing firil from the hands of the Creator, be ptr- fett tion ; that not only the fun, moon, and planets, but the im- menfe fyitetn of the fixed ftars, are there defcribed as coeval with the formation of our earth: confequently they muft hold, that till about fix thoufand years ago, the Deity cxifted alone, reigning over an abfolute void, without either worlds or inha-> bitants. But a-s the contrary opinion may be fairly deduced from many pailr.ges in Scripture, fo it is much more agreeable to our julteft apprehenfions of the Divine nature to fuppofe, that the fountain of power and goodnefs had created worlds, and communicated being to many orders of creatures long be- fore our earth or its inhabitants had an exigence. See Jamefon, Pref. to his Expofit. of the Pentat. Again ; By the heaven, fays Mr. Jackfon on Gen. i. i. " In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth," we are to underfland the feveral fyftems of the fun, moon, planets, which were created before the formation of the earth, of which only Mofes gives a particular account, and to which his hiilory primarily belongs. It is faid, " God made two *' great lights," viz. the fun and the moon ; and it is certain that the earth was, by God's almighty power, fo fituated, with refpect to the pofition of the fun and moon, that they might have their proper influence over it, and fo with propriety be laid to have been new made to rule over its day and night. They now became properly a fun and moon to the earth, whe- ther they were then created, when they firlt fhone upon it, or before. The Hebrew word nii'j/ Afa, or Afe rendered to make, fignifies alfo to conflitute, or appoint, or prepare ; and fo it .Biay mean, that God appointed two great lights, the one to rule over the day, the other to rule over the night. And it is evident, th^t the word may be taken in the preterpluperfcd fenfe, as it is in the jift verfe, where it is rightly rendered, " And God faw every thing that he had made." There- fore, though it is udoubtedly true, that God made, or created the fun, moon, and itars, yet there is no need to underltand that they are any part of the Mofaic creation, which compre- hended only the heavens and the earth, or the earth with its fcunament or atmolpherc, which is called heaven. See Jack- ion's Chroni. Amiq. p. 4, >. Agreeablj to which, another very learned and ingenious writer had before obfei ved, that the original creation was ante- Mofaical j ( 49 ) feft in its kind (the fountain being' pure, the llreams flowing therefrom muft be pure aifo) it rteceffhrily follows, that the univcrfe of ra- tional creatures came into being pofTeffed of as large a fhare of intellectual purity, and moral rec- titude, as finite natures can be fuppofed capable of attaining, or an all-perftft power capable of cre- ating; But from the very ftate, and eircumftances of their exiftence, and \.\\&\. freedcm of will, which conftituted them moral agents, it is eafy, and even neceiTary to conceive, that though pure, and per- feft in their kind, they were neverthelefs peccable, and liable to tranjgreffion -t-. It is an aflertion of Mofaica! ; that the Mofaical Cofmopceia was not God's original creation, nor the creation of the waft univtrft of rationah, but &_fecondary creation, a creation of our terreftrial Jyjlem only ; and that our planetary globe, though in refpeft of the matter of it, it was a part of God's original creation, yet as formed and inhabited, did not belong to the original conftitution of the univerfe. See Brocklesby's Chriflian Trinitarian, p. 493 , &c. The truth of which hypothefis he fupports by a variety of cogent arguments, fome of which may cccafionally come in, perhaps, hereafter. f " Unlefs a man, fays Dr. Cheyr.e, give up all reafon, phi- " lofophy, and proportion, as well as analogy, and run into " downright fcepticifm, blind fate, witchcfaftand enchantment, " he muft fuppofe, that an infinitely wife and beneficent being* " could not have created free and intelligent creatures, but for " fome wife end and purpofe. And to obtain this end he muft " have made them at firft found (fo he is pleafed toexprefs him- " felf ) in body and mind. How error, difeafes, mifery, and " death commenced, may readily be accounted for from the " abufeoffteedom and liberty, fpurious felf-love, and an inordi- " nate love of die creature." See Cheyne,Difeourfeiv. p. no.; An argument equally conclufive as to angels and men. There is fomething extremely rational and fatisfaclory, as to this point, in what follows from Dr. Jenkin^ " It muft be conficlered, fays he, that no created being can, " in its own nature, be uricapable of fin or default : becaufe " it cannot be infinitely perfcdt ; for it ii infcparable from all E " creatures that the holy angels themfelves are not uncriminal, and uncondemnable ; they are, " non "fatisjufti-" not fufliciently, or compleatly, juft " creatures to have but finite perfections ; and whatever has " bounds fet to its perfections is in fome refpect imperfect ;. " that is, it wants thofe perfections which a being of infinite " pei fections alone can have. So that imperfection is implied " in the very eflence of created beings ; and what is imperfect * may make default." Jenkin's Reaibn. of Chr. Rel. vol. ii, p. 238. And again, p. 246. he fays, " In the beginning God cre- < ated every thing perfect in its kind, and endued the angels and men with all intellectual and moral perfections fuitable '* to their refpective natures ; but fo as to leave them capable " of finning. For it pleafed the infinite wifdom of God to " place them in a ftata of trial, and to put it to their own ' choice whether they would fland in that condition of inno- * cence and happinefs in which they were created, or fall into ' fin and mifery. We have little or no account in the Scrip- ' tures of the caufe or temptation which occafioned the fall of " angels, becaufe it doth not concern us," fays he, (but it does concern us much more than he imagined) " to be ac- ' quaintfd with it ; and therefore it little becomes us to be ' inquifitive about it." (fcarce ant thing concerns us more, or merits a more diligent and earneil enquiry.) But to proceed with our author " Indeed it is very difficult to conceive, how *' beings of fuch great knowledge and purity, as the fallen an- ' gels once were of, fhould fall into fin : but it is to be con- * fidered that nothing is more unaccountable, than the mo- " tives and caufes of action in free agents : when any being is '" at liberty to do as it will, no other reafon of his actings be- " lides his own will need be enquired after. But how per- " feet and excellent foever any creature is, unlefs it be fb con- * firmed and eftablimed in a ftate of purity and holinefs, as to be fecured from all poffibility of finning, it may be fflppofed * to admire itfelf, and dote upon its own perfections and ex- ' cellencies, and by degrees to neglect and not acknowledge * God ihe author of them, but to fin and rebel againft him, " And it is moil agreeable both to Scripture and reaion, that " pride was the eaufe of the fall of angels." Jenk. vol. ii. p. 246, 247. Whether this be, or be not, juft reafoning upon a matter of fact, as to the motives or caufes from .which it happened, it is quite unnecefTary for me to enquire at prefent. and ( 5* ) and righteous. " The ftars are not pure in God's *' light," fays Job, c. ,xxv. v. 5. And abfolute impeccability is, perhaps, the fole prerogative of God. 4. Accordingly Scripture informs us, that an order of celeftial powers incurred in procefs of time their Maker's dilpleafure, by not keeping their firft eftate, and leaving their habitations. " And the angels, which kept not their firft " eftate" fays St. Jude, " but left their own habi- kc taticn^ he hath referred in everlafting chains *' under darknefs unto the judgment of the great u clay." Jude 6th. 5. For the more clear underftandihg of which important paflage in holy writ, I obferve, as fol- lows, ririi, That each clafs, or divifion of the angelic hoft, had, from the beginning, and have Hill a determinate region in Heaven aftlgned them, as their proper fphere of glory, and pecu- liar place of refidence.- Agreeably to which, fays our Saviour, " In my father's lioufe are many " manfions." John xiv. 2. That the intel- lectual world, that part of it, 1 mean, with which we feem to have any connection, or of which we feem to have any intelligence, appears to have been ranked, and dijpofed by the Creator, from the beginning, into feveral diftinct claiTes, gradu- ally fubordinate to each other in dignity and power ; in proportion, probably, to the different degrees of intellectual capacity, which the mem- bers of each clafs had been endowed with at firft. Without fome fort of orderly gradation like this, the mind cannot frame to itfelf any idea of an ex- iiting ibciety, nor without fuch a fuppofal a poffi- biliry of felicity even in Heaven -}-. 1 obferve I If it be urged that a fubordinaticn of rank and quality in heaven, would argue f.n unequal diftribution of power and 2 authority^ I obferve, fecondly, that in the paffage alluded to, the original word ' A tk*> which our tranflators have rendered firfi eftate, is that very word which in the plural number is fo often ufed in the New Teftament to denote fome particular order of angels, and which, in all thofe places, we tranflate principalities. Thirdly, I obferve, that thefetwo expreffions of the " angels not keeping their firft eitate," and " their leaving their own habitations," are not de- figned to convey different, and feparate fenfes, but are only explanatory the one of the other, as ap- pears from the flruclure of the fentence, The pafiage,therefore, fhould be rendered thus : " The angels, which kept not their own priri- pality, [TV- ictvew 'A^] but left their own habita- " tion [T Mto 'piiH^tjptwj he hath referved in ever- lafting authority, and a partiality in the fupreme Lord thereof, inter- rupt! ve of univerfel harmony and equal happinefs, and incon- fiftent with our idea of celeftial fruition, I anfwer, that in minds not vitiated by pride and ambition, obedience to thofe to whom reverence and efteem is due, is a fatisfaclion of mind equal, at leaft, to that which arifes from a fuperiority of power, &c. in thofe to whom is allotted the preheminency. That there was, however, is, and always will be, fuch a fub- ordination of rank and dignity in the celeftial abodes, is evi- dent from thofe diftin&ions, which we meet with in Scripture, of angels and archangels, of cherubim and feraphim, of prin- cipalities, powers, thrones, and dominions, i ThefT. iv. 16. Jud. ix. Ezek. x. Pfal. xviii. 10. Ifa. vi. 2. Rom. viii. 38. Ephef. i. 21. iii. 10. vi. 12. Col. i. 16. ii. 10, 15. Agreeably to which fays St. Jerom That there may be due order amongft rational?, there muft be rat. ^furx, ret [Me-ot, rot fo-^dTo., the prime, the middle, and the laft. And again, fays another writer, " It is in nature as in the " molt perfect harmony, In an. harmony of founds, that which " is of a middle nature maketh the confonancy of the ex* " tremes ; and in all apt compofures fomething of a middle " nature is requifite." M. Tyr. Diff. 27. See Brock, p. 9. ( 53 ) " lading chains." See.- -That therefore laftly the crime by which the angels fell in general was : That they kept not themfelves within the bounds of their own proper fphere of dignity, and glo- ry, but prefumptuoufly deferted that fubordinate rank and fituation, which God had allotted them in the realms above. 6 Hence it was, that that harmony, and tran- quillity in heaven, which reigned unmolefted be- fore, underwent for a time, a reverfed fate. He whom fcripture ftiles the prince of devils, one mod probably of the higheft order of fpirits, moving in a fphere perhaps but a few degrees removed (to fpeak in the language of men) from the throne of God, and difdaining even thejirjl degree of inferiori- ty . He, I fay, fet up his ftandard againft the Moft High, inlifted under his banner a multitude of mutinous, and afpiring ingrates, aiming by their aififtance to rule independent of the will, and au- thority of the omnipotent, and even to give law to the very Being that gave him life. n " afpiring " To fet himfelf in glory above his peers, ' He trufted to have equall'd the Mod High, " If he oppofed, and with ambitious aim * c Againft the throne, and monarchy of God " Rais'd impious war in heav'n, and Dattle proud, " With vain attempt." For now the traiterous chieftain, and his infa- tuated adherents, drew upon themfelves the ven- o-eance of heaven, were banifhed their celeftial habitations, and referved in everlafting chains, E 3 under ( 54 ) under darknefs unto the judgment of the great day. * 7 To the fame pnrpofe the vifion of St. John : " There was war in heaven -, M;chad, and his i v.y-i (/rarp; o-a.Ta-jiy.ri a oMyxffi, xoi S. Macarius Horn. 14. f " Rejoice ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them,'' &ys " the apocalyptic apoflle.---" But woe to the inhnbirr-nts of 'f the earth, and of the fca, for the devil is come do\vn unto " you, having great wrath, becaufe he kndweth that he '? hath but i fhcrt time." Apoc. xii. 12. latcd ( 57 ) lated by Mofes, under the difguife of a fubtie lerpent. * For after having affected the fecond lapfe of the o:iginal pair, he made in procefs of time an eafy conqueil of their corrupted pofterity, fucceffively overwhelmed them in an almoft univerfal deluge of ignorance, and error, atheifm, polycheifm, and idolatry, and every kind of fpiritual and carnal impurity. And in order to diffufe upon earth the fame mifchievors practices, by which he, and his allocates, forfeited Heaven, how active has he all along been in ftirring up men of the like afpiring fpirits to refift their lawful governors, to foment riots, and feditions, and to involve whole flates, and kingdoms, in the mitl-ries of rebellion, anarchy, and civil tumults : (" tra/tors have never " betttr company," as fays Shakefpear. J- ) And ia this manner did he lord it over the bulk of man- kind for many ages together without controul, blinding their minds, as the apoftle fpeaks, and working in the children of difobedience, exacting of them the moil unnatural and mocking infbances of devotion, the offering up their ions and their daughters to devils, invading at length, and taking pofieffion of their unhallowed bodies, and not only this, but actuating and tormenting them at his cruel pleasure. 10 This is in brief the fum and fubftance, * That the/erptxt mult be figuratively underftoou of the devil acling by \hefexpeat, is plain, not only from the impoilibiiity of crafty beails over-reaching mankind in their higheit pitch of knowledge, but from the atteftation of other parts of Icrip- ture, where the devil is called the eld fa-pent. Rev. xii 9. and xx. 2. and where he is by our Saviour faid to have been a murderer from the beginning, alluding to his mifchiev- ous devices at the fall. See Jamefon in Loco. 4- Hen. vi. p. i. the ( 58 ) the rife, progrefs, and confequence of that memo- rable event, the fall of thofe Rebel Angels, which fcripture gives us in part, and which is fhadowed out to us not obfcurely by both Heathen, and Jewifh theology. And a moil awful interelling event it is ! An event fo comprehenfive as to its objects, as well as diffufive of its mifchievous ef- fects, as to have involved in fm and mifery, the the whole race of human beings. All nature fhared in that original guilt, all nature groans now under the ruinous weight of it. * " The " whole creation groaneth and travelleth in pain " of it until now." For lo ! All, who have trod this mother earth of ours (ibme few righteous ones only perhaps excepted) had aflbciated with the apoltate powers, affimulated with them in their various vices, joined them in their revolt from God, ranked with them under the banner of the vile ufurper, aided his foul rebellion, + and be- came * By naturel wou'd not "be underfiood to include here the uni'verfe in general, but t\\3A. full unary part of intelligent nature to which we belong. f The author exprefies himfelf here, in terms accommodated to the account given of that event, by the Apocalyptic apoftlc, who ftiles it a --war in heaven. " There was war in hea- " ven ; Michael, and his angels, fought againft the Dragon, " and the Dragon fought and his angels." Apoc. xii. 7. The reader muft therefore confider the one in the lame figura- tive point of view, in which reafon directs him to place the other. The vifion here alluded to was of both a retrofpecli from the powers bdow^ I am ^-r^w, from the powers above. That is, ye are united by the fame kind of alli- ances, friendships, connections, and attachments to the powers b?low, that I am to the powers above : An explanation of that paflfage, that will appear, I believe, when critically, and fairiy at- tended to, perfeflly juft. And in fact, without fuppofing fome fuch prior connection with the rulers of the darkncfs of this world, with thole fpi- ritual wickedneffes. among the aerial inhabit ants, *f- the vicinity of our abode, to the place where dwell thofe apoftate powers ; Satan's early and artful practices upon our firft parents, continued with too much fuccefs dill upon their unhappy progeny ; the fovereignty he has been permitted to eftablifh here, and the various, fubtle, and infmuating, or elfe cruel and oppreffive arts, by which it has fo long been upheld, are circumftances in the courfe of the divine providence not eafily, if at all re- concileable with our ideas of Gcd 9 of infinize jiijiice, goodnefs, and mercy. But an allowed pre- exillent concurrence with the fallen powers, as above fuppofed, clears away at once every the lead appearance of injuftice, or inconfiftcncy in the ways of God to man. Nor is it podible for any hypothecs to ftrike the reflecting and unprejudiced mind more forceably, and even irrefiftabiy. Come now then my dear reader and let us reafon a little together with impartiality and candor. 1 1 Had there fubiilted between man and the f That is the true import of rx 7r>=>i/,cmx ~~.; ~**r-^- E rolj sfet/Htf. apof- ( 61 } apoftate powers, no kind of prior infefcourfej alliances, and connexions, how cornes it that we fd frequently difcern in the one afpontaneous growth of intellectual principles, and affections fo corref- pondent altogether with thole by which are ufually characterized, and diftinguifhed the other ? How is it that the undisciplined, unregenerate heart of man fends forth fo plenteous an harveft of corrupt paffions, and defires fo difgraceful to human na- ture, fo congenial to hellifh minds, and fo im- pulfive at the fame time to diabolical villanies, and horrid cruelties ? mould we ranfack bell for impieties to offend heaven'^ for treachery, deceit, and fraud, to entrap, over-reach, and ruin man, nay, and even for barbarities to murder with equal unrefervednefs and unrelentings his perfon, and his reputation, is it poffible we could find there willing agents for either purpofe more apt, andaccomplifh- cd than are to be found in almoft every corner here ? Alas no ! Men over partial to their own hearts^ and their own actions (of which fort much the major part of the world confifts) will think the above picture of naked nature, a piece unrefemb- ling real life altogether, a portrait unjuft, unge- nerous, and mamefully unworthy an human pen- cil. What' 4 ! fhall a man dare to draw a true image of God in the femblance, and fimilitude of a meer devil ?^ Is there no honour, honefty, or integrity^ in the heart of man ? Is he totally abforb'd in impiety, iniquity, unjuft, ungenerous, and un- worthy purfuits ? Has he no fympathetic feel- ings of humanity ? No tenclerneis and compaftV on for his fellow creatures ? is he not a fel- loiv-fufferer in their wants, their misfortunes^ their diftrefies ? Does he not oftentimes put forth an eager hand to give bread to the hun- gry to clothe the naked with a garment, and to to releafe from the loathfome prlfon the inad- vertent and unfortunate ? If there are vices among men of the moil heinous and deepeft die, is there not an equal ballance at leaft of the faireft, and moft refplendent virtues? .Ha* fuch an one been proved an actual pilferer of your private property, a difpoiler of your reputation, falfe to your friendftnp, treacherous, and unfaithful to your confidence ? Who is there that holds not each of thefe characters in the utmoft deteftation ? Are there robbers, and deceivers of a more out- rageous, abominable, diabolical caft, plunderers of their country^ preyers upon the very vitals of their native land, builders of & private magnificence upon the ruins of that moft venerable, and only valuable edifice : public intereft ? Be it, that there are, or rather have been men of fuch enormous villany, yet does there not ftep forth now and then one armed with the breaft-plate of patriotic virtue, of a fteady unwearied refolution to vanquifli the deftructive Hydra? Does impiety, infidelity, or atheifm, rear its impudent head againft Heaven ; a felf-afiuming, felf-fufHcient, half-reafoning, o- tbing ? " Who but muft laugh, if fuch a man there be ? " Who wou'd not weep, if B were he ? Does again hypocrify wear the mafque of devo- tion, coveteoufneis that of frugality, and trea- chery put on the face of friendship ? Allowing, that there are of thefe defpicable characters, not a few, yet why muft the men of true piety, genero-* fity, and difinterefted worth, be overlooked ? And do not in reality the latter, if thrown in the fcale of obfervation, and actual experience, equi- poife, as I obferved before, if not overbalance the utmoft weight you can make up from the former former? Wherefore then this crying invectivtf againft human nature ? Wherefore fo unamiable, fo unbecoming, founrefemblinga picture of man? as a portrait I mean of the whole fpecies. 12 This is a retort upon the fuppofed iniury done above to the character of my fellow crea- tures, which has been obviated in a great degree, I imagine, before ; yet fometaing more perhaps may feem neceffary tp be urged in proof of that fuppofed Cimilzrity of principles and practices in the generality of the human race, with thofc, which conftitute the moral portrait of the apofiate pow- ers. Are any of ns then worthy to be ranked in the number of the pious, juft, generous, friendly, tender-hearted, and compaffionate ? Are any of us lovers of our neighbours and country, in pre- ference to'any mean, dirty, worthlefs confiderations with rcfpect to ourfelves ? Are we in fhort any of us pofiefTed of a confcience void of offence towards God, and towards men ? To what fource, let me afk, can we with any propriety, or the leaft fha- dow of truth, afcribe each individual's refpective fhare of this happineis ? If it arifes not wholly, and folely from nature, my Hypothecs ftands on fure ground. And that that is not the cafe, fcri-p- ture^ and experience, prove inconteftably. Is ic then from education, that we are to deduce the happy exemption from flagrant vice ? Do we owe it to any falutary precepts^ enforced by engaging examples, or to thole more efficacious means for attaining it, the invigorating, regenerating efforts of the divine fpirit ? What does all this, I would afk, prove ? Why nothing more or lefs in fhort, than that many of us, by the benefit of thofe aids above fuppofed, efcape being the abandoned wretches we (hould have been witbout them. But to tb make a true eftimate cf this boafted image of GW, Man, we muir- hjrc/W ornaments, and decent drapery of erudition^ &c. an:l view it devoid seven of that right eoufnefs^ which is cf faith. The mifchief is, we look only at the fair feds of the object, bccaufe there the view, though imp&ftfi, and incom^lep.t, is the more engaging, not confidering, that if we examined the other fide, or explored human nature, where fhe appears in her native drefs, we mould fee a picture of wretchednefs and horror , we forget what a fmall portion of nature is feen by the eye of common obfervadon. An infiniteffimal part on- ly (as the fchoolmen word it) appears of what is called the world; and this it is, that makes us judge fo erronepufly, when fpeaking of nature's native amplitude. Indulge but one moment's re- flection on the horrid barbarities ofthcfavage, i. e. the tindifciplined, uneducated, unregenerated, nn- chntlianizcd Indians, and tc to what ihall we liken u that generation," but to a race of demi-dcvils, to a " generation of vipers,'* whom for their more extraordinary im-pieties in a prior ft 'ate ', providence docs not pleafe to enable as yet, to " flee from, lc the wrath to come." 13. In fhort, the nature and tenor of the gofpel difpenfation fuppofe, of courie, the Indian world to be under the power and dominion of fin* and Satan, (and I vvilh I could exclude from this ana- tbema y feme other nations pretendedly Chrijlian] or fcripture means nothing in declaring, that the unrewnerate are Aliens from God, and go^dnffs, children Qfwratb, children of the devil. Can we wonder then at thofc mocking cruelties, and unfeel- ing practices, to which they are fo notoriously fa- miliarized, and accuftomed ? Who is the God, that F directs, X 66 ) directs and rules their hearts ? Alas ! It is not the Gta of Heaven. For him they had deferted, and to his fa- vour are not yet reftored. They are aliens from (God under the power of the evil one, and while they remain unconverted, muft continue in that ftate of bondage * , or Chriftianity, the (fup- pofed) fole reftorer of fallen man to God, and de- liverer from the power of Satan, means nothing. Redemption, regeneration, fatisfaction, are idle words, meer bagatelles. Do they then, as well as millions of others more refined, more civilized, more moralized, but alas ! not chriftianized, do they al^ I fay, labour under the tyranny of the devil) and his works will they do ? Why they are his own : " he comes to his own, and his own " receive him, alas ! too naturally, and affectino- ** ately". This is in effect the language of Chrif- tianity, or Chriftianity is, and fpeaks I know not What, -f 14. Without fuppofing a prior connection with the apoflate powers, how is it poflible to ac- count for that early deflexion in our primogenial parents from moral refitude> by which they for-* * What may be the fate of thofe who di in that ftate, I Hull conlider in part II. Let it not however be haflily con- cluded in the mean time, that all who are objeds of the di- vine wrath here, muft neceflarily remain fuch hereafter. f If in this declaration 1 mall be proved to be in the wrong, by fair arguments, I will with the utmoft fmcerityj and com- punftion, beg pardon of God, and man, for publiflung to the world a production fo iniquitous, and mall not fcruple at the fame time to afcribe it wholly to the faggeftion of hini who deceiveth the " whole world." In the mean while I muft own, that the more I contemplate the doftrine of pre- exiftence in this light, the more I am confirmed in my belief of it ; and the more fb, as it ferves fo effectually to render Cbrijiianity fo worthy of all acceptation ; which I hope W make appear very fufficiently hereafter. feited, (67) feited, : in violationof the ftrongeft ties of duty, grati- tude, and natural affection, their Maker's regard, involved themfelves, and their polterity, in fcenes of the deepeft diftrefs, and added frefh triumph to the too fuccefsful difturber of Heaven's repofe ? What but hearts already alienated from the love of God, could have yielded fo very readily to the Beguiling enticements of fo open a traducer of God's authority, goodnefs, and juftice ? What but minds grofsly depraved in a pnor, could have given birth to fo foul a procedure in their fubfe- quent paradilaical ftate ? That the long train of villanies-, and impieties, which fucceeded their horrid tranfgreflion, fhould arife from the fame fourcc, is eanly enough conceived. Nor can we 1 wonder in the leaft at Cain's committing murder, when we are told that " the devil was a murderer " from the beginning," and that " Cain was of " that evil one." And how uninterrupted the fucceflion of moral evil was till it terminated in an almoft entire extinction of the human fpecies by a judicial flood, we read with horror indeed, but with little, or no furprize : and in the fame manner are we affected, when contemplating that torrent of vice and impiety which deluged the whole fucceeding race of mortals, who were af- terwards all concluded under fin, and ferved only to compofe a world lying in -wickedne.fs . And nothing is more evident from fcripture, and the hiftory of ages paft, than that the Heathen world confifted, in general, of a moft helplefs, hopelefs, abandon'd race of animals ^ wretches, from whom the God of all power and might had withdrawn the arm of protection. He in whom were originally em- boweled all their hopes, their comforts, and their warmeft afpirations, had diflodged them from his F 2 heartSj ( 68 ) heart, difcarded them from his favour and affec- tion, baniflied them his divine prefence, arid af- figned them over to the fole guidance of his rival, the prince of darknefs. But of this I have fpoken pretty fully already, and fliall now proceed to fhew how confiftent the above realbning is with the nature and tenor of the gofpel difpenfation. CHAP. VIIL A pre-exiftent guilt in man, arifmgfrom a prior a fociation with the apoftate powers, the very ground work of the gofpel difpenfation. i A R E we not evidently reprefented in fcrip- ,/V. ture as born in fin, by nature the child- ren of wrath, and under the power and domi- nion of fin, and Satan? Do we not come into the world with a load of guilt upon our fouls, with fome foul flams in our intellectual frame, by which the original dignity of our na- ture is debafed ? And is not the exalted defign of the goipel ceconcmy to expiate, and atone for that original guilt, to purify our corrupted na- ture, to refcue us from the powers of darknefs, and to reinftate us into the glorious liberty of the fons of God ? But this guilt, what in the name of reafon can it be ? And thefe intellectual and moral impurities, what and whence can be their nature, and origin ? That guilt, can it poflibly t>e any thing elfe than of a perfonal kind? And thofe mental impurities, where can we fuppofe them (go 5 them to have been contracted*, but with thofe very corrupt and impure fpirits, who are now fo affiduous in renewing, and increafing them within us ? But further ftill, is the guilt, with which we (land indicted at our birth, and atourbaptifm, of fo malignant, horrid, and destructive a nature, as that nothing lefs, than the blood of the only begotten fon of God could be effectual for its expiation and attonement, and is it at the fame time in reality no aflual crime of our own ? Is it in the nature of things conceivable, that fo extraordinary a fa- tisfaction fhould be demanded by the All-juft, All-good, and All-merciful God, for a crime charged upon innocence itfelf ? And yet, mocking as it is to reflecting minds, what lefs horrid, in> pious, and even blafphemous idea, is implied in the fuppofal, that the original guilt, from which we are releafed by the merits of Chrift, is derived wholly and folely from Adam's trefpafs in Para- dife ; and not from a prior affociation with the apoftate powers ? That the latter, however, is the truth, will be further urged, and the many mo- mentous advantages arifing to the caufe of Chrif- tianity, from this hypothefis, will be made appear in the following chapters, wherein will be applied doctrine of a pre-exiflent lapfe. * For contracted they muft have been, or infufed by our Maker ; if the latter, then the author of nature, is the au- thor of evil. F 3 CHAP. CHAP. IX. tfbe hypothefts of a pre-exiftent lapfe of human fouls, applied, and federal important points of Doftrine viewed in a clear and conjtftent light through that medium. i. TTTHATa rational and moft awful idea \ Y arifes to the mind from a contempla- tion of the Chriftia,n difpenfation, when viewed through the medium of a pre-exiflent lapfe of human fouls, inftead of a fuppofed imputed guilt from Adam ! How amiable and exalted, how worthy of all acceptation is the mediatorial ceco- nomy, when grounded on the former hypothefis ! "What more worthy a God of infinite wifdom, good- nefs, and mercy, than, by means fuitable to his digni- ty and glory, to call back to his love, his favour, his protection, creatures beguiled into difloyalty, and difobedienceby an artful, ambitious, enterprizing ri- val of his power and authority ! And how engaging, and endearing mud be that love, which fo benevo- lently interpofed to effectuate the compaflionate defign ! " How worthy is the Lamb that was " (lain, to, receive power, and riches, and wifdom, * c and ftrength, and honour, and glory, and bleff- *' ing" for fo noble, fo exalted a purpofe as this - for thus " coming into the world to lave finners !" to " preach good tidings unto the meek, to bind " up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to, " the captives, and the opening of the priibn to "them that are bound."' Ifa. Ixi. i. to be made an " offering for fin," for original fin, that pre- exijlent fin, by which w$ forfeited the favour of God' C 7' ) God,"- to be " brought as a lamb to the (laugh-? " ter" u to give his life a ranibm for all" to be " a propitiation for our fins, and to make recon- " cilialion with God for them," by Sharing in the multiplied mileries and calamities of human nature, without having been a partaker of that pre-exiftent guilt from which they enfued. " He was cut off, but not for himielf, Dan. ix 26. " he was wounded for ourtranfgreffions,andbruifed " for our iniquities," Ifa. liii. 5. was made a fin 5 and acurfe for us, 2 Cor. v. 21. Galat. iii. 13. died for the ungodly, " fuffered for the unjuft,'* j Pet. iii. 18." tafted death for every man," Heb. ii. 9." that through death he might de- " ftroy him that had the power of death, that is, " the devil, * and deliver them, who through fear " of death were all their life-time fubject to bon- " dage," Heb.ii. that he might " finifh tranfgrefllon " and make an end of fin," -j- that he might " make " reconciliation for iniquity, and bring in everlaft- " ing righteoufnefs." Dan. ix. -24. Hence it is that he ecame a " full, perfect, and fufficient, facri- " fice, oblation, and fatisfaftion, for the fins of " the whole world." Hence it is, that the " chaf- " tifevnent of our peace was upon him, and with " his ftripes we were healed," Ifa. liii. 5. that we are reconciled to the Father in his crofs, " and " in the body of his fiefli through death," Col. i. 21. 22. " are fanctified by the offering of his , * The prince of the fallen angels, the God of this world ; him to whom we are, by nature, children, fervants, fub- jeds. f To make an end of Jin, that is to make an end of the guilt, and punijhment of fin, of original, pre-exiftent fin, moft undoubtedly ; for " fin Hill reigns in our mortal bodies," and " there is none yet, that doth good, no not one." F 4 ." body ( 7* ) ct body once for all," Heb. x. 10. are redeemed by his blood, as of a Lamb without blemifh, and " without fpot." i Pet. i. 18. 19. Hence laitly it is, that Chrift " is the mediator of *' the New Teftament" and " that by means of ct death for the redemption of the tranfgreffions," (the or.ginal tranfgrefilons under, and unattoned for, or unexpiated by the rirft teftament) " they " which are cvled i. light receive the promife of " eternal inheritance," Heb. ix. 15." the pro- " mife ceing made to all, that are afir off, even " as many as the Lord our Gad ftull call." Acts. ii. 39. * . 2. * As many as the Lord our Gcd /hall call. This laft paflkge, viewed through the medium of pre -exigence, fuggeft: to me, on a fudden, a perfuafion, that there is fomething more in the doftrine of eleSicn and reprobation, than is generally appre- hended. For thor.gh the great work of redemption will, we iay reafonably hope, become univerfal at lair, yet is it evi- dent from Scripture, that God means to have it gradually ac- compli med, by a partial ele&ion, and temporary rejection of thc-fe, who lie under the guilt of a pre-exiflent apoitacy. For as all the feed of Abraham were not the children of the promife. As it is written, Jacob have I to . 2. And now is it poflible for delfts to behold, and not with the utmoft raptures embrace Chrif- tianity, when placed in fo continent, fo amiable a light ? will they now think (corn of our faith, and treat it ftill with their wonted contempt and clerifivc blafphemies ? who will not now, on the contrary, glory >n having been received into the congregation, cf Chrift's flock ? Who will now be ajbamed to confefs the faith of Cbrift crucified^ manfully to fight under his lanner againft fin, the world^ and the devil, and to continue Cleft's faithful foidier and fervant unto his life's end? I ilatier myiclf that but few, if any, of that rtamp, will be found, among thofe, I mean, who would be deemed men of reaibn, reflection, and lelf- regard, when they are made to underftanc? God have mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom he will he ma) Ju/?.'v harden. Then hath the potter a juft power over the clcy of ths fame lump, to make one i>effel unto honour % and another unto dift;onQur. For what if God willing to jhe^u bis wrath, and to make his power to be kns'van, endured nvitb much hng-jufferi'.igy the vej/els of wrath faied to deftrutticn ; that he might make known the riches of his glory on the nfat, tifyue ad Legem], but to what law ? To the . tile law given by God to Adam, or to that delivered to Mofes ? Not to the latter affuredly, becaufe fin was imputed before the Mofaic law commenced; Witnefs the fentence of death executed upon, Adam, and the fucceeding race ; the punifhment inflicted on Cain , the deftruction of the world by a general deluge; the judicial confufion at the building of the 'Tower of Babel-, the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah ; the fate of Lofs wife ; Si- meon, and Levi's revenge on Hamor, and Shechem for the rape committed on Dinah ; and the multiplied judgments on Pharaoh^ and on the people of the land of Egypt. By the law therefore, prior to which fin entered into the world, and to which the Apoftle muft be fuppofed to allude, we muft undoubtedly under- ftand the law of God given to Adam. And as the punifhment for fin was inflicted even on thofe, who had not been tranfgrefifors of that law, the fufferers muft of courfe have been trefpaflers in a prior ftate 9 for Jin is not imputed where there is no law. But death [the wages of Sin] reigned from Adam to Mcfes^ even over them that had not finned after the fitnilitude of Adam's tranfgrelfion, who was the image of him, that was to come. i. e. who by involving pre-extftent Tin- ners in the miferies denounced on his own perfonal tranfgreflions here, the principal of which is a frail, corruptible, mortal body, bore a kind of a contra- diftinct refemblance of him, who gave them an un- deferved mare in the benefits arifing to mankind by the merit of his own perfonal atonement for fin in general. And fo it is that By man came death y and that by man came alfo the refurrefiion of the dead: So it is, that- -/&*>; Adam all die , even fo in Chrift Jhall all be made alive. . 6. As the infection of fin (a pre-exiftent fin) remained amongft the pofterity of Adam, it was G no ... no impeachment of divine juftice, that death, the punifbment denounced upon his tranfgreffion, mould be tranfmitted to them likewife, all bzvin? farmed. And r.hat the other intermediate evils (natural evils I mean) ariie from the fame fource, Scripture af- fures us in exprefs terms*. Curjed is the ground for his fake ; in forrow do we eat of itj more or lefs, all the days of our life , thorns alfi, and ihiftles it brings forth , and we eat of the herb of the field j in the fweat of our brow -\ we eat bread^ till we return to the ground \ for out of it we were taken. Duft we are, and unto duft we -muft re- turn. And it was not mankind only which felt the fad effects of the introduction of fin, but even the inanimate part of the creation fuffercd by it. The * " It is evident, that evil ought to be prevented if it be poffible, and that it is a finful thing not to prevent it when it can be prevented. Neverthelefs our theology {hews us, that this is falfe ; it teaches us, that God does no- thing but what becomes his perfe&ions, when he permits all the diforders that are in the world, and which he might have prevented." This is part of a conference between two Abbots which Mr. Bayle introduces into his Account of the Life of Pyrrho ; wherein a reflection is caft upon the Deity, in permitting the introduction and continuance of evil in the world, which is fufficiently removed, by fuppofingit the refulr of a pre-exiftent lapfe. f Some conclude from hence, that the earth, before the fall, brought forth fpontaneoufly ; and indeed this* in fome meafure, is true, fince all things were produced at firft, by divine power, in full perfection, without toil or labour. Gen. i. n. 12. But what labour would have been neceflary in rime, we know not, only the words imply, that much lefs toil would in that cafe have been requifite. See Patr. in Loco. Other commen- tators obferve, that by the fweat of our brow is underftood, all manner of labour, whether of the body or the brain. Ecclef. i. 13. As alfo, whatfoeveris grievous to a man in this life, ei- ther to do or fuffer. See afiembJy of divines in Loco. fertility ( 83 ) fertility of the earth, and ferenity of the air were changed; the elements began to jar, the feafons, and the weather grew uncertain. See Stack, hift. p. 43. Milton * introduces God foon after the fall* appointing his Angels to make an alteration in the courfe of the celefual bodies, and to poiTefs them with noxious qualities, in order to deftroy the fer- tility of the earth, and thereby punifh man for his diib'oeJience. 7. Thus through Adam's tranfgreflion, the introduction of natural evil is made reconcileable with our ideas of infinite equity and wifdom ; we mall fce now, how neccflarily moral evil ifiucd from the fame fource. The Jews fuppofed, that the body of Adam, be- fore the fallj was not an ordinary human body, but approached to the angelic fubtility and purity. Creatura fidt jubtilityma & purifflma proxime accedens ad Corpus fplritv.ale See Brok. p. 464. But this tenuous vehicle of the foul, after hav- ing imbibed the baneful juice of the forbidden fruit, degenerated by degrees, into a more grofs and indelicate confiftency ; whence a group of fen- fual groveling appetites unujual^ arofe of courfe. And as the degenerate nature of Adam's body be- comes neceffarily hereditary to us, who are his ofF- fpring, fo in proportion muft its concomitant grofs paffiom become hereditary too : Hence that law in * The fun Had firfl his precept fo to move, fb fhine, As might affecl the earth with cold and heat Scarce tolerable, and from the north to call Decrepit Winter, from the fouth to bring Solilitial fommer's heat.- w MiL.L.X.6 5 r. G 2 . our ( 8 4 ) cur members^ warring againjt the law of our mind *, and bringing as into captivity to the law of fin -, hence that carnal mind r which is enmity againft God. Our fouls are now death ed with bodies calculated- to adminifter fuch affedtions only^ as are repug- nant to, and incompatible with that purity of mind, to which zfpirttuatiifc only can enable us to attain, and wherein only it is pofTible for us to pleafe God. This is that life, which Adam forfeited by his tranfgreflion, and his pofterity fink in the ruins of it. Hence it is, that we are ftili dead in trefpaffes, and fins ; that in- the midft of life we are in death. The glory of the divine image, be- fore eclipfed, is now more aad more clouded, and obfcured by carnal lufts, and pafilons j the foul is, as it were, buried in fmful fiem, and totally unable to rife again to its ongwtf/fpiendbr, till this corrup- tible fhall have put on inccrruption, and this mortal fhall have put on immortality^. 8. And as, from the nature of that body which we inherit from Adam, in confequence of his fall, we are thrown under the dominion of lufts, and * Hence it is, that in our form of infant baptifm, the prieft fo devoutly prays, " that the old Adam in that child may be fo " buried, that the new man may be raifed up in him." f I cannot think, with the learned Mr. La-vj, that this per- fection of foul is at all attainable here. Scripture fpeaks evi- dently a contrary do&rtne. That which it born of the flejh is Jtejh, fays our Saviour ; and of courfe (while it continues in the fame ftate) is finful, i. e. is liable to fuch paffions, as necefiarily fubjedt it to the law of fin that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit, i. e. it is pure, uncorrupt, finlefs: but fuch are not we. We are altogether abominable, there is none that doth good, no, not one. He that is of the earth, is earthy, and fpeaketh of the earth. And as flefti and blood cannot enter into the kingdom *f heaven, fo neither can righteoufnefs be reftored to us here : for and pafiions, repugnant to the efforts of ftruggling piety ; fo are we necefTariiy fubjedled thereby to the controul of that lad enemy, that (hall be de- ftroyed, death. Inftead of being tranflated, as was the happy indulgence granted to Enoch, &c. by a direct paffage from earth to a region purer, and better accommodated to fpiritual intercourfes and >enlargements, which moft probably had been vouchfafed us, if he on whom our terreftrial fate depended, had not finned afrefh , we have now the mortification to find, that we muft walk to it through the dark chambers of the grave *. 9. That condemnation to death, which God pafled upon Adam for his difobedience, became hereditary to his whole offspring, and would have becnfxed, and irreverJiUe^ but that As in Adam for the King of righteoufnefshimfelf has declared, thathis king- dom is not from hence ; nay, and if we do all we can, it is peremptorily affirmed, that we are ftill unprofitable ferf irafafidc-uji; 'A^a^.. But if we fuppofe the word tyutfrjw to refer to. crimes not prior, but fukfequent to the fentence pafled uppn Adam's tranfgreffion, the apoftle's aflertion is manifeflly this, viz. Death' palled upon all men on account of Adam's fin, be- caufe ail have finned Jince. 1\^-,^.a.^civ^^\ ol yonTf aura *v rv be a pro- pitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteoufnefs for the remiffion of fins, that are paft, through the forbearance of God. To declare, I lay, his righteoufnefs, that he might be juft, and the juitifierof him that be- licveth in Jefus. Now (99) Now, can any thing be more plainly the fenle bf the preceding pafiages, than that we are juftified, or cleared from the guilt of original fin, reftored to the forfeited favour and affection of God, and refcued from the power and dominion of fin and fatan, wholely and folely by a true faith in Chrift ? Is there a fingle word throughout, about works ? Not a fyllable. And how inefficacious they are, and muft be, for effecting the juftification here al- luded to, or that which is the fubject of the gofpel ceconomy, and the very price of our redemption^ will be (hewn through the medium of pre-exiftencej with a clearnefs, that cannot but flrike conviction; upon the moft partial and unwilling eye. 21. The new, or mediatorial ceconomy, efla- blifhed by the author of our falvation, is frequently ftiled in fcripture, the kingdom of God, and that partly, if not principally* in contradiftindlion to the kingdom of fatan. This is plainly intimated in our Saviour's anfwer to his enemies, who tra- duced him as an impoflor, and as one who was in confederacy with Beelzebub^ the prince of devils. If fatan^ fays he, caft cut fatan^ he is divided againft himfelf ; bow tbenjhall his kingdom ft and ? cut if I caft out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you; Matt. xii. 26. 28. In which paffage Chrifl and fatan are reprefentd as rival princes, poflefled of kingdoms inconfiftent with, and deftrucliveof each other. To the fame purpofe is that parable in St. Luke, of a flrong man in his palace overcome by a flronger than he. Luke xi. 2 i, 22. And that other, wherein the kingdom of heaven is likened to a man, that lowed good feed in the field, but while he flept, his enemy came, and lowed tares among the tl a wheat* xvheat. Matt. xiii. 24. &c. Agreeably to all which, St. Paul obferves to the Corinthians, that there is no concord betwixt drift and Belial. If to the a- bove paiTages we add St. John's declaration, that for this purpofe the Son of God was manifefted, that he might deftroy the works of the devil, and, that St. P<2#/fuppofes all men in general, in their natural imregenerate ftate I mean, to walk accor- cording to the prince of the power of the air Vid. my critique on Epheiians, c. ii. v. 2. 3. It is evi- dent, that he who is our Redeemer comes with the delegated authority of a king, to affert his Father's right to an uncontrouled, unoppofed fovereignty over the univerfe; to pull down, and evacuate the ufurped empire of the devil in this inferior world, and to refcue mankind from his oppreflion, by turning them from darknefs to light, and from the power of fatan unto God and that by offer- ing them peace with their offended God, and par- don for that pad affcciation with the prince of dark- nefs, which my hypothefis fuppofes on the ftipu- lated conditions of a fmcere, unfhaken fidelity to Him, the appointed captain of our falvation. Till, then, we have difavowed our attachment to the prince of darknefs, and fworn allegiance to the Lord of life, there ftill hangs over our heads, for our prior difloyalty, the rod of vengeance ; ftill \ve are objects of the divine wrath ; and be our mural accomplifltments ever fo many, and great, we are, and muft be upon the lift of rebels ftill. Our attainder muft be taken off, ere we can be readmitted into the glorious liberty of the fons and fubjefts of God. And in this confifts our jv.ftification ; which replaceth us before the eye of rhe Deity, in the fame favourable and aufpicious point of view, wherein we flood, when poffefTed of that original riehteoufnefs, and moral recli- o N a i tude> tilde, by a departure from which we became re- bels to the king of heaven ; and, in confluence thereof, are now banifhed his divine preience.. Herein confifts that righteoufnefs of God, which is---by what ? By good works ? Is it not by faith ofjefus Ckrift unto all, and upcn all them that believe^ ? And on r j uftific ation is it in the leaf!: degree ef- fected by the merit of good, works ? is it not ac- complifhed wholly, and iblely through the redemp- tion that is in Chrift Jefus, and through faith in his blood ? Who (hall lay any thing; to the charge of God's elect ? It is God, that juftifieth-j- , who is he that condemneth ? It is Chrift, that died, yea rather, that is rifen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who alfo maketh interceffion for us. 22. Justification therefore, being fuppofed to rcfpect that pre-exiftent defilement of our nature, and rebellion againft God with which v/e come in- to this world, and which is now our condemnation; is it pofiible that any -prefent, or future acts of pu- rity, piety, and obedience in us, can render that condemnation, which is for fome prior acts of impu- rity, impiety, and difobedience, no condemnation ? Can all the forrowful fighings of prifoners, under fentence of death for rebellion againil a temporal king, any fuitable, decent, amiable acts then take away the guilt of thofe prior crimes, for which they forfeited their lives ? If they are pardoned, and reftored afterwards to their prince's favour, by the interceffion of his Son, pledging his life for their future fidelity, need we afk to whom they are in- debted both for their life and their liberty ? Come they not from the free grace of the one, and thro* the mediation, and interceffion of the other ? Could t That is, who through Chrift, accepts us as jufl, by our faith and icliance on his mediation, interceilion, &c, H \ the ) the criminals plead, with any mew of reafon, from any fubfequent deeds, a right to be exempt from, the punimment due to their paft criminalities ? 23. Juftificatiqn, confidered in this view, as a releafe, I mean, from the guilt of a prior, perfonal impiety, and difobedience againft God, inftead of a derived Adamic guilt and defilement, how great- ly does it exalt the dignity and merits afcribed in fcriptureto a true faith in Chrilb, at the fame time that it enables us the more clearly to adjudge to. faith and good works the regards due to their ref- pective efficacy in accdmpliming man's redemp- tion. The two apoftles differed in that point only in appearance ; and whilft the one, with great truth, aflerted, that the works of the law ceafed to have any (hare in the juftification of the eleft christianized Jew, fo circumftanced, and fo confi- tfered -, the other with equal propriety declared, that faith alone could not render worthy of the vo- cation wherewith he was tailed^ the converted Gentile. Men mufl become Chrijliam to be juftified, or cleared from the imputation of their original fins and trefpafles, and to be confiflent Chriftians, they muft become good men. How apparently then is faith in Chrift alone neceffary for the firft, and how^ evidently effential are good works for the latter ? And how confident altogether with each other are the two apoftles -f- ! And when the Methodijls fay, that How confident altogether with each other are the two les To clear up this point, be pleafed to attend to the following note. Introductory to the final (late of blifs, referred for \hejinccre profefibrs of Chriftianity* will be an entrance into Grind's kingdom; the two prime fundamental requifites'for which privi- lege zrz,j toft ijicat ion and Jantfifcation or true holinefs. By the former ( 103 ) that all our moral works, independent of Cbriftian renovation, are unavailable to jujlificativn, or to clear us from original fin, how apparently do they fpeak a fcripture doctrine ? And all they err in is their afcriting, wpon the authority of eftablifhed orthodoxy, as it is called, that original guilt (by which at our birth we became objects of the di- vine wrath and indignation) to the tranfgrefllon of another perfon to fallen Adam -, which can with no former we are to underftand an abfolulion from the penalty of original gailt and defilement, obtained wholely and folely by a firm faith in, or reliance on the all-fufficient merits of Chrift, who died for our fins, and rofe again for our j unification. By the latter, that acquisition of moral purity and holinefs, which the gofpel enjoins, and without which, the apoftle informs us, no man mall fee the Lord. This being admitted, the perplexed difpute, whether faith with or without works can be available to our j unification, drops at once, as th queftion mould rather be, whether they are feparately effectual to our falvalion, or not ? And in this there can be no rational difpute. That we are juftijicd^ \. e. cleanfed from the guilt of original fin by a firm faith in Chrift, independent of any merit in ourfelves, or of good works, we have reiterated declarations from holy writ ; but then, in order to render that jujtif cation effectual to our final J'alvation r introductory to which will be an entrance into Chrift's king- dom *, we muft add to our faith, works muft walk worthy of the vocation wherewith we are called muft cleanfe ourfelves from all filthinefs of the flem and thefpirit, perfecting holinefs in the fear of God knowing this, that without a true gofpel repentance, added to the applied merits of our Saviour, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abufersofthemfelves with mankind, norrailers, nor extortioners, ihall enter into the kingdom of God. Men, in (hort, are wont to place jiiftifaation and man's final falvation in one and the fame point of view, as if they were in reality one and the fame thing, or that the one naturally, and of neceffity lead to the other; which is not the cafe. For the apoftle, St. Paul, * The nature of that kingdom will be confidered in the fe part, H 4 plainly no degree of propriety, nor with any warrantable conceptions of the divine attributes, if, without even blafphemy, be afcribed to aught elfe, but to our own perfonal trefpafies in a prior ftate. And all this error of theirs is grounded' wholly and fole- ly on a wrong conftruction of the two following paflages in St. Paul's epiftles. " As by one " man's difobedience many were made finners, fo " by the obedience of one (hall many be made " righteous." " As in Adam all die, even fo in " Chrift (hall all be made alive." Thefe paflages we have briefly touched upon already, fufficiently, however, to convince the impartial, that they give no warrant to fuppofe, that original (in, that fin, I mean, of which we Hand charged, nay, and even convicted at our birth, confifts in an imputed iniqui- ty from Adam. God forbid that they mould be proved, to proclaim to the world fo prepoiterous, and horrid a doctrine ! 24. That the miferics of our natural unrege- nerate ftate, not the lofs of God's favour only, but an actual exertion of his wrath and indignation upon us, our alienation from God and goodnefs, plainly fuppofes, that thofe who have been once enlightened a?raf and were made partakers of the Holy Ghoft He fuppoies, I iay, that fuch may fall back into per- dition. Should there be any weight in the above obfervations, I doubt not but the impartial reader will at once fee, and gere- roufly confefs, how egregioufly wide of fcripture 'verity the churchman, in a modern well-received treatife, reafons \. f The Greek fathers fometimes call $urnri/.ot baptifmum, and ft'T^a', baptize ; fince thofe who sre baptifed with the Holy Ghoit, have their minds enlightened or illustrated with the beams of divine light. Vid. Leigh's Crit. Sac. ift Loco. I A dialogue between a Churchman and a Methodift. By Vv'm. Law. A. M. and and propenfity to vice and impiety, added to the multiplied calamities of a world; which, taking in all its fancied excellencies, and advantages, its riches and honours, and powers, and pre-eminces, and glittering glories, is, at beft, but a fool's para- dife- That fuch mould be the wretched condi- tion of man, and merely in confequence of a crime that he had it not in his power either to commit or prevent ; is this, I fay, credible ? Is it pofiible f ? And when it is further confidered, that nothing lefs than the blood of the Son of God could atone for, or warn away the ftain of this imputed guilt, who but mud fire with pious indignation at fuch an impious outrage upon human underftanding? And how neceiTary is it, as we value the credit, and would wifh the mod fpeedy and extenfive pro- pagation of the gofpel, lo clear the facred pages from the charge of advancing a doctrine fo abhor- rent to realbn and calm reflection ! This only can enable us to' convince unbelievers, that Chriftia- nity is in reality founded on argument , then, and not till then, (hall we be able to approve our faith to the underftanding of the rational enquirer, and free-thinker. And had this been done before, the Trndal'sy Collinses, Woolftotis, CbuWs, Eolinglroke's^ would not have had fo fair a mark whereat to moot fo plentifully (and with fo many palpable hits at the fame time) their arrows even bitter words. 25. And this naturally leads to the confidera- tion of another advantage, arifing from the doc- trine of a pre-exiftent guilt, namely, that of re- f The trivial argument, that God had provided, or pre- ordained a Redeemer, in favour of thofe who fhould be involved in the ruinous effects of Adam's fall, fo far from being a rational appeal to, is on the contrary a barefaced infult upon common fenfe. Juft as if a king mould condemn a man to death for another pci Ton's crime, in order that he might fhevv his mercy, in giving the imaginary offender life. commending C 106 ) commending to a fair enquiry, the mediatorial ceconomy, and the redemplion by Jefus Chrift, in a manner proportionably more forceable, as being apparently more confentaneous to the dictates of unprejudiced reafon, when grounded on the prin- ple of a pre-exillent lapfe of foul's, than when founded on a fuppofed imputed tranfgreffion of Adam. 26. The calm, the fedate, the reflecting Scep- tic will then find charms in religion, that he never dreamt of before ; will, with an unufual ferioufneis of mind, bethink himfelf of his ilate and condition here~-will be equally anxious to enquire, whence could arife, and by what means may be removed, thofe intellectual depravities, and impurities, which debafe him even in his own eyes, and from which reafon, as well as fcripture, agree it is neceffary for him to be refined, and cleanfed, ere it is poffible for him to fee God. 27. Am I then a ftranger, fays he, and pil- grim upon earth, banimed from the prefence of my Maker, and from heaven, my native home ? Were my tranfgreffions in a prior ftate the horrid caufe of this dreadful calamity ? Was it by means of them, that I now wear thofe foul ftains in my nature, by which my will and affections are cor- rupted, my underftanding darkened and perplex- ed, and my whole mind debafed, and degenerated from moral rectitude ? For my pre-exiftent apof- tacy from God is it, that I came into the world a creature born infm, by nature a child of wratb ?- was it for my rebellion againft Him, that I am fent hither under the power and dominion of fa- tan, who feduced, as I am aflured from fcripture, a whole order of beings into fin ? Is it for this, that I bear about me this body of fin, which is rnmity againft God, which is not fubject to the law ( 107 ) law of God, neither indeed can be ; which gives maintenance to fnch an army of flefhly lufts, that war againft my foul ? And to reflore me to the favour and affection of my offended God, to expiate the guilt of my paft tranfgreflions by his own imr puted rigbfeoufafs, to renew in me that degree of it, wherein I was firft created, to refcue me from the dominion of my firft betayer, and bring me again into the glorious liberty of thefons of God. Is it for this caufe that the Son of God was ma-* nifefted ? Are thefe thofe works of the devil, that he came to deftroy ? Welome then, fays he, my Saviour, my Redeemer ! O thrice welcome to an entire dedication of my foul to thy word, thy will, and thy authority, thou captain of my falvation ! O conduct me, thou highly-favoured one of hea- ven, to the mercy-feat of my offended Sovereign ! give me there to proftrate myfelf before his in- jured Majcfty ! Veil me from the countenance of him, that is againft them, that do evil-, mield me from his uplifted vengeance ; under the fhadow of thy wings hide me from his wrath throw me, clad with thy righteoufnefs, into the arms of in- finite mercyinto thy arms, oh my God? And oh give me, O God, the comfort of thine help again, and eftablifli me with thy free fpirit ! So mall fin- ners be converted unto thee, and men (hall fing pf thy righteoufnefs. Caft me not away from thy prefence, and let not thyjealoufy burn like fire for ever. And do thou, oh blefied Spirit, with thine all-healing, all-purifying influences on thy wing, {kfcend upon my foul, take an unrivalled poflef- fion of my whole heart, make it a fit temple for thy abode, refine it from all its impurities, make it an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob and 1 will fall low on my knees before his footftool. 28. Such C 1 08 ) 28. Such muft undoubtedly be the afpirations of an heart touched with a true fenfe of religion ; of the true caufeoi the wretchednefs of man's abode here, and the deliverance propofed to him by the mediatorial ceconomy, when viewed through the medium of a pre-exiftent obliquity, when, from a ferious, rational, and impartial enquiry into the nature and tenor of the gofpel difpenfation, it ap- pears, as I think it necefTarily muft, that we are beings lapfed from a prior ftate in confequence of our aflbciation, or connection with the apoftate powers -. that from thence we derive that weight of evil in our nature, which prefies down the foul, and finks it, when reflected on with due feriouf- nefs, to the very borders of difpair ; that a pre- exiftent guile is that all crying offence againft heaven, under which the whole creation groanetb, and travelleth in 'pain until wow That guilt from which no other means could be effectal for our pu- rification, but an expiation, fatisfaction, and atonement, by the merits and mediation of Chrift that dominion of fin and fatan, from which the captain of our falvation came to redeem us- that contaminating and infectious intercourfe, from which we gathered thole foul flains in our intellectual frame, from which we can only be cleanfed by the purifying and regenerating in- fluences of the divine Spirit. 29. And how agreeable is ail this to the ar- ticles and homilies of the church of England, with this only difference, that a pre-e>:iftent, not an Adamc guilt, is the ground-work of the whole ?> The former hypothefis is that golden key which opens to the reader, in that facred repofitory the holy fcriptures (St. Paul's epiftles more efpecially) fuch an inexhaufted treafure of glowing bright - Defies, fuch a fund of foul-reviving comforts, as will necefiarily fill him with a rationally-formed enthufiafm, create in him an enraptured admira- 1 tion of the richnefs of the gofpel difpenfation, that furnifhes out to him fo delicious, fo luxuriant a repaft. There will he fee (through the medium of pre-exiftence I mean, and that only) how it is that thc*juft Jhatt live by faifbths.t by the deeds cf the law no man (hall be juftified m God's fight--- that by faith we are juftlfied, and not by works that thrift is the end of the law for righteoufnefs to every cm that beloeveth, and that whofoever Jhall call upon the name of the Lord Jhall be faved. There are other points purely Chriftian, capable of being illuflrated to the reader's fatisfaflion, I think, by the medium of apre-exiftent lapfe, which I muft referve to be confidered in the fecond part of this work, judging it now time to anfwer a few of the principal obje^fions^ that may be urged ao;ainft the doctrine itfelf, as above-ftated. o CHAP. XII. ' Objections to the above hypothecs, fated and, removed. OBJECTION I. i. T T will be afUed, by way of objection to _ the credibility of the doftrine of pre-ex- iftence, how it is poflible that we fiiould have exilt- ed in a prior (late, without being able now to form any idea of that ftate, without having any confciouf- nefs of the foul's operations therein, any revived images on our minds, of celeflial gratifications pad, or inherent remorfe on our confciences for the fuppofed crimes by which they were forfeited, but but that all fliould be buried in one eternal gulf of oblivion ? If this be an objection feemingly formidable at firft view, it will not, I believe, be found, upon examination, to have fo much weight as is ufually afcribed to it. 2. The moft rational, comprehenfive, and I believe the only true definition of the foul of man, is this, viz. that it is a fpirit, whofe immediate properties are ^//-motion or activity, felf-penc- tration, ^//"-contraction and dilation, together with a power of penetrating, moving, altering (or rather determining the motion of) matter*, properties to which are necefiarily annexed the powers of perception, ammadverfion, thought, reafon, reflec- tion, choice. Thefe are the diftinguiihing charac- teriftics of the foul of man ; thefe the peculiar pro- perties, which evince its conftitutional frame to be effentially different from grofs matter. As effentials, therefore, they muft of courfe be coeval with with its firil formation f ; whence it follows naturally, that * The foul, fays Dr. More, has not any power, or but very little, of fnoving matter ; but her peculiar privilege is of de- termining matter in motion. For if it were an immediate fa- culty of the foul, to contribute motion to matter, I do not un- derftajid how that faculty, never failing or diminishing, no more than the foul itfelf can fail or diminim, we mould evef be weary of motion, Dr. More, Immor. b. 2. c, 8. p. 7. f Since it is evident, that matter is a dead fubftance in all refpecls, it follows, that an immaterial fubftance, or the foul, is the only thing in us that hath acYive power. And finceit hath active power, that power muft inhere in it, as in its fub- ject ; or the power mult belong to the foul as a property of itt nature. It cannot belong to the foul, as a mere accident ; for power cannot be produced by accident, or a being cannot be endowed with powers by accident ; for then we {hall never be able to flop any where ; all power might be thus produced by accident. ( iir ) that there muft have exifted in the foul a feriesof thought, reafon, reflexion, &c. previous to its en- trance into this world ; nnlefs we can fuppofe its generation in the womb to be in reality its firft for- mation ; an idea in which is involved the grofleft abfurdity, nay, even blafphemy ; making the Creator, in fact, -a coadjutor in the works of for- nication, adultery, inceft-f. 3- Canft accident, and we muft give up the principles of reasoning. And fince aSive power muft belong to the foul, as a property of its nature, that property cannot be feparated from it, without def- troying its nature altogether. For certainly/9K. It was not the wine that made the bad man, but it was the tad man that jkeued himfejf in the wine. Not that I would mean to appear fo fevere and dry a Cynic, with refpeft to this point, as if I had a mind to difcountenance wholly the cheer- ful glafs. Taken in moderation, it is not only lalutary oft times t.o the body, but produ&ive, at the fame time, of a kind of in^ vigorating, enlivening, dilation and activity in the foul. The rnifchief of it lies in an excefs ; as fays the Greek moralift, xo. H> &TE etvroo Oicy: /iiwa Lin. 2IO, 211. The author begs the reader^ pardon for this long digrefliorj, and hopes he will frame to himfelf, in the author's favour, the bell e^cufc for it he can. thcc ( "8 ) thee the milky pap, and fupplied thee with thy daily fuftenance ? Or were not in reality thefe things fo ? Alas! They might, or they might not, for any proofs thou canft bring of either, from thine own prefent conicioufnefs. When the miniiter at the font fprinkled thee with the water of baptifm, and thou wert engrafted into the body of ChriiTs church, when three or four around him gave furety for thy leading a godly and a Chriftian life, and all joined in devout prayers to the almighty for the fame, remembereft thou, I pray, aught of this ? 4. When thy maturer ftrength enabled thee to fpring from the cradle, and from thynurfe's arms, and thou waddleft with eager pace from chair to chair, remembereft thou who was the fedulous at- tendant on thy feeble frame, and who kept, from time to tirne, thy feet from falling ? And when thy tongue denied thee an utterance of what thou didft not more with to fpeak, than thofe about thee to hear, what was the pleafing object of thy fancy then ? When afterwards thy rongue was loofed, and thou delightedft thy fond parents with inceflant prattle, doeft thou remember the hundredth part of the pretty things thou faidft being a idtty child with what mirth thou regaledft the admi- ring gueft, and with what an heart-felt joy thy doating mother catched the whifpered applaufe of thy growing genius? 5. Where, again, is thy confcioufnefs of a long train of events, and a variety of detached circum- itances in thy more ripened life, when memory got firm hold on thee ? Thy gibes too, thy gambols, thy longs, and thy flames of merriment (befides thy ten thouland freaks, which died in thinking) how few of them are there, which have not patted pafied off from thy remembance like the dew of morn, or like " the bafelefs fabric of a vifion, " leaving not a wreck behind," 6. If then it appears that the foul does exift in fome periods of life, without retaining in Jome fub- fequent ftages of her exigence, a ccnfcioufnefs of fuch exiftence, why may it not in others ? In de- liria, ebriety, fleep, &c. it apparently does. With refpect to the two firtt, the fad is ib notorious, that it would be an abfurdity even to fuppole :c a mat- ter of doubt with any one. And if in proof of the latter I again branch out into a long digreiTive note, I mud again befpeak the reader's candor *. That * It is altogether as ^ntelligible, to fay, that a body is ex- tended without parts, fays Mr. Locke, as that any thing thinks,, without being confcious of it. Hum. Und. v. i, p. 77. That there mud be a confcioufnefs of what paffes in a man'rf mind during the very time of thinkiog, it may, perhaps, be granted ; but that fuch a train of thinking mud necerlarily be followed by an ofter-recolletfion of the fubjecVmatter of tho thought, we have proofs to the contrary from men's drtwns. For there are frequent inftar.ces of perfon's talking, and fliew- ing other figns of thinking, in their fleep ; of which, when awakened, they have remembered nothing. And, it is notorious, that many a dream is awakrqed in a man's mind, by the acci- dental occurrence of fome fimilar or relative circumftances, without which, the man would not have known that he had dreamed that night at all. Mr. Locke, in fhort, either de- fignedlyquibblcs, or miftakenly blunders here mod egregioufly, in not making the due diltinction between prefent confcioufnefs (i. e. a confcioufnefs of what paftes in the mind durinp the time of thinking) and an after recolletficn of a man's thoughts. And it gives me great concern, to fee fo great a man dealing out fophiftry, indeed of folid argument, fo plentifully, in fup- portof a favourite hypothecs ; which he does mod remarkably in his 1 2th, and fome following fections of the chapter above- quoted. In facl, I cannot help imagining, that the foul is, for the mod part, equally employed in thought, fleeping as well as waking, with this difference only, that it is, 'and muft be, in the former date, exerciled in {peculating internal ob- je&s only. J mean, images festive, or intjletfual, inter- A 4 nally ( 120 7- That there are fome ftages of exiftenee there- fore, through which the foul does actually pafs, with- out nally imprefTed on the fenfciium before \yhereas, waking, it has the power of taking in other external obje&s alfo. All the avenues for a frem fupply of external objefts being fhut up in fleep, the mind can only employ itfelf in the contemplation of fuch as are within, with the feveral detached imprefles conveyed to the brain, by the inftrumentality of the outward organs of fenfe when awake. By which means the foul has fuch an imaginary fenfe of things, as muft neceflarily appear real, till fhewn to be otherwife, by external demonftrations from the awakened organs of fenfe and reflection. Hence it is, that the aead are io frequently made to live again in the imagination, that paft converfations become prefent, and that we are made to aft, as it were, a redoubled and repeated life. Hence it is, that things improbable, and even impoffible, ap- pear, in a manner, real that yon cobler in his flail fhall be a king in his bed, and the enamoured Damon in poffcffion of his Phillis, at an hundred miles diftance from her. The dreaming imagination, in fhort, makes reafon to entertatn the fond idea, of which the awakened mind only difcovers the il- lufion. What the line and rule are to the mafon, or other mechanic, the organic powers of the body are to the mind. The former give the workmen an experimental knowledge of what, without them, they would only have an idealoiconjelural t and that moil frequently, and of confequence, an erroneous ont. In like manner, the experience arillng to the mind, from time to time, by the initrumentality of the waking organs of fenfe, is that rule of right, by which we are enabled todiftin- guiih rftf/exiltences from imaginary ones. It is not to be won- dered, therefore, if, when the foul lies drowned, as it were, in the deep of fleep, that the various detached ideas of kings, (jioblers, friends, foes, (ports, pailimes, frolic, follies, pains, pieafures, horfes, towns, harbours, mountains, rivers, &c. &c. i3 oat ing upon thefurfaceof the imagination, feparately attract, yt times, the foal's attention. The images of things being prefect to the mind, the man hun/elf feems, for the time, pre- j^ent too. The perceptions of the imprefiions made, when awake, on the fenforium, are as real as if the objetls really exifted ; the ibul takes them for real, it acls and behaves as if they were real, So that a man may be a monarch in his (Jeep, to all intents and purpofcs *, excepting only that the experience of fenfe, when he * ^v 7v4 K\ vVetwti ;ii>e. Mofch. out deriving to itfelf any reflex confciuufhefs of fuch prior exiftences, viz. from its Jirft formation to its defcent into the womb, and its exit therefrom, in its infant (late always, and oftentimes in deliria,ebri- cty, Deep, experience proves inconteftably ; and though the non-confdoufnefs of tranfactions pail, in a fuppofed prior ftate, cannot affect the credibi- lity of the foul's having pafTed through fuch a ftate, without rendering equally difputable its vital ex- iftence in the womb, in deliria, ebriety, Deep, or the like j yet to fee the infufficiency of the ob- jection to the doctrine of pre-exiftence, grounded on the want of confcioufnefs, in a far ftronger light (till, the reader is requefted to take into confidera- tiort a circumftance hitherto fcarce enough, if at all attended to, which is this, viz. fuppofing a prior exigence ever fo unqueftionable, and even demon- flrable, yet it is not in the nature of things poffible, that there fliould be a recollection of things tranf- acted in thatftate. 8. Unlefs the foul had brought with it upon this ftage of action, the fame kind of vehicle wherein it was enclofed in the former, how is it pof- fible it mould have any re-conception of thofe ideas with which tbat fort of body was furnifhed, with proper inftruments for the formation and reception? The foul in its former ftate was converfant, we may fuppofe, only with objects immaterial ; the prefent furnifhes it with fuch as are material only, i. e. the latter are the only objects of which the foul's pre- is awake, convinces him that he is not not really, though he was ideally fo before. He then fees and bears that he is no monarch; the avenues to which fenfible demoaftraticms were ^hut, or locked up, before, in deep f, f A very ingenious writer refolves the phenomenon of dreams into the agency of feparatefpirtts ; but in this, though in other refpefts a moft engaging writer and fclid rcafoner, he is moft egregiouflv miftaken. Vid. Enquiry into the Nat. qf the Human Soul. fen: ( 122 ) fent vehicle can derive to the mind any pofitive, diftinct images and reprefentations. Is it wonderful, then, that the former fhould be defaced and difpofiefled by the latter ? Or rather, does it feem pofTible, that objects immaterial fhould be let in upon, or any former images thereof be renewed ?n the mind, through organs fuited to the reception of material images only ? 9. The foul cannot now reflect upon, fo as to form, I mean, ideas of any thing fpiritual or immate- rial, not even of its own nature and effence and wherefore ? Why, becaufe it is itfelf of a fubftance immaterial , and the body, by the inftrumentality of which, the ideas of objects are reflected and refracted to the mind, is not adapted to reflect to its view an object ib refined and imperceptible to prefentfenfe*. Agreeably * In anfwer to which it will be urged, perhaps, that the na~ $ure of zjpirit, or of objects immaterial, is as conceivable and eafy to be defined as the nature of any thing elfe. For as for the very ejfcnce or bare ful>/tance of any thing whatfoever, he is a very novice in fpeculation that does not acknowledge, that utterly unknowable; but as for the ejjential and infeparable pro- perties, they are as intelligible and explicable in a fpirit as in any other fubjectwhatfoever. Vid. Dr. More'sAntidot. b.i.c.4. That the nature and bare efence of matter and fpirit is alike unknowable and unexplicable I will not take upon me to deny ; but, will it therefore follow, that the exiftence of each is equal- ly difcernable and ftii/lble f Material objects make fuch im- preSions on our fenfes, as to become actually palpable. But c,in this be laid of objects immaterial ? Can the exiftence of things, not the objects of fenfe, which make not impreffions on the mind, I mean, by the inflrumentality of the organs of either hearing, feeing, the tafte or the touch, &c. befaid to he equally obvious, knowable and difternable as thofe which i>ill only in \hc.itnaginatic,n> i. e. of whofe exHtence the ima- gination is confirmed folelj by the deductions of reafon and rex elation ? And yet, fuch is the cafe with pure immateriality , which is not capable of being manifefted to any of our bodily 'enfcs, is of a nature fimilar to thofe exiftences alluded to in 'Scripture, which eye hath not feen, nor can fee here ; nor ear heard, nor which have entered into the heart of man to con^ ( 123 ) Agreeably to which, fays Mr. Wolafton, the foul may contemplate the body which it inhabits, be con- fcious of its own acts, and reflect upon the ideas it finds -, but of itsown fubftanceit canhave no adequate notion, unlefs it could be, as it were, object and fpectator. And again, fays another writer -j- : The fubtle matter which goes out of the body with the foul, is indeed too fine to ftrike upon our groffer fenfes, but we may fee it when God affifts us in an extraordinary mariner. By the fubtle matter here mentioned, is meant, that inward vehicle in which Plato, Ariftotle, Des-Cartes, and our great Dr. More, fuppofe the foul to act ieparate from that outward one, the body J, by the inftrumenta- lity of which it exerts its efformative or plaftic powers, for fuch an organization of its outward vehicle, as fhall be neceffary for the difcharge of its vital function in fuch vehicle, be it an etherial, aerial, or a terreftrial one. And as my hypothefis, agreeably to the opinion of the Platonjils, and other philosophers |j, luppofes the foul to have patted ceive, but are perceivable by the eyes of the linderftanding only *. * As for Dr. Berkley's hypothefis, upon which he attempts to reafon men out of thair y/?.r, and to difprove the actual (xijlence of what they hear, fee, fmell, tafte, or feel. (Vid. Dr. Berkley's Principles of Human Knowledge.) I cannot, 1 own, think it material enough to require any notice here, or even any where. f Mr. Poiret, in Mr. Bayle's Life of Rorarius. J Ariftotle plainly affirms, that the foul partakes of a body diftindl from this organized terreftrial body, con fitting of a nature etherial and lucid, and analogous to the element of the ftars. dWi; iniXoyoj 'vau, vJ'TW* atf-fUJ r^sfa). Vid. M. Im. b. 2. C. 14. p. US. \\ Should the foul have been reduced to a flare of flertce and inactivity, " before its turn came to revive in an earthly bcdy,'' aJ C 124 ) paficd through the two former of the above-men- tioned vehicles, previous to its entrance into this; another argument arifes from that confideration, which equally (or rather, more powerfully) de- monftrates how impoflible it is, that there (hould be a re- conception of things tranfa&ed in a prior ftate, was our exiftence therein ever fo unqueftionable. 10. For, ftcondly, each outward vehicle of the foul, being the tablet whereon are impreffcd ancj treafured up the images of objects conveyed thi- ther through the organs of that vehicle, and re- flected to the foul from time to time, by the in- ftrumentaHty of the inward vehicle above-men^ tioned, all prior images and impreffions muft, of courfe, be dead to the foul, when it changes that vehicle (the outward vehicle, I mean) for another. And though it is, methinks, eafy and reafonable to imagine, that the regiilry of fa<5ts contained in one vehicle, may be tranfmitted progreflivcly and upward* to another, tha.t the foul in each ftage of its return thither, from whence it came, may, by means of that nearer approach to the fource and center of perception, intuition and reflection, acquire a re-conceptive intimation of many tranfac- tions paft, yet its dcfcent downwards into this be- fmearing moifture of the firft rudiments of life, as Dr. More expreffes it, mull, of courfe, lull it into an oblivion of whatever happened to it in its former abodes ; nor will the whole fcene of paft tranfa&ions, in each fucceflive ftage hither, be ex- hibited, perhaps, till the day wherein the booh jhalt as Dr. More, though with no degree of probability, I think, fcypofes, (Vid. Immor. b. 2. c. 14. p. 119.) fuch a fuppo- fction, fhould it be admitted for truth, will account for art &!tv:cM of what happened to it in a f receding exiftence. ( 125 ) be opened, and tie dead judged, out of 1 1 of e things' that are written in the book, according to their works. Apoc. c. 20. 1 1. This however i certain, that whatever wen? the objects (material or immaterial,) with which we had been converfant in a prior Hate, yet the diffe- rence of organs, arifing from different vehicles, muft render it impoflible for any thing here to rccal to the mind images paft; the prefent vehicle being, toto ccelo, fo difiimilarfrom the former, and fuited to the reception of terreftrial images only. You fee, then, of what little avail the foul's non-confcioufnefs of tranfactions paft is, towards rendering incredible its fuppcfed exiftence in a prior ftate ; or rather, how impofiible it is, fup-* jpofing fuch an exiftence demonftrable, that there mould be tranfmitted to the foul, in this its third vehicle, a confcioufnefs of what pafTcd in the firft. 1 2. OBJ. II. It will, however, in the nextplace, be Urged, that if we are here under a judicial degrada- tion for crimes before committed, and probationers fora recovery of the divine favour, forfeited for fuch trefpafTes, as my hypothefis fuggefts, it is incon- ceivable how, without being confcious of either the guilt or chaftifement therein implied, we can be brought to fuch a repentant lta.te of mind, as muft be n^ceffary for the obtaining the wimed-for reconciliation. 13. In anfwer to this obje<5b'cm, I would, in the firit place, aik, where lies the fault, if men are really fo much in the dark, with refpedb to tbefe points, as the o u jev5tion fuppofes ? Would they but give a fair, unprejudiced ear to the voice of reafon, icripture, and the moft learned, ingenious, and religiouiof almoft every age, I do noc fee how ic is is pofiible they can be under any kind of doubt about either. 14. 1 have already confidered a pre-exiftentlapfe of human fouls, not only as the belief of mod of the learned, in all ages pail, but as the very ground- work of the gofpel difpenfation. The former has been fufficiently evinced in a foregoing chapter , nor could the latter be lefs obvious to the Chriftian world in general, would men be perfuaded to throw afide their prejudices, give the fcriptures a fair and rational interpre- tation^ and aim :o make Chriftianity coincide \vith the nature and attributes of God, its divine Author. Evidences, without number, of a de- praved, degenerate nature in man, his own con- demning heart fets in continual array before him ; that this cannot be the work either of God or our primogenitor Adam, reafon proves inconteftibly -, that we are children of wrath from our birth, nnd under the power and dominion of Satan, in our natural, unregenerate ft ate, arifing from a pre-exiftent affociation with the apoftate angels^ and that to purify our corrupted nature, to ex- piate our original guilt, and to refcue us from the powers of darknefs, is the very end anddefign of the gofpel difpenfation, we have fullfufficient evidence, from reafon, fcripture, and the exprefs funda- mental articles of the Chriftian faith , or, I know not what is the true language of fcripture, what idea? we are to affix to the terms redemption, atone- went, &c. * nor what we are to underitand by St. Paul's The very ingenious Dr. Taylor, indeed, obferves as fol- lows : " The fcriptures of the New Teftament, excepting xii. &c, and i Cor. xv. 21, 22. before explained, do aillgn the afl-aal ivicktdfufi and corruption of Paul's being if nt to open the eyes of the Gentiles ; to turn them from darknefs to light, and from the they hacrfatio:i. i John iii. 8. For this ptirpofe the Son of God was ma iii felled, that he might deftroy the works of the devil, la Ihort (excepting the two places above -excepted, which relate ( 128 ) the power of Satan unto God. And that the of the Gentile world is to be confidered as the na- tural relate only to the reverfing the fentence of 'common mortality) J know not of any place in fcripture where redemption is not affigned on God's part, to his own free grace} and on man's part to the depravity and corruption of the world, wherewith they have depraved themfelves. And I verily believe it is not in the power of any man to bring any text to the contrary." Vid. Dr. Taylcron Original Sin, Part 3. p. 290. The deiign of our Saviour's coming into the world, there- fore, according to Dr. Taylor's opinion, was not to redeem mankind from the guilt and punifhment of any corruption of ttature, inherent or derived, but to atone for their aclual personal trefpafies, or (as he exprefies it) their own wicked departing from Gcd both Jew and Gentile had corrupted themfelves ; and flood equally in need of gofpel grace and redemption, all having finned and come (hort of the glory of God. But how fmned r By any derived, imputed guilt from Adam ? No, fays Dr. Taylor ; and with great truth, I believe. But they finned, lays he, by their wicked departing from God ; by their own a&ual, perfonal wickedncfs ; and on this, and no other caufe or reafon whatfoever, is grounded the grace of redemption. But this wicked departing from God, t\\is fer/onal wickednef?, &c. whence proceeded that? What could urge creatures, living under fo ftrong a fenfe of the nature and attributes of the di- vine Being, and of their roanifo'd obligations to him, fo re- quite his inexhaufted gcodnefs with fuch repeated acts of impiety, ingratitude, and vile enormities? Whar, but a heart e lap fed from original righteoufnefs, eftranged from God and goodnefs, and devoted wholly to the fervice of the prince ofdarknefs ? A releafe, therefore, from the original guilt, dc- ferved punishment, and growing power of this malady (and *iot as Dr. Taylor fuppofes, from the feveral fpecies of vice which could not but flow therefrom) is the whole and fole - object of the redemption by Jefus Chrift. This is plainly in- tonated, by the apoftle, to the Romans, c . v . and x. For v. hen we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by th death of his Son. When we were enemies i.e. when we were in a flate of enmity with God, children of wrath, as we all wcie by nature, on account of that ibte of fin and iniquity in which we were born, and thofe corruptions of nature which us from the womb, we were reconciled to God, were rd.'rved ( 129 ) iural ftate of all men, feerns evident from the following paiTage, of St. Paul to the Ephelians. And Tefcred from the power and punrfhment ofthofe corruptions, &c. and that apoftacy from God, by the death of Chrift; and that the iinners, here alluded to by the apoftle, as reconciled to God, and of courfe, cleanfed from their fins, are not to be confidtrcd as finners, made fuch by perfonal trefpafles here, but by that original debafement of nature, in which they were conceived *. For, in the firft fenfe, even the regenerate and converted, were reprefented as finners ftill. If we fay, we have no fin, fays St. John, we deceive ourfelves, and the truth is not in us. i John i. 8. But fins, considered in the other fenfe, the fins which were the immediate objedls of redemption,, they are forgiven us; are, as the apoftle fpeaks, nailed to the crofs. The body of Jin is deflroyed. fen Jhall not no-iv have dominion over us. For , even as others. Intimati g, that the apoftle und his Chriftian converts were, before their conver- fion, upon the fame footing entirely with the Gentile world, walked as they did, according to the courfe of this world, and of him who is the head of that aerial kingdom, and of the fpirit which now works in the children of difobedience -, (Vid. Eftium in Loc.) that they were led aftray, not by the impetuofity of their carnal difpofitions only, but by the depravity rSt &utmu of their mental afftffions, their minds alfo ; and were there- fore, on that account, and by nature, the children of wrath, like as others. And, that the church of England confiders now the natural unregenerated ftate of man entirely in the fame light, appears evidently, not only from her articles and homilies, many things to fay unto you, but yf cannot bear them now : But the time cometh (fays he afterward) that 1 mall no more fpeak unto you in proverbs, but I fhall fhew you plainly of the Fa- ther, viz. by the Spirit of truth, which he promifed to fend unto them, and which was gradually to unfold to the world the great myftery of the redemption by (Thrift ; a great part of which remains to this day, if nut totally concealed, at the beft but obfcurely revealed. Whofoever, fays Dr. Butler, will ferioufly confider that part of the Chriftain fcheme, which is revealed in Scripture, will find fo much unrevealed, as will convince him, that to all the purpofesof objecting and judging, we know as little as of the conltitution of nature. Butler's Annal. p. 275. but but from the introduction to the form of infant baptifm, and in her church catechifm. For, what is the prieft's declaration in the introduction to the form of baptifm ? Is it not, dearly beloved, forafmuch as all men are conceived and born in Jin, and that our Saviour Chrift faith, none can enter into the kingdom of heaven except he be rege- nerate, and born a-new, of water and the Holy Ghoft ? And does he not befeech the congrega- tion to call upon God, to grant to that child, to be baptized, that thing which by nature he cannot have ? And is not his firft prayer to God, for his infinite mercies^ that he would mercifully look upon that child \ that he would ivcjh him and fanSlify him with the Holy Ghoft, that he might be delivered from his wrath (even before he could fpeak, or difcern good or evil) and received into the ark of Chrifl's church ? And upon what elfe, but a prefumption of the efficacy of baptifm, to reftore the infant from thepunifhment of origi- nal fin, does the prieft ground his afiurance, and give the fame hope to the fponfors, that God will receive that prefent infant, that he will embrace him with the arms of his mercy > will give unto him the bleffing of eternal life, and make him parta- ker of his everlafting kingdom ? And what an- fwer does our church catechifm give to the quef- tion What is the inward and fpiritual grace ? Is it not A death unto fin, and a new birth unto righteoufnefs, for being by nature born in Jin and cbjdren of wrath , we are hereby made the CHIL- DREN OF GRACE. That our church cannot reafonably be under- ftood to refolve this inherent delinquency in our nature to an imputed guilt from Adam, I have already fhewn in my comment on her ninth ar- ticle. It is, however, very clear from fcripture, 2 and C and the nature and tenor of the npfpel difpenfa- lion, that mankind are from their birth, and iri the ; r natural tare-generate flate, children of wrath, and under the power and dominion of. Satan ; and if, from what has already been faid upon this point, this co-nplex calamity in man fhould appear to be the refult of a prior, afibciation with the apoftate powers, or of a pre-exiftent guilt of fome kind or another (for this falvo I mull referve to myfelf) fhall the want of a confcioufnefs of the feveral circum- ftances of the fuppofed lapfe, which, in the na- ture of things is not, as I have fhewn above, poftible, be deemed a fufficient warrant for the dz/beliefof the hypothefis, in oppofition to reafon, revelation, and the opinion of the moft rational and approved writers, Heathen, Jewim, and Chriftian philofophers, &c. ? Have we, in fact, any other confcioufnefs of our being the offspring of heaven, and candidates for a future immorta- lity, than what arifes from the fame kind of in- formation ? IS) in mort, any ftronger evidence appealed to, or even required, in proof of a God, the immortality of the foul, or of a future ftate of rewards and punifhments? And, is our future felicity lefs dependent on the credibility and cer- tainty of thofe doftrines,than on the confcioufnefs of a fuppofed pre-exiftent lapie ? And if that original guilt, charged upon us by fcripture, is, in reality, derived from our nrft parents, how comes it to pafs, that there are millions in the world, who are fo far from t having a confcioufnefs of iuch fuppofed truth in their minds, that they treat, on the contrary, with the utmoft derifion and de- leitation, the extraordinary dotrine? And then, fecondly ; that a confcioufnefs of pad .tranfaftions is not eflentially neceflary for the reformation reformation of a being, degraded .for fuch tranf- a ; ons, as the above objection fuppo r es, the cafe of Nebuchadrezzar (not .(.o mention any other argument ac.prefent) clearly evinces. What con- fcioufnefs had he of that wretched condition to which he was reduced, or the cnrnes from which it refulted, when, as fcripture informs us, he was driven from men, and did eat graft as cr.en, and his body 'was wet wiih the dew of heaven, till hjs hairs were grown like eagles feathers, and his nails like birds claws ? At the end of the days, indeed, when his feven years degradation was a: an end, he 1'ftecJ up his eyes unto heaven, and h- firft parents, or to a perfonal pre-exif- tent default in ourfelves, let reafon, the grand crite- rion of truth, and the only infallible interpreter of fcfipture-dodtrines, determine the point, and my hypothecs will not appear, perhaps, more marvellous than manly, rational, and, I had almoft faid, unquefdonable. And, then, thirdly, though the high honours, pre-eminences and powers, to which many by birth, others by a feries of fortunate events, ar- rive, may, from a fuperficial view of things, per- fuade us to confider the glittering proprietors thereof, rather as peculiar favourites of heaven, than lapfed apoftates from his power and autho- rity-, yet, how very ill grounded fuch a conclu- fion very often is, experience too frequently proves. Many of the fancied blejjings of life arc oft-times given in the Deity's wrath, and in order to mew how equally contemptible, in his fight, are both the receiver and the gift. Nor could providence more effectually convince the world what a mare of pride, vanity, cruelty, want of feeling for the diftrefles of others, &c. lodged in the heart of fome, than by heaping on them riches, or inverting them with power;! and authority ! In many others, indeed, we cannot help confideringthem as tokens of the divine favour, and rewards of a prior com- parative degree of merit. And though royalty, in , in particular, wears too frequently the image oJ the ruler of this world, the prince of the powers of darknefs, yet, fometimes, it (bines on a happy people, with the ineffable glories of piety, purity, and fteady patriotifm. Mdjefly, fo arrayed, be- fpeaks an Original fuperior to the common race of lapfed beings, and almoU tempts the inferior clafs of mortals to fay, of perfonages fo dignified^ * The Gods are come down to us, in the likenefs of men." It may ftill be urged, that this world is fo far from being that ftate of puniihment and exclu- fion from happincfs, which the doctrine of a pre- exiftent lapfe of fouls fuppofes, that, upon the whole, it is productive of public and private hap- pinefs in great abundance. With refpeft to the firft, viz. public felicity, and to this Canaan of happinefs, our prefent ftate, compared with others, may, perhaps, be deemed (and I wifh we were fufficiently fenfible of the happy difference) what the objection fuppofes. Heaven be praifcd, we have none of the miferies under which other nations are at this time labour- ing ! Ours is not now the horrid feat of war ; nor are plagues, peitilences, fiery irruptions, and devouring earthquakes, the defolating horrors of this our Sion , nor are galling opprefllons of tyrants, nor rude and favage barbarities, common amongft us : but, are not thefe the miferies, un- der which groan, more or lefs, the far greater part of the globe ? And, are we not a kind of pecu- liars, exempt from the fcourge of heaven ? 1 8. Carry we, then, ourfelves into a view of life in detached pictures of it, and what are the moft exalted gratifications here, when contrafted with that portion of blifs which we have forfeited, and to to which we can be rertored by Chriftianity only ? Are they more than fo many playthings in the hands of children, far fhort of manly enjoyments, and of a rational and ample fruition ? And if to thefe we add, the incidental misfortunes, dif- quietudes, and deep calamities of life, can we be faid to enjoy a life of happinefs ? Is it not at beft a life of difiatisfaftion ? I am apt to think, fays Mr. Woollafton, with refpect to private felicity, that, even among thofe whofe ftate is beheld with envy, there are many who, if at the end of their courle they were put to their option, whether, without any refpect to a future ftate, they would repeat all the plea- fures they have had in life, upon condition, to go over again alfo all the difappointments, the fame vexations and unkind treatment from the world, the fame fecret pangs and tedious hours, the fame labours of the body and mind, the fame pains and ficknefles, would be far from ac- cepting them at that price. But here the cafe, as I have put it, only refpefbs them who may be reckoned among the more fortunate paffengers ; and for one that makes his voyage fo well, thou- fands are toft in tempefts and loft. How many never attain any comfortable fet- tlement in the world ? How many fail, after they 1 have attained it, by various misfortunes ? What melancholy, what diftractions are caufed in fa milies, by inhuman or vicious hufbands , falfe or peevifh wives, refractory or unhappy children; and if they are otherwife, if they are good, what forrow for the lofs of them ? How many are forced by necelTity upon drudging and very fhocking employments, for a poor livelihood ? How many fubfift upon begging, borrowing, and and other fhifts, nor can do Ochervvile ? How, many meec with fad accidents, or fall into de- plorable difeafes ? Are noc all companies, and the very ftreets filled with complaints and grie- vances, and doleful frolics ? I verily believe, that a great part of mankind may afcribe their deaths to want and dejection. Wool]. Rel. Nat. p. 207. 19. OBJEC. III. It may be irged, if the foul did actually exift in a prior flate, it is very ex- traordinary, that that pre-exiftence mould not have been intimated to us in the mofalc hiftory of the creation, whereas that evidently fuppofes thefouto? man, as well as his body, to have been then/r/? formed by the Creator. That the Mofaic creation was not the original creation, I have endeavoured to prove already, and that the defign of the Mofaic hiftory accounts for its filence with refpect to a pre-exiftent lapfe of human fouls, the reader will fee from what follows. It is certain, fays St. Bafil, that Mofes did not defign to write of the creation of all things, but only of things vijible and corporeal. He is wholly filent with refpedt to the crea- tion of human fouls, whence the divines of the Chriftian church are, as fays Brocklefby (p. 502.) extremely at a lofs, de origins anim^e^ not know- ing which of the three opinions to prefer, that of the pre-exiftence of fouls, or that of their creation, and infufion by the immediate hand of God, in fucceffive generations; or that which derives them from propagation. Which total filence, touching the origin of fouls, is a plain indication, that the creation of them was no part of the Mofaic creation. And . . . . '.-I ', 1 TV/T r 1-0 Ann, it is evident, that the Mofaic nmory. of the creation is, in the whole of u, roth'ng elle but an hiftory of the production of a woild of terreftrial animals, and of God's making pro- vifion for them as fuch ; and reaches to notMng higher, than the making fuch a terreftrial an : mal as man, not afcendinsr to the creation of his in- O tellectual foul. It afcends not to the creatiort of any living creature higher than terreftrial animals, fays not a word of the creation of an- gels ; and, as a Jewifh writer obferves, in the hiftory of the creation, only vifibles, qu difplayed in the great work qif plan's redemption, cf framing to themfelves any idea of an atonement due to a pre-exiftent ftate of guilt, or of conceiving that a bleffing, greater or more extenfive, was accomplifhed by Chrifl's mediation, intercefiion, &c. * than a deliverance from the evils confequent on Adam's trefpafs. Thefe are points to which the apoftle, I own, does but either diftantly allude or myfterioufly in- culcate -, concluding, as we may iuppofe,' that, in after times, the SPIB IT OF TRUTH would, by due degrees, lead mankind into a difcovery of thofe and many other important truths, refpecting the mediatorial ceconomy, which neither the world was then capable of receiving, or he himfelf at * That the death of Chrift was made a cond'tion of our redemp- tion, or that it was any thing more than a contingent confequence of his miniitry (or as fuchforefeen, propkejieA, and prefigured dt old, and alluded to in the Mcfaic rites and facrin'ces, &c.) it is neither eafy of" belief, nor capable, I think, offcripture proof But as to this otheis are to judge for themfelves. ( 149 ) liberty openly to difciofe. That they are, however, the Ms credible from the want of an exprefs, po- fitiv-e declaration from the apoftle, we ihould not haftily conclude, when we confider (and I hope the confidcration will have its due weight) th.it the apoftle was, by virtue of that extraordinary vifion vouchfafed to him 2 Cor. xii. ---undoubted- ly pofieffed of a fuller and more intimate know- ledge of the myfteries of the gofpel difpenfa-tion, than he was permitted to make kncizn. And that the difcoveries then made, were of fuch a nature, as greatly exalred the dignity of the Chriftian ceconomy, is evident, from that cxcefs of vanity, to which the communication of them had well- nigh drove the apoftle, and on account of which the mefienger of Satan was fent to buffet him. That thofe difcoveries did not relate to a pre- exiftent guilt, and a redemption, therefrom, by the death of (Thrift, there is no more proof (if fo much) from fcripture, than that they did. But whether our ideas of the Mediatorial difpenfation are not tranfcendantly exalted, by viewing it through the medium of a fuppofed perfonal pre- exiftent guilt and apoftacy, inftead of a derived Adamic trefpafs and defilement, I leave to the hearts and confciences of men to determine. Ad. 2. Dr. Taylor, in order to prove that our Sa- viour lived anddird only to redeem mankind from the guilt and punilhment due to their perfonal tref- paffes, here obferves upon the underwritten texts of fcripture *, quoted in the AfTembly of Divines Catechifm, * Rom. iii. 10 20. As it is \vritten there is none righte- ous, no not one. Ver. n. There is none that underrtandeth, there is none thatfeeketh after God. L 3 Catechifm, as proofs of the " corruption of " man's nature, whereby he is utterly indifpofed, " difabled, and made oppofite unto all that is " fpiritually good, and wholly inclined to all '* evil, and that continually,** as follows. Obf. 3. The fedion, fays he, confifts of feve- ral quotations out of the old teftament, called here the law* ver. 19. But, ift, In none of them, taken feparately, doth the Spirit of God fpeak of any depravity of nature derived from Adam, (granted) but manifeftly of the habits of wicked- nefs, which men had contrasted by their own evil doings ; as will, I think, undeniably appear, if you carefully perufe the texts fet over-againfl the proofs in the margin. And in Pfal. x. 4. the wickedneis of the wicked is exprefsly laid, fays he, to confift in this, that he will not feek after God. And that God is not in all his thoughts. He might feek after God; but he will not. He hath thoughts i a power to think of God, but he doth not ule it, p. 103. What immediately follows Pfal. xiv. i, 2, 3. Ver. 12. They are all gone out of the way, they are altogether become unprofitable, there is none that doethgood, nonotone. Pfal. v. 9. Ver. 13. Their throat is an open fepulchre, with their tongues they have ufed deceit, the poyfon of afps is under their lips : Pfal. iii. 3. Ver. 14. Wbofe mouth is full of ending and bitterritfs. Ver. 15. Their feet are fwift to ihed blood. Pfal. x. 7. Ver. 16. DeitrudYion and mifery are in their ways. Prov. i. 16. Ver. 17. And the way of peace have they not known. Ifa. liii. 7, 8. Ver. 18. There is no fear of God before their eyes. Pfal. xxxvi. i. Ver. 19. Now we know that whatfoever things the law faith, it faith to them who are under the law, that every mouth may be flopped, and all the world may be- come guilty before God. is ( '5* ) fs fo much to the doctor's difcredit, as a reafoner, fhat I wifli it could be wiped out of his book. And is it not amazing, that one of Dr. Taylor's fagacity and penetration, mould bring, all along, arguments infupport of his hypothefis, which are fo apparently fubverfive of it. The fpirit of God, fays he, does not, in either of the above-quoted texts, fpeak of any depravity of nature (for that is in general his meaning.) How fo ? Why, he, the Spirit of God, alludes only to the wickednefs which men had contracted by their own evil doings and the Pfalmift ex- prefsly fays, that the wickednefs of the wickecl confifted in this that he will not feek after God, that God is not in all his thoughts He might feek after God , but he will not, &c. Now, if an habitual* voluntary propenfity to evil doings, a fettled, determined abjuration of God implied in their wilfully not feeking him, be pot evidences of the depravity, &c. of human na- ture, I know not what can, in the nature of things, be rationally deemed fuch. Taking this therefore for granted, what ftronger proofs need be re- quired of the depravity, &c. of human nature, than what Dr. 'Taylor has above advanced ? But to mew that the texts of fcripture, there alluded to, are defigned declarations of the depravity and corruption of man's NATURE, be pleafed to at- tend to the following obfervations. Dr. Taylor fays (Obferv. 2. p. 102.) " The apoflle is not, in the above fection, fpeaking of all mankind, but a very fmall part of mankind, viz. the Jews, who alone were then under the law, ver. 19. and he is proving from thofe places, in their own approved writings (which places fpeak of as well as to the natural Jews} that there were very great corruptions among them, as well as ( 152 ) gs among other people.'* But how does this quadrate with- -God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to fee if there were any that would underfland and feek after God. But they are all, &c. &c. ? Pfal. xiv. g, 4. (I am fbrry to fee the doctor fubftituting did understand, forwottld underftand.) It feems, in fhort, to me, very evident, that David fpeaks as univerfally in the above texts, with refpeft to the corruption of mankind, as Ifaiah does in his ^jd chapter AH "joe like Jheep have gone aftray, we have turned every cne bis own w A v ; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all, ver. 6. and that antecedently to the juftification and regeneration to beobferved by a true operative faith in Chrift, the world, (in general^ I mean) is, as it always was, abundant in corrupt propenfions. But again The next proof urged by the Af- fembly of divine", in de mo nft ration of the corrup- tions of human nature, is from Ephef. chap. ii. ver. I, 2, 3. upon which, fays Dr. Taylor In theie verfes the apoftle is defcribing the wretched and deplorable date of the Ephefians, while they were in GENTILE DARKNESS, in order to iliuftrate and magnify the grace of God in calling them to the knowledge and privileges of the gofpel and when he faith, they were dead in trefpajjes andjins, he plainly fpeaks of their own perfonal iniquities, &rc. committed through the darknefs and degene- racy of their minds, what inconjiftency ! p. 108, 109. And then fays he, when the apoftle add? and Were by nature the children of wrath, he cannot mean, that they were liable to divine wrath or punifbment by that nature which they brought in- to the world at their birth for, as God's hands ha-efafoioned and formed us every one of us to lay the nature He gives is the hateful objed of his wrath ( '53 ) wrath, is Iktle lefs than blafpherny againft good and bountiful Creator, p. no Very right-, and the inference therefrom is manifeltly this, viz. that, fuppofmg the nature ot man to be corrupt from his cradle, it could not come hither imme- diately from the hands of his Creator. But that men are not corrupt from their birth, and on that account children of wrath, he proves, In what man- ner ? Why nature here, fays he, may fignify really, properly, truly. For obferve "; children, ftrictly fignifieth the genuine children of parents, by natural generation. But the word is ufed fi- guratively alib, to denote relation to a perfon or thing by way of friendfhip, regard, imitation, obligation, &c. As the children of God, of the kingdom, the bridegroom, the refurreftion, of wifdom* light, obedience, peace, &c. The children of wrath are they who are related to wrath, or liable to rejection and punifhment. And whereas in thofe days fome were children in a lower fenfe, by adoption ; fome in a higher, by nature, or proper generation -, the apoftle tells the Ephefians, they were by nature children -, that is to fay, children of wrath, or related to wrath, in the moft real and proper fenfe-, as he is a child in the moft real and proper fenfe who is one by nature, p. 1 1 3. If here, again, the doctor is not(fophiftry, Imean, apart) quoting and proving againft himfelf, there is a myflery in hisreafoning which I cannot compre- hend. In fact, by the i/* TsVua fucr o^<; the apof- tle can mean nothing more or lefs than, that they were by birth, or, in other words, by the native, conftitutional, unregeneratc frame of their minds, children of wrath ; were as truly and effeniially def- titute of divine grace, and, as fuch, objects of the divine wrath, as were thofe counterfeit gods to which the Galatians did fervice, Gal. iv. 8. (as the fame apottle fpeaks)