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and infinite God, that they thought there was no redemption neceffary, and confequently, that there was none; rather than admit of it upon a fuppofition fo derogatory to the honour and attributes of that infinite Being; and fo made Jesus Christ nothing but the reftorer and preacher of pure natural religion; thereby doing violence to the whole tenour of the New Teftament. And, indeed, both fides will be fufpected to have trefpaffed this way, against the written word of God, by any one, who does but take it to be a collection of writings, defigned by God, for the inftruction of the illiterate bulk of mankind, in the way to falvation; and therefore, generally, and in neceffary points, to be understood in the plain direct meaning of the words and phrases: fuch as they may be fuppofed to have had in the mouths of the speakers, who ufed them according to the language of that time and country wherein they lived; without fuch learned, artificial, and forced fenfes of them, as are fought out, and put upon them, in most of the fyftems of divinity, according to the notions that each one has been bred up in.

To one that, thus unbiaffed, reads the fcriptures, what Adam fell from (is vifible), was the ftate of perfect obedience, which is called juftice in the New Teftament; though the word, which in the original fignifies juftice, be tranflated righteoufnefs: and, by this fall he loft paradife, wherein was tranquillity and the tree of life; i. e. he loft bliss and immortality. The penalty annexed to the breach of the law, with the fentence pronounced by God upon it, fhow this. The penalty ftands thus, Gen. ii. 17. "In the day, that

thou eatest thereof, thou fhalt furely die." How was this executed? He did eat: but, in the day he did eat, he did not actually die; but was turned out of paradife from the tree of life, and fhut out for ever from it, left he should take thereof, and live for ever. This shows, that the state of paradise was a state of immortality, of life without end; which he loft that very day that he eat his life began from thence to fhorten, and wafte, and to have an end; and from thence, to his actual death, was but like the time of a prifoner, beB 3

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tween the sentence paffed and the execution, which was in view and certain. Death then entered, and showed his face, which before was shut out, and not known. So St. Paul, Rom. v. 12. "By one man fin entered into "the world, and death by fin;" i. e. a state of death and mortality and, 1 Cor. xv. 22. "In Adam all die;" i. e.-by reafon of his tranfgreffion, all men are mortal, and come to die.

This is fo clear in thefe cited places, and so much the current of the New Teftament, that nobody can deny, but that the doctrine of the gospel is, that death came on all men by Adam's fin; only they differ about the fignification of the word death: for some will have it to be a state of guilt, wherein not only he, but all his pofterity was fo involved, that every one defcended of him deserved endless torment, in hell-fire. I fhall fay nothing more here, how far, in the apprehenfions of men, this confifts with the juftice and goodness of God, having mentioned it above: but it feems a ftrange way of understanding a law, which requires the plainest and directeft words, that by death fhould be meant eternal life in mifery. Could any one be fuppofed, by a law, that fays, "For felony thou fhalt die," not that he fhould lofe his life; but be kept alive in perpetual, exquifite torments? And would any one think himself fairly dealt with, that was fo used?

To this, they would have it be also a state of neceffary finning, and provoking God in every action that men do: a yet harder fenfe of the word death than the other. God fays, that "in the day that thou eatest of the for"bidden fruit, thou fhalt die;" i. e. thou and thy pofterity fhall be, ever after, incapable of doing any thing, but what shall be finful and provoking to me, and fhall juftly deferve my wrath and indignation. Could a worthy man be fuppofed to put fuch terms upon the obedience of his fubjects? Much lefs can the righteous God be supposed, as a punishment of one fin, wherewith he is difpleased, to put man under the neceffity of finning continually, and fo multiplying the provocation. The reafon of this ftrange interpretation, we fhall perhaps find, in fome miftaken places of the

New Teftament. I muft confefs, by death here, I can understand nothing but a ceafing to be, the lofing of all actions of life and fenfe. Such a death came on Adam, and all his pofterity, by his first disobedience in paradife; under which death they fhould have lain for ever, had it not been for the redemption by Jefus Christ. If by death, threatened to Adam, were meant the corruption of human nature in his pofterity, 'tis ftrange, that the New Teftament fhould not any where take notice of it, and tell us, that corruption feized on all, because of Adam's tranfgreffion, as well as it tells us fo of death. But, as I remember, every one's fin is charged upon himself only.

Another part of the fentence was, "Curfed is the "ground for thy fake: in forrow fhalt thou eat of it "all the days of thy life; in the fweat of thy face fhalt "thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground: for "out of it waft thou taken; duft thou art, and to dust "fhalt thou return," Gen. iii. 17.-19. This shows, that paradife was a place of blifs, as well as immortality; without drudgery, and without forrow.

But,

when man was turned out, he was expofed to the toil, anxiety, and frailties of this mortal life, which should end in the duft, out of which he was made, and to which he should return; and then have no more life of sense, than the dust had, out of which he was made.

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As Adam was turned out of paradife, fo all his pofterity were born out of it, out of the reach of the tree of life; all, like their father Adam, in a state of mortality, void of the tranquillity and blifs of paradise. Rom. v. 12. "By one man fin entered into the world, " and death by fin." But here will occur the common objection, that fo many ftumble at: "How doth it "confift with the juftnefs and goodness of God, that "the posterity of Adam fhould fuffer for his fin; the "innocent be punished for the guilty?" Very well, if keeping one from what he has no right to, be called a punishment; the state of immortality, in paradife, is not due to the pofterity of Adam, more than to any other creature. Nay, if God afford them a temporary, mortal life, 'tis his gift; they owe it to his bounty; they could not claim it as their right, nor does

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he injure them when he takes it from them. Had he taken from mankind any thing that was their right, or did he put men in a state of mifery, worse than not being, without any fault, or demerit of their own; this, indeed, would be hard to reconcile with the notion we have of justice; and much more with the goodness, and other attributes of the fupreme Being, which he has declared of himself; and reason, as well as revelation, must acknowledge to be in him; unless we will confound good and evil, God and Satan. That fuch a ftate of extreme, irremediable torment is worse than no being at all; if every one's own fenfe did not determine against the vain philosophy, and foolish metaphyfics of fome men; yet our Saviour's peremptory decision, Matt. xxvi. 24, has put it paft doubt, that one may be in fuch an estate, that it had been better for him not to have been born. But that fuch a temporary life, as we how have, with all its frailties and ordinary miferies, is better than no being, is evident, by the high value we put upon it ourselves. And therefore, though all die in Adam, yet none are truly punished, but for their own deeds. Rom. ii. 6. "God will render to every one," How?" According to his deeds. To "thofe that obey unrighteoufnefs, indignation and "wrath, tribulation and anguifh, upon every foul of man that doth evil. ver. 9. 2 Cor. v. 10. "We "must appear before the judgment feat of Chrift, that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he has done, whether it be good or "bad." And Chrift himself, who knew for what he should condemn men at the laft day, affures us, in the two places, where he defcribes his proceeding at the great judgment, that the fentence of condemnation paffes only upon the workers of iniquity, fuch as neglected to fulfil the law in acts of charity, Matt. vii. 23. Luke xiii. 27. Matt. xxv. 41, 42, &c. "And

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again, John v. 29, our Saviour tells the jews, that all fhall come forth of their graves, they that have "done good, to the refurrection of life; and they that "have done evil, unto the refurrection of damnation.” But here is no condemnation of any one, for what his

fore

fore-father Adam had done; which it is not likely fhould have been omitted, if that fhould have been a caufe, why any one was adjudged to the fire, with the devil and his angels. And he tells his difciples, that when he comes again with his angels, in the glory of his Father, that then he will render to every one according to his works, Matt. xvi. 27.

Adam being thus turned out of paradife, and all his pofterity born out of it, the confequence of it was, that all men should die, and remain under death for ever, and fo be utterly loft.

From this eftate of death, Jesus Christ restores all mankind to life; 1 Cor. xv. 22. "As in Adam all die, "fo in Chrift fhall all be made alive." How this fhall be, the fame apoftle tells us in the foregoing ver. 21. "By man death came, by man alfo came the refurrec"tion from the dead." Whereby it appears, that the life, which Jefus Chrift restores to all men, is that life, which they receive again at the refurrection. Then they recover from death, which otherwife all mankind fhould have continued under, loft for ever; as appears by St. Paul's arguing, I Cor. xv. concerning the refurrection.

And thus men are, by the second Adam, restored to life again; that so by Adam's fin they may none of them lofe any thing, which by their own righteousness they might have a title to: for righteoufnefs, or an exact obedience to the law, feems, by the fcripture, to have a claim of right to eternal life, Rom. iv. 4. "To him "that worketh," i. e. does the works of the law, "is "the reward not reckoned of grace, but oF DEBT.' And Rev. xxii. 14. "Bleffed are they who do his com

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mandments, that they may HAVE RIGHT to the tree "of life, which is in the paradife of God." If any of the pofterity of Adam were juft, they fhall not lofe the reward of it, eternal life and blifs, by being his mortal iffue: Chrift will bring them all to life again; and then they shall be put every one upon his own trial, and receive judgment, as he is found to be righteous, or not. And the righteous, as our Saviour fays, Matth. xxv. 46. fhall go into eternal life. Nor fhall any one mifs it, who has done, what our Saviour directed the lawyer, who

afked,

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