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THE

PREFACE.

TH

HE little fatisfaction and confiftency that is to be found, in most of the fyftems of divinity I have met with, made me betake myself to the fole reading of the Scriptures (to which they all appeal) for the understanding the Chriftian Religion. What from thence, by an attentive and unbiaffed fearch, I have received, Reader, I here deliver to thee. If by this my labour thou receiveft any light, or confirmation in the truth, join with me in thanks to the Father of lights, for his condefcenfion to our understandings. If, upon a fair and unprejudiced examination, thou findest I have mistaken the fenfe and tenor of the Gospel, I beseech thee, as a true Chriftian, in the Spirit of the Gospel, (which is that of charity) and in the words of fobriety, fet me right, im the doctrine of falvation..

THE

THE

REASONABLENESS

OF

CHRISTIANITY,

I

AS DELIVERED IN THE

SCRIPTURE S.

T is obvious to any one, who reads the new teftament, that the doctrine of redemption, and confequently of the gofpel, is founded upon the fuppofition of Adam's fall. To understand therefore, what we are reftored to by Jefus Chrift, we muft confider what the fcriptures fhew we loft by Adam. This I thought worthy of a diligent and unbiaffed fearch: fince I found the two extremes, that men run into on this point, either on the one hand fhook the foundations of all religion, or, on the other, made chriftianity almoft nothing: for whilft fome men would have all Adam's pofterity doomed to eternal, infinite punishment, for the tranfgreffion of Adam, whom millions had never heard of, and no one had authorifed to tranfact for him, or be his reprefentative; this feemed to others fo little confiftent with the juftice or goodness of the great and infinite God, that they thought there was no redemption neceffary, and confequently, that there was none; rather than admit of it upon a fuppofition fo derogatory to the honour and attributes of that infinite Being; and fo made Jefus Chrift nothing but the reftorer and preacher of pure natural religion; thereby doing violence to the whole tenor of the new teftament. And, indeed, both fides will be fufpected to have trefpaffed this way, against the written word of God, by any one, who does but take it to be a collection of writtings, defigned by God, for the inftruction of the illiterate bulk of mankind, in the way to falvation; and therefore, generally, and in neceflary points, to be understood in the plain direct meaning of the words and phrafes; fuch as they may be fuppofed to have had in the mouths of the fpeakers, who used them according to the language of that time and country wherein they lived without fuch learned, artificial, and forced fenfes of them, as are fought out, put upon them, in most of the fyftems of divinity, according to the notions that each one has been bred up in.

and

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

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teftament,

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teftament; though the word, which in the original fignifies juftice, be transla ted righteousness: and, by this fall, he loft paradife, wherein was tranquillity and the tree of life; i. e. he loft blifs and inmortality. The penalty annexed to the breach of the law, with the fentence pronounced by God upon it, fhew this. The penalty ftands thus, Gen. ii. 17. "In the day, that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." How was this executed? He did eat: but, in the day he did eat, he did not actually die; but was turned out of paradise from the tree of life, and fhut out for ever from it, left he fhould take thereof, and live for ever. This fhews, that the ftate of paradife was a state of immortality, of Life without end; which he loft that very day that he eat: his life began from thence to shorten, and waste, and to have an end; and from thence, to his actual death, was but like the time of a prisoner, between the fentence paffed and the execution, which was in view and certain. Death then entered, and fhewed his face, which before was fhut 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 fo much the current of the new testament, that no-body can deny, but that the doctrine of the gofpel is, that death caine on all men by Adam's fin; only they differ about the fignification of the word death: for fome will have it to be a 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 seems a ftrange way of understanding a law, which requires the plaineft and directeft words, that by death fhould be meant eternal life in mifery. Could any one be fuppofed, by a law, that fays, "For felony thou fhalt die," not that he should 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 alfo a ftate 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 forbidden fruit, "thou fhalt die;" i. e. thou and thy pofterity shall be, ever after, incapable of doing any thing, but what thall be finful and provoking to me, and thall justly deserve my wrath and indignation. Could a worthy man be fuppofed to put fuch terms upon the obedience of his fubjects? Much lefs can the righteous God be fuppofed, as a punishment of one fin, wherewith he is displeased, to put man under the neceffity of finning continually, and fo multiplying the provocation. The reason of this ftrange interpretation, we fhall perhaps find, in fome mistaken places of the new teftament. I must confefs, by death here, I can understand nothing but a ceafing to be, the lofing of all actions of life and sense.. Such a death came on Adam, and all his pofterity, by his firft disobedience in paradife; under which death they should have lain for ever, had it not been for the redemption by Jefus Chrift. If by death, threatened to Adam, were meant the corruption of human nature in his pofterity, 'tis ftrange, that the new te

ftament

ftament should not any where take notice of it, and tell us, that corruption feized on all, becaufe 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 wast "thou taken; duft thou art, and to duft fhalt thou return," Gen. iii. 17. 19. This fhews, that paradife was a place of blifs, as well as immortality; without 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 fhould return; and then have no more life or fenfe, than the duft had, out of which he was made.

As Adam was turned out of paradife, fo all his pofterity 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 paradife. Rom. v. 12. By "one man fin entered into the world, and death by fin." But here will occur the common objection, that fo many ftumble at: "How doth it confift "with the juftness and goodness of God, that the pofterity of Adam thould fuf"fer 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 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, worfe 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 reafon, as well as revelation, must acknowledge to be in him unlefs we will confound good and evil, God and Satan. That fuch a state of extreme, irremediable torment is worfe than no being at all; if every one's own fenfe did not determine against the vain philofophy, and foolish metaphyficks of fome men; yet our Saviour's peremptory decifion, Matth. xxvi. 24, has put it paft doubt, that one may be in fuch an eftate, that it had been better for him. not to have been born. But that fuch a temporary life, as we now have, with all its frailties and ordinary miferies, is better than no being, is evident, by the high value we put upon it ourfelves. 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 anguish, upon every foul of man "that doth evil." ver. 9. 2 Cor. v. 10. "We must appear before the judgmentfeat 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 fhould condemn men at the laft day, affures us, in the two places, where he defcribes his proceeding at the great judgment,

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that the fentence of condemnation paffes only upon the workers of iniquity, fuch as neglected to fulfil the law in acts of charity, Matth. vii. 23. Luke xiii. 27. Matth. xxv. 41, 42. &c. “And 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 forefather Adam had done; which 'tis not likely should have been omitted, if that should 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, Matth. 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, Jefus Chrift reftores all mankind to life; 1 Cor. XV. 22. "As in Adam all die, fo in Christ shall 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 refurrection from the dead." Whereby it appears, that the life, which Jefus Chrift reftores to all men, is that life, which they receive again at the resurrection. Then they recover from death, which otherwife all mankind fhould have continued under, loft for ever; as appears by St. Paul's arguing, 1 Cor. xv, concerning the refurrection.

AND thus men are, by the fecond Adam, restored to life again; that fo 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, seems, 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 commandments, 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 fhall 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, Luke x. 25, What he fhould do to inherit eternal life? Do this," i. e, what is required by the law, "and thou shalt live."

On the other fide, it feems the unalterable purpose of the divine juftice, that no unrighteous perfon, no one that is guilty of any breach of the law, fhould be in paradife but that the wages of fin fhould be to every man, as it was to Adam, an exclufion of him out of that happy ftate of immortality, and bring death upon him. And this is fo conformable to the eternal and established, law of right and wrong, that it is spoken of too, as if it could not be otherwife. St. James fays, chap. i. 15, "Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death," as it were, by a natural and neceffary production. Sin entered into the world, and death by fin," fays St. Paul, Rom. v. 12. and vi. 23.. "The wages

of fin is death."