THE

REASONABLENESS

OF

CHRISTIANITY,

AS DELIVERED IN THE

SCRIPTURE S.

PRE FAC E.

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

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

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

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

Tis 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 must confider what the fcripture fhews we loft by Adam. This I thought worthy of a diligent and unbiaffed fearch; fince I found the two extremes, that men run into on this point, either on the one hand fhook the foundations of all religion, or on the other made Christianity 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 autho VOL. IV.

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ized 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 necef fary, 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 trefpafled this way, against the write ten word of God, by any one, who does but take it to be a collec→ tion of writings defigned by God for the inftruction of the illiterate bulk of mankind in the way to falvation; and therefore generally and in neceffary points to be understood in the plain direct meaning of the words and phrafes, fuch as they may be fuppofed to have had in the mouths of the fpeakers, who used them according to the language of that time and country wherein they lived, without fuch learned, artificial, and forced fenfes of them, as are fought out, and put upon them in most of the fyftenis 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 visible, was the ftate of perfect obedience, which is called "justice" 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 blifs and immortality. The penalty annexed to the breach of the law, with the fentence pronounced by God upon it, fhews this. The penalty ftands thus, Gen. ii. 17. "In the day that thou "eatest thereof thou shalt 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 fhould take thereof and live for ever. This fhews that the ftate of paradife was a state of immortality, of life without end, which he loft that very day that he eat: his life began from thence to fhorten and wafte, and to have an end; and from thence, to his actual death, was but like the time of a prifoner between the fentence past and the execution, which was in view and certain. Death then entered and fhewed his face, which before was shut out, and not known. So St. Paul, Rom. v. 12. "C By one man "fin entered into the world, and death by fin," i. e. a ftate of death and mortality: and 1 Cor. xv. 22. "In Adam all die;" i. c. by reafon of tranfgreffion all men are mortal, and come to die.

This is fo clear in thefe cited places, and fo much the current of the New Teftament, that nobody can deny but that the doctrine of the gofpel is, that death came on all mon by Adam's fin; only they differ about the fignification of the word "death." For fome will have it to be a ftate of guilt, wherein not only le, but all his pofterity was fo involved, that every one defcended of him deferved 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

goodness of God, having mentioned it above: but it seems a ftrange way of understanding a law, which requires the plaineft and directeft words, that by "death" fhould be meant eternal life in mifery. Could any one be fuppofed by a law, that fays, "for felony thou fhalt die," not that he fhould lofe his life, but be kept alive in perpetual exquifite torments? And would any one think himself fairly dealt with, that was so 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 forbidden fruit, thou fhalt die;" i. e. thou and thy posterity fhall be ever after uncapable of doing any thing, but what fhall be finful and provoking to me, and fhall justly deserve my wrath and indignation. Could a worthy man be fuppofed to put. fuch terms upon the obedience of his fubjects? much fefs can the righteous God be fuppofed, as a punishment of one fin wherewith he is difpleafed, to put a man under a neceffity of finning continually, and fo multiplying the provocation? The reafo of this ftrange interpretation we fhall perhaps find in fome mistaken places of the New Teftament. I must confefs, by death here, I can understand nothing but a ceafing to be, the lofing of all actions of life and fenfe. Such a death came on Adam and all his pofterity by his first difobedience in paradife, under which death they would have lain for ever, had it not been for the redemption by Jefus Chrift. If by death threatened to Adam, were meant the co ruption of human nature in his pofterity, it is ftrange that the Ne 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 th "fake; in forrow fhall thou eat of it all the days of thy life, in "the fweat of thy face fhalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto "the ground for out of it waft thou taken; duft thou art, and to

duft fhalt thou return." Gen. iii. 17, 19. This fhews that paradife was a place of blifs as well as immortality, without toil, and without forrow. But when man was turned out, he was expofed to the toil, anxiety, and frailties of this mortal life, which fhould end in the duft, out of which he was made, and to which he should return; and then have no more life or fenfe than the duft had, out of which he was made.

As Adam was turned out of paradife, fo all his pofterity was born out of it, out of the reach of the tree of life. All like their father Adam in a ftate 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 juftice and goodness of God, that the pofterity of Adam fhould fuffer for his fin; the innocent be punished for the guilty? Very well, if keep

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ing 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, it is 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 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 Supreme 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 fenfe did not determine against the vain philofophy, and foolifh metaphyficks of fome men; yet our Saviour's peremptory decifion, Matt. 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 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

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his deeds. To thofe that obey unrightcoufnefs, 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 judge"ment-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 last day, affures us in the two places where he defcribes his proceeding at the great judgement, that the fentence of condemnation paffes only on the workers of iniquity, fuch as neglected to fulfill the law in acts of charity, Matt. vii. 23. Luke xiii. 27. Matt. xxv. 42. 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 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 paradise, and all his pofterity born out of it, the confequence of it was, that all men fhould 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. 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 fore

going 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 refurrection. Then they recovered from death, which otherwife all mankind fhould have continued under, loft for ever, as appears by St. Paul's arguing Cor. xv. concerning the refurrection.

And thus men are by the fecond Adam reftored to life again : that fo by Adam's fin they may none of them lofe any thing, which by their own righteoufnefs 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 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 re'ward of it, eternal life and blifs, by being his mortal iffue: Christ will bring them all to life again; and then they fhall be put every one upon his own trial, and receive judgement, as he is found to be righteous or not: and "the righteous," as our Saviour fays, Matt. xxv. 46. " fhall go into eternal life." Nor fhall any one mifs it, who has done what our Saviour directed the lawyer, who asked, Luke x. 25. "What he should do to inherit eternal life? do this," i. e. what is required by the law; " and thou fhalt live."

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On the other fide, it seems 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 hould 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 establithed' law of right and wrong, that it is spoke of too as if it could not be otherwife. St. James fays, chap. i. 15. "Sin, when it is finifhed, bring"eth forth death," as it were by a natural and neceffary production. "Sin entered into the world, and death by fin," favs St. Paul, Rom. v. 12. and vi. 23. "The wages of fin is death." Death is the purchase of any, of every fin. Gal. iii. 10. " Curfed is every one who continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them." And of this St. James gives a reafon, chap. ii. 10, 11. "Whofoever fhall keep the whole law, "and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all: for he that faid, "Do not commit adultery, faid alfo, do not kill:" i. e. He that offends in any one point, fins against the authority which established the law.

Here then we have the standing and fixed meafures of life and death. Immortality and blifs belong to the righteous; those who have lived in an exact conformity to the law of God, are out of the reach of death: but an exclufion from paradife, and lofs of immortality, is the portion of finners, of all thofe who have any way

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