the honours of his own government, might he not resolve to spare and save a considerable number of them? And in pursuit of this resolution, might he not set things necessary to their salvation in such a light before their eyes, as they should see their danger and their only hope, and be powerfully persuaded to repent of sin, and trust in the divine methods of mercy? Might he not thus engage and incline them to lead new lives, that their souls might be fit for happiness after death, in "another state? Would not such a conduct be a manifestation of great grace and favour in God to men, even though he did not extend this favour to all the race of mankind? What injury doth he do to the rest on whom he doth not bestow this favour? May he not, as a wise and righteous Governor, see fit to let many rebellious subjects go on in their own impenitence and folly, till they receive the just demerit, as well as necessary consequence of their own rebellions? What possible reason of cavil can be raised against a sovereign Creator, Lord and Benefacter, if he should act thus with his sinful creatures, since his goodness to some doth not in the least hinder others from obtaining the salvation which is offered to all?

IX. As for the rest of degenerate mankind, does not their actual continuance in their rebellion and sinfulness shew us, that though the way of salvation provided has a sufficiency in it to save them all, yet their salvation is not secured? But they are continued under many mercies, and the common operations of reason and conscience, with various degrees of advantage for virtue and piety, with hopeful encouragements to excite them to repent of sin and return to God, and very probable hopes of acceptance, if they sincerely repent of past sins, and practise the duties of love which they owe to God and man, and betake themselves to the free mercy of God, so far as it is revealed, and so far as reason and conscience can guide, and enable them in this imperfect state. And can our reason say, that the great God is bound to go farther than this toward the recovery of sinful man?

X. These are some of the reasonings of the light of nature on this divine subject. It must be granted indeed, that if we had no assistances from revelation, the wisest and most thoughtful of men, by the mere light of nature, would hardly draw out their inferences to this degree of evidence and just hope: For if they could, why had not Socrates and Plato, those excellent philosophers, said the same things long ago? Are we so much better furnished with genius and the powers of reasoning than they were? Why should we be so vain and conceited of our selves? It is certainly divine revelation and the advantage which we have from the word of God among us, that enables us to carry our reasonings to such a length. Yet when we have many noble hints and lifts given us by the bible, to spread these

scenes and ideas before us, and to carry us into this train of consequences; we may then make it appear, that these propositions are either certainly or probably connected with each other, and that these consequences; may be esteemed the result of fair and free reasoning on this subject.

XI. This might be illustrated by a plain and obvious similitude, or rather a comparison between the sciences of geometry and religion, as the one is assisted by Euclid, and the other by Moses, and the other holy writers. Euclid has drawn out his reasonings upon lines and circles, angles and numbers, into a noble set of propositions in his books of geometry, and filled the world with most useful pieces of knowledge built upon undeniable demonstrations. Every man has the natural powers of reasoning as well as Euclid, and by the advantage of some acquaintance with his propositions and reasonings, or the works of some other great geometrician, a multitude of men have made a rich progress in this science, and can draw up a scheme of geometry, in a chain of just consequences : But without these advantages there is not one man in ten thousand would carry on their reasonings half so far as Euclid has done, or find out one quarter of his propositions, or the arguments whereby he proves them. The same thing may be justly said concerning our drawing out doctrines and inferences upon the affairs of God and religion, by the light of nature, with the bible in our hands, which not one man in ten thousand would be able to do, or at least would ever do in fact, without this advantage.

XII. Let us here stand still and recapitulate some of the things we have mentioned. Let us consider the present wretched degenerate state of all mankind, the giddiness and darkness of their understandings, the power of their prejudices, the vicious inclination of their hearts, the influence of evil examples round them, and the universal stream of impiety or idolatry, folly or vice, that has carried away all nations; let us consider how very poor and low, how wretched and ridiculous were the sentiments of men on divine subjects, and the affairs of religion in the days and nations of heathenism; let us reflect how wild are the notions, and how weak the reasonings of men, who are left entirely to the mere light of nature, or who have no revelation but such feeble glimpses and broken hints as they have derived down by long tradition, from the far distant heads of their families, Shem, Ham, or Japheth; let us think with ourselves how exceeding few of the heathens, without some communications with the Jews, or some traditional hints of ancient revelation, have been ever led to repent of sin, to make supplication to the true God for forgiveness, to practise piety towards God, or virtue towards men, from a sincere design to honour and obey their

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Maker; let us consider the best schemes of religion and morality that were ever given by the heathen philosophers, and observe how grossly defective they are, and how little they themselves or their disciples ever practised them. Again, let us think of the wisest and best of them, whose virtues made such a blaze in the heathen world, how universally they neglected the love of God, as the principle of their virtues, and the glory of God, as their end of them; "for thongh they knew God by the light of nature, they glorified him not as God;" Rom. i. 21. And let us farther review the wretched character that the apostle Paul gives of the Gentile world, in Rom. i. Ephes. ii. Col. i. &c. into what abominable iniquities they were plunged, even whole tribes and nations of men; and if we then reflect how well these accounts of St. Paul agree with the reports of modern travellers, I fear we shall find but exceeding few who can make any claim or pretence to the future rewarding grace of their Creator. And perhaps, upon a view of these matters of fact, the surest thing that reason can determine is this, that when all shall stand before the judgment-seat of God, the better sort of heathens can arise no higher in their utmost claims or pretences, than to be treated with some lighter punishments; and that the more impious and abominable wretches will be distinguished by more severe and durable inflictions of misery; for the very best cannot lay a just and sure claim to any reward. I will not dare to say this is the utmost favour God will shew them, but this seems to be the utmost certain claim or pretence to favour, which, by the light of nature, they can justly make for themselves.

QUEST. XI.-What does Scripture reveal to us concerning the Punishment due to Sin? Or, what are we to understand by that Death which the Scripture tells us was threatened to Man, as the Penalty due to the first Offence, or as it is inflicted on Mankind on the Account of Sin?

It is evident from the second chapter of Genesis, and from many other places in scripture, that death is the penalty threatened for the sin of man; Gen. ii. 17. In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. Now under this term dying mentioned in the original law of innocency, many of our christian writers have generally supposed every thing to be included which has been ever since called death, in the Old or New Testament; viz. natural death, or the death of the body; spiritual death, or the loss of God's favour and image in the soul; and eternal death, or torment both of soul and body in another

world. Let us consider how far the word death ought reasonably to be extended to each of these:

I Natural death, or the death of the body, is one thing plainly designed in the first threatening, beyond all controversy. The natural life of the sinner is forfeited to him who gave it, when he has once broken his allegiance to his Creator and supreme Lord. That this is the first and most obvious idea of the punishment threatened, may be plainly proved, because this is the universal, common, and literal meaning of the word death, in all human languages. This is also the very sense of the same writer Moses, when he uses the same words in all other parts of his writings, viz. Thou shalt surely die; or, dying thou shalt die. In those places it means evidently temporal death, as might be proved casily if we consult all those places. And let it be observed, that in those early ages the future and invisible world being very little brought into view, the word death might paturally include in it the forfeiture of all being and all comforts whatsoever, since it evidently means the loss and forfeiture of all visible being, life and comforts; for all these appear to vanish at death. And this notion of death will not be strange, if we can agree to the learned and ingenious Mr. Warburton's sentiment in his divine legation of Moses, viz. that the doctrine of a future state of rewards and punishments is not to be found in the Mosaic dispensation, nor did it make any part of it; though I dare not so universally pronounce this opinion true.

Besides, this death of the body was positively foretold to Adam, and was the sentence pronounced upon him when he had actually sinned: Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return; Gen. iii. 19. And accordingly we find, that when Adam is said to beget a son in his own likeness, that is, in his own mortal likeness, in contradiction to the glorious and immortal likeness of God, in which the foregoing verses tell us he was first made; Gen. v. 1-3. Then the scripture goes on to prove it, by shewing how this death was executed: There is a plain ac count follows of the natural death of Adam, and a long succession of the deaths of his posterity, as being made mortal in the image of Adam, their natural head. And as I have shewn before, that not only life, but health and ease, and the comforts of life being the free gifts of God our Creator, they are all forfeited by the offence of his creature against him: And all the pains, and sorrows, and sicknesses of this life, which by degrees tend to wear out nature, and to bring man down to the dust, may be justly supposed to be implied in this threatening of death. And as this natural death of the body is plainly implied in the first threatening as a penalty for sin, to come upon Adam and his posterity; so not only all the books of Moses, but perhaps all the Old Testament, do scarce afford us any instances wherein

the word death, properly and without a figure, is taken to signify any thing else plainly but the sorrows and miseries of this life, and the final deprivation of life itself; though, in the first threatening tacitly, it may include the forfeiture of every thing God had before given, so far as God pleased to resume it. See note, question IX. section VI.

II. The next thing our divines have usually included in the word dying, is spiritual death, which has been generally extended to signify the anguish of a guilty conscience, the loss of the divine image in holiness, with the loss of the divine favour, and the infliction of new sorrows on the soul. Let us consider each of these apart, and see how far they may be included in the first threatening.

1. The anguish of conscience can never belong to any but the personal transgressor himself, because it consists in the uneasy and painful reflections of the mind of him that has sinned, charging himself with his own act of folly and disobedience. This is the natural effect or consequent of personal sin, and not so properly the threatened penalty of the law. This anguish does not come upon the offspring of Adam by imputation on the account of the first sin, for it can never be imputed to another person by any representation or suretyship: Nor can it ever be conveyed or transmitted by any natural propagation or descent; for, in the nature of things, anguish of conscience can only belong to the very person who is conscious of his own actual folly and rebellion, which another person can never be conscious of*. But though this cannot be communicated to the offspring of Adam, on account of his sin; yet when they become personal sinners, they feel this anguish of conscience also arising from their own actual transgressions, as the natural consequence of a guilty mind.

2. The loss of the image of God in holiness is another thing contained in spiritual death, and in the New Testament this is termed by St. Paul, a death in trespasses and sins; Eph. ii. 1. It consists in the corruption of human nature, and a bias or propensity toward evil. But this cannot be so properly threatened as the penalty of the law to be inflicted for the sin of Adam; for the holy and righteous God cannot be the author of

*By the way we may take notice here, that though infants have the sin of Adam so far imputed to them, as to fall under the sentence of death; and though the sins of the world were so far imputed to Christ, the second Adam, as to expose him to sufferings of soul and body, and to the accursed death, yet neither infants nor our blessed Lord ever had, nor can have, any anguish of conscience, because this arises only from the actual and personal sin striking the mind of the actual and personal transgressor with sharp reflexions and inward remorse, as conscious of his own fault. We may all be grieved and sorry that Adam our father sinned, but we cannot have painful inward remorse, reproaches or selfreflections, on the account of the sin or sius which we ourselves never committed.