this of himself, and that his delight is to do fo, and that this is a proper ground of glorying to his creatures; as in Jeremiah ix. 23, 24. Thus faith the Lord, let not the wife man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches; but let him that glorieth, glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercifeth loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth; for in these things I delight, faith the Lord. And as God has thus declared himself to be a righteous Being, fo he hath likewife declared in the foremention'd 18th chapter of Ezek. that to charge the guilt of every man's actions upon himself, and not upon another, is agreeable to these principles of justice and equity; and confequently to charge the guilt of a perfon's actions upon another, that was no way acceffory to his crime, is to act contrary to thefe principles.

This being obferved, I anfwer, that if St. Paul, or an angel from heaven, fhould preach fuch a doctrine (as the objection fuppofes) as this would be a falfhood in itself, and would be charging the righteous God foolishly; fo we ought not to receive it, nor give the leaft degree of affent to it, Gal. i. 8. but farther, I fay, we are under no neceffity of bringing this cafe to fo defperate an iffue, as to conclude, that either God is unjuft, or else that St. Paul hath preached falfe doctrine to the world; because if we treat St. Paul's writings with the fame civility, and give him the fame allowances as we do to the writings of all other men, we should fee that St. Paul did not intend to establish fuch a doctrine, as the objection represents him to have done. For the clearing this point, and St. Paul from this reflection, I will give my sense of what he hath faid in this matter, when I have premifed, first, that as God punished Adam's fin in eating the forbidden fruit with death; fo death, or mortality, paffed upon all his pofterity, as a natural confequence of his fin: I fay, as a natural confequence, because as mortality was inflicted upon Adam, as a juft punishment for his folly; fo his feed naturally became mortal, as they were branches fpringing out of a mortal stock. Secondly, I premise, that St. Paul was fo far from fuppofing, that God acts contrary to the principles of justice and equity in his dealings with his creatures, that on the contrary, in this very epiftle, he retorts back fuch a fuppofition, with a God forbid: and intimates to the Romans, that if God was unrighteous he would be unfit to judge the world, as knowing that injuftice and partiality were very unreasonable in judgment. Thus in chap. iii. 5, 6. Is God unrighteous, who taketh vengeance? I speak as a man, God forbid, for then how fhall God judge the world? Seeing therefore St. Paul takes it for granted, that God acts agreeable to the principles of juftice and equity; and feeing that to impute the guilt of one perfon's actions to another, who was no ways acceffory to his crime, is contrary to these principles, according to what God hath declared of this matter by his Prophet Ezekiel, which St. Paul could not be ignorant of; from hence, I infer, that if there is any fenfe to be put upon his words, which is agreeable to truth, to the defign for which they are urged, and to what the Apostle hath elsewhere more plainly expreffed upon a like occafion, we ought in justice to interpret his words in such a sense, and not in a fense which is contrary thereto.

This being premised, I obferve, that St. Paul, in the former part of this epiftle (in order to take off the vain and groundless conceit of the Jews, who had monopolized the favour and love of God to themselves; and to comfort the believing Gentiles, whom the Jews defpifed as reprobates) he largely and fully proved, that the Jews and Gentiles, in the kingdom of the Meffiah, stood all upon a level, in point of acceptance in God's fight, and that there was no room for boafting on either fide; because as the Gentiles had finned against the light of nature, fo had the Jews alfo against the law of Mofes, confequently they were all concluded under fin. And as they were all finners, so their juftification, or freedom from condemnation, was an act of grace, and not of debt. It was what God's goodness and mercy was pleafed to beftow, and not what he in ftrict juftice was obliged to. And as their juftification was an act of grace, and not of debt; fo the prerequifites, or that which made them the fuitable objects of this grace of juftification, was faith in, and faithfulness to the Meffiah, whom God hath appointed to be the minifter of this grace, both to Jew and Gentile. And as God had given his Son to promote the welfare of mankind; fo this was a convincing proof of the greatness and truth of his love, and was a proper ground of hope that he would be every way a suitable good unto them.

The Apostle having fhewn at large, that both Jew and Gentile ftood upon a level, in point of acceptance in God's fight, and that the Gentiles had the fame ground of glory, and of hope as the Jews, forafmuch as God was the God of the Gentiles as well as of the Jews, he farther illuftrates this point (in the verses from whence the objection is taken) by fhewing, that as Adam was the common father of Jew and Gentile, and as his difobedience affected them both, by bringing mortality upon his pofterity; fo Chrift was given of God to be a great and univerfal benefit to mankind, by raifing all men from that death, which Adam's fin had subjected them to, and fo bringing them again into a ftate of life. Thus in chap. v. 12. Wherefore, as by one man (Adam) fin entered into the world, and death by fin, and fo death paffed upon all men, for that all have finned (are become mortal) that by the term finned, is meant mortality (the caufe being put for the effect) is plain, not only from the parallel place, 1 Cor. xv. 22. where St. Paul, fpeaking of the fame thing, faith, as in Adam all die, that is, become mortal, for that they actually died in Adam was not true; but it was true that in him they became mortal, or at least the Apostle judged that to be the cafe, as in verfe 21. For fince by man (viz. Adam) came death, or mortality, by man (viz. Chrift) came alfo the refurrection from the dead: I fay, it is not only clear from the parallel place in Corinthians, but also from St Paul's discourse in this very place: thus, verfe 15. For if through the offence of one (viz. Adam) many be dead; here we fee that it is death, and not fin, which the Apoftle faith many fell under by Adam's offence, and this is what he undertakes to prove in the 13th and 14th verfes, as will appear by and by. And that the caufe is put for the effect fometimes in this very cafe, fee Gen. vii. 4. If thou dost well, shalt thou not be accepted; but if thou dost not well, fin (or the effect of fin, which is punishment) lieth at the door. As the being

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being accepted of God, was the effect of Abel's well doing; fo the being rejected by him, was the effect or punishment of Cain's evil doing. Now for Gain to do evil, was the fame thing as to commit fin, fin and evil in this case being the fame thing; and therefore, that which lay at the door, or followed his doing evil, was not fin, but the effect or punishment of fin; and yet God (or the angel which fpake in God's name to Cain) calls it fin, putting the caufe for the effect. So in like manner the Apoftle puts the term fin, which was the caufe, for mortality, which was the effect. That all men have finned in Adam was not true (as I have fhewn) but that all men became mortal by his fin, was true, or at leaft the Apoftle judged that to be the cafe (as I have thewn likewife.) What a hardship therefore must it be to the Apoftle, for us to interpret his words in a fenfe, contrary to the sense which he himself gives them in this, and in a parallel place of his writings. And the hardship will be yet greater in denying him the liberty of putting the caufe for the effect, when God had done the fame in the ufe of the very fame term, as is before

fhewn.

If it should be here replied, that it seems a little strange that St. Paul should use the same term in two different fenfes in the fame verse. I answer, it seems more ftrange, that he fhould affert that which was contrary to truth, and which no way answered his prefent defign; for to affert that death passed upon all men, as an effect or confequence of their own fin, as this was not true, fo it was befide his prefent purpofe; which was to fhew, not what was the effect of all men's fin, but on the contrary what was the effect of Adam's fin only. Verfe 13, 14. For until the law, fin was in the world; but fin is not imputed where there is no law: Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not finned after the fimilitude of Adam's tranfgreffion. Here in the 13th verfe the Apostle (according to the plain and moft obvious fignification of the words) fuppofes and allows three things. First, That from Adam to Mofes there was no law; this is fully implied in those words [until the law] which naturally fuppofes that, antecedent to that time, there was no law; and in those words [where there is no law) which fuppofes that there was no law in being at the time referred to. Secondly, He allows that fin was committed all that space of time, from Adam down to Mofes: this is expreffed in those words, for until the law, fin was in the world. Thirdly, He allows that there can be no guilt contracted where there is no law; this is expreffed in those words, but fin is not imputed where there is no law. Now in his allowing these three points, he is guilty of a flat contradiction; for if there is no guilt contracted when there is no law, and if there was no law in being from Adam to Mofes, then it will neceffarily follow that there could be no guilt contracted in that space of time, and yet the Apostle exprefsly afferts, that until the law, fin was in the world: this puts us under a neceffity of finding out fuch a sense of these words as will make St. Paul confiftent with truth, and with himself, viz. by the term law, in the first part of the verfe, he means the law given by Mofes, as appears from the next verfe, in which he faith, nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Mofes; where the term nevertheless fuppofes that death prevailed

at

at the fame time in which he had declared fin had prevailed, as in the precedent verfe, viz. till the law. So that till the law, and from Adam to Mofes, is the fame thing in the sense of the Apostle. By the term law, in the latter part of the verse, he means fuch a law as had death fixed to it as its fanction; fuch was the law given to Adam, which forbad the eating of the tree of knowledge upon pain of death. By the imputing of fin, the Apostle means, the inflicting of death as a punishment for the breach of fuch a law; as much as if he had faid, death is not inflicted as a punishment for the breach of a law, except there be fome pofitive law which declares that death is fixed to it as its fanction. And that this is his meaning appears from verse 14. where he faith, that death reigned from Adam to Mofes, even over them that had not finned after the fimilitude of Adam's tranfgreffion. Here he allows, that thofe death reigned over might be finners, but he denies that they had been guilty of the breach of fuch a law as Adam had; they had not tranfgreffed a pofitive law which had death fixed to it as its fanction. Now if they had been guilty of fin, which the Apostle here allows they might, and in the former verse afferts that they had, and if fin is the tranfgreflion of a law, and if they had not tranfgreffed fuch a law as Adam did, then it will follow, that if the Apostle is confiftent with himself, he makes a diftinction between law and law: they had tranfgreffed the law of nature, or the law given to Noah, and this made them guilty of fin; but they had not tranfgreffed fuch a pofitive law, as had death fixed to it as its fanction, and fo they had not finned after the fimilitude or likeness of Adam's tranfgreffion; and therefore death was not inflicted on them as a punishment for the breach of fuch a law, but was to them only as a confequence of that mortality, which Adam brought upon himself by tranfgreffing, as aforefaid. The fenfe of the two verfes I take to be this, viz. tho we must allow on the one fide, that fin prevailed in the world all that space of time, from Adam down to the giving of the law of Mofes; and as we must allow on the other fide, that death is not inflicted as a punishment for the breach of a law, where there is no law, which had declared that death is fixed to it as its fanction; yet, notwithstanding this, death prevailed from Adam to Mofes over those who had not tranfgreffed such a law; and confequently death could not be inflicted upon them for the breach of a law which they had not tranfgreffed, but only it was a confequence of that mortality, which Adam brought upon himself for the breaking of fuch a law.

Verse 15. But not as the offence, fo alfo is the free gift: for if through the of fence of one, many be dead; much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, hath abounded unto many. Which is, as if the Apostle had faid, tho Adam was a figure and type of Christ, and tho the breach he made upon human nature was univerfal; yet, fo great is the favour and gift of God to us in and thro' Chrift, that the reparation made by him, is as great and univerfal to mankind, as the aforefaid damage done by Adam: for if by Adam's fin, all mankind have fallen under the fentence of death; much more the grace of God, which hath been difplayed, in giving Chrift to death for us, and in giving the future refurrection from the dead through him, shall be extended to all mankind also. Verfe

Verse 16. And not as it was by one that finned, fo is the gift; for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many unto juftification: which is as much as if he had faid, the grace which God hath vouchfafed to mankind in Chrift Jefus, is more abundant than the fentence laid upon Adam, as appears from this, viz. the fentence of death which paffed upon Adam, was for only one fingle offence; but the gift of a future refurrection, which God hath given to mankind in and thro' Chrift Jefus, is vouchfafed to us, tho we have been guilty not only of one, but of many offences.

Verse 17. For if by one man's offence, death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace, and of the gift of righteousness, fhall reign in life by one fefus Chrift: which is as much as if he had faid, for if by one offence of Adam, death paffed upon all his pofterity, much more fhall they all to whom God hath fuper-abounded in grace, in giving his Son to death for them (even all mankind) be reftored to life again thro' him.

Verle 18. Therefore as by the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even fo by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men, unto juftification of life: which is as much as if he had faid, therefore as by one offence, even Adam's eating the forbidden fruit, all men fell under the condemnation of death; fo by one act of righteousness, or obedience, viz. Christ's obedience to death upon the crofs, all men are reftored to life again.

Verse 19. For as For as by one man's difobedience, many were made finners (brought into a state of mortality, the cause being here put for the effect) fo by the obedience of one, fhall many be made righteous: which is as much as if he had faid, for as by Adam's fin, his pofterity became mortal, and fo paffed into a state of death, which is the state of finners; fo by Christ's obedience unto death, even the death of the crofs, all Adam's pofterity, both Jew and Gentile, are restored again to a state of life, which in that refpect is the state of the righteous.

That by the terms life, and juftification of life, and the like expreffions, in the foregoing verfes, is not meant that eternal life which will be the portion and inheritance of the faithful, but only a bare refurrection from that temporal death, which hath paffed upon all men, as a confequence or effect of Adam's fin, is plain from this, viz. that it will be univerfal to all over whom death hath prevailed, which is all mankind: whereas the eternal life, before mentioned, is every - where declared in the fcriptures to be the portion of none but the faithful. The Apoftle, in the foregoing verfes, makes it his bufinefs to prove, that the benefit and advantage mankind have by Chrift, is as great and univerfal as the damage done by Adam, in order to prove, that the Gentiles have as great a fhare in Christ as the Jews; and therefore, in his reafoning upon this fubject, he puts the term life, which he reprefents as a benefit from Chrift, in oppofition to the term death, which he reprefents as a damage coming from Adam: and he makes the benefit of the one, to be as extenfive and univerfal as the other; which can be true in no other cafe, than in the general refurrection of all mankind, according to his own words, in 1 Cor. xv. 21, 22. For Since by man came death, by man came alfo the refurrection of the dead: for as in Adam all died, even fo in Chrift fall all be made alive, or raised again from the

dead.