tranfgreffions, as effects of a cause, proceed from the corrup tion introduced into human nature by the fall; for the fall itfelf was an actual tranfgreffion before the introduction of this corruption. The English Arminians, or those who are fo denominated with perhaps no great propriety, and with whom alone we are concerned, maintain that immortality, or eternal life, was neither inherent in the nature of the first man, nor the reward due by right to the moft perfect obedience of the moral law, or that which, in the language of modern philofophy, is called natural religion; but that it was a fupernatural privi lege, granted to Adam and his pofterity by a pofitive covenant. "Sani omnes theologi fatentur", fays Bishop Bullt, ❝ vitam cœleftem atque æternam gratuitum effe Dei donum, adeoque immenfæ liberalitatis, quod ne primo quidem homini in flata integro perfectiffimè operanti ex fivicto jure deberi potuit.”

This eminent divine accordingly always confiders the first covenant as a covenant of grace, and not, as it is ufually called, the covenant of works; and, in his English difcourfe concerning the first covenant, or the state of man before the fall, he proves, with the force of demonftration, that the eternal life promifed in that covenant, to Adam and his pofterity, was a fupernatural gift, to be enjoyed not in the terreftrial paradife, but in heaven, after a fufficient probation on earth.

"The church of God", fays he, " hath conftantly believed and afferted these two things: 1. that Paradife was to Adam a type of Heaven; and that the never-ending life of happinefst promised to our first parents, if they had continued obedient, and grown up to perfection under that economy wherein they were placed, should not have been continued in the earthly Paradife, but only have commenced there, and been perpetuated in a higher state; that is to say, after fuch a trial of their obedience, as fhould feem fufficient to the Divine Wisdom, they should have been tranflated from earth to heaven.

66

2. (which is indeed a confequent of the former hypothefis) that our first parents, befides the feeds of natural virtue and religion fown in their minds, in their very creation, and besides the natural innocence and rectitude, wherein also they were created, were endowed with certain gifts and powers fupernatural, infufed by the fpirit of God; and that in these gifts their perfection confifted; that these gifts were bestowed to fit them for a fupernatural immortality; and that Adam, in the ftate of integrity, had naturally, and without the aid of the Divine Spirit, no more power to perform a righteoufnefs available to eternal

* See Brit. Crit. vol. xxi. p. 594•

+ App. ad examen animadverfionis 17, P. 77. Ed. Grabe.

1 He proves that the happiness depended on obedience to the law of nature, and the perpetuity of it on the obfervance of the pofitive precept or condition of the covenant.

2

Life,

life, than the vine hath to bring forth wine without the warm influence of the fun, the dew of heaven, and dreffing."

The Bishop is fo confident of the truth of these two propofitions, which he has indeed most elaborately proved, that he fays:

"I look on them as the two main pillars of the Catholic doctrine, concerning the fall of the first man, and the fad confequents thereof to his pofterity. And I do profefs, that I can by no means understand how that doctrine can be intelligibly explained, or rationally defended, otherwife than upon the foundation of the faid hypothefes. For if it be once granted, that man in his first and best estate was a creature merely animal*, I challenge any man to show me, wherein that great fall of mankind, of which the Scriptures, and the writings of the Ca tholic doctors, from the days of the Apostles to our prefent age, fo loudly ring, can be imagined to confift?"

That man fell is admitted by both parties; and the confequences of his fall are thus ftated by the fame incomparable divine.

"Fœdus vitæ cum Adamo initum in ftatu integro, per ipfius peccatum irritum fuit non modo ipfi, fed et pofteris ipfius; ut jam omnes Adæ filii, qua tales fint filii mortis, b. e. a promiffo omni vitæ immortalis penitus exclufi, ac moriendi nec fitate ABSQUE SPE RESURRECTIONIS, fubječti. Nulla eft in univerfà theologiâ hac propofitione certior. Paffim enim in Scripturis Novi Teftamenti apertiffimè ac verbis difertiffimis traditur; præfertim in Epift. ad Rom. cap. 5, fere per totam. Unde et probati ecclefiæ veteris Doctores univerfi, tum qui ante, tum qui poft Pelagium vixere, in ea confenferunt; neque unquam a quoqam impunè

* By the word animal, he does not mean what is now generally meant by it merely fenfual; but a man complete in reafon, fense, volition, and every natural faculty.

+ Append. ad examen animadverfionis 17. We have quoted the Bishop's fentiments on this fubject from his Latin works, because we believe them to be more generally known than his English difcourfes. Much light, however, is thrown upon his Harmonia Apoftolica, and indeed upon the nature of the Chriftian covenant, in his "Differtation on the State of Man before the Fall". On this account, we with that fome bookfeller friendly to the Church of England would republish that tract, which we think would contribute much to put an end to the prefent unprofitable controverfy between the Arminian and Calviniftic fons of that church. It is found in the third volume of his Sermons and Difcourfes, published with his Life, by the excellent Robert Nelfon, Evo. 1713. Or if the pious and learned editors of the Churchman's Remembrancer (fee Brit. Crit. vol. xxii. p. 324) would adopt this tract, and publish it as the next of their feries, it would appear there with peculiar propriety,

et fine hærefeos notâ negata fuit. Jure autem potuiffe Deum ab folum Adami peccatum pofteros ipfius omnes a vita immortali excludere, nimis manifeftum eft. Nam (ut optime Cl. Gerardas J. Voffius) licet Adam non peccaffet, poterat tamen Deus, qui liberrimus eft donorum fuorum difpenfator, creare hominem ad finem naturalem, eoque et gratiæ in hac vita, et poft hanc vitam gloriæ expertem. Evidentiffimum autem eft, quod poterat Deus abfolutè, idem potuiffe relatè, hoc eft, cum refpectu ad primum primorum parentum delictum; quo fimul oftendat, se justi judicis officio perfungi."

The fame learned prelate, whom every English Arminian is proud to call his mafter, confiders the fupernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit conferred on our firft parents as the original righteousness", from which every man that "is naturally engendered of them is, in our ninth Article, faid to be far gone".

"You may gather hence (from the reasoning of his dissertation) a clear folution of that question fo hotly agitated among modern divines, Whether the original righteousness of the firft man was fuperna. tural? For the meaning of this question, if it fignify any thing to any confiderable purpofe, is clearly this: whether Adam in the ftate of integrity needed a fupernatural principle or power, in order to the performing of fuch a righteoufnefs as, through the gracious acceptance of God, fhould have been available to an eternal and celestial life and happiness? And the queftion being thus ftated, ought to be held in the affirmative, if the consentient determination of the Church of God may be allowed its due weight in the balance of our judgments*.”

The covenant of eternal life being violated by the fall, this original perfection, or thefe fupernatural graces, were of courfe withdrawn; and, till the promife made to Adam, that the feed of the woman fhould bruife the head of the ferpent, man was placed under no other law than that of nature. But, according to the same author,

"Lex naturæ (p. e. dictamen rationis) quatenus in homine lapfo fpectatur, ut fpiritu ac revelatione divinâ deftituta, nequaquam absolutiffimam virtutem præfcribit, neque ejufdem legis obfervationi vita immor salis et cœleftis debetur.”

No wonder then that in fallen man, deprived of the graces of the Holy Ghoft," the flefh lufteth always against the fpirit", or that " man cannot turn and prepare himself, by his own natural ftrength and good works, to faith and calling upon God"; for fuch exactly would have been the cafe, though the forbidden fruit had never been tafted. In this view of the confequences of the first tranfgreffion, all English Arminians, who

State of Man before the Fall.

are

are untainted by the herefies of Pelagius and Socinus, are agreed; but many of them believe that, befides being deprived of the fupernatural graces of the Holy Ghoft, the natural faculties of man were disordered by the fall; and this disorder, they think, is what is meant by "the infection of nature", which in the ninth Article is faid to "remain, yea, in thera that are regenerated". None of them, however, believe that the prefent race of mankind are really guilty of Adam's trapfgreffion, or that an infant, who has barely cried and then ceafed to live, is, on account of that tranfgreffion, liable to "the most grievous torments in foul and body, without intermiffion, in hell-fire for ever". At the fame time, they have no objection to fay, that temporal death, forrow, and sickness are the confequences of original fin, because they are certainly the confequences of the violation of the firft covenant; or to fay, with our church, "that concupifcence and luft hath of itfelf the nature of fin", because concupifcence and luft are appetites not fuited to that ftate of celeflial happiness prepared for the Chriftian.

There is a fimilar difference between the Calviniftic and Arminian notions of fanctification. Both hold that the grace which fanctifies is neceffary to all, who would enter into the kingdom prepared for us from the foundation of the world; but the Calvinist maintains, that it is bestowed only on the elect, and that in them it is irrefiftible; while the Arminian contends, that it is certainly withheld from none to whom the gofpel is preached*; though, under the fecond covenant, it may be refifted, done defpite to, and quenched", by the Christian within the pale of the vifible church, just as it was under the first covenant, by Adam in Paradife.

pre

* The Arminian does not say that it is withheld from all to whom the Gofpel is not preached, nor does he pronounce any thing with confidence concerning the future ftate of fuch men. He fays, indeed, with the church, that they are to be confidered as heretics who " fume to fay that every man fhall be faved by the law or set which he profeffeth, fo that he be diligent to frame his life according to that law and the light of nature: for holy fcripture doth set out unto us only the name of Jefus Chrift, whereby man must be saved"; but he thinks it not inconfiftent with the scheme of Christianity, that virtuous men may be faved by a Redeemer, of whom they never heard; and that fince all men are certainly to be raised from the dead in confequence of the redemption wrought by Chrift, there may be," in the many manfions of our Father's houfe", a manfion for virtuous heathens.

Had

Had Mr. Faber attended to thefe diftin&tions, we think he would hardly have attempted, at least by the means which he has employed, to reduce the fyftematic Calvinifts and the fyf tematic Arminians to admit each other's conclufions, or reject refpectively one half of the Scriptures. The attempt is made by two chains of reafoning, the foundness of which we are now prepared to examine.

"THESIS I.

You hath he quickened, who were dead in trefpaffes and fins”*. "CONCLUSIONS.

"1. Therefore, "the condition of men after the fall of Adam is fuch, that he cannot turn and prepare himself, by his own natural rength and good works, to faith and calling upon God+".

"2. Therefore man is a paffive machine in the hands of God: for by the thefis, he is fpiritually dead; and confequently poffeffes no more power of fpiritual action, than a dead body does of phyfical action.

3. Therefore all thofe, who are quickened out of the mafs of the fpiritually dead, are elected or chofen out of that mafs: for, had they not been thus elected or chofen, they would not have been quickened, but would for ever have remained fpiritually dead; seeing they naturally poffe's no more power of felf-vivification, than a dead body. "4. Therefore all thofe, who are not thus quickened or elected, are paffed over or reprobated.

5. Therefore God willeth the death of finners: because, if he predellines a man to damnation before his birth; it is impoffible that he thould will he falvation of that very fame man; for to decree dam mation, and to will falvation, are direct oppofites."

The author deduces many other very extraordinary conclu, fions, in the fame logical manner, from this fingle text of Scripture; but we forbear to quote them, because they con, fecutively hang upon one another; and he who rejects these five, or indeed any one of them, cannot be compelled to admit tho'e which follow. But they are all, except the first, rejected by the Arminian; and even the first he does not admit as a confequence flowing from the thefis. He believes, that "the condition of man after the fall of Adam is fuch that he can. pot turn and prepare himself, by his own natural ftrength, to faith and calling upon God"; for he is perfuaded that fuch was his condition alfo before the fall. "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not feen"; but man, in a flate of nature, as he would have had nothing unseen to hope for, could not have been expected or required to turn himself to that "faith and calling upon God" which is meant