220 ï'nErACÉ. meditation, than in reading controversies ; reason and the bible were the only springs whence I derived my sentiments, and the only tests by which I tried them, and not the authority of any great name, or any sect or party among men. Therefore if any reader is detertnined already to believe nothing but what is perfectlyconformable to some favourite system,or theopinions of the party, Which he has chosen for his test oftruth and error, I shall not court his favour, nor be greatly moved by his censure. But if I have been so happy as to set these truths, which scripture has revealed concerning our misery and divinemercy, in so favourable a light, as to make it evident to well -disposed impartial readers, how far theyare sup- ported by reason itself, and to discover andmaintain this agreementbetween these two different manifestationsof God to men, 1 have attained myend : If I have beenenabled in any measure to render these sacred truths more credi- ble to the sincere enquirers after truth, and to relieve the divine revelations of scripture, against the cavils of an age which greatly pretends to reason, I shall account my labour well employed. The deist will have no longer cause to triumph in the assurance of his attacks against scripture, nor shall the christian wantmatter for his satisfaction and joy, whenhe sees his divine religion vindicated by the powersof reason. My chief design, and that which has regulated all my meditations and reasonings, is to establishand confirm what appears to me to be plain matter of fact; in the sinful and miserable circumstances of all the childrenof Adam by nature, and their hopes of recoveryby divine grace, so far as either the light of nature or scripture would:assist me; and to vindicate the moral perfec- tions of God, his holiness, justice, and goodness in his worksof providence andgrace, or in bis whole government of the world. The ground -work of my scheme is laid in theoriginal rectitudeof man, and bis early degeneracy into sin and misery ; and I havedrawn from themere light of nature, suffi- cient proof and evidence of both these. Ifwhat has been said in answer to the first question, does not sufficiently prove the doctrineof original sin from the universal sinfulness and misery of mankind, I hope the first essay in the appendix will do it; the first part whereof represents that subject more largely, as it relates to the misery of man, and the latter end ofit briefly enforces theargument from his universal sinfulness, bothby reason and scripture. The reader isdesired to forgive the repetition of a few sentiments which are set invarious lights, especially con- sidering thatthis essay was first designed only for a philosophical enquiry or amusement, and not to take its place in this book. It wouldhave been needless labour to enter into any examination of the learned DoctorWhitby's scheme published in his writings, and to answer all his objections about originalsin, imputed or inherent: For if the facts which I recite concerningthe sinful nature and wretched circumstancesof mankind even from their infancy are found by constant experience and observation to betrue, thena great part of his scheinevanishesand dies as a matter of mere mistake in fact: And if my scheine or hypothesis for the solution ofthe diffi culties which attend thisdoctrine issupported by reason and scripture, then hisobjections against it must fall of course. No objection against a certain truth can ever be valid or strong, though at first view it may appear neverso plausible. And I thought this to be the plainest and shortest way ofwriting and reasoning, and not to embarrass my readers more thau was necessary with the perplexities of controversial writingson so difficult asubject*. Besides all this I add, that though aconsiderable part of that writer's ob- jections against original sin may lie heavy on some defendersof it,yet those * Yet I must confess in the second edition of this book, I have found this . intermixture of objections and answers more necessary than I imagined ; ana tkat merely to keep errors from triumph, and,hoaest readers frost, mistaker
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