PROVED TO BE NOT SUFFERING, BUT Privation; AND IMMORTALITY DEPENDENT ON SPIRITUAL REGENERATION: The whole argued on the Words and Harmony of Scripture, and In the Course of the Work an Argument is suggested, demonstrating the Divinity and Personality of OUR SAVIOUR and the HOLY SPIRIT, with the same Evidence that accompanies the Demonstration of the Being and Attributes of GOD. BY A MEMBER OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. IN AN APPENDIX ARE GIVEN EXTRACTS FROM JER. TAYLOR, HOOKER, BARROW, HOWE, LOCKE, TILLOTSON, WATTS, & LELAND. And the Lord God said-LEST he take of the Tree of Life, and eat, and live for ever; THEREFORE the Lord God-drove out the Man. GEN. iii. 22. They are Children of God, BEING the Children of the Resurrection. LUKE XX. 35. The Lord knoweth how-to reserve the unjust unto the Day of Judgment to be punished; THESE, as natural brute beasts MADE to be taken and destroyed-shall utterly perish im their own corruption. 2 PETER ii. 9. London: Printed by J. WHITING, 3, Lombard Street; Published by J. HATCHARD, Bookseller to the Queen, Piccadilly; DEIGHTON & SONS, Cambridge, and sold by all Booksellers. 1817. الله DEDICATION. ΤΟ The Right Reverend Father in God, Herbert, Lord Bishop of Llandaff. MY LORD, IN the unauthorized liberty I am taking by submitting, in this public manner, my opinions to your Lordship, I am anxious not to be supposed to claim that the following work has passed the ordeal of your Lordship's criticism; being too sensible of the value of that opinion, as a passport to public attention, to be, in any way, a party to the delusion. Your Lordship's character as a scholar stands too high to be injured by any thing I can do. Should the present attempt be judged weak and futile, thus far associating it with your Lordship's name will but recall to mind the solid ground on which you have established the character of the first theological critic of the present day. It is as such that I court your Lordship's attention to my work; and being, above all things, desirous to know the truth, the knowledge of my errors is a benefit I may hope to attain from that union of amenity and condescension with the most highly cultivated abilities, which I know your Lordship to possess. I have the honour to be Your Lordship's respectful Servant, London, October 8, 1817. THE AUTHOR. PREFACE. THE Writer of the following pages is too anxious for success in his main object to be indifferent to the favour of his readers; and would disarm criticism where he most fears it, by the humility of his pretensions. The graces of composition will not be looked for from one who shall announce himself to have been, from a very early age, employed in "learning and labouring truly to get his own living in a state of life" incompatible with minute attention to the more polished refinements of language. For the style of his work, therefore, he trusts that a severe account will not be exacted: but although he may plead want of leisure and cultivation to procure indulgence on this head, he disclaims any plea for favour in regard to the subject matter. His best abilities have been employed to bring to the test of scripture the notions that have suggested themselves to his mind; and the result is such entire and undoubting conviction, that he courts the most rigid scrutiny, which he will consider as the co-ope |