BY DANIEL WHITBY, D. D. LATE CHANTOR OF THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF SARUM. PRINTED AT WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS, AT THE PRESS OF AND FOR ISAIAH THOMAS, JUN. PREFAC E. THEY HEY who have known my education may remember, that I was bred up feven years in the Univerfity under men of the Calvinistical perfuafion, and fo could hear no other Doctrine, or receive no other inftructions from the men of those times, and therefore had once firmly entertained all their doctrines. Now that which first moved me to fearch into the foundation of these doctrines, viz. The Imputation of Adam's Sin to all its Pofterity, was the strange confequences of it; this made me fearch the more exactly into that matter, and by reading Joshua Placæus, with the answer to him, and others on that subject, I foon found cause to judge that there was no truth in it. SECTION 1.-After fome years ftudy I met with one who feemed to be a Deift, and telling him that there were arguments fufficient to prove the truth of Christian Faith, and of the holy Scriptures, he fccrnfully replied, Yes: And you will prove your Doctrine of the Imputation of Original Sin from the fame Scripture; intimating that he thought that doctrine, if contained in it, fufficient to invalidate the truth and the authority of the Scripture. And by a little reflection 1 found the Strength of his argument ran thus: That the truth of holy Scripture could no otherwife be proved to any man that doubted of it, but by reducing him to fome abfurdity, or the denial of fome avowed principle of reafon. Now this imputation of Adam's fin to his pofterity, fo as to render them obnoxious to God's wrath, and to eternal damnation, only because they were born of the race of Adam, feemed to him as contradictory to the common reason of mankind, as any thing could be, and fo contained as strong an argument against the truth of Scripture, if that doctrine was contained in it, as any could be offered for it. And upon this account I again fearched into the places ufually alledged to confirm that doctrine, and found them fairly capable of other interpretations. One doubt remained still, whether Antiquity did not give fuffrage for this doctrine ; and here I found the words of Voffius very positive, that Ecclefia Cathol ica fic femper judicavit, the Catholic Church always fo judged; which he endeavors to prove by teftimonies from Ignatius to et, Auftin. This fet me on the laborious task of perufing the writings of antiquity till that time, and upon an impartial search, I found that all the pallages he had collected were impertinent, or at least infufficient to prove the point; yea, I found evidence fufficient of the truth of that which Peter du Moulin plainly owns, that from the time of the Apofiles to St. Auẞtin's time, all the Ecclefiaftical Writers feem to write incautiously of this Matter, and to encline to what he calls Pelagianism, And of his having made a collection, I finished a treatife of Original fin, in Latin, which hath been compofed about twenty years, though I have not thought it advisable to publish it. Another time I difcourfed with a Physician, who faid, there was ioma caufe to doubt the truth of Scripture; for, faith he, it fecms plainly hold forth the doctrine of abfolute election and reprobation, in the ninth chapter to the Romans, which is attended with more evident absurdities than can be charged on them who question the truth of Scripture: And alfo feemeth as repugnant to the common notien which mankind have received of divine justice, goodness and fincerity, as even the faying that God confidering man, in massa perdita, as loft in Adam, may delude him with false miracles, fremeth repugnant to his truth. And reading in (a) Mr. Dodwell, that bold stroke, that St. Paul being bred a Pharisee spake there, and is to be interpreted, ex mente Pharifæorum, according to the Doctrine of the Pharisees concerning, Fate, which they had borrowed from the Stoics; I fet myfelf to make the best and exactest search I could into the fenfe of the Apostle in that chapter, and the best help I had to attain to the fenfe of that chapter which I have given in my paraphrase, I received from a manufcript of Dr. Patrick, the late worthy Bishop of Ely, on that fubject. Thence I went on to examine all that was urged in favor of these doctrines from the holy Scripture, and this produced one confiderable part of thefe difcourfes. And it was no fmall confirmation of the sense both of the places here produced against, and rescued from the falle interpretations of the adversaries of this doctrine, (ft.) that I found I fill failed with the ftream of Antiquity, feeing only one, St. Auftin, with his two Boatswains, Prosper and Fulgentius, tugging hard against it, and often driven back into it by the strong current of Scripture, reafon and of common sense. SECTION II-adly. I also found that the Heretics of old, ufed many of the fame texts of Scripture, to the fame purposes, as the patrons of these doctrines do at present; as hath been oft observed in these discourses. 3dly. That the Valentinians, Marcionites, Basilidians, Manichees, Priscillianifts and other Heretics were condemned by the ancient champions of the Church upon the fame accounts, and from the fame ScripAures and reasons, which we now use against these Decretalifts; and the principles on which they founded all their confutations of them, were thele. 1. That it is not our nature, but our will, and choice of that from which we might abftain, which was the root and fountain of all our wickedness; for otherwife, fay they, tẽ πoihoavto; nu šynλque, that God, who is the author of our nature, muft be the author of our fin; this doctrine they unanimouffy teach from Justin Martyr and Irenæus, to St. Austin, who declares, (b) natura malas animas nullo modo effe poffe, that it is impoffible, according to the Definitions be had given of fin, shat Souls bould be evil by Nature. 2dly. That we do not become finners by our birth, and that they who fay we are by nature Children of Wrath in the most dreadful fenfe, make God the author of our fin, it being God who hath established the order, in the generation of mankind, which neither he that begets, nor he that is begotten can correct, and by whofe benediction mankind encrease and multiply. An infant therefore cannot, fay they, be a finner by his father's fault, (c) παῖς γὰρ ὑπὸ τὸ πατρὸς ἐ διδωσι δίκην; for a Child doth not suffer punishment for his Father's Fault, says Chryfoftom; and (d) Theophylat, πῶς γὰρ τῶν γένιων ἁμαρτανόντων αυτός ἂν ἐκολάσθη; for bow bould be be punished for the Sin of bis Parents, fay Chryfoftom, Cyril of Alexandria, Ifidore Pelufiota and Theophylact, this being, saith Theophylact,& inavov, not juft. And this they prove from Deut. xxiv. 16. Ezek. Chap.xviii. and xxxiii. The Marcionites and Cerdonians endeavored to prove that the God of the Old Teftament, though he were juft, could not be good, because he threatened to punish the Sins of the Fathers upon the Children to the third and fourth Generation. (e) Original Answers, That it was as little confiftent with Juftice as with Goodness, that one Man finning, another bould be punished. (f) St. Jerom owns, That there is Matter of Scandal in the Second Commandment, it being unjust to punish one for the Sin of another; but that which follows, faith he, solves the Difficulty, it being only the Generation of those that hate God, as their Fathers did, and who were Copartners with them in their Iniquity, who are thus threatened. (g) Theodoret saith it would be, dvoobès, a wicked thing to adhere 10 the Letter, God himself having pronounced that the Son bould not die for the Iniquity of the Father; but every one should die for his own Sins. And (b) Cyril of Alexandria faith, This Punisbment would much exceed, tòv rỡ dinais Osoμòr, the Law of Justice. And hence they both agree in this sense of the commandment, That though God long deferred the Parents Punishment, yet would be do it in the third and fourth Generation. And on these words, The Fathers have eaten sour Grapes, and the Childrens Teeth are set on edge, St. Jerom taking notice of the objection of the Marcionites and Cerdonians against God's goodness and justice, in that he, winking at the Sins of the Fathers, punished them in their Chitdren, he answers that the fenfe of these words is this; That as it is ridiculous, and inconsequent to say the Fathers have eaten sour Grapes, therefore the Childrens Teeth are set on edge; So is it unjust and per verse to say, the Father finning, the Children should be punished. Lastly, Whereas the Heretics objected, That it was cruel for the eating of a little Meat to inflict such Punishment, not only upon Adam (e) Solent nos Hæretici fugillare, quod non fit boni Dei fermo, qui pro peccatis alterius alium plecti dicat,fed fecundum ipforum rationem qui dum legis mandatum, licet non bonum, juftum tamen dicunt, ne ipfi quidem poffunt offendere quomodo fecundum lenfum fuum juftitiæ fuæ convenire videtur, fi alius, alio peccante, puniatur, Hom. 8. in Exod. F. 44. lit. f. ἐδὲ γαρ ἔνι ἁμαρτάνοντας ἑτέρω κολάζεσθαι ἕτερον, Chryf. ibid. είδε, δίκαιόν ἐςὶ ἁμαρτίας τῶν πατήρων παῖσι μηδὲν ἀδίκωσιν ἐπι ideolar, Theophylact, ibid, Similia habet Cyrillus in locum. (f) Injuftum videtur ut alius peccet, & alius puniatur, fed illud quod fequitur his qui me oderunt, fcandalum folvit, non enim ideo puniuntur quia deliquerunt Patres eorum-fed quia patrum extiterunt amulatores, & oderunt Deum Hæreditario malo, & impietate ad ramos quoq; de radice erefcente, Hieron, in Ezek. f. 194. lit. i. Eftque loci iftius is fenfus quomodo fi quis velit dicere Patres uvam acerbam comederunt, & dentes filiorum obftupuerunt, ridiculum effet, & nullam habens confequentiam, fie iniquum eft, & perverfe peccare Patres, & filios nepotefq; ciuciari, ibid lit. 1. (8) Ὅτι γαρ τῷ γυμνῶ προσέχειν τῷ γράμματι δυσσεβὶς ὁ Θεὸς διδάσκει τα. Bastia pods, in Exod. qu. 40. |