be the propitiation for the sins of the world; namely, Christ, who, through his own blood, obtained eternal redemption for us; thought fit, from the time when man became guilty of sin, to appoint creatures to be offered, to represent the true offering, which was afterwards to be made for the sins of all men.'

'See Connect. vol. i. b. i. My ingenious adversary, see Philemon to Hydaspes, letter v. p. 31. thinks it not reasonable to suppose that Abel offered sacrifice for any sin of Adam; and would argue from St. Paul's having said, that sin is not imputed without a law, Rom. v. 13. that there was no law given in Abel's time, declaring death to be the punishment of any sin, but of the first transgression; and, consequently, that there could be no reason that Abel should offer a sacri

fice for any sin of his own. A little observation may both explain St. Paul's meaning, and clear the confusion raised by my antagonist. The apostle thus argues: As by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; AND SO (I should render it EVEN SO) death passed upon all men, for that all men have sinned : for until the law, sin was in the world. The point to be observed is, that the scriptures conclude all men under sin, Gal. iii. 21. and affirm, that there is no man on earth that sinneth not, 1 Kings viii. 46. This, therefore,

I have here endeavoured very largely a reply to what has been objected to me upon this subject, as I thought it required a full

being an allowed truth, that sin was in the world until the law; that from Adam unto Moses, not Adam and Eve only, but every individual of their descendants had actual sins of their own, the apostle reasons, that there can be no injustice pretended that ἐν τῷ ̓Αδὰμ πάνες ἀποθε hoxes, that in Adam all die, 1 Cor. xv. 22. iq' & wáiles papro Rom. v. 12: not in whom all sinned, as our marginal reference would correct our version; for, had this been intended, it would have been, like i tập ́Adàμ ráiles åæoðvhoxeoi i'is eo quod, in that, or because. As by one man, says the apostle, sin entered into the world, and death by sin, xai rws even so, in like manner; i. e. as deservedly death hath passed upon all men. The foundation of which reasoning is plain: for death being the wages of sin, and all men having done the works of our first parents, having actually sinned as well as they, we not only receive in dying, but by our sins deserve the same wages. Having thus stated this point, the apostle proceeds to consider an objection. But sin, says he, is not imputed, where there is no law; nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression: Rom. v. 13, 14. The apostle's argument is so clear, I wonder it can be mistaken. He

consideration. I would as freely defend or retract any thing I have written, which other writers have thought wrong, if I ap

allows, that sin is not imputed where there is no law: which, indeed, is exactly what he elsewhere says, where no law is, there is no transgression: Rom. iv. 15. For, as St. John observes, sin is the transgression of a law: 1 John iii. 4. Nevertheless, says he, notwithstanding all that may thus be reasoned, and although none like our parents have eaten of the forbidden tree; yet death hath reigned from Adam down to Moses; all have received the wages of sin, and therefore, in fact, all have sinned and, consequently, as there would have been no sin, had there been no law; there certainly has been a law, which all men, every one, has in many instances failed of living up to; and, in these failures, every man living, or that has lived, has had actual sin. Thus the apostle's argument concludes directly contrary to my ingenious correspondent. Abel had sin as well as all other men; but he would have had no sin, if he had not lived under some law; therefore he lived under the law of some revelation which appointed sacrifice for sin. And upon sinning, that his sin might not remain and lie at his door, believing and obeying what God had commanded, he offered his sacrifice, and therein, by faith, obtained forgiveness of sin.

If it were not foreign to the point before us to proceed

prehended it alike material. But where I think myself only misrepresented, or a controversy to be rather sought for, than to be of any service to truth, I wish to enjoy si

to the context, we might refute by it a calumny of Lord Bolingbroke against Eve; who says, she damned her children before she bare them: Study of History, letter iii. p. 109. His lordship in no wise understood, how, not as the offence in Adam, so also is the free gift in Christ: Rom. v. 15. In Adam, indeed, all died; and so in Christ shall all be made alive: 1 Cor. xv. 29. But we shall not only be made alive; this might be given. us, and we might live unto condemnation for our own sins. But the free gift aboundeth in the forgiveness of many offences unto justification of life: Rom. v. 16-18, &c.; and thus Eve damned none of her children; for there was no necessity, that any should thus terribly perish. All were to live again; and to as many as would truly strive to obtain it, power was given to become the sons of God, to live unto honour, to glory, and eternal happiness. But this is not the only instance of this unhappy writer's most unwarrantable rashness. How dogmatically he can abuse even the scriptures, not really knowing them, must be very evident to any one who will read Mr. Hervey's most excellent remarks on Lord Bolingbroke's letters; a treatise worth every one's attentive consideration,

lence and quiet, rather than trouble the world with an altercation which can be of no use. In some small points the reader may observe that I have varied from myself. When I began my Connection, I too hastily concluded, that God appeared to Cain." I thought this a mistake, when

wrote my second volume ;" and, in the ensuing treatise, have followed what I apprehended, upon second examination, to be true. Yet I let my error stand in later editions of my first volume, as I at first printed it; and shall do the same thing, where I differ in this treatise from what I formerly conceived to be the situation of the garden of Eden." I would not, by having written, be prevented from growing wiser; but hope that the alterations of what I have written, may not be necessarily very many. However, if I should live and have health to

Connect. vol. i. b. i. p. 2.

n See vol. ii. b. ix. p. 460. See hereafter, p. 41.

Connect. vol. i. b. i. See hereafter, chap. viii.

.