THOUGHTS upon the feventh CHAPTER of the ROMANS: extracted from a late Author.

HAT St. Paul cannot intend himself in what he fays

THAT

here, is evident from that character he gives of himself in his other Epiftles. In one place fpeaking of himself, he faith, The Spirit of life hath made me free from the law of fin: again, The world is crucified to me, and I unto the world. In another place he faith, I keep under my body, and bring it into fubjection: and that he had fought a good fight, and finifhed his courfe.

Now let us compare thefe places with what he fays in this chapter. He faith, that fin revived, and I died; that it had flain him; that he was captivated and fold under fin; that fin wrought in him all manner of luft and concu

pifcence, &c.

Now these things are fo inconfiflent, that it is utterly impoffible they should be both meant of the fame man: fo that they who affirm, St. Paul fpeaks in his own person here, must at the fame time fay that he plays the hypocrite in all those other places, where he gives a quite different account of himself.

That he doth not here mean what he says in the perfon of a regenerate man, is plain; because what is faid here is directly contrary to the whole tenor of Christianity, and which gives quite another defcription of fuch as are regenerate. For inftance, they are faid to be made free from the law of fin and death. They are faid to be such as do not commit fin; and that their bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghoft.

In the fixth chapter of this Epistle he fays, They are become fervants of righteoufnefs; and fuch as have yielded their members to be fervants of righteousness, unto holiness; and that they have their fruit unto holiness, and their end everlasting life.

Now

Now all this being faid in this fame difcourfe, one would think it were enough to prevent any fuch odd interpretation of these words as is too commonly given. For it is plain, that they who fay, the Apoflle here fpeaks in the perfon of a regenerate man, makes the Spirit of God fpeak things contradictory, even in the fame difcourfe.

But to all this they anfwer, That he must mean himself, be cause he uses the first perfon all the way. I anfwer, it is ä thing very ufual, not only with St. Paul, but even with others in their common converfation, to use the firft perfon when they fpeak of another. For inftance, fuppofe I fhould go about to diffuade an other from the fin of drunkennefs, and fhould tell him, that drunkennefs is a fin against which we all know there is a pofitive command; that by this fin I render myself odious to God, by defacing his image; I expofe myself to be laughed at by men; I diforder my reason; I mifpend my time; I ruin my health and reputation; and by it, I become obnoxious to eternal damnation: and if I fhould add, that the very remorfe of confcience with which I commit that fin, is a plain proof of the excellency of the Gofpel, which ftrictly forbids drunkennefs and that it is fo much against the light of Nature, that in being drunk I act against my judgment; nay, and against my inclination too, fo that it is evident, the evil which I would not, that do I: I fay my speaking thus, in the first person, would no more prove that myfelf was really a drunkard, than St. James' faying, with our mouth curfe we men, proves that he curfed and fwore.

Of the SATISFACTION of CHRIST.

[Extracted from a late Author.]

Fwe confider our redemption by the blood of Christ as a real mystery, there are two things to be obferved in it, as in the other myfteries of Chriftianity. The one is, the real substance,

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and

and true manner of it, as it is in itself; and the other is, those analogous objects which the Spirit of God hath made use of to reprefent it to our understanding.

As to the firft, we have no words to exprefs it, nor are we capable of forming the leaft conceptions of it. We know as little of it as we do of the real, true nature of God. We are utterly ignorant what a violation of God's nature and attributes is, and how they are to be preferved inviolable. We know not how God is angry, or how he is appeafed; nor what proportion the fufferings of Chrift bore either to the juftice of God, or the fins of men. We are utterly ignorant how the blood of Chrift operates in refpect of God, and after what manner it works a reconciliation. Thefe, and every thing else relating to the true nature of this myftery, are as far out of our fight as the highest heavens; and if we were wrapt up thither like St. Paul, we fhould be as little able to express it as he was. We muft therefore find fome other way of understanding this, than by a labour of the brain; and fome other kind of converfation than thofe diftinétions of founds from the beating of the air by the motion of our tongue and lips.

This unfathomable mystery hath the Spirit of God revealed to us in fuch language, and by the intervention of such objects, as bear the nearest proportion and analogy with it of any thing that comes within the compafs of our senses,

The whole mystery of our falvation, transacted between God and Chrift is, by the holy Spirit, revealed to us under the refemblance of thofe tranfactions which país among ourselves; and thofe dealings that are common between man and man. Alas! there was no other way for us to come to any knowledge of them but this; therefore our ftate of fin and corruption is called a captivity: we are faid to be flaves, and the blood of Christ, a ransom and we are faid to be redeemed, though it be in fit propriety neither captivity nor ranfom. Our fins are confidered as a debt due to God, and the death of Chrift as the difcharge of that debt; and yet there is no bond cancelled

or

or release given. Again, we are reprefented as flaves that are purchased, and his blood is called the price; and yet nothing is properly either bought or fold.

The Socinians fay, Chrift doth not reconcile God to us, but us to him; this would be prettily faid if we were every where in Scripture reprefented as being angry with God, and not he with

us.

Then indeed it would be a very proper reconciliation; for we can be both angry and appeafed. Now the Church hath expreffed all this by the word Satisfaction, becaufe God is every where in Scripture represented as juft, and punishment the due reward of cur fins; and it is a word very significant and expreffive of this great mystery. Not that it gives us the leaft glimpse of the true nature and real manner of the thing; but becaufe the Satisfaction that is made from one man to another, for any offence against him, is the livelieft and most exact analogy the mind of man is capable of in this great revelation: and nothing elfe will exprefs it fo well. And yet if at the fame time we go about to form a conception of that Satisfaction made by the blood of Chrift, from the Satisfaction that is made from one man to another, either by punishment or otherwife, we think as abfurdly as when we attribute to him the paffions and members of a human body; nay we may as well imagine what fort of price it is, and the true manner of his buying us from the payment of a mighty fum of money. Thus as God himself appeared in human fhape to become the object of our fight, he at the fame time brought down this myfterious work of our redemption to the level of our understandings; that what could be neither feen nor heard might be let in by our eyes and ears; and what could not enter into the heart of man to conceive, might find a way to our understandings by the feigned colours of our imagination. And yet the utmoff of our knowledge of them is ftill as improper as that of his divinity, when we behold. the form and fimilitude of a man.

This then is a goodness and a wisdom we are to contemplate and adore, and not to cavil at. 4 K 2

and con

However, this grace

defcenfion

defcenfion of the spirit hath been turned to wantonnefs, infomuch, that inftead of the confideration and belief of the main defign and import of what he fpoke, men fet their heads to work, to play upon his words, and perfuade the world that he can mean no fuch thing as what he speaks!

D

On DESPISING DEATH.

[Extracted from a late Author.]

R. Johnfon obferved, that the boaftings of fome men, as to dying eafily, were idle talk, proceeding from partial views: I mentioned Hawthornden's Cyprefs Grove, where it is faid that the world is a mere fhow; and that it is unreasonable for a man to wifh to continue in the fhow-room, after he has feen it. Let him go cheerfully out, and give place to other fpeculators. Johnfon, Johnfon, "Yes, Sir, if he is fure he is to be well, after he goes out of it. But if he is to grow blind after he goes out of the fhow-room, and never to fee any thing again; or if he does not know whither he is to go next, a man will not go cheerfully out of a fhow-room. No wife man will be contented to die, if he thinks he is to go into a state of punifhment. Nay, no wife man will be contented to die, if he thinks he is to fall into annihilation: for however unhappy any man's existence may be, he yet would rather have it, than not exift at all. No; there is no rational principle by which a man can die contented, but a truft in the mercy of God, through the merits of Jefus Christ."

On the Power of the External Abforbtion of the Human Body. [By Dr. Wilkinson.]

THE

HE intolerable thirst accompanying an ardent fever is mitigated by immerfing the Body in warm water: this is frequently proved by the Physicians in Italy, where the practice is much used.