ftrange confufion in which he has mixed and jumbled them together, are calculated to confound, by leaving the mind in a disagreeable state of fufpenfe; and may by this means ferve to diminifh and obfcure that clear and ftrong conviction of the manifeft abfurdity of his principles themselves, which the evidence already laid together muft otherwise produce; it will be useful, and therefore proper to fhew, that the arguments he brings are as false and abfurd, as the princi ples he has alleged them to fupport. The main affertion, by means of which the Author would perfuade us, that JESUS could neither teach any thing more himself than mere morality, nor intend that his Apostles fhould, is drawn from what he is pleased to reprefent, as the nature of all mysterious or fupernatural Revelations. 66 He fays," The myfterious and fupernatural parts of the New Testament are above the reach "of our capacities, and therefore cannot belong is to human nature "We are all upon the "footing of Ideots with regard to the mysterious, and unintelligible parts of the New Tefta"ment +."-" Myfteries cannot be taught ." ‡. "The mysterious parts of the New Testament. are of fuch a nature, that it is out of the reach of the human mind to form any judgment about them; and of course fuch parts cannot be taught mankind; nor can they concern, or belong to human nature §."-What cannot be underftood, cannot be communicated, and therefore cannot be a part of the reli"gion of man ."" Whatever does not lie |]. "within the reach of our natural faculties, can66 not be understood, and therefore cannot be .. *P. 4, 5. P. 286, 291. † P. 38. ‡ P. 269. § P. 270. commu 66 66 "It "communicated by God to mankind *"" It appears abfolutely impoffible for natural man to understand fupernatural things +."" A fupernatural precept to human nature is a ma"nifeft contradiction in terms, and a fupernatu"ral doctrine scarce better ."-" No other re"ligion than pure morality can be communicated, "because no other can be understood §."-" To "attempt to teach things in their nature myfte"rious, fupernatural, and unintelligible, would "be as ridiculous, as it would be to attempt to "teach an infant Algebra ."-Reafon cannot "be employed in myfterious, or fupernatural 66 matters, and therefore these cannot be parts of true religion." Reafon cannot approve "thofe things which cannot be comprehended " by it *"" Whatever does not lie within "the reach of our natural faculty cannot be un derstood, and cannot therefore be communi"cated by God to mankind; and therefore, "a fupernatural Revelation is a contradiction "in terms +." The fundamental principle of these, and all his fimilar affertions is evidently no other than this: That whatever paffage of the New Testament is on any account, or in any degree, fupernatural, fuper-rational, or myfterious; for thefe are the words he indifcriminately ufes; is, for that reafon, in its very nature neceffarily unintelligible, and utterly incapable of being communicated, or revealed. This is his fundamental principle; and "he thinks it fo clear and convincing, that he "might reft the whole upon it .” But here, we fhall find, the Author has led himself, as it fhould feem, into an abfurdity, by the indifcriminate ufe of the terms fupernatural, fuperrational, and mysterious; without attending to the different fenfes in which they may be ap plicable to different things; or confequently, to the different manners or degrees, in which fuck things may be capable of being communicated, or revealed. Whatever is, in any refpect, above the reach of our faculties, is just so far, and in that refpect, fupernatural, fuperrational, or mysterious: and hence things may be fupernatural in two distinct fenfes, or degrees. First, there may be things, which we ourselves are utterly unable to difcover; which notwithftanding, could we by any means difcover them, we are able diftinctly to comprehend... And Secondly, there may be things, which we are not only incapable of difcovering; but which, for want of ideas, we are, either wholly, or in part, unable to comprehend, In thefe Two forts every thing fupernatural muft neceffarily be included: for whatever is at all fupernatural, muft either be merely undisco verable by our own faculties; but if difcovered to us, what we are able explicitly to comprehend or elfe, not merely undifcoverable by us but moreover, in part at least incomprehenfible to us. And from hence it follows, that things fupernatural may be communicated, or revealed to us, in human language, in two different methods or degrees. Either directly, explicitly, and completely or indirectly, figuratively, and imperfectly. Supernatural things of the first fort juft mentioned; viz. Such as we are capable of explicitly comprehending, if difcovered to us, tho' not of discovering; may be communicated in both ways. For whatever we are capable of explicitly com E prehend prehending, may be either explicitly, or imperfectly, imparted to us, by any one to whom it is known; whether we ourselves could have difcovered it or not. Supernatural things of the fecond fort juft mentioned; viz. Those which are in part incomprehenfible to us; are, for that reafon, juft fo far incapable of being fimply or directly expreffed in human language, or explicitly revealed, in words. But even of thefe, fome general, inadequate, figurative notions, may be revealed to us in words; by acquainting us, that they bear a refemblance to fomething elfe, which can be fimply expreffed, and which we do explicitly understand. And the knowledge communicated to us, by any fuch figurative revelations only, inadequate and imperfect as it may be, is what without fuch revelations we could not have acquired. Mo If this account of things Supernatural, and the methods or degrees, in which they may be revealed in words, needs any illuftration; the truth of it may be exemplified by those very declarations of the New Teftament itself, which the Author would explode, as impoffible in their very nature to be understood by us, and incapable of communicating any information to us! The New Teftament reveals to us, that there will be a day of judgment; and that JESUS CHRIST is the perfon, who fhall judge the world: That at the laft day we shall not all die, but we shall all be changed;-And that the Lord himself fhall then defcend from heaven, with a fhout, with the voice of the Arch-angel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Chrift fhall rife firft; and that then those which are alive, and remain, fhall be caught up together with them in the Acts x. 42. xvii. 31. clouds clouds, to meet the Lord in the air, and fo fhall be ever with God*. I shall venture to prefume, that these are fupernatural revelations; and it is obvious, that they are revelations of the first fort abovementioned: they communicate to us the knowledge of feveral truths, which it was utterly impoffible for our own abilities ever to have difcovered; but which nevertheless the moment they are revealed to us we explicitly and completely underftand.. The New Testament reveals to us, that the fincerely virtuous in this life fhall be rewarded in the next, with a crown of glory, a crown of life, a crown of righteousness, and that they shall shine forth as the Sun in the kingdom of their Father +And that the impenitently wicked will then be punished, with the worm that dieth not, and the fire that is not quenched; and the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone -These are evidently fupernatural declarations of a figurative nature. Whether the exact particulars of which our future punishment, or reward, will confift, are at prefent really incomprehenfible to us, for want of ideas, and therefore incapable of being explicitly revealed in words; is a point which these figurative revelations do not actually determine; fince God may have chofen to reveal to us in figures only, what in the nature of the things themselves might have been communicated to us in explicit terms. But, by the intelligible and striking figures in which they are expreffed, they convey to us a clear and certain knowledge, not only of a future ftate of punishments and rewards; but likewife, of the great defireableness * 1 Theff. iv. 16, 17. ti 2 Tim. iv. 8. Matth. xiii. 43. Pet. v. 4. James i. 12. xxi. 8. |