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only as the Father, but as the Governour of Mankind; and tho' an earthly Father, perhaps, would by all means poffible, preferve his Son from incurring Punishment, yet a good Governour, when the Ends of his Government can be better obtain'd by leaving him to his liberty, would not restrain him by any Force or Violence. Therefore, if the liberty of choice in Men, and the poffibility of their Sin and Damnation be for the Glory of God, and for the benefit of good Men, and be no injury to the bad; this is a fufficient Account, why Man was not neceffarily reftrained from Sinning, tho' Damnation be the confequence of it.

CHAP. XIII.

Of the Fall of the Angels, and of our First Parents.

N the Beginning God created every thing perfect

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in its kind, and endued the Angels and Man with all intellectual and moral Perfections fuitable to their respective Natures: but fo as to leave them capable of finning. For it pleased the infinite Wisdom of God (for the Reasons already alledg'd, and for many more, and greater Reasons perhaps than any Man is able to imagine) to place them in a state of Tryal, and to put it to their own choice, whether they would ftand in their prefent condition of Innocence and Happiness, in which they were created, or fall into Sin and Mifery. We have little or no account in the Scriptures of the Caufe or Temptation, which occafioned the Fall of Angels, because it doth not concern us to be acquainted with it; and therefore, it little becomes us to be inquifitive about it. Indeed, it is very difficult to conceive, how Beings of fo great Knowledge and Purity, as the Fallen Angels once were of, fhould fall into Sin: But it must be confidered, that nothing is

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more unaccountable than the Motives and Caufes of Action in Free Agents: when any Being is at liberty to do as it will, no other Reason befides its own Will need be enquir❜d for, of its Actings. What is liable to Sin, may fin, whatever the Motive be; and to enquire after the Motive, is to enquire what Motives may determine a Free Agent, that is, an Agent, which may determine it felf upon any Ground or Motive.

But how perfect and excellent foever any Creature is, unless it be fo confirmed and established in a state of Purity and Holiness, as to be fecured from all poffibility of Sinning, it may be fuppofed to admire it felf, and dote upon its own Perfections and Excellencies, and by degrees, to neglect, and not acknowledge God the Author of them, but to fin and rebel against him. And it is most agreeable both to Scripture and Reason, that Pride was the caufe of the Fall of Angels. For thofe Excellencies which might fecure them from any other Sin, proved a Temptation to this; and the greater their Perfections were, the greater was the Temptation; as in a Man who is guilty of Spiritual and Pharifaical Pride, all that is good and commendable in him, affords him only matter for his Sin. So that where there is a freedom of Will, and a poffibility of Sinning, the very Perfection of Nature in a Creature may be made an occafion to fin; and that which excludes other Sins, may prove a Motive and Temptation to Pride, which therefore we have reafon to conclude, was the Sin of the Fallen Angels.

As to the Fall of Man, however the thing may be difputed, the Effects of it are vifible in the ftrange proneness of humane Nature, to act against Reason and Confcience, that is, to act in plain contradiction to it felf, and its own Principles. This is a ftate in which it cannot be fuppofed that Mankind was at firft created by the infinitely Good and Holy God. And the most plaufible Opinion, and that which has moft generally obtained among the Heathens, is, that

the

the Souls of Men had a Being before they came into this World, and were fent into humane Bodies, in punishment for what they had done amifs in a prece dent ftate. But this is mere fufpicion and conjecture, without any poffibility of proof; and there is this plain Reafon against it, that no Man can be punished for his Amendment, who knows nothing of it. it is inconfiftent with the nature and end of Punishment, that the Offender fhould not be made fenfible of his Fault, efpecially when the Punishment is defigned for his Amendment, as it is faid to be in the prefent cafe.

For

It has been the constant Opinion of thofe Philofophers, who have held a Pre-existence of Souls, that after their departure out of this Life, Men remember what they did here: And if, notwithstanding, it can be fuppofed, that Men may poffibly retain no remem→ brance of what they did in another ftate, before this Life, yet if their Faults were not kept in memory, they should be brought to their remembrance, or there should be fome authentick Revelation to inform Men, in general terms, that their Condition in this World had refpect to a former ftate, if this Life were defigned as a state of Punishment in order to Amendment. But the state of this Life is fo far from being thought a Punishment, that Men naturally are of nothing more fond, nor dread any thing more than to leave it. And tho' Men meet with great Afflictions here, yet these do not befal thofe only or chiefly, who by their pronenefs to Evil in this Life, might be fuppofed to have been the greatest Offenders in a former ftate; and every Calamity has not the nature of Punishment. The Sufferings and Miferics which we endure, by reafon of Adam's Tranfgreffion, are not fo properly Punishments as the Effects and Confequences of his Sin: But Perfonal Faults, fuch as are fuppofed to have been committed in a ftate of Pre-exiftence, require a proper Punishment; and if the Punishment be for Q 2 Amend

Amendment, as it is fuppofed to be in this present ftate, both the Fault and the Punishment must be known, with the Cause and End of its being inflicted; and the greatest Offenders must undergo the feverest Punishment. Befides, if the Soul were put into the Body, as into a Prifon, for Punishment, in order to be reclaimed from evil Habits contracted in a former state; how comes it to pafs, that the Body concurs with the Soul in finning? that the Soul is feduced and enfnared by the carnal Appetites? and that the Flesh lufteth against the Spirit, caufes it to do that which it would not, and to act against the Light and Convictions of its own Reason and Confcience ? Men are wont to be restrained from Sin by Punifhment, not to be drawn into it; and it is a very improper way of correction for past Sins, to be expos'd But the Soul becomes prone to Sin, by being join'd to the Body: it is plain therefore, that the Soul is not fent into the Body to be punish'd for Sins paft, and by that means to be reftored to that Innocence and Purity, which it loft in a former state.

to new ones.

The Account which the Scripture gives us of the Fall of our First Parents, may be confidered, either, 1. in the Manner, or 2. in the Confequences of it.

I. If we confider the Manner of the Fall of our First Parents. 1. Eve was beguiled by the Serpent, and Adam was enticed by her to eat the forbidden Fruit. 2. They both eating of it, thereby fell from their ftate of Happiness.

1. Eve was beguiled by the Serpent, and Adam was enticed by her. It is not to be fuppofed, but that the Devil would use all the means that the fubtilty of his Malice could invent, to procure the Ruine of Mankind, and that therefore he would not only make use

* Εἰ γὰ πρὸς κόλασιν τῇ ψυχῇ δια ν αυθίαν ἐδόθη τὸ (ώμα, ώςε αὐτω ὀδισυλίζω παιδιάθίωαι πρὸς τὸ τιμῶν ἢ Θεόν, πῶς (wepro και (ωαγωνίζε) αὐτῇ τὸ σῶμα πρὸς τὸ Jáver; &c. Juftinian, adv. Origen. C. T. 5. Čol. 640.

of

of inward Suggestions, but of outward Allurements alfo by a visible Shape and Appearance. And if he had affum'd the fhape of a Man or Woman, Eve knew that there was none of humane kind but Adam and her felf in the World, and therefore that Shape was least of all proper for him to make ufe of. But if he had affum'd any other Shape, or made ufe of any other Creature as his Inftrument, the fame, or the like Objections might lie against it, that can be fuppos'd against his beguiling Eve by a Serpent.

b

The Serpent's Subtilty made him the fitter Inftrument for the Devil's Purpose, for all finite Agents can act no otherwife than as the matter they have to work withal will permit. It is fuppofed by a Perfon of great Learning, that Eve was tempted by a fiery flying Serpent, fuch as are still feen in fome Parts of the World, of great Brightnefs and Splendor, being styled Seraphims, Num. xxi. 6, 8. Ifai. xiv. 29. which is a Name that denotes likewise one of the highest Orders of Angels; and he concludes that this fiery Serpent appear'd to Eve in fuch a fhining and beautiful Luftre, as fhe had feen Angels appear in before, and that it was mistaken by her for an Angel. This Account has great Probability in it; but if it fhould not be admitted, yet we may obferve that ordinary Serpents were generally esteem'd Sacred by the Heathens, as it is evident from the Caduceus of Mercury, and many other inftances; the Sight of them was accounted a good Omen, and the Genii were painted under the Form of Serpents. It was reported both of Alexander and Scipio, that they were begotten of Jupiter under the Shape of a Serpent, and Afculapius is faid to have affum'd that Form, when he was transported in the time of a great Plague, from Epidaurus

с

d

f

A. Bp. Tenifon of Idolatry, Chap. xiv. c Val. Max. l. i. c. 5. Dio. I. xlvii. inicio. Vopifc. in Aureliano. Jul. capit. in Maximin. d Perf. Sat. i. Propert. 1. iv. Eleg. 8. Liv. 1, xxvi.

jun.

C. 19.

f

e

Val. Max. l. i. c. 8. Plin. Hift. I. xxix. c.4.

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