THE

PREFACE.

...........

MY CHRISTIAN BRETHREN,

IN N all theological controverfies our appeal lies to the Bible, which contains the writings of the infpired prophets, and of the apoftles and evangelifts, who have recorded the precepts and doctrines of Chrift. To those who lived in the times in which thefe books were published, they were, no doubt, very intelligible; the language in which they are written, and the customs to which they allude, being perfectly known to them. But what was easy to them, a long courfe of time has rendered extremely difficult to us, who ufe a very different language, and whofe manners and customs are fo exceedingly unlike thofe of the Jews. On this account, it may puzzle the greatest scholar of the present age to make out the fenfe of a paffage of fcripture, which could not but have been perfectly understood by the most illiterate perfon in that age. In this state of things, the ignorant and unlearned are very liable to wreft the fcriptures, as the apoftle Peter fays they ever have done, while good fenfe and found learning often maintain a very unequal conteft.

It is another unfavourable circumftance with refpect to the right understanding of the fcriptures in this country, that the English tranflation of them was made at a time when the christian world was but jast emerged from the darkness of popery, and while the belief of all those opinions which are combated in the APPEAL was almost universally retained. Our tranf

A 2

lators,

lators, therefore, having been, educated in the belief of, and in a reverence for, thofe particular opinions, and not having had their minds fufficiently enlightened to call them in queftion, it is no wonder that, without any ill defign, they fhould, in many places of their verfion, have expreffed their own fentiments, and not those of the apoftles, In all these cases a juft tranflation is all that is neceffary to remove the errors into which a wrong tranflation has led us. But with respect to them, you, my brethren, who are not acquainted with the languages in which the fcriptures were originally written, muft neceffarily depend upon other perfons for the interpretation of them.

You

may however be able, in a great measure, to judge for yourselves concerning different tranflations, by confidering, if you will take pains to reflect upon the fubject, which rendering of a doubtful paffage is inott agreeable to the general ftrain of the fcriptures, and to common fense.

Do not, however, immediately conclude that an interpretation of a paffage of fcripture is unnatural, because, when it is first proposed to you, it may feem to be fo; because this may arife from nothing but your having been long accustomed to understand it in a different fenfe, and from having imagined, though without fufficient grounds, that the tenor of fcripture favoured a contrary fenfe. The Roman catholicks, I doubt not, think it very unnatural to interpret the words of our Saviour, This is my body, in any other than in the moft literal manner; and they think that our Lord's faying upon another occafion, Unless ye eat of the flesh of the fon of man, and drink his blood, no life in you, abundantly confirms their interpretation. Now, in this little treatise, I defire no greater indulgence in the interpretation of fcripture than all Protestants think themfelves juftified in taking, when they affert, that the meaning of these figurative expreffions is, not that the flesh and blood, but that the doctrine of Chrift is to be received and digested, that is, to be improved and practifed by us, in order to our final falvation. Since the very firongeft figures

ye

bave

of

of fpeech are manifeftly used in almoft all the books of fcripture, it must be very unreasonable to expect that the moft literal interpretation fhould always be

the best.

I must farther apprize you, my brethren, that the paffages which I have attempted to explain, being, for the most part, highly figurative, are, on that account, peculiarly difficult to underftand; fo that though I may not have it upon the precise sense of the writers, there may be no doubt, from other confiderations, that the fenfe which I am combating is not the true. one, which is quite fufficient for my purpose. It by no means follows that because I am wrong, my adverfaries are right. In these cafes there is the greatest room for criticifm, and diverfity of opinion. I have given what at prefent appears to me to be the real sense of every text of fcripture which I have taken into confideration, but I fhall gladly avail myself of the new lights, which may be thrown upon any of them in future editions of this pamphlet.

In the mean time, with great diffidence of my own judgment, I recommend what I have now written to your most serious and candid confideration; defiring that you would read it with your bibles at hand, turning to every paffage to which I refer, and reading what goes before and after it; because I have no doubt but that, in this manner, you will see much more reason, if not to approve of my interpretations, yet to reject thofe of my adverfaries, that I have fuggefted in this treatise, in which I have made a point of being as concife as I poffibly could, confiftently with perfpicuity.

The rapid fale of the Appeal makes me hope that, inconfiderable as the performance is, it has been the inftrument of fome good, in the hands of that being who works by fmall things as well as by great ones.

I. Of the power of Man to do the Will of God.

THAT

HAT the facred writers confider all mankind as naturally poffeffed of fufficient power to do what God requires of them, is evident from their earnest remonftrances and expoftulations, with perfons of all ranks and conditions, and their fevere cenfure of them when they refufe to comply with their exhortations. Nor was this the cafe with the Jews and Christians only, who were favoured with divine revelation. The apoftle Paul evidently confiders the Gentiles alfo in the fame light; though, much not being given to them, much was not required of them.

In the first chapter of the epiftle to the Romans this apoftle represents the Gentile world, in general, as having grofsly corrupted themfelves; yet, in that very reprefentation, he not only fays, ver. 18, 19. that they had fubjected themselves to the wrath of God, revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; because that which may be known of God is manifeft, for God bath fhewed it unto them; but also ver. 32. that knowing the judgment of God (that they who commit fuch things are worthy of death) not only do the fame, but have pleafure in them that do them. So that the degeneracy and depravity into which they were funk were owing, not to want of ability, but wilfulness, and a determined oppofition to the powers of confcience with which their Maker had endowed them, and which continued unceafing remonstrances within them. Reasoning with the Jews, in the fecond chapter, he gives the following representation of fome of the Gentiles, ver. 14, 15. For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, thefe having not the law, are a law to themselves. Which fhew the work of the law written in their hearts, their confcience

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