his own Fault.

And in the

And in the very fame Way

his Pofterity have fallen into the fame deadly Snare, not thro' Adam's Sin, but their own.

BUT obferve; the Claufe, who are taken captive by him at his Will, is fpoken not of the Devil, but of the fervant of the Lord, ver. 24. And, at his Will, is not the Will of the Devil, but of GOD. For thus, I doubt not, the Place fhould have been render'd. Ver. 24. The fervant of the Lord must be-patient, in meekness inftructing those that oppose themselves : if God, peradventure, will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; ver. 26. and that they may awake out of the fare of the Devil, nuevo being revived or brought [to life again] by him UT QUTS, [by the Servant of the Lord] εις το εκείνο θέλημα, to the Obedience of his [God's] Will, i. e. turned from the Power of Satan unto God, Acts xxvi. 18.

THIS, I think, is the genuine Sense of the Text. For the Word Zwypw fignifies to revive, bring to Life; and is here elegantly opposed to the Devil's enfnaring Souls to Deftruction, as the Act of God's Grace, and the Miniftry of the Gospel, refcuing them out of his Hands (that is, bringing them out of Error and Wickedness) in order to restore them to Life and Salvation. And with the fame Force and Elegance it is applied to Peter's catching of Men by the preaching of the Gofpel.

Gofpel. Luke v. 10. Henceforth avegas EON (WYPAD, thou shalt catch Men, namely, unto Life, and Salvation: For that is implied in the Force of the Word. And these two are all the Places where the Word is ufed in the New Teftament *

BUT

* To confirm this Senfe of the Text, let it be obferved, That as ATTOΣ, he, him, his, always relates to a Perfon of, to, or by whom fomething is faid or done, it frequently belongs to a remote Antecedent, without any Confufion. Because the Action or Thing fpoken or done plainly determine that HE or HIM do not belong to the Perfon last mentioned, but to one that ftands before it, and fometimes at a great Distance. Take a few Inftances out of many. Mark iii. 2. Watched him; not the Man, but the Son of Man, Chap. ii, 28. Luke ii, 22.-brought him to ferufalem, not Mofes, nor the Angel, but the Child, Ver. 21. Luke iv. 29. -thrust him out of the City, not Naaman, or Elifeus, Ver. 27. nor Elias, Ver. 26. but Joseph's Son, Ver. 22. or Jefus, Ver. 14. Luke xxiii. 15.-is done unto him ; not Herod, but this Man, Ver. 14. Hence it is plain that when two or more Perfons are mentioned in the fame Paragraph, the Nature of the Action muft determine to which of them the Particles be or him do beJong. Accordingly in 2 Tim. ii. 26. The Nature of the Action exprefs'd by wypnuevos fhews that him belongs not to the Devil, but to the Servant of the Lord. For Copew always has immediate Relation to Life in oppofition to Death. It fignifies to refocillate, revive one that is fainting away, to restore, to bring to Life, (Iliad. E. 698.) in which Senfe it anfwers well to avamfaor: And tho' it is here only applied to Hunting, (and therefore is not well rendered taken captive in our Tranflation) yet both with regard to War and Hunting it always fignifies to take alive, or fave alive, in oppofition to flaying and destroying when taken, however Perfons may happen afterwards to be used. But this will not fuit the

BUT in no Sense that can be put upon the Place confiftently with other Scriptures, can it be made to prove, that for Adam's Tranfgreffion, all we, his Pofterity, who are quite innocent of that Tranfgreffion, are fubjected to the bond Slavery of Satan. For who but God fhall give that impure Spirit Licence to domineer and tyrannize over us? And what a strange Inconfiftency muft that be in the Divine Dif penfations, and in the Scriptures, if it can be made appear from them, that God hath (for no Fault of ours certainly, but only for Adam's one Sin) put us all into the Hands of the DeDevil and his Snare. For the Devil is a Murderer, John viii. 44. The roaring lion who walks about feeking whom he may devour, 1 Pet. v. 8. He is Abaddon, Apollyon, a Deftroyer, Rev. ix. 11. And they who are in his Snare are dead in Trefpaffes and Sins, Eph. ii. 1. Col. ii. 13. in a lethargic Sleep, Eph. v. 14. Natural brute Beasts, made by their Ignorance, Luft, Wickedness to be taken and deftroyed. The Devil's Snare has no Relation to LIFE, but to DEATH and DESTRUCTION. On the other Hand, the Defign of the Ministry is to preach the Word of LIFE in order to revive those who are dead in fin, and bring them to the Obedience of God. Befides, aur and new generally refer to two different Antecedents, as hic and ille in Latin. Therefore the Senfe of the Verfe ftands rightly thus: That being revived by the Servant of the Lord, they may awake out of the Snare of the Devil unto the Obedience of the Will of God.

But obferve, should my Criticifm fail, yet the Argument, that the Persons spoken of were not taken in the Snare of the Devil, nor lead captive by him for Adam's Sin, but by their own Wickedness, will, for all that, ftand good.

vil, into Subjection to his Will and Dominion; when at the fame time it appears, from all Parts of Scripture, that God hath been providing, from the Beginning of the World to this Day, various Means and Difpenfations to either preferve, or refcue Mankind from the Devil, that is, from Error and Wickednefs? It is no Objection to this, that Satan is permitted to tempt us. For he was permitted to tempt our firft Parents in Paradice before they finned; and therefore his Permiffion to tempt us is not the Confequence of Adam's Sin, but the Appointment of God our Creator, who alone is wife, and who alone hath a Right to appoint our Trials. And we know that Satan hath no Power to feduce or tyrannize but what we ourselves give him by voluntary Compliance and Subjection to Sin; and that if we refift him, he will, he must flee from us.

PROP. The Fall brought unto Mankind— God's Difpleafure and Curfe, fo as we arejustly liable to all Punishments in this World, and that which is to come,

SENSE. By Adam's one Sin and Tranfgreffion, and for no other Reafon, all Mankind are justly liable to all Punishments in this World, fpecified in the next Propofition, namely, either inward, as Blindness of Mind, a reprobate Senfe, ftrong Delufions, Hardness of Heart, Horror of Confcience, and vile Affec

tions: Or outward, as the Curfe of God upon the Creatures, and all other Evils that befal us in our Bodies, Names, Eftates, Relations, Employments, together with Death itself. And not only so, but we are also for Adam's one Tranfgreffion justly liable to the Punishments of the World to come, fpecified in the next Propofition but one, namely, everlasting Separation from the comfortable Prefence of God, and moft grievous Torments in Soul and Body without Intermiffion in Hell-fire for ever.

PROOFS. Gen. ii. 17.----For in the day that thou eateft thereof, thou shalt furely die. This Text proveth that Adam by eating the forbidden Fruit, in Difobedience to God, forfeited his Life. See Part I. But as to his Pofterity, it will be very difficult to fhew it proveth any thing at all; excepting, that if Adam had actually loft his Life immediately upon his eating the forbidden Fruit, he would have had no Pofterity.

Lam. iii. 39. Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his [own] fins? Not Adam's one Sin. For furely he might juftly complain if punished for Sins not

his own.

Rom. vi, 23. For the wages of fin is death.

As