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F. of Birmingham, should have addressed his letter to the Editor as directed on the blue cover, and moreover have paid the postage. The account of the "Ordination of the Rev. Franklin Baker," at Bolton, arrived too late for insertion in the present Number. Monthly Repository. No. CCXXVI.] OCTOBER, 1824. [Vol. XIX. Original Letters from the Baxter MSS. in Dr. Williams's Library. (A Letter to Baxter, supposed to be from GILbert Clerke. See p. 452 and XVIII. 65.) I S', LIKE your words, p. 215, viz., "The word imputation as ambiguous I purposely avoid, unlesse when I may explaine it." I use to explaine it thus: I. Imputation in a proper sense is, when there is fundamentum in re: thus the fault is justly imputed to the man who did not doe it, but advised, commended, imitated, &c., and so had a hand in it. 1 Sam. xxii. 25. II. In an improper sense when there is fundamentum in personâ by reason of some relation: thus traytours' children may be accounted legally traytours and beggared for their parents' treason, when they are in heart and life really ye most loyall persons of any what so ever. Thus by virtue of our relation to Adam and God's decree, I hold yt all all Adam's posteritie fell with him, and were by his sinne made obnoxious to a necessary and eternal death; wch I take in a proper sense-Dust thou art, &c., although they were not guilty of transgression, i. e. of sinne or rebellion against an expresse or promulgate law, Rom. v. 12, &c., in whom, or rather, for as much as all sinned, i. e. quasi by this kind of imputation in an improper sense, as Dr. Lushington in Gal. p. 143 sayth, not actively by transgresseing in his transgression, but passively by being prejudicated in his judgement-so dap Twho, in ver. 19, wch Chrysostom expounds καταδεδί κασμενοι τῷ θανατῳ. The words following in ver. 13, For untill ye law, are an objection unto wch ye latter clause, But sinne is not imputed, are an answer: 4. d. Though all men wch lived before the law of Moses did really commit actual sinne more or lesse, yet being they did not sinne against an expresse and promulgate law as Adam did, that is after VOL. XIX. 4 E his similitude, there was no such necessity of punishing or imputeing their owne sinnes to ym, but death reigned over them from Adam, from Adam I say, who did so transgresse. Then macula sequitur reatum, this guilt is followed as a punishment upon Adam's children for his sinne, by an extraordinary inclination to such honour, pleasures and profit, as cannot be had without sinne, and is a woful curse or plague upon mankind, but not sinne in a proper sense, as I thinke with Zuinglius. Then the sinnefull effects of ill inclinations are much to be attributed to ye temptations of ye world and ye Devil, who is said to be ye deceiver of all nations and of ye whole world; therefore we often lay ye blame of men's debaucheries, especially of young men's, first upon themselves, as if there was no necessitie yt they should have been so bad, and then upon their company, as if notwithstanding their owne dispositions they might have been good if they had kept good company: to be tempted from within or without is an ill thing, and to be prayed against, but properly no sinne of itself, for X' was tempted. The Socinians denie not the pronesse of men to sinne, but seeme to dislike the word (impute), but then they take it in a proper sense, otherwise they acknowledge yt eternal death did come upon Adam's children for his sinne, ex occasione peccati, and y rather, for yt all have sinned actually even before ye law. Rom. v. 12. But I see no such need of exactnesse and proprietie in speaking by y' word, if other men did not force it by their misexplications and driveing of things to an ill sense. I take this for certaine, yt although sometimes a word may be conveniently used in some good sense wch it may beare, yet if yt word be more capable of an ill sense, it is not well done to exact rigorously a constant use of y' word or to enuntiate absolutely in that word without explication, as you said of imputeing, p. 215. And as the old ffathers used the words merit and penitential justification, yet if ye Papists or others will scrue up the sense of those words, they may deserve to be reproved as extremely erroneous. I see not much difference betwixt you and mee but in point of proprietie; indeed you use many scholasticall words wch I have not time to examine, and wch can pretend but to some more than ordinary exactnesse or accuracy; but for the use of Christians, if I was pastour of a parish I would tell my people what they are obnoxious unto by Adames fall, and warne them against that cursed inclination wch we have more or lesse by nature; and if I call it a curse and you call it a sinne, ye one may be as effectual as the other to move them to gett into X and pray for the assistance of the spirit, to watch, strive, &c. You beginne with original righteousnesse as others doe, but you speake mostly from reason rather than scripture. The image of God in Gen. i, seems to be expounded of dominion, wch man hath stille in great measure over ye creatures, and in wch respect X' is undoubtedly said to be ye image of ye invisible God, Coll. i. 15, and wch, I doubt not, was intended in the allegoricall sense of this scripture, referreing cheifly to ye exaltation of Xt. So I Cor. ii. 7. Ye woman is ye glory (or image) of ye man, because shee is next to him in ye government of ye family; y in Coll. iii. 10, is ye new evangelical creature opposed to mere nature, and especially as inclineable to evill and depraved by ye acts and habits of sinne. As for Eccles, vii. ult. God made man upright, I say yt although yt book and Job are canonicall, yet they are not so proper to pick for the resolution of a question in divinitie. They are poeticall and in many places obscure, as this ver. 28, A man amongst a thousand, &c.: by the context ye words would seem to be directed against the actual harlotry of women rather than to inferre orginall sinne, against wch the : words might be rather construed, q. d. yt men were not borne so bad, but they made themselves so; as I have heard a divine much insist upon ye modesty of nature till abused by man is not necessarily meant Adam, as appeareth by ye opposition, they; they have found out. Besides, 'tis sufficient ffor Adam if he was made more inclineable to good than evil, though without such perfection of ha bits as a man may goe into his study and imagine, not as ye truth is or may appeare in scripture, but as he is able to draw an idea of perfection. Some men are apt to think yt if God makes a thing he must needs make it as good as he can, yet wee commonly see yt good artificers doe not always make things as good as they can, but as is fit and reasoneable, and God thought good to lett that be first wch was natural. To be sure, God did not make man a sinner, but him and every thing else good in its kind and for ye uses it was made, otherwise wee are not able to say in what degree of good nature or mere natural honesty man might have been made, or that he needs must be made an eternal being and under law in order to eternal life; nor see I much scripture wch speaks of ye original corruption of man's nature in general upon Adam's account or of a contagious propagation. That in Gen. vii. 11 is certainly meant of actual sinnes; ye imaginations and thoughts of men's hearts are actual sinnes, and many Scriptures wch you have quoted as of infants are most reasonably to be expounded of ye adult; but I gather it rather from reason and the universal experience of ye wickednesse of the world; and then seeing the apostle, Rom. v. 12, doth plainly attaint all men with a reputative guilt as from Adam, and considering the curse befallen men from that sinne and some particular scripture, as yt, Behold I was shapen in iniquity, &c., I thinke this vitious inclination is most fairly reducible to Adam's sinne as a punishment of yt, and included in y' clause, Rom. xii. 5, For as much as all sinned; but I find neither scripture nor reason requiring me to believe this propagated contagion, wch hath such evill effects, in ye circumstances in weh men are, to be a sinne in a proper sense, but I seeme to my selfe to have good arguments to prove ye contrary. 1. Because not properly voluntary. You say, p. 79 and 218, yt it was reputatively voluntary; therefore it is reputatively a sinne, say I, And Adam's sinne was reputatively punished, i. e. not in a proper sense. 2. Because Adam and Eve saw y the fruit was desireable, before they did eat it, and had some inclination, or they had not both so suddainly fallen, now magis et minus non variunt speciem. I admitted of no other curse than a graduated inclination to turne to ye creature rather than to the Creatour in the present circumstances, I meane not an habitual love of ye creature more than of ye Creatour, but an intense and dangerous inclination to such a thing; I doubt not but that if Adam had not sinned, there would have been thornes and thistles, but not so many as to make ye ground cursed, and ye woman might have had some paines, for the text sayth, I will multiplie thy sorrows; so I thinke men are cursed with multiplied inclinations, besides objects, examples and tempters, so that facilis descensus Averni: you, calling this sinne in a lesse proper sense analogically, page 192, come neare ye matter. ceive how Adam could sinne at all, but also physically alter the constitution so much as to propagate a vicious quality by seminal traduction to all his posteritie. And if judicially inflicted it can be no sinne, else God would be the author of sinne. Your selfe say, p. 169, Y' God by way of penalty should create ye soul immediately sinful, seems plainly to make him the author of sinne : 'tis true God punisheth sinne with sinne, by delivering men up to temptation proponendo objecta, &c., but not by infuseing or creating sinfull qualities. But it is not unreasonable to say, y' God may be the authour of an evill thing as a curse per modum pœnæ, yet so as not to necessitate man to sinne if he will watch and strive against it: and why may not God put his creature upon terms of striveing to please him, and difficult terms, especially upon proposeall of a great reward and no other punishment but such as might be materially inflicted er vi domini, viz., eternal death in a proper sense? therefore quere if two might be made defectible, whether two millions might not? And then suppose more occasions and tempters, would it not be probable y ye much greater part would not only have done amisse, but so much amisse as to deserve positive punishment, or at least some of the most extravagant men? And I am inclineable to thinke it is no other wise now; I am farre from thinkeinge of every little sinne, as some speake; (what good master punisheth his servant so?) or y' every sinne wch is materially as great as y first sinne of Adam is also of like influence. The apostle, Rom. v. 13, plainely admits y men before ye law did sinne, but denies ye like influence; see also ver. 16, of y1 one sinne. 3. Sinne is against law, but ye law is not Thou shalt not be inclined to eat, but Thou shalt not eat ; nor, Thou shalt be inclined to love ye Lord thy God, &c., but Thou shalt love; nor, Thou shalt not be inclined to covet thy neighbour's, &c., but Thou shalt not covet. We are to repent of breaking ye law, but no man can repent of such inclinations as he was borne with and could never helpe. I doe not thinke y' you will say y man's nature is so weakened by Adam's fall as to make any one sinne necessary to him; else I see not how he could be blamed or called to repentance for that sinne. 4. This vitious inclination is ju-λoyos, p. 243. dicially inflicted as a punishment of Adam's sinne, as many divines hold, nor is it likely y one act of ye understanding and will by deception should of itself not only abolish a habit of original righteousnesss in such perfection as hath troubled some to con 5. How came so many of ye angels to fall if they had not some considerable degree of inclination wch they took not one from the other; and so suddainely as Placæus intimates and most believe! Plac. Sub. Arg. 21, 6. In your way ye embryo but as bigge as a beane, yea ye very seed should have in it a quality properly sinneful, and so must be raised againe and come to judgement, as you say infants must, for there is no other way of propagation but that. 7. I argue from those words, Matt. xix. 14, "For of such is the kingdom of heaven:" how of such, if before they are able to act at all they have nothing but a habit properly and morally vitious, disposing y" to sinne as a habit of drunkennesse disposeth a drunkard to be drunke, and wch no man can have and be regenerate, the habits of virtue and vice being ασυστατα. Experience proves as much as I graunt, and it is not my part to prove more, but yours who affirme it, wch you endeavour to doe, but I thinke your arguments are fairly answered, as followeth to y' first argu ment. 1st Arg. p. 20. I answer that all infants have sinned quasily or reputatively, and that Adam's sinne was imputed in the improper sense to all his children as relatives. I suppose you and I agree about this, but the difference is about ye (macula) corruption of nature weh some call peccatum originale originatum, viz. whether this be sinne in a proper sense. Το 2nd and 3rd Arg. I answer in like manner; they are condemned by virtue of God's decree for their reputative guilt, and accordingly punished, i. e. in an improper sense dealt with as sinneful Adami himselfe was, for their relative guilt wch ye angels have ing not ye like relation could not be. [To be concluded in the next Number.] Manchester, SIR, September 1, 1824. N a note to the Preface of Helon's translator says, "that he has passed over the doctrinal parts of the work generally without remark, but does not mean to be supposed to agree with the opinions of the author." I could have wished that he had in his notes given us a few more remarks of this nature than he has done; as the few notes of this kind which occur, appear to me very excellent. Thus on Vol. II. p. 90, where M. Strauss translates Psalm li. 6, "Behold, thou delightest in the truth in secret things, teach me, therefore, thine hidden wisdom," Mr. Kenrick observes, "Such is the turn which the author gives to the words, which in our version are rendered, 'Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts; and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.' The whole connexion is unfavourable to this Interpretation, for David is evidently praying for moral purity. Truth in the reins' is probably sincerity in virtue; and wisdom, in the book of Proverbs, is often used in the same sense." On the opinions of the Jewish Rabbis concerning the Messiah, Mr. Kenrick has given a Latin note, a translation of which is, I think, deserving of a place in the Repository. "Those who contend that the Messiah is called Jehovah, in the writings of the Rabbis, quote Echa, on Lam. i. 16, What is the name of the King Messiah?' R. Abba f. Cohana says, Jehovah is his name, according to Jer. xxiii. 6, Jehovah our righteousness' (where, however, by this symbolical name the Israelites are designated, and in Jer. xxxiii. 15, the same name is given to Jerusalem). What says R. Levi? It is good for the city to have the same name with its king, and for the king to have the same name with his God; according to Ezekiel xlviii. 35, And the name of the city from that day shall be, Jehovah is there.' Even the just, who enjoy the favour of God, are called by the name of God, Bava Bathra. . 6 There are three that are called by the name of God himself, namely, the just.' Isa. xliii. 7: Bring my sons from far and my daughters froin the ends of the earth, every one that is called by my name.' The Messiah, Jer. xxiii. 6, and Jerusalem, Ezek. xlviii. 35. But in what sense the Messiah is called Jehovah_righteousness, informed by R. Albo: The Scripture calls the name of the Messiah, Jehovah our righteousness, because he is the Mediator of God, through whom we shall receive righteousness from God.' And Kimchi, ́ The Israelites call the Messiah by this name, Jehovah our righteousness, because in his times the righteousness of God shall be firm and stable for us, and shall never depart." I wish Mr. Kenrick had given his readers a note on Vol. II. p. 117, where M. Strauss says, "How often does Jehovah declare, that he has no pleasure in sacrifices and burnt-offerings, i. e. when they are not presented with a reference to the Messiah! Taken in this con |