s, seems to be of very
_easy_ and _plain_ Signification: There was in those early Times, as
appears from our Saviour's frequently reproving the Hypocrisy of
that Generation, a Sort of People, who appeared zealous in the
Externals of Religion, while at the same Time they neglected Things
of far _greater Moment:_ _Woe unto you Scribes and Pharisees, ye pay
Tithe of Mint and Cummin; and have omitted the weightier Matters of
the Law:_ Mat. xxiii. _ver_. 23. They daringly violated God's Laws
in some of the most material and important Instances, and complied
with others in a mere formal ostentatious Way; and were therefore
guilty, in the Divine View, of the Breach of the _whole Law;_ for
_mere Obedience_ upon improper Motives to a _Part_ of the Law, while
at the same Time they allow'd themselves in the _known_ and
_deliberate_ Violation of _more weighty_ Commands, was no true or
proper Obedience at all: and, in this Sense, the _Jewish_ Sacrifices
of the Law, though commanded by the highest Authority, were always
esteemed an Abomination; and the Christian Religion as well as the
Law, is certainly liable to Abuses of the same Kind, from Men of
hypocritical and corrupt Minds, whom therefore this Doctrine of the
Apostle _effectually_ and _peculiarly_ regards and reproves: and I
appeal to all, if this Construction of the Sacred Text be not more
agreeable to Reason and Common Sense, than that which the Doctor has
thought fit and convenient to bestow thereon. I beseech the Doctor
to consider how, according to his Principles, this Covenant could be
proposed to _Adam_, out of a kind and beneficent intention in the
Creator, when God knew, in the first Place, that _Adam_ would not
keep it, and determined, in the second Place, upon the Breach of it,
to leave the Bulk of Mankind to perish everlastingly, without Mercy,
without sufficient or suitable Means of Redemption; and what a
_cruel Joke_, upon the _Calvinistical Scheme_, of God's willing the
_Fall_, was here put upon _Adam_, and all his Posterity!

To talk as some do, of our existing in _Adam_ at the Time of his
Transgression, is very absurd, when, as _intelligent_ and _free
Creatures_, it is evident, we did not exist at all. _Sin is a
Transgression of some Law, which we have at the same time Power to
keep_. God never requires Impossibilities. He that made Man, knows
best what he is capable of and hath undoubtedly taken care to
proportion the _Duties_ he requires of Man, to the _Pow