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not it's Laws, cannot be faved. I am forced to suppose the Neceffity of Faith, here intended by our Saviour, to be not a literal, not an bypothetical, but a figurative Neceffity; implying nothing more than it's great Importance. I am very fenfible this Interpretation will appear to many Perfons a moft unwarrantable Violence on the plain Words of Scripture. To me it appears natural, and unavoidable. The Reafons, why it appears fo, I am now to produce.

Ir is very ufual, in common Speech, to confider Difficulties as Impoffibilities: and the greater the Difficulty of which we are speaking, the more natural is this Expreffion. Strictly speaking, nothing is impoffible but Contradictions: and yet it is manifeft, at first Sight, that, when we pronounce a Thing impoffible, we seldom intend to affirm it in this Senfe; we only mean to fay that it is highly improbable; we only mean a moral, that is, a figurative Impoffibility.

Now we have already fhewn that Unbelievers are in great Danger of falling short of Salvation. We have fhewn this, on Suppofition that Reason was cultivated and improved in the best Manner. Both the Motives the proposes, and the Means the offers, are incomparably inferior to thofe of Revelation; and yet even thefe, great as they, are, are found

in Fact, far from fufficient to reclaim the Generality of Mankind. It would not therefore have been ftrange, if our Saviour had faid, That without Faith in Him no Man can he faved. We fhould only have understood him in the fame qualified Senfe, as when he tells us, on another Occafion, That it is eafer for a Camel to go through the Eye of a Needle, than for a rich Man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Every one may, perceive that fuch general Expreffions ought not to be tied down to the literal Senfe; but always interpreted with fuch Restrictions, as the Reason of the Cafe fuggefts to us.-But this is not all: for in the prefent Inftance the Context itself will not allow us to understand ourSaviour without a further Limitation. Had he affirmed in general, That all Unbelievers are in a doubtjul and dangerous State, he had only affirmed a certain Truth. But his Words do not imply even thus much. They were certainly foken with a peculiar Regard to the actual State of the World at that Time; and to the very Perfons who received the Gospel from the Hands of the Apostles themselves. And in this View the Figure is yet more natural, because the Danger was yet greater; because the Improbability of fuch Men's Salvation was without Question exceeding great. If this fu pernatural Meffage, to call them to Repen

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tance, failed of producing it's due Effect what other Means could ever reclaim them? Or how could it be expected that weaker. Means fhould be fufficient, when stronger had been used to no Purpofe ?—In this ReSpect, and on this Account, our Saviour might furely affirm, that he who believeth not, fhall be damned.

To make this Interpretation ftill more easy, let it be farther confidered, that thefe Effects of Infidelity are not to be estimated by the Event, but by it's natural Tendency. To disbelieve the Christian Religion is in itself a Means of Ruin; however this Ruin may by other Means be prevented. On this Account therefore we cannot wonder that Infidelity is here confidered as the Ground and Reafon of our Condemnation.

FROM what has been faid, I imagine, it fufficiently appears, that this Explication is not unnatural. But that it is a true Explication, remains yet to be fhewn. And furely it is fome Prefumption in it's Favour, that it is both agreeable to Reason, and to other Paffages in Holy Scripture. I fhall not waft Time in proving the former: the latter may perhaps be thought lefs evident. But, not to infift on the repeated Declarations, that virtuous Men, of all Ages and Nations, shall be favoured of God, and rewarded by him; that

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he is no Refpecter of Perfons, but good to all; and that Heaven and Hell fhall finally be adjudged according to Men's good or evil Doings not to infift on all this, I defire it may be obferved, that, in thofe Places where Infidelity is moft ftrongly condemned, it is almoft always joined with Impenitence, and fupposed to be infeparably connected. I fhall only mention one Inftance, because it is very remarkable. When our Saviour reproves the Unbelief of fome of the principal Cities of Judæa, and threatens them with the dire Effects of it, he particularly compares their Cafe with that of the City Nineveh, and affirms the 'at er to be greatly preferable. What now is the Reason of this Preference? They, Jays He, repented at the Preaching of Jonah, and behold a greater than Jonah is bere. The Sentence is in fome Degree Elliptical: but the Neaving admits of no Difpute. The Jews were more blameable than the Ninevites; because the latter repented upon the Preaching of Jonah, the former did not repent upon the Preaching of Chrift. It is not then Infidelity as fuch, but taken in Conjunction with it's natural Attendants, Impenitence and Immorality, to which fo dreadful a Portion is allotted in the Life to come.

STILL we have defended our Interpetation from Conjecture only; let us at length exa

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mine the Words themfelves. He that believeth, and is baptized, shall be faved: i. e. To embrace the Chriftian Religion is the natural Means of obtaining Salvation. Our Saviour did not, and could not intend that all Believers would be faved: but that Faith in Him put them into the Way of Salvation; that Faith naturally tended to make them boly here, and happy hereafter. For that in the Event it would certainly and infallibly fave them, this could by no Means be fuppofed; because our Saviour knew perfectly well, that many of his Followers would be deficient in Virtue; and without Virtue there is no Salvation. Whoever maintains that this Part of the Text is to be understood univerfally, without any Exception, will be forced to include under the Word Faith the whole Idea of Evangelical Obedience. And if any Perfon chufe this Way of interpreting, it comes, in Effect, to the fame Thing. One or the other, I think, is conftantly acknowleged by all ra tional Chriftians.-Now if the former Part of the Verfe is to be thus understood, the latter Part, which exactly corresponds to it, is certainly to be interpreted in a like Manner. He that believeth not, fhall be damned: i. e. To reject the Chriftian Religion is the natural Means of Condemnation. Not that all Unbelievers fhall be condemned; but that Infidelity

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