tion in the resurrection of the just; and may enter into the joy of my Lord, to reap from the mercies of God in the harvest of a blessed eternity, what is here sown in tears and penitential sorrow, being pardoned and accepted, and saved by the mercies of God in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Σωτηρία τῷ Θεῷ ἡμῶν καὶ τῷ ̓Αμνῷ.

DEUS JUSTIFICATUS;

OR,

A VINDICATION

OF THE

GLORY OF THE DIVINE ATTRIBUTES,

IN THE QUESTION OP

ORIGINAL SIN:

AGAINST

THE PRESBYTERIAN WAY OF UNDERSTANDING IT.

IN A LETTER TO A PERSON OF QUALITY.

Sed neque tam facilis res ulla est, quin ea primum

Difficilis magis ad credundum constet

LUCRET. II. 1027. Eichstadt, p. 89.

TO

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

AND RELIGIOUS LADY,

THE LADY CHRISTIAN,

COUNTESS DOWAGER OF

DEVONSHIRE.

MADAM,

WHEN I reflect upon the infinite disputes, which have troubled the public meetings of Christendom concerning original sin, and how impatient and vexed some men lately have been, when I offered to them my endeavours and conjectures concerning that question, with purposes very differing from what were seen in the face of other men's designs, and had handled it so, that God might be glorified in the article, and men might be instructed and edified in order to good life; I could not but think that wise heathen said rarely well in his little adagy, relating to the present subject; Εἰς παραδοξίαν ἔφυμεν. • Mankind was born to be a riddle,' and our nativity is in the dark ; for men have taken the liberty to think what they please, and to say what they think; and they affirm many things, and can prove but few things; and take the sayings of men for the oracles of God, and

bold affirmatives for convincing arguments; and St. Paul's text must be understood by St. Austin's commentary, and St. Austin shall be heard in all, because he spake against such men who in some things were not to be heard; and after all, because his doctrine was taken for granted by ignorant ages, and being received so long, was incorporated into the resolved doctrine of the church, with so great a firmness; it became almost a shame to examine what the world believed so unsuspectingly; and he that shall first attempt it, must resolve to give up a great portion of his reputation to be torn in pieces by the ignorant and by the zealous, by some of the learned, and by all the envious; and they who love to teach in quiet, being at rest in their chairs and pulpits, will be froward when they are awakened; and rather than they will be suspected to have taught amiss, will justify an error by the reproaching of him that tells them truth, which they are pleased to call new.

If any man differs from me in opinion, I am not troubled at it, but tell him that truth is in the understanding, and charity is in the will, and is or ought to be there, before either his or my opinion in these controversies can enter, and therefore that we ought to love alike, though we do not understand alike; but when I find that men are angry at my ingenuity and openness of discourse, and endeavour to hinder the event of my labours in the ministry of souls, and are impatient of contradiction or variety of explication, and understanding of questions, I think myself