boly, which in this place fignifies immortal, unalterable, indestructible; corruption, which means not the moral corruption of fin, but the natural corruption of the body. Finally, we muft examine the fubject itself, the refurrection of Jefus Chrift. There are many texts, in difcuffing which it is not neceffary to treat of either subject or attribute: but all the difcuffion depends on the terms fyncategorematica. For example, John iii. 16. God fo loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten fon, that whofocver believeth in him fhould not perish, but have eternal life. ficut et pii, animi vero cruciatibus debitis apud inferos puniuntur. Intelligit autem propheta non de illis gentibus, quarum interitum hoc pfalmo cecinit; fed in genere de omnibus peccatoribus, &c. Mufculi com. in loc. If the pfalmift meant to lay only, the wicked hall die, and all the nations that forget God fhall die, he meant to utter a trite faying of no confequence, for the righteous alfo fhall die, and all the nations that remember God thall die. But if he intended to fpeak of the future punishment of the wicked, the paffage is evidently worthy of an infpired writer, as the revelation of future punishments might excite great fears, and fo produce great moral good.. The fame may be faid of many other paffages in the old tef tament. The rich man being in HELL lift up his eyes, Luke xvi. 23. Fear him who hath power to The caft into HELL, Luke xii. 5. The Roman divines hold the opinion of Chrift's defcent into bell. The famous jefuit expofitor reafons on this article in a very inconclufive manner but I will take the liberty to transcribe his words, because too many modern reafoners imitate his logic.. Hoc loco, (i. e. Eph. iv. 9.) et aliis fimilibus confirmatur ille, fidei articulus, quo credimus et dicimus de Chrifto, defcendit ad inferos. Negant hoc Calvinus et Beza, qui per inferos intelligunt fepulchrum. Sed fic apoftoli abfurdam committerent tautologiam in fymbolo, cum di-. cunt paffus, mortuus, et fepultus, defcendit ad inferos. Cornel. à Lapide com. in Eph. iv. 9. Happy for proteftants, were they to avoid fuch hypothetical reafoning! A creed is forged to give the fenfe of fcripture, and then the fenfe of fcripture is explained by the creed! The categorical propofition is, God loved the world; yet it is neither neceffary to infift much on the term God, nor to fpeak in a common-place way of the love of God: but divide the text into two parts; firft, the gift which God in his love hath made of his fon; fecondly, the end for which he gave him, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. In the first, you muft fhew how Jefus Chrift is the gift of God; 1. In that he did not come by principles of nature. 2. Inafmuch as there was nothing among men to merit it. 3. In that there was nothing among men to excite even the leaft regard of any kind. 4. There was not the leaft proportion between us and fo great a gift. But, 5. There was, on the contrary, an infinite difproportion, and not only a difproportion, but an oppofition and a contrariety. Then pafs to the cause of this gift, which is love; and after having obferved, that it was a love of complacence, for which, on the creature's part, no reaíon can be rendered, particularly prefs the term fo, and difplay the greatnefs of this love by many confiderations. Then go on to the fecond point, and examine, 1. The fruit of Chrift's miffion, the falvation of man, expreffed negatively, that he should not perish, and pofitively, that he should have eternal life. Speak of thefe one after another. After this obferve, 2. For whom the benefit of Chrift's miffion is ordained, believers. And lastly, enlarge on the word whosoever, which fignifies two things, 1. That no believer is excluded from the benefits of Jefus Chrift. And 2. That no man, as fuch, is excluded from faith, for all are indifferently called. (2) In texts of reasoning, the propofitions, which compofe the fyllogifm, muit be examined one after another, and each apart. (3) cable picture; for it is ever to be remembered that 1, 2, 3, negative, pofitive, categorie, &c. are only to aid private compofition, and are no more to be mentioned in public preaching than the naked canvafs is to be seen in a finished painting. (3) Logicians define fyllogifm thus: as the first work of the mind is perception, whereby our ideas are framed, and the fecond is judgment, which joins, or disjoins our ideas, and forms a propofition, fo the third operation of the mind is reafoning, which joins feveral propofitions together and makes a fyllogifm: that is, an argument whereby we are wont to infer fomething, that is lefs known, from truths, which are more evident. The matter, of which a fyllogifm is made up, is three propofitions; and thefe three propofitions are made up of three ideas, or terms varioufly joined. The three terms are called the remote matter of a fyllogifm, and the three propofitions the proxime, or immediate matter of it. Dr. Watts's logic, part 3. chap. 1. Mr. Locke afks whether fyllogifm, as is generally thought, be the proper inftrument of reafon, and the ufefulleft way of exercising Sometimes this faculty? and gives feveral reafons why he doubts it. The fyllogifm is used for the fake of inference, but (fays he) an ingenuous fearcher after truth, who has no other aim but to find it, has no need of any fuch form to force the allowing of the inference: the truth and reasonableness of it, is better feen in ranging of the ideas in a fimple and plain order. And hence it is that men in their own enquiries after truth, never ufe fyllogifms to convince themselves, (or in teaching others to inftruct willing learners) becaufe before they can put them into a fyllogifm, they muft fee the connection that is between the intermediate idea, and the two other ideas it is fet between and applied to, to fhew their agreement and when they fee that, they fee whether the inference be good or no, and fo fyllogifm comes too late to fettle it. Mr. Locke adds, notwithftanding, that all right reafoning may be reduced to the common forms of fyllogifm, but that they are not the only, nor the best way of reafoning, for the leading of thofe into truth who are willing to find it. Ejay, book iv. chap. 17. Let Sometimes it will be even neceffary to confider the force of the reafoning, and to make one part of that alfo. (4) Sometimes we fhall find a propofition concealed, which it will be proper to fupply. You must in fuch a cafe confider, whether the hidden propofition be important enough to make a part, which Let us hear another great mafter. Qui audiunt aliquem ratiocinantem de re ipfis perfpecta, et intelligunt linguam qua utitur; fi modo fani fint cerebri, et qui loquitur obfcuritatem non captet; nullis regulis, ut videant an confequenter ratiocinetur necne, indigent. Rei cognitio et attentio ad animadvertendum ratiocinationum nexum, feu falfum, fufficiunt. - Nulla melior videtur probandæ veritatis via, quam fi ii, quibus ignota eft, per eundem tramitem, per quem ad eam pervenimus, deducantur. Clerici log. par. iv. cap. 1. de nat. arg. cap. 2. de reg. gen. fyllogifmorum. (4) Mr. Locke, fpeaking of reafon as a faculty in man, fays, we may confider in reafon thefe four degrees: the firft and higheft is the difcovering and finding out of proofs; the fecond, the regular and methodical difpofition of them, and laying them in a clear and fit order, to make their connexion and force be plainly and cafily perceived; it the third is the perceiving their connexion; and the fourth a making a right conclufion, &c. Efay as above. Whoever undertakes to handle a text fyllogistically ought to take great care first to acquaint him felf thoroughly with the whole doctrine of fyllogifms, otherwise he will render himself ridiculous, and tempt people to apply to him what Mr. Locke fays of one who handles purely identical propofitions. It is like a monkey fhifting his oyster from one hand to the other, and faying oyster in right hand is fubject, and oyster in left hand is predicate, and fo make a felf-evident propofition of oyfter: that is, oyfter is oyster, &c. In short, the molt intelligible way is to range ideas in a fimple and plain order, which is most natural and eafy. See to this purpose the first chapter of Elements of criticism. Indeed we may fay of fyllogiftic trammels as a French poet fays of rhym ing: La rime eft un esclave, et ne doit qu'obeïr. Boileashe it will fometimes be, as in Rom. iv. 1. What shall we fay then, that Abraham our father as pertaining to the flesh bath found? for if Abraham were justified by works, he bath whereof to glory, but not before God. Divide this text into two parts. 1. Confider the question, What shall we fay then, that Abrabam our father as pertaining to the flesh bath found? And 2. The folution. As to the queftion, first eftablish the fenfe, which depends on the meaning of the words after the flesh, that is to fay, according to natural principles; either in regard to the birth of Ifaac, who came into the world not in an ordinary way, and according to the force of nature, for Sarah was barren and beyond the age of childbearing; or as Abraham's natural ftate in marriage was a figure of the ftate of his foul in regard to God. According to the flesh, alfo fignifies, according to works in regard to his juftification before God. The fenfe of the queftion is, then, What shall we fay of Abraham our father? was he justified before God by his works? Nor muft you fail to remark, that in St. Paul's fenfe, according to the flesh, is oppofed to, according to the promife; that is, the way of nature oppofed to a fupernatural way. Secondly, Obferve the importance of the question with the Jews, who looked upon Abraham as their father, the root, of which they efteemed themfelves the branches, deriving all their claims from him; fo that it was extremely important to clear up the ftate of Abraham, and in what manner he was juftified; for thereon depended the ruin of that pretended juftification, which the Jews endeavoured to establish by the law, that is, by works. Pass now to the folution, and observe, that it is a reason, and that the particle which we tranflate but, fhould be tranflated because; thus, If Abraham |