Richard Finch

“ To be tender and pitiful in the least and lowest Matters, and unregardful and cruel in important and everlasting Concerns, is, with regard to the Divine Being, a moral Impossibility; ’tis beneath human Nature and Prudence, and the Practice of a good Man; And yet these Doctrines teach this horrible impiety concerning the great God himself. ”

“ Man, being made a free and moral Agent, has Power to act for himself, and can be accountable for no body’s Crimes but his own. The Consciousness of being a Sinner, belongs only to him, that actually sinneth, or omitteth his Duty. Enthusiasm indeed, which, in its highest Stages, is a kind of spiritual Madness, may have on some Minds a quite different Effect; and the Poor Soul, that is subject to this gloomy and tyrannical Principle, may conceit strange things; it may at one Time imagine itself under the Guilt of Adam’s Sin, which it never committed ”

“ In what good Sense, I should be glad to know, could Christ be said to die for all Men, when God purposely, and peremptorily, with-holds proper Assistances to restore the greatest Part? If this be to die for all Men, it is certainly not in a good, but in a very bad Sense. But, perhaps, the Doctor means, that Man, consider’d in his primitive Rectitude, has Power sufficient to obey the Gospel as proposed to Sinners, and that Adam’s Posterity, consider’d as fallen in him, are under the same Obligation to keep the Law, as Adam was. ”

“ Some again, who tho’ they profess the Doctrine, are yet (I doubt not) often under the Influence of God’s Grace, which, as it tends to humble the Soul, and render it more loving and humane than before, naturally prevents the Spirit of Persecution from taking such deep Root as otherwise it might. And here, though I do not pretend to be a nice Judge of the spiritual Part of Religion, yet I have heard such as have been accounted Men of the best Experience say, that when the Grace of God operates on the Soul, the ardent Love of Mankind is inseparable therewith. ”

“ But as God, on the contrary, is a Being of all possible and infinite Perfections; an exact Knowledge of what we call Right and Wrong, Just and Unjust, ever hath, and always will exit in the Divine Mind, and be to him a perfect, constant, and invariable Rule of Action, in relation to his Creatures. He that is infinite in Knowledge, cannot but know, at all Times, and under the most (to us) difficult and perplex’d Circumstances of Things, what in its own Nature is best, and fittest to be done; and, being void of all Bias, Prejudice, and Passion, cannot but approve of what is right and best ”

“ One would think it incumbent on all Legislators, to consider well the Consequences of every Law they enact; for the preferring a Law, whose Consequences can at best be of no Service, and will probably in the main Event of Things be more evil and pernicious than otherwise, would be preferring Evil to Good; in as great Proportion as the Evil might exceed the Good: and how such a Constitution could be better for Mankind, I do not understand. ”

“ But, on the other hand, it has been observed, that among mere enthusiastick and traditional Believers, of the Doctrine of Election, their Hypocrisy, Deceit and Dissimulation has overtop’d that of all the World besides, even beyond what human Nature could be thought capable of, in its most wicked and corrupt State; in short, they seem to have made the Deceit of Jacob, and all other parallel Places of Scripture, that furnish the worst Part of the Lives of good Men, a standing Rule of Behaviour—What a blessed Company has the Lord set apart for himself! ”

“ And, when we consider, on the other hand, that Sin is committed by a frail finite Being, very often in its unguarded Moments, prompted by Passion and Appetite, and surrounded with the most powerful Temptations; this proves more strongly, that it cannot be infinite. By the Justice of God, is not meant, that he cannot forgive Sin without Satisfaction, but that he will not punish the Innocent; He proposes himself as a Pattern for our Imitation, and bids us forgive our offending Brethren, if they repent and desire Forgiveness: and he himself will therefore forgive on the same Terms ”

“ What would you think of a Man, who is a Villain to-day, and boasts much of his great Honesty tomorrow? The Appearance of Christ in the Flesh was, we are told by these Gentlemen, on Account of Adam’s Transgression, without which it would have been, they say, wholly superfluous. But the Expediency or End of Christ’s coming, may be resolved into the Love of God, on the one hand; pitying the Ignorance and Folly of Mankind, on the other: and whether this State was the Effect of Adam’s Sin, or of their own personal Demerits, it makes no Difference in this Case. ”

“ A Sovereign he is, nor can any Creature whatever dispute his unlimited and uncontroulable Power over his whole Creation. But Power alone, without Wisdom and Goodness to make a right Use and Application of it, may be perfect Frenzy, and run into the greatest Latitude of Folly and Tyranny. ”

“ Sin is said to be infinite, because committed against an infinite God; and that therefore nothing but an infinite Being can satisfy the Justice of God for it: A fine Story indeed, for Men to amuse us with, who pretend to believe in only one God: Here is one infinite Being, to be satisfied for Sin; and another, to satisfy him. And, what is still as bad or worse, it supposes, that an infinite Being may, for a certain Season, suffer or undergo a Diminution of its Happiness; which, in an infinite and unchangeable Being, I take to be impossible. ”

“ There is no Knowledge more certain, than what Mankind commonly have of Good and Evil; and he who, in order to serve any private Scheme of Religion, goes about to depreciate this Knowledge, robs Mankind of all Truth and Certainty whatever, and in the End subjects his own darling Schemes to the same Uncertainty ”

“ Let us suppose, in order to illustrate the Argument, that a Man is compelled, by Thieves, to go out on the Highway, where he plunders, and is at length, with the rest, brought to Justice; his Sentence would doubtless be the same as theirs: But when he is consider’d, as having acted not by Choice, but by Necessity, he must needs be an Object of Pity. Nay, mere Justice itself will plead strongly in his Favour. Apply this (so far as it belongs) to the Doctrine of Original Sin; which if it makes Men Sinners at all, it must be by Necessity, there being no Possibility for us to prevent it ”

“ To sum up this Argument: That Being who can make a sensible rational Creature, on Purpose for Damnation, instead of taking a reasonable Care of it, which, from its Make and Dependance, it has a Right to expect, as much as though a formal Promise were made, may, with altogether as much (nay more) Justice, break its Promises of eternal Life, made to another Creature of the same Kind; its Claim not being founded in Nature, but built on Promise. ”

“ I am ashamed to waste Time upon such a Subject; tho’ I hope to be pardoned for following so great a Man in his own Method of arguing. He perhaps may continue of the same Mind, and there may be no Hopes of Convincement, till Brutes are taught to speak. By this new Way of Reasoning, the Ground we tread upon, and every Thing around us, hitherto thought Inanimate, may be full of Cogitation. If affording the common Marks of Sensation, be no Proof, that Brutes have it in a common Degree, Wanting the common Marks of Intelligence, can be no Proof that a Stock or a Stone has it not. ”

“ Trapp has abundantly evinced, in his excellent Discourse, against the Folly, Sin, and Danger of being righteous over much. Hypocrisy and Persecution are also the genuine Offspring of this Faith; and whenever it has been tried, Persecution has grown up to a considerable Maturity: for as they pretend to know the Marks of elect and reprobate Men, what can be more natural, than for those, who apprehend themselves to be the former, to persecute and take Vengeance on the latter. Hath not God, by his own Decree of Damnation, set them an Example? ”

“ For whatever Influence Prejudice, or Enthusiasm, may have on some Minds, there are certain Seasons, wherein Truth will display itself to the Realm and Understanding of Mankind, and extort, even from the Mouths of those, who sometimes oppose her, the most ample Concessions in her Favour. ”

“ We have no natural Right to Immortality, much less to immortal Happiness; it is the mere Effect of Divine Bounty—But, being created in a weak, dependent State, and surrounded with Wants and Infirmities, we have a natural Right to the Care and Protection of our Maker; and tho’ we allow, no formal Promise is made on our Behalf, yet the very act itself, of creating such Beings, and the Condition we are placed in, contains in it the Substance of a Promise; and we may be assured, God will have proper Regard to such Beings. ”

“ God does nothing without sufficient Reason: he could save none under this Circumstance, but as they were in themselves Objects of his Pity and Mercy; and if ever there was an Object of Mercy, here it is, an immortal Soul condemned, for the Fault of another, which it could by no Means hinder or prevent, to suffer eternal Torment. ”

“ A Due Survey of the two Cases, or Conditions, of the Elect and Non-elect, may serve to set this Matter in a clear Light, God being in himself antecedent to the Existence of all other Beings, infinitely glorious and happy, could have no Occasion for Creatures to add to his Blessedness; all that we call evil, such as Cruelty and Injustice in Man, ever arises from such a vicious and imperfect State of Mind, as cannot, for that Reason, possibly belong to Deity. ”

“ All evil Actions, consequent upon this Propensity, are, in fact, as necessary and unavoidable to us, as the Propensity itself, Where then, in point of Innocence, can the Difference be, between having imputed Guilt and this Propensity, in Time of Infancy, and living long enough in this World, to feel, and shew to others, its arbitrary Effects, in producing Vice and Impiety whether we will or no? ”

“ If God be gracious enough to give eternal Life, to which we have not the least natural Right, can he possibly with-hold that which, from our Make and Dependance on him, we have just Reason to expect? and how Much more impossible is it, that he should make us for everlasting Misery! To make one Man for Damnation, is much worse, than promising eternal Life to another, and breaking that Promise ”

“ Experience makes it evident, that Education is able to retain Men of the Brightest Understanding, in the Belief of the Greatest Absurdities. But, that Men of Learning, Ingenuity and Experience, who have lived perhaps to the Age of fifty, in the Disbelief of the Doctrines of Election, &c. should after that sincerely embrace them, is to me Matter of great Astonishment; yet this I am inform’d is really the Case, with regard to one of the most ingenious Divines, our Metropolis has to boast of. ”

“ 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 Powers he hath bestowed on him. The contrary would be very hard dealing indeed—If a Law be dispensed to me, I must in the first Place have Understanding sufficient to judge of its Authority, and the Obligations it lays me under ”

“ If I mistake not, Bishop Berkley has furnished the World with something equally instructive and philosophical, in relation to the Existence of Matter; which, he endeavours to prove not to be a real, but an ideal and imaginary Being. I shall leave others to guess, in what Condition those must be, who think and reason after this extraordinary Manner. But the Doctor has yet another Argument in reserve, to vindicate God’s Justice—Tho’ Brutes suffer, yet they may it seems have upon the whole more Pleasure than Pain. But do not some Brutes partake very deeply of the former, in this Life ”

“ If there was such a Covenant between God and Adam, ’tis strange no Notice should be taken of it in the Law given to Adam, as laid down in the Bible, and where, of all Places, we have most Reason to expect it—this must surely have been the fittest Place for its Insertion—Nor is it only absent here, for there is no positive Account of any such Covenant in all the Old Testament. ”

“ But allowing we are born into the World, with this Propensity to Evil, and that we derive it from Adam’s Sin; yet if God be merciful, he could never leave us in this deplorable Condition; nor would his Impartiality admit of redeeming the one Part of Mankind in a mere arbitrary Manner, and leaving the other to perish. ”

“ The Soul that sinneth, it shall die: the Son shall not bear the Iniquity of the Father, neither shall the Father bear the Iniquity of the Son; the Righteousness of the Righteous shall be upon him, and the Wickedness of the Wicked shall be upon him. ”