all - printed This work which is unfinished ( Vide the end) was never published was wrote against Deists tothers of the same kind, & is worth by Mr. Burgh auther of many the works, he died before it could be completed Α ́ Ν ENQUIRY INTO THE INTO Rationale of CHRISTIANITY. T SECT. I. HAT the reader may have a precife and determinate idea of my design in this treatise, he is defired to take notice, that my fingle point of view is, to endeavour to determine what that one thing is, which properly conftitutes Chriftianity, or makes it precifely what it is, and without which the condition of our fpecies had been totally different from what it is. THAT Chrift may be faid to be the great Dispenser of the Divine favours and bleffings to mankind; that by his doctrine, character, and example, and his death, as a Witness to truth, with the glorious hope of a general refurrection B given by his rifing from the dead; that in thefe views, Chrift and his religion, do eventually promote the glory of God, and the honour of his laws, as well as the advancement of virtue, not only among our fpecies, but probably among other orders of rational beings, is not difputed, nor to be enquired into at prefent; my defign being to endeavour to determine what I think is at prefent undetermined, to fupply what I think is wanting in all the accounts of Christianity I have feen, and is no where to be found, but in Scripture, in which no writer on the fubject, that I know of, has found it, or at least has, to my fatisfaction, drawn it from thence, fo as to give a direct and rational answer to the fingle and precife question, What that one great thing is, which Christ did, which if he had not done, Chriftianity had not been, and without which, all that could have been done for our fpecies would have been of no avail. THE critics have established a rulé in epic poetry, viz. That the action done by the hero of the piece, be strictly one, not complex, or of various tendencies equally important. Thus Virgil, who has come up to the most perfect ftrictness of this rule, has celebrated Æneas for the one fingle action of founding the Roman ftate. It is my purpofe to fhew, that the great action done by Chrift, which conftitutes the relation, in which he ftands to mankind, of a Saviour, is ftrictly one, not a complication; that though though it be (like all other great and good defigns) attended and followed by various important effects, one is peculiar and indifpenfable. That though his character may be in fome refpects common to him with other benevolent beings, in one it ftands, with respect to our world, unrivalled and alone. THE fchemes of redemption, or theories of Christianity, hitherto propofed by writers, are chiefly the following. I. THE Calviniftic, viz. That Chrift fulfilled the divine law, and fuffered in the place and stead of man, and thereby fatisfied Divine juftice; and that our fins were imputed to him, and his righteousness to us. So that we come to be faved on account of his righteoufnefs imputed to us, as if it were our own, or as if we were innocent beings. 2. THAT of Rectoral wisdom and fitness; which is beft reprefented by Dr. Clarke, viz. that it was neceffary for the vindication of the Divine law, that penitents fhould not be received to pardon upon their penitence merely, without fome public and confpicuous teftimony of the Divine difpleasure against vice and difobedience: which being given by the obedience and fufferings of Chrift, it becomes of course fit, and fuitable to the character of an univerfal Governor, which it was not before, that penitent offenders be in that manner restored. 3. THE scheme of the falvation of mankind given to Chrift as a reward for his obedience and fufferings. This is fet forth to great advantage by Mr. Balguy. 4. THE fcheme, which is moft generally come into in our times, and publicly defended by many of our beft men and writers. It is nearly as follows, viz. that Jefus Christ was the Saviour of the world, only in fo far as he was appointed the Difpenfer of the Divine goodness to mankind, and came, with authority from God, to declare to them, that as many as fhould repent, and reform, fhould find mercy; and in fo far as he brought offenders, by his doctrine, laws, and example, to fincere repentance and virtue; and that what he did and suffered, had no proper tendency to gain any advantage for penitents, which they would not have had of course, and in confequence of the divine good- nefs alone, which must be difpenfed either by Chrift, or without him, but was done and fuffered by him merely in order to, and in confequence of the only end of his coming into this world, which, upon this fcheme, was, to affure penitents of the divine mercy, to establish the certainty of refurrection from the dead, and to bring mankind to penitence and virtue, to higher degrees of virtue, than they might otherwise have attained, and to a higher reward in confequence. As to the firft of these schemes, it is now univerfally given up by all reafoners, as unfatisfactory and irrational. |