n, If the present Law be just in itself, there can be no
Objection to it; if it be unjust, _no Argument_ of any Weight can be
drawn from it, in regard to the _Divine Being;_ who is holy, wise,
and true, and so are all his Appointments concerning the Children of
Men.

To bring this kind of Reasoning of theirs up to the Point, they
should have produced a Law, which subjected the Son (for the
Father's Offence) to the _same corporal_ Punishment with the Father,
and then also they must have proved such a Law to be just and good.
But, as these Gentlemen are so fond of bringing Instances from the
_Practice of Men_ in this frail State, in Justification of their own
Doctrine, I shall present them with one or two of my own. _Murder_
has sometimes been committed under such Circumstances, that though
the Murderer has been arraigned, there hath been no room to condemn
him, all Circumstances having concurred, in the Eye of the Law, to
acquit him; _will the Almighty therefore acquit him?_ Again, on the
other hand, in the Case of Murder, things have so fallen out, as to
make an innocent Person look like the Murderer, in the Eye of the
Law or Court, which has therefore sometimes proceeded to Death
itself; _is this Man therefore guilty before God?_ I have put these
two Cases, purely to shew the Absurdity of such kind of Arguments:
and I hope they will consider better of it, and advance them no
farther.

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_. Besides,
when the Law was given, and threatening (in Case of Disobedience)
pronounced on _Adam_, 'twas _merely personal_--_In the Day_ thou
_eatest thereof_, thou _shalt surely die_. And when _Adam_ and _Eve_
had broke the Command, and God descended to judge them for it, their
Sentences were _personal_ and _particular_, and no reproaching
_Adam_ on the Account of Evils to be thence brought on his
Posterity, and _much less_ of eternal Damnation. The _Jews_ indeed,
many of whom were weak enough to embrace any Absurdity at all, had
by some Means contracted a Notion, not altogether unlike this of
_original Sin_, probably from a Misunderstanding of the second