IF

The true ORIGINAL of the SOUL.

CHAP. II.

The chief difficulties on both fides of the Question.

[Continued from page 43.]

F the foul comes immediately from God, how come we to be defiled with original fin? This infection cannot proceed from the foul, for if God created it, he maketh it exceeding good; and it is not good to fay, God forsakes it before it fins, or it fins before it comes into the body.

Again, it cannot be polluted by the body; for neither can the body be finful without the foul, nor yet if it could, could the divine nature of the foul be corrupted by the body; and if it could be, yet not with original fin.

Neither can it be by the union of both, for that is done by God. And how can it poffibly ftand with God's justice, to put a new created foul that is good and without fin, into a condition, wherein it fhall be ftraight way liable to eternal damnation, for the fault of another. Or how can it belong to a good foul newly created of nothing, that another, some thousand years fince, finned? Neither will it avail any thing to fay, it is created in the infufion, and infused in the creation for that is all one as if we should fay in plainer words, It is made in the marring, and marred in the making: for being a fpiritual fubftance, diftin&t from the body, if it come from another principle, it must have a proper existence of its own, before it can be made part of another; and if not in time, yet in nature I am fure, it must first be, before it can be united to the body.

But

But the last and best refuge is, that original fin passeth neither by the foul, nor by the body, but by the offence of our first parents, who standing in the room of all their posterity; as look what gifts they received, were no less for their pofterity, than for themfelves; fo what they loft, they loft alfo for their pofterity: and therefore in the inftant that God createth souls, although he creates them good, yet for Adam's fin, he deprives them of those supernatural gifts, which otherwife they should have had: which deprivation, although it putteth no evil into the foul, yet evil neceffarily followeth, and hence is original fin.

This indeed comes fomewhat nearer the matter; for if it be granted that the foul is not propagated from Adam, it must be granted withal, that we are not guilty of original fin fimply, because we proceed from Adam; but by fome other means; as namely, because he stood in our room: and we are men as he was; but yet this will not serve the turn neither; for firft it ftands not with the juftice of God, that Adam's fin fhould be imputed to us any other way than as it is our own: that is, as we finned in him: fecondly, it is confeffed that original fin is not only by imputation, as this is, but also by propagation: yea, I will fay more (and yet according to the truth) that it is not by imputation, but only in respect of propagation. For if we could be without fin of our own (as a new created foul is) his fin could not justly hurt us. True it is that God may justly punish all mankind for the fin of Adam, yet this is, and must be, his posterity only and neither they for his fin properly (for the fon fhall not bear the iniquity of the father) but because by his fin they are made finful, or rather finned in him, and fo for their own fin are juftly fubje&t to the fame punishment. So that in truth, propagation is the main, if not the only ftream of original corruption. Now if we receive only the leaft parts of ourselves, that is, our body, from Adam, which cannot be the fubject of fin, not only because VOL. VI.

N

it

it wants the foul, but because not parts, but whole perfons finned in Adam; how can this fatisfy any reafonable man, that it is poffible for us to be guilty of original fin, if the foul comes immediately from God?

An Extract from the Depofitions of William Floyd, of the City of Bristol, Mariner, and Little Ephraim Robin-John, and Ancona Robin Robin-John, of Old Town, Old Calabar, on the Coast of Africa.

W

In the Court of KING'S-BENCH.

ILLIAM FLOYD maketh oath, That he hath been

employed in the African-trade, as Mate and Master of a veffel, about twenty years: that in the year 1767, he was Chief Mate of the Merchant Ship, called the Indian Queen, John L-tt, Mafter: that in that year the faid fhip was in the river of Old Calabar, with the Duke of York, Capt. James Bevan; the Nancy, Capt. M-11; the Concord, Capt. all of Bristol: the Edgar, Capt. A. L——, of Liverpool, and a ship belonging to London, Capt. Parks: that a quarrel having for fome time fubfifted between the inhabitants of Old Town, Old Calabar, and thofe of New Town, Old Calabar: the principal inhabitants of Old Town, were invited on board the faid fhips by the several Captains, who promifed to make an end of the quarrel between them and their neighbours: that trufting in this promise, between three and four hundred of them, in ten canoes, came, firft on the long-fide of the Indian Queen, and afterwards went on board the Edgar, leaving three or four of their people on board the Indian Queen, one of whom was Amboe Robin-John, brother of Ephraim Robin-John, then a Grandee, afterwards the King of Old Town: that the next

morning

morning there were on board the Indian Queen, two other perfons, who came on the fame invitation, Little Ephraim Robin-John, another brother of the faid Grandee, and Ancona Robin Robin-John, his nephew. That the fame morning, Amboe Robin-John, Little Ephraim, and Ancona, were fent by Capt. Beven, with others belonging to their canoe, with a Letter on board the Edgar: that mean time canoes going from the Edgar, carried many of the inhabitants of Old Town and diftributed them on board the other fhips: that the fame morning Capt. L. gave this deponent orders, that as foon as he faw a jack at the mizen top mafst head, he should seize all the people of Old Town that were on board : that having for fome time waited the fignal, he heard and faw a firing of fmall arms and wall-pieces from the Duke of York, into a canoe lying along-side her, belonging to Amboe, Little Ephraim, and Ancona: that prefently after he faw the canoe fink, and several of the people swimming in the water, moft of whom were either killed, or feized and carried on board the faid fhip: that immediately upon the faid firing, all the other ships in the river, (except the Edgar and the Concord,) began to fire on the other canoes, and to feize the men who were not killed: that during this firing, many of the inhabitants of New Town, who had lain concealed on the fhore, began to pursue such as had escaped by swimming; and feveral from the fhips joined them in the purfuit: that afterwards he faw many dead bodies in the river, and on the fands: that about three hundred (many of them principal men of the place,) were either killed or made flaves of: that Amboe Robin-John was delivered by Capt. Beven, to the inhabitants of New Town, one of whom immediately ftruck off his head, along-fide of the fhip: and that many others were carried by the Duke of York and the other fhips, and fold for flaves in the plantations of America.

[To be continued.]

N 2

WITCH.

WITCHCRAFT.

From the DUMFRIES WEEKLY JOURNAL.

E received the following Letter a few weeks ago:

WE but as the contents are of fo extraordinary a nature,

we deferred the publication of it, till now that we have received undoubted intelligence that the circumstances therein mentioned really happened.

To the PUBLISHER of the Dumfries Weekly Journal.

THE

Confefs the Almighty juft,

And where you can't unriddle, learn to trust.

PARNELL.

"HE following extraordinary circumftance, which may be depended upon as an absolute fact, happened at WindyHill, in the parish of Cannoby, near Langholm, Efkdale.

A young Woman, about twenty years of age, dreamed on November 3, 1781, that a certain woman, commonly reported to be a Witch, whom she saw the preceding day in a house in the neighbourhood, was to have power over her for the space of twenty weeks; at the expiration of which time, fhe was either to die or be released. Next morning fhe caufed her brother to mark down the day of the month, and the number of weeks on a piece of paper, without telling him her reafon for doing fo, and laid it up in her cheft. The very next day fhe became fubject to ftrange convulfionfits, which frequently returned on her; and the nearer she came to the conclufion of the weeks, the more fhe was tormented with excruciating pain. Before she fell into the fits, she knew precisely when they were to come on, and how long they were to continue, and was never mistaken in

the