committed adultery with the creature, from whence the cursed race of sin and miseries proceed.

Suppose the devil had so disguised the temptation, that notwithstanding all circumspection and care, Adam could not have discovered its evil; his invincible ignorance had rendered the action involuntary: but Adam was conscious of his own action; there was light in his mind to discern the evil, and strength in his will to decline it. For the manner of the defection, whether it was from affected ignorance, or secure neglect, or transport of passion, it doth not excuse: the action itself was of that moment, and the supreme Lawgiver so worthy of reverence, that it should have awakened all the powers of his soul to beware of that which was rebellion against God and ruin to himself.

Or suppose he had been tried by torments, whose extremity and continuance had vehemently oppressed his nature; this had only lessened the guilt, the action had still been voluntary; for no external force can compel the will to choose any thing but under the notion of comparative goodness. Now to choose sin rather than pain, and to prefer ease before obedience, is highly dishonourable to God, whose glory ought to be infinitely more valuable to us than life and all its endearments, Job xxxvi. 21. And though sharp pains, by discomposing the body, make the soul unfit for its highest and noblest operations, so that it cannot perform the acts of virtue with delight and freedom; yet then it may abstain from evil. But this was not Adam's case: the devil had no power over him (as over Job, who felt the extremity of his rage, and yet came off more than conqueror) to disturb his felicity; he prevailed by a simple suasion. Briefly, though Adam had strength sufficient to repel all the powers of darkness, yet he was vanquished by the assault of a single temptation. Now, that man, so richly furnished with all the perfections of the mind, and the excellent virtues of which original righteousness was composed; that endued with knowledge to foresee the incomparable evils that would redound to himself and be universal to his posterity by his disobedience; that being so well tempered in his constitution, that all his appetites were subject to reason; that notwithstanding these preservatives, he should be deceived by the false persuasions of an erring mind and overcome by carnal concupiscence, as the evil effects of it will not cease to the end of the world, so neither will the just wonder how it was possible to hap

pen: these are the circumstances which derive a crimsonguilt to his rebellious sin, and render it above measure sinful. III. This will more fully appear in the dreadful effects that ensued. By his obedience he lost original righteousness, and made a deadly forfeiture of felicity.

1. He lost the original righteousness; for that so depended on the human faculties, that the actual violation of the law was presently attended with the privation of it. Besides the nature of his sin contained an entire forsaking of God as envious of his happiness, and a conversion to the creature as the supreme good. And whatever is desired as the last end perfective of man, virtually includes all subordinate ends, and regulates all means for obtaining it. So that, that being changed, a universal change of moral qualities in Adam necessarily followed. Instead of the rectitude and excellent holiness of the soul, succeeded a permanent viciousness and corruption.

Now holiness may be considered in the notion of purity and beauty or of dominion and liberty, in opposition to which sin is represented in scripture by foul deformity and servitude.

(1.) His soul degenerated from its purity; the faculties remained, but the moral perfections were lost, wherein the' brightness of God's image was most conspicuous. The holy wisdom of his mind, the divine love that sanctified his will, the spiritual power to obey God, were totally quenched. How is man disfigured by his fall! How is he transformed, in an instant, from the image of God into the image of the devil! He is defiled with the filthiness of flesh and spirit; he is ashamed at the sight of his own nakedness that reproached him for his crime; but the most shameful was that of the soul: the one might be covered with leaves, the other nothing could conceal. To see a face of exquisite beauty devoured by a cancer, how doth it move compassion! but were the natural eye heightened, to that clearness and perspicacity, so as to discover the deformity which sin hath brought upon the soul, how would it strike us with grief, horror, and aversion!

(2.) He was deprived of his dominion and liberty. The understanding was so wounded by the violence of the fall, that not only its light is much impaired, but its power is so awakened as to the lower faculties, that those which, according to the order of nature, should obey, have cast off its just

authority and usurp the government. The will then lost its true freedom, whereby it was enlarged to the extent and amplitude of the divine will in loving whatsoever was pleasing to God, and is contracted to mean and base objects. What a furious disorder is in the affections! The restraint of reason to check their violent course, provokes them to swell higher and to be more impetuous; and the more they are gratified, the more insolent and outrageous they grow. The senses, whose office is to be the intelligencers of the soul, to make discovery and to give a naked report without disturbing the higher faculties, they sometimes mistake disguised enemies for friends; and sometimes by a false alarm move the lower appetites, and fill the soul with disorder and confusion, so that the voice of reason cannot be heard. By the irritation of grief, the insinuation of pleasure, or some perturbation, the soul is captivated and wounded through the senses. In short, when man turned rebel to God, he became a slave to all the creatures. By their primitive institution they were appointed to be subservient to the glory of God and the use of man, to be motives of love and obedience to the Creator; but sin hath corrupted and changed them into so many instruments of vice, they are “made subject to vanity." And man is so far sunk into the dregs of servitude, that he is subject to them; for by forsaking God, the supreme object of love, with as much injustice as folly, and choosing the creature in his stead, he becomes a servant to the meanest thing upon which he places an inordinate affection. Briefly, man, who by his creation was the Son of God,. is made a slave to Satan that damned spirit and most cursed creature. Deplorable degradation, and worthy of the deepest shame and sorrow!

2. Man lost his felicity. Besides the trouble that sin hath in its own nature, which I have touched on before, there is a consequent guilt and torment attending it. Adam whilst obedient enjoyed peace with God, a sweet serenity of mind, a divine calm in the conscience, and full satisfaction in himself; but after his sin he trembled at God's voice, and was tormented at his presence. "I heard thy voice, and was afraid," saith guilty Adam. He looked on God as angry and armed against hin, ready to execute the severe sentence. Conscience began an early hell within him: paradise with all its pleasures could not secure him from that breast, and that sharpened by the hand of God.

sting in his What con

fusion of thoughts, what a combat of passions was he in! When the temptation which deceived him, vanished, and his spirit recovered out of the surprise, and took a clear view of his guilt in its true horror, what indignation did it kindle in his breast! How did shame, sorrow, revenge, despair, those secret executioners, torment his spirit! The intelligent nature, his peculiar excellency above the brutes, armed misery against him, and put a keener edge to it-by his reflecting upon the foolish exchange he made of God himself for the fruit of a tree; that so slender a temptation should cheat him of his blessedness: his present misery is aggravated by the sad comparison of it with his primitive felicity: nothing remains of his first innocence, but the vexatious regret of having lost it-by the foresight of the death he deserved: the conscience of his crimes racked his soul with the certain and fearful expectation of judgment.

Besides the inward torment of his mind, he was exposed to all miseries from without. Sin having made a breach into the world, the whole army of evils entered with it; the curse extends itself to the whole creation; for the world being made for man, the place of his residence, in his punishment it hath felt the effects of God's displeasure. The whole course of nature is set on fire. Whereas a general peace and amicable correspondence was established between heaven and earth, whilst all were united in subjection to the Creator; sin, that broke the first union between God and man, hath ruined the second. As in a state when one part of the subjects fall from their obedience, the rest which are constant in their duty, break with the rebels, and make war upon them till they return to their allegiance: so universal nature was armed against rebellious man, and had destroyed him without the merciful interposition of God.

The angels with flaming swords expelled him from paradise. The beasts, who were all innocent whilst man remained innocent, espouse God's interest, and are ready to revenge the quarrel of their Creator. The insensible creation, which at first was altogether beneficial to man, is become hurtful. The heavens sometimes are hardened as brass in a long and obstinate serenity; sometimes are dissolved in a deluge of rain the earth is barren, and unfaithful to the sower, "it bringeth forth thorns and thistles" instead of bread. In short, man is an enemy to man. When there were but two brothers to divide the world, the one stained his hands in the

blood of the other; and since the progency of Adam is increased into vast societies, all the disasters of the world, as famine, pestilence, deluges, the fury of beasts, have not been so destructive of mankind, as the sole malignity of man against those that partake of the human nature.

To conclude; who can make a list of the evils to which the body is liable by the disagreeing elements that compose it? The fatal seeds of corruption are bred in itself. It is a prey to all diseases, from the torturing stone to the dying consumption. It feels the strokes of death a thousand times before it can die once. At last life is swallowed up of death. And if death were a deliverance from miseries, it would lessen its terror, but it is the consummation of all. The first death transmits to the second. As the body dies by the soul's forsaking it, so the soul, by separation from God, its true life, dies to its well-being and happiness for ever.

CHAPTER III.

THE CORRUPTION OF HUMAN NATURE.

1. THE rebellion of the first man against the great Creator was a sin of universal efficacy, that derives a guilt and stain to mankind in all ages of the world. The account the scripture gives of it, is grounded on the relation which all men have to Adam, as their natural and moral principle.— Their natural. God created one man in the beginning from whom all others derive their being: and that the unity might be the more entire, he formed of him that aid which was necessary for the communicating kind to the world. "He made of one blood all nations of men, for to dwell on all the face of the earth." Acts xvii. 26. And as the whole race of mankind was virtually in Adam's loins, so it was presumed to give virtual consent to what he did. When he broke, all suffered shipwreck, that were contained in him as their natural original. The angels were created immediately and distinctly, without dependance upon one another as to their original; therefore when a great number revolted from God, the rest were not complicated in their sin and ruin. But when the universal progenitor of men sinned, there was a conspiracy of all the sons of Adam in that rebellion, and not one subject left in his obedience. He was the moral princi