depravation of nature, there is not the mere want of holiness, but a strong proclivity to sin. This privation of original righteousness, considered as a sin, is naturally from Adam, the principle of lapsed and corrupt nature: but, as a punishment, it is meritoriously from him, and falls under the ordination of divine justice. Man cast it away, and God righteously refuses to restore it.

It is a solicitous impertinency to inquire nicely about the manner of conveying this universal corruption; for the bare knowledge of it is ineffectual to the cure. And what greater folly than to make our own evils the object of simple speculation? I shall consider only that general account of it, which is set down in the Scripture.

It is the universal and unchangeable law of nature, that every thing should produce its like, not only in regard of the same nature that is propagated from one individual to another without a change of the species, but in respect of the qualities with which that nature is evidently affected. This is visible in the several kinds of creatures in the world; they all preserve the nature of the principle from whence they are derived, and retain the vein of their original, the quality of their extraction. Thus our Saviour tells us, Matt. vii. 18, that the fruit partakes of the rottenness of the tree; and whatever "is born of the flesh, is flesh," John iii. 6. The title of flesh doth not signify the material part of our humanity, but the corruption of sin with which the whole nature is infected. This is evident by the description the apostle gives of it, that the flesh "is not subject to the law of God ;" and that which aggravates the evil is, that it cannot be, Rom. viii. 7. Sinful corruption is expressed by this title, partly in regard it is transmitted by the way of carnal propagation; "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me," Psalm lí. 5; and partly in regard it is exercised by the carnal members. This corruption is a poison so subtle, that it pierces into all the powers of the soul so contagious, that it infects all the actions; so obstinate, that only omnipotent grace can heal it. More particularly;

1. It is an innate habit, not merely acquired by imita

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tion. The root of bitterness is planted in the human. nature, and produces its fruits in the various seasons of life. No age is free from its working; every imagination of the thoughts of man's heart is only evil, and continually evil, Gen. vi. 5. We see this verified in children, when the most early acts of their reason and the first instances of their apprehension are in sin. If we ascend higher and consider man in his infant state, the vicious inclinations which appear in the cradle, the violent motions of anger which disturb sucklings, their endeavours to exercise a weak revenge on those that displease them, convince us that the corruption is natural, and proceeds from an infected original.

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2. As it is natural, so universal. "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean ?" Job xiv. that is, how can a righteous person be born of a sinner? The answer is peremptory, "Not one." The fountain was poisoned in Adam, and all the streams partake of the infection. All that are derived from him in a natural way, and have a relation to him as their common father, are sharers in this depravation. What difference soever there is in their climates, colours, and external conditions of life, yet the blood from whence they spring, taints them all.

3. Corrupt nature is pregnant with the seeds of all sin, though they do not shoot forth together: and for this, several accounts may be given. Though all sins agree in their cause and end, yet some are contrary in their exercise. The human spirit is not capable of many passions in their height at the same time; and it is the art of our spiritual enemies to suit their temptations to the capacity of man. As the same produces different effects in different bodies, according to those various humours which are predominant in them; so the same corruption of nature works variously according to the different tempers of men. For though the conception of sin depends immediately upon the soul, yet to the bringing of it forth, the concurrence of the external faculties is requisite. Thus a voluptuary who is restrained from the gross acts of sensuality by a disease or age, may be as vicious in his desires, as another who follows

the pernicious swing of his appetite, having a vigorous constitution. Briefly; the variety of circumstances by which the inward corruption is excited and drawn forth, makes a great difference as to the open and visible acts of it. Thus an ambitious person who uses clemency to accomplish his design, would exercise cruelty if it were necessary to his end. It is true, some are really more temperate, and exempted from the tyranny of the flesh than others; Cicero was more virtuous than Catiline, and Socrates than Aristophanes: but these are privileged persons, in whom the efficacy of divine providence either by forming them in the womb, or in their education, or by conducting them in their maturer age, hath corrected the malignity of nature. All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God's image, Rom. iii. 23. And that sin breaks not forth so outrageously in some as in others, the restraint is from a higher principle than common and corrupt nature.

4. This corruption, though natural, is yet voluntary and culpable.

(1.) In some respects it is voluntary; in its principle and cause, the will of Adam that originally was ours. All habits receive their character from those acts by which they are produced; and as the disobedience of Adam was voluntary, so is the depravation that sprung from it. It is inherent in the will. If Adam had derived a leprosy to all men, it were an involuntary evil, because the diseases of the body are foreign to the soul; but when the corruption invades the internal faculties, it is denominated from the subject wherein it is seated. It is voluntary in its effects, the numberless actual sins proceeding from it: and if the acts that freely flow from this corruption are voluntary, the principle must be of the same nature.

(2.) It is culpable. The formality of sin consists in its opposition to the law, according to the definition of the apostle, "sin is a transgression of the law." Now the law requires an entire rectitude in all the faculties. It condemns corrupt inclinations, the originals as well as the acts of sin. Besides, concupiscence was not inherent in the human nature in its creation, but was

contracted by the fall. The soul is stripped of its native righteousness and holiness, and invested with contrary qualities. There is as great a difference between the corruption of the soul in its degenerate state, and its primitive purity, as between the loathsomeness of a carcass, and the beauty of a living body. Sad change, and to be lamented with tears of confusion!

II. That the sin of Adam should be so fatal to all his posterity, is the most difficult part in the whole order of divine providence. Nothing more offends carnal reason, which forms many specious objections against it. I will briefly consider them.

1. "Since God saw that Adam would not resist the temptation, and that upon his fall the whole race of mankind which he supported as the foundation, would sink into ruin, why did he not confirm him against it? Was it not within his power, and more suitable to his wisdom, holiness, and goodness?" To this I answer;

(1.) The divine power could have preserved man in his integrity, either by laying a restraint on the apostate angels, that they should never have made an attempt upon him; or by keeping the understanding waking and vigilant to discover the danger of the temptation, and by fortifying the will, and rendering it impenetrable to the fiery darts of Satan, without any prejudice to its freedom; for that doth not consist in an absolute indifference, but in a judicious and deliberate choice; so that when the soul is not led by a blind instinct, nor forced by a foreign power, but embraces what it knows and approves, it then enjoys the most true liberty. Thus, in the glorified spirits above, by the full and constant light of the mind, the will is indeclinably fixed upon its supreme good, and this is its crown and perfection.

(2.) It was most suitable to the divine wisdom, to leave man to stand or fall by his own choice; to discover the necessary dependence of all second causes upon the first. No creature is absolutely impeccable, but the most perfect is liable to imperfection. He that is essentially, is only unchangeably good. Infinite goodness alone excludes all possibility of receiving corruption. The fall of angels and man convinces us, that there is one

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sole Being immutably pure and holy, on whom all depend, and without whose influence they cannot be, or must be eternally miserable. It was very fit that Adam should be first in a state of trial, before he was confirmed in his happiness. The reason of it is clear; he was left to his own judgment and election, that obedience might be his choice, and in the performance of it he might acquire a title to the reward. A determining virtue over him had crossed the end of his creation, which was to glorify God in such a free manner. Therefore, in paradise there were amiable objects to allure the lower faculties, before they were disordered by him. forbidden fruit had beauty to invite the eye, and sweetness to delight the palate. And if upon the competition of the sensual with the intellectual good, he had rejected the one and chosen the other, he had been raised to an unchangeable state; his innocence had been crowned with perseverance; as the angels who continued in their duty when the rest revolted, are finally established in their integrity and felicity. And the apostle gives us an account of this order, when he tells us, that was first which was natural, then that which is spiritual and supernatural, 1 Cor. xv. 46. Man was created in a state of perfection, but it was natural, therefore, mutable; the confirming of him immediately had been grace, which belongs to a more excellent dispensation. Now to bring man from not being to a supernatural state, without trial of the middle state of nature, was not so congruous to the divine wisdom.

(3.) The permission of the fall doth not reflect on the divine purity; for man was made upright; he had no inward corruption to betray him; there was antidote enough in his nature to expel the strongest temptation. God was not bound to hinder the commission of sin. It is a true maxim, that “in debitis causa deficiens efficit moraliter;" but God is not only free from subjection to a law, as having no superior, but was under no voluntary obligation by promise to prevent the fall. Neither doth that first act of sin reflect on God's unspotted providence which suffered it, as if sin were in any degree allowed by him. The holy law which God gave to direct man, the terrible threatening annexed to warn