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 brings forth thorns and thistles** instead of bread. Gen. 3. 17, 18. 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 progeny 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 sepation from God, its true life, dies to its well being and happiness

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CHAP. III.

All mankind is involved in Adam's guilt, and under the penal consequences

that follow upon it. Adam, the natural and moral principle of mankind. An hereditary corruption is transmitted to all that are propagated from him. The account the scripture gives of the conveyance of it. It is an innate habit. It is universal. Corrupt nature contains the seeds of all sins, though they do not shoot forth together, It is voluntary and culpable. The permission of the fall is suitable to the wisdom, holiness, and goodness of God. The imputation of Adam's sio to bis posterity is consistent with God's justice.

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HE 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.

1. Their natural. God created one man in the beginning, from whom all others derive their beings : and that the unity might be the more entire, he formed of him that aid which was necessary for the communicating his kind to the world. made of one blood all nations of men, to dwell on the face of the earth.” Acts 17. 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.

2. He was the moral principle of mankind. In the first treaty between God and man, Adam was considered not as a single person, but as caput gentis, and contracted for all his descendants by ordinary generation. His person was the fountain of theirs, and his will the representative of theirs. From hence his vast progeny became a party in the covenant, and had a title to the

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benefits contained in it upon his obedience, and was liable to the curse upon his violation of it. Upon this ground the apostle institutes a parallel between Adam and Christ, Rom. 5. 19. "That as by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one, many were made righteous." As Christ in his death on the cross did not suffer as a private person, but as a surety and sponsor representing the whole church; according to the testimony of scripture, "If one died for all, then all were dead," 1 Cor. 5. 15. so the first "Adam, who was the figure of him that was to come," Rom. 5. 14. in his disobedience was esteemed a public person representing the whole race of mankind; and by a just law it was not restrained to himself, but is the sin of the common nature. Adam broke the first link in the chain, whereby mankind was united to God, and all the other parts which depended upon it are necessarily separated from him. From hence the scripture saith, that " by nature we are children of wrath," Ephes. 2. 3. that is, liable to punishment, and that hath relation to guilt.

And of this we have convincing experience in the common evils which afflict mankind, before the commission of any actual sin. The cries of infants who are only eloquent to grief, but dumb to all things else, discover that miseries attend them. The tears which are born with their eyes, signify they are come into a state of sorrow. How many troops of deadly diseases are ready to seize on them immediately after their entrance into the world? which are the apparent effects of God's displeasure, and therefore argue man to be guilty of some great crime from his birth. * The ignorance of this made the heathens accuse nature, and blaspheme God under that mask, as less kind and indulgent to man than to the creatures below him. They are not under so hard a law of coming into the world. They are presently instructed to swim, to fly, to run for their preservation. They are clothed by nature, and their habits grow in proportion with their bodies, some with feathers, some with wool, others with scales, which are both habit and armour: but man who is alone sensible of shame, is born naked, and though of a more delicate temper, is more exposed to injuries by distempered seasons, and utterly unable to

* Ut non sit æstimare parens melior homini, an tristior noverca fuerit: Prin. Prel, 1. 7.

Now the account these complaints.

repel or avoid the evils that encompass him. the scripture gives of original sin silences all Man is a transgressor from the womb; and how can he expect a favourable reception into the empire of an offended God? Briefly, sometimes death enters into the retirements of nature, and changes the womb into a grave; which proves, that as soon as we partake of the human nature, we are guilty of the sin that is common to it; "for the wages of sin is death." Rom. 6. 23. Adam, in his innocent state, had the privilege of immortality, but by him "sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men," Rom. 5. 12, 14, 17. as a just sentence upon the guilty, for that all men have sinned.

2. An hereditary corruption is transmitted to all that naturally descend from him. If Adam had continued in his obedience, the spiritual as well as the natural life had been conveyed to his children; but, for his rebellion he lost his primitive rectitude, and contracted an universal corruption; which he derives to all his posterity. And as in a disease there is a defect of health, and a distemper of the humours that affects the body; so in the 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 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 eminently 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, Mat. 7. 18. that "the fruit partakes of the rot

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tenness of the tree :” and “whatever is born of the flesh, is flesh.” John. 3. 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,” Rom. 8.7. and that which aggravates the evil is, that it cannot be. 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.” Psal. 51. 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 imitation. 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. 6. 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 disturbs sucklings, their endeavour to exercise a weak revenge on those that displease them, convince us that the corruption is natural, and proceeds from an infected original.

2. As it is natural, so universal. " Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean ?” Job 14. 14. That is, how can 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. 1. Though all sins agree in their cause and end, yet some are contrary in their exercise. 2. The human spirit is not capable of many passions in their height at the same time;

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