transgression, and hid his iniquity in his bosom," Job xxxi. 33. The man excused himself, and blamed his wife, who had deceived him, yea, blamed God, who had given him such a deceiving wife: and the woman shifted the blame from herself upon the serpent; Gen. iii. 12, 13. Let us not ask here, how a single action could do all this, since a wise man doth not lose all his wisdom by one foolish action for this sin of Adam was a bond of iniquity, which disordered the whole human constitution. They deserved by this one sin to be deprived of the divine image, since they did not make a good use of it. When man withdrew from his obedience to his Creator and Lawgiver, and apostatized to the creature, to sin and Satan, he was then justly condemned to become a slave of the creature and of Satan. "For of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage," 2 Peter ii. 19. Our first parents undoudtedly deserved eternal death and they soon experienced the bitter beginnings of it; "they hid themselves for fear of the Lord among the trees of the garden," Gen. iii. 8, 9, 10. They endeavoured, though in vain, to escape from the wrath of God, which was kindled against them on account of their sin : they felt indeed that they deserved ❝ to be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power, and that he would take vengeance in flaming fire," 2 Thess. i. 8, 9; for they were forthwith driven from his presence and "from the tree of life, out of Paradise, the entrance of which was guarded by Cherubims with a flaming sword," Gen. iii. 22, 23, 24. Since it was now "impossible for the law" to justify them, because "it was become weak through the flesh," they should not have escaped the wrath to come, if God had not, according to his inconceivable grace, entertained thoughts of peace toward them, and promised them the seed of the woman, the Mediator, in his humiliation and exaltation, in order to conquer Satan, and to procure them regeneration, justification, sanctification, perseverance and salvation. And therefore we must believe that they were delivered from the curse of the law, and were rendered partakers of all the benefits of the Mediator with eternal salvation,

"By this fall and disobedience our nature is become so corrupt, that we are all conceived and born in sin," saith the instructor. This corruption of our nature is usually called by divines "Original (or hereditary) sin, because we inherit it of our parents by our conception and birth. Hear what David saith, Psalm li. 5. "Behold I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me." We do not inherit the sin of our immediate parents, but of Adam, and we inherit particularly his first sin by our birth of our parents: for

it was only that first sin, by which he broke the covenant of God for himself and his posterity. See Rom. v. 12, 18.

Original sin is either our natural guilt, or our natural pollution, flowing from our natural guilt. Our natural guilt is called imputed original sin, and our natural pollution is called inherent original sin. Imputed original sin is Adam's first sin, which is imputed by God to every individual of his posterity, in consequence of the broken covenant of works, on account of which every individual is declared guilty. The most of those who are out of our church, as the Pelagians, Socinians, Mennonites and Remonstrants, deny this imputed original sin, yea, the Jansenists also oppose it, although they admit inherent original sin. But the word of God teacheth us this imputed original sin for the covenant of works, which we have explained and proved before, was made not only with Adam, but in him, as the head of the covenant, with all mankind also, who should descend from him, from which it necessarily follows that Adam did not break that covenant only for himself, but also for all his posterity, and that he rendered both himself and us guilty. Further, "we are children of wrath by nature," Eph. ii. 3. Children, who have not yet any actual sin, are subject to every kind of misery, and to death. How can God conduct toward them with so much severity, if they have no sin? is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid: it must then be on account of Adam's sin. Paul explains this at large, Rom. V. 12-22. His design is to show that believers obtain reconciliation and righteousness by one Christ, vrs. 8-11. He explains this by the connexion between Adam and us his members in his first sin, and the manner in which we become guilty by that sin; therefore he saith, vrs. 14, that " Adam was a figure of him who was to come." la what wanner was he a figure? "as by the disobedience of that one man many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one many shall be made righteous," vrs. 17, 18, 19. From which it therefore evidently appears, that the sin of Adam was reckoned our sin, as the righteousness of Christ is reckoned the righteousness of believers. He saith also to the same purspose, vrs. 12. "By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death psssed upon all men." Therefore the sin of Adam is the cause of the death of men, yea, even of the death of children, who have not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, vrs. 14. How is this possible if Adam's sin be not imputed to all? The apostle saith also, vrs. 12. in whom," namely Adam, "all have sinned:" surely not actually, but in him, considered as their head. And if we translate the words hoo fantes eemarton, not " in whom," but "because all have sin

all

ned," as many do, the sense will be the same, and teach us that all have sinned by Adam's sin, and are therefore worthy of death. He illustrates this further, when he saith vrs. 15-19, "Through the offence of one, many be dead. The judgment is by one who sin ned. The judgment was by one to condemnation. By the offence of one man death reigned by one. By the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation. By one man's disobedience many were made sinners." Who can preserve the force of these words without admitting such an imputed guilt? It is not just, say our adversaries, that another man's sin, which we ourselves have neither committed, nor consented to beforehand, should be imputed to us, and that we should be reckoned guilty on account of that sin. But how will it consist with the justice of God, that he inflicts so many, and such grievous judgments, yea, death itself upon children, if they inherit not the guilt of Adam's sin, and have not themselves any actual sin? Moreover, we must not consider Adam's sin, as the sin of any other private man, but as the sin of all mankind in Adam, as their covenant head.

Inasmuch as the sin of Adam corrupted his nature, therefore our nature is also become corrupt through his sin imputed to us: which corrupt nature constitutes our inherent original sin, whereby all the children of Adam being deprived from their birth of the image of God, having their understanding darkened, their conscience defiled, being disinclined to that which is good and prone to evil, possess a wicked disposition of heart, the active source of every wicked desire, and of every sinful action: Surely this inherent original sin consists not in a mere deprivation of the divine image, but also in a wicked disposition of the heart: therefore it is called "the old man, the body of sin, flesh, the law of sin," Rom. vi. and vii. The Pelagians, Soci nians, Remonstrants and Mennonites, deny also this inherent original sin. The Jansenists, who deny imputed original sin, confess never theless the inherent; but the Jesuits, who acknowledge imputed briginal sin, deny the inherent: they will indeed allow that man is now destitute of the divine image, which was given to him before the full, as a golden bridle, to restrain the lusts of the flesh : but they believe not that he hath such a wicked disposition. But all this is (a) directly contrary to the word of God, which teacheth us this inherent criginal sin: Adam, created at first in the image of God, which he lost by sin, "begat a son in his own likeness, after his image," Gen. v. 1, 3. Adam was sinful, and his son was born after that sinful image of him. "Every imagination of the thoughts of man's heart is only evil, and that continually," Gen. vi. 5, and indeed

from his youth," Gen. viii. 21. Man is called "a transgressor from the womb," Is aiah xlviii. 8. And it is thus with all men, who proceed from Adam by ordinary generation, Mary, the mother of the Lord not excepted. Job asserts it: "Who can. bring a clean thing out of an unclean ?" Job xiv. 4. The Saviour also saith, John iii. 6. "That which is born of flesh is flesh" (b) The general prevalence of ignorance and concupiscence manifests also our inherent original sin; for if it were not natural to man, and innate to him, it would not be so general, and cleave so fast to him; at least his unviolated freewill, of which our adversaries boast so much, would subdue it at last, and the world would become better. (c) The necessity of the new birth, the circumcision and baptism of children manifests the depravity and impurity of the first birth. (d) Let the actions of children speak, their wicked humors soon show the depravity of their nature. They do not surely derive this depravity from evil examples, which they imitate, for they are often guilty of sins which they do not observe in others: why do they not imitate good examples as well as evil, if their nature do not cleave to sin? Though godly parents educate their children ever so carefully by good examples, admonitions and chastisements, they experience nevertheless to their sorrow that their depravity still cleaves to their children. The children are indeed called holy, 1 Cor. vii. 14. but not with respect to the covenant of works but of grace, into which they are admitted with their believing parents: for they are otherwise unclean, as Paul saith in the same text, who doth not therefore deny inherent original sin, but confirms it.

But a greater difficulty occurs here, to wit, in what manner the soul which is created immediately by God becomes so sinful. It is absurd to say, that the soul is propagated by the parents for the soul is created immediately by God in the body, Eccl. vii. 7. Zech. xii. 1. It is also a spirit, which cannot be produced by a bodily generation and although the parents produce the body only, and not the soul, they can nevertheless with great propriety be said to produce a man into the world, as well as those who kill the body only, and not the soul, may be said to kill a man. I declare that I cannot comprehend how the soul is created holy in a sinful body, and becomes polluted by the sinful body, hor how the corruption of the soul proceeds from a polluted seed, or from a sinful and irregular conduct of the parents in generation: for we should not then inherit so much the sin of Adam, as the sin of our immediate parents, and their irregular conduct, which is contrary to the word of God; for that saith that we inherit the sin of Adam, and particularly his first

M

sin, and that "the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father," Ezek. xviii. 20. Neither may it be said, that the essence of the soul consists in thought, that it had evil thoughts in its mother's womb, and polluted itself in that manner: for this is contrary to Rom. ix. 11. and it would still remain a difficulty, whence such a sinful thinking should proceed. Such an assertion is also dangerous, as appears in the Pelagians, who, while they maintained this opinion, denied original sin, and were therefore condemned in the council of Milevitum. But we must look higher here, and consider God as a judge, who imputing the sin of Adam justly to his posterity, and pronouncing them guilty in consequence thereof, withholds his image from them, and surrenders them to the power of sin and Satan, as God often punisheth one sin with another, Psalm 1xxxi. 11, 12. Rom i. 21-32. But how do we then inherit the sin of our parents by our birth according to Psalm li. 5. We will understand this, when we consider that our parents propagate us under a broken covenant of works, and so as children of our sinful father Adam, who begat a son after his own disposition, and "after his image and likeness," Gen. i. 3. We are born of our parents not simply in a natural, but also in a moral state under Adam, not only as our natural, but also as our moral head in the covenant of works. The marriage law, Gen, i 28. "Be fruitful and multiply," was added to the covenant of works, that children might be born under that covenant of works. If Adam had continued to stand, the image of God would have been transmitted to us, his posterity by our birth; but now the sinful image of Adam is transmitted to all who proceed from his loins, by their birth under the broken covenant of works. And thus our parents serve as instruments of God's justice to "conclude all under the disobedience of Adam," Rom. xi. 32. If we understand the matter thus, we shall presently see that Mary also was born with original sin, and not her Son the Lord Jesus; inasmuch as he was not born in consequence of the law, "Be fruitful and multiply," and so not under the covenant of works, and cannot be reckoned in Adam as the head of the covenant, although he may, as his natural head: and therefore he is opposed to Adam in a moral and covenant relation, Rom. v. 14-19, 1 Cor. xv. 22—47, 48, 49, although he is referred to Adam, as his first father in a natural relation, Luke iii. 23-38. God saith, Ezek. xviii. 20. "The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father." From this passage our adversaries conclude, that the children of Adam do-not inherit his sin by their birth, and that they cannot be punished on account of it. But we carnot conclude this from that text: for our fathers besides Adam do not stand nor fall