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Day. The Sentence was in great Part executed immediately; he then died fpiritually; he loft his Innocence and original Righteoufnefs, and the Favour of God; a difmal Alteration was made in his Soul, by the Lofs of that holy divine Principle, which was in the highest Sense the Life of the Soul. In this he was truly ruined and undone that very Day; becoming corrupt, miferable, and helplefs. And I think it has been fhewn, that fuch a spiritual Death was one great Thing implied in the Threatening. And the Alteration then made in his Body and external State, was the Beginning of temporal Death. Grievous external Calamity is called by the Name of Death in Scripture, Exod. x. 17.-Intreat the Lord that he may take away this Death.-Not only was Adam's Soul ruined that Day, but his Body was ruined; it loft its Beauty and Vigour, and became a poor, dull, decaying, dying Thing. And befides all this, Adam was that Day undone in a more dreadful Senfe: He immediately fell under the Curse of the Law, and Condemnation to eternal Perdition. In the Language of Scripture, he is dead, that is, in a State of Condemnation to Death; even as our Author often explains this Language in his Expofition upon Romans. In Scripture-Language, he that believes in Chrift, immediately receives Life. He paffes at that Time from Death to Life, and thenceforward (to use the Apostle John's Phrase)" has eternal Life abiding in him." But yet he does not then receive eternal Life in its higheft Completion; he has but the Beginning of it; and receives it in a vaftly greater Degree at Death: But the proper Time for the compleat Fulness is not till the Day of Judgment. When the Angels finned, their Punishment was immediately executed in a Degree: But their full Pu

nishment

Sect. III.

nishment is not till the End of the World. And there is nothing in God's Threatening to Adam that bound him to execute his full Punishment at once; nor any Thing which determines, that he fhould have no Pofterity. The Law or Constitution which God eftablished and declared, determined, that if he finned, and had Pofterity, he and they fhould die But there was no Conftitution determining concerning the actual Being of his Pofterity in this Cafe; what Pofterity he fhould have, how many, or whether any at all. All these Things God had reserved in his own Power: The Law and its Sanction intermeddled not with the Matter.

It may be proper in this Place also to take fome Notice of that Objection of Dr. T-r's, against Adam's being fuppofed to be a federal Head for his Pofterity, that it gives him greater Honour than Chrift, as it fuppofes that all his Pofterity would have had eternal Life by his Obedience, if he had stood; and fo a greater Number would have had the Benefit of his Obedience, than are faved by Chrift *.-I think, a very little Confideration is fufficient to fhew, that there is no Weight in this Objection. For the Benefit of Christ's Merits may nevertheless be vaftly beyond that which would have been by the Obedience of Adam. For those that are faved by Christ, are not merely advanced to Happiness by his Merits, but are faved from the infinitely dreadful Effects of Adam's Sin, and many from immenfe Guilt, Pollution, and Mifery, by perfonal Sins; alfo brought to a holy and. happy State, as it were through infinite Obftacles; and are exalted to a far greater Degree of Dignity, Felicity, and Glory,

Page 120, &c. S.

than

than would have been due for Adam's Obedience; for aught I know, many Thousand Times fo great. And there is enough in the Gofpel-Difpenfation, clearly to manifeft the Sufficiency of Christ's Merits for fuch Effects in all Mankind. And how great the Number will be, that fhall actually be the Subjects of them, or how great a Proportion of the whole Race, confidering the vast Success of the Gospel, that shall be in that future, extraordinary, and glorious Season, often spoken of, none can tell. And the Honour of these two federal Heads arifes not fo much from what was propofed to each for his Trial, as from their Succefs, and the Good actually obtained; and also the Manner of obtaining: Chrift obtains the Benefits Men have through him by proper Merit of Condignity, and a true Purchase by an Equivalent: Which would not have been the Cafe with Adam if he had obeyed.

I have now particularly confidered the Account which Mofes gives us in the Beginning of the Bible, of our first Parents, and God's Dealings with them, the Conftitution he established with them, their Tranfgreffion, and what followed. And on the whole, if we confider the Manner in which God apparently fpeaks to Adam from Time to Time, and particularly, if we confider how plainly and undeniably his Pofterity are included in the Sentence of Death pronounced on Adam after his Fall, founded on the foregoing Threatening; and confider the Curfe denounced on the Ground for his Sake, and for his and his Pofterity's Sorrow: And alfo confider what is evidently the Occafion of his giving his Wife the new Name of Eve, and his Meaning in it, and withal confider apparent Fact in conftant and universal Events, with Rela

tion

Sec. III.

tion to the State of our first Parents, and their Pofterity from that Time forward, through all Ages of the World; I cannot but think, it must appear to every impartial Perfon, that Mofes's Account does, with fufficient Evidence, lead all Mankind, to whom his Account is communicated, to understand, that God, in his Conftitution with Adam, dealt with him as a publick Perfon, and as the Head of the human Species, and had Refpect to his Pofterity, as included in him: And that this History is given by divine Direction, in the Beginning of the firft-written Revelation, to exhibit to our View the Origin of the prefent finful miferable State of Mankind, that we might fee what that was, which first gave Occafion for all thofe confequent wonderful Difpenfations of divine Mercy and Grace towards Mankind, which are the great Subject of the Scriptures, both of the old and new Teftament; And that these Things are not obfcurely and doubtfully pointed forth, but delivered in a plain Account of Things, which eafily and naturally exhibits them to our Understandings.

And by what follows in this Difcourfe, we may have, in fome Measure, Opportunity to fee how other Things in the holy Scripture agree with what has been now obferved from the three firft Chap ters of Genefis.

CHAP

CHAP. II.

Obfervations on other Parts of the holy Scriptures, chiefly in the Old Teftament, that prove the Doctrine of Original Sin.

ORI

"The

RIGINAL Depravity may well be argued, from Wickedness being often spoken of in Scripture, as a Thing belonging to the Race of Mankind, and as if it were a Property of the Species. So in Pfal. xiv. 2, 3. The Lord looked down from Heaven upon the CHILDREN OF MEN, to fee if there were any that did understand, and feek God. They are all gone afide; they are altogether become filthy: There is none that doeth Good; no, not one. The like we have again, Pfal. liii. 2, 3.-Dr. T. fays, p. 104, 195. "holy Spirit does not mean this of every Indi"vidual; because in the very fame Pfalm, He "fpeaks of fome that were righteous, ver. 5. "God is in the Generation of the Righteous." But how little is this Obfervation to the Purpofe? For who ever fuppofed, that no unrighteous Men were ever changed by divine Grace, and afterwards made Righteous? The Pfalmift is fpeaking of what Men are as they are the Children of Men, born of the corrupt human Race; and not as born of God, whereby they come to be the Children of God, and of the Generation of the Righteous The Apoítle Paul cites this Place in Rom. iii, 10, 11, 12. to prove the univerfal Corruption of Mankind; but yet in the fame Chapter he fuppofes thefe fame Perfons here fpoken of as Wicked, may become righteous, through the Righteousness and Grace of God,

So

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