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should bruise the serpent's head." This was the greatest and most unexpected display of divine grace, that God ever made to any of his creatures. And though the situation of Adam prepared him to have a high sense of the grace of God, in providing a Savior for himself; yet he had but a faint and low conception of the richness and fulness of the first promise, as it respected his numerous posterity. The promise of a divine redeemer contained good enough, to, counterbalance all the natural and moral evils of the fall, and in that way, to defeat and disconcert all the malignant designs of Satan. God intended, by saving men, through the mediation of Christ, to make the universe more holy and happy, than if Satan had never introduced either natural or moral evil into it. And, there. fore, though sin and misery have abounded, through the fall of man; yet holiness and happiness shall much more abound, through his recovery, by Jesus Christ.

6. Those who have recovered the moral image and favor of their Maker, which Adam forfeited and lost, are in a much more safe and happy situation than he was, even before the fall. Adam held all his holiness and happiness, by an uncertain tenure; but saints have built their hopes upon better promises. Adam was to be completely holy and happy, on the condition of persevering obedience; but saints are secured in holiness and happiness forever, upon the first holy and virtuous exercise. Adam had no promise of persevering grace; but saints have the promise of divine aid and influence, to carry them through all the duties and dangers of their probationary state. Adam had the hopeful prospect of perpetually enjoying the blessings of divine goodness; but saints have assurance of perpetually enjoying the blessings of divine grace. Adam might expect to be but a little lower than the angels

in divine enjoyments; but saints may hope to rise above those exalted spirits, in pure and permanent fe licity, and to sing a new song, which none but the redeemed from among men will ever be able to learn.

7. Since the primitive glory and felicity of Adam resulted from his bearing the image and enjoying the favor of God, it is certain that none of his posterity can rise to true greatness and real happiness, until they put off the old man, and put on the new. The most shining talents, the most rich inheritance, and the most amiable accomplishments, can never supply the want of the divine image and favor, in any of the children of men. The sinner, with all his boasted attainments, appears to the eye of God a mean, vile, contemptible being. Every son of Adam must be conformed to the moral image of his Maker, in order to be a truly respectable and happy man. This subject, therefore, calls upon all sinners, without distinction, to be holy as God is holy, and perfect as their Father in heaven is perfect, in order to attain the highest dignity of their nature, and the chief end of their being. Remember this, O ye transgressors, and shew yourselves men.

SERMON XIII.

ON ORIGINAL SIN.

ROMANS V, 19.

By one man's disobedience, many were made sinners.

THE Apostle undertakes, in this Epistle, to lay open the gospel scheme of salvation. In the prosecution of this purpose, he proves, that both Jews and Gentiles are all under sin, and justly exposed to suffer the curse of the divine law. He next brings into view the atonement of Christ, as the only foundation of pardon and acceptance with God. This leads him to state the doctrine of justification, through faith in the divine Mediator. But lest some should stumble at the idea of the sinner's being saved on account of his substitute; he proceeds, in this chapter, to illustrate the matter by a similar and well known instance. He says, "By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." He takes it for granted, that the christians to whom he is writing believed, that Adam stood as the public head of his posterity, and so by his first offence exposed them to both sin and death. And this being taken for granted, he goes on to illustrate the saving influence of Christ's mediatorial conduct, by the destructive influence of Adam's probationary conduct. "For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous." The text, taken either in this connexion, or as an independent sentence, naturally leads us to consider the fatal influence of Adam's first offence, upon all his natural posterity. This is an im

portant subject; and in order to place it in as clear a light as I am able, I shall,

I. Show, that all men are sinners.

II. Show, that Adam made them sinners.

III. Show, how Adam made them sinners.

IV. Show, why God ordered it so that Adam should make them sinners.

I. I am to show, that all men are sinners.

This melancholy truth has been universally ac knowleged. All nations have perceived and lamented the moral corruption of human nature. The ancient Poets, who have painted the moral characters of men, and the ancient Historians, who have recorded their moral conduct, unite in exhibiting plain and incontestible evidence of human depravity. We can-、 not find, in all antiquity, one sinless nation, nor one sinless person. Human nature has been the same, wherever planted and however cultivated, in every age and in every part of the world. Though mankind have spread far and wide over the face of the earth, and lived under the influence of different climates, of different laws, and of different religions; yet they have universally discovered the same corruption of heart.

The truth of this account is fully confirmed, by the express declarations of Scripture. We read, "God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." We read, "There is not a just man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not." Job demands, "What is man, that he should be clean? and he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?" David confesses before God, "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me." And under this impression he

prays, "Enter not into judgment with thy servant: for in thy sight shall no flesh be justified." Solomon puts the question to every child of Adam, "Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?" And after a critical and extensive view of mankind, he observes, "Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions." The Apostle Paul is still more plain and particular upon this point. "What then" says he, "are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; as it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God, they are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable: There is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their way. And the way of peace have they not known: there is no fear of God before their eyes." These divine declarations, in concurrence with universal observation and experience, clearly demonstrate, that all men, without a single exception, are sinners. The next thing is,

II. To show that we became sinners, by Adam. The moral corruption of human nature is of great antiquity. The oldest heathen Writers could not, by the light of nature, nor tradition, trace it back to its original source. They generally supposed, however, that man had actually degenerated from his primitive purity. They were loth to believe, that he came out of the forming hand of his Maker, with a corrupt heart. But we have no occasion for conjectures on

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