publick sin of Adam, (a point which I freely concede,) I hope to show hereafter that for the posterity of Adam to suffer any evil on account of his sin, is itself a sufficient proof that they partake of his depravity. I argue the depravity of infants,

[3.] From their need of a Saviour, and from their being brought to a Saviour in baptism. "We thus judge that if One died for all, then were all dead, and that He died for all."* If infants are saved by Christ, certainly they are sinners, (in the sense already explained,) for He came to save none but sinners. "They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick." Whoever is entitled to heaven by law cannot be saved by grace. But if infants are not saved by grace, and by Christ, why bring them to Him in baptism, and fix upon them the seal of the covenant of grace? If they are pure, why sprinkle them with water as if they were unclean? Why was an ordinance instituted to set forth their need of purification? If children are spotless, infant baptism is a jest. But their depravity is settled,

[4.] By express declarations of Scripture. “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me." "What is man that he should be clean? and he which is born of a woman that he should be righteous ?" "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?" "How can he be clean that is born of a woman ?" "The

2 Cor. v. 14, 15.

"

Mat. ix. 12, 13.

wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray as soon as they be born." "I knew that thou wouldst deal very treacherously, and wast called a transgressor from the womb."

bound in the heart of a child."

"Foolishness is

"For the imagi

nation of man's heart is evil from his youth." "The children of Israel--have only done evil before me from their youth." "As for thy nativity, [alluding to the pollution and ruin accompanying the first birth, and the remedy provided by divine mercy,] in the day thou wast born-thou [wast not] washed in water, but thou wast cast out in the oper field to the loathing of thy person, in the day that thou wast born. And when I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live: yea, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live." "That which is born of flesh is flesh," is carnal. "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him." "Among whom we all had our conversation,—and were by nature children of wrath even as others."*

Now if all mankind are born depraved, there is the same evidence that depravity is propagated from father to son, through all generations, as that speech, or reason, or any of the natural affections. are, (though in a sense entirely compatible with

*

Gen. viii. 21. Job xiv. 4. and xv. 14. and xxv. 4. lviii. 3. Prov. xxii. 15. Isai. xlviii. 8. Jer. xxxii. 30. 5. John iii. 6. 1 Cor. ii. 14. Eph. ii. 3.

Ps. li. 5. and

Ezek. xvi. 4,

blame,) and so is to be traced back, equally with them, to the original parent.

But if on the other hand infants receive their whole nature from their parents pure,-if when they leave the duct through which all properties are conveyed from ancestors, they are infected with no depravity, it is plain that they never derive a taint of moral pollution from Adam. There can be no conveyance after they are born, and his sin was in no sense the occasion of the universal depravity of the world, otherwise than merely as the first example. These two points, the depravity of infants and the derivation of sin from Adam, stand or fall together. Either infants are born depraved, (just as they are born with the faculties of reason and speech, and with the instincts on which are founded the natural affections,) or the universal depravity of man no more follows from the sin of Adam than from the sin of Noah. I prove the derivation of sin from Adam,

(3.) From the fact that we are involved by him in condemnation and punishment.

In condemnation at least to temporal evils. That all the temporal evils pronounced upon our first parents, the toil and trouble, the thorns and thistles, the state of female subjection, the pains of child-birth, and death itself, do in fact come upon their posterity, not casually, but according to the original sentence, is so evident that it is not denied. Just cast your eyes however on the following texts: "I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to

usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence; for Adam was first formed, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. Notwithstanding she shall be saved in child-bearing, if they continue in faith and charity." "Since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. [And to prolong the quotation though the subject changes,]—The first man Adam was made a living soul, the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural, and afterwards that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth earthy, the second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy such are they also which are earthy, and as is the heavenly such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have bornę the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly."

It has been said that temporal evils were entailed upon mankind in that original sentence merely as blessings. But how could they be considered blessings unless the race were viewed as sinners, standing in need of chastisement? It is no blessing to a perfectly holy being to suffer. The very supposition that they were entailed as blessings, gives up the argument. But the death entailed, (and by a parity of reason all the temporal

* Gen. iii. 16-19. 1 Cor. xv. 21, 22, 45-49. 1 Tim. ii. 12—15.

sufferings which come by Adam,) is represented in the 5th of Romans, not as a mercy, but as a punishment following a sentence of condemnation.

But in whatever light you regard these temporal sufferings, whether as blessings or punishments, God distinctly disclaims the principle of inflicting them on innocent children for the sins of parents. At the time of the Babylonish captivity the Jews thought they had reason to complain, "The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge." Ezekiel was sent to say to them, "What mean ye that ye use this proverb?-The soul that sinneth, it shall die. If he beget a son that seeth all his father's sins, and doth not such like, he shall not die for the iniquity of his father; he shall surely live.

Yet say ye, Why, doth not the son bear the iniquity of the father? When the son hath done that which is lawful and right,--he shall surely live. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be him." God indeed visits "the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation;" but it is upon the generations "of them that hate" Him. When Josiah said, "Great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not hearkened," the answer came, "I will bring evil upon this place, and upon the inhabitants thereof,--be

upon