Scripture positively assures us, God's ways are equal" that the soul that sinneth it shall die, and not the son for the fault of the father that whatever Adam's posterity lost through him, that and more they gain in Christ; and undoubtedly, his mercy and goodness, and the extent of his propitiation, are as applicable to infants, who have not personally offended, as to adults who have.

constituted in after their creation. It cannot escape the notice of those who have had the care of infants, that the earliest exertions o servable in them, evidently arise from the powers of animal desire, and animal passion: how prone these are to increase in them, and to predominate as they grow up, and the solicitude it requires to keep children out of unruliness and intemperature, as they advance to youth's estate, how much too potent their inordinate propensities are for the government of the rational faculty; what pains are neces sary to regulate, and often but to palliate them, by a virtuous education and improving converse; and the impossibility they should ever be radically subdued and ruled, without the application of a superior principle.

2. The immortal reasonable soul of man, in every individual, appears to be the immediate production of its Creator; for the prophet Zechariah, speaking of the great acts of God in creation, asserts, that "he formeth the spirit of man within him." And in Eccles. xii. 7, we read upon the death of the body, "Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return unto God who 4. In the present state of our nature, the gave it." The soul therefore, receiving its sensitive powers take the lead of the rational existence immediately from the perfection of in the first stage of life, as the soul brings unchangeable purity, can have no original only a capacity, without any real knowledge, impurity or intemperature in its nature; but or potency, into the world with it. It acquires being immediately and intimately connected its knowledge by degrees, enlarging also in with a sensitive body, and of itself, unable capacity to receive it gradually. Every one constantly to withstand the eagerness of the knows, it is not capable at five or ten years of animal passions after gratifications of a carnal age, to comprehend the same ideas in the same nature, is liable to be so influenced by them, extent, as in riper and more advanced years. as to partake with them in their sensual indul- It first becomes impressed with the images of gences. In this state the descendants of external things, presented through the corpoAdam come into the world, unendued with real organs, and afterwards with those mental that divine life which Adam fell from. And ideas inculcated by its primary instructors, who can say, this might not be admitted in whether true or false. Hence the bias of mercy to all the future generations of man- education becomes strong, either to right or kind? 1st. That each succeeding individual wrong, according as the instructions received might be prevented from incurring the guilt of are agreeable to either; and the passions being repeating the sin of our prime ancestors, and enlisted in their service, occasionally exercise falling from the same degree of innocence, their warmth in favour of the prevalent idea purity and divine enjoyment. 2nd. That, by or impression, however wrong it may be; unfeeling the infirmity of our own nature, and less the mind, through divine illumination, the want of divine assistance, we might discover its error, and submit to its rectification. become the more sensible of our danger, and 5. Previous to the reception of knowledge, necessary dependence on our Creator, and the soul is joined to the body, by the power thence to be continually excited to seek after, and cleave to him, in watchfulness, circumspection and prayer, in order to obtain a state of restoration. 3rd. That having in part attained such a state, our prudence might be useful towards our preservation and growth therein since we should certainly be more assiduously concerned, to secure to ourselves a good condition obtained through pains and difficulty, than one we might have been originally placed in without any care or trouble to ourselves.

of its Creator; who, in consequence of the fall, saw fit it should be so. "For,” saith the apostle, "the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope; because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption, into the glorious liberty of the children of God."a

The rational soul is here intended by the creature, and properly denominates the man. Herein the true distinction lies, betwixt the human species and creatures of inferior kinds. This descends not with the body from parents to children; the soul being an indivisible im material substance, cannot be generated. The soul of the child never was in the parent, and therefore could never sin in him, nor derive

a Rom. viii. 20, 21.

guilt from his transgression. Neither can their frailty, it is an easy thing for them to guilt accrue to it, merely from its being joined fall in with temptation; but hard, if not im to a body descended from him, because that junction is the act of the Creator.

To account a child guilty, or obnoxious to punishment, merely for an offence committed by its parents, before it could have any consciousness of being, is inconsistent both with justice and mercy; therefore no infant can be born with guilt upon its head.

possible, effectually to resist it. Nay, even the high reward promised to virtue and a good life, and the sore punishments annexed to vice and folly, are altogether insufficient to retain them in the practice of the former, or to enable them to conquer the force of their inclination to the latter. This demonstrates the corruption of their nature; and, as "out of 6. Besides our natural alienation from, and the abundance of the heart the mouth speakignorance of the internal life of God," in our eth;" so from what lodges or presides within, fallen state, it must be acknowledged, that all the exterior practice arises. The corruption who have arrived to such a degree of maturi- in the heart corrupts the actions, manners and ty as to be capable of receiving a right under-language. Hence all the irregularities in constanding, and of distinguishing the inward duct, all the profane and untrue speeches, all monitions of Truth in their conscience, have the common complimental falsehoods, to graalso increased and strengthened the bonds of tify the pride and folly of vain minds. corruption upon themselves, in different de- As the origin of evil in man, came by grees, by a repeated, and frequently an ha- transferring his attention and desire from his bitual indulgence of the carnal part, against the sense of duty received; and are more deeply entered into the dark region of the shadow of death, through their own trespasses and sins. Thus, "all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God."

CHAPTER III.

Creator to the creature, dividing his will from the will of God, and his spirit from the Spirit of God; so the continuation of evil in man is by the continuance of this separation, and must abide so long as that remains. In this situation, commonly called the state of nature, we are both unfit for, and unable to enter, the heavenly kingdom, which admits of nothing sinful or unclean. It is therefore absolutely requisite that man should be made holy, in order to be happy. Holiness cannot unite with unholiness; nor can ability arise from infirmity. If pollution can cleanse itself, if evil can produce good, if death can bring forth life; man thus corrupted, debilitated, and deadened, may disengage, reform, quicken, and restore himself. But it is not in the power of man, as such, to extricate himself from the bonds of sin and death. Yet, as impurity is the bar, it must be removed. As sin separates man from his Maker, man must be separated from sin, or he cannot be reconciled and united to him. Without restoration to a state of ho liness, he cannot enjoy the felicity pertaining 1. WHATEVER we may have derived from to that state; for, "without holiness no man our parents, we certainly accumulate to our-shall see the Lord."d

1. The state of man in the fallen nature, and the necessity of his renovation. 2. His inability to accomplish it for himself, and the necessity of divine assistance thereunto. 3. What moral evil is—that it both may, and must be removed from man, in order to his felicity. 4. Without this, man is not fully acquitted by the one offering of our Saviour at Jerusalem. 5. The Spirit of God is absolutely necessary to effect this great work. 6. What perfect redemption from sin consists in the term world, John iii. 16, is not to be confined to the elect-Christ tasted death for all men without exception.

selves additional corruption. "All flesh hath 2. How then shall corrupt man become corrupted his way upon the earth." Every holy? how shall he, in a state of utter incaadult person, in his common natural state, must, upon serious introversion, find in himself a proneness to the gratification of self, and the sensual part; an eager inclination at times to forbidden pleasure, an aversion to piety and holy walking, a consciousness of guilt, and a fearful apprehension of the approach of death. Men generally confess they have erred and strayed, like lost sheep, from the salutary paths of virtue and duty; and that, such is

a Eph. iv. 18. b Eph. ii. 1. c Rom. iii. 23. d Gen. vi. 12. VOL. X.-No. 10.

pacity, enter into and maintain a warfare against his many and mighty adversaries, which beset him within and without? What ability has he to fight his enemy who is already enchained by him? A power too strong for man, has got possession; it must be a superior power to dispossess him, to rescue and restore man; and who is sufficient for these things? None but his omnipotent Creator is able to unbind and extricate him. But his

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will Adam had separated from, his law he had not the sovereign Lord intend man should be transgressed, his command he had disobeyed, made holy, he would not require it; nor would and against him alone he had committed this he require it without affording him the assisthigh offence. Yet, behold the astonishing ance requisite to accomplish it, for he enjoins compassion and kindness of infinite Good- no impossibilities. That he doth require it, the ness! an all-sufficient means was straightway sacred writings sufficiently witness. God," provided, for the redemption both of the ac- saith an apostolic writer, "hath not called us tual offenders and all their progeny. The to uncleanness, but unto holiness." And, eternal Word, the Son, the Lamb of God Al-"Christ also loved the church, and gave himmighty, gave instant demonstration of the greatness of divine love and mercy, in then concurring with the Father, to yield himself up in due time to take the nature of man upon him, and, by resigning it to suffering and death, to make it a propitiation for the whole species; and also, in immediately, and all along, affording a manifestation of his Holy Spirit to every man to profit withal," in order to their present deliverance from the power of sin, and their everlasting salvation from the certain effect of abiding therein to the last, namely, the second death.

That man should, of himself, empower himself to live in the constant practice of crossing his natural inclinations and propensities, is a wild presumption; but that a Spirit infinitely good, and more powerful than all his enemies, should so influence, incline, and enable him, is highly reasonable to believe, because absolutely necessary. By the help of God's Spirit, man may, like the apostle, be assisted to keep his body under, and bring it into subjection, before the strength of its passions and affections lessens by decay of nature; which the rational faculty can never effectually accomplish, even under that decay, without superior assistance.

C

self for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,” or the purifying efficacy of the Holy Word, or Spirit, which cleanseth the soul as water doth the body, "that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish." In another place, he gives this exhortation, "Abstain from all appearance of evil," then proceeds—“ And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God, that your whole spirit, and soul, and body, be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." And to encourage them to seek it and hope for it, he immediately assures them, "faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.”

4. Vain is that imaginary pretence, that Christ has paid the whole price for us, by which we stand fully acquitted in the sight of God; that we have complete redemption in him without sanctification in ourselves; and that by the external offering up of his body, he hath perfected the work for us, and we are already reconciled thereby. For, was this the real truth, Christ only paid the price of man's redemption, that he might continue in a state of pollution, and practice evil with security; or be justified in breaking the known commands of God, and serving Satan during the whole term of this life. Contrary to this, the apostolic doctrine is, "His own self bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that we being dead to sin, should live unto righteousness." "He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him who died for them,"-" How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein!"f "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof." "What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end

3. Neither the possibility, nor probability, of man's purification and sanctification by the Holy Spirit, can reasonably be doubted; for, first, as physical evil, or bodily pain, has no substantial existence of its own, but is purely incidental to corporeal nature; so moral evil is to the soul, a disorder which it has improperly lapsed into. It is no part of God's creation, nor has any real existence by itself; but is the fallen, defective, distempered condition of beings, once created without intemperature or defect. Evil, therefore, though it be in man, is no constituent part of man, but an imperfection adventitious to his nature, which by an all-powerful principle, he may be recovered from, and his nature restored to a state of fitness for union with his Maker. Secondly, uncreated Omnipotence is certainly more able everlasting life." to cleanse, than the creaturely, corrupt, and fallen powers of darkness are to defile; and infinite Goodness must be as willing and ready to effect the first, as limited envy the last. Did

"Heb. ii. 16. b1 Cor. xii. 7. c 1 Cor. ix. 27.

It is true, the apostle saith, "By one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified."g But this doth not imply, that

bondage of corruption; therefore nothing but God's holy, universal, almighty Spirit can effect this necessary alteration in man, rectify the disorder sin has introduced into his nature, and raise him up from a state of spiritual death, by producing a new and heavenly birth of divine life in him, by which he may be created anew in Christ Jesus unto good works, and restored to the image of God in righte ousness and true holiness.

6. Perfect redemption consists, first, in paying the price of ransom; and second, in bringing out of bondage, and setting the prisoner at liberty. Our Saviour paid the first by his suffering and sacrifice; and he performs the last by the effectual operation of his Spirit, in the hearts of those who receive him, and resign wholly to him.

his sacrifice perfected those who never came to be sanctified. Applying it to this case, it can mean no more than that such who have so experienced the effectual operation of divine grace, as to become sanctified, have remission by that one offering for sins committed before their sanctification, which perfects their redemption; and also for transgressions after, upon repentance. For sin once committed cannot be undone; present and future obedience is no more than duty; and past offences must still remain against us without forgiveness. Our Saviour therefore, by his sacrifice, manifested the mercy, love, and kindness of God; "by whom," saith the apostle, "he was set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness, for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God." Herein he showed, None have cause to murmur at, or comthat a door of reconciliation is opened to all plain against the dispensations of their benemen; but those who through unbelief of, and volent Creator; for in Christ he hath rendered disobedience to divine grace, never experience to every child of Adam a full equivalent for the work of sanctification, deprive themselves the loss sustained through his unhappy fall. of that unspeakable advantage; for it is "God so loved the world, that he gave his only through sanctification that any come effec- begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him tually to enjoy the benefit of the sacrifice of should not perish, but have everlasting life."a Christ. That outward offering for all, showed I know some allege, that the world here inthe love of God towards all; and that he tends not all men, but the elect only. But we stands ready to pardon past transgression, in find the term world, when confined to men, all who sincerely accept his terms of true re- in the New Testament, is used either for all pentance and reformation; but our salvation is mankind in general, for the majority of mannot completed by that single act only, and the kind, or for the unbelieving part of it; and work of redemption finished for us without where it intends a part of the species, it is us. Though Christ died for us, that we might often used to signify unbelievers, and to disbe brought unto glory, yet we are not actual- tinguish them from believers, but is never ly purified, fitted for, and introduced into the spoken of believers only. Besides, such an kingdom, merely by that one offering. The acceptation would turn the text into nonsense, way to reconciliation was opened by the death for then it must be thus understood; "God of Christ; but we are not saved by his life so loved the elect, that he gave his only till we livingly experience the work of salva- begotten Son, that whosoever of the elect betion in our own particulars. lieveth in him, should not perish, but have everlasting life." This would imply, that some of the elect would not believe in him, and all the consequent absurdities of that position. But read the text as it stands, and the particle whosoever, properly distinguishes the world into believers and unbelievers, or faithful and unfaithful; and shows that God so loved the whole of his rational creation, that he gave all an opportunity of being saved through believing; and if any did not so embrace it, their refusal was the cause of their condemnation, and not the want of God's love, nor of an opportunity of closing in with, and receiving the benefit of it. This the four succeeding verses plainly declare. "For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is

5. It is always requisite that the means be adequate to the end, the cause sufficient to the effect; therefore as all men throughout all nations, and every generation, originally stand in equal relation to their Creator, have been, and must naturally be in absolute need of his help, in order to purification and salvation, the means afforded for this purpose must be universal to reach all. It must be a principle of real and powerful holiness and goodness, to change the condition of man from evil to good. It must be omnipotent, to enable him to overcome his adversaries, the world, the flesh, and the devil. Nothing but a spirit superior to all these can effectually cleanse the soul, and operate to the expulsion and exclusion of those subtle and powerful enemies which continually seek to hold men in the