tinuing to be an object of grace and favour, and consequently of living for ever, he sunk into an object of justice, and died, like other animals, the death his nature seems to have marked him out for. If it was a free act of goodness in God to annex eternal life to the observation of his covenant, it was surely but an act of justice in him to resume the grant from all men, on the disobedience of their representatives; and the rather, because they also became disobedient, and seconded what he had done by their own actual sins.

Howsoever we may be obliged to answer to the Deists for the reasonableness of this doctrine, there can certainly be no room for a debate about it among ourselves. Are we not agreed, that Adam was created innocent; that he was placed in paradise, that is, in a state of worldly felicity; that he held his tenure of life, and that happiness, on the covenanted condition of obedience; and that he forfeited his tenure, at least for himself, by transgression? But how came his children, yet unborn, to be shut out of paradise? If he did not forfeit for them, as well as for himself, why were they not all admitted, and blessed with that happy condition, till their own sins expelled them? Is not that infant, who hath as yet committed no sin, a fit inhabitant for paradise? If he is, why was not that happy place reserved for him? Paradise was not made for, nor the covenant established with, Adam alone. Had not Adam sinned, he had been alive, and happy in that garden of delights, to this day, with all his posterity about him, in case they likewise had all of them kept the covenant. But, instead of enjoying this happy state, or even having the benefit of a trial for it, our right to either was nulled, and paradise itself demolished, long before we were in being. Nay, what is worse, all men are become subject to miseries of a thousand kinds, to sickness, and to death (to say nothing of that which introduces death), and that by a necessity of nature, which they cannot possibly elude; a necessity of nature, some way or other brought upon them ere they can distinguish good from evil. If paradise was destroyed, only because God foresaw no human creature should be so pure from sin as to deserve admission there, how came this to pass? Did the sin of Adam corrupt all his posterity? Or do they cor

rupt themselves, as he did? Who then corrupts the newborn infant? Or, if he is not corrupt, why is he not in paradise? Nay, why is he subject to sickness and death? If the scriptural history of our first parents is true, there is no answering these questions, founded on that history, and on facts universally notorious, but by admitting, that Adam not only covenanted and forfeited for all mankind, but likewise entailed on all men the sinful dispositions of his own corrupted nature. And what is there absurd in the supposition of his having so covenanted and forfeited? Why might not God have granted a tenure of paradise to him, and his heirs, on the same terms as absolute princes frequently do the property of their own lands? Such a prince, out of his singular favour, conveys an estate by patent to a particular subject, and his heirs for ever, on condition that he and they shall always render him such and such services. If that subject fails to render him those services, it is but reasonable and just that the grant should become void, as well in respect to his descendants, as himself. But, in case the grantee shall take up arms against his prince, and lead his children into rebellion; or, together with them, shall otherwise violate the laws of that prince; hath he not a right to put the severity of those laws in force against such subjects? Now it was on a like tenure that God granted paradise and immortality to the first man, and his heirs; and it was by a like failure, and rebellion, that this tenure was lost.

Dr. Sherlock, in his most excellent treatise on Death, hath so well applied the reasonings of St. Paul to the support of this doctrine, that I must beg leave to give you an extract of those reasonings, as exhibited by that truly pious and judicious divine:

"The sentence of death and mortality," saith he, "which was pronounced on Adam, fell on all his posterity. St. Paul tells us, 1 Cor. xv. 21, 22, That by man came death; and in Adam all die;' which he does not only assert, but prove, Rom. v. 12-14: Wherefore by man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all; for that all have sinned; for, until the law, sin was in the world; but sin is not imputed where there is no law; nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over them who had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression.'

The design of all which is to prove, that men die, or are mortal, not for their own sins, but for the sins of Adam; which the Apostle proves by this argument; because, though all men, as well as Adam, have sinned, yet, till the giving the law of Moses, there was no law which threatened death against sin, but only that law given to Adam in paradise, which no man else ever did, or ever could transgress, but he. Now sin is not imputed where there is no law; that is, is not imputed to any man to death, before there is any law which threatens death against it.-Upon what account, then, says the Apostle, could these men die, who lived between Adam and Moses, before the law was given which threatens death? And yet die they did; even those who had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression. This could have been for no sin but Adam's, who sinned, and 'brought death into the world, and so death passed upon all men.' To hinder this from seeming hard, he shews, that all men are, through their bodies, naturally mortal; that they held immortality only on such terms as God was pleased to bestow it; that they forfeited that tenure by the transgression of their common parent and representative; and that as Adam, now corrupt, could beget none but corrupt children, immortality became here unreasonable and impossible, through the universal prevalence of sin."

Thus, I apprehend, are we said to sin and die in Adam. So much for the introduction and imputation of sin.

It is now time to turn our eyes on the introduction and imputation of righteousness by Christ Jesus. When Christ came into the world, he was so far from departing from this method of dealing with us by covenant, that all he did terminated in the re-establishment and completion of the covenant between God and us, which had been prophetically and typically introduced after the fall, and in different periods of the world, from that time to his incarnation, occasionally diversified as to its outward form; but, at every change, still rendered more plain and intelligible by the new promises or institutions wherewith it was accompanied. What Solomon said concerning the way of the just man, may be very properly applied to the gospel; namely, that, like the shining light, it hath shined more and more unto the perfect day. St. Paul, who speaking of it as literally and fully

preached by Christ, calls it, with Jeremiah, a new covenant,' in contradistinction to that of the law, gives it nevertheless a much higher date, as revealed to Abraham, nay, and even as believed in by Noah and Abel.

Of this covenant Christ, by his mission, became the Messenger, and, by his death, the Mediator. In pursuance of his mission, he preached the kingdom of heaven, or the new and holy community of believers. By his death he purchased this kingdom, community, or church; and therein acquired a right to mediate a peace between his offended Father and mankind, who had been enemies and aliens by wicked works. This peace he settled by the covenant founded in his blood, which was the grand sacrifice or atonement made to divine justice for the transgression of the first covenant, whereby Adam had rendered all his posterity both imputative and actual sinners. In this covenant, heaven, or eternal life, is promised on God's part; while repentance, faith, and peace with him and one another, are promised on ours. In order to bring the parties to this blessed agreement, Christ pleaded with his Father the merits of that sacrifice or price he had paid for us; and he pleaded with men the infinite benefits arising from the covenant, if embraced and kept. Having by these means gathered together a church, he became, of course, the guarantee and sponsor to us of his Father's promises; and to his Father, for our faith and obedience.

As Adam, immediately on the establishment of the first covenant, became thereto a debtor; and, by his transgression thereof, rendered himself, and all his unhappily corrupted descendants, insolvent debtors; so Christ, the head, the father, the representative, and sponsor, of the church, having paid this debt both of entailed and actual sin, hath, according to the promise of Isaiah, 'proclaimed liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound.' He hath, by an infinitely gracious exchange, imparted his merits to us, and taken our demerits to himself; for his Father hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him;' 2 Cor. v. 21. His being made sin for us, or, as our sponsor, taking our sins on himself, is farther explained and proved, Isa. liii, where, concerning him and us, it is said, 'All we, like sheep, have gone astray; we have turned every one to

his own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He hath poured out his soul unto death: he was numbered with the transgressors; he bare the sin of many; and made intercession for the transgressors.' In the Epistle to the Galatians, iii. 13, St. Paul strongly enforces the same doctrine Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us.' St. Peter, speaking of Christ, says, 'He, his own self, bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead unto sin, should live unto righteousness; by whose stripes ye were healed;' 1 Pet. ii. 24. That we are made the righteousness of God in Christ, appears from other places besides this alleged. We are told, Rom. v. 18, 19, that, by the righteousness of one,' namely, Christ, the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life;' and that, by the obedience of one, shall many be made righteous.'

It is a gross absurdity to suppose we can rightly conceive of the Christian religion without a right idea of our redemption; for that religion, and that redemption, are but one and the same thing. It is equally absurd to talk of redemption, without acknowledging two things; first, that Christ, in order to reclaim us, gave us his word, his ordinances, and his Spirit; and, secondly, that he suffered death, to save us from that death which is the wages or punishment of sin. For, having done these two things, he is called Jesus, or our Saviour. Now the atonement made by his death is nonsense, without the supposition of a double imputation; first, of sin in Adam; and, secondly, of righteousness in Jesus Christ. Our adversaries will gain nothing by denying the first, because they cannot but own, that we are by nature corrupt and sinful; that God did not make us so; and that this natural corruption, which is worse than the entail of Adam's sin, was brought upon us by one man, namely, by Adam. It is in vain to say every man corrupts himself; for, if all men had not a natural and previous disposition to corruption, some men might happen not to corrupt themselves; neither would children shew a tendency to vice, as they all do, from the time they are able to speak and act; much less would they be subject to pain, sickness, and death, were they entirely free from sin, it being impossible the innocent should suffer.

Who dares deny,' saith