respect to place; it was committed in the garden of Eden. Had it been in a remote part of the world, or in a desert where, this tree grew, and where scarce any thing else was to be had; it would in some measure have extenuated the crime; but in a garden, where he had enough of every thing, it was a very aggravated crime; and by how much the less that was which was forbidden him, by so much the greater was his crime in not abstaining from it; 11. With respect to the time when it was committed; that is, how long after the creation of our first parents. This cannot be precisely determined: some make the time after it too long, and others too short. Some think that the first Adam kept his state of integrity as long as the second Adam lived here on earth; but this is a mere fancy. Some have supposed that he fell on the tenth day of September, and they suppose the creation of the world began with that month; so that as Adam was created on the sixth day, his standing could be no longer than three or four days; and this is supposed for no other reason, but because the Jews in after times, had their grand feast on that day. Others are of opinion, that he fell the same day he was created; but the text on which it is founded will not support it, Psal. xiix. 12. However, it must be very early that man fell, since Satan is said to be a murderer from the beginning, John viii. 44. Now this was an aggravation of Adam's sin, that he should be guilty of it so soon. III. The sin of Adam was a complicated one; he sinned against light and knowledge, when he was in full power to have resisted the temptation: it was the height of ingratitude to his Maker, and a want of thought, of care, concern, and affection for his posterity, with whose all he was intrusted. Some have laboured to make it appear, that Adam by his sin transgressed the whole Decalogue, or the law of the ten commandments, and no doubt but many, the most, if not all were broken.

III. The sad effects and consequences of this sin. 1. A loss of original righteousness followed upon it. This was signified by the nakedness of our first parents, which was immedi.

ately perceived by them after their fall. 11. Guilt on the consciences of our first parents presently appeared, and that in an endeavour to hide themselves from the presence of God, among the trees of the garden. Fear followed upon a consciousness of guilt in Adam; I was afraid, &c. as there is in every man more or less, a fearful looking for of judgment and indignation. Through guilt, shame, and fear, Adam hid him. self, but to no purpose; there is no fleeing from the presence of God, and yet such a notion possesses his posterity, Rev. vi. 15-17. I. Loss and want of knowledge and understanding, were soon perceived in him. The last instance of hiding himself, betrays his ignorance and folly, as if the trees in the garden could secure him from the sight and vengeance of the Almighty; instead of gaining the knowledge he unlawfully sought after, he lost much of what he had; his posterity are represented as foolish, iguorant, and devoid of understanding; There is none that understandeth, Rom. iii. 11. iv. Our first parents, upon their sinning, were immediately obnoxious to the curse of the law, and it was pronounced on them, along with the serpent. Adam upon his sinning, was at once stript of the immortality of the body, which God had bestowed on it, and became mortal: a spiritual or moral death seized upon all the powers and faculties of his soul; and eternal death is the just wages of sin, which is no other than the wrath of God revealed against all unrighteousness, and which comes upon the children of disobedience, Eph. ii. 3. This is the grand curse, the flying roll in Zechariah's vision, that goes over the whole face of the earth, and cuts off the sinner on this, and on the other side; and which the wicked will hear at last denoun. ced on them, Go ye cursed! But the righteous will be saved from it, because Christ has redeemed them from the curse of the law, and delivered them from wrath to come. v. Ejection out of paradise is another thing which followed on the sin of Adam; So he drove out the man, Gen. iii. 24. there are many other effects of the sin and fall of Adam; as general corruption and depravity of all the powers and faculties of the soul: the

members of the body yielded as instruments of unrighteousness; a propensity and proneness to all that is sinful; a disinclination to all that is good, yea, an aversion to it; an inability to do any thing that is spiritually good: this is what we commonly call the corruption and depravity of nature, the effect of the first sin of Adam. This is the pandora, from whence have sprung all spiritual maladies, and bodily diseases; all disasters, distresses, mischiefs, and calamities.

OF THE IMPUTATION OF ADAM'S SIN

TO HIS POSTERITY.

Two things follow on Adam's sin with respect to his pos terity; the imputation of the guilt of it to them, and the corruption of nature derived to them from it. I shall begin with the first, which is expressed in very strong terms, Rom. v. 19. For as by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. To set this doctrine in the best light I can, I shall observe the act of disobedience, by which men are made sinners.-Who they are that are made sinners by it.-In what sense they are made so through it.

I. The act of disobedience; whose it is, and what. 1. Whose it is: It is sometimes expressed by one that sinned; and more than once called, the offence of one, Rom. v. 15. and yet more clearly, By one man sin entered; and is called one man's of fence, and one man's disobedience, 12-19. The common parent of all makind is expressed by name; this offence and disobedience is called the transgression of Adam; and so 1 Cor. Xv. 22. in Adam all die. 2. What this disobedience was, ap pears from what has been already said, it was disobedience to the law and will of God, in eating the fruit which he had forbid; so disbelieving the word of God, and giving credit to the serpent. It was this one act of disobedience, by which Adam's posterity were made sinners. No sooner had Adam committed this first sin, by which the covenant with him was broke, but he ceased to be a covenant-head; he was no more in a capaci

ty of yielding sinless obedience; and so could not procure life for himself and his; wherefore he no longer standing as a federal-head to his posterity, they had no more concern with his after sins, than with his repentance and good works, both of which, no doubt were performed by him; yet by his repen. tance they are not reckoned repenting sinners; nor are his good works accounted to them.

II. Who they are that are made sinners by the disobedience of Adam. They are said to be many; not only Adam and Eve, who were transgressors, and so became guilty and polluted sinners, but even all their posterity, descending from them by ordinary generation, were made sinners hereby, As by one man, sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death possed upon all men, for that or in whom all have sinned, Rom. v. 12. By the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to co .demnation, v. 18. I say, all descending from him by ordinary generation, are made sinners by his sin, and none else. Had God made more worlds than one, and worlds of men too; yet as these would not have descended from Adam, they would have had no concern in his sin: had God raised up children to Abraham out of stones, which he could have done; yet such so raised up in such a miraculous mannner, and not descend. ing from Adam, could not be affected with his sin; and for a like reason the human nature of Christ must be excepted from any concern in it. Christ was an head to Adam, as he was chosen in him, given to him in covenant to be redeemed and saved by him; but Adam was no head to him; The Head of Christ is God, and he only, 1 Cor. xi. 3.

III. In what sense Adam's posterity are made sinners by his disobedience. Not by imitation, as say the Pelagians; men may become more sinful by imitation, but they do not at first become sinful by it. But this cannot be the case here; for,-1. Death the effect of Adam's sin, and the punishment inflicted for it, takes place on such who never sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, Rom. v. 14. namely, infants dying in their infancy. Now since death, which is the

punishment of sin, takes place on them, that supposes guilt, or otherwise punishment could not in justice be inflicted on them; and as they are not made sinners by Adam's sin through imitation of it, they must become guilty, or be made sinners in some other way. 2. Death, the effect of Adam's sin, and the punishment of it, takes place on such as never he ard of it; and consequently cannot be made sinners by it, through imitation of it. They that are without law, perish without law, being sinners; and therefore as they cannot be made sinners by Adam's sin, through imitation of it, they must be made so another way; see Rom. ii. 12-15. 3. This sense makes a man no more a sinner by Adam's disobedience, than he is by the disobedience of his immediate parents, or any other whose ill examples he follows. Adam seems to be too remote an ancestor to imitate; more likely immediate parents; and yet children do not follow the examples of their parents, bad or good. Indeed, sin in general does not come by imitation; but it is from a corrupt nature; and there are many sins which are never seen committed, yet are committed by those who never saw them; as murder, acts of uncleanness, &c. Did Cain sin by imitation when he murdered his brother? Did Lot's daughters sin by imitation when they contrived to commit incest with their father? It is possible that defects in nature may meet in one man, so as he was born blind, deaf, and dumb; and not capable of seeing and hearing, and knowing what sins are committed, and yet be as vicious as any of the sons of Adam. Nor is the sense of the phrase, "made sinners by one man's disobedience," what the more modern Pelagians and Arminians give into; that by a metonomy of the effect, sin being put for the punishment of it, men become sufferers, or are obnoxious to death, and suffer death on the account of Adam's disobedience: this is to depart from the common and constant sense of this word, sinners. Nor can any instance be given of the apostles use of the word in this sense, either in the context or elsewhere, it always signifying a sinful, guilty, and defiled creature; one that is guilty of a

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