proceeded from the offence of man in Paradise. Because our mouth is filled with cursing and bitterness, his mouth was filled with vinegar and bitter gall, at a time when they were most distasteful, while he was fainting under the weight of his sorrows and sufferings. Our hands having been used as the instruments of sin, his hands were pierced with nails: his feet were torn and wounded, and fixed through to the cross, as if, like our feet, they had been swift to shed blood. Thus was the iniquity of us all laid on him, according to the strictest law of retaliation: the justice of God inflicted punishment upon him, where sin had manifested itself in us; and this, I presume, in more respects than we are able to shew. The image of the first Adam, with all its depravity, was crucified in him, and as the Apostle rightly instructs us, the body of sin, from head to foot, was destroyed*. There is such a correspondence between the ways of God and the doctrine of the scripture, that they mutually illustrate and confirm one another. When Christ suffered for the sins of the world, he suffered in such a sort, as to shew, that he took upon himself the character of a natural man; and therefore the natural man really is such in him

self

* Rom. vi. 6.

self as the Redeemer appeared to be for his sake. None but fools will deny this; and no wise man can hear of it, without praying to God, that he would deliver us from this body of sin; that is, from ourselves; that we being new creatures, may serve him in newness of life to his glory and our own salvation.

AN

AN

ESSAY ON MAN.

CHAPTER III.

The New Creature in Christianity.

IN the course of my enquiry, my first endeavour was to make it appear, that man is by nature unrighteous; and, after the example and method of the blessed Apostle St. Paul, I have pointed out all those particulars in which this unrighteousness is found to consist. This account has been confirmed, by its correspondence with the sufferings of Christ on the cross; whose afflictions and death were of such a form, as to refer us back to the sinfulness of the nature for which he suffered. And now in the last place, to clear this matter as far as possible, it may be shewn, that the gospel of Jesus Christ is at system, accommodated, in all its parts, to this

unrigh

unrighteousness of human nature; and applying itself professedly to all those evils which have been described and insisted upon in the foregoing chapters. The Christian religion, in every step it takes for the salvation of man, presupposes the fall of Adam, and the permanent effects of it in all his posterity. Medicines are accommodated to the nature of the diseases which they are designed to cure; so that from the medicines themselves, if prescribed by a skilful person, and according to the rules of his art, the symptoms of the disease may be inferred. Thus much, however, is always certain, that when a medicine is provided, a distemper is supposed; and that he who stands in need of a cure, can be no other than a sick man. All the several alteratives and restoratives which the gospel has provided, serve to convince us, in the first place, that we are sick by nature: upon any other supposition the gospel is an absurdity; as undertaking to do that for all men, of which no man hath any need. Therefore, if the gospel is a consistent scheme, the remedies therein offered demonstrate, that the soul of man is in a state of sin and blindness; as plainly as medicinal drugs and instruments of surgery shew that his body is frail and mortal.

These

These remedies, with their properties and applications, are the things we are now to consider; and a slight examination will make it evident, that they are all adapted to the evils of man's constitution, as described by the Apostle, and consequently for the producing of a new

creature.

It was first asserted in this description, that there is none righteous; which assertion is the same for substance with what the holy psalmist had said in his supplication-Enter not into judgment with thy servant; for in thy sight shall no man living be justified*. To obviate this, the gospel, in opposition to the ministration of condemnation by the law of Moses, is called the ministration of righteousness; bringing us to that justification in the sight of God, to which no man living can restore himself. It brings about this change, by admitting us to be members of Christ, who is called the Lord our Righteousness: that instead of being considered as we are in ourselves, we may be accepted in the beloved, who is the first-born among many brethren. So that the Apostle asks, and teaches us to triumph in the same question-who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth; who is he that condemneth?

It

Psalm cxliii. 2.

2 Cor. iii. 9.