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punishment of Adam's disobedience, must understand the expression as explained by the concurrent testimony of the Old and .New Testament, to mean the proper "wages of sin," eternal misery. Temporal death, with all the pains and diseases which bring it on and accompany it, was undoubtedly included in this threatening. So, also, was spiritual death, or that loss of righteousness and true holiness which chiefly constituted the image of God in which Adam was created.

2. Adam being constituted the representative of the human race, his whole posterity became liable to the same punishment which he incurred by his transgression. On this account we are exposed to sickness and death. On this account we come into the world with a moral depravity; and on this account we are "by nature children of wrath." Ephesians ii. 3.

The mode of expression used in the fifth chapter of the Romans plainly intimates, that the whole species of mankind are involved in the same sufferings, and exposed to the same condemnation by the one original offence. 66 By the offence of one" (or as it may with equal propriety be translated, by one

offence)" judgment came upon all men to condemnation. By one man's disobedience many" (or, the many) "were made sinners." There is a remarkable repetition of this doctrine in the passage, as of a truth of great importance and unpleasant nature.

3. The doctrine of our redemption by Jesus Christ throws great light upon this of our fall in Adam. They are counterparts to each other. It is strongly insisted on in the Scriptures, that none can obtain salvation, but through that one Mediator between God and man, who came to seek and to save that which was lost." If infants, therefore, partake of the benefits of Christ's death, they must be involved in the general condemnation.

Adored be the goodness of God, that he has appointed an ordinance to assure us of his favourable regard to them, before they are capable of acting in their individual capacity; as he has likewise appointed another ordinance for assuring all penitent and believing adults, of their acceptance, after numberless additional offences, through the prevailing atonement of our adorable Redeemer.

4. If it be thought an objection to this

doctrine, that God hath declared by the prophet Ezekiel, (chapter xviii. verse 20,) "The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father;" it should be remembered, that this passage, if taken in its most extensive sense, would contradict the sanction of the second commandment, which assures us, that God does "visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children." It would likewise contradict many other Scriptures and facts which confirm the reality of this procedure. But if the passage in Ezekiel be expounded by its context, the meaning is plainly this;-That if a wicked man beget a son who abhors his father's impiety, and truly turns to God in righteousness, this son shall find favour with God, notwithstanding the iniquity of his father. This passage does not contradict the doctrine of the universal exposure of mankind to condemnation by the one original offence, because we are not connected with our immediate parents in such a covenant as that by which we stood connected with our first parent. But notwithstanding our condemnation on this account, every man will find acceptance with God who truly turns to him in the way He has appointed.

5. Upon the whole;--Two objections only

can be brought from reason against that original constitution which the chapter under consideration plainly teaches.

(1.) That moral conduct being a personal thing, the consequences of it, in reward or punishment, can only be personal.

(2.) That, allowing the justice of treating men upon some occasions, in an aggregate capacity; the punishment, in the case now considered, is too great for the offence.

The former objection is clearly invalidated by the authentic facts which have been adduced. And it is impossible to pay any regard to divine revelation, however corrupt men's ideas of Christianity may be, without allowing what must overturn this objection.

If it be an unrighteous proceeding to treat men in an aggregate capacity with respect to punishments for immoral conduct; then the righteous Judge of all can never treat men so. He will no more inflict the least punishment on this account, than he will inflict the greatest because he is as far from doing a small act of injustice, as a great one. But the most violent opposers of the doctrine of original sin have been obliged to acknow

ledge that temporal death comes upon mankind in consequence of Adam's disobedience, which was the threatened punishment of his offence; and in allowing this they grant, that the punishment of immoral conduct may justly be extended further than to the person immediately offending.

The second objection amounts to no more than this; that, in the judgment of the criminal or sufferer, the degree of punishment exceeds the magnitude of the crime. But was this ever considered in human judgments as a sufficient objection to the propriety of any judicial proceeding? This objection may powerfully strike our imagination; but it can have no force upon our unbiassed reason. The universal Judge knows perfectly the nature of every offence; and adapts the punishment in every case with the most exact justice, for "true and righteous are his judgments."

This most important doctrine of Scripture loudly proclaims the exceeding sinfulness of sin; and should lead us to admire and value the unsearchable riches of divine grace in our redemption by Jesus Christ.

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